Welcome to Legacy.
We're so glad you've joined to worship with us on this Sunday.
And we are in Exodus chapter 31.
If you want to turn there in your Bibles, and we do have Prayer Sunday set aside today.
We're going to take some time at the end of the service to pray and to seek the Lord and to lift our burdens to him.
And it's a real joy to do so, to really reflect on him, to meet with him, to talk with him.
Yeah, ironically, the title of the sermon today, if you're taking notes, is Take Time to Get to Know Him.
Take Time to Get to Know Him, Sermon number 79 through the book of Exodus.
We're going to cover verses 12 to 18 in our series titled Leaving the Darkness.
We've watched Moses lead the people out of Egypt, out of slavery, under the reign of Pharaoh, into the under the reign of God, into the promised land on their way, into the wilderness, into a relationship with the Almighty, through the Red Sea, seeing miracles take place, see the law being given, the tabernacle being built, this tent of meeting with God.
Really some amazing, beautiful pictures we've seen.
And today we will cover verses 12 to 18.
There was an old story about a pastor who decided to skip church one Sunday.
You know that pastor?
He decided to skip church one Sunday morning and go and play golf.
Now, he knew this was wrong, but the weather was just too perfect, and the chorus was calling his name.
Besides, who would ever know?
He told his assistant he wasn't feeling well, and so he drove two hours to a golf course in another town where nobody would recognize him.
He pulled his cap down low, he paid in cash, and he snuck onto the first T.
He took a deep breath, looked around, the coast was clear, and he swung.
And well, up in heaven, there was an angel that happened to be watching the whole time, this pastor.
And just as that little white ball left the T, suddenly a gust of wind came out of nowhere and caught the ball and carried an extra 200 yards, bounced off a tree, rolled into the cart path, and dropped right into the cup.
A 450-hole drive, hole in one.
The greatest shot in the history of golf.
The angel turned to God, absolutely shocked, and said, Lord, he skipped church to be here and you gave him a hole in one?
What in the world do you do that for?
And God just smiled and said, think about it, who's he gonna tell?
Let me ask you something this morning.
Have you ever looked at an old photograph of someone that you loved?
Really looked at it, and realized maybe you couldn't quite remember the sound of their voice.
Strange feeling.
You do them well, you spent time with them, but somewhere between the years and the busyness of the hurried life, the details started slipping away.
The voice starts to fade, the left dimmed.
And one day you held up that photograph and thought, I knew this person better than this.
You know, some of us are doing that with God.
We have that photograph, we have the framed verse on the wall, the Bible on the nightstand, the cross around the neck, uh, but somewhere along the way the voice has gotten faint.
We can't quite remember the sweetness of his presence.
We know he's there.
We just haven't actually sat with him in a long time.
And that's the question today I want to pose to you.
How do you actually, or how well do you actually know God?
How much do you know about him?
Uh, and and maybe not even so much that, not how much do you know about him, but how much do you know him?
Not how many verses you can quote, or how many sermons you have heard, how well do you actually know him?
When's the last time you spent unhurried, undistracted time in his presence?
Because here's the thing, you you can know a great deal about a person and still not know them, right?
We know uh quite a bit about the president of the United States.
I've never met him, I know about him, but I do not know him.
And many of us are doing exactly that with God.
We know about him, but we do not know him.
And the reason is staggering.
Uh we have not taken the time to get to know him.
Taken time to get to know him.
Here in Exodus 31, the Almighty, he says, above all, above all else, keep my Sabbaths.
And he tells us why in verse 13, that you may know that I am Yahweh.
You may know that I am Yahweh, the one who makes you holy.
The Sabbath was never primarily about rest, uh, it was about relationship first.
And it was a gift from God of time to us.
Time for what?
Time to spend with him.
Over a whole day every week, carved out for one reason, so his people would take time to get to know him.
We're in Exodus 31, verses 12 through 18.
Can we stand for the reading of God's word?
It's amazing.
The tabernacle instruction has been given, and this is what he concludes with.
Exodus chapter 31, take a look at verse 12.
We always stand for the reading of God's word to pay honor to him, remember whose word of reading, not my words, these belong to him, and I am the delivery boy.
Just telling you what it says today, and I hope we can look closely at it.
Listen and obey.
Uh, really, take heed to the word of God, apply it to our lives.
