2-4-2018 - Sabbath Keeping
Strength in Christ • Sermon • Submitted
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· 8 viewsKeeping the Sabbath helps us mark our growth and service to God.
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Sermon
Thesis: Keeping the Sabbath helps us mark our growth and service to God.
Keeping the Sabbath helps us mark our growth and service to God.
For kids:
How do we know we are growing?
How do we celebrate that growth?
Birthday parties
Graduations
Going out to eat and Getting Groceries
and Getting Groceries
Me
3 Days of no sleep with the flu
3 Days of no sleep with the flu
Days run together
We
Our days are divided by our times of work
Our days are divided by our times of work
We remember our years by our vacations and holidays, not our days of work.
We measure times of training and education by graduations
Without times of rest, we never really know that we finish any work.
God commands us, and gives example, that we should break our work tasks into 6 day sections, separated by a day of rest.
God commands us, and gives example, that we should break our work tasks into 6 day sections, separated by a day of rest.
God
By the seventh day God had finished the work he had been doing; so on the seventh day he rested from all his work. Then God blessed the seventh day and made it holy, because on it he rested from all the work of creating that he had done.
2 By the seventh day God had finished the work he had been doing; so on the seventh day he rested from all his work. 3 Then God blessed the seventh day and made it holy, because on it he rested from all the work of creating that he had done.
Rest
Stopping
“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. On it you shall not do any work, neither you, nor your son or daughter, nor your male or female servant, nor your ox, your donkey or any of your animals, nor any foreigner residing in your towns, so that your male and female servants may rest, as you do. 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.
Deuteronomy
Deuteronomy
Then he said to them, “The Sabbath was made for man, not man for the Sabbath. So the Son of Man is Lord even of the Sabbath.”
Not a pause, but an ending. A period. A chapter's ending.
Not a pause, but an ending. A period. A chapter's ending.
Not a pause, but an ending. A period. A chapter's ending.
Why?
To prevent us from becoming slaves again
To make sure we are working well
How?
Putting your hand to the plow and looking back
Looking back while working diminishes the work.
Failing to look back prevents you from seeing the bigger picture.
Slaves focus on doing one thing and not looking at the bigger picture
To a hammer, everything looks like a nail
A plowing slave will plow forever, not thinking that the land also needs to be planted, weeded, and harvested.
He will plow humongous tracts of empty land that will never bear fruit because it takes more than plowing to raise crops.
How does rest lead to reflection?
For the director of music. A psalm of David.
How long, Lord? Will you forget me forever?
How long will you hide your face from me?
How long must I wrestle with my thoughts
and day after day have sorrow in my heart?
How long will my enemy triumph over me?
Look on me and answer, Lord my God.
Give light to my eyes, or I will sleep in death,
and my enemy will say, “I have overcome him,”
and my foes will rejoice when I fall.
But I trust in your unfailing love;
my heart rejoices in your salvation.
I will sing the Lord’s praise,
for he has been good to me.
Complaint
Complaint
"How long, Lord? Will you forget me forever?
How long will you hide your face from me?
How long must I wrestle with my thoughts
and day after day have sorrow in my heart?
How long will my enemy triumph over me?
Request
Request
Look on me and answer, Lord my God.
Give light to my eyes, or I will sleep in death,
and my enemy will say, “I have overcome him,”
and my foes will rejoice when I fall.
Trust and Gratitude
Trust and Gratitude
But I trust in your unfailing love;
my heart rejoices in your salvation.
I will sing the Lord’s praise,
for he has been good to me. "
Blessing
Blessing
Reflecting
Not just saying something nice... Prophetic Prayer
Praying the words God gives you as rightful judgment over the work you've done
Making it Holy
Finding where God was at work in your work.
If God is not at work in your work, maybe you should be doing something else!
Why everyone on the same day?
It helps us understand that we are all living in community together and our work affects each other.
It allows us to encourage one another in our own lives because our lives are connected.
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 good news proclaimed to us, just as they did; but the message they heard was of no value to them, because they did not share the faith of those who obeyed. Now we who have believed enter that rest, just as God has said,
“So I declared on oath in my anger,
‘They shall never enter my rest.’ ”
And yet his works have been finished since the creation of the world. For somewhere he has spoken about the seventh day in these words: “On the seventh day God rested from all his works.” And again in the passage above he says, “They shall never enter my rest.”
Therefore since it still remains for some to enter that rest, and since those who formerly had the good news proclaimed to them did not go in because of their disobedience, God again set a certain day, calling it “Today.” This he did when a long time later he spoke through David, as in the passage already quoted:
“Today, if you hear his voice,
do not harden your hearts.”
For if Joshua had given them rest, God would not have spoken later about another day. There remains, then, a Sabbath-rest for the people of God; for anyone who enters God’s rest also rests from their works, just as God did from his. Let us, therefore, make every effort to enter that rest, so that no one will perish by following their example of disobedience.
Day of Judgment
“So I declared on oath in my anger,
‘They shall never enter my rest.’ ”
And yet his works have been finished since the creation of the world. For somewhere he has spoken about the seventh day in these words: “On the seventh day God rested from all his works.” And again in the passage above he says, “They shall never enter my rest.”
Therefore since it still remains for some to enter that rest, and since those who formerly had the good news proclaimed to them did not go in because of their disobedience, God again set a certain day, calling it “Today.” This he did when a long time later he spoke through David, as in the passage already quoted:
“Today, if you hear his voice,
do not harden your hearts.”
For if Joshua had given them rest, God would not have spoken later about another day. There remains, then, a Sabbath-rest for the people of God; for anyone who enters God’s rest also rests from their works, just as God did from his. Let us, therefore, make every effort to enter that rest, so that no one will perish by following their example of disobedience. "
Day of Judgment
Stopping Life
Reflecting on our lives
Day of the Lord/Lord's Day
Mini days of judgment each week to keep us on track
You
You
Are you on the right path?
Is God working in the work you do, whether it is
Manufacturing
Sales
Management
Raising and teaching children
Caring for others
Are you stopping long enough to tell?
How are you marking that growth?
We
We practice Sabbath together
We practice Sabbath together
Membership vows and congregational response
Members of the household of God,
I commend these persons to your love and care.
Do all in your power to increase their faith,
confirm their hope, and perfect them in love.
The congregation responds:
We give thanks for all that God has already given you
and we welcome you in Christian love.
As members together with you
in the body of Christ
and in this congregation
of The United Methodist Church,
we renew our covenant
faithfully to participate
in the ministries of the Church
by our prayers, our presence,
our gifts, our service, and our witness,
that in everything God may be glorified
through Jesus Christ.