“All You Need Is Love”

Pentecost Sunday, 5/31/09
Romans 5:5-8



Introduction: Hopefully when you think of Jesus, you think of love. There are many reasons for this: Jesus giving up His place in heaven to come to this earth and live among us; Jesus loving people while He was on this earth; Jesus allowing Himself to be beaten and crucified on our behalf. Jesus exemplified love throughout His life on all occasions. When we think about Jesus, we should think about love.

And one of the points of Jesus coming to this earth is for us to learn what love is, and how to love. In fact, as this sermon is titled, “All you need is love.” This is because if we learn what love really is, and how to love like Jesus, then all things will fall into place in our lives. We will be happier, more at peace, and more fulfilled in our life. So this morning I want us to get a sense of what love is not, and what love is.



I. Love is not just a word- (1 John 3:18; Romans 5:5-8)

a. More than a word- First, love is not just a word. It is very easy to

say to someone: “I love you.” The reason I say it is easy, is because so many people say it, but they don’t back it up. Love is as much an action, if not more, than a feeling. You can think you feel love for someone, but then when you try and live that out, you fall short. The father who tells his kids he loves them, but is never around to spend time with them. The wife who tells her husband she loves him, but she is in the midst of an affair. The friend who says “I love you,” but gossips behind your back. It is easy to say I love you, but love is more than just a word.

We read in 1 John 3:18, “Dear children, let us not love with words or tongue, but with actions and in truth.” I want to introduce you to someone named Matt Harding. Harding was a video game designer. Harding claims that a sarcastic joke about the popularity of shoot 'em up games led “Pandemic Studios,” for whom he worked, to develop the game “Destroy All Humans!” on which he received a conceptual credit. Saying, "I didn't want to spend two years of my life writing a game about killing everyone," he quit his job and began traveling, leading to the production of his first video.

Illustration: Matt Harding dancing around the world. (4:00)

b. Jesus showed us love- Now just going around the world and

dancing with people isn’t the quintessential example of love. But on this Pentecost Sunday, it is a reminder that God wants us to love all people, of all backgrounds, and all languages, in the midst of our differences. Love isn’t just about having things in common, it is about having the same God in common. God created all people, and desires for us to love everyone.

Now in the reality of our world, people can make it difficult to love them; some people aren’t worthy of our love. But we should not make a decision on how we feel about someone without knowing who they are. We are told in Romans 5:5-8, “…God has poured out His love into our hearts by the Holy Spirit, whom He has given us. You see, at just the right time, when we were powerless, Christ died for the ungodly…But God demonstrates His own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us.”

Did you hear those important statements? The love of Christ was shown when we were powerless, at just the right time, while we were still sinners. And this love is to be poured out into our hearts for us to love others. This love is to be shown not just in our words, but in our actions. As Christians, followers of Jesus Christ, we are to love people for Jesus, not because of what they do, or who they are, but because Christ has poured out His love to us and given us this charge.



II. Love is not burdensome- (Matthew 23:6-7, 23, 25, 23:4; 1 John 5:3)

a. Self-indulgence- Second, love is not to be burdensome. We

can see love as being burdensome sometimes, because people are not always easy to love. There are always people who have great needs, needs that you can’t seem to meet; needs that never go away. There are some who only focus on themselves, and whenever you see them, all they do is talk about themselves and their own troubles. There are still others with great health issues. These are just a few of the myriads of situations that can make it difficult to love others, and make it loving them seem like a burden.

In Matthew 23:6-7, 23, 25 we read Jesus saying: “Woe to you, teachers of the law and Pharisees…Everything they do is done for men to see: They make their phylacteries wide and tassels on their garments long; they love the place of honor at banquets and the most important seats in the synagogues; they love to be greeted in the market places and to have men call them ‘Rabbi.’…You give a tenth of your spices—mint, dill and cumin. But you have neglected the more important matters of the law—justice, mercy, and faithfulness…You clean the outside of the cup and dish, but inside they are full of greed and self-indulgence.”

Jesus is telling the religious leaders that they lift themselves up, and make themselves seem great, but have forgotten what is really important: LOVE. The religious leaders have gotten so caught up in themselves, in thinking of themselves as great, as reveling in their power, that they have forgotten their call from God, to love others by showing justice, mercy and faithfulness. They are full of greed and self-indulgence, not love.

This self-indulgence is a great problem in our society. We live in a very “me” oriented society. Because of this, when we have to do something that takes away from being able to focus on ourselves, we get put out and think of it as a burden. For so many, it is tough enough to come to church each week, much less find ways to care for those less fortunate than ourselves. It used to be routine for people to serve in the church, but even more, to go to convalescent homes, soup kitchens, or go door-to-door to share the love of Christ.

Example- I have to confess, there was a part of me that saw it as a burden to have to go out and see my dad in the hospital in his last days. It wasn’t because I didn’t love him. It was really because first of all, I didn’t know those were his last days. My dad was in a hospital in Hemet, and so it took an hour and 45 minutes every time I went to see him. I had to take off time from work, and felt some guilt for that. And it took time away from me being able to be with my family. In the end, I did not see it as a burden. But the selfish part of me struggled with this.

b. Overcoming the burden- If this is true with my father, how much

more true will it be when we try and love others around us? How can we overcome these feelings of being burdened when we try and love? Especially when we try and love those different from us, or those who are harder to love?

I think the important point, is understanding that love comes from God. When we receive Jesus as Lord and Savior, we are filled with the Holy Spirit. Just like on the day of Pentecost, the power of God’s Spirit comes upon us and fills us; fills us with God’s love. And as we seek to be God’s children, we know that God desires for us to love others. We then seek to love people with God’s love, not our own. We open ourselves up to those opportunities God gives us to love.

Even more, we let God bring special people into our lives to love us. In this way, it is not a burden, because God continually renews this love in us. If we rely on God, our love will not run out. If we seek to see things with the eyes of God, and the heart of God, then our desire to love will not leave us. How can it be a burden, when God places this desire to love in us, and gives us the power to love?

