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Howdy.

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So, over this last week, it's been a bit of a hectic routine, a bit of a hectic schedule.

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There were two days that I ended up going over to Austin.

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There was a funeral to attend, but also a conference with other pastors to be at.

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Sessions, learning, a lot of training to go through.

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But then coming back, and there were early morning meetings here at the church, there

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was an opportunity with the first grade boys from Meadowood here on a Friday morning to

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do devotions with their dads.

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There were lots of different things that needed to be taken care of, sermon to be written,

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classes to attend.

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And so at the end of it all, it's this feeling of, will there be a time of rest?

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Will there be an opportunity to step back and to be able to just relax for a bit?

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So to do so, I had to just drive away from everything, drive away from the house, drive

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away from the church, drive away and try to find some place that I had no responsibilities

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anywhere.

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And spent most of the day at Herman Park.

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I ended up enjoying a little bit of time on a paddle boat, but also discovering there's

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a Japanese garden over there.

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I didn't even realize about it.

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It's beautiful.

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It's absolutely lovely.

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But spending this time, this chance away, realizing that it's so easy to fill up more

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of our time with tasks to do.

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And it's almost like you have to force yourself sometimes just to be able to rest long enough

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to get your mind back where it needs to be.

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Because that's what we oftentimes see is that without a time of rest, we're not able to

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get back to the work at hand with any sort of energy or joy.

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It just becomes more tasks to be done.

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And that's what I want us to look at a bit as we understand a little bit more of what

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the Sabbath day is.

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Because the Sabbath has three main areas that are important to understand.

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A time of rest, a time of worship, and a time of completion.

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And I think that the time of rest is an area that we understand for the most part.

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But the time of worship, we may still be learning about.

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And a time of completion, I'm not sure that we've truly grasped just yet.

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The need for a time to rest.

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Resting on the Sabbath day, it's something that's important because we realize that without

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it, we're not able to be prepared for what the day has, what the week has in front of

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us, without a chance to step back and to be able to allow our minds and our bodies to rest.

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And this idea of needing to be able to have a day away, a Sabbath, that is something that

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we see referenced in our letter from the Hebrew, the letter to the Hebrews for today.

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As we're looking at chapter four, and it speaks about the Sabbath, the people of Israel were

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very, very grateful to get away from the land of Egypt, a place where they were continually

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being pushed, that they had to be working as slaves for the Egyptian Pharaoh, that there

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wasn't an opportunity to step away and to be able to rest.

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So as they were leaving, as they were getting away from Egypt, they were grateful for an

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opportunity to be able to step away and to be able to rest from the labor that was there.

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This is something that we oftentimes take for granted.

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How often is it that we do not actually allow ourselves a Sabbath rest?

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Because maybe throughout the week, maybe we weren't working hard enough in our minds.

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Maybe we weren't getting enough things that were done, enough things that were saying,

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you know what, I really didn't get enough done on Thursday, maybe I didn't get enough

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done on Monday, I really don't have time this weekend to be able to rest and step away.

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And so we justify in our minds that we have to get more done.

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We can't spend time with family, with friends, with our church because there's just too much

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that needs to get taken care of because I didn't take care of it during the rest of

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the week.

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But even more than that, is there's also a level at which we're not sure that God is

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necessarily going to provide.

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That if we don't go in and make sure that we're working even harder to get stuff done

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before the next week, we're not really sure what God has in store.

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See, the Sabbath day was not just something for physical rest, but it was also to put

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trust back into God.

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To be able to say, I am just a human being, I can't do any more than what one human being

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can do, which means that if more is needed, then I have to leave it in God's hands.

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But that idea of trusting God with our Sabbath day, is that really something that we're quite

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willing to do with our soul and with our spirit?

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Because when we end up spending time in worship and we're looking at what that time is to

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be in God's presence, do we truly grasp what worship is really meant to be?

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The idea that worship is meant to be spent in God's presence being restored by God,

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rather than seeing worship as just one more task that needs to be done.

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How often do we treat Sunday morning like another part of our work week?

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The thing is, is that we will oftentimes look for any and every excuse and opportunity not

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to be in worship.

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There are all sorts of reasons that we might have, and when we look at it as something that

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we need to get done, then we end up missing what it was for.

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It's sort of compared to whenever you think of spending time with the kids, with the family,

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or with friends.

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Whenever we think of time with our family, with our children, with our friends as another

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thing on the to-do list, then we end up missing the point.

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We end up missing that there was a reason why it was that our friends invited us to the

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party that was going on this week.

