Rest from Relentless Pressure

Sir, I trust that you had a good night and a good night's sleep. You're up early. Well, sir, best to think through the day now, and avoid to avoid problems later. But Saturday. So when you're up, we're up. It's my day off. From work, not life. Oh, what will you be interacting with anyone today? Yes. What do you care? How you're going to be perceived? You want to take everything in your world face value? Do you want to go through life as forest gump? No. The way you interpret the world, the way you interpret you, is the name of the game, the Hobel game, Impression's Camp. I just get so tired of playing games. Are you getting tired of wearing clothes? Excuse me. Why don't you just go out into the world but naked? You know, be completely vulnerable. Yeah, just take it all off. How well would you operate in a real world with no clothes? You wouldn't last a minute. You know? You forgot this. This is what you should be doing, right? You ever feel guilt like that? A few years ago, the president of Harvard University was finding himself in an exhausted position. He was in the middle of a fundraising campaign. He had been going years without any practical rest. And he found himself one morning oversleeping in the middle of a large fundraising drive. He overslept. And it alarmed him. Here's a man who was after years of non-stop pushing in an atmosphere that only rewards stressful, pushing, frantic overwork. He found himself on the verge of a collapse. He told reporters later, he said, my sense was that I was exhausted. His doctor agreed. Ordered him to take three months off. The university gave him a three-month sabbatical. He spent most of that time reading, listening to music, walking on the beach with his wife. And only after those three months could he come back to his work as the president of Harvard University. On the week that he came back, Newsweek Magazine had him on the front cover with the title, Exhausted. Do you relate to that? Do you feel that sometimes in your life? In 1991, there was an unusual bestseller, surprised book of the year written by an economist, Juliet Shaw, called the Overworked American. Listen to what she said. She talked about work hours and stress are up and sleep and family time are down for all classes of employed Americans. Wives working outside the home returned to find a second shift of housework awaiting them. Husbands add overtime or second jobs to their schedules. Single parents are stretched in so many directions that they sometimes feel they can't manage. Simultaneously, all of us are bombarded by messages that urge us to spend more time, and so ultimately more work. To spend more money, to keep our homes cleaner, the standards keep rising, and to improve ourselves as lovers, investors, parents, or athletes, supposedly to make all this happen, grocery stores stay open all night long, and entertainment options are available around the clock. We live, said Shaw in that book, in an economy and society that is demanding too much from people. You relate to that? You see, the thing that fascinates me about this book and other books written like it in the 90s was this was not a Christian book. It was by a secular author, published by a secular publisher, but that book and that economist came to this conclusion, and the conclusion was, the problem is this, we have forgotten God's intended rhythm for life, work six days, rest one. She said in that book, we have forgotten the Sabbath. We've forgotten what it means to observe the Sabbath. Now we've been talking about stress on Sunday mornings. Been in a series of messages on stress, and I'll ask a few weeks, we've been talking about keys to coping with stress. We've seen six of them. The seventh one we're gonna look at today, appropriately, the seventh is the Sabbath rest. Now whenever you mention the word Sabbath, all kinds of questions start coming to mind. What they is the Sabbath anyway? Is it Saturday? Is it Sunday? Is Sunday a Christian Sabbath? And if so, are we under the Sabbath laws of the Old Testament? What are we supposed to do? What are we not supposed to do on Sunday? What kinds of restrictions are we under? All kinds of questions come up. And quite frankly, I think the debates coming from those questions lead us to miss the whole purpose of the Sabbath in the first place. And that was to give us one day of rest in the midst of our rhythm of work. But because there are so many questions, I wanna start this morning by answering some of those questions from the Bible. What does the Bible teach about the Sabbath? And then we're going to see how an underlying principle established at creation gives us guidance as to our rhythms of work and rest that God intended for us. But first, let's talk about what the Bible teaches about the Sabbath, the biblical teaching. Let me give you a summary of the biblical teaching on the Sabbath. And the place to begin is with the origin of the Sabbath. Genesis chapter one, would you open your Bibles there please? Genesis chapter one, verse 31. We're gonna talk about the origin of the Sabbath. Okay, you should be there by now. It's pretty easy to find. Genesis one, okay, first book, first chapter. All right, you're there. Verse 31. God saw all that He had made and it was very good. And