Young Families Thrive Night | Shabbat

Tonight, we are very thankful to have Pastor Nathan and Tamsey here this evening. I wanted to tee this up real quickly before we bring them up here. I have known Nathan, Pastor Nathan, Brother Nathan, Bishop Nathan, whatever you want to call him at this point. Yes. I've known him 21 years.

21 years now. So I don't have a ton of friends in my life that have known me since I was 16 years old and have stayed my friends. So let's put it that way. Pastor Nathan has done so. We could share stories all day long and all night long about things.

But I will say this. He is the reason why I believe my faith, specifically mine, did not shipwreck in some of the hardest seasons of our life. He's the reason, because he mentored me. He grabbed me by the hand and said, hey, you can be honest in my office. You can have real conversation with me.

And he poured into me, and he poured into us, and Tamzy has been. Thank you. I'm so thankful for the time you shared this man just so I could cry in his office. So. But I will say this.

At our old building, we used to have many, many years ago. I can remember after Thursday night, worship team rehearsal, whatever, when I had super long hair, I used to have hair. Just in case you didn't know that. We'd go to Nathan's house and hang out with him, and we'd either watch an episode of the Office, which was very much risque at that point, or we would watch, like, the show tapes of a Michael Jackson tour or something like this. And he'd explain to me how many trailers full of jumbo airplanes it took to take this crap all over the world.

I'm like, why do you know that? And that's when I fell in love with this man. So I did. But Nathan has been a friend, a real friend, a true friend. And he's a gift to us as far as tonight, being able to teach us through this.

And him and Tamzy both, and your beautiful family, you guys are incred. I want you guys to just welcome him as he comes to share their heart. Thank you both for being here. You guys welcome Pastor Nathan and Tamsey. Yes.

Wow. Between the Office and Michael Jackson. What an intro. What a blessing. I do love concert DVDs.

I'm old enough to have DVDs, so if you guys remember those, they are shiny. I still have a bunch of them that I can't use because I don't think I even have a DVD player anymore. But anyway, guys, we have been Looking forward to this for so long and so grateful that we get a chance to do this together. What's going to happen in the next little bit? Just kind of tee it up for you.

Gonna share a little bit about what in the world is Shabbat? What is the Sabbath? Why is there juice and stuff at your table? You want the lighter sticks? We're going to talk about that.

And then I'm going to ask Tamsy to share a little bit of our journey as to how we started doing this and why. And then we want to kind of walk through some of this together, almost kind of as a picture of what it can look like. And so that's what to expect in the next few minutes. But I do want to just say it is a great privilege to be with you guys. I love that this ministry exists.

I love that Andrew and Sam are leading it so incredibly well. I'm so proud of you guys for prioritizing and working out childcare and making efforts and doing all the stuff to have times like this so that you have time with your spouse so that you can invest in your family and your marriage. And Shabbat, specifically a Shabbat meal on Friday night has been a huge gift to our family. So I'll just kind of tee this up for you and then actually, anything you want to say on the front end, just as a way of greeting this evening. Feeling good.

Praise the Lord. Yep. So we're not great in our culture at resting. This may be news to you, but if you've been around for a little bit, you probably already figured this out if you think about it. We don't often think about it, but our biggest cities we brag about are called the cities that never.

And somehow we think that's really cool. We say that like, man, we got a lot going on. That's exhausting. Okay, not sleeping. Hello.

Right. Young. Any families? Right. Not sleeping is not a blessing.

Okay? I'll just tell you that right now. At some point, people thought it was fun or something. I don't know how we got there. Not sleeping is the worst.

Okay? Can we just remind you of that? But somehow we've kind of labeled our culture as we. Because we produce, we get it done. And listen, I'm not even saying that's all bad, so don't hear what I'm not saying.

I'm usa. Usa. Born and raised. Right? Okay.

Red, white, and blue. But our culture is sick. I love our country. I'm a patriot. Our culture is sick.

And some of that is because we just don't do what the Bible says. It's really not too complicated. We have decided that grind it out, make it happen, produce at all times. That is how we prove our worth, our value. That's how we show we can do it.

And we are the most anxious society on the planet. We are the most eat up with sleep disorders of any culture on the planet. Aren't you proud? You know, like, I'm not saying if you struggle with those things, I'm just saying it's the, the natural result of living in the culture we live in. Our culture is wired towards this.

So what if we looked at the Bible and said, God, what should we do about that? And he's like, actually, I worked on that week one. It was like, that was in my initial plan to not be that way. And as we all know, because we've all lived long enough to have some disobedience and some rebellion in our hearts. God forgive us all.

We know what it is to rebel against God's comm. And we know what it is to break his law. And it really doesn't break his law. It breaks us in the process. If you've ever thought of that before.

You can't break God's law, Right? You can break yourself. It's like gravity, right? You're not breaking gravity. You'll find out it's very real, right?

So if we're not careful, we can realize we can get caught in the rat race and be worn out and then wonder where God is. And God is saying, I'm in the same spot I was when you left me. Why don't you come back? And so if that convicts us tonight in any way, welcome to the club. It's convicted us and we're just trying.

So if you're willing to try and stumble uphill, you're in the right room tonight. Okay? There are no pros here. There's no professionals at resting and getting this right. It's just man.

God really did have a good idea when on the end of the sixth day, he said, it's very good. And let's stop. God was not tired to read the creation account. Six days of creation every day. God said, it is good.

And he created the land and the water. He separated it. He said, it is good. It is good. I want you to think about this for a second.

And I am going somewhere with this. God could have created more species of insects. He could have created more trees. He didn't get tired. He didn't run out of creativity at some Point.

