Family Sabbath

Morning.

Our reading today is from Exodus chapter 20, verses 8 through 11.

Exodus 20:8–11

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.

This is the word of the Lord.

You may be seated.

Filling in for James, we're giving him a few weeks off as they just had their third child.

Although I don't know why we're giving him time off.

He didn't do anything.

It's Megan who really deserves the time off.

But yeah, hopefully that they're just enjoying these sweet moments in the first few weeks of welcoming a new baby into the world.

So this morning we're continuing through a series titled Christ is Enough.

And in this series, we're looking at uh three practices um found in Scripture: prayer, generosity, and Sabbath.

And so we've we've already looked at these um from one angle, uh, from the angle of just what is this read, how does this relate to us personally?

Um, and now we're gonna be looking at them as it relates to us as the family.

And then after this, uh we're gonna go through them one more time and and figure out how does this and what does this mean for us as a church.

Um so, but today we're gonna be looking at uh at Sabbath and how it applies to our family.

So I'm gonna recap a little bit um about what James talked about last time and um just kind of lay a little bit of groundwork for us um uh as to what the Sabbath means.

First, let me pray and then uh we'll start to move through it.

God, um, as we look at your word and we look to the commands that you've given us, may we see them as good.

May we see them as life-giving because they come from you.

God, help us to see that what you have commanded us to do says something about who you are.

Um, I ask that through looking at this particular command of rest, that we would learn something about your character, uh, that we would see you for who you are, which is a kind God, abounding and steadfast love for your people.

Thank you for your graciousness towards us, and that you aim to give sinful people like us a gift that we don't deserve.

Help us to humbly receive it from you with joy and gratitude this morning.

In Jesus' name I pray.

Amen.

So if we go back uh to Genesis 2, um God made the earth and everything in it, and he did it in six days.

Um, and then on the seventh day he rested.

So we see that rest is actually built into the created order from the beginning, even before sin ever entered the world.

So it's it's important to understand that because um this is telling us something about God's character.

Um, it's important to understand because this is telling us much about who God is and how he works.

So uh I've got a quote from James's favorite living theologian, John Frame, and I guess it's mine too, because I don't I don't know any others.

Um it's a little bit long, but I think it captures this really well.

Uh he says, God's lordship enables him to complete what he starts.

He can, of course, bring about the fulfillment of his purpose in an instant, but he has chosen to deal with his creatures in a temporal, a temporal historical process in which his purposes take time to be accomplished.

That is true throughout redemptive history as it is true today.

So there is an already, what God has accomplished in the past, and a not yet, what remains to be fulfilled.

But because of who God is, the ultimate fulfillment is not in doubt.

God's Sabbath rest in Genesis 2, 2, point towards the certain completion of all God's works.

So what we are establishing here in the six days of creation and the Sabbath rest are both ways in which God exercises lordship over his creation.

See, God is not, he wasn't tired.

We don't serve a God that got tired and actually needed to rest, but he did that because he knew that he had made creatures that would need rest.

If this were the case before the fall, before there was that there was work, but there was no toil.

Do you understand the difference between work and toil?

See, work implies a productivity, something that was good.

It was good.

That was what he had created man to do.

It says in Genesis 2 15, the Lord took the man and put him in the garden of Eden to work it and to care for it.

So we see from the start, um, God had built in both work and rest, but then after the fall, we see toil.

Cursed is the ground because of you.

Through painful toil, you will eat food from it all the days of your life.

So see, now because of sin, work is become hard.

It's become toilsome.

It's we're swimming upstream.

This is why, this is why work's hard.

This is why there's weeds in the garden.

This is why this past week there's been these Japanese beetles in in our garden, and my wife is trying to get rid of them, and then she realizes that if she squishes them, that like more come.

And so now we have a bucket of soapy water with drowned beetles on our front porch.

Um, this is why.

This is toil, this is sin.

Um, and this is why things don't work for us.

But even in that, um, God gives us the command to rest.

In Exodus 20, which we just read here, he gives us command to a sinful people, people that toil.

Says, remember the Sabbath day, and 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, neither you nor your son or daughter, nor your male servant or female servant, nor your animals, nor your any foreigner residing in your towns.

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 and made it holy.

So one thing that we notice in this is he doesn't suggest that we rest, he commands that we rest.

He baked it into creation from the beginning for the good of his creatures as a way of providing us something, a pray, a way of providing us a good gift that we actually need.

You know, it's it's funny.

Um in today's culture, people really do want rest, and people feel like they need rest, and um, but they also don't think that they're getting enough of it.

