[00:00:00] Speaker A: Foreign.
[00:00:08] Speaker B: Welcome to the collective table where we celebrate the intersections of Jesus, justice and joy.
This podcast is brought to you by Oceanside Sanctuary Church. Each week we bring our listeners a recording of our weekly Sunday teaching at Oceanside Sanctuary, which ties scripture into the larger conversations happening in our community, congregation and even the podcast. So we're glad your here and thanks for listening.
[00:00:39] Speaker A: Well, good morning, my name is Larry Warner and I am not the regular pastor. Our co pastors, Jason and Janelle are on a well deserved and needed vacation.
So they'll be back hopefully next week unless they really enjoy themselves.
So I may be back again.
But I've been attending here for a few years now.
My background is I was a youth pastor for 11 years, a deputy sheriff in LA county for six years, a senior pastor for 10 years, and then taught graduate school for about 18 years.
So one thing that tells you is I'm really old,
[00:01:28] Speaker C: but I'm glad to be here still breathing.
[00:01:29] Speaker A: So that's good and it's nice to have this opportunity.
[00:01:32] Speaker C: I want to tell you about the shirt because I've been waiting to wear it. I got it a few weeks ago and the reason I got it was
[00:01:39] Speaker A: my wife and I went shopping after church, actually on a Sunday, and she was looking at whatever she was looking at. So I decided to walk through the men's clothing section and I saw this
[00:01:50] Speaker C: shirt and I just started laughing out loud.
I go, that's hilarious.
[00:01:56] Speaker A: I gotta buy it.
[00:01:58] Speaker C: So I did. Because we live in a world where we need to have a little fun, we need to have some laughs, we need to
[00:02:08] Speaker A: rest and relax.
And that's what our message is about today.
[00:02:13] Speaker C: We're gonna talk about rest. And every time you hear rest, also
[00:02:17] Speaker A: hear the word relax.
[00:02:20] Speaker C: And also as you hear rest and relax, hear the word refreshed.
[00:02:27] Speaker A: Because that's really the goal. We're going to unpack that a little.
[00:02:31] Speaker C: Now, rest. When we typically talk about rest in
[00:02:34] Speaker A: church, does anyone know what we call it? Like there's a special day.
Yeah, we're not talking about Sabbath.
[00:02:41] Speaker C: I'll leave that to Jason and other smart people.
[00:02:45] Speaker A: He can talk to you about the Jewish context and the cultural realities and what happened. And we're just gonna push that aside.
[00:02:55] Speaker C: Cause Sabbath is really about rest.
[00:02:59] Speaker A: And so that's what we're gonna look
[00:03:00] Speaker C: at and hopefully expand your sense of what rest is.
[00:03:05] Speaker A: Cause sometimes I think we limit rest to napping, which I'm a big fan of.
[00:03:13] Speaker C: But that's not all that rest is.
And so one of the questions we'll need to ask ourselves, especially in these
[00:03:19] Speaker A: chaotic times we're living in, is what
[00:03:21] Speaker C: kind of rest do I need? And we're going to talk about various
[00:03:24] Speaker A: kinds of rest as we make our way through it.
[00:03:26] Speaker C: But I want to ground it in
[00:03:29] Speaker A: the Scriptures to begin with.
[00:03:30] Speaker C: And even before we do that, let's
[00:03:32] Speaker A: pray and get started in earnest.
God of rest, restoration and refreshment, we thank you that you invite us to
[00:03:44] Speaker C: walk along
[00:03:47] Speaker A: quiet streams, to lay down in green pastures, that from the beginning you gave the gift of rest, that you have woven it into this universe.
And it is desperately needed by each of us as we seek to live a life that is true to who you are and true to who you've created and called us to be, that we might be free to live, to love, to serve.
So open our hearts and our minds to what you have for us.
Give us words of life that again will refresh and restore. Renew us that we might live freely and lightly embrace the unforced rhythms of your grace in our lives.
It's in the name of Jesus. We pray these things. Amen.
Jesus rested like
[00:04:52] Speaker C: he would get away.
[00:04:53] Speaker A: See that in Mark over and over again.
There's a passage in Mark that talks about him actually taking a nap, which I really love. It's Mark, chapter 4, verse 38.
And it says he slept with his head on a cushion.
[00:05:12] Speaker C: See, we sometimes think this Jesus guy was this hyper serious, you know, person that just was on a mission.
[00:05:21] Speaker A: And I'm sure Jesus was serious and Jesus was on a mission, but still
[00:05:25] Speaker C: would rest, still would elevate rest and actually embody rest.
