Sabbath

It's so good to see you all in church today. I want to welcome you again. If you just stay standing for just a couple more minutes, we're going to get ready to open our Bibles and and read the Bible, read some scripture. If you brought your Bible, you can turn to Luke chapter 6, the Gospel of Luke. We're in a message series called Authentic, where we're learning the unfiltered story of Jesus. We're working through the Gospel of Luke. And if you've been here each week, I hope you've been learning and growing and being challenged. Today's passage where we we get to in this uh in this passage has been the most challenging passage for me. I've studied I believe I I share this with you just very transparently. Some weeks require more study than other weeks, >> which I think is true for anybody that studies the Bibles. Sometimes it's a you're like, "Oh, I get it. You can read a little bit. It makes sense." And then sometimes you're like, "I got to understand this. I got to I got to really get there." And so, um, I've been wearing myself out studying and, uh, it's a good thing to get worn out doing, I feel like. Um, but we're going to look at Sabbath today in Luke chapter 6. And, uh, even more just learning about Jesus. The other thing I was thinking about other than that God is good. I know you want to sit down. You can sit down in a minute uh is is that we we come to church and and I don't know exactly why you came to church today, but I want to offer something to you. If when you're in a gathering like this, in a corporate gathering and the Bible's being opened and somebody's going to get ready to to what we call preach a message, desire to know the Bible. Desire to know the word versus just I hope I hear something that could help me. And here's the reason I think that's important is because when we look at this whole text, there's some things in here that are way more applicable to a moment where we can read it and we can be like, oh, be patient. Okay, I should be more patient. That will help my life. There's other things we read in the depths of the text sometimes and we're like, I'm not real sure exactly how to play this out in my life. But what we believe as Christians, uh, Paul told Timothy that all of this is is inspired. It's the breath of the Holy Spirit. It's useful for our life. And so, we gather in a space like this, what I want us to lean into even this morning is that this passage today is very important to our life or it wouldn't be in the text. >> And so, let's believe that as we study it today, God's really going to speak to us. Luke chapter 6, I'm going to read uh 11 verses and then I'll pray. says, "One Sabbath, Jesus was going through the grain fields fields, and his disciples began to pick some heads of grain, rubbing them in their hands, and and and and eat the kernels." Some of the Pharisees asked, "Why are you doing what is unlawful on the Sabbath?" Jesus answered, "Have you never read what David did when he and his companions were hungry? He entered the house of God, and taking the consecrated bread, he ate what is lawful only for priests to eat. He also gave some to his companions. Then Jesus said to them, "The Son of Man is Lord of the Sabbath." On another Sabbath, he went into the synagogue and was teaching a man. He was teaching, and a man was there whose right hand was shriveled. The Pharisees and the teachers of the law were looking for a reason to accuse Jesus. So they watched him closely to see if he would heal on the Sabbath. But Jesus knew what they were thinking. And he said to the man with the shriveled hand, "Get up. stand in front of everyone. So he got up and he stood there. Then Jesus said to them, I ask you, which is lawful on the Sabbath, to do good or to do evil, to save life or to destroy it? He looked around at them all, and then he said to the man, "Stretch out your hand?" He did so, and his hand was completely restored. But the Pharisees and the teachers of the law were furious. They began to discuss with one another what they might do to Jesus. God, we thank you that we have your word. We thank you this morning that we are not standing here hoping we could figure out what to do, that somebody would show up and and be able to tell us what to do. We thank you that Jesus, you have given us your written word. And so, Holy Spirit, I pray that you would breathe. I pray you would breathe in every auditorium right now. I pray that you would breathe on this message, God. That it would be your words, not mine. That exactly what you want spoken is what would be spoken today. God, may we be changed by your word and made better in Jesus' name. Amen. Amen. You can have a seat. Everybody, welcome all of our locations today. Everybody in St. Louis, downtown SuffK, Western Branch to the Minute, our God Behind Bars campus. Those of you watching online, it's good that you're here. It's good that Pastor Steven made it back to St. Louis. He was uh in Virginia uh yesterday for our uh Fully Alive conference that we did for our Virginia locations yesterday. We'll be doing that in just a couple of weeks in St. Louis and I'll be there uh with our St. Louis location. Excited to be there in a couple weeks as well. God's doing some great work in our church and it's fun to see what's happening. I want to jump in this passage today and first look at the interesting aspect about Jesus because