Brett Ethridge (00:03.182)
Rolling. Hello and welcome to the Faithful Fatherhood Podcast. I am Brett Etheridge, joined as always by Perry. Perry, how are you? This bright s I'm gonna start over.
Perry (00:13.78)
No.
Brett Ethridge (00:16.666)
been a while. It's it's been months since we've last reported. We need to we need to get back into the swing of things here.
Perry (00:18.946)
Rusty.
Here's what you need, Brett. Is a real
Brett Ethridge (00:25.956)
Never even heard of it.
Perry (00:28.346)
R Y L, the rural tea. It's good. I get it at Aldi. It was at gas stations for a while and you would get I mean like one in every ten gas stations would have it. But it is watermelon flavor with iced tea. Iced tea with benefits.
Brett Ethridge (00:30.191)
Never heard of
Brett Ethridge (00:46.712)
Mm-hmm.
Perry (00:48.406)
No sugar. And only only artificials problem it has natural flavors. You they you know that's sketchy. But it is no, it has monk fruit. Tea, monk fruit, natural flavors, asorbic acid, and citric acid. That's it.
Brett Ethridge (00:49.38)
No sugar? No does it have are artificial sugars?
Brett Ethridge (00:59.344)
Does it have Sucralose or any of that stuff?
Brett Ethridge (01:04.217)
okay. That's good.
Brett Ethridge (01:15.248)
Good. Sounds good. Well enjoy it. We'll see if Riverside can edit that out.
Perry (01:21.902)
Brett's like shut the fuck up Perry, I'm trying to get this podcast started.
Brett Ethridge (01:25.016)
Yeah.
Boo. All right, we're down to forty five minutes.
Brett Ethridge (01:33.856)
roll.
I've been watching all of these Instagram clips. Somehow my my algorithm has started feeding me well ferrell, you know, clips, tak outtakes from from his movies where they just can't keep it together because they're improving or whatever and they're just I don't know how you can like get back to where you can actually re engage. Once you get off off track, man, you just get the giggles and you can't get yourself back together. Yeah, it's done. So I can't imagine.
Perry (01:49.474)
Yes Yeah Yeah Yes
Perry (02:03.725)
It's done. It's it's done. Do you mean to tell you a do you mean to tell you a story about that really quick? You could add you could use it on the the Insta faces or whatever. A long time ago, before I had children of my own, I was coaching a parent type class, which is 18 months old to three year olds. And we had a great time. And then right after that, I was coaching a boys' freestyle class. I called the boys' freestyle class, circle up, get stretching. And I looked down and I thought, why is this prune out here on the
Brett Ethridge (02:10.681)
Yeah.
Perry (02:32.587)
Gymnastics carpet. I don't this is weird. Why are kids even having snacks out here? That's not supposed to have snacks. So I reached down to pick up the prune and I mean literally like touching my upper lip and my nostril. and right away, immediately I knew it was not a prune. It was a turd. and needless to say, that eight, nine, ten, eleven year old boys' gymnastics class got nothing done for the rest of the day.
Brett Ethridge (02:41.806)
my gosh.
Brett Ethridge (03:00.622)
No. Probably for the rest of the week.
Perry (03:02.293)
It was it was a hooligan fest and we had a great time laughing at the idiocy of Mr. Perry picking up a turd and touching it to his face to sniff it. It was great. That was like fifteen years ago and I can still smell the sm you know how like other people's poop smells different, like somebody outside your family, like you're like, this is a weird it was like that. But it was actually touching my flesh. Yeah, you're welcome.
Brett Ethridge (03:26.832)
Seared forever. Into the buttons you're right. Thank you. All right. Let's get back on track.
Perry (03:35.083)
That was on track.
Perry (03:43.693)
Mm.
Brett Ethridge (03:45.464)
Rolling. Hello, and welcome to the Faithful Fatherhood Podcast. I'm Brett, joined by Perry. Perry, how are you?
Perry (03:51.714)
Fantastic, brother. We just got back from a beach trip on Labor Day weekend, had a blast, got out in the boat, got some sunshine, got stung by a jellyfish. That sucked. And we surfed a little bit. And man, I felt like a kid when we were s it was sunset. Me and a couple of my sons and one of their buddies were surfing these just awesome waves. Well, for sunset beach, they were awesome.
Brett Ethridge (04:16.878)
Ha ha.
Perry (04:17.589)
In the world category they were like the wor they're like red, like awful. But caught a few couple of really nice rides and just from deep in my spirit was like Woohoo It was just it was good times, man. It was a good weekend. It was a good weekend.
Brett Ethridge (04:29.456)
Spice.
It is it is good times. I I have a feeling we're gonna talk a little bit more about Labor Day for context. Obviously, if you're listening to this rec recording shortly after Labor Day. And I think it's appropriate context for what we're gonna be talking about. We're gonna be kicking off a new series. This is part one where we're gonna be talking about the Sabbath, what it looks like to honor the Sabbath, how that plays into our role as father. but first, I feel like it's been a while since we've done Fatherhood Wins. So let's take a quick
Quick pause at the beginning before we dive in and let me just ask you, any fatherhood wins since the last time you and I recorded?
