Pursue Sabbath Keeping

[0:00] Father, as we open your word, help us, Father, may your Holy Spirit do a work to make us honest about ourselves, that we might recognize ourselves in your word, that we might recognize our fears that your word creates, but we also, Father, might recognize the hunger that we have for what your word teaches, the longing we have to have that be real in our hearts and in our lives.

[0:27] So, Father, pour out your Holy Spirit upon us so that we might be fed by you, by your word. And this we ask in Jesus' name. Amen. Please be seated.

[0:43] So, if you could go back in a time machine to talk to young George Sinclair when he was a kid, and you were able to convince the young George Sinclair that you weren't going to tell my parents that I really could answer honestly.

[0:59] And if you were to ask the young George Sinclair, which was your least favorite day of the week, or is there a day you hate, I would not have had to think about it. I would have said Sunday. In fact, if you would have asked me, what is the day you hate the most, your second most hateful day, your third most hateful day, I would have said Sunday, Sunday, and Sunday.

[1:20] Because basically, I liked the other days of the week most of the time, but I hated Sunday. I grew up in a home with very strict Sabbath observance.

[1:31] Church three times a day. You go to Sunday school, then after you go to Sunday school, you go to church, and then you go home, and you get ready for the evening service.

[1:44] Most of the time, you weren't allowed to watch television, and I was never allowed to play with my friends. So Sunday was unbelievably boring, and I hated it.

[1:56] In fact, I only stopped hating it. I can't remember how old I was. I really only stopped hating it when I was old enough to get away, to go biking somewhere.

[2:07] And it wasn't so that I could observe the Sabbath, but my parents didn't know what I was doing, and I could have some fun. And that was my experience of keeping the Sabbath. I have to confess that, you know, on one hand, that has probably cast a long shadow on my life in terms of how I've kept the Sabbath ever since.

[2:29] And so on one hand, because we're talking about the Ten Commandments today, if you're a guest, we're going through the Ten Commandments. Today is the Fourth Commandment, and it's about Sabbath keeping. We're going to look in a moment to Deuteronomy 5, if you want to sort of be turning there.

[2:43] But, you know, all week, or the last two weeks, as I've been thinking and praying about this text, on one hand, I'm very conscious that that's, you know, that's part of my background, very strict observance of the Sabbath.

[2:59] On the other hand, there's the Canadian context today. And I'm probably, maybe not describing all of you, so for some of you, I'm describing other people. But probably for most of us, if we murdered somebody this week, we'd probably feel guilty.

[3:15] Just a guess. Probably if we stole something this week, we'd feel a little bit guilty. Just a guess. We committed adultery this week, hopefully you feel guilty. If you haven't kept the Sabbath in four months, doesn't bother us in the least.

[3:32] Like for the average Canadian Christian, today, we probably don't know how to keep the Sabbath. And if we don't keep the Sabbath at all, or at least not even regularly how God has intended it, that's just fine.

[3:46] We don't even feel the least, tiniest smidgen of guilt. And that's the context within which we have to sort of look at God's word. And so we're going to do that.

[3:57] And I have to confess that I've learned a lot this week studying the text. I really have. And I realize in some ways, I haven't kept the Sabbath as well as I should. I don't know if I have a solution for kids finding Sundays boring.

[4:11] I don't know if I have a solution for that. Part of it is sometimes just things are boring in life and kids have to learn that. But we need to learn from God's word about what it is.

[4:23] Should we be trying to keep the Sabbath? Should we be going back to how I was raised? Should we be doing something different? Well, we're going to look at that. So if it's in Deuteronomy chapter 5, is one of the two versions of the Ten Commandments.

[4:35] It's the one that we've been using as week by week we've been going through it. Deuteronomy chapter 5. We're going to begin at the first verse. And just a bit of a context. I don't know how much Jonathan told you every week, but some of you might not have been here, so I'll just say it to you now.

[4:50] There's two versions of the Ten Commandments. There's only small differences between the two of them. Actually, the Sabbath keeping is the one with the most changes. The first version in the book of Exodus takes place shortly after they've left Egypt.

