SPEAKER_00: I hope you're ready to dig into Deuteronomy chapter 16 this evening.
SPEAKER_00: Deuteronomy chapter 16.
SPEAKER_00: We're going to be talking about scheduling some time for God.
SPEAKER_00: And so we will read a good portion of this chapter, verses 1 through 17.
SPEAKER_00: It begins by saying, Observe the month of Abib and keep the Passover unto the Lord thy God.
SPEAKER_00: In the month of Abib, the Lord thy God brought thee forth out of Egypt by night.
SPEAKER_00: Thou shalt therefore sacrifice the Passover unto the Lord thy God of the flock and of the herd in the place which the Lord shall choose to place his name there.
SPEAKER_00: Thou shalt eat no leavened bread with it, seven days shalt thou eat unleavened bread therewith, even the bread of affliction.
SPEAKER_00: For thou cameest forth out of the land of Egypt in haste, and that thou mayest remember the day when thou cameest forth out of the land of Egypt all the days of thy life, and there shall be no leavened bread seen with thee in all thy coasts, seven days, neither shall there be anything of the flesh which thou sacrificest the first day at even, and remain all night until the morning.
SPEAKER_00: Thou mayest not sacrifice the Passover with any of thy gates, which the Lord thy God giveth thee, but at the place which the Lord thy God shall choose to place his name in, there thou shalt sacrifice the Passover at even.
SPEAKER_00: At the going down of the sun, at the season that thou cameest forth out of Egypt, and thou shalt roast and eat it in the place which the Lord thy God shall choose, and thou shalt turn in the morning and go to thy tents.
SPEAKER_00: Six days thou shalt eat unleavened bread, and on the seventh shall be a solemn assembly to the Lord thy God.
SPEAKER_00: Thou shalt do no work therein.
SPEAKER_00: Seven weeks shalt thou number unto thee.
SPEAKER_00: Begin to number the seven weeks from such time as thou beginnest to put the sickle to the corn.
SPEAKER_00: And thou shalt keep the feast of weeks unto the Lord thy God, with a tribute of a free will offering of thine hand, which thou shalt give unto the Lord thy God, according as the Lord thy God has blessed thee.
SPEAKER_00: And thou shalt rejoice before the Lord thy God, thou and thy son, and thy daughter, and thy manservant, thy maidservant, and the Levite that is within thy gates, and the stranger, and the fatherless, and the widow that are among you in the place which the Lord thy God hath chosen to place his name there.
SPEAKER_00: And thou shalt remember that thou wast a bondman in Egypt, and thou shalt observe to do the statutes.
SPEAKER_00: Thou shalt observe the feast of tabernacles, seven days after that thou gathered in thy corn and thy wine, and thou shalt rejoice in thy feast, thou and thy son, thy daughter, thy manservant, thy maidservant, and the Levite, the stranger, the fatherless, and the widow that are within thy gates.
SPEAKER_00: Seven days shalt thou keep a solemn feast unto the Lord thy God, in the place which the Lord shall choose, because the Lord thy God shall bless thee in all thine increase, and in all the works of thy hands.
SPEAKER_00: Therefore thou shalt surely rejoice.
SPEAKER_00: Three times in a year shall all thy males appear before the Lord thy God in the place which he shall choose, in the feast of unleavened bread, and in the feast of weeks, and in the feast of tabernacles, and they shall not appear before the Lord empty.
SPEAKER_00: Every man shall give as he is able, according to the blessing of the Lord thy God, which he hath given thee.
SPEAKER_00: Let's pray.
SPEAKER_00: Dear Lord, thank you so much for your word.
SPEAKER_00: Thank you for the preservation of Scripture.
SPEAKER_00: Thank you, Lord, that not only does it tell the story of Israel, but it also teaches us spiritual truth that is applicable to us today as we make our journey through the wilderness of this world, headed towards your promised land.
SPEAKER_00: Father, I pray and ask that you would help us to be diligent students, that we would search the scriptures, that we would see the principles, and that we would apply them to our own life and assimilate them into our thinking.
SPEAKER_00: Father, I pray and ask that you would help me to make your word clear this evening.
SPEAKER_00: Help me to give an accurate interpretation and a good application of these principles.
SPEAKER_00: In Jesus' name, amen.
SPEAKER_00: Moses is making his last address here in the book of Deuteronomy.
SPEAKER_00: I remind you the name Deuteronomy was given because it means second law.
SPEAKER_00: And so Moses is making his last address to the nation of Israel before his death.
SPEAKER_00: And this last address is really an abbreviated repetition of the law that he gave 40 years before when they were camped at the base of Mount Sinai.
SPEAKER_00: And it is recorded in its entirety in Exodus and Leviticus.
SPEAKER_00: And so, even though Deuteronomy is a repetition of that, it is a fresh repetition.
SPEAKER_00: It is Moses in real time repeating an abbreviated version of the law.
SPEAKER_00: What he is doing as a faithful leader is he is trying to equip a new generation to be obedient and faithful to God.
SPEAKER_00: He sees that this is another opportunity for the nation of Israel to take the land, which they failed to do 40 years ago.
SPEAKER_00: And as a leader, no doubt, he felt some burden that he had not equipped them, and he wants to equip this new generation to be obedient and faithful to God in order to receive all that God wants to give them.
