to Isaiah chapter 58. Isaiah 58. And while you're turning there, we did have a few people here that were able to attend the funeral service for our sister Edith, who has gone to be with the Lord. There are some funeral cards on the table in the foyer close to the bulletins. Please take one for just a brief remembrance and record of her life and family. Isaiah 58, and the prophet here is decrying the merely outward attendance of the ward's people upon the means of grace. They're doing things, they're religious, they're involved in religious activities, and they're a little upset with the Lord because for all that they've given up in worshiping Him according to His ordinances, they don't seem to have received any blessing. And so they're not doing it just to praise the Lord, they want something back. And they don't believe God has been generous enough with them. So let us hear the word of exhortation concluding with the exhortation to call the Sabbath a delight. Isaiah chapter 58, this is the Word of God. Cry aloud, spare not, lift up thy voice like a trumpet, and show my people their transgression, and the house of Jacob their sins. Yet they seek me daily, and delight to know my ways, as a nation that did righteousness and forsook not the ordinance of their God. They ask of me the ordinances of justice. They take delight in approaching to God. Wherefore have we fasted, say they, and thou seest not? Wherefore have we afflicted our soul, and thou takest no knowledge? Behold, in the day of your fast ye find pleasure, and exact all your labors. Behold, ye fast for strife and debate, and to smite with a fist of wickedness. Ye shall not fast, as ye do this day, to make your voice to be heard on high. Is it such a fast that I have chosen, a day for a man to afflict his soul? Is it to bow down his head as a bulrush, and to spread sackcloth and ashes under him? Wilt thou call this a fast and an acceptable day to the Lord? Is not this the fast that I have chosen, to loose the bands of wickedness, to undo the heavy burdens, and to let the oppressed go free, and that ye break every yoke? Is it not to deal thy bread to the hungry, and that thou bring the poor that are cast out to thy house? When thou seest the naked, that thou cover him, and that thou hide not thyself from thine own flesh? Then shall thy light break forth as the morning, and thine health shall spring forth speedily, and thy righteousness shall go before thee. The glory of the Lord shall be thy rearward. Then shalt thou call, and the Lord shall answer. Thou shalt cry, and he shall say, Here I am. If thou take away from the midst of thee the yoke, the putting forth of the finger, and speaking vanity, and if thou draw out thy soul to the hungry, and satisfy the afflicted soul, then shall thy light rise in obscurity, and thy darkness be as the noonday, And the Lord shall guide thee continually, and satisfy thy soul in drought, and make fat thy bones. And thou shalt be like a watered garden, and like a spring of water, whose waters fail not. And they that shall be of thee shall build the old waste places. Thou shalt raise up the foundations of many generations, and thou shalt be called the repairer of the breach. the restorer of paths to dwell in. Thou turn away thy foot from the Sabbath, from doing thy pleasure on my holy day, and call the Sabbath a delight, the holy of the Lord, honourable, and shalt honour him, not doing thine own ways, nor finding thine own pleasure, nor speaking thine own words. Then shalt thou delight thyself in the Lord, and I will cause thee to ride upon the high places of the earth, and feed thee with the heritage of Jacob thy father, for the mouth of the Lord hath spoken it. Let us pray. Our God and our Father, we come before thee and ask once again that the word of thy truth would be opened unto us, and that our hearts would be opened to receive thy word. We pray that Christ may be honored and glorified, that our hearts may be brought into thy presence, that we may be moved to render a gospel obedience unto all thy word, that thou wouldst touch not only our minds, but our hearts, that we may meditate and turn unto thee. These things we ask now for the sake of our Lord Jesus Christ. Amen. Beloved congregation, the Sabbath day is to be thoroughly enjoyed by all Christians. It's a day set apart, and we've already seen how it is a gift that God gives to the Church. It is a command to remember. Remember the Sabbath day to keep it holy. So it is, according to the command of God, first of all, it is an essential day. We've been hearing a lot in the last close to a year about essential services. Is the church an essential service. God says that it is. God says that the church, the gathering of the saints, is essential. Forsake not the assembling of yourselves together, as the manner of some is. It was a problem amongst the Hebrews. Some people weren't coming to church. And God says to come. to forsake not the assembling of yourselves together, because it's for you. It's for your good. We want to see that a little bit more shortly. So the Lord has told us, as we've been going through the Ten Commandments, we've seen in the first commandment who to worship. worship, the fourth commandment, when to worship. It is on the Sabbath day. It is confined to a day. And we do not deny that we serve the Lord and in a sense worship Him through the week. The Sabbath day is a special day set aside for worship. And faithful Christians agree