WEBVTT 00:00:00.320 --> 00:00:07.679 So there is a practice being communicated in these verses in Exodus 23, 10 through 12. 00:00:08.240 --> 00:00:14.400 It's a practice that basically affects everything we do. 00:00:14.800 --> 00:00:17.039 It's a practice that can affect everything we do. 00:00:17.199 --> 00:00:21.760 It affects how we think about ourselves and how we think about God and how we relate with our family. 00:00:21.920 --> 00:00:26.960 It affects how we react to things, how we react to really good and great things in our life. 00:00:27.199 --> 00:00:31.359 It affects how we react to horrible and difficult things in our lives. 00:00:31.440 --> 00:00:45.920 And when we ignore this practice that God just keeps mentioning in the scriptures, when we ignore this, somehow we become less of who God has proclaimed us to be. 00:00:46.399 --> 00:00:52.399 Not that we become less in actuality, but we become less of who we know ourselves to be. 00:00:52.960 --> 00:00:56.159 Because we're not reminding ourselves of who we already are. 00:00:56.240 --> 00:01:00.320 And so we can easily become frantic, we become anxious, we become fearful. 00:01:00.479 --> 00:01:06.879 But when we embrace this, when we embrace what God's talking about in these verses and where these verses take us, and we'll see where they take us. 00:01:07.200 --> 00:01:13.840 When we embrace this, we begin to see ourselves clearer, we see who God is clear and who God is proclaiming us to be clear. 00:01:14.000 --> 00:01:18.959 It helps us to deal with issues and difficult things and our lives and stuff that comes up. 00:01:19.120 --> 00:01:23.680 And here's what happens is we begin to be able to catch our breaths. 00:01:24.000 --> 00:01:24.560 Begin. 00:01:38.879 --> 00:01:40.719 And here's the practice. 00:01:40.879 --> 00:01:42.640 It's right there in the text. 00:01:43.120 --> 00:01:45.599 Let the land lie fallow. 00:01:45.840 --> 00:01:47.439 That's the practice. 00:01:47.760 --> 00:01:54.560 For us to be able and to be people who begin to let the land lie fallow. 00:01:54.799 --> 00:01:55.599 Here's what that means. 00:01:55.920 --> 00:01:58.400 I'll reread a few verses as we work our way through it. 00:01:58.560 --> 00:02:00.319 Exodus 23, 10 through 11. 00:02:00.640 --> 00:02:21.199 For six years you shall sow your land and gather in its yield, but the seventh year you shall let it rest and lie fallow, that the poor of your people may eat, and what they leave the beasts of the field may eat, you shall do likewise with your vineyard and with your olive orchard. 00:02:21.360 --> 00:02:32.080 So in the ancient world, right, no different than today, imagine how difficult this would have been in an agricultural society to let your land lie fallow for a year. 00:02:32.879 --> 00:02:33.120 Right? 00:02:33.280 --> 00:02:37.520 I mean the temptation would be just like just to keep working the land, just keep working it, keep working it. 00:02:37.599 --> 00:02:47.520 But what God knows is to keep working the land without letting it lie fallow means that the nutrients would never replenish itself and the land could never come back to serve you for the other six. 00:02:47.759 --> 00:02:49.919 And so you see this rhythm develop. 00:02:50.080 --> 00:02:53.039 Six and one, six and one, six and one, six and one. 00:02:54.000 --> 00:02:55.360 I mean, it's just like today. 00:02:55.759 --> 00:02:59.599 I mean, it feels so absurd at times to stop and to rest. 00:03:01.599 --> 00:03:15.759 But unless you stop and rest, there's no replenishing of yourself, and then your heart and your mind and your creativity and your thoughts and your energy can never serve yourself. 00:03:17.599 --> 00:03:24.800 And so we get a practice even for ourselves of six and one, six and one, six and one, six and one. 00:03:25.919 --> 00:03:30.879 And this is what keeps coming up in Exodus as we've been looking at it, as we this practice keeps coming up. 00:03:30.960 --> 00:03:33.919 And these people's story, this is a people's story, right? 