Rest in Christ

Two weeks ago, I was extra ambitious with the hope that I would cover the first four commandments. And for those who are fearful or concerned, I'm going too fast. We have gone through all 10 as we went through Exodus a few years ago. As the Lord decided to change plans, I only got through the first three commandments. because apparently he thought we needed to focus completely and solely today on the fourth. So one page of one point of a sermon has become 15 pages of one sermon. This is exciting. We're looking at Deuteronomy 5. We're on page 150. If you're using a pew Bible, if you need a Bible, please take that Bible with you. We would love to give that to you. Deuteronomy 5, Moses is now talking to the second generation that has come out of Egypt. The first generation has died, as we read in Psalm 95, because of God's wrath. They would not obey. They would not listen. They died because God sworn His wrath. They would not see His rest. The second generation, He's preparing them. They need to hear the law. They need to obey the law. And so he gives them the law a second time. That's why the book's called Deuteronomy, second law. We're gonna be looking specifically at the one law, the fourth commandment that begins in verse 12. But let me read the 10 commandments in their entirety. Now hear the word of the Lord. And Moses summoned all Israel and said to them, hear, O Israel, the statutes and the rules that I speak in your hearing today, and you shall learn them and be careful to do them. The Lord our God made a covenant with us in Horeb, not with our fathers did the Lord make this covenant, but with us who are called, who are all of us here alive today. The Lord spoke with you face to face at the mountain, out of the midst of the fire while I stood between the Lord. and you at that time to declare to you the word of the Lord, for you were afraid because of the fire and you did not go up into the mountain. He said, I am the Lord your God who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery. You shall have no other gods before me. You shall not make for yourself a carved image or any likeness of anything that is in heaven above or that is on the earth beneath or that is in the water under the earth. You shall not bow down to them or serve them. For I, the Lord your God, am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers and the children to the third and fourth generation of those who hate me. but showing steadfast love to thousands of those who love me and keep my commandments. You shall not take the name of the Lord your God in vain, for the Lord will not hold him guiltless who takes his name in vain. Observe the Sabbath day to keep it holy, as the Lord your God commanded you. Six days you shall labor and do all your work, but the seventh day is a Sabbath to the Lord your God. On it you shall not do any work. You, or your son, or your daughter, or your male servant, or your female servant, or your ox, or your donkey, or any of your livestock, or the sojourner who is within your gates, your male servant and your female servant may rest as well as you. You shall remember that you were a slave in the land of Egypt, and the Lord your God brought you out from there with a mighty hand and an outstretched arm. Therefore, the Lord your God commanded you to keep the Sabbath day. Honor your father and your mother as the Lord your God commanded you, that your days may be long, that it may go well with you in the land that the Lord your God is giving you. You shall not murder, You shall not commit adultery. You shall not steal. You shall not bear witness, bear false witness against your neighbor. And you shall not covet your neighbor's wife. And you shall not desire your neighbor's house, his field, or his male servant, or his female servant, or his ox, or his donkey, or anything that is your neighbor's. The law of the Lord is perfect. This morning, we're going to be looking again specifically to verses 12 through 15, the Sabbath command. You will observe the Sabbath day. Now to begin, we need to look at how this command functions fairly uniquely within the Ten Commandments. The first three are very clearly focused on our vertical relationship to God. There's no other God before you. He's the God who delivered you, Yahweh. You shall not make an image of Him. How you worship Him, you will not make an image of Him. Do not try to make an image or an idol to bow down to as if you're worshiping Yahweh through a carved image. You shall not take the Lord's name in vain. The first three are focused on our vertical relationship with God. Look at the last six. They're the horizontal relationships we enjoy. It's, again, kind of a bill of rights. Everybody else has a right that God has given them, and God is saying, respect and honor that right. Your father and your mother have the right to be honored. Your neighbor has the right to life. Don't murder him. Your spouse has the right to your faithfulness. Do not commit adultery. Your neighbor has the right to his property. Do not steal. Your neighbor has the right to truth. God has the right for you to proclaim his truth. Do not lie. You have the right to be content with what