Bad Advice – Work for the Weekend

This podcast is presented to you by Pastor Jason Burns and Access Church in Lakeland, Florida.

For more information, visit Access.tv.

Let's do this.

Let's get to work today, everybody.

Today we are in our series that's been a lot of fun.

We kicked it off last week.

The series is called Bad Advice, and here's the concept for the whole series.

A lot of us, we live our lives kind of suffering under the consequences of buying into bad advice that was given to us.

If you missed last Sunday, my wife kicked off the series with a beautiful message, kind of disarming the lie that you should follow your heart.

Come on, you've heard that before.

That's every Disney movie.

But that is some really, really bad advice.

Today, I've got a whole different kind of bad advice to talk about.

And this is gonna be a good Sunday.

Let me tell you why.

Um, number one, um, I am hopped up on caffeine and cold medicine, so it's either gonna be a lot of fun or a theological train wreck, but either way, we're gonna have a good time, everybody.

And number two is I've got something really that's gonna be helpful to you today.

Let me let me show you this.

Um, a couple weeks ago, just for fun, I put up on my social media, I said, uh, hey, what's some good or really bad advice you've gotten over the years?

And some of you are really jacked up, by the way.

You should see somebody about that.

You've got some bad, bad advice.

Here's a couple of my favorite ones, okay?

Bad advice people in our church got.

Beanie babies are a great investment.

Anyone remember these?

That's fun.

Here's another one.

Someone said, Don't waste your money on Bitcoin.

How many of you wish you would have wasted your money on Bitcoin?

You would be here in a Ferrari, everybody.

Today I want to give you some bad advice that you need to disarm in your life.

And if you can get this, the promise from God is you're gonna live a better kind of life.

Here is the bad advice that we work for the weekend.

Can't wait for Friday because Friday's the beginning of the weekend, that we we work for the weekend.

And this is a really dangerous and bad way to live your life.

And I want to spend all of our time talking about that today.

To get us started, uh, about a year ago, I had the cool opportunity to fly up.

It was just a 24-hour trip, but I flew from Florida to Chicago, and I was gonna be there for 24 hours to teach in the morning to a large church staff and then to preach their service that evening.

And so I flew up and I was really excited just to get away, just to catch my breath and get a breather, get out of town.

So I flew up to Chicago, but you ever have a day when everything doesn't go your way?

I had problems in traffic on the way to the airport, but like that's I-4, right?

That is what it is.

I get to the airport, I have a problem getting on the flight, I finally make the flight, it's all good.

I get to the airport there in Chicago, I go to my rental car agency, and the lady punches all the buttons and she says, I'm so sorry.

I've got some bad news and some good news.

I said, Well, give it to me straight.

And she goes, Well, the bad news is we don't have a car here for you.

I was like, But I have a reservation.

She goes, I don't have a car here for you.

I said, Well, what's the good news?

And she goes, Oh, I didn't have any good news.

I just wanted to say that I did.

And I was like, that didn't help nothing.

Anyways, I got myself a car from another agency, and I immediately drove to a beautiful place in Chicago called Girodano's Pizza.

I don't know if you've had this before, but it's the deep dish pizza where when they bring it to you, they lift it up and there's cheese just pouring off of it.

So good.

And I was so excited about this.

So I ordered the pizza.

It takes like 45 minutes to cook, but it finally comes out, and I made a rookie mistake.

I took a huge bite right away in the pizza.

It's been like a year and a half.

I can still feel the burn in my mouth.

It lit me on fire.

It was unbelievable, but whatever.

I'm a real man.

I powered through and finished my pizza and I get that done.

And so then the next day's good.

All my teaching went great, and then I go to the airport and I have issue after issue after issue at the airport to come home.

I go, I go get in line for TSA preach or for the pre-check.

I get to the front of the line, they say, Sir, there's a problem with your ticket, you need to go back to this desk.

I'm like, but I just waited in this long line.

They said, No, just go.

So I go back to the ticket desk, I wait in the long line, get that issue resolved, go back to TSA pre-check, wait in another very long line, finally get through, and I think all my problems are over, I'm good.

And I go to the plane to get on the plane.

Now, if you've ever been on a plane, you know how it works.

You've got your ticket or your phone, and people scan in, and they scan, and the machine goes ding, and it turns green.

Ding, green, ding, green.

I get up, I put my ticket on, it goes, uh-uh, red.

