Finding Joy and Relaxation in God's Presence

Um, this isn't really going back to the series on Romans. I just want to draw one verse out of this passage that should also encourage you to think that I have induct chapters 9, 10, and 11 that some of you are relishing.

It would have been easier actually if we'd had, um, if I was going into Romans chapter 9. We said I've known what to preach on this week, and I want to spend all week sweating about it or the whole holiday sweating about it.

Well, this is what we're going to be looking at this week. We're going to be thinking a little bit about, um, Psalm 100 and one verse from Romans 12. But I wanted to read, um, a few verses from there.

So, Romans 12, verse 1:

"Therefore, I urge you, brothers and sisters, in view of God's mercy, to offer your bodies as living sacrifices, holy and pleasing to God. This is your true and proper worship. Do not conform to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God's will is—his good, pleasing, and perfect will.

For by the grace given me, I say to every one of you: Do not think of yourself more highly than you ought, but rather think of yourself with sober judgment, in accordance with the faith God has distributed to each of you.

For just as each of us has one body with many members, and these members do not all have the same function, so in Christ we, though many, form one body, and each member belongs to all the others.

We have different gifts according to the grace given to each of us. If your gift is prophesying, then prophesy in accordance with your faith; if it is serving, then serve; if it is teaching, then teach; if it is to encourage, then give encouragement; if it is giving, then give generously; if it is to lead, do it diligently; if it is to show mercy, do it cheerfully.

Love must be sincere. Hate what is evil; cling to what is good. Be devoted to one another in love. Honor one another above yourselves. Never be lacking in zeal, but keep your spiritual fervor, serving the Lord. Be joyful in hope, patient in affliction, faithful in prayer. Share with the Lord's people who are in need; practice hospitality."

Let me pray as we come to look at God's word together.

Let's pray.

Father God, we do thank you for your incredible goodness to us. We thank you for your grace in our lives. In so many ways, we are blessed people, not just because of the Lord Jesus Christ, but in so many other ways.

Oh Lord, as we think about him, as we think about what the Lord has done for us, we think about our salvation. We think about how you've redeemed our lives from beginning to end. We thank you, Lord, for all that you've done for us.

And Lord, I pray that as we come to your word this morning, that you will speak to us and help us to enjoy all that you have done for us for your glory. In your name, amen.

I wonder how you view the Christian life. How you feel about the Christian life? How you feel about your life within the church?

Um, do you feel like it's hard work? Do you feel that it's enjoyable? Is that how you might describe the Christian life? Oh, it's enjoyable. Um, I hope so, but sometimes we forget that.

And well, sometimes we get tired. Sometimes you might look at the ministries that are starting again in September and think, "Here we go again. Not another year. I can't wait till July comes around again."

And you're thinking, "This isn't the way it should be." And yet often it is. Sometimes it feels hard to live as a Christian in this world. It feels difficult. And of course, we know that it's going to be difficult. Jesus said it would be hard.

We're against the whole of the world in so many ways. We're always going against the flow, and that's not easy. But I think it should be enjoyable as well. We don't always think about it being enjoyable.

You might think about Romans 12:1-2, or one, "Lay your lives down as living sacrifices." That sounds hard. Well, shouldn't it be enjoyable? Think about the Psalm 100 that we read a few minutes ago.

It just basically said, "Enjoy God and let it all out." And that is what I think God has been teaching me over the holidays. And it's not that I've got it all right. In fact, ironically, I'm doing my very best not to make my devotions the next sermon because it just brings my devotions and my enjoyment of God and turns it into work, do you see?

And so I'm trying to avoid that, but God wouldn't let me this week. So when I bumped in, when I was wrestling with what to preach on this week, I was wandering through the Nature Reserve with Molly, the dog, my companion in all things, and I was praying and I was thinking, "Lord, um, what should I preach on? I don't want to preach on what you've been talking to me about for my holiday."

He said, "I'm taking that devotion and I'm turning it into work," and that will go right against what I'm going to talk about.

And so I was wandering along, and I saw a friend of mine who was a decorator coming along, and the thought came to mind, "Maybe he'll say something that will prompt me." His last words were, "Enjoy your weekend. Enjoy your weekend."

Now, for me, the weekend is the hardest time. I told him that it's all right for you talking about the weekend, but for me, that's when it all starts. That's when the pressure builds.

And he said, "Enjoy it. Enjoy it." And so I just felt that God wanted me to talk to you about relaxing and enjoying.

