Rested Souls - Part 3

Well, last week we went all the way back to Genesis 3.

We won't go quite as far back. We'll just go to Exodus today.

But you can go to Exodus 16 and as we talk about the pursuit of

holiness in our lives, we're going to talk about the Sabbath

and resting today. It's called Rested Souls, and

it's interesting. I remember going to a conference

many years ago and there was a guy that was speaking about the

importance of rest. It was a ministry leader

conference speaking to pastors, elders, deacons, small group

leaders, like people who have stepped up and tried to carry

ministry in a in a more visible, tangible way.

And he's talking about how important it is to rest.

And I remember hearing a couple seasoned leaders saying, this

isn't what I brought my team here for.

I need them to learn how to work harder.

I don't need them to to hear that they need a break.

And I all I could think was I kind of need a break.

We all do. And it's it's woven into it.

On the 7th day of creation. What did God do?

You think he needed it thing he was like, oh, world building's

really hard. He rested.

It wasn't just modeling it for us.

It's because it's a good thing to do and he wasn't doing it

because he was worn out. He's doing it because it's an

enjoyable thing to do. Not long ago posted a video on

how I had like had this really true Sabbath and and about how

much it meant to me. And and it's not that I didn't

do things. It's not like I just laid still

and stared at the, the ceiling because I was afraid of doing

something. I rested.

I, I didn't do the things that I normally find my identity.

And if that makes sense, I used to justify working on writing or

prepping A sermon or something like that on the Sabbath because

I enjoy it and it's good that I enjoy what I do, but it's

something where I still accomplish my purpose.

I'm productive. Instead, what I did was I, I

played Mario Kart with my kids. Let me rephrase that.

I demolished my kids and Mario Kart, right?

I watched a movie. I went and tried to take a nap

and didn't really get to take a nap, but I kind of laid there in

the in between place for like 30 minutes.

And that was kind of nice. And I thought, wow, I feel

completely different the next day.

It's it's almost like God knows what he's doing, right?

And I posted this video because I was just talking about it and

trying to explain guys, I've been in rebellion against the

Lord. And I think we all have to some

degree when it comes to this, had one person leave a comment

where they said, I agree with everything you said, except it

must be on this certain day of the week because that's where

the Lord said it. And all I can remember is

something that we'll visit in a moment that Jesus said that the

Sabbath is made for man. Man's not made for the Sabbath.

But we'll get to this. But I want to say this, whatever

your conviction is when it comes to the Sabbath, if you believe

it should be a specific day, honour your conviction.

Go to the Lord. If He convicts you something, go

that way. Just be careful before you take

your conviction and you lay it upon somebody else's shoulders.

One of the most surprising things that I've learned over

the last few years is that practicing the Sabbath requires

a lot more self-control than I used to think.

When you and I think about self-control, I think we

normally think about resisting temptation.

Well, I looked, but I didn't touch.

I thought about doing this, but I didn't do it.

We think about saying no to sin, which by the way, is a very good

thing. Would recommend.

We always think about avoiding the things that could pull us

away from God. But I've discovered that

self-control is also saying no to productivity.

OK. It means saying no to one more

task, one more project, one more e-mail, one more responsibility,

one more thing that feels important.

I mean, I told you guys what I did on the Sabbath, but I don't

want you to walk out of here and say, well, now I got to go buy

Mario Kart so I can Sabbath. Like it's the things that don't

contribute to the productivity. But you know, what I noticed is

over the course of this day where I spent time with my

children and my wife and people that I love and I just, I, I did

rest in the presence of of who God is.

I found that it gave me a much deeper appreciation for the

things that I had accomplished. And the next day I felt much

more excited about the things that I have to accomplish.

It enhanced the past and the future by paying attention to

the present in the way that God told me to.

What I found is that most people don't neglect the Sabbath

because they're rebellious against God.

I've not once ever heard somebody say, you know, I like

the Bible and I believe that everything God says is true, but

he's a little off when it comes to the Sabbath.

Nobody tries to correct him with it.

Most people neglect the Sabbath because they're responsible.

So if you're somebody who feels like you're the responsible one

in your family or use all you've always had to carry things for

your family or your friend group or whatever, Congrats, you just

got sabotaged and sniped today. The Sabbath gets blown off when

we feel like we have responsibilities that we need to

tend to because we need to work hard.

We need to carry burdens for our families and our jobs or even

for our church, but just the people around us.

Here's the problem. There's always something else

that could be done. When I was growing up, there was

there was a list of chores that I had during one season of life

and the last chore said, ask if there's anything else that could

be done. And at some point, I had to take

it up with upper management, my mom, and say, I don't like this

rule because there's always something else that can be done.

And she said exactly. So sometimes I think that's the

way that we live our spiritual life.

And so when we feel like this list is never going to end, we

start to feel like this. I do want to rest, but I'll do

it when I've earned it. When everything gets completed,

then I'll take a rest and I'll take some time for myself.

But have you noticed it's never completed?

It's never done. I remember when Cassie and I

first started getting involved in, in the life of this church

and we were like, hey, it's, it's, it's the beginning of the

year. So there's fresh vision, there's

lots of excitement, but this is just a busy season.

And when we get through with that, we realize, oh, we're in

the lead up for vacation Bible school and now there's work

nights and now there's things to build.

But it's a busy season and VBS will be done and then it'll calm

down. But then you see what I'm

saying, Like there's always something else.

When is it not busy? Is it busy when you have infants

in the house, new babies? Is it busy when you have

teenagers? Is it busy when you're just a

married couple? Do you find ways to be busy if

you are unmarried? I mean, it's always busy.

There's always things to do and how we steward it matters.

