Margin is the distance between where we are and our limits.
So be careful how you live. Don’t live like fools, but like those who are wise. 16 Make the most of every opportunity in these evil days. Ephesians 5:15-16(NLT)
Message title: Permission
Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. Matthew 11:28-29 (NIV)
Permission to EXCEPT REST
Shabbat = to cease, stop, to intentionally put to rest
There remains, then, a Sabbath-rest for the people of God; for anyone who enters God’s rest also rests from their works, just as God did from his. Let us, therefore, make every effort to enter that rest…Hebrews 4:9-12 (NIV)
Truly my soul finds rest in God; my salvation comes from him. Psalm 62:1 (NIV)
A key ingredient to living with margin in is to understand AND except the rest that God wants us to experience.
We may think we can handle it stress MENTALLY, but we CANNOT control what it does to us PHYSICALLY.
But those who wait on the Lord shall renew their strength; they shall mount up with wings like eagles, they shall run and not be weary, they shall walk and not faint. Isaiah 40:31(NKJV)
Rest is not an obligation, but an invitation.
Then he said to them, “The Sabbath was made for man, not man for the Sabbath. Mark 2:27 (NIV)
Permission to EMBRACE a NEW RHYTHM
“Are you tired? Worn out? Burned out on religion? Come to me. Get away with me and you’ll recover your life. I’ll show you how to take a real rest. Matthew 11:28-30 (MSG)
Walk with me and work with me—watch how I do it. Learn the unforced rhythms of grace. Matthew 11:28-30 (MSG)
I won’t lay anything heavy or ill-fitting on you. Keep company with me and you’ll learn to live freely and lightly.” Matthew 11:28-30 (MSG)
Yet the news about him spread all the more, so that crowds of people came to hear him and to be healed of their sicknesses. But Jesus often withdrew to lonely places and prayed. Luke 5:15-16 (NIV)
The notes are silver; the rests are gold. – Mozart
It is the combination of the INTENIONAL WORK and INTENTIONAL REST that teach us how develop a healthy, spiritual rhythm to our lives.
The Lord God took the man and put him in the Garden of Eden to work it and take care of it. Genesis 2:15 (NIV)
Then the man and his wife heard the sound of the Lord God as he was walking in the garden in the cool of the day, and they hid from the Lord God among the trees of the garden. But the Lord God called to the man, “Where are you?” Genesis 3:8-9 (NIV)
Rest is not an escape FROM the work; it’s a necessary part of EFFECTIVE work.
Permission to DEFINE the RIGHT YES
Our problem isn’t that we can’t say “NO”, it’s that we have not clearly defined our right “YES.”
If everything is important… nothing is important.
Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is one. Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength. These commandments that I give you today are to be on your hearts. Impress them on your children. Deuteronomy 6:4-9 (NIV)
Talk about them when you sit at home and when you walk along the road, when you lie down and when you get up. Tie them as symbols on your hands and bind them on your foreheads. Write them on the doorframes of your houses and on your gates. Deuteronomy 6:4-9 (NIV)
“What has been done has been done; what has not been done has not been done; let it be.”
