SPEAKER_00: 0:35

Hello. My name is Fasin Dunn. I am a freshman at Venetia High School. I'm also a student leader here. And I attend the Rally Youth Group at Northgate. And today I'm gonna be reading uh what is it again? Mark 2, 23 to 28, and 3, 1 through 6. One Sabbath, Jesus was going through the grain fields, and as his disciples walked along, they began to pick some heads of grain. The Pharisees said to him, Look, why are they doing what is unlawful on the Sabbath? He answered, Have you never read what David did when he and his companions were hungry and in need? In the days of Abiathar the high priest, he entered the house of God and ate the consecrated bread, which is lawful only for priests to eat. He also gave some to his companions. Then he said to them, The Sabbath was made for man, not man for the Sabbath. So the Son of Man is Lord even of the Sabbath. Another time Jesus went into the synagogue is a man with a shriveled hand and a man with a shrimp with a shriveled hand was there. Some of them were looking for a reason to accuse Jesus. So they watched him closely closely to see if he could heal him on the Sabbath. Jesus said to the man with the shriveled hand, stand up in front of everyone. Then Jesus asked them, which is lawful on the Sabbath, to go to do good or to do evil, to save life or to kill. But they remained silent. He looked around them in anger and deeply distressed at their stubborn hearts, said to the man, Stretch out your hand. He stretched it out, and his hand was completely restored. Then the Pharisees went out and began to plot with the Herodians how they might kill Jesus. This is the word of the Lord.

SPEAKER_01: 2:30

Thanks be to God. Thank you. Well, as you can tell from that, we're going to cover a lot of territory this morning. So one of the big issues that has been uh the case for Christians for centuries has been kind of this relationship between the law and grace. That since we are saved by grace, then what is the purpose of the law for us? Um now, if you were grew up, if you grew up in a church kind of like mine, um, there are a lot of rules and regulations and do's and don'ts, and things you were not supposed to do and things you were okay to do, and some things you used had to do. And um, and if you grew up in kind of that background, you've probably wrestled with this for most of your life. Well, what how much of that stuff is really in the Bible? And how much of that do I really have to do? And if and if you were raised with no church background whatsoever, you're kind of wondering, like, what in the world is this all about anyway? Um, but there is this issue, and it has been actually since the first century church, right? Where does the law fit now in the gospel of grace? And for the first century church, the big issue was about circumcision because circumcision had been the mark of God's people. And now there's all these Gentiles who are coming to God through Jesus. And the big issue was are they gonna have to get circumcised or not? Are we gonna require that? And it was a big issue, actually, it's so big of an issue that they actually called a council of the church leadership back to Jerusalem and they debated about this. And thankfully, thankfully, they came to the decision, no, we're not gonna make it hard for those who are turning to God. We're not gonna require circumcision. But it has been an ongoing issue, and it was even the early church. If you read the writings of Paul, particularly to the Galatian church, he wrestled with these this issue with these people all the time. And we do to this day, not so much about circumcision, but just in general, where does the Ten Commandments fit? Now, as I'm a follower of Jesus Christ, if I'm saved by grace, what bearing does the are is it still in play? Do I still have to obey all these rules? And what about the books of Leviticus and Deuteronomy in the Old Testament? Those two books are all about law. You've all read those, right? Yeah, sure. No, I yeah. Um no, it and and what about actually the whole Old Testament? What relevance does it have? Because that was all about the law and obedience and all of these things. And I think we continue to have this confusion. And not only is it um difficult for us to kind of sort through all of this, but I think it actually impacts our ability to represent Christ to others. And I've met so many people who have rejected Christianity, but they don't even really know what it is they're rejecting because they're thinking it's all about these rules and regulations. And I think a lot of that has to do with the way