Waking, Making, Breaking: Living with Purpose in God’s Presence

I want to take you back to just a few hours ago. Imagine yourself warm and snug in your bed, maybe maybe one leg out of the COVID a little bit because it's too hot.

But you're enjoying your sleep. You're nice, content. Maybe if you're like my wife, have some big delicious man next to you.

Sorry.

So anyway. Sorry. So there you are, you're sleeping, you're content, and then that dreaded alarm goes off and you slap your phone or turn it off or hit snooze and you lay there for a few minutes. Some of us may have gone back to sleep. Some of us may have gotten up right away.

But eventually we sat up and our mind started working and started becoming more awake and more aware. And so my question is, just a few hours ago, when you woke up, what was the first thing that crossed your mind? What was the first thing that popped into your head when you woke up this morning? Think about that for just a moment. Sit with it.

What did you first think about?

Now I know probably it was, today is church day, and I get to come and hang out with my best friends. So maybe the question is, what's your second thought? The day?

The reason I ask is we often have something on our mind when we first wake up. And on the weekend, and especially on a Sunday, it may be one thing. But consider times in the past. What were your first thoughts last Monday or maybe the previous Tuesday or last Friday? You might not remember exactly what they were, but I imagine you can probably recall a theme or a topic.

And I wonder if that first thought was centered around God and his presence with you, or if it was something else. There are a lot of times where I go to sleep and I'm praying and off and on during the night, I wake up and I find myself almost instantaneously praying again. Then in the morning I find myself praying, but y' all, that is a very rare occasion. That is.0001% of the time. Normally, my thought, my first thought centers around one of two things.

It's either what my schedule is for the day, what must I do, who am I meeting with, what has to happen, or my second thought is why I am not a morning person. I have to be a morning person by opportunity, but not naturally. I would sleep late if I could because I like staying up late.

And so maybe whether you're a morning person or not, maybe you get angry when you wake up. I don't know. But wherever you are, I imagine you can relate to this. But I do Wonder as I've sat with this these last few weeks, what might it take for us to turn our minds quickly to God in the morning and center our hearts on Him. I don't ask because I want us to feel shame.

I don't ask because I want to embarrass anyone. I ask because I want us to train our hearts and our minds to go there. And for some in this room, God is the first thing that you think of and. Or the first person that you think of when you wake up. And if that is where you are with this deep spirituality, I truly praise God for you.

Praise God for that. But for the rest of us, there's probably a little bit of help that is needed. So I want to turn our attention to Psalm 90, a psalm that is attributed to Moses. And we see a prayer that speaks of the brevity of life and the psalmist's desire that God would bless his people. So if you have your Bible or want to follow along, let me read Psalm 90 for us.

It says, lord, you have been our dwelling place in all generations before the mountains were brought forth, or ever you had formed the earth and the world from everlasting to everlasting. You are God. You return man to dust and say, return, O children of man. For a thousand years in your sight are but as yesterday when it is the past, or as a watch in the night. You sweep them away as with a flood.

They are like a dream, like grass that is renewed in the morning. In the morning it flourishes and is renewed, in the evening it fades and withers. For we are brought to an end by your anger, by your wrath. We are dismayed. You have set our iniquities before you our secret sins in the light of your presence.

For all our days pass away under your wrath. We bring our years to an end like a sigh for years. The years of our life are 70, or even by reason of strength, 80. Yet their span is but toil and trouble. They are soon gone, and we fly away.

Who considers the power of your anger and your wrath according to the fear of you? So teach us to number our days, that we may get a heart of wisdom. Return, O Lord. How long have pity on your servants. Satisfy us in the morning with your steadfast love, that we may rejoice and be glad all of our days.

Make us glad for any. Make us glad for as many days as as you have afflicted us, and for as many years as we have seen evil. Let your work be shown to your servants and your Glorious power to their children. Let the favor of the Lord our God be upon us and establish the work of our hands upon us. Yes, establish the work of our hands.

There is so much that we could pull out from just this psalm this morning, but unfortunately, we don't have the time to do all that because we have multiple movements in times of consideration this morning. So I just want to draw our attention to a couple of things. The first, since our lives are comparatively short, we should number them. Since our lives are comparatively short, we should number them. Verse 12 says so.

