7 Transformational Habits, Part VI - The Sabbath

Well, good morning, good morning, good morning.

You can go ahead and find your seats today.

Welcome to church.

What a great day to be in church.

Anybody glad to be here this morning?

There we go.

We can clap for that, absolutely.

Hey.

So we are jumping back in to our seven transformational habits series today, and I just I want to say off the top I don't know if you're like me the idea of like, being a disciplined person doesn't come naturally to me.

I don't always wake up at the same time, I don't always go to bed at the same time.

I was talking to my friend, jeff, at the first service.

Like, jeff is just a naturally disciplined person.

He can eat what he wants, like the right thing that he wants.

He wants to eat the right thing all the time, like I want to eat ice cream all the time.

You know, like somebody who's naturally disciplined and I'm not and if you're not like maybe you feel like me like these spiritual disciplines that we're talking about can quickly become just another thing that we're supposed to do, and it's not that at all.

These are our means to an end.

The goal is to relate to God.

The goal is to live in relationship with God, we're not trying to add something else to your to-do list.

And so, with this conversation today about Sabbath, about resting, the last thing that I want for you to do is to walk out of here with this sense of shame and guilt and condemnation and go.

I need to do better at doing less, because that didn't make any sense, right, like?

That's not the point of this today.

The goal today, one is evaluation.

Let's evaluate how we use our time.

And then two, let's evaluate how the scriptures teach that Sabbath can impact that.

So it's evaluation.

And then two, it's invitation.

It's an invitation today to rest in Jesus.

Anybody still trying to recover from time change weekend?

Right, there's an invitation today to rest in Jesus.

So, with that said, we're going to read a scripture verse from Exodus, chapter 20.

Exodus 20 · chapter mention

This is the passage where Moses is receiving the 10 commandments from God, and this is commandment number four, given to the Israelites at Mount Sinai.

God says to Israel remember or observe the Sabbath day to keep it holy.

Take a day out of your week and use that day to worship God and to rest your soul.

Observe the Sabbath, keep it holy.

Six days you shall labor, do all your work, but the seventh day is a Sabbath to the Lord, your God.

On it you shall not do any work, you or your son or your daughter, your male servant, your female servant, or your livestock or the sojourner who is within your gates.

For in six days the Lord made heaven and earth, the sea and all that is in them, and rested on the seventh day.

Therefore, the Lord blessed the Sabbath day and made it holy, after our prayer today.

So, god, we would evaluate our lives in light of your word and, father, that we would see the beauty and the invitation of Sabbath, of finding our rest in the finished work of Jesus.

In Jesus' name, and everybody says amen, amen, thanks, sam.

You can come back in a little while if that sounds good.

Work for you, okay.

Thanks, dude.

You're a good man, sam.

You're a good man, okay, anybody.

Just feel like the rhythm of your life is a little bit out of control.

In other words, do you have children?

Do you have a job?

Do you live in 2024?

The rhythm of life in our day and time is wild and everybody's got a rhythm.

So let's talk about your life for a moment.

What is the rhythm of your life?

What do you do on Sunday?

What do you do on Monday?

What's your Tuesday look like?

How's Wednesday go?

Do you go to dance on Thursday or Friday?

Does your child play baseball on Tuesday or Saturday?

What's the rhythm of your life look like?

We all have a rhythm to life.

Some of our rhythm it's like this it's pretty, the rhythm of life is pretty quick.

Ideally, the rhythm of life would be something like this You're looking at me kind of funny this morning, but like a rhythm that is steady and consistent and we know when the next beat is coming.

And we know what's happening on Saturday morning and we know what's going to happen at work next Monday afternoon.

It's when that's not fun, right?

Nobody likes that.

We're looking at me like we don't like this.

We like it when the rhythm of life is consistent and steady and we know what to expect.

We know when the next downbeat is coming.

We all have a rhythm and maybe you know I was told the first service my seven-year-old just started playing baseball.

Seven-year-old playing baseball.

He practices three times a week and they play 17 games in coach's pitch Like there's a lot.

He's loving it.

There's a lot After baseball.

My four-year-old and my seven-year-old are on the swim team.

It's great because they swim every day for an hour and they're exhausted afterwards.

