1 00:00:00,360 --> 00:00:05,640 Go and get those Bibles open to Genesis chapter 2. 2 00:00:05,680 --> 00:00:13,000 We made it so we are only 49 chapters away from being done 3 00:00:13,000 --> 00:00:16,760 with Genesis. It's right around the corner as 4 00:00:16,760 --> 00:00:18,440 you're turning there. We've got 3 verses. 5 00:00:18,640 --> 00:00:22,560 We have gone through the 1st 6, first six, first six days of 6 00:00:22,560 --> 00:00:24,880 creation. This morning we turn the page to 7 00:00:24,880 --> 00:00:28,800 chapter 2 and we are going to look at the 7th day of creation. 8 00:00:29,080 --> 00:00:32,600 Historically, it's, it's been known as the Sabbath day, the 9 00:00:32,600 --> 00:00:35,920 day when God rest. Personally, I feel like it's a 10 00:00:35,920 --> 00:00:39,000 rebuke from the Lord for me to be preaching this sermon on this 11 00:00:39,000 --> 00:00:41,040 Sunday. So I've been really, I've been 12 00:00:41,040 --> 00:00:43,080 grappling with this. I've been like, OK, this feels 13 00:00:43,080 --> 00:00:45,720 personal Lord, because I was telling our, our leadership team 14 00:00:45,720 --> 00:00:48,480 this meeting or this morning. I was like literally if you 15 00:00:48,480 --> 00:00:51,800 handed me a printed off calendar and you were like circle the 16 00:00:51,960 --> 00:00:55,920 week where you are most exhausted, I would have circled 17 00:00:56,160 --> 00:00:58,360 this week. I coach high school wrestling. 18 00:00:58,680 --> 00:01:02,360 Yesterday was districts. This coming week is is state 19 00:01:02,360 --> 00:01:04,879 wrestling. And so like this, this is like 20 00:01:04,879 --> 00:01:06,360 this is the part of the year, man. 21 00:01:06,400 --> 00:01:08,320 Like this is the part of the year where I'm like, I don't 22 00:01:08,320 --> 00:01:11,720 know if I have laryngitis or I just yelled too much last night. 23 00:01:11,960 --> 00:01:13,880 I just yelled too much. I was like, I don't know if I'm 24 00:01:13,880 --> 00:01:16,760 just like too sleep deprived or if I'm legitimately sick. 25 00:01:17,040 --> 00:01:19,000 Like I'll be like, I don't even know if that's a bruise or 26 00:01:19,000 --> 00:01:21,400 ringworm. So it's like that, it's that 27 00:01:21,400 --> 00:01:23,440 point in the season where I'm like, all right, I'm just going 28 00:01:23,440 --> 00:01:24,760 to, I'm going to make it through it. 29 00:01:25,400 --> 00:01:28,200 And so I love serving you. I love being with you. 30 00:01:28,200 --> 00:01:31,040 I'm going to be mostly out of the office this week. 31 00:01:31,040 --> 00:01:33,480 So if you have an emergency, if you need help, we have a 32 00:01:33,520 --> 00:01:37,680 phenomenal elder team of men who are more qualified than me to 33 00:01:37,680 --> 00:01:41,240 pastor you and shepherd you. So please feel free to reach out 34 00:01:41,240 --> 00:01:44,160 to those men. But if I'm going to say, if I'm 35 00:01:44,160 --> 00:01:48,120 going to say anything meaningful about the Sabbath, it I got to 36 00:01:48,120 --> 00:01:49,680 pray. So let's start with prayer, 37 00:01:51,200 --> 00:01:56,040 Heavenly Father. Yeah, I pray that this morning 38 00:01:56,040 --> 00:01:59,880 would not just be a rebuke to me or a rebuke to us. 39 00:02:01,240 --> 00:02:05,200 I pray that it would be a grace and a kindness and a gift from 40 00:02:05,200 --> 00:02:09,120 you. And so in this moment, Lord, 41 00:02:09,120 --> 00:02:13,080 because of everything that Jesus has done for us, and I pray that 42 00:02:13,080 --> 00:02:15,800 his name would be lifted up, that he would be glorified, that 43 00:02:15,800 --> 00:02:18,320 he would look awesome, and that we would embrace him. 44 00:02:18,560 --> 00:02:20,760 It's because of Jesus and everything he had done on the 45 00:02:20,760 --> 00:02:25,400 cross that we can actually enter into rest right now. 46 00:02:27,560 --> 00:02:30,640 And so if some of us need to relax our muscles, I pray that 47 00:02:30,640 --> 00:02:34,040 you would do that. If some of us need to take a 48 00:02:34,040 --> 00:02:37,440 deep breath, really we would do that. 49 00:02:37,920 --> 00:02:41,840 If some of us need to peel our ears from our shoulders, I pray 50 00:02:41,840 --> 00:02:46,320 that you would do that. And I pray, I Lord, I love you. 51 00:02:46,400 --> 00:02:51,960 And I don't want to just preach on Sabbath as an overworker. 52 00:02:51,960 --> 00:02:56,480 I want to experience your Sabbath rest right now, in this 53 00:02:56,480 --> 00:02:59,080 moment. So Lord, would you grant me rest 54 00:02:59,080 --> 00:03:02,040 even as I tear through these couple verses? 55 00:03:02,560 --> 00:03:04,840 Grant us rest. It's in the precious name of 56 00:03:04,840 --> 00:03:06,560 Jesus that all God's people prayed. 57 00:03:08,240 --> 00:03:10,640 Amen. Beyond Chul Han wrote a 58 00:03:10,640 --> 00:03:14,560 phenomenal book called The Burnout Society, and in a he had 59 00:03:14,560 --> 00:03:17,240 a sentence that frustrated me. I'm going to read it out loud 60 00:03:17,240 --> 00:03:20,040 for you. What what Han says is quote, 61 00:03:21,040 --> 00:03:26,360 burnout and depression are not the marks of failure, but the 62 00:03:26,360 --> 00:03:30,720 result of excessive positivity. I don't like that. 63 00:03:31,720 --> 00:03:34,000 I don't like that at all. How so? 64 00:03:34,280 --> 00:03:40,560 He was on to say the achievement subject US exploits itself 65 00:03:40,560 --> 00:03:46,080 willingly until it eventually breaks down. 66 00:03:46,080 --> 00:03:49,040 The dude's a scholar. But what Han is saying here is 67 00:03:49,040 --> 00:03:54,240 that we live in an achievement society that seduces us with 68 00:03:54,240 --> 00:03:58,040 non-stop possibility. And So what happens is our 69 00:03:58,040 --> 00:04:03,600 excessive optimism drives us to say yes to everything, to say 70 00:04:03,600 --> 00:04:08,320 yes to projects, opportunities, self optimization. 71 00:04:08,600 --> 00:04:12,600 And in doing so, what we end up doing is we end up exploiting 72 00:04:12,600 --> 00:04:17,120 ourselves endlessly and freely. We live in what he calls the 73 00:04:17,120 --> 00:04:21,040 burnout generation. We live in an exhaustion era. 74 00:04:21,279 --> 00:04:24,280 But interestingly enough, the exhaustion that we experience is 75 00:04:24,280 --> 00:04:27,800 not like what God's people experienced in the book of 76 00:04:27,800 --> 00:04:29,920 Egypt. God's people experience 77 00:04:29,920 --> 00:04:33,120 exhaustion and burnout in the book of Egypt, But the 78 00:04:33,120 --> 00:04:35,800 exhaustion we experience is actually not. 79 00:04:36,440 --> 00:04:40,840 It's not like what God's people experienced in Egypt, external 80 00:04:40,840 --> 00:04:44,880 oppression from Pharaoh that makes us collapse underneath the 81 00:04:44,880 --> 00:04:48,360 endless manual labor we don't experience that we have. 82 00:04:49,040 --> 00:04:53,320 We have time hacking technology at our fingertips, things that 83 00:04:53,320 --> 00:04:56,920 are designed to save us time and to save us from any sort of work 84 00:04:56,920 --> 00:04:58,840 so ever. We've got the Internet, we've 85 00:04:58,840 --> 00:05:02,440 got AI, we've got Google, we've got washing machines, we've got 86 00:05:02,440 --> 00:05:06,160 dishwashers. Technologies literally designed 87 00:05:06,160 --> 00:05:10,720 to save us hours in the day. And yet we're the most exhausted 88 00:05:10,720 --> 00:05:12,960 generation to ever live. How could it? 89 00:05:13,200 --> 00:05:14,800 Like, how could that be possible? 90 00:05:14,840 --> 00:05:18,720 How could it be that the more technologies we create to save 91 00:05:18,720 --> 00:05:22,320 us time in the day doesn't correspond with our exhaustion? 92 00:05:22,320 --> 00:05:24,560 Going down, going up, it doesn't make any sense. 93 00:05:25,680 --> 00:05:28,520 What's the deal? How are you doing? 