FINDING REST: THE REM OF THE SOUL
The Good Life #4
Pastor Dennis Clanton
Woodland Church
February 4, 2024
(Exodus 20:8–11, NLT) “Remember to observe the Sabbath day by keeping it holy. You have six days each week for your ordinary work, but the seventh day is a Sabbath day of rest dedicated to the Lord your God. On that day no one in your household may do any work. This includes you, your sons and daughters, your male and female servants, your livestock, and any foreigners living among you. For in six days the Lord made the heavens, the earth, the sea, and everything in them; but on the seventh day he rested. That is why the Lord blessed the Sabbath day and set it apart as holy.”
SABBATH REMINDS US OF WHAT WE LOST AND FOUND
“Half our life is spent trying to find something to do with the time we have rushed through life trying to save.” – Will Rogers.
“Some of us have made an idol of exhaustion.” – Barbara Brown Taylor
“I’m of the opinion that busyness is a deeper threat to the soul than pornography ever was.” – Gordon MacDonald
1. KEEPING SABBATH HOLY MEANS HONOR, CELEBRATE, WORSHIP!
(Exodus 20:8, NLT) “Remember to observe the Sabbath day by keeping it holy.”
(Leviticus 23:3, CEV) “Come together for worship.”
“Sabbath uncluttered time and space to distance ourselves from the frenzy of our own activities so we can see what God was and is doing. If we don’t regularly quit work one day a week, we take ourselves far too seriously. The moral sweat pouring off our brow blinds us to the primal action of God in and around us.” – Eugene Peterson
2. THE SABBATH WAS GIVEN IN GRACE AS AN EXAMPLE OF HOLINESS
(Exodus 20:11, LB) “For in six days the Lord made the heaven, earth, and sea, and everything in them, and rested the seventh day; so he blessed the Sabbath day and set it aside for rest.”
(Deuteronomy 5:15, LB) “Why should you keep the Sabbath? It is because you were slaves in Egypt, and the Lord your God brought you out with a great display of miracles.”
“We cannot destroy Christianity until we first destroy the Sabbath.” – Voltaire
GROWTHWORK
(Luke 4:16, NCV) “Jesus traveled to Nazareth, where he had grown up. On the Sabbath day he went to the synagogue, as he always did, and stood up to read.”
(Mark 2:27, NCV) “Then Jesus said to the Pharisees, “The Sabbath day was made to help people; they were not made to be ruled by the Sabbath day.”
(Matthew 12:11–12, NCV) “Jesus answered, “… It is lawful to do good things on the Sabbath day.”
(Acts 20:7, Message) “We met on Sunday to worship and celebrate the Master’s Supper.”
1. GATHER WITH ONE ANOTHER TO WORSHIP GOD
“If your soul has no Sunday, it becomes an orphan.” – Albert Schweitzer, Nancy Gibbs, And on the Seventh Day We Rested?, Time Magazine, (8-2-04)
2. REST
“Choose the leisure activities that bring us close to God, to people, to beauty, and to all that ennobles.” – J. I. Packer
3. BE LOVED AND LOVE OTHERS
“The height of our love for God will never exceed the depth of our love for one another.” – Patrick Morley