This sermon delves into the topic of Sabbath rest, emphasizing the importance of not missing the point of Scripture and the need to understand God's desire for mercy over sacrifice. It explores the hypocrisy of judgmental attitudes and the significance of being filled with the Holy Spirit for empowerment and spiritual growth.

In Matthew chapter 12, finds us in this whole aspect about the Sabbath rest, and I'm not sure if you're aware, but did you know that this is a pretty hot topic in some churches and with some individuals? When we first planted the church, we had a lot of people coming, and probably every month they would come up and they would say, finally, a true church, man, you're preaching the word, you guys meet on Saturdays, we found our church, and as soon as I said, well, we just meet here because the building's available, we didn't see them again. Why was that? Because you can only worship God on Saturday, that's it, and it's Seventh-day Adventist would be one group that would say you can only worship God on Saturday, and I want to kind of unpack that since we're here, and with all of scripture, that's why I titled the Sabbath rest, don't miss the point, okay? A lot of times we look at scripture and we miss the point, the whole point of scripture, and to understand scripture, what you want to do is there's things in theology like the law first mentioned, go back and look at when a word was first used, and it usually keeps that consistency throughout. You want to look at what they call contextual consistency and make sure the context supports everything throughout scripture. You want to look at the historical aspects, you want to look at who Jesus was talking, you know, so you want to look at all that. You don't just take out a scripture and say, ah, see, here you go, and this is definitely one of those things, you don't want to miss the point, and a lot of scriptures where we miss the point, you can think of a popular one, right, judge not, judge not, judge not, don't you dare judge me, judge not. But actually it says as soon as I remove the plank out of my eye, then I can now better see the speck in your eye and I can judge, and I can discern. We're not called to be heart inspectors, but we are called to be fruit inspectors. But we shouldn't be excited about that, we shouldn't walk around judging people. But when you look at somebody and they want advice, or especially on this big thing now with gay marriage and all these things, and somebody asked me my feedback on Joelstein this week and they didn't like what I had to say, and now they're upset at me, and, you know, it's like, well, don't ask, you know, if you don't want to hear the answer there. But then I'm viewed as somebody judging, I'm judging, no, I'm just looking at these things in the light of scripture, trying to do with a humble heart, and we're offering our thoughts on this topic, so that's not judging. But it's funny, those people screaming, judging the loudest are like the liberal media or the liberal church, and when they don't like the truth of God's word, they just throw this one at you, judge not. Well, Jesus said, actually, we can judge, and we're supposed to judge, we're supposed to discern, we're supposed to preach the truth and judge all things. But the whole point of judge not was humble yourself, remove the mighty plank in your own eye, come without a critical heart, then you can see clearly to judge your brother. See how we just pull that one out and just throw it at people? What about this? Here's a famous one, wives submit to your husband, right? Wives submit to your husband, we just throw scripture at him, well, you missed the point. They want to submit to a man who's submitting to Christ and who's submitting to the needs of his family and who loves you as much as Christ loved the church, which is impossible, but men are supposed to die trying. So if you look at that in context, it makes perfect sense. Or husbands love your wives, angry wives like to throw that out there, right? Well, he needs to love me, we also need to create an environment in which love is to nurture. You're missing the point. Anytime we want to throw a scripture, you're missing the whole point. These going, they flow together. So husbands love your wives as Christ loved the church and then from that, the wives want to respect their husband and want them to lead. So don't miss a point in scripture because we're all guilty of this. I've tailored scripture to meet my, you know, needs when I'm upset at somebody. Well, it says this, a lot of people use scripture, you know, Timothy, take a little wine for your stomach. That's not three bottles a night. You know, I mean, the people use that in me, I know people that drink throughout the week and look at right here saying, well, yeah, but