In Matthew 23:4 we read, “The teachers of the law and Pharisees tie up heavy loads and put them on men’s shoulders, but they themselves are not willing to lift a finger to move them.” All too often the burden comes from our mind. But if we renew our mind to think like Christ, then our willingness to love will increase. When we follow through on these opportunities, we will enjoy life all the more. Any life that focuses on itself becomes a life that is truly burdened and unhappy. God knows that it is in giving away that we can truly live and be blessed.

Let me share a verse with you that speaks to this issue, and also leads us into our next point: 1 John 5:3 tells us- “This is love for God: to obey His commands. And His commands are not burdensome…”



III. Love is found in obedience- (John 4:28-29, 14:12; 1 John 2:3-6)

a. Obedience is not burdensome- Lastly, we see that God’s

commands are not burdensome. They actually bring us freedom, and purpose, and blessing. They are only burdensome before we try and follow them, because we think that having to follow rules is burdensome. But like the woman at the well, once we leave our burden of having to do things our own way, thinking we have to go it alone, we can rejoice in the love of God we experience.

If you remember the story, Jesus comes to the well and is sitting there when the woman comes to draw the water. She comes alone, at the noontime hour, to avoid others; to avoid ridicule and judgment since her life has not been well lived. Jesus let her know that He knows about her life; her 5 husbands, plus the fact that she is now living with a man outside of marriage. In the end, Jesus offers her forgiveness, and God’s love. Let’s pick it up in John 4:28-29, “Then, leaving her water jar, the woman went back to the town and said to the people, ‘Come and see a man who told me everything I ever did. Could this be the Christ?’ They came out of the town and made their way toward Him.”

She left her water jar, which represents her burden. She left her water jar, which represents her sinfulness. She left her water jar, which represents the life she was living. In following Christ, we leave our burdens, and are given forgiveness. This forgiveness is what helps us to understand how to love others, for one of the great aspects of love is forgiveness.

b. Jamie’s painting- JAMIE painted a picture earlier this year that

fits with this theme, and I wanted her to take a few minutes to share her painting as an illustration of being obedient to Christ in how to love by forgiving….



Let me close with a verse: John 14:12- “I tell you the truth, anyone who has faith in me will do what I have been doing. He will do even greater things than these, because I am going to the Father.” Just like as a father I set rules for my kids to help them learn what is right and good and have the best life they can have, so God gives us commands to help us to learn what is right and good and have the best life that we can have. When we are obedient to God’s commands, we will be able to do great things for the kingdom of God!



Conclusion: 1 John 4:9 tells us: “This is how God showed His love among us: He sent His one and only Son into the world that we might live through Him.” This living is about letting the love of God flow in us, and through us to others. It is about loving by action. It is by letting God lead us to the people He wants us to love, and giving us the love and understanding of how to love them. If we know God’s commands, and live them out, we will understand that God loves us, because He is giving us guidance in how to live. Take with you today this thought: All You Need is love. Amen.

“A Rest Relished”
Sunday, May 24, 2009
Exodus 16:23-29; Psalm 46

Introduction: Last week we talked about how the Sabbath, this Sunday worship we come to each week, has been instituted by God as a day of rest, but even more as a day to connect with God by remembering how God has created all things, how God has chosen us to be His people, and to remember that God has redeemed us from our sin. Today I want to look a little more at the idea of Sabbath and this idea of rest.
This morning I want to talk about how we are to rest. What does Sabbath rest look like in our lives? And I want to do this by talking about 2 different extremes: The first picture comes from the show Seinfeld. In one particular show, George Costanza hires a contractor to build a napping area under his desk at work. His morning consists of a nap under his desk, and then lunch. Is this Sabbath rest? The second picture is what an Orthodox Jew has to go through to celebrate Sabbath. The Rabbis took this idea of “no work on the Sabbath” to mean that you can’t even push a stroller or carry anything over a certain weight. Is this Sabbath rest? With these extremes in mind, I want us to tackle two questions: What are you “not” supposed to do as Sabbath? What “are” you supposed to do as Sabbath?

