Main idea: God’s work in creating and sustaining all things calls for constant thanksgiving
Romans 1:21
Thank you Lord, for __________ you made.
Thank you Lord, for __________ you have graciously given.
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Well, good morning again. Faith, Bible Church. My name is Dan. If you're new with us today, I'm one of the pastors here. It's such a joy to gather on the Lord's Day. We're going to be, in just a couple of minutes, looking at Genesis 126, through two, three. You can get that ready. What we have been looking at in Genesis, in these first six days is how God has made an orderly world. You notice that one of the phrases that shows up after he makes a certain thing is he saw that it was good six times, he says it was good. The seventh, he says it's very good. And on the seventh, he set apart a day to enjoy it. And so as we think about this, as we come into this passage, we could ask a really important question this text starts to answer for us in the Bible, what does God do for hungry people. What kind of God is it that feeds the hungry? Physically hungry, spiritually hungry. You might be here today, and you are here because of a spiritual hunger. You've been trying to fill it other places, and it's not working. This should be a good word of grace for you today. Stand with me for the reading of God's Word.
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Read Genesis, 126, through two, three. Then God said, Let us make man in Our image, after Our likeness, and let them have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the heavens, and over the livestock, and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth. So God created man in His own image, in the image of God, He created him, male and female. He created them, and God blessed them. God said to them, Be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth and subdue it and have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the heavens, and over every living thing that moves on the earth. And God said, Behold, I have given you every plant yielding seed that is on the face of the earth, and every tree with seed and its fruit, you shall have them for food, and to every beast of the earth, and to every bird of the heavens, and to everything that creeps on the earth, everything that has the breath of life, I have given every green plant for food. And it was so. And God saw everything that He had made, and behold, it was very good. And there was evening, and there was morning, the sixth day, thus the heavens and the earth were finished, and all the host of all the host of them. And on the seventh day, God finished his work that he had done. He rested on the seventh day from all his work that he had done. So God blessed the seventh day and made it holy, because on it, God rested from all His work, which that he had done in creation. This is the word of the Lord God. We we say that. We say thanks be to God altogether, because you are worthy of our Thanksgiving for all your work in creation and sustaining and redemption and all the promises that lay in store for those who you've called and who trust you, God, I pray that You would help us see your work, that we would be glad to obey, that we would Be thankful in our stewardship of what we have been given, and that as we see a Sabbath day set apart, we are here on a Lord's day set apart. May we celebrate you. You are great and worthy. There are hungry people here, spiritually hungry, and they're here because what, what they have been pursuing outside of here has not been satisfying. Satisfy them in Christ and in your goodness for all of us, we, we would confess, we are easily, easily discontent. And this passage among others reminds us of so many good reasons that we should give you thanks, Father, I pray that You would help the suffering among us like Donna Knesset, who had heart surgery just a week ago this very time, bring her to health help many others who have been sick among us. Some who are watching at home shut in. We pray for them that you would encourage them, Father. We pray now for our time here, that you would help us see the the glory of the gospel in it, that you would be at work across the city as many, many people are gathered, hearing your word, singing songs to you. And we would pray that from from here, around our area, you would raise up faithful witnesses out of the churches, that you'd be glorified Christ's name, Amen, you may be seated. Well, here's here's the big idea this morning. And I take this from, from Romans, 121 Romans, 121 says that the essential thing that we ought to do, because God is a good creator, is to give him Thanksgiving. God's work in creating and sustaining all thing calls for constant Thanksgiving, not just one day where we set aside Thanksgiving giving, but constant Thanksgiving. And I put a line in here, just to start you thinking about it. Thank you, Lord for blank that you have made. And to start with, we want to look at the things that God has made in creation. And I would urge you, this is something you can easily do with the children at home, come up with categories of things and then specific things. And I bet you could spend an hour just at the created things that God has provided for you. And you should know it. You should know this. And you, I'm certain, have experienced that intentionally and extensively, thanking God each day does more good for your life than you imagine. Intentional, extensive Thanksgiving may be one of your best tools for reducing your credit card debt. It may keep you from starting credit card debt young people, at least those pre credit card why is that? Because thankful people can wait until they have the