So you can't just say you're going to rest later because

later becomes never. I think for a lot of us, rest is

a reward. Like I was saying, we just tell

ourselves that when we've done a good job and we've earned it,

then we'll take some time. How many of y'all have struggled

to feel guilty? Sometimes when you go on a

vacation or a trip, anybody like just just like God wanted.

All right, it's, it's there and it's a good thing and it's a

blessing if you can take a vacation.

But when you start to look at the Scripture, you'll see that

God approaches rest from a different direction.

See, God never presents rest as a reward for those who have

finally earned it. He presents rest as a gift for

people who trust Him. In other words, rest is not the

place that we arrive at when our work is done.

Rest is the place from which we start our work.

And that is a completely different mindset.

It's difficult for us to learn that because everything about

our culture teaches the opposite.

We admire people that are busy and we wear our exhaustion like

a badge of honor. How many of us, when somebody

says, you know, how are things going?

We'll say, well, I'm just, I'm a little tired.

But and then we start listing all the things that we've done.

It's like suddenly we're just looking for an attaboy because

we've been doing so many things. We all fall victim to this.

But if we could just squeeze a little bit more into every hour

of every day, then maybe we would feel OK to take a rest.

But one of the very first things that God wanted his people to

learn after he rescued them from slavery and the book of Exodus

is how to stop. Think about this.

You think they got to take breaks or vacations while

they're working there in Egypt? I don't think they did.

And so as he leads them out of Egypt, we're now very early in

Exodus, in Exodus chapter 16, His people are now wandering in

Exodus 16 · chapter mention

the wilderness. And the very first thing that he

wants them to learn is this chill.

It's OK to stop now. Why is this so important to

them? They had spent not just years,

but generations as slaves, so their culture was centered

around producing and being busy. Every day of their lives had

been measured by quotas and labor and survival.

They knew how to work. They knew how to survive.

They knew how to gather things. What they didn't know was how to

trust, and God wanted them to have an opportunity to learn how

to trust them. But before God could teach them

how to live as His people, He had to teach them that their

survival would no longer depend on endless labor.

When you start to describe it this way, it's like we're trying

to learn how to exit a lifestyle where we've been slaves to

something else all along. Watch God provide for His people

as they were living in the wilderness here in Exodus 16.

It says in verse 13. That evening vast numbers of

quail flew in and covered the camp, and the next morning the

area around the camp was wet with dew.

When the dew evaporated, A flaky substance as fine as frost

blanketed the ground. And the Israelites were puzzled

when they saw it. What is it?

They asked each other. They had no idea what it is, and

Moses told them. It is the food that the Lord has

given you to eat. These are the Lord's

instructions. Each household should gather as

much as it needs. Pick up two quarts for each

person in your tent. So he even defines how much each

person needs. Verse 17 So the people of Israel

did as they were told, and some gathered a lot and some only a

little. But when they measured it out,

everyone had just enough. Those who gathered a lot had

nothing leftover, and those who gathered only a little had

enough. Each family had just what it

needed. I think there's something to be

said about that when you start to compare your productivity

with other people. Some people produce visibly more

than others, but when you put everything together and you take

care of one another, everybody should have just enough.

It says in verse 19 Moses told them do not keep any of it until

morning, but some of them didn't listen and kept some of it until

morning. But by then it was full of

maggots and had a terrible smell.

Moses was very angry with them. Could you imagine if this

happened today? How long have these leftovers

been there? The next time that happens,

don't blame it on the Lord. You just should have cleaned

your fridge out, OK? After this the people gathered

the food morning by morning, each family according to its

need. And as the sun became hot, the

flakes they had not picked up melted and disappeared.

On the 6th day they gathered twice as much as usual, 4 quarts

for each person instead of two. And then all the leaders of the

community came and asked Moses for an explanation and he told

them this is what the Lord commanded.

Tomorrow will be a day of complete rest, a holy Sabbath

day, set apart for the Lord. Set apart for who?

OK, so you're not just cheating yourself here.

All right, So, Baker, boil as much as you want today and then

set aside what's left for tomorrow.

So they put some aside until morning, just as Moses

commanded. And in the morning, the leftover

food was wholesome and good without maggots odor.

So on other days where they tried to do it in advance, it

didn't work. And then when they did hold on

to it in advance on that last day, that 6th day, it did work.

It's almost like when you follow God's rules, things work.

Moses said eat this food today, for today is a Sabbath day

dedicated to the Lord, but there will be no food on the ground

today. You may gather the food for six

days, but the 7th day is the Sabbath.

There will be no food on the ground that day.

Some of the people went out anyway on the 7th day and they

found no food. And that's something some people

will still go out. Well, they probably won't see me

because they'll all be responsible, but I can go out

and I can look for some food. And the Lord asked Moses, how

long will these people refuse to obey my commands and

instructions? They must realize that the

Sabbath is the Lord's gift to you.

That is why He gives you a 2 day supply on the 6th day.

So there will be enough for two days on the Sabbath.

You must each stay in your place.

Don't go out and pick up food on the 7th day.

So the people did not gather any food on the 7th day.

God's teaching Israel so much more than how to schedule a day

off. He's teaching them how to be

LED. We don't know how to be led by

the Lord unless we allow Him to lead us.

Makes sense, right? Every day they have to decide

whether they'll trust what God said or trust what makes sense

to them. And we have the same choice.

Gather only enough for today. Gather extra on the 6th day.

Don't go looking for man on the 7th day.

The man or woman of God, I want you to hear this.

The man or woman of God that refuses to be led by God will

eventually be controlled by something else.

And there really is no middle ground to this.

If you're being led by God's voice, you're good.