God has. God has the right to be thanked for what he has given you. Do not covet. So how does the Sabbath function? Is it a vertical or a horizontal? Is it about our relation with God or one another? Well, I think there's a bit of both here because it's God commanding us to be obedient on this one day. And obviously it affects the way we relate to others because it's about the servants and the sojourner. Everyone in the household was given this day off to rest. And notice it's because God commanded it, said twice. Is this command still applicable for us today? Now this is the real question we all want the answer to and we'll walk through this slowly and you may or may not agree with me. But as we answer this very briefly, I want to say yes and no. Is this command still applicable for us today? Absolutely. It's God's perfect law. When God speaks, He's revealing Himself to us. So anytime that God speaks, He's revealing something about His eternal character and His purpose. The Old Testament is ours. It's all applicable because it's always revealing God and something about him, something about us, so we can always learn something from all of scripture. After I affirm, I want to say, no, it's not directly for you because this was given as a specific law for a specific people who were a specific nation at a specific time. This was written for Israel as they're going to the promised land. We're not the nation of Israel. We're God's only nation, but we're a different kind of citizen of a different kind of kingdom. Galatians 3 says the law was a tutor. We're no longer under the law. We're under Christ. We're under his law because he is our king. To say we're still under these 10 commandments the same way the nation of Israel was would be to go into their nation, to go into Canada and say, you need to recognize my Bill of Rights. Have a look at it and say, those aren't the rules and the laws of our nation. Let me affirm yet again that the law is applicable for us. It's ours in Christ. As we look to this law, we have to look and ask, how did Christ fulfill this law? How did Christ fulfill the law? And in many ways, every law, he actually intensifies it. As Colossians 2, as we'll see later, the Sabbath is a shadow, Christ is the substance. Let's ask a more precise question. Is today the Sabbath? Is today the Sabbath? I'm glad people are smiling with me. Well, yesterday was the day Moses spoke of when he read this. Yesterday was the last day of creation. Yesterday was the Sabbath that Moses referred to. Today is the first day of the week. Yesterday was technically the day Moses was speaking of. We have to recognize that a major change is taking place because we're worshiping on a different day. The key issue is what has been transferred over, or is the Sabbath obsolete, or is it still in practice? There are four primary positions that we can consider as we think about the Sabbath. There are last-day Sabbatarians. There are people who say that the Sabbath laws are still fully enforced, still fully applicable, and that need to be observed yesterday. There are Jews that believe this, obviously, and there's seventh-day Adventists, They believe that the seventh day is still fully in effect and that we are worshiping on the wrong day. Second position, there's first day Sabbatarians. They believe that all the Sabbath laws were transferred over so that you no longer work just like they didn't work today. Now this became prominent in the 17th century because the Puritans did not like the fact that the King James, that King James allowed dancing and games on Sunday. So they started emphasizing that the Sabbath law was moved to the first day. The third position is that this is the Lord's day. The Sabbath law was no longer binding on Christians. Today is the first day of the week. Christ has fulfilled the law, and now we gather to remember his resurrection. That's what makes today special. The fourth position is the inconsequentialist. It doesn't matter. The Sabbath doesn't matter, the Lord's Day doesn't matter, every day is the same. My fear is that that last position is the prevalent position in evangelical Christianity. Days do matter. Seasons, months, years. We trace those because of orbits of the sun and the moon. The week was divinely given to us by God to teach us. There's nothing that measures the week. It's just the fact that God said there's seven days. I rested on the seventh one. Jesus Christ rose on the first one. Days are not inconsequential. My position is this, because I know everyone wants to know. I do not believe today is the Sabbath. I believe today is the Lord's day. I believe it is a special day because Christ rose today as a new Adam, as the new beginning of a new heavens and a new earth to give us new life so we can worship in a new way. What Christians are called to do on the first day of the week is more important for them than what Israel was called to abstain from on the last day of the week. What we are called to do today is more important for our identity in comparison to what Israel was called to abstain from or to refrain from. Christ is our rest. We are called to remember him today. Let's look to this commandment, Jeremy 