God himself said, that's good.

Can I just tell you, we have a hard time saying anything is good because, well, if we spent another hour on it, it might be better, right? But we all know better is a bully, right? Because you could always do something longer, right? And I'm not. Listen, this is not so.

Mediocrity. Yeah, that's not what I'm talking about. But I want to do y' all hear my heart. I want to challenge. At some point we have to say it's good.

And God, if you think about this, in the days of creation, it's day six that he creates man and woman. What happens on day seven?

So what is the first thing God wanted of Adam and Eve? Okay, I'm just going to be honest with you. Like that is like vacation Bible school, days of creation felt board stuff. And it blew my mind when I thought about that. God creates Adam and Eve and then the very next day is welcome.

I don't need you to do anything. I want you to rest. I'm going to put you in a garden. He speaks all these things into existence, but he plants a garden. If you read your Bible, Genesis chapter one and two, he plants a garden.

That blows my mind as well. He says, solar systems, light, land. He plants a garden, he prepares a place. He places the man and woman in the garden and says, ta da. You don't have to do anything.

I just want you to be man. Doesn't that feel good? Just hearing it? I mean, it makes me happy just thinking about it, you know? So the first thing God wanted of us is to rest on the Hebrew calendar.

And I'm going to talk about some Jewish stuff for a few minutes. I'm not Jewish. Pastor Terry calls me Rabbi. And you have no idea the number of people that come to our church and say, you know, Nathan's Jew. You know, I'm from south Alabama, okay?

My last name is Smith. I'm not Jewish. I wouldn't be ashamed if I was. If you're Jewish, praise God. I'm just telling you I'm not.

But I've learned a lot by remembering that Jesus is. And God chose a people to bring the Messiah into within a context so that we would learn something from that. But as I've thought about these things, I've been blown away. The Hebrew day starts at sundown because of the creation story. There was evening and there was morning the first day.

There was evening and there was morning the second day. The Hebrew calendar starts when the sun goes down. So Shabbat Shalom. That only means Sabbath peace or Sabbath rest. It is officially Saturday because the sun has gone down on the Hebrew calendar.

Do I live on the Hebrew calendar? No, I do not. I have ical and it tells me where to be all the time. So I don't want you to feel like you have to do a certain thing. I just want to show you something.

We don't use the calendar God set up. I'm not saying we're supposed to. I'm not saying we're bad. What I'm saying is we miss things because we don't use his system. So the day starts at sundown.

So you start at rest. Then you're ready to go through the day after you have rested. This is mind blowing stuff. I started studying Hebrew when I was in school. And just simple fact, the first letter of the Hebrew Alphabet is silent.

I just think this is amazing. It makes no sound at all. And it's just fascinating to me. I think God wants to set a pattern for us. Hey, guess what?

I'm not relying on you. Why are you relying on you? How about you start at rest and then we'll move forward and it takes a ton of pressure off. So I'm going to walk through what the Sabbath is, what Shabbat looks like, and how the Shabbat meal is celebrated on Fridays. But I'm going to ask my wife to share a little bit of our story of how we kind of stumbled into this.

And you even found a cool thing before we got here this night. I did. I have a fun fact to share with you. Hey guys, I'm Tamsy. Thanks for having us tonight.

This is really an honor and a privilege to be here.

It seriously is a privilege. Thank you guys for inviting us to be here. We love to do this. We love to share the specialness of the Shabbat meal with everybody. So does anybody remember this thing that we all experienced called the pandemic?

Do you remember that? It was about five years ago. I don't know if you remember or not. 2020. It was kind of wild.

So during the pandemic, every day was like the same exact day, Right? I don't know if it was that experience for you. Some of you had a baby during the pandemic, so. Right, yeah. So this doesn't apply to you, but for those of us who experienced the day in, day out monotony of just being at home, not being able to go out into public spaces and live a normal life, you're just at home all the time with your Family.

And you got sick of seeing the same faces all the time. Not that sick, but it just. She was looking at me when she said that. I felt it. I looked away, but I still felt it.

But so it was really cool. Nathan had a conversation with his best friend one day on the phone, and his friend was like, man, we started doing this thing on Friday nights. You guys should do it. It's called Shabbat, and it's the traditional Jewish meal. Jewish families, every Friday night, have this special blessing thing that they go through, and it's how they welcome in the Sabbath.

And we've started doing it, and it's just changed our family's dynamic and rhythm, and it just gives us something to look forward to. And so Nathan was like, you know what? We need something like that. And so we implemented. It was March of 2020, we implemented.

It was, like, probably the last Friday of that, we started doing Shabbat, a Shabbat blessing meal. And we downloaded this messianic version, which Nathan will explain a little bit more about that. So if you don't know what that means, but he found, basically, a Christian version that we could go through. And so we started doing this every Friday night during the pandemic. And it became our favorite thing.

It became the thing that we look forward to so much every week. So we would set the table with knives. Nice. Like dinnerware, and nice, like, fancy glasses, you know, and candles, candlelight, dim light. So it just.

It made it a very special feeling, and it was almost like a Thanksgiving meal, but every Friday night, you know? And so it really gave us something to look forward to and break up that monotony. And it literally became the highlight of our week. And have any of you guys ever seen the movie the Croods? Anybody ever seen that movie the Cruise?

Okay, so if you've never seen it, this won't make much sense to you. But every. Every time we would get together and do our toast, we would do our Shabbat shalom toast. Still alive. You know, like, that was my.

