This sermon delves into the relevance of the Ten Commandments, focusing on the third commandment about not taking the Lord's name in vain and the fourth commandment about remembering the Sabbath day. It emphasizes the importance of honoring God's name by not making false oaths and the significance of setting aside a day for spiritual rest and growth. The speaker highlights the need to have a right heart attitude in following these commandments, avoiding legalism and arrogance, and truly resting in Christ for spiritual strength and closeness to God.

Now, the topic I've been on is the Ten Commandments, correct? The Ten Commandments and how they're relevant, what does that mean to us today, and I'm talking about number three and number four tonight. So let me read Exodus chapter 20. You shall not take the name of the Lord your God in vain. For the Lord will not hold him guiltless who takes his name in vain. Now, a lot of us, you know, we know what that means, and we usually associate cursing, right? Swearing, which is true, you're taking the Lord's name in vain, but the word vain there really means useless or futile, you're taking it in vain. It really has to do with oath, taking more than anything else, but it has a lot of different meanings. And I started a quote from, his name is D.K. Stewart. He wrote an exceptional commentary on Exodus, Volume 2, and the more I began to quote him, the more I said, why don't I just have him explain a lot of this, because I'm quoting and quoting and quoting, and I'm like, well, let's just see what he has to say, and it really is right on in this area. And what he said is this, the primary meaning of misuse the name of the Lord would appear to be invoking his name as a guarantor or a guarantee of one's words. Examples would include promising someone something by Yahweh, meaning I guarantee you that my promise is true, or Yahweh will kill me, or otherwise punish me if I don't keep my promise. Or giving legal testimony with the, meaning I swear that my testimony in this legal matter before this court is true, and I guarantee that Yahweh may kill me or otherwise punish me if it isn't. So it's a pretty serious thing. And you know, court of law, right, I swear, by the Bible, and justices taking oath, presidents taking oath, those types of things. In other words, the most basic core idea behind this commandment is the prohibition of perjury. And that's what it's really about. So if you're asking me, should we take, can we take an oath? Well, I think what the president does, whether he means it or not, or the Supreme Court justice, whether they mean it or not, the concept behind it was good. From the pilgrims, the Puritans, the early foundation of our nation, they would swear before God because there is no higher power. So it wasn't really what we think of as, it was acknowledging, so help me God. And it's a covenant with that. So in that sense, I don't have a problem with it, but when people, it's like this, right? You know? Yes, I will do that. And God is my witness. I will do that. Anytime you have to say, I swear to God that I will do that, that means your character is probably already tarnished. So basically you're saying, I know you don't believe me, but I acknowledge God in this. And that's what he's talking about here. You don't want to take the Lord's name in vain with the fingers behind the back and cursing and using God's name. I swear by my mom, or I swear by God. And you take that higher name, but really with no intention of doing anything. You're trying to fool the person. I like what Psalms 15 said, but before I get there, a lot of this has to do as well as a failure to keep our commitment. Isn't it? I mean, we're saying something, but we're not keeping it. That's why Jesus said, listen, just let your yes be yes and your no be no. If you're going to do something, do it. And believe it or not, that's one of the biggest struggles in the church today. Commitment. When we say something, but don't do it. Because it's really easy to say something, isn't it? For example, we need hospital home helpers on Sundays. Yes, I'll do that. It sounds great. And then when Sunday gets here, not so great, right? It's hard. We got things going up. Or like some of us, about nine of us worked on some homes today that were flooded by the floodwaters. And a lot of people commit and doesn't say, oh, I'd love to help. But then when it actually comes down to it, who actually follows through in this commitment. So I would like to see people start, when they make a commitment, follow through. Because God does look at this. It's almost like lying. If we're saying, I'll do this, but then no intention of doing or making excuses, God knows our heart. And I like what Psalm 15 says, Lord, who may dwell in your sacred tent? Who may live on your holy mountain? Now, for some people, you might have no idea what he's talking about here, but anytime the Lord says, who may dwell in your sacred tent, or who may