Honoring the Sabbath — David Wilkerson

This message is one of the Times Square Church pulpit series. It was recorded in the sanctuary of Times Square Church in Manhattan, New York City. Other tapes are available by writing World Challenge, PO Box 260, Lindale, Texas 75771 or calling 903 -963 -8626.

None of these messages are copyrighted and you are welcome to make copies for free distribution to friends.

The Sabbath Message and Its Spiritual Importance

I've got a different kind of message tonight. You will begin to know what it's about from my title, but I have to tell you that this message has deeply affected my life, as few others have, and it's really strengthened me.

And I hope tonight, as I minister, the Holy Spirit will make it real to you, and that when you walk out of here tonight, you will not be what you were when you came in. That God will have put a key, he will have put a truth in your heart about his Sabbath, and that's my message, honoring the Sabbath.

Now, folks, there's a message here that's been missed by the Church of Jesus Christ, totally missed. And this has been brewing in my heart for years. I've been praying, God, make it real. It's something I've known in my heart, but I want to share it with you tonight.

Honoring the Sabbath. Heavenly Father, I thank you for your holy word. I thank you for your sanctifying word. Your word, O Lord Jesus, that purifies and cleanses our minds and our hearts and our spirits.

Lord, I pray that you come upon me tonight. Make this so clear to me that I can make it clear to this audience, O Lord, about keeping the Sabbath, honoring the Sabbath, and the victory that comes by it.

Lord, open up this truth. Lord, this is something from your throne. It's something you gave to the Church. It's something, not because you gave it to me, Lord. It's been there all the time, but I believe you're going to open it to our minds and those that are crushed and burdened tonight.

May this be the message, Lord, that ushers them into a new walk, a new way of walking with you. Lord Jesus, come now. Holy Spirit, open our minds and our hearts that we may comprehend and understand and know this truth that you're trying to convey to our hearts tonight.

Lord, I hide myself at the cross. Lord, I thank you for the sanctifying power of your word, the cleansing of your blood. Now, we come to your word humbly. We come to it humbly, Lord, not with pride, but with humility that you will speak to us.

For we're hungry, we're thirsty, and we want your word to shape us. In Jesus' name, amen. Honoring the Sabbath. Now, folks, I'm an old-fashioned preacher who believes in honoring the Sabbath. Now, I was raised in a Pentecostal preacher's home, and we, our family, honored the Sabbath day religiously.

It started with church Sunday morning. You always went to church. Everybody went to church Sunday morning. You came home and you ate at dinner, and then you took a nap because it's a day of rest. We took a nap whether we wanted it or not, and it was awful.

I had to go upstairs when I was just full of life because on Sunday it was not play day. Sunday was a time. We were not even allowed to take a pair of scissors and cut up, you know, cut anything on Sunday.

You didn't have scissors. You cooked early in the morning, and you had enough for the day. But it was not play day. There was no pleasure. There were no picnics, and there was no recreation. This was a day that you took your nap, you rested, and then you got your books out, you studied, you listened to music, and then church Sunday night.

That was the Sabbath. You kept it holy. It was the Lord's day. Now, in my early days, they had what's called the Blue Laws. The Blue Laws meant that stores did not open on Sunday. Nobody. There's nothing but vital stores like gas stations and hospitals, but you couldn't buy anything on Sunday.

Even the rankest sinners didn't think of buying anything on Sunday. In fact, if a store was open, they'd say, oh, that man's lost his religion. I mean, he wouldn't even go to church, but he lost his religion because he kept his store open on Sunday.

The great evangelist D .O. Moody, many, many years ago, over 100 years ago, the priest had a powerful evangelistic sermon on the Sabbath, and he would cry out with all of his voice against, they used to have bicycles built for two, and he got enraged by seeing all these sweethearts going through the park in their tandem bicycles, and he had a powerful sermon against bicycle riding on Sunday and newspaper reading on Sunday and all of the women parading around in their finery in these big hats.

