SPEAKER_01: Welcome to Family Church's Sermon of the Week.
SPEAKER_01: We're so glad you're here.
SPEAKER_01: Each week we share a message from God's Word to encourage your heart, strengthen your faith, and help you grow in your walk with Jesus.
SPEAKER_01: We hope this time blesses you and draws you closer to the heart of God.
SPEAKER_00: When Melyn and I were teachers, we you know we would get gifts from kids a lot, like you get the coffee mugs, we got a lot of coffee mugs, but we get gift cards, and we always appreciated getting gift cards.
SPEAKER_00: You know, that was that was a real blessing to us.
SPEAKER_00: And then I remember one time, uh probably like the third year that we were married and teaching, um, somebody gave us a gift certificate to a furniture, a patio furniture store for$200.
SPEAKER_00: And I thought, oh, this is awesome.
SPEAKER_00: We had just bought a house that had a patio.
SPEAKER_00: I thought we'll go buy, you know, like a little table and four chairs or something with$200.
SPEAKER_00: And that was in the early 90s, so you could do that.
SPEAKER_00: But I went into this store and this was a high-end patio store.
SPEAKER_00: So there was nothing in there for under$200.
SPEAKER_00: I couldn't even buy cushions for patio chairs.
SPEAKER_00: Could I afford the patio chairs?
SPEAKER_00: So, so you know, really, I looked at that gift gift certificate and I thought, this isn't a gift certificate for$200.
SPEAKER_00: This is a bill for$1,800.
SPEAKER_00: Because nothing in there is more than than than or was less than$2,000.
SPEAKER_00: And so I'm thinking, well, what am I gonna do with this thing?
SPEAKER_00: And you know, and I looked at this gift and I thought, this gift is more of a burden than it is a gift, because I have to, you know, I have to pay for something I wouldn't pay for otherwise if I'm gonna use it.
SPEAKER_00: Fortunately, I went over to the clearance section and I found a white porch swing made of used milk cartons.
SPEAKER_00: 33 years later, we still have that hanging in our backyard.
SPEAKER_00: So we did get something out of that.
SPEAKER_00: But you know, when somebody gives you a gift and that gift comes with a bigger price tag, it's kind of not a gift.
SPEAKER_00: It becomes a bit of a burden.
SPEAKER_00: God gave us a gift, and we took that gift, man took that gift and he made it a burden.
SPEAKER_00: He made it a burden.
SPEAKER_00: He put a price tag on it that God never intended.
SPEAKER_00: And and then man made this gift outrageously complicated.
SPEAKER_00: Unbelievably complicated.
SPEAKER_00: And it was more than a burden than a gift.
SPEAKER_00: And let me show you what that gift is.
SPEAKER_00: Look at Exodus 16, starting in verse 23.
SPEAKER_00: It says, He told them, This is what the Lord commanded.
SPEAKER_00: Tomorrow, this is Moses talking, he told them, this is what the Lord commanded, tomorrow will be a day of complete rest, a holy Sabbath day set apart for the Lord.
SPEAKER_00: So bake or boil as much as you want today, and set aside what is left for tomorrow.
SPEAKER_00: So they put it put some aside until morning, just as Moses had commanded.
SPEAKER_00: And in the morning the leftover food was wholesome and good, without maggots or odor.
SPEAKER_00: Moses said, Eat this food today, for today is a Sabbath day dedicated to the Lord.
SPEAKER_00: There will be no food on the ground today.
SPEAKER_00: You may gather the food for six days, but the seventh day is the Sabbath.
SPEAKER_00: There will be no food on the ground that day.
SPEAKER_00: Some of the people went out anyway on the seventh day, but they found no food.
SPEAKER_00: The Lord asked Moses, How long will these people refuse to obey my commands and instructions?
SPEAKER_00: They must realize that the Sabbath is the Lord's gift to you.
SPEAKER_00: Remember that last phrase.
SPEAKER_00: The Sabbath is the Lord's gift to you.
SPEAKER_00: We're going to come back to that.
SPEAKER_00: But let me give you a little context as to what's going on here.
SPEAKER_00: At this time, they had just come out of Egypt.
SPEAKER_00: They crossed the Red Sea.
SPEAKER_00: Now they're wandering in the wilderness a little bit, waiting for God's instruction.
SPEAKER_00: And almost right away the Israelites start complaining.
SPEAKER_00: They go to Moses, We're thirsty.
SPEAKER_00: There's no water.
SPEAKER_00: We should have stayed in Egypt.
SPEAKER_00: And so God said, I'll take you to water.
SPEAKER_00: So not only did he take them to water, he led them to a spring.
SPEAKER_00: It was actually twelve springs.
SPEAKER_00: Twelve tribes took them to twelve springs, and there was enough water to quench the thirst of two million people and all of their livestock.
SPEAKER_00: Not a bad deal.
SPEAKER_00: God's going to take care of them.
SPEAKER_00: Then they started complaining again.
SPEAKER_00: Moses were hungry.
SPEAKER_00: We should have stayed in Egypt.
SPEAKER_00: We had plenty of food in Egypt.
SPEAKER_00: We should have stayed in Egypt.
SPEAKER_00: So God said, I'm going to take care of you.
SPEAKER_00: Every morning, you're going to wake up and there's going to be food on the ground.
SPEAKER_00: There's going to be manna.
