The Sabbath is about Resistance & Remembrance (2)

Why do we struggle to Rest? It’s because we believe a lie and today we’re gonna expose what that lie is.

So if you have a Bible please turn to Deuteronomy Chapter 5.

If you are using one of our Blue Bibles it is found on page: 257

Deuteronomy 5:12–15 NIV

12 “Observe the Sabbath day by keeping it holy, as the Lord your God has commanded you. 13 Six days you shall labor and do all your work, 14 but the seventh day is a sabbath to the Lord your God. On it you shall not do any work, neither you, nor your son or daughter, nor your male or female servant, nor your ox, your donkey or any of your animals, nor any foreigner residing in your towns, so that your male and female servants may rest, as you do. 15 Remember that you were slaves in Egypt and that the Lord your God brought you out of there with a mighty hand and an outstretched arm. Therefore the Lord your God has commanded you to observe the Sabbath day.

Is this a error in the Bible or it’s trustworthiness? Certainly not. God wants to teach us something more about why He established sabbath for us.

The first time in reference to 6 Days of Creation

The second time in reference to God’s Deliverance from Egypt

Did you know of the 10 Commandments that were given to us by God, only one is restated?

It’s the only command in the Decalog that is ever restated.

(Chronologically Exodus 20 occured before Deut 5)

If you are using one of our Blue Bibles it is found on page: 109

Exodus 20:8–11 NIV

8 “Remember the Sabbath day by keeping it holy. 9 Six days you shall labor and do all your work, 10 but the seventh day is a sabbath to the Lord your God. On it you shall not do any work, neither you, nor your son or daughter, nor your male or female servant, nor your animals, nor any foreigner residing in your towns. 11 For in six days the Lord made the heavens and the earth, the sea, and all that is in them, but he rested on the seventh day. Therefore the Lord blessed the Sabbath day and made it holy.

Economy of Pharaoh - Background

If you are using one of our Blue Bibles it is found on page: 86

Exodus 5:4 NIV

4 But the king of Egypt said, “Moses and Aaron, why are you taking the people away from their labor? Get back to your work!”

Exodus 5:5 NIV

5 Then Pharaoh said, “Look, the people of the land are now numerous, and you are stopping them from working.”

Exodus 5:7–8 NIV

7 “You are no longer to supply the people with straw for making bricks; let them go and gather their own straw. 8 But require them to make the same number of bricks as before; don’t reduce the quota. They are lazy; that is why they are crying out, ‘Let us go and sacrifice to our God.’

Exodus 5:9 NIV

9 Make the work harder for the people so that they keep working and pay no attention to lies.”

Exodus 5:10–11 NIV

10 Then the slave drivers and the overseers went out and said to the people, “This is what Pharaoh says: ‘I will not give you any more straw. 11 Go and get your own straw wherever you can find it, but your work will not be reduced at all.’ ”

“The rhetoric is relentless, and thus reflects a relentless production cycle.”

Define Economy of Pharaoh

Economy of Pharaoh: anytime we value production over people

Examples:

Academic GPA or Test Score

Marriage - the ability to please your spouse, produce kids, make money

Corporate - ability to make sales, expand cliental

Athletics - how much you can bench or how fast you can run the mile

Football Story (shorten 2-3min)

“And you know what that’s like to feel discarded when you failed to produce the result they wanted”

You got a phone call from the employer you wanted to work for and they said - not good enough

You opened the email from the school you wanted to go to and they said - not good enough

You got coffee with someone you were interested in and they said - not good enough

We believe the lie: that our worth is found in what we can do, in how much we can produce.

We believe that our identity is found in what we do

But isn’t that the point?

Exodus 5:9 NIV

9 Make the work harder for the people so that they keep working and pay no attention to lies.”

Pharaoh want’s you to believe the lie - that your worth and your value is contingent on what you can produce.

Pharaoh views you not as a person but as a commodity to be discarded

So you know what I did next? I went to med school.

Why because I loved the economy of Pharaoh - and I still believed my worth was found in what I could do.

