Redefining Rest

Welcome to this week's message from the Church at Chelsea Westover.

Our core values are vibrant worship, intimate fellowship, fulfilling service, and clear biblical truth.

We pray that this message changes your life.

Let's tune in to today's message and see what God has in store for you.

Amen.

Amen.

I'm so glad the anchor holds, aren't you, this morning?

Amen.

And if you can't preach after that, you shouldn't be preaching.

Amen.

Thank you for taking us to the throne.

And I want you to get your Bibles out this morning and turn to Matthew chapter 11.

Matthew 11 · chapter mention

As we look this morning, Pastor Danny has been teaching us through a series called A Country in Crisis.

And kind of getting to the point where in a few weeks, Joshua's going to lead the people into the promised land, into the Canaan land.

And when you study that, the Promised Land wasn't just a place about milk and honey, but it was about a place of rest.

They've been in the wilderness for some time now, chasing an empty dream.

And I want to read to you just a scripture about that in Psalms 95, it said this for 40 years I was grieved that a generation had said, It's people who go astray in their hearts, they do not know my ways.

So I swore in my wrath, they shall not enter my rest.

He wouldn't let them enter his rest.

The Canaan land, the promised land.

And so today I want to talk to you on the topic redefining rest.

We're at an epidemic time for unrest, folks.

There are more people alive today who are struggling to find rest while war wages and destruction abounds.

We're a people from if I asked you today, how many of you feel tired?

I think a lot of hands might go up.

When you say the word rest, people kind of get excited.

What comes to mind?

We think relaxation, rejuvenation, reduce work, to retire or retreat or resign.

I could say, do you think you need more rest today?

And I think probably wholeheartedly everyone would agree.

But I want to redefine rest for you this morning in the scripture in Matthew chapter 11, verse 28 through 30.

Matthew 11:28–30

This is scripture that y'all have heard before.

Let's take a look at it.

It says, Come to me, all you who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest.

Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls.

For my yoke is easy and my burden is light.

Father, I pray that you would speak this morning to our hearts.

Speak to this very important topic.

God, I pray that your Holy Spirit would move up and down these aisles.

God, we rebuke any act of Satan.

God, our hearts and minds are going to be focused on you for a few moments.

That you be glorified and lifted up.

And God, I pray that when we leave this place this morning, we will have changed.

In Jesus' name.

Amen.

I thought it would be impressive when Heather and I were dating to take her to New York City.

And so I'd never driven to New York City by myself, but I gathered up our stuff and just kind of like that sometimes.

And I said, let's get our stuff together and let's go to New York City.

It was our first spring date while we were dating.

And so we get our stuff, we drive, we get through the tunnel, and we're going into New York City.

Now, I didn't think about this, but it was the six-month anniversary of 9-11.

And so we're going through and and and at different checkpoints, people kept checking my license.

We're driving through, they're checking my license.

We drive through another stop.

A guy says, Can I see your license?

I'm like, What?

I mean, everywhere you go, they're it was strange to me.

I didn't understand it.

Get to another place, and finally the third or fourth place, a guy says, What are you doing here?

I'm like, nothing.

I mean, I'm in a minivan with my girlfriend driving to you.

Like, do I look like the type of person that's gonna hurt somebody?

Why?

How did they say, How did you get this far in?

And I'm like, I I'm just driving, man.

I'm just, I can see tall buildings, so I figure this is the way to go.

And I wasn't supposed to be.

We were like within blocks of the buildings that had come down, had really no idea where I was going.

We finally get there, and I f I found out after the fact, okay, that my wife is really kind of my girlfriend, then she's really kind of terrified of a couple of things.

One of them is heights, and another one is elevators.

So the first place I take her in New York City is the Empire State Building.

I'm like, man, she's gonna be impressed.

This is the biggest building.

You can see it from everywhere.

And she's looking up at the thing and looking at me, and I didn't know then what I know now.

And so we went up that, she she took it, she went up to the top with me, and we looked out.

And usually now, if we go somewhere, she she walks the steps.

I mean, even six, seven, eight floors, she's taking the steps.

She wasn't taking those steps.

We're talking a hundred floors, and so she, you know, we go out there and we look over all of New York City.

Uh, but she had that uneasy feeling that I later found out.

Okay.

Another one of our first dates, I took her to a theme park and got her on a roller coaster.

At the end of the coaster, my date is crying, and I'm like, what is she like?

I told you I didn't want to do this.

And I'm like, I thought you were just messing around.