94 00:05:29,720 --> 00:05:36,840 Do you feel exhausted? Do you feel on the edge of 95 00:05:36,840 --> 00:05:41,280 burnout? And if you do, it may be that 96 00:05:41,280 --> 00:05:47,560 the wall, that wall that you hit, it may be that the wall 97 00:05:47,560 --> 00:05:51,160 behind you is closer than you think. 98 00:05:51,840 --> 00:05:53,720 Even if you're not burnt out right now. 99 00:05:53,720 --> 00:05:56,440 I found that out the hard way. OK, I'll tell you exactly what I 100 00:05:56,440 --> 00:05:59,520 found that out. I was I was in fifth grade, 101 00:05:59,520 --> 00:06:02,760 maybe it was 4th grade out sometime in grade school and I 102 00:06:02,760 --> 00:06:05,520 was doing what I should not have been doing. 103 00:06:05,680 --> 00:06:08,800 Me and my buddies who were too big for the kiddie pool, we were 104 00:06:08,800 --> 00:06:10,280 playing in the kiddie pool together. 105 00:06:10,280 --> 00:06:13,240 OK, and I need you to get this because this is actually a 106 00:06:13,240 --> 00:06:15,120 pertinent literary details of the story. 107 00:06:15,640 --> 00:06:19,320 The kiddie pool in Hampton, IA was not built under the ground 108 00:06:19,320 --> 00:06:23,000 like the adult pool. It wasn't above of ground built 109 00:06:23,280 --> 00:06:27,240 kiddie pool, which meant that there was a concrete wall 110 00:06:27,240 --> 00:06:32,640 surrounding the entire pool that came up to about your thigh or 111 00:06:32,640 --> 00:06:35,040 for some of you, your knee. I get it, I'm sure. 112 00:06:35,640 --> 00:06:39,600 And we were playing, we were playing Marco Polo and you guys 113 00:06:39,600 --> 00:06:43,440 play that, right? So the dude who's it has his 114 00:06:43,440 --> 00:06:45,360 eyes closed, Everybody else has their eyes open. 115 00:06:45,640 --> 00:06:48,760 And the base, the safe was the safety spot was the wall. 116 00:06:49,400 --> 00:06:58,560 And so my buddy who was it was saying Marco and I said, Polo. 117 00:06:59,120 --> 00:07:01,280 Now you're it's going to be hard to believe this, but I was kind 118 00:07:01,280 --> 00:07:03,160 of a cocky son of a gun back in the day. 119 00:07:04,080 --> 00:07:06,400 Thanks for your look of surprise on your face. 120 00:07:06,960 --> 00:07:10,160 And So what I was doing is I stood a couple feet in front of 121 00:07:10,160 --> 00:07:14,000 him and I was mocking him and I was walking backwards with my 122 00:07:14,000 --> 00:07:16,800 back to the wall. So he'd say Marco and I'd say 123 00:07:18,240 --> 00:07:20,680 with a smirk on my face, I would walk backwards. 124 00:07:20,680 --> 00:07:28,160 He'd say Marco and I'd say until he jumped at me to tag me. 125 00:07:28,800 --> 00:07:30,520 I'm not a sucker, I'm not going to get tagged. 126 00:07:31,160 --> 00:07:34,880 So he jumps at me. I think I've still got a few 127 00:07:34,880 --> 00:07:37,200 feet of room behind me before the wall. 128 00:07:38,400 --> 00:07:41,840 So what I do is I turn and jump at the same time. 129 00:07:43,320 --> 00:07:47,800 And what resulted was the loudest tink I've ever heard in 130 00:07:47,800 --> 00:07:51,680 my entire life. When I heard that tank, I can 131 00:07:51,680 --> 00:07:54,480 still hear it to this thing. When I heard that tank, it 132 00:07:54,480 --> 00:07:58,920 sounded like 100 baseballs being hit at the same time. 133 00:07:59,600 --> 00:08:02,840 It sounded like Tiger Woods hitting the golf ball tank. 134 00:08:03,200 --> 00:08:07,920 It was neither of those things. What had happened? 135 00:08:07,920 --> 00:08:12,600 What that tank was is it was the sound of my front tooth hitting 136 00:08:12,600 --> 00:08:17,320 a concrete wall. Yeah, it was brutal. 137 00:08:18,040 --> 00:08:19,840 Here's an important literary detail. 138 00:08:20,200 --> 00:08:24,080 My mother was a dental assistant. 139 00:08:25,320 --> 00:08:29,440 And so it was to my horror when I reached up and discovered that 140 00:08:29,440 --> 00:08:32,159 half of this tooth had been chipped off. 141 00:08:32,640 --> 00:08:36,840 Half of this tooth right here, my front right one is filling. 142 00:08:38,000 --> 00:08:40,440 And so that was the first of many calls to my mom that I 143 00:08:40,440 --> 00:08:42,799 intro by saying I need to tell you something. 144 00:08:42,799 --> 00:08:44,720 But you have to promise you won't get mad at me. 145 00:08:46,720 --> 00:08:49,040 My friends called me chipper for like a week or two. 146 00:08:50,480 --> 00:08:52,400 I'm actually quite surprised it didn't stick. 147 00:08:53,560 --> 00:08:57,520 The wall was a lot closer than I thought, and I can still hear 148 00:08:57,520 --> 00:09:01,160 the tank to this day. And for you, that wall is closer 149 00:09:01,160 --> 00:09:04,040 than you think. It's not a couple feet away. 150 00:09:04,040 --> 00:09:07,920 It's probably right behind you. We live in the exhaustion era. 151 00:09:08,640 --> 00:09:12,600 Right behind you, That wall of exhaustion, that wall of 152 00:09:13,280 --> 00:09:18,880 spiritual meltdown, that crisis of faith, that moment that some 153 00:09:18,880 --> 00:09:23,600 of you have hit, did hit, or one day will hit where your prayer 154 00:09:23,600 --> 00:09:28,320 feels dry. God seems far away no matter how 155 00:09:28,320 --> 00:09:32,280 much truth you stuff inside of your head, because your nervous 156 00:09:32,280 --> 00:09:37,520 system is too fried to even sense God's closeness. 157 00:09:37,680 --> 00:09:41,960 Most of us are playing Marco Polo with our spiritual health, 158 00:09:43,200 --> 00:09:46,680 the walls closer than we think. And so in our age of exhaustion, 159 00:09:46,680 --> 00:09:52,440 where we optimistically exploit ourselves to death and never 160 00:09:52,440 --> 00:09:55,440 rest, we should ask ourselves the question, is there a 161 00:09:55,440 --> 00:10:00,960 solution to this exhaustion? Does Do we have to break our 162 00:10:00,960 --> 00:10:03,440 lives in half? Do we have to hear that dreaded 163 00:10:03,440 --> 00:10:06,720 tink and hit that wall and experience that meltdown? 164 00:10:07,040 --> 00:10:09,040 Maybe. I don't think we have to. 165 00:10:09,040 --> 00:10:12,840 And I'll be honest, I've been affectionately referring to this 166 00:10:12,840 --> 00:10:15,360 sermon all week long as the most hypocritical sermon, 167 00:10:15,360 --> 00:10:16,880 hypocritical sermon I've ever preached. 168 00:10:18,680 --> 00:10:21,000 But I do believe that God has a solution to this problem. 169 00:10:21,080 --> 00:10:23,800 And this is a struggle and a challenge for me. 170 00:10:23,800 --> 00:10:28,200 So I as I preach the sermon, I'm going to be praying for non-stop 171 00:10:28,360 --> 00:10:31,920 feeling this entire sermon. So if you're able, let's stand 172 00:10:31,920 --> 00:10:33,000 for the reading of the word of God. 173 00:10:38,320 --> 00:10:42,440 What's God's solution to this problem? 174 00:10:44,280 --> 00:10:47,400 We see the six days of creation. Then we see something new, 175 00:10:47,400 --> 00:10:50,120 something different, something distinct, Distinct. 176 00:10:50,760 --> 00:10:57,680 We see the 7th day of creation. Thus, after the six days, the 177 00:10:57,680 --> 00:10:59,760 heavens and the earth were finished. 178 00:11:00,880 --> 00:11:04,520 It was finished and all the host of them. 179 00:11:05,160 --> 00:11:11,040 And on the 7th day God finished his work that he had done, and 180 00:11:11,040 --> 00:11:14,720 he rested on the 7th day from all his work that he had done. 181 00:11:15,080 --> 00:11:24,040 And so God blessed the 7th day and made it holy. 182 00:11:25,360 --> 00:11:29,640 Why? Because on it, God, the eternal, 183 00:11:30,440 --> 00:11:35,400 omnipotent, omniscient God who never sleeps, God who never 184 00:11:35,400 --> 00:11:41,200 depletes himself, that God rested from all his work that he 185 00:11:41,200 --> 00:11:46,520 had done in creation. What in tarnation is happening? 