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[0:00] Please join me in Luke chapter number 6. Luke chapter number 6, verses 1 through 11 this morning. And I would like to go ahead and say from the very beginning what my desired prayer would be for everyone in attendance today.

[0:18] My prayer would be that all of you would come home. It's been said in many different ways, that your soul would find rest, or that you could say that it is well.

[0:30] But my prayer for everybody in this room today is that you would be able to say that, that your soul has found rest. As I look out here today, I know everybody, save a couple people in here.

[0:42] And so even though I know you, I don't know what's going on inside of your hearts, but I do know that the Lord of the Sabbath offers rest to all of us. And I would hope all of you would be able to rest in the Lord as well as Elena Rostelli is resting right now in the service.

[0:58] Don't wake up the baby, okay? And I would pray that you would find that same rest. At some point, it's not going to be appropriate to sleep in the service, all right? But right now, she can.

[1:09] But I pray that all of you would find that Henry's still like, I don't know how old he is, but he doesn't make a full service. At some point, he's going to have to stay awake too, but we'll cross that bridge when we get there. But I hope today you'll stay awake, but you will find rest in the words of Scripture as we look at the Lord of the Sabbath.

[1:29] And I know that I have been ministered to this week as I've read through this passage. I know we've read it, but I want to just walk through it once again to help you see the picture that's going on.

[1:40] And so we've seen meals that have taken place. Well, this is not necessarily a meal. This is Jesus and the disciples going through a drive-through, all right? And so they're not eating anymore with a Levi at a table, but they're walking through a field.

[1:53] And in this passage, it says that they walk through a cornfield. And as they do, they reach out and they grab an ear of corn. And in the next statement, it says they took it and they rubbed it with their hands. And so something happened.

[2:04] And that seems kind of incidental, but it's not in the story. Because immediately after picking the corn and doing something with it, the Pharisees look at them and they say, why are you breaking the rules of the Sabbath?

[2:16] Why are you breaking the laws of the Sabbath? You know that you shouldn't be doing this. And then Jesus responds to them and says, you know, 1 Samuel, you know the story of how David, when him and his men needed nourishment, they went into the house of God and they were able to eat the show bread and they were able to do that.

[2:36] And he said, the Son of Man is the Lord of the Sabbath. Just like David was able to do that, we are able to do that. Next story, they're not in the cornfield. But they go into the synagogue on the Sabbath.

[2:49] And while they're there, the Pharisees look at them and they're watching. And Jesus said he knew their hearts. And the Pharisees are waiting to see, it's the Sabbath, is Jesus going to heal?

[3:00] And Jesus does. And Jesus heals the man with the withered hand. And they say, and he looks at them and he says, is it not lawful? Can I not do good? Is it better to do good or evil for this man?

[3:10] And it says they were filled with anger and they were mad at what Jesus had done there in the story. And so central to this passage is our understanding of the Sabbath and what is going on.

[3:25] And so first of all, I'd like to remind you that the Sabbath was a unique distinctive to the children of Israel. It was given by God. Before the Ten Commandments, in Exodus chapter number 16, verse 23, it says, And he said unto them, This is what that which the Lord has said.

[3:44] Tomorrow is the rest of the holy Sabbath unto the Lord. Bake that which you will bake today, and seeth that it will seeth, that which remaineth overlay up for you to be kept until the morning.

[3:56] So this was a blessing to a people that had been living in forced servitude. Servitude. They had worked around the clock, seven days a week, always in bondage. And then now, after years of doing that, God is bringing them out of bondage and He is teaching them a new way of life.

[4:14] This may get an amen. God gave them seven and a half weeks of mandatory vacation every year. And one day out of seven, that's the day off. And all God's people said, Amen.

[4:26] So take this to your employer and say, This seems biblical, all right? Seven and a half. And that's incredible. And you say, where did that come in? It comes in their feasts and their celebrations that God was giving them.

[4:36] They all had purpose because the Sabbath and all the festivals were not about just themselves, but it was about worshiping the Lord. What a blessing to a group of people that never had a day off, that never had a moment's rest, that God was setting up a new way of life.

[4:51] God showed them that in their labor in six days, He would provide their needs for all seven days. And so we saw that as He would give them the manna on six days and they would collect it so that on the seventh day, they weren't even collecting it.

