The Most Ignored Commandment in the Bible | Investigating Jesus | Pastor Josh Howerton

Summary

Episode Overview

Title: The Most Ignored Commandment in the Bible | Investigating Jesus
Host: Pastor Josh Howerton, Lakepointe Church
Date: March 8, 2026
Theme:
This episode investigates why the Biblical commandment of the Sabbath is the most ignored by modern Christians. Pastor Josh Howerton unpacks the profound theological, practical, and cultural significance of Sabbath-keeping—contrasting our culture’s “hurry sickness” with God’s rhythm of rest, exploring the biblical roots and practical application, and explaining how honoring the Sabbath is an act of faith and blessing, not a burdensome rule.

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Key Discussion Points

1. Setting the Stage: “Hurry Sickness” and Culture’s Pace ([03:09])

• Cultural Diagnosis: Josh opens with a humorous self-test for “hurry sickness”—the compulsive need to rush, optimize, and never stop.
  • Examples: Choosing the fastest lane, beating the GPS estimate, and comparing checkout lines.
  • “You might have hurry sickness if, when you get in the car and punch in your destination on your GPS, the Estimated Time of Arrival is actually, in your mind, ‘Time to beat.’” (Josh Howerton, [06:28])
• Audience Reaction: The congregation laughs and admits—this is our shared affliction.

2. The Sabbath as Commandment, Not Suggestion ([07:47]–[11:00])

• Biblical Origin: The Sabbath appears as the 4th Commandment (Exodus 20).
  • “When God wanted to condense his entire ethical system into ten tweets, this was one of them.” (Josh Howerton, [08:13])
  • The gravity of the Sabbath: “You’ll never meet a Christian who thinks it’s okay to disobey any other of the Ten Commandments, but for some reason, we act like it’s okay to violate this one.” ([10:25])
• Modern Hypocrisy: Entertains the absurdity of ignoring this command while strictly keeping others.

3. Sabbath as a Law of Creation ([13:03]–[14:29])

• Rooted in Creation:
  • Traces the Sabbath pattern back to Genesis 1–2: God Himself rested on the seventh day.
  • “Yeah, that’s great…God rested.” ([14:14])
• Universal Principle:
  • The seven-day week finds no astronomical basis; it originates purely from Scripture.
  • Historical attempt to break this rhythm (e.g., French Revolution’s 10-day week) resulted in societal and personal breakdowns.

4. Sabbath and Blessing: More Than Just a Rule ([18:06], [19:11]–[22:38])

• Medical & Social Benefits:
  • Cites studies on Seventh Day Adventists: devout Sabbath-keepers live 5–6 years longer than the average population.
  • Dramatic calculator illustration: a 4015 Sabbaths/lifespan opportunity, with Sabbath-keepers receiving those "days back" exactly in added years.
  • “It’s as if in their lives, God is saying, ‘For every day that you gave me, I gave you a day back.’” ([22:38])

5. Sabbath Teaches Faith ([23:27]–[27:33])

• Exodus 16 Backstory:
  • The first institutional Sabbath comes with manna: Prepare by gathering double on day six so you can rest on day seven.
  • Core lesson: “The Sabbath is God asking you, can you trust me for a day?” ([27:24])
• It’s Not About Personality or Season of Life:
  • No exemption, even for high achievers or busy parents.
  • “Why is the devil your role model? Isn’t the whole point that he’s the bad guy?” ([14:27])

6. From Law to Blessing: Jesus Reframes the Sabbath ([32:57]–[37:40])

• Luke 6 & Mark 2:
  • Jesus and his disciples accused of breaking the Sabbath by Pharisees, whose legalism added burdensome rules.
  • “The Sabbath was made for man, not man for the Sabbath.” (Jesus, [35:37])
• Legalistic Extremes:
  • Modern Orthodox “workarounds” like water bottles under car seats or Sabbath elevators highlight the absurdity of legalistic application.
  • “They had taken something that was meant to be a blessing and turned it into a curse.” ([36:10])

7. Sabbath as Practical and Joyful Obedience ([38:48]–[45:20])

• What Should Sabbath Look Like?
  • No work: Prepare in advance, don’t use “rest” as an excuse for laziness the rest of the week.
  • “Some people work really hard at making sure they never have to work really hard.” ([39:00])
  • Put the phone down: Technology kills both work and rest.
  • Celebrate with fun Christians: Sabbath dinners, family and fellowship, share testimonies.
  • Do what feels like a blessing to you—fish, nap, outdoors, etc.
  • Worship and invite God’s presence, not just a “day off”—otherwise it’s a “bastard Sabbath” (Eugene Peterson, [45:20])
  • “The purpose is not just to get a day off, it’s to get a day with God.” ([45:37])

8. Testimony: The Sabbath Works ([46:06]–[49:09])

• Impact Story from Miles & Allie:
  • After never taking a day off, they instituted Sabbath as obedience.
  • God quadrupled their business income within two weeks.
  • The habit brought increased creativity, presence, witness, and a spirit of gratitude into their lives and workplace.
  • “Six days with the blessing of God is far better than seven days without it.” ([49:00])

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Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

• “Physician, heal thyself. I’m preaching to you a message I needed to receive.” (Josh Howerton, [02:33])
• “If you work on that seventh day, I’m not gonna help you.” ([25:41])
• “You can get more done in six days with God than you can in seven days without Him.” ([29:34])
• “A Sabbath is to your schedule what a tithe is to your budget.” ([29:40])
• “Put the phone down, Gollum. Some of you—my precious…” ([41:54])
• “If my kids ever want to walk away from the faith, they don’t just got to walk away from mom and dad—they gotta walk away from all our community.” ([43:16])
• “The purpose of the Sabbath is not just to get a day off, it’s to get a day with God.” ([45:37])
• “Six days with the blessing of God is far better than seven days without it.” (Miles and Allie’s testimony, [49:00])

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Timestamps of Key Segments

• 03:09 – 07:41: “Hurry Sickness” Quiz; Introduction to Sabbath
• 07:47 – 11:00: The Sabbath as the 4th Commandment
• 13:03 – 14:29: Sabbath as a law of creation—Genesis origins
• 19:11 – 22:38: Statistical Sabbath blessing—math demonstration
• 23:27 – 27:33: Manna, faith, and Sabbath as trust in God
• 28:51 – 29:40: Chick-fil-A as practical Sabbath witness
• 32:57 – 37:40: Jesus, the Pharisees, and the true purpose of Sabbath
• 38:48 – 45:20: How to actually practice a life-giving Sabbath
• 46:06 – 49:09: Modern testimony of Sabbath blessing

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Actionable Takeaways

• The Sabbath is not a burdensome rule but an act of trust rooted in creation, affirmed by science, and offered as a gift.
• Practically, a Sabbath involves real rest, preparation, communal joy, technology fasting, and explicit worship.
• The fruit is spiritual, physical, relational, and even economic blessing—a testimony both to believers and the watching world.

