Proper Preparation for the Sabbath

Does this sound a little bit familiar to you? You spend Sabbath morning sort of rushing around stressed out because, well, you waited too long to get ready for church. So you're trying to get dressed, you're trying to get ready. You're rushing here, you're nervous because, oh, we're not going to get there on time and I want to get there on time, or why I was supposed to be there to help set up the sound system and I'm going to be late and Mr.

Dove is going to be so mad at me. He's not here so I can make fun of him today. Oh, I forgot he's something to camp out. That's okay. He's not here to shut me down, which he'll do it from time to time so I can make fun of him only once. You get this sort of vague feeling when you get to church that somehow your hair is messed up or you're not quite dressed right, you know?

And you sit down and realize you have two different colored socks on. Or if you have kids, the wife comes up and says, I thought I'd put her leotards on and she still has her pajama bottoms on. You know, you're rushed here, you got here, but it's sort of half way. You run in, wishing you could carry a cup of coffee into the building here because how am I going to stay awake during services? And then the song service starts and you start singing, but you get so distracted you don't sing the last two songs because you look over and there's a woman who's got a new haircut that sort of makes her look like the bride of Frankenstein.

So you're sort of distracted by that. Of course, you forgot your Bible, so you have to rely entirely on them, showing the Scriptures up there on the screen. So you're not turning to it. Of course, you sort of have a hard time finding some of the books of the Bible anyways, as you haven't been spending as much time and study as you should.

You sort of become bored with the sermon. I mean, you've heard it so many times, and your husband or wife sort of elbows you because you're sitting there just sort of slapping your pin on the top of your head as you sit there just nervously or your legs jumping because you're not really listening. And of course, you sort of look around and see what everybody else is doing. And then after services, you spend a few minutes talking to the people next to you about the weather or about the spurs or about work.

And then you hurry up and you get home because you want to take a nap. Have you ever had a Sabbath like that? I know some of you have. And you go home and you feel sort of empty and it feels sort of vague and it feels like services wasn't what it's supposed to be.

In fact, you have enough experiences like that, it gets a little hard to get up and go to services. You know, what is the spiritual benefit you're getting from it? I know not every sermon is going to inspire every person, not every sermonette is going to reach every person. Not every song inspires you. You know, I have to really put a lot into mind the waters of Babylon. Not every special music is going to hit a whole run every time. Not every person you talk to at church is going to be having a good day, or some people is going to be discouraged, or some person is going to be going through a trial, or some person is going to be sort of grumpy.

And we just realize that, well, Mr. Piper is that way most of the time anyways. And so we come to services and we go home and it's sort of a habitual thing we do. On two questions I'm going to ask you today. How can you be properly prepared to meet and worship God on a day and at a place of His choosing? That's what Sabbath services are. For a place to meet and worship God at a place and time of His choosing, on a day of His choosing.

We must never forget that's what this is. And how can you better be prepared to receive God's blessing of a holy convocation? How can you be prepared to receive God's blessing of a holy convocation? What we're going to look at today are seven basic principles to answer those two questions. How can you be better prepared to meet and worship God on the day and time and place of His choosing?

And how can you receive the blessing of a holy convocation? Because this should be a blessing in our lives. It shouldn't just be a time we come to church, and we're just used to it. We go to church. In fact, sometimes we can go to church. I remember a man telling me once, he had been a Methodist all his life, and I said, Why do you go to church? He had actually become a Sabbath-keeper. And he said, You know, this is such a different experience for me.

He said, I was a Methodist for decades and decades. And I said, Well, why did you go to church? He said, I don't know. I went to church because we always did. It's what my family always did. So I grew up, and I always did. And he says, I have no idea why I went to church.

We went, we sat in services. He slept most of the time. He said that afterwards, he said, Hello, so some friends. And then he went home, hoping to get home in time and watch the afternoon football game. We have to be careful that that is an hour experience. And this is a meeting. And are we prepared in this meeting to meet and worship God? So here's the seven steps you can take.

Some of them will spend a little time on, some a little bit more, in being better prepared to receive God's blessing of a holy convocation. First one, be faithful to God in His Sabbath command. You know, if we don't hold the Sabbath command in reverence, then we will hold Sabbath service in reverence. In other words, if our Friday nights are just spent in the world, like the rest of the Sabbath is spent in the world, you know, maybe we could do like a church in Wisconsin, I've told you about before, when we lived up in Wisconsin, where they had a... you could go into the parking lot and they advertised, you know, if you needed things to do that day, if you needed to go to work, if you needed to go golfing or whatever, or it was, you know, Sunday and you wanted to go hunting, you showed up just in your hunting clothes, your whatever, and you just tuned in to the parking lot because they had a little broadcast that went out just as far as the parking lot.