[5:04] And this is true at Kathy and Chick-fil-A's favorite verse, right? And I only wish they would make enough sandwiches on Saturday so we could have some on Sunday, all right? Because there's no craving worse than a Chick-fil-A sandwich on Sunday.

[5:16] And so God has set that in the place for them. God says, I am meeting your needs here. And not only do they get the rest that is needed, but they were told that the land should rest every year, every seven years that the land should have a rest.

[5:33] And so it had a very holy and a distinct purpose when God gave it. It separated them from the lifestyle of pagan nations around them. It was distinctive. It wasn't common.

[5:44] It wasn't what other people were doing. And so when they were taking the Sabbath off and resting, everybody around them, they weren't doing that. It made them very distinct. And that's why you feel guilty at Zaxby's on Sunday, right?

[5:57] Because you know better, all right? But they were giving here was a day of worship unto God. This day wasn't for them. Isaiah chapter number 58, verse 13. Look at how it talks about the Sabbath here.

[6:09] If thou turn away thy foot from the Sabbath from doing thy pleasure on my holy day and call the Sabbath a delight, the holy of the Lord honorable, and shalt honor him, not doing thine own ways, nor finding thine own pleasure, nor speaking thine own words.

[6:25] The Sabbath was for his delight. It was holy unto the Lord. It was honorable. Even though I often would say that this is a day for my family, that shouldn't be the full sentence.

[6:36] It is a day for my family to worship our Creator. It's a day for my family to be in worship of the Lord. Because God did not make our family the object of our worship.

[6:47] It's the God of heaven, right? So this should be a family day. But the family doing something that is around the things of God. But like so many things that God gave them that was a blessing to them, they turned it into a burden, and they begin to ignore it.

[7:02] And so they won't give the land rest every seven years like they're supposed to. They're not honoring the Sabbath and all that God said. So 2 Chronicles chapter number 36, verses 20 and 21.

[7:13] And them that had escaped from the sword carried he away to Babylon, where they were servants to him and his sons until the reign of the kingdom of Persia, to fulfill the word of the Lord by the mouth of Jeremiah, until the land had enjoyed her Sabbaths.

[7:26] For as long as she lay desolate, she kept Sabbath to fulfill three score and ten years. And so they were not giving the land rest, and during captivity the land was given the rest that God had promised, and that He had set up a system for them.

[7:41] There's so many incredible things about the Bible. My uncle back in Kentucky, he worked at a co-op and he worked with farmers, and we could talk about the things that the Bible would teach that should happen for land, how important it is for farming.

[7:55] God knows the earth in which He created. And so it did not have a rest, but they were getting it. But then after the captivity, the priests are going to begin making offense around the laws to try to prevent from these things happening again.

[8:08] So they said, we weren't honoring the Sabbath, all that we went into captivity, now the land got its Sabbath, we're going to make sure we don't make that mistake again. But the problem was, they tried to make a heart decision with outward conformity.

[8:21] And so by the time of Jesus' day, there was a rabbinic teaching, a big book of rules all about the Sabbath on what they should do and shouldn't do to try to make sure that the Sabbath was being kept in an outward way.

[8:35] But all of you in here know that the heart always finds a way around man-made rules unless it's also a God-given conviction. If you have kids, you know there's not enough rules that can overcome a disobedient heart or a rebellious heart.

[8:49] And so that's how the Pharisees tried to address it. They say, if we make enough rules about this, then everybody will do the letter of the law about the Sabbath. But that wasn't what God would have them to do.

[9:00] The heart is deceitful, and so it should be a matter of the heart. The emphasis would be on worshiping the Lord, not upon not doing other things. And even to this day, in Jewish communities, you'll see many unique things, many different appliances that are bought so that it would turn on for them at a certain time.

[9:17] Or even inside of a community where a line would be up above them that would connect the bigger area. Because there's rules like you could walk 3,000. If you had some food that you needed, but it was 3,000 feet away, you could go to that 3,000 feet, but then you could get an additional 3,000 feet as well if you went that.

[9:36] So there's a lot of things going on to work their way around it. And so this is, in this passage, we have this understanding of the problem that the disciples are facing. We also understand the issue of the heart that the Pharisee was having.

