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Call the Sabbath a Delight

May 8, 2016 Preacher: Series: How We Are Designed to Live: The Work - Sabbath Balance

Scripture: Isaiah 58:1–14

How We Are Designed to Live Devotional Cover

 

Key Truth: God calls us to repent of self-serving religious practices and join Him in His redemptive mission and experience the true delight that is the heart of the Sabbath.

 

Introduction:

Q: What impact should the Sabbath have on how we live the rest of our life?

“Thus says the Lord: “Keep justice, and do righteousness, for soon my salvation will come, and my deliverance be revealed. Blessed is the man who does this, and the son of man who holds fast, who keeps the Sabbath, not profaning it, and keeps his hand from doing evil.”

Isaiah 56:1-2

 

 

Why Have We Humbled Ourselves…?

Isaiah 58:1-5

“Instead of their religion making them a blessing, as God intended, it made them a curse. Interestingly, the people were being caught up in what God had not particularly commanded – fasts – and were neglecting what he had specifically commanded – the Sabbath feast.”

John N. Oswalt, Isaiah

Q: Are their ways in which your religious practices have become self-serving? Do you recognize God’s grace in calling you to repent of self-serving practices and calling you to the greater freedom of obedience in faith to His promises?

 

 

To Loose the Bonds of Wickedness, To Undo the Straps of the Yoke:

Isaiah 58:6-12

“The proclamation of the gospel, the faith that God’s love frees us to love, is made more credible when it is tangibly accompanied by works of love and obedience to God’s covenant instructions to care for the needy."

Marva J. Dawn, Keeping the Sabbath Wholly: Ceasing, Resting, Embracing, Feasting

Q: How does your treatment of others, especially those in need, affect your experience of God’s presence and glory? Where is God inviting you to join in His redemptive work?

 

 

Call the Sabbath a Delight:

Isaiah 58:13-14

“The Sabbath was not a fast but a feast day. Isaiah counters the negativism of his day (2-5), not only with the positive works and promises of verses 6-12 but the setting of the feast over against the fast. The Lord is more interested in enjoyment of his blessings through obedience than in self-imposed deprivations.”

J. Alec Motyer, The Prophecy of Isaiah: An Introduction and Commentary

Q: Is the Sabbath a delight to you as the means of grace that God intended for it to be?

 

Isaiah 58 teaches us that:

-God takes no pleasure in self-serving religious practices and calls for us to repent

-God invites us to participate in His redemptive mission to experience His presence

-the Sabbath is a feast of delight given by God to remind us weekly to order our lives around His redemptive mission

 

“(The Israelites) return from exile is a picture of the victory promised in the New Covenant. In the New Testament, God promises us victory as well: in Christ we are more than conquerors (Rom. 8:37); we shall have victory over Satan and sin. According to Isaiah 58:14, God promises this victory to those who keep His day holy. Sabbath-keeping is a means of grace that will help you die to sin and grow in holiness.”

Joseph A. Pipa, Jr., The Lord’s Day

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