Exodus: God Centered Thinking About the Sabbath

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Father, we are mindful today that you're going to reconcile all things unto yourself.

The Bible says that even now you're reconciling all things to yourself.

You've committed to us a message of reconciliation.

It's as if you're making your appeal through us.

You're urging people, be reconciled before it's too late.

And so, Lord, we want to be people of reconciliation with a message of reconciliation.

And the word you have for us today is actually, it's reconciling us to the rhythm that you created us to live by.

And so, God, we we forsake pace today for rhythm.

Speak to us from your word.

Say something today that has our name on it, we ask in Jesus' name.

And everyone said, Amen.

You can have a seat if you've got a Bible.

I invite you to take it over it up to Exodus chapter 31.

Exodus 31 · chapter mention

We've been going through the book of Exodus.

Uh we're up to the, we're getting to the last, you know, 10 chapters or so, so it's kind of winding down.

Uh, somebody asked me about three months in, how long we're gonna be in Exodus, and I said, until the end.

Uh I I don't, I mean, I don't, yeah.

Anyway, and so uh, but we're gonna take a break, and as Rick said, he'll be teaching in July a series called The Jesus Way, which is on the Sermon on the Mount.

Uh, but today I want to talk to you about uh from Exodus 31, starting chapter 12, a God-centered thinking about the Sabbath.

God-centered thinking about the Sabbath because this is kind of weird.

God kind of not weird.

Let me take that back, Lord.

I didn't mean to say that.

This seems out of sync for us because God's kind of going hard.

He gives them the Ten Commandments and He says, Hey, this is how you stay free, this is how you flourish in relation to me.

Then he gives them these details about how, hey, build for me a sanctuary and I'll dwell among you because I want you to know that my eyes are on you.

I've not taken my eyes off of you, not forgotten about you.

And so they build a tabernacle, and then God gives these uh intricate details about, hey, this is all pointing to Jesus who's gonna come.

And then just kind of out of the blue, God starts talking about the Sabbath.

And I I want to talk about this from the perspective of truth instead of benefit.

I think too often we preachers try to sell our congregations on biblical truths by showing you how they're gonna benefit your life, and that's resulted in a very narcissistic version of spirituality that sees everything through the lens of self.

Uh, let me say that again.

We gotta stop talking about everything in the Bible in terms of how it benefits you.

There's things in the Bible that are just true, regardless of how they make you feel, regardless of how they make me feel.

They're just true.

And so we've got to stop being cowards that stand up here with the Bible and like it's a self-help manual.

And hey, you should really practice the Sabbath because you'll be rested and better for work and blah, blah, blah.

Books are written on that.

You should practice the Sabbath because God said so.

And matter of fact, he says it so harshly, so clearly, so honestly.

It's not harsh.

That's just what we think about it.

That God says those who don't should be killed.

Now that I have your attention.

Now I'm not saying, oh, if you don't Sabbath, Greece should kill you.

Not at all.

I'm just saying, I'm not coming at this this morning, laying all my cards on the table.

I'm not coming at this for trying to convince you or coax you based on, hey, you should do this because you'll you'll benefit.

No, no.

This is the truth.

See, here's my concern.

In this environment where everything is preached as benefit and nothing's preached as the truth, uh, church kind of goes for me to place a personal responsibility where I kind of under, I come and get a deeper sense of my my responsibility to God and the gospel.

And it's no longer a place of personal responsibility, it's a place of personal empowerment.

What are you gonna do for me?

How are you gonna help me?

I want to be a leader, help me become a leader.

I've had a man say to me on his second visit here, how do you become an elder in this church?

Because I want to be an elder.

And I said, That's great.

That's great.

Scripture says if anyone desires to be an elder, it's wonderful.

They aspire to a great thing.

Well, we'd love that to happen.

I said, Where are you currently volunteering?

Well, I don't volunteer anyway.

This is our second Sunday.

I want to be in leadership.

You're never gonna be in leadership here.

You're just another selfish person looking to suck up resources of the church, and for whatever reason, they didn't come back.

I don't know what happened.

If you're here today, my offer still stands.

We need somebody to write babies over here.

We want our small children to be around men.

If you want to be in leadership, serve.

That's crazy.

I read that in a book one time.

And so I'm just laying my cards on the table.

