our Lord in a prayer of intercession, the pastoral prayer to pray for the needs of the kingdom of the Lord Jesus Christ, our own needs, and the common needs of the kingdom here on earth. Let us go before him then in prayer. Will you pray with me? Our Heavenly Father, we thank You, O Lord, that by Your grace and truth we could come to You as Your children, as adopted sons and daughters of the Most High God. We thank You that You have welcomed us into Your courts, that You have welcomed us into Your presence and even into Your family. And so we come, O Lord, asking. We pray, O Lord, for the civil government that You have installed over us. We pray, O Lord, for the courts the courts that seek to uphold justice in our land. We pray that you would give the courts discretion and wisdom as it relates to applying the laws of our own Constitution and the laws of the various states that they seek to apply. We pray, O Lord, that the laws of our country and the application of the laws of our country would be for good to the American people. We pray, O Lord, that unlawful laws that are often passed would not fall upon good times, but would be repealed. That there would be a correct correction. But we pray, O Lord, for the judges. The judges that are over us. The judges that produce sentences, acquittals, and other rulings. We pray, O Lord, that you'd give them wisdom to judge rightly. That we would be a nation not founded with corrupt judges, but just judges. that seek, O Lord, to bring about peace within our land, prosperity, but also, O Lord, we pray that our country would see, O Lord, justice. And that you'd use, O Lord, the justices that are appointed and elected before us to that very end. That we, O Lord, would call out injustice as we see it, but O Lord, also pray for justice, even here in our own state. We pray also, O Lord, for the IDAH ministry that seeks to train and prepare indigenous peoples to plant churches and to plant them well. We pray for Teaching Elder Will Hesterberg, who leads this ministry from our own Presbytery, who travels the world and in those travels he produces seminary classes to train men in order to plant churches in their own locations. We pray that you bless him in this endeavor, but that you also bless the men who are trained to be preachers. That their success and their efforts would lead to success. That churches would be actually planted. Congregations would meet to actually worship We pray, O Lord, that you use this ministry to produce faithful ministers to preach the Lord Jesus Christ to a dead and dying world. And we pray that you use this ministry to bring about that end, whether it be in India or Africa or in any other location. throughout our earth. We pray that you bless Idam in its broad endeavor to bring the gospel of Christ in a training manner for those who will sit under it. And bless those who sit under it, O Lord. And likewise, we pray, O Lord, for those who are lost. We thank those who are lost on the continent of Africa. We know, O Lord, that the gospel has had a great influence in parts of northern Africa. Some of the great historic church fathers being found there. But we pray, O Lord, that you would continue to work in Africa, not only in the northern part, but the middle part and the southern part as well. That the whole continent would hear the gospel truth. That you would raise up ministers and missionaries to go to the ends of the earth, to go to Africa, to share the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ. and that hardened hearts would be softened. Whether they be deceived by false religions, whether it be Islam. Whether it be own tribal religions or even prosperity gospels, religions that seek to wield Christ in an ungodly end, we pray, O Lord, that you would soften the hearts of those on that continent. And that you, O Lord, would raise up faithful ministers and missionaries to go there even now. That we would offer ourselves, O Lord, that they might hear and receive the gospel of truth. And that Africa would continue to grow as an epicenter of the Christian faith. We pray, O Lord, also for our own ministry. We think of our men's ministry as it will be relaunching in a couple weeks in early September. We pray, O Lord, that you would reinvigorate our men. That you would train our men, O Lord, even today. You prepare them to be leaders in their own homes, leading their families to reading the scriptures, to praying the scriptures, to singing the scriptures. We pray, O Lord, that you would continue to nurture the men of this congregation, and that in that nurturing, they would be bold proclaimers of the truth, leading their families well, not to themselves, but to the Lord Jesus Christ. We pray, O Lord, that our men's ministry would help facilitate that end, but we pray even broader than that. That we, O Lord, would have men that are strong in the truth, courageous on the gospel, and that seek to lead their families likewise. We