Please take your Bibles and turn to the book of Isaiah. Isaiah chapter 43. We are working through a theology of rest. Some of you had Labor Day off. Not everyone. I understand that. But some of you had Labor Day off. And the great thing about having Labor Day off is you get a little bit of change of pace and schedule. And then there's only four days left in the week to make up everything that you have to get done. And so sometimes you end up, by the end of the week of Labor Day, even more exhausted and more tired. And so we started last week with the idea of rest and explained that there are all different types of rest. There's spiritual rest, emotional rest, mental rest, physical rest. And we talked about sleep and how it is a gift from God. It was something that God did in creation. He designed us to sleep. It was his idea. And for all of his earthly And so I saw these pictures that I thought would be helpful and maybe even a little humorous for us, so you can appreciate the gift of sleep that God has given to us. I don't know if you can see it clearly, but in this realm of work, we have a farmer who has fallen asleep on his cow, I believe that is. And so maybe that's you, for those of you who or in the farm business. Maybe this is what you saw this week in your household, the little ones, they go and they go and they go until they absolutely collapse. Or maybe this was the reality of it. You just, it's over. It's just done and over. Perhaps sleep is found in the craziest of places. Even if the President of the United States is speaking, you have the opportunity to sleep. This is on a subway cart. And if you've been to New York City or places like that, you see that people use that time of transit to sleep. This, however, probably is a little beyond. I'm not sure if he's coming back from that one. And then we have this here. the security guard has fallen asleep, and that is a picture, if you cannot tell. So there's a picture of a security guard, and then the actual security guard is asleep behind it. So that perhaps is a situation you've encountered. This is probably the funniest to me. You have a guy at work who has fallen asleep in his cubicle, and the whole office has come around for a picture, and you have no idea. But the back story of this picture is that this man, it's day two of work. So talk about a first impression. So on day two, it's that bad. He's done. And we have, you know, that's all for this morning. But, you know, we have this idea. from our God that we need sleep. He has designed us to sleep, and hopefully you're getting some of that as your body requires. But as we have tried to broaden the idea, last week we started with really the beginning of Scripture. God talks about taking time to rest. And we answered a couple questions last week, and I want to move to another question this week. But where we started was, in the beginning, in Genesis, in Genesis 1 and Genesis 2, we see that on the seventh day of creation, God rested. And he called that day a Sabbath. It was Saturday, and it was the seventh day of the week, but the general idea for Sabbath means to rest or to cease from working. That's the basic idea. And so we wanted to just give you an accurate picture from a historical perspective from the Bible of what really a Sabbath is. And we came to the conclusion that really answered the second question, how should we, in our day today, how should we view the Sabbath? And while Colossians tells us that there are no longer a Sabbath for the people of God in regards to a specific day where God has to be worshipped, that that was done away with when Christ came, But the idea of the Sabbath is a theme of Scripture and does continue throughout that God's people should find their rest in God. Jesus is our rest. He talked in Luke last week. He spoke specifically and said he was the Lord of the Sabbath. He was over it all. And so while it is not one of the 10 commandments that's repeated as far as keeping the actual day, it is something that I think when we understand the heart of God, we do and we should on a regular basis take time to find our rest and the stillness that our soul needs, we need to find that in our God. And that requires us to be intentional about stopping from our regular work, the regular responsibilities, and seeking God, and really finding our rest in Him. The song that was just sang, there was that line in there, from my worry, you are my stillness. God, you are my stillness. And when everything else is chaotic around us, our schedules, responsibilities, hardships, problems, we must find our rest in our God. He is our Sabbath. Now, many times we know that to be the case, but I want to move to the third question is why do we need the Sabbath? in general terms, a rest from our regular responsibilities, and we find it in our God. Why do we need this? Well, in 2017, Harvard Business Review published a summary of recent medical and psychological studies arguing that humans are designed for periods of rest silence, and deep thought. This is Harvard, okay? A compilation of all kinds of journals from a very secular perspective. Their conclusion is