The sermon this evening comes from Exodus chapter 20, starting with verse 8. Exodus chapter 20, verses 8 through 11. Remember the Sabbath day to keep it holy. Six days you shall labor and do all your work. But the seventh day is a Sabbath of the Lord your God. In it you shall not do any work, you or your son or your daughter, your male or your female servant, or your cattle or your sojourner who stays with you. For in six days the Lord made the heavens and the earth. the sea and all that is in them, and rested on the seventh day. Therefore, the Lord blessed the Sabbath day and made it holy. Pray with me. Father, help us now as we come to your word with a teaching that is familiar to most of us here. But please renew it in our sight. Please renew it in our minds that we would understand it better, that we would love it more, that we would apply it more faithfully in our lives, that you would be glorified. Please help us now, Lord. It's in Jesus' name we pray. Amen. It was explained to me that in the couple of weeks that we were away, there were some people here with small children It was described to me that one of the small children, as he would begin to fuss just a little bit in worship and start to carry on a little bit, when a parent turned to the child and said, no, the child would slowly begin to wail at that moment. That the child was able to get by okay until the child is actually told, no. I think that's a beautiful picture of the depravity of the human heart. We can move along, we can get along, and we can get along just fine until a finger comes out and someone says to us, no, don't do that. Consider the Garden of Eden. Could Adam and Eve have existed through eternity and never have gotten around to that tree in the middle? If God hadn't said, no. But there's something about that command, there's something about that statement that stirs something in us that makes us long and wants to run for that thing that has been forbidden from us. Even if it's a good thing, even if Adam and Eve, and they were informed, you eat that, death comes. comes if you eat from this one tree. But you can eat from any other tree in the Garden of Eden. And this test was that great display of the human heart, that great example for us of our own heart that shows us our own depravity, showing us our own need for Christ Jesus. But all the commands, and this command included, is a commandment of life. showing us what is best, what is beautiful, what is good, and even as we see here, what is holy. So God is saying to us, I want you to have what's best, what's beautiful, what's good, what's holy. And it's as if when he says that, we are like, we can bear that as long as you don't say no. But when he says, don't work, When he says, your sons aren't to work either. And no, to your daughters, they shall not work either. And anybody staying with you, no. Don't let them work. And your livestock, don't let them work either. It's as if he pouted on, and he pouted on, and he pouted on. Not that he was giving us anything negative or bad, he was giving us life, but it grates on society, it grates on mankind, and we look for and we want any ways to break this in any way that we can. This morning I took a walk around my neighborhood and I came across another pastor and he was describing things going on in his church and even pointed out the horse water trough that they had there and said, well, we've had a few baptisms lately. And I was surprised the water trough was only that big. And I asked, that works? And he said, oh yeah, they were all short people. I just got them to crouch down and I stood on the outside and I dunked them. I said, oh. He said, now I'm getting the bus ready. I said, oh, what are you getting the bus ready for? He said, oh, we're gonna take a bunch of the kids out to the pirate game today. And I shrugged and thought, oh, oh, there it is. These things that we can do, but should we on the Sabbath day? We look and we're going to look at some principles that are laid out here. And it's striking to me that the commandment is actually remember. That's the commandment. Remember the Sabbath day. Another way to say it would be, don't forget the Sabbath. Or keep it in mind, the Sabbath. And keep it in mind for what? In order to keep it holy. That is, set apart for something good. set apart for something beautiful. And we're going to see here, even set apart for something necessary for life, for all of us. And as we look at the ways that God had used the Sabbath, I'm going to say it's ingrained and even describe it as the grain of creation. as you would look at a board and you would see the lines going through the board. You can look at creation and you can see the Sabbath, like these lines going through creation, that when He set it up, He set it up for you. He even set it up for the livestock that we would use to work. He set it up and even used it for the land as we will look at in scripture. It is the intent. It is the purpose. It is something that cannot be removed. It is necessary and it's good and it's beautiful and it is life for us and for everyone that's under our authority in our lives and everyone that could be put under our authority in our lives. It's for everyone. It's good. It's beautiful. It's holy. And the call is to remember it. To remember the Sabbath. To keep it holy. Our first step is to call the Sabbath a delight. Exodus 28, remember the Sabbath day to keep it holy. Now, is something holy? Do you think of it as good? as beautiful, my mind goes to the temple. When you go to the temple and you look at the outside, it's beautiful, yes. If you were able to approach and you come closer