you missed the point. Here we go again. We're missing the point. Or what about missing the point with God is love? Right? The Bible says God is love. So they've used that to support everything from gay marriage to excusing bad behavior. God is love. That's one attribute, but he's also holy and just and righteous. And you just can't miss a point. So keep that in mind when we're talking about the Sabbath rest. Now, I don't know about you, but anytime you get into God's word, it's for me, it's a burden. It's a labor of love, because I don't want to just come up here and say, well, here's Shane's opinion. Here's what I think. I mean, you're preaching God's word. I mean, thus, you're saying, here's what God says. And on this area of Sabbath rest, I don't want to just dismiss it. It was one of the 10 commandments. And I'm concerned sometimes people say, oh, we don't we can worship whatever we want. Who cares about the Sabbath? Well, the principle is very important. Don't miss the point, right? So let's look at this, Matthew 12. At that time, Jesus went through the grain fields on the Sabbath and his disciples were hungry and begin to pluck heads of grain and to eat them. And when the Pharisees saw it, they said, look, your disciples are doing what is not lawful to do on the Sabbath. And Jesus didn't quote chapter and verse, right? He said, have you not read what David did when he was hungry? Have you not read what David did when he was hungry? See, they were picking and choosing, right? And Jesus is saying, look, and here's a perfect example. David was hungry and he and those who were with him and how he entered the house of God and ate the show bread, which was not lawful for him to eat, nor for those who were with him, but only for the priests. So Jesus is saying, David's men are famished. The letter, see, when you look at the scripture, you have to look at the letter of the law and the spirit of the law. You have to look at them both. What's the whole point of this? David, his men were hungry. They're not going and defaming God and they're utilizing something there the priests gave them. But technically you weren't supposed to eat that. It was just for the priests. And then he goes on to say verse five, or have you not read in the law that on the Sabbath, the priests in the temple profane the Sabbath? Why is that? Because the priests are working. They're working on the Sabbath. Guess what I'm doing? All those people say, yeah, we're not supposed to work on the Sabbath. Well, what am I doing? Lucky you, right? So Jesus is saying they're in the temple, they're working, and they're blameless before God. Yet I say to you that in this place, meaning Christ himself, there is one greater than the temple. But if you had only known what this means, I desire mercy and not sacrifice, you would have not condemned the guiltless. For the son of man is even Lord of the Sabbath. Isn't that interesting? Because Jesus says, I desire mercy and not sacrifice. Actually, I believe he's cross-referencing Hosea. But sacrifice is important, right? God told them to go and sacrifice. But for us, it would be go to church, read the word of God. We're sacrificing things, right? God says, I would rather have mercy, a right heart, than a wrong heart in going through the motions. And how often do we do that? So both are good. They had the sacrifice in the Old Testament, but God also wants mercy, the right heart to go with the sacrifice. And people can get in the habit of going through the motions, checking off church on their calendar as if it's a sacrifice and as if they're doing God a favor. And God says, listen, you might as well not show up for church. Don't put air one on your car. Don't quote a little scripture on Facebook. I don't want any of that. Look how corrupt your heart is. That's what I want. So if we get anything from this text, I hope it's this, that God desires mercy. And then from the right heart, that's when the disciplines, the sacrifices come into play. So on this area of the Sabbath, let's begin at the beginning. Remember, in Exodus, God was telling the children of Israel, remember the Sabbath day to keep it holy. Six days you shall labor and do all your work. But the seventh day is a Sabbath of the Lord your God. In it, you shall not do any work. You or your sons or your daughters or your servants or your cattle or your friends that come by, no work at all, take this day off. So here was the whole purpose of the Sabbath. It was to worship God and rest from work. That's why God said, I've made this day. You need to stop. You need to rest. You need to worship me. Cease from your labors. And this really jumped out to me when I came back to the Lord 1999, reading on this, because we would use Sundays or Sabbath days as catch-up days, right? It's a day I'm gonna