Work and Rest

“Work and Rest”

(Finding a balance)

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Do you ever get just physical worn-out? Do you ever get mental exhausted? Do you ever get spiritual drained?

Do you ever feel like the Egyptian mummy who walked into a restaurant and a waiter came over to him and said, "What would you like to drink?" He said, "Nothing, I just came in here to unwind."

I heard of a lady who had an identity problem and an energy crisis, at the same time. She didn't know who she was, and she was too tired to find out.

People are working longer hours than ever before says the Bureau of Labor Statistics.

In 1973 we worked an average of 40.6 hours per week. In 2013 it was 50 hours per week. And when you add on top of that the hours that we spend doing everything else, we are a society of busy, worn-out people. Yet most of us are like the guy who went to see his doctor because he was run down all the time. The doctor told him that he was going to have to stop burning the candle at both ends. He got upset and told the doctor, I didn’t come in here for you to tell me that I am burning my candle at both ends; I came in for more wax.

Many of us are burning our candle at both ends, and our lives and families are being torn apart. We never slow down, and we don’t have time for one another or God. What has happened to us as Christians is we have patterned our lives and schedules by the world around us, and it is the wrong pattern. What we desperately need a pattern to live by that will enable us to live a balanced, successfully, blessed life.

Well I have good news right here in the beginning of our Bible God gives us the pattern to live by if we want a balanced, successful, Christian life!

Our 24 hour day is based on the earth’s rotation on its axis. Our 12 mouth year is based on the revolution of our planet around the sun. But the only basis for our 7 day week is God’s example given to us here in -Read.

God gives us the pattern for our week and our lives in these verses, God worked, and then God rested, that teaches us that:

1. Our Work is Important!

V:2-“And on the seventh day God ended His work which He had made…

Four times in two verses we are told that God worked; God worked for six days as he created this earth, animals and man, and then he rested.

This tells us that:

· It is Spiritual to work.

You don’t get any more spiritual than God and He worked, and it God worked it is spiritual for you to work! Right here in the first chapter of the Bible God set the example of work, and if God is not too good to work, you are not too good to work!

Sometimes people think that work was a part of the curse when Adam sinned against God and fell. But from the very moment that Adam was created he was created to work. We are told in , "Then the Lord God took the man and put him in the Garden of Eden to “dress it” and to “keep it."

The word "dress" literally means "to work," and the word "keep" literally means "to take care of." When God put Adam in the garden of Eden He immediately gave him a job, and it was his job to take care of the Garden of Eden. God himself worked and He gave man a job to do and told him to work. When God gave the Ten Commandments to Moses on Mt. Sinai He told us again that we are to work. -“Six days shalt thou labor, and do all thy work: But the seventh day is the Sabbath of the LORD thy God: in it thou shalt not do any work, thou, nor thy son, nor thy daughter, thy manservant, nor thy maidservant, nor thy cattle, nor thy stranger that is within thy gates:

For in six days the LORD made heaven and earth, the sea, and all that in them is, and rested the seventh day: wherefore the LORD blessed the Sabbath day, and hallowed it.

God set the example of work; God gave Adam work, and God commands us to work.

WORK is not the curse of sin, the word “work” is a four letter word; but it is not a dirty work!

Chuck Colson and Jack Eckerd have written a book entitled “Why America Doesn't Work”. In the book they say we have raised a generation of Americans that think work is a dirty word; work is not a dirty word, work is spiritual, and it is what God has told us we are to do!

Jesus said, -“My father works, and I work”

-“I must work the works of Him that sent me”

Work is not something you should try to get out of; or get away from!

· It’s Profitable to work.

As a matter of fact those of us who are Christian, and know Jesus and try to obey God should be the hardest working people on our job!

