Speaker 1: So you compare yourself to David huh With that.
Speaker 1: It's a great lead-in from the chosen about today's topic, which has to do with that one day a week that we are to set aside to honor God.
Speaker 1: In those days it was called the Sabbath.
Speaker 1: Today we observe it, of course, on Sunday.
Speaker 1: So good to see all of you.
Speaker 1: My name is Randy Out there.
Speaker 1: We are so glad to have you If you're watching online today, wherever you are.
Speaker 1: I want to give a special shout-out to Mary Brown.
Speaker 1: Mary Brown lives in Elgin, south Carolina, and I said earlier, if there ever was a champion of children in this state, it is Mary Brown.
Speaker 1: So we are just so thankful, mary.
Speaker 1: You're watching almost every week too, and the rest of it too.
Speaker 1: There's a monitor out there to help engage you.
Speaker 1: At the conclusion, love to have your questions, comments, prayer needs.
Speaker 1: We can refer you to a church in your local area if you're not here, but we're just glad that you're watching today and guests in the room.
Speaker 1: We're super glad that you're here.
Speaker 1: We have some first timers at this hour, as we did last hour, and we're especially excited always to see you.
Speaker 1: We believe that you're not here by accident, whether this is your only time, or this becomes your church home.
Speaker 1: We believe that God has a divine purpose for you being here, as he does for us.
Speaker 1: We may not know it in the next ten minutes, but one day we will, and there's always eternal significance when the people of God get together, and so we're just glad that you're all here with us today.
Speaker 1: Let's pray.
Speaker 1: Shall we, lord, soften the hearts that are hard, encourage the downtrodden, give the guilty Break the prideful, expose our selfishness.
Speaker 1: Lord, evaporate the pride that gets in the way of you.
Speaker 1: If we don't worship you today, knowing who you are, if we don't spend the time to know you, we are at best idolaters, because we are worshiping a false God if we do not know you.
Speaker 1: So, lord, over these next several minutes, I just ask that you take complete control through your Holy Spirit, that you teach us out of your Word the truth as it applies to every individual in this room and watching online.
Speaker 1: And then, if we just simply obey with obedience, with submission, today will be a victory for us and we will leave here a little bit more transformed.
Speaker 1: And so do what you need to do and please come.
Speaker 1: Holy Spirit, in Jesus' name, we pray Amen.
Speaker 1: So grab your Bibles You're going to need those today or your phone devices and all either out there or in here.
Speaker 1: We're going to look at different areas actually of the Scriptures.
Speaker 1: We continue our series with parts.
Speaker 1: A quick review We've talked about prayer as an essential thing as far as a transformational habit, a course reading the Word for understanding, an application.
Speaker 1: Of course, all of it is a kingdom orientation, which means he's always challenging us to the bigger picture of inserting God in the middle, in His presence in our lives.
Speaker 1: James did a great job teaching us on fasting as part of that.
Speaker 1: Next week we'll wrap it up with submission how to make all of these wheels turn with just our attitude to come before Him.
Speaker 1: And today, as we talked about, is about that honoring the Savior.
Speaker 1: When I say Sunday, when I say the word Sunday, what comes to mind?
Speaker 1: A flash is first into your mind.
Speaker 1: Huh yeah, some of you it's like sleeping in.
Speaker 1: Others it's like a leisurely brunch somewhere about ten o'clock.
Speaker 1: For others it's man, about two o'clock.
Speaker 1: I go into this coma, I take a nap and I'm ready then to go the rest of the week.
Speaker 1: Some of you are like I'm really already into my mental list of things I have to get ready for the work week.
Speaker 1: Matter of fact, you're not alone.
Speaker 1: There is a phrase now that is in our culture called the Sunday Scaries.
Speaker 1: If you're not familiar with it, the Sunday Scaries is an anxiety level that so many people have that starts about their work week starting the next day that they can't even enjoy Sunday if they're off for worrying about Monday.
Speaker 1: I looked at some polls and responses on the internet and kind of the sad thing was only about one out of every twelve respondents about Sunday had anything to do with God or the worship of God.
Speaker 1: It's like largely today we don't even know why we're supposed to get a day off.
Speaker 1: We just try to enjoy it without the presence of God.
Speaker 1: We live in such a busy, busy society that the buzz and the activity and the demands we live by are calendars.
Speaker 1: We live by just our work schedules and our energy is given, of course, to what's next and we're scurrying around.