[9:49] But not only about the Pharisees and the disciples, but also we should look at our heart concerning the Lord of the Sabbath. Luke 6, 1 and 2. And it came to pass in the second Sabbath after the first that he went through the cornfields and the disciples plucked the ear of corn and did eat, rubbing them in their hands.

[10:04] And certain the Pharisees said unto them, Why do you that which is not lawful do on the Sabbath days? So I want us to look at some absurd rules and an audacious claim. Some absurd rules by the Pharisees that were looking at them and this audacious, though true, claim that Jesus is going to make.

[10:23] And I've already mentioned to you some of it. I'm going to read something here for you to give you an idea of the rules they made. Tailors did not carry a needle with them on the Sabbath for fear that they might be tempted to mend the garment and thereby perform work.

[10:35] Nothing could be bought or sold and clothing could not be dyed or washed. A letter could not be dispatched even by the hand of a Gentile. No fire could be lit or extinguished, including fire for a lamp, although a fire already lit could be used with a certain limits.

[10:47] For that reason, some Orthodox Jews today use automatic timers to turn on lights in their home well before the Sabbath begins. Otherwise, they might forget to turn them on in time and have to spend the night in the dark.

[10:59] Baths could not be taken for fear of some of the water might spill on the floor and wash it. Chairs could not be moved because dragging them might make a furrow on the ground. And a woman was not to look in a mirror unless she see gray hair and be tempted to pull it out.

[11:11] All right? And so the extreme length that they would go to, and these rules aren't found in the Bible. There's a handful of rules that God gave, but remember, why did God give it? It was a blessing. God gave these rules as a blessing towards them, not as a curse, but they took this blessing, they make all these rules around it, and it becomes a curse upon the people.

[11:31] I mean, you couldn't move. You just go walk in a closet and shut the door and not move for 24 hours, you know? That would be about the only way to fulfill all that they were asking of them. So then we have two case examples. The one where I told you they took the ear of corn and they rubbed it, and according to them, they were breaking four or five different rules at that time.

[11:51] That it wasn't illegal. They weren't saying that you're not allowed to steal corn. That seems to be the thing that I would have thought, right? Like, why did you take that corn? That doesn't belong to you. But we know in the book of Deuteronomy, it says that a person could walk by that.

[12:03] They couldn't take corn and go sell it on the corner, but if you were walking by somebody's field and you were hungry, Deuteronomy 23, 25, you could pluck an ear of corn, but you can't take a sickle to it on your neighbor's standing corn.

[12:15] You can't go out there and harvest an acre of corn, but if you were hungry and you were walking by it, and that was also true of your field, disciples took it a step farther or the Pharisees, and they said that they broke rules.

[12:31] Also, the second case example, Jesus healing on the Sabbath, and so nowhere in the Old Testament would it forbid the creator of the universe healing its creation on the Sabbath, but what was the rule that was broken?

[12:42] In making rules around their rules, they said that you can't do anything to make a person better on the Sabbath. It was kind of, you had to keep them kind of a palliative care.

[12:53] You can't do anything that would improve their condition, and so healing was breaking the rules that they had made. And so the Pharisees had fundamentally a flawed way of seeing the Sabbath because God rested on the seventh day not because He needed to rest, but because we needed to rest.

[13:11] So the Sabbath was intended to be a blessing to God's people. That's why in Mark he would say, and he said unto them, Mark 2, 27, the Sabbath was made for man and not man for the Sabbath.

[13:23] So when we think about God giving the Sabbath, we should be thinking about not a list of unbearable rules, but the blessing that God had. The Sabbath was always an expression of worship to God. It declared their allegiance to God.

[13:35] It expressed their trust in God. You know where they sit there on that front porch. There was a million things that they wanted to do on their farms. There was a million of things that needed to be done, but it said, God, I'm going to depend on you.

[13:48] Yesterday in a men's Bible study, Brother Todd taught a great lesson that showed us faith as dependence on the way that God said to do things, and sin is an independence to say, God, I'm not going to do it the way that you prescribed.

[14:01] So on those days when they would not work and do the work that was given, they were showing a dependence on God. It declared that God was more important to them than anything in the world, even food.