dwell on your holy mountain, meaning who may come close to you, who may know your power, know your presence, have that intimate relationship with you, who may ascend into the hill of the Lord or stand in this holy place. He who has clean hands and a pure heart, who has not lifted his soul to an idol. So that's how a person dwells close to God. And I would assume that most of you in this room want to be close to God. And Psalm 15, if you have time, starting at verse one is a wonderful verse, and actually two, three, four, I believe, verses there that talk about how a person can draw near to God. And one of the things that really stood out to me was verse four, the one who keeps an oath even when it hurts and does not change their mind. Basically, another translation says, blessed is the man or woman who swears to their own hurt. Because it is easy to say, I'll do that, but when the time comes to doing it, that's really where the difficulty comes. And I believe that that's where God wants to shape and develop many people. Because it's really, this is where the rubber meets the road in our Christianity. Can we keep our word? Or do we come up with excuses, oh, I forgot about this, gotta do this, gotta do this. So we say it to get off the hook and to look good, right? Oh, yeah, I'll do that. But then when it comes to actually doing it, that's when we back out. And really the person who may ascend into the hill of the Lord or stand in his holy place or dwell in his secret tent or live in his holy mount, who keeps an oath even when it hurts. That's significant because it does hurt. It does. When I committed to helping the homes this morning, and some people committed that you're here, it hurt when Saturday got here. It's like, I've got a lot to do. I've got to be here. And you know, it's like how it hurts. Because that's when the rubber meets the road. That's when our faith is engaged. That's when we can see that our walk is genuine, when we actually do what we said, and it does hurt because the flesh wants to be comfortable. Would you rather cut drywall and clean up mud or go to the mall now they have that new massage place? You can just sit on the chair for a half hour or an hour. They always try, come on, come on, come on, come on, come on. And if they get you, let me just try for two minutes. Once you try it for two minutes, you just say an hour. That's how they get you in the comfort zone there. So I would encourage you, this is a big, I almost use the word epidemic in the churches. We say something, but we don't follow through. And I would just encourage you, if you say it, do it. Here's the key. Don't say yes to a lot of things. I've learned that lesson the hard way. I will not commit to something I don't think I can fulfill. And something I learned in business 20 years ago that has really helped in Christianity is this phrase. I hope I can remember, I didn't write it down. Under promise and over deliver. Under promise and over deliver. So you under promise, you say, well, I can do this. But then when it comes to doing it, you over deliver. One example, actually, many people have been asking me about it with this merger that might happen with the Leona Valley Church. It's still a few months away. They're still going through the process. They're not sure what they want to do. They're praying. They're kind of in that, like, are we going to do this mode? And so they asked me lots of questions. And, you know, can you be, oh gosh, what's the example? Can you be in Leona Valley sometimes? Will you be able to minister to your families? Will you be able to handle this load? All these questions, and rightly so. But every time in my mind, I thought of that under promise and over deliver. You know, oh, yes, I'll be there seven days a week, 24 hours a day, and this and that. And we'll just do this. And we'll, you know, just make this picture out that's not realistic. And that's a good thing to follow. So you under promise and you over deliver. The Christian, I believe a Christian, their work should look better than the secular world. When we leave a job site in construction or when we leave a job site where you work, Lockheed, Rockwell, Boeing, wherever you work, whatever you do, there should be a difference. There should be a distinction. And we should work better. I truly believe that. And I also believe on this area of commitment. What's happening in the church, though, is we make too many commitments. And then it's hard to fulfill all of them. So with ushering or children's ministry, just try once a month. And I didn't really mean to tie any of this with the sermon, but I'm trying to make it practical here. And also, even with attendance, the statistics watching Gallup from 30 years ago, Sunday morning attendance, you know, every Sunday, every Sunday. Now it's, well, if sports isn't in the way, and travel ball, and, you know, if we don't have this to do, and if I didn't sleep in, and we've gotten away from that