Spinning Plates

(click on the pic to listen) One man challenged another to an all-day wood chopping contest. The challenger worked very hard, stopping only for a brief lunch break. The other man had a leisurely lunch and took several breaks during the day. At the end of the day, the challenger was surprised and annoyed to find that the other fellow had chopped substantially more wood than he had. “I don’t get it,” he said. “Every time I checked, you were taking a rest, yet you chopped more wood than I did.” “But you didn’t notice,” said the winning woodsman, “that I was sharpening my ax when I sat down to rest.”

The fourth commandment is  Exodus 20

8 “Remember to observe the Sabbath day by keeping it holy. 9 You have six days each week for your ordinary work, 10 but the seventh day is a Sabbath day of rest dedicated to the Lord your God. On that day no one in your household may do any work. This includes you, your sons and daughters, your male and female servants, your livestock, and any foreigners living among you.

This commandment is on those commandments that we treat like a  “no biggie” commandments.  It’s  not like do not murder, do not covet, do not commit adultery, don’t lie, and the other real biggies that are part of the last six. But it comes before all of these “real biggie” commandments – the ones we see in the papers, on the internet, in our twitter feeds, and on the news.  The ones we talk a lot about. Those commandments we can see the results of.

This is commandment number 4 which  means it is a bigger deal to God than the last six. The first 4 commandments have everything to do with our relationship with God.  One could mount an argument that the last six are the result of not spending enough time on the first four.         

We never hear anybody talking at work or at home about somebody missing the Sabbath. Missing the Sabbath does not make the  big news in the papers, facebook, twitter, or on late news. You never hear anybody gossiping about Pastor Tom working on  his Sabbath day. Missing the Sabbath doesn’t create “water cooler” talk nor is it commandment that creates any kind of gossip.  For many of us commandment #4 is not that big of deal. We don’t spend a whole lot of time  talking about it but a lot of people have trouble keeping it. The breaking of this commandment doesn’t create anything good to talk about when it is broken.  It’s  hardly ever talked about at all. This commandment is never really taken seriously.  In fact, never taking a Sabbath day is celebrated.

Taking a Sabbath day is more than taking a vacation or having a day off. These things can help the Sabbath rest be more profitable but it goes way deeper than just time away. We will explore that a little later in the blog.

It is hard for us to take a day off. Why?

#1 We are living in a time where more and more are jobs insecure. If you job is not needed, you will lose it. If you don’t perform well you are fired. You can be easily replaced by someone more eager or more talented than you.

#2 People who are at top of the working ladder (financially speaking) are expected to work more and more hours. People who are on the lower end of the pay scale are having to work multiple jobs to stay afloat. They can’t afford time away from their jobs.

#3 Technology – today you can work anywhere – meaning you can work everywhere.

(special note: if I don’t respond to an email on Friday or a text or I don’t come to the hospital on Friday – please don’t be offended. Friday is my Sabbath day).

#4 We are the first culture (USA)  in the history of mankind to find our worth in our work and how much we money we make.

Taking all these factors into consideration, our mind, heart, body and soul have no time to rest.  We are living in the restless era. We can never have enough. We can never buy enough. We are never satisfied with have and don’t have. We are never satisfies with who we are and how much we make. We work harder to have things or pay off things we should have never bought in the first place. We have become a slave to cars, slaves to our homes, and slaves to our jobs because we just don’t have enough.

Are whole life we feel like all we are doing is ……..  (click here it is only 28 seconds long) We can’t rest because we always want more, need more,  we gotta keep everything going. We gotta keep all the plates spinning. If we were to take a rest all the plates would come crashing down.  God  makes it a commandment (not a suggestion) to take one 24 hour period away from your ordinary work.

When the Israelites were slaves in Egypt  they never got a day off.  If you didn’t work a day you might not get to eat that day.  They were slaves and couldn’t afford to take a day off. God was  now telling them that it is okay to rest. Like the Israelites, we become slaves to whatever we serve.  You see everybody is serving something.  Whatever we serve dictates what we do with our time and energy.  We become its slave. It dictates our time. It dictates where we spend our energy.

Today, we use the suffix “a-holic” to describe when someone becomes a slave to something.

Examples:

• Work-a-holic
• Alcoholic
• Stuff-a-holic
• Church – a – holics

When you are an “a-holic” you never find rest. You are always restless.

Like the Israelites, God is telling us it is okay to rest.

Sleep experts tell us that we need rest. Not just any kind of rest  but a deep rest. There are four stages of rest: (WebMD.com)

Stage 1 rest : Polysomnography (sleep readings) shows a reduction in activity between wakefulness and stage 1 sleep. The eyes are closed during Stage 1 sleep. One can be awakened without difficulty, however, if aroused from this stage of sleep, a person may feel as if he or she has not slept. Stage 1 may last for five to 10 minutes. Many may notice the feeling of falling during this stage of sleep, which may cause a sudden muscle contraction.

Stage 2: This is a period of light sleep during which sleep readings show intermittent peaks and valleys, or positive and negative waves. These waves indicate spontaneous periods of muscle tone mixed with periods of muscle relaxation. The heart rate slows and the body temperature decreases. At this point, the body prepares to enter deep sleep.