And if you're not, you'll find that you're led by your emotions

or your fears or your insecurities, or by your pride

or your wounds, or worse, your anger or your desire for

approval. The dangerous thing about this

is that most of us don't even realize it's happening.

We tell ourselves that we're just making our own decisions.

We tell ourselves that we're being practical and we're just

following our instincts. But meanwhile, most of our

choices are nothing more than reactions to whatever is our

strongest emotion in the moment. That's not being LED.

Being LED means you don't always want to go where you're going.

If you were going where you wanted to go, nobody would have

to lead you there. You just wander yourself in that

direction. How many decisions?

Just think about this for all of us.

How many of our decisions have been made because somebody was

angry? How many relationships have been

damaged because someone was offended?

How many people have chased things that they never needed,

but an insecurity told them that they would finally feel safe

enough if they accomplished? Fill in the blank.

One more achievement, one more purchase, one more promotion,

one more accomplishment. Here's the thing.

We live in America and we like to think we're free, but we're

often just being pulled around by whatever desire is the

loudest inside of us. But if you would honor the

Sabbath and let the Lord lead you, I would tell you that it

would help you confront the illusion that everything depends

on you. If you would honor the Lord in

honoring the Sabbath, I think that it would expose how

uncomfortable you and I are when we're no longer producing or

fixing things or managing things or solving things or responding.

When Israel woke up on that 7th day, they had a choice.

They could trust that God had already provided enough, or they

could spend the day worrying that they might lose something.

Sabbath became a weekly reminder that God could be trusted even

when they weren't actively doing something.

And guys, the world's going to keep turning without you.

It's OK. I think we need a shift of

perspective on this. God seems to view rest very

differently. We look at rest as the finish

line. We made it, we finally arrived

and he looks at it as the starting line.

I remember growing up and having a a big test the next day and

saying, oh, I need to study because I'm afraid of what the

test is going to be like. But I was always told that I

needed to get a good night's rest.

In fact, there was one time I had a very important test,

bombed it, and because I had been up all night, my mom went

and said, hey, can you give him a retake?

And when I took a retake, scored way higher because I had had

good rest, I could focus. I was ready for the task at

hand. And Christians, I want you all

to pass life's tests too. How many times have we wandered

into a test in life and we've been exhausted?

We've been in no position to try and properly discern or respond

or handle what was happening because we had not been honoring

the Lord in the rhythm of our life and we had our hands on the

steering wheel just a little bit too tightly since we like to

grip hold of of life pretty tightly.

The first thing we have to learn is how to let go.

We got to let go, guys. You can go to Mark 2 if you want

to follow along in the Bible. But I want you to know that one

of the reasons the Sabbath is so difficult for a lot of us is it

forces us to confront something that we would rather not admit

about ourselves. I used to think it was a problem

for some people. I've now found it's a problem

for all people. We all have control issues.

Not some, all of us. The difference is that some of

us are more aware of them than others.

Most people don't think of themselves as controlling,

because when you think of a controlling person, you think of

somebody who's manipulative or somebody who wants to dominate

everyone around them. But I actually think that

control shows up in a lot more ways than we think.

Sometimes control looks like constantly checking your phone

because you're afraid you're going to miss something

important. Sometimes control looks like

replaying conversations in your head because you wish you could

change the outcome. Or, oh, I should have said this,

sometimes control issues look like overworking because you're

convinced that everything depends on you.

Sometimes it looks like anxiety because you're trying to carry

responsibilities that weren't yours to carry in the 1st place.

We'll get there, but just know this.

At its core, control is usually an attempt to create certainty

in a world that feels uncertain. There's not one scripture you

can find where God tries to tell you how to make the world around

you feel certain. He wants you to be certain in

Him. He wants you to trust in Him.

You're never going to get to the point that the world feels like

something you can fully trust in.

But we want guarantees, don't we?

We want predictability. We want to know how things are

going to turn out. We want to know how our families

are going to go as they get older.

We want to know that the people we love are going to be OK, that

our finances will be OK, that our health will be OK.

But there are no guarantees. That's why the Sabbath becomes

such a powerful practice. Every time you choose to rest,

you are releasing your grip on something.

You acknowledge that God can keep working even when you stop.

By the time Jesus arrives on the scene, something tragic has

happened to the way that God's people honor the Sabbath.

What God originally gave us, a gift, as we just read, has now

become a burden. Over the centuries, religious

leaders had added rule upon rule upon rule about what the Sabbath

really meant and what was considered work and what wasn't.

And now this day that was supposed to bring freedom had

become another source of pressure.

Instead of helping people trust God, it's another way to perform

for God. And, and a lot of these

regulations, it just gave people more things to worry about.

It's that environment that we see Jesus and his disciples

walking on a Sabbath day. In Mark chapter 2, verse 23, it

Mark 2:23

says it's a Sabbath day. As Jesus was walking through

some grain fields, his disciples began breaking off heads of

grain to eat. But the Pharisees said to Jesus,

look, why are they breaking the law by harvesting grain on the

Sabbath? I don't know about you guys.

I don't have, like, I don't have grain growing in my yard, but I

do have some blackberries I like to walk by.

And if I find one that doesn't look like it's been desecrated

by the birds, I'll grab one and I'll eat it.

And I've never once considered myself a farmer.

They're really, really reaching here.

What are your disciples doing by harvesting grain?

They're having a snack while they're walking through a field.

And I don't think this is one of those cases of the Pharisees

just trying to nail Jesus on something.

I think this is something where they were actually offended that

he was allowing them to do that because I would never.

That's my interpretation there. Verse 25.

Jesus said to them, haven't you ever read the scriptures that

about what David did when he and his companions were hungry?