there was evening and there was morning the sixth day. Thus the heavens and the earth were completed in all their vast array. By the seventh day, God had finished the work He had been doing. So on the seventh day, He rested from all His work. And God blessed the seventh day and made it holy because on it He rested from all the work of creating that He had done. God created, did work for six days, rested one day. Now does God need to rest? No. Theologians say that God is omnipotent. That means He has all power. You know what that means? That means that even when you exercise power, there is no drain on your power because you have all power. There is no decrease in your power when you exercise power because you have all power. So God never gets tired. God does not need to rest. Why did He do this? He did it to establish a pattern for us. He worked six days, He rested one. And the purpose was to establish a rhythm that is important for us to maintain our equilibrium, spiritually and physically and emotionally. What God was saying is this is not optional, this is required, this is necessary. For your emotional and physical and spiritual well-being to work six days, rest one, that's the rhythm I intend for you. God didn't need the rest. We do and God did this as an example to us. That's the origin of Sabbath. Well, it goes a lot deeper than that though in the Old Testament. In order to understand the biblical teaching on the Sabbath, we have to look at Israel and the Sabbath. So I want you to turn to Exodus chapter 20 because the Sabbath is deeply embedded in Israel's law and life. Exodus chapter 20, we find that it is one of the 10 commandments to keep the Sabbath, Exodus 20, verse eight. Remember the Sabbath day by keeping it holy. Six days, you shall labor and do all your work, but the seventh day is a Sabbath to the Lord your God. On it, you shall not do any work, neither you nor your son or daughter, nor your man servant or made servant, nor your animals, nor the alien within your gates. For in six days, the Lord made the heavens and the earth, the sea and all that is in them, but he rested on the seventh day. Therefore the Lord blessed the Sabbath day and made it holy. What Moses is telling us here, what God is actually telling us through one of the 10 commandments is the reason why I rested one day after working six in creation was to give you this example. So you are to remember the Sabbath day, keep it holy, don't do any work on the Sabbath day. Make it a day that is holy in the sense that it is especially set apart for a unique purpose to glorify God. And that is by making a break in the rhythm and routine of your six days of work. I gave you that example, he says in verse 11, now I want you to keep the Sabbath day. And that became deeply embedded in Israel's law and history. In fact, we're not gonna take the time to look at a lot of verses about that, but I do want you to look at one, which is very important in Exodus 31, if you'll just turn over a few pages. Exodus 31, where God adds some regulations and stipulations about the Sabbath day. Exodus 31, verse 12, then the Lord said to Moses, say to the Israelites, you must observe my Sabbaths. Now notice the next sentence, this will be a sign between me and you for the generations to come, so that you may know that I am the Lord who makes you holy. Observe the Sabbath because it is holy to you. Now watch this, anyone who desecrates it must be put to death, whoever does any work on that day must be cut off from his people. For six days work is to be done, but the seventh day is a Sabbath of rest, holy to the Lord, whoever does any work on the Sabbath day must be put to death. Now verse 16, here's the reason why, the Israelites are to observe the Sabbath, celebrating it for the generations to come as a lasting covenant. It will be a sign between me and the Israelites, forever, for in six days, the Lord made the heavens and the earth, and on the seventh day he abstained from work and rested. Now what Moses is telling us here is, what God said is this, the Sabbath is holy, and it is a sign of the covenant that God makes with Israel. That's very important. The purpose of the Sabbath was for the Israelites, it was for the Jewish nation, it was to become a sign of the covenant that God had made with them, and it was to be such a strong and important reminder of the covenant that God was making with them through the mosaic law, that if you violated the Sabbath, you were put to death. So work six days, don't do any work on the seventh, and if you violate that, you are put to death, and it's to be an everlasting covenant between Israel and God. Now I call your attention to that because it's very important. The Sabbath is not a covenant between the church and God is between Israel and God. And as we know from later on in the Old Testament, because of Israel's disobedience and later on their rejection of the Messiah, God has temporarily removed that covenant relationship. It will be reestablished in the future when he sets up his kingdom on this earth. But for this age, the church age, that covenant is not in force for the church. We're under a different covenant called the new covenant in Jeremiah 31. Hebrews 9 and 10. So this was a sign of the covenant God made with Israel. It's very important