The Sabbath

I’m talking about Sabbath. A topic that is woefully unpopular in this day and age, whether busy or lazy - the intentional neglect of this subject I believe has had a much larger effect on our faith and health than we may know.

This subject is not just misunderstood - it’s just not understood. And we’ve lost the significance of this commandment over time.

Like if I ask the question: Why is the Sabbath even a thing? What is it’s significance, why does it make it into the 10 commandments? I find very few Christians able to answer this question.

But this is something I believe that God wants to restore to us in this season.

Pray

Sabbath is not the absence of Work, it’s the Presence of Worship

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.”

What this passage reveals to us is that the Sabbath was instituted by God as part of a divine rhythm of life that God ORDAINED for us to have since creation.

It is a pattern, a way of life that the Lord exemplified to us - that we should walk in that specific way.

It’s so fundamental for us to understand the Sabbath at THIS level. That we are created to walk in such a way, in such a rhythm.

One of the greatest misconceptions about the Sabbath is that we think that the Sabbath is about IDLENESS. That it is about the ABSENCE of work.

And misunderstanding has led to us deconsecrating it - making it of no importance in our lives.

But the first thing that this passage shows us is that the Sabbath is not about Idleness - it is about HOLINESS.

The sabbath is not about an absence of work, but the presence of worship.

The sabbath is an intentional, consecrated rest that is set aside for the Lord as an act of worship.

The point is not the absence of work - but the absence of striving, the absence of earning, of toiling. There is a big difference here.

The moment we make it about the absence of work, about not doing anything - we make it about idleness. We strip it of its sacred value.

So many misconceptions form when we make it about idleness.

“I have kids man, how on earth am I meant to have time alone?” Who said the Sabbath was about being alone? We sometimes just imagine that a good sabbath is just us alone doing nothing. No the Sabbath can very well be about enjoying your family, spending intentional, meaningful time with them.

“Not doing anything isn’t much fun - I’d rather just be doing work” The sabbath isn’t about IDLENESS - it’s about holiness, it’s about restoration. It’s about RESTING; do the things you love, with the people that you love - whatever brings you that joy and rejuvenation. You don’t need to sit on the couch by yourself all day (unless that’s what you’re into then go for it).

The point is to INTENTIONALLY REST from the toil, from the earning, from the striving that is associated with working (which is our original calling).

Do you see how such a simple misunderstanding has ruined the entire concept of what the sabbath is?

We tend to think of the Sabbath rest serves only to interrupt - when it’s true purpose is actually to amplify

Exodus 31:17 “17 It is a sign forever between me and the people of Israel that in six days the Lord made heaven and earth, and on the seventh day he rested and was refreshed.’ ””

The Hebrew word for refreshed carries the implication of renewal and delight; it was on this Sabbath day that God had the opportunity to delight in what He had created.

It AMPLIFIED, ADDED value to the work that He had completed. It was an APPRECIATION of the beauty and majesty of His creation.

Likewise worshipful rest in our life serves to amplify and add to our lives.

I think it is not just possible - but even common for people nowadays to have so much and yet still be completely lacking in contentment.

Without a true appreciation or gratitude for the things that are in our lives.

I genuinely believe that one of the reasons people find themselves in this state is because there is no worshipful rest - there is no pause to appreciate, to add value to God’s already existing work.

There is only the next thing, the next task, the next job.

Even in our faith we can be so focused on the next season, what God is bringing NEXT, what God is doing NEXT - that we can fall short of appreciating what God is doing NOW.

Sabbath, intentional rest, worshipful rest - adds value, brings appreciation to what God has already provided us with.

ILLUSTRATION: Garbage Dump Church

I remember being on a mission trip in the Philippines - on the island of Palawan. At the time many of us were attending a small methodist church - we met in a run down shed in the middle of a farm, thing were pretty rough. I know some of you guys are like, what rougher than this? Yes - rougher than this.

Anyway this particular day we were talking on the way to the mission site - which was a small township situated in the middle of a garbage dump. On the way there I can distinctly remember that we were laughing and making jokes about the state of our church. We were saying things like man - I bet these guys have it better than we have back in Perth, bet their building is nicer etc.

Then we get to this garbage dump, and the reality hits us. No - these guys are not better off. It’s literally a dump, it stinks, there’s rubbish everywhere, I didn’t meet a single person with a full set of teeth, like these people are literally in some of the lowest of the low situations.

