A Break for Sabbath

Introduction

How many of us this past week willingly and consistently broke one of the Ten Commandments?

Anyone grab duct tape and build an idol out of Amazon boxes?

Anyone bow down to your lawn mower this past week?

Anyone develop a plan to embezzle money from your company?

Anyone commit adultery? (Little nervous to ask that one!)

Looks like we were pretty good with commandments 1, 2, 7, 8.

How many of us took an entire day and did NO work? Also making sure no one in your family did any work either?

How many of you would have classified this last week as “busy?”

Write down the top three things that made your week “busy.”

Write down the top three things that you could not accomplish because your week was “busy.”

Why is it that we don’t seem to take the Fourth Commandment as a serious one?

Why is it that we, in many ways, equate breaking the Fourth Commandment as a virtue in our society today?

How may of us have said something like the following when someone tells us how busy they are:

At least it’s not the opposite.

That’s a good problem to have.

The command to “Remember the Sabbath” appears clearly in Exodus at least three times, and the idea of a sabbath rest appears not only in Exodus but from Genesis to Revelation.

What exactly is the Sabbath? Why is it a big deal?

Should Christians today practice the Sabbath?

As we look at our passage today:

Truths about Sabbath from the passage

Truths about God we learn from the Sabbath

Truth for life because of the God of Sabbath

Main Idea:

Sabbath set the rhythm for rest and remembering

Exodus 31:12–17 (ESV)

12 And the Lord said to Moses, 13 “You are to speak to the people of Israel and say, ‘Above all you shall keep my Sabbaths, for this is a sign between me and you throughout your generations, that you may know that I, the Lord, sanctify you. 14 You shall keep the Sabbath, because it is holy for you. Everyone who profanes it shall be put to death. Whoever does any work on it, that soul shall be cut off from among his people. 15 Six days shall work be done, but the seventh day is a Sabbath of solemn rest, holy to the Lord. Whoever does any work on the Sabbath day shall be put to death. 16 Therefore the people of Israel shall keep the Sabbath, observing the Sabbath throughout their generations, as a covenant forever. 17 It is a sign forever between me and the people of Israel that in six days the Lord made heaven and earth, and on the seventh day he rested and was refreshed.’ ”

This passage is a reminder of the Fourth Commandment:

Exodus 20:8–11 (ESV)

8 “Remember the Sabbath day, to keep it holy. 9 Six days you shall labor, and do all your work, 10 but the seventh day is a Sabbath to the Lord your God. On it you shall not do any work, you, or your son, or your daughter, your male servant, or your female servant, or your livestock, or the sojourner who is within your gates. 11 For in six days the Lord made heaven and earth, the sea, and all that is in them, and rested on the seventh day. Therefore the Lord blessed the Sabbath day and made it holy.

The command here is really to “cease” from work - to rest. As we find it here there is no mention of rest AND worship - only rest - ceasing from work. We’ll see in a minute that, while the command is only to rest, it has an aspect of worship as well.

Sabbath is Serious

Serious in priority and consequences

Serious in priority

12 And the Lord said to Moses, 13 “You are to speak to the people of Israel and say, ‘Above all you shall keep my Sabbaths,

This is the adverb ak “therefore, only”

It connects it to what came before

Previous five chapters are all about the work the Israelites are to do in building the tabernacle and setting in place the ministry.

God has given them the most important work to do and he says, “Above all, make sure you follow the rhythm of rest”

‘Sabbaths’ - refers to the sabbaths in the weeks while building the tabernacle

In Exodus 20, we see that EVERYONE was expected to stop and rest.

Serious in consequences

Numbers 15:32–36 (ESV)

32 While the people of Israel were in the wilderness, they found a man gathering sticks on the Sabbath day. 33 And those who found him gathering sticks brought him to Moses and Aaron and to all the congregation. 34 They put him in custody, because it had not been made clear what should be done to him. 35 And the Lord said to Moses, “The man shall be put to death; all the congregation shall stone him with stones outside the camp.” 36 And all the congregation brought him outside the camp and stoned him to death with stones, as the Lord commanded Moses.

Sabbath is spiritual warfare

Debated to simply say “Sabbath is spiritual,” but if it is spiritual and pertains to worship, it will be spiritual warfare.

in two ways:

how it reflects

how it affects

The Sabbath would reflect Israel’s relationship with God

13 you shall keep my Sabbaths, for this is a sign between me and you throughout your generations, that you may know that I, the Lord, sanctify you. 14 You shall keep the Sabbath, because it is holy for you.

To not keep the Sabbath, then, would be unholy.

Satan wants nothing more than to disrupt any reflection back to God

A rhythm of resting and remembering reflects our hearts back toward our Creator:

By refraining from work on the Sabbath day, I remind myself again that I did not create the earth, my Creator did; I am not the self-sufficient one, my Creator is; I do not determine the basis of my life, my Creator does—my Creator, who rested “and was refreshed” (31:17). If he rested, how dare I work, claiming to have given my whole life into his hands? Here, then, is a very concrete, identifiable sign of whether one is in covenant with Yahweh the Creator or not. The person who has left off his or her “ordinary work” (31:15) in order to reflect on the Lord and to rest in him does indeed know that he is Lord.

Physical rest is not just physical, it is spiritual.

