Essentials Of The Faith / Sunday Morning Sermon Series / Exodus

Exodus 20:8-11 05/23/04

Message Title: ‘The Forgotten Gift of God’ Text: Exodus 20:8-11

Introduction: Everyone, please relax in your seat and close your eyes. Now take a deep breath. Once more. Keep your eyes closed. I want you to relax for a few moments. Keep your eyes closed. Is this the first time you intentionally rested this week? Do you feel like your batteries are running down? Perhaps you are already on reserve..some of you may be on overload because...

<!--[if !supportLists]--><!--[endif]--> ·       You want the best for your kids so you get them involved in school projects, after school clubs and community sports. One of the sports teams plays and practices on Sunday morning. It’s only for a few months you say. You believe keeping your children busy will help mold their character and will make their life more fun. Keep your eyes closed.

Some of you may be on overload because... 

<!--[if !supportLists]--><!--[endif]-->·       You want the best for your family so you put in the extra hours at work or you take that job which offers more money but requires a longer commute and longer hours away from the home life you are working to make better. With the job and money comes greater responsibility, so you bring work home with you. Soon, the only time for you is Sunday and every once in a while you sleep, every once in a while you go to the beach to relax. You deserve some me time. Keep your eyes closed.

Eyes closed. You live a full life. Busy, stressed and oft times anxiety ridden life, but it is our life. And if you need to miss corporate worship from time to time to get a much needed rest, or to get caught up on what you didn’t get done during the week, God will understand. Keep your eyes closed. God understands much more than you know. He knows our propensity to fill our days with stuff to do, often very good stuff. He knows we are works oriented, we like to do. He knows because He created us, he knows every inch of our bodies, inside and out. He knows our minds and our hearts..and he knows we not only desire rest, he knows that we need to rest. That’s why he gave us the gift of the Sabbath.

Explanation: Open your eyes. When most Christians hear the word Sabbath they think of the Jews and all the things they can’t do on the Sabbath. The word Sabbath no longer seems relevant to Christians today. And the 4^th Commandment is perhaps the most controversial because of it’s excesses on both sides of the argument. 

          For some you can’t do anything on Sunday except worship, pray and read your bibles. After all, it the Lord’s Day.

          For others, you don’t even have to come to corporate worship services on Sunday. Sunday is your day, it is the only day you have in seven to really enjoy yourself. Besides the Sabbath Law is not repeated in the New Testament and Paul tells us that one day sis as good as another. We are no longer under obligation to keep the Sabbath.

Well, I am not so sure that is what Paul had in mind. But it does sound like a good excuse to do what we want on Sunday. But God still takes the Sabbath seriously, and so should we.

Let me ask you. If a Christian regularly broke the 6^th commandment (murder) what would you think of them? What if they regularly broke the 3 commandment (misusing the name of God)? Or the 7^th (adultery) What about the 8^thth Commandment? (stealing)? Why then are we so lackadaisical about the 4?
 

          If you are tired,
          If your are in desperate need of rest,
          If you feel like you are being torn in 5 directions,
          If the still small voice of God is so faint that you rarely hear it anymore,

you need to take and open this forgotten gift of God, the Sabbath.

Transition: Open your bibles to Ex. 20:8 where we will look at Opening and Enjoying God’s Forgotten Gift of the Sabbath.

Read: Ex. 20:8-11

Opening the Gift

The gift of the Sabbath has been forgotten by many Christians today. But how do we open it? How do we keep the Sabbath? Three ways. We remember, We keep it holy and We cease from our work.

Remember

Remember here means two things:

<!--[if !supportLists]--><!--[endif]-->·       Not to forget. It is amazing how often we forget things. What is more amazing is that people, even Christians, can forget God. They get so caught up in the demands upon their lives, that they forget to take time to rest, physically and spiritually with God. You know the word Sabbath means rest.

 ILL: The world God created has rhythms of work and rest, light and dark, day and night. But technology allows us to ignore those rhythms.
We’re got electricity and lights to burn all night. We’ve got laptop computers and PDA’s so we can take our work wherever we go. We have learned to multi-task but we have forgotten how to rest.

 Remembering also implies that we

<!--[if !supportLists]--><!--[endif]-->·       Prepare. Sunday, intended to be a day of rest, often begins with more stress than any other day of the week. Why? Often because we don’t prepare for it.

     The day before the Sabbath for the Jews, at least in Jesus’ day was called the ‘Preparation day’. It was the day the family got everything together so that that they wouldn’t  have to work on the Sabbath. Their food would be prepared, their clothes set out and they went to bed early that night. Do you prepare on Saturday for Sunday worship? This is part of what this commandment is telling  us to do.

