Priscilla Shirer shared an unforgettable message at our 25th year Hillsong Conference in 2011 on the importance of taking time to Shabbat and create some margins, that we might be able to experience God’s freedom more fully.

Hillsong Conference is all about championing the cause of the church of Jesus Christ – across every nation, denomination, age and background. It is for people who are passionate about the local church and the call of the kingdom of God. This conference gathers the greater church, inspires fresh vision and hope for the future, and equips every individual to walk out the call of God on their life. It inspires leaders and believers alike to make a difference in their sphere of influence for the kingdom’s cause. It equips the church with God-breathed sessions, practical tools and relational connection.

[Applause]

amen

have you had a good day today

[Applause]

and are you excited about the fact that

even when we’re filled we can be filled

up to overflowing somebody say amen to

that

lord jesus we thank you so much for this

opportunity to be in your presence

lord we are so humbled by the fact that

you would meet with

regular people just like us lord thank

you lord that you know us

and yet you still call us your friends

we pray now that you would speak clearly

to us in jesus name all god’s people

said

amen you may have your seats

it is a privilege to be sharing with you

uh tonight

i wanted to to start out by simply

thanking you all for allowing me to

participate with you and to serve you in

this capacity over this weekend

um it has been a humbling experience for

me this is my first hillsong church

conference i have been

uh to color several times and have been

able to serve

uh bobby in that capacity but this is my

first time

at the church conference i have been

blown away as i am sure you all have as

well and to be able to be a part of your

25th year

i do not take that lightly and am so

thrilled to have had

the opportunity uh to serve these these

people the leadership

team and uh the great body of believers

that god has given them it is a

privilege to be able to partner with

them

in ministry and i’m thrilled to be able

to share with you some

thoughts about a very practical concept

tonight very practical concept one that

matters not only to me but will matter

to you as well and i began to think

about this the lord began to convict

and challenge me regarding this

particular theme

earlier this year it was actually in the

month

of january that dallas texas where i am

from

dallas texas had a snowstorm

now snow is just about as

um something it’s just as expected in

dallas as it is

in sydney australia i mean we just don’t

we just don’t expect snow but over the

past

couple of years we actually have had not

a couple of inches of snow

we have had maybe a foot or more of snow

that has hit the ground and it is

unusual for us we don’t know what to do

with ourselves when there is snow on the

ground

and so this past january february

somewhere in there we were kind of

snowed in

for a week i mean you get a little bit

of snow in dallas everything shuts down

businesses shut down schools are closed

um

the city is just not set up to handle

large amounts of snow and so for about a

week

i was at home with my husband my

three boys we were all kind of cuddled

up together

in the four walls of our home doing

things that you do when your children

are at home

you know making up reasons for them to

take a nap and

you know we had hot chocolate and i’d

let them go run outside in the snow but

we don’t really have lots of good

clothing for that so they’d run out in

their jeans and tennis shoes they’d get

soaking wet in 10 minutes

so i’d let them come back in throw all

their clothes in the dryer give them

some hot chocolate and then put those

warm clothes back on them and throw them

outside again

and so it was fun i enjoyed those days

playing all the board games that you

have forgotten are in your closet and

spending time just kind of talking to

each other and

and hanging out together and i enjoyed

those days but

towards the end of that week

i ran across a news article

and the news article headlines said this

dallas fort worth stricken

with cabin fever they then had some

quotes of people that live in the dallas

fort worth

area that had been closed into their

homes just like i had been here

here were some of the quotes from some

people snow

ice single digit temperatures

could the plague of locusts be far

behind

someone else said no school again

tomorrow i think i’m gonna go nuts being

stuck in this house

somebody else said this has ruined what

was going to be a very fantastic week

and it’s made me used up use up two of

my holidays from my job

somebody else said well isn’t this just

great

all the electricity on my block just

went out great

so now you can add trapped at home with

no electricity to the list

fantastic dallas fort worth

stricken with cabin fever and at the

time

of this kind of snow end that we had all

the ice that was lacing the roadways

it was the exact same time as our super

bowl it is the

the pinnacle event of sports in the

states in the national football league

and two

of the uh the the teams from the more

northern states in our in our country

they were playing against each other but

dallas in the south

was hosting was hosting the super bowl

this past year and

and the snow came right about the time

that we were hosting the super bowl and

normally we get snow in the north of the

states but not in the south where we are

and so someone said dear god

i am not sure what we’ve done wrong here

in dallas

maybe we shouldn’t have hosted the super

bowl i’m not sure but

would you please forgive everybody and

bring back our friend the son we promise

never to host those northerners again

[Applause]

