Are You Tired? The Wrestle With Rest // Six Figures (Part 6) // Michael Todd

Welcome to Transformation Church Podcast, where we represent God to

the lost and found for transformation in Christ. We're so

glad you're here and wherever you're listening from, we believe

God will transform your life to today's message.

Today it's going to be the last installment in a

series we've been in called Six Figures, which are six

figures that I believe God uses to expand our faith

and grow us in a life of abundance. And today's

message is gonna be good because it's gonna help everybody.

How many people it's gonna help, Not everybody, it's gonna

help everybody, and that includes you now right now. If

your heart has like proved something to me, passed them

like you not gonna get this, you gotta open up

your heart to be able to receive.

And so what I thought about what would be the.

Best thing to open up the heart of people about

a subject that they already are wrestling with, I said,

I gotta put it in a package that they can

receive it in cause today I'm talking to the people

of God.

About rest.

Rest.

And I'll look at your face.

Right now and know you tired. I can see by

how you respond that you're tired. Some of y'all's facebooks

and instagrams are telling on you tired. There are things

that God suggests in his word, and then tho, there

are things that He commands in his word. And one

of the commandments that is most ignored by people who

claim to know him and love him is the commandment

of taking a sabbath, the commandment of resting. And right

now I feel people clinching. You don't know my story.

You don't know how much responsibility I have. You don't

know where I came from. I got it out the mud.

You don't understand I'm a blue collar worker. You don't

understand that I have so much to provide for. You

don't understand. You don't understand how much God loves you.

God loves you so much that he gives us the

gift of rest, But if you don't have the revelation

of it, you never open the gift. So today, I

know it's hard. Right now, some of y'all feel the resistance.

I feel the resistance. So I wanted to put this

message in a package that you could receive it.

Today, ladies and.

Gentlemen, I would like to welcome to the stage, preaching

his first message, my junior preacher today, mister Harlowe Phoenix Medcalf, would.

Y'all give it up?

Oh?

You can do better than.

Arlow has a message? Would you please get your notes ready?

Go ahead, Arlow.

Hello, my name is Earl Phoenix Metcalf, and I'm gonna

preach today. Everyone turned to your neighbor and say six seven.

Turn to your other neighbor and say six seven six seven.

Genesis Chapter one, God creates everything in six days. The

sixth day he creates man. The seventh he rest. That

reminds Us we need rest. Jesus asked all of us

a question, are you really tired? He won't only give

you rest for six days, but seven six seven?

Do we give it up?

So proud of you, buddy, Hots five, we can go home.

Some of y'all was smiling so much. Y'all didn't hear

what he said.

What he said was that God worked for six days,

but on the seventh day he rested. And it's crazy

that at seven years old, Arlo has a revelation that

most sixty seven year olds don't have. The truth of

the matter is rest is something that is necessary.

So I'm in a title.

Today's message are you tired? Ooh, I don't know what

that message just did to somebody, but somebody's telling on

themselves the rumbles in the crowd.

Look at your neighbor and just ask them the question,

are you tired? If you have the faith, you can

answer them.

Come on, look at your other neighbor. Come on, say,

other neighbor, are you tired? Today? I gotta talk about

the wrestle that you're having with rest.

Some of y'all are wrestling with rest.

Now. I don't want anybody to confuse this with laziness.

I gotta say this up front because somebody's like, perfect

the message. No, I'm gonna give you context to this,

but some of you are really wrestling with rest and

today I hope that this message, by God's grace.

Gives you a revelation of rest.

Matter of fact, just to let everybody calm down, everybody,

take a deep breath in, let it out, and say relax.

I'm not about to condemn you. I'm not about to

try to make you change today. I'm gonna just present

some things to you that God presented to humanity. And

then I want you to make a decision. Do you

want to live the abundant life that God provided, or

do you want to live this ghetto life that culture

has given me. I have no idea. What's happening right now?

It's ghetto down here. I want you to live in freedom.

I want you to enjoy the abundant life, life and

life to the fool. And if you only hear things

in means or captures, I want you to catch this

little the whole message I put in a meme. I'm

trying to break this big thing down to something simple.

Our load was first. This is my second attempt to

just make you relax with this. I want to give

you my message and a meme. Will you play that

video real quick? Yeah? Right? Ya? Did you take a

nap today?

No? I didn't you need one? What was her response?

What if God was coming to you today and saying

you need a nap, would you tell him?

No, I don't.

I have too many bills to pay.

No, I don't.

I gotta be outside hell A y'all know what I'm

talking about. No, I don't. I have too many emails

to answer. No, no, no, no, no, no no no. And I

think God's coming to you today through your pastor and

saying you need one. Have you had a nap? Watched

this not today? Have you had a nap this week?

Have you had a day off this week? Have you

had a day off this month? Have you had a

day off this year?

The reason I'm asking this.

Is not because I as much as I love you,

I just want you to be healthy and thriving in

all of the latest things that culture is telling you.

This is an ancient principle that our God put in

place because he wanted us to work, not work, but

he wanted us to function properly. So because God wanted humanity,

his creation, to function properly, he knew what they needed

before they ever went to work. My daughter, Gia's birthday

is coming up and one of the things as we

had her birthday party yesterday, one of the things that

I learned is that there are a bunch of toys

that say they work, but they don't work until you

put batterysm them. Yeah, And the thing that I realize

is most toys don't come with batteries. So we ordered

a ton of batteries that allowed us to do something

before it actually produced. God is saying I want to

put something into you before I require anything out of you.

You missed it, all right, Let's go back to Arlow's

illustration in Genesis. God created day one, God created day two,

God created day.

Three, day four, day five, day six. What did he create?

Man? And on day six we get with God in connection.

The first day we experience with God is a day

of rest, not a day of work. Your first day

inexistent as humanity was not a day of work. It

was a day of okay, And this is the problem

with most of us do not have a revelation of rest.