The pastor invited me to come and see his church - the church was little more than an old garden shed that was barely hanging on. There’s old chairs, barely any of them, all different shapes and sizes, no amplified sound, no lighting - and I don’t mean fancy lights, I mean no lighting.

But I remember something distinctly. In the corner, there was a drumkit, if you could even call it that. They had scrounged it together from trash that had been thrown or maybe even donated. It was mismatched, worn out, broken, held together by tape. But there was a young boy sitting at it - hammering away on it with the biggest smile on his face. And I walked up to him and was like hey little man, can I have a go? And he handed me his drumsticks. And by that, I mean he was drumming with two sticks.

But that’s when I had a real look around - like I really looked around. I saw the pastor, of this church in a dumpsite beaming with pride as he showed it off to me, the child playing the drums with two sticks with the biggest smile on his face, the aunty sweeping the dust out of the church with a broom made of twigs, humming to herself as she faithfully kept the place clean. You know what I saw? I saw gratitude. I saw appreciation.

And then I thought of us - with our busy lives, building the church, studying our university degrees, working our part time jobs still complaining about our church in a shed when our sound system alone was more valuable than the entire dumpsite village.

We had so much and yet appreciated so little. And now I look back I do believe it was an issue of rest. We were alway go-go-go.

Sabbath is an expression of Trust

But how is resting an act of Worship? How does it glorify God in any way? Let’s check this story out

Exodus 16:4–5 “4 Then the Lord said to Moses, “Behold, I am about to rain bread from heaven for you, and the people shall go out and gather a day’s portion every day, that I may test them, whether they will walk in my law or not. 5 On the sixth day, when they prepare what they bring in, it will be twice as much as they gather daily.””

Exodus 16:17–29 ESV

17 And the people of Israel did so. They gathered, some more, some less. 18 But when they measured it with an omer, whoever gathered much had nothing left over, and whoever gathered little had no lack. Each of them gathered as much as he could eat. 19 And Moses said to them, “Let no one leave any of it over till the morning.” 20 But they did not listen to Moses. Some left part of it till the morning, and it bred worms and stank. And Moses was angry with them. 21 Morning by morning they gathered it, each as much as he could eat; but when the sun grew hot, it melted. 22 On the sixth day they gathered twice as much bread, two omers each. And when all the leaders of the congregation came and told Moses, 23 he said to them, “This is what the Lord has commanded: ‘Tomorrow is a day of solemn rest, a holy Sabbath to the Lord; bake what you will bake and boil what you will boil, and all that is left over lay aside to be kept till the morning.’ ” 24 So they laid it aside till the morning, as Moses commanded them, and it did not stink, and there were no worms in it. 25 Moses said, “Eat it today, for today is a Sabbath to the Lord; today you will not find it in the field. 26 Six days you shall gather it, but on the seventh day, which is a Sabbath, there will be none.” 27 On the seventh day some of the people went out to gather, but they found none. 28 And the Lord said to Moses, “How long will you refuse to keep my commandments and my laws? 29 See! The Lord has given you the Sabbath; therefore on the sixth day he gives you bread for two days. Remain each of you in his place; let no one go out of his place on the seventh day.”

This is a pretty wild story about God’s provision - but it provides us with a significant insight into the Sabbath.

The thing to take note of is that there is a double provision on the 6th day to account for the Sabbath - and then NOTHING falls on the Sabbath because the people are instructed to rest.

BUT the caveat was that the manna which was collected on the 6th day would NOT spoil on the sabbath, unlike other days when the collected it and it would spoil the next morning.

And this is the act of worship in the Sabbath; it is trusting for God to provide for us in our rest. That as we step away from our toiling and striving to work and earn - God still provides.

Keeping sabbath is an act of trusting God.

In this passage God sustains and provides when the sabbath is observed. It is a SUPERNATURAL phenomenon - a blessing that God Himself imparts, it is not a logical outcome, it is a divine outcome.

Just like this passage shows - there is a divine blessing of provision that falls on consecrated, sabbath rest.

And that, perhaps, is exactly what makes it tough - because it challenges our natural instinct that doing more means receiving more. Working more means receiving more.

But we have to get our mind around the simple fact that God works THROUGH our rest.

In today’s busy world this is a bigger challenge than perhaps ever before.

“I can’t afford to rest, I’m too busy.” “I’ve got too much going on right now, I don’t have time.”

What we don’t realise we’re actually saying is that our busyness has compromised our trust in God’s provision.

I feel like the question we need to ask ourselves in these seasons is “Do we trust God enough to rest?” Do we trust Him to provide while we rest from our work. Do we trust Him to enjoy ourselves, to delight in our lives?

