From Work to Sabbath

Introduction

· Last Week – 2nd Service – Rest

Simplify | Solitude |Submit |Sacrifice

o Solitude and Sabbath are Kissing Cousins

· The Fear of talking about the Sabbath – you will rest from serving the Lord – Next Week

· The other fear – many of you are thinking to yourself – I am taking the Sabbath right now

My SABBATH BKREAKING REMINDER

· This morning we are going to see if in our Soul Care we can make Sabbath taking a regular part of our lives

The Original Intention of Sabbath (Exodus 20.8-11)

The Original INTENTION of Sabbath

(NIV84) 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 manservant or maidservant, nor your animals, nor the alien within your gates. 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.

· Rest

(NIV84) 2 By the seventh day God had finished the work he had been doing; so on the seventh day he rested from all his work.

- The Original Intention of Sabbath

o God rested

o Adam and Eve Rested – Paradise

o The Curse Brought work

Rest (Genesis 2.2)

§ 1st Missionaries to Hawaii

God Rested

§ The US is the most overworked Nation

Adam and Eve Rested

What is Work | What is Rest

Definitions

The Curse brought WORK

Establish a Holy Rhythm to our lives (Gen 2.3)

§ 85.8% of males and 66.5% of females work more than 40 hours a week

6 Days WORK - 1 Day Rest

Every Year - Rest part of the land

Every 7 Years - Everything Rests

Strengthen our relationship with God & Others ()

Holy

Holy

Focused worship on God

Focused Tim with Family

§ We work 137 more hours than the Japanese, 260 more hours than the British, and 499 more hours than the French

Focused Time with Friends

Transacts God’s Covenant into our lives ()

Renewing His Promes

What Sabbath has come to be ()

We follow the Letter of the Law, but not the Spirit

The Problem of the Sabbath - Legalism ()

Forgotten

We simplify it to an hour a week

Legalism - We follow the Letter of the Law, but not the Spirit

http://www.thenazareneway.com/sabbath/39_prohib_sabbath.htm

§ We do not get enough sleep, enough rest, or enough time away

Blue Laws

My Story of Non-Sabbath Taking

The Benefits of Sabbath Taking ()

It helps me Reflect and Remember ()

It helps me not to be disobedient ()

It helps Refresh and Restore my Relationship with God and Others ()

A Vacation from my problems - What About Bob - No Clip

How to Start Taking Sabbath ()

Admit you have blown it ()

Ask God to help you ())

Admit

Adjust your schedule TODAY by focusing on your relationship with God and your family ()

The New International Version (1984) Lord of the Sabbath

Then he said to them, “The Sabbath was made for man, not man for the Sabbath. 28 So the Son of Man is Lord even of the Sabbath.”

§ Don’t get me started on CHILDREN!!!

§ We figured out how to win two world wars, get Humans in space with people who had two – three recesses in elementary school

o Work and rest go hand and hand – if you get imbalanced you can wreck your life…

- The How of Taking Sabbath

§ We are the fattest nation in the world

- The Benefits of Taking the Sabbath

§ We lead the way in chronic conditions can be controlled and avoided with healthy lifestyle and exercise, including: cardiovascular disease, type 2 diabetes, infertility, hypertension, sleep apnea, high cholesterol, high blood pressure, osteoporosis, depression, anxiety, stress, and many more.

It helps us Reflect and Remember (Deut 5.15)

§ This generation will be the FIRST to live shorter lives than their parents!!!

From Work to Sabbath

Pastors are ONE of the WORST offenders of this

· Establishes a holy rhythm to our lives

(NIV84) 3 And God blessed the seventh day and made it holy, because on it he rested from all the work of creating that he had done.

o The Key Word is HOLY – Soul Care!!!

o 6 day WORK | 1 Day Rest – work/life balance

o Every Year – Rest a part of the Land

o Every 7 years – Everything Rests

Hook – what is so important

about your very important business…

· Strengthens our relationship with God & others

(NIV84) 12 “Six days do your work, but on the seventh day do not work, so that your ox and your donkey may rest and the slave born in your household, and the alien as well, may be refreshed.

o Focused time with God

o Focused time with family

o Focused time with others

· Transacts God’s Covenant into our lives

Review - make sure to say while Solitude and Sabbath are Kissing Cousins and have overlap - they are not the same thing!!!!

(NIV84) 16 The Israelites are to observe the Sabbath, celebrating it for the generations to come as a lasting covenant.

o A continual renewing of God’s Promises

o A continual reminder of our dependence on God

What Sabbath has COME to be

(NIV84) 27 Then he said to them, “The Sabbath was made for man, not man for the Sabbath. 28 So the Son of Man is Lord even of the Sabbath.”

· Forgotten

· Simplified to an hour a week

o Adam at the Hotel – it’s ok we are not at church today – my dad is a Pastor

The fear of talking about Sabbath - is some people decide to take a sabbath from church

· Legalistic – we follow the letter of the law, but not the Spirit

o When is the 7th DAY? – Mine is Friday!!!!

o Pharisaical Laws

§ Washing clothes

§ Untying or Tying

§ Writing/Erasing Two or more letters

Work and rest go hand and hand - if you get imbalanced you can wreck you spiritual life and physical life

§ Building/Demolishing

§ Making/Putting out a fire

What part of Creation are you failing to Rest in and Enjoy???

§ Carrying something more than 2 yards

§ Walking more than half a mile

My story - Work led to me being over 300 pounds and a very sad relationship with my family

Some of you are RESTING from the wrong areas

o Blue Laws ( Same Spirit of Legalism)

Some of you have forgotten for yourself and your children - what UNORGANIZED PLAY is

https://www.cdc.gov/sleep/data_statistics.html

The Benefits of Sabbath TAKING

(NIV84)8 For if Joshua had given them rest, God would not have spoken later about another day. 9 There remains, then, a Sabbath-rest for the people of God; 10 for anyone who enters God’s rest also rests from his own work, just as God did from his.

