Central Lutheran Church - Elk River
Central Lutheran Church - Elk River
The Rhythm is Gonna Get You with Pastor Ryan Braley
What forces are shaping your life right now? Beyond your conscious awareness, daily habits and patterns are carving pathways in your heart, sculpting your desires, and ultimately determining who you become.
When we repeatedly complain, our lens for viewing the world darkens. When we reach for our phones first thing in the morning and scroll mindlessly through social media, we feed anxiety and discontentment. These aren't neutral activities—they're formational practices with profound consequences. As Aristotle wisely observed, "We are what we repeatedly do." The truth is stark: every action repeated creates grooves in our hearts like vinyl records, and these grooves determine what song our lives play.
Modern neuroscience confirms this ancient wisdom through concepts like Hebbian theory: "neurons that fire together, wire together." Our brains physically reshape through repeated experiences. This neurological reality mirrors a spiritual truth the Apostle Paul recognized when urging believers not to be "conformed to the patterns of this world." The dominant culture exerts tremendous pressure to mold us according to its values—often without our awareness, like fish unaware of the water they swim in.
The solution isn't simply trying harder or gathering more knowledge. As Richard Foster noted, "Superficiality is the curse of our age...the desperate need today is not for more intelligent people, but for deep people." Transformation requires counter-formative rhythms that train our hearts to desire God's kingdom—practices like gratitude, Sabbath rest, genuine connection, worship, prayer, and fasting.
Ready to break free from unconscious patterns and intentionally shape your life? Join us as we explore spiritual practices that don't just modify behavior but transform desires. Start today by adopting a rhythm of gratitude—just one minute each morning noting three things you're thankful for—and watch how it begins reshaping your perspective on everything else.
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Speaker 1:Let's pray together this morning. Thank you, marcy. God, we give you thanks this morning for your presence here with us, and we do thank you for the gift of the resurrection. And we, god, we want to live our lives in light of the resurrection, and may we live our lives as though the resurrection were true, and true in every way that things are possible to be true. And so, god, I pray that today you would come and uproot all the things in our lives that are, yeah, not resurrection-like, and would you bless us this morning and give us your grace and your peace. In Jesus' name, amen, I'm going to let you be seated. Morning everyone. How are we doing Good? Well, my name is Ryan, I'm the resurrection. Oh my gosh, doing Good? Well, my name is Ryan, I'm the resurrection. Oh my gosh, do not quote me on that, please. I don't know why I said that. What in the world I was thinking? Resurrection, I'm the pastor here. I talk about the resurrection, that's all I'm doing, and we're so glad to have you.
Speaker 1:We are launching into a brand new series and it's called the Rhythm, and I'm excited about it. Now, one of the blessings of our congregation is that we have a wide diversity of people in terms of their ages. You probably know this to be true. We're always baptizing infants, we have lots of young people in the church, and we also are sometimes doing funerals for older folks or just have lots of older folks, and I'll let you decide what older means, but we have folks all across the spectrum of ages. So sometimes my references or my jokes, I have to have several options just to make sure that it lands everybody. So this morning's title for our introduction to our rhythm series is this the rhythm is gonna get you. The rhythm is gonna get you. Anybody. Gloria Estefan fans Okay, thanks for not laughing at that joke then. I appreciate that. Left me out here to try. Now, if you're a bit older, maybe this is you. Maybe we'll call this sermon something different for you folks. We'll call it Get Rhythm. Yeah, oh, that one got a laugh. Okay, all right. Now if you're a bit younger, we'll call it this for you guys. We'll call it one second. Oh, now it's not working. Hold on, there we go. Oh, hold up, hold up, hold up. Slave to the rhythm. Michael Jackson anybody know this song? Oh, this, okay, a couple of you. This is from 2014. Okay, all right, in the back. And for you, really, any really young people in here, we're going to call it stick season. Anybody know who this is? Noah Kahn.
Speaker 1:Then this joke will not work. I'm going to skip it. I was going to say this has nothing to do with rhythm, it's just my desperate attempt to appeal to our younger audience. The next crowd is going to dig that one, though You'll just wait and see. So the next crowd is going to dig that one, though You'll just wait and see.
