Learning to Relax - Part A

Of the Ten Commandments, the commandment we want to look at for the Sabbath or to rest, of the Ten Commandments, this is the tender commandment. This is God's tender way of caring for you and showing you that He cares. It will bring you peace.

Some people are such workaholics that they don't actually know how to relax. Today on Connect with Skip Heitig, Skip shares how setting aside time to rest can greatly benefit your relationship with God. But before we begin, we want to tell you about a resource that encourages dads to turn the tide in our culture by standing for Jesus in their homes and communities.

Your gift to this teaching program has helped us grow, and we want to do more in 2023. This month with your gift of $50 or more, you'll receive a download or DVD of a new critical issues video hosted by Skip, Where's Dad? The problems are clear. Teen crime, drug abuse, youth suicide, abortion, and a host of others. The question is, where's dad? Where's the man of the household when their boys are making life decisions about their treatment of women, their worldview, and their morals?

Why are legions of energetic teens channeling their time towards self-destructive and socially destructive behavior? And where's dad to guide them, to correct them, to be in relationship with them? We realize that single-parent families are not exclusively a male issue. Fathers who do not take responsibility for their children are the critical problem. Where's Dad? looks at the problem of missing fathers in the home, tells stories of people who have been impacted by this plague, and looks at the possibilities of reconciliation at any age or stage of life. Get your DVD or download of the full-length video, Where's Dad? hosted by Skip Heitzig and featuring Josh McDowell. Receive your copy of Where's Dad? 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? Okay, we're in Exodus chapter 20 today as we get into the teaching with Skip Heitzig.

We're going to begin in verse 8 in just a little bit. I want to begin by showing you the front page of an owner's manual, vehicle owner's manual, and what it says. It says, regular maintenance is, by the way, before we read this, how many of you have read all the way through the owner's manual in your vehicle? You've read all the way through?

Yeah, mostly a couple guys. You're so hardcore. You read all the way through it. Most people don't do that, by the way, but my owner's manual front page says, regular maintenance is essential to obtaining the highest level of performance, safety, and reliability from your vehicle. This booklet is designed to help you make sure your vehicle receives proper and timely maintenance. Follow this booklet's recommendation and you'll enjoy maximum reliability and peace of mind for many years to come.

What a promise! Peace of mind for years to come. Well, that's the owner's manual to a car. This book is designed to help your life run right and give you peace of mind for years to come. This is the book you should read all the way through, whether you've read the owner's manual of your car or not.

I don't care, but this I care about. And this is the owner's manual to our life. And God gave the Bible to us so that we would have proper maintenance. Just like an owner's manual to a vehicle talks all about the maintenance you need, this book, the Bible, talks about our maintenance and promises peace of mind.

So I've had you turn to Exodus chapter 20. It happens to be the very first record in scripture of what we know as the 10 commandments. And we in particular want to notice the fourth commandment because the fourth commandment is about timely and proper maintenance for our unit, for us, for our lives. Of the 10 commandments, the commandment we want to look at for the Sabbath or to rest, of the 10 commandments, this is the tender commandment. This is God's tender way of caring for you and showing you that He cares.

It will bring you peace. Now, even before we read it, you probably know, but I'll refresh your memory of what we know that the 10 commandments are part of or were part of a covenant that God made with the children of Israel in the Old Testament on Mount Sinai when He delivered them from Egypt. They had been slaves in Egypt for 400 years. God sent them Moses, a deliverer. Moses brought them from Egypt, crossed the Red Sea, took them out into the wilderness.

Three months after they left Egypt, crossed the Red Sea, were out in the desert, three months later, they rendezvoused at a particular mountain we know as Mount Sinai. And God established His covenant with His people by giving them two tablets of the law. We know that as the 10 commandments. The 10 commandments, the Hebrews call it, which literally means a decade of words, a decade of words, or simply put, they would call it the 10 words, or let's call it God's top 10 list. And God's top 10 list or the 10 words, the 10 commandments, cover all the basics of life. A few things to note about these 10 commandments. They are commandments.

