Future Church Brisbane
Join Luke Kennedy and friends at Future Church in Brisbane, Australia.
Talks from our gatherings as well as deeper discussions and Application panels around the practicals of Following Jesus.
Future Church Brisbane
Sabbath 01: The Quiet Revolution of Living in Sabbath Peace Begins with STOP
Have you ever felt the weight of exhaustion gripping tight, a relentless push to keep moving in a world that never sleeps? We're peeling back the layers of our non-stop culture to reveal a practice deeply rooted in creation itself: the Sabbath. My journey with this ancient tradition is not just about taking a day off but rediscovering a rhythm that offers life—free and light, as Jesus intended. We're setting the stage for a transformative experience, inviting you to explore how this biblical rhythm isn't merely a day but a way of living that promises rest for our weary souls.
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Today we're going to start a brand new series around the concept of what is a Sabbath. Okay, if that's new words for you, don't worry, because we're going to go on a bit of a journey together over the next four weeks to talk about how to change the pace of life to be more in tune with how to follow Jesus in a practical way. Okay, let me just address the room just really quickly. There's lots of people come from all different kinds of backgrounds here today. Okay, if this is new for you. Some people are like I'm all in for this, like I am exhausted and I need to learn how to create a different life. Welcome.
Speaker 1:Some of us grew up in the church in the early 2000s where we're like, if anything smells like legalism, we're like running away so hard from it that we don't want to do anything for God. I want to acknowledge that as well. Welcome, it's great to have you here and everything in between. Okay, but what we're going to talk about today is a biblical rhythm that didn't start with a rule, but started with all the way back in creation the way that God likes to do things. If you look at advertising today, you look at advertising today. So much is trying to sell you a picture of life that is relaxed and good. If we look at magazines, what they're really selling you, if you think about it with you sitting by the pool or eating with family or this friendship and you know those amazing moments what they're really selling you is Sabbath. Now it comes at a cost. They're selling you Sabbath if you just simply buy this product or this holiday or this getaway, and many of us have confused Sabbath as simply a holiday or a day off from work. But I want to encourage us that it's much, much deeper than that and the good news is it's actually free. This kind of life, this Sabbath not just day but Sabbath kind of life Sabbath, living a Sabbath way of following Jesus is actually free. Jesus talked about this in one of the most famous scriptures. This is going to be the key verse for us over the next four weeks In Matthew, chapter 11, verse 28,.
Speaker 1:It says Come to me all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you. That's ancient language for a way of living. A yoke is a way of teaching and living, and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble of heart that's God's description of Jesus' way is actually humble of heart, gentle. Humble of heart and you will find rest for your souls. That word soul is all of your being, not just the way that we think about that in postmodern, some kind of abstract concept. It's who I am as a person, for my yoke or my teaching is easy and my burden is light. Why is that? Because Jesus is carrying most of our burden. He's doing the heavy lifting in our lives. I love the way that Eugene Peterson put it in his paraphrase.
Speaker 1:I'm sure if you've been around church a little bit you probably heard this verse. Are you tired, worn out, burnout on religion? Come to me, get away with me and you'll recover your life. I'll show you how to take a real rest. Walk with me, work with me and watch how I do it. Notice he's saying rest with me, walk with me, work with me All of life. Learn how to do it Jesus' way. Learn the unforced rhythms of grace. I won't lay anything heavy or ill-fitting on you. Keep company with me and you'll learn how to live freely and lightly. Let me ask you a question Are you tired? You tired this morning? Let me ask you a question Are you tired? Are you tired this morning?
Speaker 1:I think that most of our culture today is living with low-key exhaustion that is chronic. It may not be to the point where I can't get out of bed, but it's just this underlying current of I'm tired, not just tired like I need a holiday, because many of us have a holiday and we come back even more tired. It's not just about a holiday. It's actually something deeper within our soul that is tired and it's like a buzz underneath. I have a little bit of this buzz in my ear, you know, from radiation. I have a little bit of this buzz in my ear, you know, from radiation. It's like an undercurrent of a buzz in your life that is just tired.
Speaker 1:This is not the way of Jesus. This is the way that our cultures have it, and there's many reasons for that. Some of it's just the fact that we sleep less now than ever before in history. You know, a couple of hundred years ago, before the Industrial Revolution, people were sleeping 10, 11 hours a night. Now the average is around six, and I understand some of that, because some of us have two-year-old children who don't like to sleep, and we'll get less sleep than that Just ask my wife, and it's usually on Saturday nights that my children decide not to sleep, and it's usually on Saturday nights that my children decide not to sleep.