I need to give you a push.

Okay.

Wasn't a good idea.

Okay.

But a man spoke of being on an elevator in a high-rise building, and he had said he'd never really been comfortable on elevators.

Something about riding up and down in a little box, several hundred feet never sat well with him.

He constantly worried that something would go wrong, and one day it did.

The car he was riding on got stuck in between floors.

He explained the other people in the elevator became instantly frantic.

They began to beat on the door, hoping to get someone's attention.

They began screaming, hoping that someone down the hall would hear their voices.

That man quietly made his way to the front of the elevator car.

He opened a little door and he pulled out a little phone, and immediately he was connected with somebody outside.

He didn't need to shout.

In fact, he could have whispered and somebody would have made it to his side.

Those people were rescued that day, and all it took was a small whisper into the right outlet.

And I want you to understand today, as we look at redefining rest, three things that I think will help you.

We don't need to be screaming, we don't need to be shouting, we don't need to become frantic, because the anchor holds.

First point in verse 28 of Matthew chapter 11, it says, Come to me.

Matthew 11 · chapter mention

So point number one this morning.

I know our notes are different, and it says rejoice and delima at the top.

But for those of you that are hyper-organized and there's no blanks and everything, this is your chance for the artistic people.

You could do whatever you want with that paper, okay?

It's your chance.

The rest of you, I'm sorry.

All right.

Come into his presence is point number one.

It's a it's first of all a call to salvation.

Come into his presence.

He says, Come unto me, is a call to salvation.

And when I was thinking about that, my son Weston, okay, he has like what you would call ninja skills and quick movement and like the matrix.

And I'll say, Weston, come here.

And for him, that means something totally opposite.

Or at least it would seem because when I say come here, he he doesn't quite get it because he goes the opposite direction.

It used to be when he was smaller and you were changing his diaper.

Once you got the one off, he would take off.

And you'd be, come here, I need to change your try, I need to get your diaper on, and he'd be gone.

He would he would just take off somewhere, or just try and get something.

If he takes something he knows he's not supposed to have, that hand automatically in one motion goes behind his back and his little legs are going somewhere and he knows.

And you don't even know what happened, and he's gone.

Just the other day, we were at the Wilson's house just for a few minutes, and we heard the dinging of the bell at the house.

Ding! Which means somebody went outside, which we assumed it had to be one of our children.

I hear Heather Rick! I'm like, oh no.

And so he got outside, and we, I mean, that quick, it was like we were in one room ten feet away, and he has run all the way to the backyard.

He's out in some trees, and we're like, where is he?

And so we're putting out our search committee.

Heather goes one way, I go the other way.

And we finally got him.

And so I'm like, I'm trying to understand his mind because when I call Weston, it's usually for a couple things protection.

You know, don't do that.

You're gonna get hurt for affection.

Come here.

Come be with me, come spend time, come to me and be with me.

Or comfort, he got hurt.

I never once have called my child to break his heart.

I've never thought in my mind, come to me so I can hurt you.

Come to me so that I can harm you.

A call to come is a call for us to rest.

He says, Come unto me.

The father says, Come unto me.

He says, Come into his presence.

Psalms 103, verse 14 says this.

Psalms 103:14

He knows our frame.

He remembers that we are dust.

And as a father pitieth his children, so the Lord does us.

You see, he wants us to come into his presence.

Letter A under that is in this scripture there were laborers.

He says, Come unto me, all you who labor.

There were laborers, or another word for that could be seen as the spiritually toilsome, working at something but never getting anywhere.

They were laborers of the law, and those were called the Pharisees.

You see, the Pharisees were a learned people.

They knew the word, they knew the law, but they were trying to labor for salvation, labor their way to heaven.

And I want to remind you of Scripture, Ephesians 2, 8 and 9 says this, for by grace are you saved through faith.

It's not of yourselves, it's a gift of God, not of works, lest any man would boast.

God didn't save you because you did enough good.

You can't heap up enough good deeds to get your way to heaven.

And so, Scripture says by grace, it's by his grace.

The law offers an impossible load.

It simply can't be carried out.

You can't do enough good.

And there's other religions that live by this law of the scales.

And if I do 51% good for all of my life, then I'll make it.

You can't do it.

You can't keep those scales balanced.

The law offers an impossible load.

That's why grace came.

You see, and the law even tries to supersede grace.

God gave it to you.

It's a free gift.

Laborers of the law, and there's laborers of merit, of the good of this life.

