Priscilla Shirer shared an unforgettable message at our 25th year Hillsong Conference in 2011 on the importance of taking time to Shabbat and create some margins, that we might be able to experience God’s freedom more fully.
Hillsong Conference is all about championing the cause of the church of Jesus Christ – across every nation, denomination, age and background. It is for people who are passionate about the local church and the call of the kingdom of God. This conference gathers the greater church, inspires fresh vision and hope for the future, and equips every individual to walk out the call of God on their life. It inspires leaders and believers alike to make a difference in their sphere of influence for the kingdom’s cause. It equips the church with God-breathed sessions, practical tools and relational connection.
[Applause]
amen
have you had a good day today
[Applause]
and are you excited about the fact that
even when we’re filled we can be filled
up to overflowing somebody say amen to
that
lord jesus we thank you so much for this
opportunity to be in your presence
lord we are so humbled by the fact that
you would meet with
regular people just like us lord thank
you lord that you know us
and yet you still call us your friends
we pray now that you would speak clearly
to us in jesus name all god’s people
said
amen you may have your seats
it is a privilege to be sharing with you
uh tonight
i wanted to to start out by simply
thanking you all for allowing me to
participate with you and to serve you in
this capacity over this weekend
um it has been a humbling experience for
me this is my first hillsong church
conference i have been
uh to color several times and have been
able to serve
uh bobby in that capacity but this is my
first time
at the church conference i have been
blown away as i am sure you all have as
well and to be able to be a part of your
25th year
i do not take that lightly and am so
thrilled to have had
the opportunity uh to serve these these
people the leadership
team and uh the great body of believers
that god has given them it is a
privilege to be able to partner with
them
in ministry and i’m thrilled to be able
to share with you some
thoughts about a very practical concept
tonight very practical concept one that
matters not only to me but will matter
to you as well and i began to think
about this the lord began to convict
and challenge me regarding this
particular theme
earlier this year it was actually in the
month
of january that dallas texas where i am
from
dallas texas had a snowstorm
now snow is just about as
um something it’s just as expected in
dallas as it is
in sydney australia i mean we just don’t
we just don’t expect snow but over the
past
couple of years we actually have had not
a couple of inches of snow
we have had maybe a foot or more of snow
that has hit the ground and it is
unusual for us we don’t know what to do
with ourselves when there is snow on the
ground
and so this past january february
somewhere in there we were kind of
snowed in
for a week i mean you get a little bit
of snow in dallas everything shuts down
businesses shut down schools are closed
um
the city is just not set up to handle
large amounts of snow and so for about a
week
i was at home with my husband my
three boys we were all kind of cuddled
up together
in the four walls of our home doing
things that you do when your children
are at home
you know making up reasons for them to
take a nap and
you know we had hot chocolate and i’d
let them go run outside in the snow but
we don’t really have lots of good
clothing for that so they’d run out in
their jeans and tennis shoes they’d get
soaking wet in 10 minutes
so i’d let them come back in throw all
their clothes in the dryer give them
some hot chocolate and then put those
warm clothes back on them and throw them
outside again
and so it was fun i enjoyed those days
playing all the board games that you
have forgotten are in your closet and
spending time just kind of talking to
each other and
and hanging out together and i enjoyed
those days but
towards the end of that week
i ran across a news article
and the news article headlines said this
dallas fort worth stricken
with cabin fever they then had some
quotes of people that live in the dallas
fort worth
area that had been closed into their
homes just like i had been here
here were some of the quotes from some
people snow
ice single digit temperatures
could the plague of locusts be far
behind
someone else said no school again
tomorrow i think i’m gonna go nuts being
stuck in this house
somebody else said this has ruined what
was going to be a very fantastic week
and it’s made me used up use up two of
my holidays from my job
somebody else said well isn’t this just
great
all the electricity on my block just
went out great
so now you can add trapped at home with
no electricity to the list
fantastic dallas fort worth
stricken with cabin fever and at the
time
of this kind of snow end that we had all
the ice that was lacing the roadways
it was the exact same time as our super
bowl it is the
the pinnacle event of sports in the
states in the national football league
and two
of the uh the the teams from the more
northern states in our in our country
they were playing against each other but
dallas in the south
was hosting was hosting the super bowl
this past year and
and the snow came right about the time
that we were hosting the super bowl and
normally we get snow in the north of the
states but not in the south where we are
and so someone said dear god
i am not sure what we’ve done wrong here
in dallas
maybe we shouldn’t have hosted the super
bowl i’m not sure but
would you please forgive everybody and
bring back our friend the son we promise
never to host those northerners again
[Applause]
i mean you would think
that being made to stay home for a
little while might be a gift
you would think that being made to rest
and relax