Teach us to number our days, that we may get a heart of wisdom in the grand scheme of things. The life of a person short. The older you get, the more you realize that one day you're young and athletic and you are having the time of your life, and the next day you sneeze and you throw your back out.

Life comes and it goes quickly. And not all of us are able to live long lives. So understanding that life is short should make us reflect on how quickly life can go by. The Benedictine monks used to keep on their desk a piece of scripture, a candle to read the scripture, and a skull. It's pretty metal, I know, but the skull isn't just some hobby lobby or Michael's Purchase.

It's an actual skull. It's of one of their former brothers. And so there, with Brother Ambrose's skull on your desk, you would sit and contemplate life and what scripture has to say. The phrase born out of this is memento mori. Remember your death.

Reflect on how life comes to this end. The Benedictines considered what Moses is saying in this psalm. Your days are short, so count them. When he's asking for wisdom, he's asking that the animating center of our life, our desires, our affections, our wisdom, our knowledge, would be full of God's wisdom that is capable of discerning God's purposes for this life. And that's the point.

To know God's purpose in each and every day of our life. And so we must use that wisely. The second thing that I want us to consider from Psalm 90 is that, as I point out, that experiencing God each morning allows us to rejoice and be glad. Sorry, my brain was not working at the speed it needed to. So the second thing from Psalm 90 is that I point out, I want to point out, is experiencing God each morning allows us to rejoice and be glad.

Now, it's not a command that you have to meet with God at a certain time each morning. If you miss a time with God, that it happens. But biblical and conventional wisdom point us to the fact that early morning, when we're least distracted, is a good time to meet with God. It's when it's most silent, it's when it's most calm. Before people wake up, the early morning is a good time.

And in fact, Mark 1:35 reads, and rising very early in the morning, while it was still dark, he that's Jesus departed and went out to a desolate place. And there he prayed. Jesus recognized the need for waking up early and being with his Father. So there's a choice to be made each morning. That choice is, will I wake up and spend time with God while I acknowledge God's presence with me, or will I choose to sleep a few extra minutes before I have rushed around?

Today, from my own experience, I can honestly say there are a lot of days where I've said I'm going to hit snooze and I'm just gonna get a few extra minutes of sleep. And yet I'm still not rested. And so those few minutes of extra sleep have not necessarily contributed to anything. But what I can say is my time with the Lord in the morning is far better than anything else I've experienced. So will I choose to spend time with God and acknowledge his presence with me, or will I sleep a few extra minutes?

Again, as for the average person, mornings are the slower, the more quiet, the more calm part of the day. And so if we can wake up, even if it's briefly and acknowledge God's presence with us, that is the best way to start our day. It doesn't have to be long, right? It can be simple and short. But we do need to acknowledge Him.

Like I said earlier, I'm not really a morning person, but I have to be because I have a lot of coffee meetings with people at 6 or 6:30 in the morning. And so that means I'm having to get up 30 minutes or more before that. Or I can just be late. But I try not to be late. It happens though.

But just a simple quick prayer to acknowledge God's presence and God's love for me is all it takes. Because if I'm not acknowledging God with me and God's love for me, the rest of my day is spent working out of my strength and not his. So a simple prayer and acknowledgement that God's loving gaze is upon you and upon me, that he may direct our steps and that he holds us, that's all we need. So I want to teach us A prayer. I'm going to have it on the screen.

It's going to involve a few motions. It's written by Jennifer Trafton, and it's found in volume three of Every Moment Holy. If you know me, you know that I love these books. They're just. They're books of prayers.

And so in moments where I don't know what to pray, I turn to these. And, in fact, if you like the prayer, find me after service. I have a copy that you can take home with you. So this is a prayer that I pray not every morning, but several mornings out of the week. So I want to teach it to you today.

It's going to be easier for you since you're sitting down, so I'm going to squat real quick. But you start by touching the ground, and then you pray, jesus, light the path ahead and guide me in your way today.

Then you touch your feet. I'm just going to stand up because that hurt my knees. You touch your feet. Bless these weary, wandering feet and give them strength to follow you. Then you touch your shoulders.

May my burdens tumble free so I can walk in grace and hope. Then you touch your ears.