186 00:11:46,520 --> 00:11:50,680 I've seen clueless podcasters say, well, if God rests, what's 187 00:11:50,680 --> 00:11:52,520 that imply? It implies that he was 188 00:11:52,520 --> 00:11:54,800 exhausted, so maybe he's not omnipotent. 189 00:11:54,960 --> 00:11:56,960 My brother in Christ, read your Bible. 190 00:11:57,080 --> 00:12:05,500 If you're able, you can sit. All right, what's what's going 191 00:12:05,500 --> 00:12:11,100 on right here? This text is about God's 192 00:12:12,120 --> 00:12:15,640 Sabbath, God's Sabbath, which is kind of breathtaking to think 193 00:12:15,640 --> 00:12:17,640 about it. The way that some theologians 194 00:12:17,640 --> 00:12:20,680 describe it, and I think they're correct, is they, they, what 195 00:12:20,680 --> 00:12:24,160 they do is they imagine God's rest in the Sabbath day as what 196 00:12:24,160 --> 00:12:27,600 they call cosmic enthronement. Cosmic enthronement. 197 00:12:27,600 --> 00:12:32,680 God has created the last six days creation the same way that 198 00:12:32,680 --> 00:12:36,160 we might build a temple. He's created as a cosmic temple. 199 00:12:36,480 --> 00:12:39,400 And so in the 7th day, what he does is after he's finished the 200 00:12:39,400 --> 00:12:43,760 work of his cosmic temple, he enters into it and Thrones 201 00:12:43,760 --> 00:12:47,560 himself in it, kicks his feet up and enjoys it. 202 00:12:47,720 --> 00:12:49,160 It's breathtaking to think about. 203 00:12:49,880 --> 00:12:53,200 It's fantastic to think about. It's amazing to think about the 204 00:12:53,200 --> 00:12:57,640 fact that we worship a God who puts his feet up and rests and 205 00:12:57,640 --> 00:12:59,920 Sabbaths. Now I know what you're thinking, 206 00:12:59,920 --> 00:13:02,560 so let's just ask the question. Does the text actually say 207 00:13:02,560 --> 00:13:08,280 Sabbath? No it doesn't. 208 00:13:09,040 --> 00:13:10,880 You got me there. Game, set, match. 209 00:13:11,120 --> 00:13:14,800 Wait, but what phrase is repeated 3 times and three 210 00:13:14,800 --> 00:13:18,480 verses? 7th day, I'm going to read it 211 00:13:18,480 --> 00:13:19,400 out loud. Just listen. 212 00:13:19,400 --> 00:13:20,840 Listen to this poetry right here. 213 00:13:20,960 --> 00:13:25,400 Listen to this repetition. The text says on the 7th day, 214 00:13:25,880 --> 00:13:29,400 God finished his work that he had done and he rested on the 215 00:13:29,400 --> 00:13:32,120 7th day from all his work that he had done. 216 00:13:32,240 --> 00:13:37,000 So God bless that 7th day they made it holy. 217 00:13:37,200 --> 00:13:40,480 Anytime the Bible repeats itself you should clue in. 218 00:13:40,480 --> 00:13:42,360 All the lights on the dashboard should go off. 219 00:13:42,360 --> 00:13:46,920 It's massively important. 7th day gets repeated 3 times. 220 00:13:46,920 --> 00:13:49,680 Do you know how many other days of creation get that treatment? 221 00:13:50,280 --> 00:13:55,200 0 No other day in Genesis gets repeated 3 times. 222 00:13:55,520 --> 00:13:58,680 And so here's actually where we get the word Sabbath. 223 00:13:58,680 --> 00:14:01,520 It comes from the second book of the Bible, which is the book of 224 00:14:01,560 --> 00:14:03,600 Exodus. The book of Exodus is 225 00:14:03,600 --> 00:14:07,240 interpreting the book of Genesis and it interprets the 7th day 226 00:14:07,240 --> 00:14:10,240 for us this way. And by the way, this is not just 227 00:14:10,240 --> 00:14:13,120 a passing commandment. This is in the 10 commandments. 228 00:14:13,120 --> 00:14:15,840 Here's what Exodus says. This is massive. 229 00:14:15,840 --> 00:14:19,960 It says, quote, for in six days the Lord made the heavens and 230 00:14:19,960 --> 00:14:23,560 the earth, the sea and all that is in them, and he rested on the 231 00:14:23,560 --> 00:14:27,160 7th day. Therefore the Lord blessed thee 232 00:14:27,480 --> 00:14:34,560 Sabbath day and made it holy. This is about the Sabbath, but 233 00:14:34,560 --> 00:14:41,680 it's about God's Sabbath. So zoom out here. 234 00:14:41,880 --> 00:14:44,760 Zoom out just a little bit more. That poses a bigger question. 235 00:14:44,760 --> 00:14:48,080 OK, where, where did the word Sabbath come from? 236 00:14:48,320 --> 00:14:50,840 Well, it's actually Hebrew for stop. 237 00:14:51,680 --> 00:14:53,240 That's literally what it means in the Hebrew. 238 00:14:53,240 --> 00:14:55,320 In the Hebrew language, it means stop. 239 00:14:56,080 --> 00:15:02,760 So God stopped what? What did God stop doing 240 00:15:03,200 --> 00:15:06,440 specifically? Well, let's start with a list of 241 00:15:06,440 --> 00:15:11,080 a few reasons he didn't stop. God doesn't stop in Sabbath 242 00:15:11,080 --> 00:15:19,200 because he depleted his energy. He doesn't stop in Sabbath 243 00:15:19,240 --> 00:15:27,960 because he's exhausted or because he's phased out. 244 00:15:30,480 --> 00:15:32,400 It's not like God stop. So why? 245 00:15:33,120 --> 00:15:35,080 Why is God's Sabbath thing on the 7th day? 246 00:15:35,080 --> 00:15:37,280 Does he need it? No, he doesn't need it. 247 00:15:37,280 --> 00:15:38,680 But the answer is actually in the text. 248 00:15:38,680 --> 00:15:40,680 If you've got your Bible open, just look at this really 249 00:15:40,680 --> 00:15:42,960 closely. I need to bring one. 250 00:15:43,040 --> 00:15:45,440 I need to take one word. I need to lift it out of the 251 00:15:45,440 --> 00:15:47,160 text and just push it into your face. 252 00:15:47,160 --> 00:15:49,200 Here. Verse 1 of chapter 2, the 253 00:15:49,200 --> 00:15:54,200 heavens and the earth were finished. 254 00:15:54,960 --> 00:16:00,200 Why does God stop and rest? The biblical answer is because 255 00:16:00,320 --> 00:16:04,600 it was finished. God didn't rest because of 256 00:16:04,600 --> 00:16:08,160 fatigue, He didn't rest because he was tired, He rest because he 257 00:16:08,160 --> 00:16:10,880 had finished the work of creating the heavens and the 258 00:16:10,880 --> 00:16:14,200 earth ex Neilo or out of nothing. 259 00:16:14,480 --> 00:16:18,040 Everything that needed to be made and created in order for 260 00:16:18,040 --> 00:16:22,520 God to enter into the earth and joy and walk on the earth with 261 00:16:22,520 --> 00:16:28,320 mankind was finished on the six days before it was finished. 262 00:16:28,520 --> 00:16:30,680 Wow, Cole keeps on repeating the arthritis. 263 00:16:31,960 --> 00:16:35,160 I wonder if he's going to bring it back later on in this sermon. 264 00:16:35,920 --> 00:16:37,560 What a thoughtful question you posed. 265 00:16:38,240 --> 00:16:41,720 So exactly what is God resting from not being God? 266 00:16:42,560 --> 00:16:45,920 It's not even God being passive. Here's Genesis scholar Kenneth 267 00:16:45,920 --> 00:16:48,240 Matthews. I think he's right on the money. 268 00:16:48,600 --> 00:16:54,600 He says, quote, the created order was whole, requiring only 269 00:16:54,600 --> 00:16:59,160 the sustaining grace of God's superintendents, meaning no 270 00:16:59,160 --> 00:17:02,320 longer him creating things out of nothing. 271 00:17:02,320 --> 00:17:04,520 In other words, God stops creating things out of nothing. 272 00:17:05,000 --> 00:17:06,880 That's the work he did for the other six days. 273 00:17:07,720 --> 00:17:11,119 But what he doesn't stop doing is being God. 274 00:17:12,160 --> 00:17:15,880 He doesn't stop upholding the cosmos by the word of his mouth. 275 00:17:16,480 --> 00:17:20,640 He doesn't stop being active. He doesn't stop sovereignly 276 00:17:20,640 --> 00:17:23,640 sustaining all of creation for every second of the day. 277 00:17:23,880 --> 00:17:26,400 Apparently that stuff isn't even work to God. 278 00:17:27,720 --> 00:17:32,040 That's crazy. The upholding of every inch of 279 00:17:32,040 --> 00:17:34,440 creation, every second of every day. 280 00:17:34,680 --> 00:17:36,800 God's like, that's not even work, bro. 281 00:17:37,000 --> 00:17:40,080 What kind of God do we worship? That's insane. 