February 26, 2023 – Sermon Transcript

Pastor Mike (00:00):

But here’s what’s so countercultural about Sabbath that I want you to take and, and listen to this, why it’s so important. Because on Sabbath, um, I embrace my limits. The world will still keep on operating and keep going around and keep functioning even if I choose to stop.

Hannah Hunter (00:17):

Hey, beautiful people. Welcome back to Sundays gathering. I’m Hannah Hunter, the director of Reach here at The Gathering Place in Palm Beach Gardens. This week, pastor Mike brings us a message on reorienting ourselves so that we can enjoy our lives working from a place of rest.

Pastor Mike (00:33):

This is the first Sunday of Lent, and for, for some, some of us, it’s, it’s been a part of our, you know, our spiritual tradition. And we’re very familiar with Lens. Um, and others of us are not really familiar with Linz. And, you know, lent is this 40 day period, not counting, um, Sundays. Um, it’s kind of a weird thing, but it’s just the way church tradition is. We do our weird things. Um, but it begins on, it begins on Wednesday. We don’t count Sundays and somehow we lock in 40 days. And, and what it is though, it it’s this period, um, leading up to Easter. It’s a period of self denial. It’s a period of repentance. And when I’m talking about repentance, I’m talking about this renewing of our mind. We realize that, um, you know, that some of the stuff that we’ve been taught and fed in our lives is actually not good for us.

(01:17):

It actually goes against what God teaches. It actually goes against how we’re supposed to see one another or even care about our world and creation. And we realize like, God, something is wrong and I need to have a renewal of my mind. So it’s a denial of self, a repentance, a renewal of our mind. It’s also time for some self-reflection. It’s time to evaluate and say what’s going on? And this complicated thing that God has given me called my soul. So it’s a time of listening and it’s also a time to remember Jesus’ journey to the cross. So we, we kind of connect with a lot of different things. We connect with those, those deep rivers of the spiritual life. We, we, we, we evaluate ourselves and we, and we connect with what God’s doing inside of our soul. We also connect with the, the Israelites journey, um, how they, they journeyed 40 years through the wilderness to enter the, before they could enter the promised land. And again, and we connect with Jesus cuz we know that everything culminates on the cross when Jesus gives everything so that you and I could have life to the full fullest.

(02:23):

It’s easy to sometimes have like these little markers in lint and we, and we do it, and then we forget that we’re in Lent or we go through the ritual. But the reason why we do this is because we all need it. We need to have a pause sometimes in our, in our lives. And, and we need to create space to, to silence the noise that is shouting of us all the time. And also, um, you know, we need all of us and we long for this a, a deeper connection with God, right? You know, like we, we wanna, we want go deeper in our faith. We, we wanna know the, the truth and um, and we wanna connect with God. And, and, and God has provided things or, uh, ways to, to connect deeper with him. And, and it’s through the spiritual disciplines. And so part of this is, um, as we go through this season of Lent, we’re going on a journey together.

(03:18):

And we’re gonna be, you know, cultivating some spiritual disciplines in our lives. We’re actually gonna, I’m gonna invite you to kind of reorient your life a little bit, to create some new rhythms in your life to enhance your prayer life. So that way you can be more attuned to what God is doing inside your soul. What God is saying, but also what God’s saying about our neighborhood. What, what God is calling us to do about being on mission. And, and it’s gonna change our, our whole prayer life. It’s not gonna be prayer life of just, well I do my devotion in, in the morning, but it’s gonna be that all of our life is gonna be holy. In fact, you know, we’re gonna have an invitation to break down the boundary between my secular and holy life. You know, the secular means just like my, my things I need to do.

(04:04):

Like I have to go to work or, um, you know, I have to, you know, do those, those activities because I have to provide for my family or provide for myself and all those things. And then, and then I have my holy life, my church life. And we’re gonna see that all of God’s life that God has given us is holy. And so we gotta break down those walls. And so what we’re gonna be talking about today, the, the first spiritual discipline that’s gonna get us more attuned to what God is saying to us is Sabbath something that we know, but something that I, I’m just self confession, that we neglect so much when we really define what Sabbath is. So let’s jump in the Genesis chapter two verses two through three. By the seventh day, God had finished the work he had been doing. So on the seventh day, he rested from all his work. 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.