that we present ourselves. And so this morning we're going to be looking at this passage. It's two encounters that Jesus has with these Pharisees, and it's about this issue of the Sabbath. And the Sabbath was part of the law. It's actually one of the original Ten Commandments. Commandment number four specifically, that you will, you all six days you will work, but the seventh day you will keep holy to the Lord, you shall do no work. And that's the that's the commandment. So now you've got these Pharisees and Jesus having these conversations about this, what's lawful and what's not lawful. And I think the things that he says, there's there's three statements, actually, two statements and one question that he raises that I think will help clear up some of the confusion. At least that's what I hope to do this morning. And what I want to do is kind of key in on each of those statements that might give us a little bit more understanding. The first statement was this Jesus said it's in verse 27, the Sabbath was made for man, not man for the Sabbath. Well, what does that mean? I think at the bottom line, what he's trying to get across to us is that all of God's intentions for you are good. That God's desire for your life is for your ultimate good. That God didn't come up with all of these rules and regulations, these Ten Commandments and all these other things just to make life miserable for you. And scripture is filled with commandments and instructions and directives and precepts and all of these things. And it's not because he's a capricious tyrant who's looking to make life miserable, it's because he loves us. He loves you, he made you, he created you. And what he wants for you is the very best life that he designed you to live. He wants you to become the very best version of the self that he created you to be. And all of these, when when Jesus says the Sabbath was made for man, not man for the Sabbath, what he's saying is God didn't come up all these rules to just burden you down. That he created these rules for your benefit. And if you don't believe that, then all of those commandments and all of those instructions and all those things you find in Scripture will just be a burden on you, and you will chafe under it all of your life. How many parents here in the room? Okay, all right. So you now, as a parent, probably when you were growing up, your parents had household rules and restrictions and things, and certain things you were required to do and things not to do. And at the time you thought, Dad is so unfair. Why can't I do this? Or why do I have to do that? But now you're a parent and you have kids who ask you those exact same questions. Because now you understand, oh, that's why they made me do those things. They weren't just trying to be the boss of me, they wanted the best life for me, and you want the best life for your kids. And so many of those same rules and household restrictions and all those things you have put in place for your own kids, and it's because you want the best for them. How much more so does God? So he says, these things are ultimately for your benefit. What happens is there's this one commandment, but then how do you interpret it? And this is this is where you get into all these rules and regulations and very specific. So let's back up and start the story in verse 23. It says, one Sabbath, Jesus was going out through the grain fields with his disciples, and they walked along, they began to pick some heads of grain. The Pharisees then said, Look, why are they doing what is unlawful on the Sabbath? So a little explanation about the Pharisees. We've encountered them now the last couple of weeks as we've been going through the gospel of Mark. The Pharisees were purists. Um, their name, Pharisee, actually, the root of that name comes from a Hebrew word that has to do with being separated, being different, being right. And so what they had done was they had a whole way of measuring your devotion and your faithfulness to God. So where there was a commandment, what they did was they tried to form kind of a fence around it. And it was all about measuring devotion and faithfulness to God. And it was all about what I what I like to call performance religion. That if I do this, if I act the right way, if I obey, then I'm a good person. If I perform correctly, then I'm acceptable to God. Now, the law that they were talking about goes all the way back. It's Exodus chapter 20, where the Ten Commandments is given. And this is the actual law. Remember the Sabbath day by keeping it holy. Six days you shall labor and do all of your