Sabbath: A Rhythm of Rest

well I'm grateful to be standing here with you today several years ago my wife and I were traveling over the summer I would preach at youth camps back in the day and so several years ago I was speaking at this camp full of high school kids and we had the afternoon off and we went to a coffee shop and while we're at this coffee shop a young man stole my wife's iPhone from off the table in front of us literally just ripped her earbuds out and ran out the door which was interesting because you always wonder when a moment like that happens what will you do like when the crisis comes what will your instinctual response be my wife's was to yell and she yelled get him babe which at that point what are you gonna do say like no I'm good so I just kicked off my flip-flops and ran out the door chase his young man turn the corner there was a security car right in front of us so I started yelling for security turns out it was driven by his buddies their getaway car and so we ran up to it and then all in a moment he jumped in the car I grabbed the window and his buddy hit the gas and so we went down the road together the two of them in the car me hanging from the window which was interesting because they were young guys they were like the age of the kids I had just been talking to and so I wasn't yelling at him I was kind of hanging there going like hey guys you don't want to do this and they were talking back to me calling me sir it was kind of surreal but they just kept driving so after a few minutes I was like this this has to stop and either I'm gonna get in the car and escalate the situation or I'm gonna go it's a phone man and let go of the car so I waited till he slowed down a little bit released the car they drove off watched him get arrested down Street which I'll be honest with you did not feel like a win for me whatsoever a lot of mixed feelings watching this happen but when I rejoined Donna we were staying in there and talking about situation and then I told her hey my back hurts and then my back hurt a little bit more the next day and then it hurt a little bit more the next day and then a third day I was in excruciating pain and was unable to stand long story short went to a doctor's office he said you have multiple bulging discs herniated one your lower back sticking out three centimeters he said it's pushing on your nerves causing pain to radiate down your legs he said here's the problem though because you've got multiple bulging discs you're a bad candidate for surgery but if this continues you'll lose the use of that leg and I said what do we do and he said I can't help you he said I think you go home and pray that God heals your leg not a great thing for a doctor to say so I went home and laid on my face on the ground for a month had to cancel all my appointments I remember my staff gathered around my face at one point and I just delivered my responsibilities to lead our ministry over to them because it was real unclear what I was gonna be able to do month went by and I was able to stand up able to go to physical therapy start walking I remember what I saw the doctor again he was shocked he said somebody up there must like you he said because I can't believe you're walking in here so when I say I'm grateful to be standing in front of you today I mean I'm grateful to be standing in front of you today I thought you would be excited about that I sure was I sure AM but I'll tell you if you've never taken steroids they do make you irritable for me they also rob the ability to sleep so when I was laying on that floor I was only sleeping maybe three hours a night so I had a lot of time down that floor so I just filled up my time with movies hundreds of movies they just said a little laptop next to my face and I was just one after another watch a movie watch a movie watch a movie watch movie until finally one night it was like 2:00 a.m. I was watching Teen Wolf - starring Justin Bateman and I was like this has gotten pathetic this has to stop but I thought what am I gonna do just sit here and be in pain and I thought well I can't do this anymore so I shut the laptop and it didn't take five minutes laying there and stillness where I had a very powerful moment with God I felt like God leaned towards me and said are you ready to deal with me now because then I what I've been doing that month was rather than dealing with the obvious reality in front of me I was just distracting myself and finally he said hey let's set this down I need you to talk to me and I began to pour out my heart to him about my Payne I started to think about the pain all through the universe in the world I started begging him to do something about it and realizing he had and then we had a real long communion on that floor and I trusted him more than I ever trust him not love him more than I've ever loved him it's a fascinating thing that happened on that floor because it wasn't just stopping me from watching movies in what I realized was a lot of my back it was kind of preset for injury because of the stress I was carrying around because I was so of consumed with so many of my responsibilities and ministry and so consumed with some things that really in the longevity of things are not particularly important and I was letting my body fill up with stress and tighten up over things that are really irrelevant and so God and His mercy had to put me down in order to give me perspective he had to stop me to help me get on the right path he had to add to my life by subtracting which is what God likes to do and so he put me down to give me perspective right now I mention all that for this reason I had never thought of Psalm 23 is a particularly violent verse he makes me lie down in green pastures he leads me beside cool waters but he did for me so I could have