Bobby Chandler - The Rule Book
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Summary:
In the concluding message of «The Gift of Rest,» the preacher emphasizes that only Jesus provides true soul-rest by inviting us to take His light yoke of submission to Him rather than the heavy burdens of the world or religious legalism. Drawing from Matthew 11:28–30 and chapter 12, he contrasts worldly/religious bondage (rules, control, condemnation) with Christ’s mercy and freedom. The Sabbath is a gift for enjoying God’s presence and receiving healing, pointing ultimately to Jesus as Lord of the Sabbath who fulfills it perfectly. Man-made rules turn God’s gift into a burden, but resting in Christ brings peace, healing, and transformation.
Introduction and Expectation of Healing
This morning, as I was preparing and preaching and going over the message, I felt that God was going to do something different today, that God was going to speak to us differently today, that He was going to bring some type of healing. I don’t know what that means sometimes; sometimes it could be your heart. Maybe, like I said, you’re grieving right now, maybe you’re going through a hard time, maybe it’s physical, maybe you’re stressed out over your health right now, maybe you’re dealing with an illness.
But whatever God is doing, I believe that He’s doing something very special in our lives today, and I’m very thankful to be here with you all. I want to tell you that I want to thank you for being part of the authentic family. Thank you for serving, thank you for being volunteers, thank you for joining the connect group. It’s because of you guys that every week we get to impact lives; it’s because of you that we’re able to see marriages completely restored and changed, relationships changed, and people prayed over, and healing taking place.
You know, sometimes that healing looks a lot different than what we expected. Sometimes God is going to bring us through a trial; we have to experience some things that we didn’t want to experience, and it can be hard, it may be difficult to deal with, but through that, there is this rest and this peace that we’ve been talking about over the last three weeks that the world doesn’t understand. How can you have peace in a situation that hurts so bad? Because I serve a good Father—a good heavenly Father—who wants the best on my behalf, even when it’s difficult.
And I’m telling you today, if you’re stressing out, if you’re feeling anxiety, if you have things going on in your life that you feel are too big for you to handle, guess what? They are. But God can handle it for you, and that is the rest that I’ve been preaching about over the last three weeks. I want you to enjoy the good gift that comes from the Father—the good gift that He gives us all: the Sabbath, to be able to take our hands off and say, «God, you take control; you’ve got this; you’re doing something good.» Again, rest is a gift from God. Will you say it one more time to somebody next to you? Tell them like you believe it: «Rest is a gift from God. You need to rest.»
Only Jesus Gives True Rest
Jesus said this in Matthew 11, verse 28, New Living Translation. I’ve stated this over the last three weeks as well. Jesus said, «Come to me, all you who are weary and have heavy burdens, and I will give you…what? I’ll give you rest.» It is a gift for your life. What I want to share with you today is that only Jesus can give you the rest that you desire. That’s the truth you need to understand: only Jesus can satisfy that need in your life to give you that peace, because as human beings, guess what? We try to go into the world and take all these things from the world, and maybe for some of us that’s busyness—to distract us from life—so that we don’t have to deal with some things.
We’re constantly reaching, «Okay, this will make me feel better.» In a social media world that we live in today, if I get this many likes, if I get this many shares, then that will make me feel better about myself. But does it ever? No! Because what happens? You get those likes and then the next week, «Well, I need more likes! How come they didn’t like me as much? Was it not funny? Was it not a good picture?» You start to get into your head, and Jesus is saying, «What are you doing? Who are you living for?»
Jesus is saying, «I am giving you rest. All you who are weary and have heavy burdens, come to me and I’ll give you rest.» But something that I haven’t done over the last three weeks is continue this passage of scripture. I want to ask the question: why did Jesus say it in the first place? Why did He say, «Come to me, all you who are weary and have heavy burdens, come to me and I will give you rest?» Let’s look together at Matthew chapter 11, verses 29 and 30, New Living Translation. Right after Jesus said, «Come to me and I will give you rest,» He then states, «Take my yoke upon you; let me teach you.» He said, «Because I am humble and gentle at heart, and you will find rest for your souls.» Can you just imagine that? That peace—rest for my soul—in Jesus Christ.
