Take the Day Off - Pastor Robert Morris

all right I want you to turn your Bibles to two passages of Scripture Exodus 16 and Mark chapter 2 Exodus 16 and Mark chapter 2 and when I was preparing this message even though this message is not part of a series I felt so strongly that this could be the most important message I preached all all year because I'm going to share with you a truth from God's Word that is a principle in God's word that has horrible consequences if we don't follow this principle and has tremendous blessing if we follow this principle and when I say the name of the message you'll probably relate it to the principle that we're going to talk about but you might not and the message the title is a little different but here's the title the title if you're taking notes write this down if you're not taking notes write this down the title is take the day off take the day off now have you let me just say this have you ever had go up showed up to work and your boss says take the day off or and let me give you another analogy especially if you live in Texas you ever when you were going to school wake up and there were snow outside and of course in some parts of Texas even just the the hint of snow we're going to take the day off so it's a great feeling to take the day off well the Lord tells us to take a day off and so I want us to look at that all right Exodus 16 look at verse 23 Exodus 16 verse 23 then he said to them this is what the Lord has said so this is God speaking who never changes by the way and he's talking about let me give you a little buggering so I'm at the manner that he provides every day all right tomorrow is a Sabbath rest notice the word rest that's very important a holy Sabbath to the Lord bake what you will bake today and boil what you will boil and lay up for yourselves all that remains to be kept until morning so they laid it up till morning as Moses commanded and it did not stink nor were there any worms in explain to you why they were surprised that it didn't stink and there weren't worms in it then Moses said eat that for today eat that today for today is a Sabbath to the Lord today you will not find it in the field six days you shall gather it but on the seventh day the Sabbath there will be none I just want you notice God's not going to provide give us provision on the if we work on the seventh day there's no provision there he provides double on the sixth day and the Lord now it happened that some of the people went out on the seventh day together but they found none and the Lord said to Moses how long do you refuse to keep my Commandments and my laws see for the Lord is given you notice it's a gift from God giving you the Sabbath therefore he gives you on the sixth day bread for two days let every man remain in his place let no man go out of his place on the seventh day so the people rested on the seventh day now here's what happened God was giving them manna every day and he said listen you gather so much that's all you should gather but what they actually did before that sixth day was some of the people gathered more than what they were supposed to because they thought well what if we wake up tomorrow and it's not here what if God doesn't provide so they gather more and when they woke up the next morning it had rotted and there were worms in it and God was saying I'll do it I will provide for you every day just trust me but now in the sixth day you gather twice as much so they gathered twice as much on the sixth day which they had done earlier in the week by the way and the part that they left overnight it rotted but when they gather twice as much on the sixth day when they woke up on the seventh day it had not rotted and there were worms God was trying to teach them to take a day off and there's a good reason for this and I want to talk to you about some and I'm actually I'm gonna give you five things about the Sabbath I want you notice so here's number one it's a commandment that this is a commandment by the way this made God's top ten list many of you may not know God has a top ten list and he had top ten lists before David Letterman had tuneless all right so it's a commandment now if you want to flip just to the right maybe one or two pages Exodus chapter 20 here are the Ten Commandments and this is the fourth commandment beginning of verse 8 it says remember the Sabbath day to keep it holy six days you shall labor and do all your work but the seventh day is the Sabbath of the Lord your God in it you shall do no work no work you nor your son nor your daughter nor your male servant nor your female servant nor your cattle I personally I don't understand that one because I've never seen cows work but God said I only want your cows working on that day nor your stranger who is within your gates for in six days the Lord made the heavens and the earth the sea and all that is in them and rested the seventh day therefore the Lord blessed the Sabbath day and hallowed it or set it apart now again this is the fourth commandment so let me say something sarcastically here all right aren't you glad that as believers we don't need to do the Ten Commandments obviously I'm saying that sarcastically but that's actually the way we feel about the fourth commandment I want you to think about this now we believe we don't say it but deep in our hearts we believe we should keep nine out of the ten commandments and let me just go through them for you all right and I want you to answer me out loud so