That was my thing every week. We're just still alive, you know, because kind of every week you were like, it's a bit morbid time, guys. You know what I'm saying? Next week, because this virus is crazy. And so it was.

Honestly, though, it really became a time for us to mark the goodness of God and celebrate the fact that we made it through another week. That was. We didn't know what was gonna happen or if we were gonna be sick by the end of that week or in the hospital or what, you know. And so it really gave us that moment to celebrate and be grateful. And we established the habit of every week after we would eat our meal on that Friday night, we would ask everybody at the table to think of and share one thing that was their highlight from the day, which we do that at pretty much every family meal anyway.

But then the second thing was, what's one thing God did for you this week? And so everybody at the table would share what's one thing God did for you this week? And so it really, it gave us reason and opportunity every week to be looking for what's God going to do this week? Like what's he going to do for us? You know, because he is, he's moving all the time if we'll keep our eyes open to see it.

So that became a really like a favorite moment for me. So I have just a fun fact. So you see this loaf of bread right here? How beautiful it is. You guys have a part of a loaf on your table under that napkin.

Don't peek yet, you'll get to taste it later. But we found the best bakery that makes this bread. And today happens to be the five year anniversary of the first time we ever had this special bread. So we had posted it's our breadiversary and I'm so grateful. Dough Bakery.

We wanted to celebrate it all with each of you shout out dough Bakery. But we, so we posted it. Apparently Nathan had posted it on Facebook because we had some friends come and visit us and we did Shabbat with them. And I had found Dough Bakery does this collab bread. And so we like made this post about it and I just came across it as we were getting ready to come here today.

Happy five Year University, Doug Bakery. But speaking of that, so this became this bread obviously is one of our favorite things, but one of the other favorite things is having people over to celebrate with us. And so once we got out of the like fear zone of COVID and we were like, you know what, we're having people over. I don't care what the government says. We started having families come and share this Shabbat meal with us.

And the Aquinos were, were one of the first ones we had over. And so several families have joined us in our, our Shabbat time and our small group has joined us for our Shabbat time. We share Shabbat with our small group like very often. So that's, that is, it's, it's like one of our favorite things. And every Single time we sit down and we have the meal, they're going to ask me what my highlight of the day is.

And every single Friday, it's going to be this. This right here. Sitting down at this table, speaking these blessings over each other, having this juice, having this bread, having this meal with my family. This is my favorite thing from the day. So, yeah, it's a wonderful, wonderful part of our family rhythm.

And I love it. Did I share everything? Did I do enough? If you think of something, jump back in. I will.

That's all I got for right now. I love it. I love it. So that's a bit of our story as to how we came across this. So what in the world is this and how do we do it?

So Jewish families every Friday night. So the Sabbath. So the word Sabbath means seventh. The Sabbath is the seventh day of the week on the Hebrew calendar. It starts in the evening.

So Friday night to Saturday night is the Sabbath, the seventh day of the week. The Hebrew word Shabbat is the word for Sabbath, for seventh. So it's the same thing. If I interchange them, that's. That's all it is.

But Shabbat, the blessing on the Sabbath on Shabbat is Shabbat Shalom, which means Sabbath rest. So Shabbat shalom, you did a great job. We're not trying to be Jewish tonight. You don't have to do this. This doesn't make you a super Christian by eating fancy bread on Friday nights and saying these blessings.

I'm very, very sensitive to that because some people think or there can be a little bit of an elitist view if you take an interest in Hebrew roots of our Christian faith. If you don't know the Hebrew roots of our Christian faith, Christianity is completed Judaism in so many ways. It is the Jewish faith who has received the Jewish Messiah, Jesus, and then wants to live it out according to the New Testament as given to us by the apostles. But we're not trying to be Jewish. We're not trying to steal anything from Jewish people.

I haven't been on social media in over a year. But if you were to look up the hashtag ShabbatShalom tonight, you will see thousands of pictures of Jewish families all over the world doing this. And why that is significant is you'll see kind of in the liturgy that I've laid out for us, we pray for Israel and the Jewish people every Friday night, because less so. The statistics right now are 99.7% of all Jewish people do not accept Jesus as the Messiah. That Makes them one of the least reached people groups on the planet.

I say that regardless. We're not talking politics right now. Regardless of your opinions on things concerning Israel or the Jewish people. What we know for fact is God set apart a people to reveal himself to through whom he desired, for them to reveal him to the whole world. At this stage, 99.7% of all of them do not even believe that Jesus is the son of God or the messiah.

I think we shouldn't just appreciate all these blessings and then skip out praying on the very people that God was trying to reach to begin with. Jesus said, the first shall be last, and the last shall be first. The gospel went according to the book of Romans, New testament, to the Jew first, then to the nations. Well, therefore, I think as us of the nations, we should pray for those that it came to first, that they would not be missing out. So you'll see that as part of this, every Friday night, Jewish families share a meal.

We don't have a meal tonight, but we did bring the bread and the juice. And when I say we, I mean Krista. Krista, thank you so much.

So we're gonna walk you through kind of how we would do this, and we've asked our kids to join us as well. And so as we do this, kids, I'm gonna ask you guys to come up. Will you guys give it up for our churrens that are not so little anymore?

Ella has been overseas for the last two months, so my daughter is home, and I'm so grateful. She was in Europe and then in Ethiopia for some time, and I am so grateful that she's back. Ella's 21. Eden is our youngest. She's 16.

She just started her junior year of high school. And Owen is 19. Our son, he graduated last year and is working in H vac, sweating it out so that you will not have to. Right? What a blessing.

