In the sermon 'Spending the Day That Belongs to the Lord,' Jason Dohm explores the significance of the Lord's Day, drawing from Revelation 1:10 and the fourth commandment. He emphasizes the importance of setting apart this day for restful worship and highlights its historical acceptance in the church. Dohm discusses how the day belongs to the Lord and is given to believers for their blessing and stewardship. The sermon outlines five key considerations: the requirement of setting apart one day for worship, the prohibition against work, what the commandment teaches about God's provision, human failure to obey, and Jesus' perfect obedience of the Sabbath. Dohm stresses the need for practical applications to observe the Lord's Day, such as claiming the promise of Isaiah 58:13-14 and finding replacements for restricted activities. He encourages leaders of households to take responsibility in directing their families towards delight in God and suggests that the day should be a 'love-o-meter' for spiritual growth.

Good morning. The title of our sermon this morning is, Spending the Day that Belongs to the Lord. I'm picking up on the phrase from Revelation 1, 10. John, the Apostle John was in the Spirit on the Lord's Day, meaning the day that belongs to the Lord. He is the great subject of that day.

He owns it, he claims it, and it is a continuation of a day given to the Lord's people for their blessing and their benefit. There also comes a stewardship with it. It's a gift that comes with a stewardship. It belongs to him and he's given it to us for certain purposes and he intends us to remember that day, to observe it, and to spend it for the purposes that he's established. So this is really the question on the table.

How are we going to spend that day? There's a day that belongs to the Lord, he's laid claim to it, he's given it to us as a gift. How are we going to spend it in a way that honors him? We're in the final week, week five of our series within a series. Normally we're spending two weeks per commandment, but on this one this is our fifth week.

And next week we'll be moving on to the fifth commandment honoring father and mother. And I'm already well into my studies for that and I'm looking forward to getting to the fifth commandment next week. I was sifting back through sermons I've preached in the past on the Lord's Day, and here's one of the applications that I found in one of those old sermons. I think it was something I preached in 2015, so it's not very new. It was this, rejoice that you are in a mainstream church.

You were just born in the wrong century. This is an unusual teaching today. The majority opinion is not what We've been teaching over the last four weeks and continuing to teach today. But for the first 1800 years of church history, it would have been overwhelmingly accepted, would have been the majority view, and wouldn't have been controversial at all. So in that sense, think of yourself as being in a mainstream church, just the last 10% of church history.

There's been a shift to where it is the minority view now, but that is not true looking back to the times of Jesus and the Apostles and those who came after them. So as we go to our subject today, which is really applying, how do we spend this day that God has given us, let's ask for help. God, we do ask for help. Please help us. Please help us to know how to be good stewards of this gift that you've given to us.

It really is a precious gift to have been given rest and an opportunity to worship in a focused way that causes us to draw near in a way that we couldn't if we didn't have the time to focus. So God, now please enter into the preaching to help us. Move us forward through preaching. Pray this in Jesus' name. Amen.

Well I want to begin by going back to what we've done for the other commandments up to this point, which was we established a pattern of five different considerations. We've departed from that pattern to elongate it for the Sabbath Day commandment. But let me run through, and obviously I'm doing now in the next five minutes what I've been doing in two weeks. So it's at a very summary level, but the content is pulled out of the four weeks that have already gone before us, so we certainly don't need to belabor the point. Now, one, what the fourth commandment requires, So if you're taking notes on the handout, requires, fills in the blank.

What does the fourth commandment require? It requires setting apart one day in seven for restful worship. Setting apart, consecrating unto God the day that he claimed for himself. It's the Lord's day, one day in seven for restful worship. He wants you to rest and it is a day unto his honor.

So these two things are joined together in the day and not to be separated. Setting apart one day and seven for restful worship. Two, what the fourth commandment forbids. What is the fourth commandment holding us back from? Working or causing others to work on that special day?

So 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." So we don't work on that day that the fourth commandment forbids working or causing others to work. You nor your son nor your daughter nor your male servant nor your female servant nor your cattle not even your piece of burdens are to work on that day, nor the stranger who was within your gate. So in whatever sphere of authority, whatever authority you've been given, you're to secure rest for those around you. The New Testament and Jesus' clash with the Jewish leaders makes it clear that Acts of mercy are not forbidden by the fourth commandment. They never were.

