A Holy Convocation

I have a question to ask, and I want you to really think about this, because we're going to do a basic Bible study today, and we're going to discuss some of this in the Bible study after the potluck. Has observing the Seventh-day Sabbath become so commonplace with us? We just do it. We're actually missing something in it. We're actually missing something that God wants us to experience in this day, in the keeping of this day, that affects the other six days. It affects how we live life the other six days of the week. So let's start with Genesis 2. It's a basic Bible study, but I want you to notice certain things here that we can lose or not notice over time that has to do with this day. And with how we're supposed to keep it, yes, but the benefit God wants to give us on this day. There's a benefit that He wants us to experience. So, Genesis 2, verse 1, Thus the heavens and the earth, and all the host that were in them, were finished. And on the seventh day God ended his work, which he had done, and he rested on the seventh day from all his works which he had done. And God blessed the seventh day and sanctified it, because he had rested from all his work, which God had created and made. Now, there's something very important here. The seventh day Sabbath was created at the very beginning of creation of humanity. Therefore, it is still in effect today. He created it, he sanctified it, which means he made it holy. So, this day is different than any other day in the eyes of God for God's purposes. But I want you to look at, it says he rested. And this is important because this is going to become what we're going to look at through the rest of the Bible study. God was not physically tired.

He wasn't mentally just exhausted. You know, He had made all this, I just have to take a rest. That's not what this means at all, because God didn't need rest the way that we need rest. What we're looking here is that God stopped creating, looked at everything, including the pinnacle of His physical creation, Adam and Eve. And He stopped, and He enjoyed it. He stopped and had joy in what had just been completed. And that was His rest. Because He doesn't need, when we talk about rest on this day, what do we usually mean? Well, we're not going to work on this day. We're not going to mow our grass on this day. We're not going to, you know, all the things we're not going to do. Well, God just stopped working and said, I'm enjoying what I have done. That rest of God is important in understanding, as we're going to look in the New Testament, it's important in understanding why we continue to keep this day today. It starts here, but it continues, and the Sabbath is actually a prophetic day that has to do with God's entire plan. So let's go to Exodus 20. And we know what this says, how many times we read it. Every time we talk about the Sabbath day, we go here because it's one of the Ten Commandments. But I want you to notice something here. First of all, the instructions specifically are about the physical aspect of this day. And there is a physical aspect of this day that we are to adhere to, we're to keep on this day, yes, in order to please God, in order to obey Him. But, you know, whenever God tells us to obey Him, there's always a reason. God doesn't tell us to obey Him because He likes to keep us hopping. Okay? Let's see how high these people can jump. That's not His purpose. His purpose is, I'm going to tell you what works and what doesn't, and I'm going to command you to do what works. And if you don't, it doesn't work. It's that simple. Here's what works, here's what doesn't. So I'm going to command you to do it. So He commands this physical aspect of this day, which we are to do, but remember, His rest wasn't physical. So there's another component to this.

He says in verse 8, Remember the Sabbath day to keep it holy. Six days you shall labor and do all your work, but the seventh day is the Sabbath of the Lord your God. In it you shall do no work, you, nor your son, nor your daughter, nor your male servant, nor your female servant, nor your cattle, nor your stranger who is within your gates. He says you can't have hired servants take care of you on this day, you know, because back then slavery was common. Slavery was all over the world, and they would have slaves. Or hired hands, you know, to work on their farm or whatever. He said you can't have any of those people work for you. You can't make your children work for you on this day. For in six days, He goes back to creation, for in six days the Lord made the heaven and the earth, the sea and all that is in them, and rested the seventh day. Therefore the Lord blessed the Sabbath day and hallowed it. So we're back to you rest on this day, but it's to remember that God rested, but God rested for a different purpose. So we're to stop all the things we do so that we can understand what God is doing on this day. We stop all the physical things we do, running, running, running, running, running. Now, we know there's work that's done on this day. You had to get up this morning, and you had to prepare yourself to come, and you had to drive here. That's work! But that is acceptable work. Why was that acceptable work? Well, we need to go through this and find out why. But none of you went to your job today, right? He says, even your animals. In other words, you think, oh, it's just a plow horse. I'm not doing any work. I'm just standing beside it whipping it as it plows, you know, so I have the horse do all the work. You're not even to go out and work your animals today. So there's a real purpose for this, and it is the Sabbath of the Lord. It is God's day. It is God's Sabbath. So we know this. This is the foundation of why we keep the Sabbath. Now I want to go to Hebrews 4. We read this during the days of 11 bread. So I said this is like a Bible study. Oh, by the way, I wanted to mention, I'm sorry we have to continue to have services start 15-20 minutes late, but we just can't get that. We're not getting the help we need for the sound system. We'll figure it out sooner or later. We go back to 10-30 services. But just be patient. I know everybody's here on time, just in case we will start at 10-30. But it's, you know, it's just one of those things. We're working in a situation where we're not getting the help we need or the understanding we need. But we'll work it out. It'll get fixed. So don't let that be a burden. We'll just have, you know, take an extra 10-15 minutes and talk. Anyways, Hebrews 4. I read this during the Holy Days because I went through Israel's time in the wilderness. And Joshua, how he then took them into the Promised Land. But even though they had the Promised Land, it wasn't the fulfillment of what God had told them. But they had the Promised Land. But it wasn't the fulfillment. Verse 4 of Hebrews 4.

