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THE COMMANDMENT
WE ALL BREAK #3
GET OUT OF THE POOL NOW!
Have you ever trained for an athletic event? I mean,
a BIG event . . . where there was just a whole lot riding on the outcome?
About the only game I really play at all is golf — and the world stands
back in amazement if I break 90. But there's not much training I can do
for golf, and I wouldn't have the time even if it WERE a serious endeavor.
But think with me about people who train for a marathon, or for running
the 1500-meter race in the Olympic Games in Atlanta. Or for those swimming
events and diving competitions.
You know, there are two kinds of athletes. There are those where the coach
has to push them all the way. "Come on, now. Twenty more laps. Fifteen
more repetitions with the weights. Another hour on the track." And
then after lunch they're after you again. Five more miles. Two more hours.
More weights, more pushing, more blood, sweat, and tears. Like I say,
there are those who have to be coaxed all the way to the finish line.
But then there are those athletes who have such intense desire in them
that, even without a coach, they push TOO HARD. Before their instructor
wakes up in the morning, they're already out there on the track putting
in extra miles. They stay in the pool so long after everyone else quits
for the night that their skin prunes up and they lose all their TV endorsements.
In fact, they're so DRIVEN that they frankly work TOO hard. They train
TOO MUCH, and they crash and burn. They FAIL in the big game, because
they abused their own bodies and souls.
And that's where a coach has to come along and say INSTEAD: "Joe,
get out of the pool. Take a break."
"But, Coach, I've got to keep going! I want to win!"
"No. You're done for today. Any more swimming would HURT instead
of HELP. Now, out of the pool."
"But Coach . . ."
"No, I'm ORDERING you to quit right now."
And do you know something? Sometimes it's THAT coach and THAT athlete
who end up winning! But the coach has to be strong enough to TELL the
Olympic swimmer, "You're going to stop training now and rest. RESTING
is part of your regimen, and I'm ORDERING you to do it starting right
now."
All this week, friend, we've been talking about the most ignored commandment
listed in Exodus chapter 20. From verses eight to eleven, we find the
God of heaven COMMANDING His children to keep the Sabbath holy. To stop
training, to stop working, to stop ENDEAVORING . . . and to rest. Every
seventh day, followers of Jesus Christ are to STOP for a full 24 hours
and rest in Him. They're to get out of the swimming pool of life, to get
off the track. And friend, we're supposed to cease from our endless training
and our working and enter into a full and complete DAY of REST.
Do you see why many good Christians of virtually every denomination call
this the ignored Commandment, the bargain-basement sin? Because we're
not obeying this Sabbath commandment! It's just plain not happening!
For more than 120 years in my own Adventist denomination, we've been saying
to one another and to anyone who would listen: "Hey, this is important!
This is vital!" And I'm excited and humbly encouraged that many fellow
believers in OTHER Christian communities are saying the same thing now.
The loss of the concept of the SABBATH is absolutely scarring the soul
of society here in the jet-paced, fax-driven year of 1999. All of us are
so DRIVEN to work, to succeed, to compete . . . that the missing SABBATH
is a more fatal flaw than ever before in human history.
In the wonderful book that we're mailing out free of charge to all of
our listeners, A Pause For Peace, author Clifford Goldstein writes with
real passion about our very DRIVEN natures. And he knows what he's writing
about, because Clifford himself is a type-A kind of professional, a hard-working
writer who would sit at his laptop 22 hours a day if lightning didn't
strike him. He's the editor of Liberty magazine, an award-winning journal
that promotes religious freedom; he's written many books, and travels
extensively to speaking appointments around the world.
But do you know something? When the sun dips below the horizon on Friday
evening, Goldstein, being a Seventh-day Adventist Christian, shuts off
his computer. He puts away his travel schedule. He tucks into a closet
all the manuscript submissions for Liberty magazine. And he spends his
Sabbath, that full 24-hour period, RESTING. He plays with his little boy
in the park. He relaxes with his family in front of the fireplace. They
attend church together. He and his wife enjoy intimate moments, in fact,
they're luxurious HOURS spent together in close communion.
All the while, those deadlines are still THERE. Under the surface, he
KNOWS that his latest book manuscript is due at the printer's in two weeks.
