1. Series: Christmas Pure & Simple
Simpler Expressions
Pastor Nathan Weller
December 9, 2018
Series: Christmas Pure & Simple

7. Silence and solitude are
the antidote to the
busyness of the season

9. Be intentional about experiencing silence

11. For everything there is a season, and a time for every matter under heaven… a time to keep silence, and a time to speak...
--Ecclesiastes 3.1, 7b ESV

13. Be still, and know that I am God.
--Psalm NIV

15. --Psalm 46.1-3, 8-10 NIV 1 God is our refuge and strength,
an ever-present help in trouble.
2 Therefore we will not fear, though the earth give way
and the mountains fall into the heart of the sea,
3 though its waters roar and foam
and the mountains quake with their surging.
8 Come and see what the Lord has done,
the desolations he has brought on the earth.
9 He makes wars cease to the ends of the earth.
He breaks the bow and shatters the spear;
he burns the shields with fire.
10 He says, “Be still, and know that I am God”...
--Psalm , 8-10 NIV

17. 30 The apostles returned to Jesus from their ministry tour
and told him all they had done and taught. 31 Then Jesus
said, “Let’s go off by ourselves to a quiet place and rest
awhile.” He said this because there were so many people coming and going that Jesus and his apostles didn’t
even have time to eat. 32 So they left by boat for a quiet
place, where they could be alone.
--Mark NLT

19. Be intentional about seeking out solitude

21. 4 And so John the Baptist appeared in the wilderness,
preaching a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins.
5 The whole Judean countryside and all the people of
Jerusalem went out to him At once the Spirit sent him
out into the wilderness...
--Mark 1.4-5, 12 NIV

23. “Solitude is more a state of mind and heart than it is a place.
There is a solitude of the heart that can be maintained
at all times. Crowds, or the lack of them, have little to do with
this inward attentiveness.”
--Richard Foster--

25. “But here is what is happening: this world of stimulation and
activity, is changing our brain and impacting our faith. when we
gaze at the richness of the gospel and the church and find them
dull and uninteresting, it’s actually we who have been hollowed
out. We have lost our capacity to see wonders where true
wonders lie. We must be formed as people who are capable of appreciating goodness, truth, and beauty...Our addiction to stimulation, input, and entertainment empties us out and makes
us boring– unable to embrace... (cont’d)

26. --Tish Harrison Warren, Liturgy of the Ordinary--
...the ordinary wonders of life in Christ... The kind of spiritual life
and disciplines needed to sustain the Christian life are quiet, repetitive, and ordinary. I often want to skip the boring, daily stuff
to get to the thrill of an edgy faith. But it’s in the dailiness of the Christian faith—the making the bed, the doing the dishes,
the praying for our enemies, the reading the Bible, the quiet, the small—that God’s transformation takes root and grows.”
--Tish Harrison Warren, Liturgy of the Ordinary--

28. 4 But when the goodness and loving kindness of God our
Savior appeared, 5 he saved us, not because of works done by us in righteousness, but according to his own mercy, by the washing of regeneration and renewal of the Holy Spirit, 6 whom he poured out on us richly through Jesus Christ our Savior, 7 so that being justified by his grace we might become heirs according to the hope of eternal life.
--Titus ESV

30. Series: Christmas Pure & Simple
Simpler Expressions
Pastor Nathan Weller
December 9, 2018
Series: Christmas Pure & Simple