The Rhythm of Creation

Intro

Over the past two weeks, Pastor Marlia and I have been casting this new vision for a new rhythm for a new year…

We want to call our church to invest in your family this year, and we will be giving you resources to help you with this.

We want to build 100 families on mission this year.

I am willing to bet that if I were to ask your family, what is your families mission in this world.

Many of you might not have an answer, and it is not that you are mission-less, it is just that you haven’t thought of it before.

Can you imagine the difference for your family, if your family went from merely existing, to being on mission for Jesus?

What kind of faith Legacy would you build in your kids and grandkids

What kind of impact would you have on your neighbors?

What kind of impact could you have on your extended family?

I think that if you will allow it, this year could be the greatest year of breakthrough for you and your family.

But:

Just like we talked about last week, Breakthrough comes after establishing a new Rhythm

And establishing a new Rhythm is hard!

So what I called us to is to begin taking a Sabbath as a family…One day a week, where everything stops…Where you eat a meal together and put away the phones, iPad’s and where the TV’s don’t turn on…

To introduce the Biblical idea of Sabbath, The Bible Project made a video that explains it way better than I could so I want you to see that video right now:

-Video Break 5 min-

Wow! What a powerful video!

Its one of those videos that you may want to watch a couple of times to really get it right?

So in this series, we are not talking about HOW You Sabbath....

We will not get embroiled in the Debate over Sabbath keeping...

Because in my opinion that just drags you down a deeper road of legalism...

We are going to look at the Biblical theme of Sabbath and

And here is the deal, No where in this series are we going to say, you have to strictly observe the sabbath in order to be saved, that is not what we believe.

I don’t have a strict Jewish observance of the sabbath…

But it is more about breaking out of our regular rhythms, and molding a new one for not only life transformation, but for family transformation!

So in the next few weeks, I hope you stick with us in this series because what we are going to do is to unlock the meaning behind it.

Because when we just look at God’s word about what Sabbath is and the gift that it is for us. Something beautiful happens

We live in a busy and fast paced world. Even though COVID has changed the way that we have all worked…In some other ways it has changed it for the worse…

If you’re working from home, studies show that people are actually working much longer than they did at the office…

There are relentless emails and notifications…

Our phones keep beckoning us deeper into the rabbit hole…

Our days bleed & blend together.

So the reason why we picked Sabbath is that The Sabbath has been practiced for 30 centuries...

This is a deep Rhythm that millions of people have submitted themselves to, and lives have been molded and shaped as a result.

The essence of what a sabbath is is to “Shabbat” that is the Hebrew word, it means, “To Stop”

The 7th Day is when God entered his creation to rest

In scripture, The 7th day is a multifaceted gem. There is so much to unpack there.

We went over this a bit in our Revelation Series where we talked about the importance of numbers to Jewish Literature and this number 7 is so important to them

It all starts here:

The first sentence of the Bible is 7 words in Hebrew.

English Standard Version Chapter 1

1 In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth.

Genesis 1:2 Contains 14 words , that is 2x7

English Standard Version Chapter 1

2 The earth was without form and void, and darkness was over the face of the deep. And the Spirit of God was hovering over the face of the waters.

Genesis 1:3 begins the pattern of 7 days of creation

I know that for many of us we do not make a habit of counting words in a sentence. And why would we, it seems crazy right? But see if you were taught to read Hebrew scriptures since a child these things would stand out to you

And people have been looking at Genesis 1 for Centuries and so people have looked at every possible facet of Genesis 1

There are three days that are not about the physical creation, but about time …And what we have to understand is that this is an important distinction in the Bible.

Day 1 The creation of light

Day 4 The seasons or the Hebrew festivals

Day 7 Stopping

So to the Hebrew people, your Rhythm of life is baised around the days of creation

Day 1 Say the Shema…Why? The command to say the Shema...”Hear O Israel, The Lord our God is one” is commanded in Deuteronomy to be said in the morning and in the night…Day 1 was the creation of the morning and the night.