Transition: We remember the Sabbath by not forgetting and preparing ahead of time. The 2^nd way we open God’s forgotten gift of the Sabbath is we…

 Keep it holy

The idea here is worship. The Sabbath was intended to be a day of worship. Set apart, hallow, consecrate this one day for the worship of the One True and Living God by those who are called by and bear his name (3^rd Commandment). But, for many Christians, keeping the Sabbath means nothing more than just ‘going to church’ on Sunday.

Understand something. You don’t ‘go to church’. You go to a sanctuary or worship center to participate in acts of worship, together with other people of God gathered in community, to be nourished by all that we do and to honor God for all that He is, so that we can go out into the world and BE THE CHURCH.

But truth be told, many Christians don’t even ‘go to church’ well. By that I mean, they join the corporate celebration of worship at their convenience, when they feel like it, when nothing better comes along. (And I thought I would get in trouble with last weeks sermon)

Things happen. Sometimes legitimately and you are delayed or can’t make it here on Sunday.

Jesus says there are times when this will happen. Lk 14:5 says ‘if your ox falls into a ditch on the Sabbath, you will pull him out immediately’. We are talking about emergencies, the exception to the rule. Billy Graham knew that emergencies can come all too often for many Christians, especially on the Sabbath, when he said:

ILL: Jesus spoke about the ox in the ditch on the Sabbath. But if you ox gets in the ditch every Sabbath, you should either get rid of the ox or fill in the ditch.’

This commandment tells us that we honor God, we keep the Sabbath holy when we are consistent in our corporate worship practice.

Transition: The 3^rd  way we open God’s forgotten gift of the Sabbath is we…

Cease Our Work

God has given us 6 days to work, to provide for our families. He has told us to take 1 day off in 7. One day off from our normal business practices. Understand, God is not against work.

<!--[if !supportLists]--><!--[endif]--><!--[if !supportLists]--><!--[endif]--><!--[if !supportLists]--><!--[endif]--><!--[if !supportLists]--><!--[endif]-->·       He is against work consuming us.
·       He is against us escaping into our work so that we don’t have to face our lives…or him.
·       He is against us finding our significance and self worth in our work.
·       He is against us filling our lives and our children’s lives with so much work that we have little time for him.

 But all we see is the ‘no work part’ of the commandment. We fail to see the grace of it..what Grace? Rest! No work means rest and rest is a necessary part of healthy human life. God knew that.  And that’s why he gave us the 4^th commandment

 Transition: Once we have trusted God enough to open the gift, we will begin to enjoy it.

 Enjoying the Gift

Contextually, the 4^th Commandment was seen as a great blessing for the ancient Israelites having come from bondage in Egypt. Why? They would get a day off. Remember they were slaves for 400 years. They worked everyday, everyday, every single day of their lives. This commandment promised rest. And it still does.

Notice that in vs 11 Moses tells us that God blessed the Sabbath. Whatever God has blessed is good…no, it is exceptionally good. Jesus said the Sabbath was made for man and not man for the Sabbath. He was saying that it was meant to benefit us, to be good for us, to bless us…when we open the gift. If it remains unopened, we miss it’s intended benefit.

I don’t know about you, but life is hard and demanding. There are few breaks in life and if I know of a place that promises blessing and great benefit to me, I want it.

Sabbath keeping promises rest, renewal and refreshment. I am not going to tell you all the things you can and can’t do on the Sabbath. But, as a guide, any recreation, any activity that honors God by not neglecting him and brings rest, relaxation and refreshment to your life  is within the spirit of this commandment.

Marva Dawn in her book ‘Keeping the Sabbath Wholly’ says that the Sabbath should not only be a time spent in corporate worship but be a time of feasting, and festivity, time spent with family and friends, times of play and even naps.

Remember the Sabbath was made for you not the other way around. The gift of the Sabbath helps us remember that true blessing comes from God’s grace and not our work.

The Bottom Line: The Sabbath is God’s Gift to His People

Read: Isa. 58:13-14

God intends for the Sabbath to bring us joy..joy. God wants his people to experience the highest and most intense joy that can be imagined.

Do you want a little joy in your life? Then go golfing or to the beach or let your children play their sports on Sunday morning instead of coming to corporate worship.

But if you want great joy, the Joy of the Lord, the kind of joy Isaiah talks about, then open the gift of the Sabbath,  spend time with God each Sunday morning and then go, relax and enjoy the day, bask in the blessings of your heavenly Father who gives you the gift of the Sabbath…for your enjoyment and for his glory. Open the forgotten gift of the Sabbath.