y'all I I I've been fascinated in these last few months continuing to learn more about the personality of Jesus. And I hope again if you've been studying that you're picking up on those things as well. So we come into this this moment today of Luke chapter 6 and Jesus question to the Pharisees the way it's worded in the English translation is have you never read how how many of you know there's a way to ask a question that is encouraging and there's a way to ask a question that makes you feel a little dumb. Can we just be honest today? And if you're not sure how how you ask questions, it's a good question to ask your spouse or your kids or a friend maybe might help your relationship a little bit. Jesus knows, right? He knows everything. He knows these Pharisees, they're religious. He knows they aren't really open to what God wants for their life. They're more just open to what they want for their life. He doesn't ask them a question in in regards to an encouraging way, so to speak, and just be like, "Hey, talk to me about what your reading's been lately and what God's been speaking to you." No, he just goes, "Haven't you read? >> Don't you know the Bible? >> Don't you know that it says this is what happened?" Immediately, he's revealing to the Pharisees own hearts once again that you aren't open to what God wants to say. You've already gotten stuck in your ways. You've already decided this is the way things are and things are never going to change. He's calling out the fact that the Pharisees didn't have a reading problem. They had a heart problem. You know, I tell my kids all the time and and it it drives them uh well, sometimes crazy. Read your Bible. Read your Bible. Read your Bible. Reading your Bible works when you read it with the right heart. Reading your Bible doesn't work when you read it with the wrong heart. If you are reading your Bible to prove something, to puff yourself up, you're reading your Bible with the wrong heart. If you are reading your Bible so that the word of God would like speak into your heart, convict you, encourage you, change you, you're reading with the right heart. How we come to the scriptures matters. And this is what Jesus is revealing to us about the Pharisees. They weren't looking to understand Jesus. They were looking to accuse Jesus. Are you ever looking to prove Jesus wrong? I want you to think about that today. Do you have the thought sometimes, "Oh, that won't work." It says in here it will, but we go, "Yeah, that won't work." Jesus said it would work, but in our own minds, we go, "Yeah, that I've tried that. That's not going to work." Maybe interesting to you, maybe not. But as I studied this text, I realized we are way more like Pharisees than I think we realize. We'll get to the rule following aspect which what was addressed on the Sabbath. But the part where the Pharisees wanted to accuse Jesus of doing what they didn't think he should do. It made me realize that in my natural nature of selfishness, in my natural humanity, I want what I want more than I want what God wants. And when the scriptures say this is what you need to do, often my go-to is yeah, I don't think that's going to work. I think my my way might work better. And when it's not blatant sin, we're comfortable to just sit in our ideas. Remember this. When Jesus enters the scene 2,000 years ago, he is turning everything upside down. He is coming in to change mindsets. He's doing what the what we call a new covenant. There was an old covenant. This is how God works with his people. Jesus is bringing in something completely new to change everything. And I don't want today, 2,000 years after this moment, to be the kind of people who are more like Pharisees in our negative thinking. They weren't positive thinking people. They were negative thinking people. They were critical. And if we stay in the place of always criticizing, we are never going to see the good that Jesus is trying to bring. Most of us naturally are easy. Most of us naturally can more find the bad in something than the good in something. In fact, if you're here today, you're a leader or you're a boss, a parent. One of the challenging things to become a good leader and and to get stronger as a leader is to we say it like this, to catch people doing good things. Because human nature is to try to catch people doing bad things. The Pharisees are like, "Let's catch Jesus. We want to accuse Jesus. We want to prove that he doesn't work." What was the problem? The problem was a mindset. And so I'm like, I want to I want to catch Jesus doing good things. I want to experience Jesus doing good things. Which brings us to this thing called Sabbath. Sabbath is debated among Christians pretty heavily if I'm honest. It's it's what we would call a secondary issue, not a primary issue, but I'll get to that in just a moment. And I think the big reason is that we don't fully understand Sabbath because we don't fully understand God. What we learn about God in the first few pages of scripture is that we serve a God of rest. It says this in my Bible, Genesis chapter 2, by the seventh day, God had finished the work he had been doing. So on the seventh day, he rested from all his work. Then God blessed the seventh day and made it holy because on it he rested from all the work of creating that he had done. On the seventh day, God finished the work. And on that day he