pray also, O Lord, for needs. We think of needs within our broader community. We have heard about the death of a teenage girl within our own community here in Troy, and we lift up the Carr family, who is mourning the death of their own daughter, who had a tragic accident in a car wreck. We pray, O Lord, that your abounding love and grace would shower upon the Carr family even today. And even as this community, even as this family mourns, we pray, O Lord, that the gospel of truth would be more real today than perhaps ever before. That they would see the grace of the church of the Lord Jesus Christ now. And that they would find comfort in Christ as this community seeks to love and care for this family. As they mourn, O Lord, send your spirit to them that they, O Lord, might find solace and retreat even today. We pray also, Lord, for our congregational meeting that will happen immediately after the worship service here today. O Lord, we pray for your will, for your wisdom, and for your discernment. O Lord, we pray for a permanent place to worship, a long desire of our congregation. We pray, O Lord, that you'd bring that to reality by whatever means necessary. O Lord, give us hope. Do not allow us to decline, to descend into hopelessness. But oh Lord, reinvigorate us. Give us joy. Remind us that even as we worship here today, that we do what the church has been called to do for ages past, and that is to worship the true and living God. Oh Lord, be with the preaching of the word today and prepare our hearts and minds to receive it. We pray these things in Jesus' name, amen. I invite you to turn with me to the gospel of Luke. Turn to Luke with me. We are in Luke chapter 14. We'll be taking a small section in the first part of that chapter. We have heard that Jesus has had his last visit to the synagogues. And now we perhaps have Jesus' last visit to a Pharisee's house. And this is not just any Pharisee, but a leader of the Pharisees. And we see that Jesus in this visit is challenged by the leaders by a man that stands before him in need. They challenge him. They throw down the gauntlet. They are ready. They are ready to judge. And so will you stand in that idea of judgment as the Lord speaks these words to us in Luke chapter 14. Luke 14, 1. One Sabbath, when he went to die at the house of a ruler of the Pharisees, they were watching him carefully. And behold, there was a man before him who had dropped sea. And Jesus responded to the lawyers and the Pharisees saying, is it lawful to heal on the Sabbath or not? But they remained silent. Then he took him and healed him and sent him away. And he said to them, which of you having a son or an ox that has fallen into the well on the Sabbath day will not immediately pull him out? And they could not reply to these things. The grass withers and the flower fades, but the word of our Lord stands forever. You may be seated. I was recently reading a survey, I sometimes enjoy reading surveys, and I was recently reading a survey, and the survey was about, what do you think of these people? I'm not going to give the names because I really don't want to get into what you think of these people. But they collected, what is the first thought that you have in your mind when we say this name? And what did they do with all those results? They created a word cloud. A word cloud is the larger the word, the more often the occurrence. And I remember being struck by this survey by seeing the largest words on the graph. Criminal. Liar. Old. Incompetent. Evil. Fake. That is what the American population thought of these individuals. I won't name them. Perhaps I don't even need to. But you might wonder and speculate all day. But what that survey led me to think is perhaps, what would people think of me in a similar circumstance? What would be the first words that come to your mind when you think of Pastor Scott? Don't say them. I don't particularly want to know if they're evil. Only if they're good. But perhaps we could ask ourselves that question about our own hearts and our own lives. What would people think about you? What would be the largest word in the word cloud on you? Would it be loving? Would it be merciful? Would it be compassionate? Or would you share the liabilities of those in the survey? Would you be evil, incompetent, fake? What would be the first word to describe You. Jesus shows us today what a genuine faith looks like. When Jesus shares the gospel, he desires that his people learn the gospel, embrace the gospel, and then follow after him. Jesus wants our hearts to match our words. And in our hearts matching our words, maybe that is where people will find and learn to define us. What are the desires of the people of God in our own congregation? Would people think of us as a loving people? Would people think of you as merciful, as compassionate? What are the first words that would come to describe you? Well, perhaps if we're honest, they might be words like