Our Rule of Life - Sabbath

Right.

So our rule of life, here we go.

We are going to be bringing this series home this month, and we've

got just a couple of more practices that we're gonna be speaking into.

And to the practice that we are speaking into today is the practice of Sabbath.

But let me just, um, I guess, orientate us by looking at this slide here.

And so as you know, well, if you've been around here for a little while,

this series that we've been in has been looking at nine different practices

that we really want to embody and gather around here as a church.

What are the point of these practices?

Well, they are to help us follow Jesus and to help us grow in

our Christ-likeness as well.

These are intentional ways and means that are founded in Scripture by how

we be with Jesus and become more like Jesus, and then be going out into the

world and living in the way that Jesus did, doing the things that Jesus did.

And so this particular practice, the practice of Sabbath, comes

under the value of being reliant.

So we have our three core values here of being real, relational, and reliant.

And so we resist self-reliance by abiding in Christ through the practices of prayer

and fasting, which we, we have already spent a couple of Sundays exploring Now

we come to Sabbath, the weekly practice of ceasing from work and striving.

And so, as most of you will be aware, recently, relatively recently,

Adam and I were in Scotland.

We took a trip to bonnie old Scotland.

Beautiful, beautiful place.

Amazing place.

And one of the main reasons that we went was to go to this little

conference in the Outer Hebrides in a place called Stornoway.

And one of the things I found really interesting, um, in going to this place

where the Hebrides revival happened, which was back in the late 1940s, this

three-year outpouring of God's presence, radical outpouring of God's presence

in this tiny little place in the outer reaches of Scotland, kinda the end of

the world kinda vibes, is that when I…

Well, something I like to do when I go to a new place is kind of, um, in- try

and embed myself in the context of it by reading, like, historical fiction or s- or

a, some kind of book that, or books that are grounded in the context of the place.

And so while, uh, before we got to Stornoway, I discovered there was this

author who was from Stornoway who'd recently put out this murder mystery

book, and it was getting rated quite well, and it's set in Stornoway.

And I thought, "Okay. Well, good holiday read, so I'll read that."

What was so striking was reading this book was, okay, here we are.

We're heading into this place which is known for this revival, this

massive outpouring of God's Spirit.

And we're there, and it's amazing to see all these places and hear from

people about this amazing move of God.

And then I'm reading this book.

And you can clearly get the impression that this author had a vastly different

experience of the church in Stornoway.

And his s- he was about around the same time, and, uh, his perspective was one

of a church that was deeply legalistic, religious, to the point that, and to

get to the topic for today, which is Sabbath, on the Sabbath day in Stornoway,

children's swings in playgrounds would be locked up So the children couldn't

play, because that would be considered to be, um, dishonoring the Sabbath.

Now he- so he grew up with this very legalistic, religious… Let's just

say he did not have a fond view of the church this author, clearly.

And here we are also, we're spending time in this place where it's known

for this outpouring of God's presence and love and transformative power,

and it was striking to see these two very different perspectives

born out of the same location.

Now, I do struggle to imagine how chaining up a children's swing on the Lord's day,

I'm just trying to imagine on what planet that could ever be honoring to God, how

that would ever speak clearly of what the Sabbath is and what the Sabbath is for.

And if you are new to all of this and you have no idea what I'm talking

about right now as I'm using this word Sabbath, hang in there, all

shall be made clear in due course.

So I'm thinking, even as I've mentioned the word Sabbath, there's probably a

gamut of different feelings that have, uh, come up in the room right now.

Some of you have come from more of that swing kind of church

background, where the Sabbath has been this very legalistic practices.

I have had jaw-dropping moments talking to people who have come out of certain

church traditions where elders from the churches would literally spy on other

church members during the Sabbath to make sure they weren't doing anything illegal,

like having fun, like going for a swim, these terribly evil, sinful practices.

So I know there is a lot of religious baggage sometimes

for people around this space.

And maybe you're on the other end, you're like, "Oh, this is all new to me. What

on earth are you talking about?" Like I said, we'll get there in a moment.

And maybe some of you are sitting here going, "Oh, I know

I should do it, and I don't.

It's just too hard." Anyway, so let this morning just be an encouragement to you.

'Cause I really do think no matter where our feelings might sit as we consider the

topic of Sabbath keeping, we cannot deny it is massively… It's a huge theme.

It is a massive theme throughout scripture.

So I don't think as faithful followers of Jesus, we can just

put it in the too hard basket.

We really must reconcile ourselves to a deep convicted understanding of

what is required of us as followers of Jesus in this space, and to

come to a deep sense of conviction.

Now, that might be different for different ones of us.

I'm not up here saying, "This is what you must do," okay?

What I am saying is be open to what the Word of God has to say this morning.

Be open to h- what the Spirit might have to say to you this

morning through this word that we are going to explore together.