So, yes. Praise the Lord. So we're going to kind of walk you through this and give you an idea. So Friday night at mealtime, there are more traditional meals that can be had. You don't have to do any of these things.

You don't have to even do this. But I want to challenge you. I think you'll be blessed by doing it. You can eat whatever you want to eat on Friday night. We're not trying to do anything religious.

We've had pizza and cala bread. We have had whatever Mexican is. Mexican is a blessing. Okay. We're going to thank the Lord right now.

But what we do have Is this is what it's called, Challah. It is the traditional Jewish egg bread that is used most Friday nights. Not only is it beautiful, it's delicious. And so we thank God for that. But I put this on your table.

At least one per couple. If there's more, you can snatch them up. But essentially this first page is just information you can look at later. I just wanted to try my best to explain as best I can what is this all about. If you'll open it up, read a couple scriptures to you on the backside of the first page.

Just want a few scriptures concerning the Sabbath. Genesis chapter two, verse three. So God blessed the seventh day. He made it holy because on it God rested from all of his work which he had done and created. People will ask all the time, well, if the Sabbath is Friday night to Saturday night, why don't we worship on Friday night to Saturday night?

Why do we worship on Sunday mornings? That's a very good theological question. I'll talk to you about that some other time. Bottom line, there were two reasons. Two primary reasons.

Initially, the church began to adopt a lot of anti Semitism in the early days of the Christian church. We don't like to talk about this in the Christian church, but it is a fact. As a matter of fact, if you know anything about the Crusades, they were heinous and horrible. You may not realize this. Almost all Jews believe that Hitler and all of the Nazis were Christians.

And the reason he believed that is because a lot of them went to church on Sunday and then went to work at the concentration camps throughout the week. That is wicked. We would say, oh well, those people weren't really Christians. Yes, but they wore cross necklaces and they went to church. And therefore to Jewish people, that's what they believe.

There was a lot of anti Semitism in the early church. Paul talks about this in the Book of Romans, especially as chapters 9, 10 and 11, if you're interested. Why do I tell you this? It played a role in why we stopped worshiping on Friday night and Saturday. It was moved to Sunday to commemorate the resurrection of Jesus.

Let me ask a question. This is not a trick question. When is it a bad day to worship God? There's not one. Okay, good answer.

So is it wrong for us to worship on Sunday mornings? Give you a cheat code. No, it's not wrong. We're celebrating the resurrection of Jesus. There's not a bad day to do that.

So because Jesus is the fulfillment of the Sabbath, he is our rest. Matthew chapter 11. If anyone's weary, let him come unto me, and I will give him rest. He is our rest. We know that.

But just because Jesus fulfilled the Sabbath doesn't mean resting one day a week is a bad idea. And I'm telling you, people are funny. It's one of the Ten Commandments. It's the only one of the Ten Commandments that people want to accuse you of being religious or being legalistic if you observe it for whatever reason. If you say, yeah, we try to slow down on the Sabbath and rest, like, well, you're just being religious.

And I'm like, well, what? You know, the whole adultery thing, Is that religious? Should we not do that? Like, what about lying? Are we like, you're being religious spirit?

You know, I get to lie off. I want to. I think a lot of times we have a lot of criticism around stopping and resting because we think, well, I don't have to do that. Jesus fulfilled that. Well, it's one of the Ten Commandments, you know, and we don't say that about thou shalt not lie or, thou shalt not commit adultery.

Thou shalt not have any other God before me. But as soon as you say, yeah, we try to stop one day a week. Oh, you got a religious spirit. Can you have a religious spirit doing this? Absolutely you can.

I don't recommend it. So I want to challenge you not to have that. But does it necessarily mean you have a religious spirit if you try to slow down one day a week and say, you know what? I don't want to succumb to my culture more than I surrender to the word of God. He set it apart as holy.

Deuteronomy 5. You shall remember that you were a slave in the land of Egypt, and the Lord your God brought you out from there with a mighty hand and an outstretched arm. Therefore, the Lord your God commanded you to keep the Sabbath day. God spoke this to Israel. You'll go on YouTube and people will tell you, you don't need to think about the Sabbath because it was just for Israel in Bible times.

And you're being stupid. If you're a Christian and you think about these things. I'm not telling you it saves you. I'm not telling you it's more powerful than the blood of Jesus. I'm saying we're tired and God gave us a good stop.

I say we just take him at his word and try to stop one day a week and slow down. What does that look like for us? We try to not do a lot on Saturdays that we don't enjoy that's what we try to do. That's our super legalistic, rigid way. If that offends you, I am so sorry.

We're having a great time. Okay? I will tell you this. It is helpful when you're having meals. Any meal of the week, but especially at the Sabbath table.

Don't bring your phone if you have it tonight. You're not in trouble. Okay. Don't like, oh, God, I did it. You're like, don't worry.

But, like, get it away. Because it's constantly. You talk about no rest, man. That thing is trying to get us all the time. Flush that thing down the toilet if you had to.

Right. So that you can be present. I was just like, a figure of speech. I don't know. Yeah.

So verse is there for you. I'm gonna run out of time. I'm so excited about this. Let's talk about how to do this meal. So the way that a traditional Shabbat meal starts Friday evenings, we'll have things prepped.

We get some bread you can buy. You can use any bread. The Lord is not offended by your bread. If you got tortillas, praise God. Okay.

I mean, it's going to be a blessing. It is fun to get the traditional Jewish bread and you can buy it, but we'd have it made. And so it actually begins. Last disclaimer.

There's not a right way to do this. I'm telling you, the traditional way to do it, it actually begins with the mother of the house. She starts the evening. So, Tam, I'm gonna let you do that. But the mother of the house.

