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Mills River SDA Church

Overcomer Series

Cory Reeves

01 The Disconnect: Brokenness in Christianity

02 The Deception: Identity Theft in Conflict

03 The Advocate: Bull’s Eye

04 The Method: Sabbath of the Heart

Today we are stepping into part 4 of our journey together.

I would once again encourage you to follow along by doing your homework, reflecting, praying, and Bible study.

If you've missed out, or this may be your first week here, I'd encourage you to go back and watch the other ones.

We are talking about the Sabbath of the heart.

But, before we look at the how, we need to remember where we have journeyed so far.

In presentation 1, we looked at the disconnect.

We talked about that painful gap when we talk about the victorious faith, we sing about it, we talk about it, we wish each other Happy Sabbath.

But at times, there's this private brokenness.

How do we claim victory when we feel broken inside?

Then presentation 2, we exposed the deception.

He loves to play ping-pong with us and he loves to use deceptive I messages as Trojan horses to sneak lies into our minds.

Instead of whispering, Corey Why are you this way?

And we talked about catching those messages, catching those delights, and declaring the truth that we are sons and daughters of the King.

Finally, presentation 3, we looked at the Advocate.

We looked at the cross and realized that Jesus didn't just step in front of the arrows that we shoot.

He steps in front of the arrows that hit us.

He suffered more than our exact pain, so He could heal us.

That brought us to your homework and my homework.

I asked you to trace your lies back to the original arrows that hit you.

And to physically and spiritually hand those arrows over to God.

I know many of you have been praying through this process and over the last 2 weeks of this presentation for handing those arrows back to Him.

You've probably discovered something pretty quickly though.

A lot of times, what happens when we give our arrows over to Jesus, by Thursday morning, your boss is yelling at you, your spouse might be criticizing you, you mess up and a customer complains.

And suddenly you feel that familiar anxiety rush, don't you?

Human nature makes us want to snatch the arrow right back from Jesus' hands and a desire to go back to whatever coping problem we have used to cover the pain.

We try to prove worthy, but we end up carrying these weights, these problems we have.

We take these big, heavy weights and we put them in a pag.

And it's not light, especially when you've hurt your leg.

But we try to put on a good face, don't we?

So what are we carrying in these backpacks?

These weights that are weighing us down are the fruits of the lies we've been telling ourselves from the devil's whispers.

Some of you are carrying the weight of perfectionism.

Because the devil whispered a lie that you are unlovable, and the fruit of that lie is striving to be better, to be perfect so people won't leave you.

Some of you are carrying weights of anger and control.

Because the devil whispered that you are unsafe.

We will fill the bag with the fruit of Satan's lies.

We try to be our own savior, and We try, and it leaves us utterly exhausted.

In the book that inspired much of this series, there is a story that illustrates this perfectly.

If you look at Sarah from the outside, She was the ultimate good Christian.

She was the first to volunteer for everything at the church.

She was always the first to bring that perfect vegetarian, vegan casserole to potluck.

She led Bible studies, but you know on the inside Sarah was running on a spiritual treadmill and she was suffocating under the weights she was carrying.

You see, years earlier Sarah had been hit by a massive arrow of rejection.

The I message planted in that wound is that I am only valuable if I am useful.

So Sarah used church work and constantly serving to medicate the wound that wouldn't heal.

She thought she was serving God, but in reality, she was trying to earn her own worth.

She was trying to pull out the arrows out of her own back by working harder through sheer religious willpower.

When she finally sat down with a mentor, she burst into tears and said, I am doing everything I am supposed to do, but I am so tired.

I don't think I can keep being a Christian.

When I lived in Florida, we helped lead a family-focused church service at a larger church.

While I was leading there, the pastor left and I took the reins and helped even more.

I was leading Bible studies every Friday night, leading meetings, planning events, helping with church service, and working 50 to 60 hours a week at the hospital.

And I was dating Amanda and courting Amanda at that time, the beautiful lady I'm married to today.

It was filled with a desire to do more so that I would be accepted.

I wanted people to be proud of me, but I was exhausted.

You see, Sarah was trapped because she knew the theology, but she didn't have the right method.

She knew Jesus, she knew Jesus was her Savior, but she didn't know how to stop striving.

I hope many of you gave your arrows to Jesus last week.

But, if you just handed them over and took them back and you're exhausted because you're trying to manage the bleeding on your own, We just don't sometimes know how to stop fighting, do we?

To find the true method, we have to look at how Jesus handled a group of people even more exhausted, more traumatized, and more wounded than Sarah.

People who had a massive job to do but were bleeding too heavily to do it We go to the upper room and in Acts 1 4 it reads he commanded them not To depart from Jerusalem, but wait to wait, but why?

They but but why were they why what work did they have to do?

Why wait for, I mean, they had so much work to do, why wait?

In Acts chapter 1, Jesus had given His disciples the Great Commission.

If it were us, human nature would kick in immediately, right?

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Series

Overcomer Series

04 The Method: Sabbath of the Heart

Transcript

Parent Series

Sponsor

Recorded

Parts

01 The Disconnect: Brokenness in Christianity

32m

02 The Deception: Identity Theft in Conflict

34m

03 The Advocate: Bull’s Eye

34m

04 The Method: Sabbath of the Heart

33m

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