Rest For The Weary

Please open your Bibles to Exodus 20:8-11 and Matthew 12:1-13

Every Christian should endeavor to imitate God (Eph. 5:1), live like Jesus (1 John 2:6), and to be a witness for Jesus (Acts 1:8).  Perhaps that seems a little overwhelming, but it’s not.  This morning, I’m going to give us one thing that if we do this one thing, it will help us imitate God, live like Jesus and be a witness for Him.  What could it be? 

Before we answer that, I’m curious -

How many of us have a serious case of gotta-itis? 

I gotta do this, and I gotta do that.  I gotta go here and gotta go there.  Gotta finish this ….   Gotta gotta gotta!  There is too much to do and not enough time to do it.  And gotta-itis takes over our lives.  It’s a serious condition.  I suspect it’s one of the leading causes of stress, anxiety, spinning wheels, feeling defeated or deflated, and even enslaved by tasks.  When gotta-itis is left unmanaged, it creates an exhausted life, and a life disconnected from God and from others and even from self.  Disconnected from God’s mission and purpose in our lives. 

 Well my friends, if you have gotta-itis, and you’re too busy, too tired, too stressed, or too overwhelmed … there’s one thing that is guaranteed to help.  What is it? 

It is a simple gift of love given to us by our Heavenly Father called Sabbath – a day of intentional Divinely authorized rest.

             I guess we need to know

What is Sabbath 

In Hebrew, (שַׁבָּת šǎbbāṯ), means to cease, stop, and rest. 

In Exodus 20 we find the Ten Commandments.  1) No other gods, 2) no idols, 3) don’t take Yahweh’s name in vain, 4) remember the Sabbath, 5) honor parents, 6) don’t murder, 7) don’t commit adultery, 8) don’t steal, 9) don’t lie, and 10) don’t covet. 

Which of the 10 Commandments did Jesus nullify? 

None.  So where did we get the idea that we can cross off Sabbath from the 10 Commandments? Listen, all 10 Commandments are just as applicable to us today as they were to the ancient Israelites.  So let’s read the Sabbath Commandment. 

Exodus 20:8–11 ESV

“Remember the Sabbath day, to keep it holy. Six days you shall labor, and do all your work, but the seventh day is a Sabbath to the Lord your God. On it you shall not do any work, 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. For in six days the Lord made the heavens and the 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.

Yahweh first modeled a Sabbath rest during creation in Genesis 1 & 2.  God could have created it all in one moment, but He didn’t.  God created and then stopped when it was enough for one day – then said, “It is good.”  And that is

One of the marks of Christian maturity and Christlikeness is knowing when to say it is enough for now.   

God then instituted the law of Sabbath with Israel here in Exodus.  He gave the Sabbath to a nation who had been enslaved for 450 years and knew nothing of sanctioned rest.  What began as a wonderful gift of freedom and rest became a heavy unenjoyable burden by the 1st Century AD.  The Jewish leaders piled on rules and made the Sabbath extremely difficult to keep.  

The Pharisees were guilty of abusing the Sabbath – making it more than what God intended.

We see that in Matthew 12 and Mark 2.  Before we point fingers, we

Christians are often guilty of neglecting the Sabbath – making it less than what God intended. 

How so? 

Sabbath is a 24-hour period of no work (paid and unpaid), enjoying God, and replenishing body, soul, and spirit.  It’s a God-given snow day. 

It’s a day without “gotta, gotta, gotta.” It’s a day to live as liberated people – free from the hurries of life.  It’s a day to rest, to slow down and enjoy life, take a nap, play games, and let go of the burdens of work.”  Sabbath is a day to do whatever fills you up and replenishes your soul – a day without obligations, pressures, or  responsibilities.”  What a gift from God. What do we do with it?  “I can’t do that.  I gotta, gotta, gotta.”  God says, “No, you don’t gotta.  Remember, I run the universe – not you.”

We’re just scratching the surface ….  Before you think can’t do this or can’t do that, our loving God does make provisions for genuine life situations.  If you’re single, have children, special needs, emergencies … there will be things that need to be done on a Sabbath that cannot be avoided.  In Matthew 12 when the Pharisees condemned the disciples for eating grain on the Sabbath, Jesus responded,

Matthew 12:7–8 ESV

And if you had known what this means, ‘I desire mercy, and not sacrifice,’ you would not have condemned the guiltless. For the Son of Man is lord of the Sabbath.”