would be something that people might
delight in i mean you would think that a
break that is forced upon you would be
something
that would be to enjoy with your family
with your friends
just having some time to be still but
but from
the headlines of that article it
occurred to me that sometimes when we
have
an opportunity to rest to take a load
off to have some breathing space in our
room to have a little margin
outlining our lives that we feel
according to the news article
stricken by that have we become
so addicted to stress that we don’t even
know how to enjoy rest anymore
have we made an idol out of our
exhaustion
do we feel like unless we are completely
spent and completely worn out that
that we have not uh done everything that
needs to be done
and be accomplished and and as i was
thinking about this in my own life i
thought about
how how often times the enemy comes
against us
in ways that we are expecting there are
things that maybe we’ve put up guards
against because we
we know that the enemy is crafty and may
come against us in that specific area
but could it be that this
area causing us to spin our wheels
endlessly to be exhausted to not enjoy
the rest that god has come to give us
could it be
that that’s a way that our crafty enemy
is deceiving us
and cheating us out of the abundant life
that god has come to give us
do you know jerry and i live in a fairly
uh rural
area of dallas uh we moved
from a neighborhood where there’s uh you
know concrete
pavements and uh houses that are right
next door to each other we moved
out a little further south so that we
could live on a little bit more
more property not much but a little bit
more and
i needed these three boys to be able to
run around and play all day long because
you know that when the children are out
of school you were praying for bedtime
every day you’re just
trying to fill up the hours until
bedtime and so
we we live on a little plot of land
where they can run around and play and
really enjoy
being outside as boys should and
and and in this little rural plot of
area
of ground where we live we have put up
some pretty specific guards
against little critters that are out
there most notably
snakes now i’ve got to tell you i’ve
actually been there three years now
we’ve not
seen one ourselves but um we have heard
from the neighbors that live there that
they’re they’re nearby you need to have
precautions so
i’ve said to my boys you know if you
can’t see your feet walking somewhere
then don’t go there if the grass is tall
don’t wade through any tall grass um you
know we we don’t leave our garage door
up for long long
long periods of time because we don’t
want them to think that they’re welcome
and can come on in and make themselves
at home
you know we just put up a few
precautions here and there i’ve been
aware of the fact in this fairly rural
area
this new area where i live i’m aware of
the fact that that it’s possible
that snakes could be around and so i put
up safeguards
because i’m expecting them there which
is why
when my husband called me one day i was
very shocked to see him
with this picture
now you need to know that when my
husband sent me this picture
he was not sending me a picture of a
snake he had found and
killed at our home he was sending me a
picture of a snake
that he had found and and he’d had to
kill that was at our previous home that
was right in the middle of a concrete
jungle right in the middle of a
neighborhood
the last place that we would have
anticipated or looked for
or stood guard against a snake
and it occurs to me that this is exactly
the way the enemy is
because in one area of our life we are
putting up safeguards we are protecting
we are
we are expecting him to come so we are
preparing ourselves and
all the while the snake is coming in the
other direction
the snake is coming in another way to
deceive us
and to cheat us out of what it is that
he has for us
and i wonder if this is part of the way
he’s doing it because
we think often times about the sins in
our lives the hindrances the bad habits
the ungodly proclivities the things that
we’re
used to considering when we talk about
being enslaved
to things in our life but could it be
we’ve become enslaved
even to the things that god has given us
to enjoy
even the things that are lawful for us
the things that he has given us the
privilege to experience in our lives
maybe we’ve even become
enslaved to those and he doesn’t want us
to just be free from the sins and the
hindrances and the ungodly
proclivities in our life he wants us to
be free from any and everything that
would seek to steal
our attention or our devotion away from
where it really belongs and that’s to
him
there is nothing not even a good thing
that should hold our allegiance more
than our relationship with jesus christ
and so i think about all the things that
we overdo
all the things that we have an incessant
compulsion to continue long after maybe
we shouldn’t
it’s in the airport with jerry um a
couple months ago we were on our way
somewhere and he was walking over to
starbucks to get a drink and he said hey
would you like something and i
thought for a second and say uh yeah
sure i guess so
he said priscilla you do know you don’t
have to get something right
oh yeah you’re right why is it that i
felt compelled to get
something that maybe i really didn’t
even have a taste for right then
maybe for you it’s not coffee maybe it’s
food you just
can’t seem to stop
maybe for you it’s not either of those
things maybe it’s your your
uh busyness in your ministry or on your
job you just
are filling up every single moment on
your calendar with incessant activity
and continued activity and before you
know what you have sacrificed your
family
for that job or for that ministry could
it be that it’s not your time
that you’ve overdone it with the
activities that fill up your calendar
could it be
that it might be the space in your home