into the holy place, it's getting even more beautiful. When you take another step, if you were able to go closer to the holy of holies, it's shown, it was gorgeous and beautiful and would strike you with awe. The Sabbath day can be that. And it's intended to be that for you. We come together and we come together for it and it's to be a delight. It's to be holy. It can be and is to be strengthening. It can be a rebooting for ourselves. There's a thing that you do with computers that I've learned is called defragging. or defragmenting your hard drive. Turns out all the information that goes into your computer, it can be laying all over the place like a messy desk and be piling up and the stuff can be falling off of the edges. When you defragment a computer, you go in, you take everything and it gets placed where it's supposed to be. and everything then is organized. It's like that being still in our minds. Those times where things are coming and coming and coming and we can't stand it and we can't bear it and we don't know what we're going to do next. When you stop and you're still and you process in the light of scripture and things get put where they're supposed to be, the Sabbath is one of those stillnesses. It's one of those moments where we process the rest of our week, and we process the rest of our lives, and we examine it all in the light of scripture, and it's beautiful, and our lives are being set right. We are given this rest and this recovery, and I'm learning that in sports, there's always an exertion, and there's rest, and there's recovery. Throughout the week, you are given six days of exertion. On the Sabbath day, you are given a rest and a recovery. It's a strengthening. It's a building. And it's for your body. And it's for your mind. And it's for your soul. Your life and your mind gets restructured when you are applying it the ways that we are to apply it. This is why it says in Isaiah 58, 13-14, if because of the Sabbath, you turn your foot from doing your own pleasure on my holy day, and call the Sabbath day a delight, the holy day of the Lord honorable, and honor it, desisting from your own ways, from seeking your own pleasure, and speaking your own word, then you will take delight in the Lord. Do you get how things are being set in order then? The rest of the week, it's right, we are to be delighting in the Lord. But here, when we're resting, when we're stopping, when we're setting our mind on scripture, when we're encouraging one another and building each other up, when we're spurring one another on in love and in good deeds, what is right and good and holy comes to the forefront of our mind and we're encouraged and we are blessed. Turn from your own ways, from seeking your own pleasure, from speaking your own word, then you will take delight in the Lord, and I will make you ride on the heights of the earth, and I will feed you with the heritage of Jacob your father, for the mouth of the Lord has spoken." Can you buy that? Can you receive that? Can you apply that? Is there something more in life that you think you're going to get by working on the Sabbath? Is there something more to life that you think you're going to get by going out and purchasing on the Sabbath? Will you get more than riding on the heights of the earth? No, you will not. But what's good and beautiful comes when we walk in the pathways of life as expressed in the scripture. Our next step then is remember the Sabbath when you schedule your week. Again, verse eight, remember the Sabbath day to keep it holy. In what sense are we keeping it holy? Remember the idea of holy, there was a cutting or a chopping with the word. There's this idea of it, something being sliced and set apart, kept as precious. It's removed from everything else. We remember the Sabbath when we're planning our week. We try in our family as well to remember the Sabbath even when we schedule our Saturday. That it could be a day of preparation, that we can be getting ready, because the Sabbath doesn't just happen. You don't just pull it off. The Sabbath will be broken again and again. If you are not actively remembering to plan for it, to set it apart, to keep it as holy. Another place in scripture even gives the idea that the Sabbath is a sign that we are God's people. That we live it out as a testimony that people would look and see and say, ah, they're different. They don't do what the rest of the world does. So we remember it in our scheduling. Our next step, number three. is to enjoy your portion on the Sabbath. Maybe someday another illustration will come to mind or something better will come to mind, but the portion, it's always a dessert in my mind. It's always that the pie that someone would make, it being cut, we look and see how much we get and we want our full portion. I can remember cutting a pie and dishing it out and making sure that if any berries fell out of my section, no one else was getting those berries. That was my portion. I would scoop them. I would take them. They would be mine. Sliding a piece of pizza off of the tray if the cheese came off or the pepperoni came off. No, no. It's mine. It's my portion. This is mine. We look at the scripture and we are given the idea again and again that you're to see the Lord as your portion. Now we enjoy the Lord, specifically in scripture, it tells us we enjoy Him as we are seeking Him. Seeking Him is where the pleasure is found. Now that's going to take effort on your part. And he will put elements in your life, he will put pressures in your life, he will put tensions in your life, all for the purpose of getting you to seek him that you may enjoy him. If you're