They sleep well at night, which is great for everybody.

But what that means is the rhythm of life is pretty quick.

Right, I have a job, my wife has a job, we have family requirements and things that we do as a family, and so there's like there's a rhythm, and the rhythm is pretty quick, and maybe you feel the same.

The rhythm of life has a tendency to speed up and get faster as we go.

And now here's the thing.

Here's the thing God also has a rhythm.

There's a way in which God works.

And to help us understand this, hear this today, brandon, I need your help.

Man Brandon's going to jump on the drums and he is going to audibly illustrate for us the rhythm of God.

Now, brandon, it's not God.

I told him this morning do not mess this up Rhythm of God on the drums.

God is steady and consistent and steadfast.

He doesn't change.

Don't mess the rhythm up.

But God's rhythm?

It's more complex than ours, right, like?

Hey, what do you do tomorrow?

I go to work.

What does God do tomorrow?

God upholds the universe with the word of his power.

Right, like God's got a little bit more going on in his rhythm than I have in mine.

So maybe, if my rhythm is this, god's might sound something like this it's pretty good, what do y'all think?

Pretty good, it's all right, okay.

So God's got his rhythm.

God is consistent, he is steadfast, he is always at work for his glory and for the good of those who love him and who are called according to his purpose.

God's rhythm is consistent.

Now, here's what's beautiful.

Here's what's beautiful.

God invites us, by grace, through faith in Christ, to join in with his rhythm.

We don't have to figure out our own rhythm, we don't have to make it up as we go.

We get to, by grace, through faith, partner with the rhythm of God.

And so, rather than us doing our own thing and trying to figure out our own rhythm, we get to do this.

And then, the more you walk with God, maybe you go, and when you're really crushing it with God, you might go, and we have this rhythm that we get into with God, inevitably what happens?

And then we start panicking.

You're actually just like, wait a minute, wait a minute.

God's got a rhythm and he's doing something, and now we don't know where our rhythm is and God's doing his own.

What are we doing?

And then we're trying to find our rhythm with God and now it's out of control.

Anybody ever felt like that?

That's good, thank you.

Rhythm of God on the drums.

Can we thank Brandon over here?

Appreciate it.

Man, god's got a rhythm and he invites us to partner with him and when it works it is beautiful and we know why.

We're on the planet and the pace is sustainable and God is showing up and working.

But inevitably what happens?

We get out of rhythm.

And here's what's interesting when we get out of rhythm, it is not God who has changed.

It is that our attention has shifted, our focus has moved.

The desires of our heart, the affections of our heart are trending in a different direction.

God doesn't move, we drift, and if we're not careful, over time what we find is that God has a rhythm, he is steadfast and consistent, and then we're out doing our own thing our own way.

Question for us today why do we get out of rhythm?

Just a couple of thoughts to consider, and maybe this will apply to your life, maybe not, but God, we wear busyness like a badge of honor.

The busier I am, the better I must be.

The more I can do, the more I am worth, the more that I achieve, the more people will admire me.

The more that I can accomplish, the more well-known I become.

My value is in my doing.

When I achieve more, I rise higher in my organization and my friends admire me and I might go viral on Instagram and then maybe I can become an influencer and tell other people how they need to be doing more and what they should be doing that they're not doing.

And then everybody can just achieve like I achieve.

And we live with this pressure to fill our lives to the brim with doing more.

Anybody feel that you gotta work more, you gotta parent more, you gotta meal prep more, you gotta workout more, you gotta travel more, you gotta make more, you got to achieve more, you gotta do more.

And then we look around and we're like I'm barely hanging on, just do what I'm doing right now and I don't feel like I'm doing much.

You ever felt that you know studies just for fun?

Today, studies have shown that the person who works 90 hours a week achieves no more than the person who works 50 hours a week.

There's a point at which our doing has some serious diminishing returns.

James, are you telling us not to work hard.

No, quite the opposite.

I'm telling you to work really hard for the glory of God, at whatever your hand finds to do.

As followers of Christ, we ought to be the best employees on the planet because we know why we are working hard and at the same time, we work in rhythm.

We don't equate our doing with our being.

We don't place our worth in our work.

We have worth because we were made in the image of God.

It doesn't matter how busy I get.