They weren't in Jesus' time. They aren't today. And that acts of necessity are not forbidden. They never were. They weren't in Jesus' time.

They weren't now. So, acts of mercy and acts of necessity are completely appropriate and even needful on every day of the week including the Lord's Day. Three, what the fourth commandment teaches about God. So teaches fills in the blank if you're taking notes on the handout. Here's what it teaches about God, among many other things, but again I'm in summary form now.

He knows what we need. Remember, I quoted this last week. James quoted it the week before. Mark 2.27. The Sabbath was made for man, not man for the Sabbath.

God didn't make us to serve the Sabbath, he made the Sabbath to actually be a blessing for us. In a sense, The Sabbath serves us. The Sabbath was made for man as a gift for man to be a blessing to mankind. God knows what we need. He knows that our bodies and minds need rest.

So he gives us a day to rest and he tells us to remember that day, to observe that day. And God knows that our souls need worship and that worship will be neglected in your life. Worship will not be what it ought to be in your life unless there is a day consecrated, set off to the side for God's purposes to focus on feeding our souls and worshiping this God. Our bodies and minds need the rest and our souls need the worship and God has given us a day for those things. He knows what we need.

He provides what we need. Four, how we have failed to obey the fourth commandment. Of course, a lot of what we'll be talking about all through the sermon today will be that. But in summary form, we miss the day. We miss the Lord's Day.

Or we cheat the day because we are chasing our own ways. I have to work! I won't have what I want or I need if I don't work every day. Or we're chasing our own pleasures. So we can miss the day altogether but more likely we cheat the day chasing our own ways feeling like we have to work either from greed or from fear or we're chasing our own pleasures.

We think it's just a day to do whatever we're inclined towards and not that it's a consecrated day to draw near to our God. Five, how the Lord Jesus has perfectly obeyed the Fourth Commandment. So perfectly fills in the blank if you're taking notes that way. Though Jesus was accused of being a Sabbath breaker by the Jewish leaders, That was never true. He lived a perfectly blameless, sinless life which makes him an acceptable substitute to God so he never broke the Sabbath in any way.

He always perfectly kept it and he corrected and freed the Sabbath from the wrong views that acts of mercy weren't acceptable, or the acts of necessity weren't acceptable. He freed us from a ball and chain that had been attached to the Sabbath which was never intended, never part of the actual commandment as God had given it to us. So not only did he perfectly keep it, he cleared away the wrong thinking and the legalism that had grown up around the keeping of the Sabbath that kept the Sabbath from being a blessing and made it a boat anchor. Now, applications for us to consider. I'm going to give you 8.

I'm going to give you 8. 1. This comes in a form of exhortation. I exhort you brethren. Lay claim to and hold of the conditional promise of Isaiah 58 verses 13 and 14.

Go ahead and turn there and I'll repeat that while you're turning there. Isaiah 58 verses 13 or 14. Lay claim to, that's mine, you're claiming it, and hold of, I'm going to grab hold of and and put into practice this conditional promise I'm going to do my part of the conditional promise so that I get the benefit promised in Isaiah 58 verses 13 and 14. I argue that Isaiah 58, 13 and 14 changes your mindset about this day and it reclaims it as a blessing, as something to be pursued in order to gain from it. It's not a burden at all, but it is a blessing.

Isaiah 58 verses 13 and 14. Follow along. If you turn away your foot from the Sabbath from doing your pleasure on my holy day, call the Sabbath a delight, the holy day of the Lord honorable, and shall honor Him not doing your own ways nor finding your own pleasure nor speaking your own words Then you shall delight yourself in the Lord, and I will cause you to ride on the high hills of the earth and feed you with the heritage of Jacob your father, the mouth of the Lord has spoken." How sweet. How sweet. You get the promise of more God here.

You want more God? Here's how you can get more God. You uphold your part and There is a conditional promise when you uphold your part, you get the gain that the mouth of the Lord has spoken. I don't know about you, but I want this to be my orientation regarding all the applications today. Let it be your orientation that you're going for more delight in God, more satisfaction in God.

I gave you the math formula last week. Less of me plus more of God equals delight. That's exactly what we find here in Isaiah 58. Less of me. Set aside your own pleasures, your own thoughts, your own ways, your own words in order to honor God and then you shall delight yourself in the Lord and God will give you victory and abundance is the promise we have.