I'm not coming at you trying to sell you on, hey, benefit.

This is the truth.

And it's recorded in Exodus chapter 31, starting in verse 12.

Exodus 31 · chapter mention

The Lord said to Moses, You are to speak to the people of Israel and say, Above all, you shall keep my Sabbath, for this is a sign between me and you throughout the generations, that you may know that I, the Lord, sanctify you.

You shall keep the Sabbath because it is holy for you.

Everyone who profanes it shall be put to death.

Whoever does any work on it, their soul shall be cut off from among his people.

Six days shall work be done, but the seventh day is a Sabbath of solemn rest, holy to the Lord.

Whoever does any work on the Sabbath shall be put to death.

Therefore the people of Israel shall keep the Sabbath, observing the Sabbath through their generations as a covenant forever.

It is a sign forever between me and the people of Israel, that in six days the Lord made heaven and earth, and on the seventh day he rested and was refreshed.

And he gave to Moses, when he had finished speaking with him on the mount on Mount Sinai, the two tablets of testimony, tablets of stone written with the finger of God.

And I just want to I just want to make six statements uh uh out of this passage.

And the first one is simply this that the Sabbath is a priority of God.

The Sabbath is a priority of God.

He says there in verse 13, you are to speak to the people of Israel and say, Above all, above all, just two simple words that ought to kind of cause our attention and our interest to kind of ratchet up a level where God just kind of says, Above all, this is free, beloved.

But anytime God uses the phrase, above all, he kind of points to things and says, Hey, prioritize this.

God, of all the things that God could say, he says, Above all, you shall keep my Sabbath.

Now, there's other places in the Bible, like in the 138th Psalm, God says, I've exalted above all things my name and my word.

And so if you ever want to kind of wonder if your priorities are in line or in keeping with God's priorities, just kind of read through the Bible, do a little word search on the phrase above all, and see what God kind of prioritizes, and then prioritize that.

And I promise you, your life will be what you're trying to make it in your own efforts.

He says here, above all.

And he invites us to think in a in in a godlike manner about the Sabbath.

The problem with us in a Sabbath is taking a day and not doing anything is that we just cannot see ourselves getting done everything that we need to get done if we don't do something every day.

And before I go any further, let me give you a definition for Sabbath.

I don't think this is in my notes, but uh because I forgot to give it to him.

But let me just, here's what I mean by Sabbath.

Sabbath is a day of rest, reorientation, and relating to God, where I remind myself of who is sovereign.

Sabbath is a day of rest, reorientation, and relating to God, where I remind myself of who is sovereign.

In other words, who's in control of the world, who's in control of my life?

And God says that's why the Sabbath is a priority of God, because he says, Hey, above all, secondly, the Sabbath is a sign.

The Sabbath is a sign.

He says in verse 13, he keeps going, above all, you shall keep my Sabbath, for this is a sign between me and you throughout the generations that you may know that I, the Lord, sanctify you.

He's the Sabbath is a sign.

Now ask yourself this practical question.

If there was a sign hanging on your life today, what would it say?

If there was a sign just kind of hanging on your life, what would it say?

Because God says, Hey, I want to hang this sign on you.

The Sabbath is a sign.

It answers the question, who is the Lord?

He says that, hey, it is a sign between me and you throughout the generations that you may know that I, the Lord, sanctify you.

That's where it's a sign, is that, hey, it's a sign that I'm in a sanctifying relationship.

I don't just need a tabernacle like we talked about last week.

I don't need a place.

I need a time in every week of uh of my life.

Otherwise, because you can have a place.

For a lot of people, Sabbath is like a gym membership.

You buy a gym membership and you go about three times, and that the gym knows that that's how they make money off of you.

Because no few people in this room have time to go to a gym membership uh on a consistent basis.

So they sign you up, and when the pep talk wears off, you quit going, okay?

Every time I see somebody's got keys and they have a little key fob on there to a gym, I say, Oh, how often do you work out?

And without hesitation, they go, Oh man, I joined that a year ago.

I went five times, haven't been back since.

And how long did you join for?

I joined for a year.

And you pay every month for that?

Yeah.

Do you ever can you get your money back?

No, I signed the contract.

I'm like, that's like highway robbery.

Do you feel guilty or something?

Yeah, I used to, but I just stopped thinking about it.