self-interested. They might be concerned with their own consumerism. What are the words that would define you here? Maybe they are the same sins of the Pharisees in this passage. Heartless. in the midst of an opportunity to do something good, we sometimes can be heartless. What is our attitude? What describes who we are in the day in and the day out? Are we like Jesus in this passage or are we like the Pharisee that is before him? Who are you and how are you described? Well, perhaps Jesus shows us how we ought to aspire to be described. And he desires that we be described in this way. That we be a people that shows God's love by our compassion and mercy. That we would be a people that show God's love by our compassion and mercy. As the passage opens, we see that it opens that Jesus is a man that boldly seeks others. And he calls us to be a people that boldly seek others. In order to show God's love, we must seek others to show God's love, right? We have to seek. We have to seek. We see this in verse 1 and 2. One Sabbath, when he went to dine at the house of a ruler, the Pharisees, they were watching him carefully. And behold, there was a man before him who had dropped sea. Jesus seems to always be seeking. We saw in a passage a few weeks ago when Jesus was in the synagogue, as everyone ignored the woman who had the hunched back, Jesus saw. He saw it out. And so are Christians. If you are to love others with God's love, you have to seek others out. We have to be a seeking people. Even in the midst of Jesus seeking here, it seems to not be to his own advantage. Sometimes when we seek others, it's not to our own advantage. Jesus goes to the house of a ruler of the Pharisees, and what is the climate that he walks into? They are watching him carefully. They are watching him carefully. It is not a friendly environment. They have their eyes on him. They are watching his every little move. Psalm 37 perhaps summarizes what is going on here. The wicked lie in wait for the righteous, intent on putting them, him, to death. That's what's happening in this story. The Pharisees, the leader of the Pharisees, along with his lawyers and underlings, invite Jesus in. Jesus obliges, he seeks, and despite the circumstance, he goes in anyway. And they carefully watch him. And they present him a man in need. You see, there's a man there that doesn't have the best conditions. He has dropsy and they have planted him. He's a plant. They are using this man in order to catch Jesus. Why? Because they know it's the Sabbath and they have an opportunity to get him. They know what he's done. He's already healed at least two to three times before on the Sabbath. We're gonna get him this time as a leader. A ruler of the Pharisees prepares his death. Who was a ruler of the Pharisees? It was probably a member of the Sanhedrin. Someone who was more than your run-of-the-mill Pharisee. He was either a ruler of the local Sanhedrin. These Sanhedrins would spread out a little bit, the lower Sanhedrin. Or maybe even the one in Jerusalem, the higher Sanhedrin. But we know that this was a man of influence. Jesus goes before a man of influence, confident in seeking out others. Even as this man prepares for him to die, they are watching him. It reminds me of when I was seeking to be ordained as a pastor in the PCA in Alabama some years ago. And you'd have to go, you'd have to do written exams, then you'd have to do private committee exams, then you'd do floor exams. And what I noted on those experiences is that all eyes are on you. And those committee meetings, those were the worst. Floor exams were honestly the best. It was those committee meetings, two and a half hour meetings. where they would try to push you to the end of your knowledge. It wasn't whether you'd answer a question wrong, it was when. And perhaps you think of putting yourself out of your misery by just answering a question wrong just to move on. But they would just keep pressing and pressing and pressing. And what were they doing? They were watching. They were watching, where will Scott make an error? And Scott did make an error. He made many errors. Those meetings are so long and they were carefully watched. Carefully watched. That was the only way the committee could go before the Presbyterian and say, yes, this man is ready. Because we've carefully watched him. We've carefully watched him. We've examined him. In the negative sense, that's what the Pharisees are doing here. They are carefully watching. And they put before Jesus this man of dropsy. This is the test. Will Jesus fail? What was dropsy? Perhaps a word that we don't use too often. I don't say, well, it looks like you have a case of the dropsy. But dropsy was an inflammation of body parts. It was liquid being filled in various body parts. It was bloating. It could be caused by all sorts of things, whether it be organ failure, it could be caused by pregnancy, perhaps the most common that we see it today. It