you keep accumulating and accumulating
and accumulating
and this home that god has given you to
enjoy the office space that god has
given you to enjoy
you can barely enjoy it anymore because
it is so crammed with all the clutter
that you keep on accumulating could it
be that often we become
enslaved to the very things that god has
given us to enjoy
and so what god does is put boundaries
around even the things that he has given
us to
enjoy he puts boundaries around them and
we’d rather not have the boundaries we’d
rather have
the freedom to do exactly what we want
to do when we want to do it the way we
want to do it we don’t appreciate
boundaries but what we don’t realize
is that without the boundaries we will
in our human proclivities
we will become enslaved again
even though he died to free us not only
from sin
but from anything that would seek to
steal our devotion away from him
i think of a fire we appreciate a fire
because it gives warmth to us it helps
us prepare
things that need to be prepared we
appreciate the beauty of a fire
on a cold day as long as that fire is in
the fireplace
because that fire outside of the
boundaries in which it needs to be
contained
that same fire that is to be enjoyed
will cause destruction
and disaster and calamity
and so boundaries are to be appreciated
and there is a boundary
that the lord set in place way back in
the old testament and that
continues to be a model for us in our
lives today and i want to challenge you
with this tonight
with this very practical concept the
story
revolves around the central characters
in this story are
the children of israel the children of
israel were enslaved
in egypt for 400 years approximately 400
years
and as slaves in egypt to pharaoh
they had been trained in busyness
they had been trained in incessant
activity
they were made to toil rigorously and
they were made to toil
constantly their work was not
was was unending it was unrelenting they
had
vigorous activity that they were
involved in
consistently and yet after 10 miraculous
plagues and
a stunning deliverance by god out of
of egypt and into the wilderness on
their way to canaan
god did for them exactly what he did
does for us
he set them free they were in bondage
they were shackled
they had a mandatory allegiance to
another
entity other than yahweh and he set them
free but there’s a problem
because when you’ve been born in slavery
when you’ve been raised in slavery when
you’ve been trained in the way of a
slave
your mindset has been molded into that
of a slave
and what he did not want were slaves
that he had made free
and that physically were free legally
were free
but still wanted to go back to egypt in
their hearts
what he wanted were people whose hearts
and whose minds
had been changed and transformed
into the free people that he had given
them the opportunity to be
and so he wanted to do more than just
free them from egypt
he wanted them to walk like free men and
women
and listen he doesn’t want us just to be
free
from the bondage of sin in our lives he
wants us to know what it feels like to
walk as free men and women
to experience the freedom that he has
come to give galatians 5 1 he says
it is for freedom that i have set you
free therefore would you
stand firm and not be subject to a yoke
of slavery ever
again it’s for freedom that he has set
us free
and these people whose value had been
determined
based on how hard they could work how
much they could produce
these people had to be retrained
refocused
in their mindset so that they could be
the free people that god had called them
to be yes they were out of egypt but now
yahweh needed to work
egypt out of them and one of the ways
that he was going to do this was by
putting
a boundary around even the things he had
given them to enjoy
and we see this boundary in deuteronomy
chapter 5. in deuteronomy chapter 5
beginning in verse 12 he says
observe the sabbath day and keep it holy
as the lord your god has commanded you
six days
you shall labor and do all your work
but on the seventh seventh day is the
sabbath
of the lord your god in it you shall
not do any work verse 15
and you shall remember that you were a
slave in the land of egypt
and the lord your god brought you out of
there with a mighty hand
and by an outstretched arm therefore the
lord
your god commanded you to observe
the sabbath day there it is the sabbath
day
god had gone out of his way to give
gifts to his newly freed
people he had given them manna from the
heavens he had given them quail when
they had gotten tired of the manna he
had given them water
from a rock when they were thirsty he
made sure to
put shoes on their feet that would not
wear out in their 40 years of wandering
he
wanted to give them good gifts and there
was another gift that at the time
they would not have considered to be a
gift and it was the sabbath day
it was the gift of a boundary a margin
that he was placing around the good
gifts that he had given them
it was one day out of every seven days
that he told them
that they were not to work that they
were to have a
rest the sabbath day was a gift it was a
privilege
it was a benefit that that was given to
god’s people these people
knew nothing of resting of having an
opportunity to just
enjoy the fruit of their labor and by
the time the jewish leaders of the new
testament came along
there were more rules and regulations
and details and meticulous specifics
attached to this law of the sabbath than
any mere human could carry out
no one looked forward to this this idea
of the sabbath day because it became a
burden when in the beginning
it was a gift that was given by god to
his people
few people treasured this gift this
refreshing respite
that this law was originally intended to
to give to god’s people but in its
original meaning and application
the implication for us is absolutely
staggering
it was a margin that was given so that
