Enjoying The Lords Day

[00:00:00] I trust that we praise the Lord from our hearts. I greet you in the name of our wonderful Savior, and it's good to be with you, good to have everyone here together. This morning, I want to speak about a subject that I suppose some would say would be kind of controversial, But it has to do with the Lord's Day. [00:00:33] I've entitled the message, as you see in the bulletin, Enjoying the Lord's Day. And I didn't prepare a typical Thanksgiving message as such, but I hope that when we're finished here, that we can have a new appreciation and a thankfulness Thanks for the day that God has set aside for us. And I really want to look at it, at this subject in a very positive way. [00:01:07] Because too often we can look at this subject and all we can focus on is the fact of what can I do. I can't do this and I can't do that and what I shouldn't be doing on the Lord's Day and so on. But I would really like us to think about the fact of what a joy and a privilege it is that God in his infinite wisdom has taken and set aside one day a week and that he is, as we'll see, that he sanctified it. [00:01:40] And it's a special day for us. And I'm afraid. I'm afraid that we are living in an age when we're losing that fast. But I believe that it is something that we should really think of in a positive way. And something that God intended to be a blessing in our life. Go to Genesis chapter 2, and here we see where God established this principle. And I believe it's a universal principle for all mankind. [00:02:12] And it was established even before marriage was. That's one thing I happen to notice here, that this was established even before marriage. And that is, he says in Genesis chapter 2, verse 1, Thus the heavens and the earth were finished, and all the host of them. God spent six days creating all the creation. And you would think on the seventh day, he would top it all out. But he said instead, he's going to rest, he's going to stop. [00:02:46] And when he rested, it didn't mean he got tired. I believe that it means he simply stopped his work. He stopped his creation work. And I think he finished it then. and on the seventh day God ended his work which he had made and he rested on the seventh day from all his work which he had made and God blessed the seventh day and sanctified it because that in it he had rested from all his work which God created and made. [00:03:23] And so the principle of rest of one day a week is established right from the beginning of creation. And I believe it's something that God intended for all of us to keep and to observe and He intended it to be a blessing for us. Then we go over to the Ten Commandments and go over to the book of Exodus chapter 20. Now here again, we want to remember that this was established before the Mosaic Law. [00:04:01] It's something that's, I think, very important to remember, that it was established. But he reinforces it now and clarifies it a little bit more here when it comes to Exodus chapter 20. And this is the fourth commandment that he gives out of the ten. And so, he gives these commandments, and as he gives them, we see that this is the longest one. [00:04:32] He takes and explains it here, starting at verse 8. Remember the Sabbath day to keep it holy. Six days shalt thou labor and do all thy work, but the seventh day is the Sabbath of the Lord thy God. In it thou shalt not do any work, thou, nor thy son, nor thy daughter, thy manservant, nor thy maidservant, nor thy cattle, nor thy stranger that is within thy gates. [00:05:08] For in six days the Lord made heaven and earth, and sea, and in them, and all that in them is, and rested the seventh day, wherefore the Lord blessed the Sabbath day, and hallowed it. And so, again, he reinforces that principle that began back there at creation. Now maybe we ought to just stop and talk about this word Sabbath for a little bit. I used to think, well, that word Sabbath and Seventh, you know, they both start with S, and they both are kind of a similar, you might say in some ways, a similar word. [00:05:49] And so maybe Sabbath means Seventh. It doesn't. Sabbath does not mean Seventh. Sabbath means to desist, or to stop, or to rest, to cease. It means that's the idea of the word Sabbath. It's a stopping. And so it really has, as far as the word seventh itself, it does not have any meaning to that. But God did establish the seventh day at that point. [00:06:24] Going through the history of Israel, Judah, one of the things that happened, and this was something that they were to keep, and it was a part of their religious life, was this Sabbath day. And we see, if you go over to Jeremiah, go to Jeremiah 17, we see that part of their downfall and part of their turning away from God had to do with ignoring and not honoring this day. [00:07:05] It was very clear that this was a part of the problem that they had and why they were taken into captivity. Jeremiah 17 verse 21, he says, Thus saith the Lord, Take heed to yourselves, Jeremiah speaking, take heed to yourselves and bear no burden on the Sabbath day, nor bring it in by the gates of Jerusalem, Neither carry forth a burden out of your houses on the Sabbath day, neither do ye any work, but hallow ye the Sabbath day as I commanded