The Better Rest - March 8, 2026

It is my privilege to invite you to today's sermon podcast.

I have made the Apostle Paul's prayer request my own.

When he states in Ephesians 6, 19, pray also for me, that whenever I open my

mouth, the words may be given to me so that I will fearlessly make known the mystery of the gospel.

May today's sermon come alive to you and aid you in your understanding of God's plan for your life.

I've got a question for you as we begin this morning. It's a simple question,

and I hope you have enough life experience to be able to answer it.

But the question I have for you is, are you a stairs person or are you an elevator person?

Think about that for a minute, right? Are you a stairs person?

Well, you like to work out it going up and down the stairs.

Or you're an elevator person. You ain't taking those stupid stairs.

That's why God invented elevators, right?

You push the button, you wait, and it's going to take you where you need to

go. Some of you, maybe you're on the fence. You're like, sometimes I'm a stairs person.

Sometimes I'm an elevator person.

I want you to imagine this scenario. You have just been awarded,

you and your family, a two-week vacation to a big city.

Now, don't get started on the big cities on me yet. It's just imaginary.

Imagine it's a perfect city that you're going to go visit. No crime there.

Everything you ever wanted to see is in this city, and you just won.

Two weeks there, all expenses paid.

As a matter of fact, they even bought you new luggage and gave you an allowance for new clothes. Woo!

A little bit of something for everybody in that.

I'm quite the dreamer. Well, it's time change Sunday, but I went to bed an hour

early, Jack, and so I got some energy today.

See how I feel after the sermon, after church. But imagine this,

OK, and you go to one of these big city hotels that is multiple stories.

I'm talking it's a high rise.

It's not your one flight of stairs Motel 6 kind of place.

It is huge with an elevator, not just one elevator, but about eight elevators

that takes you to any floor that you need to go to.

Except the 13th. I don't know if they still build buildings with 13 floors.

I hear that's a taboo thing.

Nevertheless, you're there and you have all your family and you have all your luggage.

Then you remember Pastor Mike's question, are you a stairs person or an elevator person?

I think if you were a stairs person, you just switched to be an elevator person.

When you have all this luggage and you need to go up to your room on the 52nd

floor, I'm pretty sure you're going to be one of those persons that uses the

turbo elevator to get to where you need to go.

Now, I'm usually a stairs person, unless it's something like that.

And I'm really a stairs person when it's descending instead of ascending, right?

That's when stairs come in really handy, especially those that the stairs aren't

very good and you can slide down. Oh, never mind.

Do not repeat that, although it's fun. You know,

when it comes to life, a lot of times Sometimes we like to be the elevator person,

but sometimes our own pride won't let us because we got to make sure we earn

our way in different things.

We got to feel it. I like to use stairs when it's only, you know,

maybe four or five, you know, stories at the most because I feel like I get a workout.

I could wait for the elevator 10 minutes or I could be at the top in the room

already within 10 minutes.

You know, I like to get a little bit of workout and really I like it because

when my family and I will go to a hotel and it's like a comfort suites or something

like that, and it's only two floors,

my family wants to use the elevator, but we've been traveling and everyone has to use the restroom.

And so I found that if I use the stairs, I can get to the room before any of

them because they're waiting for the elevator.

And so it's a matter of convenience at some points.

When it comes to your own life, especially spiritually speaking,

Are you a stairs person or an elevator person? Do you like...

Trudge through life on your own, taking all the burden, taking all the steps

and trying to ascend a stairway to heaven, so to speak, trying to earn your way there?

Or are you content in letting God,

guide you there with an elevator that's already made for you,

that you just have to push a button and that you just have to step into and

let Him do the work of lifting you up to the place you want to be,

or the place really that God has designed you to be.

You know, I want you to keep this illustration in mind.

And really, when it comes to your life with God, which one's going to work out best for you?

Taking the stairs, earning your own way, putting all the effort and all the

time in, or letting God work that out in your life?

You see, this morning in our passage of Scripture, there's a promise.

And the promise isn't just for these ancient Hebrews here.

That the writer of Hebrews was writing this letter to, the promise is for us

today as well, just as much as it was for these first century Hebrew listeners.

Yes, they were persecuted.

They were being brought down on by the religious folks.

They were really saying, you guys not only have to believe in Jesus,

you have to keep the law of Moses as well.

And some were kind of cutting Jesus out of the picture and saying,

no, go back to Judaism. Go back to what you know to stay right with God.

And so they were facing this enormous persecution, this enormous pressure.

But the author of Hebrews comes along to remind them that God has a promised

rest for them and for us too, you guys.

A promised rest from our striving. A promised rest from trying to do it all on our own.

And we can have this promised rest today because there's this vibrant invitation for you and for me,

for all of us that believe in this present day to actively partner with God

and enjoy the peace that he wants you to experience right here and right now.

