PSP 42 | Rediscovering Sabbath - Spiritual Disciplines Series

In this episode of the Pursue Reality Podcast, Pastor Lindsey sits down with Pastors Joe and Joel to explore the gift of Sabbath. Together they unpack why Sabbath is more than just a day off—it’s an invitation to stop, rest, delight, and trust God in a culture of constant busyness. The conversation dives into biblical foundations, personal stories, and practical ways to rediscover Sabbath as a life-giving rhythm that brings freedom, joy, and deeper intimacy with God.

Mentioned in this Episode:
Book:
Common Prayer Pocket Edition - Shane Claiborne & Jonathan Wilson-Hartgrove
(Final prayer that was read was taken from this book of prayer)

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Transcript

Speaker 1 00:00:10  You're listening to the new reality podcast from Reality Church. Each episode is a conversation about what it means to be real people pursuing a better reality in Jesus.

Speaker 2 00:00:24  Hey everyone, this is Pastor Lindsay. Before we get started on this episode, we just wanted to let you know that we had a few technical issues, so the quality is not as great as we would have liked it to be, but the content was so valuable. We think you're still really going to enjoy the conversation, so enjoy the episode. Welcome to the Pursue Reality podcast in our series on spiritual disciplines. Or as we like to say, spiritual practices, just because it feels less, discipline. Discipline ish. Yeah. It feels like this feels a little nicer. and we've been talking. We're in a series as a church called convergence, where we've been talking about spiritual gifts and spiritual disciplines and just the Spirit's power and presence working in our lives and wanting as a church, everybody, to just grow in spiritual disciplines or practices, not because we're trying to earn God's favor or grace, but because we love him and we want to become more like him, and we want to open ourselves to his presence and the reality of who he is in our life.

Speaker 2 00:01:29  And the practice that we're going to talk about today is Sabbath. Dun dun dun dun dun.

Speaker 3 00:01:37  The first one, the one that we're the best at in our culture.

Speaker 2 00:01:41  Yeah. So everyone listening, we're all feeling a little insecure right now as we enter into this, this recording, because we feel like we're we do well at times, but aware that we don't always do it well at times. maybe feeling that a little bit more. but as we started, I wanted to talk about what is Sabbath beyond just something that's mentioned in the Ten Commandments. I love Richard Foster. We talk about him a lot because spiritual disciplines are kind of his thing. And he wrote a book on Sabbath called Streams of Living Water, and he describes Sabbath as God's gift of rest, which right there I love that that Sabbath is not just a discipline, it's actually a gift that he's giving to us. And it is a discipline of ceasing from work and productivity to trust God's provision. So it's a discipline. That's the discipline part, ceasing from work and productivity to trust God's provision.

Speaker 2 00:02:42  but it's an invitation to delight in God, creation and relationships, not just delighting in the work that we do. and so I love that ceasing from work and labor, which are good things, but it is one day a week, a 24 hour period. When we talk about Sabbath, we're talking a 24 hour period in our week. We're we're ceasing from that in order to respond to God's invitation to delight in him, his creation, relationships, and the good gifts that he's given us. And so when we put it like that, why aren't we all doing it? Good question. Yeah. So why what? When you think about that, is that something? Why? When I talk to people, I wouldn't say that most people actually do this. I do feel it's a little bit of a lost art. Maybe because it's mentioned in the Old Testament quite a lot, although it's mentioned I think about 52 times in the New Testament. wow. Which is yeah, interesting. And can I just point out one more scriptural insight that's so interesting to me, which is obvious.

Speaker 2 00:03:47  It's in the Ten Commandments, along with do not murder, do not steal, and do not commit adultery. Wow. Which is so fascinating to me.

Speaker 3 00:03:55  Like the significance.

Speaker 2 00:03:57  The significance it feels when you read the Ten Commandments, like take a day off like God. You know, that's the wrong list, you know? This is the serious things. And no, he takes it like, really seriously. And first spoke it to a bunch of ex-slaves coming out of Egypt. Yeah. Whoo! They're like work seven days a week, and he's like, I command you to rest like you're in trouble if you don't take a day off. Right. So why why do you think it's not something that we do often? Maybe start with the negative. It doesn't seem to be part of our culture anymore. Maybe part of our lives. why do you think that is?

Speaker 3 00:04:37  Yeah. Thanks, Lindsay, for having me on. My name is Joe Castronovo.

Speaker 2 00:04:40  I'm sorry. I forgot to introduce you guys.