Yes, please. Is this what you want? Thanks. The mother of the house will light some lights. And so I know there's only one candle per table, so any lady that wants to can be the designated lighter.

If you catch something on fire, just get it on video, okay. And then make sure we put it out quickly.

And so you'll see. Now I'm on page three of my little handout.

Let's try. Okay. No, we've got some light. This is good. We got.

Depending on if you're under event, it may.

You guys remember the power team? Are y' all old enough to remember? Probably not, right? It's like, help him. Right?

Everybody's, like, cheering, like, help him. Like, help her, guys. She can't. Okay. Praise the Lord.

So you would light the candles, and then there's a blessing that's spoken. I was actually in Hebrew class when we started doing this, so we've been working on the Hebrew blessings. Tamsie's gonna pray it in Hebrew. And then ladies, if you want to, we're gonna have you pray this prayer over your table. I think there's potential.

I did a practice run earlier and it worked. I think they cranked the air down since then. This is so awkward. See, there's a Sabbath rejection spirit right there and I don't. Okay, you wanna pray for us, babe?

Yes. So I'm gonna speak this in Hebrew and then I would like, for the ladies, if you wouldn't mind. If you want to, you can join me in English. I'm not gonna make you do it in Hebrew. And it's the italicized right there on the number one.

Yeah. Yes. Sorry, I don't have that one. I have ours. So we're just going to welcome in the Holy Spirit and welcome in the Sabbath.

Baruch atah adonai eloheino melek ha olam esher kidishano bemitzvotav beitzevano lehiot or le goyem vanatan lanu at yeshua meshikanu or ha olam. Okay, ladies, you can join me if you want. Blessed are you, Lord our God, King of the universe, who sanctified us with his commandments and commanded us to be a light to the nations and who gave to us Jesus, our Messiah, the light of the world. Amen. Amen.

So this is how the evening begins then at that point. And oftentimes a Sabbath meal is multi generational. So it's whoever is close by, family wise. For those of you that don't know, all of our family lives outside of North Carolina. We have been missionaries in North Carolina for 21 years, so we don't have any family to invite.

It's part of why we enjoy inviting friends. But then the oldest man or the father of the house, and if we have any single parents here, it's whoever is leading the home speaks these blessings. And so. But traditionally the oldest father, if there's a grandfather, whoever's there, and what will happen is, as we're all at the table, he will begin to speak blessings. And it starts with blessings over his son.

And so I know our kids are not with us, those of us that have kids, but I asked my kids to be here tonight so that we could show you what it looks like. But then I'm not gonna let you off the hook. Dads and moms that are leading your homes, I wanna challenge you. I'm gonna show you what it looks like. And then I'm gonna ask you to speak a blessing.

If you have sons, pray for your sons. Next, we're going to pray over our daughters. And so my son Owen is here, and I want to speak a blessing over him. I'm going to speak it in Hebrew, then in English, and then afterwards, I just declare things over my son that I want to say from my heart. Can I just tell you something?

Can you imagine growing up having this every single week, every single week in front of everybody at the table, hearing what your father, your mother, whoever's leading the home thinks about you and blesses you with? I'm just telling you, man, it is powerful. So I want to pray the traditional Hebrew blessing and then a blessing over my son, Yesemicha Elohim Kefraim V. Kemenashe. May God make you son like Ephraim and like Manasseh. Ephraim and Manasseh, the sons of Joseph and.

And so then, Owen, just want you to know, buddy, I'm so proud of who you are. I love you, son. I believe in you. I really do. I'm proud of how you've carried yourself in this season.

I know it's been challenging, and I just want you to know you have what it takes, and I'm grateful for you. I love the way that you care for your sisters. I love for the way that you respect and care for your mother and me. And you're a gift to me. I love you very, very much.

All right, guys, if you have a son right where you are, and if you don't get ready, start thinking, because we're going to the girls next. But if you have a son just right where you are, I want you to. If you're with your spouse, I want you to pray a blessing over your son. Sons, let's take two minutes. I want you to do that right now in your own words.

I just want you to do it out loud. Doesn't have to be loud, but to each other. I want you to declare a blessing over your sons right now.

That's right.

If you're blessing your boys, just continue. I'm going to set us up to bless our daughters.

So a blessing over my daughters over Ella and over Eden, but then over the ladies of the house.

Yes. Amech Elohim, Kesarah Rifka, Raquel Valea, May God make you ladies like Sarah, Rebecca, Rachel, and Leah. These are the matriarchs of the faith. And, Ella, I want you to know, sweetheart, that you are a gift to me and to our family. I'm so proud of you.

I'm so proud of what you've allowed God to do in you in this season. I believe you have what it takes. I've seen it and you have navigated difficult things and come out of the other side stronger, more resolute and I believe in the grace of the Holy Spirit and I'm so proud of you and I love you deeply over my daughter Eden. Just speak life and blessing over you girl. You are a gift to me.

I love who you are. I'm thankful for the way that you have even turned your heart towards me and your mom in different areas where it's been hard lately. And I want you to know I believe in you. You have what it takes and me and mom are so proud of you. We love you deeply.

I want you to pray over your daughters right now. For those of you that have girls, moms, dads, grab hands, I want you to say it out loud. You don't have to be loud. I don't have to hear you. It's for your benefit.

But I want you to practice. What do you pray for your girls? I want you to do it right now.

It.

If you're praying over your girls, just continue. Give the husbands a heads up. If you have a way access to pull up scripture. If you didn't come prepared for that, that is totally fine. I didn't prep you to but we're going to speak a blessing over our wives and the husband of the home will pull up Proverbs 31 and oftentimes he will read the entire chapter over his wife.

