waiting for the fullness of the eschatological kingdom. And I think you'll see towards the end what it's going to be. So what I want to do at the very beginning is just go through our questions and answers. We're going to look at 66, 67, and 68. So let's ask and answer 66. How is the Sabbath to be sanctified? And we answer, the Sabbath is to be sanctified by a holy resting all that day, even from such worldly employments and recreations as are lawful on other days, and spending the whole time in the public and private exercises of God's worship, except so much as is to be taken up in the works of necessity and mercy." 67, what is forbidden in the fourth commandment? The fourth commandment forbids the omission or careless performance of the duties required, and profaning the day by idleness, or doing that which is in itself sinful, or by unnecessary thoughts, words, or works about worldly employments or recreations. We're not going to come back to this, so just kind of put a bookmark in there, alright? 68, what are the reasons annexed to the fourth commandment? The reasons annexed to the fourth commandment are God's allowing us six days of the week for our own lawful employments, His challenging a special propriety in a seventh, His own example, and His blessing the Sabbath day. All right. So baptism gives you an external mark that portrays an internal reality, the reality of regeneration. It's a reality that you've been redeemed. The Lord's Supper offers you external symbols that invite you to spiritually feed on Jesus Christ. Really and spiritually, we are raised up to the heavenlies and where Christ is seated and we feed upon him through faith and the spirit. Baptism, the Lord's Supper, And the Lord's Day gives you a day, and this is so huge, listen to me very carefully, when the powers of the age to come break in on the now time. That should excite you. It should excite you that the powers of the age to come, the promises of what shall be in Jesus Christ, what I often refer to, and I need to explain it more than I do, but the eschaton, that's a Greek word for the end, the fullness, the end of everything, the consummation of all things in our Lord Jesus Christ. Sunday is supposed to be that day that is supposed to be just a little slice of that heavenly reality. So the Lord has given us the sign of baptism, the meal of the supper, and the day when Christ is the center of all of these things and we make much of Him. So, it's not so much, or it's not simply the case that the church should take advantage of the Lord's Day, like that's just kind of a given. Yes, you should do that. I would say it's more the case that the church is liberated from the worldly cycle of work, work, work, work. You ever see the hamster on the wheel? Just going and going and going and going? That's kind of how I feel sometimes during the week. You're going and going and going and going, whether it's work or exercise or kids or bathing or shaving or all the things that you do, not that you don't do some of those things on Sunday, but then Sunday is that day where as much as is humanly possible, and trust me, I know with kids, it's less possible than when you were a single person, but as much as humanly possible, you're giving yourself over to thinking about the eschatological. And so we can lay, and here's the thing, we can lay aside work on Sunday. I know there's always going to be qualifications, but you can lay aside work with a good conscience, right? Like if it's 11 o'clock on Monday morning and you're not writing an email or writing a TPS report or whatever the case may be, and you're right, you know, you're playing solitaire on the computer, you should have a guilty conscience. But if you're resting on the Lord's day, the Lord says, go for it, rest. Because that is a foretaste of what is to be. So here's what I'd like to do tonight. I would like to, I have three general points. I'd like to begin by summing up in four points what we saw from scripture last time. So that's gonna be the first point. First point's just gonna be a summary. Four summary points. So we'll start with a summary. And then secondly, what I want to do is I just want to kind of, it's going to have to be brief, but methodically work through where I might differ with some of the catechism questions. But what you're going to see is there's a way in which we can harmonize what the catechism says with scripture, maybe just not in a way that some Reformed people would be happy with. You know, I mean, so much the worse for them as long as we're biblical, right? And then what I'd like to do is give some practical considerations about keeping the day. And what I want to try to do is try to end with enough time to have a little discussion and talk about some of these things. Now, it probably goes without saying, and if it doesn't, let me say it right now. There is so much that could be said about the Lord's Day. It is, in some sense, an incredibly complex issue because we're talking about a day of rest as it transfers from the Old Covenant to the New Covenant. There's