And that way their parking lot was full of people during services. As soon as service is over, they're all peeling out of there, you know, so they can get out to what they're supposed to do. Is that all this is? Don't forget that these Sabbath services are part of a greater command to keep the Sabbath. The Holy Convocation is part of the Sabbath command.

And so, therefore, we have to see this in that context. How we approach the Sabbath, and really how we approach even the Holy Convocation, is a direct reflection on how we approach God.

How you and I approach the Sabbath, and how you and I approach the Holy Convocation is a direct reflection of how we actually approach God. So, the first point is very simple. We're all here because we believe in that fourth commandment. Realize that these Sabbath services are part of the greater commandment.

And that if we don't hold the day in reverence, we won't hold these services in reverence. We won't understand and get the spiritual blessing that we should from them. So, we come to our second point. And that is that we have to prepare ourselves spiritually for Sabbath services. Now, we have to prepare ourselves for the Sabbath, but I'm talking specifically about services today, the Convocation.

We have to prepare ourselves spiritually for that. Now, what do I mean by that? How do I prepare myself? I get up in the morning, I take a shower, I say some prayers, I eat some food, I get dressed, and I come to Sabbath services. Well, actually, it's more than that. You can be physically prepared and show up here in a nice dress or suit and a tie, and be physically prepared for Sabbath services and not be spiritually prepared.

Now, there's an interesting two passages I just want to look at quickly. One is in 2 Chronicles 12, when you compare the two and how they're worded. Now, these don't directly have to do with the Sabbath, but they do have to do with the principle of what we're talking about. 2 Corinthians 12. 2 Corinthians 12.13. God had selected King Rehoboam to be King of Jerusalem, and King Rehoboam failed. He failed miserably. And here's what's said about him, and this is very interesting because we have here the reason for his failure.

1 Corinthians 13.13. Thus King Rehoboam strengthened himself in Jerusalem and reigned. Now, Rehoboam was 41 years old when he became king, and he reigned 17 years in Jerusalem, the city which the Lord had chosen out of all the tribes of Israel to put his name there.

His mother's name was Amotha and Amorites. Now verse 14. And he did evil because... this is real important. We know why he failed and what God had chosen him to do. God had chosen him. God had called him to do this, and he failed because he did not prepare his heart to seek the Lord. He did not prepare his heart to seek the Lord. Sabbath services is a time we come together to be prepared to meet and worship God with other believers, others who have been called by God for the same purpose.

That means we must be prepared to seek God on this day. It's not just a day of rest. It's not just a day of not doing the ballgames, or not mowing the lawn. It's more than that. It is a day to seek the Lord. That means you have to prepare your heart for this day, and specifically then for this service. Look at another place where another person is mentioned in this same context, Ezra 7.

Now once again, this isn't to do with the Sabbath, but it has to do with an idea here that we can apply to almost every aspect of our Christian lives. Ezra 7 verse 10 says, For Ezra had, notice what he did, had prepared his heart to seek the law of the Lord and to do it, and to teach statutes and ordinances in Israel. He had prepared his heart.

Now one man failed because he had not prepared his heart to seek the Lord. None of the men succeeded because he had prepared his heart to seek the Lord. Now if you're invited to come here to receive God's guidance and God's help to a holy convocation, then you and I must seek to be prepared, not just physically. I mean, I don't know about you, but every Friday afternoon I go get the car, you know, gassed up, and I go wash my car.

It's my habitual Friday afternoon, get ready for Sabbath services. You know, I'll be working on a sermon, I'll be working on my pastor's update, and I'll look at my list of things to do. Oh, it's the washing of the car ceremony. It's sort of like a priesthood thing. I go out and I wash my car. Preparing for the Sabbath. I have found, listen, why do you do that? I have found it helps me mentally prepare for the Sabbath to do that little physical thing. My kids were little, they used to go with me every Friday. Oh, it's the wash the car day. And we would go and they would wash me, wash the car, and give me a chance to spray it.

You know, with the spray. So we need to be prepared. That's why I gave a sermon about five or six months ago on the Sabbath, the bigger concept of the Sabbath, and I just want to deal with Sabbath services. But I talked about how Friday is a preparation day, and it's sundown on Friday night.

We should be going into the Sabbath prepared for the Sabbath, the quiet, restful piece of the Sabbath. And that's why I think one of the most single, most important things you could do to help your children learn about the Sabbath is that Friday night meal together in your house, away from the world, without all those distractions, bringing the Sabbath, you know, coming into the Sabbath with family meal, family discussion, and family Bible study. I don't think there's anything else more important you could do with your children to help them understand the heart of the Sabbath.

