"At Home." Week 8 | The Gift of Sabbath Rest

Thanks for joining the sermon portion of our livestream worship service. There was a special announcement made during the full worship service. If some of what Pastor Nick is referencing here is confusing, please check out this link to the portion of the livestream they announce that they are taking a three-month Sabbatical starting in January: https://www.youtube.com/live/vkq6-7iSMlo?si=JYEu0x2ScXatrKzR&t=1760

This message invites us into one of the most countercultural practices of our faith: the gift of rest. Drawing from Exodus 23:10-12 and the ancient practice of letting fields lie fallow, we're reminded that God embedded rest into the very fabric of creation—not as a burdensome law, but as a life-giving rhythm. Just as farmers discovered that fallowing their fields restored nutrients and disrupted destructive cycles, we too need seasons of intentional rest to restore our spiritual vitality. The message challenges two extremes many of us fall into: either we refuse to rest because we've made productivity our identity, or we pursue rest in ways that leave us feeling more empty than before. Through Jesus's interactions with the Pharisees in Mark 2-3, we see that Sabbath was never meant to be a rigid set of rules about what we can't do, but rather an invitation to delight in God's presence. Isaiah 58:13 reminds us that true rest isn't about pursuing our own pleasures or filling our day with mindless entertainment—it's about setting the day apart to honor the Lord and finding our deepest satisfaction in Him. When we make rest about 'me time' rather than time with God, we inevitably come away disappointed. But when we reorient our rest around delighting in the Lord, we discover the replenishment and joy He always intended for us.

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