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There was a reason why it is that our children wanted to play with us.

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There was a reason why it is that our spouse wanted time just with us one-on-one.

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But how often do we think of it as, well, I better get that done because I don't want

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to get in trouble, or, well, I guess I have to put in my time.

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Well, I guess I didn't see them recently, so I better go make some time for it.

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And then we end up looking at our watch the whole time, wondering how long we have to

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stay before it's time that we can finally leave, because we missed the whole point of

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what that time was with them.

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And that's what we end up also seeing with the people of Israel.

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It speaks in Hebrews 4 about how they had disbelief, and we're wondering to ourselves,

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you were in this 40-year walk where all you have is God and one another.

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And how is it that you did not realize who God was?

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We end up looking to them and wondering how could any of them have lost their belief when

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every day they had manna falling from heaven, feeding them.

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Whenever time and time again, the smoke cloud is wandering through, leading them to where

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to go.

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Whenever they are being told of the battles that they can fight and the places that they

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can get through safely, and we wonder how it is that they could be worshiping God every

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week in his presence with his tabernacle.

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And yet they struggled with faith.

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Is that what we oftentimes do as well?

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Do we see our time away from work, our time with God as just another task to get done,

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because if we do, then how much are we truly misunderstanding who God actually is?

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Is it any wonder that people struggle with faith when they don't even see a reason to

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be in God's presence in the first place?

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Whenever we welcome people, not just to hear God's word being preached, but also to commune

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together, to serve together, to live, to worship with one another.

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And yet people don't even seem to believe that God must be in this place because if

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they did, why wouldn't they want to be here each and every week to join him?

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But you see, those are two of the areas of what the Sabbath is for.

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Rest and worship, but the third part is completion.

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And that's what Hebrews four ends up referencing here.

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The idea that the Sabbath is referring to when Jesus will come back again someday is

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that there is a day whenever we know that Jesus will come back and look to see all that

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has happened and that our time and our labor on this earth will be done and it will be

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finished.

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But notice what it says about Joshua in Hebrews four that Joshua did not lead the people of

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Israel to the promised rest, the promised Sabbath.

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Now isn't that a little bit strange?

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They spent 40 years getting to this place.

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So why is it that they're trying to emphasize that it was not the promised rest?

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Because think about where the children of Israel's hearts really were.

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They spent day after day complaining about the tasks that were ahead of them, even though

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they were being led to a land that would be their own.

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And when they got there, what did they do?

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When they got to the promised land, what did they do?

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They just stopped.

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We're here now.

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I guess we're done.

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What we ended up seeing is that the people of Israel got there, found places that they

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could end up living and then just ignored everything else.

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They didn't want to be bothered to go through the rest of the promised land and to make

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sure that anybody who was practicing these horrible areas of sacrificing their own children

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or doing things that were wretched with their bodies and with their lives, that they were

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saying, that does not belong in our land.

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They didn't bother.

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They just left them because they'd already gotten what they wanted.

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And then we end up seeing in the following book of judges that those people had no idea

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what they were even doing.

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The very children of Israel just, they followed what everybody else was doing, and it was

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just fine.

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And they ended up completely destroying themselves.

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And that's one of the things that we end up seeing so much in our world today is that

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this is good enough and we don't want to be bothered.

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How many things do we look at where we don't even know what our own goals and purposes truly

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are?

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What is it that we're even living toward anymore?

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How often is it that we're just wanting to make sure that we get more money for something?

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For what purpose?

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Whether we're just looking for a time or a life of leisure, whether we just want an opportunity

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to make sure we don't have to cook tonight, whether or not we just want to have opportunities

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to step back and complain about the world around us whenever we don't want to even be

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bothered to go out and make a change in it.

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We see the world that is around us and how much they are in need.

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And what is it that we oftentimes are looking to do?

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How can I get back and hide away from it?

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Because I got to make sure that I've got more Netflix to watch for tonight.

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The thing is, is that we are not at that final completion.

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Jesus hasn't come back yet.

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There are tasks to be done, things that are important.

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If we wonder why it is that those who are the most extreme in our world are the ones

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who keep getting airtime, who keep getting listened to, it's because they're the ones

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who are willing to be bothered when the rest of us can't.

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And we see that even especially in our own faith.

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When the Lutherans kept emphasizing that grace is free, what was the response from the Roman

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Catholic Church at the time?

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If you make grace free, then no one will be bothered about the way that they live.

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And the Lutherans had to go and prove them right.

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How lazy do we become?