the gifts that god gave to his people
could be
rightfully enjoyed and so the children
of israel were given
the sabbath day i want you to think
about this concept as we talk about it
for just a few moments in the scriptures
i want you to think about this not so
much as a day but a
principle or an attitude the sabbath
attitude the sabbath principle
that word in the original language is
shabbat and it means
to cease to stop to pause
it means to take a deep breath it means
to have some breathing room it means to
have some margin in your life it is
an attitude a principle not necessarily
a day don’t think of it that way
for you and i we need to think of it as
a an attitude that we take into
our everyday uh living and i want you to
think about this not only with your time
the way you spend your time on your
ministry in your job
in that activity in which you’re
involved i want you to think about this
in regards to your space do you have any
breathing room do you have any margin
in the space you work in in the space
that you live in
gordon mcdonald is an incredible
expositor of god’s word he says this
i’m of the opinion that busyness is a
deeper threat to the soul than
pornography ever was
and so this principle of the sabbath
it was a gift and i want to share with
you three things
that from this passage will help you and
i to remember the
the beauty the the power
of the sabbath day and the way it can
transform our life in this
simple passage we get to see how
the sabbath day is to be implemented or
the sabbath principle the sabbath
attitude
is to be implemented in the lives of
people who have been given the stamp of
freedom on their lives
the first thing that god says to us to
the children of israel and by the holy
spirit’s power to us
deuteronomy chapter 5 verse 14 he says
in the
beginning of that verse but the seventh
day is the sabbath to the lord your god
and
in it you shall not do any work
i can just see the stunned look the
stunned expression on the face of the
hebrew
children as they are being told by god
you shall
not do any work they had never heard
these words before in regards to them i
can just
i can just see them their their skin
burned
from the scorching egyptian sun their
eyes glazed over from lack of sleep and
nutrients they’re continuous
24 7 365 days a year
calendar where they had to work to build
store houses
for their their slave drivers their
slave master
pharaoh and the task masters that he set
over them they knew nothing of rest
and in that polytheistic culture that is
a culture
where there are many gods that have to
be appeased
not only did they have to work and toil
to please their earthly master
but in order to stay on on a good note
in order to stay on the good side of all
those gods they had to go
out of their way to appease all the gods
working
incessantly to make sure that they had
worked enough to cover for their sins
but now god
yahweh was taking this people and
transforming them
from a people who had a polytheistic
mentality
who felt like their valley value was
placed on their amount of productivity
he was taking them out of that lifestyle
and he wanted to transform them into a
nation
god’s own people his beloved chosen ones
and he says in order for you to fully
realize what it means to be
a child of god i need you to know that
you’ve got to resist the urge to
continue
you’ve got to resist the urge to
continue
with incessant activity as you’ve been
used to doing in slavery
you’ve got to know when to cease to come
to an end to pause
he says on that seventh day you shall
not work listen if you’ve been trying to
find a bible verse that your teenager
will memorize this is probably the one
you shall not work they’ll get that one
they’ll get that one but it is not a
golden ticket for laziness
it is not a ticket for slothfulness
because this principle
this day in this time the seventh day
that was given by god
to the children of israel it was given
to them after verse 13 verse 13
says day one through six you ought to do
your work
it’s just the seventh day that you ought
to have as a margin
around the work that you were doing and
so it is not a ticket to laziness
it means ceasing from the normal
activity of your day
in order to have time for the things you
would not normally spend
time doing it doesn’t mean to do nothing
it means to stop doing the stuff that
normally consumes your time
the stuff that you have a compulsion to
keep doing
to stop doing that to discipline
yourself
to stop doing what you normally do day
one through six
so that on day seven you can concentrate
and spend time doing the things you do
not normally do
i’m thinking about the fact that in this
conference here you and i have been
given this incredible privilege
to sit underneath the anointed teaching
of god’s word from so many gifted folks
who have
taken this platform and who have shared
with you and i uh the great news of
god’s word and
the worship that we have been able to
participate in that has
been led from this platform what a great
opportunity for us to shabbat
and yet some of us are barely able to
stand the fact
that we have to stop cease checking our
facebook status
or checking our twitter links or
checking our email or continuing to do
the things we would normally do
and fully invest in this opportunity we
have
to see striving to be still and know
that he is indeed god
and so i want to ask you what is
compelling you what is luring you
what is that thing that you are just
compelled to keep on doing
the principle of the sabbath teaches us
to resist
the urge to continue that at some point
when you sense the holy spirit saying
enough is enough you’ve got to be
willing to say okay
i’m going to shabbat i’m going to take a
breather so that i can enjoy what it is
that god has already done
somebody’s got to know when to stop they
have to know i have to know
when we’ve worked enough when we’ve
tried enough
when we’ve gathered enough when we