all the campuses answer me out loud let me just go through the other nine alright do you believe that we should have no other gods before him you believe that yes do you believe that we should not have idols yes do you believe we should not take his name in vain yes okay then the fourth is the Sabbath we will skip that for a moment do you believe we should honor our parents do you believe we should not lie we should not steal we should not commit adultery we should not murder and we should not cover but do you believe we should take a day off now you'll say yes but you don't always do it it's a commandment now judging I am strong on this I might have it seventh day is Monday in other words you I don't know if you know but I have to work weekends okay so I can't take Saturday or Sunday off or hey so my seventh day is Monday so I that's my Sabbath and the staff knows this and just a while back I was in the office and we were talking with some people and someone said I know Monday's your day off and I started to correct him right then I started to say no it's not my day off it's my Sabbath my day off sexually Friday by the way so I worked Tuesday Wednesday Thursday Saturday and Sunday that's that's the way it works out but I have a Sabbath day which is Monday so this person said there were several staff sent around said hey I know I know Monday's your day off but could you do this could you speak at this or could you do this or whatever and I said I just wanted to make a point I said why don't you just ask me to murder someone once you ask me to commit adultery once you asked me to steal once you asked me to lie because you just asked me to break one of the Ten Commandments that's what you just asked me so it's very important that if we don't understand this and please understand someone came to me last night and said you know my day off is Wednesday is that okay I think it's a principle because Colossians tells us that that this was a forerunner of our rest in Christ but it is a principle still that we need to understand God wants us to rest one day a week and it's extremely important and I promise you if we don't follow the Ten Commandments to be saved or saved by grace through faith in Jesus Christ but let me ask you this if you if you honor the Ten Commandments are you BLET or their blessings or their benefits certainly what if you don't are there consequences let me say another way if you commit adultery are there consequences yes if you lie or their consequences yes if you steal are there consequences yes so if you don't rest one day a week are there consequences yes and you may be dealing with some of them right now that's why I believe this message is so important because I think it will say marriages I think people sometimes go through very difficult marriage problems because they're both stressed or stressed out financial problems health problems how many health problems because we don't rest one day we here's number two it's a witness it's a witness many people don't realize that this was one of the greatest witnesses that God ever gave in Scripture now if again if you want to flip just to the right just a few pages Exodus chapter 31 we'll get to mark chapter 2 toward the end of the message Exodus chapter 31 verse 14 says you shall keep the Sabbath therefore for it is holy - you are set apart everyone who profanes it now watch this everyone who profanes it shall surely be put to death pretty severe for whoever does any work on it that person shall be cut off from among his people work shall be done for six days but the seventh is the sabbath of rest holy to the Lord whoever does any work on the Sabbath day he shall surely be put to death now there's twice put to death let me by the way if you don't know three sins in the Old Testament held the death penalty not keeping the Sabbath adultery and this will be disobeying your parents so some of you might want to use that you know you'd be dead now if we were in the Old Testament when you're about to wish you were dead you keep - all right let's keep running verse 16 says therefore the children of Israel shall keep the Sabbath now remember you saw that's we're not Jewish oh we're grafted in to the nation of Israel read the New Testament we got grafted into the nation of Israel they didn't get grafted into us by the way we got grafted into them therefore the children visuals are keep the Sabbath to observe the Sabbath throughout their generations now watch this as a perpetual covenant how long is perpetual that's right it is a sign or a witness it is a witness between me and the children of Israel forever how long's forever for in six days this is why every time he says for it's because we already read that once in the Ten Commandments because here's the reason I'm asking you do it because in six days the Lord made the heavens in the earth and on the seventh day he rested now this is one of those difficult passages by the way for theologians it's next three words and was refreshed and was refreshed how could an omnipotent God who has all power be refreshed and I'll I'll explain that to you in a moment but here's the reason that it's a witness now let's bring up a little bit to modern times okay let's say you you're part of Israel you live in Israel and a guy emails you and says hey I'll be in on Saturday that was the seventh date and I'll be in on Saturday and I want to finish up this contract we're doing well a person from a Jewish person from Israel would email back