Tuesday Short: Take This Sabbath Day

In this episode, Garrett discusses the topic of working on the Sabbath as a Christian agent. He shares some scriptures that talk about the Sabbath and provides his personal practice and rule of thumb. Garrett emphasizes the importance of discernment and conviction in deciding how to handle the Sabbath day of rest. He encourages agents to prioritize rest, trust in the Lord's provision, and be intentional about fellowship with family and church community.

Takeaways

• The Sabbath is a day of rest and should be prioritized by Christian agents.
• It is important to have discernment and conviction in deciding how to handle the Sabbath day of rest.
• Trusting in the Lord's provision and obeying His commandments is key in honoring the Sabbath.
• Taking a day of rest allows agents to recharge and be intentional about fellowship with family and church community.

Chapters

00:00
Introduction and Background

02:12
The Question of Working on the Sabbath

05:21
Garrett's Personal Practice and Rule of Thumb

07:38
Trusting in the Lord's Provision

09:05
The Goal: Sunday as a Day of Rest

10:55
Encouragement to Practice Rest and Fellowship

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Transcript

0:01

What is up, everybody? Welcome back to another Tuesday short episode of the Faithful Agent Podcast. I'm glad that you're here today. We're going to be talking about should we work on the Sabbath? This question was brought up by someone in our community, not but maybe a few weeks ago. So if you're not part of the Faithful Agent Facebook communities, go to Facebook.com and search Faithful Agent. and you'll find us there. You can see all that's going on. If you're not part of a local group, go to faithfulagent .com and click on local groups where you can gather with believers locally in your area to be encouraged and grow with one another. And if you don't have a local group, you can start one. We'd love to connect with you about that. And as always, if this podcast has been beneficial or encouraging to you, it would greatly encourage us to continue to go. And quite honestly, what is a labor of love? If you would rate and review, if you would send it to a friend, if you'd leave us a five star review, maybe throw a couple words in there, just encourage us with whatever has been most important and valuable to you. We would greatly appreciate it. And I assume it's the jokes, but you know, maybe it's the content that we hope is actually an encouragement to you. So we are going to talk about the Sabbath today. This will be a quick episode. Again, it's a Tuesday short episode, but let me start with the chat. GPT short Christian story. A pastor was leading a group of children in a Sunday school class, and he wanted to teach them about the importance of listening to God. He asked, can anyone tell me what we need to do before we can hear God's voice? A little boy eagerly raised his hand and answered, we need to be very quiet. That's right, said the pastor, and why do we need to be very quiet? Before the pastor could explain, a little girl chimed in, because if you're noisy, the donkey won't talk. The pastor, puzzled, asked, what do you mean by that? The girl replied, well, in the Bible, when Balaam was noisy and not listening, the docky talked to him. So if we are noisy, the docky might start talking and we won't hear God. The whole class burst into laughter and the pastor couldn't help but smile. He realized that sometimes even the funniest misunderstandings can lead to important lessons. Again, I mean, I don't know. That's just fast forward through that. Guess it's too late. Anyways, let's talk about the Sabbath, because this is the question. that was asked was relating to do we as Christian agents, do we work on the Sabbath on a Sunday or do we not work on the Sabbath? So a couple of scriptures just to give us a quick background. In the Exodus 20 verses 8 to 11 it says, six days you shall labor and do all your work, but the seventh day is a Sabbath to the Lord your God. on it, you shall not do any work. Neither you nor your son or daughter nor your male or female servant nor your animals nor any foreigner residing in your towns." Then when Jesus comes in the New Testament, Mark 2, he says, the Sabbath was made for man and not man for the Sabbath. And then in Matthew 12, Jesus' friends were getting criticized by religious leaders for picking corn on the Sabbath. So Jesus says, if any of you has a sheep, and it falls into a pit on the Sabbath, will you not take hold of it and lift it out? How much more valuable is a man than a sheep? Therefore, it is lawful to do good on the Sabbath." So this is a huge topic and a theological topic that I'm not going to be able to unpack in any way. Nor do I think there is only one right solution necessarily. I think there is personal discernment and conviction, and this is something that you need to ask the Lord. for wisdom on how do you handle the Sabbath day of rest? Because as agents, it's very common for us to say, well, I'm open 24 -7 and I always work. Well, I just don't think that's good practice, nor do I think that's biblical. Now, let me explain what my personal practice is. So number one, excuse me, number one, here's what I think is a good rule of thumb for you to follow. If there was work that you end up doing on the... Sabbath day of rest, doing on a Sunday that you could have done earlier in the week. You got to figure that out. So, for example, cutting the grass, right? We're not even talking about being an agent. Excuse me, cutting the grass. I used to often cut the grass on Sunday afternoons. That's when I had the most free time. But I was convicted and personally was challenged by a good friend of mine who really is a wise theological man. He said that was his rule of thumb. If it can get done during the week from Monday to Saturday, then do it those days. If it can't, if you didn't do it just because you were lazy, well, that's not good. Get it done before the day of rest. So you can utilize that Sunday as a day of rest. So that's a good rule of thumb. If whatever you're doing can be done Monday through Saturday, do it Monday through Saturday. So you can set aside Sunday as a day of rest. Now, number two. The reality is, just like Jesus said, it is lawful to do good on the Sabbath. So here's where my heart is. Here's where my family does our best to practice. What I always tell my clients is Sunday is a day of rest and I will not be working unless