Rabbi Schneider - The True Purpose of the Sabbath
Is the Sabbath still relevant for Christians today? Think about this: the Ten Commandments. Which one of them do we say sometimes is not relevant? We all believe that we should worship one God and worship him alone, right? The first commandment? That we shouldn't have idols, that we shouldn't make graven images, that we shouldn't murder or steal or covet. We all agree on these things. But the one commandment that is left out of many Christians' lifestyle is the fourth of the Ten Commandments, the commandment to keep Shabbat or to keep the Sabbath, to have a day of rest unto the Lord.
I want to encourage you to implement the practice of having a day of rest in your life. We were created in God's image, and he himself rested on the seventh day after he created the universe in his creation. I want to once again, my friend, strongly suggest that by implementing the principle of the Sabbath in your life, you're going to be able to be more fruitful in your walk with the Lord. You see, if we work all the time and never have a day of rest, we end up becoming less effective and we end up burning out much as a car would if you never changed the oil. You see, celebrating Shabbat, implementing the Fourth Commandment, it's not about legalism, but rather it's creating space in your life to give the Lord an opportunity to re-present himself afresh to you each week. The Lord said, "Be still and know that I am God".
You're more than someone that works. You're a human being. You're not just a "human doing". You're a "human being". And by taking a day a week, as the Lord commanded, just to stop working, to stop running, to just rest in him. And again, it's not a vacation. It's not about recreation. This is about sanctification, not recreation. So taking a Sabbath is not about, you know, doing all types of things that we enjoy doing. It's a Sabbath unto the Lord. So when we implement this principle in our life, the principle of the Sabbath and the presence of God, what happens is God reintroduces himself. He strengthens us by imparting to us in fresh measure the power of the Holy Spirit. Jesus taught the Sabbath. In fact, Jesus said in Mark 2 that man wasn't made for the Sabbath, but the Sabbath, Yeshua said, was made for man. It's a spiritual gift. It's an opportunity for spiritual blessing.
So I want to encourage you, beloved. Make it a point. Make it a discipline. Build it in your lifestyle to take a day every week to rest unto the Lord. He'll be pleased and you'll be blessed. You know, here I am. I'm sitting with you in my studio right now, and, you know, it cost us a lot of money to build this studio. And I've got working right now just on this little video that I'm producing, I've got three people that are producing this video for me. I've got somebody behind the camera, I've got somebody in the audio, I've got somebody on the computer. And actually one more person, my producer.
The point is, my beloved friends, if you're benefiting from the content of Discovering The Jewish Jesus, if you're being blessed by my ministry, by my life, I want to ask you humbly, sincerely, would you please sow financially to the Lord through this ministry? It costs us money to do all these things. And the Bible teaches that when we're being blessed by a ministry, we should support that ministry. In fact, the Scripture tells us in one of John's letters that we should support men and women that go out for the sake of the truth. So many of you that are familiar with me, you know that I'm a man of God. By the grace of God, I'm going out for the sake of the truth, uncompromisingly preaching the truth. And we want to continue to do what we're called to do. That is Discovering The Jewish Jesus, and that is to preach the gospel to the ends of the earth from the center to the outer circumference.
We want to preach the gospel so that every man, woman and child has an opportunity to say yes or no to Jesus. Would you help us do that today? I can't do it without you. I can't do any of the platforms that I'm on, I can't do without you. So I'm asking you once again if the Holy Spirit, if you feel him just gently knocking on your heart right now, would you just yield, be open, and even right now, just go to the link and present an offering to the Lord for Discovering The Jewish Jesus to do the work of the Kingdom to complete the mission Father God has given us to do. I want to thank you in advance for your love and financial support. Without you, my beloved friend, I really can't do it. We're partners in this together. God bless you. And if I don't meet you in person down here, I'll meet you up there.