and say we don't work on Saturday and now I'm talking now think about hundreds years ago and I know that I'm an email thing about hundreds and hundreds of years ago when nobody ever heard the word Sabbath this other other culture never even heard it they'd come back so once you work on the seventh day and the Jewish version say well because it's the Sabbath of course state email back to say what's the Sabbath never heard of that and they say well it's it's the day that the Lord rested who's the Lord and what do you mean well it'd be this you know the story God made the earth in six days and he rested on the seventh day they'd say I don't know that story tell me the story it was the greatest witnessing tool that God gave the children of Israel for hundreds and hundreds of years it witnessed to the fact that we didn't just happen we have a creator and it was the keeping the Sabbath okay and then it says God was refreshed let me tell you a little about this word in the Hebrew the word refresh the root word of it is to breathe to breathe but the other word that that makes up this word refresh means to take to take breath breath is the root word breath to take breath or to breathe but to breathe in would be the best definition of it to breathe in okay so God breathed in on the seventh day he took breath we have an expression that's very similar of this just give me a moment catch my breath cuz I just catch my breath for a minute you know okay so God caught his breath but he breathed in that's the important thing to understand this think about this what had God been doing for six days he had been creating how does God create he speaks what do you have to do when you speak you have to breathe out God had been breathing out let there let there let there let there be let there be for six days and as a matter of fact the last thing that he did was he created us he created man and woman and he breathed into them the breath of life so God breathes out and then it was seventh day God went he took a breath and then he said I want you to do this I want you to rest one day wait and and here's the thing I think about this this is not some legalistic principle God wants us to follow it's a gift and here's what he says listen if you arrest one day a week I'll provide I'll provide enough it's kind of like the tie if we give the first 10% the other 90% is blessed and 90% with God's blessing goes farther than 100% without let me say it this way six days of work with God's blessing will go farther than seven days without and he doesn't bless any of them if we don't understand this so it's it's a witness here's number three God is serious about it God is serious about remember it holds the death penalty so he's pretty serious about this I'll get to mark two in a moment but numbers chapter 15 verses 32 through 36 says now while the children of Israel were in the wilderness now watch this as will shock you they found a man gathering sticks on the Sabbath day gathering sticks okay text as we say picking up sticks he's picking up sticks and those who found him gathering sticks brought him to Moses and Aaron and all the congregation and they put him under guard well of course I mean the man's a stick pick her up her you gonna have to have somebody you know guard him he sees ministry society because it had not been explained what should be done to him actually it had been explained but they didn't think God was serious about it then the Lord said to Moses the man must surely be put to death that's God saving the man must be put to death all the congregation shall stone him with stones outside the camp so the LORD commanded Moses all the congregation brought him outside the camp and stoned him with stones and he died I think God's serious about it well why would it be that serious about it I can tell you exactly why is that serious about it because he's serious about you because he loves you let me put another way are you dying faster than you should because you're not resting one day we are you under a death penalty cuz you won't simply receive a gift from God this is not bad it's like God says hey I won't give you a gift okay I'll give you a day off I don't want that why would we say no now the number one question I get asked about the Sabbath I do get asked can it be another day than Saturday and yes I believe it can but I get asked this question here's number one question what do you do on your Sabbath pastor Robert what do you do I mean what do you do people ask for ample time well what do you do and well let me just say first of all I rest but let me say it another way that's really not the right question the right question is what do you not do and here's what you don't do work anything associated with your job you don't do that one day a week you don't work one day a week you rest for instance do you answer emails for your work see now now I'm getting the meddling right now in the middle I mean you think about it we still have an office phone and a home phone now we got the office everywhere we go and we're sitting there trying to have dinner with our family ba na and that things going off and then here's the worst thing your answer it he never rest never rest I got an email just a few weeks ago from one of my staff on a Monday ask me a question I emailed back what day is this what day is this because it's my Sabbath it's very important that we've not legalistic but we're principled about this now listen to me because you say well what about