Do you notice that in v27. when the people broke sabbath and went out to gather - they did not find anything? There was no provision for those that did not keep sabbath. If you had not accounted for the Sabbath - then you would have actually worked more and collected LESS.

And this is what can happen when we work and ignore the rest that God has ordained for us.

Dan always says to me (usually when he’s about to spend money on something expensive) “God’s will, God’s bill”. And I find the principle stands here. If God has ordained and commanded us to take the Sabbath - then He will provide for our needs during that period of rest.

Our act of worship is therefore to take the sabbath and TRUST in God to provide for us.

ILLUSTRATION: Season of Hiding

I get it - it’s hard. I’m a hustler, I’m a go getter; so learning how to rest was always going to be tough for me. And God taught it to me the hard way.

Out of nowhere one day, one of my spiritual fathers came over from Malaysia to Perth and asked to catch up with me. So we met for coffee and we were having a perfectly nice conversation when he suddenly said to me: “This season for you is going to be a season of hiding. A season of rest - whether you like it or not.” And then he started prophesying and said he saw the Rafflesia plant which is a large plant in South East Asia, one of the biggest flowers in the world - but the seeds can remain dormant for up to 2 years before they come into bloom. I was like man don’t give me such words!

And the wild thing was - that’s exactly what happened. Man I was taken off the pulpit, I was given very little to do, the business I work with Simon had a long period of quietness. I was enjoying it - for a bit, until I started to realise - wait, if I’m not preaching, and if I’m not doing anything then who’s going to hire me after this? Who’s going to call me into speak if I’m not getting myself out there on the pulpit or doing itinerant engagements? And so I started to freak out “God I think I’m done resting, I know you said 2 years but I think 6 months is perfectly fine to be honest. I get it, rest more, lesson learned.” The Word of the Lord came to me, “Do you trust me enough to rest?”.

My spiritual father came back just before the 2 years was up and spoke to me “Your rest season is over. It’s time to step out and let God use you again.” I was like thanks - but nobody even knows I exist anymore. The rest was way too restful.” But he just said, “Trust the Lord”.

You know I genuinely thought that my ministry career was over. But in the next month, I got called to do the biggest speaking engagement I have ever been asked to do. And I got 2 job offers immediately - one of which was this one, to run Central. Out of nowhere, after 2 years completely off the ministry circuit.

That’s how I learned that the greatest act of worship I could offer in that season of rest - was trusting God to provide while I rested.

Yesterday was overcomplicating Sabbath. Today we abandon it.

And I think this is precisely why the enemy is attacking our Sabbath nowadays.

Mark 2:23–28 “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.””

The phraisees in this passage made the error of legalising the Sabbath - and by doing so the removed it’s restorative, life-giving purpose.

I don’t think this story is an accident on any account - it occured literally as the disciples were plucking wheat to feed themselves. The pharisees had legalised sabbath to the point that it was even preventing people from nourishing and restoring themselves - the entire premise that the Sabbath was founded on.

This was the case in the ancient world - the legalisation and neutering of the sabbath’s life giving rest. However - in today’s world we have a very different problem.

Today - we have abandoned the sabbath altogether.

And I believe this is nothing short of an attack of the enemy in this generation.

We are building a culture that glorifies busyness. I call it the “Idolatry of productivity”. We have learned to link our value and worth with our productivity - we are as good as what we produce.

Whether that is in the sphere of work, in family, in education, in relationships - even in church to be honest with you. We carry this mindset wherever we go - we are as good as what we produce. You know, even if we’re not busy we like to PRETEND we are - that’s how much we glorify it.

What this ‘idolatry of productivity’ has done is that is has devalued rest to the point that we have ABANDONED it - we believe that sabbath doesn’t add to our value, to our worth. It doesn’t increase our productivity and so we remove it from our lives.

And this is how the devil has taken our callings and turned them into curses.

We are more productive than ever, and more burnt out than ever too. The average person is more productive than ever - and yet finds very little meaning and fulfilment in what they do.

All because we intentionally or unintentionally neglect the rhythm of rest that God has ordained for us from the very beginning.

Make no mistake - this is a form of idolatry. Literally turning from worshipping the creator - to created things. We have sacrificed our God-ordained rest on the altar of productivity, busyness, success.

we’ve traded the joy of holding a gift for the burden of dragging an idol.

This is not the way that God intended us to live this life!