that it is good for their well-being. It's essential to their gospel obedience that they're mindful of the fourth commandment as much as lies within them. It ought to be the desire of the heart of the Lord's people to gather with his saints. We ought to be dissatisfied with the world. We're going to talk about that this evening. As we're strangers and pilgrims in this world, Peter says, We don't belong here. We don't belong in this world. And you ought to feel that. Join us tonight. We'll talk more about that. You ought to feel unwelcome in the world. But this ought to be a very welcoming place. We ought to work at that. We ought to work at being welcoming. at being more welcoming and feeling welcomed in the assembly of the saints. That when there are souls missing, that as I've said previously, we do miss them. It's not a complete picture. There's something lacking. So as the Lord assembles us, we ought to assemble together to bless one another. question arises whether the church is an essential service during a plague. You may question whether we're actually in a state of a plague, but the church has generally agreed. I think we talked about this last week somewhat. Sometimes churches, sometimes services need to be suspended for a time for the sake of health reasons, for the sake even in the sense of loving one another and being careful for one another's health. We just learned that our brothers and sisters in Cape Canaveral determined that they would not meet this Sunday or this Wednesday because there were a number of people in the congregation with COVID, and the session determines this would be the wisest thing to do. We're able to use technology in its place, but there may be times when churches stop meeting, and it is generally just for a time. And the question that we're facing in our present day is how long ought that time to be? What's a reasonable amount of time? So is the church essential? Isn't it interesting? I find it very interesting that, I don't think it's an exaggeration to say that all the premiers of Canada have been asked in that question. They've included it in their response, in their restrictions. Some refer to it as assembly for worship. Some actually use the word church, which is very interesting. So they're mindful of this idea that worship, the desire for worship is inherent in people. Just listening to Augustine's confession reminded of his famous statement, our hearts are restless till we find our rest in thee. A beautiful statement. Our hearts are restless and we see people exercising that restless sometimes in a type of worship They know that they need to worship, but they're not necessarily worshiping the true and living God. I think our government officials are acknowledging people need to worship. But even more to the point, really, is that churches have been asking this. churches have been asking in response to all this, is the gathering of the saints an essential service? And in what sense is it essential? To what degree is it essential? Should we be lumped together with restaurants and bars and gyms, as in some provinces? And again, I'm thankful to our premier here in Alberta who recognizes the importance of physical worship. We may disagree with the restrictions that are placed on it, but he has sought in some measure to preserve our right to worship. And I think he's, of all the premiers, he is, I think, the only one that has done that. So I'm grateful. I'm grateful to the Lord for that open door. So how important, beloved, is it for us to gather for worship and how long can it reasonably be disrupted? How essential is it to you, beloved? How essential is it to you? It's good to think about that. How essential is the church to you? even as I've been thinking a lot about death and dying. Our sister, of course, was graciously given 100 years of life, every remarkable 100 years. But I think it's good for you and I, or for you, to think about what would happen if I were to leave. It was good for the session, the council, God could take me at any time. What would you do? What would this church look like? How would we respond? I know it sounds a little bit morbid, and I don't want to lay out a threat or anything that I'm leaving, but it's something to think about. It forces you to think about what is the church? Does the church need a pastor? Yes, it does. Does it need elders and deacons? Yes, it does. It doesn't always have them. I remember growing up, and I grew up in a church that had a different form of government. We were without a pastor for a few years. I would guess two years after I left. And my father told me about how beneficial it was to the church. You think about that? It brought them together. in a new way. So the Lord can use these things as well. Of course, you know, it's a vain thing to say, expect the unexpected. I'm not trying to tell you to expect the unexpected, because we can't. But we should all think about the nature of the church. And what would happen? We can think the same thing. What would happen if the Lord removed our elders or our deacons? but it would make us to deal in a very practical way with what the church is, how it functions, how it goes forward, and what it's like. So would you work to strengthen the things that we make? Chapter 58. While you're turning there, we did have a few people here that were able to attend the funeral service for our sister Edith, who has gone to be with the Lord. There are some funeral cards