Firm Foundations: Week 3

If you wanted to be a football player our basketball player. For me,

I was convinced that I was going to play for the Cincinnati Reds, and

of course I was going to be a major star, the best guy on

the team. And one of my favorite things is do all the time was

I used to put all my Cincinnati Reds baseball helmet. I would put it

on. I would go out to my backyard with a ball bat, and

we had a little baseball fill in our backyard, and I would daydream all

the way through a game, and of course, in the bottom of the

ninth every game, I would hit the winning home run. And I would

even run around the bases in my backyard and I would imagine the people screaming,

You're the greatest, You're the greatest, and you're so good looking,

and you know, and I would have these just great day dreams, and

I just dreamed of being a baseball player someday. You know. When my

daughter was around four years old, we used to get a big kick out

of a series of questions that we used to ask her. And whenever we

would get some friends around, I would ask her a set of questions and

I would get one of the other adults to ask her a set of questions,

and it would go something like this, Caitlin, what do you want

to be when you get older? And she was answered, I want to

be me. And then we would say all right, well, then who

are you? And she would say I am a child of God. And

then I would say, oh, okay, then what do you want to

do to get money someday? And then she would say, according to the

season, either I want to be a lawyer or an answer or something like

that, and adults would get a big kick out of it. Everybody knew

it was rehearsed, and you can imagine this little blonde girl with a squeaky

voice saying, he's a little cute but really deeply theological answers. You see,

this was my way of teaching my daughter that a relationship with God was

more important than anything that we would ever actually do in life. And she

didn't earn it. She'd had to do something for it. It was offered

to her. Now, why was I so adamant about her getting this?

Well, I'll tell you truth. You know, I feel like that this,

for some reason is the hardest thing for people who grew up in church

or who've been in church for many, many years to grasp even during Jesus'

Day, they had a hard time getting it okay. And now, even

two thousand years later, we have a hard time understanding the difference between religion

and relationship, between religion and relationship. And for my child growing up in

church, especially being a pastor's kid, I wanted her to understand that it

was all about having a relationship with God, who loved us, cared for

us, and wanted good for us. And I wanted to make sure that

she wasn't being brought up in a religion that was all about rules and ritual

at doing things to earn God's love or following a checklist to keep God's love.

And so this teaching about religion versus relationship is something that I have hammered

and hammered and hammered. Why because I grew up in a church, and

I was a church kid, and I remember in seventh or eighth grade,

I had a sin problem. I continue to have a sin problem, but

my sin problem back then was that I just couldn't be perfect. I kept

sinning and I kept thinking, man if I can't be perfect, and I'm

sinning all the time, then I will never be good enough for this God.

And so therefore I just backed off of Christianity. I thought, man,

surely God's always disappointed at me. God's always angry at me. God

is always looking at me like, ah, James, you did it again.

And I felt like I could not live up to God's standard. But

because I understand as a religion, I just walked away. And so since

I've been in ministry, every group I've preached to, both of the youth

groups, the Churchill's Outlast and this church. You know that I have hammered

and hammered and hammered this one thing. Now, I am constantly telling you

that you are sons and daughters of God. That first and foremost, you

are a child of God, and that means more than anything else. It's

all about relationships. So yeah, we've been hammering that for the last few

years. And then we get to this series, the Ten Commandments, and

it pretty much preaches the exact opposite of what I've been talking about for the

last few years. It is a series about rules, it's a series about

rituals, and it's a series about religion. It has rules, regulations,

rituals, it screams religion. It was the foundational teaching of the Old Testament.

It was the pillars of the Jewish religion. And I don't know if

you noticed this or not, but it's hot in here. But that's not

my point. If you read through the Ten Commandments, did you notice it?

