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South Bay SDA Church

Genesis

Jeremy Arnall

01 The Creation Account: Let There Be Light

02 Day 2 of Creation: Under Heaven’s Quilt

03 Day 3 of Creation

04 Let There Be Time

05 Day 5 of Creation

06 Day 6 of Creation

07 And God Said, “Let There Be Rest”

08 Media & Mediums

09 The Naked Truth About Righteousness

10 The Naked Truth About Righteousness

11 What Worship Costs and What Love Requires

12 Two Lines, Two Legacies

13 Terms & Conditions

14 The Mantle of Love

Today we're continuing in our series on Genesis.

We have been making our way through the creation account, the creation record there in chapter 1.

And today we're looking at the final day of creation, day 7, the title of the message.

Dear Lord, please, would you speak to our hearts this morning as you already have.

We praise you for the testimony you've given.

We praise you for how you have come close and showed your power in the lives of these men and women in each of our lives.

We pray that as we consider how to draw closer to you, that you would draw closer to us, that you would so help us to comprehend your presence that we will leave this place with a glow, with a refreshing appearance of what you have done in our life here today.

At some point in modern life, we decided that a perfect yard would be a smooth, uniform carpet of grass.

We labor to grow it, we fertilize it in the spring so that it will flourish, and then when it finally does, we cut it down.

And then it may be that we cut it down again, even twice in 1 week.

The clippings that we are produced from this cutting, we rake them up and we throw them away or toss them aside.

We fight against every other plant that might naturally grow in our front yard, calling them weeds, even though some bear flowers and are resilient and nourishing to pollinators and wildlife.

We poison dandelions, violets, and clover, all the while trying to protect this 1 species named grass.

The summer comes and with it the heat that should provide us with a rest.

We stretch hoses across our landscape, running sprinklers for hours, spending money to keep that grass alive So that we can keep cutting it.

We rake them into piles, haul them off, and then go to the store to purchase mulch, often made from ground-up trees.

All of this to maintain something that nature never asked for.

I ask you, Are we cooperating with God's design?

Or are we resisting it without ever pausing to realize it?

Have we lost touch with God's original design for life itself?

Have we inadvertently created a world of contradictions working against the very rhythms God built into creation itself?

We have every convenience the 21st century could offer, yet too many homes are broken by divorce or abuse.

We go to gyms and climb on treadmills to walk nowhere.

We have multiple ways to communicate, yet families often fail to connect effectively with 1 another.

We have endless entertainment options, but we climb into bed dissatisfied and unfulfilled.

We carefully schedule vacations that leave us more exhausted than before.

Americans are worn out and frazzled, living on caffeine by day and sleeping pills by night.

Visit any city and you'll see skyscrapers that hide the sunrise and the sunset.

You will find paved roads that harden earth's textured surface, polluted Haze that darkens the blue sky, toxic waste that punctures our atmosphere.

We endanger God's creatures and tear down their homes to build our own.

Many lives are surrounded by flashing neon lights, concrete corridors with overflowing dumpsters at the end, streets filled with honking automobiles directed by traffic lights that change incessantly throughout the day.

People seldom look at each other as they navigate these concrete valleys.

Henry David Thoreau captured our problem when he wrote, I had 3 pieces of limestone on my desk, but I was terrified to find that they required to be dusted daily when the furniture of my mind was all undusted still and threw them out the window in disgust.

We're not content to enjoy God's gifts as they are.

We feel we must contain everything, place it within our domain for it to bring us pleasure.

We cut the flowers and we bring them inside only to watch them die When we pick fruit we set it at a bowl on our table as a centerpiece and then it spoils We don't have to own something for it to bring pleasure.

With increasing speed, we're defiling God's sanctuary, irreverently destroying this testimony of his love.

We refuse to rest something God created on day 7.

And when you try to alter God's creation, serious consequences will result.

When humanity completely ignored God's design in Noah's day, look what happened.

God essentially undid the second day of creation.

Think about it, the Bible says He separated the waters on day 2.

Genesis 1 verse 7 says, thus God made the firmament, and he divided the waters which were under the firmament from the waters which were above the firmament, and what?

Genesis 7 verse 11 says, on that day, all the fountains of the great deep were broken up and the windows of heaven were opened.

So God brought the waters back together, which was essentially the undoing of day 2 of creation.

So you see, now catch this, the flood was God's reversal of creation itself and thus judgment occurred.

You see when we ignore or tamper with day 7 of creation, when we refuse the honor, this rest that God established, we invite that same kind of judgment into our very own life.

We lose the blessing that God designed for us.

We dare not think that we can tamper with God's creation without dire consequence and judgment.

Just ask the scientist who created the atomic bomb, for they soon discovered what splitting atoms can do, and destruction followed.

God's original design was perfect, for God said it was good.

Let me take you back, take you way back to when all was right, to that first Sabbath rest in Eden.

Remember, the Bible says the evening and the morning were the first day, second day, the third day.

So in Bible reckoning, a day begins at sunset.

So, go back with me at the dawn of day 7.

The sun gradually sinks towards earth, lazily pulling a blanket of darkness over its face.

Birds fluff their feathers as they settle into their nests.

The deer curls gingerly into a restful slumber.

The river sings softly as it bumps along the shoreline.

The moon rises, bathing the landscape with a soft pale light.

Trees with majestic branches sway in the gentle evening breeze, while light and shadow dance across the forest floor.

Katie dits provide rhythm and song amidst the night.

The owl calls out the frog's croak back and forth.

And Adam and Eve lie there in their grassy bed.

They lie there in their grassy bed as they behold the twinkling stars piercing the night sky, listening to nature's symphony on their first night in their new home.

Enchanting it must have been as they eased into their restful slumber, covered with the perfume of nearby flowers.

Notice, as the Bible recounts the story, there in Genesis 2, verses 1 to 3, thus the heavens and the earth and All the hosts of them were finished.

And on the seventh day, God ended his work which he had done, and he rested the seventh day from all his work which he had done.

Then God blessed the seventh day and sanctified it, because in it, he rested, past tense, he rested from all his work, which God had created and made.

Based on the text, God didn't create anything new on day 7 until the day was closing.

Then, the text says, he blessed and sanctified it.

It's as though he enjoyed day 7 so much that he said, I've got to make this day special for all eternity.

On Friday he had formed man with his hands and with his breath.

A pause in the creation account where love and play can interact between God and man, where worship transpires naturally.

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Series

Genesis

07 And God Said, “Let There Be Rest”

Transcript

Parent Series

Sponsor

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