Hey, yeah, there's a rest coming.

There's a rest coming for all eternity, but you can experience a glimpse of

that rest right here and right now.

So if you're struggling this morning, If life's knocked you upside the head

a few times and you just are spinning, you don't know which way's up,

I want to tell you, you can experience God putting that all back into order.

If you'll trust him and if you'll enter into that rest today.

Of this morning, I'm going to read most of the fourth chapter of Hebrews, really only 11 verses.

But I'm going to read it from the New Living Translation this morning.

So it'll probably sound a little different than the NIV, which I normally read

from. And so as I read this this morning, I just invite you to stand to honor

the word of the Lord if you're willing and able.

And just let God's word saturate your heart this morning. Hear the word of the

Lord from Hebrews chapter 4.

Hebrews 4 · chapter mention

God's promise of entering his place of rest still stands.

So we ought to tremble with fear that some of you might fail to get there.

For this good news that God has prepared a place of rest has been announced just as it was to them.

But it did them no good because they didn't believe what God told them.

For only we who believe can enter his place of rest.

As for those who didn't believe, God said, In my anger I made a vow,

they will never enter my place of rest, even though his place of rest has been

ready since he made the world.

We know that it is ready because the scriptures mention the seventh day,

saying, On the seventh day God rested from all his work.

But in the other passage, God said, They will never enter my place of rest.

In verse 6, it says, so God's rest is there for the people to enter.

But those who formerly heard the good news failed to enter because they disobeyed God.

So God set another time for entering his place of rest, and that time is today.

God announced this through David a long time ago in words already quoted.

Today, you must listen to his voice.

Don't harden your hearts against him.

This new place of rest was not the land of Canaan, where Joshua led them.

If it had been, God would not have spoken later about another day of rest.

So there is a special rest waiting for the people of God.

For all who enter into God's rest will find rest from their labors,

just as God rested after creating the world.

Let us do our best to enter that place of rest. for anyone who disobeys God

as the people of Israel did will fall.

Heavenly Father, would you bless your word to our lives today?

Lord, we do seek rest, not just because we're tired because of a time change,

but Lord, we do seek your rest, your rest that's promised to all believers,

anyone who would have faith.

And so Lord, would you grant us that today? Lord, all those who are seeking,

all those who are heavy burdened, as the scripture said in Matthew, you.

As Jesus said, Lord, we can bring those to you, God, and Jesus will share all of those.

And so, Lord, we ask that you would help us to do that today in Jesus' name. Amen.

Thank you for honoring God's word. You can be seated.

Just some observations I want to make about the text, really three observations,

and then hopefully something to help you along as you go through this week.

And the first thing is that we have the promise of a generous God.

And that promise of a generous God is rest.

Plain and simple. I don't know how many times I said it in the scripture reading

this morning, but it was over and over and over again.

And the kind of rest that most of these words in here were talking about was

the kind of rest to where you've been working hard and now it's time to take a break.

You've been struggling, you've been going through it, but now you can sit back

a little bit and you can just enjoy a time where you can catch your breath,

recoup your strength, and be ready for the next challenge that comes.

This promise of rest comes from the heart of God, and God's heart is a heart

that wants to bless His people.

God's heart is a heart that wants to really bless all people and give them good gifts.

He wants to save His people and lead us all into His peace that He's promised.

He wants to invite us into restfulness and fruitfulness in our lives.

This is the kind of generous God that we're talking about here.

His promises, God's promises, when he makes them, they're clear and we can access them.

He wouldn't promise us something if we would never have a chance to accomplish it.

I want you to be confident of that because there's a scripture in the Bible

that says, be holy because I am holy, says the Lord.

If God calls us to be holy, he's going to make a way for us to be holy.

That's a tall order for some of us, right? We know who we are.

We know what trips us up. We know what we've been through.

But God's promises are clear. God's promises are available to us. They're accessible.

They're not hidden in the fine print of Scripture. You don't have to go to the

back of the Bible and try to decode something.

When God makes this promise, it's clear and it's there for us.

And the promise here, as it says in verse 1, God's promise of entering his place of rest still stands.

Still stands for you, still stands for me The nature of that promise is resting in him.

It's an active pull for all believers, an attraction to God and His ultimate

goal for your life and for my life, as we're drawn to that kind of peace.

Now, it echoes back to Genesis chapter 1, as we read, and we'll see another minute here.

Genesis 1 · chapter mention

And that is, God created all of creation, created human beings as the pinnacle

of that creation, and He set everything up for human beings everywhere to manage

this garden, to manage this new creation.

Everything worked as it was supposed to work in God's created order.

I mean, you would go out to farm and there wouldn't be any weeds or effort hardly.

Things would just grow. You wouldn't have to irrigate less because there was

the firmament that watered everything. You didn't have to worry about that.

No pulling weeds or putting herbicide out or anything.