Let no clamor of the world drown out your name, your voice that calls my name. Then you touch your eyes. Let me see your beauty bloom in every flower and every face. Touch your lips. Bless my words that they may bless each pilgrim that I pass this day.

Lay your hands over your heart, Lord and lover of my soul. Bind up the broken part of me. Lift your hands to the sky, so I, with broken heart made whole, may praise your everlasting love. Spread your arms wide. Make of me a pilgrim's inn to welcome all who wander near.

Then wrap your arms around yourself in an embrace, and when the day is done, O Jesus, bring me safely home to you.

Now that's a simple tool. And like I said, I have copies. If you would like a copy, come find me after the service. I love this prayer because it helps me get my body into it, especially on mornings when I'm already probably grumbling more than I should about my alarm.

But simple prayer, simple acknowledgement. This, as a tool, can be the way that we acknowledge God's presence and love for us each day. So for just a few moments in silent and prayerful reflection, let me ask you to consider, what will I do? What will you do this next week to wake up and acknowledge God's love and presence with me? Spend just a few moments in silent, prayerful reflection asking, what will I do?

This next week to acknowledge God's love and presence with me.

So this morning, as we continue moving through our time together, we talked about waking, waking to acknowledge God's presence. Now I want to talk briefly about making, making room in each day to acknowledge God's presence and love for you. Recently, our summer reading club read the Rule of Benedict. With this book, we see the different rules in which he wrote to order the lives and and guide the lives of the monks that lived in the monastery.

And if you haven't been able to tell, I am a huge fan of Benedict and his rule because I've already. This is the second time I've brought up Benedictines. But anyway, it's a relatively short book. It's just over 100 pages and we see some really wonderful things in there. And though it's written to a group of men that live in a community, there are plenty of things that you And I, as 21st century Christians, can learn from and begin to apply through the lens of scripture and in a relationship with Christ.

And so one of my favorite chapters is chapter 16, and it's titled An Order of Prayers throughout the Day. And there are seven times throughout the day that these monks were supposed to pray. In Psalm 119,164, the Psalmist says, Seven times a day, I praise you for your righteous rules. From this verse and from history and experience, Benedict created time for the monks to pray those seven times a day. So chapter 16 references this verse, Psalm 119, 164, and then says, we too can keep The Holy Number 7 if we set a schedule to follow morning prayer with two other prayer times before noon, then midday prayer, followed by a mid afternoon prayer and evening prayer and the office of compline before going to bed.

These are the fixed times the psalm was referring, the psalmist was referring to when he said, seven times a day have I praised you? So that was a lot and kind of confusing because it was just. It's weird. So what were those seven times a day that the monastics prayed? Well, let me kind of break it down for you.

The first is morning prayer, also known as lauds, and it was roughly around 5am then prime. The next morning prayer time, and that was around 6am terse was at 9am, midday at noon, then known at 3pmthat's not noon at 3pm it's not a break in the schedule, pronounced known, then vespers at sunset, and then compline or compline right before bed. That's a lot of scheduled prayer. That's a lot.

And yet the Benedictines found a way to put it into their schedule. They're famous for a motto that says ora et labora. It's Latin for work, but pray and work. And that's the order of their day. They would pray and they'd work, and they pray and they work, pray and work.

And so, as someone who enjoys church history and seeing how other Christians live out their faith, this is fascinating to me. Several years ago, I was taking a class in seminary on spiritual disciplines, and this was one of those disciplines that I chose to practice for the. For the semester. It was really good, but I was also really glad when the semester was over, because it's just a lot, but we already kind of do it right. For the monastics, it was a little bit longer because they're praying through all 150 Psalms each week.

But for us, it can be quick, brief acknowledgments of engaging with our Lord. And so my job this morning isn't to tell us how the monastics prayed. My job is to help us figure out how you and I can find moments throughout our day to pray. So there are numerous passages that I could bring us to. But instead of belaboring the point, I think we probably understand this.

