REST/WORK: SABBATH FOR TODAY OFFICE LIFE PART THREE Roger Barrier, Senior Teaching Pastor S 1793-SABBATH SLIDE #: Dog Brains: shameless sniffing center; drool duct; impulse to wake up the neighborhood; hyperactive shredded gland; (breath filter, dirt resister; list of non-edible things; ability to distinguish what is a chew toy from what not) SLIDE #: Teenager Brains: birds and the bees lobe; super turbo rebellious center; all the answers; fitting in gland; music memory; (judgment gland; memory for chores and homework; ability to be seen in public with parents; peer pressure resistence. SLIDE #: Normal Brains: a little more balanced: Work, family, friends, eating; exercise; worship; I-phones, chores; rest SLIDE #: Sabbath Brain is filled with rest and work (Blending) During our sermon series on work The Office we need a day off. Today is about the Sabbath. The Sabbath command takes more words to discuss than any of the other ten. God needed only four words to tell us not to kill. He needed 97 to tell us to remember the Sabbath day, to keep it holy. SLIDE #: Exodus 20:8-11: "Remember the Sabbath day by keeping 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, neither you, nor your son or daughter, nor your manservant or maidservant, nor your animals, nor the alien within your gates. SLIDE #: Exodus 20:11: For in six days the LORD made the heavens and the earth, the sea, and all that is in them, but he rested on the seventh day. Therefore the LORD blessed the Sabbath day and made it holy. Is the Sabbath an important commandment? Or is God just filling space on the tablet? God never intended for us to live life at full speed, 24/7. He designed our bodies to need sleep every night and to take a day of rest every week. He has woven a rhythm into the fabric of the universe. And it goes six days work, one day rest, six days work, one day rest. SLIDE #: Drummers and percussion players: How on earth do they do that? It s because they ve got rhythm. Rhythm is knowing when to play and when not to play. If I were to play, it would just become a bunch of noise. For too many of us, we live a life that is full of noise. The world says Go, go go go go go faster. (Notice the six and seven pattern) God says go go go go go go rest. 1
SLIDE #: The Sabbath is not Sunday. Saturday is the Sabbath When did we begin worshipping on Sunday? At resurrection on Easter Sunday. SLIDE #: Do we still observe the Old Testament Sabbath? Evening sunset to sunset NO: The formal specifics of the Jewish laws are not binding. Jesus instituted a new covenant. We are no longer under the Mosaic Law. YES: There is an eternal principle here that goes right back to the creation. God created and worked for six days and then rested on the seventh. If resting one day out of seven is good enough for God it ought to be good enough for us! SLIDE #: Now, let s talk about the abundant life Jesus infused into the Sabbath. The gospels record that two rapid fire conflicts between Jesus and the Jewish leaders regarding the Sabbath Day led directly to His death. First, the Sabbath in the cornfields Second, the Sabbath in the synagogue SLIDE #: THE SABBATH IN THE CORNFIELDS (Matthew 12:1-8) SLIDE #: MATTHEW 12:1-2: At that time Jesus went through the grain fields on the Sabbath. His disciples were hungry and began to pick some heads of grain and eat them. When the Pharisees saw this, they said to him, "Look! Your disciples are doing what is unlawful on the Sabbath." The Disciples were not stealing. The Law allowed hungry travelers to eat some corn. However, the Pharisees were really upset. They had a law about working the Sabbath and Jesus was breaking it. The Pharisees discovered 1500 different ways a person could break the Sabbath. The law said not to carry a burden on the Sabbath. So they argued over how big is a burden? Anything that weighed more than two dried figs was a burden. If you can t carry a burden, can you drag it? How far? Couldn t spit on the Sabbath. If spittle hit dirt and made a little row, that was plowing. Couldn't light nor quench a flame on the Sabbath. Ever seen a real fire! Really exciting. Apartment complex burning on forest. Ricky no longer a fire virgin. Recently a fire broke out in Jerusalem. Everyone one got real excited. Ran to see the fire. Orthodox Jews ran to see the fire stoned the fire truck for putting out a fire on the Sabbath. Jesus justified His behavior based on three things. 2
