So we will give our attention now to the reading of God's inspired and fallible and incredibly relevant word. You shall tithe all the yields of your seed that comes from the field year by year. And before the Lord your God in the place that he will choose to make his name dwell there, you shall eat the tithe of your grain, of your wine and of your oil and the firstborn of your herd and flock that you may learn to fear the Lord your God always. And if the way is too long for you so that you are not able to carry the tithe when the Lord your God blesses you because the place is too far from you, which the Lord your God chooses to set his name there. Then you shall turn it into money and bind up the money in your hand and go to the place that the Lord your God chooses and spend the money for whatever you desire, oxen or sheep or wine or strong drink, whatever your appetite craves. And you shall eat there before the Lord your God and rejoice you and your household. And you shall not neglect the Levite who is within your towns, for he has no portion or inheritance with you. At the end of every three years, you shall bring out all the tithe of your produce in the same year and lay it up within your towns. And the Levite, because he has no portion or inheritance with you and the sojourner, the fatherless and the widow who are within your town, shall come and eat and be filled that the Lord your God may bless you and all the work of your hands that you do. At the end of every seven years you shall grant a release. And this is the manner of the release. Every creditor shall release what he has lent to his neighbor. He shall not exact it of his neighbor, his brother, because the Lord's release has been proclaimed. Of a foreigner you may exact it, but whatever of yours is with your brother, your hand shall release. but there will be no poor among you. For the Lord will bless you in the land that the Lord your God is giving you for an inheritance to possess. If only you will strictly obey the voice of the Lord your God, being careful to do all this commandment that I command you today. For the Lord your God will bless you as he promised you, and you shall lend to many nations, but you shall not borrow. And you shall rule over many nations, but they shall not rule over you. If among you one of your brothers should become poor in any of your towns within your land that the Lord your God is giving you, you shall not harden your heart or shut your hand against your poor brother, but you shall open your hand to him and lend him sufficient for his need, whatever it may be. Take care lest there be an unworthy thought in your heart and you say, the seventh year, the year of release is near. And your eye looked grudgingly on your poor brother and you give him nothing. And he cried to the Lord against you and you be guilty of sin. You shall give to him freely and your heart shall not be grudging when you give to him. Because for this, the Lord, your God will bless you in all your work and in all that you undertake. For there will never cease to be poor in the land. Therefore, I command you, you shall open wide your hand to your brother, to the needy and to the poor in your lands. If your brother, a Hebrew man or a Hebrew woman is sold to you, he shall serve you six years. And in the seventh year, you shall let him go free from you. And when you let him go free from you, you shall not let him go empty handed. You shall furnish him liberally out of your flock. out of your threshing floor and out of your winepress, as the Lord your God has blessed you, you shall give to him. You shall remember that you were a slave in the land of Egypt, and the Lord your God redeemed you, therefore I command you this today. But if he says to you, I will not go out from you, because he loves you and your household, since he is well off with you, then you shall take an owl and put it through his ear into the door, and he shall be your slave forever. And to your female slave you shall do the same. It shall not seem hard to you when you let him go free from you. For at half the cost of a hired worker, he has served you six years. So the Lord your God will bless you in all that you do. All the firstborn males that are born of your herd and flock, you shall dedicate to the Lord your God. You shall do no work with the firstborn of your herd, nor shear the firstborn of your flock. You shall eat it, you and your household, before the Lord your God, year by year at the place that the Lord will choose. But if it has a blemish, if it is lame or blind or has any serious blemish, whatever, you shall not sacrifice it to the Lord your God. You shall eat it within your towns. The unclean and the clean alike may eat it as though it were a gazelle or a deer. Only you shall not eat its blood. You shall pour it out on the ground like water. Observe the month of Abib and keep the Passover to the Lord your God for in the month of Abib, the Lord your God brought you out of the land of Egypt by night. And you shall offer the Passover sacrifice to the Lord your God from the flock or the herd at the place that the Lord will choose to make his name dwell there. You shall eat no leavened bread with it. Seven