Be not only hearers of the word, but doers of the word.
Take a look at verse 12.
Yahweh spoke to Moses, saying, But as for you, speak to the sons of Israel, saying, You shall surely keep my Sabbaths, for this is a sign between me and you throughout your generations, that you may know that I am Yahweh who makes you holy.
Therefore you shall keep the Sabbath holy, for it is holy to you.
Everyone who profanes it shall surely be put to death.
Whoever does any work on it, that person shall be cut off from among his people.
Six days work may be done, but on the seventh day there is a Sabbath of complete rest, holy to Yahweh.
Whoever does any work on the Sabbath day shall surely be put to death.
So the sons of Israel shall keep the Sabbath to celebrate the Sabbath throughout their generations as an everlasting covenant.
It is a sign between me and the sons of Israel forever, for in six days Yahweh made heaven and earth, but on the seventh day he rested and was refreshed.
When he had finished speaking with him upon Mount Sinai, he gave Moses the two tablets of the testimony, tablets of stone written by the finger of God.
Let's pray.
Father, we thank you for your word.
We thank you for this reminder.
And we acknowledge it.
And we ask God that you'd make it clear to us that we not only hear you, we would listen deeply, we would understand you in the depths of our being, we'd see it in our own lives, we'd see our need for you, and we would make time to get to know you each and every week.
Bless us, Lord, as we study your word.
We ask in Jesus' name.
Amen.
You can be seated.
So let's set the stage here.
Moses is still on Sinai, the thunder's still rolling, the mountain is still wrapped in smoke.
God has just finished commissioning, remember, uh Bezalel and uh Eholab to build the tabernacle.
Remember, the most important building project in the history of the world at this time.
Remember, the first mention of God's spirit filling someone was an artist.
And we looked at that last week, to create with excellence for God's glory in their ordinary craft.
We talked about it extensively.
If you missed that talk last week, it was a great one.
I think a great one for this city, for this time.
A good reminder.
And right when you expect God to say, all right, Moses, get to work, he doesn't.
He pauses and he says, in effect, Moses, before you go down that mountain, I want to tell, I want you to tell my people one more thing.
Above all else, keep my Sabbath.
Now think about that.
The artists were called, the material was ready, the blueprints were drawn, and God says, slow down.
Don't even build my tabernacle seven days a week.
One day in seven, you must stop building the tabernacle.
You will stop.
You will take time with me.
You will get to know me on that day.
Bezalel couldn't use the tabernacle as an excuse to skip Shabbat.
I got work to do.
I'm building the tabernacle of God.
We fell behind schedule this week.
And I got the material all set up, and I was right in the middle of it, and I finally had figured out how to do this thing that I'd been working on all week, and it's time to wrap up the tools and get on with Shabbat.
I can't stop now.
I'm working on the temple of God.
God says, you better not.
Put the hammer down.
You come and hang out with me for a day.
It's amazing.
If Bezalel couldn't use a tabernacle as an excuse, neither can we use our work, our hustle, our deadlines to excuse ourselves from time with God.
And uh man, I I didn't know this was actually, I forgot that this was hiding at the end of the instruction of the tabernacle.
I mean, I just didn't.
We already talked about the Sabbath.
And here is God like you're about to do a bunch of work.
And I want to remind you, when you start this project, you will still, you're gonna work six days, and you will rest on the seventh.
You will not keep going.
Point number one, if you're taking notes, God gave us time to know him.
God has given us time to get to know him.
Verses 12 and 13, Yahweh spoke to Moses, saying, But as for you, speak to the sons of Israel, saying, You shall surely keep my Sabbath, for this is a sign between me and you throughout your generations, that you may know that I am Yahweh who makes you holy.
So, verse 13, this is the sign between me and you, that you will know that I am Yahweh.
And yet you will know that I am the one who has made you holy.
You may know.
Don't rest past these words.
They are the heart of the verse.
In the ancient world, every covenant had a sign.
With Noah, the sign was a rainbow.
With Abraham, the sign was circumcision.
With Israel at Sinai, the sign was Sabbath.
Shabbat, this is the covenant.
Keeping covenant in rhythm, the sign.
We know God.
Notice what God calls it.
He doesn't call it Sabbath, singular, he calls it Sabbath, plural.
You will keep my Sabbath.
The day belongs to Him.