money. Content, people can. It might keep you from the pitfalls of consumerism, of over accumulation. Content, people don't need as much stuff intentionally, extensively, thanking God each day might give might awaken job satisfaction. It could double, or even triple, your marriage satisfaction, and you will undoubtedly be a more joyful person to be around. Thankful people are more joyful people, they're simply more fun to be around. For those who have what is culturally called an addictive personality, those the Bible would call enslaving sins, voluntary enslavement, we might call it. It can be intentional, extensive. Thanksgiving might be the best guard to your sexual faithfulness to your spouse. It might be the number one daily weapon against alcoholism, drug addiction, gambling, porn addiction, gaming addiction, these voluntary enslavements. Now, having said that, I'm not advocating for the cultural cliche, you know, the Instagram girl, I'm Choosing Gratitude. I'm not I'm not saying that, and I'm probably not even making fun of her in the right way. Thanksgiving to God, not just being thankful. I'm thankful. Thankful. No thanking God, like as in something you say to God repeatedly over various things is the first and right response to a good and gracious creator. No one is more worthy of Thanksgiving than God is for his work in creation. All things were made for His glory, first and our good second. Throughout the Bible, we see these calls to give thanks to the Lord, and according to the apostle Paul, we find that the thing that brought the wrath of God on mankind was this. In Romans, 121, having seen all the creation, it says they did not honor God or give thanks to Him. Pride and unbelief are often touted as the root sins of Genesis three. We're going to get to that a little while. But neither pride nor unbelief can sprout or bear fruit. Were it not? For the soil of discontentment, covetousness. It's hard for pride and unbelief to grow in the soil of Thanksgiving. And if Adam and Eve could fall for discontentment. Who are we to think that we don't need to fight for it? And Genesis, one provides us this picture of a good God who provides for his people. And a perfect opportunity to respond in honor and Thanksgiving, as we've been looking at it this last week, we saw that we've had three responses to this submission, stewardship and satisfaction. We've looked at the days of the week. We saw the order. We've seen the trajectory that God has made the planet and its flourishing and its vibrant life. Mankind has been given a command, Be fruitful, multiply, fill the earth and subdue it. Now we're looking at these responses to it,
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submission, stewardship, satisfaction. I think we would rightly say thankful submission, thankful stewardship, satisfaction, thankful satisfaction. And that's how we're going to look at it. This morning. We're going to look at the remainder of chapter one with the creation mandate. We're going to look at God's rest establishing a Sabbath rest as well. So let's jump in thankful submission number one. How do we respond to all of this truth about God's created order and God's creative goodness? We respond the right way by submitting to him in gratitude that we would share his glorious worldwide mission, he has given us a calling to a glorious worldwide mission. We should be thankful for this. Remember, the world wasn't brought into existence by a cruel tyrant to make us slaves. It was brought into existence by a good and gracious king who wanted to share His glory and goodness with image bearers. Six times it's said to be good. One time it's very good. And I want you to stop for a second what God does is good because he is good. What God does is good because he is good. Scriptures talk about God's goodness in two ways. The first way is in the sum total of his perfections, his attributes all held. I heard a fancy new word this week, equipoise, not balance, but all there ready to be displayed for every proper circumstance. Moses was struggling with the people of Israel, leading them in Exodus, 3318, he's like, I can't go on. And so he says, Please show me your glory. And the Lord said, I will make all my goodness pass before you and will proclaim before you my name next chapter. God does this. Ex, Exodus, 34 six, the Lord passed before him and proclaimed the Lord, the Lord Yahweh. Yahweh a god merciful and gracious, slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love and faithfulness, keeping steadfast love for 1000s, forgiving iniquity and transgression and sin, but who will, by no means clear the guilty visiting the iniquity of the fathers on the children and the children's children to the third and fourth generation. What is God like? Well, this is his goodness. This passed before Moses. Merciful, gracious, patient, loving, faithful, righteous, forgiving, just, Judge. This is all his goodness. It's all of who God is. But many times, matter of fact, most of the time. Goodness, all of these ways He manifests Himself, comes in a form of generosity. When you think of goodness, the second way the Scripture talks about it, is generosity. He made the world in the beginning and has been sustaining it ever since he has been showing his. Generosity. What we see in Genesis, one is a generous God. Mankind then is given four commands to submit to you. And because God is King and Creator, He has the right to command his creation. He tells them to exercise dominion, Be fruitful, multiply, fill the earth, and He generously provides for his image bearers. I mean, just think of the six days we could highlight one aspect of it. Day one, we have daytime which means that all that we're going to