PODCAST TRANSCRIPT | EPISODE 242: What Does God Want Us to Do in the Land, Part 14B
LIFE TO THE FULL w/ Nancy Campbell
EPISODE 242: What Does God Want Us to Do in the Land, Part 14B
Our last session in this series, and we continue last week’s subject. What are your plans for Saturday or Sunday? How much time do you give to God on your set-apart day? One hour? Two hours? Or the whole day?
Announcer: Welcome to the podcast, Life to The Full, with Nancy Campbell, founder and publisher of Above Rubies.
Nancy Campbell: Hello, ladies! We are continuing our discussion of last podcast, about what do we do on the day we set apart for God? Some lovely ladies listening are those who keep the Sabbath and then there are others who keep Sunday. We’re not talking about which day, but what do we do on the day that we set apart for the Lord?
I had just a few more thoughts that I thought I would share with you. Last week we talked about it being a day of rest, and refreshing, and reviving of our spirits. Also, that it was not only a day of rest, but a day of rest. It’s not an hour when we go to church for an hour, or couple of hours, but a day. I think that we have gotten away from that concept of this day being a day set apart for God.
I’m thinking back to that famous old movie. I wonder if you saw it? It came out in 1981, so that’s about 42 years ago, Chariots of Fire. Did any of you see it? It’s a marvelous movie showing this guy, Eric Liddell, who went to the Olympic Games. He was a believer and did not believe in doing sports on Sunday.
But his final race was going to be on Sunday. He refused to run it, and although he was set to be the winner of, I think it was 100 yards, he did not go ahead. He stood his ground because he was committed to keep this as a day unto the Lord. Instead, he had to run in another race; I think it was the 400, which he won, although it wasn’t even his race. God honored him. But it’s an amazing movie and worth watching. Something to show your children.
We were mentioning about how some people are not actually committed to a church fellowship. I do believe that is so important, whether we are keeping the Sabbath, or keeping Sunday. We should be committed to the people of God.
Did you know that in the New Testament, the word “church” is mentioned 118 times? The word “synagogue,” where the Jewish people worshipped, is mentioned 57 times. We see how they were committed to a church. The word “church” is ekklesia. It means, “a Christian community of members on earth; an assembly; a congregation.”
We know that church is not a building. The church is the people. Yes, it’s an assembly of people. But the only way it can be an assembly of people is if we assemble! Yes, we have to assemble. Of course, that takes an effort.
That comes back to us as mothers, doesn’t it? We are the ones who really make it happen. We’ve got to even start thinking about it the night before. Preparing clothes to get everyone ready for going to meet with the people of God. Especially with children, we need to make sure that we’ve got all their special clothes ready for Sunday.
I think we should wear special clothes for Sunday, don’t you? That was always traditional. If we go back to the Word of God we read of how the priests had to change their clothes when they went into the Holy Place and before they came out. They didn’t wear the clothes they wore around in the Holy Place. They had to change into their priestly clothes.
I think when we’re coming to meet with God, we show respect. We show reverence when we dress nicely. Back in my day, we used to have what was called “our Sunday best.” Have you ever heard that little phrase, “Sunday best”? We didn’t have so many clothes in those days, so you had one set of clothes that was for Sunday. That was special for Sunday.
Today, we have so many clothes. I just went up to Goodwill the other day, and I couldn’t believe it. Everything was so cheap and then you could have half-price day. You can buy clothes for a couple of dollars, three dollars, maybe four at the most. Lovely clothes. You could actually have quite a big wardrobe these days and you’re not really spending much at all. It is different.
But I don’t, oh, please, lovely mothers, we have to watch our girls as they’re growing up. We live in this world where the fashion is not founded on godly principles. It’s founded on the spirit of the world. I don’t believe that it’s right for our daughters to wear jeans to church.
Jeans aren’t church clothes. They don’t belong to church, nor do any kind of pants belong to church. And yet there are some who will even wear, I don’t know what you call them, these totally knit skin-tight pants, which are so revealing. You might as well be naked. Clothed but naked, because you can still see every little nook and cranny and line. These are not church clothes.
Then we come to summertime. You want to go to church to worship God, and you’d think you were going to the beach! And here’s not only girls, but even older women, with shoulders bare. No, we don’t wear bare shoulders to church. We don’t wear clothes that show cleavage to church. We don’t wear short dresses to church. I believe they should be at least, minimum, to the knee when going to church.
