Did Jesus Keep the Sabbath? Part 2

0:43 We'll turn in your Bibles, please, to Mark chapter 3. Mark chapter 3, we have been in this book for a few months and we're already making great progress. and we're in chapter three. So we're going to begin in just a moment. What a great night it was last night, and you make it possible. I mean, what an honor and a privilege it is for me to be a part of this group that gets so excited about infiltrating our city with the gospel to put on events like this. Thank you for your prayers, your hard work, your financial support to that event, and the kingdom of God is richer and better because of it. So thank you, and God bless you. So we're in Mark chapter 3, and we're going to begin in verse 1 technically, but because both last week's message and this week's message follow the same theme, and you'll see why. We want to read beginning in verse 23 of chapter 2 and into our text. So let's begin in chapter 2 of Mark, verse 23, and we'll keep reading all the way down to verse 6 of chapter 3. Now it happened that he went through the grain fields on the Sabbath. And as they went, his disciples began to pluck heads of grain. And the Pharisees said to him, look, why do they do what is not lawful on the Sabbath? But he said to them, have you never read what David did when he was in need and hungry, he and those with him, how he went into the house of God in the days of Abiathar the high priest and ate the showbread, which is not lawful to eat except for the priests, and also gave some to those who were with him. And he said to them, the Sabbath was made for man,

2:50 not man for the Sabbath. Therefore, the Son of Man is also Lord of the Sabbath. And he entered the synagogue again, and a man was there who had a withered hand. So they watched him closely, whether he would heal him on the Sabbath, so they might accuse him. And he said to the man who had the withered hand, Step forward. And then he said to them, is it lawful on the Sabbath to do good or to do evil, to save life or to kill? But they kept silent. And when he had looked around them with anger, being grieved by the hardness of their hearts, he said to the man, stretch out your hand.

3:46 and he stretched it out and his hand was restored as whole as the other. Then the Pharisees went out and immediately plotted with the Herodians against him how they might destroy him. there was a rabbi, an orthodox rabbi, who went to the golf course on Sabbath and played a round of golf. Well, when that happened, the angel Gabriel and a few other angels who were watching this got on the phone to God and said, God, we have a problem. We have a rabbi down there playing golf on the Sabbath. And then Gabriel said, you know, you might want to strike him with lightning or have him choke on a hot dog, something.

4:41 God said, I have a better idea. Well, the rabbi stepped up to the tee, got his driver out. It was a par four. He swung his golf club. 420-yard drive straight down the middle. The golf ball bounced, rolled onto the green, hole in one.

5:07 Hole in one. The rabbi jumps up and down. He is ecstatic. He is rejoicing. And Gabriel said to God, what gives? I thought you were going to punish him. God said, I did. Who's he going to tell? Yeah, that's a good question. Who are you going to tell when you successfully disobey God? Who are you going to tell? The sad reality in these stories that really are together, one happens on one Sabbath and it would seem the other one happens on the very next Sabbath, the sad reality is the Sabbath had become a set of rules and regulations slavishly kept by this group of people who had taken something very simple and just complicated it. The simplicity of the commandment is stop working on the Sabbath. But as we told you last week, they added so many things to that simple commandment to complicate it. Now, Jesus said, look, the Sabbath was made for man, but the way they lived, it was as though man had been made for the Sabbath. And to keep the Sabbath day was laborious, defeated the whole purpose of a Shabbat, of a rest. Last week, we told you a little bit about some of those complications that they took and they subdivided work on the Sabbath into 39 different categories, 39 different categories of things you could not do on the Sabbath. And eventually, eventually, they got added to so that in the Jewish Talmud, there were 24 chapters that talked about what you could and could not do on the Sabbath day. And they called that building a hedge. This was their rationale. We're doing this because we want to build a hedge of protection around God's people

