I Think You Need A Time Out

Today we are going to talk about one of those phrases that has a few different reactions depending on who you are and your circumstances.

The phrase is- TIME OUT.

Think about it- if I say time out to Haylee- our three year old- she is not a happy camper. It results in kicking and screaming and resistance. But, if you say time time out to a 300lb NFL lineman in the middle of a two minute drill at the end of a game- it means some rest, time to catch a breadth, and some cool Gatorade. Finally, if someone says timeout when using a computer is normally means frustration and annoyance because the computer is not giving them the info they are looking for…Time out can be tricky.

But there it is, in the middle of God’s commands- #4 on the list- God says TIME OUT.

God wanted what was best for us as his people- he was attempting to give us some space for connection with Him and others. The problem was- in true human form- people took the thing God gave as a gift and distorted it. By the time Jesus came Pharisees had developed 39 categories of work that were forbidden on the Sabbath, and over 1500 laws to try and govern human action on the Sabbath Day.

Now, if you are like me, the idea of a timeout sounds great! But the practice- that’s a little more tricky. In fact, on more than one occasion Jess has told me I “do not know how to relax.” And I might argue that this is the case for most of the people around us- we live in a world that is no good at slowing down. But there it is- God’s call to Sabbath, to rest, to relax a little.

First, why did God command a Sabbath. Well, there are no less than four purposes. Sabbath has a physical purpose, a Covenant purpose, a Spiritual purpose, a salvation purpose.

A physical Purpose- Our bodies are not made to work constantly. Because of the effects of sin and brokenness, our bodies need rest and refreshment, or they will suffer. God knew that, and that is why he commanded rest for his people- so that our physical bodies would have a chance to recover.

Some of you know that this was something I experienced first hand about 7 years ago. I had a lot going on in my world, and I was burning the candle at both ends. I had stressful and intense situations all around me. It all culminated one more when I went to take a 5 gallon bucket of water to the barn and I could not lift the bucket and my entire check tightened up. I thought I was having a heart attack at 30 years old. A visit to my doc revealed I was in the beginning stages of adrenal failure. I remember his words- you must remember, the human body cannot function with this amount of stress for so long, with no rest and no relief. Our physical bodies have to have rest- God knew that and he commanded a timeout.

A Covenant purpose- There is a covenant promise in this command too. Now, we must remember that when Israel is given this command from God they are still a Theocracy. They have no Earthly King or rulers- there’s going to be around 400 years or so between this command and Israel’s first King. So the command for Sabbath was a part of their Covenant with God to remind them that they were not in charge- God was. They were to take a day of rest to show them that even if they ceased activity all day every seven days- God would take care of them, because ultimately he was in charge.

Even though was are not a Theocracy; this command from God still has the same implications for us. We are to rest once a week to remind us that ultimately God is the one who empowers our success and our lives- he is in charge and will take care of us.

A Spiritual Purpose- The command for Sabbath also has a spiritual purpose. A day of Sabbath was not just about taking a day off work- it was and is about setting a day aside for worship. God wants us to PRIORITIZE worship. So many times people decide if they are going to church, or if they are going to participate in an activity in the community of faith based on everything else they have going on- if nothing else is happening I will go to church or I will do the church thing. But God wants us to prioritize worshipping him, and prioritize worshipping him with our community of faith- so much he commanded us to set a whole day aside to do it.

Finally, Sabbath rest has a Salvation purpose- Ultimately, when a person who has trusted the Lord dies and enters Heaven- they enter the rest of the Lord. In Heaven there is no pain, no crying, no sickness- but there is also no curse, no effects from the fall, no war, none of that. When we rest and set aside Sabbath we catch a glimpse of what the promise of Heaven looks like.

Haven’t you ever sat in your favorite spot- on the beach, in the woods, by the campfire, by the lake- where all is peace and all seems right, and thought “I could live like this forever!” Well, in Heaven we can.

So, what should our priorities be on Sundays- our days of worship? if we were to create a checklist of things that we should be thinking about and prioritizing on Sundays, what would they be? Well, it seems to start with 3 things

First- we rest. One of the things I hear from almost every young family I know is how busy they are. They do not eat meals together, they have almost no time as a family because everyone is going so many different directions; one person I talked to the other week laughed and said they didn’t even notice their teenage son grew a mullet because it had been so long since they saw him. Can I tell you, that kind of business is not a Christian culture idea- that’s an American culture idea.

When we fill our lives us so much with work, sports commitments, extra circulars, social engagements, and everything else, we often try to cram God in the midst of all that, and often God get’s left out because there is simply no time.