You see, we are a holy people. God says: “I am holy; be ye therefore holy.” Well, it’s bad enough wearing those kinds of clothes around, let alone to church! It’s time we lifted the standard for church. Mothers, it starts with us. What are we wearing to church? Do we have a lovely dress for church? That is modest, feminine, lovely? We’re going to the house of God. We’re going amongst His holy people. We should be making it a holy place.
That’s another thing that it is called in Leviticus 23:2. God says: “Six days shall work be done, but the seventh day is the Sabbath rest, a holy convocation.” The word “convocation” in the Old Testament (I was talking to you about the New Testament. The word ekklesia is used 118 times, and that is “an assembly, a gathering together of God’s people.”
We go back to the Old Testament, and guess what, ladies? Sometime back I was doing a study on the word “assembly.” I found 12 different Hebrew words that mean “the assembling of God’s people.” Here’s one of them: “convocation.” It’s the word miqra. It means “a public meeting, something which has been called out, an assembly.” It’s a holy convocation, a holy assembly.
On the day that we set apart for God, we are to meet in a holy assembly. Therefore, we’d better be wearing clothes that are holy. Yes, they don’t have to be drab and boring, because as God told them when He was talking about the priests’ clothing, He said they were to be holy clothes, but also for glory and for beauty (Exodus 28:2).. We wear holy clothes, but beautiful clothes.
Talking about these different words for “assembly,” I’m not going to give you all the words, but we just looked at one there in the context of the Sabbath day, the holy “convocation.” That word is used, let me see how many times? Yes, 23 times that particular word is used for the assembling of God’s people in the Old Testament.
AN APPOINTED TIME
Here’s another one: Exodus 30:36. God is talking about how “in the tabernacle of the congregation, where I will meet with thee.” The word “congregation” is moed. It also means, “an assembly, a place of meeting, a congregation,” and it also means, ladies, actually this is the first meaning, “an appointment, a fixed time.” This word for “assembly” is used 223 times in the Old Testament.
If you go to the Strong’s Concordance, the first part of the meaning is “an appointed time.” Isn’t that interesting? Yes. I believe that we have an appointed time to meet with the saints. They had appointed times when God wanted them to meet back in the Old Testament. But now, we’re living in our day, and we also have appointed times. Different churches start at different times. Some start at ten in the morning, some at eleven. Some have it in the afternoon; some at different times.
So, whatever your church has, that’s the “appointed time.” And once again, I do believe we should try to get there by the appointed time, because this is biblical. This is biblical, precious ladies. These are little practical things we’re talking about on this day that we set aside for God.
We, as mothers, we were talking about the clothing. We have to get the clothing ready for our little ones. Yes, because, “OK, go and get ready, Johnny.” And poor little Johnny can’t find his socks and he can’t find his shirt. Then “Susie, are you getting ready?” But she can’t find whatever she has to wear. Then maybe they all come out in the wrong clothes. You have to organize the clothes.
Of course, even from your little ones, dear ladies. I was noticing, just been noticing lately, how most children today, most children are clothed in pants and jeans and so on. That’s the clothing of today. Somewhere along the way, mothers have just fitted into the clothing of our worldly society. Now they come to church, yes, even our fellowship. Children! They’re in pants, they’re in jeans, coming to church.
But that’s not their fault. It’s mothers. The mothers are dressing little ones. The mothers are dressing them in these clothes. They are dressing them like this, even to come to church. We’ve lost this along the way, ladies. It’s time we brought a greater reverence and respect into the house of God, which is the assembling of His people. It doesn’t matter whether it’s a house church, or a great big church, or a cathedral. Whatever it is, it’s not the building, it is the assembling. But in the assembling, we come dressed appropriately.
So, the night before, we are checking out for our little ones, their clothes. We have them ready for them to get up and get dressed into so that we’re not screaming around, trying to find things. We are preparing to be ready for the appointed time.
I know some mothers who have found that on Saturday night, they will put their clock, their watch, their whatever, they will put it an hour ahead, or a half an hour ahead, so that when they’re looking at the time, they think, “Oh, wow, OK.” And then, “Wow,” they can get to church early, or on time, because usually it’s so easy to be late. But they can eventually, actually, get there on time if they set their watch ahead, although a lot don’t even wear watches today. But whatever you use for your timing.