Speaker 2 00:04:44  I got so excited. Yeah. Joel. Say hi.

Speaker 3 00:04:46  Hey. I'm Joel, pastor, the Lancaster City campus, and, Yeah, man, it's great to be on here to have this type of conversation. Really cool. Yeah, I appreciate that question, Lindsay, very much because and I you know, the response that kind of rises up in me about it is I don't think that we like to do very many things that require faith as, as Christians. I mean, if we were to be honest, that it pushes us to do things that actually, tangibly require us to trust God, that it's better for us when we're not physically controlling, making it better. Yeah, it's completely out of our hands for us to rest for 24 hours. I mean, I'm thinking another discipline of tithing, and this isn't a tithing message, but I'm preaching about it this Sunday, so it's on my mind and I'm thinking, you're releasing money to God, and you're trusting that he's doing something with it that's more significant than what you could do on your own.

Speaker 3 00:05:42  We talked about prayer earlier. Prayer is taking time a part of it. Have a conversation with the Lord. You're trusting that something spiritually is happening. That's out of your control. Yeah. So when we think about resting with Sabbath, this is this is the most difficult one for me. How do I stop for 24 hours and trust that in me bringing that day to the Lord? I'm trusting that he's going to do more with my time and my talents, my energy over the next, let's say, six days of the week. Yeah. You know. Yeah. Yeah. It's just it's hard. Joel, I can't imagine. How is this for you? Like you just started a church? Yeah. I mean, I think it's one of those things where, especially in the American culture that we're in where we've kind of come to decide that, you know, there can only be two extremes. It's either like hustle culture and work really hard. And that's that's how you build things in, in the world.

Speaker 3 00:06:39  And yeah, go for it. Go get it after it. And if you're not doing that, then you're doing something wrong. And then the other side is, well, if you aren't doing that, then you must be lazy or or or maybe it's not even necessarily that you're lazy, but man, you're just going after all the the desires and the pleasures of this world. And that's what you're focused on. And we've decided that there's no in-between. But I don't know if there's yeah, I don't even know if it's necessarily an in-between as much as it is a a third way. Another option. There's something else out there. And I think that that thing is rest. It's designed by God. But we oftentimes don't even take a chance to look at what that is and how that how he would do it himself.

Speaker 2 00:07:16  So it, it I think it's so good because we're what you said, Joel, we're in this culture where it's like, go, go, go. And if you're not doing that, you're probably home playing video games, like right doing nothing.

Speaker 2 00:07:27  And then it hits at this place in our hearts where if you're in that go, go, go to stop, like that's a huge amount of trust to be like, I'm just like, what are we doing in that moment? Pastor Joe like stopping and just saying, I don't care, I turning it. Like what's that? What are we trusting him with?

Speaker 3 00:07:51  Yeah. I mean, I think for many of us, we have days scheduled. We have things we like to do on certain days, and we say, okay, how if I took a day of 24 hour period of time and I actually didn't do any of those things, then what do I need to give up so that I can devote this time of rest to the Lord? And again, similar to the other disciplines, what do I what do I what am I willing to give up so that I can trust God at His Word with what he's asking me to do? And so for each of us, it's individual in that.

Speaker 3 00:08:26  But there is a sacrifice to it. And if most things do, it's God says, try it. I mean, there's no harm in trying it. He's not forcing us to do it. Give it a shot, see what happens. I mean, my wife and I are in that process right now, actually.

Speaker 2 00:08:41  Okay. And how has that been for you?

Speaker 3 00:08:43  Yeah. So I'm just coming off a sabbatical, and it's like the easiest time in the world because I'm weak at this. And so this is the first time in my life I'm doing this. Wow. And we.

Speaker 2 00:08:57  First time. So first time in your life you're doing a 24 hour.

Speaker 3 00:09:00  Four hour set aside Sabbath, and you want me to get into what that looks like or.

Speaker 2 00:09:05  Yeah, I would love to hear that.

Speaker 3 00:09:06  So it's, it's actually doing what I need to do so that Joanna and I can take a 24 hour period of time and not do any work. So, it's getting all the chores done. So for us, it's Friday evening through Saturday evening and it's getting everything done around the house, getting our meals prepped for the next day.

Speaker 3 00:09:29  planning what we, if we want to do anything and that's joyful for us or is bringing us pleasure is the way we're looking at it, and bringing God into those moments together is what it currently looks like for us. And, like we practiced this past weekend and there was some different things going on that were on my mind. And and it was hard. It was work waiting for me when that 6:00 hit and Saturday evening. but it was it's been one of the most beautiful experiences for, for us. And now it's only been twice. You guys don't know. I know, I hear you.