Speaker 1:That has a major effect on your body and on your mind. We're tired, and we're not just tired in our body, we're tired in our souls. There's a reason for that the constant pace that we're living at, the frenetic pace of modern life, the always-on work culture, the rise of the popularity of politics becoming religion, post-modernism culture, your phone in your pocket that is constantly buzzing and constantly has your mind connected to other places, not here. There's many reasons why we're tired. A news cycle that is 24-7, constant entertainment Entertainment has actually been a great. Think about this. I say this to my children After watching five hours of TV, do you feel better or worse? They'll say worse, better, want to watch TV again. Think about for Gen Z. There's a psychologist in NYU. Nyu is a professor. He wrote a book recently called the Anxious Generation and he talks about this concept where, in 2011, 2012, there was a massive increase in depression in Gen Z. A massive increase. What happened in 2011, 2012,? Do you remember? It was the iPhone.
Speaker 1:We went from having flip phones where we actually connected with people as a childhood. When you compare millennials, especially early 80s millennials I'm 85, so maybe I'm on the end of that, but earlier millennials, don't put your hand up. I see you, I know who you are. We spent most of our childhood not on phones, not connected to a screen, but actually going out on the street, playing cricket on the road, connecting with people. Boys were wrestling and having fights and learning how to actually communicate with other people.
Speaker 1:There was some sort of risk involved in trying something and failing, not like in fortnight. That's like fake risk, where you risk nothing actually but you're doing crazy things. But there's no risk attached there. There's something it does to your mind. It's changing. Gen Z now is two times more likely to be diagnosed with anxiety disorders than those early millennials. Now those millennials have other challenges. We have other challenges millennials.
Speaker 1:But Gen Z and Gen Z know this because they are smart. They know that that phone, that constant buzzing and connection, is actually hurting them. If you ask them, they know that. So why do they keep doing it? It's FOMO, it's fear of missing out, fear of being disconnected from the world. For one minute I may miss something big. This is the lie that we've kind of bought into and we need to bring some adjustment to this in our lives. And Sabbath is one of the most effective and God-ordained beautiful ways that we can actually cause our lives to stop for a moment. Stop. That's why I call this message today. Today is about stop. First of all, stop.
Speaker 1:Our children don't have a lot of tech time. That's been a constant as our children have gotten older. It's a bit of a battle, as parents know. As our children have gotten older, it's a bit of a battle, as parents know. When we started Sabbath on Saturdays for us because you know, sunday is a big day for me, saturdays we shut things down a lot. We started with half a day and I remember explaining to my children about Sabbath and their first response was Dad, this sounds like a punishment. No tech time sounds like a punishment. No tech time. This is a punishment and I had to like rewind and continually re-explain to my children. It's not a punishment, it's a gift that we can stop and look at each other in the eyes, focus on God.
Speaker 1:If you ask my daughter what's the best thing about Sabbath, she would say Mommy has no phone and Daddy has no computer. That's the best thing about Sabbath. She's eight years old. What she really means is undivided attention. I'm not over there somewhere, I'm not connected to the world and everything that's happening. I'm here right now, in the moment. We have stopped and the children have seen that as a beautiful thing. Can I encourage you, parents? Sabbath will be hard to start and then it will change your family forever. If you continue Honestly, it will.
Speaker 1:So let's talk about the fact that exhaustion is an issue, but it's not just a physical issue. It's actually a spiritual issue. Why is that? Because Jesus actually called us not to do Sabbath. It's a means to an end, okay, jesus actually called us to live a life that, at its maturity, the telos of the life that Jesus has for us is that we would become people of love, actually learn how to receive love well and give love well. This is the tell us of Jesus' teaching for us is that we would become people of love. But it's very hard. I don't know if you found this, but it's very hard to be loving while you're exhausted.
Speaker 1:I am someone who gets a little bit hangry. You know, we were at this place I think it was a couple of days ago, and we're in this food kind of market and the kids were going around and they were like they were kind of like downers, like not, they didn't want to eat that and I didn't want to eat that. And after like the first time, I was just like get in the car, we're going back to Brisbane. I was hungry. I was so like get in the car, we're going back to Brisbane, I was hungry. I was so out of patience with them. And then Izumi's like okay, children, come over here, we're going to go to this restaurant, you'll be right, they had a good time. And then I came after I had a little bit of food, I was fine, again Hungry.