Perry (05:10.123)
Yeah, so I you know, I kind of gave that glimpse of of surfing with this the boys and that was it. I think, you know, the more often we can be present with our kids. It doesn't have to be a big beach trip, you know, to the coast for Labor Day weekend. It could just be five minutes, you know, here or there. But but yeah, just being present with my kids and doing fun stuff, letting them bring their friends along when we go on a family trip, you know, as your kids get older, as my kids get older they want to hang out with us.
A little bit less. but if we can try to, you know, create an environment that's fun and adventurous and welcoming t for their friends to come hang out with us, then we we get a little bit more time with them than we would have. and then I've got one more. my daughter Ruby, who's now thirteen, we always tell her goodnight, gives hugs, kisses, and then somehow she thinks that that means flop down into our bed.
Brett Ethridge (06:08.346)
Ha.
Perry (06:09.119)
instead of go downstairs to her bed. And last night and so usually we it's late and we kind of shoe her off, you know, and all that. And then last night I just kind of realized because my older kids are older and they're you know, around a little bit less and I was like, you know, Ruby's not gonna be lingering around our bed to try to hang out and have some chats for too much longer. And maybe, you know, her heart is just
I don't wanna go to bed yet, so I'm gonna, you know, talk about whatever with dad. and that's great, that's okay, you know, if that's her main motivation is to avoid having to go to bed. but my main motivation to drawing her back in and letting her just cuddle up in my armpit and, you know, sit in the bed and talk about the day and highs and lows and I just wanna get as much of that with my kids as I can before, you know, they're
They're grown up and gone. So that was a pretty big win last night. How about for you?
Brett Ethridge (07:11.916)
That's a big win to recognize that to have kids that want want that time with you. I I was actually gonna point to this morning. I dropped my daughter off. She's three at at we have her in a pre-K. I we resisted it, our job situations sort of sort of warrant and necessitated. So here she here we are. She's she's in pre-K. It's not five days a week, but it's a few days a week. And it's like dropping her off, it's like, I want to spend more time with my baby. But today she she just she just was clingy. She just she just
Perry (07:34.669)
Sure.
Brett Ethridge (07:41.83)
Wrapped her arms around my neck and would not let me put her down. You know, it's a it's a safe place. She likes going, everything's totally fine, but there was just something about wanting to be with Daddy a little bit longer. And
Perry (07:42.773)
Yeah. Yeah.
Brett Ethridge (07:51.022)
I just held her for an awkward amount of time in the doorway, you know, like they're waiting for her to come in and the teacher's waiting and all that. It's just like I'm just gonna sit here hugging my daughter for as long as it takes for her to to sort of let go. And so it was just it's just one of those moments, right? It's a win that that she wants me and she's got that relationship and that trust factor and it was just it's just a moment. So that was that was a pretty cool thing this morning. So pretty similar to what that that's encouraged me for me to think that I've got it like at least another decade of it, because Ruby's thirteen, Revel's three.
Perry (07:55.0)
That's awesome. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.
Yeah.
Perry (08:11.169)
That's awesome. That's cool.
Perry (08:18.773)
Yeah. Yep.
Brett Ethridge (08:20.996)
So maybe maybe ten more years of this if I play my cards right. But but but I think it does speak to do our kids have that relationship with us and will they want will they still want dad? Will they feel safe? Will they wanna lay down in bed with you and and and talk at night before they're going to bed and all of that? So so anyway, good for you. Yeah.
Perry (08:23.105)
Mm-hmm. Yeah.
Perry (08:37.653)
Yeah. Yeah, for sure. How did you how did you did you just stay in that embrace until she turned loose? I mean, it's like, you know, it's like I know it's not awkward for you because you're just loving on your daughter, you know, but I mean you could tell like it's an unusually long embrace for like a good my goodbye to the morning. The kid usually just runs into the classroom or to the teacher or whatever. The teacher's like standing there waiting. So did you just like wait for her to loosen up or was there a moment that you're the Holy Spirit's like, okay
Brett Ethridge (09:07.642)
It's time.
Perry (09:07.735)
Good that was it it's time. Like how how did that break off?
Brett Ethridge (09:11.446)
It was. It it was abnormal for her. And so the teacher,
kind of over revelent shoulder, I I was saying, you know, she's just she's extra, you know, she wants an extra long hug this morning and whatever. And the teacher just acknowledged it. And so we sort of had a back and forth. So she knew what was going on. And then yeah, after a little bit of time, I f I finally sort of put her down and she's still wrapping on my neck. And then she's now standing on the floor but still holding around my neck. And then she eventually like, I didn't like pry her hands off me or anything. And then I spun around and she exactly get get off of me. Shake her loose.
Perry (09:18.069)
Yeah. Yeah.
Perry (09:23.317)
Yeah. Yeah. Cool.
Perry (09:30.571)
Yeah. huh. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Sure. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Start jumping up and down. Yeah.
Brett Ethridge (09:46.48)
no, but it was yeah, it was it was good. It wasn't overly awkward and the teacher was totally understanding what was going on, so
Perry (09:51.478)
Yeah, yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Most of those teachers that work with kids have a have an insight to those emotions, you know, and those needs for kids. That's that's probably why they're in that why they're in that industry is they have a a sense for that, you know. Yeah. Cool.