that back part of the verse and he restores my soul and I want that for you without the pain if possible I want us to know what it is to stop and be still and let God restore our soul because here's the reality ministers break they do read the news they break morally they break emotionally and I broke physically right and how do they do it unmitigated stress put you in a bad situation and if you don't stop you will get stopped right life will do it for you you don't break the rules of life they break you right and I don't think ministers are the only ones if you look around in the culture today what's happening we live in relatively the safest time for young people to grow up and yet there are higher levels of anxiety reported among young people than at any time in recorded history there's something about modern life that is not conducive to human flourishing our rapid pace is not leading to restoration of our souls there's something wrong with the rhythms of our life and it's hurting us and I don't think I need to read you all the stats to convince you of that there's something about our life that is not conducive to human flourishing we're like a boat that as it goes faster and faster at some point it starts to pop on the water and then flips over and throws everybody out speed is the enemy of depth and what we're lacking today is deep people because we don't know how to slow down see and so that's why you go well then what do we do I think if you want to know how to use a creation you look to its creator how is this thing meant to work how is it designed to work well and if you ask the Creator how to use his creation obviously you can get the most optimal usage of that thing and so I want us to look at how are you and I supposed to work and the reality is God shows us in the rhythms he set in the world and in the rhythm of Sabbath so we'll look at what God did look at what it means for us and then talk about the implications for this church but let's look at what God did and you see it in creation we've already started when we read Genesis chapter 2 it says the heavens and earth were finished all the hosts and on the seventh day God finished his work and he rested on the seventh day from all his work that he had done that word rested in Hebrews the word Shabbat it means to stop cease desist that's where we get a derivation of the word Sabbath right it just means to stop and he blessed that day and he made it holy and so what's interesting about that is you see God it wasn't that God was like whoa creating stuff no God made a decision hey I did good work six days on the seventh day I'm gonna stop and not only am I gonna stop I am going to bless this day and call this day holy what does that mean it means that God wove Sabbath into the rhythm of creation I wove into the way the world works that you are meant to work and then you're meant to rest you're meant to go forward and you're meant to stop and so god wove Sabbath into the rhythms of creation and then you see Genesis you know was written to the same people that excerpts was written to the people that God had liberated from slavery in Egypt they're journeying through the prompted through the desert on the way to the promised land Moses is introducing them to God saying God is like they know God to save you but they don't know him very well so out in the desert he's teaching them and then in Exodus 16 God is leading them out he says here's what's gonna happen I'm leading you to the desert and I'm gonna feed you this stuff's gonna come out called manna it's like coriander seed you're gonna get it make bread out of it it's gonna keep you alive and then God says hey and on the sixth day gather twice as much and on the seventh day gather nothing I just want you to stop I want you to rest there'll be enough food in six days to feed you on day seven on day seven don't work don't gather don't grind don't don't bake just sit enjoy your family enjoy your friends rest on the seventh day and he gave it to them as a holy day he says in Exodus 16 22 I'm a sixth day they gather twice as much bread to OMERS each can you believe it and when all the leaders of the congregation came and told Moses he said to them this is what the Lord's commandment tomorrow's a day of solemn rest a holy Sabbath to the Lord bake what you'll bake boil what your boil and all that is left over lay aside to be kept till morning and then in verse 29 he so see the Lord has given you the Sabbath therefore on the sixth day he gave you bread for two days Sabbath was a gift I'm giving you a day to rest it's a gift for you right now what's interesting there is rest is a form of faith so why did God make them rest like that it was a form of faith what was the faith that if I'm still you'll still feed me that if I stop I won't die and so I have to trust God will provide for me it was an act of faith to not work and to believe God will work for me and it was an act of faith saying you made creation you know how it works so I submit to your rules I'm not gonna try to use me in a way you didn't design I'm gonna use me the way you design I was at a watch store with some friends the other day right Ben are you watch guy I said no they said why not I said because I've broken three in the last year so I just decided to stop and they were like how do you keep breaking watches and I said I don't really know but clearly I'm doing something wrong because I'm not using them right so I'm breaking them use some not in accordance to its design it's not going to function well you use it the way it's designed it has longevity in efficiency and so we have to stop and say you know what God you know how the world works so I trust you right resting was an act of faith I was thinking about it today is we're getting kids ready for back to school I don't know if