00:03:34.000 --> 00:03:40.080 If you've been with us or the 20 sermons or so in Exodus, is that it's a story about liberation. 00:03:40.319 --> 00:03:40.560 Right? 00:03:40.639 --> 00:03:51.120 And it's been a story about people who are in slavery and they've been liberated, and so it's a story about liberation, and then we get this practice of the Sabbath that keeps coming up throughout the text. 00:03:51.280 --> 00:03:55.520 And what God is talking to them about, teaching them about is about a different way of life. 00:03:55.680 --> 00:04:00.800 And it's a reminder for them, a weekly reminder, a yearly reminder. 00:04:01.039 --> 00:04:05.759 It's a reminder that they don't have to be enslaved to production. 00:04:07.360 --> 00:04:09.360 That we are more than producers. 00:04:09.599 --> 00:04:19.439 We are children to a father, we are creatures to a creator, and to forget this identity is to actually forget everything that means anything. 00:04:21.040 --> 00:04:24.079 And then any production you do have will be tainted. 00:04:25.199 --> 00:04:26.720 Alright, so let's think about it this way. 00:04:26.879 --> 00:04:28.959 Sam's gonna come up, Sam's gonna come back up. 00:04:29.040 --> 00:04:33.279 Uh, and he's gonna play a song, and let's just do this. 00:04:33.519 --> 00:04:35.279 First one to recognize the song. 00:04:35.360 --> 00:04:36.639 This is a song everybody knows. 00:04:36.800 --> 00:04:40.959 Everybody knows this song, everybody in this room knows this song. 00:04:41.120 --> 00:04:46.879 He's gonna play this song, and whoever knows it, just yell out the name of the song. 00:04:47.040 --> 00:04:52.720 And uh, because we're such a merit-based church, uh, I have a gift card,$5 Starbucks gift card. 00:04:52.800 --> 00:04:56.879 We want to reward you and your great production uh in this game. 00:04:56.959 --> 00:04:58.160 So Sam's gonna play the song. 00:04:58.319 --> 00:04:58.959 First one, who knows? 00:04:59.040 --> 00:05:00.000 Just you just yell it out. 00:05:00.079 --> 00:05:00.399 Okay? 00:05:00.639 --> 00:05:01.199 Ready? 00:05:01.439 --> 00:05:02.000 Ready? 00:05:02.240 --> 00:05:02.560 Okay. 00:05:10.319 --> 00:05:11.199 It was it. 00:05:12.000 --> 00:05:13.519 Oh, Josh T. 00:05:14.800 --> 00:05:18.800 Okay, Sam, play it, play it in the normal rhythm. 00:05:30.800 --> 00:05:32.000 Okay, thank you, Sam. 00:05:32.079 --> 00:05:33.600 All right, good job, Josh. 00:05:34.720 --> 00:05:35.120 Right? 00:05:35.199 --> 00:05:37.279 Most of us didn't recognize it, right? 00:05:37.519 --> 00:05:43.759 Uh, because when the rhythm is off, it just doesn't work. 00:05:45.120 --> 00:05:53.519 I I used to have a friend who who he would give out his phone number like this, uh four four five-028-605. 00:05:55.120 --> 00:05:55.839 You're like, what? 00:05:56.079 --> 00:05:57.600 That's like a bank account. 00:05:57.839 --> 00:05:59.199 I'm not sure. 00:05:59.680 --> 00:06:02.319 445-028-605. 00:06:02.399 --> 00:06:03.120 Yeah, that's my phone. 00:06:03.199 --> 00:06:04.319 That actually is my phone number. 00:06:04.399 --> 00:06:09.759 If you need to call me, that's my phone number, 445-028-605. 00:06:10.160 --> 00:06:10.480 Right? 00:06:10.639 --> 00:06:12.560 When the rhythm is off, right? 00:06:13.360 --> 00:06:17.680 404-502-8605. 00:06:17.920 --> 00:06:19.920 And now you go, oh yeah, yeah, that's a phone number. 00:06:20.079 --> 00:06:20.319 Right? 00:06:20.480 --> 00:06:24.000 Because when the rhythm is off, it just doesn't work. 00:06:24.560 --> 00:06:31.680 And so this text is talking about letting the land lie fallow, six and one, six and one, six and one. 00:06:32.079 --> 00:06:33.680 And then you get verse twelve. 00:06:33.920 --> 00:06:48.399 He goes further into it, six days you shall do your work, but on the seventh day you shall rest, six and one, that your ox and your donkey may have rest, and the son of your servant woman and the alien may be refreshed. 