That doesn't change how God loves me and sees me.

My value is not in my doing.

My value is in my being.

We were busy-ness like a badge of honor.

Second reason that we get out of rhythm with God is we fill the space with noise.

In other words, if we're not doing, we're consuming the moments where we're not busy.

You finally get a night at home.

You finally get a moment to relax.

You're sitting at work and you've got 15 minutes left on your lunch break.

There's nothing to do right now.

What do we do?

When's the last time you had a moment of peace and quiet and calm and you just sat there in the moment?

Maybe you're better than me.

Maybe that's how you do things.

You know what most of us do in moments of peace and quiet and calm.

We reach into our pocket and pull out our cell phone Scroll, swipe, amazon.

What's Prime got for me today?

What's my email?

What's my email look like today.

You get home at night.

You got a night free.

When's the last time that you just sat down at night and had an intentional conversation with someone?

Oh, what do we do?

What's on TV?

Let me check Netflix.

Let me see there's another show that's in my watch list and tonight's the night I can start it.

And next thing we know it's 1130 and we've watched way too much TV because when we have a gap in the busy, we fill it with noise.

I'll be honest I'm not a I don't like silence.

My bent is to fill the space with something, whether I'm driving in the car, if I'm at home by myself, like Terry gives me a hard time, so you're not even watching it, it's just on.

I'm like well, I don't like silence, but what I'm learning is that I need the noise to go down.

I need moments of quiet, I need moments of stillness, I need moments of rest.

So if our cultural norm is busyness and noise, that creates an issue for us, creates an issue for us.

Cs Lewis had this great line in an essay he wrote in 1963.

What year, 1963.

How many years ago was 1963?

61 years ago.

This is what Lewis said In our time and place.

What time and place?

1963.

He said avoiding God is extremely easy.

You avoid silence, avoid solitude, avoid any train of thought that leads off the beaten track.

Concentrate on money, sex, status, health and, above all, on your own grievances.

Keep the radio on or in our moment, keep Netflix on, keep Roku running, keep YouTube feeding.

You live in a crowd, use plenty of sedation.

To some, god is discoverable everywhere, to others, nowhere.

What makes the difference?

Why is it that some people are able to live in constant relationship with God and others of us we walk around and we're like where is God at Now?

What makes the difference?

I would argue today that it's about rhythm.

It's about bringing our lives into line with the rhythm of God.

And can I just say that?

If this was true in 1963, how much more true is it today?

If you want to avoid God, you can, but on the flip side, if you want to find God, I would argue that God is willing to be found by you.

God is waiting for you.

And so the question then becomes well, where is God waiting for us?

And into this conversation I want to interject the idea of Sabbath.

If our cultural norm is busyness and noise, sabbath is the means by which we step back from the busy and regained perspective.

If our cultural norm is to turn the volume up on the noise around us, sabbath is the slider on the soundboard that allows us to turn the volume down and hear the voice of God.

You need a definition for Sabbath this morning.

Sabbath, it's a reset for our heart to bring us back into rhythm with God.

At the risk of mixing metaphors today, if your heart goes into arrhythmia, what happens?

If your heart gets out of rhythm, what does the doctor do?

They shock it.

Right, they administer a shock.

They put a pacemaker in it, a fibrillator in it, so that when your heart gets out of rhythm, it's shocked back into rhythm.

And Sabbath is the shock to the system of our spiritual heart that brings us back into rhythm with God.

So how does this work.

Let's look at a little biblical theology of the Sabbath today.

The first idea is this Sabbath is built into the rhythm of creation.

This isn't a man-made idea.

If you look at Genesis, chapter 1, six days are detailed there.

Genesis 1 · chapter mention

And God creates, he speaks and things happen, universes are built, the heavens and the earth, and the earth sprouts, vegetation and animals come to be on the earth and the waters are full of fish and whales and all sorts of living creatures, and God makes animals to walk the planet.

God makes Adam and Eve and his image.

And then chapter 2 begins like this Stust of heavens and the earth were finished and all the host of them.

And on the seventh day God finished his work that he had done and he rested on the seventh day from all his work that he had done.

Now question for you today Did God rest because God got tired?

Like, did God get to day seven?

Like woke up that morning and was like, wow, what a week.