Speaker 1:It's very difficult to be loving while you're exhausted, while you're down, while you're feeling the pressure to perform every waking moment of your life, and even while you're asleep you're still dreaming and thinking about it. I remember being in my 20s and in my early 30s and leading church, and my wife can tell you this I would wake up with panic attacks, with the pressure of having to perform for people. It was a constant and I think one of the things we thought about deeply through that was this is not healthy, surely, when Jesus said I want to come to give you life, and life to the full. Surely he's not talking about this, where constant anxiety and stress is driving me to perform. It's not right. There's something more to it than that right. There's something more to it than that, jesus and exhaustion.
Speaker 1:Living with no margin creates space for, I think, the enemy to really work in our lives. I lived with this constant drive and I think I'm a fairly driven. Is there any like type a driven people here? I live with that. Okay, I understand that, but I think we're careful because there's this mindset that we can get into, especially as Christians. There's always more good work to do and if you're a Christian, we live with this tension of like I should be doing more good things for God. I should be doing more. The answer is always a little bit more, but in doing that, we can actually create a culture around us of striving and pressure and actually getting less and less productive, and we need to stop.
Speaker 1:I think John Mark Comer paints a great picture of energy levels when, if you're at 80% energy level, I'm like a happy Luke. If I'm at like 20% energy levels, I'm, like you know, not so happy Luke. You know what I mean. We all get here right. You know. Not so happy Luke. You know what I mean. We all get here right and I think we need to live more of our lives in that flow of being filled with God's Spirit and rest filled. The rest is what's carrying us, not stress is driving us. Stress is driving us.
Speaker 1:So Sabbath is the word Shabbat in Hebrew. It literally means to stop. It can also mean to rest, to delight or to worship. That's just different translations of the same word. So we're actually going to spend these next three weeks talking about these concepts. Today is about stop. We're going to talk about to rest, to delight and to worship.
Speaker 1:But today let's have a look at Genesis 2, because stopping is actually built into the fabric of how God created the world. Look at verse 1 of Genesis, chapter 2. Thus the heavens and the earth were completed in their vast array by the seventh day. God had finished the work he had begun doing so. On the seventh day he rested from all of his work. Notice, everyone, that the first day of the humans is not a work day, it's a rest day. Created and then their first day is a rest day. Interesting, isn't it that the first thing we do after we're created by God is rest. Rest is not something that we earn. It's a gift from God in which we live the rest of our lives by. Notice that God's Sabbath. God's Sabbath, god stopped his work.
Speaker 1:If you cannot stop your work, something is wrong. It should be a red flag. It should be a red dinging siren in your head that something is not healthy. I have an out-of-control soul. I have a weary soul. If I cannot stop, I'm preaching to myself here. But, luke, I'm a high-capacity person. Yes, so is God. He stopped. I have toddlers. I have a big family too. He stopped. I'm on the edge of my career. It's just about to have a big breakthrough and then it never comes. Lead with stop, lead with rest and then go into work. Now, if you're uncomfortable with stopping, it's okay. The next series we're going to do is going to be on work, so you're going to really enjoy that, okay? Well, you workaholics, you just hang on. Don't leave the church yet, but it's going to be good.
Speaker 1:Philosopher HH Farmer once said when you go against the grain of the universe, you get splinters. A farmer once said when you go against the grain of the universe, you get splinters. The reality of a six-in-one rhythm is actually built into the reality of how God created the universe. It's not something that we're fighting against. When we stop, like some of you will think, it's really hard for me to stop. I can't do it. It's almost like I'm fighting against who I am. No, it's really hard for me to stop. I can't do it. It's almost like I'm fighting against who I am. No, it's not fighting against who you are. It's actually coming back to who you were created to be from the very beginning.
Speaker 1:Sabbath is a reality. It's like gravity needing rest. It's like gravity. You can fight against it if you want. You can explain it away if you want, but if you don't stop at some point you may have to stop. So I encourage you. By the way, parents, this is the way we talk with our children about who God is, and that is that God is the ultimate reality. God is really how things are, and when we live close to God, we're actually living close to reality, the way things were meant to be. That's a happy place.