need is going to be powered in 12 hours of a day, and we do nothing about that. We just enjoy it, utilize it. Day two, he makes the atmosphere which is going to house all of the weather. Do you know what you do with the weather? You wait for it, you do nothing with the weather except complain. You wait for it. Day three, he makes earth, sea vegetation. It's going to produce an abundance of food for all living creatures. Jump ahead what we just looked at today. Verse 29 it says, Behold, I have given you every plant yielding seed that is on the face of the earth, and every tree with seed and its fruit, you shall have them for food. Everything you need to survive and thrive is going to be given by the vegetation on the earth. The Earth is going to produce an abundance of minerals, elements that can that are to be discovered, developed and adapted in order to enhance life on Earth and fulfill the Dominion mandate. Day four, he makes the sun, moon and stars. You do nothing to make the sun shine, and yet, God makes the sunshine, the moon orbits, the world spins, the stars rotate, everything, every living thing need. God provides and provides an abundance. So if he commands, we can thank him that he furnishes all that we need to fulfill the command. Remember what we see God is father and loves and cares for his creatures out of the overflow of grace. Hold this in your head. He owes them nothing. He owes us nothing. We owe him everything. Solomon could say at the end of Ecclesiastes, 1213, the end of the matter, all has been heard. Fear God and keep His commandments, for this is the whole duty of man. Joyful, thankful, submission is the duty of man. The Creator always has the right to do what he wishes with the creature. This remains difficult for people. It remains very difficult for people to swallow even it's even difficult for Christians to accept when God judges, when God disciplines, when trials come, we want to put God on trial for the crime of making or letting us suffer. I'm suffering. I'm uncomfortable. The AC is not working. How could you do this to me, Lord, like we want to put him on trial. Isaiah, 64, eight. Isaiah understood the right attitude. Says, But now, O Lord, You are our Father. We are the clay, and you are our Potter. We are all the work of your hand. Paul in the apostle Paul in Romans nine, answering back those who didn't like the potter's freedom. Said, will the vessel, will the clay say back to the potter, why did you make me thus? Who are you? O, man. God is the Creator. God is creator, and as creator, as a good creator, we can joyfully submit to Him. Number two, thankful submission follows to thankful stewardship. Thankful stewardship, we should make the most of the stewardship we have, because God has given it to us. Says a good creator, and also knowing the whole storyline of the Bible, we are given a stewardship in this life for a time, and we are to be responsible for it until Jesus returns. We should exercise our stewardship with thanksgiving. Remember God owns everything. We are mere stewards of what God gives us. It's for him his glory and the good of others in our world. Remember those four exercise dominion. Remember it's exercise dominion. Be fruitful and multiply, fill the earth. Dominion. What does that mean? It means providing leadership, oversight, order and care over the resources that God's given you. And the goal of Dominion is God's glory in human flourishing. Remember, it's not domination, it's not exploitation. God's glory in human flourishing. Now let's use our imaginations a little bit. Here's a question, how many of you have pets of any kind? Pets of any kind? Great. How many of you have dogs? How many of you have cats? How many of you have cats and dogs? Well done. We immensely enjoy our cats. They use us, but we don't really care. I
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yeah, I am a warm lap for the old cat, a scratching post for the young cat, and we still enjoy them. So just think of this like I'm thinking kids, do you know one of the jobs that would happen in creation? I mean, exercise dominion. So be fruitful and multiply, fill the earth. Exercise dominion. One of the number one projects would have been establishing national parks. I mean, we like to speculate about what's going to happen in the future. Speculate about what have happened in the past. One of the key jobs would have been a park ranger. I mean, it'd be like zookeepers without fences cages, gathering or distributing food. I mean, it would have been amazing job to have. Your main job would be to provide structure and order for every living thing. Now, if we move past Genesis three, where sin is introduced. We have no less obligation to the Creator. The creation mandate still stands. His tasks for us are no different, except that we have to deal with sin and a decaying world. You still need to take the resources around you, make them more orderly, productive, beautiful. When we get into chapter two, we're going to talk in chapter four, we're going to talk about art and culture, but based on the creation mandate, we should care about water quality, pollution, exploitive industrial practices, how freeways and skyscape scrapers cut through migration paths of animals and birds. We should think about how North Idaho's reckless mining practices. 100 years ago, put heavy metals into the Spokane River, making the fish inedible. We should think about those things. I'm not getting political. It's not a political statement. I'm not taking a political side. I didn't even say global warming or climate change, until I say global warming or climate change. The Creation mandate calls on us to see the flourishing of mankind and all the creatures.
