WEBVTT 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:08.160 All right, so we're working through a series, as all of you know, on work, faith. 00:00:08.160 --> 00:00:09.759 What does our faith have to do with work? 00:00:09.759 --> 00:00:15.660 And last time, Derek talked about the problem of sin and our rebellion against God and how 00:00:15.660 --> 00:00:19.719 that matters for the corruption of our work life. 00:00:19.719 --> 00:00:25.060 And so we're going to carry on that on and focus it a little bit tonight. 00:00:25.060 --> 00:00:29.379 One of the ways we might could focus it is to say because of our sin, because of the 00:00:29.379 --> 00:00:34.879 sin of Adam and Eve and our sin, our work is always going to be self-centered to some 00:00:34.879 --> 00:00:36.759 degree. 00:00:36.759 --> 00:00:43.479 And we will find ourselves in throughout life focused not on the common good, seeking the 00:00:43.479 --> 00:00:45.159 good of others in the way we work. 00:00:45.159 --> 00:00:50.759 We'll focus not on glorifying God and all that we do, whether we're eating, drinking 00:00:50.759 --> 00:00:51.759 or working. 00:00:51.759 --> 00:00:56.200 We'll focus not on witnessing to the goodness of God's intentions for work from Genesis 00:00:56.200 --> 00:01:01.240 and Ford, but we'll take work and we'll do it with selfish ambition. 00:01:01.240 --> 00:01:05.560 So that's the language that Paul uses, the language of selfish ambition when it comes 00:01:05.560 --> 00:01:11.439 to our work, not ambition, but selfish ambition, self-centeredness when it comes to the ways 00:01:11.439 --> 00:01:12.939 we work. 00:01:12.939 --> 00:01:17.120 And so we could talk about all sorts of specific examples in different, every one of you could 00:01:17.120 --> 00:01:23.359 tell stories about the way selfishness has worked out for you in the workplace, how you've 00:01:23.359 --> 00:01:27.359 seen it, how you felt the temptation of it. 00:01:27.359 --> 00:01:35.640 But I want to focus and study tonight on two general problems that come up because of sin 00:01:35.640 --> 00:01:36.719 as it relates to work. 00:01:36.719 --> 00:01:41.560 And that's the problem of overwork and the problem of underwork. 00:01:41.560 --> 00:01:46.760 So the problem of working too much and the problem of not working enough. 00:01:46.760 --> 00:01:53.680 And so every one of us, because of our personalities and our tendencies, will tend towards one or 00:01:53.680 --> 00:01:56.000 the other in life. 00:01:56.000 --> 00:02:02.120 Will tend either to be people who overwork or underwork and probably more often than 00:02:02.120 --> 00:02:08.480 not for the folk that we have at St. Columbus, our tendency will likely be to overwork rather 00:02:08.480 --> 00:02:10.599 than underwork. 00:02:10.599 --> 00:02:16.480 And one pastor puts it like this, he says, in the modern work environment, because you 00:02:16.479 --> 00:02:21.199 can work anywhere, you're prone to work everywhere. 00:02:21.199 --> 00:02:27.399 And interrupting ceaseless strivings takes a surprisingly enormous force of your will. 00:02:27.399 --> 00:02:31.519 It's hard to rest, it's easier just to work all the time. 00:02:31.519 --> 00:02:35.839 It's actually more difficult for us in modernity to rest. 00:02:35.839 --> 00:02:37.759 So that's the problem of overwork. 00:02:37.759 --> 00:02:40.439 Some of us are prone to working constantly. 00:02:40.439 --> 00:02:44.879 But John Piper points out both sides of this, he says, there's the real possibility that 00:02:44.879 --> 00:02:52.079 a person may work too much because he or she is in bondage to work because of ego, because 00:02:52.079 --> 00:02:57.879 of finances, because of building wealth in a bank account is the greatest end of life, 00:02:57.879 --> 00:03:03.560 the problem of overwork, because he's escaping his home every day. 00:03:03.560 --> 00:03:09.599 Or it may be that a person wants to work as little as possible because he or she is lazy 00:03:09.599 --> 00:03:12.359 and just simply hates work. 00:03:12.360 --> 00:03:19.600 And so that would make lack of work or the manner of working in a slothful way, a sin. 00:03:19.600 --> 00:03:22.120 So in either case, there's self-centeredness. 00:03:22.120 --> 00:03:27.120 So you can underwork because you're not motivated by God's glory to work in the ways you've been 00:03:27.120 --> 00:03:29.200 created for. 00:03:29.200 --> 00:03:35.560 Underwork means that we're struggling with not being driven by the glory of God to be 00:03:35.560 --> 00:03:41.160 the image of God in the ways that he's created us to be, which includes working. 00:03:41.159 --> 00:03:44.159 Underwork would mean something like we're not motivated by God's glory to work for the 00:03:44.159 --> 00:03:47.639 reasons we've been created to work. 00:03:47.639 --> 00:03:51.719 So in the one instance, we're not motivated by God's glory to do what we've been created 00:03:51.719 --> 00:03:52.719 to do. 00:03:52.719 --> 00:03:56.840 In the other, we're not motivated by God's glory to work for the reasons God's given 00:03:56.840 --> 00:03:59.039 us to work in this life. 00:03:59.039 --> 00:04:04.919 So it's two ways of being turned in on ourselves, as Santa Guston put it. 00:04:04.919 --> 00:04:09.519 So all I want to do for the next few minutes is think about the biblical, what I think 00:04:09.520 --> 00:04:17.960 is the main biblical antidote, which is the thing that can stop the poison. 00:04:17.960 --> 00:04:24.360 And it's the same thing for both problems, whether you struggle with overwork or underwork. 00:04:24.360 --> 00:04:27.519 There's the same thing that God says to us. 00:04:27.519 --> 00:04:30.319 There's more than one thing, but let's just talk about one tonight because we don't have 00:04:30.319 --> 00:04:32.040 a lot of time. 00:04:32.040 --> 00:04:39.319 And that's the pattern that we're given in the Bible, six days, one day. 00:04:39.319 --> 00:04:44.599 So there's a biblical pattern from Genesis to Revelation of six days and one day. 00:04:44.599 --> 00:04:46.079 So it's the concept of Sabbath. 