282 00:17:41,120 --> 00:17:44,840 Stuff doesn't work for him. And so here's the massive 283 00:17:44,840 --> 00:17:47,440 observation that the rest of the Bible is going to make, and it's 284 00:17:47,440 --> 00:17:51,240 going to make it a lot. The massive observation is home. 285 00:17:52,240 --> 00:17:57,680 If we are God's images or statues and God's Sabbath after 286 00:17:57,680 --> 00:18:03,360 six days, then we must be required to Sabbath too. 287 00:18:04,280 --> 00:18:08,600 And we get that commandment a lot throughout the Bible to 288 00:18:08,600 --> 00:18:10,600 practice the discipline of Sabbath. 289 00:18:10,640 --> 00:18:14,000 It's in the 10 commandments, it's many other places, it's in 290 00:18:14,000 --> 00:18:15,720 the New Testament. So let's gain some clarity on 291 00:18:15,720 --> 00:18:19,440 the practice of Sabbath. When God's Sabbath, it doesn't 292 00:18:19,440 --> 00:18:21,560 mean that he rests from upholding and sustaining the 293 00:18:21,560 --> 00:18:22,920 universe. It means he rests from the 294 00:18:22,920 --> 00:18:26,520 creative work he did for the first six days. 295 00:18:26,880 --> 00:18:30,000 And So what this means for us is that the Sabbath is not an 296 00:18:30,000 --> 00:18:33,040 excuse to be lazy. The other six days as 297 00:18:33,040 --> 00:18:36,520 Christians, we should never use our faith to justify laziness or 298 00:18:36,720 --> 00:18:39,800 to show up to work late or to not fulfill our time 299 00:18:39,800 --> 00:18:41,480 requirements, our jobs. Amen. 300 00:18:42,720 --> 00:18:44,040 Right. We shouldn't, we shouldn't be 301 00:18:44,040 --> 00:18:46,600 lazy and say, well, you know, we just worship, we just worship a 302 00:18:46,600 --> 00:18:49,200 God who rests. So, you know, it's like, no, the 303 00:18:49,200 --> 00:18:55,600 pattern, the pattern is 6 days hard, one day of rest because we 304 00:18:55,600 --> 00:18:57,680 worship a God who calls us to rest. 305 00:18:57,880 --> 00:19:02,280 We rest, we Sabbath. But our rest is biblically 306 00:19:02,280 --> 00:19:08,960 defined Sabbath rest like God. Six days of working hard, one 307 00:19:08,960 --> 00:19:12,000 day of resting hard. Or as a modern person, maybe 5 308 00:19:12,000 --> 00:19:15,840 or 4 days of working hard, a day or two of chores and then one 309 00:19:16,000 --> 00:19:18,280 Sabbath day. So let's gain some more clarity. 310 00:19:18,440 --> 00:19:23,000 What amazes me about the Bible is how psychologically like how 311 00:19:23,000 --> 00:19:27,280 psychologically healthy the Sabbath is like it. 312 00:19:27,280 --> 00:19:31,680 It prevents you from neither burning out or rusting out, 313 00:19:32,440 --> 00:19:34,960 which nobody told me this, but they both they feel the same 314 00:19:34,960 --> 00:19:37,320 even though they require entirely different solutions, 315 00:19:38,200 --> 00:19:41,960 right? If you if you do not Sabbath one 316 00:19:41,960 --> 00:19:47,800 day a week, you will burn out. But if you don't work hard 456 317 00:19:47,800 --> 00:19:51,280 days, you'll rust out. And so the Sabbath provides this 318 00:19:51,280 --> 00:19:54,040 like really psychologically healthy way of being human, 319 00:19:54,320 --> 00:19:57,640 almost like we're made in the image of God and living like him 320 00:19:57,640 --> 00:19:59,440 is the most healthy thing that we can do. 321 00:19:59,440 --> 00:20:00,720 So let's push a little bit more for clarity. 322 00:20:00,720 --> 00:20:02,480 I'm going to give you 2 definitions. 323 00:20:02,680 --> 00:20:05,520 You take whichever 1 you like. I'm going to give you a pro 324 00:20:05,520 --> 00:20:08,440 definition and I'm going to give you a rookie definition. 325 00:20:08,560 --> 00:20:10,800 Whichever one works for you, take it. 326 00:20:10,800 --> 00:20:12,480 We'll start with the pro definition. 327 00:20:13,200 --> 00:20:16,360 I'm taking this directly from the New City Catechism, which is 328 00:20:16,440 --> 00:20:18,760 a great catechism. I highly recommend it. 329 00:20:18,960 --> 00:20:24,600 So this is textbook. Definition of the Sabbath New 330 00:20:24,600 --> 00:20:30,040 City says quote The Sabbath is the day we spend time in public 331 00:20:30,040 --> 00:20:36,120 and private worship of God, rest from routine employment, serve 332 00:20:36,120 --> 00:20:42,200 the Lord and others, and so anticipate the eternal Sabbath. 333 00:20:43,400 --> 00:20:46,480 That's good stuff. If that's TMI for you, let me 334 00:20:46,480 --> 00:20:49,800 give you a rookie definition. This is my definition quote. 335 00:20:49,800 --> 00:20:52,600 Sabbath is. You don't have to say quote when 336 00:20:52,600 --> 00:20:56,120 you're quoting yourself. That was that was lame, sorry. 337 00:20:58,360 --> 00:21:01,400 As my good friend Cole once said, Sabbath. 338 00:21:01,880 --> 00:21:07,040 Sabbath is the counter cultural practice of setting aside one 339 00:21:07,040 --> 00:21:13,680 day every week to enjoy as distinct and holy. 340 00:21:15,720 --> 00:21:21,160 When God says it's holy, he's not saying this day is religious 341 00:21:21,160 --> 00:21:24,800 and the rest of the week isn't. The word means set apart. 342 00:21:26,000 --> 00:21:36,760 The key ingredient is distinct. It should look different, smell 343 00:21:37,880 --> 00:21:42,520 different, feel different. It should be distinct. 344 00:21:42,520 --> 00:21:46,600 And so definitions are fun, but we need to get practical here. 345 00:21:46,600 --> 00:21:51,800 OK, How do you do it, Cole? And at the end of the day, we're 346 00:21:51,800 --> 00:21:55,960 not going to legalistically as a church, enforce a bunch of rules 347 00:21:55,960 --> 00:21:58,760 and regulations on exactly what Sabbath has to look like. 348 00:21:59,000 --> 00:22:01,280 There was a group of people who did that a long time ago, and it 349 00:22:01,280 --> 00:22:03,040 did not end well for the Pharisees. 350 00:22:03,640 --> 00:22:05,920 And so I would encourage you to figure it out in a way that's 351 00:22:05,920 --> 00:22:08,000 healthy and helps you worship Jesus. 352 00:22:08,000 --> 00:22:11,040 But let me give you some starter tips if you've never practiced 353 00:22:11,040 --> 00:22:14,600 the Sabbath. First, what I would do if you've 354 00:22:14,600 --> 00:22:17,120 never practiced the Sabbath is I would map it out. 355 00:22:18,120 --> 00:22:20,520 What I would do is I'd I'd get out my planner, I'd get out your 356 00:22:20,520 --> 00:22:23,920 planner, I'd get out your phone, and I would circle one day a 357 00:22:23,920 --> 00:22:28,240 week and I would consciously set that apart as a Sabbath day for 358 00:22:28,240 --> 00:22:30,080 that week. The church has historically 359 00:22:30,080 --> 00:22:32,960 treated Sunday as the Sabbath. I think that's good. 360 00:22:32,960 --> 00:22:35,360 I think that's the wisest way to do it. 361 00:22:35,360 --> 00:22:38,200 Personally. Sunday is kind of my game day, 362 00:22:38,200 --> 00:22:41,880 so that doesn't work for me. And So what I do is I Sabbath on 363 00:22:41,880 --> 00:22:43,800 Friday and God hasn't stoned me yet. 364 00:22:44,120 --> 00:22:47,400 So even though I think Sunday's the best day to do it, I don't 365 00:22:47,400 --> 00:22:49,760 think we need to be entirely legalistic about it. 366 00:22:49,760 --> 00:22:51,360 I think we can be a little bit fluent with it. 367 00:22:51,560 --> 00:22:56,440 I think the most important thing is distinction, making it 368 00:22:56,720 --> 00:22:59,960 distinct from the other six days. 369 00:22:59,960 --> 00:23:02,000 I've heard some great tips from people in our church. 