No Work to Keep the Sabbath Holy + Glorify Your Creator & Redeemer

We hope that you enjoy this teaching from Christchurch.

This material is copyrighted and no unauthorized duplication, redistribution, or any other use of any part is permitted without prior consent from Christchurch.

Please consider donating to this work in the San Francisco Bay Area online at Christchurcheastbay.org.

This scripture reading is from the book of Exodus, chapter 20, verses 1 and 2, and verses 8 to 11, and the book of Deuteronomy, chapter 5, verses 12 to 15, as printed in the liturgy.

Exodus 20:1 Deuteronomy 5:12–15

And God spoke all these words.

I am the Lord your God, who brought you out of Egypt, out of the land of slavery.

Remember the Sabbath day by keeping it holy.

Six days you shall labor and do all your work.

But the seventh day is the Sabbath to the Lord your God.

On it you shall not do any work, neither you nor your son or daughter, nor 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 is in them.

But he rested on the seventh day.

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

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 nor your son or daughter, nor 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 that 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.

The grass withers and the flowers fall, but the word of God stands forever.

We're in the fourth commandment today, but let's do some memory, hand memory, all right?

Hand motion memory.

What's the first commandment?

You shall not have any other gods before me, all right?

There's only one God.

The second commandment, right?

You shall not make a graven image or bow down to it.

The third commandment, the Father, Son, and the Spirit.

You shall not use the Lord's name in vain.

And today we're at the fourth commandment.

Honor the Sabbath, right?

Keep it holy, all right?

Get that nap in.

Now, with the fourth commandment, I wonder, if it were up to you to write the ten words,

the ten commandments, the top ten words from God to serve as the foundation for a flourishing people,

do you think you would have thought of this fourth commandment as an absolute essential?

I mean, even amongst faithful, thoughtful Christians, this is probably the most debated of the ten commandments

with regard to its meaning and its application.

When to do it?

How to do it?

Whether we still need to do it?

And then add to that our fast-paced, modern, industrial world in which it almost seems like a requirement

to break this commandment.

And many businesses, even churches, might reward their staff for breaking this commandment.

Because, like, to Sabbath, to Shabbat, right, which literally means to stop, to cease and desist,

for one full day a week,

how could that possibly be morally essential?

Like, yeah, of course, we all agree, don't murder, don't steal, don't lie.

Of course, those belong to the foundation of a healthy society.

And, you know, even the first three commandments, you know, don't have any other gods, no idols,

don't take God's name in vain.

I think even an atheist could probably understand and sympathize with why those would be good

and foundational for people who did believe in God.

But with this fourth commandment, it's like, why this one too?

It just seems so much more negotiable than all the others, right?

Is this really up there with thou shalt not murder?

Shouldn't it be somewhere else with the civil and the ceremonial laws?

Doesn't it belong, you know, maybe next to the one about not eating pigs or shellfish

or what to do when you borrow your neighbor's donkey and it gets killed?

Shouldn't it be somewhere else?

How'd this one make the famous ten?

Also notice of all the spiritual disciplines, God could have put in the Ten Commandments,

read the Bible, memorize the Bible, meditate on it, pray, fast, give to the poor,

practice generosity and hospitality.

This is the one he puts in here, Shabbat.

Stop.

And not just stop, but make this stop holy.

Keep Shabbat holy.

It's curious, isn't it?

So what exactly is God giving us by giving us the fourth commandment?

Well, what I hope to convince you of this morning is that that's exactly it.

He's giving us something.

In giving us the fourth commandment, what he's giving to us is a gift, the gift of rest,

and in particular, his rest, his perfect, eternal, soul-satisfying rest.

When God says here, starting in verse 8, remember the Sabbath day by keeping it holy,

holy, this fourth commandment is actually far more a gift of rest than the burden of restriction.

A gift of rest to us and to those over us, to those under us, to those beside us.

This is so much more than a limit.

This is so much more than a restriction.

The fourth commandment, really what it is, is it's a declaration of liberty.

Because remember who this was given to.

This was a liberating invitation to weary former slaves whose every waking hour was once devoted

to propping up the empire of another nation, Egypt.

In the very first chapter of Exodus, we're told that when Pharaoh saw the Hebrews becoming

fruitful and multiplying and filling the land, in his insecurity, he put slave masters over

them.

