<p>Free sharing permitted under the Creative Commons <a rel="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/3.0/us/">BY-NC-ND 3.0 (US)</a> license.</p>

Living Hope SDA Church

Dee Casper

How the Sabbath Keeps Us

Well, good morning, happy Sabbath, Saints.

I am not from Virginia, but I'm glad to be visiting and having time with you.

Not that I'm like, not that it's a bad thing to be from Virginia.

The last time I was in this building, it wasn't open yet.

So it's nice to see this place running and to see how God is blessing the ministries, more than 1 ministry that's happening on this property.

So I bring you greetings from the state of Pennsylvania.

As was stated in the introduction, I was amazed at how well Tommy knew my story.

Like I felt like he should tell my testimony next time on AudioVerse because he did a fantastic job.

But, yeah, so I'm thankful to be here from the state of Pennsylvania.

We started a school of evangelism for post high school students, 18 to 35-ish age range.

So we're training students like in Bible work and canvassing and digital media, health, organic agriculture.

There's a heavy emphasis on mental health as well, kind of helping our students find healing in their own story and how to help others in the same way.

So our website is paconference.org forward slash core.

But you didn't call me here to pitch a school, you asked me to preach a sermon, so I'm going to do that.

So what I'd like to do is I'm going to kneel and I'll pray, and then we'll begin this morning's message which is entitled, How the Sabbath Keeps Us.

Sweet Jesus, thank You for this privilege to come into Your presence, and I just ask now that You would speak, that You would speak with power, conviction, and clarity.

And Lord, I pray that we would never see the Sabbath again, that You would help us to see just how much You had in mind and what a precious privilege and treasure this gift is to man.

And so we love you and we thank you, and we ask these things now in Jesus' name.

So what we're largely going to be addressing today is this idea of the why of the Sabbath.

Okay, so we're going to be covering the why behind the Sabbath, not just what day it is.

Many of our presentations regarding the Sabbath are to make it clear that we are worshiping on the right day and we're going to worship the right way, and there's absolutely a need to have that conversation.

But we want to make sure that we don't have that conversation at the expense of the why.

Because I believe the why is the most convincing argument in behalf of the Sabbath, not just the math, right, that shows us what day we're to keep.

So in Genesis 1, verses 3 to 5, it says this, we talked about this a little bit in children's story, "'Then God said, let there be light, and there was light.

And God saw the light, and that it was good.

And God divided the light from the darkness.

God called the light day, and the darkness he called night.

So the evening and the morning were which day?

So throughout the creation week, we see this consistent theme that God speaks and it is so.

But when you get to Genesis 2 and verse 7, the narrative reads differently.

It says, and the Lord God formed man of the dust of the ground and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, and man became a living being, or as it says in the King James, a living soul.

So it doesn't say, and God spoke and Adam was so.

The way in which God creates man, especially in contrast to the way he creates everything else, implies intimacy, care, and value directed towards what He has created.

The very way in which God creates man communicates the value that He places on man.

Now, what does that have to do with the Sabbath?

Well, the Sabbath comes within that context, A context of intimacy, care, and love.

That is the context in which God gives the Sabbath to man.

And so I want to read this from the NLT version.

I was teaching at a youth camp last summer, and when we were doing a Bible study on the topic of the Sabbath this girl read and I said what?

Translation is that because I'm stealing that from my next presentation It's the new living translation listen to this says then Jesus said to them the Sabbath was made to meet the needs of people and not people to meet the requirements of the Sabbath.

God wasn't just looking for something to keep us busy so it wouldn't cause problems.

Where just play with this thing and leave me alone so I can go have a few minutes to, you know, not have to worry about this anymore.

So what God had in mind when He created the Sabbath was not something to control us or to keep us busy, right?

It was something designed to meet our actual needs, the intrinsic needs we have.

The need we have to be loved, The need we have to be loved, the need we have to be wanted, and the need we have for rest and communion and so forth, and all of that.

He's got a book called The Lost Meaning of the Seventh Day.

It's a theological book, But it has this gorgeous poetic language.

He says, By the act of hallowing the seventh day, God drives the stake of divine presence into the soil of human time.

That by the act of hallowing the seventh day, God is inserting himself into the space of human time, right?

So in a very real sense then, God is actually bringing heaven to earth on the Sabbath, Right?

Jesus says in John chapter 17 and verse 3 that this is eternal life, that they may know you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom you have sent.

And he's not just talking about some intellectual venture, that we would know enough about you to be good enough in your eyes to then be able to get into heaven to actually experientially know God.

Which tells me then that we don't have to wait until heaven to enjoy the benefits of eternal life.

You can actually begin to experience right now the benefits of eternal life in the communion that's available to us with God.

Eternal life begins here, and you take that heart relationship from here, there, forever.

So we can know God personally and intimately and Jesus Christ whom He has sent, that experience can begin here.

So he continues, by the act of hallowing the seventh day, God drives the stake of divine presence into the soil of human time.

He's making himself available in the space of human time.

He continues, the reason why he refrains from any further activity on the seventh day is that he's found the object of his love and has no need for any further works.

He stopped working because he found what he was looking for in you, and he continues this, okay?

And so how does that make you feel about God when you hear this type of an idea behind Him giving us this habit?

Back to Menu

How the Sabbath Keeps Us

Transcript

Sponsor

Recorded

Related

Unlocking the Mysteries of the Sanctuary

10 Repairers of the Breach

51m

A God Worth Knowing

07 The Reminder of Your Value

1h 2m

Pause for Peace

43m

From Sabbath to Sunday

47m

07 In Verity

51m

Dee Casper's Weekend

04 Worship Him Who Made

54m

The Big Questions (Evening Meetings)

7. How to Ace Your Exams and Still Be Normal

1h 13m

The Sabbath: A Memorial and a Battlefield

54m

Dane Griffin: The Main Thing is the Main Thing

The Main Why

1h 24m

A Day of Delight

59m

War of Thrones

Finding Rest in Today’s Society

1h

Sound Doctrine