on the table in the foyer close to the bulletins. Please take one for just a brief remembrance and record of her life and family. Isaiah 58, and the prophet here is decrying the merely outward attendance of the Lord's people upon the means of grace. They're doing things, they're religious, they're involved in religious activities, And they're a little upset with the Lord because for all that they've given up in worshipping Him according to His ordinances, they don't seem to have received any blessing. And so they're not doing it just to praise the Lord. They want something back. And they don't believe God has been generous enough with them. and they do gather when they can. Obviously, it's going to be very difficult and dangerous to gather for worship in North Korea, but let's remember our brothers and sisters there. You can think of China or India or Pakistan, where Christians are often openly are openly beaten because all of society says we don't need those people in our land. And in many places, I think especially more northern India than southern, but in northern India there's a lot of persecution and attack of Christians in worship. What would we do? And again, I realize it's speculation, but would we agree to meet secretly? By that point, we might have to give up our building. And I think we'd realize more and more that the church is not the building. It is our unity. It is our gathering. It's praying together, meeting one another's needs. Think of attending conventicles. Have you ever heard the word conventicles? It is when Christians, specifically, it's used for Christians who meet secretly. And this was the case even in the early Roman Empire. The churches met in the catacombs, where they buried dead people in order to escape and to not be found out. The followers of Wycliffe in the 14th century in England gathered secretly, the Lollards, and they gathered because they wanted fellowship. They wanted to worship the Lord Jesus with other saints. You can think of the conventicles, and this is where I usually apply the word, to the Covenanters in 17th century Scotland, especially. where they would meet at midnight in a secret place for the Lord's Supper. They'd come at night, and the dragoons would try desperately to find out where they were meeting. And a lot of them were successful. They met sometimes for hours late at night. And it's a blessing to hear of the love that these people had, our brothers and sisters, are long gone into the presence of the Lord, but they met for worship. They met for the Lord's supper. They recognized that that ordinance was very, very important. So, these are good days, beloved, in which you and I should ask, is the worship of the Lord Jesus, the gathering for worship of the Lord's people, is it inconsequential? Is it something that kind of fits into your day, or is it something that is necessary for your soul? to meet with Christ's people, as much as you are able to. Sometimes providentially hindered, many people watching online are providentially hindered. So it's a matter of your own conscience, but if you're able, able to worship, to gather together with the saints. If you're not here, if you're providentially hindered even, To say, I can't make it to church Wednesday night or Sunday night or even Sunday morning. Be very mindful, my people are gathering now for worship. That's what it means really to be a part of that assembly. I may not be able to be there, but the place that I love is being assembled right now. They're gathering right now. And there ought to be a longing for that. I want to be there. I need to be there. I desire to be there. So God says that it's essential and we ought to think about that. Is it essential in your life, in your heart, the worship of the Lord Jesus Christ? Now we're going to talk a little bit more about this next week or in the coming weeks when we talk about the fifth commandment and human authority. And so we have God's will, God's desire, God's statement that worship is essential. And we'll see how that relates to our authority submitting to those who will over us, govern over us. And that is found in the fifth commandment. So there is an essential day now coming to our text in Isaiah 58. It is an expensive delight. It is an expensive delight. The Lord says, call the Sabbath a delight. Call the Sabbath a delight. And that involves, how is it expensive? We didn't charge you to come in here. We didn't charge a fee. It's expensive because it means, in a very real and practical way, dying to yourself. And so Isaiah says, in verse 13 of Isaiah 58, if thou turn away thy foot from the Sabbath, from doing thy pleasure on my holy day. So you have to think, this is what I want to do, but it may not be what God wants me to do. Do I want to do what God wants me to do? Now here's the, it's a quandary in Isaiah's day, right? You turn your foot and it's talking about going in a certain direction and you're gonna turn away from that. So you've got maybe an intention or maybe a desire at the last minute. I'd really love to do this. But I know that God wants me to do this. Not necessarily that this is a bad thing, but God wants me to do this. Turn away thy foot from the Sabbath, from doing thy pleasure on my holy day. So that costs, it attacks your great ideas, your wonderful plans, your ways in which you may think I can use this to bless the Lord and you may learn That's not blessing the Lord. You may have thought that it was, but