i mean you would think

that being made to stay home for a

little while might be a gift

you would think that being made to rest

and relax

would be something that people might

delight in i mean you would think that a

break that is forced upon you would be

something

that would be to enjoy with your family

with your friends

just having some time to be still but

but from

the headlines of that article it

occurred to me that sometimes when we

have

an opportunity to rest to take a load

off to have some breathing space in our

room to have a little margin

outlining our lives that we feel

according to the news article

stricken by that have we become

so addicted to stress that we don’t even

know how to enjoy rest anymore

have we made an idol out of our

exhaustion

do we feel like unless we are completely

spent and completely worn out that

that we have not uh done everything that

needs to be done

and be accomplished and and as i was

thinking about this in my own life i

thought about

how how often times the enemy comes

against us

in ways that we are expecting there are

things that maybe we’ve put up guards

against because we

we know that the enemy is crafty and may

come against us in that specific area

but could it be that this

area causing us to spin our wheels

endlessly to be exhausted to not enjoy

the rest that god has come to give us

could it be

that that’s a way that our crafty enemy

is deceiving us

and cheating us out of the abundant life

that god has come to give us

do you know jerry and i live in a fairly

uh rural

area of dallas uh we moved

from a neighborhood where there’s uh you

know concrete

pavements and uh houses that are right

next door to each other we moved

out a little further south so that we

could live on a little bit more

more property not much but a little bit

more and

i needed these three boys to be able to

run around and play all day long because

you know that when the children are out

of school you were praying for bedtime

every day you’re just

trying to fill up the hours until

bedtime and so

we we live on a little plot of land

where they can run around and play and

really enjoy

being outside as boys should and

and and in this little rural plot of

area

of ground where we live we have put up

some pretty specific guards

against little critters that are out

there most notably

snakes now i’ve got to tell you i’ve

actually been there three years now

we’ve not

seen one ourselves but um we have heard

from the neighbors that live there that

they’re they’re nearby you need to have

precautions so

i’ve said to my boys you know if you

can’t see your feet walking somewhere

then don’t go there if the grass is tall

don’t wade through any tall grass um you

know we we don’t leave our garage door

up for long long

long periods of time because we don’t

want them to think that they’re welcome

and can come on in and make themselves

at home

you know we just put up a few

precautions here and there i’ve been

aware of the fact in this fairly rural

area

this new area where i live i’m aware of

the fact that that it’s possible

that snakes could be around and so i put

up safeguards

because i’m expecting them there which

is why

when my husband called me one day i was

very shocked to see him

with this picture

now you need to know that when my

husband sent me this picture

he was not sending me a picture of a

snake he had found and

killed at our home he was sending me a

picture of a snake

that he had found and and he’d had to

kill that was at our previous home that

was right in the middle of a concrete

jungle right in the middle of a

neighborhood

the last place that we would have

anticipated or looked for

or stood guard against a snake

and it occurs to me that this is exactly

the way the enemy is

because in one area of our life we are

putting up safeguards we are protecting

we are

we are expecting him to come so we are

preparing ourselves and

all the while the snake is coming in the

other direction

the snake is coming in another way to

deceive us

and to cheat us out of what it is that

he has for us

and i wonder if this is part of the way

he’s doing it because

we think often times about the sins in

our lives the hindrances the bad habits

the ungodly proclivities the things that

we’re

used to considering when we talk about

being enslaved

to things in our life but could it be

we’ve become enslaved

even to the things that god has given us

to enjoy

even the things that are lawful for us

the things that he has given us the

privilege to experience in our lives

maybe we’ve even become

enslaved to those and he doesn’t want us

to just be free from the sins and the

hindrances and the ungodly

proclivities in our life he wants us to

be free from any and everything that

would seek to steal

our attention or our devotion away from

where it really belongs and that’s to

him

there is nothing not even a good thing

that should hold our allegiance more

than our relationship with jesus christ

and so i think about all the things that

we overdo

all the things that we have an incessant

compulsion to continue long after maybe

we shouldn’t

it’s in the airport with jerry um a

couple months ago we were on our way

somewhere and he was walking over to

starbucks to get a drink and he said hey

would you like something and i

thought for a second and say uh yeah

sure i guess so

he said priscilla you do know you don’t

have to get something right

oh yeah you’re right why is it that i

felt compelled to get

something that maybe i really didn’t

even have a taste for right then

maybe for you it’s not coffee maybe it’s

food you just

can’t seem to stop

maybe for you it’s not either of those

things maybe it’s your your

uh busyness in your ministry or on your

job you just

are filling up every single moment on

your calendar with incessant activity

and continued activity and before you

know what you have sacrificed your

family

for that job or for that ministry could

it be that it’s not your time

