Remember the Sabbath

- Then Jesus said to them, “The Sabbath was made to meet the needs of people, and not people to meet the requirements of the Sabbath.”

Remember the Sabbath

This morning were going to talk about something I haven’t heard preached much in a way I haven’t heard it preached, even here at Love Christian Center. We’re going to talk about the Sabbath.

When I came up, I always heard remember the Sabbath and keep it holy, which meant, Sunday dinner was cooked on Saturday, you go to church on Sunday and you stay there all day. In the Baptist Church the day began with Sunday School, then church, then you go home where mama heats up the dinner she cooked on Saturday, you eat, then go back to church for Baptist Training Union, that’s what BTU stands for and then evening service. And at the end of the day you were exhausted from being at church all day.

Can I blow your mind a little bit right here? That’s not what God intended when He created the Sabbath. In the Old Testament, the Sabbath was observed on Saturday. It was observed on Saturday because that’s the day the Bible says God rested. “So the creation of the heavens and the earth and everything in them was completed. On the seventh day God had finished his work of creation, so he rested from all his work. And God blessed the seventh day and declared it holy, because it was the day when he rested from all his work of creation.”

Sunday is the first day of the week and Saturday is the seventh day. The New Testament church goes to church and uses Sunday as it’s Sabbath because when Jesus was crucified he rose on Sunday. “Early on Sunday morning, while it was still dark, Mary Magdalene came to the tomb and found that the stone had been rolled away from the entrance; 14 She turned to leave and saw someone standing there. It was Jesus.” We celebrate the fact that Jesus rose on Sunday so we worship on Sunday, not Saturday, but that’s worship.

So let’s say you have to work on Sunday and you aren’t able to come to church, but you’re off on Wed night; well we have Bible Study on Wed night, Wednesday becomes your day of Worship. You come to Bible study, the order of service is a little different but, Bible study is a Worship service. We come together, we pray, we have a lesson from the Bible, you can give your tithe and offering if you want and we can even open the doors of the church if you are currently a visitor. We must stop getting so hung up on the “method” that we miss “message”.

The message is to make disciples and teach them to observe what Jesus has commanded not what we traditionally do in church. Wow isn’t that freeing? We have to get this, the Gospel message is not just about coming to church and doing things in the church and programs in the church and services in the church. The Gospel is about winning souls for the Kingdom of God and the souls that need to be saved are not going to be found sitting in this building. We have to go out into the highways and byways and the hedges and bring people to Christ, we have to leave these four walls to tell a dying world about a man who came to save their soul from a burning hell and…

sometimes that message must begin in our own home

sometimes that message must begin with our own family

sometimes that message must begin with our own friends

sometimes that message must begin with our own acquaintances

sometimes that message must begin with our own coworkers

While there is a natural flow, where you begin is not as important as beginning. Start with somebody, start with anybody, but start.

While there is a natural flow, says, “… and ye shall be witnesses unto me both in Jerusalem, and in all Judaea, and in Samaria, and unto the uttermost part of the earth.” Jerusalem is your Douglasville, Judea is your Atlanta, Samaria is your Georgia and the uttermost part of the earth is just that. But can I tell you, where you begin is not as important as beginning. Start with somebody, somewhere; start with anybody, anytime, but start.

Now back to the Sabbath, when God finished making everything the Scripture said he rested on the seventh day. Church, God didn’t rest because he was tired, this rest was to take a step back and enjoy what he had created.

Have you seen people who work and work and work, they make a lot of money, but they are working so much they never enjoy the fruits of their labor. God took a minute to enjoy the fruit of his labor and he has given us that same command.

Now in the Old Testament, those who failed to observe the Sabbath were put to death, today if you fail to enjoy a Sabbath, the same thing happens, but you are doing it to yourself. Everything has cycles, the earth, the weather, the stock market, the housing industry and your body is no different. Your body must have its time to cycle through all of its functions.