Day 4 Is about the annual festivals

Day 7 is about the weekly sabbath, & the years of attornment, the year of Jubilee

The liturgy of Israel, or the worship pattern of Israel is laid out in 3 of the 7 days

Here is the interesting thing

Days 1-6 in Genesis 1 all have a formula

Let’s look at the first day

Genesis 1:3-5

3 And God said, “Let there be light,” and there was light. 4 And God saw that the light was good. And God separated the light from the darkness. 5 God called the light Day, and the darkness he called Night. And there was evening and there was morning, the first day.

And the reason why you would recite the Shema, “Hear oh Israel the Lord our God is one” and remember this day, is because it is something that you do both in the morning when you wake up and at night when you go to bed.

Day 4

Genesis 2:14-19

14 And God said, “Let there be lights in the expanse of the heavens to separate the day from the night. And let them be for signs and for seasons, and for days and years, 15 and let them be lights in the expanse of the heavens to give light upon the earth.” And it was so. 16 And God made the two great lights—the greater light to rule the day and the lesser light to rule the night—and the stars. 17 And God set them in the expanse of the heavens to give light on the earth, 18 to rule over the day and over the night, and to separate the light from the darkness. And God saw that it was good. 19 And there was evening and there was morning, the fourth day.

Most Bible scholars will tell you that this marks the second phase of creation. In the first three days there was light and darkness, but no sun!

One Jewish Scholar says: “ The light of the first three days was the light that would have enabled man to see the world at a glance from one end to another. Since man was unworthy to see the blessings of such light, God concealed it, but in the world to come it will appear to the pious in all its glory.”

I love that because that is basically exactly what happens in Revelation 21

See The Jews were always looking forward to the Messiah coming…And they recognized that it would be a time of great light!

If you remember, In the book of John, Jesus opened the eyes of a man born blind and said one of his great “I Am “ statements when he said, “I am the Light of the world”

Now these lights in the sky were “Signs for the seasons” What we have to know about this is that what is being talked about here with seasons is not winter, summer, spring and fall…But it is the Hebrew holy days.

The day of atonement, Yom Kippur, Passover, Tabernacles, the feast of loaves, etc…

So In the middle of the 7 days, God laid out an annual pattern of worship

And then finally on the 7th day…

Genesis 2:2

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 Finished his creation on the 7th day and there are three acts of God :

He rested, He stopped all of his other work and he rested. He stepped into the garden and rested with humanity

He blessed : God blessed the day. So all who rest with Him are blessed in it

He made it holy: The rabbis say that God poured out his holiness on this day. It is made Holy because it is his day. And he is in it

But there is one thing missing on the 7th day…

Every other day of the week has the phrase, “And there was evening and there was morning the 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6 day”

But the sabbath say never ends!

Do you notice that?

It is because the 7th day is supposed to be a micro chasm of eternity, literally every time we practice seventh day rest it is a reminder that God created us as eternal beings to rest with him in eternity

If you are reading the book of Hebrews. Over and over again the author talks about entering the “rest of God” as heaven…

What the 7 days of creation reminds us is that The rhythm in which you worship, is actually woven into the fabric of the universe…

Creation screams out that we have to have a pattern of worship

Folks: If you aim for nothing, you will get it every time!

If you are at all concerned about digging deeper into your walk with God, then what is vital is that you establish a family Rhythm

So as a church. I want to ask you to do this. We are going to start slow

Why?

Building a new Rhythm is hard

So I want to ask you that you take one night a week and make it a family night.

Phones get put away

Hide TV remote controls

Put the tablets away.

Have dinner together

Pray for each person by name who sits at the table.

Talk about what God is doing in your life.

Then spend quality time together!

Play a family game

Go on a family walk

Drive down to the beach and play tag in the sand.

For our family we are designating this to be on Fridays

We are trying to establish a new Rhythm that will impact our family for generations

God established a rhythm at creation

What is your family’s rhythm?

Jesus is the Lord of the Sabbath. And all through this series I want you to hear the invitation of Jesus:

Matthew 11:28-30

English Standard Version Chapter 11

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.”