So let's just for a moment have a look at the origin story of the Sabbath.

So there's two main Hebrew words that are used for rest in the Bible.

The first is the word Shabbat Which gets translated into the English word Sabbath.

And so what is Shabbat?

Some of you might be familiar, you have heard that Hebrew phrase, Jewish

people greeting each other on the Sabbath with Sha- Shabbat Shalom.

So may you have a peaceful Sabbath.

And so this word simply means to stop working.

So if you think of an hourly job where you clock out at the end of a

shift, the work is done, and there is no more until you clock back in.

So the other main Hebrew word for rest that's used in Hebrew

scripture is the word nuach.

And this means to dwell or to settle.

And so this is not the same as clocking out from an hourly job.

This is a t- this type of rest is like sitting in front of a fire

on a cold day with a loved one, or unpacking a suitcase to stay at

grandma's house for the holidays.

It's just this delightful sense of a settling in stillness.

And so God introduces both the ideas of Shabbat and nuach right

around the same time in scripture, right in the creation account.

So God works for six days.

He creates the world.

He ceases on the seventh day.

And then after six days of bringing order to chaos, he takes the time

to Shabbat, to cease from his work.

So this is Genesis two, verses two and three here, 'By the seventh day, God

had finished the work he had been doing.

So on the seventh day he rested,' Shabbat, 'ceased from all his work.

Then God blessed the seventh day and he made it holy.' He set it apart.

It's really that's what the word holy means, because on it he rested,

Shabbat, he ceased from all the work of creating that he had done.

And then only a few verse later, few verses later, we read that God

creates humans, and then immediately he rests them, or he settles them.

He nuach him in the garden with him.

And so the literary structure communicates a link between the comment,

the concepts of Shabbat and nuach.

They are connected.

God leads by example as he rests from work, and then he dwells with his people.

So Genesis two fifteen here, 'The Lord God took the man and he put him, he

placed him, he rested him.' He didn't just like, you know, like one of

those games with the claw that, like, picks up a teddy, if you're lucky.

You know, he didn't just do that to people and go boop and

plop them in the garden, right?

That's, I don't, I don't know when you think the word put, what, what

kind of comes to mind for you.

He actually settled them in the garden.

He rested them there to dwell there with him and to work it

and to take care of it also.

And so what thoughts might be coming to mind for you as you consider this and

this connection between these words here?

Maybe around how God works, maybe around how creation is ordered, maybe

around what even you were created for Again, this morning, I'm not gonna tell

you today, you must keep a Sabbath.

I am a hundred percent convinced.

I think in some way, shape, or form it is a practice that

we should all take hold of.

But you very much need to form your own conviction on this.

To those who are resistant, that resistance has risen up in you already,

just give the Word of God and the Holy Spirit a fair hearing today is all I ask.

And maybe just ponder the question, why am I so resistant?

What is going on there?

Be curious about your resistance if that is you.

And so let's go on a bit of a journey now from the Old Testament to the

New to get a sense of the Sabbath.

'Cause like I said, it is a really prevalent theme right

from the beginning of Scripture.

And, uh, just ask the question, why maybe is it mentioned so much?

Why does it really seem to matter to God so much?

So much so that even God Himself Sabbathed.

Well, that's interesting, isn't it?

So let's just begin here.

In, uh, Exodus sixteen, verses… Well, this is just a couple of verses out of

the passage, twenty-three to thirty.

And so this is the Israelites in the wilderness here.

They've been rescued by God out of slavery in Egypt, and He says to them here,

"This is what the Lord has commanded you.

Tomorrow is to be a Sabbath of rest, a holy Sabbath to the Lord.

Bear in mind that the Lord has given you the Sabbath.

That is why the sixth day He gives you bread for two days." So it's-- they're

talking about the manna there. There's enough collected on the sixth day that

they wouldn't have to go out and work on the seventh day collecting, that

they could rest. "So everyone is to stay where they are on the seventh day.

No one is to go out.

So the people rested on the seventh day." You gotta remember, these are people

who've just come out of slavery in Egypt.

They've been slaves for a really, really, really long time.

Slaves don't get to Sabbath.

Slaves don't get a weekend.

Slaves work around the clock till they drop, and here is this God

who has rescued them that's now saying, "I'm providing for you.

Now rest, be still, stop, cease." Why?

'Cause you're not slaves anymore.

All right.

Then we come to the Ten Commandments here In Exodus 20, verses 8 to 11, in

Exodus 20:8–11

the Ten Commandments, people, in the Ten Commandments, just saying, "Remember

the Sabbath day by keeping it holy.

Six days you shall labor and do all your work, but the seventh day

is a Sabbath to the Lord your God.

On it you shall not do any work, neither you, your son, your daughter, your male

or female servant, nor your animals, nor any foreigner residing in your towns.