you've ever seen a parent fuss over a kid getting dressed have you put your shirt on where your sucks do you have underwear on run back upstairs are those client pants clean why are they doing that why all that fussing about someone getting dressed your roommates do that when you come downstairs hey wear your shoes wear your shoes buddy like do they do that no why because they have confidence you're gonna figure out how to get dressed why do you nitpick the kid because you don't trust that they can do this and gods saying if you keep working seven days and never stop it's cuz you don't trust me you don't trust it I know how you work you don't trust it I can provide for you you don't trust me rest is an act of faith I believe you made me I believe you made me to work a certain way so I'm gonna trust you rest is woven into the rhythm of creation right it is you think about it with drums Thomas was playing earlier right if all he did was just it's called noise what's rhythm rhythm is the hit and then the not hit which has a name called a rest so if you want good rhythm good rhythm involves rest Thomas is doing a good job when he chooses to hit and when he chooses to stop good rhythm comes with good rest god built it that way you see it you see it some of you have glitchy phones you ever done this and your I can't get it to work wide why is it doing this I can't get this way and you take it to the store what do they say when's the last time you turned it off and you're like I mean you're like can't remember and then I turn it off and turn it back on give it a second and let it reset itself you're built the same way now the interesting thing is they didn't do it God gets frustrated makes it he was like they went out in the seventh day and start trying to collect it and God what are y'all doing like seriously God gets a little frustrated you got to be kidding me and so then God makes it not only a rhythm of creation he makes it a rule as part of his covenant alright ten commandments let's do him in Exodus 20 he says remember the Sabbath day keep it holy six days you shall labor do all your work on the seventh day it's a Sabbath to the Lord your God on it you shall not do any work you or your son or your daughter or your male servant or your female servant or your livestock or the sojourn rooms within your gates six days the Lord made heaven and earth and the sea and all that's in them he rested on the seventh therefore the Lord blessed the Sabbath day and made it holy he tells them I am commanding you now take a day off he tells them later stop working or I'll kill you and then in Ezekiel say he never killed him because he didn't want to defame his name but we can kill ourselves just fine right by not doing that but he makes Sabbath not just a rhythm of creation he makes it a rule in his covenant to his special people he says I'm making a rule you guys have to rest you guys have to stop I'm making it a part of me and what's interesting is he uses the same words in Genesis this is true of the rhythm and of the rule he says I'm blessing this day and making it holy which is weird I don't know if you caught the weirdness of that what is the word bless mean to bless something is a word of giving I am giving to you life generating power I'm giving to you health generating potential I'm giving to you a gift right the grace that can be disseminated through you that's what it means to bless bless is the word of giving what is the word holy mean or to make holy or to consecrate it's a verb of taking I am taking something out of common circulation if my wife is holy unto me that means you can't have her you can ask other women on a date not mine right I am pulling her out of circulation right if a cup is your coffee mug you consecrate it to you no one else shall drink of it or they suffer your wrath right you say I am taking this out of circular the guests can use those this one belongs to me to make holy is a word of taking so God says of the Sabbath day I'm gonna give by taking I'm gonna add to your life by subtracting I am telling you this is not an ordinary day don't treat it like it's ordinary I'm shutting down what's ordinary why so I can give to you so I'll take care of you some of you it's all information no meditation but it's in meditation you get insight in innovation some of you are good at being fast but you're not good at being efficient and you don't even know what life's about and the reality is we're not good at stopping and so God tells us people I want to bless you by making you stop and so I am going to do that I'm going to give by taking I want to show you you're dependent on me and then I want to show you I will show up and let me tell you something God has been trying to show many of you today you are dependent on him why do we not stop anxiety lack of faith and ego I can do it myself anxiety I don't think God's gonna take care of me and ego so I'll take care of me and God's trying to put faith instead of fear trust me to take care of you and he's trying to take out that ego and lead the humility you can't take care of you and some of you he's been trying to teach you that how let me tell you how by making you tired do you realize you sleep for a third of your life he built the human machine to power down I am the master of my fate I am the captain of my soul oh man let me get some shut-eye and be completely vulnerable independent 1/3 of everyday why to show you here not the captain of your own life how do you want to torture his person real easy way to torture somebody you just don't let him sleep for a couple days give him three days they start seeing things that don't exist they start talking to imaginary creatures you go nuts if you can't sleep did you know that you're dependent that's why God has the Sun go down and the moon come up