God says in his word, this is what I want you to do. So you don't follow your own ways. In verse 13, if thou turn away thy foot from the Sabbath, I'm not doing thine own ways, he says at the end of the verse. Don't follow your own pleasures from doing thy pleasure on my holy day, and at the end, nor finding thine own pleasure. So it's not about pleasing yourself, except that it's acknowledging that your true pleasure comes in doing what God bids you to do. So it's not your own pleasure. It's not your fleshly pleasures. It's not your wisdom that determines these things. And God says, think about this. Think about what your pleasures are. Think about what your delights are. Think about what your ways are. And think about how they are unlike God's ways. My ways are not your ways, Isaiah has already said a number of chapters earlier. Your thoughts are not even my thoughts. You need to make them my thoughts. And isn't it true? You need, and one of the reasons for our fellowship, you need your thoughts to be renewed. You need your ways constantly to be redirected. So there's the turning away. Don't even speak your own words. Who is equal to these things, beloved? Can you actually obey the fourth commandment? How can you not speak your own words for even 12 hours, never mind 24? It's not speaking your own words. I want all my words to be words of blessing, words of Christ, words of truth, words from God's Word. That's radical. What could be more radical than that? A very, very counterculture, isn't it? But the Ten Commandments are very counterculture. So you're turning away, but you're not just turning away from something, you're turning towards something else. And that's really the key of Isaiah's passage here. Call the Sabbath a delight. He says, delight thyself in the Lord. Notice, you think Isaiah is saying, I want you to delight in this day? Or does he mean by that, I want you to delight yourself in the Lord Jesus Christ? That's the focus, right? Delight thyself in the Lord. This is the Lord's day, and we can focus on the details of the day without really delighting yourself in Christ. And so we have that problem as Protestants. We emphasize that the gospel is spiritual. That salvation is spiritual. That you must be born again. That you cannot born yourself again. You cannot bring yourself into the kingdom. It is God that brings you sovereignly into that kingdom. And it's spiritual. We worship in spirit and in truth. And yet there are physical aspects to our worship. Right now we're able to have this building. It's wonderful to have this dedicated to the promotion of the gospel, the preaching of the word. God has given us this building, and we have no mortgage. We have not had a mortgage on it for two or three decades. It's beautiful that God has given us this building. If we had the building removed from us, we would still have a desire for physical gathering. or physical worship somewhere, whether it's in somebody's basement or out in the woods somewhere, it would be a physical gathering to express spiritual truths and realities. And so we often shy away from the things that are physical. We can shy away from the Lord's table because it's so easily misunderstood. And people can misunderstand the bread and the wine. They can misunderstand the water of baptism. And so, those are just physical things, but they're physical things that God has required that you and I continually need to be reminded have a spiritual reality. They represent a spiritual truth. They have the special presence of Christ at those ordinances as a means of grace. I think, I hope that you know and have experienced that temptation to just look at it as a physical thing and a religious observance, and we'll do it, and we're done, and we're out. That can happen, and we're prone to it. We ought not to overreact against it. We ought always to be aware of it, but the fact that we can abuse The physical worship of God's people doesn't mean that we should shy away, or it means that we should all the more emphasize the spiritual aspects of those, but the physical is required. So we see the abuse of it often in the Roman Catholic Church is the extreme example, the Anglican Church often, and the Anglican Church, all beloved. A few years back, I sat in an Anglican service. And it's beautiful. The truths that are expressed, the liturgy, the content is amazing. But I was very discouraged because everybody just seemed to be going through the motions, waiting for the next step and moving on. There was, everybody repeats these words together in unison. And some of them, these words are the same words week after week. It becomes a vain repetition. My heart was grieved with that dissonance. Here were glorious truths. Nothing wrong with the Book of Common Prayer. Everything wrong with it being forced on the churches. But the Book of Common Prayer is a beautiful, beautiful book. but it has to be entered into spiritually. The words mean something, and they ought to be expressive of what's in the heart. But to just kind of go along with a prayer of repentance was very frustrating for me. But, so the content is great, but it just seemed like there was no true worship there. I can't judge the hearts of those who were there. It just felt very ritualistic to me. So something definitely to watch out for. So, Isaiah says to call the Sabbath a delight. To delight in Christ. Delight in his day. What does the word delight mean to you? I was thinking when