[5:04] And this version, the Deuteronomy version, Deuteronomy is Moses has led the people to the edge of the promised land. The people are about to enter the promised land.

[5:15] Moses knows that he is not going into the promised land. He will die. He will have seen it from afar, but he will not enter it. He knows that. And in some ways, the book of Deuteronomy is a very long sermon by Moses.

[5:28] And it's not only a reminding of the covenant, it's in a sense a renewal of the covenant between the Lord God Almighty and the people of Israel. It's a renewal of the covenant before they go in to take the promised land and to live in it.

[5:44] And so Moses recites or reminds them of what went on and of the covenant, and that's the context. And so off we go. Deuteronomy chapter 5, verse 1.

[5:55] And Moses summoned all Israel and said to them, Hear, O Israel, the statutes and the rules that I speak in your hearing today, and you shall learn them and be careful to do them.

[6:06] And pause there for a second. This is really important. When we stop right here, everybody in the world, all of the different religions of the world are very comfortable.

[6:18] If you could put up the first point, Andrew. I mean, there's slightly different ways to word this. I thought of about two or three different slight ways to word it if you wanted to capture Hinduism or Buddhism or certain other types of spirituality.

[6:33] But religion says, if I obey and if I achieve what the rules require, then God will show me favor. That's the basic religious impulse.

[6:47] That if I obey and if I achieve what the rules require, then God will show me favor. So when Deuteronomy 5, when Moses begins, Hear, O Israel, the statutes and the rules that I speak in your hearing today, and you shall learn them and be careful to do them, all of the religions of the world say, Okay, good.

[7:08] These are the Jewish rules or the Christian rules. Let's sit down. They all sit down. Muslims, Buddhists, Hindus, North Americans, if we'll sit down, let's look and see how good their rules are compared to ours.

[7:23] You know, because spiritual people will say, Okay, well, I'm really interested to hear what these rules are because I know that if I'm spiritual, not religious, my rules are way better.

[7:33] Like my rules are just, you know, treat yourself regularly, make sure you do yoga a couple of times a week, try not to murder anybody this week, you know, you deserve a latte or a nice back, you know, whatever it is, you know, or, you know, you have to make sure you send at least one angry tweet against Trump.

[7:53] Like there's just a variety of different things that you might want to say, you know, but the fact of the matter is is the entire world can sit down at the end of verse 1 and say, Okay, this is very interesting. Okay, because religion is all about keeping rules.

[8:08] In fact, you see, for many people in North America who would describe themselves as being completely and utterly irreligious, as having given up on religion, they'd say, basically, that whole treadmill of keeping rules, forget about it.

[8:24] They're stupid. You know, the fact of the matter is, if I just feel like getting, you know, drinking late into the night on Saturday, getting up whenever I bleep, bleep, bleep, bleep, bleep, bleep, bleep, feel like it on a Sunday morning, you know, and wandering over, you know, having a latte, having some nice pastries, just living life on my own terms for my own interest to accomplish my own things and forget about spiritual, forget about religious, and there's a lot of people in Canada like that because they basically understand that the only option is between religion where there's going to be rules to win the God's favor and no religion or irreligion and there's no religion and irreligion and say, just forget about it.

[9:04] When you die, that's it. You know, suck it up. When you die, that's it. And in between, don't bother with all these stupid rules.

[9:15] Good grief, praying five times a day with complicated ceremonies, forget about it. Have a drink. Chill out. Watch some Netflix. Get a life.

[9:28] Because most people, we're all prepared for verse one. Okay? Give me the rules, God, and I'll figure out a way to keep them because I want to know your favor.

[9:43] And that's the basic context. And by the way, the constant struggle within Christianity is because whether you're Protestant or Catholic or Eastern Orthodox, whether you're charismatic or evangelical, the constant drift is to follow the human heart to turn the Christian faith into a religion.

[10:02] You've got to go to confession. You've got to say so many Hail Marys. You've got to go to Mass certain days because they're days of, what do they call them, solemn obligation or something like that.