Speaker 2 00:10:03  You've got it, master.

Speaker 3 00:10:04  You can ask me this in six months and see what I say.

Speaker 2 00:10:06  But yeah, that's really good.

Speaker 3 00:10:08  Yeah. Julia and I felt really lucky that when we for a few months in, just a few months into coming to reality church that we got involved in a small group that was doing the John Mark comer, discipline, you know, study of, of Sabbath.

Speaker 3 00:10:28  And one of the things that he recommends in that study is to, you know, just make it very intentional and to do things that even seem a little, like, almost a little weird. And one of the things that he mentioned in there that at first I said, well, that's so weird. We're not going to do that, Julia. And, he says to, to light this light, the light a candle at the beginning of your Sabbath. And I don't know, Lindsay, just help us out if there's something spiritual to that or something biblical to that.

Speaker 2 00:10:57  I think it's an ancient Jewish practice. Jewish people do.

Speaker 3 00:11:00  It. It's amazing. And so, you know, Julia and I don't necessarily do that, but we do. We have said, like, let's institute multiple things that make it so like, this is so special in our family. Like, let's create something where it's like, man, we're gonna have this thing almost like, like ringing a bell in a way where it's like, okay, work stops.

Speaker 3 00:11:18  And now we're going to be very intentional about it. So I love that we got lucky to to kind of go into that. And we've been able to develop it as time has gone on. We've gone in through seasons of man, this was we've been good at this. And in times where it's like, man, it's it's a struggle to keep the Sabbath on. You know, ours is on Fridays. That's our day off. And we just really have enjoyed getting really good at that lately, especially with my my my ten month old at home. We've tried to be really intentional about that.

Speaker 2 00:11:45  So and I think that is something very interesting for people, because when you say Sabbath, it sounds kind of mystical. So I think this is very helpful for people. I know most people that teach on Sabbath would say, and let's get into it a little. Practically, it is a day off from errands and paying bills and grocery shopping. Is that what you guys experience? What you would say for your Sabbath? Like you get that done beforehand?

Speaker 3 00:12:11  Yeah, for me it was something that was actually really hard to figure out.

Speaker 3 00:12:15  Like I was saying before, with that balance of like of of saying something that is like, oh, I'm gonna not do any of those errands or I'm not going to take my day off to accomplish the other things outside of my normal 9 to 5 here at the church to, to to get those other things done, to say that I'm not going to do that, I'm just going to rest in the delight of God was like, oh, I don't know. that sounds kind of almost selfish in a way. And so it's taken some time to figure out what that means. And something that I've kind of decided was I wasn't going to get that perfect right away. And so I said, okay, what if we just have a few bad Sabbaths at first, you know, like we just mess it up at first and you have some selfish Sabbath that probably isn't quite what God intends it to look like. And, you know, you start off and you're like, okay, we're just going to do what's fun for us on this day off.

Speaker 3 00:13:04  And then as time went on, we were able to kind of replace the things that felt not so good on those quote unquote Sabbath days with intentional moments of, okay, how can I take the three hours of watching TV to make that one hour of watching some type of show that's connected together as a couple or as a family, and then those other two hours were specifically designated toward, you know, some type of intentional conversation or something like that. So it's almost taking that, like those things that feel like sloth and taking them and turning them into something else of intentional time spent with God, the way he designed it to be. So I don't.

Speaker 2 00:13:37  Know. No, I think this is super helpful because what I'm hearing from you is sometimes, like, it's easy to think about, okay, this is what I'm going to cease to do, but then what do we do with that time? And I think both of you are highlighting that a little bit of, because a lot of what we do with our downtime can be, kind of numbing.

Speaker 2 00:14:00  It's not it's not what we see in Scripture that's actually purposely delighting in God, his gifts and the relationships he's given us. so it doesn't mean I don't hear from you. Let me just clarify, Joel. Like, you're like, spending the whole time, like prayer, walking with Julia and saying, Jesus, we delight in you. What's the difference there for you? Or maybe, Joe, you want to, spending time with God, but it's not numbing. No, because it's like, yeah, I see it from work and I watch a Netflix special for. And we kind of rag on Netflix special, but that's not really what it is that you watch eight episodes of a Netflix special. You're not going to feel that Sabbath delight at the end of that. So how do you think about what you do with the time?