Now, you don't get that from me often. It's usually work harder, isn't it? Yeah, it's usually things like, "It's better to wear out than rust out," and things like that that have been put into my DNA.

In fact, it was quite popular in Christianity when this book was written, actually, which I'll talk to you about in a little while. When I relax, I feel guilty. I want you to relax, and I want you to enjoy God, and out of that will come the best service you've ever given.

But I want you right now to relax and enjoy God because even as you look ahead to September, you're thinking, "Here we go again. Not pulling out those toys every week. Not moving those chairs all over again. Not being out three or four nights a week."

And I don't think it should be like that if we get things right. So I want to take you through some of the way God is speaking to me. So it's not like a usual sermon in some ways, so let me off that one a little bit. But I hope it'll be a blessing to you anyway.

So I'm walking on the beach trying to relax. I really struggle to relax. Hence this book, all right? I really struggle to relax. My family will tell you I don't shut off. I just struggle to relax.

So I'm walking on the beach trying to relax, and I'm listening to a Lectio 365, which I found quite a great blessing because they minister to me rather than me trying to read and turning everything into a sermon.

And, um, they would talk about a question that was asked of Dallas Willard once. I don't know if you know him, a Christian writer from America. And they asked Dallas Willard, "What one word would you use to describe Jesus?"

What one word would you use to describe Jesus? I don't know what word you would use. Um, he always was a little bit off-piste, if you like. He's always off to the side a little bit. And he said, "Relaxed."

Relaxed. What do you think about Jesus? All right, you might choose a different word for that, but think about it. He comes along to save the world. He's got three years of effective ministry, but you look at his life. He was characterized by eating and drinking, eating and drinking with sinners.

He was always off. He wasn't having meals with people. He always had time for people. Even when he was on his way somewhere, people interrupted him, but he always had time.

There's a relaxedness about his ministry. If you knew that you were going to be crucified in three years' time, you might be a little bit tense. But he just, in a relaxed way, went towards the cross.

He always did what his father gave him to do. He always said what his father told him to say. He was just in tune with him.

He always had time for people. He almost had time for God. Jesus, he's always off, isn't he? Off to a mountainside to pray. And yet we can be so busy, can't we? Don't have time to pray. You don't have time to go off on the mountainside to pray.

I think, well, our days, the 21st century, are much busier, isn't it? I don't know if it is. I wasn't there 2,000 years ago. Well, Jesus, well, there's a relaxedness about his life, wasn't there?

I wonder if we were walking more closely to God and enjoying his presence more that we'd be a little bit more relaxed, a little bit less busy.

That took me to read this book. It's been lying around for a while, um, "When I Relax, I Feel Guilty: Discover the Joy and the Wonder of Really Living." I saw it quoted in another book, and I thought, "I'll get that."

I had to go into eBay, find it for 2.48 or something like that at some weird price. It's written in 1979. I was just a baby. Well, a little bit old at last. I was four by that stage.

It's an old book. It's all right, actually. Um, maybe not the best book I've ever read, but it made me think. He starts off by talking about busyness.

He talks about a quote that says, "There is nothing more ugly than a busy man." You might take quite—I take a lot of pride when people say, "Oh, you're a busy person. You're a hard worker." How about you do as well, don't you? We take pride in our busyness.

Well, there's a busyness that takes over, isn't there? I think we should be hard workers as Christians. We should. I'm not saying put your feet up for the rest of your lives. Don't come to church ever again. Just pass through life. Don't do anything.

But there's—we can take pride in our busyness. As we work and we work and we work, it becomes, for some of us, the thing that we're thinking about all the time. Everything has to be useful.

Every time I sit down to read the quiet time, I need to have a quiet time, read my Bible. I need to find a sermon. I need to find something for somebody else. Every time I pray, it's because I've got a list of things that I need.

I can't rest. I can't relax. Sitting down is a bad thing because it's not productive. It begins to take over, and that's what this book was really helpful in teasing out of me.

Sometimes we become obsessed with being busy and being productive. As you know, I get mocked by my children. I get mocked for saying, "This is a real treat." They roll their eyes when I talk about their identity and where it should be.

And they also say when I go all serious, "It's not that deep." But you know, sometimes in the Christian life, which is serious, is important, isn't it?

Sometimes we can be so heavy. Everything has to be so productive. Everything has to be tied up so tightly that we can't relax, and everything has suddenly become deep and not enjoyable in our commitment to Jesus, which is important.