SPEAKER_00: God wants to give them a lot.
SPEAKER_00: God wants to bless them abundantly, but in order for them to receive that, they must be faithful and obedient.
SPEAKER_00: Think about this with me for a moment.
SPEAKER_00: God has promised to give them all of the land of Canaan, which is currently occupied by the enemy at this point in time.
SPEAKER_00: And so here's a large section of land.
SPEAKER_00: God has already named off the boundaries, and he says, I'll give it to you from the river to the sea, from the south to the north.
SPEAKER_00: But there is a problem.
SPEAKER_00: There are people who are living in the land who don't necessarily want to give it up.
SPEAKER_00: God has also promised to give them the victory over every opposing force they will face.
SPEAKER_00: And so surely you remember as we think back about what we've already had, God's made this promise.
SPEAKER_00: I will give you the land.
SPEAKER_00: And then God has promised, I will make you conquerors.
SPEAKER_00: There will not be anybody who can defeat you in that land when you face those opposing forces.
SPEAKER_00: In addition to that, God has promised to make them into a great and prosperous nation.
SPEAKER_00: At this point in time, they really don't constitute a nation.
SPEAKER_00: They constitute a large group of people.
SPEAKER_00: Perhaps we believe from the numbers, there are about two million people, which is a healthy group of people, but they don't have a land.
SPEAKER_00: They don't have an infrastructure.
SPEAKER_00: They don't have a gross domestic product.
SPEAKER_00: They don't have a military.
SPEAKER_00: They don't have all the things that would make them a nation.
SPEAKER_00: And God has promised I'm going to take you and I'm going to plant you in that land like a seed, and you are going to grow into a great nation and a world power, and I am going to prosper you.
SPEAKER_00: However, these promises are not automatic.
SPEAKER_00: They're not just going to happen regardless of what Israel does.
SPEAKER_00: They are actually contingent upon their obedience and faithfulness.
SPEAKER_00: Now we understand that God has made covenant with Israel, and some of that covenant is unconditional.
SPEAKER_00: He has chosen Abraham and his seed to make a covenant with, to be his people, through which he's going to send the Messiah.
SPEAKER_00: That's an unconditional covenant.
SPEAKER_00: But this portion of the covenant is conditional.
SPEAKER_00: This portion of the covenant, when God says, I'll give you the land.
SPEAKER_00: Well, we know that's conditioned on their obedience because they had that promise 40 years ago, but they don't have the land.
SPEAKER_00: Why?
SPEAKER_00: Because they weren't obedient to God.
SPEAKER_00: And so this is not automatic.
SPEAKER_00: This is contingent upon their obedience and their faithfulness.
SPEAKER_00: We know this not just from what God has already said in the previous books, but sadly we know this from history.
SPEAKER_00: History tells us what Israel failed to do.
SPEAKER_00: As we track the trajectory of the nation of Israel, we find that when they were obedient and when they were faithful to God, they realized the promises of God.
SPEAKER_00: And so faithfulness and obedience, the promises were realized.
SPEAKER_00: They materialized, they were fulfilled.
SPEAKER_00: But when they were disobedient and when they were unfaithful, they forfeited the promises of God.
SPEAKER_00: Understand, the promises of God did not diminish.
SPEAKER_00: They didn't go away.
SPEAKER_00: They were simply contingent upon his people being obedient and faithful.
SPEAKER_00: And when they were obedient and faithful, they get the promises.
SPEAKER_00: And when they're disobedient and unfaithful, they forfeit the promises.
SPEAKER_00: For example, they never took full possession of the land within the borders that God had set.
SPEAKER_00: Never have they inhabited the entire land.
SPEAKER_00: Even under Joshua, there were portions of the land that were not conquered.
SPEAKER_00: The people were not expelled.
SPEAKER_00: And so Israel ends up living with other people inside of their borders.
SPEAKER_00: Even during the time of David and Solomon, there were these embedded people within the boundaries that God had given to them.
SPEAKER_00: And so they never fully possessed the land.
SPEAKER_00: Let me ask you, do you think that's because God's promise was deficient?
SPEAKER_00: Or was it because their obedience was deficient?
SPEAKER_00: It was their obedience.
SPEAKER_00: God's promise was good if they simply would have been faithful and obedient.
SPEAKER_00: Their greatness as a nation, they did become a great nation.
SPEAKER_00: Under David, the kingdom rises to international power.
SPEAKER_00: Under Solomon, their wealth grows.
SPEAKER_00: It says that gold and silver, that silver was so plentiful that it was counted as stones in Judea.
SPEAKER_00: And so we find that they did become a great nation.
SPEAKER_00: They did become a prosperous nation, but it was short-lived.
SPEAKER_00: Really, as soon as Solomon dies and his son takes the throne, the kingdom splits in two.
SPEAKER_00: And it never has the profile that it had under David and Solomon.
SPEAKER_00: And so their greatness as a nation was short-lived as they were conquered by the Assyrians and the Babylonians.
SPEAKER_00: And then they actually ceased to be a sovereign nation.
SPEAKER_00: And their ceasing to be a sovereign nation is one of the testimonies that tells us that that promise was contingent on their continued faithfulness and obedience.
