It is interesting that God loves to remind us about important things. He knows our memories can be weak at times.  To remember is to take what we know and apply it to our lives. Fourth Commandment is to “Remember the Sabbath to keep it holy.” (Exodus 20:8-11)

In other words, we are to stop working and start worshiping. We are to stop pursuing our passions for one day and make God our passion. We are commanded to worship God with our time. We are not to do our own thing, but His thing on His day.

Does this command mean that I am given a mandate by God to be lazy at least one-day week? God did not give us this command so that we would sit around and do nothing. God is concerned about us. For at least one day a week God wants us to stop what we are pursuing and pursue Him. God gave us this command for several reasons:

1. It is for your good. God knows that we need a day of rest and refocus. Sometimes we think we might miss out on something in life if we do not cram-pack ever minute of every day with something. Yet we can miss out on life itself if we do not obey this command. Jesus confront the religious leaders of His day about this very thing (Mark 2:27 “The Sabbath was made for man, not man for the Sabbath.”). They were so OCD about not working on the Sabbath that they wrote a book of rules to protect themselves from disobeying the law, all the while they were missing the real purpose of the day: to worship God.

2. It grows your faith. We need more worship in our lives, period. We are over worked and under-worshiped. We make time to relax and spend time with friends, but infrequently do we carve out time for our Creator and life-Sustainer. When we trust God and put Him first, He wont let us down because worshiping God enriches our faith.

So how do we apply this Sabbath command to our lives?

1. Remember God (Get Deep). Over the past few weeks we have talked about who God is. He is not some chump, He is Creator-God. If we think about God in this way (i.e. love, grace, holy, etc.) our natural response will be to worship Him.

All over the Bible people worshipped in groups. In the OT they worshipped God in the temple or synagogue. In the NT they worshipped God in homes, on hillsides or wherever they could find a place. Within these worship “meetings” God gave His people life-changing principles and transforming relationships. God loves the church because it is there that we get deep with God and He gets deep with us. Worshipping with other people inspires our personal worship. (Heb.10:25 “Let us not give up on meeting together.”)

The Sabbath day is not a day to putts around, but a day to praise God (Is. 58:13-14). I have been blessed through my church involvement. Through spiritual growth, accountability, confront sin, encouragement when I am struggling spiritually, friendships and significant relationships, and much more. Worshiping God is not a one day a week thing (Sunday or Wednesday night), it is our daily joy.

2. Refocus Your Life (Go Deep). Gods day is a day to do spiritual inventory on your life. Sometimes we need to take the time to restock the selves of our lives spiritually. It is easy to empty out throughout the week.

It took God six days to create the universe and all that is in it. On the seventh day he rested. He looked back on all that He had done and said, “It is good.” After a long week of working we need to step back and ask, “Was it good? Am I thinking godly pure thoughts? Am I saying or doing things that do not honor God? Am I putting Him first? Am I ready to worship this day?”