Pastor Jon Burgess
August 5, 2018 - W1831

To start our new series, Divine Rhythm, Pastor Jon Burgess teaches on the importance of the Sabbath, and how rest is part of the rhythm God intended of our lives.

The key to Divine Rhythms is the Sabbath: On the seventh day of creation, God rested and set into motion a rhythm of living. In the Ten Commandments, we are commanded to work six days and to rest on the seventh day—God did not say that rest and rhythm were optional!

In this series, we will look at how the Sabbath affects our everyday lives and, also, look at the necessity of trusting God and finding the Divine Rhythms that God is more important than whatever we’re doing!

Let’s take the Galatians 5:22,23 (Fruit of the Spirit) test: How is your love? Are people draining you—even the ones you love? What about joy? Not laughing as much as you used to? Peace? Not feeling refilled even after a vacation? Patience? Little things make you angry? Kindness? Harsh responses? Goodness? Cynical? Faithfulness? Productivity is dropping, no motivation? Gentleness? Harsh responses? Self-control? Overwork, overeat, and overdrink? All because we are not doing the one thing God asked us to do: Sabbath rest—Divine Rhythm!

We will be hitting on how our eating and drinking are involved in how we are invited to the Sabbath rest (the Divine Rhythms of God); finding the rhythms that God has set for us to balance our work, rest, and play.

(Video)

Pastor Jon Burgess: Let me introduce you to Eric and Nicole Chang, the owners of Moena Café in Hawaii Kai and Kapolei: they’re Christians and serve at New Hope Community Church in Aina Haina.

I love coming to Moena Café, not only because their food is amazing, but also because Eric and Nicole prioritize their work/rest rhythm that the Sabbath invites us to, and word of God in their business—there are even scriptures on the walls! I love the rhythm of a restaurant and the clinking of the silverware against the plates and the smell of the food cooking in the kitchen. A restaurant is an invitation to Sabbath, where it invites you to come and take a load off your feet—relax!

Matthew 11:28-30 MSG says, “Are you tired? Worn out? Burned out on religion? Come to Me. Get away with Me and you’ll recover your life. I’ll show you how to take a real rest. Walk with Me and work with Me—watch how I do it. Learn the unforced rhythms of grace. I won’t lay anything heavy or ill fitting on you. Keep company with Me and you’ll learn to live freely and lightly.”

1. Sabbath Is God’s Invitation To Celebration.

We’re at Moena Café in Hawaii Kai and talking to Chef Eric to learn how he and Nicole, his wife, live in the rhythm of grace (this elusive balance of work and rest, laughter and play) that have lasted the test and stress of time. Everything that comes out of this kitchen, you feel, is an extension/worship to the Lord.

Chef Eric: It’s almost like you’d say, doing things with excellence—with God’s excellence in everything you do! Our name Moena, literally means place of relaxation, a place of rest.

(End of Video)

Pastor Jon: When God made man and woman, He was inviting them to a celebration into intimacy, a relationship. Genesis talks about how God made everything.

Genesis 1:27-31, 2:1-3, NIV says, “So God created mankind in his own image, in the image of God he created them; male and female he created them. ²⁸ God blessed them and said to them, “Be fruitful and increase in number; fill the earth and subdue it. Rule over the fish in the sea and the birds in the sky and over every living creature that moves on the ground.” ²⁹ Then God said, “I give you every seed-bearing plant on the face of the whole earth and every tree that has fruit with seed in it. They will be yours for food. ³⁰ And to all the beasts of the earth and all the birds in the sky and all the creatures that move along the ground—everything that has the breath of life in it—I give every green plant for food.” And it was so. ³¹ God saw all that he had made, and it was very good. And there was evening, and there was morning—the sixth day.

2:1 says, ¹Thus the heavens and the earth were completed in all their vast array. ² By the seventh day God had finished the work he had been doing; so on the seventh day he rested from all his work. ³ Then God blessed the seventh day and made it holy, because on it he rested from all the work of creating that he had done.”

God gives us His best, so we can give Him our best—it all flows out of that rest that comes from the Sabbath. God invented the weekend; Adam and Eve’s first day was not a workday, it was hanging out with God! God made the Sabbath day first for…

*Relationships

*Responsibilities

*Recreation 

2. Sabbath Is God’s Invitation To Simplicity

Life becomes simple when we do it God’s way but complex when we do it our way.

Genesis 2:15-17 NIV says, “¹⁵ The Lord God took the man and put him in the Garden of Eden to work it and take care of it. ¹⁶ And the Lord God commanded the man, ‘You are free to eat from any tree in the garden; ¹⁷ but you must not eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, for when you eat from it you will certainly die.’” 

The Sabbath is a weekly reminder to submit our appetites and everything in our lives to God.

He was the one that warned them the entire time to eat what He prepared for them. Are you listening to the one who made you? Why do we listen to other people? The only person that can say that is God.

3. Sabbath is God’s Invitation to Submission

The Sabbath is a weekly reminder that we’re not in charge. God is in charge!

Isaiah 58:13-14 NIV says, “If you keep your feet from breaking the Sabbath and from doing as you please on my holy day, if you call the Sabbath a delight and the Lord’s holy day honorable, and if you honor it by not going your own way and not doing as you please or speaking idle words, ¹⁴ then you will find your joy in the Lord, and I will cause you to ride in triumph on the heights of the land and to feast on the inheritance of your father Jacob. For the mouth of the Lord has spoken.”

We’re supposed to receive the fullness of joy first; then we can enjoy the feast. God is saying, find your joy in me then you will enjoy everything else. So much of scripture involves eating and drinking. Sabbath is a reminder to eat and drink with Him, alongside Him. If we’re looking elsewhere for joy, we will fall as Adam and Eve did.

We are no longer escaping to the Lord, when we are looking at eating and drinking as places to escape.

I Corinthians 8:9, 13 NIV says,“⁹ Be careful, however, that the exercise of your rights does not become a stumbling block to the weak… ¹³ Therefore, if what I eat causes my brother or sister to fall into sin, I will never eat meat again, so that I will not cause them to fall.”

Is food on the menu? Yes, unless you’re fasting. Is eating too much food on the menu? Nope. It’s called a sin of gluttony. None of us sins alone. When it comes to the buffet, we like to go with others.

Sin can take something meant as joy and turn it into something miserable. Is alcohol on God’s menu? Yes. Is drinking too much alcohol on God’s menu? Nope. That’s called drunkenness. You will find your joy in the Lord.

1 Corinthians 10:31-33 NIV says, “³¹ So whether you eat or drink or whatever you do, do it all for the glory of God. ³² Do not cause anyone to stumble, whether Jews, Greeks or the church of God—³³ even as I try to please everyone in every way. For I am not seeking my own good but the good of many, so that they may be saved.”

My appetite takes second place to the will of God and what He’s doing in our lives.

Why do we overwork, overeat or drink too much? It’s because we want what we deserve. However, if we’re living for what we deserve, we’re no longer living to serve! So as scary as it sounds, I would give up a piece of steak for the rest of my life, if it meant that a brother or sister could spend the rest of eternity in Christ. That’s Paul’s point. It’s not about my right to do, but what’s right to do so that our brothers and sisters can come to know Christ. My appetites take second place to the will of God and what He is doing in our lives.

Questions:

• How will you spend your next Sabbath day so that it brings joy to God?

• How will you help lead others to spend their Sabbath days with God in mind?

• What are ways that God would want us to spend our Sabbath days?

• How can you improve your Sabbath days?

• What are examples of Sabbath days with the Lord in mind?