Full Transcript for Sabbath Rest | John Dutton

Um for years on my day off, the uh the day or I had in the week, or the couple of days of I had off a week, though I never kind of called I never called it that, but my but Laura called it a specific name. 00:02:00.480 --> 00:02:04.000 She called it the crash, is the way she called it. 00:02:04.159 --> 00:02:11.599 And so sometimes, and this is this is not the case of every week, but some weeks I'd work somewhere even up to 80 to 90 hours in one week. 00:02:11.759 --> 00:02:18.800 Um, so I was up early, still going late, trying to essentially really trying to prove my worth to make a difference. 00:02:19.039 --> 00:02:23.840 And then one day a week, I would when I wasn't working, my body would just give out. 00:02:24.159 --> 00:02:28.719 Um, and I would have headaches, I would, my body would ache, I'd have very little energy. 00:02:28.800 --> 00:02:31.039 Sometimes I'd be just ill in general. 00:02:31.120 --> 00:02:34.319 Uh and this affected not just my body, but also my character as well. 00:02:34.400 --> 00:02:38.240 I just wasn't patient, I wasn't kind, I wasn't gentle, I wasn't loving. 00:02:38.319 --> 00:02:48.000 Um, so whatever discipline I managed to kind of hold together during the week, um being a leader, being kind, would just over the my rest would just disappear. 00:02:48.080 --> 00:02:53.520 Uh and Laura, who's before I had kids, she just got whatever was left over, really. 00:02:53.840 --> 00:03:06.400 Um, and uh so one day I think she she named something that I probably would never forget, and she wasn't just one time, because you know, I as as people in general, you need to sometimes you need to hear something more than once. 00:03:06.560 --> 00:03:14.560 Um, she said to me, again, something that still rings in my mind, she said, It feels like church gets the best of you and I get the worst of you. 00:03:14.960 --> 00:03:16.879 Which I just heard a gasp. 00:03:17.199 --> 00:03:25.680 Um, and and she was right, she was right, and that sentence, said more than once, undid something in me. 00:03:25.840 --> 00:03:28.479 Um, and I'm sad to say that again she was right. 00:03:28.560 --> 00:03:33.199 Um, but uh but for me, after hearing the first time, I was justified, I justified my actions. 00:03:33.439 --> 00:03:38.159 You know, I told myself I was sacrificing, I was laying my life down, taking up my cross. 00:03:38.400 --> 00:03:53.280 But she revealed to me something else, and um, what I was actually doing was laying down my wife to serve the church instead of laying down my wife, laying down my life for my wife as Christ laid his life down for the church, is what the scripture actually says. 00:03:53.520 --> 00:03:59.360 Um, so I thought I was doing Christ's work, I was actually what I was trying to do was Christ's job. 00:03:59.680 --> 00:04:02.479 So, and this wasn't a one-off season, it was a pattern of things. 00:04:02.560 --> 00:04:05.280 I would kind of get better for a little bit, then kind of fall back into it. 00:04:05.360 --> 00:04:21.199 Um, and basically because I believed the lie that I was unlimited, that I could live without limits, and that when I failed to, and that when I failed to live up to this expectation that I put on myself, this lie that I believed, I would feel the crushing weight of shame, of not feeling enough. 00:04:21.360 --> 00:04:29.120 Because again, I attempted to live up to a vision that I could never achieve, and I was never made for as well. 00:04:29.759 --> 00:04:32.079 And maybe some of you feel the same way. 00:04:32.319 --> 00:04:38.800 You know, maybe it's your job, how you parent, the kind of you know, the guilt that turns up the moment you sit down and do nothing. 00:04:39.040 --> 00:04:45.120 You know, I guess for most of us in this room, we kind of have an understanding of what I might be describing. 00:04:45.680 --> 00:04:49.839 For me, though, underneath those times, um, if I'm honest, was the same thing. 00:04:50.000 --> 00:04:56.079 And this word that I just have learned to kind of grab onto in those times is I was hurried. 00:04:56.480 --> 00:04:59.600 So not just busy, but hurried. 00:04:59.759 --> 00:05:08.240 And that is what that constant internal push to keep going, to keep producing, and then no margin to make it sustainable in my life. 00:05:08.480 --> 00:05:14.720 And so over the years I discovered that this isn't a new problem, this isn't a new phenomenon being busy or um being hurried. 00:05:14.800 --> 00:05:18.720 It's it's not even a kind of a smartphone problem, but it definitely is exacerbated by it for sure. 00:05:18.800 --> 00:05:20.160 But it's a real human problem. 00:05:20.319 --> 00:05:25.519 And there's a definition from a researcher called Maya Friedman, who wrote this before even smartphones existed. 00:05:25.600 --> 00:05:31.360 Um, and I came across and it helped just name something that I think we generally, as people in the modern West, we experience. 00:05:31.519 --> 00:05:32.560 And he calls it this. 00:05:32.639 --> 00:05:35.120 He calls it hurry sickness. 00:05:35.519 --> 00:05:36.879 Hurry sickness. 00:05:37.279 --> 00:05:45.040 And he defines it as this this is a continual struggle to accomplish more and more things in less and less time. 00:05:46.079 --> 00:05:49.360 More and more in less and less. 00:05:49.920 --> 00:05:55.199 Or as a psychologist by the name of Philip Zimbardo, he diagnosed it as well later on, writing about it. 00:05:55.279 --> 00:06:05.600 He says it's a behavior pattern characterized by continual rushing and anxiousness, a malaise in which a person feels chronically short of time. 00:06:07.360 --> 00:06:12.560 I wonder, even in this, I mean, you know, summer is a great time for break where we can stop. 00:06:12.720 --> 00:06:17.279 But I was wondering, but just before that, how many of you felt that way, that sickness that you get from hurry? 00:06:17.680 --> 00:06:18.959 Are you sick with hurry? 00:06:19.040 --> 00:06:22.319 Have this kind of like, have

