FBC Morning Worship Service

Well, good morning, good to see you on this beautiful spring day the Lord has given us. Glad you could make it to the service today and look forward to worshiping our Lord together. It's good to be back with you after a little, what was it, 10 day, I guess it was, hiatus.

We're able to go visit some beautiful places and if you get to pastor's page, emails and so forth that I send out every week, next couple of entries will have to do with that. So maybe those will be a blessing to you, I hope they will anyway.

Well anyway, today we have come together to worship the Lord and just a few things in your bulletin to remind you of. One is this afternoon, in our afternoon service, that will be our last afternoon service for the season.

So we'll be back to the evening service schedule after today, at least until the winter months again. So plan on that. And then in this afternoon's service, at the end of the service, we'll have a quarterly business meeting just to go over the financial reports and update you on a few things as well.

So note that. Also in your bulletin is that insert again for the plan for next Sunday night. And the first Sunday night of the month thereafter with this new ministry for young marrieds and single adults.

Next Sunday night we'll be meeting at the Foreman's house. But we do need to hear from you if you're planning to attend because we want to provide a meal for you and need to know how many are coming. So fill that out.

We've had that in the bulletin for a few weeks. Maybe it's the first time you've seen it, but has information on and therefore that ministry, what we want to do with it and why and so forth. And so obviously not everybody is young married or a single adult.

So for the rest of us, we want to use that same time to invite someone to our home, get together for a time of fellowship. I plan to have a video devotional kind of like I do on the daily things that will be geared just for that time.

And then so we'll, you watch the video devotional, have some prayer time together, and then have a snack, have a time of fellowship, however you want to use the remainder of time together. So planning on that next Sunday night.

And again, encourage you to turn in that form to let us know of your plans to attend at the Foreman's for a meal. All right, so we've gathered together today to worship the Lord. And we want to begin with Psalm 25, verses four and five say this.

Show me your ways, O Lord, teach me your paths. Lead me in your truth and teach me. For you are the God of my salvation. On you I wait all the day. So may the Lord bless as we worship him together. And Jim comes and leads us in our opening hymn.

Jim.

Thank you, Pastor.

It's page number 83 in your hymnals. 83, guide me, O thou great Jehovah. Let's all stand together, please. Sing all three verses together, number 83. Of a pilgrim through this daring But thou art mighty Hold me with thy powerful hand.

Bread of heaven, bread of heaven Feed me till I want no more Feed me till I want no more. The crystal fountain whence the healing waters flow Let the fire and cloudy pillar Lead me all my journey through.

Strong deliver, strong deliver. Be thou still my shield, be thou still my strength and shield. When I tread the verge of Jordan Bid my anxious fears subside Bear me through the swelling current Land me safe on Canaan's side Songs of praises, songs of praises I will ever give to thee I will ever give to thee Please remain standing for prayer.

Brother Ed, would you come and lead us, please?

Our Father, we're just so thankful for Christ and that he delivered us from sin and death and we just thank you for the new life that you've given us through him. Pray that you would just be glorified through our worship this morning and just pray that you'd speak to our hearts through your word.

Just pray he sings in Jesus' name, amen.

You may be seated. I want to read together one of the most, I think it's probably the favorite psalm of most people, the 23rd psalm. It's on the back of your bulletin if you care to use that, but we do want to read it in unison since it is so familiar to us, the 23rd psalm, and then we'll sing it, sing the psalm from the Psalter and I've got the wrong number in the bulletin for that, but Jim will help us with that in just a moment.

But Psalm 23, let's read it together, the shepherd psalm. The Lord is my shepherd, I shall not want. He makes me to lie down in green pastures. He leads me beside the still waters. He restores my soul.

He leads me in the paths of righteousness for his name's sake. Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil for you are with me, your rod and your staff, they comfort me.

You prepare a table before me in the presence of my enemies, anoint my head with oil, my cup runs over. Surely, goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life, and I will dwell in the house of the Lord forever.

The Lord add his blessing to our reading together of his word, Jim.

And that's in your red books, that is your psalters. Page number 46, page 46, my shepherd will supply my need. And we'll sing all three verses together. And shepherd will supply my need. Jehoiah is his name.