1. The actions of David in eating the holy bread 2. Priests work doubly hard on Sabbath. 3. God s heart of mercy. Mark tells us that Jesus said something here that Matthew and Luke fail to tell us. SLIDE #: MARK 2:27: Then he said to them, The Sabbath was made for man, not man for the Sabbath. Turned the thinking of the Pharisees upside down. Pharisees believed that on the day that Israel kept all the Sabbath laws Messiah would come and the Kingdom on earth would begin. If Jesus says that it is OK to break the Sabbath laws then the Kingdom will never come in. Here we see the heart of God. God was a scorekeeper. Enjoying the Sabbath with rest and worship is more important than following any man-made religious rules. SLIDE #: MATTHEW 12: 8: For the Son of Man is Lord of the Sabbath" (Matthew 12:8). Jesus declares the Sabbath is his day and He alone has the right to tell people how to act on it. SLIDE #: Next, THE SABBATH IN THE SYNAGOGUE (Matthew 12:9-14) A man with a shriveled hand was worshipping with Jesus in the synagogue. The religious leaders wanted to trap Him, "Is it lawful to heal on the Sabbath?" Their religious-rule said, No. They couldn t heal on the Sabbath. OK to put a bandage on to keep it from getting worse, but not medicated bandage because that was healing. Jesus answered their question by asking another: "If any of you has a sheep and it falls into a pit on the Sabbath, you ll lift it out? But, if a man falls into a pit, he has to stay there! How much more valuable is a man than a sheep! Therefore, it is lawful to do good on the Sabbath." Then He said to the man, "Stretch out your hand." So, He stretched it out and it was completely restored! At this point the Pharisees plotted how they might kill Jesus. TAKEWAYS SLIDE #: SABBATH KEEPING IS ABOUT RESTING. Your body needs rest. If you don t give your body a break, your body is going to break. Bishop Gerald Kennedy of California s Methodist church told of two groups crossing plains during migrations to California during gold rush days. One group led by a Christian who stopped every Lord s day for worship and rest. The other party was led by a non Christian who was so motivated with gold fever that he refused to let them stop and rest (first come first served in gold fields). Amazing thing is that the wagon train that rested and worshipped every seventh day arrived first 3
in the gold fields. Rest the mind as well as the body. Sometimes I ll be sitting with my son-in-law, Ricky. I ll say What are you thinking? and He ll say Nothing. And he s serious. I love it!!! There s nothing going on up there. He s learned to quiet his mind. I am jealous. I ve rarely had a mind that doesn t go 100 miles per hour. SLIDE #: BIBLICAL RHYTHM MEANS TAKING TWENTY-FOUR HOURS OFF ONCE EVERY SEVEN DAYS SLIDE #: Sometimes we think we can be like the Energizer Bunny and just keep going and going and going. But, the bunny is a fraud. They have to keep putting new batteries in. SLIDE #: We think we can just take 20 min every day at Starbucks and be fine not. Illustration: Masters students at MIT sleep deprived for 48 hours have brain scans of schizophrenics. Steve Dowdle and 50 hour work week and 24 hours off not noon to noon Candle for 24 hours on kitchen counter for Julie and me. For most of us this means five days at our job, one day working at home to get all the chores done, and one day with no work whatsoever. Have you ever noticed on a hot day that when you turn your gas grill on high, the propane tank gets cold? It s because the tank is being decompressed. According to the natural laws of compression and expansion, when we compress something like a gas or a liquid, it becomes very hot. Decompressing something has the opposite effect. Life is like that. The more we compress into life the more heat it produces, and that heat comes in the form of stress and anxiety. The more we decompress the more enjoyment and fulfilled is life. Jesus did not live like this. And we don t have to, either. Even Jesus needed a time away to rest from his ministry of teaching and healing. We see in Luke 5:16 where Jesus often withdrew to lonely places and prayed. Walked for weeks and phone never rang. He got along just fine. He got everything done he needed to do. SLIDE #: SABBATH KEEPING IS ABOUT REMEMBERING. The Ten Commandments are given twice in the Bible. The commandment regarding the Sabbath is the same in both places, but the reasons for the commandment are different. In Exodus 20 the reason is tied to the rhythm of creation. In Deuteronomy 5 the reason is connected to remembering all the great things God did for the people of Israel! 4
SLIDE #: READ DEUTERONOMY 5:12-15: "Observe the Sabbath day by keeping it holy, as the LORD your God has commanded you. Six days you shall labor and do all your work, but the seventh day is a Sabbath to the LORD your God Remember that you were slaves in Egypt and that the LORD your God brought you out of there with a mighty hand and an outstretched arm. Therefore the LORD your God has commanded you to observe the Sabbath day. Exodus 20 Sabbath is for rest. Deuteronomy 5 Sabbath is for remembrance. God knows that we need rest, but He also knows that we need to remember because as humans, we are prone to forget. I forget. I am approaching 60 and seem to be forgetting more. I still remember the entire theme song to the Beverly Hillbillies. Let me tell you a story about a man named Jed, a