Rhythms of the Day: A Rhythm of Sabbath in a Culture of Hurry

[00:00:00] today I was thinking about should I preach something different than what was assigned, like what was scheduled to preach on, and I prayed about it and thought about it, and then, um, the, the topic of Sabbath was what was already assigned. And then I thought, “Well, actually, this is kind of perfect in a way.”

[00:00:19] That as, as I, again, thinking about it selfishly, but as I go into more leadership, uh, I, I, I don’t want to be defined by more responsibility and more, uh, power, but by God and the rest that I can find in Him. So- So Sabbath, we’re starting, uh, a six-part series this week called Rhythms of the Day. And the idea behind the series is that we live in a culture, in a context, uh, uh, where i- as with any culture, in any context, there are particular narratives, particular ideals, particular rhythms that we don’t really even realize are forming us.

[00:01:01] They’re forming us, uh, forming us into something. We’re being shaped into certain people, whether we know it or not. And as Christians, we know that we are a part of a different story, a part of a different kingdom. But our job then is not necessarily to do away with the narratives of our culture that we find ourselves in or just, or shut them down or

[00:01:25] That’d be like trying to swim upstream in, uh, in rapids. Instead, it’s to be mindful about how things are forming us and choose to live differently. Uh, to think about some rhythms that we have in our life, and as people of God, as people of the day to come, how can we be formed amidst the culture and the narrative that we find ourselves in to be people that reflect our identity in Christ?

[00:01:52] And this week we’re thinking about the rhythm of Sabbath in a culture of hurry. And the word Sabbath probably raises a lot of different assumptions, definitions, all of that kind of thing. Uh, this is a huge topic. S- Sabbath literally just means to cease, to stop in order to rest, and this is a huge topic from start to the end of the Bible.

[00:02:19] I, I feel like with this talk, I’m tr- gonna try and cover a lot of ground, but it still feels like I’m just scratching the surface. There will be questions that you’ll have afterwards. We can chat more about it. There’s a, there’s like 12 pages, not quite, but a lot of pages that I’ve cut from this because, uh, you can’t fit it all in.

[00:02:39] So I’ve got a lot more thoughts on all this than is, uh, said to a lot of people. So, uh, I just wanna think about… I just wanna highlight a few things that I think might help us to understand why Sabbath matters and how a rhythm of Sabbath might form us as God’s people. So I’m gonna pray.

[00:03:05] Father, we, we thank you, Lord, that we can come and open your word and, and, and hear, know that your word is, uh, your voice And I pray that as, as we do, that you would form us into the people that you’re, you’ve created us to be, and you’ve recreated us to be, you’re calling us to be, and that we want to be.

[00:03:33] So Lord, I pray that you’d lead me as I speak, and um, and help us to, to discern where you’re leading us to this morning. In Jesus’ name. Amen. Both my, both my parents grew up in London. London is a, it’s a beautiful city. It has the slowest city traffic in the world Just so you know. It’s, but it’s also one of the fastest, most hurried cities in the world.

[00:04:05] And just before my eldest brother turned two, my parents decided to move away from the rush, away from the hurry of city life and go to Devon, which in stark contrast, contrast is known for its laid back, relaxed, slow lifestyle. It’s one of the, it’s actually one of the slowest places in England. The, the countryside, the rolling hills, the golden beaches, that’s where I grew up.

[00:04:31] Did my parents escape hurry? Did, did I grow up never having experienced hurry? No. Even though, uh, in Devon, genuinely, they don’t walk as fast as in London And, and how has your week been is still answered with busy in Devon as it is in London and in the Blue Mountains as it is in Sydney. Uh, it’s, it’s a common refrain because hurry is not just what we do when we miss the bus, and hurry is not just what we do when we’re late for the train, and it’s not just what we do when we’re, when the shops are almost closed.

[00:05:08] Hurry is the natural state of a culture that prizes efficiency and productivity above almost anything else. And unfortunately, that’s the air we breathe. And there are at least three events in history that led to this. In 1370, the first public clock was put in a town square in Germany, and that was the turning point for people more widely viewing time as a resource to achieve things.