See, when I read that passage in Mark, and it's about, he's speaking to
[00:05:34] Speaker A: the crowds, the disciples are with him, the crowd's with him, and he decides
[00:05:39] Speaker C: to send everyone away.
So first he sends the crowd away.
[00:05:44] Speaker A: Hey, go away. Get out of here you knuckleheads.
[00:05:47] Speaker C: Then he sends the disciples away, hey, get in the boat.
[00:05:51] Speaker A: I'll meet you on the other side.
[00:05:56] Speaker C: And then.
[00:05:56] Speaker A: Oh, actually that's, nevermind, that's a wrong passage.
[00:05:59] Speaker C: Then he gets in the boat with the disciples. And here's how I imagine this story.
[00:06:03] Speaker A: Cause this is my other favorite story when he sends them away.
[00:06:05] Speaker C: Anyway, here's how I imagine this story. So they're getting ready to get in the boat and Jesus first words after
[00:06:12] Speaker A: he says we're gonna go to the
[00:06:14] Speaker C: other side is dibs on the cushion.
Like, because it seems there's only one cushion.
And Jesus is like, hey, I got the cushion.
[00:06:24] Speaker A: And he takes the cushion and he goes to sleep.
Now, there's some other things that happen,
[00:06:30] Speaker C: but to me, that's sort of cool.
First of all, that Jesus
[00:06:37] Speaker A: says, hey, I want the cushion.
[00:06:39] Speaker C: Because we think, you know, this Jesus
[00:06:41] Speaker A: guy, again, had no place to lay his head. All these kinds of things, self sacrifice and even to the point of death on the cross. Yes, yes, yes.
[00:06:48] Speaker C: But also cared for himself, also was
[00:06:51] Speaker A: willing to say, hey, I need a nap, I need a break, and that Christian's mine, and then go to sleep.
[00:06:59] Speaker C: Isn't that great?
Jesus was human.
[00:07:03] Speaker A: Jesus was God, but Jesus was human. And sometimes we forget that.
[00:07:06] Speaker C: So now I want to talk about what Jesus says about rest. Just a couple of verses, then we're going to go to the Old Testament
[00:07:12] Speaker A: and then we'll continue on with our comments.
[00:07:15] Speaker C: But I want you to know this. Jesus is my hermeneutic.
[00:07:19] Speaker A: Or let me put it this way.
[00:07:20] Speaker C: Jesus is the lens I used to
[00:07:22] Speaker A: understand the entirety of the Bible.
[00:07:25] Speaker C: I don't look at Paul, I don't
[00:07:27] Speaker A: look at the Old Testament. First and foremost, I look at Jesus
[00:07:30] Speaker C: because Jesus shows us the heart of God. Jesus is an articulation of who this is, who God is.
So then when I read the Old Testament and I come across these sometimes
[00:07:41] Speaker A: crazy passages, then I look at Jesus. Jesus. How does this go together?
[00:07:48] Speaker C: Sometimes it doesn't.
And when I'm in doubt, I go back to Jesus.
When I have a question about, whoa, how could God do this?
[00:08:00] Speaker A: I go back to Jesus.
[00:08:02] Speaker C: I don't understand.
[00:08:03] Speaker A: Again, Jason is going to explain all that stuff to you.
[00:08:05] Speaker C: I don't understand how that works, but
[00:08:07] Speaker A: I do understand Jesus as an articulation of God.
And what I've come to know is that this God is the God of grace and mercy, a God of love,
[00:08:21] Speaker C: God who meets us where we're at and even.
[00:08:26] Speaker A: Even talks about things like rest as being important.
So let's look at Mark, chapter two, verse 23, 24 and 27 should be on the screen at some point one Sabbath, which we're calling a rest day.
[00:08:42] Speaker C: Jesus was going through the grain fields. And as he made his way through
[00:08:46] Speaker A: out there, the disciples began to pluck heads of grain.
And the Pharisees were saying to him,
[00:08:53] Speaker C: lord, look what they're.
[00:08:55] Speaker A: What they're doing is unlawful on the Sabbath slash rest day.
[00:08:59] Speaker C: And he said to them that Sabbath
[00:09:02] Speaker A: rest days were made for humanity, not humanity. For Sabbath rest days, Jesus is saying
[00:09:11] Speaker C: that here's the day that set aside to rest, not to serve God harder, not to honor God more, but to
[00:09:22] Speaker A: Rest, which actually is a serving of God and an honoring of God, because rest says, I trust in this God, that it's not up to me, that
[00:09:34] Speaker C: I can take a break, that I'm not the Savior of the world.
