Kingdom Living: Embracing Sabbath as a Core Value Creation of Sabbath

As we talk about the Sabbath, I think it is important to be aware that we are not talking about a specific day (Jews this was Friday night to Saturday night) (Christians traditions will mark Sunday).

We are talking about our lives and God’s design for us to rest in him.

We are Embracing Sabbath as a Core Value. I think if this is to become a core value at Bridge of Faith then it is important to recognize that Sunday is not my Sabbath.

There are some Sundays that are slower than others but more than not Sundays are busy days for ministry and not days of rest for us. Last Sunday, I preached and if you have ever spoken then you know the time and energy it takes to prepare and then the energy it takes to deliver. After service, I took the basketball team to the Pizza Cellar for lunch. After lunch, we did a vision tour to help them prepare for the week. I was done with this by 3:00. At 4:00, our executive leadership team met. We finished this at 5:30. 6:30 we had about 20 people over to the house for Mentors and Interns Sunday night habbitude lesson. This was finished about 9:30.

I don’t share this to get sympathy but rather to educate about Sunday is a day full of work and serving the Lord. This is not the best day for me to cease and rest or settle in.

Tim Elmore in his book Generation Z Unfiltered, published in 2019, writes

The caring adults I talk with everywhere I travel agree that the number one challenge teens face today is anxiety.

What is the number 1 health challenge in the world today?

As of 2024, mental health issues, particularly anxiety and depression, are identified as the number one health challenge worldwide. The World Health Organization (WHO) highlights that mental health disorders have seen a significant rise, especially among adolescents and young adults, driven largely by the pervasive use of digital technology and social media. This increase has been exacerbated by the COVID-19 pandemic, which has intensified feelings of isolation and stress.

We are hearing the terms panic attacks, depression, stressed out, obsessions, and anxiety attacks a lot more common than when I grew up.

Elmore says

The people who maintain a happy life, those who are emotionally healthy, are people who create margin in their calendars. They schedule portions of their days to create space. They remove noise and clutter during those portions of time. They experience solitude. Quiet. Simplicity. They take control of their days instead of remaining at the mercy of all the busyness going on. They are intentional to Power off or Shabbath or Nuahk.

Between 2008 and 2018, the levels of anxiety in adolescents skyrocketed, measurably.

What happened that so many more teens, in such a short time, would feel depressed, attempt suicide and commit suicide? wrote San Diego State University professor Jean Twenge, who authored a study on this in the Washington Post column.

“After scouring several large surveys for clues, I found that all of the possibilities traced back to a major change in teens lives: the sudden ascendance of the smartphone.”

“Teens who spend 5 or more hours online a day were 71 percent more likely than those who spent 1 hour a day to have at least one suicide risk factor,” Twenge’s research found.

When our family got to go to the beach for vacation. I remember being amazed at the number of people that had to have their phone on the beach. It was not just the fact that they had their phone but they were spending endless minutes and hours staring at a screen with the ocean in front of them.

Not just that but they also have to bring their portable speaker because the sound of the ocean is not enough. They must play their own sound and noise.

I took a pic and shared it with Amy of one lady. If you are on the beach and sun is bright it is not easy to see your screen. One lady had her beach chair. She had turned around backwards and was kneeling with one leg in the chair and totally hunched over. She was using her body to shield the sun and create a shade so she could see her phone. She looked like this.

(How was your vacation? It was so good but I came home and my back hurt so bad and I am not sure why) (It was very relaxing keeping up on social media and seeing what everyone else is doing)

One study said that students attention spans are eight seconds. This is down from 12 seconds from students being measured in 2000. This means that students are distracted after just 8 seconds unless their brains find what they are focusing on to be intriguing. Scrolling tic toc videos or producing videos you have 8 seconds to engage or they will scroll on.

It is no wonder that more and more kids are being diagnosed with ADHD.

All of this causes students and adults to invite more and more noise and clutter into our lives.

We were floating early on in the summer and we floated past a husband and wife floating and the husband was blaring his music and the wife was blaring her music. They couldn’t agree on music so they both brought their own and blasted it.

The biggest need we have is to just POWER OFF. We need times of Quiet and Still.

We need to be bored.

Our brains actually need boredom to be healthy. Elmore writes

The margin we experience when our brains are bored provides us the capacity to become better people.

Think about it for a minute. Kids are so busy that they have little time in their schedule to get bored. Their life is filled with pings, noise, notifications, appointments and activities.