[00:05:38] And the light bulb then in 1879, electricity, the invention of the light bulb, skyrocketed the potential for productivity. We can now work through the night. And I mean, candlelight as well, but the, the, the blue light will keep you awake. Um, and then technology. Then there came an array of technological advancements: the washing machine, the air conditioner, the vacuum cleaner, microwaves, the dishwasher, praise the Lord.

[00:06:07] Um, and, and then the internet, and internet on the phone and in our pockets, and all of it, it was all created with the subheading, you can finally have more time for recreation. You can finally have more time to do what you really want to do to achieve these things. Utilize these technological advancements to move away from busyness and hurry and lean into the relaxed lifestyle that you want.

[00:06:32] It’s, it’s a technological move from London to Devon. But do we really escape hurry? Have our kids grown up never having experienced hurry? No. We’re more hurried than ever. And there’s stats on all of this. I don’t think I need to prove it to you. There’s, there’s new language around… Hurry sickness is, is a new term.

[00:06:55] Karoshi is a, is a Japanese term which literally means death by overwork. There’s, there’s new language around it. Tyler Staten wrote, “Hurry isn’t an occasional necessity. It is the new norm.” And that’s the culture we live in. So how is that forming us? Does that form us into the people of God? the people God calls us to be because it is forming us.

[00:07:28] And it’s, it’s why we can move to a slow place in the world, one of the slowest places in the world, and still feel hurried. It’s why we can get all the technology to ease our lives and still be lying in bed worried about to-do lists and bills and deadlines, and our prayers get distracted by work problems, and our conversations always end with, “We shouldn’t wait so long next time,” but we still do every single time because hurry is the new normal.

[00:07:57] And I don’t think I need to convince people of the benefits of rest. I don’t think I need to convince people of the benefits of, of, um, Sabbath ideals. But I wonder if we don’t know how to rest

[00:08:13] And if we think Sabbath is more of a day off than anything else. So again, I’m just gonna highlight a few things as we go. Not everything. I wanna think about how can Sabbath, in all the questions of what it is and cultural differences around it, how can a rhythm of Sabbath, a regular rhythm of Sabbath, help to form us in light of the kingdom of God?

[00:08:40] And I have, uh, I have two points, and then, and then we’ll get on to some practical aspects. So Sabbath as reminder, Sabbath as redirection of our gaze, and then at the end we’ll look at some Sabbath realities. Sabbath as reminder. Uh, three things. Sorry. Uh, here’s one point, and then in here there’s three points.

[00:09:02] Um, but three things within this first one: creation, God, salvation. Sabbath as a reminder reminds us of three things: creation, God, salvation. Creation. Um, Sabbath comes from the Hebrew word that literally means to cease, to stop, and we first see this in the context of the, the unbroken relationship, the unhurried, uncorrupted life of the Garden of Eden When things were good and very good.

[00:09:36] Genesis 2:2-3 says, “By the seventh day, God had finished the work he had been doing. So on the seventh day, he rested. He ceased. He stopped. He rested from all his work. Then God blessed the seventh day and made it holy,” which means set apart from the rest, “because on it, he ceased. He stopped. He rested from all the work of creating that he had done.”

[00:10:10] So, so built into the kind of fabric of the universe is a rhythm, a rhythm of six days work, one day stop, cease, rest not hurry. God’s plan for us and part of the human identity is to stop, is to rest. It’s, it’s, it’s astonishing to me when you think of it like, um Whilst the s- whilst the seventh day is the last day of the week, humankind was created on the sixth day.

[00:10:46] So humankind’s… But, but like whether you read this literally or literarily, it’s still making the same point, that humankind’s first full day was a day of rest It was on the Saturday. Had they, had they even worked before they had rested?

[00:11:08] And then it was from then that they would live into all that God had created them to be and how God had called them to live, to fill the earth, to work the garden. Rest is weaved into the fabric, fabric of creation. Rest before there was hurry

[00:11:27] And it, it, it also is, is a reminder of God. So fast-forward the story. We’re gonna kind of go over the, uh, almost the whole story of God this morning. Fast-forward the story to the next book of the Bible, into Exodus. This is past the fall, past the, the break, the entrance of sin into the world, the breaking of the relationship between God and humankind, and there is now hurried and corrupt life where things are not good.

[00:11:53] God’s people have become slaves in Egypt, and they’re forced to work and work and work, and that formed them, formed the people of God into a particular kind of people The kind of people that didn’t know what to do with themselves when they’re finally free from it all. It formed them into the kinds of people that Pharaoh built his empire on, and when they left, the empire crashed down immediately.