commitment. And whenever you lose commitment, and you begin to, especially on spiritual matters, you will drift away from God. You say, Shane, if I don't come to church every single weekend, I will drift away? Well, it depends. Of course, you're sick, you're out of town. But if it's a habit, and it's a lifestyle, and God's not the, see, here's the truth. When God's a passion, you want to be there. I want to be at worship night. I want to be there for the worship. You want more of God. So the statistics, to me, really reveal that the heart of most Christians is drifting away from God. They'll fit Him in when it fits their schedule. It used to be, He's in my schedule, and I'll make other things fit. I remember when I grew up here, I don't know how long ago, I'd have to research. When I was younger, many stores were closed on Sunday. It wasn't that long ago. I'm only 46. They were closed on Sunday. Or they opened after church. How far away? Look at the mall. Everything's open. 9 a.m., 10. And it takes us away. So that priority, that used to be a priority. So all that to say this, you have to make it a priority in your own life, or it will not happen. And it is hard. It does hurt. And I've been honest about this many times. Not every Saturday, I feel like coming here. I've thought about calling in sick a few times, right? Is there anybody that can go and preach? But once you get there, once you say, flesh, be quiet. If that's what you're doing, flesh, shut your mouth. Pardon my English. Flesh, I'm not listening to you. I'm going and doing this. And then you're blessed. And that's really what commitment is. It's the flesh coming in and wanting you to get away from it. Isn't it amazing we have three hours for football? I mean, there's people I know that they've never missed a Monday night game. Or, I mean, it's like, even if their mom's in the hospital, they'll, really, they'll time it. Okay, I'll come and see you at round two. So everything revolves around this, around sports, everything. Or there's other things in your life. You fill in the blank that revolve around something that's not God. So that's really a lot of what it has to do with, too, is saying, yes, I'll do it commitment-wise. I want to tie that in. But then you're still talking about taking the Lord's name in vain. We must remember, however, that the commandment is worded generally enough to encompass any misuse of Yahweh's name, from making light of it or overly mocking it, to speaking about Yahweh in any way disrespectfully, to using it as a name under social pressure to have one's family look orthodox when, in fact, their beliefs were pagan and idolatrous. Again, D.K. Stewart, a lot right there. And the reason he's using Yahweh is that's the Hebrew translation of God. That's what they call, they didn't say God. That's the American translation, you know, G-O-D. It's Yahweh, especially in the Hebrew and the Old Testament. And he's right here, from making light of it or overly mocking it. Some people say, you know, yes, I'm a Christian, or I know God to fit in. But saying, I believe in God, and in a lifestyle not reflecting it, can borderline on taking his name in vain. Think about this. How often do you see stand-up at the Grammys, barely covered, winning an award for sex, lust, and greed? They say, thank you, God. Thank you, God. What kind of example did you just give? I mean, does Hannah Montana still acknowledge God? Lady Gaga? I mean, a lot of times you'll hear, but God has been here for me, or Jesus. And their lifestyle is so different from the true and living God. And I believe they're taking his name in vain. What about what we just saw on the news? You go rush in, you shoot people, al-Akbar, whatever they say, in God's name. You just took his name in vain, in one of the worst cases possible. That's taking, what you're seeing in Paris is taking God's name in his vain. And let me remind you, the Lord will not hold him guiltless who takes his name in vain. It's a misuse of God's name and his character. Boy, I went back and forth on this one. I don't even, I don't know if I should let you know, because most of you don't know, but there's a play that some of the news organizations, and the news stations are doing articles on. I read one the other day, and it's a play. It's called The Gospel According to Jesus, Queen of Heaven. And it's about a transgender Jesus. And their tagline says, Join Queen Jesus for a revolutionary queen ritual in which bread is shared, wine is drunk, and familiar stories are reimagined by a transgender Jesus. And some of the major, major magazines, major organizations are endorsing it. A must-see in this. If you don't, I can't think of a better example of blasphemy and taking the Lord's name in vain. A transgender Jesus. How dare we? How dare we? And we wonder why all hell's breaking loose. To speak Yahweh's name was to recognize his awesome power and holiness, and even to invite his response to one's particular situation at