I'm exhausted, my legs are sore, my voice is tired from creating all of these things with the word of power from my mouth.

I think I'm just going to take today and take it easy.

Did God need to rest?

No, so then, why is God resting on day seven?

God blessed the seventh day.

He blesses three things in Genesis, chapter 1 and the first few verses of chapter 2.

Genesis 1 · chapter mention

He blesses the animals and tells them to be fruitful and multiply, fill the earth.

He blesses Adam and Eve and tells them to be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth.

And the third thing that God blesses in Genesis, chapter 2, verse 3, is not an animal or a person, it's a day.

Genesis 2:3

God blesses the seventh day and what's he do Makes it holy.

Now, that's a phrase that we have not seen in Genesis 1 and 2 up to this point.

Everything that God does, everything that God creates, he calls it good, calls it very good.

This is the first thing that God calls holy and it's a day.

Now we read holy and we have our modern interpretation of what that means.

When the first readers of Genesis heard verse 3, in their mind they would have equated the idea of holiness with the idea of divine presence.

For something to be holy meant that the presence of God dwelt there.

So here's an example the pagans worshiped their false gods on top of the mountains.

The mountaintops were holy in their worship, because that is where they believe their God to dwell.

Some religious groups built ziggurats or temples to worship God.

Those temples were declared to be holy.

It was where their God dwelt.

And so in Genesis, chapter 2, verse 3, god blessed the seventh day and he made it holy.

Genesis 2:3

Everybody reading this in the ancient Near East would have gone.

Wait a minute, how can a day be holy?

How can God's presence dwell in a day?

God's presence dwells on the mountains.

God's presence dwells in a temple.

God's presence dwells in a ziggurat.

How can a day be holy?

But what happens is powerful.

God makes the seventh day, he blesses it and he declares it to be holy.

This is the place where you can meet with me.

Now.

What's significant about day seven?

It is Adam and Eve.

It is humanity's first full day on the planet.

What's God telling us?

He's saying hey, people, made in my image, you were designed and created to live in my presence.

You were made for God.

Before you do you be it's bad grammar, it's good theology Before you go out and do anything, be in the presence of God.

You were designed and created by God to live in his presence.

Adam and Eve spent their first day dwelling with God on the day that he declared to be holy, the first holiday holy day, if you will.

One theologian said Sabbath is the weekly Christmas.

It's a celebration of God and his goodness in the good world that God has made.

We don't have time to go down this track today, but I do want to say this there's a lot of bad in the world, is there not?

There's so much that we can look at and go.

That's not great.

And this is falling apart and this system seems to be crumbling around us.

In the middle of all that, god is still good.

He still is inviting us to live in his presence and to enjoy our life on this good world that God has made.

I know everything is not great and sometimes the circumstances aren't what we would choose, but God is still good and his world is still designed by him to lead us to a place of rest and worship.

The heavens are still declaring the glory of God.

The rocks are still crying out in worship to God.

Creation is still designed to leave us in awe of Almighty God.

What did Lewis say To some?

God is discoverable everywhere.

We live in a world designed by the hand of Almighty God to point us to the glory of God.

Sabbath this idea of resting in God is built into the rhythm of creation.

The second idea for us today, sabbath, is also built into the rhythm of the Old Covenant, when God gave the law to the people of Israel.

This is what it's going to take for you to live in my presence.

The fourth commandment.

We read it earlier Exodus, chapter 20, remember, don't forget.

Exodus 20 · chapter mention

Keep keeping the Sabbath, just meeting with me on my holy day.

Keep resting in my presence, remember the Sabbath day and keep it holy.

Why?

Because that's the rhythm that God has put into place.

For six days, god created.

On the seventh day, god rested.

If God chose to rest on the seventh day, how much more so do we, who are simply made in the image of God we're not God how much more do we need to rest?

I don't know if I can take a day off, you can Chick-fil-A does.

They could make like a billion and a half more dollars if they opened on Sunday and they don't.

And it's better, except for when you want a chicken sandwich on Sunday.

You can rest on a day.

You can take a moment and take a breath and take a step back from the busyness and the noise.

If God can rest, so can you.

So can you.

It's built into the rhythm of creation.

It's built into the rhythm of the old covenant.

