It’s difficult to grow spiritually while remaining emotionally immature. Instead of paying attention to the deep places of our life needing transformation, believers often focus on external matters- attending church, small groups, and busy work for the Lord. Everything looks okay on the surface, but what lies beneath?
Sabbath Rest, Pace For The Race
Speakers
Josh Blount
Lead Pastor
Notes
Hebrews 12:1
Let us run with endurance the race God has set before us.
1 Corinthians 9:24
Do you not know that in a race all the runners run, but only one gets the prize? Run in such a way as to get the prize.
Corrie Ten Boom
If the enemy cannot make you BAD, he’ll make you BUSY.”
Sin and busyness have the exact same effect
John Ortberg
“Being busy is a condition of our outer world (having many things to do). Being hurried is a problem of the soul. It’s being so preoccupied with myself and what myself has to do that I am no longer able to be fully present with God with myself, and with other people. I am unable to occupy the present moment. Busyness migrates to hurry when we let it squeeze God out of our lives. . . I cannot live in the kingdom of God with a hurried soul. I cannot rest in God with a hurried soul.”
Hurry is hurting you and the people around you!
John Mark Comer
“Hurry is violence on the soul.”
Proverbs 19:2
A person in a hurry makes mistakes.
Proverbs 21:5
Hurry and scurry puts you further behind.
Jeremiah 2:25
Slow down. Take a deep breath. What’s the hurry? Why wear yourself out? Just what are you after anyway?
Matthew 11:25-30
Are you tired? Are you worn out? Are you 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 and lightly."
I am what I do.
My purpose is my production.
My “valuables” determines my value.
01. REST WAS MODELED IN HOW GOD DESIGNED
Genesis 2:1
Thus the heavens and the earth were completed in all their vast array. 2 By the seventh day God had finished the work he had been doing; so on the seventh day he rested from all his work.
02. REST WAS MODELED IN WHAT GOD DESIGNED
Genesis 1:3
Then God said, “Let there be light”; and there was light. 4 And God saw the light, that it was good; and God divided the light from the darkness. 5 God called the light Day, and the darkness He called Night. So the evening and the morning were the first day.
Genesis 1:8
So the evening and the morning were the second day.
Genesis 1:13
So the evening and the morning were the third day.
Genesis 1:19
So the evening and the morning were the fourth day.
Genesis 1:23
So the evening and the morning were the fifth day.
Genesis 1:31
So the evening and the morning were the sixth day.
03. REST WAS MODELED FOR WHO GOD DESIGNED
Exodus 20:8
“Remember the Sabbath day by keeping it holy. 9 Six days you shall labor and do all your work, 10 but the seventh day is a sabbath to the Lord your God.
04. REST WAS MODELED BY THE ONE WHO DESIGNED
Genesis 1:1
“In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth.”
John 1:1
In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. 2 He was with God in the beginning. 3 Through him all things were made; without him nothing was made that has been made.
John 1:14
The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us. We have seen his glory, the glory of the one and only Son, who came from the Father, full of grace and truth.
Research that attempts to quantify the relationship between hours worked and productivity found that employee output falls sharply after a 50-hour work-week, and falls off a cliff after 55 hours—so much so that someone who puts in 70 hours produces nothing more with those extra 15 hours.
Wayne Mueller
“If we do not allow for a rhythm of rest in our overly busy lives, illness becomes our Sabbath – our pneumonia, our cancer, our heart attack, our accidents create Sabbath for us."
Genesis 2:2
And on the seventh day God ended His work which He had done, and He rested on the seventh day from all His work which He had done. 3 Then God blessed the seventh day and sanctified it,
Work & Work Hard
Genesis 2:15
The Lord took the man and put him in the Garden of Eden to work it and to keep it."
Ecclesiastes 9:10
"Whatever your hand finds to do, do it with all your might."
2 STEPS TO A MEANINGFUL SABBATH
Leviticus 23:3
“’There are six days when you may work, but the seventh day is a day of sabbath rest, a day of sacred assembly.
1. Break For Rest
2. Break For Sacred Assembly
Pete Scazzero
Sabbath is first and foremost a day when we cease all work — paid and unpaid. On the Sabbath we embrace our limits. We let go of the illusion that we are indispensable to the running of the world. We recognize we will never finish all our goals and projects, and that God is on the throne, managing quite well in ruling the universe without our help.
John Mark Comer
“Sabbath is an expression of faith. Faith that there is a Creator and He’s good. We are his creation. This is his world. We live under his roof, drink his water, eat his food, breathe his oxygen. So on the Sabbath, we don’t just take a day off from work; we take a day off from toil. We give him all our fear and anxiety and stress and worry. We let go. We stop ruling and subduing, and we just be. We “remember” our place in the universe. So that we never forget . . . There is a God, and I’m not him.”
Connect With God In A Special Way.
Connect With Yourself In A Special Way.
Connect With Your Family In A Special Way.
Mark 2:27
The Sabbath was made for man and not man for the Sabbath.
Pete Scazzero
“Sabbath is like receiving the gift of a heavy snow day every week. Stores are closed. Roads are impassable. Suddenly you have the gift of a day to do whatever you want. You don't have any obligations, pressures, or responsibilities. You have permission to play, be with friends, take a nap, read a good book. Few of us would give ourselves a "no obligation day" very often. God gives you one—every seventh day. Think about it. He gives you over seven weeks (fifty-two days in all) of snow days every year!”