In pastures fresh, he makes me feed. Beside the still loose tree. He brings my wandering mirror back. When I forsake his way, and leads me for his mercy's sake. In path of truth and grace. When I walk through the shades of death, thy presence is faith.

One word, supporting breath, drives all my fears up. Inside of all my bones, will it fill my name. My cup, seeing overflows. I offer a sure provision of my God. I'll attend me all my life, meet my abode.

And all my work, there would a set of rest. Others go and come no more. Our prayer together, we will be singing.

From the supplement book, the blue supplement book. If you don't have a copy of that, Dan, could you have a couple of those available? If you don't have a copy of that, while I'm sharing some prayer requests, just raise your hand and let Dan know that you need that.

As we pray together today, I want to remember the Heinecks. Mark and Lynette Heineck are missionaries to Costa Rica. Got an update from them yesterday. They are still struggling in this transition time related to the church they've been serving in.

And there's a lot of details involved in that. I just cannot go into it. But pray for God to continue to work in that situation. There is some real need in that church. And there are some efforts to bring some resolution to some problems in that ministry.

But also, and this is a kind of a thing that I don't think we really get, because we're not in their shoes. But as missionaries, they have a couple of children that are college age, the oldest two. And so they're in Costa Rica.

The children will be attending college in the States. And one of them coming home from college. And so there's just kind of this back and forth. And they're having difficulty with the travel requirements because of the COVID restrictions and so forth.

And the conflict between governments and it's just not an easy thing. So they're grappling with that. And asked us to pray for a resolution regarding the travel arrangements they need to make for their children.

And again, that's not something that we would often be thinking about or be concerned about. So pray for the Heinecks. And then of course, we wanna be praying for those in the congregation who have struggled with and are struggling with COVID.

Continue to pray for Jodi. She was supposed to undergo a procedure any time now that would determine whether or not she can stay and continue receiving care at CGH or be moved to another hospital. And we just wanna pray for God to graciously give her healing so that she can stay locally where her family is.

And that she would just recover from this. And it is not a given. It is not a given. Her daughter mentioned the other day that the nurse or doctor, I can't remember which, told her that there was like a 50 -50 chance there in that situation.

So thankfully, we know the one who is in control of life and death. And we wanna pray for God to be gracious. Also pray for her family, for Bob, for Rebecca, for Hannah. That God would give them peace of mind and heart as they wait.

And that's about all they can do. So pray for God to be gracious to them. And then they themselves all have, except for Hannah, had COVID and are in the process of recovering and getting their strength back.

And pray for God to give grace there. So let's look to the Lord in prayer, shall we? So our Father and our God, we are grateful today that you are the shepherd of your sheep, your people. And we're thankful that in your house, we can rest.

We can find the comfort we need. We can find the restoration to our souls that we need. We can find that in you, our God, our shepherd. And I pray that today as we focus on that very subject, that very idea, that we as your people, would come to you and find the rest that we need.

We pray for those who are burdened today, and we are very concerned about, for their physical needs. And I pray that you would grant healing for Jodi and continued recovery for Bob and Rebecca, for Ben and for the Alts, Jim and Beruda.

We pray that you'd continue to strengthen their bodies. Think of those who've recently had surgery and are continuing in the process of recovery for Kathy, for Harold. We pray that you would grant complete healing there and reuse of those members of the body that have been afflicted recently.

But Father, I pray in all of these situations that you as our Father, Christ as our good shepherd, that you might give rest, you might give peace of mind, peace of heart in these troubled days. So Lord, work in the lives of your people today.

Think of those, even in the congregation here this morning, who are struggling with some things in life and are feeling anxious and unrest in their souls. I pray that you might minister to those hearts today.

Father, we think of our nation, which is in a state of a lot of unrest and discord and disarray. And Father, the disunity of our nation is most troubling for its health in the long term. Even as we were reminded this morning in our Sunday school lesson, this is the fruit of sin.

It's the consequence of the sin of our nation. We are guilty of national sins, what we have not only allowed and given protection to, but are even promoting and encouraging through the legislatures of our land.

