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THE COMMANDMENT
WE ALL BREAK #5
A SPIRITUAL WORD FROM NIKE
So many Christians treasure the story told in the wonderful
film, Chariots of Fire. Back in 1981, it was thrilling to have such a
deeply spiritual saga being told by secular Hollywood, and to know that
a glimmer of the gospel was being experienced by millions of moviegoers
around the globe. Then when it came time for the Academy Awards, and the
announcer read the name Chariots of Fire as the Best Picture of the Year
. . . well, that was almost too good to be true.
Do you remember the story of how Christian missionary and athlete Eric
Liddell WOULD NOT run on his Sabbath? Even the Prince of Wales and the
Olympic committee couldn't get him to violate his conscience and compete
in a heat for the 100-meter dash on the day he felt God had called him
to keep holy. "I love my country and my king," Liddell said
simply. "But I can't pay that price. I won't run."
Of course, the story ends in triumph as Eric Liddell ran INSTEAD in the
400-meter event, a much longer race . . . and miraculously won the gold
medal. He ran to honor God — and surely God was honored both by his victory
AND his obedience.
Friend, there are really just two points to consider as we draw to a close
here on a Friday. For Liddell to obey God's commandment as he understood
it, for him to refrain from running in that Olympic race on his Sabbath
. . . was that legalism? Was he attempting to EARN God's approval or to
earn salvation? Or was he obeying because he knew he was a child of God
who already HAD God's approval, and now wanted to live a holy life as
an expression of his gratitude?
In my own Adventist denomination there are countless stories of wonderful
people who wouldn't violate the Sabbath. Desmond T. Doss, the great Medal
of Honor war hero of World War II, WOULD NOT break the Sabbath, which
HE observed on Saturday, of course. Was he a misguided zealot, trying
to obey where obedience wasn't needed? Or was he a soldier in the truest
sense, a man who obeyed his heavenly Commander's every order out of a
sense of ULTIMATE loyalty? Corporal Doss eventually went out into battle
— to save life, not take it — and rescued 75 GI's while being subjected
to WITHERING enemy fire. And yes, he did it on his Sabbath day, following
the example of Jesus, who always helped and saved and rescued, even on
the Sabbath.
All this week, friend, we've carefully NOT entered into any kind of debate
regarding the question of Saturday versus Sunday. And again today, that's
not the purpose of our Bible study. But I'd like to suggest to you that
there's something very special, very noble, very "(quote) faith-sensitive"
about a man or woman who chooses to fully obey the Fourth Commandment.
Whatever your denominational background today, I invite you to prayerfully
consider the deep and magnificent spiritual challenge of keeping a full
Sabbath . . . AS A FAITH EXPERIENCE.
Think about something with me. It really doesn't take much faith to accept
and even to keep the fifth commandment or the sixth, or the seventh and
eighth. Honor your parents. "Thou shalt not kill." Stealing.
Adultery. Lying. Coveting. Taking God's name in vain. All of these make
sense; they're innate to our religious experience. Some of them are even
regulated by civil laws anyway; we couldn't freely disdain them even if
we wanted to.
But friend, only the Sabbath Commandment, the FOURTH Commandment, calls
us to an act that is totally of faith. To keep a Sabbath day holy unto
the Lord is to do something SIMPLY BECAUSE GOD ASKS US TO. In Clifford
Goldstein's book, A Pause For Peace, he describes it as "(quote)
an act of faith PAR EXCELLENCE."
Maybe you've read the intriguing, almost mysterious, Christian book Perelandra,
by C. S. Lewis, where on a distant planet, the beautiful queen of that
land is being tempted by Lucifer. And in that land, there's a rule against
living on the Fixed Island. She doesn't understand why, but God has said
that she should not live there. Period. And the enemy harasses her. Why?
All other rules make sense; they stand up under scrutiny . . . but not
this one. Why not ignore it? Why not just obey those rules that seem right
to you?
And the war of wills goes on, until finally on page 118, we finally read
the beautiful clincher:
"Where can you taste the joy of obeying
unless God bids you do something for which His bidding is the ONLY reason?"
