He Sees Me Rest | Pastor Paul McGee

Can we magnify the Lord right now?

Can you lift your eyes to him and magnify him, looking unto

Jesus, the Author, the finisher of our faith?

Hallelujah, Jesus, when my strength is gone, your strength

is perfect, God. When I don't have the energy,

Lord, to lift my head, you're the lifter of my head.

Hallelujah, fine, Lord, Consolation in you.

Find consolation in you, Jesus. Hallelujah, Lord.

Hallelujah, Lord. Hallelujah, Lord.

Sweep over my soul, sweet spirit, sweep over my soul.

Oh. Oh.

Amen. Can we raise our hands one more

time and be mindful of the Lord? I love you, Jesus.

I appreciate you, Lord. Oh Lord, you're all together

lovely Father, You're kind, You're compassionate, you're

mindful. Hallelujah, Hallelujah,

Hallelujah. Glory be to your name.

Glory be to your name. Glory be to your name.

Glory be to your name, Thank you, Jesus, thank you, Jesus.

Hallelujah. Such a good God, such a good

God, Amen. He loves us, oh how he loves us,

Amen. Tonight, Amen.

If you'll stand with me here this evening, we'll turn to the

Book of Psalms, chapter 139. The Book of Psalms chapter 139.

Psalms 139 · chapter mention Psalms 139 · chapter mention

Amen. This evening going to read a few

verses of scripture. First 3 verses.

The Bible says the psalmist in particular.

David, O Lord, thou has searched me and know me.

Thou knowest my down sitting and my uprising.

Thou understandest my thought afar off.

Please note verse 3. This is like a key verse for me

tonight. Thou compasseth my path and my

lying down, not acquainted with all my ways.

I don't know if this is a like regular fair Sunday night

sermon, but I'm not regular. But I have felt instructed this

week to minister along these lines, and I think it's

important I maybe this year maybe more than any time of

year, right? With all the hustle and the

bustle, I feel like I need a minister tonight.

He sees me rest. He sees me rest Amen.

I hope to help somebody tonight. He sees me rest.

Hallelujah. Let's talk to him right now.

Father, I love you. God, this is not my word.

It's your words. God, this isn't my service.

It's your service. God, we congregate together

tonight, Lord, around your spirit.

We congregate, Lord, around your word.

And I, I pray, O God, your word would find us.

God, find someone this evening. God, encourage, instruct God

just to give Lord the latitude. Lord Jesus, perhaps God,

whatever Lord, preconceived notions, the thoughts, God that

may have about certain things that you could, Lord just pull

back the cover on something and see Lord of peace, God of place,

the Lord of security, Lord of confinement, Lord in you I pray,

Lord, let your spirit speak, Lord through your word and we

will not be disappointed. God in what you say and what you

convey. Lord in this place tonight God

will thank you for it in Jesus name that I pray someone say

man, you may be seated tonight. He sees me rest.

Psalms 139 is like some of those other popular chapters of the

book of Psalms. I would place it alongside there

like a Psalms 23. It's one that that people favor

some that people have taken to be a Psalm and to themself.

I know years ago, I believe it was my wife's grandmother kind

of dedicated that Psalm as saying, Dawn, this is your your

Psalm. So it's a favorite Psalm.

People are familiar with some of the phrasings of this Psalm that

highlights really God's omniscience and God's

omnipresence. David marvels throughout this

Psalm. He marvels at God's knowledge of

him. Every thought that David had,

every word that he spoke, every action that he involved himself

in, he relates to us that God had knowledge of all of that.

Whenever you begin to think of that, that's almost

incomprehensible, that God would, and I know he's God, that

we understand our earthly limitations.

No one per say no and every word, thought and action of our

life. But God does.

And David illustrates that to us.

And when you take that and you pair that then with the reality

that God is wherever you're there is, then that also is mind

blowing just to put those two things together, that there's

not a place that we can go that we can escape God's presence,

whether in heaven or the depths of the earth or the far reaches

of the sea. He says I am there.

And then you, you, you pair with that then to ponder that the

creator of the universe involved himself in all the details and

all the intricacies of your formation, in your development,

in your mother's womb. And that, that's quite humbling

to me and at the same time inspiring to me.