This is all grievous, and we are facing the consequences of it. So our Father, we pray that in your mercy and in your grace, you would send forth your word, your gospel, and that people in this land would quit rejecting it, would quit suppressing the truth, and that your spirit would so work that you would bring about an awakening, another awakening in our land.

May we become so filled with despair as a people that we look nowhere else, we quit looking to ourselves, we quit looking to Washington, quit looking to a president or to elected officials, but we look to you, the only real answer, the only real help, the shepherd that we so desperately need.

So Father, we pray, do a work of grace in our land. Again, Father, we ask that you would meet with us as we continue to worship you and open your word to us and give us eyes to see, ears to hear, hearts to obey, and we pray in Jesus' name.

Take your blue book, that is your supplement songbook, page number 38, I Run to Christ, number 38. Let's all stand together, please, and we'll sing it together, I Run to Christ.

Let's stand.

I fear his voice I hear, his words and word and love. I run to Christ when torn by grief, and find abundance. Peace, I too have tears, he gently speaks, thus joy sorrow me. I run to Christ when worn by life, and find my soul refreshed.

Come unto me, he calls through strife, fatigue gives way to rest. I run to Christ when vexed by hell, and find a mighty arm. The devil flees, the scriptures tell, he roars but cannot harm.

I run to Christ when stalked by sin, and find a sure escape. He deliver me, I cry to him, temptation yields to fear. I run to Christ when plagued by shame, and find my one defense. I bore God's wrath, he pleads my case, my advocate and friend.

Please be seated.

If you would take your Bibles and turn to Mark chapter six for our scripture reading. Mark chapter six, to read verses 30 through 34. Mark chapter six, follow along in your copy of scripture. So I begin reading in verse 30.

It says, then the apostles gathered to Jesus and told him all things, both what they had done and what they had taught. And he said to them, come aside by yourselves to a deserted place and rest a while.

For there were many coming and going and they did not even have time to eat. So they departed to a deserted place in the boat by themselves. But the multitude saw them departing and many knew him and ran there on foot from all the cities.

They arrived before them and came together to him. And Jesus, when he came out, saw a great multitude and was moved with compassion for them because they were like sheep not having a shepherd. So he began to teach them many things.

Let's have a brief word of prayer. So our Father, I pray that you would open up this passage to us, give us understanding, speak to us about our need to come apart and rest a while. We pray in Jesus' name, amen.

The Need for Rest in Physical, Mental, and Spiritual Life

So about a year ago, just right about the time that, well, it was a little less than a year actually, but the time that we reopened and started to have services again, one of the first ways we did it was had outdoor services, had some outdoor services.

And you may remember that. It was really kind of nice being out here in the middle of the area unless you were bothered by some pesky little black flies or something. But anyhow, so to prepare for that outdoor service thing, we got one of these wireless mics.

And it really kind of, in one hand, it's kind of cool, you know, it's kind of neat, because then you can walk around and if I walk away from here, then you can't hear as well. And so you have this kind of thing stuck on your ear and you can hear no matter where you go.

But of course, it's operated by batteries. And by the way, I used this up until just a few weeks ago and I just never feel comfortable with that thing. I don't know. I guess some guys, it's like second nature to them.

I never felt that way. Anyway, the point is that one of the things we learned early on about this little device is that before each service, you have to have a fresh set of batteries. So having learned that, we bought some rechargeable batteries so that after each service, you know, we can plug those things in, put the batteries in the charger, charge it back up so they're a full charge.

And the way we learned that was, I tried to go two services on one set of charge and it, well, it worked well for the first service, but the second service, and some of you may remember this, the second service, you know, the sound, it kept cutting out.

You know, it was like, it would just stop and then it would come back on and then it would stop and come back on and it would stop. So we learned that you just got to have a fresh set of batteries. They gotta be recharged.

Before use. I don't know if you've thought of it this way, but God has created us to operate on batteries. Batteries that need to be recharged. So think of it. We need to have our physical batteries recharged from time to time.