work, but the seventh day is a Sabbath to the Lord, your God. On it you shall not do any work. Well, that seems pretty straightforward. But then the question remains well, that's kind of vague. What's work and what's not work? And that's where you get this having to get down to the details of it. And what the Pharisees did was they they made this fence or this hedge around the law, they called it. So, like, this is the law, but to make sure you don't break that law, we kind of build the fence of protection around it. And they had this basically for all of the law. They had over 1,500 rules and regulations to make sure that you were obeying the law. Ten commandments, 1500 rules and regulations, 39 of them specifically about this particular one, about the Sabbath and doing work and not doing work on the Sabbath, because it's kind of a general regulation, but what constitutes work? And so they would have some very, very specific things. What they were doing was just picking grain, you know, just popping it in their mouth like sunflower seeds, kind of a thing. But I said, you're violating the Sabbath because of this fence that they had built around it. So here's the trouble with performance religion. If I'm successful at it, I come I become prideful because look how good I am at keeping the law, which leads to a sense of superiority because you're not keeping it as well as I am, which leads to judgmentalism, where I start becoming God's police, and I start pointing out where everybody else is failing, where I'm succeeding. Now the other side of that is that if I'm not quite so successful, if I tend to fail at it, then I carry around with me all this guilt and shame, which leads to humiliation and ultimately to hypocrisy. And I start looking for loopholes. And by the way, the Pharisees were really, really good at this because one of the laws of the Sabbath was how far you could travel, one of the rules and regulations. And they determined you you may have read this in in the gospels where it talks about they went about a Sabbath day's walk. Okay, that was a specific thing, it was about um 2,000 cubics or approximately about one kilometer. And so you could travel from your home anywhere within one kilometer radius, but anything beyond that, that was work. So, but they found a loophole they provided. Because what if you had to go beyond one kilometer on the Sabbath day? Well, here's what you could do the day before, you could take enough food for two males and um and some articles of clothing, and you could go that one kilometer distance and deposit it there for you up ahead. And what you were doing was you were you were establishing a temporary residence. So now I can travel my one kilometer, but now that I'm in my new temporary residence, I can go a kilometer further. And that's kind of how it happens with performance religion. We either get this prideful judgmentalism or we start looking for loopholes, and that's what they did. And what Jesus is doing here when he's confronting them on all of this, and he talks about the Sabbath is made for man, not man for the Sabbath. What he's doing is he's trying to get back to its true purpose. Because the true purpose of the Sabbath was to provide a day of rest, that it was to give you a time off, and it was really meant to be a celebration of God's provision. That he is saying, Listen, I will take care of you. You can take a day off. Well, who's gonna reap my harvest? God's got it under control. Who's gonna take care of my sheep? God's got it under control. And the whole idea of Sabbath was about rest, it was about not slavishly trying to make my own way in the world, but trusting that God is gonna provide for me and I can rest in Him. By the way, do you remember the original temptation that the Satan brought to Eve? He questions God's goodness, he questions God's provision. When he asks her about the tree, and she says, No, we're not to re eat any other tree, but we're not to eat of that tree. He said, if we eat of that tree, we will surely die. And what did Satan say? You're not gonna die. You're not gonna die. God's holding out on you because he knows that if you eat of that tree, you will become like him and you will be wise like him. And that was the original, that was the original temptation. So the Sabbath, which was meant to be a place of rest and contentment and trust, became something altogether different. And it was much, much bigger than that. Um, I want you to watch this video because it kind of does in four minutes what I would take another hour to do. So this is the purpose of the Sabbath.

