Shabbat Shalom

So I'll look at my watch here. No other announcements? Anybody's got anything? No. I wouldn't say, do you have any complaints? Because I'm not ready to open that up yet. So, for those who are historians, you might remember, I did because I was taught it in school, taught this in school. That the year was 1938. Neville Chamberlain was the Prime Minister of Britain, and he just made a trip and signed an agreement called the Munich Agreement. And he landed at the airport back in Britain as he signed this agreement with Germany, a peace agreement with Adolf Hitler. And his statement from that time, as he was standing getting off the airplane to all the reporters were there, and he made the statement, peace for our time. Now, many people have been mistranslated to peace in our time, but what he actually said was to tell everybody, we have peace for our time. And less than one year later, all of Europe was plunged into World War II. From the time he said that to the end of the war, a little over six years later, Britain lost over 450,000 men, women, and children. So, as we see, there was not peace for our time in 1938. I bring that up because sometimes we have a different opinion on peace. And so, I, from the title of the sermon today, which is Shabbat Shalom. Shabbat Shalom.

It is a phrase about peace. It is the most common greeting for Jews in Jerusalem and around the world, starting on Friday through Saturday at sundown. It is Hebrew for peaceful Sabbath or a Sabbath of peace. Now, we're not Jewish, nor do we want to be. We do not observe the Sabbath as the Jews or Jewish sects do. We have traditions in the Church of God, but we're not ruled by the traditions and customs as the Jewish faith and off branches of that are. Unlike Judaism, our worship is not ruled by ancient rules and practices. So, today, I want to ask you a question as you think about Shabbat Shalom. Shabbat Shalom. Is yours a Sabbath of peace? Is yours a Sabbath of peace? As did the Jews, as did Jesus Christ, as did the first century church, we observe the seventh day of the week. We keep the seventh day of the week, and hopefully we keep it holy.

I have given four sermons in the last three years on the Sabbath. This is number five. I will not go back and rehash the previous four. If you want to hear more, they're all on the internet, so you can if you're interested in that. So, we're going to go at a different area today, a different way to look at the Sabbath, perhaps, as you've never looked at it before. In Scripture, God tells His people to keep, to observe, and to worship on His Sabbath day. It's pretty clear-cut. Any theologian really is not willing to argue with you on that, because the Scriptures are pretty crystal clear that the Sabbath is a Sabbath is a Sabbath, and it has been for 6,000 years. They bring out that man had the authority to change that. I know that most of us disagree with that fact. Hopefully you do. But the Word of God contains, this Bible here contains a 4,000-year history of keeping the Sabbath by the followers of God. That is pretty crystal clear to most of us also. From this book, we know the seventh day is a Sabbath day, and the Sabbath day is the only day of the week given a name and not just a number. There are no other ones in this book. The first day is called the first, the second, the second, third, fourth, fifth, sixth, and it's also the seventh day, but most of the time you will find it to be the Sabbath. Sabbath day. God gives it a name. Significant? I think so. I think it's really significant, because here was his chance to name, put a name on any other day, and he didn't.

I think most of us understand, and I want to look at that today rather quickly, that you read this book about the Sabbath, and it tells us basically four things that comprise the Sabbath. You know, I'll go through that here. I'll change my page. For those in the back, having a hard time seeing it, these are the four. That says cease, cease to do. Okay, actually the Shabbat that we actually looked at means cease. Rest, desist, stop. There's another word. So it actually means don't work. I think we understand that. Sabbath, don't work. And then it comes down to rest. Where to rest. That's pretty clear. Where to rest physically. Where to rest mentally. And if I can use this phrase out of term, worldly. Where to rest from the world. Gives us a time to rest from this world. And then, number three, assembly. Assemble together to congregate. He says you should do that. He calls it a holy convocation, which in Hebrew actually means a gathering. It's a time to meet. And in fourth, he adds fellowship. You find it all through the New Testament. You find it in Paul's writing. As a matter of fact, Paul had a concordance one time, and look at the word fellowship. And see all the ways in which Paul and Peter and all those in the New Testament address how we should be doing fellowship. So I hope you feel like you come here to fellowship. Now, I think most of us already knew all this. Nothing new. Nothing new here at all. But I'd like to add a fifth element here today, and that's what this is about. And the fifth element is because we cease to do. We rest. We assemble. We fellowship. And those are all actions that we take. In fact, you can actually... this is a conjugate verb, but you could actually say that all of them are action words or verbs. That's what we do. I want to look at something entirely different today. I want to add to or build upon these four things that the Scriptures tell us to do. And this is actually a noun. Number five. Okay? Number five is... ... Peace! Peace!