to see that. And here's the reason why it's so important. Because there are lots of other regulations and stipulations that surround the Sabbath in the Old Testament. Again, we don't have time to turn, but just listen to these. In Exodus 35, three, Israelites were told they could not make a fire on the Sabbath in their homes. Well, why would you want to make a fire in your homes anyway? Well, that's how they cooked. So what basically what he's saying is you don't do any cooking on the Sabbath day in your homes. That's Exodus 35, three. In Leviticus 23, three, the Sabbath day was to be a sacred assembly. So they were together to worship on the Sabbath day. In Leviticus 25, one through seven, they were to give the land a Sabbath also. Every seventh year they were not to plant crops, they were not to till the land, they were to let the land rest. Just like people are supposed to rest one day, God says my land is to rest one year. So no farming every seventh year. In the book of Numbers chapter 15 and verse 32, they were not allowed to gather wood on the Sabbath. Because somebody might say, okay, I can't cook on the Sabbath, but at least I can gather the wood to cook tomorrow. And God says, no, no, don't even gather the wood on the Sabbath. In fact, the guy was put to death in Numbers 15 for doing that. In Numbers chapter 28, verses 9 and 10, the priests were instructed to offer extra sacrifices on the Sabbath day, two lambs specifically, and other drink offerings and grain offerings on the Sabbath day to commemorate that day being holy to the Lord. In Nehemiah chapter 10, verse 31, chapter 13, verses 15 to 22, the Israelites were instructed they could do no buying or selling on the Sabbath day, no buying or selling of goods or food on the Sabbath day. In Jeremiah 17, verses 21 to 27, they are not to transport any loads into Jerusalem on the Sabbath day, carry them on your person, carry them on an ox cart, whatever, you cannot carry any loads into the city on the Sabbath day. So, you think you're still under the Sabbath? We sure hope not, don't we? I mean, the Bible makes this a covenant between God and Israel. If you think you're still under the Sabbath, then this is what you're committing yourself to. If you're under the Sabbath laws of the Old Testament designed between God and Israel, if you feel you're still under that, this is what you're committing yourself to, no work on the Sabbath, no cooking or eating out on the Sabbath. Right? You can't buy or sell. So, it's not just, we let you off the hook about cooking at home, you can't eat out either because you can't buy or sell. You can't go to any store or buy anything on the Sabbath because there's no buying or selling on the Sabbath. You cannot transport any loads in your vehicle or on your person on the Sabbath. And if you really wanna do it like Israel did it, you have to bring two sacrifices to church, animal, you know, lambs, and offer them as sacrifices to the Lord. On the Sabbath, that was the Sabbath law. And you have to begin on Friday evening and observe it till Saturday evening at sundown. That was the Jewish law. That was under Jewish law. And you can't plant your garden every seventh year. No gardening, no farming every seventh year. And if you violate any of these rules, you put to death, okay? So you still feel like you're under the Sabbath? I hope not. Obviously, these were restrictions and regulations designed for God's covenant relationship with Israel and not with us as His church people today. They were specifically between Israel and God. So we are not under Sabbath regulations today. Don't try to make Sunday a Christian Sabbath. That's not biblical. It's not just not biblical. That was a covenant sign between Israel and God. Some people say, well, what about Christ? Didn't he observe the Sabbath? Let's talk for just a moment about Christ and the Sabbath. Yes, Jesus did observe the Sabbath. In fact, look at this verse on the screen. Luke 4 verse 16. He went to Nazareth where he had been brought up and on the Sabbath day, he went into the synagogue as was his custom and he stood up to read. Yes, Jesus did worship on the Sabbath day, the seventh day. Why did he do that? Because he was a Jew. Under Jewish law, under the most-day covenant, you see, the regulations of the law that have to do with God's people were not set aside till after the death of Christ. During the life of Christ, he was still living as a Jew under the most-day covenant law. So yes, he worshiped on Saturday. Galatians 4.4 tells us very plainly that when Jesus came, when the time had fully come, God sent His Son, born of a woman, born under law. Jesus voluntarily placed Himself under the most-day covenant law for His earthly ministry. So yes, he worshiped on the Sabbath. That doesn't mean we're supposed to do that. It doesn't mean we're supposed to worship on Saturday because Jesus was under the Mosaic law. We're not. So it's not as simple as saying, well, Jesus did it. Aren't we supposed to do it? It's not that simple, you see. Jesus was under the Mosaic law. We are not. Well, what about Paul? Some people say, well, Paul worshiped on the Sabbath, didn't he? In the book of Acts, let's talk about Paul in the Sabbath for a moment. Yes, Paul did go into the synagogue. If you begin in Acts 13 