Some of you are road warriors this morning.
How many of you like a good road trip?
You're like, let's hit the road.
Let's go hit the road, Jack, and don't look back.
Let's go your road trip.
You're ready to go.
You're ready to get out on the road.
You're ready to do it.
And you don't just know what snacks you're going to get.
You know what rest stop you're going to pull into.
Like, like you're not like, oh yeah, just pull into whatever is open.
You know which one you're going to put in pull into.
And maybe it's a, maybe it's a shell.
Maybe it's a Chevron.
Maybe it's a flying J.
You know something, but I lived in Texas for seven years.
And in Texas, the rest stop that you pull into is a Bucky's.
Can I get a witness this morning?
Come on now.
If you have not yet experienced Bucky's, you should.
It is a religious experience.
It is spiritual.
I'm telling you, you go into Bucky's and you don't just fill your car up.
Are you ready for this?
You fill your soul up.
I'm telling you.
You walk in here.
It's not just a regular gas station.
I, I Googled it.
I'm like, how could you describe it?
One article said this Bucky's is a Texas based or a Texas based and Texas
super sized gas and convenience store chain that offers much more than a
place to fuel up and grab a bag of chips.
It's devoted fans make regular pilgrimages, sometimes driving hundreds of
miles to stock up on beaver nuggets and brisket and merch with its buck tooth
mascot smiling face.
How many are glad to be in church this morning and learn about Bucky's?
You know what I'm talking about?
You are like, man, this is blessed.
I'm serious.
You walk in and there's the whole convenience side.
And then in the very center, they have a brisket station where they make brisket
sandwiches.
They have an entire counter of beef jerky and not just beef jerky, deer jerky.
I like a dried pepper beef stick that you can get from there.
And my wife and I, we lived in Texas.
We would drive out of our way to stop at Bucky's to get back on the road and
make our road trip.
Like I'm telling you, it's a real thing.
We were driving one time and we had just gone to Florida.
We'd gone to one of our former students graduation in Pensacola, Florida.
They graduated.
She is a nurse in Atlanta, Georgia now.
So she graduated.
We vacationed there with family and friends.
We drove over to Destin for a little bit, spent some time there and we were driving
back to Houston with our friends.
We're going to stay for them a little bit and then fly back to Vegas.
And while we were there, while we were leaving Florida, we were driving and you
drive through Florida.
Let's hear my geography is this morning.
You drive through Alabama for a little bit and then you drive through Mississippi
and then you get to Louisiana.
How many of you have ever driven through Louisiana before?
That's an experience all and of its own.
Like you're driving on the I-10 and there are parts on the I-10 where it's water on
this side and water on that side.
And you feel like the children of Israel going through the Red Sea.
You know, I'm talking about like you're driving through and you're like, Lord,
keep me safe and you're, you're just going to sort of driving through.
And as we got through Louisiana, there was a hurricane in the Gulf that was pushing
in a huge storm system across Louisiana, across the I-10.
And so we're driving.
It starts pouring.
I'm not talking about raining.
I'm talking about.
It starts pouring down so hard you could barely see in front of you.
And so the safe thing to do at that time was to exit, was to get off, was to pull
into a gas station and we weren't looking forward.
This is the brand we want.
This is the, at that point, we're just pulling off into whatever that gas station
is, whatever is available.
And we pulled off in some town in Louisiana and it was half gas station, half Wendy's.
Now, I don't mind.
How many of you like a good Wendy's old fashioned hot and juicy?
You know, I'm talking about.
I don't mind.
I don't mind a good Wendy's.
But I will say every now and then, if there's a combo like half gas station, half Wendy's,
you never know, you know what I mean?
But we didn't really have a choice.
And so we pull off and we pull into the gas station and we parked the car and fill it
up and it's pouring and then we drive up as close to weekend to the Wendy's and we run
in and as soon as we ran in, we're already soaked.
Like it's a down, it's a drenching rain.
It's a downpour.
And so we get inside and we order it and people started kind of pouring in as they exit as
well.
They weren't safe on the roads until they get in and as they get in, people are ordering
and we get our food and we sit down.
There's a couple of good old Louisiana boys sitting off to the side and they're just like,
how you doing?
You know, and we get our food and we're about halfway through our meal and the storm is so
bad that the power goes out in the gas station and the Wendy's.
And so the gas station employees go and they turn all the pumps off and they shut the gas
station down and lock the door and they leave.
They're like, deuces, I guess that's what you do in Louisiana when a storm moves there.
I don't know.
It's a hurricane.
So they lock it all up.
So we're inside the Wendy's and the manager comes out and she goes, all right, power's
out.
I need everybody to leave.
And we're like, to where?
To whom shall we go?
You know, we're like, where are we supposed to go here?
And so she kind of looks across the crowd and realizes maybe that's not the safest move.
So she says, okay, okay, I need everybody to stay here.