your fathers. [00:07:44] But they obeyed not, neither inclined their ear, but made their necks stiff, that they might not hear nor receive instruction. And it shall come to pass, if ye diligently hearken unto me, saith the Lord, to bring in no burden through the gates of this city on the Sabbath day, but hallow the Sabbath day, to do no work therein, then shall there enter into the gates of this city kings and princes, sitting upon the throne of David, riding in chariots and on horses, they and their princes, the men of Judah, and the inhabitants of Jerusalem. [00:08:21] And this city shall remain forever. And you go on down through and read that, but he's saying, as he calls Judah to repentance, he's saying if you want your city to live and to stay and not be destroyed, he says part of this is going to be of keeping the Sabbath that you have neglected. And so it was a very important part. Well, they didn't listen. We all know that they didn't listen. [00:08:52] And eventually they were taken captive and carried away to Babylon. They came back then, and if we go to the book of Nehemiah, and you have to back up in order to get to the book of Nehemiah in your Bibles, but go to Nehemiah chapter 13. And one of the things that Nehemiah had to contend with when the captives came back from Babylon and again established themselves in the land of Judah [00:09:24] as he had to again reinforce this whole area of the Sabbath. And he had to take some corrective actions in it. So Nehemiah chapter 13 verse 15 In those days saw I in Judah some treading wine presses on the Sabbath And bringing in sheaves, and lading osses, and also wine, grapes, and figs, and all manner of burdens, which they brought into Jerusalem on the Sabbath day. [00:09:57] And I testified against them in the day wherein they sold victuals. There dwelt men of Tyre also therein, which brought fish, and all manner of ware, and sold on the Sabbath unto the children of Judah, and in Jerusalem. And then I contended with the nobles of Judah, and said unto them, What evil thing is this that ye do and profane the Sabbath day? Did not your fathers thus, and did not our God bring all this evil upon us, and upon this city? [00:10:30] Yet ye bring more wrath upon Israel by profaning the Sabbath. And it came to pass, when the gates of Jerusalem began to be dark before the Sabbath, I commanded that the gates should be shut, and charged that they should not be opened till after the Sabbath. And some of my servants said I at the gates, that there should no burden be brought in on the Sabbath day. And then you see typically what happens when people are faced with a restriction, [00:11:04] and that is the first thing they want to do is find a way around it. Ever notice that? We're kind of all alike, aren't we? And what did they do? So the merchants and the sellers of all kinds of ware lodged without Jerusalem. They went outside the wall once or twice. And he says, Then I testified against them and said unto them, Why lodge ye about the wall? If ye do so again, I will lay hands on you. And from that time forth they came no more on the Sabbath. And then I commanded the Levites that they should cleanse themselves and that they should come and keep the gates to sanctify the Sabbath day. [00:11:41] Remember me, O God, concerning this also, and spare me according to the greatness of thy mercy. And so Nehemiah had to set about doing some correction there when it came the Sabbath day. I think we get kind of a picture of what was intended there on the Sabbath. Now, when you read history, you go from the time of Nehemiah, and then you go through this time in the history of Israel or Judah, [00:12:16] of what we call between the testaments. And we don't, in our Bibles, we have about a period of 400 years there that we don't have a lot of recorded history. There is some, and there is some other history, but in our Bibles we don't have that. But during that time, there developed, and it was almost like a reaction here, to what Nehemiah did. You know, it seemed like there was a tendency that we tend to go to one extreme or the other. [00:12:48] And it seemed like Judah had an extreme of neglecting the Sabbath day. But now there came an extreme on the other side of it, and they said, they started saying, well, if we shouldn't do this, then it must be we can't do this. And all of a sudden, or it wasn't all of a sudden, but over a process of time, they developed all kinds of restrictions of what they should do on the Sabbath day. [00:13:20] Matter of fact, they would write books of rules of things that they shouldn't do. And there was a lot of hair splitting and all kinds of rules and regulations of how to regard the Sabbath day. And it really got into an extreme. And actually what they did is they really, by doing all of that, they lost the meaning and the purpose that God had established the Sabbath for them. [00:13:51] and we see this when it comes to the time of Jesus then we see that by that time it was just simply out of hand of all the rules and regulations when it came to the Sabbath day and Jesus, that was probably one of the biggest conflicts that he had with the religious leaders is that they were constantly watching him especially on the Sabbath day to see what they could