catch up on everything I did and get done. And the guys, successful, if you look at successful Fortune 500 companies, CEOs, there is not many of them that would take a day off. They're always driving the numbers. They're always flying here doing this. Man will self-destruct because we think we can get more done, right? Where God's principle is saying, listen, you need a day off. Your body needs to rest and to recharge. You need to just focus on me. Don't do any work. Prepare beforehand and just rest in the Lord. That's the purpose of a Sabbath. So I find it ironic when these people that get so upset about church on Saturday, they're just so mad. They're not resting in the Lord. They're upset. They're angry. But they come to church as if they're super spiritual. That's not resting in the Lord. That's having a wrong attitude about this. Just because you go to church on Saturday doesn't mean you're resting, doesn't mean you're looking at this Sabbath. Now, the interesting thing about this, it is an interesting topic. I'll shoot you straight because it's in the Ten Commandments. Thou shalt not, thou shalt this, thou shalt. So you can't just say, well, it doesn't matter anymore. You know, we can't really. But you also have to remember that the nation of Israel, the Jewish people, they were under that Mosaic covenant, right? The law, they had to do all these things to be in right standing with God, which, of course, they always fell short. And then now we're gonna find out through Scripture, really, what took the place of the Sabbath. But I also want to include an article in your bulletins from the Christian Apologetics and Research Ministry that lays out this perfectly. And I'm just gonna read an excerpt here about does the Bible allow Christians to worship on Sunday? Because if you're not part of the group that says you gotta worship on Saturday, you're actually part of the false church if you worship on Sunday. They say that the Roman Catholic Church brought it in, the emperors made it, you had to worship on Sunday, and now everybody who worships on Sunday is corrupt and out of God's will. And really, what happens with the underground church in China who has to meet at Thursday at four in the morning not to be caught? What about in Iraq, the Christians Monday morning that meet because it's when they least expect it. So they're out of God's will, and they're not, you see how foolish that sounds? Like you can only worship God on this day. Actually, we should be worshiping God every day. It's our whole lifestyle. I mean, you just pop on worship music on Sunday, and the rest of the week you live like hell? Of course not. Christians, it's a lifestyle. And then there's one corporate day of worship where we all come together, Saturday, Sunday, Monday, Tuesday, whenever that is. And I'm gonna unpack that in a minute, but I like what they said. First of all, the 10 commandments listed in Exodus, only out of all of them, nine of them, only nine are restated in the New Testament. Murder, adultery, stealing, false witness, honoring parents, worshiping God, coveting, those types of things. The one that was not reaffirmed was the one about the Sabbath. Instead, Jesus said that he is Lord of the Sabbath. He offers true rest. When I get into him, I rest for my labor. He is my Sabbath rest. He is. In creation, God rested on the seventh day, but since God is all-powerful, he does not get tired. He doesn't need to take a break or rest. So why does it say that he rested? The reason is simple. You see in Mark 2, 27, it says the Sabbath was made for man and not man for the Sabbath. In other words, God established the Sabbath as a rest for his people, not because he needed a break, but because we are mortal and need a time of rest, a focus on God. In this, our spirits and bodies are both renewed. The Old Testament system of law required keeping the Sabbath as part of the overall moral, legal, and sacrificial system by which the Jewish people satisfied God's requirements for behavior, government, and forgiveness of sin. The Sabbath was part of the law in that sense. In order to remain in favor with God, you had to also keep the Sabbath. If it was not kept, then the person was in sin and would often be punished. But with Jesus' atonement, we no longer are required to keep the law as a means of our justification. People are like, oh man, what is he talking about? Well, in the Old Testament, justification, right? Justified, to be in right standing with God, he gave the law. The law was a schoolmaster. It's showing people their need for a savior. But now we are justified. We don't have to keep anything. We're justified because of what Christ did on the cross, propitiation, right? Absorbing the wrath of God, justification. We are justified, just as if we have never sinned because