It is an appointed time. In that same Scripture, it says: “In the tabernacle of the congregation.” That’s the word for the “appointed time,” the assembling of His people. “Where I will meet with thee.” There is another word. “Meet” is another Hebrew word for “assembly.” It means, once again, “an appointed time, to meet at a stated time, to summon an assembly together.” It has both meanings, once again, of assembling together, but at an appointed time, at a stated time. Wow!
Now, I’m not making all this up, ladies. It’s just the Word. I think we have to be reminded of the Word, don’t we? We have to come back to His Word. We get away from it. I can see how much I have got away from things; how we lived in the early days.
Even in my lifetime, which is like a blink of my eye, as I said before, was it last session? I lived in the days when not only every Christian family set aside their day unto the Lord, but even the secular. They may not have been doing it unto the Lord, but they had to have that day, because no shops were open. They couldn’t do much on that day. No sports, no shops, no nothing. Well, now, of course, there’s everything. Just a reminder about it’s not just a day of rest, it’s a day of rest.
OK. We’re not only getting ready to go and meet with the people of God. We’re getting the clothes ready. We’re encouraging our teen daughters, that they will wear something lovely and beautiful to church. We’re showing them that church is a special thing, and such a wonderful privilege, and the greatest day of the week, where we say, “Oh, I was glad when they said unto me, let us go into the house of the Lord!” (Psalm 122:1). That should be our attitude.
A DAY FOR GOD AND A DAY FOR HIS PEOPLE
Then what are we going to do? Come home, and “OK, we’re home! Throw off all our church clothes and let’s get out! We’ll go to this sport, or we’ll do this, or go to this entertainment! Or we’ll just turn on the TV and watch sports!” That’s what happens in many homes. Dear ladies, it’s not just church. It’s a day. A day. A day. A day for God, and a day for His people.
A WONDERFUL DAY FOR HOSPITALITY
I think it’s the most wonderful day for hospitality. All throughout our lives, we have done one thing or the other. If the church that we have been involved in does not have a fellowship meal after the service, well, we will come home and bring guests with us. For many years, pastoring in New Zealand, and then Australia, this was actually what we did. We showed hospitality.
We would invite families, and young people, and whoever, home to have a meal with us. Oh, it is such a beautiful thing, ladies. It’s sort of a let-down to come home from being in the presence of God and with the people of God, and just come home, and you’re on your own. It’s boring!
Oh, I can remember one time. Oh, we had families every Sunday. Some Sundays we’d end up with about 30 people around. They couldn’t fit around our table, so we’d have people around our big table. Then our children would have friends sitting around somewhere else, and so on. I can remember one time thinking, “Oh, goodness me! I just think I need a rest!” So, I said to my husband, “Darling, let’s just not ask anybody next Sunday. Let’s just have the day to ourselves.”
So, we did. We didn’t ask anybody. We came home to, you know what? It was the most boring Sunday of our lives. We came home. We looked at each other. There’s no one else to talk to. The children were bored out of their brains, so we never did it again! Ever. We’ve always invited people.
Well, the logistics of this have been different also in different countries. Back in New Zealand, where it’s a sheep country, a typical New Zealand meal is roast lamb. Well, it’s not really roast lamb. It’s roast hogget or roast mutton, because we export our lamb. We would eat either the hogget, which is a year-old lamb, or we’d eat one that is older and bigger, which can feed more people.
So, I would put on a big roast of mutton, that’s an older sheep, in the oven, and put potatoes, pumpkin, kumara (that’s our New Zealand sweet potato) around the meat. It would be slowly cooking while we were at church. Yes, I did have the element on, but it was on pretty low. We’d cook it low and slow, long and slow. It would be cooking, and I would have frozen peas ready. I would have a salad made, and maybe something else. That was all prepared the day before.
Then, when we came home, we would often get hot bread from the shop on the way home, because that’s what you could do. I’ve always made our homemade bread, but we allowed our children to have hot white bread on Sundays. Oh, they thought it was amazing! Of course, now, we’ve got shops open on Sundays. So, we would buy hot bread and bring it home.
Some people would come and not bring anything. Others would also bring something. And somehow, we would feed everybody. Then we moved to Australia. Well, now I just couldn’t get my big legs or shoulders of roast lamb, or hogget, over there. It was too expensive.
