--were in a series of
messages that we've called morning, noon, and night. And we're talking about the
rhythms of a healthy soul. If you're just joining in now,
we're talking about our days. We're talking about what
it takes to stay at a place where we're healthy
on the inside, and how to figure out a
rhythm that's sustainable that's going to take us to where
we want to be down the road. I titled this weekend's message
No Days Off, No Days Off. And we're going to be
in Genesis Chapter two. It says this, It says, "thus
the heavens and the earth and all the host of
them were finished." If you've read the book of
Genesis, it begins with, "In the beginning, God created
the heavens and the earth." And then it goes on and for the
next six days tells what he did each day. But then it says, "thus
the heavens and the Earth were finished." All the host of
them were finished. It was done. It was donezo. And on the seventh
day, God ended his work, which he had done. And he rested on the seventh
day from all his work, which he had done. Then God blessed the seventh
day and sanctified it, because in it he rested
from all his work, which God had created and made. Father, speak to
us something fresh, something new, something
special from these words as we consider what
you have put in place that will help us to stay
at our best on the inside. We pray this in
Jesus's name, Amen. No days off. You see that
usually on Instagram when someone is at the gym. You see that
generally on Instagram when someone has carefully
curated their selfie to make them look
optimal buffness, when someone has
taken the weights off, they were lifting and put
some heavier plates on. We know you. We've all been there. [INAUDIBLE] I've gotta
get a bigger one. You can't curl that, but let's
just grab it for the photo, right? When you have just
the right amount of perspiration on
your forehead where you don't look like a
full hot mess, where you're just enough to know
you've been doing something, right? And you've got
your gut sucked in. And you've got the
angle, where it minimizes chin action, multiple chins. And now you're ready for this. And you're going to post it. Back up on my gym flow. Back up on my grind, yo, right? This is no days off, right? When I think of no days
off, which, by the way, if you click that
hashtag, there are 5.7 million posts on
Instagram, almost all of them taken in the-- no days off. Eight days a week, yo. Not even physically possible. There are only seven, all right? So you settled down, all right? No days off, right? It's a lifestyle. It's how I hustle. When I think of no days off,
I'm instantly transported back to Miami, Florida. I was preaching
for my good friend Rich Wilkerson Junior, their
church, VOUS Church, shout out, Miami. Unbelievable church. He's got Lecrae
preaching to them. He's on vacation. I said, who's preaching for you? Lecrae. I go, of course,
you have Lecrae. You know they got preachers. Right? I mean, immediately
schedule him to preach here. But he says hey, before
you preach 83 times today, because that was like,
literally like, six services. The last one's like
9:00 PM, right? It's like Miami, people
are just waking up for the 9:00 PM service. And like, there's people coming
to in South Beach like, oh, time for church, right? And so he's supposed
to get a workout in. I love working out on
Sunday before church. I love it. I love to come in here
like, already going, right? And so you know, I've
had a workout today. I've had like, 80
cups of coffee. I'm ready, right? So if you didn't bring-- I got enough energy
for both of us. All right? So I say Lee, absolutely
I'd love to work out. He goes I workout at this
place called Legacy Fit. A ton of NFL guys and
NBA guys train there. I should have said no then. Right? And I show up to this warehouse
with giant refrigerator-- you know, or roll-up doors, massive
doors that are all open, and the 100 degree Miami Heat
is indoors and outside, right? Now, I should have
said-- at that point, I should have said no, because
I need air conditioning. I have needs. And one of them is
air conditioning while I'm working out. I'm not picky. I need a front row
parking spot at the gym. And I will circle to get that. And also I like air
conditioning in the gym. I don't want to get any
exercise on the way to the gym. And I want to sweat just
from being in the gym. And you know, I almost passed
out on the warm-up, right? But then after we did all that
we did, this machine of a man, this this enormous
hulk of a man, he says, now we're
going to push sleds. And they had this
football AstroTurf in the middle of
this environment. And we start
pushing these sleds. He stacks 45s on every lap. We're pushing them. And I felt this really
weird feeling in my quads. I've never felt it before. I thought I maybe had
wet myself, but I-- all my quadriceps started
to do really wet and warm. And then I just started
feeling really woozy. And then I don't
remember anything next. And I came to. I was outside so I don't
know if they dragged me out. And I'm literally just outside
dry heaving onto the curb. We're like, in
the hood in Miami, near right next to Wynwood,
if you know the area. And I'm lying there. My face is like, in gravel. The curb's right here. And I'm just I'm just losing it. And I just feel