The next issue of Liberty still needs a lot of work. He's leaving for
Florida on Tuesday, and still doesn't have those three sermons polished.
And sure, the back yard desperately needs mowing. But on the Sabbath,
he shoves those deadlines to the side. He pays no attention to them. Why?
Because God has COMMANDED him to rest.
And I want to tell you how grateful I am for that COMMAND! I join Clifford
Goldstein in being grateful that God is STRONG ENOUGH to tell me, "YOU
WILL NOT WORK! For these 24 hours, you will not keep training and running
and lifting all those weights. On the Sabbath Day, you WILL rest."
Here's how Goldstein himself describes the situation.
Listen:
"Perhaps, because of the inherent selfishness
that boils in us, the Lord ORDERS us to keep the Sabbath, WHICH WEEKLY
COOLS THE BREW WITHIN." Isn't that good? "In spite of God's
command, FEW keep Sabbath now; if it were OPTIONAL, NO ONE WOULD. We're
too selfish, too desirous of feeding the greedy demons that dwell within.
So God ORDERS us to keep Sabbath, just as He ORDERS us not to commit adultery.
. . . Once a week, God COMMANDS us to stop working, to stop acquiring
wealth, to stop reaching for material things — and reach for the spiritual
instead."
That's hard-hitting, isn't it? And you know, it hits
pretty close to home. Even as an Adventist Christian, where this is such
a long-standing priority, I feel my own tremendous sense of LACK as I
consider this Bible principle. How often I've wanted to keep going, to
keep striving and achieving . . . even during the Sabbath hours. Did I
dare to "(quote) LOSE" so much time out of my schedule? Shouldn't
I run just a few more miles before turning in for the night?
Despite my very human and SELFISH nature, though, I want to tell you two
of my own spiritual goals. First of all, I want to trust God. Isn't that
your goal too? We want to trust God! He's the Coach! He knows what's best
for us! He knows our bodies, our souls, our passions, our inner clocks
and timetables! As the Designer, He KNOWS how we should live, not just
in survival but in abundance. He knows!
And then, I'm glad that God is strong! I'm grateful that He COMMANDS us,
that He looks into my selfish, grasping heart and says, "Lonnie,
I'm TELLING you — stop. Stop right now. Put DOWN your little black Voice
of Prophecy appointment calendar book; TURN OFF your laptop. Unplug your
phone and your fax. I'm not ASKING you to keep My Sabbath, or SUGGESTING
that you keep it, or HINTING that it might be nice if you keep it. Lonnie,
I'm TELLING you to keep it. With love and concern ringing through every
word, I'm COMMANDING you to obey My Fourth Commandment." As is written
in the book of Deuteronomy chapter 10, verse three, God says: "I'm
commanding you today for YOUR good."
Take a moment sometime today to just read that Fourth Commandment found
in Exodus 20, verses 8-11. "Remember the Sabbath day," God says.
Friend, that's a command just as plain as "Thou shalt not kill."
And then in verse ten:
"In it YOU SHALL NOT DO any work.
That's wonderfully STRONG, isn't it? "The
Sabbath protects us from ourselves," Goldstein writes. I think that's
so true, and it's a protection provided by a strong and wise God who simply
knows BETTER than we do.
You parents, have you ever found yourself in a position where you knew
better than your son or daughter? You could see how DRIVEN they were to
pass that exam, to ace those ACT tests. But as a loving mom or dad, you
KNOW that FOUR hours of study plus EIGHT hours of sleep is going to yield
a better score than TWELVE hours of all-night study plus ZERO sleep. You
KNOW it's unwise to stay up all night cramming through the cobwebs. Because
you're wiser and older, you KNOW it. And that's why, at 10:30 that night,
you said to them, "Honey, that's it for tonight. You've done your
best; now it's time for bed."
"But Mom! No way! I've got to study some more."
And it's because you love them that you say very simply: "No. It's
time to rest."
And it's because we're God's CHILDREN that we can DARE to obey Him. He'll
make HIMSELF responsible for how those test scores come out. If we don't
do so good, it's okay . . . because our loving Father is the One who invited
us to rest in Him. It was the Coach Himself who said: "Things will
be fine. Come, now, let's rest together."
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