And it says they made their lives bitter with harsh labor in brick and mortar and worked

them ruthlessly.

And what it says in chapter 1, verse 11, is that what they're forced to build for Pharaoh

are these supply cities, these store cities.

Basically, Pharaoh, like every other tyrant, was trying to exploit their labor for the sake

of socioeconomic security through accumulation.

And so, when in chapter 5, when Moses asks Pharaoh for, he doesn't even ask him to let his

people go.

He just says, can we go on a three-day journey into the wilderness to have a festival to worship

the Lord?

What's Pharaoh's response?

He calls them lazy for wanting to worship.

Get back to work, fulfill your quotas, and in fact, increase my margins, less straw, more

brick.

To Pharaoh, festival and worship are threats to his agenda for labor and production, threats

to the stability and security of his empire.

So here at Mount Sinai in Exodus 20, when God is giving this fourth commandment, what he's

doing is he's revealing himself to be an anti-Pharaoh.

While Pharaoh is threatened by people who stop working, God actually commands his people to

stop.

While Pharaoh treats worship as an interference with production, God makes worship the essential

cornerstone in the rhythm of his people's lives.

And therefore, while Pharaoh increases burdens and dehumanizes the Hebrews, God gives rest and

rehumanizes them.

See the difference?

While Pharaoh is an anxious, finite ruler, right, whose power depends upon exploiting others,

God is contrasted as the self-sufficient creator who doesn't need our labor to sustain his kingdom.

So in the fourth commandment, what God is saying is he's saying, hey, I'm a different kind of Lord,

and I'm inviting you into a different kind of life in my better kingdom.

Whereas your last Lord called you lazy for wanting to stop, rest, delight, and worship,

you know what I call that?

I call that holy.

And in fact, I'm not just offering this to you.

I'm commanding you to receive this gift, commanding you to Shabbat, to once a week stop, rest,

delight, and worship.

And notice, God doesn't just aim this Shabbat at individuals, but at whole households and

communities, even the oxen and the donkeys, even slaves.

Look at verse 10.

Your sons, your daughters, your male and female servants, the foreigners living among you,

even your animals.

We aren't just responsible for observing Shabbat individualistically, but we're responsible

for ensuring that everyone else around us gets to Shabbat.

Isn't that remarkable?

Here are these former slaves who knew what it was like to work endlessly for somebody else's

benefit, and now God is commanding them, don't do to other people what Pharaoh did to you.

In fact, when Moses repeats this commandment here in Deuteronomy 5, we have both of them

here, Exodus 20, Deuteronomy 5.

You can see it just right here in chapter 5.

This is, what he's saying is, he's doing this 40 years later.

Just imagine that.

Exodus 20, right, to maybe the parents.

40 years later, Deuteronomy 5 to the children, the grandchildren of these former Hebrew slaves,

these children of Israel who are about to enter into the promised land.

And as they are about to enter this land flowing with milk and honey, God is warning them, when

you come into prosperity, when you come into abundance, don't just remember the Sabbath like

it says in Exodus 20, but here in Deuteronomy 5, it's a different word.

It's shamar, which means observe or keep watch over or even guard and protect the Sabbath.

It's almost like God is building a kind of scheduled social justice right into the weekly

rhythm of his people.

Every seven days, you make sure that everyone stops, not just the powerful, not just the

privilege, not just the people who can afford to stop, because God didn't rescue his people

from Pharaoh so that they could enter the promised land and become their own Pharaohs to everyone

else.

See, Sabbath isn't just God's gift to me, it's God's gift to us, to our families, our neighbors,

the whole community.

And when we practice it together, we help make rest a reality for whole societies.

In the fourth commandment, the creator is commanding his people to return to the rhythm of his good

creation.

This isn't just some practical correction to rebalance the scales after all the endless

toil that these former slaves endured back in Egypt.

No, it's a factory reset.

That's what this is.

And that's why in verse 11, the Sabbath commandment is rooted not in, hey, it's been a tough 400

years, so, you know, just have some R&R.

No, it says here in verse 11 that the Sabbath is rooted in something far deeper.

Remember the Sabbath and keep it holy.

For in six days, the Lord made the heavens and the earth, the sea and all that is in them, but he rested

on the seventh day.