wobbly and woozy. And I look up, and they're
all standing above me. I said, how did I get here? You crawled. You crawled, actually. You crawled. I don't have any memory of
it, but I crawled there. And they're like, you
want to come back inside? I go I don't ever
want to move again, nor do I think I am
able to physically. I think this is where I
will now live for always. You have to preach
six times today. And I'm just like,
you know that feeling when you don't feel like you're
ever going to feel good again? You don't think you
even care anymore? If this is now life, I'll
live right here on the curb. Just send my mail. Tell my kids I love
them, you know? No days off. If only it were just
something we put on Instagram. If only it were just something
that we throw out there on the internet and not an
accurate picture all too often of the trap we fall
into, of the life that we live. No days off. And as a result, there is
just a sense of fatigue that we sort of just live with
and we just sort of accept, just a low grade
anxiety that's a part of the new normal in
our culture today. No days off perhaps
is responsible for the spiritual dullness,
the ache in the inside that we all feel, and the
distance at times between us and God, us and those
that we love, and even us and ourselves, a disconnect
between us and our own soul. And there's a better way. In fact, from the very beginning
of creation, the very beginning of history, God not only
commands us, but before he ever tells us-- God is a good leader. And leaders never
say do as I say. Good leaders they do as I do. Leadership is an example. It's not just about
having authority. And so before God ever tells
us how important rest is, he shows us, demonstrating
for us the rhythms of rest in what he does on the seventh
day in taking a Sabbath, in choosing to Sabbath. In fact, if you read in the
original Hebrew, what it says on this day, God rested. The word rested is
the word Shabbat. God Shabbat or God,
you could say, Sabbath. Sabbath is a verb. It's something you can do. Like, you know you could
say let's brunch, right? And that's a great thing to
do on the Sabbath, by the way. If you wake up just
for brunch, then go back to bed, that's amazing! God Sabbathed here on this day. God rested. Literally, it's a stop. God stopped from his work and
chose to Sabbath on this day. You see, we're living in
a day where rest is all too commonly neglected. And it's to our own detriment. I mean, just physically
alone, let's take away the spiritual side of it,
though there's a connection. You are your physical. And you are spiritual. And there's also a
mental side to you. And we have to holistically
approach all these things, knowing there is
going to be overlap. You can't disconnect
them, one from the other. One of the highest viewed Ted
Talks in the past decade or so, someone who doesn't
believe in God, but has seen in the art of
stillness the value of rest is advocating even in
our culture today what he's calling a secular Sabbath. Let's ignore God. But we still-- let's
not ignore a day off. So regardless of
what divide you fall on when it comes to God and the
whole conversation about Jesus, our physiology craves rest. We're not getting it though,
physically or otherwise, right? Thomas Edison, we have to
thank for this to some degree, because he's the one who
gave us the light bulb. And before Edison gave
us the light bulb, did you know that
on average Americans slept 10 hours per night? Incredible. Now fast forward
from then to now. Here we are 2019. What's the average amount
of sleep the American gets? 6.7 hours is the new normal. Some of you are like, wow. On a good night. On a good night I get-- That would be
like, goals for me. And sadly, I would say
I'm right there with you. Like, I can tolerate five. Six is phenomenal. Seven, what are
we talking about? This is a holiday. That's-- seven hours right? But to think of 10 hours
of sleep, it's phenomenal. That's why when you read history
you hear about someone getting up at 4:00 AM to feed the
chickens, you're like, how did they do it? They went to bed like, at
4:30 because the sun was down. And you can only sit there
with a lamp light for so long and walk around with
your stub of candles, like, what do you want to do? I don't know. Let's go to sleep. All right. Right? The sun's down. Let's just go to bed. It's the craziest thought ever. And sort of the rhythms
and the patterns just sort of changed when
we could artificially be in sunlight. And of course, now with the
stream of blue light coming in from our phones and blue
light coming in from our TVs, we're able to be kept in
what amounts to torture. Right? If you did it to a prisoner of
war, it's like that's torture! Let's just keep them
up all the time, nonstop stream of activity. And that's what we're
doing to ourselves. In fact, one article
I read said quote, "studies have
conclusively-- conclusively, not speculation,
linked sleeplessness to higher rates of
irritability, anger, depression, and mental exhaustion." I was listening
to a podcast while back to where they were
talking about the higher rates of suicide on college campuses. And one psychologist sort
