Let me ask you to turn to two passages of scripture,

Nehemiah 13, and Isaiah 58.

We'll begin in Nehemiah 13.

We'll go through lots of scripture in the message

and all the scriptures will be on the screen so you can see

them there as well.

And then toward the end of the message we'll get to Isaiah 58.

We're in a series entitled, The Blueprint, God's Master Plan for your life and we have one more

message in this series after this week and today's message is entitled

Rest is part of his plan. Is that good news? God designed so that we could

rest as part of his plan for our lives. So that's what we want to talk about today

and how important that is for us.

Nehemai 13, remember Nehemai 13 is the last chapter of Nehemiah and Nehemiah is re-implementing some

principles into the people of God that they had gotten away from.

Last week we talked about the principle of tithing and blessing.

This week it's the principle of the Sabbath and rest.

So Nehem I 13, verse 15.

In those days I saw people in Judah treading wine presses on the Sabbath and bringing in sheaves and loading donkeys with wine, grapes, figs, and all kinds of burdens which they brought into Jerusalem on the Sabbath day.

And I warned them about the day on which they were selling provisions.

Men of Tyre dwelt there also who brought in fish and all kinds of goods

and sold them on the Sabbath to the children of Judah and in Jerusalem.

Then I contended with the nobles of Judah and said to them what evil thing is this that you do by which you profane the Sabbath day.

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