poor mountaineer, barely kept his family fed. Princess Bride. My name is Intego Montoya, prepare to die. Mawwigge, is what bwings us togever today Those are things I remember. Things that don t matter.. But apparently, I forget a lot. I forget where my keys are, I forget to take my medicine. I forget to open the garage door as I back into it. I walk into a room and have absolutely no idea why I went in there in the first place. Mind used to be sharp as a tack. Go into brain and pull out just the right word. Now go in and brain says, Ah, that s close enough. Health Reform: running train..railroaded. WET MYSEF You know what else I forget? I forget that I am an eternal being. There s more to life than just making a paycheck and getting a promotion. I forget that I was created to be in relationship with my Creator. Hard year: Dede has cancer. OK God, isn t that enough! What more can you do? SLIDE #: I forget that I was created by Him and for Him and His good pleasure (Colossians 1:16.) SLIDE #: I forget that I am a new creature in Christ (2 Corinthians 5:17) SLIDE #: I need to remember that I was bought away from sin not with silver and gold but with the precious blood of Christ (1 Peter 1:18-19). 5
SLIDE #: I need to remember that God allows difficulties for the good purpose of molding me to look like Jesus. When pressures and trials come, it s easy to feel we ve been abandoned by God. Sabbath reminds us that God has been faithful in the past, and that He will be faithful in the future. Enjoy the Little Victories SLIDE #: SABBATH KEEPING IS ABOUT DELIGHTING. SLIDE #: ISAIAH 58:13-14: if you call the Sabbath a delight and the LORD's holy day honorable, and if you honor it by not going your own way then you will find your joy in the LORD In first century Sunday worship was a time of great joy! Romans suspected that Christians were guilty of orgies on Sunday - on ground that they enjoyed worship so much. Dan Allender has written a book called Sabbath and he talks about delighting on this day and what that looks like: The Sabbath is an invitation to experience delight, and when we experience it as God intended, it is the best day of the week. Sabbath is the holy time where we feast and play and dance and love and laugh and tell stories and paint and walk and watch creation to its fullness. That sounds pretty good, doesn t it? There are portions of Hebrew literature that say that a part of the Sabbath should be set aside for love-making. They would set aside a 3-4 hour block of time to make love with their spouse. Hassidic Jews were the strong proponents of this. We have a similar group today but we call them husbands. SLIDE #: A SABBATH-DAYS REST AWAITS THOSE WHO REST FROM THEIR WORK AS GOD DID FROM HIS. We are talking about our salvation and eternal life and God s gift to us. READ and EXPLAIN SLIDE #: HEBREWS 4:1-2: Therefore, since the promise of entering his rest still stands, let us be careful that none of you be found to have fallen short of it. For we also have had the gospel preached to us, just as they did; but the message they heard was of no value to them, because those who heard did not combine it with faith. SLIDE #: HEBREWS 4:3-4: And yet his work has been finished since the creation of the world. For somewhere he has spoken about the seventh day in these words: "And on the seventh day God rested from all his work." SLIDE #: HEBREWS 4:9-11: There remains, then, a Sabbath rest for the people of God; for anyone who enters God's rest also rests from his own work, just as God did from his. SLIDE #: HEBREWS 10:11-13: Day after day every priest stands and performs his religious 6
duties; again and again he offers the same sacrifices, which can never take away sins. But when this priest had offered for all time one sacrifice for sins, he sat down at the right hand of God. You can t work your way into Heaven. You rest your way into Heaven leaning on the back of the cross. SLIDE #: HEART TO HEART FROM THE ROCKING CHAIR How do we know when we ve done the Sabbath right? Answer: When we are no longer exhausted and mentally upset to start another week? Monday everything starts all over again? How many hate stress? If we hate stress, why do we keep living like this? Who stole Sunday from me? No one snatches Sabbath Rest from us. We give it away by our choices. Rest: Takes many forms. Glenn surf boarding is restful. Roger used to play ball every Sunday afternoon now I take a nap. Get body rested. Get my mind settled down: Partner up with Jesus: Come unto me all you who are weary and heavy laden and I will give you rest. Remember what God has done and extrapolate into the future concerns. Savor the little victories. SLIDE #: "Remember the Sabbath day by keeping it holy. Six days you shall labor and do all your work, but the seventh day is a Sabbath to the LORD your God. On it you shall not do any work, because the Sabbath is made for man and not man for the Sabbath. 7