I thought to myself, what idiot on our staff put me on the do not fly list.

I'm gonna kill somebody, right?

And the man says, Please come over here, step, sir, step this way.

And I thought, two words, cavity search.

I thought this is gonna be bad, right?

And it wasn't that.

The man goes, actually, it's not bad news, it's good news.

You got an upgrade.

And I said, Talk dirty to me.

What is that?

What do you mean?

He goes, sir, we we wanted to move you from economy in the back to first class.

And I was like, I will kiss you on the mouth.

You know what?

Like, what do you mean, upgrade?

And so he tells me, he goes, uh, you've flown with American Airlines so much that you have now reached executive platinum status.

I said, Yes, I have.

What does that mean?

What does it mean?

And he goes, You get a free upgrade to first class.

I'm gonna be honest with you, that power went to my head really fast.

Like, really fast.

When I travel by myself, I am cheap.

Like if I take Liz somewhere, I want to spoil her, I get a nice flight, nice car, nice hotel, nice everything.

When it's just me, I get the cheapest flight, unless it's spirit, because I'm not trying to meet Jesus right now.

Um I get the cheapest rental car, I get the cheapest hotel.

If it's got two stars, that's one too many for me.

I get the cheapest hotel.

And they upgrade me.

And this power goes to my head.

I'm sitting up in first class watching all these peasants walk by me.

I'm just back of the plane.

Just get just keep moving.

All right.

You ever gotten an upgrade?

Like, I'm not an upgrade guy, but I got an upgrade that day.

Have you ever gotten an upgrade?

Whether it was to a car or a hotel or a flight, how dumb would it be if you went to check into a hotel and they said, sir, we got we got great news.

We want to give you an upgrade to the presidential suite with the beach front window view.

And you're like, Yeah, I'm good.

I'll just stay in the back.

Like, who would who would do that?

Who would turn down an upgrade?

And here's what I came to say to somebody today.

Jesus in Scripture offers us a massive upgrade.

And what's so funny is when you hear the message of Jesus, you're gonna be tempted to settle for the downgrade.

And I just want to push really hard on somebody today.

I don't want someone to leave today a little free, a little different, because you've taken Jesus at his word and you've accepted that his word and his way is the best way.

Some 30 or 40 years ago, there was this problem that was happening in Japan.

The problem was so big that social scientists had to come up with a word to describe what this problem was.

That they were having this phenomena where people were working so hard in a culture that glamorized work.

People were working so hard that they were literally having heart attacks or strokes and dying at work.

They didn't have a word for this, so they came up with the word in Japanese.

The word was Kiroshi.

This word literally is for a person who dropped dead at work.

The phenomena wasn't just in Japan.

It was found in China and in South Korea, and they in their own languages came up with similar words to describe this.

If you were to hear this about a family member or a friend that worked so hard that they literally work themselves to death, would you say it's worth it?

No.

No, no.

Like it is it worth it, in your opinion, to work 65 or 70 years to ignore your family, ignore your friends, ignore the, ignore the joy in this life, and then get to retirement and maybe just have a few functions.

Is it really worth it?

And I think the answer we all know intuitively is no.

Like there has to be a better way to do this.

And here's the funny thing.

In almost every other area of our life, if we break God's rules and we break God's laws, if we if we settle for a life that's less than what we were created for, we're we're reprimanded, we're punished, we we don't we don't really win.

But if you ignore that when it comes to work and rest, and you work yourself, if you develop workaholism and you just tire and exhaust yourself completely out, you get celebrated and promoted.

That this is the sin that we're fine with, and I want to talk about it today.

In the book of Matthew, Jesus was talking.

And and this translation we're gonna read from is called the message translation.

It's really not a translation, it's more of a paraphrase.

And this man, Eugene Peterson, he took the Bible and he he appropriately translated it, but in a very easy to understand language.

I want you to ask yourself these questions that Jesus asks.

Matthew 11, 28.

Jesus said, Are you tired?

Worn out.

Burned out on religion.

One more time from the top.

Are you tired?

Worn out and burned out on religion.

Jesus said, 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.

He says, keep company with me and you'll learn to live freely and lightly.

I don't remember middle school English class, but I think these are adverbs.

Would you say that these adverbs describe your life?

Because if I could just be real for a moment, if you want a perfect pastor, you pick the wrong church.

These words don't often feel like the metaphors for my life.