Breaking the middle of a thought here, but that's what he's talking about. He's talking about ancient Israel failing to go into the Promised Land. For he has spoken in a certain place of the seventh day in this way, and God rested on the seventh day from all his works. So in the middle of this writing about how ancient Israel didn't go into the Promised Land, he suddenly mentions the seventh day Sabbath. And he said, God rested on that day. And again in this place, they shall not enter my rest. So the Sabbath day pictures something else. Remember the context here.

They didn't go into their rest. They continued, by the way, to keep the Sabbath. The whole time they were in the wilderness, they kept the Sabbath because they remember they couldn't get any manna on the Sabbath. They were told to rest on the Sabbath. So they continued to keep the Sabbath, but they didn't enter into this greater rest. So the Sabbath still applies, but it tells us and teaches us something even greater that we need to get in this day.

Since therefore it remains that some must enter it, and those to whom it was first preached did not enter because of disobedience. Again, he designated a certain day saying today, but today, after such a long time as it has been said, today if you hear his voice, do not harden your heart. So he's talking about a specific day again. Now why is he making this point? He's talking about this greater concept of the rest of God, and he's talking about the Sabbath in the context of this.

Then verse 8 is what's very interesting. For if Joshua had given them rest, then he would not have afterwards have spoken of another day. So Joshua did lead them into the Promised Land, but they never experienced the rest that God wanted them to experience. Going into the Promised Land was a rest. It was a physical rest. It was supposed to be a physical rest, but it really wasn't. They never really obeyed God.

They always had problems. They always had enemies. He told them they won't have enemies if he obeys them. Nothing really worked. The rest of the Promised Land, when they finally got it, didn't work. It's very interesting when David was gathering the things they needed to build the temple, because Solomon was going to build it. If you read his speech before the people, he told them, remember, now remember, they're in the Promised Land. He's the king.

It seems like everything that God promised them about their rest, the rest of the Promised Land. And he says, remember, but you are sojourners on the earth. He tells them this rest isn't the true rest. You have the land. You have everything God said you would have, but what God wants is greater than that. And it reminds me every time I read that of what it says here in Hebrews, that all the great people of the Old Testament were looking for a different city, an eternal city.

And they realized they were sojourners on the earth. And David tells the Israelites, you're sojourners on the earth. They probably didn't understand what he meant. That's what I mean. We're in the Promised Land. We have a kingdom. At that point under David, they were becoming one of the greatest nations in their entire Middle East. What do you mean we're not in the Promised Land? Well, you're in the Promised Land, but you don't have the rest of God.

Verse 9, there remains therefore a rest for the people of God. There remains a rest. Now he's talking in two things here. One is the actual Sabbath day, and one is a rest with God that goes beyond physical. The word rest there, sabbathizvos, is the only place in the entire Bible is used.

And it literally means the keeping of the Sabbath. Therefore, there remains a keeping of the Sabbath for the people of God. We still keep the Sabbath in order to experience and understand a future rest. And it's more than a physical rest. Verse 10 says, For he who has entered his rest has himself also ceased from his works as God did from his.