SPEAKER_00: For example, hundreds of years later in 2 Chronicles 34 and 35, we are told about a young king who comes to power who is like David in his dedication to God.
SPEAKER_00: He is a young man named Josiah.
SPEAKER_00: Under Josiah, Josiah begins to purge the land of the idolaters.
SPEAKER_00: And he also has a campaign to restore the temple.
SPEAKER_00: Now remember the glorious temple under Solomon by this time had been ransacked, it had been stripped of gold so that they could liquidate it and pay off other kings and be able to employ other armies to try to help them in their time of need.
SPEAKER_00: So when you read about it, you'll find that those timbers had been wrapped in gold.
SPEAKER_00: Well, they went in there and peeled that stuff off.
SPEAKER_00: There were missing floorboards, there were issues, and the temple had really been neglected.
SPEAKER_00: And so under Josiah, he sanctions the restoration of the temple.
SPEAKER_00: And while they are restoring the temple, it says in 2 Chronicles 34 and 35, they found the book of Moses.
SPEAKER_00: Now think about through it for a moment.
SPEAKER_00: They found it.
SPEAKER_00: That means it had been lost.
SPEAKER_00: That means they forgot about it.
SPEAKER_00: That means it had been neglected.
SPEAKER_00: Can you imagine that the people whose very history is based upon the book of Moses, which is Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, Deuteronomy, their entire history is founded on that, and they have lost the book.
SPEAKER_00: They're not reading out of the book.
SPEAKER_00: They're not studying the book.
SPEAKER_00: They're not preaching the book.
SPEAKER_00: But under Josiah, they found the book of Moses.
SPEAKER_00: And when it was read to King Josiah, it says that he wept, that he broke down in bitter tears, that he rent his garment, that he tore his tunic to show his remorse and his shame and his regret, because they had not been keeping the Sabbath sacrifices or the annual feasts.
SPEAKER_00: In fact, 2 Chronicles 35, verses 17 and 18 says that the children of Israel that were present kept the Passover at that time.
SPEAKER_00: And the feast of unleavened bread, seven days.
SPEAKER_00: Listen to this next statement.
SPEAKER_00: And there was no Passover like to that kept in Israel from the days of Samuel the prophet.
SPEAKER_00: Neither did all the kings of Israel keep such a Passover as Josiah kept.
SPEAKER_00: In this chapter, Deuteronomy 16, they are told to keep the Passover.
SPEAKER_00: They are told to keep the annual feast.
SPEAKER_00: And hundreds of years later we read that under Josiah that he restored it, but it hadn't been kept like that since the time of Samuel.
SPEAKER_00: Samuel is the prophet who anointed David to be king.
SPEAKER_00: Do you know how long it has been since Samuel was in Israel?
SPEAKER_00: And the nation has neglected to keep these annual feasts that God commanded them to keep.
SPEAKER_00: And as good as the revival was, it was short-lived because the damage had already been done.
SPEAKER_00: And ultimately their negligence was cited as one of the main reasons why God allowed them to be conquered.
SPEAKER_00: You disregarded my words.
SPEAKER_00: You didn't keep my Sabbaths.
SPEAKER_00: You didn't make the sacrifices.
SPEAKER_00: You didn't have the annual feast.
SPEAKER_00: I mention this because in Deuteronomy 16, Moses is reiterating the schedule for the three annual feasts.
SPEAKER_00: He first introduced this in Exodus chapter 23, verses 14 through 17.
SPEAKER_00: Right there, as soon, all right, right there, right after he gives the Ten Commandments, God through him alerts the people of Israel, there are going to be three holy days on your calendar year.
SPEAKER_00: They are going to be celebrated with three annual feasts, and he introduces those three feasts in Exodus 23, verses 14 through 17.
SPEAKER_00: And then they are described in great detail in Leviticus 23, verses 1 through 44.
SPEAKER_00: So introduced in Exodus 23, in Leviticus 23, an entire chapter is given where God, through Moses, lays out here is when you will have feast number 1, feast number 2, feast number 3.
SPEAKER_00: Here's the dates, here's the protocol, here's the sacrifices, here's the uh the the uh the schedule for it.
SPEAKER_00: And all that detail has been given in Leviticus 23.
SPEAKER_00: Well, for those of you who have been with me for a while, I've already preached Leviticus 23.
SPEAKER_00: And those who've been with me a long while, I've already preached Exodus 23.
SPEAKER_00: And so I'm not going to rehash those annual feasts tonight, but I do want to rather focus on the scheduling aspect.
SPEAKER_00: The main subject of this chapter are those three feasts.
SPEAKER_00: But since we have already covered that in previous studies, I want to point out a secondary issue, and that is the scheduling aspect.
SPEAKER_00: If you notice in Deuteronomy 16, there are several calendar references.
SPEAKER_00: We find a reference to months, the month of Abib.
SPEAKER_00: We find a reference to days, we find a reference to weeks, seven days you keep this peace.
SPEAKER_00: We find a reference to the year, three times in a year.
SPEAKER_00: And we even find reference to mornings and evenings, kind of that breakdown, that division of the daily 24-hour cycle.
SPEAKER_00: If you're interested, I can quickly just point them out to you.