we are actively in the middle of a negotiation or by not working, it's going to cause some sort of harm to you and your contract and your sale or your purchase, whatever is the scenario. If that's true and we're right in the middle of something, I will absolutely work and be available to you now. I always take the morning from about eight to one where I'm in church with my family, with my brothers and sisters in Christ, and so I will not be available during that time. However, in the afternoon, I can absolutely work and help answer your questions for you or be involved in the negotiation, whatever the situation might be. So my personal practice is The Sabbath, the Sunday is always set aside as a day of rest. I leave my phone away. I don't check my emails. Well, this is the ideal scenario, right? Let's be honest. It's hard to not check those things and look at those things, but I don't plan my week. I'm not checking my email. I'm not checking my text messages for work. I'm just trying to spend time with my church family and then be in fellowship with my own family and continued fellowship with the church. later on in the day. We often have friends come over, not always, but we often have friends come over so we can continue in the fellowship. A Sunday for us, now we have got four little kids, right, so it's not the most restful day in the week trying to get all the kids out of the door to church and all that we have going on there. But a typical Sunday for us is after church we go out to eat, we go out to lunch because I want my wife who often makes dinner and lunch to have a Sabbath rest from making food. And so that's the day that we go out to eat after lunch so she can have a Sabbath rest. Then we typically come home and we rest. The family naps, the family rest. I might read a book and we might relax. And then often after rest time, we have friends come over for dinner and we fellowship with them. That's pretty common in our house and the way that we structure that again. The goal here is Twofold number one are you working on the Sabbath because you feel like if you don't you're going to get behind in the marketplace? Aka if you don't work on a Sabbath Do you feel like your business is gonna lose compared to the person who doesn't care about the Sabbath and is working on the Sabbath? You need to ask yourself that question. Is that really the heart motivation is that you're constantly working because let's just be honest deep down You just don't trust that the Lord really provides and that it is a result of your effort that leads to business. Because we just have to get really clear on that, because I've felt that many, many times. There are times in my business where so much is going on or the business is behind and I feel like we got to catch up. And instead of just having an honest conversation with my wife throughout the week and saying, I need to spend more hours here so that I can protect the Sabbath. I just easily flow into Sunday, get home from church, everybody's resting, and I just get back to work. Emails or whatever it is that I'm creating or content or reaching out to people, whatever it is, scheduling showings for the next day, whatever the situation might be, you know how that is. I would say a lot of that is because I am not trusting the Lord who is my provider, therefore I feel like I'm going to get behind. We've talked about many times our unfair advantage is obedience to the Lord. obedience to the Lord and He will grow and build your business. He will take care of you. So that's what you have to recall and bring to mind. When you feel like you've got to work on the Sabbath, you got to ask yourself the question, is it because a sheep has gone missing and I must show up and do good? Right? Is it because your client actually needs something this day or you must respond to a negotiation or you will not be serving that particular person well? If the answer is yes, then you should take care of that. If the answer is no, you just, your client just has a question or they need something or whatever, then you shouldn't probably do that, right? We've got to have discernment. The Lord has gifted us with a day of rest. We need to take that day of rest, not only just to recharge ourselves, but to be intentional about being in fellowship with your family, with your brother, sisters, and... Christ, that's how you get filled back up to go back into the week. So a couple ideas, a couple thoughts, right? The goal again, in my opinion, is the Sunday day of rest is not a day of work. It is a day of rest. You leave your phone away, you leave your computer away, you set up guardrails and you let your clients know in advance Sunday is a day of rest. Sunday is a day to be with my family, with my church family. And so unless we're actively negotiating something, I will not be working, but I will get back to you first thing on Monday. Feel free to send me messages or leave me a voicemail and I will check it Monday first thing and I'll get back to you. Protect Sunday, protect the Sabbath day of rest. Honor the Lord in that way. That's the goal, right? Now, practically, how do we do that? Again, you need to tell your clients, this is a day of rest for me. Number two, you need to check your own heart and in your own discernment. Am I working because I'm just not trusting the Lord that He's going to help me? Am I working because I didn't work hard enough during the week and now I feel behind? Am I working because it's something that actually needs to get done today and there's no other day to do it? Those are things that you've got to decide for yourself. But it's a good practice for a Christian agent, in my opinion, not only as a good witness, to the other agents. Good practice for you to take a day of rest, to be with the Lord, to remove yourself from thinking about your business constantly 24 -7 and worrying about it all the time. I encourage you, faithful agents, practice this day of rest when you can. Practice this day of rest and make it more common than uncommon that you actually take this Sabbath day. I love you, agents. It's difficult. It's something you should prayerfully consider and study on your own. Have a conversation in your local group. Reach out to us. We'd love to talk to you more about it. The way I do it is not the only way, right? That is what I personally believe is the appropriate way to handle the Sabbath in a biblical way. Seek it out for yourself. I love you, faithful agents. We will see you on Thursday.