My life doesn't feel free and light.

My life often feels heavy and exhausting.

Maybe it's true for you that your life doesn't feel free and light.

Your life feels overwhelming and like you're burning it at both ends and the middle.

If any of those feel true for you, then the message and the promise of Jesus is for you today.

So one more time from the top, here's Jesus' questions.

Are you tired?

And this doesn't just mean a bad night of sleep.

This means your soul is tired.

Are you worn out?

Like sometimes a good night of sleep fixes a feeling a little bit tired.

But worn out is a season when you just feel like you can't ever fully rest.

You'll know you're worn out when you go on vacation and you don't feel rested.

And Jesus has a third one.

He says, Are you burned out?

But this isn't like burned out because you've worked too much.

This is burned out on religion.

And if any of these feel like you, I want you to know that this isn't God's best.

He has an upgrade for you.

He has a supernatural plan for you.

And here's what it is God's plan for supernatural rest is Sabbath.

It's something we don't talk about very often as a society.

Sabbath is not a word that we even use very often.

But Sabbath is an interesting word, and I want to show you what it means really simply.

Sabbath means to cease.

It means to stop.

What are we to cease, or what are we to stop?

Every once in a while, once a week, for a whole 24 hours.

Sabbath says, God, I trust you.

Sabbath says to God, God, it's not me that's controlling the world, it's you that's keeping the world spinning on its axis, so I trust you.

Sabbath reminds your soul that you're not ultimately the one that's in control.

Sabbath is God saying, every seven days, I want you to take a day where you're unavailable, where you're unreachable, where you do things that fill your heart and your soul with joy.

This is what Sabbath is.

God's always been about this.

Genesis chapter 1 and 2, God creates the world with his voice, he speaks the world into existence.

Genesis 1 · chapter mention

And every day from day one through six, God creates a different part of the world and the universe.

But then on day seven, it says, Then God rested.

He took a breather, he rested.

And this was the model.

God didn't need to rest.

He's God, He's all powerful.

He didn't need the rest.

God knew that He needed to model it for us.

By the book of Exodus, God's people, the Israelites, are in slavery.

We talked about that a lot over the last month and a half or so.

They're in slavery, and God supernaturally delivers them from the slavery, and they're on their way to a land called the Promised Land, Canaan, the land that they illustratively called the land flowing with milk and honey.

And God did this wild thing for them.

Like on the way there, he provided for them supernaturally.

In the heat of the Middle Eastern sun, God provided clouds by day to give them shade.

And at night when it was cold, he provided fire by night to keep them warm.

Beyond that, God did something crazy.

In the middle of this arid desert land, God provided food supernaturally for them.

He gave them something that they called manna.

Mana was this bread from God, bread from heaven.

Now we don't know exactly what it is.

Scholars say manna was probably like a resin-based bread, but I like to believe God is a good God.

And I like to believe on Mondays they woke up to cheddarbay biscuits from Red Lobster, everybody.

Tuesday, some Olive Garden breadsticks.

Wednesday, highlight of the day, Texas Roadhouse yeast rolls with cinnamon butter.

Come on.

I have sink.

Are you standing up for that?

Come on.

Like that's what I'm talking about.

Thursday, the brown bread from Cheesecake Factory.

Come on.

Friday, the bread from Carabas with the oil dip and the spices.

Saturday, ego waffles.

I don't know.

Like just really good stuff.

But here's what God said.

This is important.

God said, I'm going to give it to you for six days, but not on the seventh day.

The first five days, just take enough for that day.

Because if you don't, like if you take more than that, it's going to spoil.

Just take what you need for today.

It's a precursor to what Jesus says in the Lord's Prayer.

Give us this day our daily bread.

Okay, you get it now.

But then on the sixth day, he said, I want you to do something different.

On the sixth day, take double what you need.

And that double is going to last you for tomorrow as well.

Because on the seventh day there's not going to be any for you.

Because I don't want you to work and get it.

Here it is in Exodus chapter 16.

Exodus 16 · chapter mention

He said to them, This is what the Lord commanded.

Moses says to his people, This is what the Lord commanded.

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

So bake what you want and bake and boil what you want to boil.

Save whatever is left and keep it until morning.

So they saved it until morning as Moses commanded, and it did not stink or get maggots in it.

He says, You will not find any of it on the ground today.

None of that manna on the ground on the seventh day.