I want to point us to the section in the Old Testament that it's not that I had forgotten it. I just hadn't been there in a while. And so in First Chronicles, chapter 16, we see that the Ark of the Covenant was being brought into Jerusalem to remain at the tabernacle. Hebrews 9:4 says, the ark of the Covenant was covered on all sides with gold, and it contained a golden urn holding the manna and Aaron's staff that budded and the tablets of the covenant. As the Ark was being brought into Jerusalem, there were burnt offerings and peace offerings made to God by David, King of Israel.

And then he. He. He tasked Asaph and his brothers to sing psalms and songs of thanksgiving and praise. And so this song or this section that we're about to read is commonly referred to as David's Song of Things. I'm not going to read the whole thing, but I would encourage you to go back this week and read the whole section.

But in 1st Chronicles, chapter 16, verses 8 through 13, it reads, oh, give thanks to the Lord. Call upon his name. Make known his deeds among the peoples. Sing to him. Sing praises to him.

Tell of all his wondrous works. Glory in his holy name. Let the hearts of those who seek the Lord rejoice. Seek the Lord and his strength, Seek his presence continually. Remember the wondrous works that he has done, his miracles and the judgments he uttered.

O offspring of Israel, his servant, children of Jacob, his chosen ones. Like I said, the entire song is really good and I encourage you to spend time with it. But this opening portion highlights something that I want to draw our attention to. Verse 11 in the song it says, seek the Lord in his strength, his presence continually.

As you go about your day, how often do you seek the presence of the Lord and His strength? Think about the last time something disappointing happened, something frustrating, something that just threw you off. Did you go straight to the Lord? Did you seek his answer? Psalm 139 how precious to me are your thoughts, O Lord, how vast the sum of them.

Or did we. Did we go straight to complaining and turning inward and being frustrated? Because I do that far, far more often than I would like to admit. But I guess I did because I just shared that with you. So how can I turn my attention to God and acknowledge his strength and his presence?

This week I had lunch with a friend and he shared with me that at his job they have wellness rooms and they can go take a short break.

And during his day, he sometimes goes into these wellness rooms and prays a psalm. He just seeks the Lord and enjoys the Lord.

I was just so taken aback by that. I was so encouraged. And then I thought, huh, Do I do that? Would I do that? You know, man, I just, I was so encouraged by that.

And so it's easy. Like I said earlier, it's easy to just wake up and start going 90 miles an hour with our hair on fire. There always seems like there's more work to do in the day than the hours we've been given.

And it's easy for a person to go all day and not acknowledge God's presence or love.

Yet what my friend did in that moment, what he shared with me, was subversive to what our culture says we need to do. My friend said, I would rather spend time. I'm giving him words. I would rather spend time with the Lord and acknowledge him than work and work and work.

He simply slips away for an approved moment, right? He's not doing anything wrong. It's approved. He simply slips away for an approved moment and seeks to recognize God's loving gaze and care for Him. And that's what's meant by making room in your day for God.

We can do this in a myriad of ways. We can simply pray a psalm. We can walk around the building or our floor or if we work at home, we can walk outside and we can pray, even if it is really hot right now. But we can spend time doing that, just talking to God. We can memorize Scripture and we can meditate on it, turn it over in our minds and our hearts, inviting God into that saying, lord, teach me through this verse.

Or it can be as simple as praying scripture that is given to you. So take for example, verse 10 of 1st Chronicles 16 that I just read. It says, glory in his name. Let the hearts of those who seek the Lord rejoice. And so we can pray it.

We can use even the cadence of our breathing. We can breathe in, praying, I praise your holy name. We can breathe out. And as we exhale, we can pray, let my heart rejoice, Lord. And we can do this a few times while we're at work.

We don't even have to say it out loud. We can sit at our desk. But it turns our attention to God.

There's nothing special or magical about praying this way. I want to be very clear about that. It just opens an opportunity for us to use God's words and pray them back to Him. And so how can we find time throughout our day to acknowledge God and respond appropriately? I know we feel busy and we are busy, but I think the Lord is a little bit busier than we are.

And so how can we acknowledge his presence and his love for us? So however you decide to seek him, through prayer, walking, through meditation, through memorizing Scripture, through praying a psalm, through just giving away, how will you honor the Lord and seek him and make room for him this week? So let's spend just another moment in silent, prayerful reflection and ask the question, how can I create moments to acknowledge God's presence and love throughout the day? How can I create moments to acknowledge God's presence and love throughout the day?