cuz it's like ok ok master of your ship captain your soul okay alright I'll be here when you get up cuz I don't sleep but I built you to sleep and I built you to show you that you're dependent you're dependent I remember talking to a guy in seminary once and he came up to me I was like how you doing man and he was like well you know this guy and he was like going off on this guy this says this man this person does this my boss does this and this teacher and he starts like cussing and I'm like weird seminary you know and it's just so mad he was like so what would you do better what did you do about this idiot and this guy in this bowl right now I was like whoa I said hey man how much you sleeping right now and he said maybe three hours tonight I was like all right go to bed just go to bed bro but I gotta know that I was like no stop because you're just gonna have to apologize so much you're just winging around hurting people you're like a baby we need to put you to bed I remember when I waited tables people were so rude when I would get to their table and then when I gave them chips they were suddenly nicer it was an interesting thing to watch like grown adult men as a teenager I mean like you're like a baby you're just hungry I'm like you're all like babies we're hungry and tired and we don't yell the same way but we yell and cry why cuz we're dependent we're dependent and God says I'm just trying to let you know you are weak you are small but if you trust me I will take care of you and one of the ways to show him I trust him is by stopping it's to rest right he wove it into creation and he made it a rule as a sign of his covenant that if you want to function well you need to rest I remember for me first time I did a long run a buddy of mine was trying to get me into running and there was this three mile course and we ran this whole three mile course he's like you feelin good I said yeah I'm feeling good he's like you want to do it again said yeah let's do it again he's looking he's like do you need to stop for a second I was like no cuz in my mind I was like let's just hurry up and get it done he's like no we can't stop and get some water I said no let's get it done he was like no no stop stop running he said drink some water never we drank some water and I suddenly like body temperature went down I felt like some strength my muscles like you feel better yeah he said good this stopping is gonna make you do better efficiency requires periodic maintenance right it just does I went ahead and ran a marathon that year and about mile 24 I had all these straws that were helping me drink and I dropped them all and I thought well then I'll just run the rest of the race without drinking I really thought that and about mile 25 I remember my sister hit that runner's high we're running together she was like man we're gonna make it do you realize how much God loves us like start getting real theological issues like he's just carrying us and I remember when she said he's carrying us I said he's carrying you I think he forgot about me and I didn't fall on my face I fell straight down I like literally like twisted and slumped over right in front of an aid station and so literally I didn't get to fully collapse and this guy's arms like winter under mine I was like hmm it kind of led me off they let me finish the race but it took an hour for them to get fluids and me and me recover ruin my time if I would have stopped for two minutes and drank water I would have saved an hour at that aid station some of you you try to rush rush rush rush rush rush rush and you've just made yourself inefficient it's like driving a car and never changing the oil you can't change the oil while you're driving it but that pit stop will make you go further right but if you never stop you'll burn out the car you won't make it near where you're supposed to God's wove that into the rhythm and he made it a rule for his people now why did he make it a rule for them well this is something kind of interesting if I can nerd out for a second he tells him in Exodus 31 verse 13 he says speak to the people of Israel and say above all keep my Sabbath's it's a sign between me and you throughout all generations that you may know that I the LORD sanctify you and then he tells him in verse 17 it's a sign forever between me and the people of Israel that in six days the Lord made heaven and earth and on the seventh day he rested and was refreshed he said so it's a picture of what I did in creation is what I want to do for you but then he says it's a sign what does a sign do signs pointed things they want you to see right it's not complex that's what signs do what's it a sign of well he tells him later in Deuteronomy 5 verse 15 you shall remember you were a slave in the land of Egypt and the Lord your God brought you out of there with a mighty hand and an outstretched arm therefore the Lord your God commanded you to keep the Sabbath's that day what does that mean what he said is just now there's two reasons I want you to teach it it's a rhythm of creation to build faith and it's a sign of the Covenant because it shows Redemption keep the Sabbath because I'm the one who saved you and he makes him think about what we talked about two weeks ago do you remember when you walked up to that sea without a boat and do you remember when Pharaoh's army came charging down and you look at yourself and you it I don't have I don't have anything and y'all start its cry to Moses and you all became emotional cripples folded like a lawn chair and then I parted that seat and led you through and Moses told you stand there and see the salvation of the Lord you can't do a thing but watch me rescue you he says do you remember that every time you Sabbath I want you to remember that Sabbath's isn't just a part of creation it's a sign