As a matter of fact, peace means it's a state of being. It's not what we do, as these others are. It's actually what encompasses. What should surround this? Because many of you, you have ceased to do something on the Sabbath, and you didn't have any peace. And was it really a joy? No. Rest? You can actually rest. But if you got this stuff in your head, you got stuff going on in your life, guess what? Not much peace, not much of a Sabbath. You can come together.

Unless you have peace, it's not truly a godly Sabbath. Fellowship! You can come in, all this is great. But if there's dissension in your heart, if there's friction, if there's things going on in the congregation, have you really kept the Sabbath the way God intended for it to be? Like you turn to Philippians, like you turn to Philippians, and I'll read from the New King James. Philippians 4 and verse 6, most of you know it. Philippians 4 and verse 6 says, Be anxious for nothing, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving, let your request be known to God. And, that's where we go, and what happens? And the peace, the peace of God, which he makes this incredible statement here to the Philippians. He says, this peace of God that we're to have, okay, this peace of God, actually surpasses all understanding. You can't grasp it. You do not realize it. Surpasses all understanding will guard your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus. It has to be done. This is a peace that can only be given by Jesus Christ. It's his peace that he's giving us.

And most of us in here have experienced it. Except not enough, have we? I've experienced it, but it's never been enough. Isn't that interesting? He says, be anxious for nothing. You know, when I really haven't had peace, when I've had anxious thoughts, when I'm worried about this, I'm worried about that, and then I find out later, there was nothing really to worry about.

But I did anyway. I lost the peace. I lost the peace on the Sabbath. It's interesting that the Greek word for anxious in the Greek, it means a divided mind, a divided mind. When you're anxious for something, I say, oh, I wonder if that's going to happen. Oh, I wonder if this is going to happen.

Oh, what if this happens? It's a divided mind. God did not intend for us to have divided minds, especially on his Sabbath day. And that's why I want to bring this out. Matter of fact, I'll turn over here to Philippians. I'll read from the, it's because I want to touch base on it, Philippians from the New Living Translation. And it actually says, don't worry about anything.

Instead, pray about everything. Tell God what you need and thank him for all he has done. And then it says, then you will experience God's peace, which exceeds anything we can understand. And then this point that I want to bring in, his peace will guard your hearts and your mind as you live in Christ. It's very important. This peace is what God wants us to have.

Now, when I go back to Shabbat Shalom, Shabbat means to cease, to stop, as we talked about earlier. Shabbat Shalom. But I want to talk about Shalom. Now, in case any of you say, oh well, we're going back to the Hebrew roots movement. No, we're not. And they're done all that stuff. And for those who want to praise and say, oh yes, we need to learn all this Hebrew and all this kind of stuff. Well, no, when Christ comes, he's what? There's a whole new language. There's going to be a different language.

We don't even know! Because this, every language here is so corrupt, there's going to be a pure language, as it's called. So it'll all be new. But we can learn now, because this is kind of what he gives us, the Hebrew which was preserved, and also the New Testament in Greek. And so, when you look at some of these words, we can learn something from it, because this is what he inspired for us. So I want to look at the word Shalom. Here? I'm good. Now, Shalom has the more literal meaning of being in a state, because that's where peace, you know, we're talking about a peaceful state.