00:06:50.720 --> 00:06:59.920 All right, so there's this great quote uh found in the New York Times, an old article in the New York Times by a writer Judith Schulovitz, and she's writing about her journey for rest. 00:07:00.079 --> 00:07:05.600 It's written back in 2003, and I don't think that our culture in New York or here has gotten any better since then. 00:07:05.759 --> 00:07:08.240 And here's what she writes: it's in your handout. 00:07:08.959 --> 00:07:14.079 My mood would darken until by Saturday afternoon I'd be unresponsive and morose. 00:07:14.399 --> 00:07:28.399 My normal routine, which involved brunch with friends and swapping tales of misadventure and the relentless quest for romance and professional success, made me feel impossibly restless. 00:07:28.720 --> 00:07:31.920 I started spending Saturdays by myself. 00:07:32.399 --> 00:07:42.879 After a while, I got lonely and did something that as a teenager, profoundly put off by her religious education, I could never have imagined wanting to do. 00:07:43.040 --> 00:07:46.480 I began dropping in on a nearby synagogue. 00:07:46.720 --> 00:07:50.160 It was only much later that I developed a theory about my condition. 00:07:50.319 --> 00:07:53.199 I was suffering from the lack of a Sabbath. 00:07:53.759 --> 00:07:57.920 There is ample evidence that our relationship to work is out of whack. 00:07:58.319 --> 00:08:02.160 Ours is a society that pegs status to overachievement. 00:08:02.399 --> 00:08:05.199 We can't help admiring workaholics. 00:08:05.439 --> 00:08:11.920 Let me argue instead on behalf of an institution that has kept work workaholic workalism. 00:08:16.879 --> 00:08:17.920 Workaholism. 00:08:18.160 --> 00:08:20.399 Sorry, I did not practice before. 00:08:20.800 --> 00:08:25.279 In reasonable, I did not work very hard on reading this quote, apparently. 00:08:26.079 --> 00:08:29.040 In reasonable check for thousands of years. 00:08:29.199 --> 00:08:35.360 Most people mistakenly believe that all you have to do to stop working is not work. 00:08:36.320 --> 00:08:41.600 The inventors of the Sabbath understood that it was much more complicated undertaking. 00:08:41.759 --> 00:08:44.240 You cannot downshift casually and easily. 00:08:44.399 --> 00:08:49.360 This is why the Puritan and Jewish Sabbaths were so exactingly intentional. 00:08:49.600 --> 00:08:52.320 The rules did not exist to torture the faithful. 00:08:52.480 --> 00:09:07.360 They were meant to communicate the insight that interrupting the ceaseless round of striving requires a surprisingly strenuous act of will, one that has to be bolstered by habit as well as by social sanction. 00:09:08.159 --> 00:09:11.360 Okay, so two points to guide our thoughts on this. 00:09:11.519 --> 00:09:22.879 So there's a lady who's lived secular life, tied in with Jewish life, and she's recognizing there's a problem in our culture, she's recognizing a problem in herself, and that she needs rest on a weekly basis. 00:09:23.039 --> 00:09:25.120 Okay, here's how it starts to relate into us. 00:09:25.279 --> 00:09:26.240 Two points to guide our thoughts. 00:09:26.399 --> 00:09:29.200 Number one, it's not just about a day. 00:09:29.600 --> 00:09:31.039 Right, so we have some freedom here. 00:09:31.120 --> 00:09:34.799 It's not just about a day, it's about rhythmic practice. 00:09:34.960 --> 00:09:35.840 That's point number one. 00:09:36.000 --> 00:09:40.799 Number two, it's not just about a practice, but it's about a position. 00:09:40.960 --> 00:09:46.000 So, first point, it's not just about a day, but it's about rhythmic practice. 00:09:46.240 --> 00:09:53.519 Let the land lie fallow so yourself and your animals and your people may be refreshed. 00:09:53.679 --> 00:09:57.360 That word refresh means to take a breath. 00:09:58.960 --> 00:09:59.279 Right? 