that you’ve overdone it with the

activities that fill up your calendar

could it be

that it might be the space in your home

you keep accumulating and accumulating

and accumulating

and this home that god has given you to

enjoy the office space that god has

given you to enjoy

you can barely enjoy it anymore because

it is so crammed with all the clutter

that you keep on accumulating could it

be that often we become

enslaved to the very things that god has

given us to enjoy

and so what god does is put boundaries

around even the things that he has given

us to

enjoy he puts boundaries around them and

we’d rather not have the boundaries we’d

rather have

the freedom to do exactly what we want

to do when we want to do it the way we

want to do it we don’t appreciate

boundaries but what we don’t realize

is that without the boundaries we will

in our human proclivities

we will become enslaved again

even though he died to free us not only

from sin

but from anything that would seek to

steal our devotion away from him

i think of a fire we appreciate a fire

because it gives warmth to us it helps

us prepare

things that need to be prepared we

appreciate the beauty of a fire

on a cold day as long as that fire is in

the fireplace

because that fire outside of the

boundaries in which it needs to be

contained

that same fire that is to be enjoyed

will cause destruction

and disaster and calamity

and so boundaries are to be appreciated

and there is a boundary

that the lord set in place way back in

the old testament and that

continues to be a model for us in our

lives today and i want to challenge you

with this tonight

with this very practical concept the

story

revolves around the central characters

in this story are

the children of israel the children of

israel were enslaved

in egypt for 400 years approximately 400

years

and as slaves in egypt to pharaoh

they had been trained in busyness

they had been trained in incessant

activity

they were made to toil rigorously and

they were made to toil

constantly their work was not

was was unending it was unrelenting they

had

vigorous activity that they were

involved in

consistently and yet after 10 miraculous

plagues and

a stunning deliverance by god out of

of egypt and into the wilderness on

their way to canaan

god did for them exactly what he did

does for us

he set them free they were in bondage

they were shackled

they had a mandatory allegiance to

another

entity other than yahweh and he set them

free but there’s a problem

because when you’ve been born in slavery

when you’ve been raised in slavery when

you’ve been trained in the way of a

slave

your mindset has been molded into that

of a slave

and what he did not want were slaves

that he had made free

and that physically were free legally

were free

but still wanted to go back to egypt in

their hearts

what he wanted were people whose hearts

and whose minds

had been changed and transformed

into the free people that he had given

them the opportunity to be

and so he wanted to do more than just

free them from egypt

he wanted them to walk like free men and

women

and listen he doesn’t want us just to be

free

from the bondage of sin in our lives he

wants us to know what it feels like to

walk as free men and women

to experience the freedom that he has

come to give galatians 5 1 he says

it is for freedom that i have set you

free therefore would you

stand firm and not be subject to a yoke

of slavery ever

again it’s for freedom that he has set

us free

and these people whose value had been

determined

based on how hard they could work how

much they could produce

these people had to be retrained

refocused

in their mindset so that they could be

the free people that god had called them

to be yes they were out of egypt but now

yahweh needed to work

egypt out of them and one of the ways

that he was going to do this was by

putting

a boundary around even the things he had

given them to enjoy

and we see this boundary in deuteronomy

chapter 5. in deuteronomy chapter 5

beginning in verse 12 he says

observe the sabbath day and keep it holy

as the lord your god has commanded you

six days

you shall labor and do all your work

but on the seventh seventh day is the

sabbath

of the lord your god in it you shall

not do any work verse 15

and you shall remember that you were a

slave in the land of egypt

and the lord your god brought you out of

there with a mighty hand

and by an outstretched arm therefore the

lord

your god commanded you to observe

the sabbath day there it is the sabbath

day

god had gone out of his way to give

gifts to his newly freed

people he had given them manna from the

heavens he had given them quail when

they had gotten tired of the manna he

had given them water

from a rock when they were thirsty he

made sure to

put shoes on their feet that would not

wear out in their 40 years of wandering

he

wanted to give them good gifts and there

was another gift that at the time

they would not have considered to be a

gift and it was the sabbath day

it was the gift of a boundary a margin

that he was placing around the good

gifts that he had given them

it was one day out of every seven days

that he told them

that they were not to work that they

were to have a

rest the sabbath day was a gift it was a

privilege

it was a benefit that that was given to

god’s people these people

knew nothing of resting of having an

opportunity to just

enjoy the fruit of their labor and by

the time the jewish leaders of the new

testament came along

there were more rules and regulations

and details and meticulous specifics

attached to this law of the sabbath than

any mere human could carry out

no one looked forward to this this idea

of the sabbath day because it became a

burden when in the beginning

it was a gift that was given by god to

his people

few people treasured this gift this

refreshing respite

that this law was originally intended to

to give to god’s people but in its

original meaning and application