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Lynn, been driving over the past for a number of years, because our kids live on the other side of the state. We've been watching this overpass go in construction for years. Just before you get to Snoqualmie, it's this huge Overpass, and we realize there's, there's no road, it's just a bunch of dirt and trees like you really just covered it with mountain until we finally thought about Google tell us something, it's a migration trail. They had to create a migration trail for the benefit of two people. I mean two things, the creatures and humans, those elk crossed there, killing people and killing the elk. So they spent money creating an overpass, a game trail, a migration path, so that those massive elk could flourish and grow and nobody has to die. So those kinds of thoughts are perfectly in order of the Creation mandate. We have then watched some wildlife shows, and we find that countries all over the world are doing versions of this. It's good for people. It's good for the animals. Elevated freeways over portions of the Serengeti, elevated freeways in various Africa so that the elephants can go under, not over, or at least slow elephants crossing signs. Those are all good things. So whenever we find out that we are hindering God's creation, God's creation mandate, we need to adapt. We need to adjust. It's not going to be up to the animals to adjust. Not saying you shouldn't shoot an animal and kill it, but you probably shouldn't shoot so many that their population is destroyed. That wouldn't be good management. Bring it closer to home, students, students, you're preparing for a life of service to God while loving the parents and siblings in your home, that is part of your creation. Mandate, do good work at your work right now your work is school. Do good work for your parents and your siblings. Workers, whatever kind of job I was watching, I had been to witness two managers running employees through protocol checklists to provide clean bathrooms, quality coffee service, clean and orderly stores, which we all love. We women. Do you like to go into a clean bathroom? Somebody is working on the creation mandate to give you a clean bathroom. Parents, you're beating back the chaos of little that little bodies create. Little bodies create so much chaos. There's so much sweeping and wiping and putting away and washing and wiping and washing and wiping and folding and wiping and washing and putting away and washing and wiping and washing and wiping. There's so much sweeping and vacuuming, and even if you get a Roomba, you got to empty it. I see so many of our retirees and grandparents continuing to lay hold the mandate, because the mandate is generational, Be fruitful, multiply, fill the earth. Means you're going to have kids, and their kids are going to have kids, and then your kids are going to have kids and and you're going to want to join in. I mean, I could, I could give 150 names. The people that I work really close with like the takasakis are doing that with a whole bunch of grandkids. I see Mike and Joyce sawot Do that with grandkids. I also see them with the new creation mandate that believers are given in evangelizing with refugees. I see Nancy Dannon, a widow now, but she's got she's investing in her children and grandchildren, and I could just give you so many things. I'm looking out at you and all your gray hair, and I applaud you. I applaud you. You're doing it. And I want to tell you those, those retirees and grandparents who are serving the church and serving their families, they're the most thankful and happy people in the church. Be fruitful and multiply. Be fruitful and multiply. As a command here, let's let's address this question that we raised last week. Two questions naturally emerge, does everyone need to get married and have kids? Well, I'm gonna give you a simple answer with Jesus. And the answer is, No, Jesus did not get married and he did not have kids, and he was perfectly obedient, yeah, but didn't he have the job of like dying for our sins and having the bride called the church? Yes, but he was perfectly obedient to all of God's commands. So having children was not a particular command for every person. In fact, we know from the Old Testament, we know from the New Testament that some people devote themselves to God in a special way, by not getting married first. Corinthians seven, the apostle Paul says, What about having children. If you get married, you have to have children. The Bible doesn't say how many children you have to have. Doesn't say that. It doesn't say ladies have babies till you die. Doesn't say that. It doesn't say that. In fact, with the introduction of sin in chapter three. Introduced to a host of factors about childbearing. There are factors each couple might lead them to limit themselves or not have any. I mean, there's all kinds of health and other factors that are involved with this. Once sin is introduced, you have this, this problem, not only that, we're we're not living in the pre fall state. We're living in, the post fall state with the introduction of sin in chapter three. Many who want to get married can't find a spouse, and they lament. Many who want children, who are married can't have children, and they lament. And let me just continue this one more set. There are many aches in the world that at the beginning weren't there, no sin. Those aches aren't there, and there's a right, godly way to do that, that is lament. Right now we live in a fallen world that does that creation mandate is corrupted. It's corrupted in the animal kingdom. It's corrupted in the plant kingdom. It is corrupted in how we work with the world. And if you are a person who sees the sadness in the world as a result of sin, and you grieve. You grieve because that was not there at creation. You have a natural grieving that is right and good.