could be caused by infections or other related things because of our consumption, what we eat. But in the ancient world, dropsy, and why it's a good word here, It was connected to our appetites. It was never a good thing to have dropsy in the ancient world. It meant that you had appetites that you could not fulfill. It was the insatiable desire. It was associated with gluttony, greed, and lust. This was a man, in other words, that wasn't like the other people that Jesus has healed. Oh yes, the poor person with the hunched over back. They didn't do really anything to cause that, but without a doubt, this man has caused his condition. He is in himself to the point of being bloated. And he's paying for it. His greed, his lust, his gluttony are all on his face as he uncomfortably sits there. He was the perfect specimen for the Pharisees. Why? Because this man did not deserve healing. He caused his own situation. He's perfect. He's perfect. Augustine described this illness like this. There is gold and there is silver, they are good. Not such as they can make one good, but where they may doest good. But thou who has gold and silver and continues to desire more gold and silver. He both has and desirous to have. Thou art all at once full, and yet thirsty. When men are in dropsy, as Augustine says, they are full of water, yet they thirst. That is this man's condition. This is not a man on the side of the road that you'd likely stop quickly for. But this is the man that is before Jesus today. It is an alluring question for these Pharisees. Will Jesus even heal this man? A man who deserves the situation that he is in. By his own volition, he has ruined his life. Will Jesus heal him? The answer is yes. Yes. Jesus seeks out. Perhaps you have your own complex for how you seek people out. You wanna seek people out, maybe those, you're a person that helps those who helps themselves. Maybe that's your approach. I'll help you, but you gotta show me. You gotta show me the proof that you're willing to help yourself. Perhaps we wanna limit those who we seek, but we see that there's no such limitation in the person of Jesus Christ himself. He does not limit. Even by one who has indulged themselves to the point of sickness and death, he has come to save. He stands to help even the deplorables. Jesus seeks the uncle who seems to always be drunk at family party. Jesus seeks the cousin who's pregnant at 16. He seeks the nephews who's addicted to drugs. He seeks the glutton who has eaten himself and eaten his misery away. He seeks the teenager who doomscrolls on social media. He seeks those who are consumed by their own appetites. We all have appetites. Some we control better than others, but we all have them. And thus Paul would say, and such were some of you. Whether you've had physical dropsy, maybe not. whether it be physical or spiritual, the Lord has come to you. He sought. He sought you. He sought you perhaps like I seek after I watch a good movie. After I watch a good movie, my next best friend is Google. I want to know the lore. I want to know the backstory. I want to know where the characters came and where they will go in a future installment. I go deep down the rabbit hole of trying to find answers. I seek out without any limitation. I seek and I seek and I seek and I get answers because the internet is full of answers. It limited answers. I seek without discretion, without prejudice. I just seek until I'm satisfied. We are to be that way when we are seeking others to show the love of God. We seek. We seek despite the circumstance. Jesus doesn't care about the circumstance that is around him. Even though he himself is put in grave danger by seeking out, he still seeks. And he seeks without reservation. We must be a people that seek. If you're to show the love of God adequately, you must seek. But I know it's tempting, is it not, to just be quiet. It's tempting for me to go home, even on the Lord's Day, and just be quiet. To do nothing, to not see any compassion, to show no mercy, to show no love, to live a quiet life on my quiet little lot. the Lord calls us to more. He wants us to be a people that seek. Seek by the power of Christ. Show God's love by your compassion and mercy. We first see this that we are to be a people that seek others. We are to boldly seek others without reservation. In the midst of danger, we are to seek others. The second thing I want you to see though as the passage builds is that we are to boldly show mercy. We've perhaps scratched the surface a little bit already, but we are to boldly show mercy. That is what Jesus does in this passage with the person with dropsy. Verse 3, and Jesus responded to the lawyers and Pharisees saying, is it lawful to heal on the Sabbath or not? They remained silent. And they took him, then he took them, healed him, and set him away. In order to understand what the merciful Christ is doing here, we must be able to distinguish what mercy is. What is