And if they grow up with that as a positive experience, it helps them see God in a positive light. Sabbath preparation begins when? It begins the Sunday before. It begins in having daily Bible study and daily prayer starting the Sunday before. It's six days of preparation for the Sabbath in which you're in the Word of God, you're applying the Word of God, and you're on your knees before God. If you are not having regular Bible study and regular prayer, you will come into Sabbath services like a person who has been invited to a feast, but they're starving.

You ever fast? You know, I remember as a young person, I always thought after we fasted, as soon as the day of a toil was over, there was one thing I wanted to do, and it was go to a place, an all-you-can-eat place. But I was always disappointed, because I couldn't eat all that I wanted to eat. I just couldn't shovel it in. I mean, you'd get sick if you tried to eat too much. And sometimes coming to Sabbath services without a regular relationship with God, it's like coming to this huge banquet, but you're half starved. And because you're half starved, you can't even process what's happening.

So you go away from Sabbath services spiritually hungry.

We should be preparing for the Sabbath Sunday.

Tomorrow, you're preparing for the next Sabbath, because you're in a relationship with God all week long. You know, we can't have a one-day-a-week relationship with God. The Sabbath will become meaningless. It has to be an everyday relationship with God. You prepare for the Sabbath service Friday night. You prepare for the Sabbath service Friday night and Saturday morning. You know how you do that? When was the last time you prayed for a song leader or the man giving the sermon in?

When was the last time you prayed that the sermon would be for you?

Or prayed for the women that are teaching the Sabbath school?

Or prayed for the people that usher? Or prayed for the people who show here every morning, every Sabbath morning, long before the rest of us get here, and make the coffee and set out the food?

Do we pray for them? If you want to prepare your heart for a Sabbath service, go to God and let him prepare your heart. The best thing to do is ask God, I pray for the people who are serving or working, that you will give them what I need. First, don't be surprised if you come to church and you hear something, and you say, oh, that hurt. I didn't want to hear that. Well, you prayed.

I am amazed how many times I'll give a sermon, and someone will come up and say, thank you so much, that helped me. I've been praying about that. And it had nothing to do with the sermon I was giving. They heard something because I went to a scripture, read the scripture, and that scripture answered their issue. But it wasn't hardly anything to do with what I was actually talking about. In other words, I didn't do it. I'm talking about something else, and they're getting a different meaning out of it. They're getting exactly what they needed from God. And they think I did that on purpose. No, they prepared their heart. God talked to them.

We have to come with a prepared heart.

Prepare yourself by praying for understanding, praying for personal conviction, praying for guidance.

Come to services praying for the other members of the congregation. So you're preparing yourself Friday night and Sabbath morning in your prayer for the service. If God's called you to be here, come prepared for God. If you come prepared for, you know, for me, you're going to be greatly disappointed. Come prepared for God.

Third point. I'm just going to touch on this one, but give your whole heart to praising God while singing. I know it's easy to say, well, this song is boring. I can't sing it with my heart. I've sung this song. Why is it that it seems like certain song singers pick certain songs? They don't like any of those songs. I just can't sing it. I can't give it to them.

I can't sing it. I can't give it all that I have. Or you're partway through the song, and instead of singing, you're looking over there, and you're elbowing the person beside you and saying, did you see how short that teenager's skirt is?

At that moment, we are to sing praises to God. The other issues are for another time. I'm not saying that someone wearing a really short skirt is good. I'm just saying that's not the time or place to consider it. Look at Colossians 3. Colossians 3.16. It's a very long passage here where Paul, as he does sometimes, he must be writing almost at the speed of consciousness. It's just coming out issue after issue, point after point. They're being written down. It says, Let the word of God dwell in you richly in all wisdom, teaching and admonishing one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual psalms. When we sing, we're teaching each other, we're encouraging each other. I just love it. I hear people singing, and I hear harmony.

I'm not good at harmonizing. So when I hear people singing and they're harmonizing, it makes me sing louder. We encourage each other through our singing.

If a new person walks through those doors, they should hear us, they should be encouraged by our singing. Now, you've heard me say this before. I like a lot of different styles of music, and if I pick hymns, I would have some hymns that probably a lot of people say, Wow, we shouldn't sing that. That's why they never asked me to pick hymns.

But you know, it doesn't matter. Every one of the hymns in our book can be sung with a desire to encourage each other to sing together. Because look at the rest of this verse.