of what Christ did. So in that sense, we don't have to keep a Sabbath because we've already been justified in right standing with God because of what Christ did on the cross. So that's the whole point about keeping it, having to keep it. The requirements of the law were fulfilled in Christ. We now rest, we now have rest from the law. We now have Sabbath continually. So here's the point. So the day we worship is not the factor. Whether or not we worship is. But we shouldn't minimize the Sabbath either. And that's really the whole point I wanted to bring up with you. Do you have a day of rest? See, I don't think we can just easily dismiss it. Well, it doesn't apply now. Well, in regard to pleasing God and justification, it doesn't, but in regard to a biblical principle that is wonderful wisdom, it absolutely does. To recharge. Here comes Sunday, guess where my phone's going? In a drawer on the off button. Email, media, nothing. You take a day off, if possible, whatever your day is. You know, even our family knows that, hey, we just kind of spend time with the immediate family, just time with God, relax, no schedule, no nothing. It's a time of rest and recharge. And we look back on that now over the last 12 years and we say that has been a blessing to our marriage and to our family and to our relationship with God. Because if not, you're running all the time. You see that hamster on the wheel? So Sunday comes, ah, it's my day to pay the bills and get everything done and make all these works. And if I go do this, and then Sunday is a day to get everything done. We never have a time of rest and just stopping and waiting and just relaxing. You have to check Facebook every two hours? I mean, and we just stop and then we come into Monday. If we don't stop, then Monday is, oh, here we go again. We're all tired because we never took a break. And I know that even in physical fitness, you would tell people that are exercising, take a day off, at least a day or two. Why? Let the body recuperate, let the body rejuvenate. So it's a wonderful biblical principle that very few people follow. So in other words, the Sabbath wouldn't be good and now it's bad. The Sabbath that was good is still good, but we're not in right standing with God because we obey it. We're in right standing with God because of Christ. But the biblical principle still applies. You should rest your body. Sleep in, turn the coffee pot off. Oh, I might get a headache and sick. Oh, that's true. It's called addiction. Right, just relax. Relax on a day, rejuvenate. And then when you get up on the following day, you spent that day relaxing and you have a media fast and you just, you feel so much better because that's how God designed us, to recharge and renew. Even the land was supposed to rest every seventh year. So I think that's a principle that we keep breaking and we're paying, there's ramifications for that. And our kids now love family day. You know, with no phones and very limited, make a fire, go out and do the park, just relax and enjoy what God has done because life is going like this, isn't it? It's going quick and quick and quicker and quicker, it seems. If you don't stop, you'll get caught up into that frenzy. And people often, you know, they ask, well, what should we do? What should we do? And I often say, look at the culture and whatever they're doing, go the opposite direction. Especially on Sabbath, they don't have a Sabbath, right? This is the day to just, you know, be busy as can be. They're gonna try to hit Magic Mountain, Disneyland, Knott's Berry Farm all in that day, and then they're gonna get home at midnight, try to get to work in the next morning. Now, I mean, that might be a rest for some of you. That wouldn't be a rest for me. That'd be controlled chaos. But don't miss the point. The whole point is we still need a day of rest. We still need to rest and rejuvenate and recuperate. And I've already said this before, are those who worship on Sunday misled? Let's think this through, especially in light of the persecuted church throughout the world, and I've already went over that, how they can meet, they have to meet on different days. But the groups that say, nope, you have to hold to that Sabbath. I mean, do you see how ridiculous that sounds? No, you can't worship on Monday. You cannot do that. I don't care if you're getting beheaded, and you're genuine, you can't do that. You have to wait until Saturday. If you just run it out logically, and even look at Scripture, because you don't wanna just take my word for it, and yeah, this sounds good, the article sounds good. Let's look at Scripture. And on this point, I just wanna encourage you as well, be very careful where you get your information. Be very careful, because a lot of these groups that wanna just worship on