of quipped offhandedly, I wonder what would
happen to those rates if those on college campuses
would just go to bed and just get some
rest and not be living chronically exhausted? It was Corrie ten Boom who said
if the devil can't make us bad, he'll just make us busy. And here we live in this
life where just everything's 1,000 miles an hour. There's texts coming in. And there's things we got to
read and places we got to go and stuff we got to-- Just busy! Just busy! Just busy! And we've accepted that this
is just how it has to be, but God says no. There's something
you can choose to do. And you can choose to stop. Six days I've worked. And now Sabbath. Six days I've created
the world, and now I will demonstrate what
you need to choose to do. Stop right there. Leave the work where it was. You'll come back to
it in the new week. But now it's time to brunch. Now it's time to Sabbath. Now it's time to receive
the gift of tranquility and rejuvenation that will
come from you experiencing 24 glorious hours of rest. Now of course, this
follows in the heel of the talks that
have come before where we talk about daily resting. We talked about that lifestyle. But now let's just talk
about these weekly rhythms of how God wants it to be,
of how God intended it to be. God built this universe
on the pattern of six days we have labor. And then that's followed
by a day of rest. And to go against that
and think we can do better and to think we know
more, and to think, hey, no, no you
don't understand me. I'm on a path right now. I'm going to have a million
dollars by the time I'm 30. And then I'm going
to get an Airstream. And then I'm going
to blah, blah, blah. Hold on a second. You go against how God set up
the universe at your own peril, for God put this into-- that there's a rhythm. There is a tempo. There's a cadence. God was demonstrating
for us how he built life to function on this earth. If you look into the
history, it's fascinating. Times where cultures
and civilizations have toyed with it and tried
to-- instead of a 7-day week had a 10-day week or an 8-day
week or any other pattern, it's been disastrous and
even effects on productivity. After 50 hours, any more hours
you work than 50 in a week, your productivity
does not change. You can work 50 or
you can work 70, and you're going to
accomplish the same. Why? God built this world to run
the way he intended it to run. There's a tempo. We sit in with the
worship experience, and we hear the songs. We're down here. Oh, that's a great one. Oh, I love that song. We're hearing the songs. What they're hearing
is different. You see, in their in ears,
they're hearing a click track. They're hearing a metronome. They're being
given instructions. Now we're going
back to the bridge. Now four on the floor over here. OK, strip it back. Now it's just drums and vocals. I call it drocals, right? And they're hearing things
that are keeping them on the right rhythm. They're keeping them
at the right cadence. We can't hear it. But there's a
cadence to creation. And what we're
reading in Genesis is God exposing
what the cadence is. Six days are for work. And then there's a day
for rest rejuvenation and a delight in what was
done in those six days. The word Shabbat means
to stop and delight. It's kind of like how
if you've ever finished something you really proud-- that you got to do, something
you done, and you're like, I'm happy about that. The way you feel when you're
good tired-- because there's good tired and bad tired, right? Bad tired is tired
because you're not getting the rest you need. Good tired is I'm
working hard and I'm satisfied with what I've done. You know when you step
back and you can kind of delight in something? You sort of call your family in. And they don't come in. No, no. I really want you to come. And they're like,
yeah, good job. I need you to like,
give me a moment and celebrate this for a second. That feeling, like, I'm
going to get a cold drink and I'm just going
to take a second. I'm going to take a-- that delight you--
that's Sabbath. That's rest. God, for that seventh day,
was looking at the world that he had made and delighting
in what had been done, delighting in-- this is complicated. He's in relationship even
within himself, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, what
has been called the Great Dance, within God,
there was a delight with each other over
what had been done. That's what God wants
from us as well, for us to stop and
delight in Him, delight in what has
been done, and rest so that you have something
for the week that is to come. It's a rhythm. You fight against
it at your peril. And here's what I
personally believe. I believe if you don't
give God the Sabbath, it will be taken from you. If you don't give God this--
when God put something into the universe, into
the grain of the universe, you can fight it,
but you will lose. It's like gravity. Oh, no. I know better. No, you don't. You will lose if it's
a law of the universe. And the Sabbath is
one of those things. It's like the tithe. Right? We've taught this before. The tithe-- you can't
properly give a tithe. You return a tithe, because
God says the first and the best is mine. So when we talk about tithing,