And uh a little bit of just a quick Google search and some uh brought up a lot of different articles about this.

Um there was some from Psychology Today, some from Forbes.

Um there was one on from Inc.

magazine titled A Day of Rest: 12 Scientific Reasons It Works.

Most major religions call for a day of rest.

Science agrees.

So, you know, I'm glad that um, you know, science is playing catch up to you know what the creator of the world actually um asked us to do.

But he here is that there's 12 reasons.

Here's a couple of them.

I won't read them all.

Um, here's a few reasons why they say, and these these were backed by research, and they cite it in there.

Um it says, time out reduces stress.

No kidding, right?

Getting away from work boosts your immune system.

It's not so bad, I guess.

Um, you're more productive when you take time from work.

Taking time away restores mental energy.

It's kind of another duh.

Um, but it's just it's funny that it's this is something that scripture actually talks about.

This is something that um God built into the created order.

And while our culture is out there spinning our wheels, trying to grasp at something that they have this inkling that they need, um it's been in the Bible all along.

It's something that the Lord desires to give to us.

So, this commandment, like other commandments, it does beg the question what do you think about God?

So, what do you think about God?

Do you believe that his commands are good?

Or do you distrust his character?

Even in this, it's one of those, with rest, it's one of those things like, yeah, but I've got so much to do, I've got so much on my plate.

How can I possibly take time to do this?

This kind of feels like a trap because if I don't, then I won't accomplish all the things I'm supposed to accomplish, right?

Or or maybe it's or maybe it's you don't actually think that you deserve it.

Maybe you don't think that you've earned the rest.

Um, well, I mean, first of all, join the club, we all have received a lot of things we don't deserve from the Lord, and yet we should receive them both humbly and gladly from our Father.

So again, what do you believe about God?

Who do you think he is?

What does this say about him?

He's a loving king, and he gives us a command like rest.

A command.

It's kind of an uncomfortable one, right?

It's not a request or a suggestion, it's a command.

But the truth is Christ bought you, and he bought this entire world with his blood, and he's king right now, over all of it.

And as king, he gets to give commands because we belong to him, and he does require our obedience, and he forgives us when we fail to obey him.

But this what kind of king would say and give a command and would say to us, Come to me all who labor and are heavy laden, I will give you rest.

Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls, for my yoke is easy and my burden is light.

What kind of king says that?

What kind of king says that?

But this is what he's like.

He's commanding us to take a day off.

So, how does this apply today?

How does this apply today?

Because, you know, this is this is in the Old Testament, this is in Exodus, and and after and all, you know, after all, Jesus came to abolish the law, and this may not really apply to us right now.

So he's saying things like that, I'll get it, so I never preach again.

James is having a heart attack.

No, that's not what he said.

That's not what he said.

It's actually um it's actually quite the opposite of what Jesus himself said in Matthew 5, 17 through 19, he says, Do not think that I have come to abolish the law or the prophets.

I have not come to abolish them, but to fulfill them.

For truly I say to you, until heaven and earth pass away, not an iota, not a dot, will pass from the law until all is accomplished.

Therefore, whoever relaxes one of the least of these commandments and teaches others to do the same, will be called least in the kingdom of heaven.

But whoever does them and teaches them will be called great in the kingdom of heaven.

Relaxes.

Whoever relaxes these, he didn't he didn't even just say there, whoever ignores, whoever does the opposite.

He's saying, whoever just relaxes these commandments will be called least.

So there is a tension in this, though, and it was something that I was wrestling with as I was preparing for this.

And the tension here is okay, how do we keep God's commands and be obedient to what he said?

And how do we not get bogged down like the Pharisees did, becoming extremely legalistic about what these things look like, putting in a bunch of extra biblical rules, rules that were not found in Scripture.

And it's even hard, it's hard not to do this now.

I mean, it it would be so much easier if, in a much shorter sermon, frankly, if I could just throw up a list of these things or these are okay, these are not, you know, stick with the do's, don't do the don'ts on Sunday, and off we go.

Um, but that's that's not how it works.

That's not what he gave to us.

So there is attention in that.

Um, because those rules that the Pharisees were uh got caught up in, um, they were designed to do two things.

They were designed one for them to try to earn favor with God, which we know we cannot do by our works.

We cannot earn favor with him.

And also, as they did to Jesus quite often, um it was a way of trying to condemn others who were not keeping up with these rules the way that they were.

See, but Jesus says in Mark 2, after an interaction with them, he says, the Sabbath was made for man, not man for the Sabbath.