not enjoying him, why not? It's simply because we are not seeking Him. Again, in that Isaiah 58, 13 through 14, If because of the Sabbath you turn your foot from doing your own pleasure on my holy day, and call the Sabbath a delight, the holy day of the Lord honorable, and honor it, desisting from your own ways, from seeking your own pleasure and speaking your own word, then you will take the light in the Lord. There's the ceasing from seeking your own pleasure. And here we move to Deuteronomy 4.29. This is still under our third step. But from there, you will seek the Lord, your God, and you will find him if you search for him with all your heart and with all your soul. 1 Chronicles 16.10 Glory in his name. Let the heart of those who seek the Lord be glad. 2 Chronicles 12.14 He did evil because he did not set his heart to seek the Lord. We can see that when we are not seeking Him, there is a more drastic falling short in our lives. Psalm 22, 26, the afflicted will eat and be satisfied. Those who seek Him will praise the Lord. Let your heart live forever. This idea of giving Him His praise, giving Him His worship. In the worship assembly is one of the places where we give Him His praise, where we seek Him. Psalm 27, 8-14, when you said, seek my face, My heart said to you, your face, O LORD, I shall seek. Do not hide your face from me. Do not turn your servant away in anger. You have been my help. Do not abandon me, nor forsake me, O God of my salvation. For my father and mother have forsaken me, but the Lord will take me up. Teach me your way, O Lord. and lead me in a level path because of my foes. Do not deliver me over to the desire of my adversaries, for false witnesses have risen against me, and such as breathe out violence, I would have despaired, unless I had believed that I would see the goodness of the Lord in the land of the living. Wait for the Lord. Be strong and let your heart take courage. Yes, wait for the Lord. Psalm 105.3, glory in his holy name. Let the heart of those who seek the Lord be glad. And Psalm 119.2, blessed are those who observe his testimonies, who seek him with all their heart. Can you find the blessing that it is in seeking the Lord? Now we could come to the place and we could say, but I don't have time. I don't have time to seek the Lord. My days are too busy. My days are too full. I have too many responsibilities. My grass still isn't cut from last week. But the Sabbath day, when we come and we look, we've all been given a whole day. Your day. for you to choose how you will honor it and how you will seek the Lord. You are given a vacation every single week to spend with Christ. Can you come up with a better vacation plan than that? A day in which you are promised that you will be blessed when you seek Him. This is beautiful. Can we even come up with anything more glorious than the King of heaven and earth promising to meet with you when you come to meet with Him? It's precisely what we need. So we come to the place, and this is our fourth step, to enjoy the holy rest. Exodus 20, nine through 10, six days you shall labor and do all your work, but the seventh day is a Sabbath of the Lord your God. In it you shall not do any work. You can enjoy that. When you run hard for six days, you will enjoy that rest. Think of people, if you haven't been to a race recently, imagine being at a long race, even our 5K when we were out there. You saw people very thankful to stop after 3.1 miles. They ran hard and I did not see anyone say, you know, I think I'm just gonna keep going. I think I'm going to run as hard as I can for another 3.1 miles. No, everyone who was trying stopped. And they were glad to stop. Sometimes you even see people collapsing into the grass, so happy to stop. Sabbath actually means stop. It means cease. As I'm saying this, I haven't looked it up, but I can hear Siesta in there somewhere. That we've got to rest. A blessed rest. And it is to be enjoyed. Now, attached to our own rest, from our hard run, from our recovery, is our fifth step, which is give everyone you can a holy rest. Exodus 20 10. But the seventh day is a Sabbath of the Lord your God. In it you shall not do any work. You or your son, or your daughter, or your male or your female servant, or your cattle, or your sojourner who stays with you. Now there is the obvious application that's specifically what is being stated here. And let's take it a bit more broadly as well. Anyone that could fall under your authority. And I'm just going to take this and apply it directly to purchasing things on the Sabbath. going out to eat on the Sabbath. If we do these things, we are putting people in a position for them to be breaking the Sabbath. And I'm going to say it's a sin. Don't do it. Organize your life. Structure your life. Remember the Sabbath. Remember it when you plan your week. Plan your necessary food and shelter and clothing ahead of time so that we do not impose these things on anyone else. When I first became saved, I was struck by the law of God and started having conversations with people and saying, to people, you should be closed on the Lord's Day. And the answer always was, if people wouldn't come straight from church to our restaurant, we would be closed. There's a reality to that and there's a true sadness to that. So us keeping the Sabbath personally and giving others this holy rest is a sweet gift and a blessing. It's the right thing for the people of God to do, to not cause anyone else to work on the Sabbath. Our sixth step is to see the Sabbath as the grain of creation. As anyone who would tell you who works with wood, whenever you are sanding or working with the