Gen #3

Northside Church

Gen #3

Jamey Mills

10/15/23

Good MORNING Northside… My name is Jamey Mills, I’m the lead pastor here at Northside. It’s always good to be with you guys.

You guys are in for a special treat this morning… Not all that long ago Northside sent a small team out to Uganda to help some incredible missionaries that we support over there… Waffle and Val Lomilo…

It was an incredibly powerful time… for them and for the Ugandan people. They are going to share a bit with us now… but also… Tomorrow night at the office, they will be sharing in more detail… hope you can join us. About an hour.

Uganda Team… Shares

Proud of you and the work that you guys have done. Missions are a priority at NS. We support missions in PNG, Loas, Uganda, the Varga’s are sort of in the midst of transitioning, at the local level… Options, and Love INC.

One of my passions is right here… as a believer… every single one of us is called to live our life on mission… We talked about that last week… that is part of what reflecting His image to the world around us means… that is what the passage is 2 Cor means when it talks about us being His ambassadors, His reps… reflecting Him, His truth, His design to the world around us… that is part of what it means to be know and follow Him.

And that’s a great point to jump into today…

We are in our 3rd week of our series on Gen… bringing Chaos to Order…

We’ve been talking about God’s design… design matters (Car Pic)...

Or God’s must be crazy… pop bottle

Genesis is so incredibly important.

We’ve talked about how understanding it will change the way you see and interpret not only the rest of the bible… but life, relationships, identity…

We talked about how important starting with God is…

And how we didn’t create Him, He created us…. And we talked about how out of all of creation… humanity is obviously different…

Something different about Humanity…

1. Made in His image/ Image bearers.

2. Given responsibility/leadership within creation

3. Called to a different sort of relationship with God than the rest of creation.

6 days of creation… where God created it all and brought order, light and life…

Creating time and seasons…

And then on day 7 we see something really interesting…

Genesis 2:1–4 (NLT)

Genesis 2:1–4 NLT

So the creation of the heavens and the earth and everything in them was completed. On the seventh day God had finished his work of creation, so he rested from all his work. And God blessed the seventh day and declared it holy, because it was the day when he rested from all his work of creation. This is the account of the creation of the heavens and the earth. When the Lord God made the earth and the heavens,

So the creation of the heavens and the earth and everything in them was completed. 2 On the seventh day God had finished his work of creation, so he rested from all his work. 3 And God blessed the seventh day and declared it holy, because it was the day when he rested from all his work of creation.

4 This is the account of the creation of the heavens and the earth.

God’s work of creation was done… and it says that God rested…

The Hebrew word is the word

“Sabat” literally means.. To cease, to stop to be quiet and still.

And in some ways… it’s almost odd. Why… like, why is this here and what is this about…

Whatever it is must be important… It says that on the 7th day… God rested… and blessed it…

God separated it and elevated the 7th day!

… declared it as Holy… set apart… for God and for His purposes.

God sepparated nd

It’s interesting… in the OT… the #7 is incredibly important. It carries the idea of fullness and completion and you see it woven in super meaningful ways… we can’t dive into that… but it eventually points to the ultimate rest that is made possible in Christ…

The way that is woven in such symbolic detail through scripture is mind blowing and unhuman… Human authors can’t do that… let alone considering

God used about 40 people over a period of 2000 years living in different generations and cultures to write the Bible.

God rested… and it is odd… right… the all knowing, all present, and all powerful… The alpha and the Omega… rested…and we know that God wasn’t winded… wore out or beat down…

Is 40:28 God never grows weak or weary

Ps 121: 4 He never sleeps or slumbers

So what is this about?

His resting… His separating and elevating the 7th day is God communicating another part of His design for creation and for humanity. Part of His pattern and rhythm.

Completing the week… this 7 day measurement of time that is pretty much globally accepted and used… even to this day… why, part of His design.

In the scope of creation it's interesting… God literally just finished creating humanity and now… day 7… God rests…

And the feeling you get as you read on… is that God’s resting is about enjoying His creation in the presence of humanity… or with Humanity in His presence.

We see something important about God’s design…

The late and great Tim Keller wrote a book called Every Good Endeavor… where he unpacks this in amazing detail, but you see God’s design for humanity.

Work hard for 6 days and on the 7th we rest, refocus, reset, and refresh in His presence.

And that is a need… that rest is a need that is woven into you.