What I'd like you to look at is that it actually means being in a state of wholeness, being in a state of completeness. So what's he saying? He wants us to come to the Sabbath to be back whole. It helps complete us when we have God's peace in our life. And many of you have experienced that quite a few times, where you just, boy, I wish this day could go on forever. I don't feel, I'm not stressed, I'm not worried about anything.

Wow! Your mind is totally at peace. There was a movie quite a few years ago, I can't remember what year it came out, it was a movie called Jerry Maguire, and had Tom Cruise in it. And it made one famous movie, movie's not really that memorable, but it had one line that was very memorable, that everybody remembers as he is telling this woman, as he's trying to win her over, or whatever it was. And and so he looks at her and he says, you complete man. You're about to say the word. She knows the movie, she's mouthing, you complete man.

Brethren, the Sabbath day is about God completing us. The four steps are great, they're a part of it. But the final step is a fifth, a bringing Shalom, the peace, God's peace to a Sabbath day, something that we need. See, the peace of God on his Sabbath, it not only completes us, it tells us something about ourselves. It tells us we kind of like, we kind of like being attached through his spirit to something bigger than all of us.

And it does surpass anything our minds can comprehend. Only God, only his peace, and if I can say that only on his Sabbath day.

He wants to make us whole. Now, can he give you peace at other times? Yes. But there's something significant that's brought out in Hebrews 12 that we won't go through about a, on God's Sabbath day, it's actually called a festal gathering. Ten thousand times in thousands and thousands and thousands come together at this special time, his Sabbath. And there's a peace here.

Or should be.

One scholar said the phrase, Shabbat Shalom, means may your day of no work be peaceful.

May you be made whole today. May you be made whole today. Do we want to be made whole? We want to be made complete because that's what this means. And it carries importance because actually in Judges 6 chapter, God is actually called Lord Shalom. The Lord of Peace.

That's one of his titles. It's what he's about. Is it any wonder why Galatians 5 22 list what peace up there? It's part of that spirit. It's part of what makes God God because he is the Lord of peace. And that's all he wants. That's all he's wanted for six thousand years is to have peace. And he's going to have it. He's going to bring it here. And there will be a time, as we all celebrated the feast and understood that. I'd like you to turn to Numbers 6.

Number six. I'll read this from the New Living Translation. Number six in verse 22. Then the Lord said to Moses, Tell Aaron and his sons to bless the people of Israel with this special blessing. Why he wanted his people who were following him at that time to understand about this peace.

And it says, may the Lord bless you and protect you. May the Lord smile on you and be gracious to you. May the Lord show you his favor and give you his peace. So there's something we think we know what peace is now. God has a peace that he wants to give to us, us to have and to use. That's why Psalm 34, we sing a song about Psalm 34 verse 14, says, seek peace and pursue it. That's his peace. Now we see people who, they don't even seek worldly peace. They don't even seek the peace of this world. They're just always in conflict. You may work with some. You may live with some.

And that's sad. But God has called us above the human realm and said, I want you to have my peace. Something that makes you whole, something that makes you complete, because you're not complete, obviously, without it.

Psalm 34 from the New Living. Psalm 34, New Living translated, just puts it just a little bit differently. It says, turn away from evil and do good. It says, turn away from evil and do good. Search for peace. God's peace. Search for peace and work to maintain it. How often do we do that? Do we want God's peace in our life? You know, our English word, peace, came from actually a French word from the 1300s. And you know what it meant? Absence of war. There's a real matter. Peace, our English word, means absence of war. And basically, that is God's definition. I mean, that is man's definition, definitely not God's.

Even though we do all like absence of war, there's more to it than that. God's peace is more than does not war. It's about a state, a state of being.