you crashed into summer? 00:06:24.240 --> 00:06:26.319 Because I generally this is an issue for us. 00:06:26.399 --> 00:06:33.600 And a theologian and a philosopher by the name of Dallas Willard said that hurry is the great enemy to the to the spiritual life. 00:06:33.920 --> 00:06:35.839 Hurry is the great enemy to the spiritual life. 00:06:35.920 --> 00:06:38.560 You could put something else there, put something else in hurry. 00:06:38.639 --> 00:06:41.519 But he calls it the theologian, this incredibly wise man of God. 00:06:41.680 --> 00:06:47.040 If you read his writings, you'll know he says, Hurry is the great enemy to the spiritual life. 00:06:47.360 --> 00:06:49.279 And also, this is in secularism as well. 00:06:49.439 --> 00:07:00.800 A psychologist by the name of Carl Jung, if you've heard of him, incredibly famous psychologist, he said it like this He said, Hurry is not of the devil, hurry is the devil. 00:07:00.959 --> 00:07:16.000 I mean, don't read into his theology on that, but the the devil is be is a tempter, it's a deceiver, the one who promises a greater life, better outcomes, more goodness, but delivers the opposite. 00:07:16.560 --> 00:07:20.000 Hurry is that, it is a deceptive, it deceives us. 00:07:20.240 --> 00:07:24.000 And for us, we've got to think we're not above being deceived, friends. 00:07:24.240 --> 00:07:28.639 You know, we must be humble enough to assume that if we are deceived, we might not know that we are. 00:07:30.000 --> 00:07:34.240 But obviously, most importantly, it's important to look at this from a biblical standpoint as well. 00:07:34.560 --> 00:07:35.759 What does the Bible say about this? 00:07:35.839 --> 00:07:41.279 Because a hurry, I would say, in the scripture is not how God would intend of our lives to be lived. 00:07:41.519 --> 00:07:44.560 And so we have to kind of go back to what were we made for in that sense. 00:07:44.639 --> 00:07:49.360 And Genesis, obviously, is the great place where we where we look at where God had created us. 00:07:49.519 --> 00:08:02.079 And Genesis 1 opens up with God, and God is at work, he's creating the heavens and earth, shaping the sea and the land, filling with the sky and water and ground with living things. 00:08:02.240 --> 00:08:05.839 He's a master craftsman building his masterpiece. 00:08:06.160 --> 00:08:09.120 But by the end of the chapter, his labor is finished. 00:08:09.199 --> 00:08:17.279 And verse 31 says this, it says, And God saw everything that he had made, and behold, he says, it was very good. 00:08:17.600 --> 00:08:20.560 So God surveys his work, his masterpiece. 00:08:20.720 --> 00:08:25.600 And the very good that he says there, very good over his creation, is the meaning of it's full now fully functioning. 00:08:25.680 --> 00:08:30.560 It's at 100%, it's foundationally ready for what the purpose it had been made for. 00:08:31.199 --> 00:08:41.600 And so that's day six that happens, and then chapter two picks up from where chapter one leaves off, and it says, Thus the heavens and the earth were finished. 00:08:41.919 --> 00:08:51.440 And then verse two says, And on the seventh day God finished his work that he had done, and he rested on the seventh day from all his work that he had done. 00:08:51.919 --> 00:09:04.799 And I think often we could kind of brush past that, maybe even a little bit, but like we it's kind of just an amazing fact that when we kind of see here in the scriptures and and because it's almost strange to imagine what that actually looked like, right? 00:09:05.120 --> 00:09:08.240 I mean, the questions abound for me in God's rest. 00:09:08.720 --> 00:09:13.440 Can can God, the infinite mind of God, can they just switch off? 00:09:14.320 --> 00:09:19.679 Did Adam and Eve, because who were created by this point, did they when they prayed, did they just pray and an answer machine just appear? 00:09:19.840 --> 00:09:20.480 You know, boop. 00:09:20.639 --> 00:09:23.440 You know, what happens when you pray and God's resting? 00:09:23.759 --> 00:09:25.840 You know, did the angels whisper on that day? 00:09:26.000 --> 00:09:27.279 Holy, holy, holy. 00:09:27.519 --> 00:09:28.480 Like, what do they do? 00:09:28.639 --> 00:09:29.679 Like, what did it look like? 00:09:29.840 --> 00:09:36.879 It's just profoundly incredible to think about what God, what it's like creation, the universe when God rests. 00:09:37.279 --> 00:09:39.039 But it is there in black and white. 00:09:39.200 --> 00:09:40.639 God rested on the seventh day. 00:09:40.720 --> 00:09:45.840 And the word there rested is the Hebrew word Shavat, which is where we get the word Sabbath from. 00:09:46.480 --> 00:09:49.120 And it doesn't mean recovering from exhaustion. 00:09:49.200 --> 00:09:50.320 That's important to recognize. 00:09:50.480 --> 00:09:55.679 God isn't recovering in that moment, but it means to stop, to cease, is what it means. 00:09:55.919 --> 00:10:00.000 Which raises kind of the obvious question that we already know is again, God doesn't really get tired. 00:10:00.159 --> 00:10:03.120 Isaiah says it, he says, you know, he does not grow weary or faint. 00:10:03.279 --> 00:10:07.519 The psalm says when he watches over, he he neither slumbers nor sleeps. 00:10:07.679 --> 00:10:11.360 So if God has no need of rest, then why does he rest? 00:10:12.000 --> 00:10:13.840 And I think there's a few reasons. 00:10:14.159 --> 00:10:15.919 But I'll start with kind of the main one. 00:10:16.000 --> 00:10:23.840 There's there's loads of reasons you could look at, but the main one is this it says in Exodus 20, it gives us um the the cut the commands of God, the ten commandments it gives us. 00:10:23.919 --> 00:10:36.960 And in the fourth command, and it's the only one that comes with the what and the why, it says this it says, For in six days the Lord made heaven and earth, the sea and all that is all that is in them, and rested on the seventh day. 00:10:37.120 --> 00:10:40.879 Therefore the Lord blessed the

