By Remy Diederich Cedarbrook Church

This is a three part series: Part One: Cease to Worship Part Two: Silencing the Taskmasters Voice Part Three: Our Spiritual Identity

The Sabbath Part One: Cease to Worship Text; Genesis 1:31 - 2:3
Outline:

1. Progress always leads to profusion which always challenges our priorities. 2. God's response to creation: o He ceased I(not rested) o He appreciated (saw) and enjoyed the work. o He created an extra day for humans to do the same. 3. God gave us Sabbath: o to give us permission to stop and enjoy what he's given us. o to give us the ability to focus on God and his goodness to us. o to be fully present without distractions of work. 4. Sabbath is so important it became one of the Ten Commandments I wonder how many of us would admit that we struggle with stress? Im pretty sure most of us wrestle with some kind of stress in our lives. You may not know this but Menomonie has its very own internationally known expert on stress who lives just across town. His name is Dr. Richard Swenson. Maybe youve read one of his books; Margin, The Overload Syndrome, Hurtling Toward Oblivion and his most recent one; In Search of Balance. For the past twenty years Dr. Swenson has dedicated himself to the study of progress and technology and the impact they have on us as a society and as individuals. In his book, In Search of Balance, he says that we live in a time of rapid progress. In other words, the world is advancing in many areas. And he said that progress always leads to profusion, i.e. the multiplying of options. For example, as the television has progressed weve gone from four channels to now hundreds of channels. Or another example is that when I was a kid I had just a few extra curricular activities to choose from at school but now there are probably a hundred different options. Or, when the iPhone first came out it had just a few applications but now there are hundreds of thousands of applications. Progress always leads to profusion. And if you arent prepared to deal with it youll experience stress. That is, you have so many options that you end up doing too much. You watch too much
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TV. Your child gets involved in too many activities. You spend too much time staring at your iphone. And you end of sacrificing the things that are most important to you over these meaningless things. In other words, progress leads to profusion which in turn can undermine your priorities. Heres an example in my own life. Progress brought us the computer. Profusion brought us all kinds of computers, including the laptop...which is great because I basically have a mobile office and I can work anywhere at any time. But that means that I tend to work everywhere, all the time. Thats not good. You see, when Im not careful, progress ultimately undermines my priorities. I mention all this because from the beginning of time God had a plan to help us keep our priorities sacred. He had a plan to protect us from the onslaught of progress and profusion. Gods plan was to build into our week a time to unplug, unwind and redirect our focus to things that matter the most. Its called the Sabbath. I dont know what comes to mind when you hear the word Sabbath. When I was a kid people often referred to Sunday as the Sabbath. I havent hear it used that way for a long time. But back then our society, as a whole, took the Sabbath so seriously that it was against the law to operate a business on Sunday. You couldnt even buy gas on Sunday so you had to plan your travel carefully. So maybe some of you associate the Sabbath with strict rules about what you cant do. But Id imagine that many of you are so young that word has no meaning at all. Over the next few weeks I want to look at the concept of Sabbath. As Ive studied the Bible over the past few years Ive been surprised at how much it talks about Sabbath. I realized that as a young believer I was trained to ignore what the Bible says about Sabbath. People told me that the Sabbath was an Old Testament rule that didnt matter today. So when I came to anything about the Sabbath I pretty much just skipped over it. But over the years Ive taken a second look at what the Bible says about Sabbath And its like I discovered a treasure full of insight to help me worship God. So I want to invite you to join me over the next few weeks to see how we might be blessed by this idea of Sabbath. We learn about Sabbath in the very beginning of the Bible. Turn to Genesis one. God gave us an example to follow and later on, a command. First, lets look at the example. God creates the world in six days and then it says... God saw all that he had made, and it was very good. And there was evening, and there was morning--the sixth day. Thus the heavens and the earth were completed in all their vast array. Genesis 1:31, 2:1 By the seventh day (shaba) God had completed the work he had been doing; so on the seventh day he rested (shabath) from all his work. And God blessed the seventh day and made it holy, because on it he rested from all the work of creating that he had done. Genesis 2:2-3
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Okay. I want to show us Gods response to his creation by looking at a few words. The first word I want to look at is the word rest. It says here (2:2)...on the seventh day God rested from all his work. I hope you have your Bible with you because youll want to put a note in the margin. The Hebrew word for rest is shabath. You can see, its very similar to the word for Sabbath (shabbath). It doesnt mean to rest. It literally means to stop. To cease. To desist. Which makes sense. I mean, do we really think God got to the seventh day and said, Whew! Am I ever glad THATS over. I never want to have another week like that. I am wiped! So, if God didnt stop to rest then why did he stop? Because he completed his work. Gen. 2:1 says thatthe heavens and the earth were completed in all their vast array. And then the word is used again in the next verse. By the seventh day God had completed the work he had been doing; Genesis 2:1,2 Its used twice here to stress a point that God finished the work. The word carries the idea of fullness or being exhausted, again, not that God was tired or but that God put everything that he had into his creation. Its like he exhaled, speaking the world into existence. And then he stopped because there was nothing more to do. Its like, how can you add to perfection? You cant. Thats why he stopped. Its like the performance of a virtuoso pianist. They perform a piece of work better than they ever have. Its perfect. And everyone knows it...the pianist and the audience. When the pianist is done no one moves. No one wants to break the silence. Everyone just stops to appreciate the grandeur of the moment. Thats what it was like when God finished his work. Creation was complete. It was full. There was nothing more to add. It was a holy moment. When we create something there is always room to tweak it. But not with God. The implication is that on the seventh day the world was complete. God had poured himself into creation and so creation was full of God. And this is why the number seven is associated with God. Some people call it Gods number. It symbolizes the fullness of God and reminds us of his powerful act of creation. The psalmist said, The earth is the Lords and the fullness thereof. (Ps. 24:1) But now, lets back up even farther in this passage. What did God do when he stopped? The Bible says that he saw what he had made. God saw all that he had made, and it was very good Again, saw is not a great word. In our language, to see is pretty one dimensional. In Hebrew it has a lot more meaning. Its more like God beheld or appreciated or enjoyed what he had made. Its like the moment that an artist finishes her work of art and steps back and says...Thats it. Its done. Magnifique! Or, I done good! Or as it says in verse 31 that it was very good.