(05:10):

Sabbath literally means to cease and to stop working. I want you to know that keeping Sabbath is so countercultural and difficult in this time. If, if we’re really serious because we have been conditioned to be overscheduled to live at this high intensity, nonstop work environment. In fact, like we actually lift up people. When people start talking about how busy they are and how full their schedule is, we actually equate and say, wow, that’s a successful person. Or Wow, that’s an important person because they’re, they’re so busy. They’re, they’re doing so many things. And so somehow we’ve lifted this up that, that to be even, you know, so busy and not available on one side is so good. But then we have this other side where we’re so busy, it’s like, oh, I gotta be available for everybody. And so, you know, we, we keep our phones on, uh, we, we send our, our have our emails sent to our phones.

(06:19):

We have text messages coming to us. We have instant messenger, WhatsApp, you know, we have, we have signal, signal, we have Telegram, we have all these crazy things plus snail mail. And then, and then actually like, time to talk to each other. Like all this stuff is, is coming at us. And we, and we’re saying to ourselves like, man, you know, this is the way we’re supposed to live. And then we’re, and then we’re also inundated with like all this types of this information that’s flooding at us at all these different sources. And I’ll tell you what the outcome of this is. As much as like our world like lifts this up and we have all these new pro productivity apps coming out all the time to try to make us more efficient, to do more in the day, to count our time to be more efficient, uh, to produce more results and all that, here is what happens. We are disconnected.

(07:09):

Your phone actually makes you disconnected. We are disconnected, uh, from ourselves cuz we don’t have time to actually listen to what’s going on. You, you ever had that feeling like you’re doing all this stuff, you’re staying all this busy, you’re, you’re doing the to-do list and all those things, but yet you feel this like inner restlessness inside or, or that you feel like that something has been left undone and you don’t, can’t quite put your finger on it. Or you feel like they’re just like, I feel like I’m, I’m unbalancing and I just can’t catch my breath. This is what happens to us. So we we’re disconnected from ourselves, we’re disconnected from the people that matter in our lives. We’re not available for them. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Like, okay, well you can text me, you can call me, you can do that. But, but we’re really not available.

(08:03):

Or how many of us have been, and and we’ve been, I’ve been guilty of this too. When you’re sitting across with somebody, all of a sudden, you know, they say something, whatever, and all of a sudden, bam, you pull out your phone or, or you pull out your organizer, whatever it is, and, and you just disconnect, disengage. And now boom, you’re on this screen that’s supposed to make you connect it and you just lost a connection. You’re disconnected from the things that matter most in life. You’re unplugged actually when by being connected. And then ultimately we are disconnected from God.

(08:38):

And what happens is, like, you know, when we go through the beginning of creation, we see the work of God and the work of God is actually good, right? But we get this unhealthy view of work. In fact, you usually kind of fall on the two categories with their unhealthy view of on one side, we, we dive into being like a workaholic. We think that I exist to just work and then if I work more and accumulate more money and, and save up more, that somehow my life is gonna be better. So the more I work, the better I am. And then there’s this other side that we have this unhealthy balance of work where we be begrudgingly work. We’re like, ah, I have to work. Oh, you know, I have to get up. Oh, it’s Monday. Oh, you know, I was, I was reflecting on like us as the gathering place, you know, and we always talk about, you know, you know, Sunday’s faith for Monday’s work.

(09:32):

And I said, I wonder if we can ever get to the point where we can stay as a church. Like, dang, I love Mondays. You know what I mean? Because, because we can embrace what God is doing and be a part of it. But, but we have this, this tension with work. In fact, sometimes our work is this, literally it’s slavery. And Jesus says, I want to bring you out of that today. I want to bring you out. And that is why, you know, the Sabbath was created for us so that we can experience life the way God intended so that we can actually, you’ve heard it before, work from a place of rest and not just, just run out to we’re burned out and say, okay, I need to rest from my work. So a couple things that, you know, we’re gonna spend two weeks on, on, on Sabbath, on this discipline.