I love the economy of Phara

1. Sabbath is Resistance

Resistance of Economy of Pharaoh

Who is Pharaoh?

Who is Pharaoh? Is it our Boss? Is it our culture? Or is he, us?

I was so deeply convicted by this with our own household. I have a tendency to identify todos on Saturday.

Type A,

Workaholic

Achievement oriented

Martha not Mary

Resistance of Self

Put to death workaholism. Desire to achieve, produce, get ahead.

When I apply the Sabbath I am taking the lie that my worth and my value is found in what I do and I am crucifying it to the cross!

I’m choosing to declare that I am not defined by my performance or my output

2.The Sabbath is not just a resistance, it is a reminder.

Deuteronomy 5:15 NIV

15 Remember that you were slaves in Egypt and that the Lord your God brought you out of there with a mighty hand and an outstretched arm. Therefore the Lord your God has commanded you to observe the Sabbath day.

A positive Command. - Remember!

8 of the 10 commands are stated in the negative. But this command is stated in the positive. Because there’s something positive God wants to give us through it. What’s fascinating; is that the one positive command requires stopping. It’s a disciple of abstinence. The positive command is not only to rest but to REMEMBER.

You shall have no God’s before me.

You shall not make for yourself an idol.

You shall not misuses the name of the LORD.

Remember the Sabbath day.

Honor your father and mother

You shall not murder.

You shall not commit adultery

You shall not steal.

You shall not lie.

You shall not covet.

All 9 commands are an expression of what our life looks like when we keep the first command. The reason it is so hard for us to keep the sabbath, is not simply because we value productivity but because of idolatry.

Why did Moses ask Pharaoh to let Israel go?

Exodus 5:1 NIV

1 Afterward Moses and Aaron went to Pharaoh and said, “This is what the Lord, the God of Israel, says: ‘Let my people go, so that they may hold a festival to me in the wilderness.’ ”

To worship and rest in God’s presence - to be with God!

It reminds us who we belong to.

In the New Testament, Jesus says this:

Matthew 11:28–30 (NIV)

28 “Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. 29 Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. 30 For my yoke is easy and my burden is light.”

The reason this is such an attractive verse, is because it’s a picture of heaven. It is a picture that runs in stark contrast to the way of this world. Jesus is inviting us into heaven here and now, today.

If we continue to live in the ways of this world, we won’t experience the life God longs for us to have. But the good news is:

The thing that you were made for you don’t have to wait for

why is rest such a gift because in the Divine Economy you’re worth isn’t predicated on how much you can produce or achieve. Your worth is bestowed upon you by the King of the Cosmos, the one who conquored life and death just to make a way for you to enter into eden, to enter into heaven, to have true rest. Not just from doing, but a rest for your soul!

Positive Example: William Wilberforce

William Willberforce:

“in British history as the MP who after decades of labour brought forward legislation to ban slavery, knew the truth of this. Wilberforce was a committed Christian and never felt it right to work on a Sunday. Within a few years as a politician, he had made a great impression, and was being upped for a high position in the cabinet. The atmosphere around Westminster at the time was heady and Wilberforce felt flattered that his hard work was on the point of being rewarded.

However, after resting during the following Sunday, his view of his possible promotion changed and he was able to write in his diary that 'these earthly things assume their true size'. His day of rest had given him a sense of perspective. Incidentally, Wilberforce was also well aware of the physical and mental value of a Sunday's rest.

Later in life, he was to write sadly of his contemporaries who had broken under the pressure of pol-itics, With peaceful Sundays, the strings would never have snapped as they did from over tension.’”

pg 202 Living the Ten Commandments in the 21st Century by J. John

Action of how to apply Resistance & Remembrance

Emojis

The reason sabbath is so challenging for us to implement is because it highlights where our allegiance lies. It highlights whether we are living for God or for Pharaoh.

Implementing the Sabbath is one of the we resist the economy of Pharaoh, it’s the way we remind ourselves who we are, and its one of the most tangible ways we tear down our idols. When we take a sabbath we are choosing to declare who our God is, who we belong to and to enter into the rest that He longs for us to have.