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Tone & Language

Pastor Josh speaks with energy, humor, candor, and a relatable urgency. His teaching is both deeply biblical and highly practical, peppered with self-deprecating jokes, cultural references, and clear analogies.

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Summary Statement

This episode compellingly argues that the Sabbath is not a relic or a restriction but a divine gift—God’s invitation to a rhythm that brings life, faith, and blessing to all who will trust Him enough to rest.

Transcript

[A]

Hey, guys, thanks for checking out this Bible teaching. Every week we release a podcast that corresponds to the sermon. It's like a little bit of a

[B]

deeper dive where we hit some things

[A]

that didn't make it into the sermon, some theological concepts. We talk about things that are going on in our culture and how to think about them from a biblical perspective. We call that podcast Live Free. An episode releases every Monday that corresponds to the sermon. If you would like to check out Live Free, just go to the Lake Pointe YouTube channel and look for the podcast tab there. We'll see you at Live Free. Now enjoy this Bible teaching. All right, all right. Welcome Lake Point family. And hey, man, if you guys got your Bibles, I need you to head to two passages today. If you'll turn to Exodus 20 and then put your finger in Luke chapter 6, that'd be awesome. Turn to Exodus 20, finger in Luke chapter 6 now while you guys turn there. I do want to do something last night or on Friday night. Let me say it like that. We had something happen right here on this stage that very frankly is like one of the coolest things we have ever seen at Lake Point. So you've heard me mention that. I think it was. It was announced two, two, three weeks ago. I did the message on marriage, divorce, remarriage, all that stuff. And we did a deal where it was like, hey, man, we never want to look down on somebody unless we're giving them a hand up. And we called people who realized that, man, they were living outside maybe of God's design. And they were like, man, we want to repent and honor God with our lives. To step forward and put a ring on and get married and honor God in that. And last night. Let me go ahead and show you this picture. Last night on Friday, this is 52 couples that decided to tie the knot on the stage. So let's do this. Hang on, hang on. At all of our campuses, a lot of those people, some of them might not have had family that kind of came in town for that kind of thing. But what the church is, is we're a spiritual family. Can we show them right now how honored we are to share that moment with them and how proud of them we are? Come on, man. Well done, well done, well done, well done, man. Serious, like, proud of you. That's like a proud, proud, proud moment. So happy two day anniversary or whatever it is, and good to be in the house of God. All right, well, let's get right at it today. Honestly, more than almost any message I can Give you. Actually, I'm going to begin with a confession more than almost any message I've preached in a long time. During message prep, I feel like the Holy Spirit was essentially saying to me, physician, heal thyself. And so I'm preaching to you a message that I needed to receive. So I'm going to today share with you a message in the Investigating Jesus series. Today we're looking at what is it we're investigating what is it that led to Jesus being crucified and ultimately targeted by the religious authorities of his day to be killed. Now, let me. We're going to have a lot of fun with this. We're going to laugh a lot today. It's going to move pretty quick. Lot of Bible. Okay? So buckle up. Let me begin. And I wanna put us all on a level. I wanna put us all on a level playing field. So what we're gonna do in the next 30 seconds is in all of our campuses, we're going to take a quiz together. This is the audience participation moment of the message.

[B]

Okay?

[A]

Now, I don't want you to raise your hand during as I'm doing the quiz, but what you can do is if I say something that pertains to you, you can use your elbow to elbow somebody that you know that they are getting hit by the quiz. So here's what this is. There's a person that you have probably never heard their name, but you've definitely heard the thing. They discovered the guy's name. He was a cardiologist. He's gone to be with the Lord. Now, his name was Meyer Friedman. That years ago. He's the one that in American society, he discovered what we now call the type A personality. Okay, Type A personality. And he eventually diagnosed something he started noticing. Like, man, all these Americans are. They're dying of heart disease at disproportionate rates. And he started studying it, and he diagnosed something that he eventually started calling hurry sickness. He called it hurry sickness. Now I'm going to give you a quiz about whether to self identify if you suffer from hurry sickness. And again, don't raise your hand until I tell you to, but you can violently elbow somebody next to you. Okay, so here we go. Question number one. You might have hurry sickness if when you come to a stoplight, as you're approaching the stoplight, as you get close to it, you start counting the cars to see in the two lanes in front of you how many cars are in that lane and that lane. And if there's three cars in the lane, that you're in and two cars in the lane that you're not in, you will switch lanes to, say, 0.03 seconds.

[B]

Okay, you might have very sickness.

[A]

Now let me do another one. Question number two. If you begin to notice that there are the same number of cars in both lanes, you. You begin deciding guessing based on the make, model, and year of the cars in front of you and the age of the drivers that you can see which lane will move fastest, and you adjust accordingly. Okay, I. I hear you. I hear you. All right, I. You can do this. Hang on, hang on. Okay, question three. You're shopping. You don't shop.

[B]

Okay, I understand.

[A]

You're shopping. Now, as you approach the checkout lines, number one, obviously you're counting how many people are in each line to decide you know which one you're going to be in. But if you're a real sicko, just a complete degenerate, if you get into line A, you keep track of the person that you would have been in line B, to see if you made the right decision, you might have hurry sickness. Last 1, question 4. As you get in your car, we don't have GPS anymore, so I'm talking about the maps app on your phone.

[B]

You.