Let us therefore be diligent to enter that rest, lest anyone fail according to the same example of disobedience. Enter into the rest. Okay, does that mean because we don't work on this day, that's the rest, the only rest we're supposed to learn from this day? That we work too much.

We're workaholics. No, that's not the point. The point for this day is to help us understand there is a future rest, and we can participate in it in a very limited way right now. And it's not just a ceasing from going out and digging up your yard, you know, planting your garden, or not going hunting, you know, or not doing the things that we would normally do on this day. It is because we are to experience a rest with God.

This day is a personal invitation from God for us to come rest with Him, and get a little understanding of the future rest on Christ's returns, and the change takes place. It is a remarkable connecting point between the creation in Genesis 1 and 2, and the events of Revelation 21 and 22.

Now we tend to think of it in very small terms, because we usually think of the physical. Like, doing the physical is supposed to lead us into something else. I remember 20 years ago, or 30 years ago, I gave a sermon one time in a small church about how we need to grow in our relationship with God.

Afterwards, a group of men came up and gathered around me, which was really strange, because I thought, wow, they're all around me. They said, we think we figured out what the sermon meant. It meant we have to keep the Sabbath more strictly. Now, the sermon wasn't about the Sabbath, but they understood. I was talking about a relationship with God, and they realized, the Sabbath has something to do with that, but they couldn't fit it together.

It's not about keeping the Sabbath more strictly, although we should. It's about why we do it and the benefit we receive in our relationship with God from this day. We're physical, so He makes us do a physical thing. Stop and come be with me.

We live lives of unrest, stress, uncertainty, and doubt.

In this day, we're supposed to have God connect to us so that we can have some peace, some strength, and some tranquility in a spiritual way. We are to experience some of His rest on this day. It's a limited way. We won't experience the total rest of God until when? We're changed. The rest that is to come that we read about Hebrews. But there still remains a rest to this time. And we learn it daily, and this day is a center point on how we learn it. Because it is in this day that we are to experience some rest with God. Because He rested on this day.

Let's look at how this day is so instrumental in understanding salvation history. Let's go to Ephesians 3. God commands us to keep this day. When we keep it properly, you don't need a command. You want to keep it. You desire it because it's part of your relationship with God. I'm going to read this couple verses because I want to get to a specific point he makes. To me, he says, we am less than the rest of the saints. This grace was given that I should preach among the Gentiles the unsearchable riches of Christ. And to make all see what is the fellowship of the mystery, which from the beginning of the ages has been hidden in God who created all things through Jesus Christ.

He says this is the mystery that starts at the beginning. It starts when in creation. And part of creation is the seventh-day Sabbath. It's right there in the very beginning. No one doubts that. Even people say you don't have to keep the Sabbath. All agree it was created then. And what Paul is saying here, let's go back to that mystery, which starts then, and part of that mystery is God created all things through Jesus Christ. So guess who created the Sabbath? You know, there's this belief that Jesus came to do away with the Sabbath. He created the Sabbath. God created it through Him.

And so this day is to help us zero in on God and have peace with God. And you know the only way you and I can have peace with God is through the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus Christ. There is no other way. Because we can't be reconciled to God. How can you be reconciled to God if that doesn't happen? So from the very beginning, God the Father creates everything, including the Sabbath through Jesus Christ. Now think of something else.

We make a big thing, as we should, out of how Jesus Christ was not resurrected on Sunday morning. Easter is a fallacy, absolute fallacy. Because it's based on something that's totally wrong. He had to be in the grave three days and three nights. And we can look at history. We can go back and look at calendars. In the early 30s or two years, it would have had to have been and which it falls that he would have died on a Wednesday and been resurrected on a late Saturday evening.

Jesus Christ was resurrected on the Sabbath, and that wasn't by accident. God doesn't do anything by accident. I want you to think about this. He was resurrected on the day that was created for all human beings to enter into the rest of God. And how can we go into the rest of God? Is that what we celebrate every Passover? Without that, you and I can't enter into an eternal rest with God. It's not possible. So we have God creates the Sabbath through Christ and then resurrects him on the Sabbath day.