Ok, let’s do a short biology lesson. The body has three cycles known as circadian rhythms and it performs certain functions during each cycle. There is the:

1) Elimination cycle which is the body getting rid of wastes and food debris. This typically happens between 4 a.m. - 12 noon. This is the stage where your body is releasing toxins so you may find yourself waking up sweaty, with a headache or bad breath, this is your body detoxing, it’s your body getting rid of what it doesn’t need.

2) Appropriation cycle - this typically takes place between noon and 8 p.m. You’re wide awake and most active during this time, so this is when you’re eating and digesting your food. We need to get back to the habits we had as babies, babies only eat when they’re hungry and they don’t wait so that they end up overeating by eating too fast and missing the relay from the stomach to the brain that says I’m full stop eating. Slow down, take your time and relax as you eat.

3) Assimilation cycle - this typically takes place from 8 p.m.- 4 a.m. This is the time you are most likely to be relaxed or sleeping. This is the time when your body is absorbing the nutrients and minerals from your food and transporting it to your organs, bones and cells through the blood. It’s when all the rebuilding, renewing and healing takes place.

Because of this, you should eat dinner early, so the foods you eat are digested and out of the stomach to prepare for this phase. As all the goodness gets drawn from the food to strengthen you, the remains get ready for Elimination, and the cycle starts all over again.

The body must have its time of rest, it must have time to rejuvenate, repair and restore itself. So with that there are stages of sleep

Stage 1: Your eyes are closed, but it's easy to wake you up.

Stage 2: You are in light sleep. Your heart rate slows and your body temperature drops. Your body is getting ready for deep sleep.

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Stages 3: Is the deep sleep stage. It's harder to wake you up during this stage, if someone woke you up, you would feel disoriented for a few minutes.

During the deep stages of sleep, the body repairs and regrows tissues, builds bone and muscle, and strengthens the immune system.

Do you find yourself being sick a lot, weak, with no energy, it’s not only about what you eat, how are you sleeping.

We’re working our way to the Sabbath. We can get mixed up when it comes to what it means to observe the Sabbath and thinking there is just one day it can be observed, which is Sunday.

First, what does Jesus say about the Sabbath? Our text says, “Then Jesus said to them,” who was Jesus talking to and why was there a need to talk about this? The answer starts in verse 23. Jesus and his disciples were walking through some cornfields, they were hungry so they picked some corn and started to eat.

Now how many of you know, there will always be someone watching what you’re doing not to praise or emulate you, but to find fault. Be prepared, and know, not everyone wants you to do well. Not everyone will rejoice in your new found freedom, not everyone will rejoice in your salvation. But guess what, you’re not here for their pleasure, in fact Paul said in , “Therefore, my beloved, just as you have always obeyed me, not only in my presence, but much more now in my absence, work out your own salvation with fear and trembling; for it is God who is at work in you, enabling you both to will and to work for his good pleasure.”

God is at work in you, so you can work for his good pleasure. You’re not working for man, you’re working for God and your only desire should be to please him so you can hear, well done though good and faithful servant. Don’t look for the praise of man here on this earth, if you’re looking for man’s praise the Bible says you have your reward. Store up treasures in heaven where they won’t rust and the moths won’t destroy them. Don’t get me wrong, it’s good to show appreciation for your fellow man and woman, it’s good to be appreciated by your fellow man and woman, but that’s not why you work, that’s not why you do what you do in the house of the Lord.

Now Jesus and his disciples are walking through the cornfields and the Pharisees began to question Jesus about why they were breaking the law by harvesting grain on the Sabbath. There are a couple of things to note here.

First, for the Pharisees to have seen this, they had to be following them. What were they looking for and why were they following them through a cornfield. Has anyone ever walked through or seen a cornfield? You may or may not know cornstalks can average about 8 feet tall and the world record is 30 feet. So let’s say these cornfield was average and the stalks were about eight feet high, how did the Pharisees see what they were doing?