days you shall eat it with unleavened bread, the bread of affliction. For you came out of the land of Egypt in haste. that all the days of your life you may remember the day when you came out of the land of Egypt. No leaven shall be seen with you in all your territory for seven days, nor shall any of the flesh that you sacrifice on the evening of the first day remain all night until morning. You may not offer the Passover sacrifice within any of your towns that the Lord your God is giving you, but at the place that the Lord your God will choose to make his name dwell in it, there you shall offer the Passover sacrifice in the evening, at sunset, at the time you came out of Egypt. And you shall cook it and eat it at the place that the Lord your God will choose. And in the morning you shall turn and go to your tents. For six days you shall eat unleavened bread, and on the seventh day there shall be a solemn assembly to the Lord your God. You shall do no work on it. You shall count seven weeks. Begin to count the seven weeks from the time the sickle is first put to the standing grain. Then you shall keep the feast of weeks to the Lord your God with the tribute of a free will offering from your hands, which you shall give as the Lord your God blesses you. And you shall rejoice before the Lord your God, you and your son and your daughter, your male servants and your female servants, the Levites who is within your towns, the sojourner, the fatherless and the widow who are among you at the place that the Lord your God will choose to make his name dwell there. You shall remember that you were a slave in Egypt and you shall be careful to observe these statutes. You shall keep the feast of booths seven days. When you have gathered in the produce from your threshing floor and your winepress, you shall rejoice in your feast, you and your son and your daughter, your male servant and your female servant, the Levite, the sojourner, the fatherless and the widow who are within your towns. For seven days you shall keep the feast to the Lord your God at the place that the Lord will choose, because the Lord your God will bless you in all your produce and in all the works of your hands, so that you will be altogether joyful. Three times a year, all your males shall appear before the Lord your God at the place that he will choose, at the feast of unleavened bread, at the feast of weeks, and at the feast of booths. They shall not appear before the Lord empty-handed. Every man shall give as he is able, according to the blessing of the Lord your God that he has given you." A sentence, the reading of God's holy word. We saw this morning in the book of Acts, Eutychus says Paul spoke on and on and on until midnight, falling asleep to his tragic death. And it is not my intention tonight to preach until midnight, in case you are wondering. I don't intend to preach any longer than normal tonight. And for that reason, we are not going to be dealing with all the little minute details of this text. For those of you that like to peel back all of those things and ask a million questions, that's wonderful, but all of those questions are not going to be answered here tonight. What I think is just vital for us as God's people looking at this text is to get the big picture, to get the broad strokes of what God is doing here in Deuteronomy 14 through 16. So as we prepare to come to the preaching of the word, let's ask for the Lord to help us and to bless us. Great God, this is your word. It is the word that you, by the Holy Spirit, caused Moses to preach on the plains of Moab and then later to record. And you have preserved it throughout the centuries so that we here could have it tonight, so that we could have it in a language that we could understand. And Lord, we pray that in light of the fuller revelation of the new covenant and the coming and death and resurrection and ascension of our Savior, that you would grant us understanding in your word and help us to understand the implications and applications of this choice text of scripture for our lives today. It's in Jesus' name we ask these things. Amen. for many years in my Bible reading as I would work through the Bible each year, Deuteronomy was not a book that I looked forward to. It was a book that I looked forward to getting through and being done with, and that was at least in part because I viewed it as a random compiling of a bunch of obscure laws. And I would propose that that is probably how the majority of Christians today view the book of Deuteronomy, a random compiling of obscure laws that Moses, like so many preachers, is unclear, hard to follow, and focused upon things that are simply irrelevant to life in the real world. But that couldn't be further from the truth. Moses is not a scatterbrained creature stuck in the weeds. Deuteronomy is well-structured, brilliantly argued, and pervasively relevant. At first glance, we might read this passage beginning in chapter 14, verse 22, all the way to chapter 16, verse 17. We might read it as a bunch of disconnected laws haphazardly thrown together, but they are not. they're not. These two and a half chapters are broad applications of the fourth commandments. Moses