2025
Remember the Sabbath
Passage: Exodus 20:8-11; Hebrews 10:23-25
“Sabbath is the biblical tool for protecting time against desecration. It is the rhythmic setting apart of one day each week for praying and playing—the two activities for which we don’t get paid, but which are necessary for a blessed life. A blessed life is what we are biblically promised. A blessed life is not a mere survival life, but a bountiful life. Praying and playing are warp and woof in the bounty.
Keeping a Sabbath is simple and easy: We pray and we play, two things we were pretty good at as children, and can always pick up again with a little encouragement and if we can only find the time. But we don’t have to find the time, it is given to us. A day a week. A Sabbath. A day to pray and play. God’s gift.” — Eugene Peterson
During this sermon series Trellis & Vine: Habits of Healthy Christian, we are considering the following practices:
- Silence and solitude to pray
- Fasting to pray
- Listening to God’s word
- Community in sabbath & corporate worship
- Community in small groups & friendships
- Generosity with money
- Generosity with time
Sermon Outline:
- What is the Sabbath?
- How to practice the Sabbath?
DISCUSSION QUESTIONS:
What comes to your mind when you hear the word “Sabbath”? What has shaped your understanding of Sabbath?
Read Exodus 20:8-11 and Hebrews 10:23-25. What challenges, encourages, or sparks questions for you in these passages? What phrases stand out to you that help shape your understanding of God’s character and your identity as a child of God?
In shaping our understanding of Sabbath, the sermon invited us to consider it as a 1)blessing from God (see Gen. 2:2-3); 2)way to remember our limits (Exodus 20:8-11); 3)way to remember our redemption (Deut. 5:12, 15). How have these three purposes of practicing the Sabbath entered into your experience?
What challenges do you face in remembering the sabbath? Consider this quote from Tim Chester in “The Busy Christian’s Guide to Busyness”: I’m busy because I need to prove myself; I’m busy because of other people’s expectations; I’m busy because otherwise, things get out of control; I’m busy because I prefer being under pressure; I’m busy because I need money; I’m busy because I want to make the most of life. Perhaps there are nuances to your answer shaped by your season of life (young kids, youth sports, retirement).
Practicing the Sabbath involves: preparation, prayer together, and play. Discuss how these three aspects can be part of your remembering the Sabbath. Which come easy to you and what aspects are more challenging? Why?
We often believe the lie that we need to accomplish something to justify our lives. Instead, we need to hear Jesus saying, “I give you significance. I give you worth.” In Matthew 11:28-30, Jesus extends his invitation to us, “Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy and my burden is light.” How does Jesus’s life, death, and resurrection provide the preparation we need to be able to prepare, pray together, and play in remembering the Sabbath?
How is the Sabbath an act of gospel defiance against sin, evil, and death?
What from these passages and this discussion is something you want to put into practice or be more aware of this week?
PRAYER
Share with your group how they can be praying for you: what is weighing on you from this past week? What are you praising God for from this past week?
John 15:5 / “I am the vine; you are the branches. If you remain in me and I in you, you will bear much fruit; apart from me you can do nothing.”