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 Rhythm 03: A day of sheer Joy and Delight
Have you ever paused to marvel at the sheer delight of existence, or does the daily grind leave you too exhausted to notice the beauty around you? Our conversation this time is a heartfelt journey into the essence of joy and how embracing the sacred practice of Sabbath can rekindle our spirits. Weaving through the biblical narrative, we're inspired by God's own celebration of creation and how He takes pleasure in every facet of the world He fashioned. Tim Keller's profound insights serve as our guide, showing us the path to nurturing our souls with beauty even when life's struggles seem overwhelming. We also reflect deeply on the parable of the Prodigal Son, a story that magnifies God's passion for rejoicing when we find our way back to Him.
Then, we meander through the tranquil gardens of Sabbath rest, exploring the synergy of grace, joy, and gifting within the context of the New Testament. It's a tapestry of Greek wisdom, with 'charis' (grace), 'chara' (joy), and 'charisma' (gifting) interlacing to form a pattern of life that's both fulfilling and generous in spirit. I open up about my family traditions and share how we transform our home into a sanctuary of joy each week, offering practical suggestions for you to do the same. As we contemplate a future 'day of delight', we envision a time brimming with familial love, the laughter of grandchildren, and the profound satisfaction that comes from honoring the rhythm of rest. Join us as we pray for those weighed down by sorrow, and aspire to cultivate a deeper, collective experience of joy through the restorative power of celebration.
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To recap the last two sessions, we talked about the concept of Sabbath being this rhythm of God and which God would want to become our rhythm, which is working and then resting. Okay so, six days working, one day resting. In Australia, sometimes we like to do six days working, six days resting, one day working. Yeah, oh, tough crowd, but there is a rhythm to creation of work and rest and if we roll with that, we are going to experience life that God has for us. Today I want to talk about something a little bit different. We had talked about stop and rest. Today we're going to talk about joy. As we move through stopping, prioritizing, resting, what's going to happen is next, we're going to actually find things to be joyful and celebrate. So today I want to talk about the concept of delight and joy. Tim Keller had this quote because the world is so full of ugly things, we need Sabbath to feed our soul with beauty, and that's very true. There's so many things around us that you can focus on that are not doing too well. There's so many challenges in the world and because we are so connected, more than ever, it's so easy for you to see the challenges in the world because they're presented to you over and over again through the news, through conflict in the world, there's so much things happening that are readily available to you. So it's actually kind of a discipline for us to actually present or remind ourselves that there's so much good happening right now in the world that God is doing and that we are part of what God is doing, and that is good. So Sabbath is a day to remember, to remind ourselves. Paul, the writer of the New Testament, put it like this set your mind on things above, not on things of the earth. In Paul's mind, that would have you know. When he talked about the things above, he was talking in his mind, really about the kingdom of God coming to earth. Set your mind on what's coming from God, not on the way that things are right now, but on what is to come. That is the hope that we have as Christians that something is coming that is incredible, that God will make all things right and that somehow we are part of that process of God renewing the world. And so much good is happening through that God.
Speaker 1:In Genesis, god took time to celebrate every single day by like a mini celebration he created and then he said it is good, like a little celebration every day. And at the end of the week after he created the humans, he said the first day of our human relationship with God is going to be a day of Sabbath. That was our first day together. The first thing we're going to do is celebrate, and I think that's something to really understand about the heart of God is that God is a celebrating God. I wonder today, if you find it hard to celebrate? Maybe you're a driven kind of person. Do you find it hard to stop and to celebrate? If you do, you're probably in good company, because many of us find it hard to celebrate, to stop and to really think about that. Think about that.
Speaker 1:In Luke, chapter 15, there's a great story really describing the heart of God and his relationship with people. It's a story about a classic story, about a younger son I'm the youngest son, the youngest son who runs away and spends all his father's money. It's a famous story. I'm sure you've heard it. The prodigal son. He comes home to his father, not really because he's probably really repentant, probably out of desperation. He's just so desperate he's hit rock bottom and he comes home to his father and his father who is the hero of this story throws him a massive celebration. He doesn't wait for him to do a big speech, a big apology or maybe even like a self-improvement plan, maybe a work schedule, to pay back his father. He just says you are home, you were dead, now you're alive and we're going to have a party.