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Now, this is interesting to me because I dont know if we do this very much. Think about the last project you finished...maybe at home or at work or school. Its something you worked on for a while. You put something of yourself into it. When you got all done, what did you do? I think for a lot of us we just move on to the next project. We check it off our to-do list and move on. We dont take time to enjoy all that we did. But God did. He didnt go off and start something new. He stopped and enjoyed what he created. If God stopped on the seventh day and appreciated what he did dont you think we should do the same thing? Not only stop and appreciate what Gods done but What weve done and what others have done too. What I want you to see here is that the seventh day wasnt a day of mindless rest. It was a day to stop and appreciate what God has done. Its purposeful. Now, that might involve rest. But its much more than that. One author said it this way... The Sabbath is an invitation to enter delight...it is not merely a pious day and it is not fundamentally a break,a day off or a 24 hour vacation. Dan Allendar, Sabbath I like that...an invitation to enter delight. To appreciate doesnt just mean to thank God it means to enjoy what God has given you. Enjoy your family. Enjoy your friends. Enjoy what youve created or what your friends have created. Enjoy the outdoors, or music or coffee or whatever it is that you find enjoyable. God gave us 24 hours to do that. Now this is whats so fascinating to me...we take it for granted...but God added a whole day of the week just to stop and take delight. What I mean is, God could have made a six day week. He could have said, Look, I created the world in six days so a week is six days long and you need to work every day like I did. But he didnt do that. He added a whole day to stop...to cease...in order to enjoy it. The he turned around and gave us that day as a gift. Its a gift to reset our internal workings. Its kind of like thisI recently upgraded my phone to an Android. It has a number of different applications on it. But one of the problems with having a lot of applications is that whenever you use the applications it fills the memory on the phone. In fact...when there is too much in the memory my email shuts down and a message pops up that says...you dont have enough working memory. Please empty your memory cache or delete some of your applications. Or another message I get tells me to restart the phone...shut it off and turn it back on again...because that also clears out some of the overloaded memory. How many know what Im talking about. Well, thats what Sabbath is all about. God is saying...you need to stop and restart. Youve got too many applications working...your memory is full...if you dont stop and restart some of your applications will stop working. You cant just keep going and going and going. Doing more and more and more. You werent created that for that.
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Thats why it says here that God set the seventh day apart as holy. God blessed the seventh day and made it holy. That means its a special day. Its not a day like all the others and you need to treat it differently. Plus, God blessed it. God has a blessing for anyone who will stop one day a week and appreciate all that hes done for them. Well, Ive already told you how this applies to your life a little but let me give you three reasons why God created the Sabbath. First, God gave us the Sabbath to give us permission one day out of seven to stop whatever we are doing and enjoy everything that hes given us. I think we need permission otherwise we feel guilty. Okay, true confession here...how many of you feel guilty at the end of your day off when you havent accomplished anything? Me too. You know thats sick right? We have problems. We have a dis-ease. Sabbath is our get out of jail free card...meaning we dont have to feel guilty. So sleep in, take a walk, have coffee with a friend, pray, read a book, play a game...do whatever it is that brings you joy and fills your tank. Youll be a better person for it. Youll enjoy life more. People will like you better. Second, God gave us Sabbath to give us the ability to focus on God and his goodness to us. If we are honest, a lot of us pray on the run. We say a quick thanks God here or a help me God there but how often do we sit down for 30 minutes or more and give God our focused attention? God tells us in the book of Psalms to be still and know that I am God. Giving God our focused attention is a part of what Sabbath is for. Its to not only reset ourselves physically and emotionally but spiritually too. If we only just use Sabbath to sleep and watch TV we are missing the point... Sabbath is a day to reflect on what God has done God wants you to stop and relax. But dont leave him out of the picture. One of the big reasons he gave you an extra day is to give you the time you need to develop your spiritual side. Its hard to develop your spiritual side when you are always working. God knows that. So he gave us a day free from distraction to make sure we take the time we need to focus on him. Im not just talking about coming to a church service. Thats old-school thinking. Im talking about taking time to just be quiet before God. You dont even have to say anything or read anything. I think just stopping all by itself is an act of worshipespecially for busy people. By stopping you acknowledge that God created everything and hes in charge. Do you think you could stop for 30 minutes once a week as an act of worship? Third, God gave us Sabbath to be fully present without the distractions of work. I recently read an article about multitasking. It said that a lot of us pride ourselves in our ability to multitask...to do a number of things at the same time. For example: We might talk on the phone while we are writing an email with music in the background and we periodically click on facebook to check for updates. That sounds bizarre but I know that happens.