Sabbath day and made it holy. 00:10:41.279 --> 00:10:46.080 So this is a command that God rests so that we are to as well. 00:10:46.720 --> 00:10:52.639 So he rested not because he needs to, but so that his people would have a pattern to follow. 00:10:52.879 --> 00:10:56.799 And what I find fascinating is he, you know, what it just it still seems bizarre, right? 00:10:56.960 --> 00:11:02.080 God could have simply told us to rest, and we would have been bound to do that, to obey him as God. 00:11:02.320 --> 00:11:02.960 But he doesn't. 00:11:03.039 --> 00:11:12.159 He he also kind of gives us an example to follow, which I still find strange that he modeled it at first, because God doesn't do this for everything. 00:11:12.480 --> 00:11:13.600 So we question again. 00:11:13.759 --> 00:11:14.559 I love questions. 00:11:14.720 --> 00:11:18.399 So why why did God do something that he didn't need to do? 00:11:18.960 --> 00:11:19.919 Or did he? 00:11:20.639 --> 00:11:21.679 A couple of reasons. 00:11:21.919 --> 00:11:26.000 So the first reason I think God rests is polemical. 00:11:26.080 --> 00:11:28.879 If you know that word, it means to argue against. 00:11:29.039 --> 00:11:35.519 Um, meaning that this creation account that we have in Genesis was written in a world full of other creation stories at the time. 00:11:35.759 --> 00:11:43.840 And the story of Genesis in many ways is kind of in dialogue with them, or you could probably say in argument with them, um, with those other ancient texts. 00:11:44.080 --> 00:11:53.200 And in almost every one of them, the gods that create humans, um they create the humans as laborers to carry out the work the gods didn't want to keep doing. 00:11:53.519 --> 00:11:55.600 So the gods could rest. 00:11:56.320 --> 00:11:59.360 And Genesis, what that does, it turns it upside down. 00:11:59.600 --> 00:12:07.039 Here, God rests isn't for his own advantage, it's an invitation handed to his people, made in his image. 00:12:07.840 --> 00:12:08.639 That's the difference. 00:12:11.919 --> 00:12:15.519 God rests in Genesis, so humans have permission to do so. 00:12:15.679 --> 00:12:17.039 That's the difference. 00:12:17.279 --> 00:12:21.039 And the other reason, I think, is because again, we are made in his image. 00:12:21.200 --> 00:12:26.000 We're made in God's image, but that gives us infinite value that we're made in the creator's likeness. 00:12:26.080 --> 00:12:29.200 And his rest tells us something about our own design. 00:12:29.360 --> 00:12:35.200 That rest isn't this kind of optional extra bolted onto human life, it's built into what we actually are. 00:12:35.360 --> 00:12:40.080 That God could have made us unlimited like him, but he didn't. 00:12:40.399 --> 00:12:49.120 God doesn't make this, so God, what God does is he brings rest into his own story that we are then bound to rest as well, to ultimately reflect God as well. 00:12:49.279 --> 00:12:50.240 That's the beauty of it. 00:12:50.480 --> 00:12:58.320 God rests,

so it becomes part of our almost innateness to reflect God as humans, part of our responsibility as his image-bearers. 00:12:58.559 --> 00:13:01.120 That's what God does, and that's why God rests. 00:13:01.200 --> 00:13:08.399 When it appears he doesn't really need to or doesn't have to, he does it to give us permission to do so, which I think is amazing. 00:13:09.440 --> 00:13:16.720 Um, and then we just going back to the text, so it back into chapter two, it says this in verse three, it pushes it a little bit further as well. 00:13:17.039 --> 00:13:28.559 That God blessed the seventh day, it says, and made it holy, because on it God rested from all of his work that he had done in creation, and it's fascinating. 00:13:28.720 --> 00:13:33.600 Again, God blesses a day, God blesses a day, which is unusual. 00:13:33.759 --> 00:13:39.200 To ancient hearers of this, when they heard it probably for the first time many eons ago, they would have said, What? 00:13:39.279 --> 00:13:47.120 You can't bless a day, you can't do that, because blessing in the ancient world was kind of almost really kind of set aside for living things. 00:13:47.360 --> 00:13:51.360 God is blessed, people are blessed, animals are blessed, the la a land is blessed. 00:13:51.519 --> 00:13:57.759 But because blessing, what it is, it's it's this idea of carries fruitfulness with it, growth, multiplication. 00:13:58.000 --> 00:14:01.919 So a day can't just multiply, you can't just live in a day and it goes, Whoa, there's just many days. 00:14:02.000 --> 00:14:05.759 Like I think many of us would love more hours added to a day, but that's not how it works. 00:14:06.080 --> 00:14:08.399 So, what does God what does this mean? 00:14:08.639 --> 00:14:10.960 To be blessed like that, to multiply. 00:14:11.200 --> 00:14:13.679 Well, we'll hold on to that question, we're gonna come back to that. 00:14:13.919 --> 00:14:19.120 So, and then also God, what he does is he makes the day holy, he hallows it. 00:14:19.360 --> 00:14:31.519 And that doesn't mean kind of morally pure, as we kind of see holy, um, as we kind of might picture it, but what he does is it sets it apart, it m he marks out, protects it kept for a particular purpose. 00:14:31.679 --> 00:14:42.399 You know, that the idea of holy, you know, that in the ancient in the Old Testament, there was they had the holy temple and the tabernacle, this tent that was almost amongst all these other tents, that was this distinct tent. 00:14:42.639 --> 00:14:45.279 Um, it was this separated tent from all the others. 00:14:45.360 --> 00:14:52.799 And within that distinct tent, they would also have distinct items, holy items, plates and utensils and cups. 00:14:53.039 --> 00:14:55.600 And nobody used would you've just used those for ordinary means. 00:14:55.679 --> 00:14:58.799 No one would have been eating from their breakfast from the holy plate or drinking their coffee. 00:14:58.879 --> 00:14:59.519 No, they had a coffee. 00:14:59.679 --> 00:15:02.480 From the well, they might have done, I don't know, but from the holy cup. 00:15:02.559 --> 00:15:03.440 You wouldn't have done. 00:15:03.679 --> 00:15:13.360 These were distinct, separated sacred items, only used for ritual purposes, for like sacrificial bread and wine and things like that. 00:15:13.679 --> 00:15:18.399 And some of you might have what could be described as holy items to yourself. 00:15:18.480 --> 00:15:22.879 You might have things like wedding china is one that only comes out once a year. 00:15:23.039 --> 00:15:25.600 It's sacred in exactly the same sense. 00:15:25.679 --> 00:15:28.879 It's separated, protected, significant for a particular purpose. 00:15:28.960 --> 00:15:32.799 And that is what God is almost marking, it is actually marking this day out for. 00:15:32.879 --> 00:15:40.399 It's this protected, significant, special day in honoring God's purpose, and it's preserved in that way. 00:15:40.960 --> 00:15:47.200 And so when I was reading, when I'm just again, like in the in the past, just studying and understanding this idea of rest. 00:15:47.279 --> 00:15:52.000 I remember studying this for a long time and thinking, why does God make such a big deal about rest? 00:15:52.480 --> 00:15:55.919 Like he makes a real big deal about this, about the Sabbath. 