[14:12] And so we need to leave this flaw viewed of this burden of the Sabbath that the Pharisees have, and we need to follow Jesus and the disciples as we move forward and worship the Lord of the Sabbath.

[14:24] And so here, this is the audacious claim that Jesus made. He said, just like King David did when he ate in the house of God, then I have also done that. And so what Jesus was basically saying is that as there was a clear exception on working on the Sabbath in the presence of God, so it's permissible to those that work on the Sabbath in the presence of me that he is God.

[14:48] And that's what he was saying. So this is audacious because who gets to say, well, King David did it, I get to do it. You don't get to say that. Who gets to say, oh, you can do this in the presence of God and so people can do that in the presence of me.

[15:00] And that's why we've said many times in here, it is so very frustrating that people would ever say that Jesus never claimed to be God because he was killed for claiming to be God. That every time he spoke and the Pharisees get mad, they're mad because he is claiming to be the Lord.

[15:16] And in this, the Lord of the Sabbath. And now Jesus lays claim to being the Lord of the Sabbath. And he said unto them that the Son of Man is Lord also of the Sabbath. And so what we're seeing here is what's being discussed, this new wine going in the old bottles.

[15:30] If there's any religion in the world, there's a secret that Christianity could have been mixed with and been a hybrid of two things. You would have thought that it would have been Judaism, that that would have happened.

[15:41] But Jesus was not modifying. He was being the fulfillment of these things that are given. And so he says, and he will say later upon the cross, he is saying, it is finished.

[15:53] And so the way of the Sabbath, it goes the way of the sacrifices. And it was fulfilled when Jesus was upon the cross. And so now we can cease from our spiritual labors and rest in him, but not just one day a week, but always, we find our rest in Jesus Christ and his finished work upon the cross.

[16:14] 2 Corinthians 5, 21, for he has made in him to be sin for us who knew no sin, that he might be made the righteousness of God in him. And so I don't know what's going on in your life.

[16:25] If you're not a believer, then I want to tell you that your rest is going to be found in the finished work of Christ. If you are a believer in here and your soul is weary and you're tired, you're going to find your rest in the Lord of the Sabbath and the work that he has done.

[16:40] And we all need to be fully persuaded in our own mind in what God has done. This is certainly a big deal. Exodus 31, 14, You shall keep the Sabbath therefore for it is holy unto you.

[16:51] Everyone that defileth it shall be put to death for whosoever doeth any work therein, that soul shall be cut off from among his people. I mean, it was a big deal that was going on. The apostle Paul before his conversion would have been probably enforcing something like this, holding to the law.

[17:08] You cannot be working on the Sabbath, but a change has been made. And so the only times the Sabbath is mentioned from Acts the Revelation, there's going to be times that it talks about Jewish evangelism and the setting is going to be the synagogue.

[17:21] Paul did not go to the synagogue, the fellowship, and to edify the saints as we do here today, but he went to preach the gospel and to convict the lost. Unto the Jew I became a Jew that I might gain the Jews to them that are under the law as under the law that I might gain them that are under the law.

[17:37] Paul states in Acts 18, 6, henceforth, I go unto the Gentiles and the Sabbath is not mentioned in the same way again. And instead of suggesting an adherence to the Sabbath day, the remainder of the New Testament applies the opposite.

[17:51] Romans 14, 5, One man esteemeth one day above another, another esteemeth every day alike. Let every man be fully persuaded in his own mind. There's obviously a change in the life of the Apostle Paul where we go from the book of Exodus where if you don't obey the Sabbath like this, then you're going to be stoned.

[18:07] And that was the old Paul, you know? That's the kind of rules that he would have been living by from where he would have been standing. When he persecuted the church, these are the kind of rules that he was doing. Now the Apostle Paul, by inspiration of God, is going to say that when a person honors these days, let them be fully persuaded in their own mind.

[18:24] He is not calling for people that adhere to the Sabbath as it was practiced in the Old Testament. He's going to warn them to be careful because he wanted to make sure that nobody was imposing the Sabbath on them on these new Gentile converts.

[18:38] Galatians 4, 9 through 11, But now, after that you have known God or rather are known of God, how turn ye again to the weak and beggarly elements whereunto you desire again to be in bondage.

[18:49] You observe days and months and times and years and I'm afraid of you lest you have bestowed upon you labor and vain. Paul was concerned that in their conversation about their calendar that they were going to put people back in the bondage.