I desire to be faithful and follow his word, which is important. We can become quite like the Pharisees, can't we? We could become hard and cold, unnecessarily serious.

We don't relax because we think relaxing is being lazy. We stop enjoying things because just enjoying those things doesn't seem productive enough in our lives.

And we spend our lives finding fault with things that don't, I don't know, bring great joy. I'm sorry if this is just, uh, just me, and I'm just venting. If it is just me, just pray for me. But it might be you as well.

Let me read this to you. Maybe this will make you think. At the school where I teach, this myth is humorously referred to as bionic Christianity.

It describes a super Christian who is, at least in appearance, above reproach. He has been redeemed even of his humanness, and he works hard daily to earn his righteousness. Each of his answers is quick and precise, and his time is managed with calculated economy.

Above all else, no time should be wasted on such frivolous things as laughter and play when there is so much to be done in the world. Heavily laden with guilt and tension about each of the minutes he might be wasting, stiff, fussy, meticulous, and incurably religious, the bionic Christian simply does not have time to be happy.

Irony of ironies, his commitment to Jesus Christ has become a prison rather than a blessing. Is that home for any of you?

This was written in 1979, and I think in many ways it was our generation that he was writing to. It was me. And I think sometimes often that is what my Christianity has become.

Whilst we did that, I was also listening to something else. I was also listening to "Happy, Happy," um, "Happy Holiday," reading Ecclesiastes. It's all meaningless and chasing after the wind.

Can you see how these things are coming together? The writer, likely to be Solomon, or at least in the way of Solomon, if you like, he's looking at life without God.

He looks at work. I just work and work and work and work and work, and then he looks at how meaningless it is if you take God out of the picture because you work all the days of your life for a little bit more money.

Because you might also want to have more wealth and more possessions and more leisure time. You work and you work and you work, you die, you leave it all to somebody else, and that's it.

It's like a chasing after the wind. That's how the writer puts it. We see so many things, and you see the wind, and you see the way it moves things. You think there's something there, and you're going to try and grab it, and you can't.

And that's what life is like for so many people without God. It's like a chasing after the wind. You see something, you think it's there, but you try and grab it, and it's not.

That is life without God. And sometimes my Christianity is like that. Sometimes my Christian joy, my Christian delight, my delight in Jesus and what he's doing for me is diluted and polluted by trying to live a life without him, busy trying to be busy, trying to be productive all the time, living like it all depends upon how hard I work.

As a pastor, I've come to realize that there's hardly anything good that I've ever done. All I could is what God does. It's a funny old job. He does so much of it.

And yet when I work endlessly, and when I'm constantly busy, and when I can't relax, and it's always pressing my mind, I'm pretending that it's me that has to work hard, that I will find some meaning and joy in working hard.

And when somebody says, "Tim, you're working hard. Oh, you're such a busy person," do you see how these things are coming together? How God's been speaking to me, and I hope he's speaking to you as well?

Work had become, I guess for me, it could be something else for you, the pursuit of pleasure, of experience, wealth, possessions, personal advancements. They become an end in themselves.

God is pushed to the side in our lives. We're consumed by this chasing after the wind. Our Christian joy and delight is just a little bit tagged on the end or the beginning of a week, but we struggle to really rest, struggle to stop and enjoy God.

Ecclesiastes teaches us that it's all right to enjoy what God has given you. You know, there's a Christianity that I think I've grown with a little bit. Maybe you've known a little bit the struggles to enjoy the good things that God gives us.

Ecclesiastes gives us permission to enjoy what God has given us. So, right for you to enjoy your house, to live in this country. Maybe we should be concerned about people living in other countries, maybe who have less than us, but we can enjoy what God has given us, what he's blessed us with.

It also encourages us that we must remember and fear God, remember him in the days of our youth, and we must fame and follow him. And that's so important that we do that, or else it just becomes meaningless.

We just enjoy this life that is passing away. It is a futile world. We thought about that in Romans, haven't we? And that's where Ecclesiastes ultimately takes us. This is a futile world, Ecclesiastes says. Romans says the same thing. The world has become futile.

We become futile in our thinking, but the one who gives us meaning is the one who redeems us completely. The one who gives us meaning is Jesus Christ, who redeems not just us, but he redeems the world.

He redeems our lives so that they can be lived with real purpose and real meaning in this world that without him is meaningless.

So God's message to me, and it seems to be what he wants me to say to you today, I did try and get out of saying this, was relax and enjoy God. Rest in him. Remember, it doesn't all depend on you and how hard you work.

