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Hope Church

Sermon Notes

Rhythms of Grace

SABBATH

Genesis 2:1              

 “How are you?” 

I'm good, just __________”

“I'm good, just busy”

For many of us the great danger is not that we will renounce our faith. It is that we will become so distracted and rushed and preoccupied that we will settle for a mediocre version of it. We will just skim our lives instead of actually living them.” - John Ortberg

Matthew 11: Come to me, all who are weary and 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. - Matthew 11:28-30

 “If you want to experience the life of Jesus, you must adopt the lifestyle of Jesus by the power of the Spirit.”

SABBATH

1. “Every system is perfectly designed to get the results you are getting.”

 “If the results you are getting are lousy — anxiety at a simmer, mild depression, high levels of stress, chronic emotional burnout, little to no sense of the presence of God, an inability to focus your mind on the things that make for life, etc.— then the odds are very good that something about the system that is your life is off kilter. The way you’ve organized your morning (or evening) routine, your schedule, your budget, your relationship to your phone; how you manage your resources of time, money, and attention, etc. — something is out of whack.” – The Ruthless Elimination of Hurry, John Mark Comer

Sermon in a Sentence:

The practice of sabbath is a gift to be enjoyed not a religious burden to be carried.

THE DESIGN OF THE SABBATH

GENESIS 1:1 “In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth.” (

Thus the heavens and the earth were finished, and all the host of them.2 And on the seventh day God finished his work that he had done, and he rested on the seventh day from all his work that he had done. 3 So God blessed the seventh day and made it holy, because on it God rested from all his work that he had done in creation. - Genesis 2:1-3

 ““When you go against the grain of the universe, you get splinters.” - H.H. Farmer

 “Remember the Sabbath day, to keep it holy. 9 Six days you shall labor, and do all your work, 10 but the seventh day is a Sabbath to the Lord your God. On it you shall not do any work, you, or your son, or your daughter, your male servant, or your female servant, or your livestock, or the sojourner who is within your gates. 11 For in six days the Lord made heaven and earth, the sea, and all that is in them, and rested on the seventh day. Therefore the Lord blessed the Sabbath day and made it holy. - Exodus 20:8-11

Sabbath - A different day from all the rest where you stop from your regular work so that you can rest, delight, and worship God for the purpose of cultivating a restful spirit in all of life.

THE GIFT OF THE SABBATH

Mark 2:23-24

One Sabbath he was going through the grainfields, and as they made their way, his disciples began to pluck heads of grain. 24 And the Pharisees were saying to him, “Look, why are they doing what is not lawful on the Sabbath?”

1. 27  And he said to them, “The Sabbath was made for man, not man for the Sabbath. 28 So the Son of Man is Lord even of the Sabbath.”

SABBATH IS A GIFT TO BE ENJOYED NOT A BURDEN TO BE CARRIED.

THE FOUR MOVEMENTS OF SABBATH

1. STOP

2. REST

3. DELIGHT

“If you're new to the Sabbath, a question to give shape to your practice is this: What could I do for twenty-four hours that would fill my soul with a deep, throbbing joy? That would make me spontaneously combust with wonder, awe, gratitude, and praise?” - John Mark Comer

4.  WORSHIP

REMEMBER THE TRUE SABBATH

 “God is teaching from the very first pages of scripture, justification by faith alone. The reality is that human beings get to rest not because of any of the work they have done but completely because of the work God has done.” - Eugene Peterson