00:04:46.079 --> 00:04:49.279 It's actually Sabbath that orients us. 00:04:49.279 --> 00:04:53.399 And it tells us not to overwork and it tells us not to underwork. 00:04:53.399 --> 00:04:54.899 It gives us both. 00:04:54.899 --> 00:04:59.079 So I want to read with you from Luke chapter six. 00:04:59.079 --> 00:05:03.879 So I'm going to read Luke chapter six, verses one to 11. 00:05:03.879 --> 00:05:05.399 So if you have a Bible, great. 00:05:05.399 --> 00:05:07.439 And if not, that's okay. 00:05:07.439 --> 00:05:09.120 Just try to try to listen. 00:05:09.120 --> 00:05:11.439 So this is God's word, Luke six. 00:05:11.439 --> 00:05:17.720 On a Sabbath, while he was going through the cornfields, Jesus's disciples plucked and 00:05:17.720 --> 00:05:22.040 ate some of the ears of corn, rubbing them in their hands. 00:05:22.040 --> 00:05:25.040 But some of the Pharisees said, why are you doing this? 00:05:25.040 --> 00:05:28.079 Not lawful to do on the Sabbath day. 00:05:28.079 --> 00:05:32.519 And Jesus answered them, have you not read what David did when he was hungry? 00:05:32.519 --> 00:05:36.959 He and those who were with him, how he entered the house of God, he took and ate the bread 00:05:36.959 --> 00:05:41.079 of presence, which is not lawful for any but the priests to eat. 00:05:41.079 --> 00:05:43.599 And he gave it to those who were with him. 00:05:43.599 --> 00:05:47.319 And he said to them, the son of man is the Lord of the Sabbath. 00:05:47.319 --> 00:05:50.959 On another Sabbath, he entered the synagogue and was teaching and a man was there. 00:05:50.959 --> 00:05:52.839 His right hand was withered. 00:05:52.839 --> 00:05:57.199 And the scribes and the Pharisees watched him to see whether he would heal on the Sabbath, 00:05:57.199 --> 00:05:59.479 so that they might find a reason to accuse him. 00:05:59.479 --> 00:06:03.879 But he knew their thoughts and he said to the man with the withered hand, come and stand 00:06:03.879 --> 00:06:04.879 here. 00:06:04.879 --> 00:06:05.879 And he rose and he stood there. 00:06:05.879 --> 00:06:11.240 And Jesus said to them, I ask you, is it lawful on the Sabbath to do good or to do harm, to 00:06:11.240 --> 00:06:13.600 save a life or to destroy it? 00:06:13.600 --> 00:06:18.560 And after looking around at them, all he said to them, after looking around at them, all 00:06:18.560 --> 00:06:22.759 he said to him, I think I still read that wrong. 00:06:22.759 --> 00:06:23.959 Let me try one more time. 00:06:23.959 --> 00:06:29.719 And after looking around at them all, there it is, he said to him, stretch out your hand. 00:06:29.719 --> 00:06:30.839 And he did so. 00:06:30.839 --> 00:06:32.600 And his hand was restored. 00:06:32.600 --> 00:06:38.400 But they were filled with fury and discussed with one another what they might do to Jesus. 00:06:38.400 --> 00:06:41.960 Okay, so a couple of things very quickly. 00:06:41.960 --> 00:06:43.920 We won't take long on this. 00:06:43.920 --> 00:06:47.920 First, Jesus tells us something here, I think, about just the simple fact of the Sabbath. 00:06:47.920 --> 00:06:54.160 So the issue here is that the Pharisees had developed rules. 00:06:54.160 --> 00:06:59.400 There's a book that was developed after this called the Hakkala in Hebrew. 00:06:59.399 --> 00:07:04.359 And it is a book that was first developed as oral tradition, which would have been very 00:07:04.359 --> 00:07:07.039 much present at the time of Christ. 00:07:07.039 --> 00:07:11.560 And it's part of what we call the Mishnah, which was written and recorded later. 00:07:11.560 --> 00:07:16.159 But these are basically the traditional rules in Judaism. 00:07:16.159 --> 00:07:21.000 So they developed way after the giving of the law, the Torah, and they're very prominent 00:07:21.000 --> 00:07:23.000 in Christ's day. 00:07:23.000 --> 00:07:27.279 Because there's a chapter in the Hakkala, which just means the way you should walk in 00:07:27.279 --> 00:07:31.879 Hebrew, rules to live by, chapter 7.2. 00:07:31.879 --> 00:07:38.000 And it says this, that the chief categories of the acts of labor prohibited on the Sabbath 00:07:38.000 --> 00:07:40.079 are 40 minus one. 00:07:40.079 --> 00:07:45.159 So 39 rules that you have to obey on the Sabbath day. 00:07:45.159 --> 00:07:46.719 And this is what they are. 00:07:46.719 --> 00:07:55.479 You must not sow, plow, reap, bind, thresh, winnow, select, produce, or crops, grind, 00:07:55.480 --> 00:07:58.720 sift, need, bake. 00:07:58.720 --> 00:08:04.520 You must not shear wool, wash it, beat it, dye it, spin it, weave it, make two loops, 00:08:04.520 --> 00:08:12.000 weave two threads, separate two threads, tie anything, untie anything, sow two stitches, 00:08:12.000 --> 00:08:17.600 tear in order to sow again. 00:08:17.600 --> 00:08:23.800 You must not trap a deer, slaughter it, flay it, salt it, cure it, scrape it, cut it up. 00:08:23.800 --> 00:08:26.879 You must not write two letters. 00:08:26.879 --> 00:08:30.720 You must not erase two letters in order to write two more letters. 00:08:30.720 --> 00:08:31.879 You must not build. 00:08:31.879 --> 00:08:33.360 You must not tear down. 00:08:33.360 --> 00:08:36.240 You must not put out a fire, kindle a fire. 00:08:36.240 --> 00:08:41.799 You must not hit with a hammer or transport an object from one domain to another. 00:08:41.799 --> 00:08:45.600 So these are the 39 rules for the Sabbath, how you obey it. 00:08:45.600 --> 00:08:52.799 Now here, Jesus disciples pluck, grain, and grind it with their hands. 00:08:52.799 --> 00:08:58.759 So clearly they've broken at least two of the Haka'la commands about the Shabbat, the 00:08:58.759 --> 00:09:00.759 Sabbath. 00:09:00.759 --> 00:09:04.359 And both Matthew and Mark's account, you can't see it here in Luke's account quite clearly 00:09:04.359 --> 00:09:09.919 because it's not as obvious in the English, but they actually, the Pharisees actually 00:09:09.919 --> 00:09:13.879 direct their accusation against Jesus, not the disciples. 