October 9, 2022 / Origins / Day Seven

Welcome to Walk in the Truth podcast.

Today John Metter, lead pastor of Cross City Church, brings a message in the Origins series

that helps answer the five most important questions in life.

How you live today depends on how you answer these questions.

Here's John Metter with the teaching on the five questions.

Well good morning.

We're going to be walking through our Origins series again today.

Please take your Bibles and turn to Genesis chapter 2 today.

Genesis 2 · chapter mention

Genesis chapter 2, we have over the last seven weeks covered the first chapter of the book

Genesis 2 · chapter mention

of Genesis and walked through six days of creation and had a great time walking through

that as we've learned all that God did during creation.

We've seen all kinds of videos.

We have looked at different scenarios, different explanations that attempt to explain how creation

came into existence.

And we keep coming back to God's word that says God spoke and it took place.

So now we're on day 7 and as you find Genesis chapter 2, keep in mind we're looking at the

Genesis 2 · chapter mention

capstone for the six days and also day 7.

Before we read the Bible today, let me remind you of something that probably you're aware

of, but I learned long ago a little sailing trick.

When I was young my parents would send me off to camp in the summer and it was just

kind of a rural camp but it had sailboats on the lake there.

Anybody ever sailed a boat before?

There's a few of us in the room perhaps that have.

This wasn't a large boat that we learned to sail on and they taught us as kids, eight,

nine, ten year old kids that when you get on this boat there are some things that you've

got to learn about sailing in order to be safe.

You're going out on a lake.

You have a life jacket on but it's a big lake.

But they also kind of slipped this little piece of information in.

The lake is infested with water moccasins so you don't want to make a bad move on the

sailboat.

So naturally we were motivated learners.

We really wanted to learn how to sail the boat right.

All about the sails, all about the boom, be careful when it goes back and forth.

But the rudder was the part of the instruction that was so important.

Now the rudder is just a fiberglass or a plastic piece that goes on the transom or the back

of the boat.

That transom allows that rudder to be fixed in such a way where you turn it one way and

the front of the boat will change direction.

You turn it the other way and it will change in the opposite direction.

It is the steering mechanism of a sailboat.

They taught us that however you turn that rudder that's where the boat's going to go.

It's important that you know how to do that because it sets the direction for your life.

Now you said a little story as an illustration.

I never did tip the boat over.

I never fell into the lake with water moccasins just to end the story.

I'm here today.

I'm alive.

I did not die on that lake.

But I learned the rudder turns the boat very effectively.

What I'm going to talk to you about today is the importance of the rudder in your life.

I believe that chapter two verses one through three talk about the rudder of the life of

every person.

Would you stand with me as we read God's word today?

Genesis chapter two beginning in verse one and here's what it says.

It says, thus the heavens and the earth were completed and all their host.

By the seventh day God completed his work which he had done and he rested on the seventh

day from all his work which he had done.

Then God blessed the seventh day and sanctified it because he rested from all his work which

God had created and made.

Father, I pray that you'll take this text and speak to us in a powerful way about how

what we do with this sets the direction of our lives one way or another.

Show us how it protects us.

Show us how understanding this principle guides us and leads us and ultimately causes us to

be in alignment with you.

Father, we ask this in Jesus' name.

All God's people said amen.

Please be seated if you would.

The seventh day obviously is the capstone for all of creation week.

It doesn't take long in reading these verses where you realize it's very different from

all the other days.

On day one, day two, day three, day four, day five, day six, God spoke and brought things

into being that were not in being at the beginning.

Day one, he really created the earth and all the elements in the earth.

We showed you some pictures of what we thought it might have looked like, a spinning kind

of a sphere of water.

Then God separated the land from the water and created the boundaries.

After that, God created the vegetation that went upon the dry land.

Then he created the fish that went in the sea, and the sea monsters it says.

He also created the birds that would fly in the air that God created that space up there

for.

In every instance, we looked at how God created something that would later on become important

to the inhabitants of the earth day by day as they were created.

Finally, on day six, God created the beast on the earth and he created man.

He created Adam and Eve, the first man and the first woman, all that in the first chapter.

When you dive into chapter two, you're going to find a detailed explanation of day six.

When we get to chapter two, verses one through three, we're looking back on a full created

order.

Adam and Eve had been created, all the animals were created, and we began to see how God

sets the direction for life with the things that he says about day seven.

Day seven is going to speak to us today.

Day seven is going to speak to us about how we do what God actually did on day seven.

How do we rest?

How do we find a day that's blessed?