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

The basis of Shabbat, the basis of our weekly rest, is the God who rested from his creation work.

And not because he was exhausted, but because his work was done.

Everything he intended it to be.

God saw all that he had made and behold, it was very good.

It was finished.

For God, rest isn't recovery.

It's him sitting in the satisfaction of doneness and goodness.

And I think that's why he blessed that day and made it holy.

This was an incredibly special and unique occasion.

The first time in the Bible that something is designated as holy.

And what's so interesting is that he doesn't call a particular object holy, like, you know,

a person, a place, a thing, the garden, a temple, a mountain.

He calls a particular period of time holy.

This momentous occasion in the history of the world when the God who preexisted creation,

who preexisted time itself, the never restless, always satisfied God,

who's never known incompleteness from all eternity, he rests on the seventh day of creation.

The God who had forever enjoyed eternal rest in and of himself from before time began,

he now brings and enjoys that rest in time, in history, in creation.

And he invites all of creation to enter and experience that eternal rest with him and in him.

This rest that only Father, Son, and Spirit had ever known and enjoyed throughout eternity.

He is now giving his creatures a taste, a taste of eternity, of completeness, of satisfaction,

of delight on this seventh day.

Which was, by the way, if you think about it, the day one experience of Adam and Eve, right?

God made them on the sixth day.

Yes, calling them to be fruitful, to multiply, to exercise dominion, to rule, right?

But this is the first full day for them.

As soon as they woke up, the day after they were created, it wasn't a day to hit the ground running, no.

Their first full day of existence was simply Shabbat.

So like, yeah, Adam, Eve, go exercise dominion.

Build, cultivate, produce, fill the earth.

But you can start tomorrow.

Because today, on your first full day of existence, we're starting with stopping.

We're starting with rest, delight, and worship.

Receiving before achieving.

Being human beings with me before going out tomorrow as human doings for me.

Because this is what you were made for.

To glorify me by enjoying my restful presence forever.

You see, Sabbath, from the beginning, it was always so much more than just taking a day off.

The gift of Sabbath was never meant to just be a day without work.

The gift of Sabbath is that it's a day with God.

The holiest, most sacred, and also most restful, delightful day of the week.

And this is a super important distinction.

Like, receiving the gift of Sabbath versus just having a day off.

Because, you know, more commonly, we can tend to have this way of dividing up time.

Don't we?

We always say this.

We say, work hard, play hard.

Right?

Work hard, play hard.

Like, either time to grind, time to hustle, time to produce, or time to kick back.

Right?

Time to let go, relax, indulge.

Those are our two basic operating categories for understanding time.

Right?

But, see, Sabbath defies this simplistic self-centeredness of work hard in order to play hard.

Unlike work hard and earn your right to play hard, God's Sabbath commandment says no.

No matter what, on that seventh day.

No matter what you have or haven't finished.

No matter who you are.

Stop.

Rest.

Delight.

Worship.

And not because you earned a break.

And not even because this rhythm will make you more productive the other six days.

But simply because this is my gift to you and what you were made for.

See, the fourth commandment, to remember the Sabbath, it's preaching a message to us.

It's preaching a message to the world.

And it's not just a message about what to do or what not to do on a particular day of the week.

It's preaching to us a message about who and whose we are.

What the fourth commandment says to us about who we are is that we were made for receptivity

before productivity.

For communion before contribution.

You know, on sabbatical, I read this book by a Catholic philosopher.

His name was Joseph Pieper.

It was called Leisure, the Basis of Culture.

And it wasn't fun.

It wasn't light.

But it really struck me.

Because what Pieper, I think, rightly argues is that while our modern society has come to

understand the main activity of human life to be labor and production and thus viewing leisure

as a mere luxury, Pieper flips that.

And he argues that, no, actually, leisure isn't just a luxury, but leisure is the basis of culture.

Leisure, not labor, is what we were most basically made for.

And by leisure, he doesn't just mean, you know, kicking back, doing nothing, binging on YouTube

and Netflix.

By leisure, he means being able to stop and receive and enjoy what is good in and of itself

without needing to accomplish anything else.

Just receiving and enjoying what is good.

And think about it.

Isn't that what we do at a festival?

We set aside our ordinary work not to produce something, but simply to celebrate the good,

right?

And when is festival the biggest?