HALT (Charles Stanley)

Regardless of the reason for vulnerability, each person is responsible for his actions. In times of weakness, don’t let yourself become too Hungry, Angry, Lonely, or Tired. Dr. Stanley has turned that warning into the acronym “H.A.L.T.”

busyness is not a virtue - its a vulnerability

Mark 6:30–31 (ESV)

30 The apostles returned to Jesus and told him all that they had done and taught. 31 And he said to them, “Come away by yourselves to a desolate place and rest a while.” For many were coming and going, and they had no leisure even to eat.

Even if you are not overly tired, without a regular rhythm of rest and remembering God, we limit our time spent with God and leave ourselves open for attacks.

Sabbath is a gift

The Israelites would have viewed the Fourth Commandment as a delight especially as compared to what they had experienced in Egypt

In Egypt, they would have had a ten-day work week with no Sabbath and very few holidays.

Sabbath was God’s good gift to his tired people.

When it was abused in later years

Ezekiel 20:1–29 (ESV)

s. 19 I am the Lord your God; walk in my statutes, and be careful to obey my rules, 20 and keep my Sabbaths holy that they may be a sign between me and you, that you may know that I am the Lord your God.’ 21 But the children rebelled against me. They did not walk in my statutes and were not careful to obey my rules, by which, if a person does them, he shall live; they profaned my Sabbaths. “Then I said I would pour out my wrath upon them and spend my anger against them in the wilderness. 22 But I withheld my hand and acted for the sake of my name, that it should not be profaned in the sight of the nations, in whose sight I had brought them out.

Jesus called it a good gift:

Mark 2:23–27 (ESV)

27 And he said to them, “The Sabbath was made for man, not man for the Sabbath.

We view it as a gift only when we see it’s value - otherwise it is a nuisance.

How should we understand the Sabbath for Christians today?

Remember that we are no longer legally bound to the OT Law; however, we are relationally bound to the Law-Giver.

So, what does Sabbath tell us about the nature and character of the Law-Giver?

What does the Sabbath tell us about the Law-Giver?

God is the Lord of time.

God made and modeled a rhythm of rest.

Exodus 20:11 (ESV)

11 For in six days the Lord made heaven and earth, the sea, and all that is in them, and rested on the seventh day. Therefore the Lord blessed the Sabbath day and made it holy.

Did God need to rest - no

God is not about you doing more

Jordan: we are human beings not human doings

God wants you to be refreshed

He didn’t call you to IT to kill you in it (so if you feel you are dying in it, he wants you to rest)

This is why Jesus was so frustrated with the Pharisees. They had made so many rules about about the definition of work that the lost the concept of rest.

The time of refreshing became a time of religion.

Rhythms are not to be relentless

So, why do we NOT stop to rest and worship?

Why are we always busy?

Productivity

We believe we must stay busy to stay productive

“I have so much to do that I shall spend the first three hours in prayer.”

― Martin Luther

Pride

We want people to praise us - to think we are important because we are busy

Poor Planning

Self explanatory

Posting? on social media

Pity

We feel insecure, so we attempt to garner sympathy by being and telling others we are busy.

Power

We need to control everything including every bit of our time.

Fear of laziness

Fear of quietness

What might you confront if you just stopped? (What could you find if you just stopped - God)

What might you need to deal with if you were quiet before God?

Ultimately, we believe the more we do, the better things will be.

The irony is God is saying if you do less, you will be better.

Perhaps you identified with one of the reasons for busyness above. How do we change?

Recognize rest as godly.

See how serious Sabbath was?

How is it that we feel guilty for

The amazing thing about this call to worship God in this way is that it is actually not a call to DO more but to DO LESS.

Recognize that rest should be both spiritual and physical because it is both spiritual and physical

Put God on your schedule.

Look on your notes where you wrote down the top three things that kept you busy this past week. Now look at what you were unable to do because you were too busy.

Was spending time being refreshed and remembering God’s goodness anywhere on there?

God is the Lord of time. He made it. He controls it.

The real question is not “Are you keeping the Fourth Commandment?”

The real question is who or what has control over the rhythms of your life / time? And where is it leading you?

If you don’t give God priority then he’s not a priority.

“You have no idea what my schedule looks like.”

“There is just NO WAY.”

“Must be nice for you - you only work one day a week!”

TRUTH: If God wants us to rest; if he built it into the goodness of creation; if he set the pattern for his people, then he will help you make it happen.

When you rest, God will provide for the rest.

Exodus 16:4–5 (ESV)

4 Then the Lord said to Moses, “Behold, I am about to rain bread from heaven for you, and the people shall go out and gather a day’s portion every day, that I may test them, whether they will walk in my law or not. 5 On the sixth day, when they prepare what they bring in, it will be twice as much as they gather daily.”

Exodus 16:23 (ESV)

23 he said to them, “This is what the Lord has commanded: ‘Tomorrow is a day of solemn rest, a holy Sabbath to the Lord; bake what you will bake and boil what you will boil, and all that is left over lay aside to be kept till the morning.’ ”

Start stopping.

There are no badges for busyness in heaven

“You better rest yourself before you wreck yourself” - Kevin DeYoung

You are not expected to DO IT ALL

Jesus didn’t do it all

He didn’t heal everyone

He rested

He did what God asked him to do

How to “do sabbath” today:

set / reset a rhythm of rest and remembering

REST

Personal God time

Sunday church

Life Group

Day off

Challenge 4x4x4

4min - Bible Reading (could read our passage today about six times)

4min - Prayer

4min - Being still before God (Making room and margin for God to speak)