[A]

You get in your car and you punch in where you're going in your location. And at the bottom of the little GPS app where it says estimated time of arrival in your mind, you see time to beat. Now, if you. Now, if any of you at all of our campuses, if you have just been diagnosed with hurry sickness, will you please raise your hand in Jesus name, Amen. This sermon is for you and you and you and me. Can we all just celebrate this together? This is group therapy. We're all gonna receive. This is the sermon that I needed. Now, most of us, can we be really honest? Emotional gear shift. If you're really honest, you look out at the world. And most of us live our lives with what I would call a. It's a rushed pace, a constant frantic, near panic, intense pressure. Lives that feel little to no rest, they're not described by a word we might call refreshed. And let me ask this question. Does God have a plan to keep

[B]

his beloved children refreshed?

[A]

Yes, he does.

[B]

It's called the Sabbath. It's called a Sabbath.

[A]

Now, I'm gonna preach this message. It's gonna go really fast. I'm gonna be very practical. There's gonna be lots of Bible. So let's talk about this principle, a command that God gives. It's called the Sabbath. Now, if you got your Bibles, I want you to turn to Exodus chapter 20. And as I go there, some of you who are Bible nerds, as soon as I say Exodus 20, you're going, oh, I know what's coming. Because you know Exodus 20 is where the Ten Commandments are. Now, let me just put this in perspective. So let me start right here. This is four points, not three. We got to go quick. Principle number one. The Sabbath is a command. The Sabbath in the Bible is a command. Now, here's what we're getting ready to do. I'm going to read one of the ten Commandments. It's a fourth commandment. By the way, if you want to teach your kids the commandments, you want to remember, we could do this some other time. How you remember? You shall honor the Sabbath day by keeping it holy. That's the fourth commandment. There's four Sundays in a month. Fourth commandment. That's how you remember. It's the fourth commandment. I'm getting ready to read you the fourth commandment. Now, I want you to think about this. When God wanted to condense his entire ethical system into 10 tweets, this was one of them. And I want you to read it. I'm gonna read it with you now, I'm gonna put it on the wall because I want you to see a few things. Here's what it says. It says, remember the Sabbath. And I'm gonna describe what that word means here in a second. The Sabbath day by keeping it holy. Now, the English word holy comes from the Hebrew word kavod. Kavod means to cut apart or to separate. So when it says, honor the Sabbath by keeping it holy, what it's saying is, hey, there should be six days that are one way. And then it almost feels like a cut, a divide. And this seventh day, it feels separate, distinct, and different. Here's what he says. By keeping it holy six days, you shall labor and answer all your emails. I'm trying to 20, 26 it here, but the seventh day is a Sabbath to the Lord your God. On it, you shall not do any work. Neither you nor your son or daughter, nor your male or female servant. I don't let any of my servants do work on the Sabbath.

[B]

I just want to say that.

[A]

Okay, now let me just begin right here, guys. This is a commandment. It's one of the Ten Commandments. Think about this. It has the same weight as, do not commit adultery. Do not lie, do not steal, do not covet, do not murder. This is in the same list. Now, can I just point some out to you? This is a very quick first point. I want to move to the second point. I just want to point this out to you. What's really interesting to me is you'll never meet a Christian that believes it's okay to violate literally any other command.

[B]

You.

[A]

You're never gonna meet a Christian. It's like, actually, it's okay to worship Allah instead of God because the first commandment's not a big deal. Actually, it's okay to murder somebody because actually, the sixth commandment is not a big deal. Adultery, not a big deal. You'll never meet a Christian that thinks it's okay to disobey any other of the ten Commandments, but for some reason, we act like it's okay to violate this one. Now, let me just put this in perspective. So my Sabbath. I'm gonna talk about why this is in a minute. My Sabbath is on Monday. That's when my Sabbath is. And everybody that works with me knows that my Sabbath is Monday. It's literally the first thing I clarify with anybody that starts working with me. A few years ago, I was getting ready to do a conference, and the people that I was speaking at the conference for, the conference was on a Tuesday, and I told them, hey, Monday's my Sabbath, that kind of thing. And they emailed back, and this is what they said. I'm gonna leave names out to protect the guilty. Well, they said what? They said something like this. They said, now, Pastor Josh, we know that Monday is your Sabbath, but would you. Now, can I just put this in perspective? Do you know what nobody would ever dare say to me? It's gonna feel weird, me even saying this. Nobody would ever dare say to me, hey, Josh, I know you're married to Jana, but would you sleep with my wife? Do you know how insane and sick it even feels to say that? But for some reason, we are okay violating the fourth commandment, the Sabbath commandment. In fact, if somebody said, you know, somebody says, hey, Pastor Josh, I know Monday's your Sabbath, but would you violate that command? You know, I kind of want to say, well, while we're at it, why don't we hire a hitman and knock off a convenience store and blaspheme the Lord? Those are commandments, too. Now, here's what I know. Some of you are saying, some of you Bible nerds, that what you're saying in your head is, yeah, Josh, but that was an Old Testament law, and we're not bound by that anymore. That Leads me to point number two. You're saying this was before the law? Yes, it was. Now let me say it and explain it. Yes, it is in the law. But for you Bible nerds, I want you to see this. The Sabbath principle was established before the law. It was codified in the law, and it was reaffirmed after the law in the life of Jesus, as you're gonna see in Luke chapter six. So this is a principle that leads me to principle number two about the Sabbath. The Sabbath is a law of creation. It's a law woven into creation. Okay, now here's where this goes back. This goes all the way back to Genesis 1, 2 and 3. I'm gonna read right here from Genesis chapters 1, 2 and 3 and listen really close to where this principle is first established.

[B]

Okay?

[A]

Here's what it says. Thus the Lord in creation. Thus the heavens and the earth were finished and all the host of them. And on the seventh day, God finished his work, his work that he had done. And he rested on the seventh day. This is the description of how God created the world. So God blessed. By the way, we're going to get to this in a second. What the Sabbath is, is it's God saying to you, I want to bless you. I want you to be blessed. So it says, so God blessed the seventh day and made it holy. Because on it now, I want you, at all of our campuses, we, with gusto, like you mean it and it matters. I want you to say these two words that are all caps, underlined and bolded at the same time on the count of three, because on it. One, two, three.

[B]

God rested. God rested from all his work that he had done.

[A]

Now, did you notice that this passage says God rested. Now, can I just point somebody to you whenever you start talking about Sabbath, what some well meaning but naive Christians say, they'll say things like this. Yeah, you know, I get it. It's kind of in there. But I'm not super into the Sabbath because I took a personality test and my profile is high. D. Okay.