I always feel like somebody’s watching me

There are people who’s aim and goal in life is to catch you doing something they can criticize you for.

Second, they exaggerated the facts. There is a huge difference between picking some corn and eating it as you walk and harvesting.

Did you know that to exaggerate is to lie? People will lie on you. Don’t be dismayed, don’t be discouraged and don’t be deterred from your mission.

Then Jesus breaks it down to them and used David as an example, because where they were at the time, David was a great king and the Pharisees would be familiar with what Jesus said. You have to meet people where they are and find common ground if you’re going to win them to Christ.

And finally we get to our meat for today; “Then Jesus said to them, ‘The Sabbath was made to meet the needs of people, and not people to meet the requirements of the Sabbath.

So what am I saying? Those rhythms I talked about earlier—one of them includes one out of every seven days, being a day of rest, being a Sabbath day.

There is one thing every human being has in common, from Ghandi, to Mother Teresa, to Einstein, to the president, to Bill Gates, to Mark Zuckerberg, to Tyler Perry to Oprah Winfrey, we all get 365 days a year, 24 hours a day, 60 minutes an hour, and 60 seconds a minute. What are you doing with your seconds, minutes, hours, days, years? What are you doing with your life?

Whatever you’re doing, part of your doing should include a Sabbath day, one day of every seven. So let’s break that down a little further. The Biblical Sabbath is a twenty-four-hour block of time in which we:

stop work,

enjoy rest,

practice delight,

and contemplate God.

First you need to choose a 24-hour period for your Sabbath. It doesn’t have to be midnight to midnight of the same day, it can be 3:00 Sunday afternoon to 3:00 Monday afternoon. So for those hours you

Stop work - stop the work you get paid for and the work you don’t get paid for. If you voluntarily take overtime don’t do it during that time. The laundry will be there, the bills will be there, the grocery shopping will be there, the house cleaning will be there. No one is going to starve, the house won’t fall apart, the world won’t cease to turn if you stop working for 24-hours.

Enjoy rest - when you rest, engage in activities that restore and replenish you — take a nap, go hiking, read for pleasure not studying, eat good food, enjoy hobbies or play sports. Do those things that relax you. But you have to know, to be able to do these things on your Sabbath, you have to organize you time well and take care of business on the other six days of the week.

Practice delight - when God finished he looked on what he created and he delighted in it, he celebrated what he had created; he looked on it and said it was good and very good. We need to do the same. Take some time to marvel at God’s handiwork. There is a scene in the movie The Shack, where God, invites Jesus to show Mack some of his handiwork and in the next scene they’re sitting on the dock looking up at millions of stars then Jesus says watch this and a shooting star streaks across the sky. When is the last time you took the time to enjoy God’s handiwork? When is the last time you delighted in the work of his hands? Take a walk in the park, take a drive on the back roads, we live in an absolutely beautiful state go out and enjoy it.

Some of my fondest memories growing up were when my mom, dad and I would just get in the car and drive to state parks or caves in MO, sometimes we drove to historic homes. We didn’t always go in, but just being together in the car and seeing things the other kids in my neighborhood never thought about seeing and never experienced was awesome to me. Those drives opened up a whole new world to me of what was out there beyond the neighborhood I lived in. Those drives awakened a desire in me to see more than what was on the north side of the tracks, in the projects, in the little town of Sedalia, Mo; those adventures awakened in me a desire to see the world and I’ve seen quite a bit, but there is more to see.

Take time to delight in the Lord and all He’s created, this includes you. Take time to delight in yourself. You are God’s wonderful creation and you are worthy to be celebrated. You celebrate you, even if no one else does. Set goals for yourself and when you reach them, on your Sabbath day reward yourself.

Finally, contemplate God. Take time to meditate on just how magnificent and glorious He is. Take time to reflect on his love for you, just how deep, how high and how wide it is. Take time to recognize what He’s doing in your life, to reflect on how far he’s brought you since yesterday, since last week, since last month, since last year and rejoice. When I think of the goodness of the Lord and all that he’s done for me, my soul cries out HALLELUJAH, I thank God for saving me.