and in typical covenant treaty fashion, is setting forth the terms of the covenant, setting forth the stipulations of the covenant. Those terms were summarized in chapter five, where we have the Decalogue. And then Moses has been fleshing out each of those commands with heart-searching, down-to-earth application. The first commandment in chapters six through 11, the second commandment in chapter 12, the third commandment in chapters 13, and the first part of 14, and now we come to the fourth commandment. Remember or observe the Sabbath day to keep it holy. Now, it's not only the broader structure of Deuteronomy that would lead me to that conclusion, that Moses is here preaching about the fourth commandment, but also the common elements that tie this entire passage together. There are at least four of them that are important for us to see. The first is the time elements. The tithes, the year of release, the three major feasts, all of them have a focus upon Israel's calendar. God has set apart certain times as holy to serve his holy purposes. And that's what the fourth commandments is all about. You have the time elements. You also, second, have the temple elements. You probably picked up on that as we worked through the text. The place that the Lord will choose, the place that the Lord will choose, the place that the Lord will choose, the tithes and the three major feasts are to be carried out in the place of God's choice. The central sanctuary where God dwells, which in the land of Canaan would have been The temple, the temple will become the place of God's worship, the place where God meets with his people. And that, again, is what the Fourth Commandment is all about. Communion with God in his house at his appointed time. Third, there is the redemptive elements. the year of release, and the three feasts are explicitly tied to the Exodus. Israel's liberation from Egypt is woven throughout this entire passage. And when we look back at the republication of the fourth commandment in Deuteronomy chapter five, we see that it too, unlike the original text in Exodus 20, is tied to the Exodus. Deuteronomy 5 verse 15. You shall remember that you were a slave in the land of Egypt and the Lord your God brought you out from there with a mighty hand and an outstretched arm. Therefore, the Lord your God commanded you to keep the Sabbath day. Chapter 5 verse 15 is actually quoted word for word explicitly by Moses in chapter 15 verse 15. So you have the time elements, you have the temple elements, you have the redemptive elements, but fourth, there is the positive elements. There's a shift here that begins in our text from largely negative prohibitions to now positive precepts. And it's a shift that mirrors the Decalogue. As the first three commandments come to us in the form of negative prohibitions, you shall not And then the fourth commandment comes as a positive precept, you shall. When we view these four elements of the text within the broader context of Deuteronomy, recognizing the structure of this book, it becomes abundantly clear that Moses is intentionally expounding and applying the fourth commandment here. The reality, however, is that the institution of the weekly Sabbath day is never mentioned in chapters 14 through 16. And we would be remiss if we didn't ask the question, why not? Why not, Moses? And there's probably a number of different answers that could be given to that. I'm gonna come at it from one direction, and it's very simple. Moses is preaching. He's preaching the law of God. This is not a academic lecture. It's not a theological treatise. This is heart searching life and death preaching. And preaching always entails the application of the word of God to a particular people at a particular time in a particular place. The fourth commandment is timeless and universal, but its application differs depending on the time and the people who are being addressed. And there are two things we need to note about the unique application of the fourth commandment here. The first is this, that this is the Sabbath's principle applied to God's old covenant people. It's applied to God's old covenant people. In this particular administration of the covenant of grace, God gave his people many temporary and shadowy ordinances to prepare them for Christ. Our confession in the chapter on the covenant, it tells us that the new covenant is, quote, administered with more simplicity than the old. We don't have food laws and feast days and sabbatical years now that Christ has come. But Moses isn't preaching to us. He's preaching to Israelites. Second, this is the Sabbath principle applied to God's old covenant people in the land of Canaan. Everything that Moses says here presupposes a central sanctuary to which the Israelites must travel. Everything he says presupposes the exodus and their liberation from bondage in Egypt. Everything he says presupposes God gifting his people with a land that is fruitful and abundant so that they are bringing great A wealth and blessing to the central place where God has chosen to put his name. He's preaching to the Israelites at a unique moment in redemptive history. He's preparing them for Canaan, for the land of