00:15:56.240 --> 00:16:01.279 And you know, God actually, in many cases, when you read the Old Testament, you're like, wow, God is super serious about this. 00:16:01.440 --> 00:16:08.720 He almost goes after his people when they profane, use the word profane it, when they diminish the significance of this sacred day. 00:16:08.960 --> 00:16:14.799 We see in Jeremiah 17, 27, God speaks to his own people in an incredible serious tone. 00:16:15.039 --> 00:16:26.720 He says, If you do not listen to me to keep the Sabbath day holy, he says, Then I will kindle a fire at Jerusalem's gate, and it shall devour the palaces of Jerusalem, and not, and it shall not be quenched. 00:16:27.039 --> 00:16:28.399 Extremely serious. 00:16:28.639 --> 00:16:43.360 Or we see in the story of Nehemiah that this is after the exile, the people of God come back from exile, and and Nehemiah runs out to these noblemen of the day who are kind of working on the Sabbath, and he says to them, What is this evil thing that you are doing profaning the Sabbath day? 00:16:43.600 --> 00:16:47.519 Did not our God bring all this disaster on us and on this city? 00:16:47.759 --> 00:16:51.279 Now you are bringing more wrath on Israel by profaning the Sabbath. 00:16:52.080 --> 00:17:04.079 Or the biggest one in Numbers, you know, there's a story that a guy just collects sticks on the Sabbath to kindle a fire, and he's doing this to with what this what scholars believe to intentionally break the Sabbath. 00:17:04.400 --> 00:17:11.519 So what God does is he commands Moses and Aaron to stone him in front of all the people to make an example of him. 00:17:11.920 --> 00:17:14.240 So God isn't light-hearted about

this, is he? 00:17:14.319 --> 00:17:18.640 It's just it's it's incredibly serious, and it's important to question why. 00:17:19.440 --> 00:17:23.839 I think it's important to go back to why God first instituted Sabbath in the first place. 00:17:23.920 --> 00:17:25.440 Where did he begin this idea? 00:17:25.519 --> 00:17:30.079 And obviously we see that in the garden, but then when God ultimately speaks to his people, where does he first do that? 00:17:30.160 --> 00:17:51.920 And it's in the story of Exodus that what happens is that God just brings his people out of Egypt through the Red Sea, and for generations they had been slaves, worked to exhaustion, building wealth and status, that for a nation that only saw them as means to an end, dehumanizing them to the realm of tools rather than people. 00:17:53.200 --> 00:18:00.400 Every day of their existence they had been told the same lie, that that your worth is what you produce and nothing more. 00:18:01.279 --> 00:18:02.319 And so fascinating. 00:18:02.400 --> 00:18:06.240 God only gives a few commands before the Ten Commandments are given. 00:18:06.319 --> 00:18:16.160 And I believe there are kind of two that God gives, and before these kind of ten foundational commands, and the first one is listen to the voice of the Lord your God and obey it, which sounds pretty standard, right? 00:18:16.319 --> 00:18:18.559 But the second one he gives is the Sabbath. 00:18:19.039 --> 00:18:21.279 And again, this is before the Ten Commandments are given. 00:18:21.359 --> 00:18:30.160 So God gives these kind of two distinct commands to the people of Israel, and before he gives them any of the other, before he gives them the law, before he gives them the Ten Commandments. 00:18:30.400 --> 00:18:34.079 And later in Deuteronomy, he tells them exactly why. 00:18:35.119 --> 00:18:38.559 He says that remember you were slaves in Egypt, speaking to his people. 00:18:38.640 --> 00:18:44.240 And he said that the Lord your God brought you out there with a mighty hand and an outstretched arm. 00:18:44.480 --> 00:18:49.920 He says, Therefore, the Lord your God has commanded you to observe the Sabbath day. 00:18:51.119 --> 00:18:56.400 He says, Do this because you were slaves, and I rescued you. 00:18:56.640 --> 00:19:03.680 So Sabbath was this gift given to God's people to rewrite what slavery had written into them. 00:19:04.559 --> 00:19:14.720 And God said it in Exodus 3, he said he heard their cry when they were in Israel, when sorry, in Egypt, when they're he said his heart was broken by their suffering, that he had seen their oppression. 00:19:15.119 --> 00:19:31.119 And slavery, when we consider what the experience was like for those in Israel and people that have been enslaved throughout history, it isn't just a role you play or a just a bad job, it's an identity that you will get labelled with and live every day affirming it day after day. 00:19:31.599 --> 00:19:39.279 And so in Egypt, all their worth was measured by what they produced, and it's and that's kind of where their value ended for them. 00:19:39.599 --> 00:19:44.319 But under God delivering them, they were free to live as God had made them to be. 00:19:44.480 --> 00:19:49.359 People made in his image, valuable by their design, not by their output. 00:19:49.759 --> 00:19:58.079 And so it was what it was, what it was like, it was easier to take the people out of Egypt, though, in the in the in the desert, but harder to take Egypt out of the people. 00:19:59.119 --> 00:20:01.119 And that was what Sabbath was for. 00:20:01.279 --> 00:20:12.319 It was this liberation for the recovery of their humanity to rewrite the deep code that was inside their psyche that says your value doesn't come from your production. 00:20:14.480 --> 00:20:17.599 And you know, I think about it when I think about our world today as well. 00:20:17.680 --> 00:20:24.799 I think our world often feels like, and our education culture and our work cultures can often feel a lot more like Egypt than they can do Eden. 00:20:25.680 --> 00:20:32.000 You know, it teaches us quietly and constantly that our value comes from whatever we contribute. 00:20:32.559 --> 00:20:38.480 You know, I'm not on LinkedIn, but I've scrolled on it a few times in my life, and it's a depressing place to be, I'm gonna be honest. 00:20:38.640 --> 00:20:53.200 Um, but you'll see it, you know, people just announcing their exhaustion like a trophy, their busyness like a badge of honor, like they're just almost living their lives as a sense of like, I'm so full, my life is so busy, I'm so needed, I'm so valuable, I'm so wanted. 00:20:54.240 --> 00:21:05.279 And then researchers have actually studied this, and that this kind of humble brag about being busy has become a become a way of telling people again that you matter, that you are worthy, that you are worth something. 