You know, it's interesting, even the land in the Old Testament days was commanded to take a Sabbath.

Leviticus, chapter 25,.

Leviticus 25 · chapter mention

God says to the Israelites For six years you shall sow your field.

For six years you shall prune your vineyard and gather in its fruits.

But in the seventh year there shall be a Sabbath of solemn rest for the land, a Sabbath to the Lord.

Don't sow your field or prune your vineyard, don't reap what grows of itself in your harvest or gather the grapes of your undressed vine.

It shall be a year of solemn rest for the land.

Now listen to verse six.

The Sabbath of the land shall provide food for you.

So when we rest, what we are saying is God, I trust the systems that you have set up.

God, I trust your design.

I know it doesn't make sense for Chick-fil-A to give up a billion dollars a year, but we trust your system, we trust your order, we trust your rhythm.

We believe that you see more than we see and we feel like we can't stop, but we know you tell us we need to stop.

So when we rest, we are saying to God God, we trust you.

Sabbath is built into the order of creation.

It's built into the old covenant.

But the third idea is this Sabbath was always designed for God's glory and for our good.

Why does God want us to stop so that he can look down and say, hey, they stopped.

No, god doesn't ask you to do anything that's not going to both bring glory to him and, one day, ultimately benefit your life.

When God gives you a boundary, or when God gives you a command like God's not trying to limit you, god's trying to release you into the freedom that he has for you, god's commands are God's blessings.

When God tells you to do something, you can trust his heart.

He's got a father's heart for his kids.

But here's what happens as time passes.

Guess what Israel does.

Think back to our audio illustration at the beginning.

They get out of rhythm and Sabbath, rather than being an internal resting in God, sabbath becomes this external practice.

Just like we've said over and over again in this series, it's easy to take these spiritual disciplines and do them in such a way so as to be impressive to people around us, but not with a heart for God.

And that's what happens in Israel.

Sabbath becomes just a legal requirement to be kept, not a moment of trust and rest and faith in God.

And so in Mark chapter, matthew, chapter 12,.

Matthew 12 · chapter mention

We're going to look at two passages of the same narrative, same story.

Matthew, chapter 12,.

Matthew 12 · chapter mention

Jesus is walking through the grain fields on the Sabbath.

His disciples were hungry, matthew says, and they began to pluck heads of grain and eat.

So they're walking through a grain field that's not their own.

The Old Testament law allowed them to pluck a few heads of grain and eat because they were hungry.

They could do that.

But the problem is what it's on the Sabbath.

And guess what you couldn't do on the Sabbath?

You couldn't travel, you couldn't walk more than 1,999 paces on the Sabbath.

That was too much effort.

You couldn't travel and you couldn't pluck grain.

And so they're plucking grain because they're hungry.

And guess who sees?

The Pharisees saw it.

They said to Jesus look your disciples.

They're doing what is not lawful to do on the Sabbath.

Jesus said to them have you not read what David did when he was hungry, and those who were with him?

He entered the house of God and ate the bread of the presence, which it was not lawful for him to eat, nor for those who were with him, but only for the priests.

So David, who was the king on the Sabbath, he was hungry and he understood that God's heart was not external requirement of law but internal resting in God, david and his people.

They ate the bread on the Sabbath that they weren't supposed to eat and they weren't condemned for it.

Or Jesus says if you not read in the law how, on the Sabbath, the priests and the temple profane the Sabbath and are guiltless.

In other words, the priest guess what?

Sabbath hitting an off day for them.

They're working.

For me, sunday is my Monday.

You know what I mean.

Like this is a work day, right.

And Jesus says the priests in the Old Testament temple, they're working on the Sabbath, they're guiltless.

And I tell you, jesus says something greater than the temple is here.

And if you had known what this means and he quotes Hosea, the prophet, I desire mercy and not sacrifice you would not have condemned the guiltless.

In other words, it's not about the external, it's about the internal heart, for the Son of man is Lord of the Sabbath.

Now I want you to see something really quickly.

Jesus references three Old Testament figures.

He references David, who was the king, and he explains to the Pharisees hey, you know this story.

You ought to have realized that David and his men, they were okay in the sight of God.

Don't miss the point.

David was okay.

