Level Up Your Rest with Sabbath

It seems like our world is tired. I'm guessing you are. As we go into a busy summer, there's never been a better time to understand God's plan for our rest and restoration--Sabbath.

Transcript

INTRO – BEING TIRED

I’m tired. And I’m guessing you are too.

I love my job, but I’m tired. I’ve long said that pastoring is the hardest job I’ve ever had. And then, we all went into a global pandemic, and my hard job got crazy. Then, we decided to launch a second campus, and my hard job got even more complicated. And to make matters worse, the pandemic is over and things are back to normal, but I don’t feel back to normal.

And now I stand here today and I’m tired.

And I’m guessing you are too. Maybe your job is harder because you have to do the same amount of work with fewer co-workers. Maybe you’re tired dealing with family drama and people with shorter fuses, including yourself. Or you’re just tired all the time and you’re not quite sure why.

THINGS WE DO TO REST

There are a lot of things we do in an attempt to “rest.”

• Binge-watching Netflix

• Shopping

• Eating, treat yo self

• Taking some “me-time” in the name of self-care

The problem with these is that, while they can sometimes be restful, they are rarely restorative. This is because they are usually forms of self-soothing rather than things that actually bring life to your body and soul.

They’re the fast food of rest. They feel good in the moment but don’t nourish you.

Sometimes, we mistake what is enjoyable for what is restful and restorative. Let me give you an example. I take Mondays off since I work weekends. Lately, I’ve just wanted to do nothing—sit on the couch and alternate between eat, sleep, Netflix. Rinse and repeat. That’s sounds like a great day. That might be enjoyable, but it’s not restorative.

When I’m not trying to self-sooth, I try to exercise on my day off. That seems counter-intuitive. Swimming for an hour for going out for a run isn’t restful. In fact, it’s exhausting. It’s not even really enjoyable, but it’s restorative.

• It strengthens my body.

• I always feel better afterwards, even if I’m sore.

• I’m proud of myself.

Can you say that about binging four hours of Netflix?

GOD’S ANSWER TO REST: SABBATH

We often get rest wrong, but God has a strategy for rest that is way better that anything we can come up with. [2] It’s called Sabbath.

If you’ve been attending church as an adult, then you’ve probably heard plenty about Sabbath. You might have even heard of some Hmong pastors who get very legalistic about the Sabbath. Or you’ve heard other pastors say that it doesn’t apply to us because we live under the new covenant of Jesus.

So, today, I’m hoping to clarify and simplify Sabbath into something that you can actually practice and receive true rest and restoration from.

I want to start with a great Bible Project video talking about Sabbath in the context of God’s whole story of creation, fall, and redemption. Here it is.

About five years ago, I heard an approach to Sabbath that changed the way I saw it. It finally cut through the clutter, simplifying it in a way that I could remember and even practice it (sometimes).

It was from Pete Scazzero and his book Emotionally Healthy Spirituality. And I’m going to share it with you today.

FOUR PRACTICES OF BIBLICAL SABBATH

The Bible talks about four practices that make up a Sabbath. These are just as counter-cultural today as they were 4,000 years ago when God introduced the idea of Sabbath to the Israelites.

Stop. Rest. Delight. Contemplate.

These are what differentiates a day off of rest and a Sabbath of restoration.

1. Stop

The first command of Sabbath is stop. Everyone, say “STOP.” Sabbath is first and foremost a day of stopping. In fact, the very word Sabbath means, “to cease, to stop working.” This means stopping housework and work-work. That means skip the yardwork and house cleanup, along with checking your email.

God modeled this in the Creation account of Genesis. Here’s what happened on the last day of creation:

2 By the seventh day, God had finished the work he had been doing; so on the seventh day he rested from all his work. 3 Then God blessed the seventh day and made it holy, because on it he rested from all the work of creating that he had done. (Genesis 2:1-3)

He stopped creating on the seventh day.

Then, God commanded it in the fourth commandment.

8 “Remember the Sabbath day by keeping it holy. 9 Six days you shall labor and do all your work, 10 but the seventh day is a sabbath to the LORD your God. On it you shall not do any work, neither you, nor your son or daughter, nor your male or female servant, nor your animals, nor any foreigner residing in your towns. 11 For in six days the LORD made the heavens and the earth, the sea, and all that is in them, but he rested on the seventh day. Therefore, the LORD blessed the Sabbath day and made it holy. (Exodus 20:8–11)

Stop your work, and while you’re at it, let your children, servants, foreigners, even your animals stop their work.

The heart of the Sabbath is stopping to surrender to God in trust. We pause our work on Sabbath, secure in the knowledge that God is on the throne and the world will not fall apart if we stop working for a day.

The core spiritual issue in stopping is trust. Do you trust God to take care of you and your commitments if you stop work on a Sabbath?