7:14 by ladenning them with rules and regulations so it's not possible for them at all to break the Sabbath. Now, I know those are ancient traditions for the most part, but you need to know that some of them still persist in the life and the culture of Orthodox Judaism. So, for example, the law of God says you shall not kindle a fire in any of your dwellings on the Sabbath. Very simple. Don't light a fire. Don't light a fire. Don't kindle a fire in any of your dwellings on the Sabbath. So then they said, well, you can't kindle a fire and you can't extinguish a fire on the Sabbath. Well, the problem is, if you warm up your stove to cook something before the Sabbath, most stoves have an automatic shut-off. So sometime during the Sabbath, the stove is just going to automatically shut off. Well, that's breaking the Sabbath law. So they have appliances among the Jews that have Sabbath mode on them. Sabbath mode lets the stove stay on and not automatically shut off so the food can remain warm and nobody breaks the law.

8:32 Then there's the toilet paper dilemma on the Sabbath. You didn't even know there was one, did you? Till now. There's a real dilemma with toilet paper. And that is because tearing material is forbidden on the Sabbath. It is considered a creative act to tear paper, a creative act. so toilet paper can't be ripped on the Sabbath. Hey, in there, you didn't rip the toilet paper, did you? So the workaround for that is to have pre-cut, interfolded pieces of toilet paper. You don't break the law. Then there's the refrigerator problem, because when you open the refrigerator, what turns on? The light turns on. That's technically kindling a fire on the Sabbath. So what they do is they put a piece of tape over the door switch so they can open the door, the light doesn't come on, and they're not breaking the law. The man in this story has a condition in the synagogue called a withered hand.

9:45 That is not the biggest problem in the story. The biggest problem is there's a group of people that have withered souls in the story, called Pharisees. And you wonder, well, how could that be? How could these very religious, seemingly godly people have all these hang-ups? Here's what they lacked. They lacked one word, a five-letter word, G-R-A-C-E, grace. They lacked grace. They were oozing with sanctimonious pride that had them see the Sabbath as a stage to flaunt their self-righteousness before others.

10:24 I don't know if you've read much of Mark Twain, Samuel Clemens, Mark Twain's writings, but you know, he had a lot to say about religious people. And one of the things he did is he described religious people who are unloving. And he spoke about one man by saying he's a good man in the worst sort of way. He's a good man in the worst sort of way. The Pharisees were good people in the worst sort of way. Malcolm Muggeridge said, the biggest disease and the greatest evil today is the lack of love. I would add to that and say next to the lack of love is the lack of grace, especially among pious people. The lack of grace toward others who are other worshipers. They are God followers. They are good people, but in the worst sort of way. So what we're going to do in these six verses in Mark chapter 3 is I'd like to point out five ingredients that are noteworthy in this story. The first thing is the worship service. This is a worship service. Notice it says in verse 1, simply, and he entered the synagogue again.

11:44 Now, if you've been with us in the gospel of Mark, you know that he entered the synagogue in chapter 1 on the Sabbath day. There was a man in there with a condition. He was demon-possessed. Jesus cast the demon out. People saw that. They were marveling at that. Same synagogue, different Sabbath. Sometime later, he entered the synagogue again. So I just want you to get this picture. It's the Sabbath, and Jesus went to church. Sabbath. They wouldn't have called it church. And let me just use that to platform this thought. Jesus did not see this day as a day for him to stay home and sleep in and binge watch Netflix or to just become a lounge lizard, but rather to have a spiritual focus, a spiritual focus. If you think about it, Jesus certainly didn't need to go to church, right? Is he going to learn anything? Is there going to be a rabbi that tells him something, and Jesus goes, wow, I've never heard that. He's heard it all, right? He is omniscient.

12:56 He knows everything. So he's not going to pick up some new information, and he could have used that, I don't need to go to church. I've heard it all. But he shows up in the synagogue on the Sabbath. Why? Because he wants to honor and worship the one who gave the Sabbath, the Father. In the Old Testament, it is called the Sabbath of the Lord your God. I told you last week the word Sabbath simply means to cease, to stop, to desist, to rest. Just as God created the world in six days and then stopped because he was done, likewise, he says to us, you rest. You rest. But here's the idea. You stop focusing on yourself. You've been doing that all week.