we say give your tithes. We should say return the
tithe, to bring the tithing and give offering. Offerings or what happens above
and beyond the [INAUDIBLE].. We talked about how if you don't
give it, you'll lose it somehow or another, the
washing machine that would have maybe gone on for
a decade is going to go out. You get the flat tire,
the frivolous lawsuit you never would have been in. Things that we don't
give we'll end up losing. The universe has a
certain grain to it. And when God tells us
how his universe works, we can fight it, but in
the end we will lose. As Romans 2 verse 9 says,
you go against the grain, you're going to get splinters. Wayne Mueller in his
book on the Sabbath, he points that out when
he says, "if we do not allow for a rhythm of rest
in our overly busy lives, illness becomes our Sabbath,
pneumonia our cancer, our heart attack, our accidents
create Sabbath for us." So here we have a pattern in
our culture of ignoring it. And what happens is that
will eventually be forfeited. It's fascinating to look into. Seventh Day Adventists-- this is
a sect that passionately fight for that day off, that day
of rest, as the Bible says. They say if you look at--
and I was listening to this in a podcast-- if you look at Seventh
Day Adventists on average they live 10 years longer
than the normal American, which is interesting,
because if you add it up, that amounts to essentially
a lifetime of Sabbaths. In not taking it, we end
up forfeiting the blessing that God wants us to have. Now I know when we bring
up the subject of Sabbath-- and I intentionally
didn't start there-- many of us, if we grew
up within the church framework-- some of you coming--
and this is all foreign to you. This is all new to you. But if you grew up
within connection to teachings from the
Bible, when I say Sabbath, you say 10 commandments. Blugh, right? And that's just immediately
where you go in your head because you grew up perhaps
having that beat over you. What's the Sabbath? It's the worst day of the week. What's the Sabbath? It's a day where we go to church
morning and nights, two a day. It's like football,
but no Gatorade, right? It's the worst, right? It's awful. The Lord's day is when-- if some of you remember
back in our countries, we have blue laws and
companies couldn't be open. And it was just terrible
restrictive thing. And I intentionally
didn't begin there, but we're going to get there,
because I wanted to show you-- this actually predates the law. This is long before
the 10 commandments. This is what God
practiced for us. This is what God modeled for us. It's what he's teaching
since he made us how to get the best
use out of this life that he chose to give us. But then eventually,
he did formalize it. And in the law,
he did mandate it. And then in the list of don't
steal, which is a great idea, and don't kill, which I highly
recommend you don't, and all the rest of the
things that God said which is basic morality,
baseline morality, right? Don't covet and
all these things, honor your father and mother. He did. The fourth commandment
say, verse 8, hey, also remember the Sabbath day. Remember that day? Because even then,
they were forgetting. Even then they were
thinking, you know what? I get this opportunity. It's too good. I can't resist. I got a couple of
work emails I've got to thump out before
the kids wake up. Or just one quick phone
call, just one quick thing. He's like no, no. Remember the Sabbath day? That was awesome. Remember the Sabbath day? What would they want by
being asked to remember? That it was holy. That it was blessed. That's why he said remember
how by keeping it holy. Now I don't know
if you caught it, but back there in
Genesis, God blessed it just after he made it. By the way, some people
believe that the seventh day in the creation week
was not actually a day of rest for God,
because he doesn't need rest. He was actually a
Seventh Day of creation. As he rested, what was he doing? He was creating rest. It didn't exist before. [EXPLOSION] He was creating something
called a concept of rest. He was creating something that
didn't prior to ever exist. So in his stopping
from his labors, he was actually creating
the seventh thing, which was this concept of Shalom
and wholeness and rest, and all of these things that
were meant to experience. And God actually blessed the
day just after he made the day. He blessed it. If you're keeping
track from Genesis 1, that's the third time
he's blessed something. He created animals to live in
this world and blessed them. God spoke a blessing
over animals. It was like, Nemo,
you're blessed. Bambi, you're blessed. Right? Blessed are you. And then he said be
fruitful and multiply. Once it had God's blessings, it
was then supposed to multiply. God's expectation is
always multiplication. God always wants there to be
a fruitfulness and a growth. Then he made man
and a blessed man. He said be fruitful
and multiply. Then on this day, he
created the seventh day. He created the Sabbath rest. And what did he do? He spoke a blessing over it. And what's his expectation? That it would be
multiplied, therefore, the rest that we receive and
the rejuvenation that is ours and when we truly rest