And so as you read through Psalms 139, it's nothing more

but a profound reminder that God has a very much so intimate

involvement in every detail of our lives.

He said in verse 3, which is the key for us tonight.

David says he compasseth my path of the versions of the same

scripture says that he scrutinizes my path or that he

sifts and searches out my path. One version even says God, you

observe my travels and my rest and you are aware of all of my

ways. I believe it is vital tonight to

understand that this all knowing, ever present God isn't

just solely interested in where I go and the roads I take in

order to get there, but He is also interested in my lying

down. He is interested in our rest.

Our rest is even subjected to some of the closest and most

discriminating investigation by our God.

I know that's hard for us to really wrestle with and to

somehow compute in our minds, but God knows when we rest and

how. David even says he observes it.

He set the pattern for it in the very beginning by blessing and

by sanctifying the 7th day of creation and making it holy.

That wasn't an act of necessity for God in order to have the 7th

day. God does not grow weary.

God does not become tired. But He left that for us, for

humanity, an example for us to follow.

He was in two instituting in the creation story a spiritual might

I even say, if not only physical but a spiritual rhythm of of

sorts of rest. Even as David shepherd in the

psalms 23 the Lord is my shepherd.

I shall not want you get to verse 2 and David talking about

his shepherd being God said that he maketh me lie down in green

pastures. What I'm saying tonight is that

rest was not an afterthought for God, but it was a integral part

of the creative order of God, that holy pause right when all

of the completion of the work of creation had taken place.

He says that let's sanctify and bless a day for rest.

The Psalm was said in Psalms 4 and verse 8.

He says I will both lay me down in peace and sleep for thou,

Lord, only make us me dwell in safety.

In other words, folks, when we rest, there is trust in resting.

I know, I know the generation. I'm talking to me tonight,

right? I'm talking to Pastor McGee.

I'm talking to those of us that are always busy, always going,

always doing. And even if we have opportunity

not to do, we feel bad about not doing.

I'll just preach to the preacher tonight, Amen.

But God knows rest, Amen. There's a trust in rest because

the trust in rest is this, that I can lay down in peace and

sleep and my family will still be protected.

I can lay down in peace and sleep and the job's going to

continue whether I'm there or not.

I can rest and the earth is not going to hesitate in one bit of

its orbit, Amen, at all. Because I can just trust and

dwell in safety. Because I know the Lord can make

me dwell in safety. Because when I rest, I affirm

that everything that goes on in my life and everything that goes

on in the lives of those that I'm attached to doesn't all

depend upon me and my doing. Amen.

It doesn't all depend upon me. So when I rest, and since

there's a major of trust in that, when I rest, I worship

because it doesn't depend upon Paul and it doesn't depend upon

what Paul can do, I trust. And in that trust is a major of

worship of a higher power that's in control of it all.

That sets the sun and causes it to rise.

When I rest, God pays attention. When I rest, I trust the one who

the Bible says never sleeps and never slumbers.

Amen. And I know there's a mixed bag

of there's some of you have no problem resting and I'm I'm, I

have no problem with that. But there's others that feel

vulnerable whenever they rest. They feel bad whenever they

rest. Like I I know I tell myself it's

something I've gotten a little better with as I gotten older,

to be able to just take time and pause and stop and rest.

But God included that very thing in the creative order came in.

In other words, God made that a part of the luminaries and and

the animals that were made and man being made and female being

made and the distinction. You know, you don't want to mess

with any of those things because if you do, it gets real messy.

But we all the time, we all the time mismanage the rest aspect

of creation. I told you this ain't a normal

Sunday night thing, but we do that sometimes.

The biggest, the biggest, something that we can do is

nothing. I remove myself from activity,

the affairs of this life, and I put my total dependence on God.

Again, that's worship. That means this omniscient God

who is all knowing knows when I rest, and his Omni presence

tells me that he's there when I do rest.

He's interested in every aspect of my life.

We see it over and over again. We see it then in the

commandment in Exodus chapter #20 The Sabbath commandment

reinforces the divine pattern of remember the Sabbath day to keep

it holy, observe a day of rest. Israel had to acknowledge their

dependence on God rather than their effort.

