God’s Rhythm (transcript)

Alright. Happy New Year, everybody. Happy New It’s gonna it’ll it’ll cool off here in a minute. So I don’t know if it’s a direct corollary or not, but for the last couple years since our kids have been off at school and living their best life, if we set the Christmas tree up, they like come into town. And then when we take the Christmas tree down, they leave us.

And so I don’t know if any other parents are going through that kind of Here he comes. Not quite a trumpet. It was a practice. Well, here we are the first week of January. And I don’t know about you, but this winter has felt different than other winters.

Like like it was like winter, like right around Christmas, and then it’s been back to I don’t know what you call this season down it was like a winter spring. I’m glad that that some of us are getting up in the high country and making the most of the winter up there. I’ll I’ll be there one of these winters. But down here in the valley, just seems kinda weird. Christmas is over.

Hopefully, you had a a good relaxing holiday. January hits. Do y’all go back to school tomorrow? Starts starts again tomorrow? It’s the New Year.

We hit the ground running and here’s what a lot of a lot of people think when you get into the New Year. Oh, New Year. And if you’re a New Year’s resolution person, that’s great for you. I’m like, I’m psyched for you. And now that I’ve already setting up, I’m about to make fun of people who make New Year’s resolutions.

Anybody make New Year’s resolutions in here? You don’t we’re not gonna share ours, but like you do. Are they resolutions or are they more like goals? Yeah. Goals.

I don’t know. Maybe I get hung up on the semantics. Like, I’m all about setting goals for the year, but like resolutions, I don’t know. It just seems so fatty. Like a fad.

Not fatty. Fad. Like a like a fad. It just Good clarification. It seems like it just seemed like I feel like setting a New Year’s resolution that you think of like December 31 just sets yourself up for like failure and disappointment like two weeks in.

But here’s what we like to do as people. We like to try to hit the ground running. It’s a new year, like new year, new me, and kids are gonna go back to school, and winter sports are starting, and we got new jobs that we’re starting, and and projects that we’re launching. And it just seems like like when we get to the new year, we want to hit the ground running. And that is what most of the world does.

Most of the world looks at starting the new year with new initiatives, there’s nothing wrong with being ambitious. There’s nothing wrong with making the most of each season going with the natural rhythm of life. That’s not what I’m saying. What I’m saying is the world’s system and pattern and habit is to take advantage of this time. Oh, the wheels really came off over Christmas.

Now that we’re starting back up, I’m gonna like redouble my efforts. I’m gonna go. I’m gonna charge. I’m gonna get after it. I’m gonna hit the ground running.

But there’s an invitation from the Lord that if you are a Christian, if you are a Jesus follower, like literally, you are a different species of being. Because remember what the Bible says, if any man be in Christ, he is a new creation. And as a different kind of species, we have a different rhythm. Our rhythm is not dictated by the rest of the world’s rhythm. Although, I know I know it’s so hard not to get sucked into the world’s rhythm.

As a different species, we have a different rhythm. So as we look at God’s pattern you okay, bud? Wasn’t you at all. I thought something was biting your ankles. Everything is fine.

You’re not in trouble, Sai. You didn’t. Don’t try to do a bible spin I’ve on raised pastor’s kids my whole life. I know. As a different species, there’s an invitation for us to to adopt a different rhythm.

As we start the new year and everybody is trying to hit the ground running, especially Monday morning when normal life picks back up, there’s an invitation from the Lord for us to adopt a different kind of rhythm. What kind or type of rhythm is there an invitation from the Lord for? To adopt the world’s rhythm or what? God’s rhythm. Okay.

So then the question becomes, what is God’s rhythm? At the very beginning, at the outset, at the start, as we get going this new year, what would you guess the invitation from the Lord is? And if you’re new to Tribe, welcome. I’m glad that you’re here. Obviously, our venue is a little bit different and unorthodox from the church that you may have come from or you’re visiting from.

And so is our format. I like to do things conversationally. Instead of just me doing all the talking, I like for us to have a dialogue so that we can engage with the God’s word and the things that he has placed on our heart to talk about. We engage in these things together. And so if the world’s rhythm I’m gonna set you up for success.

If the world’s rhythm is hurry, hurry, hurry, go, go, go, what would the Lord’s rhythm be? Still and rest. Let’s let’s look at that. If you have your Bible with you this morning, let’s read the story of the very beginning. Genesis chapter one.

And I know that probably for many of you, you have seen this pattern before or it’s been shown to you before, but I want us to look at it fresh as we roll up our sleeves and get into 2026. Let’s look at how God operates in roles. Genesis one, and would somebody please read verse 26 all the way through chapter two and verse three. We have a mic in the room so that all of our families that are still coming back from vacation or anybody that could be on deployment still gets to join in and participate on the livestream by hearing your wonderful contribution. So we’ve got a mic in the room.