SPEAKER_02: 15:01

We turn to Genesis 1 in the Bible. It begins with darkness and disorder, but then God speaks to bring about light and order so that life can flourish. And this happens over the course of six days. Each day is marked with the phrase, there was evening and there was morning. But on the seventh day, something special happens. God stops and rests. Right. Creation is brought to its completion on the seventh day. On the seventh day, God's presence fills his creation. The land provides for all of God's creatures, including humans, who are appointed to rule the world with God forever. But the humans are deceived by a dark power and they forfeit that rest. They're exiled into the wilderness where they have to work as slaves to the land. Until they die, return to the dust from which they came. But God wants to restore humanity back to that seventh-day rest. So he chooses to give the family of Israel that experience of ultimate rest so they can share it with others. But how? They're in Egypt, slaves to an oppressive empire who's grinding them into the dust. So God confronts Egypt and liberates the Israelites, taking them through the darkness and chaos on the way to the Promised Land. But while they're on the way, God invites them in the wilderness to start living as if they're in the Promised Land. But how do you practice the future rest in the wilderness? Well, God tells them that every seventh day they are to stop their work, or in Hebrew, to Shabbat, so that they can rest and enjoy God's good world. So take a whole day to live as if the ultimate rest has already come. Yeah, this is the Sabbath, celebrated every week on the seventh day. But there's more. The Sabbath is just one of seven festivals that Israel practiced every year, each one anticipating that seventh-day rest. That is a lot of sevens. And there's even more. Every seven years, the Israelites were to liberate slaves, forgive debts, and let the land rest for a whole year. And then every seven times seven years was the ultimate seventh-day rest, called the Year of Jubilee. If anyone had lost their land or gone into debt, all was forgiven, everything restored. Also, the Sabbath, these feasts, the year of Jubilee, it's all pointing towards the hope of future rest. Right. Now, when the Israelites went into the land, they forgot their God, and so they forfeited their chance for rest in the promised land. They're exiled and enslaved again by an oppressive nation, led back into a world of chaos and disorder. But Israel's prophets said that their exile would end one day, and that the ultimate jubilee of freedom and rest would come, but generations go by and they're still waiting. It's at this dark point in the story that Jesus appears, and he launches his public mission on a Sabbath day. Yeah, he read aloud from the scroll of Isaiah, saying that it was time for all captives and slaves to be released because this was the year of the Lord's favor. What did he mean this is the year of the Lord's favor? He was talking about the ultimate jubilee. Also, Jesus is claiming that Seventh-day rest would come through him. Right, he said that he was the Lord of the Sabbath, and he confronted disorder and darkness and all of its forms, liberating people from sickness, sin, even from death itself. Yet Jesus was killed, so even his work was undone. Well, it seemed that way. But notice, Jesus timed his death to take place at the end of the week. His body rested in a tomb during the Sabbath, and on the eighth day, he rose from the dead. Oh, wait, the eighth day? You mean the first day of a new week? Exactly. Jesus' resurrection was like the first day of a new creation, where God's light and life broke into the darkness. So, because of the resurrection, we have hope in God's promise of future rest. But we're not there yet. It's like we're still in the wilderness where we experience struggle and pain. But as we journey towards that ultimate seventh day, Jesus invites us to experience a taste of real rest now. By following him. Or in his words, come to me all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest.

SPEAKER_01: 19:20

So what was intended to be restful and restorative and celebration and freedom, they actually turned into bondage. And that's what Jesus is saying when he's saying, Listen, man was Sabbath was made for man, not man for the Sabbath. Okay? So the second statement, he goes on, he adds to that, and he says this so the Son of Man is Lord even of the Sabbath. Well, what what does that mean? I think what he's trying to portray here is there's something new that is coming, that God's goodness and shown in the Sabbath is perfectly fulfilled only in him, only in Jesus. That he's saying, I am Lord of the Sabbath. What he's doing is he asserting an entirely new kind of relationship with God. And he's saying it's not about that religious religious ritual, that performance religion anymore. There's something new that I am bringing about. And he goes back and he tells this story to explain what he's talking about. Mark 2, verse 25. Says this Have you never read what David did when he was hungry and his comp when he and his companions were hungry and in need? In the days of Abiathar the