370 00:23:02,720 --> 00:23:05,720 I've heard some of you will. What you'll do is you'll light a 371 00:23:05,720 --> 00:23:09,920 candle on Saturday night as the Sabbath candle, and that will 372 00:23:09,920 --> 00:23:13,400 kind of almost function as this visual that you're entering into 373 00:23:13,400 --> 00:23:17,200 a day of deep rest together. Love that I heard from the 374 00:23:17,200 --> 00:23:20,520 Greggs this week that most Sabbaths they have a Sabbath 375 00:23:20,520 --> 00:23:23,040 dinner and they read a Wendell Berry poem together. 376 00:23:23,040 --> 00:23:26,480 Love that. Whatever you've got to do to 377 00:23:26,480 --> 00:23:31,520 make it feel distinct, The key, the goal is God centered 378 00:23:31,520 --> 00:23:35,760 distinction different from the other six days. 379 00:23:35,760 --> 00:23:37,840 Which brings me to my second thing I would do. 380 00:23:38,080 --> 00:23:41,160 I would map it out and the second thing I would do is I 381 00:23:41,160 --> 00:23:44,760 would make a list of all the things you've got to say no to. 382 00:23:45,120 --> 00:23:49,560 Remember Sabbath literally means stop. 383 00:23:50,400 --> 00:23:53,320 Stop. God stops. 384 00:23:53,440 --> 00:23:56,560 God rests from His work on the 1st 6 days. 385 00:23:57,120 --> 00:24:01,080 You should stop from the work that you do for the majority of 386 00:24:01,080 --> 00:24:03,120 the rest of the week, whether that's 4-5 or six days or 387 00:24:03,120 --> 00:24:05,320 whatever. So stop from those things and 388 00:24:05,320 --> 00:24:08,760 then think, what things do you need to say no to in order to 389 00:24:08,760 --> 00:24:11,560 enter fully into that rest? Do you need to hide yourself on 390 00:24:11,560 --> 00:24:14,040 a way in a different room for 24 hours? 391 00:24:14,040 --> 00:24:16,720 Do it. Do you need your husband? 392 00:24:16,720 --> 00:24:20,920 Do you need your wife to hide your laptop from you for 24 393 00:24:20,920 --> 00:24:23,080 hours? Do that, right? 394 00:24:23,080 --> 00:24:25,200 Whatever, Whatever you got to do, do that. 395 00:24:25,200 --> 00:24:27,120 Here's one. This is interesting about the 396 00:24:27,120 --> 00:24:28,600 7th day. I don't know if you noticed this 397 00:24:28,960 --> 00:24:31,000 in verse three, you bump into something we're like, that's 398 00:24:31,000 --> 00:24:34,560 different. Verse 3 says God bless the 7th 399 00:24:34,720 --> 00:24:38,520 day and made it holy. Here's why that's interesting. 400 00:24:39,480 --> 00:24:42,920 It's a blessing in a different dimension. 401 00:24:45,160 --> 00:24:47,200 God's blessing in Genesis is 3 dimensional. 402 00:24:47,680 --> 00:24:52,440 In Genesis 1, we've seen God bless space, blesses the heavens 403 00:24:52,440 --> 00:24:56,240 and the earth. In Genesis 1 we've seen God 404 00:24:56,240 --> 00:25:01,960 bless matter, human beings, creation, animals. 405 00:25:02,280 --> 00:25:05,600 But God's blessing on the 7th day is in a different dimension. 406 00:25:05,600 --> 00:25:08,640 It's not a blessing over space, it's not a blessing over matter. 407 00:25:08,880 --> 00:25:16,080 It's a blessing over the dimension of time and on it not 408 00:25:16,080 --> 00:25:19,200 a creature, but on a day. Why? 409 00:25:20,280 --> 00:25:24,520 I think I think it's this reason right here because of human 410 00:25:24,520 --> 00:25:30,640 beings are the matter where the space of heaven overlaps with 411 00:25:30,680 --> 00:25:37,000 Earth, then the Sabbath day is the time where heaven overlaps 412 00:25:37,000 --> 00:25:41,440 with earth. And if that's doesn't make sense 413 00:25:41,440 --> 00:25:43,520 to you, I'm still kind of cracking that code too. 414 00:25:43,800 --> 00:25:48,240 But I think the anticipating of the eternal Sabbath that the New 415 00:25:48,240 --> 00:25:52,200 City Catechism says, I think what that's teaching us to do is 416 00:25:52,200 --> 00:25:57,440 to make our Sabbath day a day of heavenly joy on earth, 417 00:25:58,280 --> 00:26:02,040 strategically making it the day that looks the most like heaven 418 00:26:02,440 --> 00:26:06,680 out of our entire week. And that brings me to my third 419 00:26:06,680 --> 00:26:10,480 thing I would do if I were you, which I'm going to start doing 420 00:26:10,480 --> 00:26:12,480 after wrestling season ends this week. 421 00:26:12,480 --> 00:26:15,280 Again, I would map it out. I'd make a list of no. 422 00:26:15,640 --> 00:26:18,480 And then what I would do, and I think this is equally important, 423 00:26:18,760 --> 00:26:21,640 is I would make a list of yes, one of the things you need to 424 00:26:21,640 --> 00:26:25,440 say yes to on the Sabbath day. Remember, Sabbath is God ceasing 425 00:26:25,440 --> 00:26:26,920 from the first six days of creation. 426 00:26:26,920 --> 00:26:30,080 It's not God Sabbath thing or resting from all active 427 00:26:30,120 --> 00:26:33,200 endeavors. God Sabbath appears to be an 428 00:26:33,280 --> 00:26:39,080 active, stressful, participatory enjoyment of his creation. 429 00:26:39,080 --> 00:26:43,280 So another way of phrasing this is by asking the question what 430 00:26:43,680 --> 00:26:48,240 what will heal me? That's a great way to start 431 00:26:48,240 --> 00:26:50,480 thinking about Sabbath. You know what Jesus got in 432 00:26:50,480 --> 00:26:54,800 trouble for the Pharisees for doing on Sabbath for healing. 433 00:26:56,120 --> 00:26:59,800 That's the, the the point there isn't like, oh man, the 434 00:26:59,800 --> 00:27:04,120 Pharisees took the Sabbath too seriously and Jesus doesn't take 435 00:27:04,120 --> 00:27:05,960 it seriously at all. That's not, that's not the right 436 00:27:05,960 --> 00:27:08,040 point. The right point is not I heard 437 00:27:08,040 --> 00:27:12,240 one mega church pastor say God breaks the law for love. 438 00:27:12,440 --> 00:27:14,800 Well, he loves, but he does not break the law. 439 00:27:15,320 --> 00:27:17,560 He is the fulfillment of the law. 440 00:27:17,800 --> 00:27:20,680 God breaking laws equal parts wrong and heretical. 441 00:27:21,320 --> 00:27:25,880 What Jesus is doing is he's showing what the Sabbath is for. 442 00:27:26,840 --> 00:27:30,880 It's for healing. That's why Jesus healing on the 443 00:27:30,880 --> 00:27:34,960 Sabbath is a fulfillment of the Sabbath and not a breaking over 444 00:27:34,960 --> 00:27:36,040 it. So if I were you, I'd ask the 445 00:27:36,040 --> 00:27:40,000 question, what will heal me? What will fill my soul with joy? 446 00:27:40,160 --> 00:27:43,440 What will thaw my heart out so that I can feel the presence of 447 00:27:43,440 --> 00:27:46,840 God again? Some of us, some of us need to, 448 00:27:46,840 --> 00:27:49,280 maybe we need to spend lots of time reading the scriptures 449 00:27:49,280 --> 00:27:50,960 together as a family. If that's you, do it. 450 00:27:51,520 --> 00:27:54,840 Some of you you need to make popcorn and watch a really good 451 00:27:54,840 --> 00:27:58,040 movie together, do that. Some of you need to be screen 452 00:27:58,040 --> 00:28:00,680 free, do that. Some of you need to make it an 453 00:28:00,680 --> 00:28:03,480 ice cream day. Do that. 454 00:28:04,360 --> 00:28:06,640 Some of you need to make it your vinyl record day. 455 00:28:06,640 --> 00:28:09,520 The day where you're like, man, where I can slowly put that 456 00:28:09,520 --> 00:28:12,040 vinyl record in and I can listen to the whole album. 