purchased enough when we’ve said
enough when we’ve stored enough when
we’ve kept enough
when we’ve created enough when we’ve
produced enough when we’ve generated
enough when we’ve consumed enough
when we’ve labored enough when we’ve
expended enough when we’ve spent
enough somebody’s got to know when to
say enough
is enough look at your neighbor and say
enough is enough
enough is enough
this principle
this principle is so very clearly
demonstrated for us in the book of
exodus and
and i’m going to hop over to exodus uh
quickly because i want you to see this
are y’all still with me did i lose you
i want you to see this principle really
briefly there are two other points i
want to share with you but i want you to
see this principle
because in exodus 16 it is the very
first time that this is mentioned
the very first time that this principle
other than the creation story which i
want to show you something about that in
a moment but other than the creation
story
this is the first time this is
introduced to the children of israel
okay
they are giving gifts by god remember
they are given many gifts one of them is
manna straight from the heavens and they
are given a boundary
around this gift that god has given them
to enjoy they are given a boundary
and so it says in exodus chapter 16
verse 25 and 26 moses says to them and
this is the sabbath day that moses is
speaking it’s the seventh day
he says eat it today for today is the
sabbath day to the lord
today you will not find any in the field
six days you shall gather but on the
seventh day
there will be none he says to them
implicitly don’t even worry about
gathering on the seventh day
you are going to be wasting your time to
go out into the field
and gather manna on the seventh day days
one through six and pastor jensen
alluded to this last night
but day one through six they were to
leave their tents they were to go
out into the field they were to gather
manna but on the seventh day moses says
don’t even don’t even
get out of your pajamas on the seventh
day and go into the field
because i’m telling you right now you’re
not going to find any but the children
of israel are so much like
us because it says that they went
out anyway verse 27
and lo and behold what did they find
nothing
one of the ways that you can know that
you have stepped over into the seventh
day in your life one of the ways you
could know that you are
infringing upon the sabbath territory
that the lord would have you mark out in
your life so that you can
not have every margin of your time and
every margin of your space
filled to capacity one of the ways you
can know is if you’re gathering if
you’re trying if you’re working and yet
you
find that you have nothing to show for
your efforts there have been so many
times in my life in my
writing for example when i’m sitting in
front of the computer on days one and
day two and day three
and i’m doing what it is that needs to
be done and i feel like i’m being
productive but then there’s a time when
the holy spirit i just sense
a holy hush just i need to stop for a
while i need to concentrate on something
else i need to
be with my boys i need to be a wife to
my man i need to
cook something for dinner for goodness
sake
and i can either keep on working through
that because i got to get this done i
got to get this done but most of the
time i know when i’ve stepped over into
the seventh day
because i’m sitting in front of the
computer and can’t get one creative
thought
on the page anybody ever had anything
like that ever happened
and one of the ways we can know that
we’ve infringed on the seventh day
is when we’ve not resisted the urge to
continue and we have gone out to the
field and we can see
that we’re not gathering anything
nothing’s happening
do you know the late great michael
jackson there have been so many
documentaries done on this man it’s
unbelievable but one in particular i
remember
they were doing a a biography
on the making of the billie jean video
you remember billie jean don’t you
y’all don’t try to act holy y’all
remember billie jean right
okay so billie jean in the video michael
jackson
is walking on this pavement and he’s
dancing all over the place and every
time he walks down this path
every step he takes the square on the
pavement lights up anybody remember this
so he’s walking up and down the path and
the square lights up and the director of
this
particular video is being interviewed
and he says
tell us they asked him tell us about the
making of the video and he said you know
what
when he was walking down that path i had
to pull michael over to the side and say
listen michael
you are talented you can dance your way
all over this path
we all know that you are one of the most
incredible dancers to ever grace the
face of the face of the earth but let me
tell you something
i have already gone before you as the
director of this video
and i have pre-lit certain squares on
this path
i don’t care how much capability you
have how great a dancer you are
if you want this video to work if you
want the squares to light up on the path
then i’m going to need you to corral
all your abilities and make sure that
you step on the squares that i have
already put a light under
here’s what the scriptures say he says
he has already prepared good works
beforehand
so that you and i can just walk in them
and some of the reason why oftentimes
we find ourselves i find myself spinning
our wheels is because we are in our own
gifts and talents and abilities
are dancing all over the place instead
of just walking on the squares
he has called us to walk on
and if you want to see your path light
up my friend
then you might as well go ahead and
stick with day one through six
and when you feel the prompting of god’s
spirit to stop
to resist the urge to continue to resist
the urge to continue
doing that project continuing in that
activity accumulating those things