Singing with grace in your hearts. See, once again, you've got to be prepared in your hearts, singing with grace in your hearts to the Lord. Yeah, God, I'm singing to you.

Yeah, well, yeah, praise the Lord, praise the Lord. Oh, praise the Lord. Oh, look at the wobble with the Frankenstein hairpin. Praise the Lord, praise the Lord. You know, I mean, it's just God's willing courage by that, isn't he? Yeah, but all you've got, even if you don't feel like it, because you know, there's a funny thing about that. You decide to sing to God and sing with everybody else in the room together. You feel different about the song. You feel different about the song.

And we had to sing a little louder today. There's a lot of people not here. But when we sing praises to God, sometimes what we've done, we have to be careful of the church. We've made this with an American church. I was reading the other day where it was very interesting.

In the Protestant world now, it was a survey that was done. The majority of churches don't even have a choir. They just have a band, a small band to sort of work everybody up before services.

But they don't even have choirs anymore. Too much work, too much money. How sad is that?

A group of people coming together to praise God, and the rest of us get a benefit of having them praise God. I'm glad we have a choir here. I'm glad every time we have someone that performs special music, whether it's an instrumental or a vocal soloist or the choir singing.

Because we're singing to God. We're not performing for each other.

You know, when the choir goes and sits down, we don't stand up with our lighters and ask for an encore. We're not performing for each other, but we are encouraging each other. We're helping each other. We're edifying each other. But we're singing to the Lord. We're singing to God. Don't negate that important aspect of the Church, of the service.

The fourth point is learn the discipline of spiritual listening. Now, when we talk about listening, just the ability to listen and talk to other people is a learned skill.

Now, when I took communication classes in college, I took it into a class where one of the books I had to read was a book on how to listen. The whole idea of how we listen, how we process information. And the truth is, when we're talking to someone else, we actually listen to very little what they say. Even when you're listening on the radio or watching television, or in a lecture, or listening to a sermon, we're all listening with only a very small part of our brain, because there's all this other stuff going on. And, you know, a phrase can be said that gives you a memory of something, and you spend the next five minutes thinking about the memory, and then you come back and you have no idea what's being talked about. Or, a word can be used in a way that you're not used to having it. What does he mean by that? Wait a minute. Instead of listening so that we know what the explanation is, pretty soon we're caught up into what did he mean? He's pretty sure he's going to admit that, you know.

So, it's very hard to listen just on the physical level. The more intense we're able to listen, the more intense we're able to learn. That's what's amazing about listening. You know, you wonder why television commercials are louder than the show? It's because we don't listen to them otherwise, and they make sure if you walk out of the room you can still hear them. When I worked in radio, we talked to commercials. We were taught to give commercials about 10% faster than normal talking, because people will... it tricks the brain into listening.

Unless someone figures out what you're doing, then they just shut you off.

But it actually tricks the brain into listening. So, just the physical act of listening is a very difficult process. It takes concentration. But I'm talking about spiritual listening, the discipline of spiritual listening. Matthew 13. We'll talk about a few things you can do after we read this scripture to help you develop this spiritual listening.

Because you can come to services, and you can concentrate on listening, but if you have not prepared your heart with God, you're not going to get much out of it anyway.

You can come and listen, but if you're not doing a spiritual discipline of listening, now look at what Jesus says here about the parables he gave. Matthew 13, verse 10. Well, the passage, Now understand, Jesus Christ says here that God deliberately teaches people or communicates in a way that some people will not understand until He does something with their minds.

Now, we are all here today, either one, because we've just sort of made up a religion, or two, God has opened your minds to be here. I mean, there's only one or two things here, right? We all just sort of made this up. Or God is involved.

So, God is involved in your hearing and in your studying and in your reading.

Verse 12 says, But over time, they could even lose that.

Unless God is directly involved, directly involved. Therefore, I speak to them in parables, Jesus said, because seeing they do not see and hearing they do not hear and they do not understand. And to them, the prophecy of Isaiah fulfilled which says, hearing you will hear and shall not understand. And seeing you will see and will not perceive. For the hearts of these people have grown dull. They'll notice once again, why don't they hear? He says, because I'm going to talk to them in language they don't understand. Why is he talking to them in language they don't understand? Because their hearts are dull.

Christianity has become nothing more than sort of a dull exercise, you know, intellectual exercise.

All we can sort of explain why you don't have an immortal soul.

We can explain why you shouldn't keep Christmas.

But there's no motivation, there's no energy, there's no desire.

And so we go through this in sort of a ritualistic way and we come to church.

We have to make sure our hearts don't grow dull because as our hearts grow dull, our hearing will grow dull. And we will not hear what God is telling us.