find him doing wrong according to their rules and according to their traditions. [00:14:25] And so that's what Jesus dealt with a lot there in his ministry. Now, I want to ask the question. And it's a question that comes, it's a question I've heard discussed and so on. And that is, since keeping the Sabbath is a part of the Mosaic Law And also we talk about that in the New Testament now, we don't live under the law and so on. Did Jesus abolish that commandment? Did he abolish the fourth commandment? [00:15:02] And one of the arguments that is used for that is that Jesus did not repeat, in his ministry that we have a record of, he did not repeat the fourth commandment. I think he repeated probably at one point or another, he repeated all of the other commandments, but he did not repeat and did not actually state the fourth commandment. And so therefore, some people have come to the conclusion that since that's the case, then that Jesus abolished this commandment. [00:15:39] And, you know, is that true? Well, let's just think about that a little bit. Think about how Jesus dealt with some of the other commandments. Go to Matthew chapter 5 and just think a little bit. Jesus did deal with a number of the commandments. In Matthew chapter 5, we call that a Sermon on the Mountain, He deals with the commandment of thou shalt not kill. [00:16:14] Go to verse 21. He says, Ye have heard that it was said by them of old time, thou shalt not kill. And whosoever shall kill shall be in danger of the judgment. But I say unto you that whosoever is angry with his brother without a cause shall be in danger of the judgment. But whosoever shall say to his brother Rekha shall be in danger of the council, but whosoever shall say thou fool shall be in danger of hell fire. Jesus talks about that commandment. [00:16:46] He says this is what has been said, but he says this is what I say to you. And he clarifies it and actually fulfills it and actually in some ways makes it stronger than what it was before. Go down in verses 27 and 28 and you see he does this thing with the same commandment of thou shalt not commit adultery. You have heard that it was said by them of old time thou shalt not commit adultery but I say unto you that whosoever looketh on a woman to lust after her hath committed adultery already with her in his heart. [00:17:21] There again Jesus reemphasizes and puts the real meaning of that whole area of committing adultery. He talks about retaliation. Go down to verse 33, and he says there, Again ye have heard that it hath been said by them of old time, Thou shalt not forswear thyself, but shalt perform unto the Lord thine oaths, but I say unto you, swear not at all, neither by heaven, and so on. [00:17:55] He again, he says, but I say unto you, and retaliation there in verse 38, ye have heard that it hath been said, an eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth, but I say unto you that you resist not evil, and so on. And then one more there when it comes to loving your enemies and so on in verse 43 and 44 You have heard that it hath been said, Thou shalt love thy neighbor and hate thine enemy But I say unto you, love your enemies, bless them, and so on [00:18:26] Now, don't you think, don't you think that if Jesus would have abolished this fourth commandment and said It's no longer applied, we don't need this commandment anymore Don't you think he would have told us? Don't you think he would have stated that clearly and plainly for us? You know, these other commandments he did, he explained them and he talked about them and reinforced them and so on. [00:19:00] But I just can't help but think that if Jesus was going to take one of the Ten Commandments and say, This no longer applies, that he would have stated that clearly. Matter of fact, let's just back up here in chapter 5 and look at verses 17 to 20. We actually have quite the opposite here. In chapter 5, verse 17, he says, Think not, and this is Jesus speaking now, think not that I am come to destroy the law or the prophets. [00:19:35] I am not come to destroy but to fulfill For verily I say unto you till heaven and earth pass One jot or one tittle shall in no wise pass From the law till all be fulfilled And whosoever therefore shall break one of these least commandments And shall teach men so He shall be called the least in the kingdom of heaven And whosoever shall do and teach them the same shall be called great in the kingdom of heaven for I say unto you that except your righteousness [00:20:08] shall exceed the righteousness of the scribes and pharisees ye shall in no case enter into the kingdom of heaven and so Jesus very plainly here says I haven't come to destroy this law he says I've come to fulfill it and I don't think any of us would say that you know, adultery is okay now Since we don't live under the law, you know, it's just that we live above that law. We don't we don't need to live under it. We live above it. And so on. But, but I guess I'm convinced that if Jesus would have intended for the fourth commandment not to be a part of our lives, that he would have he would have told us. [00:21:02] because that knowing that there was so much abuse of this commandment and it was it was very much abused in the time that he lived and it