[19:03] Paul had made it very clear to them that works was no means to salvation. It was by faith alone. So as to say, Dear brother, if you want to take Saturday, if you want to take the Sabbath day and that's what you want to do, that's wonderful.

[19:18] But do not believe that you're doing anything to earn favor with God and that every man should be fully persuaded and do not be calling people to that adherence of this Sabbath that has been fulfilled in Christ Jesus.

[19:32] And so what was the purpose? Why did we have this Exodus passage? Why was it so strong? Why would God have ever made it a covenant with the people of Israel and said unto them, I don't want you working on this day and made such a clear example?

[19:46] Colossians 2, 16 and 17, Let no man therefore judge you in meat or in drink or in respect of a holy day or a new moon or the Sabbath days which are a shadow of things to come but the body is of Christ.

[19:59] God was working as he's done so many times in the Old Testament to make a shadow of what Jesus was going to do upon the cross. And so that desire that we would have for rest, the desire they would have had for that, it is now going to be found in Christ upon the cross.

[20:15] And so our focus should be on the resurrection. Luke 24, 38, Jesus walking on the road with the disciples, their heart, and he said unto them, Why are you troubled?

[20:26] Why do thoughts arise in your hearts? Why are you restless? Why are you weary? What is going on with you? And what does Jesus do to these men? He points them to the resurrection.

[20:39] What are we doing together when we come in here? I'm trying to tell you that are weary and that are tired, that need rest. I want to point to you to an event in history where Jesus Christ died upon the cross.

[20:52] What are we doing today? What are we doing in Lubosliwau? What will we do every opportunity we have where we meet people that are tired and weary? We will say, Look to the cross. That's where your rest is going to be found.

[21:04] That is where the Sabbath is ultimately fulfilled. And so believing will bring you into rest. How do you enter into this rest? Not mainly by putting aside our weekly labors one day out of seven, but in believing.

[21:16] Hebrews 4, 3. For we which have believed do enter into rest. As he said, As I have sworn in my wrath, if they shall enter into my rest, although the works were finished from the foundation of the world.

[21:29] I ask you today, have you entered into rest? The language of the New Testament, more than being called Christian or being called born again or any of those expressions which are true, more times than not, you're going to be called in Christ.

[21:42] And right here, it's being in Christ, you are finding rest. And so there is a rest for believing people. Hebrews 4, 9. There remaineth therefore a rest to the people of God.

[21:54] Let me read that again. Therefore remaineth a rest to the people of God. Are you resting today? Have you found the rest?

[22:05] Maybe you found it in salvation, but since then you have allowed other things to come in and to weigh upon you. And then what is it that is going to keep you from rest? Hebrews 3, 19. It's unbelief that kept the children of Israel from ending into the land of rest.

[22:18] So we see that they could not enter in because of unbelief. What keeps you today from entering into rest? It's simply unbelief. What keeps unbelieving people from having rest?

[22:30] It is that unbelief there. And so today we should be encouraged to believe. Hebrews 3, 12, and 13. Take heed, brethren, lest there be any of you in an evil heart of unbelief and departing from the living God.

[22:45] But exhort one another daily what is called today, lest any of you be hardened through the deceitfulness of sin. Exhort one another daily. You need this more than this right now.

[22:57] You need this on Mondays and Tuesdays and throughout your week. You need people that encourage you to find rest in Christ alone. The songs that were sung this morning, you need them on Wednesday. The messages are in this song.

[23:09] You need to come in different places. You not only need to be receiving this message from brothers and sisters, but you need to be delivering this message. You need to be constantly pointing people to saying there is rest for your restless heart.

[23:22] And so let's look at the first day of the week. And that's what I say often. Today is Sunday, the first day of the week. It isn't the last day of last week. Today is a new week for us. So let's make decisions based on it.

[23:32] So the first day of the week, no New Testament writer ever refers to Sunday as the Sabbath, but that doesn't mean that Sunday doesn't hold a special place in the early church. Acts 20 verse 7.

[23:42] And upon the first day of the week when the disciples came together to break bread, Paul preached unto them ready to depart on the morrow and continued his speech unto midnight. We won't be doing that today.