of redemption remember that I saved you I sanctified you I redeemed you and you did not work your salvation was not by works it was by my grace I did it and you remember on their way through what did God do beforehand he says death is coming but they slaughtered that innocent lamb and they put the blood of that lamb over their doorposts death passes by but someone innocent will save me and then God parts the waters and turns me loose and God says take a day of rest to remember that rest because you're a creation and rest to remember Redemption that I'm the one who set you free that's how he did it so are we supposed to keep us out of day as a rule are we supposed to do that that's a good question well it's interesting what Jesus does on the Sabbath Jesus got on trouble on the Sabbath because in the Jewish culture Sabbath was a holy day started Friday night and it's Saturday night and you were supposed to do no work Jesus was always getting in trouble that day you see it in all three of the synoptic Gospels in mark chapter two he gets some trouble because he and his disciples were walking through the fields and they were picking heads of grain and they were kind of rubbing the externals off and they were eating the heads of grain and some of the religious leaders got mad at Jesus people said hey that's technically harvesting which is technically working which is technically sabbath breaking and Jesus was like well well well one you made religion an oppressive thing the Sabbath was a gift for my people to restore them so you're messing up what the Sabbath is even about and that was a sufficient argument that was enough to say no you guys are misappropriating what Sabbath is supposed to be but then Jesus does something else and the Son of Man is Lord of the Sabbath then he walks off and they're like what what did he just say and it kind of confused him they're like wait who's the son of man was he saying he's the son of a guy like oh there's a guy in your son okay sure okay so is he saying humanity has some power over the Sabbath I'm not sure how I feel about that or is he saying son of man like the title from the Book of Daniel the prophecy about one like a son of man who will sit on the throne on high in heaven with God to receive all power and glory and honor was he saying he was that surely he wasn't saying that next day they go see him he's got a guy with a withered hand and Jesus says is it right to heal on the Sabbath all the religious leaders from the back don't you he's like the Sabbath is a commemoration of when God set you free Shido not set this guy free healed and they were like Gospel of John he sees a guy can't walk it's on the Sabbath Jesus said should I heal this guy not walking don't do it man he's like hey Jesus God setting people free that's what the sabbath commemorates i'm sitting this guy free get up and walk and the guy got up they were super mad at him and jesus explained to them he says my father is working until now so I'm working this was why the Jews were seeking all the more to kill him because not only was he breaking the Sabbath but he was calling God his own father making himself equal with God they're like no no no he meant something else what he was saying is the Sabbath was a sign pointing at him he said God's rest day is his day God's the day that y'all rest cuz I'm working gods today you can't save you but I can he just claimed a status we can't let him claim they got real mad at him about that and so on the day of atonement which the Old Testament called the ultimate Sabbath day no one in the community worked the priest would sacrifice a lamb would take that blood would put it over the Ten Commandments which included Sabbath breaking and saying the blood of an innocent one will cover all of our brokenness and set us free it's basically a reenactment of the Exodus journey once a year the Jewish people would do that to remember God has set us free an innocent one made a covenant with us to make us right before God Jesus shows up in Jerusalem the holy city on the day of atonement on the ultimate Sabbath day of all south of days he holds up the cup at the Sabbath dinner cuz that's what you do at Sabbath you'd hang out with your friends all day and chill God wasn't just a horrible leader he was trying to get you to have a party and relax a little bit and so at the party he holds up a glass of wine and says this blood is the Covenant of my blood that will pour out for many and then he holds up the bread and he was supposed to say this is like the manna from the desert he says this is my body which is about to break for you he takes all that imagery and says all those signs pointed me Sabbath was meant to show you I'm weak God has to save me I'm enslaved God has to break my chains I am guilty someone else must pay my debt I am not worthy but an innocent we'll take my place and Jesus yeah that's me I am the son of man I am the lord of the Sabbath and when they arrested him they asked him are you really the Anointed One and he quoted Daniel you will see the Son of Man on high in power and that's what God Jesus killed her like that's it we're telling him and on the day of atonement he laid out his life and then he went into that grave on the Sabbath day what did the Jews do on the Sabbath they sat in silence and they waited they waited because he was working and then he rose from the grave and Paul grabs all this language and Colossians 2 he says you were dead in your trespasses and the uncircumcision of your flesh is what Louie talked about last week but God made us alive together with him having forgiven all our transgressions by canceling the record of debt that stood against us with its legal demands he set it aside nailing it to the cross he disarmed the rules and authorities put them to open shame triumphed over