4th Commandment – Take a Day Off

Posted on February 18, 2019 by dkoop

#4  “Observe the Sabbath and keep it holy.  You have six days in which to do your work but the seventh day is a day of rest dedicated to me.  Exodus 20:8-9

It’s interesting to me that God has more to say about taking a day off than He does about either murder or adultery.  It’s the longest of the Ten Commandments. And yet it is still the most misunderstood!  It’s as if He’s saying, “I want you to take this serious, this is not a suggestion.

“Sabbath” means stop or rest

It’s like the guy who approached the stop sign as I do.  He coasted slowly to look and then kept going.   A police officer pulls him over and says, “You didn’t stop at that stop sign.”  The guy says, “it was good enough, I slowed down.”  They began to argue about this and it got tense, eventually, the police pulled the guy out of his car and began to beat his with his stick.  The guy yells, “stop, stop!”  The officer said, do you want me to slow down or stop?”

When God says we should stop our work, he means stop.  Not slow down and bring home work and continue to to check emails.  A day off means we should be off.

“Jesus said, `The Sabbath was made to benefit man, and not man to benefit the Sabbath.”   Mark 2:27

God says “I’m doing this for your benefit.”  The purpose is to prevent burnout.  Every seven days you need to get physically, emotionally, and spiritually recharged because your batteries run down each week.

When is it?  Saturday or Sunday?  It doesn’t matter.  The answer is once a week.  God doesn’t care when you do it as long as you do it once a week.  The Jews celebrate the Sabbath on Saturday, and most Christians celebrate the Sabbath on Sunday.   Through the Bible we see that there were many different SABBATHS and not all of them were on the 7th day of the week.  Some started on the 15th day, some like an agricultural sabbath lasted a year.

How to observe the Sabbath is something the ancient Jews gave a lot of thought to. They took the Sabbath and put so much emphasis on not working that the day became a burden and not a blessing. They decided that there were 39 different categories of work and for each type there were hundreds of sub-categories.

No food could be cooked on the Sabbath. In fact the coals had to be removed from the oven preceding the Sabbath to help avoid the temptation to prepare a hot meal. One class of work which was forbidden was the carrying of a burden but what was a “burden?” Well, they conceded that a man could lift his child on the Sabbath but not if his child had a stone in his pocket because then he would indeed be bearing a burden. The Essenes, that very conservative sect of Jews who lived in the desert and wrote the Dead Sea Scrolls, would not go to the bathroom on the Sabbath.  On the Sabbath, it was forbidden to tie a knot, to light a fire. to move a lamp. If a flea bit you on the Sabbath you couldn’t swat it because that would be fighting and fighting was forbidden on the Sabbath.

Before we rush into criticizing the Jewish nation let us examine the ways we have misunderstood and misinterpreted this text.   I remember when stores were closed all day Sunday and then they started opening from 1PM-5PM so that people could still go to church but now they are open all day.  Sunday has become a day just like any day a day to go to the mall, or to work in the yard, or to pack the stadium or catch up on yard work or any household chore that couldn’t be finished during the week.  Our great grandfathers called Sunday the “Holy Sabbath.” Our grandfathers called it the “Sabbath.”  Our fathers called it “Sunday.” And we call it the“Weekend.” Things have really changed when it comes to the way we think of this day. To many people, Sunday is just another day.

Now why would He make this law? this reminder — one of the ten commandments and list it right alongside laws forbidding murder or adultery? Why would our REST be such a big deal to God?  As our Designer, God knows that rest is that important for us. He has built within us a need to stop and recoup in life. When we don’t rest, when we go non-stop day after day, week after week, things will begin to break down in our lives. The breakdown may be physical or emotional, spiritual or financial, or even marital. And God loves us too much to allow this to happen so He has given us this tender commandment.

How do I “keep it holy”?

Holy means “set apart”, different.  On the seventh day, we’re to have a change of pace.  Do things differently.  Traditionally Christians used Sunday for church, rest and family time. That’s what it means — unique, reserved, special.

Why Take A Day Off?

