God's Design in Rest Part 1 Exodus 20:8-11

Life is busy Everyone here knows it It's non -stop

During the week you have work schools coming up Sorry to break it to you young children family obligations

Bills need to be paid and you need time for people whether it's family or friends

Sometimes it seems like there isn't enough time During the week to accomplish what you need to and to accomplish what you want to We're so often driven by a fear that if everything doesn't get done

Then everything will fall apart with all that is on our plate.

It becomes survival Just to keep up In order to keep up something has to be sacrificed

Something has to be cut off from your schedule and what is typically cut off is rest

Rest not partial rest but full

Rest a day where you completely give it over to the

Lord and do restful Activities where the focus is on worshiping him

We think the idea of having one day off with no work is

Not an option because work needs to be done and deadlines need to be met

You know like the old Harry Chapman song cats on the cradle bills to pay right planes to catch

Bills to pay it just seems like there's too much.

There's too many deadlines life is too busy When you read the Bible though you see that God created the universe in six literal 24 -hour days

He created the the world and everything in it in one week

And when you read the creation account in Genesis 1 what you learn is that the Lord took a day off He worked for six days

He created everything in six days, and then he rested on The seventh if you can if you think you can get a lot done in one week

Think of what the Lord did in six days. He created everything in six days He created hundreds of billions of galaxies

Including the incredible place of planet Earth that we live on We need to ask the question.

Why did God create everything in six days and rest on the seventh? He did this for a specific reason

He didn't have to do it this way, but he chose to do it this way He did this as a model for you and me for mankind

The creatures that alone and all of creation are created in his own image

He set it up as a model that you would work hard for six days And then one day a week you would devote it to rest and Be rejuvenated for another week of work and during this week you are to accomplish

Everything that he designed for you to accomplish and you will never run out of time Because God has a design for your life and has designed that during that week of six days of work and one day of rest

You would accomplish Everything that he planned for you to accomplish now this morning

We are focusing on the fourth commandment To Observe the

Sabbath two Sundays ago. We did the first two commandments

We did that one sermon because they really tied closely together The first commandment is you shall have no other gods before me

The second commandment is you shall not make for yourself a carved image or any human likeness in other words no idols the third commandment

Was one week ago and we saw we are not to take the Lord's name in vain

And what we saw is it is it's not just using God's name in vain like oh my god or God I mean

I'm using it as a swear word Taking the Lord's name in vain is so much more than that When we carelessly worship him that's taking in the

Lord's name in When we use his name to our advantage For some selfish reason that's taking in the

Lord's name in vain. So we saw that one week ago Now what's interesting is that when you look at the

Ten Commandments This fourth commandment keeping the Sabbath is the most unique of them all and This is so because we are not under The Old Covenant Which is also known as the

Mosaic? Covenant the Mosaic law Because we live at a different time in history we live during the church age and when

Jesus came to the earth and accomplished his finished work at the cross and Through his glorious resurrection that age the

Old Covenant age came to an end This is symbolized with the curtain of the temple being torn in two as Matthew 2751 describes happening as Christ died on the cross the old age left and the new age came as Hebrews 813 says in speaking of a new covenant.

He makes the first one obsolete in other words the new covenant accomplished in Christ Replaces the

Old Covenant that God gave to Moses and the people of Israel What this means is that God's people no longer need to offer sacrifices for sins at the temple because Hebrews 727 says

Christ's sacrifice on the cross was once for all There's no need also for ceremonial

Sacrifices because all these sacrifices pointed ahead to Christ There's no longer a need to keep the feasts as obedience to God because every

Old Testament feast Pointed ahead to the Messiah as you can understand this.

