You can have all of me
Every single little piece
You can have it all
Welcome to Hub City Vineyard.
To get connected or to give online,
go to hcv.church or give.htv.church.
If at any point during this message
you feel called to make a change in your life,
text change me to 970-00.
Thank you and enjoy the message.
Hey, good morning everyone.
So good to see you.
Man, I tell you it felt so good just to stand outside
and allow the sun to sit on your face.
Welcome to HCV, if you're joining us from home.
Thank you for welcoming us into your space.
Tomorrow is Memorial Day
and of course it's the start of summer.
Right, a time to get outside.
Yeah, connect with others.
The warm months of our calendar year.
It's also the season I look forward to most here at HCV
because June means Summer Jams.
That's right, next week
Summer Jams kicks off with the Goo Goo Dolls.
So spread the word, invite your friends.
Iris is the song of the week
and it's a great opportunity to just plug people
into our community of faith.
Also to remind you that next Sunday
Jess and I will be sharing about our time in Kenya
4 o'clock right here in the main auditorium.
I want to encourage you to be a part of that
because I tell you that trip was as much for you
as it was for us
and we just are believing and have a new vision
that God wants us to impact
not just the tri-state area
but the world.
So this morning we'll be wrapping up our May series
Move Your Body, Change Your Life
a month of discussing how God desires
that we prioritize our physical health
and I just want to say this has been a great series thus far.
Would you agree with that or not?
Okay, one way that I know that it's a great series
is because I see you doing the stuff, right?
I see you changing the way you eat, exercising
actually putting into practice
what I spend hours during the week preparing
and challenging you to do.
So Rudy kicked it off by discussing the importance
of physical health and why we should make it a priority.
In week two, I challenge you to be active
and to start moving your body every day.
Last Sunday we looked at the food
that we put into our bodies discussing
the positive and negative effects of real versus fake food.
How many of you by show of hands
changed one thing about what you eat this past week?
Alright, pretty good, about 20% of you, alright.
The other 80, keep eating your fake food, alright.
Go for it.
It's all good.
So if you missed any of those talks,
I want to encourage you to go to our YouTube channel,
subscribe and listen in because they are all there.
So the year was 1879.
Thomas Edison and Joseph Swan invented the light bulb
forever changing the sleep patterns of humanity.
Before the light bulb, people typically slept
more than 10 hours per night.
But over the next century, the average decreased
to where it was below eight hours.
And it's even less if you look at today.
The shift is an example of how artificial light, light bulbs,
can affect the body's circadian rhythm or the internal clock.
See, before the light bulb, the people's sleep patterns
were largely dictated by natural light,
by the sun rising and the sun setting,
with people napping during the day and sleeping at night.
In the evenings, they would be getting so much sleep
that quite often they would wake up in the middle of the night
to read, to hang out and chat, or to have sex, right?
The light bulb then changed all that
and allowed for later bedtimes,
which meant people no longer woke up in the middle of the night
with their two sleep periods,
but it would become one uninterrupted eight-hour stretch,
which we know is not true.
See, Edison believed that sleep was a sign of laziness,
and his ideas, combined with the Industrial Revolution,
led to a culture that prioritizes work over sleep.
Edison saw no problem as he watched the natural rhythms of sleep
irrevocably changed,
and for a reason that was never quite clear,
Edison thought that sleep was actually bad for you.
He said this,
the person who sleeps eight or ten hours a night
is never fully asleep and never fully awoke.
He wrote,
he has or she has only different degrees of dose through 24 hours.
Extra sleep made a person unhealthy and inefficient.
Is this true?
No, absolutely not.
Studies have linked depression, cardiovascular disease,
diabetes, obesity, and even cancer
to over exposure of light at night.
Researchers know this,
in part from study in nurses who have spent years working the graveyard shift.
One study of 120,000 nurses,
that's a lot of people,
found that those who worked night shift were most likely to develop breast cancer.
Another survey, or excuse me, study,
found that nurses who worked at least three night shifts a month
for 15 years straight
had a 35% greater chance of developing colon cancer.
And see friends, it's not just cancer.
Just last week, straight from the headlines,
the New York Times reported on Thursday night
a 25-year-old London trader named Aidan Dumick died of a heart attack
while at an industry event.