And tragically, Israeli neglect of rest and the lands Sabbath of

rest 'cause them to go into exile because they forgot the

pattern of taking time to rest. Because when we tamper with

those things, including rest, it causes disorder, if you will.

Rest isn't a luxury. Listen, according to God's word,

rest isn't a luxury. Rest is a commandment.

Maybe I'll just get let me pull out the other one.

We'll get down here and I'll just teach for the next 30

minutes. It's not a luxury.

It's a commandment and according to creation, a blessing.

Do, do, do, do for God. Do, do, do, do for God.

One of the tick boxes you need to check off is rest.

Mary has taken that good part, he told Martha, who's covered

about with many things. Mary has taken that good part

that will not be taken away from her.

Rest, someone say rest. Sometimes there's periodic times

of not doing anything and then doing so.

We're fulfilling the word of the Lord.

I want to present a story to you tonight, one that you're quite

familiar with from Judges chapter #16 because hear me

well. And, and, and, and, and this,

this is the story course of Samson's sister McGee.

This wasn't from this morning preaching that I had some guy

preaching. He was touching on Samson.

This was already in my spirit before he ever got there.

But Judges chapter #16 in reality, and just follow me here

for a few minutes, illustrates the danger of a restless life.

Samson was a man we know of extraordinary strength, caught

by God, yes, for a special purpose, for a special plan.

His parents were told that he would begin to deliver Israel

from the hands of the Philistines.

And whenever we think of his story, most people think of the

latter portion of his story, and we think of the seduction.

What we say is the seduction of Delilah toward Samson.

And we assume, thinking of this seduction, we often think that

Delilah must have been some sexy broad.

She must have been one eye full of a woman.

I'm telling you what, In order to seduce and be persuasive and

find where in his strength like she had to be something for that

matter, she was employed, according to the Bible, by the

Lords of the Philistines to entice him.

And whenever she did this, this wasn't a dry run for her.

This wasn't a cold call for her, because the Bible already tells

us prior to this that Samson loved her.

All right, But Delilah's name means feeble.

Now you'd reach scholars. I don't agree with these

scholars because they say her name meets feeble, because she

made Simpson feeble. I've studied the Bible for too

many years, folks. Almost as far as I know, in

every instance where a person has a name, their name is a

description of them, Their character is everybody.

All right. And so her name means feeble.

Someone say feeble. In other words, this feebleness

quite possibly is a characteristic of Delilah

herself. And if that's the case, as a

matter of fact, if you read through the judges account,

there's nothing there that says anything about her appearance.

Nothing at all anything there that says anything about her

appearance. And so as I was thinking on this

this week, Sister Sam, I thought, if this is the case

then #1 why does Simpson love her just OK and #2 how in the

world is she going to entice him?

Now I know number one Sister Sheila, and we took her to

Simpson has a little bit of a woman problem.

Anyway, throughout the story of Judges just a few chapters, we

see that he had three different women.

We understand that relations with women were a weakness.

All right, I get that. But there is another aspect as

well and that is that Samson lived a life of conflict and

over exertion. Let me say it like this.

He did not take time. Forrest followed me here

tonight. And so here's Samson you read in

these few chapters. He's traveling here and there.

He's traveling over in the Philistine because every woman

that he liked was a Philistine. We could talk about that.

But anyway, every woman he liked was a Philistine.

So he's traveling over there and back.

He's trying to hold the the interest of women folks.

That's a full time job right within itself.

And three, three different ones at different times.

That's heavy stuff. Hey, man, so he's doing that.

But then you look at the different things that he's doing

in his life. He kills a lion with his bare

hands. He makes a Riddle, Amen, and

tells a few men that he would promise them a prize if they

could get the Riddle right. And when they got the Riddle

right, you know what he had to do?

He had to go kill some folks in order to get their 30 changes of

garments, Amen, in order to give unto them.

The Bible says he caught 300 boxes.

I don't know how long it takes to catch 300 boxes, but he

caught 300 boxes. He would take them in pairs and

tie their tails together and put a torch in them, set it on fire,

and then he let the foxes go into a field of the Philistines

to destroy. The Bible also says that he

killed 1000 men with the jawbone of a donkey.