Nancy’s gonna read. Nancy. Start the year out right here. So, here we go. ’26 through what?

Through chapter two Okay. Fine. Verse three. Okay. Okay.

Okay. Fine. Then god said, let us make mankind in our own image, in our own likeness, so that they may rule over the fish in the sea and the birds in the sky, over the livestock, and all the wild animals, and over the creatures that move along the ground. So, god created mankind in his own image, in the image of god, he created them. Male and female, he created them.

God blessed them and said to them, be fruitful and increase in number. Fill the earth and subdue it. Rule over the fish in the sea and the birds in the sky and over every living creature that moves on the ground. Then god said, I give you every seed bearing plant on the face of the whole earth and every tree that has fruit with seed in it. They will be yours for food.

And to all the beasts of the earth and all the birds in the sky and all the creatures that move along the ground, everything that has breath of life in it, I give every green plant for food. And it was so. God saw all that he had made and it was very good. And there was the evening and there was morning the sixth day. Oops.

You know, those of us who don’t bring our Bible here, we have to do technology. Okay. Thus, the heavens and the earth were completed in all their vast array. By the seventh day, god had finished the work he had been doing. So, on the seventh day, he rested from all his work.

Then, god blessed the seventh day and made it holy because on it, he rested from all the work of the creating that he had done. Okay. So quick review on the story of creation. Day one, God creates light. Day two, God creates the sky.

Day three, any guesses? The land and plants. Yes. Day four, lights in the sky. Planets and stars, sun and moon, their seasons.

How about day five? Now Joy was our tribe kid’s ministry leader for a long time, so she’s got the story of creation down really well. Day five, that’s right. Birds and sea creatures, guys. Birds and sea creatures, day five.

Day six, what? There you go. Humans and pets for humans. All of the land animals and man. So creation was done in six days, and then we read in chapter two that at the very beginning, the outset of day seven, what did God do?

He alright. Now, I know that probably some of you have heard this preached before, but it’s it’s so important for us to see the pattern established that God establishes right in the outset, the beginning of creation. So man was created on what day? On six day. On day six.

So let’s think about this. I don’t know if Adam was created at nine in the morning, noon, if God got around to it in the afternoon, but on day six, Adam was created. What was the number of days? What day number was Adam’s first full day on planet Earth on the job? The seventh.

Now let’s think about if we were Adam for a moment. Really hard to do. What is it like to experience everything new for the very first time as a fully cognizant, aware, intelligent adult. Like, how did you sleep that night? Did you dream?

Did you toss and turn? I don’t know if beds had been invented yet. Maybe where the grass was so soft and the temper air temperature was so perfect. Maybe it was. What an achy body is.

Oh, you didn’t even know what an achy body meant. Maybe you probably slept like a baby. The bible talks about the heavens declaring the glory of God. Could the stars sing at night? Were the stars in color?

What was the what was the effect of the firmament on planet Earth before the fall? If you’re like, what’s he talking about? Incredible. Day seven, Adam’s first full day on the job. Alright.

Now does does Adam have a job to do? What’s the mandate? What? You can just tell us. Steward everything.

Subdue the land. Cultivate. Be fruitful. Multiply. This Adam has got a huge job in front of him.

His first full day on the job is day seven, and what does God declare over all of creation? Rest. It was a good first day for him. Now I don’t know what your thoughts of Adam are, but he’s every bit as much as human as we are. I mean, we are so we’re such doers as a species.

I mean, there’s no other animal. We are unlike any other animal on planet Earth because we are of a different kind, but there’s no other animal on planet Earth like us. I mean, maybe beavers terraform like we do. We do, and we make, and we build, and we construct. And then we tear it down and then we build on top of it and we build and we conquer and we explore.

And when we’re not building and conquering and exploring and terraforming, then we’re watching movies about us terraforming other planets insistent like, god knows us. He made us this way. But what does he say to Adam on his very first day on the job? What? Rest.

Rest. I think that there were mosquitoes in the garden, but they didn’t bite. Right? Isn’t that great? No stickers in the grass?

Yeah. Yeah. It’ll come back. It’ll come back. What else was the garden like?

Oh, this is a fun tangent. No stick no poison ivy. All the great things were could be eaten. Yeah. Yeah.

Not only can they not be eaten, but if you do eat them, meow. So, the garden, God establishes a pattern for Adam and all of mankind, and he instills in him. Here is your first lesson on the job. You need to learn to rest. We’re gonna talk a little bit more specifically about some of those aspects in a moment.

But for now, as the world is getting back in the swing of things and Isaac, I know that you’re thinking, I’m gonna be starting this project. I’ve gotta button up this project from the wheels came on before Christmas. And I I understand that the two the to do list could be massive. I am not saying disregard those things. I am not saying being motivated is bad.