Speaker 1:Most recently, there was done a study on people, a large group of Christians who actually do do Sabbath a very large group of people in the United States and what they found is. One of the things that they found was not only were those people much happier than other people in general, but actually they lived 11 years longer on average than the rest of the population. Isn't that crazy? And one of the social scientists was like adding up all of the days that people Sabbath and it was almost exactly. It was like 10 to 12 years that they had taken time off to Sabbath and they lived 11 years longer than everyone else. It's almost like saying that the time that I give to God, he's going to give back to me.
Speaker 1:Some of you are like I cannot afford to stop. I've got one life, carpe diem, get after it. And I think what it's saying is we've kind of missed the point in that whatever we give to God, we're not losing. He's going to give it back to you, multiplied over to your life. Not only are you getting more years, but you're actually getting more joy and peace and kindness. You're actually going to be a better I'm a better parent when I'm doing Sabbath. I'm a much better parent, much better than being driven. Work a little bit harder, daddy, Just push through a little bit more In Exodus, we'll get to the Ten Commandments, okay, ten Commandments.
Speaker 1:Some of you are like Ten Commandments, that's bad. By the way, if it's from God, it's not bad. Okay, just want to clear that up. Everything from God is good, including the Ten Commandments. The only commandment that we brag about not doing is this one okay, verse 8.
Speaker 1:Now, by that context, these people have used 400 years of slavery. They don't know how to be free, and this is God teaching them how to live free. As a new country, a new society, you could almost say the Ten Commandments are commandments is a little bit of a funny translation, but you could almost say a guide to living free, god's way of living that leads to life. That's almost what you could say. Remember the Sabbath day and keep it holy. Holy just means separate for a special purpose. Six days you should labor and do all your work, and the seventh day is a Sabbath day to the Lord, your God, and on it you should not do any work. And remember this is not like, oh, I can't work. This is like he has to tell them they're slaves. They don't know how to stop working. It sounds like our culture today. He's saying no, no, but you must stop working and it's a gift to you. You must stop. I don't want you working out in the fields. I don't even want the foreigners who are with you. I don't want them working either. For in six days, the Lord made the heavens and the earth, the seas and all that is in them, and he rested on the seventh day. Therefore, the Lord blessed the day and made it holy. Notice, the first word it says is remember the Sabbath, remember it, remember that God is God and he is in control.
Speaker 1:Rich Valotis is a pastor in New York City that I really love, has great thoughts, has great books. I often recommend them. He describes Sabbath like this Number one Sabbath reminds me that I am not God. Number two Sabbath resists the urge to find my worth and my accomplishments. Number three Sabbath helps me to relinquish control. Sabbath resists the urge to find my worth and my accomplishments. Number three Sabbath helps me to relinquish control. And Sabbath teaches me that I am loved even when I cannot be successful in the world's eyes. If, today, you are worried about Sabbath becoming some kind of rule book in your life, that's the last thing that you should be worried about. Let me, as Wayne Mueller, the theologian, put it like this Sabbath is not a burdensome requirement from some law-giving deity you have to, you ought to, you must but rather a remembrance of a law that is firmly embedded in the fabric of nature. It is a reminder of how things really are and the rhythmic dance to which we unavoidably belong, meaning this A rhythm to life is reality, and when I get in step with God's reality, I actually learn how to be a better human, a much happier human.
Speaker 1:I asked my son we were walking along the beach the other day and I asked my son what is Sabbath about To you? Hugo, teach me what's Sabbath about. They love, by the way. They love when I talk about them in messages, so don't worry, they're like asking why I'm not saying what they're saying. Weird, eh? Give them a couple of years, it might change. He said to me it's a day to be connected to God. That's what it is. And I said well, actually, hugo, theologically we're always connected to God and we're simply becoming more aware of his presence. No, I did not say that. I said that sounds great, hugo. That's really good, mate. I love that, that's really good.
Speaker 1:It's a day to remember that we are connected to God. We remember that God is the creator of the world, not me. Remember that rhythm. There is a rhythm to creation and I am part of that. Remember that we don't stop when we are finished, because we are never finished. Our work, all of you working people, the work is never done. We stop when the rhythm God built into our life and our body says stop. It is time to stop. Remember that Sabbath is a gift, not a requirement. It's an invitation from God. Remember to be grateful.