They were trying to get enough of this life to be important on this earth, laboring on earth.

And the Bible says in Matthew 6, 19 through 20, lay not up for yourself treasures on this earth.

Where moth and rust death group, where thieves break through and steal.

But lay up for yourself treasures in heaven.

And so there's people that are trying to live on the merit of the good life.

The good life here, let me tell you about the good life.

It offers you at best very temporary moments of satisfaction.

Moments of happiness.

I was doing a little work with Ben the other day and helping move some things and throw away some trash.

And we I picked up a box that was literally about 40 years old and had goods in it about 40 years old.

And the box turned into dust in my hands as I was picking up, and everything in it fell out into me.

I'm like, this is the best that this life will give you.

In 30 or 40 years, everything you got on you is gonna be dust.

And we lay up treasure and we lay up treasure.

We think the good life, and people think the good life.

Um my wife took the truck to the car wash the other day, and a piece of the truck fell off in the car wash.

It's rusting! You know, we lived in Indiana and had snow all the time and all the salt on the roads, and so that's the good of this life.

I almost own the truck, and it's falling almost, another payment, and I can own the rust bucket.

You know?

This is the good of this life.

The good of this life offers at best a broken system.

Everything we have fades or it corrupts.

That's the good of this life.

And they were living off that merit.

Look at them, look at how they know so much.

They have so much, they have so much good.

They call that the laborers of this.

He says, Come unto me.

Listen.

Come unto me, all you that are laboring.

You want to find rest?

Come to me.

There's not rest in all that money.

There's not rest in that vacation, there's not rest in all those goods or that big house or that car.

There's not rest in that.

Come unto me, quit laboring.

You were made with a God-sized hole in your heart.

And no thing, no possession, no praise, no plaque, no pat on the back, no honor.

They're not going to be enough.

No salary or degree or friendship or trophy will ever satisfy.

It's not enough.

Jesus said to the rich man, Sell all your goods and follow me.

He said unto Nicodemus, You must be born again.

It's what plagues every laborer.

And not only the laborer, but the lost.

That's letter B.

Look at verse 20 again.

It says, Come unto me all you who are labor and are heavy laden.

And then on back to verse 20.

I'm sorry.

This is what got into this talk.

He says, Then he began to rebuke the cities in which most of his mighty works had been done, because they did not repent.

He said, The people would not repent.

They had saw God's mighty works, yet they wouldn't repent.

He says, Sinners, not just a laborer of the spiritual sinner, but those who are sinners, he says, Come to me.

Come unto me, sinners.

In Isaiah 1.18 it says, Though your sins may be scarlet, I'll make them white as snow.

He says, Sinners, come to me.

But the thing about a lost sinner, they have to recognize their need to come.

A sinner must recognize their need to come.

They have to recognize that they are a sinner, that they are lost.

Because Scripture says in 1 Corinthians 1 18, for the preaching of the cross is to them that perish foolishness.

For the lost person it's foolishness.

Why would a person come and meet in a group like this if they don't believe?

Why would they come and sing to a God they don't believe and practice their faith to?

That would be a cult.

That would be crazy.

It says it's foolishness to those that are perishness, but to unto us which are saved, it's the power of God.

See, I played soccer for uh seven years, and I've been coaching adolescent soccer for just a few years, four or five years, and um never once I think about these kids.

They come in, they come to practice each week, and you know the the oldest I've coached now is seven years old, so you gotta think about the mind of a seven-year-old.

And I never once has a seven-year-old soccer player come to me and said, Hey coach, you know what?

I I've recognized that I'm not as good at passing as I should be.

They've never said that.

Never once has a kid, not even once has a kid said, I'm not really a very strong kicker.

Could you help me?

I coach, I'm not that fast.

Could you teach me how to be fast?

Never once.

Okay?

Not one time.

Not a four-year-old five.

They've never thought, he probably played before.

He's not just here for the fun of it.

They've never thought.

And and I'm coaching, and never once done that, you see?

Friends, we have to understand that we are a sinner.

And I can assure you, I wish everyone would not assume today that we're okay.

I wish for a few moments in the survey, we would assume this, that we are not okay, and that we are in need to come into his presence.

We just assume everything's okay.

Sinners, secondly, must have the will to come.

This is difficult because the natural man, while he's weary and at unrest, like we can be who know Christ, and there's war and destruction to seas, he struggles to acknowledge his heaviest burden is his own sin.

The world around me is messed up, but my heaviest burden is not my own sin, it's the world around me.