Dumick, who was playing a game of soccer just before he died,
was reportedly an active amateur hockey player
and had been working for the bank since 2021.
Dumick's death came just a few weeks after a 35-year-old New York investment banker,
Leo Loukianis, died of acute coronary artery thrombosis.
He had been looking to leave his 100-hour-a-week job.
Loukianis, a former Green Beret, had worked at the bank's Manhattan headquarters.
He had been working on a $2 billion merger of two small banks when he died.
Now think about this.
This means that this man had been working nearly two and a half,
40-hour work weeks jammed into one.
Two log 100 hours of work into one week requires working nearly 16 hours every single day for seven days a week.
Now here's the crazy thing.
This has become a common occurrence in China
and many of the Asian communities to the point that they now have given a name for this type of death.
The word is Gua Lao Xi, and it means working yourself to death.
This term has been created recently to describe something so new
that their languages didn't even have a word for it.
This has become an increasingly common phenomenon in China
where people are dropping dead on their jobs
as a result of working insane hours under intense pressure with little to no rest.
So let me repeat that one more time.
Working insane hours under intense pressure with little to no rest.
Friends, that sounds like everyday life to me, right?
So the question this morning, does God have a plan to keep us refreshed?
Does he have a plan? Because if we're going to talk about physical health,
we need to talk about the rest needed for our bodies.
And the answer to that question is yes.
It's called a Sabbath.
Okay, the word Sabbath comes from the Hebrew word Shabbat,
and it literally means to stop.
It means to stop working
and no longer allow yourself to be controlled by the culture
that tells us that we need to work 24-7.
Jesus actually practiced this every single week.
He stopped once every seven days to worship and rest with his local community.
So once a week for a 24-hour period, God wants us to what?
Stop, stop, and do what?
Rest and prioritize it and make it a part of our life.
Now for our culture, taking one full 24-hour day off, it's radical, right?
We're living in a 24-7 world that is always open for business,
and we as a culture prioritize work over rest
because I believe Edison said rest is laziness.
But friends, if you're in a relationship with Jesus,
God has a different outlook, and we should too,
which leads us to our first thought.
Sabbath rest is a gift from God.
See, the first time the word Sabbath,
it's recorded in the Bible, was actually not in the Ten Commandments.
The first time was in Exodus chapter 16, and this is what we read.
He told them, this is what the Lord commanded.
Tomorrow will be a day of complete rest.
Please notice that word, rest, a holy day set apart for the Lord.
So bake or boil as much as you want today,
and please remember if you look back into the Old Testament,
this is the season when God was providing the Israelites with manna from heaven, right?
And he's telling them, set it aside what is left for tomorrow.
So they put some aside until morning, just as Moses commanded.
And in the morning, the leftover food was wholesome and good without maggots or odor.
Now some of you are thinking, well, what happened before?
Well, before, when they tried to keep it for more than two days during the work week,
it always went bad.
Moses said, eat this food today, for today is a Sabbath day dedicated to the Lord.
In other words, if you try to work the day that is dedicated to the Lord, guess what?
God's not going to help you.
You are supposed to be resting.
So the verse continues, you may gather the food for six days, but the seventh day is the Sabbath.
There will be no food on the ground that day.
Some of the people, of course, sounds like our culture,
went out anyway on the seventh day, but they found no food.
The Lord asked Moses, how long will these people refuse to obey my commands and instructions?
They must realize that the Sabbath is the Lord's gift to you.
There it is. It's a gift. Rest is a gift.
That is why he gives you a two-day supply on the sixth day, so there will be enough for two days.
On the Sabbath day, you must each stay in your place,
do not go out and pick up food on the seventh day, so the people did not gather any food on the seventh day.
Why did God do this?
Because God wanted us to rest one day, so that we can actually enjoy this life that we've been given.
Remember, we're only given one life, which leads us to our next stop.
Taking a Sabbath or resting is a commandment.
The Sabbath that I'm referring to actually made God's top 10 list.
It's the fourth commandment. It tells us to honor the Sabbath.
Now, please notice when we read the verse, you'll realize it doesn't say anything about going to church.
It's nowhere in the verse that we're about to read.