My Body Needs Rest

It’s interesting to me that there are now more work saving devices than ever before yet people are working harder than ever before and longer hours.  There’s more stress, pressure and burnout.  We need to take a day off and rest.  We can be consumed by our career.  There are a lot of tempting things that pull us toward our work — more money, more recognition, more promotion, more sense of fulfillment, achievement and accomplishment.  All the powerful forces that say “work more!”  We can become addicted to our work.  But our bodies were not built for non-stop work.

Studies have been done to where if you wear one pair of shoes every day it will last six months. But if you have two pairs and alternates wearing them every other day, both pairs will last two years. This is because the leather needs to rest and when it rests it lasts longer. I read this week that Bowling alleys have discovered that bowling pins last longer if they are given a rest. For this reason most alleys have two full sets of pins and every week they remove one set from service, place them on the shelf and use the other set. They have ascertained that if wooden pins don’t “rest” they lose their vitality and won’t bounce around as much when hit by a bowling ball. Even dirt needs to rest. If you have any farming in your background, then you know that farmers don’t plant the same things in the same fields year after year. They may plant corn one year, but the next year they’ll plant beans because corn takes certain nutrients out of the soil and beans will put them back in. In fact, if a farmer can afford it, he will let whole tracts of ground lie fallow for a year or more because the land needs to rest. After the rest it will yield a much more bountiful crop. This is apparently what the Lord had in mind when He commanded the Israelites to observe an agricultural Sabbath.

A study was done a few years ago by the U.S. Army in which they observed several soldiers in various conditions to determine at what stage these individuals achieved the maximum level of output. The Army discovered that after 7 consecutive days of hard work, each soldier’s performance dropped. But the most interesting discovery the army made was that….even though the soldiers’ performance level dropped, the soldiers themselves were unaware of it. They thought they were still operating at maximum level.

If we’re burning the candle at both ends we’re not as bright as we think we are.  We can get so many irons in the fire that we put out the fire.

Maybe this is why so many of us think we don’t need to rest….that it is somehow lazy to take a break every once in a while.  As we examine the life of Christ, we see that during His three year ministry the Son of God took 10 “vacations” or “retreats” and He always observed the Sabbath.  Sabbath was mentioned 59 times in the NT, Jesus talking about it or observing it.

My Soul Needs Rest

Sunday is preeminently a day to worship, get a focus on God, a time to remember what’s important, a time to get a spiritual tune up.

My brother is taking flying lessons and is getting along pretty far. Those of you who are pilots know that on an airplane there is a gyro-compass and it’s very important to keep the plane balanced.  Pilots know that thing has to be constantly recalibrated or it gets off.  The body and your life has to be re-calibrated every seven days.  We need to be focused again and that’s what worship does.  It helps bring in to focus what’s really important.

The tragedy is many people take the day off.  They use it to take care of their physical needs and they rest and their emotional needs, they have recreation and relationships, and they ignore their most important need , our spirit is empty and it needs to be refilled with God’s presence and power and love.

      “He restores my soul” Psalm 23:3   Only God restores my soul.   The lake or the mall can’t.  So my day of rest always include worship.

Darrell

http://www.Upwards.Church

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3rd Commandment – Respect God’s Name

Posted on February 18, 2019 by dkoop

Rule #3 “You shall not misuse the name of the LORD your God, for the LORD will not hold anyone guiltless who misuses his name.”   Exodus 20:7

Paul Dickinson has written a book called Names.  He has a hobby of collecting strange and unusually names.  He says sometimes names seem to be prophetic.  In 1941 there were two men who were executed in the electric chair in the Florida state penitentiary and their names were Burns and Frizzle.  There was a Montreal window washer who died by accident, falling as he was washing windows.  His name was Will Drop.  Others, he says, seem destined for certain occupations.  Joe Bunt became a baseball coach.  Dan Druff became a barber.  Jeff Treadwell became a podiatrist.  Goforth and Ketchum, two guys, became police officers and partners.  O’Neill and Pray became partners in church equipment.  Wonderfully Trembly, a psychologist.  Zoltan Ovary, a gynecologist.  P.P. Peters, a urologist.  A plaster contractor, Will Crumble.