It doesn't say and because I love you, thou shalt not, and

because I love you, thou shalt not, and because I love you,

thou shalt out. Did you notice that? It doesn't tell us at all

that God loves us in the Ten Commandments. What we have here is a

set of rules, okay. And so I want you to look at the

very first verse after they received the Ten Commandments, and let's look at the

Israelites response right after they received the Ten Commandments. Let's look at this Exodus

twenty verse eighteen. It says when the people saw all the thunder and lightning,

and heard the trumpet and saw the mountain smoke. In other words,

this is talking about God's presence that had came to Moses on the mountain to

give the Ten Commandments. It says they trembled with fear, and then they

stayed at a distance their God, who rescued them, came down to meet

with them, and what did they do? They backed away, They stayed

at a distance, and they said that Moses speak to us yourself and we

will listen. But do not have God speak to us, or we will

die. So immediately after receiving the ten commandments, what was their response.

Their response was simply this. I don't want to see God. I don't

want to hear from God. I don't want to talk to God. We've

got to remember that all that they have seen from God is God. Whooped

up on the ancient Egyptians. He whooped up on Pharaoh. He split the

rest, see destroyed the Egyptian army. They were scared of God. They

had fear, and they did not think about love. Okay, when they

thought about God, they didn't think about a loving, compassionate God. See

these commandments, even though today we look at him with a different light,

it seemed like a contract to him that brought horrible punishments if they did not

follow. There was no relationship. It was just a new religion. No

more idols, no more Egyptian gods, no more Pharaoh. But in exchange

we got rules, we got commandments, we got rituals. It's another religion

at first glance. But then in the middle of the commandments, something emerges.

Okay, in the middle of the commandments, there's a commandment that emerges

that looks different, it feels different, It speaks differently to our souls.

It's almost as if God is caring for them as his children. It's almost

as if God has calling them into his presence and to be in a relationship

with him. We see a loving commandment, and it's a commandment that just

maybe, just maybe doesn't scream religion, but it screams relationship. Let us

look at this commandment today. Exodus twenty verse eight. It says, 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 male or female servant, nor your animals,

nor any foreigner residing in your town. 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. All right. Now, at first glance,

we can easily see that this commandment is broken up into three sections.

Okay, Verse eight tells us what to do. Okay, very simple.

Verse eight tells us what to do. It says, remember the Sabbath day

by keeping it holy. So first and foremost, what will we learn?

The Sabbath is a day each and every single week. That what belongs to

the Lord. So what day is the Lord's day? It's the Sabbath,

or for us it's Sunday. And what are we supposed to do on that

day? Well, the Sabbath is a day each week with the main purpose

of drawing near to God. Huh, that's not what I learned growing up

watching MTV all the time. The Bengals said that, you know, I

wish it was you know, when they were crying and complaining about their manic

Mondays. They said, I wish it was Sunday because Sunday that's my Funday.

And for those of you who grew up in the MTV generation, you

know how awesome of a quote that was. For those of you who didn't

trust me, that was an awesome quote. But anyways, Sunday. Sunday's

a day set aside, one day a week that is given to God.

It's the Lord's day. So what does that mean? Practically? Now,

paid very close attention this because our culture, and sadly many in our church

and in our church world has forgotten this part. It's one day a week

that we set aside and we do this. Lord, What do you want

me to do to honor you on your day? Lord? What do you

want me to do to honor you on your day? Now? You know,

before our minds get creative and start coming up with ways we think that

we can honor the Lord, first of all, we should always look to

see if Scripture has already answered the question for us. And when we look

at Leviticus twenty, what does it say here? It says there are six

days when you may work, but the seventh day is a day of sabbath

rest, a day of sacred assembly. Did you hear this? God says

the Sabbath is a day of sacred assembly. In other words, it's a

day of corporate worship. It's a day where we come together and we pray

and we seek the Lord. And by the way, guests who followed this.