[B]

Yeah, that's great. God rested.

[A]

Yeah. You know, Pastor Josh, I get the Sabbath and I know it's in there as one of the 10, you know, one of the 10 suggestions.

[B]

We should.

[A]

Maybe we should call them the 10 suggestions instead of the 10 commandments. I know that, but I'm an executive at a fast paced company. Okay, that's great.

[B]

God rested.

[A]

Yeah. You know. Yeah, Josh, I know, I know it says that, but I've got three little kids at home right now, and it's just not really doable with our season of life. Hey, hey, listen, God rested. Now, here's what people will say, okay? People make a little funny little, you know, quip out in the lobby and they'll say something like this and say, yeah Josh, but the devil never, never takes the day off. Can I ask you something? Why is the devil your role model? Isn't like the whole point. He's the bad guy. That's the whole thing, is that he's the bad guy. So what I want you to see this. Now in the words of H.H. farmer, what you're going to notice this is a law woven into the nature of creation. And listen to me, when you go against the grain of the universe, you're going to get splinters. Now can I just point some out to you? You've probably never thought about this before in your whole life. Stop and think about this. Have you ever stopped to ask yourself the question, what? Why do we have a seven day work week? I want you to think about this. Did you know there is no solar or lunar reason at all for us to have a seven day work week? Have you ever asked yourself the question, where does a seven day work week come from? It comes from this book. This is where it comes. This book right here. Seven day work week. In fact, this is really interesting. A few times in human history there have been cultures that weren't Christian cultures that, that tried to, they were like, ah, the seven day thing is totally arbitrary. We're gonna do something different. And they tried something other than a seven day workweek. I'll give one example of this. In the French Revolution. It was an atheistic revolution in the French Revolution. And they were like, ah, the seven day work week is dumb. We're gonna change it to a 10 day workweek. That's what they said to increase productivity and to make things more fluid, that kind of thing. Guess what happened? Disaster. The economy crashed. Suicide skyrocketed. Productivity went down. The this is really interesting. Virtually every study, and I'm a productivity guy, like I'll get to this in a second. It's my killer. I like to work, I like to build. I really like to win. So here's what's interesting is virtually every study you will ever read says that after a 50 hour work week right around there, after a 50 hour work week, people's productivity plummets. Now here's what's interesting. Guess what a 50 hour work week is. It corresponds almost exactly to working for six days a week and then taking One day off. Now, let me just zoom out, and let's go a theological layer deeper. If you go read your Old Testament again, here's what I'm illustrating for you is this is a principle that's woven into the fabric of the universe, and actually it's impossible for you over time to violate it. Now, here's what I'm driving at. If you go into the Old Testament, what you'll notice is there's about four primary things that deserved a death sentence in the Old Testament that was prescribed for adultery, murder. Breaking the Sabbath was one of them. I don't have time to talk about this. There was a time in the Old Testament where a guy was picking up sticks on a Sabbath, and God commanded for that person to receive a death sentence. Okay? It's like, you know, of course, you know, those terrifying stick gatherers, okay? It was a big deal. And then the last one was Rebellion against Parents. That's my favorite one. Right now, I do just want to. If your kids are ever acting up, you can say, I'm getting ready to go Old Covenant on your butt. You know, whatever you want to say. That's a joke.

[B]

It's a joke.

[A]

Don't do that. Now, here's the point is, in the New Covenant, we're in the New Testament, not the Old Testament. So in the New Testament, working on the Sabbath, it won't get you a death sentence. But listen really close. You're killing yourself slowly when you choose

[B]

not to take a Sabbath.

[A]

Okay, now just roll with me. I want to show you something. And for you, Matt, I'm a math guy. I like a good spreadsheet. Accepted Microsoft Excel into my heart. I'm gonna show you something real quick. This is really interesting for the other 95% of you. Just roll with me and act like it's cool to you.

[B]

Okay?

[A]

So years ago, what they did is they started studying. There's a small sect. It's a Christian sect. Now, there's some really weird things about this sect, so I don't recommend it, but it's a Christian sect called the Seventh Day Adventists. Okay, now show that little Wikipedia entry. I'm just showing you this. You can go look at this yourself later. This just pulled right off of Wikipedia. And what you're gonna notice is they studied Seventh Day Adventists. There's some weird things about them, but they are really, really big on keeping the Sabbath. That's like, their thing. Okay, now notice the part that I highlighted down there in that second paragraph. What they noticed is they Studied all these people for a period of about 25 years. And what they noticed was that on average, Seventh Day Adventist men lived. Look at. Look at what's highlighted. Lived on average 6.2 years longer than

[B]

the rest of the population.

[A]

Okay, now take that down. Now, there's other studies that have done the same thing, and here's what they all show. That those people that are very religious about keeping a Sabbath, they tend to live somewhere between five and six years longer than the rest of the population. Okay, Now I wanna show you something real quick. Come to me on the camera right here. Now I'm gonna show you something. We're going to do it on my. My little phone right here. And I got to do. I got to do a little face.

[B]

Are you kidding me?

[A]

My phone's. You got to be kidding me, man. Okay. Oh, I do want to do this real quick. People ask about this all the time. I just want to say I do not have skull in my back pocket. These are mints. I just want to get that out of the. It's not dip. These are mints. People ask about that all the time. I just. I felt it when I grabbed my phone. Let me get that out of the way. All right, now let me show you this real quick in the calculator app on my phone. Now let me show you something. The average lifespan in America right now is 77 years.

[B]

Okay?

[A]

Now, what I want to show you is, what that means is let's multiply that times 365 days. And what we're going to see is that the average person in America lives. Can you see it? Zoom in just a little farther so they can see that stuff. The average person lives. Ooh, that's. Look at that. Slow and dramatic.

[B]

Real good. Good job, guys.

[A]

The average. Little closer, actually. Little closer. Let them see my pores.

[B]

Here we go.

[A]

Yeah, that's great. All right. Very unsettling. The average person lives, you can see, at 28,105 days. Now, here's the question I want to ask, but how many Sabbaths. Over the course of somebody's whole life, how many Sabbaths? Well, let's divide by seven. And that means that in an average person's lifespan, they have an opportunity to receive and enjoy 4015 Sabbaths. Now, I'm going to show you something really cool. Stick with me. What studies show is that the average person only truly takes a full day

[B]

off, no work, about one out of every two weeks.