For in six days the Lord made the heavens and the earth, the sea and all that's in

them, but he rested on the seventh day.

Therefore the Lord blessed the Sabbath day and made it holy."

So I wanna just pause here for a moment.

We have no idea, church, how radical this was.

In the ancient Near East, the idea that there would be a god that

commanded rest was utterly bonkers.

In the an- understanding of the average person in the ancient Near

East, humans existed to serve the gods so the gods could rest, right?

The gods were the ones that rested because they enslaved human beings to certain

ways of worship and sacrifice and ritual.

So this God, this God of the Israelites who comes and says,

"You must rest," what on earth?

This is outside of the box.

We have no idea how massively outside of the box this is.

This is huge.

And so in Genesis 1 to 2, God's worked six days.

He rests on the seventh.

Then in Exodus, he commands humans to imitate this pattern.

Wow.

So he's not only commanding the rest, he's saying, "Be like me.

You're my image-bearers.

Be like me.

Do as I do." It's not, this is not a minor variation.

It's a shared theme.

It's a direct inversion of the reigning cosmology.

Israel's God doesn't need humans to labor so he can rest.

He already rests, free, and invites his image-bearers to share in that same

rhythm rather than serve as his workforce.

Gosh, how many of us still have that slavish mentality?

You know, that I'm a slave to G- I must work for God.

I must work for God.

Now, we get to do the work of God.

We don't have to do the work of God.

Very, very different postures.

So in the ancient Near East world, more broadly, broadly, leisure

belonged to kings, gods, and the elite.

Ordinary laborers, and especially slaves, did not get days off.

And then a bit later on, we've got these final instructions for the

building of the tabernacle and worship.

This is, God has rescued his people out of slavery.

He's now given them the law.

He's given them instructions to build this tabernacle, which is this

dwelling splace- space of God on Earth as he is in heaven, this space

where his presence is made manifest.

And one of the very last things he says is this: "Say to the Israelites-

You must observe my Sabbaths.

They will be a sign between me and you for the generations to

come, so that you may know that I am the Lord who makes you holy.

He's given all of this instruction, and he brings it home with, "Remember

the Sabbath. Keep the Sabbath. It is a sign between me and you." And then

again, okay, there is, uh, quite a bit of scripture here, but it's okay.

It's really good.

Um, so now the people have now wandered in the wilderness for 40 years.

Moses is now preparing this new generation of God's people to enter

the promised land, and so he goes back through the law, back through the Ten

Commandments to remind them again, and come to Deuteronomy 5:12 here.

Deuteronomy 5:12

Again here, this fourth commandment of Sabbath keeping.

And I read this again because it's slightly different from

the one given in Exodus, okay?

There is a difference here.

See if you can pick it up.

Observe the Sabbath day by keeping it holy, as the Lord

your God has commanded you.

Six days you shall labor and do all your work, but the seventh day

is a Sabbath to the Lord your God.

On it you shall not do any work, neither you, your son or daughter, your male or

female servant, nor your ox, your donkey, or any of your animals, nor any foreigner

residing in your towns, so that your male and female servants may rest as you do.

Remember that you were slaves in Egypt, and the Lord your God

brought you out of there with a mighty hand and an outstretched arm.

Therefore, the Lord your God has commanded you to observe the Sabbath day.

So Exodus 20:11, it grounds this commandment in creation.

Exodus 20:11

God rested on the seventh day.

In this passage here, Deuteronomy 5:15, it grounds it in the Exodus story.

Deuteronomy 5:15

Remember you were slaves.

Therefore, the Lord your God commands you to keep the Sabbath.

Same command, two different theological anchors.

Creation rest in Exodus, liberation memory in Deuteronomy And that's

important, and that's significant.

Did you pick up there also, you know, this is a rest for everybody, not just

for them, but for everybody within their family, even their animals as well.

This is a complete state of ceasing and resting.

And then, y- you know, through the prophets, through the, um, the prophetic

writings in the Old Testament, the Sabbath is mentioned over and over again.

It's one of the main charges that God holds against His people for their

faithfulness, is they break the Sabbath.

They don't keep it.

As Isaiah says in Isaiah 58, you know, they fail to call it a delight.

And God says, "If you call it a delight and the Lord's Holy Day honorable, and

if you honor it by not going your own way and not just doing as you please,

then you're gonna find joy. You're gonna find blessing. You're gonna ride on the

triumph and the heights of the land."

There is a great blessing pronounced in Isaiah to God's people in

the keeping of the Sabbath.

And now we come to the New Testament.

And so we have this account in Mark 2:23-27.

Mark 2:23–27

So who the Sabbath is for, Jesus makes this very clear.

According to the Lord of the Sabbath, and we'll come to see who that is

in a moment as we read this passage.