00:09:13.879 --> 00:09:17.599 It doesn't say Jesus, cluck, grain, the disciples do. 00:09:17.600 --> 00:09:24.279 But when the Pharisees come, they say, why do you, your disciples do this? 00:09:24.279 --> 00:09:28.440 And so they're saying to Jesus, you are the guilty one. 00:09:28.440 --> 00:09:30.000 You've broken the Sabbath. 00:09:30.000 --> 00:09:34.440 And the reason for that is because anytime in the first century, when there's a rabbi 00:09:34.440 --> 00:09:39.800 and a group of disciples, which was normative, there are many rabbis and disciples, it was 00:09:39.800 --> 00:09:45.639 the rabbi that's responsible for the disciples' behavior, even legally sometimes. 00:09:45.639 --> 00:09:49.919 And so they're giving the accusation to Christ that he's guilty of breaking God's law. 00:09:49.919 --> 00:09:53.480 He's guilty of violating the Sabbath. 00:09:53.480 --> 00:09:59.759 Now very simple, all of us want to look at that and say, hopefully, I think you do probably, 00:09:59.759 --> 00:10:02.759 want to say how legalistic. 00:10:02.759 --> 00:10:06.799 You listen to these 39 rules and you say, this is legalism. 00:10:06.799 --> 00:10:11.840 This is trying to create rules in order to get into God's favor, to think that following 00:10:11.840 --> 00:10:16.000 these rules, not grinding grain on the Sabbath day with your fingers, is going to get you 00:10:16.000 --> 00:10:18.440 into the holy presence of the living God. 00:10:18.440 --> 00:10:22.040 That's going to be the means of God's acceptance for you. 00:10:22.040 --> 00:10:23.720 And we look at that and we say, how legalistic? 00:10:23.720 --> 00:10:30.639 Now, it is legalistic, but Jesus does not respond that way. 00:10:30.639 --> 00:10:34.720 Jesus does not say, you are a bunch of legalists. 00:10:34.720 --> 00:10:41.440 Instead, he actually affirms the fact of the Sabbath. 00:10:41.440 --> 00:10:46.720 And we see that implicitly because instead of condemning them, he starts to interpret 00:10:46.720 --> 00:10:49.200 the Sabbath for them. 00:10:49.200 --> 00:10:54.520 He starts to say, no, I'm not here to say the Sabbath law is nothing. 00:10:54.520 --> 00:10:57.240 Instead I'm here to show you what it really means. 00:10:57.240 --> 00:10:58.960 I'm here to show you how to interpret it. 00:10:58.960 --> 00:11:02.960 And we see language like that, for instance, in the Sermon on the Mount, when he says that 00:11:02.960 --> 00:11:07.160 not a jot or tittle of the law will pass away until it's fulfilled. 00:11:07.160 --> 00:11:09.560 I'm deadly serious about the law. 00:11:09.560 --> 00:11:10.680 And I'm deadly serious. 00:11:10.679 --> 00:11:12.959 Jesus was very serious about the Sabbath. 00:11:12.959 --> 00:11:14.639 He was not diminishing it. 00:11:14.639 --> 00:11:16.159 He was maximizing it actually. 00:11:16.159 --> 00:11:21.759 We're going to see something very similar, by the way, on Sunday morning from the Haka'la 00:11:21.759 --> 00:11:26.199 as well, another in Kelinor that Jesus has with the Pharisees, where he does the same 00:11:26.199 --> 00:11:27.199 thing. 00:11:27.199 --> 00:11:28.199 He maximizes the law. 00:11:28.199 --> 00:11:29.359 He doesn't minimize it. 00:11:29.359 --> 00:11:35.359 And so Jesus does not come to get rid of the Sabbath, but to fulfill it and to teach 00:11:35.359 --> 00:11:36.359 us about it. 00:11:36.359 --> 00:11:38.079 That's what he's doing here. 00:11:38.080 --> 00:11:46.759 The mistake that we might make as modern people, and here's how it relates to work, in an environment 00:11:46.759 --> 00:11:53.440 where we would tend towards overwork very easily because of smartphones and email and 00:11:53.440 --> 00:11:58.960 remote work and all sorts of things, we would be tempted, I think, to look at what the Pharisees 00:11:58.960 --> 00:12:04.080 do here and to say, look, we don't want to be legalists. 00:12:04.080 --> 00:12:07.840 And so we might suppose the Sabbath. 00:12:07.840 --> 00:12:15.040 We might suppose rest, a six in one paradigm from the Old Testament as some over-religious 00:12:15.040 --> 00:12:17.280 ancient restraint. 00:12:17.280 --> 00:12:20.240 And so there's two bad ways to go here. 00:12:20.240 --> 00:12:24.280 You can go the legalist way, the Pharisees, but you can also go the Antinomian way, which 00:12:24.280 --> 00:12:26.560 is say we're against the law together. 00:12:26.560 --> 00:12:28.280 Jesus got rid of the law. 00:12:28.280 --> 00:12:31.120 And actually the gospels don't do either of those things. 00:12:31.120 --> 00:12:35.680 So we have to say no to the Pharisees' legalism, and we have to at the same time say no to 00:12:35.679 --> 00:12:41.079 our culture's tendency towards Antinomianism of saying anytime there's a law, there's an 00:12:41.079 --> 00:12:46.439 idea that God's given us, that's an imposition of crazy religiosity. 00:12:46.439 --> 00:12:50.919 And that's neither of those things is what Jesus does. 00:12:50.919 --> 00:12:57.199 All right, so second of three things, very brief as well. 00:12:57.199 --> 00:12:59.919 Instead what Jesus does is he teaches us about the nature of the Sabbath. 00:12:59.919 --> 00:13:04.319 And when you look at the nature of the Sabbath, you realize what it means for our work lives, 00:13:04.320 --> 00:13:05.720 our work life balance. 00:13:05.720 --> 00:13:12.640 And so he tells us here that the Sabbath law is good, but it has to be understood rightly. 00:13:12.640 --> 00:13:18.840 Tim Keller, the late Tim Keller's book, Every Good Endeavor, which is about work, we're 00:13:18.840 --> 00:13:22.600 basing some of our reflections about work from it. 00:13:22.600 --> 00:13:29.560 He talks about why modern people tend to frustrate the rhythm of work and rest that the Bible 00:13:29.560 --> 00:13:30.560 offers us. 00:13:30.560 --> 00:13:33.240 We tend to ignore it, we tend to frustrate it. 00:13:33.240 --> 00:13:35.279 And there's a few reasons, a couple reasons I'll give you. 00:13:35.279 --> 00:13:36.759 One is technology. 