Invitation of a Lifetime - Dan Watson

I want to start this talk and just be really honest with you, not that I'm not honest other times, but I'll be really honest and really vulnerable with you, you know. I have this toxic trait, I have this toxic trait, and this toxic trait is that I love to be invited to the party, but 90% of the time, I ain't going. But if I don't get invited, I got issues. Anybody else like that? You know what I'm saying? Like, I love the invitation, but I ain't always going. But there's some invitations that like, man, I definitely want to respond to. I remember this one time, 2017, I was the youth and young adults pastor in London, across the UK and Europe, and I was preaching at one of our youth camps. And at the end of the youth camp, right at the end, I'm just about to get in my car, and I look at my phone, I have this email, and the email is from the mayor of London's office. And it was an invitation to have breakfast with the mayor. And it wasn't one of those like, you know, just spam all, it was directed to Dan Watson. This is pretty big. So who knows that I RSVP'd pretty quick and said, I'll have breakfast with the mayor. That turned into a five-year relationship where I sat around the mayor's table to advise and talk about church issues in the UK and youth issues in the UK. It was phenomenal. A few years back, I had an invitation to go to the masters. Now, I ain't a golf person. And I hate to admit this, but at that point, I'm being honest, I didn't even know what the masters was. It's the worst place to admit that and be honest with you guys. But I RSVP'd after my wife said, you need to go. So I went. There are times where I RSVP'd really quick. And there are times where I was like, I look at it, I forget about it. There's times where I look at it and I think I RSVP'd and I didn't. There are times where I know I'm not going to RSVP and I go silent and silence is a response. And so I ain't going. There's often times where I'll be scrolling through Instagram or I'll be having a conversation with someone and I'll see what they're doing or heard about what they did. And I'll be like, why didn't you invite me? And they'd be like, I did. And then I look at my text message and I go, ah, you did. You did invite me. I want to talk about an invitation of a lifetime. Every single one of us have been invited into this invitation of a lifetime. And I want to put to you today and ask you the question, what's your response? Let's look at Isaiah chapter 30 verse 15. In Isaiah chapter 30 verse 15, through the prophet Isaiah, God is speaking and he's speaking to the people of Judah. And he says this, this is what the sovereign Lord, the Holy one of Israel says, in repentance

and rest is your salvation. In stillness and quietness and trust is your strength. But you would have none of it. Another verse says you were unwilling. So in repentance and in rest is your salvation. And in quietness and in trust is your strength. There's the invitation. The invitation for every single one of us, just like the invitation was for Judah, is salvation and strength. It sounds like an invitation of the lifetime. But the people of Judah at this point, as God says, they were unwilling. Their RSVP to God was, no, thank you very much. They wanted nothing to do with it. And I'm thinking, okay, why would they want nothing to do with it? What was God asking of these people? And what is God asking of you and I today in our lives? The first thing that he said was, well, in repentance, in repentance, the Hebrew word for repentance is shuv. It means to turn back, to return, to come back to where you belong. And God was telling the people, hey, listen, when you return, there will be salvation. As you read that, you might go, well, listen, I've repented. I'm a Christian. I've been a Christian for 30, 40, 50 years. I've been a Christian for five years. I've repented. I'm with God. God's not speaking to a people who do not believe that he is God. He's not speaking to a non-religious crowd. And he was speaking to the people of God. He was speaking to the people who professed God, but didn't possess God. And so right now he's speaking to a crowd who's saying, listen, we're religious, but here's what's happened. They're still doing their tick box religion and tradition, but they've stopped being dependent on God. How do I know that? Well, in the first verse of Isaiah chapter 30, God speaks and he says, ah, stubborn children, carrying out plans that are not mine, forming an alliance, but not by my spirit. Verse two, you go down to Egypt without consulting me. I'm trying to think, man,

like why are they not consulting God? Why are they running into a different direction and not running towards God? And the conclusion that I came up from reading the scripture is life. Life was lifing. Anybody had life, life? It puts you in this frantic panic. For Judah, man, Syria was down their neck. Syria was this military superpower of the ancient Near East. It had a really brutal reputation of just being bad. And Judah, Judah is scared of what Syria is doing and will do to them. And so what Judah tries to do is come up with their own plan. And so they're trying to save themselves and go, I need an ally. And so they look at Egypt and Egypt looks good. Egypt doesn't look bad. Egypt can help me in this moment. Egypt has horses. It has military power. It has resources. It can save me from a Syria coming at me. I'm running to Egypt. I'm going in this direction. You ever play hide and seek with a kid? I mean like toddler, like a two-year-old or something. It's crazy. Like I play with Ellis and I say,