the same that God already told us, that every human is designed for periods of rest, silence, and deep thought. Now we understand our meditation and our strength comes from our relationship with God and his word, but from a secular perspective, even this makes sense to the most general of person. Taking time for silence, the article says, restores the nervous system and helps sustain energy and conditions our mind to be more adaptive and responsive to complex environments in which many of us live, work, and lead. So it is obvious from creation, And most people would come to the conclusion, we need rest. We need our God to calm our hearts and our souls and to bring stillness to us. If we don't rest, many times we'll eventually suffer physically, mentally, emotionally, and spiritually. And that can be a trickle effect. If there's not the physical rest that is needed, then it does affect the mental progress and the mental stability, which then affects the emotions and so on. and lack of rest can really escalate to larger issues, and then you end up in life where relationships are strained, and over a time in a person's spiritual life, their connection to God, their deepest need to find joy and rest can be diminished because of a crazy schedule. And so in answering the question why, there's been one particular resource that has been extremely helpful. I think probably some in this room have already read it. It's a great book from Kevin DeYoung called Crazy Busy. And in this book, he diagnoses many times why we need to rest. And he's very helpful in how he describes it. And so this morning, I wanna look at just the first diagnosis that he gives in this book. And many times, the chaos in our lives and the craziness in our lives really comes because of our own doing. because of the choices that we make on a regular basis. And I know some people are starting to think through their schedules and responsibilities, and you're starting to, you know, evaluate. And I hope you are. And I hope you will through our whole time this morning. Because there are general regulations and responsibilities, things that we have to do. We have to work. God has commanded us to do that. And so there are some things we can't get away from. But there are then other choices, sometimes in regards to work or in other areas of our lives, that's on us. And it's really our problem that is really causing our lives to be so chaotic. The chaos of life sometimes is partly because we are self-centered. Well, what do I mean by that? Well, the first diagnosis is here. You are beset with many manifestations of pride. Sometimes it is just our own pride. And when we have pride in our lives, then many other sins stem from our own pride. But it's our self-centeredness, our desire for us to be elevated. And pride can be very subtle. But I wanna just remind us on the outset here what the scripture tells us in Proverbs chapter six and verse 16 in the beginning of 17. It tells us there are six things which the Lord hates, yes, seven which are an abomination to him. And the very first one he mentions would be haughty eyes or a proud look, as some translations say. That's the very first thing. So we're going to talk about how pride in our own lives causes us many times to make choices that really busy our lives to the point where we are so busy, we can't find rest or we don't find rest. And we have to view it as God views it, that this is something, God hates all sin, but he has specifically said, I hate this. You know, as Christians, many times we have, and I think it's a wrong perspective, but we view sin lists like, okay, there's these really bad ones, and you know, I don't do this, and I don't do this, and I don't do this, and we compare, so we must be pretty good. We must be on the better side of life because we don't struggle in these areas like other people. But talk about a list, like God gives us one, and the first one on it is pride. and that's something that we all struggle with. That is why we need a Savior, and our Savior provides the rest, really, from our own souls, from our own flesh. He is our rest. Now, pride can show up in a number of different ways, and I love the way this book describes it, and we're just gonna walk through some of the manifestations of pride. But I would suggest the first one from this resource is people-pleasing. People-pleasing. Many times our lives are so busy and so crazy because we are doing too many things. And the reason why we're doing too many things many times is because we can't say no to anyone. Now, we're gonna talk through our time that that can be a good thing, but it also, it can be a virtue in the right perspective, but it actually quickly can be turned to sin. So we can have a problem with our own pride in the way that we wanna please everyone, we want everyone to like us, so we say yes because we want them to like us and we fear their disapproval. So we're afraid that if someone comes to us and they need something, or they're making a request, and you evaluate your life, and you really shouldn't say yes to it, but you do, Not because you feel like, oh, I just need to sacrifice