Guess who lived this out Jesus Christ himself. Let's look at this and

look for it. Says he went to Nazareth, where he had been brought

up, and on the Sabbath day he went into the synagogue, as was

what his custom. It's a day that we worship the Lord. This day

is not our day. By the way, this isn't your day. Okay,

This day belongs to the Lord. This is the ear day. To

do whatever you want. This day belongs to the Lord. Lord says,

listen, I give you six other days, but today you are to worship

me, to pray, to serve me, and to seek me on the

stay. Now, Verses nine and ten actually tell us how we are to

do this. Let's look at this. It says, but the seventh day

is a sabbath to the Lord, your God. On it you shall not

work, neither you nor your sons daughters, nor your male or female servant,

nor your animals, nor any foreigner residing in your towns. In other

words, whatever we normally do throughout the week, we stop doing that on

the day of the Lord. Now we break this routine. We dedicate it

to the Lord for the purpose of our soul being refreshed in his presence.

Now, I don't know if you notice this in this verse, but there's

a call to the parents. Who's in charge of the Sabbath routine in the

household. The parents are, and so our kids are gonna come up with

all kinds of things to do on the weekend and on the Sabbath. But

it says parents, we are supposed to be the ones guarding the Sabbath for

our family. It's a trusting in the Lord. Okay. Now, some

of you would say, listen, Sabbath, I always understood it's really just

a day to rest our body. Well, yeah, but you need to

understanding that's the secondary purpose. That's not the main purpose. The primary purpose

of the Sabbath. The Sabbath day is a day of soul searching. In

other words, it's a day design for you and I to come together in

the presence of the Lord. We say, Lord, check our heart,

Lord, look at our heart, cleanse our heart, and help us to

draw near to You. And God, by the way, do you want

to call me to do anything? God? This is your day. God,

what are you speaking to me about today? Yeah, we happened to

be physically tired on the Sabbath, and if we get some rest and we

feel better, that's good, but that's not the primary reason for the Sabbath.

And verse six eleven explains why we do the Sabbath. Okay, it

says four and 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 he made

it holy. So he gives us two reasons why he's giving us a Sabbath

day. Number One, he says, hey, even I rested on the

seventh day, follow my example. Number two, it's a day for you

to draw near to me, to be in the presence of the Lord.

So to summarize us, we stop running the rat race of life and we

draw near to God on the Sabbath. It's a commandment to do this one

day a week. So what's the heart of the Sabbath. The best way

I can put it is, I feel like our lives are a lot like

Imagine you were walking down a busy downtown street, and as you're walking down

this busy downtown street, you hear the cars, you hear the music blaring

from the vehicles. You hear cars honking, you hear people yelling, talking

to each other. As you're walking up and down the street, you're getting

bumped by people. Every single store has advertisements calling for you to do this,

buy this, hey, do this, And so we're walking through and

in the midst of that, we can't even hear ourselves think, let alone,

could God speak to us? So the Sabbath is like this, one

day a week where we can imagine downtown is shut down. There's no cars,

there's no bikes, there's no businesses, and there's no people. And

you were walking in the presence of the Lord, and you were able to

hear him. You are able to speak to him, you're able to draw

near to him. The heart of the Sabbath, it's a time to cease

this crazy rat race and draw near to God. See, our father knows

that our lives, of our jobs, and our families and our responsibilities,

it's a whirlwind. And our father says, I just want one day a

week to spend with you, to fill you, to restore you, to

refresh you, to teach you, to love you, to hear from you.

I want to be with you. So we see here that this commandment

about the Sabbath, it's a beautiful commandment. It's not a commandment that screams

religion. It's a commandment that screams, I want a relationship with you.