Brett Ethridge (10:08.432)
That's right. That's right. So, all right. Well, let's let's circle back and let's dive into this topic. And I will admit that I've been a little bit nervous to tackle this topic. We're gonna be talking about the Sabbath as I as I suggested. And and I we're tackling it in part because I feel like the Holy Spirit put it put it in my spirit.
Months ago, earlier this year, that this is something that I need to wrestle with, that I need to figure out. and and really figure out what I personally think and feel and believe about how to handle the Sabbath, how to honor the Sabbath, because I felt like there's something for me in it, in terms of my my fatherhood.
My ability to be present with my family, my ability to give maybe more time to my family. I'm not honestly sure what the what the answer is. I just know it's something I'm supposed to wrestle with and take seriously. And then for you, the listener, I was talking to Perry about it somewhat recently, and he admitted that he's not a hundred percent sure. I'm not gonna put words in your mouth. I'll let you share your thoughts, but like he also sort of doesn't necessarily right now at his age, like we've all been on our different journeys with the Sabbath, but we're not quite sure where we land with it right now.
Now. And so we don't have all the answers, but we're going to be wrestling with it with each other and with the Lord and with you guys, the listeners, and we're just sort of going to take you along on the journey. So I hope, I hope that's okay. And I have lots of thoughts, and we got scripture we're going to point to and anecdotes, and I've done some research. And so we're going to bring all that to the table. We're going to talk, but
But we're just going to go on this journey for the next several weeks. We have an interesting guest lined up to talk about this as well. I've got several several episode potential episodes worth of content in some different directions I want to go with this, but we'll just see where see where it leads and see where we land on it. So is that a is that an okay framing, Perry? Kind of what what are your thoughts on on the Sabbath as we're heading into episode one here?
Perry (12:07.147)
Yeah.
Perry (12:13.003)
Yeah, I just echo everything you said. I don't have it figured out. I'm searching and, you know, wrestling with it and and trying to do my best to understand it. I think just in my general terms of pursuit of Christ and his ways, I try to position myself in a posture of I don't really have it figured out, like across the board.
You know, like I just wanna be more curious. I wanna be more open. I wanna be more seeking his will and his ways and and and his revelation to me about how to follow him more closely, how to love him more deeply, how to obey him more readily, immediately, rapidly, right? So all those things, but in terms of a lot of the details about
Theology or interpretation of scripture or you know, stuff like that. I I just try to hold loose to the things that I do believe right now. I try to ha like have that with an open hand because if I'm thinking about something in the wrong way, I want the Lord to be able to like let me know and just boop, like change my direction to the right the right way of thinking versus just holding on to this, well, you know.
I learned this in Sunday school when I was seven years old and I know that I know that I know that it's true. I mean the only thing that I know that is true is Jesus is the light. You know, Jesus is the way of salvation. Jesus is the way, the truth and the life. the way, the truth and the life. and all the other stuff. Like it's like, well, I I think maybe this or maybe that, but I'm still trying to figure it out.
Brett Ethridge (14:06.926)
That posture. There's on I-40 heading into Knoxville, there's this huge billboard on the side of the road, massive billboard, that says essentially, I'm not gonna get the exact wording right, but basically it says, honor the Sabbath, huge words, and then it's like a dot dot dot or something, and then it says, which is on a Saturday.
Perry (14:28.231)
Yeah.
Brett Ethridge (14:30.574)
And I just sort of get a smile every time I pass this billboard because somebody cares so much about their certainty, to your point.
Perry (14:41.995)
Yeah.
Brett Ethridge (14:43.542)
Around what the Sabbath is. And by the way, it's not on a Sunday. All you Christians have it wrong. We the I don't even know what is it, Seventh-day Adventist. I I don't even know what it is who might have paid for this billboard, that are so certain it's on a Saturday that it's worth their however much money it takes to take out a billboard and keep it up for months and months and months on end. Is that important to them to try to convince random passers by that the Sabbath is on a Saturday? And so, you know, and maybe it is, and maybe they're right, but like to your point.
Perry (14:48.343)
Yeah.
Brett Ethridge (15:13.496)
Are we that certain and that convicted about some nuance of the law, like the legalistic approach to it, that we're willing to to take out a billboard for it? Or is there?
A little bit of flexibility here. Is there a little bit of interpretation here? What does the scripture actually say? Where do I land with this? Is it a personal thing or is there an absolute that we all must follow? And so those are some of the questions sort of swirling, I think, I think around the Sabbath. And and I do want to try to obviously base it on scripture. So certainly we're gonna dive into that a little bit here, but but maybe we could start by just sharing a little bit of your history.
with the Sabbath. What what are what have you ever done or not done with respect to the Sabbath? What what types of things have you seen or experienced that have shaped your thinking in the past? Maybe times when you have honored it and when you decided, I don't think it's worth worth, you know, taking a whole day off on Sunday. And and maybe I'll I'll put it to you to start. Do you currently honor the Sabbath? And if so, what does it look like? And then sort of what's been your journey to get to where you are today?