more that can be said, but I have really tried this week and prayed over how I can distill the basic elements into a few points, okay? So let's start with a summary of what we saw last week, and here's number one. I'm gonna give you four summary points, okay? The command to rest one day in seven is a creation ordinance, okay? So the command to rest one day in seven is a creation ordinance. Now, what does that mean? What I mean by that is just like marriage, just like, I would say, civil government that comes later in Genesis 9, something instituted by God, it is something that is embedded in creation, okay? Now, you can't go too far with this, though. Because simply because the day of rest, or if you want to call it the Sabbath, that's fine, is a creation ordinance, simply means that we are Sabbatarian creatures. In other words, if there's ever been a time in the most menial task or the most important task that you realize, okay, I've worked a long time, I've got to take a rest, you are indicating that you are a Sabbatarian creature. You were never made to go and spin your batteries forever. You were meant to recharge your batteries physically and spiritually. And I would say what that points up is what God has embedded into creation. Now, that you are a Sabbatarian creature does not give you all the details from nature, right? Can we gather from nature what day of the week we are supposed to take a rest? Anybody? No, nature doesn't tell us that, right? Nature tells us that you're tired, but it doesn't tell us what day. You say, but Josh, Genesis 2 says that Saturday was the day. Yeah, that's called special revelation. The New Testament says that that day switches to the first day of the week. That's called special revelation. But when we say that the creation ordinance was embedded into creation, what we're saying is it's embedded in the natural law. So what do I mean by that? Well, here's one implication of that. If creation is embedded into natural law, then it is the case that all men are bound, all mankind is bound to have a one in seven day of rest. But what nature doesn't teach us is what day that is for natural man, okay? Therefore, and I want you to think about this, When the government comes in and says, we're going to institute blue laws on Sunday and tell the whole culture, whether you're Christian or not, you can't buy gas, you can't buy alcohol, you can't buy certain things, you can't smoke, dance, or chew, or go out with girls that do on all these things, then we must ask the question, is that really the government's place to do that? Is it really the government's place to tell a Muslim who doesn't worship on Sunday or a Jew who doesn't worship on Sunday that they can't buy a shawarma or a falafel or whatever they wanna buy on Sunday? I don't think that that is the place of the government. So I don't know. Now if the government said, we're not doing this because it's a biblical thing, we just think it's a good thing, well, that's a different scenario, but that's not where the blue laws originated. So maybe we can talk about that more. So the first thing we see is that the Sabbath is a creation ordinance, but now secondly, and this is important, oh, let's probably go B, that it's a law is one thing, but the law, remember I said a few weeks ago, law is never understood apart from covenant. Law is never understood apart from covenant, okay? So I'm gonna put law is understood in the light of covenant. What does this mean? This means that the one in seven day of rest looked a certain way under Adam. So much revelation was given about how Adam was to flesh that out, and yes, it was on the seventh day. But notice in the time of Adam, we don't have any revelation of what the penalties were if you didn't keep the Sabbath, right? We don't get any revelation. Now, there may have been some of that. Maybe God did reveal it to him. He just didn't reveal it to us in Scripture. But as far as Scripture goes, we have no information whatsoever about what the penalties were, what all the details were, when does Sabbath begin, when does it end. You know, all these kinds of details, all we know is that it was the seventh day of the week and that Adam was to rest and he was to worship God because the day is holy. That's all we know. Now in the Mosaic Covenant, it looks quite different, doesn't it? Now we start stacking on all these different laws. In fact, not only more laws about how to keep the Sabbath, but also penalties. Remember that poor guy? Well, depending on your opinion, that poor guy that was out gathering sticks, you know, and what happened to him? It wasn't a happy ending. He got stoned, right? Now, a lot of people think, that poor guy, he was just trying to make a fire for his family. Well, If you understand that text and just study just a little more closely, what you find is that he was chopping down trees and getting lumber so that he could sell it. That's what he was doing. He was working on the Sabbath. So it's not like God was just being overly harsh. He was working and he was doing it for a