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SABBATH RHYTHMS · Mental Health and the Mission of the Church

• 0:01
  SPEAKER_00: Hey everybody, how are you doing this morning?
• 0:05
  SPEAKER_00: I'm uh I'm obviously not at home, not in my little home office and uh trying to work with the environment, lighting, and all that kind of thing.
• 0:14
  SPEAKER_00: But um just wanted to continue our talk about um Sabbath, about like I said, we're still indirectly, we're still talking about the triune brain because we're talking about how the the stress of the 21st century, the way we do life, the way our devices keep us engaged all the time, uh, just trying to talk about how to keep your brain functioning well.
• 0:41
  SPEAKER_00: If you do not develop a rhythm of engagement stimulation, maybe even overstimulation, that is interrupted by seasons of what I would call radical rest or deep rest, which is what I think Sabbath is, then um, if you don't do that, what happens is your brain becomes accustomed to uh uh hyper stimulation, and hyperstimulation prolonged or chronic, you might call it, creates uh chemical shifts in your brain that do three important things.
• 1:18
  SPEAKER_00: They they diminish your, they affect your uh your um pain uh management system, they affect your your uh disease-fighting system, and they affect your emotion management system, your mood management system.
• 1:36
  SPEAKER_00: And so it's important that you develop some way to rhythmically, meaning just consistently follow some kind of a rhythm where you engage life, enjoy it, the adventure of it, the excitement of it, but you also have times where you drop into a deeper state of rest than most of us are uh accustomed to.
• 2:00
  SPEAKER_00: And uh so we've been talking about it.
• 2:03
  SPEAKER_00: What I call instead of a Sabbath day, and the reason I'm kind of not a big fan of the concept of a Sabbath day is that most of us just aren't doing it, it's not practical.
• 2:13
  SPEAKER_00: And um and again, I don't mean any disrespect to anybody that that's really kind of committed to that concept, but what I what I prefer and what I've developed and what I live myself is what I call a Sabbath mindset and a Sabbath lifestyle.
• 2:30
  SPEAKER_00: A Sabbath mindset and a Sabbath lifestyle.
• 2:34
  SPEAKER_00: Um, and last week we said several things about it, but let me just repeat a couple.
• 2:39
  SPEAKER_00: I believe a Sabbath mindset and a Sabbath lifestyle is a mental and spiritual attitude.
• 2:45
  SPEAKER_00: Or attitude is like a posture of your heart.
• 2:50
  SPEAKER_00: It's placing yourself daily in an attitude of dependence, an attitude of gratitude, an attitude of expectancy, an attitude of receptivity, active receptivity.
• 3:06
  SPEAKER_00: Uh and it flows out of things like that.
• 3:10
  SPEAKER_00: I believe destiny is received, not achieved.
• 3:13
  SPEAKER_00: Um I want to live from love, from rest, from approval, and um and live in a in a in a deeper place of abiding in the finished work, finished past tense work of Christ in Calvary.
• 3:32
  SPEAKER_00: I like this statement, and we talked about all this last week, that uh a Sabbath mindset and a Sabbath lifestyle is an intentional, regular reorientation of ourselves with God's reality, God's culture, and God's kingdom.
• 3:49
  SPEAKER_00: I just love to think that way.
• 3:51
  SPEAKER_00: God's reality, God's culture, and God's kingdom.
• 3:55
  SPEAKER_00: You know, we're in the world, not of the world.
• 3:58
  SPEAKER_00: I want to live in God's reality, his definition.
• 4:02
  SPEAKER_00: Whoever defines your reality is your God.
• 4:05
  SPEAKER_00: Um I'm all I'm a big believer in science.
• 4:07
  SPEAKER_00: I think one of the mistakes the church made hundreds of years ago is to wage war with science.
• 4:14
  SPEAKER_00: I don't think we need to wage war with science.
• 4:16
  SPEAKER_00: Science doesn't threaten God.
• 4:18
  SPEAKER_00: But here's the deal: I'm not gonna allow science to define reality.