How do we set apart a day for important reasons in our lives today?

We're going to arrive at present day after we spend a few moments looking back at history.

As we dive into this, I want you to see this text in three different ways.

I want you to see three different important principles.

First of all, I want you to notice the first truth of the Bible is found right here in

chapter two, verses one through four.

Look at what it says in verses one and two.

Thus the heavens and the earth were completed in all their host.

By the seventh day, God completed his work.

This opening statement is the capstone from creation.

Basically, this statement says God created all the heavens and the earth.

In fact, if I were to word it in such a way where we could remember it, God alone created

the world we live in.

God alone created the world we live in.

I call that the first truth because even though God is creating from chapter one, verse one,

God spoke and it came into being.

That's the truth.

All that God said to the animals, be fruitful and multiply, that's the truth.

All these creation truths bundled up into one are the first truth by which we live life,

the first truth.

God is looking at over creation and saying, these things, I have created this heaven and

this earth and all that you see.

Four times in these two or three verses, you see this statement.

God completed his work, which he had done, all his work, which God had created and made.

Four times in these few verses.

Whenever you see repetition, you know someone's trying to communicate something that they

don't want to be questioned about.

I thought back when I was growing up, my dad was a great dad.

He was a great father, but part of my dad's responsibility was to draw the boundaries

and the lines that I shouldn't cross over.

My dad knew how to say no every once in a while.

I remember one time I asked my father if I could go a certain place and he said no four

times in four distinct ways, leading me to the conclusion that I should never go there.

The first time he said no.

The second time he said absolutely no.

I asked him again and he said no.

This is what would probably happen if you go there.

The fourth time he said, all right, just try me and you'll see how bad it really gets.

No four different ways.

When you read the Bible and you see repeated emphasis on something, it's making a point

for us to carry away.

The emphasis of this particular repetition is God made this earth.

He created this earth.

God did his work.

God completed his work.

There is no debate.

God made the heavens and the earth.

The reason that is such an important statement is because everything else that you do in

life is based on whether God created the heavens and the earth and whether he created you.

That is God's statement here closes the door to debate for all those that were present.

If there were any other God who was eternal, this is where the debate would take place.

But none of the leaders of the world religions are here.

Mohammed is not here.

Gandhi is not here.

Confucius is not here.

Brahma is not here.

No Satan's, no demons are speaking up.

There is no debate from anyone that's on the planet.

No competing theories, no scientific conjecture that can articulate a reasonable, logical,

provable answer to the creation of the world.

Adam and Eve are not arguing with God at this point because they know God created the heavens

and the earth.

All that God created is a witness to creation's completion.

Then we have the Bible recording that to help us know, all right, God created the heavens

and the earth.

I know I've said it a lot of times.

Sometimes as you know critics will say, well, yeah, of course the Bible says that.

It's the Bible.

I mean, it's the book that Christians and believers follow.

Of course you're going to quote the Bible.

But the reality is the Bible is the first book.

It's the book of truth.

It's the first way that man's communicated with each other one to one about God or about

anything else.

Recently I was listening to a philosopher.

His name is Jordan Peterson.

He's become very popular among younger people today.

He's a famous former atheist.

At one point he was atheistic and he tried to explain the world away in so many different

ways other than God.

He talks about his visit to the Museum of the Bible in Washington, D.C.

He talks about becoming familiar with how the process of the Bible actually came into

being and how God spoke and inspired individuals wrote the scriptures down as we have it today.

He began to believe that the Bible was the first book and that all books that we have

today and all learning emerged out of that first book and that first truth.

Then he made this statement.

It's not that the Bible is truth, he said.

It is the precondition for the manifestation of truth, which makes it way more truth than

truth.

I like the way he says it.

I don't believe he's a believer in Jesus Christ yet, but he's not an atheist anymore.

He's making the statement that the Bible is the precondition for all other things that

we consider to be true.

That this is our problem line.

This is how we gauge every other philosophy, every other idea about how the earth came

into being.

Come from the Bible.

We come and look at the Bible and compare it to what we've heard in order to see if

anything else we've heard is truth or not.

It must be that way for us.

God created, he made the earth, he finished the earth, he completed the earth.

That truth is something that guides us in everything.

Let me just give you some if-thens for a moment.

If God created the world, he alone is God and there is no other.

If God created the world, his design is flawless and his truth is truth.

If God created the world, the most important relationship you can have is with him.

If God created the world, the most dangerous place to be is in opposition to him.