Speaker 1:So here's what a rhythm is. A rhythm, in case you didn't know, is this it's a strong, regular, repeated pattern of movement or sound. So there's a rhythm to the sun rising and setting every day. There's a rhythm to the tides going out and coming back in every single day. There's a rhythm of your heart. It just beats on rhythm.
Speaker 1:Now I'm not going to get into music theory and Diana can correct me. I already talked with Mike Lauer about this, but it's very nuanced rhythm and beats and how they're different. But the point for this moment is there's this ongoing, a repeated sound or movement or rhythm to life, and there's all kinds of things that we do that are rhythms. You might call them habits, patterns, liturgies, but they're rhythms, and Aristotle, the great Greek philosopher, aristotle, said this about them. He said virtues, the things that are virtuous are formed in us. Now he said man, but he's an ancient Greek philosopher, so it's gender inclusive, of course, by doing actions. In other words, you could say it like this too, and he's been re-quoted. But we are what we repeatedly do, the things that we do over and over again. They shape the kind of people that we are. For example and you maybe know this is true already in your own life, for example if you're a person who loves to complain, nobody point fingers or raise any hands at this moment. But this, if you do this with rhythm, if you complain with rhythm, over and over again, repeatedly, this will begin to shape who you are. It will turn you into a complainer. You'll have a negative lens for the world around you and almost everything you see and do. You'll become bitter as you're older and, by the way, you're less inclined to keep your friends around Because they see you coming like oh, get me out of here, johnny Complainer, is coming over here. Anybody with me so far, how about this one?
Speaker 1:If you're a doom scroller, if the first thing you do in the morning or the last thing you do in bed is just, you know what doom scrolling is. Okay, nope, oh great, okay, let me explain this then. Okay, thank you In the back. Okay, it's when sometimes you get on your phone and you just scroll endlessly videos or social media posts and there's no real aim to it, you're just scrolling and it's quite addictive because it feeds a lot of the internal need for that zap of oxytocin and all these kinds of things that we like and it triggers all these biological responses in us and so it becomes an addiction.
Speaker 1:But when you do this first thing in the morning or last thing at night, it actually can build anxiety in you and make you more restless. It makes you harder to sleep for all the obvious reasons, because you're looking at things online, you sort of compare yourself with all your friends or your enemies or your neighbors, and it makes you restless and less content with what you already do have. And the blue light, of course, is not good at night because it wakes your body up and it's not good. But it can begin to change how you view life and you think that life is really like this, these posts, and real life is not really real, but this is real. So this if you do this with rhythm, it can shape who you are.
Speaker 1:There's all kinds of other things too, like ways we numb our pain, and so things like drugs and alcohol those are easy, low-hanging fruit examples. But sex, overeating, binge shopping, these kinds of things whatever you do to numb your pain, that can become this rhythm, and if you do it with rhythm, it'll shape who you are. And if you numb your pain constantly, what you're doing is you're ignoring the message that's usually embedded in the pain that it wants you to visit, and you go through your whole life not visiting your pain or your trauma and you become this closed box or shell of a human that's just numbing their pain. By the way, did you know that Americans use like 80% of the world's opioids? You know what opioids are. They're painkillers, and a lot of it's abused, which raises the question like why do we have an opioid problem in America? Well, if I were to dig a little bit deeper, I'd say why do we have a pain problem in America?
Speaker 1:Americans are some of the most painful, pain-ridden people that we have in the world today, in the history of the world, and it's evidence of how much painkillers we're constantly trying to shove down ourselves to fix the pain. It doesn't fix the pain, it just numbs the pain. And, by the way, when you numb your pain, you numb all the emotions. You don't just numb pain, you numb happiness, you numb joy, you numb connection, you numb it all. So the things we do with rhythm shape who we are.
Speaker 1:Now it goes the other way too. If you were to spend three minutes in the morning and write down three things you were grateful for every morning with rhythm, it'll shape who you are. You'll begin to be more thankful for the things around you, you'll see the goodness in the world all around you and you'll begin to have a softer heart and be grateful and content with what you already have. Try it. In fact, I'm going to encourage you to do this later. We're going to practice this week, but it's great. Or at night, you do it at night too. Also, if you Sabbath, if you rest, if you take like an hour by the way, we always oh, I was being so lazy, I just I sat around on the couch for an hour. Sometimes you're not being lazy.