They went into the House of God during the days when Abiathar

was a high priest and broke the law by eating the sacred loaves

of bread that only priests are allowed to eat.

He also gave some to his companions.

Jesus is just using as his defense.

I want you to hear this. This is the Son of God using as

his defense. You remember when you remember

when David broke the law of God? That'll mess up your theology,

won't it? Jesus said to them, the Sabbath

was made to meet the needs of the people and not people to

meet the requirements of the Sabbath.

So the Son of man is Lord even over the Sabbath.

Could you imagine if you're starving, you've not had a meal

like David and his companions at that time and there's bread

there and you say. God doesn't want me to eat, He

wants me to be hungry. And now it's a requirement.

Now it's a heavier burden. The Pharisees, by the way, you

notice when they come up to Jesus there, they don't seem

concerned about the disciples at all, do they?

They aren't worried about whether the disciples are

hungry. They're not celebrating the fact

that people are following a good teacher, the Messiah.

They're not amazed at what God is doing in the life of Jesus.

Their attention became completely consumed on

protecting a system that they could control.

If they understand everything about the system, then they're

the ones that are the hall monitors of Israel and they're

able to say violation, demerit, violation, straight to jail.

Before we're too hard on them, we should probably admit that we

do understand that temptation. Do we not control, feel safer

than trust rules, feel safer than relationships?

But the reason we try to control things is it creates the

illusion of security. The saddest thing about control

issues. So here means now that we know

we all have these, you know what the saddest thing about control

issues is? We don't have control.

It is an illusion. So we feel like we've got

control. We're afraid to let go of

control, but we're letting go of something we don't actually hold

onto. But as long as we're trying,

we're consumed with doing things our way rather than His way.

Jesus sees right through it. Jesus is reminding them of God's

original intention. The Sabbath was never supposed

to be another burden. You know what's interesting?

We started today by reading in Exodus 16 as the Lord is talking

about the Sabbath. How many of y'all have heard

this before? That the Sabbath is the only one

of the 10 commandments that we seem to to take flippantly or

take lightly. Anybody hear that before it's

true? Yeah.

The 10 commandments happens 4 chapters later.

I like to think that God said in Exodus 16, guys, you need to

rest. I want this day to be holy.

I want to provide for you. It's a gift to you.

And then four chapters later, he's like, all right, I'm going

to have to write it in stone now.

It's going to be one of the 10 commandments that'll fix it.

I guess some of us today are, we're carrying tomorrow's

problems before tomorrow even gets here.

Don't show your hands here. But I'm just going to speak to

those of you who have already had trouble focusing on what the

Lord is doing through worship and through the Word today

because you were thinking about things that are stressing you

and worrying you about the future.

Some of us are carrying responsibility for outcomes that

we can't control. Let go.

Some of us are carrying guilt or expectations or fears or

pressures that God would have never placed on your shoulders,

but you did. And now that they're there, you

feel guilty to take them off. Take them off.

The irony of this is we think that letting go is weakness, but

the Scripture presents letting go is faith.

When you let go of these things today, I want you to know it's a

faith move. Anybody can hold on tighter.

Anybody can keep checking and worrying and managing and

obsessing over things, but it takes a tremendous amount of

trust to release something into God's hands that you feel like

you might be able to steer the right way.

I've shared this before, I'll share it forever, but I had the

privilege in 2014 for visiting Israel, trip of a lifetime.

It was awesome. That's why I'm so excited to go

on this trip to Greece and walk the footsteps of Paul.

We're going to literally follow his, follow his travels and open

the scripture everywhere that we can as we see these places that

he travelled. And one day I was at the hotel

and I got on the elevator and I pushed my floor and it went

right past my floor and stopped at a different one.

I thought, that's weird, maybe I didn't hit the button hard

enough. So I hit the button again and it

goes down and goes right past my floor and goes to the lobby.

And I tried this again. I'm a very smart man.

So I do this three times expecting a different result.

I get a good tour of the elevator.

I know it well. Finally, after the third time, I

walk over to the counter and I asked them, is there something

wrong with your elevator? It's only going to one floor.

It's it's broken. And they explained that is the

Sabbath elevator. So what it does is it takes you

up to the service floor where the service is going to be for

Shabbat, where they're going to have their Sabbath service.

And here's why. Remember I said that over the

years they put rules upon rules upon rules on what is considered

work. Well, creating fire was

considered work, so I imagine there was many a cold Sabbath

back then. Well, pushing a button creates

an electric spark, and they've decided in modern terms that

electric sparks equate to lighting a fire, which equates

to work. Therefore, if you push a button,

you are working on the Sabbath. They also said if you're

interested, you can tell us what time you want the lights to go

out in your hotel room so you don't have to turn off a lamp or

hit an electrical switch there. Now, I understand the heart

behind people wanting to do this.

I just don't think that this is what God intended when He said

here's a gift to help you rest. That elevator is now designed so

that somebody can walk onto it, not push a button and then walk

off of it, go to the service, walk back on it, and then walk

downstairs. And then you get to do this.

You get to walk the stairs up to your room.

That feels like more work than pushing a button, if you ask me.

But what do I know? We have gotten so legalistic

about this. They had rules about how far you

could walk. How far can you walk on a day?

How many steps can you take before it's considered work?

This is a rough place to be because all of a sudden now

we're trying to achieve God's approval.

You already have it if you belong to Him.

But we're trying to earn His approval through what we do

rather than being worried about who we're becoming.

So we've got to let go. We've got to let go.

How do we let go? Well, how do we release our

grip? There's a you've maybe heard

this before. There's a huge difference

between the urgent and the important in life.

The important requires more of your attention, but the urgent

is what screams at you. So we have to pay attention to

how often urgency actually controls our decisions.