Ellis, go and hide and daddy will find you. And so Ellis is like, okay. And she's running around. She's running around. And then she literally does this. And so as a dad, I'm like, okay, Ellis. Where are you? Oh, you're not in the bathroom. Okay. Oh, you're not behind the couch. Okay, where are you Ellis? And I'm walking around and suddenly this voice pops out. Daddy, you're going in the wrong direction. I feel like God is trying to shout out to us today. Maybe, just maybe some of us are looking in the wrong direction instead of looking at what's standing in plain sight. We're trying to search in all different places and different avenues and different spaces. And God is standing in plain sight. Judah was looking in Egypt for what God had promised that he would provide. And the thing is this, Egypt isn't necessarily bad. The issue isn't that they went to Egypt. The issue is why they went to Egypt. Why did they go to Egypt? Because they believe that Egypt could do for them what God said only he could do. But because it didn't happen in their time and they're trying to orchestrate it.

They're trying to make it happen in their own way. Every single one of us, friend, has an Egypt. Every single one of us is running to things or leaning on things that we think is gonna help us when God says, I am the thing. Maybe that for you is your success, or maybe it's your money, or maybe it's your control, or maybe it's your family, or maybe it's whatever it is. You're running to different things. It may even be ministry. And here's the uncomfortable truth, which we figure out, is something doesn't have to be sinful to become your Egypt. Your family is not sinful. Your career is not sinful. Your business is not sinful. Your hobbies and aspirations, they're not sinful, but they can become Egypt because Egypt became dangerous because the people's dependence went onto Egypt and not onto God. And what does that mean? What does that happen? That means that that then, Egypt, then becomes the idol. An idol is not just simply worshiping something bad. An idol is a good thing that you've asked to be a God thing, taking the place of God's position. And the invitation that God gave Judah and friends, the invitation that God gives you and I today is to return, is to come back.

I've been over here too long and I've been dealing with this too long and I've been trying to make it over in this place too long. And God is saying, hey, come back. You haven't realized how far you've drifted from me, but I'm asking you to come back. There's an invitation. Even if you've been a believer for 30, 40, 50 years, He's asking you today, hey, is there anything in your life where you've been headed in the wrong direction? Where you've been making that an idol over me? Where you've been dependent on that more than you've been dependent on me? I'm inviting you to come back. I'm inviting you to turn. Repentance, when we think of that, man, we think it's just, okay, sorry. I'm sorry. Raised my kids, man. I'm like, hey, say sorry to your brother. I'm sorry. You don't mean it. I'm sorry. Say properly, I'm sorry. Repentance isn't simply saying I'm sorry. Repentance is changing the full direction of our lives. It's to demonstrate it with our lives. God, I'm not just sorry, I'm turning. I'm coming back. I'm moving towards you.

I wanna be with you. I wonder what it is that you got to turn from today. Turn from Egypt, turn from self-reliance, turn from control, turn from trusting what cannot save you and turn back to God. He says, return and rest. Rest. In returning and rest, you shall be saved. Which I think is a crazy statement. Like if we just deep it for a moment, if we just be real. Return and rest. And maybe the people of Judah is like, rest? For real? You know what's going on in my life right now. You know how brutal Assyria is. You know what's going on. The danger is real. The threat is real. The worry is real. The anxiety is real. Our natural instinct when stuff is real is not to rest. It's to do something. Make a plan, get the horses, build the alliance, do something. But God says, no, rest. Rest. In returning and rest, you shall be saved. God's not denying that they ain't got problems. He's not saying that the problem doesn't exist. And so when God invites you and God invites me into rest,

He's not saying that your issue and your problem doesn't exist. He's not telling you that the doctor's diagnosis isn't real. He's not telling you that chemo is really tough. He's not telling you that dealing with family issues is really hurtful right now. He's not telling you that the money situation isn't bad. He's not telling you that the tax man breathing down your neck isn't making you frightened. He isn't saying all that. What he's saying is the problem isn't solved by your striving. It's not solved by our striving. So the invitation is even though the problem, friend, is still the problem, you can still have rest. The problem can remain the problem, but you can still have rest because God is God and we are not. And so we can rest in Him. See, the world can't get their head around the difference between rest, biblical rest and relaxation. I'm a big relaxation dude. I love it. Like book me into a spa day, any day, all day. Love it. Like, listen, if I had unlimited cash funds, I would wake up and have a massage. Like, I just love it. I just sit by the spa.