00:09:59.360 --> 00:10:16.799 I mean, do you ever just your like your studies, your homework, your uh your job, the emails, the next thing, the house, the kids, the dishes, the yard, uh, the expectations, and you just go, oh, if I could just catch my breath. 00:10:16.960 --> 00:10:19.279 If I could just be refreshed. 00:10:20.320 --> 00:10:45.440 So this text is about these people releasing the land for a year, so that the land could come back and produce for them, and then it becomes about them as people learning to release a day so that they will be ready the next day to go and to produce, so that the land is not depleted over time, and so that they are not depleted over time. 00:10:46.639 --> 00:10:48.399 So they had to prepare for this, right? 00:10:48.480 --> 00:10:53.759 I mean, to think about the land issue, like every seventh year that you just wouldn't farm. 00:10:54.399 --> 00:10:58.799 I mean, you'd have to prepare for this, you have to save for this, you'd have to be ready for this. 00:10:59.679 --> 00:11:06.879 And I think for us it says something about the fact that you know it it takes some thought for us to have rest. 00:11:08.240 --> 00:11:10.240 It takes some intentionality. 00:11:10.960 --> 00:11:20.639 I mean, it takes something for us to just put our phones somewhere where we just don't constantly see them because inevitably all of us we're gonna pick them back up. 00:11:21.120 --> 00:11:30.399 I even said to Christy this week, I said, you know, I've I've discovered the one way I can take a break from my phone, and that is if it's not on me. 00:11:30.559 --> 00:11:32.000 It's the only way. 00:11:32.799 --> 00:11:33.759 The only way. 00:11:34.080 --> 00:11:37.039 Even if it's on me and I turn it off, I'm gonna turn it back on. 00:11:37.279 --> 00:11:40.960 The only way I get a break from it is if it's physically not on me. 00:11:41.120 --> 00:11:47.519 It takes some intentionality to sit or to walk, to seemingly do nothing. 00:11:47.759 --> 00:11:48.000 Right? 00:11:48.240 --> 00:11:58.159 I was reading some about Sabbath rest this week, and one of the things it said is uh do nothing and to be willing to make nothing happen. 00:11:58.960 --> 00:12:01.279 And we don't like we don't like that. 00:12:01.519 --> 00:12:09.120 That's very difficult for us to be okay for a period of time where we make nothing happen. 00:12:10.000 --> 00:12:12.480 Because we think that that's lazy. 00:12:12.960 --> 00:12:15.120 And if you did every day, it would be. 00:12:16.080 --> 00:12:21.759 But actually, there's a lot going on in that nothingness because everything starts to surface. 00:12:22.000 --> 00:12:34.480 Your gratitude to your family, your gratitude to the Lord, your appreciation, your ability or inability to exist in that moment because your anxieties start to come up and your fears start to come up, and so what do you do? 00:12:34.559 --> 00:12:37.039 You're gonna go to cover it with production. 00:12:38.879 --> 00:12:47.759 But really, we have to learn how to feel it and to bring it to the Lord and to let the Spirit comfort us and teach us who we really are. 00:12:47.919 --> 00:13:00.320 I read this morning, uh, Brendan Manning quote, my deepest awareness of myself is that I am deeply loved by Jesus Christ, and I have done nothing to earn it or deserve it. 00:13:01.600 --> 00:13:07.600 And we have to have some moments where we just do nothing to remember that. 00:13:08.639 --> 00:13:17.360 Beyond the job and beyond the chores and beyond the workouts and beyond the homework, but you just remember who you are in the Lord. 00:13:17.600 --> 00:13:32.559 As God's beloved, completely at rest, and Jesus' work is enough for you, and it's okay for a period of time, a day, an evening, whatever works out for you, it's okay for you to make nothing happen. 00:13:34.320 --> 00:13:39.200 Richard Swinson, who's an MD, he's a doctor, he wrote this great book years ago called Margin. 00:13:39.279 --> 00:13:42.000 I think it's sold as like 750,000 copies. 