Sabbath

Opening

‌Good morning everyone! Welcome to church. We’re so glad you’re here to worship the Lord together. Last week we talked about the idea of slowing down and setting your pace around your Rabbi, Jesus’ pace of life. That which was slow, that which, if interrupted, you pour our the triumvirate of His kingdom, Love, Joy and Peace. I hope you put into practice the art of slowing into your everyday life this week, but today, we’re going to be discussing sabbath and the idea and art of practicing it on a weekly basis. Before we get into the reading I want to talk about desire.

‌Desire

We all are working towards something. We all have a life wants-list. We want to be financially stable, maybe you want your kids to grow up to be good husbands and wives, good parents. Maybe you want to buy a house, or a nice, new car. And then maybe you have a weekly wants-list. A check-list where you want to go away for the weekend, or go out to a movie with your spouse, out to dinner with a friend, or just relax Wednesday night after Bible study. Then we have our daily wants-list. To wake up and catch the sunrise with a cup a coffee in your hands. Go to work and work hard and earn money to put food on the table. Go home and enjoy a good dinner with your spouse, and then to sleep well that evening. That is on every one of my days wants-list.‌

In our world, as we talked about last week, we rush around, we push, we drive ourselves to earn more and more money that we think will bring us happiness. But… does it? We all have these ‘wants-lists.” Or desire lists. But… do these lists… will finishing all our lists, gaining all these wants actually make us happy… Will earning all these desires bring us happiness? The Catholic philosopher and theologian, Thomas Aquinas, once asked the question “What would satisfy our desire? What would it take to feel satisfied? Do you have a guess to what he reasoned the answer was?‌

Aquinas reasoned that to be fully satisfied… you would need… Everything. To be truly satisfied… we would need everything. That means we’d have to eat at every restaurant, go to every state in the US, go to every country in the world, meet every celebrity, buy every car, truck, mini-van, win every award, watch every movie, listen to every podcast, album, single, by every artist and podcaster in the world, do all the things we wanted, and then… THEN we’d be happy. Then we would be satisfied.‌

Karl Rahner, a Catholic theologian, once said, “In the torment of the insufficiency of everything attainable, we learn that ultimately in this world there is no finished symphony.” That idea of an unfinished symphony… I love that. The idea of an unfinished symphony… A song that just will never be finished. Whenever I leave a song unfinished, I always get it stuck in my head and I get restless, trying to finish it in my minds ear. Because of that I never leave a song unfinished or so whenever we’re in the car and we get to where we’re going, I always sit in the car and wait for the song to finish. But that is what life is like… we can never be truly satisfied… outside of following and spending time with Jesus.‌

Just like that unfinished symphony that is stuck in our head, we all have this restlessness in our souls. Inside each of us, there is, what the French author and mathematician Blaise Pascal called a “God shaped vacuum” that cannot be filled with anything but God himself. Not money, not friends, not alcohol, no amount of sex or drugs or TV shows or video games or food or trips around the world can fill except for Jesus Christ.‌

Saint Augustine of Hippo says it best when he said “You have made us for Yourself, and our heart is restless until it rests in You.” Meaning until we realize that God is all we need, until we rest in Christ, we will continue to feel this restless urge in our hearts to get more and more until we have everything. Think about it… Marketing, advertisements, are all preying on this idea that we need more and more to be happy. That the more and more stuff we buy… the happier we’ll be. When, in actuality, all we need to do is fill that God shaped vacuum with… God.

‌Bible Reading

‌Go ahead and open your bibles to John 15 starting in verse 1, let’s read it together. “1 I am the true vine, and my Father is the vinedresser. 2 Every branch in me that does not bear fruit he takes away, and every branch that does bear fruit he prunes, that it may bear more fruit. 3 Already you are clean because of the word that I have spoken to you. 4 Abide in me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit by itself, unless it abides in the vine, neither can you, unless you abide in me. 5 I am the vine; you are the branches. Whoever abides in me and I in him, he it is that bears much fruit, for apart from me you can do nothing. 6 If anyone does not abide in me he is thrown away like a branch and withers; and the branches are gathered, thrown into the fire, and burned. 7 If you abide in me, and my words abide in you, ask whatever you wish, and it will be done for you. 8 By this my Father is glorified, that you bear much fruit and so prove to be my disciples. 9 As the Father has loved me, so have I loved you. Abide in my love. 10 If you keep my commandments, you will abide in my love, just as I have kept my Father's commandments and abide in his love.