myself and I just need to love beyond measure and I just need to keep going. No, actually the heart motivation is, I just want this person to like me and I'm afraid if I don't say yes, they're gonna be disappointed with me and I can't handle that. I'd rather just keep going and say yes and just get the job done than anyone not like me or disapprove of me. So sometimes it's our pride, our desire to be liked, that causes us to say yes to too many things, and our lives get crazier and crazier, and it's really motivated out of sin. There's a difference between being kind to someone and people-pleasing, and we need to understand that. Sometimes with this, people call like low self-esteem, which is as well a form of pride, where we have to have people's approval, so we say yes, and we busy ourselves, and we just yes, yes, yes, yes, because we have such a low view of self that we have to overcompensate that, but that's still pride, we're still self-centered. And when we talk about pure biblical love, The scripture is very clear from 1 Corinthians that love is not arrogant. So you may in your mind be thinking, oh, I say yes because I just want to love people and I just want to do more and more for them. But our hearts are deceitfully wicked. And sometimes the true motivation is not genuine love because love is not arrogant. Love is not self-centered. Love does not say yes so someone will like us more. That is not love. That is pride and it's self-centeredness, which is how God views it. And so we could be completely deceived. We could be saying, yes, and yes, and yes, under the guise of I just love people. And the reality, the reality is we may just be loving ourselves. And I know that's difficult to hear, but Galatians 5.13 says, So if you're going to say yes to something, I would encourage you to be in a regular practice of evaluating your motives as to why you're saying yes. And hopefully, If you look through all the responsibilities and all that God has for you and you can come to the conclusion, this is a way I truly can love and I can serve someone else. But if it's motivated as, I just want people to like me and I just hate disapproval. And so you're not going to be in a healthy place in your life if that's your motivation. Because it's not going to become right if it's motivated by sin. And many times we just have to really evaluate our hearts and be honest with ourselves. And sometimes it kind of, the next one goes along with that. I would say another manifestation, and similar to people pleasing, but a little bit different, would be we just like pats on the back. We just like when people see us, and it's different in people pleasing. It's not motivated out of fear of disapproval, but what it's actually motivated out of is a desire for glory. So we like when people see us serving, saying yes to things, doing things, and we glory in the response of that. That is another form of pride. It's similar to people pleasing, but it's motivated out of a little bit different desire. And so you'll take on an extra assignment at work because you want to be the hero around the office. You like it when your name is floated around the office as being the guy who like, you know, or the girl who takes care of it, who can get the job done. Like those pats on the back, that glory that you're receiving, is really the motivation why you keep saying yes to stuff. Or when you try to volunteer and you just have to volunteer for everything or be involved in everything because you like really feed and you get jazzed about how people view you. And it's really pride that's motivating your crazy busy life. Like your flesh desires that. And there are ways that this shows up in a family, in a church, and it has ramifications on all these things. You have someone in a family that, you know, wants the attention and wants the glory all the time, and that's why their servant When you don't get the glory and when you don't get noticed, then many times the response is there. If people know you're doing something for glory, that is so repulsive. No, I'm not going to congratulate you because that's what you want. In a church, this can surface, and it has ramifications on the church at large, and we can start to view people as, well, we know why they're doing that. If we're waiting for pats on the back, we are serving, we are busying our lives for the wrong motivation. When we wanna be noticed, and we want people to think how great we are, It's a problem. It's those haughty eyes that really, from the heart of God, he's repulsed by. So we have to be very careful. Scripture tells us, Proverbs 29, 23, a man's pride will bring him low, but a humble spirit will obtain honor. You want true honor and recognition? Go low. Follow the example of Christ. Don't wait for a pat on the back. Like, actually serve from the glory of God. But many times, we don't. Sometimes it's performance evaluation. That's the next thing here. Performance evaluation. What do I mean by this? Well, we tend to overrate our own ability. We tend to think more highly of ourselves than we ought to think. Most students think they're above average, right? And