profit and they stoned him. Not only that, but under Moses, it's not only people that rest, what else rests? Animals, what else? Every seventh year, what rests? The land. And after seven cycles of years, you have the Jubilee when slaves are freed and land that was given over to other people goes back to their original owners. Why? Because under Moses, it was a theocracy. Everything was affected by it. The land, the culture, and the people in the theocracy. Do we have land that is attached to the Christian people in the New Covenant? Please don't say America, okay? No, we don't. And that little piece of real estate over in the Middle East, Palestine, it doesn't have anything to do with Christians, okay? Now, what do we inherit that is land? The new heavens and the new earth, according to Romans 4 and Revelation 21 and 22. But that's not for the now time. So all these penalties, if you don't keep the Sabbath, you get stoned. We don't see that in the New Testament. And give the land some rest. We don't see that in the New Testament. Things change. So now in the new covenant, I'm just gonna put NC, This covenant has us understand this law, the one in seven day of rest, a little bit differently. So think of each one of these covenants as prisms that the law is shown through, and due to the nature of that particular prism, the light comes out a particular way. It looks different under Adam, it looks different under Moses, and it looks different under the new covenant. Now, a helpful way to distinguish Law is, we sometimes talk about the Mosaic law was moral, which is unchanging, ceremonial, and civil. Here's another way to think about it. Think of law as substance and circumstances, okay? Substance and circumstances. Substance is what it is in every single situation, it never changes. Circumstances are things that change depending on, as is the name, the circumstance, right? Adam, the one in seven day of rest principle or law, had a particular set of circumstances under Adam. They get added to in Moses, and now it has a different set. And then once again, they have a different set of circumstances in the new covenant, okay? Now, this brings us to number three. This brings us for number three. Well, before I get there, let me just say one more thing. So what is the essence? What is the substance of the one in seven day of rest principle? I would say two things, rest and worship. Now, these two things are gonna get fleshed out, as I said, different according to the covenant in which they're found, okay? Now I'm gonna unpack that just a little bit more. That brings us to our third summary point. And that's, I keep going numbers here, I'm sorry. C, the New Testament hermeneutic for how we determine what is the circumstances for the one in seven day of rest for the new covenant. So I'm just gonna put New Testament hermeneutic, okay? Now I've already said this, but I'm just gonna repeat it. Hermeneutic is a form of how we interpret something. It's the art and skill of interpretation. So when I say the New Covenant or New Testament hermeneutic for how we determine how the Lord's Day is kept, I mean, how do we read the Bible? What priority do we give to which testament? Do we say on the one hand, Whatever was taught in the Old Covenant concerning the Sabbath continues in the New Covenant unless the New Covenant says it's abrogated, meaning put away, no longer in use. That's one way, one hermeneutic. Or do we say, which is what I'm going to submit to you, The Lord's Day, we keep the Lord's Day according to what is repeated in the New Covenant from the Old Covenant, or what is positively taught in the New Covenant. Now, what do I mean by positively taught? I mean something that the New Covenant adds that was not there in the Old Covenant, something new, okay? So our hermeneutic, let me boil it down for how we understand the Lord's Day is very simple. If the New Testament repeats something about the Lord's Day, which in the Old Covenant was the Sabbath, that the Old Covenant said, then we keep doing that. Okay, so rest, continue to do that. Worship, continue to do that. But if the new covenant puts something out of commission, says we no longer do it, then we stop doing it. And if the new covenant adds something new about the Lord's day, then we practice that. So we continue what the old covenant, what is repeated in the New Testament about the old covenant, and we continue and we start doing what the new covenant has positively added to the commandment. Now let me give you two texts that sum this up, okay? Number one, Matthew 5, 17. A very familiar passage. Jesus says, do not think I've come to abolish the law or the prophets. I've not come to abolish them, but to fulfill them. Now, Jesus did not come to abolish or abrogate the law of God, but he came to fulfill its meaning, the meaning that the law had up until that point. So remember last week I said Sabbath, speaks of eschatological rest. Well, Jesus is the eschatological rest, so fulfillment is found in him when he comes. So it's not that he comes and says, there's no