One Sabbath, Jesus was going through the grain fields, and as

His disciples walked along, they began to pick some heads of grain.

The Pharisees said to Him, "Look, why are they doing what is unlawful on

the Sabbath? Why are they swinging on a swing? Let's chain it up." No.

"Why are they picking heads of grain?"

He answered, "Have you never read what David did when he and his

companions were hungry and in need?

In the days of Abiathar, the high priest, he entered the house of God

and ate the consecrated bread, which is lawful only for priests to eat, and

he also gave some to his companions." Then 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." Okay.

So Jesus comes along, and He radically transforms, uh, God's people's

understanding of the Sabbath.

He does not do away with it.

This is really important to know.

So often we come to this passage and go, "Oh, I don't have to do it." I don't even

know why we would treat it like that.

Like, why we would so often go, "How do I get out of this?" It's

like, what is wrong with us?

Like, we're offered this gift of a day of rest, and we go, "Yeah, no, no. No,

I'm just gonna try and find any loophole I can to not do that because I prefer

to be a slave to the cultural forces around me. Thank you very much, Lord."

Anyway, um, I find it… A- and I'm, I'm talking about my own

response to this as well, right?

Why do I resist this gracious gift?

Why do I find it so hard to embrace it and just enter into it and trust God in it?

So Jesus here, He still upholds the Sabbath, but He does give a radically

different understanding of it.

It is not… It was made for man.

Man wasn't made for the Sabbath.

The Son of Man is Lord even of the Sabbath.

The Son of Man is Lord of rest.

Wow Next and final little passages of scripture here just to end this overview.

And this is really important well, as well, and I've already

kind of touched on this.

Sabbath is a matter of conviction and freedom.

So Romans fourteen, five to six.

One person considers one day more sacred than another, another

considers every day alike.

Each of them should be fully convinced in their own mind.

Whoever regards one day as special does so to the Lord.

And then in Colossians, Paul writes, "Therefore, do not let anyone judge

you by what you eat or drink or with regard to religious festivals or new

moon celebration or a Sabbath day."

This is a place of conviction, and I think in what Paul is writing here, he kind of

had a-- he was foreseeing the problems that were gonna come for God's people.

So he gives these direct instructions here about how we are to relate

to something like the Sabbath.

So as I've gone through this overview, what perhaps sticks

out to you from these passages?

Was there any sense of, I guess, revelation, maybe

encouragement, maybe conviction?

What may have stood out to you even about who God is?

Because to ponder the Sabbath and that God would give it as a commandment to His

people is to actually think about that and what that means and what that says

about God and who we are in His sight.

It's like, oh, it's amazing.

It's absolutely profound and beautiful.

What kind of God do we serve that says rest, stop, cease , you're not a slave?

So my summary thesis on this is this: Sabbath is not a burden laid upon

us, but it is a gift held out to us.

Not a commandment that we're bound to, but a promise we're invited into,

one that will form us over time into freedom and into the likeness of Christ.

It's actually, and I would offer this up to you not as a fact, but

as just my opinion that it is Highly likely one of the most powerful

practices that we can engage in.

The most potent in terms of formation, the most potent in forms of establishing

our true identity, the most potent in form, in terms of keeping our worship

and our loves orientated correctly.

It is a powerful, powerful practice.

And let me, let me put this before you.

The Jewish people have been practicing Shabbat for, well, a really,

really, really, really long time.

And, uh, faithful Jewish people will still now continue to practice

Shabbat every Friday night.

And so every Friday night, they gather, they begin Shabbat, because in the

Jewish calendar, a day begins at night.

Does that make sense?

So we begin our day in the morning, they begin their day the night before.

So that's why Sabbath for them starts on a Friday night.

It begins with a meal, it begins with rest, and then they enter

their day because that's their understanding out of Genesis.

That's how God works.

That's how God created.

He created, he set a day of rest, he placed us in that day of rest, and

then we go and we work from rest.

And that is the rhythm, um, that Jewish people have practiced.

Now, for Jewish people, like they're pretty stunning minority

group They really, really are.

Regardless of your politics, people, right?

Can we just forget that for a moment?

Right.

Some of you just needed to be talked down there for a second.

Um, they are a mino- ethnic minority in a… Yet they are a incredibly

successful ethnic minority.

The places, the positions, the kind of jobs they occupy.

And one of the thoughts, and I don't have any stats and facts to back this up, but

you think about the average Jewish child.

They are raised in a home where every Friday night they gather around a table.

They embody a sacred story.

They are told how they are a part of that sacred story.

They are blessed.

Their identity is called out every Friday night.

Every Friday night they are seen, they are loved, they are blessed, they

embody, they inhabit a sacred story.

They know who they are.

By the time they get to adulthood, they're not wondering who they are, they know.