promise. And he wants them to grasp the relevancy of the law for their lives in this particular place and culture. He has applied the first three commandments to their life in Canaan, and now he gives himself to the broad and relevant application of the fourth commandment. Now, we are not Israelites, and we are not living in the old administration of the covenant of grace, nor are we living in the land of Canaan. But as we come to this unique application of the Sabbath commands to a unique people at a unique time in a unique place, we find three Sabbath principles that apply to God's people at all times and in all places. The first is this. The Sabbath is a time to joyously repay your God. The Sabbath is a time to joyously repay your God. Moses begins by calling upon the people to tithes. in chapter 14 to give a tenth of their produce. That's what the word tithe means. It's an old English word that accords very well with the meaning of this Hebrew term that simply means one-tenth. Israel was to give one-tenth of their produce. You see that at the end of chapter 14. And they were to give the firstborn of their livestock. You see that at the end of chapter 15. God had blessed Israel with the land of Canaan. This fruitful land was a love gift from him. Israel didn't earn it by their obedience. It was gifted to them by his grace. And ultimately, the land still belongs to God. Israel is simply stewarding it. The tithe. The tithe is one of God's ways of helping Israel to remember that. that contrary to the Canaanites around them, it's not because they had jumped through the right hoops to appease the gods that rain had fallen and that the harvest had come. It was God who had blessed them. It was God who had opened his hands in kindness and in grace. and in love. And by giving the firstfruits of the harvest to God, Israel is declaring their faith and trust in him and the fact that they don't worship their wallets or their bank accounts. The tithe is an act of worship. If there's anything we see at the end of chapter 14. It is that it is. It is an act of worship. And hence, when Israel is in the land of Canaan, it is to be brought to the tabernacle or the temple. Verse 23. And before the Lord, your God and the place that he will choose to make his name dwell there, you shall eat the tithe of your grain, of your wine and of your oil and the firstborn of your herd and flock. that you may learn to fear the Lord your God always." So every year, the tithe is to be gathered, and it's to be brought to the sanctuary. And then a small part of it is to be eaten there before God, in the presence of God. And this is a day before Ford F-150s, before pickup trucks and semi trucks. And it's not really feasible for a lot of Israelites to bring 10% of their produce all the way to the tabernacle or temple. So God makes a gracious provision in verses 24 through 26. He tells them that they can translate that grain and their livestock into cash. and then bring the money to the temple. And they can take some of that then and purchase meat and drink to eat before the Lord. And this we are told in verse 26 is to be done with rejoicing. That is a theme that we see woven throughout this whole text. There's just joy writ large all over the place here. This is glad giving to God that happens in the context of worshipful communion with God. They're feasting with God in his presence, in his house. The tithes is to be shared with the Levites who serve God's temple, verse 27. It is to supply the priests with their income. But we see in verses 28 and 29 that it's also to support the poor and the needy within Israel. The Israelites are to go to God's house at God's appointed times, and they are not to go empty handed. Now there are certain elements of the tithes here that are unique to Israel in Canaan. But the practice itself precedes Israel. Abraham tithed, Genesis 14. Jacob tithed, Genesis 28. So we can't say that the tithe itself is a part of Israel's ceremonial law that passed away with Christ. It appears before Israel comes on the scene, and though we are never explicitly commanded to tithe in the New Testament, it continues after Israel. Jesus affirms it in Matthew 23, 23. Furthermore, as we saw this morning, on the first day of the week, the Christian Sabbath, offerings are to be taken up, 1 Corinthians 16, 2. Those offerings support pastors, 1 Corinthians 9, 14, and the poor, Romans 15, 26. And such giving is to be carried out within the context of God's gathered people, the new covenant temple, and to be carried out with joy as an act of worship, 2 Corinthians 8 and 9. We could spend a long time unpacking all of those texts and looking at the arguments for and against the continuation of the tithes. We aren't going to do that tonight, but there's my brief arguments for the continuation of it. If anything, we ought to be more generous. and to give above and beyond the tithes, given how richly God has blessed us with a fuller revelation of his goodness and grace in Jesus Christ. And that's why many scholars that actually reject the continuation of the tithes say, yeah, no, I don't believe in the tithe, but we should actually be given more than the tithes. So, hey, if you want