Speaker 1: I think so much so that when we do have a little block of time off, we push that button of convenience.
Speaker 1: I just don't want to do anything, I just want to zone out, and I certainly understand that the problem with that is when it comes to honoring God with that one day of a week.
Speaker 1: Convenience says he'll understand, or I'll watch a little bit online, although I'm perfectly able to be in a community, to be with the family of God in person and benefit from that.
Speaker 1: I'll just hit the button and I'll just let that do, and so with that, we need to go into this discussion about the Sabbath that one day.
Speaker 1: So let me just tell you that the Sabbath is intended to be a matter of perspective and priorities.
Speaker 1: We're going to start our discussion with that Perspectives and priorities.
Speaker 1: If we have the right perspective going in, we're able to shape our priorities around that to where actually we're going to be the ones that benefit from it the most.
Speaker 1: So we have this discussion all through the Scripture about it, that one day a week, all the way back to Exodus, chapter 20 that we'll look at in a second.
Speaker 1: Exodus.
Speaker 1: Chapter 20 makes it a command from God.
Speaker 1: It's the fourth commandment given to Moses.
Speaker 1: We go all the way over to the back of the Bible, the book of Hebrews.
Speaker 1: Hebrews goes back and recounts those days but then talks about in the whole chapter a Sabbath day, rest for the children of God.
Speaker 1: How do we make sense of the ancient, ancient Old Testament and the later New Testament after Jesus.
Speaker 1: Well, the best thing to do and we'll end up here today too, mark, chapter 2, which is what the chosen segment was patterned after this weighs in and interprets it in Mark 2, very well-forced.
Speaker 1: Those two verses are on the screen there the Sabbath is made for man, not man for the Sabbath.
Speaker 1: I'll explain that in a couple of minutes.
Speaker 1: In other words, jesus is saying Sabbath is made for our benefit, not to be just another burden that we drag around on our to-do list, and so with that, let's just break this up into a little segment.
Speaker 1: So, if it's about perspective and priority, how about grab your Bible and turn first to Exodus 20, verse 8, where we'll start with that?
Speaker 1: It's a command, as I said, exodus 20, verse 8, remember the Sabbath day or the seventh that's what that means in Hebrew by keeping it holy or set aside as a sacred thing.
Speaker 1: So we, of course, observe it more times than not on Sunday, the first day of the week, not the seventh day.
Speaker 1: That's because when Jesus was resurrected it was on the first day, and after that, in the church age that we're in the middle of now, it was adopted away from Judaism to the practice of Sunday.
Speaker 1: In the Christian faith, that's not the big deal.
Speaker 1: Whether your Sabbathsome of your own work schedules that are so strange that your Sabbath may be on Thursdays or Wednesdays, that's good.
Speaker 1: That's not the point being.
Speaker 1: There needs to be one day In the organized worship.
Speaker 1: It's usually here, of course, on Sundays.
Speaker 1: The point being, though, this is a command, and some of you have been around long enough to know that if God commands it, it's not a suggestion, it's not negotiable, is it?
Speaker 1: In the old days, we'd hear a sermon on this, and the person would start with that, he would end with that, and it'd be okay, let's all stand and sing and come down to the altar.
Speaker 1: Now, that's enough.
Speaker 1: Said right, and that's really literally true, but we need to know the why behind it, in order to leverage and rearrange our lives around it, so that we can benefit and not make it a burden, because for many generations of people, and even in Jesus' day, it was not a beneficial thing so much as it was a big burden in people's lives.
Speaker 1: So let's move on.
Speaker 1: Let's go back to the history of it.
Speaker 1: How did this thing even start?
Speaker 1: Well, in Exodus chapter 16, which is before Exodus 20,.
Speaker 1: Right, that means they have them before the Ten Commandments.
Speaker 1: They're wandering around in the wilderness.
Speaker 1: Moses has liberated them.
Speaker 1: They're out in the wilderness like how are we going to eat?
Speaker 1: How are we going to find our sustenance out here in the middle of this desert?
Speaker 1: So God says I'm going to send manna.
Speaker 1: Manna is something you don't know what it is.
Speaker 1: You don't need to know what it is.
Speaker 1: It's going to fall out of the sky every morning.
Speaker 1: It's enough for you to eat.
Speaker 1: It'll be nutrition.
Speaker 1: It's enough for every day, but one day I'm going to put more on the ground.