Let’s Pray

‌We all have this God shaped vacuum inside of us. We all want it filled, and as I said, we search and search for it in all the wrong places, until we fill it with Jesus, it will still be there, nagging at us to spend time, to slow down and rest and, as John 15 says, abide, with Christ. And the practice of Sabbath, is one way, personally i think the best way to abide in Christ. Why? First, because Sabbath was formed into the very fabric of Creation!‌

What does Sabbath mean?

‌The word Sabbath comes from the Hebrew word Shabbat, which when boiled down to the literal definition means… to stop. Stop everything. Stop working, stop worrying, stop wanting, stop whining, stop stop stop. Just stop. Which as we talked about last week is counter to the culture. Our culture is run run run, specifically on the weekends, that’s when you do all your household duties because you’re so busy at work during the week you can’t get them done. But that is not the way of Jesus. He was… (Audience participation) Slowwww right! So, the two go hand and hand.

To be able to observe Sabbath, to be able to rest on the sabbath, you have to slow your life down to the pace of Jesus, have time to get all your work done so that when the time of your sabbath day comes rolling around, you are able to rest and be refilled to the full.

Sabbath is a Spiritual Discipline‌

Sabbath is a spiritual discipline… it’s something that God commands us to do. In fact, it’s the only spiritual discipline that is on the Ten Commandments. And just like any discipline, it takes time to form. Like a callus on your hand, it takes time to form, but it’s something we are called to do.

Growing up, sabbath was something that was NEVER talked about on the same line as say praying or going to church; but it is. Why? Because they’re all a spiritual discipline. The disciplines can be boiled down to, but not limited to, Bible reading, prayer, silence, solitude, (what we talked about last week), fasting, service, simplicity, fellowship, generosity, and sabbath. And what is odd, growing up, my church talked about all these things except maybe simplicity and sabbath… why? Because they’re too counter cultural.

But when we practice these things, when we begin to model the life of our rabbi, Jesus. The main goal of a follower of Christ is to model our life after the Lord and to do the things that He did. He read the Bible, the Bible of his day, the Torah, he prayed, he practiced silence and solitude, he fasted, he served, his life was indeed simple, he fellowshipped and was generous and He practiced sabbath.

Jesus observed Sabbath

Like we talked about last week, in his time on earth Jesus’ pace of life was slow, but he also observed the sabbath. Throughout the library of scripture we have accounts of Jesus’ and his followers slowing down. In Luke 4:16, it says “16 And he came to Nazareth, where he had been brought up. And as was his custom, he went to the synagogue on the Sabbath day” Jesus had Sabbath customs, he would observe it and keep it, however, not as the Pharisees would.

They added laws that included things like “not moving a chair because you may inadvertently plow the earth.” The Israelites took sabbath very seriously, to the point where in Mark2:23-28, it reads “23 One Sabbath he was going through the grainfields, and as they made their way, his disciples began to pluck heads of grain. 24 And the Pharisees were saying to him, “Look, why are they doing what is not lawful on the Sabbath?” 25 And he said to them, “Have you never read what David did, when he was in need and was hungry, he and those who were with him: 26 how he entered the house of God, in the time of Abiathar the high priest, and ate the bread of the Presence, which it is not lawful for any but the priests to eat, and also gave it to those who were with him?” 27 And he said to them, “The Sabbath was made for man, not man for the Sabbath. 28 So the Son of Man is lord even of the Sabbath.”

But… our hearts and our culture desperately need to slow down and observe and practice the Sabbath day… because it is built into our very being, as we touched on last week, we’re not meant to drive our minivan in the Indy 500…

Sabbath is Part of Creation

‌From the beginning of creation, from the moment God breathed the world into existence, rest has been a part of life. Genesis 2 says “So God blessed the seventh day and made it holy, because on it God rested from all his work that he had done in creation.” God rested from His work, we’re going to get more into the idea of setting aside a full day of rest next week, the practice of Sabbath; but here God puts into the DNA of the world a day of rest, he blessed it and made it holy… a day of rest.

‌Later on in the Old Testament when God gives Israel His law for them, we see God reinstate Sabbath as a command!

Exodus 20:8-11 8 “Remember the Sabbath day, to keep it holy. 9 Six days you shall labor, and do all your work, 10 but the seventh day is a Sabbath to the Lord your God. On it you shall not do any work, you, or your son, or your daughter, your male servant, or your female servant, or your livestock, or the sojourner who is within your gates. 11 For in six days the Lord made heaven and earth, the sea, and all that is in them, and rested on the seventh day. Therefore the Lord blessed the Sabbath day and made it holy.