will be multiplied as we're able to
give that blessing to other people in this world. But some of us are running on
red and chronically fatigued and totally overloaded. We're not able to multiply
blessings that we don't have. We're not able to give rest. People go how ya doing? Oh, man, totally busy,
barely hanging in there. Oh, it's been crazy. You don't understand. We can't give a
blessing we don't have. We can't multiply the blessing,
because we haven't remembered Sabbath day and kept
it holy, therefore the blessing that should
have been our stopped with us and is unable to go
out to the world. But when you've truly
stopped and you've turned your phone off and
you've ignored the calls and you've had that day and
you've said no to the world that we'll still be there, and
you've said no to the needs out there so that you
can be rejuvenated, then when you come back
to life and come back to the world, because you
remembered the Sabbath day and you've received that rest,
you're able to multiply it, and you're able to be a
greater blessing to the world because you were selfish for
that day to the glory of God. And you took that day
that your soul needed. And now you're able and fit to
be a better version of yourself as you go back out. You can't very well pour out if
you're not getting poured into. So are you taking the time
to pour into your self? Remember the Sabbath day. Don't forget how important
this is by keeping it holy. Then he says, verse 9,
"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 do no work. Neither you, son, daughter,
man servant, maid servant. Even your animals
get the day off. Nor the alien within your gate." Someone call Chris Hemsworth. Tell him. Tell Michael. Tell everybody. Tell Will Smith there
is no work on that day. Verse 11, "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." And he brings it back to God. Because I know the moment
we say take the day off, you're going to be up. But you don't know my schedule. You don't know what it's like to
have a little kids, which I do. You don't know what is--
da, da, da, da, da, da. Because we all think
we're the exception. Take a day off. I know I should, but spent. And then he goes,
yeah, but God-- but God did. Are you more important than God? You have more on
your plate than God? Take it off. Yeah, but-- But God did. And He, after He
created the whole world, chose to take a day off. And then look at this,
"therefore the Lord blessed the Sabbath
day and made it holy," or different, set apart, not
like the rest of the day. The rest of the days are for
working, but not this day. This day is a day for
delight, a day for wonder, a day to be replenished,
a day to enjoy what you worked so hard
the rest of those days for. A day to be still, a day to
cease, a day to let things lie where they are. One thing I want to tell
you about the Sabbath is that it's more than a
day, but it's not less. It's more than a day, but
it's not less than a day. What do I mean by that? I mean we live on a
different side of the cross from those who received the
ten commandments, meaning that Hebrews tells
us we live in a day where we understand what those
things were pointing forward to. The whole law, the
whole ceremonial-- all the things they had
to do, and the ways they had to keep things in
boxes they had to check. The book of Hebrews
actually just says, hey, all that pointed at Jesus. And Jesus is our
Sabbath day rest. Now what does that mean exactly? Well, think about it this way. Adam gets born. What did he get born on? Day six? He didn't technically get born. He got made out of dust. It was weird. All right. So Adam's alive now. He's like, oh my gosh! There's a whole lot to do. And God was like, yeah, OK. It's been a great week. Welcome to Earth. Pretty soon we're going to bed. And Adam is so excited. He's like, man
there's a lot to see. I'm very thrilled about this. And I've never been here before. Day seven, he wakes up. First full day ever, and he says
we've got work to do, don't we? A lot to do. And God says actually
today's a day off. What do you mean it's a day off? It's my first day. I've got to name some
animals or something. God goes no, no. I finished all the work
before you got here. Now you rest. Adam's first day on planet
Earth, his first full day, was the day of rest. That's Jesus. You see, religion tells
you to do, to do, to do. What do you gotta do
to earn God's love? What are going to
earn God's favor? Jesus says no, no. You're showing up here
in this relationship. I've done it all. I took care of it all. Now your job is to
rest in what I've done. How can I rest? I didn't do anything. That's the point. I took care of it. I paid your bill! It is finished! I took care of the work, all
six days of it on the cross. Now you rest in your
relationship with me that I earned for you. Grace isn't based on you. It's placed on you. Religion says behave
and get saved. And grace says just
receive and believe what I took care of for you. Jesus is our Sabbath day rest. So Sabbath or the idea of
to rest, is more than a day. Do you see that? It's something that's
meant to infect and invade every part of our lives, every
cell in our entire bodies. But it's not less than a day. It's like we say sometimes if