13:48 Now you pivot and you focus on him. You focus on him. And part of our resting is what we're doing right now. We are gathering together. You see, if your Sunday is just your fun day, you've missed the point. If your Sunday is just your fun day, that's self-worship. You're making all week about yourself. That's why in Hebrews 10, you know the verse, verse 25, not forsaking the assembly of ourselves together, as is the manner of some, but encouraging or exhorting one another, especially as you see the day approaching. Now, I know that many people watch online, and we're grateful that you do so. We consider you a part of us. You may be in a different state or a different country even. We get a lot of people who join us online, 300,000 on YouTube alone. Awesome. We're so glad you're part of this. You might be watching from a hospital bed or you're traveling, but don't neglect gathering together at some point. So if you are watching at home, next time invite somebody to watch alongside of you, get more people around you. And I'm going to tell you a few reasons why gathering is important. I'm going to put them up on the screen. This is what happens when we gather together. First of all, we reconnect. We reconnect. Some of us haven't seen each other all week, and now we gather together and we reconnect with our spiritual family. We serve together. We sing together. We read together. We're going to spend eternity together, we might as well get used to each other. So we reconnect. Second, we recollect.

15:45 We take this day to look back over our week and see how much progress we have made during the week. We take inventory. And it's better to take inventory every week, not once a month or once a year for a New Year's resolution, but week by week. So we reconnect, we recollect. Third, we recalibrate. When we gather together, our spiritual compass gets tuned to true north.

16:19 We realize what is important, right? What is really important. We are recalibrating. That's why when you come on campus and go through the lobby, you're hearing worship music. Every step you take brings you closer to that recalibration. By the way, you know, church is the one place you can come where you figure, I'm not weird. The world thinks you're weird. You come here and go, there's other people just like me who are worshiping the same God with the same fervor. This is the one place that reminds you you're not weird. Well, some of you are a little weird, but we recalibrate. Fourth, we recommit. We recommit. I have discovered that when I'm with a group of people, a spiritual decision is easier. When I'm with the right group of people, it's called peer pressure.

17:20 And it's the good kind of peer pressure. You got enough peer pressure all week long that is so against you, the wrong kind. You have positive peer pressure when you gather together. Number five, you reinvent. You reinvent. When I gather together, I get to be the best version of myself. That doesn't mean I put on a fake face. But what it means is I become the best version of myself. I get sanctified week by week. And see, the great truth of the gospel is that you do not have to be defined by your past, by who you were, by how you failed, by what mistakes you made. You don't have to be defined by that. You can grow. You can change. And so you reinvent yourself in that sense. And then finally, number six, you are restored. You are restored. What did the psalmist say, Psalm 23 to God? You restore my soul. How does God do that? Oftentimes, God does that through God's people, through God's people. I get restored. Galatians 6, verse 1, if anyone is overtaken in any fault, you who are spiritual restore such a one in the spirit of meekness, considering yourself, lest you also be tempted. So Jesus made the choice to attend public worship because that was a biblical priority. It's a biblical priority. It's Sabbath day. Going to show up at synagogue. We're going. You think Peter said, I don't want to go today. You're going.

19:05 we need to reject what I'm going to call convenience fellowship. Convenience fellowship. I'll go to church if there's not a game on. I'll go to church if my friend doesn't invite me to lunch. I'll go to church if I don't have a golf game. That's convenience fellowship. You know, when I grew up, there was one question I never asked my parents on Sunday, and that is, are we going to church today? If you live in that house, guess what? It's the Lord's day. Y'all going to church. All four of you boys, get yourself in the car. I mean, if I were to ask my dad, are we going to church today? He would say, do you breathe? Did the sun come up? worship service. It was a worship service. Jesus is present to worship. Now, this brings up an issue, and that is, I'm often asked, what is the proper day to worship? What is the right day to worship? A lot of people get hung up on this question. What's the proper day to worship?