‌But Sabbath wasn’t something that only happened every seven days…

‌In Leviticus 25 , the Lord puts into place what is known as the “Year of Jubilee.” It reads, starting in verse 8: 8 “‘Count off seven sabbath years—seven times seven years—so that the seven sabbath years amount to a period of forty-nine years. 9 Then have the trumpet sounded everywhere on the tenth day of the seventh month; on the Day of Atonement sound the trumpet throughout your land. 10 Consecrate the fiftieth year and proclaim liberty throughout the land to all its inhabitants. It shall be a jubilee for you; each of you is to return to your family property and to your own clan. 11 The fiftieth year shall be a jubilee for you; do not sow and do not reap what grows of itself or harvest the untended vines. 12 For it is a jubilee and is to be holy for you; eat only what is taken directly from the fields.

It happened every 49 years, where Israel literally just stopped. There was no work to be done, everybody stopped and rested. First, how many of you would love a mandated year of vacation? Eh? I know I would… but in actuality, think about the implications of this… Fishing, which was a job back then, would stop. The fish would have a whole year to repopulate the oceans and rivers and seas and be able to live, care free… the same with all other animals. They would have the ability to repopulate the earth with more animals.

Now the land, would get a rest every 7 years. The fields, which grow our food, get a year to replenish the nutrients that are there, to revitalize what they can add back to the food that will grow. In fact, some farmers still do this… they call it ‘fallowing.’‌

Further in chapter 25, we read that in the year of Jubilee, after 7 cycles of 7 years, all land would revert back to the original owner, everyone would be released from any slave debts they had, any work contracts, and that they would be able to go free for that year, the year of Jubilee, no one would work, no one would be indentured slave, everyone would be almost forced to rest, because this was something God took very seriously. He knew we needed it… we were not wired to live the way we do.

Sabbath was something that God wove into the very fabric of Creation. It was something that God knew would need; just like everything else he created for us, he knew we’d need it. Just like veggies. We know we need to eat a healthy diet of fruits and veggies, but sometimes, I don’t feel like eating a salad, or cucumbers, or kale, because, to be honest, they’re gross. And sometimes we may not feel like observing a sabbath, because maybe we have too much around the house to do, or our parents are making us do chores, but… sometimes we need to do what is good for us, even when we don’t feel like it. And Sabbath is one of those things we need to do.

‌Now you may be wondering… is sabbath just a time to sit around and do nothing? Do I sit and stair at a wall? Not at all! First off, sabbath is a time for you to partake in Worship to out Lord and rest in Him… Abide in Him.

What Does Desire have to do with Sabbath?

‌Sabbath is something, that when done, curbs those desires we talked about at the beginning, it fills that God shaped vacuum and, when we take the time to worship, rest in, and delight in God, we realize our desires, they don’t matter. That when we delight in our father and the things he’s given, we realize that all we have, is all we need. When we truly abide in our Father, we can best be ready to serve those around us. We’re no good to anyone when we’re ragged, tired, worn out, busy, hurried. Come to the rest in your Father the one who can actually put your mind at ease, observe the sabbath, set apart that day special to delight in the Lord and the things that he has given you to enjoy. Let him stay in control and watch your life, your soul, dramatically change, all for the better. But sticking to sabbath can be hard to do. Just like all of the spiritual disciplines, it takes time.

I want to take some time now and talk about what Sabbath is? What can and can’t we do on sabbath? because, there are some, rules, for lack of a better word, I guess they’re more like disciplines themselves, you have to train yourself on these things to truly sabbath.

Sabbath is Worship

‌Everything we do on the Sabbath… is worship to our Lord. This is what we were created to do. To worship the Lord in our lives. to glorify the Lord by the way we live and act and speak; and on the Sabbath, it’s our time to refocus on what really, truly matters.

‌Now, when I say worship; I don’t mean praying and singing all day long, or reading the whole bible in a matter of a day, now, if that’s what you want to do on your Sabbath, then go on ahead… but what I mean is that when you get to your sabbath day, is what you’re doing refocusing your heart and soul and mind onto your Jesus where you heart begins to overflow with gratitude and recognition of God’s goodness and grace. That is what worship should be. And that is how we should go about sabbath and more importantly, your whole life.‌

Now, to recognize what is, and I use this term loosely, ‘lawful’ on the sabbath and what isn’t, it really is completely up to you. Whatever fits where you’re at in your life. I know for some your kids are out of the house and grown, some of you still have kids at home who are dependent on you, some of you are single, whatever your life stage is at, work your rules for sabbath around that. Will you allow gardening on the sabbath… Well, does it refocus your heart on the goodness of God? If the answer is “kinda, sorta, maybe?” Then gardening can wait til Monday. If the answer is “Yes!” Then great! You do that! But if you say yes and your spouse says no… then do not force them into that. Don’t guilt them into breaking the sabbath to help you… You do what brings you closer to God, if that is gardening, out in nature, getting your hands dirty in the soil that God has made, then that is awesome. Go for it, for me… that doesn’t. So gardening is on my “Don’t do it on the sabbath” list.

