Sundays should be the greatest day of your week! God thinks it's of the utmost importance that we prioritize it. From our Back to Church Sunday sermon here are Six Reasons to Invest in a Weekly Sabbath:
1. I need it (Genesis 2:2; Mark 2:27).
God knows I need it. That’s why He
rested. God doesn’t want to flatten your
fun or lessen your life by taking away a day. He wants to increase your joy and
improve your life by giving you a day to refresh, refuel, and refocus with Him
because He knows you need it.
2. God asks me to (Exodus 20:8).
The fourth commandment says to keep the
Sabbath “holy.”
3. God blessed the Sabbath (Genesis 2:3).
For reasons only He fully understands,
God says that He blessed the Sabbath. It’s a special day, not an extra
day. When we cooperate with what God blesses, we get blessed.
4. My life goes better when I Sabbath.
So many of us think that if we can get
ahead faster, if we are productive seven days a week . . . But that’s not how
God made the universe. Secular sociologists have studied the benefits of church
attendance. What they’ve found is that those who
attend church regularly…
1. Live seven and
a half years longer than those who don’t.
2. Are 56 percent more likely to have an optimistic life outlook than those who
don’t.
3. Are 27 percent less
likely to be depressed.
4. Are 35
percent less likely to get divorced.
5. Have higher
average levels of commitment to partners, higher levels of marital satisfaction,
less thinking and talking about divorce, and lower levels of negative
interaction.
6. Achieve
higher grades, and practice better time management.
The studies are pretty clear: life goes
better for those who go to church regularly.
5. My Mondays go better when I Sabbath.
Do you sometimes dread Mondays? We get
out of bed saying, “Rats, I have to go back to work today.” We’re exhausted and
unmotivated because we used all our energy on Sunday instead of receiving new
energy from Sunday.
6. My family does better when we Sabbath.
It really is true that the family that
rests together does best together. A family that attends church learns
skills from the Bible about how to do relationships better and how to do life
better.Great families become great by building
great memories together. If you develop the habit of doing church together,
your children (or your parents) will build a repository of enriched memories
that will last a lifetime. My family is a far
better family because of church.
7. My eternity will go better if I Sabbath.
God promises to bless me if I bless Him.
And I bless Him when I show up at church.
God loves Sundays and so should we. Amen?