· It helps me reflect and remember

· It helps me not to be disobedient

· It helps refresh and restore my relationship with God and others

(ESV) 28 Come to me, all who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. 29 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. 30 For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light.”

How to start TAKING Sabbath

https://www.theguardian.com/sustainable-business/2016/jun/30/america-working-hours-minimum-wage-overworked

(NIV84)11 Let us, therefore, make every effort to enter that rest, so that no one will fall by following their example of disobedience.

· Admit you have blown it

(ESV) 6 Since therefore it remains for some to enter it, and those who formerly received the good news failed to enter because of disobedience,

· Ask God to help you

(ESV) 2 He makes me lie down in green pastures. He leads me beside still waters. 3 He restores my soul. He leads me in paths of righteousness for his name’s sake.

https://20somethingfinance.com/american-hours-worked-productivity-vacation/

· Adjust your schedule TODAY by focusing on your relationship with God and your family (ESV) 7 again he appoints a certain day, “Today,” saying through David so long afterward, in the words already quoted, “Today, if you hear his voice, do not harden your hearts.”

Ministry Time Invitation

Video Clip What About Bob - take a Vacation from your problems

· Practice Rest – Get comfortable Keep your clothes on - hah

· If you have a work –rest imbalance - Prayer

Genesis 2:1–3 NIV84

Thus the heavens and the earth were completed in all their vast array. By the seventh day God had finished the work he had been doing; so on the seventh day he rested from all his work. And God blessed the seventh day and made it holy, because on it he rested from all the work of creating that he had done.

Exodus 20:8–11 NIV84

“Remember the Sabbath day by keeping it holy. Six days you shall labor and do all your work, 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 manservant or maidservant, nor your animals, nor the alien within your gates. 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.

Deuteronomy 5:12–15 ESV

“ ‘Observe the Sabbath day, to keep it holy, as the Lord your God commanded you. Six days you shall labor and do all your work, but the seventh day is a Sabbath to the Lord your God. On it you shall not do any work, you or your son or your daughter or your male servant or your female servant, or your ox or your donkey or any of your livestock, or the sojourner who is within your gates, that your male servant and your female servant may rest as well as you. You shall remember that you were a slave in the land of Egypt, and the Lord your God brought you out from there with a mighty hand and an outstretched arm. Therefore the Lord your God commanded you to keep the Sabbath day.

Mark 2:27–28 NIV84

Then he said to them, “The Sabbath was made for man, not man for the Sabbath. So the Son of Man is Lord even of the Sabbath.”

Hebrews

Hebrews 4:1–13 NIV84

Therefore, since the promise of entering his rest still stands, let us be careful that none of you be found to have fallen short of it. For we also have had the gospel preached to us, just as they did; but the message they heard was of no value to them, because those who heard did not combine it with faith. Now we who have believed enter that rest, just as God has said, “So I declared on oath in my anger, ‘They shall never enter my rest.’ ” And yet his work has been finished since the creation of the world. For somewhere he has spoken about the seventh day in these words: “And on the seventh day God rested from all his work.” And again in the passage above he says, “They shall never enter my rest.” It still remains that some will enter that rest, and those who formerly had the gospel preached to them did not go in, because of their disobedience. Therefore God again set a certain day, calling it Today, when a long time later he spoke through David, as was said before: “Today, if you hear his voice, do not harden your hearts.” For if Joshua had given them rest, God would not have spoken later about another day. There remains, then, a Sabbath-rest for the people of God; for anyone who enters God’s rest also rests from his own work, just as God did from his. Let us, therefore, make every effort to enter that rest, so that no one will fall by following their example of disobedience. For the word of God is living and active. Sharper than any double-edged sword, it penetrates even to dividing soul and spirit, joints and marrow; it judges the thoughts and attitudes of the heart. Nothing in all creation is hidden from God’s sight. Everything is uncovered and laid bare before the eyes of him to whom we must give account.

Rest = revive, remain quiet, cessation, relief, cause to cease, sleep, to settle down, to be peaceful

Exodus 23:12 NIV84

“Six days do your work, but on the seventh day do not work, so that your ox and your donkey may rest and the slave born in your household, and the alien as well, may be refreshed.

Exodus 31:12–17 ESV

And the Lord said to Moses, “You are to speak to the people of Israel and say, ‘Above all you shall keep my Sabbaths, for this is a sign between me and you throughout your generations, that you may know that I, the Lord, sanctify you. You shall keep the Sabbath, because it is holy for you. Everyone who profanes it shall be put to death. Whoever does any work on it, that soul shall be cut off from among his people. Six days shall work be done, but the seventh day is a Sabbath of solemn rest, holy to the Lord. Whoever does any work on the Sabbath day shall be put to death. Therefore the people of Israel shall keep the Sabbath, observing the Sabbath throughout their generations, as a covenant forever. It is a sign forever between me and the people of Israel that in six days the Lord made heaven and earth, and on the seventh day he rested and was refreshed.’ ”

Psalm 23:2–3 NIV84

He makes me lie down in green pastures, he leads me beside quiet waters, he restores my soul. He guides me in paths of righteousness for his name’s sake.

Matthew 11:28–30 NIV84

“Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. 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. For my yoke is easy and my burden is light.”

Isaiah 40:29–31 NIV84

He gives strength to the weary and increases the power of the weak. Even youths grow tired and weary, and young men stumble and fall; but those who hope in the Lord will renew their strength. They will soar on wings like eagles; they will run and not grow weary, they will walk and not be faint.