Speaker 1: That's the sixth day.
Speaker 1: So collect more than you need, enough for two days, because on the seventh day that set aside as holy, it's a sacred day.
Speaker 1: You're not going to work that day, you're going to just do different.
Speaker 1: And so, sure enough, they would have enough.
Speaker 1: On the next day, they would keep to this next day, it would not spoil, and they would use that on the seventh.
Speaker 1: That's the history.
Speaker 1: But you know what?
Speaker 1: I wasn't completely honest with you.
Speaker 1: It goes back even further.
Speaker 1: If you want to look back to Genesis, chapter 2, verses 1 through 3, can't get much earlier than this, because you know what that's about God created In the beginning, god created the heavens and the earth and after he finishes all of the great expanse of creation and the heaven, solar system, galaxies and all that stuff that we know about, it says on the seventh day he did what he rested he rested.
Speaker 1: Now Hebrews 4 that we'll look at, picks up with that and goes back and says you know what?
Speaker 1: He's still at rest today.
Speaker 1: Now we like to use the phrase God's always at work and you know we mean that he's always present, he's always all knowing and all.
Speaker 1: But the context of that is, if you've got someone who created all the heavens and all the earth and we're all here at His approval also, he's pretty much done the heavy lifting, hadn't he?
Speaker 1: He's not going particular to get stressed out about anything I'm dealing with or you're dealing with is he?
Speaker 1: He's pretty much seen it all because he's the Creator of everything.
Speaker 1: So when it comes to honoring Him one day a week as a special day, I think he certainly, certainly deserves that.
Speaker 1: So, number third category let's talk about the interpretation.
Speaker 1: Let's get down to the guts of it now.
Speaker 1: The interpretation in Mark, chapter 2, verse 27 and 28,.
Speaker 1: Let's turn to that.
Speaker 1: Then he said to them Jesus did.
Speaker 1: The Sabbath was made for man, not man for the Sabbath.
Speaker 1: Let's talk about that.
Speaker 1: It's for your benefit, not your burden.
Speaker 1: So the Son of man verse 28, is Lord even over the Sabbath.
Speaker 1: What really got those two church leaders in a bad way was when he used the phrase Son of man, because in that day, when you use that title, everybody in the room knew oh, that means he's talking about the Savior who's coming, the Messiah In this discussion.
Speaker 1: When he says the Son of man is Lord over, he's King over the Sabbath even.
Speaker 1: That's why I say it's made for you, not vice versa.
Speaker 1: Oh, that's deeply offensive, because they realize, whoa, wait a minute.
Speaker 1: First we accused Him of putting Himself in the place of comparing Himself with David.
Speaker 1: Now he's comparing Himself with the coming Messiah.
Speaker 1: But he was accurate.
Speaker 1: He is the King of all of that.
Speaker 1: He is over the day.
Speaker 1: He's created that one day of a week not to burden us but to benefit us.
Speaker 1: It's a matter of how we go about this.
Speaker 1: So, jesus, here's a question we got to deal with.
Speaker 1: Y'all, some of your thinkers and you're already ahead of me.
Speaker 1: So clearly in the video and in the Scripture it sure looks like.
Speaker 1: Am I right that Jesus was violating the fourth commandment?
Speaker 1: Was Jesus violating the law of God?
Speaker 1: No, he was not.
Speaker 1: Jesus was violating a man-made regulation that was added to the Word of God, you listening?
Speaker 1: Matter of fact.
Speaker 1: They had a bunch of them.
Speaker 1: Matter of fact, the Pharisees had 613 of them to go along with the 10, and this was one of them.
Speaker 1: There were several others that had to do with the Sabbath.
Speaker 1: It got so restrictive, it was beyond silly what they could not do on that one day.
Speaker 1: And Jesus had no time for that, he had no patience for that, he had no stomach for that.
Speaker 1: He had a mission and a kingdom to come and raise.
Speaker 1: That was so beyond that.
Speaker 1: It wasn't even funny, because he realized these religious leaders have locked these people down to where this one day that should be so joyful and just spent in worship and heartfelt praise is a burden, it's drudgery, it's as bad as the worst day of the work week and he's trying to unburden it.
Speaker 1: So, yes, he absolutely is busting some man-made rules, but he always honored the Sabbath.
Speaker 1: He always was at church.
Speaker 1: He always, on that day, was worshiping God without fail, even the week that he knew the people he was sitting with in the temple that day were going to take Him out and crucify Him.