SPEAKER_00: And I'm going to give that to you every morning.
SPEAKER_00: You go out and you collect exactly what you need for your family for that day.
SPEAKER_00: Don't save it overnight.
SPEAKER_00: If you save it overnight, it's going to be nasty.
SPEAKER_00: Just get what you need for that day.
SPEAKER_00: So they did that.
SPEAKER_00: Some of them tried to save it over the night.
SPEAKER_00: The next morning it was full of maggots and it was sour, just like God said.
SPEAKER_00: And then he said on the sixth day, he said, Make sure you get twice as much today, because tomorrow I want you to rest.
SPEAKER_00: I don't want you to gather food tomorrow.
SPEAKER_00: So get twice as much today.
SPEAKER_00: So some of them got twice as much today.
SPEAKER_00: They ate it all on Friday, and they went out on Saturday, and there was no manna.
SPEAKER_00: Just like God said.
SPEAKER_00: And that's when God said, What are you going to learn?
SPEAKER_00: You know, I'm just trying to give you a day of rest.
SPEAKER_00: That's all it is.
SPEAKER_00: Don't make it complicated.
SPEAKER_00: He said, This is my gift to you.
SPEAKER_00: And that was nothing compared to what man would do with this gift in making it complicated.
SPEAKER_00: So let's talk about the Sabbath.
SPEAKER_00: Let's talk about it.
SPEAKER_00: The word Sabbath is a Hebrew word, and it means rest.
SPEAKER_00: That's all it means.
SPEAKER_00: That's what God gave us.
SPEAKER_00: He said, I want you to rest.
SPEAKER_00: I want you to rest.
SPEAKER_00: I want you to dedicate this day to the Lord.
SPEAKER_00: I want you to do this because I love you and because I've asked you to do it.
SPEAKER_00: I want you to obey because this is good for you.
SPEAKER_00: And throughout the Old Testament, every time the Sabbath is talked about, it's not described in too many more details than that.
SPEAKER_00: It's just rest.
SPEAKER_00: I just want you to rest.
SPEAKER_00: You know, now God, God is a God of common sense as well.
SPEAKER_00: So He didn't forbid rest, or He didn't forbid work if there was an emergency.
SPEAKER_00: You know, he said, if your ox falls in a ditch, yeah, get your ox out of the ditch.
SPEAKER_00: Don't wait till the next day.
SPEAKER_00: If your sheep falls into a well, get the sheep out of the well.
SPEAKER_00: Don't wait till the next day.
SPEAKER_00: If you had a flat tire, change that flat tire.
SPEAKER_00: Don't wait till the next day.
SPEAKER_00: You know, use common sense.
SPEAKER_00: It's a day of rest, but if there's an emergency, absolutely respond to that emergency.
SPEAKER_00: But later the Pharisees would take that one simple gift from God and they would turn it into 39 laws.
SPEAKER_00: They would turn it into 39 regulations.
SPEAKER_00: One gift, turn it into 39 regulations.
SPEAKER_00: Here's what it means to keep the Sabbath.
SPEAKER_00: You may not do this, you may not do this, you may not do this, you may not do this, you may not do this.
SPEAKER_00: 39 times.
SPEAKER_00: And then they took that 39 times, thinking they were going to clarify it for people, and they turned it into over 600 limitations.
SPEAKER_00: Over 600 things you could not do on the Sabbath.
SPEAKER_00: So now, now instead of Sabbath, the Sabbath being a blessing or a gift from God, it was a burden.
SPEAKER_00: Nobody looked forward to it because it was so hard to keep up with all of the rules and the regulations of the Sabbath.
SPEAKER_00: So no one's enjoying it.
SPEAKER_00: And now instead of having rest, now they're slaves to 600 limitations given to them by man.
SPEAKER_00: And the requirements, the more they had, the more requirements they had on this, and the more limitations they had, the more ridiculous it became.
SPEAKER_00: It started to defy common sense.
SPEAKER_00: For instance, like you couldn't make mud on the Sabbath.
SPEAKER_00: You know, they made a lot of mud and clay back then.
SPEAKER_00: They would make bricks with it.
SPEAKER_00: They would use it in building their homes.
SPEAKER_00: They would, you know, they'd use it to make the pottery and all these different things.
SPEAKER_00: They had they had uses for that.
SPEAKER_00: So they would make mud or make clay.
SPEAKER_00: That was work.
SPEAKER_00: So that was one of the 39.
SPEAKER_00: You may not make mud.
SPEAKER_00: No mud pies on the Sabbath.
SPEAKER_00: Okay, now to clarify that, to make it more complicated, somebody had the bright idea of saying, now, if somebody hawks a loogie and spits it on the ground into the dirt, that makes mud.
SPEAKER_00: Okay?
SPEAKER_00: So so you can't spit in the dirt on the Sabbath.
SPEAKER_00: That's for real.
SPEAKER_00: They really said that.
SPEAKER_00: You can't spit into the dirt on Sabbath.
SPEAKER_00: If you have to spit, you have to spit into water or you have to spit on a rock or something.
SPEAKER_00: You can't spit into dirt because you're not allowed to make mud.
SPEAKER_00: When you spit in the dirt, that makes mud.
SPEAKER_00: That's how ridiculous it was getting.
SPEAKER_00: In John 9, you might remember the story, Jesus heals a blind man.