to say no tithes, we do 15 percent or 20 percent. That's that's fine. But the reality is, given what God has done in Jesus Christ, How much more so should we with glad hearts give back to God? Tithing is God's way of delivering us from the love of money and growing us in the reverential fear of Him. What you do with your wallet and what I do with mine is an indicator of our hearts. It tells us something about our hearts before God. And every time we give back to God, you know what we're saying? We're saying from you and through you and to you are all things to you be glory forever and ever. Amen. That's what we're saying. if we're really giving as we ought to be. We're declaring that we don't live for and trust in wealth, but that everything we have is from God and that we trust him to take care of our needs. And so we're free to give back to him gladly. The tithe is a gift from God designed to deliver us from worldliness. and to grow us in godliness. So when you come into God's house at God's appointed times, don't come empty handed. And I think we thought about this some when when we were in Deuteronomy chapter 12 about live stream. I think in light of this text, we need to consider, I'm still working through it in my own mind, so this is just me encouraging you to consider things like Venmo, or sending a check in the mail at appointed times throughout the month. giving here, the tithes, is happening in the context of the temple, which in the New Covenant is the gathered people of God. It's happening at God's appointed times, which in the New Covenant is the Lord's Day. And it's happening as an act of worship, as an act of worship. So Venmoing to the church on Wednesday, there might be nothing wrong with that, but I'm And certainly there's nothing wrong with it, but is it what God desires our giving to be? I think we need to wrestle through that. These kind of technologies and abilities to just have the bank send a check automatically, and this, that, and the other, these are new things. Just like livestream, we need to think critically about them. And I think this text calls us to that. So I just submit that to you to think about. Obviously in our bulletin, it's got our Venmo account. So I'm not condemning that. I'm just thinking and encouraging you to do the same. Here we see that we should expect to meet God in our giving, to meet him. to know joyous communion with Him in the act itself, so that when the offering is being taken, this isn't a time to just, you know, let the mind wander, think about what you're going to do next week, think about what mom's going to make for lunch. This is a time to meet with God, to feast before Him. God's present in the midst of His people, and He wants to bless. And we, out of glad hearts for His grace and kindness, we're giving to Him. It's worship. Worship. That's why we do it. That's why we take an offering in the worship service itself. So that's the first Sabbath's principle here. And there's a second related to it because we saw in verses 28 and 29 that every third year, the tithe was to be largely devoted to supporting the poor in Israel, which is the focus of the next section of our text, and brings us to the second principle, that the Sabbath is a time to joyously relieve your brother. Moses here talks about what is oftentimes called the sabbatical year. And in other parts of the Pentateuch, he fleshes out other details of the Sabbath year with regards to the land and other things. But here he has a particular focus, and that's why it's sometimes called the year of release. He gives the general command in verse one, and then he fleshes it out. in verses two through 18. Verse one, at the end of every seven years, you shall grant a release. A release from what? Well, financial debts, in verses two through 11, and indentured service, in verses 12 through 18. So every single year, Israel is to bring the tithes to the temple, and every seven years, they are to relieve their fellow Israelites from financial debts, even those who were forced to become servants in order to pay back those debts. This is to be carried out in the covenant community. It doesn't apply to non-Israelites. You see that in verse three. Seven times the word brother is used in this text. There's a solidarity among God's people. their family. And so at God's appointed time, poor and indebted brothers and sisters are to be relieved and liberated from their financial bondage. And the main reason given for why the Israelites should relieve their indebted brothers and sisters from poverty is the gracious relief of God in the exodus. of those released from servitude. God says in verse 14, you shall furnish him liberally out of your flock, out of your threshing floor and out of your wine press. So it's not just OK, you serve me for six years. That was great. Have a nice life. No, you release him and then you lavish him with blessing. You lavish him with grain and wine and and oil and and you leave him fat. Why? Why would God say this? It goes on, as the Lord your God has blessed you, you shall give to him, your brother. You shall remember that you were a slave in the land of Egypt and the Lord your God redeemed you. Therefore, I