high priest, he entered into the house of God and ate the consecrated bread, which is lawful only for priests to eat. And he also gave some to some of his companions to his companions. So again, this is a story back from the Old Testament. It's in 1 Samuel chapter 21. David is fleeing for his life. He slain Goliath, but now Saul is after him. And Saul and his armies are pursuing David and his men because Saul sees David as a usurper of his throne. And so he's got to take care of David. And so David and his men have to flee, and they are running for their lives, and they're going all through the wilderness and all through anywhere they can to get away. And Saul and his army are pursuing him all the time. And they're tired and they're worn out. And they come to the town of Nob, which is where the tabernacle was, and they come in there and they are dead tired. They are hungry. And what happens is they ask for food, and the priests say, The only bread we have is the consecrated bread, but he gives it to them to eat. Now, here's the thing: the consecrated bread was always produced on the Sabbath. And it was presented before the Lord as a, and it was actually called the bread of presence. It was a reminder that God is with us wherever we are at, and we present this meal in essence before God. And then each Sabbath it was traded out for the next bread of presence. And so, by the way, by the way, can you think of Jesus giving us a bread of his presence? We celebrated that this morning. Communion, when he said, This is my body which is for you. It's my blood poured out for the remission of your sins. See, it's repeating all the way through. And it was all about the ritual. And the ritual was it had to be presented each each Sabbath. Represented, and then what was taken off the old bread, that was given, that was what the priests would eat. So when the priest gives David and his men this bread, he is doing technically something that is law unlawful. But what he's doing is an act of mercy. And I think Jesus tells this story because he wants us to understand this new kingdom is not about the ritual and the performance religion. It's a new kingdom of mercy and grace. Because ritual and ceremonial law, that was all put in place to because there are sinful, unrighteous people who cannot possibly relate to a holy and righteous God. And we are so different than what he is. So the ritual was a way, a means by which of helping us understand how different he is from us, but we still have a way towards him. And all of these things were foreshadowing what Jesus was going to fulfill. So this new relationship now is not based on ritual. This new relationship that Jesus is bringing in, this new kingdom that Jesus is bringing in is all about mercy and grace. Because all religion is about performance. I obey, I perform, God accepts me. Every religion, every world religion is all based on that formula. There's certain things I have to do, certain prayers I have to pray, certain whatever it might be, to become accepted by God. And what Jesus is doing, he's turning it all the way upside down, and he's saying, it's not about the ritual, it's about a relationship. And I have come to bring that new new relationship, something altogether different. Because here's the problem with performance religion: you never really know if you're good enough. And I talked to so many people over my years in pastoral ministry where everybody has this sense of balance scales. And on one side is all the good things I ever do in my life, and on the other side are the bad things I do. And when I get to the end of my life, hopefully the good outweighs the bad, and I'm accepted by God and I get into heaven. And what Jesus is saying, that is nothing like that at all. It's about grace. There's a term that um psychologists, psychiatrists came up with. It's called imposter's syndrome. Imposter syndrome is this feeling inside like I'm not really as good as everybody thinks I am. I'm not really as capable as I present myself to be. I'm not quite as competent on my job, for instance, as everyone thinks I am. Or I'm not as my life is not as great as it shows up on my Instagram feed. That there's something inside of me that if anybody knew who I really was and saw the real me, they wouldn't like me. They wouldn't accept me. Anybody ever feel? I won't ask you to raise your hands, but have you ever felt that way? You ever felt like I'm just, you know, what everybody sees on the outside is not what's really going on inside. You know why you feel that way? Because it's true. You're not as good as you present yourself to be. But there is one who was. Jesus Christ lived that totally sinless, perfect, acceptable to God life. And when he died on the cross, what he was doing was taking upon himself all of those imperfections, all of those faults and failures, all of that sin and rebellion that I do every day of my life. He says, I take it on myself for you. And what he is saying is, I'm not just here to change the Sabbath, I am the Sabbath. This is the rest that you are looking for. Because in religion it says, I obey, therefore I'm accepted. In Jesus, I'm accepted, therefore I obey. Changes the dynamic. Tim Keller