What's the whole point of the sacrificial system? What's the whole point of the feasts?

all of this Pointed ahead to one person Jesus Christ the

Messiah it all finds its fulfillment in him whether literal fulfillment or Pointing ahead to this picture

That he was going to fulfill. So the

Sabbath is similar to everything. I just mentioned these ceremonial Commands that were given to the people of Israel that they were to follow and to not follow them in the

Old Testament period was to sin the Lord laid down these rules they were to do these very things and one of those things was

To keep the Sabbath. The Sabbath is unique in the list of the

Ten Commandments What this means is that nine of the Ten Commandments are moral

Universal laws and they apply to every person at every point in history

Obviously murder was wrong for the Israelites and it's wrong for us today It came killed

Abel long before the law was given It was wrong There's no debate on murder.

Although as I wrote this I'm like, oh apparently apparently there is a debate on murder because Abortion is murder

But there should be no debate Stopping a beating heart in the womb is murder from conception to the birth date

But obviously if anybody is walking around and someone shoots that person, okay, everybody's gonna agree. Okay, that was bad

Even the most radical people even to this point Agree with that, but when it comes to the

Sabbath, it is different because it isn't a moral law So the question is does this apply to us today?

If it is commanded to God's people in the Old Testament Then this is something that we should pay attention to as God's people who live under the new covenant

So this time I encourage you to turn in a Bible with me to Exodus chapter 20 We will be looking at verses 8 through 11

Some of these commands are a little bit longer than others some are most of them are just one verse But this one is in fact four verses

This sermon is titled God's design and rest At this time.

Let's read this command the fourth commandment that the Lord gave to the people of Israel verses 8 through 11

Remember the Sabbath day to keep 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 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? 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 Here's what this

Text what this sermon is calling each of you to do who live in 2024 Yeah, they lived long ago

We live in 2024. There still is something that we are to take away from this and that is this

Devote one day each week fully to the Lord devote

One day each week fully to the Lord and we're gonna see four reasons

Why this is gonna take us two Sundays to get through we're gonna get to the first two reasons why today? The first reason why is this and you'll see this in your outline?

to remember God's works in History this first statement in verse 8 of Exodus 20 tells us that this is something that God mentioned to Israel beforehand.

You see it with the word remember remember the Sabbath in Exodus 16 verse 23

God mentioned to Israel that they should should work six days and rest on the seventh

This is what the Lord commanded. This is what the Lord commanded Tomorrow is a day of solemn rest a holy

Sabbath to the Lord Bake what you will bake and boil what you will boil and all that is left over lay aside to be kept till the morning so the

Lord Even before he's delivered the Ten Commandments to the people of Israel. He's already told them to do this in Exodus 1623 and so we see that repeated in the

Ten Commandments to Moses and The people of Israel what we learn is that this command this command already given is a very important one

The ten it's one of the Ten Commandments Keep the Sabbath One of the big

Ten Commandments, it's interesting when we talk about the United States Constitution What people are most familiar with in the entire

Constitution is what? The Bill of Rights the first ten amendments

What's interesting about if you're gonna look at all the laws in the Bible what laws are people most familiar with it is the

Ten Commandments and the Sabbath is one of those Commandments the

Sabbath remembrance would come around not once a year, but once every single week

It is a day to take a special focus to praise and to thank the

Lord The day of remembrance to the Lord is to be a purposeful day.

We are to remember what we are called to remember something significant from the past and of course in our lives we have significant events from the past and in our country we have significant events from the past in Late May the last weekend of May on Monday Every single year we observe

Memorial Day This is a day of remembrance Every year as we remember those who served our country in the armed forces and we remember specifically those who died so that we can enjoy the freedoms that we have in this land a

Memorial Day people have different traditions One tradition in our area is that people go to New Home Cemetery, which is a couple miles away where we remember those who lived in Eureka and Served our country and fell in battle.

In fact, if you go by Kyle and Abby's house, there's a There's a memorial a sign there.