I mean, if God created the world, it ought to change your life towards him and not away

from him, towards his things and not just for your things.

Years later, Paul, the apostle, articulates a very concise statement about his view of

the world in general.

He says this in Romans chapter 11 verse 36, for from him and through him and to him are

Romans 11:36

all things.

To him be the glory forever.

Amen.

I love that line, for from him and for him and to him are all things.

In other words, Paul says, I gauge my life based on how closely connected I am from his

purpose and for his reasons for my existence.

The first truth is the truth that creation is his and that we are his.

The first truth.

I bet if you keep reading in these verses, you're going to see something else and that

is the first priority.

The first priority.

This is where God is beginning to clarify some things about that seventh day.

It said, and he rested on the seventh day in verse two and then in verse three.

Then God blessed the seventh day and sanctified it.

I want you to think about those phrases and I'm going to ask you to think about who he

spoke this to.

Adam and Eve are now standing there having been fully created by God to be mature individuals.

There they are in the Garden of Eden where God has placed them.

You'll find the details in Genesis chapter two, but as you know, it all took place in

Genesis chapter one because God has completed creation by the time he spoke and articulated

the seventh day to be that day of rest.

Adam and Eve are standing there in the most beautiful place in the world you can imagine.

I don't know what is your most beautiful place in the world that you imagine, but if you

want to get into this scene, think about that beautiful place.

For me, it's probably Mount Tahoe or Lake Tahoe where I could be on the mountain looking

down in that beautiful lake there.

Just imagine that you and one other person would be your wife.

Let's say my wife and I or Adam and Eve are standing there in that most beautiful place

in the world.

There's no other human beings.

There's only the birds that fly, only the sea duck and the fish that are in the sea.

There's only those creatures that God has created, but just Adam and Eve are standing

there in that garden, that most beautiful place, and God says, here's what I want you

to see.

I want you to see that I created you.

I want you to see that I created the birds and the fish in the sea.

I want you to see that I created the waters and the dry land and the vegetation and the

trees and everything that will bear fruit.

I want you to see all this, and I want you to see that I'm resting, and I want you to

bless this day, and I want you to sanctify this day so you can remember who I am.

The first priority.

Now think about this, this way.

The seventh day, which we're reading here, God's seventh day is Adam and Eve's first

day after creation.

They were created on the sixth day, and now they wake up to the seventh day, and God said,

this is the day you're going to rest.

This is the day you're going to bless.

This is the day you're going to sanctify.

There's something pretty powerful about Adam and Eve being told by God, oh, this is your

first full day on the planet that I created for you, and I want you to look around and

see all this, and I want you to realize I am your creator, and I am your God, and I

have given you a place to live.

I have given you food for sustenance.

I've given you a job to do.

This is a priority for you to set aside this day, this time, and stand in awe of me.

When I say scripture that way, it stirs my heart for this seventh day in a really, really

big way.

It's almost as though God is saying, I created you yesterday, and so on this, the first full

day of the planet, I want you to rest and bless and sanctify this day.

So God rested from all this creation, the word rest simply means he ceased work, not

because God is tired, but because he's finished his work.

I think you know the scripture says over and over, God never gets tired.

I'm really glad God never gets tired, because I get tired, and I need a God who isn't ever

tired to help me when I'm worn out and when I'm weary, and that's exactly what Isaiah

40 is talking about when it says, do you not know, have you not heard the everlasting God,

the Lord, the creator of the ends of the earth does not become weary or tired?

Love that verse.

But that verse also informs us that God did not rest because he was weary, he did not

rest because he was tired.

He simply ceased that work that he was doing, and he paused because creation is worthy to

be observed and marveled at.

He paused because creation is now saluting and worshiping her creator.

Again, get it in your mind's eye.

The waters are moving freely within their boundaries, the dry land is greening with

the vegetation, the sun, moon, and the stars are gleaming with the light that God has given

them and they're orbiting in the perfect positions that he's placed them in.

The trees of the field are clapping their hands as they were as the wind blows those

leaves together.

The beast and the birds acknowledging his presence, the plants and the vegetation are

drinking in the midst of the sunlight and they're thriving and they're growing and

Adam and Eve are standing there taking it all in with wonder and amazement in all of

who made them and what he has called them to do on the earth.

It's hard for us to get into that place, but that's what was going on.

An amazing moment that left them nothing else to do other than just be in awe of the God

who made all these things and who made them so that they could know him and so that he

would lead them.

The first priority is really that we recognize our creator.

Let me state it this way, the first priority of mankind is to acknowledge and worship God.