Jesus determines what is acceptable and what is not. 

You may still be wondering how is practicing a weekly Sabbath Christ-like and being a witness?  Think of it like this:

God worked.  We work.  God rested.  We rest.  We imitate God and witness to others when we stop working and enjoy a full day of rest.  

Peter Scazzero wrote,

“Sabbath, when lived, is our means as the people of God to bear witness to the way we understand life, its rhythms, its gifts, its meaning, and its ultimate purpose in God.

Observing the Sabbath, we affirm: ‘God is the center and source of our lives. He is the beginning, the middle and the end of our existence.’” ~ Peter Scazzero.

Some might be thinking, “I’m too busy, too important, too much to do, etc. – I can’t take a Sabbath.”  I’ve been there, but if we really get down to it, all of our excuses for not practicing a weekly Sabbath are just that - excuses.   That’s a different topic.  Wayne Muller said this -

“Sabbath is not dependent upon our readiness to stop.  We do not stop when we are finished. We stop [to Sabbath] because it is time to stop.” 

We stop because it’s Sabbath time!

Jesus said it very clearly -

Mark 2:27 ESV

And he said to them, “The Sabbath was made for man, not man for the Sabbath.

It’s as if God said, “Here, this gift is for you.  You will need this on the journey. Life can be hard and exhausting.  The world and how the world operates will work you to death.  It will enslave you if you let it, so here’s a Sabbath.” 

Look, we all have gottas and things to do.  This is why

“Sabbath requires surrender. If we only stop when we are finished with all our work, we will never stop – because our work is never completely done.

If we refuse to rest until we are finished, we will never rest until we die. Sabbath dissolves the artificial urgency of our days, because it liberates us from the need to be finished ….”  ~ Peter Scazzero. 

There is so much more to say about this topic.  I’m sure there are a lot of questions like, “What can I do and not do on a Sabbath?  How do I start?  What day is the Sabbath?  What if I have …?”   We’ll talk more about this when we get to Matthew 12, but for now, here’s my

Chad’s Challenge

1) Choose one day of the week for Sabbath.  

Mine Sabbath is Friday.  

My Sabbath day will be __________________.

2) Disconnect from work and anything that drains your emotional and spiritual energy.

steals your joy, adds stress, anxiety, and tension.  Disconnect from the news or social media.  Learn to say, “No.  I’m not doing that today.

3) Connect with and enjoy Jesus more than usual.

Spend some extra time in Scripture or prayer or worship – contemplation - journaling. 

4) Give yourself permission to do what fills you up and gives you joy.  

Do what reenergizes you.  If you want to sleep in, take a 2 hour nap, or go to a park and sit there for a couple of hours – that’s what a Sabbath is.  It is a gift from God to rest.          

Give yourself grace.  This will be trial and error – experiment – discover what works and doesn’t work for you.   

When we live these gotta gotta gotta hurried lives – we cannot love God, others and self the way God intended.  If we’re too busy to love God by practicing a weekly Sabbath, we’re too busy to love people.  But, if you want to imitate God, live like Jesus and witness to others – this will help.  Take up the challenge and when I return from Sabbatical, I want to hear how your relationship with Jesus and others has changed.  In your handout, there is more information and some quotes about Sabbath. 

As we close, we Christians often claim that Jesus set us free yet continue to live in bondage to the world’s systems. The Sabbath is a means of living in that freedom – that we don’t have to live like the world.  We’re going to close with a song that is about freedom.  As we sing this, allow the Holy Spirit to speak to you. 

· Point out an area in your life where you are not free …

· Perhaps you have never received Christ …

My Sabbatical

Disconnecting from phone, texts, emails and all church related

Connect with Jesus without church business, concerns, care, sermons … just me and Him. 

“The Sabbath calls us to build the doing of nothing into our schedules each week. Nothing measurable is accomplished. By the world’s standards it is inefficient, unproductive, and useless. But, as one theologian stated, “To fail to see the value of simply being with God and ‘doing nothing’ is to miss the heart of Christianity.”

“Sabbath was intended to shape our lives as liberated people. Keeping the sabbaths is meant to be an experience of the truth that you are not a doing machine, but a deeply loved son or daughter of God. He is not interested in simply using you to get work done; He delights in you.  He provides free time once a week so that you might relish your release from all forms of oppression and slavery.” Peter Scazzero. 

https://www.emotionallyhealthy.org/podcast/- search for Sabbath.