I. What Not To Do As Sabbath- (Exodus 16:25-30, 35:3; Numbers 15:32-36; 1 Peter 1:15-16)
a. Prohibition- Let’s start by looking at the Sabbath prohibitions
that are given in the Old Testament; at what God says to not do on the Sabbath. The first mentioned prohibition is found in Exodus 16. Now if you know the Scriptures, you know that the Ten Commandments were not even given to the people until Exodus 20, so God is giving direction about the Sabbath before it becomes part of the 10 Commandments. This was in conjunction with God providing food (manna) for His people, and the instructions that went with this. Listen to Exodus 16:25-30,
“Eat it today,” Moses said, “because today is a Sabbath to the Lord.
You will not find any of it on the ground today. Six days you are to
gather it, but on the seventh day, the Sabbath, there will not be any.”
Nevertheless, some of the people went out on the seventh day to gather
it, but they found none. Then the Lord said to Moses, “How long will
you refuse to keep my commands and my instructions? Bear in mind
that the Lord has given you the Sabbath; that is why on the sixth day
He gives you bread for two days. Everyone is to stay where he is on
the seventh day; no one is to go out.” So the people rested on the
seventh day.
God had manna come down from the sky for 6 days, but on the Sabbath, God didn’t want the people to go out and work by collecting the food, so God provided a double portion of food on the sixth day to last for the seventh day as well. In the beginning, some of the people didn’t believe that there would be enough food for two days, and so they went out on the Sabbath ready to collect food. But to their surprise there wasn’t any food to be collected. This prohibition was to remind the people of their dependence on God; God would provide all that they needed.
A little later in Exodus, 35:3, after the 10 Commandments had been given, there is another prohibition regarding the Sabbath: “Do not light a fire in any of your dwellings on the Sabbath day.” So they couldn’t collect manna, and they couldn’t light a fire.
So the simple command is not to work. And at its core, it was about providing for yourself. Any of the normal activities that you do to sustain your existence is considered work, and you can’t do them on the Sabbath.
So let’s transfer this over to us. What does the Sabbath mean for us? It too would be the things that we normally do that sustain our life. Now this is completely counter-cultural to us. All you have to do is look around and see how much time and energy most people spend on what they consider to be activities to sustain their lives. To live the Sabbath is to live against the culture.
The thinking in our culture is that if you are not completely exhausted at the end of the day, you have not put yourself into your work like you need to. We are not allowed to be rested. It really is against our culture.
However, Sabbath is to be more than just not doing work. Think back to the Seinfeld show and George Costanza sleeping under his desk. That’s not Sabbath. Even though he was not working, even though he was resting, it wasn’t Sabbath. There was nothing for George in his resting that showed dependence on God. His rest was just for himself.
b. Why God prohibits some things- The famous atheist Bertrand
Russell, who wrote, Why I Am Not A Christian, once said: ‘To be able to fill leisure intelligently is the last product of civilization, and at present very few people have reached this level.’
But Sabbath rest is not just about leisure. In a culture where we are obsessed with entertainment and recreation, Sabbath is deeper than incorporating these activities into our lives. It is more. Shortly after Moses gave the command not to light a fire on the Sabbath, that restriction was tested. Let us read Numbers 15:32- “While the Israelites were in the desert, a man was found gathering wood on the Sabbath day. Those who found him gathering wood brought him to Moses and Aaron and the whole assembly, and they kept him in custody, because it was not clear what should be done to him.”
Here we have a guy who wasn’t building a fire, he was just collecting the firewood. Was he breaking the rule? Technically, probably not. But it still was a big deal. Listen to verses 35 & 36: “Then the Lord said to Moses, ‘The man must die. The whole assembly must stone him outside the camp.’ So the assembly took him outside the camp and stoned him to death, as the Lord commanded Moses.”
Wow. This seems pretty severe, doesn’t it? God commanded His people not to work on the Sabbath. Lighting a fire is one of the restrictions. So this guy knows the rules, and yet he still does the work of collecting the firewood, probably with the intention of building a fire. He didn’t break the rules of building a fire, but he did break the Sabbath.
We could debate the justness of this act. But the more important point is that Sabbath is about more than just following the rules. Sabbath is more than just taking a rest, or coming to church. It’s more than sleeping under your desk, or not pushing your stroller.
Sabbath is about knowing who God is, and giving yourself to God to know Him better. It is about knowing that it is God who sustains us. Sabbath is about setting ourselves as God’s people, apart from the culture. In 1 Peter 1:15-16 it says, “Instead, as He who called you is holy, be holy yourselves in all your conduct; for it is written, ‘You are to be holy as I am holy.’” To be holy is to be set apart for a Godly purpose. Are our lives really that different from the culture around us?
On the whole, the answer would be “no.” We are not that different than our culture. We wear the same clothes, go to the same movies, listen to the same music, for the most part talk the same way. We don’t prohibit ourselves from much. It is often difficult by just looking at someone’s lifestyle whether or not they are a Christian; a follower of Jesus Christ. They may have some belief, but can you tell by their lives that they are a follower?

II. What To Do On the Sabbath- (Psalm 46:1-11)
a. Be still- We’ve looked at how God prohibits things from us that
would keep us from Him, or that would keep our mind from remembering Him. But let’s take some time to think about what we should do on the Sabbath. The Sabbath isn’t about sitting in a chair and doing nothing. We are supposed to do something. What is it we are supposed to do on the Sabbath to make it a Sabbath?
Let’s use Psalm 46 to help guide us in this. Psalm 46 is a beautiful psalm because of its close connection with the Sabbath themes we have been talking about. I’m not going to look at every verse, but a select few that will explain more about Sabbath and living it out. And then look at how it is a model for Sabbath.
The first part of the Psalm talks about God as a refuge in the midst of natural chaos. Let’s read verse 2: “We will not fear, though the earth give way and the mountains fall into the heart of the sea.” The author of this psalm looks to God as sovereign over the natural forces of creation. This connects with the first reason given to observe the Sabbath: because God has created the world. But then the psalm moves on to talk about God as a refuge in the midst of foreign enemies. Verse 6 says, “Nations are in uproar, kingdoms fall; he lifts his voice, the earth melts.”
God is sovereign over creation, but he is also sovereign over nations. Even though enemies pound at Israel’s gate, God’s voice melts them with a word. This connects with the second reason given to observe the Sabbath: because God has redeemed Israel from life in Egypt. So the Psalm begins by asserting God’s control over nature and nations, reminding God’s people that they can trust Him in each of those circumstances.
Then comes the finale of the Psalm in verse 10. It reads: “Be still, and know that I am God.” ‘Be still.’ The word in Hebrew here definitely carries a sense of stillness, but it also carries a sense of stopping some activity that you are currently engaged in. That’s why the New American Standard Bible translates this, ‘Cease striving.’ It has to do with stopping whatever frantic activity you are engaged in. It is like a command. Another way to say this could be, ‘Stop all your crazy activity and just be.’ But do we know how to “just be?” That is a challenge.
These are the words we need to hear. Sabbath starts with stopping. Stopping the work that we do. Stop pretending we have it all together. Stopping living by the cultures values. Stopping from the busyness of life. Sabbath starts when we stop.
b. Know who God is- Can you imagine really stopping? It might
require you to turn off your cell phone, choosing not to answer the phone, turning off your computer, not checking e-mail, not returning phone calls for just that one day. Of course, this is all about one thing, and that is knowing God.
Illustration: The well known write A. W. Tozer once wrote this prayer:
“Father, I want to know You, but my coward heart fears to give up the toys. I cannot part with them without inward bleeding, and I do not try to hid from You the terror of the parting. I come trembling, but I do come. Please root from my heart all those things which I have cherished so long and which have become a very part of my living self, so that You may enter and dwell there without a rival. Then shall You make the place of Your feet glorious. Then shall my heart have no need of the sun to shine in it, for You, Yourself, will be the light of it, and there shall be no night there. In Jesus’ name. Amen.” (…Tardy Oxcart, p. 308, Charles Swindoll)
Sabbath is more than leisure, because it is about knowing God. And whether we understand it or not, we cannot have anything competing for our worship. As A. W. Tozer was saying, he was struggling with giving up his toys, so things he cherished in his life. There are some things that hold a deeper place in our heart than God does.
So Sabbath is about fostering a genuine relationship with God. So to honor the Sabbath, you need to find a way that you can relate to God that helps you to foster this relationship with Him. For some, it might be reading the Bible. For others it might be an extended time of prayer. For still others it might be looking at art that depicts biblical themes. This stopping and doing that which brings you closer to God is what the Sabbath is to be about.
I know for me that it includes my family as well. When I can spend time being with my family, then I am reminded of the blessing God has given me in them. As I look at my relationship with my children and spend time building my relationship with them, I am reminded of the relationship I have to God, and how God longs to be close to me.
What does it look like to stop and relate to God? You have to answer that question for yourself. You have to find that practice, that experience that allows you to draw closer to God. And don’t let it be anything that becomes a routine, because routine will ruin the freshness of the relationship. Maybe it is a walk along the ocean. Maybe it is reading a book about the attributes of God. Maybe it is sitting on a bench watching the sunset. These could all come under the guise of “Be still and know that I am God.”
Example- There is a story of Martin Luther having a conversation with his friend Philip Melancthon. His friend Philip was talking to him and said: “This day, you and I are going to discuss the governance of the universe.” Martin Luther was not averse to theological discussions, but it was the Sabbath, and so Luther said back to his friend: “this day, you and I will go fishing and leave the governance of the universe to God!”
What does it look like to be in dependence on God? That is what the being still is for; that is what the Sabbath is for.