I don't even know why you would need a commandment to keep it.

It's built into the very fabric of creation. It's built into our relationship with God.

Christ says something interesting that's become a cliché. It's read so much sometimes in the Protestant world it doesn't have meaning. But let's go to Matthew chapter 11. Matthew 11.

Verse 28. Christ is explaining his relationship with the Father and how that translates into a relationship with humanity, with people.

He starts in a prayer here, verse 25. Matthew 11. At that time, Jesus answered and said, A thank you, Father, Lord of heaven and earth, that you have hidden these things from the wise and the prudent, and have revealed them to babes. Even so, Father, for it so seemed good in your sight. All things have been delivered to me by my Father. No one knows the Son except the Father, nor does anyone know the Father except the Son, and the one to whom the Son wills to reveal him. It shows this relationship. The Father reveals me. I reveal the Father. This is how this works. And then here's what he tells those who understand that and believe that. Come to me, all you who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. He's not talking about, you know, I know you have a hard job. Come to me, and you know, we'll just sit and have a beer, and you have some rest. He's talking about life. He's talking about the work and the burdens of life. And he says, you come to me, and I will give you what? Rest.

Rest from all the stress, all the futility, all the conflicts. I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you, and learn from me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find, rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light. You know, souls means the very core of your life. It doesn't by itself mean immortal. That's not the meaning of the word, but it means the very core of your life. He says, you will find rest at the core of who you are because you come to me. It's created at the beginning. He's resurrected on the seventh day.

He tells people, come, come to God. I reveal the Father, Father reveals me. In other words, when you come to one of us, you're going to come to both. And you come, and you will be rested in the core of who you are. And Hebrews says, therefore there remains the Sabbath day for the people of God to be brought back together. Because we can drift all this hurry, this worry, the stress, the inconsistencies of life, the fact that it's so dysfunctional at times. We drift away, we move away, and we don't find any rest in God. And he says, stop it, and one day you come back to me every day, and that will make the rest of your week stronger. We don't keep the Sabbath a few days in a row, or don't keep it properly, and you will find that you have more and more problems throughout the week. Because we're missing something he designed in this whole system. And it's for us to come partake of his rest. When we look at this, I mean there's two ways we can mess up the Sabbath. One is we just do whatever we want, and then we're missing the meaning of the Sabbath. The other is we put so many rules and regulations on it that we just make it another burden of life. There's two extremes, two ditches.

But then we find in Isaiah a simple explanation of the principles of the Sabbath. Isaiah 58.

Isaiah 58 verse 13. If you turn away your foot, now we hear this all the time, and we can say, okay, what's the list of things we can and cannot do? Let's just look at this for a minute, because it does eventually become a list. We should do this, we should do that. But let's look at it as what's the principle behind it. The principle behind this isn't, if I keep the Sabbath more strictly, I will earn favor with God. No, if we keep the Sabbath the way God intended it to be kept, we will experience His rest. That's the point. We will experience His rest. He commands us because we just don't want to do it. We're like little children, and just don't want to do what we're told to do. And yet, it's so much designed for us as a gift from God. If you turn away your foot from the Sabbath, from doing your pleasures on my holy day, and call the Sabbath a delight, in other words, see the purpose for it, and love it. Because why? Because God gave this to us as a gift, and there's a purpose in this. Sometimes when people first start to keep the Sabbath, they get like, wow, what do I do? And after a while, you start to realize your relationship with God, your relationship with other people, and the physical rest. It's like, oh wow, I'm sure glad the Sabbath is coming. It's funny how many people talk about it. Yeah, the first couple of Sabbaths I kept, I was like, oh no, it's Friday night. I guess I go to church and be bored the rest of the day, you know. But if you really understand what this is, it becomes a delight. It becomes important. It becomes, you begin to experience some of His rest, which was what? Joy in His creation. Because at that point, it was perfect. Hadn't gone bad yet, as far as the physical creation.