He sets it apart at creation.
He instituted it in stone, and He gave it to His people for one supreme purpose so they would know Him, very simply.
This is it.
God had already given them a tabernacle in space, a place to meet.
Now He says, I will give you a space of time in which you will meet.
You have a place of meeting, and now I'm gonna set apart a time to meet, a day to meet, and build relationship with the God who made them.
Building relationship takes time now, doesn't it?
Even with God.
How can you build a relationship with someone if there is no time to meet?
Is there if there's no set rhythms to actually meet up?
Here's the truth I want you to take home in your pocket.
God, knowing God takes time.
And there is no shortcut.
There's no app for it.
Okay, base 44, Chat GBT, Claude can't build this one for you, alright?
There's no microwave version.
In the New Covenant, the day moved, not because the apostles changed it, but because Jesus changed it.
He rose from the dead on the first day of the week.
And so Shabbat changed from Saturday or Friday evening to Sunday, the first day of the week.
From that morning forward, the people of God have gathered on Sunday for thousands of years, the Lord's day to take time with the risen Savior.
But the principle has never moved.
One day in seven, the people of God stop, they worship, they open the word, they sing, they pray, they feast at the table, they linger in his presence, they fellowship and they come to know him.
They dwell in the presence of God, they they contemplate him, they stop for a day and reflect on the Almighty.
Listen to what Ezekiel said in Ezekiel 20, verse 12.
Also I gave them my Sabbaths, God's speaking through him.
Also, I gave them my Sabbaths, plural, to be a sign between me and them that they might know that I am Yahweh who sanctifies them.
Same language, same purpose.
He's literally quoting this verse.
The day was a sign, a weekly invitation to take time to get to know him.
Psalm 46, 10, be still and know that I am God.
We have a hard time being still, huh?
I do.
Be still and know that I am your God.
When you really do that, it's amazing how every your perspective changes.
All this stuff, going on, all these things, all these things.
And then if all of a sudden, if we actually find a moment where we can be still and lock eyes with him, sense his presence.
Say some of the things we need to say.
Pray some of the things we need to pray.
Sing some of the things we need to sing.
It's amazing how the mind is washed over, how the stress starts to leave the back of the neck, and all the joy comes in the morning.
Jeremiah 9 23.
Let not the wise man boast of his wisdom.
Let not the mighty man boast of his might, no.
Let not a rich man boast of his riches, uh-uh.
But let him who boasts, if he boasts in anything, boast in this, that he knows and understands me, says the Lord.
If you're gonna boast in anything on the planet, the one thing worth boasting about is knowing Him.
Knowing God.
This reinforces that knowing God is the supreme purpose of the human life.
You can't get to know God in the margins of a busy life.
You cannot squeeze the Almighty into spare minutes between soccer practice and the next Netflix episode.
If a stranger watched your calendar for 30 days, would they have any reason to suspect there was a person in your life named God whom you were trying to get to know?
Would Sunday look different?
Would there be a rhythm, a noticeable intentional rhythm of set aside time just to be with him?
It's ironic.
My little Eden didn't know.
This isn't even on my notes, just came to me right now.
But as we left the driveway this morning, the neighbors were out like trimming the trees and like cutting down a bunch of stuff.
She said, Daddy, don't they go to church?
And I said, No.
And says, Why wouldn't they want to go to church?
I said, I know.
She says, Well, they they should probably try it.
And I said, Yes, I think they should.
I said, I think if they try it, I think they'll like it.
I said, Yeah, that's alright, Eden, you're right.
She knows.
She thinks everyone goes to church.
She thinks everyone goes to meet with God on Sunday.
She says, Don't they have a Bible?
I bet they have a Bible in their house.
I said, I don't know.
We'll find out.
Maybe we can give them one.
I like that she doesn't she doesn't know.
Intentional rhythm.
We will worship the Lord on Sundays.
For me and my house, we will serve the Lord.
Sunday can't just become another day to mow the lawn, watch a game, run errands, catch up on emails, squeeze in church if you happen to wake up on time.
We've got to change that here in LA.
The church I grew up in, I mean, everyone goes on Sunday, everyone goes on Wednesday, and then everyone serves another night of the week.
It it was just like, it's just the rhythm, it's the way that it goes.
You know, like literally, it's just non-stop.
Maybe a bit overboard, to be honest.