457 00:28:12,360 --> 00:28:14,840 Do that. Do the things that bring rest 458 00:28:14,840 --> 00:28:17,000 and healing and joy into your soul. 459 00:28:17,000 --> 00:28:19,520 If you're a parent, what I would do is I would work really hard 460 00:28:19,520 --> 00:28:22,040 to ensure that the Sabbath day is a day that your kids look 461 00:28:22,200 --> 00:28:25,120 forward to, not a day necessarily that bores them to 462 00:28:25,120 --> 00:28:27,360 death. Practically, that means that if 463 00:28:27,880 --> 00:28:30,360 if there's a really good movie The kids want to watch, maybe 464 00:28:30,360 --> 00:28:33,800 you save it until the Sabbath to watch it so they look forward to 465 00:28:33,800 --> 00:28:35,920 it. If if you don't have a problem 466 00:28:35,920 --> 00:28:39,520 with alcohol, maybe you need to save the best beer or the more 467 00:28:39,520 --> 00:28:43,080 expensive wine for the Sabbath. It should be almost like a 468 00:28:43,160 --> 00:28:47,160 weekly birthday party. What I would protect against is 469 00:28:47,160 --> 00:28:50,120 specifically if I'm a parent, is this warning that a Genesis 470 00:28:50,120 --> 00:28:53,400 commentator says, he says quote, and maybe it's what you 471 00:28:53,400 --> 00:28:58,040 experienced growing up. He says quote. 472 00:28:59,080 --> 00:29:04,080 Sabbath observance has for us a rather negative ring, conjuring 473 00:29:04,080 --> 00:29:07,840 up pictures of dreary Sunday afternoons with grandfather 474 00:29:07,840 --> 00:29:11,080 dozing in front of a large Victorian Bible and the children 475 00:29:11,080 --> 00:29:14,760 not allowed to do anything that even resembled fun. 476 00:29:15,400 --> 00:29:21,640 Such negative legalism gets in the way of our understanding of 477 00:29:21,640 --> 00:29:25,000 what the what. It's really what the Sabbath is 478 00:29:25,000 --> 00:29:27,800 really about. And so it's not just about 479 00:29:27,800 --> 00:29:29,840 saying no to things. It's also about saying yes to 480 00:29:29,840 --> 00:29:31,720 things that bring life and joy to your heart. 481 00:29:31,720 --> 00:29:35,120 And so on the Sabbath, the cry of your hearts, it should be 482 00:29:35,120 --> 00:29:40,040 Lord, right now, right now, break me out and show me how to 483 00:29:40,040 --> 00:29:43,280 live. Bring joy, bring healing, bring 484 00:29:43,280 --> 00:29:45,440 freedom. Consider this testimony from 485 00:29:45,600 --> 00:29:49,840 theologian AJ Swabota. He says, quote, one day a week, 486 00:29:49,840 --> 00:29:53,240 my family turns all the screens off so they go screen free. 487 00:29:53,240 --> 00:29:57,440 I think that's great. Light some candles, praise and 488 00:29:57,440 --> 00:30:00,320 invites the God of the Sabbath to bring us rest. 489 00:30:00,520 --> 00:30:04,040 And this practice, which again we do far from perfectly, has 490 00:30:04,040 --> 00:30:14,040 saved, has saved my marriage, my ministry, my faith, and I might 491 00:30:14,040 --> 00:30:18,000 even say my life. So this is this is the key. 492 00:30:18,960 --> 00:30:23,200 The point of the Sabbath isn't to make one day of the week all 493 00:30:23,200 --> 00:30:25,040 about God. And then the other six days can 494 00:30:25,040 --> 00:30:26,240 be secular. No, no, no. 495 00:30:27,320 --> 00:30:29,080 The point? The goal is to make one day a 496 00:30:29,080 --> 00:30:33,480 week distinct in that it revolves entirely around 497 00:30:33,480 --> 00:30:38,040 enjoying God, so that the other six days are as God shaped as 498 00:30:38,040 --> 00:30:42,080 possible, no matter how worldly our work feels. 499 00:30:44,440 --> 00:30:48,160 Does that make sense? Like the Sabbath day should, it 500 00:30:48,160 --> 00:30:55,280 should almost be the embryo in which all the other six days are 501 00:30:55,280 --> 00:31:00,200 formed. So you live out of the rest, out 502 00:31:00,200 --> 00:31:04,400 of the Sabbath, out of your Sunday, if that's what it is, 503 00:31:04,760 --> 00:31:11,560 man. All right, you guys, good. 504 00:31:12,480 --> 00:31:15,440 I, I, I haven't even touched on like the living heartbeat of the 505 00:31:15,440 --> 00:31:16,880 sermon or the subject of the Sabbath. 506 00:31:17,000 --> 00:31:19,720 I like, I like definitions. I like explanations. 507 00:31:19,720 --> 00:31:21,520 We did those things. Those things are great. 508 00:31:22,680 --> 00:31:24,640 Here's here's the problem. Here's my problem. 509 00:31:24,640 --> 00:31:29,920 I can't rest, man. Like, like I really struggle 510 00:31:29,920 --> 00:31:33,080 with it, right? And it's not, it's not a matter 511 00:31:33,080 --> 00:31:36,240 of a, a busy schedule or a tough work week. 512 00:31:36,400 --> 00:31:39,640 Those things for me are excuses for why I can't rest. 513 00:31:40,960 --> 00:31:42,800 Those are excuses for why I can't rest. 514 00:31:42,800 --> 00:31:46,560 That's not the main obstacle for me experiencing Sabbath rest. 515 00:31:46,560 --> 00:31:50,520 Those are excuses. My main obstacle to Sabbath rest 516 00:31:50,520 --> 00:31:58,120 is the voice inside my own head. I bring me down, me, I bring me 517 00:31:58,120 --> 00:32:00,480 down. It's the voice inside my own 518 00:32:00,680 --> 00:32:02,560 head. You could give me 3 months off 519 00:32:02,560 --> 00:32:07,280 of work and it would count for nothing if I didn't face the 520 00:32:07,280 --> 00:32:10,640 voice inside of my head. I've got this voice inside of 521 00:32:10,640 --> 00:32:13,720 me, maybe you've got a similar 1 And it constantly says Nope, 522 00:32:13,840 --> 00:32:17,480 that's not enough. Never enough, never enough, 523 00:32:17,960 --> 00:32:19,920 never enough. I have this voice inside of my 524 00:32:19,920 --> 00:32:23,320 head that won't turn off and I know exactly where it came from. 525 00:32:23,720 --> 00:32:28,040 In fact, some of you have noticed that I have not even 526 00:32:28,040 --> 00:32:32,360 used one of my 2 wrestling stories from my yearly allowance 527 00:32:32,360 --> 00:32:35,600 yet this year. And it's not because I forgot. 528 00:32:36,520 --> 00:32:38,880 That's because I'm going to use them on back-to-back sermons. 529 00:32:40,040 --> 00:32:42,680 So I can tell you exactly. I can tell you exactly where 530 00:32:42,680 --> 00:32:45,760 this voice in my head came from. When I was a little growing up 531 00:32:45,760 --> 00:32:48,280 my one of my best friends, he was also my practice partner 532 00:32:48,520 --> 00:32:51,400 when we were really little. He was one of the best wrestlers 533 00:32:51,400 --> 00:32:55,120 in the nation and I was not yet that and I had to practice with 534 00:32:55,120 --> 00:32:57,600 this dude four or five days out of the week. 535 00:32:58,040 --> 00:33:01,280 And so this I don't know if you've ever just had this snot 536 00:33:01,280 --> 00:33:05,800 beat out of you constantly by the same person. 537 00:33:05,920 --> 00:33:08,760 If you have, it changes your temperature, it changes your 538 00:33:08,760 --> 00:33:11,320 core temperature. And so like the worst part is 539 00:33:11,320 --> 00:33:13,800 I'd wrestle this dude for four or five days out of the week and 540 00:33:13,800 --> 00:33:16,480 he would throttle me. He would just big dog me every 541 00:33:16,480 --> 00:33:19,040 day in the wrestling room. And you know what I hated? 542 00:33:19,040 --> 00:33:21,360 I hated this more than anything. I hated this man. 543 00:33:21,680 --> 00:33:26,200 He what I hated most was he would he would put me on my back 544 00:33:26,560 --> 00:33:29,760 and hold me there and pin me. I hated that. 545 00:33:30,480 --> 00:33:35,120 But what he would do is he would look over at his dad, who is 546 00:33:35,120 --> 00:33:38,160 sitting right next to my dad with their newspapers up against 547 00:33:38,160 --> 00:33:39,840 the wall watching us practice wrestling. 548 00:33:40,200 --> 00:33:42,480 He would look over at his dad for approval. 549 00:33:43,320 --> 00:33:46,840 His dad would look up from his newspaper and give him a look of 550 00:33:46,840 --> 00:33:49,640 approval. I was like on my back. 551 00:33:49,640 --> 00:33:54,120 I hated it. And like I, I hated watching my 552 00:33:54,120 --> 00:33:59,400 dad forced to watch me get stuck on my back. 553 00:33:59,440 --> 00:34:04,520 I hated it. What happened is there's this 554 00:34:04,520 --> 00:34:08,320 voice that took root inside of my head that was like, I'll do 555 00:34:08,400 --> 00:34:11,080 anything to not feel that way ever again. 