For time's sake, we're not going to do that this evening and in all truth, I typically will grab a couple selections of Proverbs 31 and and so we get a chance to speak a blessing over our wives and I'm just going to start Proverbs 31 I'm just going to read verse 10. A wife of noble character who can find she is worth far more than rubies. Then I'm going to Skip to verse 25. It's significant for our family. Tamsie has a business and the tagline of her business is strong and beautiful.

So Proverbs 31:25 has always stuck out to me. She is clothed with strength and dignity. She can laugh at the days to come. She speaks with wisdom and faithful instruction, as on her tongue. She watches over the affairs of her household, and she does not eat the bread of idleness.

And I always joke she don't eat a lot of bread to begin with. So 28 her children arise and call her blessed. And her husband also, he praises her praise. Many women do noble things, but you surpass them all. Charm is deceptive, beauty is fleeting.

But a woman who fears the Lord is to be praised. Honor her for all that her hands have done and let her works bring her praise. At the city gate. Guys, let's just pray some blessings over our wives right now. If there's a certain verse of Proverbs 31 you want to use, great.

Otherwise you can look it up later and tell her later. She won't be mad, I promise you. But how about we just bless them right now? And so, first of all, I'm so grateful for. For you, sweetheart.

Thank you. Thank you for loving me. Thank you for being my friend. I bless you today. I thank you for my wife.

God, I speak life and blessing over Tamsy. I call her a gift and a blessing. God, I say that she's lovely inside and out. Help her see herself that way at all times. God, I pray that you draw her close to you.

God, I pray you'd lead her by your spirit. And Lord, I pray that she would delight in you, that she would laugh, that she would enjoy your kingdom, your presence in her life, in her work and her leadership and her parenting, in our marriage. And I just call her a gift and a blessing today in Jesus holy name, Amen. Amen.

If you're thinking there's a whole lot of blessings, there's a whole lot of blessings, right? I've never had anybody get mad about it though, man. It's just beautiful. If you're blessing your wife, please continue. Don't let me interrupt you.

The final portion, before we actually get to eat anything, which is very. The anticipation builds, you know. But the final portion is a blessing over the entire family. And so, husbands, dads, I'm going to ask you to join me. I'm going to pray it in Hebrew and then we're simply going to read numbers, chapter six.

It's right there. Blessing over the family. We'll read it out loud together after I pray it. Here's the blessing over the entire family. Yev erechecha denaei vaish merecha ya' er.

Adonai panavelecha vayonecha yisa. Adonai panavelech ha vayeshem lecha Shalom, Guys, let's pray this together. The Lord bless you and keep you. The Lord make his face to shine upon you and be gracious to you. The Lord lift up his countenance upon you and give you peace.

Amen Amen. And this is an exciting part because then it's time to get ready for the bread and the juice. And the kids usually get very excited about this, so. And I say the kids because, I mean, I get excited about it. You've got some bread on the table in front of you.

And I may have put the bread first. I think usually the. Is it. The juice is usually first. Yep.

That's my fault. Yeah. In Hebrew, kiddush. So we'll do the juice first. It's the bottom half there.

But everyone can lift their glass. And this is. We kind of do a little bit of, you know, New Year's Eve. Chink, chink. Okay.

So this is kind of how we like to do it. But I'm going to speak a blessing in Hebrew and yes, thank you so much. Okay. I wasn't prepared. You're so smart.

And then we, after, after I say amen, it's Shabbat shalom. Chink, chink. And then we all can drink. So. Baruch ata adonai, eloheinu melek ha', olam, Borei haggafin.

Blessed are you, Lord our God, King of the universe, who brings forth the fruit of the vine. Shabbat shalom. And you guys. And we are celebrating that we get to rest. Man.

Who's tired? You know what I'm saying? Like, yes, I am. Let's have this right now. Thank you, Lord.

It is supposed to be a picture of joy. And we do. We often get sparkling grape and you know, pop it and do the whole thing and just say, hey, we're making a big deal about this. We get to stop. It's a great feeling, God, it's a great feeling.

Now sometimes the littles don't always remember they're supposed to stop. Okay. And so if you're living that, that's okay. So you're like, Lord, 8:30, 9:00'. Clock, like we're going to stop, you know, like we're going to pray.

Pray for an early bedtime. But there is beauty in taking that. Then the bread, you guys can the unveiling of the bread on our breadiversary. Five year bread aversary. What a blessing.

You guys can open that. So typically on the table there's salt and actually I'm gonna let you do it, babe. So I wanna do it. Yeah. So typically they'll put salt on the bread.

It's just a picture. Because every single time an offering was given at the temple, any sacrifice, there always had to be salt on the sacrifice because it was A picture of the preserving agent of the Lord. It's got medicinal qualities, healing qualities, salt. So if you think about it, on the Shabbat table, there's the light of the world, there's the salt of the earth, there's the bread from heaven, there's the blood of the COVENANT. And nearly 100% of all Jewish people don't see Jesus and don't know that he's present.

So I want us to remember this. The bread, the juice. Is it reminding you of anything at all?

Communion. Communion was a meal. That's why it's called the Lord's Supper. And you're like, nathan, I got this little thing that tastes like cardboard, and it's inside a little packet. And sometimes that juice has turned.

Okay, can we just be honest? All right. And you're like, that is spicy. You know, that is just a picture of what it's supposed to look like. The Shabbat meal is the closest thing we have to actual communion.