God's word in Hebrew, shalom, in the Arabic or Aramaic, is salaam. And I've heard the phrase, salaam alaikum. Alaikum salaam. And it's used in the Arab world quite often. About peace. How much peace is over there?

Not much.

Brethren, I hope we can try to grasp what God is wanting us to not only do on the Sabbath, but the state he wants us in on his Sabbath.

Every seventh day, I need completeness. Every seventh day, I need to be made whole again.

Tom Cruise might have been completed by Rene El-Zawayr, but that doesn't work for me. I need the Sabbath day. I need to be completed by God. I'd like to turn, if you will, to John 14. Something that's so important. This aspect of peace was so important to God and to Jesus Christ. Before he left his disciples, he wanted them to have something. So let's go to John 14.

John 14.

And verse 27.

He says, Peace I leave with you. My peace I give you. Not as the world gives, do I give to you. See, we're not talking about the peace of the world. This is the peace of God. This is the actual fruit, not only of the Spirit, but it's the essence of God. It's what he's about. He's about peace. And that's why it has to depress him so much to look down at this earth and see his children not having peace. Not having peace at all.

He says, Peace I leave with you. My peace I give to you. Not as the world do I give it to you. Let not your heart be troubled, neither let it be afraid. A new living translation actually said, I give you a gift, my peace. That's why he said, the Holy Spirit is a gift, you can't earn it. God wants us to have this peace on his Sabbath that we don't have. Like to turn over to John 16. John 16, verse 33. As he mentions this again, he says, These things I have spoken to you, that in me you may have peace. You may have peace. In the world you will have tribulation, but be of good cheer. I have overcome the world. Only in Christ will we have peace. The kind of peace that we're talking about here. And he wants us to have that such powerful work. Because we have to understand, this peace, God's peace, it's out of this world. It's not of this world. That's what he said. It's past any of our understanding. We don't understand it. Because it's of God. And the only way we can understand the things of God is by God, revealing that to us. Bringing it into our lives.

Maybe we need to pray more. Pray more for that peace. It's interesting in the New Testament. The Greek word for peace is iron-A. Iron-A. It's actually spelled E-R-R-E-N-E. But it's pronounced iron-A. And it actually means, in the Greek, Greek, a state of tranquility. State of tranquility. So this is what Jesus Christ was saying through the Greek. He wants us to have this incredible state of mind, state of living, state of being, this wholeness being complete. And he gave us a time where we could have it. He gave us the seventh day of the week. Because, honestly, when we work or we have this stuff we have to do six other days, it's hard to have it.

And he knows that so many of us need the Sabbath day. How many times you get home on Friday and it's like, you're just a tired old dog, right? You're worn out. You've been beat on, beat up, harassed, wrang, you name it. The world has done it to you.

Jesus Christ understood because he lived here 33 years on this earth. He understands a little bit because he lived for billions, not trillions of years before he came here. And he understood all about this peace that he and the Father had. And he said, at last, not only did I long for the peace that we had, the oneness that we were, I look forward to that.

I'd like to go, if you will, to the book of Mark.

Book of Mark. And let's go to the second chapter. Jesus Christ makes something, and I hope you will enjoy this, and I hope you'll, if nothing else, you'll write this section down so that you can go back and look at it because I want you to. Because this is, to me, transforming truth. For us. That I was never really taught before. I was never really taught about this. I never was focused on it quite this way. And it happens in this Mark in the second chapter. And we see there that Jesus Christ and his disciples went through a grain field. And they plucked some of the heads of grain and was eating them. And it looks like it was probably for breakfast. Okay? And the Pharisees, what they were doing in the grain field, I don't know, but Pharisees were right there.

And what did they say? And the Pharisees said to him, look, why do they do what is not lawful on the Sabbath? So here was the Sabbath. And these Pharisees, oh look, look what they did. But look at the calm, the peace that is in Christ. Because it's said in verse 25, and he said to them, get out of grain field! Leave us alone!