(10:22):

Cause I think it’s really, really important. But the first thing I want you to understand is that the Sabbath is a command from God. In fact, let’s just look at it, okay? The Sabbath, when it talks about the Sabbath as a commandment, it’s actually, if you look in the, in the body of the 10 Commandments, it’s the fourth and longest commandment. Just think about that. It’s the fourth and longest commandment, um, out of the 10 Commandments and solicit these words. It says, remember the Sabbath day by keeping it holy. So how do we remember the Sabbath day? We don’t say, oh yeah, well, you know, I need to do a Sabbath. But no, we have a call to keep that Sabbath day. Holy, what is Sabbath? Six days you shall labor and do all your work, 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 foreigners residing in your towns. 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.

(11:43):

Man. When I read that, I’m like, oh Lord, I really screwed that one up. I mean, just imagine a day set apart to rest, to chill, to delight. So what does Sabbath, I mean, we know this is something that’s holy and, and, and sometimes we’re afraid to touch the things that are holy, but, but Jesus took down those boundaries and and he’s inviting us today to say, come into the holy, come into this goodness. Come into the things that I have for you. Because see, here’s what Sabbath calls us to do. Sabbath calls us to build doing nothing into your schedule. Think about that. So, you know, usually when we think of our schedule, right, we plan about what we have to do, the places we have to go, the doctor’s appointments at dentist appointments, you know, um, the, the, the car maintenance, the meetings that we have, uh, vacations and all those kind of things. But, but Sabbath calls us or invites us to actually build, doing nothing into our schedules each week.

(12:52):

And this is what we’re called to do. And it is possible to do even in this century. You see, um, Pete Cero says this, and, um, Sabbath, when lived is our means as the people of God to bear witness to the way we understand life. Its rhythms, its gifts, its meaning, and it’s ultimate purpose. In God observing the Sabbath, we affirm that God is the center and the source of our lives. He is the beginning, the middle, and the end of our existence. You know, Eugene Peterson points out that even though Sabbath has been one of the most abused and distorted practices of the Christian life, he says we cannot do without it. Sabbath is not primarily about us or how it benefits us. It is about God and how God forms us. And he says, I don’t see any way out of it. If we are gonna live appropriately in the creation, we must keep the Sabbath.

(13:53):

You see, the Sabbath is, it’s, it’s our witness. It’s our witness. This is, this is the countercultural thing, you know, because it’s easy, you know, to go ahead and, you know, we, we, we, we Christians, we, we put a lot of labels on stuff, you know, we say about like, Jesus loves you and, and yet we don’t love, you know? And then we say that God wants you to have abundant life. And yet we, we, we run nonstop like a racehorse, you know? But like I, but when I look at my running nonstop, I, I feel like more like, I’m like that little pitiful greyhound, you know, that that should have been taken off the, the circuit a long time ago. And that’s how I feel. I’m just gonna, just running, worn out, just trying to chase a dang rabbit. It’s not even a real rabbit, you know?

(14:31):

But that, that’s, that’s what what happens to us. But I also want to acknowledge though, that, you know, one of the greatest dangers of, of faithfully observing Sabbath is legalism. You know, I’ve been talking to some people this week, you know, cause we’ve been kind of reflecting on our, our spiritual devotions and, you know, um, was sharing that, you know, there I got in a season of my life where I would, you know, want to, you know, read through the Bible every year. And, and I mean, I was just diligent about it. And I would read different, you know, trans basically read about seven or eight translations every single year, every day doing that. And so finally, God got my attention one time, and I think I was just reading like Leviticus and going through the commands, and I, and I realized like I’m just like, just, just reading through it and not talking to God at all.