Here in the Austin area there is Dr. Chop who does vasectomies.  His first name is Richard, is his nickname Dick?   Also there is a Dr. Barker, a Veterinarian

Have you noticed names come and go in cycles?  There would be years when say, “Lisa” was very common. Or Michael.   My Grandmothers’ name was “Maxine, “ her sisters were Mildred and Veatrice, and my Grandfathers name was Emile.”  They are the few people I know with those names. The days when they were popular are apparently gone.

Sometimes parents don’t take the responsibility of naming their children seriously enough and give names to their kids that become a real burden for them to bear. Like the former Governor of Texas, Jim HOGG, who gave his two daughters the names “IMA” and “URA.”

But fortunately most parents don’t follow the examples of Governor Hogg and use the task of naming their children as an opportunity to make a joke. Most parents take the task seriously because they realize that a person’s name is important.  We carry it with us all our life and it becomes a summary of who we are.

In the culture of Moses and the people of Israel names had even greater significance. In those days a name was much more than a way to distinguish one person from another and much more than an identifying label. It reflected the ESSENCE of a person. It was similar to the way we use a “nickname” like “shorty” or “red”.” But it was much more than that. In those days, names were also important because a person was felt to actually have been present in the name in a manner in which he would not have been present apart from the name.  The name WAS the person, so to speak.

God’s Name Represents His…

Character

When I bring up a name,  we will automatically think of that person’s character. What character comes to mind when you see: Hitler? Mother Teresa? Charles Manson?  Billy Graham?

Many times in the Bible when somebody changed their character, their life was changed; and God often gave them a new name.  Abram became Abraham, Jacob became Israel, Simon became Peter.  Saul became Paul.  God would change their names because He said it represents the person’s character.

God’s name represents His character of being the creator, being holy, all powerful, all knowing and all present.

Presence

“I am with you always”  Matt. 28:20

We need to remember that Jesus has promised to be with us always.  Since that is true we don’t usually take somebody’s name in vain that is standing right by us. When we recognize and realize that we’re never without God presence we’ll be a lot more disciplined in our speech, because He hears it all.

Power

“All power is given unto me in heaven and in earth.” Matt 28:18

The name of Jesus isn’t just another name. There is special power in His name! The Bible says that demons screamed and writhed and tore themselves from their hosts at the mention of this name. In the authority of this name the eyes of the blind were opened and withered legs were made strong and even the dead came out of their graves.  In the name of Jesus alcoholics have been made sober, harlots have been made pure. At the name of Jesus atheists have been made believers.  Addicts have been set free. Eternal life is found in this name.

How Do We Misuse God’s Name? 

Profanity.  The word “profane“ means “debasing or defiling that which is holy or worthy of reverence.” So to “profane” something is to take something that is perfect and holy and yank it down in the mud to our level.

Impulse:   When we use God’s name as a convenient expression of fear or anger or joy or amazement or surprise.  “I just caught a 10-pound fish!  Oh My God!”  “Suzy’s pregnant!  O, my Lord!”  “I just split my pants, Oh My God!”  This is one that I have to remind my kids of often.  We’re reducing God to a level of a Wow! or a Far out!  We want to avoid making God an exclamation point.  God says, “when you use my name you take it seriously.”

“In Vain” literally means “empty.”  We can’t turn God into a cliché.  Insecure believers do this a lot.  They often try to prove how spiritual they are by their jargon, by using continuous religious phrases, spiritual clichés.  I feel like the more I use the name Jesus in a sentence then the more spiritual I must be.

Jesus said, “And when you pray, do not use vain repetitions as the heathen do.”  Matt 6:7 (NKJV)

Have you ever seen someone use God’s name as a filler in prayer?   If Niki made a great dinner how silly would it sound if I said, “Oh Niki, I just want to thank you, Niki for this bountiful harvest of a meal, Honey, Sweety it will nourishes our bodies, O Niki.  We just thank you sugar Baby.  She would think I was smoking crack!   Huh?

Notice the last part of this verse…  for the LORD will not hold anyone guiltless who misuses his name.”   Exodus 20:7

To get a good understanding of this the best example I can think of is a word, that cannot be used lightly.  When it is used it is not thought of as a joke, it is serious you can be taken into custody by the law just by referring to it.  Here it is, The word is “BOMB” We know this is not a joking matter because we have all seen the power of a bomb.  The power to rip apart buildings, turn concrete to dust, to dismember bodies and extinguish the life out of anyone near by.  Authorities everywhere will just like the verse says, not hold anyone guiltless who misuses This name. 