them in him therefore let no one pass judgment on you in questions of food or drink or with regard to a festival or new moon or Sabbath these were the shadows of the things to come but the substance belongs to Christ he says all that picture of the Sabbath was to show you the lord of the Sabbath I am still on this day cuz I can't fix me but one is coming who will make me healed I have to rest because I can't save me but I'm gonna trust someone who can I am NOT gonna have anxiety I'm gonna have faith I'm gonna realize I'm dependent because someone's sufficient is going to be the ultimate Sabbath and to bring the ultimate rest Jesus is the lord of the Sabbath and so this day is his day so Paul will go on to say so do we have to keep the Sabbath as a rule no rules over he said because the rule was a sign to point to Christ he said it was a shadow now we have the substance is how Paul says it and they don't cover it in other verses - he'll say in Romans 14 one person esteems one day better than the other others esteem all days alike each one should be fully convinced in his own mind the one who observes a day observes to honor the Lord the one who eats eats in honor of the Lord since he gives thanks to God while the one who abstains abstains an honor to the Lord gives thanks to Lord none of us lives to himself none of us dies to himself if we live we live to the Lord if we die we die to the Lord so whether we live or that we die were the Lord's you know what it was all about him he says so now going forward some of you will set aside a Sabbath day every day to do no work and to sit with the Lord he says that's fine if you do you need to honor the Lord great but as he moved into Gentile cultures they were like are we supposed to observe the Sabbath day if they did in the Old Testament in order to be right before God says no it was a picture that led you to the real it was a picture of my dependence so I could trust in his sufficiency so you don't have to Sabbath in order to be right with God the rule as a sign of the Covenant is over but the rhythm of creation still exists and what do I mean by that what I mean is early on Christians realized you know Saturday was the Sabbath day but we started to celebrate on Sundays why cuz that's the day he rose from the grave and so Jewish Christians would still go to the synagogue on Sabbath day and honor that a day of rest Gentiles why do we have to do that look you don't have to but resting is a pretty good idea but on Sunday let's all to get together and throw a huge party with all our friends and have a blast because jesus is risen and let's not get over that in 2000 years later it's still going strong the party's still happening every Sunday because Jesus is alive and he's bringing us what the writer of Hebrews says to the ultimate seven the ultimate day of rest when all work seasons and we sit with him so the rule of Sabbath is over but there's a rhythm of Sabbath that we should not break right and what do I mean by that I mean you're not gonna get in trouble at this church if you harvest on a Saturday I'm not looking into your harvesting techniques right I'm not looking into it so the rules over but the rhythms still in place and what do I mean by that you're still built to function optimally with rest and if you don't rest you're gonna break you're gonna break it was interesting for me in that hospital room as I went through physical therapy my physical therapist was like I remember the first time I got physical therapy she was working on my back and shilling do you drink a lot of coffee I was like yes like what about my back is telling you that she was like you should drink water how often you drink water I was like I don't know isn't water in coffee I mean basically whenever I drink coffee and she's like okay stop this needs to stop and then I would sit there and I would do these little stretches who's like me and a bunch of 80 year olds you know I was like Ethel how you doing Opel how's the hip all right let's do this ladies okay all work out together and I realized I was having to do it three days a week and the lady was like do you ever stretch know how periodically do you workout not with any kind of rhythm what kind of sleep are you getting not much and basically what was coming out she was gracious enough to not say it to my face is like you have not had a rhythm of maintenance so now you broke and so now I was having to spend hours and hours in physical therapy getting my legs back getting to walk again and what I realized was I bet if you add up the hours it's the same amount so what I told a young guy the other day I was talking to a 20 year old guy who's starting to have back problems and I feel like Jacob Marley you know a Bonita Scrooge's buddy that comes back was like change Ebenezer right I'm like that with 20 year olds I'm like lift with your legs and they never listened and until their late 20s and then they're like you know my back started hurting I'm like I'm sorry you did it you did it and now it's done right but I was looking at a guy and what I told him was I said hey man you're gonna pay for it you either gonna pay for it in slow increments of getting good sleep of exercising or you're gonna wait and get injured and you'll pay for it in hours of surgery and physical therapy but you will pay those hours either proactively through health or reactively through damage you decide I said but what I would encourage you to do is stretch and sleep and take 15 minutes a day to take care of yourself so you don't need 15 months of recovery walking with a cane just my advice take it or leave it and I think for us for the same way if you are not being led periodically by Stillwater's to lie down in green pastures then you are not letting the Lord Shepherd you see that because when the Lord