Conclusion: And so in our time this morning, we have talked about what not to do on the Sabbath: not working, taking a break from our regular activities that sustain our lives. We’ve also talked about what to do on the Sabbath. We need to stop. We need to relate to God. George Costanza had it wrong; it isn’t about sleeping under your desk. The Sabbath rest is about relating to God.
As we think about what we are doing here together in church, we need to understand that this time together is meant to be with God, getting to know God, and relating to God. Together, we are to remind each other that God has set apart this time for us to love God, and love each other. We gather together to celebrate our dependence on God, and rejoice that God sustains us in life and ministry. We practice the Sabbath, individually and with other people to experience the fullness of the life that God has for us to know. How can you better rest? I hope you think about this more this week, and seek to find ways to practice it. Amen.

“A Rest Required”
Sunday, May 17, 2009
Exodus 20:8-11; Deuteronomy 5:12-15

Introduction: In Genesis, chapter 1, we are told about how God created the world and all the things in it. Then in Genesis 2:2-3 we are told: "2 By the seventh day God had finished the work he had been doing; so on the seventh day he rested from all his work. 3 And God blessed the seventh day and made it holy, because on it he rested from all the work of creating that he had done." From the beginning of time God has ordained a time of rest. I am thankful for the rest I get each day, but if you are like me, you know that it can be a challenge to get an adequate amount of rest.
Most people that I talk to have very busy and hectic lives. They struggle to get the required rest they need because they are going from morning to night. While it is suggested that we get 8 hours of sleep a night, most people average more like 6. So what is the answer? The answer is more than sleep, because physical sleep can only help so much. The stress we experience each day, each week, tires our minds and spirits as well. The answer is that we need the Sabbath.

I. What is the Sabbath? (Exodus 20:8-11)
a. To stop- The word Sabbath in Hebrew means “to stop,” and is
similar to the word for the number seven, which signifies completeness. The idea of Sabbath is woven throughout Scripture from the first chapter in Genesis to the last chapter in the book of Revelation. Sabbath is about true rest; complete rest for our bodies, minds, and spirits.
As we look at the Scriptures, we see that “Sabbath rest” is not a suggestion from God, it is a requirement; a command. Why does God command it? Because it is about who God is. It is about living healthy lives. It is about making sure we get the rest our body needs. It is about being reminded of who God is. It is about making the connection with God we so desperately want and need. We rest to remember God.
Let’s hear Exodus 20:8-11 again; God is speaking here words to Moses that he is to pass on to God’s people: “Remember the Sabbath day by keeping it holy. Six days you shall labor and do all your work, but the seventh day is a Sabbath to the Lord your God. On it you shall not do any work…For in six days the Lord made the heavens and the earth, the sea, and all that is in them, but He rested on the seventh day. Therefore the Lord blessed the Sabbath day and made it holy.”
There are several things we are told here in regards to the Sabbath:
The first is that we are to keep the Sabbath holy. The word holy means to be set apart for a godly purpose. One day out of the week is to be set apart as different than the other days; it is to have a special purpose. This purpose is the “day of the Lord.” Second, we are do work on six days out of the week, but cease from working on the seventh. This ceasing from work helps us to remember that this day is different, special, holy. Third, we have the example of what to do from God Himself. Six days God worked on the creation, but the seventh day He rested. So the thought here is pretty simple: six days we are to work, the seventh we don’t!!
Now let’s think for a moment about God resting. Why did God rest? God rested because His work was finished. He didn’t rest because He was tired, it was because creation was complete. He didn’t rest because He needed a vacation, or because He had done such a great job and this was His reward. He rested because the work He had purposed Himself to do was done. And we are to rest to remember that God’s work in creation is done. We rest to remember that God created us. We rest to remember that God has given us work that needs to be done.
b. Permission to rest- The challenge for most people is that their
work is never done; they always have something they should be doing. I know I have this challenge in my job. My job is never done. There is always someone else I can visit, or another meeting I can plan, or another lesson I can write, or another book I should read. Most of us are like this; we always have something left undone.
I think about this last weekend. There was much we could have done. But instead, Tami and I picked up the kids from school at 3p on Friday and took them to Disneyland. It was a time away from our work. And then on Saturday, we had Tyler’s baseball game in the morning, but then after lunch we went out to the movies together. We took some time away from our work.
Every day I come to the time when I know I should be going home, and I have to make some choices. I have to choose what I’m going to leave undone. I have to walk away from the office knowing that it is important for me to have quality time with my family. There are some people who choose to work every day. There are many people who choose to bring work home, so even when they are home, they are not taking any time to rest.
Why do we think this way? Why do we get so consumed with work? Whether it is work in the business place, or housework, or schoolwork, we can be consumed with all that we have to do. I think it is because we feel like we have to have everything perfect. We want to reach our full potential. We want to become all that we want to be. We want to be seen by others as someone who has accomplished something. And so we work, and we work, and we work.
But in all this working, we forget that we will be more productive if we have some down time; some time of rest. If we work until we are overly tired, then it will affect our output, our efficiency, and our competency. We have to learn how to give ourselves permission to rest. We have to give ourselves permission to have a hobby that takes our minds off of our work. We have to give ourselves the understanding that a Sabbath rest, designed by God, is really a good thing for us.