Is screams love. Now, here's what we're gonna do for the rest of

time today. We're gonna shift, okay, and we're gonna talk about how

we have a problem with messing up the Sabbath. Okay, And we're gonna

go all the way back two thousand years ago because they were just totally messing

up the Sabbath. Because if there's one commandment, if there's one commandment in

the Bible that best illustrates the battle between relationship and religion, it's the commandment

of the Sabbath. So here's what we're gonna do. We're gonna go back

to the second chapter of Market. Here's what we see. We see Jesus

with the disciples on the Sabbath and they're walking through a field. But then

the religious leaders of that day were way more concerned, way way more concerned

with all the regulations that they had heaped on the Sabbath just to make sure

no one broke them. Here's what you need to understand that they just took

this wonderful, beautiful gift that was given to mankind to take a day off

and draw near to God. And they put commandment after commandment after commandment,

rule after rule after regulation on it. And guess what, Jesus, he's

not happy. We're gonna see in this text. We're gonna see Jesus be

unhappy. We're gonna see some rebuke, and we're gonna see some sarcasm from

Jesus. We're gonna see Jesus at his best here. Okay, this is

great. Check this out. There's a classic battle between Jesus and these religious

overlords. So let's look at this. It says one sabbath, Jesus was

going through the grain fields and his disciples walked along. They began to pick

some heads of grain. Now the Pharisee said to him, look, why

are they doing what is unlawful on the Sabbath. Here's what they're doing.

It's the Sabbath. They're traveling from one ministry spot to another ministry spot.

And guess what they do. They eat some kernels from a field, and

you're gonna be blown away. You're gonna be so disappointed when you hear about

all the rules that Jesus and his disciples broke. So let's check it out,

all right. First of all, disciples, they picked some heads of

grain, they rub them their hands together, and they eat the kernel.

So here's what they did. They violated at least four rules and regulations of

the Sabbath. Number one, they were not supposed to reap. That's when

they grabbed the grain. Number two, they violated the rule of no thrashing

on the Sabbath day. This is when they rubbed the hust together to separate

the grain. And the third rule they broke was winnowing. I have no

idea what winnowing is. I'm assuming I'm trusting my commentary that winnowing is where

you separate the husk, you throw them away. And then, lastly,

the fourth thing they did was well because they did all that, they had

prepared food, which was a no no on the Sabbath. Now, not

too many of us who are here has plucked some kernels of grain and ate

them. Just a few of you, some of you farm boys, all

right, But the rest of us have probably at some point in our life

shuck some corn. Similar to this. So that's all they did. But

yet they violated all these rules of the Sabbath. Now, the self appointed

guardians of the Sabbath, they were very quick to jump on and they said,

why do you do what is not lawful on the Sabbath. Now,

here's what you need to understand. They took one command at the screen relationship

and they turn it into a religion. In the Talmud Jewish Book of Rules,

they dedicated twenty four chapters of rules and regulations for the Sabbath. God

says, separate on this day of the Sabbath and worship me. That's what

he said, here's my commandant. Spend time with me on the Sabbath.

They said, well, God, that's a pretty good attempt, but I

think we're gonna add twenty four chapters. And they wrote twenty four chapters of

rules and regulations about the Sabbath. Now, I would love, I would

love to just get like a video or being God's presence when all this is

happening, because you can imagine God being like oh no, no, no,

no, this was this was like good no, this was the one

was about relationship. And twenty four are you crazy? Twenty four chapters.

I give two sentences twenty four. I mean you can see God. Just

be like, what if? Then here's some of the rules. Check this

out, all right. You could not, okay, shake out your clothes

on the Sabbath, just in case you shook out and an insect flew out

and you killed it. That would be considered work. Uh. You could

not light a fire or put a fire out on the Sabbath, okay,

so you do either have the freeze or just burn your whole house down.

It didn't matter. Bathing was forbidden just in case some of the water came

out of the bathtub and washed the floor. That would be considered work.

Women were forbidden to look in the mirror, just think in case you saw

white hair and you were at tempted to pluck it out. These were just

crazy man made rules. God gave the Sabbath as a blessing and they turned

it into a curse. And here's what they did. The Sabbath is a

day that followers of Christ should look forward to every single week. Brother and

sister, if you dread Sunday or if Sunday feels like an obligation to you,

I am I am deeply concerned about your soul, deeply concerned. Sabbath

is a day every week that we should be looking forward to being in the

presence of the Lord. And it is a day that we get refreshed and

renewed in His presence. And instead they made it a day that everybody was

filled with anxiety all week long. They missed the whole point of the Sabbath.