[A]

So let's divide that in half.

[B]

Okay? So we're Going to divide that by two.

[A]

And what that means is what you're seeing right there is that the average Seventh Day Adventist observes 2007.5 more Sabbaths

[B]

over the course of their life than the rest of the population.

[A]

Now let me ask an interesting question. If you were to turn the Sabbaths that those people observe into years, how many years worth of Sabbaths do they

[B]

enjoy more than the rest of the population?

[A]

So we're just going to take that number, we're going to divide it. I want you to see it by 365. Now, before I hit enter, remember what we said at the beginning. Studies show Seventh Day Adventist people live

[B]

on average five to six years longer than the rest of the population. Alright?

[A]

So if you take the number of Sabbaths they enjoy more than the rest of the population and turn them into years, what do you get?

[B]

5.5 years.

[A]

Now, for the 5% of you that are math people, you're like, that's amazing.

[B]

For the rest of you, you're like,

[A]

I'm going to pretend like I understand why that's amazing. Okay, now here's what's happening. Did you see that? Is that.

[B]

It's as if in their lives God is saying, for every day that you gave me, I gave you a day back.

[A]

Is this making sense? See, what God's doing is he's blessing them with this. He's doing this in their lives longer. For every day that they gave him, he gave them a day back. And now what some of you are saying is, let me just get out in front of it, what some of you are saying, you Bible nerds, you theology nerds. What you're saying is, yeah, Pastor Josh, but the command Sabbath, the fourth commandment, is the only one of the ten commandments that's not restated in the New Testament. Listen, it doesn't matter because it's a law that God has woven into creation. Now here's the question. Why? Why did God weave this law into creation? That leads me to principle number three, the principle of the Sabbath.

[B]

Listen, it teaches us, our children to walk by faith.

[A]

It teaches us and our children to walk by faith. Okay, now here's what's interesting. The first mention of the Sabbath is actually not in Exodus, Chapter 20 and the Ten Commandments. It's four chapters earlier. So I'm getting ready to read to you From Exodus chapter 16, the first mention in the entire Bible of the Sabbath. And it's when. Here's the. Let me give you the little backstory. It's not going to make any sense? The backstory is that children of Israel are going through the wilderness, and God has told them he's going to feed them. By every day they're going to wake up and there's going to be manna from heaven. And in the passage I'm reading, he's giving them instructions on what to do and what not to do with the manna they received from heaven. Now let me read this. Here's what it says. It says, each morning, everyone gathered as much as they needed, and when the sun grew hot, it melted away.

[B]

Okay?

[A]

So they could only gather for the day. They couldn't gather for two days. Every day it melted. Verse 22. On the sixth day, they gathered twice as much. Two omers for each person. Now, really quick for those, it said, omer, not Homer. It's bread, not dull.

[B]

Okay? That's 90s babies. Understand?

[A]

And the leaders of the community came and reported this to Moses. And he said to them, this is what the Lord commanded. Tomorrow is to be a day of Sabbath rest, a holy Sabbath to the Lord. So bake what you want to bake and boil what you want to boil. Listen close, save whatever is left and keep it until the morning. Now pause. Let me just point this out. He was telling them, hey, in order for you to take a Sabbath, on the Sabbath, you're going to have to prepare. Can I just point this out to you? You have to prepare in order to take a Sabbath. So here's what you're going to notice. Lazy, undisciplined people who don't work hard on the other six days. They can never Sabbath, because you have to prepare to be able to take a Sabbath. So he says, hey, prepare to take a Sabbath. That's what he says right here. Then he goes on, so they saved it until morning as Moses commanded, and it did not stink or get maggots in it. I love when that happens to my food. That's what I'm looking for when I go to a restaurant. I don't want it to stink. No maggots. Verse 25. Eat it today. Moses said, because today is a Sabbath to the Lord listening, you will not find any of it on the ground today. You will not find any of it on the ground today. So what he's saying is. Listen real close. What he's saying is, if you work on the Sabbath, I'm not gonna help you. Just. He's saying that if you work on the Sabbath, I'm not gonna help you. Verse 26. Six days you are to gather it but on the seventh day, the Sabbath, there will not be any. So are you seeing this? This is what he's saying. He said to them, very first thing, he said, hey, I want you prepare, work hard, prepare for six days so that on a seventh day, you can

[B]

pause, rest and enjoy my presence.

[A]

And if you've prepared, you can trust me. On that seventh day, I'll work for you. But then watch this, watch this. He says, if you work on that seventh day, I'm not going to help you. Now, here's the principle. The principle is the Sabbath. It teaches us and our children to walk by faith. So why did God do this? Why did God make it this way? Was it because he didn't want us to have any fun? No. In fact, it's the exact opposite. The whole purpose of the Sabbath is to bless your life. I'm going to talk about this here in a second. But in order to keep the Sabbath, you had to trust that God was going to work on the day. You didn't.

[B]

You had to have a heart of trust for that.

[A]

Okay? Now here's why God did this. Pause and think about this. For me, faith is the essence of the Christian life, guys. We are justified. Justified by faith in Christ. Apart from works of the law. Without faith, the book of Hebrews says, it is impossible to please God. We walk by faith, the Bible says, and not by sight. Now, listen, what's happening is in the

[B]

Sabbath, God is asking you, can you trust me for a day?

[A]

That's what God's doing in the Sabbath. God is asking you, can you trust me for a day?

[B]

Hint, you can.

[A]

You can. Now let me prove this to you, because I know, you know every, every time I preach about the Sabbath. It's really interesting. It's what happened to me this week.

[B]

There's a lot of conviction in the room.

[A]

So let me just. Let me illustrate this and have a little fun with it. So, pop quiz class. And I want you to answer out loud like you know exactly what I'm talking about. Because as soon as I say it, all of you are going to know exactly what I'm talking about. And we want to give a witness and a testimony to this reality. So, pop quiz class. What restaurant is it that you ironically get more hungry for on Sunday than any other day of the week ever? On the count of three, let's all answer out loud. One, two, three. It's Chick Fil A. It's the Christian chicken. It's the one on Sunday. It's like, bro, here's what Happens to me, I won't think about Chick Fil A at all. Six days. And then on Sunday, I'm like, give me that spicy chicken sandwich, no pickle, and a peach milkshake. Where is that thing? It's like, it's all I can think about. And they trick you. You'll be driving past it on a Sunday and you'll be like, bro, the line short. I'm going to go. And you're like, oh, Sabbath keepers. You know, it's like they get you every time. That's what. That's what they do. Now, I want you to think about this, okay? Chick Fil A works only six days a week. And their Christian owners have made a decision.