then you talk to the teacher and you know the reality of it. But you talk to a student and they probably, most people probably put themselves above average. Most employees think they're top tier. Really. So we may not say that out loud, but we kind of, you know, look around, compare ourselves and, you know, we kind of rate ourselves. And a lot of times we think we're a cut above. The problem is everyone's got the same problem. And that can't possibly be true. So sometimes there's just not a real good self-awareness of what we really are. But our pride really blinds us. And sometimes we get this impression, if we don't do this, no one will. And everything depends on me. Really? You're that indispensable. And we can start to think that, you know what, if I don't get involved, it's just not gonna flow right. You know what, that's pride. That's a performance evaluation. And your life is probably crazy busy because that's what's motivating you. You have a too high a view of yourself that you think the world is going to fall apart. If you're not included in the project or event, that it's not going to go very well. And how do you respond? This is a good way to evaluate if this is your struggle. If you're not part of something, Would you feel better if everything tanked in your absence? Seriously, when you're not included or when you're not involved in something, whether it be at work or church or in your family, in your heart of hearts, if you're really being honest with yourself, if you would rejoice if it struggled, then you have pride. And that's a real manifestation of a performance evaluation of yourself that God is not impressed with. And so we look at our lives, and we're busy, and we think, oh, we're doing this, and we're doing this, and we're doing this. But then when we actually peel back the layers, right? We get honest as God sees us, that like the I am level. We find ourselves frustrated, and we're running from here and there, and all kinds of things. And then we stop and we're really confronted with truth in our own heart. We start to realize, you know what? Actually, my life probably doesn't have to look like this. Like maybe there's more margin in my life than I'm willing to admit because I am consumed with pride. Galatians 6.3, for if anyone thinks he is something when he is nothing, he deceives himself. If you think this world or this office or this church or this family is dependent upon you or it's all going to fall apart, if you're tempted to think that and you relish in that idea and that's what motivates you, then you're deceived. you're really deceived because everyone is replaceable. And that's why regularly people are replaced. Everybody can be replaced. So we have to be very, very careful. Romans 12.3, it says, for through the grace given to me, I say to everyone among you not to think more highly of himself than he ought to think, but think so as to have sound judgment as God has allotted to each a measure of faith. Everything we have comes from God. And when pride clouds our thinking, We evaluate ourselves in the wrong way. We should be thinking we are nothing. God has given us every talent. God has given us every ability. God has given us every opportunity. It all comes from him. We are nothing. God use me. But it's when we start to think that we are actually something where the problems tend to show up. The next one I would say, again, some of these overlap and they're close, but proving myself, where it's selfish ambition. It's this ambition for my own glory because I have to prove to myself and I have to prove everybody that I'm somebody. Part of the curse is this idea of selfish ambition. And sometimes it shows up. If I just keep pushing myself, someday I'm going to be somebody. I'm finally going to matter. I'll actually arrive. And so we have this chase in our hearts of significance. Everyone wants to be significant. That's why, you know, it's common demand. You give, you know, some sort of opportunity for people to get on a TV camera or something, and what happens? Like, they're the biggest deal around. Right? You watch shows that pan the audiences, or even, you know, you go to an athletic event, and they have the big screens, and when someone gets the limelight, like, it's on. People long for significance. It's part of our flesh. It's part of our selfish ambition. we have this idea, and I realize it starts at a young age. So I want to just say, you may have experienced things when you were younger, whether it be through a parent or whether it be through a teacher, because words matter and they do have an effect. And if you as a young person went through a hardship in maybe one of those areas or a different area where you were beat down, and maybe it's from a spouse perspective, I realize a number of these things can show up. And so we can respond and we can counteract. And so, you know, I've talked with people who they will never be at rest until they prove their parents wrong. Like, that's their quest. I'm just going to keep doing it. I'm going to keep doing it. I'm going to show my dad I can actually amount to something. Like, that's the