Speaker 1:Well, the older brother, his older brother, kind of struggled with that. Maybe his older brother said I'll celebrate as long as he's going to get a good beat down in front of everyone, get a good talking to. Maybe he's going to get a plan for tomorrow, he's going to start working off and paying back that debt. But the father doesn't do that. It's almost like that part of the story is not even included. It's almost like God's saying that's none of your business. Your business is to celebrate people coming home to God. That's your job. God will take care of what is next.
Speaker 1:Pretty amazing, god takes time to celebrate. Pretty amazing, god takes time to celebrate and for me, celebration is something that I have to discipline myself to do, because I would rather do the work. I would rather do the next thing, the next project, just get on with it, just start something new. But to take time to celebrate is important. When you celebrate, you may not look very dignified, but who cares? That's the heart of God. When we celebrate, we'll have to let down our guard a little bit, but that's a good thing. When we celebrate, we'll have to put other things on other projects, the next big thing on hold for a minute, but that is a good thing. You may not feel like celebrating when it's time to celebrate, but celebrate anyway. This is really important and this is why Sabbath comes every single week, because we need reminders to celebrate. Because God is a celebrating God. He's a joyful God.
Speaker 1:I wonder, if you think about God, do you think about a joyful God? Do you think about God as joyful? Is that one of the pictures that you have of God? Or is it maybe an angry God who's waiting for you to make a mistake so he can beat you down again? Do you have a picture of a joyful God? I hope so. I often tell newer Christians when you pray, think about God smiling. Think about God and Him smiling over your life. As you pray, as you worship, as you do what you're doing, it's a good thing because God is, in the Bible, described as a gracious and kind and joyful God and we get to enter into that. So is joy like a natural thing that you have in your life? I wonder I mean it's a rhetorical question but are you a naturally joyful person or maybe is it more of a discipline? For you, some personalities maybe it's a. It comes naturally. You just, you're just a bubbly joyful personality. It comes quite easy to you. But for some people, having a a joyful life is is something that's not as natural, um, and it's something you need to work on. It's something that you need to actually cultivate in your own life.
Speaker 1:Having joy, being joyful In the Bible, you know, I grew up in a kind of tradition where it was like happiness is from circumstance and joy is from God. So that's for joyful and maybe there's some truth in that. But you know the reality is in the Bible, many times when the word joy is used, it's used about circumstance. Like some of us just right now, you have a joyful circumstance and that's a good thing, that's a great thing. I'm here to celebrate that with you. Other times it's used in a way that's more of a condition of who you're becoming as a person, meaning I'm becoming more joyful over time. My father was kind of like that I think at the start of his life he was quite an angry young man, quite a violent young man. By the time that he passed away recently he was an incredibly joyful older man, 83 years old, joyful, surrounded by people, surrounded by grandchildren, really pouring love on them, very generous with them.
Speaker 1:That's a work of God in his life. That's a work of the Holy Spirit that doesn't happen naturally in his life. That's a work of the Holy Spirit that doesn't happen naturally. Okay, galatians, chapter 5 talks about the fruit of the Spirit or the result of God working in our lives is we become more loving, joyful, peaceful, patient, kindness. Is that the kind of work that you're seeing in your life? I hope that it is.
Speaker 1:Sabbath is a great way for you to stop and actually invite God in, to continue to work in that area of your life, to say God, here I am, help me become a more joyful person I love. In the book of Nehemiah it says the joy of the Lord is actually my strength. There's something about being joyful that will actually keep me strong during difficult times. That's the kind of person I want to become. But thirdly, it's often used as a discipline. Joy is a choice that I make. It's a discipline that I cultivate in my life the discipline of celebration. So Sabbath is a discipline of celebration. That's what it is. I am going to stop and I am going to celebrate, even if that means not everything in my life is perfect. You don't need everything to be perfect in your life to stop and to celebrate the good in your life. It's a discipline, it's a good thing.
Speaker 1:Last week we had a barbecue around at Jared's place. Everyone's sitting around for hours, sharing a lot of laughing, a lot of joking, and it was just a time to we. You know, we were kind of celebrating, um, some of the work that we've been doing, the projects we've been doing. It was just a fun, amazing time. You know, my our personality is probably more like let's just get on with the next project. But it's a discipline to stop and say let's take time to celebrate what God has done in our lives. It's a discipline because neuroscientists tell us that the mind is naturally drawn to negative things. I think it's at a rate of something like 14 to 1. So we naturally move towards finding negatives at a rate of 14 to 1 positive, naturally. So it's a discipline for us to focus on the positive and allow that to actually balance out what's happening in our lives.