So today I'm going to try to give you some

revealed truth. And when I say revelation of rest, it's

like something is there, but you can't see it, And

a revelation is like, oh, I can see it. One

of my friends said it like this. A revelation is

something that comes from north south. It comes from God.

A lot of our change and good information comes east

west from friends and pastors. But you need a revelation

to come from God to you. And that's what I'm

praying for you today, is that for the first time

and the last time, you get a revelation of how

important rest is to God and to you, Matthew, Chapter eleven,

verse twenty eight, Are you tired? This is Jesus. Jesus's response. Then,

Jesus said, come to me, all you who are weary.

Another translation says tired and all of you who carry

a heavy burden, and I will give you. Say it

out loud, say it strong, say it like you can

take the next week off. Jesus' response to weariness and

to people carrying a heavy load was not prayer. I'm

about to mess with your religion. It wasn't a worship service.

His response to your tiredness was not a meeting with

the pastor The response to your heavy load and weariness

was what.

And some of you think I'm saying sleep.

Sleep?

You can do that and still wake up tired.

Okay, okay, I need to find the real people in here.

How many people sleep and still woe out?

Come on, I'll come rest. If you read down and

we're gonna read, it's rest for your soul. Is your

mind at ease, is your wheel at bay? Are your

emotions tanged? Some of you are literally sleeping to escape reality,

going through stuff. I just need to sleep. Come on, okay,

come on, y'all, I just need to sleep.

You'll take things to do it.

I gotta, I gotta shut my mouth, my mind down,

I gotta shut I gotta you'll watch certain stuff. I

gotta numb out. These are all terms, and you may

have different ones. But what I'm saying is what you're

doing is sleeping. What God provides is rest. And so

today I want to give you the revelation of rest

because this is God's gift to us. Rest is not

a luxury, it's a necessity. So then when you look

at this in verse twenty nine, it says, this is

Jesus talking, take my yoke up on you, and let

me teach you how to rest.

So this is beautiful because we don't know how to

do it on our own.

This is why Jesus says, let me teach you how

to rest. Let me teach you what you don't know naturally,

let me teach you what your nature goes against. It says,

let me teach you because this is my character. I'm

humble and gentle at heart. That means I'm thinking about you.

Think about this. If people think God is mad at you,

still like he's a god that's mad at you. There's

no other God. In any other religion that thinks about

your rest. If God was really if you was mad

at somebody, do you want them to get rest? Do

you know that keeping people up is a form of

torture used in warfare. It's like, how do I torture

this person? Keep them awake? And what God says is,

I'm a God that cares about you so much. My

spirit is humble and I have a gentle heart.

I'm asking you have you rested lately?

I know you're doing all of these things to prove

to your child'shood self that you're actually significant. But I'm

asking you to come to me because you're weary.

You're heavy. I want to give you. Say the word again.

Rest. This is a new four letter word that you

need to say a lot. Rest. Say it one more time.

It says if you let me teach you, it says

you will find rest. Oh. I like that. When God

says I'm gonna find something, he says, you will find

rest for your souls. He says, for my yoke is

easy to bear, and the burden I give you is

a light. To receive a revelation of rest, You're gonna

have to be humble and teachable, and this is why

I need everybody to understand the character of our God.

God's trying to tell you what you heard about me

has been misrepresented. I actually love you, I care about you,

and I want you to be okay, not just today

but forever. So I'm not going to just give you

a miracle. I'm gonna give you a pattern.

Right now.

There are people who need money in your life, and

if you give them one hundred dollars, they're gonna come

back next week and ask you for a hundred dollars,

and then they'll come back two months from now and

ask you for a hundred dollars.

But if you give that person a skill set, and.

You give them a job, or you give them a thing,

then they can actually learn a pattern that will produce

what they need.

God is saying, I didn't want to just give you

a magic reci peal, I wanted to give you a

pattern of a sabbath so that you could always have

everything you.

Need to do what I'm asking you to do. It's

a gift.

And as we look at Scripture today, I realize that

there is no other religion in the world where the

deity does not demand work from them. If you search

every other religion, I'm just trying to give you a revelation.

I'm talking to your mind so that it can drop

to your heart and then it'll actually appear in your life.

There is no other religion that says you don't got

to work for this. How many times do you need

to pray? Where do you need to turn? How many

sacrifices do you need? All of these things? It's work, work, work, work, work, work, work, work, work.

They demand work for stuff. God gives rest for your soul.

This is the god we search, So why will you

not receive this gift of rest? Other religions offer a

ladder to climb. Jesus offers a refuge of rest. And

this is why he does it. Write this point down

because rest is a weapon. Rest is a weapon. If

you actually were rested, How good would you be if

you actually were rested. I'm talking about in your soul,

your mind, your will, your emotions, and your body was rested.

How would you handle hard situations if you.

Were actually rested?

How many more good ideas could come through you? You've

done what you've done. Woe out, not woar out, You've

done what you've done.

In life. All this is says, whoe out. You can't

even enjoy what God has blessed.

You with because you trying to keep up with it.

So did God bless you with it because the blessings

of the Lord make it rich and addath No, uh oh, let's.

Just put the scripture out there.

Some of y'all is woe out, calling it a blessing,

but losing your marriage.

You got ten thousand square feet, no peace.

You got cars to choose from, but no, here go

to find safety in your soul.

All I'm asking you is are you rested?

And the truth of the matter is the culture we

live in today is offering the opposite, promising the opposite.

It's saying, grind hustle, do all of this.

Do all this, and then you'll have money.

To take a vacation, and then you'll have money to

buy a second home, and.

Then you'll be it's grind hustle, get it.

All of these things are deceptions from the enemy. Because

I heard it said one time, what the enemy can't

get in front of and stop, he gets behind and pushes.

And some of y'all are being pushed to the brink.

You're being pushed your soul exhausted that you cannot even

sense the presence of God. God's got you in a

good situation right now, and you're calling it bad because

it's not moving fast enough. Okay, all right, am I

just talking about my own issues. Okay, I'm telling you.