Speaker 1: He's still seen as being there.
Speaker 1: It's about perspective and it's about priority.
Speaker 1: So now let's move on to application.
Speaker 1: How about turn to Hebrews 4?
Speaker 1: Now I want you to see this.
Speaker 1: Hebrews 4, verses 8 through 11, I've already set it up.
Speaker 1: The writer of Hebrews is going all the way back to Moses' day and comparing that again to what happened, to why we have what we call Sunday the day of worship.
Speaker 1: So verse 8, chapter 4 of Hebrews, verse 8.
Speaker 1: Or, if Joshua had given them rest, god would not have spoken later about another day.
Speaker 1: Why is he mentioning Joshua?
Speaker 1: Joshua took the place of Moses.
Speaker 1: When Moses dies, they're still on the wrong side of the Jordan River.
Speaker 1: They're still not beingthat's the terminology, the metaphor and the New Testament for the day of rest, god's day of rest.
Speaker 1: They weren't there.
Speaker 1: They had been wandering around without rest for 40 years is the point.
Speaker 1: So Joshua has come along to take them.
Speaker 1: But Joshua could not complete the job because Joshua was a mere mortal.
Speaker 1: He says he's alluding to another day.
Speaker 1: What's the another day?
Speaker 1: That's listed in Psalm 95.
Speaker 1: If you want to read that this week, that'd be awesome for a devotion.
Speaker 1: Psalm 95 basically talks about predicting, prophesying a coming king who will be the complete Son of God, and that, of course, is Jesus.
Speaker 1: So, verse 9, there remains a Sabbath rest for the people of God.
Speaker 1: If you're a Christ follower, you're included in this because you are the people of God.
Speaker 1: A Sabbath rest we're going to get into in just a second.
Speaker 1: There is a day that needs to be just special, not to restrict us but to benefit us and bring joy.
Speaker 1: Verse 10, for anyone who enters God's rest and also rest from his own work, just as God did from his, he is getting specific and enough to say this ought to be a day where you get a break.
Speaker 1: Hey, hey, hey, let's be practical.
Speaker 1: I understand there are some days you can't control it.
Speaker 1: You got to work all seven days.
Speaker 1: Some of you have had stretches.
Speaker 1: You might be in the middle of a stretch like this where you haven't had a day off in quite a while.
Speaker 1: Necessity breeds that.
Speaker 1: The point is, at some point find a way, if at all possible, to get out of that where you can observe the Sabbath.
Speaker 1: I'm just like some of you.
Speaker 1: There have been stretches, and Burt would agree on the front row.
Speaker 1: There's been stretches around here where duty demands that we don't get a Sabbath either, whether it's a Tuesday or a Friday.
Speaker 1: When you can do it, we are prescribed to do that Verse 11,.
Speaker 1: Therefore, let us make every effort.
Speaker 1: That's important.
Speaker 1: Make every effort.
Speaker 1: That means persist, that means make it the urgent part of your week to make sure your building habits or rituals of life that will honor that, that will allow you to do that, to enter that rest, so that no one will fall or sin by following their example, the Israelites example of disobedience.
Speaker 1: So let's break that down a little bit more with the Scripture in Hebrews 4.
Speaker 1: Y'all, the Sabbath day was created to be such an experience that it energizes you.
Speaker 1: And as you're in the house of God, as you're worshiping with other Christ followers, the fellowship is so strong and the worship is so meaningful that it produces joy.
Speaker 1: And the modern example, the modern definition of joy, is a positive mindset, because you don't want to be that guy that everybody avoids at work because you're so dogged on negative all the time.
Speaker 1: Now there's a time to be real and there's a time to not be real.
Speaker 1: But I'm not talking about that.
Speaker 1: You know those folks, don't you?
Speaker 1: If you can't think of a single person in your life that's that way.
Speaker 1: You may be that guy.
Speaker 1: Sorry, we're not talking about.
Speaker 1: Oh, you know what my house burned down last night.
Speaker 1: But praise the Lord.
Speaker 1: Praise the Lord.
Speaker 1: No, that's stupid.
Speaker 1: A positive mindset Now that I've offended everybody in the room probably A positive mindset basically does say today's not a good day Today, let's be honest, today stinks.
Speaker 1: But the bigger picture, the kingdom orientation, is I still belong to God.
Speaker 1: He still redeemed my life.