rested from all his work. God rested. You know the easy teaching that we do about prayer is we we do it like this. Jesus prayed. Why wouldn't we think we should pray? The very beginning introduction to God is he worked six days and then he rested. Why wouldn't we think we should live a life of rest? The word Sabbath doesn't even come into being here in Genesis. We instead just see rest. Jesus is talking about Sabbath. We're going to get to those rules in just a moment. But before we got to Sabbath, God wanted us to know him as a God who rests so we would know how to model our life. The word Sabbath does mean rest. In fact, it means to cease, to stop. Some translations say it means to exhale. We're we're called in Genesis 2 and then throughout the Old Testament into the New Testament that this Sabbath is to be kept holy. It's one of the ten commandments. We see it in Genesis before the commandments. And then once the ten commandments come in, we see it repeated once again. It's not about religion. It's not about law. It's about rest. It's about the created order of how God made the earth. Sabbath is rest. God's message is a message of rest. If you know the Ten Commandments, um you you'll know that the first few are about loving God. The last several are about loving people. And the commandment to remember the Sabbath and keep it holy is right in the middle. Many commentators and theologians say that's because it's on the Sabbath that you make sure you actually do both and you can stay healthy and whole so that you would love God and love people. How many of you know it's true? It's way harder to love people when you're exhausted. >> Why are you being so snappy? Cuz I'm exhausted. God had a created order and a way of doing things. Now, the Pharisees, rabbitical tradition of of the Jewish people for thousands of years, they took this thing called Sabbath, this day of rest, and they made a massive list of rules for this day. In fact, one one rabbi's list of things you cannot do on the Sabbath, just for fun, I thought I would share it with us. No needing, no baking, no slaughtering animals, no hammering, no dying wool, no weaving, no performing strenuous activity, no traveling, no worrying. Hey, it looks like you're worrying. Oh my gosh, am I worrying now? I'm worried. Am I worrying? And I can't even keep this day of rest because I'm worried if I'm worrying. No earning money, no tying a knot. Think about the boats floating out to sea. Kids tripping on their shoelaces. No plowing or planting. No harvesting. This one's good. No lighting or extinguishing a fire. Maybe people wouldn't have been worried if they could have put out the fire. No cutting fingernails. No writing more than one letter of the alphabet. No boiling eggs. No putting out a lamp. And then the final one here, I It's hilarious to me. I hope it lands with you. No getting a haircut up to an hour before afternoon prayers before the Sabbath so that if the scissors broke while you were getting the haircut and needed to be fixed, they wouldn't have time to be fixed and your haircut wouldn't be able to be completed. Can you imagine trying to regulate the Sabbath? >> What a full-time job >> to just try to see, are we keeping the Sabbath? And so in Luke chapter 6, Jesus is revealing something that has always been true about the Sabbath in the Old Testament and now is also true in the New Testament. And that is that the Sabbath is not legalistic. The Sabbath was never meant to be about following a list of rules. The Sabbath was meant to be about who am I abiding with? Who am I resting in? Who am I focused on? Ultimately, the Sabbath has always supposed to be about do I believe God is in control or do I believe I am in control? Because if you believe it's all up to you, you are not resting one day a week. >> That's right. >> You can't. Because what happens if I don't What happens if I don't make sure the Sabbath put in place by God so that an overworked exhausted human race would rest in the breath of God would know that he's in control and we don't have to live exhausted. Jesus in his activities of Luke chapter 6 was not breaking Sabbath. He was breaking the Pharisees traditions. He was breaking their rules. You can't eat that. You can't you got to starve. You can't you can't rub the grain together and get food. It's Sabbath. You can't heal somebody. He has to stay miserable. It's the Sabbath. Jesus is like, "This is not the these are not Sabbath things. He said this in Mark chapter 2. Jesus did. He said very simply, "The Sabbath was made for man, not man for the Sabbath." The Sabbath was made for man, not man for the Sabbath. So, here's where the question lies. And again, I share this as your as your pastor, just being very open and honest with you. Pastor Megan and I have had debate um in the scriptures about Sabbath for years. And it's it's why I almost just didn't teach this passage on a Sunday because I'm like, I need to know what I believe. I mean, if I'm going to preach to you, I at least want to know what I believe. If I have to do a correction message in two weeks, you know, I at least want to know what I believe today and just not be like, I don't know. Because the New Testament says some other things about the Sabbath. We turn to the book of Hebrews and the writer of Hebrews, who we don't know who it is. Some people say it's Paul. Some people say it's