[23:54] All right? But on the first day of the week when the disciples came together to break bread, 1 Corinthians 16, 2. And upon the first day of the week let every one of you lay by him in store as God had prospered him that there be no gathering when I come.

[24:08] They find Jesus resurrected on the first Sunday and every Sunday after that they begin to meet to celebrate the resurrection of Jesus Christ. And it's continued today.

[24:19] And we pray that until Jesus comes back that there will be a group of people that meet at Bishop Baptist Church that celebrate the resurrection. Because the resurrection of Jesus is not just an event 2,000 years ago that doesn't have a significance to us but it's where we find our rest for the week in which we have just spent.

[24:37] We come here today and we can worship together. And so the focus is on the resurrection. None of these passages show the early church resting as they considered Sunday the new Sabbath but we find them rejoicing in what God had done.

[24:50] When the stone was rolled away from Jesus' tomb on Easter morning the true Sabbath arrives. John 20 verse 19. And when the same day at evening being the first day of the week when the doors were shut where the disciples were assembled for fear of the Jews came Jesus and stood in the midst and saith unto them peace be unto you.

[25:10] Rest is here. I have given you my rest. So with that being said understanding that the Sunday is not the Sabbath as being taught but understanding that the churches at the very beginning after the resurrection they were celebrating on Sunday.

[25:25] Sunday Lord willing will always be a very important day to my family. And I want to give some reasons that I read years ago and I wrote down that I want to encourage you. Reasons that I love Sundays.

[25:36] It's also a reason I love two services on Sunday. One of them is because it begins my day and it ends my day in God's word. And so I love that. I also love that it sanctifies the time between.

[25:48] I started my day going to church and I will end my day going to church and meeting with God's people and it sanctifies what happens in the middle. Not meaning making it holy but meaning it sets it apart.

[25:59] It means it limits my options for the day in a holy and a good way that the day belongs unto the Lord. It provides another opportunity for me to learn. I really enjoy what I'm doing right now.

[26:12] I don't know if my face says it or not but I really enjoy what I'm doing right now. But I really enjoy being in that room over there and hearing somebody teach me out of the book of Romans and being helped.

[26:23] I really enjoy that. I enjoy getting to hear and to learn God's word. And so on Sunday I get two chances at the beginning of my day and at the end of my day. Provides another opportunity for worship. I want to sing more when we're done every time but we get a chance again tonight.

[26:38] Provides more opportunities to serve and that's a wonderful thing that we get to serve one another. It gives me more time with the people that I love by having morning and having the evening and this day being separated.

[26:50] We spend Sundays together. There's a great rhythm to it that no matter what's going on in life we show up here at this place and you hear please open your Bible and join me.

[27:01] And in all the busyness of life it creates a rhythm of life. Not only gives me a time with people I love and this isn't the highest goal in life but it's a good one. It's counter cultural.

[27:13] It goes against everything that the world tells us to do. To cease what we're doing for a day and gather together and worship Him and I can tell you from what I know about this world I do not want what they're doing and I don't want the results that they're having.

[27:26] And so the fact that what we're doing right now is counter cultural gives me confidence that it's the right thing to do and it doesn't discourage me from it. So yes all days belong unto the Lord but we can esteem this day in a special way to say we have set Sunday aside for a particular purpose which we gather together.

[27:44] And so the principles of resting in a day it comes even before Exodus. It goes all the way back to creation where God works on the six days and He rests on it. So even the principle that you need a day of rest is found there and we see it and that God can meet and He can provide for you and you can trust Him.

[28:02] And so I want to encourage you to know that there is a rest past Sunday. I love how I read this by Scott Hubbard. He said the world and the devil would have us work even while we rest.

[28:16] But Jesus would have us rest even while we work. There is a rest that we have found that you can be slaving in the middle of a field for 14 hours but what are you doing?

[28:30] I'm resting. You know that would be a good way for you to answer this week when somebody says how are you doing? Are you working hard? You say I may be working hard but I'm resting hard as well.

[28:40] And so Jesus would have us rest even while we work. So neither the sluggard who works just for the weekend nor the workaholic who has no weekend at all has learned to enjoy the rest of the true Sabbath.

[28:53] And so our lives should demonstrate a dependency upon God. And you being here today is a demonstration to say that there's nothing in the world that I can do that's more important than meeting with God.