I just block it out.

Matter of fact, I'm gonna take this off right now because it's just making me angry thinking about it.

See, you don't need, say, this is like a gym membership.

You don't need it, just a place.

You need time.

It'd be great if you had, you know, oh, I joined, and they wouldn't be great if they send an Uber driver to pick you up.

It's time to put on your workout clothes and come to the gym.

No, but they don't.

Matter of fact, I read an article that said that most gyms they factor their profit margin based on the fact that you're not going to show up.

It's not that you don't have a place, you got a place, you got the key fob to prove it.

You don't have time.

And that's why, right after the tabernacle, Exodus God gives these intricate, exacting details, and then he says, Oh, by the way, you don't just need a place, you need a time, you need a day in every week.

And so the Sabbath is assigned to us, and it answers the question, but it also says, hey, we're in a sanctifying relationship with our consistent God who is always setting us apart.

That's what sanctify means.

It means to kind of set apart.

If you go into a uh a store or a restaurant, a lot of them, I don't think they do it much anymore, but used to, the first dollar they made in business, they would frame it and they would put it on the wall back there, and you would say, What is that?

Like a sign in case of emergency, break glass?

And then, no, this is the first dollar we made.

They sanctified that dollar.

They set it apart to say, This is special.

In the same way, God says, Hey, I sanctify, I am the Lord who I sanctify you.

You're not the only person that's working on you and your relationship with me.

And so we kind of reciprocate that by observing the Sabbath.

That's why it's a sign.

Hey, I'm in a relationship with with a God who's sanctified me, who's setting me apart.

And so the way that I acknowledge that, that I'm in a relationship with God who sanctifies me, is that I sanctify one day out of seven, and I set it apart to the Lord.

I don't go, go, go all I can.

I'm not addicted to caffeine and accomplishment.

I just kind of stop.

Why?

Because I'm not sovereign, I'm not in charge of this.

My life is not the byproduct of me.

There's somebody bigger and greater and beyond me in capacity and accomplishment, and he is working on me.

He is sanctifying me, which means that the appetites I used to have, I don't have anymore.

Why?

Not because I'm trying harder, not because I hate myself more than I hated myself last year, because the God of the universe is at work inside of me and He's setting me apart.

He is taking me out of circulation, and he's framed me and put me on the wall and said, This one belongs to me.

And so it's not hard.

One out of seven days, just to kind of stop and just kind of go, you know what?

The Sabbath is a sign that God sanctifies me.

And so I sanctify this day back to God.

Thirdly, the Sabbath is holy.

The Sabbath is holy.

Look at verse 14.

He says, You shall keep the Sabbath because it's holy for you.

Now that that's a hard statement to make in this day and age because uh not much is still holy to us.

Have you noticed that?

Ask yourself today, what is holy to you?

What is sacred?

What is off limits?

What is, don't touch that, don't mess with that.

That's not even up for discussion.

We live in a profane, we live among a profane people.

That's what Isaiah cried out in Isaiah chapter 6.

Isaiah 6 · chapter mention

He says, Woe is me.

I am ruined.

Mine eyes have seen the king.

He said, I'm a man of unclean lips, and I live among a people of unclean lips.

And so in a culture like that, it's kind of great just to kind of ask, hey, what's holy?

We had a big parade last night in downtown Houston.

We're all got together and celebrated.

And just in that culture, just ask yourself, what's holy?

What's left that's sanctified unto God that we haven't profaned?

I mean, is the Bible still holy for us?

Is marriage still holy?

I got a text at 1238 Friday night.

Actually, Saturday morning.

My wife was like, What are you doing up at 1238?

I was reading.

I wasn't sleepy.

I didn't want to watch TV because by the way, the more TV I watch, the harder it is for me to be holy.

I just feel my brain and my worldview shrinking.

There's not that much.

I'm not, this is not a sermon about the badness of TV.

Watch TV all you want.

I just, it's hard for me to find it interesting anymore.

I'm for Coastal Carolina in the College World Series.

That's my TV watching agenda.

I want those cats to go all the way, okay?

Because they got an inflatable rally shark in their dugout.

That's about as deep as it goes for me.

But beyond that, sitcoms and everything, let me guess.

We've got a gay character in there, gotta have that.

Uh we have people lying, cheating, sinning.

