Learning to Relax - Part B

What you'll notice here in the commandment to rest is that God not only allocates time for enjoyment, but the time for enjoyment is based on a time of employment.

Right? It supposes that you are employed and that you work the rest of the week so as to take off a day. So the vacation is based upon your vocation. Work can get between us and God and that's why we must take time away from it. But today on Connect with Skip Heitzig, Skip shares how resting from work is a way you can worship the Lord. Right now we want to tell you about a resource that encourages dads everywhere to step up and fulfill their God-given calling. Your gift to this teaching program has helped us grow and we want to do more in 2023.

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When you help us expand Skip's teaching with your donation of $50 or more, call 1-800-922-1888 or go to connectwithskip.com to get your copy of Where's dad? Now we're in Exodus chapter 20 as we join Skip Heitzig for today's message. Resting is commanded, remembering is clarified. So let's go down to verse 9 and notice something. Six days you shall labor. Now he delineates the commandment.

He's adding supplemental material. Six days you shall labor and do all your work. But the seventh day is the Sabbath of the Lord your God. In it you shall do no work.

You know your son, daughter, male servant, female servant, cattle stranger that is within your gates. Now the previous verse says remember the Sabbath. Remember the Sabbath. And what does that mean remember the Sabbath? Just sit around and like think about it like oh yeah I remember it's Saturday that you recall it.

Well Deuteronomy 5 that we're going to look at next week renders it a little bit differently. It doesn't say remember it says observe it. Observe it. So sometimes the word remember means to call something to mind in order that you may do something about what you call to mind. That's the idea of remembering. Call something to mind, recall it, think about it so that you do something about it.

Here's an example. When Joseph was in prison and he interprets the dreams of a couple of prison mates he tells one of them because he knows he's going to be released he says remember me when you are released before Pharaoh and get me out of here. I want you to call to mind this conversation so that you can spring me from jail because I want to get out. So to remember the Sabbath it's a very strong positive command. In Hebrew it's called an infinite absolute that is it's a very emphatic command. It means to recall and ponder so that you will elicit the proper response.

What is the proper response you ask? Notice verse 8. Remember the Sabbath to keep it what?

Holy. That's the response you are to have. You are to remember so that you will keep it holy. That is you will treat this day as different from all the other days. So simply set a day apart for me to do whatever I the Lord want you to do. I want you to use a day of your week to focus on me. It's part of your worship. Part of your worship. How many married couples do we have here tonight?

I can't ask this on home. So you're married okay keep your hands up keep your hands up if you're married keep your hands up. Okay how many of you with your hands up have regular date nights?