5. If we look at this, we wanna first compare it to the first law. which was in Exodus, Exodus chapter 20. If you're using a pew Bible, this is on page 61. Let me turn there. And most of the laws from the first giving of the law to the second, most of them are actually verbatim. This one is not. And I'm only gonna read the one verse that really stands out as different, verse 11. Notice that this is the grounding for the seventh day commandment, the Sabbath day. For in six days, the Lord made heaven and earth, the sea and all that is in them and rested the seventh day. Therefore, the Lord blessed the Sabbath day and made it holy. As we look here, we need to go back to Genesis. So you can go back to the beginning of your Bible. This should be on about page two. For some reason, our chapter division begins the seventh day, should still be in chapter one, but here we are, chapter two, verse one. Thus the heavens and the earth were finished and all the host of them. And on the seventh day, God finished his work that he had done and he rested on the seventh day from all his work that he had done. So God blessed the seventh day and made it holy because on it, God rested from all his work that he had done in creation. Now the first six days, God creates the earth, He separates the sea, he separates, he creates man, he creates animals, he creates plants, he creates fish, he creates birds, he does work. Then he says he ceased from that work. Something that's interesting about the first six days and the seventh day, the first six days always end with it was good. And the sixth day was very good. And then we transition, because he had completed his work. He rested. He stopped. I believe by stopping, he's overemphasizing again. It's good. It's complete. Everything God created was right and in order. God is a God of goodness. God is a God of order. The other thing that stands out about that last day, there's no morning, there's no evening. Notice the other six days, they're marked by a morning and an evening. There's a beginning and an end to the first six days. The seventh day has no beginning, it has no end. This is significant. I believe there's a cue here that this is telling us God's creation has a purpose for us who are his image to reflect him by not working like he didn't work on this particular day. but also to enter into his rest. It's amazing here if we fast forward into the Israelites going to the promised land. They're supposed to follow God's pattern. They're called to reflect him in his goodness and his holiness. Think about it. In this day and age, they didn't have grocery stores. They didn't have refrigerators. They worked. And they had to work hard to eat. And here God is saying, don't work for 52 days of the year. Trust that I will provide for you. Trust that I will give you what you need. If we look at the purpose of the Sabbath, it creates a pattern and order to our lives. It teaches Israel that God is holy. It teaches us that God is good and that he created the world good. It reminds us that we're finite. We need physical rest. It reminds us that we can't just go out and do everything in our own strength. We have limitations. Just as God created the trees and said, do not eat of the tree, a limitation to remind man you're not autonomous. I believe God gave us this day to remind us we need rest, physical rest. And finally, the Sabbath day does not end. I believe this is vaguely pointing us to a greater purpose. Now let's move to Deuteronomy. Here, what is emphasized at the end, unlike Exodus that emphasizes the creation as the foundation, Moses here for the second generation going into the land, he emphasizes something different. You shall remember, beginning in verse 15, you shall remember that you were a slave in the land of Egypt, but the Lord your God brought you out from there with a mighty hand and an outstretched arm. Therefore, the Lord your God commands you to keep the Sabbath. Let's just make some brief observations. They're called to observe the Sabbath. It's a practice. Observing it isn't just watching it. You're to practice keeping the Sabbath. Keep it holy. It's holy because God said it was holy. It was holy because what God did on it was holy. It's set apart. It's different from other days. You shall keep it by not working on it. Work six days. Now, work in our fallen world is curse because we refuse God, because we rebelled against God, we now have to work with sweat and against the thorns and the thistles. But work is good. But on this day, you're not supposed to work. Look who it's for, it's for the whole household. For those who are coming in and sojourning, it's not just for the Israelite man for him to rest while everybody else is doing the work. It's for everybody. The whole nation is supposed to stop to remember and make this day holy. And the appeal is because God delivered you. Therefore, he commands you. Verse 15, remember because you were a slave. You had to work while you were being beaten by the king of Egypt, but I've delivered you. Now you work and you rest. God is emphasizing something different for them. God is emphasizing something here to remind them, I am a good God who has delivered