SPEAKER_00: The Bible says that he bends over, he spits into the dirt, and he pick, and he makes clay out of the dirt, and he rubs it into the blind man's eyes, which I'm sure that was a beautiful scene then.
SPEAKER_00: I think in this day and age, we would go, oh, that's nasty.
SPEAKER_00: You know, nobody would want that, but that was probably a beautiful thing then.
SPEAKER_00: But he did that, and suddenly he could see.
SPEAKER_00: A couple days later, the Pharisees come up to him and say, You broke the Sabbath.
SPEAKER_00: And they're trying to find fault in Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: You broke the Sabbath.
SPEAKER_00: You made mud and you healed on the Sabbath.
SPEAKER_00: That's how ridiculous it got.
SPEAKER_00: That's how bad it was.
SPEAKER_00: When you take something as simple as a command to rest one day, set it aside, rest, focus on God, dedicate that day to him, and then you turn it into 600 limitations.
SPEAKER_00: You know, you become a servant of that day rather than that day serving your needs.
SPEAKER_00: And that's exactly what Jesus said about the Sabbath.
SPEAKER_00: Look at Mark chapter 2, verses 20, starting in verse 23.
SPEAKER_00: It says, one day, uh, one set one Sabbath, Jesus was going through the grain fields, and uh, as his disciples walked along, they began to pick some of the heads of grain.
SPEAKER_00: The Pharisees said to him, Look, why are they doing what is unlawful on the Sabbath?
SPEAKER_00: They're just walking through a grain field.
SPEAKER_00: It said they would pull the pick the grain.
SPEAKER_00: So what they would do is they'd pull the grain off the tops of the wheat and they'd rub it in their hands for the chaff to go away, the dusty part to go away, and then they would eat the grains.
SPEAKER_00: You know, that's that's hardly a hard day's work, you know, and they gotta eat.
SPEAKER_00: But the Pharisees looked at that and said, They're breaking the Sabbath.
SPEAKER_00: Pharisees said to him, Look, why are they doing what is unlawful in the Sabbath?
SPEAKER_00: He answered, Have you never read what David did when he and his companions were hungry and in need?
SPEAKER_00: In the days of Abiathar the high priest, he entered the house of God and ate the consecrated bread, which is lawful only for priests to eat.
SPEAKER_00: And he also gave some to his companions.
SPEAKER_00: Then Jesus said to them, The Sabbath was made for man, not man for the Sabbath.
SPEAKER_00: So the Son of Man is Lord even of the Sabbath.
SPEAKER_00: So Jesus is basically basically saying, I made the Sabbath for you.
SPEAKER_00: I made it for you.
SPEAKER_00: I didn't make you to serve the Sabbath.
SPEAKER_00: God did not give us the Sabbath because He needed it.
SPEAKER_00: He didn't need us to obey one more thing.
SPEAKER_00: God gave us the Sabbath because we needed it.
SPEAKER_00: The Sabbath is a gift, not an obligation.
SPEAKER_00: And in fact, it was the first gift that God gave to man.
SPEAKER_00: Look at Genesis chapter 2, starting in verse 1.
SPEAKER_00: It says, So the creation of the heavens and the earth and everything in them was completed.
SPEAKER_00: On the seventh day, God had finished his work of creation.
SPEAKER_00: So he rested from all of his work, and God blessed the seventh day and declared it holy, because it was the day when he rested from all of his work of creation.
SPEAKER_00: So this is not implying that God, you know, the all-powerful, all-present, creator of the universe, needed a nap.
SPEAKER_00: That's not what this is about.
SPEAKER_00: God chose to rest on the seventh day to start to establish a plan that would help us.
SPEAKER_00: God didn't need to rest.
SPEAKER_00: In fact, uh Psalm 121.4 says, indeed, he who watches over Israel never slumbers or sleeps.
SPEAKER_00: God didn't need to sleep.
SPEAKER_00: God didn't need a nap.
SPEAKER_00: The Sabbath was not created for God to meet God's needs, it was created to meet our needs.
SPEAKER_00: So a month ago, our men's Bible study, the series we were doing, the speaker in the in this series talked about the necessity of taking a Sabbath.
SPEAKER_00: And he said something.
SPEAKER_00: Am I on?
SPEAKER_00: Okay.
SPEAKER_00: He said something that I had never considered before.
SPEAKER_00: And it blew me away when I saw this.
SPEAKER_00: So think about it this way.
SPEAKER_00: You know, God created man, God created the earth in six days, and there's a seventh day he had he rested.
SPEAKER_00: So he observed the first Sabbath.
SPEAKER_00: Now, the day before that Sabbath, he created man.
SPEAKER_00: You need to be fruitful and multiply.
SPEAKER_00: You've got to take dominion over the earth.
SPEAKER_00: You need to reign over the fish in the sea, the birds of the sky, and all the animals that scurry along the ground.
SPEAKER_00: You have to name all of the animals.
SPEAKER_00: God gave Adam something to do on that sixth day.
SPEAKER_00: So, you know, you would think Adam would be like, all right, I'm going to get a good night's sleep because I got a lot to do tomorrow.
SPEAKER_00: And he was probably expecting to do a lot.
SPEAKER_00: So he got up the next day, and God said, on Adam's first day, first full day of life, God says, We're going to rest.
SPEAKER_00: And I don't know what Adam was thinking, but I would have been thinking, I haven't done anything.
SPEAKER_00: I just got here.
SPEAKER_00: Why do I need to rest?
SPEAKER_00: You know, let's get busy.
SPEAKER_00: But God said we're going to start by resting.
SPEAKER_00: And here's what I learned from that Bible study.
SPEAKER_00: The Sabbath isn't about recovering from a hard week's work.
SPEAKER_00: The Sabbath is about preparing.
SPEAKER_00: The Sabbath is about preparing for what's coming.
SPEAKER_00: The Sabbath is about preparation, not recovery.
SPEAKER_00: And I doubt there's a person in here that would say, oh, I don't need rest.
SPEAKER_00: I don't need a day off.
SPEAKER_00: You know, we're, I mean, we're all busy.
SPEAKER_00: We got work, we got school stuff, we got uh yard work, housework, graduation parties this time of year.
SPEAKER_00: I mean, there's a lot going on.
SPEAKER_00: There's every everybody in here probably would say, Man, I need I need a day.
SPEAKER_00: I just need one day.
SPEAKER_00: Well, God gave us that day.
SPEAKER_00: And he gave it to us every week.
SPEAKER_00: It's just a matter of us saying, I'm gonna take advantage of what God has already given me, and I'm gonna observe a day of rest.
SPEAKER_00: It's our choice.
SPEAKER_00: God gave it to us.
SPEAKER_00: We just have to make it happen.
SPEAKER_00: And I've always been pretty good about taking a Sabbath.
SPEAKER_00: You know, when I first got into ministry, I would take Fridays off, which I thought was a good idea, because then I would have Friday and Saturday.
SPEAKER_00: It would kind of like be having a weekend.
SPEAKER_00: On paper, it looked like I had a weekend.
SPEAKER_00: But inevitably, you know, my week would would uh stuff would pile up or whatever, and and you know, my week is all about getting ready for Sunday.
SPEAKER_00: So if Thursday I wasn't ready for Sunday, I was still working Friday and Saturday.
SPEAKER_00: They became work days, even though they were supposed to be my day off, because I gotta be ready for Sunday.
SPEAKER_00: And that was frustrating to me, it was frustrating to my family, and and at my pastor's recommendation, my pastor in Florida, at his recommendation, I changed my day off to Monday.
SPEAKER_00: I changed my day off to Monday.
SPEAKER_00: Because when I took a day off on Friday, it was kind of like I was running a marathon uphill.
SPEAKER_00: And then I stopped two-thirds of the way through that marathon on the hill and took a breath, took a rest, and then I started running uphill again.
SPEAKER_00: And about all I could do was catch my breath and hopefully get everything done by Sunday.
SPEAKER_00: That's what it was like.
SPEAKER_00: When I switched it to Monday, it felt like I just finished a marathon.
SPEAKER_00: And now I can I can rest up from that and I can focus on the week ahead of me.
SPEAKER_00: You know?
SPEAKER_00: And so my Sabbath for years has been on Monday.
SPEAKER_00: Because, you know, when you're in ministry, Sunday's a work day.
SPEAKER_00: It's not much of a Sabbath.
SPEAKER_00: You're working on Sunday.
SPEAKER_00: And and uh and and a lot of people that are volunteers here, you're working a lot on Sundays, and we appreciate that.
SPEAKER_00: So, so you know, Monday is my Sabbath day.
SPEAKER_00: I take I take Mondays to rest and to start focusing on the next week.
SPEAKER_00: And I've always been pretty good about that.
SPEAKER_00: And and it's and it's been very helpful.
SPEAKER_00: Been very helpful.
SPEAKER_00: I feel like I feel like I have more control over my life, and I'm I'm I'm not you know, I'm not panicking over things and I'm not frustrated.
SPEAKER_00: But a year ago, that all changed.
SPEAKER_00: A year ago, a year ago this month, I started praying with the leadership of this church about finding a new location for this church, a new name for this church, becoming our own church rather than being a campus of Park Valley church.
SPEAKER_00: We were gonna become our own church.
SPEAKER_00: And when I should have rested in God and trusted in Him more, I responded to that by working more and worrying more.
SPEAKER_00: And Melinda will tell you it was not a good thing.
SPEAKER_00: I was frustrated, I was short-tempered, I wasn't sleeping well.
SPEAKER_00: I mean, it was a disaster because I abandoned what God gave me to control my stress and and and give me and give me the sleep that I needed.
SPEAKER_00: And that went on for months.
SPEAKER_00: That went on for months.
SPEAKER_00: I can't believe Melinda hasn't said amen because it was that bad.
SPEAKER_00: You know, I was I was not a I was not a good person at home for a lot of that.
SPEAKER_00: But in February, in February, I heard I heard a guy preach a sermon on a podcast, and it was about taking a Sabbath, and God convicted me so much that I knew I had to go back to that.
SPEAKER_00: And and even if it meant, you know, I'm not getting stuff done the way I want to, I knew I needed to observe that Sabbath on Monday again because I had all but abandoned it.
SPEAKER_00: So I went back to doing that, and and I'm able to focus on God more.
SPEAKER_00: I st I start I start Monday, my goal is to start Monday spending more time in the Word than I do any other day of the week.
SPEAKER_00: So I spend time in the Word, I rest, I relax, I'm able, I'm able to recover from the marathon last week I just ran and start focusing on the next marathon, because there's always every week's a marathon.