And call the Sabbath a delight, the holy day of the Lord honorable, and shall honor Him, not doing your own ways, they're finding your own pleasures, they're speaking your own words. There's even being careful what we think about. I mean, it's not wrong to, you know, it's a Sabbath day, and someone says, hey man, the Titans, did you see the game last week? And someone says, yeah, well that's all the farther you have to go, it's going to ruin your Sabbath to talk any more about it. So, move on, right? I mean, I'm not saying every word that has to come out of her mouth, that's what this means, it has to be spiritual. Every word that comes out of our mouth has to lead us to spiritual things. So, a physical comment here and there isn't what this is talking about. It's talking about a day where your thoughts, and even when you talk about, a lot of it has to do with God. And the more we spend not talking about God in His ways, you know, so sometimes you talk about, yeah, I'm having trouble at work because nobody's honest. Okay, that's okay to talk about. Because you have a different ethical belief than others, and you want to talk about, it's so hard. And other people say, yeah, been there, done that, know what you're going through.

So, we're always tying what we do in some way or another into our rest with God. Then you shall delight yourself in the Lord. We will find what? Delight in God. A positiveness to life in God, no matter what happened throughout the week. And I will cause you to ride on the high heels of the earth and feed you with the heritage of Jacob, your father. The mouth of the Lord has spoken. You know, this was said to ancient Israel in a physical sense, how much more does this apply to us who have God's Spirit?

So, let's look at then some of the things we are to do on this day, because it comes down to what do we do? Well, let's go to Leviticus 23. I'm always amazed at people who believe we should keep the Ten Commandments, but say, well, the Sabbath is just something you do on any day in your heart. You wouldn't apply that to any other one of the Ten Commandments, right?

Well, I can commit adultery as long as they love my wife and my heart. I can steal as long as I, you know, don't want the person to really get hurt in my heart. I mean, it's bizarre thinking. It really is. It's one of the Ten Commandments for a reason, because it's part of our relationship with God designed into creation itself.

And we're supposed to do something on this day. Leviticus 23 verse 3, Six days shall work be done, but the seventh day is the Sabbath of solemn rest, a holy convocation. You shall do no work on it, it is the Sabbath of the Lord, and all your dwelling. So once again, we have to give up all work that is not, I mean, you feed your dog, right? I mean, you're supposed to take care of animals, but the things that engage our bodies and our mind in work, whether it's what we're getting paid for, or what we do, you know, working on the car, right? Now, if you break down in the parking lot out here, need a way to get home, three or four of these guys that come out and work on your car, they're not breaking the Sabbath, because it's an ox in the ditch. So there's all kinds of principles here that apply, but we don't think, oh, you know, I need to change the oil, I'll just wait till Saturday afternoon to do it, because that's work.

So the whole point is, okay, give up work for this physical rest, and then have a holy convocation.

Convocation means to come together. In the New Testament, the word is translated assembly. We are to assemble together. We are called by God, the ecclesia. We are called by God to assemble on this day, to share in the rest of God together. It's not just an individual experience. It is a community experience. We come together to share our rest with God with each other, and we find value, brotherhood. I mean, we are brothers and sisters. This day helps us become brothers and sisters in the family of God.

No matter what your age, even if you say, oh, that's just for baptized people. No, that's not true. You're called here to assemble. You're called here to assemble. You've already been called. That's why you're here.

And you're here to experience a relationship with God and with other people. You know, I am so glad God doesn't say, you know what? My relationship with people will be totally individual, and they won't even know about each other.

That's not how he thinks. Humanity is his family. He wants this family to work together. It never has ever since Satan got a hold of us. But he wants us to be together as his family. And on the Sabbath day, he wants us to come together and be his family. And if we do this properly, we actually create relationships with each other outside of the assembly. We create relationships with each other outside the assembly because we share in the peace of God. We share in what he's doing. This all comes down to what God's doing.

It all comes down to what he's doing. And it's a huge concept.

This is very important. Assemblies are called together for a number of reasons. The Sabbath assembly is called for a number of things. One is to hear the Word of God expounded.

We come together to hear the Word of God expounded.