And we're like, okay, we can do that.
And so she locks the Wendy's door.
No big deal.
We got food.
Everybody's kind of hanging out.
Power's out, but it's light enough to where you can kind of see.
And so we're just kind of eating.
And Gatlin at the time is two and a half.
He's not quite three.
Turned three later that year.
So maybe two or eight months.
And he is in the middle of potty training, which means he's not wearing diapers.
He's potty training and he looks up at me and my parents in the room, you'll fill me.
You understand this.
And he's like, daddy, I have to go poo poo.
And I was like, okay, the problem was the gas station had locked from the inside access
to their bathrooms and the Wendy's didn't have any.
So we're in the Wendy's, it's locked.
And so my wife looks at me and is like, he's got his like baby Bjorn potty in the car.
You need to go get it.
And I'm like, okay.
So I go back out there, get drenched again, come back in with his potty.
I sit it in the middle of the Wendy's and my dude is like, let's go.
Like we got no option.
We kind of try and hide him behind the booth.
I mean, it is what it is.
He's two and a half.
He doesn't care.
And so he's just chilling.
I look up at the old boys and they're just like, you know what I mean?
Like it's Louisiana.
I don't know.
You know, they just give me a thumbs up and I'm like, okay, we're cool.
Finally the storm kind of clears.
We get back up on the road.
We start driving again.
As we're driving, we look at several of the other rest stops and exits.
And they're like underwater.
There are cars like flooded out.
We turned an eight hour trip into a 14 hour trip on that day just due to how slow we had
to drive and all that stuff.
We finally, I tend, we finally make it through Louisiana.
We get into Texas and the way it's laid out, we're heading west on I 10.
We get in Texas and there's this little oil town right there called Baytown.
There's a lot of refineries and all those different things.
And not only is there a refinery, not only is it Baytown, but they have by the grace of
God a Buckees.
And so we finally exit and as we exit, you could feel a sigh of relief.
We pull into this Buckees and this is us outside the Buckees as we pull in.
There we go.
We pull in.
The wind is blowing so hard.
Look at Gatlin's hair.
Like it's just, he's living his best life, man.
Like forget that Wendy's back there.
He's living his best life.
And I figured out, I was looking at this picture and I was like, what is, what is like subconsciously
so humorous about this picture?
It's the fact that he looks like Buckees in this picture.
There's the beaver and there's my beaver's hunt.
You know what I mean?
Like, like he's just chilling and he's got the same look on his face as Buckees does.
And so we had a good time and as we did, as we engaged in that, we pulled in, we rested,
we took our time at Buckees.
He's okay.
Well, what's the truth here?
Here's what I think.
As we talk about a weekly rhythm, here's what I think.
I think a lot of us go through life like we were journeying through I-10.
There's a storm raging on the outside and we're just trying to make it through.
And God, Jesus invites us not just to push through the storm, but to exit the storm and
spend time in his presence on a weekly basis.
And in doing so, we find that we fill up on the goodness and the grace of Jesus.
Forgive me if this is too simple.
Forgive me if this is too basic, but I truly believe that Jesus speaks calmly into our
storms, whether on the outside or on the inside.
And he says, this is the passage we're going to study this morning, Matthew 11.
He says this,
Forgive me all you who labor and are heavy laden and I will give you rest.
Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart and you will
find rest for your souls.
For my yoke is easy and my burden is light.
Do you know what Jesus is saying here?
He's saying you don't have to run through your life in fear.
He's saying you don't have to continue on the highway of anxiety and stress and issues
and problems.
You don't have to go through shame and self-loathing.
You can exit the highway and pull up to the rest stop that is Jesus.
Forgive me if it's too trite this morning, but real simply, here's what I would say.
What Buckeys or a rest stop is for an American road trip, are you ready?
Sabbath is for your eternal soul.
What God wants for you is to exit in a regular rhythm, on a regular basis, the rat race,
the craziness of your life and my life of this world, exit and spend time in His presence.
Now I have a question for you as we look at this scripture.
I want to dive deep into it and we're going to give you four stops to make, four translations
of the Hebrew word Sabbath, which is Shabbat this morning.
We're going to lean into that and we're going to give you truths to just kind of pull up
and fill up at.
And when we do that, my goal this morning is not to give you a bunch of to-dos.
It's to invite you into a rhythm that you need to make your own, that you need to develop
for yourself and for your family and say, this is what works for us.
Let me look at this as we look at this passage.
Let's dive into it.
You read for me.
I'm going to read to you.
Come to me, all you who labor and are heavy laden and I will, what's the next word?
Give keyword action verb.
I will give you rest.
Second part, take my yoke upon you and learn from me for I am gentle and lowly in heart
and you will find rest for your souls.
Now wait a minute.
Which one is it?
