Exodus 35:1–3

hey hey good morning good morning welcome to coffee and devotions this is where every day you and I we get together we have a little bit of coffee we get into God's word and we grow in our love for the Lord together and this year 2023 Lord willing will make it from Genesis through Leviticus so glad to be with you today well we got some coffee we'll pray and we'll jump into God's word let's pray father we thank you so much for this day what a joy it is to get to worship you and to follow in your ways Lord You've woken us up this morning you've given us a day to worship you you've given us a day to bring you glory and now you've given us time to be in your word we pray that you would please help us to understand it in Jesus name amen all right so here we go we are at Exodus chapter 35 this is a short section for us today Exodus chapter 35. then Moses gathered all the congregation of the children of Israel together and said to them these are the words which Jehovah has commanded you to do work shall be done for six days but the seventh day shall be a holy day for you a Sabbath of rest to the Lord whoever does any work on it shall be put to death you shall Kindle no fire throughout your dwellings on the Sabbath day well you ask ourselves hey what's this about B what's the best verse of summarizes and see what do we call the two in response to this so uh what's this getting now what's this about on this is the Sabbath regulation right this is God telling them six days you gotta work one day no work why though right and this is going to get us into calling the Sabbath has meant one for our benefit right the Sabbath was made for man not man for the Sabbath it was given to us Jesus teaches to bless us to give us a day of rest but it also reminds us that we didn't make ourselves that we are created beings and if we are created then we have a creator that we are the ones who get to lift up our eyes heaven and remember one day out of every seven but I'm not sovereign though I might be able to make all sorts of things and do all sorts of things I can't do all of it I need to rest I need to remember who my maker is and this idea of Sabbath was also going to be tied into worship that people would come together and that they would worship Jehovah and so this is a pretty serious commandment right this is coming right after that Covenant renewal ceremony and God is commanding them here that they're not to do any work on those six days it's a Sabbath to Jehovah but then he says whoever does any work on it shall be put to death why why would that be such a harsh why would this be the capital offense I mean maybe you could understand murdering Rick murdering is saying you oh I don't I don't value human life and you're a danger to everybody around you but in the Israelite Society this is true also because when a person says I'm not going to keep the Sabbath I'm going to do what I want to do what they're saying is I don't care about my maker care about What God Says and in this Covenant Community that would almost be like infectious through the people it starts spiraling and spiraling and spiraling and this not keeping the sabbaths not giving the Sabbath day and they're not keeping the Sabbath years would actually be how God would measure their time in Exile 40 years worth of missed sabbaths because they didn't listen to him one of the key ways in which we find out where someone's heart is how they love God and how they keep the Sabbath now where the Pharisees got it wrong is they forgot to love others during this habit as well but here we find this commandment that's for our good the key it's a sign for us to think about how are we loving God and recognizing him as our maker so uh best verse in this well I would probably say in my Bible verse two that's what I would underline in my Bible it's only three verses that we looked at today so I would say first two maybe even underline something different maybe you would say it was verse three because that's the verse that's gonna you know stand out to you most but then the last question see calling what are we called to do well I am of the opinion in the reformed tradition that we do still have a Sabbath Day from the beginning of creation to the resurrection of Christ it was the seventh day right that was Saturday that was the day in which the Sabbath occurred but we see a change that starts to happen the disciples that they no longer hold to the Sabbath but to the Lord's Day that they get together and worship on the Lord's day that they're resting on the Lord's day that it's in the Lord's day that the Apostle Paul is given his or sorry the Apostle John has given his Revelation from heaven so it's from the resurrection of Christ until he returns again now the first day of the week the day that Jesus rose again from the dead so that's why Christians hold to the Christian Sabbath on the first day of the week so I believe that there is a Christian Sabbath and it's a huge blessing is overseas calling I'm gonna call you to remember the resurrection of Jesus Christ to rest in his finished work to worship with his people to enjoy one whole day in seven that you don't have to work you could tell your employer you know and the Lord's still given me one in seven days that I can't work and so I'm going to be taking Sunday off I'm gonna I'm gonna go praise God and then I'm gonna go spend time with my family might even take a nap that's okay it's good actually it's bringing God's glory because it's remembering you don't have all the power he made you and he's also given you a day to bless you with rest let's pray by the way thank you so much for the work of your Holy Spirit in our hearts Lord we pray that we would sanctify the Sabbath that we would love you that we would love to help others on the Sabbath that we would show mercy and when there's works of necessity that need done that we would we know we need to do those things but father that it would be a day filled with rest and worship Lord we pray that you would please help us help us Lord to live our lives seeking to bring you glory in Jesus name amen well may you rest in the joy and peace that comes from following Jesus Christ and I'll see you next time bye [Music] thanks for listening to this week's message from God's word for you a Ministry of Sharon RP Church in rural Southeast Iowa we pray that the message would be used by God to transform your faith in your life this week if you'd like to get more information about us feel free to go to the website Sharon rpc.org we'd love to invite you to worship with us our worship time is 10 a.m every Sunday at 25204 160th Avenue Morning Sun Iowa 52640 may God richly bless you this week [Music] thank you