Less of me plus more of God equals delight. There is something sweeter than honey to gain brothers and sisters, are you with me? There's something sweeter than honey to be gained by being willing to set aside our normal occupations, the normal occupations of the other six days in order to gain this thing that is sweeter than honey. God says you can have it. God offers you something sweeter than honey to be satisfied in God, to have your delight in God growing and growing and growing is sweeter than honey and you have to be willing to set aside the normal occupations of the other six days in order to get it.

Dads and moms, keep what we're going for in front of your household. Family, rejoice that our God has given us seven and a half weeks of rest. How does that sound? That sounds good to me. Family, you have a God who has given you seven and a half weeks of rest, 52 weeks a day a week, 52 days of rest.

That's seven and a half weeks is what you're got. And he wants those days spent, invested, stewarded, used in order to draw near to Him so that your delight in Him increases. To know Him is to love Him. To know God is to love Him. To know God is to be more satisfied.

To know Him better is to be better satisfied with more delight in Him. And God has given us a day to do this. So that's number one. Lay claim to and hold of the conditional promise in Isaiah 58 verses 13 and 14. Number two.

Number two, to have victory, figuring out good replacements is probably even more important than implementing the restrictions. I'll go back and say that again. That's a mouthful. To have victory, do you want victory regarding the Lord's Day? I do.

Figuring out good replacements is probably even more important than implementing the restrictions. We have a natural bent and that is to say, what can't I do on this day? Well, what's really most important is what God has given us to do to increase our satisfaction in Him and our delight in Him. So while It's not meaningless to withhold ourselves from things that are restricted and to implement the restrictions if all you do is that, you squeeze the life out of the day. If A contemplation of the Lord's Day is nothing more to you than what can't I do, your loss.

You'll never have victory that way. So targeting good replacements to put in the place of things that you're now convinced that you should hold yourself back from is the key to winning. A restrictions mentality, a restrictions orientation will squeeze the delight out of the day and you'll legalistically hold yourself back from certain things but you won't get the delight because it hasn't been to honor the Lord, it's been to do something else and you hold yourself back from your pleasures but you don't fill the gap, you don't fill the void with things that will cause you to delight in God. Honor of God isn't the objective. We should be answering this question, what would wean me off the world and increase my delight in God?

And the answers to those questions then we go as replacements. So fine, we should restrict ourselves from things that we're not currently restricting ourselves from. Okay, I got it, but what's going into that void that you just created? What are the things that would wean me off of the world, that would redirect my affections off of the world's things and increase my delight in God. Go for those things.

Fill in the void with those things. Dads, we should be asking ourselves, and I'm pulling phrases from Scott's preaching on this when we were in Deuteronomy. He said, Dad should be the rector of rest and the director of delight. What is a rector? A rector is a pastor of a little parish church.

Well, let's assume that in a sense, God in your home has given you a little parish church. How can you be the pastor of that little parish church leading your family into rest, the rector of rest? How can you be the director of delight, the one who is directing your family into the delights of God with this day? Well, I'm sure I'll have an incomplete list here, but great books are part of the answer. Great books are part of the answer.

Reading them individually as your children get older. Reading them together. By the way not all books are great books. I've introduced some stinkers into the Lord's Day where they were wonderful books but not for read-alouds. I would just say, fathers beware, there are some stinkers out there for read-alouds.

You profit from them reading them individually, but you will not profit from them trotting them out on Sunday afternoons to read them to the family. But there are some that are wonderful for that purpose. Find them and read them. Great books are part of the answer. Great books will help you be a rector of rest, a director of delight.

Great music is part of the answer. Years ago I was unhappy with my own doings as someone who should be directing my household. And I thought that one of the things should be was that I should be up and out earlier than everyone else and I should put on good music. So I've been doing that for a number of years now and it sets the tone. Anytime anybody comes down I'm out before them and there's good music on.

I actually have a playlist for Sunday morning. I think it's called Awesome Worship 3. I think it's the third iteration of it. As I continue dumping music into it, it changes the iteration of it. So hopefully, you know, a year from now it might be awesome music, awesome worship seven.

And I'll continue to put great music in there. But the point is, what sets the tone for the day? Well, great music can do that. And play great music, what music that points your family to the Lord during the course of the day. Singing together can be part of the answer.