Is it that we show up to Jesus and He gives us rest and He lavishes upon us His goodness
and His grace and His rest and He just gives it freely to us when we spend time with Jesus?
Or is it that when I show up to spend time with Jesus and I begin to learn the rhythm
of rest that He actually gives me rest in the rhythm that I'm willing to submit myself
to?
Which one is it?
Are you ready for a supernatural secret this morning?
It's both.
God who is full of riches and mercy and goodness and grace would love for you to show up in
His presence today and say, God, I need rest and He will give it to you.
Do you remember when you were first saved, when you were first learning about Jesus?
Some of you that's happened this past year and you're like, this is amazing.
Who needs an energy drink?
I got Jesus.
Like this is awesome.
This is incredible.
And you pull up and Jesus is just giving you, lavishing on your rest.
And then some of us have been following Jesus for a little while and we're a little bit
tired.
We have good intentions, but we have shown up and Jesus has offered us rest, but it's
inside the rhythm.
And we're like, ah, I don't know if I have time for that.
I was thinking, I didn't even share this with the 830 service, so you're all about to be
blessed by this.
Do you know what the most successful fast food restaurant chain is in the United States
of America?
Chick-fil-A.
Chick-fil-A can do more in six days than the rest of the restaurant industry can do in
seven days.
I'll, I'll wager a bet this morning and say God can do more in your six days, can help
you accomplish more in your six days.
If you're willing to say, I will commit to this rhythm this morning, are you willing
to try the Chick-fil-A way?
Are you willing to at least study it this morning and say, I think there's something
here because Jesus says, hey, come to me and I'll give you rest.
And then you step into His presence and He says, all right, now let me teach you what
it looks like to rest.
Four translations, four words, four truths this morning as we lean into this Shabbat,
this rhythm of rest.
And let me give you some disclaimers before we dive in.
Are you ready?
First, as we dive into this, I need you to understand there is a much deeper study available
to you through this.
I went through this myself a few years back, but one of the ones that really opened my eyes
is a book called The Ruthless Elimination of Hurry by John Mark Comer.
He's a pastor.
Now again, if you're in this room, you may not need to add another book to your reading
list.
What you may need to do is just start learning the rhythms of rest and then you'll find
I have time to learn this, to dive into something like this.
You may not need another book.
For those of you who do, you can scan the QR code, purchase it on Amazon or go to our
link tree, it's available there as well.
I'm just trying to make this resource available to you.
He goes through a lot more than just the principle of Sabbath.
He talks about how our culture is set up, is designed to not give you rest.
Our culture is designed right now to monetize everything you do by making you want more,
do more, be more.
They're trying to monetize that.
But watch this, as believers of Jesus, aren't we called to be counter-cultural?
Aren't we called to not just go in the flow of whatever else is doing, but earnestly seek
out the rhythms of grace found in God's word?
Maybe one of those rhythms is this beautiful invitation that Jesus offers into rest for
our souls.
So disclaimers, number one, you can't succeed or fail at this practice.
Amen?
All you need to do is show up.
All you need to do is try.
All you need to do is lean into it and say, all right, Lord, I'm here.
Can you teach me?
Can you train me?
Resist the urge to say I'm bad at this or this isn't for me or I don't like this.
Be patient with the practice and with yourself.
Secondly, of all the practices, we talked about this, so I'll just state it, of all
the practices found for believers in Scripture, Sabbath right now, 2024, is probably one of
the most counter-cultural practices that Jesus calls us into.
Then thirdly, this will look different for you than it will look for someone else.
So as you begin to practice the rhythms of Sabbath, you'll see that in our first stop,
our first translation of the word Shabbat, you'll see that, that this rhythm will look
different for you than it will for someone else.
Don't take the exit of, oh, look how their Sabbath thing must be nice for them.
Just lean into yourself and say, this is what works for me.
Don't look at me and say, oh man, they do that, now I have to learn this.
No, lean into your own rhythms and say, this is how I'm going to submit, this is how I'm
going to learn, this is how I'm going to accept the invitation of Jesus.
By the way, Mark 2, 27, Jesus gives this famous line.
He's walking with his disciples through the cornfields and the Pharisees show up and they're
like, ah, ah, ah, they're not supposed to pick the ears of corn on the Sabbath.
And Jesus says this famous line, man was not made for the Sabbath, Sabbath was made for
man.
Do you know what Jesus is saying in that truth, in that passage?
I like how the NLT translates it, it says this.
Then Jesus said to them, the Sabbath was made to meet the needs of people and not people
to meet the requirements of the Sabbath.
If you can get that truth about this rhythm, if you can get that truth about this principle
from Scripture that I'm not trying to fulfill a to-do list, I'm just trying to lean into
a rhythm that God's inviting me to and I'll probably make some mistakes along the way.
You are already set up for success.
Okay, so here's our sermon statement.
We'll make four stops and we'll be done.
I'll let you out early so that you can rest, number one.