Let’s respect the name of God.

Darrell

http://www.Upwards.Church

 

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2nd Commandment – Idols Disappoint

Posted on February 17, 2019 by dkoop

Rule 2 – Exodus 20:4-5 “You shall not make for yourself an idol.”

Our culture here in the United States has become very good at finding substitutes for almost everything in life. Walk the aisles at HEB or Randalls and you’ll see all kinds of food substitutes: sugar and salt substitutes, butter “I Can’t Believe It’s NOT Butter!” cheese substitutes, cream substitutes, Niki used to like those Cream substitutes for coffee; French vanilla, caramel toffee, There are egg substitutes, bacon substitutes a crab substitute and more.

One time we were driving along I 35 and I instinctively hit the brakes when I spotted a police car on my left. It wasn’t until we passed him and I looked in my rear view mirror that I realized it wasn’t real officer,  just a  patrol car, a substitute for the genuine article.

All this is to say that in America substitutes, are big business. And I don’t think God is necessarily against this but as you can see in today’s text, He makes it very clear that when it comes to our relationship with Him, He will tolerate no substitutes.

This second law insists that the object of our worship must never be something of our own construction or something that is under our control. We must never make these things the focus of our day to day existence. Only God is to have that place in our lives.

Obviously we are more powerful and wise than anything we make on our own.  We can control the works of our hands. We can make many amazing things these days, but none of them are deserving of our worship.

Another truth we should understand as we study this 2nd commandment is that the impulse to worship is universal.  Anthropologists tell us that anywhere you go on this planet among any race of people from anywhere or any time period you will find people engaged in worship of some kind.  This is a God-given inclination.

There is a God-consciousness in the heart of every human being.   There is the desire of human beings to turn objects or people or even ideas into objects of worship.  God says don’t do that.

And when people take this natural inclination to worship and instead of directing it in its proper direction toward God they worship other things or images, this is idolatry.

The reality is that idolatry in our culture today is very widespread.  In our culture we worship the gods of materialism, sexual indulgence, and personal power. Their messages don’t just line the streets as they did in Athens in Paul’s day,  here they fill the magazine racks & airwaves!

The images and their deceptive offers go across the nation by satellite, cable, Internet, and slick four-color printing.  In our country we are surrounded by more false images than ever before in the history of mankind. They leer at us from billboards and magazine covers. They call to us in powerful visual impressions.  And, as every good advertising or network executive knows, the objective of these ads is to absolutely “capture” as many people as possible. They want to capture our attention, our imagination,  our money, our time and our commitment.   We see images of power, sex and happiness.

Have you ever thought, “when I get ______then I’ll be happy!”  That degree, marriage, job, car, body, position, $, vacation, etc.  Then we get that and we are not happy at all. Then we look to the next thing.

There is nothing wrong with money or a new car or wanting to wear attractive clothes or wanting to succeed in business. It’s just that these things and a hundred others may become idols to us as they begin to control our thoughts and desires.  We don’t worship objects as much as we worship images:  images of success, images of wealth, images of status, images of sensuality.

But you know, I think the most-worshiped false god in our society is SELF. We idolize our individual FEELINGS….we make and base major decisions on how we FEEL rather than on what God says. We worship happiness and self-esteem at all costs.  We care more about personal rights than God-given responsibilities. We worship how we look.  We especially bow down to our careers.  Whenever anything other than God becomes the absolute focus of our attentions and activities, that is idolatry.

One problem with idols is that they DISAPPOINT.   Advertisers say, “Wear our label and you’ll be popular, buy our product and you’ll be successful, drink our beer and it doesn’t get any better than this, buy our toothpaste and you’ll have sex appeal.”  They always promise more than they can deliver.

Have you ever ordered something or bought something that promised something and when you got it you were disappointed with what you got?  Anytime we put any person, any thing, any product in the place of God, anytime we expect anyone to solve all our problems or guarantee all our happiness we’re going to be disappointed.  Idols will always disappoint us.   They take and never give back. They use us up, drain us dry, and then discard us.