Sea God put the Sabbath in place so that mankind would take one day

week to draw near to Him. At the same time, they had to

trust God that God was powerful enough to sustain their life without them working,

because they had to stop working, so they had to trust that God would

take care of their lives, that God would hold their future, sustain their

lives. Enough is enough, I could rest because I trust the Lord.

Seeing Let's understand something before we finish our journey today. And the Sabbath was

a day to draw near to Lord. But the Sabbath also forces us to

cease working, so that one day week we are reminded that it is God

who sustains our life, provides for us. It is God who takes care

of us. Since we're mostly focused today on the Sabbath and We've been talking

about for the most part today about how the Sabbath's main purpose is to draw

near to God, to be in his presence, to be refreshed by Him.

And I want to spend the rest of the time talking about the second

purpose of the Sabbath. And the second purpose of the Sabbath, well,

it is to rest. But see, in order for you to truly rest

on the Sabbath, it takes faith. It actually takes this for you to

stop doing everything you want to do or need to do on the Sabbath.

You have to actually trust the Lord that he will take care sustain your life.

You have to trust that someone besides you will uphold the universe, that

God can be trusted with your future, that God can be trust your life.

You know, there is no one, no one on this earth who

does better at understanding the purpose of the Sabbath than Chick fil A. Can

I get an amen? Think about Chick fil A. Chick fil A takes

every Sunday off. Now, corporations, when you are in competition with all

these other restaurants, doesn't it seem like a crazy thing to do to take

one day a week off? But let me tell you the owners of Chick

fil A, they're followers of Christ, and they decided years ago, we

are gonna honor the Sabbath and we're not gonna work. And then they've not

only follow the Sabbath by saying, Hey, our sons and daughters are not

gonna work. We're not gonna make those who are employed by us work.

They honored the Sabbath. And guess what. Chick fil A is an object

lesson to the whole world that God will sustain your life. I mean,

they make enough profit in six days to cover everything they would need on the

seventh day. And I don't know if you've ever been in a line at

Chick fil A, but don't you feel the Holy Spirit, Like, oh,

man, the Lord has anointed that sandwich, that Chick fil A sauce

had to be made in heaven. And you see, God's hand is all

upon Chick fil A. But here's the thing, it's an object lesson to

the world of God will sustain you. God will take care of you.

I used to love on Sundays after church. Usually Caitlin would have some friends

of her who would go to church, and almost every Sunday I would say,

hey, girls, you want to go to Chick fil A. And

they would go yeah, and I'm like, oh, it's closed. Oh

that was so much fun. And they kept falling for it over and over

and over and over again. But see, you can't take steps of faith

like that unless you trust. When I was a little child, I used

to get real car sick, and so whenever my family went on trips,

I would get into the vehicle and I would lay down on the floor and

I would go to sleep for the whole car trip. But guess what,

I was never worried. I was never concerned. I had no anxiety.

You know why, I trusted my dad. My dad took care of me,

He provided for me, and he was present in my life. So

I trusted my dad, and I can rest in the journey. And what

God is saying to us who sometimes are tempted to take the Sabbath day and

do our own agenda. God says, haven't I provide it for you?

Haven't I taken care of you? Do you trust me? See, here's

what we need to understand. God spent forty years being a good and faithful

dad to the people of Israel. Okay, after he rescued them out of

Egypt. For forty years. God did one object lesson over and over and

over again, so that the people of Israel would be able to say,

you take care of us, we could trust in you. You know what

God did Every day of the week. On Monday morning they receive bread mana,

Monday evening, the guy got quell Tuesday morning, mana from the Lord,

Tuesday evening, quel Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, every day of the

week. But then on Friday, because Saturday was their sabbath, God does

something different. Check it out. God switshed up the routine on Fridays.