But you know that's your first priority.

Your first priority is not your job, your first priority is not your sports, your first

priority is none of the other things that we seem to put such high on the list.

But your first priority is to know and worship God, to recognize him for who he is, to be

able to affirm the fact that he created the heavens and the earth and you.

And in all of God's interactions with people through the years, he has helped them know

that first priority.

It's 2500 years later after this creation account that the law is given.

And in the book of Exodus when the law was given, the 10 commandments are given acknowledging

that we are to worship and know God.

Did you know that the first four of the 10 commandments all deal with how we interact

with God?

Remember the first commandment is no other gods before me.

The second is no idols, no graven images.

The third one is don't take the name of the Lord in vain.

And the fourth one is keep the Sabbath day holy.

In other words, that same priority of acknowledging and worshiping your creator is given to the

Israelites 2500 years later after God said this in the garden.

In Exodus chapter 20 it says, for in six days the Lord made the heavens and the earth

Exodus 20 · chapter mention

and the sea and all that's in them and rested on the seventh day.

Therefore the Lord blessed the Sabbath day and made it holy.

Now of course we know that Israel took the Sabbath day and turned it into a very fastidious

observance, very legalistic, gave all kinds of guidelines of what you could do and couldn't

do and basically began to turn it into a form of religion.

But the principle was still there and the principle is still important.

The principle is you need to acknowledge and worship the God that created you.

So I don't commend the legalistic parts of the observation of Sabbath or Sabbath with

the Jewish people but I point out there are some great priorities to knowing and some

great benefits in knowing the priority of it.

Read the entire Bible and you'll find that God sets this aside over and over as an important

thing to do and that leads me to what I call the first principle, the first principle,

the first truth, the first priority and then the first principle.

Now I'm going to trace the practice of rest to the scriptures for just a second.

Here's God in the garden saying set aside this day, rest, bless, sanctify it.

God himself is seizing from his works.

The practice was pretty continuous until the law was given and then it became even more

important for the people of God as we read that verse a moment ago.

But the practice on the first day of the week to worship the Lord in this way began with

the resurrection after Christ came, died after he lived perfect life for three years on the

planet, 33 years on the planet.

He had disciples following him for three years.

He died on the cross, was buried, rose again the third day.

The very first day of the week was Sunday which was the day of resurrection and that's

where Mary ran to the tomb and later on the disciples to find that Jesus had risen from

the dead.

From that moment forward those who followed Jesus Christ worshiped on the first day of

the week or what's later on called the Lord's day.

As I trace that through scripture it's very consistent.

For example Acts chapter 20 verse 7 on the first day of the week when we were gathered

Acts 20:7

together Paul said about the church of Ephesus.

He said to the church of Corinth on the first day of every week when you gather you read

Revelation 1 10 where John is in this revelation of God and Jesus Christ he says I was in the

Spirit on the Lord's day.

So for believers the Sabbath rests to the rest and worship of the first day in New Testament

times throughout scripture the principle is the same and here is that principle that's

important for you and I and this is where it really gets relevant and applicable for

us.

It's that a part of the day each week to bless and worship your Creator and Savior.

Not as a legalistic religious act but as a day of worship, a time of coming away from

everything else and acknowledging God and loving God and growing in the Lord and following

Him in all His ways.

You know increasingly we learn from observing the church historically that the further people

move away from gathering together to worship the Lord in a consistent way the further away

they are from that practice the further they become away from believing the important things

about faith and practicing that faith.

In other words by adhering to the idea of gathering to worship Him one day a week we

strengthen our faith, we strengthen the community of faith but certainly our own personal faith

and the more we move away from it the more difficult it seems to be to live it out.

Recent studies that are pretty accurate tell us that about 50% of those who were worshiping

pre-pandemic no longer worship post-pandemic.

In other words our attendance across churches across America at least is about half what

it was pre-pandemic.

Now for some that's because they were cultural Christians that went and worshiped because

it was something that they felt they were supposed to do, it was helpful to them in

some way but when we began to disengage because of COVID only 50% of the people who were worshiping

before numerically speaking in America have come back.

Now that's not necessarily true of our congregation we've come back far stronger than that but

it is true of many across America.

Whereas it used to be a pretty much a priority that most Christians worship at least twice

a month the latest statistics say they worship together about one and a half times a month.

We've lost about that size of a number when it comes to regularly worshiping the Lord.

I'd say all that except for comments on it's less of a priority than it was just a few

years ago.