[00:09:38] Speaker A: And Jesus wants us to know that.
In Matthew 11, verse 28, Jesus says,
[00:09:44] Speaker C: Come to me, all who are weary and heavy laden, and I will give you.
[00:09:50] Speaker A: Anybody, anybody.
Wow, very good.
Rest.
I will give you rest.
[00:09:57] Speaker C: Come
[00:10:00] Speaker A: so you can rest.
That's our Jesus.
And then I love this paraphrase of
[00:10:06] Speaker C: this passage found in the message.
Are you tired? Are you worn out on religion?
Come to me, get away with me,
[00:10:16] Speaker A: and you'll recover your life.
[00:10:20] Speaker C: I'll show you how to take a real rest.
Walk with me and work with me.
[00:10:26] Speaker A: Watch how I do it. I love this passage, or this part of the passage. 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.
[00:10:45] Speaker C: Isn't that lovely? Isn't that something that says, that's what I want?
I don't want to get burned out on religion. That's not the point of it. The Pharisees would heap more and more rules on people. Jesus was about, hey, you need to rest. You need to be free. You need to learn to live freely and lightly.
You need to embrace the unforced rhythms
[00:11:05] Speaker A: of grace, these inviting rhythms that God
[00:11:08] Speaker C: says, hey, make these a part of your life.
[00:11:13] Speaker A: Trust me, Open to me.
Enter into the rest that I provide.
Now I want to look at a passage in Genesis, because from the very
[00:11:24] Speaker C: beginning, rest is part of the story.
Genesis chapter one is this beautiful poetic expression of creation.
And it has these marvelous themes throughout it.
Two of them.
[00:11:38] Speaker A: One of them is rest, and the other one I'll highlight in a moment,
[00:11:42] Speaker C: but it says this.
[00:11:43] Speaker A: Thus the heavens and the earth were completed in all their vast array.
[00:11:48] Speaker C: But the seventh day, God had finished
[00:11:50] Speaker A: the work he had been doing. So on the seventh day, he, meaning God, rested from all God's work. Then God blessed the seventh day and made it holy.
Because as God rested from all work of creating what he had done.
[00:12:08] Speaker C: So actually, the first time we read about rest, it isn't called the Sabbath
[00:12:12] Speaker A: yet, it's called rest.
[00:12:15] Speaker C: And that's one of the first gifts, God. In this poetic rendition of creation, God is creating all these things and saying, they're good, and they're very good. And then at the end of it, he says, and here's what I want you to do. The last thing it did was God did was create Adam and Eve. And the next thing is like, hey, it's time to rest.
Not time to get busy. Not time to. To. To get to work, but it's time to rest.
And it's interesting. If you read Genesis carefully, it talks about evening and morning.
And that became the Jewish reckoning for day.
A day for in the Jewish community doesn't begin in the morning.
[00:12:54] Speaker A: It begins at sunset.
[00:12:57] Speaker C: And the majority of the first part
[00:13:00] Speaker A: of their day is night, is sleep, is rest.
[00:13:05] Speaker C: For rest prepares us for what is ahead. See, rest isn't merely taking care of ourselves, which is important, but it's also preparing us to be with others in
[00:13:18] Speaker A: healthy, supportive ways that show love, mercy, compassion.
[00:13:26] Speaker C: So I want to talk about one
[00:13:27] Speaker A: other thing before we move on.
[00:13:29] Speaker C: If you've heard of original sin, raise your hand.
[00:13:31] Speaker A: Anyone heard of original sin?
Okay, sorry.
[00:13:38] Speaker C: What I want to talk about in
[00:13:40] Speaker A: Genesis, chapter one, you know what it talks about? It doesn't talk about original sin at all.
It talks about this original goodness.
[00:13:50] Speaker C: See, when we were created, God says, it is good. It is very good. There's no original sin right there. It's talked about later. But originally, if you go back to the very beginning, no, it was original goodness.
That's us.
There's something good in each one of us. We're created in God's image. There's a dignity, There's a worth, there's a value. There's something to be loved and cared for, regardless
[00:14:16] Speaker A: of what we might or may not be doing.
[00:14:20] Speaker C: Original goodness.
[00:14:21] Speaker A: Let's all say that.
Okay? Now let's say it like it's a good thing,
[00:14:28] Speaker C: because it is.
We are good. Point to someone around you and say, you are good.