Speaker 1:In our family, we spend a lot of time in prayer, teaching our children about prayer, and one of the things I've noticed is, over probably the last six months or so, a lot of my children's prayer became like a checklist for Santa Claus, like please do this and please do this and please do this and please do this and please do this and amen. And I was like good, that's good, but what about? How about? We pray today and we're not going to ask God for anything. We're just going to thank God for everything that we have and we're going to stop. I think we're just going to thank God for everything that we have, we're going to stop. So we were doing this yesterday in our house last night when we were just finishing kind of our Sabbath time together. We spent some time going around our table and just praying prayers of thanksgiving, and our kids were laughing because it was so hard for them not to ask God for things. But it was like opening their eyes to living a different way living thankful and living receiving God's grace.
Speaker 1:Walter Brueggemann put it like this those who Sabbath live every day differently. When you learn how to stop and live out of a restful soul, you're actually going to live every day differently, because Sabbath is more than just a day that we do. Sabbath is a way of seeing the world. It's a way of living. It's a way of living in the world with a restful soul, at peace. I think you might agree that what the world really really needs is more non-anxious people, and your workplace needs a non-anxious presence, someone who is present and grounded and restful and passionate and joyful and full of delight and worshipful. Wow, that sounds like a big tall order. It starts with stop. That's where it starts Stop First, stop. But Sabbath, as we come to, the more practical. Now. Sabbath is not just an aspirational idea, it's a practice. It's something that we're actually going to do and, like I said before, if you struggle to stop, it should be a red sign for you that something is not right, something needs to change.
Speaker 1:Stopping often brings up things for your heart and your soul. I remember when I first started doing sabbath, I started feeling very angry. Why was I feeling angry? I was because I was had time to stop and it was like the things that I was distracting myself from or pushing down, maybe people that hurt me, things that I felt were some injustices. They started bubbling to the surface and I actually had space and time for them to come up. That was not a comfortable feeling. I'm like, oh, this is not fun, I don't want to do that. What I found was quickly not to judge myself in that time or not to distract from that, but simply recognize oh, that's there, oh, that's actually a thing. Now, today is not the day to deal with all of that. We're going to just simply rest with God. But I need to take note of that, not be judgy about myself. But okay, I see that there, we're going to deal with that. God, I'm going to give that to you and we're going to deal with it, and you might find the same thing. Sabbath is a practice. It's a means to an end. The goal is that we would be with God. That's the goal and that happens every day, but it's a practice that will help us Probably.
Speaker 1:A year ago I started seeing professional supervision. It's a fancy word for counselling for a specific job. So I see a guy who is like especially deals with like pastors and high stress jobs. One of his first observations about me after talking to me for a long time was he was like look, can I make an observation? I'm like yes, he said you seem like you really do care about other people doing well. I'm like yes, that's right, that's good, good Christian. I thought, okay, there's a lab. He's going to tell me you're like the best person that's ever walked in here. I've looked under the hood. You're good to go. Why don't we swap seats? No, sounded very arrogant, didn't it? And, to be honest, at that time I was thinking, okay, this is good. And he said but you don't want to hear that. But have you ever thought about maybe the best thing you can do for your church is actually to live the kind of life that you actually want for them to be an example of that? And I was like yeah, he's like so talk to me about resting then and I was like I don't have time. So he talked to me about resting then and I was like I don't have time.
Speaker 1:Context we just moved country with my family to a new country, starting a new church, assimilating another church into our church, starting a new business, doing a building project and starting a new ministry outside of our church and having my family I mean not advisable to do all those things at the same time. That was the context, right. So rest was like I was not resting. That was reality. And he said to me I think you need to come back to it. There may be even like a theological problem here, and that is I'm not sure that you trust God, that if you stop working it'll be okay. I don't think you trust God. I was a little bit offended. So I'm like I could preach to you a message right now about trusting God and it would be good. But I think he was right. I think he was right. I wasn't trusting God. I wanted to control the situation rather than to trust God.
