Replenish
Notes
Transcript
Welcome/Intro
Welcome/Intro
Week 2 of the Rhythms of Rest series… where we’re really gonna jump into not only the meat of what the Sabbath is, but on how to do it.
And actually, as a part of our time together this weekend, we’re gonna learn from a guy who’s written about this and coached all of our staff on it. I’ll tell you how we’re gonna do that in a minute.
But before we get into that, let’s jump into the Bible. Turn with me to Mark 2:23-28.
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Mark 2:23-28
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(Explain where to find; on the screen…)
Let’s read this together
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One Sabbath Jesus was going through the grainfields, and as his disciples walked along, they began to pick some heads of grain. The Pharisees said to him, “Look, why are they doing what is unlawful on the Sabbath?”
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So: the Sabbath was one of the Ten Commandments - and the Pharisees, kinda the pastors/teachers/religious leaders of Jesus’ day, took it very seriously… which actually wasn’t the problem.
I mean, Sabbath is one the 10 commandments. It’s right in there with “don’t murder.” When God told Moses about these 10 super important things, he said to “remember the Sabbath” by setting it apart as a day where you stop doing all of the very productive things you have to do every other day of the week.
Which should give us a clue, probably, as to how serious God was about us doing this.
But the Pharisees took it to like a completely different level. They made up a bunch of extra rules that you wouldn’t find anywhere in the Bible—but were written down in other places and taught by all of the Pharisees of Jesus’ day.
And, suffice it to say, picking heads of grain violated one of those Sabbath rules that the Pharisees had made up.
Let’s keep reading:
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He answered, “Have you never read what David did when he and his companions were hungry and in need? In the days of Abiathar the high priest, he entered the house of God and ate the consecrated bread, which is lawful only for priests to eat. And he also gave some to his companions.”
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So Jesus points to a story that is in the Bible of one of the Pharisee’s revered leaders of old, King David, who basically says: “You don’t seem to think it was such a big deal when David ate the bread baked specifically for God… but when my disciples are chewing on some grain… that’s where you draw the line?” Like… how obviously hypocritical.
And then Jesus cuts right to it:
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Then he said to them, “The Sabbath was made for man, not man for the Sabbath. So the Son of Man is Lord even of the Sabbath.”
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And it’s this idea about the Sabbath—that God made it for us; meaning for our benefit, to provide for something that we truly need and that is actually good for us… that we’re gonna dive more into this weekend.
So I mentioned at the top of the message that we’re gonna be taught by a guy who has written books about this and coached not only our staff but hundreds of churches on this in the last several years.
That guy is Lance Witt, and Pastor John sat down to interview him. In a moment, you’ll get a chance to hear what they talked about. But before you do, let me tell you a few things about Lance:
For several years, Lance worked at Saddleback Church in California as Rick Warren’s Executive Pastor. Now, I’m gonna guess for more than a few of you, that church and that name aren’t all that familiar to you. But you might know a book that Rick Warren wrote called “The Purpose Driven Life.” After that came “The Purpose Driven Church.” And Lance was the one who created and coordinated the roll out of the Purpose Driven church to several thousand churches across the U.S. and even the world.
But, as you’ll hear from Lance himself, as exciting as that time was, it was pretty costly as well. And it was out of that time that he was forced to learn some lessons that the rest of us are now going to benefit from.
We have had a chance to spend a lot of time with Lance over the last 2-3 years, actually, through a partnership with a group of ministry consultants called the Unstuck Group that both Lance and myself get a chance to serve together on. He’s come in and spent a lot of time with our staff coaching us on team health and performance and a few other things.
Lance has also written several books including High Impact Teams, Replenish, and his new one that’s coming out Aug. 10th is called “Your One Life: Own It. Live It. Love It.”
So, let’s listen to him and Pastor John as they talk about the Sabbath.
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Ok. If you’re like me, you were probably taking some feverish notes there. But what I want to do is just throw up on the screen some of my notes about those (5) things that Lance listed about the Sabbath. Here they are:
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Prepare: there’s some work involved in getting ready not to work.
Stop: identify what you’d have to stop doing for 24 hours.
Rest: take a nap if you need it, and let your soul rest.
Delight: do some of the recreational things that you enjoy doing.
Worship: spend some unhurried, quality time with God in a way that makes sense for you.
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