God didn't just save you to carry on life without him. He wants to walk with you day by day. He wants you to rest with him and enjoy being with him, to enjoy what he has done for you, and then out of that to serve with a whole heart.

Romans 12:1 makes you think about laying your life down as living sacrifices, and it seems hard. Well, the Romans 12:11 was the verse I wanted to really highlight: "Never be lacking in zeal, but keep your spiritual fervor serving the Lord."

We should be enthusiastic, passionate Christians living for God, serving him. But there are times when we do it without him. There are times when we do it, and we're not serving the Lord. We're serving ourselves.

We're doing it for our own pleasure, for our own glory. We're doing it so that someone will say to us, "Oh, aren't you a busy person?"

We need to keep the both together. We need to keep, yes, we need to serve the Lord. We need to serve. We need to lay our lives down and live as living sacrifices, but we do it in relation with him, out of an enjoyment for him.

So slow down, relax, enjoy the Lord, rest, be still, and know that he is God. And let all that you do flow from that, which is why we read Psalm 100.

So go back to Psalm 100. I'll tell you another little interesting thing. Psalm 100 was just the next reading in my reading scheme. Didn't plan this. It just fits nicely.

I did try to avoid this by opening Bible Gateway, opening Psalms, and flicking with my eyes shut and then stopping. That's how desperate I was not to preach my quiet time.

It's like I'll preach something else. Interestingly enough, he landed on Psalm 32, which I could justifiably preach because Psalm 32 links to Romans nicely. You might remember that.

I thought I could do that. We're looking at Psalm 100. Look at Psalm 100. There's no agenda here. The purpose here is just to enjoy God for who he is and what he's done.

A whole psalm devoted just to enjoying God and what he's done for us. It's not all about all the things that we do, all the ministries that we need to do, all the things we need to accomplish.

It is just enjoy God. Shout for joy to the Lord. You might have a different version. He says, "Make a joyful noise." All right, thank you, Ken.

Feelers of joyful noise, yes. What are your joyful noises sound like? Oh dear, when was the last time you made a joyful noise? I mean really, we've diluted our Christianity to be quite sensible, haven't we?

Make a joyful noise. I know you might have a joyful noise. I know when you're at a concert, "Oh yes, that's my favorite song," or if the Feli United score, it's he's turning around, isn't it?

This season, eh? Hey, last season was hard work, but now, oh yeah. I sometimes go to Allen Road or you go to a football stadium, and wow, the burst of joy, the noise, the joyful noise when someone scores.

Shout for joy to the Lord. Make a joyful noise to the Lord, all the earth. Worship the Lord with gladness. Come before him with joyful songs.

There should be a real gladness on our hearts that bursts forth in song. Are we so busy doing things that we don't enjoy singing a song to the Lord?

What makes your heart squab? What makes you sing? Is it the Lord? Singing is a wonderful thing, isn't it? He takes those truths when he's done.

Oh, he's doing well. It takes the truths of God's word, sticks a tune to it, and it stirs our hearts sometimes in ways that just words don't do. It stirs our affections for God.

It is good to sing. What are you singing? What are the songs that you sing most? Enter his gates with thanksgiving and his courts with praise, giving thanks to him and praising his name.

So we come near to God with thanks, and we praise. We're not asking for anything, are we? We're just thanking him, and we're praising him.

Drawing near to God, delight in who he is and what he's done for us. That's what the psalm calls us to do. But you know, I know what your prayer times are like, but mine tend to be a line of praise.

And maybe if I'm doing really well, I might even say thank you for something. I'm terrible at appreciating things. And then I get onto my long list of all the things that I need.

It's near as if I'm saying to God, "You're great, but you haven't provided these things for me. I might be disappointed in you. Do you think you'd sort a few things out now?"

I know we should ask for things in prayer. Scripture asks us that, doesn't it? But I'm just looking at the weights of our devotions.

The weight of my devotions is it thanks and praise for all he has done, or is it my list of things that he hasn't done, that I perceive he hasn't yet done?

Yeah, and sometimes that means that our prayers are turning into work, aren't they? So rather than just enjoying God, we're actually saying, "Well, God, I need this so I can do this. I need this so I can do this. I need this so I can do this."

And everything's productive again rather than just enjoying God. Thank you. Just give thanks to him. Remember who he is and what he's done for you.

In fact, he changes your whole perspective on what you ask for after that. In fact, you probably won't ask for much. You just say, "Oh, whatever you want, Lord. Your will be done."