the moment. Car accident. Oh, God help me. Oh, Jesus. You're invoking that name. There's power in that name. And to speak that name, you recognize his awesome power and holiness. And I often wonder what happened in church where we used to come in, and you could sense the power of God. Many times people actually say that about West Side during worship. They can sense the power of God here. That's what we want. We want his presence, his revealed presence. There should be an awe. This isn't a time to put on your baseball cap and chew gum and act like this is no big deal, like this is a sports event. We're here worshiping God. Now, if you wear a baseball cap, I don't care. I did today, too. But it's the attitude behind it, right? That's what I'm saying. It's the attitude behind it. It's a careless. I don't like this attitude. But when people come in here with a careless, carefree attitude, there's no reverence for God. I mean, what happened to that reverence? You know, when you walk into church and you say, we are on holy ground. I mean, this is where God meets his people. I don't know of any place more special than churches, true churches, where they're worshiping God. You're coming in corporately to worship God. His word is being preached. You're praying, and God is moving among his people. It's a very powerful thing if you think about it. And those who had not obeyed Yahweh might well fear even to mention his name out loud, lest he respond by appearing in some fashion among them. And I read recently Amos 6.10. He describes those wishing no contact with God and no judgment against them. And they said, hush, shh. We must not even mention the name of the Lord. Why? Because they weren't living right. If you go look at Amos 6.10, Amos was a shepherd, and he came to judge many people there in the nation of Israel because of their waywardness. And they said, shh, don't even mention God's name here. Have you ever wondered why people don't like that name mentioned? Do you have family members? Don't talk about God, Shane. I hope so. It's just me, that's embarrassing. But don't talk about God. Don't mention, well, what's it to? God and politics. Don't tell me how to lead people, and don't tell me what God requires. And we do, we have family members. They don't live in this area. They don't want to talk about God because they know what that name stands for. They'll talk about Hare Krishna, they'll tell you about the Buddhists that came by the door, they'll even tell you about the Mormons that dropped off material, they'll tell you about Tom Cruise and Scientology, and all these different things, but they don't want to talk about Jesus Christ and the one true living God because there's power in His name. There's power. It shakes the spiritual realm. When you mention the name of Jesus Christ, demons realize, they tremble. Because that name, you're invoking that name. You're not just saying that name, you're invoking that power. Every knee will bow and every tongue will confess that Jesus Christ is Lord. Not just the church, not just America. Every knee. So when you say it, you put the standard there, you put the power there. They see the light of the gospel and they don't like it. So that's what taking the Lord's name in vain means. And now it breaks my heart when I'm here, if I still help sometimes at construction sites and you hear, man, you think sailors can curse? It's like, do you know what you're saying about Christ? While you were yet sinners, He died for you. And I think of that. These guys cursing Him, He died for you. Try telling Him that someday, it'll be an interesting conversation. What do you mean, ah? It's a good opportunity sometimes, you gotta make sure the timing's right though. Hush, we don't wanna even mention His name. And I wanna clarify real quick, between mocking and repenting. You can call on the name of the Lord. The Bible says, anyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved. So that's much, see, it's all in the heart. A person goes, oh God. In their hearts, it's a blasphemy and mock. A person says, oh God. They're saying, save me, deliver me. That's hope in this room, hope in the radio, hope wherever this goes out. You can call on the name of the Lord and you will be saved. You're acknowledging that power, that authority, and you're saying, I need you. Isn't that what we're saying? When we call on God, we're saying, I need you. God, I need you. That's very healthy to say, and it's very hard for men to say it. Maybe women too, but I know most men, I got this covered. I go to church when I need God, but they don't say, Lord, I need you. And I'll tell you right now, I say it all the time, God, I need you. I need you. As much as I needed you 20 years, I need you today. And that's healthy because it gets the heart in the right spot. The punishment for breaking this commandment remains unspecified and therefore could, in theory, again, quoting D.K. Stewart here, and therefore could, in