You know, sometimes, and we're blessed here. We have here in Nashville, we have a lot of different speakers. And different speakers reach different people. It's just the way it is. Right? There's different personalities. Each speaker will reach certain people better than other people. But, you know, every once in a while, someone will say, ah, so-and-so speaking today. I think I'll just stay home and watch Cincinnati. Now, you were called to assemble here today. This is the congregation you're assembled to. I mean, there's times you're not here. You're visiting other people. Or, I mean, there's a whole lot of reasons not to be here. But I'm saying, you don't say, ah, I think I'll watch... The problem with the internet is it's a great blessing, right? It's an enormous blessing for when you're sick, or when you can't travel, or the weather's bad, or you live far away. I mean, there are people who live so many hours away, they can only get to church, you know, once a month. We have a few people like that out in a way out in the Jackson area. They don't get to church every... And now they can still connect. It's wonderful. If watching online is just because, you know what, I think I would like to sleep in tomorrow, and, you know, I'll just watch services in my pajamas and drink my coffee.

Then you're missing what it means to be part of the Holy Convocation. Because we convoke with God, and He convokes with us individually and as His family. This Convocation is very important, and we are to come here to hear the Word of God expounded. And some people expounded better than others. It's still the Word of God. You're still picking this up or looking on your phone, and you're still reading the Word of God.

Now, there's two other reasons we come, and we're going to discuss this in the Bible study, because I want to discuss the meaning of these words, and that is for praise and for worship. We come to praise and worship, and I want to break that down a little bit in what that means. So, you know, we'll have a— it won't be a long Bible study, but after we eat, we'll have a short Bible study, we'll go through those two words. Praise and worship.

We also come to fellowship with each other. We come to commune with God on a holy convocation, and we come to commune with each other. I mean, look at what John says in 1 John. 1 John 1, verse 5, This is the message which we have heard from him, and declare to you that God is light, and in him there is no darkness at all. Now, with God's absolute goodness, there is no evil in him. There is none at all.

And if we say we have fellowship with him, and walk in darkness, we lie and do not practice the truth. So if we live evil lifestyles, and we're just hypocritical, and claim to be a follower of Jesus Christ, and claim to be a child of God, he says you're lying. That's pretty strong words here. And we're looking at that and saying, well, we're all trying to do this. So this doesn't apply to us, but look at the next sentence. But if we walk in the light as he is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus Christ his Son cleanses us from all sin. In other words, we are to be drawn towards each other, especially in the Holy Convocation, to be together. Why? Because God called us all to be together.

The emphasis of this day is on God.

And his rest, God calls us to come be together, to have fellowship with one another.

And he says, if you're really close to God, you really want to be there.

And I know it's hard some days. I can remember him, you know, packing up kids, stealing their pajamas, strapping them into the car so we can drive two hours to get to services, waking them up and feeding them, trying to dress them in the car, doing services for two hours, spending another hour there talking to people, then jumping back in the car and driving, two and a half hours to go to the next service and feeding them again. And then that service goes, you know, two hours, and then you stay two hours afterwards. And pretty soon, they've been on the road for 12 hours.

And it's not, it is a work day, but it was in service of God. So it should be done. I remember what I probably told you this. We're driving, we're in Wisconsin, we're trying to get between the one service to the next, and there's been an ice storm. And I'm driving really slow, and there's cars off in the ditches all over the place. I'm doing just fine until I got on a bridge. And all of a sudden, I looked, and every car that crossed the bridge was off the roads a place. And I thought, oh, this is not good. And it was just solid ice. I'm sort of sliding down the road. I don't touch the brake. I get to the end of the bridge and get on the gravel. Okay. So now I'm sideways on the gravel, and I finally apply the brakes, and I slow down and then go over the hill.

Get to the bottom of the hill. The kids were eating their lunch of yogurt.

Every surface of that place was covered with yogurt. It was amazing how little things of yogurt could cover everything. And I got out and looked and thought, oh, I've got to get towed out of this. It wasn't even any really damage. And the sheriff come up. He was so frustrated with all these people off the road. I heard him talk to the state trooper. He says, I'm going to give that man a ticket. I heard the state trooper say, he couldn't have been gone more than 10 miles an hour. There's not even any damage to his car. What are you going to give him a ticket for? Speeding? He says, driving too slow? You can't give him a ticket for being on ice. So the sheriff backed down and didn't give me a ticket because the state trooper said, he didn't break any law. You can't give him a ticket. Anyways, how did I get off on that? So, you know, some days it's not...