Oh man, and why do we do all of that? Because the psalm says, "Look, look at why he is worthy of all of our praise."

Know that the Lord is God. It's very important that the Lord is God. You are not. You are not God. You are not self-sufficient and independent.

You can't just go on and do everything that you want to do. It's not all about you and how hard you work and what you can accomplish. The Lord is God. He made us. We are his. We belong to him.

We are his people. We are the sheep of his pasture. He's a good shepherd who gave his life for us to save us. This is why we worship him.

He's our creator. He's our God. We are his. He's the one who cares for us. He saves us. He is good. That always seems like such an understatement, isn't it? But he is good.

His love endures forever. His faithfulness continues through all generations. In fact, where better do we see that than in the cross of Jesus Christ?

His goodness, his enduring love, despite all of the rebellion of this world, his faithfulness despite our unfaithfulness, his son dying on a cross for us.

That's why we shout for joy to the Lord. That's why we make a joyful noise to the Lord. Are we so busy that we have lost our enjoyment of who he is and what he's done for us?

If you're one rugged by the world, as Ecclesiastes would have us think about, as we're chasing after the wind, trying to find life, trying to find meaning, trying to find it in ourselves and in what we do and what we can experience, trying to do it all without God, I appeal to you.

Just stop doing that. Accept that you're just chasing after the wind. And to relax, if you like, there's a right tension. What I mean is relaxing. Stop trying to do it yourselves, but put your trust in the Lord Jesus Christ.

Turn away from your sin. Trust him as the one who bore your sin and saved you completely. He doesn't ask you to work your socks off for the rest of your lives in the hope that you will be saved at the end of it.

He saves you completely. His work is finished. He is sat down. He is sat down. He has finished the work. Trust him completely, and he will give you a joy and a purpose in life that nothing in this world can extinguish if we keep our eyes on him.

Now, as Christians, many of us are Christians here this morning. You may realize you may be thinking, "Well, I've lost something of that zeal and that spiritual fervor in the Lord."

I'm busy, but I've lost the heart. And we need to confess that, don't we? And we need to turn away from that. We need to consider the things that draw our hearts away from our joy in the Lord, and we need to turn from those things.

And we need to turn to some things that stir our hearts for enjoyment in the Lord. It means confessing our self-sufficiency and our pride and even our idolatry.

We talked in Romans about how we give ourselves, we enslave ourselves to other things. You either—we're all enslaved to something. Are you enslaved to the Lord in that sense, or are you enslaved to something else?

Turn from those things that enslave you. There are so many things, really, really. Ecclesiastes, look at all those things that could enslave you and just be chasing after the wind, and look to God again and rest in him.

Isn't it interesting that in God's creation, one-seventh of it was a day of rest? That's a law. Say that when you think about it. We don't do Sabbath like we used to do, do we?

The shops are all open. It nearly feels just like another day. We've lost a day to delight in the Lord. We've lost a day to stop and enjoy him.

So much of what we do as Christians, it does not rise from us, how hard we work and the efforts that we make, but from him, from knowing him and delighting in him and all he's done for us.

So we need to make sure that those things are back in place. And as we look towards another year of service for the Lord, I had a thought that came through my mind that maybe should never come through the mind of any pastoral preacher:

Don't start it unless you're resting in him. Maybe you'll step down. Maybe that'll be a good thing. Don't do it just because you feel like you have to. Don't do it because you feel like someone's told you to do it.

Don't do it because you think it's just your duty. Could you please do it out of the enjoyment of who God is and all he has done for you?

Take time for that, please. God bless.

Let's pray.

Father, we thank you that you do teach us. We thank you that you're involved in our lives. We thank you that you're leading and guiding and speaking to us.

And Lord, I pray that you will speak to us today. Lord, of the things I've said that shouldn't have been said, Lord, I pray that you just lay the chaff, blow them away.

Well, all those things that are of you, Lord, I pray that they'll settle in our hearts. And I pray, Lord, that we would learn to be less self-sufficient, less proud, and more ready to step aside to relax and enjoy you for who you are and what you've done.

Lord, I pray that we wouldn't just be busy people, that we wouldn't just be a busy church, but that we would truly be a church that knows you and loves you and lives for you out of that.

We thank you for your goodness to us, and we thank you for your grace. And we pray, Lord, that you will live in us, that you become greater and that we will become less.

Help us, Lord, I pray, in your name, amen.

We're going to sing as we close, "Yet Not I, But Through Christ in Me." Let's stand and sing.