you come around for a while, you'll hear me say worship
is more than singing, but not less than singing. Worship invades how we
listen to the sermon, how we treat our neighbor on
the other side of this worship experience, all of that,
but not less than singing, because singing
is the second most commanded Christian discipline
and prayer is the first. And that's why we're talking
about the rhythms of prayer, letting it bleed into
our morning and our noon and our night, all of that. But it's not less than singing. So we are supposed to sing. Same thing with the Sabbath. It's more than a day, but not
less than a day in that there is this whole template
of six days we work, and then a day we take a rest. So two point sermon. First point is this. You were made to work. The Sabbath talk should
not begin with the Sabbath, because that's day seven. Let's talk for just a second
about days one through six, because one of the parts and
components of this whole thing is what we do that qualifies
us for the Sabbath. What we do that prepares
us for the Sabbath? And here we are, verse 9 Exodus
26, "six days you shall labor and do all your work." All the employers in
the house said Amen. Some of you here in this
room, you're very excited. You're like, a day? Oh man, rest? I'm really great at that. Let's talk about that. I rest very well. Yeah, you need to work. You need to work
before you rest. You need to work before-- we need to get good and
tired in a good way. You see, there's good
tired and bad tired. Good tired is your
head hits the pillow and you're exhausted because
you did a good day's work. You got something done. You accomplished something. You were fruitful in what
you were seeking to do. You should work hard. And others of you, you need
to hear the second half of the sermon more. So we need to both figure
out where we're weak. But both of these, if
neglected, open us up to unnecessary temptation. When you're not working
and you're just idle, that's when you're positioned
to fall for temptation. Similarly though, when we're
working, working, working, ignore-- working our fingers to the
bone, burning the candle at both ends, then we're also
susceptible to temptation. Why? Because if you don't get
rest where you should, you'll look for it
where you shouldn't. And where you're
just so fatigued, then I just need that binge
marathon session on Netflix, then I need that
fifth cocktail, then I'm looking for things to dull
me because I'm just so tired. I'm aimless. So we need to work hard
to prevent temptation, but we also need to rest well. We have to figure out
what keeps us at our best. Because when your
tank is full, you see through the enemy's lies. It's why you should
never grocery shop on an empty stomach. Right? You ever go into the
grocery store starving? Everything looks great! I'm on the keto diet. Captain Crunch is keto, right? Isn't it? That guy looks like he
would be keto, right? What are you even talking about? Right? But when you're feeding well-- you see these [INAUDIBLE]
like, when I'm at my best and I see junk food, I don't even see the food. I see the burpees
I don't want to do. All right? I try to eat healthy not
because the food tastes good. It doesn't, right? Like, no, no. Kale tastes great. No, it doesn't. [CLAPPING] It's awful. It's terrible. It has a bad mouth feel, OK? Right? I eat nothing but kale. You're going to die with
a bad taste in your mouth. So you might live longer,
bad taste in your mouth. But I don't eat well
so I can like the food. I eat well because
I don't like cardio. That's just really
the only reason. And I don't push any sleds
around the room ever. OK? So when we're eating
well, we see through. And so we're going to work hard. You were made to work. Ecclesiastes 9 verse
10 says, "Whatever your hand finds to do, do
it with all your might." Grow your business. Multiply wealth. Let that be a blessing
for your family and a blessing for the things
that God has called you to do. You have permission
to create wealth. In the Bible-- we have this
whole thing about money is bad. Read the book of Genesis. It's amazing what happened
to you read the Bible. The Bible says God said
there's gold in the land and the gold is good. Now gold in your hand,
it can do good things. When you allow gold into your
heart, when you allow money to be the passion of your life
that eclipses God, of course, it can become an idol. So what we need to understand
is we should do work with all of our hands. You should be blessable and
you should be promotable. If you don't get a
promotion, it shouldn't be because you don't work hard. It shouldn't be because
you'd have a good spirit. You should work at your
emotional intelligence. You should use your mind. You should work hard, and
do so to the glory of God, for it is also an
act of worship. Colossians explicitly says
whatever you do in word or deed, do it to
the glory of God. So you have permission to
see yourself on mission, doing everything you do
in your career and school, be that in medicine or
technology or transportation, or whatever it is that
God's called you to do. So you are made to work. Adam, after his day
off, Genesis 2:15, "the Lord took the man then,