and read through Acts 18, you'll find every city he went to, the Bible says, he first entered into the Sabbath or into the synagogue on the Sabbath day and opened up the Word of God to them. Why did he do that? If this is after the cross, after the death of Christ, the Old Testament regulations have been set aside. We're not under those anymore. Why did Paul do that? Two very simple reasons. Number one, the Bible said that the gospel was to go first of all to the Jews, then to the Gentiles. That's clear throughout the book of Acts. That was Paul's methodology. In fact, he said in Romans chapter one, I am a debtor to the Jew first, then to the Gentile. His obligation was to take the gospel to the Jew first. Where are you gonna find him? Well, a good place to get a whole group of him is on Saturday in the synagogue. And there's another practical reason for Paul going into the synagogue on Saturday because the Jewish synagogue services were set up so that when the law was read, any adult male could stand up and make a comment on it. There's even one place in the book of Acts where the ruler of the synagogue asks Paul, you have anything you wanna say? Yeah, Paul had some things he wanted to say. Yeah, a lot he wanted to say. He wanted to explain that what they were talking about in the Old Testament pointed to Jesus Christ. And so he used the opportunity where he had a ready-made audience of Jews familiar with the Old Testament. He wanted to use those very practical opportunities to get across the gospel and explain that Jesus Christ is the Messiah that you're all looking for that's prophesied in the Old Testament. That's why Paul went into the synagogue. Now, if you continue to read on through the book of Acts, you'll find that when the Jews finally rejected what he was saying, he took whoever had come to Christ and moved out of the synagogue, started worshiping outside of that setting. But yes, Paul did go to the synagogue, but there were very good reasons for that on the Sabbath. What about the early church and the Sabbath? It seems to me to be very clear that Paul had some things to say about whether or not we are still under the Sabbath. In Galatians chapter four, for instance, let me just read these verses to you. Paul makes it very clear that we are no longer under Sabbath laws. Galatians four. Verse eight. He says, formally, when you did not know God, you were slaves to those who by nature are not gods, but now that you know God or rather are known by God, how is it that you are turning back to those weak and miserable principles? Do you wish to be enslaved by them all over again? Now, what kind of weak and miserable principles would simply means they were not powerful enough to give life? What kind of principles is he talking about? He's talking about the Mosaic Law. Throughout the book of Galatians, that's what he's talking about. And he says it in verse 10, he says, you are observing special days and months and seasons and years. I fear for you that somehow I have wasted my efforts on you. So Paul very clearly said to the Galatians to go back to the Jewish regulations about special days, Sabbaths, special religious festivals, like New Moon festivals or the Passover festival, or whatever to go back to that, is to go back under the Mosaic Law. And I fear that if that's the case, I've wasted a lot of effort trying to show you the gospel of grace that releases you from the Mosaic Law. He also said in Galatians chapter two, to another church about this same thing. Galatians two, verse 15, talking about the death of Christ. In verse 14, he says, having canceled the written code, that's the Mosaic Law with its regulations, that was against us and that stood opposed to us. He took it away, nailing it to the cross. In verse 16, he applies what that means. Therefore, do not let anyone judge you by what you eat or drink. That's the Jewish food loss, clean and unclean foods. We're not under that anymore, he says, or with regard to a religious festival, a New Moon celebration or a Sabbath day. These are a shadow of the things that were to come. The reality, however, is found in Christ. So it's obvious that Paul is telling us, the early church recognized that because of the death of Christ, the Mosaic Law and the regulations it had over us for daily living are pass A, we're no longer under those. We've been set free from all of those regulations by grace. And we are now related to Jesus Christ through faith in Him. We are to walk according to His word, but the Mosaic Law, we're no longer under. And that includes Sabbath regulations according to both of those passages. So my point is this, we are not under Jewish Sabbath laws in the church age. The New Testament is quite clear on that. And the early church recognized that Sunday was the first day of worship. There are at least three times in the New Testament where it is indicated that they worshiped on the first day of the week. Acts 20, verse 7, for instance. On the first day of the week, Paul says, we came together to break bread. Paul spoke to the people because he was intended to leave the next day, kept on talking until midnight. Now there's a good preacher for you. He kept on talking till midnight. I like that kind of preaching, don't you, George? But they've worshiped on the first