No goat heads popping up in your grass as you're out there tiptoeing through

the tulips, not stepping on goat heads. I mean, everything was perfect.

Everything worked as it was supposed to work because God created that way.

And in God creating it that way,

he called everything good and everything worked like it was supposed to.

That's what the author of Hebrews is hearkening back to, that kind of rest.

Was there still work to be done? Oh yeah. Yeah, God created people to work,

but it's the kind of work that you do that you actually enjoy because you see fruit from that work.

It's not like some of you wonderful moms that we have here, whether you're a

mom of a newborn, a mom of a little child, or a mom of some 20-something year

olds that still live at home.

I know what happens. There's nonstop laundry.

There's nonstop dishes.

And even when your kids are old enough to do some of that, they're still nonstop

of that because it doesn't get done all the time.

So there's all this driving, all this working and all this tiredness,

especially after you come home from work and you see the sink full of dishes

and you're like, why? Lord, take me home now.

And it just is incessant. It never, ever stops.

But God didn't design it to be that way. He designed things to work and to flow.

And this thing that we call shalom and the perfect working of everything,

like a well-oiled machine that doesn't break down on you, that continues to

work even if you put it through the paces.

God's promise of rest is there for us. But did you notice the warning?

It's kind of a scary warning because because the word that's used is fear.

The last part of verse one says, so we are to tremble with fear that some of

you might fail to get there.

Ouch. He's talking to Hebrew Christians.

He's not talking just to a general audience made up of believers and non-believers,

but he's saying to these Hebrew Christians, first century Christians,

and I think some of us today, hey,

we should be afraid that, not scared, but afraid that some of us won't make it.

Well, you're like, wait a minute, I got faith in Christ.

Well, the people that came out of Egypt had faith in God to a point, and that's the danger.

You know, some of us, we like to come to church. It's a good atmosphere.

It's a good place to bring your children, your teenagers to raise them up in church.

But is the faith, your faith in Christ, is it really yours?

Or is it your neighbors sitting next to you in the pew, sitting across in another section?

Do you really believe in Jesus Christ?

You see, that's the scary part, is that even some of us here,

we might just be going through the motions rather than experiencing the vibrant

faith in Christ that is offered to each and every one of us.

And especially for these first century Hebrews, they were tempted to go back

to the sacrifices, go back to keeping the laws,

go back to what you know you do so that you know you're right with God because,

you know, I went and sacrificed this animal or,

you know, I made sure I didn't do anything on the Sabbath day or I kept all

these other laws of these 600 and something and plus everything else to explain them.

And so I think I know I'm right with God because I went through the motions of doing all this.

But it comes back to, did you mean all that when you did it in your heart?

Are you trusting God? Is that your motivation for doing those things?

The danger of disqualification is serious. It's a warning.

Don't be DQ'd because your faith wasn't present.

And it harkens back to the failure again of the Israelites. Coming fresh out of Egypt.

Wandering around, getting to the edge of the promised land, but then not having

faith in God that he would bring them through it because of the giants that they saw in that land.

Hey, you can have faith in God. You can accept Christ as Savior and you start living life.

Man, it's just like it's carefree. And then, boom, you hit a wall.

You come to a point in your life where life just gets hard, where the faith

that you placed in Christ is tested.

Not just by the world, but just by the circumstances of living.

And it's at that point when life gets hard, when you come up against something

you don't understand or you can't seem to find a way over,

that the temptation to go back on your faith is there.

To say, no, no more of this, man, I'm going back. Life was a lot easier when

I used to do what I used to do.

I found comfort in things back then that maybe they hurt me,

but still there was some kind of comfort.

Rather than trusting God that when you come to those points,

that God's going to get you through that, that God is going to see you through that.

The warning here is don't be like the Israelites that first came out of Egypt.

At a century after centuries of being enslaved, and that's all they knew was

that enslavement, they had comfort in that slavery.

They had comfort in knowing the routine that they would go about in making the bricks.

They had comfort in the old way of doing things.

When they're out in the wilderness now with all the freedom,

man, it's like, what do we do?

Follow this crazy guy Moses as he's walking around the desert?

You know, this 80-year-old guy who came and showed Pharaoh up? Here we are.

God took care of them along the way we know. Even though seeing all those great

things that God did in their lives to bring them to that point, to bring them freedom,

Some of them still wanted to go back They heard the good news That there was

salvation coming That they were going to go to a promised land But I gotta tell

you that Hearing the good news is.

Is not enough to experience it. Just hearing about Jesus doesn't mean you have Jesus.

Just hearing about the blessings that come from following Jesus doesn't mean

that you automatically have them.

You see, when we think about this, entering the state of rest for the Israelites,

entering the promised land, it was contingent upon their belief.

It was contingent upon their faith in God that, yeah, even though they were

here on the edge of the promised land, getting ready to go in.