God had to teach me. He said, I slowed this

thing down. You think the company's going down, He said,

I'm saving your life. All delay, all backup, All deals

not working are not from the devil.

Some of the things.

That God is doing is because we don't have enough

sense to preserve ourselves.

You know, if that deal actually went through, you would

have lost your marriage.

If you actually would have made it in that field,

you would have lost your mind. Okay, let me stop me.

Part of what I know with my literal makeup is that.

I can go go go go, go, go, go go go.

God has had to teach me, Michael. Just because you

can doesn't mean I want you to. Uh oh uh oh.

Just because you can watch this, here's my insecurity mine.

Just because you can doesn't mean that you should do it.

Because how many people if it makes us feel good

and it scratches some childhood wound of feeling significant, or

or people are gonna praise me for this, or I'm

being too honest of here. Okay, let me, let me

go back to the scripture. What I'm trying, what I'm

trying to tell everybody is the same faith. It takes

you to believe for miracles. It takes that faith to rest.

And most of y'all have faith to praise God and

not faith to walk away from the desk. You won't

shut the laptop, you won't stop checking the email and

the dow and you won't see all. It's all all

it's going. It's crazy. How in the world is a

little ticker controlling your peace? Is quiet in here, and

it's okay, I get it, because what's happening is that

the mindset of culture is a mindset to keep you enslaved. Okay.

The problem is right now is that you think you're free,

but you're enslaved. That was the same problem with the

children of Israel. When they were enslaved, they had no

days off. The proof you were a slave is you

didn't get to rest. So when God brought them out

from under Pharaoh's rule and they were in the wilderness,

one of the commandments that God made sure to on

the top ten list put on their is you should

observe the Sabbath. Why because the Sabbath was only reserved

for sons. Only sons got to take a rest. So

the Sabbath proves your freedom. Oh God, I'm gonna need

a whole series. When you can take a break, it

means you know who got it. When you can walk

away from being God, then you have a God.

When you walk away from being.

Provider, then he's Jehovah Zirah.

Your provider. When you can step.

Back and moon walk out of having to.

Literally do everything for yourself, it means you make room

for God to step in. Many of us still have

our Egypt mentality. If it's gonna happen for me, I

got to get it out the mud. Hold on, wait,

did you not come into the kingdom economy? Did you

not believe Jesus when he said you are no longer

a slave? The curse is broken off of you whom

the sun sets, it's free, and we don't think about that.

You're free to rest, Oh God, whom the sun sets free,

And you think you're noble, I'm just you know me,

I'm gonna just put in that extra, And God said,

I didn't ask you for all that. I don't. Actually

I call it disobedience. You actually think you're doing something noble.

It's sin. Did y'all hear what I just said? When

you don't observe a twenty four hour period where you

walk away from your work every week, God's like, why

do they disobey me all the time? Grace after grace,

mercy after mercy, day after day provided for him. They

in that little house that they didn't think they could

ever get. And I did that with the job they

didn't never think they were gonna be able to get.

And I did that, and I provided and I restored,

and they still don't trust me. I gave them the

blessing of the book. I gave him the blessing of

the business. I gave him the blessing of the thing.

And they still won't trust me.

What do I have to do to let them unwrap

this gift that would relieve their soul of weariness? Some

of you, you don't need a new career, You need

to take a day off.

You're so overwhelmed.

Life is just no. You're disobedient. What is a sabbath?

It's a pause. It's a pause. It doesn't mean I'm

not coming back to this. It means I have to

stop right now. And it takes faith to pause. A

twenty four hour period. Write this definition down. A sabbath

is a twenty four hour period that God gives humanity

with to reframe from work, remember Him, and rest your soul.

Every week, God wants to give every person under the

sound of my voice a twenty four hour period that

God gives you with to refrain from work, to remember

Him and to rest your soul. I'm gonna read it

one more time so your soul can hear it. Every week,

God wants to gift you personally with a day to

refrain from work, to remember Him and to rest your soul.

Even in the ancient times, this was a.

Radical innovation at the time because everybody was working. I mean,

they didn't have buildings and they didn't have bulldozers. They

didn't have all everything they did they had to make.

They didn't have Amazon, They couldn't order nothing. You want

to purse, go kill something, dry out the skin, sew

it together. You got some more fig leaves over there,

like you had to make everything.

So think about all of the work that was happening in.

God saying, hey, take the day off, Come walk and

talk with me. Remember how good I am. Look at

those trees. Are they worried? You don't have to either.

Look at those birds. I know you've missed them every

day because you've been so occupied, But they've been here

every day. They don't worry about what they're gonna eat

or drink. You see them lilies over there. Look how

beautiful those colors. Don't those colors make you feel something?

They didn't dress themselves. I did that. I'll do that

much more for you if you would rest. I said

it before, but slaves never rested, only sons did. And

this is where I have to bring this up, because

culture is feeding us a lie that I have to

correct with the word of God. Culture says rest is

a reward for work. Hear what I just said to you.

Culture says you better work, and you better work until

you earn a rest. God says rest is a requirement

for work. First full day rest and the prerequisit was

because God knew Adam was about to work. I'm gonna

give him rest because he about to put in that work.

Rest should be a sign that God wants you to work.

It is not oh, I'm not gonna work because I

just need the rest. It's like, na, you better get

this rest because after this rest we about to put

in this work.

You can't even feel rested if you don't feel worked.

Oh God, I'm talking with people who don't work. Anybody

who really work know that the only way of rest is.

Good if you did good work.

So what I'm trying to tell you is God gave

a six day work period and a one day rest.

But I think a lot of us got the God complex.

So what we did is we did what God did

instead of what he said. Day one, work day two,

work day three, work day four, work day five, work

day six, work day seven.

Rested. But then he told us, don't do what I did.

Do what I said, rest day two, work day three.

Do you see what I'm saying. Okay, let me start

it again.

God worked on day one today six, then he rested.

He made us and said rest on day one, work

the other six days.

He was trying to say, I'm setting you up because

you can't handle what I did.

You not built like me, You can't work and then rest.

