How to Stay Refreshed

From a message by Pastor Randy Thornton

“I like working,” the Rev. Randy Thornton said, as he began a recent sermon called “How to Stay Refreshed” at Grace Church in Southern Pines, N.C. He admitted he has a difficult time taking a vacation.

Thornton, 53, who has served as Grace’s senior pastor for 23 years, began,” as I understand, a 6-week “sabbatical,” the day after his recent “refreshing” sermon ended. Grace Church leaders asked “Pastor Randy” to take six weeks off from his ministerial duties. They said he had preformed well and deserved time to “get alone with God.”

A “sabbatical” (with a lower case “s”) is defined as “any extended period of leave from one's customary work, especially for rest, to acquire new skills or training, etc.” The word “Sabbatical” (with a capital “S”) refers to the “Sabbath,” a “day of rest and religious observance.”

Note: “Remember the Sabbath Day by keeping it holy” (Exodus 20:8 (NIV). Old Testament Jews observed the Sabbath, or seventh day of the week (Saturday) as holy. Most professing Christians accept Sunday as the New Testament “Lord’s Day” (Acts 20:7).

Pastor Thornton said he is taking a sabbatical to renew his relationship with God; he said all Christians should spend time with God and avoid “burnout.”

“God wants you just to ‘chill’ and hang out with him. God didn’t create you to run like an Eveready battery,” he said.

He read John 15:15: (Jesus said) “I no longer call you servants, because a servant does not know his master’s business. Instead, I have called you friends, for everything that I learned from my Father I have made known to you.”

We need to spend time with God in order to sense what God wants to “make known to us.”

“God is not like you and me,” Thornton said. “Problems, life and stresses begin to wear us out. We are human, and God is not.”

He gave some guidelines on “How to Win”:

“Everyone who competes in the games goes into strict training. They do it to get a crown that will not last, but we do it to get a crown that will last forever” (1 Corinthians 9:25).

“We all want to hear at the end of our lives: ‘Well done, good and faithful servant,’” Thornton said. “Sometimes we’re motivated out of a desire to feel important, and that wears us out. God made you, and you’re born of the Spirit (if you have accepted Christ) and of the flesh.”

Thornton said God created the earth and its inhabitants (Genesis 1:27-31), and he “rested”:

“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” (Genesis 2:1-3).

Perhaps God rested to provide an example for mankind, Thornton suggested. “Why would God take a break, if he wasn’t tired? Man is created with a need for rest.”

Thornton said God deems your relationship with him and your family as important.

“Sunday should be a time to refresh yourself and spend time with God and family,” he said, adding that George Barna says the average father spends only 37 seconds per day with each of his children. “At the end of life, will you say you’d rather have spent more time with your job or your family? God says work six days. Sitting on the couch on Sunday is not being lazy. You can ‘do things for Christ’ and neglect your relationship with him.”

“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. For in six days the LORD made the heavens and the earth, the sea, and all that is in them, but he rested on the seventh day. Therefore the LORD blessed the Sabbath day and made it holy” (Exodus 20:9-11 NIV).

Thornton mentioned S. Truett Cathy, founder of the Chick-fil-A restaurant chain. Chick-fil-A stores close on Sundays. A member of the First Baptist Church in Jonesboro, Georgia, Cathy has taught Sunday school there for over 50 years. “God has truly blessed that company, because he (Cathy) took a stand,” Thornton said.

Thornton concluded by saying, “You want to learn how to put God first? Then learn how to rest in God, We have made too much of recreation. Sports, hobbies and activities are sucking the life out of us. Create priorities that are going to be successful. I am going on a sabbatical to spend time with God.”