Perry (16:16.503)
Sure.
Perry (16:19.851)
Yeah, so I think the short answer is no. I do not currently have a Sabbath specific practice, whether that be Saturday or Sunday. I do not.
So I've over the years, oftentimes, if we would say the Sabbath being a traditional Christian perspective on Sunday, for many years my practice was be a part of organized religion at a you know, functional church location.
Whether that be a Sunday school and then a traditional church service and then a you know lunch meal or something afterwards and or taking our kids to a youth group on a Sunday evening, something like that. So in terms of the Christian Sunday, Sabbath, we've spent many years doing that. And I'm not even currently doing any of that right now. I'm not an active member of a organized church.
I do have a group of guys that I work out with that are Christ followers and we share life together. I do have a group of men that we do a deeper dive into the Bible. we get together once a week and talk about what we're seeing. right now we're going through the book of John at a very slow pace. We started in January and we're in John eleven right now. so I do some I do certain things it regarding
what I like to call being the church versus going to church. I think a lot of us see you know, where where the question is, where do you go to church, where do you go to church, where do you go to church? And I'm like, well, how can you go to somewhere that you're supposed to be? but I don't currently have a any ongoing regular practices. I will tell you one thing that I have tried to do and I continue to struggle with, but I am striving to be better at this.
Perry (18:25.395)
is doing no screen Sundays for myself and my whole family. and just like, okay, let's just have a simple step in the direction of disconnecting from the electronic world and being more present in the physical and spiritual world you know, on a Sunday. w my goal with that is to try to spend more time together as a family, present with each other. Maybe it's going on a hike, maybe it's just hanging out around the house. Maybe it's e you know
Brett Ethridge (18:28.613)
Hmm.
Perry (18:54.625)
Doing chores around the house, whatever, but it's a step out of the electronic realm that I believe wants to gap grab a hold of our attention so much of our lives. and so that's one thing that I have attempted but have not found a rhythm of success in quite yet. I'm working towards it. Yeah.
Brett Ethridge (19:14.552)
Yeah, and there's definitely an element of of Sabbath there. It's it's taking rest, it's moving away from things that are distracting you from from the pursuit of God. And and I guess we need to flesh this out a little bit is what what is the Sabbath? What is the purpose of the Sabbath? To the extent that we can define it, then we have something to figure out how to move toward. And so so we'll get there.
You know, I I've just I have a few memories that I would share. Some people might be able to relate to this, but I do remember when I was young and growing up and starting to emerge as a bit of an athlete and and you know, having the opportunity to play on some select basketball teams and soccer teams and stuff like that. I do remember I was probably in middle school, I I had the opportunity to
to play on a select basketball team, but they had games on Sundays and my parents said no, I couldn't I couldn't play on the team. And I remember at the time being really conflicted about that. And it's weird looking back because I I
didn't view my parents and still don't as these over overly religious people, these overly legalistic people. It's not like we then spent Sunday sitting around worshiping for 24 hours and reading the Bible together instead of me playing basketball. But somewhere on their journey, probably just coincidentally, they had heard a pastor talk about the Sabbath at the same time I was, you know, about to try out for this basketball tent. Like I had no idea why they decided to say no in that moment. A year later, they might not have said no, but in that moment,
Perry (20:22.859)
Right.
Perry (20:40.927)
Yeah.
Brett Ethridge (20:48.324)
Was like, no, we we honor the Sabbath and this family, and we're not gonna have you play basketball on Sunday because it's not what you do, and okay. And so that was sort of my first sort of introduction to the idea that there is supposed to be a day that's set apart, even if it means sacrificing something else that you might otherwise want to be doing. And I do think there was a powerful message in that. fast forward though.
number of years my wife and I, when we were, you know, adults, took a trip to Israel and it was it was fantastic, great experience. But I remember the very first first day there, you know, we show up in Tel Aviv and we're in the hotel and I think we must have landed on a on a Thursday or maybe it was well was on a Friday. And on Friday, they start their Sabbath, honoring the Sabbath, and the whole city shuts down. Everything shuts down. And I remember
They take it so extreme that in the hotel we were say staying in, and I find the ultimate irony in this, they had to hire a bunch of Muslims to come in to press the buttons on the elevators because the Jews couldn't press the buttons on the elevators to take us up and down because it was the Sabbath. And I'm thinking it's it's like 20 something. I don't know if 20s, I don't even remember what what year we went, 2014, whatever it was. It's like we're in the 21st century.
Perry (22:03.829)
Wow.
Brett Ethridge (22:13.178)
We're not in the ancient biblical times. It's not the time of like Abraham, Isaac, and and we're not pressing buttons on an elevator because it's Sabbath time in an entire country. Like the whole country shuts down like that for an entire day until sun up the next day or whatever. And I just remember, and this is me admitting how judgmental I was, you know, but it was like, I judged. I was like, this is foolish. Like this is silly. Like, what are we doing?
And that was sort of my reaction to the over-legalized honoring of the Sabbath. And yet.
Nope, you still there?
Perry (24:24.972)
You're back.
