Being a Balanced people

Sermon Series: Biblical Ways of Being
Genesis 2:1-3 and selected texts

February 10, 2008

Manuscript

Big Idea: Sabbath rest is a gift from God, designed as a gift for each of us to enjoy rest and renewal and to refocus on God.

Today we take another step in our series Biblical Ways of Being. In this series we are taking advantage of these early days of the New Year to give careful thought to our ways as individuals and as a church. We are reflecting back about last year and looking ahead to this next year in an effort to identify things we want to adjust about the kind of people we are or the kind of church we are. So far we have talked about being a committed/dependable people, being a unified people, being a growing/maturing people and being a generous people.

This week’s Biblical Way of Being is Being a balanced people. While living a balanced life for some might mean working more, the vast majority, from my observation, are prone to working too much and ignoring the need for restful rhythms in the cadence of their lives. Many of you and most in our culture are buckled in or clipped in to the cranking treadmill of life with little understanding about how to get off. Nor are you aware of the price you are paying mentally, emotionally, spiritually and relationally for ignoring the need for balance in your lives. Today, I want you to see that God designed you to be a balanced person and calls you to be a balanced person.

It’s my observation that most people don’t realize how tired and worn out they are until they stop for any period of time. Many people don’t really ever intentionally rest, they go and go and go and then simply crash...they get sick...or they endure a vacation never really unplugging and they live their lives in a severe state of imbalance.

Example -- I think, other than the far too frequent boring sermon, that’s one of the reasons people sleep in church: It’s the first time they have slowed down all week. At least that’s my story and I’m sticking to it.

Example-- When you ask people how they are doing isn’t it amazing how often they say in exasperated tones, “Okay or fine and then...busy.” Often when you pry under the surface you then begin to hear the deep fatigue... exhaustion...probe even deeper and then you often discover the soul numbing emptiness.

Here’s the irony of all of our fast paced lives...it hasn’t satisfied us at the deepest levels. Medical Doctor, Richard Swenson in his book, Margins asks some important questions, “How is it possible that the homemaker is still tired despite the help of the washing machine, clothes dryer, dishwasher, garbage disposal, and vacuum cleaner? If we are so prosperous, why are the therapists’ offices so full? If we have ten times more material abundance than our ancestors, why are we not ten times more content and fulfilled?” (Swenson, Margins, Navpress: Colorado Springs, 1992, p. 15).

Our fast pace lives have not satisfied us at the deepest levels. Despite the pain and emptiness, many continue to push and crank it out somehow believing that a fast pace 24/7 will eventually bring us health and life and happiness. We are convinced that taking more time to DO automatically means more productivity. And productivity is worshiped because we mistakenly link productivity with worth. Most of us always feel behind and overwhelmed. We’re stressed, running on empty and we feel like the proverbial rat on the tread wheel and we don’t know how to get off...or we don’t believe its okay to get off or perhaps, our fears and insecurities keep us from feeling permission to get off.

One person said, “If I’m not working, who am I? If I have free time, will my demons return—those thoughts and fears and possibilities that I am able to sidestep by being busy. Will I feel useless, uneasy?” (Martha Whitmore Hickman, A Day of Rest.)

[Quote] – Another incredibly insightful man said, “Our nature hungers for God even when it broke with Him long ago...It experiences a sort of famine. But the devil rides it and spurs it on, to distract it from its own need. He changes its hunger into haste. That is why people today are in such a hurry. Their speed is to distract their hunger.” --Louis Evely

[Transition] – The factors that lead us to ignore our limits and ignore the rhythms of rest in our lives are numerous and often neurotic and they deceive us into thinking that life is not designed for us to rest. But, I would submit to you this morning that nothing could be further from the Biblical call on our lives. God designed us and in fact all creation with limits and the need for rest built in. Let’s revisit a portion of the creation account so I can show you what I mean. Turn in your Bibles to Genesis 2.

Rhythms of rest are built into creation.

We pick up the creation account here in Chapter 2 after God had spent six days working to create the world. And Chapter 2 begins, “Thus the heavens and the earth were completed in all their vast array. By the seventh day God had finished the work he had been doing; so on the seventh day he rested from all his work.” It is clear that rest is built into the very fabric, the very “DNA” of Creation. God creates for six days and the seventh day he rests. God establishes a pattern, a rhythm for creation right at the very beginning.

God rested? Why? Do you think he was tired? Do you think he was a low energy, low motivated, wimp? I don’t think God came to nightfall of the sixth day and said, “Whew...TMIF...Thank me it’s Friday!” Remember The Prophet Isaiah said that God will never grow tired or weary. So, why did he rest? God rests, not for himself, but for us. God is reinforcing a pattern that is essential for healthy, productive living. Rest was a pattern for us for life; a pattern that we must take seriously or pay the consequences in our bodies, our emotions, our mind and our spirit. God needed no rest, but as creatures, he knew we would. So he established it and modeled it for every person ever created regardless of their race, color or creed.