00:13:42.159 --> 00:13:45.120 It's sold in the secular world, it's sold in the Christian world. 00:13:45.279 --> 00:13:54.159 Uh he goes through lots of medical data and he ties it into kind of cultural data and then also biblical references, and it's a it's a book about margin. 00:13:54.240 --> 00:13:56.960 How do you get more space in your life? 00:13:57.519 --> 00:13:59.679 And here's a quote, it's in your handout. 00:13:59.840 --> 00:14:02.639 We must have some room to breathe. 00:14:02.879 --> 00:14:05.840 We need freedom to think and permission to heal. 00:14:06.080 --> 00:14:09.600 Our relationships are being starved to death by velocity. 00:14:09.840 --> 00:14:13.279 No one has the time to listen, let alone love. 00:14:13.519 --> 00:14:17.840 Our children lay wounded on the ground, run over by our high speed good intentions. 00:14:18.080 --> 00:14:20.480 Is God now pro-exhaustion? 00:14:20.720 --> 00:14:24.080 Does he lead people beside the still waters anymore? 00:14:24.320 --> 00:14:29.200 Who plundered those wide open spaces of the past, and how can we get them back? 00:14:29.440 --> 00:14:36.559 There are no fallow lands for our emotions to lie down and rest in. 00:14:37.360 --> 00:14:39.120 We even see in Jesus' life, don't we? 00:14:39.200 --> 00:14:44.080 I mean, we see it repeatedly in Jesus' life, where he is ministering, he's healing, he's teaching, and then what does he do? 00:14:44.240 --> 00:14:45.519 He pulls away. 00:14:46.240 --> 00:14:48.399 Pulls away into solitude, into silence. 00:14:48.559 --> 00:14:52.559 Maybe he's by himself, or maybe he's with his small group of friends, his disciples, and then what does he do? 00:14:52.639 --> 00:14:57.200 He goes back out, he ministers, he heals, he's working, and then he pulls away again. 00:14:57.759 --> 00:15:02.000 We see this rhythm with him, a rhythmic practice. 00:15:03.519 --> 00:15:08.879 Listen, we don't rest because all of the work is done. 00:15:10.000 --> 00:15:14.080 We rest because the work will never be done. 00:15:15.600 --> 00:15:19.600 We don't take a rest from emails because you finished all your emails. 00:15:20.480 --> 00:15:26.000 We rest from emails because you will never be finished with all of your emails. 00:15:28.639 --> 00:15:38.000 And it's in that margin and in that fallow where breathing begins and we find comfort and we find peace and we're reminded of who we are in the Lord. 00:15:38.240 --> 00:15:44.000 And God can begin to break through our busyness and some of our idols because all that starts to surface. 00:15:45.200 --> 00:15:50.000 The fuller my life has become, the more I need practices of rest. 00:15:51.600 --> 00:15:53.440 My days just work better, better. 00:15:54.080 --> 00:15:58.799 I'm in a better rhythm and a better place where at some point in the morning I pause. 00:15:59.279 --> 00:16:01.919 And it doesn't have to be a legalistic 30 minutes. 00:16:02.000 --> 00:16:05.279 It literally can be a five minutes of quiet. 00:16:05.919 --> 00:16:08.000 Or I just stop and I remember. 00:16:08.240 --> 00:16:13.200 And it's before I open my laptop, or maybe it's in my car before I walk into the gym. 00:16:13.600 --> 00:16:15.039 But I just pause. 00:16:15.600 --> 00:16:16.720 Just remember. 00:16:17.440 --> 00:16:19.039 Take a few breaths. 00:16:19.600 --> 00:16:20.320 Pray. 00:16:20.720 --> 00:16:22.879 Maybe read one little verse. 00:16:23.200 --> 00:16:26.399 Maybe for you it's even earlier in the morning, what I prefer. 00:16:26.639 --> 00:16:28.799 Maybe it's in the quiet of the night. 00:16:29.919 --> 00:16:34.080 Maybe it's uh you like to read lots of scripture, maybe you like to read just a little bit. 00:16:34.960 --> 00:16:35.519 I don't know. 00:16:35.600 --> 00:16:42.159 I'm not gonna get legalistic on you on what it looks like, but I do know that we have to find a rhythm. 00:16:42.399 --> 00:16:44.879 I've also found that I need something weekly. 