day of the week. That's when they broke bread together and worshiped together. In 1 Corinthians 16, verses 1 and 2, Paul's talking about a collection being taken among churches for the struggling believers. It's a relief effort in Jerusalem. And he says, now about the collection for God's people. Do what I told the Galatian churches to do. On the first day of every week, each one of you should set aside a sum of money in keeping with his income, saving it up so that when I come, no collections will have to be made. And somebody says, well, all he's saying there is is on the first day of the week, just set it aside at home. It doesn't say anything about Christians worshiping on Sunday. Does it? Of course it does. Why would he say, set it aside on the first day of the week? Couldn't he say, set it aside on Wednesday? If you're just going to set it aside at home, the purpose is in the last part of the verse. He says, you know, you're going to set it aside because you're going to go to church later and the collection's going to be made. And I want you to have that money set aside to give in the collection that is taken at church when you go to worship on the first day of every week. So when I come, when I show up as the traveling missionary, you won't have to take one collection. You will have already been taking collections every Sunday. So it's clear the early church worshiped on Sunday. John, the writer of Revelation, said in Revelation, one, 10, on the Lord's Day, I was in the Spirit. And the New Testament, the Lord refers to Jesus Christ. That's why we often see the expression, the Lord Jesus Christ. What is the Lord's Day? It's the day that honors the Lord Jesus Christ, the day that he was resurrected from the grave. And all early church writers, 100s, 200s on through, recognized that Sunday was the day of worship for the church. My point is this, we are not under Jewish Sabbath laws in the church age, regardless of what some may try to tell you. And occasionally, there are those who try to put us back under that legalistic observance. The Sabbath regulations were for Israel. It was a sign of their covenant with God. And we cannot apply Jewish legal requirements to Sunday. Don't try to do that. Because I guarantee what you'll do. You'll start picking and choosing. You will. You'll say, okay, okay, I can't shop in a store on Sunday, but I can eat out, right? You can't eat out on Sunday if you're going to follow the Jewish Sabbath laws because you can't buy or sell any food on the Sabbath. Okay, all right. Well, I won't eat out on Sunday, but I'm going to cook at home. You can't cook at home either on the Sabbath. If you're going to follow the Sabbath laws, you got to cook it on Saturday and eat it cold on Sunday. That's what you got to do. You say, okay, okay, I won't cook or anything at all. But don't expect me to give up my garden every seventh year. Yeah, you got to give up your garden every seventh year. If you're going to follow the Old Testament Sabbath laws, you see how ridiculous that can get? We're not under those regulations anymore. We're not under the Sabbath laws and regulations anymore. And by the way, if you violate any of those, we have the authority under God's word to take your life, right? We're not under that anymore, you see? But here's the point. Although we are not under the Jewish Sabbath regulations and laws, there was an underlying principle that went back before the mosaic law all the way to creation and God's example. And the underlying principle behind the Sabbath day, regardless of what God said for Israel to do to keep it, the underlying principle for all ages is there is a rhythm to life that God has made us for, and that rhythm is to work six days, rest one. Now, we're not under the laws anymore, the Sabbath laws, but we do well to take that rhythm of life and work into account. So how do we do that? How do we practice the Sabbath rest, even though we're not under the Sabbath regulations and laws? How do we keep Sabbath rest? How do we pick one day a week to rest in the midst of our work? I want to quickly give you six principles for the practice of the Sabbath rest. Number one, set aside the time. You're going to have to just do this, set aside a day to break from the routines of work. Now, of course there will be some necessary things that have to be done, even on your day of rest, even Jesus said to the Pharisees, if your neighbor's donkey falls in a ditch, help him get it out. Come on, you can bear that load on the Sabbath. So help him get it out. There are some necessary things that will have to be done, but what the Bible I think is telling us from the very creation of the world, and God's example to us there, is that we need one day where we are not involved in the normal routines of work and pressure and tension. Now, for most of you, that's going to be Sunday. For most of you, that's probably the day that it's going to be. That we're not under the Old Testament regulations anymore, otherwise we'd need to do this on Saturday. But for most of you, that's probably going to be Sunday. For some of you, it's not. For those of you who are in the health care professions, for those of you who are in the service industry professions, for those of you who are in church ministry, Sunday is not a day of