I would, usually the night before, or early that morning, I would cook up a great big pot of chili, or something like that, that would feed a multitude. And once again, have a salad ready. Once again, we’re bringing loaves of hot bread home from the shop, loads of it. Everybody loved hot bread. So, we would do that and feed all the people that came. Oh, it was so glorious and wonderful! Fellowship with God’s people is so amazing!
I remember in our church in New Zealand, we encouraged everyone to show hospitality, because the Bible says, “Show hospitality to one another” (1 Peter 4:9). It’s biblical. It’s part of the lifestyle of the kingdom of God. It was the lifestyle of the early church. They not only did it once a week, they did it daily. They met daily in their homes the Bible tells us in Acts 2. We would encourage everyone to show hospitality. They learned as they came into our homes, and “Wow! This is so great!”
So, they began asking people into their homes. And then, it became a problem, because unless you called somebody during the week, if you were just asking someone there on Sunday, you wouldn’t be able to find anybody to ask home, because everybody had already been asked home! Oh, what a glorious church where everybody was showing hospitality to one another!
Well, now, we are doing it differently. And here, currently, we have church in our home out here on the Hilltop. It’s called The House of Prayer. But it’s not really a little lounge church, because we have our big Above Rubies packaging room. We can fit up to 100 people in this room, which such a glorious blessing.
CHURCH IS TOGETHERING
After our service here on the Hilltop, we have fellowship meal. And this is also such a blessing! Oh, it’s such a blessing because we can fellowship with one another. Church is not just coming to sit and listen to a message and go home. No, it is one-anothering! It’s togethering with God’s people.
So much of the blessings of being together is when we’re sitting talking over the meal. You begin to find out, oh, where the people really are. What are their needs? And what are their visions? What are their passions? What is happening in their lives? What are things we can do together? Oh, goodness me, every Sunday is so amazing! Even in just doing that, I still don’t get time to talk to everyone! But at least everyone can be talking with different people.
And the children can go out to play. They have fellowship. The young people have fellowship, and then they can play volleyball together and hang out. Play soccer together. Many families hang out right until the late afternoon. So, it is a togethering, an assembling with the people of God. That is just how He intends it to be. I think we’ve got to get into our heart that it’s not just going to church. It is a day unto the Lord. Also, a day for His people.
And then when you’re not with His people, you will find the things that you want to do as unto the Lord and to delight yourself in Him. For we are to delight in that Sabbath Day, or the day that we keep unto the Lord.
And another thing about it, it is a holy day. Yes, I did mention that when we were talking about, what are we wearing to church? What are our children wearing to church? Make sure the clothes are appropriate for a holy day.
Isaiah 58:13-14: “If thou turn away thy foot from the Sabbath, from doing thy pleasure on My holy day; and call the Sabbath a delight, the holy of the Lord, honorable; and shalt honor Him, not doing thine own ways, nor finding thine own pleasure,” like, “Oh, OK, let’s go to the zoo today!” Or “Such a beautiful day! Why don’t we have a picnic?” No. “Nor speaking thine own words: Then shalt thou delight thyself in the Lord; and I will cause thee to ride upon the high places of the earth, and feed thee with the heritage of Jacob thy father: for the mouth of the Lord hath spoken it.”
Do you notice there, God calls it “My holy day”? Yes. Then, He also calls it “the holy of the Lord.”
The Knox translation says, “Walk warily. Keep My Sabbath unprofaned. It is a day I have sanctified, not for thy self-pleasing. A precious thing the Lord has made, holy and honorable.”
Now the word “holy day” is the word kadash. That’s the Hebrew word for “holy” in the Old Testament. It means “apartness, holiness, sacredness, uncommonness, withheld from ordinary use.” We see that it is a day that’s set apart, a day that is unto the Lord, because the word “holy,” kadash, actually means “set apart.” It’s not the sort of thing, “Oh, yes, that’s a holy person.”
No, “holiness” means a set-apart person, so a “holy day” is a set-apart day. It’s a day when we don’t do things we do on other days. And then we will do things that we don’t do on those other days, like meeting with the people of God, and assembling for our church service. Also, fellowshipping and showing hospitality to the people of God. Also, maybe having more time to spend in His Word, or read and meditate on wonderful, wholesome books and commentaries, and learning more of His Word.