wrote this. He said, Jesus isn't just one more teacher come to tell you how to save yourself and find God. He is God Himself, come to save and find you. In fact, he goes on, I want to read more of that. He said, Yes, you should obey the things the Bible says. But if you read it as just all about you and something you have to do to live up to God, that will crush you into compliance. But if you read it as salvation by grace through Jesus Christ, it will melt your heart into wanting to obey those things. Every other culture, every other religion, every other philosophy gives you an identity that is based on performance. It is an achieved identity, so it's fragile. But only Christianity gives you a received identity. It is stronger than heaven and earth. It's, I love you, you know you're my beloved child in whom I am well pleased because of what Jesus Christ has done. And only when you read the Bible like that does it become a life-changing story instead of just a millstone around your neck. And that's why Jesus said, Come to me. All of you who are weary and burdened, if you are trying, if you are tired of living that performance religion life, if you're tired of trying to make yourself acceptable, God, he says, Come to me, you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. Not just a Sabbath rest from work, but a deep inner rest of your very soul. And where religion leads to pride and superiority, grace brings about humility and gratitude. It changes everything. The trouble is our default is still performance. And so many of us who understand I am saved by grace and by grace alone, we are still trying to perform before God to make ourselves just a little bit more acceptable. Because, see, if if I'm doing all the right things, then somehow there's a sense deep in the back of my head that God owes me. Now you may not say that out loud, but how many of you have prayed bargaining prayers with God? Yeah, well, God, you know how devoted I am to you. You know how much this means to me. You know how much I care about you, you know how much I serve you at church, you know how much I now could you answer that prayer? And that's just performance religion showing up all over because that's our that's the default of our heart. Say, no, when you pray, Lord, have mercy on me. God, this is big, too big for me, and I can't handle this on my own. I need your help, I need your strength, I need your healing. And even if it doesn't turn out the way that I want it to be, I'm gonna still trust in your goodness. Because ultimately, that's what it is. Trust in the goodness of God, find it fulfilled in Christ. And then the last one comes on another Sabbath day. By the way, it's not the same day, it's a different Sabbath day. This time they've gone to synagogue and they're in synagogue, and there's a man there that has a shriveled hand, we're told. And we're not knowing, we don't know if it was shriveled from birth or if it was an injury that he incurred somewhere in his lifetime, but he's he's in the uh synagogue, and um, he comes in, and everyone around is looking at Jesus to see what Jesus is going to do. And so before Jesus does anything, he raises the question. This time he takes the initiative, by the way. He says, which is lawful on the Sabbath to do good or do evil, to save life or to kill? And I think this kind of wraps up everything. Because I think what he's coming across here is that grace gives a new meaning and a purpose to our obedience. That isn't just about resting from my labors, it's about a deeper rest. But then it also gives a new purpose to it. And the fact that Jesus does this healing is a perfect example of it. He's demonstrating the true purpose of the Sabbath. So let's back up to verse one. It says, on another time, Jesus went into the synagogue and a man with a shriveled hand was there. Now, again, probably sitting in the back row because a shriveled hand, a deformity of that kind, a disability of that kind would oftentimes be seen as some kind of judgment from God. That either you did something wrong to deserve this, or your parents did something wrong, and you're the you ended up because of it. And so he's probably not sitting in the front row. He's probably near the back. He's probably got his hand tucked inside his robe. We don't get all the details, but that would be because he's embarrassed. It's a deformity. He doesn't want to make a big deal out of it. Because he knows people are judging him because of it. And it says some of them were looking for a reason to accuse Jesus, so they watched him closely to see if he would heal him on the Sabbath. Notice their focus. They're watching closely, but they're not watching the man with the need. They're watching closely Jesus, and not not not just to see what he'll do, but to accuse him. They're looking for something very, very specific. Their focus is on what Jesus is going to do because they want to accuse him, which, by the way, is where ultimately performance religion goes. It blinds us to the needs around us. And we start putting focus on the wrong things. And Jesus says, says to the man, stand up in front of everyone. Now that would be the last thing this guy would want to do. Don't call