And so he has to have a will change.

You remember the four friends in Scripture who are carrying their paralyzed friend, and they were taking him to Jesus.

And I think this must have been a crazy bunch of friends, but they get them together on the mat and they get there and they're like, We just got to get him to Jesus.

We know, we've heard Jesus can heal our paralyzed friend.

And so they're carrying him down the road and they carry him up and they're looking.

And I like the one guy, whoever he was, and he's looking at the situation assessing.

He says, Let's put him on the roof.

And so he's like, Good idea.

We'll hoist our friend and carry him to the roof of this house.

And he gets to the roof, and I know it had to be the same guy.

Well, what do we do now?

Let's tear off the roof and get him to Jesus.

So they tear off the roof and they lower him down.

And when the friend gets to Jesus, who to him and to them, his biggest problem was that he was paralyzed.

And when Jesus saw him in the faith of the friend, he looked at him and he said, My son, today your sins are forgiven you.

And the people around him said, What are you talking about?

His sins are for who what kind of man is this that's forgiving sins?

When a paralyzed person is before me, he said, My son, the first and biggest problem was the burden of sin.

It wasn't his paralyzed condition, it wasn't his need of finances, it wasn't the next bill coming or how to get the kids to college.

It was his sin.

And he healed his sin problem.

He said, Then get up.

And he healed his physical problem.

But his heart problem was dealt with first.

And so we have to have the will to come.

And church in this building today, there's people here who are lost.

There's people today, there's going to be an invitation lost person.

And I want to invite you to come into his presence later on this service.

This altar will be open, and you can come and have your sins forgiven.

The burden that we hold.

And so sinners must have the will to come.

And the scripture says this whosoever will may come.

Whosoever.

Whosoever is the lost.

And it says the lost person has the right to come.

You have the right to come if you're lost.

He says, Seek and you shall find.

Knock and it shall be open unto you.

Ask and it will be given unto you.

And so you have the right to come, but you have to come.

Whoever is lost has the power today, and if you're lost.

You have the power to meet Jesus if you will come.

Let her see on that.

It wasn't just the laborers and the lost, but it was also those who are lamenting.

Come to me, all you who are lay labor and are heavy laden.

That word heavy laden is talking about a load that has become hard for you.

If I asked in the church today, how many of you have stress in your life right now?

You feel like you've got a load.

I know that there'd be many whose hands would go up.

Have you been in despair?

We'll come on back.

Matthew chapter 6.

Matthew 6 · chapter mention

We'll look at verse 25 and on for a moment.

But there's people that are lamenting because their situation is worrisome.

And I don't want to make light of life's situation today and make it seem like everything's just easy.

Just trust God, and it's just going to be easy.

Okay.

This takes work and it and life is hard, and the things that happen make you heavy-hearted.

But we become worried, and look at what Matthew 6 25 says about that.

It says, Therefore I say to you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat, or what you will drink, nor about your body, what you will put on.

Is not life more than food and the body more than clothing?

He says, Look at the birds of the air, for they they neither sow nor reap nor gather into barns, yet your heavenly father feeds them.

Are you not of more value than them?

Which of you by worrying can add one cubit to his stature?

So why do you worry?

Going down to verse 31.

It says, Therefore do not worry, saying, What shall we eat, or what shall we drink, what shall we wear?

Verse 33.

He tells you, Don't, don't, don't.

He says, Now do.

But seek ye first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things shall be added unto you.

For those that are lamenting and worried, this is what he says.

The finances will probably come, the sickness will probably come.

Our country right now is in a crisis, and it will continue to come because sin in its depth as it progresses, it will make things darker and more devastating, and it will come.

But Jesus said this seek my kingdom.

Seek my kingdom.

You feel like the box is closing in in your life, and you're in that elevator.

Let me tell you something.

Quit beating the wall, make a call.

Here is how not to become overwhelmed.

Don't miss God in the storm.

Quit beating the wall.

Make a call.

Quit making a plan.

Quit making uh quit hurting your hand.

Quit hurting your head.

Quit hyperventilating in the situation.

Make a call.

Quit pounding a steel wall.

Make a call.

You see, Jesus is right outside of that wall.

With the steel wires of the elevator like a string.

His hand and with a whisper.

He'll hear you.

See, you gotta quit beating on that wall and relying on limited strength, relying on yourself, relying on faulty knowledge, on incomplete resources.

Make a call.

I hope somebody today will understand our need to make a call.

Let me share some scripture.