I'm God, I can do all things. I know everything omnishing,

I know everything all that was, he said, because.

I love you. You rest first.

I know you. I know your attitude, I know you

get hangry, I know your habits, I know your temperament.

I know you need to go to sleep. First, You rest,

and then all the things out are there. They're gonna

be there tomorrow. Those contracts will be there tomorrow, those

emails will be there tomorrow. Some of y'all that don't

have do not disturb on your stuff. How do you

function the level of interruptions of your life that you

allow in right now? How in the world do you

have any peace? It's quiet in here today. Okay, so

let's keep going. If you go to Exodus chapter five,

verse seven, I want you to look it up on

your own time. Pharaoh's strategy was never to kill the

children of Israel.

It was to exhaust them.

Y'all didn't hear what I just said. What if the

enemy doesn't want to kill you, he just wants to

exhaust you. What if what if you're at series goal

is never to take you out, just make you not

strong enough to do anything. Exhaustion is the new weapon

of massive destruction.

Have you ever been tired just scrolling?

Come on, you switch fingers, y'all know some of y'all

on your pinky fingers scrolling news on twenty four to seven,

got four news channels on what's Fox saying? What's the inn? Saying?

What's MSNBC saying? What's the exhaustion? News feed all the time?

And then don't get into your family group chat. The

emotional disability of cousin Jerome locked up again, Stacy Dayton,

somebody that dated your other cousin again, Like.

Y'all know what I'm talking about? Or watch this. The

exhaustion of silence.

Because the manipulation that happens many times relationally because we're

not talking. Okay, let me, I'm going too deep. What

if what if there was a way to reset every

week where all of that stuff lost its power in

your life? What if God knew he wasn't gonna take

us out of this world, but he would give us

tools in this world to actually live higher.

Than this world. That's just what the Scripture means.

When it says we are in it, but not of it,

but you in it and of it. Jesus doing his

greatest miracles with a shot clock on three years left,

big miracles, everybody coming. What does Jesus do? All right, y'all,

all right, it's been fun. God bless you. He would

withdraw often on your greatest day of miracle impact money,

our culture, like, do it again, run it up, we

can pack it out again. Four nights at Madison Square Garden,

back to back to back. Let's get all this money.

And God was like, yeah, where's the limit. And some

of us are so close? Why are you telling me?

Be careful? You won't rest. Be careful, Be careful the

decisions you make unrested. Be careful of the people you

keep around your children unrested, Okay, be careful. Be careful

of saying your opinion. I'm just being honest right now.

Be careful of talking at all.

Some of y'all, some of y'all just need to say,

can I respond to this tomorrow?

Why are you saying this?

Passing Mike? Because nobody makes their best decisions exhausted. Sabbath

the sabbath or a day of rest isn't just rest

from work. It is your proof of freedom. And I

just want to let you know. Pharaoh is not dead.

It just comes with push notifications. That algorithm that for

you page, that next deadline, that inbox those emails. All

it's doing is exhausting you to the point where you

don't dream, you don't worship, and you don't fight back.

This is why you are being beat up at the

same level as people who don't know God. It's because

you're on the same training plan as them. You're exhausted,

and so you're too exhausted to pray. Come on, let's

be honest, God, do it. Okay, y'all gonna act like

I'm the only one that pray to prayer like that,

Let yo will be done, Bible talking about pray without

ceasing you like Lord, If you don't do it, it

won't be done. Why you're exhausted? Are you tired? Why

are you still wrestling rest when it's the gift that

God gives to you. Husbands and wives haven't been able

to have a civil conversation. Not because you don't love

each other, because you're tired. You're both tired trying to

provide for a home that neither wanted you like coming

to right now. Not because the home is bad, Because y'all,

you need to go get a one nice stay in

a holiday in I'm not I'm trying to give y'all

real secrets.

Somebody needs a staycation at the home with sweets and

the other one at the best westernt.

And then you need to talk after your rest. All right,

all right, how somebody, why are you saying this? Because

the lie is that I need to perform, and if

I perform, then I'll get approval and praise. So the

reason why people work is because if I work and

I get this money, or if I work and I

get this accoladeer on my work and I get these grades,

and I work and I get this thing, and I

work and I get this compliment, then.

I will be approved and praised.

And the reason why this is important is because all people,

even down to children. The reason why we clap so

loud for Urlow is because we inate innately know that

a child needs to be approved and praised. Arlow could

have got up here and say abc D, Jesus is Lord,

and everybody's.

Still with him, like why cause you.

Know from a child you need if I'm gonna do

this again, if I'm gonna actually become everything, if he

gonna stand up here and preach one day, he has

to be approved and praised. So guess what the enemy

tries to tell you? Work for it, work for? And

God says, I'll give it to you first. Can I

give you an example? This is an eternal example that

Jesus literally gets baptized by his cousin John. And the

first thing that happens before he ever works a miracle.

This is before he turns water into wine.

This is before the fishes in the lows, this is

before he heals any blind eyes, before he ever starts working.

He gets approved in praise. He gets dumped down in

that water. The sky's open, and the Bible says, like

a dove descending, it says, this is my son, identity

in whom I'm well please, I'm approving him, and I'm

praising him in front of everybody.

And from that place he went to work.

Oh God, all right. So the lie is you need

to perform so that you get approval in praise. But

the truth is you're already positioned. This is my son,

this is my daughter. I'm well pleasing them. You already

got approval and praise. Now go work. What's your last name, Tom?

Go put in that work. My daughters they get I

hype them up before they do anything, and it and

and and I mean it's at.

The borderline right now, like maybe too much. She's like,

but I hype them, I hype them up.

What's your name? My name is Jia?

What you do? Everything good?

And I'd be like, ah, my Jia.

She she wakes up in the morning. We had a

birthday party yesterday.

I said, how you feeling to day? I feel great?

Not good? I feel great. I said, I'm glad you

feel great.

What's today?

