You Need A Time-Out
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You Need A Time-Out
Exodus 20:8–11
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The term has many different applications. Parents use it as a disciplinary tool. A coach uses it to stop the game for a short time. The idea of time-out is stopping, ceasing, or taking a break.
Long before the idea of time-out was thought of for child discipline
or made a sports staple, God called for a time-out in Exodus 20:8–11. Which is our scripture for today.
Exodus 20:8-11
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 of the Lord your God; in it you shall not do any work, you or your son or your daughter, your male or your female servant or your cattle or your sojourner who stays with you.
11 “For in six days the Lord made the heavens and the 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.
Our title for today is ‘You Need A Time-Out’
Israel and the Sabbath
The truth is that Israel has a very long and storied history with the Sabbath. Let’s take a quick look at the Sabbath in Israel’s history.
The Institution of the Sabbath
The practice of the sabbath began a week before the Lord gave the Ten Commandments to Moses, Exodus 16:23-30 says
Exodus 16:23-30
23 then he said to them, “This is what the Lord meant: Tomorrow is a sabbath observance, a holy sabbath to the Lord. Bake what you will bake and boil what you will boil, and all that is left over put aside to be kept until morning.”
24 So they put it aside until morning, as Moses had ordered, and it did not become foul nor was there any worm in it.
25 Moses said, “Eat it today, for today is a sabbath to the Lord; today you will not find it in the field.
26 “Six days you shall gather it, but on the seventh day, the sabbath, there will be none.”
27 It came about on the seventh day that some of the people went out to gather, but they found none.
28 Then the Lord said to Moses, “How long do you refuse to keep My commandments and My instructions?
29 “See, the Lord has given you the sabbath; therefore He gives you bread for two days on the sixth day. Remain every man in his place; let no man go out of his place on the seventh day.”
30 So the people rested on the seventh day.
God then gave it to them as a new law on Mount Sinai (Ex. 20:8–11).
The Importance of the Sabbath – So why is the sabbath so important? Well
• It has a humanitarian purpose—as day of rest. This is so true, but for most of us we find out the hard way. My lovely wife is always reminding me that I need to slow down and rest. You see she remembers all the times she has sat at the hospital with me, the ER, the ICU and out patient services. All to find that the doctors can’t find anything wrong with me. My friend Rev Young tells me that I need to make time to love myself.
• The sabbath is also important because - It has a covenant purpose—Israel is a theocracy (a form of government in which God or a deity is recognized as the supreme civil ruler, the God's or deity's laws being interpreted by the ecclesiastical authorities.
Exodus 31:16
16 ‘So the sons of Israel shall observe the sabbath, to celebrate the sabbath throughout their generations as a perpetual covenant.’
• Then the sabbath -- It has a spiritual purpose—to remind Israel that Yahweh is the God who delivered them
Deuteronomy 5:15
15 ‘You shall remember that you were a slave in the land of Egypt, and the Lord your God brought you out of there by a mighty hand and by an outstretched arm; therefore the Lord your God commanded you to observe the sabbath day.
• and the sabbath -- It has a salvific purpose—it foreshadowed the rest that the Messiah would give them
Hebrews 4:1–3
1 Therefore, let us fear if, while a promise remains of entering His rest, any one of you may seem to have come short of it.
2 For indeed we have had good news preached to us, just as they also; but the word they heard did not profit them, because it was not united by faith in those who heard.
3 For we who have believed enter that rest, just as He has said, “As I swore in My wrath, They shall not enter My rest,” although His works were finished from the foundation of the world.
So let’s look at The Abuse of the Sabbath
Tragically Israel lost sight of the purpose of the Sabbath and turned it into a legalistic nightmare. By the time of Jesus, the Jewish lawyers had developed thirty-nine classifications of work forbidden on the Sabbath.
There were more than fifteen hundred laws to follow for the Sabbath. The Sabbath became a horrible burden for Israel. Can you say that’s ridiculous?
Is it any wonder that Jesus clashed with the Pharisees over the Sabbath so often? Jesus wasn’t diminishing the Sabbath; rather, He was moving it back to its original intent.
Let’s summarize what Jesus did in regard to the Sabbath.
• He protested the idolatry of the Sabbath.
• He proclaimed the true function of the Sabbath (Matt. 12:1–14; Mark 2:23–27; Luke 13:10–17).