goal. And so life gets very, very crazy, whether it's in their family or in their work situation, because they're going to prove their selfish ambition. They need that acceptance. Maybe it's a high school coach. We've all heard story, well, maybe not everyone, but many of us have probably heard stories of high school coaches or a coach early on who's told an athlete, oh, you'll never make it, you'll never, and all that, that's all it took was like, but the switch just flipped. Okay, that's what I needed right there. I'm going to give my life to prove my middle school coach wrong. And I'm gonna work and I'm gonna be the athlete that he or she said I could never become. It's crazy how this shows up, but this is our heart. Maybe it was a teacher, maybe it is a spouse. I don't know who it is, but you must consider your heart. If you are trying to prove yourself that there is worth there, and you wanna prove to everyone in the world that you're somebody, that you are significant, and your life is crazy busy because of that pursuit, my friend, you're wrong. You'll never be able to get to a place where it's like, I've arrived. If you're familiar with the movie, Chariots of Fire, and towards the end in the race, one guy is asked, why do you push yourself? Why do you do all this? If you're familiar with the movie, he says, I have 10 seconds to prove that I'm somebody. I have 10 seconds to prove that I'm somebody. So a life given to sport, or a life given to work, or fill in the blank, Motivated simply by pride in the form of selfish ambition. Many times, our lives, it's our own fault. Look what James says, chapter three, 13 through 16. Who among you is wise in understanding? Let him show by his good behavior his deeds in the gentleness of wisdom. But if you have bitter jealousy and selfish ambition in your heart, Do not be arrogant and so lie against the truth. This wisdom is not that which comes down from above, but is earthly and natural and demonic. For where jealousy and selfish ambition exist, there is disorder and every evil thing. That's very interesting. Connected with jealousy and selfish ambition is chaos. And that's not the wisdom from above. Actually, that's deception from our own flesh. And so sometimes it's our heart that causes us to be in the place we are quickly as we just, I don't have time to work through all these in length. But possessions, many times it's our pursuit of stuff. Solomon said in Ecclesiastes, money is the answer to everything. We work so we can purchase our needs and our wants many times. And many times we stay busy because we want more stuff. And we just can't say no because we have this insatiable appetite. for more things. And sometimes it's the opposite. We're too proud to trust in the provision of God. And so you have this mindset, well, I just gotta keep going. It's on me. I gotta provide. I gotta do everything I can. Now, I understand from a biblical perspective, you do have responsibility. You do have to work. You do have to provide. But it's the mindset in that work that it is God that gives the increase. But many times when we're motivated out of our own pride, whether it's the desire for stuff or the desire to control, like this is all on me, I gotta do it, it's a bad place. 1 Timothy 6.17 says, instruct those who are rich in this present world not to be conceited. You understand the temptation is to be proud in our riches. but to fix their hope on the uncertainty of riches, but on God who richly supplies us with all things to enjoy. So if it's our pursuit of stuff, whether it's that lust of the eyes of just want more, more, more, or that lack of trust and dependence upon God when you don't know where the next thing's gonna come from, it's the same heart. And so we work, and we work, and we say yes, and we say yes, and we say yes, because we just got to have it. We got to have more. Our hope is to be in God who richly supplies for us. A few things here. Sometimes pity is what we like. You know, let's face it. People feel sorry for us when we're busy, right? So if things are crazy in your life and you've got a story to tell, many times we like the oohs and aahs that people give to us. So we kind of enjoy that, oh, this week is crazy for me. I got to go here and do this and do this and do this. And then the response is, oh, ooh. And we're like, yeah, that makes me feel good. So we actually like pity, as crazy as that is. We want people to feel sorry for us. That is pride. It can show up all over the place. Sometimes it's power. Sometimes we just want to stay in control of it all. And this could connect to other things like people pleasing and performance evaluation, but sometimes it's just you have to be in control of everything, and when you're not, you're not happy. Some of this is personality-based, and I know people are tendency, they have a propensity towards that. We have different personality types that people have identified. I get that, but But sometimes, you know, it can be in our own homes, moms, you wanna be in control of everything. And you're gonna have your fingers in every part of everybody's life because you just can't let