And oh, did he thunder against it. He said, you are breaking the Sabbath, its pride and its arrogancy, and he went down the line. In fact, he was voicing the feeling and the doctrine and the opinions of the multitudes of believers at that time.

From Legal Observance to the Spiritual Meaning of Sabbath

Today, Sunday is no longer a hallowed day. It's a shopping day. Go to the suburbs and look at the malls. The biggest shopping crowds of any day of the week. Blue logs are all gone, of course, and now they say, what do you mean Sabbath?

What do you mean closing a store? That's the greatest money-making day it is. Millions of Christians, Friday and Saturday, go out to their chalets, their places out in the country, and Sunday, or they may go to a church for half an hour, an hour, early Sunday morning, the earlier the better, so it doesn't take away the pleasure of the day, and they go on their boats and their cruises and picnics and all.

Here they go, Sunday. Now, you say, Brother Dave, is all of this simply breaking away now? We don't do this now anymore. That's all gone. Is this just a break away from rigid legalism? Is this a sign that we have now spiritual maturity and making the Sabbath more of a spiritual observance rather than a legal observance, because even though the fourth commandment says, remember the Sabbath day and keep it holy, didn't Jesus say that he's the Lord of the Sabbath?

The Sabbath is made for man and not man for the Sabbath. Now, the Sabbath means to cease, to stop what you've been doing in six days and on the seventh you rest. Six days you labor and do all your work, but the seventh day is the Sabbath of the Lord thy God, in it thou shalt not do any work, for in six days the Lord made heaven and earth and the sea and all that's in them, and he rested on the seventh day.

Now, in the Old Testament, God so honored that day. In fact, I want to show you how he heaped honor on the seventh day, on the Sabbath. I want you to go to Exodus 16. Now, folks, you don't know it yet, so don't get excited.

I've got to give you this base before I give you the revelation that God's put in my heart. Go to Exodus 16, if you will, please. Exodus, the 16th chapter, and I want you to begin following me as I read starting at verse 22.

Exodus 16, verse 22. And it came to pass that on the sixth day they gathered twice as much bread, two omers for one man, and all the rulers of the congregation came and told Moses. And he said unto them, This is that which the Lord has said.

Tomorrow is the rest of the holy Sabbath unto the Lord. Bake that which you bake today, and seed that which you seed, and that which remaineth over, lay up for you to be kept until the morning. They laid it up till the morning as Moses bade, and it did not stink, neither was there any worm therein.

And Moses said, Eat that today, for today is a Sabbath unto the Lord. Today shall you not find it in the film. Six days you'll gather it, but on the seventh day, which is the Sabbath, in it there shall be none.

And it came to pass that they went out some of the people. On the seventh day together they found none. The Lord said unto Moses, How long do you refuse to keep my commandments and my law? See, for that the Lord hath given you the Sabbath.

Now, I want you to notice this. The Lord has given you the Sabbath, therefore he giveth you on the sixth day the bread of two days, that by thee every man in his place let no man go out of his place on the seventh day.

So the people rested on the seventh day. Now, the Lord kept heaping honor on this day all through it. In fact, in Numbers, the 15th chapter, you don't have to go there, but in the 15th chapter of Numbers, a certain man went out on the Sabbath and he was gathering up lumber or sticks for a fire.

And he was caught, and he was brought to Moses. And Moses put him in bay, so to speak. He didn't know what to do with him. He didn't know how to chastise him. He knew God said keep it holy, and he knew it was against the law, but there was no law yet.

There was no rules on the chastisement of a man who would go out and pick up sticks on the Sabbath. He could have done it on any sixth day, but he chose to do it on the Sabbath, the seventh day. The Lord came to Moses while he was thinking of what to do with this man.

And here came this amazing word. The man shall be surely put to death. All the congregations will stone him with stones outside the camp. In fact, folks, listen to me, please. Agnostics have used this very episode in the Old Testament, and I've heard it used.