you. This is good for you. It is a holy day for you. The exodus is what he's appealing to. their deliverance from Egypt and their slavery. This is the key to salvation for all of Israel. That event was the most important event up to the time that Christ was born in history. It was a defining moment for Israel because it was when God identified them and called them out and made them a special people and made them a nation and gave them His law. This also is important for us. Think about all the salvation language that is found in Israel's deliverance from Egypt. We are delivered from the domain of darkness. We have a Redeemer, Jesus Christ. We have been rescued. Jesus is the Passover lamb. The Exodus is one of the greatest events in human history. It's the defining event for Israel. It's the backdrop of the gospel. Now notice, The second grounding, the first grounding of the Sabbath is I created on six days and I stopped. Then he emphasizes, I delivered you from Egypt. I think there's a connection between these two. So bear with me for a moment and let me try to explain why I think these two are actually connected. Remember Noah. Noah was the one man God called out, with he and his family, to put on a boat so he could wipe out everybody else who was wicked. Noah functioned as a new Adam. He functioned as a new beginning of a new humanity. What did Noah do when he got off the boat and got to the ground? He took the fruit of the vine. He got drunk and was open to his public shame. just like Adam. Adam picked the tree and then he realized he was naked. Noah and Adam are parallel. God has a new beginning and Noah is a new Adam. I believe Israel is being delivered to start a new humanity, a new kind of people redeemed by the blood of the Lamb, a people called to worship God alone, a people who have God's righteous rules and laws among them. They're delivered to be a new kind of humanity, a new nation. with a new purpose. The problem again is that they failed. They failed to obey God. Let's summarize our old covenant Sabbath. The day is holy, it's God's day of rest. The day is for you. Stop doing what you regularly do, Israel, is what God is saying. It brings order to life, it brings physical rest. It's a reminder that they have been set apart as a holy people. It demonstrates trust because God will provide. and it vaguely points to an ultimate rest. Now, these are good things for us to remember as New Covenant believers. While I don't believe this is completely binding on us in the same way it was binding on the nation of Israel, this is our law. The Old Testament is a Christian book. The only people who can truly understand what the Old Testament is saying are believers who interpret it and understand it in light of Christ and what He has done. So we don't want to ignore this because it doesn't directly apply to us the same way it directly applied to Israel. This is for us. The Sabbath command is for us. It tells us who God is, what He is like, what He designed us for, what He expects of us, and what He has done for us. It tells us God is good and orderly. It tells us God is our Redeemer. He's the one who's delivered us for rest. It tells us He's worthy of worship. He commands us. As we look to the New Testament, we have to ask, what kind of evidence is there that this Sabbath continues into the New Testament? I want to point something out to you that's fairly obvious. You're already worshiping today, so you think something's changed. We're gathered today, the first day of the week. We already assume something's changed. Let's go to the big picture. And I'm just going to mention some verses. You can go back and look at them later. Matthew 517, Christ said, I not come to abolish the law, but to fulfill it. Christ fulfilled the law. And as we look at the way he expounds upon the law, he intensifies it. We now. Follow Christ who has fulfilled the law, and we follow his law. Galatians 3.23 says we're no longer children under the tutorage of the law, as if under a guardian. No, we're under Christ as sons and daughters. In Hebrews 12, we're no longer citizens of Sinai who worship with fear. We're citizens of Zion who celebrate and draw near. Some more specific teachings about the Sabbath. Christ kept the Sabbath. He's constantly accused of breaking the Sabbath law, but he never broke a Sabbath law. He broke the Sabbath traditions of the Pharisees. Every bit of evidence points that Christ perfectly kept the Sabbath. He fulfilled it. He did what we cannot do. He fulfilled the law of God. Secondly, Christ declares in Mark 2 that he's the Lord of the Sabbath. This is a divine claim. He is almighty God who has given us the Sabbath. He is the Lord of the Sabbath. And he teaches us, man, you weren't made for the Sabbath. The Sabbath was for you. You need rest. That's why God gave you a Sabbath. You need a reminder that you're holy and that God is holy. That's why he gave you the Sabbath. Colossians 2.17, pretty pointed verse here. The Sabbath is a shadow. Christ is the substance. This is right after he said, do not be bound to being circumcised, as if that adds to your righteousness. No, you've been baptized in Christ and his righteousness. He then