It is common union. We come to the table, we share a meal, and we talk about the goodness of the Lord. It's hard for us to do that on a Sunday morning and pack it in the middle of everything else. So we do a representation of it. I'm not saying that's wrong.

Don't leave tonight and say, well, Nathan told us that's from the devil. I didn't say that right. What I'm telling you is sometimes we can forget. When something is even an abbreviation, we can forget what the word is, that it's abbreviating. I'm telling you, some of the pictures we use in church, we can forget it's an abbreviation of something bigger.

We need to remember what we're doing. It's a meal. So I say have a meal and have common union and invite people over and bless each other. And it's okay if you choke up and cry a little bit in front of somebody because it's really beautiful. And you get hungry because you're like, we're blessing everybody, and the food's getting cold.

Well, it kind of motivates you a little bit, right? So they put the salt on the bread. Oh, will you hold this for me, buddy? And then they'll break it. So, guys, one of the guys grabs some bread.

We're going to trust in Jesus name. Your hands are clean, right? So we break the bread, and there's a blessing. Baruch hata adonai eloheinu melech ha' olam ha' motzi lechem min ha' Eretz. Blessed are you, Lord our God, King of the universe, who brings forth the bread from the earth.

Then we send it around, and everybody gets some bread. This is a good time, guys. So let's do it. Just pass it on around. Everybody get some.

You don't have to wait. You don't have to. This isn't the communion wafer. Guys, I want you to dig in. You've been waiting, and I really.

I'm judging from here. I just wanted to see what we got here. We got some. Yes. Okay, good.

We got some fistfuls. That's a good thing for us. We will get a couple different loaves, and we eat it with our meal, and we keep on going. You know, you always felt guilty, you know, communion bread. Now, I was a preacher's kid growing up.

Any other preacher's kids. I know, Thomas. Any other preacher's kids? See, I knew it. I knew it.

So, right. We batted cleanup after communion a lot of times, did we not? Can you testify? Okay, so we're giving you preacher kid privilege. When it's over, you're like, what are y' all gonna do with all that bread?

You know? And so we had to go get some more. You can have as much as you want. We're breaking bread. We're sharing it with one another.

And then we would eat our meal. And before we would eat our meal, we would just have a final time of prayer. And here's what we do as a family, and this is what we're going to try to do as we finish up this time. What we would do with our family is we take a minute to pray for Israel and the Jewish people. We don't pray from a political standpoint or a geopolitical position.

We pray from the first standpoint that God started with a people who by and large, have rejected him. And he says, I have made an everlasting covenant with these people. When the sun stops shining, and I'm paraphrasing, this is Hosea, and the moon stops shining, that's the day you'll know I've rejected them. In other words, I'm not going to. And can I tell you something that's good news for you and me?

Because if God started with Israel and the Jewish people and he rejects them, what hope do we have that he won't reject us? He doesn't love them because they are good. He doesn't love them because they are smart or great or successful. He loves them because he made a promise, his love to Israel and the Jewish people. Is about who he is, not about who they are.

Can I tell you something that's encouraging for all of us today? Otherwise we have to worry about where we stand with God all the time. Is he for me? Is he against me? Does he love me today?

But I made some bad choices. Is he still for me? He makes a covenant. We can walk in that covenant. So we pray that and then we pray the Lord's Prayer together.

So I'm just going to pray over our Israel and the Jewish people. And then I'm going to invite you to pray the Lord's Prayer with me. You can do it as written there if it's different than you learned it. So Father, thank you for this evening. Thank you for these incredible families.

Thank you for the privilege of getting to share this time together. And Lord, as we break bread, as we celebrate rest. First of all, thank you Jesus, that you are the reason we can rest.

You said it is finished. So Lord, I don't have to perform, I don't have to produce, I don't have to keep grinding to show you that I'm worth it. I thank you God, that I can stop. I can spend time in your presence. I can brag on your goodness.

And God, tonight we pray for Israel and the Jewish people who by and large have rejected you as messiah. Jesus, thank you that you still hold your hand out to them day and night. And we just pray, God, that you would turn the eyes of the Jewish people, many who are sitting at a table right now celebrating a meal with their families, others alone, isolated, Lord, others on a battlefield trying to find a way to observe the Sabbath. God, I pray that you would reveal yourself to them in love so that they could come into the kingdom. God, your word says in Romans, chapter 11 that there's been a hardening of the heart of Israel and salvation has come to the Gentiles, the nations, so that we would provoke the Jewish people to jealousy.

God, I'm praying that they would see the peace we have in you and realize it's for them as well, if they would just accept you. We pray that tonight. And God, I pray a blessing over every marriage, every family, every home that's represented tonight. And we pray the things that you taught your disciples to pray. And let's pray it together.

Our Father who art in heaven, hallowed be your name. Let your kingdom come and your will be done on earth as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread and forgive us our sins as we forgive those who sin against us. Lead us not into Temptation. But deliver us from evil.

For yours is the kingdom, the power and the glory forever. Amen. We would eat a meal. It doesn't take us this long to do these things because we don't teach it, we just do it. Right.

You're like, I'm gonna be hungry by that point, right? Doesn't take that long. And then, just a point of note, Jewish families don't typically pray for the food before they eat it. They bless God for the food afterwards. And it's fascinating.

And it's based on Deuteronomy, chapter 8. I printed it there for you. So you shall keep the commandments of the Lord your God by walking in his ways and fearing Him. For the Lord your God is bringing you into a good land. A land of brooks, of water, of fountains, springs flowing out in the valleys and hills.