[10:14] And we Protestants, we know we're way, way, way better than those, you know, Roman Catholics, you know, but ours are, you know, I don't know, you've got to go to church a certain number of times, you know, you've got to be able to know the praise songs, you have to know when to raise your hands, you have to be in a congregation that claps, you don't clap, you have to do this rule, you have to do that rule, but we turn it into, like my parents, in some ways, in their church, Sabbath keeping was a list of rules that had to be kept.

[10:43] And if you didn't keep the rules, like what are you, Roman Catholic or something? Like not a Christian? I'm not picking, you know, I'm sure if I had some Roman Catholics here, they could say, yeah, you don't go to Mass, what are you, a Protestant?

[10:57] Like it's the human heart that's the problem. And so we understand it. And religion is all about obeying, achieving the rules, what they require, then God will show me favor.

[11:13] So we read verse one again and we're all set. O hear, O Israel, the statutes and the rules that I speak to you in hearing today, and you shall learn them and be careful to do them. Okay? I am oriented. It's a religious text, religious rules, the Muslims, the Buddhists, the Hindus, we all sit around because the Hindus and the Buddhists and the Muslims know they're going to have better rules than these ones.

[11:34] And then in verse two, Moses throws a curveball. He throws a knuckleball. He throws a screwball. He throws a ball that nobody's expecting.

[11:46] And he continues to throw screwball after screwball because Moses, and he's just speaking for God, wants to mess with our religious mind. How does he go in verse two?

[12:01] The Lord, our God, made a covenant with us in Horeb. What? No, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, God. No, no, no, God. Moses, you got this wrong. You're supposed to tell us the different rules that we do, and then if we succeed in the rules that we do, then you might make a covenant with us.

[12:20] You don't start with making a covenant with us. Like, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no. God, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa. Just stop. Moses, stop. Time out. You're supposed to tell us the different things that we have to do so God will show us the favor of a covenant.

[12:38] Because we need to sort of have a bit of a say in this so you're bitting our debt. you don't begin by announcing that you make a covenant with us.

[12:49] You just make a covenant with us. Now, you see, when we read this as a religious way, we skip this part. This is now where it goes blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, verse 7.

[13:05] Yada, yada, yada, yada, yada, yada, verse 7. But God messes with our religious heart. He messes with our desire to create a system whereby really God sort of owes us some favors because of our great success at rule keeping.

[13:30] But he messes with us. In fact, if you could put this to the next point up, Andrew, in some ways this is the summary of what's going on in the whole Ten Commandments. First, God makes a covenant. Then he redeems us.

[13:42] Then he asks us to keep a weekly Sabbath for him by resting and remembering. The order is really important. You see, the religious inclination is if we rest and remember very well, God will redeem us.

[13:58] If we rest and remember very well, God will spend time with us. The order is unbelievably important. God makes a covenant with us. We do nothing to make the covenant.

[14:10] Absolutely nothing. We do as much to make a covenant with God as we have a say in how fast the earth spins around the sun.

[14:22] Let's have a world vote about how fast the earth spins around the sun. It doesn't matter. God makes the covenant. And then God, as we're going to see in a moment, he redeems them.

[14:37] They didn't redeem themselves. Not even remotely close. He does everything to redeem them. And after he's made the covenant, after he's redeemed them so that they can be part of the covenant, he asks these different rules.

[14:56] Not these different rules, these different words is a better word than rules. These different words. And as we're going to see in a moment, if you look at the Ten Commandments, eight of the commandments involve not doing something.

[15:12] Two of the commandments, God gives us a project, so to speak. Something to aim for. We'll talk about this more in a moment. This one, that we're to attempt to keep the Sabbath, and the next one about honoring parents.

[15:28] Eight, don't steal, don't murder, don't, don't, don't. For two of them, in a sense, there's something to pursue. But we're going to see as we keep reading this that first God makes a covenant, then he redeems us, then he asks us to keep a weekly Sabbath for him by resting and remembering.