In fact, the failure of our society to recognize that has created one of our biggest physical problems and that is sleep deprivation. So many people in our culture today are sleep deprived and they don't even realize that that's their problem, but it is, it's a big problem today.

We have these physical batteries and so from time to time, we have to recharge ourselves physically and we know this in our heads. We know in our heads that we need adequate sleep, we need enough, we need good nutrition, we need to get exercise and so forth, but do we actually physically recharge our batteries?

That's another question altogether. We also have mental batteries that have to be recharged. Experts say that the average person can only really focus on a project for about 90 minutes, mentally focus on a project for about 90 minutes.

I think that time may be shortening because of some of our distracting devices that shorten our attention span, but then nevertheless, that's what they say and so after 90 minutes, you gotta take a break and give your mind a chance to recharge a little bit.

We have mental batteries that need recharging. We also have spiritual batteries that need to be recharged and I think this is what David was referring to in the 23rd Psalm we read earlier, in the third verse when he says, the Lord, the shepherd, restores my soul.

He refreshes my spiritual batteries, if you will. So here in our text, in Mark chapter six, in his disciple-making ministry, even the Lord Jesus recognizes the need to have our batteries recharged. He tells the disciples in verse 31, come aside by yourselves to a deserted place and rest a while.

Now, what he tells the disciples is not simply limited to the need of the disciples. This is a need of all of Jesus' disciples, all of the followers of Christ. We need to come apart and rest a while. Now, by the way, let me point this out.

These individuals were all Jewish people. They all lived under the Mosaic law at that time, which means that they practiced every week the Sabbath day. Every seventh day, they practiced the Sabbath, where, I mean, how far they could walk and so forth was limited, what they could do was limited.

It was the Sabbath, and we'll see this later on, the Sabbath was built into the structure of the Jewish society to have a weekly day of rest. And yet, in spite of them practicing that regular routine of the Sabbath, the Lord here calls his disciples to come apart and rest a while.

Why? Because, you know this as well, the toils of life create the need for rest. The toils of life create the need for rest. So look at verse 30. In verse 30, the disciples were engaged in some really intense, persistent labor that wears them down, and it wears you down too.

Intense, persistent labor will wear you down. It says they came to Jesus and they told him all the things that they had done and what they had taught. Now what they're referring to, what this is referring to, is what's recorded for us back in chapter, in verses seven through 13.

So look back here a couple of verses. Back in chapter seven, says Jesus called the 12 to himself and began to send them out two by two. So he's sending out these disciples on a mission. In verses eight and following, he gives them some instructions, some details on what to take with them on that journey and so forth.

But then in verses 12 and 13, it tells us what they did. It says they went out and they preached that people should repent, and they cast out many demons and anointed with oil many who were sick and healed them.

So that's what they went out and they did, and then when we come to verse 30, verse 30 tells us that they came back to Jesus and they reported all the things that they had done and what they had taught.

And then Jesus says, come apart and rest a while. This was a period, this mission that they went on was a period of intense, persistent labor. And what they had taught, see they report in verse 30, what they had taught was the preaching of repentance.

They were going about into the various villages and so forth and people they were coming across, two by two, and they were engaged in persistent preaching of repentance to the people of Israel that they ran into.

And what they had done was engaged in this personal ministry of dealing with those who were demon-possessed, dealing with those who were sick, God gave them the power to give healing to the sick and so forth.

So now watch, what was their persistent intense labor? It wasn't the hard labor of the farm work, it wasn't the hard labor of a 10 or 12 hour shift day in the factory, it was the intense persistent labor of spiritual ministry.

Now that is not in, I do not in any way, shape or form want to minimize the hard manual labor. What I want to do is help us to understand that there is a unique kind of exhaustion that comes from spiritual ministry.

And I point that out because we understand, we get the exhaustion of hard physical labor. We can get that. You know, you work 10, 12 hour shift day and you come home and you're exhausted, you get that.

But we don't often think of the, we don't often realize that there is a unique kind of exhaustion that comes from engaging in this kind of persistent intense spiritual labor. So that intense labor can wear us down.