longer any eschatological rest. No, he's saying that pointed to the eschatological rest, and I am the eschatological rest. The sacrifices that you made pointed to my sacrifice, and I'm here to give you that sacrifice. So it's not, it's no longer an effect, it's fulfillment, okay? Everything is filtered now through the personal work of Jesus. But now, secondly, and this is an often overlooked text, Hebrews 7.12. Hebrews 7.12. And oftentimes my Reformed brothers and sisters forget this passage, and I think it's very, very illuminating for this issue of the Lord's Day. Remember, the whole book of Hebrews is about the old covenant institution, its ceremonies, its practices, pointing to Christ, Christ has come, Christ fulfilled it, and now there's a new order, a new priesthood, a new covenant. So the author says in Hebrews 7, 12, for when there is a change in the priesthood, there is necessarily a change in the what? The law as well. And this is what I've been trying to say up until this point. Nobody is saying, oh, the law changes, we don't have to do that anymore. No, no, no, no, no. We're saying Christ comes and now he is the diamond through which the law is refracted. We don't keep the law as it was given to Moses, we keep the law as Christ has given it to us. So it's the law of God in the hand of Christ, not the law of God in the hand of Moses. So we no longer celebrate the seventh day, because as I've said over and over again, that was typological of Christ. You work, work, work, work, and to rest. But now, we don't work, we rest in Christ, and from that position, out of gratitude, we work, work, work, work. First day of the week, rather than last day of the week. So that brings us to the question, what is repeated or positively commanded in the New Testament regarding the Lord's Day? And that's our fourth thing, okay? So when we set up a hermeneutic that says, we approach the Lord's Day according to two things, what is repeated in the New Covenant from the Old Covenant, and what is positively stated in the New Covenant, I think this is what it comes down to. When is the day? So, what does the New Testament say about the Lord's Day? What does New Testament say about Lord's Day? Okay, and I'm running out of room here. First thing, first day of the week is the New Day. We've already talked about that, okay? But notice that it's not a command in the New Covenant. Did you ever notice that? Did you ever notice there's not a command to worship on the first day of the week? What do we see? We see an example that the New Covenant church was worshiping on the first day of the week, right? And it's interesting, if you just wanna jot this passage down, Romans 14, four to six, Paul says, who are you to pass judgment on the servant of another? It is before his own master that he stands or falls, and he will be upheld, for the Lord is able to make him stand. One person esteems one day as better than another, while another esteems all days alike. Each one should be fully convinced in his own mind. The one who observes the day observes it in honor of the Lord. The one who eats, eats in honor of the Lord, since he gives thanks to God, while the one who abstains, abstains in honor of the Lord and gives thanks to God. I have a friend that I went to seminary with. He's an Israelite. He's a Hebrew. And he is a Reformed Baptist to the core. But he planted a church in Israel, and you know what day of the week he worships? Saturday. Why? Why do you think? It's a cultural, like, everyone works on Sunday. All of his people in his congregation would not be able to come to church. And you could play that card and say, well, if they're committed, you know, and there's a place for that. If they're committed, they're going to quit their jobs. But you have to understand in America, our culture has been conditioned by Christendom such that it's possible to do something like that. In Jewish culture in Israel, everybody works on Sunday. I have other friends who are, and I'm sure, you know, those who travel, like Jeremy, have seen this too, in Islamic countries that what day of the week do you think they worship on? Friday. because that's the holy day for the Muslims. Now, what do you think Paul would think about that? Well, somebody just finished a series on Acts, and I seem to recall that Paul kept the Sabbath, didn't he? Didn't he go in and offer sacrifices to the temple? You say, well, okay, Josh, are you gonna qualify that, please? Yes, I'm gonna qualify it. Did he attach the same meaning to going to synagogue and keeping Sabbath as the Jews did? Well, of course not. He saw the fulfillment in Christ, but he saw it as an issue of liberty. Now, some of you might say, well, that makes me a little nervous. Well, look, the church as a tradition has worshiped on Sunday. There's theological reason to do that, but I'm gonna be the last person in the world that tells my missionary brother or sister in Israel or an Islamic country that they're sinning by not worshiping on Sunday. And I don't think the Lord would either. And I happen to have