[15:45] So let's go back to verse two again. And we'll see that this is exactly how it's structured. And it's really important because our religious sensibility wants to make verses two to six, yada, yada, yada, yada, yada, yada, yada, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah.

[16:01] We need to listen. The Lord our God made a covenant with us in Horeb. Not with our fathers did the Lord make this covenant, but with us who are all of us here alive today.

[16:13] That's a very simple thing. Basically, when God makes a covenant, the implication is that it's going to be multiple generations until either he brings in a new covenant or the end comes. For us, the covenant, the covenant with Israel still has a bearing and importance up until Jesus comes again.

[16:31] But for us, both Jews and Gentiles who are in here in the congregation together as Christians, the church is this, the new covenant of his blood instituted when Jesus dies on the cross.

[16:42] That's the covenant. There will be no other covenant until Jesus returns. And it's understood by this covenant. God's showing us that covenants are understood to be intergenerational, multiple generational, especially within your own children, but also to extend beyond your own children.

[17:01] Verse 4, it continues, the Lord God, the Lord spoke with you face to face at the mountain. In other words, it was a personal communication. They don't see his face, but this is face to face as a poetic way of saying he's right in your face.

[17:16] He's right up close to you when he's speaking to you. The Lord spoke with you face to face at the mountain out of the midst of the fire while I stood between the Lord and you at that time to declare to you the word of the Lord, once again emphasizing that God spoke.

[17:32] For you were afraid because of the fire and you did not go up into the mountain. And God said, now here he's introducing himself. This is the second little bit of what I've said up here.

[17:43] I am the Lord your God who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery. He hasn't told them a single rule.

[17:55] He hasn't told them a single thing to do. God made the covenant. You didn't do anything to make the covenant. God chose to make a covenant with you. And you couldn't redeem yourself from slavery.

[18:07] God. The Lord God. And Lord here, remember every time you see the word Lord in the Old Testament, that's the covenant personal name for God.

[18:18] The relational name for God. Okay? When my kids, at a certain time, all of my kids had a time where they wanted to start calling me George.

[18:31] And I told each one of them that there's six billion people in the world who can call me George. there's only nine kids, only nine people who can call me Dad. And Lord is like Dad.

[18:47] We're invited to call him Dad. I mean, it's Lord. He's big. It's reminding us of how big he is, but it's the personal name. And he says, verse six, I am the Lord your God who brought you up out of the land of slavery, out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery.

[19:02] And you're going to notice that when we go to the commandment about the Sabbath day, he's going to remind the people about the fact that he brought them out of slavery, that it's a very, very, very important idea.

[19:13] So we see here, first God makes a covenant, then he redeems us, then he asks us to keep a weekly Sabbath for him by resting and remembering. Now, some of us might say, okay, well, George, here's the problem with this.

[19:30] I wasn't a slave in Egypt. Last I checked, in fact, I mean, I think there's a few people here who've been in Egypt. Most of us have never been to Egypt.

[19:43] So, you know, maybe other than Paul, there's nobody else here who's gone to Egypt, so how could God have redeemed us from it? Like, how does this apply to us as Christians? How does this apply to us at all?

[19:56] Well, two very, very important things. We're going to look at two other scripture passages. Here's the first thing to keep in mind. It's a New Testament teaching, a Jesus teaching.

[20:07] Next point, Andrew. Until we are redeemed by Jesus Christ, every human being is a slave in denial.

[20:19] By the way, that's why he had to go through the denial to the promised land. Sorry, I took a slip in a really bad joke.

[20:30] Denial, denial, never mind. Okay. I shouldn't try jokes in English or when they have to be translated into Portuguese. But until, this is very, very, very, very, very, very, very stark news.

[20:42] Actually, if you want to just turn to John chapter 8 in your Bibles, turn to John chapter 8. Some of you, probably your minds instantly went to that. John chapter 8, verse 34. Keep your finger in Deuteronomy because we're going to go back.

[20:56] But if you go back to John chapter 8, verse 34, we see Jesus speaking. And actually, we'll begin at verse 31.