I like to practice what I preach, number two, so that you love me.
Okay, I'll let you out early.
All right, here we go.
As Sabbath is an invitation to pause each week and fill up your soul by entering into
the rest that God intends for you to have spiritually and physically.
God wants you to have that, okay?
So here's the first stop we have to make.
The first translation of the word Shabbat is number one, stop.
Stop.
In a world that screams forward.
In a world that tries to get you to do more and be more and go more and is leaning at
a breakneck speed into information, into technology, into all these things, we could say it this
way.
If you're going to pull up to the Jesus rest stop, you need to exit the freeway of business.
If you're going to find time to spend with Jesus, you need to first carve out and say,
okay, this is where I'm gonna spend it.
Psalm 4610 says it this way, be still and know that I am God.
I'll be exalted among the nations.
I'll be exalted in the earth.
How many of you, those first two words, be still is an issue for you.
How many of you can be vulnerable?
I'll be vulnerable.
I'll be honest.
If I spend too long in meetings as pastors, as leaders of our church, we'll spend time
together in meetings.
My whole team knows if I spend too long in meetings, I get antsy.
I start messing with people.
You know what I mean?
Like I'm like, hey, you know, I'm ready to go.
Like it is a rhythm that I have to learn for me to enter into rest.
And that might be you here this morning as well.
But that Hebrew word be still, it means like a rope that is tight, that is taught.
It means to give that rope slack.
Real simply, God's saying, cut yourself some slack this morning and just spend time in
my presence.
Do you realize that you are a human being, not a human doing?
We identify ourselves by what we do and God says, no, no, I made you just to be in my
presence.
What we do should flow out of who we are in Christ.
Isaiah 40, 31 says this way, but those who wait on the Lord shall renew their strength.
They shall mount up with wings like eagles.
They shall run and not be weary.
They shall walk and not faint.
That Hebrew word wait, it's like a three-legged race.
It means to bind yourself to the other person and wait for them to go.
Some of us need to get so in sync with God that we're stepping into this three-legged
race.
By the way, that's when Jesus said, I am the way, the truth, and the life.
We like the life part.
Yes, Jesus, give me life.
We don't mind the truth part.
We're like, yeah, teach me your truth.
But the way you're like, I think I have a rhythm for my life already.
I think I have a way that I've kind of learned.
Jesus is like, no, no, no, bind yourself up with me and wait.
Stop.
Spend time in your presence.
Real quickly, we'll go super speed.
The Sabbath was originally given to man in Genesis 2.
God creates the world and then God does what on the seventh day?
Rest.
From all his work, and God says, good.
God actually gives three blessings.
Awesome truth.
Dive into it in the book.
The Ruthless Elimination of Hurry.
But God gives three blessings.
He blesses the animal kingdom and says, be fruitful and multiply.
Then he blesses mankind and he says, be fruitful and multiply.
And then he blesses the Sabbath day.
And the connotation in the Hebrew Torah is that now he's blessing the Sabbath so that
it will be fruitful and multiply rest in your and my life.
It's a beautiful truth that we often missed because we run right past it.
First time it appears is Genesis 2 in creation.
The next time the principle of the Sabbath appears, you know where it is?
God is handwriting some suggestions, commands on these tablets.
And number five is remember the Sabbath day.
It's one of the Ten Commandments.
What happened to God's people from creation all the way until the Ten Commandments?
They were just slaves in Egypt.
And so God says, you know how you were just slaves?
You know how you were just servants?
You know how you were just stuck in these rhythms?
You are freed from that.
You are no longer slaves.
I am freeing you and I want you to spend time on the seventh day.
Remember, keep it holy.
Spend time worshiping me because you are no longer slaves.
Southern Hills Church this morning, I have a message for you.
You are no longer slaves to sin.
You are no longer slaves to your family of origin.
You have been freed from that.
Jesus has made you whole and approved.
And you are free to rest in him.
What a beautiful truth to step into and just stop and say, you're God, I'm not.
You're good.
I'm not.
I'm going to rest in that truth today.
That's what Rich Volodis says about Sabbath.
He says five favorite things about Sabbath is Sabbath is not a reward for hard work.
Sabbath is a reminder that our work will remain incomplete.
How many of you when you pause, your brain just starts thinking of all the things you
have to do?
You're like, why couldn't I think of these things earlier?
And you're like trying to write them down.
Sabbath is a day that moves us from production to presence.
Think Martha to Mary.
Both reminds us that we are not God.
And Sabbath points to us the deep rest that we need found in Christ.
The first point is this.
We need to stop.
Here's the practice.
Every point will have a practice.
Are you ready for it?
There are three ways you can practice stopping in your life.
Are you ready?
You can have the traditional Sabbath.
That's a Saturday.
Friday evening into Saturday evening.
And you can say, I'm not going to do anything on this day.