It's my birthday party day? I said, what you what

you mean? What you got? How you feel? She's like,

people are coming over, We're gonna swim, and I'm gonna

get some presents because I already know y'all got me

some good president. I said, how did you? But what

I'm saying to you is she lives from approval. My

baby doesn't wake up in the morning be like daddy,

Hey dad, Hey, how many dishes do you want me

to wash? How? What do you need me to do

to be called your own? What I'm saying to you

is you're good enough right now for God to approve

you right now. Gotta keep moving all right, here we go.

If you need to check that reference. That's Matthew, chapter three,

verse seventeen. I'm moving because there's so much that I

have to say, because there are people that are hearing

me about the Sabbath, and right now your mind's going

to legalism. Well okay, so technically, if I start my

Sabbath at six pm and I don't check my email

into then well what if somebody call stop? Since God

has gifted us the Sabbath, people have tried to actually

dip it in legalism, but the Sabbath is dipped in love.

All he said, he said, I'm the Lord of the Sabbath.

I gave I gave this to you so you could

be good. So don't if y' there's a there's a

story in the Bible that Jesus heals a man on

the Sabbath and all the religious people got mad. Now,

first off, the man was literally.

Sick, blind, jacked up.

If I was a religious person, I'd be like, that

is good for him. I'm wow, that's awesome. What day

is it's a sabbath? Hey, don't tell nobody. My man

can see Like.

Immediately they were like you, you are not good because you

did on the Sabbath, and he's like, Yo, what how

did y'all get this love gift?

Confused with all this legalism.

He said, if your if your ox falls into the

ditch on the sabbath, don't leave your ox there till

tomorrow it'll be dead. Pick it up, get your friends,

the club of y'all gonna have to work today.

But this can't be the pattern.

So so so so if it happens, just make sure

it's not the potter. If your odds is falling into

ditch every time it's a sabbath, that's.

You can't drive like that say pattern, But.

God's saying like if something happens, if they email you,

or if you gotta go into work or you that like, okay,

but every week, every week.

On your off day, Yo, Bosston want to.

Have a meeting, and you've never say any boundaries to

be able to let them know. Hey, I'm gonna just

lead that. I'm gonna back away from the camera. I mean,

all I'm saying to you right now is if you

get this revelation of rest, I'm almost done.

Rest becomes a resistance.

That'ser, Mike, what are you talking about? Eat is the

meakest most power move you can ever make. It's not

big and boisterous and none of it. It's like, no,

I'm about to go rest. Yeah, I'll be back for that. God,

you see what's happening over there. I'm about to trust

you at your word right now while worry is trying

to creep up my back and fear is trying to

make me intimidated, and I don't know what's gonna happen

with all those people and what they talking about. Father,

you said if I trusted you and I did what

your word says, you would fight my battles. So, Father,

what I'm about to do is go get a massage

and play golf today.

And I'm gone, y'all don't hear me.

And I'm gonna trust that as I am resting your working,

I'm gonna trust.

That you're providing for the needs that I can't even

make happen for my bick What would happen? What would

happen if we really believed God? What would happen that

you could be playing lasers with.

Your kids, developing a greater relationship that would last for decades.

While God.

Is telling those who have been enemies or adversaries against

what you was working on.

He was moving them out the way.

Somebody say resistance Exodus chapter No, I'm gonna go James

chapter four real quick, because I gotta give you this.

This is the revelation I need you to see. Ooh, ooh,

I've heard this scripture of my whole life, but the

Holy Spirit gave me a new revelation on it. It said,

and he gives grace generously. As a scripture say God

opposes the proud, but gives grace to the humble. Okay,

verse seven here it is so humble yourself before God.

Now the next part requires humility first. Okay, humble your

before God. Then what's the next part of the verse.

Resist the devil and he will flee from you. One

of the greatest resistance or resistance is you can have

against the devil is to rest in his face. You

want the devil to flee, go ahead and rest. He's

trying to keep you up in anxiety and depression. Rest.

I'm telling y'all this light here has been one of

my greatest tactics to fight the enemies in my mind,

the enemies that come from the outside. Is to say,

you know what, God, if your word says to resist

the devil and flee. What I'm about to do is

about to be a lot of activity for no reason.

I'm about to email this person. Make sure these people

know my point of view. I'm about to go here,

do this, try to make this, get a fifth job, try.

To go do this.

Do you know what I'm about to do. I'm about

to trust you, and I'm about to resist the devil

because the devil is watch this, watch this, dank you Jesus.

When the devil came to tempt Jesus, everything he was

trying to get Jesus to do was activity outside of

his purpose. The way he resisted the devil is he

had to rest and remind the devil of the word.

If you jump from this, if you go from this,

I'll bring you. He was trying to create unnecessary activity.

Do more work, do more work, prove to me. Turn

these stones into pray it. Do more work, you prove

to me. And because he was approved by his father

before he went into this wilderness, he said, I don't

gotta work for you to prove who I am. I've

already been approved, I have already been called, I've already

been I've already been seated. So the next time you're

gonna see me work is when God gives me approval

to do these miracles. Okay, so rest is a resistance.

Somebody needs to say I'm ready because I'm rested. What

if that was the truth. What if it was the

truth that every time something hard came, you were ready

for it because you were rested. PESSI, Mike, are you

serious about this? Is this like a message that you're

I'm gonna teach this every year and I have been

for the last almost decade. The reason I'm saying it

is because most people are looking for a miracle when

God wants to give them a method. He's trying to

give you a principle that will allow this not to

be a one time thing for you. So rest is

a resistance, and then watch this. Rest is a reminder Exodus,

chapter twenty, verse ten. But the seventh day is the

Sabbath day. It's a day of rest dedicated to the

Lord your God. On that day, no one in your

household may do any work. This includes all your sons,

your daughters, your male your female servants, everybody work for

your livestock, foreigners, all of that don't do no work.

And I started to think about that, and then I

started to think about the Christian Chicken Place.

And there's not too many companies.

That like publicly like like, hey, we're closing down today

because we're honoring our staff and honoring the Lord.