What I’m saying is there is a principle that God established all the way back in the garden for mankind, and it’s the principle of can you rest even on day one of the job? Can you rest? Now, what we see God establish in the garden, is that under the old covenant or the new covenant? Old covenant. It’s part of the old covenant.

So if we were to take that principle and filter it through the cross, what does the principle of rest look like in the new covenant? Do we need to define rest more for the sake of the conversation so we don’t get too often in the weeds? Rest is ceasing from striving and from working and from self effort and energy. Okay. Say say When would it not be defined of when rest occurred?

Okay. So Not necessarily on Sunday or the Sabbath or whatever. Alright. Are you saying in the Old Testament, rest was a thing that had to be observed in the New Covenant? We have some latitude on when we partake in rest?

I don’t necessarily I’m not necessarily saying that it but it’s like we’ve redefined when. We make the choice as opposed to, hey, on the seventh day, period. Yeah. That’s just what I that’s how I see it. Okay.

Okay. I think that you’re on the right you’re on the right track for this idea of rest in the New Testament or under the new covenant, but it’s important for us to grab a hold of what does God intend for rest for us to look like in the New Testament. The other thing I would say is the is the Jews define it totally different or the the day that they as opposed to Protestants or Yes. Whatever Yes. Denominations.

Yes. The week starts when for an observant Jew? Sunday morning. Sunday morning, which is why many Sunday mornings, I’m in church at first service and, like, all of my observant Jew friends are like, good morning, great. Great.

Great. And they’re talking about the news and stuff. And I had to tell them, some of us Gentiles are at church, and they’re like, oh, yeah. Sorry. But, like, they hit the ground running this morning.

Saturday because Saturday evening. Their days start in the evening. When do our days start? Middle of the night. Right?

1AM. Not mine. Not really. Yeah. When I have to go to the bathroom.

I think he wants us to rest in him on the Sabbath because in the New Testament, you know, Jesus got all the harassment because he healed someone on the Sabbath day, remember? Right. But I think he wants us sort of like getting our tank filled again in him. Yes. To be able to prepare what is coming for the week.

Yes. So think about that’s really good, and you are right for bringing it into the New Testament. But how about this for Adam? God knows the job that’s ahead of Adam. You’re gonna have a big you gotta name all the animals.

Let’s start by, just like you said, get your mind right. Get your mind right. God ceased from his work on the seventh day. He rested. He surveyed all that he had made and brought into existence, and he says, it is really good.

He took a day to delight, to relish in all that had been accomplished. And what’s interesting is it was Adam’s first day on the job. I want you to rest, Adam. He consecrated the seventh day. He made it holy.

He rested. And by by direct implication, there’s an invitation for us to rest. But what does that look like under the new covenant? Let what let’s ask this question. What is the Jesus pattern?

What is the Jesus pattern? What do we see him doing? As we go into the New Testament, he the guy was healing people on the Sabbath. He was doing things, but let’s really ask this question. What is the Jesus pattern?

He’s constantly he’s starting all work from rest. So, like, he goes and he rests with God first. He goes to be by himself. He rests, and then he goes out and he heals. And then he goes back and he rests.

And he prays with the Lord and he’s by himself, and then he goes back out and he heals, and he’s, you know, speaking to many people. And I think that that’s exactly what we’re seeing here is that God gives a command to Adam to rule the whole world, the whole earth, and then but before like, we would get that. Like, if Lissa came to me and was like, you need to plan a party. I’d be like, okay. Let me start right now.

I’m gonna, like, make my list. I’m gonna, like, start looking on Pinterest. I’m gonna and I’m going, going, going. But the pattern is, like, you get a command to do something, and before you do it, it starts with the rest. It starts by resting in the Lord, and then you can go and do the work.

Okay. And I think that that’s what we see Jesus do. Yes. You are correct. That is the Jesus pattern.

Yes. You are correct. That is the invitation from the Lord. And, yes, you are correct. What, Kat?

We don’t do that. Alright. Now, nobody’s gonna think you are some sort of, like, super awesome Christian if you’re sitting here and you’re like, I think I have a pretty good discipline of rest like before starting the work. Does anybody feel like like they do a good job of, like, finding rest or peace or Amanda? So do you you’re welcome to elaborate on that because we haven’t quite defined New Testament rest yet what it what it looks like, but but tell us a little bit more about your rest before work.

Well, the whole break, I really haven’t had much work, but I think about just kind of headed back to school. I’ve been sleeping like nobody’s business like every day. Why We have to check for signs of life. Yeah. And like like literally hibernate.

Yeah. By choice. I’ll wake up and then I’ll just go back to sleep. Yeah. Like a bear that comes out and scratches around and goes back in.