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We can't be bothered to meet with people to study the Word of God.

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We can't be bothered to look for anything outside of our church walls that we can serve

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in.

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We can't be bothered to go and tell people about the gospel.

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All we can get out is, well, you like our church.

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The pastor has nice hair.

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How often is it that we end up proving people right?

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There are so many churches out there that we know that they don't quite get the gospel.

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And yet the things that they do where they study the Word, they serve other people, they

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worship regularly, and how often is it that we struggle with those?

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We should be the ones who do it the most because we don't do it with fear.

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We don't do it with thinking that God is somehow needing to be proven to love us.

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We should be the ones to be doing it the most because we have the least dread.

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And yet how often is it that we struggle even to have spiritual disciplines?

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And as soon as somebody points it out, is that then someone wants to come and say, why are

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you focusing on our works?

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Are we willing to admit where we've gotten it wrong?

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Because the Sabbath day is not just to stop working.

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The Sabbath is about affirming what we're living for in the first place.

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You know, I've been to different birthday parties before.

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And there are some birthday parties where you go and you eat cake and you eat some food

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and you say, hazzah, you're alive.

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That's great.

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And then there are some where they end up talking about the whole last year, about all the things

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that they were doing together.

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You can see their friends and their loved ones who are there who are talking about, oh, well,

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you remember where we went to or you remember what we did here.

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Do you remember when this happened and that the celebration is about their entire life

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being lived?

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But when we come to worship, are we celebrating this whole last week that we were living in

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God's presence?

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Are we celebrating all the things that we were given by God that we were able to do?

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The time we were able to help the person who was elderly that needed some food.

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The time whenever that there was a child who needed somebody to mentor them.

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The time whenever somebody was just frustrated and angry and we went to go calm them down

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because if we didn't, we knew that they were going to cause an issue that they might never

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recover from.

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The time whenever we know somebody needed a job and they just needed somebody to look

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over their resume or even just to introduce them to someone that maybe might have a position

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for them.

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How many things that we can come into God's presence and celebrate that we were able to

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do for his glory and for his honor?

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Because that's the thing is that the Pharisees missed the point.

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The Pharisees in the times of Christ kept confusing work with works.

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They kept getting so obsessed with saying, don't work.

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Stop what you're doing.

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That they missed out on everything that you do is onto God.

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And that it's not something to try to prove to God, God, I'm going to keep working and

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I'm going to keep showing you that what I've gotten and what I've done is worthy of your

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time.

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And instead is to say, no, you rest this day, trusting what God has done and being prepared

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for what he has to do for you through you tomorrow.

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See that's the thing about the two edge sword.

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We get uncomfortable with it.

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We see it coming at us and we know that that sword can get right inside of us.

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It can end up splitting apart the times and the ways in which we couldn't be bothered.

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It can see everything happening inside of our hearts and all the times and the ways in

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which we lost our energy because we lost our purpose.

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The way to find more energy and joy is not by avoiding the work to be done, but rather

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by asking how the work to be done has purpose and meaning.

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And that's the place that we end up finding ourselves is that the more that we end up

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living these lives with effort toward God, the more we're worshiping because we know

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that each and every piece of our life is then offered to him.

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See that's the thing that we end up seeing about the high priest.

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See Jesus is the high priest is coming to suffer and to give of himself because he is

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loving and merciful and because he understands where we're at.

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That's the thing about being human that Jesus being human has taken on himself that cross

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and has given of himself for us.

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And then as we see that sacrifice, does that mean now that we just walk away?

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Do we look and say, well done?

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Great job.

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I'm going to go ahead and leave now.

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Or rather is that now this cross has given us a life that's worth living because now

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each and every single thing that we have to do has a meaning and a purpose that goes to

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eternity and that someday we will be in God's presence looking and hearing him say, well

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done my good and faithful servant because that's the thing about the Sabbath is that

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in the presence of God, we know that everything has been done and now we understand the meaning

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of everything we do.

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So I don't know what it is that the times whenever you've needed an opportunity to rest

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and to step away.

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God's love and God's grace and God's mercy means that that's okay.

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You are not now judged by God because you needed a chance to be weak and to be strengthened

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again.

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But it also means that now that you've been strengthened, so that now you have a life

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to go toward that means something more than what all the rest of the world tries to distract

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us with, but that this life and what we learn and how we grow has meaning and purpose that

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lasts into eternity.

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So may we as the people of God get to the work that God has given us because there is

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meaning and purpose and we want to serve the God who has given us everything by his grace.

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Thanks be to God.