He states that, «For my yoke is easy to bear, and the burden that I give you is light.» Now, does it make sense? Think about it: Jesus just said, «Come to me and I will give you rest,» and then the very next line, He says, «Now take my yoke.» Some of you may be thinking, «What is a yoke? Are we talking about eggs?» Let me show you a picture real quick of a yoke if you do not know what this is. It is a harness usually placed on a large animal, and it does two things: it keeps them moving in a certain direction, but it also helps haul a very heavy load. So why is it that Jesus would say, «Come to me, I will give you rest, but you have to take my yoke?»
Point A: Jesus Talks About Submission
See, Jesus is trying to reveal something to us. He’s trying to reveal something to us, so let me give you two points right here to help you out on what Jesus is revealing to us. Point A: Jesus is talking about submission. In this passage of scripture, Jesus is actually talking about submission. He is revealing a mystery; He’s telling us that you will either submit to this world or you will submit to God. But guess what? You have to make a choice. You have to make a choice.
When I say submit to this world, I’m talking about the principalities; I’m talking about this dark spiritual warfare that is around us, where the enemy wants to control your mind with stress, worry, and anxiety, and make you doubt the power and the authority of God. The thing is, even as believers, we all know what that’s like; we all know what that’s like to see a situation that we don’t have the answer to, we don’t know how to get through it. But it’s your choice, and Jesus is revealing that to you. He goes, «Listen, you could submit to the authority of the world, and you will carry heavy burdens. You’re going to carry the heavy burden of fear: How am I going to pay my bills? How are we going to eat this week? How are we going to be okay?»
You’re going to carry the heavy burden of worry: «What if I fail? What if I don’t do good enough? What if I mess up in my job and I lose my promotion or my position? God, what am I going to do?» Or for a lot of us, the burden of stress: you carry that stress constantly. Maybe you’re worried about your children, where they are, who they’re with, what they’re doing, or your relationship—where is it going? Am I gonna be okay? Is everything gonna be all right? To the point where it can drive you mad. You’ve been there. You’ve got so many thoughts going on in your head. Just a couple of weeks ago, I told you that some of us have those brains that never shut off. Even as you try to sleep and get some physical rest, your mind is just wondering, «Oh, you didn’t do this, oh, you didn’t say that, oh, now you made somebody mad.» That’s the burdens of this world.
The thing is, what I’m telling you today—and Jesus revealed this—is it’s your choice. You don’t have to carry those burdens. So, my question to you is this: why are you carrying these heavy burdens? Because Jesus said in verse 29, «Follow me.»
The reason why He’s giving us His yoke is because He’s trying to lead us in a certain direction. Here is the direction for your life: He says, «I am humble and gentle.» In verse 29, I am not of this world; I’m something higher, something greater for your life. And Jesus stated, «My yoke is easy to bear because the burdens are light.» But how are the burdens light? The reason why is because Jesus took the weight of the world off of your shoulders and He placed it upon that cross. He knew everything that you would fight today on that cross—your stress. He took it upon Himself. He said, «Give it to me; I can handle this, I got it. Give it to me, what you’re dealing with, that relationship.» That time you doubted, or you’re going through a sickness right now. «Give it to me, I have taken it upon the cross.»
Point B: Religious Bondage
But the reason why I said this also is because He’s given us a deeper warning. If you know the context of the passage, Jesus says, «Come to me, you all who are weary and need rest,» and He says, «Take my yoke, for the burdens are light.» The reason why He said this is Point B: because God’s people—listen to me—were in religious bondage and did not know it. God’s people were in religious bondage and did not know it. This is the reason He said, «Come to me and I will give you rest.» Right? This is the reason why He says this; why? Because the people of God were trapped in a culture of no rest. Does it sound familiar? Does it sound like our culture today? «Keep going, keep moving, stay busy, never stop; you don’t need a day off; there are too many things to do! If you don’t put your hands all over it, how is it going to get done?»