One of the easiest ways to spot control issues in your life is

when you notice how uncomfortable you become when

something remains unresolved. Some of us feel compelled to

answer every text immediately. Some of us feel obligated to

solve every problem as soon as it pops up.

Some of us can't even enjoy dinner because we're thinking

about tomorrow. Some of us can't sit still

because there's one more thing that we need to do.

Meanwhile, we're chipping away at the intimacy of the

relationships that God has given us.

All the while, urgency has a way of convincing us that everything

is equally as important and equally dependent on us.

So here's my challenge to you over this next week, when you

feel that pressure rising up, I want you to pause and ask

yourself, is this actually urgent?

Or am I just uncomfortable that I'm not in control of it?

Think about it. You might be surprised about how

things feel urgent simply because they're not checked off

the list. The second thing I would say is

practice stopping before everything is finished.

Six weeks ago I started a puzzle.

I love doing puzzles. 1000 Pieces is my sweet spot.

It's a 3000 piece puzzle and it is not done yet.

Most of my stopping has been because I traveled or I didn't

have enough time or whatever. But over the last week, I forced

myself. I've gone 7 days without

touching this puzzle that is laid out on our dining room

table. We're just eating in the living

room. 3000 pieces. Practice stopping before

everything is finished. This is a challenge.

Again, I want you to leave something unfinished this next

week. You're like Pastor Blake, this

is full of bad advice today. Look, I hear you, but Jesus used

David breaking the law of God as an illustration.

So here we are. Let me give you some examples

here. You can let the project pause a

little bit longer. You can let just give it a shot

this week. I'm I'm a cause some problems in

homes right now. Let the laundry basket sit for a

few more hours. Let the grass grow one more day.

Just one. OK, not because these things

don't matter, but because your soul needs occasional reminders

that the world continues to function without your constant

involvement in it. Every time that you stop before

something is complete, you will be preaching A sermon to your

own heart that God is in control.

The Israelites spent every Sabbath asking what would happen

if manna didn't appear tomorrow, but manna always appeared

tomorrow. Maybe the hardest step of all is

learning to disappoint the right people.

When we replace what if this happens?

If I don't do what I'm supposed to do and we replace that with

what has God already done, we'll look back and remember what God

has done and now we're going to have to disappoint the right

people. Now that doesn't mean everybody.

OK, here's what this means. Be honest if this is you think

about this, be honest with the Lord.

Some of us in this room today or on this live stream are

exhausted because we are trying to meet the expectations of

other people that God never put on us.

We are terrified of letting somebody down.

So we say yes when we should say no.

We over commit, we overextend, we over function, we become

emotionally responsible for everyone around us and then ask

God how he could let it happen. At some point, learning to trust

God means not accepting the requests of everybody and

knowing that not everybody's going to be happy with your

boundaries or your schedule or your availability.

If Jesus could disappoint the crowds and still be faithful,

maybe you can stop trying to be everyone's savior and trust the

one who actually is right. I got more.

OK, so now we have to learn to be still.

It's different than learning to let go.

This is what has changed my life the most over the last two

years. We think that rest is stopping

anything that accomplishes something, but is that really

what it is? We'll be in Luke 13 in a moment.

We'll see something else that Jesus taught us about the

Sabbath. But if the first lesson of the

Sabbath is learning to let go, well, what do you do once you

let go? Once your hands now feel like

they're still in this shape because you've been holding on

to something for so long. This was much harder for me to

learn, but I'm so glad that I did.

A lot of people hear that word rest, and they think it means

just stopping work. They think that rest means that

you're taking a nap or sitting on a couch or watching a movie

or, I don't know, going fishing or spending a day without

responsibilities. And there's a place for that.

What do you do when you're in your Sabbath, when you're in

your alone time with the Lord? I want you to understand this.

God created our bodies with limits and physical rest does

matter. But over the last few years I've

discovered that there's a difference between resting and

being still. The number one thing that I do

now. I just six days ago had a chat

with two men of God over this. They said, what do you do when

you want to hear from the Lord? It's probably going to let you

down. I get alone, genuinely alone.

Sometimes I'm just back in my bedroom alone.

Sometimes I'll, I'll come to the office if nobody's here and I

park in the back so people don't knock on the door and I just get

alone and I've got, you know, this kind of soft like string

instrumental that I'll put on. But I don't listen to worship

music when I sit with the Lord alone.

Not saying I don't listen to worship music, I do.

And there's times that I put it on and my purpose is to worship

him, but I just go to be alone with him.

And I've had to learn to quiet my thoughts.

Man, this has been one of the hardest struggles that I've had

to overcome of my adult life. And a lot of times I'll, I'll

hear people say things like this.

Well, I've tried a rhythm of prayer, but the problem is I

don't hear from God. And one of the things that I

always say to them now is so when you go to God, it's to get

from God. If the only time you go to the

Lord is so you can get an answer from the Lord, you're saying

what should I do for my life? Give me my answers.

There is something really holy and really special about just

spending time with him. I've actually found that when I

prioritize spending time with him, I get the answers that I

need. A few weeks ago, Cassie and I

took a road trip down to Wilmington and we were just

going to visit with a friend and we didn't talk the whole way.

We had some great conversations. There's plenty of time that we

just sat there holding hands and we weren't talking and it was

still good because we were just around each other without any

expectation about what we have to accomplish.

We weren't around each other because we were doing yard work

or cooking dinner or trying to prep things or take care of the

kids. We were just being right.

Why are we willing to do that for people and not for the Lord?

The other thing that I'll hear is, well, I, I tried this and I

fall asleep when I sit there with the Lord and I say, that's

awesome. I used to feel guilty and it's

like if I got sleepy, I thought I'm not spiritual enough.

