Sunday Sermon: Sabbath

www.frankfortyotb.blogspot.com
Check out the church site too! www.frankfortpresbychurch.com

PRAYER OF ILLUMINATION
Please pray with me: Gracious God, you have the words of eternal life. As the Scripture is read and preached, empower us to hear it with humility and openness, so that hearing it, we may respond with courage and conviction. Amen.

SCRIPTURE READING: Psalm 92:1-15 A psalm. A song. For the Sabbath day.
It is good to praise the LORD and make music to your name, O Most High, 2 to proclaim your love in the morning and your faithfulness at night, 3 to the music of the ten-stringed lyre and the melody of the harp. 4 For you make me glad by your deeds, O LORD; I sing for joy at the works of your hands. 5 How great are your works, O LORD, how profound your thoughts! 6 The senseless man does not know, fools do not understand, 7 that though the wicked spring up like grass and all evildoers flourish, they will be forever destroyed. 8 But you, O LORD, are exalted forever. 9 For surely your enemies, O LORD, surely your enemies will perish; all evildoers will be scattered. 10 You have exalted my horn like that of a wild ox; fine oils have been poured upon me. 11 My eyes have seen the defeat of my adversaries; my ears have heard the rout of my wicked foes. 12 The righteous will flourish like a palm tree, they will grow like a cedar of Lebanon; 13 planted in the house of the LORD, they will flourish in the courts of our God. 14 They will still bear fruit in old age, they will stay fresh and green, 15 proclaiming, "The LORD is upright; he is my Rock, and there is no wickedness in him."

The grass withers and the flower fades but the Word of the Lord endures forever.

SERMON: INTRODUCTION
Today is the Sabbath day. In the Christian tradition, Sundays are set apart as the Lord’s Day. For six days God created; but on the seventh day, He rested. That is the example God has set for us.

We’ve been reading through the Bible this year, so you probably remember all the strict instructions for observing the Sabbath within the Jewish tradition. There were A LOT of lists of do’s and don’ts for keeping the Sabbath, right?

In fact, by the time Jesus rolls around “there were 1,521 things that a person could not do on the Sabbath. For instance, a person with a toothache couldn't gargle with vinegar but could use a toothbrush dipped in vinegar; a radish could be dipped in salt, but not left too long in the salt, lest it begin to pickle” (Homiletics online, Sabbath illustration).

As a result, it sort of seems like the fourth commandment came to be known not so much as “thou shalt observe the Sabbath and keep it holy” but more like “thou shalt not enjoy life on Sunday” (Joy Davidman, the poet-essayist and wife of C.S. Lewis, Homiletics online, Sabbath illustration).

But I don’t think that’s exactly what God had in mind when He created the Sabbath. The question is: what DID God have in mind for us when it comes to observing the Sabbath?

#1
Our Scripture reading this morning is a psalm that someone—we don’t know who—along the way decided should be used in worship—the subtitle for Psalm 92 says, “A psalm. A song. For the Sabbath day.” Surely if we’re looking to learn more about the Sabbath, this psalm, traditionally used in Sabbath day worship, will give us some solid suggestions for doing Sabbath the way God intended.

First of all, Psalm 92 says, “It is good to praise the Lord and make music to your name, O Most High, to proclaim your love in the morning and your faithfulness at night.” The Sabbath is supposed to be a day for worship—a WHOLE day, from morning to night. If you’re here this morning for worship, you’ve got a good start on the worship part of observing the Sabbath and keeping it holy. It is good for Christian brothers and sisters to gather together and pray for each other, to read the Bible together and to hear the Word proclaimed.

BUT this is just an hour—and the psalm tells us to proclaim God’s love from morning to night. We’re not done keeping the Sabbath just because church is done. That leaves plenty of time for families to spend time together and for church families to fellowship and break bread together, like we’re going to do at the church picnic. That is part of our Sabbath time too!

So the Sabbath is about worship, all day long.