I can’t tell you the number of times on a Monday Sabbath, where I’ve had to ask myself: Do I really trust God enough that the church work will get done or the yard work will get done. Sometimes, I say yes, and I put down my phone, step away from the computer. And other times, I ashamedly admit that I don’t trust God enough to stop.

Sabbath is stop. Everyone, say “STOP.”

2. Rest

Once we stop, the Sabbath calls us to rest. Everyone, say “REST.”

God rested, why shouldn’t we? After six days of creating, well, everything, God rested. The all-powerful God of the universe rested. Just let that sink in.

We often get rest wrong because we confuse simply not working with rest. (Take Greg, the couch potato.) But rest is so much more than simply not working.

Last week, 6 of us leaders were at the C&MA national conference in Spokane, Washington. I ran into our District Superintendent, Dan Scarrow, and he asked about RiverLife. He’s a big fan of us. Then he asked me how I was doing. I decided to be vulnerable and answer honestly—“I’m really tired.” I told him a bit more, and then he asked a question that pierced my heart—“How are you at restoring?”

That is the core of Sabbath rest – restoration. Sabbath rest isn’t just sleep, and it’s definitely not just the absence of work. It’s anything that restores you.

So, the next morning, Pang Foua had a meeting, and I didn’t. I sat in bed and started watching TV. But then I thought about taking a walk. Both would be restful, but only one would be restorative. I went for an hour walk.

Stopping and resting does two critical spiritual things:

• You embrace your limits. You recognize that God is God, and you are not.

• In doing so, you respect your humanity and the image of God in you.

Sabbath is rest. Everyone, say “REST.”

3. Delight

A third component of Sabbath is delight. Everyone, say “DELIGHT.”

God looked at all he had created and said it was “very good.” God delighted over his creation.

When was the last time you delighted in something? For me, it was this week. It was the new Muppets Mayhem TV show… because, well, I’m an overgrown child. In describing the show to Kong and Tommy, I said, “It was absolutely delightful.” But that phrase caught me off-guard because I don’t use it much.

But delight is something essential to the idea of Sabbath. Here’s how Pete Scazzero describes it:

“On Sabbaths we are called to enjoy and delight in creation and its gifts. We are to slow down and pay attention to our food, smelling and tasting its riches. We are to take the time to see the beauty of a tree, a leaf, a flower, the sky that has been created with great care by our God. He has given us the ability to see, hear, taste, smell, and touch, that we might feast with our senses on the miraculousness of life.”

What do you delight in? Is it nature? Good friends? Sports? It’s different for every person. There’s no hard-and-fast rule here. What’s delightful for one person could be agony for another.

For example, I love to cook. So, when I’m Sabbathing well, I make a point of cooking something fun. But my wife, Pang Foua, hates cooking. It would be a terrible Sabbath activity for her because she doesn’t delight in it. But I do.

Sabbath is delight. Everyone, say “DELIGHT.”

4. Contemplate

The quality of Sabbath is, contemplate; in particular, it’s the contemplation of God. Everyone, say “CONTEMPLATE.”

The most repeated phrase about the Sabbath is “holy to the Lord.” Pondering the love of God has always been core to the Sabbath.

That’s why church is held on Sunday, the traditional (but not required) day of Sabbath. Hopefully, church is a life-giving experience that helps you contemplate God today and throughout the week.

• Singing worship songs helps you contemplate.

• Reciting ancient prayers helps you contemplate.

• Hearing God’s Word explained helps you contemplate (or fall asleep, which is rest, so you win either way).

To contemplate means to intentionally focus your attention on the love of God and the many ways it plays out in the world around you. Yes, it can be studying Scripture or listening to your favorite worship playlist. But it can also be seeing the image of God in another person or being moved to tears at the blessing of your child or even relishing every bite of lunch as a gift from God.

Sabbath is delight. Everyone, say “DELIGHT.”

CLOSING

Stop. Rest. Delight. Contemplate. Everyone, say “Stop. Rest. Delight. Contemplate.”

When I first heard these four characteristics of Sabbath, I immediately wrote them into a Note file on my phone. To this day, I still refer back to it when I’m thinking about my Sabbath day. I want you to do that right now.

I want to close with a analogy from Pete Scazzero that I think that we Minnesotans can understand.

“Sabbath is like receiving the gift of a heavy snow day every week. Stores are closed. Roads are impassable. Suddenly you have the gift of a day to do whatever you want. You don’t have any obligations, pressures, or responsibilities. You have permission to play, be with friends, take a nap, read a good book. Few of us would give ourselves a “no obligation day” very often. God gives you one—every seventh day.”

Or, in shortened form, “Sabbath is a day without shoulds.” This summer, once a week, give yourself a day without shoulds where you stop, rest, delight, and contemplate.

You need it. I know I do.