August 9, 2026
Empty Tanks
- Matt Nickoson
Sermon Notes
Do you ever wish you had more margin?
Exodus 20:8 NIV
“Remember the Sabbath day by keeping it holy.”
Sabbath = shabbat (שַׁבָּת) means “to cease” or “to stop.”
Exodus 20:9-10 NIV
“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.”
“Charles, a gifted physician illustrates the point: “I discovered in medical school that if I saw a patient when I was tired or overworked, I would order a lot of tests. I was so exhausted, I couldn’t tell exactly what was going on … so I got in the habit of ordering a battery of tests, hoping they would tell me what I was missing. But when I was rested—if I had the opportunity to get some sleep, or go for a quiet walk—when I saw the next patient, I could rely on my intuition and experience to give me a pretty accurate reading of what was happening… when I could take the time to listen and be present with them and their illness, I was almost always right.” – Ruth Haley Barton
“In a world of doing, going, and producing, we have no use for a gift that invites us to stop.” - AJ Swoboda, Subversive Sabbath
God rested as an example for us.
Genesis 2:2-3 NIV
By the seventh day God had finished the work he had been doing; so on the seventh day he rested from all his work. Then God blessed the seventh day and made it holy, because on it he rested from all the work of creating that he had done.
2 Timothy 2:7 NIV
Reflect on what I am saying, for the Lord will give you insight into all this.
Luke 4:16a NIV
He went to Nazareth, where he had been brought up, and on the Sabbath day he went into the synagogue, as was his custom.
Luke 4:16b-17 NIV
He stood up to read, and the scroll of the prophet Isaiah was handed to him. Unrolling it, he found the place where it is written:
Luke 4:18 NIV
“The Spirit of the Lord is on me, because he has anointed me to proclaim good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim freedom for the prisoners and recovery of sight for the blind, to set the oppressed free,” (Isaiah 61:1-2)
Jesus did this literally for the true blind, true prisoner, and truly oppressed, and He still does it spiritually for the rest of us.
Luke 4:19 NIV (Isaiah 58:6)
“…to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor.”
“… to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor.” is Jubilee language (Leviticus 25), and Jubilee is the ultimate Sabbath. Jubilee is what happens when Sabbath is pushed to its logical conclusion: total release.
What does it mean to keep it “holy”?
Qadosh (קָדוֹשׁ) — holy; set apart, separate, withdrawn from common use and devoted to God.
What counts as “stopping” or “ceasing” and as “holy”?
Sabbath is for any God centered activity that is not normal, not striving, and refreshes the heart, soul, mind, and strength.
Isaiah 30:15b NIV
“In repentance and rest is your salvation, in quietness and trust is your strength, but you would have none of it”
“No wonder the Sabbath may seem boring to some children. But increasingly, in a time when we never have time to be bored, perhaps we need to consider the holiness of a little boredom in their lives. I appreciate how many Jewish communities practice “Sabbath hour for the children,” in which the parents recite a Sabbath story for the children. In the end, a child will not take a Sabbath unless the parents do. Someone must lead them. Someone must be willing to sit still long enough to tell the story. As a family, we want the Sabbath to be a day of joy for our child. If he desires to watch a movie, and it is restful and done in the right spirit, we will let him watch a movie. (If we do it right, we will watch it together.) If he wants to be in his tree house in the back, and that is restful, there will he be.” - AJ Swoboda, Subversive Sabbath
Matthew 12:8 NIV
“For the Son of Man is Lord of the Sabbath.”
Mark 2:27 NIV
Then he said to them, “The Sabbath was made for man, not man for the Sabbath.”
For the Christian today, the command to sabbath is gone, but the need never left.
Series Challenges:
1. Set aside 1 time a week to fast for the next 40 days (1 day, or 1 meal).
2. Stop 1 + Start 1
- Stop 1 habit that is controlling you for 40 days (no video games, no social media, no alcohol, no tobacco, no snacks after 9:00 pm, no doom scrolling, no cussing, etc).
- Start 1 habit that you want to begin. Commit the same amount of time (up to 1 hour!) as the habit you are stopping.
3. Plan 3 social events over the next 40 days that fill you up.
“Your life will be measured by the strength of your relationships more than the number of your years, and the accumulation of your things.” - Alan Ahlgrim
Matthew 11:28-30 NIV
”Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy and my burden is light.”