I can do way more than me—trust me! A lot of times when I put my hands on it or try to control something, I mess it up over and over and over again. But every time I give it to God—Pastor Felix, today that story was incredible. He was excited. But here’s the thing: that never would have happened if he didn’t obey the Lord when He told him to do something outside of his comfort zone. Have you ever had that? God tells you to go up to somebody, «But I don’t know them!» «Yeah, just pray over them.» «No, this is weird!» and then you go to them and you speak to them, and God not only changes their life; God changes your life because at that moment God becomes so real.
Here’s what happens: you realize you really are hearing the voice of God—that a good Father will speak to you and guide you. And this is what Jesus is saying. He says, «Take my yoke, follow my lead; I’m gonna lead you in the right direction.» But I’m going to allow things to happen that are supernatural. It’ll be easy to bear.
But the people of God were living in this religious system, and the religious leaders were making them feel too guilty to enjoy the gift of God. Have you ever felt like that? Maybe you were trying to get closer to God, maybe the first time you said, «All right, God, I’m ready to change!» But somehow, in some way, some type of religious behavior made you feel like you weren’t good enough to change, like you weren’t able to see a transformation in your life. And you kept hearing the devil whisper in your ear that Jesus is not going to change you. That’s a lie!
That’s a lie! One Sunday, we’re going to have just all of our people come up on stage and give testimonies. You would be surprised where a lot of our people come from and what we’ve been through, what God has led us out of, and the miracles that He has performed. It’s amazing to me! But Jesus said this: so listen, here’s the context. He says, «I will give you rest.» Right before He says, «I will give you rest,» in Matthew 11, verses 20 and 21, New Living Translation, this is what He did right before He said, «I’ll give you rest.» Listen—kind of crazy—Jesus began to do what? Denounce the towns. He was actually placing judgment upon the towns because of their religious behavior. He said where He had done so many miracles. Why was He proclaiming this judgment? Because they had not repented of their sins or turned to God.
The reason they did not turn to God, the reason they did not believe, is because they were following so many rules. They wanted to worship the rules, the legalistic side of it, the way you look on the outside. «I gotta look the part.» And I’ve told you because of that, because they were living for this and not for God—not for a relationship with God—they were completely blind that everything they had prayed for and hoped for and memorized the Scriptures for—the prophecy was being fulfilled right in front of them, and they didn’t even know it. So that’s a warning—that sometimes we pursue God for the wrong reasons, and we’re trying to look perfect; we’re trying to look the part.
Here’s something that should make you feel better: none of us are perfect, not one of us! None of us have it all figured out, but He does! He does! And because of that, when you have that realization, that is when you come to God. That is when your life is completely transformed and changed. But instead of worshiping God, they wanted to follow the rulebook—not even from God, but from man. And Jesus made it very clear, because He also quoted from Isaiah and He said, «Listen, beware of the Pharisees! Don’t be like these religious leaders, because they only desire the praise of the people.» Matthew chapter 15, verses 18 and 19, New Living Translation: «These people honor me with their lips, but their hearts are far from me, and their worship is farce.»
What does that mean? It means that their worship is to entertain people; they’re doing it for entertainment reasons, not for the real reason—to experience the miracle of God. What I want to show you today is that when we do these things for the wrong reasons—to entertain people or for the rulebook or just to please people—we actually miss the gift that God is trying to give us. Remember week one: open the gift! A lot of us still struggle with accepting a gift; we feel like we don’t deserve it, or «I don’t know how to enjoy it» or «I’ll open it later.» No! God is telling you, «I’m giving you rest right now!» But you may be doubting and saying, «But God, my situation…» No! No! No! I’m giving you rest right now.