the implication for us is absolutely

staggering

it was a margin that was given so that

the gifts that god gave to his people

could be

rightfully enjoyed and so the children

of israel were given

the sabbath day i want you to think

about this concept as we talk about it

for just a few moments in the scriptures

i want you to think about this not so

much as a day but a

principle or an attitude the sabbath

attitude the sabbath principle

that word in the original language is

shabbat and it means

to cease to stop to pause

it means to take a deep breath it means

to have some breathing room it means to

have some margin in your life it is

an attitude a principle not necessarily

a day don’t think of it that way

for you and i we need to think of it as

a an attitude that we take into

our everyday uh living and i want you to

think about this not only with your time

the way you spend your time on your

ministry in your job

in that activity in which you’re

involved i want you to think about this

in regards to your space do you have any

breathing room do you have any margin

in the space you work in in the space

that you live in

gordon mcdonald is an incredible

expositor of god’s word he says this

i’m of the opinion that busyness is a

deeper threat to the soul than

pornography ever was

and so this principle of the sabbath

it was a gift and i want to share with

you three things

that from this passage will help you and

i to remember the

the beauty the the power

of the sabbath day and the way it can

transform our life in this

simple passage we get to see how

the sabbath day is to be implemented or

the sabbath principle the sabbath

attitude

is to be implemented in the lives of

people who have been given the stamp of

freedom on their lives

the first thing that god says to us to

the children of israel and by the holy

spirit’s power to us

deuteronomy chapter 5 verse 14 he says

in the

beginning of that verse but the seventh

day is the sabbath to the lord your god

and

in it you shall not do any work

i can just see the stunned look the

stunned expression on the face of the

hebrew

children as they are being told by god

you shall

not do any work they had never heard

these words before in regards to them i

can just

i can just see them their their skin

burned

from the scorching egyptian sun their

eyes glazed over from lack of sleep and

nutrients they’re continuous

24 7 365 days a year

calendar where they had to work to build

store houses

for their their slave drivers their

slave master

pharaoh and the task masters that he set

over them they knew nothing of rest

and in that polytheistic culture that is

a culture

where there are many gods that have to

be appeased

not only did they have to work and toil

to please their earthly master

but in order to stay on on a good note

in order to stay on the good side of all

those gods they had to go

out of their way to appease all the gods

working

incessantly to make sure that they had

worked enough to cover for their sins

but now god

yahweh was taking this people and

transforming them

from a people who had a polytheistic

mentality

who felt like their valley value was

placed on their amount of productivity

he was taking them out of that lifestyle

and he wanted to transform them into a

nation

god’s own people his beloved chosen ones

and he says in order for you to fully

realize what it means to be

a child of god i need you to know that

you’ve got to resist the urge to

continue

you’ve got to resist the urge to

continue

with incessant activity as you’ve been

used to doing in slavery

you’ve got to know when to cease to come

to an end to pause

he says on that seventh day you shall

not work listen if you’ve been trying to

find a bible verse that your teenager

will memorize this is probably the one

you shall not work they’ll get that one

they’ll get that one but it is not a

golden ticket for laziness

it is not a ticket for slothfulness

because this principle

this day in this time the seventh day

that was given by god

to the children of israel it was given

to them after verse 13 verse 13

says day one through six you ought to do

your work

it’s just the seventh day that you ought

to have as a margin

around the work that you were doing and

so it is not a ticket to laziness

it means ceasing from the normal

activity of your day

in order to have time for the things you

would not normally spend

time doing it doesn’t mean to do nothing

it means to stop doing the stuff that

normally consumes your time

the stuff that you have a compulsion to

keep doing

to stop doing that to discipline

yourself

to stop doing what you normally do day

one through six

so that on day seven you can concentrate

and spend time doing the things you do

not normally do

i’m thinking about the fact that in this

conference here you and i have been

given this incredible privilege

to sit underneath the anointed teaching

of god’s word from so many gifted folks

who have

taken this platform and who have shared

with you and i uh the great news of

god’s word and

the worship that we have been able to

participate in that has

been led from this platform what a great

opportunity for us to shabbat

and yet some of us are barely able to

stand the fact

that we have to stop cease checking our

facebook status

or checking our twitter links or

checking our email or continuing to do

the things we would normally do

and fully invest in this opportunity we

have

to see striving to be still and know

that he is indeed god

and so i want to ask you what is

compelling you what is luring you

what is that thing that you are just

compelled to keep on doing

the principle of the sabbath teaches us

to resist

the urge to continue that at some point

when you sense the holy spirit saying

enough is enough you’ve got to be

willing to say okay

i’m going to shabbat i’m going to take a

breather so that i can enjoy what it is

that god has already done

somebody’s got to know when to stop they

have to know i have to know

