Sabbath Rest: April 2025
Published April 8, 2025
Sabbath Rest
A month ago, after our first Next Steps Video for the year, David and I briefly touched on the Sabbath. After this message, Bruce asked David and I to expand on what it really means to practice obedience to the Sabbath, daily, weekly, monthly, and yearly as a lifelong discipline.
For those of you who have been around Bruce for any amount of time, and for those of you who know and have worked with David and I, you know all too well our absolute personal commitment to the Sabbath in our own lives and our resolute conviction to demonstrate and advocate for this most necessary biblical principle/law in our own walk with Christ.
However, knowing and thinking about something is not the same as obedience and practised discipline!
Over the past several weeks, as we have kicked off the new year in our SRT community, many of the conversations we have with people ultimately end up coming back to the fact that we as individuals within our community, are not walking out in obedience and faith, the Sabbath rest.
The fruit is in overwhelming abundance.
- Fatigue
- Confusion
- Struggling marriages
- Struggling families
- Struggling finances
- Ongoing Sin (Colossians 3:5-10)
“5Therefore, treat the parts of your earthly body as dead to sexual immorality, impurity, passion, evil desire, and greed, which amounts to idolatry. 6 For it Is because of these things that the wrath of God is coming upon the sons of disobedience, 7 and in them you also once walked, when you were living [in them. 8 But now you also, rid yourselves of all of them: anger, wrath, malice, slander, and obscene speech from your mouth.9 Do not lie to one another, since you stripped off the old self with its evil practices, 10 and have put on the new self, which is being renewed to a true knowledge according to the image of the One who created it”.
The hard truth to absorb about the Sabbath, is like all good things from God our Father, they do not happen organically. Quite the opposite is at play here. There is warfare from our flesh and fallen nature and from the demonic realm, that wants to separate us from God’s word. This is a hard truth indeed. Can you see this? Do you accept this as truth?
And, without the discipline of being completely accountable to someone and pulling down their oversight into our lives – we will miss this completely by the very nature that being deceived about something means we are deceived and can’t see the truth right in front of us. Can you see this? Do you accept this as truth?
To know about the Sabath is not to do the Sabath. Only by knowing and doing are we able to experience the true beauty and blessing of what the Sabbath way of life affords us.
In a call this week with leaders in our community, someone asked a very powerful question, “How do we continue to act with Godly character, if we are depleted and run down?”.
There is only one answer to this question, and that answer is: to avoid ending up in this situation, we must mature ourselves through obedience to His word, and His word is very clear, “Remember the Sabbath day by keeping it Holy.”
The Sabbath is where we are able to keep our lives filled with the “living water” so we have the power, wisdom and energy to deal with the “fleshly and demonic rubbish” that we must be constantly eradicating from our lives, so we can fulfil with all integrity and authority the call of God on our lives.
Sadly, today, we are committing ourselves and our families to spiritual, emotional, relational, and physical death, as we refuse to enter into the Sabbath strategically and with conviction, turning our lives which are meant to be abundant, into dry, dry wells. Can I get an amen?
The real question you need to ask yourself at this point is:
“If I know about the Sabbath and am not working hard and training at making this discipline an intrinsic part of my walk with Christ – why?”.
Remember this scriptural truth at the same time – to know and not to do is sin.
James 4:17 - “17 So for one who knows the right thing to do and does not do it, for him it is sin”.
Maybe I can refine the question a little further.
“If I am not walking in obedience to the Sabbath, what is the reason for my sin in this area?”.
Let us sit in the reality of the question this month.
If this is you, if the Holy Spirit is witnessing to your spirit that this is you, don’t just ignore Him. Don’t just dismiss Him. Don’t continue to disobey Him. Reach out to somebody and call down their insight into your lives to help you personally transform your heart and renew your mind in response to the Sabbath.
One of the deep prayers of Bruce, David and myself, because we love you, is that you would come to know in all fullness the beauty and delight of a more deep and intimate relationship with Father, Jesus and the Holy Spirit as a result/fruit of your obedience to the Sabbath.
In turn, we know that the fruit of this Way of life will look vastly different than the fruit of disobedience to the Sabbath, mentioned above.
In the coming months, David and I will unpack more about the Sabbath in the monthly Bulletin. For now, before we do this, let’s do a personal audit of our hearts and obedience in this area and talk to someone about it.
I know this is a tough bulletin. We pray that you will have the Holy Spirit with you as you read and process through this.
If you need help – reach out – we are here for you.
God bless you and keep you. Natalie.