In John chapter 12, verse 43, Jesus said, «For they loved human praise more than the praise of God.» What a dangerous place to be! What a dangerous mindset. You know how exhausting that is? We’ve been talking about rest because when you can rest in the Lord, you can trust in Him. I would rather please God because it’s harder pleasing people. It’s really hard pleasing everybody; there are a lot of different ideas and suggestions, and you say, «Okay, let me write that down, okay let me do that, let me do this,» and I’m exhausted! «Okay, what did you say? What did you tell me to do?» And God is saying, «Just be obedient! For what I have for you is good.»
The Title: «The Rulebook»
So, the title of today’s message is this—and today I’m actually concluding the message series, «The Gift of Rest.» But the title of the message is «The Rulebook.» I want to teach you clearly how to enjoy the gift of the Sabbath. I want to teach you today how to enjoy the gift of God, that you can have rest, peace, and a sound mind in your life. You would think it wouldn’t be that difficult, but it is because we’ve taken a lot of things in our life. Listen, we like to have control, and if these things don’t happen, sometimes we feel like, «Well, I can’t have a good day; I can’t have a good day today.»
Let me ask you a funny question, or this may sound strange, but I’m going to explain it. How many of you struggle with rituals every day? Now some of you are like, «Pastor, we’re Christians; we don’t do rituals!» Okay, I get that, but what I’m saying is: there have to be some things in your life that you do every day; otherwise, you’re not in a good mood. So for some of us, it may be the ritual of drinking coffee every single morning because if you don’t get that coffee today—somebody better say amen in here because you know exactly what I’m talking about—then people don’t want to be around me.
It’s kind of funny because I’m the same way. I’ve always wanted to like coffee; I don’t, but I love energy drinks and stuff like that, and my wife banned most of them. I can only drink one. You usually probably see me holding one. But every morning, just to bug my family—because it makes me happy when I drink one—I start singing, um, what’s the Folgers song? «Best part of waking up is energy in my…» I mean, I sing it! And just annoy them every single morning! My kids are looking at me, eye-rolling and everything. My wife’s like, «Would you just… it’s too early!» But I do it because it makes me happy, and I like to bug them a little bit.
That’s just my personality. But for you, let me ask you this question: what is it? What do you have to do every day to make sure that you’re going to have a good day? For some of us, if it’s that control, we have to maybe lay out our clothes the night before, make sure everything’s nice and tidy. So that way, when the day comes, we’re ready to go. For some of you—and it’s funny, because I always see this with spouses—there’s always that one spouse that freaks out if the gas is halfway empty, you know? Or about to be empty, and then there’s the other spouse that’s like, «It’s always got to be halfway full! Always got to be halfway full!»
Right? And you start to argue over those things because some people really freak out: «If I don’t have enough gas!» Or maybe you have to have gum in your purse every single day because you never know when you’re going to meet somebody—maybe the love of your life—and your breath is kicking, right? And you don’t want that to be the first impression—meeting somebody, «I gotta have gum! Where’s my gum? It’s not gonna be a good day!»
And don’t get me started about sports! Anybody a sports fanatic in the room? Come on, raise your hand; it’s okay, be proud, be proud! We love some sports. Listen, some of you just gotta let it go—those socks that you’ve been holding on to from '93 because you won that one game? You never wash them? It is okay to let it go! At least frame it; nobody has to smell it!
And I’m convinced too that a lot of us dads truly believe that when we yell at the TV during the game, that somehow, there’s a connection; there’s a spiritual connection happening and they hear me, and they’re going to play better. We do these things, but we don’t know that we do them sometimes, and it’s comical; it is comical! But what if I told you to let go of some of the things that you depend on—the things that you believe make you happy every day or make you feel like you’re more in control—because what happens is over time, we start to think, «Okay, I have to check this off my list to make sure it is a good day.»
Listen to me: God created this day; it is a good day! And every day is an opportunity to share the Gospel and the love of God! You don’t need to depend on all these things of the world to have a good day! And I tell people that all the time! One bad thing happens—you know that person that’s always speaking something negative over their life or negative over you? No! Don’t believe that! But what is it for you that you feel like you have to be in control of to experience rest?