SPEAKER_00: You find it in verse 1, a mention of the months.
SPEAKER_00: You find in verse 3 a mention of seven days and a day, same in verse 4, 7 days and the first day, verse 6 at evening, verse 7 in the morning, verse 8, 6 days and the seventh day, verse 9, 7 weeks, verse 10, the feast of weeks, verse 13, 7 days, verse 15, 7 days, verse 16, three times in a year.
SPEAKER_00: And so what I want to do tonight is talk to you about the importance of scheduling time for God.
SPEAKER_00: Since there's such an emphasis on time and such an emphasis on the schedule, I want to highlight the importance of scheduling time for God.
SPEAKER_00: Let me ask, how many of you all keep a calendar?
SPEAKER_00: It used to be on our wall, or it was on our desk, or it was in our purse.
SPEAKER_00: Now most of us keep it on our phone or our computer or on our tablet.
SPEAKER_00: What kind of things do you schedule?
SPEAKER_00: In a word, we would say important things, right?
SPEAKER_00: Instead of going through the whole list, we just say, well, I put the important things in my calendar.
SPEAKER_00: We schedule these things because we have a tendency to forget.
SPEAKER_00: You ever forgot an appointment?
SPEAKER_00: I sure have.
SPEAKER_00: I hate doing that.
SPEAKER_00: And so now if somebody says, hey, Pastor, you know, blah, blah, blah, this day, almost immediately I'm pulling out my phone, opening up my calendar app, and I am putting it in there with some alerts to remind me because I have forgotten before.
SPEAKER_00: We schedule these things because we get busy and we must prioritize.
SPEAKER_00: There are things that arise in the moment that if you haven't put it on the calendar, something that you wanted to keep, you can allow that immediate thing to take priority.
SPEAKER_00: We schedule these because our time can get hijacked by other people's demands.
SPEAKER_00: Have you found that?
SPEAKER_00: That there are some people in your life who do not mind taking control of your time and will use your time at their will.
SPEAKER_00: And so we keep a calendar because we understand that sometimes our time is threatened to be hijacked.
SPEAKER_00: And we keep these things on a schedule because we want to keep those most important appointments and not miss them.
SPEAKER_00: And those things that we schedule may be doctors' appointments, they might be business meetings, they might be dinner parties, they might be our kids' or grandkids' sports event or recital.
SPEAKER_00: Uh it might be a date with our spouse.
SPEAKER_00: We put it on there, we don't want to miss it.
SPEAKER_00: I would simply say our scheduling represents what we deem to be worthy to give our time to.
SPEAKER_00: That's what our scheduling represents.
SPEAKER_00: This is worthy to give my time to.
SPEAKER_00: And so it gets on the schedule.
SPEAKER_00: So let me ask you, where does God fit into your schedule?
SPEAKER_00: Where does God fit into your schedule?
SPEAKER_00: We we know that if we don't put it on the calendar, we have a tendency to get busy and forget or to misprioritize, and unexpected demands will come for our time.
SPEAKER_00: And so if we haven't scheduled time for God, there's a great chance that we'll neglect it, that we'll miss it.
SPEAKER_00: I would say to you that God knows his people all too well, right?
SPEAKER_00: All too well.
SPEAKER_00: He knows us.
SPEAKER_00: He knows us better than we know ourselves.
SPEAKER_00: And because God knows his people, along with their tendencies to mismanage time, he inspires Moses in this chapter to instruct them, watch this, to mark their calendars before they even enter the promised land.
SPEAKER_00: Right?
SPEAKER_00: In this moment of pause, before it all kicks off, right?
SPEAKER_00: Before they cross the river Jordan, they march around Jericho, they begin becoming embattled and begin trying to settle the land and trying to set up their houses and inhabit the land.
SPEAKER_00: Life is going to get busy in this moment, before all that happens, God says to Moses to his people, mark your calendars.
SPEAKER_00: Schedule these things.
SPEAKER_00: Because if you do not write them in now, there is a high probability that you will neglect them.
SPEAKER_00: But I would say to you that these three annual feasts are not just holidays.
SPEAKER_00: They're not just like Thanksgiving and Christmas, and we're scheduling them on the calendar because we get some days off from work.
SPEAKER_00: They are not just holidays.
SPEAKER_00: They actually are referenced in the New Testament as times of worship.
SPEAKER_00: In John chapter 12, verse 20.
SPEAKER_00: Squinting doesn't work here.
SPEAKER_00: Chapter 12, verse 20, it says that Jesus went down to Jerusalem for the Passover to worship.
SPEAKER_00: In Acts chapter 24, verse 11, the Apostle Paul is trying to make his journey back to Jerusalem, to be there in time to worship on one of those annual feasts.
SPEAKER_00: And so what I'd say to you is that what these feasts are, is they are times of worship.
SPEAKER_00: They are more than just rituals.
SPEAKER_00: They are more than just holidays.
SPEAKER_00: And so these days were scheduled by God for his people for the purpose of spending time with him.
SPEAKER_00: The God, remember, the God who created human beings in the very first place, created people in his image and likeness with whom he can have a volitional relationship with.
SPEAKER_00: And so make no mistake about it.