But the article said that no one is good at multitasking. We only think we are. What happens when we multitask is that we do many things poorly because nothing gets our full attention. Our thoughts cant go deep on any one thing because we have divided them over a number of things. If we want to do quality work then we need to work on one thing at a time and give it our full attention. So, Sabbath gives us the time we need to be fully present with God and fully present with the people we love. Its the one day out of the week that your family can count on getting your undivided attention. And Im not just talking to parents but teenagers too. One time Lisa and I took a couple days to go to Duluth. We were sitting out on the shoreline enjoying the morning and I said... this is great...we should come back here in the summer. And Lisa looked at me and said...Why dont you just enjoy today and we can plan another trip later? I was so busted! She was totally right. Ill never forget that because I think it was Gods word to me. I dont do very well at enjoying the present because my mind is often somewhere planning the future. Some of you have the same problem. You probably havent heard a word I said today because you are planning your week, right? You know, keeping Sabbath is so important to God that later on in the Bible he made it one of the Ten Commandments. If you look at the Ten Commandments its the only one that people typically ignore. Isnt that odd? We dont blow off adultery or murder or envy. Why do we think we can ignore Gods command to keep the Sabbath. I dont think Sabbath means a specific day of the week. But I do think that it refers to 24 hours. God gives every one of us an extra 24 hours. How do you spend your extra 24 hours? I think there are a lot of similarities between the Sabbath and tithing. Tithing is when you give ten percent of your money back to God. In both cases, God gives us something extra to spend as an act of worship. With Sabbath he gives us time. With tithing he gives us money. But many of us make the mistake of seeing both the time of Sabbath and the money of tithing as ours to use however we wish. Unfortunately, many of us dont use it in the way that God intended. And I think we pay for it. We lose the blessing that God gives to people who honor him with their time and money. Let me give you an example. Imagine that I have a young son by the name of Jimmy. I give Jimmy ten dollars to buy school supplies. I tell him, Jimmy, here is ten dollars for school supplies. Now, I know they cost nine dollars so be sure to bring me back the extra dollar. Dont spend it on yourself. If you bring me back the dollar Ill reward you but I wont tell you what the reward is. Now, the reward I have in mind is taking him to a baseball game but he doesnt know that. Now Jimmy goes off and spends his nine dollars and has one dollar burning in his hand. He sees some candy. Should he spend the dollar on himself or bring it back to me. Its really a matter of

trust at this point. Does Jimmy trust his judgment over mine? Does he trust that my reward will be better than a candy bar? Its the same way with tithing. God overpays us and asks us to honor him by giving ten percent back to ministry. And its the same way with Sabbath. God gives us and extra 24 hours and asks us to honor him by ceasing to labor. Ill tell you...this study has really got me convicted. Ive always given God a tithe of my money but I cant say that about Sabbath. I dont know why Ive taken tithing so seriously and Sabbath so casually. I think Im losing a blessing by not slowing down more. Im going to talk about this more the next couple weeks. I hope youll take this to heart. My guess is that Im not the only one misusing 24 hours that God gave me. Lets be thinking how we can change our lives by stopping once a week. Prayer; Father, forgive us for forsaking the Sabbath. We havent kept it holy. Weve treated it like any other day and used those 24 hours for our own striving. But thank you for your wisdom in giving us a day to be refreshed. A day to delight. A day to enjoy you and the people we love and the things we love. Help us to restructure our lives so that we will be Sabbath minded people. Amen.

Bonus material; In one chapter of the book Dr. Swenson relates the stories of a number of small plane crashes where the pilot allowed too much cargo hoping for the best. But he said, you cant fight physics. If you overload a plane its going to crash. His point is that those planes are like our lives. We overload them by trying to do too many things, hoping that somehow it will all work out. So we try to fly but instead we crash. He offers this graph showing the effects of stress. He says that some stress is good... it stimulates us in a good way initially. It motivates us to take action but at a certain point stress starts to hurt us. At first we experience fatigue. My guess is there are a few of us operating here today. But if you keep pushing it you move to burn out. He said you know when you hit this red zone when you stop caring about the things you used to care about. You dont care about spending time with your family. You dont care about spending time with God. You dont care about helping people in need. You just want to make it through the day. Can anyone relate? If you look at the word seven in Hebrew it is similar to the word cease and Sabbath. Seven: Shaba Rest/Cease: Shabath Sabbath: Shabbath

They are all related. In fact, the word for seven is sometimes translated as the word full (or satiated and not the number seven.)
Going Deeper;

Use the following questions for personal reflection and/or to discuss with family, friends and small group. 1. Prior to this message, what did the word Sabbath mean to you? What connotation did it have? 2. Remy talked about how progress leads to profusion which leads to stress. Where do you see stress most in your life? Does it have anything to do with profusion of options? 3. How does the speed of your life challenge your priorities? In other words, do you struggle doing what you know you should do...what you even want to do...just because you are too busy? 4. Read Genesis 1:31- 2:3. Did anything stand out to you as new from the message? 5. Describe what God did to set an example for us using the key words that Remy noted in this passage; he saw, completed, rested, etc. 6. What does the word Sabbath mean? What is the correlation between the word seventh, completed and Sabbath? 7. How is taking a 24 hour Sabbath like tithing? 8. What were the three things that Remy said we can learn from Gods example?

