So why do we not like hypocrites? Why do we not like hypocrites? That was the question driving a research project that was published about seven years ago out of Yale University. And it's interesting, there's lots of observations that they had, but, but one of the observations of why we don't like hypocrites is because they are false signalers. Now, what is that? Well, think of it this way, imagine that the signal that I give out to you is that I loudly condemn you for eating bacon? Ok. So I loudly condemn you for, we know this is make believe, right? Uh loudly condemn you for eating bacon. Now, it implies that if I'm loudly condemning you for eating bacon, it can only be assumed that I don't eat bacon, right? It wouldn't make any sense for me to condemn you for eating bacon when, when I do. And the research showed that if I will loudly condemn you for eating bacon instead of just saying I don't eat bacon, then you will have more respect for me. My reputation will be built bigger by condemning you. Instead of just saying that I don't do something, we see that a lot in culture today, don't we? Now, the research also shows that this picture is that if you find out that I do eat bacon, then I will be giving a false signal. I'll be a false signaler and you may start calling me a hypocrite. So some of this is common sense, but they really whittled it down in a lot of numbers and a lot of research. Now, the problem with us not liking hypocrites is that, that means we have to not like ourselves, right? That's, that's how that works. You may have seen the the sign outside the church that says this church is not full of hypocrites, hypocrites. There's always room for one more. Yeah, that's, that's a reality. But is there a better way to deal with hypocrisy? Well, the Yale report also showed something called an honest hypocrite. Yeah, an honest hypocrite, an honest hypocrite is someone that really does struggle to practice what they preach, but they just tell you that they're struggling to practice what they preach. So today, I am not coming to you as a false signaler. I'm coming as an honest hypocrite. So what is my hypocrisy? Well, let's find out together, we're continuing our series today. Uh 10 ways to change the world where we're looking at the ultimate universal laws of the universe, known as the 10 commandments. And we've arrived at the fourth commandment and the fourth commandment and the content of the fourth commandment is where my honest hypocrisy comes from. And I would add, I don't think I'm alone at being an honest hypocrite in that. Now, what does all that mean? Well, let's see if we can find out together, be looking in Exodus chapter 20. Our message today is called rest assured, rest assured. And we have God giving a message to Moses to give to the people. And God continues his message as we begin in verse eight. Remember the Sabbath Day to keep it holy? What is the Sabbath Day? Is that like we're supposed to make sure we take a bath on Saturday. Is it just that simple? No, there's more to it. And thankfully, God gave us a definition. He continues with Moses verse nine for six days, you shall labor and do all your work. But the seventh day is a Sabbath of the Lord your God on it. You shall not do any work. Sabbath means rest from work. The Hebrew people that got rescued from slavery in Egypt. They were commanded to rest. Now, imagine if you had been one of those Hebrew slaves, you had spent your life under the oppression of the Egyptian government. You worked at least 10 hour backbreaking crazy impossible work days, no coffee breaks, no lunch breaks, no Gatorade breaks. If you got out of line, you get the, the staff or the whip from your supervisor. It was a, it was a terrible, horrible life. Then through unimaginable miraculous events, you are rescued and the God that rescues you gives you some laws for your new life. And one of the laws is you have to rest from work. I, I think I'd be into that, right? And who is it? That's not supposed to work? Listen again to verse 10. You or your son or your daughter, your male slave or your female slave or your cattle or your resident who stays with you. Even the cows were supposed to rest. Ok. This is serious. Rest here. This command of rest. Now, where did this Sabbath rest come from? Well, God continues to Moses verse 11. For in six days, the Lord made the heavens and the earth, the sea and everything that is in them. And he rested on the seventh day for that reason. The Lord blessed the Sabbath day and made it holy. So the Sabbath rest didn't begin 3740 years ago when these commands were given, Sabbath rest began in what we know as the beginning of creation from the very foundations of the world. God gave us an example to follow work. Six days, rest, one work, six rest one in its most simplistic form. That is the aspect that we see in this fourth commandment work. Six days, rest one. But is that it just just don't work, just rest, just sleep late, just just hang out during the day. Don't go to work, take a nap later. Is that all? It is? No, it is rest. But it's much more deeper than that. Listen again to the language of verse eight and the language of verse 10, remember the Sabbath day to keep it holy. The seventh day is a Sabbath of the Lord, your God. So a Sabbath rest is not, not just a rest, it is a God centered rest. A Sabbath rest was not commanded just so you can watch the super bowl. A Sabbath rest was not commanded just so you could go to the lake or play golf or swim in the pool. A Sabbath rest was not commanded just so you could sit on the sofa and scroll through tiktok or, or find a great deal on ground chuck at the grocery store. Now, are any of those things necessarily forbidden as a Sabbath rest? No, they're not forbidden in that sense. But, but the rest that we are called to is a rest that is