I think I think Bob put that up, right? one of those men who died in World War two sir, he lived in Eureka and We every every

Memorial Day. His name is called at that cemetery as As the gun salute takes place as he is remembered and everybody who has fallen for our freedoms

Fort Snelling near Minneapolis Airport, by the way, not a great place to be buried but my we joke about it because my dad's gonna be buried there like it's like the least peaceful place, but It is a solemn place because this is a place where all the military

Have died and and this is where they are honored It's a popular place to visit people also put up flags in their yards every year

People are purposeful on Memorial Day we have traditions like this in our society where we set aside a day of remembrance and What God did is he set up this seventh day of rest to be?

Purposeful for the people of Israel and as we have a day of rest we are to be purposeful also

So what are we supposed to remember? There are two clear things from Scripture that you are to remember on your day of rest

The first is that you are to remember God the Creator That he created the world in six days, and then he rested on the seventh

So every time you observe the Sabbath you are reminded of Genesis chapter 1 and Genesis chapter 2

Which describes the creation? Thank you the Lord Lord. Thank you for all that you have created and how wonderful it is

Now Genesis chapter 1 there's a big debate Concerning whether Genesis 1 is figurative and whether it is literal and I do think it ties in with as we as we look at the

Sabbath Because we were talking about the Sabbath. We got a look at Genesis 1. I mean that the two go hand -in -hand and This debate

I'm going to tell you right now. It shouldn't really be a debate because it's pretty obvious It should be interpreted literally

God created the world in six literal 24 hour days Genesis 1 is telling history as it happened

Do you know why people say that these days are not literal? It's not because of careful exegesis a careful effort to understand the text they are trying to reconcile

Genesis 1 with secular modern science and The key word there is secular.

We shouldn't care what secular science says If the Bible says that God created the world in six literal 24 hour days and the earth is in fact young Then we should expect to see that in the study of the world.

This is clearly seen Alan Walker our resident scientist

I call him. Yeah, he could tell you all about that In fact, Heather Taylor did an assignment in school where she made a brochure

Explaining why science actually tells us Why the earth is young? And what

I have found interesting is that the people that have Compromised in recent years on social justice being really soft on homosexuality and other societal issues

Almost all of them believe the earth is old Coincidence, I think not

When you've already bought into worldly thinking it's not shocking that when the world comes around and pushes another idea

Pushes another agenda these Christian leaders go right along with the new agenda

This past week. I was on a podcast where we talked about big big Eva corruption And here's not here's how

I understand it. They have one eye on the Bible and one eye on the world Okay, one eye on the

Bible one eye on the world. We're supposed to have two eyes on the Bible And not pay attention to what the world is saying

Very important if we're gonna be faithful to Christ So Genesis 1 describes

God's creation as it happened historically in Genesis 2 verses 1 through 3

Summarizes this creation as those verses read thus the heavens and the earth were finished and all the host of them 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

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 so every time

Israel would take off one day a week. They would be drawn back to this event

God creating everything in six days and resting on the seventh

This is what they were brought back to the other thing that the people of Israel Were reminded of every single

Sabbath is that God redeemed them from? Egypt this great historical event that took place

Right before the Ten Commandments were delivered to them. Remember they're taken out of the land of Egypt They were held in bondage by Pharaoh They're taken out of the land and as they are wandering in the wilderness

The Lord gives them at Mount Sinai. He gives them these ten commandments

Deuteronomy 5 verses 12 through 15 says observe the Sabbath day to keep it Holy as the

Lord your God commanded you 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 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

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 Okay, so that's very interesting.

He wants them to remember the creation account. He wants them to remember what he Accomplished that he delivered them out of Egypt and he did it.

Of course. He gets the glory It was he who led them out and he wants them to to give him praise

Every week when they come together on the Sabbath day this day of rest devoted to the

Lord Now we live at a different time in history and we should praise

God Yes for what he did to Israel when he brought them out of the land of Egypt When he brought them across the

Red Sea and eventually to the promised land but we live on the other side of the cross and The redemption that God accomplished by bringing

Israel out of Egypt shows something about the Lord's character He is a

God that redeems that redeems his people that takes them out of the slavery that they are in and Brings them to freedom.