‌But do you know what is? Going on walks with Clara to the library or around Taylor. Reading, sometimes I’ll read. Most of the time its some Marvel comic, but on occasion it will be, what my wife would call, “Actually books.” Very rarely, but sometimes. Eating! Eating is definitely something that draws me back to the goodness of God.

‌Anything you do on sabbath should be done with this heart of worship in mind.

‌Sabbath is Rest

Anything you do should also bring you to a place of rest. Not laziness, mind you, but rest.‌

If you feel like you need to sleep in until 10 or 11 on your sabbath, you do it. Because why? It’s a day of rest. If you want to curl up on the couch with a cup of tea and a good book for a few hours, you do it, because its sabbath.

‌So now, we talked about how we have to run our activities on the sabbath through the lens of “is it worship?” You also have to ask “is it restful.” If not, it can wait. We have 144 other hours during the week to get the gardening and weeding done… on Sabbath… it can wait. I can’t emphasis enough. It can wait.‌

I want you all to listen very closely to what I’m about to say.

‌When we believe we can’t observe the sabbath, when we can’t set apart 24 hours out of the 168 hours a week we have, when we can’t4 do that… We’re showing that we don’t trust God. That we believe God can’t take care of our world for 24 hours, that if we don’t do it right now… it will never get done.

‌God, the creator of the universe, the one who made US, can, believe it or not, run the world without our help. It will still spin on without us. When we take time to shut down our phones, and rest and delight and worship Him, He’ll take care of everything. The world will still be there when you turn your phone on at the end of the day.

When I do this, when I shut the phone off and begin to rest and slow down for the whole day, around 1 on Saturday, I begin to feel something deep down in my soul, something I know is from God. It’s a peace, a peace and joy that I just can’t explain. Something inside of me finally clicks and I feel that rest for my soul that Matthew 11 speaks on, that we talked about last week.

So I want to encourage you all, on Sabbath, turn your phone off, take long rests, lounge on the couch with your family, watch a movie, go on a long walk, go lay in the grass. Just rest! And you will find that rest for your soul, when you begin abiding in Christ during the Sabbath, when you being resting in his love and care and allowing HIM to run the world, not us, then you will truly begin to rest because you aren’t worried about the world around you, but allowing God to do what he does and run the whole thing.

‌Sabbath is Delight

‌Let’s go back to Exodus 20. Where God says to “Remember the Sabbath day and make it holy.” To make something “holy” is to, at the very root of the word, set it apart, make it special. God called the Israelites to set this day apart as special. We have this opportunity to set apart a day out of our schedules, to simply delight and be filled with joy because of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Who doesn’t want that!?

‌Dan Allender says that “Sabbath is an invitation to enter delight… Few people are willing to enter the Sabbath and sanctify it, to make it holy, because a full day of delight and joy is more than most people can bear in a lifetime, let alone a week.”

‌Are you afraid to set apart a day to simply delight in the Lord and the things that he made. Sabbath is a time to delight in the Lord, in the things that bring you joy. In friends, family, good food and drink, the nature all around us, in the feel of grass on our bare feet and wind through our hair. Obviously, we should delight in the Lord all the time; but we should, when we take sabbath it’s an opportunity to slow down, get away from the grind of every day life and simply BE present and delight in the Lord.

‌Sabbath delight may look like, instead of having 15 or 20 minutes to meet with God in the morning, maybe spend and hour, sitting in the presence of your Father, reading scriptures, praying, enjoying the presence of Him in your life.

‌Maybe it looks like sleeping deeply for a while, letting your soul and body catch up with each other, getting your body to a place where you can best serve God and those around you. Delighting in that blanket and pillow for longer than you would normally.

‌Delight may look like taking a long walk around the town, enjoying the sounds of the birds chirping before it gets too cold for them to be out and about anymore, or or driving around on the golf cart; taking in the beauty all around you.

‌Maybe it’s delighting in your family and friends, enjoy a great meal together or watching football with them or playing corn hole or volleyball, and just laughing and delighting in those relationships.

‌Maybe it’s delighting in your spouse, connecting with them the way spouses do and should. Maybe its laughing together for no reason at all, enjoying dinner out, at Casa Grande or Paynes or Cracker Barrel, you food of choice, maybe its sitting together in silence while one of you reads and the other watches TV, or whatever.