Now, I believe that we should gather as believers. It's vital for our spiritual growth.
The fourth commandment specifically, referencing the Sabbath, focuses on rest.
And it's actually the longest commandment.
God spent more time focusing on this commandment.
You know why? Because I believe He knew that we would argue with Him.
He knew we would...I don't need to take a day off.
Exodus 20 verses 8 through 11, this is what He writes,
Remember to observe the Sabbath day and keep it holy.
That word holy simply means set apart. You set apart a day.
You have six days each week for your ordinary work, answering emails, making phone calls,
sending texts, repairing cars, welding metal together.
But the seventh day is a Sabbath day of rest dedicated to the Lord your God.
On that day, no one in your household may do any work.
In other words, turn your phones off.
Stop allowing them to dictate your life. You shouldn't be working.
This is a commandment and not only is a commandment, it made God's top ten.
It has the same weight as do not lie, do not steal, don't murder, don't covet.
It's in the same list.
Now notice, let's continue.
This includes you, your sons, your daughters, your male and female servants, your livestock.
I mean, God doesn't even work on when our cows work in.
He wants us to take a Sabbath or any foreigners living among you.
For in six days the Lord made the heavens and the earth, the sea and everything in them.
But on the seventh day, He rested.
That is why the Lord blessed the Sabbath and said to make it holy.
Now think about it.
We could have had a ten-day work week.
We could have had a four-day work week.
But God mandated that we have a seven-day work week.
And then He commanded that one of those days is a day of rest.
Now here's the amazing thing.
For followers of Jesus, they actually believe, if you're in a relationship with Jesus,
you actually believe that you can violate this commandment but no other one.
That it's okay to skip a day of rest.
But remember, we don't keep commandments to be saved.
Like we have this free relationship with God, but we do keep the commandments to be blessed.
And here's the reality.
There are blessings from God when we follow His commandments.
And there's consequences when we don't.
If you commit adultery, there will be consequences.
If you lie to someone, there are consequences.
If you kill someone, are there consequences?
Yes.
So why do so many people believe there are no consequences if we don't follow the commandment to rest?
Right? Think about it.
You heard about what happens and what is happening to people in our culture right now.
Two people under the age of 35 have died and literally killed themselves by working too hard.
Okay?
This is how our culture believes that we should rest.
And it's not a Sabbath.
Work, work, work, work, work, work, work, work, work, work, oh, I'm burnt out, I need a vacation.
Right?
And you take a vacation.
One week off, two weeks off, you feel better, you're jumping back in.
Work, work, work, work, work, work, oh, man, I'm fried, I don't know what to do, I need a vacation.
Right?
And here's the reality.
That's how Americans live.
They burn the candle on both ends down to almost nothing.
You're fried, you're burnt out, you take a vacation.
Then while you're on vacation, you get sick or you're unable to rest because of the pace of life that you've been living.
Right?
It's just not true.
It's not a Sabbath.
It's not rest.
For me, Monday is my Sabbath.
I typically work all weekend.
I try to communicate to the staff, to the leaders, to all of you in our community of faith that I need to rest.
Monday is my day off.
Right?
So from now on, when you happen to send me a text or leave me a voice message that says, hey, Chris, I know it's your day off, but then you're going to ask me a question or to go and do something, you know what my response is going to be from now on?
Oh, why don't you just ask me to commit adultery?
Or to take it another step.
Why stop there?
Maybe we should stop by the local Chick-fil-A, hold them up at gunpoint, steal all their money because of the richest restaurant in town.
Right?
I mean, you asked me to violate one commandment.
Why not violate all of them?
Would you ask me to do that?
Of course not.
Pick one, right, of the other nine.
And you wouldn't ask anybody to violate that commandment.
We know not to violate or break the other nine commandments.
But one rest, Sabbath, it's okay.
You can break it.
It's fine.
It makes no sense.
True or false?
Oh, so some of you believe it's false.
That's what you're saying to me.
Which leads us to our next thought.
Taking a Sabbath sets an example, Exodus 31.
You must keep the Sabbath day for it is a holy day for you.
Anyone who desecrates it must be put to death.
Now we read that and we think, whoa, slow down, Chris, but here's the reality, including myself.