Speaker 1:Begin to learn that rhythm. If you do it with rhythm, it'll shape who you are and how you think about the world. It'll tell you that, hey, what you do isn't as important as who you are, and your value, your worth, is not from what you do, but who you are, and you'll begin to adopt a healthier pace of life. Last one, then If you eat meals with friends or family or strangers and put your phone away, you'll begin to build real connection with people and learn how to have conversations. A lot of folks, because of the cell phone error, don't know how to have conversations in real life. I'm just telling you and it's glaringly obvious for many of us that we don't know how to have conversations. Well, practice this, rhythm it. And if you do this with rhythm, it'll shape who you are. You'll build more connections, more authentic relationships. It'll just help you overall, because the things that we do shape who we are.
Speaker 1:There's science behind it as well. There's a theory called the Hebbian theory. You probably know this. I'm sure Hebb was a famous scientist. He said that neuronal connections can be remolded by experience. Describes a basic mechanism for synaptic plasticity where the efficiency of cells firing together is increased through repeated activation. You got that, okay, let me boil it down. You'd also say, hey, neurons that fire together, wire together.
Speaker 1:You can actually shape your brain by doing things over and over again Repeated, consistent activity and action. It builds neurological connections and synaptic connections in your brain. You can reshape your brain. Did you know this? This is why, like gratitude actually does reshape who you are, so your brain can change. Your brain can thank God for those of us who struggled in school you can reshape your brain, you know. It can be molded, it can be changed, it can adapt your body's the same way, your physical body, through a process called hypertrophy. If you build, you can build muscle by lifting heavy weights. If you do it over and over again with rhythm, it'll shape your body and can make you stronger. Your lungs, your nervous system, your heart, these are all muscles. You can build them and actually can shape and mold who you are by the things that you repeatedly do. This is good news for many of us, no-transcript that our souls, our inner heart not our pumping heart, but like our inner being this can be shaped and molded by the things that we do. So I love this.
Speaker 1:One author says that you don't even notice that you're carving a path when you first start walking down a pathway, you don't notice it, but after a while the grass gives way, the dirt compacts and soon it's the way you always go. Your heart and your soul has pathways too. Did you know this? Your heart and your soul has pathways too. Did you know this? The things you repeat your morning scroll, your evening word, your mealtime prayer are forming a groove in you and eventually your heart walks it without even thinking. Yeah, so your heart is like a. It's got grooves in it. Did you know this? It's like a record Records, by the way, I'm gonna try to find one here that I like.
Speaker 1:Records are these vinyl pieces that have grooves in them, and so, okay, I had to pick an age-appropriate song, a little Van Morrison Any Van Morrison fans in the house? So if I were to show you this and actually you know, while I show them, why don't we play a little Van Morrison? We've got someone in the. This is a, oh, this is my favorite Van Morrison song. Anybody know this song? These have grooves in it and the needle goes in the grooves and plays the song, and it plays it according to the grooves, yeah, yeah, anybody know TV Sheets? Okay, yeah, okay, thank you, tina.
Speaker 1:Okay, well, you guys are a tough crowd this morning. Okay, fine, fine, how about a little I got. What do we got here? How about a little Jackson 5? Oh, now we're cooking with some gas. Yes, sir, different grooves. Right, there's different grooves in this album and these grooves play a different song, but the needle will always follow the grooves, like many of you in a dance hall. Follow the groove. Okay, thanks, guys. I appreciate it. Thank you, Thanks for indulging me. I hope the next crowd will like that joke as much as I do. You have no idea how hard it is to get up here. No, I'm kidding.
Speaker 1:Yeah, these things that we do, they shape who we are and the kind of people that we are. So listen, here's the reality about life. We are all being shaped by something. The things you're doing are shaping you. They're shaping your physical body, your brain, your nervous system, your muscles or lack thereof, and your heart is being shaped. Here's the question what are you being shaped by? What rhythms? What things are you doing that are shaping who you are? You do them over and over again and you become that thing that you do.