We see God’s expectation for humanity to work hard… we see his design for extended rest, reflection and connection with Him; in His presence. We pour out for 6 days… and refill for one.

I believe that it's connected to gratitude and thankfulness… for creation, his presence, His provision… that is represented in the Sabbath.

You don’t hear a ton about it (some) until you get to Ex 20… its where God gave the

10 Commandments…

1. No other Gods before/but Him.

2. Not make/have idols

3. Don’t take God's name lightly or in vain

4. Remember Sabbath and keep it holy

5. Honor mom and dad

6. Don’t murder

7. Don’t commit adultery

8.Don’t steal

9. Don’t lie

10. And don't covet or lust

The placement there is interesting…

1-3 governing our relationship with God…

5-10 behaviors that God expects…

#4 sabbath… seems different… it takes up far more real estate in the Bible…

And it almost feels like a bridge between our view of God and how it affects and impacts how it’s lived out.

Sabbath keeping became a sign of the covenant between God and Israel…

Part of what it means to belong to Him and be a Jew… God made it clear that there was no work to be done by anyone… but as time went on the religious leaders of that day completely lost its meaning. They handled it and added to it… literally was like they were worshiping the sabbath and not the one it points us to. Law keeping over God Himself…

which is part of why Jesus wrote this…

Mark 2:27–28 (NLT)

Mark 2:27–28 NLT

Then Jesus said to them, “The Sabbath was made to meet the needs of people, and not people to meet the requirements of the Sabbath. So the Son of Man is Lord, even over the Sabbath!”

27 Then Jesus said to them, “The Sabbath was made to meet the needs of people, and not people to meet the requirements of the Sabbath. 28 So the Son of Man is Lord, even over the Sabbath!”

Two things…

Jesus is Lord over the Sabbath.

… he is not confined to it or restrained by it and… we don’t worship it… find out meaning, worth or value in rule following… we find it in Jesus.

Jesus tells us…

The Sabbath is designed by God for you.

… a day of resting in Him… enjoying his presence and His creation… of gratitude.. God created and designed that FOR YOU!

Work hard for 6 days… and on day 7 we STOP… we rest, refocus, refill and reflect…

Enjoying the favor and presence of God and its deeply connected with creation.

It is a need that you have… to stop… rest and refill… and refocus and reflect… we worship and connect with God on day #7.

How would your life be different today… if you carved that time out?

There are people out there… like John Piper whos ay that all of the other 10 commandment are fortified in the NT but #4… saying that the Sabbath was only a sign of the OT covenant… and no longer a thing for us today… I’d actually push back on that.

Jesus Himself purposefully… on several occasions… did things and commanded others to do things on the Sabbath that went against what the religious leaders had made the sabbath to be…

Every other rhythm of creation… seems in place…

Days, weeks, seasons… His design for Humanity…

And to be honest… I do think that God still calls us to work hard and to a time of rest.

Not sleeping in until noon… but refocusing and refilling in His presence.

Last week I mentioned how God’s design for gender, sex and marriage are under attack… but I’d tell you I feel like His design for rest, reflection and connection are too.

There is incredible value… in carving out time to refocus and refill… in purposefully enjoying the presence of God… His creation…

I personally believe the Sabbath is still a thing… I don’t know that its tied to any certain day, but part of God’s design is that we’d step back… and refocus and refill in His presence… that we are better… stronger… when we do. It is how we are designed…

And just like the message we did on tithing… when we talk about carving out a day… I often hear… No way… I can’t do that… years ago I was confronted by my mentor when he basically said… Jamey…

Under God it is your responsibility. No one will choose it for you and no one will be accountable but you.

And he’s right… no one will choose it for you.

And I do think that's part of what’s missing in the American church. Spent over 20 years as a youth pastor and noticed some interesting things… one of them… was that there seemed to be a deeper connection with God in the lives of a lot of the students than there was with adults… and part of that I think… was that we were constantly getting them away… for a time to reset, refocus and refill… retreats, camps, mission trips…

So what does it look like to put a day… or a ½ a day… in your calendar and protect it? Turn off your phone and be still and Know he is God?

What does it look like to go on a mission trip?

To be honest… ladies… the word speaks conference last year was a powerful time for that… and I’d encourage you to sign up even today…

The sabbath also points to Jesus…

To that day where we will enter that ultimate rest in His presence. The Sabbath is a foretaste of heaven.