SPEAKER_00: God wants them to put this on their calendar because he wants to spend time with them.
SPEAKER_00: He knows that life is busy.
SPEAKER_00: He knows that they've got to get out there and work the field and make the money and raise the kids, and there's a lot of time that takes dedicated to that.
SPEAKER_00: But he doesn't want them to get so busy with living that they neglect to spend time with him.
SPEAKER_00: We understand that these annual feasts are no longer on the schedule for the church.
SPEAKER_00: They're not in the New Testament, at least not as a command for the church to observe.
SPEAKER_00: But the principle of scheduling time with God still continues in our dispensation.
SPEAKER_00: And so I'd like to look at the New Testament to see what the schedule is supposed to include for Christians.
SPEAKER_00: Number one, daily time in prayer.
SPEAKER_00: Daily time in prayer.
SPEAKER_00: You say, okay, I got it, I got it, I get it.
SPEAKER_00: We're supposed to schedule time for God.
SPEAKER_00: I see what it was in the Old Testament.
SPEAKER_00: They scheduled those days and those Sabbath days and those annual feasts.
SPEAKER_00: What am I supposed to schedule?
SPEAKER_00: Well, Matthew chapter 6, verses 9 through 11, in Jesus' model prayer, he says, after this manner, therefore, pray ye, our Father, which art in heaven, hallowed be thy name.
SPEAKER_00: Thy kingdom come, thy will be done in earth as it is in heaven.
SPEAKER_00: Give us this day our daily bread, and forgive us our debts as we forgive our debtors, and lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil, for thine is the kingdom and the power and the glory.
SPEAKER_00: Forever amen.
SPEAKER_00: Notice that the Lord's model prayer included a request for daily bread, which would indicate that this is a daily prayer.
SPEAKER_00: It's not a weekly prayer, Lord, give us this week or weekly bread.
SPEAKER_00: It's not a monthly prayer, Lord, give us this month or monthly bread.
SPEAKER_00: It's not an annual prayer.
SPEAKER_00: Give us this year or yearly bread.
SPEAKER_00: Give us this day our daily bread.
SPEAKER_00: Furthermore, this is supposed to be done in perpetuity, meaning that it is perpetual, that it is permanent, that it is ongoing, that in your calendar, if you were putting it in your calendar app on your phone, you would have repeat.
SPEAKER_00: And when it gives you the option of how often, right?
SPEAKER_00: Weekly, yearly, monthly, every day.
SPEAKER_00: Repeat this thing continually.
SPEAKER_00: How do I know that?
SPEAKER_00: Well, in Luke 18.1, Jesus said men ought always to pray and not to faint.
SPEAKER_00: Men ought always to pray and not to faint.
SPEAKER_00: That is a perpetual time of prayer.
SPEAKER_00: 1 Thessalonians 5.17 says, pray without ceasing.
SPEAKER_00: And sometimes people say, well, how am I supposed to pray without ceasing?
SPEAKER_00: I mean, I've got to go to work, I've got to do school, I've got to do this.
SPEAKER_00: I mean, I can't be in a constant prayer all the time.
SPEAKER_00: I would say that, one, we can be in communication with God throughout the day.
SPEAKER_00: It's just an ongoing conversation.
SPEAKER_00: But I would say the weight of that verse is that we just don't stop praying.
SPEAKER_00: We just keep praying.
SPEAKER_00: We pray without ceasing.
SPEAKER_00: I prayed yesterday.
SPEAKER_00: I'm going to pray today.
SPEAKER_00: I'm going to pray tomorrow.
SPEAKER_00: Keep praying every single day.
SPEAKER_00: Schedule a prayer time with God.
SPEAKER_00: This means that we should never take it off the schedule.
SPEAKER_00: And so I would encourage you to spend time with God every day in prayer.
SPEAKER_00: Put it on the calendar, put it on the schedule, make room in your day and say, I'm going to spend some time with God every single day.
SPEAKER_00: I'm going to spend time in prayer.
SPEAKER_00: By the way, prayer is worship.
SPEAKER_00: If our prayer time only consists of requests, we're not quite doing it right.
SPEAKER_00: If you notice in Jesus' model prayer, it begins with worship.
SPEAKER_00: Our Father, which art in heaven, hallowed be thy name.
SPEAKER_00: It means praised be thy name.
SPEAKER_00: It is an expression of worship.
SPEAKER_00: Before he ever gets to the requests, he begins with worshiping God.
SPEAKER_00: Psalm 100 says that we enter into his gates with thanksgiving, into his courts with praise.
SPEAKER_00: Let me ask you, the very first time that you get to see God, right?
SPEAKER_00: If Jesus comes back and you're ushered into the throne room of heaven, as we sang about tonight, how that they are saying holy forever, do you think the first thing you'll do when you say God is uh, God, could you get this for me?
SPEAKER_00: Do you think it's going to be a request?
SPEAKER_00: Or do you think you're going to fall on your face and join the chorus that says, holy, holy, holy?
SPEAKER_00: That's what prayer time is.
SPEAKER_00: That's why Jesus says, Go into your closet and shut the door.
SPEAKER_00: Shut the world out.
SPEAKER_00: Get rid of all of the distractions.