Saturday, and they say that we're in sin if we're worshiping on Sunday, and we need to repent, and we're not part of the true church. Luckily, we're good right now, because we're on Saturday. But if we ever move to Sunday, we're in trouble. But sometimes, if you look where you get your information from, such and such, Constantine in the third century, made it on Sunday, all Christians, well, the Bible says the first day of the week. Well, yeah, but, and they just, they're getting, it's like this fear frenzy on the internet. Be very careful where you get your information from. And don't just take it and run with it, because somebody wrote a book, or somebody said something on the internet, or you found a blog. A lot of that stuff is not reliable. So you have to just be careful where you get information. Try to go to the Bible. So let's look at Scriptural support. I'm hoping that's okay, right? Romans 14, one man regards one day above another, and another regards every day alike. But let each man be fully convinced in his own mind, he who observes the day, observes it for the Lord. So those people that are passionate, I wanna worship God on Saturday. I wanna keep the Jewish festivals. I wanna, great, do it. But don't do it with a judgmental heart. That's the whole point. If you feel passionate about something, right? We feel passionate about certain things. People feel passionate about, let's say it just happened, celebrating Halloween. Some don't. Well, don't chide them if they got a little pumpkin out on their patio, right? Oh, they must not be Christian if they got a pumpkin out on their patio. Well, just, it's funny, right? I mean, you know, you can probably tell I'm not a fan of that holiday, so I won't go there. But I'm just saying, we've gotta be careful just because we have personal convictions, we don't know what the other conviction or the other people are if it's not written in stone, if it's not written in the word of God. So that's one scripture. One man regards a day above another, and another regards every day alike. Let each man be fully convinced in his own mind, he who observes the day, observes it for the Lord. And then he goes on to say, in verse 10 of chapter 14 of Romans, but why do you judge your brother? Why do you show contempt for your brother? For we shall all stand before the judgment seat of Christ, for it is written, as I live, says the Lord, every knee shall bow and every tongue will confess to God. So then each of us all gives an account to God himself. Therefore, let us not judge one another anymore, but rather resolve this, not to put a stumbling block or a cause to fall in your brother's way. Now, that right there would be a whole sermon because this can be applied to, you know, having anything from alcohol around people that struggle in that to making somebody stumble, somebody not as strong in their faith, and you do something that makes them stumble, or you get them all worked up about Halloween, and now they're gonna tell everybody off and tell their parents they're going to hell, and you got Satan in your house. You're putting a stumbling block in front of people by taking hard-line stances. And this is where he says that, you know, that famous text, who are you to judge another to his own master? He will stand or fall. So now Paul's saying don't judge, but then other places they're saying do judge. It's actually pretty simple. We can make judgments with the right humble heart, but when it comes to things not clearly outlined in scripture that we form opinions on, strong opinions, right, we're not to judge another person. Democrats say Republicans are a bunch of rich, you know, this and that, and Republicans say Democrats are, so don't, you know, don't judge. Even though it's hard, you see, they don't have your guy on the bumper sticker, right? They got somebody else on the bumper sticker, and we wanna judge, well, they can't be real Christians, and it happens on both sides, you know? And we just wanna be careful in this area. Ironically, those who hold to this are often the most arrogant and judge people, judgmental people I know. Over the years, when I've met the type of people said you cannot worship God on any other day but Saturday, they're not the example of love, and peace, and gentleness, and meekness, that you just don't see that. They aren't filled with the Holy Spirit any more than a cow is filled with concrete. I just thought of that this week and said, hey, this will fit perfectly. I'm trying to give you the parallel, right? That's not gonna happen. Now, if somebody feels strongly in this area, I'm not gonna argue with them. I'm gonna say, wonderful, worship God on Saturday, that's great, but if somebody's worshiping God on Sunday, and God's blessing them, and they're spending, they're not out of God's