Kingdom Living: Embracing Sabbath as a Core Value Multitasking

Summary of last week

Sabbath (שַׁבָּת, shabbath):

It means that you STOP or to cease from

Nuakh:

Rested or settled in

We looked at the number 7 in Genesis 1 and saw the reoccurrence of the number in the text.

New American Standard Hebrew-Aramaic and Greek Dictionaries: Updated Edition 7651 שֶׁבַע (sheba), שִׁבְעָה (shibah)

שֶׁבַע sheba

The number 7 in Hebrew

It communicated a sense of “fullness” or “completeness” (Seven is spelled with the same consonants as the word “complete/full” in Hebrew)

In Genesis 1:1 we see the beginning and the end. The Sabbath in Genesis 2 of the creation Narrative points us to the end of the story as well.

It does not say there was morning and then evening. We believe this is intentional because it points to the end of the story when we will reign with Jesus forever Full and Complete.

Throughout the creation narrative we see the flow of life with Sabbath mixed in. Day 4 points us to the other festivals. So we see the beginning and end in verse 1 and Day 4 the festivals of Sabbath and rest and then of course Day 7 God himself Stops from the work of creating and then His presence fills the Garden. The text says on 7th day he blesses it or

May it be abundant.

May it be full.

May it be exponentially Complete.

(Illustration)

Colten and Kylie with the sweet tea

Bag of chips

Cereal

Medicine

Walmart Pickup produce

Wanting it to be completely full

Sip stealer

Coffee

squeezing the gas handle after shutting off Turn handle upside down

This is the tension for us in life. We are constantly seeking to be full and complete. We long to be full and complete. Consumerism often drives us to believe that stuff can make us full and complete.

I am exhausted so I am just going to veg out on my phone and just relax watching reels.

If I had more stuff or more money then I would be more full and complete.

This desire to be full and complete drives us. Day 7 God rest and the number seven means full and complete. Day 7 does not end so it points to the end of all time when we are forever with Jesus full and complete.

Practicing the Sabbath reminds us of God’s desire for us to be full and complete.

This constant desire to live full and complete lives has us constantly searching, striving, pushing, and chasing after the next big thing that will make us complete and full.

This causes us to

Multitasking

Think about it for a minute. Students often have 5 different inputs coming at them while doing homework. They will be listening to music with an earbud, doing homework, text messaging a friend, on their chromebook, and the tv is on.

In 2007, students from Kansas State University surveyed themselves and discovered they cram 27.5 hours of activity into every day-multitasking. (Elmore Gen Z Unfiltered)

Multitasking can be helpful. If I am driving somewhere, then I can also be on the phone chatting with my dad while taking my kids to school.

Tim Elmore argues that multitasking is damaging our students. They grew up with social media and they are constantly multitasking. Of course the dangers of texting and driving are harming our students but he argues it is more than just this. Multitasking is playing in to depression and anxiety.

A squirt of dopamine is released when we accomplish one of the items on our multitasking list. It makes us feel good. This leads us to pursuing more short-term task or easier task that make us feel good. We are soon caught up in quantity over quality. We work harder not smarter. We don’t really focus. Sadly, we trade in health and value for speed and volume.

Read Page 154… MIT Neuroscientist Earl Miller reveals that our brains are “not wired to multitask” …

“A study at the University of London demonstrated that people who multitask while performing cognitive tasks experience measurable IQ drops. Believe it or not, the IQ drops were akin to what you see in those who skip a night of sleep or who smoke marijuana”

Most of all, doctors tell us that multitasking causes an increase in the production of cortisol, the stress hormone. When our brain consistently shifts gears, it creates stress and tires out, leaving us feeling mentally fatigued. In addition, the barrage of information is overwhelming. Figuring out what you need to pay attention to and what you don’t can be downright exhausting.

Multitasking for the sake of feeling full or complete.

The opposite of Multitasking...

