God, a Dog, and the Sabbath

The title! If you need titles, usually there's someone out here that has to have a title that's keeping it written down. The title is, God, a Dog, and the Sabbath. God, a Dog, and the Sabbath. So I will launch into it, because I want to tell you about a story about a dog. Does anybody here have a dog? Quite a few. Half of you have dogs. I had one we left behind out there that our neighbors took when we left and moved down here. But I'll tell you a story of a guy. He's driving around and he sees a sign in the front of a house. And the sign says, Talking Dog for Sale. He rings a bell and the owner tells him that the dog is in the backyard. The guy goes into the backyard and sees a lab at a retriever sitting there. You talk? He asks? Yup. The lab says, So what's your story? The man wants to know. The lab looks up and says, Well, I discovered that I could talk when I was pretty young. I wanted to help the government, so I told the CIA about my gift in no time at all. They had me jetting from country to country, sitting in rooms with spies, world leaders, because no one figured a dog would be eavesdropping. I was one of the most valuable spies for eight years running. But jetting around really made me tired, and I knew I wasn't getting any younger, so I wanted to settle down. I signed up for a job at the airport to do some undercover security work, mostly wandering near suspicious characters and listening in. I uncovered some incredible dealings and was awarded a batch of medals. I got married, had a mess of puppies, and now I'm just retired. The guy is amazed. He goes back in and asks the owner what he wants for the dog. He said, "$10." He said, "$10? Are you crazy? This dog is amazing! Why on earth would you be selling him so cheap?" Because he's a liar. He didn't do any of that stuff. The story is, the dog's owner didn't get it. He didn't get how special that dog was with us. I asked you that question today. God's holy Sabbath! Do we know just how special it is? How precious it is? How valuable it is? Some in this room have been laughed at, scorned, ridiculed, lost jobs, alienated from families because of God's holy Sabbath today. Why do we do it? Why do we keep the Sabbath? Why has the Sabbath been kept for 6,000 years by only a small percentage of people on this earth? Is there some intrinsic value incomprehensible to most of the known world? I want to look at today 6 Hebrew words to help you, everyone here, to see just how special, how precious, how wonderful, how valuable God's Sabbath day should be to us. And no, you don't have to be a Hebraist, a master of the Hebrew language, a teacher of the Hebrew language to understand the 6 words. I would like you to sit back now as we take this journey to understand why you're here today and hopefully what's in here and not just in here. Because that is what God is looking for, the here, not just here. In Genesis 1, verse 3, we see how God put the light in its place on the first day, and He said it was good. On the second day, He made the firmament and divided the water. He said it was good. The third day, the dry land, the grass, the trees, and He said it was good. The fourth day, good. Fifth day, good. Sixth day, He made man. And He said, very good. And then we come to the seventh day. The seventh day. I'd like you to turn there, if you will.

And He begins in chapter 2 of Genesis, verse 2. It says, on the seventh day, God ended His work which He had done. And He rested. Rested on the seventh day from all His work which He had done. Sounds a little redundant, but He wants us to get the point. He was done! Verse 3, then God blessed, blessed the seventh day, and He sanctified it. Sanctified it.

Because in it He rested from all the work which He had created and made. It's interesting here. It says He rested in verse 2, which actually means, part of the Sabbath, seventh, stop. Pretty simple, huh? Cease to do. That's what part of the Sabbath means. Cease to do. Except the world, they don't seem to understand what stop means. What the cease to do means. And I ask that question, do we? Are we sure we know? It reminds me of the story of a policeman that sees this young man coming up to this four-way stop. So the young man almost stops, but he just kind of hits his brakes and goes on. The policeman pulls him over, puts on the lights, pulls him over down the road. He said, did you not see that stop sign? He said, yeah, but didn't I stop? He said, no. Well, I thought I did. I came and I kind of rolled through it. And he said, I don't think there's a whole lot of difference.

And the policeman said, do you mind stepping out of the car? The young man gets out of the car. Do you mind putting your hands up there on the car? He did. The policeman takes his nightstick out and starts wailing on him, wailing on him. And he said, tell me, do you want me to slow down or to stop? There is a difference.