Sabbath Part Two: Silencing The Taskmasters Voice By Remy Diederich Cedarbrook Church 01.15.12

Outline:

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2. 3. 4.

5. 6.

We hear voices that drive us to perform more and faster than God expects from us. Person Insecurity (need to prove ourselves) Greed (an unwillingness to be content) False understanding of God Pharoahs voice called the people lazy and to work harder.( Exodus 5) God set them free from Pharoahs voice. The people continued to think and act like slaves (Exodus 16) Not trusting God to provide Hoarding food (poverty vs. abundance mentality) Working non-stop God gave us the gift of Sabbath to silence the voices in our mind. Steps to Sabbath Carve out 24 hours or time slots to cease from work. Power down your inputs (cell phone, computer, junk mail, other noise) Create sacred traditions for God, friends and family and personal care (rejuvenation)

The Message Last week I started a short study on the Sabbath. We looked at Gods example of Sabbath. Put simply, God gifted us an extra 24 hours/week to cease from our busy life so we can focus on God, focus on people and focus on rejuvenating ourselves. Now, this week I want to tell you the story that led up to God commanding us to observe the Sabbath. It will be a bit before I start talking about the Sabbath so just be patient. Ill get there and youll see how it all ties together. Last Sunday after church I decided to ride my bike out to Colfax and back. If you remember it was a beautiful day. The temperature was about 40 degrees and there wasnt much wind. Now, whenever I take a ride or go for a run I have an application on my phone that tracks my speed and distance. Every five minutes a voice tells me how Im doing. It will say something like: Time; 45 minutes, Pace: 4.12 minutes per mile, Speed; 14.7 miles per hour.

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Last Sunday...my battery was running low and so I turned off The Voice and do you know what? I really enjoyed the trip. Not only was it a nice day but I didnt have The Voice keeping tabs on me! You may not be like this but I have these numbers in my head that I think I should be hitting. If Im running I want to average 7 or 8 miles an hour and if Im riding I want to average around 15 or 16 miles an hour. So when The Voice says Im going slower than that I push harder. But Sunday there was no voice. I had no idea how fast or slow I was going. It was just me and the bike and the beauty of the Colfax hills and I liked it. It got me thinking about the voices that I listen tothe voices that push me and drive me to perform. I thought...if I want to experience Sabbath then I have to get rid of The Voice in my head thats always judging my performance and pushing me to do more. How many of you know what Im talking about? Youve got the same voices that I do. Thats the voice that wont let you cease from your work and enjoy the 24 hours that God gave you. Now, I dont want to get rid of The Voice totally because I think there are times that I want to push myself. But not 24/7. I need to be able to shut it off just like I did the phone.
Four Voices

As I thought about this idea of voices I thought of four kinds of voices. See if you can relate. First, we have the voice of another person. It might be a parent or an old coach or your boss or in my case, my phone. Its the voice of someone that you associate with a certain level of achievement. Your relationship to them was or is defined by your performance. Another voice comes from our insecurities. When you compare yourself to other people you are convinced that you dont measure up and you have an inner voice telling you to catch up, move up, work harder so you dont feel so bad about yourself. Another voice comes from within and thats from our own greed. We just want more and so we push ourselves to get ahead. I heard a man this week talk about how he never wanted to be poor like his dad so he pushed himself to be rich. His voice was never satisfied no matter how much money he made. The Voice helped him become a millionaire but it also caused him to almost lose his family too. And the fourth voice we hear is what we think is the voice of God. Sometimes we project a judgmental voice on God. We think God has all kinds of unrealistic expectations on us. And so we do things out of a sense of guilt and obligation. I mention these voices because we are going to see today that they have something to do with the Sabbath. God wants to silence these voices and give us rest.