mercy? We have all this Christian language and we sometimes don't define it well. But mercy is not getting the judgment that you deserve. This man did not deserve to be healed. He deserved judgment. It's merciful for the Lord to withhold that judgment. But we also, in this passage, we see the grace of God. What is grace? It is being favored despite your works. Perhaps an example is helpful. My son might desire to take out the garbage, and as he's taking out the garbage, he's dragging it on the ground. And as you'd expect, in our gravel, as he's dragging it, the bag tears open and there is just garbage everywhere. If I were merciful that day, which I likely would not be, I would say, son, don't worry about it. Go play. I'm going to clean this up. That is merciful. Why is it merciful? Because he's not getting the judgment he deserves. What's the judgment he deserves? To pick up the garbage. hand by hand, piece by piece, smelly, disgusting garbage and throw it away. It's merciful for me not to give him that judgment. It's gracious then to say, hey man, hey bud, after I'm done cleaning up this garbage, I'm gonna take you out for ice cream for taking out the garbage. Who would do that? That's grace. He doesn't deserve the ice cream. He's not worked it right in anything, he's failed. But that is the distinction between mercy and grace. We see both mercy and grace here. Jesus is merciful to this man and he is gracious. He doesn't give him the judgment he deserves and he intervenes and shows grace itself by healing him. This is not the first time, though, when you look at the text, Jesus asks the Pharisees a question. Yes, Jesus is gracious and merciful, but before he even is gracious and merciful, he turns to the Pharisees, the one that are setting him up, the ruse. What does he ask them? Is it lawful to heal on the Sabbath? or not. Jesus knows why he has been invited here on this sabbat. He knows. He knows he's being set up, and in that set up, he offers a question to them himself. And does he get an answer? No. They remain silent. It's interesting. Usually the Pharisees are yelling at Jesus, they're yelling at someone else, but here they yell at no one. In this occurrence, you might say, well, they must be finally shaping up. But I don't think that's actually the case. It's actually al contraire. They sit there with a smirk. Yes. Go ahead. Try what you desire to try. We want you. We have this trap. It's ready to spring. Go on, Jesus. We're not going to interrupt you. We're not going to tell you no. We're not going to tell you what is right. Go. Land in our trap. You must remember the legalism of the Pharisees when it came to the Sabbath. Their approach to the Sabbath was of minor details. I was talking with a friend yesterday evening about his trip to Israel, and on the Sabbath day when you're in an elevator going up to your room, you can't press any of the buttons on the elevator. And so on the Sabbath, every Sabbath, every elevator is designed to go floor to floor. It visits every floor. So all you as a human being has to do is step on the elevator and painstakingly wait to ascend up the building. And if you try to touch one of those buttons, oh, a nice kind Jewish lady will reach out and slap you. How dare you violate the Sabbath? on this evening. That is the type of work that Jesus is dealing with. It's a type of Sabbath breaking where it says, on the Sabbath you can put your sandal on, but you cannot tie it with two hands. You can only tie it with one hand. It's a type of Sabbath that says you can't push a button. It's a type of Sabbath that says you can't feed your kids from your own hand. It's micromanaged Sabbatarianism. That's what Jesus is dealing with. He's trying to loosen them. He's trying to loosen them from their understanding. He's trying to say, you have got it all wrong. I'm not worried about the micro details. I don't want to get into my view of the Sabbath, but I'm not going to micromanage you. I'm not going to say, oh man, should have seen that family after church. They were filling up that tire that blew out on the side of the road. How dare they? How dare they run an air compressor on the Christian Sabbath? Oh no, I'm not going there today. It's inappropriate. Jesus corrects that sort of thinking on the Sabbath, but the Sabbath principle remains. Jesus says you've got the day right. You understand that is a day set aside. It is different than the others. It is a day of worship. It is a day of rest. But Jesus is also saying it is a day of mercy, compassion, and grace. Do not be so strict on your Sundays where you do not show love, compassion, mercy, and grace to people. Do not use the Lord as your cop-out. No. Jesus goes on the offensive. They don't answer, and he's fine with them not answering, because he'll show them what he can do. And what does he do? Perhaps in such short phrase, he touches, he heals, and the man goes away. We don't know what the man did after the healing. But