A land of wheat and barley, vines, fig trees, pomegranates. A land of olive trees and honey. A land in which you will eat bread without scarcity, in which you will lack nothing. Man, can you hear the kindness of the Lord? This is beautiful.

A land whose stones are un iron and out of whose hills you can dig copper. And you shall eat and be full. And you shall bless the Lord your God for the good land he has given you. And so they say, ah, we're supposed to eat, we're supposed to be full. Then we're supposed to bless God for what he has provided.

So there's a blessing there. I'll finish with, blessed are you, Lord our God, master of the universe, who nourishes the whole world in goodness, with grace, kindness and compassion. He gives bread to all flesh, for his mercy endures forever. And through his great goodness, we have never lacked, nor will we lack food forever for the sake of his great name. For he is God who nourishes and sustains us all.

He does good to all and prepares food for all his creatures which he created. Blessed are you, Lord, who nourishes all. Amen. For the end of a traditional Shabbat meal, Jewish families will sing a song and they'll finish their night. And so sometimes we'll have a time of worship together.

Other times we all sit down and watch football. I mean, there's all kinds of stuff that we do, but we really try to make that evening a restful, delightful time. Now we invite our small group over who have their kids are much younger than ours. We have had one that I'm aware of, one call of football only once where we found one of the other kids picked it up and said football and threw it up the stairs. And I cherish that memory.

And so I tell you that to say, just because we're celebrating rest doesn't mean everything stops. But we try our best to shut the things down that we can control. We let the email go, put the phone down. We do something together. Together.

Even if it's just watching a show together, like, don't try too hard. Don't beat yourself up. Don't bully yourself. But can I tell you, just an effort in that direction will bring so much life into your home. What you got, babe?

Just a few things that I wanted to reiterate. So, first of all, Shabbat is about relationship. The Sabbath is 100% about relationship. That's why God told Adam and Eve to rest and not do anything so that they could be together. Right?

That's what it's all about. And so structuring or not structuring, whatever you do or don't do, make sure it involves the people that are closest to you. Your family, your friends. It's all about relationship. Restoring relationship.

Cause God's. That's what he's all about. He's all about relationship. Right? Being together.

The second thing is, if you guys do decide to do something like this, you will be amazed at how your kids respond to it. I know some of you are probably thinking, like, oh, my kids are not gonna sit still and listen to us talk about, do all these blessings. Maybe you're thinking that, maybe you're not. But I can tell you from experience watching our small group children and even some of the families that we've had over that have younger kids than us. I'll watch their faces when their parents are blessing them or when their dad is blessing their mom.

And they are just captivated. Their faces are in awe, and it might take a little bit of practice, but after a few weeks of them getting in the rhythm of being blessed and watching blessing happen, they crave it. They will crave it. So also, I have some pro tips about the bread. So if you do this, Publix has challah, but it's low shelf.

So if you have to go to Publix, that's fine. It's cheap. That's good. Harris Teeter is the next step up, but Dough Bakery is the top. So if you need their contact, just come see me.

Yeah, they don't pay me to say this, but it's really that good. But, yeah. So one last thing. I want to give Owen and Ella a chance to just share a couple sentences Couple thoughts. And, oh, yes, Eden is.

Is watching your children. So she had to go back to take care of your kids. So she would have. They were not alone while she was. No, no, no.

They. They were being watched. But she had to go back to. To her duties as babysitter. But Owen and El are just gonna share just a second about what Shabbat has meant to them.

I guess I'm going first. All right. I see too much bread on your tables. I'm gonna need somebody to fix that. So start eating.

Cause I'm about to finish this, and I don't wanna feel bad about myself. I'm just kidding. I love Shabbat. I love doing Shabbat with my family. It's the intentionality of it that is the thing that I think draws me to it the most.

Knowing that on Friday nights. Oh, sorry, I can't. I have Shabbat, like, is honestly such a privilege to say, because I love doing the liturgical aspects as well as receiving and giving the blessing. It helps me feel more in tune with the culture of my Savior, because there's a human aspect to Jesus I think sometimes we can miss as a. As a larger society.

Because Jesus was Jewish. Jesus wasn't Christian. He was Jewish. And so he would do this with his family, with Mary and with Joseph, and with his disciple. Like, he would do this.

And so getting to do it and helps me get to know him in a way that I wouldn't otherwise. And I actually. I missed. While I was overseas. I do missions work while I was overseas.

I missed Shabbat so much that I actually led a Shabbat for my missions team, which was so much fun. Like, it was. It was so cool. And they cried. Like, when I was.

I was doing the blessings because I was like, I'm gonna be the leader of the household tonight, and I'll do all the blessings. But it was cool to like to share it with people. It's another one of my favorite things about doing it with my family is sharing it with our friends and doing things like this, where I get to watch families come closer together and experience a relational aspect that maybe they don't do as often as they would. So the intentionality, getting to know Jesus and his culture and then sharing it with friends is like, the three big things for me that I love about Shabbat. And I hope that that encourages you guys to at least look into it more.

Maybe do it in your families or tell others about it. But, yeah, I'm gonna pass the mic to my brother. I'M not gonna talk as much as her, but the bread is really good. And seriously, though, getting receiving a blessing from your dad is. It's really an honor.

Dads with sons, that's really important. That's really all I can say. Just. Your boys need to hear you bless them, and they need to see you bless their mother, too. So it's great.

I've been loving doing Shabbat and inviting people over, and it's such a great time. But. But I look forward to hearing my dad be proud of me. So that's a really big deal. But the bread is really good, and if you have leftovers, it makes really good French toast.

Okay. That's all I'm gonna say about the bread. That's it. That's it.