go. And then what happens is your kids grow up and they leave the home and you don't know what to do because you've been involved in it all and you can't make that transition because it's been really motivated by power. And when there's no one to control anymore, sometimes it goes towards the husband, who probably was there before. And it can go both ways. I get it. I'm not trying to pick on anybody. But leaders in here, if you have people under you, Sometimes it's just sure power, and again, pride. I would say along with this is perfectionism. What do I mean by that? Where you just can't make a mistake. And so you will do it, and you will do it, and you will do it, and you will do it, and you will do it, because you cannot fail. where your propensity is to be more of a perfectionist. And I think everybody is in some areas of their life. There's no one who is a perfectionist in every area. Didn't done too much counseling. So sometimes you have people who like, you know, my closet, all my shirts are color-coordinated. I'll admit it. I'm a perfectionist in some areas of life, but then there's other areas like, who cares? And that's typically how people are. They have their little areas where they want it to be perfect. And then there's some people who have a propensity to want to be perfect in multiple areas. But where it's like, you know what, I just keep doing and I'll just keep doing it because I cannot make a mistake. I cannot fail. And again, that is pride. And I have to go here, even though I know I'll probably get some flack from it afterwards, but posting. Pride can be a problem behind social media. And many times what we find in social media is it's really our pride that motivates us. And we can spend a lot of time. And what we do, we can like scroll through and we can compare our lives to other people. And then we can make our little arrangements of what we're going to post. So like, you know, it's crazy to me that everybody on Facebook or Instagram, everyone looks picture perfect. Like, who posts the bad times? I don't see very much of it. I mean, sometimes you'll get a funny clip where parents, you know, they view their kids throwing a tantrum. But really, you're still thinking your kid's pretty great. They're just funny at this point. But so much of our social media is really done in our own name so that our own fame and our own glory is presented to the world. And this is a new thing for the last couple decades. It's a new temptation for pride. And for young people who they find their acceptance based on how many people will like their picture. And when those numbers dip, it's like, oh, they're discouraged. And they'll do all kinds of things to manipulate, to like, go like my picture. Like, what? You're telling me to go like your picture. We are such glory thieves. What if we were to ask ourselves, why are we posting this? Next time you post on social media, why are you posting this? What is it motivating? What is the motivation for you to put this? So what, you're 20, 100, few thousand followers? Why? Is it worth the time? and all the effort? Again, we're talking about a crazy, busy life, but we're bringing it back to where our soul can find rest. Where our soul can find rest. And I wanna just give you a couple questions to think about, basic questions. Am I trying to do good, or trying to make myself look good? And this could be in any decision that comes up for your time. Where you come to a decision, someone has asked me to do something, or you see an opportunity, you could volunteer, whatever it is, something that takes up your schedule. If we were to ask ourselves, am I trying to do good, or am I trying to look good? That may help us. No, it's actually my pride that's in play here. And I don't have to give in to it because I have a Savior. He's my rest. And so I'm going to say no to this with kindness and enjoy a little bit of margin in my life. Another question would be, am I serving me or am I serving them? Because a lot of our yeses When we break it all apart, we end up really serving ourselves and our own pride. And I would suggest part of the chaos of our lives really comes because of us. If you would look in Isaiah 43 as we close here, Isaiah 43 in verse 7. everyone who is called by my name, and whom I have created for my glory, whom I have formed, even whom I have made. I said this at the beginning of the calendar year when we started our theme, Life to the Glory of God. This is one of the clearest verses to help us understand the purpose of our life. God says very clearly, we have been created for his glory. So the whole theme of the year, life to the glory of God, it's so practical. And that's what I was hoping for this year, that the people could take the concept of the glory of God, which Romans 3 says, for all have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God. So every one of us, we fall short of God's glory and that comes in the form of sin. So we went away from our created purpose, which the scripture tells us we were created for the glory of God. We went away from it, but Jesus came and he provided a way for us to come back to our