Speaker 3 00:14:50  It's like it's like almost like, you know, asking yourself within that time, is this a time where I am checking in to what God wants for me in my life and my relationships around me? Or is this a time where I'm checking out?

Speaker 2 00:15:02  I love that was really good.

Speaker 3 00:15:03  And if I feel like the discipline, like the what I'm doing, the activity that I'm doing is allowing me to check more into my life, not into work, but to check more into my life and what God wants me to be doing in my life. That's how I know that it's. It's actually truly delighting in what God wants me to do that day. Yeah.

Speaker 2 00:15:20  What would you say, Pastor Joe?

Speaker 3 00:15:21  I think that's great with Joel said, I agree, and I think it's for me, I use the word delight, so there's a deeper delight to like. If you watch eight episodes of Netflix and you kind of you feel awful because you were staring at the screen. That's not. That's not what this is. Yeah, but if you're purposeful, like Joel said, that him and his family are doing it, there's maybe an hour that they'll watch that, but they know there's other things coming as well. It can be very meaningful to your to your soul. So, it's just like when we ask a question like, how do we rest? Like we're talking about that as a staff this morning.

Speaker 3 00:15:50  What's good ways to rest? Sometimes it's hard to know how do you really rest? Because it's not always just sitting on a chair. And it's definitely not always staring at the screen. So I think, as we move into considering Sabbath or practicing it, what would be restful, delightful that, you know, really feeds you, that feeds your soul in a way that God would say, this is good for you. those are the things you want to try to do in, in your, your Sabbath. And, for Joel and I, we've talked about it all summer, and we started practicing it a couple weeks ago. We're not making it very complicated. We're. Yeah, we're making sure we get the work done, the things that don't bring delight and joy and rest us. And then we're headed into this day. that's between her and I. And planned and not planned. includes good food. Yeah. Might include a glass of wine or two. it, could include some other things I won't say in the podcast.

Speaker 3 00:16:49  It's it's things that bring us joy and delight and help us celebrate life and be with the Lord and peace and rest.

Speaker 2 00:16:57  I think it's thing that I'm here for both of you, is it might take a little time to figure that out, because some of us have been working for so long. Just go go, go. Busy schedules. and when we're not doing that, we we don't actually have hobbies that bring us joy or know how to engage those things. So it might take a little time to discover that.

Speaker 3 00:17:20  Yeah. And I was thinking when you guys were talking about the candle before, like we started doing that. And one thing I learned at the transforming Forming community. I see that you and I are part of the with Hayley Barton. Yeah. Is, in liturgical settings. I remember this from growing up. They would light the candle that would represent that the Holy Spirit is there present.

Speaker 2 00:17:39  Yeah.

Speaker 3 00:17:40  And so to me, there's something powerful of okay, this time, like, let's say like Joanne and I were doing it from six on Friday till six on Saturday, getting all the work done, getting all the work done.

Speaker 3 00:17:52  And then you shift, the time hits, the clock is coming, and now we light the candle because now we're in the presence of the Lord. Now we know together we're always in the presence of the Lord. I'm not trying to overdo that, but it's a mindset and a posture of shifting into that place. And and it opens you up to say, okay, this is me and God and and JoEllen and Joy and all those things.

Speaker 2 00:18:19  That's really good. How do you guys do with screens and digital? Do you have specific guidance that you adhere to for yourselves. Do you like? I know some people restrict uses of their phones, or they stay off social media, or they try to limit it or, not check their email, maybe, like, what do you do with that? That, might be helpful.

Speaker 3 00:18:41  Yeah. I mean, for Julia and I, we both feel like it's not too much of a struggle for us related to our screens, per se. But what is a struggle for me particularly is, you know, removing myself from work.

Speaker 3 00:18:57  So, you know, just the simple, intentional steps of saying, okay, on Fridays, you know, I'm not going to check slack. I'm not going to check my email, I'm not going to do that. And that's kind of what we do. and to me, I have a really, you know, easier accountability system, I guess, because, you know, if I do, Julia is like, hey, can you not do that? Right? And she's very kind and gracious about it. But yeah, we've it's taken time. It's it's taken, time to get good at that. It was hard at first and I would say, you know, there's it. There's grace in that. I guess you don't have to be perfect at it right away. Really good. Yeah, it's and it's hard with something like that when your coworkers, especially your lead pastor, isn't very good at it. And so when, when I'm sending you messages in the middle of your Sabbath and it makes it harder and.

