The RESToration of Life | The Last Day of Prophecy #4 - Pastor Doug Batchelor

so glad to see each of you here this evening and we've just been having such a blessed time here in North Carolina and looking forward to the next few days together we have some very important subjects tomorrow we're gonna be talking about history's holy hoaxes and you won't want to miss that I'm gonna be talking about satan's mark and god's seal sabbath morning and then a war over worship on Saturday evening and we'd invite you who are watching at home and others we know entire churches are gonna be coming together we look forward to seeing you tonight's presentation it's actually a new one for me to be doing in this way and it's called the restoration of life the restoration of life now we've been learning a lot about the Sabbath truth and how this very prominent subject through Scripture has been neglected by much of Christianity I know a pastor friend he's had brother Doug you're making a big deal about the Sabbath day and he said you worship God on the Sabbath ISA but I worship God every day I said well no I worship God every day also it's not just about worship he said you're supposed to rest I said if you rest every day you're not holy you're lazy and says it's a different thing we're talking about here yes we believe we should worship God every day amen so what does it mean to keep the Sabbath holy you know some of you know the incredible story of missionary Christian Olympic athlete Erik little and they made a movie about a big event in his life he was a dedicated Christian but he's also a very fast runner and he was chosen by his native country to run in the Olympics in Paris in 1924 he was supposed to run the 100-meter event but then after he got there and the training began he realized that there was going to be some final time trials that would be conducted on Sunday he's well I can't participate they said well why not he said that's the Sabbath and they said well this is just once and it's the Olympics he said I'm sorry it's God and I can't do it and it sent their country and their team into great consternation and overdrive to persuade him just this one time to violate his convictions and to run and what he understood to be the Sabbath Sunday it said I can't do it he said what profit is that if I gain the whole world I lose my soul he said it's a commandment of God not even once I won't do it and they even got church leaders to go to him and say God will understand hey so well that's what you say but the Bible says it's a holy day and I'm not gonna compromise what if Shadrach Meshach can have been - go ahead said we're just gonna bow down once for political peace what if Daniel said I'm just gonna shut my windows now I'm not gonna pray with my windows open and create a spectacle God's looking for people in the last days that will not compromise their faith well that's Sunday he went to church while they were doing the time trials and someone got an idea this little Eric wheat we hate to waste your talent maybe you can run the 400 meter event so well I'm not a distance runner it's a sprint it's a hundred meter and they said that we have an opening and none of the trials and the race are not on Sunday will you try it so well perhaps God's opening a door he didn't do very well in the trials in the time trials but when the day of the actual race came and he said this is all in God's hands they fired the gun and he took off and he ran and it said it looked like he was possessed by the Holy Spirit but he went flying around the track and he ran with this very unique style with his head back and it's like he wasn't even looking at the track and he finished several links ahead of everybody else and he broke the world record someone later showed him that quote they that wait upon the Lord will renew their strength they will mount up with wings like eagles they'll run and they'll not be weary and they'll walk and they'll not faint about twenty years later he was serving as a missionary in Japan when world war ii broke out and he died of typhoid in a prison of war camp i expect to see him in the kingdom because he lived up to his convictions and god needs more people today that will stand up for commandant now while I would respectfully disagree with Eric about which day it is the principal about keeping the Sabbath holy has been lost sight of and it's just as important as those other commandments that say do not lie do not commit adultery do not steal it must be important to God he wrote it so what does it mean and how do we keep the Sabbath holy it's the restoration of life that we're talking about let's look at this study friends and I think you'll be pleased and learn a lot as we study together first question tonight how has God asked us to honor the Sabbath day now I know some of us have reviewed this verse but we're gonna go over it again here it says in Exodus 20 this is in the ten commandments verse 8 through 10 remember for one thing remember you don't start remembering on Friday afternoon you start remembering all through the week remember the Sabbath day to keep it holy six days you should labor and do all of your work but the seventh day is the Sabbath of the Lord your God in it you shall do no work you or your son or your daughter or your male servant or your female servant or your cattle or the stranger who is within your gates and it says that that's because in six days God made the heaven and the earth and the sea and all that is in them so why did God ask us this is our next question why does God ask us to honor the Sabbath day it's to be a blessing it's a day he blessed the Sabbath was made for man those blessings are to be for you he wants you to be blessed it's a blessed rest we sure need it it says