You are good. You are good. You are good. You are good. Yes.
Now, can we receive that? That's a different question.
But the beauty of truth is it's true. Regardless.
You are good. There's something good in each one of us. And sadly, the church has landed on
[00:14:55] Speaker A: original sin as the talking point.
[00:15:01] Speaker C: But it's original goodness because that's what gives us the ability to rest.
If I know I am good, not ultimately good, not that I have it all together, not that I'm perfect, but that there's worth, there's value, there's dignity. I don't have to prove myself.
I don't have to produce more. I don't have to have a bigger house or a fancier car or a better title.
[00:15:24] Speaker A: Doesn't mean those don't happen.
[00:15:27] Speaker C: But
[00:15:30] Speaker A: at the ground Level, I'm good regardless.
[00:15:34] Speaker C: And if I know that, then I can rest because I'm not in competition with anyone else. I don't have to have the scarcity mentality because God is going to help me to embrace the unforced rhythms of grace, to live freely and lightly and open to whatever God brings my way.
And there is never a question of my worth or value or dignity, because
[00:15:56] Speaker A: a God of love loves.
God can't help God's self because God is love.
[00:16:05] Speaker C: So when we want to rest, sometimes we need to remind ourselves that, hey, we're not the savior of the world. It's not dependent on us. I don't have to earn these things.
[00:16:14] Speaker A: I need to rest.
[00:16:16] Speaker C: Because we're not about original sin. We're about.
[00:16:23] Speaker A: Okay, I'm gonna do that one more time, so I sort of clue you in.
Mm.
[00:16:29] Speaker C: We're not about original sin. We're about right. Isn't that great? Isn't that a better message? Isn't that good news?
That's Genesis.
[00:16:41] Speaker A: Original goodness, each and every one of us.
So now I want to talk about the Ten Commandments. Excited, aren't you?
Because I don't.
[00:16:54] Speaker C: People. People do not get this. But rest is embodied in the Ten Commandments in an ingenious way.
See, the first three commandments are about honoring God, honoring your higher power, honoring the divine, whatever you want to say.
But it's realizing that I can't do it on my own.
[00:17:11] Speaker A: I need something bigger, greater than I am now. Again, I looked at Jesus and it's
[00:17:16] Speaker C: like, wow, that's the one I want. I want a God of love, of grace, of mercy.
Then the last six commandments are, here's
[00:17:28] Speaker A: what it looks like to live in community.
It talks about lying and not coveting and those kinds of things, but sandwiched in the middle is rest.
[00:17:41] Speaker C: See, we can only rest if we really know who God is, that God is trustworthy, that the world is in God's hands. It doesn't mean I withdraw and don't do anything, but I can trust in that. So I can go to sleep at night.
[00:17:54] Speaker A: Now I lay me down to sleep kind of thing, and then rest comes in. So now that enables me to rest
[00:18:03] Speaker C: so that I can be a positive
[00:18:06] Speaker A: force in the community.
[00:18:09] Speaker C: See, it's not just rest for the sake of rest. It's not just rest for my sake either.
[00:18:14] Speaker A: That's not the Christian way.
[00:18:16] Speaker C: It's rest for the sake of others. It's caring for myself so I can care for others. Any of you ever been on an airplane.
[00:18:25] Speaker A: Any of you ever paid attention to that little thing that Stuart just says?
[00:18:29] Speaker C: What are you supposed to do with your air mask?
Seems pretty selfish.
Shouldn't I be helping? Especially my kid?
No. Because I've got to take care of this so I can do those other things.
So we need to remember that rest isn't selfish.
Rest is getting to a place where I can actually love and serve others so that my relationships are interactions and not transactions.
Meaning that I can be with you and I don't need anything from you because I come rested. I come seeped in the knowledge that I have value and worth.
And so now I can be a conduit of love and grace and mercy so I don't have to come to you with my little beggar's bowl saying, hey, I like your shirt today.
[00:19:15] Speaker A: Well, I like your shirt today.
[00:19:16] Speaker C: And then we fill it up, but it has holes in it, so it
[00:19:19] Speaker A: never actually works for us.
[00:19:22] Speaker C: But when we're rested, we don't have to get.
[00:19:26] Speaker A: We can give, we can extend love.
[00:19:30] Speaker C: We can turn the other cheek. We can go the extra mile because we're rested.
Rest prepares us for. We don't know what, but we're ready because we're rested.
So rest isn't this auxiliary reality. It's something that's woven into the fabric of the universe, as I said, but also desperately needed by each of us.
How many of you are good at resting?