definitely not Paul. Hebrews is one of my favorite books in the Bible, though, because in multiple places in the book of Hebrews, the writer simply says this, somewhere it is written. I don't know where in the text, but somewhere God said this, which just means if that could make it in the Bible, it just gives you a pass. When you're like, where does it say that? So people ask this question. Are we supposed to keep the Sabbath today or is that Old Testament? And I think that's the wrong question. I think a better question is why wouldn't we keep the Sabbath today? I don't think the question is do we have to keep the Sabbath? I think the question is why wouldn't we keep the Sabbath? The writer of Hebrews says in Hebrews chapter 4 that Christ is our Sabbath rest. That in Christ we get to rest from striving. Which means that in our relationship with Jesus, simply abiding in his presence, there's a rest that believers in Jesus get to enter into. It's not a rest that is only allowed one day a week. And this is where for me personally, I've had this debate. Well, isn't Sabbath every day? I want to rest in Christ every day. Yet, I get back to Genesis in the created order of humanity. God is always in the presence of God. Jesus is never not Jesus. God didn't work six days and then go on the seventh day I'm going to get in my presence. He was in his presence every day. But yet there's one day, one 24-hour period out of seven days to say, "I'm not going to strive. I'm not going to try to perform. I'm not going to try to move things forward because this is the created order that God began creation with. This is the created order that God invited his people to experience for thousands of years. This then is the expectation that Jesus came on the scene of saying this is what we do. We practice this thing called Sabbath where you work six days a week and you rest. One, if you wonder how much we don't believe in Sabbath in America, let's think about who we celebrate. Let's think about even just as a culture how much things have changed in the nation we live in. I recently uh read the Wright brothers autobiography and not autobiography, biography, and it was fascinating to me. They're developing their airplanes and and they're in Paris and they're they're trying to sell planes and and and get things going and they're, you know, getting these contracts to make lots of money. Thousands of people are showing up every day to see the first flying man ever. And here's what it says. On Sundays, people were disappointed because every Sunday, and this is literally what the the biography said, every Sunday, the Wright brothers rested because they're Americans. You remember, depending on your age, that it was very clear for a long time in American culture that on Sundays >> we rest. that there was built into the culture in some degree that you gather as the believers which was again started in in the Old Testament Jewish tradition the early church moved the Sabbath from Saturday to Sunday in celebration of the resurrection and so you gather together as the community of believers you you worship you you serve together and then you you rest throughout the day in God's presence what's interesting about that statement is there's no indication that the Wright brothers were Christians based on their life. Now, I just want to take that two of the greatest inventors. I think we could agree if you don't fly because you're scared to fly, at least products do get flown that you probably use somewhere to today who is celebrated in our nation as maybe the smartest, the richest, the greatest inventor of our time, Elon Musk, who is celebrated because he literally sleeps at work and never takes time off. Oh, I want to the things people say. If you had that much money, if only that. I want to also offer to us today, taking two two of those things over the past 120 years that have shifted that it's no coincidence that the culture of America continues to grow in massive anxiety. massive exhaustion. I find politics fascinating. I do think they impact the earth or impact the nation and the way that we live in. I I believe my I believe the scripture, my first citizenship is of a citizen of heaven, a citizen of the kingdom of God. The current president I see celebrated regularly, he never stops working. And it's celebrated and elevated by Christians. Some recent statistics about the problems going on in our world. Four in five of Americans who work say stress from their work affects their relationships. 80% of people who work say stress from their work affects their relationship. 