The Rhythm

Intro

A couple of months ago Christy and I were travelling and at the airport.

I was excited to see that loading right in front of us was an entire gymnastics team.

One girl had a bag that was huge, I knew there was no way she could carry it on. She was stopped and told it was too wide.

She got out of line and was sitting on her back, had friends pushing on it to try in get it to zip smaller… but it wouldn’t.

Was frustrating because it held up everyone, but quit entertaining.

When I thought about it, that looks a whole lot like my life.

So full and filled Im not sure how to manage it all.

Because my life is so filled to the brim, when anyone hands me somethings else to hold, it’s easy to overreact, snap, explode.

Short temper.

In our nation and current world we are overworked, overstimulated, over exhausted.

Left overwhelmed in life and feeling underwhelmed with life.

Like that bag, we’re living life with no extra space, constantly living edge to edge, wondering why I always feel on edge.

Can anyone relate?

NO I’m fine… It’ll fit.

Knowing it’s too big to be carried.

In our pursuit of finding Sacred things again, realizing that some things really are holy and set apart.

We have to find a sacred rhythm to live by.

We live in a time where theres never really an off, I’m always accessable, and even any downtime at all has to be filled with something. Tik toc, snap, facebook and netflix.

And we continue to live edge to edge mainly because I think we have believed some lies.

LIE #1 - I AM WHAT I PRODUCE

I am what I produce and my worth is determined by what I get done.

That’s why even on vacation it’s hard for me to relax, because I feel bad that I’m not “doing” something.

LIE #2 - THE BUSIER I AM THE MORE I GET DONE.

I rush and I run because the busier I am the more gets done, and who’s gonna do it but me!

Problem is the law of diminishing returns. (economics, business - at a certain point the investment no longer sees a profitable return)

More doesn’t always equal more return.

There is a certain point, that doing more doesn’t produce any more results.

We all live in hyper hurry and convince ourselves it’s needed.

Check out line test: We look for the shortest one, and then it winds up being the slowest. So you look around, do I wait it out or choose a different line..

in a hurry here!!!

LIE # 3 - I HAVE NO LIMITS

We like to believe that we are like stretch armstrong, no limits. I just adapt and overcome.

The problem is that even he has a snapping point.

But we are physically and psychologically overworked.

Emotionally drained. and Spiritually malnourished.

God has already created something that is the solution to this problem.

It’s called, Sabbath.

Sabbath in the Hebrew literally means to cease, rest, desist.

It is a cease and desist order by God!

Stop!!

Sabbath creates space. margin.

I called it the space for grace. It gives the space to see and feel God’s grace at work within us!

We first see Sabbath modeled by God himself.

Genesis 2:2-3

“By the seventh day God had finished the work he had been doing; so on the seventh day he rested from all his work. Then God blessed the seventh day and made it holy, because on it he rested from all the work of creating that he had done.”

Sabbath is a model set up by God to work 6, rest 1.

It’s a rhythm of rest. It’s setting aside the time to simply rest and be.

God himself didn’t need the rest, he doesn’t tire, but he needed us to understand the rhythm.

When God’s people were wandering in the wilderness after they escaped slavery in Egypt, God provided bread for them every single day, called manna. Everyday they went out and just had to gather it up.

Exodus 16:21–30 (NIV)

Each morning everyone gathered as much as they needed, and when the sun grew hot, it melted away. On the sixth day, they gathered twice as much—two omers for each person—and the leaders of the community came and reported this to Moses. He said to them, “This is what the Lord commanded: ‘Tomorrow is to be a day of sabbath rest, a holy sabbath to the Lord. So bake what you want to bake and boil what you want to boil. Save whatever is left and keep it until morning.’ ”

So they saved it until morning, as Moses commanded, and it did not stink or get maggots in it. “Eat it today,” Moses said, “because today is a sabbath to the Lord. You will not find any of it on the ground today. Six days you are to gather it, but on the seventh day, the Sabbath, there will not be any.”

Nevertheless, some of the people went out on the seventh day to gather it, but they found none. Then the Lord said to Moses, “How long will you refuse to keep my commands and my instructions? Bear in mind that the Lord has given you the Sabbath; that is why on the sixth day he gives you bread for two days. Everyone is to stay where they are on the seventh day; no one is to go out.” So the people rested on the seventh day.

On the seventh day, don’t even pick up manna off the ground.

It’s a day to rest.

God still wants us to practice a sacred rhythm of rest.

Sabbath forces us to do a couple things:

Rearrange and Reduce.

They had to get it all done by Friday, (had to plan) so that saturday would be off.

Sometimes we actually can do more not less, we just have life out of order.

some of us our priorities and balance is so off that we are busier than ever and less productive.

WE need a priority check. (rearrange the bag)

It also calls us to reduce.

Sometimes there is just too many things in our lives we don’t need.

We have to find this sacred sabbath rhythm of rest.

Cease, stop work, unplug.

Some of your are stressed thinking about it.

yes you can do it. I would say you can’t afford not to.

4 observations about the sabbath.

1. Sabbath is Holy

Exodus 20:8-11

“Remember the Sabbath day by keeping 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, neither you, nor your son or daughter, nor your male or female servant, nor your animals, nor any foreigner residing in your towns. For in six days the Lord made the heavens and the earth, the sea, and all that is in them, but he rested on the seventh day. Therefore the Lord blessed the Sabbath day and made it holy.

It’s a set apart time. Dedicated to God.

It isn’t just good to do, it’s holy and honors God.

the only reason to not take a sabbath is because you don’t trust God.

I don’t know how everything would actually get done if I took a time to rest.

But the sabbath is like the tithe, it’s saying I trust that God can do with the less that I give to him than the more I do without him.

He can do more in 6 days when we give him a seventh.

to unplug, to rest, to worship.

2. Sabbath is a Command

God actually commanded and demanded this rest.

Exodus 20 is a part of a larger text called the 10 commandment, maybe you’ve heard of them.

These were commands given by God for people to follow, this one made it on the list.

None of us would think its ok to break the others, kill someone, steal something...

But this one becomes optional.

God’s commands reveal his heart in the way for us to live.

It has be be scheduled it it wont happend.

Writing NOTHING on the calendar.

3. Sabbath is a gift

Mark 2:27

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

It’s designed to be a blessing for us. God knows how we are created and we aren’t limitless, we are at our best, learning sacred rest.

It’s a gift he has given to us.

Exodus 31:17

It will be a sign between me and the Israelites forever, for in six days the Lord made the heavens and the earth, and on the seventh day he rested and was refreshed.

How was God refreshed??

In hebrew this world literally means, breathed in.

When God was creating he was breathing out.

Don’t you sometimes wish you could just catch a breathe!!

4. Jesus is our Sabbath

Sabbath is a day, but when Jesus came it because greater than that.

We need to learn the rhythm of rest, but we also need to learn the person of rest.

Matthew 12:8

...For the Son of Man is Lord of the Sabbath.

It’s not just something you don’t do, its a person you go to.

Jesus is our rest.

1 Peter 5:7

Cast all your anxiety on him because he cares for you.

Matthew 11:28

Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest.

CONCLUSION

Stop, cease and desist.

Take a day off.

God cares about you enough to know you need a sacred rhythm of rest.

We are lived to the edge no able to pack more, not able to carry what we have.

But aren’t designed to live like that.

Does your life feel like that luggage?

Nothing else can fit. Stressed, stretched...

There is a better way.