When does it make the most sense to celebrate for celebration's sake?

It's when that festival, when that celebration is inspired by worship.

And that is exactly what Moses was asking Pharaoh to let them do in Exodus chapter 5.

Exodus 5 · chapter mention

He was asking Pharaoh for a break from their labor in order to hold a festival, to worship

the Lord in the wilderness.

But Pharaoh, he couldn't understand or appreciate this ask because to him, festival was frivolous.

Leisure, a luxury, right?

But here in the fourth commandment, God says, no, worship isn't an interruption to the life

you were made for.

It's at the very heart of the life you were made for.

And that's the gift of Sabbath.

Again, it's a factory reset with the good news that the default factory setting has always been set

to rest and delight again and again, week after week, from beginning, from the beginning of time,

right?

No matter what.

But maybe you're wondering, if Sabbath is such a good gift, why does it feel so hard to receive it?

Because let's be real, we're constantly wondering, constantly fearful, will there be enough, right?

Enough time, enough money.

If I don't work, if I don't prepare, if I don't produce on that seventh day, will there be enough

to survive and thrive?

Or like, won't I fall behind at work, in school, in parenting, while everyone else and their kids

keep advancing?

Living in the breakneck society that we do, where you have to keep running faster just to

stay in the same place, where standing still means that you're probably going to fall behind,

especially in our K-shaped economy, where we're all just trying to get on top or stay on top?

How can we afford to Shabbat when everyone else keeps moving forward?

And even for the most privileged of us, those of us who aren't even concerned about having enough

or falling behind, maybe when we think about Sabbath, we're wondering, but won't we miss out

on opportunities, experiences, once-in-a-lifetime moments?

How can I set aside an entire day when there's so much life to live?

Now, Augustine, he tells us that the Roman philosopher Seneca criticized the Jewish people

for wasting one-seventh of their lives.

But that fear is real, isn't it?

We can sympathize with that, can't we?

Seems like quite a sacrifice.

One-seventh of your entire existence.

And honestly,

Sabbath is costly.

It is.

It does mean that when you're afraid,

you won't have enough.

You have to live by faith.

Ask your father for daily bread and trust the manna to come

when you need it.

Sabbath is an exercise in faith.

But isn't that also good news?

Isn't it so much better to receive bread from heaven by faith

than to anxiously try to make it grow

from cursed dirt amidst thorns and thistles

by the sweat of our brow

and in competition with other hungry strugglers?

Wouldn't you rather depend on your loving,

almighty father in heaven

than on yourself?

And wouldn't you rather live at his pace

than trying not to fall behind

in a race that you weren't even designed to run in?

That's why I love Psalm 46 in this season.

He says,

And sure, this does mean that we will miss out on many things.

But you know,

what if that's actually what it means to be human?

Like what if being human is just as much

about missing out on stuff

as it is experiencing stuff?

The sociologists,

Jacques Ellul and Hartmut Rosa,

they help us see

how our technological society has convinced us

that we can somehow do and experience all of it.

But Rosa argues,

he argues that we're trying to cram

more and more experiences into our short lives

almost as a substitute for eternity.

As if by living faster,

we could somehow overcome our finitude,

even our own mortality.

But you know,

here's the wonderful paradox of Sabbath.

It frees us to embrace our finitude,

while at the same time,

it gives us a taste of real eternity

in the presence of God.

We can't cram eternity into 4,000 weeks,

but when we stop to worship

and commune with the living, eternal God

once a week in worship,

we are tasting the rest and delight.

We'll enjoy with him forever.

Whereas Apostle Paul likes to talk about it,

we are seated with him in the heavenly places.

And you know,

the more I recognize these pressures

that keep producing,

getting ahead and consuming,

the more I realize that Sabbath

is a way of resisting them.

And as I've been learning to acknowledge

that the Lord is Lord over my time,

that my time is not my own,

I'm beginning to see Sunday differently.

Not as the last day to squeeze all my fun

and before the Monday grind recommences,

and not as one last opportunity

to catch up on everything

I didn't finish in the past week

or to get a strong head start

on the week ahead.

But as the most highly anticipated

day of the week,

a day that stands alone all by itself,

the best day of the week.

Now, I don't think everyone's Sabbath

necessarily has to fall on Sunday,

but I do think we need a weekly rhythm

of setting apart a whole day

to stop, rest, delight, and worship.