SPEAKER_00: But if I take that day of rest, I'm prepared for it.
SPEAKER_00: And I'm sleeping better.
SPEAKER_00: I'm not, I'm, I don't fly off the handle like I used to, and I'm still getting the work done, that's the thing.
SPEAKER_00: I'm not sacrificing anything, I'm still getting the work done.
SPEAKER_00: So God, you know, and the only the only reason that happened is because I decided to do things the way God planned it, that I'm not I'm not recovering, I'm not collapsing in exhaustion on my Sabbath.
SPEAKER_00: I'm using my Sabbath to prepare for what's coming.
SPEAKER_00: I'm focusing on God and I'm using that Sabbath to prepare for what's coming.
SPEAKER_00: And that made all the difference.
SPEAKER_00: It made all the difference for me.
SPEAKER_00: And there is a ton of research that talks about the effects of taking a Sabbath on people.
SPEAKER_00: You know, and part of that research says, you know, talks about, you know, here's why people do take a Sabbath, here's why people don't take a Sabbath.
SPEAKER_00: And what some of that research found is that the majority of Christians agree, yes, we should take a Sabbath.
SPEAKER_00: But only a minority of them actually do take a full day of rest.
SPEAKER_00: A minority of them.
SPEAKER_00: And the ones that don't, they they uh ask them, you know, what why don't you take a Sabbath?
SPEAKER_00: And the responses were basically, we're too busy, I don't have enough time, I'm overcommitted, and I waste too much time.
SPEAKER_00: That's why I don't take a Sabbath.
SPEAKER_00: So so the very things that a Sabbath will will help you with are the reasons why you're not taking a Sabbath.
SPEAKER_00: The very things that that the Sabbath would cure in your life or heal in your life are the reasons why.
SPEAKER_00: So you're saying I'm too busy and I'm too stressed to do the one thing God gave me to deal with stress and busyness.
SPEAKER_00: And so we don't do it.
SPEAKER_00: But taking a day of Sabbath is a command from God.
SPEAKER_00: He commanded us to do it.
SPEAKER_00: And 1 John 5, 3 says, loving God means keeping his commandments, and his commandments are not a burden.
SPEAKER_00: His commandments are not a burden.
SPEAKER_00: The Sabbath is a blessing, not a burden.
SPEAKER_00: Sabbath is a blessing, not a burden.
SPEAKER_00: Remember, the first thing God asked uh Israel to do when they left Egypt was to observe the Sabbath, to rest.
unknown: Okay?
SPEAKER_00: But think about this.
SPEAKER_00: When when God first called Moses to lead the children of Israel in in Exodus 3 and 4, when God called them, he said, I want you to lead the children of Israel to the land of milk and honey.
SPEAKER_00: And that's obviously a metaphor because you know there is nowhere in the Holy Land where there are rivers of milk and you know, big ponds full of honey.
SPEAKER_00: It's obviously a metaphor.
SPEAKER_00: And it to the Israelites, that would be a metaphor for two things.
SPEAKER_00: The first one, you know, it's it's a metaphor that says, I'm gonna provide for you, I'm gonna take you to a place where your needs are met.
SPEAKER_00: But the second metaphor, we don't we don't see it as much, but Israelites would have.
SPEAKER_00: You know, I I told you when I had given up my Sabbath that it that it really affected my sleep.
SPEAKER_00: More than anything, it affected my sleep.
SPEAKER_00: Slept terrible for months, slept terrible.
SPEAKER_00: And so I started looking at natural remedies for, you know, to help you sleep at night.
SPEAKER_00: And there's a bunch of them, you know, and some of them worked for me, some of them didn't.
SPEAKER_00: The one that worked the best, warm milk and honey.
SPEAKER_00: Milk and honey.
SPEAKER_00: And you know where that is most commonly used?
SPEAKER_00: Middle Eastern cultures.
SPEAKER_00: Milk and honey.
SPEAKER_00: So when God told Moses, I'm gonna lead the children of Israel to a land of milk and honey, Moses knew that meant God is gonna lead them to a land of rest.
SPEAKER_00: And the Israelites knew a land of milk and honey meant a land of rest.
SPEAKER_00: And throughout the Old Testament, God refers to the promised land as a land of rest.
SPEAKER_00: So that's what he was promising them.
SPEAKER_00: He's promising them rest.
SPEAKER_00: And the Sabbath blesses you with rest.
SPEAKER_00: But God also told them, you know, you know, when you rest, I'll take care of your needs.
SPEAKER_00: I'll take care of your needs.
SPEAKER_00: You don't have to go out and collect food on Saturday because I'm going to give you enough on Friday.
SPEAKER_00: I'm going to take care of your needs.
SPEAKER_00: So the Sabbath blesses you with provision also.
SPEAKER_00: Chick-fil-A, you know, all of us have one thing in common here today.
SPEAKER_00: All of us have this one thing in common.
SPEAKER_00: None of us are going to Chick-fil-A for lunch.
SPEAKER_00: Because they observe the Sabbath.
SPEAKER_00: You know?
SPEAKER_00: And that business model makes no sense to close your restaurant on the second most profitable day of the week.
SPEAKER_00: Makes no sense.
SPEAKER_00: But they're the number one restaurant chain in the country.
SPEAKER_00: And it's because God is blessing them.