therefore the Lord blessed the Sabbath day and he hallowed it when he hallowed it that means he made it holy and we'll talk more about that in a moment but I want you to just understand it's for our good look at Deuteronomy 529 this is a verse you don't hear people repeat very often but it's it's great the Lord is speaking here speaking to Moses and he said oh never heard God say oh oh that there was such a heart in them that they would fear me and always keep all of Mike how many Commandments all of my commanders always that it might be well with them and their children forever God wants it to be well with us and our children and so it's meant to be a blessing he wants it to be well with us and he wants it to be well with us forever that's called everlasting life so what are some of the particular blessings and reasons that it's a good idea to remember the Sabbath day and to keep it holy first of all we need physical rest and refreshment I think everybody knows the Sabbath command but here's another one in Exodus 23 it says here six days you shall work and do your work and on the seventh day you will rest that your ox and your donkey may rest and that your female servant and the stranger may be refreshed now that word isn't in Exodus chapter 20 or in Genesis chapter 2 but it's the idea it's a time of refreshing you've probably heard the expression before if you keep the bow strong all the time it loses its power and you know I I read some facts about sleep do you know 17 hours of sustained wakefulness leads to a decrease in performance equivalent to a blood alcohol level of 0.05 percent it's estimated that fatigue is involved in 1 out of 6 fatal road accidents it's almost out calls the number one killer on the road one of the others right near it is fatigue now people are tired and they're they're working hard I think my dear wife got pulled over once for erratic driving and she said I was just tired she had to work on persuading the policeman if she was coming from wine country they thought she had stopped at a tasting booth but I can promise you she doesn't drink but then policemen's worries said well if you're tired pull over and get some rest because they know that it can be just as dangerous just a little amazing fact you know what the record is for the longest a person who's stayed awake without sleep 18 days 21 hours forty minutes during a rocking-chair marathon the record holder reported hallucinate they drank a lot of coffee and they did give them breaks every now and then for the bathroom the record holder reported hallucinations paranoia blurred vision slurred speech and memory and concentration laughs what do you think eighteen days but some people are experiencing those effects in a smaller degree every week because they're never resting you know I understand years ago the military was trying to find out what would be the best system for soldiers to work on because when you're in the military they just said go go go you know you want to they want to extract the maximum amount of productivity from the soldiers and they tried to put them on a 10-day week and they all just began to unravel and then they thought well maybe if we have two half days every five days and that didn't work and after a number of tests with different groups that they chose they said you know it seems like the body has a rhythm like you get the circadian rhythm but it's a weekly rhythm every seven days they say every seven months all the cells in your body are renewed and it's interesting so God maybe knew what he was doing insane the seventh day is the Sabbath so one reason is so you can have refreshment another reason is spiritual regeneration now this next verse we're gonna read a couple times tonight because I'm gonna draw different things out of it so there's a spiritual refreshment that happens Isaiah 58 verse 13 and 14 if you turn away your foot from the sabbath when you turn away your foot that means when you trample something it's just sign of disrespect if you turn away your foot from the sabbath from doing your pleasure on my holy day and call the sabbath a delight the holy day of the lord honorable and you'll honor him not doing your own ways or finding your own pleasure or speaking your own words here's what happens then you will delight yourself in the Lord God wants you to have that delight and I'll cause you to ride upon the high places of the earth there is actually a spiritual refreshment you know God promises he says I bless the day he didn't bless it because he was exhausted from creation because God never slumbers or sleeps he blessed it for us amen so there's a spiritual renewal that happens something you can't explain and in our family when the Sabbath approaches and we pray together we said lord help us to receive the blessing that you promised in this day how do you get any biblical blessing by faith you point to his word and you claim it and it becomes real there are people all around the world every Sabbath that miss a blessing why they don't know it's there and they just pass it up God wants you to claim it see obedience is an expression of our love for God it's about a relationship now this would be maybe I should have put this at the beginning because the whole purpose behind the Sabbath is a love relationship see God made man on the sixth day and he made woman on the sixth day and everything was created you know first he made the environment and then he made the creatures and then he made a day for relationships and God would come and walk and talk in the garden the Lord plant in the garden with Adam and Eve and it was the greatest for joy seen for him and this love relationship between the creation and the creator was to be nourished in between family so the Sabbath is a time where we're