[21:07] John 8, 31. So Jesus said to the Jews, that's the religious leaders of the Jewish people who had believed him, if you abide in my word, you are truly my disciples and you will know the truth and the truth will set you free.

[21:22] It's a very famous quote. You will know the truth and the truth will set you free. They answered him, we are the offspring of Abraham and have never been enslaved to anyone. How is it that you say you will become free?

[21:34] Jesus answered them, truly, truly, if you have the old King James Version, I love it, verily, verily, I say to you, everyone who practices sin is a slave to sin.

[21:48] And then it goes on, the slave does not remain in the house forever, the son remains forever, so if the son sets you free, you will be free indeed. Truly, truly, I say to you, everyone who practices sin is a slave to sin.

[22:03] I'm not going to spend a long time trying to prove this. We're going to talk about it a little bit, a fair amount actually, in the fall when we start our series in Galatians because in the book of Galatians, the image of slavery as a way to understand being separate from God is one of the primary ideas to understand sin is slavery.

[22:23] But this, I'm going to just point out, this is a very, very stark thing. I'm not making any comment. I don't know what Justin Trudeau's eternal destiny is. I don't know if he's a Christian or not. I'm not, I'm just, but, you know, apparently he isn't.

[22:36] It doesn't matter if you're Bill Gates. It doesn't matter if you're one of Rick's friends on the street. It doesn't matter if you're Justin Trudeau. It doesn't matter if you're a person living in a shelter.

[22:50] Apart from Jesus, you are a slave to sin. You are a slave. If you were here today, you haven't given your life to Jesus, the Bible just insulted you.

[23:05] It only insulted you, by the way, if it's not true. If it's true, it was the first true thing you have heard about your situation potentially in a long time.

[23:22] If it's not true, it's an insult. If it's true, it's hope. It's hope.

[23:35] And so, you see, on one hand, this is the beginning of trying to understand this Ten Commandments. On one hand, okay, I wasn't a slave in Egypt, but if every human being apart from Christ is a slave, and a slave in denial, because Bill Gates does not understand himself as a slave, Justin Trudeau does not understand himself as a slave, and people in Ottawa and in Angola, apart from Christ, do not think of themselves as a slave.

[24:07] But if we understand that Jesus has redeemed us out of slavery into freedom, then that's a very, very easy jump from the Sabbath commandment that we're going to read in a second.

[24:22] Here's the second thing. If you could put up the next point, Andrew. The Exodus recorded in the book of Exodus points to the true and greater Exodus accomplished by Jesus, Messiah.

[24:38] Remember, the way the Old Testament is, looking at it from your point of view. This is written before the cross. We are reading this after the cross.

[24:56] And from Genesis 3 all the way to Malachi 4, time and time again, the scripture is giving us riddles and hints and types and promises that will only be fulfilled in the cross.

[25:11] after the cross, when we read books like Deuteronomy, we can look back and understand in many ways how this was preparing people to understand the cross.

[25:26] If you turn in your Bible to Luke 9, verse 31, Luke 9, verse 31, we'll see this teaching comes from Jesus.

[25:38] It's going to be hard because almost all English versions translate the word, don't translate the word literally, but they translate it metaphorically.

[25:50] But if you read, we'll begin in verse 28, Luke 9, 28. Now, so what's happened here in the flow of the book is that Jesus just before this has revealed to his disciples for the first time that he's going to die on the cross.

[26:04] In fact, not only has he revealed that he's going to die on the cross, he's revealed that his death on the cross is the whole purpose of him coming. And everything that happens in the book of Luke after just a few verses before this is Jesus preparing in different ways his disciples to understand what it means that he's come to die upon the cross for them to save them.

[26:28] And so here, that's the context of the transfiguration. And this is the story, one of Luke's account of the transfiguration. Now about eight days, verse 28, after these sayings about revealing that he's going to die on the cross, he took with him Peter and John and James and went up on the mountain to pray.

[26:46] And as he was praying, the appearance of his face was altered and his clothing became dazzling white and behold, two men were talking with him, Moses and Elijah.