-“Workers, obey in all things your bosses, and whatever you do, do it heartily, as to the Lord, and not unto men”

As Christian workers we should, show up on time, give a good day’s work, for a good days pay. And we don’t need whim and complain about our work load or our pay. God worked persistently and consistently every day until everything was finished. God’s work week was timely, orderly, and precise. God worked constantly for six days that first week of the world. Our planet and everything on it is a result of God’s work, including you!

So work is profitable, it accomplishes something, it benefits others, but it also benefits you!

God told man to “have dominion over his creation, and to subdue it”

Man would need to get up and exercise control over creation, and make it productive.

-“and there was not a man to till the ground”

The earth would not be productive, without a man to work the ground. Work makes the world go round, without man working we would not be able to survive on planet earth, God made it that way from the very beginning. And if you don’t work you will be restless, unfulfilled, and bored, and have no sense of purpose in life. God wired us to find satisfaction in work! When you work hard and finish a project there is a tremendous sense of accomplishment and satisfaction.

If your living for the day you can retire and quit working, you are living for the wrong goal.

There is nothing wrong with retiring from a paying job. But that just gives you more time to work for God for free. There should not be any such thing as a truly "retired" Christian.

We sometimes get this romantic idea that it would be wonderful to be financially independent and not have to work.

But God made us to work, and has commanded us to work; work is a good thing! And if a person is able to work and will not work, they are living in disobedience, sin!

The Scripture says that people who will not work don't even deserve to live.

says, "For even when we were with you, we commanded you this: If anyone will not work, neither shall he eat."

That verse is not talking about people who cannot work; it’s talking about people who will not work. There is a big difference between cannot, and will not! We are to take care of those who cannot work; not those who will not work.

If a man will not work, don’t feed him. If a person will not work, he ought not to eat, and if he gets hungry enough he will go to work. You say, "That's hardhearted." No, that’s biblical.

Listen, it is not always bad for a person to be hungry. Solomon said in , "The person who labors, labors for himself, for his hungry mouth drives him on."

We have come to the place in America where we are making it way to easy not to work. And what our government is saying is we want to help the poor; but as someone said “you cannot legislate the poor into freedom, by legislating the wealthy out of freedom; and you cannot multiply wealth by dividing it”.

Our nation is being economically ruined because of a welfare state that is subsidizing people who can work, but refuse to work.

They are subsidizing these people by taking money out of the pockets of people who do work. If someone receives something without working for it, someone else must work for it without receiving it. Adrian Rogers said:

There's nothing that will break the spirit of a nation more than for half the people to get the idea they don't have to work because someone else is going to take of them, and for the other half of the people to get the idea it does no good to work because someone else is going to take what they work for.

There are those who espouse the political philosophy that the bigger the government the better. They believe it is the government's job to make sure that everybody has a car in their garage, a turkey in their oven, and a TV in their living room, that’s not the government Job, that’s your job, so go get a job! Sadly a Gallup poll finding report Feb, 3, 2015 that only 44% of Adults have a full time job.

Anything the government gives to you it first took from someone else.

Gerald Ford, the former President said, "Any government big enough to give you everything you want, is big enough to take away everything you have."

Those who can work should help those who cannot work. But everyone who can work should work, and should not be helped if they won't work. Workers should never subsidize shirkers.

Maybe you are sitting there thinking, I would work if I could find the right job; the job that meets you qualifications. I am not going to just work any job, I have a decree and I am over qualified to work at Taco Bell. Jesus worked in a carpentry shop for 30 years; talk about being overqualified, but Jesus was a working man. Paul the writer of 13 books in the N.T worked as a tent maker.

There are no bad jobs, you say Pastor I pick up trash for a living, THANK YOU!! Your job is important, can you imagine what your house would smell like if your trash never got picked up! You and I were created to work; work is spiritual and profitable.

1. Our work is important.

The second thing we learn from the pattern God gave us is:

2. Our Rest is Necessary!

V:2-3“ And on the seventh day God ended his work which he had made; and he rested on the seventh day from all his work which he had made. And God blessed the seventh day, and sanctified it: because that in it he had rested from all his work which God created and made.