But it's like, I've noticed the culture is so different, you know, here.
Not for you, legacy.
There are so many faithful who get it, fully get it.
But it's something that it has to grow on us for sure, especially if you haven't been raised in that kind of mindset.
Sunday is the Lord's day.
And the Sabbath was never a burden.
It was not to be a burden for you.
It was God's gift of time to you.
He's trying to say, trust me, you can do it in six days.
Everything you got to get done, you can get it done in six days.
I'm telling you, I designed the human being, I designed the brain.
Set aside one day.
I've designed it this way.
This is the way the calendar works, this is the way the week works.
There is one day to be given to me, and your life will prosper that much better.
So don't refuse it.
Make time to get to know God.
Eugene Peterson once said it like this if you don't take a Sabbath, something is wrong.
You're doing too much.
You're being too much in charge.
You've got to quit.
One day a week, and just watch what God is doing when you're not doing anything.
A day to slow down and look at the details of the leaves.
We don't have time for that.
But the moment you do, you're like, oh my gosh, there's a God.
Look at the details in this thing.
Look at the software in these seeds.
Who pre-programmed these?
How do they know just to grow food for us?
That tastes good.
It's not just bland trash.
Just put water on this little thing and let the sun hit it, and just magically produces food.
Point number two, if you're taking notes, God made the day for our good.
So God gave us time to get to know him.
He gave us a place, the tabernacle, the tent of meeting, but he also made the day for our good.
Gave us the time to meet with him.
Verses 14 to 17 says, Therefore you shall keep the Sabbath, for it is holy to you.
Six days work may be done, but on the seventh day there is a Sabbath of complete complete rest.
Complete rest.
I gotta say it before well no, yeah, we'll okay.
Holy to Yahweh.
So the sons of Israel shall keep the Sabbath to celebrate the Sabbath throughout their generations as an everlasting covenant is a sign between me and the sons of Israel forever.
Verse 15, six days' work may be done, but on the seventh day there is a Sabbath of complete rest.
Complete rest.
The Hebrew is Shabbat Shabbatan.
Shabbatan, Shabbat Shabbatan.
A Sabbath of Sabbaths.
A rest of rest.
Bone deep.
Now, I can already feel it, especially for your workaholics.
Come on, get those hands up, you workaholics.
This is me.
After I finish my work, I want to start another project.
I don't know, it's just I just like productivity and I like I want to hit that task button.
Done.
I like that feeling.
I love completion.
I tell my wife, all I got stuff to do, I gotta get this stuff done.
She's like, yeah, but when you're done, you're just gonna make more things to do.
It's true.
But I can feel it.
Even as I'm as I'm telling the workaholics to rest, I can feel the internal like that Monday morning hit, like, I can't, I can't wait, I can't wait.
I need to get up Monday morning, I'm gonna get up.
I can't wait to go.
What's happening is you are you're pushing back the tide of work, and you are you you are stepping into a completion of rest in which you are maximizing your rest, which makes the engine burn hotter for Monday morning, and you might even be able to complete more this week because you're exhausting rest.
And we don't do that very often.
It's so good to do that, to actually get to a point where you're like, I'm actually completely refreshed.
Like, I can't wait to get back to work, said not very many people in this society.
But the exhaustion, or as put here in the text, complete rest.
I love that.
Sabbath of Sabbaths.
The word Sabbath itself simply means to cease, to stop, to put down the tools.
No plowing, no reaping, no buying, no selling.
Now look at verse 14: embrace yourself.
Everyone who profanes it shall surely be put to death.
The death penalty for working on Saturday.
That seems severe.
But understand what God was protecting.
He was protecting his relationship with his people.
To willfully break the Sabbath was to publicly say, I don't need you, God.
My work is more important than knowing you.
And God said, That will not stand in my camp.
Hear me clearly, that the civil penalty for the Old Testament Israel as a nation is not binding on us today.
It was fulfilled in Christ.
But the moral principle remains: God carved this in stone with his own finger.
God is dead serious about your time with him.
And I love when companies succeed, you know, closed on Sunday, right?
When companies succeed when they make loud statements like that.
Like, I'm sorry, like we're not even letting our employees work on that day.
Like it's if you want to worship or not, it's up to you.
But no one's working on Sunday.
It's pretty awesome.
The Sabbath was never primarily a rule, it was, again, always a gift.