Psalm 73, 26 says, My flesh and my heart may fail, but God is my strength and portion forever.

Proverbs 3 says, Trust in the Lord with all your heart, your heavy heart.

Philippians 4.6 said, Be anxious for nothing, but with prayer and supplication, make your needs made known unto God.

Philippians 4.19 said, My God will supply all your need according to his riches and glory.

2 Corinthians 11 23 said, My grace is sufficient for you.

When you are weak, I am made strong.

I'm not gonna beat the wall.

Turn to the other one.

I'm not gonna beat the wall.

He said, Come to me.

There's a lesson that you can miss in this, though.

We gotta come unto him.

But then we need to partake of him, and that's our next point.

Come and partake of his presence.

Part two.

Partake of his presence.

Look at verse 29 of Matthew 11.

Take my yoke upon you and learn from me.

He says, Take my yoke, partake of me.

The picture here is the picture of a lead oxen being yoked together to another, or a horse being yoked together, and one leading and another following.

He says, I'll carry this.

I'll carry this out, but you take on my burden.

You take on my yoke.

Quit taking on your own stuff and trying to bear it alone.

He says, Take on my yoke.

Let me lead you.

It's a picture of being yoked together.

And there's some commands about partaking of his presence.

The command number one is to be sanctified.

Be sanctified.

And in order to be sanctified, you've got to understand your need of cleansing.

That we're dirty.

At Calvary Baptist Church, there was an incident where we had some rental houses.

And one of those rental houses just got trashed.

And the people, they had animals in there.

They weren't supposed to have animals.

And they they left the house.

And to be honest, it was just a wreck.

The animals made it a wreck.

And I don't even want to paint the whole picture, but it was nasty.

And so my pastor, I I didn't know all that was going on there, but my pastor says, We've got a you know a job for you to do.

And um he said, he said, we'll even pay you.

And I'm like, what?

They were gonna pay me extra outside of my, you know, and that never happened.

I moved people to I used to work in the moving industry, so for me to move furniture and stuff like that, I thought, this is strange.

I've moved several people in this church, never been offered extra money.

I'm like, I'm in! 100 bucks, I'm in.

So I get over there, and before I get in the door, and he just opened the door, I'm like, whoosh! The smell was like, wow.

And I'm like, I'm putting on some gloves.

I went back over to church and found me an oxygen mask.

I'm like, if I'm doing this, I'm doing it the right way and get into it.

So I'm like, I'm gonna pick up this dirty mess.

But the other guy, there was another guy that was working with me, and his name was Gary.

And Gary is an extreme germaphobe.

So Gary gets over there, and he's in the house, and he's like dancing, looking at me, and I'm like, I'm not sharing my mask either.

You I'm sorry, Gary.

So we're trying to figure out how to get this done.

And it was funny because afterwards, you know, usually I get ready for the day and then, you know, I go on with my day.

In the middle of that day, when I was done, I was like, I gotta go home and I gotta take a shower.

I just gotta clean myself.

I talked to Gary later and he said, you know, he got this extra money, but it really didn't make out too good for him because he said, I went home and I burned all my clothes.

I burned everything I had on that day.

Listen, listen.

Sanctification is a process where we have to be daily cleansed.

David said, Create in me a clean heart, oh God, renew a right spirit within me.

Our need of being cleansed, our need of sanctification also includes daily growth.

Let me be real practical about this because we think we know it, but the church needs to hear it.

The growth we need has to do with our daily walk.

Listen, church, you've got to get in the word of God every day.

To partake of his presence doesn't happen on accident.

To partake of his presence takes you getting up if you work at 7 at 5:30 and getting in his word.

It takes a voluntary act where you have to do something.

You, and if you want to grow, you've got to get in the book.

You've got to spend time with him in prayer.

I'm not talking about over-year meal.

You better have a prayer journal and a book talking about things you're talking with God.

You've got to be practical about this to grow.

It's not gonna happen by accident.

Listen, church is good.

This is good, this is a great starting point.

Get in this house and hear his word, but you have the opportunity daily to have this relational walk with him and partake of his presence.

You understand that while the people were wandering in the wilderness all that time, and while they're grumbling and complaining about God, Moses took his tent, his tabernacle, turned it over on this side away from the people, and he found times to get alone with God and in his presence.

And it wasn't about the promised land anymore to him, it was about God's presence.

I can be in the struggle with these people who won't go, but I'm gonna find God's presence.

That's what Moses said.

I'm gonna find his presence.