when we’ve worked enough when we’ve

tried enough

when we’ve gathered enough when we

purchased enough when we’ve said

enough when we’ve stored enough when

we’ve kept enough

when we’ve created enough when we’ve

produced enough when we’ve generated

enough when we’ve consumed enough

when we’ve labored enough when we’ve

expended enough when we’ve spent

enough somebody’s got to know when to

say enough

is enough look at your neighbor and say

enough is enough

enough is enough

this principle

this principle is so very clearly

demonstrated for us in the book of

exodus and

and i’m going to hop over to exodus uh

quickly because i want you to see this

are y’all still with me did i lose you

i want you to see this principle really

briefly there are two other points i

want to share with you but i want you to

see this principle

because in exodus 16 it is the very

first time that this is mentioned

the very first time that this principle

other than the creation story which i

want to show you something about that in

a moment but other than the creation

story

this is the first time this is

introduced to the children of israel

okay

they are giving gifts by god remember

they are given many gifts one of them is

manna straight from the heavens and they

are given a boundary

around this gift that god has given them

to enjoy they are given a boundary

and so it says in exodus chapter 16

verse 25 and 26 moses says to them and

this is the sabbath day that moses is

speaking it’s the seventh day

he says eat it today for today is the

sabbath day to the lord

today you will not find any in the field

six days you shall gather but on the

seventh day

there will be none he says to them

implicitly don’t even worry about

gathering on the seventh day

you are going to be wasting your time to

go out into the field

and gather manna on the seventh day days

one through six and pastor jensen

alluded to this last night

but day one through six they were to

leave their tents they were to go

out into the field they were to gather

manna but on the seventh day moses says

don’t even don’t even

get out of your pajamas on the seventh

day and go into the field

because i’m telling you right now you’re

not going to find any but the children

of israel are so much like

us because it says that they went

out anyway verse 27

and lo and behold what did they find

nothing

one of the ways that you can know that

you have stepped over into the seventh

day in your life one of the ways you

could know that you are

infringing upon the sabbath territory

that the lord would have you mark out in

your life so that you can

not have every margin of your time and

every margin of your space

filled to capacity one of the ways you

can know is if you’re gathering if

you’re trying if you’re working and yet

you

find that you have nothing to show for

your efforts there have been so many

times in my life in my

writing for example when i’m sitting in

front of the computer on days one and

day two and day three

and i’m doing what it is that needs to

be done and i feel like i’m being

productive but then there’s a time when

the holy spirit i just sense

a holy hush just i need to stop for a

while i need to concentrate on something

else i need to

be with my boys i need to be a wife to

my man i need to

cook something for dinner for goodness

sake

and i can either keep on working through

that because i got to get this done i

got to get this done but most of the

time i know when i’ve stepped over into

the seventh day

because i’m sitting in front of the

computer and can’t get one creative

thought

on the page anybody ever had anything

like that ever happened

and one of the ways we can know that

we’ve infringed on the seventh day

is when we’ve not resisted the urge to

continue and we have gone out to the

field and we can see

that we’re not gathering anything

nothing’s happening

do you know the late great michael

jackson there have been so many

documentaries done on this man it’s

unbelievable but one in particular i

remember

they were doing a a biography

on the making of the billie jean video

you remember billie jean don’t you

y’all don’t try to act holy y’all

remember billie jean right

okay so billie jean in the video michael

jackson

is walking on this pavement and he’s

dancing all over the place and every

time he walks down this path

every step he takes the square on the

pavement lights up anybody remember this

so he’s walking up and down the path and

the square lights up and the director of

this

particular video is being interviewed

and he says

tell us they asked him tell us about the

making of the video and he said you know

what

when he was walking down that path i had

to pull michael over to the side and say

listen michael

you are talented you can dance your way

all over this path

we all know that you are one of the most

incredible dancers to ever grace the

face of the face of the earth but let me

tell you something

i have already gone before you as the

director of this video

and i have pre-lit certain squares on

this path

i don’t care how much capability you

have how great a dancer you are

if you want this video to work if you

want the squares to light up on the path

then i’m going to need you to corral

all your abilities and make sure that

you step on the squares that i have

already put a light under

here’s what the scriptures say he says

he has already prepared good works

beforehand

so that you and i can just walk in them

and some of the reason why oftentimes

we find ourselves i find myself spinning

our wheels is because we are in our own

gifts and talents and abilities

are dancing all over the place instead

of just walking on the squares

he has called us to walk on

and if you want to see your path light

up my friend

then you might as well go ahead and

stick with day one through six

and when you feel the prompting of god’s

spirit to stop

to resist the urge to continue to resist

the urge to continue

doing that project continuing in that