We're slowly killing ourselves.
We're literally working ourselves to death with stress, anxiety, worry, and never taking a break.
The scriptures go on, anyone who works on that day will be cut off from the community.
You have six days each week for your ordinary work, right?
It's clear.
But the seventh day must be a Sabbath day of complete rest.
And what does Sabbath mean again?
Stop.
It means stop working.
Anyone who works on the Sabbath must be put to death.
The people of Israel must keep the Sabbath day observant from generation to generation.
This is a covenant obligation for all time.
Is it a permanent sign for my covenant with the people of Israel?
For in six days the Lord made heaven and earth, but on the seventh day he stopped working and was refreshed.
Now think about it, for thousands of years, the Jewish community used the Sabbath as a witness for the rest of the world.
No work was done on the Sabbath, or for them it was Saturday.
So no deals were completed.
No work was performed.
And then when they were asked why, a Jewish person would respond, that is my Sabbath.
We don't work because God commanded us to rest.
Right?
It was a sign that pointed people to God in that, hey, newsflash, we make more money working six days and resting on the seventh
than you would working all seven because God provides and meets my needs.
Right?
And now notice at the end of those verses it says that God rested and he was refreshed.
And I began to think this week, how do we explain a God who never becomes tired suddenly was refreshed?
Well, let's go back to creation.
Let's look at Genesis 2, 2 through 3.
On the seventh day, God had finished his work of creation.
So he rested from all his work and God blessed the seventh day and declared it holy because it was the day when he rested from all his work of creation.
Now the word used here for rested literally means he breathed in.
He took a breath.
Right?
God had been creating for six days.
How did God create the world?
What did he do?
He spoke it into existence.
How do we speak?
We exhale.
We breathe out.
In fact, on the sixth day, not only did God create Adam, but he breathed out.
He breathed out life into him.
So for six days, God had been breathing out.
But on the seventh day, he breathed in and was refreshed.
Right?
I can't make a statement if I could just catch my breath.
If I could just breathe, I feel like I'm drowning.
I feel like I'm sinking.
Friends, you can breathe if you keep a Sabbath every single week.
Now the question should not be, what do I do on the Sabbath then, Chris?
Well, you're telling me to take the Sabbath.
What can or what I can't I do?
And the question shouldn't be that.
What should you do on the Sabbath?
The question should be, what do I not do on the Sabbath?
And what you don't do is you don't do work.
You don't do anything related to your vocation or your calling.
You rest from it one day a week.
And it doesn't have to be a specific day for the week.
I mean, let's be honest.
Some of us work on weekends.
Right?
But it has to be another day, which leads us to our next stop.
Taking a Sabbath, it's serious.
And God means it.
Numbers 15.
One day, while the people of Israel in the wilderness, they discovered a man
gathering wood on the Sabbath.
Okay, now think about this.
Here you got a guy.
He's out literally gathering sticks.
He's picking up sticks.
Maybe he's going to build a fire.
The people who found him doing this took him before Moses, Aaron, and the rest of the community.
They held him in custody because they did not know what to do with him.
Of course, right?
He's a stick gatherer.
He's a big threat.
That's supposed to be funny.
Okay?
He was gathering sticks, people.
Sticks.
That's all he was doing.
He didn't murder anyone.
He didn't threaten anyone.
Then the Lord said to Moses, the man must be put to death.
The whole community must stone him outside the camp.
So the whole community took the man outside the camp and stoned him to death just as the Lord had commanded Moses.
Some of you are sitting there thinking, why in the world did I read the Old Testament?
Because that is over the top.
But we must remember, fast forward to the New Testament, 1 Corinthians chapter 10, Paul tells us,
these things happen to them as examples for us.
They were written down to warn us who live at the end of the age.
It's an example.
Those words are written as example.
No, we don't get stoned to death if we work seven days a week.
But if you continually work and don't prioritize rest, you're going to kill yourself prematurely.
And it's up to God to reveal the truth to you.
Just this week, as I was preparing for this talk, I was studying, I was reading, I was praying.
I felt the Holy Spirit say to me, Chris, you have not taken an honest Sabbath in 18 years.
18 years ago, we planted this church.
We started this church from nothing.