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There's a deep heartache over many of those things, and you have it because the creation is under a curse.
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With the coming of Jesus Christ, God has provided reconciliation and given a pledge of new creation. So he updates the creation mandate for all believers go, therefore, make disciples of all nations. There is a corruption in the human heart that changes. When you be, when you become a believer, you're you get a new heart. Jesus promises you, Behold, I am with you always, even to the end of the age. That means he promises to empower you and be with you now you add those in, and if we then fast forward to the end of the story, we have this glorious news that the fallen world is now being redeemed person by person. It will one day be redeemed by the return of the Creator who will make a new heavens and a new earth and a full flourishing. Let me give you something really practical, though you you might be the kind of person I was. I was in a pastor's meeting this week. The 2025, pastors were meeting in the in the Northwest cooperative we support that Aaron badley's in it, where he's planting a church in a couple weeks. And around the table, it was interesting the admission of many pastors who say, you know, they would have used to call me a melancholy personality. We kind of call it a depressive personality today, and you might be that kind of person. This is pastor's admission. Spurgeon, great, great, 19th century preacher was prone to terrible depression. He was the most famous preacher in his day. People traveled from the states to England to hear him, and he would admit readily to the congregation, to his fellow pastors. I was just at the bottom of the stairs today walking up, and I just broke down, sobbing that may be you, for you, the sad in the world, and the sad because of how you feel physically, might might have all your volume. It might have everything for you. It might be the only thing you hear, you see, everybody's sad, and all you're sad, what Thanksgiving does for you is it allows you to like, intentionally and extensively thanking God for assorted good things in creation and in Christ. What that does for you is it turns up the volume so that you say, sad is not all there is. Sad is not all there is. I want you to hear this. Sad is not all there is. And so you may be the person who feels it intensely and quickly and more compassionately than other people feel it, but you you for the good of maybe family and for the good of your own life. You need to turn up the Thanksgiving so you remember God is good and has a good plan and a good. Future so that you can carry on your stewardship, so you can carry on your stewardship with joy.
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We should have joyful stewardship of the wiping and cleaning and vacuuming and window cleaning, all the things. Number three, satisfaction, thankful satisfaction. Genesis, two, one through three, we come to the seventh day. It really is a seventh day of creation, though God stops the creating work on the seventh day. My guess is, whenever they clock a seventh day being over, God's working all the way to that point, and then, boom, Seventh Day work's finished. Here's the verse, so we can just see it again, thus the heavens and the earth were finished. It's a summary statement. Genesis one, the heavens and the earth were created. Genesis one, one. Genesis two, one. Thus we're going to summarize it all up. The heavens and the earth were finished, and all the host of them. And on the seventh day, God finished his work that he had done, and rested on the seventh day from all his work that he had done. So God blessed the seventh day and made it holy, because on it God rested from all his work that he had done in creation. Notice what happens three times all the work that he has done. That's the repeated phrase.
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We have the summary, the summary of the first six days, skies, space, earth, seas, completed by God. The word host refers to the multitude of all the things living and not living. And the seventh day God finished his work. The seventh day he rested. Notice that parallel finished and rested. The idea is to be brought to completion. Brought to completion ceased from that labor. Rest for God does not mean that God was tired or needed a break. He is eternally omnipotent. He is self existent. It wasn't like he said, Man, I need a day off. I mean, this was a lot. This a lot. I mean, if anybody had the right to say that, it was God. I mean, he just made all the universe in six days. It was a lot. That's that's not what he needs. He doesn't grow tired or weary. Is he a 40 tells us he doesn't grow tired or weary, the finishing and ceasing is for the purpose of watching and enjoying. He stops to watch and enjoy. Now, remember, God also can do many things at once. He is the ultimate multitasker. They say that women can multitask. Kind of men, not at all, but God. God can enjoy his work and understand all of it while he is working. What is this for? He is setting for us an example. He is calling us to a holy example of stopping and enjoying, enjoying God, enjoying his work, enjoying the fact that we could be co laborers in the in the work. Jesus is going to say to the religious leaders in John chapter five, it's going to get him in a lot of trouble. He just is healed on a Sabbath. And he's like, What are you doing? Healing on a Sabbath? That's work. And Jesus says, Oh, you all know it's okay to heal people on the Sabbath. He says, I am working, and my father is working. Ooh, those are fighting words. So what does this mean? Here? This means that God transitions from creating all things to sustaining all things. He transitions from creating all things to sustaining all things. It doesn't even mean that the creating work is done. Now he charges and empowers the creating work in his creatures Be fruitful and multiply to all of the living, breathing things, swimming things, and mankind, they're going to fill the earth. So it's a mark of him completing creation, setting it in order, so that now mankind and animal kind can be fruitful, multiply, fill the earth. Mankind can subdue it. It is set for my create, my creation to become my co laborers. And in this. Pattern he sets a day as you and I participate in the creation mandate, as believers, we participate in the new creation mandate, the call to go make disciples. It sets aside a day that we would stop and we would focus.