Not only that, consider the priest.

They are okay in the sight of God.

They are guiltless.

And how about a prophet, hosea?

You don't understand what the prophet said.

I desire mercy and not sacrifice.

So Jesus references a king, a priest and a prophet and then proclaims himself to be the Lord of the Sabbath.

What he's saying is this I, as Lord of the Sabbath, have the right to interpret for you what it means to be prophet, priest and king.

Translation Jesus is looking at the Pharisees, saying you have missed the point and right now you're in the process of missing Emmanuel, god with you.

Jesus is the greater prophet, he's the greater priest, he's the greater king.

He is the Lord of the Sabbath.

He is over even the Sabbath.

In Mark, chapter two, we see the same narrative with a little bit different detail.

I wanna read that for us today as well.

When, sabbath, he was going through the grain fields and as they made their ways, disciples began to plug heads of grain.

The Pharisees were saying to him look, why are they doing what's not lawful in the Sabbath?

And he said to them have you never read what David did when he was in need and was hungry, he and those who were with him.

He entered the house of God in the time of a biath or the high priest, and he ate the bread of the presence, which is not lawful for any but the priest to eat, and he also gave it to those who were with him and he said to them the Sabbath was made for man, not man for the Sabbath.

So the son of man is Lord even of the Sabbath.

Jesus makes the point.

The Sabbath has always been about the glory of God and the good of God's people.

It's about teaching us that there is a God and we are not God, but we are invited to rest in the presence of God.

Aren't you grateful that God invites us to rest in his presence, that you don't have to figure out the rhythm of your life on your own, but you have been invited into the Sabbath rest of God by the blood of Jesus.

The author of Hebrews in Hebrews, chapter four, is talking about how the Israelites in the Old Testament, because of their own failure, because of their own tendency to get out of a rhythm, they never experienced the fullness of rest that God offers.

Then the author of Hebrews goes on and says but Jesus by his blood has opened a better way for me and for you.

We get to live now because of Jesus, forgiven, free, released from condemnation and shame and guilt.

The author of Hebrews says we dwell perpetually in this state of resting in God.

So question for you today when you examine your life and you evaluate how you're using your time are you resting in God or are you trusting in you?

Are you resting in God or are you trusting in you?

I think, if we're honest, most of us would look at our lives.

We look at our schedule, we look at our calendar, we look at what we think about and where our mind goes in moments of stillness and quiet and we're like, yeah, a little bit of both.

I know I should be resting in God and I've trusted God for salvation, but I'm really working hard in this area, trying to do it on my own here, or maybe I forget that I can trust God with my family.

I worry about my kids and I worry about their future and the world that they're gonna grow up in.

You know I trust God with my eternity, but I'm really concerned about what's gonna happen in November in our country.

I don't know if I can rest in God when it comes to the political future of America.

Anybody, you wanna admit that on a Sunday, as we do that?

Right, it's like I trust God in this, but I don't know about in this Sabbath.

It's a reset for your heart.

In the midst of a world where we are torn, where we are pulled, where we are divided, where our hearts are pulled in different directions depending on what day it is, sabbath is a reset for our heart to bring us back into rhythm with God.

You can trust God.

You can trust Him with your kids.

You can trust Him with your future.

You can trust Him with your career.

You can trust Him with your family.

You can trust Him with your home.

You can trust Him with your business.

You can trust Him with whatever you want to fill in the blank.

You can trust God.

And maybe you're sitting here today and you're like well, I trusted God with this and it didn't turn out the way I thought that it would.

Sabbath is the reminder that, even when we rest, god is still at work.

God's still in the business of bringing beauty from ashes.

He's still the Romans 8, 28 God who in all things works for His glory and for the good of those who love Him and who are called according to His purpose.

God's got a plan for whatever it is that he's going to do for us.

God's got a plan for whatever it is that, in your world, looks like has fallen apart.

God's doing something, in fact.

In fact, maybe it is the area of your life where you feel like there is nothing happening and everything is going wrong.

Maybe that's the area that God is at work in the most, because when you come out the other side, only God could get the glory for what happened in that area of your life.

Because if we can take the credit, we will.

If we can figure out a way to make ourselves look good in this scenario, we will.