command you this today. God had relieved Israel of their burdens and had richly blessed them in the land of Canaan. And God is now calling the Israelites at His appointed time to reflect Him in their interactions with one another. That's largely what the seventh year was for. And it's largely what the seventh day is for. as we gather together. God has abundantly blessed us in Christ. He has delivered us from the infinite debts of our sin. We have been liberated from bondage to Satan and given everything we need for life and godliness. And from out of that abundance, in light of our exodus and in light of our rest in Christ, We seek to bless and relieve and restore and forgive and serve and love our fellow brothers and sisters. We are not sinfully preoccupied with ourselves, but by word and by deed, we seek to build up other covenants members so that they would taste and see that the Lord is good and rejoice in him. Galatians 6.10, so then as you have opportunity, let us do good to everyone, everyone, and especially to those who are of the household of faiths. We are family, family, household of faiths. And as we gather together on God's appointed day, we ought to treat one another as such. bearing one another's burdens, weeping with those who weep, overlooking faults and forgiving sins, meeting physical and emotional and spiritual needs. This is not something we do begrudgingly, but joyously. Joyously, as we serve from out of gratitude to Christ for his salvation. And that brings us to the final Sabbath's principle here. That third, the Sabbath is a time to joyously replay your story, to joyously replay your story. And in chapter 16, Moses preaches the three main annual feasts that the Israelites must keep in the land. All three of these feasts require traveling to the central sanctuary, just as the tithe does. And God appoints the particular times when these feasts are to be celebrated. In verses one through eight, Moses preaches the Passover, which now in the land will be combined with the feast of unleavened bread. So these were at one time, if you look back in Exodus, two separate feasts. Now Moses treats them together. And you'll notice as well that in the lands, the Passover is not to be celebrated in individual homes anymore. It's to be celebrated at the place that God chooses, the tabernacle temple. This feast takes place in the spring. That's when God appoints it. And it's a reenactment of the exodus. Kids, you'll remember that before the exodus happened, the Israelites, each family took a lamb, And they slaughtered the lamb. And the father of the household applied the blood of the lamb to the doorpost of their house. And when the angel of death came into Egypt, when he saw the blood on the doorframes of the house, what did the angel of death do? He passed over the house. But for the homes that didn't have the blood on the doorpost, The angel of death went in and killed the firstborn son. This tent plague is what finally led Pharaoh to let God's people go. And so Israel left in haste. They didn't have time to prepare some great feast. They left with unleavened bread. And now every year at God's appointed time, Israel is to replay this story. they're to replay this story at the temple. As the father of the house would slaughter the sacrifice, as the priests would sprinkle the blood, and as the meat and the bread were between their teeths, they were to remember God's mighty liberation, that God had delivered them. And then, In verses nine through 12, Moses preaches the Feast of Pentecost, which was celebrated 50 days later. Seven sevens counted inclusively. God instituted this feast to be celebrated in the early summer. So you have Passover in the spring, you have Pentecost in the early summer. And then in verses 13 through 17, there's a third feast called the Feast of Booths, which would have been celebrated in the fall. Both the Feast of Pentecost and the Feast of Booths require going to the temple. You see that in verses 11 and 15. Both of these feasts were to be carried out with great rejoicing. Verse 11 and verse 14. And both of these feasts were celebrations of the harvest. Pentecost giving thanks for the grain harvest and the Feast of Booths giving thanks for the harvest of the summer fruits. Fruits like dates and grapes and olives. Now without looking at them in any great detail, These feasts were celebrations of God's super abundant grace and provision in the land of Canaan. The Feast of Pentecost, God calls them to remember their bondage in Egypt. They're to remember that as as they celebrate God's lavish goodness, as he has brought forth a harvest, as he has provided for them with a land flowing with milk and honey. He has been so good to them. They're to look back and remember what they once were and then to celebrate what God has done. And the feast of booths. Very similar. It was a reenactment of their wilderness wanderings as they traveled about in tents. And during this week, they too would live in tents like structures to remember where they had been and to celebrate God's lavish, superabundant grace in Canaan. He had blessed them and they're joyously giving thanks to him. In other words, these feast days were