[00:12:20] So in the story, God sends Moses into Egypt and, and, and brings God’s people out of Egypt and into freedom, into, uh, away from slavery. And then he takes them to Mount Sinai, where God gives them the Ten Commandments, which is saying like, “Hey, now you’re free. Here is how you live as free people.” And one of those Ten Commandments…

[00:12:40] Most of them, by the way, are thou shalt or thou shalt not. One of them is the, the Sabbath command is not thou shalt Sabbath. Mm-hmm. It’s remember the Sabbath Remember the Sabbath. It’s the only commandment to remember something. What are they remembering? They’re remembering the Sabbath. They’re remembering to stop.

[00:13:07] They’re remembering that God weaved into creation, the creation of the universe, a call to stop, weaved into the fabric of who we are, a day set apart to rest. But why are they remembering? Exodus 20:11 says why. Re- remember the Sabbath. Do all these things. Why? For, or because, in six days, Yahweh made the heavens and the earth, the sea, and all that is in them, but he rested on the seventh day.

[00:13:38] He rested on the seventh day. Remember it because God did Remember it because God created and stopped and we’re created in an image of a God who rests and we’re to imitate Him. Sabbath is a reminder of the God who rests

[00:14:02] Then it is also a reminder of salvation. Stay with me. Are we tracking? We good? Sweet. In Deuteronomy 5, so we go forward a few, a few books of the Bible, but 40 years of them wandering through the wilderness. They’re about to enter into the Promised Land, and Moses, um, uh, Deuteronomy, Moses is talking to the people of God, but one thing he does is he recites the Ten Commandments again.

[00:14:30] And when he gets to the Sabbath command, he changes the end a little bit. Deuteronomy 5:15, it’s observe the Sabbath, do these things on the Sabbath day. Don’t work, don’t make anyone do any work. Same as Exodus. And then he says, “But do this as well. On the Sabbath, remember that you were slaves in Egypt, and that Yahweh, your God, brought you out.”

[00:15:00] I find that really interesting. I find that really cool as well, that, that, uh, Sabbath doesn’t just become a call to remember creation and remember God, it… But, but also part of what Israel was supposed to do on the Sabbath day is to remember that by God’s grace, he saved his people from slavery and brought them into freedom.

[00:15:25] Remember your salvation through God. Remember that you were once slaves, but now you’re free. And if that’s true for the people of God then, who were saved from slavery in Egypt into freedom and into the Promised Land, how much more true for us, who have been slaved from the bondage of sin?

[00:15:47] into complete freedom, complete righteousness through Jesus

[00:15:54] My family and I Sabbath on, um, we call it rest day so the kids know what it means. Um, we, we Sabbath on a Friday night, and one of the first things we do, we sit down at the dinner table when our, our meal is ready, but we share communion together at the table. Because when Jesus broke the bread, a sign of his body broken to save us, and when he poured the wine, a sign of his blood poured out for us, an entrance into a new covenant, he said to do this in remembrance of me.

[00:16:32] Remember the salvation we have in Christ. Once dead, now alive. Once orphans, now children. Once slaves, now free. Sabbath is a reminder. It is a reminder of creation, it is a reminder of the God who rests, and it is a reminder of our salvation

[00:16:54] Secondly, Sabbath as redirection of gaze. Redirection of our gaze. We’re, uh, we were holidaying in England, and we were in a little town called Bicknoller. Towns have great names. Uh, it’s in Somerset, tiny little town, and we were in this Airbnb, and behind the Airbnb was this big hill, beautiful hill. The sun- the sunset just hit every evening, so we were like, “We need to climb that hill for sunset one evening.”

[00:17:23] So me and my brothers… If you try and do anything with my brothers, it takes a long time. And I have kids. Uh, and so by the time the sun was about to set, we were rushing, we were hurrying, we were going as quick as we… And then we got lost on the way up, and then we just had to keep going. And then we got to the top, where it kind of plateaus, and we just stopped in our tracks, silently panting.