Okay.

This it's uh it's like there's a creative dearth in Hollywood.

No one can write anything interesting.

And so, in this kind of environment, I think it's great to ask what's holy.

Is marriage so holy?

I got a text at 1238 from a friend of mine who lives in another city, said, Hey, we just got back from so-and-so's house, and he left her for another woman.

The affair's been going on for like eight months.

I did their wedding.

I stood there, and when I was laying the, they wrote their vows.

When I'm laying the vows out, he is raising his arm in defiant worship, saying, Yes, this is my woman for the rest of my life.

And now he said, You know what?

You just I just don't feel it anymore.

I almost jumped in my truck and drove to his town and rang his doorbell.

Just with my shirt off.

Come out in the front yard.

I'm gonna help you feel some things.

Heard you don't feel it anymore.

That's not because I'm a bad person, I got anger issues.

It's just that marriage is holy.

When things stop being holy, you treat them in profane ways.

And I just want to ask you, ask yourself, stab your conscience awake to this morning, beloved, and ask yourself, what is still holy?

Because God says the Sabbath is holy for you.

Everyone who profanes it, verse 14, you shall keep the Sabbath because it's holy for you.

It's hard to keep anything, it's hard to think rightly about things that you think about them the way you think about everything else.

If it's not sanctified, set apart, and holy for you, then just walk all over it.

Everyone who profanes it shall be put to death.

Whoever does any work on it shall be cut off from among his people.

Six days your work shall be done, but the seventh day is a Sabbath of solemn rest, holy to the Lord.

If you're if you're finding hard to hard to get yourself motivated around it being holy, remind yourself this is holy unto the Lord.

It's holy.

The Sabbath is holy.

We have such a tendency to profane things that soon everything is common and diluted, it's lacking otherness.

It can't inspire, require, or restrain us and our small appetites.

So our lives at the end is just a demonstration of our willingness, our willpower, and our appetites.

And it's not because we didn't try hard enough, it's just that we lost the sense of what is holy.

We live in a country that has lost the sense of what is holy.

Nothing's holy, and everything is becoming profane.

That's why our kids lose hope.

That's why our kids kind of shrug and go, what's the use?

I mean, are you kidding me?

Why not?

Everyone else is doing it because we've we as a nation have lost the sense of what is holy.

And God says, I'll call you back to this right here.

The Sabbath is holy.

Fourthly, the Sabbath reminds us that we're in a relationship.

The Sabbath reminds us that we're in a relationship.

And by the way, a relationship requires relating to the person you're in the relationship with.

That's why every time I do premarital counseling, I say to the guy, Do you like to talk?

And he's like, Well, not a whole lot.

I mean, I'm I mean, you one guy said to me, I mean, you're like a preacher, I'm sure you love to talk.

Listen, I go home every day, I'm talked out, okay?

Why am I asking you if you like to talk?

I don't know why you asked me if you like to talk.

Because you got to relate to this woman.

You can't just want to do other things.

You got to relate to her every day.

Matter of fact, you start practicing now, having every conversation twice.

The date, the time you have it, and then when you get home and you summarize it to your wife.

And he looked at me and said, Every conversation?

Pretty much.

He goes, What do you mean?

I said, Well, if you go to lunch with Joe and she says, How was lunch with Joe?

She doesn't just want the general 40,000-foot overview.

She wants the hovering four-foot minute by minute, word-for-word transcript.

Typed out in triplicate, filed in alphabetical order.

And if three days later you remember something you forgot to tell her when you first had the conversation, she's just gonna come at you like a duck at a June bug and go, Well, what else?

What else?

What else?

And you're gonna be like, I don't know, I didn't purposely leave that out.

It's just that you you got that spotlight shining down on me, and I was sweating, and I just forgot.

Well, is there anything else you're keeping from me?

Keeping from you.

Who's anything about keeping something from you?

And the the lady was out of the out of the office, she'd gone to the laser room, and she walked back in.

I said, I'm just telling you, get ready.

And she said, get ready for what?

Just long, enjoyable conversations.

And she said, Oh, I love to talk.

And I just looked at him and mouthed the words, save yourself.

See, the Sabbath reminds us that we are in a relationship that requires relating.

Think about it like a triangle.

You think about, uh, you relate to, and you experience.

You think about, you relate to, and you experience.