And it's in many of the books of the atheists and others that God, here's a picture of how cruel God is. A man, God would have a man stoned to death because he picked up sticks on the Sabbath. But folks, I want you to know God was trying to say something to mankind, to you, to me, and all of history.

He was trying to say that my laws have a purpose. My laws have a reason behind them. I can't explain it all to you, but I'm trying to lift the burden of life from you. I'm trying to give you principles.

And if you break them, you're going to burden yourself down. You're going to break down the very fiber of society. And God was trying to establish something about the Sabbath, that it would be absolutely honored, totally honored and respected.

The Sabbath as a Covenant Sign in Exodus

Now, go to Exodus, the 31st chapter with me, please. Turn right a little further, Exodus 31. Now, this is going to get interesting in just a minute. Exodus 31, verse 12, beginning to read. Do you have it?

And the Lord spake unto Moses, saying, Speak thou also unto the children of Israel, saying, Verily, my Sabbath ye shall keep. For it's a sign between me and you throughout your generation that ye may know that I am the Lord that does sanctify you.

Ye shall keep the Sabbath, therefore, for it's holy unto you. Every one that defileth it shall surely be put to death. For whosoever doeth any work therein, that soul shall be cut off from among his people.

Six days may work be done, but in the seventh is the Sabbath of rest, holy to the Lord. Whosoever doeth any work in the Sabbath day, he shall surely be put to death. Wherefore, the children of Israel shall keep the Sabbath, to observe the Sabbath throughout their generations.

What's it say? For a what? Perpetual covenant. Now, am I suggesting we go back to the legal? Oh, wait a minute. You know, I've got to stop for a minute. Somebody I know some of you already think, oh, boy.

Here he goes again. A legal hard message. And somebody said, brother, I can hear somebody say right now, I think I hear it in my mind. I don't know. Brother Dave, I love you. I appreciate you as a pastor, but I've got enough problems trying to stay clean in a dirty city.

Now you're going to lay this guilt chip on me about the Sabbath. There goes my picnics. There goes my walks in Central Park. There goes my Sunday afternoon at McDonald's. Didn't his Lord, didn't the Lord shop on the Sabbath?

He went and picked corn with his with his disciples on the Sabbath. He traveled, he ate, he healed on the Sabbath. In fact, the main accusation of the Pharisees against Jesus was that he was a Sabbath breaker.

That was their number one complaint, that he broke the Sabbath. I have to admit to you that I still have in me this great respect for the Sabbath. I still don't like to see people giving themselves to sports.

I don't like the idea that it's play day. I don't like to see people working except those whose jobs require it. Now, Jesus did say, if your donkey's in the ditch, you go and get your donkey out on Sabbath.

So if you've got a donkey in the ditch, you go get him out. In other words, you've got a real problem in your home or your job or something, you've got to get your donkey out of the ditch. I understand that.

But I don't like the fact that it's play day. It's just another day to Christians. I have, I believe that God honors those who honor this day. There's no question about that. But I'm not going to get into a discussion about whether Saturday is a Sabbath or Sunday.

Actually, legally, Saturday is the seventh day. That is the legal Sabbath. But we worship the Lord on the first day because that's the day Jesus was resurrected from the dead. And we do that because also in 1 Corinthians 16 .2, Paul states on the first day of the week, gather and worship.

He mentions it. That's in 1 Corinthians 16 .2. He said, let's get together and bring your collections there and worship. And the scripture says, upon the first day of the week, the disciples came together and they broke bread and Paul preached to them.

That was the first day. That's our Sunday. That's why it's become our Sabbath. Now, having said all this, let me give you what I believe is the true Sabbath. In light of what I'm going to share with you now, I would say very few of us really honor the Sabbath.

Very few here. I don't know if in the past I have not honored it, even though I value the legal side of it. I have not seen the spiritual meaning of it until recently. Let me begin by repeating the fourth commandment.