They have little time to care about others. They’re simply reacting to everything in order to survive. They then shift into survival mode and the goal simply comes with how to cope with everything coming their way.

Sabbath (שַׁבָּת, shabbath):

It means that you STOP or to cease from

New American Standard Hebrew-Aramaic and Greek Dictionaries: Updated Edition 7651 שֶׁבַע (sheba), שִׁבְעָה (shibah)

שֶׁבַע sheba

Seven:

Seven was symbolic in ancient eastern and Israelite culture and literature. It communicated a sense of “fullness” or “completeness” (Seven is spelled with the same consonants as the word “complete/full”)

Genesis 1:1 Contains 7 Hebrew words

Lexham Hebrew Bible Chapter 1

1 1 בְּרֵאשִׁ֖ית בָּרָ֣א אֱלֹהִ֑ים אֵ֥ת הַשָּׁמַ֖יִם וְאֵ֥ת הָאָֽרֶץ׃

The center word in Hebrew of Genesis 1:1 is et.

You have 3 words on both sides of the word Et.

Et contains the letters in it that are the first letter of the Hebrew alphabet aleph and the last letter Tav.

Here you find both the beginning and the end in Genesis 1:1.

In Genesis chapter 2 it brings us to a statement of completion.

Genesis 2:1 HCSB

1 So the heavens and the earth and everything in them were completed.

What follows is a literary structure of 3 lines of 7 words about the 7th day in Hebrew.

Genesis 2:2–3 HCSB

2 By the seventh day God completed His work that He had done, and He rested on the seventh day from all His work that He had done. 3 God blessed the seventh day and declared it holy, for on it He rested from His work of creation.

The word seven means fullness or completeness. This concludes God blessed the seventh day and declared it holy and the reason why he did this was for on it He rested from His work of creation.

All throughout scripture you will see the symbolism of the number 7.

Symbolism is different than numerology

Numerology is the study of an occult, divine or mystical relationship between a number and one or more coinciding events. Numerology it is all about the numbers and give meaning to the numbers. Numerology you start to worship the numbers

Symbolism the numbers point us to the meaning. God uses the number 7 to point us to him.

Here in Genesis 1 we have this beautiful literary structure that points us over and over back to the goodness of God.

On the 7th day God blessed it.

In Genesis 1, we see two other places where God blesses.

Genesis 1:20–23 HCSB

20 Then God said, “Let the water swarm with living creatures, and let birds fly above the earth across the expanse of the sky.” 21 So God created the large sea-creatures and every living creature that moves and swarms in the water, according to their kinds. He also created every winged bird according to its kind. And God saw that it was good. 22 So God blessed them, “Be fruitful, multiply, and fill the waters of the seas, and let the birds multiply on the earth.” 23 Evening came and then morning: the fifth day.

Again

Genesis 1:27–28 HCSB

27 So God created man in His own image; He created him in the image of God; He created them male and female. 28 God blessed them, and God said to them, “Be fruitful, multiply, fill the earth, and subdue it. Rule the fish of the sea, the birds of the sky, and every creature that crawls on the earth.”

God Blesses and we see abundance and rule.

Genesis 2:3 HCSB

3 God blessed the seventh day and declared it holy, for on it He rested from His work of creation.

God blesses the 7th day.

May it be abundant.

May it be full.

May it be exponentially Complete.

A Journey to Completeness

The state of the heavens and the earth

Genesis 1:2 HCSB

2 Now the earth was formless and empty, darkness covered the surface of the watery depths, and the Spirit of God was hovering over the surface of the waters.

God gives order created day and night

God creates sky Day 2

God creates land and vegetation Day 3

Day 4 God creates the Sun and the moon

Genesis 1:14 HCSB

14 Then God said, “Let there be lights in the expanse of the sky to separate the day from the night. They will serve as signs for festivals and for days and years.

Festivals: Moadim

Moadim links us to the festivals in Leviticus 23. There are 7 here.

This Culminating 7th day becomes the model for the 7th year of release and then the 7x7 year of Jubilee.

See that in the middle of creation on day 4 we see this pointing to the festivals and again pointing us to Shabbat that is STOP or CEASE, POWER OFF.

Who is creating order out of disorder?

God is doing the creating. Stop and recognize that this journey from disorder into fullness or completeness is what God is doing.