Does it say Exodus sixteen, It says, bear in mind that the Lord

has given you the sabbath. That is why on the sixth day he gives

you bread. For two days, everyone is to stay where they are.

On the seventh day, no one is to go out, so the people

rested on the seventh day. God spent forty years on one object lesson,

just one object lesson. He just wanted people to understand, listen, I

hold your future in my hands. You can trust me. And then the

Pharisees come along and they're more concerned with rituals and ruling over people and having

power, and they turned the Sabbath into a joke. And let me tell

you something, does it not make Jesus happy. Let's return back to what

Jesus said to them. I love this so Jesus after they asked him,

like why are you basically sinning on the Sabbath? That Jesus answered, have

you never read what David did when he and his companions were hungry and in

need. Oh, by the way, Jesus knew they knew the scripture.

Jesus is being sarcastic here, okay, because Jesus knows that they know the

scripture. And Jesus goes on to say this, in the days of Abbath,

are the high priest talking about David. David entered into the House of

God ate the consecrated bread, which is lawful only for the priest to eat,

and he also gave some to his companions. Now, when we go

to First Amuel twenty one, we see this incredible story. Let me set

it up. Basically, it was the Sabbath. You got the priest.

They are in the synagogue, and here's what they did on that day.

They would set everything up and then they would have consecrated bread, and they

would make twelve extra loaves of bread. Why, those twelve loaves represented the

twelve tribes, and this was constantly created for the worship service, and the

priests only could eat. Okay, So that was a Sabbath day rule.

Now, during his time, Saul had decided to kill David. So David

has been on the run, he's been hiding, he's famished, he's exhausted,

he's been running for his life. He and his friends, they are

just at their wits in. They have nothing left, nothing left. They

have been running for their lives and they are at the very end of themselves.

And then finally, when David is exhausted and he's at the end of

himself, what does David do. David enters into the house of the Lord

and he ate that bread and he gave it to his companions Jesus. Jesus

then relates that, and he goes on to explain He's like, listen,

David a thousand years ago understood that the Sabbath was made for man, not

man for the Sabbath. And he says, a thousand years ago David got

the point of the Sabbath. It was to draw near to God. It

was to go to God to be restored, to be restored, to be

loved on, to be taken care of. And here he is, He's

at a moment of absolute desperation, and he goes into the Lord's presence.

Now, let me share something else with you. Another insight into this passage.

There was twelve extra loaves of bread. Each one represented one of the

tribes of Israel. Now, during this same time and even to this day,

to this day, idols always require a food offering to them. And

if you go into some restaurants, you'll still see an idol, and there

will be food offerings to these idols. So all these idols throughout the world

require these food offerings to their God. But on the Sabbath day, what

did God do? God had them take twelve extra loves, one love for

each of the tribes. Why, because our God says this, you don't

feed me, I feed you. You don't take care of me. I'm

your God, You're my children. I will provide for you. I will

take care of you. I am your God. You are my sons,

you are my daughters. I am the one who will uphold your life.

I am the one who will sustain you. I am the one who will

take care of you. And for thousands of years God kept going on and

all and saying, listen, trust in me, my children, I will

take care of you. And so we see this Sabbath maybe has a different

meaning than a lot of us has thought. It's a day to draw near

to him, but it's also a day to say God, I'm just gonna

trust you and I don't have to run this rat race anymore. You will

sustain our life. You will take care of us. See, the Sabbath

is one of those days where God reminds us that he will take care of

us, and he is with us. The pastor who was at this church,

not before me, but the one who was the pastor at this church

before the guy before me. His name was David Cox. He had been

here for twenty eight years and it was an amazing ministry. And David Cox

talks about how I got to go out to lunch of him one day after

church and he was telling me about how he came from the Northwest all the

way to Anderson, and he said, one night he was just talking to

his sister about he was thinking about moving from Northwest going to Anderson he said,

the next thing, he knows, his sister's on the phone, and

now he's signed up to go to college. And before he knows it,

within a couple of days, he's on a train and he's on a train

all the way from the Northwest coming to Anderson. And he said, about

three or four o'clock in the morning, he woke up out the death sleep

and basically he was having a huge anxiety attack, like what are you doing.

