Remember the Sabbath day to keep it holy. You are to work six days and do all your work, but the seventh day is a Sabbath to the LORD your God. You must not do any work-you, your son or daughter, your male or female slave, your livestock, or the foreigner who is within your gates. For the LORD made the heavens and the earth, the sea, and everything in them in six days, then He rested on the seventh day. Therefore, the LORD blessed the Sabbath day and declared it holy.     Exodus 20:8-12 HCSB

This is the fourth of the Ten Commandments. God commands us to keep the Sabbath holy. He commands us to do no work on that day. I remember a time in my life when my job or my chores would overwhelm me, and I would skip church to work. God never honored that. It made for a miserable Monday. But I learned that if I just went to church and honored God on that day as He had commanded, Monday would be smooth sailing and I would accomplish much of my work.

Now let me clarify one thing here. I understand that some jobs require you to work on Sunday. I get that, but I’m talking about using your Sunday off for work around the home or to do something other than attend church.

By keeping the Sabbath holy, Jesus is talking about using this day to give Him honor and praise. I have heard many people say, “I don’t have to go to church to worship the Lord.” Hebrews 10:25 tells us to not neglect to go to church but to encourage each other all the more as the day draws near. We are in the end times. This world gets crazier each day, we need the support of our brothers and sisters in Christ.

We should not go to church grumbling and complaining, we should be grateful for the opportunity and the ability to go to church. Church was a huge part of my mom’s life. She loved the church and her church family. She loved serving the Lord. There came a time when she was no longer physically or mentally able to attend church. I don’t know how much she understood at this point. But there were times when I would tell her that I was going to church and would see her in a little while when she would smile but almost seemed sad that she wasn’t going. I think she missed church.

The church is something we should enjoy. In Psalm 100:4, we are told to enter His gates with thanksgiving and His courts with praise. We should view the church as a privilege in our country. We can go into the church of our choice and worship as we please. We should be very grateful. We should remember that church is about worshiping the Lord, it’s not about judging others.

In Jeremiah 17:19-27, God is fed up with the Israelite’s disobedience. He is telling Jeremiah to talk to them about observing the Sabbath. The Jews had failed to observe the Sabbath and God warns them that their disobedience would bring judgment. They were headed for Babylonian captivity due to their disobedience. But upon their return, God promised that their obedience would bring the assurance that the house of David would continue to rule them, and they would be guaranteed safety within their city walls and worship at the temple.

Their continued disobedience, however, would result in the destruction of the city.

This is not something new, as far back as Genesis chapter 2, we were told in verse 3 that God blessed the seventh day and made it holy because God rested from all His work that He had done in creation.

The Bible warns us against laziness. There is a lot to be said about being lazy, it’s not good. But we are to rest one day a week. If God created the whole universe and then rested, you can take a break from what you are doing.

Even Jesus went to church regularly. We are told in Luke 4:16 that as was his custom he went to the synagogue on the Sabbath day and stood up to read.

God is very specific about how He expects us to spend the Sabbath Day. We are to rest and spend time honoring and praising God. There is nothing confusing about that.

Have a great day!