spiritual, emotional, mental, physical and it is all a focus on God. It is a God centered rest. And what does that mean? What does it mean to have a God centered rest. How do we keep a day holy? How do we, how do we keep a Sabbath rest holy well, Jesus was teaching his friends a, a model prayer and he began his model prayer with these words, Matthew six time. Our father who is in heaven hallowed be your name. Hallow means set apart. It means unique as we heard the music played a moment ago. It means that God is holy, holy, holy He is other other other that does not describe any of us. So in God's holiness, we are hallowing Him. So it means that remembering the Sabbath rest means that you are Halloween and setting God apart as holy. It means your focus is on God. Your rest is a remembering to rest in God to focus on God. I have a friend who has eight Children and among some of his kids are some boys and when his boys were younger, they were super, super great athletes. In fact, one of them is, is now a head coach of college basketball team. But when the boys were younger and they played travel ball, they did not play on Sundays. No, that's not me making a decree that if your kid ever plays in a tournament that you're going to be excommunicated from Christianity. I just share that to say this, that what he communicated to his boys was this the reason we're not going to play on Sunday is because we're just going to do something different. What we do the other days. All of us, we're, we're just, we're just going to do it different on the one day, whatever we do the other days, we're going to do our very best to not do it on, on this day. And that's at least a picture of Sabbath rest. It's a picture of saying, look, I, I need to strive to figure out how to make this time holy, how to rest in God. It means that we look at all the other things in life, all the other things that we can do all the other ways that we can spend our time. And we can say, look, I'm going to try to hallow God's name with my time. I'm going to try to rest in God different than I do the other days. Someone said, the Sabbath, rest is a way for us to Hallow God to honor His holiness as the greater wealth. That's tremendous. The, the greater wealth that we would see God as the greatest wealth and our desire would be to rest in Him. That's the picture of Sabbath rest not just a day to rest, not just the act of resting, but actually resting in such a way that we make much of God. We make much of God's greatness. Weeks before he died, Moses spoke to all of the people and, and in his speech, he repeated the 10 commandments and he shared as he was repeating them that day, these words, Deuteronomy 515. And you shall remember that you were a slave in the land of Egypt. And the Lord, your God brought you out of there by a mighty hand and an outstretched arm. Therefore, the Lord, your God commanded you to celebrate the Sabbath day. So Moses says to the people, look, remember you were slaves. You had no rights. You had to willfully obey your masters. You had to, to bow down and obey your slave masters. You had nothing but God. God stretched out his hand. He rescued you and he redeemed you. And now he commands you to rest as a reminder that you once were slaves, but now you've been set free. Now, look, that's not just ancient Old Testament religious jargon. Let me ask you a question for you to answer for yourself. As honest as you can with your heart. Are you a Christian? Are you truly a Christian? Are you truly a follower of Jesus? If so, then you once were a slave to sin, you had no rights, you had to bow down and obey the lust of your sinful rebellion against God. But God being rich in mercy, He rescued you. He redeemed you and now by His grace, he commands you to rest in Him as a reminder that you weren't once were a slave to sin. But now you've been set free. The blood of Jesus has set you free. That is a reason to rest. That is a reason to remember the Old Testament. And speaking of the Sabbath, rest basically kind of teaches this reality. And that is that there is only one creator God, there is only one delivering God. And yes, that God has commanded that we work. He has designed that, that we have jobs for lack of a better word. But we have to also remember that our ability to work, our ability to text our ability to, to post our ability to, to sing, our ability to eat, our ability to walk and talk our ability to breathe. They're all expressions of the grace of God. Bruce Rae said this rebellious people do not want to rest in God's work or celebrate His creation. We want to rest in our own works and celebrate our own accomplishments, whether we are willing to admit it or not. We are completely dependent on God, every single one of us, we're completely dependent on God. You are not a self made man and you are not a self made woman, no matter how much money you've saved, no matter how much money you've earned, no matter how much money you've invested, no matter if there is a building with your name on it. You are not self made. You don't exist without the grace of God and your ability to go to work tomorrow. Your ability to be retired tomorrow, your ability to breathe right now is completely dependent on the grace of God. You can't make yourself alive. And if that's true, then that should be some pretty good motivation to rest in the Lord. See a Sabbath rest is this beautiful, profound, wonderful reality that helps us when we are resting in such a way. We are declaring and announcing with our lives that God created the world and everything that is in it without us. And God doesn't need us and God doesn't need our work to make the world go round. But, but we desperately need Him. We need him and, and, and wonder of wonders, God desires to have fellowship with us. God, he loves us. He desires to have a relationship