Remember the Sabbath day to keep it holy. Keep it holy. All right. Your next question should be, well, how do I keep it holy? What is God requiring of me? If it's not legal and it's spiritual, how does that define itself for my everyday living?

Jeremiah's Burden-Bearing Sabbath

All right. By the time you have to follow me very close. Now, by the time of the prophets, the breaking of the Sabbath had to do with burden bearing. It had to do with burden bearing animals, carrying burdens in and out of Jerusalem, all through Judah, all through Israel.

Donkeys, mules, laying down on the Sabbath, coming with spices and wines and figs and grapes, business, commerce. But all of these burden bearers and almost every prophet, Jeremiah especially, and I'll show it to you, begins to identify the Sabbath with burden bearing.

I want you to go to Jeremiah, the 17th chapter, please. Jeremiah 17. Oh, Holy Spirit, make this real now to our hearts. Bring it forth. I want you to follow me first. Don't race ahead of me. Just Jeremiah 17, verses 21 and 22.

This is Jeremiah speaking. And don't go ahead of me. Just follow me in these two verses. If you get ahead of me, you'll get mixed up. Thus saith the Lord, take heed 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 any work, but hallow ye the Sabbath as I commanded your fathers. Now look at me, please. Jeremiah is standing at the gate of Jerusalem, one of the main gates of commerce in Jerusalem, and he's watching the people coming in, leading donkeys loaded with all kinds of burdens.

These donkeys are loading down, laden down. He goes into the city and he sees people on the Sabbath carrying these heavy loads into their homes. They've been shopping, carrying these big loads on their back.

They have taken all of their crafts and their goods, and they're heading to the market and the business place. They're going out. The people that live in the country, their far goods, the people are loaded, laden down.

And he's looking at everybody, everybody. All God's children had burdens. Every one of them were carrying heavy, heavy burdens. And he stops the traffic. He says, stop. And the one says, take heed, listen to me.

And I can see a traffic jam. I can see donkeys and mules just lying back. And he's crying out, wait a minute. This is the Sabbath. You are not according to the law of God to carry a burden on the Sabbath.

You're sinning. You can't take a burden into your house. I'll show that to you very clearly here. You can't take a burden into your house without breaking the law. This is going to get very, very interesting here.

I hope it is to you because it has blessed my soul. Now, keep in mind that what happened in Jeremiah's day, both to Jeremiah, what he said, and what he speaks here, the Bible says all the prophets were speaking to us, upon whom the ends of the world have come.

And everything that happened in the Old Testament is a pattern. Jeremiah was not speaking only to his people. In fact, I consider this passage one of the most prophetic passages in the Old Testament. It is a life-changing, prophetic word from the prophet Jeremiah, who speaks to this day just as surely as Isaiah did.

Isaiah is a powerful prophet to the last days. Now, here's the point of my message right here, simple and clear. When it said God rested on the seventh day, it had nothing to do with weariness. You know God can't get weary.

The Scripture makes that clear. It's not possible. His arm is never short, His ears never heavy, and neither does He slumber or sleep. Isaiah 40, 28, Hast thou not known, hast thou not heard, that the everlasting God, the Lord, the creator of the ends of the earth, fainteth not, neither is weary?

So it can't be weariness when He rested. Then there has to be another meaning when it says God rested. Now, surely you don't believe that God just laid down on His throne for... Now, this is the Spirit, by the way, that you can't see.

Do you suppose that the Spirit, God, the Holy Spirit, just took 24 hours off? Let me tell you what I believe the rest means when He rested. Man, in His world, had been created. Six days of creation, He created man, He created a world, He created the sun, the moon, the stars, the galaxies, they're in place.

What a marvelous creation it was. And God says it is good. But I'm telling you, He didn't say it is good until the seventh day. He could not look at a creation that only had a man who could fail, a man who had the potential to sin, a man who could bring ruin on his whole creation and call it good.