Speaker 1:Paul writes this in Romans, so here's what I want you to do. He says this is what we heard Marcy read. It's a different translation. God helping you. Take your everyday, ordinary life, the things that you do every day your sleeping, your eating, going to work and walking around your life. The things that you do every day You're sleeping, you're eating, going to work and walking around your life and place it before God as an offering. Your embodied rhythms, your habits put them in front of God as an offering. This is temple language. This is your true and appropriate worship.
Speaker 1:What's more, don't let yourselves be squeezed into the shape dictated by the present age. Don't be conformed to the patterns of this world, is what he says. You might know it that way too, so I love that. Don't let yourselves be squeezed into the shape dictated by the present age. Instead, be transformed or changed forms by the renewing of your minds, so that you can work out what is God's will and what is good and acceptable and complete. Got that? Something's trying to form you and shape you. He says don't be conformed. Don't let the patterns of this world squeeze you into its shape. Don't be conformed by the patterns of this world. Yeah, don't do that. Don't be shaped according to these particular patterns rhythms, habits, ways of thinking, models that the world has, because the world has them and it's trying to mold you, it's trying to shape you in its own pattern.
Speaker 1:Now Paul uses the phrase this present age or the world's patterns. So there's a pattern to this present age or this world. He thought about, like every good Jew in the first century or around that time, that there were two ages. There was this present age, then there was the age to come. This present age is, of course, now and it's sort of, it's qualified or characterized by rebellion against God you could say sin as well, and the death and corruption that comes out of it. So the way the world operates in this present age is characterized by rebellion against God and we don't have to look too far to see that. Everywhere you look, you can throw a stone and there's somebody rebelling against God and the death and the corruption and the lifelessness it breeds. That's this present age Paul says. So don't be conformed to the patterns of this present age.
Speaker 1:Now. The age to come was the time when God would bring life and bring it to the whole cosmos, the whole world, and to us as the human race, that he would change things. He would bring in fullness, love, joy, peace and wholeness, justice once and for all. Now here's the thing. We're kind of in the middle there, right, because Paul thinks that Jesus has brought the age to come, that it sort of dawns in Jesus, and so we live right in that middle line. That's where we kind of live in our feet. In both worlds there's still very much this present age. You still see rebellion against God, and we live in the age to come. You see pockets of the kingdom of God and goodness and justice and joy and peace and love, and God has given life on the cross. We believe that to be true, amen. So here's the thing these ages are trying to mold you. They're like a mold. They're like molds that you're being poured into, and the age to come or the present age, or maybe both, they shape how you think, how you see the world, how you behave, your pace of life, the things that you value or don't value. They have a rhythm to them, grooves, and that needle's going to that groove and you're playing a song. What's the song that you're playing? Yeah, look at that rhythm. Paul warns, he says hey, look, don't fall into the default patterns of the world's liturgies, because it will happen very easily. Don't be like the world and their liturgies, their habits, their rhythms.
Speaker 1:When I was younger, I coached baseball my son's baseball team and I always thought, oh, I'm not going to be one of those dads who gets caught up and swept up into the emotions of the moment. I'm going to be this mature Christian coach. Now, to be fair, I wasn't a pastor yet, so that's you know. I got some grace there and one day I was so mad at this umpire because he did us so dirty and he was an injustice worthy of a newspaper headline and for me to yell at him. And I went out and I was yelling at the umpire and screaming and I was getting angry, my face was red Christian Ryan was doing this, by the way, you know and Katie comes over later and she goes hey, just don't forget, you work at a church. That's why you need to have good friends around you to be like don't be a dummy, because it happens easily.
Speaker 1:The patterns of this world, they suck you right in and they mold you if you don't, if you're not careful, and the problem is we don't even notice it. We don't notice it. So, david foster wallace I love the story. He tells a story. These two young fish are out swimming around. One day this old fish, this old wizened fish, swims by. This is why we need the old wizened people, the old wizards in the room. I'm looking at some of you and he goes hey fellows, how's the water today? And the two young fish look at each other and they go what the heck is water? Yeah, some of you might get that on the way home.