If you work a regular week, Monday through Friday, this is a beautiful rhythm for you
to adopt today and say, I'm going to try this this Friday into Saturday.
We're not going to do everything on Saturday.
We're not going to do anything on Saturday.
If you don't, if your work changes a little bit, or if you have a lot of family home responsibilities,
adopt the second one, the Lord's Day Sabbath.
Listen to me.
This would be a beautiful rhythm for a lot of people in this room to say, all right, here's
what I'm going to start doing.
I'm going to start adopting the Sabbath on Sunday.
I'm going to start out my day in God's presence.
And then I'm going to go to church and worship every single Sunday.
That's why we encourage that.
It's not so that you can show up and we can say, okay, we're so glad you're here.
You checked the box.
It has nothing to do with that.
It has to do with building the rhythm in your life of corporate worship, learning the word
of God, understanding.
By the way, a lot of businesses, a lot of places are closed.
Sundays typically are the least busy time in cities when there's less traffic.
It's a good day to just say, hey, we're stopping too.
I'm not adding things to the calendar.
I'm taking a break.
Or there's the midweek Sabbath.
There's any day during the week.
In college, I worked an overnight security job on a DOD contract for Boeing in Lancaster,
California.
So my work would start 10 p.m. and go to 6 a.m.
I'd get off at 6 a.m. and I'd drink a gallon of coffee and then go to class for my master's
degree and go there till noon.
And then at noon, I'd get off from that and I'd skip lunch and I'd go sleep for three
hours and at 3 p.m.
I would get up and I would go to my second job at Dillard selling women's shoes.
That's another story.
And then I would work from 4 p.m. get up at 3 p.m. work from 4 p.m. until 9 p.m. that
night, five-hour shift, part-time, get off at 9 p.m. and then go back to my security
job for Boeing with a DOD contract and my day would start all over.
And I remember during that time being like, there's a lot.
You might be in here.
You might be working two or three jobs.
I get it.
Here's what I remember finding during that time.
I remember finding windows.
This is what the midweek Sabbath is.
Windows where I could rest.
I drove a friend down to LAX one time to the airport and then I drove right to the Santa
Monica Beach.
I parked my car and I said, I'm going to go take a nap on the beach.
I had a professor in college that always used to say, sometimes the most spiritual thing
you can do is take a nap.
Hey, man, some of y'all need that truth today.
I'm like, I'm going to go take a nap.
I didn't think about the fact that I would be laying on the beach in the sun.
And so I woke up three hours later, very well rested and very well burnt.
And it was a great nap.
Maybe you need to adopt the midweek Sabbath and say, hey, this Tuesday is my day.
Thursday is my day.
Whatever your schedule looks like, maybe that changes from week to week.
Dive in by stopping.
Once you have a day in time carved out, you can begin to experience the second translation
of Sabbath, number two, which is rest.
Kerry Newhoff says this about rest.
When every season is a busy season, it's not a season.
It's your life.
I think that's so true.
It's so easy for me to be like, Hey, man, how are you doing?
Oh, I'm good.
How are you doing?
Man, I'm good.
I've been busy.
Busyness has become a modern day idol in most of our lives.
And we need to step away from it and say, God, I'm willing to stop and I'm willing to
enter into your rest.
What type of rest do we need?
We need physical rests on 127.1 through 2 says this, unless the Lord builds the house,
they labor in vain who build it.
Unless the Lord guards the city, the watchman stays awake in vain.
It is vain for you to rise up early, to sit up late, to eat the bread of sorrows.
For so he gives his beloved sleep.
Sleep is a gift from God.
Lean into it.
Some of us need to do a better job stopping and then saying, all right, God, I'm going
to take a nap.
I'm going to rest.
I'm not God.
I can't change this.
I can't fix this.
I'm going to physically rest right now.
But we don't just rest physically.
Then we rest mentally and emotionally.
We calm down, relax, process the week.
Isaiah 26, 3, you will keep him in perfect peace whose mind is stayed on you because
he trusts in you.
Trust in the Lord forever for in YAH the Lord is everlasting strength.
I'm going to give you a practice here in a minute to rest mentally and emotionally.
All right?
And then lastly, spiritually, we cease our striving and we rest in God's love for us
through abiding.
Ephesians 2, 8, for by grace you saved through faith.
Not to yourselves as a gift of God, not of works as any man should boast, for we are
his workmanship.
Since you're saying, I'm going to pull the car into the shop and say, hey, God, what
do I need to work on?
What do I need to lean into you with?
What do I need to rest?
You need to lead me and I'm willing to rest in you.
So ask.
Here's the practice.
Ready?
Ask.
If you have the notes, ask, what is restful for me?
Now what's restful for you may be different than what's restful for me.
I do a lot of meetings.
I do a lot of face to face.
I meet a lot of people throughout the week.
I do a lot of study.