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The Voice of Pharaoh

Lets turn to the book of Exodus. Thats the second book in the Bible. Many of you know the story. Gods people had gone to Egypt to find food. Things went fine for years until Pharaoh got paranoid and decided to enslave the Israelites. One day God told Moses to take the people into the wilderness to worship so Moses goes to Pharaoh to ask permission. Listen to the voice of Pharaoh... "Moses and Aaron, why are you taking the people away from their labor? Get back to your work!" Then Pharaoh said, "Look, the people of the land are now numerous, and you are stopping them from working." That same day Pharaoh gave this order to the slave drivers and foremen in charge of the people: "You are no longer to supply the people with straw for making bricks; let them go and gather their own straw. But require them to make the same number of bricks as before; don't reduce the quota. They are lazy; that is why they are crying out, 'Let us go and sacrifice to our God.' Make the work harder for the men so that they keep working and pay no attention to lies." Exodus 5:4-9 Does that voice sound familiar? Look at the words in bold: Get back to work. Require them to make the same number of bricks as before, dont reduce the quota. They are lazy. Make the work harder. Keep working. It sounds a lot like The Voice in our heads, right? Last week I asked how many of you felt guilty at the end of your day off for not getting enough work done and half of you raised your hands. So I know you know what Im talking about. I want you to see that God wanted to set his people free from the voice of Pharaoh. God didnt create us to work non-stop. If he wanted machines he would have created a factory. Instead, God created us for relationship. Our work is supposed to support our relationships. Not the other way around. One thing a taskmaster never wants to see their slave doing is sitting. But God would love to see you sit. Last week I talked about how we typically pray on the run. It would be great if we took 30 minutes a day to sit quiet before God. So God called Moses to deliver his people from the voice of Pharaoh. And he did. The Exodus takes place. God parts the Red Sea and the Israelites are free. They are no longer slaves. But do you know what? Sometimes its easier to take a person out of slavery than it is to take slavery out of a person. What I mean is that its obvious that when the Israelites were set free they still thought like slaves; meaning, they lived in fear. They had lived in fear of Pharaohs cruelty for centuries and they projected that same cruelty on God. They assumed that God wouldnt take care of their needs just like Pharaoh didnt. So the first thing they do is complain and then cry out for food. In the desert the whole community grumbled against Moses and Aaron. The Israelites said to them, "If only we had died by the LORD's hand in Egypt! There we sat around
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pots of meat and ate all the food we wanted, but you have brought us out into this desert to starve this entire assembly to death." Exodus 16:2,3 Slaves think like that. Slaves past experience causes them to worry that they wont have enough. They are always complaining, assuming the worst. But Gods up for the challenge. He knows their problem and hes willing to do what it takes to retrain them. So God says...let me show you how able I am to provide for you. The LORD said to Moses, "I have heard the grumbling of the Israelites. Tell them, 'At twilight you will eat meat, and in the morning you will be filled with bread. Then you will know that I am the LORD your God.' "Exodus 16:11,12 And thats what happened. God sent some fowl weather (sorry for the pun), a thunderstorm of quail that covered the camp that night. They just fell out of the sky. And the next morning the ground was covered with a flaky bread like substance. They called it manna because manna means, What is it? They didnt know what it was. This was Gods way of providing for them. The curious thing was that God told them not to save any for the next day. Every day God would give them a fresh supply. In fact, to make his point...God made it so the manna would spoil if they kept it into the next day. You see, God knew their heart. He knew that they still thought like slaves. He knew that they didnt trust God to be any better than Pharaoh. So to prove to them that he was faithful he gave them fresh food every day and he made the old food rot. But they were slow learners However, some of them paid no attention to Moses; they kept part of it until morning, but it was full of maggots and began to smell. So Moses was angry with them. Exodus 16:20 I want you to see whats going on here. Why did they feel the need to keep some manna until the next day? God told them hed give them fresh manna. So why did they keep it? Because thats what slaves do. Slaves are used to being mistreated. They are used to being fed scraps and going hungry. And so they learn to fend for themselves. They cheat, they steal, they hoard...they do whatever they need to do to survive because they dont think anyone is looking out for them. They are convinced that they have to provide for themselves. They have what I call a scarcity mentality or a poverty mentality. They believe that the pie is only so big and they need to work extra hard to make sure they get their piece of the pie otherwise they will die. Do you see what Im saying here? Slaves cant be generous with what they have because they live in fear that what they have is the last of whats left. And thats why some of them kept the manna until the next day because they didnt believe that God would give them fresh manna in the morning. My dad grew up in the depression and it was very much the same kind of mentality. You never threw anything away because you might need it tomorrow. My dad was almost obsessive about
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waste. You didnt throw food away. Hed watch you to make sure you ate every piece of meat off a bone or squeeze the last drop of juice out of your grapefruit or scrape the last lick of ice cream out of the bucket. And when it came to money, God forbid if you gave any away. I remember putting a quarter in the offering plate at church and him telling me how stupid that was. You might need it tomorrow. Its every man for himself. For my dad, to be generous was to be a fool. So I learned fast. That was the only 25 cents the Catholic church ever got from me! I became very tightfisted with my money. But thankfully through the Word of God and the Spirit of God and a generous wife Ive learned how to be generous and Im glad because God blesses those who give. Let me tell, with all due respect to my dad, he thought like a slave. But people who see themselves as children of God are free to obey God. They dont have to hoard their food or their money because they know that God gives his children daily breaddaily provisions. Isnt that what Jesus taught us to praygive us this day our daily bread? Children of God are free to be generous because they know that with God there will always be more. They dont have a scarcity mentality they have an abundance mentality. They dont worry about getting their piece of the pie because they know that God is making new pies all the time! Theres a saying that goesyou cant out give God. That means that its impossible to be more generous than God is. No matter how much you give away God will always give you what you need for the next day. Hes got an endless supply of pies so, go ahead, give away! Did you know that how you spend your time and your money tells people your view of God and how you view yourself? When you hoard your time and money you tell people that you see God as a taskmaster hes unfair and wont meet your needs. You tell people that your relationship to God is that of a slave and not as a child. But if you are generous with your time and your money that tells people that you see God as your Father and that he is good. He cares. He provides. Now, you might be thinking. Okay...Ive heard this story before about the manna. It sounds familiar. But what does it have to do with the Sabbath? Keep tracking with me!
Introducing Sabbath

