The Sacred Sabbath: What Is This Rest?

I carry this USB-C to Thunderbolt charger because I’ve found that a lot uber cars and other spaces only have available the USB-C port.

And if my cord doesn’t fit the available port it’s a problem.

Because my life gets complicated in a hurry if I can’t charge my devices.

But, as complicated as my life gets when I can’t recharge my iPhone, it’s nothing compared to what happens to my life when I can’t recharge my body and my soul.

Can I get a witness?

What happens when we can’t recharge?

We all know that we need rest and restoration, that why wellness industry has experienced significant growth in recent years

In 2022, the global wellness economy was valued at $5.6 trillion

Projections indicate it will reach $8.5 trillion by 2027

On average, Americans spend $5,321 per person annually on mental and physical wellness-related products and services

But at the same time as we’re spending billions on wellness actual wellness is experiencing a rapid decline

The World Health Organization (WHO) reported a 25% rise in anxiety and depression

Obesity, diabetes, and other lifestyle-related chronic conditions continue to rise, even among the affluent

We have yoga classes, self-care products, fitness apps, and mindfulness podcasts, but the population is increasingly sick in mind and body. And it feels like we have a bunch of chargers that don’t fit the port.

Could it be that in our frenzied focus on human solutions—products, programs, and personal optimization techniques—we have failed to address a deeper human need?

Could it be that God, the designer of humanity, has already provided a source of holistic human renewal and we have simply ignored it?

I believe God has provided such a resource and that resource is called Sabbath..

I would submit to you today that Sabbath has been rejected by the church because we think of it as Jewish law.

But, the church forgets that Sabbath is rooted, not the Law of Moses, but in the very creation.

And if it is rooted in the creation, then Sabbath is a permanent gift designed for the benefit of humanity.

So we will begin a new sermon series today called, “THE REST OF THE YEAR”

Because this will be our focus for the remainder of this calendar year.

But also because as we plan to do the work of Ambassadors next year (and every year following).

And you can’t take on the work of a Lord without entering the rest of the Lord

Today, We will look at Genesis 2:1-3, the creation account that grounds the sabbath principle.

And there we will see that sabbath is an invitation to a sacred encounter with the God of heaven.

Sabbath is a key means of grace, a channel through which God can impart something of God’s self to us so we can then be renewed and made whole.

Sermon title is The Sacred Sabbath: What Is This Rest?

Genesis 2:1–3 (ESV)

Thus the heavens and the earth were finished, and all the host of them.

And on the seventh day God finished his work that he had done, and he rested on the seventh day from all his work that he had done.

So God blessed the seventh day and made it holy, because on it God rested from all his work that he had done in creation.

PRAYER

Sabbath Is A Reminder To Trust The Finished Work Of God

So much of our anxiety grows out of this feeling of uncertainty about how our lives are going to turn out.

Outfit

Bills

Homework

Health

Legacy

So we work and toil and do things to try to make life what we want it to be.

Sabbath is born out of a finished work.

Adam was placed in the garden to tend and to keep it. But, he was not charged with any work of creation.

Adam was a steward, not an architect

Everything Adam did took place within the context of God’s finished work.

Sabbath reminds us that we are called to be confident stewards, not striving creators.

Sabbath Is An Invitation To Delight The Goodness Of God

When we are not busy trying to secure our future, we are busy seeking pleasure.

This is often a frustrating endeavor because many of the things that we find pleasure the body do not delight the soul.

Very often, we find that things we do to pleasure the body actually exhaust the soul.

Unhealthy Food

Illicit sex acts

The use of drugs and alcohol

2:2 - And on the seventh day God finished his work that he had done, and he rested on the seventh day from all his work that he had done

God didn’t just rest on the 7th day

He finished the work of creation

What was created on the seventh day?

He created stillness and tranquility, cessation, pause, and reflection

By resting on the seventh day, God created rest in the earth realm

But, what does it mean that God rest “from” His work?

Now, this could not be response to exhaustion,

it was an intentional act of separation.

On the seventh day, God took a minute to just be God.

On all the other days, God proclaimed that what He created was good. But, not on the seventh day.

All of the other things God created were the outcome of something God said, so God declared that it was good.

The goodness of the 7th Day was not a goodness to be declared, because it did not flow from what God said. It was a goodness to be experienced. Delighted in. Because it flowed from who God is.

And this is perpetual design for sabbath

It is an invitation to just be to slow down inside

To discover delight in who God is and who we are in God.

Psalm 139:14 is a beautiful sabbath meditation: I praise you, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made. Wonderful are your works; my soul knows it very well.

Sabbath Is A Foretaste Of Eternity With God.

The search for security and pleasure-seeking motivate lots of busyness. But, perhaps nothing hurries and activates us like our efforts to outwit time.

One writer says it this way:

“Time to us is a sarcasm, a slick treacherous monster with a jaw like a furnace incinerating every moment of our lives…the terror of time grows to be a dread of death.”

When we read through the creation account in Genesis chapter 1 we discover that each day of creation is cataloged in time with this phrase, “there was evening and there was morning”.

But, we do not find these words written to catalog the 7th day.

It is as if the 7th day is somehow beyond the reach of time, it escapes and transcends time.

God never closes the 7th day, the day of rest. It exists in a perpetual state of full shalom, total beauty, complete tranquility, and infinite joy.

The seventh day experience is the experience of the rest of God

Adam and Eve walked out of this experience when they sinned, but through sabbath God invites of to have a small taste of what we will experience in eternity.

As John writes in Revelation 22,

“No longer will there be anything accursed, but the throne of God and of the Lamb will be in it, and his servants will worship him. 4 They will see his face, and his name will be on their foreheads. 5 And night will be no more. They will need no light of lamp or sun, for the Lord God will be their light, and they will reign forever and ever.”

Sabbath is an experience that is not susceptible to the tyranny of time because while it takes place in time, it draws its essential essence from eternity.

Beloved, we have all these things and practices that promise us wellness and wholeness, but the evidence suggests they cannot deliver on those promises.

We have a thousand charging chords, but they do not fit the port we need to connect to.

We need divine power to replenish our souls, and Sabbath is the humanity shaped port built into creation so that we can plug in to God.

That’s why, in a real sense, the call of the gospel is a call to sabbath rest.

“Come unto me”, Jesus says, “all you who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you, and learn from me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls."

It's time to plug in.

If you’ve never accepted Jesus’ invitation.

You have not made the sabbath connection

Keep coming back

(these are not Sunday’s to miss)

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