Do you know the Chicken Christian Place?

Y'all know who they are until they sponsor us. I

ain't saying they name momoent No, I'm just from holler

at me. But I just want I want you to

know every almost every other establishment is twenty four hours,

seven days a week. How many people are buying mc

doubles at three point thirty in the morning. Somebody is,

but not that many somebodies. I just I want you

to know. Like the idea is more time, more money,

more You know that Christian Chicken Place.

They make.

Almost five times per store what all the other places make,

being closed more times than all the mother places is

closed and having a full twenty four hours where they

do not bring in any revenue, less footprint on the earth,

more productivity. Now, we could just act like it's coincidence,

or we could say there's a blessing for following the

principles of God. Exodus chapter twenty, verse ten. But the

seventh day is a Sabbath day. It's so you can rest.

Exodus chapter twenty three, verse ten. It says, plant and

harvest your crops for six years, but let the land

watch this be renewed and lie uncultivated during the seventh year.

God is so gangster about the Sabbath that he even

wants the land to rest. He said, plant it, harvest

for six years, but let the land be renewed and

lie uncultivated. Don't plant nothing, don't pick nothing for the

seventh year. Then let the poor among you harvest what

grows on it and leave the rest for the wild

animals to eat.

The same applies for your vineyards and your olive gardens.

The children of Israel were in a place where God

was like, Hey, I'm gonna let it be harvest for

six years, and then I need y'all to have a

limit and let this land rest. You already got plenty,

there's already enough. I need you to trust me and

let it rest. They didn't do it. They kept picking,

they kept sowing, they kept harvesting. And what God had

to do is he had to let them be taken

into captivity so the land could rest. My question to

you is what are you still working that God is

requiring rest from? The sad truth is God allowed all

those people to be taken into captivity. And this is

my point.

Constant activity leads to captivity.

If you're always doing something, something's gonna trap you up.

There shouldn't be this many energy drinks that are successful.

Core rage monster. Just say any kind of word and

it's an energy drink. Don't give me no emails. But

coffee shouldn't be making that much money.

That coffee is not just because it tastes good. Stop it,

stop it. You're tired.

Maybe not all of it, but some of it is.

I got to do this.

I got to stay up.

I got to do this because somewhere in my life

I'm not rested. There's pills, there's adderalls, there's all kinds

of stuff, there's a People do all kinds of stuff

to do what they think they need to do when

God's already given us a gift. And today I'm asking

you to activate your faith. If you have faith to pray,

you have faith to come to salvation, if you have

faith to believe in miracles, if you have faith for

all these other things in our Christian faith. I'm going

to ask you to add one more to that. Would

you please have faith to rest? Matter of fact, you

might need crazy faith to do this. What would happen

if our love was actually rested? How would we interact

with our children, and our kids and our neighbors, all

the people that we were called to help. Know Jesus,

some of us can't even interact with the people around

us because we're just we're so unrested. You know, when

you're not rested and you got one nerve, I don't

know where your nerve is, but like and then it

just be like people get on your nerves. Somebody said,

my last nerve.

Huh the kids you made out of love?

You start from my wife. She says, go talk to

your father, and it's like your father the eighties are kids.

Your dad will help you.

WHOA. What she really does is said, your daughter needs you.

I'm like, hold on your daughter, our daughter? Why? Why?

It's because when you're unrested. Maybe this is my last point.

Rest produces restoration. If you would rest something on the

inside of you would come back a lot. If you

would rest that creativity, that you better I'm having writers brought.

You're tired, and it's been tired. Listen the children of Issuel,

he had to let the land rest. The equivalent, if

you study it out, was the amount of sabbaths they

skipped that they had to let the land rest. Your

body is keeping score, and so is God. I'm gonna

say something that's strong. I'm gonna say something that's strong,

but I need you to hear me say it. There

are people that I know God had to sit down

because they wouldn't sit down. You could take that however

you want to take it, but you shouldn't. You that

little boopy, that little ankle sprain should not have taken

you out for six months.

But what I'm saying is God.

Was like, you will not You won't rest, you won't

sit down, you won't you won't stop, you won't reflect,

you won't refrain, you won't repair, you won't restore, you

won't renew, you won't revive. Y'all want a revival, I

bet you it'll come if we start resting then spending

time with God, and in that prayer, we're not struggling

to get a word from God. He just drops it

because it's just the context of our relationship. He's like, oh,

I'm gonna oh yeah, yeah, you've been resting all day.

I know you're gonna need this tomorrow. Do you know

all of the things that have been most impactful in

my life has happened after I've rested the ideas the

books Relationship Goals was the first series that I preached

off a sabbatical. So it was crazy faith. So was

everything else that ever was. I'm just like, I just

feel like there's an impact that God gives. I'll give

you one last example.

The children of Israel.

They were supposed to pick up food for six days,

but on the sixth day he put double out, so

on the seventh day they didn't have to work.

He's that good.

He said, don't try to store it. He said, if

you store it and you try to harvest it, it'll rot.

And some of you have been frustrated because what you've

been working for has rotted. You thought it was gonna

be more for you. You thought it was going to

create security and abundance. And God said, that's got a

rock because you're not obeying me. But if you would

rest let me work, I'll double it. I'll multiply it.

I'll give you what your work did not deserve.

All why because it's my nature.

I'm the God who does exceedingly abundantly above all you

can ask, think, imagine, or come to me. All who

are weary and I will give you Say it with me.

Are you tired? Are you tired today? God wants to

give you rest. Many of you know that this is

the time of the year, if you're new at our church,

that I take a time of rest.

Since the beginning of our church, my.

Oversight pastor, Pastor Tim Ross, has told me it's like

you got to take a break every summer because I

need to make sure that you don't need that like

you think you need it. And I need to make

sure that your family is the thing that lasts. And

I've watched people give their whole life to men, industry

and lights and big and all this other stuff and

gain the whole world and lose their soul. And every

summer there's people like, well, I'm not going to church

because passion, Why ain't there? Like I'm not God. I

would really like you to know I love I'm human

through I love that you like how I speak and

all that other stuff.