Speaker 1:It's the most obvious things in our lives are often the hardest to recognize. The most obvious things in our lives are the hardest to recognize. Like that dad who goes out with his family to dinner at a nice steak dinner restaurant and he wears a Hawaiian shirt and Crocs, like he's the CEO of Fun. What are you doing, man? Like just know. And everyone knows he's like not dressed appropriately. He's like I don't care. Okay, maybe this one's funnier for you. Then. Like that friend of yours who like sneezes so loud they could raise the dead. It's like a cannon blast of a sneeze. Like ah sh is so loud they could raise the dead. It's like a cannon blast of a sneeze. And they don't know it. You're like dude, what are you Like? Well, I was holding back. No, you weren't, randy, you summoned the four horsemen. It was so loud. I'm like what are you doing?
Speaker 1:Or that one family whose kids just do whatever they want and the parents don't realize their kids are being brats or rebellious or disrespectful, and the parents don't say no to anything and they don't know it because they're blind to it. Or that one person you know has a deep trauma and issues and they're angry and they're violent because of it, and everyone around them knows it because it's an elephant in the room. They don't know it because it's the water they swim in. This is why alcoholics will say I don't have a problem, yeah, you do, we all see it. The family's falling apart. You don't see it. It's hard to see. It's the water in which you swim. By the way, maturity is beginning to see the water you swim in, and sometimes it takes a friend or a therapist or a wife or a husband to get you out of that mess. Or kids. Hey, be honest with me. Yeah, yeah, yeah, they will.
Speaker 1:So here are the questions then. What are you offering your body to? Because Paul says offer your body as a living sacrifice. What are you offering your body to? What are the rhythms that you have in your life and what pattern are you conforming to? What's forming your mind, your heart and your loves? Because the things you do will begin to shape the things that you love. That's how it works.
Speaker 1:Paul then says hey, don't be conformed to the patterns of the world, don't fall in, don't be shaped by them. Instead, he says, be transformed, all right, all right, all right, we're going to have some fun today. I'm just telling you. By the renewing of your mind, he says. By the renewing of your mind. By the way, for Paul and for most Jews in that part of the world, mind and body were always connected. What you do with your body shaped your mind and vice versa. So what you think begins to shape how you behave. How you behave shapes how you think. It's all connected. We're holistic beings. So don't be conformed, but be transformed.
Speaker 1:Now, this takes time to be transformed. How do you just transform yourself and renew your mind? Well, uh, I love what nt right says. He says paul's answer is to offer one's whole self on the altar, like the sacrifice in the temple, but not a dying sacrifice to be killed, but a living one, coming alive, with new life that bursts out in unexpected ways that, uh, once, unexpected ways, once the evil deeds of the self are put to death. So, yeah, you offer yourself your rhythms, your habits, the things you offer as a sacrifice to God, as a gift to God. And as the mind is renewed, you'll begin, because what you do with your body connects up here. You'll begin to think more clearly oh, I am grateful If you do that three-minute gratitude in the morning. Oh, I'm more grateful. Oh, my wife did smile at me. Oh, my kids are kind. Oh, that was a fun moment when we walked in the park and it helps you see the water that you're swimming in. And then you can respond accordingly because the mind and the body are connected.
Speaker 1:Now, the problem with our modern world is we don't really have any depth. I shouldn't say don't have any, but we live in a shallow world, shallow with quick tweets and Instagram or X posts, quick things, online, clickbait, everything's quick, microwave culture. It's shallow. There's not much depth to many of us anymore Not you folks in this room, you all have plenty of depth, but many people and we need depth. The world is desperately hungry for genuinely changed people, and if they're not going to come out of the church. Where will they come from? Dallas, willard? Oh, richard Foster, by the way, if you want to get his book, he wrote a book called Celebration of Discipline.
Speaker 1:That's what we're kind of reading as a staff or the preachers anyway, and preaching out of that's a book to get. That's what we're kind of reading as a staff or the preachers anyway, and preaching out of that's a book to get. It's a great. It's an old book from the 70s and it's still a classic about the disciplines or the rhythms of our Christian practice.