Speaker 3 00:19:47  Oh, I'm so sorry. I'm gonna keep working on that. Yeah, but, yeah, we, Joanne and I, we've limited I mean, but that's again, everybody's different with it. we limited a bit. Not completely though. Like, I would limit work completely like I'm off. I'm, I'm that's what I'm going to do. And that's what we've been doing. I'm coming off a sabbatical. So it's easier to say that now. I hope I'm still practicing that, but I'm not going to do any work for 24 hours. That's the biggest boundary for both of us because she has some poles on that too, with with the two hours job.

Speaker 2 00:20:14  Yeah. As we close or kind of bring this to an end. What's one piece of advice or encouragement that you would give to people that are like listening to this and like, I need this in my life. Where should they start? What's one step they could take that could move them towards, this gift that God has given us?

Speaker 3 00:20:36  Yeah.

Speaker 3 00:20:36  I just want to speak directly to young men right now. If you're a young man and you're listening to this as part of our church outside of reality church, if you're a young man and you're struggling to find that in-between of, okay, I need to go, I need to be something, I need to build something I need to make something. I need to hustle so hard and, you know, work 70 plus hours a week for my family because I want to, you know, work hard now so I can relax and play in the future. If you're struggling, find the balance between that and then being lazy and playing Modern Warfare in your basement or Fortnite or whatever it is, I want to let you know that there is another way. There is a third way. As we were talking about in the in the beginning of this podcast, and I want to encourage you just to start small. Take one hour. You don't need to be over religious about it and say, oh my gosh, I need to start with a day.

Speaker 3 00:21:28  You know, you can take one hour and just talk to God about saying, God, what does it look like for me and you to rest together? And I want you to like start by just saying, okay, if God were sitting right next to me right now, actually, what would we go do together that would be restful? And I don't mean like go evangelize in the streets or something like that. I mean, like, what would you go do together? And I would encourage you to go and actually go do that for one hour. Would it be to, I don't know, go on a go on a walk or go throw football with a friend or, I don't know, go, go find your wife and say, hey, let's go on a date tonight or whatever. Go do that thing and bring God along with you as a first step and slowly figure that process out. Really good. That's really good, Joel. Really good. I would just add to that, the, the learning that I things I was able to learn from John Mark Holmer about this were We're very helpful.

Speaker 3 00:22:20  So I needed that picture painted for me. in order to really grasp onto this, that this concept was important for me. so he has a set of podcasts. He has a book on it. You guys know better than me, but I think he has his podcast where it was like four episodes. I'd encourage you.

Speaker 2 00:22:34  To practice seeing the way we can put a link. Yeah, yeah.

Speaker 3 00:22:37  And just, start learning about it and see how God leads you.

Speaker 2 00:22:41  Really good. Yeah. I think getting, starting small, like you said, with an hour or two and build up with that and maybe getting some more input to paint that picture, because for some of us, it's we've never seen it before. And it's new. As we close, I actually want to read a prayer, called to Welcome the Sabbath. It's from an updated Book of Common Prayer, not the traditional one. one. it's called A liturgy for Ordinary Radicals by Zondervan Press. And yeah, I just wanted to encourage you to listen to this.

Speaker 2 00:23:16  If you're listening this podcast, if you're driving. Just take in this beautiful prayer as a welcome to the Sabbath and God's heart. So it prays this Lord of creation create in us a new rhythm of life, composed of hours that sustain rather than stress, of days that deliver rather than destroy, of time that tickles rather than tackles. Lord of Liberation by the rhythm of your truth. Set us free from the bondage and baggage that break us. From the pharaohs and fellows who fail us. From the plans and pursuits that prey upon us. Lord of Resurrection, may we be raised into the rhythm of your new life. Dead to deceitful calendars. Dead to fleeting friend requests. Dead to the empty piece of our accomplishments. To our packed full planners. We bid peace to our over caffeinated consciousness consciousnesses. We say cease to our suffocating selves, Lord grant release. Drowning in a sea of deadlines and death chimes. We rest in you. Our lifeline. By your ever restful grace. Allow us to enter your Sabbath rest.

Speaker 2 00:24:36  As your Sabbath rest enters into us. In the name of our creator, our liberator, our resurrection in life we pray. Amen.

Speaker 1 00:24:49  Thanks for tuning in to the Pursue Reality Podcast. Reality church is a local church in Lancaster County, Pennsylvania. To learn more or get connected, visit us at.