theory, take any form of God's choosing from something relatively minor to death. Jeremiah provides examples of serious punishment when, for instance, a prophet speaks lies in Yahweh's name. This is a severe example of misusing Yahweh's name, and this is what I've quoted in the past. If you have time, read tonight Jeremiah 23, the whole chapter. You will not put it down. It's gripping. God says, I haven't even sent these prophets, yet they ran. I haven't spoken to them, but they spoke. But had they truly stood in my counsel, they would have turned the nation back to me. Is not my word like a fire, like a hammer that devours? But these lying prophets are going saying, peace, peace, peace. Yes, you can sleep with your neighbor. You can get drunk and have orgies, but there's peace. God loves you. You're Abraham's sons. Peace, peace. There's nothing wrong. And then they keep engaging in that sin. See, and that's one of my concerns today. The pulpit should be saying, stop, stop. We're murdering millions of children. We're mocking Christ. What we're doing with gay marriage and everything else, we're mocking. Stop. Turn around. But what most people are saying, peace, peace, peace. God loves you guys. He loves us. It's grace and mercy, and thank God. And that's wonderful, but put it in context. Because it's very dangerous to say, God is happy with our lifestyle when he wants us to say, repent from our lifestyle. Big difference. And these prophets knew they were lying prophets. God says, I haven't even sent them, yet they ran. I haven't even spoke to them, yet they spoke. But then he says, but had they truly stood, had they truly stood, not standing on the Bible. It doesn't literally mean that. It means this. Had they truly proclaimed what my word says, they would have turned the nation back to me. So lying prophets, lying voices. And it made me think also, we need to be very careful when saying, God told me. God said. And then we go to somebody else. Especially, you see this in the modern charismatic movement with words of the Lord. You know, God says, whoa. Be very careful, because if you're off, if your flesh is in there a little bit, and you're saying, this is what God said. So you're saying, should we not say that? Well, what I would say is, I'm deeply impressed by this. I feel that possibly the Lord wants me to challenge you in this area, say something to you. It's been on my heart, and here it is. But to say, thus saith the Lord, you better be on target. Because that's what you're saying. You're saying, here's what God says. Now, interesting side note. Side note is we're talking about names and different things. I've get emails like this in the past, so I finally decided to look into it. The question is this, is it true that the name Jesus is really a pagan corruption of the name Zeus? Or, they'll say, you ever run into those people, they never say Jesus. Like, I'll get emails, they'll say, Yeshua. Yeshua. Don't say Jesus. Mm-mm, not good. Yeshua. Well, what's Jesus translated in English? It's from Yeshua. It's from the Greek name there. But anyway, people say, don't say Jesus because you're invoking Zeus, or that's not his real name. Some Christians say we have to use the Hebrew name Yeshua. They say calling on the name of Jesus is calling on Zeus. Or if they don't say that, there's a group, you can't use that word Jesus. And I like what Michael Brown said, Dr. Michael Brown, Messianic Jew, very educated in this area. He said, this is one of the most ridiculous claims that I've ever heard. But it has received more circulation in the recent years. And there are some believers who feel that it's not only preferable to use the original Hebrew, Aramaic name, Yeshua, and it does, it comes from the Hebrew, the Aramaic, translated into Greek, Joshua. But then, it is wrong to use the name Jesus. You can't use the word Jesus. He said this, you might as well argue that Tiger Woods is the name of a tiger-infested jungle in India as a try to connect the name Jesus to the pagan god Zeus. It is that absurd and is based on serious, serious linguistic ignorance. Linguistic, the study of language. It's just, it's just dead wrong. And you might not ever encounter this, but you might encounter people who, they will never say Jesus. They won't say that name. It's because they've been duped online by some twisting of this and this and this. I mean, let's, on this topic, this is interesting. Let's just think about this for a minute. Science says words actually start in the stomach, right? And the diaphragm, they move up, lungs, stomach muscles, voice box, tongue, teeth, and lips, and the brain coordinates it all. That's what science says. But what does the Bible say? Words actually start in the heart. For out of the abundance of the heart, the mouth speaks. So when a person is, what about their deaf or they can't speak? Are they in trouble? They can't say, they can't say any name. I can't say Jesus. I can't say Yahshua. I can't say