Six days you are to gather it, but on the seventh day, the Sabbath, there will not be any.

And then I want you to see something.

This next word, nevertheless, is so important.

Because God gave them very clear instructions of how he would take care of them, but nevertheless means the people thought, we'll do it our way.

Nevertheless is the word you and I say when it comes to Sabbath, which is like, yeah, I know, but I like my way.

Like if if if I don't work seven days, if I just work six, I lose 14% of my work week.

So I'm just gonna do it my way.

Nevertheless, some of the people went out on the seventh day to gather it, but they found none.

Then the Lord said to Moses, How long will you refuse to keep my commandments and my instructions?

Bear in mind the Lord has given you the Sabbath.

Look at this phrase.

What do we give?

Gifts.

Essentially, what God is saying through Moses is that the Sabbath was given to you as a gift for you.

Not to judge you, not to keep you from being productive, but to be a gift for you.

He says, that is why on the sixth day he gives you bread for two days.

Everyone is to stay where they are on the seventh day.

No one is to go out.

So the people, they rested on the seventh day.

This has always been God's idea.

Work and be a hard worker.

Bring everything you can to your job, work, but don't let work consume you.

Don't get so busy with life that you live an exhausted kind of life and you never fully rest.

Now, this is the thing.

It doesn't make sense.

It just doesn't.

It doesn't mat that the math doesn't add up in our minds.

I like to think of Sabbath like I think of the principle of tithing.

If you don't know, tithing is what God commands us to do.

It's to bring him the first 10% of all of our money, all of our income, bring it to him, give it to your local church, but you're not giving it, you're bringing it back to God.

And there's a promise with it.

God promises that when you bring him the first 10%, the rest of it is blessed.

You have a decision to make with your money.

It's will I live on a hundred percent that is under my control, or will I live under 90% that is supernaturally blessed by God?

The mental math doesn't work out, but God always comes through.

In the same way, God is saying you have seven days a week.

I want you to work six of them, but on that seventh one, I want you to rest.

I want you to enjoy.

I want you to fill your life with the things that bring you joy.

And it doesn't make sense.

You're gonna feel less productive, but here's the promise of God.

When you do things God's way, you get God's results.

So, so what happens if you break it?

What happens if you work on the Sabbath day?

What happens if you don't take a Sabbath?

Here it is.

If you work on the Sabbath, God's just not going to help you.

You'll just have to do everything in your own strength.

What does that lead to?

Exhaustion, being tired, burned out.

What is Sabbath about?

It's not rules and laws laid on you by God.

Sabbath is about experiencing joy and delight.

Sabbath is a day where you're unreachable.

Sabbath is a day where you catch your breath.

Sabbath is a day that's filled with joy and delight.

It's what refuels your soul.

So, what would it look like if we just took God at his word and we said, God, I believe your way is better than my way.

And even though the math doesn't make sense in my mind, I trust you that you know better than me.

Give your message notes, pull them out.

I want to give you three thoughts on Sabbath.

And I'm gonna challenge all of us this week to put this into practice and to see that God's way is better than our way.

The first thought is this.

Number one, Sabbath is a commandment, not a suggestion.

It's a commandment.

Sabbath, keeping the Sabbath is actually one of the Ten Commandments.

I want you to think about the Ten Commandments for just a moment.

The first three are all about our relationship with God.

Have no other gods before me, no idols, don't take the name of the Lord your God in vain.

That's the first three.

Number four is about the Sabbath.

We'll come to that in a minute.

Number five is honor your mother and father.

And then the next five are all the big ones.

Thou shalt not murder, thou shalt not covet, thou shalt not commit adultery, and a couple others that I can't think of because I am on cold medicine.

Okay.

Number four is remember the Sabbath and keep it holy.

It's the longest of all the commandments.

It's the one with the most explanation.

Why do you think that is?

Because God knew if he wasn't specific, we would try to find a loophole to get out of it.

God knew that if we if he gave us a way out, we'd find a way out and we want to do things our way.

Here's the Ten Commandments, Exodus chapter 20.

Exodus 20 · chapter mention

This is four chapters after what we just read.

God says, 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 nor your son, nor your daughter, nor your male or female servant, nor your animals.

And my French bulldogs are like, Finally, 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 Sabbath day.

And if it wasn't clear enough, he says, Therefore, the Lord blessed the Sabbath and he made it holy.

The Sabbath is a commandment, it is not a suggestion.