That's where there's rest.

He said, be sanctified.

And then the command is to submit, to partake of his presence.

We've got to submit to do those things I talked about, we've got to submit because it'd be much easier to sleep.

It'd be much easier to watch the TV or let's get on social media and spend 15 minutes in the morning.

It'd be much easier to do other things, but we've got to submit to God to do something else.

James 4, 7 says, submit unto God and resist Satan, and he will flee from you.

If you submit unto God, not only do you get the benefit of his presence, but Satan will run.

He'll flee.

When you listen to your leader, the enemy runs.

Doesn't that sound more restful, church, than the enemy knocking at your door and eating the breakfast at your table?

He'll run.

You have to submit.

1 Peter 5, 5 through 7 says, God resists the proud, but gives grace to the humble.

Humble yourself under the mighty hand of God, that he may exalt you in due time.

He says, Cast all your cares on him, because he cares for you.

In the process of sanctification, you must submit.

Your will, therefore, exalting God to his place.

And that will be you partaking of his presence.

And he'll lift you up, it says.

It says, if you'll partake of his presence, he'll lift you up.

You put him in his place, he says, He will exalt you in due time if you will lift him up.

Put him in his place.

You see, Psalms, I love this scripture, 40, verse 1 through 3, said this.

I waited patiently on the Lord, or I submitted.

I waited, I submitted.

And he inclined to me and heard my cry.

He brought me up out of that horrible pit, out of the miry clay, and then he set my feet upon the rock and established my goings and put a new song in my mouth.

That's rest, church.

That's the rest we need.

I'm not talking about a nap, I'm talking about rest.

You see, Jesus didn't leave it at just come to me and partake of me.

But he also said this you need to learn from me, and that's our third point.

Look at verse 29 again.

He says, Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls.

He says, Learn from me.

Learn my meek and lowly ways.

Learn from me, learn in my presence.

I want you to turn over to the very beginning of the book, Genesis chapter 1.

Genesis 1 · chapter mention

Let's learn from God on what he really thinks about rest.

Learning in his presence, letter A underneath of that, is we have to consecrate.

We have to consecrate for the glory of God and the good of man.

This is what God did at the beginning.

Look at chapter 1, verse 31, through chapter 2, verse 3 in Genesis.

He said, Then God saw everything that he had made.

And indeed it was very good.

So the evening and the morning were the sixth day.

Thus the heavens and the earth, all hosts of them, were finished.

And on the seventh day, God ended his work which he had done, and he rested on the seventh day.

From all his work which he had done.

Then God blessed the seventh day and sanctified it.

I think we talked about that word a minute ago, because in it he rested from all his work which God had created and made.

We have to consecrate that time.

We have to con to learn in his presence, we have to consecrate.

Let me share with you an illustration.

There's a man who challenged another man to an all-day wood chomping competition.

The challenger worked very hard, stopping only for a brief lunch.

The other man had leisurely lunch and took several breaks during the day.

At the end of the day, the challenger was surprised and agitated and annoyed to find that the other fellow had chopped substantially more wood than he had, even though he only took one break.

Said, I don't get it.

Every time I checked, you were taking a rest.

The man said this, but you didn't notice that while I was resting, I was sharpening my axe every time I sat down.

Y'all understand in his presence what happens?

Y'all understand in his presence that it's a sharpening.

In his presence it makes us better.

There's a scriptural uh example where Mary and Martha are getting together and Jesus is coming.

And one of those sisters was bent on getting the house clean.

And I understand, hey, listen, get your house in order because people might come.

I got five people in my house right now.

We're having a ball.

Okay?

Gotta get your house in order.

But listen, when the people are there, why don't you spend some time in their presence?

And Jesus was there.

And that one, boy, she was she was going.

She was still cleaning.

And there Mary was at the feet of Jesus.

I don't care about that dust and that stuff no more.

Right here is where I want to be.

In his presence.

We have to consecrate some time in his presence.

You see, he did it for a celebration.

Jesus, God created this earth and then he rested for blessing.

He rested in a celebration.

So what does that rest mean?

Tell me, Pastor Rick, the omnipotent, all-power, untiring God needs rest.

He needs to sleep.

See, on the seventh day, God stepped back and celebrated his work.

He's done.

And can you picture it all?

He's done all this creating.

He steps back from it and he looks at it and says, This is good.

Everything that I have created is very good.

Wow! Look at that! Wow, this is so good.

Praise me!

This is good.

He celebrated his work.