They've been told every Friday night for their entire life.

It's incredibly, powerfully f- powerfully formational in the

life of an average Jewish child.

And somehow we go, "Oh, it's too hard." It's ex- it's incredibly precious.

It's incredibly pr- powerful.

Um, and yet we are free.

This isn't a question of covenant faithfulness for us now.

Our covenant is what we have just taken part of here in communion.

So we don't engage in Sabbath in order to please God, to earn his favor.

We are yet to engage in it as free people, as free children of God.

We already have all his favor.

However, let's not throw the baby out with the bath water and go, "Oh, we're

so free, we don't have to practice it." This ancient tradition that has stood

faithfully for millennia and formed a people deeply, is there not something

that we might be able to absorb and embody from this ourselves for the

sake of our own families, for the sake of the world around us as well?

So let's do this little exercise for a moment.

Just close your eyes.

Close your eyes.

Let's just go on a little imagination journey with me.

Okay, so imagine an average week in your life, a week full of all kinds

of work, jobs, and family life, and housekeeping, and all the places that

you give of yourself, paid, unpaid.

You've ordered your week in such a way that you now come to a moment where your

home is somewhat in order, your to-do list mostly done, and you stop Shut down your

laptop or you turn off your phone, and you gather around a table with family,

with friends, with neighbors, and a candle is lit, and a blessing is prayed.

You enter into the holiness of a day set apart to Shabbat.

You sleep.

You sleep in the next morning if wanted, if needed, if even

doable, if you have small children.

You enter now into the next eight to ten hours of delighting

and recreating your own soul.

You get to just be.

To

enjoy engaging in what is delightful and soulful and restful for you.

You get to do this, and you get to call this a holy act of worship to the Lord.

You have full permission from your heavenly Father

to set aside a day for this.

Why?

Because you need to know that you're not a slave.

Because you're an image-bearer of the God who worked for six

days and rested on the seventh.

Because your soul needs rest from working and striving and to come apart

from the machinery of consumerism, the worship of the God of mammon,

the endless messaging in this culture that's telling you, you are what you

do, and what you're doing is not enough.

You get to stop, to rest, and to cease from participating in the

ways of Egypt, the ways of empire, the ways of enslavement that

dehumanize God's image-bearers.

You get to have your humanity restored.

All right, you can open your eyes.

Man, what a gift.

What a blessing

Have a think about maybe what rose up in you just through that little practice.

Maybe what longings, maybe what areas of resistance, but maybe really the

desire and longing that maybe got exposed there and follow that thread.

Follow that thread of longing.

Okay, so just quickly, four frameworks for understanding Sabbath, and this

is just really a summary of much as what already has been shared.

So Sabbath is an act of worship.

You know, we already talked about worship as one of our practices, right?

This, what we sung this morning, is a form of worship.

But worship ultimately is just anything that places God in his right

spot in our life and in our world.

And so real worship isn't primarily emotional expression,

it is trust made visible.

And Sabbath asks, will you believe God provides even when you are not producing?

That refusal to trust is functionally identical to idolatry.

So when we say, "I can't stop, I must, I have to," there's likely

some idolatry going on there.

There's something else that you are looking to as your source for identity,

uh, for provision, worshiping perhaps your own effort instead of God's sufficiency.

And I say this not to condemn anyone, right?

And this is the blessing also of the Sabbath.

It reveals where our loves are out of order.

If we are resistant, if we say, "I can't," or, "I won't," maybe there's

something else we're worshiping there in that ultimate place of

worship other than God himself.

Worship is ascribing worth to God with our whole selves,

words, body, time, and trust.

Then Sabbath is one of the only command of practices that requires you to worship

with your calendar, not just with your mouth or say, you know, we talked about

giving as an act of worship as well.

It's, it's how we worship with our time.

It's how we worship with our calendar.

It is the one spiritual discipline that can't be faked by looking busy for God.

Either you actually stop or you don't.

So next, Sabbath is an act of witness.

And what do I mean by that?

It tells a story to the world around us about who God is and about who

we are, that my God is my provider.

Sabbath is an act of deep wisdom.

I love this phrase, "I don't keep the Sabbath, the Sabbath keeps me."

We have been created to engage of rhythm-- in rhythms of work and rest.

When we mess with that rhythm, we do so, uh, to our own detriment.

You know, we suffer the co- We know this, right?

We know what happens if we don't sleep.

You know, there's this rhythm of rest inbuilt within us in terms of sleeping.

We know we have to sleep.

You cannot go terribly long without sleeping before there are going to

be dire, dire, dire consequences.

But when we take what God said about the creation account, what scripture testifies

to, there is a rhythm and there's limitations withi-- within us that we need

to honor, and part of God's commandment to practice a Sabbath is for our very

own good, not just as an act of worship to him, but just for our own health

and wellbeing so that we are able to…

Jesus says, "I have come so that they may have life and have it to the full

And what do we think that means?