And there were giants everywhere.

There was these fortified places. How could they overcome all of this?

I mean, after all, we were just slaves that just got freed, just got liberated.

How are we going to overcome all this? And again, the scripture says they lacked faith.

There was no faith in God that he could get them through that.

Folks, the same is true for our lives. When we come up against something great,

a great opportunity or a great challenge, are we trusting God that he's going to see us through that?

Especially if God's the one that called us to that place.

And here we stand, a great opportunity or a great challenge.

Are we going to trust God enough to take that first step and then to see him

guide us the rest of the way. Boy, that's the danger.

Trusting God all the way up until there's a challenge. Whoa, nevermind.

I mean, imagine going through a sports practice,

whether it's baseball or football or soccer, whatever, and you go through all

the training and the workout season and then it comes time for the first game

and you just have no faith in your ability or maybe your coaches to step out on the field,

and to play the game, to have the fun, To maybe score some points.

I mean, you've come to that point, and now you don't have enough confidence to go.

Enough faith in yourself, enough faith in your coaches, enough faith in God

that you're going to be successful at this, or at least go out and have a good time.

Man, God has promised us rest. He's generous.

If God's promised us rest, He's going to deliver it, but do we trust Him that

He will deliver that for us?

Secondly, this morning, we don't want to be like the Israelites.

Don't be the people who stopped short.

We don't want to be the people that stopped short in that. If we've committed to something, let's go.

Let's go all the way. Remember what it says in verse 3, as for those people

who don't believe, God said, in my anger, I made a vow.

They will never enter my place of rest, even though his place of rest has already

been made since he made the world.

God had already set this up. He already had a plan. The severity of the warning

is because of their unbelief, God vowed that that disobedient generation would

not enter into the promised land.

They would not inherit the place that he had promised them.

And they didn't. And guess what? They wandered around in the wilderness.

One year for every day that they lacked the faith.

Forty years they walked. As a matter of fact, what did they do?

If you're familiar with the story back in the Old Testament,

they made up some excuses as to why they couldn't go in.

Well, we can't go in because they're going to take our children captive and

our children will be slaves now in this new land.

And so God does something funny here. He says, you know what?

You guys didn't believe, but I'm going to take your children.

They're the ones going to be blessed to enter into the land.

But every one of you who did not believe in this generation,

except for two, Caleb and Joshua, everyone else will not enter this land, but your kids will.

You can't do a one-up thing on God. It doesn't work. It never works out.

But here, these people stop short. Like the Israelites on the edge of the promised

land, sometimes we stop short.

Sometimes it's just our human nature. We hear the promise, but we don't go forward.

And there's three reasons why this happens. The first one is fear.

Sometimes we're afraid to let go of control. Hey, why do some people take the

stairs? Because they're afraid of elevators.

There's no control in an elevator.

And my grandpa Huey and Melanie and I, we got stuck in an elevator before in

hot Fresno, California at the VA hospital.

My grandpa remembered that story till he passed away, but I hated it,

man. There was no control.

There was no getting out. I was trapped in a stinky elevator in Fresno, California.

Had great company, be good company, but man, Again, people take the stairs because

they can control how fast they go, how many floors they can go to.

Sometimes if you get an elevator and someone starts pushing all the buttons,

you never know when your number's going to come up.

Some kids like to light it up like a Christmas tree and then you're stuck.

You know, when it comes to entering into the promise God has for us,

don't hold back because of fear.

You can trust God and the control that he has. The one that keeps everything

still going in control, you could trust God. Some people don't enter because of pride.

Don't enter into God's promise because they think it's their responsibility.

They believe they've got to earn their way. I've got to make sure I'm doing everything right.

They lack trust in God, that God's going to see them through it as long as they're trusting in him.

The pride gets in the way, but not just pride. Also, there's distraction.

Man, we live in a world of distractions.

Went to lunch yesterday with my youngest daughter and her boyfriend and Melanie,

and I'm sitting there trying to concentrate on the conversation,

but there was like 12 TVs in my viewing angle.

Man, there was a baseball game going on. There was a swim meet going on.

There was some other crazy show. I wasn't sure what it was going on.

There's all these things happening, multiple baseball games,

multiple, I mean, everything.

And so trying to concentrate and keeping conversation was difficult because

we live in a world that likes to keep us distracted.

We lose sight of the moment before us.

When it comes to our faith, we lose sight of the open door that God has wide

open for us to enter into because we become distracted.

I don't know if that's ever happened to you. An elevator has come and you're

ready to get in. You've waited for this elevator for a long time.

And then the desk clerk waves at you or someone else starts talking to you and

you miss the thing. And then you got to wait again.

If another one comes around, pretty soon maybe you just get frustrated. you do take the stairs.

But don't let fear, don't let pride, and don't let distraction keep you from

stopping short of inheriting the promise that God has for each and every one of you.