20:14 Here's the short answer. Ready? Every day. Every day. 24-7. All day long. Totally surrender to God. My life is surrender to God. But the real question behind that question is this question. When did the Sabbath change from Saturday to Sunday? When did the Sabbath change? Here's the answer. It never did. The Sabbath is still Saturday. Sunday is the first day of the week, not the seventh day of the week. okay, let me explain that. There are, as I said, people who get hung up on this, and they accuse people who gather on Sunday. By the way, if you get hung up on that, we have a Saturday night service, typically.

21:07 But when people like to chide those of us who meet on Sunday, they will say, well, Well, Sunday is named after the pagan worship of the sun, so I don't want to worship on that day. Well, so, Saturday is named after the Latin Saturnus, the worship of Saturn. We don't worship planets, we worship God. We worship God every day. But here's the fact, the early church, the early church, the early church began to worship on Sunday because of one simple fact, the resurrection. It was the day Jesus rose again from the dead. So in Acts chapter 20, on the first day of the week, that's Sunday, when the disciples came together to break bread. Now, this is happening in Troas in Acts 20.

22:04 On the first day of the week, when the disciples came together to break bread, Paul, ready to depart the next day, spoke to them and continued his message until midnight. You think you have it rough here with my 45-minute sermon? He went all night past midnight. In 1 Corinthians 16, Paul writes, on the first day of the week, each one of you should set aside a sum of money in keeping with his income. Why should they do that on the first day of the week? Because that's the day they met together. They gathered together on the first day of the week. So that's right from the Bible. You follow church history a little bit. 110 AD, Ignatius of Antioch, one of the church fathers, said, we are no longer observing the Sabbath, but living according to the Lord's day by which our life sprung from him and by his death. This is very early on, they're saying, because of the resurrection, death, burial, and resurrection, we worship on Sunday. Justin Martyr, 140 AD, quote, Sunday is the day on which we all hold our common assembly, because it is the first day on which God, having wrought a change in the darkness, made the world. And Jesus, our Savior, on the same day rose from the dead. So by the second century AD, that was standard practice. Christians were meeting on the first day of the week. Why? Because of the resurrection, which means every Sunday is Easter.

23:49 we are reminded he rose, he rose, he rose. Think of it this way. The seventh day celebrates a finished creation. The first day celebrates a finished redemption. And so we gather. But as I said, we worship every day. So that's the worship service. The second ingredient I'd like you to notice is a withered hand, a withered hand. Verse 1, he entered the synagogue again, and a man was there who had a withered hand. A better word would be atrophied, atrophied. It is a word that speaks of a plant that had shriveled up. So here's a man with a hand that is neurologically lifeless. He is incapacitated. The gospel of Luke chapter 6 has the parallel account. Now, Luke, do you know what he did for a living? He was a doctor. So Dr.

24:52 Luke adds something that's important. He said it was his right hand. His right hand was atrophy. Now, why is that important? Simply because 90% of the world is right-handed. So I think he's drawing our attention to the fact that since most people work with their hands, this guy was unable to earn a living. There's an old tradition that says this man was a stonemason who lost his ability to work and therefore became a beggar. Now, we don't know if any of that's true. That's just hearsay, but it's an old tradition. So we have a worship service and a man with a atrophied, paralyzed, debilitated condition in church, in the synagogue service. And I want to use that to say this. We come to church every week, and there are people that are sitting around us that we have no idea what has been going on in their life, but they're suffering. They're suffering, and we're unaware. Of course we're unaware. We wouldn't know unless we know them. We can't see into their lives. We don't know what is weighing them down. It could be a physical issue. It could be chronic disease or chronic pain.

26:10 It could be they lost a loved one. They could have stress at work. They could have lost their job. They could have relational difficulties, sometimes even worse than physical maladies. and I just want to use this to say, be careful with people who are in pain.