created purpose, and that is to live life for the glory of God. And it's this practical in our day-to-day choices that we fill up our lives with, that the long-term effect is we live crazy, busy lives, motivated many times out of pride. We're glory thieves. We are robbing God of his glory. We are not fulfilling the purpose by which he put us here on this earth. So every time we say yes, because we're trying to please people, or we think too highly of ourself in our performance evaluation, or we like the pity, or whatever it is, we're not living life to God's glory. We're actually robbing him of his glory. And so we should run back to Him. Run back to Him and find our rest in Him. I'd like you to look at one more passage, Ezekiel chapter 20, please. Ezekiel, just over a few books there in the Old Testament. Ezekiel chapter 20. Chapter 20, in verse 10, if you could start there. The Bible says, so I took them out of the land of Egypt and brought them into the wilderness. I gave them my statutes and informed them of my ordinances by which a man observes them, he will live. Also, I gave them my Sabbaths to be a sign between me and them that they might know that I am the Lord who sanctifies them. This text is fascinating to me. It's given almost a thousand years, a thousand years after the Exodus passage. So in Exodus 20, where we have the Ten Commandments, and then you go all the way back to the beginning of creation in Genesis 1 and 2, where we have the idea of Sabbath coming. Here we are a thousand years. Imagine, fast forwarding from 2018, a thousand years. The heart of God is displayed. And when he's recounting his history with the people, this is what he mentions. I brought them out and I gave them, and I love this, his Sabbaths. It was a sign. It was a gift. And then it continues, and this is the part where I want to end this morning, that they may know that I am the Lord who sanctifies them. Connected to Sabbath and rest is the idea of sanctification. So in this context, God gave them a day where they would communicate within the community and to the world that they were set apart, they were different. But I think from a broader perspective, from the heart of God, he gave them his Sabbaths so that they may know that he is the one who can change them, that he is the one who sanctifies them. It is his work. And then years later, Jesus came along, and what did he offer? Come unto me. all you who are weary, and I will give you rest. Lord willing, we'll look at Hebrews 4 in the days to come where we find out Jesus is our Sabbath. He can change you. You don't have to live in bondage anymore. Child of God, if you know Him, if Jesus is your Savior, if He is your Sabbath, You don't have to live a life of pleasing people or trying to prove yourself that you're somebody. He is your somebody. Our lives have died. We find our identity in Christ now. Our security is Him. So all the voices that you remember as a child or a teenager or maybe in a really bad marriage relationship, I don't know, but Jesus is your Sabbath. Find rest in Him. He is the one who sanctifies. We don't have to live crazy, busy lives. It robs us of our joy. Many times it hurts our hearts and it really just covers up the rot in our souls. Things really aren't so good in our hearts. But the busyness can cover it and make people think. All is well. Busyness does not mean you're a faithful Christian. It means you're busy like everybody else. We need the word to clarify Jesus sets us free from ourselves and our pride. And the wisdom of Scripture, it gives us that path. It's such a straight for the future. So we can all change. We can all be real honest with ourselves and make adjustments where adjustments are needed. I read this, what we need is the great physician to heal our over-scheduled souls. Wouldn't you love that? What we need is the great physician to heal our over-scheduled souls. And then the writer continues, if we could only make time for an appointment. If we could only make time for an appointment. There's a reason why it's called devotions. Devote yourself to God. I don't have time. If you only knew my schedule, I don't need to know your schedule. We all need the word of God. We all need to meet with our God. We all need to find rest in our God. Let's pray. God, would you, by your Spirit, take your word and accomplish your purposes? You're the all-knowing God. You know the hearts of every person in this room. You take everything to the I am level, from your perspective, and you know the whys behind what we do and why we do it. So God, do the appropriate surgery on our hearts that is needed. The temptation within our hearts and our own pride, there's a wide range. but you can take your spirit and point out the areas that we need to change. Jesus, thank you that there's hope of change. Thank you that you have given us the gospel and you have freed us from ourselves and so we can be restored to our original purpose and that is to live life for your glory and not ours. God, we need you desperately. I pray that we would see it moment by moment. renew us, refresh us, make us like you. In your name we pray, amen.