Speaker 1:Sabbath is a great help for that. So many of us have to learn how to enjoy God. Enjoy God I think a lot of us here would respect God that's a great thing. Want to learn from God, want to obey God? I think that's a wonderful thing. But what about enjoying God? God is good and he wants to bring joy into your life. It's a wonderful thing, even if everything is not perfect.
Speaker 1:Let me read you um this from marva dawn in her book keeping the sabbath holy. There's a lot of talk about self-care in our culture in the west and I think that there's a lot of merit to that. But it's amazing to me how, when I actually stop and celebrate with God, how God's care for me actually can really change my life. So let me read this Observing the Sabbath gives us the opportunity to be as careful as we can to fill our lives with beauty and to share beauty with the world around us. When we observe a day especially set apart for beauty, all the rest of our life is made more beautiful. In a larger sense, the whole practice of Sabbath keeping makes me feel more beautiful as I spend a day reflecting on the character of God. I am overwhelmed by his love for me. As I feast upon his goodness in all of his beautiful forms, I realize more profoundly that I am a special part of his creation and designed especially for his purpose in a unique and beautiful way. As I focus on God, it's like I'm not trying to build my self-esteem. I'm allowing God to come in and show me how valuable I am as part of his love for the whole world. It's a powerful thing to stop and let God love you. This has been my experience over the last five months.
Speaker 1:Someone asked me the other day what has been your biggest takeaway from going through cancer, going through cancer treatment, and I was thinking like it's very obvious. The biggest takeaway that I have is a deep and profound revelation of how much God loves me. That's so simple and I've preached the love of God for many years, but to have it experienced deeply in my own life at a very profound weight when I desperately needed it, it's changed me forever. How much God loves me. It would change the way that I do ministry to other people for sure, because of that profound love. It's a great thing.
Speaker 1:So how can you experience joy in your life? There's three. I know you didn't come to church for for a greek lesson, but let me just share just three words that are all connected in the new testament. That will help you get a little. I think it will join some of the dots together about how joy actually works.
Speaker 1:The first word is the word kadis. It's it's the word we translate grace. Okay, they say this is the most beautiful word in the greek language, like rolls off your tongue. Kardis is, is, uh, it's a, it's a word from god. It's a beautiful um, yeah, just a beautiful concept, okay. The second one is the word kara, which is the word um, joy, okay, that's what we translate as joy. It's the same root word. And then the third word is cut is ma. It's just the word ma on the end of the cutter and that is what we translate as gifting.
Speaker 1:Okay, so you could say your unique contribution to the world, world, that word ma is just thing. So it's just thing of grace, thing of grace meaning the tangible thing of grace, what you can actually see, the outworking of grace. So your unique contribution to the world, which you would say is your gifting, is locked up with your joy. It's held together with your joy and it comes from God's grace. So God's grace flowing into your life, creating joy, and then the outworking is your gift to the world. This is how the concept works. If you want to flourish in life, if you want to have great contribution, joy is a huge part of that. Receiving the grace of God and becoming a more joyful person will actually help your gifting, elevate. It will actually strengthen the way that you contribute to the people around you in a huge way.
Speaker 1:The writers of the New Testament and the early church would paint the picture of these three things in a circle and it going round and round and round. There's old paintings that you can see of three children dancing together with holding hands with three hands, dancing round and round and round. There's old paintings that you can see of three children dancing together with holding hands with three hands, dancing round and round and round. God's grace, god's joy, god's gifting Round and round and round. It's almost like breathe in, let it change me, breathe out. This is the work of God. This is the joyful work of God in your life. Some practical things just to finish, if you want to, of God in your life. Some practical things just to finish.
Speaker 1:If you want to experience joy in your life, you're going to have to slow down for a minute. Hurry and having a joyful life is not really compatible. Being stressed out and being joyful doesn't really work together that well. So if you want to have a joyful time, you're going to have to slow down a little bit. Sabbath will help.
Speaker 1:Number two delight requires us to put boundaries around our day. I won't be able to say yes to everything and keep the Sabbath and cultivate joy in my life. It's very hard to say yes to everything and keep the Sabbath and cultivate joy in my life. It's very hard to say yes to everything. I know that young people were addicted to having options in their lives. It's hard to commit to something because I may miss out on something better. I understand all of that. But if you commit to setting aside time to be with God and to cultivate joy in your life, I really believe that God will maximize the rest of your time that you have. God will maximize your life. He really will. So we'll have to slow down. Number three it will require us to give ourselves over to joy. Give yourself to joy. I love to make Sabbath in our home a really joyful day Like the most fun, the most exciting day that we have in our house is Sabbath.