resist the urge to continue and when you
and i
follow along with the path that he has
set up that’s when we’ll see the squares
lighting up
and we’ll get to see his work most fully
completed in
our lives the second thing that i love
from the deuteronomy passage
not only does he say to us that we need
to resist
the urge to continue but in verse 15 he
says
and you shall remember that you were a
slave in the land of egypt i love this
so much because
in this verse there is a direct
connection between their previous
slavery
and this current command to obey the
sabbath
there is an obvious connection in this
one verse we see the slavery aspect
their past tense slavery and their
present tense command
to obey the sabbath day i love this he
says to them
i want you to remember the fact that you
used to be a slave
i want you to recall the fact that you
used to be in slavery
you had no choice but to continue you
had to keep on going against
what you really truly desired i want you
to remember what slavery felt like
remember what it felt like when there
were shackles on your wrists and
shackles on your ankles
remember what it felt like when you were
under compulsion to participate
in things that you really did not want
to participate in and i wonder if there
are anybody
in the room and you’ve ever been
enslaved before you know what it feels
like
to be shackled to that addiction to be
shackled to that habit
to be shackled to that lifestyle choice
to be shackled to that inclination or
that proclivity
and you just felt like you could never
break free from that relationship you
could never break free from that
activity
you would never taste what freedom is
like again
he says would you remember what it’s
like to be a slave
remember what it felt like when you just
felt like your allegiance was to that
thing and you could not break free from
that
i bet if we pass the microphone around
in here today we would have some
testimony of some people
who used to be a slave but now they know
what freedom looks like
they know what freedom tastes like they
know what it’s like to have the holy
spirit set them free from the law of sin
and death
i don’t know about you but i’m grateful
for the fact that he snatched me out of
darkness and threw me into his marvelous
light
i am grateful for the fact that i once
knew slavery but now i am a free woman
of god
who can declare freedom to god’s people
he says would you remember what slavery
was like
you are not to feel that way ever again
not only to a sin or a hindrance but
even to the stuff in your life he’s
lawfully given you to enjoy you and i
are not to be enslaved to those things
we are not to have a compulsion or an
allegiance
even to the things that he has
rightfully given us to enjoy
he says remember that you used to be a
slave
but you are not a slave anymore in the
united states
the emancipation proclamation was
declared over our country in 1865
african slaves on american soil were set
free once and for all
and you would expect that they would
have immediately packed their bags
and and left their masters as quickly as
they possibly could
but you might be surprised to find out
that there was a fairly large
constituency of slaves
that chose to stay in slavery because
they felt that
slavery was better off for them than the
riskiness of living as free men and
women
they chose to stay in slavery when they
had the opportunity to be free
god forbid he gave his son on the cross
of calvary
that he shed his blood for our sins that
he paid such a high price
so that you and i might be free and yet
we willingly choose to be enslaved again
to the things that he spent so much to
free us from
he says would you remember what it was
like to be enslaved
remember what that used to feel like
first corinthians 6
11 but such were some of you
but now you’ve been washed you’ve been
justified
you’ve been sanctified in the name of
the lord jesus christ second corinthians
5
17 old things they are passed away
behold all things they have become brand
new
and the children of israel in slavery
whenever they would have been given a
little
food to eat they would have done what
slaves do the slave mentality would have
done
they would have kept every morsel that
they could have kept they didn’t
waste anything or throw extras away they
would have put it in their pockets they
would have
hung on to it because they needed to
they were living in
fear of deprivation and so they would
hang on to everything
that was given to them slaves hard
but free people give slaves live
fearfully
but free people live lovingly slaves
they live with closed fists but free
people
they live with open palms slaves they
live from a posture of lack
but free people they live from a posture
of abundance
slaves they live from a position of
deficiency but free people
live from a place of holy expectations
slaves
always think they don’t have enough free
people believe that whatever they don’t
have
god will graciously and miraculously
provide in his abundant timing slaves
keep on going
and going slaves keep on gathering and
gathering
slaves keep on operating but free people
can discipline themselves to stop
knowing that if they take care of day
one through six god will step in and
take care of day seven
he says remember what it was like to be
a slave all that hoarding you don’t have
to do that anymore
filling in every space of your day and
like you don’t have to you don’t have to
be enslaved like that anymore
he died so that you and i might be free
and in exodus 16
says that when they gathered there was
not only the stipulation of the seventh
day
that was imposed upon them but it also
he said to them pastor jensen alluded to
this last night
he said to them listen when you gather
don’t hold
don’t hold on to stuff until the next
morning do not do it it will become
infected and infested with worms in
other words it will be completely
distasteful to you it will be useless