Perry (24:33.751)
So you went out and I didn't hear a lot and then you came back in and said overly legalizing the Sabbath and then you went out again. So I didn't really get much of any of that.
Brett Ethridge (24:42.46)
But what was the last thing you heard me say? Well, I was talking about pressing the buttons in the elevator.
Perry (24:47.063)
The last thing you said well was that we're in the 21st century and these guys are pressing the buttons. They're not able to press the buttons on an elevator. And then you said, full disclosure, I was really judgmental at that time. So the last thing I heard was like you confessing your judgmental spirit was the start of that.
Brett Ethridge (24:58.846)
Okay, I'll pick up there.
Brett Ethridge (25:05.382)
Okay. Okay. So I'll I'll pick up there.
Brett Ethridge (25:11.28)
And so I mean I think it was
Brett Ethridge (25:17.894)
And so it was just a really interesting observation and something that, you know, I'll admit, in full transparency, I was just very judgmental about. I remember seeing it and thinking, just, how silly is this? I mean, we're in the 21st century and we're still not pressing buttons in an elevator on the Sabbath because we are going to be so extreme in our legalized adoption of the Sabbath.
And I've had to release that because I also acknowledge that on the other end of the spectrum, though, there is an importance to it. And so I think that would be my question, maybe for you, Perry, and for the listener is do we actually view it as important? And then how should we honor it? If we are, if we think there's a problem, maybe that's not the right wording, because I don't want to come across as judgmental. Everybody's going to honor it in their own way. But if we personally don't feel like we need to literally sit in a closet.
For twenty-four straight hours, not pushing elevator buttons as my way of honoring the Sabbath. So we're not gonna do that. But we do wanna honor it. How do we do it? And so that's really the question, and that's where I am right now. It's like, okay, maybe I had too much of a I'm not really gonna play the legalistic game around the Sabbath, and so I'm just not gonna do anything. And and I would sort of answer my own question to you. I'm also in a state right now, Perry, where I'm not really doing much.
Perry (26:39.362)
Mm-hmm.
Brett Ethridge (26:43.355)
Much by way of honoring the Sabbath. I do go to church and take a little bit of time off. But then what I do is I come home and I mow the lawn and I weed whack and I do chores and I do laundry and like I'm definitely not taking a day of rest, you know. So but I but I do want to start. And so the question is, what does that look like? And so is it important? I think is question number one. And if so, why? Why is it important that we even try to figure out how to take this Sabbath thing seriously?
Perry (26:47.467)
Yeah.
Perry (26:52.866)
Yeah.
Perry (26:56.886)
Right.
Perry (27:15.073)
Well, I do think it's important for us to figure it out and take it seriously. But
I'm not sure the result of my thought process in that is gonna line up with everybody else's or anybody else's for that matter. But yeah, I think it's important, worth considering. but I think right now I lean towards letting go of the Sabbath and that's how we honor it, is by going, well, that's the old testament law, that's the old testament way, that's the old way of doing things.
Which is not what we are under right now. We're under the new covenant, which is Christ's blood, Christ's forgiveness, all the things. And so, yeah, do I think it's worth do I think it's important? Yeah, because it was important to Yahweh in the beginning. but does that mean
We have to do some legalized version of not working? I don't think so. I don't think it does because I think our job in how to honor the Sabbath and how to learn how to honor the Sabbath is to look at how did how did Christ honor the Sabbath? What did Jesus do to honor the Sabbath? And like I said, been reading a slow roll through John.
He was doing the father's work. He was healing. He was doing miracles. He was preaching the gospel. He was sharing the love and the light of himself to the world on the Sabbath. And so what does that mean for how we should behave on the Sabbath?
Perry (28:55.927)
But the Pharise the Pharisees were pissed that he was doing miracles on the Sabbath. They were irate. They were like flown off the handle over that. And Christ called him the synagogue of Satan. He called him he said, Well, you are not my you're not of you're not mine. You're not of the father's because you don't do what the father does. And they wanted to stone him for doing miraculous works and healings on the Sabbath. And he's going, Hey, this I don't
I don't work for the Sabbath, Sabbath works for me. Yet, and at the same time, Christ had a posture of Sabbath every day. Because he's, you know, there's many times in the scriptures like he went off early in the morning to be alone with the Lord. He went up high on a mountain to be alone with the Father. He he had these escapes from society, from public view, from the demands of his ministry on earth. He escaped.
from those things to convene with the father, to have rest, to have all those things. But it was as he went through his life versus from sundown to sundown, you know, in that twenty four hour period of time known as the Sabbath to the Jews at that time.
Brett Ethridge (30:17.885)
I what you just said hits on something really, really important that I wanna circle back to. Let me start in the Old Testament, 'cause you said we're not we're we're in a new we're in a new paradigm. We're under grace and mercy. Jesus came and and so we're not under the law.
Let's talk about and maybe just frame though what the Sabbath is. And let me just give a few scriptures, obviously, starting in Genesis, Genesis 2. Genesis 2, verses 2 and 3. God had been creating for six days. And it says, by the seventh day, God had finished the work he had been doing. So on the seventh day, he rested from all his work. So God felt the need to rest.
Perry (30:42.251)
Yep. Yep.