So what's restful for me may be different than what's restful for you.
I like going home.
I don't mind doing little projects on my Sabbath.
I don't mind doing something for my wife, hanging a photo or redoing a room, doing a
little project.
I also believe in having a good marriage.
So doing those things for my wife is really restful for our marriage.
I think it's really, really good.
What's restful for me may be restful for you.
If you work with your hands all week long, maybe you need to rest by picking up a book
and saying, I'm not going to pick up a hammer.
I'm going to pick up a book.
I'm going to rest in God.
I'm going to pick up the word.
I'm going to spend some time.
So how will I rest physically?
What is restful for me asking that question?
How will I rest physically?
Sleeping, napping.
I don't set an alarm on Saturday mornings.
I have kids.
They are my alarm at 7 a.m.
But I sleep in a little bit.
And then how will I rest mentally and emotionally?
Can I just be real with you for a minute as if I haven't been real with you the rest of
time?
You know how I know that I'm resting when I don't know where this is?
I know I'm resting mentally and emotionally when I think about halfway through the day,
hey, where's my phone at?
And not like in a, where's my phone at?
But in like a, man, I haven't even been on my phone.
Hey, you missed a FaceTime call from family members?
That's okay.
You can call them back.
Put it away for a little while and feel your soul rest in Jesus.
There's several ways you can do that.
I like what Ian Simkin says.
He says, scripture before screams, meditation before media, prayer before posts.
Maybe for us, our young adult group in here, maybe before we be real with my friends, we
need to just get real with God.
Maybe we need to spend time in God's presence before we spend time on our phone.
Maybe before we develop more snaps on laps, we need to develop our character more in
God's word.
Maybe we just need to go deeper with God for a little bit and take a step away from this
and say, I need to spend time with God first.
There's a lot of ways you can do that.
Make a plan, put your phone in timeout, get a basket, a timeout basket for your phone,
and say, you're a bad phone and put it in that basket.
I'm serious.
I work with teenagers.
You gotta get really practical.
We're working with young adults.
I tell them, man, put it in the basket.
Put it for a little while.
Turn it off.
You can set reminders on your email.
You can set a, I'm out.
You want to really freak your coworkers out?
Set a reminder on your email that when they email you, it says, I'm sorry, today is my
Sabbath.
I'm resting in God.
I'll get back with you.
They'll be like, dude, don't bother him on Saturdays.
Don't bother him on Sundays, bro.
You're going to get a sermon.
I don't know what it looks like for you.
Again, I know, some of y'all are like, yeah, you know, I know it looks different for everyone,
but make a plan for what it looks like for you to rest mentally and emotionally.
Put your device away.
And then how will I rest spiritually?
One of the practices that our pastoral team has is every week we meet and we go through
the sermon together.
And here's why.
We want to step back and ask this question.
Jesus told the Pharisees that they were laying heavy burdens on men's backs that no man could
bear.
We regularly ask the question as pastors, how are we inviting the church body into the
freedom and the acceptance that is in Jesus and not just giving you a to do list.
The gospel is not moral reform.
The gospel is transformation that happens from your soul upward and outward.
And when you spend time in Jesus, I always visualize it.
I picture it that I'm stepping into the throne room of God and immediately I feel small.
And then I remember the scripture where God says to come to him boldly to the throne of
grace.
And so I start spending time in God's presence.
And I imagine myself walking up to a throne and putting my hand on it.
And I don't deserve to be there.
But I cry out, Abba, Father, and the Father looks to me and says, you are loved and you
are approved.
Well done.
I love you, son.
Spend time in my presence.
And I'm telling you, when I rest in that truth, I don't need to show up on Sunday and
now be told, okay, God's not mad at you.
God's good with you.
Not that that's a bad thing.
But as believers in Jesus, can I ask you something?
When's the last time you just rested spiritually in him?
Your salvation that you didn't work for.
You also can't keep.
A covenant with God is that you committed to God and now God keeps that covenant.
You have committed your soul to him and God will keep it.
Rest in Jesus.
I like what Corrie 10 Boom says because maybe you're like me and you tend to think about
all the sins, all the things you've done wrong, all the times you failed God, all the times
that you've stepped out of line and you start thinking about them, all the sins you've engaged
in last week and maybe yesterday and maybe this morning and you start thinking about
those.
Corrie 10 Boom said this, she said, God buried my sin in the deepest part of the sea and
then he put up a sign that said no fishing here.
When your spirit or the enemy comes to you and starts reminding you of what you used
to be, you can say that's not who I am anymore.
I am approved in Jesus.
Jesus has paid for my sin and I am safe and I am loved and I am fulfilled in the presence
of the Father.
What a truth to just start to wrestle with in you and as you bathe in that rest that
God's inviting you into that he's freely giving to you, you'll find that your rest turns
into number three, delight.
When you stop and rest, you'll find delight starts to grow in your life and in your heart.