556 00:34:12,360 --> 00:34:17,480 Anything. And so I did work, work, work, 557 00:34:17,480 --> 00:34:19,639 work, work, work, work. And I eventually actually caught 558 00:34:19,639 --> 00:34:22,760 up to my buddy and even surpassed him and got better at 559 00:34:22,760 --> 00:34:24,760 wrestling than him. And you know what he didn't do? 560 00:34:24,760 --> 00:34:31,400 It didn't heal me. It didn't heal that voice inside 561 00:34:31,400 --> 00:34:34,080 of my head. I thought it would, but that 562 00:34:34,080 --> 00:34:36,440 voice inside of my head still remained. 563 00:34:36,639 --> 00:34:40,239 More, more, more, harder, harder, harder. 564 00:34:40,320 --> 00:34:43,679 Achieve, achieve, achieve. Don't stop, don't stop, don't 565 00:34:43,679 --> 00:34:45,120 stop. I'm in my 30s, dude. 566 00:34:46,920 --> 00:34:49,719 That happened to me 20 some years ago. 567 00:34:51,199 --> 00:34:56,080 That voice, if I don't consciously face it, it's still 568 00:34:56,080 --> 00:35:00,800 there. It hasn't gone away. 569 00:35:04,080 --> 00:35:10,360 And so if you give me a day off every week, I'll still feel 570 00:35:10,360 --> 00:35:13,160 exhausted because what's going on inside of my head, never 571 00:35:13,160 --> 00:35:14,400 enough, never enough, never enough. 572 00:35:14,640 --> 00:35:17,400 When I'm, when I'm, when I do a bad preach, when I do a bad job 573 00:35:17,400 --> 00:35:18,880 preaching the sermon, do you know what I feel? 574 00:35:19,600 --> 00:35:20,880 I feel like I'm getting pinned again. 575 00:35:22,560 --> 00:35:24,200 I know that sounds like a lunatic. 576 00:35:24,200 --> 00:35:26,200 It just it, that stuff doesn't go away. 577 00:35:26,800 --> 00:35:29,120 Like there's still this little kid inside of me that if I don't 578 00:35:29,120 --> 00:35:32,720 face it consciously, he feels like he's getting pinned if he's 579 00:35:32,720 --> 00:35:35,600 not the best at everything. And it destroys my relationship 580 00:35:35,600 --> 00:35:37,840 with people, my relationship with my family and my 581 00:35:37,840 --> 00:35:40,520 relationship with God. This voice inside of my head 582 00:35:40,520 --> 00:35:42,960 that won't let me rest. Never enough, never enough, 583 00:35:42,960 --> 00:35:51,080 never enough. That, not our busy schedules, is 584 00:35:51,080 --> 00:35:52,880 our main obstacle to Sabbath rest. 585 00:35:53,640 --> 00:35:56,440 At least for me. At least for me. 586 00:35:57,000 --> 00:36:00,240 So what do you, what do you do? What's the voice? 587 00:36:01,840 --> 00:36:08,240 What's the voice inside of your head like when you rest today 588 00:36:08,240 --> 00:36:12,040 off at Sabbath? What's going on inside your 589 00:36:12,040 --> 00:36:13,400 head? What's that voice sound like? 590 00:36:14,160 --> 00:36:19,920 Does that voice sound more like God or Pharaoh? 591 00:36:22,440 --> 00:36:27,400 More, more, more. That's the hard thing about 592 00:36:27,400 --> 00:36:31,760 reading Exodus as a Christian is I read Exodus and I'm like, I 593 00:36:31,760 --> 00:36:39,480 feel like I'm simultaneously God's chosen people enslaved and 594 00:36:39,480 --> 00:36:46,080 Pharaoh. And so friends, you can't act. 595 00:36:46,160 --> 00:36:50,160 It's like you live in Egypt and expect to not feel like a slave. 596 00:36:52,080 --> 00:36:56,240 If you do not Sabbath, that's what your life will feel like. 597 00:36:56,240 --> 00:36:59,920 How do how do you get how do you get into the hearth underneath 598 00:36:59,920 --> 00:37:03,480 the crap and speak to that voice inside of your head? 599 00:37:03,640 --> 00:37:07,200 And so to do that, I want to show you something profoundly 600 00:37:07,200 --> 00:37:09,920 important in the text. If you got to open still, just 601 00:37:09,920 --> 00:37:11,160 look at verse one. I'll read it. 602 00:37:11,160 --> 00:37:14,920 If you don't have it open this. This is massive for me. 603 00:37:14,920 --> 00:37:18,520 This was like all these doors started opening up. 604 00:37:18,760 --> 00:37:22,920 Here's my question. How and when does God enter into 605 00:37:22,920 --> 00:37:25,040 rest? Chapter 2, verse one. 606 00:37:25,440 --> 00:37:30,360 Thus the heavens and the earth were finished. 607 00:37:31,520 --> 00:37:34,000 How and when? When it is finished. 608 00:37:34,600 --> 00:37:36,920 This is a big deal. The book of Exodus, the second 609 00:37:36,920 --> 00:37:38,200 book of the Bible book of Exodus. 610 00:37:38,440 --> 00:37:42,760 When does God's glory come to rest in the Tabernacle with 611 00:37:42,760 --> 00:37:45,480 God's people? Not until the final chapter of 612 00:37:45,480 --> 00:37:48,200 Exodus. Let me just let me read it. 613 00:37:48,560 --> 00:37:50,000 Here's the final chapter of Exodus. 614 00:37:50,000 --> 00:37:51,600 See if you see any language here. 615 00:37:52,640 --> 00:37:56,600 And Moses erected the corpse around the Tabernacle and the 616 00:37:56,600 --> 00:37:58,840 altar. He set up the screen of the gate 617 00:37:58,840 --> 00:38:03,120 and the court. So Moses finished the work. 618 00:38:03,960 --> 00:38:08,120 Then the cloud covered the tent of meeting, and the glory of the 619 00:38:08,120 --> 00:38:13,480 Lord filled the Tabernacle. So when does God come to rest in 620 00:38:13,480 --> 00:38:16,920 the Tabernacle? When it's finished. 621 00:38:18,960 --> 00:38:21,840 You guys feeling this? You with me when it's finished, 622 00:38:21,840 --> 00:38:24,000 man, if feel is what you want, feel is what you'll get. 623 00:38:24,240 --> 00:38:26,720 Keep pressing in here. Keep moving deeper right at the 624 00:38:26,720 --> 00:38:29,800 heart of the issue. When God comes in the flesh in 625 00:38:29,800 --> 00:38:32,960 the person of Jesus Christ, what does he offer us? 626 00:38:33,200 --> 00:38:35,080 Let's see if you can finish the sentence loudly. 627 00:38:35,080 --> 00:38:38,760 If you know the answer, say it. He says in Matthew 11 verse 28. 628 00:38:38,760 --> 00:38:42,640 Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will 629 00:38:42,640 --> 00:38:47,400 give you rest. Come on now, look at this puzzle 630 00:38:47,400 --> 00:38:50,560 pieces coming together. Here's the deepest thing I can 631 00:38:50,560 --> 00:38:53,280 say about the Sabbath. Is it a day out of the week? 632 00:38:53,520 --> 00:38:55,120 Yes. Is it a practice? 633 00:38:55,320 --> 00:38:56,560 Yes. Not. 634 00:38:57,280 --> 00:39:00,520 Ultimately though, the deepest thing I can tell you is that 635 00:39:00,520 --> 00:39:07,840 Sabbath is ultimately a person, the man God, Jesus Christ. 636 00:39:09,000 --> 00:39:14,120 Ultimately, Sabbath is fulfilled in and through Jesus. 637 00:39:14,680 --> 00:39:18,360 Jesus is our Sabbath. Jesus is the Sabbath in human 638 00:39:18,360 --> 00:39:21,120 form. Jesus is the Sabbath with arms 639 00:39:21,120 --> 00:39:24,080 and legs. Jesus is the Sabbath with skin 640 00:39:24,080 --> 00:39:26,760 on. How do you enter into rest with 641 00:39:26,760 --> 00:39:29,200 God? How can you silence that voice 642 00:39:29,200 --> 00:39:31,800 inside of your head that constantly says never enough, 643 00:39:31,960 --> 00:39:38,320 never enough, never enough? It's very simple by faith in 644 00:39:39,000 --> 00:39:48,120 Jesus, then you can have rest only then like, Oh my gosh, I 645 00:39:49,240 --> 00:39:57,440 was reading, I was reading Hebrews this week and you've got 646 00:39:57,440 --> 00:40:00,120 to read Hebrews chapter 3 and 4 this week. 647 00:40:00,600 --> 00:40:04,640 What the author of Hebrews says is that Is that the Old 648 00:40:04,640 --> 00:40:10,240 Testament? Disobedient Israel did not enter 649 00:40:10,240 --> 00:40:15,120 into Sabbath rest with God. Interesting. 