And if you want to talk about restless nights, he was spending

the night in Gaza and the Bible says he got up at midnight and

carried the heavy gates and the of the city away on his

shoulders because there was an ambush that was awaiting him.

And so I'll tell you tonight why Samson loved Delilah.

Yes. And we know yes, the woman

thing, yes, there could have been sex appeal there.

But the other side to that was this.

She was a place he could rest when has to entice him.

An observant Delilah deserved. What could this man possibly

trade? What what the his knowledge of

where his strength is? What would he give an exchange?

What kind of exchange or trade could be made?

What could Ioffer him that he would give me that in return?

An observant Delilah says rest. You see the binding with the

green widths. You see the binding with the new

ropes. You see the weaving of the locks

of his hair in the weave. You see the shaving of his hair.

All of this seems to happen over a few days.

The Bible says she pressed him daily for the information and

the story has him in Judges 1614 awakening one time and then a

little later the last time when she shaved off his head.

The Bible says that she made him sleep up on her knee.

It seems like each time Amen that he slept, and that was for

a man who typically didn't rest, someone came in.

So the tragedy of the episode of Judges chapter #16 really

reveals this, that Samson's downfall was not just about

temptation, but about a man who ignored a deeper need in his

life as well. Rest someone say man, yeah, he

found it in the wrong place and yes, yes, yes, he needed a

sanctuary of rest. But Delilah says I'll make that

place right here. There's a old poem by by John

Milton that centers around the Simpson story, and one line out

of that poem says this. It says at times when men seek

most repose and rest. I shielded and unlocked her all

my heart. I tell you a restless world.

Amen need rest. But The thing is, you'll be

offered counterfeit rest. You'll be offered counterfeit

rest there. There can be distractions and

escapism that are counterfeit rest.

What you need is the rest we're in the weary can rest.

You need the rest that can only come from God.

You need the rest that is a trusting in Him and a worship in

him while resting. Hey man, you need a restorative

rest. Excuse me when I rest.

I'm going to say this. Say this all of us.

We are too busy. We are too busy.

I told my wife the other day and I think I even told my mom this

morning. I have a love hate relationship

with this time of year, all the other obligations that get put

on the plate, the things you feel like you have to be at.

And in our world, this is the way that it is.

It is created the modern life just of the world.

And this is the way that society has made it that it's almost a

badge of honor to be busy. I'm sorry, folks, I apologize.

I'm sorry you haven't endured this, but it's a badge of honor

to be busy because the greatest thing that you can say whenever

you enter a conversation, well, how you going, how your things

going, how you doing? I tell you what, you know how it

is. It's just busy, huh?

Because we society has equated busyness with importance and

everybody wants to feel important.

So if I'm not as busy as the next one, maybe I'm lying.

If I'm like, if I'm lying, I'm dying.

I'm telling you the truth today. There is this this mode of of

pride and there's mode of importance and impressiveness

just to be able to say, you know what, I'm busy and someone tells

you what's been going on in their life and it's like the

Topper family, you know? Well, yeah, I understand why I

had XY and Z and this and that to do and it my scheduled from

the time I got, I didn't get to bed till such such hanging up at

4:00. You know, it's just busy, busy.

And I understand there might be some truthfulness in all of

that. But folks, if that's the way we

live, we're going to succumb to the same era of Samson until we

might be laying a lap. We don't need to lay in because

you need to honor the blessing and the commandment of God.

You got to rest. He observes that God.

Do you see what I'm doing? Yes, but he wants you to know

when you're not doing. I see that too.

I would I would hate to think someday that that that that I I

miss my chance and opportunity for heaven because I always did

something for God and in my doing was not just resting and

trusting. I'm not telling you to be lazy.

I'm not telling you that at all. Someone say man restless Dr. A

restless Dr. comes out of cost comes out of cost to your health

might come at a cost to your family.

That's right. Come on.

As a matter of fact, a life that never has any rest.