• He declared Himself to be Lord of the Sabbath (Matt. 12:8; Mark 2:28).
• and By His death and resurrection, He changed the Sabbath into the Lord’s Day (Acts 20:7; 1 Cor. 16:2; Rev. 1:10).
The New Testament Christian and the Sabbath
So, Does this commandment have any relevance or application for us today? Some would say no, pointing out that the other nine are commanded in the New Testament, but this one is not.
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The fact is that Colossians 2:16–18 says we are not under the Sabbath law.
“16 Therefore no one is to act as your judge in regard to food or drink or in respect to a festival or a new moon or a Sabbath day— 17 things which are a mere shadow of what is to come; but the substance belongs to Christ. 18 Let no one keep defrauding you of your prize by delighting in self-abasement and the worship of the angels, taking his stand on visions he has seen, inflated without cause by his fleshly mind,” [board only]
We have to remember that There were three kinds of laws in Israel.
• The Ceremonial Law (Col. 2:13–17; Heb. 10:1) The ceremonial law is no longer in effect, because it was a foreshadow of Christ, who has fulfilled them all.
• The Civil Law, It consisted of those laws that governed Israel as a nation. Israel was a theocracy. We do not live in a theocracy, so the Sabbath as a civil law doesn’t apply.
• The Moral Law, It consists of those laws that govern our moral conduct. It is the righteous and eternal standard for our relationship with God and with others. It is the spirit of the law. Is there a universal principle that applies to the believer even today? I believe there is. We are not under the law but under grace, which means we can live out the law as God intended it.
What this means is that …….
1. We engage in hard, productive work six days. Many people see work as part of the curse. Sin certainly cursed our work, but work is not a curse.
The fourth commandment dignifies and celebrates productive labor. It commends and applauds hard work. It elevates the work ethic. See your work as an act of worship to God.
[secondly] 2. We set aside one day for the Lord. God says that the Sabbath is “to the Lord.” It is something that we are to give to Him.
How do we give a day to the Lord? What do we do? Well….
[first] a. We rest. We have become so addicted to activity that we don’t know how to stop anymore. If our bodies stop, our minds are racing, and if our minds stop, our bodies are fidgeting. Hurry Sickness is the disease of the twenty-first century. All those things created to free up time have only made us busier.
This addiction to speed comes with horrendous consequences. It has been said that you will get your rest in one of three places—your bed, the hospital, or the grave. We have totally misunderstood the Sabbath command. It is not God trying to put a crimp on our lifestyle; it is God bringing sanity to our lives.
[after we rest we need to] b. We reflect. The Sabbath is also a call to reflect on God and life. In verse 11 God says to reflect on God and what He has done. One of the tragic consequences of our hurried lifestyle is that people don’t have time for God. They just can’t slow down long enough.
Let me give some practical reflections from our text to help us regain the idea of the fourth commandment.
i. God is our Creator. In our busyness, we have forgotten who made us. He knows what is best for us.
ii. God is our Provider. Setting aside a day to the Lord requires us to trust God.
iii. God is Sovereign. Taking that day when everything else is screaming for our attention declares who is our Lord.
iv. God is our Redeemer. It is a time to remember that God is our Savior.
[after we rest and reflect, we need to] c. We revere. We spend time in worship with God’s people. Corporate worship needs to be an important part of keeping the spirit of this command. Jesus thought so (Luke 4:16).
Now, we could stop right here, but there is more than meets the eye
in this command. There is a deeper application of this command.
[thirdly] 3. We enter into the Sabbath rest of Christ (Col. 2:16–17; Heb. 4:1–11). Aren’t you tired of the stress? The turmoil? The chaos?
Why am I telling you all this, its simple we really do need to slow down, let our bodies heal and relax and we need take a do-nothing-day. What’s a do nothing day, well, it’s a day that you schedule nothing but rest. It’s a planned day of rest. I did just that this past Wednesday. I slept until 8:30, put on my sweats and went to get some breakfast. Returned to my room about 9:30, talked to my sister on the phone for a while, then I talked to our son in Dallas and then by then Yvette was awake and I talked to her of a while. And then, the hardest thing I did the rest of the day was fix dinner. You know what, It felt so good.
With that I am done, time for a nap.
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