[26:59] This is really interesting. Moses, who preaches Deuteronomy and is the one who's there in the book of Exodus that God uses to reveal this covenant with Israel that they are to enter into and to remind them of the covenant, to remind them that they were delivered from slavery and learning how to live as whole and free human beings in light of the covenant.

[27:22] This Moses and Elijah who's taken right up into heaven, representing the prophets, they're speaking to Jesus. verse 30 again, and behold, two men were talking with him, Moses and Elijah, who appeared in glory and spoke of his, and the word departure is literally exodus.

[27:47] They spoke of his exodus, which he was about to accomplish at Jerusalem. So isn't it interesting, Moses talks to Jesus.

[28:04] Moses, who was used by God to bring the people of Israel out of the house of slavery, out of the house of bondage, out of Egypt by crossing the Red Sea.

[28:16] Jesus has just revealed that he came to die and now they describe his death upon the cross and what it accomplishes and his resurrection as an exodus.

[28:28] that you, ordinary human beings like you and me can benefit from. And so the exodus recorded in the book of Exodus points to the true and greater exodus accomplished by Jesus Messiah, which we can benefit from and follow.

[28:51] And so when we read that verse 6, I am the Lord your God who brought you out of the house of bondage, out of the house of slavery, we can instantly think one moment we can completely and utterly get behind this because Jesus accomplished the true and greater exodus because he defeated sin itself.

[29:13] He defeated death itself. Sin which causes death, he's defeated sin, he's defeated death, he's defeated the devil, he's defeated all hostile spiritual powers, he has defeated all of these things.

[29:26] It is the true, that is the true great, the true defeat of slavery because we can't stop sinning, we cannot stop ourselves from dying, we are slaves to sin, we are slaves to death and some of us are even slaves to hostile demonic spiritual powers and we cannot free ourselves and Jesus' exodus, his death upon the cross and his resurrection is the true defeat of slavery which we can share in by faith.

[29:59] We can remember this commandment brothers and sisters. This is ours. It is not just for Moses and the people who are there, this is ours.

[30:14] A far greater exodus, a far greater defeat and triumph over slavery, the promise of a far greater freedom and wholeness that can begin on this side of the grave and with the coming of Jesus where when we see him face to face and we will see him face to face and we will be changed because we will be like him and our wholeness and our freedom in Christ is a destiny that cannot be taken from us.

[30:46] turn back to Deuteronomy once again read verse six this Deuteronomy five verse six I am the Lord your God who brought you out of the land of Egypt out of the house of slavery now jump down to the actual commandment or the word about Sabbath observance verse 12 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 donkey or any of your livestock or the sojourner who is within your gates that your male and servant and your female servant may rest as well as you you shall remember that you were a slave in the land of

[31:50] 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 so here's a couple of things about this if you could put up the next point even after I become Christ's own forever I can be lured into living like a slave even after I become Christ's own forever I can be lured into living like a slave it's really funny so this morning I'm making my coffee and making my peanut butter and jam stuff that I'm going to have with my coffee and I'm honest with you I've been working on this all week and what am I doing as I'm making my coffee and buttering my rolls and putting peanut butter and jam on them am

[32:52] I thinking God is so good he's delivered me from slavery he's redeemed me my destiny forever no I was unbelievably anxious about what was going to happen next Sunday I had been lured into living like a slave I was going to come here and tell you all the things you're supposed to do but existentially I was being lured into living like a slave to anxiety see that's what sanctification is all about and that's one of the reasons why the Sabbath is an important tool in sanctification because the fact of the matter is is that our minds naturally move to different things that call our attention to serve them whether it's anxiety whether it's to try to get a particular degree whether it's about trying to make more money whether it's about satisfying our husband or our wife whether our mind keeps moving to wounds things that people did to hurt our minds keep going to particular images our minds keep going to our pride our minds keep going to all sorts of things and even though we are