II. How we were created- (Exodus 31:12-13, 16)
a. Sabbath creates- The idea of a Sabbath day is that it is about
letting God create us all the more. It isn’t about getting where we want to be. Sabbath reminds us that God created us, and that we don’t have to take care of everything ourselves. Sabbath is about learning how to trust God, and not thinking that you have to handle it all on your own.
The Israelites thought this way. At first, Sabbath probably didn’t seem like a gift to them. There were in an agricultural economy; they lived off of what they could grow and harvest. And God tells them to take a day off. That is hard for farmers to do. Farmers don’t take days off. In fact, it is thought to be irresponsible if you are a farmer and you take a day off without doing anything for your crops. And the taking the day off wasn’t designed to make them better farmers. It was for them to remember who God was. It was to remind them that God had created them, and God will sustain them.
The well known actress Audrey Hepburn once said: “Are you bored with life? Then throw yourself into some work you believe in with all your heart, live for it, die for it, and you will find happiness that you had thought could never be yours.” That can sound good, until we try it and realize that our work will never bring us the happiness we desire. When we throw ourselves into our work this way, we end up losing ourselves. Why? Because we are trying to create ourselves, but God has already created us. We need to learn how to understand who God created us to be.
b. God has chosen us- God commanded His people to observe the
Sabbath. But later in Exodus we see God giving some more specific descriptions as to how these commandments were to be applied to daily life. Let us read Exodus 31:12-13, “Then the Lord said to Moses, ‘Say to the Israelites, You must observe my Sabbaths. This will be a sign between me and you for the generations to come, so you may know that I am the Lord, who makes you holy.’”
Then verse 16 says, “the Israelites are to observe the Sabbath, celebrating it for the generations to come as a lasting covenant.” The first listing of the Ten Commandments in Exodus 20 required the Sabbath to remember that God created His people. This second passage gives another reason, that it is to be a sign of the covenant between Him and His people. God requires the Sabbath as a way of reminding His people that He has chosen them. We rest on the Sabbath because God has chosen us, and this Sabbath rest reminds us of our basic identity.
In this world there are many things that try and identify us: labels, our job, being a father or mother, being a student, a child, a sister, a brother, a man, a woman…. Some labels can be hurtful, but indentifiers can be helpful, especially when it comes to our relationship with God; we are chosen by God.
What is behind the Sabbath is the idea that being a member of God’s chosen people is the first and most important part of who we are. Sabbath for the Jews was the most observable way to demonstrate their identity. To not honor the Sabbath wasn’t just about disobeying God, not honoring the Sabbath was about renouncing their identity. It was known that Jews didn’t work on the Sabbath. If they worked on the Sabbath they were renouncing their claim of being Jewish, By working on the Sabbath they were declaring that they weren’t one of Yahweh’s chosen people. It was like slapping God in the face.
EX. When my family moved from Colorado to California, it was something new for Tyler. He was born in Colorado, and spent the first 2 ½ years of his life there. For several years, if you asked Tyler what he was, he wouldn’t say that he was an American, he would say that he was a Coloradan. He used this to identify that he was born in Colorado. He was proud and excited about that fact.
When you think of who you are, how would you identify yourself? When you say that you are a Christian, you are identifying yourself as a follower of Jesus Christ. Hopefully this relationship with God through Christ is important to you. But part of what should show who you are, that you are a Christian, that God has chosen you, is the fact that you put aside Sunday each week to be a Sabbath day where you rest and worship God.