Day 5 Creatures that swim and fly

Day 6 Every living thing including mankind

Day 7 God Shabbats He stops

What does it mean for God to rest?

Exodus 20:11 HCSB

11 For the Lord made the heavens and the earth, the sea, and everything in them in six days; then He rested on the seventh day. Therefore the Lord blessed the Sabbath day and declared it holy.

Shabboth: Stopped

Nuakh: Rested or settled in

This word is used in scripture to mean settle in. It is used often for a forgotten people and now they have a place to settle in because it is safe and secure.

2 Samuel 7:1 HCSB

1 When the king had settled into his palace and the Lord had given him rest on every side from all his enemies,

This is the chapter where King David proposes to build the temple because the time of war is over and they are at rest.

God has given rest so now you can settle in.

So you Shabboth or sabbath (Stop, cease or power off) so that you can Nuakh or settle in.

You Nuakh into a place that is safe, stable and secure.

Genesis 2:1–3 HCSB

1 So the heavens and the earth and everything in them were completed. 2 By the seventh day God completed His work that He had done, and He rested on the seventh day from all His work that He had done. 3 God blessed the seventh day and declared it holy, for on it He rested from His work of creation.

In the 10 Commandments God created in 6 days and then he Sabbathed (stopped or powered off) and Nuakh or settled in and rested.

God creates then he settles in to His creation.

In Genesis 1, you go from disorder through creation and then you get to completion. Upon completion God places Man in Eden so that God and man can nuakh together.

That is settle in or enjoy the place God has created.

The template we see here in Genesis 1 is also echoed throughout scripture. Think about the promise land. God prepares a land for them to inherit. He brings them from bondage and slavery and into a land that they did not build.

I like this picture of day 7 in scripture because God does the work of creation and then day 7 he rest and makes it Holy. His presence comes and fills the land.

Notice again that on the 7th day it does not say there was evening and then morning. The 7th day points us to the culmination of all things when Jesus comes and we enter into New Jerusalem to live with Jesus forever. He will take us to a place that we didn’t build to Shabboth and Nuakh or rest or settle in and his presence will be there.

Matthew 6:25–34 HCSB

25 “This is why I tell you: Don’t worry about your life, what you will eat or what you will drink; or about your body, what you will wear. Isn’t life more than food and the body more than clothing? 26 Look at the birds of the sky: They don’t sow or reap or gather into barns, yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Aren’t you worth more than they? 27 Can any of you add a single cubit to his height by worrying? 28 And why do you worry about clothes? Learn how the wildflowers of the field grow: they don’t labor or spin thread. 29 Yet I tell you that not even Solomon in all his splendor was adorned like one of these! 30 If that’s how God clothes the grass of the field, which is here today and thrown into the furnace tomorrow, won’t He do much more for you—you of little faith? 31 So don’t worry, saying, ‘What will we eat?’ or ‘What will we drink?’ or ‘What will we wear?’ 32 For the idolaters eagerly seek all these things, and your heavenly Father knows that you need them. 33 But seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things will be provided for you. 34 Therefore don’t worry about tomorrow, because tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own.

Esau McCaulley, Ph.D

Learning to rest is a skill. It is also an act of faith rooted in the belief that God is at work when you are not.

Closing

Tim Elmore gives some suggestions on how to create margin in your schedule. For us, this means to Sabbath. Here are some practical things you can do.

Schedule in and communicate some powered off times and curfews.

If you are sharing a meal together as a family, then you can say this is a device free time. This means we don’t have devices with us as the table. I highly encourage you to turn in devices at night and not let students have them in their room late into the evening. Of course as students learn to monitor their time with responsibility then you can adjust this.

Plan intentional family nights or outings that are free of technology.

Force kids in to face to face conversations. These face to face times enable kids brains (and yours too) to refresh themselves over laughter, debriefing the week, or just good conversation.

Delete social media accounts

If anxiety is becoming to much for you to handle then you might try deleting some or all of your social media accounts

Create boundaries or guidelines on extra-curricular activities

Minimize the possessions that you own

Clear out some of the clutter in your life

Continue to plan and execute Sabbath in your weekly routine of life. This is more than just a nap. It is a life built and oriented around God is our God. God created the universe. God instituted 7 days in a week.

On day 7 God rested.

In Genesis 1 there is a sense of flow in life that is work balanced with rest and worship. Rest allows us to see God creating and working when we are not. Rest keeps life in perspective.