And the longer you do it, the deeper you think the deeper you think about God.

And the more intimately you relate to Him.

And the deeper you experience in Him.

So as a parent, you should be coming at a place of doubt that your kids don't even know that they that exists.

And it's not, oh, I'm better than you or whatever.

It's just they are envious.

They're kind of like, man, I want to experience God the way you do, Dad.

Because when you say stuff, there's weight on your words.

There's not shame and there's not control and manipulation.

There's just an experience there that I don't think I've had before.

That's because the more, the more you experience God, it shapes the way you think about God.

And the way you think about God informs the way you relate to God.

And the way you relate to God informs how you experience God.

And the more you experience God, it deepens and provokes the way you think about God.

It is a never-ending triangle of this deepening affection because you're in a relationship that requires relating.

The Sabbath is an opportunity for you and I to proclaim who to proclaim who is the Lord and to grow in our knowledge of Him.

That's what the Sabbath was about.

It's not, well, I kind of relate to God and think about God the same way I did when I was 25.

If you're 40, that that's not good.

If you're 60, that's not good.

And by the way, you never get to just kind of tap out and kind of go, you know what, I've I've got enough.

This is why the the penalty for breaking the Sabbath was so severe.

I told you that God killed people that didn't keep the Sabbath.

Not because God's harsh or anything.

Why?

Because to not observe the Sabbath is to relate to God in such a way as to say, I don't need to know any more about you.

I prayed in prayer when I was 10.

I'm going to heaven when I die.

God says, You cut me out of your life, I'm going to cut you off from my life.

That's why.

So don't walk out and kind of go, man, God's hardcore about this Sabbath thing.

No, no, no.

Stay here before you walk out and ask yourself, what is God inviting me to by saying, take one of seven days and Sabbath?

Just reorient and reflect about me.

Think about me.

It doesn't mean lay on your bed flat on your back, reading the book of Leviticus until you're confused.

Sabbath is not a noun, it's a verb.

I mean it's both, but it's just, hey, I'm in a relationship that I gotta relate.

I gotta intentionally do something.

So you don't just need a place, you need a time.

That's why the Sabbath, one guy I was reading, he referred to the Sabbath as a tabernacle in time.

It's just this little time slot that God just kind of says, I want this right here to be all about me and you.

Fifthly, the Sabbath invites us into a rhythm.

Look at verse 17.

You still with me?

He says, It is a sign forever between me and the people of Israel that in six days the Lord made heaven and earth, and on the seventh day he rested and was refreshed.

This is how simple your pastor is.

I have not gotten over Jeff Wood.

That last part right there.

In six days the Lord uh created uh the heaven and the earth.

On the seventh day, he rested and was refreshed.

What refreshes God?

Perhaps you could take me to breakfast sometime soon, Jeff, and explain that to me.

Because that's just been my meditation.

What refreshes God?

Clyde came in, our worship house came to my office and said, Hey, how do you feel about Sunday?

Oh, this is where we're going on Sunday.

And I just read in the passage and I said, and he rested and was refreshed.

What does it mean that God was refreshed?

Now, some of you are gonna get up and feel like you've got to defend God.

Oh, God doesn't need refreshment.

Why does the Bible say this?

I'm not saying God was lacking and he got filled up, but he was refreshed.

What refreshes God?

And just because here's somebody my little brain works, my little pea brain.

Okay, if God was refreshed, then what does it look like for me to be refreshed?

What does it look like for you to be refreshed?

What refreshes you?

Every once in a while, my wife has suggestions for what I should do to get refreshed.

It is one of the most frustrating things in our marriage.

She's like, you ought to just take some books and go to a cabin in the woods.

And I'm thinking in my mind, you should shut up.

That's not refreshing to me at all.

Now, if I went to the golf course all day and played 36 holes of golf and ate supper somewhere by myself and came home and took a shower and read a little bit, went to bed, that would be refreshing.

If I didn't have to talk to anybody for three days, that would be refreshing.

So that includes me.

Absolutely.

That includes you, court reporter.

So how was work today?

It was good.

When you talk to anybody, I talk to people every day.

Well, I don't want you to tell me everything because I know it's like clergy lady privilege anything, but is anything you can tell me?

No, nothing really significant.

It's never enough.

It's never enough.