Speaker 1: I still know where my future is.
Speaker 1: Oh, and the other reality of the seventh day is this we're never going to fully, fully, fully be at rest in His rest on this earth, are we?
Speaker 1: Because we're all sinners.
Speaker 1: But that day's coming.
Speaker 1: There is a day coming that we'll really be at rest because we'll be sin free.
Speaker 1: We won't be dragging around that ball and chain.
Speaker 1: But for now, our job is to have such a lifestyle that allows for regular time to step back and let God be God in our lives, to work at knowing God and taking a break from the normal routine.
Speaker 1: Some of y'all rest the best when you're doing something and not just sitting around.
Speaker 1: I don't know who I'm talking to in here, maybe myself.
Speaker 1: Some of you have a hard time sitting still.
Speaker 1: Is that right?
Speaker 1: That's not restful for you, that's okay.
Speaker 1: It just needs to be different.
Speaker 1: Some of you are so wired for doing things that a perfect day off for you would be yeah, I get to go to church and I worship, but this afternoon I'm going to ride about 80 miles on my bike and come back.
Speaker 1: Others of you, we just rather pile up and take a nap for about an hour or not.
Speaker 1: That's okay, that's not.
Speaker 1: You choose to do what works best for you.
Speaker 1: The deal is to step back and do something different.
Speaker 1: Why is this so important.
Speaker 1: God wired us with such a holistic sense that actually the experts, apart from the spiritual world the nutritionists, the physical experts, the psychologists say emotionally, if we don't take a step back and we reset the dial, sooner or later it's going to do bad things to us, and some of you have been there.
Speaker 1: The old phrase used to be burnout and basically that's the beginning of burnout to keep doing the same thing with unrelenting prediction, and then pretty soon, you don't realize it, but your tank, your emotional tank, is empty.
Speaker 1: The seventh day is intended to replace the level in your tank, because every time we're helping other people, we're dealing with other people, we're giving of ourselves.
Speaker 1: It gets depleted and if you don't pay attention to that at some point in time, there's this red line and if it goes, the level gets under that red line.
Speaker 1: Something's going to break.
Speaker 1: There's also the physical part of it.
Speaker 1: Your body just needs rest.
Speaker 1: We are built like the EKG model.
Speaker 1: You can go hard for a while, and that's a good thing.
Speaker 1: I like working hard for a while and feel like you get something done, you've been productive, you accomplished some tasks.
Speaker 1: That's an honorable thing.
Speaker 1: We can go hard for a while, but sooner or later the other side of that is what We've got to recover and that's what the seventh day is for.
Speaker 1: Emotionally it works that way.
Speaker 1: Physically it works that way.
Speaker 1: We need even that.
Speaker 1: For social, we need to hang around different people occasionally.
Speaker 1: We need to have time to catch up with people who live halfway across the country that we don't get to see anymore.
Speaker 1: Sundays, many times, are a great way to do that.
Speaker 1: We just don't need to get on that treadmill and continue to ignore what our minds and our spirits and our souls are telling us.
Speaker 1: I heard a lady one time that said she got on an escalator and she decided just for kicks, it's going up, she's wanting to come down.
Speaker 1: She said you ever do that as a kid.
Speaker 1: You get on it and you reverse it.
Speaker 1: And she said about the time I got on that escalator coming up and I was wanting to go down, I tripped and failed.
Speaker 1: And she said I failed for a full 30 minutes before I could get off of it.
Speaker 1: Some of y'all feel like and I've been there too I feel like, oh man, I tripped, but I can't get off of it.
Speaker 1: It just keeps coming.
Speaker 1: It keeps coming.
Speaker 1: So find what works for you.
Speaker 1: But here's the first deal my job on this day and my day really isn't this day either On my Sabbath day I need to glorify God first and foremost.
Speaker 1: I need to find what pleases God and do it.
Speaker 1: I need to take care of myself as best I can in those other areas that I've said.
Speaker 1: Some days that just means setting the dial and not just sitting there but exerting myself in something else.
Speaker 1: That's okay, that's okay.
Speaker 1: I'll give you a quick example.
Speaker 1: If I went home this afternoon between services and I get my lawnmower out and I mow my lawn, I don't think that God is going to doom me for doing that, but I'm not going to do it.
Speaker 1: You know what, I know me, and if I do that, that's going to lead to something else and that's going to lead to something else.
Speaker 1: And then the next thing I know guess what?
