A Day to Celebrate OUR HOPE

A Day to Celebrate OUR HOPE hope for today

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hope for today

KEY TEXT:Exodus 20:8-11 “Remember the Sabbath day, to keep it holy. Six days you shall labor and do all your work, but the seventh day is the Sabbath of the Lord your God . . . . For in six days the Lord made the heavens and the earth, the sea, and all that is in them, and rested the seventh day. Therefore the Lord blessed the Sabbath day and hallowed it.”

SECTION 1The Sabbath of Rest

A Day to Celebrate OUR HOPE

hope for today

CONSIDER:When God gave the Ten Commandments to Moses, He placed a full day of rest every week - - the Sabbath - - right in its middle. The word “Sabbath” means a “ceasing,” that is, a break from work. God intended that our households enjoy some time free of worry, free of stress, free of pressure.

DISCUSS:Why should we rest on the seventh day?

A Day to Celebrate OUR HOPE

SECTION 1The Sabbath of Rest

SECTION 2God Blesses the Sabbath

hope for today

KEY TEXT:Genesis 2:1-3 “Thus the heavens and the earth, and all the host of them, were finished. And on the seventh day God ended His work which He had done, and He rested on 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 from all His work which God had created and made.”

A Day to Celebrate OUR HOPE

hope for today

CONSIDER:The Sabbath didn’t begin at the time of Moses. It goes back to Creation. And God has never removed that blessing. Anyone who takes God at His Word and sets aside the seventh day will find that the Sabbath is a special gift from our loving Creator.

DISCUSS:Did the Sabbath blessing begin with Moses or Creation?

A Day to Celebrate OUR HOPE

SECTION 2God Blesses the Sabbath

SECTION 3God Sets Apart the Sabbath as a Special Day

hope for today

KEY TEXT:Isaiah 58:13-14 “If you turn away your foot from the Sabbath, from doing your pleasure on My holy day, and call the Sabbath a delight, the holy day of the LORD honorable, and shall honor Him, not doing your own ways, nor finding your own pleasure, nor speaking your own words, then you shall delight yourself in the LORD; and I will cause you to ride on the high hills of the earth, and feed you with the heritage of Jacob your father. The mouth of the LORD has spoken.”

A Day to Celebrate OUR HOPE

hope for today

FURTHER STUDY: Hebrews 10:24-25; Mark 3:1-5; Deuteronomy 5:15

SECTION 3God Sets Apart the Sabbath as a Special Day

A Day to Celebrate OUR HOPE

hope for today

CONSIDER:The Sabbath is a day to celebrate. We celebrate God as Creator, Redeemer, and Rescuer. We relieve suffering. When Jesus performed several healing miracles on the Sabbath, the religious leaders accused Him of breaking the Sabbath, but in fact He was showing that the Sabbath is for celebration, not for joyless gloom. It is a day for doing good.

DISCUSS:How can we celebrate the Sabbath? Is the Sabbath a celebration of freedom?

SECTION 3God Sets Apart the Sabbath as a Special Day

A Day to Celebrate OUR HOPE

INVITATION

hope for today

In these hectic times, all of us need the Sabbath more than ever. Think of the Sabbath as a loving gift to you from the God of love. Will you accept this gift from Jesus and use its hours to be spiritually, emotionally and physically refreshed and to fulfill His charge that “I was naked and you clothed Me; I was sick and you visited Me; I was in prison and you came to Me?” Matthew 25:36.

A Day to Celebrate OUR HOPE