we were growing up, I think in Winnipeg, we had an ice cream place called Dairy Delight, and we liked going there. Great name, isn't it? Dairy Delight. What do you delight in? You remember when you were five or six years old, and 25th of December, had a hard time falling asleep on the 24th, you knew there was going to be something underneath that Christmas tree. You couldn't wait to get up and you checked your parents' bedroom at 2 o'clock and at 3 o'clock and they still weren't awake. At 5 o'clock they said, go back to bed, it's not time yet, but there's going to be something. Call the Sabbath a delight. Are you excited to receive a spiritual blessing? You get up early in the morning and say, this is the Lord's day. This is the day that the Lord has made. And it's a day of resurrection, a day of glory. It's a day I can't wait to be with the saints. That's calling it a delight. Does that happen regularly? Sin gets in the way. Sin gets in the way. And I hope that even right now you're thinking, that is exactly what I would love to do. I would love to get up in the morning and just long to be with the Lord's people. But, you know, Those of us with families, we've experienced pulling up to church and having all the car in a turmoil and people yelling at each other. Whatever we get out of the car, we all have a smile on our faces. We're coming into worship. It's difficult. It's physically, humanly, it's impossible. You need the power of the Holy Spirit to change your heart, to really make you want to desire to have this day a delight. 52 weeks of the year. It may feel a little repetitive, but that's God's command. Call the Sabbath a delight. Think about it in those terms. Is it a delightful day to you? I'm not ready to meet the Lord. I'm not ready to hear his word because I'm carrying sin. I'm harboring sin. And I'd rather not hear that I'm a sinner. That's part of the Christian life. And it's the Holy Spirit that overcomes that and pushes you and says, you need to be there. That's where you're going to find deliverance and release. And you're going to find joy in the Lord Jesus Christ. And your hearts are going to be lifted up into heaven. You're going to receive a true blessing, and you ought to respond with that. I need that very blessing. I need to be assured that Jesus forgives sinners. I need to be assured that he will receive me and forgive my sin. I need that confidence. I need things to be made right that have been messed up this whole week. And I need to start the next week afresh with thoughts of Christ, with songs of his praises, One of the Puritans asked, do you ever find yourself getting upset when things don't go your way on the Sabbath day? I mean, your way, God's way. My Sabbath rest is being disrupted. He said, I don't want that. frustration with the interruption of the Lord's Day. If you're following along in our Bible reading in our bulletin, the reading for today from the end of Nehemiah, Nehemiah was pretty upset at people who were doing work on the Sabbath day. I mean, physically, he was going to grab them. He was going to pull out their beards. What do you want me to do to keep you from working on the Sabbath? or even preparing to work on the South. and because he loved the Sabbath day? We can read that in a different way. We can say, well, he was being very carnal and fleshly at that point. Or did he just love the Lord Jesus so much that he wanted the day to be pure, purely held by everyone? Call the Sabbath delight the holy of the Lord. It's a holy day separated from the rest of the week. Call the Sabbath honorable. The word for honorable here is the word that's more often translated glory. It's a word that has to do with heaviness. The glory of the Lord is a heaviness. It's a weighty, weighty thing, the glory of the Lord. So call the Sabbath honorable. It's a day in which there's solemnity, a day in which you're awestruck at the glory of the Lord, the brilliance of the Lord, the beauty of the Lord, the magnificence of His work and His faithfulness. When you've been unfaithful, what a great delight to worship our God, to think on His activities. So, beloved, it's an essential day. It's an expensive delight. But, beloved, there's an exciting dividend. The Lord says, if you do this, verse 14, then shalt thou delight thyself in the Lord, and I will cause thee to ride upon the high places of the earth, and feed thee with the heritage of Jacob thy father, for the mouth of the Lord hath spoken. God promises you that reward. If you set aside this day, I will cause you to arrive in the high places of the earth. Is that something that you'd love to do? Matthew Henry says, the more pleasure we take in serving God, the more pleasure we shall find in it. It's a recycling kind of intensifying of that delight in the Lord and the pleasure that we have in Him. This idea of riding the high places is something like being brought along in a royal carriage. I'm going to exalt you. What a picture we have of that in our brother Mordecai in the book of Esther. Right? Mordecai. Just a Jew. despised by Haman. Haman could have anything he wanted in the kingdom, and the king kept telling him that. He could have anything he wanted. What bugged Haman? One Jew. One Jew that he thought was guilty and despised and over there. And I hate that man. I hate him. And I won't tell the whole story here. Good for you to review it in the book of Esther. In God's providence, what happened to Mordecai? He was led