was very much misused that he instead gave some instructions and gave some examples of how it should be kept rather than saying that it was abolished. Let's just look at a few. He gave an example, Luke chapter 4, in Luke chapter 4, verse 16. [00:21:44] It says, And he came to Nazareth, where he had been brought up, and as his custom was, he went into the synagogue on the Sabbath day, and stood up for to read. You know, I think he's saying, this was his custom. This is what he would like, what he wants people to do on the Sabbath day. This is a day of worship. This is a day when you meet together for believers and so on. And he set the example in that. Now go over to Luke chapter 13. And here again Jesus gives some instructions and talks about the Sabbath day. Luke chapter 13 verse 11. [00:22:29] And he says, Behold, there was a woman which had a spirit of infirmity eighteen years, and was bowed together, and could in no wise lift up herself. And when Jesus saw her, he called her to him and said unto her, Woman, thou art loosed from thine infirmity. And he laid his hands on her, and immediately she was made straight, and glorified God. And the ruler of the synagogue answered with indignation, because that Jesus had healed on the Sabbath day. [00:23:00] It just kind of boggles your mind, doesn't it, of us, you know, where we're at. Why would somebody complain about that on the Sabbath day? But they did. And said unto the people, There are six days in which men ought to work. In them, therefore, come and be healed, and not on the Sabbath day. And the Lord then answered him and said, Thou hypocrite, doth not each one of you on the Sabbath day loose his ox or his ass from the stall and lead him away to watering? [00:23:32] And ought not this woman, being a daughter of Abraham, whom Satan hath bound, lo, these eighteen years, be loosed from this bond on the Sabbath day? And he says, And when he had said these things, all his adversaries were ashamed, and all the people rejoiced for all the glorious things that were done by him. You know, the leaders, some of those leaders were very upset with what he was doing, but it said the people rejoiced. There was a freedom that they had. Not that they did away with the Sabbath. No way. They didn't do that. But he put it in its proper perspective and he put it in its proper place. And so on. [00:24:11] Another one over in Luke chapter 14, verse 1. And it came to pass, as he went into the house of one of the chief Pharisees to eat bread on the Sabbath day, that they watched him. And behold, there was a certain man before him which had the dropsy. And Jesus answering spake unto the lawyers and the Pharisees, and saying, Is it lawful to heal on the Sabbath day? And they held their peace. In other words, they didn't say anything. [00:24:41] And he took him and healed him and let him go. And answered them saying, Which of you shall have an ox or an ox fallen into a pit and will not straightway pull him out on the Sabbath day? Wouldn't you do that? You had an animal of some kind and it went and got, it fell into a ditch or fell into some place it couldn't get out. Wouldn't you go and help that animal get out on the Sabbath day? They cared more for their animals than they did for a person. [00:25:15] And that's what their legalism had gotten them into. But this really shows that Jesus was concerned for people. And he didn't want the Sabbath day to become something that was so overbearing and so harsh and so on that all he did was just care for that day and not for a person. [00:25:46] Now, he brings this to light in the next one, in Mark chapter 2. Mark chapter 2 verse 23 And it came to pass that he went through the cornfields on the Sabbath day, and his disciples began as they went to pluck the ears of corn. [00:26:18] I don't think these were actually the ears of corn that we're used to. I think this was more the heads of wheat. I'm thinking that probably they had but you know how that goes you grab some and you shuck it out in your hand blow it out and eat the kernels of wheat well that was against their rules and the Pharisees said unto him behold why do they on the Sabbath day that which is not lawful and he said unto them have you never read what David did when he had need and was a hungered [00:26:49] he and they that were with him How did he went into the house of God in the days of Abathar the high priest, and did eat the showbread, which is not lawful to eat, but for the priests, and gave also to them which were with him? And he said unto them, and here's two principles I think that are very important to remember. And that is, the Sabbath was made for man, and not man for the Sabbath. That's one of them. And the second one is, therefore the Son of Man is Lord also of the Sabbath. [00:27:25] Those are two very important principles that we need to remember. Actually, the opposite was taught of this first principle. They taught, the Jewish people taught, that here you had the Sabbath, and man was made for that Sabbath. Everything was to revolve around the Sabbath, and everything was geared to the Sabbath. But Jesus said, no, that's not what the intention was. [00:27:57] The intention was that the Sabbath was made for man. Now, it's important we get a hold of that. Because