But look at the end of verse 31, there's another thing that can wear us down. And that is when we have pressed upon us some constant pressure, constant demands that are put upon us. So the end of verse 31 says, for there were many coming and going and they did not even have time to eat.

There's so much activity going on by people coming at the disciples and coming at Jesus and pulling them in this direction and pulling them in that direction and asking them for this and asking them for that.

So they didn't even have time to stop and have a sandwich. Couldn't even have something to eat. That kind of constant pressure, that constant demand that is placed upon them wore them down and it'll wear you down too.

I think for example, those who are in professions where they are on call and they may work their regular five days and then every other weekend, for example, they're on call and they never know when the phone rings, am I gonna have to go into work?

Am I gonna have to deal with this? What's going to come? And sometimes you get done with one call, you get back home, you no sooner get seated down to have a bite to eat and the phone goes off again and you gotta come back to this and you gotta deal with that.

Those on call professions can leave you exhausted and wear you down. But you know, it doesn't have to be a profession, a job that's out there, right young moms?

Right?

You ever feel that sense of constant pressing demand when you're just about to fall asleep and that little one cries out, you know? And there goes another hour of sleep, you know? And it doesn't do any good for some old fogey like me to say, this will pass, cherish it while you can because it's gonna pass someday.

You say, yeah, right, okay, sure. That constant pressure upon you can wear you down. I think of those in management and supervisory positions where they are often pressed upon because of the different responsibilities and the pull this way and the pull that way from different employees and so forth.

Or I think of employees that have an overbearing boss that they just never know where they stand, they never know whether or not their boss is pleased and before you know it, they've got another project to do.

The point is this, what the disciples experienced and you experience as well in your world, being in constant demand is exhausting, it's exhausting. Now, I'd like you to turn with me to 1 Kings chapter 19 and I wanna use by way of illustration the experience of Elijah the prophet.

So intense, persistent labor can wear you down, the constant pressing demands can wear you down and it can call for rest, the need for rest. And I just wanna remind you that what, I wanna remind you what the Lord provided for Elijah here in 1 Kings 19.

Look at verses five and six. Says then as Elijah lay and slept under a broom tree, suddenly an angel, he slept under a broom tree, an angel touched him and said, arise and eat. And he looked and there by his head was a cake baked on coals and a jar of water, so he ate and drank and lay down again, he rested.

He needed that rest, he needed that rest. Why did he need that rest? Because there are a lot of reasons why when these demands are pressing upon us and we're worn out or we're engaged in intense persistent labor and we're worn out, there are a lot of reasons why we need rest and they're illustrated here in Elijah's life.

One of them is that when we lack rest, we lose perspective, we lose perspective. In other words, we can't see the big picture, can't see the big picture. Look at verse four. Elijah on a day's journey into the wilderness, he came and sat down under a broom tree and he prayed that he might die and he said, it's enough, now Lord, take my life for I am no better than my father's.

Now you remember the background to this situation? This is right after Mount Carmel. When Elijah was engaged in intense spiritual ministry on that mountain, he said there's a little competition between himself and the prophets of Baal, between God and Baal and God won.

And you remember that story. And then Elijah had all the prophets of Baal executed and they were all executed. But then word came from Jezebel that Elijah was a marked man and that he too was going to die.

There was a hit put out on Elijah, if you will. So Elijah took off and he fled into the wilderness and that brings him to verse four, brings him to the broom tree. And he ran to this wilderness and needed rest.

Why? Because without that rest, he had lost perspective. He lost the idea, the answers to the questions of what am I doing here? Why am I here? Why am I here? And why am I doing this? Elijah lost his sense of perspective on what his role as a prophet was.

He kind of thought that his role as a prophet was to bring about revival. That if I just do my thing, then everybody's going to fall into place and revival's going to come. A lot of preachers in the 21st century can fail in the same regard as well.

They can think that their job is to make the church big and to make the ministry grow and to make it all happen and they lose sight of the fact that no, that's not what they're called to do. They're called to preach the word, to minister the word, minister it faithfully and let God use that as God will use that.

If we lose sight of that perspective, we can lose sight of that perspective when we lack rest. What's my purpose? Why am I here? You remember the prophet Jonah, he had that same problem, didn't he? That God sent him to Nineveh and told him to preach against the city of Nineveh and when he did, the whole city repented from the top down.