Mark 2, 27, Jesus himself said the Sabbath was made for man, not man for the Sabbath.
It was a gift to you, it was a gift to me.
It was made for you, it was made for me.
It is God's weekly gift of grace to the most exhausted, burnt-out creatures he ever made.
And we really are.
Look at the animals.
You ever see them burnt out and tired all the time?
No.
We got two kittens.
They're like teenagers already, these little things.
And on any given day, you can catch them laying in the tall grass in warm sun, just relaxing.
Just on their back, just you know, scratching at a little bug trying to fly by and just looking around and hanging out in the grass.
Man, I wish I could do that.
Katie and I were reflecting on this just recently.
We were uh sitting by a river in Yosemite on a blanket.
It's great the kids are playing in the river, and uh we there's enough time to notice the clouds.
The blue sky, giant fluffy clouds moving in the sky, just looking at them.
Nothing else to do, just enjoying the sky.
It was so relaxing, fun, and simple, and somehow very refreshing.
We were talking about it.
Everything that our soul really needs every day is free.
Deep breathing, the sun, the sky, the ocean, all of nature, exercise, walks, hikes, fresh air, sitting, watching a sunset, slowing down, praying, meditating, talking with the Lord, seeking God.
All free.
And we don't even do it.
We gotta spend thousands of dollars to get the experience.
It doesn't give what staring at clouds gives.
Look at verse 17.
Don't miss this.
For in six days Yahweh made the heavens and the earth, but on the seventh day he rested and was refreshed.
Imagine God being refreshed.
What a great picture.
Refreshed, the innipotent, never tiring God of the universe, stopped on the seventh day and was refreshed.
He didn't need it the way we need it.
He never grows weary.
He modeled it for us.
He showed us the rhythm.
He stitched it right into the fabric of creation.
Six and one.
That's God's math.
Six days you work hard, faithfully as unto the Lord, and on the seventh day you stop.
Work hard.
If I ever created a camp for young guys, step one is they would dig holes for two weeks.
Why?
Why are we digging a hole?
Just keep on digging, my man.
What are we looking for?
Just keep digging.
Just keep digging, keep digging, keep digging.
Break your back.
Break your hands.
Feel the pain of calluses.
Feel the sweat and the dirt on your face.
Feel the sun pounding on you.
Keep digging.
But you works by the sweat of your brow.
Genesis 3.
You will learn what hard work is.
You will learn to work hard.
My grandmom used to make us dig holes in the backyard.
Seven years, eight years old, she's to climb up in the top of that tree.
Here's a bowsaw.
Go cut down that branch.
I didn't know.
I was just so I was just it wasn't frightening to me.
I was stoked.
You're giving me a bandsaw, and I get to go up there in the top of this tree and cut down this giant limb?
Let's go.
Go dig a six-foot hole, you and your brothers in the backyard.
It's gonna be the compost for all the fruit trees in the backyard.
Go dig it.
We did.
We loved it.
Six days, you shall work hard.
Not work, work hard.
Work hardly is unto the Lord and not men.
It doesn't say work easy.
It says work hard.
If it's not hard, you're not working.
The next generation needs to know.
You're not working.
Six days you shall work hard unto the Lord, and on the seventh day you shall rest.
Seventh day you stop, you let God be God, and you remember that you and I are not.
And in the stopping of the work we get to know him.
That's the application.
Might sting a little.
But many of us are strangers to God because we have decided we know better than he does.
I think it's very interesting that it says six days work and one day rest and worship him.
It doesn't say rest and worship for six days and work one day.
How do we get that backwards?
Six days work hard and one day stop and worship.
That doesn't mean we're not in communion with God all day.
There's a clear command that we work hard.
God says six days and one, we say seven and zero.
God says stop, we say one more email.
God says, come and know me, and we say maybe next week.
Now we wonder why God feels distant, why our prayers feel like they bounce off the ceiling sometimes, or why our walk with the Lord feels like an acquaintance instead of a son or daughter.
He shouldn't feel like an acquaintance.
He should feel like our father, and that we know him well.
The great J.C.
Penny, yes, JC Penny.
He said, if a man's business requires so much of his time that he cannot attend the Sunday morning and the evening service and the Wednesday night prayer meeting, then that man has more business than God intended for him to have.