what we do know is that he no longer had dropsy. His appetites, who once raged out of control, no longer are out of control. Things have returned to homeostasis. His desires are corrected. His situation is corrected. That is the sort of promised life that God offers to his people. Restoration. We don't know this man's response because that's not the main point of what Jesus is trying to communicate. But what he is trying to communicate is that he is a merciful and gracious Christ. And we are to be merciful, gracious people. While you're on your way home from worship, Sunday school, congregational meeting, as you're on your way home, you don't say, I can't help you. I know you're in the ditch. I cannot help you. Why? Because it's the Sabbath. It's Sunday. It's all about me. Self-interest, as we talked about in the early parts of the opening of this sermon. The Sabbath is not about your own self-interests. It's about resting in the Lord, enjoying Him, worshiping Him, and offering to others. It is a gracious, compassionate day. J.C. Ryle helpfully gives us this corrective. He says, the Sabbath was made for man. for his benefit, not for his own injury, but for his advantage, not for his hurt. The interpretation of God's law respecting the Sabbath was never intended to be strained so far as to interfere with our charity, our kindness, and the real wants of our human nature. It's a good reminder that Jesus comes to heal, dropsy, even on the Sabbath. And you should be a people that seek to show mercy and compassion on the Lord's Day. It's not a one-for-one, don't mishear me, but in applying the Sabbath principle on the Lord's Day, we continue that trend. To show mercy, to show love, to show grace. and to worship and to spiritually rest in Him. You too need to be touched though. You need to be touched by Jesus. Because we all have appetites. We all have desires. Many of them even this morning or yesterday night that overwhelmed you. You need to be touched by Jesus. There's a good news here that your situation is not so unique that you are unsavable. What is so encouraging about this passage when dealing with dropsy is this is a condition that this man has brought himself in. And Jesus is powerful to save even him. And thus, he is powerful enough to save even you. And so today you can find His mercy and His grace as He reaches out to touch you on this day. And then you can go out showing that same mercy and grace to others. Show God's love by your compassion and mercy. We are to boldly seek others. We are to boldly show mercy and grace. And lastly, we are to boldly defend compassion. We are to be the trendsetters of what compassion is in any society and we see Jesus boldly defend compassion in the last part of this passage. In verse 5, and he said to them, which of you, having a son or an ox that has fallen into a well on a Sabbath, will not immediately pull him out? And as they concluded, they do not reply to these things. After Jesus, Jesus poses them a question on the Sabbath. They remain silent because they want to spring the trap. And then Jesus goes on the offensive again with another question on the Sabbath. Which of you having a son or an ox that has fallen into the well on the Sabbath will not immediately help him out? Jesus is trying to draw us not back to the Jewish Mishnah where we got the button-pressing Sabbath laws, but back to Exodus itself. That's why Jesus references the son and the ox. Exodus 20 says, Jesus is beckoning them. He is trying to give them a statement that everyone in that room would agree with. I mean, who wouldn't help your son? If your son is injured on the Sabbath day, you wouldn't say, we will worry about your broken arm tomorrow. You would not do that. The same is with an animal. Jesus is posing a question that everyone in that room would agree with, and they would have to begrudgingly agree with. But notice the self-interest rises again. Having a son, your son, your ox. It's so easy to be compassionate towards your things, your people, your clan, your tribe. Everyone would agree to be kind and compassionate, even on the Lord's day, to your things and your people. The Pharisees, while they would do it for their own, they would judge others harshly. They would help their own son with a broken arm in a well, but they would judge as they passed on another, saying, how dare they violate the Sabbath of the Lord. And so what does Jesus do? He defends compassion. He defends compassion. He asks them another provocative question. He doesn't even have to answer it. His question itself is a defense of his compassion towards those who are outsiders. He wanted to reveal their own vulnerability, that you have a double standard, that you will help your own, but you will not help others. Jesus is saying, how you apply the Sabbath in your own home, in your own private home, when no one is looking, is how you should apply it elsewhere, outside. And he does so by healing this