[29:05] Do any of y'all have anything that needs to get done around the home? All of your yards are mowed. All the dishes are done. All the things are put up. There's nothing to do. There's no emails in your inbox right now from the companies that you work for.

[29:17] There's no opportunities for you. Are you telling me y'all got everything done this week and so you could show up here because you have nothing else to do? No. It's saying that I'm going to put a pause on my life and I'll say God I'm going to trust you because all those things I work with I will find my rest in you.

[29:32] I can trust you. The time with you is not time wasted. Matthew 11, 28, 29. Come unto me all ye that labor and are heavy laden and I will give you rest.

[29:44] Take my yoke upon you and learn of me for I am meek and lowly in heart and you shall find rest unto your souls. I want to know have you found rest unto your soul?

[29:57] You may be in here today and say I don't understand all this talk about rest. Does Trent need a nap? What's his problem? He is talking about rest continually. But those of us that have found this rest you know what I'm talking about.

[30:10] It is a deep and a real rest that when your life is falling apart that you can go into that closet with the Lord and you can find refuge in Him. That even though you say I haven't done anything right my soul is kept by Him and it's not in my hand.

[30:26] And so unless you have found that rest today you may not know what it is that I'm talking about but you may know that you need rest. And many of the problems that you're facing with is simply that you are restless and you will always be seeking comfort until you find your rest in Him.

[30:42] So the message of rest has come but some will still not accept it. Hebrews 4.10 But unto us was the gospel preached as well unto them but the word preached did not profit them not being mixed with faith in them that heard it.

[30:56] Every one of you in here today are being offered rest for whatever situation you're dealing with. You cannot bring me anything that you cannot find your rest in Christ but some of you will not find your rest in Him.

[31:08] Some of you may have never put your faith and trust in Jesus Christ you'll never put your faith in Him and in so doing you will not find rest. And I would like to encourage you today.

[31:20] Exodus 20 verse 2 it says I am the Lord thy God which has brought thee out of the land of Egypt out of the house of bondage. I would like to encourage you today to stop making bricks.

[31:33] To stop making bricks. To simply just take a break and to stop and to say God I trust you. Here is a group of people for all these years they're just making bricks non-stop making bricks non-stop and God comes to them and says you know what in this land of rest you can stop making bricks.

[31:51] You can take seven and a half weeks off. You can take one day off a week. You do not have to live constantly performing and constantly doing. Some of you may be making bricks today because you do not feel like you measure up so you think if I can just get to this certain point then I can have favor with God and he might save me and I want to tell you stop making bricks.

[32:10] Some of you in here feel like you measure up even though you're a Christian but you just feel like he doesn't truly love you because this week you only read your Bible three times instead of seven times. I want to tell you stop making bricks. Some of you in here as parents you feel like you're not good enough because your kids don't have all the things that you want and so you're finding your identity in your failure and I want to tell you stop making bricks.

[32:32] There is a rest today that is found in Jesus and is an insult to the Lord of the Sabbath to not rest in him and to keep making bricks.

[32:44] You're no longer in bondage and so today I would ask you if you're still making bricks to try to earn your way to heaven to try and build your way to heaven I would like to invite you to find your rest in the Lord of the Sabbath.

[32:56] And Christian in here I would invite you to do the same. He is God today and God tomorrow he will be there and all these things that are causing you a restlessness that you're trying to solve just go to him and say God I'm going to find my rest in you.

[33:11] That the finished work of Jesus on the cross of Calvary is the important message in whatever you're dealing with. Lay that beside your problems and find your rest in him. And so church can I encourage you today stop making bricks and find your rest in him.

[33:28] Let's pray. With every head bowed and every eye closed Kristen's going to play the piano. We won't be singing together at this time.

[33:40] As the piano is playing it's a time for you to respond. Some of you ought to get up and move forward as a step of action and say God I'm coming to find that rest and I want to pray to you.

[33:51] Maybe there in your seat they're here at the altar but either way take this time. We're not going to be in any hurry but speak unto the Lord and then I'm going to come back here in a moment and I will close this in a word of prayer and then we'll stand and sing a song together before we leave the day.

[34:08]  But find your rest in him alone. Amen.