through the streets of the city in a carriage on the king's horse, in the king's garments, led by Haman, the man who hated him. So the man who hated Haman and who hated Mordecai was forced by the king to lead him through the streets of the city and to say, thus shall be done to the man in whom the king delights. Isaiah says that's the kind of blessing that's awaiting you. You're going to ride in the high places. Your affections are going to be set up on high. And you are going to love the Lord Jesus so much and hate sin out of love for the Savior. You're going to need the admonition to depart from iniquity, but you're going to say, it's not as hard for me as it used to be because I love the Lord Jesus Christ. In many ways, it's going to be harder because you realize how much sin there really is in your heart to deal with. So the Lord says, I'm going to prepare you for heaven. I'm going to prepare you for heaven. I will feed thee with the heritage of Jacob thy father. He's talking here about all the covenant blessings of the Old Testament. I'm going to establish them. I've made my covenant with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, and they're going to come to pass. They're going to be a reality. Notice in verse one we read of Isaiah 58, cry aloud, spare not, lift up thy voice like a trumpet and show my people their transgression and the house of Jacob their sins. Show the house of Jacob their sins. And now he says what? I'm going to make you to ride in the high places of the earth and feed thee with the heritage of Jacob thy father. Our God is a forgiving God. You've got sins piled up. You're coming here to worship a God who forgives your sin. A God who says, I've covered that sin with the blood of my own Son. Surely it's covered. Walk in the clearness of your conscience. I will cause thee to ride upon the high places of the earth and feed thee with the heritage of Jacob thy father. For the mouth of the Lord has spoken it. This is a promised blessing. So the Jews missed the point there in the first half of the chapter. They fasted and our life isn't improved. Nothing's going our way. We gave our time. We gave and sacrificed for the Lord. He's not hearing us. God says that's because you don't understand what a fast is. A fast does result in good works. It does result in compassion to your fellow believers and to your fellow mankind. That's one of the results of fasting. You misunderstood it. People easily misunderstand the Sabbath. That's why we need to remind ourselves of these commandments. So the one who cannot lie has promised you a blessing for setting aside the day of the Lord, his day, the Christian Sabbath. And he will make you to ride in the high places. Beloved, do you trust God to actually give those blessings? To seek his face and to say, God, I have not made the Sabbath a delight. And when I have made it a delight, I need to be better at it. I want a glory in Christ and in his work. And I don't want to be distracted by all of my obligations at work, all of the chores that need to be done around the house. I'm going to set them aside. I've already done my shopping. No need to go shopping today. No need to go to the store. And that's a problem, isn't it? We can. We have to say, I don't need to because this, I want to call the Sabbath a delight. I want to, Saturday, I want to set aside all things that could distract me because tomorrow is the Lord's day. I want to call the Sabbath a delight. You trust that when you really, from the heart, ask God to help you, to really have a great delight in Christ and the fellowship of the saints, that God will give you these blessings. He says that he will. For his your way, the better way. Well, I know what God says, but I have a shortcut to his blessings. And we remember what happened to Christian when he tried taking a shortcut and ended up, I think, in the slough of despondence. What an act of faith it is to hear God's word and to do that by faith. It's a gospel obedience. You can easily be like the Jews and render a legal obedience and just say, well, I've done that. It hasn't gotten me anywhere. Or you say, I'm not here to get somewhere. I'm here to worship the Lord. on the high places. It's a blessing that only Christians even desire. Who wants to be right in the high places with God, except those who have been redeemed by the precious blood of Christ? Beloved, shall we call the Sabbath a delight? Shall we encourage one another to delight in this first day of the week, to worship our risen Savior? Let us pray. Our Heavenly Father, thou bless the preaching of thy word to our hearts this day. Confess that we are often prone to forget the things that we have heard as we depart from this place. Lord, we pray that thy exhortations may abide with us and in us. Lord, we confess that we are not equal to this command. It cannot rise to the obedience that it demands. And so we seek our obedience in the Lord Jesus Christ. We thank Thee, Lord, we delight in His obedience, in His love of the Sabbath day, and we desire to have that as well. Lord, will Thou be pleased to move our hearts by the power of Thy Spirit, to take great delight in Thy day. We thank Thee for blessing us on the other six days of the week. We thank Thee for employment and provision for our homes. We pray, Lord, that Thou wouldst enable us to set aside this day as thy day. Hear our prayer, Lord, and grant to us these blessings which we pray. We ask in Jesus' name. Amen.