Guess what? It's just a form of slavery

because a slave slave has no control when he goes to work,

when he goes to bed, or what he does, he's told when to do all

those. We become slaves to our

schedule, slaves to our ambition, slave to all of our

social expectations. Rest is not weakness.

I read a book, it's now been several years ago, called

Addicted to Busy. It said rest, it turns out, is a

condition of liberty. What's that mean?

I can choose to stop. I can choose to pause.

I can choose to back away. I can choose to say no.

So it's Amen. You know where Samson made a

faux pas. Rest may very well multiply your

reach and your effectiveness. That's counter thinking in it.

No, I got to do. If I don't do it, nobody's going

to be doing it. You understand what I'm doing.

I got to get this done. I, I, I live that life.

I hate for somebody to mess with my Monday.

I got certain things I want to get done.

Matter of fact, I see people in the store sometimes they

probably want a longer conversation.

But my high and bias is quite quick because I got things to do

and I want them all done in this day.

But we read in Scripture that there was also another man of

God, the man of God that suddenly make his entrance into

Scripture, the biblical narrative.

He enters into the courts of Ahab.

He gives a prophecy and says by my words.

He said the heavens are going to be shut up.

And he goes and camps by a brook called Cherith God, that thing

dries up. He goes to Zarah path, Amen.

He sustains and helps sustain a woman and her son.

There the widow's son dies. He raises him back to life.

Ministry is happening all along this grand journey.

Amen of his life and ministry. He appears then single handedly

on the mount called Carmel. He's fighting, seemingly by

himself, concerning another human being against the 450

prophets of Baal, the 400 prophets of the Grove.

God uses him mightily and significantly.

And then he prophesized. I hear the sound of the

abundance of rain. This 3 1/2 year drought is going

to be over. He outruns the chariot and then

Jezebel threatens him when it's all over in first Kings 19 and

two, she says, so let the gods do to me more.

Also, if I make not thy life as the life of one of them, one of

the prophets by tomorrow, about this time, look what happens.

He leaves all of that. He gets alone.

He even leaves the servant he travels with.

He goes to a wilderness, he crawls under a juniper tree and

he falls asleep. An Angel comes over and taps and

says, hey bro, eat and drink. It's in scripture.

Eat and drink. Look at it 5:00 and 6:00, will

you? Aiden of 19.

And as he lay and slept under a juniper tree, behold, then an

Angel touched him, and said unto him, arising, verse 6.

And he looked, and behold, there was a cake bacon on the coast,

and a cruise of water at his head.

And he did eat and drink, and look, and laid him down again.

That sorry sack supposed to be a prophet of God.

All he's doing is laying down, getting up, eating, and then he

had the audacity to lay down again.

You know what? It's note to see what scripture

doesn't say just as much as what it says.

But when the Angel found him sleeping under the juniper tree,

he did not tap him. Say hey wake up bro, you need to

get busy. He said no, eat and drink.

And he didn't raise a finger when he fell back to sleep.

Prophet been doing all kinds of great exploits, but he knew, you

know what he realized? Yeah.

That threat came from Jezebel. I believe there was something.

I know sometimes we say, well, yeah, he was the only one.

He felt like he was the only one.

And he did. And that comes with restlessness

too. Tiredness.

You feel like you're the only one, right?

Well, it was me. You get all these type of

things, but not that There was something inside of him that I

believe he knew this. I can't go on doing what I'm

doing and look what the Bible says.

As he slept, he wakes up to a cruise of water and bread bacon

on the coast. He didn't do that, but in his

rest was a trust. I don't have to go out here in

the wilderness somewhere and find game and kill it for my

food. And his rest was trust.

I'm going to lay down. I really don't know what the

outcome of all this is going to be.

I really don't know how this is all going to turn out.

I really don't know where my next meal is coming from.

I really don't know where the next Brook's going to be at.

But I got a rest right now. And in that rest was a trust,

was a worship. And while he was sleeping, God

was doing while he was sleeping, God so his rest.

Well, yes. What?

What did Jesus say in the Gospels?

Take no thought of what you'll eat or what you'll drink or what

you'll wear. You know what he's telling

humanity somewhere along the line you need to trust.

We get problems in our life and we're like, this thing isn't

going to get fixed unless I fix it.

