2. How do you rest? How is your rest?

5. Restoring The Sabbath Rest Neh. 13:15-22

6. Our hope for this sermon: God has created the need for physical, emotional, and spiritual rest in us. He is inviting us to enter His rest through Christ, and to refresh ourselves in Him on a regular basis. We need to embrace the rest He has called us to so that we may gain restoration of our body, mind, and spirit.

7. Restoring The Sabbath Rest: 1.Our tendency to ignore the Sabbath Rest 2.The need to guard the Sabbath Rest 3.Some ways to apply the Sabbath Rest

8. 1.Our tendency to ignore the Sabbath Rest Nehemiah 13:15-16 In those days I saw people in Judah treading winepresses on the Sabbath and bringing in grain and loading it on donkeys, together with wine, grapes, figs and all other kinds of loads. And they were bringing all this into Jerusalem on the Sabbath... People from Tyre who lived in Jerusalem were bringing in fish and all kinds of merchandise and selling them in Jerusalem on the Sabbath to the people of Judah. We’re busy people with busy lives! We can’t/won’t rest!

9. 1.Our tendency to ignore the Sabbath Rest A little history on the Sabbath rest Genesis 2:2-3 By the seventh day God had finished the work he had been doing; so on the seventh day he rested from all his work. Then God blessed the seventh day and made it holy, because on it he rested from all the work of creating that he had done. Is this rest an intrinsic nature of God, or a model from God?

10. 1.Our tendency to ignore the Sabbath Rest A little history on the Sabbath rest Exodus 20:8-10 Remember the Sabbath day by keeping it holy. Six days you shall labor and do all your work, but the seventh day is a Sabbath to the LORD your God. On it you shall not do any work... God desires for the Israelites (and us) to rest from the daily work and focus on our relationship with Him.

11. 1.Our tendency to ignore the Sabbath Rest A little history on the Sabbath rest Exodus 31:12-13 Then the LORD said to Moses, “Say to the Israelites, ‘You must observe my Sabbaths. This will be a sign between me and you for the generations to come, so you may know that I am the LORD, who makes you holy.” The Israelites’ commitment to the Sabbath is an indication of their commitment to the Lord.

12. 1.Our tendency to ignore the Sabbath Rest A little history on the Sabbath rest Isaiah 58:13-14 If you keep your feet from breaking the Sabbath and from doing as you please on my holy day, if you call the Sabbath a delight and the LORD’s holy day honorable, and if you honor it by not going your own way and not doing as you please or speaking idle words, then you will find your joy in the LORD... We are called to honor and delight in God on the Sabbath!

13. 1.Our tendency to ignore the Sabbath Rest Nehemiah 13:15-16 In those days I saw people in Judah treading winepresses on the Sabbath and bringing in grain and loading it on donkeys, together with wine, grapes, figs and all other kinds of loads. And they were bringing all this into Jerusalem on the Sabbath... People from Tyre who lived in Jerusalem were bringing in fish and all kinds of merchandise and selling them in Jerusalem on the Sabbath to the people of Judah. Ignoring the Sabbath is the same as ignoring God!

14. 1.Our tendency to ignore the Sabbath Rest Nehemiah 10:30-31, 35 We promise not to give our daughters in marriage to the peoples around us or take their daughters for our sons. When the neighboring peoples bring merchandise or grain to sell on the Sabbath, we will not buy from them on the Sabbath or on any holy day... We also assume responsibility for bringing to the house of the LORD each year the first fruits of our crops and of every fruit tree... We will not neglect the house of our God. How quick and weak we are to break our promises!

15. 2. The need to guard the Sabbath Rest Nehemiah 13:17-22 I rebuked the nobles of Judah and said to them, “What is this wicked thing you are doing—desecrating the Sabbath day?... When evening shadows fell on the gates of Jerusalem before the Sabbath, I ordered the doors to be shut and not opened until the Sabbath was over. I stationed some of my own men at the gates so that no load could be brought in on the Sabbath day. Once or twice the merchants and sellers of all kinds of goods spent the night outside Jerusalem. But I warned them and said, “Why do you spend the night by the wall? If you do this

16. 2. The need to guard the Sabbath Rest Nehemiah 13:17-22 again, I will arrest you.” From that time on they no longer came on the Sabbath. Then I commanded the Levites to purify themselves and go and guard the gates in order to keep the Sabbath day holy. We need to keep watch and guard our rest in the Lord! Our coworkers, classmates, parents, bosses, and even ourselves may give us pressure to ignore the Sabbath rest. The world tells us “what a waste of time to worship God and not work?!”

17. 3. Some ways to apply the Sabbath Rest We now can enjoy the Sabbath rest in freedom, in Christ! Col. 2:16-17 Therefore do not let anyone judge you by what you eat or drink, or with regard to a religious festival, a New Moon celebration or a Sabbath day. These are a shadow of the things that were to come; the reality, however, is found in Christ.

18. 3. Some ways to apply the Sabbath Rest We now can enjoy the Sabbath rest in freedom, in Christ! Romans 14:5-6 One person considers one day more sacred than another; another considers every day alike. Each of them should be fully convinced in their own mind. Whoever regards one day as special does so to the Lord. Whoever eats meat does so to the Lord, for they give thanks to God; and whoever abstains does so to the Lord and gives thanks to God.

19. 3. Some ways to apply the Sabbath Rest We now can enjoy the Sabbath rest in freedom, in Christ! Mark 2:27-28 Then he said to them, “The Sabbath was made for man, not man for the Sabbath. So the Son of Man is Lord even of the Sabbath.” Are we embracing and enjoying what God made for us? Are we resting in the Lord of the Sabbath? Are we having the proper physical, mental, and spiritual rest?