SPEAKER_00: And come into this place of fellowship with God and worship him.
SPEAKER_00: And so daily time with God in prayer.
SPEAKER_00: Number two, daily time in the Word.
SPEAKER_00: Daily time in the Word.
SPEAKER_00: Luke 4, 4, Jesus answered him and said, It is written that man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word of God.
SPEAKER_00: Here Jesus makes reading the word equivalent to eating, which is, again, something that we do every single day.
SPEAKER_00: I mean, he could have equated with any number of things, but he associates it with eating.
SPEAKER_00: Give us this day.
SPEAKER_00: He says to us, man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word of God.
SPEAKER_00: And I would say to you that that is a solid indication.
SPEAKER_00: Though you can read the New Testament and you won't find a specific command that says, read your Bible every day.
SPEAKER_00: You will find the inference that we ought to be in the Word every day.
SPEAKER_00: Just like we're eating every day of physical food, we're eating of the spiritual food of the Word.
SPEAKER_00: In Acts 17, verse 11, the Bereans were praised.
SPEAKER_00: And they were praised for being honorable.
SPEAKER_00: What made them so honorable?
SPEAKER_00: Remember how it begins.
SPEAKER_00: These were more noble than they who were in Thessalonica.
SPEAKER_00: Why?
SPEAKER_00: It says, because they searched the scriptures daily whether these things were so.
SPEAKER_00: It doesn't just say, it could have just said, right, Paul is presenting to them the case for Christ.
SPEAKER_00: And it could have just said they searched the scriptures, right?
SPEAKER_00: They were prompted by the idea that he said that this is what these prophecies are talking about, and they just went back and searched the scriptures.
SPEAKER_00: But for whatever reason, the Holy Spirit of God inspires him to say they searched the scriptures daily.
SPEAKER_00: And I think again, that's that inference that it's an honorable thing, it's a noble thing, it's an exalted thing for you and I to get into the Word of God every single day.
SPEAKER_00: Now I've got some good news for you on this.
SPEAKER_00: You can multitask because oftentimes prayer and Bible reading go together like biscuits and gravy, right?
SPEAKER_00: They go together.
SPEAKER_00: You can start with prayer and read your Bible or read your Bible and then go to prayer.
SPEAKER_00: Some people like scripture-fed prayer time where you take a text of scripture and you use that to guide your prayers.
SPEAKER_00: You read a psalm and you take those prompts from the psalmist and you turn it into your prayer and into your praise, or you read a passage from the New Testament, and you take what you're reading there and you turn it into the fodder for your prayer.
SPEAKER_00: Nothing wrong with that.
SPEAKER_00: But if you say, I like to start with my prayer time, I want to make sure that I'm tuned into God and my heart's right before I open up the book, that's okay.
SPEAKER_00: Perfectly fine to join these things together.
SPEAKER_00: You can do your Bible reading and a prayer time at the same time.
SPEAKER_00: And so we should make sure that our daily time with God is always on the schedule.
SPEAKER_00: Let me ask you, what is on your unwritten calendar for tomorrow?
SPEAKER_00: I know chances are that not everybody is super organized, but there's a lot of things that we already have on our unwritten calendar that we know we're going to do tomorrow.
SPEAKER_00: I surely hope that everybody's calendar includes brushing your teeth, right?
SPEAKER_00: Brush my teeth tomorrow.
SPEAKER_00: I know not everybody showers every day, and I'm not here to debate that.
SPEAKER_00: Uh if you're every other day or whatever it may be, but maybe your shower is on the schedule for tomorrow.
SPEAKER_00: You you are planning to take that already.
SPEAKER_00: No doubt it's on the schedule.
SPEAKER_00: Go to work, go to school, right?
SPEAKER_00: If you're a student, gotta go to school tomorrow.
SPEAKER_00: That's on the schedule, not optional.
SPEAKER_00: Uh if you're in school, maybe you've got practice tomorrow.
SPEAKER_00: It's already on the schedule.
SPEAKER_00: You're planning on it.
SPEAKER_00: You've already carved out the time.
SPEAKER_00: You're not double scheduling it.
SPEAKER_00: Uh for some, got to make dinner tomorrow, right?
SPEAKER_00: Uh you may be the cook in the house and people got to eat, and you can't keep spending money on eating out.
SPEAKER_00: So you've already planned it.
SPEAKER_00: It's in your head.
SPEAKER_00: I got to figure out something to make for dinner.
SPEAKER_00: And probably a lot of us have our TV watching already on the schedule.
SPEAKER_00: Though we haven't marked it out on the calendar and saying, well, from 7 o'clock to 10 o'clock, I'm watching TV.
SPEAKER_00: But inevitably, a lot of us have a schedule that ends up sitting in front of the screen in the evenings.
SPEAKER_00: And so I would just ask, how about prayer and Bible reading?
SPEAKER_00: Is that on your unwritten schedule for tomorrow?
SPEAKER_00: I mean, it's got to be more than an aspiration.
SPEAKER_00: I sure would like to read my Bible and pray tomorrow.
SPEAKER_00: Well, I need to get back to reading my Bible and praying.
SPEAKER_00: Well, no.
SPEAKER_00: Put it on the schedule.
SPEAKER_00: Written or unwritten.