But God can use a donkey, and.

Sometimes that's how I feel up here. He all like,

sometimes that's exactly how I feel like He can use.

I'm just being real man, like.

I got much rather to do some other stuff that

was more low key and different things like this is

what he called me to do. So I stand up

here every Sunday and do it to the best of

my ability. Not perfection but progression. But one thing that

I am doing is I following the method. And so

for the next couple of months, I'm not gonna be here.

And I want to say this because most pastors hide it.

They do y'all know, y'all have made pastors in America

so scared to even tell you that they're not gonna

be there because you gonna vote whether you come or

not to hear from God if they gonna be there.

I'm not a slave no more. I'm free. So I'm

just gonna I'm gonna let you. I'm gonna let you

know right now, I'm not gonna be here. I'm gonna

be with God. I'ma be with Natalie'm gonna be with

them kids. I'm gonna I'm gonna be praying every day

for you. I can't take a break from that. That's

my job as your pastor. I go to God on.

Your behalf and ask God for wisdom. I'm asking God

for what is the word of the year.

Where are we going? What are you saying for us

to do?

Are we doing conference next year?

Are we not? God? How? I'm putting everything on the table.

The reason I'm telling you this is because I want

you to be this free in your own life, to

create some patterns that allow you and listen. I just

need everybody to hear me. I'm not going to speak

for other people. I'm not now working, working, working, working,

because I'm not working here. I am really trying to

reset my soul. And if you love me and you

love this church, pray for me. This has gotten to

a place that was out of my sight. This is

beyond my wildest dreams and imagination.

I'm just out here trying to follow God.

And I believe that we are called to represent God

to the lost and found for one reason, what is

it transformation in Christ? And so I would just ask

that you pray for me. I don't want to let

you know. The one thing a good restaurant owner is

never gonna do is leave you without a bomb chef.

The one thing you gonna do every Sunday here is

you gonna eat eat. You're not just gonna eat, you

gonna you know, as you put it twice. Hey, So

I just want everybody to know Pastor Charles is about

to do a brand new series that's about to and

then Pastor Tim Ross is gonna come behind him and

do a whole series like this summer you about to

ee because God can use anybody that's willing and open.

What I'm asking us, let's grow. But I don't want

this just to be for me.

I've embraced this principle so much that there are people

that leave.

The church every year.

I take us about a gole. No pastor, shit da

da da da. Hold on, wait a minute. Pastoring is

the only full contact sport without an off season. People

will cuss you, fuss you, talk about you, may YouTube

videos about you, and you're supposed to just get up

there and pray for him. Sometimes we need time to heal.

Here be held, I'm being too vulnerable. Okay. What I'm

trying to tell you is this is so real that

you need it in your own life. So I'm just

gonna ask you, we get seven days before next Sunday.

Pick a day. Pick a day that you're gonna step

back from the work, step back even from social media,

because some of y'all it's not even the work that

exhausts you, it's the comparison that does. Comparison is exhausting.

Just pick a day.

Talk to your spouse about it, talk to your friend.

If it starts at least coming out of your mouth,

maybe that's evidence that maybe one day it'll happen. Come on,

let's be honest. Some of y'all is just in your head,

and some of y'all try to figure out, So how

do I do it? How do I er? I got you?

You're gonna have to learn how to do this. You're

gonna have to listen to this message every day this week.

You may be gonna have to go back and search

the script. God, give me a revelation, North, South, give

me a revelation so that I don't I don't break

this standing all over this building. The last thing I

want to say to you, just because I don't want

you to get too spiritual and not realize the practical

I've tried to be practical through this whole message. But

I want you to hear this last thing. Rest is

good and you can have recreation. Did you hear what

I just said. I don't want you in a room

with a candle for twenty four hours, No hear me?

Because I like, go do something recreational, Go fishing, Go

take a walk in nature, go shopping within your means. Also,

I want to give you this because this is just

my heart as I do this, because people are about

to try to do this and I want I don't

want you to. I want to give you all that

I can right now. Also, if it starts off as

rest and then it becomes work, it's no longer rest.

Me and Charles talk about it all the time. When

we start doing stuff. It might start off as rest

and then we start dialing it in. He became he

started riding a bike, like what three or four years ago.

Three years ago he started riding bikes, and then now

he's like a professional bike rider. Like he'd be coming

to the house and fool.

Like gear and stuff. And I was like, what is this?

And he said it used to be RESTful, but then

it turned into work, So it no longer doesn't mean

he can't do it. It no longer can be considered

a part of his sabbath unless he's doing it on

a huffy and the only way if it's a pink hoffy.

I know you're not going hard, okay, cause sometimes golf

might start off RESTful and then you're in a competition.

Cooking, mate, start.

Off rest you know what I'm gonna bake today, and

it's like the rest of the thing, the red velvement.

It's not right. No, you stressed. The reason I'm saying

this is because watch this. If you lie to yourself,

you'll never live a right life. I'll never be there

when you're doing what you're considering rest. You can convince

your husband or your wife as RESTful, but you will

be the only one that knows.

Don't lie to you. Don't lie to your own soul.

Are you tired?

Because God wants to give you rest.

If you need rest in an area of your life,

whether you're in this room or online, would you just

lift your hands. I want to pray for you. Thank you, Lord,

Thank you, I thank you Lord God.

Today here we all are.

Saying that we need your rest rest for our souls. Today, Father,

many of us are admitting we're tired, tired of how

it's been done, tired of how we've had the function,

tired of how we've chosen to live. And today we

are coming to you and we're saying we want to

do it your way.

If you gave us a day of rest a sabbath as.

A gift, today, we're going to unwrap that gift, and

we're gonna unwrap it every week. I'm praying for practical

wisdom of how this applies to each one of our lives. God,

for those of us who need to set boundaries, I

thank you that you're giving us courage right now. For

those of us who need to even figure out language, Father,

to be able to renegotiate things that we've already put

in place or contractor or said that we're gonna do. Father,

I thank you that when you see your heart, you

begin to work on the hearts of man.