26:33 And here's the golden rule. Walk softly around a broken heart. Walk softly around a broken heart. How do you do that? By listening carefully. By listening carefully, by observing attentively, by speaking compassionately. And so a word to those of you who are well and you have not a care in the world. You are surrounded with people, perchance, that are not. If you discover one, let me just give you a warning. Don't try to explain everything to them. Don't try to fix everything with your... I've discovered that people who are suffering, explanations do not heal broken hearts. there's time for an explanation but it's not always this time listen to one honest sufferer who wrote this i was sitting torn by grief someone came and talked to me of god's dealings and of why this happened of hope beyond the grave he talked constantly he said things i knew were true but i was unmoved except to wish that he'd go away He finally did. Another came and sat beside me. He didn't talk. He didn't ask leading questions.

28:02 He just sat beside me for an hour or more, listened when I said something, answered briefly, prayed simply, and left. I was moved, and I hated to see him go. that's how you handle somebody who is suffering. Be there. So it's a worship service, a withered hand. The third ingredient, a watching crowd. Verse 2, so they watched him closely. Now, truth be told, everybody's watching Jesus. He's sort of the star in Capernaum at this point. He's the center of all attention. He had been in the synagogue before, cast a demon out of a man. He had been at Peter's house, healed mother-in-law, healed a man of paralysis, called Matthew the tax collector, partied with him. So people know about Jesus. He's in the synagogue. All eyes are on him. They're watching him. But the they in verse 2 doesn't refer to everybody, but a particular group of people, they watched him closely, whether he would heal him on the Sabbath so that they might accuse him. These are watching with a critical eye.

29:23 These are the religious leaders. These are the Pharisees, largely. They may have even, get this, they may have even planted this man with paralysis in the synagogue, knowing Jesus likes people and likes to heal people and loves people, and he might heal them. And then we got him because he broke the law. Who does that? These people. The good people in the worst sort of way. They didn't care about the disabled man. He was collateral damage. They wanted to use him to get to Jesus. Now, you might be wondering, making people better, how could that be against the law? Healing people? How could that be against the law? I went through last week some of those rules and regulations. Well, did you know that in the oral law called the halakha, there were laws for doctors on the Sabbath and the level of care they were permitted to give? So a doctor could keep a patient alive but not do anything at all to improve the patient's condition.

30:30 so if somebody's on the brink of death all the doctor could do is keep the guy from dying that's it barely alive because grinding is considered working, and most medicines in those days were prepared by grinding herbs and roots that was not permitted. No curative ointments could be used for minor issues because it's not a life-threatening condition that the patient has. If the patient had a critical need, though not life-threatening, but still a critical condition, easy solution, get a Gentile doctor to come in and treat you. So they had rule after rule for everything. Have you ever heard of the four spiritual laws? Remember that little track called the four spiritual laws?

31:25 And people used to hand them out. And the leading question was, have you heard of the four spiritual laws? That's how they would begin their witnessing. Have you heard of the four spiritual laws? If it's the Pharisees, they would say, have you heard of the 4,873 laws? Hardly good news. This is legalism. These are withered souls. These are good people in the worst sort of way. Legalism has no pity on people. Legalism makes my opinion your burden.

32:00 Legalism makes my opinion your boundary. Legalism makes my opinion your obligation. good people in the worst sort of way again this is why Mark Twain said having spent considerable time with many good people I now understand why Jesus hung out with tax collectors and sinners So we have a worship service, a withered hand, a watching crowd. The fourth ingredient that is noteworthy is the command Jesus gives this man, a weighty command. Verse 3, and he said to the man who had the withered hand, Step forward. This would be embarrassing. You're a guy in the synagogue and you have a disability to be called out in the service to stand up, to show yourself in front of people was embarrassing, could have been embarrassing. Step forward. So he said that to the man. Then he said to them, them, the critical onlookers, is it lawful? You speak about what is lawful and not lawful. Is it lawful on the Sabbath to do good or to do evil, to save life or to kill.