She just sets there like a cobra, just poised.

And the minute I indicate that something happened today that I've not recorded and submitted to her, wham! You didn't tell me about that.

What would refresh you?

Going to Barton Creek, which is a golf resort in Austin that I love.

Going to Barton Creek by myself for about three days would refresh me.

Oh, you don't want me to go.

You ask me what would refresh me.

You refresh me, but sometimes not being around you is refreshing to me.

That ain't hate, that's just marriage.

Because guess what?

She feels the same way.

Some of you right now are sitting next to your wife and thinking, oh, I wish to God I could say that.

You can, because she's got a lot to say back to you.

Like, you go first, and then I'll take my three days.

I just want to say, I just, God just kind of says, hey, hey, the Sabbath, hey, the Sabbath invites us into a rhythm.

That's number five.

Look at verse 17.

He says, This hey, hey, hey, it is a sign forever between me and the people of Israel that in six days the Lord made heaven and earth, and on the seventh day he rested and was refreshing.

And what is this rhythm?

It's this rhythm of creation.

It's the same rhythm we see back when God created, where he made the world in six days and he rested on the seventh.

Exodus uses the phrase, if you're like a Bible information junkie, this is a great little truth for you.

Exodus uses the phrase, then the Lord said, uh, to remind us of the story of creation, uh, where God said, and it was so.

And the Lord spoke and it was so.

The Lord spoke, it was so.

And by using this phrase, the Bible kind of puts forth Israel is God's new creation.

These are my people.

I'm going to create a people under me, and they're going to be the vehicle through which I do this.

And so this phrase, then the Lord said, appears seven times in the book of Exodus, from Exodus chapter 25 to Exodus 30, chapter 31.

Exodus 25 · chapter mention

Seven times, then the Lord said, then the Lord said, then the Lord said, then the Lord said.

And so God is kind of saying, Hey, I'm a God of rhythm.

I'm not a God of pace.

I'm a God that calls you back to a Sabbath to kind of say, Hey, here's the way you were created to live.

And so the first six all relate to the tabernacle.

The seventh relates to what God is saying right here in this passage.

And then the Lord said, Sabbath calls us out of this life of pace.

A life of pace is all about us.

Here's how you know you live pace instead of rhythm, because you never manage to get everything done.

And in a life of rhythm, stuff just gets done.

And you don't always understand why, but it just does.

And Sabbath calls us out of pace and into rhythm.

And God rested and was refreshed.

Sixthly, and finally, the Bible tells us that the Sabbath is a command of God.

The Sabbath is a command of God.

And that phrase right there is probably the best thing I've said, and it kind of falls on deaf ears to a lot of people.

But let me just read verse 18.

And he gave to Moses when he had finished speaking with him on Mount Sinai the two tablets of the testimony, tablets of stone written with the finger of God.

When it says written with the finger of God, that's a reference to the authoritative nature of the commandments or of the Bible, what the Bible speaks to and about.

Don't think about God as having fingers as much as thinking about the Bible as having authority.

Let me ask you one last question today.

What still has authority for you?

What still is authoritative for you?

What is it that, hey, I don't argue with that, I accept that by faith.

That is just absolute for me.

The Bible says of itself in 2 Timothy chapter 3, verse 16, that all scripture is breathed out by God.

2 Timothy 3:16

See, here's my concern is that we live in a day and age.

I'll tell you this and I'm done.

You still with me?

Let's just think a little bit because I think that we gotta we gotta think, hey, back at you.

We gotta think, and look at me, we gotta think beyond just right now.

Because I know it's right now we all gotta go out and hug a homosexual and prove that we're not a bunch of hate mongers in light of Orlando.

Oh, Orlando is tragic, okay?

Homosexuality was just as much a sin today as it was three weeks ago.

Did you feel that?

Some of you are like, oh no, Pastor, that's not.

I know, I know.

And I'm not hating on anybody.

I'm just stating the facts, the truth.

Because for me as a Christian, not even as a pastor, the Bible's still authoritative.

I can't get swept up in what the culture's doing.

Because here's what happens: people advance their agenda under the umbrella of sentiment.

And we're giving away the farm right now in the name of, well, we don't want to offend anybody.

That's why the Brexit, the whole Britain getting out of the European Union is a big deal.

They just say, we want our country back.