Did did he? He's an example. And he said to them, have you never read what David did when he was in need and hungry? He and those with him? How he went into the house of God in the days of Abiathar, the high priest, and ate the showbread, which is not lawful to eat, except for the priests, and also some to those who were with him. And he said to them, the Sabbath was made for man, not man for a Sabbath. Not what it says, does it? You have to remember, Greek's pretty specific. It says, the definite article, the Sabbath was made for man, and not man for, not a Sabbath, the Sabbath, definite article, the. Clarifies what day it's supposed to be on. Out of the mouth of God, crystal clear. For the Son of Man, the only Son of Man, the only Son of God, is also Lord of what? The Sabbath. What he was telling them to them to realize, guys, I made this. I'm over it. I'm just saying. Sorry, guys, you're a little off here. That was not my intention for all your rules and regulations, 600 different ways to break the Sabbath.

And then, it goes down and he says in chapter 3 in verse 1, and he entered the synagogue again and a man was there who had a withered hand. Ever seen anybody with a withered hand? A hand that's not any good? Used to be a guy that used to go into a store and he had this job and his hand was just like this. He couldn't use it. He'd try to stick something up under here and it was all he could do to, you know, job. So, it was not something that, it's not something you would want to wish on anyone. But obviously, he was a man and he had been in this condition a long time. This was the Sabbath day and he came to worship as God had instructed. Okay? And he did all these four! But he didn't have five. Could he? Now, could you? He wasn't whole. He wasn't complete. And Christ was about to change that.

And there he had a withered hand and they watched him closely. Who? The cornfield Pharisees. No, it wasn't corn. The corn wasn't there. Greenfield Pharisees, if I want to say that. Here they came. So, here they are in the synagogue. And they watched him closely whether he would heal him on the Sabbath so that they might what? Accuse him. See? The Pharisees did these. The Pharisees did these four, brethren.

But they definitely didn't do peace, did they? They weren't complete. They weren't whole. That's why it says, unless your righteousness exceeds that of the Pharisee, you will by no means enter the kingdom of God. It's more than just these.

It's a state of being.

Yes, this is different. Yes, this is deep. Yes, this is about changing your life. This is about asking God to give you this. Not just, get up and more. I think I'll have peace today. Doesn't work out. Not God's peace.

They said they watched him closely whether he would heal him on the Sabbath so they might accuse him. Then he said to the man who had the withered hand, step forward.

And he said to them, so Christ knew exactly what he was doing. And so he told the man with his withered hand, step forward. And he said to them, is it lawful on the Sabbath to do good or to do evil?

To save a life or to kill. Now, they were the teachers of law. Here was their chance to say, Hey, let me tell you.

They didn't. They kept silent.

And what happened next? So when he had looked around at them with anger, so all of a sudden, did Jesus Christ lose his peace? Here it is, the Sabbath. Did he lose his peace?

No, because he got to actually see what they were about. Here was this man like this. He had a chance to say for them, because they knew he could heal. They'd already seen it. And so he was wanting them to say, to do good. That's what the Sabbath is about. But they weren't about to do that. They would rather see this man walk around like this than to agree with Christ. Sad. And so he looked around at them with anger, being what? Grieved at the hardness of their heart. Haven't you been that way before when you saw somebody so mistreated? And you're like, people wouldn't treat a dog that way. Look how they're treating other human beings. God, have mercy. Help them. Help them.

At the hardness of their hearts. Look where it was.