an emergency Jesus addressed it he said you what did what if your sheep falls in a ditch on the Sabbath you can get it out your ox in your donkey you lead them away to water he was saying I'm not saying be legalistic I'm saying rest so if you have an emergency I mean if they call and say hey your business is on fire you don't say well it's a Sabbath call me tomorrow okay I understand that you might have an emergency but you can't live life working seven days a week and God is very serious about this right here's number four unobserved Sabbath accumulate unobserved Sabbath accumulate in other words Sabbath's that we don't keep accumulate this is very important because this is going to shock you what we're about to read second chronicles 36 verses 20 and 21 says and those who escape from the sword then when they were invaded he carried away to Babylon where they became servants to him and his sons until the rule of the kingdom of Persia to fulfill the word of the Lord by the mouth of jeremiah until the land that watch this I'll explain all this until the land had enjoyed her Sabbath's as long as she lay desolate she kept Sabbath to fulfill 70 years okay here's here's what happened God said to them every seventh year you let the land rest do you know that they've done studies today and they've actually proven that land will produce more if you let the field rest every seven years and don't plow it in the seventh year don't plant anything and it's not and they've here's the money it's amazing the value studies it's not six and it's not eight it's seven as if someone designed it that way so if you let it rest so every seven years they were supposed to let it rest but here's what they did they got to the seventh year and they didn't believe God's Word and so they plowed it anyway they worked anyway and I'm just wondering if up in heaven God has this great big whiteboard and he went one and then they went to the fourteenth year he went to and then the twenty-first year he went 328 year he put four let me let me ask you this do you know how long they went without letting the land rest 490 years 490 years I said here's a real simple question if you did something for 490 years would you begin to think you were getting away with it wouldn't you 490 years you'd think all God's forgotten about this God never forgets you don't get away listen we're not talking that grace for salvation we're talking about sowing and reaping you're so bad seed whether you're a believer or not you're gonna reap bad fruit you're so good seed believer or not you're gonna reap good for you our church is made up of many different parts through 50 ministries we come together in four locations to worship learn and grow at almost 3000 events every year all 24,000 of us in such a big church it can be hard to feel connected introducing gateway life when you read gateway life whether in print or through the Gateway Life app you'll learn how God is growing his kingdom in and through gateway it's more than just a magazine it's your connection to the heartbeat of our church they went 490 years without keeping Sabbath without letting the land rest so God sends an army in takes them captive they actually become slaves until the land enjoyed her Sabbath and and you know I said it 70 years but just for the mathematicians in the crowd they destroys let it rest over seven years they went 490 so how many savage did they miss 70 say and that happens for some of us that happens like that doesn't it say I'm my father's mathematical genius numbers add up in my mind normally in less than a second and I've found with other people that they don't you know I understand that that's okay cuz you've got other skills that I don't have I was buying something awhile back it was $7.99 and she said I'll have to figure up the tax on the calculator because the cash register is not working right now I said it's 66 cents she said excuse me I said 66 cents she's how do you know that I said well $7.99 times 8.25 is 66 and she just sat there looking at me and she did all the calculations she said you're right well I thought of course I'm right because it numbers can't lie you know Isis it's and it's easy and Devin even said to me how do you do that I said sugar it's 8 times 8 is 64 and then 2/5 is a quarter of a percent and then I was trying it and so the quarter of eight would be 2 and and so 64 + 6 - and I said that all happens you know in less than a second she said not for me she said you lost me at a quarter percent I don't know what that is she said I do know what 20 percent off means so I thought well I'll even check her mast I said ok you're buying some for $100 what is 20% off mean she said a good deal that's what that means it means a good deal and then she said this job and she said and 50% off means it's free I said hey what features an off means she said here's what I know it means it's synonymous with buy one get one free free so if it's fed forcing off you get one free you get free it's free and then she said and 75 percent off you're making money ok well that's not that good at math just to let you know but it's ok then notice this so God takes a lot of land 70 years 70 years they become slaves listen so that the land we just read it this is straight out of the Bible so that the land could enjoy her seventh ok if God is concerned about the land enjoying Sabbath how much more is he concerned about you and by the way that's a key word enjoy enjoy the day again people say well what