00:13:36.759 --> 00:13:43.039 So all of us are very aware of this, but because you can work anywhere, we have a tendency 00:13:43.039 --> 00:13:44.240 to work everywhere. 00:13:44.240 --> 00:13:50.039 So if you're prone to overwork, technology really enables you to overwork. 00:13:50.039 --> 00:13:55.080 But if you're prone to underwork, technology really enables you to underwork. 00:13:55.080 --> 00:13:57.039 You can work everywhere, so you'll work anywhere. 00:13:57.039 --> 00:14:01.799 You can play everywhere, so you'll play anywhere. 00:14:01.799 --> 00:14:06.639 You can pull out your phone and do social media and games anytime you want, or you can 00:14:06.639 --> 00:14:08.839 work on your phone anytime you want. 00:14:08.839 --> 00:14:13.839 And so if you're prone to either, it's going to get maximized actually in the modern landscape 00:14:13.839 --> 00:14:15.719 that we live in. 00:14:15.719 --> 00:14:18.719 Second reason, I'll just do two. 00:14:18.719 --> 00:14:23.839 We've transitioned from a traditional society, a pre-modern society, through the industrial 00:14:23.839 --> 00:14:27.000 age of the 19th century into modernity. 00:14:27.000 --> 00:14:31.919 And when you transition from a pre-modern society to a modern society, one of the basic 00:14:31.919 --> 00:14:37.240 differences is that in pre-modern societies and traditional societies, you get your meaning 00:14:37.240 --> 00:14:41.000 and life through your family's social role. 00:14:41.000 --> 00:14:45.600 So you exist for the community more than for yourself. 00:14:45.600 --> 00:14:49.519 And there's even problems with that, but that's the way pre-modern life is set. 00:14:49.519 --> 00:14:52.159 And modern life, we're individualist. 00:14:52.159 --> 00:14:56.600 And so it's not that family's not important to us, but nevertheless, we have much more 00:14:56.600 --> 00:15:00.560 an emphasis in modern life that every single individual gets to decide what they want to 00:15:00.560 --> 00:15:02.600 be when they grow up. 00:15:02.600 --> 00:15:05.720 So if you've ever asked a child, what do you want to be when you grow up? 00:15:05.720 --> 00:15:08.120 That's a very modernist question. 00:15:08.120 --> 00:15:11.920 Nobody in the 18th century could have ever asked somebody something like that. 00:15:11.920 --> 00:15:15.639 But we ask those kinds of questions because you can decide what you want to be when you 00:15:15.639 --> 00:15:16.639 grow up. 00:15:16.639 --> 00:15:21.440 And when you live in a culture like that, personal identity is tied incredibly closely 00:15:21.440 --> 00:15:26.920 to career choice and to work success and to building a name. 00:15:26.920 --> 00:15:32.760 And when you have that type of culture, that means you're very prone to overwork because 00:15:32.760 --> 00:15:38.000 it's on you to build the name for yourself because you're an individual. 00:15:38.000 --> 00:15:44.000 Or if you have a tendency to underwork, you might come to a place in this modern individualist 00:15:44.000 --> 00:15:49.000 world where you just simply say, I'm OK with the unexamined life. 00:15:49.000 --> 00:15:51.639 I'm OK with not being successful. 00:15:51.639 --> 00:15:53.559 I just want to relax. 00:15:53.559 --> 00:15:54.799 I just want to have fun. 00:15:54.799 --> 00:15:57.360 I just want Netflix. 00:15:57.360 --> 00:16:01.600 And so either tendency, individualism brings it out. 00:16:01.600 --> 00:16:03.919 It doesn't stamp down overwork or underwork. 00:16:03.919 --> 00:16:09.519 It actually maximizes both technology and individualism, maximizing both problems. 00:16:09.519 --> 00:16:13.879 And both problems ignore the biblical paradigm of six and one. 00:16:13.879 --> 00:16:21.960 If you pick up, go to Blackwells, go to Waterstones right now and pick up success books, productivity 00:16:21.960 --> 00:16:22.960 books. 00:16:22.960 --> 00:16:25.039 I love a good productivity book. 00:16:25.039 --> 00:16:29.399 I read a few a year every year. 00:16:29.399 --> 00:16:33.320 But it's never without fail that you open up a productivity book. 00:16:33.320 --> 00:16:36.879 And one of the things you're definitely going to read about is a whole chapter devoted to 00:16:36.879 --> 00:16:39.440 something like deep rest. 00:16:39.440 --> 00:16:44.040 And it's because people recognize in the productivity world that modern people have 00:16:44.040 --> 00:16:50.800 missed the Sabbath concept and how important it is for both being productive and a healthy 00:16:50.800 --> 00:16:52.440 human being. 00:16:52.440 --> 00:16:57.640 And you have in the nature of the concept of deep rest or Sabbath itself, one of these 00:16:57.640 --> 00:17:01.280 magnetic points of human existence where we're drawn to it. 00:17:01.280 --> 00:17:04.000 We know we're empty without it. 00:17:04.000 --> 00:17:09.400 It's a natural theology in itself, if you will, a part of general revelation where people 00:17:09.400 --> 00:17:14.000 are driven toward it no matter what they believe in, knowing they need it desperately. 00:17:14.000 --> 00:17:17.200 And it's exactly the way God's designed the world. 00:17:17.200 --> 00:17:21.000 Let me just say two things about what Jesus says here about it. 00:17:21.000 --> 00:17:25.200 And then I'll apply it in the last bit, a few ways to work specifically, how it can 00:17:25.200 --> 00:17:28.680 help us with our overwork or our underwork problem. 00:17:28.680 --> 00:17:32.080 So here's one of the two. 00:17:32.080 --> 00:17:37.440 He tells us here that the Sabbath is about food. 00:17:37.440 --> 00:17:39.799 That's how he talks to us about it. 00:17:39.799 --> 00:17:40.799 So what does he say? 00:17:40.799 --> 00:17:46.720 He says that, well, the Pharisees are charging the disciples with eating on the Sabbath 00:17:46.720 --> 00:17:49.840 day and grinding in order to eat. 00:17:49.840 --> 00:17:55.279 So they were truly hungry and they're being charged with a violation of God's law because 00:17:55.279 --> 00:17:58.799 they chose to grind in order to eat. 00:17:58.799 --> 00:18:02.640 Jesus then turns to a food example. 