Speaker 1:Now for us. We have little kids, right, some of them are getting bigger, like 11 to 2 years old. That's our kind of range that we're working with right now. We thought that we'll graduate in nappies, but we're back in the nappies again. Hopefully soon we can graduate. Okay, all the parents know what I'm talking about. So our Sabbath looks a bit like Friday night having the best food that we have on a Friday night. That's what it looks like a party. Our children would describe Sabbath like a party. That's kind of the way they see it. It's party time where we get to celebrate, where we get to talk. There's no phones in our house. We put them away. There's no technology. We're just us together having a party. It's not that complicated. We're newer on that journey. The next day we get up, we go to the park, we kick footballs around, we enjoy ourselves, we might get a coffee. It's a slower, slower morning and then we have lunch together and we sit around the table and we pray for each other.
Speaker 1:Teaching my children how to pray has been a journey. It's often a lot of squirming and squealing, you know, like ants in their pants. You know you can't sit for five minutes and talk. Could sit to sit and watch tv for hours, for sure, but sit and to just, you know, to talk. Uh, it's a new, it's a. It's a challenging one for the kids, um, but every week they're sort of they're getting it a little bit more and it's and it's a way to continually teach and orientate our home around God.
Speaker 1:I love the way that John Mark Comer talks about the way that they do Sabbath in their family. I'm not here yet. This is a challenge, but I love the way that he talks about it. He says that in our home there are special foods we only eat on Sabbath. It's the night we have dessert. More and more we're moving to do Sabbath with other people. Our closest friends come over. I cannot wait for fire, pit weather and a drink and some storytelling, laughing, sharing God with each other, some more laughs. Do you have some people in your life that you can laugh with, some people that you can let down your guard with? I hope that you do.
Speaker 1:Sabbath is not just simply meant to be like I'm doing this by myself and I need to exclude the world, but I think more and more stuff needs to be done in community, together, inviting friends, celebrating together. I love what the South Africans do with the braai, getting the barbecue, getting people around a fire pit. I mean, I'm all in for this. Weather's coming up. It's going to be beautiful, glorious, in Brisbane for about one month. Just enjoy it while you can. Brisbane for about one month. Just enjoy it while you can. It's wonderful to laugh around with friends, to celebrate together, to actually thoughtfully encourage each other about what God's doing in our lives. It's really, really powerful. He goes on to talk about some of the things that they're doing in their life. You may not be there yet. Maybe for you, sabbath is going to be one big meal and it's going to be the best meal of the week and it's going to be a party with no technology and a time to really celebrate and look each other deeply in the eyes, encourage each other and pray for each other. Maybe that's a great place to start, because it's all about celebrating what God's doing in your life. Great place to start if you are new to this. And fourthly, I think this is really important because some of you guys have asked me about this and so I want to answer that Joyful contribution to new creation.
Speaker 1:Is it wrong to serve other people on the Sabbath? Let's ask Jesus, okay, luke 6, verse 6. Now it happened on another Sabbath also that he entered the synagogue and he taught. So Jesus is working on the Sabbath Terrible. And a man was there whose right hand was withered. So the scribes and Pharisees watched him closely whether he would heal on the Sabbath, because they would see that as a bad thing to help somebody on the Sabbath, to serve somebody on the Sabbath. But he knew their thoughts and he said to the man who had a withered hand Arise and stand here. And he rose and stood. And Jesus said to him I ask you one thing Is it lawful on the Sabbath to do good or to do evil, to save life or to destroy it? And when he looked around at them he said to the man stretch out your hand. And he did so and the man's hand was restored as holy as the other. But they were filled with rage and discussed it with one another what they might do with Jesus. Basically, they discussed how they were going to kill Jesus. You could say that part of the reason that Jesus died was because of the way that he did Sabbath. He actually served people on the Sabbath.
Speaker 1:Is there a way that you can joyfully serve other people in a restful way with the heart of Sabbath? I think yes, there is. With the heart of Sabbath, I think, yes, there is, and it was what I was talking about before my joyful contribution towards other people. I don't think serving others should be stressful. We've tried to make Sunday a Sabbath for people, where you're not stressfully serving, where it's really hard work and maybe there's just a couple of people holding it all together and if someone is sick this week then everything falls apart. That sounds like a nightmare. That doesn't sound like a community that we want to build. But we're trying to create a space where most of the people in our church are involved in some way, meaning many hands are making light work In the words of Jesus. Come and make light work.