That's not what He's talking about. When it says He rested, it's just like an architect who's been drawing up plans, and he finally puts the capstone, he finally puts the last few lines in it, and he backs off, he lays it down, it's a completed plan.

Christ's Finished Work and the Sabbath Rest of Grace

The plan, he rests his case, he rests, it's finished. That's what it means. It's finished. Now, folks, let me tell you what the seventh day is, the Sabbath. That is the time when God looked at His creation and gave man his free will when He created him.

And this free will man is placed here with the potential to live an innocent, glorious life the rest of his years. He would populate the earth in true fellowship with the Lord. But in the foreknowledge of God, God knew the potential of the first Adam to sin.

So God in His infinite wisdom said, I have a plan. See, Jesus was begotten from the foundation of the world. That means when God created the world, He devised a plan to redeem man if he potentially failed.

And He says, I will not allow the devil, I will not allow sin to burden down this creation of mine and burden it down where it despairs of the gift of life. So God has the plan in place now. He would give His only begotten Son.

And this day of grace from the cross and the resurrection of Jesus until the sound of the trumpet is the seventh day. It's the seventh day, it's the Sabbath. You and I are living in the Sabbath of God.

His day of rest, it's the day of the Lord. Rested because His plan was done. And that's why Jesus on the cross looks up and says, Father, it's finished. But He's saying, the plan you devised from the foundation of the world, it's all done, it's finished.

Father rested because He knew of this day coming in which you and I live. And in His mind, in His infinite mind and wisdom, He came into this rest. Nothing can destroy my creation because I now have a plan that when men are burdened down by sin, when men are burdened down by grief, when men are burdened down, they cannot, they don't have to care because I have created, I have brought forth a burden bearer.

A burden bearer. David recognized Him as the burden bearer from the creation. David cried out, cast thy burden upon the Lord and He shall sustain thee. And he knew he needed a burden bearer because he said, my iniquities have gone over my head.

It's a heavy burden, they're too heavy for me. When the Lord says, there remaineth a day of rest for the children of God, He's saying that this offer still stands that if you and I by faith will enter into this Sabbath rest, if we will bring our burdens to the Lord.

It is written that you shall not carry your burden into your house, but you will take your burden on this Sabbath and you will lay it on Him because He's the Lord of the Sabbath. He's the only one over and above the Sabbath that can bear burdens.

Nobody else is allowed to bear the burden. On Sabbath, we're deceased from our works. Neither do you any work, but hallow you the Sabbath. The six days had to do before the cross. It was a time of works, but now it's a time of faith, of taking all of our sin burden, all of our cares, all of our concerns and putting them on His back.

No more striving to work or merit salvation. No more self-effort to do it in our own strength to try to please God. No more promises that we can't keep because it's a Sabbath. The Sabbath is not just on Sunday.

Seven days a week, 24 hours a day. Look at verse 25. Then shall there enter into the gates of this city kings and princes sitting upon the throne of David. Now who's sitting on the throne of David? Jesus.

He's talking about Jesus. Sitting upon the throne of David, riding in chariots and horses. They and their princes. Who are the kings and princes and priests under the Lord? Men of Judah and inhabitants of Jerusalem.

Folks, we are the inhabitants of the new Jerusalem. And this city shall remain forever. Here's the promise. Here's the promise. If you will take your burden to the burden bearer, if you will understand that this is the Sabbath and you're not allowed to carry your burden, it's not a matter of an option.

It's a matter, if you're going to say that you trust God, you're going to walk according to his word, you're going to lay every burden, every care, cast your care upon him because he cares for you. You're going to put your burden on the Lord.

You're not going to carry it another hour. If Prophet Jeremiah lived today and he were aware of all the gospel truths of the cross. And he saw when he came and walked among us. And I invited him to speak to this congregation.

He would be dumbfounded. He said, why did you bring your burdens in here tonight? Why do you take your burden from the workplace into your house? Why do you take it from the house into the workplace? Why are you walking around New York with this burden when you're in the Sabbath?

