1. Sabbath (2):
Sabbath “Heart”
by Timothy Chan
(September 2012)

2. Sabbath Heart
“When I say Sabbath, I also mean an attitude. It
is a perspective, an orientation. I mean a
Sabbath heart, not just a Sabbath day. A Sabbath
heart is restful even in the midst of unrest and
upheaval. It is attentive to the presence of God
and others even in the welter of much coming
and going, rising and falling. It is still
and knows God even when
mountains fall into the sea. You will
never enter the Sabbath day without
a Sabbath heart.” (Mark Buchanan)

3. The Other Six Days
Sabbath is a day of rest, but it doesn’t make any
sense to rest completely on the seventh day
while being a workaholic on the other six days.
“The test of whether we have genuinely
practiced the Sabbath will come in the middle
of our working week, as we are building,
teaching, healing, cooking.” (Norman Wirzba)

4. The Other Six Days
Our culture expects us to work constantly ......

5. The Other Six Days
...... and we tend to declare we’re “busy,”
almost as a boast of how much we can do;
while stillness and rest are considered laziness.

6. Busyness
The Chinese word for “busyness” combines
“heart” and “dead”:
heart dead
(Ecclesiastes 2:22-23 ESV) What has a man from
all the toil and striving of heart with which he
toils beneath the sun? For all his days are full of
sorrow, and his work is a vexation. Even in the
night his heart does not rest. This also is vanity.

7. Busyness = Dead Heart
Q: How does busyness kill our hearts?
A test of whether your busyness has caused a “dead
heart” is to ask yourself: How much do I care about
the things I should care about?
(Luke 10:40-42 ESV) But Martha was distracted
with much serving. And she went up to him and
said, “Lord, do you not care that my sister has
left me to serve alone? Tell her then to help me.”
But the Lord answered her, “Martha, Martha,
you are anxious and troubled about many things,
but one thing is necessary. Mary has chosen the
good portion, which will not be taken away from
her.”

8. Busyness = Dead Heart
Examples our busyness stops us from caring:
Busy with housework... but do you care
about relationship with your family?
Doing church “ministry”... but do you care
about the people, about the lost, about God?
Hear bad news among others... is your first
thought: I’m glad it doesn’t happen to me?
Q: Can you think of other examples?
Next time you’re tempted to casually declare: “I
am busy!”, instead, think of yourself as trying
to say: “My heart is dying!”

9. Busyness = False Trust
Busyness also cause us to believe in falsehoods.
False sense of identity: assessing people by
what you do (“What do you do?”)
False sense of self-worth: measuring your
value by your accomplishments and
achievements
False sense of success: pursuing efficiency,
effectiveness, and productivity

10. Busyness = False Trust
“The worst hallucination busyness conjures is
the conviction that I am God. All depends on
me.” (Mark Buchanan)
(Psalm 44:5-6 ESV) Through you we push down
our foes; through your name we tread down
those who rise up against us. For not in my
bow do I trust, nor can my sword save me.
(Psalm 62:1-2 ESV) For God alone my soul
waits in silence; from him comes my salvation.
He alone is my rock and my salvation, my
fortress; I shall not be greatly shaken.

11. Busyness = False Trust
“Real Sabbath, the kind that empties and fills
us, depends on …... complete confidence and
trust. And confidence and trust like that are
rooted in a deep conviction that God is good
and God is sovereign. There’s no rest for those
who don’t believe that. …… Either God’s
always at work, watching the city, building the
house, or you need to try harder. Either God is
good and in control, or it all depends on
you.” (Mark Buchanan)

12. Two Perspectives
(Exodus 20:8-10a ESV) (Deuteronomy 5:12-14a
Remember the Sabbath ESV) Observe the
day, to keep it holy. Six Sabbath day, to keep it
days you shall labor, holy, as the LORD your
and do all your work, God commanded you.
but the seventh day is a Six days you shall labor
Sabbath to the LORD and do all your work,
your God. but the seventh day is a
Sabbath to the LORD
your God.

13. Two Perspectives
(Exodus 20:10b ESV) On (Deuteronomy 5:14b ESV)
it you shall not do any On it you shall not do any
work, you, or your son, work, you or your son or
or your daughter, your your daughter or your
male servant, or your male servant or your
female servant, or your
female servant, or your
ox or your donkey or any
livestock, or the
of your livestock, or the
sojourner who is within sojourner who is within
your gates. your gates, that your
male servant and your
female servant may rest
as well as you.