Mindfulness

the basic human ability to be fully present, aware of where we are and what we’re doing and not overly reactive or overwhelmed by what’s going on around us.

The average American consumes ten thousand messages a day.

8 Years ago there were 950,000 apps in the app store.

Today there are over 2 million and apples says we want you to feel good about using every single one of them.

Mindfulness according to Psychological Science (that is clearing or focusing our minds) can control stress, improve sleep, and even avoid illness.

The American Psychological Association cites it as a hopeful strategy for alleviating depression, anxiety, and pain.

Two Kinds of Work

Genesis 2:15 HCSB

15 The Lord God took the man and placed him in the garden of Eden to work it and watch over it.

Nuahk: He settles him into the garden.

All throughout this narrative here in Genesis 2 it continues to point back to God as creator and He God creating this Garden and building out the garden if you will and then he places man into this Garden of Eden.

Have you ever made a Garden before?

Starting a garden takes a lot of work!

Once the garden is started, then the work slows down some.

God does the work to create the garden and then he places man there to work it or cultivate it and watch over it or steward it.

I really like the analogy that the Bible project guys use. They say this work is much like sorting your kids Halloween candy. You have candy that you did not get or collect and now the work that you do is to sort their candy so that the chocolate does not get mixed up with a twizzler. If that stays one night, then it will guarantee taste like a chocolate twizzler. So you have to sort this candy.

The other thought on this would be the idea of the work it takes to open a birthday or Christmas gift. I think of a young toddler who works to unwrap the gift and then the excitement they find on the inside of the gift.

This is the type of work that is happening before the fall of creation. It’s like you accidently drop a seed and boom the seed sprouts and there is abundance.

The purpose of man in the garden is to work but it is enjoyable work.

Genesis 2:16 HCSB

16 And the Lord God commanded the man, “You are free to eat from any tree of the garden,

Eat and enjoy the land

Contingent on Trust and Obedience

Genesis 2:17 HCSB

17 but you must not eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, for on the day you eat from it, you will certainly die.”

The enemy begins to tempt them and say your cup is not full and complete here in the garden. You need to explore the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.

Trust and an obedient response to God’s will is necessary for humans to experience the ultimate Sabbath rest

The Bible Project

Adam and Eve are tempted and they give in to the temptation believing that they are not full and complete without the knowledge of good and evil.

The result is the second type of work.

Genesis 3:17–19 HCSB

17 And He said to Adam, “Because you listened to your wife’s voice and ate from the tree about which I commanded you, ‘Do not eat from it’: The ground is cursed because of you. You will eat from it by means of painful labor all the days of your life. 18 It will produce thorns and thistles for you, and you will eat the plants of the field. 19 You will eat bread by the sweat of your brow until you return to the ground, since you were taken from it. For you are dust, and you will return to dust.”

Because you disobeyed and ate from the tree of knowledge of good and evil.

The ground is cursed.

You will eat from it by means of painful labor.

No longer do you drop a seed and abundance springs up but now you will eat to survive by painful labor all the days of your life.

Now too exist you must work the ground and labor in it.

It will produce thorns and thistles

This is quite the contrast from Genesis 2:9

Genesis 2:9 (HCSB)

9 The Lord God caused to grow out of the ground every tree pleasing in appearance and good for food,

Now it will produce thorns and thistles.

I have very good memories of riding in the pickup truck with my grandpa looking for thistles. I also have memories of wanting to get back to the house with grandma and grandpa spotting a thistle that we had to deal with. We had to eliminate the thistles so the cattle would not try and eat them. You ever eliminated a thistle? It is not easy work. It is in my opinion painful labor.

You will eat from the sweat of your brow

Old Testament Example of a desire to be full and complete 2 Chronicles 26.