Something changed on the sixth day. When they got up to collect the manna they saw that there was twice as much on the ground. So the people go to Moses and say...what gives? Why so much manna on the sixth day? He said to them, "This is what the LORD commanded: 'Tomorrow is to be a day of rest, a holy Sabbath to the LORD. Exodus 16:23 This is the first time the word Sabbath is used in the Bible. The concept of Sabbath goes way back to Genesis two. But this is the first use of the word as an official weekly holy day. It continues
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So they saved it (the manna) until morning, as Moses commanded, and it did not stink or get maggots in it. Exodus 16:24 Do you see what God did here? Hes teaching his people what it means to be provided for by a loving God. In Egypt the Sun God was represented by Pharaoh. Pharaoh was cruel...he fed them poorly and he made them work seven days a week. He didnt treat them like people. He treated them like machines. But the God of Moses was different. He fed them well and now we see that he gave them time off. "Eat it today," Moses said, "because today is a Sabbath to the LORD. You will not find any of it on the ground today. Six days you are to gather it, but on the seventh day, the Sabbath, there will not be any." Exodus 16:25,26 God says...look...that life of working non-stopseven days a week...thats for slaves. I dont want you living like slaves any more. I dont want people looking at you and seeing you all worn out and run down. That doesnt make me look good. Thats not your identity. Thats a slaves identity. I want my people to be rested and refreshed. I want the world to know that I take care of my people. So that voice in your head that tells you to work harder, work faster and do moreseven days a weekthats not God. God wants his people to stop everything one day a week. Only slaves work seven days a week. So what are youa slave or a child of God? God gave us the gift of Sabbath to silence the voices in our mindto quit living like a slave and enjoy being his child. The story of the manna is not only that God provides us with the food we need but the rest we need. Thats why there was a double portion on the sixth day. Gods telling us that we can get everything we need to get done in six days. Hell bless those six days with success so you can take the seventh day off. And so, when we stop and rest on the seventh day we arent just relaxing. We are declaring the love of God, the sufficiency and sovereignty of God. And we are declaring our contentment in God. We are saying that whatever we can accomplish in six days is enough. But the story isnt over. Look what the people did. Nevertheless, some of the people went out on the seventh day to gather it, but they found none. Then the LORD said to Moses, "How long will you refuse to keep my commands and my instructions? Bear in mind that the LORD has given you the Sabbath; that is why on the sixth day he gives you bread for two days. Everyone is to stay where he is on the seventh day; no one is to go out." Exodus 16:27-29

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Once a slave, always a slave. The people continued to think like slaves. They didnt know how to rest. They couldnt believe that God actually would provide for them so they could relax. They were so driven...they were such creatures of habit that they spent all day looking for manna when they could have been home with their family playing card games around the fire. I hope we can do better. I hope after hearing this story that you will promise God that you will trust him to provide for you and that you will honor the Sabbath. Let me close with a few concrete tips on keeping the Sabbath.
Finding Sabbath

First, carve out 24 hours to cease from your work. Someone wrote me this week and said that they worked seven days a week and didnt have time for a Sabbath. I told them two things. One, try to get a day off. Pray about it. Ask for it. Cut your budget so you dont need to money. Do whatever you can to free up 24 hours. But two, if you try and still cant get the day off then capture 24 hours sometime throughout the week. Of course, eight hours would be for sleep so that only leaves another sixteen hours that you have to find. Next, power down your inputs (cell phone, computer, junk mail, other noise). Even turn off the stereo and your television if its just running in the background. It just adds to the noise and distracts you from what you should be focused on. Finally, create sacred traditions for God, friends and family and personal care (rejuvenation). Notice that I didnt say religious traditions. Sacred means special or untouchable. These should be special times with God or your family or by yourself relaxing that are uninterruptable and they happen like clockwork every week. Dont mess with them. Dont make exceptions if at all possible. Thats what makes them sacred. Then, enjoy the rest that God created for you. Prayer; God, forgive us for acting like slaves when Jesus died to set us free and make us your sons and daughters. Jesus you taught us to pray for our daily bread. You didnt teach us to pray for the week or the year or even our retirementjust for the next day. Give us that kind of trust in you and help us to be content with what we can accomplish in six days so we will keep the seventh day holy. Amen.
Going Deeper

Use the following questions for personal reflection or to discuss with your friends, family or small group. 1. Remy mentioned three sources of a driving voice in our life. What are they? What kind of voices drive you to perform more and faster than you should? Where do you think these voices came from? 2. Read Exodus 5:1-21. How are the voices in your head like or unlike the voice of Pharoah? Do you condemn yourself for being lazy? Why or why not? 3. How is a fear of being labeled as lazy a contributing factor to not keeping the Sabbath?
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4. Read Exodus 16. Remy noted that the Israelites were still thinking like slaves. What did he mean by that? How did the story of the manna reveal their slave-like thinking? 5. How do you think and act like a slave? 6. What is a scarcity or poverty mentality? Do you think you exhibit it some or all of the time 7. The opposite of scarcity is abundance. What would it look like in the life of a believer to have an abundance mentality? How does this relate to keeping Sabbath? 8. Remy mentioned three steps to keeping Sabbath. What were they? 9. Practically, what steps do you need to take to keep Sabbath yourself?

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Sabbath Part Three: Our Spiritual Identity By Remy Diederich Cedarbrook Church 1.22.12
Outline:

1. Why was the Sabbath so important to the Jews? a. It remembered God has creator of all things. b. It remembered Gods delivering them from Egypt. c. It was a sign of their covenant with God. d. It was one of the Ten Commandments. e. It came with a promise of blessing. f. It came with the threat of death. 2. The Sabbath was a major source of their spiritual identity with God. 3. True...but not an identity associated with heavy rules but joyful freedom. 4. Sabbath... a. Remembers the beauty and rest of creation b. Anticipates the beauty and rest of heaven c. Invites us to enjoy Gods rest today 5. How can you bring Sabbath rest into the other six days of your week?