Because we're tired of people just telling us how we got to live.

And if you don't think that's coming here, you have your head in the sand.

And I'm not picking sides, I'm just saying, think about something bigger.

This is free, okay?

Think about something bigger than your pocketbook and just what goes on under your roof.

Because we as a people, by the way, can you feel what's happening in this room right now?

Some of y'all are just like, just get back to the Sabbath, man.

Just come on.

Come on.

I'm still talking about the Sabbath, but just under the umbrella, what still has authority for us?

Because here's where we are.

Nothing has authority.

The only thing that has authority in our lives today is our experiences.

I saw it just last week.

I spoke at a camp, my 30th year to speak at a youth camp.

I think I'm done.

That's a nice round number.

Uh, and and here was here was the thing that I was just kind of like, you are kidding me.

Because I told the guy last year that I did I did a camp, I said, hey, these bands, you pay all this money, they just come there and sing five songs.

I mean, get your money's worth.

Make these guys talk on one of the morning sessions.

And so they put the band up here on stools, and and they basically said, Hey, just start asking them questions.

The kids, the students were asking the band questions, and one of them basically said, Hey, you know, where do you see God?

Where do you get a sense of God?

And one of the band guys, nice guy, skinny jeans, faux hawk, the whole, the whole costume on, uh, he said, and I quote, I wrote it down, because I was in the back of the room, I leaned over to one of the youth pastors and said, You don't, you shouldn't let your kids hear this.

He said, and I quote, I well, the question was, what are you learning these days?

What's God teaching you?

He said, I'm learning that I can see Jesus in the waves at the ocean just as easily as I can at church or reading the Bible.

Now, on the surface, some of you think, what's wrong with that?

What's the big deal?

Can't you see God in creation?

Absolutely.

But here's the trend and the tendency.

The only thing that's authoritative for us now is our experiences.

So what's gonna happen is we're gonna have a hard time evangelizing, tell people about Jesus, because if your faith is all based on your experiences and your opinions, because you're gonna run into the guy that says, Hey, I shoot black tar heroin and it makes my whole, I talked to a guy right up here in Starbucks.

He said, Hey, I shoot heroin and it makes my whole body feel warm and glowy, and that's what God is like to me.

Now, if all I have is experiences, on what basis can I deny him his experience if I'm basing what I say on mine?

He's just gonna look back at me and kind of go, hey, you just had a different experience.

You call that God, I call this God.

It works for you, this works for me.

And so what happens is we got to just give in and get along.

Because nothing's authoritative anymore.

Nothing outside of ourselves has authority over us.

And yet the Bible says this in 2 Peter chapter 1, verse 16.

2 Peter 1:16

I'll read this and we'll be done today.

For we did not follow cleverly devised myths when we made known to you the power and the coming.

Now, by the way, Peter is writing about the Mount of Transfiguration.

He's slain this modern-day addiction to experiences.

The Mount of Transfiguration is where Peter and John were up on this mountain, and Jesus floated up in the air, and and basically he glowed.

He was like iridescent.

It's kind of like, and God spoke.

You're talking about an experience, that's better than heroin right there.

I mean, God floats up and glows, and you're like, oh my gosh.

And Peter says of that, we did not follow cleverly devised myths when we made known to you the power and the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ.

But we were eyewitnesses of his majesty, for when he received honor and glory from God the Father, and the voice was born to him for the majestic glory.

This is my beloved son with whom I am well pleased.

We ourselves heard this very voice born from heaven, for we were with him on the holy mountain.

We were there.

We saw it, we freaked out.

It was incredible.

Next verse.

We have the prophetic word more fully confirmed to which you would do well to pay attention as to a lamp shining in a dark place until the day dawns and the morning star rises in your hearts, knowing this.

Look at me, beloved.

Even if you don't know yet, even if you don't believe, even if you're a teenager and you've looked at your parents and said, This whole thing just doesn't work for me.

Or it's like God said to me, the whole God thing, I'm just not there yet, my man.

And in the course of the conversation, he said, What do I do?

And I said, just pay attention to the Bible.

And he goes, but I don't, I, I, I don't even believe in God.

I said, I know, but pay attention to the Bible.

The Bible speaks to people like you.

And he goes, What do you mean?