Speaker 1:He says superficiality is the curse of our age. He is not wrong. The doctrine of instant satisfaction is a primarily spiritual problem. He wrote this 50 years ago, by the way. The desperate need today is not for a greater number of intelligent people or gifted people, but for deep people, folks who are changed.
Speaker 1:Now sin gets in our way. We know that Oops, I'm gonna sit here for a minute. Sin gets in our way. We know this. We're Christians, we're religious people. So sin we often think of sin as like individual acts of disobedience and fair enough, like you taking the candy bar or lying, that's sin.
Speaker 1:But according to Paul and Romans, sin is a deep issue. It's like a cancer to the whole cosmos. That affects everything and everybody in every way. Read Romans, chapter 3, verses 9 through 18. It's a condition that plagues the human race. There's no, you're kind of born into it. I don't believe you're totally depraved, I'm not a Calvinist, but I believe that you are born into this system of brokenness.
Speaker 1:This thing's been ravaged by this condition of sin and it's ubiquitous. It's everywhere and sin tends to work its way out in our lives, in ingrained habits. It's like a record. Sin becomes the groove that you put the needle in. It just plays it over and over again. And there's no slavery like the slavery of ingrained habits. Are you with me? First you choose sin and then sin eventually chooses you.
Speaker 1:God warns Cain hey, be careful. Sin is crouching at your door. It wants to devour you. This is no joke. Be careful. Sin is crouching at your door. It wants to devour you. This is no joke. Be careful. Be careful of the things you do. And where does it begin In his mind? Cain wants to kill his brother. And it begins up here and then eventually comes out into his body, because your mind and body are connected and he can't stop. He goes and he kills his brother. So sin becomes this thing we're enslaved to and it's a record playing repeat, repeat, repeat, repeat.
Speaker 1:Now Paul would say you can't climb out of it yourself. Because here's the funny thing we Americans, with this Protestant work, ethic and good for us, we think, oh, I'm just gonna double down, I'm gonna try harder, I'm gonna work my way out of this thing, I'm gonna pull my bootstraps up, I'm gonna flex my biceps, I'm going to flex my biceps and I'm going to get after this. I'm going to get it. I'm going to try harder. Right, that's what we do. There we go Now, I'm ready for it, and it's like the guy who's at the pool, like a big pool and he's going to dry up the pool because it's too much water.
Speaker 1:He's like I'm going to dry the water. He brings up a beach towel. He like starts to dry up the pool of water with the beach towel. It looks good on the eye. You're like, oh, he's going to. It doesn't work. You can't, it's too much water, you can't, it's too big.
Speaker 1:You can't work your way out of your own sin in these ingrained habits. You can't do it. You need a God who can raise the dead. Actually, what happens? It'll work for a while, but your energy, it just runs out. It's like trying to jump across the Grand Canyon. I'm going to just run. I'm good for you for trying, and how sweet of that guy trying to dry up the whole pool with a beach towel. It's impossible, though you can't do it, and the law and this is what the law is it can kind of make. It does make you look good on the outside. You're trying really hard. Everyone's like, hey, look at that guy, he's a righteous man, Good for him. But on the inside you're still dying, because the condition of sin is deep ingrained in us and you can't just try harder. It doesn't work that way, and we also.
Speaker 1:We don't need more knowledge. We don't need more books. There are plenty of books out there. We at Western Christians, we have plenty of right theology. I can point you into my office. I've got tons of great theology books. You can read them. You can Google your own too. We don't need more theology, more right thinking.
Speaker 1:Dallas Wilts says that the problem in the Western church is not that we don't have right theology, we do have right theology, we have good theology. The problem not that we don't have right theology, we do have right theology, we have good theology. The problem is that we have no formational practices, things that we're doing that shape us, and so we remain untransformed. See, practices will help shape us and they will wake us up and they shape our desire. What was my next slide? Oh, yeah, okay.
Speaker 1:So Jamie Smith says this way Christian rhythms are counter-formative. These are what disallow you from just following the patterns of the world. We're going to be shaped, not by this present age, but by the age to come. They train our hearts to desire the kingdom of God. The more you engage in communion, in confession, in worship, in prayer, in fasting, in service, in silence and solitude and celebration, these things are going to shape who you are and they shape your desires. Jamie believed they shape who you are.