Idols are false fronts like we see on movie sets.  They look good on the outside but there is nothing behind them to back up their promises of freedom and joy. As the woman at the well discovered, you can drink all you want at the wells of the world but still be thirsty. The only way to satisfy our thirst for freedom is to be in relationship with God.

One way to put our idol to the test is to insert it into the 23rd Psalm.  Someone confessed to me that their boat was their idol.

Here’s the 23rd Psalm for our boat:     “My boat is my shepherd, I shall not be in want.

My boat takes me lie down in quiet coves, and leads me beside quiet waters,

My boat restores my soul.  It guides me in paths of righteousness for my boats name’s sake.”

This can only go so far...  “Even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil, for you are with me; your propeller and your ski rope they comfort me?”  No, that’s not true.

Will your boat answer your prayers?  Will your boat raise you from the dead?  Will your boat save your soul from hell?  Will your boat welcome you into heaven?

Let’s put back the genuine article into the Psalm and into our lives, “The LORD is my shepherd!”

Darrell

http://www.Upwards.Church

In the next post we will look at the 3rd Commandment

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1st Commandment – Be Faithful to God

Posted on February 17, 2019 by dkoop

 RULE #1  –  “You shall have no other gods before me” Ex 20:2

Do you married people remember your wedding ceremony? It probably contained some form of this phrase: “I take you, to be my wedded wife or husband, to have and to hold from this day forward, for better for worse, for richer for poorer in sickness and in health, to love and to cherish, and FORSAKING ALL OTHERS be faithful to you as long as we both shall live.” Marital vows are a pledge to a lifetime of faithfulness….a lifetime of exclusiveness.

No man or woman in their right mind would allow the spouse to strike a bargain before the marriage by saying, “I’ll spend most of my time with you, but I want to enjoy intimate relationships with other people some of the time.” No.  Marriage represents a firm, exclusive commitment to each other by both husband and wife.

And God calls us to have a similar exclusive allegiance to Him. Later on in the Commandments God says He is a  jealous God. God refuses to share the glory and the worship that is due Him with anyone or anything else. We were created to have an intimate, exclusive walk with God and God alone.

In the sermon on the mount, Jesus takes the ten commandments and then shows how our problems actually begin at the heart level. Referring back to the first commandment, Jesus says, “No one can serve two masters. Either you will hate the one and love the other, or you will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve both God and money.”  In Jesus day as in our day money is something we often put above God.  To rephrase the first commandment, “Do not put your money before me.”  Jesus said, “You cannot serve money and God”  We think that giving is not important, but it is vital to our relationship to God and to worship.  Every time there was worship there was giving.  Jesus spoke of giving matter a factly, he said, “when you give, not if you give, the only compliment he gave the Pharisees was that they tithed.   If God is not first in our money he is not first.  We say Christ is lord, but not over my finances, then he isn’t lord.  It’s like saying “I’m half pregnant.”

When Niki and I were going to get married I told her 3 things.  I said, “I reserve the right to take off my ring anytime and to flirt.  I want to be free and not tied down.  Keep my options open.  I want to keep zeal and passion in my life, I don’t want to be tied down.”

I also told her that, “My time is more important than hers.  I come first then my family and friends.  I will spend time with you and your family only when it is convenient.  Granted there is nothing else going on that I want to be at.”

       And thirdly, “Money is tight, I need to spend it how I want so I will not support you.  If you want anything you have to get it yourself and you will have to work.  I don’t want you to make any demands on me; don’t ask for anything and our relationship will be great!”   Do you really believe that I said that?  Of course not! If I did, some of you would think, “Who do you think you are!  What a terrible person you are!”

I did not, but…THAT IS EXACTLY WHAT WE SAY TO GOD!!!!

God loves you, He sent Jesus to die for you. Because of Jesus, we have a relationship with God, we are saved from eternal punishment, we have peace, purpose, the Holy Spirit inside us, spiritual gifts, the enduring presence of God with us and a future in heaven.   He has given us so much! Let’s take our relationship with God seriously.

Darrell

http://www.Upwards.Church

In the next post we will look at the 2nd Commandment.

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