So why do we obey them?

Some people are like, well, that's the Old Testament.

Why do we obey them?

I want you to see this.

We don't obey the commandments to be saved.

We obey them to be blessed.

God wants to bless you.

Let me try to explain it to you this way.

With each of the Ten Commandments comes two things.

They come consequences and blessings.

I'll try to explain it like this, okay?

If you disobey the commandments, you're gonna deal with consequences.

Let's just pick one.

Um, thou shalt not commit adultery, okay?

If you commit adultery, which is to sleep with someone that is not the person you are married to, right?

It's breaking the covenant you have with them, and there's consequences.

You're gonna break the heart of your spouse, you're gonna break trust in your marriage.

It might cost you your marriage, it might cost you your parenting, it might cost you your job, it's gonna cost you something significant, right?

It's a consequence.

But there's a blessing that comes from obeying the command.

Every day that I'm faithful to my wife, which by the way, is every day that I am faithful to my wife, that I come home, I build on the foundation of trust a little bit more and a little bit more and a little bit more.

Why does it matter?

Intimacy thrives where trust abides.

We have to be the kind of people who understand this and who get it.

Let me give you another one.

All right, you ready?

Um, we're in political season.

Let's talk about a theological issue that people have made political, but it is not political, it is strictly theological.

Thou shalt not murder.

What is abortion?

Let me talk to you for a moment.

This gets real dicey.

It gets very nuanced, and I understand some of the nuance to it.

But at the biggest level, the biggest picture, that is a life that is to be born.

When you take the life, well, no one wants to call it this because it feels bad, but it is that it is murder.

This isn't this is theological, not political.

What is the consequence?

The consequence of it is that you rob the potential of the life of that child.

The blessing of keeping the pregnancy and giving birth to the baby is that baby, is a baby that Ephesians chapter 2 says that before God laid the foundations of the earth, he had a plan in mind for them.

Ephesians 2 · chapter mention

Okay.

With each one of the commandments comes a consequence and a blessing.

What is the consequence of not obeying the Sabbath?

You exhaust yourself.

You run yourself ragged and you run your life off road.

What happens when you obey the Sabbath?

You get the blessing.

What is the blessing?

Rest.

You don't work for rest, you work from rest.

Number one, Sabbath is a commandment.

Number two, write this down Sabbath is a witness.

This is what stands out in the world around you.

Jewish people were known in the ancient world.

World as being people who would take a the seventh day off.

It was a sign to the world around them that God was their source and God was their provision.

In the book of Exodus, chapter 31, this is now 11 chapters later, Moses uses some very strong language.

Exodus 31 · chapter mention

Exodus 31.

He says, Observe the Sabbath, because it is holy to you.

Anyone who desecrates it is to be put to death.

What?

I feel strong.

You'd be put to death.

Those who do any work on that day must be cut off from their people.

Dang.

It says, For six days work is to be done, but the seventh day is a day of Sabbath rest, holy to the Lord.

Whoever does any work on the Sabbath is to be put to death.

There it is again.

He says, The Israelites are to observe the Sabbath, celebrating it for generations to come as a lasting covenant.

Quick side note, the book of Galatians, Paul says is that this covenant that God has made with the people of Israel, now we as non-Jews are grafted into the same family, and we get all the blessings and benefits of it.

He says, it will be a sign, it'll be a witness between me and the Israelites forever.

For in six days the Lord made the heavens and the earth, and on the seventh day he rested and was refreshed.

Because talk about two things from this verse.

The first thing is, God says, if you don't obey the Sabbath, you should be put to death.

Now that sounds pretty strong.

Like God sounds like an angry, cosmic killjoy in that verse, doesn't he?

But he's not saying he's gonna kill you.

What is he saying?

You're gonna kill you.

If all you do is work, you're going to kill yourself.

Now I told you earlier, your pastor doesn't have it all together.

Many years ago, I I blew this one so bad.

I was so messed up.

In the early days of our church, I started another company, just needed some extra income because the church was so small.

And so I started this company and it just like took off.

And for a couple years, I was literally working 100 to 120 hours every single week.

I exhausted myself, depleted my adrenal glands.

I looked back at messages from back then and my eyes and my face was so puffy that my eyes were like almost swollen shut.

I would get anywhere from like one to four hours of sleep a night for six days a week, for honestly, for over two years.