Either in services or in our personal reading of the Bible.

Because if you're not personally reading the Bible, you're not going to get much out of services. Is that simple?

He says, once again, verse 15, For the hearts of these people have grown dull, their ears are hard of hearing, and their eyes they have closed, lest they should see with their eyes and hear with their ears, lest they should understand with their hearts and turn, so that I should heal them.

But blessed are your eyes, for they see, and your ears, for they hear.

For surely I say to you that many prophets and righteous men desired to see what you see and did not see, and to hear what you hear and did not hear.

And that can be said to us here. There are things that we understand that if you go back to people of the Old Testament, if you go back to people of the New Testament, there's things we know and understand about the Second Coming of Jesus Christ that you could see Paul didn't understand early in his ministry. It isn't get it yet.

We know, I mean, they didn't even have the book of Revelation. You think about all the things the book of Revelation gives us.

And Peter and Paul and James and Mary, they all died and never had the book of Revelation.

But John wrote it. Everyone else had died.

You and I have that book. You and I see things and hear things they wish they could have seen, they wish they could have heard. We have to exercise spiritual discipline. We have to be in the book throughout the week. We have to be on our knees before God. We have to ask for help and guidance and direction. And we have to have a willing heart to be submissive to what he teaches.

And I talked about submission last week. To submit to what God wants.

Some of the things you can do to exercise. Now, these are some very simple things. Spiritual discipline. Take notes. For many people, taking notes is a way of remembering and learning. At least look up the scriptures. Don't just come here and rely on the scriptures on the screen. That's an added benefit. And that's nice. But look up the scriptures where you know what's going on in the Bible. The Word of God you're interacting with directly.

Stay focused. Don't let yourself be distracted. That means don't text adoring services.

Turn the phone off. I know every once in a while someone forgets to turn your phone off. But just keep it off. I've been in church areas where there's one person that their phone rings two or three times a Sabbath service and they always get off and walk out.

When in the world are they doing so important that they're ignoring the meaning of God? That God called for them.

Keep your thoughts focused. When you find yourself drifting, I know sometimes you can find yourself being tired and exhausted. The Sabbath does that. You run all week, you stop, and you're tired. So try to make sure you get enough rest the night before. But still, I understand what happens on the Sabbath. You take all that stress off of us and what happens? We get tired. We get sleepy. But come prepared.

You know, if you find your mind drifting, you have to say, no. You have to actually talk to yourself. You don't have to self-speak. No, I'm less concentrate.

No, I'm not going to be worried about the fact that the stove broke down.

I'll take care of that tomorrow. No, I'm not going to worry about it.

No, I'm going to be here and I'm going to concentrate on God. I'm going to worship God.

I'm going to be in this book. I'm going to be with other people who believe this way.

I'm going to share this time. Sometimes you have to pray. God, help me to get concentrated here. My mind is wondering. I need you to. And, you know, in your mind, pray.

God, help me to get focused because my mind is wondering.

But we have to have the discipline of spiritual listening.

Number five, and sort of a little bit related here to number four, avoid the trap of thinking, today's messages aren't relevant to me. I already know this.

I don't think anybody's going to give you anything new from the pulpit.

We may have a new way of saying it, or we may bring out a point you haven't thought of, but there's no new doctrines. I don't have any new doctrines to bring you. Nobody does.

All we can help you do is understand it, grow in it.

But, you know, we know that the Ten Commandments are the Ten Commandments, the Holy Days are the Holy Days. We know that God's not a Trinity.

We know that Jesus Christ came this earth, died, was resurrected for our sins.

We know that we don't have an immortal soul. We know that you don't go to hell when you die.

We know that the heavens come to earth when the new Jerusalem comes down. I mean, we know we shouldn't eat pork. We know that we should, you know, marriage is ordained by God, and we need, you know, we should divorce. We can go through all the doctrines. So we can talk about them.

But there's a danger to becoming dull of hearing. In other words, we think this isn't relevant. You know, how many times have you said, oh, that's a sermon on marriage. I'm not married, so that sermon has no importance to me. It's not relevant. So you let your mind just go.

Or that sermon is about something I already know. So you let your mind just go.

We do that long enough when we become dull of hearing. In other words, we get to the place we're really not listening to anything. Look at Hebrews 5. Hebrews 5.

And of course, in the New Testament Church, they had to deal with all these same problems.