00:18:02.640 --> 00:18:09.280 Here's Samuel 21, he says, well, remember David was hungry in the Old Testament and his 00:18:09.280 --> 00:18:14.560 men were really hungry and he took them straight into the temple, into the holy place, and 00:18:14.560 --> 00:18:19.320 they ate the bread of presence, the holy bread of the temple that they could not eat. 00:18:19.320 --> 00:18:20.600 They were not allowed to eat. 00:18:20.600 --> 00:18:22.920 And yeah, his point, it's implicit. 00:18:22.920 --> 00:18:28.960 He doesn't say it out loud, but this point is that God did not strike them. 00:18:28.960 --> 00:18:29.960 So they were starving. 00:18:29.960 --> 00:18:31.040 They were desperately hungry. 00:18:31.039 --> 00:18:35.039 They went in and ate bread that was not okay for them to eat. 00:18:35.039 --> 00:18:37.799 Yet God did not kill them for it. 00:18:37.799 --> 00:18:41.639 And there are examples in the Old Testament where God certainly struck down people, judged 00:18:41.639 --> 00:18:46.079 people for treating the temple in the wrong way, but that wasn't one of them. 00:18:46.079 --> 00:18:49.039 So he's trying to get them to think why. 00:18:49.039 --> 00:18:54.599 And it's partly because he's saying the Sabbath is about food. 00:18:54.599 --> 00:18:57.759 Well, that's a pithy way of saying it. 00:18:57.759 --> 00:18:59.359 Think about the next little section. 00:18:59.359 --> 00:19:04.759 He says in the next section, in the next story, he healed a man with a withered hand in the 00:19:04.759 --> 00:19:07.479 second story on the Sabbath day. 00:19:07.479 --> 00:19:08.479 And they said, what are you doing? 00:19:08.479 --> 00:19:09.479 You can't do that. 00:19:09.479 --> 00:19:13.279 You can't heal a man with a withered hand because it's the Sabbath. 00:19:13.279 --> 00:19:14.279 That's work. 00:19:14.279 --> 00:19:18.519 Now, you see, the first instance, it's about food. 00:19:18.519 --> 00:19:22.559 The second instance, it's about healing the body. 00:19:22.559 --> 00:19:26.559 And if you open up the Westminster Confession of Faith and the larger Catechism, you'll see 00:19:26.559 --> 00:19:32.119 how they understood this because they said that one of the things we can understand about 00:19:32.119 --> 00:19:37.159 the Sabbath is the Sabbath is for the restoration of the body. 00:19:37.159 --> 00:19:41.919 So he uses a food example and a healing of the body example to say, first, you need to 00:19:41.919 --> 00:19:43.039 understand the nature of the Sabbath. 00:19:43.039 --> 00:19:48.639 The Sabbath exists in God's commanding you to give your body a chance. 00:19:48.639 --> 00:19:50.759 Let your body rest. 00:19:50.759 --> 00:19:52.359 Put down your strivings. 00:19:52.359 --> 00:19:55.399 Put down, stop making bricks in Egypt. 00:19:55.400 --> 00:20:00.160 You've got to have a day where your body is allowed to recover because God cares about 00:20:00.160 --> 00:20:01.160 the body. 00:20:01.160 --> 00:20:03.320 That's a real aspect to the Sabbath day. 00:20:03.320 --> 00:20:09.160 Jesus chooses commands, examples, and does actions that tell us it's about that. 00:20:09.160 --> 00:20:12.960 But it's also as well about mercy. 00:20:12.960 --> 00:20:17.720 So he says, is there a way to work, quote unquote, on the Sabbath and it'd be good? 00:20:17.720 --> 00:20:18.720 Absolutely. 00:20:18.720 --> 00:20:22.280 And that's when you serve people who have real need. 00:20:22.280 --> 00:20:24.920 So if somebody's starving and you feed them. 00:20:24.920 --> 00:20:29.680 If you're starving and you feed yourself and you have to work to do that on the Sabbath 00:20:29.680 --> 00:20:31.279 day, that's okay. 00:20:31.279 --> 00:20:36.320 And if you help heal someone, if you help show mercy to someone on the Sabbath, if you 00:20:36.320 --> 00:20:42.039 get out and spend the Sabbath day doing good works and that's tiring even, that's okay. 00:20:42.039 --> 00:20:47.880 And that's been the reform traditions view for centuries all the way back to Augustine 00:20:47.880 --> 00:20:51.920 and through Calvin and in the Westminster Confession of Faith. 00:20:51.920 --> 00:20:53.840 It's written exactly like that. 00:20:53.839 --> 00:20:59.599 And one of the things that means is that we have to see the Sabbath first serves the purpose 00:20:59.599 --> 00:21:03.959 of restoration of the physical self. 00:21:03.959 --> 00:21:08.720 It's for the physical healing of the self and the physical healing of others. 00:21:08.720 --> 00:21:11.119 And that means it can't be over programmed. 00:21:11.119 --> 00:21:13.720 That's one of the very clear aspects of this passage. 00:21:13.720 --> 00:21:21.199 You can never treat the Sabbath like the Pharisees did with something like a Haka'la, a casualistic 00:21:21.200 --> 00:21:25.120 39 commandments about the way you must not work. 00:21:25.120 --> 00:21:28.799 And Jesus is saying that's not the way instead think about it like this. 00:21:28.799 --> 00:21:33.600 The Sabbath is God's command to you to put the bricks down and to first let your physical 00:21:33.600 --> 00:21:36.000 body rest, show mercy. 00:21:36.000 --> 00:21:37.600 These are good things you can do on the Sabbath. 00:21:37.600 --> 00:21:39.480 But all right, that's not the biggest thing. 00:21:39.480 --> 00:21:42.200 The biggest thing is the second thing. 00:21:42.200 --> 00:21:48.039 And in the second thing he says, verse five, I am the Lord of the Sabbath. 00:21:48.039 --> 00:21:50.600 I believe that was verse five, wasn't it? 00:21:50.599 --> 00:21:53.399 I am the Lord of the Sabbath. 00:21:53.399 --> 00:21:56.119 Now immediately they know what he's doing. 00:21:56.119 --> 00:21:58.119 He of course knows what he's doing. 00:21:58.119 --> 00:22:00.519 He's saying here. 00:22:00.519 --> 00:22:07.959 He's connecting himself to the moment that the Sabbath came into existence. 00:22:07.959 --> 00:22:11.599 The Lord of the Sabbath, the king of the Sabbath. 00:22:11.599 --> 00:22:13.199 That's the idea. 00:22:13.199 --> 00:22:15.000 And where do we find the king of the Sabbath? 