00:16:45.360 --> 00:16:47.200 I need a weekly rhythm. 00:16:47.360 --> 00:16:51.279 I need a day where I really try to not have my phone on me. 00:16:51.519 --> 00:16:58.000 I I I need a couple times of the week where I get into the woods where I leave. 00:16:58.399 --> 00:17:02.080 I used to, so I used to go on these prayer walks in the woods and I would take my phone with me. 00:17:02.240 --> 00:17:03.840 Because I would like to take little notes. 00:17:03.919 --> 00:17:13.440 Like, you know, if I get inspired by something for the sermon, you know, I take these notes in my phone, and what I realized is that before long, I I would like to I would check my email while I was out there in the woods. 00:17:14.000 --> 00:17:16.240 You're like, this is ridiculous. 00:17:16.319 --> 00:17:20.160 But I also have a thing called a you know pen and paper, and this would serve the same purpose. 00:17:20.240 --> 00:17:36.720 And so I began to leave my phone in the car, and I noticed it just an unbelievable significant difference in my relief, and just the fact that nobody could reach me, and I could not go back into my email or my text and get back into that. 00:17:36.799 --> 00:17:40.799 But I would, I was sort of just for an hour, I was away from it. 00:17:41.440 --> 00:17:46.240 And then I'd get back in my truck and I was like flooded with all the new thoughts and the things to do, right? 00:17:46.319 --> 00:17:50.880 Because there's something about the break that is healthy for us. 00:17:51.039 --> 00:17:57.279 Letting the land lie fallow, eliminating hurry. 00:17:58.319 --> 00:17:59.599 Is anybody with me? 00:17:59.920 --> 00:18:02.400 Anyone going, oh yes, I want to breathe that in. 00:18:02.559 --> 00:18:04.480 I want, I want to breathe that in. 00:18:04.640 --> 00:18:09.359 So, pastor and author Tim Keller, he breaks it down this way to think about how what does that look like? 00:18:09.759 --> 00:18:11.039 Possibly it could look like this. 00:18:11.200 --> 00:18:12.640 He says, and this is in your handout. 00:18:12.799 --> 00:18:14.720 He says, Well, there's contemplative rest. 00:18:14.799 --> 00:18:18.799 So there's prayer and meditation and devotion and scripture reading and prayer walks. 00:18:18.960 --> 00:18:25.920 Uh, and this is focused on listening to God, solitude and silence, contemplative rest. 00:18:26.079 --> 00:18:27.920 Then there's recreational rest. 00:18:28.079 --> 00:18:29.839 Just have fun, right? 00:18:30.319 --> 00:18:31.119 That's good. 00:18:31.359 --> 00:18:32.319 We need that. 00:18:32.640 --> 00:18:40.319 Eugene Peterson, who's a pastor and an author, he says, when he talks about Sabbath rest, he just calls it praying and playing. 00:18:40.559 --> 00:18:43.440 So you want to think about rest, praying and playing. 00:18:43.680 --> 00:18:49.039 Just figure that out for your life, praying and playing, and you're going to you're going to be tapping into rest. 00:18:49.119 --> 00:18:53.279 And then Keller goes on and adds this third one of aesthetic rest. 00:18:54.000 --> 00:18:58.400 And he says, get surrounded by God's creation and also by creativity. 00:18:58.480 --> 00:18:59.440 We're wired differently. 00:18:59.519 --> 00:19:04.319 For some of you walking in the woods, you're just like, I don't understand that, you know, ticks and stuff, and I don't want. 00:19:04.799 --> 00:19:06.079 You know, for me, that's it. 00:19:06.240 --> 00:19:11.839 For some of you, you're like, if I could walk through an art museum, that would be unbelievable. 00:19:12.400 --> 00:19:12.640 Right? 00:19:12.799 --> 00:19:14.640 And for me, I'm bored to death. 00:19:14.799 --> 00:19:16.640 Like, I don't want to walk through an art museum. 00:19:16.799 --> 00:19:19.039 I I want to walk through the woods, right? 00:19:19.200 --> 00:19:19.599 That's fine. 00:19:19.680 --> 00:19:21.519 You walk through the art museum, I'll walk through the woods. 00:19:21.680 --> 00:19:23.920 My wife, she wants to walk through anthropology. 