Upstream: Week 3

June 11th, 2023

Notes

Silence: Listening for God’s Voice
Ecclesiastes 3

• Upstream Life: Determination to make choices that are uncommon in culture but build my character.

• Silence

  • The opposite of silence is: interference.

• Interference: comprehensive cultural assault on the senses of messaging designed to deconstruct the soul.

• Silence: the ability to perceive and experience life spiritually rather than digitally.

  • “When I see my phone ring I actually get annoyed,” he says. “Like, ‘Why would you interrupt me?’ Unless you are hurt or you are dying, you can text me.”

  • “It has entirely been text messages,” Wade says. “In a text message, no one can hear your voice, so if I say ‘I am great,’ you believe it, but I might be crying as I am typing ‘I am great.’ So texting allows me to mask.”

  • MIT researcher Dr. Turkle says digital communication, “is not so good for the sort of nuanced understanding and relationship-building you get when you are present with your friends — for sharing intimacies, for sharing difficult news, for saying you are sorry, for really getting to know someone. It gives us that sense of connection without the demands of intimacy and the responsibilities of intimacy.”

  • Life is not lived in the glow of a monitor. “It’s not about your friend count. It’s about the friends you count on.”

• What if there was a way to reclaim…

  • Rest that is real

  • Quiet that is enjoyed

  • Relationships that last

• Ecclesiastes 3:1-10

• Big Idea: Unplugging from the noise fuels our life and mission!

• More than 20 times in a three year ministry it speaks of Jesus: 

  • “coming aside”

  • “going off by himself”

  • “withdrawing from the crowds”

• When did Jesus utilize silence and solitude?

  •  In preparation for important decisions

    • Luke 6:12-13

    • Big Idea: Unplugging from the noise fuels our life and mission!

  •  In order to process grief and loss

    • Matthew 14:12-13

    • Big Idea: Unplugging from the noise fuels our life and mission!

  • Following pressurized public engagement.

    • Matthew 14:23

    • Big Idea: Unplugging from the noise fuels our life and mission!

  • In preparation for difficult seasons.

    • Matthew 14:38-39

• What are the benefits of directed silence and solitude?

  • Allows us to decompress mentally and emotionally

    • Psalms 55:4-8

  • Strips us of public pretense and pressure to please

    • Psalm 62:5-8

  • Allows us to hear with clarity direction from the Lord.

    • Isaiah 30:20-21

• Big Idea: Unplugging from the noise fuels our life and mission!