Brett Ethridge (31:06.481)
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. Okay, so that's what the Sabbath is. It is the holy day of rest, the seventh day after six days of work of creating. Now let's skip ahead to Exodus.
Perry (31:17.985)
Yeah.
Perry (31:43.671)
Hm. Is it twenty three?
Brett Ethridge (31:47.089)
Exodus 20. Hold on, I'm just flipping ahead. I've got a hard copy Bible now. It's for it's for the longest time I was using my Yeah, I was using my phone and now it's like I gotta flip pages and it takes a little while. All right.
Perry (31:52.043)
Me too. It feels good. Old school, baby. Yeah.
Yeah.
Brett Ethridge (32:02.939)
So now let's skip ahead a little bit. So that's what the Sabbath is. And then the question is: okay, so God rested, but why then are we to rest? What? Okay, fine. So it's a holy day. God rested. Rest must be important. And I think this is the key, right? So regardless of what we think Jesus did or didn't do with respect to the Sabbath, and we'll get there in a moment. Lots of scriptures around that. God felt the need to rest, so there must be some benefit.
To rest. There must be some reason why rest is important. But then God does take it a step further and actually commands through Moses us, man, to honor the Sabbath. So the very fourth commandment, the fourth commandment in Exodus 20, starting verse 8, says, Remember the Sabbath day by keeping it holy. 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 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. And we might feel like, okay, we don't want to be under the law, we don't want to be over-legally over-legalistic.
But two commandments later it says you shall not murder. We're not saying Jesus came to abolish that. It says you shall not commit adultery. We talk endlessly on this podcast about how we even just guard our eyes lest we fall into lust, which could be conceived as adultery according to Jesus' Sermon on the Mount.
Perry (33:35.243)
Right.
Brett Ethridge (33:47.365)
So we're not throwing away all these other commandments. So why would we choose this one to say, well, but we just don't have to really take a whole day off for rest? Because it says we should. And now let's skip ahead further into into the New Testament.
Perry (33:56.727)
Mm.
Brett Ethridge (34:07.204)
Mm. Good pause, let'll be
Perry (34:13.279)
And I while you're hitting pause on that for a second, I'll add Exodus twenty three ten.
Brett Ethridge (34:19.387)
You can chime in, chime in and go on go on record. Say while while you're looking for the next first, let me say this. Yeah, go ahead.
Perry (34:23.937)
Say again.
Perry (34:28.395)
Yeah, while you're looking for the next verse, let me say this for Exodus twenty-three, ten, it says laws about the Sabbath and festivals, for six years you shall sow your land and gather in its yield, but the seventh year you shall let it rest and lie fallow, that the poor of your people may eat, and what they leave the beasts of the field may eat, you shall do likewise with your vineyard and with your olive orchard.
Perry (34:59.637)
So that's interesting too. Six years work your fields, and on the seventh let it lay dormant.
Brett Ethridge (35:10.375)
Give me one second.
Perry (35:13.367)
Sure.
Perry (35:21.825)
Where you going in the New Testament?
Brett Ethridge (35:23.709)
Yeah, mark two.
Brett Ethridge (35:34.449)
okay. Rolling. Yeah, that that's actually a really good transition to what I'm about to to read from the New Testament because it speaks a little bit to maybe the flexibility. So it's like
Is it literally one day a week off? Does the time period matter? Because then they say you work for six years, as you just read, and took a whole year off. The point is, it's all pointed to this idea that rest is important and rest matters. I think what we need to wrestle with is the kind of the time frame, the time period. How how fixed is it going to be on our calendar? Is it gonna be a weekly thing? Is it gonna be a daily thing?
I'm gonna rest an hour a day. Is it gonna be a a year, a whole year off? People do take sabbaticals, right? You work for lots of years, and I had an uncle who took a whole sabbatical, a whole year off. So we can circle back to that, but but the verses you alluded to, right? So the the New Testament, though, comes along and and Jesus does say,
Well right. So the New Testament does come along and Jesus is preaching the parable that you talked about. What not the parable, he heals on the Sabbath, so you cited that.
Brett Ethridge (37:04.519)
But then so skipping ahead to the New Testament, so Jesus did come and Jesus is teaching his disciples about about
life and the Sabbath and what's important and not important. And there's the verses you alluded to where he's walking through the grain fields and his his disciples are picking grain and they get criticized by the the Pharisees and and then he heals on the Sabbath and he's getting criticized for that. and and here's what he says, Jesus says in Mark chapter two, verse twenty seven twenty-seven, he says, then he said to them, The Sabbath was made for man, not man for the Sabbath.
So the Son of Man is Lord even of the Sabbath. And I think I think that's crucial. It's crucial that Jesus isn't saying you're not to honor the Sabbath. The Sabbath is important, but you haven't flipped around backwards. God rested and God created the Sabbath, and God wants us to ab honor the Sabbath and heed the Sabbath for our benefit. It is helpful for us. And so I do think it's a mistake to completely dismiss it and say, well, I've just
Perry (37:47.437)
Yeah.