Let me share this with you: it is a dangerous idea to believe the lie that we are in control. It is a dangerous idea to believe the lie that we are in control. Isaiah chapter 43, verse 2: «When you go through deep waters, I will be with you,» God says. «When you go through rivers of difficulty you will not drown.» What is the only reason you will not drown? Because God is with you—not out on your own strength—not even in our energy drinks or coffee, or the things that we hold on to every single day.
But here’s what Satan does: he tries to convince us that it’s the rules that save us. What I’ve seen over and over and over again is that he wants to turn what is a gift from God into a burden of man. He wants to turn what is a gift from God into a burden of man.
Jesus Confronts Sabbath Legalism
Let me prove it to you. So, after Jesus said, «Come to me and I will give you rest,» in Matthew chapter 11—see, the Bible is really cool, especially how it’s laid out—and I’ve talked to you a little bit about numbers and the passages of scripture.
Right after Jesus says, «Hey, come to me, I’ll give you rest,» did you know the next few passages of scripture all deal with the subject of the Sabbath? All deal with the subject of the Sabbath! Jesus says, «Come to me, I’ll give you rest!» And then all of a sudden, we see in Matthew chapter 12, the Pharisees come out—the religious leaders—and they’re trying their best to trap Jesus and His disciples. They’re trying their best to find that one mistake so that they can condemn them. If you have your Bibles, go ahead and turn to Matthew chapter 12. I’m going to be reading verses 1 and 2, New Living Translation. Again, right after Jesus says, «Come to me, I’ll give you rest,» verse 1, «At about that time,» right after Jesus was walking through some grain fields on the Sabbath, His disciples were hungry.
Now listen to what they did: they began breaking off some heads of grain and eating them. What did they do? They broke off some heads of grain, and they started to eat them. Some of the Pharisees saw this, and they protested: «Look what your disciples are doing! They’re breaking the law by doing what?» Now notice what they accuse them of; they accused them of harvesting grain on the Sabbath. Okay? So again, they wanted so badly to catch Jesus in an act of sin—but here’s the truth: Jesus knew no sin!
I need you to understand that because I’ve seen people post and put these things out: that Jesus said—Jesus has never sinned! He is the Son of God! If He had sinned, then what He did on the cross would have been in vain. Jesus knew no sin! But the scripture tells us that He came to fulfill the law—not to abolish it, but to fulfill it and to show us how to be free from the law. Because the law has shown us our faults and failures; there’s no way none of us could be that perfect, but He taught us, «Here are the biblical principles to live by, but now you live through me.»
Jesus never sinned. Second Corinthians chapter 5, verse 21, «For God made Christ, who never sinned, to be the offering for our sin.» I just want to make that very clear today. But I love Jesus’s reply. You ever notice that? He’s good! I wish—I pray that the Holy Spirit will give me this cleverness sometimes because He knew how to say that one comment to get under the Pharisees’ skin like, «Oh no you didn’t! You didn’t just say that!» Some of you are gifted with that, right? Some of you are gifted with that; you know exactly what to say to get under somebody’s skin.
Like, «Cross me today; I know something!» I know something! That’s how Jesus answers sometimes. So, He’s pointing at His boys; He’s pointing out His disciples, «Look, you’re breaking the law—harvesting grain on the Sabbath.» Jesus said to them, Matthew 12, verses 3 and 4, «Haven’t you read the scriptures?» Because this is where their pride came from—the knowledge of the scriptures, right? «Haven’t you read the scriptures?» What David did—your beloved David—when he and his companions were hungry? He went into the house of God, and he and his companions did what? They broke the law by eating these sacred loaves of bread that only the priests were allowed to eat.
I need you to understand, these were fighting words to the Pharisees! He just called out their boy king David! And not only that, but Jesus is relating Himself to King David! But he’s also stating, «Hey, King David broke the law—broke the law, yet you still admire him!» But what Jesus was doing—see, He knew the scripture so well! This is why you need to know the Word of God, because the enemy is so clever, just to twist that one thing, and it sounds right, but it’s not because Jesus knew that these were false accusations against Him.