• 4:22
  SPEAKER_00: Science can deal with this realm, the seen natural realm, and tell us and teach us and bring us some wonderful principles, knowledge, and skills and information about the seen natural realm.
• 4:35
  SPEAKER_00: But science is not gonna engage the unseen realm where God lives and where we're called to partner.
• 4:45
  SPEAKER_00: Uh we have dual citizenship.
• 4:47
  SPEAKER_00: And so uh Sabbath is a way to regularly reorient myself, recenter myself on God's reality, God's culture, and God's kingdom.
• 5:01
  SPEAKER_00: And uh it's a great way to shift from our culture's tendency, propensity, commitment, methodology of the way we establish our identity, worth, and value is we do stuff so that we can have stuff, and then we define who we are by what we do and have.
• 5:20
  SPEAKER_00: We in the culture around us, we do things, we do, do, do, so that we can have, and then we define ourselves by what we do and have.
• 5:32
  SPEAKER_00: In the kingdom of God, we define our identity by what God says, by God's love, by God's uh definition, God's opinion, God's description in Scripture, and uh, and then we do from identity, not for identity.
• 5:51
  SPEAKER_00: We we we we abide in this beautiful sense of who we are in God, in Christ, and then we do the things that we do, and then we have what God wants for us to have.
• 6:03
  SPEAKER_00: So we switch from do have be to be do have.
• 6:09
  SPEAKER_00: And that's part of what I would call a Sabbath mindset and a Sabbath lifestyle.
• 6:16
  SPEAKER_00: All right, so practically, what do what is what what what why am I even talking about this?
• 6:21
  SPEAKER_00: Because it turns into what I call Sabbath rhythms.
• 6:24
  SPEAKER_00: Sabbath rhythms.
• 6:26
  SPEAKER_00: And these are literally practical chunks of Sabbath that you can build into your life.
• 6:34
  SPEAKER_00: All right, Sabbath rhythms.
• 6:35
  SPEAKER_00: One is a Sabbath rhythm of uh Sabbath mindset of identity, worth, and value.
• 6:42
  SPEAKER_00: What does that mean?
• 6:43
  SPEAKER_00: 24-7, 365.
• 6:46
  SPEAKER_00: In other words, my goal is to live in a Sabbath mindset, meaning what?
• 6:51
  SPEAKER_00: Meaning that I am already, I am already everything God needs me to be.
• 7:00
  SPEAKER_00: And there's there's nothing I can do to improve myself.
• 7:04
  SPEAKER_00: Jesus did everything necessary to improve me in my status and standing before God.
• 7:11
  SPEAKER_00: And it's it's dying to striving, it's dying to, oh, well, if I could just pray more, if I could read the Bible more, if I this, if I could start this, stop that.
• 7:23
  SPEAKER_00: A Sabbath mindset in the area of identity, worth, and value is recognizing that God sets your identity, worth, and value.
• 7:33
  SPEAKER_00: And how you practice that or instill that, build that into yourself is by um reviewing regularly the I am scriptures.
• 7:47
  SPEAKER_00: Um, I would recommend that you do a Google search of um Joel Osteen has a sheet of notes.
• 7:56
  SPEAKER_00: If you just do Joel Osteen, I am, you'll find a PDF and it has all these really cool scriptures turned into I am declarations.
• 8:06
  SPEAKER_00: I would encourage you to take that, get that, or make your own, find scriptures that define who you are in Christ and turn them into I am beloved, I am uh accepted, I am seated at the right hand, I am all those different things.
• 8:23
  SPEAKER_00: And I believe part of a Sabbath mindset is building your identity around God's definition, declaration, and opinion stated in Scripture.
• 8:36
  SPEAKER_00: So that's one thing.
• 8:37
  SPEAKER_00: You build a Sabbath mindset in the area of identity, worth, and value.
• 8:41
  SPEAKER_00: Another thing you can do practically is what I call Sabbath check-ins or Sabbath moments.
• 8:48
  SPEAKER_00: And here's what I mean: five five to fifteen minutes.