says, do not let anyone bind you with Sabbath laws, because it's a shadow. Christ is the substance. Finally, let's look at Hebrews chapter four. Christ is our resurrection. Today, if you hear his voice, enter his rest. Verse 11, we are called to enter his rest. Rest isn't found on a day of the week anymore. Rest is found in Jesus Christ. The rest that Israel was given as a shadow was one day, 24 hours, it's ours every day because Christ is a rest. The entire Old Testament is fulfilled in Christ. The law is fulfilled in Christ. When we understand that rest, going back to Genesis 2, rest is being in the presence of God. Rest is having peace with God. That is only found in Christ. because Christ became like us in every way, yet without sin. He died for the sins that we've committed. He died so that He could take our guilt upon Him, so that now we believe in Him, we're forgiven. We had a broken relationship with God. Christ reconciles us to God. He is our rest because He draws us back into God's presence. He gives us peace with God again. The Sabbath rest is not transferred to another day. Today, it's found in Christ every day. Something else we need to see is that Christ, our risen Redeemer, He calls us to obey Him. Before we get into application for the Christian, I want to talk to you if you're not a Christian this morning. As I prayed, and as all the Christians around you know, life is restless. We're constantly seeking something to improve our lives. We're constantly seeking something more because we know this isn't the way it's supposed to be. It's the new year. People are making resolutions. And I want to challenge you. What you need is rest in Christ. Your recommitment to be a better person, it's not going to work again because we're sinners. We cannot improve ourselves enough. We cannot improve ourselves enough to make ourselves right with God. That's where the rest comes from. The good news for you this morning is that Jesus Christ came to give you peace with God. If you believe in Him, He washes away your sin. If you believe in Him, He takes away your sin so that you no longer have the guilt. You know God. That is rest. Do not make a resolution this morning. Repent of your sins. Recognize you have sinned against God and that Christ has come so that you can know God again. That is how you will find rest. Application for Christians. First and foremost, rest in the work of Christ. Rest in the work of Christ. Resting on the Sabbath day was pointing us to the true rest Christ provides. As Colossians 2.17 again says, the Sabbath was a shadow, Christ is a substance. If we go back to the creation, it's an amazing clue. There's no morning, there's no evening. It's what God created us for, for all eternity, to rest in Him, to be in His presence. Our sin ruined this. The final day, the day we're looking for, the day after Christ returns, it also has no morning or no evening. Listen to Isaiah 60, prophesying the end times. Isaiah 60, verse 19 and 20. The sun shall be no more your light by day, nor for brightness shall the moon give you light, but the Lord will be your everlasting light. and your God will be your glory. Your sun shall no more go down, your moon withdraw itself, for the Lord will be your everlasting light, and your days of mourning shall be ended. Hear Revelation 20, beginning at verse 22. I saw no temple in the city, for its temple is the Lord God, the Almighty, and the Lamb. And the city has no need of sun or moon to shine on it. For the glory of God gives it light, and its lamp is the Lamb. By its light will the nations walk, and the kings of the earth will bring their glory into it, and its gates will never be shut by day, and there will be no night there. They will bring into it the glory and the honor of the nations, but nothing unclean will ever enter it. For anyone who does what is detestable or false, but only those who are written in the Lamb's book of life. Notice those two visions of what's going to come. There's no marker for morning or evening. It's a forever delighting in Almighty God. This is what God has created us for. That's why the seventh day, the beginning of creation, it had no morning or evening because it was vaguely, and now we see clearly, that God intended us for a forever rejoicing and resting in Jesus Christ. He is the Lamb of God, who is our never-ending delight. It's not just a day. We are now called to rest in Him. No morning, no evening, it's forever. We must see this as well. He's our God. our creator who has come to deliver us. Israel was delivered from the land of Egypt, from slavery in Egypt with a mighty right arm of God by the outstretched hand because a lamb died. The Israelites were commanded to take the lamb, put the blood over the post. And when the judgment of God passes over Egypt, that judgment would pass over every home that put the blood over the doorpost. This was pointing also to Christ. This is how God redeemed Israel from slavery. Our deliverance is easier, is better. Our deliverance is better because Christ, the true lamb, it isn't just a passing over of the sin. He takes away our sin by taking it upon himself. Jesus Christ is the perfect Passover lamb because his death