‌You take time on sabbath to delight in those things and people around you… Thanking God for everything He has blessed you with while remaining content with what you have; not longing for more.

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Make Sabbath Special, because it is.

‌Sabbath is something that should be special. It happens once a week, at the end of the week. It’s not a break, it’s not a day off, it’s the climax of your week, what you’ve been leading up to from Sunday to Friday, then Saturday roles around and Sabbath! It’s beautiful. We work and work, hustle and bustle all week long, we cook and clean and mow the lawn and rake leaves and scrub toilets and cut the dogs hair and all of it just to get to sabbath… a day where we can delight in God and rest and worship and enjoy life. So make it special. Have foods you only eat on sabbath. Clara and I, well… Clara she makes cinnamon roles, most every sabbath. She makes them Friday afternoon so they’re all ready to pop in the oven Saturday morning and ohhhhhh baby. Are they delicious. It’s a great way to wake up on sabbath.

Another thing Clara and I love to do on our Sabbath is cook a large feast on Friday night. We usually start cooking around 6ish, so then we have time to clean up the dishes and whatnot before Sabbath roles around at Sun set. And it’s so fun and not to mention delicious. And special. Because we get to be together, we get to cook together, clean up together, and then we get to eat together. While delighting in each others company, and then thanking the Lord for the food and the time we got to spend together.

Find what you love, and do it, eat it, enjoy it on the sabbath. Whether that’s reading fiction books, eating nachos, bike riding, whatever… Make it something you look forward to, make the Sabbath special and keep it special.

Begin to Sabbath

So, how do we begin to practice the art of Sabbath. Well, first, pick a day. Whether it’s Sunday or Saturday, pick one of those. Don’t pick a day that you work. That is not Sabbath! Clara and I do Saturday.

Now, Sabbath begins at sundown the day before; Clara and I do it sundown Friday night until sundown Saturday. We enjoy a good meal Friday night at sundown to kick sabbath off right. Then, we just are present together, maybe play a game, watch a movie… do married people things, we just enjoy life. Then we sleep. and sleep until we wake up Saturday morning. No alarm. We just let our bodies take as long as they need to. Then the day is filled with coffee, good food, spending time with friends and family, being outside in nature, reading, playing games, listening to music, anything that allows us to worship and rest and be filled with joy and peace. Then we go to bed and are ready for Sunday morning.

So you have to decide… how will you practice sabbath? Again, you don’t HAVE to do this, it’s all an invite, but I encourage you to do it. it is a commandment. But remember, it’s something you GET to do, not have to do, it’s a privilege!

I encourage you to do a couple things when prepping for sabbath

‌Encouragement

First, remember, anything that is not rest or worship, it can wait or get it done BEFORE sabbath. Homework, gardening, chores, cleaning your room, bathroom, washing dishes, vacuuming, it can all either A) be done before or B) be done after! Save those things for later… let yourself rest. I know some people, me included, can’t rest when there is something so obvious that needs to be cleaned, so take time before it starts and WORK at it. Then you can rest.

Second, start your sabbath at sundown to sundown that way, it’s not the same time every week, it keeps it different, and you aren’t bound by time, but by nature and God.

Third,, as hard as this is… stay off your phones!!! There are times where Clara and i will be sitting, playing, and totally forget what time it is. Because we’re not looking at our phones. It also allows you to be present in the moment more. This is, in my opinion, the most important thing. Shut the phone down. It will be there tomorrow. The world won’t stop spinning because you’re not available.

Fourth, There is no cookie cutter perfect way to sabbath, these three things, I believe these are must, these have to happen, but there is no cookie cutter way to sabbath, you do what works for you, but… and this is a MUST, do only things that are worshipful and restful. That is the bottom line.

‌Now as we wrap up, I want to encourage you, it’s not going to be easy at first… it will be tempting to just clean the bathroom mirror, and like any thing, it will take time to form this habit of rest and sabbath. This is a spiritual discipline. Disciplines take time to develop. You’re not going to be an instant pro at sabbath, I’ve been trying to practicing it for around 3 years now and I’m nowhere near perfect! Have grace on yourself, take it slow, but don’t just stop because it’s hard. The idea and practice of Sabbath is something so foreign to our culture that we may feel weird doing it… you may feel like a goofball, but… Just like praying and reading the bible, it takes time to become disciplined in setting aside that time. But don’t stop just because it’s hard.

Wrap It Up

‌As we leave this week, as we go about our week. I pray that you all begin to apply slowness throughout your week, slow down your heart, your soul, and breath. Run to Jesus, drop your to-do lists and worry and let him handle it, abide in him, and he will give your rest, and rest for your souls. Because who doesn’t want that?