I tell this story because I sometimes have talked to people that had a problem understanding about his Sabbath and what it means to stop, to cease to do. I go through the very first word here. That in verse 3, in the New King James, was said, and sanctified it. And the very first word I have here that hopefully you can see, if I can put my hand on top of it, is the Hebrew word kadass. Q-A-D-O-S. Kadass. You also see the word kadesh. And it's actually, if you say it in Hebrew, this kind of kadesh, as they will say it. Here is the Hebrew word kadass. And it actually means to observe pure, clean, holy, sacred. To pronounce pure, clean, holy, sacred. To observe pure, clean, holy, sacred. That is kadass.

So light is good. Animal, good. Man, woman, very good. Sabbath, holy. Holy.

This word kadass, kadesh, is actually used 500 times alone in the Old Testament. You find it in Exodus 3, verse 3 through 5, where Moses comes through the burning bush.

And he said, take your shoes off.

Moses. For this is kadesh. Ground. Holy ground.

Holy ground. Holy time. Sabbath, holy. Very holy to God.

Go to a second word.

Second word. Second word. Like you turn to Genesis 1. It's usually over a page. Genesis 1, verse 14. Then God said, let there be lights in the firmament of the heavens to divide the day from the night. And let them be for signs and seasons for the days and years. The actual word for seasons there in the Hebrew. Second Hebrew word is mohedah. Mohedah. M-O-H-A-D-A-W. Or actually there because it's plural seasons is mohedim. Mohedim.

It actually means religious appointments. It's mohedim. Religious appointments. So he put the lights and he put the moon and he put everything out there. And so every seven days on this holy, holy day, he has an appointment. A religious appointment with you, a religious appointment with me. And he intended it, as we read in the Scriptures, for all mankind. A religious appointment.

Now many of you have had job interviews. And you usually have to make an appointment for the job interview, right? What happens if you decide, I'm not going to show up, but I'll make it the next day? You're not going to get the job, chances are. Or if you decide, well, I think I'll be an hour or two late. Guess what? You're too late. They won't hire you. Appointment. A religious appointment that God has set apart. He has set and made this time, this holy time, the seventh day. And he wants to have a religious appointment with us. He tells us we are ready to come and to worship Him on the seventh day. So every seventh day, we have that religious appointment with God on the Holy Day. It is called a religious appointment. I'd like you to turn to Leviticus. You will.

Leviticus 23. Leviticus 23 verse 2. It says, Speak to the children of Israel and say to them, The feasts of the Lord, which you shall proclaim to be holy... Kadesh. Kadesh. Holy convocations. These are my feasts, are mohedims, my religious appointments.

Six days shall work be done, but the seventh day is a Sabbath of solemn rest. A holy convocation. You shall do, no, work on it. It is the Sabbath of the Lord in all your dwellings. Interesting there. A holy convocation, which it actually means a calling, a call to gather. So God is saying, okay, here's another religious appointment. My feast, and I'm calling you to come to gather, to gather, to gather, to worship me, and to spend time with me, to set your mind on me. Holy convocation. Now, I'd like to turn to Exodus.

Exodus 16, if you will.

Exodus 16. And here we are about 30 days before Mount Sinai, where the commandments are given. This happens about 30 days before the commandments are given near Mount Sinai. This is a time or a frame of reference here. In Exodus 16, he says in verse 4, he said, Then the Lord said to Moses, Behold, I will reign bread from heaven for you, and the people shall go out and gather a certain quota every day that I may What? That I may test them. I may test them whether they will walk in my law or not. And it shall be on the sixth day that they shall appear, that they shall prepare what they bring in. And it shall be twice as much as they gather daily. Then he jumps down to verse 22, as we missed some of that of what's it? As he talks about the manna. And it comes to verse 22. And he says, And so it was on the sixth day that they gathered twice as much bread, two omers for each one, and all the rulers of the congregation came and told Moses. Then he said to them, This is what the Lord has said. Tomorrow is a Sabbath rest. Rest. A Sabbath rest. A holy Sabbath... What's this preposition? Two? To who? To the Lord. Preposition to the Lord. Not to anybody else, but to Him. Bake what you will bake today, and boil what you will boil. Lay up for yourselves all that remains to be kept until morning.