We get to just behave any old way we want and just deny our lim-- human limitations?

No, this is a way we get to honor our human limitations,

the way God has wired us.

Therefore, it is an act of deep wisdom And it's also an act of warfare, 'cause

it is an act of deep resistance as well to the cultural forces around

us that says you are what you do.

Produce, produce, produce.

Produce, produce, produce.

You will find if you've not practiced a Sabbath, as soon as you str- try

to start practicing it, you will feel deeply anxious, deeply restless.

Because you h- you … This … And what this will tell you, and again, this is no

guilt, shame, or condemnation, my friends, that your identity is in what you do.

And when you stop, suddenly you're confronted with that.

And you're like, and, and that restlessness, that anxiety, I must do

something productive, even if it's, like, folding a basket of laundry.

I must do, I must do.

And you'll get twitchy, and you'll get restless.

And this is why it, you actually have to practice it, because

it's something you've gotta get, build your Sabbath muscle around.

Because we're told a different story six other days of the week about who we are.

We're just cogs in a machine.

Produce, produce, produce.

Do more, do more, do more.

You're not enough, you're not enough, you're not … Earn more, earn more.

Get more stuff.

Do more.

Be at everything.

You know?

Enroll your kids in everything.

Extracurricular.

E- every party that they're invited to.

Anxiety, anxiety, anxiety.

You're missing out.

FOMO rages, right?

And this is a s- point where we go s- "Rack off, FOMO." Right?

I'm embracing JOMO, joy of missing out.

Yeah?

And I'm gonna teach my kids how to embrace JOMO, the joy of missing out,

because we are gonna delight together for this day of honoring the Lord together.

And I, and I'm s- I just wanna, if nothing else today, just begin

to get you thinking and imagining.

All right?

You know, we talked right at the beginning of this series about this, um … Oh, I

think it was Dallas Willard talks about in this area of practices, unless we have

vision, intention, and means, um, these practices will never become embodied

and actually a part of our rhythm.

So a lot of today is just really go, like, cultivate an imagination.

Cultivate this vision of a life of Sabbathing and what it could

mean for you and your family.

Well, if you have small children, oh, this is so, such a precious, precious,

precious opportunity for you to embed them in a different story than what

this culture will embed them in.

This culture will embed them in a story that will drive them to

places of deep anxiety and fear.

This practice of Sabbath, you have the opportunity to embed them in a sacred

story that will form a God identity in them, that will now them, allay- enable

them to go out into this world assured of who they are and whose they are.

And this, this practice of Sabbath, gosh, you might be going, "Do I get a set of

steak knives as well?" So much more.

So much more.

All right.

Let's get a little bit practical for a moment as I do

endeavor to bring this home.

Four key components of Sabbathing here.

And whether this is for one hour or one day, all right?

Sometimes we, we, um- We can really fall over in this area of Sabbathing

because, well, I've got to do it for 24 hours, and I just can't even

imagine how that might be possible.

I would say start small.

Start with an hour, okay?

That's okay.

Just start where you can.

All our worlds are different.

Our worlds are very complex.

Some of you are shift workers.

Your, your work rhythm just is not consistent the same every week.

And so this whole idea of, you know, keeping this same set day every week

is gonna be… it's not gonna work for everybody here, and that's okay.

But we've been given imaginations and the Holy Spirit, so we can figure this out.

And so it is es- essentially taking these four things to stop, to rest,

delight, and to worship and go, okay, how might I do these things?

And so there's a resource that I've referenced here from Practicing

the Way, and they've got an amazing teaching on this idea of Sabbathing.

And so if you are thinking, you're feeling this, this isn't something

you practice and you're thinking, yes, I'm definitely feeling a call

and a conviction, a prompting of the Spirit to enter into these waters.

This guide here, tiny.cc/sabbathguide, which I've totally taken from

Practicing the Way website, but all their stuff is free, so that's okay.

All right?

I'm giving them the credit.

I'm not taking credit.

But it is completely free, but you can access it there.

And it is a really, really helpful tool to understand how

you might apply these four things.

Very simple, very practical.

There's also, um, teachings, podcasts, and video teachings

that go along with that as well.

Um, so beautiful.

I don't think I really need to say.

I think that thing of delight is really important.

This is where I think so much of the more… Actually, as I was researching,

just doing some of my research and just, just fact-checking that story about the

swings in Stornoway, there's an actual society that's been around for a couple

of hundred years now called the Society for the Preservation of the Lord's Day.

Oh, that's a cheery read if you go on that website Super, super cheery.

Um, not a lot of delight to be found.

Like it's like the delight police, stomp, stomp.

Um, we can delight on this day, right?

