The Sabbath

Shalom, friends. my name is Chadwick Harvey, and you have reached Faithful Performance. Thank you very much for joining us tonight as we celebrate the Shabbat through prayers, through scriptures, and through fellowship. If you've been with us the last two nights, this is the trifecta — the closing ceremony of the week. We are all excited for the Shabbat as it ends the week and begins a new one.

Much like the New Moon Festival we discussed the other night, the Shabbat is a time of renewal. Every week we receive that renewal. We get to spend time with the Lord, keep the day holy, read the Torah portion, and rest in him. It is a beautiful thing once we make that paradigm shift — understanding that this is his day, not ours. He wants us to celebrate it with him in unity and fellowship, just as we are doing tonight. He is our Father in Heaven who wants to spend time with all of us.

Tonight we are going to read a couple of scriptures to bring the Sabbath in, pray the Amidah, and also share some passages from a book we wrote called *The Cross to the Crown*. That book is available as a free ebook — if you would like a copy, email us and we will send it to you. It is updated each year with the current dates on the Gregorian calendar, though the biblical calendar remains the same. It covers God's calendar, the feast days, the Sabbath, the Shemitah, and other beautiful seasons of the Father.

The more we read these things, the more revelation we receive. It is like reading the Torah portion every week — you go through all five books every single year, and each time you gain a deeper understanding of where God is taking us, what obedience looks like, and the love of Father, Son, and Holy Spirit for our neighbor.

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Now I want to read about two pages from what we wrote about the Sabbath, because it contains some powerful connections worth revisiting.

In the days of creation, Elohim not only created the heavens and the earth — he also instituted a set-apart day to be a sign, or mark, of his set-apart people. It is written that Elohim blessed the seventh day and separated it as holy, because on that day he rested from all of his works which he had created. The Creator set apart only one day to be separated from all the others, and that is the Sabbath day. It is the holiest of holy days, for Elohim himself rested on it. It is altogether amazing to consider how Elohim — the Creator and King of the universe, who does not need rest — rested on this sanctified and blessed day.

The Sabbath is Elohim's mark, or sign, of authority. When we break down the Hebrew word *Shabbat*, we find profound meaning: *sha* refers to the Eternal One; *ab* is the root of *Aba*, meaning Father; and *bath* represents the house of the Father. Together, Shabbat points to the eternal house of the Father.

On the inaugural Feast of Shavuot — Pentecost — at Mount Sinai, Yah spoke his Ten Commandments to the congregation of Israel, which consisted of a mixed multitude of Jews and Gentiles. The Fourth Commandment is about the Sabbath day. It is written: "Remember the Sabbath day, to set it apart for God. For in six days you shall labor and do all your work, but the seventh day is a Sabbath for Adonai your God. On it you are not to do any kind of work — not you, your son, your daughter, your cattle, or anything within your gates — for in six days Adonai made heaven and earth, the sea, and everything in it, but on the seventh day he rested. That is why Adonai blessed the day of Shabbat and separated it for himself."

Yah commands us to remember the Sabbath day and to set it apart from the other six days, because it is holy and sanctified. As Scripture declares, it is a day of rest and intimacy with Yah — to worship him through praying, singing, playing music, reading Scripture, resting, and fellowshipping with family, friends, and the congregation. The Sabbath is a special treasure, a day to draw near to the heart of our Creator, for he is the one who instituted this appointed and set-apart time.

Of course, we can worship Yah every day of the week — and we should. However, if every day is common, what separates the holy? The Sabbath is that one set-apart day, because Elohim himself rested on it and blessed it, setting it apart from all the other days of the week. This is the primary reason Moses connected the Fourth Commandment to the seventh day of creation — to spotlight its divine significance.

Just as the appointed feasts of Yah in Leviticus 23 are divine appointments and set-apart times, the first feast ordained by Yah is the Sabbath day. This reaffirms how crucial it is for Elohim's set-apart people — believing Jews and Gentiles alike — to worship him on the seventh-day Sabbath. It is a sign throughout the generations, a perpetual covenant between our Creator and his set-apart people forever. As it is written: "I am Adonai your God. Live by my laws and observe my rulings and obey them, and keep my Sabbaths holy, and they will be a sign between me and you, so that you will know that I am Adonai your Elohim." That is from Ezekiel 20:19–20.

It is powerful to be reminded of how important the Sabbath is — that our Creator rested on this day only, and never changed it. Why would he change the day? He set apart this one day. Breaking down the Hebrew word reveals that it is a beautiful time to be intimate with our Creator, and it is vitally important for both believing Jews and Gentiles to worship Yeshua on this day.

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At this time we will go through some scriptures. The first is the Shema, found in Deuteronomy 6:4–9. This is essentially our creed — it is sung every Sabbath in synagogues, in Messianic congregations, and in Christian congregations that observe the Sabbath as well. The prophet Moses declared:

"Hear, O Israel — Yah is God, Yah is echad. You shall love Yah your God with all of your heart, with all of your soul, and with all of your might. These words which I am commanding you today shall be on your heart. You shall teach them diligently to your children. You shall speak of them when you sit in your house, when you walk by the way, when you lie down, and when you rise up. You shall bind them as a sign on your hand, and they shall be as signs between your eyes. You shall write them on the doorposts of your house and on your gates."

This is why, if you have ever been to Israel, or flown to Israel, or visited Jewish communities anywhere, you see people wearing headgear and wrapping their arms with the tefillah — they are praying the Shema along with other scriptures. But this is our creed. Everyone who is part of the Commonwealth of Israel must understand: Yah is our God, he is echad — he is one. He is not polytheistic; he is monotheistic. And we are to love him with all of our heart, soul, and might, and keep these words on our hearts.

This is so central when you read through the Torah and the prophets. Jeremiah, Moses, Isaiah — they all emphasize the heart. The New Covenant, as described in Jeremiah 31, says that the Torah will be written on our hearts and in our minds. In the past, it was never truly on the heart and mind of the people — but in the future, in the millennial kingdom, everyone will have it on their hearts and in their minds. We should be pursuing that reality right now.

Observance is a heart issue. Our hearts need to be circumcised into the New Covenant. What is the New Covenant? It is Yeshua — the crucifixion, the resurrection, being filled with the Holy Spirit — but it also includes obedience to the Torah, because that is precisely what Jeremiah says the New Covenant entails. We must hold Yeshua and the Commandments together, just as the Great Commission instructs. That is what Jeremiah is emphasizing when he says "on your hearts and in your minds" — that is the primary distinction between the Old Covenant and the New.