Isaiah 58, 13, if because of the Sabbath you turn your foot from doing your own pleasure on my holy day and call the Sabbath a delight, then you will take delight in Yahweh.
Isn't that great?
If you turn away from doing your own pleasure and working for your own gain and turn to me, you will find delight, God says.
In his presence is what?
Fullness of joy.
At his right hand are pleasures, the pleasures you're seeking forevermore.
Now I'm not saying, you know, uh, I don't know, you know, you have to go in your prayer closet and sit on your knees, you know, for 10 hours on Sunday.
That's not what's being said.
What I'm telling you is whatever is restful for you.
Coming to church, celebrating, meeting with God, fellowshipping with other believers, hanging out with the family the rest of the day, relaxing.
Just get your mind on him and resting.
That is it, very simply put.
Get your mind and heart on him and get refreshed in him with the relaxing things around you.
The great preacher Charles Spurgeon said this: our Sabbaths are days of heaven upon earth.
We then quit our daily callings and devote ourselves to the worship of God and to the contemplation of his glory.
Days of heaven upon earth.
That's what Sunday is supposed to be, because that's what time with God is supposed to feel like.
Point number three, and finally, the Sabbath points us to knowing Christ.
Praise God.
Verse 17 and 18, for in six days Yahweh made the heavens and the earth, but on the seventh day he rested and was refreshed.
When he had finished speaking with him upon Mount Sinai, he gave Moses the two tablets of the testimony, tablets of stone written by the finger of God.
Amen.
Verse 18, when he had finished speaking, he gave Moses these two tablets, tablets of stone written by the finger of God.
Super cool picture here.
Again, two tablets, tablets of stone and written with God's finger.
This isn't because God has hands like us.
No, God is spirits.
It's a way of telling us these commandments came from God Himself, not from Moses, not from a committee, not the religions of the ancient Near East, God's touch and God's finger.
And right there in the middle of those commandments was the fourth.
Remember the Sabbath to keep it holy.
The Sabbath wasn't a suggestion.
It is, of course, scripture.
It's stone, it's sacred, and it carries on to this day and age.
Notice verse 17, God says, it says that God Himself rested on the seventh day after creation.
The Sabbath wasn't invented at Sinai on the mountain, no.
It was brought in at the Garden of Eden.
It was brought in at the beginning of creation.
It was woven into time.
It was woven when God created time.
When he created the week, he wove the Sabbath into it.
God built time with him into the rhythm of life.
So the Sabbath was rooted in creation and it pointed towards redemption.
The Old Testament Sabbath was a shadow.
Colossians chapter 2, verse 16, therefore no one is to act as your judge in regards to a Sabbath.
Things which are a mere shadow of what is to come, but the substance belongs to Christ.
The shadow is the day.
The substance ultimately is the Savior.
And here is the really the heartbeat of this whole sermon.
When God said in verse 13 that you may know that I'm Yahweh who makes you holy, he was giving his people a hint of something glorious that was coming.
You didn't get to truly know God by working harder.
You get to know him by coming to his son.
John 17, 3, the key.
Some of the most stunning words Jesus ever prayed.
He says, This is eternal life, that they may know you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom you have sent.
Did you hear that?
Eternal life is knowing God.
It's not all this other religious things.
You can't know the Father except through the Son.
When Jesus cried out from the cross, it is finished, he was doing for us what we could never do for ourselves.
He kept every commandment we have broken.
He paid every debt we owed.
Then he died and was laid in the tomb and rested on the Sabbath in the silence of the grave.
Hebrews 4 9 says, So there remains a Sabbath rest for the people of God.
For the one who has entered his rest has himself also rested from his works, as God did from his.
The Sabbath fulfilled in Christ.
Salvation is resting from your works in his on Sabbath.
We cannot forget on this first day of the week, the day of the resurrection, that he rose, and he invited every weary soul to come to him and know him.
Come to me, all you who are weary, heavy laden, and I will give you what?
That's it.
I love verse 17 in our text.
It says, speaking of creation, on the seventh day that he God rested, and that he God was refreshed.
Refreshed.
The seventh day is not for work, it is for refreshment.
Let that sink in.
Seventh day is not for work, it is for rest and refreshment.
Sunday should be a day of refreshment for you, a refresh in God, a rest in Him, through Him, with Him all day.
It's the Lord's day.