SPEAKER_00: There are some things you've already got on your schedule that you're not negotiating on.
SPEAKER_00: You're going to do those things.
SPEAKER_00: That's what prayer and Bible reading needs to be.
SPEAKER_00: It needs to be that non-negotiable on our schedule.
SPEAKER_00: Third, and finally, on our schedule, we ought to schedule our weekly assembly for corporate worship.
SPEAKER_00: Now, let me explain that weekly assembly for a moment.
SPEAKER_00: When we look back to its origins, we discover that Jesus rose again from the grave on the first day of the week, which is Sunday on the calendar.
SPEAKER_00: From that very first resurrection Sunday, we find Christians gathering together for corporate worship.
SPEAKER_00: Check it out in John chapter 20, the chapter begins.
SPEAKER_00: In verse 1, it says, the first day of the week came Mary Magdalene early when it was yet dark unto the sepulchre, and saw the stone taken away from the sepulchre.
SPEAKER_00: And then down in verse 19 it says, then the same day, the same day, that first day, that Sunday, the same day at evening, being the first day of the week, when the doors were shut, where the disciples were assembled for fear of the Jews, came Jesus and stood in the midst.
SPEAKER_00: So the very first Sunday that Jesus rises from the dead, you know what the disciples do?
SPEAKER_00: They get together for some corporate worship.
SPEAKER_00: Acts chapter 20, verse 7 tells us that Paul in his journeys, on the first day of the week, when the disciples came together as if it was a common practice.
SPEAKER_00: On the first day of the week, when the disciples came together to break bread, Paul preached unto them.
SPEAKER_00: He didn't have to send word out and say, hey, I'm in town, guys.
SPEAKER_00: We're going to have a special Tuesday meeting because I'm in town.
SPEAKER_00: No, it was customary that Christians got together on the first day of the week.
SPEAKER_00: Paul happened to be there on the first day of the week, and so he goes and preaches to them until midnight.
SPEAKER_00: Now, good news is you don't have to schedule your corporate assembly of worship all the way till midnight tonight.
SPEAKER_00: But it is the common practice of the New Testament that believers got together on Sunday.
SPEAKER_00: You hear sometimes, I've heard it said.
SPEAKER_00: Oh, this Sunday worship, that's not that.
SPEAKER_00: We got that from the Catholics.
SPEAKER_00: The Catholics brought that in.
SPEAKER_00: You better go back and read your New Testament.
SPEAKER_00: They're not a Catholic in the New Testament.
SPEAKER_00: But there is Sunday worship.
SPEAKER_00: New covenant, new day of the week to worship on.
SPEAKER_00: Old covenant, Saturday.
SPEAKER_00: Right?
SPEAKER_00: But what happened?
SPEAKER_00: That covenant was replaced by the new covenant.
SPEAKER_00: And just like it had its day of worship, we have our day of worship.
SPEAKER_00: Just like the old covenant had its initiatory rite, which was circumcision on the eighth day, the new covenant has its initiatory rite, which is baptism after salvation.
SPEAKER_00: Just like the old covenant had a paramount meal that went with it, the Passover that they were to eat every year, the new covenant has a meal that's the Lord's Supper.
SPEAKER_00: As a matter of fact, Jesus instituted on the night of the Passover.
SPEAKER_00: And in the same way, there's a new day set apart for corporate worship for the church, and it is Sunday.
SPEAKER_00: I say to you that this weekly schedule was so common that by the time that you get to the end of the New Testament, it is no longer called the first day of the week.
SPEAKER_00: You know what it's called?
SPEAKER_00: The Lord's Day.
SPEAKER_00: Revelation chapter 1, verse 10, John says, I was in the Spirit on the Lord's day when I heard behind me a trumpet.
SPEAKER_00: What day do you think that was?
SPEAKER_00: Sunday.
SPEAKER_00: Why, it's the Lord's Day.
SPEAKER_00: It's the day he rose again from the dead.
SPEAKER_00: And so here we have this biblical precedent that is set forth that Christians gathered for corporate worship on Sundays.
SPEAKER_00: And then, like the Hebrews of old, we're told not to neglect that sacred time with God.
SPEAKER_00: I'm sure if you've been in church for more than five minutes, you've heard a preacher quote Hebrews 10, 25.
SPEAKER_00: Not forsaking the assembling of yourselves together as the manner of some is, but so much the more as you see the day approaching.
SPEAKER_00: And again, it is just like God says through Moses in Deuteronomy, every year, in perpetuity, you keep doing this.
SPEAKER_00: You keep having those annual feasts, you keep having those weekly Sabbaths, you keep having that time with me.
SPEAKER_00: And the same is true for us.
SPEAKER_00: God has ordained that we gather on the Lord's day until the Lord comes back.
SPEAKER_00: Now, obviously the danger for us is the same as it was for Israel.
SPEAKER_00: That the further we go along, the further we get from the point of impact, the easier it is for us to fail to keep our scheduled time with God.
SPEAKER_00: I mean, just think about it with me for a moment.
SPEAKER_00: I would say that there was no problem with them keeping the Passover the first year after the Passover, man.
SPEAKER_00: It was fresh.
SPEAKER_00: Last year we were slaves down in Egypt.