Sabbath is the reminder my hope, my rest, my future.

It is anchored to God.

So what do we do with this Principle?

And a practical thought Principle is this Find what stirs your heart with love for God and do more of that.

Find the thing that stirs you up with affection for God and do more of that.

There's a Jewish theologian.

His name's Abraham Hachel.

He is probably the leading theologian on Sabbath in the Jewish tradition.

He said this he said Sabbath if you work with your head, sabbath with your hands.

And if you work with your hands, sabbath with your head.

So if you spend all day and you just think all the time, get outside, build a fire and sit by the fire, go play golf or go catch a fish or go for a run or do something that moves you outside of the normal rhythm of your life.

If you work with your hands and you're on a ladder swinging a hammer, you're chasing toddlers, you're teaching elementary school, you're cooking in a restaurant or you're working out in the fields all day long, whatever it is that you're doing, if you're doing it with your hands, then Sabbath with your head.

Make a cup of coffee, put your feet up, have a conversation with somebody that you love and encourages you, but figure out what it is in your life that brings you joy in the Lord and it fixes your attention on God, and do more of that.

I wrote down two questions to ask when it comes to figuring out what that is that stirs you up to love and worship God.

One is it restful?

You know, maybe you're the kind of person like you go for a drive, you get stressed out and you wanna like run over somebody Cause they can't drive.

Well, maybe don't go for a drive on your Sabbath.

Maybe you're the kind of person like a long drive on the interstate, like that's a place where I can turn some worship music on, or I can ride in silence and solitude and I can pray and think, and that restores my soul.

There's room under the covenant of grace for you to figure out what brings you joy in the Lord and do that on the Sabbath.

Jesus says the Sabbath was made for man.

This is an opportunity for you to find what stirs up your heart with love for God and to do that.

So is it?

Is it restful?

And then, number two is it worship?

Let's be honest.

There's some things that you can't do on the Sabbath cause it's not worship, right?

Maybe it's sinful, it's not part of the Sabbath.

Maybe it's another block in the busyness tower that is our life.

Don't do that on the Sabbath.

Maybe it's something that just contributes to the noise of culture.

Don't go fill your Amazon shopping cart on the Sabbath and just start thinking about all the stuff you don't have, that they have, and all the stuff that you want, that you don't need.

Right?

Is it restful?

Is it worship?

And then do more of the things that are restful and worship and orient your heart towards God.

Practical.

Maybe you're here today and you're like, hey, the idea of Sabbath sounds great, but have you seen my schedule?

Have you seen my calendar?

I don't have a spare minute in a day, much less a full day, much less a half a day.

I don't have a block in my time that I can set aside every single week for Sabbath.

Just wanna challenge you with this one.

Start maybe with the gathering together of believers on Sunday and I know I'm talking to people who are in the room.

You're here on Sunday.

You're starting your week worshiping and resting in God.

I love that.

Just make it a habit, make it a rhythm.

You need this, not because of what I have to offer, what the band leads us through, but because church is an opportunity for us to hear from God, for us to bring our gifts together and encourage one another and to minister to one another.

We need to gather together.

Maybe beyond that, you're like I don't know, I don't know where in my schedule I could fit Sabbath.

Here's something that I'm doing and challenge you so that way I'm not out here just wrestling with this on my own all day you are timed.

I'm willing to bet that for most of us in the room, we have more free time than we think we do.

We've just gotten really good at filling it with something else.

Maybe start with the iPhone in your pocket and check your screen time the box of tissue right beside you.

You wipe the tears away when you realize how much time is just going away as you scroll.

It's like how good are you at managing time?

Well, I managed to waste a lot of it.

You know that's what I found All at your time.

Where's my time going when?

Maybe I really don't have time in my schedule.

Well, are the things in my schedule, things that I have chosen, things that are important, things that are significant, things that are leading me to become the person that God has called me and created me to be, or has my schedule been hijacked by a lot of other people with demands on my life?

I know we have jobs and we have children that have to eat and get to school and bedtime and all that stuff, but we all have more control over our schedule than we think we do.

So let's just audit the time, my wasting time here that I could reprioritize, repurpose, maybe see it with a new perspective.

God, how can I live in a state of worship and rest?

Maybe you're here today and you're like this whole conversation is just exhausting.