Shepherds you will you have seasons of busyness absolutely there were days where Jesus worked all day and all night and yet then he would often the Bible says go to the wilderness to pray and to sit with his father you and I need to take moments of rest to pull away and to be still he's rigged it that way Isaiah says it this way thus says the Lord in returning and rest you shall be saved in quietness and Trust will be your strength but then he says to them but you were unwilling he's like I want to give you strength how by letting you be quiet and letting you rest letting you be still what I started to do here when I got here is I have this little heart variability monitor I attached it to my ear and it kind of rates the variability in your heart rate to see how focused or distracted you are and it has different colors I won't get into the science but to show how you're doing we'll just talk colors and red is bad yellow or blue is yeah and green is like you're doing good when I start in the morning it's always red I don't know how you wake up in the morning some of you maybe wake up you're a chance to honor Jesus yes just go out and take care of people and serve the poor I usually wake up and I'm like what is this crushing weight oh it's stress there you are and I wake up and I can operate out of all that I put this little monitor on it's always this ominous sounds like a death toll mmm it's red like you does this ever closer no okay let's talk about that and I just start riding out Lord here's what's in my heart here's the hopes here's the fears here's me and I dedicate an hour to the Lord I knew what I found there were so many days where I was like now I got all these calls to make I got all this stuff to do I got all these sermons to write and I remember I realized if I calm down before the Lord I'm actually more efficient in my usage of time at that time that feels like a waste actually makes me more productive with the rest of the time for many of us were working and if you really look at your work hours you just go this is so stressful Instagram we're like this is so stressful what are my friends wearing oh yeah and we really were taking unredeemed of rest all throughout the day in little five-minute increments Thank You Apple for showing us that when you look at your time you know I spent how long on what okay and I think we should be the Masters of our time and saying you know what rather than spend fifteen hours on Facebook let me take one hour to sit before the Lord get into his word let him get into me let him call my heart and then I pray and then I plan and then I proceed and I know as I do that I walk into they more calm I walk into the day more ready I walk in the day more efficient and more productive because I take that moment the moment of rest actually makes me more redemptive in the way I use time you need that too on a daily journey and then as a church let me tell you what we're doing we are trying to put these stops in your life to help you grow spiritually sundays are that pull away sit with us the sabbath day wasn't just alone with your bible it was with the community you'd sit around and talk and so sundays we want you to prioritize coming to church not in order to make god less mad it's because it helps you to be around god's people how many of you have come in with one perspective that was negative and left with a different one that was positive how many of you have come in discouraged in the right conversation changed the course of your day how many you came in here with a blind spot that someone on stage helped you see clearly and helped your life we're meant to gather together like this it's good and then we're gonna launch when we come back from our break community groups what a community groups do they section out time for you to meet with the community and what I love about this fall is we're gonna be studying a whole book of the Bible and here together and then a community groups we're gonna get around and you're gonna land in your community your neighborhood there'll be a crowd maybe of about a hundred people will get you around tables of seven or eight people you'll get to meet your neighbors how many problems in your life would have subsided if you actually know a neighbor right it's interesting we did block parties to summer and I had so many of you come up to me going women's has ever happened this is amazing I just met people I'm if people live here we live in the same building can you believe it I'm like yeah this is what humanity is like usually done always it's something we've lost in the culture pausing to commune with people so we're gonna create community groups for you to meet people and we want you to prioritize that meet people sit around we'll discuss the Bible together and we'll do it every other month so two meetings a month I think you can handle then we've have something coming out of that we call fight clubs fight clubs not a Content vehicle it's not a small groups got a Bible study but it's you getting together with maybe two other friends a group of three or maybe it's three couples and guys and girls and y'all have a little dinner party and then split up and discuss and pray so you're gonna get content from the Word of God on a Sunday content through community groups and then if fight clubs is not content it's where you process it's where you sit to get inside how am i doing on this what is stressing me I need to pray about this I worry about that it's where you get around with some people who love you and I'll pray with you and you'll get to sign up for fight clubs our design our hope is that they would meet twice a month you got community groups twice a month fight clubs twice a month little rhythms of breaks and the busyness of day to sit around the Word of God sit around the people of