[B]

We're going to trust God and obey him on that seventh day. Now think about this.

[A]

In the last decade, here's what's happened

[B]

at Chick Fil A.

[A]

It's become the second largest restaurant chain in America.

[B]

The fastest growing restaurant chain in America.

[A]

The most profitable restaurant chain in America. And it was rated America's favorite restaurant chain in America. Chick Fil A. Christian chicken. Okay, now, but it's only open six days instead of seven. Now, how in the world do you do. How do you become the most profitable restaurant chain in America working only six days instead of seven? Listen to me really close.

[B]

Because you can get more done in six days with God than you can in seven days without Him.

[A]

That's what you're seeing right here. This is it. So let me put it to you like this. I'm putting it on the screen. Cause I want you to get this down deep in your soul. Here's the principle. A Sabbath is to your schedule what a tithe is to your budget. If you ever. In fact, this is hilarious. If you ever meet Christians that tithe. In fact, every time I talk about it, they applaud because they know this. Everybody that's ever tithed knows this. They know that God and 90% of your income can go farther than you and 100% of your income. Everybody that tithes knows that. Now listen, you apply that to the Sabbath. And I want you to see this. Go to this next saying. What you're seeing is, I can accomplish more in six days with God than in seven days without Him. That's what a Sabbath does. Now let me get practical, because here's what everybody always says. They go, yeah, Josh, but what about emergencies? You know, a kid gets sick or we ran out of milk or whatever it was. Well, Jesus answered that question, guys. Jesus said this. He said, if your Ox falls into a pit on the Sabbath. Jesus, get it out, get it out. This is a verse. And I'll just add, if you do want to say this, if you've got kids and oxes falling into pits every Sabbath, let me just say something about you. It's me. Hi, I'm the problem. It's me. You are the issue. At some point you've got to understand, oh, I'm the problem. And what you're going to notice is you've got to add some systems, you've got to add some policies, you've got to add some habits into your life so that you can prepare to Sabbath so that you can obey God and receive this blessing. Now, here's the other question I'll get is people say, hey, Josh. Or I'll just say it like this. God's flexible. Hey, Josh, does it have to be Sunday? I'm a fireman, you know, I swing a hammer. Whatever it is, I gotta work on Sundays. So I'll just point this out. Romans 14, you can read it later. It says that some people consider one day more holy than another. But Christians don't have to consider one day more holy than another because, heads up, some people work on Saturdays and Sundays. So for instance, this is how I do it. It's actually a fun little fact. For instance, in our nation, in America, when our nation was founded, it was predominantly Christians, but there were some Jewish people that came in the founding era of our nation. And if you've ever wondered why we have a five day work week, here's how that happened in America, a lot of countries have a six day work week. We have a five day work week. Here's why. Because as our nation was being founded, people were like, well, hey, are we going to do the Jewish Sabbath on Saturday or are we going to do the Christian Sabbath on Sunday? And in a very American way, we went, we'll take both. That's what we did. And that's how we got a five day. We're applauding for that.

[B]

Thank you.

[A]

Thank you, founders. That was wonderful. But no, no, no, you don't have to be legalistic, you don't have to be religious on this. You simply need to choose a day that, that's a day where you go, this is a day that's holy unto the Lord. Now that leads me to the last and final principle. This is so important. The question people ask. They ask me this all the time, you know, by the way, if you're asking this question, you're definitely the type of person that needs a Sabbath. Okay, here's the question people ask Josh, what do you even do on your Sabbath? What do you do a whole day? What do you do?

[B]

Okay, that leads me to principle number four. It's the best one. A Sabbath is a blessing. A Sabbath is a blessing.

[A]

Now I'm going to finish by reading Luke chapter 6. This is Jesus talking about the Sabbath. I'm going to point some things out to you. This is amazing. It says, this one Sabbath, Jesus was going through the grain fields and his disciples began to pick some heads of grain, rubbed them in their hands, and they started eating the kernels. Now, some of the Pharisees, now if you're new to Lake Point, this is a little review, that kind of thing. But I need you. The Pharisees, we believe in Christianity. The Pharisees believed in lawianity. Christians are people who we love Jesus, we trust Jesus, we are saved by Jesus, obedience, we follow Jesus, all those things. The Pharisees put the law in the place of Jesus. Pharisees, they're people who, they love rules, they obey rules, they trust that they believe that they are saved by their obedience to rules. So Pharisees, they're like people like when they were. They just love rules and they love rules about the rules. They love making rules and they love enforcing rules. They're the people who, when they were kids, they volunteered to be hall monitors and they grew up to become presidents of their hoa. These are Pharisees. Okay, let's keep going.

[B]

That's my favorite joke.

[A]

So the Pharisees come and they see Jesus taking these little heads of grain. Now watch what it says and they ask, why are you. They freak out. Why are you doing what's unlawful on the Sabbath? Now here's why they're accusing Jesus of being unlawful on the Sabbath. What the Pharisees did is they took any rule God made and like all Pharisees, they added rules on top of the rules. So the Pharisees took the one rule, honor the Sabbath by keeping it holy. On it you shall do no work. And then they made a 39 point checklist about how to make sure you don't do any work. And then this is a true story. It's called the Mishnah. They took the 39 point checklist and they turned it into a 615 rule book on how to apply the 39 rules that were all based on the one rule that's real. And one of the rules that Jesus and his disciples were breaking was you weren't Supposed to pick any heads of grain, you know, that would have been considered work. You weren't supposed to. If you were walking across the cultivated field, you were breaking their law of threshing. This is what they were doing. So they're freaking out on Jesus for disobeying the rules. They added to the rules, okay? Now Jesus answered them. Have you never read what David did when he and his companions were hungry? He. He entered the house of God and taking the consecrated bread, he ate what is lawful only for priests to eat. And he also gave some to his companions. Verse 5. Now what I'm doing right here in this, this next verse is Mark, chapter two records this same event, but it adds a sentence that Luke doesn't record. And I'm putting it in here, so just follow me. Then Jesus said to them, the Sabbath

[B]

was made for man, not man for the Sabbath. So the Son of Man is Lord of the Sabbath.