And in 18 years, I have not scheduled a day of rest into my calendar.
And for 18 years, I've been running the tank empty.
I had to receive God's conviction.
I had to be open to His correction.
And I say to you this morning, I needed to repent before God and ask forgiveness.
And why?
Because I want to change and move forward.
I want to weekly schedule a time of rest because I now know our final thought this morning, taking a Sabbath is a blessing.
It's a blessing.
In Mark chapter 2, we read what Jesus says to us about a Sabbath.
And please understand, for those of you who want to argue and say, oh, it's an Old Testament commandment, we don't have to follow it.
Jesus practiced the Sabbath every single week.
Read Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John.
On the Sabbath day, as Jesus was walking through some grain fields, His disciples began breaking off heads of grain to eat.
But the Pharisees, the religious leaders, said to Jesus, look, why are they breaking the law by harvesting grain on the Sabbath?
Remember, it's working that's unlawful, not eating.
Jesus' disciples were eating.
Jesus never violated the Jewish laws.
Jesus responded to them and said, haven't you ever read in the scriptures what David did when him and his companions were hungry?
He went into the house of God and broke the law by eating the sacred loaves of bread that only the priests are allowed to eat.
He also gave some to his companions.
Then Jesus said to them, the Sabbath was made to meet the needs of the people and not the people to meet the requirements of the Sabbath.
So the Son of Man is Lord even over the Sabbath.
What Jesus is saying to us this morning, I did not make you to serve the Sabbath.
In other words, you don't have to follow the rules of the Sabbath.
I created a Sabbath to serve you.
I created a Sabbath so that you would be and receive a blessing, not just from God, but to others.
A Sabbath is a blessing, not a burden.
Right? It's just like tithing, the principle of tithing.
People who tithe, and some of you may be thinking, what's a tithe?
You give 10% of your income to God. The first 10% goes to God.
Those that tithe, cleaning myself, I tithe, our family tithes,
we know that 90% with God's blessing will go further and longer than 100% without the blessing of God.
We know it. It's a biblical principle.
People who rest one day a week know they can get more done in six days with God's blessing than seven days without his blessing.
It's the same principle. And here's the reality.
Okay, living in today's culture, we have to become intentional and trust God with everything, with our entire life.
It's not just our bodies that need to rest, our minds need to rest as well.
For so many people within our culture, they're worried, they're stressed, they're overwhelmed,
because they're not giving their minds time to rest.
Right? Our culture over thinks.
We are always trying to solve problems. We over analyze.
We're constantly stimulated with our screens. Right?
I challenged Stephen on the way out. He was saying goodbye to people.
Hey, take a Sabbath and play video games. No!
Video games stimulate the mind and overwhelm the mind.
Don't play video games. Go on a walk on the canal. Right?
Because it's going to help you to think.
God gave us a Sabbath as a gift, as a blessing.
And the only reason we don't receive this gift, the only reason we don't walk in this blessing, right?
The only reason that we work seven days a week is because we don't trust God.
That's it. We feel like if we don't do it, it won't get done.
And I'm here to tell you, it's good to trust God and to take a day off.
And don't just take one day off. Take a day off every single week.
And I want you to help me out. Look at your neighbor and say, take a day off.
Now look at your other neighbor, the one you really don't like, and tell them to take a day off.
Now here's the crazy thing. Listen. When's the last time anyone said that to you?
Right? Very rarely. No one really looks at you and tells you to take a day off, which leads to our action steps.
How do we experience a healthy Sabbath? Right? Experiencing a healthy Sabbath.
Well, the first, what's the first step, friends? That's really lame.
What do we do? We stop. Thank you. I told Phoenix, I said, hey Phoenix, I'm not even saying stop anymore.
I'm taking this home and when I want you to stop, I'm just going to hold it up.
Because you get more from this sign than me screaming at you. Right?
He tunes it out real easy, but he'll know that sign. Exodus 20.
You have six days each week for your ordinary work, but the seventh day is a Sabbath day of rest,
dedicated to the Lord your God. On that day, no one in your household may do any work.
You stop working and take a day off. Sabbath is literally woven into the creation of the universe.
Okay? How do I know that? The sun rises and the sun, the tide comes in and the tide goes in six days.