Yahweh. I can't say anything because it's the heart though. It's the heart. So when I'm saying even the word heart, it's just, it's air from my diaphragm, from my lungs to the mouth to lips. It's to make certain noises of air. That's all words are. I'm making noises that we understand in English. You go into Mexico, you're not gonna understand a lot of what they're saying unless you speak that or Italian or French or, you know, it's the same thing. So that's the thing with words in this area with Jesus is it's what is the heart saying? I mean, in Swahili and Africa and different things, they have different names for Jesus. But if their heart's right, and they're pointing in the direction of God, this is not something to make a mountain out of a molehill. So that's on taking the Lord's name in vain, in a nutshell, is we don't wanna make an oath. I swear to God I'll do this. Ooh, do you cringe at that? You know, because you're swearing on that and many times we're not gonna fulfill it. It's taking his name in vain and not respecting who he is and the holiness behind that. And that's the Lord's name in vain. Then we move right into number four. 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, you nor your sons, nor your daughter, nor your male servant, nor your female servant, nor your cattle, nor your stranger who is within your gates. For in six days the Lord made the heavens and the earth and the sea and all that was in it and rested the seventh day. Therefore the Lord blessed the Sabbath day and hollowed it, made it holy and set apart. Now this is another very interesting topic, Sabbath, worship. And many of you are aware, right, that some groups say you can't worship God on Sunday. It's a pagan tradition the church brought in many years ago. But, and I don't have time here, but I actually gave a full message on this a year ago. It's entitled Sabbath Rest, Don't Miss the Point. Sabbath Rest, Don't Miss the Point. So if you want to go online, you can listen to the whole version and talk to a lot more detail about it. But here's just a few points. Again, what D.K. Stewart said, a usual day of work is to be stopped. That's what the point is. A usual day of work is to be stopped. So what about if you have a desk job? Sedentary lifestyle, you're just at the desk all day long, all week long. And then you get to Sunday, now it's lazy day, right? Just sit on the couch all day. No, you might want that to be the active day. Taking a mile walk, or an hour walk, and just pray and seek God, and seek His face, seek His will. Maybe fast, maybe take your kids somewhere. There's an activity there. But the whole point is God rested, but He was involved, He was alert, and He was available. You don't have to keep it to be in right standing with God, but you should follow it. The benefits are untold. The heart of God is a day of rest. Here's a good point he made. To love God is not to have a lazy day one day a week. Rather, it's to focus on doing His will specifically on one day a week, to worship Him, to learn, to study, to care, and to strengthen the spirit. The Sabbath is designed to help people become spiritually stronger and closer to God. That's the point of the Sabbath, to become spiritually stronger and closer to God. So it begs the question, are you? Are you growing spiritually and closer to God on a day of rest? Because beer and football and laying on the couch for six hours is not what God had in mind on Sunday. That's not a Sabbath rest. We can call it whatever we want, but that's not a Sabbath rest. Something in the day needs to be drawing us closer to God, whether it's family devotionals, whether it's a time of worship, whether it's taking a walk, whether it's just resting the body, recuperating, reading a good book, filling our spirit with the things of God. So we stop a usual day of work. And I don't know why people make this such a difficult topic, because we worked with our hands thousands of years. It was hard labor many times. And God says, stop, stop. Take off a day, rest, and focus on me. Because we all know what happens on Sunday when we try to catch up. That's what Sunday is. It's catch-up day. And we get everything done that we didn't get throughout the week, and it loses its point. And God knows. Probably the reason most people work seven days a week, sometimes there's exceptions. I know, I'm not talking about that. But it's to get ahead, to make more money. I mean, if you look at the lives of Fortune 500 companies, the CEOs of those companies, they're 70, 80 hours a week. Often seven days a week. Why? Because they're more productive, so they think. But that was the point of a Sabbath, is to take a day of rest, and to seek God, and to grow closer. So I think that's an important question on this point, on this commandment. It's designed to help you become spiritually stronger and closer to God. So do you have one day a week that's designed to draw you closer to God and build you up spiritually? There