Speaker 1:Six months ago, when I started treatment for you know, mouth cancer, it was like the ultimate education in you either quit or you trust God, but you have no control. So difficult, so difficult. And instead what I found was guys. Instead of God coming to me and bashing me about my lack of trust in him, you should be. What I kept on hearing the voice of God say to me was I'm going to show you how much you can trust me. I'm going to show you how much I love you. And I found myself ducking away into the bathroom many days of treatment, where I was just in a lot of pain and having a little tear with God and hearing that voice once again, over and over again. I'm going to show you how much I love you. I'm going to show you the grace of God drawing me into trusting him. Beautiful. I've learned to trust God over the last five months, probably more than ever in my life, because when all you have is God, you have everything that you need, if you would simply trust him. What a beautiful picture of the Sabbath.
Speaker 1:So let me just end with this. Three practical things, and we're going to finish in a couple of moments. Okay, number one, if you want to start, if you want to try. Okay, number one pick a time to Sabbath and give it a try. It could be Sunday. Sunday could be the day. If you don't feel confident to give a full day, why don't you start with Sunday and then a few hours after church, where I'm going to stop working, stop the emails, stop, turn off? I think the easiest way would be to simply take your phone and put it in a jar, that's it and just stop, and you will find yourself getting anxious. You will. It means you're addicted. That's okay. No judgment. I think most of us are addicted, but after that you will start to feel the pressure deflate and God, have space to do something in your life.
Speaker 1:For me, saturday we've tried lots of stuff we're thinking now maybe to do from like Saturday afternoon to Sunday church and this being kind of the end of our Sabbath where we kind of celebrate together, worshipping with you guys. Maybe that's how we're going to do it, but we're trying different stuff. We need to work this out with community. How do you do this? This is what our small groups will be doing is working out. How do we do this? Practically, I've got toddlers. How do we do that? You know. For us at home we've got Kaylee running around two years old. You know she doesn't understand any of this stuff, except for I don't know like she gets a lot more attention, probably on Sabbath, which she's more happy about, rather than away from my computer don't spill any water on it, it happens.
Speaker 1:Number two pick a beginning and an ending ritual. Pick a beginning and an ending ritual. This is great for families. I think this is great when we say we usually end Sabbath with the best food that we eat all week. It's like a bit of a party Dessert. No guilt, all right. All right, Mike, no guilt. You can have whatever you want, you know within reason, but some kind of. I want our family to look forward to Sabbath or the climax of the week being the best time, and that is our time with God to celebrate, and we're going to get to celebrate later on.
Speaker 1:Okay, and number three if you don't know what to do at Sabbath, if you don't know what to do, why don't you? Just? This is here's a list of things, here's a list of suggestions. Try it out. Some of you might you know, some of you are looking at number nine. You're like that's great, praise the Lord. Do find something that works for you. Do a couple of things, try it out.
Speaker 1:I think the worst thing we could do coming away from today, the worst thing we could do is say that's a great idea, luke, and then do nothing. The power is in the application. The power is in the actual stopping. Not thinking about stopping. Does this make sense? Stop. So that's what we're doing In our community groups.
Speaker 1:We're going to be discussing how to stop. What does that look like in your life? You're a uni student, you're a young mom, you're a single parent. Whatever that looks like in your life. You're a uni student, you're a young mom, you're a single parent. Whatever that looks like in your life. How do you actually stop?
Speaker 1:Even if it's not perfect, some of you are going to feel guilty that you're not doing this right. Trust me, I know what that feels like. Some Sabbath days that we've done it's been a total write-off. Okay, don't feel guilty. That's why we call it a practice rather than a an accomplishment. It's not something we're accomplishing. It's something that we're practicing and learning how to stop with our family. Um, and that doesn't mean you have to. Maybe you're a single person. You're not going to spend all afternoon alone in your apartment. Do it with other people, rest with other people. There's lots of ways we can do this. We're going to be discussing that a lot over the next few weeks.
Speaker 1:I hope that's helpful to you. Let me pray for you, god. Help us. Help us here with our addiction to accomplishment, us help us here with our addiction to accomplishment. Help us with how we've let the culture of our day dictate to our lives, finding our worth around doing and, god, I pray that you would come and speak to us deeply about being with you, stopping learning rhythms of grace, and I pray, as we step into trying stuff, god, that you be with us, that your grace lead us, god, and I pray this week would be a wonderful week of today, would be the beginning of something for many people here resting, and that it would actually seep into our whole week ahead. I pray for our church, god, would be a place full of non-anxious people where we're becoming more and more like Jesus and living like him. Thank you for it, god. Pray for those who don't really know you here, god, today, that you would pour out your goodness on their lives. Show them how good you are. We thank you for it, god, amen.