Speaker 1: Today will be just like any other day for me.
Speaker 1: So I've got to be smart enough to take a step back and distance myself from the routine that is not glorifying God and not replenishing my soul and body in all of those ways, because we do, needif you're going to be the only one that's going to take care of yourself.
Speaker 1: And that's what rest is.
Speaker 1: It can be a very active thing or it can be another thing.
Speaker 1: That was the construction.
Speaker 1: Some of y'all are old enough to remember the blue laws.
Speaker 1: Remember, those Sundays were very different once upon a time.
Speaker 1: We were coming back from somewhere yesterday and I just asked Sherry, my wife.
Speaker 1: I said you remember the blue laws?
Speaker 1: And she said, oh yeah.
Speaker 1: And I said what do you remember about the blue laws?
Speaker 1: And she said if you went to a grocery store on Sunday, they had this big old sheet of plastic down over the beer and the wine.
Speaker 1: You couldn't buy that on Sundays.
Speaker 1: And I'm like, man, you're kind of agitated tone of voice when you say that that bother you.
Speaker 1: But she's right.
Speaker 1: Those were, you know, a lot of times you gassed up on Saturday, because even the gas stations were closed on Sundays, right, it was intended, though, to be, and I got a little restrictive too, but it was intended to make sure there was a different day.
Speaker 1: Now, the bounce of that is.
Speaker 1: The good thing about that is, if you're a person who's working in one of those stores or businesses, it's nice to have a day off, isn't it?
Speaker 1: Chick-fil-a has gotten famous for the one day.
Speaker 1: They don't require people to work, right, and it doesn't appear that it's hurt their business too.
Speaker 1: Awful bad, does it?
Speaker 1: So there's a lesson to be learned.
Speaker 1: Oh, I'll tell you another one while I'm on that Way.
Speaker 1: Back when I was a seminary out in Texas, I passed her to a little church out on the plains two hours out, and everybody in my church was either a cattle rancher or a wheat farmer, and when wheat was ripe, you saw the picture of the grain when it came ripe.
Speaker 1: Man, you had to harvest it then, because if it got rained on, you could lose a whole year's income based on that.
Speaker 1: So they're in the fields combining 24-7.
Speaker 1: They'd go and shifts actually, they'd put lights on their combines and so some of my folks about 40% of my folks I wouldn't see for those two, two and a half weeks.
Speaker 1: And there was one fellow who was a deacon in our church.
Speaker 1: He was about almost 60 years old at that time and he had a general store right there in the middle of Elbert Texas.
Speaker 1: Now that was 50% of the commerce of Elbert Texas because there's only one other place, there's a little gas station, and he hadbut the general store sold implements and things that you needed for that season.
Speaker 1: And so of course he's going to have to open.
Speaker 1: He's going to have to be open seven days a week for those two or three weeks.
Speaker 1: And I expected that, I knew that.
Speaker 1: But my second summer there, as we started summer, I noticed after a week had been harvested and over he wasn't there.
Speaker 1: Come to find out he decided I'm going to stay open seven days a week because his business was so good for those two weekends prior to that and we talked about that.
Speaker 1: I said his name was Lindell.
Speaker 1: I said Lindell, you sure about that?
Speaker 1: You sure that's the right thing to do?
Speaker 1: And he said well, I know what you're saying.
Speaker 1: But he said I feel like I need to and I need to kind of make my money while I can and do all that to be all right.
Speaker 1: And so I missed him for about four or five months.
Speaker 1: And after four or five months, one Sunday, I look out and there he is.
Speaker 1: So after church I said, hey, lyndall, just take a day off, or did you get somebody to cover for you or something?
Speaker 1: It's good to see you.
Speaker 1: And he said I closed back up on Sundays.
Speaker 1: He said it was about to kill me.
Speaker 1: I'm run down physically, I'm tired, my wife's irritated at me, I don't ever see my grandkids.
Speaker 1: You know he gave me his list and his words were I just don't think it's worth it and he closed back up.
Speaker 1: So now the question is, all these, like 30 years later, did God honor Lyndall's obedience?
Speaker 1: Well, I had the awesome opportunity to go, like last April, almost a year ago.
Speaker 1: I took my two sons out there and we went back out there.
Speaker 1: We went back to Elbert, texas, and Lyndall and Lemireless manual are still alive.
Speaker 1: I looked them up, we went to their house and you know we sat down, had a great visit with them.