Continue to keep your hand up if not just put your hand down. Okay so we need to work on that don't we? Right so when you have a date night I don't want to shame anybody about that but if you if you do have a date night what you're telling your spouse is I'm gonna schedule I'm gonna remember that you are so important that this is all about you and me this is about our relationship together that's what date night's about I'm remembering that I'm doing something it's holy it's for us. When our son Nate was a young child my wife came up with this idea just out of the blue she called it an I love Nathan day and it was a day where she would pick him up from school and it was just you know what you decide what we're going to eat you decide what store we're going to go to you decide what activity and it wasn't based on anything it was just out of grace this is an I love Nathan day think of the Sabbath as an I love God day and I love God day you're going to do the activities God likes you're going to consider the relationship you have with him. Back in 1924 not that I would remember from personal experience but there were Olympics in which somebody very famous ran named Eric Little chariots of fire was based on his story Eric Little his best event was the hundred meter run the problem was is that during that year of the Olympics all of the heats for the runs were on Sunday Eric Little as a strong Christian would not participate and while they were running the heats he was in church preaching sermons so a few days later he decided he would run the 400 meter now he wasn't trained for that and everybody who knew about this did not give him a chance that he would win they thought he'll never win not only did he do well he got the gold medal not only did he get the gold medal he broke a new world record for that year and the way he describes it is that God was honoring him for honoring God God was honoring him for honoring God now I'm conflating a couple things I'm I'm talking about Sunday versus this the Shabbat the Jewish Sabbath but but I'm going to work my way to that so the Sabbath idea is it's a day where God is honored and a day where men and women get recharged both together now what's strange about that is you would never know the Sabbath was designed for that purpose when you get to the New Testament because by the time you get to the New Testament the Sabbath had become a worrisome burden to keep it was a labor to keep the Sabbath I'll remind you of what Jesus said about the religious leaders the scribes and the Pharisees in Matthew 23 he said they bind heavy burdens hard to bear and lay them on men's shoulders but they themselves will not move them with one of their fingers what was that all about simply this when the Jewish people returned from the Babylonian captivity back to their land they got very strict about the Sabbath so that by the time of Christ by the New Testament they listed 39 different kinds of work 39 different kinds of work that they had identified all of which were prohibited on the Sabbath day one whole section of the Talmud the Talmud of the Jewish writings Jewish sayings commentaries etc one whole section of the Jewish Talmud has 24 chapters listing Sabbath laws 24 chapters of Sabbath laws one whole section on what constitutes a burden on the Sabbath you can't bear a burden on the Sabbath well what's a burden so there were endless discussions about can you lift a lamp like a little candle an oil lamp on the Sabbath could a woman wear a brooch on the Sabbath you got to pick up that little pin and pin it on your blouse oh man that's a burden they had chapters about this if if and they had these back then this is what's interesting if you wear artificial teeth and you had taken them out and now it's the Sabbath if you lift them up to put them in your mouth are you bearing a burden they had discussions about this stuff chapters about this stuff if you need to pick up your child is that violating the Sabbath law so you can see they had lost the whole idea that this is a day of rest because after the Sabbath keeping it like that you needed a rest it became easier to work for six days than to rest on one day so remember the Sabbath remember what it's for remember why it's done so resting remembering resting is commanded remembering is clarified here's the third responsibility responsibility is also conveyed here in verse nine back to verse nine six days you shall labor and do all your work but the seventh day is the Sabbath of the Lord I want you to notice and this takes us all the way back to our very first study in hustle and grind what you'll notice here in the commandment to rest is that God not only allocates time for enjoyment but the time for enjoyment is based on a time of employment okay it it supposes that you are employed and that you work the rest of the week so as to take off a day so the vacation is based upon your vocation you work six days you rest one day so labor is also commanded in the same command to rest and as we already noted the bible speaks very highly of the hustle and the grind that is a part of daily life back in 1985 Bob Black wrote an essay he's he's an anarchist and he wrote a very very famous essay called the abolition of work 1985 Bob Black wrote in his essay the abolition of work these words no one should ever work no one should ever work work is hazardous to your health work is the source of nearly all the all the misery in the world this sounds like I wrote it as a teenager almost any evil you care to name comes from working or living in a world designed for work in order to stop suffering we have to stop working a typical worker is a part-time slave now God tells his people you need to rest but you need to rest because the rest of the time you spend working you have a vocation we noted last week I think it was that we in this country the united states has a very strong work ethic we even call it a protestant work ethic and the reason that we we have a strong work ethic in this country traditionally is because of the biblical influence on original immigrants that came from Europe and other countries that had a strong biblical base and the only reason that there are essays out there like Bob Black's essay and others is the rejection of God in our culture the rejection of God in our society and the society is trying to cry separation separation of church and state they don't want the Bible or the church or religious people to speak into the culture we must speak into the culture because if we don't speak into the culture the culture will have no restraint whatsoever and will create societies that want the government to pay for everything even not working six days you shall labor and do all your work but the seventh day is a sabbath to the Lord now some of you read that and you think man God's a little bit stingy with his time six days you're working only one day you get off because this pattern of six and one is certainly not followed in this country right it's it's five and two is that right you work five days and a year off too and that's kind of written into our laws so why does God say six and one well first of all you need to realize that in ancient societies ancient cultures they didn't even take one day off most societies that subsisted in day-to-day living worked every single day in fact one ancient greek historian noted that jews were lazy because they take one day off a week so they worked every single day something else when they took a day off when it was sabbath and they took a day off when it was sabbath and an orthodox jew to this day they take the day off they're not also doing other jobs on their day off working around the house they didn't do