Something happened here. He said, Tomorrow is a Sabbath rest. And it's interesting because the word rest there in the Hebrew is actually the word nuah. Nuah. N-U-A-H. Nuah. N-U-A-H. And the word actually means complete envelopment. Complete envelopment. What's that mean? It means you're going to have a Sabbath day, set aside, it's holy, it's a religious appointment with me.

And here's the thing. I want you to become completely enveloped with me on that day. Completely enveloped. So, in case you don't understand, you have an envelope and you stick something in it, it's completely enveloped, right? That's what He wants us to do. We come to that day and He wants us to be completely enveloped with Him, with Him on that day. Complete envelopment. Now, what's interesting here in verse 24 says, So they laid it up till morning, as Moses commanded, and it did not stink, nor were there any worms in it. Then Moses said, Eat that today, for today is a Sabbath, preposition, to the Lord. Today, you will not find it in the field. Six days, you shall gather it, but on the seventh, which is the Sabbath, there will be none. Now, it happened that some of the people went out on the seventh day to gather, but they found none. And the Lord said to Moses, How long will you refuse to keep my commandments and my laws? How could this be? How do you refuse to keep something you've never even been given yet? How do you keep that? Why would God be so upset? Wait a minute. The Ten Commandments were given at Mount Sinai, right? That's what the world wants you to know. It's the first time they showed up on the scene.

So, how about us? How long? Has God had to say that to you? As to me before? Well, my mind got off because I forgot I need to be completely enveloped with Him on this holy day, this religious appointment. It's what He wants. It's like the homeowner forgot how special the dog was. And sometimes we can forget just how special God's holy Sabbath is to Him and should be to us. How long? Fourth word we're going to have today. I'd like you to turn there. It's pretty easy. All of you know it. Exodus 20. Exodus 20, where the Ten Commandments are given. Here we're going ahead now, 30 days later. And Exodus 20 in verse 8 starts the command for the Sabbath. Interesting part here. Because it says, I have the new King James, I don't know what you have, but it says, Remember the Sabbath day to keep it holy. Simple enough. 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 son, nor your daughter, nor your manservant, nor your maidservant, 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 is in them, and rested the seventh day. Therefore the Lord blessed the Sabbath day and cadeted it. Hallowed it. It's interesting that the word he used there, as we look back to the last word he used, but the word he used at the very first of the Sabbath Amendment was Remember. That Hebrew word is Zakar. Z-A-K-A-R. Zakar. Z-A-K-A-R. And it means to recall and never, ever, ever, ever, ever, ever, ever forget. Pretty strong. I think he wants us to remember it.

It's interesting here that he wants us to remember. What's also interesting is that it is a Sabbath command. In the New King James, it's actually ninety-seven words, the longest of all the commandments. In the Old King James, it's actually ninety-five words. It's the longest and most detailed of all the commandments. Why would that be? Well, the implication is it's going to be one of the most broken.

It's kind of like growing up. If you have children that live near the street, and you don't want them walking into the road and getting run over, what do you tell them? Stay on the sidewalk. Don't go past the sidewalk. Stay in the yard. Don't do this. Don't do that. Don't ever go out into the yard. If your ball rose out in the yard, don't go out and get it. You tell them and tell them and tell them. Because you want to make sure. Because it's very important to you.