And then he said, This, it's so good.

Why don't you join me?

Why don't you consecrate a day and join me?

He said in Exodus 20, remember the Sabbath and keep it holy.

Your day of rest.

He said, make it holy.

Celebrate me.

Partake of you will find me and you'll be at rest.

Listen, God celebrated, so why shouldn't we?

That's why we have church.

Why don't you turn over to Psalms chapter 84?

Psalms 84 · chapter mention

Psalms 84.

That's why we're here this morning to celebrate Him.

I hope that before you leave this place, you will have more rest of your being and your soul than when you came.

If we didn't, it didn't work.

God celebrated.

Look at what he says in Psalms 84.

Look at verse 1.

He says, How lovely is your tabernacle, O Lord of hosts.

How lovely is this place?

Verse 2.

He said, My soul longs, yes, even faints for the courts of the Lord.

My heart and my flesh cry out for it.

How many people woke up this morning and said, Man, my soul longs to get in that church building where I can celebrate.

My soul longs, I can't wait.

My flesh cries out, I can't wait.

No, what happened is your kids started getting up and they started the milk spilled on the table, and you started talking about how you're gonna be late, and then you started that you needed a shirt iron, and you know how Satan works in your house.

I know.

And then you walk into the parking lot, you just got done screaming at each other, get out the car, and somebody says, How are you doing today?

I'm wonderful, glad to see you, glory to God.

Your spouse is like, You are a liar.

You are the furthest thing from wonderful.

I'm gonna tell you that.

David said, These courts, man, my soul longs.

I can't wait to get into his presence.

Another pastor said it like this.

I love church.

Church is the place of God's blessings.

It says, where his people together, there is power in the praise of people at church.

Look at verse 4.

It says this blessed are those who dwell in your house.

They will still be praising you.

There's blessings for those who are in church.

Now listen, you can praise God outside of the church.

You can do it at home.

But there's something special about the tabernacle of God where we meet.

There's blessings for it.

Verse 10 says this.

For a day in your courts is better than a thousand elsewhere.

One day here is better than the work job all week.

Am I right?

I better get an amen to that.

I know some of y'all love your job, but listen, I want you to do this.

Turn to two people around you and say this.

Say this.

It's better here.

It's better here.

It's better here.

When you learn to celebrate me, he says, you'll learn my burden.

Because I said in John 10, 10, oh, the thief came to steal, kill, and destroy, but I came that you might have life and life more abundantly.

I didn't make you on this earth so that you'd have to be at unrest and struggling and stressed and worried.

He made you to celebrate him and rest.

But you have to come and take that burden.

Or you'll have tribulation.

We're told that.

In this world we will have tribulation, but be of good cheer, he says.

I've overcome this world.

He said, if you want rest, it's in my house.

It's here.

If you want rest, it's here.

I love church because Jesus loved the church.

Listen, if you don't like church, I got a I got a situation for you.

Heaven is going to be a church.

So if you don't like it now, you better get used to it because one day there's going to be praising and celebrating God for all eternity.

So if you get tired of it here, it's going to be church.

You better love church.

That's it.

Let her see.

We find rest and communicate and change.

Verse 29, he said, Matthew chapter 11.

Matthew 11 · chapter mention

Let's turn back over there.

He said, Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your soul.

He said, I'm meek and lowly of heart.

Learn from me.

Unlike the Pharisee leaders, I don't care about appearance.

I don't care how my prayer sounds to other people.

He said, I'm meek and lowly.

If you'll come to me in the spirit of meek, you can exchange your burdens with me.

At this place.

That's why an altar is so important.

And some people don't understand, and people get all staunch when they I don't do that.

I I do it in my seed, or I don't come forward.

Listen, the altar is a place where we can submit, which we talked about, and exchange our burden to him.

And give this to him, he says, in the spirit of meekness.

Listen, this world might give you power, affluence, popularity, but he says, in Psalms 37, the meek shall inherit the earth and delight themselves in an abundance of peace.

Who wants a bunch of peace, right?

You want a bunch of peace?

He said, Learn from me.

I'm meek and lowly.

So take his burden and there is rest.

It's not about getting extra sleep or vacation.

Listen, we need those things.

But what he's saying is if you'll get your mind off of being focused on you and you alone and how to get those things and how to live your life that way and exchange it from my burden, which my burden is simple.

He says, Go and tell others about me.

Go and tell others your story that I gave to you.

Tell them about me.

Exchange your burden from mine, and it'll be light.

