4.5.32 7.3.2022 Honoring God's Creation Exodus 20.8-11, Deuteronomy 5.12-16

Start

Entice: I may be the worst person in the world to talk about Sabbath. The things which reinvigorate me the most fold back into the processes of preaching. It is not so much that I am a workaholic, I'm just very content (obsessed) in what I do. So, these Words are for me as much as they are for you.

Exodus 20:8–11 ESV

8 “Remember the Sabbath day, to keep it holy. 9 Six days you shall labor, and do all your work, 10 but the seventh day is a Sabbath to the Lord your God. On it you shall not do any work, you, or your son, or your daughter, your male servant, or your female servant, or your livestock, or the sojourner who is within your gates. 11 For in six days the Lord made heaven and earth, the sea, and all that is in them, and rested on the seventh day. Therefore the Lord blessed the Sabbath day and made it holy.

Engage: Sabbath is about our

relationship

with God more than our

obligation.

Sabbath expands and extends our relationship with God to include His world. Sabbath expands our relationship with God to include work. Sabbath sets aside time for worship. In other words, Sabbath is about

where we live,

how we live,

and

why we live.

God's people define themselves first by faith and only then by the circumstances in which we live. Sabbath helps to regulate that balance. Let's read about the same principles from the second giving:

Deuteronomy 5:12–16 (ESV)

12 “ ‘Observe the Sabbath day, to keep it holy, as the Lord your God commanded you.

13 Six days you shall labor and do all your work,

14 but the seventh day is a Sabbath to the Lord your God. On it you shall not do any work, you or your son or your daughter or your male servant or your female servant, or your ox or your donkey or any of your livestock, or the sojourner who is within your gates, that your male servant and your female servant may rest as well as you.

15 You shall remember that you were a slave in the land of Egypt, and the Lord your God brought you out from there with a mighty hand and an outstretched arm. Therefore the Lord your God commanded you to keep the Sabbath day.

Expand: These two giving’s of the Sabbath command provide a framework for a balanced life based upon these central human purposes. Our world today is vastly different from how it was then, really from how it has been throughout human history. Circumstances have changed. Our needs, not so much.

We have been redeemed by Christ who has fulfilled the law and nailed it to the cross. Our motivation is to be like Christ and the law functions to provide basic principles that remind us of and reinforce our relationship with God. We do not maintain a ritual-based legalism. We are called to live by love. Yet, we still need to honor God. We need to remember what he has done to create us and redeem us. For Christians our consideration of Sabbath revolves around our relationship to Jesus.

Excite: As the world had gotten more complicated the environment of Sabbath-keeping has changed. 150 years ago, people worked 6 days a week. One day for worship. The concept of leisure did not really exist. And work meant work. Work meant 12 or more hours a day, aligned with the seasons and the natural rhythms of creation. Until the mid-19th century virtually every American needed to work 5-10 hours a day just to eat. There was additional work required if you were in a vocation or business which required profits. Work really did help define us. By aligning Where we are who we are what we do.

Explore:

Sabbath rest keeps our life in balance.

Explain: Sabbath balances three principal concerns.

Body of Sermon: The first concern of sabbath is work.

1 Work

1.1. God defines work as good.

1.2 God determined that work has limits.

He set time limits in an age of scarcity which has truly only been eclipsed in the last century. Remember: It took 6 days of labor to live, regardless of whether that labor was in the home, out of the home or a combination of the two.

1.3 Abusing work is bad for work and everything else.

Next, Sabbath is concerned with our

2. World

2.1 God's world is the model given for our work.

2.2 He created the World in 6 days. That should be enough for us.

Oddly enough, in the past when work was more directly involved for daily sustenance, people valued both creation and their labor differently that we "moderns" do.

Finally, Sabbath is concerned with providing space for

3. Worship

3.1 When we understand the world and understand the nature of work we will then value the space Sabbath provides for worship.

3.2 The Lord's Day is not the Sabbath. Stopping work and resting gives us the space we need for communal worship.

3.3 The greatest threat to worship space in our age is the invention of leisure and leisure activities.

This only became possible when we no longer had to work 6 12-18 hours a day just to survive.

Now?

The relationship between the time spent working,

what we are paid

and a changing environment of needs

has created a vast need for "fulfillment".

The “complex” of living in the world, satisfaction in work, and space for worship has historically been how humans found this elusive “fulfillment.” I would suggest that proper “sabbath balance” of world, work, and worship is how God designed us to be fulfilled. Perhaps we would do well to try that.

Shut Down: As we wind down, we must land this sermon in the grace-defined territory of Gospel.

Jesus, famously and frequently had to deal with sabbath questions. Evidently the first-century world had enough emerging leisure that they had opportunity to pointlessly debate and fuss over issues which were really not that complicated. Here is an emblematic response to the kerfluffle from Jesus...

Mark 2:27–28 ESV

27 And he said to them, “The Sabbath was made for man, not man for the Sabbath. 28 So the Son of Man is lord even of the Sabbath.”

Sabbath--it's for your own good. God does not need anything from us. We need everything from Him, even the sense of need that comes from stopping our labor and resting in Him.

In an agrarian society which depended on the seasons, rains, and climate, which required the constant care of livestock, and care for creation, one day of rest probably seemed like a threat. Not for some nebulous concept of “fulfillment” but for survival. We have left behind subsistence living and forgotten an important lesson of faith. Rest is for you. Rest gives space for gratitude. Rest provides opportunity for serendipity. Rest is a grace. Rest invites us to worship. Most importantly rest is governed by our Master. Lord of the Sabbath.