00:19:24.079 --> 00:19:25.119 That's what she wants to do. 00:19:25.359 --> 00:19:31.839 Any other women in here, you're like, out Sabbath rest of walking through anthropology is unbelievable. 00:19:32.480 --> 00:19:34.400 Everybody husbands don't always like it. 00:19:34.640 --> 00:19:37.200 Don't always end up great at the end of that, right? 00:19:38.640 --> 00:19:45.599 But you have to, it's just for whatever, whatever works for you in that, in that rest, contemplative, recreational, aesthetic. 00:19:45.759 --> 00:19:53.440 Okay, I just gave a lot of sort of like rhythmic practice, what you should do, a little bit of a principle, practices. 00:19:53.599 --> 00:19:56.480 But let's be honest, none of us are perfect. 00:19:56.640 --> 00:19:59.759 None of us will uphold a practice like this perfectly. 00:19:59.920 --> 00:20:04.160 Um, some of us are horrible at this, really bad. 00:20:04.960 --> 00:20:08.960 Really, really addicted to work, really addicted to productivity. 00:20:09.119 --> 00:20:12.319 And then all of us, on some level, are bad at this. 00:20:12.559 --> 00:20:14.880 We're definitely imperfect before it. 00:20:15.039 --> 00:20:21.119 Now, fortunately, what's fantastic about this is that this is not just about a principle and a practice. 00:20:21.440 --> 00:20:24.880 This points us to something much deeper. 00:20:24.960 --> 00:20:26.640 And this is this point number two. 00:20:26.799 --> 00:20:30.720 It's not just about a practice, but about a position. 00:20:30.960 --> 00:20:40.400 So, yes, doing these things would be great practices for our lives, but they remind us of our position that is sealed whether we do the practices or not. 00:20:40.480 --> 00:20:41.920 And that's incredibly relieving. 00:20:42.079 --> 00:20:44.319 It actually makes me want to do the practice more. 00:20:45.119 --> 00:20:46.000 Did you get that? 00:20:46.160 --> 00:21:04.000 See, we should do the practice, and the practice helps us remember a position of our belovedness before God that's already sealed, already handled, whether we do the practices or not, and that truth actually motivates me, inspires me to want to do the practice again, even when I fail at it. 00:21:04.240 --> 00:21:07.440 See, it points us to something deeper, and this is this position. 00:21:07.599 --> 00:21:14.079 See, the Sabbath points us to true inner freedom, that we don't have to be a slave to production anymore. 00:21:14.319 --> 00:21:16.559 For these people, they were making bricks. 00:21:16.720 --> 00:21:17.279 Remember this? 00:21:17.440 --> 00:21:21.200 Brick by brick by brick by brick, they were making bricks. 00:21:21.359 --> 00:21:27.759 The idea that they could take a day off, unbelievable liberation for them. 00:21:29.039 --> 00:21:33.519 The idea that we can take a day off, unbelievable liberation for us. 00:21:33.680 --> 00:21:46.000 Now the idea that you don't have to base your value or your justification or your righteousness or your forgiveness on your work, incredible, unbelievable liberation for us. 00:21:47.119 --> 00:21:52.160 And the gospel stories, we keep seeing Jesus break legalistic Sabbath rules. 00:21:52.400 --> 00:21:56.079 The practices these guys had developed and said, okay, now you really got to do. 00:21:56.319 --> 00:21:59.759 These aren't suggestions, these are actually you've got to do them to uphold your story. 00:22:00.240 --> 00:22:06.880 Standing before God, and Jesus starts to break them, and then the Pharisees, they don't like this, and they start to threaten him and question him. 00:22:07.119 --> 00:22:12.079 And then he says, Well, hey, hey guys, uh, man was not made for the Sabbath, Sabbath was made for man. 00:22:12.240 --> 00:22:16.319 So Jesus is saying, Hey, Sabbath rest is made to help man. 00:22:16.559 --> 00:22:20.400 So we're not legalistically holding these rules. 00:22:20.559 --> 00:22:23.599 And then he says, I'm the Lord of the Sabbath. 