III. How we have been redeemed- (Deuteronomy 5:12-15; Romans 6:11)
So far we’ve looked at two reasons to remember the Sabbath: to remember that God created us, and to remember that God has chosen us. A third reason to rest on the Sabbath is to remember that God has redeemed us.
a. A new season of life- After the Jews were freed from their slavery
to Egypt, they wandered around in the desert for 40 years. This was to prepare them for the life they would have in the Promised Land that God was going to give them. Just prior to their entering the Promised Land, Moses gave them a series of sermons to prepare them for this new season of life as God’s people. As part of this series, Moses again mentioned the Ten Commandments. But when it comes to the Sabbath there is a little bit of a different reason behind it. Listen to Deut. 5:12-15,
“Observe the Sabbath day by keeping it holy, as the Lord your God
has commanded you. Six days you shall labor and do all your work,
but the seventh day is a Sabbath to the Lord your God. On it you shall
not do any work, neither you, nor your son or daughter, nor your maid-
servant, nor your ox, your donkey or any of your animals nor the alien
within your gates, so that your manservant and maidservant may rest,
as you do. Remember that you were slaves in Egypt and that the Lord
your God brought you out of there with a mighty hand and an out-
stretched arm. Therefore the Lord your god has commanded you to
observe the Sabbath day.”
In Exodus 20, if you remember, it linked the Sabbath to God’s completed work in creation. But here in Deuteronomy 5, 40 years later, observing the Sabbath is linked to God’s work in releasing the Jewish people from their slavery in Egypt. The first passage looks back to creation, this second passage looks back at the Exodus. One more reason to observe the Sabbath was to remember God’s saving His people from their slavery; to remember that God has redeemed them.
This moment of redemption was the defining moment for the nation of Israel. When God saved His people from Egypt, it allowed the Jews to become a nation. They were able to go from being slaves, to being their own independent nation!! But God had made a promise to these people. The Exodus was the first step toward this promise. Sabbath reminded God’s people that He created them as a nation..
b. Our identity- It is important for us to think in these terms as well.
As a country, we celebrate July 4 as our day of independence. Of course we know that on July 4, 1776, a group of men signed a document saying that although they were subjects to a certain king, they were declaring their independence from that sovereign and establishing a new nation. This document is called the Declaration of Independence. The story of the Jews isn’t much different than this. They were subjects to a certain foreign king who oppressed them. They eagerly desired independence, and they eventually became a new nation.
But we have an even greater independence; the independence we have from our sin. As we are told in Romans 6:11, “In the same way, count yourselves dead to sin, but alive to God in Christ Jesus.” God has redeemed us from our sin. We are no longer slaves to our sin, but have been made free through Jesus Christ! Christ has redeemed us from our slavery, and taken us to the Promised Land of being a new creation. It is this redemption that we are to remember when we come to the Sabbath day each week!
Illustration: (Aesop’s Fable, “Androcles”)- A slave named Androcles once escaped from his master and fled to the forest. As he was wandering about there he came upon a Lion lying down moaning and groaning. At first he turned to flee, but finding that the Lion did not pursue him, he turned back and went up to him. As he came near, the Lion put out his paw, which was all swollen and bleeding, and Androcles found that a huge thorn had got into it, and was causing all the pain. He pulled out the thorn and bound up the paw of the Lion, who was soon able to rise and lick the hand of Androcles like a dog. Then the Lion took Androcles to his cave, and every day used to bring him meat from which to live. But shortly afterwards both Androcles and the Lion were captured, and the slave was sentenced to be thrown to the Lion, after the latter had been kept without food for several days. The Emperor and all his Court came to see the spectacle, and Androcles was led out into the middle of the arena. Soon the Lion was let loose from his den, and rushed bounding and roaring towards his victim. But as soon as he came near to Androcles he recognised his friend, and fawned upon him, and licked his hands like a friendly dog. The Emperor, surprised at this, summoned Androcles to him, who told him the whole story. Whereupon the slave was pardoned and freed, and the Lion let loose to his native forest…
Gratitude is the sign of noble souls.

Conclusion: God commanded the Sabbath for His people as a reminder of their dependence on Him. We show our gratitude when we set aside the Sabbath day for God. And on this Sabbath day, we are reminded that God has created us, that God has chosen us, that God has redeemed us. Sabbath is about resting our minds and body, but even more, it is about remembering so that the rest of our life can be put into perspective. It is about making priorities. There is always something more to do; always something else that can keep us busy. But if God is a priority in our life, we will show it by giving God one day a week.
Now, as I preach this sermon, most of you already give this day to the Lord; although maybe you could give a little more of it to the Lord. So I want to encourage you to take your outline and share it with somebody this week, and encourage them to come to church each week and give up a day of their week to God. Let us remember all that God has done, and give God praise for this day. Amen.

“The God Who Sees”
Genesis 16:1-15
Mother’s Day; May 10, 2009

Introduction: On this Mother’s Day, we think about moms, and children, and wanting good things for our kids. It is amazing how unique children are. Tyler and Tiffany are very different from each other, not just because they are boy and girl, but in who they are. Tyler is more reserved and school comes easy for him. Tiffany is more outgoing and has to work harder to do well in school.
As parents we try to notice all that our kids are doing without comparing one to the other. We try and let them be who God created them to be. And mothers are wonderful at caring for their kids and wanting the best for them. They are there for their kids, and notice what they do. They encourage them, and challenge them, and help them to be all that they can be.
Our scripture reading this morning is about 2 women, Sarai and Hagar, the struggle between them, and the God who sees all.

I. A Human Solution- (Genesis 11:30, 12:1-3, 15:4-5, 16:1-2)
a. The Problem- Most of you are probably familiar with this story,
but let me give you a little background to help us with our understanding. When Abram was 75-years-old, and his wife Sarai was 65-years-old, God called Abram to leave his family and his home to follow God to a new land; a land that God would give him. The blessing that God would give for this would be that all the families of the earth would be blessed through him, and that through him God would make a great nation.
But Sarai was barren, not having any children at this point, we are told in Genesis 11:30. In Genesis 15:4 God makes a promise to Abram that He was going to give Abram an heir, “one who would come forth from your own body…” And even more, in Genesis 15:5 God continues the promise: “Now look toward the heavens, and count the stars, if you are able to count them. So shall your descendants be.” So these promises are given to Abram, and Abram believes God.
Another ten years pass, Abram is now 85, and Sarai is 75, and still they have no son. They were feeling some pressure, since they were advanced in years and didn’t have an heir. They were getting nervous that God hadn’t answered His promise. So they decide that they need to do something about it on their own. They need to seek to come up with a solution to the problem at hand.
b. Solving the problem without God- So Sarai comes up with a plan
of her own. Let’s read Genesis 16:1-2 again… “Now Sarai, Abram’s wife, had borne him no children. But she had an Egyptian maidservant named Hagar; so she said to Abram, ‘The LORD has kept me from having children. Go, sleep with my maidservant; perhaps I can build a family through her.’ Abram agreed so to what Sarai said.” Ten years is a long time to wait for a promise to be answered, especially if you are 75-years old, and the promise is that you will have a baby. You too might want to come up with your own plan to make this promise come a little faster.
If we look a little closer at the text, we can see some hints that this is not a good plan from God’s perspective. Hint #1- Sarai observes that she has a problem,
barrenness, and that she has a maidservant, Hagar. Sarai sees Hagar as a solution to her problem. She is old, Hagar is young. But in seeing Hagar in this way means that Sarai doesn’t see Hagar as a person, just as an answer to her problem. We can see this even more when we see that Sarai never calls Hagar by her name; she only refers to Hagar as “my maidservant.”
Hint #2- Sarai recognizes that the Lord is the one who is keeping her from having children, as she says to Abram, ‘The Lord has kept me from having children…’ Instead of talking to the Lord about this problem, about her confusion, about her frustration, she decides to act without the Lord’s help. Hint #3- The third hint is that Abram listened to Sarai. How I’m not saying here that husbands shouldn’t listen to their wives, but rather that Abram should have led himself and Sarai to seek the Lord before making a decision like this.
And we have the same problem that Abram and Sarai do; we don’t like to
wait on the Lord either. Even though we claim to be people of faith, children of God, we have a tendency to come up with “solutions” of our own, instead of seeking God for the solution, or continuing to be patient and waiting on the Lord. We desire to have the problem resolved, the pain to be done away with, the issue taken care of, so much so that we are vulnerable to the sin of ‘going it alone.’
But meeting our deepest needs with quick fixes often causes unpleasant circumstances in our lives, and in some cases we can make the problem even greater. And we see this happening in the story of our text here.