perfectly pays the penalty. We're washed white as snow in the blood of Christ. We've been purchased by the blood of Christ. We are now to rest in what he's done for us. By his death, he's brought us near to God. By his death, he takes away our sin. By his life, by his resurrected life, he gives us a new identity and new life. Christian, this is the invitation the author of Hebrews is giving you. Enter into the rest of Christ. No more guilt, no more shame, no more distance from God. Draw near into his presence. See his love, see his glory. Worship him. He frees us so that we can truly worship. As we rest in Christ, we need to see something is dramatically different. Every day is a day for worship. If we are resting in Christ, every day is a day for worship. Today, if you hear His voice, worship. We're constantly being invited into the very presence of God. We're constantly being invited. Are we going? We're constantly given the opportunity to delight in the one true source of delight, the one true rest for our souls. The problem with why we aren't constantly going into that presence, why the reason we're not constantly following that invitation, is we separate ourselves from that delight when we seek sin. We cannot have two masters. We cannot serve two gods. We're either seeking to satisfy our flesh, to delight in our flesh, or to delight in the glory of God. Today, if you hear His voice, cease practicing and seeking the fulfillment of sin and seek the rest of Christ. Third, the Lord's Day is a unique day of worship. we are called to worship with the church gathered on the specific day of the week, the first day. Let me walk through this fairly slowly. The author of Hebrews calls us to enter into the rest of Christ today. And then in Hebrews chapter 10, he tells us, let us consider how to stir up one another to love and good works, not neglecting to meet together as is the habit of some, but encouraging one another. And all the more as you see the day drawing near. We rest in Christ and then he's calling us here. Remember to gather together. Do not neglect the gathering. Do not forsake meeting together. Now, practically speaking, we as a church, Jefferson Park Baptist Church, we've covenanted together to be the body of Christ, to say that this specific day, Sunday, is a day we're going to gather for the purpose of fulfilling what we believe are the most important commands of Christ. We have before us the ordinance of the Lord's Supper. We don't do this any other day. This is a specific day that we gather to partake and participate in the Lord's Supper together. Baptism, celebrating a new life of a new believer. Today is the day we observe baptism. Today is the day we gather to hear the word of God read and we fellowship and we sing. Today is the day we've decided we're going to keep some of the most important and precious commands of Christ to do together. Now, did we just choose this day out of nowhere? I don't think so. We're called to do numerous things together as a body, and we chose this day because we see this is the pattern Christ and his church has set before us. We covenant together to keep the commands on this day because we see this pattern throughout scripture. The New Testament appears to set this day apart. First, it sets it apart because Christ rose today. Christ rose today, the first day of the week. This symbolizes something very important for us. He's a new Adam, unlike Noah, unlike Israel. He's a new Adam that actually resisted sin, that kept himself from the temptation. He's a new Adam that was perfectly obedient so that when he died, he washed away our sins. He's a new Adam so that when he rose to new life, he's a new head of a new race who gives new beginnings and new life. We gather to remind ourselves, to be reminded, remind others, we have new life in Christ. We must remember to live it out. We can see this pattern in the New Testament. Acts 20, verse seven, on the first day of the week, Luke tells us, when we were gathered together to break bread, I believe that's referring to the Lord's Supper, Paul talked with them. Now, I just wanted to point out, for those of you who are aware that it's noon, Paul talked so late that poor Eutychus fell asleep and fell out of a window. I don't think I'll go that long. You may fall asleep, but you won't fall out of a window. You see a pattern on the first day of the week. 1 Corinthians 16, 2, on the first day of every week, each of you is to put something aside and store it up as he may prosper. Here, Paul is calling for a collection to be given when you regularly gather, it sounds like, on every first day of the week. It's the first day because this is the day the Lord rose. I believe this is why John calls it the Lord's day in Revelation 1.10. We gather today because this is the day Christ rose to make us his new creation. Now practical application. First, if we're going to keep Christ's command, we need to be present. One of the easiest things to overlook is the simple ministry of presence. There's two truths that I want to make sure we hear. God says that you physically need rest. God calls us to not forsake the assembling of the body so that we find rest in Christ together. Now, it seems to be easily confused that some want to say, the day I'm going to take physical rest is the day that I'm going to, the day I'm going to find physical rest is the day the body gathers. If you say that, you're denying a command of scripture. You can't confuse these two. We don't forsake the gathering together to find physical rest. That's prioritizing ourselves above the body in Christ. You see, this is an important day. It's a unique day where the body comes together to grow up, to grow and mature, to be knit together, to remind one another. Now, it's also important to remember you've got to be resting in Christ. You've got to be doing it every day so that when you come on this one day, you're ready to invest in the body. If you just come as a consumer, you're not doing it right. You've got to come resting and rejoicing so that when you come together, you can encourage one another, stir one another up to good works. The wording of Hebrews, do not forsake, do not neglect. The body's missing a piece when we decide we're going to do something different that day. We do not take days of physical rest on the day the body gathers. If you're so exhausted with other six days that you have to take a day of rest on the day the church gathers, you're not prioritizing your other six days properly for worship. More so, if you ever feel a need to take a break from church, you're not doing it right. I realize we're a bunch of sinners gathered. We rub each other wrong. That's why our covenant says we'll be quick to forgive, we'll be quick to show grace. That's why it says it. It assumes we're sinners and we're gonna sin against one another. We don't need a break from one another. We need to come and remember We have to forgive. We have to reconcile because that's what Christ commanded. The Lord's Day is a unique day. We gather together to sing, to pray, to read scripture, to encourage one another, to invest in one another, to be built up into one body. It's glorious if we actually think about what's supposed to happen today. Commit the whole day to the covenant body. Commit the whole day, not just an hour, not just a couple of minutes. Commit the whole day to say, how can I be built up? How can the body of Christ be built up today? So that we can celebrate our new identity, our new hope and new future. Final practical application. When you come, don't just come, don't just be present. Come expectantly. That's what we're saying, speak O Lord. If you come lazy and late, I doubt much is gonna happen to you or through you. Come early and expectant. This is not a day of physical rest. I pray that every member of Jefferson Park leaves Sunday completely physically exhausted. I do. I hope every member of Jefferson Park ends the day physically exhausted with a full heart because we've invested in one another, we've prayed with one another, we've mourned with one another, we've wept with one another, we rejoice with one another. Because that's what the church is about, being so knit, we're willing to be exhausted physically so that we can rejoice together spiritually. How to enjoy the Lord's Day. Spend the day with the saints. If you're out of town, visit a church on vacation. It's not just for an hour. Use the day. Prioritize the body of believers. Make evening plans. Stick around longer. We've got food for you today. Secondly, very practical, sleep Saturday night. If you stay up all night, so that you can't wake up early enough to come to prayer, Sunday school, or you come here too tired, you've said that thing's more important than Jesus. If this is where Christ's body is coming and the head is being lifted up, you've said that thing is more important than Jesus. Prioritize God, Christ, and His church. What we do Friday and Saturday has a huge impact on how we come Sunday. Third, Read the passage ahead of time, whether your Sunday school class or the sermon. Come ready to think with the passage. Come ready to dialogue in your mind so that whenever we leave, you're able to have a better conversation with those we're worshiping with. Fourth, pray for God to speak. We can all be hearing, but we're rarely listening. Pray for God to speak. Come ready to remind others and to be reminded. Pray that God would correct you, that you would be reminded of the resurrection in such a way that it would correct you. Come to be blessed and to be a blessing. Let me end with this simple declaration. Christ is our rest. Let us remember his resurrection and the rest we have in him. Will you pray with me? Father, we praise you for the rest we have in Christ. We praise you that this is the way you've created us. We thank you that, Lord, I thank you that those among us who don't know you, they can fully experience a restless heart. Overwhelm them with how restless a life is without you. Overwhelm us, Christians, who do not draw near daily and regularly with how the things we're pursuing in this world are restless. We're giving up, enjoying and delighting in the eternal rest of Christ when we pursue our sin. Help us to truly rest in you, Jesus. every day of our lives as we gather together as a body under the headship of Christ. In Jesus' name we pray, amen.