Hebrews 5 verse 11 says, breaking into the middle of a sentence here, he says, "...of whom we have much to say, and hard to explain, since you have become dull of hearing." Now, remember, he's writing to the church. He says, you know, you don't listen anymore to what God's doing. You're too, you know, sometimes we get, I've done this before, I'll be listening to a speaker. I'll be watching a speaker, and maybe he has some quirky thing, and all of a sudden I'm watching this quirky thing, and I'm paying to what he says. And of course, I've been here long enough, you know every quirky thing I have. Every quirky thing I do. And we get so caught up in these quirky things, or sense of humor, or lack of sense of humor, and he think he has a sense of humor. We get so caught up in those things, we become dull of hearing. And we're not listening to what God is telling us. We're letting the people get in the way. We can't let people get in the way. And he says here, there's much pulse that he wanted to tell these people, but he can't because they won't listen. Well, they listened, it was just dull. They picked up bits and pieces. It's not relevant anymore. I've heard this all before.

Verse 12, For though by this time you ought to be teachers, you need someone to teach you again the first principles of the oracles of God, and you have come to need milk and not solid food.

For everyone who partakes only of milk is unskilled as a word of righteousness, for he is a babe. But solid food belongs to those who are full of age, that is, those who by reason of use have their senses exercised to discern both good and evil. I read that verse about six weeks ago when I gave the sermon on discernment. We have to be able to tell the difference. But if we're dull of hearing, it doesn't mean we don't know. It's just, you know, it's like a song. You ever have a song that you really like, some, you know, some beach boy song for you old enough to know them or whatever, that you really liked. And you listen to it until you wore the eight track out.

How many of you don't know what an eight track is? Okay. Oh yeah, most of the young people are gone. So they're, okay, so they, you wore it out. I mean, I could remember listening to records until they scratched over and over and over again. You can listen to a song for years, though. One day you listen to it, it's like, oh man, do I hate that song. You've worn it out somehow in your brain.

Don't listen to it for five years, and then you come back and it's like, oh wow, I remember that song, and it's exciting again. When we get that way about the truth, it's just like a scratchy record.

We've heard it over and over and over again. We've read it over and over and over again, and it loses its impact. But we can't do that. What happens when we do that? Here's a very dangerous point. When we get to the place we're dull of hearing, so that the truth is just a scratchy record. It's a song we've heard over and over again. It's lost its impact, then we become a danger of this. 2 Timothy 4. 2 Timothy 4. Paul writes to the young minister, and he's giving him all these instructions. He gives him some instructions, and then he usually tells him why. So it's important to us, okay, if this is what this minister is being told, why is he telling it to him? In verse 2 of 2 Timothy 4, he says, preach the Word, teach it, preach it, try to pass it on, get people in the Bible, get people on their knees before God, like God be in these people's lives, preach the Word, be ready in season and out of season, convince, rebuke, exhort with all long suffering and teaching. So he encourages him to convince people to rebuke people, to exhort people. These are all different ways of motivating people. And he says, suffer long, care for them, suffer long with them, teach them. Then verse 3, instead of a discouraging statement, for the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine, but according to their own desires, because they have itching ears, they will heap up for themselves teachers, and they will turn their eyes away from the truth, and be turned aside to fables. They will turn their ears away from the truth and turn to fables. Now that's very important, to understand what happens here. We can become dull to hearing the truth because we know it, like that old worn-out record. So we look for a new song, and that new song is exciting again.

It makes us feel like we did when we heard the old song.

You ever have a group that you really liked, and then the group disbanded, and they came back ten years later with a new album, and you can't wait to get their album? Who was it? Someone here, someone was a real Eagles fan, and the Eagles came out with the new album here, what was it, five or six years ago, and they went and bought the album. They were so discouraged. It wasn't the old Eagles, it was the new Eagles. Same guys, but they didn't have quite the same sound.

But what happens is, I've got to find a new song.

I've got to find a new song. And if we're not careful, what we actually do with this itching ears for a new song is we actually move away from the truth. We move away from the truth, and we believe in fables. We believe in fables. We believe in things that are actually myths.

In other words, this is talking about false ideas and false doctrines that come along.

Why? Because I've got to have secret knowledge. I remember what it was like to get excited about knowledge, and I can't find that excitement anymore, so I've got to find other knowledge. And if we're not careful, we slide into a Gnostic idea that we have to have secret knowledge, forbidden knowledge that I know and nobody else knows, and that makes me special.

So don't become dull in hearing by believing, well, and I've heard this before, it's not relevant to me. Six point. This one's interesting, because I think we've all probably done this in one way or another.

You're sitting there in Sabbath services, and you've lost concentration on what's going on, because you're looking over and saying, thinking to yourself, I wish those people would learn how to get their kids under control.

