CELL NOTES 3/3/08

ICE BREAKER

What Sunday restrictions, if any, did you grow up with? Do you still honour them?

THEME

God’s take on time

Reading Ex 20 : 8 – 11 & Mark 2 : 23 – 3 : 6

SERMON OUTLINE

1) This is a command to rest – as God did after the 6 days of creation.

2) All work and no play makes Jack a dull boy.

3) “Sabbath” derives from the Hebrew word meaning “to cease”.

4) Maintaining a relationship means giving undivided attention to the other. The Sabbath is there to enable us to do that with God.

5) For the Jews, over the years additional laws were devised about what could and could not be done, which became treated with the same authority as the Bible. The Mark passage describes challenges relating to these traditions.

6) How have our traditions changed our view of Sabbath? – e.g. refreshment Sunday has become Mother’s day?

7) So Sabbath is not about prohibitions, or us meeting some kind of legal standard – it is for our benefit to enable us to cease from busyness & seeking to achieve, and rest in God

8) Quote from Rob Bell

            Sabbath is a day when my work is done even if it isn’t....I didn’t do anything today and I don’t feel guilty.

9) In the life of the church we need to remember we all need this – the tasks in mounting worship need to be spread so that all can receive as well as give.

10) Sabbath is there to remind us of

            Creation

            Our position as children of the gospel

            God’s grace

11) Pharisees became more concerned about outward observances than inner heart  - we can be the same!!

12) Said by  a member of Goldmine last week

Worship is not about songs but carrying God with us every day. If we do that we could cause a revolution.

QUESTIONS OF APPLICATION

Read the passages. What strikes you most? What did you come away with on Sunday?

1) How easy do you find it to rest/cease form activity?

2) Where are you likely to emphasise tradition or letter of the law, rather than the heart of things?

3) How do you usually spend “Sabbath”?

4) How do you find physical, emotional, spiritual restoration?