[00:17:54] Because fifty meters from us, and you can’t see it on this photo, which, wish you could. If I was Dave, I’d get my stick out and point at it. But, um, uh, there are on that photo, like a hundred deer- Oh, wow … were just there, standing proud. And, and we look, and they look, and, and it’s golden hour, and the sun’s setting behind us, and the ocean’s off in the distance, and all we can do is just stare and just bask in the glory of the golden deer.

[00:18:31] No words. All, all, all the hurry of, of getting out the door and up the hill just disappeared when we were stunned by the beauty of what we were-

[00:18:43] In Exodus 33, Moses asks God, like, “Who’s gonna lead me? If I’m leading your people into the promised land, who’s gonna lead me?” And God says, He, He, He does this thing where He links up two things that are then linked for the rest of scriptures. It’s really, it’s really cool. In Exodus 33 verse 14, He says, “My presence will go with you and I will give you rest.”

[00:19:14] He links up His presence with rest And then onward through the rest of the story, there are glimpses, there are moments of them receiving that rest, but, but never for very long. They get rest from their enemies for short times, rest from their labor for short times, but it never lasts. And it’s because they can’t have God’s presence for forever because they just mess up.

[00:19:48] They’re unholy, they’re unrighteous, and so the presence of God can’t be with them. Holiness can’t dwell with unholiness. Which then all changes when Jesus enters the scene. He doesn’t make it possible for holiness to dwell with unholiness, He makes us holy so that we can… His presence can be with us, so that He can dwell with us, so that we can be with Him, so that we can enter the full rest In Matthew 11, Jesus says,

[00:20:20] “Come to me

[00:20:24] All you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy and my burden is light. Now Jesus is– What Jesus says is almost a direct correlation with Exodus thirty-three.

[00:21:01] The link between God’s presence and rest. I will go with you, and I will give you rest. And Jesus says, “Come to me, and I will give you rest.” But in Christ, it is rest for the souls. It is rest made possible because we can draw near to Him now. And what a gift that is. What a gift that is on, on an existential level because a lot of our, a lot of our striving and a lot of our hurry is also a symptom of us trying to be okay

[00:21:36] Trying to find life. But in Christ, we have salvation and we have true life Jesus said, “It is finished.” The work is done. Salvation is achieved, which means we can come to him, and it also means we can rest, and we can redirect our gaze to him. From everything that the culture is saying will slow us down, is promising will slow us down, which we then realize isn’t slowing us down, we can turn from that to Christ who says, “I will give you rest for your souls.”

[00:22:12] Jesus is our ultimate rest, and Sabbath is one of the rhythms through which we learn to receive that rest And we turn our gaze to Jesus our Lord A little note on that Matthew 11 thing though when, when Jesus says, “Come to me and I will give you rest”, it is in the context of Sabbath. The very next verse he talks…

[00:22:37] It is the Sabbath, and he talks about the Sabbath, teaches on the Sabbath. He heals someone on that Sabbath, um, bringing restoration, showing that through him, God meets his people and they find rest. And then it culminates with Jesus at the end, like a few verses later, saying he is the Lord of the Sabbath.

[00:22:56] Because his presence is linked up with rest, and Sabbath is one of the rhythms through which we learn to receive that rest and turn our gaze to Jesus, our Lord. So Sabbath rest is not just a day off, and it’s not just a, a day away from our phones or, uh, going somewhere quieter, although all of that is great and helpful, and probably should do it all on the Sabbath day.

[00:23:25] But it is a day to remember how we were created, who God is, our salvation, and to redirect our gaze to Jesus, our true rest. It’s like reaching the top of a hill where it plateaus, and not just carrying on, but gazing at the beauty of what’s before us. Staring at the wonder as the wonder just stares right back.

[00:23:51] And in Christ, that, that wonder is salvation and restoration and a God who’s gentle and humble at heart

[00:24:02] Let’s go on to some, um, some, some reality, some Sabbath realities, though. Well, what does that actually look like? Uh, three things. Lots of people, you know, throughout history have said there are certain things to enter into the day: cease, rest, uh, delight, worship. It’s feast and embrace. You know, people try and squeeze it down into, into a few, um, so I’ve just taken some of those.

[00:24:28] Cease, rest, delight, and I just wanna say a word on each. Cease. On a Sabbath day, cease, which is simple enough. Stop. Just stop. Stop working. Some– The work, the work is never finished, so don’t wait until the work is finished. Just, just stop the hurrying. The– Every, every email invites another email. Every lesson plan can always be polished off a little bit more.