He did that with the people of Israel when they were in Egypt and he does it to us

With the slavery that we are in because of our bondage to sin Anyone who believes in Jesus and his finished work what he did at the cross

Through his glorious resurrection if you believe that Jesus died for your sins and rose

From the dead for you if you believe this Well, then you're saved your sins are forgiven.

His righteousness is your righteousness. You are free Jesus said this in John 8

The truth will set you free and you will be free indeed Everybody is a slave on planet earth.

The question is who is your master? You're either a slave to sin and Satan and the world or you are a slave to Jesus Christ and he is your master

But the amazing thing about being a slave to Jesus Christ is that is the greatest thing that could ever happen to you

His yoke is easy and his burden is light With him is fullness of joy

He is the master you've always wanted So as we observe the

Sabbath, we are to remember what he did on our behalf when he went to the cross God's redemption accomplished through Jesus Christ So we give praise to God for his works in history

Chiefly among those is what happened at Golgotha When Christ Accomplished our salvation for us.

So in this sermon that is calling you to take off one day a week for the Lord specifically remember

God's creation and remember the redemption that the Lord has accomplished on your behalf in Jesus Christ so the first reason why you must devote one day each week fully to the

Lord is To remember God's works in history Remember God's works in history

And here's the second reason why and this is the the the only the only other one We're gonna look at today The second reason why you must devote one day each week fully to the

Lord and that is this to rest from your work God has a plan for you to work and to rest

But when you only rest do we call that rest? What do we call it? Laziness It's only arrest if you work and As I have mentioned the

Lord modeled this in creation. He worked six days and rested on the seventh

God could have created everything instantly And he said I create everything but instead we have this elaborate account of him

This is what he did on day one. This is what he did on day two This is what he did on day three.

It's like a carpenter This is what he did on day one day two day three day four.

I mean you look at your work week This is this was what the Lord did. He had a work week when he created everything

The Lord modeled this he worked six days and then after six days he rested on the seventh day

Not because he got tired But because he was setting us an example Now when

I was younger My father used to work out downstairs. He had all this

Workout equipment down there. He was a weightlifter and you could tell by looking at me right that he was a weightlifter.

No, I'm kidding in fact My father

I got more of the Swedish genes when it comes to my build because I got more of a I was a runner He was a weightlifter and at one time

This doesn't have anything to do with the sermon, but I'm just gonna tell you because I want to break on my father He actually lifted close to 400 pounds.

He could bench almost 400 pounds and The bronze could tell you how much that is. That's a lot

But down in the basement, he had all this workout equipment and as he worked out He had friends from church who would come and work out and as a child

I used to go down and bother them as they worked out I was this little annoying kid who sat on the stairs and watched them

But what I didn't understand as a child is Why didn't they work out every day?

They wouldn't be down there every day. They would they would go down there three four days a week and Then they would rest the other days

Why is this? This is the case Because this is how God designed it

You're not supposed to work out seven days a week Because your body needs time to refresh and recover so that your muscles are able to grow stronger and I mentioned, you know

Jordan and Sierra and Lucy and and Hannah, right? I mean you're all into this lifting

They could tell you how this works when one lifts weights the muscle tissue tears and you need rest

For the muscles to maintain strength and to add more strength now

I have run a lot in my life and Followed distance running as well. And as I have watched races over the years

You hear how some runners train and it's very interesting. You can tell that they haven't read the Bible Some runners run seven days a week

And when I hear this, I'm thinking what in the world are they doing? They're working against their creator.

They're going against his design But sometimes Christian runners I've heard of You know,

Eric Little would have been one of these the famous Olympian who competed in the Paris Olympics 100 years ago, and I'm gonna talk a little bit about him next week

Eric Little understood we're supposed to rest one day It's best for your body to rest one day a week

So so when during my running years the peak of my running years I would run six days and I would rest one day and it worked well for me and By doing that I increased my performance not decreased like some think

This is how it is with exercise and it's also this way with work We are not to work seven days a week

If you work seven days a week What happens is that your productivity will go down?