33:23 But they kept silent. And when he had looked around at them with anger, this is righteous indignation, being grieved by the hardness of their hearts, he said to the man, now here's the command, listen to this command, stretch out your hand.

33:47 Stop there. What did you just say, Jesus? You said to a disabled man, stretch out your hand. What if somebody came up after the service with crutches and a broken leg, and I said, hey, let's go for a run. He'd say, well, that's cruel. I'm sure when Jesus said, stretch forth your hand, there were people in the synagogue who said, honey, that was cruel. What he just said was cruel. This man can't stretch forth his hand. He would have done it a long time ago if he could do that. But here's what you notice. So often when Jesus heals people, he first gives them what is considered at first an impossible command. He said to the paralytic, get up, take up your bed and walk. But then he was healed so he could do it. But at first it sounds like an impossible command. Here's the point I want to make.

34:41 Whenever you have a command to obey something in the Bible, God will give you the power to pull it off. He doesn't give you a command without giving you the ability to do it. So when God tells you to do something, he'll also give you the ability. Example, he told his 12 apostles to go where and preach the gospel? Go into the world. Go into the whole world. You go, oh, come on. Couldn't you just say, go to the next town or cover the country, but go into all the world and preach the gospel. But you know what happened? They did it. They did it. All 12 of them went out and within 30, 40 years of that command, the known world had heard the gospel. Had heard the gospel.

35:36 They went from 120 in an upper room and covered thousands of miles on Roman roads throughout the entire Roman Empire in that length of time. We are told in the Bible to love people. And for some people, that's, well, I've run out of love. I've had people in counseling say, I can't love him anymore. I've run out of love. Really? The Bible says God has poured out his love into our hearts, which means you have a never-ending supply of God's love. If God gives you a command to love, you can do it. You can make the choice to do it. It will happen. God tells us to comfort people. He's the God of all comfort, 2 Corinthians 1, who comforts us in all our tribulations so that we can be a comfort to any who are likewise suffering. God tells us to be kind to one another, to forgive one another. Be kind to one another and forgive even as God in Christ has forgiven you.

36:42 So it's a weighty command, but when Jesus said, stretch out your hand, it says, verse five, and he stretched it out. And his hand was restored as whole as the other. Now, I gotta tell you a story here because I actually saw a man with a withered hand get healed. I was in college. I was in my apartment. My friend came to see me, my friend Tony Geraci. He had backslidden. Tony was very fit and just a great, strong, young man. He had backslid. He was in a work-related accident. He came to visit me. I told him to spend the night. I was sharing the love of God with him, etc., etc. But at night, he was in bed, and I was on the couch, and I didn't pray out loud.

37:39 I didn't go in there and go, yeah, you verily, I come in. I didn't do any of that. I was just on the couch silently. He didn't even know I was praying just as I was falling asleep. I'm going, oh Lord, would you just heal Tony's hand? What a great gift it would be if you were to just show yourself strong on his behalf. And I'm doing this as I'm falling asleep. Suddenly the light turns on Tony shouts, stands up, comes in and goes, look, look. And he starts moving his hand. Now his hand had been closed. He had a radial nerve impingement, which means all of his fingers were like a claw. I couldn't move it. And suddenly he's doing this. In front of my eyes, a man with a withered hand stretched it forth. That was God. It was as whole as the other.

38:32 So we have a worship service. We have a withered hand. We have a watching crowd. We have a weighty command. And then to top it all off, a wicked plot. Verse 6. Then the Pharisees went out and immediately plotted. And get this, with the Herodians against him. Now this is odd because the Pharisees hated the Herodians. You know why? The Herodians were not religious people. They were political people. And they were all about Rome, and they were all about the reign of Herod, Herod the Great. And they were in that political party that wanted Rome to rule, and they benefited from it. They were Herodian followers, followers of Herod the Great. Pharisees hated them, did not get along with them. But you know the old saying, the enemy of my enemy is my friend. Well, you hate Jesus?