do you do and you know what do you not doing all that you know last night this guy would when we were on Saturday during the South after the Saturday service we were in guest central again we want to meet you in we're having this guy came by and and leans over like this and says can I play golf and I said yeah enjoy I said long as you're not taking time away from your family too much time you spend too much time to golf course and as long as you're being financially responsible yes you can play golf and he turns his life says I can play golf just like that and so I explained it to her I said long as he's on taking his time long as he's been officially responsible yes he could play golf on his Sabbath yes he could and she said I said because the key is God wants you to enjoy yourself and she said oh really well then I can shop and I said to her as long as you're being fiscally responsible okay and here's number five God made the Sabbath for our benefit in other words it's a blessing it's a gift God made it for us he did not make us for it and he actually says that mark chapter 2 verse 27 and he said to them the Sabbath was made for man not man for the Sabbath the Sabbath was made for you you weren't made for it in other words God did not make the Sabbath and and then say okay you guys served this legalistic principle you be servants to the Sabbath he made us and then he gave us the Sabbath as a gift so you have to see it as a gift from God not as a legalistic ritual that God once you do it's a gift this this in my own life let me tell you how this happened this came about in my own life because I just didn't understand really spending time with God and the Lord tried to teach me this about 20 years ago and I didn't catch them maybe 25 I remember one time I called his pastor and we're trying to schedule lunch so we both had our calendars out and I said what do you have scheduled for next Thursday and he said nothing and I said okay let's do it next Thursday he said no I can't do it next Thursday I said well why can't you - next Thursday he said I said what do you have scheduled he said nothing I said well let's do lunch then and he said no he said you're not understanding me Robert he said next Thursday I am scheduled to do nothing next Thursday I'm going to do nothing I'm scheduled to do nothing next Thursday next Thursday I'm going to do nothing and I'm scheduled to do nothing and I hear when we did get together he explained to me said Robert I was in the hospital he said I was about to die and I was saying the Lord Lord I'm your servant I try to assert to try and do what you only do I don't understand and here's what he said the Lord said to him you've been violating my principles you violate the Sabbath you don't wrestle in a week that's the reason for your health problems I didn't bring it on you you brought it on yourself he said Lord I will be in resting one day a week and he got healed he got better he got stronger and he said now he said I scheduled because you know if you don't schedule it will happen so I didn't know I didn't learn anything he tried to help me in the church I started the church church started growing the books began to go out more the television things more speaking requests I'm speaking to the church we didn't have multiple campuses we didn't have simulcast I was doing five and six messages that's why some of you you may not know but even at the South Lake campus we have five services and we can only do three life I'll do I'll do the same thing here at Frisco I'll do three of the messages life and will be it will be after each service in guest central but we only do it because years ago the Lord said to me you can't do this every one of us have four tanks that get drained all the time and we have to refill them replenish them we have a mental tank our mind we have an emotional tank we have a spiritual tank we have a physical thing and what I realized was years ago my tanks are getting so drained then I'm on empty most of the time when I'm trying to administer and help people and I said lord I know you won't my tanks I'm probably about a quarter empty quarter for you know most of time 3/4 century empty and I said I know you want me up around that 3/4 smart the Lord said no actually I want you're overflowing I want you to minister out at overflow so he started helping me to understand that it's important to to guard my energy and my time so that I can minister the way he wants me to so anyway we went through a time though I still didn't understand about the seventh day taking rest and Debbie and I were it was very very busy we were doing overseas trips and coming back and speaking and speaking five and six services a weekend and and and and traveling and doing things for the books and things like that and I just I got exhausted and I did not know what you feel like when you get exhausted I was exhausted and you got to remember so mentally I'm drained physically and spiritually and emotionally but I'd never experienced the emotional draining like that and here's what happened to me it's a embarrassing story but I'm going to tell you I was getting ready for work one morning took a shower went into the closet opened my underwear drawer and I had one pair of underwear and I stood there and I could feel myself getting sad and then I couldn't think because here's what I thought here's what came online what am I gonna do tomorrow I'm gonna have to go to work without underwear tomorrow I need underwear