00:22:24.799 --> 00:22:26.240 Here's what he's saying when he says that. 00:22:26.319 --> 00:22:32.400 He says, Sabbath principle, Sabbath practices, they're there to point to me. 00:22:33.279 --> 00:22:37.920 They're not there for you to legalistically follow for self-improvement. 00:22:38.160 --> 00:22:41.920 They're primarily there to point to my work. 00:22:42.160 --> 00:22:54.400 And that means that our work, even our ability to practice the Sabbath in whatever form works for us, even that, it's there to help us end up at Jesus' work. 00:22:54.880 --> 00:22:56.799 Because we're relieved of our work. 00:22:57.200 --> 00:22:58.240 We're at rest. 00:22:58.559 --> 00:23:01.759 We have forever Sabbath, whatever day. 00:23:02.799 --> 00:23:08.000 Our hearts are relieved of needing to rely on our work. 00:23:08.319 --> 00:23:18.000 So that word refreshed, Exodus 23, 12, that word refreshed, to be breathed upon. 00:23:19.920 --> 00:23:24.000 Maybe you're here and you're worn out or hurt. 00:23:24.640 --> 00:23:29.279 Or you keep thinking the thing will happen and the thing just never happens. 00:23:30.480 --> 00:23:33.119 Can't quite catch your breath. 00:23:33.359 --> 00:23:35.440 You're struggling with peace. 00:23:36.319 --> 00:23:42.880 We were at a funeral yesterday with a handful of you were there at a funeral yesterday for a friend of ours who died of cancer. 00:23:43.519 --> 00:23:44.480 It was our age. 00:24:00.400 --> 00:24:08.720 And there's this great story in Ezekiel, where the prophet sees this valley of dry bones. 00:24:08.960 --> 00:24:10.559 And all these dry bones. 00:24:10.640 --> 00:24:12.000 He said, What is this? 00:24:12.160 --> 00:24:16.799 And God begins to speak to him, and God says, Prophesy over the dry bones. 00:24:18.000 --> 00:24:21.920 He says, Come, come, wind, breath. 00:24:23.359 --> 00:24:29.200 And flesh begins to come upon these dry bones, and the dry bones walk again. 00:24:29.279 --> 00:24:30.559 There's life again. 00:24:30.720 --> 00:24:33.680 And we keep seeing this imagery throughout the scriptures, right? 00:24:33.759 --> 00:24:46.960 Whether it's at Pentecost and the wind of the Holy Spirit comes, or whether it's in the gospels with the leavened bread, and we see that within the bread there's space, there's breath, which is life. 00:24:49.519 --> 00:24:54.480 Haven't you been looking for breath that can finally bring some rest? 00:24:56.160 --> 00:24:57.920 It won't be a to-do list. 00:24:58.000 --> 00:25:00.880 It won't even be practicing a Sabbath rest. 00:25:01.440 --> 00:25:02.799 It will be Jesus. 00:25:04.079 --> 00:25:08.559 His work, the cross and the resurrection is enough for you. 00:25:08.720 --> 00:25:22.960 So may you find your rhythmic practice of the Sabbath so that you will know and remember your forever position of His belovedness because of Jesus' work for you. 00:25:23.039 --> 00:25:32.160 And may you fall more in love with Jesus and His work for you, and may the Spirit of God breathe over you. 00:25:32.319 --> 00:25:34.000 Let's pray together. 00:25:39.759 --> 00:25:43.680 God, we come before you without our acts together. 00:25:44.319 --> 00:25:55.440 When it comes to relying on work, productivity, justifying ourselves with what we produce, we really love that. 00:25:55.599 --> 00:25:57.279 We're pretty addicted to that, God. 00:25:57.759 --> 00:25:59.440 That's an idol for us. 00:26:02.079 --> 00:26:07.680 God, we come before you and we say, we would love to have rest from that. 00:26:10.880 --> 00:26:23.039 Help us to establish some rhythm within our life to remember that you have set us free from needing to rely on our work. 00:26:24.559 --> 00:26:28.480 But your work and your grace toward us is enough. 00:26:28.640 --> 00:26:33.680 The sufficiency of Jesus' blood is enough. 00:26:35.119 --> 00:26:36.880 Thank you for your love toward us. 00:26:37.039 --> 00:26:38.400 In Jesus' name we pray. 00:26:38.640 --> 00:26:39.119 Amen.