I grew up as a young gentleman back there. I had a chance to hunt on the ground that I hunted on when I was younger. I was 12 years old. A older gentleman bought me a rifle. A .22 rifle. It was so interesting because it was exciting. I never got a BB gun. I never got this. So my father took me out the first time or two. He made sure and he said, when you put the shell in, and he made me read the little box of .22 shells on it. This one actually said that this projectile can actually travel one to one and a half miles. My father made me read that. Because he said, we have neighbors over here. They have cattle. They have these other things. So what you're shooting at, you need to make sure you've got a mile behind you. I had this gun and he had me have the safety on. He said, you just take the safety off before you shoot. But then we would walk out over my father's farm and he had me point the gun down to the ground. Every time I would stick it up here, he'd go, no, point it down to the ground in case it goes off. But Dad has got the safety on. It doesn't matter. Sometimes it's not. He's going to have the safety on. And he would go through that. And it was just like every single time, every time I would go out by myself, what did he do? He had to tell me the same thing again. Am I an idiot or what? I was 12 years old.

He told me time and time again. Just like God says about his Sabbath, time and time again. There's a car. Recall, remember, and don't ever, ever, ever forget. And it's so interesting as people want to make this story that, well, the Ten Commandments were given to the Jews at that time and they didn't exist before. We went back, and as a matter of fact, here in verse 11, what does it say? In verse 11, he takes all these people back 2,500 years to when it was given. In Genesis 2, doesn't he? He said, for in six days the Lord made the heavens and the earth. He goes back there. If that's not good enough, if you go to Genesis 26, I think it's verse 5, somewhere in there, He talks to Moses, or He tells about Moses and Abraham kept My commandments, My laws, and My statutes. How could he do that if they were never even given? Is God so dense that He forgot to tell them that He didn't tell them when He said, remember? I don't think so. That's pretty easy to prove. Will we? Do we? Have we? Forgotten sometimes. Just how special, precious the Sabbath is. Fifth word, Deuteronomy. You will go there. Deuteronomy 5. Here is the re-giving of the Ten Commandments, isn't it? You say, well, it's over here in Exodus. This is in Deuteronomy. The only thing about this is this takes place about 38 to 39 years later. This is after most that were over 20 had died, had been wandering in the wilderness. But here they are ready to go into the Promised Land, and God goes back and... what? Gives it again. And He comes to Deuteronomy 5, verse 12. And He says, remember? No. He doesn't, does He? He says, observe, observe the Holy Day, to keep it holy. Holy, as the Lord your God commanded you, 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, nor your daughter, nor your manservant, nor your maidservant, nor your ox, nor your donkey, any of your cattle, or stranger, who is within your gates. And He said, and remember that you were a slave in the land of Egypt, that the Lord brought you out from there by a mighty hand, and by an outstretched arm. Therefore the Lord your God commanded you to keep the Sabbath of the day. Interesting here, the word observe, He didn't use remember, He used observe, which the Hebrew word for observe is Shemar. Shemar. S-H-A-M-A-R. Shemar. He says, Shemar, the Sabbath day. The actual meaning of Shemar is to hedge about with thorns. Any of you that have an air conditioner that might be out on the ground on the outside, a lot of times you do not want to stick or something while you're mowing the yard to pierce it or to do any damage to it. So you will actually sometimes plant a hedge around your air conditioner, or maybe it's some people put hedges around their front yard. But He said, I want you to take my Sabbath to observe it, keep it holy, and I want you to build a hedge around it.

You build a hedge to keep things out, not to keep things in. He wants us to build a hedge around His Sabbath day to keep the outside world from coming in on His holy religious appointment with you and with me. And He just didn't say, build a hedge. It's so important to Him that the actual word means to build a hedge with thorns.

He wants to make sure we know, keep it out. How tall is your hedge? How tall is your hedge? How many thorns do you have on your hedge? Or is your Sabbath just so anything can come in? Any music can come in? Any people can just come in? Anything from the world that wants to come in can come in to this religious appointment.

See, with God, it's holy, very holy. He wants to keep it that way. He wants to keep it so that when He has this appointment with us, it's very, very important. Because think about it. He's going to be there. He's going to be there.

Have you ever had an appointment? Somebody was going to come to your house? Cable guy? He shows up three hours late? Or he calls in three hours and says it's going to be another few hours? Or maybe you've had a date? A young gentleman back there might have had a date. I remember one specifically. Had a date. Made a date with this girl.

I was a senior in high school, I think. I was really looking forward to Susan, something I can't remember now.