And so this is where we can't judge one another, and we've gotta take

seriously those words of Paul, right?

Because what I find delightful is not what you're gonna find delightful.

We got introverts, we got extroverts, right?

What I find recreational for my soul is not, say, necessarily what Adam's,

although I've turning him into a reader, and this is a very good thing.

So now we can both quietly sit and read, and it's a joyous, joyous thing.

Took 20- Yeah, no, I take full credit.

Um, so this idea, you know, and this is really important too, I

think, for when you've got kids.

You know, what is delightful for them?

You know, you don't, you don't want this to be an onerous burden.

What is delightful?

That isn't sinful.

That's important, right?

You don't just get to go… Anyway, sorry, I probably didn't

need to go down that rabbit hole.

Okay, next slide.

What have I got next?

All right.

Again, here is some practical tools on how we can do this.

Prepare the day before or the time before.

The more you can have a sense of like, "I've brought some sense of order to my

world, now I am ceasing and I am stopping

And so it does require preparation.

You know, for Jewish people, they have a whole day of preparing

for the Sabbath because, um, they really, really, really do stop.

I was talking to somebody who regularly visits Israel and the

Sabbath, um, Sabbath elevators.

Anybody been in a Sabbath elevator in Israel?

Where literally because it- it considered work to press the

button, it stops at every floor.

And so he said, "You do not wanna make the mistake of getting in a Sabbath elevator

or you are stopping at every every floor."

Um, so yes, they… obviously Jewish people take their Sabbath,

their Shabbat very seriously, and it's a whole day of preparation.

Um, but it can be really helpful to, to just have the sense that I am preparing

for this moment to be intentional.

Then we stop.

Number two, so you have a clear beginning.

This is really helpful too.

So we don't just kind of waddle into it or tip into it.

It's like you have something, a set moment, a set marker, a set

ritual, lighting a candle, saying a prayer, turning your phones off.

Oh, that can be a really strong line in the sand.

Turn the phone, not just onto do not disturb, I'm talking off.

Some of the, uh, like the anxiety is just raging in you right now,

just even imagining such a thing.

But what if I'm needed?

Guess what?

You're not God, and you get to tell yourself that by turning your phone off.

Powerful.

It can be a powerful moment line in the sand.

I'm turning this thing off, this thing that I can be so easily enslaved to.

Get a Sabbath box, chuck all your devices in it.

Powerful moment of drawing a line in the sand.

Rest.

Do something recreational other than productive napping,

just reading for pleasure.

And then the next one, um, delighting as well.

Something that's enjoyable, delightful.

I was thinking about this and, uh, there's a moment, there's a moment where

a bunch of us were away up in Coral Bay.

And for this, this encapsulates, I think, the heart of Sabbath for me.

This was years ago.

We're away in Coral Bay.

Bunch of the guys had gone out fishing.

They caught this massive haul of fish, and they brought it back and prepared it all.

And there's, there's this group of us, I don't know, twenty of us when all our

kids are little, and then we're all just feasting on this fish and there's music,

and then we're dancing and it was like, there was so much joy and so much delight,

and it was like, I think that's the heart of what Sabbath is supposed to be.

Where you stop, you be, you delight, you eat food you wouldn't normally eat.

You just celebrate the goodness of life.

Oh, make your Sabbath like that one.

Why wouldn't you?

Locking up swings and you're like, "Ugh, why would you want to?"

But when it's that delight, it's like, "Oh, yeah, I get to do this.

What a joy."

And then we bring worship into it, right?

It's not just this hedonistic delight fest.

It is centered on the person of God.

It's rejoicing in God.

It's gratitude to God, thankfulness to God.

And then finally, return.

We close it out deliberately, giving a short prayer of thanks, naming

one thing that renewed us, stepping back into an ordinary rhythm.

And like I said, you know, if you've not done this before, you're gonna--

you can expect it to be hard.

Um, have I just got another slide there, Sabrina?

Yeah.

So start small.

Just start small.

That is okay.

Often our idealism derails us in spaces like this, so don't

get overly idealistic with it.

Just start small.

Um, if you can, same time each week is really, really helpful.

It goes in the calendar, and everything else fits around it.

Do it with someone.

Doing it on your own, yeah, is a lot easier to, um, to derail if you have

some accountability built into it.

And then expect it to feel unproductive and uncomfortable.

Expect that, and that's okay.

That's okay.

Just sit with the discomfort.

It will pass.

You will be fine.

All right, and I wanna bring this home this way.

Can we just have a look at this scripture here?

Matthew eleven, twenty-eight to thirty.

Jesus says this: "Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened,

and I will give you rest.

Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart,

and you will find rest for your souls.

For my yoke is easy, my burden is light." So we like this passage, don't we? Us

Christians, us busy, busy Christians, us burdened Christians. It's like,

"Oh, Jesus says I can have rest.