It was like that in Eden, wasn't it? "Don't eat
from this tree." "But why, God?" "Because I've asked
you not to." That was all. The fruit wasn't poisonous; there was
nothing sinister or rotten about the tree. The leaves were the same color
as the leaves on all the other trees. But God wanted Adam and Even to
demonstrate and experience a true faith experience.
Now friend, this isn't to imply for a moment that the Sabbath is ONLY
an arbitrary random pick by God, another tree-in-the-garden experience.
As we've said all this week, there are powerful reasons for the necessity
of the Sabbath experience. We NEED the Sabbath; our bodies and our souls
are desperate for the restoring power of that DAY, that weekly walk with
our Creator. There's nothing arbitrary about the Fourth Commandment. And
yet, the obeying of it is a totally SPIRITUAL experience, a moment of
great FAITH.
I said there was a second point to our discussion. Here it is: I'd like
to invite you right now, today, to take this exciting step of faith. You
know how they say in Nike ads: "Just do it." Well, here comes
that same invitation to your doorstep right now. Why not just DO IT?
My friend Dwight Nelson, who pastors a huge university church in my own
Adventist denomination, has recently been using the expression Radical
Disciple. And I love that challenge! Are we men and women who love Jesus
so much that we'll ACCEPT His invitation to rest in Him, to celebrate
with Him in a SABBATH sense? Will we give Him in a special way that full
day of intimate fellowship once a week for 52 weeks a year?
I have good friends who say to me, "Well, Lonnie,
I keep EVERY day unto the Lord." Yes, I know . . . and I appreciate
the sentiment. But we're talking about something different here than just
remembering God in our daily living. We're talking about radical discipleship,
about laying aside our work and our own interests and our mall-hopping
and our football games and our TV sets and our fixation with money and
CNN's Headline News . . . and really GIVING God that whole day.
We're talking about people who go to their bosses and say, "On this
one day a week I CAN'T COME IN." Who say to their spouses: "On
this one day, I really want for us to GIVE God US . . . for the whole
day." Who say to their favorite merchants and baseball teams, "I'm
sorry, but this one day belongs to the Lord. In a very special way, I
am HIS on the Sabbath."
And something inside of us cries out: "No! I don't
dare do it! I can't afford it! I can't give up that much time, that much
earning power, that big a chunk of my LIFE!"
In his book Mere Christianity, C. S. Lewis writes about
something that I think goes right to this challenge. Do we really trust
God enough to enter into this deeper experience? Here's what he says:
"The real problem of the Christian life
comes where people do not usually look for it. It comes the very moment
you wake up each morning. All YOUR wishes and hopes for the day rush at
you like wild animals. And the first job each morning consists simply
in shoving them all back; in listening to that OTHER voice, taking that
other point of view, letting that larger, stronger, quieter life come
flowing in. And so on, all day. Standing back from all your natural fussings
and frettings; coming in out of the wind."
Isn't that beautiful? "Coming in out of the wind," the gale
forces of materialism and human desires. In a way it's hard, and in a
way it's easy. The coach tells us, "That's enough practicing and
driving yourself and striving and gritting your teeth. Come away from
the track now . . . and let's rest." We want to cry out, "No!
I need to work and sweat some more." But what a precious experience
to actually come in out of the wind, to trust in the Coach, and to feel
His strong arms around us, holding us up, taking responsibility for us
and for our successes.
Clifford Goldstein, who wrote the book we're giving away today to each
of you, writes this:
"Sabbath is a weekly call HOME, a weekly
reminder that we are God's creatures, first by creation, and then by redemption,
being of inestimable value because we were ‘bought at a price,'"
that's First Corinithians 7:23, "even ‘the precious blood of Christ.'
By pointing us back to where we came from (God), the Sabbath shows us
not only who we are (beings made in the image of that God), but ultimately
where we are going (to a world recreated by that God). The Sabbath experience
gives life clear direction and purpose because it brings us closer to
Jesus Christ, in whom ‘we live and move and have our being.'"
Friends, I'm really out of words. I can't recommend anything in life any
more highly.
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