[A]

So here's what they had done. They had taken this one rule and listen, it wasn't even a rule. They had taken something that was meant to be a blessing and they turned it into a curse. They had taken something that God wanted to give us as a gift and they turned it into an obligation. And listen, when they started doing this, listen, it gets really weird. And what happens is instead of in their era, instead of the Sabbath just

[B]

being something where it's like,

[A]

let me

[B]

just pause and enjoy the presence of the Father and receive his blessings, they turned it into something that actually you had to be almost a slave to obey.

[A]

I'll give this gets weird. I'll give examples.

[B]

This is a true story.

[A]

Some modern day Orthodox Jews. So one of the little Mishnah rules was you couldn't travel farther than one mile on a Sabbath except over water. The reason they did this is like, man, if you were out for like a leisurely Little John boat ride, that's my favorite kind.

[B]

You're bass trolling whatever you're doing.

[A]

And the current took your boat farther than a mile. They were like, ah, that's not really work.

[B]

So the rule was you can't travel

[A]

farther than a mile except over water. True story. To this day, if you go to some places in Israel and meet Orthodox Jews, they'll be driving their cars around or traveling on a Sabbath on Saturday. And in order to get around the rule, they'll put a bottle of water

[B]

underneath the driver's seat.

[A]

For real. I'm not joking. Can you. I just find that hilarious. Can you imagine God like, you better. He's got A Dasani under there. Good job, bud. Okay, one of my other. It's a true story, one of my other favorite ones. I've got a pastor buddy who if we ever go to Israel together and we're there on a Saturday, one of the rules they have is you're not allowed to start a fire on a Sabbath. And so what that means is you can't press a button that will trigger an electrical current because that's a 2026 version of a fire. And so what they do, like, if you're in a multi story building, they have what are called Shabbat elevators. And a Shabbat elevator, what it does is only on Saturday it stops at every single floor. So I had a pastor buddy who gets into this little, this elevator and he notices, man, it's stopping on every floor. And he turns around, he says, man, you know what's wrong with this elevator? And they go, oh, this is a Shabbat elevator. He says, is Shabbat Hebrew for slow? You know? And they're like, no, no. And they explain the whole thing to him. Can't trigger a fire on his head, can't press a button, that kind of thing. And just, you know, half joking, he goes, well, man, is you guys got a gentile elevator anywhere? You know? And they explain, actually, yes, it's right across the hall. You just go do your thing. He's like, okay, great. So on the next floor, he gets across the hall, goes into the gentile elevator. While he's in there getting ready to press the button, he hears a noise behind him, looks around. All of them have followed him into the gentile elevator. They say, can you press 7 for us? That's a true story. Okay, now, so what they had done is they turned an obligation or a blessing into an obligation. And here's the big idea, guys.

[B]

This is a gift God wants to

[A]

give you and your family. So you're not meant to be a servant of the rule. It's meant to serve you. So let me finish sermon like this. Getting super practical. What should you do on a Sabbath? I'm gonna give you a couple things real quick that Jan and I have learned. Number one, no work. Nothing that feels like work now. But I do wanna point something out. So let me. I'm gonna show this to you. This is for my generation and down. Because let me just say this, for some of us, we are really, really good at focusing on the time we're supposed to have off. And we are really, really bad at working when we're supposed to be working. So can I just point something out to my generation and down in particular, really quick look at how the fourth commandment is worded. Go ahead and toss it up there. Six days you shall do all your work. So think about this part of the fourth commandment is you need to be working hard for the six days that lead up to that last day. Can I just say something? Some people, and listen, I love you. In my generation, down in particular, work really hard at making sure they never have to work really hard. So can I just say something? Here's what some people do. Just watch out for this. Listen, when I describe this type of dude, I don't want any of these type of guys at Lake Point, okay? This is not gonna be us. What some guys do is when they're young, they're really focused on their hobbies and gaming and all the anything except work. So they never learn to work hard. So then when they get up, they grow up and they go to college. They go to college and they don't work hard, they don't learn how to work hard and they never get what they acquire the skills they need to get in order to get a good job. So when they get out of college, they did all the gaming, they don't get a good job, they can't work hard, get a good job and earn any money. So what they do is instead of working hard and getting a good job and earning money, they just resent all the people who do work hard and earn money. So instead of learning to work hard and earn money and out of resentment, they just, instead of working hard and earning money, they just vote for people who will take money from the people who do work hard and earn money and give it to them that seriously, that's what they do. So listen, can I just say something to you, man, Especially in my generation, down, Can I just say this to you, man? Listen, man, listen bro, you can crush it. You can crush it. If you will just do these four things like listen, man, this is not in my notes, but it is my heart. Employers should want to hire Christians. They should be looking around and going, man, instead of hiring for dei, they should be going, man, you know what? I want to hire. I want to hire spirit filled Bible believing Jesus submitted. This is what they should be doing. So listen, if you'll do this, man, let me just encourage you, if you will just show up on time, have a good attitude, respect authority and do what you said you were going to do, you're going to be ahead of 95% of dudes in the workplace. That's all you gotta do, man. So, number one, so we don't do any. Don't do. Don't do any work, okay? But you gotta do the work on the six days to not do any work on the seventh day. Now, number two, I'm gonna get real practical. Go real fast. Number two, I have learned this device is off. I'm not saying you gotta. This is just what I've learned, okay? What I would say to you is, put the phone down, Gollum.

[B]

Some of you like my precious.