Or you're thinking, Mr. So-and-so over there, I hope he's listening to this sermon, because he's such a hypocrite. Or, you know, oh, Mrs. dies her hair black and thinks nobody notices. She thinks we don't notice she's dying her hair black. In other words, we're sitting around judging everybody instead of listening. We're judging each other instead of listening. Remember, you are here because God chose you to come to the time and place of a meeting, to meet and worship Him. We're all here for the same reason. You're here. I'm here. We're all here because God said, I want you to come here and meet and worship me. And that's why we're here.

And we're all pretty much a group of messed up people.

You know, the church is a hospital where the spiritually sick.

And let's face it, if you end up spending much of the church service looking at everybody else and judging this person and judging that person, well, you know, I know that person over there.

Yeah, they used to be an alcoholic, and I hear they slipped off the wagon here a couple weeks ago.

I hear Mrs. Penny had to go talk to him.

Is that why we're here?

We're here to worship God with a bunch of other messed up people that God is healing, that God is working through. We have our sins and we have our problems. And on occasions, we have to ask somebody not to come or somebody leaves because of their sins or whatever.

And what does the Bible say? When anybody repents, we are to welcome them back lest we end up with the same problem. We are to welcome. We are to see each other for exactly what we are, flawed children of God, all given a privilege to come together and worship together and become His family. Look what Paul says in Romans 15. Romans 15 verse 5.

Romans 15 verse 5, Now may the God of patience and comfort grant you to be like-minded towards one another, according to Christ Jesus. May the God who is patient towards all of us, grant us the ability to be patient with each other, grant us the ability to care for each other, that you may be with one mind. The more the church of God is divided into competing groups, the less one mind it is, which means the farther we're moving away from Christ.

Any congregation that becomes just competing people, divided against each other, all that is is the proof that we're all moving away from Christ.

That you may with one mind and one mouth glorify the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ.

Verse 7 is fascinating the way Paul writes this and the way he gets translated into English.

Therefore, receive one another, accept one another, take one another, as Christ also received us to the glory of God.

So take Mrs. so-and-so with her haircut that looks like the bride of Frankenstein, and receive her, because Christ received you. And let's face it, you're not that snappy of a dresser.

Receive one another.

If we spend our Sabbath services sitting and just sitting around judging each other instead of receiving one another, then you're not going to have much of a Sabbath service. In fact, what's going to happen? You're going to go home feeling rather empty and probably a little angry, and you won't even know why.

And the more empty you become, the more angry you become, and the less ability you have to love your brothers and sisters, the more chance that you'll just one day say, I'm not going back.

It'll be easier to be empty than to come be at the meeting, the holy call of occasion, declared by God.

And then our last point.

Sabbath services is more than just the sermon and the singing and the prayer.

Sabbath services is a time of Christian fellowship and service. It is a time of Christian fellowship and service. Remember at the beginning, the little story I told about, you know, the suit of services are over, you get with a few people around you, you say, hey, how's those spurs doing, man? And you know, and you talk about, I was a hard day at work this week, and I'm not saying this, you know, I'm just saying a hard day at work, but I, you know, you talk about fluff stuff for a few minutes, and then you're out of here as quickly as you can. That's not entirely what the holy call of occasion is about.

We must serve each other. That's why, you know, almost everybody here, I know, even people who can't serve much, you know, there's widows here, and people who serve in one way or another. They're serving by praying for others. They're serving by being here and talking to people. They're serving by just being part of the congregation. They serve others, serve for hours and hours. There are people here an hour and a half before services helping set up.

There'll be people here trying to get the lights off at 2 or 3 o'clock in the afternoon, because everybody, I know, because every time I'm not going up to Austin, like today I have to go to Austin, I stayed on the last person here, and the poor person that's supposed to shut the building up is trying to shut the lights off, and it's 2 o'clock, 3 o'clock in the afternoon, and guess what? There's 40 people still here talking, but wanting to separate.

First John. First John. This is a very important passage, because I've seen congregations that came together on the Sabbath. People showed up 15 minutes before services. They had services. 20 minutes after services, there was nobody left. It sent a handful of people, and those people didn't even talk to each other during the rest of the week.

Sabbath services is a community of people who are a community of people all the time. We're not just a community of people on the Sabbath. We're just not a community of people two hours during the week.

We can't be that way, because that's not what we're supposed to be.

If we're all children in the same family, we're children in the same family.

And Sabbath services is that unique chance, because sometimes some of you live in places where you don't get to see anybody else in the church for much of the week.

This is our unique chance to spend time.