supposed to come together and worship it's love relationships horizontally it's our love relationship vertically that is refreshed and restored and so that's a principle that will explain jesus said if you love me do what keep my Commandments the reason to do it is because you love God few more verses on that first on to verses 4 & 5 whoo-hooo says I know him and does not keep Commandments is a liar and the truth is not in him and the truth is not yet but whoever keeps his word truly the love of God is perfected in him and again you can see where it oh this is our next question rather did God intend for only Jews to observe the Sabbath well how many of you are related to Adam and Eve not only that all of us are related to Noah - if you want to get down to it the Bible says the Sabbath was made for man mark chapter 2 verse 27 it doesn't say the Sabbath was made for Jews it means made for Humanity is the word there in Greek is talking about everybody and so it's something God made after the six days of creation for the human race and there you have it in Genesis chapter two right at the beginning of the Bible thus the heavens in the earth and all the host of them were finished and on the seventh day God ended his work which he had done and the Lord blessed the seventh day he rested on the seventh day from all his work which he had done he blessed the seventh day and he sanctified it he made it holy and what God did in creating that day and sanctifying that day he dosnt us in recreating us and sing to find us God can make things holy can t can he make us holy he can because in it he rested from his work which God created in main God didn't rest because he was tired he rested as an example for Humanity why was Jesus baptized because he needed his sin washed away or as an example for you and me an example and this is also why God rested because we were made in His image as an example for us and the Bible says one word verse that shows this is not just for Jews it says and from one sabbath to another shall how many all flesh come and worship before me says the Lord it's a time when not just Jews I've heard a lot go that was the Sabbath of the Jews and then we have the sabbath of the gentiles you don't find that teaching anywhere in the Bible that it's just for one people why would Jews need to rest differently than everybody else or why would it be that they need the Sabbath rest and no one else does and that wouldn't make any sense you know in a document from early Christian antiquity it says the ancient Christians were very careful in the observation of Saturday or what we call the seventh day of the week it is plain in all the oriental churches and the greatest part of the world observed the Sabbath as a festival Athanasius likewise tells us that they held religious assemblies on the Sabbath not because they were infected with Judaism but to worship Jesus the Lord of the Sabbath if an ASUS says at the same time this is written in the book antiquity of the Christian Church and it goes way back to the time of the early church fathers so the idea that the early Christians were not keeping the Sabbath that's not supported it historically they all kept the same day so what does it mean to keep something holy remember the Sabbath day to do what keep it holy you know not everything is holy we call this what's it say what does that mean holy holy means to honor and to dedicate to righteous use to keep something sacred and deserving of reference not to profane it it means it's set aside and Karen I took vows they call that holy it is it's only matrimony yes I just went now I just remember hearing the kids say he called it holy monotony but that wouldn't matrimony away honest that wasn't in my notes it just came to me it's called why is it called holy because while before you're married you might have other boyfriends and girlfriends but when you get married there is a special setting aside it's for a special relationship and there's something special about the Sabbath it's set aside as holy it means to honor and to dedicate first Peter chapter 1 verse 15 and 16 here he says but as he who called you is holy you also be holy in all of your conduct that would be partly remembering that which is holy in all of your conduct because it's written be holy for I am holy and he's quoting there from the Book of Leviticus God is holy he made us in His image all have sinned he wants the whole purpose of the plan of salvation is to restore us to that holiness and again now this is you know if you forget everything in the message this is important God is calling us to holiness people think the supreme purpose of life is our happiness actually the purpose of our life is holiness in holiness you find happiness in surrendering to God's will and living as you are his property is where you're gonna find the greatest fulfillment Hebrews 12:14 pursue peace with all people and holiness noticed this without which no one will see the Lord do you want to see the Lord who is gonna see the Lord without holiness Jesus said blessed are the what the pure in heart they will see God and so is this an important subject and so when God says your holy people I've got a holy day and we say if you're serious about being holy then you shouldn't kick aside something God tells us to remember amen and again another verse 2nd Timothy 1:8 and 9 by the power of God he has saved us and called us to a holy line Jesus doesn't save us in our sin he saves us from our sin now we come to him with our sin but then he washes us and he teaches us a new way of living it's called sanctification now this is one that some people are interested to know I meet people all the time I have a lot of friends they go to church Sunday every week and they've seen my TV broadcasts and