I don't care enough. I don't love God enough.

I need to try harder. I need to speak to him more

passionately. Sleep in his arms.

It's OK. He is your father.

He's your father. Let him hold you if you fall

asleep. It's all right.

A lot of times if I get, let's say if I get an hour alone with

him, I might doze off for 2530 minutes of it and I might just

be in and out of sleep or something, but I'm just sitting

in his presence. And then I get up and I ask him

things. It's OK to ask him things.

I just don't make it my priority.

Now my priority is to actually be with him.

So one of the things that I learned is that silence is

uncomfortable. I used to work for Starbucks and

they did this thing where they'd make you sit there at the

counter for 4 minutes in silence while they made a drink.

And then they would ask you how long was that?

And you'd be like 10 minutes. I'd say no, it was 4 minutes.

But This is why your barista is supposed to talk to you the

whole time that you're there. And I know for some of you are

like, they never talk to me. They don't even get my name

right. And some of you are like, I wish

they wouldn't talk to me, just leave me alone while they're

trained. They're supposed to talk to you

because you feel like time is going by a lot slower when it's

silent. Feels uncomfortable, doesn't it?

We get accustomed to constant noise.

How many of you? I know that there are some do

prefer it to be silent. When you drive, you've latched

onto something, right? How many of you are like, Nope,

radio's got to be on, even if it's low, right?

We got to have something going, don't we?

If we're driving, the radio's on.

If we're exercising, there's something that's playing through

our headphones or our Bluetooth speaker.

If we're sitting somewhere and it gets quiet, we're in a

waiting line at the DMV or something.

What do we do? It's very productive.

We don't want to actually make eye contact with another human

and have to say something. Even when we spend time with

God, we feel the need to fill that moment with our words or

podcasts or worship music or devotionals.

And all of those things are great.

They don't replace Him though. The truth is that when you are

still in the silence, it feels vulnerable.

I used to be scared of being alone, and so every time that

Cassie would go to worship team practices over a decade ago, I

would I'd have to go to a friend's house and just go hang

out because I didn't want to sit at my house alone and I didn't

know why. I just really didn't want to be

there. What I eventually learned was I

didn't want to have to confront my own internal thoughts.

I wanted things that would distract me.

And if it couldn't be my wife, it would be my friend.

And that was not a healthy rhythm to be in.

But I had to learn that. I had to discover it on my own.

I remember learning something. For you ever learned something

from a kid, but you don't want them to know it?

OK. I remember one time.

I remember one time I was driving with a couple kids and

one of them was like, inside my brain.

It's like robots fighting dinosaurs.

And I'm like, bro, your brain is awesome.

It's really cool. And then one kid said, well, in

my brain, it's a library and it's quiet, and I'm the only one

that's allowed in there. And I thought, that sounds

awful. I'm kind of looking for that

spot in my own brain these days. Right.

She was onto something. See, here's the thing, when the

noise disappears, you're left alone with your thoughts and

your fears and the questions you've been avoiding and the

emotions that you've been out running.

It's one of the reasons people stay busy.

Busyness can distract you from stillness.

But I've learned to take those things as they approach in my

mind when I'm alone and lay them before the king.

I can't lay them before the king if they're not within my reach.

But I've been grabbing onto so many things in life, and I've

not been alone, so I've not been able to see the things that God

wants me to tend to. I have to get alone and I have

to sit and be still so that these things can rise to the

surface, so that I can now grab a hold of them and lay them

before the one who can do something about it.

That's what makes this encounter for the Sabbath in Luke 13 so

powerful. By the time we get here, Jesus

is teaching in a synagogue on the Sabbath.

It's interesting. They never mind it when people

teach on the Sabbath. But once again, the religious

leaders are still watching carefully.

And once again, I want you to notice this.

There's tensions surrounding what should and shouldn't happen

on the Sabbath. But this time, while he's

teaching, Jesus encounters a woman who's been suffering for

18 years, 18 years. For 18 years, she has carried a

burden that she can't fix. I want you to think about this.

For 18 years she's lived with a condition that has literally

bent her life downward. And every day that there's a

Sabbath, she's not resting the same way others are because

she's afflicted with something. And on this Sabbath, on this day

that's designed Forrest, Jesus shows us something about what

the Sabbath is really supposed to accomplish.

In verse 10 we see this. One Sabbath day, as Jesus was

teaching in a synagogue, He saw a woman who had been crippled by

an evil spirit. She had been bent double for 18

years and was unable to stand up straight.

And when Jesus saw her, he called her over and said, Dear

woman, you are healed of your sickness.

And then he touched her, and instantly she could stand

straight. It says how she praised God.

Can you picture that? I bet she did.

But the leader in charge of the synagogue was indignant that

Jesus had healed her on the Sabbath day.

Listen to him. Correct Jesus, there are 6 days

of the week for working. Come on those days to be healed,

not on the Sabbath. Where is the compassion?

Listen verse 15. The Lord replied, You

hypocrites, each of you works on the Sabbath day.

Don't you untie your ox or your donkey from its stall on the

Sabbath and lead it out for water?

This dear woman, a daughter of Abraham, has been held in

bondage by Satan for 18 years. Isn't it right that she be

released even on the Sabbath? It says this shamed his enemies,

but all the people rejoiced at the wonderful things he did.

Jesus and the religious people here are looking at the same

situation and seeing 2 completely different things.

The leaders see a rule and if they follow this rule then God

will be pleased with them. Jesus sees a human being.

Jesus. Seize an opportunity for God's

power to be put on display for the world.

The leaders see a potential violation of the Sabbath.