That isn't always the case. Sometimes it gets so bad, God's

got to point out to you, he can do it without you.

He observes my travels and he observes my rest.

Someone say man. After everybody say after

Elijah's had food and drink and probably a well past due time of

rest. After some of Elijah's most

instrumental actions took place in his life, after that time of

rest, after his whole cave experience, God wasn't in the

fire, He wasn't in the wind, He wasn't in the earthquake.

He's in that still small voice. And that voice spoke to him and

said, Elijah, it's not all over. Can I just say it for for my

purposes, Like Elijah, it's not over.

You just needed rest. I know Jezebel is is touting and

speaking what she's speaking and she's like gloom doom, you know,

prophet despair. She going to take you out.

He said, but but it's not all bad.

You just needed some rest. And you know what he told him?

He says here's what I want you to do.

He says, I want you to go to Jehu and I want you to anoint

him to be the next king. And I want you to go to Elisha

and anoint him to be the prophet in your stead.

Both of those things happened after a season of rest.

And do you know the person that he went to anoint King Jehu?

You know who Jehu is? Jehu is the one that when he

learns about Jezebel and all of her antics, he goes on a horse

and he is riding feverishly toward the city.

And he's looking up. And there's Jezebel.

She's teared her head. She has herself all done up.

Amen. And he cries out to some of the

eunuchs up there. And he says, hey, would you mind

throwing her down? What are you saying?

Elijah anointed the man that took out his Jezebel and it

happened that direction that Titans happened.

After a season of rest, God can take care of it.

God can take care of it. When you rest, you trust, you

worship. God

anointed Elisha in his stead. That would carry on his ministry

and according to scripture, do almost twice as many miracles as

Elijah had done. All of this came after a season

of rest. You don't want to talk about

that doing Jesus, someone say Jesus.

You want to talk about having constant demands on your

ministry, Jesus flesh and blood human form.

I mean you didn't have ladies going through a crowd just to

touch the hem of his garment. But even he if he's to be our

model brother Trout was intentional about rest.

Luke 5 and verse 15 and 16 says, And this is Jesus has just

cleansed the leper. It says, but so much the more

went there a fame abroad of Him Speaking of Jesus, and great

multitudes came together to hear and to be healed by Him of their

infirmities. Verse 16, look at his reaction.

And he withdrew himself into the wilderness and prayed, wait,

wait, wait, wait a minute. I got to get this straight.

I got to get this straight. You're telling me his fame went

out and as a result of the fame, a big group of people came about

wanting to be healed and touched.

And he says, wait a moment, I need to go rest, Brother McGee.

I just got too many demands, not too many demands to fulfill the

commandment and the blessing of rest.

No, he doesn't wait for the last, the last one in the

multitude to get their healing. He didn't wait for the demand to

subside. But even when it was out of

Apex, he's like, I got to go over here.

Sometimes we think we're only effective if we're doing when we

might be really counterproductive in continuing

to do past our moment of ability of strength and energy and

spiritual relationship. We might need to pause and go

rest and trust, he also said. What does He tell us?

Matthew 1128? Jesus extends the invitation

right beyond himself to all of us.

Come to me, all of you who are weary and burden, and I will

give you proper rest. Isn't just in seizing from

activity, it's finding restoration in Him.

When you read Hebrews chapter #4 and verse 11, the Hebrew writer

said these words, he challenges us, which is this is really

ironic how it almost comes across there.

And do I have that one up there, Aiden?

I don't know if I do, but Hebrews chapter #4 and verse #11

I want, I want to read it out of the Bible.

All right. Hey man, Hebrews 11 and verse #4

I think 411 invert that part of my dyslexia.

I'm joking. If someone really has it, I'm

sorry about that. Amen.

Let us labor therefore to enter into that that is so ironic.

Let us labor, therefore, to enter to that rest, lest any man

fall after the same example of unbelief.

Let us labor therefore to enter into that rest so ironic.

The High Breeze Lighters writer saying I want you to work hard

to rest well. And so we see this principle in

several areas of the Scripture. Even Scripture warriors

understood the significance of rest.