And he said to the man, stretch out your hand. And he stretched it out, and his hand was restored as whole as the other one. And then what happened? Here, the Pharisees who had all these four down paths, right? They did what? Verse 6. Then the Pharisees went out and immediately plotted with the Herodians. They couldn't stand the Herodians, but they decided to plot against how they might destroy or as one tries to kill him. They answered his question. Is it good to do good or to kill? Heal or kill? With them, what's in their heart? Kill. Kill. They had no peace. They had no peace. They had no wholeness. And it was the Sabbath. Because we can all say, hey, we've all had those days, right? Where we're cut off in traffic. We're running late. We get a fine for this. We've had this problem. We've, you know, man, I got a bill coming in here, and now they put on this extra charge. I've got this problem, and the car just broke down, and we've had this and this and this and what? You kind of don't have a lot of peace. And you might be just, I'm just frustrated. Maybe even worse than that. But that's not the Sabbath. See, the Sabbath is special. Sabbath is where God says, I know you're going to go through this. Why? Because Christ went through it. Every day, these Pharisees, scribes, you know, beat up on Christ, tried to find something wrong, tried to kill, and he knew they were trying to kill him. That they'd walk to it, and all he wanted to do, did he say, oh, oh, Bobby, you die? No. All he wanted to do was them to change. He wanted them to have a soft heart, to bring some peace in their life. And he was that peace personified. See, he didn't strike out at them.

He just reached out and said, stretch out your hand.

You know, in Christ's time on earth, he made a lot of people whole. Read the three and a half years with all we have, and even John says, there's not enough books. We haven't even told everything Jesus Christ is. Not enough books to contain all the things we saw. How many healings? How many thousands? Tens of thousands? Was it 100,000 people he may have healed? Don't know. I know they were standing in line, and they were, they, they, they would not eat for days just to get to him. Made a lot of people whole. And some of his most impressive healings took place on the Sabbath. He gave people peace they had never had before. That man, do you think he, that, that poor guy with a withered hand, you know, all those years he was a grown man coming in there, and he lived like this. Hey, can you, I mean, just think about that tonight. When you take off your clothes, or you try to put on clothes. How's it with one hand? Can you imagine eating? He had to just eat like this. And if he could find a job, what did a one-armed man, I mean, you're like, well, why would I hire one arm when I can get two for the same price? You can't even pick up anything. Was he, was he left to beg him? Or just, what happened? One Sabbath. One Sabbath that forever changed his life, as his hand reached out. I said, stretch out your hand. Stretch out your hand. And I imagine the man's like, what? But he saw those eyes, and he knew, stretch out my hand. When we looked at Christ, we need to see those eyes. We need to see the eyes of Christ in here that changes our lives. That's what's important. That's what's big. That's faith, incredible faith. That's where that peace comes from. That incredible peace. See, God created the Sabbath as a benefit and blessing for his people.

And the Pharisees, what did they do? Sadducees? They turned God's gift into a burdensome obligation.

Lord of the Sabbath. Hmm. I bring this out because there's something unique. The story in Mark is just touched on a little bit. But that's one of the things that I would like you to take home tonight, because we're just about done this afternoon. I'd like you to turn over with me to Matthew. Matthew 12.

That's what no one really brought up to me before. I studied it and studied it, and I went through Matthew quite a few years ago. And, you know, we all kind of have our vision of the Sabbath day, and God doesn't really say, well, you should do this, you shouldn't do that. He just says, don't work, rest, assemble, come together, congregate. And then he references that we need to fellowship.

But then we need to have some peace that only he can give. But I always wondered, what would it be like if I could take this Sabbath and be transported like these movies that transport you back in time? What would it be like if I could be transported back to a Sabbath with Jesus Christ? What would I learn? If I could just spend one 24-hour period of time with Jesus Christ, would that forever change my life? Would that forever change my life? I think so. What about you? Would it change your life if you got to see? Because Mark just touched us a little bit on what happened on this Sabbath. Grain, withered hand.