00:21:05.680 --> 00:21:15.359 And in 2017 they did a study, and it was in this kind of journal of consumer research, and they found that a hundred years ago, that what signaled success wasn't work, but it was leisure. 00:21:15.680 --> 00:21:32.400 Because when you were wealthy, you didn't need to work, but now it's the opposite that you tell someone you're rushed off your feet, and what they don't hear is stress, they hear status, they hear you're needed, that you're wanted, that they hear you're valuable. 00:21:33.119 --> 00:21:35.599 You know, one writer in the study put it really well. 00:21:35.680 --> 00:21:39.599 He says, We define ourselves on the capacity to keep working all the time. 00:21:40.799 --> 00:21:42.640 And you may see this in yourself. 00:21:42.799 --> 00:21:51.839 Sometimes in your interactions, you have even just whether you talk with other people or what you hear, you know, in in people present their lives like, oh, I'm so full, I'm so busy, I'm so productive. 00:21:51.920 --> 00:21:53.519 And again, it's a badge of honor. 00:21:53.599 --> 00:21:59.279 I've been working flat

out, I have so much to do, I'm so busy, and it's a status symbol. 00:22:00.079 --> 00:22:04.079 Weirdly, you only think about it, overwhelm, busyness, burden. 00:22:04.480 --> 00:22:09.759 It says to this says to the person, I am productive, I am valuable, I am worth something. 00:22:10.319 --> 00:22:14.400 And we've got to question ourselves deep down: what are we doing in those moments? 00:22:14.960 --> 00:22:20.880 Are we being vulnerable, sharing our hearts, wanting a season that is stretching to become more manageable? 00:22:21.119 --> 00:22:25.599 Stress isn't bad by any means, but it can be when it's overwhelming us. 00:22:25.839 --> 00:22:28.240 Are we wanting to share our hearts in those moments? 00:22:28.480 --> 00:22:32.799 Or are we trying to present a picture of value or status to those around us? 00:22:34.319 --> 00:22:39.680 And I've got to be honest as well, like I used to say to people a lot the time, I used to say, I'm busy, I'm so busy. 00:22:39.759 --> 00:22:40.880 And then I had kids. 00:22:41.359 --> 00:22:43.039 And then you know what busy is. 00:22:43.920 --> 00:22:45.200 It is hard. 00:22:47.359 --> 00:22:51.440 But you know, and and having a full life isn't bad. 00:22:51.519 --> 00:23:00.640 You know, God, when God, when thinking on the other side, you know, He talks about it in this, he talks about the Proverbs specifically, he talks about being slothful, and he has some hard words to those who are. 00:23:01.039 --> 00:23:06.559 But giving yourself to kind of work, industry, creativity, there is goodness in the God-created work that He's given us. 00:23:06.640 --> 00:23:12.720 And so God isn't against a full life, but He is against a limitless one, because He hasn't made us that way. 00:23:12.960 --> 00:23:16.720 And so for me, last year, I feel like it's been very much that for me. 00:23:16.799 --> 00:23:22.000 I'm not again not saying this for status, it's been it has been stretching in a sense that I have not found valuable. 00:23:22.079 --> 00:23:29.519 But since learning the truth of this and since seeing God in scripture and seeing how he values rest, I no longer delight in the status of how busy I appear. 00:23:29.680 --> 00:23:32.160 I actually feel rather uncomfortable with it. 00:23:32.640 --> 00:23:38.720 Knowing the cost of a busy life often puts a strain where the life God would actually really intend our lives to be spent. 00:23:38.960 --> 00:23:56.799 So in the push for productivity, what often suffers is our relationships, is our character, is our growth, is our soul, is our true responsibilities and callings God has given us to prayer, to love our neighbor, to make disciples to abide, to grow in wisdom and the knowing of God. 00:23:56.880 --> 00:23:58.559 Those are our primary responsibilities. 00:23:58.640 --> 00:24:03.599 And if we push for productivity, often it's those things that get squeezed to the side. 00:24:04.400 --> 00:24:05.599 You know, we see this in the gospel. 00:24:05.839 --> 00:24:10.880 We see this, Jesus makes a great picture for us in the story of Martha and Mary in Luke 10. 00:24:11.039 --> 00:24:16.720 We see Martha who invites Jesus into her home, you know, and the and why does anyone invite anyone? 00:24:16.799 --> 00:24:20.559 You know, you invite them to just to be with them, to know them, to spend time, enjoy their company. 00:24:20.720 --> 00:24:27.599 Yet when Jesus arrives, it simply says that out of Martha, it says that she was distracted with much serving. 00:24:28.000 --> 00:24:29.839 Distracted with much serving. 00:24:30.079 --> 00:24:36.480 So she was like in the kitchen, you know, putting the pressure, it would appear, on herself to provide a meal for 15 people. 00:24:36.559 --> 00:24:38.960 And again, if you've ever done catering, that's no small work. 00:24:39.039 --> 00:24:39.519 That's nothing. 00:24:39.599 --> 00:24:41.440 It's not, it's not, it's not so easy. 00:24:41.680 --> 00:24:46.240 So there was a pressure of hospitality on her, and she was doing all this work alone. 00:24:46.559 --> 00:24:52.319 And so, and that frustrates her because what happens is her sister, Mary, is in the room with her. 00:24:52.559 --> 00:24:56.960 Ancient kitchens and homes didn't have a separate kitchen, she would have been in the room with her. 00:24:57.200 --> 00:25:02.480 So while she was struggling by herself, her sister is inside, just sitting with her guest. 00:25:03.440 --> 00:25:09.200 And so, in her frustration, she she calls on Jesus, her guest, saying, Jesus, do you not care? 00:25:09.519 --> 00:25:11.680 Mary has left me to serve alone. 00:25:11.759 --> 00:25:13.680 You could tell her to help me. 00:25:14.000 --> 00:25:15.440 But Jesus doesn't. 00:25:15.759 --> 00:25:20.720 He sees her heart and he knows that actually that a failure has happened here, and it's not in Mary. 00:25:20.799 --> 00:25:27.920 The failure is that Martha has failed to understand the nature of her guest, while Mary had not. 00:25:28.799 --> 00:25:36.640 He is not interested in the status and reputation of how good her hospitality is, and he will not judge her on the quality of her reception. 00:25:36.799 --> 00:25:44.880 Actually, what is the case is what he says is it says, Martha, he says to her, you are anxious and troubled about many things, but one thing is necessary. 00:25:45.039 --> 00:25:49.440 It says Mary has chosen the good portion, which she will not be taken away from her. 00:25:50.319 --> 00:25:55.599 Martha is this rushing and picture of distraction while Mary is present and attentive. 00:25:56.319 --> 00:25:58.079 So one thing is necessary, he says. 00:25:58.160 --> 00:26:00.000 And what is that, what is that thing? 00:26:00.160 --> 00:26:02.720 I would say is ultimately what the example Mary is showing us. 00:26:02.799 --> 00:26:05.039 It's our responsiveness to the voice of Jesus. 00:26:05.279 --> 00:26:13.200 And in our busyness, what happens is we squeeze that out from hearing Jesus' voice and being able