They want to write him a ticket. Jesus sees 18 years of suffering

that are about to come to an end.

And I try to imagine what those 18 years must have felt like.

Would you have had any hope after 18 years that there's

going to be healing? She must have had a little bit

because she approached Jesus, but she was probably pessimistic

in her hope. It's long enough that people

stop expecting change. It's long enough to build your

life around the burden and make that burden you're carrying your

identity. It's long enough that you barely

notice the weight of it anymore. This is just how life is.

And Jesus sees her. He calls her forward.

He initiates it. He restores her on the Sabbath.

And in that moment, I want you to know that Jesus wasn't just

violating the purpose of the Sabbath in the eyes of the

Pharisees. He was revealing the purpose of

the Sabbath. It was an individual healing and

it was a public lesson for them and for us.

Jesus is showing that the Sabbath is more about stopping.

And I really want you to hear this if you've been burdened by

something. The Sabbath is also about

restoration. God's desire isn't simply that

you would recover from a busy week and be ready for another

busy week. His desire is that you would

experience His presence and His touch in a way that restores

your soul when life has worn you down so that we can be ready for

what comes next. That's why learning to be still

is important. One of the things I discovered

during the Sabbath is that stillness and inactivity are not

really the same thing. I could take a day off and still

have my mind racing. I can stop working and still

carry every burden that is sitting on my shoulders when I

sit in my office. True stillness is willing to sit

before God without needing to accomplish anything.

If you walk into prayer, if you walk into the Lord's presence

and your assumption is God's going to give me an answer to

fix this problem in this relationship or this issue at

work, and you leave His presence without the answer, you're going

to have an unmet expectation and feel let down by God.

Your expectation when you enter His presence needs to be Him,

not his answers, not for Him to solve everything for you.

A lot of times He's waiting for you to work it out through the

wisdom He's put inside of you and you're like, I don't want to

work using my wisdom, That's too hard.

Can you just tell me what to do? And he gives you a holy no.

You still need his presence though.

If y'all are a daughter or a son of the Most High, you've got

what you need to overcome everything that's laid out in

your life. And you go to him for him, not

for the answers. If you wanted robots, he would

have created them. He's not that selfish.

We're the ones that created robots.

I wonder if that's exactly why Jesus healed this woman on the

Sabbath. He could have called her forward

on any other day. He was just giving her a

miracle. He was giving everyone present a

picture of what the Sabbath was meant to be.

A while back I decided to take a walk through the woods.

It wasn't necessarily meant to be a Sabbath, but I went for a

walk through the woods down in Swansboro.

And in this case, I did not have a podcast.

I did not listen to an audio book.

I didn't put on worship music. I I didn't have a phone in my

hand. It stayed in my pocket and it

was on Do not Disturb. It was just a trail and some

time to be alone with the Lord. And honestly, the first few

minutes felt strange. I felt like I was supposed to do

it and I just didn't, didn't want to be disobedient.

So my mind kept going, even though my phone wasn't in my

hand, there's people that I needed to call back, there's

projects I needed to think about, there's things coming up

the next week and my brain was moving 100 miles an hour even

though my body had slowed down. And as I kept walking, and I was

I was committed to not engaging with my electronic device in any

way, I started to notice things. Did you know that there are

still birds in the woods? I know that sounds silly, but I

want you to hear me on this. My first couple minutes walking

through the woods, my mind was so busy.

I could not notice the sounds of animals in the forest because my

mind was so busy. And after a few minutes, I

thought, oh, there's creatures out here.

There's life happening, right? I started to notice the sound of

the wind as it went through the trees.

I was reminded of a time that that when I was really little, I

guess I had said to my my grandmother and my mom, like, I

was like, listen, the trees are singing.

And they were like, oh, that's so poetic and beautiful.

Blakely. I was just kidding.

I don't know. But now when I hear the wind

going through the trees, I think of it as the tree singing.

Doesn't all creation sing to its creator?

And I'm noticing it, and I'm seeing exactly how the light

from the sun looks as it's crashing through the branches.

These are things I wouldn't notice.

You know why you never notice the sun when you're walking like

this? And so because I got out there

and I was alone, changed everything.

Wish I could say that I walk trails like that all the time.

I don't, but I do have intentional moments where I'll

put the phone down, where I'll put everything that might

distract me down and that includes the people that I love

the most. Sometimes I need to go and be

alone with him. It's God first.

Well, if you want to learn to be still here, the first thing that

I would tell you is some of the benefits.

If you learn to do this, first of all, you're going to get a

really healthy self-awareness. And I say healthy because some

of us, we're too obsessed with self.

We're either we're, we're doing great or we're not doing great

and we can't help but stop thinking about us and how we're

doing. But I'm just telling you, the

first thing is there's a healthy self-awareness.

And what I mean by that is a lot of times we're too busy reacting

to life. We don't stop to understand the

things going on inside of us. But if you're willing to become

still before God, you'll notice things inside of you the same

way that I noticed things inside of that forest.

You'll notice specific areas where your anxiety comes from.

You'll notice when you're angry. You'll notice wounds that you

haven't healed from that you thought you had.

Have you ever had that moment where you're like, man, I

thought I healed from that. Why did that pop up again?

Because you told yourself you was.

You were healed from it. And then you busied yourself.

But all of a sudden now it popped back up because you

stopped moving fast enough to outrun it.

Now you can lay it before the king.

Stillness also makes you more grateful.

It wells up gratitude within you.

One of the reasons Israel struggled so often in the

wilderness is because they became consumed with what they

lacked time after time after time, instead of remembering

what God had already done. The same thing happens to us

when we move quickly from one responsibility to another.

We're constantly looking at what we lack.