God-ordained rhythms of remembrance. God-ordained rhythms of remembrance. They enabled Israel to remember where they had come from and all that God had done for them to bring them where they were now. It enabled them to remember the Passover lamb and the judgments that God had brought upon their enemies and the great salvation he had wrought for them. Now, we don't believe in New Covenant feast days, at least I don't. There are some, especially it's more common in Dutch Reformed traditions where they will celebrate New Covenant feast days, but In the greater simplicity of the New Covenant, there's only one holy day. Only one holy day where God calls us to gather together to corporately remember and to replay our story as the redeemed people of God. There's only one day. It's the Lord's day. The Christian Sabbaths. It's on this day that we solemnly and joyously gather to remember all that God has done for us and to rejoice, to rejoice in him. It's on this day that we look back and friends, we're about to come to the table. We do this at the table more than anywhere else. This is God's new covenant feast. What do we do at the table? We look back and we remember our bondage in Egypt. We remember where we once were dead in trespasses and sins, following the course of the world, following the prince of the power of the air, sons of disobedience, children of wrath. That's what we were. We think back upon Egypt. And then with hearts of joyful gladness as we eye our Savior, our Passover lamb, the one who was slain for our sins, we joyously worship God because we're not there anymore. He redeemed us and he brought us into a wide place and he with open arms lavished blessing upon blessing upon blessing upon blessing upon us. We don't deserve a single bit of it. He did it. That's what we do. As we gather, we replay the story over and over again, the gospel story of Christ's coming and dying and rising and ascending and our own story as that gospel was applied to our own hearts and continues to be applied by the gracious sovereign working of the spirits of God. That is what God has ordained this appointed time for. and these appointed means for, we call them means of grace, because they replay for us these gracious realities and they enable us to remember and to rejoice. Repaying your God, relieving your brother, replaying your story, Christ's story. These are some of the primary reasons that God has set apart the Sabbath day. And there is a broad overarching reason that unites all three of these reasons, and that is this. God is intent on blessing his people. You, me, He's intent on blessing us. That's the reason given for the tithes in chapter 14, verse 29, that the Lord your God may bless you in all the work of your hands that you do. That's the reason for the year of release given in chapter 15, verse 4, for the Lord will bless you. And in verse 18, so the Lord your God will bless you in all that you do. That's the reason given for the feasts and the voluntary offerings that were given at that time. In chapter 16, verse 10 and verse 15 and verse 17, gracious, undeserved blessing from God permeates the fourth commandment. God has configured our calendars to bless us. That's what he's done. And that's why, friends, we call the Sabbath a delight. It's not something we have to do. It's something we get to do. We get to do it. For God meets us on this day. He meets us in our giving. He meets us in our serving. He meets us in our remembering. He meets us in our rejoicing and our souls are filled and satisfied in Him. That is why the Lord's Day. ought to be our favorite day, the day of days. This is God's appointed day, the holy day, a day set apart from all other days where we get to gather together in the place where God's glory dwells and feast in his presence with one another. It's the Lord's day, your favorite day. Let's pray. Great God, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, you are such a large-hearted God, such a loving and kind and gracious God, a God who is so stupendously glorious, so high above all, and yet a God who comes down so low to meet with us, to commune with us, to bless us sinners though we be. Oh Lord, we thank you and we praise you for your appointed time and your appointed place and your appointed means of grace. We praise you, God, for your goodness in the Christian Sabbath. We praise you for your goodness in the public means of grace. And we pray, Lord, that week after week, you would see fit to meet us and bless us in our giving and in our receiving from you in these times. Lord, we ask that you would make us a church that treasures the Sabbath day, that we would wake up on Monday morning with longing for the next Lord's Day to come, because what an awesome privilege to get to meet in the place where your glory dwells, oh God, and to have you speak to us and satisfy our souls with your goodness, to be able to replay our story collectively and corporately, to remember all that you have done for us, oh God. We praise you this night. And Lord, we ask that you would continue with us now in our worship and help us to worship you with joyful and glad hearts in Christ. It's in his name that we pray these things. Amen.