And I remember driving up there. I spent all this time, made sure my car was actually clean and had money in my wallet, which I never had. I want to make sure it's going to be a date. So I walk up, maybe from here to the sidewalk, to her house. Got out, pulled my car up there, walked up there, knocked on the door, and a little brother goes, she's not here?

Well, yes, Susan and I have it. No, man, she went off with her friends about an hour ago. And he wasn't kidding. That was a long walk to the car.

Appointment wasn't important to her. Many times, as God had that same appointment, and we were late, we decided, it's not that important, God. God.

Guilty. Try not to do it. That's why Sabbath is very important to me. That's why when some people said, what, six months ago, a year ago, we're going to do away with the Sabbath, we're going to start watering down the Sabbath, and then they hired me. If anybody knows me, he says that they must be crazy.

It's interesting there that in Deuteronomy 5, 12-15, God's thought so much of it that it takes 127 words to tell about the Sabbath. For him to explain how important it is to him. Can we remember? Try not to let anything from the outside in.

Interesting here. I have a book called Sunset with God. You probably find these little books. I have three or four of them. I've had this one for quite a while. It tells different perspectives of God and different stories. One that I found quite interesting a few years ago.

Because God understands us, he made us. He understands about the appointment. He understands about us. It said, some years ago, on page 90, some years ago, a research physician made an extensive study of the amount of oxygen a person needs throughout the day. He was able to demonstrate that the average workman breathes 30 ounces of oxygen during a day's work. But he uses 31.

At the close of the day, he is one ounce short and his body is tired. He goes to sleep and breathes more oxygen than he uses to sleep. So in the morning, he has regained five, six of the ounce he was short. The night's rest does not fully balance the day's work.

But by the seventh day, he has six, six or one whole ounce in debt again. He must rest an entire day to replenish his body's oxygen requirements. Further, he demonstrated that replenishing an entire ounce of oxygen requires 30 to 36 hours, one 24-hour day plus a proceeding and following nights when part of the resting is done while one is awake and moving about.

Over time, failure to replenish the oxygen supply results in the actual death of cells and eventually the premature death of the person. A person is restored as long as he or she takes the seventh day as a day of rest. I think God knew what he was doing. Didn't you? I think I knew what he was doing. It's so interesting because even in the New Testament where Christ said the Sabbath was made for man. Even when you look at the Greek word there for man is anthropos, which means human being. There's nothing in it about a Jew. Human beings. Isn't it amazing? You see why he doesn't want to let the outside in on his Sabbath?

I'd like to go to my last word. Last word, it'd like you to turn to Exodus 23. Exodus 23. Verse 12. One of my favorite words. One of my wife's favorite words. The last of the six words. Exodus 23, verse 12, as he's going into about the Sabbath. He says in verse 12, Six days you shall do your work, and on the seventh day you shall rest, that your ox and your donkey may rest, and the son of your maidservant and the stranger may be refreshed. The actual word is nah-fesh. Nah-fesh. N-A-P-H-E-S-H. Nah-fesh. And it actually means the pause that refreshes.

The pause that refreshes. So he says you're going to work these six days, and when you come to the seventh, it actually means... It means to breathe. To breathe. Now you may remember, in the very first chapter of Genesis, he talks about a nah-fesh, which means an actual breathing creature in E. But this is nah-fesh. To breathe.

So he wants us to work, but when we come to that time, it's just like... Not us, any of us men or even the women. You do a job, and you get out there, and you work and work and work, and then you get it finished, and you kind of want to stand back and go... You admire it, but it helps you to relax.

Anybody that's ever played around with yoga, any, you realize how important breathing is. If you're tense, you're tight, they say, breathe! So God is saying He wants us to come to that day, that religious appointment that is holy to Him, with everything from the outside world out. And come to Him, and breathe. To breathe.

And you know, for those people still stuck on, I think it's only for the Jews. Well, you go in this one, I've got to ask you a question. Is the Sabbath only for Jewish donkeys and Jewish maidservants and Jewish animals? How could it be for the animals? It was good for the animals. Why isn't it good for mankind?