pastor should wear underwear don't you think I just couldn't figure it out and I stood that I could not think I could not think I could wash they thought didn't they come my mind I didn't I could go to Walmart and buy a package of six for 79 cents you know like I couldn't even think that I just stood there thinking I'm not gonna have underwear tomorrow and I could feel myself getting sad sad and then got my underwear own company you know t-shirt and all and then I opened my sock drawer and there were no socks and I started crying I love these socks and I remember sitting down in my closet in my underwear crying and then the next thought that came to me was you're losing it and so that day I was drinking the Pastor Tom Lane I said Tom I got to taste them I I cried this morning cuz I had more socks and I said I think I'm losing it Tom said you're not losing it here's tired you're tired and anyone be tired during your schedule and as I took some time and the elders gave me some time that was my first sabbatical the Lord spoke to me and said you're gonna have to rest when they're weak you have to get serious about this and I remember him saying to me if you don't you're gonna die you're gonna die if you don't do this this is that serious listen to me though we all have busy schedules we could compare schedules and yours is just as busy we all have busy schedules and I'm telling you as your pastor I'm giving you permission just take the day off take a day off I want you to bow your heads and close your eyes I want you to ask the Holy Spirit what he's saying to you and when I say that sometimes in a message like this it's obvious that God's talking to all of us about managing our time and our energy it's obvious that that were to take a day off that's obvious but how's it gonna work for you you know like I said for me it's a Monday and sometimes I sometimes we do I do have to schedule some things on a Monday and so I think well what other day then can I rest that week and I'll tell I'll have to move my Sabbath around some because of some work things like if we had a Monday Tuesday Wednesday conference then I have to figure out how to take care of that so when I say what's the Holy Spirit saying you may be God's going to unfold what he's saying you all week long so I want you to continue to think about this and pray about this look at your calendar see how you can implement this principle and the other thing is we want to pray for you we really want to pray for you we want to pray for you please don't ever be embarrassed to to come and ask for prayer but this is what we do church is about three things we do three things ever we worship the word and prayer so if you need prayer for any area of your life in the area of your life then as soon as we stand in just a moment no matter which campus you're attending or if you're in an overflow room at the front of the room wherever you are a campus or room we're going to have leaders that are trained that love you that want to pray for you so what you may be it's your first time here or maybe you your been visiting or coming for a few months or maybe you've been here for for a long time if you need prayer for any area of your life and every campus as soon as we stand up then you just stand up step out and come to the front come to the leaders let us pray for you some of you may be I just have a real special burden that some of you even as couples may be the husband well I'd love for you just to say to your wife take it take a stand be a spiritual leader in sight let's go because because I need this I you know I need it and I need this so let's go together and let's pray about this so if you need prayer for any area of your life as soon as we stand up then just you just stand up step out and come and let us pray for you right if you're on the ultra ministry team you come as soon as you can so you'll be ready to pray Holy Spirit I pray you'll draw every person at every campus that has any prayer in Jesus name Amen I was 19 years old when I gave my life to the Lord and everything changed I didn't have any desire to go back to that old life I wanted to walk with the Lord and learn more about him and some people helped me to learn the Bible and to learn how to pray and to learn about my new life in Christ and that's what we want to do for you I am so excited that you've given your life to the Lord he's forgiven all of your sins and you're on your way to heaven but we need to learn some things now about the Bible about prayer about some basics of the Christian life so that you can be victorious and live for the Lord like I know you want to so we've designed a class called fresh start and I want to encourage you to sign up for this class because we want to help you grow in your walk with the Lord now I love you and I'm so proud of you we invite you to join us each week on the blessed life with pastor Robert Morris experience dynamic Bible based teaching enjoy freedom from the inspiring worship of the Gateway worship team it's a time to grow be encouraged and learn how to live the blessed life the blessed life with great waiter cheese Robert Morris

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Views: 105,921

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Keywords: gatewaypeople, Gateway Church, Pastor Robert, Robert Morris, DFW, Southlake, Sabbath, Rest, Break, New Sermon, Benefit, Take the Day Off

Id: U2fSDgzz6ZU

Length: 36min 59sec (2219 seconds)

Published: Wed Dec 05 2012