Because it's worth it. It's so worth it. As someone once said,

unbelief turns a living promise into an unclaimed prize.

Think about that for a minute. Think about my illustration at the beginning.

What if you did not claim the prize that you had won that you really wanted

to go to the big city and have a two-week vacation, all expenses paid,

brand new luggage and brand new clothes, your airfare was paid,

everything, and you just didn't do it because you're like, oh, that's a scam.

And there's a lot of scams out there. Oh, that's just a scam.

I didn't really win anything.

No, I can't trust that. No, I didn't even buy a lottery ticket or anything.

I'm a Nazarene. We don't gamble.

You know, how did I win this? I mean, there's a lot of reasons.

And so we miss out on opportunities that God wants us to grow in.

Because when we come to the precipice of an opportunity and we're just waiting

and we're like, no, this can't be for me.

God doesn't have something this great for me. Doesn't God know who I am?

Man, I'm the guy that that one time did that one thing that hurt a lot of people.

Or I'm that one person that when I was called upon, I failed in my responsibility.

And boy, I was embarrassed for years. I'm still embarrassed about it.

How can God have this for me? And so we miss out on the promise.

We stop short of stepping into what God has for us and the promise of the blessing

that's there if we'll just take a step of faith and trust God.

Well, if I do this, people are going to remember my past and I'm going to be made fun of.

And there's more shame. There's more ridicule ahead of me.

And we let these loud voices, this inner battle within our own heart and our

own mind take control and really start to dictate the path ahead.

I can't take this way. Maybe I'll go this way.

Maybe God will be okay if I go this way and skirt around the direct approach.

Well, that's what happened to the Israelites.

They kind of had some remorse and they said, well, okay, God,

we believe now. Let's go.

They still didn't believe, but there was some judgment that happened.

And when that judgment came down, they knew who God was. And they said,

well, let's go now. We can take it.

And Moses said, no, you can't do it. Yeah, we can. Watch us.

And they go, and it's just a big failure for them.

Boy, when God gives you the opportunity, don't wait on it. Take the step of faith.

You see, the scripture says the work of God's rest for you was finished at creation.

You noticed in the creation account that there's day one.

There was evening and morning, and it was the first day. And it continues that way.

The second day, there was evening and morning. And you go all the way to the sixth day.

There was evening and morning. and then you go to the seventh day, God rested.

Never in the account does it say evening and morning was the seventh day. No. Why?

Because God rest continues.

God's rest continues to today. It's a rest that he says, I'm finished with everything.

I've made it primo perfect.

And now I can just go and enjoy it. I don't know if any of you have a swimming

pool or if you've ever had one.

My in-laws had a pool when we lived with them for a short time,

before we lived with them for a short time.

And it had this problem where it became green.

And not just green like it's an off blue color, but I mean green with floaties

and not the swim floaties either.

I think there was even some frogs that may have gotten in there.

So you're talking about the Beverly Hillbilly Cement Pond. That's what this thing ended up being.

But, you know, I said, well, I worked at Coast to Coast Hardware Store.

I know a little bit about things about keeping the water quality and I can test it.

And so I told my mother-in-law, let me give it a try and tested the water.

Oh man, we need chlorine.

We need these other chemicals in there. And, you know, it was, it was work.

You had to get the little sucker thing going that scrubbed everything. We got that going.

And, you know, it took maybe a week or two, but then that thing was crystal clear, blue water.

Oh, I could go then after all that hard work and with my family,

with my in-laws, we could enjoy that cool swimming pool when it was 112 degrees outside.

That was nice. The work had been completed and now came the enjoyment.

That's what God says. I've worked six days. Here's the seventh day.

It's a day of rest. But this is the kind of rest that continues.

There's no end to this day.

There's no end to the rest that God wants to offer you today.

Have you received that rest? Hey, you get a little glimpse of it, this side of eternity.

Man, imagine what it's going to be like, the rest of the rest that's going to

carry you through all eternity.

Don't be afraid. Don't stop short. What I want to encourage you third in this

passage is trust God and step in. All right?

Trust God and step in. The scripture says in verse 6, so God's rest is there for people to enter.

The no trespassing sign has been removed. Will you trust God enough to enter into it?

Remember, those who formerly heard the good news that there's salvation available,

they believed it until they saw the challenges that came.

Don't be that kind of person. Even if there's challenges, trust God.

He's going to get you through them.

He's going to see you through them. He's going to get you over it.

Because promises must be mixed with faith.

The messages you hear, the promises you hear have to be believed.

They have to be received and they have to be acted upon for there to be a claiming of those promises.

So when God says, I've got to rest for you, do you believe him?

Or you just believe, man, life sucks. And I've just got to work all the time.

I got to take care of my ungrateful family.

You know, I got to live with these ungrateful neighbors that are around me,

always telling me to take care of my dog in my yard and don't park my car here or there.