And at one point I started having this weird issue with my heart, where um I would just be like doing my thing and my heart would start racing.

Or I'd be talking.

I was just normal and I would like to cough like that.

I would just talk and I would have a little cough come out and I was fine, but it just a cough like that would come out.

So I go to the doctor and he sends me to a cardiologist.

Cardiologist orders a nuclear stress test.

I don't know if you've ever had one of those, but they make you exercise.

And at that point in my life, I was not in shape unless you consider round a shape.

And so I get on this machine and there's a young cardiologist who's reading the paper as the paper's coming out about my heart, and he's reading, he's like, hmm, okay.

Hmm.

And then he asked this question.

He goes, When did you have a heart attack?

And I said, Huh?

What?

He goes, When did you have a heart attack?

I'm like, right now.

Like, what are you talking about?

He goes, No, no, when did you have a heart attack?

And I said, I mean, I'm pretty strong.

I might have powered through one, but I don't remember having a heart attack.

He sent me to his supervisor, who's this sweet older man, and he looked at it and he goes, Um I think some doctors would read this and say you had a heart attack.

I read it and don't think you did.

He said, Talk to me about your life.

And I started talking about my stress and my lack of sleep and everything I was doing and carrying.

And he goes, That's what it is.

That's what it is.

You've done this to yourself.

Now, maybe you've done it like that or more extreme, maybe you've done it less extreme.

But if we're not careful, we will kill ourselves.

That's the first part.

The second part of the verse, it says that God created the world in six days, and on the seventh day, God rested, and it says, and he was refreshed.

That word in Hebrew literally means to take a breath.

I want you to think about the creation.

The first six days it says that he creates with his voice.

What is required for you to speak?

You need vocal cords, but the vocal cords do nothing unless you power them with your exhale of your breath.

So for six days, God exhales and creates the world.

And on the seventh day, he takes in a breath.

Think about all the language we use around being exhausted.

We say stuff like, well, if I can just catch my breath.

Or we'll be so tired, we'll say, Oh, I just need a deep breather.

Why do you think this is?

It's because we were never created to live a life that is always exhaling.

Every once in a while, you have to take a day.

Scripturally, it's every seven days.

You take a day where you inhale, you relax, you rest, you catch your breath.

So here's the question, because everybody wants to get real specific and like help me do this, what does this mean in my life?

One of the questions is what do you do on your day off?

Like if you're taking a 24-hour period to do this, what do you do on your day off?

This is the wrong question.

The right question is, what do you not do on your day off?

You want to know the answer?

Work.

It's really simple.

For 24 hours, you give God a whole day of rest and joy and delight.

Let me tell you how this works for me.

I work Sundays.

Sundays is not my Sabbath.

My Sabbath starts Friday night.

Friday night around dinner time.

I put down work.

I'm with my family.

We usually start with pizza night and some sort of hangout as a family.

And then Saturday is a family day.

It's a fun day.

But come Saturday night at dinner time, I go back into work mode to get myself ready for this.

But every week it is my intention to give God 24 hours of saying, God, you're the one who spins the world, not me.

You're the one who takes care of me, not me.

So I'm gonna rest in you.

You need to know Sabbath is a commandment, Sabbath is a witness to the world around us.

And number three, Sabbath is a blessing.

Another way to say it is Sabbath is a gift.

There's this interesting moment that reveals the heart of legalism around Sabbath.

To this day, Jews struggle with this.

Like to this day, in modern day, if you go to Israel, a lot of hotels and places that have elevators, they're what's called Shabbat elevators or Sabbath elevators.

They literally stop at every floor and none of the buttons work because they believe that if you are sleeping on floor number 10 and you push number 10, the act of pushing 10 is work.

So they don't want you to work.

So instead you stand and wait, and the elevator stops at every single floor.

In the ancient world, the Pharisees and the legalists would literally limit the number of steps.

They would say, anything above X amount of steps is considered work, so count your steps and make sure you walk less than this.

To this day, some Jewish people living there might turn their oven on the night before and just leave it on all night because the work of pushing the button to turn an oven on is too much work and would break the Sabbath.

That's legalism and misses the heart of God.

And this goes all the way back to Jesus' day.

One day Jesus was with his disciples and they happened to pass through a field of grain, and it says this here in Mark chapter 2.

Mark 2 · chapter mention

Now it happened that he went through the grain fields on the Sabbath, and as they went by, his disciples began to pluck the heads of grain.