SPEAKER_00: Do you remember that?
SPEAKER_00: Last year we were toiling and laboring, and the Egyptians were trying to kill us.
SPEAKER_00: And you know, those early years it could be fresh, but the further you get away from it, the easier it is for us to neglect it.
SPEAKER_00: That's the story of Israel.
SPEAKER_00: That's what happened to them.
SPEAKER_00: As time passes and passes and passes, it loses its meaning to them.
SPEAKER_00: And so here's a good tip for us from Deuteronomy 16.8.
SPEAKER_00: Don't double schedule your time.
SPEAKER_00: Say, I want to schedule a time with God.
SPEAKER_00: I want to keep this schedule.
SPEAKER_00: I want to have some daily time with God, and I want to have that weekly assembly, corporate assembly for worship.
SPEAKER_00: What can I do to help me do that?
SPEAKER_00: Well, don't double schedule your time.
SPEAKER_00: In Deuteronomy 16.8, it specifically says this six days thou shalt eat unleavened bread, and on the seventh day shall be a solemn assembly to the Lord thy God.
SPEAKER_00: Thou shalt do no work therein.
SPEAKER_00: Now, I understand that sometimes people have jobs and they have to work on those days.
SPEAKER_00: They have to work on Sunday.
SPEAKER_00: That's not what this is talking about.
SPEAKER_00: This is talking about your voluntary schedule.
SPEAKER_00: If you don't have to, don't schedule other things that's going to keep you from the weekly worship time together with God's people.
SPEAKER_00: And so let this be a reminder to us that we must schedule our time for God and we must guard our schedule.
SPEAKER_00: Because I am telling you, there are a number of things that will just pile into your life that want to eat into your daily time with God and your weekly time with God.
SPEAKER_00: And so let me ask you: have you reserved time for God in your daily and weekly schedule?
SPEAKER_00: Is it there?
SPEAKER_00: Whether it's written or it's typed in your phone or it's just here in your mind, you have reserved it.
SPEAKER_00: I've got some time tomorrow I'm going to spend with God.
SPEAKER_00: If you don't, listen, today is the first day of the week.
SPEAKER_00: It would be a great day to schedule your week.
SPEAKER_00: A great day to say, you know what?
SPEAKER_00: I know I'm not a morning person.
SPEAKER_00: And I know I'm going to hit the snooze button a few times, and I know I'm going to be rushed, and I'm going to be doing good to get to work or school on time.
SPEAKER_00: And so I know I really am not going to be able to find time to spend time with the Lord in the morning, right?
SPEAKER_00: And nothing wrong with that.
SPEAKER_00: Nothing wrong with that.
SPEAKER_00: But when you look at your day and you say, well, I am at work or school till X amount of time.
SPEAKER_00: I'm at practice or I have to mow the grass for X amount of time.
SPEAKER_00: Look into your day and say, you know what?
SPEAKER_00: Tomorrow evening, I know that I've got some time that isn't demanded to do something else necessary.
SPEAKER_00: I'm going to pick right now sometime tomorrow that I'm going to spend time in prayer and Bible reading with the Lord.
SPEAKER_00: Now I'm not telling you it has to be an hour.
SPEAKER_00: I'm not telling you it has to be 45 minutes, 30 minutes.
SPEAKER_00: I'm not setting any time constraints on it.
SPEAKER_00: I'm just saying there ought to be some time.
SPEAKER_00: And if you're doing zero minutes right now, then five minutes is a win.
SPEAKER_00: But let there be a predetermination that we are going to schedule some time with God tomorrow.
SPEAKER_00: Now, I do want to just uh acknowledge and encourage you guys that I know that y'all have made today a priority.
SPEAKER_00: The church was a lot fuller this morning than it was than it is tonight, right?
SPEAKER_00: And that means that you guys have said, I I want to spend the day in the house of the Lord.
SPEAKER_00: I want to come back, and I want to be with God's people, and I want to have a time of corporate worship, and I want to hear the word, and I admire you for that, and I applaud you for that.
SPEAKER_00: But you can't get by on just what you get on Sundays.
SPEAKER_00: We need that daily time with the Lord.
SPEAKER_00: Let's pray.
SPEAKER_00: Dear Lord, thank you so much for giving us the opportunity to be able to spend time with you.
SPEAKER_00: I'm so thankful, Lord, that it doesn't require a priest anymore, that I don't have to work with somebody else's schedule to be able to come and spend time with you, but that I can get up at any time tomorrow and enter into time with you and have uninterrupted access to you through your word and through prayer.
SPEAKER_00: Father, I pray that we would not neglect such a great gift that has been given to us.
SPEAKER_00: Lord, I know that time is short.
SPEAKER_00: I know that life is busy, but I also know that we've got a lot of things that will fill in the voids of our schedule, just like water, if we don't block out some time for you.
SPEAKER_00: So, Lord, I pray that as we read this text that tells us that you instructed the people of Israel to mark their calendars in advance to keep these annual days, that we would learn and heed from that, and that we would mark our calendars today to spend some time with you each day this week.
SPEAKER_00: And I pray, Lord, that you would reward those who do with the sweetness of fellowship.
SPEAKER_00: And I pray that in Jesus' name, Amen.