He’s about to prove it! Because what did they accuse the disciples of? Harvesting grain! But that’s not what they did! In Deuteronomy chapter 23, it is lawful to pluck the grain by hand! Deuteronomy 23, verse 25: «And when you enter your neighbor’s field of grain, you may pluck the heads of grain with your hand, but you must not harvest it with a sickle.»
And then Jesus reveals a mystery, and this part is really powerful, but at the same time, it really makes me sad that the Pharisees weren’t listening. He reveals this: Matthew 12, verses 5-8, «He also said, 'Haven’t you read in the Law of Moses that the priest on duty in the temple may work on the Sabbath? '» The priest on duty in the temple actually can work; it is okay for him to work on the Sabbath! Why? Because the priest had to prepare the sacrifice! And what do we know about Jesus? Jesus is our high priest, according to Hebrews 4, verse 14. «Since we have a great high priest who has entered heaven—Jesus, the Son of God—He is the great high priest.»
And He says it’s lawful for the priests to prepare the sacrifice, but then He says, «But I tell you what: I’m greater than the temple!» Jesus is revealing the mystery to them—something that’s extraordinary! The one here is even greater than the temple! But you have condemned my innocent disciples, and if you knew the meaning of the scriptures, I have come to show you mercy, not sacrifice—not offer sacrifices! Now listen to this wording: «For the Son of Man is Lord even over the Sabbath.»
I wonder if Jesus was kind of like, «You know, as a disciple, I’d be like, 'Yeah, you tell them, Jesus! You know what I mean? Like, say it again! Y’all don’t know your Bible! '» You know? Or the Torah! But the priests were allowed to work on the Sabbath because they needed to kill and offer sacrifices, and we get this from Numbers chapter 28, verse 9: «On the Sabbath day, sacrifice two one-year-old male lambs with no defects.»
And they were angry! They were so angry; they wanted to condemn Him! And over the next few passages, I’m about to show you that Jesus even performed a healing on the Sabbath! Oh man, how dare He! Well, it makes me so sad because all they cared about was the rulebook and how they looked on the outside that instead of repenting in that moment and realizing He’s the Son of God, the passage of scripture tells us that they got together and they started to plot how to kill Him. But let this encourage you because I’ve seen Christians with their heads down low sometimes like, «I’m trying to do the right thing, but everybody’s condemning me.» Good! Keep doing the right thing! Keep believing, keep having faith, keep walking in obedience!
Because the enemy is trying to attack you now to knock you off course, but you’ve got a path! And Jesus said, «Come, take my yoke, and I will lead you in the right direction!» And if you’ve got people talking about you and messing with you, that may mean you’re doing the right thing; keep listening to the Lord!
But Jesus revealed two things. What did He reveal to them? He said, «The one here is greater than the temple, and the Son of Man here is Lord over the Sabbath.» He clearly told them at this moment, «I am the Messiah,» and they rejected it. They rejected this truth; they rejected their own salvation because they were focused on condemning with man-made rules that did not come from God.
Modern Examples of Sabbath as Burden
I want to talk about something interesting. In Israel today, the gift of the Sabbath has become a tremendous burden! In Israel today, the gift of the Sabbath has become a tremendous burden! Because if you go to Israel, you’ll notice this: as the Sabbath approaches, things start to change! In fact, you will not be able to use an elevator on the Sabbath because they believe that pushing a button is work! They believe that pushing a button is work!
Now maybe you have to walk up the stairs; I don’t know; that seems like more work to me, but they won’t allow the electricity to go. In fact, let me show you—this is crazy—not only that, but they take it even further to the point where they’re banning electricity on some things, and they’re actually unscrewing the little light in the fridge that nobody sees! They unscrew it before the Sabbath, and the reason why—here’s where it all derives from—Exodus chapter 35, verse 3: «You must not even light a fire in any of your homes on the Sabbath.» That’s it! That’s what the verse is!