[00:20:02] Speaker A: Okay, one person who's already asleep.
[00:20:06] Speaker C: All right, couple over here.
[00:20:07] Speaker A: Tina.
[00:20:08] Speaker C: Very good.
[00:20:12] Speaker A: That's honest.
[00:20:13] Speaker C: Because resting is difficult because there's a lot of baggage. There's a lot of things. I'll rest when I die.
[00:20:20] Speaker A: That's something people say we're about producing things getting more and more and more that's wired into the world, especially in the West.
[00:20:33] Speaker C: And so it all mitigates against resting.
[00:20:38] Speaker A: But we need to rest.
[00:20:40] Speaker C: The world needs well, rested people.
I don't know if you pay attention to politics at all, but they make a whole lot of decisions. Like at 2 in the morning, what I don't know about you, but that's not my best time.
They're not rested.
They need. Sometimes someone needs to say, okay, nap time, everybody. Let's grab a blankie and go. Go lay down. And then we'll revisit this.
Because as we rest, it helps us holistically.
Those who study rest, talk about it helps us physically and even on the cellular level.
Like, something happens when we're rest. Think of winter.
Winter is when all creation is resting, but it doesn't mean nothing's happening.
[00:21:35] Speaker A: A whole lot's happening.
[00:21:37] Speaker C: And pretty soon we're going to see the result of that.
[00:21:39] Speaker A: And we call that spring, not because nothing happened, but because things were going on.
[00:21:46] Speaker C: See, rest is like that. Rest is like a winter where things are going on deep within us
[00:21:53] Speaker A: and
[00:21:53] Speaker C: also helps us cognitively.
[00:21:56] Speaker A: How many of you do wordle and or connections? Anyone? Just me. Just old people. All right, good to know.
[00:22:03] Speaker C: Oh, Joey. Yay. One young person.
Well, when I get up and try that the first thing in the morning,
[00:22:12] Speaker A: it doesn't go well.
[00:22:14] Speaker C: But if I resist the temptation to push through it and I come back a few hours later,
[00:22:23] Speaker A: Wow, I'm a genius.
I got it.
[00:22:28] Speaker C: These connections that didn't seem. Especially with connections, these connections like, oh,
[00:22:33] Speaker A: there, there, there, there.
[00:22:36] Speaker C: Not because I took a nap in between.
[00:22:38] Speaker A: But my pace is a pace of restedness.
[00:22:44] Speaker C: See, it's not just about ceasing from activity.
[00:22:47] Speaker A: We'll talk about this in a moment.
But it's also about an internal state of restedness that's much, much different.
And the only person who knows that if that's happening or not will be you.
[00:23:02] Speaker C: But the ability to be inwardly calm,
[00:23:06] Speaker A: collected, that's a place of rest that we can live out of that place.
Because one of the passages I want to talk to you that I skipped, and it's.
It's Exodus, chapter three.
It's not on the. It won't be on the board.
Verse 31 and 17. 31, 17.
[00:23:27] Speaker C: And it says this.
[00:23:29] Speaker A: It's.
[00:23:29] Speaker C: You'll see. It's sort of the pattern that happens
[00:23:31] Speaker A: over and over in the Old Testament.
[00:23:32] Speaker C: Six days of the Lord rested, worked.
[00:23:35] Speaker A: And on the sixth, on the seventh day, the Lord rested. So six days the Lord worked. On the seventh day, Lord rested.
[00:23:43] Speaker C: But in this passage and in every translation I've read of it, it has these two words.
[00:23:49] Speaker A: It's nowhere else in the Bible except at this 3117.
And to me, this has become the sort of the lens that I look through, rest through. And it's these two words.
And was or was refreshed.
[00:24:05] Speaker C: See, rest is to be refreshed.
Sometimes we rest, and it is not refreshing.
How many of you have gone on vacation and you came back more tired than you left?
That's not rest.
I understand why you might do that, but that's not rest.
So when you think of rest, when you think of relaxing, have that in
[00:24:28] Speaker A: the back of your mind. Does this refresh me?
[00:24:31] Speaker C: Because a lot of what we call
[00:24:33] Speaker A: rest is just killing time or Actually, I guess it'd be called binge watching Netflix.
[00:24:41] Speaker C: But anyway, same thing.
It's a mindless. And sometimes we need to do that, but that's not really rest.
[00:24:48] Speaker A: Like, that'll happen to me sometimes.
[00:24:50] Speaker C: Like, I need to take a nap, and I go, hey, I want to
[00:24:52] Speaker A: see this one thing.