78% report feeling emotionally drained from their work. Nearly 60% of US employees report burnout. Interesting. Only 31% of workers say they're actually engaged at work. So they're burnt out. So they show up because they need a paycheck. And I'm wondering why don't we Sabbath the way God says. I use that illustration by the way of the Wright brothers and Elon Musk not to make any assessment about their relationship with Jesus but to simply say if followers of Jesus decide what they are supposed to do based on what the nation they're living in tells them to do, they will eventually not follow Jesus at all. Whether or not you and I should have a 24-hour day where we disengage from striving to move things forward is not based on what anybody tells us that is in leadership or culture of the United States of America. It's based on what do we believe about what God has shown us in the scriptures. So then here's this question that comes. Well, how do I Sabbath? How do I do it then? In fact, I love this quote. AJ Swabota wrote a book called Subversive Sabbath. He says this, "What do I do on the Sabbath?" Such a question is very American, isn't it? What do I do? We're addicted to doing being is not even a category we are able to entertain. The second question he said was, "How do I make time for the Sabbath?" Again, we cannot make time. We are human. God makes time. and the assumption that we can make time is dangerously hurtful hurtful to our well-being. He says, "I've come to the conclusion that the topic of Sabbathkeeping is so hostile to American Christianity because Americans often worship their time. We think time is ours. Our language is telling. We think we can make time and kill time. Is God in charge or are we in charge? Are you exhausted? Do you need rest? Is it hard to believe that it could actually work for you? Is it hard to believe that it would actually matter? I was trying to come up with a category to help us understand this a little bit when we think about the things of God and the practices of following Jesus. And if we could if we could categorize Sabbath, I want to I want to compare it to a degree as New Testament believers in keeping a 24-hour day to a couple of other things we find in the scripture. One I would compare it to for me personally would be praying in tonesues. Here's why. You don't have to pray in tonesues to be a Christian at all. However, the scriptures say that when you pray in tonesues, you build up your inner man. You build up your spirit inside. And there have been scientific research that shows that based on things that happen in your brain when you are praying in an unknown language that it boost the certain chemicals to reduce anxiety and depression in your brain. >> Yeah. >> So God gives us a gift that we often call in our culture weird. >> And so we don't say, "Help me receive this gift and do this practice." And instead we'll do what the culture says is normal which is just keep taking more medicine, just keep saying this is the way it always has to be. I want to be clear with making that statement. We are very pro medication is useful and helpful for things like anxiety and depression. I want to simply offer God has ways also. And so let's don't call God's ways weird and the culture's ways normal. I think about it with tithing. Tithing, people ask this question. Is it Old Testament or New Testament, very similar to Sabbath, talked about in the Old Testament, Jesus carries it forward talking about it in the New Testament. >> There's no assumption based on the words of Jesus, Matthew 24, that Sabbath would ever end. There's no assumption based on the words of Jesus in Matthew 22 23 that that tithing would ever end. So then we say, "Do you have to do it?" Well, here's what I would say. Tithing seems weird to people that are not Christians. It might even seem weird to you at church today because tithing says this. Give back to God 10% of your income and live on the other 90%. And it will be better with you. We go, "Nah, that's weird. It's weird. I'm not going to do that." Okay. As a pastor, I'll tell you, and I've told you this before, historically, the people who come to us that are stressed out about money almost always are people who do not tithe. Right? >> Just like you can't if you can't find time to Sabbath, if you say, "I can't afford to tithe." You're thinking wrong. So then it comes to Sabbath and we say, "I'm trying to build a business here." We say, "I have so much going on with home and with kids and with work and with this and with this. There's no way that I would be able to get everything done and still take that day. Okay? If you want to live exhausted and not enter into God's rest, you're free to do that. But I would offer that God gave us Sabbath rest as a gift so that we could enjoy him as a gift so that we could experience the presence of God in a regular part of our life. In fact, I was thinking about what so many of us do when we feel stressed out and overwhelmed. We try to find a way to escape. And I just thought maybe you could write this down to help your life. Sabbath is good escapism. Sabbath is good escapism because it's God ordained because it's him saying, "Hey, you don't have to like it's okay. It's okay. You can rest. A rhythm of rest is God's design. Now, let me offer. Sabbath and a day off are not the same two things. Here's what America says. A day off is the day I do all the things I haven't had time to do this week. Praise God. Who doesn't want a day off? Just do what I've been doing all the other days. It's just different. Eugene Peterson, one of my favorite authors, he says that a day off is the illegitimate son of what God called Sabbath. Work six, rest one. Well, here's still the question. How? What do I do? Just start. It's 24 hours is is the goal. How? Well, start with one minute. See if you can get it to an hour. See if you can get it to two hours. I think you can do it in 24 hours just like I think you can start tithing like this. Just like I think you can get baptized in the spirit and start praying in tongues like this. Like I know we can do it. It's just going to be a decision point. But there's still a question