John Mark Cormoran says this, we pamper our souls with activities that spark joy, wonder,
gratitude, happiness, such as eating good food, walking in nature, spending time with family
and friends, listening to music, playing games, making love to our spouse or just having
fun before God.
Psalm 241 says, the earth is the Lord's and everything in it, the world and all its people
belong to Him.
There's this story in Nehemiah in the Old Testament where the people hadn't read the
Torah recently and because they hadn't read it, they didn't really have a relationship
with God and they find it and they read the Bible out loud and watch what happens.
Nehemiah continued, go and celebrate, the people start to get discouraged and they're
like, oh man, God, we don't know who this God is and Nehemiah tells them, go and celebrate
with a feast of rich foods and sweet drinks and share gifts of food with people who have
nothing prepared.
This is a sacred day before our Lord.
Don't be dejected and sad for the joy of the Lord is your strength.
And the Levites too, quieted the people, telling them, hush, don't weep for this is a sacred
day.
So the people went away to eat and drink at a festive meal to share gifts of food and
celebrate with great joy because they had heard God's words and understood them.
The more you spend time with God, the more you enter into delight and realize God has
given me everything richly to enjoy.
Do you know what the Old King James, you know the translation says in this passage when
it says go and celebrate with a feast of rich foods and sweet drinks, it says eat the fat,
drink the sweet.
You want a slogan for your Sabbath?
Be like, all right, God, I am resting, I'm stopping, I'm resting in you and I'm going
to eat the fat and drink the sweet.
Let's go.
Lean into the delight that God has given you.
You know one of the ways that my family doesn't?
I don't cook for the most part throughout the week.
My wife does.
And so on Saturday, I don't mind coming home and cooking.
It's my Sabbath and I enjoy relaxing.
And so I get up and before anyone's up, I start preparing this wonderful meal.
Do you know what I make?
Cereal.
No, I'm just kidding.
I start preparing.
I enjoy cooking.
I used to help my mom when I was a kid.
And so I have the Magnolia cookbook from Joanna Gaines from Waco, Texas.
And I open it and I make biscuits and gravy from that on Saturday morning.
You want to talk about a spiritual experience?
I'm telling you, Gatlin will come downstairs.
He'll be like, I smell biscuits and they smell good.
You know what I mean?
He's entering into delight.
Can I help you something?
Maybe you pick Sunday as your day to rest and delight in God.
And so you wake up and you spend time worshiping God and then you come to church and you worship
God and then you go home and you're like, okay, what am I supposed to do with the rest
of the day?
Maybe you enjoy football.
Turn football on and watch football.
You're like, Pastor Caleb, I've been coming to church for years.
And I've always heard the pastor say, some of y'all watching football instead of coming
to Jesus.
We're saying the opposite.
Lean into delight, but come to church first.
Amen.
God has made all things richly for you.
Enjoy.
Ask yourself, what is God?
What wired me that's within the boundaries of His word that He wants me to have that
I can enjoy?
I said this to the 830 service.
Some of y'all need to watch football because it's a spiritual experience because your prayer
life needs to grow for your team.
Okay?
Because they struggled.
They struggled this year, right?
I don't know where you're at, but do something you enjoy.
Maybe you enjoy nature.
Get out in God's nature.
Maybe you enjoy reading.
Maybe you enjoy long walks.
Whatever you enjoy, lean into it.
Worship with your community.
Walk, nap, read.
And in time alone with God, lean into the practice.
Okay, now, here's the point.
Delight, here's the practice.
If you're going to delight, you have to plan your delight with a preparation day.
Okay?
So, before you get to Saturday, make a list.
Where are my list makers?
You don't have to raise your hand, but you know who you are.
You're like, yes.
The pastor said we have to make a list.
We're going home making a list.
Make a list of what you have to do before you get to your Sabbath.
Because otherwise it'll fill up with everything else.
So if Sunday is your Sabbath, make your errand day on Saturday.
So I'm going to be like, have you seen the lines at Costco on Saturday?
Okay, go to Costco Tuesday night.
I don't know.
Make a list of when you're going to do those things.
Make a plan for it so that when you enter into your Sabbath, you can practice the light.
We took our young adult group for our Christmas party.
We sold them tickets.
And we took our young adult group.
And we all went to Texas Day Brazil, a Brazilian steakhouse.
You ever been there?
Whew.
Listen, you can't just show up at Texas Day Brazil after just eating at Taco Bell.
You have to plan your delight at Texas Day Brazil.
The day of our Christmas party.
I'm like going through and I'm like, I'm going to eat light for breakfast.
And then we got to midday and it was lunchtime.
And I was like, I think I'm busy.
I think I'm busy for lunch.
I'm going to get some work done.
And I skipped a couple of meals throughout the day.
Why?
Because when you walk into Texas Day Brazil, they have a little card and it's green on
one side and red in the other.