it will become foul interestingly enough
in the original language the word there
that is used to describe fowl
is the exact same word used to describe
egypt
when uh the nile became distasteful
during one of those plagues
when the frogs caused a distasteful uh
scent and a foul aroma to infest egypt
that is the exact same word used to
describe what happened in egypt it’s
amazing
how when you and i don’t be obedient to
god when we gather beyond what it is
that god has told us to gather
that we begin experiencing the same
things that are experienced by people
who
do not believe in god who are pagans
and you and i have been called to an
entirely different standard there should
not be
uh similarities in what we are
experiencing in this regard
and so the children of israel they are
to remember that they used to be slaves
but they are no longer enslaved and when
they hoarded
it says that worms infested it and it
became distasteful to them and i wonder
if your job has become distasteful to
you
i wonder if your ministry is starting to
drive you crazy
i wonder if you look at your calendar
and it gives you a headache just
looking at the calendar i wonder if you
walk into your office space and you can
barely stand it because you can’t see
the top of your desk it’s covered with
all your stuff
i wonder if you walk into your closet
sisters
and you can’t actually enjoy anything
you have because there’s too much there
i wonder brothers most notably my
husband
if
i just wonder brothers it is just so
much technology if every new
technological device has been gathered
so that you’ve got so much of everything
you can’t really enjoy
one thing and what happens to us
is that our homes that we’ve been given
to enjoy they become distasteful to us
foul cluttered it’s just too much stuff
everywhere
the jobs that god has given us to to
enjoy we just can’t even enjoy them
because
it’s crammed packed and so things that
we’ve been given to enjoy they become
distasteful to us the sabbath principle
is a guard
against that finally he says to us
in deuteronomy not only are you supposed
to resist the urge to continue not only
are you supposed to remember what you
used to be
but then he says verse 16 he says
remember
that the lord your god brought you out
of there by a mighty outstretched arm i
love this
he says you resist the urge to continue
you remember
that you used to be a slave remember
what you used to be
and then he says you recall what god has
accomplished on your behalf
this is what the sabbath is all about
it’s about recalling what god
has accomplished on your behalf it is
about gathering on day one through six
but then standing on the seventh margin
of your life
standing in agreement with god that what
he gave you was good
that day one through six was good that
he accomplished a lot
it is the celebration of god’s activity
in your life it is taking time
to cease to pause to shabbat and thank
god for what he has already accomplished
do you know the first time that this is
mentioned and i want to show you this so
quickly but it’s so important
the first time this concept is mentioned
and there is a principle in theology
called the law of first mention
that means anytime you are trying to
really find the root meaning of
something in the scriptures if you can
trace it back to the first time it was
mentioned
you will probably find the details
around that particular theme or that
idea or that principle
the first time it is mentioned is in the
book of genesis
and this is so interesting because when
i look at the creation story
i have just seen the creation story
story as a linear pattern of events i
didn’t see any rhyme or reason
or order to why god created something on
day one and then something else on day
two and something else on day three i
just thought
it was one day after the other and so
when we see the creation story
it looks a little something like this on
day one he created day
and night on day two he created the
heavens
and the earth day three land and
vegetation day four
the sun and the moon day five birds and
fish and then the first
part of day six he created land animals
the second half of day six he created
man and woman
and then on the seventh day god took the
sabbath
now i’ve not seen it for any more than
that that he worked for six days or he
spoke the word
and called things into his existence and
then on the seventh day
he rested but a scholar by the name of
sandra richter helped me to see
something very
interesting that if you divide this week
into two different halves day one
through three
and day four through six you see that
there is an order
there is a pattern he was very
deliberate into how he
uh structured the creation of the earth
and it speaks to us in regards to the
sabbath
look at the correlation between day one
and four
on day one he created the day and night
on day four he created the sun and the
moon the
the inhabitants for the habitation that
he created on the first part of the week
on day two he created the heavens and
the oceans
on day five the second day of the second
half of the week
he created the birds that were to take
domain that were to fill
that were to inhabit the heavens and the
oceans the birds and the fish
on day three he created land and
vegetation and on day six the beginning
part of the day
he created the animals they were to fill
to dominate to
inhabit the habitation do you see the
order here
do you see the pattern that the first
half of the week he created a domain
the second half of the week the
correlating days he created the
inhabitants that were to rule over
or take domain so when he comes along in
the second half of six
the sixth day and he creates man and
woman he is
sticking with the order the structure
the hierarchy that he’s already set up
he is saying now man is supposed to
stand in dominion
over all of it in fact he said to man
i’m gonna bless you in this regard
i want you to take control to take