they come to me and they say brother Doug it's almost like they're afraid their friends are gonna find out I want you to know I agree with you on the Sabbath I keep the Sabbath at home so I go to church on Sunday because that's where my family is and that's where I grew up but I know you're right and I keep the Sabbath at home I said well that's wonderful I'm glad you're persuaded but I'm thinking to myself part of sabbath-keeping is convening look at what it says here is it necessary to go to church on the Sabbath I use the word Church they didn't use that word in the Old Testament but you can read here in Leviticus 23 3 it says six days work shall be done but the seventh day is a Sabbath of solemn rest a holy convocation now what's a convocation yes in the Hebrew it means the same thing as the translation it means an assembly a coming together you ever gone to a convention that's a convocation that means people convene they come together I actually heard a pastor point one time to reverse where it said let everyone abide in his tent on the Sabbath it says you're supposed to stay at home in your tent I said that's not what it's talking about Moses said that because someone was going out gathering wood on the Sabbath day to build a fire said do not go out of the camp looking for firewood that's all he was talking about it's called a holy convocation let me give you a few more verses how about Jesus for an example then they went to Capernaum and immediately on the Sabbath day he entered the synagogue and he talked as his custom was the Bible says he went through the synagogue on the Sabbath day and he stood up to read the scriptures I'm gonna give you that verse again in a moment they gathered together here's one I just found this year I've read this for years and it never occurred to me some of you know the story where there was this godly shunammite woman doesn't tell us her name calls her the shunammite woman she was a friend of the elijah the prophet and elijah blessed her she was barren she had a miracle baby boy but her boy was out in the field one day and he had sunstroke or something but he died husband didn't know and she said to her husband I'm gonna go see Elisha and the husband didn't know why she was gonna ask a lie she to do a miracle for her son and he said why are you going to him today it is neither the new moon or the Sabbath now what's implied in that verse he wouldn't have been surprised if she went to hear Elisha preach on the Sabbath but why are you going to him today it's not the Sabbath so they used to come together on the Sabbath and read the word and study the scriptures and that brings us to our next thought what are some good things to do on the Sabbath day now if people say how pastor Doug it says don't do any work what am I supposed to do just sit on my hands all day long and people struggle the Sabbath is meant to be a blessing and jesus said it's for doing good what are some good things well first of all worship God your worship God every day but especially on the Sabbath some of you remember when it says in Deuteronomy chapter 6 4 6 & 7 after Deuteronomy 5 he gives the Ten Commandments again you know that Moses then says in Deuteronomy 6 and these words that I command you this day shall be in your heart you shall teach them diligently to your children when you lay down and when you rise if it says you'll talk of them when you sit in your house when you walk by the way when you lay down and when you rise up when you lie down is the evening when you rise up is the morning and on our family all our kids now are going off to college or growing up but we always had morning and evening worship if dad was out working or if I was at a board meeting mom would leave in the morning we have our own individual prayer time but we have family prayer we'd read a devotional or something but especially Sabbath when the Sun Goes Down what a great time to pray and sing together and welcome the Sabbath so it's a good time for family worship what else do you do read good books there's a scripture Luke 4:16 Jesus went to the synagogue on the Sabbath and he stood up to read and what do you think he was reading that day he was reading Isaiah 61 it tells us what he was reading he's reading the Bible and so that's a great time to get together and study the word and again you can read RZA's in acts 13 27 the prophets which are read every Sabbath and so reading the Word of God reading good Christian material will inspire you you are the sum total today of what you've taken into your mind over the course of your life if you want to be strong spiritually you need to feed your soul if we are surrounded in a culture right now where we are constantly hearing about sin and compromise and wickedness that is going to have an effect on you spiritually you are what you eat physically and spiritually man doesn't live by bread alone but by what every word that proceeds from the mouth of God and if we are feeding more on the province of the devil in the world with our culture which is let's face it friends our culture is pretty corrupt today if that's the food that we're taking in it is going to affect us spiritually in the computer world they say garbage in garbage out and so it depends on what your programming that's what you're gonna get we need to be feeding our minds with spiritual truths and it has a transforming effect on our lives amen so read yeah read to your family and your kids another good thing to do on the Sabbath is giving in a special way and you can read there it says in 1st chronicles 16 29 give to the Lord the glory due his name bring an offering and come before him Oh worship the Lord in the beauty of holiness and so if if we come together to worship God in a special way and hear the proclamation