But what God was doing at the time, He was saying, «You know what? Take a break from something. Allow me to supernaturally provide for you!» Remember we talked about the Sabbath year? It was always the seventh year: for an entire year, don’t touch the land, don’t work! And God always supernaturally provided! In the sixth year, it was the same way! This was labor to them to get this together, and God wanted to show them that He can provide! But man-made rules have taken this further and further and further to, «Well, that means no lighting lamps to no turning on lamps to no electricity! Make sure the fridge light is off!»
And the reason why I’m telling you this is because do you see how a gift from God can become such a burden? We start to think about the wrong things: «Did I do this wrong? Did I do it right? Did I not please the Lord enough? I tried?» And for a lot of you, that’s your relationship with Christ right now! You walk into this room, and for some reason you have this idea that you have to be perfect, and maybe you messed up this week! But where is your heart today? Where is your heart right now? You seek the Lord, and He’s constantly changing you.
But what I need you to understand is, it can be a slow process sometimes because He’s trying to mature you to trust in the Holy Spirit even when things get hard. But man-made rules and legalism started to steal the joy away from what was designed to be a blessing.
Personal Story and Church Legalism
So, I started to think about this: you got my clipboard. Thank you, brother! I didn’t even know you were there; you just snuck up on me!
Does it feel like this in church sometimes? Or maybe in your past when you were trying to do the right thing, but no matter what? I don’t know if I’m gonna do this right—there we go! I woke somebody up today! All right, but you feel like, «Hey, you’re worshiping too long!» Or «You’re raising your hands too high!» That was terrible! Okay, you’re not praying long enough, or your prayers are not good enough!
You know how many people I’m like, «Hey, you want to pray?» «I’m not good at praying!» What? I didn’t know you had to be good at it; just talk to God! There are no words that make you better than anybody else. God just wants to hear your heart! Isn’t that right? And we go around, «I’m not even blowing it this time; just pretend, okay? I blew the whistle at you.» And it just feels like they’re saying, «Okay, you’re not doing this right, you’re not doing that right, you got holes in your pants; that doesn’t mean you have holy pants! Okay? You can’t come in here.»
You know, the joke’s kind of getting old. But I remember—I actually remember this and I told this story a long time ago—but when I first became a pastor, believe it or not, a lot of pastors don’t make a lot of money, and I just got into ministry, and the church I was working at, I actually had one pair of jeans, and they had holes right here. And I remember going, and I was nervous—"Alright, today’s the first day of ministry!» And the first thing somebody said to me was, «Do you need some more pants? Can I buy you some jeans?»
Part of me was like, «Yeah, I’m kind of broke; that’d be great, thank you! I could use another pair!» But also, I realized what they were doing, so I said, «No, I’m good.» A lot of us have felt that; as soon as we walk into the doors of the house of God, we felt this religious behavior.
What I’m trying to show you is that in the scriptures, Jesus was always going against it. He was challenging the religious leaders. But I witnessed people’s entire outlook on Christ become nothing but putting others down and condemning them that way, but not convicting them to stay.
Because what is God’s character? God’s character—He comes to convict. The Holy Spirit comes to bring conviction, but Satan condemns! He tells you, «You’re never going to change; you’re never going to be better enough or good enough.» But God comes in to convict so that we want to change! But I started to think about this: no wonder so many people are afraid to step foot into the church, because they will find it difficult to accept Jesus’s approval when the only thing they first experience is your disapproval.
How to Enjoy the Sabbath
Be difficult sometimes! Or you feel like you don’t have it together! I’ve seen people’s faces sometimes, and it’s our job to show them that God loves them, that God can change them! Only Christ can change their heart—the way they speak and the way they think! And over the last three weeks, I have taught you that the gifts of the Sabbath keep getting better!
That a Sabbath day, to honor God, means to be grateful—to take your hands off it and to trust the Lord—that a Sabbath year to trust God that He will supernaturally provide even when you don’t have the means—a jubilee—last week, freeing of all debt! You’re free! This rest, this Sabbath, this gift—God’s Sabbath has always led us to Christ, but man’s added rules led us to bondage. That’s why I was so excited about preaching last week about the story where Jesus started preaching out of the book of Isaiah, and He’s declaring, «I am the jubilee; I am the shmita,» meaning, «I am your rest! I have come to make you debt-free! I have come to change your life!»
