Residential Steeples - We Were Made to Rest

Southern Bleacher gave all of its employee’s time off from Christmas Eve through New Year’s Day with full pay and bonus. Employees were ordered to cease.

As the people of God, we encounter a culture that encourages us to work, work, and work again. When we aren’t working, we often crash our minds on electronics.

Millions of people suffer from anxiety with few finding treatment. Statistics would say there are people here today who suffer from un-diagnosed anxiety.

The home is one of the places we struggle with resting the most.

Rest is a struggle for many Christians.

And yet, the Lord will hold us accountable if we don’t learn. Christians rarely struggle with giving good effort as much as they struggle with resting in the Lord.

When the Bible talks about rest, the word “Sabbath” is mentioned often.

Hebrew word meaning “cease” or “desist” (Friday evening to Saturday evening Jesus’ day)

A day of complete rest from secular work following 6 days of labor.

Genesis 2:1-3

1 So the heavens and the earth and everything in them were completed. 2 On the seventh day God had completed his work that he had done, and he rested on the seventh day from all his work that he had done. 3 God blessed the seventh day and declared it holy, for on it he rested from all his work of creation.

God “ceased from His work in creation after 6 days and then “blessed” the 7th day and “declared it holy.”

4th commandment, “a day of sabbath before the Lord your God” was made.

A standard was set for men, women, children, and even animals.

Why? Everyone was freed from time to work so that the observer should accept the day as a blessing from His creator and recognize the claim that is makes on their own life.

Israel would look back on the Sabbath as a time of rest that God had given them from slavery when he saved their nation.

The Intertestamental Period

Damascus Document ( 1st century BC)

Can’t walk further than 1000 cubits. No drinking outside the camp. Can’t draw water from a vessel. No perfume. Can open a sealed vessel. Don’t help an animal during birth or out of the pit.

Book of Jubilees (2nd century BC)

Can’t plow a field, start a fire, ride an animal, boat, kill anything, or make war.

By the time Jesus came, the concept of sabbath was confusing for everyone.

Mark 2:23-27

23 On the Sabbath he was going through the grainfields, and his disciples began to make their way, picking some heads of grain. 24 The Pharisees said to him, “Look, why are they doing what is not lawful on the Sabbath?”25 He said to them, “Have you never read what David and those who were with him did when he was in need and hungry—

26 how he entered the house of God in the time of Abiathar the high priest and ate the bread of the Presence—which is not lawful for anyone to eat except the priests—and also gave some to his companions?” 27 Then he told them, “The Sabbath was made for man and not man for the Sabbath.

Jesus said two things:

“You religious leaders have lost the whole point of the sabbath. Most of the rules are man-made and can be broken.”

“The sabbath proclaimed at creation was intended to serve as a holy day, giving blessing, and observing God’s rest/restoration.”

Jesus was not rewriting the law but fulfilling and clarifying the original law described in the OT.

So, what should we do about sabbath today?

The church struggles with the same issues. We often make living for Jesus more than it needs to be. We put pressure on ourselves and other people.

There is nothing legalistic about rest. Rest is something that you and I need. The rest I want to focus on is counter to spiritual rest though.

We need to getting sleep at night. We need to eat right and put good things into our bodies. Everything that we do is connected to how we serve God. But what about sabbath? Is this lost in our modern culture?

Making time for sabbath often involves setting aside a sacred part of your week in your home or another sacred place where you can spend quality time and rest with God.

Prayer, Scriptures, Journal, Music, Quiet.

You spend time with God focusing on Him only so that the rest of your time will find meaning, purpose, and focus. How can we know what He wants for our lives if we don’t stop and let Him speak to us?

In other words, the most sacred moments we can have with God are often missed because of our unwillingness to step, rest, and listen.

1. Sabbath Takes Faith

To stop and rest before the Lord means that you believe in the God who prescribes it. God does more with 6 than you do with 7.

You are willing to tell everyone that you need time with God more than you need time with other people. This includes your family and your employer.

People often make time for God if it works with their schedule. True sabbath always makes time for God no matter what your schedule looks like or what giving up that time will cost.

Eric Liddell. 1924 Summer Olympics in Paris. He’s more known for what he gave up that what he accomplished. Decided not to run 100 yard dash because the preliminary race fell on a Sunday.

To rest in God no matter what else is going on takes strong faith, even when it’s not convenient to do so.

2. Sabbath Must Be Authentic

The pharisees criticized Jesus and His disciples for “working” on the sabbath. They were so legalistic that they couldn’t see the Lord of the sabbath right in front of them.

Jesus did not come with an agenda like the Pharisees. He didn’t even have to defend Himself. We don’t either.

Jesus wasn’t forcing anyone to worship Him. He simply came to be obedient to God by living and proclaiming the truth of His Father’s kingdom.

That included how He spent his day of rest.

Telling a person to have a quiet time without teaching relationship is counter-productive.

A relationship with God not a “check-box” relationship. He wants our hearts to be fully invested in Him and Him alone. There’s no room for anyone else in your relationship with Him.

Rest without a relationship with God will make you feel tired.

3. Sabbath is Founded Upon the Gospel

Hebrews 4:1-16

The writer of Hebrews talked about the Israelites who wandered the desert for 40 years and had experienced great turmoil because of their disobedience to God. The “sabbath” rest that they desperately wanted was deeper than finding a place to pitch their tent.

The writer proclaims that the one who hearts the voice of the Lord, admits their sin and believes in Jesus Christ, the great high priest who justified man for their sins can make every person who believes bold and strong in their faith.

So many people think that the power of Christianity come when our behavior in life changes. True believers know this isn’t the case The power of Christianity comes when we have a true relationship with God based on being forgiven of our sins. When we hear the gospel and respond.

Do you want to be able to breathe? You need rest.

You have a home that God has placed you. It’t not hard to find. God’s not hard to find either. He wants you to find him and rest in Him.

Rest in his forgiveness and live with enough confidence that you can stop once a week and truly rest.

What has to change in order for you to have this time for rest? What has to change in your home?

Home is where it all starts.