And as you look back on Christianity when we don't gather we don't grow as much, when

we don't gather we don't learn as much, when we don't gather we don't set apart God as

much as we should.

So here we have God in the very beginning saying here's the first truth I created all

this I created you.

Here's the first priority I want you to set aside this day to rest, I want you to set

aside this day to worship and sanctify this day as a special day acknowledge me in this

and then we have this first principle that this should be a practice for all of us set

apart a day each week to bless and worship your creator and savior.

Let me give you three statements of why I believe this is so important for you to think

about.

God alone deserves our worship.

We need to remember who he is and rest and realignment are keys to life.

I want to talk about each one of those before I conclude today.

God alone deserves our worship.

On the first seventh day that's the message to Adam and Eve to all the animals.

Look at creation, look at your creator who will you worship?

When I stop every Sunday to dedicate myself to worship the rest of the world is framed

better in terms of priority.

No longer is it the most important thing.

He is priority.

My job and my work and all these other things that are important to me are not on the same

level.

When we worship and when we rest on the Lord's day we actually practice what we will be doing

in eternity for many, many periods of time where we know him better, where we grow with

him, we walk with him, where we worship him, we acknowledge and see all that he's done.

So we should have a day where we don't make it about us, a day where we make it about

him.

We make it about us enough during the course of the week.

We need to make a day about him.

And then we need to remember who he is.

When my wife and I were married and first began to have our children it became quite

busy in our home and we found that it was important to get away from all the kids and

have a breakfast once a week at Denny's in town.

They had these grand slam breakfasts for $1.99 and we went for those.

And we called it our staff meeting because in reality we had to kind of organize our

lives because of our family and how busy it was.

But we did something else at those staff meetings at Denny's while we were eating grand slam

breakfast.

By the way, we still enjoy going to breakfast these days even though it's not as busy as

it was.

We reconnected.

We remembered while we married, while we have a family, we remembered how we first began

dating.

We just remembered it.

If people need that memory to reconnect, how is it that we don't need that with God?

I mean we need to reconnect from time to time with people that we see, that we hear audibly,

that we interact with, that we can be around in the presence of.

Doesn't it make sense that God would also ask us to learn to reconnect with the one

you can't see and you can't necessarily hear audibly?

You don't necessarily have him to pat you on the back physically even though all those

needs can be taken care of in a relationship with God as you know.

It's important for us to reengage with the God of creation.

If you don't remember who he is, who will you turn to when life gets tough?

When you don't remember that he created heavens and the earth, how is it that you think he's

big enough to handle your problems?

When you don't remember that God has a relationship with every element of creation, how can you

possibly believe that anything will fit together in the world that you live in today?

You'll fear the future if you don't know the God of the future.

You'll fear the past if you don't know the God of the past.

We need to remember him and remember what it's like to know who he is.

You know, when I see someone come to faith in Christ and get saved in a church service,

that I remember that God did that with me too and he brought me to Christ.

When I see someone baptized, I remember that I was baptized and I'm encouraged.

When I see people stand up and say, God answered my prayer, that I remember God answers my

prayers too.

When I see people healed of a sickness, that I remember God healed me many times.

When God helps people through difficult times in life, that I remember God helped me through

difficult times in life too.

Remembering who he is, remembering how he works resonates in the body in such a way

it's almost impossible to forget who God is when you worship him on a regular basis.

That's the way God wanted it.

He wants reminders for you so that you will know who he is.

Anybody remember the blue laws that took place years ago?

Raise your hand if you know what the blue laws are.

All right, raise your hand if you don't know what blue laws are, would you raise your hand?

There was a bunch of you in here.

You ought to Google it.

Blue laws were laws in most communities in America where everything was closed except

maybe a gas station or two, where everything shut down.

Now some of you can't imagine that.

Well, just think Chick-fil-A, okay?

Where everything shut down, where people just said, you know, I'm not going to work on that

day.

We're not going to sell things on that day.

We're just going to relax and rest.

We're going to remember important things, remember family, remember God.

We're going to cease from our labors on that day.

I'm not suggesting we go back to blue laws.

I'm suggesting that you and I learn to practice the idea of ceasing work, the idea of resting,

remembering who we are, remembering who God is.

It's incredibly important to our lives.

Finally, rest and realignment are keys to life.

You and I can do many things at a high rate of speed, but without the rhythm of rest and

realignment, we may do them in a wrong way or we may burn out.

We were not designed as human beings to go without rest.

God designed us to rest.

He designed us to realign.

And so what I want you to do today is accept the gift of rest.