You're giving up your whole life. You don't have, you don't know

what's going to happen. Your future is so uncertain. And he said it

just he was completely overwhelmed with anxiety. And he said, in that moment,

God spoke to him, and he says, the clearest day, God

said to him, I am with you, I am with you, I

am with you. And he says that's all he needed. And matter of

fact, he said, those three statements, I am with you, I

am with you, I am with you sustain him for the rest of his

ministry because he knew God was with him. And the Sabbath is a day

every week where God just wants to pull you into his presence and remind you

I am with you. See, the Sabbath is a weekly reminded that God

is with us and that he is taken care of. And we go back

to Jesus and Jesus says to the guys, he goes, listen, he

goes, the Sabbath was made for man, not man for the Sabbath.

In other words, this gift of the Sabbath was for the benefit man,

okay, And the man is not supposed to serve the Sabbath. The Sabbath

serves the man. And then he says, so the son of Man is

lord even of the Sabbath. Now this is where Jesus crosses the line.

And I love this because Jesus is looking at these guys and he says,

oh, by the way, if you don't agree with my interpretation, you

just need to know that I'm God. I was with God when he created

this earth. So therefore I helped invent the Sabbath. And since I invented

the Sabbath, and since I am the Lord God, guess what I can

interpret the Sabbath however I want it, because I am the Lord of the

Sabbath. And so Jesus interpreted the Sabbath by saying, hey, this is

a day that was made for you. You were not made for this day.

So, in other words, this is a day that you should come

into God's house excited about being in his presence, excited about hearing from him,

excited about receiving from him, because God made this day for you.

God made this day for you to draw near to Him because so he can

remind you every single week, I love you, my plans for you.

You are my children, and it's a beautiful thing. And it's a beautiful,

beautiful thing. We don't have to earn his love. We don't have

to do anything else. Now, as I close up, I see I

got just about a minute left, and so here's what I'm gonna do.

I'm just gonna share with you about one time I was reminded, because at

the end of the day, it's all about relationship, and I want you

to experience a deep, passionate relationship with God. I want you to be

reminded of anything today is that your God loves you and he cares for you.

I remember a while back, I was working on a sermon and I

woke up and I was so discouraged because all the stuff that I've been dealing

with and I felt like I was really depressed. And I went to write

the sermon and I just couldn't write. And I was just in just great,

great turmoil, and I'm trying to write, but just nothing will come

out, and I'm begging God God, and my soul is just so troubled

today. And then all of a sudden, I got a phone call from

a pastor four states away, and the pastor said, James, God woke

me up at four am to tell you that he loves you and he's with

you. Now. This person had no idea what I was going through.

And then he says, the Lord wanted me to give you this scripture.

Would you believe the scripture he gave me was the scripture I was writing on

that day. And then I was reminded, and I got down on my

knees, and I was reminded I am in a relationship, not a religion.

So today, as we close, I have fourteen things for you to

do. Actually, we're just gonna take some time this morning and we're just

gonna play some soft music and I just want you to spend some time in

his presence. Will you allow my Jesus to love on you this morning,

Will you allow my Jesus just to remind you that you are his son and

his daughter. Will you allow Jesus just to draw you near to him today?

So here's what I want you to do. I just want you to

take some time to be in his presence this morning. So we're gonna take

some extended time just for you to sit and be restored, loved on,

and encouraged. Let us close her eyes and come into the presence of the Lord h