[A]

Put the phone down. I'll just say it like this, man. I have learned this is the only thing I have found that kills both work and rest. That thing right there. So it's like on the Sabbath, what you're gonna find is Microsoft Teams, Microsoft Outlook, you know, Instagram, the Beast, the false prophet and the Antichrist. That's what you're gonna find. What you're gonna find is on this thing, if you spend your whole Sabbath day doing this, there's that little button at the top that says refresh. It's that little. Little arrow button. You'll spend the whole day going, refresh, refresh, refresh. And you're never refreshed. So I'm going to encourage you, man. Put that just for one day a week. Just like, hey, man, let's get that away. Number three, I'm going to get real practical. Janet and I figured this out. Hang out with fun Christians. And I put that word in there on purpose. The fun ones, okay? Here. I'm telling you what we do. We do this thing in our family. We call it Sabbath Dinners. What we do, it's on Sunday. It's right after we finish worshiping. At least once a month. What we'll do is we'll invite a whole bunch of Christian families over. It's awesome. We get all the food. It's amazing. And everybody hangs out, and all the kids are screwing around. We tell people to bring their kids Christian dads. I'm giving you a suggestion right here. This is a fatherhood cheat code right here. Somebody else gave this to me. I'm gonna drop this on you. What we do is this is a bunch of Christian dudes and their families. They're all there, Kids scurrying around, bunch of good food. We all eat together. It's controlled chaos. It's amazing. Then we all sit down and we eat together. And then when dessert comes, every husband and father in the room, and then the mamas know it, too. What we do during dessert is everybody goes around and they either share, like, one thing the Lord's working on them for one thing they've learned about the Word, or one thing they've seen God do in somebody else's life. Now, here's why that's a cheat code. One, it's just we're inviting the presence of God into our Sabbath. But two, just check this out, man, this little cheat code. All of our kids are growing up watching their dads talk about Jesus and what Jesus did for them. And they're growing up seeing all the adults they think are the coolest people they've ever met. They're watching them talk about the power of God at work in their lives. So listen, if my kids ever want to walk away from the faith, they don't just got to walk away from Mama and Dad. They got to walk away from Chris Berkley and Jordan Lloyd and Tim Smith and Carlos Arazo and all the people that are. They got to walk away from all of us. So listen, it's a cheat code. There's a reason in the fourth commandment, it says you don't do any work, but also your family, your friends, your co workers, the people around you. It's a joint thing. So hang out, just encouragement. Hang out with fun Christians, number four. And then the sermon is just gonna end. It's gonna be great. Anything that feels like a blessing, it's supposed to be a blessing. So you ask the question for you, what feels like a blessing to you? I'm gonna be shoot you really straight. Here's what feels like a blessing to me. If you read the Gospels, Jesus is constantly on boats. He's fishing and he's taking naps. That's my favorite Sabbath. That's it. I just want to be like Jesus. I want to. I want to fish for bass, be on a John boat. I want to take a nap. You just need to figure out what that is for you. Okay, now, last one. Last one is you need to worship. This is why we worship on Sabbath days. You need to worship. Notice that the commandment is, it is holy unto the Lord. I'm going to use a word I would typically not use in a sermon from stage. There is an older senior saint theologian who coined this phrase. I find it really helpful. Just so just go with me. I'm quoting him. This isn't me. Eugene Peterson, older theologian, has gone to be with the Lord. He said when people just take a day off and they don't worship, he called that a bastard Sabbath, it's a

[B]

listen, a Sabbath without the presence of the Father. The whole purpose of the Sabbath is to invite the presence of the Father into our lives. The purpose is not just to get a day off, it's to get a day with God.

[A]

It's like, I'll tell you what I

[B]

do, man, I stick.

[A]

I get audio scripture, I put it in my little earphones and when I'm down there fishing or I'm taking a walk, I need to be outside touching grass.

[B]

I just got the word of God going on right there. It's like, man, I want this to be. Father, welcome into my life. Now let me finish it like this. Three years ago, I preached for the first time on Sabbath. And there's a couple in our church named Miles and Allie Hunter. And they began to practice this and

[A]

I want to finish this reading.

[B]

They got a short testimony about what happened in their lives that they wrote for me this week. Here's what it says. I listened to Pastor Josh's sermon on

[A]

February 5, 2023 and I remember the date because it truly changed my life.

[B]

I took my first Official Sabbath on February 10th. We are a self owned business and my job is very much an always on type of job.

[A]

Not many people in my industry ever

[B]

really take a day off. They're in a. It's hard to describe, it's like a high level Amazon sales. There's a lot of social media stuff. In fact, before hearing Josh's sermon, I had not taken a day off in two years except for Christmas. I had just had my first baby and he was two months old. I was working nonstop and the work that had once been a blessing to me had become a burden and we knew something had to give. So admittedly we were nervous about trying it because our business depends on staying in the social media algorithm and constant traction. But we knew a Sabbath was God's command. We knew the Bible says his commands are not burdensome and we wanted to walk in faith as a family. So as an act of offering our lives and our business to him, we took a step of faith and began to truly Sabbath with one day per week for the first time in our lives. And we waited to see what would happen. Two weeks after trusting God and taking the first Sabbath of my life, some things fell into place for our business that more than quadrupled our income. With the conviction I felt, the timing of it all and how desperately I needed to be obedient in that area of my life, I knew God was blessing that step of obedience.

[A]

Three years later, the blessing of Sabbath

[B]

has gone far beyond business. It gives me more creativity by allowing my mind to rest and reset. It gives me more dedicated time to enjoy my family, my life, and to live in gratitude for the blessings God has already given us. And the attitude of Sabbath, it trickles into the rest of the week, too. It helps me slow down, enjoy life, be more present. Now it has also become a witness to the people in my life. Everyone we work with now knows Friday is my Sabbath and Thursday is my husband's. And they respect that, even if they don't believe what we believe. Yet on those days, we do not work. We do not talk about work, and we do not think about work. We trust God, we talk about God, and we think about God and rest. And coming from a true workaholic, that's a gift. I truly look forward to my Sabbath every week now. And I want to tell you something we have discovered with full conviction. Six days with the blessing of God is far better than seven days without it. Our names are Miles and Allie, and this is how God changed our lives. Amen. Amen.

[A]

Now I want to pray that for you.

[B]

You. I want to pray that for you. Would you bow your heads and close your eyes, please? Father, I pray that you would let us be a people who we bend our knee to you because your commands are not burdensome and you want your children to live in your blessing. So, Father, we trust you. We trust you. I pray that you would make us people who can trust you for a day.

[A]

So, Lord, if there's conviction happening right now, I pray that this next week

[B]

might be the first week somebody's life ever that they just pause and receive your blessing and they enter into rest that changes their life and their family's life forever. In Jesus name and all God's people said Amen.