with us. We need Him and he longs for us to be with him. So many people, they, they look at the 10 commandments as these mean religious laws, all they see is law and they, they miss the love. They, they missed the depth of the love again. Think about it. You're, you're a Hebrew slave. You're working backbreaking hours in the scorching desert heat. And then one day this God comes and rescues you. And he says, look, I want you to work six days and, and rest one and I promise I'll meet your needs. Not, not always your wants, but I'll meet your needs in those six days. John Piper says this, that is not a cruel command. It is a gracious gift, a gracious gift in a sense. Part of the fourth commandment is a commandment to repent, a commandment, to repent of allowing our hearts and our minds to not make God holy and hallowed all the other days of the week to repent of not resting in Him on the other days of the week. To repent of enjoying some really good things, but enjoying them so much that we don't enjoy God, we enjoy all the other things more than we enjoy God. So in view of the love of God, may we be people that we see the truth of this commandment? And we would actually love the repenting, the renewing, the refreshing, the reviving realities of what it means to rest in God. What it means to remember to rest in God and what it means to rest in his redeemed greatness. I guess I should say his redeeming greatness. What about people that work on Sunday? What other than people that work on Sunday? Are they going to get excommunicated from Christianity? Is it always wrong for someone to work on Sunday on what we call the Lord's Day? Well, how about we just think about it practically. If you slump over in the pew right now with a heart attack, you're going to be really glad some ems workers are working on Sunday, right? Yeah. If your child or your grandchild has a, has a seizure this afternoon, you're going to be really glad that there's some doctors and nurses and pharmacists working on Sunday. If early one Sunday morning, somebody tries to break into your house, you're going to be really glad that sheriff's deputy is working and, and riding through your neighborhood on Sunday, if there's some kind of short and a wire in your house, one Sunday night, you're going to be really glad that those firemen are down at the station on Sunday. Listen, be careful of being a foolish pharisee and saying that all work on Sunday is wrong, but likewise, be careful of being foolish and apathetic about having a Sabbath rest. Be careful and just blowing off the commandment. Just saying, well, that doesn't really have a, a place in my life today. There are days that are permitted. I mean, after all, I'm working right now. You know, I mean, our, our entire church staff, we never have no Sabbath rest. We always work. But if you have a job that requires you to work on a Sunday and prevent you from having a Sabbath rest, what should you do? Well, it wouldn't be wrong to pray for a different job. It's not, it's not wrong. If there's something that prevents you from really a schedule that kind of never lets you gather in corporate worship with other believers, it's not wrong to, you know, pray for a different job. But if the different job doesn't happen, then you keep working hard providing for your family and, and praying that God would do something different or, or come on Wednesday night, you know, we're here on Wednesdays too. Good stuff on Wednesday night too. And if you can't be in, in corporate worship on Sunday morning, guess what? You, you can watch service. The, the whole c you can go to our website Holland avenue.com. You can watch the whole service. You can listen to the sermon on the website. You can go to Facebook and you can watch our whole service on Facebook right there on Facebook. You can go to youtube. You can watch the service on Facebook. You can watch just the sermon on Facebook. Thanks to Samuel. We, we have it all split out. So, so there's plenty you can go. Uh, also thanks to Samuel wooden and all he does in the tech behind the scenes, you can and our guys in the booth too. You can also go to itunes and you can listen to the sermon in your car on your phone wherever you are. So, so there's ways to, to engage even if you can't be here. But but if there's a way, then, then prayerfully look for that way because there is something unique about not just having a Sabbath rest in the garden by yourself. There's a beauty to what it means to gather together and rest and worship the Lord together. Now, are there jobs that are not necessary on a, on a Sunday, so to speak? Absolutely. There, there are business and commerce jobs out there that are not necessary. And by the way, there's things at your house that are not necessary on Sunday as well. Remember the goal is simply this, hey, six days work, one day rest. What does that look like? How, how can that materialize in your life now? Does that always happen? No, it won't always work perfectly. And so we, as Christians, we, we're always walking that really, really fine line of law and liberty of legalism in obedience. And sometimes that is a, a harder line to walk. There are people who faithfully and diligently observe a Sabbath rest, but they will never find their way to heaven because they are trusting in the observance of a law and not trusting in the righteousness of Jesus Christ. So it's not just following the law. There is more to it than that. Jesus healed a woman on the Sabbath, but the ruler of the synagogue didn't approve. And this is what he said. Luke 13 verse 14, there are six days during which work should be done. So come during them and get healed and not on the Sabbath day. Well, that's the guy you want as your pastor, right? Get out of here. So how did Jesus respond? Luke 1315, you hypocrites. Does each of you