Embracing Sabbath: A Journey to Delight and Joy
Devotional
Sermon Summary
Sermon Clips
"Sabbath is a day to stop. It's a day to stop our working. It's a day to stop our striving and our endless wanting. We want stuff all the time, don't we? Never enough. Never enough. It's a day to rest. A day to let our souls catch up with our bodies. To receive God's presence. It's a day to delight, to place yourself in the path of beauty and enjoy the good gifts, enjoy good friends, enjoy good food, enjoy God, and it is a day to worship. Sabbath is not self-care only, and it is not about us, actually, primarily, it's about reordering and reorienting our lives under God's wisdom." [00:47:53]
"I've shared parts of this before from the front of the church, but for a lot of my adult life, I have had a major struggle. I've struggled with a very, very unhealthy relationship with work, not just busy, but a kind of obsession that meant I could never stop and I could never rest. It was always kind of pushing and striving. And really underlying that is also a sense it was never enough. It didn't matter how much I did or how much I worked, it was never enough. But there was a sense also I wasn't enough. I was pushing and pushing. I don't know, maybe try to prove something. And the real issue wasn't really work, but it was fear. So fear of failure. Fear of rejection." [00:50:06]
"Workaholics are terrible at delight. For people who never stop, delight is nearly impossible. If you don't ever stop, right, you never truly enjoy anything. That's one of the significant things about the Genesis story is God is not a workaholic, clearly, right? He enjoys. He enjoys. And he wants his people to enjoy. I remember first hearing about delight as part of Sabbath and being like, what would that even... What even is that? What would that look like? I was numb to it. Busyness and exhaustion and drivenness and striving make you very, very numb to joy. So I sort of had to relearn it." [00:54:29]
"So the word is anog. And it is... I just... It struck me so much this week, right? It's a word that conveys a softness and a pliableness and a delicacy. And I thought, wow, right? We need to be soft enough and rested enough to receive the gift of delight. It's the opposite of being brittle and controlling and driven and never stopping, right? Ronald Rollheiser describes the journey of... Deeper Christian discipleship as the mellowing of the soul. I remember when I read that, I thought, yes, I could do with a wee bit of that. The mellowing of the soul. And Sabbath and scripture and silence and prayer and community and worship and all these amazing disciplines create the space for our souls to soften, to become more pliable in the hands of the potter and be able to receive the gift of delight, right?" [00:55:08]
"Sabbath is a weekly reminder that I'm not what I do. I'm not defined by what I do. I'm not defined by what I achieve, hallelujah, or what I don't achieve, my successes and my failures. And I am not what other people think about me. It's really important to remember that. I am, and you are, a person cherished by God. You're cherished by God." [00:57:44]
"Barry and Shelley both kind of touched on this in various different ways in the past couple of weeks, but it's actually easier, more comfortable in some ways, to earn something than it is to receive a gift. Sometimes a gift can be quite, I don't know, it takes a level of humility to receive a gift. We live in a world of quid pro quo, earning and deserving and kind of results or failure and punishment. And in some ways, we're more familiar with that world. But God's grace doesn't work in that economy. It's not how it works. And there's a pride in never stopping, right? If we think, if we observe ourselves, all our excuses for why we can't Sabbath, the things that go through our heads, right? So many people need me. I can never afford to be unavailable. People need me, right? I'm the provider. I need to work those extra hours. I'm the provider. I'm too important at work not to check my emails at the weekend." [00:58:12]
"Sabbath, right from those days, thousands of years ago, Sabbath has required intentionality. I'm not going to lie to you. Sabbath is not easy. Like, it takes a huge amount of intentionality to Sabbath. Community. It takes community. It takes community to Sabbath. And trust in God. Really fundamentally. There are external factors which are going against us. Lots of them, by the way. And there's internal factors that go against us Sabbathing. So it takes a huge amount of intentionality, community, and trust in God." [01:00:26]
