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HopeLives365

Mark Finley

How to Keep The Sabbath

I am just delighted to be here with the adventurers.

You know, when Dan called me and asked me about this assignment, I immediately was excited about it because I'm really excited about the Sabbath and I'm excited about sharing with families how they can better keep the Bible Sabbath.

We're going to look at biblical principles for keeping the Sabbath, then we're going to look at some spiritual insights, but by the end of the seminar I hope I can give you some practical ideas.

1 of my mentors, an old pastor, said to me once, you don't have to find many million dollar bills blowing down the street to be a millionaire.

You know, my goal here is to give you at least 1 or 2 principles.

A lot of what I'm going to talk about you've already heard before, but if I can share with you something that you haven't heard, a principle that you can adopt for your family, this next 45 to 50 minutes is going to be really well worth it.

But before we pray, I should ask you, does everybody who is here have a study guide?

Just hold them up if you have them so I can see it.

And Dan, if there's anybody that doesn't have 1 that you want a study guide, we want to be sure we put 1 in your hands.

Now for those of you watching online, we're going to post this study guide a little later, and when we do that, it will enable you to be able to have the notes from the presentation as well.

Father in Heaven, during this time together, we thank you on this Sabbath afternoon that we can study a little bit about the richness, the beauty of the Sabbath.

As we study practical principles as well as biblical insights, help us to be able to look at Sabbath and really be blessed by it.

Help us to have that sense of your presence, and help us delight in the Sabbath, and may the Creator's day be a day when our hearts are recreated in Jesus' name, Amen.

A number of years ago, late 1800s, there was a European who visited America.

And this European was asked, what is the most memorable thing that you found in the United States?

And he thought for a moment, and then he said this, those Americans are always moving.

In fact, they even have figured out a way to move when they sit down.

Now the rocking chair had just come into existence.

And this European was so fascinated because he saw these Americans just sitting down and they couldn't stay still.

They're rocking back and forth, back and forth.

Somebody has said that we live in a jet age, but we're not jets.

If I had to term the 21st century, I would say the 21st century is the age of rush, hurry, stress, anxiety, and multitasking.

I'd like you to imagine a professional woman.

She is on her way to work, but she hasn't had time to eat breakfast, so in the car next to her, she has her breakfast, her toast, and her grapes, and her blueberries, and her granola with her milk in it that she puts on her lap and at the red lights eats it.

Then while she's doing that, she is listening to the weather on the radio, and at the same time she has her cell phone and she's talking to her husband.

Now some of you are smiling because you can identify with that scene of multitasking.

Or imagine here is a man, He's come home from work, he's playing with his son, but his cell phone is messaging him.

So while he's playing, he's looking at his cell phone, clicking and responding to the messages, while at the same time his mind is thinking about the next job the next day.

We live in an age of self-rush and hurry and anxiety.

The images on our cell phone, I often tease people that people say that my cell phone is a labor-saving device because on my cell phone I get messages, on my cell phone I not only get messages but I can of course text back, on my cell phone people can call me, and wherever I am in the world on my cell phone I'm getting my email.

That has not saved me labor, it has increased my labor just really incredibly dramatically.

Now, 1 of the things that the computer age has done that I think has really been quite seriously in affecting human relationships is that it has affected our relationship with God, our families, and those closest to us.

Recently I read an article that really impressed me and I put it in your study guide, the headlines of the article, but you're going to have to do some writing here.

You'll notice that in the study guides I've left lines for you to write, but recently I read an article called The Negative Effects of Computer Addiction.

And the article stated that computer addicts withdraw socially as they spend more time on the computer.

So the more time you spend on the computer, the less time you have for meaningful interaction.

Now I'm going to quote from this article.

It says this, here's what the article says, computer addiction can have a variety of negative effects on a person.

What negative effects does computer addiction have?

So the prime negative effect of gaming on the computer or being addicted to the computer affects you socially.

The user withdraws from friends and family as he or she spend more time on the computer.

Relationships begin to wither as the user stops attending social gatherings, skips meetings with friends and avoids family members to get more computer time.

Even when they do interact with their friends, users may become irritable when away from the computer causing further social harm.

So the idea is the more young people are actively involved in computers, the more they are addicted to computer gamings, the more they withdraw socially, the less they are willing to participate in family activities and the more irritable they become.

Now you may wonder, what does this have to do with Sabbath keeping?

What does it have to do with positive Sabbath keeping?

You see, Sabbath is primarily a day for relationships.

If you are able to analyze the purpose of the Sabbath in 1 sentence, if somebody said to me, Pastor Mark, define the purpose of the Sabbath in 1 sentence.

The prime purpose of the Sabbath is to develop a meaningful relationship with God and a healthy relationship, positive relationship with our families and the people around us.

The Sabbath command gives us, it invites us to have this sacred pause.

Now notice God didn't give us 10 suggestions, He gave us 10 commands, right?

Because what's the difference between a suggestion and a command?

A green light says go, a yellow light says we suggest you be cautious because somebody else might be coming.

And so God didn't give us 10 suggestions, He gave us 10 commands.

He says, remember the Sabbath day to keep it holy.

It's very fascinating for a Seventh-day Adventist who believe that the seventh day of the week is the Bible Sabbath, we can also forget to keep it holy.

We can also at times treat the edges of the Sabbath that from sundown Friday night to sundown Saturday night as a common ordinary day.

You are no doubt aware that there's a telephone number and that you can call any place in the world.

And if you call that telephone number, it will tell you exactly when the Sabbath begins.

So you can be any state, you can be any country, you can be any place in the world, you just dial that number, every Adventist knows it, I mean there's no, you're looking at me strange.

Any place you are in the world you just dial LEV2332.

From evening to evening shall you celebrate your Sabbath.

See, from evening to evening shall you celebrate your Sabbath.

So any place in the world you are, when the sun goes down, I dial up LEV 2332, Leviticus 2332.

From evening to evening, shall you celebrate your Sabbath.

So let's start with sundown Friday night.

On sundown Friday night we can learn a great deal of positive lessons from our Jewish friends.

Most Jewish families light candles at sundown on Friday night.

And as Sabbath begins, the father of the family blesses each of his children.

The father walks over at sundown, so imagine the sun is just setting, the candles are lit, the table is decorated beautifully, and here's little Josiah.

And the father puts his hands over the head of the boy and says, the Lord bless you and keep you.

May his countenance shine upon you and give you peace.

This is my promise for you, my son, this week.

Now at that same time, mother will be holding the younger children.

In later years, both father and mother give the blessing.

Wouldn't it be a wonderful thing on Friday nights If each Friday night a father or mother takes the promise out of the promise box, different Bible texts, and a mother takes her little child, 3 years old, in her arms and says, I want to give you the Sabbath blessing.

The father goes to his 13 year old son and says, I want to give you the Sabbath blessing.

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How to Keep The Sabbath

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