[00:24:54] Speaker C: And so I pull out my phone
[00:24:55] Speaker A: or my little computer, and all of a sudden it's like, well, my rest time's over and I'm not rested.
[00:25:02] Speaker C: I mean, I was even laying down,
[00:25:05] Speaker A: and maybe the phone hit me in the face a couple times, but I'm not rested.
[00:25:12] Speaker C: And so think, when we think of
[00:25:13] Speaker A: rest, think of being refreshed, being renewed.
[00:25:17] Speaker C: And now I want to talk about different categories of rest.
And there's going to be a bunch
[00:25:22] Speaker A: of slides that come up on the screen so you can put the first one up.
Rebecca.
[00:25:28] Speaker C: So we're going to talk about different kinds of rest. So these next slides, I'm not going to go.
[00:25:33] Speaker A: I mean, I'll name them off, but
[00:25:35] Speaker C: this is Kodak moment. So you take out your phone.
Take out your phone and take pictures of these screens. Because rest is not just physical rest, and we need to remember that. I'm expanding our sense of what rest is.
[00:25:52] Speaker A: Now, if you have a good mind, maybe you can remember it.
But for me and others.
[00:25:58] Speaker C: So physical rest, that's the one. We all sort of know the next one. Mental rest.
See, we need to mentally rest and get some ideas of how you can do that.
But to give our brain a rest, there's so much coming our way. There's so much we're thinking about. There's so much we're planning, we're doing.
Sometimes we need to take a mental
[00:26:21] Speaker A: rest next,
[00:26:23] Speaker C: an emotional rest.
And this can be going to your therapist and expressing your feelings, because holding those things together is not restful.
Processing our things with a. With a dear friend, or again, even
[00:26:37] Speaker A: some paid professional can be helpful.
[00:26:41] Speaker C: Putting your phone on do not disturb is hugely helpful. Not on vibrate, on silent do not disturb. So you cannot get a call. Nothing's going to pop up on your screen.
That's huge because it allows you to
[00:26:58] Speaker A: be in the moment, to be mindful, to be present.
[00:27:02] Speaker C: Because this phone, I was going to
[00:27:04] Speaker A: bring a phone and just throw it and break it.
I thought.
[00:27:10] Speaker C: I was afraid I might hit somebody, so I threw out that idea. But these phones are insidious and they
[00:27:20] Speaker A: rob us of rest over and over again.
Mental rest, emotional rest.
[00:27:26] Speaker C: Oh, on emotional rest, too, you need boundaries with people, especially people who Are drains.
[00:27:36] Speaker A: Do anyone know people who are drains in your life?
[00:27:38] Speaker C: Okay, you can only be. You need to be rested when you spend time with them. Otherwise you're just gonna be. You're gonna crash and burn.
And that's actually caring for that person.
Good boundaries, again, they're not only good for me, but they're good for the people in my life.
But sometimes, again, this Jesus guy can
[00:27:56] Speaker A: get in the way. It's like, well, Jesus, you know, he
[00:27:59] Speaker C: was always there for everybody. No, sometimes he says, hey, that's my cushion. I'm taking a nap.
We need to do that. If Jesus did it, we need to do that. We are not the savior of the world. Jesus was still took a nap.
[00:28:16] Speaker A: Sensory rest, again, from screens and those kinds of things. There's so much that we're bombarded by, and we need to, again, unplug.
[00:28:29] Speaker C: Studies show that. That it's not helpful to look at
[00:28:32] Speaker A: your screen right before you go to sleep.
I'm sure none of you do that,
[00:28:38] Speaker C: but you might know someone who does. And that's not conducive to sleep.
[00:28:43] Speaker A: It might be better to have give
[00:28:46] Speaker C: your phone its own little bedroom.
So it's not even in your bedroom.
[00:28:49] Speaker A: It's somewhere else so it can rest a little before you engage with it.
[00:28:56] Speaker C: So sensory rest, social and relational rest.
[00:29:03] Speaker A: And this is not just for introverts. This is for all of us. Own your boundaries, have boundaries.
[00:29:12] Speaker C: Because again, as we take care of ourselves, it's preparing us so we can
[00:29:16] Speaker A: serve and love others in positive ways.
[00:29:21] Speaker C: Next, creative rest.
So creative rest is doing something that refreshes you.
So it might be a hobby. Like one of the things that my wife likes to do that would be under arrest.
[00:29:34] Speaker A: For her, not for me.
Is gardening like. No, that's work.