Yes. Yes. True. Okay. Yes.

Alright. Alright. Is that truly preparing you to go back to school for rest? I think so because like I slept a lot the first semester. So, I kind of balance it out.

If I sleep a lot now, then I won’t have an excuse when I get back to school because I’m like, I already did so much sleeping over break. Alright. Yes. At least he’s honest. Okay.

That’s good. So, we we need to be careful about confining rest to only sleep. Rest can include sleep and sleep is important, but it is not exclusively sleep. Amanda, were you gonna say something? Okay.

Always. My filter might be a little bit different, but I’ve always seen rest as a weapon against the enemy. And so, that’s my motivation. I mean, see it as a biblical narrative and everything, but I get so mad at what the enemy tries to spin and tries to do, then I’m like, well, forget you then. I’m gonna I’m gonna come from a place of rest and not because I have time.

Of course, they don’t do it perfectly, of course, but that’s my lens that I see that through, is as a weapon use against the enemy, and by default, it’s what the biblical principles, so all of the benefits when I do it right come naturally without effort. Yes. You know, like Yeah. There’s a there’s a story of I don’t know if you know who this guy is from history. His name is Paul Petzl.

Anybody does that name sound familiar? Paul Petzl? So they probably did call him Paul Petzl in school. But Paul Petzl was a pioneer of the mountaineering community here in the Tetons, and he put up a lot of routes. He was part of the inspiration for the guys that started Exim mountain guides.

He founded Knowles. I’m sure many of you are familiar with Knowles National Outdoor Leadership School. And his his one of his adages was whenever there is an emergency, always first stop and smoke a cigarette. The idea of being the idea of being the whether we conjure up, like, oh, I’ve got to start this project and I’ve got to get caught up on this or or and that’s proactive or if we are reactive to some sort of crisis or emergency. Now now, don’t hear what I’m not saying.

But the principle behind what Paul Petzl meant was like, don’t just run, rush into and be reactive and not have a plan. He’s like, the idea was stop and think for a second. Find that place of peace, and you find that pace of place of peace by, like Amanda said a moment ago, resting. Now, we’ll talk in a moment about the compression of that finding peace before engaging in activity. But you are exactly right, Gretchen.

Before Jesus started anything, he began with resting. Think about this. At his baptism, the heavens open up. A voice from heaven says, this is my beloved son in whom I’m well pleased. He just got the endorsement of God the father.

His birth had been prophesied. His life had been miraculous up until this point. This is the endorsement. He’s just been baptized. He’s been anointed for ministries.

He’s full of the holy spirit. And where does he go? The wilderness. Now it’s not like while he was in the wilderness, he was hibernating like my son here on Christmas break because he was very, very busy in the wilderness. But the very first thing after his public endorsement, the inauguration of his public ministry, he retreats into the wilderness.

How about John the Baptist is beheaded. He’s beheaded for speaking the truth and calling out lies and hypocrisy of the government of that day and age. He is beheaded. He is the cousin of Jesus. Is that not the time when Jesus wouldn’t, in the natural, say, I’ve got to take action.

I’ve got to take a stand. I’ve got to go on the offensive. But what does he do? He gets in a boat, and he retreats. Can you think of other examples of, like, counterintuitively Jesus resting when we perhaps would be busying?

On the boat? During the storm, Jesus takes a nap. Yes. Yes. Finding that place of peace.

What else? Can you think of other examples? Well, now I’ve just handed you your devotional bible study adventure time in the mornings for the rest of January. Let’s look at a verse in Mark, Mark chapter two. It’s up here on the screen and it says this, the Sabbath was made to meet the needs of the people and not the people to meet the requirements of the Sabbath.

So the son of man is Lord even over the Sabbath. To give you a little bit of context of what’s happening, the Pharisees had just gotten done fussing at Jesus for not obeying the religious day of the week of rest. And Jesus responds with this verse and what he is saying in this verse is, you guys, you’re you’re missing the whole thing. Which is why I think we were talking about this a moment ago, is resting a specific day of the week? And we talked about how other people celebrate the Sabbath.

Jesus is saying that you have distilled the beauty of the principle down into this religious practice that has been wrenched and squeezed out of any valuable nutrition. What is a need of people? Rest. And how does he say it here in this? Sabbath.

Humans have a need for rest. And when we take this New Testament principle that there is a need for rest and we combine it with the Old Testament pattern that God established with Adam, when is rest most critical? First, and preceding any big or normal thing that we do. Start from rest. What if we’re full of energy?

Okay. Here okay. Here it comes. I’m I’m working it out. Maybe we should have three mics.

Maybe. Two that just We’ll just hold the one for the Irwins. One for Nancy and they can share one for Gretchen that she just holds. We’ll just sit together from now on. Okay?