II. Feet of Clay- (Genesis 16:3-6; Romans 3:23)
a. Plodding along- Continuing on in the text, verses 3-6: “So after
Abram had been living in Canaan ten years, Sarai his wife took her Egyptian maidservant Hagar and gave her to her husband to be his wife. 4 He slept with Hagar, and she conceived. When she knew she was pregnant, she began to despise her mistress. 5 Then Sarai said to Abram, ‘You are responsible for the wrong I am suffering. I put my servant in your arms, and now that she knows she is pregnant, she despises me. May the LORD judge between you and me.’ 6 ‘Your servant is in your hands,’ Abram said. ‘Do with her whatever you think best.’ Then Sarai mistreated Hagar; so she fled from her.”
The word “despised” used here for what Sarai was feeling towards Hagar means to “make light of.” Hagar is hoping that by going along with what Abram and Sarai are wanting her to do, have a child, will build her up and give her a greater status with them. What it ends up doing is bringing her down. No one comes out well in this story. It is a reminder of Romans 3:23, that tells us: “All have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.” Sarai’s plan causes her to feel anger towards Hagar. Even more, she begins to blame Abram, as she says, ‘You are responsible for the wrong I am suffering…’ Hagar goes from maid, to wife, and then back to maid again, and in the end she is mistreated by Sarai. Abram doesn’t take charge in any way, allowing Sarai to mistreat Hagar. So Hagar runs away.
None of the players come out looking good in this story. This reminds us that the people in the Bible are just that, people, and that they are not perfect. In essence they have feet of clay, meaning that they are no better than you are me; they plod along through life trying to fulfill their dreams. But without God they stumble.
b. Not saved by our goodness- Have you ever had an experience like
this, where you think that your plan will make things better? EXAMPLE: I remember how a few years after Tami and I were married, we decided to try to have kids. A few months went by and Tami wasn’t getting pregnant. It’s funny, because so many people think that once they decide to have kids, it will just happen immediately. Often times, that is not the case, and it wasn’t the case for us. A year went by and still nothing. So we decided to take matters into our own hands and went to a fertility doctor. We both were tested, and everything seemed to be okay; we were told we could have kids. Tami went on medication, but every month that went by without Tami getting pregnant was a difficult time for us; especially Tami. It caused her to become very sad about the situation.
We took the situation into our own hands, instead of taking it to the Lord and trusting Him. It just so happens that after we moved to Colorado, and were busy with getting situated in a new house and church, that less than a month after we were there, Tami got pregnant!
The point is, Bible characters are just like us, and we are just like them, and God tells us about this because story He wants us to know that it’s not our goodness that saves us, but God who saves us. It’s not because we are good that we have a relationship with God; it’s because God is good, and you and I are responding to His goodness.
In this passage we see Abram, and Sarai, and Hagar’s lives exposed for us to see. Not only so we can see the mistakes they made, but that we can see that God can overcome any of our mistakes. Hagar finds herself pregnant, and thrown away by Sarai and Abram. Abram wouldn’t defend her, Sarai didn’t want her around and was abusing her, and now she has run away. She actually runs away all the way to the border of Canaan, at the edge of Egypt. She is exhausted. But she discovers that she isn’t alone in this desert like she thought she was.

III. An Encounter with God- (Genesis 16:7-8; John 4:10-11; Psalm 1:3)
a. God comes to us- We read in Genesis 16:7-8, “The angel of the
LORD found Hagar near a spring in the desert; it was the spring that is beside the road to Shur. 8And he said, ‘Hagar, servant of Sarai, where have you come from, and where are you going?’ ‘I’m running away from my mistress Sarai,’ she answered.” God is the one who comes and meets us in our difficult situations, and we see that here, as God comes to Hagar in her most desperate time. God comes to Hagar through one of His angels, as a messenger from God. As a messenger from God, the angel has come to bring Hagar an important message.
In this encounter we see a turn of events. Whereas it was Sarai’s idea to have Abram sleep with Hagar, now we see that it is God’s idea that the angel of the Lord come to Hagar, and the plan that will be given to Hagar is from God as well. The difference is that even though God’s plan might be hard to understand, or difficult to follow, or challenging to accomplish, God’s plans will succeed for the good of His people. Unlike Sarai’s plan which did not work out for the good of anyone.
The angel of the Lord lets Hagar know that he has found her; he searched for her and found her. This meeting isn’t by chance, but by arrangement of God. It is a reminder to Hagar that God knew that she was lost, and that she needed help, and that God has come to help her through the presence of His angel. Hagar might not have wanted to be found, because she didn’t want to have to go back to Abram and Sarai, maybe she didn’t even think that she was lost. If you don’t know where you are going, then you don’t know that you are lost. But the angel lets her know that she is indeed lost, not just physically, but lost in God’s purpose as well.
b. God’s life-sustaining presence- The angel finds Hagar sitting by a
spring. In the Bible, we see that many significant meetings have taken place by life-giving springs. In the New Testament, John uses the term “living water” to speak of the Holy Spirit. When Jesus encounters the Samaritan woman at the well, he says, “If you knew the gift of God, and who it is that is saying to you, ‘Give me a drink,’ you would have asked him, and he would have given you living water.” (Jn. 4:10-11) John explains later that Jesus was referring to the Holy Spirit when he spoke of living water. Or in Psalm 1:3 where we read: “They are like trees planted by streams of water, which yield their fruit in the season…”
I don’t think it is coincidence that God meets Hagar at a spring. As she is thinking about how this water will keep her alive, so God is coming to bring her life as well; his life-sustaining presence. In this encounter with the angel, God will give Hagar a message of hope in the midst of her despair. And it starts out with the angel calling her by name, as the angel says, ‘Hagar…where have you come from and where are you going?’ Throughout this passage, nobody calls her by her name except God. Everybody else sees her as a servant, probably even Hagar, but God sees her as the wonderful person He created her to be. God knows who she is.
Then the angel asks her a question so that she will respond to him. Maybe this is because the angel thought she would be too surprised to talk, or not know what to say. So the question is simple, and straight forward. Instead of ordering her around, he has a discussion with her. But I think that it also gives Hagar a chance to come clean with what she has done, similar to when God met Adam and Eve in the garden and asked them, “Where are you?” after they sinned. Through this question, it allows the angel of the Lord to engage Hagar, and open her up to receive a spiritual truth. Through this question he hoped to open her heart to be receptive to his message.
She has run away, and she doesn’t know where she is going, but the angel of the Lord is here to give her a promise from God!