to be responsive to it in our own lives. 00:26:14.559 --> 00:26:23.359 And that's what we need to be hearing, is what busyness does, is what hurry does, is it causes us to be people of ill attentiveness, of distraction. 00:26:24.000 --> 00:26:32.559 And actually, what we need to be is people like Mary, who are able, yes, in moments, obviously, be hospitable, isn't that is the is the message of the scriptures. 00:26:32.720 --> 00:26:43.279 Obviously, we see that so many times, but actually, what what what is what is needed in that moment is we need to be Mary at all times, even in our hospitality. 00:26:44.400 --> 00:26:49.440 And so what we see is God cares so deeply about rest because hurry is like that again. 00:26:49.519 --> 00:26:56.640 It's the devil, it deceives, it enslaves, and it erodes our ability to receive and live into the the good life God has for us. 00:26:57.039 --> 00:27:03.599 So God's answer, again, I would argue it today is the same as it was right back then, even in Exodus and in right back at creation. 00:27:03.680 --> 00:27:12.000 It's the Sabbath that we live as six days of work and one day of rest, and it's vitally human and part of what it means to be an image-bearer of God. 00:27:12.319 --> 00:27:15.359 Um and I know theologically we'll kind of like have some questions around that. 00:27:15.440 --> 00:27:16.559 So, like, what does that mean for us? 00:27:16.720 --> 00:27:19.920 Are we now never to able to do work on Saturday or Sunday? 00:27:20.000 --> 00:27:23.279 Or um, what does that look like if I you know I kind of think about your life? 00:27:23.359 --> 00:27:25.039 Oh, you know, I was on a walk and I picked up a stick. 00:27:25.200 --> 00:27:29.599 Does that mean God's gonna like just you know smite me at any moment? 00:27:30.319 --> 00:27:30.640 No. 00:27:31.200 --> 00:27:39.599 Um, under the old covenant, the Sabbath was part of the Mosaic law that governed a nation, and we are no longer in that nation, we're no longer under a nation, it's not the same system. 00:27:39.759 --> 00:27:50.000 So what happens is it talks about, Paul talks about, he says actually, that the law was only ever a shadow that is pointing forward to something fuller to come, and that was Christ. 00:27:50.559 --> 00:28:02.720 So when Christ comes, dies, rises, and ascends, he doesn't just add to a law, he fulfills it, he becomes what the necessary for the law itself, which means the Mosaic law of the Old Testament is no it no longer governs us. 00:28:02.960 --> 00:28:05.440 And that doesn't mean there's nothing to govern us now. 00:28:05.680 --> 00:28:11.200 Under the new covenant, we have the law that is not written in stone but is written by the Spirit on our hearts, is what it talks about. 00:28:11.359 --> 00:28:15.119 But also, Paul says that we are now under the law of Christ. 00:28:15.279 --> 00:28:23.759 We're no longer under the Mosaic law, we're under a law of Christ, which he says he reveals in the places when in Jesus' teaching

and who Jesus was and what the spirit taught the apostles. 00:28:24.000 --> 00:28:30.480 So the questions we kind of need to be asking at that moment so in this new covenant picture, what does Jesus do with the Sabbath? 00:28:30.960 --> 00:28:34.400 And so, and I think you look through the gospels and you find him often we even heard it. 00:28:34.480 --> 00:28:46.559 I think I heard it this morning, I can't remember where someone mentioned this the Sabbath, I can't remember who it was, but um we hear about Jesus often being criticized for how he, by the Pharisees, lives into the Sabbath. 00:28:46.960 --> 00:28:57.359 And we see in what Jesus wants to, I think Jesus' ultimate statement about the Sabbath in Mark 2 27, he says that the Sabbath was made for man, not man for the Sabbath. 00:28:57.759 --> 00:28:59.279 And that's I think the whole key to this. 00:28:59.359 --> 00:29:04.799 The Sabbath was never meant to be this burden that crushes us, it's a gift given to us by God. 00:29:05.200 --> 00:29:11.920 And if it becomes this kind of weighty thing that we're supposed to carry, I think it misses the whole entire point anyway. 00:29:12.480 --> 00:29:16.480 So, under the new covenant, would it be sin to not keep the Sabbath? 00:29:17.119 --> 00:29:24.799 I well, I wouldn't say so, personally, by what the way I read the scriptures and what I believe scholars would say, but would it be wise to keep the Sabbath? 00:29:25.200 --> 00:29:26.799 Absolutely, it would be. 00:29:27.119 --> 00:29:30.640 Because ask yourself, did God rest seven days? 00:29:31.039 --> 00:29:33.599 Or did God rest on the seventh day, not seven days? 00:29:33.839 --> 00:29:34.480 Yes. 00:29:35.119 --> 00:29:39.359 Did he build that rhythm in specifically to bless and benefit his people? 00:29:39.759 --> 00:29:40.400 Yes. 00:29:41.039 --> 00:29:51.359 Did he do the things that did he do that so that in our bones, when we live this out, and we live out a Sabbath, when we live out in that rhythm, that in we would know that we are never meant to be human doings but human beings? 00:29:51.599 --> 00:29:55.599 Yes, that's the that's why God has given us this gift of the Sabbath. 00:29:56.079 --> 00:30:05.519 So if this is how we are made, then going without rest isn't breaking a rule per se, rather it goes against the very grain of what we were designed for. 00:30:07.039 --> 00:30:16.640 So the question isn't about a specific day, it matters little about what day you cease on, it matters much more what that ceasing, what that rest actually looks like. 00:30:17.680 --> 00:30:26.160 Because for a lot of us, if we're honest, what we call rest isn't moving us towards what I think God would have originally for us as what rest was meant for. 00:30:26.480 --> 00:30:40.880 And what it was meant for, it was meant to restore us, to reconnect us to our own creaturiness, to remind us that we are loved and valued by God, not because of what we can produce, but because of who we already are in Him.