It's not... It's a work day. But there's... You're not supposed to work like ministers do. The average Israelite did not work like the priest did. Okay? That's different. You're supposed to really receive this rest from God. And you know what? We receive rest from being with you on this day. We receive rest from helping you on this day.

So, yeah, there's some work and some stress. And sometimes it's hard to do what you need to do. But it's what God... It's God that's the center of this day. And Christ that's the center of this day.

Malachi 3 verse 16 talks about how at the end time... Well, let's just go there. Malachi 3, 16. This is a common Scripture, but I guess there is no... There are no common Scriptures. Malachi 3, talking about the end time. Then those who fear the Lord spoke to one another, and the Lord listened and heard them. And a book of remembrance was written before him for those who fear the Lord and those who meditate on His name. And the Sabbath centers us so that we can do this every day. They shall be minds, says the Lord of hosts, on the day that I make them my jewels, and I will spare them as a man spares his own son who serves him. Then you shall again discern between the righteous and the wicked, between the one who serves God and the one who does not serve Him. He says, I look at the people who do this. I cherish. God says, I cherish. They're like jewels to me. The people who follow Him, who discern right and wrong, who discern what He wants us to do because it's good, and then share that with each other. He says, I notice that.

If you had a hard time coming to services today, that's okay. God notices that.

He says, I notice that. I notice the people who do this because they love Him and because they want to be with other people who are going through the same trials as the rest of us.

When you come before God on this day, and that's the important thing, we just didn't come to church today. You were invited. It's a holy convocation. Assembly called by God. I didn't call this assembly.

God called this assembly.

You were called by God to be here and to keep this day holy.

And as we are here together, we have to remember who we are before. If He called it, He's here. Now, God's presence is here. God's spirit is here, right?

God lives in all dimensions. I mean, God is beyond our comprehension. He's here, like David said. He's the highest mountain. He's there. I go to the lowest part of the ocean. He's there. God is everywhere because of His spirit. But there's actually a… I don't know if you call it a place because it's not physical. There's a dimension where He has a throne. And when we come together as the assembly, we're before that throne.

As an invitation, no one goes to God unless they're invited.

None of us are equal to God that we can go say, Halle, just want to drop by.

He gives us the privilege to do that.

It's not that we give Him a privilege. Revelation 4.

If somehow we could ever really grasp this… Because the center of this day is not us.

It's the one who rested on this day, both God the Father and Jesus Christ through whom He created all things. Romans 4, verse 1.

John gets a glimpse into the reality of God.

And he said, And there was a rainbow around the throne, an appearance like an emerald. He's trying to explain what he's seeing in terms that we can't even hardly define. How does he describe what he's seeing? He says, This is God. He says, There are 24 elders, or thrones with elders on there, 24 created beings who serve God.

He says, And from the throne, verse 5, preceded lightnings and thunderings and voices. In other words, that's just describing sounds that he can't… voices. He doesn't even try to explain what they're saying. There are actual relationships happening in heaven. And he sees all this. That's what you were called to today.

We're called to come before God.

And he says, verse 6, Behold the throne, there was a sea of glass like crystal. And in the midst of the throne, around the throne were four living creatures with eyes and front and back. And then he tried to describe these particular angels. And he talks about other angels, different classifications of created beings that are spirit. And what's amazing is, they are so much greater than us right now. But because of how God made us, the Scripture says, those who of us, who are changed, human beings who are changed by God, into his sons and daughters, will be greater than they are. And they will serve us.

What's that even mean? We'll be greater than them. And we're called today to come before God and say, help me get through this. Give me enough rest that I can be there. Give me the spiritual rest I need to be there. So he goes on and he describes it even more.

And, you know, we can try to figure out exactly what that looks like, but nobody can. Only John can tell you. And John would say, I don't get it. I saw these things. I tried to describe these things. This Sabbath day is very important. This Sabbath day is very important.

I mean, physically, to everybody else, it's just like any other day. And you could rest on this day. You can say, you know, I'm going to take Saturday off as a day of rest and not have rest with God.

We come together today in a holy convocation so that we are before God, so that we receive His rest, His help, His guidance, His healing, all those things we need, this day reminds us of that.

So it's a very simple command. Remember the Sabbath day and keep it holy.