will. The heart is right, the heart is always the issue. How can you truly rest with a judgmental, critical heart? You can't. Isn't that ironic? A lot of people in this group, they're so critical and judgmental, they're actually missing the whole point of the Sabbath, to rest and relax. If you're judgmental, and critical, and angry, is it easy to relax? If so, see me afterwards and let me know how. Because it's difficult. It's called tension, and stress, and people can see it in your body language. The way you walk, the way you talk, it's written all over you. That's not a day of rest. What about Colossians? Here's a good one. Therefore, let no one act as your judge in regard to food, or drink, or in respect to a festival, or a new moon, or a Sabbath day. That scripture right there should end the argument. I don't know what you do with that. Shall we read it? Let no one act as your judge in regard to food, or drink, or in respect to a festival, or a new moon, or a Sabbath. And when I quote that to them, they say, well, let go online and read this article. See? Be careful where you, I'm not gonna go online and read this article. You read Colossians. You read Colossians. Things which are a mere shadow of what is to come, but the substance belongs to Christ. So a Sabbath is weekly, festivals are spread out. No one is to judge in regard to this. The Sabbath is defined as a shadow created by Jesus. He is our Sabbath. And please don't misunderstand. A lot of times I joke, right, and I don't wanna be condescending to the people that might adhere to this, but I'm really tired about with arrogant, prideful people, judgmental people making this a big point of contention when it shouldn't be. They're not resting, and I am, yet I'm the one in error. Oh, actually, we meet on Saturday, so we're okay right now. But if you go to Sunday, trust me, you're gonna hear something. And if you don't, praise God. Acts 20, and on the first day of the week when they were gathered together, what's the first day of the week? What do you do with that? On the first day of the week when the disciples, the believers were gathered together to break bread, communion, Paul began talking to them, intending to depart the next day, and he prolonged his message until midnight. And then 1 Corinthians 16, now concerning the collection for the saints, offerings, right? As I directed the churches of Galatia, so do you also. On the first day of every week, is that Monday? Sunday, right, Sunday? Let each one of you put aside and save as he may prosper that no collections may be made when I come. So we see this consistent theme of the churches meeting on Sunday. And also, it wasn't the Roman Catholic Church who made Sunday official. You look at the early writings of some of the church fathers, like Polycarp, or Tertullian, or Ignatius, and Irenaeus, and early church fathers, it's a consistent theme that believers met on the first day of the week. But that doesn't also become, you don't become dogmatic about that as well. Jesus rose the first day. There's a lot there that they wanna just acknowledge as believers. And here's where, on this one, don't miss the point. God desires mercy over sacrifice. Verse seven, when Jesus said, "'But if you had known what this means, "'I desire mercy and not sacrifice, "'you would not have condemned the guiltless. "'For the Son of Man is Lord even of the Sabbath.'" And that's what I already explained. They miss the whole point. The sacrifice, you're going to church, big deal, your heart's not right. You gotta get your heart right. And what Jesus is doing, he's cross-referencing Hosea 6. Verse six, he illustrates that the people in need, they pluck grain to eat on the Sabbath, they are guiltless, and those who are in need of healing are guiltless. In other words, you couldn't heal on the Sabbath and you couldn't eat on the Sabbath. But as we're gonna see, he even healed somebody on the Sabbath. Why? Because he desires mercy, mercy, mercy, not following all these rules. And then we go into verse nine of chapter 12, and here's where Jesus gets in trouble again. Now, when he had departed from there, he went into their synagogue, and behold, there was a man who had a withered hand, and they asked him, saying, "'Is it lawful to heal on the Sabbath "'that they might accuse him?'' Every time I read this, I just, I mean, what would you do? They're waiting, he's, okay, if he heals him, if he heals this guy on the Sabbath, we're gonna get him. If somebody was healing, I mean, they could see the wither, they could see it. Is that not of God? They've never seen anything like that before, a genuine healing like that, bringing a limb back. He's saying, listen, we're gonna want you. If you heal this man, you're in violation of the Sabbath. How far have they drifted? Can