on the Sabbath? Not untie his ox or donkey from the stall and lead it away to water it. And this woman, a daughter of Abraham as she is whom Satan has bound for 18 long years. Should she not have been released from this restraint on the Sabbath Day? In other words, if you tend to be really legalistic, be careful because I promise you got a donkey, we all got a donkey. So it's a fine line but we, we have to walk that line of, of law and liberty of, of legalism and, and obedience. But if we think very little of a Sabbath rest, then again, I would encourage us to learn to rest, which brings me back to my honest hypocrisy because it is really, really hard for me to practice what I'm preaching just is some of it is because of my job on Sundays. Some of it is because I'm a huge workaholic. Some of it is because I'm in a very unique and demanding season of life where if I do have a minute of rest, I have to move to the next subject of things I have to take care of. So it's difficult. It's, it's hard and I'm not condoning it. It's not a good thing. I'm asking you to pray for me and I'll pray for you because again, I'm probably not the only one who struggles with focusing and resting in an on God relying on him only in a time of, of rest. And why is it so important that we do this? Why is it so important that we get this? Tim Keller says this, we are also to think of Sabbath as an act of trust, an act of trust. He goes on to practice. Sabbath is a disciplined and faithful way to remember that you are not the one who keeps the world running, who provides for your family, not even the one who keeps your work projects moving forward. And he, he goes on to say that the people that have the hardest time believing that is the workaholics like me. And then he says this, how easy to fall prey to the temptation to believe that you alone are holding up your corner of creation. Mm Thank you, Tim. Get that knife out of my back. But he's right. He's right. We, we're not holding up our corner of creation and, and based on on every day this week, the conversations I've had with church members and people in the community can I just also say this? There is no president, there is no candidate, there is no king, there is no queen, there is no general, there is no dictator. There is no person on this planet, past present or future who has ever held up a corner of creation. And because that is true, let us take a Sabbath rest from being angry or afraid over elections and economies. And let us take our Sabbath rest in the one that we sang of at the beginning of our time together today. Remember these words, this is my father's world. It's not the world of the United States. It's not Biden's world, it's not Trump's world. It ain't my world, it ain't your world. It never will be no matter who is elected or not elected. This is our father's world period exclamation point. And we also saying this, this is my father's world. Oh, let me never forget, na na, that means never. Sometimes it's good to say. Never. Let me never forget that though. The wrong seems off so strong, seems a little strong right now, doesn't it? You know what? It seems strong in 1972 too? And it seems strong in, in 1902 and it seemed strong in 1872. And it, it seemed strong 3740 years ago, when the commandments of God were coming, the world and the evil in the world and the sin of the world will always feel strong. It will always feel strong. But as we say, though the world seems off so strong, God is the ruler yet that will never change, it has never changed, it will never change. Only God is holy, holy, holy. So what's the motivation for us to have this Sabbath? Rest, listen again to verse 11. The Lord blessed the Sabbath day and made it holy. You know what God wants to bless your heart. He does. He wants to bless your, he wants your heart and your mind and your soul to be satisfied and happy in Him. He wants to bless you in such a way that that through Sabbath rest that you would have a hope and a peace and a joy and a love and a freedom created or recreated or restored in your heart and mind and soul and, and how, how can Sabbath rests, create freedom? What does that even mean? Tim Keller says this? It means you are not a slave, not to your culture's expectations, your family's hopes, your medical school's demands, not even to your own insecurities. And it's important that you learn to speak that truth to yourself with a note of triumph. Otherwise you will feel guilty for taking time off or you will be unable to truly unplug. In other words, we, we won't even live in our freedom. We'll be afraid to live in our freedom. And instead of just trusting the Lord Keller goes on the Sabbath legislation in Israel, limited work, limited profit, taking, limited exploitation, limited economic production in general. That surely meant that in the short run, Israel was less economically productive and prosperous than its neighbors. In other words, if you rest, you may not get that new car. I if you rest, you may not get the new house. If you rest, you may not have that extra money for retirement, you may not be as prosperous as your neighbor. But Keller says it was a land of free people was better freedom. Our productivity sounds like the gospel says to be free is greater. And then he closes with this in the long run. Of course, a deeply rested people are far more productive. See, freedom actually makes us more productive. We don't have to exchange the two. So let's rest. It's, it's not going to be easy. It'll be really hard for me. But, but let's rest in and let's rely on and let's rejoice in the one true sovereign God and the salvation of his son Jesus Christ. Because that kind of rest is the only kind of rest that will be truly eternally productive. And that kind of risk is the only kind of risk that will truly make us free, must be free.