39:29 Well, so do I. Let's shake. So they became friends, and this will not be the first time they conspire together. The Pharisees went out and immediately plotted with the Herodians against him. Get this, how they might destroy him. What?

39:51 Now, I would say, hey, Mr. Pharisee, when is the last time you healed somebody? Oh, you don't even have to answer. I know the answer to that. Never. In fact, I would say you probably have never even seen a healing in your entire life. And don't you think that the response to Jesus healing up an atrophied man who can do this now would be awe, wonder, praise? I mean, at least this would give them pause. They're like, you know what? There might be something to this Jesus guy. He just did that. You know, when Tony did this in my apartment, I didn't go, huh. I started weeping. I started weeping. I was shouting, weeping, shouting, hugging. but not these guys. They were unmoved by Jesus' power. They refused to be convinced. Listen, when people say, well, if I ever saw a miracle, then I'd believe. No, you wouldn't.

40:56 If your heart is bent against him, nothing you could ever see or hear will convince you. and this is the turning point this very verse is the turning point of the ministry of jesus now everything will change they become more and more and more hostile he becomes more and more and more careful clandestine circumspect in his movements all the way until chapter 14 of mark when he is arrested, falsely charged, and stapled to a cross. And they get rid of him once and for all. So they're plotting how they might destroy him. Look at verse 7, what Jesus did.

41:44 But Jesus withdrew with his disciples to the sea. I'm not going to get into this except to say sometimes the smartest thing you can do is walk away. Walk away. It wasn't Jesus' time. My time has not yet come. There'll be the time for him to step back in to all this melee of conspiracy theory against him, and he will go to the cross. But this is not the time. So he just backed off, withdrew, left. Now, that's the story. I want to leave you with three questions. you don't have to answer them out loud please don't just write them down or think about them number one how consistent are you we talked about weekly worship how consistent are you another word for that is how faithful are you in all areas one area is usually an indication of other areas how faithful are you in your marriage as a spouse as a son, as a daughter, as a parent as a worker as a believer. How consistent are you? Second question, have you learned to discern between God's instructions and others' expectations? They're very different. God's word is different than what people expect of you many times. Have you learned to figure out the difference between God's instructions and others' expectations. Follow God's instruction, that is the pathway to freedom. Follow others' expectation, that is the pathway to bondage. You never stop doing that.

43:30 There'll be another thing to chase. Third question, are you becoming an agent of grace? are you becoming an agent of grace well i'd like to what do i do here it is it's gonna be hard it's gonna be hard resist the urge to control see i told you for some of you that's like wow that's hard resist the urge to control learn to let go start with your adult kids let them go don't fix it trust let them go it's good for every leader, every pastor. Listen, when this sermon ends, you're on your own.

44:23 I'm not following you home. I'm not peering in the keyhole to watch you. I've been accused of, you've been following me this week, haven't you? People have called you about me. You spoke, that's the Holy Spirit, brother. That's not me. So you're on your own. Finally, I just want to close with this. If you are making the Sabbath all about which is the right day, you have missed the point.

44:52 The Sabbath is a shadow. It's a shadow. It is the only one of the ten commandments given to the Jewish nation not repeated as mandatory in the New Testament. Because it's a shadow. It's fulfilled in Christ. Hebrews chapter 4. there is therefore a Sabbath rest for the people of God. And he who has entered into his rest has ceased from his own works, just as God did from his. You rest in Christ.

45:23 So the Sabbath, a day of ceasing, a day of rest. You may be the most rested person on the planet physically, but restless inside. That's where you come to Christ. If you haven't come to Christ, there'll be no rest. Remember what the Old Testament says in Isaiah, there is no peace, says my God, to the wicked. Your rest is found in the offer of Christ. thank you Lord for Jesus being our final resting place the fulfillment of the law and the prophets the mandates of the law all fulfilled in him including the Sabbath day so that we have the freedom to worship on Monday Tuesday Wednesday Thursday Friday Saturday every day is your day We are your people.

46:25 May we just live that life of simple surrender in Jesus' name.