(15:22):

I’m not listening, I’m just reading through it. And I think sometimes, um, legalism can really set in when we’re thinking about Sabbath. And that’s also, I think one of the reasons why we miss Sabbath so much, or we miss the mark. So to kind of help us to get some tools of, of moving forward, of how to embrace Sabbath, I I need to invite you to, to consider that, you know, you gotta set aside a Sabbath time that really works for your life in the rhythm of your life. You know, like for the Jews, okay? Like, like how they understood Sabbath, they, they, they follow the biblical narrative. And so, you know, um, Sabbath is, you know, um, on the seventh day, which is a Saturday, so what, and they observe the day starting from the evening. So it starts at Friday at sundown, and then they go all day Saturday and don’t do anything until sundown on Saturday.

(16:13):

They actually light two candles, you know? And, um, you know, we Christians, we like to light two candles too, but we light candles because we, we see it as the, the full divinity and full humanity of Christ. Um, Jews, when they light their candles on Sabbath, they, they light it for one to, um, remember that that’s the first candle’s always lit to remember. And the, and the, and the second candle is to observe or to actually practice. Okay? So, you know, that’s how, that’s how they do it. And they, and they follow a very, you know, disciplined thing. But the thing that we have to to think about is like, some of us don’t have that luxury. To do it on Saturday might be a very different day. But what what reminds us about, about, about the Sabbath is that it’s a 24 hour, hour period of rest, you know, for Christians, right?

(16:58):

You know, we encountered the resurrected Jesus on the first day of the week, which was Sunday. And so for some Christians, you know, Sunday is your Sabbath. Um, but what about people who have these different schedules? You know, I, I think about people like, you know, my mom, um, was a nurse and she had to be on call all the time. Doctors have to be on call. Um, some people have to work on Sunday and like, you know, and like me, okay? But you know, I work on other days too, but everybody thinks I just work on Sunday, but we work on other days <laugh>. Um, but, uh, but you know, that, that’s just the reality. But some people have to work on Sunday. And then also there is a difference between working and volunteering. Because one thing you’re gonna learn later on in Sabbath is that what do we do in the rest?

(17:41):

We actually take time to delight. So we do things that brings delight and some people delight in serving. So you have to figure this stuff out. Um, but what I’m asking to do is that when you’re thinking about Sabbath and how we can start implementing this into our spiritual life, to to develop a rhythm that you don’t fall into legalism and you take time to really listen to your heart and what’s going inside and look at the rhythm of your life and say, okay, what’s outta balance? And where do I really need to put this Sabbath in like a full day into it? So today what I’m, I’m I’m talking about is not legalism, but more about intentionality. It’s kind of like tithing, you know? Um, another season, I, I I fall a lot, like as I reflect, like, dang man, I fall a lot in the legalism in my personal life.

(18:29):

Um, but like even with like tithing, there was a point in my life where I was just like, I tithe because God said to tithe, you know, tithe meaning, you know, give the 10% of your your income, right? And, and so, and then I would, you know, think about Malachi, right? Where that’s the one place in the Bible where God says, go ahead and test me, and will I not just open the windows of heaven? Give you such a blessing that you, there won’t be any room to hold it, but it’s not about just doing it because God commanded it. It’s not just doing it because there’s, there’s a promise attached to it. But what I’ve found in my life is when I’m intentional about that, when I’m intentional about tithing, it has these far-reaching ripple effects and your finances. Because one, it causes you to actually think, and that’s a problem with a lot of us Christians.

(19:11):

I mean, we stink at thinking, we don’t like pausing this and the stop, and we don’t think, and then it causes you to plan, it causes you to budget, and then it causes you to act. And, and what’s happened is we actually start thinking, and you’re planning, you’re budgeting, you’re doing these things, and you’re acting based on actual thinking and reflection. It has these far rate reaching ripple effects, and then the blessings just follow it. So, you know, like that’s why God says, just go ahead and try it. And I would, I would give you the same invitation for Sabbath. Go ahead and try it. So the next two weeks we’re gonna be covering just like four practices. And I’m, and I’m borrowing this from Pete Cero, um, many of you might be familiar piece cero, um, you know, he we’re, we’re pioneering these courses over and over again, the emotionally healthy spirituality and emotionally healthy relationships.