So the Son of Man is Lord, even of the Sabbath.

So if he is Lord of the Sabbath, and he made the Sabbath for us, we should, then that that means that it is your duty to rest.

It is your duty before the Lord to rest.

This is actually a way of honoring our King.

Let that sink in for a minute.

A way of honoring the Lord is to rest.

Okay, so we're all sabbatarians now, right?

Off we go.

Um, but how do we practically live this out?

What does this what does this practically look like in the context of our lives and particularly in the context of our families?

So, first, if we revisit, right, in Genesis 2, God set this whole thing up.

He created uh He created everything in six days, not because He needed six days to do it, but because He was creating a week for us, He was creating time for us.

Um, and then He rested on the seventh again, not because He needed it, because He was modeling something for us.

Well, this is a pattern that we see in Scripture.

We you see, we serve the kind of God who doesn't just sit in heaven and just barks down orders.

Do this, do this, do this.

Um, but he actually shows us.

He is an example to us, and we see this throughout Scripture.

We see this in him modeling this day of rest for us.

We see this in him coming down and leading his people through the desert and in smoke and in fire.

We see this, he dwelled with them in a tent.

Ultimately, we see this in Christ.

Jesus came down and became a person, he became a human being in order, partly, and in order to save us, for one, obviously, but it but in order to example to be an example for us to actually show us how to live.

And we also see this uh this example of a family baked into the Trinity.

Jesus refers to God as his father.

He listens to his father, he submits to his father.

In Deuteronomy 11, 19 through 21, this is uh a few chapters after the Ten Commandments are given again.

Um it says, Teach them to your children, talking about them when you sit at home and when you walk along the road, when you lie down and when you get up, write them on the door frames of your houses and on your gates, so that your days and the days of your children may be many in the land of the Lord, in the land the Lord swore to give your ancestors, as many as the days that the heavens are above the earth.

So this whole idea of Sabbath rest brings all kinds of questions.

And honestly, I think it really easily exposes idols in us, idols of productivity, of anxiousness, of selfishness with our time.

So, and what we do teaches our children much more than what we say.

See, if we treat the Ten Commandments like the nine commandments and a decent suggestion, maybe, um, we're not teaching them what obedience to God really looks like.

We're teaching them by our actions that this is for their good, that God's commands are for their good.

And we can infer that from Deuteronomy.

It says here, um, so the days of your children may be many, but that's prospering, that's blessing.

That is saying that if we do the things that the Lord asks of us, things will go well for you.

So we're that's saying to them that if God commanded us to rest for one day because you need it, and on that day we we're gonna remember him, we're gonna remember what he's done for us.

See, this is a tool.

This is a tool that God has given us to demonstrate and teach us faithfulness to him.

If we can't be obedient to this command, and if we can't teach our children to obey a command like rest, just rest for one day, then how are we gonna teach them obedience to the Lord with other things?

How are we gonna teach them to be obedient to the Lord when it comes to money, when it comes to sex, when it comes to marrying a Christian spouse who loves the Lord?

And I know that sounds extreme, but the truth is we don't get to choose what to be obedient to and what not to.

And if we want our children, we want our children to trust us, we want them to listen to us, right?

Because we know what's best for them.

We're their parents.

Well, in the same way, how much more does our Heavenly Father know us and know what we need?

He made us, and He knows what's best for us.

So, to get practical, what are some ways we can start to build this into our lives?

And by the way, like this should be fun.

This is a day that we get to exercise obedience in resting joyfully.

This would be like me telling my daughter, Lucy, okay, Lucy, one day a week, you have to eat nothing but ice cream.

God did not say that, and neither did I.

But um, but it would be like that, right?

You would be looking forward to that day all week, wouldn't you?

Ice cream day?

Ice cream day would be the best day of the week, right?

Yeah.

Um, so first, men, husbands, fathers, men, um, it's your job to cast a vision of obedience for your family.

As the leaders of your homes, cast a vision.

What does this look like?

To be obedient on the Lord's day.

Sit down with your wife.

Talk about this.

And wives, um, one of the roles that you have is take this vision of obedience and and figure out like what can this look like?

What kind of fun, what kind of life-giving things could happen on this day?

So, okay, so here's here's an example.

So we uh we built a house about five years ago, and it I there was a front room in the house that was intended to be an office.

And then very shortly after moving in, um, my business partner and I, we rented an office really, really close to the house.

Now I no longer need an office.

So then this room, um it just kind of it was kind of a lot of things, but it was also kind of nothing.