You know, my wife and I for years, when we get in the car, and we're driving to Austin, you know what we're talking about? Who was there? Who wasn't there? We'll try to add up who wasn't there. I hope so and so is not sick. Well, so and so hasn't been here for a couple weeks. You think they're okay?

First John 1, verse 5.

This is the message, John says, which we have heard from him and declared to you, that God is light, and in him there is no darkness at all.

If we say that we have fellowship with him and walk in darkness, we lie and do not practice the truth. Well, that's obvious. If you say, I'm a follower of Jesus Christ, I'm a follower of the Almighty God, but I feel, lie, commit adultery, and you know, and he says, you're just living in darkness. You're making a false claim because you're really not a follower of God.

Verse 6, because this isn't the end of his thought here. If we say we have fellowship with him and walk in darkness, verse 7, but if we walk in the light as he is in the light, now notice if you and I are walking in the light of God, this will happen. We have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus Christ, his Son, cleanses us from all sins. In other words, if we aren't at the congregation of family, then we're not walking in the light.

If, I mean, I can't get away from the brilliance of John's argument here.

If we walk in the light as he is in the light, we have. That's the result of it. Now, some of us are extroverts, and some of us are introverts, so I'm not saying we all just have the same relationship with each other, but we know we're part of this. We know we're part of each other. You know that if you get sick, somebody's going to call you. Or if you need help, you can call somebody and get some help. You know that. And you also know you're available to help when somebody needs some help. You're available because we have fellowship with each other.

Sabbath services is more than just a time of coming here to worship. It is a time to walk in the light with each other. It is a time for fellowship and service. You know, one of the ways you can help your children do this, by the way, first of all, during the week, if you have little children, though most of our little kids aren't here today, but what my wife did was during the week, at least three times a week, at the time of Sabbath services, there was quiet time. They had to get down on their blanket. She played church music. She was the old cassette player and read her Bible. By the way, mothers, that is one way you can get in some Bible stuff. They got used to it. They just got used to it.

And what was funny, you know, I can remember we went on a vacation and we were at Shenandoah National Park and there was no church, so we stayed in our cabin that Sabbath. And the kids were all upset. We had to have church. So one of them led songs and one of them gave the sermon at and Tim and I sat there and one of them gave the sermon and we said, you know, you girls realize that you can't actually give a sermon at church, but you can here in the family. So they had to have church because, well, Sabbath without church was just not very good. Now, it wasn't theologically really on, but it was it was okay. They had to have church services.

Their positive experience here depends a lot on the parents, you know, because the kids are going to say, oh, so and so stuck their tongue out of me. And you can say, yeah, I know one of the people stuck their tongue out of me, too. I mean, I mean, you can just get into this, this negativism. Or you can say, oh, sure, they're all people. They're having a bad day.

You know, send them an email, tell them, hey, hope you feel a better.

Our positive attitude reinforces how they see Sabbath service. One of the things you could do, too, is a way home in the car, instead of having, you know, once again, a whole conversation about the woman with the Frankenstein here. Have a conversation or, you know, or Roasted Roasted Minister Day or Roasted Who Gave the Sermanette Day or whatever. Roasted Man, that guy that gave the closing prayer. That's the longest closing prayer I've ever heard. You know, he rambled on and on. Why don't you say, ask your children, can any of you tell me what was one person in the Bible mentioned in the sermon or sermonette today? Or can you name one book of the Bible that was quoted today? Make a game out of it. Get them involved. Have them look forward to Sabbath services. What did you learn in Sabbath school? What's the little one? That's the most important thing you can do. Engage them. What did you learn? Because believe me, they'll want to tell you. They want to show you the whole thing they made. The rest of us can engage them, too. What did you learn in Sabbath school? We can engage them. Involve them in our Sabbath experience. We have what, 30 children here under the age of 18? Well, not all of them. I guess all the teenagers aren't children, but you know, 30 people under the age of 18. Those people have to be engaged in what we do.

You know, you and I can attend Sabbath services for years, and I've seen people attend Sabbath services for years and never receive the blessing that God intended them to receive. Just like I've seen people keep the Sabbath for years and hate it, and the first chance they get, they walk away from the Sabbath, which I don't understand, because this is a great blessing from God. But Sabbath services are a great blessing from God. Although there's times I told my wife, you know, oh man, two churches today, it's a 15-hour day, I just want to go back to bed, or you can't, you're the pastor. But it's a blessing. It affects the whole rest of the how we approach the Sabbath service, affects so much of the rest of the week, and our fellowship with each other. Take time during the week to review these seven steps.

And what you do, you will prepare your heart to meet and worship God on the day of His choosing, in the place of His choosing. And you will be prepared to receive His blessing of the Holy Convocation.