The Sabbath finds its fulfilment in Jesus

In fact, my friends, if that rings true for anyone here - you need to know something; that God cares so much about your rest - He had a plan all along not just for your physical rest, but for a far deeper spiritual rest.

Colossians 2:16–17 “16 Therefore let no one pass judgment on you in questions of food and drink, or with regard to a festival or a new moon or a Sabbath. 17 These are a shadow of the things to come, but the substance belongs to Christ.”

The Sabbath has significance not just in its role as a rhythm of consecrated rest in our lives - but far more significantly, it pointed to God’s plan from the start.

When Paul writes the substance of the sabbath belongs to Christ - Paul means that the Sabbath this whole time - was pointing to the work that Christ came to do.

Before Christ, relationship with God, righteousness was maintained by constant striving — rule upon rule, sacrifice upon sacrifice.

But Christ’s finished work on the cross means that we now enter HIS spiritual rest instead of constantly striving.

The sabbath is no longer just a day - it is a person. This is why Jesus says:

Matthew 11:28 “28 Come to me, all who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest.”

A far greater rest is found in the person of Christ - a rest that brings meaning and fulfilment to every area of our lives. He speaks peace, He speaks worth, He speaks identity into us.

No more earning, no more striving for salvation - just resting in Christ’s completed work. He is the SUBSTANCE of the Sabbath - He is the completion of the Sabbath. He is the FULL rest our souls are constantly searching for.

We no longer work TO rest, we work FROM rest.

Your job is no longer the place that you find validation in your identity, you no longer need to measure your worth through promotions or productivity. Your identity is secured in Christ - your worth is already spoken for; your job becomes a place where you give your best out of gratitude, you don’t need to be ruled by anxiety or fear anymore.

Family is no longer an area of striving - to keep up appearances, to project worth and value as a good mother or father, son, or daughter, husband or wife; Family becomes a blessing to enjoy not a burden to carry - God calls us to enjoy and appreciate the blessing of our families.

Even in church - you don’t serve to prove anything to anyone, you’ve got nothing to prove to anyone of us let alone God. You serve out of a place of gratitude to God, and a love for the faith community that God has given to you.

We don’t rest because we HAVE to anymore, we rest because we GET to.

Before we were doing it to fulfil a legalistic requirement, now - we do it to delight in His blessings in our life, to appreciate all the good things He has given us, to express our trust in His provision for us. To remember the eternal rest that He he paid for when He gave His life for us.

ILLUSTRATION: Searching for the building

You know guys can I be real about something right now? This whole search for the building thing, I know I may have played it cool but it was a real thing. Like it was my first major project as the lead pastor of this campus, and there was just so much riding on it - and this was back when our services were FULL, not even now when they are literally overflowing.(In case you don’t know we run 4 services at Central from Friday to Sunday and each one of them is pretty much at full capacity if not more - and they keep breaking records).

I used to spend around 4 hours a day, scouring websites, calling real estate agents, driving around the city looking for signs etc. And we went to see so many properties - every time we got rejected, or every time it got leased out before we could make an offer my heart would sink. I started to wear that failure as a part of my identity. If I can’t even lead the church into a new venue, then what kind of leader am I really? Man for that season this whole building project nearly stole the joy of church and ministry from me.

It got really bad when we got rejected for the last building at Pitino Ct in Osborne Park. This beautiful big warehouse that seemed pretty perfect for us. But someone got the lease before we did even though we submitted it earlier - and I was devastated. That was the last viable property listed on any website for us.

I went to seek the Lord in prayer - and I remember just feeling like God maybe I’m not meant to even lead this congregation if I can’t even succesfully find a building. And I just got this sense from the Lord - just rest. Stop doing things. I remember fighting God on it - I can’t, if we don’t get this building blablabla. And then the question came - as it always does “Do you trust me enough to rest?” I was so tired and at my wits end I did it, not even out of obedience but perhaps just out of sheer discouragement.

You know just 2 weeks into my rest - Oscar contacted me saying that the owner for this property had changed, and they new owner is open to leasing out next door to us. Just like that. Divine timing. And that’s the plan I showed you earlier.

But you know the real lesson I learned? Yeah of course I learned I can rest because God’s in control - I mean I feel like I learn that lesson constantly at this point. But the real lesson? God wants me to rest. He values my rest, my enjoyment. And He wants me to value it too.

Altar Call

Some people have been running on fumes - just incredible tired; you need to set aside consecrated rest to find delight in the Lord again.

Others this is a call to stop striving for God’s delight and pride - you already have it, you need to start living FROM the rest that Christ bought for you on the cross.

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