SPEAKER_00: God is providing for Chick-fil-A because they observe that Sabbath.
SPEAKER_00: The Sabbath blesses you with provision.
SPEAKER_00: And if you need more convincing, this one's for you.
SPEAKER_00: The Sabbath blesses you with results.
SPEAKER_00: Blesses you with results.
SPEAKER_00: I mentioned before that there's a lot of research to the effects of taking a Sabbath.
SPEAKER_00: And I thought it was interesting as I was looking through the research that's available.
SPEAKER_00: Most of the test subjects were teachers and ministers.
SPEAKER_00: I thought that was pretty interesting.
SPEAKER_00: So, teachers, everybody recognizes you need a rest.
SPEAKER_00: But one study, it observed Methodist ministers.
SPEAKER_00: And it got this group of Methodist ministers together, a large group of ministers, and they had to attend a Sabbath workshop to learn, okay, here's what the Bible says about a Sabbath, here's what we want you to do to observe the Sabbath, you know, as, you know, so we're all doing the same thing.
SPEAKER_00: And then we're going to observe you for nine months.
SPEAKER_00: After three months, select ministers were told to stop observing the Sabbath.
SPEAKER_00: So at the end of the nine months, the ministers that observed it for nine months, it said that, you know, they they reported a greater feeling of personal accomplishment.
SPEAKER_00: That's awesome.
SPEAKER_00: The ones who stopped after three months says this.
SPEAKER_00: They reported an increase in anxiety, decrease in spiritual well-being, and a higher probability of decreased mental health.
SPEAKER_00: You know, have you ever said, boy, I need a mental health day?
SPEAKER_00: God gave us one every week.
SPEAKER_00: God gave us a mental health day.
SPEAKER_00: We just got to decide I'm gonna do it.
SPEAKER_00: I'm gonna take my mental health day.
SPEAKER_00: According to the Journal of Psychology and Theology, Sabbath keeping accomplishes the following.
SPEAKER_00: First, it regulates cortisol levels.
SPEAKER_00: Cortisol is called the stress hormone.
SPEAKER_00: Keeping a Sabbath regulates cortisol levels.
SPEAKER_00: In one test, it nearly eliminated burnout among Christian school teachers in four different countries.
SPEAKER_00: They did this study four times in four different countries.
SPEAKER_00: Every time, it almost eliminated burnout for those teachers.
SPEAKER_00: That's pretty awesome.
SPEAKER_00: It improves sleep habits, physical health, mental health.
SPEAKER_00: It regulates your circadian rhythm, which has to do with your sleep, and it increases marital intimacy.
SPEAKER_00: Guys, if you needed one, there's the one for you.
SPEAKER_00: It increases marital intimacy.
SPEAKER_00: Members of the Seventh-day Adventist Church, they practice a very strict adherence to Sabbath keeping on the seventh day.
SPEAKER_00: They do nothing on Saturdays.
SPEAKER_00: They go to church and they go home and they rest.
SPEAKER_00: That's part of their doctrine, part of their dogma.
SPEAKER_00: So they were a great control group to study.
SPEAKER_00: And so a study done exclusively on Seventh-day Adventists produced similar findings to the research I just mentioned.
SPEAKER_00: But it also showed that Seventh-day Adventist men live 7.3 years longer than other men.
SPEAKER_00: Seventh-day Adventist women live 4.4 years longer than other women.
SPEAKER_00: So taking that Sabbath works.
SPEAKER_00: It offers results.
SPEAKER_00: You know?
SPEAKER_00: So this whole month we're talking about living the blessed life, and there are certain things God has told us.
SPEAKER_00: You do this and I will bless you.
SPEAKER_00: The first week we talked about honor your parents.
SPEAKER_00: Honor your parents, I'll give you a long life and I'll give you joy.
SPEAKER_00: You will have joy.
SPEAKER_00: It will go well with you.
SPEAKER_00: All you have to do is honor your parents.
SPEAKER_00: I'll bless you.
SPEAKER_00: Do that, I'll honor your, I'll bless you.
SPEAKER_00: The second was tithing.
SPEAKER_00: You practice tithing, I'm gonna bless you.
SPEAKER_00: He says, test me on this.
SPEAKER_00: Try it.
SPEAKER_00: Just try it.
SPEAKER_00: I'll bless you if you practice tithing.
SPEAKER_00: This week, it's a Sabbath.
SPEAKER_00: He says, You observe that Sabbath, you take a Sabbath, I'm gonna bless you.
SPEAKER_00: I'm gonna give you rest and I'm gonna provide for your needs.
SPEAKER_00: So here's the challenge this week.
SPEAKER_00: If you're not in the habit of taking a Sabbath, the challenge is just try it.
SPEAKER_00: Just try it.
SPEAKER_00: Here's what you can do if you wanna, if you wanna, uh if you wanna make the decision to say, yeah, I'm gonna observe a Sabbath in my life.
SPEAKER_00: First, take a good hard look at how you spend your time.
SPEAKER_00: Seriously.
SPEAKER_00: Take a good hard look at how you spend your time.
SPEAKER_00: Even make a list.
SPEAKER_00: Two columns.
SPEAKER_00: Stuff I don't need to do, stuff I do need to do.
SPEAKER_00: Stuff I can't control, stuff I can control.
unknown: Okay?
SPEAKER_00: And start eliminating things.