Romans 14 that says, one person esteems one day is better than another, while another esteems all days alike. Now, does the New Testament also say, don't give up the gathering together of the people of God? Yeah. So it's a different story altogether if somebody's saying, well, I worship on Monday by myself, just me and Jesus. No, it doesn't work that way. It doesn't work that way. Who's gonna confront you when you're in sin? Who are you gonna confront when they're in sin? What elders do you submit to? Who gives you the Lord's Supper? Who baptizes you? You can't do those things unless you have other people. But it's another thing entirely if you're worshiping with other people, okay? So what is the day for? It's a day of worship. It's for the purpose of celebrating the resurrection of Christ, breaking bread, fellowship, and hearing the word. It's a day for worshiping the Lord with our tithes and offerings, okay? So 1 Corinthians 16.2, they gathered on the first day of the week and they gave their offerings. Acts 27, they met on the first day of the week. And then as I've mentioned time and time again, Acts 2.42, the four things that the church was about was the apostles' doctrine, the breaking of bread, prayers, and fellowship. These are all things that we do on the Lord's day. It's a day for rest. Now, some people say, well, well, you might say, well, is the command to rest repeated in the new covenant? Well, here's the thing. I happen to think that that is a part of the creation ordinance and watch the reasoning here. You were made to have dominion over the earth as a human being, right? You are a vice regent of God himself, which means that you were created in his image to have dominion, okay? So you have dominion over the animals, you have dominion over the wood and you make your house, you have dominion over your car, you create things, you image God. So if you are to image God in your working, then after you work six days, what else did God do on the seventh? He rested. So it seems odd to me that you'd say, we image God in working, but we don't image Him in resting. No, we image Him in both. We are Sabbatarian creatures. So it is a day of rest. Now, I said last time that no, there's no positive command in the New Testament that says don't work, but there is positive command that says that you need to be the people of God. And most jobs, you know, it's very difficult to work around two services. Some, you know, some churches don't do two services anyways, but the bottom line is the priority is meeting with the people of God. Now, there are exceptions. I don't wanna embarrass Jeremy, but Jeremy goes on a lot of, he travels a lot, and the nature of his job for Operation Blessing is to go to places where they don't have clean water, they don't have food, they don't have all these things, and through this ministry, they seek to provide these things and give the gospel. And you know, Jeremy's talked me, you know, and I hope he doesn't get embarrassed by this, but he's told me, you know, sometimes I struggle with that because I want to be with the people of God. And I tell Jeremy, I say, Jeremy, it's good to want to be with the people of God, but you must understand a work of mercy, which is what you're doing, is not an exception to the Lord's day. It is the type of things that we are to be doing on the Lord's day. So it's actually good that he's doing that. Now there's balance, right? Like you don't want to stop going to church and just go to a soup kitchen every Sunday. Or if you do wanna do that, go to church, go to soup kitchen in the afternoon, come back in evening service, that's fine. But works of mercy are wonderful things to do. Works of necessity are necessary things to do. You must eat. You must brush your teeth, please. You must bathe. I mean, these are things that we must do, okay? Now, if you talk to a reformed rock-ribbed Sabbatarian, they're gonna tell you, and this is where we come to our catechism question, This is number two now, I'm just gonna erase all this. This is number two where I'm gonna kinda clarify and seek to take issue with some of the catechism's language here, okay? So we'll just put clarification. If you look at our catechism question, it has very strong language about words, thoughts, words and thoughts about employment and recreation, okay? Now. We've already established that your priority on the Lord's Day should be to worship, and if work gets in the way, you should make work a second priority, not a first priority, and find a job that would allow you to be with the Lord's people on the Lord's Day. But I want to look at 67. What is forbidden in the fourth commandment? The fourth commandment for you is the omission or careless performance of the duties required, and the profaning of the day by idleness, or doing that which is in itself sinful. I mean, that's pretty obvious, right? Whatever sinful Monday through Saturday is certainly sinful on Sunday. Or by unnecessary thoughts, words, or works about worldly employments or recreations. Now, a little just aside, biographical