It's an under underutilized part of the answer here, but I hope that won't be always true. We're trying to find better ways to fill the time of the Lord's day so that it's not the Lord's quarter of a day, the Lord's half a day, the Lord's two-thirds of the day. Well, what are you going to do with all those hours? Every father and mother have struggled with that question. Well, singing together can be part of the answer.

Behold, our God by John Snyder. We haven't done it, by the way, but I hear it's wonderful, but it's it's something that's profitable to work through and and the like is Part of the answer answers in Genesis puts out things that can be part of the answer. Good food is part of the answer. If you want to be the rector of rest and the director of delight, you better trot out the good food. We believe and teach and practice that the Sabbath is a feast day.

They're laughing here. I don't know whether you can hear that. It's a feast day. You want to be a dome after church on the Lord's Day. You wouldn't believe the scandalously decadent things we trot out after church on the Lord's Day.

Good food is part of the answer. We should be asking ourselves, how can we celebrate the Lord's Day? How can we celebrate it? Good food is part of the answer. Hospitality is part of the answer.

Fellowship with our brothers and sisters with Christ can fill some of the time of that day in a way that honors the Lord. So that is number two. To have victory, figuring out good replacements is probably more important than implementing the restrictions. If all you're doing is implementing the restrictions and you don't fill that void with something that causes you to draw near with God. You are lost.

You're squeezing the delight out of the day and you'll be training your household to hate it. You will be training your household to hate it. Number three, consider that the most important first step may not have anything to do with Sunday at all. Consider that The most important first step, what should we do first to make progress, may not have anything to do with Sunday at all. I quote what I quoted last week, Mark 15 42.

Mark chapter 15 verse 42. Now when evening had come, because it was the preparation day, that is the day before the Sabbath, what are you doing the day before the Sabbath? It has a direct influence on what the Lord's Day will be like. Ask yourself this question, what do I need to do to make it true that I do all my work in six days so that I can truly set aside the one day for restful worship. What do I need to do?

What has to happen to make it true that I do all my work on the six days, the six other days so that I can truly set aside the one day for restful worship. Why does your Sunday have the scurrying that kills rest and that kills worship? Why? Why? Because you didn't get your act together on the day of preparation.

You didn't make ready and so now you're scurrying and it's killing your rest and it's killing your worship. You're to blame. Number four. Make Number four, make it a point to rest from your little screen. Make it a point to rest from your little screen.

Can I use my Bible app? Sure. Can I use it for profitable Christian content? Is that what you've been doing on that thing? Is that what you've been doing on that thing?

Is that what you've been doing on that thing? Using your Bible app, huh? That's what your screen time is saying? Five hours of Bible app and profitable Christian content. That's what you've been using that thing for.

Yeah, me too. Make it a point to rest from your little screen. Listen to William Wilberforce. William Wilberforce was in parliament in the early 1800s. He worked hand in hand with John Newton for the better part of 30 years for the abolition of the slave trade.

If you don't know much about him, learn more about him. But he believed what we believe and have been teaching over the last month and has some wonderful quotes about the Lord today. Here's what he says, I blessed be God for the day of rest and religious occupations wherein earthly things assume their truth, size, and ambition is stunted." Let me read that again. This is William Wilberforce. Who was able to persevere for three decades to see the abolition of the slave trade across the British Empire.

Blessed be God for the day of rest and religious occupations, the Lord's Day, wherein earthly things assume their true size. You know as the week goes on, earthly things loom larger and larger and larger. Break that pattern! Break it! The Lord's Day will make earthly things assume their true size and not get outsized.

And ambition is stunted. You need to stunt your ambition. You need to shrink earthly things. How do I do that? Remember the Sabbath day to keep it holy.

While we're at it, I have another Wilberforce quote. I wasn't sure exactly where to stick it, so I'm putting it here. Not that it naturally goes here, but we're on William Wilberforce, So here you go. So he knew men who he viewed as being more gifted than himself, but he watched them flame out. So whether they were really more gifted than him, I don't know, but this was his assessment of them.

He said, with peaceful Sundays, the strings would never have snapped as they did from over tension. Now think about that for a minute. With peaceful Sundays, with remembering the Sabbath day to keep it holy, with observing the Lord's day, the day that He's claimed for His own but given to us to rest and worship, the strings would never have snapped as they did from over tension. He's using the terminology surrounding bows and bow strings. So you don't leave a bow strung all the time.