God finished His work, and rested on the seventh day. God gave us the example of work, and he gave us the example of rest. Why did God rest?

Was He worn out? Was He tired? Did he need to sit down and take a breather? You know the answer to that, NO!

-“Have you not known? Have you not heard, that the everlasting God, the LORD, the Creator of the ends of the earth, faintest not, neither is weary?

God never gets tried, and He never needs a nap.

-“Behold, He who keeps Israel shall neither slumber nor sleep."

God has no mental or physical limitations as we do, he is omniscient and omnipotent. God could have made many more worlds, and a million more galaxies without being tired. But God was finished with His creating work and satisfied with His creation work, so he rested.

And then God V:3-“ blessed the seventh day and sanctified it."

This is something he did not do on the other six days, but he marked off this day of rest as extremely special.

The word for “rest” means “to cease from” it comes from the Hebrew Sabbath; the Sabbath is the day of rest. This rest was like a rest in music, the musician is playing along and he come to a rest in the music; and he stops playing. Not because he's tired, and not because the piece that he is playing is over. But he pauses for emphasis, for a moment of reflection, to let your heart catch up with your ears.

God gave the Sabbath, the day of rest for us to his people Israel for them to pause in their busy week and reflect on God and what He had done for them and to worship Him, as well as rest their bodies.

When you read about the Sabbath in the O.T. you learn why God gave them this special day:

· It was a reminder that God always completes His work. (As he completed his creation work, he will bring to perfection His work in history)

· Keeping the Sabbath confesses that God is Lord of all.

· God gave the Sabbath and makes it holy in the best interest of people.

· The Sabbath was a sign that the creator had set Israel apart for a special covenant with Him.

· Keeping the Sabbath reminded Israel that they were slaves in Egypt but that God redeemed them, set them free.

You say but pastor we don’t worship on the Sabbath, which is Saturday, you are right. God gave the Sabbath to Israel, and we worship on Sunday the first day of the week. Don’t call Sunday the Sabbath, because it is not, yesterday was the Sabbath, today is the Lord’s Day, Sunday!!

The Sabbath was the last day of the week. Sunday is the first day of the week.

We do not worship on the last day of the week. We worship on the first day of the week.

Somebody ask, "Well why did you change your day of worship?" Well, the fact is we didn't change it, the Lord changed it.

Why do we worship the Lord on the first day of the week?

· Jesus was raised on the first day of the week.

· The Bible was completed on the first day of the week. (The Book of the Revelation)

· Jesus gave the Holy Spirit to the church on the first day of the week. ( Pentecost)

· The early church worshipped on the first day of the week.

· The church took up its offering on the first day of the week.

Christians are never told to keep the Sabbath; those who insist on keeping Saturday rather than Sunday are living on the wrong side of Calvary.

But the principle remains the same. There is to be one day out of the week in which we are to rest and to give God our undivided attention, affection, and adoration, that day is Sunday! Today is the day we confess Jesus is Lord, we put our minds on Him; and we praise Him for His death, and resurrection.

God did his work of creation in six days, and when He finished He rested.

God set aside a day for us to rest and an example for us to follow.

You see, our wonderful Creator knows that if we are going to function at our maximum effectiveness, we must not only exercise the discipline of work, but also the discipline of rest, reflection, worship.

You can not only steal a tithe from God, you can even steal time from God. If you go to the lake, or the ballgame, or a picnic and not go to church, you are stealing from God. But it not only hurts God, it hurts you.

Why do you think God wants us to rest? God made us body, soul, and spirit, and all three need a rest.

· Rest replenishes the spirit.

Did you know that you can run down spiritually just like a battery? Even you "die- hards." That is why on the Lord's Day you ought to go to the House of God and fellowship with the people of God, and study the Word of God, and worship the Son of God, so that you might be filled afresh with the Spirit of God.

· Rest refreshes the soul.

Your mind needs time where it can just stop and think on those things that are "true, noble, just, pure, and lovely. Your “will” needs the time to surrender afresh to the will of God. Your emotions need the time to feel again the presence of God in your life.

· Rest also rejuvenates the body.

Someone said “Our bodies are seven-day clocks, and they need to be wound up one day a week, and if they are not wound up they will run down into the grave."

God can do more with your body in six days than you can do in seven; your spirit, soul, and body will be far better if you follow God’s pattern.

Listen, you will be healthier mentally, physically, spiritually, and emotionally if you rest one day a week like God tells you to do! Think about how you can make Sunday different from the other six days of the week.

God worked six days and then he rested, creation was complete.

The Lord Jesus went to the cross and He hung on that cross for six hours, and he cried out,

-“It is finished” and the work of salvation was completed.

The Lord Jesus did his work of salvation in six hours, and when He finished He rested.

Jesus worked and then He rested, so that we can rest and then work.

In the Old Testament people worked six days, and then rested on the seventh day.

But in the New Testament we rest on the first day and work the next six days. In the Old Testament, under the law, people had to earn their rest. But in the New Testament, under grace, people receive their rest.

The Lord Jesus said in , "Come to me, all you who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest."

Now notice carefully that rest is not a reward for the righteous man. It is a gift for the guilty man.

The term rest in the New Testament refers to the salvation that we enjoy in the Lord Jesus Christ. You do not work for your salvation and then rest after you earn it. You rest in your salvation and work because you have it. You are not saved by working, you are saved by resting. You are not saved by trying, you are saved by trusting.

There is a place for trying, and there is a place for working, but you do not work for the “rest” of salvation.

I cannot work my soul to save,

That work my Lord has done;

But I will work like any slave,

for the love of God's dear Son.

-“Therefore, since a promise remains of entering His rest, let us fear lest any of you seem to have come short of it. For indeed the gospel was preached to us as well as to them, but the word which they heard did not profit them, not being mixed with faith in those who heard it. For we who have believed do enter that rest, as He has said: 'So I swore in my wrath, they shall not enter my rest”

We enter into this rest by faith? We must believe in the Lord Jesus in order to enter into His rest.

You ought to go to church, you ought to read your Bible, you ought to be baptized, you ought to pray, and you ought to give. But all of these things are no good unless you have placed your faith in the Lord Jesus Christ.

But the moment you place your faith in Him, you enter into His rest, knowing that you no longer work in order to be saved, you work because you are saved. Faith without works is dead, but works without faith is useless.

There are so many people who are trying to go to heaven who have not learn that going to heaven is not a matter of trying, it is a matter of trusting.

It is not a matter of working for God; it is a matter of resting in what Jesus Christ has already done for you on the cross of Calvary!!

Harry Houdini, the greatest escape artist who ever live boasted that there was no jail, no handcuffs, and no straight jacket that could hold him. Well he was challenged by a jailer in England to come to his little jail, and he bet Houdini a lot of money that he could not unlock his jail. Well he closed the door behind him; the reporters were there; his reputation was on the line. Houdini worked at that cell door for over two hours. But try as he might, he could not pick this lock. He thought for once he was beaten. He began to think about how his reputation would suffer; how he would be the laughing stock of the world. He was soaked with sweat, absolutely exhausted, and he leaned up against the door, and when he did, it swung open because it had never been locked to begin with.

There are so many people trying to pick the lock of the door of heaven when all you have to do is just open it and walk through it by faith in the Lord Jesus Christ.

It work is important, and rest is necessary, what does that mean to you?

· It means if you are able to work, you should get a job, and keep a job.

· It means work hard on your job.

· It means you need to watch your calendar and MAKE time to rest.

· It means you have to learn to say NO!

· It means always give God the first day of your week; the way to start a week, marriage or anything is start with God!

This morning if you are working hard at trying to find rest for your soul, you have it backwards. First you come to Jesus and trust Him, then you will find rest for your soul, and then you work for Jesus.