(19:58):

And he has other resources on Sabbath. You wrote this cool resource about, about Sabbath and, um, and it’s trying to help us to be more intentional. So I’m gonna cover two today. Number one, practice number one Sabbath is first and foremost, a day of stopping to stop is built into the literal meaning of the Hebrew word for Sabbath. But how about you? Do you have this struggle where I say to myself, I’ll stop wind, you hear what I’m talking about? Like, I’ll stop when I get all my work done. I’ll stop when I, I have whatever is finished and, and I do what I think I need to do. Um, I’ll stop when I need to complete, you know, my project or my term paper or answer that last return those phone calls or, or, or finish bouncing out the checkbook or, or paying my utility bills or clean house.

(20:53):

Then I’ll stop. And there’s always, if you notice, one more goal to be reached before stopping. But here’s what’s so countercultural about Sabbath that I want you to take and, and listen to this, why it’s so important. Because on Sabbath, um, I embrace my limits. Cuz I realize then that God is God, God is in control, he is indispensable. I am his creature. And guess what? The world will still keep on operating and keep going around and keep functioning even if I choose to stop. Do you hear me? It’s okay to stop. Like, like things will actually continue and will be okay. You don’t have to be all worked up about it. You know the reason why we stop, because God is on the throne and assuring us that the world will not fall apart. The world will not fall apart if we cease our activities and our business.

(21:52):

But we’ve like lied and made it think it’s all about us. It’s not about you. We’re part of God’s good creation. And, and you know what? And then the other thing is that we, we think that by accomplishing our goal, that you know what we’re gonna, everything’s gonna be done. But I don’t know about you, but every time I hit another goal, there seems like there’s another opportunity to, to go after. There’s another, there, there’s another new challenge. There’s another new project. But, but here’s what’s happening. You’re gonna die one day and you’re gonna have a list of unfinished projects and goals. I mean, that’s gonna be the reality. You’re not gonna finish everything, so just accept it now. So instead of living your life, being all miserable and feeling like, oh my gosh, I gotta do all this stuff and I gotta compete and all this kind of thing, and, and, and I’ll rest when I’m done and all that stuff, you’re gonna die and you’re, and you’re gonna have some things left undone. The to-do list will not be checked off. And what would happen if we would accept that today and say, okay, therefore God’s called me to, uh, enjoy this abundant life now enjoy the, the people that God has placed around me now.

(23:06):

And we can accept that you know what, God is at work doing things in the universe that are beyond our control, that are actually better when God handles it than we handle it. And God can do things quite well without us meddling in it. Can we accept that? Can we accept that God is still at work when we are sleeping <laugh>, when we are at rest? And so the commandment and the thing, this is a commandment. God says, relax. Why? Because you’re not in charge of the world. I am. And even after we die, guess what? The world’s gonna go on just fine without you. Why? Because God is good and God will handle it. And it brings us back to what we’ve been taught in the Psalm, Psalm 46, verse 10, be still and know that I am God. This is why Sabbath is so important. It’s a, it’s a command, it’s a, it’s a teaching. At first you have to be still, you have to be quiet. You have to stop and be still. And no, so it’s not like mindless meditation <laugh>, you know, it’s not like just, okay, I gotta be mindful about myself, but it it’s saying that, you know what, I can be still because I know that, that God is God.

(24:25):

You see the core of this spiritual issue that we have, the the struggling with why do we have a hard time stopping? It really revolves around trust. And I guess you have to ask yourself, can I really trust God with this? Will God take care of us and our concerns if we obey him by keeping Sabbath? You know, that’s what it really boils down to. And we think it’s like so simple, like of course Scott will take care of. But, but try stopping <laugh>. Try resting just a little bit and see what will happen. You know, there’s this story of a wagon train. I don’t know if it’s true or not me, it’s one of these Christian myths, but it’s a cute story. Anyways, um, there’s a story of this, this wagon, train of Christians traveling on its way from St. Louis to Oregon. And they observed the habit of stopping for Sabbath during the autumn.