put him in the Garden of Eden to work it and to keep it." To work and to keep it. This is pre-sin. There's nothing wrong with
anything in this world. And he has a job. So those of you who have a
dream of working for the man, making enough some money, and
eventually I want to retire, that's not God's dream for you. There should always be
contribution, always be work. Work and responsibility
good for you. And read the Book of Revelation. There's jobs in heaven. So if your dream of life
is you lying on the beach, that's a beer commercial. That is not a life, OK? That is a miserable life. You want to work. There should be
things and passions. And once you retire
from a career, now you can pull yourself
out into something new. To just have an idle day--
what am I going to do today? I don't know. Maybe just go play
golf again and again and-- you're going to be just
open to temptation again. And you'll be living a
life of quiet desperation before you know it. So you were made to work. But secondly, now
you're made to rest. You are made to rest. And so we need to
come to that day. And even though we
could do more, and even though we could find more, we
could surely pour ourself into to see that as an important step
in our taking care of our souls to rest. You're like, OK. What am I going to do that day? Worship, rest,
rejuvenation, delight. Worship, rest,
rejuvenation, delight. So probably should
read my Bible. What am I going to do with the
other 23 hours and 53 minutes, right? Made my daughter
Clover is like, dad, what are you supposed
to do on the Sabbath? I said honey, sleep
in, we'll eat pancakes, we'll ride a bike. She goes oh, it's
like a vacation. Exactly! It should feel like a vacation. So what rejuvenates you? I am going to just
venture a guess and say half a
season of West Wing is not going to leave
you feeling wonderful. right? We don't ever finish
six episodes of whatever and go you know, I
feel great right now. Right? We're always like, who am I? Where am I? Where are my pants? Right? What rejuvenates you? Right? And as Mackenzie was asking
me, she was saying, well, I had my last day off. I read for a book
for seven hours. I said how did you
feel afterwards? Great! Read a book! Right? If you work with
your hands all week, it might be that
you need something for your mind on that day. If you work your
mind all week, you might need something
with your hands. And so what might be restful
for you, very different from me. But the key is rest. The key is worship. The key is rejuvenation. One author put it this way,
traditionally looking back to history, Sabbath was honored
with lighting of candles, worship, and prayer. So for some of you, if to
your day of Sabbath is Sunday, great. Starting off like
this is phenomenal. Receiving God's word,
worshipping together, great. Prayer is part of it,
blessing your children. Take a moment and
bless your kids. Speak life over them. Pray for peace in and
God's power on them. Singing of songs, but
also keeping silent. Taking a walk, being in nature. Reading scripture, making love. In the Jewish Talmud,
it was commanded that you make love on the
Sabbath, if you're married. I see that look in
your eye, right there. All right. Making love, sharing
a meal, a good meal. If you have a great
bottle of wine, save that one for the Sabbath. This is a day of delight. This is a day of rejuvenation. This is a day to
look forward to. This is like Christmas
without your uncle, right? This is a good day. This is a day to be excited
for, to prepare for. Listen, here's what I found. It takes hard work to rest well! Hebrews 4, it sounds
like an oxymoron. Like, you're preaching bad. No. It's in the Bible. Hebrews 4 verse
11 actually says, "let us therefore make
every effort to enter rest." What does that mean for me? It means organizing. And this is some of the
stuff God's really speaking to me, tweaking things around. Because what I've done
historically is I've done all the work on my day off
that I don't get paid to do. Bill paying, garage organizing,
hanging that shelf my wife boss three months ago at
UrbanOutfitters.com that I've been
dreading putting up because I might have to trade my
man card in because of to call someone who works
the church and ask them to help me because I can't
figure that crap out, right? It's work. I'm doing a work on my
day off because we all have work we have to do that
we don't get paid to do. But it's still
work when we do it. So what do we do
with those things? Let me encourage
you praise God do you live in America, because
we have a two day weekend. I know you're like
well, I don't. You don't know I'm a waitress. Or I'm a-- I get it. Do I look like I'm
resting right now? My shirt is tucked in. OK? This is not my day
off, all right? This is not my idea of Sabbath! This is the Lord's day! It's my most stressful
day of the week. All right. So what do we do? We tweak. We tweak. It's more than a day but it's
not well less than a day. But it's not Sunday. If it's not Sunday, I'm
going to go to hell. Shut up. Stop it. The verse in the Bible that
says all of your arguments about which day is
better, knock it of. Jesus, that's the key. So your Sabbath could
be Wednesday or Tuesday. OK? In this new season