And young families- I get it- don’t forget we have 5 kids living in our house. We have soccer players, football players, basketball players, and a kid in karate. We have parents that live an hour plus away; we have work commitments, social invitations, and a ton of other things happening in our lives too- we live in the midst of business. Our boys get invited to try our for travel baseball teams, every basketball team they are eligible to play on, travel soccer teams, and more. And one of the best words that we are teaching our kids is NO. That they don’t have to find their worth in how much they do or how many sports trophies they have, or how many awards they accumulate.

We want to teach them that their value is found in Jesus Christ, and that the love and connection they need more than anything is from Christ and their family, and they need to prioritize those things about anything else.

We all need time to REST. God did not make us to sustain such pace all the time.

We Reflect and Remember- We are told no less that 47 times in the Bible to “remember the Lord” Do you have certain smells, tastes, or sounds that take you back and help you remember someone or something important in your life?

The other day someone asked on FB if there was a smell that took you back to your childhood. Mine was the smell of a lamination machine- let me explain. My mom was always the director of VBS at White Hill- and VBS was a major event in the life of our church- hundreds of man-hours go into VBS at WHCOB; so many days mom would be at the church laminating things for VBS and my sister and I- and eventually Chuck, would be running the halls of the church, playing, and having fun. And that very specific smell has always brought me back to those memories.

Sometimes we need intentional reminders to reflect and remember- and that is part of what the Sabbath is all about- an intentional time set aside to connect with what God has done and is doing. I have noticed that most of the people that I meet that insist that God no longer does miracles are people who do not actively go to church. I think that might be because we share and reflect every week on what God is doing in our midst during joys and concerns.

We Revere- There is a point of Sabbath that is based in obedience- we do it because God told us so. One of the questions that I am asked pretty often is “Does our day of rest have to be Sunday?” And to a point yes, and to a point no. Here’s what I mean.

There are certainly situations when we have to sacrifice our Sundays. Our jobs dictate overtime, or our kids are in a tournament that happens over Sunday morning- those things happen and when they do we can go with the flow and make arrangements other times.

However, I do think that we can and should fight harder than we often do for our Sabbath Day. Sometimes keeping something “holy” takes effort and work- it does not happen by coincidence. For many years our entire society was based on Sunday’s being a universal day off- that made Christians call to keep the Sabbath holy quite easy. But when the society started to change and more places opened and more activities took place on Sunday, the Christian community followed suit instead of resisting.

Did you know that in 1998 there was an Archbishop of the Catholic church that was so fed up with kids in his church missing worship for little league baseball that he took the job as little league commissioner simply so he could put a stop to it- and he did!

A few years ago I read Truett Cathy’s- the founder of ChickFilA- autobiography. In his book he tells of his response to pressure to open locations on Sundays. At the point of the story CFA was the 7th highest grossing fast-food restaurant in the nation; and some of the executives of the company were telling him that this was in-spite of being closed every Sunday- thus 52 days a year. Cathy told them that he believed that one of the reasons God blessed his business was because he intentionally chose to close on Sundays and give all employees the opportunity to go to church and connect with their families. Now, just so we can put a number to that, Chickfila made $4.4 billion dollars as a company last year- so they left about $6.5mill on the table being closed every Sunday. That is living into a conviction. What if every Christian business owner did this same thing?

I have met many Christians that will skip anything and everything to see their favorite baseball team play. They will pay hundreds of dollars to get front row seats every time their favorite bad comes into town; they will take days off at time for hunting or fishing and spend thousands of dollars to go on expensive expeditions- but they miss church for any slight inconvenience. Friends, there are people that want to make the day after the Super Bowl a holiday so people can have the day off work- come on church. Let’s get serious about our day of worship and rest.

R. Albert Mohler Jr gave this commentary: "The erosion of Sunday observance is the result of a decline of Christian conviction. A loss of faith preceded the encroachment of the little leagues. If enough parents refused to let their children play on Sundays, the leagues would have to adjust. Committed Christians know Sunday is the Lord's Day- the day set aside for the worship of God. The Lord's Day commemorates the resurrection of Jesus from the dead and looks back to his atoning death as savior. A secular society has no use for a day of worship.

What would it look like if the 167 million people who claim they are Christian in the US took the day off? How much more healthy might our lives be? If we took the time to intentionally connect with God and one another and just be. Maybe we would experience the blessing of God in some new and profound ways the other 6 days.

Or maybe there is a more personal question to ask- are there adjustments you need to make in your own life?