activity accumulating those things

resist the urge to continue and when you

and i

follow along with the path that he has

set up that’s when we’ll see the squares

lighting up

and we’ll get to see his work most fully

completed in

our lives the second thing that i love

from the deuteronomy passage

not only does he say to us that we need

to resist

the urge to continue but in verse 15 he

says

and you shall remember that you were a

slave in the land of egypt i love this

so much because

in this verse there is a direct

connection between their previous

slavery

and this current command to obey the

sabbath

there is an obvious connection in this

one verse we see the slavery aspect

their past tense slavery and their

present tense command

to obey the sabbath day i love this he

says to them

i want you to remember the fact that you

used to be a slave

i want you to recall the fact that you

used to be in slavery

you had no choice but to continue you

had to keep on going against

what you really truly desired i want you

to remember what slavery felt like

remember what it felt like when there

were shackles on your wrists and

shackles on your ankles

remember what it felt like when you were

under compulsion to participate

in things that you really did not want

to participate in and i wonder if there

are anybody

in the room and you’ve ever been

enslaved before you know what it feels

like

to be shackled to that addiction to be

shackled to that habit

to be shackled to that lifestyle choice

to be shackled to that inclination or

that proclivity

and you just felt like you could never

break free from that relationship you

could never break free from that

activity

you would never taste what freedom is

like again

he says would you remember what it’s

like to be a slave

remember what it felt like when you just

felt like your allegiance was to that

thing and you could not break free from

that

i bet if we pass the microphone around

in here today we would have some

testimony of some people

who used to be a slave but now they know

what freedom looks like

they know what freedom tastes like they

know what it’s like to have the holy

spirit set them free from the law of sin

and death

i don’t know about you but i’m grateful

for the fact that he snatched me out of

darkness and threw me into his marvelous

light

i am grateful for the fact that i once

knew slavery but now i am a free woman

of god

who can declare freedom to god’s people

he says would you remember what slavery

was like

you are not to feel that way ever again

not only to a sin or a hindrance but

even to the stuff in your life he’s

lawfully given you to enjoy you and i

are not to be enslaved to those things

we are not to have a compulsion or an

allegiance

even to the things that he has

rightfully given us to enjoy

he says remember that you used to be a

slave

but you are not a slave anymore in the

united states

the emancipation proclamation was

declared over our country in 1865

african slaves on american soil were set

free once and for all

and you would expect that they would

have immediately packed their bags

and and left their masters as quickly as

they possibly could

but you might be surprised to find out

that there was a fairly large

constituency of slaves

that chose to stay in slavery because

they felt that

slavery was better off for them than the

riskiness of living as free men and

women

they chose to stay in slavery when they

had the opportunity to be free

god forbid he gave his son on the cross

of calvary

that he shed his blood for our sins that

he paid such a high price

so that you and i might be free and yet

we willingly choose to be enslaved again

to the things that he spent so much to

free us from

he says would you remember what it was

like to be enslaved

remember what that used to feel like

first corinthians 6

11 but such were some of you

but now you’ve been washed you’ve been

justified

you’ve been sanctified in the name of

the lord jesus christ second corinthians

5

17 old things they are passed away

behold all things they have become brand

new

and the children of israel in slavery

whenever they would have been given a

little

food to eat they would have done what

slaves do the slave mentality would have

done

they would have kept every morsel that

they could have kept they didn’t

waste anything or throw extras away they

would have put it in their pockets they

would have

hung on to it because they needed to

they were living in

fear of deprivation and so they would

hang on to everything

that was given to them slaves hard

but free people give slaves live

fearfully

but free people live lovingly slaves

they live with closed fists but free

people

they live with open palms slaves they

live from a posture of lack

but free people they live from a posture

of abundance

slaves they live from a position of

deficiency but free people

live from a place of holy expectations

slaves

always think they don’t have enough free

people believe that whatever they don’t

have

god will graciously and miraculously

provide in his abundant timing slaves

keep on going

and going slaves keep on gathering and

gathering

slaves keep on operating but free people

can discipline themselves to stop

knowing that if they take care of day

one through six god will step in and

take care of day seven

he says remember what it was like to be

a slave all that hoarding you don’t have

to do that anymore

filling in every space of your day and

like you don’t have to you don’t have to

be enslaved like that anymore

he died so that you and i might be free

and in exodus 16

says that when they gathered there was

not only the stipulation of the seventh

day

that was imposed upon them but it also

he said to them pastor jensen alluded to

this last night

he said to them listen when you gather

don’t hold

don’t hold on to stuff until the next

morning do not do it it will become

infected and infested with worms in

other words it will be completely