[00:24:56] S- Th- There’s always another load of washing. There’s always another bit of life happening, but just stop. Just cease That’s what God did, and that’s what’s weaved into the order of things For me, uh, I’m gonna say a little bit about what I do, uh, knowing that that– knowing two things. One, it is not perfect, and two, it, it isn’t necessarily what you would do.

[00:25:24] It, it would look very different. But five PM on a Friday night, I’ve tied up as many loose ends as I can, and I close my laptop, my phone goes onto downtime, and dinner’s almost ready, and sometimes I have almost a whole sermon to write. And that is the most uncomfortable thing to do. Like, it’s so– like, sometimes, uh…

[00:25:49] Yeah, sometimes it sucks. ‘Cause I know that Saturday night is gonna be really hard. Uh, or Sunday morning, I suppose, or pr- both. Um, but it’s good to stop, and it’s hard to stop. But if we don’t, then we won’t have time to remember and redirect our gaze. So cease, and then rest. Now, we’ve been talking about how Jesus brings us rest, and we re-redirect our gaze to Him, but that can happen in the midst of things we enjoy.

[00:26:21] We also find rest in things on Earth, which is a gift from God. Uh, so what activities bring you rest? Because in these, you can come to Jesus. Is it bushwalking, gardening, café trips, cook a big dinner and eat it with friends, play piano or play a card game, get ice cream, go for a walk through a grain field with your disciples?

[00:26:46] Whatever, whatever it is, because in these you can come to Jesus. You, you, you might need to, uh, compromise with those who you Sabbath with. I’ve had to learn that. I always wanted to just go and do something, like, “Let’s go to the city or go to the beach.” And Annie’s like, “I just wanna read my book at home.”

[00:27:03] So we had to find a compromise. I now, uh, spend at least part of my Sabbath day in my workshop carving wood or making something, listening to an audiobook or a sermon whilst Annie’s inside napping or, or reading. Um, and the kids are making a mess, which they find rest doing, which is lovely. Um, or sometimes they watch stuff, and we don’t think that’s ideal, but sometimes that happens.

[00:27:29] Um, so rest. Don’t open your emails. Allow yourself a little bit of rest in the, in the hurry of the world whilst gazing at Jesus. And then thirdly, delight. Just as I might delight in the beauty of creation as a herd of a hundred deer stand tall in the light of golden hour, so also we can use Sabbath to delight in the order of creation, and God Himself, and the beauty of salvation, and the promise of soul rest.

[00:28:02] So delight in God, knowing that He delights in you Pa- part of a rightly observed Sabbath is actually just a change in perspective So every moment of stopping and resting and chaos and carving and mapping and playing, we come to Jesus in prayer, in scripture, in reminders of him. I personally try and stick to prayers of adoration on the Sabbath day to delight in him And I, I think, uh, Sundays are an excellent day for the Sabbath.

[00:28:40] Historically, Saturday when God’s people got together, and then Sunday as that became the resurrection day and God’s people got together, that has kind of always been the day for Sabbath. I’m literally working right now , so I don’t Sabbath on a Sunday. Um, uh, although when we go on holiday I do, and that’s wonderful.

[00:29:00] I re- really, really enjoy Sabbathing on Sunday on holiday, which is just another whole point. Sabbath on holiday as well. Let’s talk about that later, not now. Um, but on, on a Sunday, you meet with God’s people, and it’s, it’s a communal activity, so you can draw toward God together, and it launches into the work week ahead just like the original Sabbath.

[00:29:22] Um, so we are being formed, but who are we being formed into? Our culture of hurry is making us people who don’t know how to stop, even if we move from London to Devon, and even if we get all the technological things that promise to help us I believe that a rhythm of Sabbath can help to form us in light of God.

[00:29:47] Because if Sabbath reminds me of creation with rest weaved in and of a God who rests and of salvation achieved, and it helps me to redirect my gaze at Him, the one in whose presence I have true rest, so that He can continue to form me into who I really am, into who I really want to become, then I’m going to keep remembering Sabbath Especially as we live toward the day when Jesus will return and rest will be in full.

[00:30:21] And a weekly rhythm of Sabbath will help me, as Hebrews four says, to make every effort to enter that rest