And for our family,

that is Sunday

with gathered worship at the center.

And you know,

this isn't about trying to create

some picture-perfect Sunday.

It's about actually resisting the pressure

to keep going,

to keep working,

to keep getting ahead.

So in our household,

this is what we do.

We try to stop.

So there are only certain kinds of emails

and messages

that I'll read and respond to.

We don't make our girls

do their homework packets on Sunday.

They don't have to do their piano

and violin practice on the Sabbath.

And sure, what work might mean to you

is something that you honestly

have to work out

and discern before the Lord.

Like for me,

I actually find doing dishes

relaxing and therapeutic

or going outside

to water my fruit trees.

But gardening,

vacuuming,

fixing something around the house,

drafting an email

to send to Jonathan,

no thanks, man.

So I try to let those things wait,

right?

Even if it means

a messier house

to wake up to

on Monday morning.

Even if it means

a more daunting inbox

to get to

on Monday.

Again,

I can't tell you though

exactly what this should look like

in your context

and considering

how you're wired.

But the point is,

we all have to figure out

what knows

God wants us to say

in order for us

to fully embrace

and say yes

to the gift of his Sabbath to us.

And the main question is,

are we making room

to stop

our ordinary work

to rest

and to delight

in God

and his gifts?

Or are we still looking

to fill all our days

with, you know,

never-ending lists

of things

that still need to be done?

For us in my family,

we try not to make Sabbath

a big chore day

or a big shopping day.

So we might pick up

something urgent

at the supermarket,

but we try to plan ahead

and minimize

our commercial activity.

Because remember,

Sabbath isn't just about

my rest,

it's also about

guarding the rest of others,

my neighbors,

my community.

I don't want my rest

and convenience

to depend unnecessarily,

right,

upon someone else's

having to work.

Otherwise,

I'm becoming

a Pharaoh of my own.

Similarly,

you know,

we are,

you know,

not anti-TV

on the Sabbath,

but we are more careful

about how and why

we use the TV,

not just as an escape,

as, you know,

mindless entertainment consumption

or to distract our kids

so we can get more done,

but we use it as a tool

to knit us together,

to stir our hearts,

take in stories

that humanize

and stir us.

So that's how we try

to stop and slow down

in our family,

mark time as,

you know,

set apart and holy

and different

from all the other

days of the week.

But in terms of

what we pick up

and how we fill

the other,

you know,

the 24 hours of Sabbath,

for us,

Sabbath begins

on Sunday morning,

usually with sleeping in,

the girls,

you know,

piling into our bed

for cuddles.

There's no rush

to get to school

by 8.15,

no rushing to pack lunches.

We receive God's rest.

Usually,

our Sabbath also begins

with the best breakfast

of the week.

Chelsea and the girls

in the kitchen,

Ubi pancakes,

right,

bacon,

matcha lattes.

My girls are into

matcha lattes,

man.

Millennial kids,

man.

Avocado toast,

man.

Smoothies,

all that stuff.

And I'll usually just

take the dog out,

talk with,

talk to God,

walk with God.

For some Jewish families,

they'll light two candles,

right,

and those reflect Exodus 20,

Deuteronomy 5.

Remember,

observe.

As one Jewish theologian

put it,

A.J.

Heschel,

he said that Sabbath

is a cathedral

in time.

Like,

imagine a moment

of entering into

something holy

and different,

just as we might enter

some sacred space,

but in time.

For my family,

we don't have that kind

of ritual yet,

but on Saturday night,

in our family's normal

time of prayer

and Bible reading together,

I usually will try

to thank God

for the upcoming Sabbath

and ask him

to help us,

to help us observe

the Sabbath

and keep it holy.

Or when I wake up,

I'll often pray

on the Sabbath,

Lord,

this is your day,

not mine.

My time is not my own.

Lord,

today I will be still

and know

that you are God.

But the point is

to set this day apart

as holy,

different,

and distinct

unto the Lord.

Also,

on many Sabbath mornings,

I might quiz my daughters

girls,

what day is today?

And they are trained

to say,

the Lord's day.

And then I will say,

and what do we do

on the Lord's day?

And they will say,

we worship God.

And so that's what we do.