It just doesn't make sense what man's come up with. It says it's good for your animals. Why wouldn't it be good for human beings? Hmm. You know, first day, Monday. If you look in the Bible, it doesn't say Monday, does it? But it does say first day, second day, third day, fourth day, fifth day, sixth day. And they're called sixth day, fifth day, fourth day. You come to the Sabbath, and He actually names it Sabbath. Why is it the only one with a name? Why? Because you're not supposed to keep it. The seventh day is the Sabbath. Pure, clean, holy, sacred, religious appointment, complete envelopment. Recall and never, ever, ever forget. Build a hedge around it.

Pause. The pause that refreshes on His Sabbath. Because it's supposed to refresh us. Isn't it amazing for anyone who really works hard, and you come to the Sabbath, and you wind down, and then you finally take that rest? How special it is. And sometimes your body needs it, doesn't it? Even if you travel, you travel around the airports and everything else, and you get home, and you gotta do this, you need rest. You need a day, as I say, to recover. God says, I want you to have that day to recover. But in the New Testament, it's actually used the word sanctified.

Set apart for a holy purpose, as the word is phrased. But it's interesting, in the Greek, the word for holy, those used, is hagios. H-A-G-E-O-S. Hageos. And it actually means... ...saint. Actually means a saint. Holy. Saint. Person. Paul used it in Ephesians 3 and verse 8, where he said, I am less than the least of all the hagios. Saints. What does he mean? The saints are holy. When are you a saint when you have his Holy Spirit?

When you are one of his. Call that one. It's interesting, as I study the New Testament, and you look at the word saint, maybe you can show me, I've been studying, I can't find anywhere... ...that a saint wasn't keeping the Sabbath. Can't find it. You got one, show it to me. I can't find it. Like you turn back to Hebrews, if you will. There's something here most people do not know about how special and precious it is.

Like you turn back to Hebrews 4. You all know it. Hebrews 4. It's interesting because when the King James Version was written, 1611, there's one verse they had a real problem with. Because the others who just kind of looked here, but then they came to this verse, and they said, we've got to do something about this, the translators.

Because actually, where they took when the King James was written, about 60 years before that, there was this Stevens text of 1550. You can find it online if you'd like. You can actually order one of these Bibles. It costs about $400. They'll make that Bible. It's actually called the original Byzantine text.

It's interesting because those that wrote the King James were Sunday keepers. They had all these excuses of why you wouldn't, but then they had a problem with this verse, because they just needed to change it a little bit. So my new King James says in verse 9 of Hebrews 4, There remains therefore a rest for the people of God. Kind of obscure, isn't it? I heard that excuse used many years ago. I guess it's just out there a little bit. There remains, therefore, a rest for the people of God. It's interesting that the original Byzantine text, Stephen's text of 1550, says, same verse, There remains, therefore, Sabbath-keeping for the people of God.

Which one is this? There remains, therefore, Sabbath-keeping for the people of God. Who is he talking to? The Hebrews? This is crystal clear. Now you know why they didn't want to phrase it just like that? They kind of have a problem. We'd have a problem today in this room if they phrased it that way, because we wouldn't have room for everybody, would we? We, brethren, are holy because God says we are holy. The Sabbath is holy because God said it was holy. Man cannot make anything holy. We have no power.

How do you make something pure, clean, holy, and sacred? You can't. Man's not been given that power yet to make anything holy, sanctified, set apart. Sabbath set apart. His people set apart. Even family members who don't come, they're called sanctified because they're set apart, just because you are special to God.

Man cannot make anything holy. Only God can make something holy. Sunday's not holy because God never made it holy. Friday's not holy because God never made it holy. The Sabbath is holy because God made it holy.

First day good. Second day good. Sabbath holy. Turn to Numbers. We start to wrap this up now. Go back to Numbers.

Numbers 15, if you will.