Um had a Peloton in it for a while.

The kids kind of overran the room with craft things, and it just never really came about.

And then um recently kind of had this idea.

I'm like, okay, um, we should make this a sitting room, and and I would like to put some like outdoor stuff in it, um, as far as like some pictures on the walls that have memories of you know hunting with the the kids and and fishing with you know family and and friends and things like that.

This has affectionately become known as the men's room, by the way.

Thanks, Tom.

Um he bought me a sign that says the men's room, um, that hangs in the men's room.

But um so so I so I shared this with Heidi, and she helped me pick out a couch, um, find some chairs.

Okay, what color should the walls be?

Let's figure that out.

She helped me do that, and then and then she said, Okay, um, why don't you send me some pictures that you want on the wall to start with?

And I did, and and then she she printed them out in all different sizes, and then she went and she found these frames to go that would fit the pictures, and she like drew out on this piece of paper like how they would all fit together.

And this past week we hung all the pictures up, and the room looks stunning.

It's it's one of my favorite rooms in the house now, and it's it's because there was this vision, okay, a room to sit in.

It's got some cool stuff on the walls.

Um, that was the vision.

She took a vision and she made it beautiful.

This is what women do.

You make things beautiful, right?

We need that.

And this is something that uh we get to that you get to do, that we get to do as a family every week.

So, men, cast a vision for your family of biblical obedience.

And wives, put color to that.

Help your husbands make this day beautiful and joyful, and something that that your family um wants to participate in and look forward to.

So, a few examples that may help um how to actually do this.

Okay, so moms, wives, um, you just work real hard.

You just work really hard.

Um, I know this.

You make lunches, you do laundry, you run kids to school, you buy food, you make food, you do all these things.

And for many of you, I would imagine that today, Sunday, is a great day to get ready for the week ahead, right?

Get the things done that need to get done so that tomorrow can happen.

Well, men, help your wives on Saturday, on Friday, throughout the week.

What can you do to give your wife the freedom to be able to rest on Sunday?

This is part of not being selfish with your time.

This is something that we as husbands need to do so that our wives can be obedient to this as well.

You do homework with the kids on Saturday.

Can you help?

I don't know, go to the grocery store, um, do some laundry.

These are things so that the Lord's Day can actually be a day of rest for everyone in the house.

Another practice that we've incorporated into our lives is uh we do we do a Sabbath dinner every week, most weeks.

Um's a little crazy from time to time, but we do a Sabbath dinner.

Um and we do it on Saturday nights.

We uh my uh Heidi's sister's family, my in-laws, um we trade off every other week, um, our house and their house, and we we make dinner.

We make a really good dinner.

And uh and we do a family liturgy together.

And sometimes we ask the kids catechism questions, and then we eat, we drink, the kids run around, they play, um, and they love it.

It's it's a really special time for our family, and I think that they look forward to it every week.

Do you guys look forward to that?

Yeah.

Um, but it's great, and it accomplishes a few things.

Um, it it helps us to kind of focus our and prepare our hearts for for today, for for the Lord's day.

Um that's one thing.

It's a rhythm that we get to bake in to the lives of our family and to the lives of our kids, and and a hope that we have in this is that one day that our kids and their spouses and their children will come to this.

And we'll be able to continue this as a family generationally.

So part of the goal is just to bake this into their lives.

Um, but it's also a great opportunity to have friends over.

I know not everybody has family in town.

Um, this has been a great way to just invite people to it.

And you know, what's funny is um we bristle against some of these kind of things, these these parameters.

And I remember um the couple years ago, the first time that Heidi had brought this up to me, she had talked to her sister, and she said, Hey, um this is what we're thinking we should do.

And the and we these are like some of our best friends.

We do a lot of life with them.

And the first thing that came into my head was every Saturday night?

Like we're gonna like we're gonna lock this in.

Like we're gonna just box ourselves in every Saturday night, and it's like, yeah, like why not?

Like, this is actually a good thing, and just the idea of a restriction put on my life, like kind of just like I don't I don't know if I want to just lock into that.

But the truth has been it's been awesome.

And um, when we get in, if we get invited to do something by friends on a Saturday night, it's like, well, we have this, but why don't you just come?

Um come join us.

And and it's been awesome.

So that's something that I would encourage you guys to to think about.

Um another one that we were not great at this past year, and are it's funny as you prepare a sermon, you get convicted about things, and then you say, Well, geez, I need to make some change.

I don't know how you do it every week, you know.

Um but we're we're going to we're gonna put a hard stop on homework on Sundays.