Actually, there are two words for “holy” in that Scripture. The “holy day” is kadash, and then, the “holy of the Lord” is kadosh, just slightly similar, meaning “sacred, ceremonially and morally selected, pure, holy, consecrated, separated to God’s service.” It’s a separation.
Exodus 19:6: “And ye shall be unto Me a kingdom of priests, and a holy nation.” That’s who we are. We are a holy nation, set apart unto God, and we keep a holy day, whether we keep it Saturday or Sunday. And we keep it holy unto the Lord, a day that we keep holy unto the Lord. Amen?
Oh, wow! I just hope you’ve got that. Actually, I’ve got another couple of verses here that really speak to me. Oh, goodness me, I can’t believe where we’ve come to! I notice here in Exodus 16:29. Here it’s talking about the seventh day. On the sixth day, they had to go out, and they had to pick up the double portion. But on the seventh day they were not allowed to.
“Abide ye every man in his place, let no man go out of his place on the seventh day” (Exodus 16:29). In other words, don’t go out to find the food because there won’t be any there! Wow! I have to, oooh, repent, because I have got, wow, I have gone out and purchased on Sunday, because now all the shops are open!
And then I read in Nehemiah 10:31: “And if the people of the land bring ware or any victuals on the Sabbath day to sell, that we would not buy it of them on the Sabbath day.” My, I should have read that verse before, because when was it? Sunday night! We went out to get some groceries. Wow! But then, of course, the Sabbath is actually from sundown to sundown. So, we did go out in the evening. But I could have gone in the afternoon, not even thinking! Wow!
Really, I’m not keeping up with really what God’s heart is for the day that we set apart unto Him. Because it’s just so easy to fall into the secular world, isn’t it? But we don’t belong to the secular world. We’re set apart unto God. My! Am I really going to do this? I am challenged. Yes.
No. 15. YOU MUST PASS THIS GOOD LAND ON TO YOUR CHILDREN
Oh, I might get a little bit late, but I just want to finish up, because if I tell you number 15, we have finished this series! Can you believe it? Number 15, of WHAT GOD WANTS US TO DO IN THE LAND. You must pass this good land to your children.
Deuteronomy 1:8: “Behold, I have set the land before you: go in and possess the land which the Lord sware unto your fathers, Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, to give unto them and to their seed [children] after them.”
This land of motherhood that we are embracing, that we are living in, is not just for us and our children now. It’s for our children’s children, and our children’s children’s children, and the generations to follow. We have got to pass on this truth, and His ways, to the next generation.
Deuteronomy 12:28: “Observe and hear all these words which I command thee, that it may go well with thee, and with thy children after thee forever, when thou doest that which is good and right in the sight of the Lord thy God.”
We read in 1 Chronicles 28:8: “Seek for all the commandments of the Lord your God: that ye may possess this good land, and leave it for an inheritance for your children after you forever.”
Jeremiah 7:6-7: “If ye oppress not the stranger, the fatherless, and the widow, and shed not innocent blood in this place, neither walk after other gods to your hurt: Then will I cause you to dwell in this place, in the land that I gave to your fathers, for ever and ever.”
Dear precious ladies, we have already lost so much that God wants us, as mothers, to pass on to our children and the next generation. We are responsible to pass it on to our children so they will pass it on to their children. Can we do that? Oh, may God save us from dropping the baton to the next generation.
I’m now going to start a new series next week, calling it “We Are the Transmitters of God’s Truth to the Next Generation.” We’re going to talk about some of the things we need to be passing on—God’s truth, many practical ways, even things in regards to etiquette and protocol which are being lost to this generation. So many things we’ve got to keep passing on. We’re going to talk about some of them.
So, let’s pray.
“Lord God, dear Father, help us to be lovers of Your precious Word, always seeking Your truths, seeking Your ways, that we will walk in Your ways, not to walk in the ways of the world, but, Lord God, You have chosen us to be a set-apart people unto You.
“You have even chosen us to have a day that’s set apart unto You, a day, Lord God. Oh, help us, Lord, to not just give an hour or two, but to give this whole day to You, a day that we choose to set apart unto You. And that You will be first in our lives, and in the lives of our children, and in the lives of our succeeding generations. We ask it in the precious Name of Jesus. Amen.”
Blessings from Nancy Campbell
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