Sermon Tone Analysis

All Christians know that since the Garden, our work is all messed up.

Everything we are supposed to do has pain and thorns and thistles.

Ah!

But we think “work is not all there is to life.

I will rest from my work.”

And God saw everything that he had made, and behold, it was very good.

And there was evening and there was morning, the sixth day.

Church, question: How is that working out for you?

Are you a parent: do you rest a lot?

No? A child, maybe a high schooler…rested?

College student?

Just starting out?

It’s not just work that’s hard, is it?

Rest is also messed up.

Broken.

Corrupted.

Corroded.

What is rest supposed to look like?

This, from :

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

3 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.

And God saw everything that he had made, and behold, it was very good.

And there was evening and there was morning, the sixth day.

Rest.

Sabbath rest.

That’s the topic.

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

3 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.

God made rest as part of creation.

LET’S PRAY

It’s His reaction to the “very good” finished creation.

It too, is good, since God made it.

We’ve got to look at this passage and remember that the seventh day comes after the sixth day, when we were created.

Adam & Eve got to be included in this pattern of rest, meaning rest isn’t just for God, but for us to share in: rest is contentment in our labors, and relational.

The creation note is first sounded in , .

God “finished” his work in creation after six days and then “blessed” the seventh day and “declared it holy.”

God put a wonderful pattern of work and rest in place, for us.

For each other.

It is at the beginning of Scripture, it’s woven throughout the entirety, and it is for all of creation – no matter if you are a Christian or not, your social station, your gender, time of life, or color, God wants you to rest from your labor, be content, and strengthen relationships.

Yay!

Fallen Condition Focus (FCF)

It might be surprising to hear God use such human language as "rested", and He continues to use astoundingly human language in

There is, however, a problem.

We know it.

16 the people of Israel shall keep the Sabbath, observing the Sabbath throughout their generations, as a covenant forever.

17 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.’

”

We aren’t experiencing that fabulous rest as a pattern in our life.

There is a pattern of rest here.

It’s undoubtedly a pattern for us, which is one reason that God uses such human terms for it.

As a culture, we aren’t experiencing any rest.

If you are in high school, how easy is it to let go of school and rest?

In college, how much rest do you have from the beginning of the semester until the end?

Following the creation pattern, God asked the Israelites to observe the Sabbath as one of the Decalogue, or Ten Commandments ()

Why?

Let’s say you are a stay-at-home mom.

Do you get to curl up in bed and read one day a week?

Where does a mom of young kids find rest?

Let’s say you are retired.

Are you finding that retirement is full of rest?

Law is a taskmaster until we become full heirs ()

It’s training us.

As we will see, training is different than the real thing, but training is good.

Even church is not always restful.

How many of you are here, will grab lunch, and then return?

Let's keep looking at the pattern.

Did the law stop with one day out of seven?

No!

How many here have gone on vacation and come back tired!

Right!

Even vacations may not be restful.

There is a Sabbath month

How do we try to resolve this restlessness?

A Sabbath year

There are typically two ways.

It also entailed freeing slaves

Irreligion tries to solve the dilemma of restlessness a couple of different ways

First, irreligion tries to ignore rest.

Say it’s not important.

Forgiving debt

It is extended to fields and animals.

Stores used to close on Christmas.

Not anymore.

Sundays.

Not anymore.

And the Jubilee year is a Sabbath of Sabbaths, happening every seventh time there is a seventh year, in .

In 2003 the NYT noted “''After hours'' has become a strictly personal concept, since the 24-hour convenience store, gas station, pharmacy, supermarket, movie theater, diner, factory and bar all allow us to work, shop, dine and be entertained at any time of day or night.”

(New York Times, 2003)

Sabbath rest is a big deal.

Worse, our culture rewards restlessness

It's for everyone, not just Israel, since it comes from the creation mandate.

God’s instructions are clear, and the pattern is to observe a regular – weekly – break from our labors.

“The work week is even longer {today} for salaried workers (an average of 49 hours), likely because employers don't have to worry about paying them overtime.

According to the Gallup poll, half of salaried full-time employees said they work 50 or more hours each week.”

(Washington Post, Sept. 2014.)

You get ahead in our culture by working more than the guy or gal next to you.

And with email, social media, and the pace of change, there is a real fear of missing out, of not getting ahead if you stop and rest…at all.

There is, however, a problem.

We know it.

Well, maybe religion has the answer.

Religions have long noticed the creation pattern laid out by God.