In an attempt to honor your time and our space here this morning, I'm going to go ahead and move to our third prong. We've talked about waking, we've talked about making, and now we're breaking. But what do I mean by breaking? Well, in the book of Acts, we see this description of the early church In Acts chapter 2, beginning in verse 42, it says, and they devoted themselves to the apostles teaching and the fellowship, to the breaking of bread and to the prayers. And awe came upon every soul.

And many were many wonders and signs were being done through the apostles. And all who believed were together and had all things in common. They were selling their possessions and belongings and distributing the proceeds to all as any had need. And day by day, attending the temple together and breaking bread in their homes, they received their food with glad and generous hearts, praising God and having favor with all the people. And the Lord added to their number, day by day, those who were being saved.

And so breaking is as simple as breaking bread with other people. And why do I say breaking bread with others? Well, one, it's a command to be with one another, to love one another, to serve one another, to encourage one another. But it's this beautiful thing that we experience when we sit across a table and share food. A few weeks ago, Beck and I were in Brownwood as I taught for a friend at his church.

And we went to. In Brownwood, of all places. And so there in Brownwood, in an old bank, there's this restaurant that was way fancier than it needed to be, but it was really cool. And I got one of their quote burgers. I should have realized that quotation marks were around it.

And it was strips of ribeye and sirloin on, like, on this bun with melted cheese and this, like, raspberry sauce. Like, I'm just really thinking about it, but I care more about the people than I do the food. Trust me, it's going somewhere. And so it was there at dinner that my friend and his wife and Becca and I get to share about life, get to share about the joys and the frustrations and concerns. It was wonderful.

And I imagine you've had something similar. But the problem is, in a culture as busy as ours, it happens way too far. And few between. A few weeks ago, our men, some of the men from the church, went down to Country Burger and shared a meal together. I didn't get to talk to all those guys, but the guys I did talk to, it was a joy.

There's something about having a meal with others. And so how are you showing up to be with others? How are we breaking bread with others to enjoy fellowship and community? And again, this can be done in a number of ways. Show up early on a Sunday morning, and you have the opportunity to have fellowship.

A lot of times people will ask, whenever I invite them to church or things like that, they ask, well, what time does church start? The answer is, the Service starts at 10:30. Donuts at 10. But I always want to say, and I never do always want to say, church starts the moment two people show up on property. Because we're two or more gathered.

There's the spirit and fellowship that God has called us to. And so how are we enjoying the fellowship. And it's not just on Sunday mornings. It happens throughout the week in our life groups. It happens in our men's and women's Bible studies.

It happens in our book studies. Happens as we make disciples, as we draw people alongside of us and make disciples throughout the week. And next week, when you attend our fall ministry Expo, you will see all the ways in which you too can have fellowship with others for the fall semester. And so this morning, as we go through the breaking really quickly, I want us to spend just a moment in silent, prayerful reflection. How am I breaking bread with others throughout the week?

How am I breaking bread with others throughout the week?

Spend just a few moments in silent reflection.

My hope and prayer is that you would be with people beyond just Sunday. This last week, almost every morning and evening was filled with a meal or with a. With coffee from someone from the church. And I have been built up. I have been encouraged, I have been lovingly called up.

And so I hope that is what you experience as you break bread with others, enjoy the fellowship with each other. So my hope is that today, as we've slowed down just a little bit, you're able to see the importance of waking, making and breaking in your life. And that as a result of today, you and I will make plans to live our lives engaging such activities not to earn God's love or favor, but because of God's grace as he empowers us to walk faithfully with Jesus. Can I pray for us this morning?

Gracious and loving God, I thank you that we have moments in time to sit and to reflect, to hear your word. And I just pray that as a church, as both individuals, but as a community, we seek to wake up each morning and acknowledge you and that we make time throughout our day to see and recognize your presence and love for us. And that from the experience we get from these first two, we can then take it into encouraging one another as we break bread in homes, coffee shops, restaurants, throughout this community. God, I ask that you would continue doing a mighty and wonderful work in these people, conforming them to the image of your son and allowing us to trust you and praise you, Lord. We love you and thank you for this morning.

It's in Christ's name we pray. Amen.