of the word and have a Bible study together it's a good idea when you come before a king to bring a gift and if there's a good time to bring offerings and tithes the Sabbath would be at that time now some people say well but you know we shouldn't be doing anything with money and of course you Jesus you can read where he blessed this woman who brought her meager offering to the temple that day it's not how much you give it's just she give your heart he blessed her for two cents so because it's what she had so we ought to come and honor him in that way another wonderful thing to do on the Sabbath rest it's a day for some physical rest do you know that your body does not heal unless it's resting strength that doesn't happen during activity it happens during rest when you exercise you're actually wearing your muscles when you stop and you rest the muscles then grow they're growing during the rest time it's during the time of rest when your brain have you ever noticed you take a 15-minute nap and your IQ goes up right after that it's incredible Thomas added Edison he thought sleep was a waste of time he lived on 15-minute naps he actually had this habit where he when he was working on an experiment he would lay on a board just about that wide very uncomfortable there's only about you know two by twelve between two sawhorses about three feet off the ground and he held ball bearings in each hand and underneath his hand he had pie pans metal pie pans and he found that when he got tired enough to lose his grip on the ball bearings they would fall and hit the pans and he'd wake up and he said somewhere between the time those ball bearings left his hands and they hit the pie pan he got rested your brain is something like a computer it does something when you fall asleep where it reboots and things get clearer now of course there's some of you you say I take a short nap and I'm fuzzy the rest of the day I'm not too happy I if I take my nap I'm a lot sharper it makes a big difference even if you just lay down and close your eyes for a little while he said come aside jesus said this to the disciples come aside by yourselves to a deserted place place in the wilderness and rest awhile notice it was nice to get out in nature on the Sabbath day and again Acts chapter 16 verse 13 and on the Sabbath day we went out of the city get out into the country to a Riverside where prayer was commonly made you know that tells us about the Sabbath a time to go out in country and to pray and it says we sat down and we spoke to the women who met there Paul said we gave them a Bible study one of them had the name Lydia she was converted by that Bible study there by the river on the Sabbath day and she became one of the leaders to a home troop a home church rather there in that town so just as a quick summary and I'm not covering everything here what are some things you could do there wonderful on the Sabbath that would be within the realm of holy well you can listen to our play inspirational music seeing you know God's things Bible says in Zephaniah he will rejoice over you with singing the reason you sing is because God sings because we're made in His image there's one of the Psalms I think it's Psalm 92 it says a psalm for the Sabbath that means singing is a good thing to do right this is the sick or the elderly or prisoners we have some friends they have a prison ministry the only day they can really get in is on Saturday and they take some of their time and they go visit they give Bible studies invite some visitor over to your home for a meal get to know people share literature you might go out in your neighborhood and just knock on doors and give them some some books or some literature memorize scripture you might play scripture games with the kids because you fortify your mind with the truth of God's Word it'll help you stand through the final conflict keep a Bible study take a Bible study get out nature take a nap but you don't want to sleep the whole day away now there's two extremes when we talk about the Sabbath and I always pray that God will help me to stay in the middle of the road you know the Bible talks about the boy that was brought to Jesus by his father and the boy was demon-possessed and he said the devil is trying to destroy my son by throwing him in the fire and in the water two opposites the devil doesn't care if you fall off the left side of the road or the right side of the road and when it comes to the Sabbath truth you've got people who you would call legalistic they had them in Jesus day and then you have people that would maybe be on the other side I don't mean to point to this group and call them liberals and so you got to extremes some people that just disregard they profane the Sabbath and others are so stringent that they make it a burden and Jesus had to deal with this Christ had a number of Sabbath conflicts that are written in the Gospels but you'll notice he never said they shouldn't keep it he told him how to keep it they had put a bunch of manmade rules on the Sabbath for instance the Bible talks about a Sabbath day's journey how long can you hike before it turns from a pleasant walk into work and so the Pharisees went through all their calculations and they came up with what they thought that distance would be and they ended up they got a ball of yarn and they said if you're gonna go someone Sabbath you better measure it off first and they'd unroll his kite string between houses and say oh you get two I'm only ten feet away but it's beyond a savage journey sorry I can't make it and go back or they said what becomes a burden not supposed to carry a burden what's a burden and so they said well if you carry a handkerchief technically it's a burden but if you sew it to your collar and you just blow