He would preach what he preached at Jerusalem. They also carry no burden on the Sabbath. For it's a holy day unto the Lord. That's what is actually the Bible means by the beauty of holiness. Is that you take every care you have, every burden you have.

That's the beauty of this whole thing. That on this Sabbath, I really don't have to carry any burden. God's plan for me is to live free of fear and bondage. That I am a testimony of that freedom. Otherwise, what separates us from the world?

What does the world have to see if you look like them, talk like them and have the burdens that they carry? There's no testimony in that. You say, oh, you don't know what I'm going through. You don't know what I'm experiencing.

Well, you're different. You've got a Sabbath. The world doesn't have a Sabbath. They don't even know what it is. He said, if you lay your burden on me and cast all your care upon me, and trust me with every care and every concern, that you're really going to understand the kingship of Christ.

He can't be your king. He can't come riding through this city of New Jerusalem in our presence until we crown him by laying our burdens upon him. We're making him. You talk about making him Lord. If he's not Lord of your burdens, he's not Lord of anything.

Refusing Burdens and the Consequences of Carrying Them

Look at verse 27. This is the end of side one. You may now turn the tape over. But if you will not hearken unto me to hallow the Sabbath day and not to bear a burden, even entering at the gates of Jerusalem on the Sabbath day, then I will kindle a fire in the gates thereof, and it shall devour the palaces of Jerusalem, and it shall not be quenched.

You know what that means? Look at me, please. He said, if you're not going to lay your burdens on me, he said, they're going to consume you. They'll consume. You're going to go around all the time just talking about your pain and your sorrow.

You're just going to go around. It's going to consume you. It's going to be a fire burning in you. It's going to destroy your house. And it's not a judgment of God. It's just that this is what happens when you carry your burden.

You get up in the morning, you talk about it, you talk to everybody, and you're nothing but carrying your burden around night and day. And what an incredibly poor testimony to the power of the Lord Jesus Christ.

We get up in the morning, consumed with our burdens. We hardly sleep at night. We go over all of our problems. We try to figure out what did I do wrong, where did I go wrong, or how can I make it right?

We wake up, we pick up our burdens, and every day we pick up our burdens. We take them everywhere we go. We take our burdens. We are loaded down like the donkeys. We're mules. We're stubborn as mules carrying these burdens around on the Sabbath.

Listen to what Jesus said. Come unto me, all ye that are weary and heavy laden. I'll give you rest. How's he going to do it? By taking all our burdens off our back and said, here, give them to me. He said, if you will not by faith lay down your heavy burden on your burden bearer, you're going to spend all your days in the fires of heaviness and despair consumed by fear and depression.

That's why so many Christians are in despair and depression. Now, let me tell you something in my final remarks. Laying down your burden is no easy thing to do. In fact, it requires drastic action. It takes a powerful act of determination, and it's almost like a spiritual surgery.

Nehemiah's Call to Shut the Gates Against Burdens

I can speak from experience that, folks, it's best illustrated in the book of Nehemiah. Now, you don't have to turn there, but Nehemiah saw the same sight in his day as Jeremiah did. They were rebuilding the city and the gates, and at the conclusion, the gates were up in place.

And he noticed that even though they were very diligent in every other aspect, they were diligent in worship, they had been faithful in rebuilding the city, but there was one thing that they were missing.

They were missing the meaning of the Sabbath. And, folks, you can be very diligent to the Lord. You can love Him with all your heart and still carry your burden on the Sabbath. You can still be breaking the Sabbath.

And breaking the Sabbath is simply carrying your burdens that belong on His back. It's that simple. That's what this whole thing, this whole teaching is about in the book of Jeremiah and also in Nehemiah.

Now, Nehemiah is standing on the walls, and he's looking at the gates, and he sees this traffic. He sees all these dogs and people running. All are sitting in the same burden. Bearers are still there.