IV. Hard Paths to God’s Promises- (Genesis 16:9-13)
a. The angel gives a command- Verses 9-12 tell us: “Then the angel
of the LORD told her, ‘Go back to your mistress and submit to her.’ 10 The angel added, ‘I will so increase your descendants that they will be too numerous to count.’ 11 The angel of the LORD also said to her: ‘You are now with child and you will have a son. You shall name him Ishmael, for the LORD has heard of your misery. 12 He will be a wild donkey of a man; his hand will be against everyone and everyone's hand against him, and he will live in hostility toward all his brothers.’”
In the passage I just re-read we see the angel giving a command. It is probably not what Hagar wanted to hear. The last thing she would have wanted to do was to go back to Sarai, but even more, to go back and submit to her as her maidservant again. This word “submit” means to yield to another; to be under someone’s hand. But the angel wanted her to know that this was God’s plan for her, and that this plan had a great future.
The angel of the Lord knew that her child was important to her. Because of this, the message that the angel tells her has news of her son. God wanted Hagar to know that God had a plan for her son; even a name, Ishmael. The plan might not have sounded that great to her, but it was partly the outcome of her sin, for having gone along with becoming pregnant from Abram; attempting to get a better place for herself by sleeping with Abram.
We tend to forget about Hagar, because the main characters of the story are Abram and Sarai. But there is an important lesson to be learned here through Hagar’s story. In many ways, we are more like Hagar, than Abram or Sarai. We are not wealthy, or powerful people. We can be overlooked by others as Hagar often is. And we can find ourselves in hard places, either by our own doing, or by the circumstances that occur around us. And it is in these hard places that God seeks us out and works the most on our behalf.
b. Not in this alone- Example: “Installing Love.” Think with me for a
moment if you are like Hagar, and God has asked you to do something challenging, difficult, like go back to Sarai. How can you do this? You can only do this with God’s love in your heart. But how do you get God’s love there? Maybe you could do it like loading a computer program. Here’s how it might go….
Installing Love: (the phone rings)
Tech Support: Yes, how can I help you? Customer: Well, after much consideration, I've decided to install Love. Can you guide me through the process?
Tech Support: Yes. I can help you. Are you ready to proceed?
Customer: Well, I'm not very technical, but I think I'm ready. What do I do first?
Tech Support: The first step is to open your Heart. Have you located
your Heart? Customer: Yes, but there are several other programs running now. Is it okay to install Love while they are Running?
Tech Support: What programs are running? Customer: Let's see, I have Past Hurt, Low Self-Esteem, Grudge and Resentment running right now.
TechSupport: No problem, Love will gradually erase Past Hurt from your
current operating system. It may remain in your permanent memory but it will no longer disrupt other programs. Love will eventually override Low Self-Esteem with a module of its own called High Self-Esteem. However, you have to completely turn off Grudge and Resentment. Those programs prevent Love from being properly installed. Can you turn those off?
Customer: I don't Know how to turn them off. Can you tell me how?
Tech Support: With pleasure. Go to your start menu and invoke Forgiveness. Do this as many times as necessary until Grudge and Resentment have been completely erased.
Customer: Okay, done! Love has started installing itself. Is that normal?
Tech Support: Yes, but remember that you have only the base program you need to begin connecting to other Hearts in order to get the upgrades…One more thing before We hang up. Love is Freeware. Be sure to give it and its various modules to everyone you meet. They will in turn share it with others and return some cool modules back to you. Customer: Thank you, God.
I’m sure Hagar had hurt and low self-esteem to get past. I’m sure she was feeling resentment toward Abram and Sarai. She needed God’s love in her heart, just as we do, to be able to do what God was asking of her. Hagar was filled with God’s presence after this meeting, as we hear her say in verse 13, “Then she called the name of the Lord, who spoke to her, ‘You area a God who sees..Have I remained alive here after seeing Him?’..” The wonder of meeting God personally is that you can do things that you didn’t think you could do.

Conclusion: On this Mother’s Day we acknowledge the importance of children to mothers. Hagar was concerned for her son, so she ran away. But God wanted Hagar to know that He would be with her and with her son. It can be challenging to raise a child, especially if you do it all alone, without God’s help. I want to thank all the mothers here for the love you pour out to your children. I want to encourage you to know that God sees what you do, and God will come to you and be with you, especially in the hardest times. But you have to humble yourself, and let God be a part of your decisions, and let God fill you with His love. Happy Mother’s Day. Amen.