Walking The Way | Sabbath | Week 9

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Walking The Way | Sabbath | Week 9 | July 7, 2024

Teacher: Dave Brown

/>  Ultimately, nothing in this life, apart from God, can satisfy our desires.  Tragically, we continue to chase after our desires ad infinitum.  The result? A chronic state of restlessness or, worse, angst, anger, anxiety, disillusionment, depression—all of which lead to a life of hurry, a life of business, overload, shopping, materialism, careerism, a life of more…which in turn makes us even more restless.  And the cycle spirals our of control.

—John Mark Comer

/> “Observe the Sabbath day by keeping it holy, as the Lord your God has commanded you. 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, neither you, nor your son or daughter, nor your male or female servant, nor your ox, your donkey or any of your animals, nor any foreigner residing in your towns, so that your male and female servants may rest, as you do. Remember that you were slaves in Egypt and that the Lord your God brought you out of there with a mighty hand and an outstretched arm. Therefore the Lord your God has commanded you to observe the Sabbath day.

—Deuteronomy 5:12-15

/> The Deuteronomy reason for Sabbath-keeping is that our ancestors in Egypt went four hundred years without a vacation.  Never a day off.  The consequence: they were no longer considered persons but slaves…Not persons created in the image of God but equipment for making bricks and building pyramids.  Humanity was defaced.  Lest any of us do that to our neighbor or husband or wife or child or employee, we are commanded to keep a sabbath.  The moment we begin to see others in terms of what they can do rather than who they are, we mutilate humanity and violate community…Sabbath keeping is commanded to preserve the image of God in our neighbors so that we see them as they are, not as we need them or want them.

— Eugene Peterson

/> 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.

— Genesis 2:2-3

/> Divine rest on the seventh day of creation has made clear that YHWH is not a workaholic, that YHWH is not anxious about the full functioning of creation, and that the well-being of creation does not depend on endless work.

— Walter Bruggemann

/> There is a realm of time where the goal is not to have but to be, not to own but to give, not to control but to share, not to subdue but to be in accord.  Life goes wrong when the control of space, the acquisition of things of space, becomes our sole concern.

—Abraham Heschel

/> Formerly, when you did not know God, you were slaves to those who by nature are not gods. But now that you know God—or rather are known by God—how is it that you are turning back to those weak and miserable forces? Do you wish to be enslaved by them all over again?…It is for freedom that Christ has set us free. Stand firm, then, and do not let yourselves be burdened again by a yoke of slavery.

—Galatians 4:8-9; 5:1
 

/> R.I.G. (Rest In God)

/> 1. Exchange one weekly commitment for an hour of time with God

2. Block Out 10-minutes everyday to sit with God

3. Give your phone, tv, and computer boundaries

4. Work towards establishing a Sabbath