SERMON SPOTLIGHT * 4/7/24
Sunday is not a day of religious rules; it’s a day of purposeful praise. On Sundays, we change our pattern to have our eyes filled with the glory of Jesus, who has given us true rest! Below is an outline summary of the sermon for your further study and deeper reflection.
SERIES: The Gathering: Why Sunday Matters
TEXT: Exodus 20:8-11
TITLE: Sunday: Holy Day? Or Holiday?
PREACHER: Derek Overstreet
BIG IDEA: Sunday matters.
POINTS:
1. The Sabbath Commanded
2. The Sabbath Transformed
3. The Sabbath Practiced
SERMON EXCERPTS:
All quotes are taken from the pastor’s notes.
”The demise of the Sunday gathering is a modern-day expression of the idolatry in Judges that created a society defined by—everyone did what was right in their own eyes. For this reason, convictions about Sunday are critical.”
“If you don’t have convictions that define your Sunday, other things will define your Sundays. Work emails will define your Sundays. The culture will. Youth sports will. Leisure will. Your emotions will. A long, exhausting week will define your Sundays.”
“Sadly, Sunday doesn’t matter enough. Here’s what your pastors are convinced of: We need a bigger vision of our Sunday gathering. We need to recapture the glory and privilege of gathering as people saved by grace, empowered by the Spirit, and waiting for our final home in heaven. How everything we do when we gather accomplishes this is what The Gathering series is about.”
“The fourth commandment was simple—Remember the Sabbath. What does that mean? It was more than mere mental exercise. If I say to Donna—It’s our anniversary, and that’s the extent of it, I’m in trouble. Israel was to remember the Sabbath by—(8) keeping it holy or setting it apart.”
“After 400 years of living under the tyrannical slave masters in Egypt who brutally worked them endlessly, taking a day off would have been welcomed. But taking a day off was not an end in itself. There was a much deeper significance than just physical rest—read verse 11.”
“God rested, not because He needed rest, but to take pleasure in the goodness of His creation, especially the goodness of the fellowship He had with Adam and Eve. God is delighting in them. He is caring for them. God is talking with them. He is shining His face down upon them. In other words, God is reveling in His presence with His people. Just as God rested to revel in His presence with His people, Israel is to rest to revel in God’s presence with them.”
“Simply put, it was a day of unique worship. That’s what the Fourth Commandment was about.”
“By the time of Jesus, what was a gift to God’s people, what was supposed to be a day of worship and delighting in God for their deliverance from Egypt, the Sabbath had become unrecognizable due to the crushing legalism of the Pharisees.”
“Jesus came to obey and fulfill the law perfectly because we could not. Now, IN CHRIST, we can rest from the impossible laboring of pleasing God through works. We can rest from the futile laboring of earning God’s saving love. We can rest from our useless laboring at securing forgiveness through our goodness. We can rest from the crushing weight of performance. The reality is that we can’t make ourselves right with God. We enter God’s Sabbath rest by believing in the atoning and all-sufficient life, death, and resurrection of Jesus Christ by which we are justified and forgiven.”
“The OT Sabbath was rooted in the pattern of God’s creation work then rest. But Christ coming to do the work of salvation changes that pattern. Jesus did the work necessary for our forgiveness on the cross—It is finished. His resurrection on Sunday ushered in the New Covenant. Now, in Christ, we don’t work then rest; we begin with spiritual rest provided for us in the gospel, and then we work out of that rest by living and worshipping to the praise of God’s glory. The gospel transforms the 6-1 into 1-6.”
“There are differences between the Old Covenant and New Covenant Sabbath. But continuity is there: 1) We physically come together to worship 2) We intentionally rest from our usual activities in some way.”
“Sunday is not a day of religious rules; it’s a day of purposeful praise. On Sundays, we change our pattern to have our eyes filled with the glory of Jesus, who has given us true rest!”
“What are your convictions about the Lord’s Day? Is it just another day? What are your children learning about the priority of Sunday as they grow up in your home? Are they being taught there is no other day like the day we go to the house of the Lord to worship God? Or is it that church fits in if nothing else is pressing in? Over the next six weeks, we will unpack Why Sunday Matters. Be here. Don’t miss it. The Lord has something for all of us as we take back Sundays for our good, the testimony of our church, and God’s glory!”
ADDITIONAL SCRIPTURE:
Genesis 2:2-3
Psalm 121:4
Deuteronomy 5:15
Matthew 11:28-30
Revelation 1:10
Acts 20:7
1 Corinthians 16:1-2
QUOTES:
C.J. Mahaney - “Sunday is the best day of the week because we celebrate the risen Christ of the cross in the local church, the dearest place on earth.”
BOOK RECOMMENDATION:
APPLICATION:
Five ways to prepare for this series:
1. Be Here on Sundays
You won’t grow if you don’t go. Do whatever you need to do to be here. Orient the rest of your week to ensure you can be here on Sunday. And come even if you don’t want to come.
2. Take this series to heart
Humbly allow God’s Word to function as a mirror in your life. See the next few weeks as a time to evaluate your Sunday convictions and habits.
3. Think Corporately
The Christian life is you, God, and His people. We aren’t just saved from something; we are saved to something—the Church. That has implications for us, beginning with Sundays.
4. Hold your personal preferences graciously
Romans 14 and Colossians 2 warn us about self-righteously judging others because, among other things, their practice of the Lord’s Day doesn’t look just like ours. Beyond the NT pattern of setting Sunday apart to gather in worship and taking time to rest in some way—those should be non-negotiable for every believer—there is gospel freedom for personal preference.
5. Consider attending the SGU class in May: “Doctrine of the Church”