your nose in it then it's part of your clothes so it's just you know kind of fanatical lunacy legalistic lunacy and so there's that side of it but you know if you don't have some guidelines you end up falling on the other side of the road where nothing matters anymore and no one has any idea how to keep it holy because as soon as you talk about the particulars of how to keep a day holy you'll be accused of legalism and you can just count on that so these two extremes I'll do my best to try and give you scripture am i giving your Bible for these different principles friends what activities should be avoided on the Sabbath well there's no particular order here but I started with what you call unnecessary cooking now this comes from when God would reign man it down from heaven for them six days a week he gave them manna he said if you try to keep the manna overnight every other day it's gonna breed worms and stink except Friday or the sixth day gather twice as much because I'll work a miracle on your manna and it will be fresh Sabbath morning so you don't have to go out and gather it and God said in Exodus 16 23 this is what the Lord has said tomorrow is a solemn Sabbath rest therefore bake which you will bake today and boil what you will boil so that they won't have to do it now what does that mean does God want us to eat just you know microwave food no just the idea of the Sabbath is to get everything done in advance so you can have quality time with God does that make sense and so any heavy cooking or baking you can get that done praise God for time big ovens geranyl make something Friday afternoons we'll stick it in the oven so put it on time baked in the oven stays in a dormant phase and then it comes on some time 9 o'clock or whatever the casserole might be whatever the setting is and we get home and it goes ding and it's done or the smoke alarm is going on but something's happening she almost made the smoke alarm go off last night with popcorn yeah so but you understand the principle that doesn't mean that you need to eat a soggy salad there's some things that obviously you're more practical where you might want to you know put your salad dressing on and do things like that but the idea it's a principle once you know the principle you'll know what to do get everything done that you can in advance so that you have as much relaxed rested time you might think I'm a fanatic but on Sabbath or on Friday as I'm getting ready for the Sabbath I look in the closet and say what am I gonna wear tomorrow do I have a shirt are my shoes shined I shined my shoes learned in military school and so I shined my shoes I get them all ready to say okay you know got it right so I don't have to I'm not scrambling around before I go to church scene Oh what am I gonna wear yeah it just creates stress you want to have peace in the home amen and so you prepare and if you if you're only gonna see someone you love in a special way once a week if you're gonna have quality time with them once a week and you get this a date you would invest some time in planning so it's special try it sometime if you're dating your girlfriend and when you go out to dinner you're taking all or your wife coming from the front gallery and you're taking phone calls and you're surfing the internet you're doing all these things while you're out at a nice restaurant how is that received that doesn't go over very well talk to me communicate with me quality time well but I got this work to do you should have got it done first it's all about love does that make sense this is what the Lord is telling us what about shopping well you can read in the Bible Nehemiah 10:31 if the peoples of the land brought wares or any grains to sell on the Sabbath day we would not buy it from them on the Sabbath it's not a day for buying and selling in our family we get the groceries I fill the cars with gas there's their Friday we get it all out of the way we don't go to stores you know one reason it says you're supposed to rest your manservant and your maidservant I'm not gonna hire other people to work for me in some now someone's gonna say pastor Doug do you use your phone on Sabbath yeah you know there's people working in the phone company I said I can't control that but I don't have to go to the gas station I don't have to go to a restaurant and hire someone to cook my food for me if I would remember the Sabbath and plan I'll cook my own food so I'm not responsible the hotel where I'm staying I usually put out the Do Not Disturb sign let that mean take my day off for my room and I usually got everything I need and so just let people rest plan ahead know you're not going to the mall and you're looking at all those specials and thinking about Jesus probably not so the idea is you know you're doing things that are not holy what about entertainment people watch an American Idol on Sarah just even Idol and Sabbath don't go together do they watching The Bachelor only Bachelor you should be watching his pastor bachelor on savage amen now we have Christian television we praise the Lord 3abn is working with us on this program 24 hours a day they're broadcasting so if you've got Christian programming on and that's like reading the Bible it's spiritual information that's a good thing your eyes need a Sabbath and some you know even in Wall Street they're talking about taking a technology Sabbath because they see that the people are getting burnt out being constantly accessible through their email and their laptops and it's just draining and it's affecting families if you turn away your foot from the Sabbath from doing your pleasure on my holy day and you call the Sabbath a delight notice what he says the holy of the Lord honorable and you'll honor him why are we doing it honoring God