(25:14):

But as winter approached, the group began to panic and fear they would not reach their destination before the snow began. A number of the members of the group proposed that they should quit the practice of stopping for the Sabbath and travel seven days a week. This caused an argument in the community until it was finally decided to divide the tra the wagon train into two groups. One group would observe the Sabbath day as before and not travel the other would press on. And the question that the author writes is, which group arrived in Oregon for first? Guess what? It was the ones that actually kept the Sabbath because both the people and their horses were so rested by Sabbath observants that they could travel much further and efficiently. The other six days.

(26:03):

Practice number two, once we stop the Sabbath calls us to rest. I know it’s profound, isn’t it? <laugh>, stop and rest. But that’s what it calls us to do. God rested after his work and we are to do the same every seventh day. So what do we do to replace all that we are now stopping during our Sabbath time? And I, and the answer is this. And and, and this is what Christians that teach on Sabbath, this is what, what? And Judaism teaches on Sabbath. It’s whatever brings delight and replenishes you. What fills your cup? You know what, what, what brings joy? What helps you to appreciate what, what God is doing. So guess what Sabbath includes? I mean this is, these are God’s commands. I mean, yeah, there, there, there’s, there’s, there’s a reason why I said the commandments of God are good. Cuz when you practice Sabbath, here’s some of the things that includes, it includes taking a nap.

(27:01):

Isn’t that cool? <laugh>, God, like, bless nap time. I’m working out, going for long walks, maybe reading a novel, maybe watching a good movie, going out to dinner, avoiding that computer and cell phone that like sucks you in. Um, you know, for me though, if I’m really serious about Sabbath, um, I’ll tell you what it does require me to do. It requires me to, to have another day to prepare for my, to prepare for my Sabbath. You know, you have to be deliberate. You can’t just like stop and you know, and then all of a sudden you’re like, okay, what I’m gonna eat and all that stuff, you have to actually prepare for it. Um, cuz if not, you’ll be get all anxious and worked up and then Sabbath won’t accomplish any of those things. I saw this like lived out when, when I was in Israel and, and just a little ever coming attraction.

(27:54):

I mean our, our church we’re, we’re planning to go on a trip to Israel November 6th to the 23rd. So you might wanna check this out, but on my first trip to Israel, and I saw it more acutely in Jerusalem than any other place cause I was in Jerusalem during the Sabbath. I mean, they really got this Sabbath thing worked out and they know what it means to stop. And what they do is, like, before, you know, that Friday of sundown, they do all the stuff that they know they need to do in order to, to, to function at like a minimal existence on, on Saturday. So they plan ahead, they, you know, they, they even like prepare their meals and all that so you don’t have to work, um, on, on Sabbath, on on Saturday. And so they do all this stuff and everything and then come sundown on Friday, you know, like Sabbath begins.

(28:38):

So even like elevators don’t work, that they have like Sabbath mode elevators and, and you know, they, they just, anything that ha involves work, they, they stop it. And I thought it was gonna be like really boring until I went outside in my hotel and I had this like really beautiful park that I was looking out at the hotel. And you know what I saw? I saw like tons of families just kind of hanging out together and I saw people like delighting with each other and, and I could see that they actually took time to, to value what was in front of them and to value the people that were around them. And it was beautiful. It was something that, that I could feel my soul saying I need some of that. And so what that example that I saw in Jerusalem, it reminded me that I need to be intentional and I need to be very deliberate about how to practice Sabbath.

(29:34):

I gotta really think about it. So, you know, for, you know, for example, for me, you know, planning my week and paying my bills, bouncing the checkbook, cleaning the house, fighting traffic in crowds to the shop, doing all those things. I mean they’re all work, but I need to do that on a different day and not on my Sabbath day. So it will, once you have Sabbath it will, it will change the rest of the, of the, of the days of your week. Cuz you’re gonna say, okay, I need to plan this stuff so I could really enter into a true re rest. Um, and I’m gonna be honest with you, as I’m preaching about this Sabbath, I have like literally screwed up my Sabbath for the past three weeks. Like I’ve broken Sabbath, you know, um, I’ve been good about ahold for a while, but I’ve been allowing the little things that need to be done to, to creep in.