[34:10] Christ's owned forever it is really easy for us to be lured into slavery which is why God in his kindness says you know what George you know what I'd like you to do remember George I made the covenant that's what goes on when Jesus is doing the last supper he's telling everybody I'm making a covenant we didn't all agree to make the covenant I'm making a new covenant that will go on forever and I'm going to die on the cross for you and I'm going to make sure that every single thing that you do that's ever wrong I'm going to pay for it and your inability George to live a holy life so that you know you have perfect fellowship hands and open arms that you cease and put your arms out to me and I'll catch you and I'll take you because it's not George about how long your arm it's about how long my arm it's not about how strong your grip is it's about how my grip is

[35:11] I will never let you go and George once a week I want you to reenact that see the word sabbath means cease stop you see in some ways if we start to learn to practice the sabbath we're remembering our conversion because our conversion in a sense comes for those of us who've had an adult conversion or an older conversion our conversion comes when we in a sense we've been running from Jesus our back is to the cross and the time comes that we no longer are walking away from him we're no longer running away from him that we stop and we turn and we lay down our sword and we lay down our shield and we lay down our porcupine outfit which is all prickly to try to keep everybody especially Jesus away and we lay it all down and in a sense we say to Jesus I have to stop I surrender I surrender

[36:13] I stop and the word Sabbath means stop it means cease and so God in his grace and he's done all the stuff for us to redeem us this isn't to redeem us but he's created this discipline for us to figure out how to enter into where every week I'm invited to stop again on one day and serving anxiety makes you anxious and tired serving money often makes you anxious and tired not when you're really successful but when the stock market drops 30% you realize how much anxiety you had when it goes down 30% or investments crash and we're invited to rest and what are we invited to think upon for at least one day a week we're not thinking upon why did that person do that to me why don't people like me like why aren't

[37:16] I slimmer or more muscular or taller or shorter or more successful or all of these scripts that go through our minds all week and for one week one day a week we're invited to actually remember I was a slave in denial I am saved by grace alone through faith alone in Christ alone I am to remember that Jesus won and invited me and brought me into a covenant that is for my wholeness and for my life and for my freedom that will go for all eternity and I'm invited to cease and rest and remember that one day a week next point Andrew here's another thing very briefly I see I God is not mean and cruel he is good and loving so he redeems us to live as he designed us go back later on and read

[38:20] Genesis chapter 2 verses 1 to 3 and you'll see that right when God there's a wonderful thing in the prayer book marriage ceremony that says marriage was instituted of God in the time of man's innocency in other words before the fall God created marriage and what's the set saying here if you go back and look at Genesis chapter 2 verses 1 to 3 before the fall God designed human beings to have a day of rest every seven so that means that when he redeems us and enters us into a new covenant he doesn't say every seven days they're going to do something really difficult every man has to do the splits that would be cruel and unnatural I can hardly touch my ankles with my legs straight I mean I can touch my toes if I do this but don't ask me to keep my legs straight and God isn't mean and cruel and says every man has to do the splits or something like that he does redemption redeems us to live the way he created us he created us to have a rest on the seventh day and now this is sanctified so just in closing seven pointers about keeping the sabbath seven pointers about keeping the sabbath if you want these written they'll be on the webpage

[39:49] Wednesday or whatever if you're curious because I'm going to go through them quick first one A Canadian A sorry never mind A the command is normative and dynamic not regulative and legalistic I know four big words I apologize I apologize for four big words you can look at my blog today when I talk about normative and regulative it's a persistent problem in Christians so here's the interesting thing about this command this command does not say every okay here's an example Islam is regulative not normative five times a day you pray and you don't just say my watch time to pray Allah is great help me with this job interview and off you go no you have to take certain postures you have to do you have to do this you have to do that you have to do hand washings it's regulative but the command here isn't regulative it gives us a task a project figure out how to cease how to rest and how to remember every seventh day doesn't say you have to be in church for six hours it doesn't say you have to sing four hours of praise music it doesn't say that you have to say 500