should be a day set apart for that. Also, it's interesting. The Sabbath was not reaffirmed in the New Testament, because Christ is our Sabbath rest. Every, we see in the New Testament, we see every, the nine of the ten commandments, reaffirmed, reaffirmed, reaffirmed. The Sabbath, we don't see it reaffirmed. However, when God says, thou shalt honor the Sabbath, keep the Sabbath, the principle still applies. I think it's very beneficial. And there's tons of benefits that come with taking a day off, and even fasting. Uh-oh. That could be part of your Sabbath day. Say, I'm going to eat breakfast, I'm not going to eat again until dinner. And you take that time and you seek God. Trust me, you'll get through it. So Christ is our Sabbath rest. Resting in the Lord. I would rather have a right heart versus sacrificing with a wrong heart. And that's what God sees. God wants to see a right heart. Because a lot of people, they keep the Sabbath. They keep the Sabbath. They just keep it. And they'll tell you off if you don't keep it. And if you worship on Sunday, they say you're worshiping the devil. I don't know how that's possible. You're singing about God. You're acknowledging God. You're looking to His word. The heart's breaking. You're crying out to God. Yet you're worshiping Satan. And that's actually why now, if you listen to our radio program, many times we have to say, we meet on Saturdays because that's when the building's available. And we're not limited by time or parking restraints. Do you know why we say that? Because the first few years, everybody thought, oh, finally, a Seventh-day Adventist church in the Owl Valley is preaching the truth of God's word. And I had these people coming in, they're like, we're so glad you meet on the Sabbath. All those other apostate churches, all those other misled people, we finally found the real church. I said, well, we'd meet on Sunday if we could. Ah, we're out of here. They asked me this, would you ever go to Sunday? Oh, hopefully. Maybe keep two. But they didn't stick around for that. But there was always an arrogance. There was a legalism. Now, I never met, I never met here, somebody coming in for that Sabbath only that was humble, broken, servant, spirit-filled believer. Why? Because they connect that to rule following, and they become spiritual. And if you could, the truth be told, if you could follow somebody around like that all day, they are not keeping the Sabbath, according to what the Bible says, keep the Sabbath. Don't kindle a fire, don't do any work, nothing. But they compromise. And it's because the church met on Saturdays, but the church also worshiped on Sundays. You know, the underground church in China sometimes meets on Monday mornings at 4 a.m., or Tuesday morning, or Wednesday, or wherever we can meet to worship God. There's nothing wrong with that. So anytime, and I presented this question before, and I'll do it again, anytime we talk about taking a stance on something like the Sabbath, or a heart stance on something, a certain translation of the Bible, I asked the person this question, is your stance leading to love, joy, peace, contentment, gentleness, and kindness? See this is interesting, a correct stance, a biblical stance, when you take it, will produce a fruit of the Spirit. When you take a stance on, Lord, your truth, it's your truth, and your truth only, we're contending for that truth. You're filled with love, and joy, because you're filled with the Spirit. But if you start to develop arrogance, legalism, divisiveness, and a critical heart, that's the slippery slope of judgmentalism. You're not filled with the Spirit, when those things arise. So you can look, so for example, those people who used to come in here, every month, you know, I'm so glad you worship on Saturday. But their stance was not leading to, what I just said, love, and joy, and peace. They were angry. You could see, they're so mad, you better say you worship on Saturday only. And they want to argue for an hour and a half. Arguing, arguing. So you see, do you see the heart there? You can see, there's a lot. For out of the abundance of the heart, the mouth will speak. So they can basically be rude, and arrogant, and critical, but because they're coming to church on Saturday, they think they're good with God. They think, I've got it right. Now there are people I've met, that prefer to worship on Saturday. They want to go back more to the New Testament model. They feel that's right and best for them, and that's the Sabbath day. But they have a gentle spirit about them. And there's preference there, and they're able to do that. And that's okay as well. Basically, resting in God. Cease work or movement. Resting means cease work or movement, in order to relax, refresh oneself, or recover strength. To be placed in a specified position. So as we rest in Christ, we have to rest, we have to place our mind, our finances, our family, our life in God's care, and rest in Him. So if Jesus