Your longevity will go down your mental state will not be at its sharpest level

This goes against how we might think We often think if I just keep working and working hard.

I'll get more done and I'll feel better But this is not so Because this isn't how

God made it Work hard. Yes but rest

Rest Now in our area I Don't need to preach a sermon on lazy people because I don't know if we have lazy people.

I mean I Know back where I used to live. We had lazy people out here. I don't see lazy people

But what we do have our workaholics In fact when

I came here, I I learned that people thought a good man or a good woman was someone who just worked

They're a hard worker and just worked hard and just worked hard and Without taking a day off and I'm thinking oh that that that's a that's a flawed thinking that needs to be corrected

But that's not what the Bible teaches and I say this in love We should not work seven days a week

Please understand this if you work seven days a week You are going against God's to good design for work and creation now.

There might be a dairy farmer here I understand that there are some jobs where it's like, okay, we have to milk the cow But there still needs to be rest as much as you can within that day

Sometimes people ask the question Will there be work in heaven? And as I'm as I'm talking about work,

I want to talk about this for a second And I think the answer is yes Because work is good

The reason we know this is because Adam and Eve worked in the garden before the fall of mankind in Genesis chapter 3

Genesis 2 15 says the Lord God took the man and put him in the Garden of Eden to work and to keep it

So Adam worked before the fall so we know that work is good however, you might be thinking how could work be good because I Don't like work work is hard.

You might have a job. You don't like and Well, some work days might be okay or even good

Other work days are miserable The reason your work is miserable some days is because you work during the fall

The fall of mankind brought this about this is one of the curses of mankind Anytime you have a bad day of work

Understand this Genesis 3 verses 18 through 19 describes this curse on man

Thorns and thistles it shall bring forth for you And you shall eat the plants of the field by the sweat of your face.

You shall eat bread till you return to the ground You have some days where you're thinking did

I accomplish anything You're just hitting your head on the wall You're gonna have days like that because that's a part of the curse

That we see in Genesis chapter 3 But even though this is your experience some days work in itself is a good thing

What we know about work and rest is that you only feel good resting when you work hard When you have days where you do something enjoyable, it is enjoyable.

But if you did leisure activities every single day All throughout the day you should think what am

I doing? I'm supposed to be productive. That's how God made it to be He made it so that we work to make a living to provide for ourselves and our families too much leisure

Leaves you with an empty feeling but when we have the right balance of work and rest

Ideally working six days and resting on the seventh We have this deep sense of satisfaction

Satisfaction God made it that way you earned your rest This is how we feel because this is how

God set it up. What is interesting is that the first explicit blessing that God gave in the

Bible is rest as Genesis 2 3 says God blessed the seventh day and made it holy

It is a blessing from God that he commands us to rest He is telling us don't work and work and work rest rest

But we think there's so much to do Yes, there is a lot to do and there's always gonna be a lot to do

The day you die, there's gonna be a lot to do But someone else is gonna have to do it for you

Think about the end of your life Will you think I wished I worked more? Only if you're truly lazy might you say that But you're not going to say that because I'm not talking to lazy people here

You're not gonna say I wish I got that extra day of work There is the blessing of rest that God has set aside for you to enjoy

It's a blessing. But the question is are You taking advantage of it the

Hebrew word Sabbath? Literally means to cease from work in Verses 9 and 10 of Exodus 20.

We are told that no work must be done The Lord goes out of his way in explaining what this means

So that it was crystal clear to the Israelites because they may be thinking. Oh, well, maybe I could do this Maybe I could do that.

This is this is what he tells them He says your son your daughter your male servant your female servant your livestock

Even and even the sojourner should not be working The command of the people of Israel is that all of them were to rest from their labor.