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If God were to stop the universe, stop sustaining it, it would just vanish out of its existence. Colossians, 117 says, In Him Jesus, all things hold together. I got a question this week about whether creation, Adam and Eve were perfect or not. I mean, you can look at this and say everything was perfect. Well, depends what you mean by perfect. It was sinless, it was very good, it was innocent. It had astonishing abundance to supply the needs of all of life. But it was not perfect. Meaning complete in two important senses. Remember, creation begins God's designs. It doesn't finish God's design. God made man as CO laborers to fulfill the mandate and fill the earth. Creation was good, but untamed. I don't know what else the word he used for it. There was so much life. It was getting in its own way. We kind of call that wild, but it's a sinless wild and unfallen wild. And so mankind had work to do. That's the second way God's beginning his work. And then God has put people into it, to tame the wild, to harness it. We're going to jump into more of that as we look at what Adam did in the garden. We look at beauty and art in chapter four, technology, man, was also in an untested state of innocence, untested, untested meaning he could still make moral decisions to disobey God, not perfect in that he was impervious to temptation. Remember, creation begins God's design, it doesn't finish God's design. Now follow this. This is a little bit hard to swallow for some God's sovereign design. By God's sovereign design, the world would not be perfect, completely displaying the glory of God, until after the fall into sin, and 1000s of years of displaying patience, mercy and grace to sinners, until after he sends His Son to redeem humanity, pay for the sin, offer forgiveness. And then Jesus to commission his followers to the new creation, mandate to see the world filled with people who name him and honor him. And he returns, ultimately, to bring a new heavens and a new earth. There we experience and see the full perfections of God. What do I mean by this? If God is committed to his glory, he's committed to the glory of His mercy and His patience and his forgiveness, which don't happen unless sin happens. And what will we see in the new heavens and the new earth, when it is perfect? Who will reign on the throne in Genesis or in Revelation? 21 and 22 who will reign there? The lamb? The lamb will reign there. And then the world will be perfect. Then the creation will be perfected. Mankind will reign with Him, and it will be a crucified, risen, forgiving Savior who gets our praise and adoration forever. Creation sets us up for the second coming of Christ and the new creation, because then it will be filled with image bearers to the fully glorious God on the way to that, on the way to that, you and I need our rest on our way to that, you and I need our rest. We need a time for Thanksgiving, reflection and adoration. Now follow me. God made six good days. He made one holy day. God made six good days. He made one holy day. Verse three, so God blessed the seventh day. Made it holy because on it God rested from all his work that he had done in creation. He made it holy. One more thing, he made a holy day. That means this seventh day was a day and an object of his divine favor, he sanctified it for a special purpose. What's the special purpose? Well, for him, first, it was to be satisfied in his own handiwork and glory. He doesn't need to stop working to be satisfied. But we do. We do. He does not tire out and have trouble with doing multiple things at once. But we do, oh, we do. There's no particular command to abstain from work. Did you notice that's not going to come until the covenant with Israel at Sinai, they would have a Sabbath, Sabbath in which there was no work. They had certain exceptions of that no work. The Sabbath, according to Hebrews four and Colossians two is a shadow of rest to come. Genesis two, one through three is the groundwork for Israel's coming Sabbath, and it is the preparation of our final Sabbath in Hebrews four we're given two ideas of rest. One is a promised land. Israel was to go into Cana and enter their rest. We have a promised land. Israel was supposed to take a day off to contemplate God, to have spiritual rest. Jesus is the spiritual rest. There's no there is now no specific command for Sabbath rest, although Christians established the Lord's day instead of Saturday, moved to Sunday, the Lord's day, the day when Christ rose from the dead, and we take special time to gather, give thanks and worship. And you need a time where you are not vacuuming and wiping and cleaning. You need a time where you are not preoccupied by all kinds of other things you need a time where you step back and you just celebrate the goodness and greatness of God, where you are called again to faithful obedience, humble repentance, recentering your life on God. John Calvin said of this passage here, God claims for himself the meditations and work of men on the seventh day he claims them for himself. You see, this is they being released from all other business might more readily apply their minds to their Creator. End quote, My granddad and I were playing with the retrievers this week. They have a golden they have a cream retriever. They're delightful. We went over to play fetch with them. And here's the funny thing about retrievers, there are 10 toys in the yard. There are two dogs. You pick up the ball and you throw it, and the only thing they see is one ball. One gets to the ball, and the other is like, hey, I want the ball. And there are nine other toys in the yard. I could be hucking toys for each of them to go get their own ball, but they only see one ball.