00:22:15.000 --> 00:22:19.399 We find the king of the Sabbath in Genesis chapter one. 00:22:19.400 --> 00:22:26.600 The moment that the king of the universe, the creator enters into Sabbath to come alongside 00:22:26.600 --> 00:22:28.200 Adam and Eve to be in their presence. 00:22:28.200 --> 00:22:29.200 He enters Sabbath. 00:22:29.200 --> 00:22:30.800 He enters into his rest. 00:22:30.800 --> 00:22:33.920 He created the Sabbath on the seventh day. 00:22:33.920 --> 00:22:37.800 And Jesus is saying, that's me. 00:22:37.800 --> 00:22:43.560 So he's shocking them because he's saying the reason I can tell you how to do the Sabbath 00:22:43.560 --> 00:22:46.000 is because I'm the one who made it. 00:22:46.000 --> 00:22:49.080 That's what he means when he says the Lord of the Sabbath. 00:22:49.079 --> 00:22:52.559 And immediately when he says that, we're seeing something. 00:22:52.559 --> 00:22:58.199 He's saying, I can tell you about how to rest from your work because I'm the one who created 00:22:58.199 --> 00:23:01.599 rest from work. 00:23:01.599 --> 00:23:08.119 And that means that immediately we have to remember God showed us what it means to live 00:23:08.119 --> 00:23:13.639 a normal week and that normal week is six days of work, one day of rest. 00:23:13.639 --> 00:23:17.359 And God enters Sabbath and he's not a physical being. 00:23:17.359 --> 00:23:18.759 God does not have a body. 00:23:18.759 --> 00:23:20.519 We confess. 00:23:20.519 --> 00:23:23.319 And that means that the Sabbath is more about physicality. 00:23:23.319 --> 00:23:25.640 So it's about the whole person. 00:23:25.640 --> 00:23:30.319 First we need physical rest, but we also need spiritual rest. 00:23:30.319 --> 00:23:35.759 And so Jesus immediately is saying here, you need spiritual rest and I'm the one who can 00:23:35.759 --> 00:23:36.759 give it. 00:23:36.759 --> 00:23:38.519 I'm the Lord of the Sabbath. 00:23:38.519 --> 00:23:41.000 I can give you spiritual rest. 00:23:41.000 --> 00:23:49.720 And that means that much of our problem when it comes to work, overwork, underwork is actually 00:23:49.720 --> 00:23:58.160 a failure, a lack in us, a struggle to have true spiritual rest. 00:23:58.160 --> 00:23:59.400 What is true spiritual rest? 00:23:59.400 --> 00:24:02.119 True spiritual rest is soul rest. 00:24:02.119 --> 00:24:08.000 It's when you can say, like God, things are good. 00:24:08.000 --> 00:24:13.119 That's what God said in Genesis one, he looked out, he said, it's good. 00:24:13.119 --> 00:24:14.119 Now I can rest. 00:24:14.119 --> 00:24:17.440 Well, things are not good in the world. 00:24:17.440 --> 00:24:21.000 We know that the world is so broken. 00:24:21.000 --> 00:24:22.160 We're struggling. 00:24:22.160 --> 00:24:25.759 We struggle with temptation and so we struggle with suffering. 00:24:25.759 --> 00:24:33.539 But he's saying you need a day every week where you are able to lay down your identity 00:24:33.539 --> 00:24:40.159 before God the Father and say because of Jesus Christ, I'm okay. 00:24:40.159 --> 00:24:42.759 I can rest. 00:24:42.759 --> 00:24:44.759 In other words, he's talking about justification. 00:24:44.759 --> 00:24:51.480 He's saying, you know, if you've really experienced justification that you are saved by faith 00:24:51.480 --> 00:24:54.000 through grace, not of yourself. 00:24:54.000 --> 00:24:56.319 It's a gift of God all the way. 00:24:56.319 --> 00:25:03.000 You can come to Sunday and lay down your strivings, your attempts to earn God's favor 00:25:03.000 --> 00:25:08.079 and truly say, no matter what the problems are in my life, I'm justified. 00:25:08.079 --> 00:25:09.440 I'm okay. 00:25:09.440 --> 00:25:11.000 Jesus has me. 00:25:11.000 --> 00:25:13.000 He's got me in his grips. 00:25:13.000 --> 00:25:19.160 In other words, it's the command to be assured of the Lord of the Sabbath's work for you. 00:25:19.160 --> 00:25:22.599 And he's saying the Sabbath is about physical rest, but it's more than that. 00:25:22.599 --> 00:25:28.480 It's about spiritual rest, about laying your strivings down and saying, I don't need performance 00:25:28.480 --> 00:25:29.480 before God. 00:25:29.480 --> 00:25:31.480 Jesus did it for me. 00:25:31.480 --> 00:25:33.279 I can truly rest. 00:25:33.279 --> 00:25:35.079 And that of course means worship. 00:25:35.079 --> 00:25:36.079 That means worship. 00:25:36.079 --> 00:25:40.720 That's a fundamental activity that we engage in to exercise total spiritual rest. 00:25:40.720 --> 00:25:46.519 It's coming into a space and saying, I'm willing to put my work away and to completely rest 00:25:46.519 --> 00:25:50.960 and abide in the presence of the living God on Sundays. 00:25:50.960 --> 00:25:54.920 That's ultimately Jesus is saying the Sabbath, in other words, is about treating the whole 00:25:54.920 --> 00:25:55.920 person. 00:25:55.920 --> 00:26:04.360 So Jesus is going to later say, come unto me if you're weary, if you're burdened, if 00:26:04.360 --> 00:26:08.800 you're burdened by the commands of the Pharisees, burdened by legalism, but also burdened by 00:26:08.800 --> 00:26:11.680 antinomianism under a work. 00:26:11.680 --> 00:26:17.600 You know that you're not enough, that you can't do it, that you don't have the motivation. 00:26:17.600 --> 00:26:18.920 You're not productive enough. 00:26:18.920 --> 00:26:20.920 All sorts of failings in your life. 00:26:20.920 --> 00:26:28.160 On the Sabbath day, you come and say, but I've Christ, I'm justified by faith. 00:26:28.160 --> 00:26:32.039 I can truly rest and who I am and where I am. 00:26:32.039 --> 00:26:36.640 And I can let that be a springboard for treating these problems in my life. 00:26:36.640 --> 00:26:40.320 So Sabbath becomes an antidote in every direction. 00:26:40.320 --> 00:26:47.400 The reason we can Sabbath is because on the day of crucifixion, he did not get that. 00:26:47.400 --> 00:26:51.480 First Christ, the Lord of the Sabbath, experienced the exact opposite of Sabbath. 00:26:51.480 --> 00:26:54.600 He became ultimately restless. 