I love your contributions. Every single one of them. Take mic. I know. Yeah.

I’ll take a mic. Hey. Let me invite the back of the room to speak anytime you’re ready. Okay. You get a mic.

I’m encouraging them to open up. Okay? You don’t wanna say anything? They’re resting. They’re resting.

Now I forgot what I was gonna say. It’s hard to rest when you’re not high. Oh, yeah. It has to be intentional. If you’re gonna rest first and you know, man, I mean, who started that Sunday was the Sabbath?

Uh-huh. You know, who that came along with because our weekdays supposed to start according to my little medical dispenser, my medicine. It goes Sunday, Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, Saturday, right? So, the first of our week is on a Sunday. Yes.

Not the end of the week. Right. When you’re supposedly tired and you need rest. Right. So, maybe it’s designed for us to start out resting but resting in him.

It’s not resting watching a movie. Yes. There’s a difference in resting in him and just kick back and having a quiet Sunday at home watching a movie or a ballgame. And I’m very guilty of It can be. It can be, but I’m guilty now of not when I’ve got dead time.

I need to be in the word more. I need to be hiding it more into my heart and encouraging myself for what my week is coming on a Sunday. Yeah. No. It’s gotta be cat first, hon.

They’re making fun of us already. I think Adam did it right because he was perfect until woman, sorry. But he was This is saying it was made to meet the needs of people and I’m just thinking of Elijah when he thinks the whole world is out to get him and God’s like, will you just I will a raven will bring you food. Just sleep, hon. And I love that because that’s what I need and so this says Sabbath was made to meet the needs of people.

God knows we get it wrong. Yes. Is what I see in this. Yes. Meaning, yeah, we can say it’s great to start from a place of rest but we don’t.

Yes. At all. We didn’t in the old testament It’s for us. Once sin entered the world, we didn’t do it right and we still don’t and so it’s made to meet our needs if we’re willing to understand that we meet it. Yes.

Is what I see. Yes. So so problem solution. Problem is humans need rest in order to thrive optimally. Solution, Sabbath.

In in in a moment, I keep saying this, but, like, in a moment, we’ll talk about that compression of rest and what it actually looks like. But the principle of Sabbath and resting is so vitally important. And attached to what you said, we think of Monday as the beginning of the week, but if you were to ask your pillbox or most Americans what they or our calendar that you got for Christmas, the work week starts on Sunday. And the idea behind the Protestant church is we’re going to start our week with rest and fellowship with one another in the presence of the Lord. Sunday, the beginning of the week, rest.

It’s the idea anyways. Additionally, the story of Gideon, remember he was just a baby, and the angel came to him like, no. You’re gonna be a mighty warrior. And you would think, okay, let’s let’s find a sword. Let’s And he made him sit and rest and provided nourishment.

So to the same point, being in the presence of the Lord is where it started and nourishment. It happened to be physical food, which we need too, but being in the presence of the Lord is the nourishment that we need first before we go fight battles, which is literally what Gideon was to do. Yes. Yes. Sundays.

Oh, yes. Anyone born in the nineteen hundreds and that’s not like 1912 or something like that. Sundays, nothing was open. No store, no clothes, nothing. You may get a little what, 07:11 or somehow.

That’s it. So, back then, you know, it was more designed for people to rest on Sunday. The culture of our country. So, we’ve totally changed now. Mhmm.

I would do my chores. Well, I would watch cartoons on Saturday morning. And then I would do my chores. And then I would get my allowance. And then I go outside on my bike.

And I would be in the neighborhood or down in the creek or exploring the woods until the sun went down. And then, I would come back and I’d have to get hosed off outside, leave leave your creek shoes outside. Anybody grow up with creek shoes? Yeah. You need yeah.

You had to have your creek shoes. Leave your creek shoes outside. Mom would do a tick check, give you a bath. And and then I remembered my allowance that I had gotten earlier that day and I could not wait to spend it on a Hot Wheels or a GI Joe. I knew nothing of savings and I would go to church every week with my allowance in my pocket.

I wouldn’t put it in the offering plate because I was there was a Kmart between our house and church and they were always closed on Sundays. I was like, everything was closed on Sundays. If if you had your allowance at the end of the week, something was wrong. Saying that. Right.

Right. Yeah. It was spent as soon as I could. And I just wanna know, does my two hour nap before bedtime qualify as as as quality sleep? Two hour nap before bedtime.

Oh, okay. So so let’s talk about rest and and the compression of rest. The invitation from the Lord is for a full day to to unplug. And if this sounds like, oh, you’re talking about the Sabbath, I am. And there’s so much that could be said about the Sabbath.