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They're constantly competing for one ball with 10 to choose from. Is that not a picture of human nature, whatever else somebody has. It doesn't matter if there's nine other for me to have. What they have is what I want, and I'm not going to be happy until I get it. Hey, why can I have that? I mean, the dogs, I supply voices for the dogs.
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There's more than enough of God's kindness in creation and God's kindness in Christ to go around. There's more than enough to go around. Setting aside the Lord's day to see the fullness of the Lord's glory is our way of seeing that there is more than enough of the Lord to go around. You. He sanctified one day for us to stop and look to Him and celebrate him. You know, if you're here this morning as a person who's rarely, if ever, sought to honor and give thanks to God, you're probably here because deep down, you are profoundly hungry. You have been going for X, Y or Z. Think of this picture. You know, the coin toss at the Super Bowl. They have this big coin. If you had a coin on one side, it said, thanklessness, it's a bad coin. What's on the other side? Idolatry, that's what's on the other side of the coin. That's what the Apostle Paul says in Romans 121, they did not honor Him or give Him thanks. Instead, they chose for themselves images snakes and birds, animals and other things, because they thought there were powers behind those images, gods that would give them the babies they wanted, the crops that they wanted, the luck that they wanted, the stuff that they wanted when they had God who gave them all things that they needed. You might be here today, and I want to tell you what kind of God fills the hungry soul, this God who created all things, and even post curse, provides the reins, provides the means, provides the work. It's time for you to repent and turn from a thankless, idolatrous life to the only one who can satisfy you, Jesus. Jesus says it in John chapter six. He says, I am the bread of life. Whoever comes to me shall not hunger, and whoever believes in me shall never thirst. He's the bread, he's the water, he's the soul's satisfaction. Come to him, rest in Him be filled in him. He's calling. He's offering what did God, the Creator offer to his creatures? He offered them his very Son to bear the wrath for their thanklessness. And the son gave up his life, and he has taken it up again, and now is offering you life. Take the forgiveness. He is offering to call you son and daughter again, and for those of us who have received forgiveness, the second work of creation has begun in you. He is redeeming your past with its guilt and suffering. He's redeeming your thought patterns and your purposes. He's showering you with blessings of adoption and son. The same spirit who hovered over the face of the deep in Genesis one is the Spirit who has made you alive, has made you born again, sealed you as a possession of God, as the down payment for what is to come is the one who transforms you. He is like that mother Eagle over its nest. The Holy Spirit is over your heart working in you. You could write it at the end. Thank you, Lord for blank and now fill in the blessings of redemption. The Creator God is the Redeemer. God, Father, thank you for what you have given us. Now in Christ, may we have double reason every day for intentional and extensive Thanksgiving to you for all that you've done in Christ, for all that you do as our Sustainer. It's in your name we pray. Amen.
Dr. Dan Jarms is teaching pastor and team leader at Faith Bible Church in Spokane Washington, as well as associate dean at The Master's Seminary in Spokane. He has been married for over 30 years to Linda, and has three adult children. He earned his B.A. in English at the Master’s College, B.Ed. at Eastern Washington University, M.Div and D.Min in Expository Preaching at The Master’s Seminary. His other interests include NCAA basketball, woodworking, and art.
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