for our family, it's going to be
Saturday for us. And that's one of the reasons
we killed the Saturday night service. And I'll work Sunday night. I'll have a whole day
of work hard all day. And Saturday is going
to be our Sabbath. So don't call. Just kidding. You can call. It is great. We'll ignore it. But you see the point. The point is that
we figure it out. We make every attempt
into the rest. And so for us, the
other day of the week-- and if you have a two-day
weekend, phenomenal. Make one of those days
a sixth day of work. Make one of those
days a day that you do all the work you got to
do that you don't necessarily get paid to do. So you got five days
working for your boss, a day where you just do the
stuff you just gotta do. But work hard. Make every effort to
let one of your days just be an absolute thrill and
sleep in and wear your robe and eat carbs. Listen, calories don't
count on Sabbath. It's actually biblical. Because they were allowed
to eat twice as much. They were allowed to
get twice as much manna. And some of it was
for the Sabbath, they would keep on
the Sabbath day. So this was miracles
on the Sabbath day. Angels are involved on that day. Take that day off. Do things that are good
for the inside you. One Jewish rabbi said we
should start this Sabbath day by declaring
this over ourselves, today I will pamper my soul. How good would it feel to
have a day where you're like, what is the agenda today? Do you have a to do list? Are you a Myers
Briggs like me, ENTJ? Do you need productivity? Do you need checks
stuff off a box? Check this off your box,
today a pampered my soul. What did you do yesterday? Pampered my soul. What? You had a pamper
your soul party? Why didn't I get invited? Because you stressed me out. That's why. [LAUGHTER] But I need to have
something to give you. But today's for me, y'all. This is all up in here, a
day for the pampered soul. So you got to figure that out. And get lost in a good way,
and wander in a good way. Let me encourage you not
to give in to the consumer consumption on that day. There's lots of days for IKEA. There's lots of days for Target. There's lots of days for those-- Don't let it be this day. I like how-- to quote
Wayne Mueller again, he said look, Sabbath is
a time to stop and refrain from being seduced by our
desires, to stop working, stop making money,
stop spending money. See what you have. Look around. Listen to your life. Do you really need
more than you have? Spend a day with your family. Instead of buying a
new coffeemaker today, make some coffee in the old one. The Sabbath day is a day to
take delight in what you worked so hard for those six days for. Some of you are working
so hard, but you're not enjoying any of what
you're working hard for. Actually look around
and see and take delight in what's right there. Your company doesn't
care about your soul. Someone told me one
time Levi, your church doesn't care if you drive
your marriage into the ground. Plenty of pastors have
forfeited their marriages at the altar of ministry,
have burnt their families into smolders. There's always going
to be more to do. There's always going
to be more to do. So what we have to choose to
do is fight for our own souls because no one else is going to. Don't make it about
the technical stuff. Don't make it about the rules. Man wasn't made for the Sabbath. This is what Jesus said. I love that we're
winding to a close here. Is this helping you
at all, by the way? Jesus put it this
way, Mark 2:27. "The Sabbath was made for man
and not man for the Sabbath." Now I had them underline
the first part, because that's the part we
need to pay attention to. When he originally
said this, he was speaking to people who were so
good at keeping the Sabbath, they ruined it. There were so good at
keeping the Sabbath, they took all the fun out of it. They were religious. So they needed to
know you guys we weren't made for the Sabbath. It was actually made for us. But I think on the
other side of it, we need to hear the first part. Hey, don't forget. The Sabbath is made for man. It's a gift. God gave to you a day
blessed that it's yours, every single time a
week passes you by. So every day that you live
without a creed over your life, no days off, is a day
where you've been given a gift that you left unopened. The Sabbath was made for man. Here you go. Enjoy it. You'll be well if you do. I want to end with an
invitation from Jesus. It was a question. And if you don't
mind every location, I'm just going to
ask that you to close your eyes as I read this. Jesus said in a
passage of scripture, by the way, that led to him
doing two Sabbath day miracles, two Sabbath day miracles. A good portion of
Jesus's miracles took place in the
Sabbath, which makes me wonder what
miracles do we miss out on when we don't spend any
time with God on the Sabbath. He said this then, in
Matthew 11, "Are you tired? Are you worn out? Are you burned out on religion? Come to me. Get away with me and
you'll recover your life. I'll show you how
to take a real rest. Walk with me and work with me. Watch how I do it. Learn the unforced
rhythms of grace. I won't lay anything heavy
or ill fitting on you. Keep company with me and
you'll learn to live freely and lightly."