Speaker 1:So discipleship isn't just about what we know. We know we're smart people. You know plenty of things. You know what's right and what's wrong. Fair enough. But the problem is about what we do repeatedly and what we love because of it. Does that make sense? Okay, to you three, thank you. This is serious business. I'm being serious here. Does that make sense? The things we do shape who we are and what we love. It just does. It's why coming every Sunday is actually important. It's meaningful, valuable things. Maybe you come and I don't know what I'm even doing here at the worship. The music was like well, the sermon was well. Ryan's dumb jokes I get it, but like this is what we're doing. We're shaping our hearts and our lives and what we love. We focus for 30 minutes on the cross and we're like okay.
Speaker 1:When me and Katie were younger, we loved going out to dinner with our kids, but like we had they were little, like all four of them. We had four of them. You know how hard it is to go to dinner with kids. Like it's hard. And we loved going to Chipotle. It was our favorite place, but we had like about a 15 and a half minute window before all heck broke loose with little kids, right, so we'd go there. We then we'd have some conversation, we'd eat our burritos and then about 15 minutes in the wheels would come off and there'd be rice flying across the room and beans on the floor. One kid has to go to the bathroom and he comes back out wearing a loincloth and a spear. Like Lord of the Flies has somehow erupted in this Chipotle and someone's blowing a conch in the corner Like where did you get a conch from? It's chaos.
Speaker 1:And then we get home and, like, nine o'clock, the kids are in bed and we like, look at each other. Oh yeah, you, I forgot you. So we had to have a rhythm where we would like let's go on a date just you and me, and leave the crumb snatchers at home. You had to do it. It's a rhythm now. The rhythm of dating once a week or once every other week didn't like magically make our, but it like it became this moment. We would turn our hearts to each other, we would soften our hearts, we'd have this 30 minutes or an hour or whatever To like. Oh yeah, let's remember each other and your love for each other.
Speaker 1:The rhythms don't save you, but they help you be awake to the presence of God. So this old saying, I love it we don't get up in the morning to make the sun rise. We get up early in the morning so that we're awake and can see the sun when it does rise. These are what rhythms do. Rhythms don't save you from the sin. The cross saves you from sin but somehow, when you have these rhythms, it turns your heart towards that love to receive the free grace and goodness from God. It's a response to the cross. We just celebrated Easter. Now this is our response. We're engaged in some rhythms.
Speaker 1:So if you're here today and you find it difficult because you keep doing the same stupid thing over and over again and I'm with you well, this sermon series is for you. This is for you. We're going to offer our lives as a living sacrifice. So here's how we'll do it. We're going to do two things and this is how we'll close. Next Sunday, we're going to do our first rhythm, our first habit practice. It's on fasting. You're like we just did fasting. It was Lent, I know, I know, but we're going to do it again and we're only going to fast food, not eat fast food. We're going to fast from food. So I'm going to put this in my Awaken email. You'll see it again, maybe on our connections, but we're gonna.
Speaker 1:Next saturday, I want to invite you to fast the whole day, maybe just the dinner meal. I see your faces. I go, dear lord, I want you to come to worship, fasting, like show up hungry and not don't eat breakfast that morning. I'd love to, I mean, do what you need to do, but I'm like I'm just and fast.
Speaker 1:So on Saturday, if you can fast the whole day and then come and then go, you can break your fast after, and I'll tell you how to break it too. But break it after worship, that'd be awesome, because you're going to hear a sermon on fasting while we're fasting, it'd be great. And in between now and then, try this one, try a rhythm. Just every morning from now until next Saturday, get up a minute earlier than you normally do, set your alarm and just start off like what are three things I'm thankful for this morning, and just try it for six, seven days in a row and see what happens. Now it begins to shape your heart and your life, and even the things you love and notice in that day so central. May you know that the things you do shape who you are, and may you engage in rhythms that actually renew your mind and your body and that help you position to receive the goodness and the free grace of God this morning and the days ahead, amen.