#2
The second way God wants us to do the Sabbath is to rest. Now, for those of you who are wondering, sleeping through the sermon does not count as Sabbath rest. BUT, if you, like me, are planning on taking a nap later this afternoon, then you’ve got a good start on the whole “rest” part of the Sabbath down too.

But the Sabbath must be about more than just napping. What kind of rest is Psalm 92 talking about?

In my humble opinion, the kind of rest Psalm 92 is talking about is knowing and believing—deep down inside you—that God is in control. This kind of rest is not just physical rest; it is spiritual rest . . . it is knowing that God is sovereign—the Lord Most High—and holds you in the palm of His hands. It is knowing, as Psalm 92 tells us, that “though the wicked spring up like grass and all evildoers flourish,” the Lord is “exalted forever.”

Worshiping and resting—that’s what the Sabbath is all about.

#3
Sabbath sounds pretty nice, doesn’t it? It definitely sounds like something to look forward to at the end of a long week. So, that begs the question: why is it so darn hard to follow the fourth commandment—to observe the Sabbath and keep it holy?

The answer seems pretty simple. We have allowed life to get in the way of Sabbath. There are no longer 1500 and some odd things we can’t do on the Sabbath like in biblical times. There’s actually nothing we can’t do on the Sabbath— we can gamble on Sunday and buy alcohol on Sundays . . . but we can also go out to eat on Sunday, we can go shopping on Sunday, we can mow our lawns on Sunday. Family Christian Bookstores is even open on Sundays now. Nothing is off limits for the Sabbath anymore.

No wonder we can’t seem to keep the Sabbath holy. There are too many other opportunities for us to take advantage of! We must all have “spiritual ADD” because we are so easily distracted from what the Sabbath is supposed to be like. Isn’t it handy, then, that we get a chance to practice keeping the Sabbath holy each week?

#4
So, why bother keeping the Sabbath? We don’t really keep the Sabbath too well now and things seem OK. Why should we go through all the trouble of rearranging our lives just for the Sabbath?

Well, first of all, it’s one of the Ten Commandments. Not keeping the Sabbath is just the same as bearing false witness or coveting or even murder. It’s a sin to not keep the Sabbath, plain and simple. Be you never thought of it that way!

The second reason—there’s plenty of reasons, but I’m just going to give you two—the second reason to keep the Sabbath is so that you will, as Psalm 92 says, “flourish like a palm tree” and grow like a “cedar of Lebanon” and that you “will flourish in the courts of our God.” The Sabbath is for our own good. It is a chance for us to reconnect with God and our family and our church family—to stay fresh and green—like verse 14 says.

The Sabbath is a reminder that our job as God’s own beloved children is to proclaim God’s love and faithfulness from morning until night, and to still be bearing fruit for God even in our old age as the psalm says. That’s a long time; without the Sabbath we shrivel up and become useless and worn out. Bu the Sabbath keeps us strong and alive and plugged into God and what He is doing in the world around us.

CONCLUSION
Most of you grew up in a time when the Sabbath day was special—when it was set apart and kept holy. Or, if you didn’t grow up in that time, surely you’ve heard stories about it from people who lived through it. The days of the world around us shutting down for the Sabbath are long over. But just because the world around you doesn’t take a Sabbath, it doesn’t mean you need to follow their lead.

The choice is yours. You can choose to observe the Sabbath—to take a whole day to worship and to rest . . . and I mean “rest” God’s way—or, you can choose not to. But let me remind you of this: the Sabbath is not optional. To observe the Sabbath and keep it holy is God’s command to each one of us. To ignore it is to sin.

There are about 12 more sermons I could preach on how to keep the Sabbath, but they would all be a waste until we decide as individuals and as a community of faith that we want to observe the Sabbath and keep it holy. So, when you get to that point let me know, and we can get started. Until then, think of the pace your life moves at and tell me how much longer you think you can keep it up.

Thanks be to the Lord Most High, who gives us rest and refreshment and energy and strength from His very hand,in the name of the Father and the son and the Holy Spirit, Amen.