We’ve talked about it a good amount here at Tribe. Joy has talked about it. And there’s so much more that we could say about the Sabbath and the day. But I want to constrain our conversation for the few minutes that we have left to talk about being able to have an entire Sabbath in a moment. It is possible to have an entire Sabbath in a moment.

And the way that it works without sounding too, I don’t know, Shaolin, Zen monk style, but it starts practice taking a long time to calm your mind to enter that place of peace and rest where those the Bible says in the book of Song of Solomon, catch for us the foxes that that eat the grapes and spoil the vineyard. It it is a discipline to be able to calm your mind and not forget about all the stress and the to dos and but to temporarily suspend them. I’m going to suspend them as I find a place of peace. Now there’s a lot of brain science that’s gone into how our brain tends to get spun up. And when we get spun up, our brain shifts to operating out of a different place of our brain, and we’re not able to think clearly.

And we we get fuddled, we tend to react, and we can respond emotionally. But if we can find peace in the midst or even before, let’s say, crisis, it enables us to respond coolly, calmly, and connected. So we think of Sabbath as a whole day, and it should be. But there’s also a place of peace that can be found in a moment before action or before responding. And I haven’t made eye contact with Lissa in the last minute and a half because she’s like because I’m the king of responding, not out of peace.

So please don’t think that I have attained some sort of Jedi master like state that I I operate out of perpetual peace. But there is an invitation from the Lord to cultivate this discipline of peace so that when it comes time for action, you can be decisive and confident. You’ve heard his voice. You got this. I’m only echoing what he says to you all the time each week.

Right? And so here we are at the beginning of the year. Tomorrow, everybody’s gonna get back to the busyness of their normal lives. Why don’t we practice what we’ve just talked about by, for a few moments, finding peace? I wanna ask you one question first.

I just remembered. Are there any tips, tricks, or techniques that you employ to be able to find peace in a relatively short or quick amount of time? Like a quick gratitude journal at work or just like a few minutes just to like pause and like get some thoughts out on paper? So journaling. Mhmm.

I’m gonna write some things down. That’s awesome. Right. So if you know that you’re reactionary and you probably have an idea of what situations could be triggering to practice peace before you go into those. What are some other techniques that you employ to find peace to be able to compress that time of finding peace so that you can respond in the moment or in the middle of the day or whatever?

Prayer. Yes. What does that look like? Just stopping and just ask oh, just stopping and saying, Lord, I know you’re here with me. Help me guard my words.

Yeah. Guide my, you know, steps. Yeah. Just having to stop and reset Yes. With him.

Lord, help me. I was just gonna say, God reminds me to ask myself, is this gonna matter in ten minutes, ten days, or ten months? It gonna Probably not. So some self diagnostic questions. I’ve been trying if I’m, like, screwing around and trying to get out of the house and all the things.

Once I get in my car and I have all the things for the day, I’m like, okay. Before I even pull out of the driveway, I’m gonna put on one worship song before I even put it in drive. I’ve been trying this. I’m not great at remembering because I’m like, great. I’m late.

But just even just before, you know, like, now I’m confined to this space. I’m just gonna I’m gonna take three and a half minutes. I’m just gonna like, okay, Lord. This day is yours. Speak to me.

Like, do you want what I have planned? Like, is this what you have for me? Mhmm. Mhmm. Breathing.

Breathing helps. Box breathing. You can look it up. Journaling, stopping. There’s all there’s all kinds of ways from if you drive for your job, driving from one thing to the next using that drive I mean, it’s Jackson.

It’s not like we have a long commute anywhere except in the summer and you live on the West Bank and you’re trying to get into town. Or you live in town and you’re trying to get out to the village on a powder day, then maybe you do have a long commute. Alright. Sorry. But for the most part, we have short drive times.

Why not being able to use the drive time instead of, like, tuning into the latest episode of the Shawn Ryan show, like, okay, I’m gonna turn I’m gonna turn it off. I’m gonna turn my music off for this short drive, for this short commute. Before you go into that room, your hand touches the handle. Help me, Lord. I I use that one a lot.

Help me, Lord. Let’s practice entering into a a place of rest and peace right on the precipice of getting into the new year. And, one of the beautiful sacraments that the Lord established for helping us enter into rest in order to find peace is communion. So why not start the year off right with communion? So what we’ll do with the few moments that we have left is we’re going to we’re going to partake of communion together.

I’ll give you some specific instructions on that in a moment and then, I have two last things to tell you about as we land the plane looking forward as we go into 2026, Okay? And so let I’m gonna put this right here. I’m gonna put this over here. Stay. The bible records that on the night that Jesus was betrayed, he was in the upper room with his disciples sharing Passover meal.