And then Jonah was depressed and he went out, sat under the gourd vine, first sat out on the hill watching to see if the thing would be destroyed, the city would be destroyed, it wasn't, and then he said, let me just die.

He lost perspective. What did he need to do?

Sleep.

What did the Lord do for him? Caused a vine to grow so it would shade him from the heat. He slept, he rested, and then the Lord could deal with him, rattle him, shake him. Without rest, we can easily lose perspective.

Without rest, we see this also in Elijah's life, we can also lose our passion or our enthusiasm or our energy. As Elijah said, it's enough, it's enough, I'm done. I'm done. Life just becomes monotonous, boring, same stuff, day after day after day, the routines of life.

Without adequate rest, times to get apart for a while, the routines become monotonous, we lose our passion for the value of those routines. Simple things, simple things can become great hardships. The preparing of a meal or this relatively simple thing of the mowing a lawn or whatever, these simple little things that make up life, that responsibilities, duties, jobs of life, just become such an overwhelming hardship.

It's enough, we say. Little things, little things seem to be insurmountable. Decisions are laborious. Here is this decision that you have to make and you just can't decide, you just can't make the decision.

Your outlook becomes very pessimistic. Emotionally, you languish. I just read an article about that this week. Languishing, when you're languishing, it's kind of like a middle ground between enthusiasm and depression.

You're not really wallowing in depression, but you're not enthusiastic, you don't have any energy, you don't have any drive for anything either, you're just kind of languishing. And what's often needed is rest.

Come apart and rest a while. That article, I found it interesting, that article was written because the number of people who are in this state of languishing in our society has increased dramatically because of the pandemic and the lockdowns, having to work from home.

And I don't think, at first, we think, oh, this is a great thing, I don't have to get up and go to the office, I can just do my work from home, but here's the other side of that, it's always there. You never leave, you never walk away, it's just always there.

And you're aware of it, you're aware that at any time, day or night, you can do your work. And then you find yourself doing your work. And before you know it, you're languishing because you lack rest, you lack getting away from it all, and you lose your passion.

Without adequate rest, we can easily lose our purpose, our sense of purpose. Again, I notice this in verses nine and 10. Elijah went into a cave and he spent the night in that place and behold, the word of the Lord came to him and he said to him, what are you doing here, Elijah?

Maybe we could change the emphasis of that a little bit. What are you doing here, Elijah? So he said, I've been very zealous for the Lord of hosts, for the children of Israel have forsaken your covenant, torn down your altars and killed your prophets with a sword.

I alone am left and they seek my life to take it. What are you doing here, Elijah? What is your purpose? What is your purpose for being here? And Elijah had come to the place where he lost a sense of his purpose in life and you can do that too, where you discern no goals.

You have no goal out there. Again, as I mentioned earlier about the passion, you're just kind of existing day to day and you don't have any sense of direction, of where to go, of where you're headed. And other than your own burden about yourself, you carry no other burden.

And we're made to be burden bearers. Isn't that what Paul tells us in Galatians chapter six? He tells in the church, he says, bear one another's burdens. But when you are lacking rest and you lose your sense of purpose, you don't care about anybody else's burdens.

You don't want to bear anybody else's burdens. Yours are enough. It's all you want to do. And consequently, because you've lost your sense of purpose, you see little accomplishment and you feel like a failure.

You feel like a failure. Without rest, we can easily lose our perspective, we can lose our passion, we can lose our purpose, and we can lose our push. Or our motivation. Where we're just ready to quit.

Throw in the towel, give up. The toils of life can bring us to this place if we don't get rest. Now here's the thing we got to catch. The Lord is the ultimate provider of rest. The Lord is. And I want us to think about this and realize that back in our text in Mark chapter six, that it was the Lord who initiated it.

It was the Lord who said to the disciples, they didn't catch it, they didn't seem to perceive it, they didn't seem to know it, that they needed rest. But it was the Lord who said to them, come apart by yourselves to a deserted place and rest a while.