You know what I mean? Like, it's just peaceful. It's just incredible. Just the aromas, you know, like the lavender, woof. Anybody else? Come on, man. You can admit this. This is okay to like this. And we're gonna do a men's spa day. It was like, why is it always the men's stuff? We gotta do like stuff that hurts. No, what's spa day, man? What is spa day? A lot of spa day and spa days, man, they're meant to be relaxing for your body and for your mind. And I remember when I first started going to these spa days, just out in the English countryside. Just pitch for it, we're in Oxford. English trees, fresh air. It's one of those. swimming pools that goes from the inside to the outside. It's amazing. And I'm sitting there, I just finished a massage for my wife. I'm sitting there and I'm in the robe, listening to the birds, tweet, tweet, tweet, tweet. And I'm trying to relax. But yeah, anybody been in those moments where you're trying to relax

and everything around you is still, the environment is set. But my mind, my mind is running a thousand miles per hour. I got problem after problem after problem. I'm trying to solve, I'm trying to figure out. I got 99 problems, a lot of problems. It's going, going, going, going, going, going, going, going, going, and even though I'm still, and I'm set everything right, somehow my mind is still frantic. And I realized this, biblical rest is not about doing nothing. It's about trusting God with what I cannot control. And what God invites every single one of us into is to rest in Him, to trust Him with the things outside of your control. You're trying to figure out stuff, move pieces, do the puzzle together. And He's saying, would you just rest in me? You don't need to go to relaxation spa, although that is good. But would you rest in me? Biblical rest is saying, God, I believe you can work with or without me. Mama, trust you with this stuff. That's why rest and Sabbath is an act of faith. When you rest in God, you declare, I am not my productivity. When you stop striving and you begin to rest in God, you can say that God doesn't need me to be God.

I trust Him to be God and only God. Rest says the world can continue without me because I ain't holding the world, but I know the one who does hold the world. So I'm resting in Him. That's why we work from rest, not for rest. We got this building and we moved into this building seven months ago. Incredible, incredible building. And we had some different chairs over at the town stage in our old building, if you remember, if you were there. We put some new chairs in here. And I get emails, man, I get emails. Let me tell you about the emails I get. I get some emails. Some emails, text messages and some stuff. I didn't get one email about our chairs. No one emailed me about our chairs. No one emailed me and says, Pastor Dan, we're moving into Trillith Live. See, we got new chairs. I would like to see and know the manufacturer of these chairs. I would like to know their history in making chairs. I would like to know if they can actually hold the weight that they say that they can hold. This Thanksgiving was tough. I wanna know. No one person did that. You all came in to the gathering.

You'd go on the chair, worshiped, sat down. Y'all were good, real good. No one asked me. No one questioned. No one, let me see the weight limit on there. Just test it. No, you just all just sat down. And then when we all sat down, no one went like this. I'm resting, resting. No one held their weight. What do we do? Some of us like this. We're resting. Well, we're resting. We're trusting. Why are we trusting? We're trusting what says is designed to hold our weight, will hold our weight. So when I rest and when I sit, I can drop the weight. I don't have to carry it for this moment. And from a place of rest, I get up and I go. Some of us have lost the art or never figured out the art of how to just simply rest in Christ, rest in God. Not try and pretend we're resting and still try and hold stuff together and figure out why we're still tired. But listen, when we give stuff to God and we're able to simply rest,

oh, you're gonna walk out renewed. Oh, the issue is still the issue. The problem is still there. The diagnosis is still in front of you. The kids are still running wild, but you're walking out. We're walking from a place of rest now. God is inviting us friends to rest and some of you have been carrying what you cannot carry and God is saying, give it to me. Wonder why we're always tired, always frantic in our minds and God is inviting us, hey, give it to me. You can't deal with that. You weren't designed. The whole idea of repentance and rest for your salvation is that you can't save yourself. We needed someone and God says, give it to me. Come to me, all who are weary and heavy burdened. I will give you rest. He wants to give you rest. He wants you to turn to him and rest in him and see what he can do. And then he says, in quietness and trust, you'll be strong. In quietness, in trust, you'll be strong. The Hebrew word for quietness carries this idea of stillness because you ever notice that you can't hear clearly when everything is moving so crazily around you or everything around you or in you is really loud.

I have a really small family. I have a mom and two brothers. That was my family growing up and started dating Joe at 17 and I got introduced to Joe's family. If you're watching Joe's family, I love you. And Joe's family, she's one of six. It's a lot of people, it's a lot of people. And her family, that's the six have all got partners. Well, those partners have got multiple kids. As you can imagine, it's loud. I don't know how they got to this point. It's just loud. And I'll go there and I remember one of the first times I went, babe, and we're there and just everyone is just talking at the same time. You know, like at my house, it was civilized. We are civilized type of people. One person talks, the others listen, respond, ask a question. Ah, how's that make you feel? Like that kind of stuff. But Joe's house, everyone talking at the same time. Everyone, and somehow they're having this. Her mom has this amazing ability, Jill, to have seven conversations on the go at the same time. She has this ability. She goes, dad, how's your day been? I'm like, oh, she cares. I'll start answering her.