you believe that? It's amazing how far prideful religious people can drift away from God. The pride of your heart has deceived you. This man needs healing. He said, okay, if you heal him, we're gonna blast you. But that's what pride does, spiritual pride. It blinds us to the true things of God. That's why it's so deceptive. And it's interesting, when you read verses like this, the pride of your heart has deceived you. All of us can go like this, right? That's so true. In one ear and out the next. Because when that pride comes up, we don't see things clearly, and we begin to judge, and we begin to make decisions based on the pride of our hearts. Anytime we have to live by I have to instead of I want to, we need a heart check. Anytime we allow judging to overshadow mercy, we need a heart check. Do you ever catch yourself doing that, where judging instead of being merciful? Jesus is saying, listen, I desire that mercy first. Not to put truth under the doormat, but to allow mercy to guide. And then verse 11, 11. Then he said to them, what man is there among you who has one sheep, and if it falls into a pit on a Sabbath, will not lay hold of it and lift it out? Of how much more value then is a man than a sheep? Therefore it is lawful to do good on the Sabbath. So Jesus is saying, if your sheep falls into a pit, you're just gonna leave it there all day and get it the next day? How silly is that? Of course they're gonna get their sheep out, why? Personal interests are at hand there. It benefits them. Another place, it talks about if your ox falls in a pit, are you gonna just leave it stuck? Of course not. And it's funny, in the late 1990s, I had an employee who was actually pretty good employees. He was a Mormon. And I would always tease him when I need him to work on Sunday. I'd say, hey, the ox has fallen in the pit. We need you on Sunday. And he knew what that meant, right? That the need is there. We need you to be here. And he fought tooth and nail every time. But hey, the ox has fallen in the pit. Our numbers are down. We need you here. And he would make it. So it's funny how we can compromise. You know, well, if it doesn't fit my agenda. In a nutshell, they looked out for their best interest on the Sabbath. If their property or income was in jeopardy, they took action. But then they judged those who ate or who were healed. You're right, you see what Jesus is doing here. He's saying, listen, if your ox, your sheep falls, you're gonna go help it. But these people who need genuine help, I can't help. You see how hypocritical that is. Do you not see what you're doing? Ironically, we do the same thing today. We have the tendency to minimize our sins and magnify those of others. We'll let that sink in for a minute, right? It's so funny. And we see this a lot in the church. We go, man, did you see this? And we magnify the sins in others, but we minimize our own sins. And that's a problem if we make that a habit. So hopefully that's one of the things you'll take from this as well. Verse 13, then he said to the man, stretch out your hand. And he stretched it out, and it was restored as whole as the other. Then the Pharisees went out and plotted against him how they might destroy him. But when Jesus knew it, he withdrew from there, and the great multitudes followed him, and he healed them all. Yet he warned them not to make him known, that it might be fulfilled, which was spoken by Isaiah the prophet, saying, behold, my servant, whom I have chosen, my beloved, and whom my soul is well pleased, I will put my spirit upon him. Don't lose sight of that portion. I will put my spirit upon him. And he would declare justice to the Gentiles. He will not quarrel nor cry out, nor will anyone hear his voice in the streets. A bruised reed he will not break, and a smoking flax he will not quench, till he sends forth justice to victory, and in his name the Gentiles will trust. And believe it or not, that's a pretty powerful portion of scripture, if we had time to unpack that as well. A bruised reed he will not break, and a smoking flax he will not quench. This is showing the mild, meek gentleness of Jesus. You know what a bruised reed is? He will not break. This is one area I can relate to the Duck Dynasty people. When I was younger, we used to have duck blinds inside these reeds on the side of the lake. And as a little kid, you'd go, and you know the ones that were messed up, they are on their side, they're bruised, they were broken, and once a reed breaks, you're not gonna put it back up. It's broken. So even, to me it shows the gentleness, even of that broken, that bruised reed, he's not even gonna break it. Little kids, we like to break it. We just break that thing and throw it, and even throw it and try to shoot it. But he wouldn't, he would just, and think of our own