And I read this passage, and we have the prophetic word more fully confirmed than any experience to which you would do well to pay attention as to a lamp shining in a dark place until the day dawns and the morning star rises in your heart.

I said to him, this guy's like this whole God thing.

I said, Do you have a pastor?

He goes, Dude, why what do you mean do I have a pastor?

You don't understand.

This whole God thing doesn't work for me.

No, I understand.

But I'm asking, do you have a pastor?

What do you mean do I have a pastor?

Someone that teaches you the Bible.

When they get up, they say things in the Bible, and you may radically disagree.

You may make it just a list of these are things I want to argue about this week over coffee.

And he goes, No, I don't have a pastor.

And I said, I want to be your pastor.

He goes, What is that?

What does that look like?

And I said, I'll just teach you the Bible.

And you, because the Bible says you would do well to pay attention as a lamp shining in a dark place until the day dawns and the morning star rises in your hearts.

Knowing this, even if you don't know yet, it's God gives you something to certain to look to.

Knowing this, first of all, that no prophecy of Scripture comes from someone's own interpretation.

For no prophecy was ever produced by the will of man, but men spoke from God as they were carried along by the Holy Spirit.

See, uh I I read that, and I think we gotta keep beating that drum, and I try to say it as often as I can to because we live in the day and age of experience instead of truth.

And see, authority is connected to identity.

What do I mean?

This is what I mean, I'll be done.

A Bible void of authority speaks of a God who has none either.

Let me say that again.

A Bible void of authority.

If you think the Bible is not authoritative, then God cannot be authoritative.

And you're like, well, that's exactly what I've been saying.

Well, that gets worse than you think, because if God doesn't have authority, then how do you get forgiveness?

I will take you back to the Bible, where Jesus heals somebody.

And the Pharisees said to him, Who can forgive sins but God alone?

That's an authoritative question.

If the Bible doesn't have authority, then if it can't be trusted and submitted to, then we can't trust what it says about anything.

And what it mainly talks about is God.

So if the Bible doesn't have authority, God cannot have any authority.

And if God doesn't have the any authority, he sure does not have the authority to forgive you of your sins, then what hope do you have of ever making heaven?

You're on the slippery slope and you don't even know it.

Just because there's a lot of people, you kind of think, this is awesome.

Let's all put on a rainbow t-shirt and just party together.

Which is why the Bible says, broad is the path that leads to destruction, and many there be that go between.

So I just come back and ask this question.

What still has authority for you?

What still has authority for you?

And I would just remind you of a quote from Calvin Miller who said this.

He said, Learn to obey.

Only he who obeys a rhythm superior to his own is free.

Let's pray together.

Let's just take a moment and think about.

The Bible is not harsh.

Actually, it's just very clear, very simple.

Learn to obey.

Only he who he or she who obeys an authority, who submits, obeys a rhythm superior to his own, is free.

Are you free today?

Or are you just addicted to the next simulating experience to come along?

Is the Sabbath holy for you?

Do you think differently about that than you think about any other day of the week?

Let's just take a few moments and think about the Sabbath and what God says about it.

Father, we understand this morning from the Bible that we can rest easy.

We can take a day, one day out of every seven, and rest easy because you're the God who never rests.

You never sleep nor do you slumber.

You never fall asleep at the switch, you never forget about us.

And so we can stop obsessing about ourselves and all we got going on.

And some of us, in order to observe a Sabbath, we're gonna have to simplify our life.

We just got too much.

So, Holy Spirit, just apply the truth where it's most needed in our lives today.

We ask this in Jesus' name.

But everyone said, Amen.

Amen.

If you're our guest today, I want to say thanks for being part of our service.

Uh, when you came in, you were given a little worship sheet.

Uh, has a little part on there, ask for some information.

If you had a chance to fill that out, if you would just kind of fold that, increase it, and tear it off, drop it in one of these wooden boxes by the doors on your way out.

Those are our offering boxes.

That's where we receive our offering uh from those who are a part of this church, members, and consistent attenders.

Stand to your feet, let me speak a blessing over you.

Hold your hands out.

By insisting upon a Sabbath, your father is saying to you, I got this.

All the things that are too big for you are never too big for him.

So just stop what you're doing and let him start doing what only he can do.

In the name of the Father, and the Son and the Holy Spirit.

Amen.

Unless you're dismissed.