Speaker 1: And I said you're not still working, are you?
Speaker 1: And he said no, I'm not still working, I'm 90 years old.
Speaker 1: And I said, well, so when did you retire?
Speaker 1: And he said about three months ago.
Speaker 1: And you know, he looked about the same as he did 30 years ago.
Speaker 1: And I'm like, wow.
Speaker 1: I think God honors that.
Speaker 1: I'll make a bet with you.
Speaker 1: You honor God.
Speaker 1: You set aside Sundays, if you're awful in Sundays to be holy to Him.
Speaker 1: You honor Him by coming and worshiping, not just watching online if you're able to go to church, but going to church.
Speaker 1: Here's the bet I'll make with you You'll be better the other six days.
Speaker 1: You'll be better, you'll be more on your game.
Speaker 1: And that comes back to the definition of a disciple.
Speaker 1: It might not be a good, a bad idea to look at your schedule and create small behaviors that make habits.
Speaker 1: The habits make an automatic response.
Speaker 1: And so let's start with preparing for the Sabbath and then the work of the Sabbath.
Speaker 1: What would you do the night before the biggest interview of your life?
Speaker 1: You probably lay clothes out, wouldn't you Like?
Speaker 1: Where's my keys?
Speaker 1: I'll make sure I'm not looking for my keys tomorrow and my phone?
Speaker 1: I'm going to put that pop tart out where I can reach it really quick.
Speaker 1: I'm going to make sure you know I've got stuff in order.
Speaker 1: I don't want to be thinking, I don't want to be thinking about those small decisions, because I've got one thing on my mind as soon as I get up or take a flight, 6.15 in the morning, what are you doing the night before?
Speaker 1: You know it's not a bad idea on Saturday night to do some of that.
Speaker 1: We're on Saturday night to be all in for God on Sunday morning.
Speaker 1: That's a little habit like brushing your teeth.
Speaker 1: Then on Sunday morning you're not making the decision are we going to church or not?
Speaker 1: You just go.
Speaker 1: And some of y'all I'm going to sound right now for the next two minutes y'all I'm going to go ahead and apologize to you.
Speaker 1: I'm going to sound like that boomer that I am standing up on the platform.
Speaker 1: You know where.
Speaker 1: You just need to get over it.
Speaker 1: You just need to work harder.
Speaker 1: So here it goes.
Speaker 1: Back in verse 11, he says make every effort.
Speaker 1: That means make it the priority.
Speaker 1: The priority.
Speaker 1: There are times, y'all, we do something because it is the right thing to do.
Speaker 1: End of story.
Speaker 1: I'm sorry.
Speaker 1: There are times we do things now believing they will pay off later.
Speaker 1: And this is one of those.
Speaker 1: When I was a teenager, I grew up in a small country church and I was 50% of the youth group.
Speaker 1: There was one other teenager in the whole church I was, so that meant there was no youth group and the vast majority of the church was 65 and above and the whole day, the whole morning, was oriented toward about a 70-year-old and they were great people.
Speaker 1: But as a teenager, an immature teenager, I was struggling with that and I would try to beg off.
Speaker 1: And my dad was one of those of the greatest generation you can.
Speaker 1: Predictably.
Speaker 1: You know what his response was right, yeah, boy, as long as you live in this house, you're going to what?
Speaker 1: Go to church Y'all.
Speaker 1: I went to the junior prom and I had to go to church the next morning.
Speaker 1: I got in about 90 minutes before church started.
Speaker 1: But I knew, I knew the consequences of that.
Speaker 1: So to me that was a burden.
Speaker 1: There was no joy there, there was no get to.
Speaker 1: It was a have to.
Speaker 1: It was like let's get this over so I can get on.
Speaker 1: I would argue with my dad.
Speaker 1: He never moved on it.
Speaker 1: I tell you this story to tell you that a few years later I got married and we moved to another town for my job and we started looking for a church and we found one.
Speaker 1: And you know I never mentally thought about it much until later.
Speaker 1: But it was like here we've been here about six months and every Sunday morning we get up and we go to church and there's never a discussion about it.
Speaker 1: I wonder why.
Speaker 1: That is because we could do whatever we want to now, because it had become a habit.
Speaker 1: And then I started to appreciate my dad, because this boy needed the structure and this boy needed a consistent model of how you honor God now for benefits later.
Speaker 1: And can I tell you something else?