Contemplate - David said in - O Lord, our Lord, how excellent is thy name in all the earth! who hast set thy glory above the heavens. Out of the mouth of babes and sucklings hast thou ordained strength because of thine enemies, that thou mightest still the enemy and the avenger. When I consider thy heavens, the work of thy fingers, the moon and the stars, which thou hast ordained; What is man, that thou art mindful of him? and the son of man, that thou visitest him? For thou hast made him a little lower than the angels, and hast crowned him with glory and honour. Thou madest him to have dominion over the works of thy hands; thou hast put all things under his feet: All sheep and oxen, yea, and the beasts of the field; The fowl of the air, and the fish of the sea, and whatsoever passeth through the paths of the seas. O Lord our Lord, how excellent is thy name in all the earth! Contemplate

2 Out of the mouth of babes and sucklings hast thou ordained strength because of thine enemies, that thou mightest still the enemy and the avenger.

3 When I consider thy heavens, the work of thy fingers, the moon and the stars, which thou hast ordained;

4 What is man, that thou art mindful of him? and the son of man, that thou visitest him?

5 For thou hast made him a little lower than the angels, and hast crowned him with glory and honour.

So you see Sabbath has nothing to do with coming to church and staying all day, in fact, while I love you all dearly, spending all day here at the church with you would not be relaxing for me, and if you’re honest about it, it wouldn’t be relaxing for you either. I don’t have my recliner here, I don’t have my beads or my flowers here, which is one way I like to relax. It relaxes me to let my creative juices flow, God has given me the ability to create things and that’s what I love doing, that is restful for me. It takes no studying, no thinking, no planning, just putting the beads or flowers together and seeing what develops.

6 Thou madest him to have dominion over the works of thy hands; thou hast put all things under his feet:

7 All sheep and oxen, yea, and the beasts of the field;

Do I have a Sabbath? No. But it is something I will be working on getting. How about you. God created the Sabbath for man to rest, for us to rejuvenate, to relax and to remind us there is something in this world bigger than us.

8 The fowl of the air, and the fish of the sea, and whatsoever passeth through the paths of the seas.

9 O Lord our Lord, how excellent is thy name in all the earth!

There’s a prayer in our prayer book we use on Thursday mornings. It’s a prayer entitled, The Setting of Proper Priorities and it reads as follows:

Father, too often I allow urgency to dictate my schedule, and I am asking You to help me establish priorities in my work. I confess my weakness* of procrastination and lack of organization. My desire is to live purposefully and worthily and accurately as a wise, sensible, intelligent person. You have given me a seven-day week—six days to work and the seventh day to rest. I desire to make the most of the time [buying up each opportunity]. Help me plan my day, and stay focused on my assignments. In the name of Jesus, I demolish and smash warped philosophies concerning time management, tear down barriers erected against the truth of God, and fit every loose thought, emotion and impulse into the structure of life shaped by Christ. I clear my mind of every obstruction and build a life of obedience into maturity. Father, You are in charge of my work and my plans. I plan the way I want to live, but You alone make me able to live it. Help me to organize my efforts, schedule my activities and budget my time. Jesus, You want me to relax. It pleases You when I am not preoccupied with getting, so I can respond to God’s giving. I know You, Father God, and how You work. I steep my life in God-reality, God-initiative and God-provisions. By the grace given me, I will not worry about missing out, and my everyday human concerns will be met. I purpose in my heart to seek (aim at and strive after) first of all Your Kingdom, Lord, and Your righteousness [Your way of doing and being right], and then all these things taken together will be given me besides. Father, Your Word is my compass, and it helps me see my life as complete in Christ. I cast all my cares, worries and concerns over on You, that I might be well-balanced (temperate, sober of mind), vigilant and cautious at all times. I tune my ears to the word of wisdom and set my heart on a life of understanding. I make insight my priority. Father, You sent Jesus that I might have life and have it more abundantly. Help me remember that my relationship with You and with others are more important than anything else. Amen.