not doing your own ways or finding your own pleasure or speaking your own words I find out you know I even try to control what I'm thinking about it's not always easy because if you're a workaholic like me you know I walk around the house and I'm thinking I gotta fix it in seven I don't think about that now and you'll see if people will be in the church you know on there saying oh yeah I've got to put this new addition on my garage and I gotta fix you shouldn't be talking about that kind of stuff on Sabbath talk about spiritual things it's almost like you wish the Sabbath was over so you could fix your garage and so the Lord says it's a day that's sacred and you know what it's something you need to invest time in thinking about it but I believe God is worth it I think God is worth honoring that way thus says the Lord take heed to yourselves and bear no burden Jeremiah 17 21 on the Sabbath day nor bring it by the gates of Jerusalem nor carry burdens out of your house on the Sabbath day or do any work but how will the Sabbath day as I commanded your father's I don't even have time to read you all the scriptures to talk about this six days you should work but on the seventh one about farming you shall rest in plowing time and harvest but what about if you gotta milk cows and goats of course you got to do that and Jesus said you know if you got an ox or donkey falls in the ditch you take care of them too I heard a story about one man years he had a banana plantation in Central America he was a Sabbath keeper and they have seasons when they bring all their bananas down to the dock and they put them on what we call banana boats they really are banana boats because they got to get bananas have a short lifespan you know that they got to get them directly to port and it turns out that a storm was coming in and all the ships were coming in Friday to get loaded but in order for this man to do it they're coming in Saturday he was gonna have to work not only Friday but on the Sabbath and he said I can't do that his neighbor said you're gonna miss the season your crop is gonna fail you're gonna go broke says you're gonna God will understand you've got to work said I can't do it I'm not gonna do it it's a Sabbath God said no harvesting no reaping and so they all all those neighbors that we're not Sabbath keepers they harvested their bananas and they took him down to the dock and all the ships left port trying to beat this storm well after the storm came and went out this other ship came limping in because its engine had died in route and they said we were here too but not by bananas and all the other farmer said what we sold there's no bananas left he's all paid 20% more does anyone have any bananas left didn't want to go back empty so this guy ended up getting doubly blessed by honoring God will bless you you may get tested some people say if I keep the Sabbath I'll lose my job some people have lost their lives for keeping God's commandments is there any type of work permitted on the Sabbath yes of course Jesus Anthony said to them my father has been working until now and I've been working God is constantly sustaining life on the Sabbath he said what man is there among you who has an ox or a sheep and if it should fall into the pit or the ditch on the Sabbath will not lay hold of it and lift it out you're driving back from the meetings tonight you know Chris this isn't the Sabbath but if it was on the Sabbath and you see a car broken down they need a jump and you can say I would jump your battery but you know it's the Sabbath I can oh of course you that's that's the ox in the ditch illustration but if you've got an ox that keeps falling in the ditch every week you got to get rid of that ox or fill the ditch you know what I'm saying some people have got the Ox in the ditch excuse all the time there's usually something wrong of how much more value then is a man than a sheep therefore it's lawful to do good on the Sabbath day now I've just got a few minutes but I can talk about something briefly what about the Sabbath and marriage I'm talking about marital intimacy I'm telling me this pastor Ross and I do a live Bible radio program every Sunday we get this question a lot so I thought we'll just deal with it very simply first of all there is a time when you might want to fast from food which it's good to eat is it okay to eat food on the Sabbath that God intended for you to enjoy food everything pleasant to the eyes was in the garden God made these things a pleasure but you might fast physically from food and there's a time to fast maybe from intimacy by agreement when the Ten Commandments were given Moses said in Exodus 1914 he said there it is he went down from the mountain to the people and sanctified the people and they washed their clothes and he said to the people be ready for the third day do not come near your wives now you understand what that means now there this was three days of fasting in preparation for God meeting with them but that didn't mean that you can't have relationships on the Sabbath for instance you can read in 1st Corinthians 7 verse 5 do not deprive one another except with consent for a time that you may give yourselves to fasting and prayer and then come together again so that Satan does not tempt you because of your lack of self-control what day of the week did God make Adam what day of the week did he make Eve after Adam right you know God made things in order of their complexity it's true and then what was the last thing that God says after he makes man and woman says be fruitful and multiply so what day was their honeymoon can you imagine God saying Adam and Eve it's a sad note don't touch each other you know the Bible says the married bed is undefiled and so this is the way I understand it