SPEAKER_00: Because there's a lot of stuff on our list, mine included, that we don't have to do.
SPEAKER_00: And you need to eliminate those things.
SPEAKER_00: And if your family's committing to do this, do it as a family.
SPEAKER_00: Include your kids in this discussion.
SPEAKER_00: Teach your kids from very young.
SPEAKER_00: Hey, you don't have to be, you're you're you don't have to be controlled by your schedule.
SPEAKER_00: You can control your schedule.
SPEAKER_00: And you can benefit as a 10-year-old by having a Sabbath in your life.
SPEAKER_00: So make that list.
SPEAKER_00: Make hard decisions about your schedule, things that you're doing.
SPEAKER_00: Second, decide what day works best for you.
SPEAKER_00: You know, the the for the Israelites, it was absolutely Saturday.
SPEAKER_00: You had to do Saturday.
SPEAKER_00: After Christ arose and the church was established, you know, the kind of migrated over time to being on Sunday because they would celebrate the resurrection.
SPEAKER_00: So that was the day they gathered, so it kind of became the Sabbath to the early church.
SPEAKER_00: But Paul said two times in Romans and 1 Corinthians, don't get hung up on the day.
SPEAKER_00: Don't get hung up on the day.
SPEAKER_00: Don't let anybody tell you that one day is more special than another.
SPEAKER_00: So if, you know, Sunday doesn't work for me, Sunday's a work day.
SPEAKER_00: So Sunday doesn't work for me, so I chose Monday.
SPEAKER_00: If Saturday or Sunday works for you, awesome.
SPEAKER_00: Go with it.
SPEAKER_00: If it doesn't, if you're busy on those days, you know, some people have to work on those days, you know, pick the day that you don't have to work.
SPEAKER_00: Make that your Sabbath.
SPEAKER_00: Commit that day to God.
SPEAKER_00: Include time with God in that day.
SPEAKER_00: You know, just just resting is awesome.
SPEAKER_00: Not working is awesome, but you're missing the point if you're not focusing part of that day on God.
SPEAKER_00: Okay?
SPEAKER_00: It's about focus.
SPEAKER_00: It's not just about rest, it's not just about uh not working, it's about focus.
SPEAKER_00: Focus on God.
SPEAKER_00: It's supposed to be a blessing, so do the things that are a blessing.
SPEAKER_00: Do the things that bless you.
SPEAKER_00: You know, so you might you might do some things that the Pharisees would say, well, that's work, you can't do that.
SPEAKER_00: But if it's a blessing to you, it's okay.
SPEAKER_00: You know, if you love yard work, if you love yard work, do yard work.
SPEAKER_00: You know, if you like gardening, do gardening.
SPEAKER_00: If you like crafty kind of things, do that.
SPEAKER_00: Do something that's a blessing to you.
SPEAKER_00: I love mowing the yard.
SPEAKER_00: I love it.
SPEAKER_00: You know, and and when you're a pastor, there's not a lot of instant gratification, you know, because I'm all about seeing people come to Jesus and people grow in their faith.
SPEAKER_00: That takes time.
SPEAKER_00: You know, I don't preach a sermon and the next week everybody come back and go, we did it! We did it.
SPEAKER_00: That doesn't happen.
SPEAKER_00: You know, it's over time.
SPEAKER_00: You see those results over time.
SPEAKER_00: When I mow the yard, instant gratification.
SPEAKER_00: And we need that.
SPEAKER_00: So I love mowing the yard.
SPEAKER_00: So Mondays, most of the time on Mondays, I'll mow the yard because it's relaxing, it's a riding mower.
SPEAKER_00: Put in a podcast or something, mow the yard, love it.
SPEAKER_00: You know, do the things that bless you on your the time that you take Sabbath.
SPEAKER_00: Make it make time for fun with your family.
SPEAKER_00: That's important.
SPEAKER_00: Family fun is important.
SPEAKER_00: When your kids are grown and they come back together, they talk about the fun times.
SPEAKER_00: When my kids come home and we sit around the dining room table, they talk about the fun times.
SPEAKER_00: They talk about our camping trips.
SPEAKER_00: They talk about, they talk about the time we were in the backyard in Florida and somebody, we had we had a fire pit going, and somebody threw an axe deodorant can into the fire pit and it exploded and set our trampoline on fire.
SPEAKER_00: You know, that wasn't fun at the moment.
SPEAKER_00: Looking back, it's kind of funny.
SPEAKER_00: We talk about that kind of stuff.
SPEAKER_00: You know, we don't talk about, my kids never say, Dad, you remember that time you sat us down and you you you taught us about managing our time.
SPEAKER_00: You know, you remember that homeschool lesson?
SPEAKER_00: Nobody, nobody talks about that.
SPEAKER_00: We talk about the fun times.
SPEAKER_00: Include fun times in your Sabbath.
SPEAKER_00: Have fun with your family, have fun with friends.
SPEAKER_00: And this one's hard.
SPEAKER_00: Try to get your family on the same schedule.
SPEAKER_00: This is hard.
SPEAKER_00: Lynn and I just had to talk about this.
SPEAKER_00: She was taking Tuesdays every day, I was taking Mondays, and we're like, why can't we take the same day?
SPEAKER_00: You know?
SPEAKER_00: But try it, try to get your family to line up on the same day if you can.