"Sabbath delight is an invitation to enter this different world. It's an invitation to enter this different world. It's an invitation to enter this different kind of time. It's not a time that's frittered. See when we're doing all social media stuff and even TV, endless TV, right? It's kind of time sort of fritters away, doesn't it? We know that feeling. But Sabbath is time where time is gathered and treasured. Sacred time. So beautiful. Abraham Joshua Heschel, this is a book I highly recommend. He's the Jewish guy, right? Wrote a beautiful book called The Sabbath and I love this quote. It says, Sabbath is not an occasion for diversion or frivolity, not a day to shoot fireworks or turn somersaults, but an opportunity to mend our tattered lives. An opportunity to mend our tattered lives. Gentle time, soft and pliable." [01:02:51]
"Scripture tells us, this is so beautiful, I really want you to hear this, church, right? The Lord your God is with you. The mighty warrior who saves, he will take great delight in you. In his love, he will no longer rebuke you, but will rejoice over you with singing. We have a singing God, a delighting God, a rejoicing God. Dallas Willard describes God as the happiest, most joyful being in the universe and beyond the universe. We don't often necessarily, is that our picture of God? He's so joyful. He's so happy. He is this overflow of joy." [01:04:47]
"Jesus' very presence on earth was a cause for joy. And Sabbath is our weekly practice of delight. We have to actually practice celebration and practice joy, because it's a foretaste of the eternal celebration. That we will experience in the new heavens and the new earth at the wedding feast of the Lamb. It is a weekly foretaste of when heaven meets earth. Every Sabbath is a preview of the great Sabbath feast at the end of time." [01:09:37]
"Dallas Willard once said, One of the outstanding features of Jesus' personality was precisely his abundance of joy. Jesus was joyful, and he left this as an inheritance. He left this as an inheritance of joy. He left this as an inheritance of joy. He left this as an inheritance to his students, that their joy might be full. So joy should also mark the people of God, right? The Father is joyful, Jesus is joyful, and his followers are to be marked by joy." [01:10:10]
"But joy is second on that list. And joy isn't forced. It's a fruit. And fruit doesn't grow by striving. You can't actually force fruit to grow. It grows by abiding. Fruit grows by abiding. We can't force joy, but we can create space to receive the gift, can't we? We can slow down. We can stop trying to control everything. That doesn't help joy. Trust me. And we can open our lives to the gift of delight. Sabbath is how we practice making room for joy. Sabbath is how we worship our joyful God. By enjoying his holy day with him and with each other." [01:11:57]
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"I've shared parts of this before from the front of the church, but for a lot of my adult life, I have had a major struggle. I've struggled with a very, very unhealthy relationship with work, not just busy, but a kind of obsession that meant I could never stop and I could never rest. It was always kind of pushing and striving. And really underlying that is also a sense it was never enough. It didn't matter how much I did or how much I worked, it was never enough. But there was a sense also I wasn't enough. I was pushing and pushing. I don't know, maybe try to prove something. And the real issue wasn't really work, but it was fear. So fear of failure. Fear of rejection." [00:50:06]
"Workaholics are terrible at delight. For people who never stop, delight is nearly impossible. If you don't ever stop, right, you never truly enjoy anything. That's one of the significant things about the Genesis story is God is not a workaholic, clearly, right? He enjoys. He enjoys. And he wants his people to enjoy. I remember first hearing about delight as part of Sabbath and being like, what would that even... What even is that? What would that look like? I was numb to it. Busyness and exhaustion and drivenness and striving make you very, very numb to joy. So I sort of had to relearn it." [00:54:29]
"So the word is anog. And it is... I just... It struck me so much this week, right? It's a word that conveys a softness and a pliableness and a delicacy. And I thought, wow, right? We need to be soft enough and rested enough to receive the gift of delight. It's the opposite of being brittle and controlling and driven and never stopping, right? Ronald Rollheiser describes the journey of... Deeper Christian discipleship as the mellowing of the soul. I remember when I read that, I thought, yes, I could do with a wee bit of that. The mellowing of the soul. And Sabbath and scripture and silence and prayer and community and worship and all these amazing disciplines create the space for our souls to soften, to become more pliable in the hands of the potter and be able to receive the gift of delight, right?" [00:55:08]
