Ten Minute Bible Talks Devotional Bible Study - What the Sabbath Teaches Us | My Favorite Verses | Exodus 20.8-11

Starting point is 00:00:00 Welcome to 10-minute Bible Talks, where we connect the Bible to your life in the time it takes to get to work. I'm Keith Simon. And I'm Patrick Miller. We are currently exploring some of our favorite Bible verses and how they've changed our lives. Also, if you want to connect with us, follow us on Twitter at TMBT podcast. You can also check out our hashtag, hashtag, AskT, TMBT, where you can ask us anything, and we'd love to connect with you. I love to work. What kind of work you ask? I like fast-paced, high-adrenaline, quick-changing work. I like living under the pile. I like checking off lists. I like executing impossible tasks. I like getting fresh projects off the ground. Okay, I don't just like it. I love it. Now, Keith and I, we're very different people, but we do share this one thing. We love this kind of work. That can be a great thing sometimes, but it can also be a disaster.

Starting point is 00:01:04 Six years ago, when I was in seminary, all the same principles applied. I was working full-time as a college ministry director while commuting two hours to St. Louis, where I took seminary classes full-time. And I didn't just take classes. I felt the need to perfect them. To my mind, anything less than an A-plus was a disappointment. I didn't do any assignments halfway. My bane was group projects because no one ever met my standards. Now, I know what you're probably thinking. sound kind of unpleasant. Well, actually, you sound kind of unpleasant. I'm glad I didn't have to work with you. I'm just kidding. You're probably right. I was probably not a great person to work with, at least until I took a class on the Torah, the first five books of the Bible. In that class, there was an extra credit assignment. Now, remember, I do everything, so of course I did the extra credit assignment, even though I didn't really need it. And this assignment, it wasn't super easy. You had to read through all the various law codes in Exodus, Leviticus, numbers, and Deuteronomy, and then you had to do your best to live Levitically for a week.

Starting point is 00:02:10 No pig. See you later, Carnitas. No mixed fibers. See you later, polyester and workout clothes. No shellfish. See you later, shrimp cocktails. And, of course, no work on Saturdays. See you later, work on...

Starting point is 00:02:26 Oh, wait, I can't work on Saturday? It was a classic catch. 22. To do everything, I had to do this extra credit assignment. But to do the extra credit assignment, I had to do nothing for an entire day. Giving up pork sandwiches is one thing. But this, what happened next, changed my life. And here's the life-changing verse in all of its glory. You might not be that entertained. Exodus 20, verse 8, remember the Sabbath day to keep it holy. Six days you shall labor. and do all your work. But the seventh day is Sabbath to the Lord, your God. On it, you shall not do any work. You or your son or your daughter, or your male servant, or your female servant, or your livestock,

Starting point is 00:03:12 or the sojourner who is within your gates. For in six days, the Lord made the heaven and the earth, the sea, and all that's in them. And he rested on the seventh day. Therefore, the Lord blessed the Sabbath day and made it holy. Well, I did this assignment. and that dreaded Sabbath day finally came along. To make things worse, Emily was actually out of town for most of the day. And so the problems I had to face were immediate. I had to ask myself, is working out breaking rest? If I enjoy reading a book, but the book is for work, is that considered work? Does that break my rest? Is mowing the lawn work? Well, I definitely thought that mowing the lawn was work because I hate mowing my lawn and I will take any excuse to avoid it. According to Leviticus, you also aren't allowed to make your own food on this day or to ask anybody else to work for you. So I couldn't go out and eat. I couldn't shop. I couldn't even turn on the TV or the internet because doing that would require someone to work.

Starting point is 00:04:15 The only thing I gave myself a pass on was I did leave the electricity going. I mean, everybody's got to have limits. But the purpose of Sabbath is rest from work. It's to worship and thank God for what's behind you and what's before you. it's to remind yourself that you can trust him, that you don't actually have to do everything that he is the one who provides, which means that even if you take a day off, somehow, some way, the world will keep spinning and you'll be okay. Now these might sound like obvious statements to you. They are not obvious statements. At least to me, they're not. The first half of that Sabbath day

Starting point is 00:04:52 was awful. It wasn't because I was bored. It was because I was fixated on what I needed to be spending my time on. I was fixated on what I was leaving undone and what the long-term consequences might be of the fact that I wasn't working for a Saturday. Of course, that was the ultimate lesson. There weren't any consequences. In fact, I found that I was able to accomplish as much in my six-day week as I normally accomplished in a seven-day week. I'm not sure if this was Jesus turning five loaves into enough to feed a crowd or just proof of a general principle. That rest really is required for the most effective production. I can work and lose sleep, but the work that I do when I don't have any sleep, well, it's not as good in terms of quality, and it also takes me much more time

Starting point is 00:05:38 to accomplish. But I think we can take this principle and make it even broader. Sabbath is training for Jesus. When we learn to give control of our lives to God, to stop working, working for absolutely everything. We have to learn to trust God with our life. We have to learn that God is ultimately the one who does the work and provides for us and sees us through. And that's what we have to do with Jesus. See, Sabbath trains us to trust Jesus. Sabbath trains us to not trust our own work, but instead to trust the work of Jesus. Doesn't he do the work of rescuing us from our sin when we couldn't rescue ourselves? When we give him control, our worst fears don't come to fruition. Instead, we are protected from the worst nightmare imaginable. Sabbath is actually a signpost to Jesus, who was our

Starting point is 00:06:30 ultimate rest. I'm not sure that means that we can just throw away the Sabbath now, but it does seem to me that there's a principle of regular, difficult rest in life, and that it's really important for your walk with God. If you don't have Sabbath, if we stop trusting Jesus with our everyday, it's not going to be hard to stop trusting Jesus in other areas as well. The truth is, Jesus isn't just involved in taking care of our sins. That's not the only thing that he does. Jesus is in the business of taking care of our whole lives. He's in the business of renewing your life. And that means we actually need to learn to trust him. We need to learn to trust him with more than just, you saved me from my sin. We need to learn to trust him with our work,

Starting point is 00:07:15 with our schedule, our finances, our family, and somehow resting together on a consistent basis trains us to do just that. Because for an entire day, we set down the constant striving. We acknowledge our limitedness. We say, Jesus, I want to try to manage my life apart from you. I want to take responsibility for everything. Think that I'm responsible for providing everything, but I know that's not true. So here I am. I'm resting. You can have my life. You can manage it. You can take responsibility. Here it is. I need to pray this prayer multiple times a year.

Starting point is 00:07:53 I need to pray this prayer once a week. My own temptation is that I get good at rest, but then I fall back into old patterns. It's honestly a battle for me, but it's one that I don't want to give up on fighting because the rewards of Sabbath and trusting Jesus with our whole lives are so much richer than the rewards they come with working all the time.

Starting point is 00:08:15 Thanks for listening. If you've enjoyed this content, please subscribe and give us a rating. That helps other people find this podcast more easily. Also, ask yourself, who could you share this podcast with? Texting an episode to a friend or a family member is a great way to help them grow spiritually. If you want to go deeper, check out our show notes for book recommendations.

Ten Minute Bible Talks Devotional Bible Study - What the Sabbath Teaches Us | My Favorite Verses | Exodus 20.8-11

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