aside. I was a rock-ribbed, flaming, foaming-at-the-mouth Sabbatarian for a good part of my life. And I read these things, like in the catechism, and it's also in the confession in fuller form. And I would go to Sunday with my wife, every Sunday, and I would try my hardest not to talk about work. Because as the logic goes, if you're not supposed to work or make other people work, then it's a sin to do that. And therefore, it's also a sin to talk about sinning. So if you're talking about work on Sunday, you're sinning. Now that's what rock-ribbed Reform Sabbatarian people will think, you know, whether they're right or wrong. But here's the thing, here's the thing. Isn't work a part of just life? So what I mean by that is, let's say you're getting to know a new person in the congregation, and you've gotta start somewhere, right? You've gotta get to know them, you've gotta earn their trust, you've gotta earn their love, you've gotta earn all those things that are going to give them comfort to be able to invite you into their life. What are you gonna talk about? You're gonna talk about the weather? I mean, that lasts about five minutes. And then you've gotta talk about their life, and what makes up what, like the majority, what, 70% of our life? Work. Now as I always tell people, it's one thing if on Sunday you're doing emails, work emails while the sermon's going on. That's not a good idea. It's another thing if there's people that you work with at your work and they happen to go to church with you and you guys are talking about a project that you need to do and you're actually working. No, that's work, you shouldn't do that. But if on the other hand, you're saying, man, let me share something with you, brother. Let me share something with you, sister. My boss is really breathing down my neck. I'm having a hard time. I want to kill the guy. And I know as a Christian, that's not a good thing. Can you help me out? Well, you're talking about work, aren't you? But you're talking about in the context of spiritual life. And I think that if we take this catechism question too far, which I think some people do, you get the impression that you can't talk about it. Now, what about recreation? Well, here's the thing with recreation, okay? And what I see to be the problem with this question overall, if you understand it strictly and literally, is that you come to this conclusion where you can do no recreation at all. Now, there's a spectrum of recreation. So by the way, let's start with this. What is recreation? Now, I think that some of the easy things to pick off are things like this. If you're involved in a sports league that requires you to play on Sunday morning when church is going on, that's obviously something that you shouldn't be doing. And, you know, you just need to ask yourself the question, like, what's the priority in my life, right? But now, let's go down the spectrum a little bit, and let's talk about, okay, it's after church, you got all these kids that would just boundless energy, and they wanna ride their bikes around or they wanna throw the football, that's recreation. Is that wrong? Well, if you take this position literally and on face value, yeah, you can't do that. And there is within the Reformed Church a position that takes a quote unquote, no recreation at all view. And I think that that is not biblical. I think that it's not realistic. And here's the thing, in my opinion, take this for what it's worth, recreation is relative to different people, okay? So, for example, some people are like, man, after church on Sunday, I need to take a nap and I'm gonna feel better. And other people are like, if I take a nap, there's no way I'm making it to evening service because I'm gonna be so groggy, I'm not gonna be able to do it. Some people are like, if I go out and hit tennis balls, I'm good. If I go out and take a walk, I'm good. That's recreation, okay? Let's say a family never rides their bike together Monday through Saturday, and then on Sunday they go out and ride their bike together. It's something that they don't normally do. It's not normal work that they do. It's not normal recreation. It's something special. That's just their way of getting the endorphins going. Remember, we're body and soul, not just soul. So I think it's very difficult to arrive at this conclusion that says you can't do any recreation And let me just read you a text from Colossians 2 that I think kind of seals the deal on not just recreation on the Sabbath or on the Lord's Day, but an overly legalistic approach to the Lord's Day. In Colossians chapter two, I'm gonna read 11 through 17. He says this, in him, speaking of Christ also, you were circumcised with the circumcision made without hands by putting off the body of the flesh by the circumcision of Christ, having been buried with him in baptism in which you were also raised with him through faith and powerful working of God who raised him from the dead. And you who were dead in your trespasses in the uncircumcision of your flesh, God made alive together with him, having