[41:15] Hail Marys you see it's so smart and wise because how we keep the Sabbath in Canada is going to be different than how we keep the Sabbath in Angola in Canada one of the great blessings that we have is most Canadians only have to work five days and they make enough money in five days to last seven we take that for granted in Angola most people have to work six days and many of them have to work seven days and they're going to have to figure out how to keep the Sabbath Christian you're going to have to figure out how to keep the Sabbath in a different way than if you're married to a Christian you're going to have to figure out how to keep the Sabbath different if you're retired than if you're working but this text doesn't say okay you're retired you don't have to keep the Sabbath every day is the Sabbath no it isn't but maybe it is maybe for a retired person it's going to be that that's the day that you spend far more hours in prayer but it's very powerful it's not legalistic and it's not regulative but it gives you a project people of

[42:35] Messiah God he made a covenant with you he redeemed you a sign of that is cease rest remember you need to figure that out honestly within your context does that mean that maybe you won't be involved in minor hockey maybe it means you won't be involved in minor hockey George how can this work when I have so many hours I have to work throughout the week well the thing is if you don't actually consider it an important thing to solve you'll never solve it but now that you know it's an important thing to solve talk it over maybe it means changing a job maybe it means doing some other type of thing maybe it means keeping a Sabbath on a day other than Sunday but this is what God has asked us to do and he's asked us to do it for our soul's health it's normative a project and it's dynamic we've got to do something Sunday isn't just Saturday only it got stuck going to church this command is inviting us to understand the

[43:40] Sabbath day in a different way the rest are all far quicker number B what this text is implying is that we work wisely and well for six days then rest on the seventh day work wisely or be retired wisely and well for six days and then rest on the seventh C next one every week seek to share the resting and the remembering with others notice how in the commandment it says how on the seventh day you rest not only you but your servant your son your daughter your donkey the alien everybody the Sabbath is to be shared and not only the resting and the ceasing but also if you are with Christians the remembering is to be shared because isn't it the case remembering is always better when you do it with others I mean isn't that one of the great things about getting together somebody you haven't seen in a long time and you remember with somebody else it's just so much more wonderful isn't it one of the great things if maybe there's a you have a family reunion or something like that or reunion of all friends and you remember together and there's something far more wonderful about remembering together so the sabbath is to be shared d every sabbath remember oh sorry we haven't done sorry yeah sorry

[45:09] I should have been I so the a is did you put up a b c d no let's go back a b c d just so you can see them I'm sorry this is my anal aspect there we go the command is normative and dynamic not regulative and legalistic b work wisely and well for six days then rest on the seventh day c every week seek to share the rest in the remembering with others d d every sabbath remember I was a slave in denial powerless to free myself this is a good thing to remember e every sabbath remember I am redeemed by grace alone through faith alone in Christ alone f every sabbath remember I was redeemed by Christ to live whole and free in an eternal covenant with him it is so much better to remember this than to remember how you were hurt or to think about how you're going to hurt somebody or to think about your lust or to think about your envy or to think about your coveting or to think about your greed or to think about your pride or to think about your vanity it is so much better than having your mind consumed with these things to have a time where you regularly remember that you were a slave in denial you were redeemed by grace alone through faith alone in

[46:40] Christ alone and that who am I in grace I am redeemed by Christ to live whole and free in an eternal covenant of love with him please stand there's a prayer here in closing that I'm going to invite you to pray with me just as once again if you're somebody I guess can take screenshots it'll be on the web I guess on Wednesday when Shirley gets back to work if the words are helpful to you for some of you if you have not given your life to Jesus this can be your conversion prayer this can be the time and you know if you're imaginative all just imagine that you're now facing the cross you drop in the weapons your sword your shield your porcupine outfit to keep God far away and you're asking to be gripped by the gospel and to become

[47:44] Christ's own and this can be a conversion prayer you can be in your own words but for all of us who are here it's a way to pray the heavenly father please pour out your holy spirit upon me and make me a disciple of Jesus gripped by the gospel learning to join with other Christians and cease rest and remember on every Sabbath for the good of people and the glory of God in Jesus name amen father pour out your holy spirit upon us pour out your holy spirit upon us help us father to pray this prayer to live this prayer teach us how to keep a Sabbath father which is truly good for us and truly honors you and brings you glory and this we ask in Jesus name amen