During the meal, the bible says that Jesus took bread, blessed it, broke it, gave it to his disciples, and said, take and eat for this is my body which has been given for you. This is the sign of the new covenant. The principle of rest continues through, but how and what that looks like is not a religious rote observance, but a treasure and a delight and available to us anytime and as many times throughout the day as that verse says, as needed. Then the bible records that after the meal, Jesus took another cup. He gave it to his disciples, and he said, take and drink for this is my life’s blood which is poured out for you.

As often as you drink of this cup, you do show forth my death, meaning you remember my death until the day when I return. He said this to his disciples, I’ll not drink again of this fruit of the vine until I drink it anew with you in my kingdom. And we read later outside of the gospels that what Jesus was talking about is that someday, there’s going to be what Christians know of as the wedding supper of the lamb, where there will be new wine and we will enjoy a wedding feast as the bride with our bridegroom, Jesus, when he returns. Until then, we think forward of that day when we celebrate communion together. And we hold and we drink from the cup.

We don’t really drink. I’ll I’ll tell you what. This is the cup of salvation, the cup of eternal life, and the cup of the lord. God, thank you for establishing the principle of rest. And here we are on the precipice of a new year.

We’re getting on planes today and tomorrow, and we’re starting work tomorrow, we’re going back to school tomorrow, and we’re doing all of the things again tomorrow. We want to start by taking a moment to find peace when we rest. God, I ask that you would take these simple common elements, and you would transform them into a sacrament, which is simply a means of grace where we can touch you by faith so that in the mystery of partaking of this meal, we would get a glimpse and a taste of your goodness and what it means to rest in you. Father, I pray that while the caloric nutrition of these of the bread and of the cup is miniscule, that you would minister spiritual nutrition to our hearts. Strengthen us for the year 2026 ahead.

We pray these things in Jesus’ name and everybody said, I’m going to invite Connor to come and help me with communion. I think if you what if you stood right here? Thank you. And the way that we partake of communion at tribe is to receive the bread and then with the bread in your hand, we dip the bread in the cup and then you can partake of communion and work your way back to your seats. Whenever we do communion here in the TMC, it’s kind of fun, like ants crawling all over each other.

But how about how about we start from the back and then we kinda work our way forward and use your intelligence and just figure it out. Y’all come on. His body given for you his body I wrote this down in my notes, and it’s it’s worth putting up here on the screen because I think it’s a valuable stitch that ties things together. And I said this, rest subordinates our will to that of the father. When we rush, we tend to follow the will of the world or ourselves or fear of man or whatever.

But when we rest, it subordinates our will. It helps to discipline our flesh, to boss ourselves around. Right? And as we are here at the beginning of the year, I thought what if we were to go on a collective journey of rest together. I’m going starting today, I’m going to call all of your bosses and tell them that you You actually said it a moment ago being able to you said it a moment ago being able to pause.

So as we were coming out of COVID several years ago, there was a group of us that found out about an app that this guy, John Eldridge, put together. John Eldridge wrote Wild at Heart. He’s like a men’s author and trusted like Jesus dude. He put together this app called Pause. And I I wanna show a picture picture of this app.

I think it’s maybe just the next slide. Right go back. Right here. This is at least on the Apple iPhone. It’s called Pause.

And on this, if you download this app, it’s free to download it. There is a program and it’s called thirty days to resilience. So when you download this app and you go to the next screen, if you open the app, there are different things that you can do, but there is this program called thirty days to resilient. And what it is is you open it up and you do a short pause once in the morning and once in the evening. And it’s it’s thirty days and they start really short.

There’s sessions. That’s a good way to put it, sessions. There’s a little intro video. And I thought that as a tribe fam, as we go into this new year, why don’t we embark on this journey together? And if you’re just visiting, you’re from out of town, whatever, you can still be a part of this journey with us.

And so we look at this next slide. So Monday, January 5, this is gonna send out a link today for people that weren’t here or just watching the livestream. Monday, January 5, tribe is going to start thirty days of thirty days to resilient program on the Pause app. Now, do you have to? No.

Do you get more points if you do it? No. Yes. Oh. Yeah.

I mean, yes. There’s it’s just an invitation for us to go on this journey together. Throughout the next couple of weeks on Sundays or as we see each other, as we’re doing life together, I’ll check-in. I would love to hear from you. But you’d be surprised how easy it is to make up some sort of an excuse not to or I’ll make up for it.

Don’t be religious and like like like, well, I missed one day. That’s it. I’m going to hell, and I’ll never like, I should never even come to tribe again. Like, no. If you if you fall down, just get back up.

And so starting tomorrow, January 5, download the app. I don’t know what it looks like for those people who have weird phones. Cat? It’s also on that kind of of a of a thing. Also, last thing, and then I’m gonna invite Amanda to come up and lead us in offering announcements.

One last way to worship the Lord before we get out of here. I’m pretty sure. Clay got the app. Well, that was That’s what that was. It was John Eldridge.