Message The last two weeks Ive been talking about Sabbath. Sabbath is a gift of 24 hours that God gives us every week to stop the madness of our lives and focus on three things; God, people, and rejuvenation, that is, refilling out tank. This is such an important message because many of our lives have become like runaway trains. We just keep adding more and more and more and its not working. Its not sustainable. Many of us are stressed. Some of us are depressed. It affects our health. It affects our relationships. It affects everything we do. You know, during Christmas I got a lot of letters from people, like most of us did. People take a minute to reflect back on their year. And after about my tenth letter I picked up a theme...most people talked about how busy they were. I mean, did anyone get a letter telling you that they had more time this year to relax, take walks and read books than last year? Their kids signed up for fewer activities so they had more time to linger over dinner and play cards at night? I didnt think so! So this idea of Sabbath is huge. And its a good balance to the rest of the Bible. A lot of the Bible is a challenge for us to go and do. The bible tells us that God so loved the world that he SENT his son. God DID something. He took action. And then Jesus said that he didnt come into the
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world to be served but to serve others. Gods example to us is that of action. God is action oriented. But there is a time to stop...to cease from activity. And ceasing is just as worshipful as taking action. We need the balance. Well, today I want to take a look at what Jesus had to say about Sabbath. Theres a story in the book of Luke that tells of a time when Jesus was teaching on the Sabbath in a synagogue... synagogues being a place for Jewish worship. Jesus saw a woman that was all bent over. She had been that way for eighteen years and so Jesus touched her and healed her and she stood up for the first time in eighteen years. Amazing. But listen to the response of the synagogue ruler... Indignant because Jesus had healed on the Sabbath, the synagogue ruler said to the people, "There are six days for work. So come and be healed on those days, not on the Sabbath." Luke 13:14 Now...before we get all nasty toward this ruler lets take a minute to try to find some empathy for him. What was it about Jews in those days that could say something so seemingly harsh and out of touch with reality?
Why Sabbath Was Important to Jews

Here are six reasons that Sabbath was so important to Jews. First, the Sabbath remembers that God created the world and that he is in control. This was very important to the Jews. To not stop for the Sabbath was like denying Gods existence. Second, Sabbath remembers the Exodus. God freed his people from Pharaohs cruelty and took care of them. 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 5:15 The Sabbath was directly connected to the Exodus and so it was important to celebrate it. Third, the Sabbath was a sign of the covenant between God and his people. Then the LORD said to Moses, "Say to the Israelites, 'You must observe my Sabbaths. This will be a sign between me and you for the generations to come, so you may know that I am the LORD, who makes you holy. Exodus 31:12,13 In other words, God says...when you keep the Sabbath thats your way of showing me and other people that you are in relationship with me. Fourth, the Sabbath was one of the Ten Commandments. Its interesting to look at the Ten Commandments because the commandment to keep the Sabbath takes up more space than any other commandment (see below). Just look at how many words are used for each commandment. Some commands take only four words because they are so self-evident. You shall not murder.
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Theres not a lot of wiggle room there. But idols...idols are cool. Why cant we have idols? God adds 85 words to explain. And Sabbath...whats the big deal? God adds 99 words to explain. You shall have no other gods before me. (8) You shall not make for yourself an idol (85) You shall not misuse the name of the LORD your God (23) Remember the Sabbath day by keeping it holy. (99) Honor your father and your mother (22) You shall not murder. (4) You shall not commit adultery. (5) You shall not steal. (4) You shall not give false testimony against your neighbor. (9) You shall not covet (30) But no matter how many words it took, the Sabbath was still one of Gods Top Ten commands and the Jews knew that. The next reason the Sabbath was important to Jews was because it came with a promise of blessing. If you keep your feet from breaking the Sabbath and from doing as you please on my holy day, if you call the Sabbath a delight and the LORD's holy day honorable, and if you honor it by not going your own way and not doing as you please or speaking idle words, then you will find your joy in the LORD, and I will cause you to ride on the heights of the land and to feast on the inheritance of your father Jacob." The mouth of the LORD has spoken. Isaiah 58:13,14 And the final reason the Jews took the Sabbath seriously is that it came with a threat of death... Observe the Sabbath, because it is holy to you. Anyone who desecrates it must be put to death; whoever does any work on that day must be cut off from his people. Exodus 31:14 Now, theres no record of anyone ever being put to death for not keeping Sabbath. But youve got to admit...it gets your attention. I dont think the Jews wanted to run the risk of getting it wrong. But the threat of death tells you that God takes the Sabbath seriously. And thats my point. The Jews took Sabbath seriously. They werent willing to mess with it. In fact, just to make sure that no one got in trouble with God the Jews developed 39 categories of work that you couldnt participate in on the Sabbath. Carrying, Burning, Extinguishing, Finishing, Writing, Erasing, Cooking...even boiling water (no tea or coffee), Washing, Sewing, Tearing, Knotting, Untying, Shaping, Plowing, Planting, Reaping, Harvesting, Threshing, Winnowing, Selecting, Sifting, Grinding, Kneading, Combing, Spinning, Dyeing, Chain-stitching, Warping, Weaving, Unraveling, Building, Demolishing, Trapping, Shearing, Slaughtering, Skinning, Tanning, Smoothing, Marking