if we don't get a hold of that, we get right back into what the Jews taught. And that is we begin to focus just on what I can't do because it's Sunday. That's where our focus begins. I believe that the Sabbath day, and we'll see that later on became Sunday for us, [00:28:32] but the Sabbath day was a gift from God to us. It was a gift. And it was a gift for our benefit. It was a gift for our good. Something that he gave to us that would help us. It would help us physically. It would help us spiritually. I think it would help us emotionally, mentally. I think everything. But I think he's saying in order to reap that benefit, you're just simply going to have to stop. [00:29:05] You're going to have to change your daily activities. You're going to need to rest. Trust. You're going to need to, instead of focusing on our everyday work and the things that we need to do, we're going to need to focus on God. We need to focus on Him. and he said that is going to benefit you and it needs to be a time of worship [00:29:35] and it needs to be a time of renewal spiritually, physically in our lives and again we need to look at that as a gift from God another thing, the second principle that we have there And that is that the Son of Man is Lord also of the Sabbath. And that is that, remember, this was established at creation. Jesus established it. He is the creator. [00:30:09] And who, or he only has the right to interpret what the Sabbath is. He only has the right to establish how the Sabbath should be kept. And he's the Lord of it. And I think that he did that by example here in his ministry. Now, there's a lot of things we could say there, but I'm going to keep moving. After the resurrection, the Sabbath, especially for the Gentiles, believers, took on a change. [00:30:50] And here again, my intention here today is not to go into that whole thing of how that all took place. That's another whole message or so in itself. But a change took place. We see some indications of it already in the New Testament with the disciples on the first day of the week, as it said, and so on. But because of the fact that the resurrection happened on the first day of the week, The Christian church gradually started keeping the first day of the week instead of Saturday, started keeping Sunday instead of Saturday, and that debate still goes on today, there's still people debating that. [00:31:38] but that is what has happened there and so today we keep Sunday as that day and we call it the Lord's Day we call it this is the Lord's Day this is the day that belongs to the Lord and it's one day out of seven that we do that Now, sometimes people say, and here again there's been all kinds of arguments about how do we keep this day. [00:32:16] One of these is found over in Colossians chapter 2. Colossians chapter 2, verse 13. I don't, there's a lot there I could read there, but I'm just going to go down through taking the, some of the verses that are often times used as far as saying that there's no keeping of the Lord's day and so on anymore. [00:32:51] Verse 13, he says, and you being dead in your sins in the uncircumcision of your flesh hath he quickened together with you, with him having forgiven you all trespasses blotting out the handwriting of ordinances that was against us which was contrary to us and took it out of the way nailing it to his cross and having spoiled principalities and powers he made a show of them openly and so on verse 16 let no man therefore judge you in meat or in drink or in respect of an holy day [00:33:23] or of the new moon or the sabbath days which are a shadow of things to come but the body is of Christ and let no man beguile you of your reward in a voluntary humility and worshiping of angels intruding into those things which he hath not seen vainly puffed up by his fleshly mind and so in verse 24 for if ye be dead with Christ from the rudiments of the world Why, as though living in the world, are you subject to ordinances, touch not, taste not, handle not, and so on, which are all to perish with the using after the commandments and doctrines of men, which things have indeed a show of wisdom and will-worship and humility, and neglecting of the body, not in any honor to the satisfying of the flesh. [00:34:10] People read those verses and they say, you know, really, it doesn't matter what we do anymore. We can just simply do anything we want to do. And when it comes to the Lord's Day, it just has no effect because, you know, we're not going to let anybody judge us in that. Here again, we need to stop and say, what is he talking about? And I believe he's talking about here all those hundreds and hundreds of things that the Jews had drawn up. [00:34:41] All those many, many rules and regulations that Jesus had to deal with. And that had followed through. And some of them that had more of a Jewish idea said, you know, the Christians need to keep all of those things too. And when you read that closely, you realize that I believe that that's what he's talking about. That, you know, that's the thing here. He's not abolishing the fourth commandment. He's not abolishing what he established back there at creation. [00:35:14] And so I believe that that gift that he's given to us there, that, you know, we need to