00:30:41.759 --> 00:30:49.119 So look honestly, I think when we consider our days off, when we consider the lives that we lead, what does rest look like for you? 00:30:49.359 --> 00:30:52.400 What are the patterns when you fall into when you cease? 00:30:52.640 --> 00:30:56.480 Because I think it says a lot about our lives when the patterns we fall into. 00:30:56.720 --> 00:31:04.880 Do they cause you to be a more flourishing person or simply are they are they designed to kind of switch you off to so they can switch you back on to be more productive? 00:31:05.599 --> 00:31:07.119 You know, things like we switch off. 00:31:07.200 --> 00:31:11.279 I think there's some things that we do that aren't that we might consider restful but aren't really. 00:31:11.440 --> 00:31:20.160 Things like doom scrolling or binging on streaming platforms, gaming on our phone, PC, tablet, whatever it is, until your headaches, vegging in front of the TV all day. 00:31:20.400 --> 00:31:24.480 None of these are the way I believe God would want us to rest ultimately. 00:31:24.640 --> 00:31:30.640 That's I would say probably in more of the crash example of resting than it is in the actual idea God would have for us. 00:31:30.720 --> 00:31:36.319 That is real, that is, doesn't just detach us from the real world, that connects us to the real world as well. 00:31:36.960 --> 00:31:45.759 And so we must consider what Sabbath is actually for and look at the pattern throughout scripture that where God wants what God has ultimately designed Sabbath for. 00:31:45.920 --> 00:31:49.200 And I think there's a few things, so three things particularly. 00:31:49.440 --> 00:31:52.400 And the first thing Sabbath is for is for delight. 00:31:53.680 --> 00:32:04.160 So that when God rested on the first Sabbath, it wasn't just from exhaustion, he he rested to savor, to almost survey everything that he made and that he enjoyed the work of his hands. 00:32:04.319 --> 00:32:07.839 That was a pattern that he's handed to us as well. 00:32:08.319 --> 00:32:13.200 So for us, you know, me and me and Laura and our family, we've been practicing Sabbaths for a few years now. 00:32:13.359 --> 00:32:17.680 And so in our house, what we do on that day is we mark it out and we have special things that we do. 00:32:17.759 --> 00:32:21.680 And one of the things that we do is a kind of a an activity of delighting. 00:32:21.920 --> 00:32:32.480 It sounds more sounds more ritual than it actually is, but like what we do is we as a family, we haven't done it as much because of the heat, but we what we often do is have pancakes and we have a smorgasbord of spreads. 00:32:32.640 --> 00:32:40.880 And what we do is we we read liturgy and we like have a moment where we just hear from each other's stories of what what has God given us this week. 00:32:40.960 --> 00:32:42.799 What is what are we grateful for this week? 00:32:42.880 --> 00:32:55.119 So we can together almost enter into the delight of each other's lives, so

we can delight together, we can delight on sweet food, but also delight in what God has done and been good to us in the week. 00:32:55.440 --> 00:33:05.119 And so, weekly as part of that day, me and Laura will also have like our date night we'll put into there, and I will try and cook something a bit more nice, so that we can delight in again good food, which is mainly me because I just delight in good food anyway. 00:33:05.200 --> 00:33:07.440 So we take an activity of delights. 00:33:07.680 --> 00:33:09.119 What do you delight about? 00:33:09.279 --> 00:33:10.319 What has God given you? 00:33:10.400 --> 00:33:12.799 What grabs your soul, what fills your heart with his goodness? 00:33:12.960 --> 00:33:14.400 Then put that in your day. 00:33:14.480 --> 00:33:15.839 What do you delight in? 00:33:16.079 --> 00:33:18.079 Fill the day with delight. 00:33:18.880 --> 00:33:24.000 The second thing I think Sabbath is for is ultimately, I think it's most important thing really, is trust. 00:33:24.400 --> 00:33:31.839 You know, we go back to Exodus 16 in Israel in the desert, and God tells them, um, he says, gather twice as much when they're kind of this manner is poured out. 00:33:31.920 --> 00:33:36.160 He says, gather twice as much on the sixth day, because on the seventh day there will be nothing to collect. 00:33:36.400 --> 00:33:37.519 And so this is kind of the thing. 00:33:37.599 --> 00:33:39.920 He's gonna use as an opportunity to do to trust God. 00:33:40.000 --> 00:33:42.400 Don't pick up anything on the seventh day. 00:33:42.720 --> 00:33:45.200 Just trust what you have will be what you need. 00:33:45.279 --> 00:33:49.440 And the if the Israelites throughout their history, they really struggled to practice Sabbath. 00:33:49.759 --> 00:33:52.640 They really struggled to trust. 00:33:52.880 --> 00:34:02.480 Because in an agrarian society, in sorry, in an agrarian society, um, if you didn't work the fields, the animals, the crops, you didn't eat. 00:34:02.799 --> 00:34:10.559 So, and that's why they struggled with trusting God, that he would bless them if they practice and continued on the Sabbath as well. 00:34:10.719 --> 00:34:20.239 And I think the main reason, again, this is the main reason I think Sabbath exists for us at all, that since the garden, I think there's been a pull on every one of our hearts to almost to play God. 00:34:20.400 --> 00:34:25.280 We see that in the garden with Adam and Eve, that they, as they eat of the fruit and take of it, they will be like God. 00:34:25.440 --> 00:34:37.920 To be, and and when we are not resting, I think what we do is we take the opportunity to almost to believe that we're the ones in control, that somewhere underneath everything, that we are the one that holds all the things together. 00:34:38.159 --> 00:34:40.400 So at the moment we actually stop, we cease. 00:34:40.559 --> 00:34:48.639 What we do is we feel it, we feel out of control, we feel like we're letting people down, we feel like we're under something of something in us is almost under threat. 00:34:48.880 --> 00:34:50.079 And that's the point. 00:34:50.159 --> 00:34:58.000 That if stopping genuines you that deeply, it's a signal showing you where are you building your worth. 00:34:58.480 --> 00:35:01.760 So, Sabbath, what it is essentially is becomes this act of resistance. 00:35:01.840 --> 00:35:06.559 It resists the lie that we are God, that we're the ones holding it all together. 00:35:06.719 --> 00:35:09.519 If we stopped, our world would fall apart. 00:35:09.760 --> 00:35:12.320 And you know, that weight was never ours to carry. 00:35:12.400 --> 00:35:14.800 We are limited people with limited capacity. 00:35:15.760 --> 00:35:30.159 So practically what that might mean for you is it might mean on your on a day that you cease switching your phone off, disconnecting from the world that is almost always feels on, that always wants your attention, your eyes, your engagement. 00:35:30.559 --> 00:35:32.480 You know, I know how deeply I need this. 00:35:32.639 --> 00:35:36.000 It may mean, you know, not checking your emails, your messages for a day. 00:35:36.239 --> 00:35:44.480 You know, it's ceasing so that you can start trusting again, and trusting your life back into the hands of the one who always was, we were meant to rest in. 00:35:45.519 --> 00:35:48.559 And the third thing Sabbath is for is communion. 00:35:49.440 --> 00:35:52.800 And I mean don't mean communion in a sense of like the bread and wine communion. 00:35:52.960 --> 00:35:55.519 I mean communion is connection with God and with other people. 00:35:55.679 --> 00:36:01.360 You know, Matthew 11, 28 says, Come to me, all who are weary, and I will give you rest. 00:36:01.920 --> 00:36:07.199 And I think it's important to notice when what what he doesn't say there is, he doesn't say, Come to this practice. 00:36:07.280 --> 00:36:08.960 He says, Come to me. 00:36:10.159 --> 00:36:11.679 And that's that it's important. 00:36:11.760 --> 00:36:13.760 Where do we point our Sabbath at? 00:36:13.920 --> 00:36:15.119 Where do we direct it? 00:36:15.280 --> 00:36:19.920 That rest is ultimately not found in a practice, it's found in a person. 00:36:20.559 --> 00:36:25.760 So communion with God is essential if we are ever going to enter into a Sabbath well. 00:36:26.320 --> 00:36:29.599 And I'll also argue with communion with other people as well. 00:36:29.760 --> 00:36:35.599 You know, think about how you kind of spend your your relationships that you kind of enjoy most of the week. 00:36:35.679 --> 00:36:43.199 You know, most of you, I'd imagine, are at work or at school, and most of the things of your relationships are day-to-day are kind of side-by-side relationships. 00:36:43.280 --> 00:36:47.760 You know, you work on a project together, you're learning together, you're working at the same goal together as a team. 00:36:47.920 --> 00:36:48.639 That's good. 00:36:48.719 --> 00:36:50.400 That's genuinely a good thing.