that I hope to help us with. and if you could have a little bit of fun with me. And in this next one, um there is a movement amongst the church today in practicing Sabbath. And I as a pastor and as a leader in the church, I'm a little bit frustrated. I think that's the right word because what I'm watching happen is I'm watching Christians just put rules into the Sabbath just like the Pharisees did. I I hear people I mean I've seen them out there and and they here's rules for Sabbath is no phones, no TV, you can't go to the store, only play board games. That sounds like hell, not Sabbath to me personally, just for the record. By the way, Pastor Stephen, as we talked about this, I know you're offended by that statement. I still love you. We do know that Jesus actually gave us explicit language in Luke 6 for what to actually do on the Sabbath? Luke 6:9. I ask you, which is lawful on the Sabbath, to do good or to do evil? to save life or destroy it. What do I do on the Sabbath? What is lifegiving in Christ? What feeds my soul in Christ? It will not be the same for us all. If we put rules on it, we have just become Pharisees. And it's no longer about abiding in Christ. And then it becomes a chore. And one pastor author, I don't remember who who said this, but but they said this, it should be hard to get to Sabbath because it's countercultural. It should be difficult because the culture says, "No, you can at least take 10 minutes on Sabbath to check your email." No, no, no. If your work is in your email, no email on Sabbath because you're not going to work. But what if people need to get a hold of me? I'm that important. What will they do if they can't reach me? They'll be fine. That's what they'll do. I mean, just parents, students, I want to help you out a little bit. If you're a student, you're a lot of your work is school. It's important to have at least one day a week where you do no school. >> Don't go to school five days and then do homework on Saturday and Sunday. No, you need a day where you're not trying to achieve and move something forward. Some people on their Sabbath, they build stuff because that's rest for them. Sounds awful to me. But I'm really glad and get to see the beautiful things they create. Find out what gives you rest in your soul if you don't know. Find out what restores you. It's not about a day off. See, on a day off, we aren't restored. On a day off, we aren't renewed. One writer said, "Notice that God was focused Old Testament and New Testament about a day of rest. The reason we need vacations so badly is we don't have a day of rest. If we had a day of rest every week, we wouldn't feel like we needed a vacation. That's not an insult on vacations. Vacations are great. I'm just saying most of us feel like we need a vacation because we're so exhausted in our normal seven-day week. I'm for vacations and Sabbath, just for the record. So Jesus said this in Matthew 11:28, very familiar passage, "Come to me all you who are weary and burdened and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn from me. I am gentle and humble in heart and you'll find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy and my burden is light. Message translation says it like this. Are you tired, worn out, burned out on religion? Come to me. Get away with me and you'll recover your life. I'll show you how to take a real rest. Walk with me and work with me. Watch how I do it. Learn the unforced rhythms of grace. Sabbath rest is a grace gift from God. It's not about keeping the law. It's about receiving the gift he offered us. You're here and you're like, "That's Old Testament." Whatever. What I will tell you is at age 45, I have not at all perfected this. I think we've gone in seasons where I do a little bit better at it. But in a week of study on Sabbath like I've never done before, I'm more convinced than ever of the significance and importance of a 24-hour period of rest for my soul that is lifegiving for my soul. And I believe it's true for you, too. Would you pray with me? Holy Spirit, I know that in this room right now, all of our locations, there are some of us that are exhausted. There's some of us that are used to just going hard non-stop. There's some of us who take a day off, but we don't rest. and have our spirit, have our soul restored and renewed. And I'm asking you right now, Lord, would you do a work in all of us? Would you do a work in all of us so that we would go strong for six days and even more understand the celebration of being renewed in your presence on that seventh? God, would you give us a vision of what it looks like to live our life knowing you are sovereign and in control and we don't have to be. Would you remind us today, Lord, that Sabbath is not a reward for getting things done, but that Sabbath is a gift to enter into your rest. Jesus, you said come to me and I will give you rest. And so, Lord, in the best way we know how, God, we say we will do that. We will come to you, Jesus. We will follow what you taught. We will follow and take our cues from you, not from the culture we live in. And I I pray I pray very specifically over a live church right now in a year that Lord, we believe you have called a harvest year for us. May we get to watch the beauty of resting in God in a harvest year and how it all comes together. Would you give rest to your people? I pray in Jesus name. Amen.