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Ghana National Association of Adventist Students-University of Ghana, Legon campus

Eric Walsh

Forgotten Rest

The scripture reading for today, Genesis chapter 2 and verse 1 through 3, which says, Thus the heavens and the earth were finished, and all the host of them.

And on the seventh day God ended his work which he had made and he rested on the seventh day from all his work which he had made God blessed the seventh day Bible says and he sanctified it because that in it he had rested from all his work which God created and made.

Our message this Sabbath is entitled Forgotten Rest.

Father God, we thank you for this opportunity to study your word.

I ask right now, Lord, that you once again make me just a nail upon the wall, a rusty, sorry nail, Lord.

But upon that nail, Lord, I ask that you hang a portrait of Jesus Christ.

Instead, Father God, let us hear a word from the throne room of grace.

Thy prayer in Jesus' precious and holy name.

So before we get into the word, I want to tell you that I've been a Seventh-day Adventist my whole life, so I've always known church to be on Saturday.

In high school, I dated a girl who went to church on Sunday, and it was really confusing because I would go to church both days on the weekend and long story short it didn't work out but that was the first time I really began to experience worship outside of our norm.

Where it really became tough the Sabbath for me was in 10th grade.

I was a star running back for our high school the year before we won a state championship and the coach was ready for me to really be the lead running back.

I could have started as running back probably the next 3 years 10th, 11th, and 12th grade and really had some good options.

Now, as I get older, when I was younger, I would say I would have gone to the NFL.

As I got older, I said, well, maybe I wouldn't have gotten that far.

Well, I'd have probably got a scholarship to college.

I have 2 cousins who have played in the NFL, 1 of whom I'll talk about at the end of the message, but it was the nexus of the Sabbath where I ended up having to make a decision.

Was I going to play football and seek the world's glory?

Was I going to follow the path of the scripture and be obedient to God's word?

I can tell you it wasn't because I was spiritually wise at 15 years old.

In part, I was quite afraid of my mother, but it was still my decision.

But in the end analysis, I can say at this stage of my life, I would do it exactly as it was done all over again.

I would always choose the path of following what God says in his word.

That's 1 of the things I want you to get from the message today.

So we're gonna talk a lot about the Sabbath, but I don't want to talk about it in a vacuum.

I want you to understand that the Sabbath is time with God.

In its purest sense, that's what the Sabbath is all about.

And what I learned all the way back in high school till now is that relationships are built on time.

You will never have a relationship with someone, at least not have 1 that will grow and flourish, someone that you don't spend time with.

If you want to see a marriage dissolve, track how much time the couple starts out spending together and where it goes.

Because time is the foundation of relationship.

So my message today isn't simply about a doctrine, it is about how this doctrine facilitates relationship.

If you get that, as we read through this, the Bible will come alive for you.

And Jesus begins, Mark 3, verse 1, we're gonna talk about Jesus in the Sabbath first.

The Bible says, and he, Jesus, entered again into the synagogue.

And there was a man there which had a withered hand and they watched him whether he would heal on the Sabbath day that they might accuse him.

And he said unto the man which had the withered hand, stand forth.

What that means, as a medical doctor, I can tell you what that means is at the time of his embryological development, 1 of his arms didn't fully progenerate.

It didn't actually come out the way it was supposed to.

So the Bible says he has a withered hand, meaning he grew up with only 1 hand, and in the time of the Jews, that would have given him incredible stigma.

Now, what's interesting is he's in the synagogue, Jesus sees him, and the Pharisees are so wicked that just the fact that Jesus sees him is enough to trigger in their minds that Jesus is gonna help him.

In other words, when Jesus sees suffering that has come to him, Jesus wants to deal with it.

The Pharisees now are thinking it's work to heal on the Sabbath.

So they're watching him because they want a reason to accuse him so that they can ultimately punish him.

Did you know Jesus can read their mind but the devil cannot?

He reads their mind and he tells the man come forward, stand forth And Jesus said unto him, said unto them, he's speaking to the Pharisees now, is it lawful to do good on the Sabbath days or to do evil?

They couldn't answer because Jesus is saying, listen, by blocking me from serving this man you're asking me to allow him to suffer if I have the power to help and I don't jump in and help by default I've allowed the person to suffer.

When Jesus looks around about on them with anger being grieved for the hardness of their hearts he said unto the man stretch forth your hand and he stretched it out and the Bible says and his hand was restored whole as the other.

Let me tell you something, You wouldn't want to arm wrestle this brother after Jesus healed him.

That new arm would have had you flat on your face.

Jesus created that arm right in front of everyone.

Straightway took counsel with the Herodians against him how they might destroy him because Jesus did this because of the of Jesus giving definition to how the Sabbath should be kept in a tangible way by healing this man, they wanted to kill Jesus.

I want you to understand that Paul, Lord Jesus, as we go through this, never tried to explain to you the why of the Sabbath.

They only explain to you the how of the Sabbath.

The starting point is that the seventh day is the Sabbath.

That's why they only expound on the how of the Sabbath.

The 3 questions we're gonna try and answer today, for those of you, especially for those who are here and don't know this, but is there, and some of you, this is a review, but is there a day of rest, a Sabbath day?

Does it matter if you worship on Saturday or Sunday?

And if so, how did Sunday become a day of worship?

3 questions we're gonna answer before we get to some more questions.

First, How do we get a Sabbath in the first place?

We go back to Genesis 1.1, which says, in the beginning, God created the heaven and the earth.

Do not believe the lie of the world that the entire world is an accident.

I was discussing this with 1 of my co-workers and they were saying you know the world evolved.

I said according to evolution man has been around for 60 to 100, 000 years.

I don't believe that but that's what evolution teaches.

Now all signs of civilization on the earth are only about 5 to 6, 000 years old, really.

Like man has been around 100, 000 years, but all the evidence is only 5, 000 years old.

And my question was, it took man, if you believe that, it took man 100, 000 years to invent the automobile.

Car is not a very complicated invention if you really think about it.

A hundred thousand years for man to invent a car and you want me to believe that the entire universe is an accident?

Somebody had to design everything around us to make that balance between hydrogen between oxygen and nitrogen in the atmosphere perfect.

Someone had to set the earth at exactly the right distance from the Sun or the earth would burn up.

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Forgotten Rest

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