I Think what can be easy and I fall prey to this is that we can mix a little bit of work in with time of rest on The day that is supposed to be set aside as a day of rest and this is what

Israel did After the Babylonian exile as They now lived in Jerusalem Israel historically was taken into captivity by the

Babylonians in 605 BC and there are many reasons

Israel was taken in that captivity. Yeah Yes, it was because of their idolatry But one of the reasons they were taken in that captivity is that they stopped observing the fourth commandment

After they came to Jerusalem out of exile Nehemiah the governor went after the people of Israel Because they were disobeying

God in this same way once again by not Observing the Sabbath and this is what

Nehemiah said in chapter 13 Verses 15 through 18. This is the book of Nehemiah in those days.

I saw in Judah a people Treading wine presses on the Sabbath and bringing in heaps of grain and loading them on the donkeys and and Also wine grapes figs and all kinds of loads, which they brought into Jerusalem on the

Sabbath day I warned them on the day when they sold food Tyrians also who lived in the city

Brought in fish and all kinds of goods and sold them on the Sabbath to the people of Judah in Jerusalem itself

Then I confronted the nobles of Judah and said to them what is this evil thing that you are doing profaning the

Sabbath day Did not your father's act in this way and did not our God bring all this disaster on us and on this city?

Now you are bringing more wrath on Israel by profaning the Sabbath so the people of Israel were doing a little bit of work and a little bit of resting

But this is the rebuke they were given they were not devoting one day this one day fully to the

Lord Instead they were working. They were still doing work

And Nehemiah is telling them this is one of the reasons why we were judged in such a severe way

By being taken into exile by the Babylonians So learn from history the mistakes of your forefathers

Resist the temptation to work on the one day a week that is fully devoted to him and this one hits me

I know what it's like to do that Brianna can tell you I'm not I'm not real good at this. Okay So I'm in this with you.

We need to to pay attention to this and Take this seriously.

It is a physical day of rest, but it's also a spiritual day of rest It's supposed to rest you in multiple ways

Psalm 62 one says for God alone. My soul waits in silence from him comes my salvation

The NIV says for God alone. My soul rests in silence and The place

I love to go to and I think about Sabbath rest is Psalm 23 Psalm 23 the most famous Psalm there is the

Lord is my shepherd I shall not want he makes me lie down in green pastures.

He leads me besides still waters. He restores my soul

He leads me in paths of righteousness for his namesake That's what the

Lord is in the business of doing he is in the business of restoring our soul Not just rejuvenating in our physical health

But our soul if our soul is tired our body will be tired too because they're so interconnected the body and soul that God created our soul needs to be in the right place with the

Lord and By devoting one day each week fully to him He accomplishes that in us.

That's his design So the Sabbath is not just a day of physical rest, but a day of spiritual rest to the

Lord It is a day to have communion with the Lord to enjoy him because he is to be enjoyed above all else and to be refreshed and We'll talk more about this

Next Sunday when we look at point three Where we talk when we look at what does it look like to worship the

Lord on? This day of rest and I love looking at this because it's such a joy because I think deep down We're all longing for this to rest our soul gets tired.

We get tired physically We're all longing for this and the Bible has the answers to this and so next week

We're gonna dig even deeper into this as we look at the third and fourth reason why?

We are to devote one day fully to the Lord every single week, and we're also going to answer the question what day?

Can we choose a different day? We'll look at that one Sunday from now But at this time

Let's bow our heads in prayer Father in heaven as we look at this we are reminded of what

Jesus said Come all to me who are weary and heavy laden

For I will give them rest and they will find rest for their souls

And that's what we all need When we come to faith in Christ we find rest, but this is a continual

Journey of finding rest in you as we go through our sojourn on this earth

And Lord help us To devote one day fully to you every single week

To have one day that's special just as you told the Israelites to have one day devoted to you

It's not as if we just completely disregard this fourth Commandment even though it does change it does change, but we are not to completely disregard this

So my prayer is that you would apply this to everyone today right where they're at And also prepare our hearts to hear what we're gonna hear next