14. Two Perspectives
(Exodus 20:11 ESV) For (Deuteronomy 5:15 ESV)
in six days the LORD You shall remember that
made heaven and earth, you were a slave in the
the sea, and all that is in land of Egypt, and the
them, and rested on the LORD your God brought
seventh day. Therefore you out from there with
the LORD blessed the a mighty hand and an
Sabbath day and made outstretched arm.
it holy. Therefore the LORD
your God commanded
you to keep the Sabbath
day.

15. Two Perspectives
Two different reasons/perspectives on keeping
Sabbath, because:
1. God, the Creator, rested on the seventh day
2. God, the Deliverer, freed us from slavery

16. 1. Sabbath as creation rhythm
(Genesis 2:2-3 NKJV) And on the seventh day God
ended His work which He had done, and He
rested on the seventh day from all His work which
He had done. Then God blessed the seventh day
and sanctified it, because in it He rested from all
His work which God had created and made.
God does not rest because He was tired, but
because He’s satisfied with His work -- the
creation is so good that nothing is left to do.
Sabbath is a source of blessing.
Sabbath is “holy,” namely, a day set apart to
focus on God and what He’s done.

17. 1. Sabbath as creation rhythm
So blessings are not found in human labor and
achievements, but in God’s finished work.
Q: How can we adjust our mindset to find
blessing in God’s prescribed rest?
“The world in which we live has been created
by God and that we ourselves have been
created in the image of God. Our bodies move
to a rhythm of work and rest that follows the
rhythm originally strummed by God on the
waters of creation. As God worked, so shall we;
as God rested, so shall we.” (Dorothy Bass)

18. 1. Sabbath as creation rhythm
We can only rest if we stop trying to be God.
Sabbath keeping makes us realize we have been
trying too hard to do everything on our own
without trusting God to guide our future.
“To rest means to let go and trust He knows
what He’s doing. After all, He’s better at being
God than I am.” (Ryan Kwon)

19. 2. Sabbath as deliverance from taskmasters
In Egypt, the Israelites were slaves with no
freedom over what they could or couldn’t do.
“Slaves don’t rest. Slaves can’t rest. Slaves, by
definition, have no freedom to rest. Rest, it
turns out, is a condition of liberty. God calls us
to live in the freedom that he won for us with
his own outstretched arm. Sabbath is a refusal
to go back to Egypt.” (Mark Buchanan)
Q: What is your “Egypt” -- the source of your
restlessness?

20. 2. Sabbath as deliverance from taskmasters
“The lie the taskmasters want you to swallow is
that you cannot rest until your work’s all done,
and done better than you’re currently doing it.
But the truth is, the work’s never done, and
never done quite right.” (Mark Buchanan)
Q: What lies do your “taskmasters” tell you?
What truths do you counter it with?

21. Sabbath Heart ⇒ Sabbath Delight
(Isaiah 58:13-14 ESV) If you turn back your foot
from the Sabbath, from doing your pleasure on
my holy day, and call the Sabbath a delight and
the holy day of the LORD honorable; if you
honor it, not going your own ways, or seeking
your own pleasure, or talking idly; then you
shall take delight in the LORD, and I will make
you ride on the heights of the earth; I will feed
you with the heritage of Jacob your father, for
the mouth of the LORD has spoken.
Q: In what ways do you think Sabbath can be a
“delight”?

22. Sabbath Heart ⇒ Sabbath Delight
“God’s purpose for us on the sabbath is that we
experience the highest and most intense joy that can
be experienced, namely, that we “take delight in the
Lord.” And yet what he finds again and again is
professing Christians who prefer little human-sized
pleasures from things that have no close relation to
God at all. ......
The reason that so many people feel it as a burden is
partly that we have so much leisure, we don’t feel
the need for the sabbath rest; but more important, I
think, is the fact that not many people really enjoy
what God intended us to enjoy on the sabbath,
namely, himself.” (John Piper)

23. References
The Rest of God (Mark Buchanan)
Receiving the Day (Dorothy Bass)
“Remember the Sabbath Day to Keep It
Holy” (John Piper)
“Airport Rest” (Ryan Kwon)