Speaker 1: It got really personal Because at one point every dog on Sunday I would go to that church.
Speaker 1: The pastor was talking to me.
Speaker 1: There wasn't anybody else in the room and I started writing down almost every word he said.
Speaker 1: I had no clue why, but something was going on in my heart.
Speaker 1: And about another two, three years later I end up walking down an aisle, like some of you have and some of you will, and I took that pastor's hand and I said I can't run from this anymore.
Speaker 1: God's calling me to be a pastor.
Speaker 1: But see, I can take no credit for being in position Sunday after Sunday after Sunday, for God's love and God's truth to get inside of me.
Speaker 1: I was just there and he did the rest.
Speaker 1: And so why don't we just challenge?
Speaker 1: Why don't you challenge yourself?
Speaker 1: And I challenge myself.
Speaker 1: I'm going to be a better disciple.
Speaker 1: I'm going to be a measurably better disciple.
Speaker 1: I'm going to make some little habits, some little behaviors, now that I won't have to worry about the goal.
Speaker 1: I'm going to be a better father that might be on your list.
Speaker 1: I'm going to be a measurably better husband or wife, and you set two or three, just little areas.
Speaker 1: I'm going to be a better leader at work, and I'm going to measure it by these two simple behaviors, and I think God uses that and I think God honors that.
Speaker 1: There's nothing wrong with work.
Speaker 1: It's a noble, honorable thing.
Speaker 1: But that's not what defines you.
Speaker 1: That's not who you are and that's not who I am.
Speaker 1: I got to be first a child of God, and so do you.
Speaker 1: If that's not worth one of my precious seven days a week, I don't know what is.
Speaker 1: And so the challenge for us is to find that, to find that Now I know what some of you are thinking talk is cheap.
Speaker 1: That's why I'm saying let's get really practical and let's do what you need to do to make it a habit To be in God's house wherever you need to be, because talk is cheap.
Speaker 1: We all know people who talk about how important things are but it never gets around to transferring into their lifestyle.
Speaker 1: Patrick Morley, who wrote a bunch of great bestseller books and it's now a men's ministry that he founded, said this one time operated out of priorities, not out of pressures, isn't that great?
Speaker 1: Jesus organized his week out of priorities his priorities, not pressures.
Speaker 1: I wish I could be more like that.
Speaker 1: Sometimes it does get a little bit more serious.
Speaker 1: Sherry and I went to the upstate for a funeral Friday.
Speaker 1: A friend of mine for over 30 years died, passed away, took his own life.
Speaker 1: So there's people all over the upstate sitting somewhere today thinking is there something I should have seen?
Speaker 1: Is there something I should have known?
Speaker 1: Is there something I could have done?
Speaker 1: The answer to that's probably not.
Speaker 1: But my point of tying that in is y'all, we never know what's going on with the people we're sitting next to in these pews.
Speaker 1: You never know what's going on next to the person you plop down next to to see the movie or to get on the flight, or who's sitting next to you in the classroom.
Speaker 1: If we're not honoring God with His day, where we're focused on Him and our joy quotient comes up and our sensitivities and our alertness spiritually is not up, we may miss it and God may be putting you and somebody's life this week to literally save their life.
Speaker 1: So what's not really even about us, is it?
Speaker 1: It's about some people we love.
Speaker 1: After some of the comments I've made, can I just tell you how much I love you.
Speaker 1: I feel like I need to say that Braden's going to come up and I would be honored to celebrate some decisions that you need to make today, whether it's to make this your church or to come to Christ or to, like you know, I'm not fully aware of what you mean by the gospel.
Speaker 1: Listen, the gospel being the best news in the world means that he can redeem your life and put you on track today, right now, if you're willing to confess that.
Speaker 1: You need someone to do that.
Speaker 1: That's what Jesus came for.
Speaker 1: So why don't you stand?
Speaker 1: Let me pray for you, lord.
Speaker 1: We are, as usual, we're broken and pretty needy and pretty weak, but with the Holy Spirit we have the ability to walk with confidence and with joy and with expectation of this rest that's coming.
Speaker 1: One day that will be perfect rest and until then we're going to do the one day to honor you, to glorify you and to rest our minds and our bodies and our souls so that we'll be better for you the other six days.
Speaker 1: So, god, those who are ready and they've heard your voice loving them into your kingdom in some way, just allow them to do that right now.
Speaker 1: In Jesus' name, we pray amen.