God created everything that was made and then on the seventh day he rested.
There is a divine design to the days, weeks, and seasons, including you and me.
And when we go against the grain, when we go against the fabric of creation,
what happens when you rub your finger against the grain of a piece of wood?
You can get a splinter and it hurts. And that little splinter gets stuck in your finger
and you have to poke at it and gnaw at it. And it's so painful and annoying, friends,
when we don't rest, when we don't worship weekly, right? That's what happens to us.
It's painful, right? It's so much pain that we don't have to endure.
We're not in charge, okay? As much as we want to be in control of everything, we're not.
God is. And here's the news flash. Our work on earth, it's never going to be finished.
Okay, there's always going to be something to do and Jesus doesn't go into a panic when we take a day off.
You know what he does? He celebrates it. He's like, yes, they're enjoying life.
Now the traditional Jewish Sabbath begins at sundown on Friday and ends on sundown on Saturday.
The early church fathers actually moved the Sabbath for Christians from Saturday to Sunday
to honor Jesus' resurrection from the dead on the first day of the week
and for those believers to prepare themselves for the work week that was coming up on Monday morning.
Okay, and let me again say, it's not the day that matters. It's the time set aside.
How do I know that? Romans 14. In the same way, some think one day is more holy than another day,
while others think every day is alike. You should each be fully convinced that whichever day you choose
is acceptable. Those who worship the Lord on a special day, do it to honor Him.
Sabbath simply means stop your work, both paid and unpaid, and then rest. That's it.
We are created in God's image and God wants it to do it just like Him.
So the first step is we stop. And do you know why I got this?
Because I knew that you would remember this stop sign in your mind.
And it would make you want to just rest and give up that work. So we stop.
Number two, we rest. Genesis 2. On the seventh day, God finished all His work of creation, so He rested.
And what did God do when He rested? What did He do? He breathed in.
Right? Let's everyone on count of three, we're all going to take a deep breath. One, two, three.
It feels so good. Right? Now think about it. When we take a deep breath in stressful situations,
when we're getting overwhelmed with anxiety, people encourage you, just slow down and breathe.
Slow down and take a deep breath. When we take a deep breath, it calms our racing minds.
It slows the adrenaline that's pumping through our bodies.
Many of you know when I was younger, I was a pitcher. And as my kids were playing sports,
both baseball and softball, many of them became pitchers.
And I taught them, before you deliver the pitch, the most important thing you can do is to breathe.
Take a deep breath, focus on the glove, and then release the ball, telling it where to go.
And some of you are thinking, you really tell the ball where to go? Yeah.
Because that's how you control your body. Right? The mind controls the body. Right?
So we have to breathe. And for many of us, let me be honest with you, and God convicted me of this,
for us to breathe, you need to turn off your phone. You need to just turn it off.
You need to not worry about who's calling you or who isn't calling you or who's texting you.
And you need to avoid social media, because social media is stressing you out and just keeping your life busy.
You're never going to be able to rest with our phones, our devices, and social media.
Avoid it, which leads us to our next step. We stop, we rest, we worship.
The Bible tells us to take a Sabbath and keep it what? Holy, set apart, Exodus 20, 10.
The seventh day is a Sabbath day of rest dedicated to God.
Now the focus of a biblical Sabbath is worship. Right?
Taking time to focus on God and receiving the love of the Father, declaring our love back to Jesus.
When we gather at HCV, we worship, we sing, we pray, we receive instruction from the Bible,
like I'm doing right now, as a means of growing our relationship with Jesus to become more like Him.
Gathering with other believers is vital, right? It's vital. And when we worship together, it grows our spirits.
Worship is not three songs that we sing on Sunday before the message. That is not worship.
You know what that is? If that's your view of worship, that's Christian karaoke. That's all it is.
You're showing up, you're letting the professionals sing, and you're singing along.
God doesn't want Christian karaoke. He wants worship. He wants you to get in the presence of God weekly.
He's inviting you into His Holy Spirit because when we get closer to His Holy Spirit, it's when we change.
And friends, we have to make it a priority. We have to learn to say no to work, no to sports, no to commitments.
We have to stop making excuses of why we can't attend our Sunday gatherings. I know your pajamas feel good.