distasteful to you it will be useless

it will become foul interestingly enough

in the original language the word there

that is used to describe fowl

is the exact same word used to describe

egypt

when uh the nile became distasteful

during one of those plagues

when the frogs caused a distasteful uh

scent and a foul aroma to infest egypt

that is the exact same word used to

describe what happened in egypt it’s

amazing

how when you and i don’t be obedient to

god when we gather beyond what it is

that god has told us to gather

that we begin experiencing the same

things that are experienced by people

who

do not believe in god who are pagans

and you and i have been called to an

entirely different standard there should

not be

uh similarities in what we are

experiencing in this regard

and so the children of israel they are

to remember that they used to be slaves

but they are no longer enslaved and when

they hoarded

it says that worms infested it and it

became distasteful to them and i wonder

if your job has become distasteful to

you

i wonder if your ministry is starting to

drive you crazy

i wonder if you look at your calendar

and it gives you a headache just

looking at the calendar i wonder if you

walk into your office space and you can

barely stand it because you can’t see

the top of your desk it’s covered with

all your stuff

i wonder if you walk into your closet

sisters

and you can’t actually enjoy anything

you have because there’s too much there

i wonder brothers most notably my

husband

if

i just wonder brothers it is just so

much technology if every new

technological device has been gathered

so that you’ve got so much of everything

you can’t really enjoy

one thing and what happens to us

is that our homes that we’ve been given

to enjoy they become distasteful to us

foul cluttered it’s just too much stuff

everywhere

the jobs that god has given us to to

enjoy we just can’t even enjoy them

because

it’s crammed packed and so things that

we’ve been given to enjoy they become

distasteful to us the sabbath principle

is a guard

against that finally he says to us

in deuteronomy not only are you supposed

to resist the urge to continue not only

are you supposed to remember what you

used to be

but then he says verse 16 he says

remember

that the lord your god brought you out

of there by a mighty outstretched arm i

love this

he says you resist the urge to continue

you remember

that you used to be a slave remember

what you used to be

and then he says you recall what god has

accomplished on your behalf

this is what the sabbath is all about

it’s about recalling what god

has accomplished on your behalf it is

about gathering on day one through six

but then standing on the seventh margin

of your life

standing in agreement with god that what

he gave you was good

that day one through six was good that

he accomplished a lot

it is the celebration of god’s activity

in your life it is taking time

to cease to pause to shabbat and thank

god for what he has already accomplished

do you know the first time that this is

mentioned and i want to show you this so

quickly but it’s so important

the first time this concept is mentioned

and there is a principle in theology

called the law of first mention

that means anytime you are trying to

really find the root meaning of

something in the scriptures if you can

trace it back to the first time it was

mentioned

you will probably find the details

around that particular theme or that

idea or that principle

the first time it is mentioned is in the

book of genesis

and this is so interesting because when

i look at the creation story

i have just seen the creation story

story as a linear pattern of events i

didn’t see any rhyme or reason

or order to why god created something on

day one and then something else on day

two and something else on day three i

just thought

it was one day after the other and so

when we see the creation story

it looks a little something like this on

day one he created day

and night on day two he created the

heavens

and the earth day three land and

vegetation day four

the sun and the moon day five birds and

fish and then the first

part of day six he created land animals

the second half of day six he created

man and woman

and then on the seventh day god took the

sabbath

now i’ve not seen it for any more than

that that he worked for six days or he

spoke the word

and called things into his existence and

then on the seventh day

he rested but a scholar by the name of

sandra richter helped me to see

something very

interesting that if you divide this week

into two different halves day one

through three

and day four through six you see that

there is an order

there is a pattern he was very

deliberate into how he

uh structured the creation of the earth

and it speaks to us in regards to the

sabbath

look at the correlation between day one

and four

on day one he created the day and night

on day four he created the sun and the

moon the

the inhabitants for the habitation that

he created on the first part of the week

on day two he created the heavens and

the oceans

on day five the second day of the second

half of the week

he created the birds that were to take

domain that were to fill

that were to inhabit the heavens and the

oceans the birds and the fish

on day three he created land and

vegetation and on day six the beginning

part of the day

he created the animals they were to fill

to dominate to

inhabit the habitation do you see the

order here

do you see the pattern that the first

half of the week he created a domain

the second half of the week the

correlating days he created the

inhabitants that were to rule over

or take domain so when he comes along in

the second half of six

the sixth day and he creates man and

woman he is

sticking with the order the structure

the hierarchy that he’s already set up

he is saying now man is supposed to

stand in dominion

over all of it in fact he said to man

i’m gonna bless you in this regard