But even with this gift, a lot of us don’t know how to enjoy it! So I want to make this very clear as I end this series today. I want to teach you how to enjoy the Sabbath. Point number one is this: the Sabbath was made for you to enjoy the presence of God. The Sabbath was made for you to enjoy the presence of God. Matthew chapter 12 is really interesting when Jesus had that encounter. But in the book of Mark, Mark adds one more thing. In Mark chapter 2, verse 27, it states where Jesus said to them, «The Sabbath was made to meet the needs of the people, and not people to meet the requirements of the Sabbath.»
The Sabbath was made for you! One pastor stated it like this: «You weren’t made for the Sabbath; the Sabbath was made for you.» Why? Because Jesus said in Matthew chapter 12, verse 7, «I will show you mercy! I’ve come to show you mercy—not for sacrifices!» I’ve come to show you this mercy, this gift, and the rest of the Sabbath is a gift of God’s mercy, because when we rest, we trust God! When we rest, we allow the hungry to be full! When we rest, we allow the tired to sleep! When we rest, we allow the hurt to heal!
And just like the Pharisees, I see people completely miss Jesus because they’re trying to look the part! Sometimes they can be here every Sunday, even serving, even giving! And these are biblical principles that will bless you, but they don’t mean you’re going to heaven! But it’s a relationship with Christ that changes you!
If I were to come in here every Sunday and preach a good word, and look like that pastor that you admire, yet go home and abuse my family, what does that make me? Not a good pastor! There are things in my life that need to be changed, redirected.
So what is it? Why are you trying to strive for such perfection when you were never created to be perfect, but to rely on His perfection, His goodness, and His grace and His mercy? And it’s when we rest that we realize that a big God is here—that He loves us—that He’s our heavenly Father—that He died for our sins—that His Spirit lives inside of us, and He speaks to us, and He guides us; it changes everything about us!
But we talk and live. My last point is this: the Sabbath was meant to heal you. In Matthew chapter 12, verses 11 and 10, Jesus answered because He was about to heal a man on the Sabbath. The Pharisees called Him out, so He answered, and said, «If you had a sheep that fell into a well on the Sabbath, wouldn’t you work to pull it out?» Of course you would! «But how much more valuable is a person than a sheep?»
Now listen to what Jesus states: «The law permits a person to do good on the Sabbath.» And I love this story! Jesus tells the man to hold out his hand, and on the Sabbath, healing took place upon his hand!
And I’ve talked about this sabbatical cycle—all dealing with the number seven. On the seventh day, you rest, and the seventh year, you give the land a rest. Every seven shmita, so jubilee—God always uses the number seven. The seven is perfection! And it brings us to Jesus! Guess how many times Jesus healed on the Sabbath, recorded in the New Testament? Seven! It’s not a coincidence! Come on, God is good on that!
It’s not a coincidence, because when you’re directed to Christ, you can let go of your pain!
Altar Call
I’m gonna ask you to stand up right here, and I want to end this series strong because it’s been an incredible series! I’ve really enjoyed preaching this!
I’m gonna ask our pastoral care team to come up front. I want you to be very honest with yourself: some of you are tired and feel weak because you need rest. For some of you, you’ve been fighting a battle on your own for too long, and God wants to free you from that. For some of you, you need healing! I’ll be honest with you: before we started today, as I was speaking about that weeping, I could almost feel it. I believe a lot of us sometimes are just hurting; or we don’t understand why we’re going through this pain or this struggle right now.
What God is saying is, Jesus is saying, «I am the way and I am your rest.» This world can never offer what I have for you! Give me your burdens! Give me your problems! Give me your issues! Give me your ugly mistakes, and I will guide you upon a path that will not only change your life but change the lives of others, and I will set forth of peace, lay it upon your life, a strength to keep moving, keep going, to never give up!