Brett Ethridge (38:09.437)
I'm not gonna go to church. I'm not gonna take Sunday off. I'm not gonna rest. I'm not gonna whatever because Jesus came. And I don't think that's what it's saying at all. At least that's when I'm feeling very convicted because there's something in it for us. Jesus himself said that.
Perry (38:24.044)
Yeah.
Perry (38:34.551)
You're a little frozen. It's cutting in and out.
You got me at all? Check, check.
Brett Ethridge (38:38.779)
Are we good? Yeah, you're good. You're good. Am I am I still not good?
Perry (38:46.153)
No, you got like you got pauses and like chops and frozen.
Brett Ethridge (38:53.351)
I think it's probably still rendering behind the scenes.
Perry (38:54.955)
Videos like flat frozen. Okay.
Brett Ethridge (39:00.167)
Hopefully, yeah. If the video quality is not great, remember it renders behind the scenes. But if you can still hear me, can still hear me okay? Okay. Rolling. Okay. And and then one Hold, let me just say
Perry (39:06.401)
Yeah, yeah. I can now, yeah. Yeah.
And then on to three.
Go ahead.
Brett Ethridge (39:15.983)
And and then one just one final verse to sort of tie all of that up back in Matthew, chapter five, part of the Sermon on the Mount, verse 17, Jesus said, Do not think that I have come to abolish the law or the prophets. I have not come to abolish them, but to fulfill them.
Truly I tell you, not the smallest letter, not the least stroke of a pen will by any means disappear from the law until everything is accomplished. Therefore, anyone who sets aside one of the least of these commands and teaches others accordingly will be called least in the kingdom of heaven.
But whoever practices and teaches these commands will be called great in the kingdom of heaven. And I think that's what I've just been wrestling with is, you know, here we are publicly talking about this on a podcast. And I just want to be very, very careful that I don't get this wrong, that we're not that that I am not trying to tell somebody or convince somebody that that the law.
And honoring the commandments and honoring the Sabbath isn't important because Jesus flat out said, you have to honor it. I'm not abolishing the law and the commandments. In fact, you better not go out and tell people not to. So I think it is important, and it's just important that we try to figure this out and get it right to the extent that we can with a with a heart that truly is trying to hear from God and honor, honor God and what He wants of us now that Jesus has come, died.
rose again offers grace and mercy, how do we honor the Sabbath under that?
Perry (40:47.381)
Yeah, and like that's kind of what I was getting to earlier is that Christ honored the Sabbath with his whole life every day. And I think that we should seek communion and and obedience and following the Lord all day, every day, following and listening to the nudgings and the whispers of the Holy Spirit throughout the day. And
the Lord and the Holy Spirit are gonna lead us into the right places, you know, like you're saying, yeah, I've been feeling convicted about not taking enough of a day of rest. I'm, you know, cutting the grass, doing the housework, stuff like that. We have the Holy Spirit to lead and guide and direct us now and leaning into his spirit is part of that process of walking out that faith day in and day out. And at the same time, I do think it's
Just good wisdom to have a day where we're resting, we're setting aside, we're not just grinding at the business or the side hustle or the job or all the things seven days a week. Go, go, go, go, go, go, go. because although we might not think we need rest, we do need rest and recuperation and rejuvenation and all the things. so yeah, I think I think we honor it.
With our everyday, I think we honor the Lord by learning how to be led by the Spirit and not being caught up in the law because Christ says He fulfilled it. We can't, we can't fulfill it in our actions, no matter how hard we try to keep all the ways of the law, try to keep the Ten Commandments, we can't.
Are the is the are the Ten Commandments a good guideline to strive to live our life by? Absolutely. But we can't keep it. We need Christ's perfection. He's the only one that can keep it. and we we just have his we just have his grace to sustain us as we fall short.
Brett Ethridge (42:59.311)
I
Brett Ethridge (43:05.361)
Well, I I think that's a good place to leave it on this episode. We didn't get as far as I thought we were gonna get. I actually I I have some interesting studies and some interesting anecdotes and statistics that I actually do wanna talk about on the next episode that speak to what you were talking about.
about the importance of rest, the value of rest. And so if if Jesus was saying Sabbath is for man, what is the benefit that potentially does accrue to us by honoring the Sabbath? So I want to get into that a little bit and then try to figure out and make it a little bit tangible tangible about some ways that we can honor the Sabbath and and what it could look like from literally a scheduling standpoint, perhaps. but but to your point,
Perry (43:23.799)
Cool.
Brett Ethridge (43:50.757)
I just want to read one more verse that I think sort of summarizes what I heard you saying and where I want to leave this episode. And it's from Romans. In Romans chapter 14, it starts off by saying that that basically everybody is is on their own faith journey, and we don't want to judge somebody based on where they are on their faith journey. And so it starts off in verse two two saying one person's faith allows them to eat anything.
But another whose faith is weak eats only vegetables. and so we're not supposed to judge the person who's not eating meat because somehow we're holier than they are because we have figured out that we're allowed to eat everything and whatever. So it's it starts off talking about that, but then on verse five, it says, One person considers one day more sacred than another, another considers every day alike. Each of them should be fully convinced in their own mind. And so I feel like Paul's addressing that specifically.