650 00:40:16,720 --> 00:40:21,000 Why is that interesting? That's interesting because 651 00:40:21,720 --> 00:40:27,840 disobedient Israel took the Sabbath so seriously they 652 00:40:27,840 --> 00:40:31,560 wouldn't even allow themselves to pick up sticks on the 653 00:40:31,560 --> 00:40:36,280 Sabbath. Bros wouldn't even pick up 654 00:40:36,280 --> 00:40:41,640 sticks and they didn't enter into the Sabbath rest with God. 655 00:40:44,400 --> 00:40:46,160 What? You think as a modern Christian 656 00:40:46,440 --> 00:40:48,880 who says, you know, it'd be nice if I had a Sabbath day, but I 657 00:40:48,880 --> 00:40:50,800 don't have to? You think you're going to enter 658 00:40:50,800 --> 00:40:53,680 into rest? They didn't pick up sticks. 659 00:40:55,280 --> 00:40:58,720 Do you know why it was illegal for them to spit on the soil on 660 00:40:58,720 --> 00:41:03,440 the Sabbath day? They could spit on a rock and 661 00:41:03,440 --> 00:41:05,680 they'd be fine. If they spit in the soil, they 662 00:41:05,680 --> 00:41:08,080 considered it a breaking of the Sabbath. 663 00:41:08,080 --> 00:41:12,720 Why? Because that little divot in the 664 00:41:12,720 --> 00:41:18,680 soil kind of sort of faintly, if you looked at it, really hardly 665 00:41:19,200 --> 00:41:22,760 kind of sort of almost resembled farming. 666 00:41:25,520 --> 00:41:28,680 They wouldn't even kind of sort of do something that maybe kind 667 00:41:28,680 --> 00:41:33,520 of sort of resembles work and they didn't enter into Sabbath 668 00:41:33,520 --> 00:41:37,120 rest. How do you think you're going to 669 00:41:37,120 --> 00:41:42,760 do it? Did you know that if you allot a 670 00:41:42,760 --> 00:41:46,920 ton of robes from that era of Judaism, you know, you know what 671 00:41:46,920 --> 00:41:49,520 they had sewn into the robes? Handkerchiefs. 672 00:41:50,960 --> 00:41:53,760 You know why? Because on the Sabbath day, they 673 00:41:53,760 --> 00:41:57,880 were not even allowed to carry a handkerchief from one room to 674 00:41:57,880 --> 00:42:00,640 the other without considering it a breaking of the Sabbath. 675 00:42:01,720 --> 00:42:02,960 So you know what those little boogers did? 676 00:42:04,400 --> 00:42:07,240 They sewed them into their robes so that they weren't technically 677 00:42:07,240 --> 00:42:14,200 carrying them, wouldn't even carry a handkerchief, did not 678 00:42:14,200 --> 00:42:15,720 enter into Sabbath rest with gods. 679 00:42:17,760 --> 00:42:19,640 What makes you think that you could? 680 00:42:23,000 --> 00:42:25,000 And Hebrews gives us a really good answer. 681 00:42:25,000 --> 00:42:27,480 You know what the answer Hebrews gives us? 682 00:42:28,320 --> 00:42:35,200 The gospel. He says by faith and grace in 683 00:42:35,200 --> 00:42:41,480 Christ Jesus alone, you can do what disobedient Israel did not 684 00:42:41,480 --> 00:42:48,520 do, enter into rest with God. It's Jesus, dude. 685 00:42:49,040 --> 00:42:53,760 You can stop working. You can stop picking up sticks. 686 00:42:55,040 --> 00:42:57,760 You can stop spitting into the soil. 687 00:42:58,800 --> 00:43:01,800 You can sew A handkerchief into your robe. 688 00:43:02,000 --> 00:43:06,560 You can sleep on a bed of Bibles and not experience rest. 689 00:43:09,560 --> 00:43:15,280 If you don't trust Jesus, watch this, watch this. 690 00:43:15,680 --> 00:43:18,440 Follow this literary pattern. OK, here's the pattern. 691 00:43:19,880 --> 00:43:24,400 God rests with Adam and Eve in the garden after the work of 692 00:43:24,400 --> 00:43:28,040 creation is finished. The next book of the Bible, 693 00:43:28,040 --> 00:43:30,520 Exodus. God rests with his people in 694 00:43:30,520 --> 00:43:34,440 Exodus after the work of the building of the Tabernacle is 695 00:43:34,440 --> 00:43:41,880 finished. When Jesus dies on the cross and 696 00:43:41,880 --> 00:43:50,600 absorbs our sin and overthrows Satan and death, what are his 697 00:43:50,600 --> 00:43:53,120 last words on the cross? If you can finish the sentence, 698 00:43:53,120 --> 00:43:55,320 yell it out. His last words on the cross are 699 00:43:55,320 --> 00:44:02,080 it is. You see the pattern, right? 700 00:44:03,560 --> 00:44:06,840 You see the theme the same way that Adam and Eve entered into 701 00:44:06,840 --> 00:44:09,520 rest after the finished work of God in the garden, the same way 702 00:44:09,520 --> 00:44:12,400 that Israel entered into rest with God after the building of 703 00:44:12,400 --> 00:44:15,720 the Tabernacle is the same way that you enter into rest with 704 00:44:15,720 --> 00:44:20,520 God when you repent of your sin and place your faith in Jesus. 705 00:44:21,720 --> 00:44:26,840 And really, not just in lip service, but really believe that 706 00:44:26,880 --> 00:44:30,920 Jesus has done it all, that he's finished all the work, that he's 707 00:44:30,920 --> 00:44:36,160 done all the labor. Then with God, your muscles can 708 00:44:36,160 --> 00:44:38,920 relax and you can take deep breaths. 709 00:44:39,160 --> 00:44:42,880 You can put your feet up and just rest in God. 710 00:44:43,080 --> 00:44:48,640 Everything necessary for you to enter into eternal Sabbath rest 711 00:44:48,680 --> 00:44:51,120 with God. Jesus finished it. 712 00:44:53,800 --> 00:44:59,320 You don't need to win anymore. You, you don't need to get off 713 00:44:59,320 --> 00:45:02,320 your back and not get pinned to get that shining look of 714 00:45:02,320 --> 00:45:03,800 approval from your Father's face. 715 00:45:04,600 --> 00:45:06,680 You don't, you don't need to earn anything. 716 00:45:07,480 --> 00:45:10,360 You don't need to try to achieve a right standing with God. 717 00:45:10,600 --> 00:45:14,600 You get that by faith in Jesus. In fact, if you continue to try 718 00:45:14,600 --> 00:45:16,200 to earn, you're going to break it. 719 00:45:17,400 --> 00:45:19,360 Break yourself. You're going to hear that Tink. 720 00:45:20,360 --> 00:45:22,440 You're going to shatter your spiritual life, and you're going 721 00:45:22,440 --> 00:45:25,880 to exhaust yourself. You don't have to impress your 722 00:45:25,880 --> 00:45:32,120 Father. It's done, it's finished, The 723 00:45:32,120 --> 00:45:37,240 rest is yours. You can have it, you can have 724 00:45:37,240 --> 00:45:39,880 it. What disobedient Israel could 725 00:45:39,880 --> 00:45:46,240 not attain by spitting on rocks rather than soil, you get freely 726 00:45:46,240 --> 00:45:48,440 because of faith in Jesus Christ. 727 00:45:51,000 --> 00:45:53,440 And that's all we're doing this morning for a sermon. 728 00:45:53,440 --> 00:46:03,440 Let me pray, Heavenly Father, give, give us rest in and 729 00:46:03,440 --> 00:46:05,880 through Jesus Christ in this moment right now. 730 00:46:06,960 --> 00:46:11,720 Some of us men, we haven't felt rest with God maybe for 10 years 731 00:46:11,720 --> 00:46:16,000 or maybe ever. Like whenever we're with God, we 732 00:46:16,000 --> 00:46:20,560 kind of maybe we feel like we clam up and our shoulders go 733 00:46:20,880 --> 00:46:24,040 straight to our ears and we're like, Oh my gosh, am I perfect? 734 00:46:24,040 --> 00:46:24,920 Is he not? Does he love me? 735 00:46:24,920 --> 00:46:26,360 Does he not love me? Do I need to flex? 736 00:46:26,680 --> 00:46:29,800 What do I got to do? And brother, sister, if that's 737 00:46:29,800 --> 00:46:34,640 you, you can rest in the finished work of Jesus and then 738 00:46:35,720 --> 00:46:42,200 just be with him. And yes, schedule a day out of 739 00:46:42,200 --> 00:46:45,000 the week to really practice Sabbath rest with God. 740 00:46:45,320 --> 00:46:49,360 But more so than that, to live out of that rest and anticipate 741 00:46:49,360 --> 00:46:54,800 that final rest one day in glory when we see Jesus face to face 742 00:46:54,840 --> 00:46:57,200 in heaven. Oh God, we want that. 743 00:46:58,520 --> 00:47:00,720 So it's in his precious name that all God's people prayed. 744 00:47:02,560 --> 00:47:04,400 Amen. Let's stand and worship this God 745 00:47:04,400 --> 00:47:05,440 who rests together.