appreciate. and keepeth. Now how do we apply this today? How do we apply it? I know it's getting late, but how do we apply it? I believe this is important. I think we need to really observe this Lord's Day. [00:35:45] We can debate all kinds of things and so on, I realize that. But you know, what does Sunday really mean to us? Be honest. Aren't we getting on kind of a slippery slope sometimes? And becoming pretty careless on this day. Those of us that are older, I think we see this a lot more than probably younger ones do. [00:36:17] Those of us that are older remember when there was hardly any stores open on Sunday. And it was in our society, it was pretty much observed that this is a day of rest. And that has changed. It's changed drastically. Matter of fact, stores are saying this is one of their big days now. They put on special sales. Auctioneers are having auctions on Sunday. And it just seems like more and more, it's just another day of the week. [00:36:52] It's become a fun day rather than a Sunday. Have you noticed how we talk about weekends? We include Sundays on weekends, don't we? Ever think about that? But Sunday is the first day of the week. We give the best to the Lord. We give the first day of the week to the Lord. I've even seen a calendar that has Sunday at the end of the week rather than at the beginning. And I wonder if that isn't something that's going to be coming. [00:37:26] We live in a post-Christian society. That's where we're living. And we have to ask ourselves as Christians, are we going to just simply float along with that? Or are we going to keep ourselves in the Word of God? Are we going to just say, well, this is the way society is, and we just float along with it? And I think we really need to take stock of ourselves. [00:38:02] Do we just take and Sunday, well, I don't have to work, but I'll go out and make other people work. You know, easy to go out and eat on Sunday. I don't have to make a meal. You know, don't have to get prepared for that. And, you know, it doesn't matter if they have to work. I have to wonder, I really have to wonder what would happen if all the Christians would say, we're not going to go out and eat on Sunday. I wonder how many restaurants would close down. And I think it's something we need to think about. [00:38:35] Do we wait and fill up our gas tanks on Sunday? Why can't we do that on Saturday? Do we do all of our extra traveling that we have to do and do it on Sunday? I realize we travel on Sunday at times, but I just think we need to stop and think a little bit. How am I keeping this day? Am I really using it for the way that God wanted us to use it? Several questions we ought to ask ourselves. [00:39:10] And by the way, somebody said that in helping to prepare for Sunday, said remember Sunday, Sunday morning starts on Saturday night. You know, we can prepare ourselves for Sunday, but we need to start on Saturday to do that. And if we wait until Sunday morning to try to do all of that, it's going to become a hectic morning. [00:39:43] But plan so that Sunday can be a day of rest. And we need to plan in that way. Just some questions to ask ourselves when it comes to the Lord's Day. Number one, is it necessary? Is this really necessary? Number two, will it glorify God? What I'm doing here on the Lord's Day, will it really glorify God? And then what is my motive? What's my motive in this? [00:40:17] Number four, will it improve my spiritual life and testimony to others? Will it improve that? Number five, is it in harmony with God's word? And number six, would Jesus do it? I just think those are some questions we can ask ourselves when it comes to the keeping of this day. I'd like to close with reading Isaiah 58. [00:40:48] And again, I realize this is back in the Old Testament. But you know, I think the Spirit is there that the Lord intends for us when it comes to keeping this one day a week. Isaiah 58 verse 13 It says, It says, [00:41:39] And feed thee with the heritage of Jacob thy father, for the mouth of the Lord hath spoken it. I believe that history shows us that when people or when a society neglects the Lord's day, that usually their worship is not far behind. It isn't long until they begin to neglect their worship of the Lord and their relationship with the Lord. And I think those things are closely tied together. [00:42:10] And so I'd just really like to challenge us here today as we think about the Lord's Day. How am I keeping up? What am I doing? And am I really fulfilling what God intended for us when it comes to this special gift that he's given to us? God bless you. Let's stand for a closing prayer. Father, we come to you this morning thanking you so much. [00:42:46] We just want to thank you for the gift of this day. And Lord, it is a special day, and in this Thanksgiving season, we want to say thank you for it. Lord, a day of rest, a day that we can worship, a day that we can be renewed. And I just pray, Lord, that you would give us all a sense of how special this day is. Lord, I just thank you for each one that is here. [00:43:17] Help us to honor you. Help us to live for you. Help us to obey you in all that we do. And Lord, we thank you. Dismiss us now with your blessing. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen.