The Fourth Commandment; Remember the Sabbath

Introduction

Recap Series

Commandment 1 - There is only one true God, worship him

Commandment 2 - We are not to make an idol as an image of God

Commandment 3 - We are not misuse the Lord’s name, in speech or action

Today - The Fourth Commandment; Remember the Sabbath

Remember the Sabbath day, to keep it holy: 9 You are to labor six days and do all your work, 10 but the seventh day is a Sabbath to the Lord your God. You must not do any work—you, your son or daughter, your male or female servant, your livestock, or the resident alien who is within your city gates. 11 For the Lord made the heavens and the earth, the sea, and everything in them in six days; then he rested on the seventh day. Therefore the Lord blessed the Sabbath day and declared it holy.

Remember the Sabbath day, to keep it holy: 9 You are to labor six days and do all your work, 10 but the seventh day is a Sabbath to the Lord your God. You must not do any work—you, your son or daughter, your male or female servant, your livestock, or the resident alien who is within your city gates. 11 For the Lord made the heavens and the earth, the sea, and everything in them in six days; then he rested on the seventh day. Therefore the Lord blessed the Sabbath day and declared it holy.

Remembering… We all struggle with this at some point, in different degrees

I am terrible, it is bad enough that I do not remember why I came into the kitchen, but I will forget everything

I left to come to the church for a meeting… just Thursday night, I put on my coat and hat, I grabbed the things I wanted to take, and said, “I think that I have everything… “

then went, “oh yeah, where’s my phone?” I grabbed my phone went to the car, got in and had no keys… no wallet or anything one would need to drive.

God tells us to Remember… why would he do that unless he knew that we would forget.

What are we to remember… the Sabbath

The Jewish Sabbath is Saturday. It would begin at sunset on Friday night and end on Saturday at sunset.

So are we in violation of the command because we do not honor the Sabbath on Saturday night?

no… We have to remember, we are not looking at violating the actual law as the spirit of the law.

Jesus’ disciples picked grain on the Sabbath, Jesus did not condemn them, though the Pharisees did.

Our Sabbath is on Sunday, know in the bible as the first day of the week, also know as The Lord’s day.

from Easter morning when he was resurrected from the dead.

But it is not enough that we remember the Sabbath, we are told to keep it holy.

the word, holy, also translates out to consecrated, or to separate out from other days, for sacred use.

God made it holy, not us,

So the heavens and the earth and everything in them were completed. 2 On the seventh day God had completed his work that he had done, and he rested on the seventh day from all his work that he had done. 3 God blessed the seventh day and declared it holy, for on it he rested from all his work of creation.

Remember God

This sounds like one of those, “Duh!” points

Do we really need a reminder about God

of course we remember God is there…

especially us, we are at church

But it is not just that we need to remember that God exists, but specific things about God we need to remember

God created all things in six days

For the Lord made the heavens and the earth, the sea, and everything in them in six days; then he rested on the seventh day. Therefore the Lord blessed the Sabbath day and declared it holy.

So the heavens and the earth and everything in them were completed. 2 On the seventh day God had completed his work that he had done, and he rested on the seventh day from all his work that he had done. 3 God blessed the seventh day and declared it holy, for on it he rested from all his work of creation.

So the heavens and the earth and everything in them were completed. 2 On the seventh day God had completed his work that he had done, and he rested on the seventh day from all his work that he had done. 3 God blessed the seventh day and declared it holy, for on it he rested from all his work of creation.

This is God…

it is not what we have worshipped him as over the last week

not the god that we worshipped instead of the Lord

It is not the god that we have limited him down to

we remember he is the creator God because if he can do this in six days there is nothing that he cannot do in your life right now

remembering him as the creator reminds us of the power that he not only had, but has now.

God brought his people out of Egypt… and tells us very specifically that we are to remember the Sabbath for that reason.

Christian Standard Bible Chapter 5

Remember that you were a slave in the land of Egypt, and the LORD your God brought you out of there with a strong hand and an outstretched arm. That is why the LORD your God has commanded you to keep the Sabbath day.

Remember that you were a slave in the land of Egypt, and the Lord your God brought you out of there with a strong hand and an outstretched arm. That is why the Lord your God has commanded you to keep the Sabbath day.

It is not just that he is the God that has all the power… but that he acts on that power.

Do not just remember that I am God, but I am the God that rescued the people out of slavery.

I saved you from Pharaoh, brought you out of Egypt, through the Red Sea…

see the power that I have to rescue you from the troubles of this world

This God redeemed you

Wow! How easy we forget when we are saved that it was God who came to this world in the form of man, in the person of Jesus Christ to rescue us from the slavery of sin we were once in.

But thank God that, although you used to be slaves of sin, you obeyed from the heart that pattern of teaching to which you were handed over, 18 and having been set free from sin, you became enslaved to righteousness.

Paul is writing to the Romans that we were slaves to sin, but believed the gospel preached to us, and have been set free!

Thank God! Praise Him! Remember this God that has rescued us...

Worship God

I should have added together… worship God together

And let us watch out for one another to provoke love and good works, 25 not neglecting to gather together, as some are in the habit of doing, but encouraging each other, and all the more as you see the day approaching.

because it is important that we are here to encourage each other, encourage your fellow believers, this should take priority over everything else

the worship of God with the people of God should be the most important thing every week.

I have been burdened that gathering together in a worship service has become so selfish, wanting to go if we get something out of it only, that we mistake why we are there.

we are here to worship… in worshipping God, we encourage one another

Your part is that you have to be prepared to worship

the sabbath is something that takes preparations…

how many of us have come in yelling at the kids, each other and walked through the door with a fake smile like we are happy to be here.

liars need to go directly to the 9th commandment

Remember the sabbath would start the night before… not just that morning when they would wake up

remember also in Exodus when God provided the manna from Heave for the people of God… they were to gather extra on Friday to cover them for Saturday, we are to be prepared

Prayer and repentance

this is not something to do once we get here…

to be ready to come in and worship the Lord we cannot take lightly that we are going into the presence of the Lord with our fellow believers

we do not want to do that without thinking about any offenses that we might have between us and the Lord

We should pray for the message that will be preached

pray for whoever is going to be giving it, that they would be studied and ready to take on the task of speaking the word of God

pray that the message pierces the hearts of those that will be hearing

not just that it will convict them, that it will draw them closer to the Lord, out of their sin

what a better way to have our family encouraged, than to see each other grow closer to God and leave whatever sin we may have behind

pray that the message leads us to action

in our own lives, that we would live more godly

in furthering the kingdom of God

that this would not just be something that we hear and talk about in this building, but that we leave with, and live out

Rest in God

This is where the “Remembering the Sabbath” leads into the rest of the week.

you know what it is like… you come to church, you spend time with those that are here, you feel pretty good

then Monday comes and all the stress and anxiety that you had on Saturday comes rushing back.

The sabbath is not a call to laziness

the sabbath is not a call to laziness

You are to labor six days and do all your work, 10 but the seventh day is a Sabbath to the Lord your God. You must not do any work—you, your son or daughter, your male or female servant, your livestock, or the resident alien who is within your city gates.

I have told my son that a man has to fight to not be lazy… that we can all fall into it

but the sabbath is not a call to laziness, actually it is the opposite

you are to work for six days

in those six days get all of your work done

But God did not create the Sabbath for him, but for us

Then he told them, “The Sabbath was made for man and not man for the Sabbath.

this is not something that God has ordered because he requires a part of your week,

27 Then he told them, “The Sabbath was made for man and not man for the Sabbath.

this is your good Father in Heaven, knowing that you need this rest

I believe that you will accomplish more in six days with one rested day then you will in seven work days

but the reason that we feel anxious come Sunday night, Monday morning, is because we do not truly rest in Him!

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

I have seen so many people with frantic lives missing church and being disconnected from the body, and why… they are so busy.

Just one day… devoted to God, he will give you rest.

I must admit to you today, that I am probably the last person that should be preaching on this…

I do not take my day off every week like I should.

share a short testimony of being on the brink of being burnout

so myself, some other pastor friends of mine and some of the pastor friends of the elders have been praying and meeting together

at some point over the summer I will be taking what is known as a sabbatical

during this time, I will be doing different things to reconnect with the Lord and allow him to speak to me, change what he might want to change and to rest

You will be hearing from the Elders at some point over the next few months as we really figure it all out

It is new to me, to them and to our church but it is something that is very beneficial to the Pastor and his family. But after communicating with other pastors and churches that have done this, it is just as beneficial to the church as well

I know that I can speak for the Elders that we all covet your prayers as we go through this process, that we would remain in unity as one group.