(30:22):

And, and I wanna tell you something like I, I, I, I felt it, you know, and I’d have like partial Sabbath, but I didn’t have that full rest and replenishment. And so I’m just being honest with you. The Sabbath is something that you have to be diligent about. You have to be intentional about. But also, you know, if you’re not on it, I mean it’s easy to lose and forget about it. And then usually when we realize we need Sabbath, it’s when it’s too late. So if you’re struggling with this, there’s no condemnation in Christ Jesus. Because as you’re a pastor, I’m struggling with it too. But I know that God is calling me to something more. So here’s the things I want, as you’re thinking about why you need Sabbath, you know, Sabbath is this great exchange. I mean, a lot of Christianity is in exchange of taking what we’ve been taught, the junk been taught and exchanging it for life that God has given to us. So here’s a list of, of nine possibilities to consider replacing with rest. Of course, the primary one is replacing it, um, rest from your work. But here’s some other things. And, and as you see this list, you might want to take one or two over the next couple of months to develop your practice of Sabbath. So here’s some things that you want to like, take out of your life, create room for so you can rest. So replace work with Sabbath physical exhaustion

(31:41):

That hurriedness, you know what I’m talking about? Multitasking. <laugh>. Like, we think that’s so good. It’s such a joke.

Congregation (31:51):

<laugh>,

Pastor Mike (31:54):

Competitive competitiveness, worry, decision making, catching up on the errands, you blown your Sabbath and just catching up on all these errands and things that you need to do. Talking

(32:17):

Technology and machines. Cuz here’s what happens when we stop and rest. We respect our humanity and the image of God in us. You know, you and I we’re creating God’s image and at the creator of the universe felt it was wise to rest. After all its work. I mean, we should follow that pattern. We need to that rhythm in our lives because when we are not that nonstop human beings, here’s what happens. And maybe you’ve had this experience this to us, life will make you rest and it’ll take the form of physical illness. Um, it makes you susceptible. Things like cancer, heart attacks, flu, um, depression. If we don’t get our rest, these things come up to us. Cause we’re, we’re running too hard. And remember, we don’t serve the Sabbath. The Sabbath serves us. And why the Sabbath serves us or why this is so important is because Jesus is the Sabbath and Jesus invites us to come to him.

(33:22):

Because you know what? I remember I start out in the beginning. You can get very legalistic about this stuff and miss what it’s all really about. It’s about you being to be connected with what’s most important with life. And the greatest connection of all things is Jesus Christ. And I go back to, to what he said in Matthew 28 or Matthew 11 versus 28 to 30. I’m just gonna read this and just, just listen to these words. I I’m gonna read it from two different translations, but, but I want you to hear this. Come to me all who are weary and burdened and I’ll give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn from me. Fry am gentle and humble in heart.

(34:15):

Just reading this makes me find peace and you’ll find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy and my burden is light. The message translation says it this way. Are you tired, worn out, burned out on religion? Come to me, get away with me and you’ll recover your life. I’ll show you how to take a real rest, walk with me and work with me. Watch how I do it. Learn the unforced rhythms of grace. I won’t lay anything heavy or ill-fitting on you. Keep company with me and you’ll learn to live freely. Enlightly, I’m there.

Hannah Hunter (35:18):

Hey, beautiful people. This is Hannah Hunter. I’m the director of Reach here at the Gathering Place in Palm Beach Gardens. Thank you for joining us this week. We love getting to share our journey in Christ and community with you. And if you’re in the Palm Beach area, we’d love to get to connect with you in person at our Sunday worship service at 1115. For more information about our community in faith, check out our website at thegatheringplaceflorg. Thanks for listening.