I just have to come to him."

Is that all he says?

Hmm.

I think he says some other things there other than just come, doesn't he?

He says, "Take my yoke." He says, "Learn from me." It's not just in

a- we can't just go, "Jesus, give me rest." We've gotta take on his yoke.

What is his yoke?

Okay, yoke is what a rabbi's te- teaching was called.

So a rabbi would have their yoke.

If you were apprentice to that rabbi, if you were a disciple of a rabbi,

you would take that rabbi's yoke.

You would take his teaching upon you.

You would walk in his ways.

You would obey his understanding of scripture.

So Jesus says, "Now, come to me. Now m- take my yoke and learn." Right?

So learning, not just in our little noggins, learning facts

and stuff, but learning and doing and following and taking his yoke

and doing the things that he did.

So we don't enter rest just by going, "Here I am, deliver me rest,

Lord, and now I'll go off and live my life any old way I want." No.

We only get this rest when we're submitted to the yoke.

We only get the rest that we so deeply long for when we are

learning from him, when, when we are following in his footsteps.

But he's gentle and he's humble, so this isn't onerous.

Okay?

But there is gonna be the rest our souls long for.

His yoke is easy, his burden is light.

Why?

Because he's already bought us.

He's already called us his.

We don't do this to make ourselves his.

We enter into his yoke, his teaching, his way because we already are, not

because we have to, but because we get to.

But we don't get the soul rest if we don't take the yoke, and this

is, this is part of our problem, and part of our problem in the church.

We want the kingdom, but we don't want the King.

We want the Savior, but we don't want the Lord.

But you can't split Jesus apart like this.

You can't have the kingdom without the King.

And what does that mean?

You can't live in the culture and the blessing of the kingdom unless

you're submitted to the ways of the King You can't know Jesus as

Savior unless he is also your Lord.

We don't have the option of splitting him in two like that.

We can't say, "You're my Lord, now I'm gonna go live whatever way I want."

So what might Jesus be encouraging you to learn in this space?

If your soul is weary and it is hungry and you are longing

for rest, yes, come to him.

But go, "Lord, where am I not yoked to you?

Because if I was yoked to you, then would my soul be so exhausted?

Would my heart be so weary?

Would I be so anxious?

Where am I not yoked?

What have I not learnt?" Again, no guilt, shame, condemnation.

All is invitation.

All is grace.

All right.

Well, I think that is probably a really good place to end this.

But I wanna just hit this final point, and I'll pray, and then I'll release you guys.

What story are you currently inhabiting?

Not the one you tell yourself, but actually if you look at your

life, your schedule, your rhythms, what does that actually tell?

What story does that tell about what you worship, about what you value,

about what is important to you?

You go, "Okay, maybe I'm, even though I come to church on a Sunday and I read

my Bible, maybe I'm not fully inhabiting this sacred story of a people who have

been rescued out of slavery into freedom.

Maybe I'm still inhabiting a story that tells me I'm a slave

And this is again, just sit with this.

Invite the Holy Spirit into this and to see where the Spirit leads

you in this because where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom.

And Christ came to set us free.

So if he's calling us, he never… Yes, he says he's the Lord of the Sabbath.

Yes, he really tipped the Sabbath on his head, especially for those

Pharisees, but he never did away with it.

Yes, he came to fulfill the law and the prophets, but that doesn't

mean he dispensed with them.

He fulfills them.

You know, we don't… This is, this is in the Ten Commandments.

We don't go, "Jesus fulfilled the law, so now I get to lie

and steal and covet and murder."

Or, "Jesus fulfilled the law, so it's fine.

I can go do all those things." But for some reason with the Sabbath, we go,

"Oh, Jesus has fulfilled it, so I don't have to do that." No, you don't have to.

But why would you not?

Why would you not seek his yoke in this space and learn from him?

For he is gentle and humble in heart, and he wants nothing but to bring you

freedom and rest and to tell you that you are not a slave, but you are his

child, and he has set you free, and whom the Son sets free is free indeed.

Amen.

All right.

Lord, would you do a beautiful work in this place?

Lead and guide us into all truth.

Confront our places of resistance.

Conplant our- confront our places or comfort our places of fear, of anxiety.

But Holy Spirit, come and do what only you can do, and that is lead

us and guide us into all truth.

And may every precious soul here be reminded here and now in this

moment that they are not a slave, but that they have been set free

by the precious blood of Christ.

And Lord, help us to have the wisdom and the understanding to take on your

yoke, to learn from you, to submit to you and your good ways, for you

are humble and gentle of heart, and you want nothing more but then bring

us to a place of rest for our souls.

You are the Good Shepherd.

We worship you.

We adore you.

In Jesus' name we pray.

Amen.