And like five seconds in the conversation, she's talking to someone else. I'm like, doesn't matter anyway. She's loud. I remember like I just the first time, like I go to the corner of the room and I'm with my brother-in-law who also comes from a really small family and we're sitting in the corner of the room, just rocking. It was just too loud. It's the reality of her life. And the reality of our lives is that things are loud. Fear is loud. Hello. Worry is loud. Control is loud. Comparison is loud. Trying to figure out the future is loud. Everything around us is loud. Ambition can be loud. Other people's opinions of us is loud in our minds. But God has invited us into quietness. Why? Because He often speaks in the quiet. In the long whisper, it says in 1 Kings. And He's invited us to just get away with Him so that we can hear Him. Because He is speaking. Sometimes we're asking God, why are you not speaking? Why are you not doing anything?

And He says, I am. It's just you're too busy, buddy. I need you to turn back to me. I need you to trust me. I need you to still yourself so you can hear me. And God is inviting every single one of us to listen to Him, to hear what He's got to say, that He wants to say. It's an invitation to hear what God is already speaking. But so often in our world, stillness and quietness can be seen like weakness. But the Bible says that the Lord says that our quietness is strength. The ability to wait upon the Lord. Try to figure it out and look good out there. But to wait. and be quiet with the Lord and figure, I can't do this by myself, I ain't figuring this out by myself, but I'm gonna be quiet with the Lord. It's a paradox of faith. Proverbs three, verse five. Trust in the Lord. With what? All your heart. Lean not on your own understanding. And he'll make your path straight. Trust in him, not on your understanding. And in the world we live in, we wanna understand. We want the explanations, we want the reasons, we want the formula.

And God's saying, no, no, no, you ain't gonna understand. Because I don't work the way that everyone else works. I'm God, I work differently. But here's what I'm inviting you into. To be quiet and to trust me. Did I say I'll be your provider? Well, trust me. Did I say I'll restore? Trust me. Do I say I'll redeem? Trust me. Trust the Lord. Because he doesn't often give us explanations, but he does always give us himself and his presence. And I don't know what you've been trusting. So know who you've been trusting. But Judah was trying to trust Egypt. They're trying to trust their own self, their own understanding, their own formula. And they rejected what God had on the table for them, the invitation of a lifetime. God's people. Unwilling. Unwilling because maybe they were afraid. Unwilling because they wanted control. Unwilling because they couldn't see what God was doing behind the scenes. So they moved to what they could see. Unwilling because they wanted immediate solutions, immediate results.

Unwilling because they had forgotten what God had already done. They were unwilling. They didn't want to surrender their way. They knew the invitation, but they were having none of it, the Bible says. The invitation for salvation, the invitation for strength, simply from coming back and resting in God and being still and quiet before God and trusting that God is God. But they were having none of it. And I don't want to be a person that is unwilling. I know we don't want to be a church, a people, that is unwilling to trust God in everything. I want to be a person that RSVP's to God, yes and amen. Amen. They were unwilling, but I love that they didn't know that salvation was coming, coming through one person and one person only. And His name is Jesus. He's coming. Amen. And although Judah was unwilling, the Bible tells me that when Jesus was in the garden of Gethsemane, He said, not my will, but your will be done. Not my ways, it ain't my preference. If there was another way, I'd ask you to take this cup from me,

but not my will, Lord, but your will. Jesus, thank God, was willing to lay down His life and carry His cross. And the invitation of that is the same for every single one of us, to lay down our cross, to pick up our cross, sir, and follow Him daily, daily. Are we willing? Are we willing? Are we trying to figure everything else out ourselves? Are we trying to make it ourselves? Are we trying to do stuff ourselves? Because what Jesus said on the cross, that it is finished. So that means I don't have to strive. I don't have to worry. I don't have to work for it. I get to receive it. No, we get to receive it. It's an invitation of a lifetime. Amen. For salvation. In strength, some of us are walking around going, why am I not strong? Why is every day an uphill battle? Why is every day a struggle? Why is my mind running a thousand miles per hour? Why is this happening? Why is that happening? We're trying to save ourselves,

figure stuff out for ourselves, trying to get strong in ourselves. God's saying, I told Judah, telling you, come back to me, rest in me, be still before me, and trust me. The question we have, church, is when we leave this place, are you willing? Yeah. Or will our Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, Saturday, demonstrate that we want nothing to do with it? That we may profess it, but we don't possess it. And God's saying, if you wanna be saved, if you wanna be strong, be willing to accept the invitation. And to accept the invitation, we have to be a people who will surrender our will for His will. Your will be done in my life.