You string it, you use it, and you unstring it. It keeps the string from always being under tension. If you just leave it under tension all the time, You're setting it up to fray and snap when you least need that to happen. Will Befor says, that's what happened to these gifted men that I saw. They had gifts that were better than mine, but I outlasted them because I unstrung the bow with peaceful Sundays.

He watched them on the hamster wheel. They never got off the hamster wheel. Go go go go go go go go go go, but they weren't getting to their Destination. Number five. That was number four.

Make it a point to rest from your little screen. By the way, I'm not moving to number five yet. I'll chase a rabbit. I'm a news hound. I've been a news hound even on Sundays when things slow way down in the afternoon.

I'll go check the news apps, read the links. It does make the world loon large. It does. I am endeavoring to rest from my little screen more than I ever have. So far so good today.

That next Sunday will be the test and the Sunday after that and the Sunday after that. Five, number five. As much as it depends on you, secure the rest of your servants. You, nor your son, nor your daughter, nor your male servant, nor your female servant, nor your beasts of burden, nor the stranger who is within your gates. It's 2020, I don't have servants.

Oh, you think because you use self-checkout that you don't have servants? You think that there aren't people there to fix self-checkout? Why are you buying and selling on Sunday? Usually buying. Probably none of us sell.

Because you didn't get your act together on Saturday. And so now people are going to work because you forgot stuff. This from J.C. Ryle on a tract called The Sabbath a Day to Keep. He was a prolific tract writer.

He was known as the prince of the tract writers. His tracts actually became his good books. Sermons and tracts became his good books. There's one that he wrote called The Sabbath, A Day to Keep. You can just Google that.

It's a really profitable read. It takes probably 40 minutes to read or something like that. So it's not too small of a read or too large of a read and it's very profitable. You might look it up on the internet. Here's what he says, I ask you then never to be taken in and deluded by those who want the sanctity of the Lord's Day to be more publicly invaded than it is.

Now what's he talking about at this point? He lived in a time where they were coming out of a long period where the Lord's Day was honored in England, but it was starting to be, that was starting to erode, including their laws, but just the practice of the common people were following the laws or the laws were following the practice of the common people whichever and so this is what He's talking about people who want further erosion, diluted by those who want the sanctity of the Lord's Day to be more publicly invaded than it is, and yet tell you they are the quote, friends of the working class. Believe me, they are in reality their worst enemies. They are taking the surest course to add to their burdens. They do not mean it very likely, but in reality they are doing them a cruel injury.

Be assured that if our Sundays are ever turned into days of play and amusement they will soon become a day of labor and work. I will repeat that sentence. Ryle writes, to repeat, be assured that if our Sundays are ever turned into days of play and amusement they will soon become a day of labor and work. It is vain to suppose that it can be avoided. It never has been in other countries.

It never would be in our own land. I do trust that all working people in England will not be deceived about this Sabbath question. Of all people on earth, they are the most interested in it. None have so much to lose in this matter as they, and none have so little to gain. Answer the question, how much are the workers in this country gaining from having businesses up on Sunday?

Not that much. How much are they losing? They are losing a treasure. They are losing a gift from God. They are losing rest that their bodies and their minds need and worship that their souls need.

When I was a little boy my my faintest memories include blue laws. If you're not from the South you might not even have heard of Blue Laws. They were laws making it illegal to open businesses except for necessity and mercy. So Pharmacies were on a rotation where a pharmacy would be open this week and another pharmacy would be open next week. Hospitals were open.

Of course, law enforcement and emergency medicine was open, but everything else was closed and that's the way it had to be. That changed over time. We're not the better for it. Now, my point isn't to pine away for the reinstitution of blue laws. My point is to join with J.C.

Ryle's voice to say, what have we gained? Well, not that much. What have we lost? We have lost a lot and it has not been the friend of the common laborer. It has been the enemy of this erosion of a sense of Setting aside a day to rest has been the enemy of the common laborer Number six so that was that was number five As much as it depends on you, secure the rest of your servants.

I know it won't change the world tomorrow for you to not go to Speedway today. I know that. All I can say is that we have a place to start and it's what is with what's in our control. Make sure you secure your rest, the rest for your spouse. Make sure you secure rest for your children and make sure you secure rest for your children, and make sure you secure rest for anyone within your sphere of authority, and do your part of it to secure rest for your neighbor who's working at the place that is open today.