There's rest in it.

And then he says, This about burdens.

The second thing.

Your soul finds rest in bearing others' burdens.

Well, how can that be?

I got my own burdens to bear.

Well, how does I how do I find rest in getting somebody else's?

Listen to what Galatians 6.1 says.

Brethren, if a man be overtaken, labored, heavy laden, if a man is struggling, he says, in a fault, ye which are spiritual, restore, I'm glad that word rest is in there, restore such a one in the spirit of meekness.

Remember, he said, learn from me in meekness, lest it be you.

He says, Take that burden and help them be restored.

Listen, church, we always got somebody with a burden.

Here's the deal: if you can take focus off of you for a little while and focus on somebody else, you'll find joy in helping somebody through the bridge that they got to get crossed.

Bear one another's burdens.

That's what this church is for.

That's why we're here.

We're not here to shake hands and be perfect.

We're here to bear burdens.

We're here to exchange.

And he says, in that, there'll be rest.

Robert Coleman tells the story of a little boy whose sister needed a blood transfusion.

The doctor explained that she had the same disease the boy had, recovered from two years earlier.

Her only chance for recovery was a transfusion from someone who had previously conquered the disease.

Since the two children had the same rare blood type, the boy was the ideal donor.

They asked him, Would you give your blood to Mary?

Johnny hesitated.

His little lower lips started to tremble.

His eyes began to tear up.

He smiled and he said, Sure.

I'll give my blood to my sister.

Soon the two children were wheeled into the hospital room.

Mary was pale and thin, and many days without rest.

Johnny was robust and healthy, and neither spoke for a moment.

And then their eyes met and Johnny grinned and said, Come sit with me, sis.

Johnny said to Mary, I'm gonna give you my blood.

And it's gonna make you feel better soon.

Just rest easy, Mary.

The nurse inserted the needle into Johnny's arm, and Johnny's smile faded.

He watched the blood flow flow through the t the tube.

With it almost over, Johnny with his voice shaky broke silence and looked up to the doctor and said, How long will it be before I die?

Only then did the doctor realize why Johnny had hesitated and his lip trembled.

When he agreed to donate his blood, he thought that giving his blood meant he was giving all of his blood to his sister and there would be no more blood for Johnny.

That it meant he would be giving up his life.

In that brief moment, Johnny made his great decision.

The last thing he wanted before he thought his life was over was for his sister to come to him.

Sit with her.

He wanted to encourage her and tell her the rest.

Church, Jesus gave his broken body on a cross.

He gave his last drop of blood.

He opened up his arms and he said, This is for you.

He took those nails so you and I would come.

He took that horrendous beating so we would come and partake and learn of him.

He took that and he said, Would you come so that you could be cured?

So that you can find rest.

Invitation this morning is clear.

Would you come to him?

Would you partake of his presence?

Would you learn?

If you're lost here this morning, lost person, would you come?

You have to come to terms with what you are.

You have to take a look at your sin.

Jesus says, I'll give you all of me.

I'll give you everything I've got.

And in exchange for you to come and take my burden.

Maybe you're here today and you've never accepted Jesus as your Lord and Savior.

I just need to be honest with you.

There will never be rest for you.

If you don't know him as Savior, you're going to fight the battle of this life, and there will never be rest.

There will always be tension.

Your soul is empty, and that path you're living on is shaky.

God wants you.

He says, Come to me.

Come unto me.

I'll give you rest.

See, Romans 3.23 says this lost person here.

We all have sin and fall short of the glory of God.

Romans 6.23 said the wages of that sin is death.

There's a payment because of that sin.

He says, but the gift of God is eternal life.

He says this morning, if you believe with your heart and confess with your mouth that Jesus died on a cross for those sins, He was buried and rose again for those sins.

That you can be saved by that grace, for by grace are you saved.

And so today you can pray a prayer.

A simple prayer.

And it's believing in your heart and making Him the Lord of your life.

Capital L-O-R-D.

The Lord of your life, giving everything, submitting your will to him.

And so you can pray a prayer like this.

If you're lost and you want to come home and find rest to him, dear Lord, I know that I'm a sinner.

I'm sorry for my sins.

I confess.

But I believe that you died on a cross for those sins, that you're buried and rose again.

I want to accept you into my life.

Lord, I want to give all my past to you.

All my future is yours.

I want to live for you.

Thanks again for tuning into this week's message.

We pray that your life has been changed.

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We hope you have a wonderful day, and again, God bless you.