And he said, they were bringing in sheaves and laden down their donkeys, laden down, burdened down with wine and grapes and figs and all manner of burdens, which they were bringing into Jerusalem on the Sabbath.

Now, Nehemiah began to testify against them. He said, I testified against them. I tried to show them where they were wrong. Now, this is equated with coming to church and hearing the preaching. Now, right now, I'm testifying to you about the Sabbath and the real meaning of it.

But you see, that didn't lift the burden. This didn't get through to them. And then he said, I contended with them. See, he's stepping it up a little more. He contended with them. He's raising his voice and his level of appeal.

And I said unto them, what evil thing is this that you do and profane the Sabbath? He said, I chided them. I preached to them. I warned them, but it didn't work. And folks, you can say, I'm going to go to the Lord and I'm going to just lay my burden down.

We talk about when I lay my burden down, we sing about it. And so we go to bed at night and say, Lord, I lay every burden down. I'll just lay it at your feet. We get up in the morning, pick one up here, go to the shower.

Another one hits us, my finances, my pain. And by the time we get out of the house, we don't have a smile left. And here we go. We got the load back down on our shoulder. Those loads are not going to go easy.

Going to take a spiritual surgery. And that's what Nehemiah is talking about. And I want you to listen very closely. So Nehemiah said, I've had enough. And it came to pass that when the gates of Jerusalem began to be dark before the Sabbath, I commanded that the gates be shut.

And I charged them that they should not open it till after the Sabbath. And some of my servants, I said at the gates, there should be no burdens be brought in on the Sabbath day. Now, you'd think that's enough.

But these people with burdens and their donkeys and their mules camped out, waiting for the gate to open. All night long, the burdens were hanging around. They hang around all night, waiting to get back in.

He said, I set my sentries out there and I tried to tell them, I contended with them. I told them, I warned them. Folks, you have got to speak to your burdens. You've got to talk God's language to your burdens.

Speaking Faith to Every Burden

I mean, one by one. Listen to this talk. So the merchants lodged around the wall. Then I testified against them and I said to them, If you once more come near this wall, I'll lay hands on you. From that time on, they came no more on the Sabbath.

And you've got to speak the language of faith and say, I have a burden bearer. You financial burden on my back. You lying spirit. You spirit of despair, depression, sorrow, grief. I'm not allowed to carry this burden.

It's the Sabbath. My God sent an Adam. A perfect second last Adam. And he's provided everything I need in Christ. Everything. If I will simply trust that living word of God, I speak to my fears. I speak to it, say in name of Jesus, I command you to leave.

If you come back again, I'll lay hands on you and cast you into utter darkness. You got to shut the gates. If your mind. You know, you can do that tonight. You can do that in this service while I'm speaking.

Say father, by faith. I am going to push these thoughts and these burdens out of my mind. This is where the mind of Christ belongs. And by faith in the name of Jesus Christ, my Lord, I am not going to put up with this burden bearing anymore.

It's my Sabbath. I am not going to carry my burden. Jesus, take it. Here's my financial burden. Here's my grief. Here's my pain. Here's my temptation. Here's the battle I'm going through. Whatever your burden.

All of it. It's not that you get rid of nine out of ten. You get rid of all of them. All burdens. Some of you sitting here tonight have been part of my burden. I'm laid you down. Some of my foolishness is a burden.

I'm laying it. I'm asking God. You know, when the brother preached here on marriage Sunday afternoon, we went home. And my wife, Gwen, said, boy, he nailed you. Because I'm the most impatient man. Honey, we got to get going.

And I finally, I walk out and let his lever, you know. I said, honey, I'll admit that he nailed me if you admit you got something out of it. She said, oh, yes, I did. I said, great. But I'll tell you something.

I'm not going to. I'm not going to sit around saying, oh, God, what am I going to do? How am I going to get this right? I'm going to love him with all my heart and I'm going to put the burden of God molding and shaping me in his own.