is our Sabbath rest, we have to rest in Him. We can't just say it, because we'll say it from the pulpit, and people will say, oh yeah, it sounds good, I've heard that before, that sounds great. But to actually rest in Him, it's a battle. It's a battle that we have to engage in. And the main reasons why we don't rest in Christ, and these are not unfamiliar, but it fits in with the sermon. The main reason a person will not rest in Christ is number one, because of besetting sin. There's a sin that is, why is it called besetting? Because it won't stop. And we don't want to get rid of it. We kind of enjoy it. And there's a, whether it's a critical nature, critical heart, addiction, whatever it is, there's a besetting sin, that doesn't allow us to rest fully in Christ. Also, worry and doubt and anxiety. See, there's two voices contending for your thoughts. And the more I watched the news yesterday, the less I was filled with the Spirit of God. Worry, doubt, anxiety, refugees are coming from New Orleans, from Syria, oh no, oh, worry, doubt, worry, doubt, doubt, Well, Shane, should we be uninformed? No, but you better be more informed of God. And you see what's going on, but again, you put your rest and trust in Christ. And God, Jesus said, don't worry for anything. Don't be anxious for anything. But what? With prayer and supplication, let your requests be known to God. So you know what's going on, you leave it at that. You don't need to feed that, because it's going to feed. The more you feed that, the more it grows. And you can feed anxiety, worry, and doubt, or you can stifle it and rest in Christ. Another example I've given often is filling our mind with worldly things and influences. It's very hard to rest in Christ when we fill our mind with things that hate Christ. See, resting is a reassurance. How difficult is it for a one-year-old child to rest in his mother's arms? Is that challenging? Is it difficult? Oh, it's so much work. He just rests. He positions himself. That's what resting in Christ is, that imagery there. It's not difficult. We rest in his arms and rest in what he stands for. But filling our mind with worldly things and influences will actually pull us away from that rest. And the final thing here, which many of us do, doing things my way. You can't rest in Christ and do things your way. It's impossible. I'm going to rest in Christ, but darn it all, anyway, I'm going to take the bull by the horns and I'm going to just do it. I'm going to do it my way. I'm going to plow through. I'm going to open this door, whether it's work, whether it's home, whatever it is. If we begin to do it my way, you can't rest in Christ in that. That's not resting in Christ. That's a real Sabbath rest. And a lot of what prevents this also is a hard heart. What a hard heart is, it's a term used in the Bible to explain when a person willfully turns from the will of God. So they know what the will of God is and they turn from it. They know full well they should be going, they should not be going that direction, but they choose to do it anyway. Anytime there is hardness of heart mentioned in the Bible, there is a huge disconnect with God. There is no fruit of the Spirit produced, no ministry, no spiritual power, no anointing, nothing. It is dead. You might be in ministry or you might be ministering to others, but it's dead. You're dead. You know the Bible, but not the author. You go through the motions, but your heart is far from God. You know it, and that's why you're angry. A hard heart has to be crushed. It has to rest in Christ. See, a hard heart can't rest in Christ. What I mean by resting in Christ is trusting Him. He's conquered sin, so we trust in Him. That's really our only hope for America. Not the next person you're voting for. Resting in Christ and resting in what He's done for us. And we're going to go into communion in a minute, but I want to put up an image here. Many of you remember Steve Jobs from Apple. I'm assuming you do. This was taken just months or weeks before he died. And he said, I reached the pinnacle of success in the business world. In others' eyes, my life is the epitome of success. However, aside from work, I have little joy. In the end, wealth is only a fact of life that I'm accustomed to. At this moment, lying on the sickbed and recalling my whole life, I realized that all the recognition and wealth that I took so much pride in have paled and become meaningless in the face of impending death. In the darkness, I look at the green lights from the life-supporting machine and hear the humming mechanical sounds. I can feel the breath of death drawing closer. You see the difference between somebody resting in Christ and somebody looking back and saying, my hard heart, my pride, destroyed my life. I mean, who would you see? That's the epitome of success, isn't it? Oh, it's Apple? Billionaire? I mean, that's, and sometimes we need a wake-up call. We need a wake-up call. Look, that's what the result is.