It was John Eldridge. You know what, Amanda, just come and share with us one more way to worship the Lord. I think that’s I think it’s perfect. Yeah. Take it.

And it’s still going play. We’re such a good family, you know. We just do normal stuff. Another way to subordinate your will to the father is by bringing your tithe and your offering to him consistently toward whatever your local church is. Right?

Because it feels really hard to give when your bank account doesn’t show extra. Right? Sometimes it’s hard to give when you have millions in your bank account because it’s a hardening of your heart. So something we do here at Tribe every week is we bring our tithe, which is a hard earned money that we work so hard for. Through blood, sweat, and tears, we we make money.

It’s how the how we buy and trade. Right? But we bring it to the Lord as an act of sacrifice, as an act of love, and it’s a way we say, God, we love you and trust you. You’re the one that helps me get up in the morning and breathe and have legs to go like, just think of the most thinking of a gratitude journal. Like, sometimes when life is hard, just say thank you that I’m breathing right now.

Right? I mean, the very basic, God is the one who provides the means for us to be able to do stuff. So we bring a portion of our hard earned finances and give it to our local church, one, because it does the work of the ministry. It’s very practical in meeting the needs of our neighbors and beyond. But then two, it keeps your heart calibrated to the fathers, and what is important to him is important to us.

And so as we do that today, whether you’re doing it now or another time, we’re just gonna pray and kinda bless that time, and then we’ll get out of here. But this is the way that we give here at Tribe. There’s three different ways. If you’re brand new, you can open your smartphone and text to the number (833) 369-7847. You need to type the word give.

Is this a is this the same number? Yeah. That’s the same one. Okay. New year.

You. Type the word give, a the dollar sign, and then a money amount. That’s easiest way. If you have cash or check, we have two drop boxes here where you can deposit stuff physically. Right here, where Kat’s standing by the door, and then there’s a black deposit box right outside the front door.

You can come by Tribe anytime. That’s checked regularly to be safe. And then, of course, tribejh.com, there’s a giving link. So let’s close our eyes and pray as a tribe family. Oh, heavenly father, we just come to you with thankful hearts.

Thank you that we are all here breathing and alive and in church on a Sunday morning in this new year. We give you all the glory and the praise for who you are. And we just say thank you for the ability for us to work and make money and do practical stuff that we’re supposed to do here on the earth. But, Lord, we just bring a portion of that to you to say we trust you. Thank you that you let us partner with you to be your hands and your feet.

We get to steward things well. Help us to steward well our finances, our relationships, our time. Lord, let us shrink back this year and put you on the in the driver’s seat. Let that be something that we do, whether it’s with through rest, like we talked about today, through tithing. These are practical things that that help us do that.

But, Lord, let us just be strengthened in our relationship with you like we have not been before. We love you and trust you in our finances, for tribe, for us as individuals, but in all things. We give you glory in Jesus’ name. Amen. These are some of the ways that tribe gives.

So if you wanna take a picture of that, you can look at everybody’s website, but they’re all very, very worthy causes that we give to. Could talk a long time about each one of those. This the Wind River is something we go to from time to time. If you want an opportunity to feel like you’re in a third world country, just two and a half hours away, come with us to Wind River sometime. And then we have, yeah, a lot of local local benevolence that we do.

The Emmaus table is fantastic. Well, it’s all wonderful. Genesis Israel is doing things. The pre Burma Rangers, their family is just right at the right in the heart of the Lord, I feel, doing God’s work in in Asia. Okay.

We don’t really have announcements. We’ll have some stuff coming up soon. Brian, what did you wanna tell us or pray over us as we leave? I’ll pray us out. Listen, we’ll send a text reminder of the and a link to that app today.

I saw many of you getting on your phones right now, so great. And we have confirmation that some of you have even started right now, so that’s great. Why don’t you stand up, and I’ll pray for you, and we’ll get out of here. Lord Jesus, thank you for being so good to us, for always taking care of us. As we go into 2026, help us to be prepared and ready for all that 2026 has by being able to find that place of peace and rest even in a moment and even if just for a moment.

I believe that there’s going to be it’s gonna be a wild ride for us as in Jackson and us as Americans and around the world in 2026. We need to establish that discipline of peace and rest now. So I commend a blessing over each and every person here. Lord, I ask that your favor would rest on them and all that they set their hand to, all that lays before them. Give them favor with teachers, with bosses at work, with peers.

Open up their minds to be able to absorb information and apply it, keep them safe. And in certain situations, keep them really sharp, fast, and deadly. Lord, give us a great week. Give us a great year. We pray these things in Jesus’ name, the strong son of God.

And everybody said, amen. I love you guys so much. Have a great week. And remember, you got this.