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And then each of these categories have a number of subcategories. People have noted that these categories prohibit any activity that is creative, or that exercises control or dominion over one's environment. You see, Sabbath was a big part of the Jewish identity. It was a big part of what identified them as Gods people. In fact, the Jews have kept Sabbath from generation to generation; Whether that was in captivity in Babylon or in concentration camps during the Holocaust. So when Jesus came on the scene and didnt respect their 39 categories the Jews were offended. They didnt think Jesus could truly be a prophet of God if he ignored the Sabbath. But they were missing the point. These religious people objected to a woman being healed. How wrong was that? What were they thinking? Youd think it was obvious that healing was the right thing to do. But that just shows you the abusive nature of religion when it jumps the tracks and goes bad. Thats why Jesus said... "You hypocrites! Doesn't each of you on the Sabbath untie his ox or donkey from the stall and lead it out to give it water? Then should not this woman, a daughter of Abraham, whom Satan has kept bound for eighteen long years, be set free on the Sabbath day from what bound her?" Luke 13:15-16 In another story Jesus told the people that... The Sabbath was made for man, not man for the Sabbath. Mark 2:27 You see, God wasnt looking to add more work to his people. That totally defeated the purpose of what God wanted. Suddenly they were working hard at not working. The day before the Sabbath was twice as busy because they had to cook and clean and do all kinds of preparations so they didnt work on the Sabbath. Its like the day before vacation. I hate the day before vacation because I have to get everything done at work and the house to last me a few days. So the first few days of vacation are just recovering from getting ready for vacation! But Jesus would agree on one point with the Jews...and that is the Sabbath should be a part of their spiritual identity...but not an identity of religious rules but an identity of joyful freedom. You know how it is, when we see people governed by a bunch of religious rules. We kind of roll our eyes and say...thats just weird. That cant be what God wants. Its not attractive. It doesnt draw anyone in. In fact it makes you want to distance yourself from that person. But when you see someone who is relaxed and joyful...its like...I want some of what hes got. And so, what I want us to see today is that Sabbath isnt just a 24 hour time period. Sabbath is also an attitude. Its a way of life. Its our spiritual identity 24/7. Sabbath living should permeate our entire week. We shouldnt be known as people who go 90 miles an hour all week long and then come to a screeching halt for 24 hours. We should be a people who learn to find the rest of God every day and eventually, every moment.
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The New Testament refers to this as the peace of God. Jesus said... Peace I leave with you; my peace I give you. I do not give to you as the world gives. Do not let your hearts be troubled and do not be afraid. John 14:27 Or listen to the words of the apostle Paul as he wrote to Christians in different cities... The mind of sinful man is death, but the mind controlled by the Spirit is life and peace; Romans 8:6 For God is not a God of disorder but of peace... 1 Corinthians 14:33 Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God. And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus. Philippians 4:6,7 So, my question is...how can we bring the three components of Sabbath into our daily life? Focusing on God. Focusing on relationships and focusing on recharging our batteries. Last week I talked about creating sacred traditions on your Sabbath. But what are some micro traditions that you create for every day? Let me list a few ideas here. Theres nothing special about them. We all know what to do. We just need to do them. Read a daily devotion and pray. Even if its just ten minutes. Take a few seconds to pray with people about their concerns. Pray at meal time. Sit down when you eat. Dont walk around your house getting ready for work with a piece of toast in your hand! Stop, look and kiss your loved ones before you leave or they leave the house. Eat supper together. Shut off the TV. Go to bed on time. Take a night to do something fun...dont wait for the weekend. Walk or ride your bike to work. Take a walk at lunch time. Well, I hope these ideas help. I think you get the point. In summary... let me leave you with three things that the Sabbath does for us...it remembers the beauty and rest of creation. It anticipates the beauty and rest of heaven. And it invites us to enjoy Gods rest (or peace) today. Im personally challenged by this study and Ive already started to make changes in my life. I want to be known as a person that reflects the rest of God. I hope you do too. Prayer; Father we do so well at being religious and missing the point. Forgive us. Help us to become people of peace. Might Sabbath rest be more than a day but an attitude that we carry through every minute of every day. Amen.

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Going Deeper; Use the following questions for personal reflection and to discuss with family, friends and small group. 1. Reflect on your faith. Has your faith brought you heavy rules or joyful freedom? If its changed through the years comment on how your faith has evolved. 2. Read Matthew 12:1-14. There are two stories here. What are the reasons Jesus uses for working on the Sabbath? 3. Read Luke 13:10-17. What are the reasons Jesus uses in this story? In both passages, what were the reasons the Jews used to not work on the Sabbath? 4. Now read Isaiah 56:1-8. What are the blessings of the Sabbath? Who is invited to participate? What significance does this have for us today? 5. Read Isaiah 58:13,14. What is the blessing here? 6. The Jews were right in that the Sabbath should help identify them as Gods people. But how did they misinterpret this? How should the Sabbath actually stamp Gods identity on us? 7. The New Testament idea of Sabbath is carried in the word peace. What were some of the New Testament verses that Remy referred to in regard to peace? 8. What has struck you most in this study (past three weeks)? What have you changed as a result? What do you plan to change?

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