Is saying there are some people who are going to stick absolutely 100% to a one day a week off Sabbath. They think there is one day that's more sacred than another. There's somebody else whose faith brings them to a different conclusion, a different consideration, and says, nope, every day is pretty much the same. Each of them should be fully convinced in their own mind. And then it says verse six: whoever regards one day as special.
Perry (44:50.134)
Mm-hmm. Yeah.
Brett Ethridge (45:17.383)
Does so to the Lord. Whoever eats meat does so to the Lord. The point is, I think what Paul's saying, and we can unpack this a little bit more, and maybe I'm misinterpreting this, and maybe maybe I've got the wrong theology here, but but what I what I sort of hear Paul saying here, or hear Paul saying here is
Perry (45:28.652)
Yeah.
Brett Ethridge (45:38.961)
We we need to be led by the Spirit, exactly like you said. And where he leads us, our heart needs to be in the right place. I can't say, I'm I'm I'm not gonna view one day as more important because that was the law, but really I just I want an extra day of work to be more productive. I
Don't want to, you know, let my grass grow too tall. Somebody's gotta mow it. I've gotta mow it. Like my motives have to be pure. If I'm not really gonna honor the Sabbath the way that we're talking about it, my motives have to be pure there. And if I am gonna honor the Sabbath, it's not to be like, you know, the Pharisees standing on the street corner praying out loud for all to see. It's not a, hey, look at me. But like I have to be doing it unto the Lord. The motive in trying to figure all this out has to be.
Where is God calling me in this? Is it a desperate desire to honor the Lord in this, to draw closer to him in my spiritual walk, you know, whatever whatever that is? And so I think that's an important verse to sort of tease out here at the end as we're sort of putting a bow on this episode and and thinking about, you know, where to go next with trying to to unpack the Sabbath.
Perry (46:29.921)
Yeah.
Perry (46:51.137)
Yeah, a hundred percent. I love that circle back to that scripture in Romans. And one of the things that kind of underlies in my spirit in my mind is that Christ has a gospel of love and unity. And the enemy, the deceiver, the father of lies, the prince of this world, has an agenda of division and separation.
And argumentation, you know? And so it's like in that scripture, it's like, hey, don't judge the one who only eats vegetables, and don't judge the one who eats everything, you know. Don't let a quarrel over opinions. And that's so strong. Like, let's not quarrel. Let's yeah, like let's talk about it, right? Let's do a podcast. Let's let's search it out. Let's do it. But let's not judge others if they don't see it the way we do.
Let's be kind and loving towards them and try to be of one mind, one faith, one body, even if we don't see the opinions of what are we supposed to do in terms of eating vegetables or meat, or the Sabbath is on Saturday or Sunday, or the Sabbath matters more at all than any other day of the week. Let's just love each other through the whole process.
Brett Ethridge (48:15.006)
Well, let's let's leave it there. I've got a lot more to talk about. We have a lot more to talk about on this journey. We're excited to have you guys, the listeners along with us. So hopefully this has been a little bit thought-provoking. We certainly welcome your thoughts. If you if you have something that's working for you, if you feel a strong conviction one way or the other, we'd love to hear from you. Reach out to us. Contact information in the show notes below. we will be back with you again, though, soon to talk some more about this and go a slightly different direction, try to make it practical.
as well. So we're excited for you to be on this journey with us. Perry, as always, thank you. Thank you, the listener, for for spending some time with us as you're driving around town or at the gym or whenever and wherever you're listening to us in the world. So for now, we'll wrap up this episode of the Faithful Fatherhood podcast. Take care and be blessed.
Perry (49:06.189)
Woohoo!
Brett Ethridge (49:07.421)
All right. Awesome. Cool. Yeah, it is. I've got a little editing to do and we'll get into it again. So I'd say go ahead and if you haven't yet invite your buddy, see when he can can join us. If it can be on a Wednesday at this time, great. Yeah. And if not then let's accommodate his schedule.
Perry (49:09.665)
Good.
Perry (49:21.729)
Yeah, I'll talk to him.
Perry (49:28.939)
Yeah, for sure. I'm I doubt that he will be able to because he's a teacher. so I'm sure he'll be right in the middle of his work day. But I'll talk to him and see when, if he is interested in doing it, which I hope he will be, I think he will, when it when it might accommodate for his schedule and we'll and then I'll try maybe I'll get a few different options from him and then send the ones to you that would work for me as well and see if we can get one that works.
Brett Ethridge (49:57.373)
Sounds good. And I think we got off schedule. We had an every other I was gonna say, yeah, we had an every other week set up. We sort of missed last week. We prepared for this week, but I've got it on my calendar for next week anyway. If we want to stick with that to do the second episode, just you and I. And then maybe we can look out to the following week or the very end of September for him if he's able to do that.
Perry (50:00.203)
You want to record
Perry (50:23.522)
Yeah, that sounds great. So September sixteenth. Yeah, sure thing. All right, brother. Peace. Thank you. Sounds great. All right, bye.
Brett Ethridge (50:24.989)
All right, cool. I'm gonna stop this and hop over to my other meeting.
Yeah. Sixteenth for you and me. Yep. Peace.