00:26:54.600 --> 00:26:58.040 If the Sabbath is about rest, he had no rest on the cross. 00:26:58.040 --> 00:26:59.040 He was forsaken. 00:26:59.040 --> 00:27:00.920 He writhed in pain. 00:27:00.920 --> 00:27:04.160 He cried out in agony. 00:27:04.160 --> 00:27:06.440 And he did that so that we could read Hebrews 4. 00:27:06.440 --> 00:27:11.960 Hebrews 4 says there is a Sabbath rest that ultimately remains for the people of God, truly 00:27:11.960 --> 00:27:13.200 one day. 00:27:13.200 --> 00:27:16.519 And so the cross tells us everything we need in order to rest. 00:27:16.519 --> 00:27:22.480 Now, let me close by very quickly by now saying, OK, let's let's apply this a little 00:27:22.480 --> 00:27:29.720 more precisely to work for a few few minutes, just three or four minutes and say a few things. 00:27:29.720 --> 00:27:34.039 These are kind of collated from different books. 00:27:34.039 --> 00:27:38.039 I've looked at over the past on work on faith and work. 00:27:38.039 --> 00:27:44.720 So I've tried to draw together seven or eight of the main theses about how our faith and 00:27:44.720 --> 00:27:49.759 things like Sabbath can help us with our problems of work or overworked under work. 00:27:49.759 --> 00:27:50.759 Here they are. 00:27:50.759 --> 00:27:53.079 I'll just rattle them off. 00:27:53.079 --> 00:27:57.519 First thing, remember, Sabbath is an act of liberation. 00:27:57.519 --> 00:27:59.600 Exodus 34. 00:27:59.600 --> 00:28:05.079 God said to the slaves in Egypt, you were once a slave. 00:28:05.079 --> 00:28:06.079 Now you're free. 00:28:06.079 --> 00:28:08.799 So observe the Sabbath day. 00:28:08.799 --> 00:28:13.720 So he's telling us God, God said, listen, understand the Sabbath command and it is a 00:28:13.720 --> 00:28:18.120 command is ultimately a command unto liberation. 00:28:18.120 --> 00:28:19.839 It's saying, don't be a slave. 00:28:19.839 --> 00:28:21.880 You're free and so rest. 00:28:21.880 --> 00:28:22.880 Take a day. 00:28:22.880 --> 00:28:24.799 Take Sunday if you can and rest. 00:28:24.799 --> 00:28:25.799 It's a day of liberation. 00:28:25.799 --> 00:28:32.600 OK, secondly, Sabbath then is a discipline of trust. 00:28:32.600 --> 00:28:37.559 So if you're prone to overwork, you've got to be able to say on the Sabbath, I'm not 00:28:37.559 --> 00:28:39.240 God. 00:28:39.240 --> 00:28:41.839 I'm not in control. 00:28:41.839 --> 00:28:49.319 So I can rest and try today to stop controlling my life by checking email every 15 minutes. 00:28:49.319 --> 00:28:53.839 You've got to be willing to give away the control and say, no, today is the day of the 00:28:53.839 --> 00:28:54.839 Lord. 00:28:54.839 --> 00:28:55.839 I'm not in control. 00:28:55.839 --> 00:28:56.839 He is. 00:28:56.839 --> 00:29:03.720 So actually, Sabbath becomes an act of giving over in trust that God's got you. 00:29:03.720 --> 00:29:05.919 Your email is not going to save you. 00:29:05.919 --> 00:29:08.599 God's actually the one that's going to do that. 00:29:08.599 --> 00:29:14.919 Or if you're prone to underwork, Sabbath tells you this, today is the day of the Lord and 00:29:14.919 --> 00:29:19.959 the Lord commissions you to work six days. 00:29:19.959 --> 00:29:21.959 So it actually gives you your marching orders. 00:29:21.959 --> 00:29:24.719 It says to you, give today to the Lord. 00:29:24.719 --> 00:29:30.639 And now the Lord is sending you out to glorify him by being the Genesis one person because 00:29:30.639 --> 00:29:36.559 of Jesus, the image of God who takes dominion, who works, who's fruitful, who multiplies. 00:29:36.559 --> 00:29:37.759 So it does both things. 00:29:37.759 --> 00:29:43.119 It gives both overwork and underwork answers, reasons. 00:29:43.119 --> 00:29:47.079 It's the beginning of how to do life, not the end point. 00:29:47.079 --> 00:29:52.079 It's the starting block, if you will, of how to do life well. 00:29:52.079 --> 00:29:56.519 So if you are a person today, some of you, this is me. 00:29:56.519 --> 00:29:57.720 I know this. 00:29:57.720 --> 00:30:03.200 If you are prone to overwork, maybe the idea tonight is you need to actually take more 00:30:03.200 --> 00:30:04.759 Sabbath time. 00:30:04.759 --> 00:30:07.599 You need to be more serious about the Sabbath. 00:30:07.599 --> 00:30:13.119 If you're prone to underwork, you need to actually lessen your rest times, perhaps reevaluate 00:30:13.119 --> 00:30:18.359 whether they are truly rest times and take the Sabbath so seriously that you hear God's 00:30:18.359 --> 00:30:20.639 command six and one. 00:30:20.639 --> 00:30:25.839 And of course, that doesn't mean that you're going to work six days, nine to five, six days, 00:30:25.839 --> 00:30:32.279 because if you're off on a Saturday, for example, you're gardening, you're probably cleaning, 00:30:32.279 --> 00:30:36.240 you're probably tending to the things that you can't get to the days that you're in the 00:30:36.240 --> 00:30:38.519 office, if you're in the office, right? 00:30:38.519 --> 00:30:39.519 This is all work. 00:30:39.519 --> 00:30:42.359 It's all comes under that domain. 00:30:42.359 --> 00:30:48.160 Number four, just a few more, four or six, or four or seven, maybe take your Sabbath 00:30:48.160 --> 00:30:50.880 on the Sabbath day, if you can. 00:30:50.880 --> 00:30:55.279 So if it's possible at all for you, take your Sabbath on the Lord's Day. 00:30:55.279 --> 00:31:01.120 Now the reason we have to say that is because for some people, we call these works of necessity, 00:31:01.120 --> 00:31:04.720 larger catechism and our confession, both acknowledges this. 00:31:04.720 --> 00:31:05.720 You can't do that. 00:31:05.720 --> 00:31:08.720 A pastor does not take Sabbath on the Sabbath day. 00:31:08.720 --> 00:31:12.279 A medical professional that has to work on a Sunday does not take the Sabbath on the 00:31:12.279 --> 00:31:13.839 Sabbath day. 00:31:13.839 --> 00:31:18.880 And so if you can, if you're a person who cannot do that, then you've got to find another 00:31:18.880 --> 00:31:21.160 day that you can truly Sabbath. 