We drive to church,

they'll request

Hamilton,

Wicked,

K-pop demon hunters.

We'll say no.

No Harry Potter

on Audible this morning

and no news

or, you know,

podcast to help

daddy level up either.

On the way to church,

it's worship music

and we're singing together,

trying to,

ready our hearts

for worship.

I'm trying to train

my girls

as worshipers.

And then of course,

we come here,

we join God's people,

all of you for worship.

This is a non-negotiable

for us.

We're committed

to never letting sports

or activities

or even vacations

get in the way

of worship.

And if for some

super special reason

the girls have to miss

Christ Church here

at 10.30,

we'll find another service.

8 a.m. at Resurrection Oakland,

4.30 at Redeemer

in Castor Valley.

But for us,

worship isn't optional

on the Sabbath.

It isn't some kind

of flexible default

for us.

It isn't the thing

we squeeze in

at the mercy

of other commitments

we've previously made.

Even when some

super special occasion

comes up,

we don't not worship

because a special

rare opportunity

or event

has presented itself.

We don't think to ourselves,

hey, worship will always

be there,

but this concert,

that birthday party,

that basketball tournament,

that championship game,

that trip

is a once-in-a-decade experience.

No, worship

is the commitment

that commands

and conditions

every other commitment

and decision

about how we order

our week before God.

Again,

on the Lord's Day,

we recognize

that we are not our own

and our time

is not our own

and that the Lord's Day

is the Lord's.

All of it.

Sabbath is a whole day

for us,

not just from 1030

to noon.

On Sabbath afternoons,

after lunch,

hopefully we've had lunch

with maybe church family.

Chelsea usually likes

to take a long nap.

It's beautiful.

And I might take one too

or read,

but I've had to,

you know,

discern in myself,

I need to make sure

that what I'm reading

is not for the sake,

again,

of leveling up.

I'm not opening up

a commentary

to sermon prep ahead,

right?

But what I will read

is for my soul

and for enjoyment,

delight and worship,

devotional books

that convict,

fiction that keeps me grounded

and makes me feel more human.

I try to fill my Sabbath

with things

that will stir my heart

and affections,

draw me nearer to God,

fill me with gratitude

toward Him,

peace with Him.

Like, you know,

one of the most restful,

relaxing,

and indulgent things

that I do,

I wish I could do this

way more often,

but it just feels like

such a waste of time,

is I'll sit on my couch,

I'll look into my dog's eyes,

and I'll pet him

for like an unlimited

amount of time.

And I swear,

I sense the presence of God,

the peace of God,

the gratitude fills my heart,

because on Sabbath,

I'm freed from the fear

of wasting time.

Don't you want that?

The Sabbath is God's gift

of abundance to us,

to sit in the shade

of our shepherd,

to know that we shall not want,

right?

To sense Him

anointing our head with oil,

to watch our cups overflow,

to let His mercy

and goodness

that are following us

all the days of our life

catch up to us

and embrace us.

And we are invited

to just receive

these seemingly wasteful

and unproductive moments

as good gifts

from our good Father.

What might those gifts

be to you

and your family today?

Sabbath is a day

for delight.

And that's what

I want my girls

to remember.

So like on Sabbath,

Cammie last week was like,

Daddy, can I pop open

this can of Pringles?

Go for it, girl.

Leah, Daddy,

can I have some chocolate?

Yes, it's the Lord's day.

Savor the sweetness

of the Sabbath.

And that's especially

our experience twice a month

on Sunday evenings

when we're with

our Alameda community group.

I love it when my girls ask,

do we have community group tonight?

They love it.

There's food everywhere,

amazing potluck,

laughter,

kids running around,

teenagers playing

with little kids.

And these people

who aren't technically

our family,

they also are our family.

We eat,

we share life,

we celebrate,

sometimes we cry together,

we open up the word of God,

we pray for each other.

And then on those Sundays

when we don't have

community group,

maybe we're meeting

with other people,

having other people

in our homes.

I love what Dylan's doing

every other Sunday,

hosting life together

at his place.

Or maybe we're just

having a simple dinner,

just the four of us,

enjoying each other's company.

After dinner,

we'll try to take

a leisurely walk

around the neighborhood.

And you know,

that might be

when I most deeply feel

the rest and delight

of Sabbath

in God's presence.