• 8:52
  SPEAKER_00: As you go throughout your day, just stop every once in a while, every hour, every couple of hours, twice a day, three times a day, whatever.
• 9:00
  SPEAKER_00: And you just stop for five minutes, and you just recenter yourself in God's love, God's purpose, God's protection, God's calling, God's provision.
• 9:12
  SPEAKER_00: You just recenter yourself in God's reality, culture, and kingdom.
• 9:17
  SPEAKER_00: And you practice centering yourself throughout the day.
• 9:21
  SPEAKER_00: You're going through your day, you get a minute, and you get your cup of coffee or a snack or whatever, and you go sit off somewhere by yourself, and you just get quiet.
• 9:31
  SPEAKER_00: And you just center yourself on the reality of God in your life and the reality of you in God.
• 9:39
  SPEAKER_00: All right, the third thing is what I would say maybe happens less often, but it happens regularly, less often, but regularly.
• 9:49
  SPEAKER_00: And it's I what I would call a Sabbath realignment or re-enlistment.
• 9:55
  SPEAKER_00: And that's where you slow down even a little bit more, get quieter, and you you realign yourself with the word of the Lord came unto me saying, You like what what God, you know, I just did a message recently where I talked about uh a medical process when they're intaking a patient or a client, they'll do what they call um uh alert by times four.
• 10:21
  SPEAKER_00: And it's does the does the you know you're in the emergency room, they ask you, do you know who you are?
• 10:26
  SPEAKER_00: Do you know where you are?
• 10:27
  SPEAKER_00: Do you know what time it is?
• 10:28
  SPEAKER_00: Do you know why you're here?
• 10:30
  SPEAKER_00: Now think about that.
• 10:31
  SPEAKER_00: That's what I mean by realignment.
• 10:33
  SPEAKER_00: You slow down and you take 30 minutes to an hour and you revisit, do I who am I?
• 10:41
  SPEAKER_00: Who am I?
• 10:42
  SPEAKER_00: And you and you walk through, I'm a child of God, I'm Colleen's husband, and you know, okay, do you know where you are?
• 10:51
  SPEAKER_00: Or what time it is?
• 10:52
  SPEAKER_00: I can't remember which is first, and uh, and you just recenter yourself.
• 10:58
  SPEAKER_00: Uh I'm a child of God, and and what's going on in your life, and what has God said, what has God done, and what has God promised to do?
• 11:09
  SPEAKER_00: And you kind of re-orient yourself, re-recenter, re-root yourself, and you do that you know, once, twice a week.
• 11:18
  SPEAKER_00: And then you have a Sabbath transplant, what I would call it, where you this this would be more uh like the Sabbath day, where you take a half day or a day, or maybe even a couple of days, and you do it, you know, once a quarter, once a whatever, and you really push all the pressure things of life, all the distractions, and you recenter yourself in God's reality, culture, and kingdom.
• 11:48
  SPEAKER_00: So again, I'm gonna run through them real quickly.
• 11:50
  SPEAKER_00: You develop a Sabbath mindset that you live with 24-7 of who you are in Christ.
• 11:55
  SPEAKER_00: It establishes your identity, worth, and value.
• 11:58
  SPEAKER_00: You you go through your day and you develop a habit of what I call Sabbath check-ins or Sabbath moments, where you recenter yourself in God's love, God's uh commitments to you and yours to Him.
• 12:13
  SPEAKER_00: And then once a week or more you you do a 30 to 60 minute where you realign yourself and recommit yourself to whatever you and God are up to at that moment.
• 12:25
  SPEAKER_00: And then maybe once a month, once a quarter, you do a longer version, a half day, a day, a couple days, where you really separate yourself from everything that distracts and center yourself in God.
• 12:38
  SPEAKER_00: So these are ways that you can honestly, again, tying it back to the triune brain, these are ways that you can practice principles God put in his scriptures to help us stay healthy and live and enjoy the life that he intended for us.
• 12:56
  SPEAKER_00: All right.
• 12:57
  SPEAKER_00: Love you guys, and I will see you next week.