If there was ever a time when God could have said, “Do as I say, not as I do,” it would have been here. God has more to do than you do, and God has unlimited energy so he has no need to rest like we do. He could have just told us to rest, but instead he thoughtfully and lovingly modeled it for us. Can’t you just here some Christian saying, “God never rested, so why should I?” I’m glad God modeled this for us...with his Word and his Being he designed the rhythm of rest into life.

[Transition] – I want you to see something very counter intuitive in this creation account. Notice the end of chapter 1 tells us that humankind was created on the sixth day. Now notice what man is called to do on his first day of life which is day seven. Rest! Hummm?

You were created for rest then work

It seems from this account that in the lives of humankind, God created work to rise out of rest, more so than rest being the end of work. Isn’t that interesting? God calls Adam to “be,” before he calls Adam to “do.” (Stumbo, “For the Rest of My Life”, p. 3) Rest precedes productivity and accomplishment. Certainly we must guard against taking this truth to an extreme and using it as a rationale for laziness, but most people I know don’t run that risk. The Bible is clear that work, too is a gift from God and most of us would be a whole lot better off if we would learn this simple lesson; Adam was allowed a sabbath day of rest first. As counter intuitive as it sounds to us, presumably, on Adam’s first day he accomplished nothing.

Notice too, even in the rhythms of the creation days in Genesis 1 it says, “And there was evening and there was morning—first day, second day,...the sixth day.” You see, even in the daily cycle, sleep came before work. This is why in the Hebrew day calendar the day begins at sundown. Rest preceded action. Evening’s quietness came before daytime activity (Frazee, Randy, Making Room For Life, pp. 59-64).

[Transition] – Now look at verse 3 of chapter 2. “And God blessed the seventh day and made it holy, because on it he rested from all the work of creating that he had done.”

Sabbath rest is God’s holy gift to you

Through the creation account, God calls many things good, but the first thing he calls holy is the seventh day, the day of rest. The first thing God sets apart is a day of rest...a day to stop creating...a day to stop working...a day to stop conquering...a day to stop subduing the earth. A day to rest was considered by God to be holy—in other words, something to be set apart for a special purpose: in this case REST. Are you surprised that God chose to bless a day of rest, not a day of work? What does this tell us?

The vital importance of rest for health and wellbeing is included in the Ten Commandments. It is the 4th Commandment and the longest, most detailed one. Remember the Ten Commandments are not just a random list of do’s and don’ts. They are given to us to provide for us or protect us. God commands rest as a gift to us because he knows we’ll be prone to think rest doesn’t apply to us or shouldn’t be enjoyed by us.

The command to enjoy sabbath rest is for our own benefit, it’s a gift. Our creator knows how we best function. He knows that society operates better without the destructive influences of theft and murder. So, he forbid them. Such is true of the command for Sabbath rest. God, knowing how we are made, dictated that we not push ourselves seven days a week, week in and week out. Had we had enough sense to do it, He many not have needed to command it. But, we obviously don’t so he did.

[Quote]- Randy Frazee, in his book called, Making Room For Life, writes, In creation “God again reveals a key design requirement of the human model. We function at peak performance when we take one day a week to rest and replenish. If we violate this design, we are abusing our bodies and souls, and little by little we diminish our effectiveness” (p. 64).

God is so serious about this commandment of sabbath rest that in Exodus 31 those who ignore it were put to death. The human drive to work incessantly runs so deep that God literally had to place the death sentence upon His people. At face value, the sentence seems too harsh for the crime. Yet, God viewed it as a violation of what he had called holy and (it would seem) knew that we need the strongest of warnings to get our attention.

Obviously, our culture does not operate under these Old Testament laws of punishment but, one has to wonder if the death sentence is still in effect. Perhaps those who choose to work week in and week out without the Sabbath rhythm experience different type of death...a death of creativity. “It is possible that there is a gradual death of energy and zeal for life. Motivation wanes. Enthusiasm lags. Perseverance becomes the stoic replacement for passion. Cynicism grows as once-smiling lips gradually curl into a sneer. Is it even possible that physically they meet a premature grave for not having entered the blessed weekly cycle while replacing it with their own cursed routine?” (Stumbo, p.7) Perhaps the death sentence remains in effect after all.

[Quote] – Medical Dr. Richard Swenson in his book called, Margin: Restoring Emotional, Physical, Financial, and Time Reserves To Overloaded lives writes, “Some people come in for broken legs; others, broken hearts. Some have irritable colons; others, irritable spouses. Some have bleeding ulcers; others, bleeding emotions. And compounding these wounds, many patients show signs of a new disease: marginless living. ...Most people don’t realize that pain and the absence of margin{or space for regular rest} are related” (Swenson, pp. 14-15).

Now, by the time Jesus began his teaching ministry the Sabbath, like everything other command or directive from God, had become a legalistic thing that suffocated life rather than renewing it. In the book of Matthew, chapter 11, Jesus extends one of the greatest calls to rest when he said, “Come to me, 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.” 11:28-29.