That's called work.
[00:29:42] Speaker C: No, for her, it feeds her soul
[00:29:44] Speaker A: and it gets in touch with nature and her herself and God in deeper ways as she gardens.
[00:29:52] Speaker C: And so that's creative rest for her.
What is some creative rest in your life?
That's not about napping. It's not about not doing something. It's actually about engaging, but in something that refreshes you.
You know, I have a friend who loves to.
[00:30:09] Speaker A: I mean, he's basically a coffee dealer because he has a scale and he has a temperature thing and he has a grinder and he measures everything out.
[00:30:21] Speaker C: But he loves serving people coffee.
Anytime I speak at that church, he
[00:30:26] Speaker A: pops in with all of his stuff and makes me a latte because I really like his lattes.
[00:30:32] Speaker C: But for him, that's refreshing, that's creative, that's restorative.
So those are different kinds of rest.
So think of rest as a menu.
Let's say since we're in church, let's say a cocktail menu.
And so these are the ingredients.
So when I say, what kind of rest do I need? There might be two or three answers.
[00:31:03] Speaker A: It might mean one part physical rest, two parts social rest, and just a splash of creative rest.
[00:31:17] Speaker C: But start thinking about it in those lines because we're these holistic beings and we're all different. So rest is going to look different based on who we are, who God created us to be, and what we need at any given time.
So here's a laundry list of ways that you can rest. And again, it's not not choosing one over the other. It's asking the question, what do I
[00:31:39] Speaker A: need to be refreshed?
What do I need to be able to be restored? Refreshed. Renewed. So that I can love and serve others.
That I can interact with them in healthy ways, that affirm them and show them love and not needing anything from them.
On my desk at home, I have this bear.
And you unscrew its head or hat, and then you tickle its tummy and bubbles.
And bubbles come out.
[00:32:36] Speaker C: And when I am stressed or when I am feeling overwhelmed or I am whatever,
[00:32:44] Speaker A: I take off his hat, I tickle his little tummy, and I gently blow bubbles.
And then I watch them because they're my prayers to just live on the. You know, to me, the wind currents or the unforced rhythms of God's grace. And what would it look for me like for me right now to just float for a moment with God, trusting, knowing that I'm enough, knowing that I'm loved, knowing that God cares for me.
When I used to commute, I'd have other bubbles in my car because sometimes you get stuck. I had an hour commute.
And so I would roll down my window or actually wouldn't roll down. That's the old days.
[00:33:34] Speaker C: And then I would take all my
[00:33:35] Speaker A: bubbles and I would just blow them out the window.
And that was my prayer.
Relax.
We're not going anywhere.
Let the bubbles be a bubble. Be the bubble in the breath of God.
[00:33:54] Speaker C: So at the end of when Joey
[00:33:57] Speaker A: comes up, not yet.
[00:34:00] Speaker C: I have. I don't know if I have enough for everyone because I thought of this last night, but this is how many
[00:34:05] Speaker A: bubbles I have in my house.
[00:34:09] Speaker C: So here's bubbles.
And so if you'd like to take
[00:34:13] Speaker A: them, you can come up while we're Singing the last song.
And again, I don't know if I have enough for all of you, but many more than I thought I had.
Don't shake them.
[00:34:28] Speaker C: And these are really good bubbles.
[00:34:29] Speaker A: They're not the bubbles you get for your kids.
They're from. They're wedding bubbles. So they have good, good solution.
If you get those bubbles from the store, you're just going to get frustrated, you're not going to rest.
This little guy is from Germany. I mean, I'm very serious about my bubbles.
[00:34:50] Speaker C: But that could be your prayer. Where do you get stressed out? Where do you need to be reminded to rest, to be refreshed, to relax?
[00:34:57] Speaker A: Put that there.
And then when you need it, just take it out. That becomes your, your wordless prayer.
God, help me to settle down, settle in.
So as we rest, here's some little pointers.
Start small.
The ideal gets in the way of the good.
[00:35:24] Speaker C: Be realistic.
If you just got a puppy, you're
[00:35:28] Speaker A: not going to rest.
Or little kids under age of 5, you're not gonna rest.
[00:35:34] Speaker C: Or a grandparent with your grandkids coming
[00:35:37] Speaker A: over, you're not gonna rest.
[00:35:38] Speaker C: Okay, that's the way it goes.
But when that's not there, rest and grab little snippets of rest.
Like if you take a shower, you can rest.
[00:35:51] Speaker A: You know, don't get, oh, gotta get. You know, it's like, just breathe a little as you lather up and just image the water washing over you as an invitation to rest and relax.