The fact that God has told you, you can rest.

You can cease from your labor.

You can worship me.

Years ago I pastored a church in Oklahoma and I remember going back a few years later

and preaching a series of sermons with them.

And when I came back, I polled them one night and asked them how many people in the room

could remember a message or two that I'd preach when I was there for those seven years.

Several people had their hands up and I began to call on them one by one.

What do you remember about the message that comes to your mind?

The first person said, the anointed nap.

And they were talking about when I preached through the Ten Commandments and talked about

the day of rest and the fact that it was okay to go home on Sunday afternoon after church

and have a nap.

And in fact, I think they're called anointed naps and I sleep better then than any other

time of the week.

I asked the second person who had their hand up and that person also said an anointed nap.

A third person, an anointed nap.

I said, do you people remember anything I taught you over seven years besides the anointed

nap?

The amount of mind on it was it was an important practice for them.

It was an important practice to get away and rest.

And yes, I do believe theologically, only half joking that those Sunday afternoon naps

are anointed.

They are awesome.

You have to try it sometimes.

We need rest and realignment.

They're keys to life.

And I challenge you, clear your schedule on the Lord's day.

Don't try to do so many things.

Rest.

Find a way to practice in your life.

It's in scripture because we need it.

But also it's in scripture because you personally need it.

I guess in essence what I'm saying is make room in your life to wonder at God, to worship

God, to marvel at his creation.

Make time in your life where you're not trying to push the ball forward, but you know he's

got everything in control in his hands.

You'll have a much more balanced life when you do that.

You know the relationship that God wants to have with us is so personal, so intimate,

so daily.

But this is the piece of that.

This is the way that you can practice that.

The bottom line on everything is that the only rest we ever really enter into is the

rest that we have with Christ and with God through him.

There's something in the Bible called the believer's rest that we're called to enter

into.

We're resting from trying to earn our favor with God, resting from trying to just do good

works that he might notice us or be pleased with us.

That rest comes in putting our faith and trust in Christ who did the work of salvation, who

sacrificed his life on the cross.

The Bible actually calls salvation as the believer's rest that we enter into because

Christ did all that was necessary.

Then he rested from that work of redemption.

He sat down at the right hand of the Father, and he invites us to have the relationship

with him that lets us enter into the spiritual rest of knowing everything is covered, knowing

that our sins are forgiven, knowing that we have eternal life with him, and knowing that

we can worship him in awe and wonder and never lose touch with who he is.

I encourage you to have that same kind of rest in Jesus, and I encourage you to practice

the regular consistent rhythm of having a day of rest and a day of worship and a day

of wonder so that you will not lose touch with this God, this amazing God who created

you.

You know, in just a few moments we're going to close with the word of prayer.

Our decision stations will be open.

It's a great time at the end of our service to stop and talk to someone.

I have a question, you might say, or I wonder about where I stand with Christ.

I want to know, have I received eternal life?

Have I received the salvation that Jesus promises, or have I not?

I want to know.

Or you might ask the question about how you follow the Lord in believers' baptism or being

a part of this church.

There are all kinds of questions you can have for those that are at the decision stations,

but stop by.

They're there manning those stations.

They want to talk to you about incredibly important spiritual things that sometimes

we just don't bring up with other people.

Talk to them.

They'd love to talk with you and pray with you.

That's the first request.

The second request is if you're a guest today, I would love to visit with you in guest reception.

It's a room just outside the center exit doors across the hallway.

You'll see the glass walls.

You'll see me inside there.

I'd love to meet you today.

The third one is, as you leave today, take an origins card.

Learn to invite people to come hear God's word being taught.

Learn to invite them to come hear the good news of the gospel.

It's incredibly important that the people around us know that Christ brings answers,

that God is the answer.

I invite you to invite them to worship with us.

Would you stand with me for a moment?

Father, today I am thankful for this day.

Thankful that it's a day when we can acknowledge you, worship you, be in awe of you, wonder

at all that you've done.

Father, I know in this room today there are people who have a relationship with you, many

of them.

Father, I ask you today that you would further that relationship by all we've talked about

today, by all that you've said about the seventh day.

Lord, I also pray today that you'll allow those who maybe have never had a relationship

with you to learn that they can and give them the boldness and the courage to talk to someone,

to ask the questions, to get the answers.

Father, I thank you so much that you have a plan for our life.

You're a great creator.

You're Lord over everything, and yet at the same time you know us and you call us to yourself

today, I pray that we would answer that call.

God thank you, Lord, in Jesus' name, amen.