I'm just tired already.

I want to close with this.

Matthew, chapter 11.

Matthew 11 · chapter mention

Jesus, right before this conversation with the Pharisees on the Sabbath, he looks at his disciples and he says come to me, come to me.

All who labor, who toil, who are striving, who are exhausted, all who labor and are heavy laden and heavy laden in this context has to do with you're carrying the weight of religious duty that's been leveled on your shoulders by the Pharisees.

Jesus in another place, the Pharisees, they like to tie up heavy burdens and load them on the people's backs.

It's not what we're trying to do today.

I just want to be clear on that.

Come to Jesus, all who labor and are heavy laden, and I, jesus, will give you rest.

Take my yoke upon you, learn from me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart and you will find rest for your soul.

My yoke is easy and my burden is light.

I love Eugene Peterson's paraphrase of this passage in the message.

He says it like this are you tired, are you worn out, are you burned out on religion.

Come to me, get away with me and you'll recover your life.

I'll show you how to take a real rest.

Walk with me and work with me.

Watch how I do it.

Learn the unforced rhythms of grace.

I won't lay anything heavy or ill-fitting on you.

Keep company with me and you'll learn to live freely and lightly the unforced rhythms of grace.

You don't have to earn God's love.

You don't have to earn your place in God's family.

Grace is a free gift of a good God who loves you and who knows you and who's inviting you to walk with his resurrected son, full of his spirit, all the days of your life.

I was talking with Zach earlier this week about this message and this passage in particular, and when it comes to this idea of the rhythm of grace, zach made this great point.

He was like you know, it's like hearing a song Maybe you've never heard before, but the rhythm just gets to you and all of a sudden you're like you tap in your feet to a song you've never heard.

It's like this is good, I like this.

This just it's right, it's what I need.

You ever been in that place?

Like I don't know.

I've never heard this song before in my life, but I love it.

I love the rhythm.

It's grace, the free gift of a good God who invites you to know him and to walk with him.

It's a foreign concept of so many people in our world.

God loves me just as I am.

God promises to walk with me, to transform me by his power from the inside out.

God invites me to bring all of my stuff and all of my junk and rest in him.

That's grace.

So if you just bow your head for a moment right when you are this morning, I want to ask simply one question.

If you're a follower of Jesus and you're in the room today, you're like I have a lot of junk, that I'm trying to carry, a lot of load, that I'm trying to lug a lot of weight that I'm trying to make it under, and you're like today, I want to learn to rest in Jesus.

I want the Sabbath rest of God present in my life.

We just raise your hand right where you are.

I'm anxious, I'm worn out, I'm stressed out, I'm nervous about the future.

I need the Sabbath rest of God.

Father, I pray for my brothers and sisters all across the room this morning who are in a place of fatigue and were worn out, exhausted because of the circumstances of life and the pressure that they're under.

God, pressure is real and life is hard, and, at the same time, your grace is sufficient.

Your mercy is real.

God, you are enough.

You have enough strength and capacity to lead us through whatever it is that we're walking through.

So, father, may we rest in you.

One more question this morning, maybe you're here and the idea of resting in God is foreign to you because you don't have a relationship with God.

That's why Jesus came.

That's why he lived the perfect life.

He never sinned, he never failed, he never fell short of the calling of God.

That's why Jesus shed his blood on a cross, so that I could be forgiven and you could be forgiven.

If you're here today and you don't have a relationship with God, I wanna invite you, right where you are, to surrender your life to Jesus, to pray these words God, I turn from my sin and I place my faith in Jesus.

I want to live in relationship to you through the finished word of Jesus Christ.

In Jesus' name, amen.

If you prayed that prayer this morning, what's significant is not the words of the prayer.

It's what God is doing in your heart as you turn to him.

I wanna invite you.

We're gonna stand and we're gonna sing and if today, for the first time, you gave your life to Christ, meet me back at the back, love, to hear about what God is doing in your life and encourage you with the next steps that follow up on that.

We're gonna stand and we're gonna sing.

We're gonna respond in worship today.

We're gonna rest in who Jesus is and what Jesus has done.

If you need to pray, you need to join the church, I'll be back at the back.

Let's stand and respond together this morning.