Then, right on the heals of that invitation, in chapter 12:1-8, Matthew records Jesus’ posture toward sabbath rest which is essentially that it is was created to serve our needs and not the other way around. In fact, in Mark’s account of this story Jesus says it this way, “The Sabbath was made for man, not man for the Sabbath.” Man is not to be a slave to the Sabbath, rather he is the master of it and able to use it for his own good. Throughout the New Testament we find Jesus using the sabbath to do good and for the benefit of people. Jesus treated the sabbath as a life and health giving day of blessing, not a dutiful obedience or bondage. (Stumbo, p.11)

What does practicing sabbath rest look like today?

Fundamentally, the Pharisees missed the whole point of sabbath rest and many of us have too. The result: we are painfully out of balance and paying the price. Fundamentally, the Biblical call for weekly sabbath is to bring rest and renewal to our bodies, minds and emotions and to align us afresh with God. Fundamentally, it’s not about a particular day or a regimented set of activities or non-activity. And surprising to many --Sabbath rest in its original design was not linked to any sort of formal worship in a church like setting like we think of it today until Leviticus 24.

Over and over the concept of rest is fundamental to God’s intention for the Sabbath. Eventually it became an obvious day for worship gatherings, and still is for many today. However, there is no reason that our Sabbath day and our day to attend public, corporate worship must be the same day.

To cooperate with God’s call for weekly sabbath rest in our lives we basically need to understand that God has given us the gift-command of “a weekly day of rest and celebration of God. A day to cease working and relax and rest in God’s care for us. A day to stop the things that occupy our workdays and participate in activities that nurture peace, worship, relationships, celebration and thankfulness (Baab,Lynne, Sabbath Keeping, p. 11).

[Transition] – All of this is so counter-intuitive and very counter culture for all of us. But it is so crucial. Gaining balance and practicing times of rest reminds us that God is Lord over life and we are not. It reminds us that we are creatures, created on the sixth day and we have limits that we were designed to live within. And when we don’t, we pay a deadly price in our lives and in our relationships with God and others.

So, how can we get better at this? How can we intentionally cooperate with the holy gift of sabbath rest?

Practical suggestions for practicing sabbath

Practicing sabbath will involve ceasing certain things and doing other things. Depending on who you are, how you are wired and what you do the other six days a week will determine what will be most helpful for you to cease during your Sabbath time. Kinds of things to consider ceasing during your Sabbath time:

Cease from doing things that feel like work to you. Things that feel draining to you or don’t feel peaceful or refreshing for you.

Cease from thinking or planning productivity.
Cease the compulsion to multi-task
Cease the use of one or more machines or technologies
Cease engaging with media. Television, videos, magazines or newspapers.
Cease being primarily a consumer and focus on contentment.

If you are unsure what would be good to cease during your rest time, ask yourself this question: What activity in my life has lost its value because of overuse? What do I depend on or do so frequently during the week that I could live one day without? (Baab, Sabbath Keeping, pp. 53-69)

Deuteronomy 5:15 teaches that one of the reasons Sabbath was given was to celebrate freedom from slavery and bondage. What runs the risk of holding you in bondage? What do you “slave away” at the balance of the week? What are those things in your life that nudge you toward bondage or slavery? We are given Sabbath to remember that we have been freed from slavery by the death and resurrection of Jesus.

Fundamentally we are called to cooperate with the spirit of the Sabbath, not make new rules or create new burdens. We are called to make room for rest where we can rest in God and enjoy all that he has given us. We are called to practice balance and rest and sabbath in a way that nurtures relationship with God and others.

Here are some ways to enjoy sabbath rest and let it renew you:

Linger on awareness of God and give him access –time and space--to love you.
Pay attention to creation and enjoy it. Remember, the sabbath command in Deuteronomy teach us that god created an abundant world and it is good to enjoy it and celebrate it.
Breathe deep...all day long...intentionally sigh.
Drive slower...walk more...or ride a bike.
Linger over relationships, with your spouse, kids, friends or family.
Enjoy good food and drink
Play

[Quote] – One man writes, “Good sabbath keeping includes both praying and playing. Prayerful sabbaths without play or playful Sabbaths without prayer are only half-sabbaths. Prayer without play can degenerate into a dutiful and cheerless religion. Play without prayer can become mind-numbing escape.” (Don Postema, Sabbath Keeping by Lynn Baab, p. 82).

Wondering what you should do during your sabbath time? Try these questions:

Does it promote rest and/or relaxation?
Does it bring delight and enjoyment?
Does it give you a greater awareness of and intimacy with God?

A good sabbath activity will evoke a “yes” to one of these questions. But, the best activities for sabbath will evoke a “yes” from all three of these questions.

Our technology saturated culture incessantly begs us to live 24-7, never stopping, never resting...grinding, grinding....poundy, poundy.

God invites us into a life-giving cadence. Truly sabbath is not some sort of out dated, Jewish centric, Old Testament idea, but a gift for you...for your time now.