now if people feel differently if a couple says we want to give ourselves to prayer and fasting and they agree together the Bible says that's fine too but some people think because of our culture maybe the way they've been taught in the Jewish mind intimacy within marriage was a blessing there was nothing to fight it was holy and it was honourable anyway just wanted to mention that have you not read in the law that on the Sabbath day the priests in the temple profane the Sabbath and this is the words of Jesus and are blameless that means there is good work that is done in a church our deacons sometimes busy on the Sabbath I gotta carry the offering sometimes they count the offer and they store it then plenty chairs are being moved you do as much as you can in advance but sometimes there's necessary things that the group may worship the priests in the temple would keep the fire burning there were sacrifices and they kept the oil in the lamp and they kept the lamp this things to do and Jesus said they're holy even though they need to break the Sabbath technically Jesus said if a boy on the eighth day it lands on the Sabbath and he needs to be circumcised he's circumcised and you see so the Lord was very practical about this are there practical benefits the Sabbath keeping yes stress relief we talked about that already here's a National Geographic study did you hear about this the secrets of living longer they had this blue zone study in the end the study reached a stunning conclusion the average seventh-day adventists lived four to ten years longer than the average Californian that makes the Adventist one of the nation's most convincing cultures of longevity and they say that's due to some lifestyle differences including Sabbath keeping that reduces their stress which is one of the biggest killers I think I shared with you earlier that the Golden Gate Bridge my mother-in-law's got a cross-section of the cable they wanted to get the strongest geometric formation for that cable it's six cables that surround a central one making seven and this if our days surround a Sabbath it gives you an a strength we're talking friends about a blessing to give you a long life higher IQ that you'll be blessed that you'll feel better better for your families stress is linked to the six of the leading causes of death in the United States heart disease cancer lung ailments accidents cirrhosis of the liver and suicide so much is stress-related does one commandment matter I'm just gonna have to rush through this it see you know in numbers chapter 15 it talks about a man that was gathering sticks on the Sabbath and they brought him to Moses and said what do we do Moses said take him out of the camp and stone him now by the way the same thing for adultery and some other command offenses so it was important to God I'm not recommending we do that today we're in a theocracy I'm just saying that our we're in a democracy that was a theocracy so you know I'd like to just hasten to the end here real quick I want to tell you a story about a friend some of you maybe have heard of Desmond dass Desmond Oz was the only conscientious objector to win the Congressional Medal of Honor he was actually a friend of mine because he married a gal that attended a church where I pastored he was ridiculed by his friends because he said he didn't want to carry a rifle and he would not work on Sabbath unless it was an emergency he was made a medic they gave him such a hard time four years in the military but finally during one of the fiercest battles of the war in Okinawa 12,000 Americans died in that battle Desmond das as a medic he single-handedly brought 75 men down where they had been wounded up on this escarpment he brought them down and every time he went up he was under a hail of bullets another time he jumped on Hand Grenade to save somebody's that were in a hole and he lost several toes he somehow survived the war I understand Mel Gibson is making a movie about his life called hacksaw Ridge that's coming out later this year but Desmond Doss was a real hero but he would not work on the Sabbath unless it was an emergency and God honored him and everybody during the war they thought that he was bulletproof because they all wanted to be with him because he had been shot at so many times and somehow he managed to survive because he had a daily relationship with the Lord he read his Bible every day and he loved the Lord and the Lord blessed him and you know what friends he wants you to have that blessing he wants you to have that experience now some people say well pastor Doug I'm not sure about the Sabbath because the my spirit is telling me that it's not important my spilitt the Spirit is telling me it's another day the Spirit of God is never going to tell you something different than the Word of God and you might question what spirit is talking to you the Word of God and the Spirit of God and go together and God's Word is extremely clear that he's blessed today for you to receive this blessing and friends he wants you to enjoy it says you keep it holy and honor it and he'll make you ride upon the high places of the earth and He will bless you would you like to experience that blessing friends amen seek taste and see that the Lord is good father in heaven please bless all of these people lord help us to experience that recreation in our hearts and get a new beginning bless us Lord help us make whatever practical changes we need to honor your holy day that we might be renewed in your image in Jesus name we pray amen god bless tomorrow night history's holy hoaxes we look forward to seeing you then [Music]

Channel: Aaron

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Id: gm-_ogk-cww

Length: 50min 20sec (3020 seconds)

Published: Thu Mar 24 2016