Um and it's the kids' job to go to school, and they're not gonna work on Sunday.

So we're gonna we're gonna hard stop homework on Sundays.

Um school starts in about a week, and so um we're gonna give it a go.

And there's also an obvious one.

You guys are doing a great job at it right now.

Um, you're here coming to church, worshiping with the body.

Um make this a priority.

Come to church if you're able.

Um teach your children that worshiping together on the Lord's day is important.

You know, James talks a lot about this church becoming generational, multi-generational, that this church will, God willing, be here for 50, 60, maybe 100 years, God willing.

And that's not gonna happen if your children don't want to come here.

If they don't value worshiping in church, then that's not gonna happen.

And that starts with with you modeling that for them.

Take them to church.

Um and and bake that in.

Make that the priority.

Make that the priority over other things.

Over other things like skiing, maybe.

It's okay to go on a family vacation, but make this the constant that you do more often than you don't.

Um model that for your children.

And then there's just other random things, life-giving things.

Just hang out together, go on a walk, um, go on a family bike ride, play in the yard, um, read together.

If you're able to, maybe take a nap.

It's kind of a tough one in my house sometimes, but if you do that.

Um this can really be a lot of things.

And I this is not the I don't want this to be a bunch of don'ts.

You know your hearts, you know what's inside you.

Um, is the thought of having a day of unproductivity making you uncomfortable?

Well, there might be an idol there that you need to deal with.

But remember, the kind of God that we serve, we serve the kind of God that will not give you a command to rest one day without making the other six days sufficient for you to accomplish what he set before you.

Say that again.

He will not give you a command to rest for one day without making the other six sufficient for you to accomplish what he has set before you.

You need to trust him in this because he's desiring to give you rest because he loves you, he knows that you need it.

This is the kind of creature he's made you to be.

You know, it's a unique commandment.

You read through and you have things that relate to him, right?

No idols, don't take the Lord's name in vain.

Um, and then we have all these other a lot of there's a lot of don'ts, right?

We have a lot of like, you know, don't murder, don't steal, adultery, like a lot of these things.

And then, but like right there in the middle, almost the middle, um, is a command to rest.

The kind of care that that shows from our God is immense.

Um that among all these things that help us relate to him better, and all these things that help us relate to each other better, he says, Rest.

It's good for you.

So uh lastly, uh let's be a people who joyfully obey the Lord's commands.

Joyfully.

Joyful obedience.

And this this is a really good one to start with because this should be fun.

This should be something that we we know we need it.

This should be something we look forward to.

So practice joyful obedience with this and see how that joyful obedience seeps out into other places in your life, other things that he's called you to.

That posture will bleed out into your lives.

Um do we have any questions?

We do?

Hey, look at that.

Does the Sabbath need to be on Sunday?

Um, this is a good question.

You know, I the Sabbath um it was on Saturday in the Jewish faith, um, and God made the the earth in seven days, so he rested on the last day, which is Saturday.

And then um we as Christians celebrate the Sabbath on Sunday because that's the day that Jesus rose.

So um, and in a lot of ways, uh the more accurate way to call it now is the Lord's Day.

A lot of people call it the Lord's Day, the Sabbath being Saturday.

So that's why it is traditionally on Sunday.

Now, um it's a good day for it, is that's the day we have church.

Um so I would say that if you can rest on the Lord's Day, you should.

Now, um there are things that like the world still has to turn.

We still need firemen, we still need police, we need nurses, we need doctors, we need people in the ER.

Like these things happen.

Um because we live in a fallen world, there can be a fire on the Lord's Day.

So we need people working there and rotating through that.

That's not a sin to be a fireman.

Um but what I would encourage you is take a day of rest on a different day.

Take a day of rest on a different day if you've got to work on Sunday.

Um But yeah, by and large, um if you can if you can do that, do that on a Sunday.

Um because being here is a wonderful day to kick off a day of rest.

Does that answer the question, hopefully?

Um I'm gonna pray and then we are going to take communion.

Um God, thank you for giving us commands that are good for us.

Um help us to bake these rhythms into our families, um, that we might teach our children um obedience to them and and to joyfully participate in the commands that you've given us, because they are for our good.

They are here, they are designed to bring life, not to take life away.

Um thank you for being a good king.

Um and and that your commands are these are light.

Your your burden is light.

Um help us to understand that and help us to celebrate.

Help us to celebrate what it is that you have done for us every week on this day that we might remember how much we need you.

Pray this in Jesus' name.

Amen.