Ask the question from time to time, what do I need right now?
[00:36:09] Speaker C: Schedule little micro breaks in your day.
You know, taking a little walk, just
[00:36:14] Speaker A: even around your desk says something.
Or outside if you're able to. Or bring up a picture that has some beauty in it that communicates to your soul.
Unplug in the evenings.
My daughter, who tends to be a nut, her and her husband decided that
[00:36:32] Speaker C: they're going to use no electricity
[00:36:37] Speaker A: after they're done with dinner.
[00:36:40] Speaker C: None. So they couldn't.
[00:36:41] Speaker A: And they couldn't watch any screens either.
[00:36:48] Speaker C: That's a little crazy to me, but it is good modeling.
[00:36:54] Speaker A: So way to go.
[00:36:57] Speaker C: But maybe I could do something.
[00:36:59] Speaker A: Maybe not. As I would say, on the crazy side,
[00:37:05] Speaker C: try to get restorative sleep.
[00:37:10] Speaker A: You spend a lot of time on the mattress. You have a crappy mattress.
Talk to Jason. Maybe he can give you some money or something.
[00:37:16] Speaker C: But get a good, get a good mattress.
Get a good pillow. When I travel, I've traveled around the world.
[00:37:25] Speaker A: My pillow has been around the world. Cause it makes a difference, you know,
[00:37:30] Speaker C: White noise can be helpful, but try and try to get they say around seven hours sleep now we're all different.
But find out again. Figure out what do I need.
And the way you prepare for tomorrow
[00:37:42] Speaker A: is what you do tonight.
So take that seriously. I need to get to bed right now because I have an early meeting. If I'm going to get to that
[00:37:50] Speaker C: and I want to get my seven
[00:37:51] Speaker A: hours, I'm going to need to do this.
All right, I think that's about it.
[00:37:58] Speaker C: We owe it to ourselves and we owe it to the world to rest.
We owe it to ourselves and we
[00:38:08] Speaker A: owe it to the world to rest.
[00:38:09] Speaker C: Jesus rested and invites us to do the same.
As we rest, we are able to serve from a place of love, a
[00:38:20] Speaker A: place of grace giving place of mercy with no strings attached.
[00:38:25] Speaker C: When we're rested, we can be that
[00:38:27] Speaker A: non anxious presence that can be Jesus to those that we walk with.
Rest isn't an option, it's a necessity.
[00:38:40] Speaker C: And we owe it to ourselves and we owe it to this community and we owe it to the world to
[00:38:45] Speaker A: get some rest, to be rested in that variety of ways, whatever it may be for you.
[00:38:52] Speaker C: So how many people are going to try and rest today?
[00:38:55] Speaker A: Raise your hands.
All right, that's sort of the same
[00:38:58] Speaker C: people every time, but that's good.
So we have some people who can be rested.
Because remember, the last thing is this, resting is hard.
[00:39:08] Speaker A: It's countercultural.
And so go ahead, man.
[00:39:14] Speaker C: Joy's all rested now he's got to get.
[00:39:20] Speaker A: It's counterintuitive, countercultural, but it's needed.
It's needed by this world we live in.
It's needed by us, our families, our communities.
So rest.
[00:39:34] Speaker C: And I put up these, I put these bubbles up there. If you want to take this as the token of, yeah, I'm going to
[00:39:40] Speaker A: try to rest more.
[00:39:41] Speaker C: Please do so and give it a try. Don't shake them. When you shake bubbles, they get all bubbly. It's hard.
[00:39:47] Speaker A: They don't. They don't. It's hard to blow them. So take it gingerly and then take it out and it has a heart on it, reminding you that God loves you.
[00:39:56] Speaker C: And then and slowly and steadily you blow.
[00:40:04] Speaker A: Let's pray.
God, we thank you that you are a God of rest, restoration, refreshments, and
[00:40:12] Speaker C: that you not only invite us to
[00:40:14] Speaker A: rest, but over and over again throughout Scripture tell us to rest.
May we live as those who know who we are, loved by you, having value, dignity and worth.
[00:40:27] Speaker C: So we might feel the freedom to
[00:40:29] Speaker A: rest for our sake. But also for the sake of those that we walk with, those that you put into our lives, that we may love them well, serve them well even as you love and serve us. It's in the name of Jesus we pray these things.
Amen.
[00:40:46] Speaker B: Thank you for joining us for this Sunday teaching, no matter when or where you're tuning in.
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