When we go

for these slow walks,

no one's rushing,

no one's counting steps,

the girls will run on

ahead of us,

stopping every once

in a while

to inspect a bug,

pick up a stick,

play with the dog.

And Chelsea and I

will be walking

behind them

and we'll often just

look at each other

and share this

knowing glance

of gratitude.

Like,

this is it.

This is the life.

This is what we were made for.

What more could we want?

Can you believe

that God

has given this to us?

These girls,

this family,

this beautiful world

He's made

and we just soak it in,

content to let this moment

last forever.

And it's like a taste

of God's eternal rest

and delight.

Now listen,

I'm not saying

that your Sundays

need to look anything

like ours.

And I realize

that not everyone

has the same family

circumstances

or privileges

that I do.

Maybe you don't have

the same freedom

over your schedules.

Some of you live alone,

some of you have

different needs

and difficulties

or you're caring

for people

with different needs

and difficulties.

Some of you

have work responsibilities

that aren't so easily

set aside, right?

And some of you

may be even going

through a season

in which it's hard

to find even an ounce

of delight

in the midst

of your circumstances.

The fourth commandment

isn't a command

to curate

a picture-perfect

Sunday once a week,

but it is an invitation

to pause long enough

to consider

and receive

God's goodness

in the life

you're actually

living before Him.

So what might

that look like

for you?

What might God

be calling you

to stop doing

for a full 24 hours

once a week?

And where might

you be choosing

productivity

and getting ahead

over the rest

God wants for you

and your household?

Or what are

some good things

that God might

be actually

giving you permission

to delight in

as gifts from Him

but that you maybe

often just tend

to brush aside

as indulgent

and luxurious?

And most importantly

is worship,

is communion

with the living God.

Is that what

you most anticipate

as you move

through your week?

Is that the journey

and pilgrimage

of your week?

Is that the central

orienting concern

of your life

and what you allow

to order your time?

This is what God

wants for us.

But you know,

there's still one more

question that I think

makes Sabbath

so hard to receive.

And it's,

how can I rest

when there's so much

left unfinished,

right?

Just so much left

undone.

When there's so much

about me

that I need to work on,

that needs work,

that needs change,

so much about this world

that's broken

and far from what

ought to be.

Sure, God rested

on the seventh day

but what He had to behold,

it was very good.

It was a very good world.

I understand

why He could rest

but how can we?

Well, here's the good news.

Here's the gospel.

God's resting

after finishing His work

never meant

that we could only rest

after finishing ours.

From the beginning,

Sabbath was a gift

to receive,

not a reward

to earn.

And even when we

forfeited that rest,

when we reached

for forbidden fruit

instead of receiving

the abundance

God had already

offered to us,

even when we brought

sin and unrest

into God's good creation,

God didn't leave us

to work our way back.

No, He sent His Son,

Jesus Christ,

the Lord of the Sabbath,

to accomplish a new

and far more costly work,

one we could never accomplish

for ourselves.

And on the cross,

He bore our sin.

He bore our curse,

entering into the deepest

unrest

to secure for us

the eternal rest

that we forfeited

and never deserved

in the first place.

And when that work

was done,

what did He say?

He cried out,

It is finished.

And that is why

we can Sabbath,

even when everything

inside and outside

of us feels so unfinished,

like so much work

is required.

Our work is unfinished.

Our lives are unfinished.

The world is unfinished.

But the ultimate work

that secures

our eternal rest

with God,

even now,

in time,

in creation,

has been secured for us

in Jesus Christ.

Jesus said,

it is finished.

It is finished.

And that's why

even in the midst

of our unfinished lives,

we can stop,

rest,

delight,

and worship.

Not because we've

finally done enough,

but because He has.

Will you pray with me?

Oh, Lord,

I pray

that Your law

would bring great conviction

to us,

Your people,

and at the very same time,

great comfort

and liberation.

Oh, God,

convict us

for ways

that we have not

stopped,

rested,

delighted,

and worshiped You.

and Lord,

show us

the good thing

that You are offering

to us

and how You've made it

available to us

in Christ

who suffered unrest

so that we could

rest with You forever.

Make us a people

striving to enter

Your rest,

oh God.

In Jesus' name,

amen.

Amen.

Amen.

Amen.

Amen.

may may may

!

!