wood, you must go with the grain. When you go against the grain, it messes everything up and it makes the work and the wood itself to look ugly. We see in verse 11 that this is the reality. For in six days, the Lord made the heavens and the earth, the sea and all that is in them and rested on the seventh day. Therefore, the Lord blessed the Sabbath day and made it holy. In verse 10, we see that this is even applied to the livestock. That surprises me on some level, that we look and God in his 10 commandments is interested and he's concerned about their animals. Why? Because God is interested and he is concerned with life in general. He cares about the world that he has made. Your livestock even get the day off, he says. In Leviticus 25 verses 2 through 4, it shows God's interest and His concern even in the land. He says, Speak to the sons of Israel and say to them, When you come into the land which I shall give you, then the land shall have a Sabbath to the Lord. Six years you shall sow your field, and six years you shall prune your vineyard and gather in its crops. But during the seventh year, the land shall have a Sabbath rest. A Sabbath to the Lord. You shall not sow your field nor prune your vineyard. Later on, a judgment comes upon Israel because they had not given the land its Sabbath. And they were told that they would have, I believe it was, a year where they were in captivity for every year that they had not given the land its Sabbath. There is a pollution and a problem, there is a draining of the resources of the land where God intends for the land, us, and our livestock to have this rest. Again, it being the grain of creation, God has not changed the grain of creation since the Newer Covenant. He has not changed mankind so that they do not need a rest. He has not changed the livestock so that they do not need a rest. He has not changed the land so that it does not need a rest. In Matthew 24, 20, when Jesus was giving the prophecy of what was going to happen with the destruction of Jerusalem, knowing that that is in new covenant time, Jesus spoke to the Jews and said, but pray that your flight will not be in the winter or on a Sabbath. The Sabbath was intended to continue in the Newer Covenant. It is a real and true piece of creation. It is real life as it has always been, real law. It is for your good. Did Jesus Christ fulfill the Sabbath? Sure. Did Jesus Christ fulfill You Shall Not Commit Adultery? Sure. Do we have the freedom or the liberty to break any of the commandments because Jesus Christ has fulfilled them? No. The Sabbath is good. The Sabbath is holy and it is for us to set it apart. In Jesus in his preaching in Matthew 5, whoever annuls one of the least of these commandments and teaches others to do the same shall be called the least in the kingdom of heaven. But whoever keeps and teaches them, he shall be called great in the kingdom of heaven. We look and we remember the Sabbath day to keep it holy. Now our next step, and this idea has come up a few times recently, because it's a struggle for our congregation. This is our seventh step. Let's try talking about the Lord on the Sabbath. Now in our group where we're having a sermon discussion, that's great. That is beautiful. I am very thankful that it's happening. For the rest of us, and maybe those in that group as well, somehow, for some reason, it's a struggle for us to discuss the things of the Lord on the Sabbath. I will leave it up to you to examine your heart and to figure out why. But this is a call for repentance for all of us in this area. I'm reminding you of the words that we've come to in Isaiah 58, 13 through 14 a few times. If because of the Sabbath, you turn your foot from doing your own pleasure on my holy day, and call the Sabbath a delight, the holy day of the Lord honorable, and honor it, desisting from your own ways, from seeking your own pleasure, and here it even says, and speaking your own word, See, there's conversation that's certainly lawful the rest of the time, and it's fine casually on the Sabbath, but really there is for us to be a pursuit, speaking of the things of the Lord on the Sabbath, to be spurring one another on in love and in good deeds. talk about the things that matter most on the Sabbath, and matter most for us for the rest of the week. This is a time to be defragmenting our minds, to be putting our heads in order, to be strengthening, encouraging, and blessing one another. So may we move forward in this together. Because when you do this, then you will take the light in the Lord. And that will make you ride on the heights of the earth. and I will feed you with the heritage of Jacob, your father, for the mouth of the Lord is spoken." I hope this is beautiful to you. I hope this isn't a preacher standing in the pulpit leveling a finger at you and shouting, no. But I hope you see the beauty of holiness, the beauty of life dedicated to God's word, in His truth, in His commands, that you will diligently seek to remember the Sabbath day, to keep it holy. Pray with me. Lord, we thank You for all of the good that You have given us, and specifically now, we thank You for the Sabbath. We thank You for this vacation. with you, a time of rest with you. Please bless us with true repentance in all the areas where we have sought our own pleasures on your day, where we have not given the whole day to rest and worship to mercy and necessity. God, and please be blessed and please be glorified as we seek your face together and as we labor, Lord, to love you and to follow you better. Please strengthen us and encourage us for the race that we have this week. It's in Jesus' name we pray. Amen.