Stages 3 and 4: These are deep sleep stages, with stage 4 being more intense than Stage 3. These stages are known as slow-wave, or delta, sleep. If aroused from sleep during these stages, a person may feel disoriented for a few minutes.

During the deep stages of REM sleep, the body repairs and regenerates tissues, builds bone and muscle, and appears to strengthen the immune system. It is in this deep stage of rest that the body repairs itself. Isn’t that amazing? The kind of Sabbath God is telling us to take is a stage four rest. It is what I call a deep soul rest.

According to the scriptures , rest is about more than just taking time off. After creating the world, God looked around and saw that “it was very good” (Genesis 1:31). Did God need to take a day off after creating the work in six days? No, he didn’t. God was utterly satisified to what has been done. God did not just cease from his labor; he stopped and enjoyed what he had made. He enjoyed what he first did. What does this mean for us? We need to stop to enjoy God, to enjoy his creation, to enjoy the fruits of our labor. The whole point of Sabbath is joy in what God has done.

Sabbath rest means to cease regularly from and to enjoy the results of your work. It provides balance: “Six days you shall labor and do all your work, but the seventh day is a Sabbath to the Lord your God” (Exodus 20:9–10). Although Sabbath rest receives a much smaller amount of time than work, it is a necessary counterbalance so that the rest of your work can be good and beneficial. Sabbath rest is stage 4 kind of rest a deep  soul rest. Our leisurely  activities cannot satisfy  the need for a deep rest.  We need the kind of rest where you are renewed, restored, and repaired.

In our rest-deprived culture – where do you find rest?

Let’s look at Luke 6:1-5

One Sabbath day as Jesus was walking through some grainfields, his disciples broke off heads of grain, rubbed off the husks in their hands, and ate the grain. ² But some Pharisees said, “Why are you breaking the law by harvesting grain on the Sabbath?”

³ Jesus replied, “Haven’t you read in the Scriptures what David did when he and his companions were hungry? ⁴ He went into the house of God and broke the law by eating the sacred loaves of bread that only the priests can eat. He also gave some to his companions.” ⁵ And Jesus added, “The Son of Manis Lord, even over the Sabbath.”

Do you hear what he says to the Pharisees – “I am the Lord of the Sabbath.”

You can only get this stage 4 rest, this deep soul rest in Jesus.  Only a relationship with Christ can give you rest! When you enter into a relationship with Christ you enter into his rest. Look at what Hebrew 4 says:

Hebrews 4  – God’s promise of entering his rest still stands, so we ought to tremble with fear that some of you might fail to experience it. 2 For this good news—that God has prepared this rest—has been announced to us just as it was to them. But it did them no good because they didn’t share the faith of those who listened to God.  3 For only we who believe can enter his rest.

Everyone who has humbled themselves and ask God to be in control of their life experiences this kind of rest. It is amazing what happens after prayed that prayer let God be in control. There is an immediate relief. A burden has been lifted. Why? Because you have entered into his rest.

There is no rest for those who turn away from God. They never have enough stuff. They can’t buy enough stuff, they can’t drink enough stuff, there is this constant longing for more. They are never satisfied with their life.

So what does the Sabbath look like for us in the 21st century. First lets quickly look at what it is not:

• Sabbath is not just getting a day off.
• Sabbath is not just doing leisurely activities
• Sabbath is not just spending time with family.

To the Jew, Sabbath was intentional. They worked hard for six days. The Sabbath for them was not about having a day off and relaxing.  Jesus “worked” on the Sabbath. The Pharisee’s had created a gazillion man-made rules to once again get around God’s command. Jesus reminded them:

Mark 2:27   “The Sabbath was made to meet the needs of people, and not people to meet the requirements of the Sabbath.

The Sabbath day was a weekly reminder of their dependency on God. It was a weekly reminder not to put their trust in their work, their money, or their stuff. It was a weekly reminder to put their trust in God to provide.

For us, we need one day week where we are reminded of our dependency  on God. We get so dependent on ourselves sometimes that we wear ourselves out. This causes us to work even harder. We need one day week to remind us not to put our trust in our money, our stuff, our portfolios, and our jobs. We need one day week to remind to put our trust in God to provide.

How do we make this personal?

1. Understand that restlessness that you feel in your life is a need for God.
2. Nothing but a relationship with  God can satisfy that restlessness.
3. Everyone needs a 24 hour period to be reminded of their dependency on God.
4. Take a 24 hour period (a Sabbath day)  and allow God to renew our passion for Him , restore our sanity, and repair anything broken inside.

I love how Tim Keller summed up the purpose of a Sabbath rest:

“The purpose of Sabbath is not simply to rejuvenate yourself in order to do more production, nor is it the pursuit of pleasure. The purpose of Sabbath is to enjoy your God, life in general, what you have accomplished in the world through his help, and the freedom you have in the gospel—the freedom from slavery to any material object or human expectation. The Sabbath is a sign of the hope that we have in the world to come.”

If you are not enjoying God, if you are not enjoying your life, or you are a slave to this material world or others expectation for  you, I encourage you  to enter His rest. He will refocus you, restore you, renew you, and repair you.