rest. And so you have to find another day. Kind of like the preacher I heard about who worked all day on Sunday, and so he usually took Monday as a day off and a day of rest. And he had a church member that got really mad at him one week, because she had a particular need on Monday, and he wasn't in the office. And so when he came back into the office on Tuesday, she was on the phone, really hot. She said, I can't believe you would be off when I have a need. The devil never takes a day off. And he said, oh, you want me to be like the devil, huh? The devil is not our role model. You need a day. Pick a day. Take a day out of seven. You work six. You need one day to rest. That's the pattern God set for us at creation. So set aside the time. Number two, evaluate your life. If you go back to Genesis 1, you find that it was at the end of the sixth day, at the beginning of that rest, that God evaluated, looked over all he had done and said, this is very good. So there was time set aside to evaluate his work, to think about his work, to enjoy its completion, to reflect on it. And I tell you something, we have lost that in Western culture. In our culture and our society today, in our hurry up, frantic pace of American life, we have lost the intended rest God wants us to use, so that we can look back on our work and put it in the proper perspective. We need time to look back on the work that we do, to evaluate our priorities, to get away from the frantic and busy stress and pace, to regain a sense of the meaning of what we do, and how it fits into our dedication to Christ. Have you ever done that? Have you ever said, what does my life really mean? What am I doing with my life? Does my work fit into some greater purpose that God has for me on this world? How does it fit? Put it in perspective, reflect and evaluate your life. That's a great practice for a day of Sabbath rest. Evaluate your life. Put it all back into focus. Number three, include worship. Include worship. Especially if you're able to use Sunday as your day of rest. Include worship. Certainly Israel did that, although we're not under the regulations of Israel. We don't know how many times they met or when they met for worship, but there was an element of worship and Israel's observance of the Sabbath, and certainly in the early church we can see there was an element of gathering together for worship on the Lord's Day. And sometimes because we don't understand the concept of one day out of the week to refocus our lives, to get away from the frantic pace and the busyness and refocus on the Lord and what He has for us. Because we don't understand that, you know what we often do? We often fill up that day with other activities and amusements and things we want to get done. And we're missing the whole purpose, folks, which is to re-center our lives. To re-center our lives. On the things of God, on the Lord Himself, to sort out our commitments and our loyalties, to find out where our heart really is and to refocus our heart on the Lord our God. We need time with that. We need time together to corporately worship Him. Include worship in your Sabbath rest. Number four, cultivate relationships. Cultivate relationships. Let's put yourself back in Old Testament times. If you're a Jew and you can't work, you can't cook, you can't carry loads into town, you can't gather wood for tomorrows, cooking, what are you going to do with all that time? Well, you may get a chance to sit down and talk with your husband or your wife or your kids and spend a little time together. Novel thought, isn't it? That God might want us to actually focus on some relationships on this day of rest. And I think that's an important part of a Sabbath rest. Eat together, talk together, enjoy, relaxing, and some refreshing time together. Pull away from the push and the stress and spend some time focusing on those relationships. And not just with family, it's a good time for relationships with fellow believers as well. Number five, take time to rest. Deliberately accept God's gift of a day for restoring yourself, yourself. It is God's gift. In the very beginning of history, the creation of the world, he set that pattern. So accept that day as God's gift for restoring yourself spiritually and emotionally, mentally, physically restoring yourself. If not, then the continual push, the relentless pressure, the stress of life, will lead you to fatigue and depression and pessimistic look at life. It will just drain every bit of joy out of you. Because we don't understand rest, we often feel guilty. And so that's number six, principle of keeping a Sabbath rest. And that is deal with guilt feelings. Because some of you will feel that, some of you already do. And that's the reason why you cannot take a day to set aside from the busyness and frantic pace of life. For those of you who are driven, for those of you who are the perfectionist, the obsessive compulsive types that we've talked about some, for those of you like that, you're going to feel guilty if you're not doing something productive that you can see the results of. For you, rest is a waste of time. It's for those lazy, undisciplined people. And if you feel that way, let me give you a couple of suggestions. Number one, you must see the benefit and blessing of restoration that