Six, this is a really important one, let the day be a love-o-meter and react to the reading. Let the Lord's Day, let Sunday be a love-o-meter that gives you a reading on how your love for God is doing and how your love for your neighbor in some ways is doing and reacts to the reading. Remember Amos 8 verses 4 and the first part of 5. Amos 8 chapter 4. Amos chapter 8 verses 4 and the start of verse 5.

Hear this, you who swallow up the needy and make the poor of the land fail, saying, When will the new moon be passed that we may sell grain, and the Sabbath that we may trade wheat? This is a condemnation of the wicked and I find out in this verse, I'm the wicked. Will the day never end? How many minutes till sundown? That is in my heart.

The love-ometer is telling me something there. I need to take that reading and wage war against what it's indicating. When will the Sabbath be over has entered my heart many times and it's telling me that there's more to be gained from this day than I have gained or I wouldn't be thinking that way. I would be delighted in the day. I'd be saying, oh couldn't the day last another minute?

Not 59, 58, 57. I'd be wanting another minute, not one minute less. Let the Lord's day disturb you about your worldliness. The Love-O-Meter is speaking The Love-O-Meter is speaking to you about your worldliness. And then use the day to shrink the world.

I don't love my God as I should. Oh God. I want to engage in profitable things that point me to you so that I love you more so that the world shrinks down. The things of earth grow strangely dim in the light of His glory and grace. We need things that shrink the world and magnify God.

God's given us a day for it. Shrink that world. It's no friend of yours. It's no friend of mine. And magnify God.

See Him as He is. High and exalted. Be satisfied. Be delighted in God. Number seven.

Number six was let the let the day be a love-ometer and react to the reading. Number seven, a word to heads of households. I'm speaking directly now to husbands and fathers. I'm challenging you. Accept the challenge.

James and I are challenging ourselves and you to own this more than you ever have in your life. Okay, so James I challenge you and I know you challenge me and we challenge the rest of you to own it. The Lord's Day is the Lord for me to be a steward over my family and to bring them into the delights of God, to shrink the world for them and magnify God for them. If we do this, if we accept the challenge and own this more than we ever have, this will not make the burden greater on our wives. Okay, so if the output of this increases the burden on your wife, you have not in fact accepted the challenge.

I'm defining the terms now. But it will make the burden lighter. May it be that our wives would mark this as a banner day for them. And bless God for today that this was the day that their husbands took the challenge to own the Lord's day to bring them and the children that God has given you together into the delights of God. Don't exclude them, but don't burden them.

Okay, are you with me? Don't exclude them from the deliberations about how you can shrink the world on this day and nourish your souls like never before on this day. So don't of course don't exclude them. They're going to be your most valuable counselors and to tell you the implications of things that you're considering but don't burden them with it. You bear the weight.

You bear the weight. Now, what can I do And what can't I do? That's what we've been trying to get to, right? What can I do? Well, I'm going to tell you.

You can do anything consistent with holy rest or restful worship. That's two ways to say the same thing. Holy rest, not just rest, but holy rest or restful worship. Two ways to say the same thing. Holy rest, not just rest, but holy rest, or restful worship.

Two ways to say the same thing. Not just worship, but restful worship. And you can't do anything that's inconsistent with holy rest or restful worship. Well, what does that mean? What is that?

You want a list? I'm not giving you a list. I will talk about some specifics, but what we're not going to do is give you the Talmud. What is the Talmud? The Talmud is the rabbinical writings, the writings of the rabbis that drew the lines precisely and they had a full tract, or a full essentially book on the Sabbath and one of my early Sabbath preach, one of my early preachings on the Sabbath, not on the Sabbath day but on the Sabbath topic, one of my early preachings I printed out this tract from the Talmud, the writings of the rabbis about what you couldn't, couldn't do.

If memory serves, I tried to find it quick this morning, but it wasn't a quick find, so I didn't find it. If memory serves, it was 78 pages, 12-point font, and I came and I held it over and I dropped it and let it just thud to the floor. If you were there in the room then, you probably remember this. It was one of the more rememberable things from a Jason Doe sermon is the clattering to the floor of the 78 pages of the list of do's and don'ts. We are not doing that.