man who is a son of Abraham, who is one in the clan. And he shows compassion to him and says, you must be as compassionate as you are with your own. Be compassionate with others. The Pharisees have no reply again. Don't view this as acquiescence, where they're like, okay, he's finally getting us. He's finally got it right. Don't take their silence as affirmation. You might do that in your own homes, with your own families, with your own spouses. Ah, they haven't said anything. That must mean they agree. But perhaps you know better than that. Their silence is a fuming defeat. They had a smirk, ready for a trap, and in the simple questions and the simple actions of Jesus, they see their own defeat. They don't have an answer. Because on the one hand, if they say, no, you are not to be compassionate to your own families, that indicts them. That indicts them of their own failings. But on the other hand, if they carve out any sort of latitude, They would have forsaken their own teachings. They were stuck between a rock and a hard place, and the best thing they can do is have a sour no-reply in anger. Jesus beat them at their own game. It is a good reminder for us to be a compassionate people. We are to be compassionate. We are to defend compassion. The church should not be stingy with our resources, with her time, with her love, choosing to love some but not others. We are to be a compassionate people. We are to show compassion as often as we can. And we show that compassion perhaps best or most visibly on the Lord's day. That is perhaps the last thing I want to leave you with in application. The Lord's Day is not merely about your own self-interests, rests. It's not merely about your own worship, though all those things are really good. Don't you hear that I'm saying pastor says we shouldn't worship? But it is a day of compassion. is a day that is set apart for compassion because you've been given the freedom to rest and the freedom to worship, the freedom from work. It is a day that you have freedom to show compassion. Nancy Gibbs in a Times magazine some years ago, right, wrote this, that we can be spending on working, playing, shopping, and all sorts of other things. In other words, Gibbs concludes, Sunday has become a day for doing everything that we ourselves want to do, and not a day of doing anything that God wants, or what other people need. In other words, there is the temptation to view the day that you come to worship as your day. but it is not your day, it's the Lord's day. And how, perhaps what we can learn from this little Time Magazine column is that yes, we have freedom to rest and worship in the Lord, but we also have freedom to show and help others in need, to show God's love, to show mercy, to show compassion. to help others in need. We are to be a compassionate people. Maybe, just maybe, today instead of spending your afternoon on the links or doing any sort of other thing that you fill your Sunday afternoons with, perhaps today could be a day of compassion. Maybe it needs to be rewired in your mind that Sunday afternoon is not about me, but about God. How can I use my time to honor God? By showing compassion, by showing love. Show God's love by your compassion. Start today. We live in a consumeristic culture. We want to consume, right? We love to consume. Americans tend to embody the people that are always full, yet always thirsty. that describes each and every one of us, because we are so bound to our consumeristic tendencies and natures. But maybe on this day, as a professed Christian, you could set aside those desires, just one day in seven, to be satisfied in the Lord. To not have spiritual dropsy, but to offer yourself in service to Him, making the Lord's day not about you, yourself, and I, but about Him. Today is his day. How can you consume less that others might consume more of God? That is perhaps our encouragement. But let's think back in the beginning. How do people describe you today? Do they describe you as a person that defends compassion? Are you described as a person that shows mercy, grace, and love? Are you a person that boldly seeks others? Do people see that in you? Why not? Today, perhaps more than most Sundays, I encourage you to that end. To seek that life. Not by your own strength, but through the example, power, and work of Jesus through his spirit. Today, seek him. Seek him that you may be defined in these godly manners. Let us close in prayer. Our Heavenly Father, we pray, O Lord, that we would be a people that seek, as you are a God that seeks. That we would be a people that show love, as you are a God that shows love. That we would be a people of mercy, grace, because you are a God of mercy and grace. And that we would be a people that defend compassion, because you, O Lord, are the greatest defender of compassion. May on this day, O Lord, as we rest in you, be a people characterized by these godly traits. As in Jesus' holy name we pray, amen.