This Bill's coming up. This still needs to be taken

care of. I still need to paint this wall.

This still needs to be repaired. This needs to be checked on the

car. Yeah, you lack some things.

When have you been still enough to just compile and stack up

blessing after blessing on a piece of paper?

Look at what the Lord did. Write that at the top of your

paper. Look at what the Lord did and

think over the last 60 days and make a list.

Try not to be grateful after that.

And probably most importantly, I would say this, it also

strengthens your ability to hear God's voice.

I've never once met somebody who loves the Lord.

I've never once had a conversation with a Christian

where when I said, do you want to learn how to hear from God's

voice more? They're like, no, thank you.

You know what a lot of us do to hide from learning to hear the

Lord's voice? You're only going to like this.

Some of us spend hours here and log 0 minutes in His presence.

This is fantastic. This is the Word of God.

Jesus is called the Word made flesh.

Everything that you need to know about the ways of God is here in

the Bible, but you still need His presence.

You still need a relationship with Him.

You can know everything about Him and everything that He

wrote, and if you don't have His presence, you won't even be able

to properly discern everything in this book.

Your ability to hear God's voice will increase.

And I'm not talking about an audible voice from heaven,

although that can happen. I'm talking more specifically

about the gentle ways that God will direct you and convict you

and encourage you and guide you. He lives within you.

He'll do it. I think it's important to

remember that the Sabbath was never meant to be another

burden. I'm sure that there's already

people here that are like, well, as I leave church today, now I

got to figure out how to squeeze in the Sabbath.

No, no, no. You're going to decide where to

place your Sabbath, and you're going to figure out how to

squeeze the other stuff around it.

There's a difference. You have to make sure you get

the priority straight on this. Throughout history, people have

always had a tendency to take God's gifts and turn them into

obligations. But when you step back and you

look at the bigger story in Scripture, you can realize that

the Sabbath was always pointing beyond itself.

From the very beginning, God was teaching His people to trust Him

in the wilderness. He taught former slaves, we just

read about it, to stop working and he would provide.

And through the prophets he reminded people that rest was a

gift. It wasn't a punishment.

Through Jesus, he showed that the Sabbath was meant to bring

freedom and healing and restoration.

But it doesn't even stop there. Even though we don't know

definitively who is the author of Hebrews, check out what

Hebrews says. Chapter 4, starting in verse 9,

says there is a special rest still waiting for the people of

God. For all who have entered into

God's rest have rested from their laborers, just as God did

after creating the world. So let us do our best to enter

that rest. Anybody here feel like you've

done your best to enter His rest?

OK, he says, but if we disobey God, as all the people of Israel

did, we will fall. If you feel like I keep falling,

maybe it's time to enter His rest.

The writer of Hebrews here is telling us that there is a

deeper rest available to the people of God.

This is something that's not even accessible to the world,

but it's accessible to you. It's just not mandated.

I know it's in the 10 commandments, but God doesn't

come down here and force you to go to your room and have a time

out. Lord.

If you ever want to, though, this is a rest that will free

you from trying harder, from striving.

It's a rest that will free you from carrying burdens that

aren't yours. I think that's important because

some of us hear that sermon about the Sabbath and we start

thinking about our calendars and which day we should take.

How about you ask the Lord instead of looking at it and

saying, where's the best place to schedule it?

How about you go to Lord and say, what day do you want me to

meet with you? Where shall I meet with you

alone? Don't look for another rule to

follow. The deeper question is not

whether you have a Sabbath day on your schedule.

The deeper question is if your soul is going to learn how to

rest in God, it will change your life, it'll change your

perspective, It will change how you think.

It will change your physical energy levels.

You will become more effective and efficient when you rest in

Him. I promise you one last

scripture. I feel like I would be in sin to

not even share this with you today as we talked about the

rest that Jesus has designed for you.

It's a famous scripture. Jesus says this.

Come to me, all of you who are weary and carry heavy burdens,

and I will give you rest, he says.

Take my yoke upon you, let me teach you because I'm humble and

gentle at heart, and you will find rest for your souls.

He says My yoke is easy to bear and the burden I give you is

light. I physically demonstrated it

before, but a yoke sort of looked like an M had a space to

go over 2 necks. 2 oxen would be walking out and they would

generally have to be where there's one that was leading it,

the other one was helping carry it because the stronger one

would lead the direction. When Jesus says take my yoke,

he's saying connect with me, let me lead the direction and it

will be easier. He says give me your burdens and

I'll give you this yoke. It's a great trade guys.

Wasn't going to end in prayer but I think I'm supposed to.

So it's probably not for you. But if you feel like you've been

carrying things that are a little heavy for you, and you

feel like you need to rest in Him more, just go ahead and

stand up. I wish I could stand up twice.

I'm going to be praying for you. I want you to look around, and I

want you to have somebody in your mind that you're going to

be praying for while we're praying together.

OK, Just look around for a second.

Don't say who they are. All right?

Father, we don't know what we're doing.

We thought we did. God, we repent of control, we

repent of the illusion of control.

We repent of taking things out of your hands.

God, we want to live peaceful lives.

We want to have a quiet mind. We want to be settled.

We want to find enjoyment in the simple things.

God, we want to look at life and see great opportunity ahead and

not just fears about what we have to do next.

We need rest for our souls. So God, would you just enter

into the picture? Would you enter into the

scenario? Would you enter into our

families and our hearts and our minds?

Would you quiet us down? You are our Father, so would you

just settle us, give us peace and rest and help us learn how

to take your yoke instead of responsibilities you didn't ask

us to? We will be faithful to carry

that yoke that you place on us, but God, please help give us

some clarity and give us some clear vision for it.

In the name of Jesus, Amen.