Baptists Preaching is a column from the Baptist Standard. It is not an effort to advance any one theology or style but to present what a collection of Baptists considers a word from God. Likewise, Baptists Preaching offers a repository of Baptist preaching for future study and research. To recommend a sermon to be featured in Baptists Preaching, please contact eric.black@baptiststandard.com.
Linda Livingstone: Rest for Your Souls
Linda Livingstone, president of Baylor University, after quoting song lyrics by Tom Rosenthal about being too busy even to die, declared, “Jesus never commands us to operate at such an all-consuming, breakneck pace.” Rosenthal’s narrator didn’t have time to rest his soul. Jesus calls us to come to him and find rest.
Addressing Baylor faculty and staff, Livingstone briefly recounted all they had done during the now-concluded academic year. She then turned her focus to the Sabbath. The Sabbath rest was created by God, commanded by God and practiced by Jesus, she instructed.
Busyness is a temptation difficult to resist, Livingstone admitted. She also called hurry—an expression of busyness—“a great enemy of spiritual life in our day.” Gallop reported educators at all levels report “the highest level of burnout of any industry.” Good educators need to rest their souls.
Livingstone concluded with two ways her hearers can “give God space to restore our souls.”
Livingstone delivered this sermon May 5, 2023, at Baylor University’s Truett Theological Seminary for the annual “Lift Up Your Hearts” faculty and staff worship service. A recording of the sermon was not available.
A sermon script is available here.
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