Speaker 1:That's a wonderful concept and for some of you, your best contribution to our church may not be on a Sunday morning serving coffee. It might be going visiting someone in a hospital or running a play group, or hosting a small group in your house, a community group. It may be in many different ways, but I want to encourage you. If you're not bringing joyful contribution to the community that you're part of, I don to encourage you if you're not bringing joyful contribution to the community that you're part of, I don't think you will stay long term. Because why would you? Your heart naturally follows what you're contributing to. What's your best contribution? I would encourage you to think about that. What's your joyful contribution that you have to bring to a community like this? Bring your heart to it, make it joyful. And if it's not joyful, maybe for some of you you're on that journey. If you don't know what that is yet, that's a wonderful place to be. That's called exploration. Okay, this is a sandbox where you can actually find out what you like doing, where it's okay to try something and then not like it, and then try something else and not like that so much and then try something else. I think I found a place of real joy in serving others. It's a wonderful thing.
Speaker 1:One of the challenges that we have uh, the way that modern church is organized is that children's church is very separate to adults church and it's left in the hands of a few, while the many sit here and it's left in the hands of a few to educate or disciple our children. This is not the future of Future Church. I think we need to really rethink the way that we're doing family ministry in our church into the future, incorporating much more of a village raising children kind of concept, which means that families are a part of raising our children spiritually together. I won't get into all that today, but over the next number of weeks I think we will talk about how we're going to do that, and I think it's going to be an exciting way to take take the load off a few and actually to bring our whole church into the, the place of raising our children together in strength. Okay, um, and that will happen after we upstairs is ready, and that is coming soon. I won't give you any more dates. Okay, I've done that before. I've made that mistake. I'm moving on from that. It will happen soon.
Speaker 1:But let me just encourage you though there is much more inside of you than you would think. You have much more to offer than you can imagine. I really believe that the quietest person here, you have so much inside of you that if you took the risk enough to offer it to the people around us in this community. They would be so blessed by who you are and you would find great joy. Okay, so two questions we're going to finish. What is your best contribution? What is your joyful contribution? What do you have to give? Thank you for the people who are giving financially into this church. That is wonderful and I know this is not not your heart, but let me just say it anyway. Let's just not confuse giving money for offering your life. Okay, let's not confuse those two. You have more than money to give. You have encouragement. You have unique gifts and contributions that you can give. Maybe time for you is actually really precious, so that the small amount of time that you have to give is actually really important. That's a great sacrifice for you. That's a great sacrifice for you. That's a great gift for you to give, even if it's small.
Speaker 1:And then, number two what would a day of delight actually look like? Maybe right now. What would a day of delight look like in your life? And then maybe get a vision of what the future could look like. What about 10 years from now? What would a day if you could re-evaluate your life? You could re-imagine what life would look like in 10 years from now. What would a day of delight actually look like? I've got dreams. Yeah, I have children a little bit older sit around together. Maybe maybe I don't know bringing home a girlfriend, bringing them, including them in to the family like that it's coming. I've got dreams for that. Maybe one day there's going to be grandkids involved in that. Bringing them around together and some of our close friends that we love and life-giving together, part celebrating God every week would look incredible. I have dreams for that.
Speaker 1:So let me just read this one last scripture to you, and we're going to pray and we're going to finish. Okay, this is from the book of Isaiah, chapter 58, verse 13 and 14. If you keep your feet from breaking the Sabbath and from doing as you please on my holy day, if you call the Sabbath a delight and the Lord's holy day honorable, and if you honor it by not going your own way and not doing as you please or speaking idle words, then you will find your joy in the Lord and I will cause you to ride in triumph on the heights of the land and to feast on the inheritance of your father, jacob. For the mouth of the Lord has spoken. Let me pray for you, god. We thank you for that. You are an incredibly joyful God.
Speaker 1:I pray that as we look to you, we would also become more and more joyful. There's some people here who have sorrows that they're carrying in their lives and not to push that down, god, but I pray that today that joy would also come into their life. That joy would be a strength of their life to overcome challenging things that they're facing right now. And I pray, as we embark on this journey of Sabbath together, as we set aside time to rest and to celebrate, that you would work in our hearts, that the Holy Spirit, that your joy would become deeper and deeper, rooted in our lives, that our contribution to those around us would be powerful, significant, would make a difference. We thank you for God in Jesus' name, amen, amen, amen.