We are going to oversee what happens on Sundays and Sunday afternoons while we're together, but we're not going to come to your house and police the Lord's Day. That would not be restful to me or to you. Where am I? James and I do believe that the Lord's day is a day. It continues after you leave us.

After we leave each other at Hill Ridge normally. It is a day. It's not a quarter day, not a half day, not two-thirds of a day. It is a day. We don't believe that every minute has to be spent quoting Bible verses.

We don't think that's what it means. It means rest. But it means holy rest. It means restful worship. These two things are brought together never to be separated on that day.

Here's a threshold to consider. Here's at least a filter that you can run things that you're wondering about through to see how it interacts with the filter. Does this activity, whatever activity you're running through the filter, does this activity dominate the moment in a way that makes the purposes of the day disappear? You know what I mean? There are certain things that when you engage in, they dominate the moment and make everything else disappear because you become so preoccupied with them.

Here's an example. Here's an example that is a filter for us about Sunday afternoons, meaning James and I, keeping score is a line. It's not the ultimate line. And it actually might be beyond what is a good line, but it's a line for us. Hey, are they keeping score out there?

That football's out there. Is anybody keeping score? Have they drawn up teams? Because once you draw up teams, and you start, that activity begins to dominate the moment in a way that makes the purposes of the day invisible, disappear. Okay, so we say, we're not keeping score.

You might throw around a football, we might throw it around with you while we're talking to each other and enjoying fellowship, enjoying each other's company might do that with a frisbee. We're not playing ultimate frisbee. We're not going to choose up teams and start scoring who made it over the end line because to us that then dominates the moment in a way that just wipes away the purposes of the day. So I would encourage you, develop filters like that, that protect the purpose of the day. I'm not giving you a list of the things you can or can't do other than to say you can do anything that's consistent with the day of holy rest.

You can do anything that's consistent with a day of restful worship. You can't do anything that's inconsistent with those things. Now you can apply that. The reason you want a list for me is because you're scared to do that for yourself. That's why.

Yourself, that's why. Number eight, finally. Grow, grow, just grow. I think this is our third Sabbath cycle. What do I mean by that?

At Hope in Deuteronomy when we hit chapter five, I think it was six weeks at that time, so we are getting better. This is only five. Then when we got to Nehemiah, the end of Nehemiah has a Sabbath chapter. Nehemiah 13 is one of the top four or five chapters in the whole Bible that helps us to consider the chapter. Then we finished Nehemiah because That's the last chapter of Nehemiah and we immediately took two more weeks to go through Sab.

So a lot of the content from the last month has come from that Nehemiah study, at least some of it has. And now this. We're not in our last cycle on this. Why is that? Because we teach on it, we increase our sensitivities to it, we make a little bit of progress, and then over time in my heart and in my home we slip.

Brethren, is this not true? Okay, so we're going to, on this commandment, we're going to need to come back to it in a couple of years because we will have become less sensitive to it and we'll need to make more progress. But today here's what I can tell you. Grow, grow, make progress, make progress. Some people are boil-the-ocean kind of people.

I just want a little progress. I want some progress. Good luck trying to boil the ocean. Meaning, you can't even raise the ocean one degree. When you try to boil it, it's an exercise in futility.

You try to do everything and in frustration you do nothing. Here's what I'm saying. Don't worry about doing everything. Start by doing something. Start by doing something.

I myself have identified some things for myself, not telling my family what they are, they'll be abundantly clear soon enough. But I mean for myself, not just for my family. And I will also convene a working group of professing Baptized believers in my home. Oh, that's all of you You're all professing baptized believers. Well, guess what?

I'm convening a working group. We're going to work on this together. The objective will not be to squeeze life out of the day. The objective will be to inject life into the day. There will be more junk food, etc.

Let's ask the Lord to help us and then I'll just give an exhortation to the male heads of households now, we're coming to our time, please consider whether the Lord would have you add something useful and profitable this time. I really hope this would end up being an extended, extended teaching time because men have things that are helpful for the rest of us. We're gonna need each other to make progress on this. Our God, I thank you that you've claimed today that the Lord has claimed a day it is the Lord's day it is the day belonging to the Lord oh have your way with your day we want the Lord's day to be so sweetly about the Lord's Supper the Lord's Word the Lord's people all these things working together to increase our satisfaction in you, our delight in you. Oh may it be so, God, in Jesus name, Amen.