sovereign dominion over that which i
have created
and so when jesus when uh god comes on
day seven yahweh
and he stands in the seventh day
it is not just the seventh day because
he needed a break my friends he did not
need a break he hadn’t done anything but
spoken and it was done
and not only was it done it was good
he stands in the seventh day as a
statement
of his overriding sovereignty
control dominion over all that has been
created
and it was this that adam rebelled
against
he rebelled against the principle of the
sabbath day in his life
he rebelled against the sovereignty of
god do you realize
that when we delete the sabbath day from
our life
when we delete the sabbath margin the
sabbath principle the breathing room out
of our life
what we are saying is god i’m in the
position of sovereign in my life
i am in the position of the one that is
in control in my life and the problem
with taking control my friends
is that if you’re gonna own it then you
have to have the chops to maintain it
adam couldn’t maintain it and neither
can you and i
and when you and i take the sabbath day
it means we are standing in that space
with god and saying god i admit
you’re in charge and i am not god i
admit in this seventh day margin in my
life this principle
i’m adopting this principle in my life
lord because i want to stand yahweh with
you and look at what you’ve done in day
one through six in my life and say yeah
that was good
and i realized that it’s not my hands
that created it i
recall what you have done i recall what
you have already
accomplished on my behalf and so he said
to the children of israel
and he said says to us today by the
power of the holy spirit
would you remember the sabbath day
and keep it holy remember this principle
in your life that you and i
are not to be exhausted overwhelmed
overworked feeling like we are
completely frustrated with our lives
from beginning to end you and i
have been called according to john
chapter 10 verse 10
to have life and to have life more
abundantly to have
life to the full and you and i get that
privilege when we accept
appreciate and stand in the boundaries
that god has given not only you but me
as well in our ministries
and our families on our jobs in our
homes
in our office spaces where we work where
we play where we live when we have that
boundaries my friend
we get to stand in a space of enjoyment
of the lives and the ministries and the
businesses that god has given us to
enjoy
and so i want to challenge you tonight i
want to challenge you
the seventh day one day a week
amounts to 14 of a week
14 of a week one day i just want to take
that
number 14 and challenge you
14. i want to challenge you
to begin to carve out 14 minutes
every day just to shabbat
that is to cease doing what you’re
normally compelled to do whatever you
check
whatever you’re looking at whatever
you’re participating in
to just pick one thing that you’re going
to shabbat you’re going to stop you’re
going to stop writing you’re going to
stop working you’re going to stop
concentrating on that particular thing
you’re going to
cease doing the normal activity so that
you have time for the abnormal to just
spend time with your child to spend time
with your spouse to spend time
doing that activity that you never get
to enjoy just to not feel guilty because
every moment on your calendar is filled
up just to shabbat
14 minutes a day i bet you’re going to
be surprised by two things you’re going
to be surprised
number one how refreshed you can feel
from 14 minutes and you’re also going to
be surprised how difficult it is for you
to find those 14 minutes
but then i not only want to challenge
you with 14 minutes i want to challenge
you with 14
inches in your space your living space
your closet your desk whatever it is you
want to tackle first
but once a week for a little while why
don’t you just find 14
inches of space and shabbat
create some margin some breathing room
and i wonder if you and i begin in these
small
incremental ways to incorporate this
principle in our lives
how we might begin to experience the
freedom fully
and completely that god has come to give
i want you to bow your heads with me
and i want to pray for those of you that
have found yourselves bound in some way
in this
area of your life it’s not necessarily a
sin it’s not necessarily a hindrance
it’s not necessarily something um that
is ungodly
in nature by itself it’s just that you
have become
you have overdone it in an area of your
life you have found
you have found that you are expending
way too much time or energy on effort on
something
that is taking you away from what god
would declare should be the priority
in your life right now your family your
friends your mate
you are sacrificing important things on
the back of things that
aren’t supposed to be the the priority
in your life and
i want to pray for freedom for you if
that is what it is that you
sense god’s spirit saying to you would
you just raise your hand and hold your
hand up and i want to pray
for you lord jesus right now in jesus
name i pray for those whose hands are
raised who are declaring and who are
saying
confessing lord that they need to
implement the
the sabbath margin in their life i pray
that you would give them a holy boldness
and a holy courage lord so that they
might be willing to do
and put in place the measures that need
to be put in place so that they can
experience the joy of the gifts that you
have given them to enjoy
lord i pray that you would help us all
to
appreciate this concept of the sabbath
margin lord
help us to realize that you’ve set us
free so that we can really experience
freedom
in every area of our life lord we are
fully expecting
fully anticipating the good gifts that
you will give
and the full appreciation of them that
we’ll be able to have
because of the great gift of the sabbath
that you have given
in jesus name all god’s people said
amen