You get six days.
We have to give the Lord one.
Here's the application.
Maybe some of you have been knowing about Jesus your whole life.
You've never actually known him.
You've been working you with your fingers to the bone, trying to earn what cannot be earned, trying to be good enough, trying to fix what you've broken, trying to outwork your guilt and run, outrun your shame.
There's no rest at the end of your road.
You can work seven days a week, 24 hours a day the rest of your life, and you will never, ever know God that way.
The law cannot save you.
Religion cannot save you.
Sabbath keeping cannot save you.
The Apostle Paul would have done it.
Saul of Tarsus would have accomplished it if it was possible.
Only Jesus can save you, and only in Jesus can you truly know God.
The most wonderful thing in the world is that He has already done everything needed.
He kept the law you've broken.
He paid the debt you owe.
The payment has been made.
Past tense.
He died the death you deserved, and he rose to invite you into a relationship that begins with him this morning that will literally never end.
We gotta stop trying to do what only he can do.
We don't do it because we have to, we do it because we want to.
God does not want us with fear but with love.
And he keeps his people forever with love.
The religions of the world keep their people with fear.
Come into a relationship with your father, the God who made you, and taking time to talk with him on Sundays is a good thing.
Augustine said this in his confessions.
I don't know who is anyone who's ever said it better.
He says, You have made us for yourself, O Lord, and our hearts are restless until they find rest in thee.
Until we find rest in him.
Every restless heart is looking for what only Jesus can give.
The Sabbath points us to knowing Him.
That's what we remember every single Sunday.
We come in here and we remember that all the working, all the performance, all that we're trying to do, we know ultimately is filthy rags.
Apart from me, you can do nothing.
We reconnect with him.
Say, Lord, forgive all of my bad motives this week.
And for all of the things that I do to try to build my own pride, my own arrogance, boasting in myself of the great deeds that I do.
And help me remember that all this is a gift for you.
I'm grateful.
I'm thankful to know you and to walk with you.
I gladly give you my life again and again and again, every weekend, every Sunday.
We stop for a day and we remember the Lord.
And legacy, this is not a uh, this really isn't a bomb.
This is more of a celebration in my mind, because I do feel that the church does this.
I do feel that that is your heart.
Your mind is already set apart from this city, worshiping the Lord each and every Sunday, communing with Him.
Let's not forget that God gave us time to know Him.
The Sabbath is there, it's carved and sown.
Let's not forget that God made the day for our good.
He gave it to us for our good.
And let's not forget the Sabbath points us to knowing Christ every single week, more and more.
This is eternal life, that they may know you, Jesus Christ.
And Jesus Christ his Son, whom He sent.
Want to close, we're gonna enter into prayer, take some time to reflect on the Lord, and this is gonna be a great time of worship.
I'm so happy that we get time to worship and just pray and talk to the Lord.
And so we're gonna turn to him now.
I want to pray for everybody in this room.
I want to pray for forgiveness of our sin first, and I want to pray that God would open heaven for us now and listen to our prayers, okay?
Uh we're gonna turn to him now.
Let's pray.
Father, we worship you in this place.
And God, I pray for everybody here in this room, Lord, that you would help us.
God, that you would strengthen us, and that we would turn to you with all of our hearts.
We pray, God, that you would forgive us of our sins.
The things that try to keep us from you, things that try to ruin our relationship with you.
We ask that you would forgive us.
We thank you for the work of the cross, your death, burial, and resurrection.
Thank you for saving us.
Thank you for making things right.
There are some in this room, maybe, who don't feel like they know you, God.
I pray that you would forgive them and you would call them into relationship with you in this moment.
They would turn to you with all of their hearts.
They would make you Lord over their lives, they would call upon you to save them from their sin.
And they would walk in your commands, walk in your ways, choose to live the life that you have given to them.
Help us, Lord.
We yield to you, we turn to you now.
We do it in Jesus' name.
Father, I pray as we call out to you now that you would hear from heaven that you would heal us, heal our minds, heal our hearts, heal our bodies, heal our situations, that we would take this Sunday, this Shabbat, to rest in you, to rest from the performance.
Come to me, all ye that are heavy laden and burdened, I will give you rest.
We would come to you, Jesus.
We would make you Lord.
Bless this time as we seek you now, Lord.
We pray in Jesus' name.
Amen.