yard work they did not clean out their garage do landscaping or take a second job they weren't adding a new room to the tent they weren't washing and waxing the camels they stopped they stopped working they ceased working some people's day off brings more labor and more stress than their days during the week at work so when God says six days you shall work with the seventh day you rest here's what he's saying i'm going to give you six days to get her done i'm going to give you six days for you to do your own thing but the seventh is mine the seventh i want uninterrupted time with you and there's a further reason for this six and one pattern and that is it is patterned after God's work in creation we mentioned that but now we want to look at that so look at verse 11 look at verse 11 it's part of the same material in the commandment for in six days the lord made the heavens and the earth the sea and all that is in them and rested the seventh day so that's what it's patterned on creation therefore the lord blessed the sabbath and holida now let me take you back to genesis chapter two after god created the heavens and the earth genesis chapter two if you want to turn there you can it's pretty easy it's just the very first book of the bible second chapter easy to find if not i'll read it to you genesis chapter two verse one thus the heavens and the earth and all the host of them were finished and on the seventh day god rested or on the seventh day god ended his work which he had done and he rested on the seventh day from all his work which he had done then god blessed the seventh day and sanctified it that is marked it set it apart because in it he rested from all his work which he which god had created and made now what we just read in genesis 2 becomes the basis for the future sabbath laws so way before moses ever lived before sinai ever happened before there was the giving of the covenant law from the very time of creation itself the pattern of six and one was established by god later on moses will reintroduce this concept and expand on this concept but before the giving of the law before exodus chapter 20 which we're reading before that happened in exodus chapter 16 some food fell from heaven you remember what it was called manna when manna fell from heaven by the way i always told you that manna was probably like crispy cream donuts from god because the bible says they tasted like wafers made with honey now you take wafers made with honey and heat it up a little bit you got crispy cream donuts just saying so so whatever it was god from heaven gave them the donuts and said pick that stuff up every day for six days it's not coming from heaven on the seventh day i'm not going to give you any manna you have to pick it up the day before so that on the seventh day you can hang out at home and rest now again that's before the giving of the law in mount sinai later on he expanded it a little bit more saying you won't bear a burden or light a fire on the sabbath but it was based upon creation why because god rested on the seventh day now i've had this question asked so many times why did god rest was he tired was god worn out after all that work of creation was he just pooped was it like man you know those horses or those cats they were pretty easy when i got to the elephant zone and i just took a lot out of me no he was done god simply said i have created enough i've created enough he could have kept going there could have been eight days of creation or nine days of creation or 38 days of creation if he wanted to but the world would be too full the world would be too full i suppose he did what he did and he said it's good that's enough he already created 200 billion trillion stars that's the going count and a hundred billion other galaxies beyond the milky way galaxy so he just said done enough tapping out it's over i'm going to now cease not that i'm tired i'm just stopping i'm ceasing from my work so here's the point yes i know you can keep working every day of the week and probably be productive if you don't take a day of rest if you don't take a break but when is enough enough and why would anybody be so prideful to say well god may have done it but i don't need to do it if tireless omnipotence can take a day of rest then contingent human beings can take a day of rest there was a an angry church member who said to his pastor boy i phoned you on monday and i couldn't get a hold of you and the pastor said well monday is my day off the guy said day off what are you doing taking a day off the devil didn't take a day off and the pastor said you're right and if i didn't take a day off i'd be just like him so don't be like him be like god last time i checked and you checked god took a day off you know one of the the hardest things to do is to obey psalm 46 verse 10 it says be still and know that i am god that's a hard thing to do is it not be still well can i can i at least have my phone while i'm still be still shut it all away and know that i am god i think you're going to have trouble knowing that he is god without first being still so it's not it's not just stop working it's stop working start worshiping it's to be a day of holy leisure or leisure depending on what part of the country you're from so it wasn't just to rejuvenate the body but revitalize the spirit so as we close once again back to the owner's manual the owner's manual is to say follow this booklet's recommendations and you'll enjoy maximum reliability and peace of mind for many years to come the way i see it resting proves that you are trusting if you fail to rest it's probably because you fail to trust that's my guess resting proves that you are trusting just a final illustration to close before we pray in music if you are musically inclined you know that there are on a page of music there are notes and then there are things called rests and a rest is part of a musical score though a rest is technically not music at all it's a cessation of music it's a cessation of sound but you need rest in a musical score you know why it makes the music more interesting and more melodious it gives it punch it gives it character so god wrote the score god is keeping the beat you play the notes and the rest take the rest that wraps up Skip heitzig's message from the series hustle and grind now we want to share about an exciting opportunity you have to take your knowledge of god's word even deeper going to church is a great way to learn about god but what if you want to learn more go deeper this spring calvary college is offering classes in spiritual growth classes like spiritual foundations learn how to joyfully walk with jesus take evening classes on campus or online and transfer credits to calvary chapel university or veritas international university for an accredited degree that will impact your spiritual and spiritual life that will impact your spiritual life for the rest of your life apply now at calvary church college dot com the best way to connect with god is by connecting with his word that's why we've made these life-changing bible teachings available around the world and if you want to see more people come into a relationship with the living god you can do that through your generous gift today which helps keep this broadcast going to reach people around the world with the gospel to give just visit connectwithskip.com slash donate that's connectwithskip.com slash donate or you can call 800-922-1888 800-922-1888 thank you come back tomorrow as Skip heitzig shares why rest is not only good for you it's also christ-like fun connect with Skip heiter is a presentation of connection communications connecting you to god's never-changing truth in ever-changing times