forgiven us all our trespasses by canceling the record of debt that stood against us with its legal demands. This he set aside, nailing it to the cross. He disarmed the rulers and authorities and put them to open shame by triumphing over them in him. Therefore, let no one pass judgment on you and question of food and drink and with regard to a festival or a new moon or a Sabbath. Now I take that to mean that an overly legalistic approach to the Lord's day that is not anchored in New Testament corroboration is something that we need to be very wary of. We need to be very wary of telling people and binding their consciences that they can't do something on a day that the New Testament hasn't said they can't do. We need to be very careful about that. All right. So let me just, I know I'm going over here and I apologize for that. The Lord has given us six days, and there's a sense in which on the seventh day, he frees us from the imposition of the world. The Lord's Day gives us a wonderful and unique way of offering testimony of our faith to the world. For most days, Christians are given to the common kingdom. We lay one day aside, mostly devoted to the redemptive kingdom. It's an anticipation of the end of our pilgrimage. The Lord's Day becomes a testimony to the world of our eschatological identity. All right, so let me just now thirdly give just a few practical observations and I'm just gonna shoot them off because we're over here and I apologize for that. Here's some practical thoughts on the observance of the day. Number one, very simply, see it as a God-given opportunity to rest from your labors and to worship the Lord who brought you to rest in Jesus Christ, okay? As Hebrews 4.10 says, whoever has entered God's rest has also rested from his works as God did from his. Secondly, Let the motivation for your Lord's day be heavenly and not earthly. In other words, don't see Sunday as another day to get a bunch of things done. See Sunday as a day that you rest in Christ. And yes, if there's works of necessity, works of mercy, you got to do them. That's fine. But see the priority of the day as a spiritual day. Kohelet says this, the author of Ecclesiastes, He who quarries stones is hurt by them, and he who splits logs is endangered by them. If the iron is blunt and one does not sharpen the edge, he must use more strength, but wisdom helps one to succeed. You ever feel like that with your bodies? You ever feel like you're trying to use a blunt ax, and the more energy that you use, it's just not being as efficient as it should? And so it is with our bodies, right? We keep running them down and running them down, and what's happening is they're getting blunt. They're not as efficient. And the Lord is telling us, again, because we're sabbatarian creatures, you need to rest. I know you think you could do it all, but you can't. You need to rest. And so the Lord gives us a day, and he says, take it. Thirdly, plan for the Lord's Day just like you might plan for everything else. There are so many planners in this church. Plan for the Lord's Day. If there's something that can be done Monday through Saturday, do it Monday through Saturday. Number four, use the Lord's Day to get to know other people in the congregation, to serve them, to love them, to bear their burdens. One of the things I love about this church is that we don't overload people with services during the week. You gotta come back for prayer meeting, you gotta come back for this, come back for that, and there's a place for that, I'm not saying that's wrong. I'm just saying we could take one day and get the biggest bang for our buck, I say that reverently, spiritually speaking, by being with God's people, worshiping God, making much of Christ, and just taking fullest advantage of the day. And then finally, focus on the eternal rest that God has waiting for you in heaven. As Jesus said, seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things, everything else in life, will be added unto you. We don't focus on heaven enough, and as a result, we become overly worldly minded. When we take stock of our spiritual state and find that we have a cold or apathetic heart toward the Lord, it shouldn't surprise us if we've been neglecting the Lord's Day. So in conclusion, the Lord's Day is part and parcel of the overall spiritual diet of the Christian. While it's true that it is a benefit to us physically and spiritually, it's also the case that it's a testimony to a watching world that we prize other worldly things more than what this world has to offer. So may the Lord give us grace to flesh these things out. Let me pray and we'll have a time of discussion. Father God, Thank you for this day that you've given us. Indeed, it is the day that the Lord has made, and I pray that you would help us to rejoice and be glad in it. And Father, I just pray that you'd give us wisdom in fleshing this out. We confess that we don't have everything figured out, and it'll take time, and I just pray that you'd give us patience and wisdom. We ask all these things in your Son's name, amen.