SPEAKER_00: That's a tough one because schedules are different, schedules are hard, schedules change, but if you can get the family to line up and have the same day where you're focused on God and you're focused on each other, and you're and you're focused on rest and you're focused forward, that's a great thing for your family.
SPEAKER_00: That's an awesome thing for your family.
SPEAKER_00: So that's the challenge.
SPEAKER_00: That's the challenge.
SPEAKER_00: But none of that means anything if you don't know Christ.
SPEAKER_00: You know, you're gonna find it hard to focus on the spiritual part of this if you don't have a relationship with Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: You know, and you you might say, well, I know who Jesus is.
SPEAKER_00: I've read the Bible, I went to Sunday school, all that.
SPEAKER_00: But if you don't have a relationship with him, it's not the same.
SPEAKER_00: And, you know, we said God wants to bless you.
SPEAKER_00: Here's how bad he wants to bless you.
SPEAKER_00: He sent his son to die on the cross so that you can have eternal life.
SPEAKER_00: That's how terribly he wants to bless you.
SPEAKER_00: And and he knew, God knew by design, there is nothing we could do to earn that kind of love.
SPEAKER_00: Nobody in here deserves to have someone else's son die for them, especially the God of the universe.
SPEAKER_00: Nobody deserves that.
SPEAKER_00: And we can never earn that.
SPEAKER_00: We can never be good enough, we can never be kind enough, we can never be generous enough to earn that kind of love.
SPEAKER_00: It's just not gonna happen.
SPEAKER_00: So Jesus said, or God said, I'm gonna send my son and I'm gonna do all of that for you.
SPEAKER_00: My son is gonna earn it for you.
SPEAKER_00: He's gonna pay the price for your sin so that you can spend eternity in heaven.
SPEAKER_00: So if you're here today and you've never accepted Christ, it's that simple.
SPEAKER_00: It's just a matter of you acknowledging, hey, it's not anything that I do.
SPEAKER_00: I'm a sinner, I need forgiveness of my sin, and Jesus offered that through his death, burial, and resurrection and his shed blood on the cross.
SPEAKER_00: And because of that, I can have eternal life.
SPEAKER_00: I can spend eternity in heaven.
SPEAKER_00: So just for a second, with heads bowed and eyes closed.
SPEAKER_00: If you're here today and you've never accepted Christ, it's simple.
SPEAKER_00: You just talk to God and you tell him those things I just said.
SPEAKER_00: And if you struggle putting that, uh putting putting those words into into or putting putting that into words, what's going on in your heart and mind, you struggle putting that into words, then then just say something like this.
SPEAKER_00: It's not about repeating the prayer, it's it's about what's going on in your heart and mind, but just say, God, thank you for sending Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: Thank you that because of him I can have eternal life.
SPEAKER_00: So today I confess my sin and I trust in the shed blood of Jesus for the forgiveness of my sin.
SPEAKER_00: And I trust in his death, burial, and resurrection for my eternal soul.
SPEAKER_00: And I know that I can have eternal life through him.
SPEAKER_00: So today I choose to follow Jesus and I accept him as my Savior.
SPEAKER_00: If you prayed that and you meant it, your life is very different right now.
SPEAKER_00: You just crossed from death to life.
SPEAKER_00: Your name was written in the Lamb's book of life.
SPEAKER_00: Your sins are cast as far as the east is from the west to be remembered no more.
SPEAKER_00: Nothing can change that.
SPEAKER_00: So with heads bowed and eyes closed, if you if you prayed that this morning and you accepted Christ, do me a favor, just lift your hand really quick and let me see it.
SPEAKER_00: Lift your hand, let me know that you prayed that.
SPEAKER_00: All right.
SPEAKER_00: Couple of hands went up.
SPEAKER_00: Praise the Lord for that.
SPEAKER_00: Let me pray for you.
SPEAKER_00: God, thank you so much for sending Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: Thank you that that we can know for sure.
SPEAKER_00: Your word says, John said, I'm writing this letter to you so that you can know for sure that you have eternal life.
SPEAKER_00: God, you you sent Jesus to pay the price for our sins so that we can know for sure.
SPEAKER_00: So, Lord, I pray for everyone in here that just accepted Christ, I pray that they would understand the truth of your word and what what uh what Jesus did on the cross.
SPEAKER_00: Help them to understand that they don't have to do anything to earn this, that it's all done for them.
SPEAKER_00: Lord, help them to grow to be more like Jesus every day.
SPEAKER_00: Surround them with people that will encourage them and point them, point them to Jesus every day.
SPEAKER_00: Help us to be their form as a church, to help them to grow and to become like Christ.
SPEAKER_00: Lord, I pray for everybody else in this room.
SPEAKER_00: Lord, I pray for everyone in here that needs rest.
SPEAKER_00: Lord, I pray that you would help us to prioritize our lives so that we can take advantage of the gift of rest that you've given us.
SPEAKER_00: And Lord, we ask all of this in Jesus' name.
unknown: Amen.
SPEAKER_01: Thanks for listening to Family Church's Sermon of the Week.
SPEAKER_01: We pray this message encouraged you and helped you grow in your faith.
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SPEAKER_01: You can learn more about Family Church at myfamilychurch.com.
SPEAKER_01: If you are in the area, join us on Sunday mornings at 10 a.m.
SPEAKER_01: We meet at Patriot High School 10504 Kittle Run Drive.