lives, broken and shattered. Bruce, he's not gonna break you. He's not gonna overwhelm you. He's gentle. So he's using a parallel that the people can understand. Even a bruised reed, he's not gonna break. He's that gentle. And then a smoking flax, when the flax went out, and it's just smoking, what do most people do? It's useless, it's smoking. Get rid of it, just, you know, right? Put a little saliva, get rid of that little, that flame on the end of the candle. It's a smoking flax, it's useless. And he says, I'm not even gonna point that out. So it's showing the gentleness of Christ. And if more people would realize the gentleness of Christ, and run to him in their brokenness, and look to him to guide them, and to direct them, to help them get them through, he's not gonna break you. He's not gonna, you're bruised, you're broken. He's not gonna break you further. He's gonna restore. He's not gonna quench out. He's gonna utilize what you have left. So it's wonderful imagery here. And then they say, till he sends forth justice to victory, his justice will triumph. And the sound of his name will signal hope. Even Gentiles will trust. And he's showing Isaiah, he's bringing in Isaiah to the life of Christ. So basically, these people had no excuse. They said it was the Messiah, they said it's prophesied of Isaiah, there's no excuse. And then the point I wanted to focus on, real quick, is I will put my spirit upon him. I've taught on that a lot, and I'm not gonna teach on it again, but putting my spirit upon him. Spirit empowerment is lacking in the church. I would say this is probably one of the most areas I get frustrated in with the church, and even sometimes my own life, being empowered by the spirit. And when we quench and grieve the spirit of God, it affects everything. It affects everything. You wonder why the Bible's boring, you wonder why your ministry's not flourishing, or you wonder why this is happening, or wonder why, and we go through life, it's just mundane, going through the motions, and we've lost that unction. We've lost that passion. Or some people have never had it. And you have to have that. I will put my spirit upon them. If you haven't received that, that mighty empowering of the spirit, being filled with the spirit, I would encourage you to do that, because it affects everything. Your marriage, your walk with the Lord, your anger, your frustration, your thought life, everything. When a believer quenches and grieves the spirit of God, they are miserable. And they are useless. And they go through life that way. And this was just a good reminder to me for us to pray, Lord, break us, humble us, remove things that are hindering our relationship with you. Lord, would you remove those things tonight? Would you humble us tonight? Would you break us tonight? Lord, we need that enduement of power. We need that spiritual power to be alongside of us. It's interesting, the Bible uses three different prepositions I've talked about with the Holy Spirit, that the spirit comes alongside of us, para, parakletos, alongside, and then he's in us, E-N, inciting, dwelling, but then there's this epi, E-P-I in the Greek. It's this overwhelming of the Holy Spirit. The thing that everybody's worried about is the thing that everybody needs. Would be to God that everybody was filled with the spirit of God. We wouldn't be perfect, but we'd have a lot less quarreling, a lot less bickering. We wouldn't have to do marriage counseling very often, or young adults running this and making bad decisions and unwanted pregnancies and abortion. All these things, if people would just be filled with the spirit of God. That's how important it is. I'd stay up here the next hour if I could just reinforce this fact that we are dying as a church. The lukewarm, sex-saturated church just reflects that we are not filled with the spirit of God. We're filled with the spirit of this world. We've been quenching and grieving the spirit of God, and I know if I quench and grieve the spirit of God, these sermons would just, we might as well close the church down. If we grieve and quench the spirit of God on an ongoing basis, your life will be hindered. Your walk will be hindered. Your relationship with God will seem dry, and I really want to get this point across because I think it's desperately needed. As we allow so much of the world in and so much of besetting sin and so much of wrong attitudes, you put all of that in, guess what? You're quenching and grieving the spirit of God. Quench, what's a quench? You're putting water on a powerful fire. What's grieving? Saddening. And when the Holy Spirit's in that state, he's not weak. He's God everlasting. He's powerful, but you do that to yourself, and I do it to myself. It affects everything. Everything hinges on this walk with the spirit.