Numbers 15, verse 32. Now while the children of Israel were in the wilderness, they found a man gathering sticks on the Sabbath day. And those who found him gathering sticks brought him to Moses and Aaron and to all the congregation. They put him under guard because it had not been explained what should be done to him. Then the Lord said to Moses, The man must surely be put to death. All the congregation shall stone him with stones outside the camp. The entire congregation, not some. All the congregation. So as the Lord commanded Moses, all the congregation brought him outside the camp and stoned him with stones. And to make sure we got the story. And he died.

He picked up sticks as he, go back to the original translation, actually meant firewood.

You think God was serious about the Sabbath? And if he decided that after 4,000 years, 4,031 years, that he could do away with the Sabbath, to change it, excuse me, not do away, to change it, put on Sunday. How do you think he explains Second Resurrection, that to this man? Oh, I don't know why we put you to death. I must have made a mistake. Sorry about that. I know those stones must have hurt. And God didn't change it. He is serious about the Sabbath. Brethren, are we serious about the Sabbath? Do we take it as something really special, precious, wonderful, beautiful? You know, every Friday night at Sunday, we have an appointment with God. We have a mo'hadah.

One appointment with God. And it is hard to leave 144 hours of the world and come to 24 hours of the Holy, isn't it? Been there. Know that. It's very hard. It takes work. It takes a mindset that says, as we read about in the Scriptures, Here I am. Here I am. God. Remember Moses? Moses! Moses! He said, Here I am. Abraham. About to kill a son. Abraham! Abraham! He said, Here I am. Isaiah. Here I am. Is that us? Is that one of our favorite scenes? Do we make the Sabbath special? This is part one of a many-part series I do on the Sabbath.

I have part two next week in Fort Lauderdale. But it is a mindset. And if I can say it, it is a heartset. It is something that you... God doesn't want you to do it because you're told to. He wants you to do it because you want to. Because you love Him. It's like my father today. My physical father, if he asked me to do something, I do it because I love him.

Used to be I had to do it because he was bigger than me. And he told me to do it, and if I tell you to do it, you're going to do it, or somebody's going to get in trouble, and it's not going to be me. And it was always me. And I did it, but I did it up here. I didn't do it from the heart. Now I love my father. I would do anything for my father.

If I even think he wants something, I'll try to get it for him. How about us? How about the spiritual father? When you realize something is so important, so special, so caring about his Sabbath, he wants it in here. He wants it in here. One more scripture. Like you'd turn to Isaiah. Isaiah 66, to be exact. We looked at the creation.

We looked 6,000 years ago when God made the Sabbath and how special and precious it was. We saw it was with Abraham. We saw it was with the children of Israel. It should have been. We saw that Jesus Christ, so you can read, and Jesus Christ kept the Sabbath. He didn't keep Sunday. The church and Acts, all through, kept the Sabbath.

We, today, keep the Sabbath. And in the future, the whole world will keep the Sabbath. Isaiah 66, verse 22. And if you go back and read Isaiah 65, and you can read Isaiah 66, you'll see that I'm not taking anything out of context when I'm talking about the world tomorrow.

Talking out of turn when I'm talking about the millennium. Because it says in verse 22, For as the new heavens and the new earth, here yet? I don't think so. Al Gore is still on a soapbox. Which I will make shall remain before me, says the Lord. So shall your descendants and your name remain. And it shall come to pass from one new moon to another, and from one Sabbath to another.

Al! Al! Don't you know God's looking forward to that time? What a powerful word. Al! Flesh shall come to worship before me on His Sabbath day. What a wonderful time to look forward to. We get a pre-taste here. Because the Sabbath will be kept all through the thousand years. And it makes me wonder if this isn't a test, as He said. Because if you can't keep it now for 20, 30, 40 years, 5 years, 2 years, whatever time you have, you think He wants to entrust you to keep it for a thousand years?

It is special, the Sabbath in the millennium. God's holy Sabbath day, brother, is so precious, so special. So I want you to remember the dog, the owner of the dog. He didn't think the dog was so special. He was willing to give it away for a cheap price. What about us? How cheap a price would you give it away for? It's pure, it's clean, it's holy, it's sacred, it's God's Sabbath.