If you don’t have your Prayers That Avail Much Commemorative Edition by Germaine Copeland, you need to get and use it, it can greatly enhance not just your prayer life, but it can change your life. When you learn what the promises of God are for your life and you see them brought together through the Scriptures you can prayer with focus and power. When you read you’ll not only know that God has plans for you, but you’ll discover how to find out what those plans are, specifically for you not just in general.

Copeland, Germaine. Prayers That Avail Much Commemorative (p. 141). Harrison House LLC. Kindle Edition.

Copeland, Germaine. Prayers That Avail Much Commemorative (pp. 140-141). Harrison House LLC. Kindle Edition.

Copeland, Germaine. Prayers That Avail Much Commemorative (p. 140). Harrison House LLC. Kindle Edition.

If you want to know God’s will for your life, you have to take the time to slow down, to listen and to rest. You must use the Sabbath as a day for yourself to draw closer to God, not to fill it with activity that leaves you more tired and drained than when you started.

You don’t have to figure everything out by yourself, there are people much smarter, and who God has called to put things together, get books written by reputable people who have put in the study for you and gain knowledge from their work.

This explanation of the Sabbath comes from a book called The Emotionally Healthy Leader, by Peter Scazzero and I have a handout for you, coming from that same book to evaluate, How Healthy is Your Sabbath Delight.

As we begin a brand new year, I would encourage you that if you don’t do anything else this year, do this for yourself. God said for in six days you are to labor and do all your work and on the seventh day you are to rest. Choose a 24-hour period you can set aside where you can

stop work,

enjoy rest,

practice delight,

and contemplate God.

Your family will be fine, your life will be better and you will grow spiritually, mentally, and emotionally. “To every thing there is a season, and a time to every purpose under the heaven:” Another word for season is cycle, incorporate a Sabbath into your life cycle and watch God bless you. Watch God give you the desires of your heart. Watch Him smooth things out in your life. Watch how your body responds to the rest; watch how much more you get down by adding a Sabbath day in your life.

It sounds strange doesn’t it, but try it and see and I can guarantee you, you will be able to accomplish more in six days than you did in seven by adding a Sabbath day to your life cycle.

Here’s a little story about two men in a contest.

Once upon a time there were two men in a wood-chopping contest. They were tasked with chopping down as many trees in the forest as they could from sun-up to sun-down. The winner would be rewarded with both fame and fortune.

Once upon a time there were two men in a wood-chopping contest. They were tasked with chopping down as many trees in the forest as they could from sun-up to sun-down. The winner would be rewarded with both fame and fortune.

From morning till noon, both men steadily chopped and chopped. By noon they were neck and neck, but then one man took a break and stopped chopping. The other man saw this and thought to himself: “The lazy fool, he’s probably taken a break for lunch. He’s given me a chance to get ahead of him and I will without doubt win this contest!”

A while later the man got back to work. As the day continued he chopped more trees than his hard-working (and hungry) competitor and by mid-afternoon he had taken a clear lead.

When sundown came, the man who had taken the break at noon had chopped almost twice as many trees as the other man, who was drenched in sweat, hungry and exhausted.

“How did you beat me?” he asked puzzled. “You were lazier than I and even took a break for lunch!”

“Ah,” said the other man, “I did take a break, but it was during that break, that I sharpened my axe.”

Moral of the story: Don’t work so hard that you don’t take time for the most important things in life - the things that ultimately make you more effective.

The sabbath was made to meet the needs of people, and not people to meet the requirements of the Sabbath.

It’s time to observe the Sabbath and keep it holy. It’s time to renew, rejuvenate, rededicate your life to a God who is waiting to give you rest for your weary soul.

Are you tired, weary, and worn? Jesus is waiting with open arms to give you rest for your soul. The doors of the church are open for salvation.

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