So they just popped one off to have a little snack.

And the Pharisees said to him, Look, why do they do what is not lawful on the Sabbath?

Like that little act of popping off a little head of grain and eating a snack was considered work.

So Jesus said to them, Have you never heard what David did when he was in need and hungry?

He and those with him, now how he went into the house of God in the days of Abathar the high priest, and he ate the showbread, which is not lawful to eat except for the priest, and also gave some to those who were with him.

And then he said to them, and I want you to hear this, the Sabbath was made for man, not man for the Sabbath.

We'll come back to that in a moment.

Therefore, the Son of Man is also the Lord of the Sabbath.

Look at the direction of the gift of Sabbath.

It is not us doing something for God.

Sabbath is a gift from God to you and to me.

What is the gift?

The gift is rest.

The gift is you don't have to buy into the lie of bad advice that we work for the weekend or we just do stuff in order to get through, but we can work from a place of rest, and that idea is such a different thing in the world that it's gonna stand out like stars in the sky.

Ready?

So how do you do it?

I'm gonna give you three simple thoughts and then we're all done.

First thing is this we've got to learn to divert daily, withdraw weekly, and abandon annually.

What does it mean?

Every day you need a breather.

I start my day with this.

I wake up very early in the morning for some reason, and I like to give God my first few minutes.

Before my phone or email or Instagram or whatever gets my time, I like to give God my time.

And then we withdraw weekly.

This is Sabbath.

Every week you need a day where you're not available.

Every day, every week you need a day where your phone is off or you're really unreachable.

You need a day when you're not doing work and you're doing things that fill your soul with joy and delight.

Then abandon annually.

I think every person needs a vacation.

The root of the word vacation is the word vacate.

It's where you just leave.

Something happens to me when I go on vacation.

I rest in a way that if you gave me two weeks off just to lay around the house, I won't feel as rested as when I go away.

Some people are like, well, how do I do that?

Set aside a few bucks every day, every week.

Set aside a few bucks.

Plan for it.

You you have money and time for the things that matter to you, so make a priority of doing this and then watch what happens.

What happens?

You ready for this?

In the same way that when we tithe, God blesses the rest.

When we honor the Sabbath, God blesses the rest of our time.

The promise from God is you'll get more done in six days with the blessing of God than what you'll get in striving in seven.

The promise of God is that you will get more accomplished, you will feel better, and you will do it all from a place in a heart that is rested than if you give it your full best college effort for seven straight days.

So what if all of us just made this decision?

I am going to live my life, not my way, but God's way.

I'm gonna live my life in a way that honors God, not in a way that does what I think is best.

I think if all of us will choose this path, if we'll reject the bad advice of we work for the weekend, but we will trust God's way is the best way, we're gonna experience life in a whole new dimension.

Will you bow your head and close your eyes with me all across this room?

Lord, give us courage.

This one's way easier to talk about than it is to live out, but give us courage to not buy into the lie that we're the ones in control, but you are.

God, I pray that our church will have the courage to trust you supernaturally to do more in six than we could ever do in our own efforts in seven days.

We thank you for it, God, that Sabbath is a gift from you and it is a gift for us.

So today we're choosing to put you first in this area of our lives, and we thank you for it in Jesus' name.

Your head still bowed and eyes still closed.

Maybe you came today and you don't know if you're right with God.

I don't know what that means for you, but maybe it means you've never started a relationship with Jesus, or maybe you just feel like you've walked so far away from your relationship with him, but today you want to restart.

Whether you need to start or restart, if this is you and you say, Jason, that's me, would you raise your hand right now?

I want to pray with you.

Thanks.

Yeah, wow.

Thanks.

Thank you.

Here's your moment.

If this was you, would you pray this with me?

Praying a prayer changes everything when you meet it with your heart.

Would you say, Jesus, today I give you my life?

I invite you to be my Lord and my Savior.

Jesus, I believe you are the Son of God who came into this world and died on a cross in my place.

Because of your great sacrifice, I believe my life can be changed forever.

So, Jesus, would you take my life and forgive my sins?

From this day forward, I choose to follow you.

Jesus, I love you.

I give you my life for the rest of my life.

Be my Lord and my savior.

I'll follow you forever.

And it's in your name I pray, Jesus.

Amen.

Church fam, come on, let's celebrate.

We just had people pray to make that decision together.