Embracing the Sabbath: Finding Rest in God's Presence

1. "You are not designed to work all the time. You're not designed to always be producing. You are created by God in God's image. And one of his commandments to us, these 10 commandments, these life preservers that we are looking at in this series, is to take a break. Take a day off. Take a Sabbath." [01:42] (28 seconds) (Download raw clip | Download cropped clip)


2. "We weren't made. We weren't created. We're not designed to constantly be on the treadmill of productivity. We need time to step back and to rest. So how do we do it? Well, I've given you an acrostic today. Take a break. B-R-E-A-K. So the first letter, the B, if you're going to take a break, if you're going to practice Sabbath, if you're going to rest the way God designed you to, the first thing you need to learn how to do is be still." [03:33] (40 seconds) (Download raw clip | Download cropped clip)


3. "Busyness oftentimes is a facade. It's a way to, to avoid reality. It's a substitute for what this text says. God gives rest to whom? To his loved ones. Do you see yourself, is that your identity? Do you see yourself as a loved one, beloved of God, one whom God is watching over, one who is, whom is the, who's the object of, of God's grace and God's mercy?" [05:34] (43 seconds) (Download raw clip | Download cropped clip)


4. "In the biblical world, in the biblical way of marking time, the day actually begins at sunset. So, there's darkness, and then there's light. And that's a day. so the first thing you do in a new day is rest you're designed for that you're designed for rest and then the work that we're called to do and we're called to work god didn't give it he didn't sit us here on the earth and put his place us here on the earth with nothing to do no he says that we are his vice regents that that we are created in his image to carry out his purposes to reflect uh his glory back to the earth and to reflect his excuse me to reflect his wise stewardship back to the earth so that the earth the creation itself can come to its full creative potential and then to reflect the glory of god back to god so we we have work to do but our work begins not with work but with rest it's i call us the rhythm of grace see i work i work out of my rest i work out of my identity first i have my identity" [07:29] (89 seconds) (Download raw clip | Download cropped clip)


5. "The rhythm of grace teaches that your worth is not based on what you can do for god but it's based on what god has done for you and what god is doing for you loving you so the b is be still the r is relax you know uh you can be still on the outside like you can kind of take this this message to heart and say well he's right you know i need to spend more time just resting being with the lord i need to make sure i'm practicing i'm practicing i'm practicing i'm practicing i'm practicing i'm practicing i'm practicing and keeping a sabbath where i'm really focused on god's love for me uh at least one day a week and uh so i'm gonna i'm gonna just stop i'm gonna stop my work and i'm just gonna sit and be still so you can still the outside of you but then the mind can just keep going and going and going you can step off the physical treadmill but stay on the mental treadmill and god wants you to relax he wants you to receive" [09:17] (63 seconds) (Download raw clip | Download cropped clip)


6. "You know what you have control over? You. You. I have control over me. I have control over my feelings. I have control over my attitudes. I have control over my actions. Now, a weird thing happens when you spend more time out in the circle of influence and circle of concern trying to control those things. A lot of times, that's when people lose control of their feelings and their attitudes and even some of their actions, but God puts you in control of you, and he wants you to actually control your actions. He wants you to actually control your actions. He wants you to exercise that control in manners that are consistent with who you are, with your identity as a child of God, beloved by God, and if you'll focus more in energy and time and thought into exercising self-control, you'll find that your life will go a lot better, a lot more smoothly, and you'll learn that God is in control and that God cares for you." [14:26] (82 seconds) (Download raw clip | Download cropped clip)


7. "God's given us the Sabbath for our own benefit. It was, made for us. It wasn't created so he could say, well, see, I told you so, or see, you did everything I asked you, so now you're a good little boy or a good little girl. No, it's, he knows who we are, he knows how we live, and he knows that we need rest. We need to rest and enjoy God. One of the ways we enjoy God is by worshiping him. So if we're going to worship God on a Sunday, then we need to be thinking about it before Sunday, right? We might do some things on Saturday to prepare so that you know, okay, I'm not out too late. I'm going to get plenty of rest so I can be recharged and ready and go and worship the Lord and fellowship with him and fellowship with other believers and experience that rejuvenation, that recharging of my batteries that he wants me to experience." [20:59] (55 seconds) (Download raw clip | Download cropped clip)


8. "If anything in your life is in contradiction to God's word, then it's you that needs to change. It's not God's word that we need to change. That's what got us, has gotten us in a lot of trouble in the church. When we've looked at the world, well, what's the world doing? Well, we've looked at the world. Well, let's do it more like they're doing it. They'll like us more. They might show up more. And actually the opposite is true. Well, we don't offer that contrast. So alter your mindset." [22:28] (28 seconds) (Download raw clip | Download cropped clip)


9. "If you go back and look in Genesis, when God created human beings, the first, he created human beings on the sixth day. So the first full day of human existence, the first full day, the first complete 24-hour period that human beings were alive was a day of rest, was the Sabbath. That sort of dovetails, doesn't it, with the way the biblical material and the biblical worldview marks time, that life begins in rest, and it's out of our rest that we go and we work. So we want to start out in a place of peace, of wholeness. Of well-being, of communion with God. Why? Because God loves us. He cares about us. He doesn't just give us arbitrary rules that we can prove our loyalty to him. That's not the purpose of the Ten Commandments or any of the commandments of Jesus. purpose is because he knows us better than we know ourselves, and he wants us to know his presence. And in his presence, we can find peace." [23:58] (95 seconds) (Download raw clip | Download cropped clip)


10. "Distress takes place when we think that everything depends on us, and everything that I need depends on me, instead of turning it over to God. I say, God, you created me. You gave me some work to do. I want to be about that. I want to have wisdom. I want to have discernment about what it is you're calling me to do. And to accomplish, and to be. And then I'm going to let everything else stay out there in that circle of concern that I don't have control over. And I'm going to let you take control. Carrie Underwood, the great theologian, sang it well when she said, Jesus, take the wheel. Jesus, take the wheel. I'm distressed. I've been in control. I've been trying to be in control, because you can't be in control. God's in control." [29:33] (59 seconds) (Download raw clip | Download cropped clip)