So today here we are, Father.

Many of us. The reason why we're working so hard

is because we're trying to make ends meet. And today, God,

I'm asking you that you would give us the ability

to produce wealth but not have to sacrifice our health. God,

I'm asking you to help us as a body to

embrace your principles that are counter cultural. God, I'm gonna

go to Instagram today and ain't nobody gonna be telling

me the rest. But your word has told me that

this is an ancient practice that produces eternal results. So

today I trust you. Would you calm the inner critic

in me that has judged others for not working hard enough?

Would you? Would you calm Father, and even forgive the

inner Pharisee and Sadducey that have literally mocked other people,

Father God for doing too much? Today, Father God, I'm asking.

I'm coming humbly asking you to give me grace to

start a new pattern. Let my family benefit because of

this new pattern. Let my soul be refreshed because of

this new pattern. I trust you enough, and I have

faith enough to rest. Thank you, Lord. I believe God's

doing a work on the inside of some of you

right now that won't be undone by hurry. I can

even hear the single moms or even the people with

young children.

Like, how am I gonna do this? God's gonna give

you wisdom. He's gonna give you.

Wisdom on nap times are gonna turn into a place

of rest for you. God's gonna give you some people

that can watch the children for a few hours to

be able to do so. I'm telling y'all, and some

of y'all are the answers to people's prayers. Some of

you been like, I don't know what to do with

my time, and God's gonna tell you. Go get your nephews.

Go get your nephews from your sister for a little bit,

take them out, take them to the park. I just

feel like God's gonna give give all of us a

peace to play. And how we all are sustained here

in this room under the sound of my voice, and

you're weary of life. I want you to know this.

I was almost gonna make it my last point, but

I didn't give you nine last points already, So I'm

about to go on sabbatica. God bless you. Rest is

a person. He said, come to me, all who are weary,

and I'm.

Gonna give you me. I'm gonna give you rest.

I'm rest. I'm peace in the middle of the storm.

I'm the way out of no way. I'm the corner stone.

I'm the prince of peace. Rest has.

Jesus.

If you need rest, You actually need Jesus.

This is why you can't get it in nothing else.

This is why when people try to make false gods

and all that stuff, they live their life working. Because

he said, I am rest. I'm the one that makes

you stop working. I'm the eternal sacrifice. Listen to his language.

It is finished. Think about the language Jesus talks about.

He's like, I'm the one that finished it all.

So you could rest.

All you have to do is receive me. So today,

your first step to walking into rest, if you're tired

of how life has treated you and what you've been

going through, is to accept Jesus. He is rest for

your soul, not just today, eternally your name will be

written in the Lamb's Book of life. Pastor Mike, how

can you do this? Because he takes people like me

who are liars and manipulators and addicted to pornography. I

have all kinds of bad stuff in my heart, and

God said I'll take you if you'll receive me. And

I gave him all my heart and he helped me

change my habits. Today, if that's you in this room

or watching online, I don't care how you got here today,

is the day of salvation, and I need the church

to begin to pray because somebody's eternity is in the

balance right now. You may have been walking around God

for a long time, but he wants you to walk

with him today. I want to introduce you to rest.

I want to introduce you to Jesus and just a moment,

I'm about to pray, and if you want to be

included in this prayer, I just want you to slip

your hand up on encounter through your saying pasta. I

want to be included in that prayer. I want to

receive Jesus as my personal Lord. And save you're online YouTube,

if you're watching on the Panda app, right here in

this room, everybody's included in this. If that's you, I

want you to make that decision. And it's the whole

reason that Jesus came so that you could have freedom

in your own life. One, you're making the greatest decision

of your life. Two, your name is about to be

written in the Lamb's Book of life. You want to

receive Jesus right now. Three, shoot your hand up in

the air all over this place.

I want to see you. I see you, I see you.

I see you, I see you. I'm so proud of you.

I see you, I see you. I see you. And

more than that, God sees you.

All the way in the back Transformation Church, can we

give God praise right there? Hear me? Hear me. We're

leaving in two minutes for that Transformation Church. Nobody prays alone.

So for the benefit of those who are coming to Christ.

What everybody, just lift your hands and pray this prayer

with me. Say God, thank you for being my place

of rest today. I come to you.

I believe you lived, you died, and you rose again

just for me.

Here's my life. I repent of the old way, and

I turned to you. Change me, renew me, Transform me

yours forever in Jesus' name.

Amen. Hey, all over.

This building, can we join heaven and rejoicing for gold

who have just joined the family.

Welcome to the Kingdom Family. If you just made that decision.

As the altar workers come, I want you to text

save to A two eight two A two. If you're

watching online, that's for you too. Our team wants to

send you some resources to help you walk this out.

Remember it is progression, not perfection. And if you're in

this room and you need prayer. A worship team is

about to sing one more song as people are going

to grab their kids and leaving, and I want you

if you need prayer in this room, I want you

to come get prayer. There are people that need agreement

right now for things that are going on, a.

Loved one, a child, hard time.

You might need revelation and this resting and you need

somebody to agree with you. Come up here for prayer,

and we want God to do the work that only

he can do. I am so excited that this is

my church and as you go through this summer, I

just wanted to want you to know I'm praying for

you and I believe the best is yet to come

for us. Father, thank you for your people, Bless them

to have a RESTful week.

And we declare, Father.

God, that you will be lifted up as we live

this life of abundance so people can know you and

be transformed in Christ in Jesus' name, everybody say we agree,

We expect amen go out and.

Live a transform life.

I love you so much, thank you for joining us today.

If you said that prayer and accept it Jesus into

your heart, It's the best decision you could ever make.

We want to celebrate with you, and we have some

tools to help you on your journey. Tech saved to

A two A two A two and to find out

more about TC text connect to A two eight two

eight two. Be sure to subscribe and share this podcast

with your friends. Thanks for listening. Now go out and

live a transform life.