The miraculous thing is, God did not leave us ignorant. He gives us this chance, and it's only in this, if you find something different, let me know. But I've spent months and months studying this, and this is the only place I can find in all the Scripture that gives us a morning to evening. 24 hours are a full day, the Sabbath day, with Jesus Christ. Almost everything he does. It takes up the entire day. And it gives us a chance to know what he taught, what was his mindset, how they acted, and it takes place in Matthew 12, the entire chapter, and it goes into Matthew 13, and goes almost to the end of the chapter. As a matter of fact, in Matthew 13, it goes all the way to verse 52. Verse 52. So here, you get a chance to read a day in the life of Jesus Christ on the Sabbath. You get to see what he taught, you get to see how he acted, how he reacted, and the peace. And the peace. But Matthew 12 and verse 15, we see that he has already been through the grain field, he's already healed the man. And then verse 15, it says, but when Jesus knew it, that the Pharisees were going out to destroy, try to destroy him, he withdrew from there and great multitudes followed him and they did what? He healed them. He healed on the Sabbath, made a lot of people whole, brought a lot of peace to a lot of people's lives. Except there was no peace in the Pharisees' minds. There was no peace in the Pharisees' hearts, was there? But I'm sure they said, as has been quoted and written and rewritten for thousands of years, Shabbat Shalom. Shabbat Shalom. Shabbat Shalom. I'm sure they said it. They just never experienced it. Because you can't. And yet they were trying to teach the Lord the Sabbath how to keep the Sabbath. If you get the opportunity or want to, and hopefully you will, because I've read this dozens of times now just because it's so inspiring, because I get a few sentences and I get to see exactly what Christ did, how he said these things, how his mind was, how everything went on during that day. That we get nowhere else in the Bible. It's inspiring. Teaches us. Incredible, incredible opportunity. So is there peace in your heart on the Sabbath?

What about it?

Well, let me ask you this question. Is Satan's goal to take your peace on God's Sabbath?

Ever had your peace taken by Satan? By the world which is his? Right? Ever had tensions build up? Anxious thoughts enter your mind when you're saying, I'm going to keep the Sabbath. I'm not going to worry about this. Bam! Here it comes. And you try to put out your mind, bam! Here it comes again.

How about arguments? We've had it before. Not in a long time, but the Sabbath. It just... no reason. She just did something that irritated me. I was getting angry. Nothing big. She was running two minutes late. And so I'm about to lose my peace on the Sabbath. Because I have allowed that in my mind and in my heart. I've allowed Satan. How about bizarre things happening just before the Sabbath? Fridays? Just things go crazy. You've got everything. Boy, I'm going to have a nice piece of them. Boom! This happens. This happens. This happens. Or your mate, just all of a sudden, they come in and have a bad day. And you're sitting there going, it was pretty good till you showed up. Right?

And I realize it because Mary goes, why are you moody today? I'm not moody. I'm fine. Right? That's what happens. Satan wants to take your peace. He has no peace in his life. Never have. There's been conflict ever since he fell, since him that he was found in him. So the only peace he can have is yours, if you allow him to take it.

So is he going to go? There we go. Okay.

I bet I can take her peace. God's plan on the Sabbath is about wholeness, making you whole, making you complete, having that sense of peace and tranquility that he designed. That's a part of him. Satan's design is to have constructive or destructive negative mindset. That's it. Look at it. I don't have to throw something. I just put a negative thought in their mind.

And then once that negative thought, they'll take it, they'll take it, and they'll take it to church, and then they can spread that. Is that a beautiful plan? Fallen angels? Yeah! Go, Ross! You see? We control that. And I gave us the Spirit. He gave us his peace. We can't allow Satan to take our peace, especially on the Sabbath, because that's the day at the end of the week. It's not the first day of the week. It's the last day of the week. I'm going to make you whole so that then you can go on for six more days and come back, and I'll make you whole again by giving you this peace that you can't get anywhere else. And it's amazing. In the 20th chapter of Ezekiel, it's actually mentioned twice, just in that and other places, that the Sabbath is a sign between God and his people.