2 Chronicles 25:1–5 HCSB

1 Amaziah became king when he was 25 years old and reigned 29 years in Jerusalem. His mother’s name was Jehoaddan; she was from Jerusalem. 2 He did what was right in the Lord’s sight but not wholeheartedly. 3 As soon as the kingdom was firmly in his grasp, he executed his servants who had murdered his father the king. 4 However, he did not put their children to death, because—as it is written in the Law, in the book of Moses, where the Lord commanded—“Fathers must not die because of children, and children must not die because of fathers, but each one will die for his own sin.” 5 Then Amaziah gathered Judah and assembled them according to ancestral house, according to commanders of thousands, and according to commanders of hundreds. He numbered those 20 years old or more for all Judah and Benjamin. He found there to be 300,000 choice men who could serve in the army, bearing spear and shield.

He is 16 years old and He is focused on seeking the Lord.

God helps him and he has success against the Philistines and others.

2 Chronicles 26:14–15 HCSB

14 Uzziah provided the entire army with shields, spears, helmets, armor, bows and slingstones. 15 He made skillfully designed devices in Jerusalem to shoot arrows and catapult large stones for use on the towers and on the corners. So his fame spread even to distant places, for he was marvelously helped until he became strong.

2 Chronicles 26:16–20 HCSB

16 But when he became strong, he grew arrogant and it led to his own destruction. He acted unfaithfully against the Lord his God by going into the Lord’s sanctuary to burn incense on the incense altar. 17 Azariah the priest, along with 80 brave priests of the Lord, went in after him. 18 They took their stand against King Uzziah and said, “Uzziah, you have no right to offer incense to the Lord —only the consecrated priests, the descendants of Aaron, have the right to offer incense. Leave the sanctuary, for you have acted unfaithfully! You will not receive honor from the Lord God.” 19 Uzziah, with a firepan in his hand to offer incense, was enraged. But when he became enraged with the priests, in the presence of the priests in the Lord’s temple beside the altar of incense, a skin disease broke out on his forehead. 20 Then Azariah the chief priest and all the priests turned to him and saw that he was diseased on his forehead. They rushed him out of there. He himself also hurried to get out because the Lord had afflicted him.

In order to be full and complete Uzziah ignores the priest and goes to burn his own incense. He does not rely on others and takes things into his own hands.

It is His desire to do it all himself and enter into the Lord Sanctuary that leads to His illness and eventually death.

Cell phone

The pings, the rings, the videos is not the sound of victory or the sound of defeat. It is crying out for attention.

Some may intentionally wait till you get sit down in church to check your messages and respond to the text because you have not had time all morning.

Some of the smiles I see reflected on your face may not be a response to the spoken word but to what you have shared between each other on your devices.

Alternative

What if you challenged yourself to during Sabbath you hold the power down and you slide it off.

Full and Complete Jesus

Matthew 4:1–10 HCSB

1 Then Jesus was led up by the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted by the Devil. 2 After He had fasted 40 days and 40 nights, He was hungry. 3 Then the tempter approached Him and said, “If You are the Son of God, tell these stones to become bread.” 4 But He answered, “It is written: Man must not live on bread alone but on every word that comes from the mouth of God.” 5 Then the Devil took Him to the holy city, had Him stand on the pinnacle of the temple, 6 and said to Him, “If You are the Son of God, throw Yourself down. For it is written: He will give His angels orders concerning you, and they will support you with their hands so that you will not strike your foot against a stone.” 7 Jesus told him, “It is also written: Do not test the Lord your God.” 8 Again, the Devil took Him to a very high mountain and showed Him all the kingdoms of the world and their splendor. 9 And he said to Him, “I will give You all these things if You will fall down and worship me.” 10 Then Jesus told him, “Go away, Satan! For it is written: Worship the Lord your God, and serve only Him.”

Sabbath is to stop or cease

Sabbath brings us to realizing that God is sovereign.

God is the one who causes the crops to grow.

Stop on the Sabbath and worship. Stop and see that God is pointing to a future hope of Sabbath.

Stop and see that God is preparing a future land that is full and complete. A place where you will be full and complete.