I know it feels good to get up and lay in bed and watch our Sunday gatherings,
but God wants you here worshiping with us if you can, right? If you're able, be here worshiping with us.
But our friends at Hagerstown HealthCare, we love you, and we're glad that you are watching with us this morning.
Dallas Willard puts it this way. Hurry is the great enemy of the spiritual life in our day.
Can I repeat that? Hurry, no rest, is the great enemy of the spiritual life in our day.
When we worship, we are connecting with the Creator of the universe,
and we're setting aside time to have our spirits connect with His, come to life, and awaken,
so we can receive His love, power, and direction, His healing, and His freedom.
The Ten Commandments, let me bring this to you, are actually repeated in the book of Deuteronomy.
God gives His laws 40 years after the Exodus to the next generation of Jewish believers,
and it's almost word for word, except there's a change or a difference. See if you can catch it.
Deuteronomy 5.
Observe the Sabbath day by keeping it holy. Sounds familiar.
As the Lord your God has commanded you, you have six days each week for your ordinary work,
but the seventh day is a Sabbath day of rest dedicated to the Lord your God. All the same.
On that day, no one in your household may do any work. Of course you. Your sons, your daughters, your male and female servants,
your oxen, your donkeys, your livestock. He added even more animals, right? Don't want them working.
All your male and female servants must rest as you do. Now look at this part.
Remember that you were once slaves in Egypt, but the Lord your God brought you out with His strong hand and powerful arm.
That is why the Lord your God has commanded you to rest on the Sabbath day.
There's your difference, right? God's people were slaves working in Egypt for 400 years.
Then God set them free. Now think about this. For 400 years, that's four centuries,
Pharaoh crushed these people with massive building projects, right? 400 years, never having a day off.
They never rested. They never had a day off. They never worshiped God publicly. They never tasted freedom.
Slaves existed for one purpose. You know what that purpose was? Work. And that was it.
And that had become their identity. If you didn't work, you had no worth.
Your work does not determine your worth in God's eyes. Fast forward to today.
All you workaholics, they think you have to overwork. We are human beings, not human doings.
When our jobs or our titles become the source of our identity, we believe that our work is what gives us worth.
And that's a lie. You know what that is? That's slavery and bondage.
Just like the Jewish people lived in and God desires to free us from that bondage of work and to worship Him and put Jesus first.
We have to learn to live free, including in our own minds.
We have to stop working and learn what it means to worship. So we stop, we rest, we worship.
And number four, we enjoy. That's our final step. We enjoy. Mark 2, 27.
Then Jesus said to them, the Sabbath was made to meet the needs of the people and not the people to meet the crimes of the Sabbath.
On the Sabbath rest, we engage. Listen, for all of you who want to know what to do,
on the Sabbath rest, we engage in activities that are life-giving, not life-sucking.
Take a hike, go on a bike ride, right? Enjoy creation. Read a book, take a nap.
Did everyone see that? Take a nap. All right, now hold on. Hold on, all you that are clapping.
I got even more for you, Jeremy. You ready? Now, if you're under 12, earmuffs please, if you're under 12.
If you're under 12, plug your ears. In Jewish culture, in Jewish culture, in the Sabbath, they regularly took naps.
And those naps included sex with their spouse. So if you're married in the house, even more reason to take a nap on the Sabbath.
If you're playing house and you're not married yet, stop having sex and get married. Okay?
So take a nap, draw, for all of you that love art, play with Legos. I've been trying to finish a hippie bus Lego for three years.
Now you know I have not taken a Sabbath. Play catch with your son or daughter, go out and play pickleball.
A good way to put it is this, listen. If you work with your mind through the week, rest with your hands on your Sabbath.
I mean, I mow the grass on my Sabbath and I'm okay with it because you know what I'm doing? I'm worshiping.
I have worship music going, I'm praying. It's not stressful for me, it's restful.
If you work with your hands during the week, right, if you're constantly working on cars, then feed your mind.
Read a book, right? Feed your soul with prayer and meditation.
People now in our culture simply use the weekend. You know what the weekends are? Catch up!
We got to get everything else done and it's just unpaid work.
Our Sabbath should include rest, worship, and joy.
You can do it!