God intended for us. Of some time to break from the routine of work to be able to put all of our lives back in perspective. Motionally physically, spiritually, put life back into perspective. You will be much more effective in those other six days if you take a day to refocus like God intended us to. Second thing I would suggest, if you're one of those who deals with a lot of guilt on this issue, is you must see that God has programmed us to need this. He said six days, then rest one day. And he's programmed you violate that program. Nobody will have to take your life. You'll take it yourself. You will burn yourself out. So there is nothing wrong with taking a little bit of time, a Sabbath rest, a day, a part from the regular routines of work, to be able to reflect, to be able to refocus, to be able to rejoice in our God and in his blessings. And so I want to quote from another book that was written in 1999. Wayne Mueller wrote a book on Sabbath. Again, secular book published by Josie Bass, a secular publishing company out in San Francisco. And this is what he had to say, a book on Sabbath rest coming from a secular perspective. He said this, I make a plea for renewed Sabbath keeping. As a nation, we cannot live like this endlessly rushing about in a desperate frenzy, never stopping to enjoy the blessings of family and friends, unable to taste the fruits of life. We can change society by beginning a quiet, quiet revolution of change in ourselves and our families. Let us take a collective breath, rest, pray, meditate, walk, sing, eat, and take time to share the unhurried company of those we love. Let us, for just one day, cease our desperate striving for more. And instead, taste the blessings we already have been given and give thanks. In short, he says, let us remember the Sabbath. And whatever day of the week that is for you, please, please, get some Sabbath rest. I would encourage you to do this. Go home. Not right now. Wait a few minutes, but go home. Go home. And this afternoon, this afternoon, get together with your family and say, okay, how can we do this? This is counterculture. This is not what our world is telling us. Like we saw in the illustration, sermon illustration earlier, there will always be somebody over your shoulder, your own voice inside your own head telling you somebody's going to get ahead of you, somebody's going to get a leg up on you if you don't keep pressing away. This counterculture, but please take some time, take some time to determine how you will do this as a family. Last Monday, I had started gathering materials from my files and commentaries and stuff to figure out where I was going to go with this message. And I already kind of knew the direction it was going to take. And so I went home Monday evening and I said to Jeannie, I said, honey, we need to talk. I cannot get up there, Sunday, and talk about this without us talking about what we're going to do as a family. What we're going to do is a couple. What we're going to do to observe some rest in our schedule. And so we hammered some things out. It's not going to be easy for you to do this. But it may be the single most important thing you will do all year to get yourself back in a place where you can be most effective for God and for others in your life. Go home, work on it this afternoon. Okay? No, don't work on it. Sleep on it. Take a nap. Let it sink in. Think about it. Talk about it. Okay? Let's pray together. Father, thank you for the fact that you're concerned about every part of our lives. It's not just that we do our work well. It's that we have the proper rhythms of life rest so that we might be better for the rest of the week. And also so that we might refocus our lives on you and on the meaning and purpose of our work. So Father, I thank you that you love us enough to take care of us in that way. But Lord, we have to submit to that. Take care of ourselves. And I pray for those who are struggling. I know I'm talking today, Lord, to some people who are struggling with this very thing. And so Lord, I ask that you would help them to see the need to make adjustments in their schedule before they lose their health, before they lose their family, before they neglect their relationship with you. Lord, this is important and I pray that you'd help us to see it. Make the necessary adjustments so that we may better honor you with our lives. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen. In just a moment, we're going to stand, sing a closing song, Jesus draw me close. And when we do, maybe God's been speaking to you about something. Maybe it's about what we talked about today. If you need to make a commitment in that area, that's fine. But I would suggest you go home and work on that this afternoon. Maybe God's been speaking to you for some time about your need for Jesus Christ. And you came to church this morning thinking under a load of concern about that. You're not sure whether or not you'd go to heaven if you were to die today. When we stand and sing in just a moment, Pastor Jim's going to be here at the front to receive you. If you come, if you'd like to know what it means to trust Christ as your Savior. Or if there's some other commitment you need to make as a Christian, please come. Let's stand together and sing. Draw me close.