00:36:50.639 --> 00:36:53.360 But side by side isn't the same as face-to-face. 00:36:53.519 --> 00:36:54.800 And we need both. 00:36:55.039 --> 00:37:01.119 We need unhurried, undistracted time with people that love us and that we can love as well. 00:37:01.679 --> 00:37:05.840 And normal sometimes just not doing anything together, just being together. 00:37:06.159 --> 00:37:16.000 For our family, what we do is we go for a walk every Saturday as much as we can, with no agenda, nothing to achieve, no kind of well, with some degree of direction, otherwise we'd never been anywhere. 00:37:16.159 --> 00:37:19.519 But and we have to, every week, we have to drag Judah out on this walk. 00:37:19.599 --> 00:37:22.480 And he protests every single way, oh, not the walk again. 00:37:22.559 --> 00:37:26.239 But ultimately, the plan is within it, is we would just again, it was like, why do we do this? 00:37:26.400 --> 00:37:27.599 He even questioned us yesterday. 00:37:28.159 --> 00:37:31.760 It was like, we do this because we just want to be together with no agenda. 00:37:31.840 --> 00:37:36.719 And we almost every time we go and we just have a great conversation about something, and we not like we planned that in. 00:37:36.800 --> 00:37:39.599 It was like, okay, how do we plan in the great conversation that we're going to have? 00:37:39.679 --> 00:37:41.039 And which is my kind of drive. 00:37:41.119 --> 00:37:42.079 How do we optimize this? 00:37:42.159 --> 00:37:43.440 Is my kind of problem. 00:37:43.920 --> 00:37:44.880 You can sense that. 00:37:44.960 --> 00:37:51.599 Um, but like um, you know, like we just be together, and just whatever conversation comes out, it just is a beautiful moment. 00:37:51.679 --> 00:37:55.599 So we just don't engineer it, but we just allow it to happen. 00:37:55.840 --> 00:38:01.039 And we need that face-to-face time, not only with our with each other, but also with God too. 00:38:01.199 --> 00:38:09.599 Um, because again, we do we we serve, we ultimately do a lot of things, we do side-by-side relationship with God, but not face-to-face, and we need both. 00:38:09.840 --> 00:38:22.719 And so for me, how I practice that on on my Sabbath day is I just when all the other family are off, just kind of like enjoying their own individual times of rest, whether Reuben's napping, Judah's watching a bit of TV, and Laura's somewhere. 00:38:22.880 --> 00:38:39.119 Um, well, I just I just I take a moment to stop and sit and just put on an album or some music in my by myself with this, not the kind of like anthemic worship songs, but just songs of like poetry that I you have to stop and slow down and listen to. 00:38:39.360 --> 00:38:43.519 And in those moments, I I've I I just I I see the face of God. 00:38:43.599 --> 00:38:44.559 I feel it within myself. 00:38:44.719 --> 00:38:50.480 Just I know I'm close to God because I've just slowed down enough to know that He is present, to know that He is near. 00:38:50.880 --> 00:39:00.320 And so I want to encourage you to do the same, to know that actually that is the blessing that I think God has reserved for the day we rest and the day we cease and the day we stop. 00:39:00.480 --> 00:39:02.800 Again, it doesn't have to be a Saturday, it doesn't have to be a Sunday. 00:39:02.960 --> 00:39:04.639 Throughout church history, it's been both. 00:39:04.800 --> 00:39:07.519 So, like it can be an it could be a weekday for you. 00:39:07.599 --> 00:39:08.639 It doesn't really matter. 00:39:08.880 --> 00:39:11.599 But what it matters more is again, are you doing all these things? 00:39:11.679 --> 00:39:12.320 Are you delighting? 00:39:12.400 --> 00:39:20.159 Are you taking opportunity to trust God to cease that you are not in control of the universe and to also be in communion with him? 00:39:20.320 --> 00:39:29.199 And I think that the the the the blessing that we receive that God has reserved for the ceasing, the harvest is again just God is waiting for us in those moments. 00:39:29.360 --> 00:39:34.480 To when we are unhurried, when we slow down enough to just be present with him. 00:39:34.800 --> 00:39:38.000 That is what God has for us in those days. 00:39:38.880 --> 00:39:53.119 And the vision I want to leave with you is that really is that blessing that in in this world that is always on, always wanting more from us, always telling that you are not doing enough, that the Sabbath is the is the rest that we need. 00:39:53.360 --> 00:40:03.840 That the it's the fact living out in your lives that you can't do anymore to earn God's love, to make yourself more valuable to him because you are already his. 00:40:04.639 --> 00:40:09.920 That you are safe within his plan as his people, under the care of your shepherd. 00:40:13.039 --> 00:40:18.960 And again, friends, this is this is the this is a practice of wisdom straight from the scriptures, part of the design we were made for. 00:40:19.360 --> 00:40:22.320 But it isn't it's not something, it's something that we have to start a journey with. 00:40:22.400 --> 00:40:26.639 It's not something you can just kind of wake up and think, oh, you it rest is something you have to learn. 00:40:26.719 --> 00:40:30.400 And I feel like I've been learning for for a very long time now. 00:40:30.880 --> 00:40:42.400 So for friends, um what I want to leave us with is this is this practice of giving into Sabbath, of resting, leaves you in it less frantic, less anxious, more present, more loving. 00:40:42.480 --> 00:40:46.719 And I think on your days off, but also on every other day too. 00:40:47.440 --> 00:41:02.480 So my heart is that again, that this would again, as we walk away from this place, we would learn to rest in the arms of God, to be still and know that He is God, to rest in the care of our shepherd, to find your worth apart from your output, to be loved and be known by God. 00:41:02.960 --> 00:41:03.599 Amen. 00:41:04.400 --> 00:41:04.719 Amen. 00:41:04.880 --> 00:41:05.760 Let's pray.