I mean, is that the outlook you have on life? Or can you expand that and trust

God that he's got something great for you, for your family, for your grumpy

neighbor, for everyone.

God's got something great. You've got to believe the message.

I've got two years here now, plus this week. Praise the Lord.

I'm hoping for next week. No, I won't be preaching next week,

but the week after I'm hoping for.

But in all that time, I've given you over a hundred messages.

Now, in order for that to do anything in your heart or your mind or your life

spiritually, you've got to receive that, right?

You've got to take it. And then you've got to do something with it.

Now, I don't bat a thousand all the time. I'm lucky if I get,

you know, 250 batting average, maybe one out of four messages will land with you.

If that, and I'm being generous for myself here because I want to go home with

a good self-esteem today.

But in doing that, if I give you a message, you've got to receive that.

And it's not necessarily my message, my points that I make up.

It's what did the word of God say to you today?

How did that hit you in your heart?

Was there something that was actionable that you could say, okay,

this doesn't match up what it says in the Bible with this thing in my life.

And so I've got to correct things here. I've got to make an alignment, so to speak.

When you believe what God's Word says, when you receive it and it takes an effect

on your life so much that you change something,

maybe it's a thought pattern, maybe it's seeking forgiveness and receiving that

forgiveness from the Lord, maybe it's doing something that you've been putting

off, any of those things, that's when the message is made complete,

when your obedience is there.

Not obedience to your pastor, I'm saying obedience to God's Word,

to what the Word of God says that needs to happen.

It says, again, God keeps renewing the promise and setting the date today.

It's a renewable promise. Because the previous generation failed to enter the

promise of God because of their disobedience, God said, hey,

the option is still open for you. Well, wait a minute.

Pastor, didn't you just say that the generation that went into the promised

land was the generation of those that died in the wilderness?

Yeah. So they did get the promise. So how is it still open for us today?

Well, because maybe it's a different shade of the promise.

It is a rest. You see, the children of the children of Israel went in.

They claimed the promised land that God had for them, but it's not just a place

that God promised. It's more than just a place.

You see, God's promise was something deeper than that.

God was promising something that wasn't just the land of Canaan.

If it would have been just that, then David in Psalm 95 wouldn't have talked about another today.

We talked about Psalm 95 a little bit last week. Let me remind you of the verse

that I'm speaking of in Psalm 95.

Of course, if I could find the right 95, that would work. 35 is not 95 in this

version of the Bible anyway.

Today, if only you would hear his voice.

Do not harden your hearts as you did at Meribah, as you did at that day at Massa

in the wilderness, where your ancestors tested me.

They tried me, though they had seen what I did.

For 40 years, I was angry with that generation. I said, they are people whose

hearts go astray, and they have not known my ways.

So I declared an oath in my anger. They shall never enter my rest.

David writes that reminding the people to praise God because you are not that generation.

Praise God because you are the ones that entered into Canaan,

but it's not just a rest for those in Israel.

It's not just a rest for those in Canaan, in the promised land.

It's a rest for us today because it's not just a place of rest.

See, it's interesting what happens here. In verse 9, the scripture says,

so there is a special rest or there is a Sabbath rest still waiting for the people of God.

This is a different word. This is the only time this word, sabbatismo,

is used in the New Testament.

It's the unique unicorn of this word, sabbatist.

Sabbatismo, it means the kind of rest like God has planned for you,

the kind of rest that God did when he said, hey, here's the seventh day.

I'm done with everything.

Now it's time to rest. There's no end to that. There's no ending,

no stopping to that Sabbath rest because it's not just a place.

You're not sitting back in your easy chair watching ESPN.

No, it's not that kind of rest. It's a rest that continues to go on.

It's really a spiritual state of being, a spiritual place of rest.

Now, I'm not talking about heaven. I'm not talking about a physical place,

but an attitude of rest, if you will, a rest that continues, that goes on and on.

And this promise of an arrival at that kind of rest, it remains for all of God's people.

So how do we get into that? Well, obedience is how. It's kind of like this.

You're sitting at home and you're waiting for a special package that's coming your way.

It's a package you didn't pay for, but it's something you long to have.

And all that's required to receive this package is when the postman or the Amazon

delivery driver or FedEx shows up and they knock on your door and they said,

hey, I've got a special package for you right here.

All I need you to do is to sign here, and it could be yours.

Now, get this. You don't have to earn that package.

It's already been bought and paid for, and now it's being delivered to you.

All you have to do is just agree that you're going to accept shipment.

All you have to do is just sign your name there that says, I will receive this package.

It's something you long for, something you wait for. And all you have to do

today to receive that is to obey the delivery driver's instructions to sign

right there. Will you accept this?

And folks, we've been given that special gift from God himself.

The delivery driver is his son himself. And he's here offering salvation to

us. nothing we have done to earn that.