You know what? I read that in Ezekiel, and there's other places, and I realized it's a big deal to God! This is a big deal! That the Sabbath is a sign between his followers and him. He says, wait a minute, there's going to be a certain time, a 24-hour period time at the end of the week, and I don't even got places that my people are going to come together, and guess what? They're going to have some peace. You know, Jesus Christ came to model. Bet you didn't know. He came to model. He didn't come to model underwear, or not the latest cloak. He didn't come to model the most expensive or comfortable new leather sandals that they had. He came to model behavior. He came to model not only behavior, but righteousness. He was teaching, just live like this, and that's why it's so amazing in Matthew 12 and 13. We get to see his thoughts, his words, everything, and what he did during the Sabbath. And you'll find he was attacked. He was this, but he never lost it.

He had a peace. His peace. And that's where he came to model. His peace. And that's what he wanted to... Because you can imagine, okay, here, they're eating grain. He's attacked by there, but he didn't lose it by the Pharisees. Okay, then he goes in about the withered hand. He goes in there, and then comes out, and his disciples had to have known that what? That the Pharisees hooked up with the Herodians, and they were trying to destroy him. There he knows that. And you know these people. What do you... How do you think Peter was? Here, let me... Let me... Let me get them. How dare they talk about you that way, Christ? Remember James and John wanting to call fire down from heaven?

You see? But Christ set the example. They were with him. They saw as he calmly gave scripture, as he calmly confronted the things that came in front of him, as he calmly healed, as he made so many people whole. What a credible example.

Matthew 12 and 13, they kind of teach us how to act. Model, kind of the wholeness of a man. Sabbath behavior was modeled. I'd like you to observe it, to read it, and to study it. And see the peace that Christ brought in the face of even adversity. Can you imagine if we were just like here and you were able to heal? That there were so many people and they wanted to touch you. Just touch your garment and thousands and thousands thronged around you. You couldn't even eat and people, oh please, please, please, blind people. I mean, after a while, wouldn't you think your mind would just go, give it a break, people?

But he did get away occasionally. And he said he went up into the mountains, out by the water. He needed a little peace, but on the Sabbath, he had peace. And you see incredible stories all through the four Gospels, because it lists so many times that it was a Sabbath day. Study those. See how the whole man lived on the Sabbath day. As Hebrews 4 teaches us, and I covered that once before, there is a coming, there's coming to this earth for all mankind, a thousand-year Sabbath. It's mentioned in Hebrews 4. That Sabbath will be ruled by whom? A prince of peace. We get a foretaste every seven days in here and in here of the kind of peace that will exist in the millennium. It's our chance. He gives us a foretaste. And he even explains it very profoundly in Hebrews 4. And I find that interesting because Hebrews 4 is written to whom? The Hebrews who thought they had it all with these four.

On the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus Christ, as I wrap up this sermon now, He was telling people what it was going to take to be in the kingdom of God, to make it, telling his followers. And He gave that in the Beatitudes. Matthew 5, verse 9, He said, what? Blessed are the peacemakers, blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall be the sons of God. Are you a peacemaker? Are you a peace lover? One that wants to have this wholeness, this completeness?

And I can honestly say, if you have no peace, why would God want you around for a millennium? Why would He want you around a thousand years? He must have put up with you for eternity. When the whole world is going to have peace, going to have His peace? That's why it's so important that we practice, that we exhibit it now, and we experience it. Shabbat Shalom. Every Sabbath.

It was kind of like the old Seinfeld show used to be. He used to have a guy called the Soup Nazi. I don't know if you ever heard of him. Do you remember him? No soup for you. Well, guess what, brethren? No peace, no kingdom for you. I think it's pretty obvious.

For six days, this world stresses us, fragments us, distorts us, and even angers us. But then He gives us a Sabbath day. That's Sabbath day. God's Sabbath is about peace. It's about being complete. It's about being made whole. There's you. There's God. There's His Sabbath. The only thing that's missing is that peace.

Neville Chamberlain was looking for peace and couldn't find it. The world today is looking for peace and cannot find it. Brethren, the Sabbath is truly the peace for our time.