They are commandments. They are not 10 suggestions. They are not 10 proposals. They are not 10 really good ideas. They are 10 commandments. Something else. There are 10, not five, not nine.

It's like, yeah, I don't like that one, so I'm going to throw that out. No, there are 10 of them, but there's also not 19 of them. I bring that up because the rabbis, after this was given, much after this was given, the rabbis counted 613 commandments. And of those 613 commandments, 248 were positive commandments, things you should do. 365 of them were negative commandments, things that you shouldn't do. But aren't you glad God gave 10, not 613?

He gave 10. And this is the fourth of the 10 commandments. Something else that I think you should notice is that it is the first of two positive commandments. Most of the commandments say, don't do this, don't do that, and don't do that other thing. But there are two commandments that are positive commandments, and that is the fourth and fifth commandment, and this is the first of the two positive commandments. Now, we're going to take this commandment a little bit slowly. We think it's the fourth and fifth commandment, and this is the fourth and fifth commandment slowly.

We think it's very important. So what we want to do is look at Exodus 20 this week, but look at also this commandment, but in another listing given by Moses as he reviews it before his death on Mount Nebo in Deuteronomy chapter 5 next time we gather together. We want to begin in verse 8 and read down to verse 11. That's what we're going to be talking about.

But let me just say this as introductory material as well. No other commandment of the 10 commandments has breeded more controversy than the commandment to keep the Sabbath. Whole church movements have been created over this commandment. Christians are sometimes by certain groups accused of breaking this commandment because they meet on Sunday rather than Saturday, and the really hardcore groups will go so far as to say Sunday worship is the mark of the beast. So if you worship God on Sunday, that's akin to the mark of the beast as outlined in Revelation chapter 13.

Crazy, huh? But true. I also want to remind you that the 10 commandments are two tables of the law, and the way it's typically divided is pretty simple. The first four are about your relationship to God.

The second six are about your relationship to each other. Now why is that important? Because it shows us that the Sabbath, which is part of the first listing, our relationship to God, the Sabbath isn't just a pause from work, but it's a part of worship. It's a part of worship. So the first commandment is you should worship the right God. You will have no other gods before you besides Him. The second commandment is you should worship the right God in the right manner. You will have no graven images when you worship Him. The third commandment is that you honor His name.

You don't take His name in vain. And this commandment, the fourth commandment, is that you devote a whole day to be occupied with Him. So there are four words, four words that sum up this fourth commandment, and that gives us our outline. Here's the four words, rest, remembrance, responsibility, and reason. Rest, remembrance, responsibility, and reason.

Let's begin with the first, rest. Resting is commanded. Now let's read through the entire commandment. Verse eight, remember the Sabbath day to keep it holy. 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, nor your son, nor your daughter, nor your male servant, nor your female servant, nor your cattle.

Your pets get a day off, nor your stranger who is within your gates. 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. Therefore the Lord blessed the Sabbath and hallowed it. So don't you find it interesting just right off the bat that resting is commanded. It's a command. It's an order.

It's not a suggestion. God gives an order, a rule, a decree. It's as if He said, relax and that's an order.

Take a vacation from your vocation and that's an order. It is a rule. Here's the question, why? Why would we ever need a command to rest? Here's my take on it. I think God really understands human nature and I think He knows that we need a command because I say that because breaking the Sabbath is the only commandment that some people actually brag about violating. You hear it in their conversations when they say I haven't taken a day off for four years.

I mean that's that's something to be proud of or vacation huh what's that. So what you need to see is this commandment, this rule, this decree of God is the longest of any of the 10 commandments. That is the commandment is given but then there is more supplemental material to explain this commandment than any of the other nine commandments. There are 98 words all together devoted to the fourth commandment. Remember the Sabbath day to keep it holy.