"Sabbath is a weekly reminder that I'm not what I do. I'm not defined by what I do. I'm not defined by what I achieve, hallelujah, or what I don't achieve, my successes and my failures. And I am not what other people think about me. It's really important to remember that. I am, and you are, a person cherished by God. You're cherished by God." [00:57:44]
"Barry and Shelley both kind of touched on this in various different ways in the past couple of weeks, but it's actually easier, more comfortable in some ways, to earn something than it is to receive a gift. Sometimes a gift can be quite, I don't know, it takes a level of humility to receive a gift. We live in a world of quid pro quo, earning and deserving and kind of results or failure and punishment. And in some ways, we're more familiar with that world. But God's grace doesn't work in that economy. It's not how it works. And there's a pride in never stopping, right? If we think, if we observe ourselves, all our excuses for why we can't Sabbath, the things that go through our heads, right? So many people need me. I can never afford to be unavailable. People need me, right? I'm the provider. I need to work those extra hours. I'm the provider. I'm too important at work not to check my emails at the weekend." [00:58:12]
"Sabbath, right from those days, thousands of years ago, Sabbath has required intentionality. I'm not going to lie to you. Sabbath is not easy. Like, it takes a huge amount of intentionality to Sabbath. Community. It takes community. It takes community to Sabbath. And trust in God. Really fundamentally. There are external factors which are going against us. Lots of them, by the way. And there's internal factors that go against us Sabbathing. So it takes a huge amount of intentionality, community, and trust in God." [01:00:26]
"Sabbath delight is an invitation to enter this different world. It's an invitation to enter this different world. It's an invitation to enter this different kind of time. It's not a time that's frittered. See when we're doing all social media stuff and even TV, endless TV, right? It's kind of time sort of fritters away, doesn't it? We know that feeling. But Sabbath is time where time is gathered and treasured. Sacred time. So beautiful. Abraham Joshua Heschel, this is a book I highly recommend. He's the Jewish guy, right? Wrote a beautiful book called The Sabbath and I love this quote. It says, Sabbath is not an occasion for diversion or frivolity, not a day to shoot fireworks or turn somersaults, but an opportunity to mend our tattered lives. An opportunity to mend our tattered lives. Gentle time, soft and pliable." [01:02:51]
"Scripture tells us, this is so beautiful, I really want you to hear this, church, right? The Lord your God is with you. The mighty warrior who saves, he will take great delight in you. In his love, he will no longer rebuke you, but will rejoice over you with singing. We have a singing God, a delighting God, a rejoicing God. Dallas Willard describes God as the happiest, most joyful being in the universe and beyond the universe. We don't often necessarily, is that our picture of God? He's so joyful. He's so happy. He is this overflow of joy." [01:04:47]
"Jesus' very presence on earth was a cause for joy. And Sabbath is our weekly practice of delight. We have to actually practice celebration and practice joy, because it's a foretaste of the eternal celebration. That we will experience in the new heavens and the new earth at the wedding feast of the Lamb. It is a weekly foretaste of when heaven meets earth. Every Sabbath is a preview of the great Sabbath feast at the end of time." [01:09:37]
"Dallas Willard once said, One of the outstanding features of Jesus' personality was precisely his abundance of joy. Jesus was joyful, and he left this as an inheritance. He left this as an inheritance of joy. He left this as an inheritance of joy. He left this as an inheritance to his students, that their joy might be full. So joy should also mark the people of God, right? The Father is joyful, Jesus is joyful, and his followers are to be marked by joy." [01:10:10]
"But joy is second on that list. And joy isn't forced. It's a fruit. And fruit doesn't grow by striving. You can't actually force fruit to grow. It grows by abiding. Fruit grows by abiding. We can't force joy, but we can create space to receive the gift, can't we? We can slow down. We can stop trying to control everything. That doesn't help joy. Trust me. And we can open our lives to the gift of delight. Sabbath is how we practice making room for joy. Sabbath is how we worship our joyful God. By enjoying his holy day with him and with each other." [01:11:57]
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