God get into it together and then we're gonna have a devotional book next fall - that ties into the Sunday Sermons and community groups we're just synergize in your life ma'am some of your like how do I get closer to life we got you but you decide where you spend your time and if you're too busy to read the eternal Word of God because you're too busy reading the words from some guy that's here today and gone tomorrow I don't think that's particularly in efficient use of your time but we're gonna get you a devotional book so daily you can sit with the Lord weekly you can sit with the people of God weekly income worship with God scheduling in these breaks to rest now as staff we decided to take two Sundays off once a year you don't have to do that there's no rule actually I don't know any other church that does it a lot of people when I say that they're like your church is gonna take soon - two Sundays off two Sundays where you don't meet you're gonna lose momentum people will stop coming to your church the visit you're not there and so we figured out there's no go somewhere else and you lose somebody and there's all this fear like if you don't keep meeting everything with clubs you'll die your little kingdom Oh failed I'm like whoa I'm gonna meet building the church with faith not fear I'm gonna trust that the Lord builds his church and so yeah we can't keep taking random Sundays off that would not be good but our little team of five has been going gangbusters and our team leaders and door holders have been rolling strong we're gonna take two Sundays where we just let them rest reset and then we're gonna roll into the fall stronger than ever and I think that's a good rhythm for us well we always do it that way I don't know will we do it this way next year we may tweak it some but I think it's a good rhythm for us to do to schedule and rest so what does that mean next Sunday does it mean sleep in and prop up Netflix on your stomach and be like someone else teach me ah I hope not I hope what you'll do next Sunday is rest before the Lord so go ahead and sleep in and wake up whenever you wake up and praise Jesus that you woke up and then we're gonna put some sermons from the first days of our launch here on YouTube you can watch him we're gonna launch a whole series and an amazing heartbeat message from our global pastor Louie and a series we did on Jonah that we used to launch the church so if you want to get into more of what we're about it'll be sitting there for you on YouTube you can watch that get a couple friends and go to brunch and then sit around and talk about what God's teaching you put the phones away and just visit with people and get in a rhythm of rest and then in three weeks come back here don't give up coming back to the church or I'll see you and I have a problem but take two Sundays off come back but let's see if we can establish your ISM of rest into our world you know Jacob was gonna be the father of many nations the seed that was gonna bless the whole world was gonna come through him that's what God told him not because anything Jacob had done just because God chose him hey I'm gonna use your family to bless the world Jacob was an insecure little guy and how much does insecurity make us run rapid rabid and it is insecurity he tried to control the blessings of God deceived his dad tricked his brother steel and blessings taken birth rights and how does that work for him he has to run for his life because he alienated every friendship and he ran off and Jacob which means deceiver went and lived for 14 years with a varsity level deceiver tricked him he worked hard and he stole his wages he got in this death loop of you know what this is not working well and in that process Jacob finally got away from that deceiver and wandered out into the desert and there when he finally got a moment of stillness he laid down on a stone and he realized all my frantic pace has not advanced to me much in life and he was scared and in that moment of fear God came to him and Jacob grabbed him and you can read it in Genesis he began to wrestle with God God I want you to bless me God I want you to bless me the crazy thing is God already had and so God as Jacob begged for him to bless him God said what's your name he said my name is Jacob means deceiver God says no no I'm changing your name your name is Israel this one who struggles with God you do your wrestling with me and then God touched his hip and knocked it out of place you owe me to bless you okay yeah just talk to him so he walked with a cane the rest of his life but he walked with his cane and watched 12 sons be born 12 nations come from Jesus Christ son of God it's gonna come to that lineage he was trying to force the blessing of God it wasn't working but when he got out in the stillness with God God blessed him and then God slowed him down does that mean God's gonna break your back or take your hip out no but as I looked at me I go God's done that for me now if I don't pause and rest I start to stiffen up like an old man I look in the corner and see my cane that I used to walk with and I'm like I'm not going back to you so what do I do I slow down it reminds me to pause and rest the kink in my step shows me what has always been true I am dependent and he is sufficient so I come with him with faith and he brings Redemption and he's going to take care of me and then lead me safely home you can trust him today you

Channel: Passion City Church DC

Views: 20,686

Rating: 4.9341865 out of 5

Keywords: passion city church, passion church, passion city church worship, passion city, city church, passion, passion city church sermons, Rest, Ben Stuart, Sabbath, How to rest, rest, stop, remember, Washington D.C., D.C. Church

Id: pT7T5LFDaI8

Length: 45min 47sec (2747 seconds)

Published: Tue Aug 20 2019