I believe in green.
Amen.
So I flip it over.
I'm like, keep bringing it.
Lord, keep bringing the blessings, you know?
In the same way, plan your Sabbath.
Say, I want to enter into delight.
I'm not going to fill up on everything else throughout the week.
I'm going to enjoy spending time in God's presence.
And when we've stopped, rested, and we find ourselves delighting in all that is God's,
we are ushered into the last translation of the word Shabbat.
And it's this.
Worship.
Worship is not a rhythm that ushers us into the presence of God, although it's part of
it.
Worship is what we do when we are already in the presence of God.
And so when we show up on Sundays as a church, some of you are learning these rhythms and
you need to make Sunday your rhythm and make the Sunday morning experience a part of how
you worship God.
But some of us who've been following Jesus for a little while, Sunday needs to be the
overflow of what God already did on Saturday.
What I mean by that is I've spent time with God.
And so when I show up, I can now Galatians 6-1, I can bear up one another's burdens,
I can pour out, I can minister, I can serve because I've spent time with Jesus.
Psalm 150 says, praise the Lord.
Praise God in a sanctuary.
Praise Him in His money, firmament.
Praise Him for His money, acts.
Praise Him according to His excellent greatness.
Let everything that has breath praise the Lord.
Praise the Lord.
The best way I could summarize it is to say this, as we clear out our hearts from worries
and everything that we carry throughout the week, what we find is now we have the margin
to worship.
There's a lot of different ways that you could practice that, but essentially what you're
asking is, how can I cultivate intimacy with God?
How can I practice, how can I cultivate a heart of worship?
How can I make sure that my heart is set to worship?
A year ago, January 9th, 2023, my mom was diagnosed with cancer.
Many of you have walked this journey with us.
As a matter of fact, I was sitting in the ER room a year ago during this week, spending
time with my mom, and as she was talking, we were just thinking through the realities,
the reality of she might not make it.
She was 59 and a half years old, and we talked about some things, and I said, mom, what's
on your heart?
What's in your mind?
Mom, I always thought I would make it to 60.
Her birthday is August 29th, and I whispered a prayer in my heart, and I just thought,
God, will you somehow, some way, will you help my mom make it to 60?
Then I said, is there anything you wish you would have done?
She thought a little bit, and she said, I've always wanted to go to Hawaii.
By the way, in Las Vegas, we love Hawaii.
We love it.
I told my mom, I said, let's see what God does, and I remember calling my wife that
day and saying, babe, I don't know how, I don't know when, I don't know if, but I am
trusting that God will give us a miracle of my mom still being with us and give us the
ability to go and take her to Hawaii.
We've been saving for a new car.
I drive what I call my Dave Ramsey car.
It's a 2008 Chevy Malibu that I had in college.
I drive up.
I pulled up to a stoplight, and I look over, and there's Jose Rubio, one of our deacons,
and his car is like, whee whee whee whee whee.
I'm like, hey Jose, and he looks over at me, and my car is like whee whee whee whee.
I'm like, Southern Hills, sporting the gospel.
We look over, and so I talked to my wife, and I said, hey, instead of buying a new car,
or getting a used car, or upgrading, or whatever, can we take my mom to Hawaii?
This picture was taken on August 29, 2023, the day my mom turned 60 years old in Hawaii.
And I'm telling you, I'm telling you, the rhythm that's carried me through this past
year more than any other rhythm has been this rhythm of Sabbath.
I have not been able to carry all the emotions that have come with this journey.
But every week I've tried to find a place where I've just stopped and said, God, I can't
keep carrying this, and I've just rested in him, and then I've let my rest turn into delight,
face how my mom, spend time with her, enjoy it, practicing the rhythm of Sabbath.
And what I've found is it has ushered me into worship like nothing else.
Two weeks ago, I sat on the back row with my mom.
She was here visiting for Christmas, and the worship team got up and started singing a song.
And they sang these words.
I'm fighting a battle you've already won.
No matter what comes my way, I will overcome.
I don't know what you're doing, but I know what you've done.
And I'm fighting a battle you've already won.
And during the middle of the song, I'm worshiping and praising Jesus, and I look over, and my
mom is singing those lyrics.
I'm fighting a battle you've already won.
As she fights chemo, or as she fights cancer with chemo in her life.
I just started praising God.
My eyes started sweating.
Tears of joy and worship and love just started flowing in.
And the way that we got there was through this Sabbath rhythm where Jesus says, come
unto me all you who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest.
I want the rest of Jesus.
I want to enter into it, but I also want to learn the rhythm of it.
Take my yoke upon you and learn from me.
For I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls.
I want to pray for you this morning.
I want to ask that this wouldn't just be a sermon or a message, but that it would be
a plan, a practical way that you can leave here and say, I want to enter into God's rest
that He has for me.
Let's pray.