00:31:21.160 --> 00:31:24.680 You've got to do what you can on the Lord's Day, of course, worship on the Lord's Day 00:31:24.680 --> 00:31:28.640 if at all possible, and then you've got to find another day that you can really take 00:31:28.640 --> 00:31:30.759 a serious Sabbath. 00:31:30.759 --> 00:31:33.120 Now what is a serious Sabbath? 00:31:33.120 --> 00:31:34.680 Here's a way to think about it. 00:31:34.680 --> 00:31:40.680 A serious Sabbath, of course, is worship, works of mercy. 00:31:40.680 --> 00:31:43.240 These two things are given very, very clearly in Scripture. 00:31:43.240 --> 00:31:46.480 But here's another frame in addition to that. 00:31:46.480 --> 00:31:51.160 Think about the Sabbath as a day that's all vocational. 00:31:51.160 --> 00:31:59.920 So whatever your vocation is, the kind of things you normally do, make the Sabbath different. 00:31:59.920 --> 00:32:06.640 Make it a day of all vocational schedule, contemplation, and of course worship. 00:32:06.640 --> 00:32:09.519 So do what you don't do at work. 00:32:09.519 --> 00:32:11.000 Do something contemplative. 00:32:11.000 --> 00:32:18.800 So meditate on Scripture, read books that help you set your mind on the Lord. 00:32:18.800 --> 00:32:21.759 Have special times of prayer. 00:32:21.759 --> 00:32:23.000 Have times of just thinking. 00:32:23.000 --> 00:32:24.840 Wrap yourself in beauty. 00:32:24.840 --> 00:32:28.160 So put yourself in a place where you can see beauty on the Sabbath day. 00:32:28.160 --> 00:32:29.160 These are all good ideas. 00:32:29.160 --> 00:32:30.160 Enjoy it. 00:32:30.160 --> 00:32:31.160 Eat. 00:32:31.160 --> 00:32:33.560 Drink and be merry. 00:32:33.560 --> 00:32:35.600 Eat, drink and be merry with Christian friends. 00:32:35.600 --> 00:32:36.800 Glorify in God. 00:32:36.800 --> 00:32:38.640 Show hospitality. 00:32:38.640 --> 00:32:40.759 Do good works, works of restoration. 00:32:40.759 --> 00:32:42.040 And of course, of course, worship. 00:32:42.040 --> 00:32:46.880 These are all things I think the Bible gives us either explicitly or implicitly. 00:32:46.880 --> 00:32:50.440 All right, five of six, almost there. 00:32:50.440 --> 00:32:53.480 Number five, get some accountability. 00:32:53.480 --> 00:33:00.960 So all of us need somebody in our life to say, put your phone down. 00:33:00.960 --> 00:33:03.680 It's the Sabbath day. 00:33:03.680 --> 00:33:05.920 We need that. 00:33:05.920 --> 00:33:12.279 And if you have a spouse that makes it easier, because that person's probably the one that 00:33:12.279 --> 00:33:13.920 can help say that to you. 00:33:13.920 --> 00:33:20.240 If you don't, you need to probably spend time with Christian friends more as much as you 00:33:20.240 --> 00:33:26.240 can, if you can on a Sabbath and do things like cut the phone off. 00:33:26.240 --> 00:33:28.920 It's a great, great option. 00:33:28.920 --> 00:33:34.400 So some type of accountability in our lives that can help us really observe the Sabbath. 00:33:34.400 --> 00:33:43.319 Lastly, six, we're also given, I think here, the concept of a missional Sabbath. 00:33:43.319 --> 00:33:48.039 So take this, let's take this to the workplace. 00:33:48.039 --> 00:33:53.639 If you, many of you I see on the call, some of you are retired, some of you are still 00:33:53.639 --> 00:33:55.139 working. 00:33:55.139 --> 00:34:03.079 But no matter what sphere you're in, if you are a boss of some sort, if you have authority 00:34:03.079 --> 00:34:11.719 in your life over people, how do you work the Christian Sabbath mindset into your business, 00:34:11.719 --> 00:34:15.840 into your home, into your profession, into your environment? 00:34:15.840 --> 00:34:21.400 How do you make sure that your employees, for example, know you're serious about the 00:34:21.400 --> 00:34:25.320 Sabbath and you want that for them? 00:34:25.320 --> 00:34:31.640 So are you making sure that you're implementing an environment where people can actually achieve 00:34:31.640 --> 00:34:38.079 deep rest and not be bombarded by your emails and not be feeling like they're never measuring 00:34:38.079 --> 00:34:40.680 up and so they always have to be working? 00:34:40.679 --> 00:34:46.399 So these are the kinds of questions I think that bosses, people in authority, even authority 00:34:46.399 --> 00:34:49.559 over a home need to think about. 00:34:49.559 --> 00:34:55.359 Are you truly creating a space where the people in your life can find rest around you or because 00:34:55.359 --> 00:34:59.079 of the authority you have with them and over them? 00:34:59.079 --> 00:35:04.599 All right, so that means last words, Sabbath is something that we have to work out. 00:35:04.599 --> 00:35:08.159 It's not something that comes naturally to us as sinners. 00:35:08.159 --> 00:35:10.839 You've got to have actually a plan on the Sabbath. 00:35:10.839 --> 00:35:17.000 The Sabbath is something that you get better at, I think, over time. 00:35:17.000 --> 00:35:19.599 It requires intentionality. 00:35:19.599 --> 00:35:28.039 And as it comes to our work, it is the paradigm for the Christian life, for the human life, 00:35:28.039 --> 00:35:35.159 for how to beat back the problems of selfish ambition, of overwork and of underwork. 00:35:35.159 --> 00:35:44.599 All right, let me pray and then we will then pray. 00:35:44.599 --> 00:35:50.559 Lord, we thank you for this teaching and Luke 6. 00:35:50.559 --> 00:36:00.039 And we just do ask now that you would help us to obey the Sabbath command and the work 00:36:00.039 --> 00:36:06.559 of the Lord, and all of the other commands that you've given us all to your glory and 00:36:06.559 --> 00:36:12.480 all because this is actually the pathway to joy in this life, in this life of the curse. 00:36:12.480 --> 00:36:14.279 And so we want to beat back the curse. 00:36:14.279 --> 00:36:19.920 We want to push it away and we can do that with true rest, true worship, spiritual rest, 00:36:19.920 --> 00:36:24.880 physical rest, and then the strength that that gives us to truly work well. 00:36:24.880 --> 00:36:26.079 And so we ask for these things.