i want you to take control to take

sovereign dominion over that which i

have created

and so when jesus when uh god comes on

day seven yahweh

and he stands in the seventh day

it is not just the seventh day because

he needed a break my friends he did not

need a break he hadn’t done anything but

spoken and it was done

and not only was it done it was good

he stands in the seventh day as a

statement

of his overriding sovereignty

control dominion over all that has been

created

and it was this that adam rebelled

against

he rebelled against the principle of the

sabbath day in his life

he rebelled against the sovereignty of

god do you realize

that when we delete the sabbath day from

our life

when we delete the sabbath margin the

sabbath principle the breathing room out

of our life

what we are saying is god i’m in the

position of sovereign in my life

i am in the position of the one that is

in control in my life and the problem

with taking control my friends

is that if you’re gonna own it then you

have to have the chops to maintain it

adam couldn’t maintain it and neither

can you and i

and when you and i take the sabbath day

it means we are standing in that space

with god and saying god i admit

you’re in charge and i am not god i

admit in this seventh day margin in my

life this principle

i’m adopting this principle in my life

lord because i want to stand yahweh with

you and look at what you’ve done in day

one through six in my life and say yeah

that was good

and i realized that it’s not my hands

that created it i

recall what you have done i recall what

you have already

accomplished on my behalf and so he said

to the children of israel

and he said says to us today by the

power of the holy spirit

would you remember the sabbath day

and keep it holy remember this principle

in your life that you and i

are not to be exhausted overwhelmed

overworked feeling like we are

completely frustrated with our lives

from beginning to end you and i

have been called according to john

chapter 10 verse 10

to have life and to have life more

abundantly to have

life to the full and you and i get that

privilege when we accept

appreciate and stand in the boundaries

that god has given not only you but me

as well in our ministries

and our families on our jobs in our

homes

in our office spaces where we work where

we play where we live when we have that

boundaries my friend

we get to stand in a space of enjoyment

of the lives and the ministries and the

businesses that god has given us to

enjoy

and so i want to challenge you tonight i

want to challenge you

the seventh day one day a week

amounts to 14 of a week

14 of a week one day i just want to take

that

number 14 and challenge you

14. i want to challenge you

to begin to carve out 14 minutes

every day just to shabbat

that is to cease doing what you’re

normally compelled to do whatever you

check

whatever you’re looking at whatever

you’re participating in

to just pick one thing that you’re going

to shabbat you’re going to stop you’re

going to stop writing you’re going to

stop working you’re going to stop

concentrating on that particular thing

you’re going to

cease doing the normal activity so that

you have time for the abnormal to just

spend time with your child to spend time

with your spouse to spend time

doing that activity that you never get

to enjoy just to not feel guilty because

every moment on your calendar is filled

up just to shabbat

14 minutes a day i bet you’re going to

be surprised by two things you’re going

to be surprised

number one how refreshed you can feel

from 14 minutes and you’re also going to

be surprised how difficult it is for you

to find those 14 minutes

but then i not only want to challenge

you with 14 minutes i want to challenge

you with 14

inches in your space your living space

your closet your desk whatever it is you

want to tackle first

but once a week for a little while why

don’t you just find 14

inches of space and shabbat

create some margin some breathing room

and i wonder if you and i begin in these

small

incremental ways to incorporate this

principle in our lives

how we might begin to experience the

freedom fully

and completely that god has come to give

i want you to bow your heads with me

and i want to pray for those of you that

have found yourselves bound in some way

in this

area of your life it’s not necessarily a

sin it’s not necessarily a hindrance

it’s not necessarily something um that

is ungodly

in nature by itself it’s just that you

have become

you have overdone it in an area of your

life you have found

you have found that you are expending

way too much time or energy on effort on

something

that is taking you away from what god

would declare should be the priority

in your life right now your family your

friends your mate

you are sacrificing important things on

the back of things that

aren’t supposed to be the the priority

in your life and

i want to pray for freedom for you if

that is what it is that you

sense god’s spirit saying to you would

you just raise your hand and hold your

hand up and i want to pray

for you lord jesus right now in jesus

name i pray for those whose hands are

raised who are declaring and who are

saying

confessing lord that they need to

implement the

the sabbath margin in their life i pray

that you would give them a holy boldness

and a holy courage lord so that they

might be willing to do

and put in place the measures that need

to be put in place so that they can

experience the joy of the gifts that you

have given them to enjoy

lord i pray that you would help us all

to

appreciate this concept of the sabbath

margin lord

help us to realize that you’ve set us

free so that we can really experience

freedom

in every area of our life lord we are

fully expecting

fully anticipating the good gifts that

you will give

and the full appreciation of them that

we’ll be able to have

because of the great gift of the sabbath

that you have given

in jesus name all god’s people said

amen