attention to me. I'm sitting in the back row when he says, stand up in front of him. Why is Jesus doing that? Is he being cruel? I don't think so. I think he's got two purposes. The first is for the Pharisees and those around looking to accuse him, he's saying, Listen, you're looking at the wrong thing. You're looking for the wrong reasons. There's someone right here in your midst who is hurting that you probably look down on. And I think there's another thing for the man himself. I think what he's saying to him, it's okay to admit your need. It's okay to show your weakness. In fact, healing comes, restoration comes, renewal comes when we're willing to admit our need. The things that we want to keep hidden. He says, just bring them to me. So he changes the focus, and then he says, which is lawful to do on the Sabbath, to do good or to do evil, to save life or to kill. But it says they remain silent. And he looked around at them in anger and deeply distressed at their stubborn, stubborn hearts. I think there's something there. Because I think rule-keeping performance religion not only doesn't work with God, but I think he finds it offensive and grievous. It says that Jesus looked at him with anger. Anger and deeply distressed. I think he's angry because of the hardness of the hearts has caused him to not even look at the needs all around him. And I think he is grieved about it because they can't even see their own hardness of heart. And performance religion tends to do that to us. So then it says, He said to the man, stretch out your hand. And he stretched it out, and his hand was completely restored. And I think the takeaway from all of this is the best purpose of your obedience is in helping others. The Sabbath was all about restoration, and this man's hand is restored. It's all about renewal and replenishment, and he's getting something brand new in the use of his hand. The very purpose of the Sabbath is now being fulfilled as Jesus reaches out to him. And I think here's where it comes down to we all have our own version of a shriveled hand, the thing we keep covered up, the thing we're afraid to admit, thing we might be ashamed of, the hurt or grieving that we carry with us. Every one of us in this room have our own version of a shriveled hand. And we are surrounded by people throughout our lives who have their own version of shriveled hands. But there is a future Sabbath world that God is bringing about. And when Jesus says he's Lord of the Sabbath, he's saying, You have a part in this. And your actions and your behaviors and your caring and mine are all part of bringing about the Sabbath world that God is bringing ultimately to us. And we have a part in it. There is, however, a very tragic PS to this whole story, and it's found in the very last verse. It says, Then the Pharisees went out and began to plot with the Herodians how they might kill Jesus. The irony there is so thick. Because remember what Jesus asked? What is lawful to do on the Sabbath, to do good or to do evil? To restore life or to kill. And on the Sabbath, these really good rule keepers are breaking the most fundamental rule. They are plotting to do evil and to kill. And those who prided themselves so much on being so right with God are so far from what God is trying to do. And then actually they try to fight against it. So Sabbath isn't just about inactivity, it's really about joining in the Sabbath kingdom that God is bringing about, that you and I have a part in. And if I could kind of land the plane, I would give you these three things in closing. Trust in the goodness of God. No matter how hard it might be, no matter how much you may not be able to understand it, no matter how difficult your situation might be, trust in his goodness because he loves you. And then rest in the grace of God. Quit trying to perform and earn more from Him. But then I think the last thing is to go out and embody that compassion of God to those around us. You bow your heads with me. You might be here this morning, caught in that cycle of performance. And maybe you're a Christ follower. You already know you're saved by grace, but you find yourself constantly trying to do better to earn God's favor. Let that grace turn it all around for you and let those acts of obedience become responses to God's grace and love toward you. And maybe you're here this morning, and your whole idea of religion and your whole idea of Christianity is all about this performance thing. I hope this morning you understand God loves you so much, He gave His one and only Son, who gave His life on a cross to absorb all that stuff that needs to be taken away. And he has a new life for you. And you can start that today by just simple, simple prayer. Lord, I'm tired of pretending, I'm tired of performing. I can't do this, and I know it. I need your grace. Thank you for dying for me. I'm putting my life in your hands. So, Lord, let us learn to live in grace. Not just the forgiveness of our sin, but the life of gratitude, the life of serving, the life of obedience that shows the Sabbath kingdom has started to take root in our very souls. We pray this in Jesus' name. Amen.

SPEAKER_02: 38:44

Would you stand to your feet with us?