Rest matters. You can get in some pretty funny and embarrassing situations if you don’t have rest. Every single person has probably had their picture taken at least once while asleep in the car or in a classroom with drool rolling down their cheek. I could tell story after story of hilarious instances where lack of rest has caused people to be embarrassed.

– Sara seeing man fall asleep at Christmas Eve service and put money in communion

– Pictures of recent vacation (me driving and me sleeping)

The commandment and principle we are looking at this morning has to do with rest.

I want to see a show of hands…Who in here kills people? Who is a kleptomaniac (steals things)? Who is an adulterer? Does anybody have an alter in their house full of idols they worship? Who in here regularly practices the Sabbath and holds the Sabbath as important a command as the others we just mentioned? It’s the 4th commandment in our ten commandments, and its origins go all the way back to the beginning—to creation. Let’s read it first as we know it best, from our ten commandments, then let’s dig in.

Read Exodus 20:8-11

You could make the case that the Israelites would have understood the 4th commandment to be the most important of the ten. It is the longest and most detailed commandment of all that God gave. It is mentioned more often than any of the other Ten Commandments—over 100 times in the Old Testament. God also gave this command to them before they reached Mt. Sinai (Ex. 16).

We see from the 4th commandment that we are to honor God with our time. J. I. Packer says, “God’s claim on our Sabbaths reminds us that all our time is his gift, to be given back to him and used for him.” This is what Sabbath reminds us. Our time belongs to Him.

Eugene Peterson, one of my favorite authors and pastors of the last century, had an article in Christianity Today in 1988 titled, “Confessions of a Former Sabbath Breaker.” I should just read his article for this message, say amen, and walk away. Hear what he says about time:

“One day a week I stand before you and call you to worship God. The conviction behind the act is that time is holy. But how often do you hear anyone say so? More likely you hear, ‘Time is money.’ And, as with money, you mostly feel that you don’t have enough of it, ever. On occasion, when you have time for which nothing is scheduled you will ‘kill time.’ “Odd, isn’t it? We have more leisure hours per person per year as a country than anyone could have guessed a hundred years ago. But we are not leisurely. We are not relaxed. We are anxious. We are in a hurry. The anxiety and the hurry ruin intimacy and sabotage our best intentions in faith, hope, and love-the three actions in which most of us set out to do our best. “That is why I as your pastor want you to keep a Sabbath. I want you to live well. I want you to live whole and mature, with appreciation and pleasure, experiencing the heights and depths of God’s glory in your bodies and your work, your friends and your gardens, your minds and your emotions, at the ocean and in the mountains. You can’t do that if you are’ on the run.’ You can’t do that if you are watching the clock. Sabbath is the biblical tool for protecting time against desecration. It is the rhythmic setting apart of one day each week for praying and playing-the two activities for which we don’t get paid, but which are necessary for a blessed life.”

Sabbath is important and so often neglected. This is why we must study it together this morning.

Sabbath means rest or cease.

Shabbat (שַׁבָּת) is the original Hebrew word for our English word Sabbath. It means “to cease, to end, to rest.”[1] What was it rest from? Work. On the seventh day of the week, God’s people would rest from work. They would go out of their way to rest from work. It’s taken so seriously that you see, at the time of Jesus, Pharisees, who were the keepers of the law, get upset that Jesus’ disciples picked wheat for themselves