We couldn't afford to buy what's given to us. But all we have to do is to agree

to accept what's been given to us, to obey the delivery driver here saying,

here, I've got this package for you.

Maybe Jesus is knocking on the door of your heart today saying,

I've got this package for you. I've got salvation for you.

I've got peace for you. I've got forgiveness for you.

All you need to do is to receive it. Just say, I accept.

Have you accepted what Christ is offering you today?

Are you accepting what Jesus has done for you? He did all the work. He paid the price.

All you have to do is just receive that.

Again, it's through faith that you receive that.

There's the diligent practice. Let's keep working on it. You say,

well, wait a minute. You said we don't have to work.

You said we don't have to strive. It's rest. Well, I go back to the good kind of work that is restful.

Did you know there's such a thing? Yeah.

You like what you're doing, it's not work. When you like the things that you

do that may be hard, it's not really work.

You might be physically tired.

It might stress you out now and again, but where's your mind?

It's on the finished product.

Your mind is on what happens when this is all done.

Now, there's a lot of people that are going to go around today and they're going

to tell you how tired they are because they're just working all the time.

You know, Oh man, I worked 80 hours this week and I'm just so tired.

Well, can you do the 80 hours in 20? Are you really working?

You know, is it really taking you this long? Why are you so stressed out?

It's something they got to work at because their heart's not in it.

They're not passionate about it.

And when you're passionate about it and your heart's in it, and even the problems,

you're overcoming them.

It's a good kind of work that you do. And it's a restful kind of work.

Oh, so what do I mean? Do I want you to work? No, I just told you don't work.

Don't strive. But, you know, just go back to the elevator thing.

Are you working to earn what God has already freely given you?

Check this out. Yeah, there's a staircase, but it's not going to get you all the way to heaven.

It might get you higher in some floors in people's eyes and see how good of a person you are.

It might get you some brownie points with your family, your spouse.

But it only leads so far. the righteousness of a human being won't get you all the way to heaven.

As a matter of fact, according to scripture, the righteousness of people,

the righteousness of man will get you in the trash bins.

Because it says the righteousness of man is filthy rags. And there's a connotation

there that I won't get into today in mixed company, but it's not a good one.

You can only get so far if you want to go that route, or you can go to the elevator

that's already been created for you and trusting God, trusting in Christ,

the doorman that says, hey, I'll hold this open for you already.

This offer is only going to be today. Come on.

Come on. Just step in. Take a step in. Just trust me. I'll get you to your floor.

I'm not going to let any kids light up the Christmas tree. All right.

You're not going to push all the buttons. Come on, step in and let God do the

work of lifting you up. He's already made it.

Already made the elevator for you to step into.

Even if you are a stairs person, even if you like to get that workout,

it's a hard workout when you're carrying so much baggage with you.

I remember we went to a hotel once while traveling and the elevator was broken.

Now, mind you, it was only two or three flights of stairs, but I had the whole family with me.

Usually they have those cool carts, right? You load up all your bags,

you shove that in the elevator, and then you go up with it. Well, not this time.

Not only did they not have the elevator working, but they didn't have any carts.

And so here's all the family lugging all these bags up, all of our vacation stuff.

Don't have to lug all of our heavy baggage up. We can leave that for Jesus to take care of.

Leave all that stuff that we deal with and let God take care of that.

So how do we enter God's rest? I want to give you three steps. First of all, listen.

The scripture says, today, if you will hear his voice, are you listening for the voice of God?

It's not going to be a loud, thunderous, booming voice all the time.

As a matter of fact, most of the time, it's just that small,

still voice that hits the God place in your heart, that speaks to that part

of your heart where God really talks to you.

The first step off the stairs is paying attention to God's invitation.

Hey, come on, take the elevator.

Come on, it's open for you. It doesn't cost you anything. The price has already

been paid for. As a matter of fact, it's a turbo elevator.

No waiting 10 minutes to get to the 52nd floor. Boy, it'll get you there in 20 seconds. Hop in.

When we think about listening, that's all we need to do. Listen to God.

But the second thing that goes with listening is believe.

You've got to believe. The message, again, must be mixed with faith.

The formula is God's promise plus faith, belief, trust in that promise equals rest.

Trusting God's message for you today? Are you trusting him?

You know, again, information without faith is useless.

I could preach to you another 10 years. If you never had any faith in what God's

word said or what I was preaching from God's word, it would just be information

that you let go in one ear and out the other, and then you went and had lunch for 10 years.

Are you trusting God? are you receiving his message that has to be believed,

that has to be received, and that has to be acted upon?

We believe in our theology, in our church, that there has to be a response.

You're going to make a response regardless. You're either going to ignore the

truth, you're going to try to delay the truth, or you're going to accept it

and make some changes, some course corrections.