Now let me in this study especially kind of give you groundwork because we're going to build on it next time because we're going to continue this but take a different look at it. The word Sabbath in Hebrew Shabbat appears in the Old Testament 90 times. 90 times in the Old Testament.

90 times. In the New Testament 55 times so about 145 times the word Sabbath or Shabbat appears in the Bible. It simply means to cease or to desist or to put to an end. So the idea of a Sabbath is it puts to end all of the work that you did during the week. By the way 54 times in Scripture it is simply referred to as the seventh day. So I'll be a little technical because some people say well I'm taking my Sabbath today. Okay that's okay but technically it is the seventh day and the seventh day in Judaism doesn't begin Saturday morning it begins Friday night at sundown and goes through Saturday and ends at sundown Saturday evening. So technically from our perspective Sabbath would be over on Saturday night and it would already be Sunday. Now where did it come from?

It came from creation and we'll get into that in just a minute. So the pattern of Shabbat or ceasing work stopping work goes before the law all the way back to creation when God had a work week that lasted six days. He made the heavens and the earth and on the seventh day he rested.

But I want to press this a little bit further. In the Bible the Sabbath is far more than Saturday. It's far more than just a weekly day. In the Bible there are feast days that had prescribed Sabbath rests attached to them whether it was Saturday or not. So for example in Leviticus chapter 23 it outlines the different festivals of Israel and on the feast of trumpets it says this on the first day of the seventh month you shall have a Sabbath. It's a special day attached to the feast a day of rest. Also the feast of tabernacles the feast shall be kept for seven days but on the first day it shall be a Sabbath and on the eighth day there shall be a Sabbath. So there are weekly Sabbaths Saturday we would call it Friday sundown to Saturday sundown. Then there are days attached to festivals also called Sabbaths but also Sabbaths are far more than just days of the week. Sometimes Sabbaths are referred to as an entire get this year a year where people were commanded by God to take a year off. Now I know some of you are going you're talking my language.

We've actually already had that it's called Covid. But in Leviticus 25 the land was cultivated for six years on the seventh year after that God commanded them agriculturally to let the land rest. Let it rest so that the soil would not deplete.

It was a method of conservation for the soil. Also it was to remind them that the land doesn't belong to them it belongs to God and not to any one person. Now why am I telling you all this I'm giving you this information because sometimes you'll meet people who pride themselves in being Sabbath keepers. I keep the Sabbath I'm not like you Christians who meet on Sunday I actually keep the Sabbath. If you ever have that conversation you might have a little fun with them and say do you really keep the Sabbath so you're telling me every seven years you take a year off and trust God for whatever comes in that year because that is the Old Testament Sabbath and if they go oh well that really wasn't all that important well to God it was pretty important in fact he took it so seriously he sent the whole nation into captivity for 70 years because they hadn't kept the sabbatic year for 490 years that's 70 sabbath years and at the very end of second chronicles chapter 36 God says this therefore he God brought against them the king of the Chaldeans that is the Babylonians they burned the house of God they broke down the wall of Jerusalem burned all of its palaces with fire and those who escaped from the sword he carried away to Babylon to fulfill the word of the Lord by the mouth of Jeremiah until the land had enjoyed her Sabbath as long as she lay desolate she kept the Sabbath to fulfill 70 years I share all of this simply to say two fine points need to be added first God takes rest seriously God takes rest seriously and second if you happen to boast because you're a sabbatarian and you don't worship on Sunday if you are tending toward legalism I would just press that and say I don't really think you're living according to the old testament biblical idea of sabbatarianism just saying just saying so rest is commanded but let's go on after rest is to remember 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 the 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 um how many uh 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 said oh 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 that's Skip Heitzig with a message from the series hustle and grind now here's Skip to share how you can keep these teachings coming to you while connecting others to God's word our desire is to see listeners like you connect to God's word on a deeper level and be transformed by its truths but there are expenses associated with running a radio ministry like this 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