That leads me to the third step of how to enter God's rest. Listen,

and believe, and then these two are together, strive and thrive.

The scripture says, let us do our best to enter that place of rest.

Again, you are not trying to earn what God has for you.

What is the striving here? It's obeying.

The striving is just saying, okay, yes, Lord, I'm going to follow you.

When you do that, when you say yes to God, you're believing in faith,

his promises, you're going to thrive.

You're going to have peace in your heart.

You're going to have contentment. You're going to live with a freedom because

your sin has been taken care of because the weight of sin is off of you.

You're going to have that freedom to move and to live as God wants you to,

not based on what your body or your temptations dictate, but based upon God's

plan for you to live out that freedom.

It goes all the way back to the Garden of Eden again, and God's plan for all

of us to work in such a way that it blesses him, it blesses others and it blesses yourself.

Ask the way this works. Obedience again, it's not earning the gift.

It's just how you sign for the package.

So this morning, as we wrap this up, and I thank you for your attention this

morning, I just want to tell you to stop the solo effort living because you're getting exhausted.

Quit trying to do these things, especially spiritual things, on your own.

Trust God. Trust God's people that want to come alongside and support and pray

for you and help you through it.

You're part of a family, a global family, really an eternal family.

We trust God's people. Well, I would not be where I'm at in life,

much less as a pastor, if I did not trust the people of God.

The people of God, as I grew up, to say Mike you're acting stupid now cut it

out or Mike that's a great idea how can we support you in that.

Mike, we're praying for you. We know you're going through a hard time right now.

It takes all of us coming together. We're all in the elevator.

It's a big elevator, folks. Really big elevator.

Because God is willing that none should perish, that all should come to repentance,

that everyone should get on that elevator. So it's huge.

Like those elevators on the aircraft carriers, man, they just lift those planes

up and down. It's amazing.

You don't have to do it on your own, is what I'm saying. God is inviting you

into a partnership of rest today.

Today, while it's still called today, you've got an opportunity.

Don't know if you'll have an opportunity tomorrow, but you got one today.

Would you take it? Would you trust God? If you're here this morning,

you've never accepted Christ as your personal Savior.

You've never entered into a relationship with God through faith,

through Son Jesus. I invite you today.

It's just as easy as taking a step saying, yes, God, I'm going to trust you.

God, I'm going to ask you, and I know you're going to forgive my sin.

You're going to cleanse my life. You're going to make me a new creation, a brand new person.

You're here this morning, you're like, well, I'm a Christian,

Mike. But yeah, I have kind of found myself trying to earn my way to heaven, trying to earn things.

That was the problem with the first century Hebrews that this epistle was being written to.

They're trying to go back and earn their salvation that was already given to them by Jesus.

They're trying to do good works in order to show that they were holy.

The apostle or the Hebrews author wrote and said, no, you don't have to do that.

You just need to obey as God leads you to something to obey him in.

You strive at obedience. You keep on keeping on when God calls you to something,

even when you're tested, even when it's hard.

Will you join him today and trade that exhausting battle for self-improvement

for the deep peace of his fulfilling purpose? Will you do that today?

Just as simple as saying, And yes, Lord, yeah, I'll do it. I'll trust you.

Boy, the blessedness that comes after that. It's awesome.

Let's pray together. Father, we trust you, God, and we trust your word.

And Lord, we trust you that we don't have to strive trying to earn reputation

with you, God, because we know we are so dearly loved already.

And Father, we know that we don't have to strive at trying to live the Christian

life like it's some kind of chore, because God, you equip us and you enable

us to live above the fray of sin, to not continue to fall into temptation.

But Lord, when we find ourselves trapped to call out, to ask you for help and

you help to rescue us from that and never have to go back to it again. And so Lord, we need you.

Lord, help us. Lord, help us when our unbelief takes over and we don't think we can follow you.

Help us, God, in our unbelief when we're not trusting you at your word.

When we don't believe that, God, what you have planned for us is better than

what the world provides.

Lord, we look forward to the ultimate rest, which is a place,

which is a place, an eternal resting place that you've promised to us.

But God, we know we can experience just a shadow of that on this side of eternity.

And Lord, help us to experience that, we pray.

And Lord, if there's someone here this morning that does not know Jesus as their

Savior, God, I pray that today would be the day of their salvation,

that today would be the day they say yes, yes to you, God.

That they say yes to the forgiveness that Jesus offers And Lord That they just

sign their name on that package They take that and step into the elevator That

will help them to grow up into Jesus.

With us, I pray, Father, as we leave here in a few minutes, and be glorified.

It's in Jesus' name that we pray. Amen.

I want to thank you for joining today's sermon podcast. You can find a copy

of today's sermon, as well as other sermons, and the sermon outline from today

on our church's website,

www.mvcnaz.org.

It is my prayer also that you will seek out a church home that recognizes is

the authority of the Bible.