In First Samuel 26, you have Saul and his men that are bedded

down and sleeping for the night. David and his men are across the

way journey and they they found where Saul is right.

And you know, the mindset of all of of David's men at different

times when Saul was in a vulnerable spot.

I'll go over there and knock his head off his shoulders.

You just say the word, we'll kill him.

That was the same talk that was going on this night.

The Bible says, though Saul had his spear by his bolster, which

is just a fancy word for head, he had a spear by his head.

The Spears in that day were made in such a way.

Yeah, they were speared on one side, but on the other end, it

still had a spiked end for the purpose that when a warrior

rested or slept, he could poke that thing down in the ground on

the opposite end by his head. Something the Arabs, the Arabs

did. It's something that even Hebrew

chiefs did. All of that meaning this very

simple. That spike on the end of a spear

meant even this, that even warriors needed times of rest in

the middle of a conflict. I'm in the midst of a conflict.

Yeah, but we designed your spear with a spike on the opposite end

so you can plunge it in the ground as you rest.

If I never intended you as a warrior to rest, I would have

never put it on the opposite end of your spear.

But that was its purpose. Because even warriors, oh Leah,

even warriors need to rest. Stay with me tonight.

I'm convinced this evening that some people I visited in the

hospital before has not been some predisposition from genetic

PNA. It's been a lack of rest that's

caused their heart to get like it did.

The Lord says, I'm going to go to this place over here away,

and I'm going to recalibrate here with prayer.

That was his vice. Maybe that's your vice.

Maybe it's some hobby, whatever. Maybe it's family time.

Maybe it's just solitude. Whatever it is, you need to find

out what it is. I know this ain't shouting

Sunday night, but somebody might live longer after today.

The old time is used to say, I've said, I've said in, in, in,

in spots with pastors and meeting and ministry and stuff

like that. The fact of the matter is this,

what good is it if you expend yourself to the degree that

you're really not worth anything to anybody in the end?

There is a moment, I know there's studies even in the

factory existence, there is a moment where productivity falls

off compared to the number of hours a person works.

It falls off. You're not gaining anything.

All that's hogwash. Listen, I've tried to present

for you tonight. It's a part of the creative

order. It's a commandment.

Jesus practiced it, Elijah did, and some great things happened.

Samson didn't, and the void of it caused him to fall for a

counterfeit. Most of all, He He compasseth my

path in my life down God, who created the universe and keeps

it in rhythm and almost everything that he created.

A certain aspect of rhythm included that day of rest for a

rhythm. You know what we need tonight?

This is where I feel my spirit. We need to have a spirit of

repentance that comes to the altar and says, God forgive me,

we're not resting. Oh, but bring me guys sleep at

night. No, no, no, no, no, no, no, no,

no, no. I get it.

Like Monday's my day off, quote UN quote.

That's when I go get groceries. That's when I pay my bills.

That's when I mow my lawn. That's when everything else

around my house gets done. That's not a day of rest.

And guess what? Sunday isn't.

Follow me on a Sunday. It's not.

And during this time of year when the church schedules extra

meals at the church, I'm just there may be a a year in the

near future. We don't have any of that stuff

in the month of December, just because you already have enough

of that stuff. It's looking for the calendar

when the holy pause comes right at the end of the year.

Just being serious. You, you all heard me.

A few years ago, we had a candlelight service.

I stood up there and we went to some magical little thing that

the high school was putting on. And I sat there by my wife and I

looked over at her and it was later in the month and I said, I

finally feel like maybe it's Christmas.

Why? Because there was a pause to

rest. It's hard to reflect when you're

doing. It's hard to remember and recall

when you're doing. A lot of times that takes rest.

How could, how could that that that finally whenever they

reached that mount of God and the law was given to the

children of Israel after they came out of Egypt, he would say

to them, remember the Lord thy God, because now they had the

opportunity. They weren't slaves.

They could rest. Bow our heads across this place

again. I implored thee to come to this

altar tonight and just start a prayer of repentance and say,

God, I'm sorry for not taking time to rest.

And the keyword is taking it. It will not always be afforded

to you. You got to take it.

You got to take it. Oh God, Oh God.

Oh God, Oh God, Oh God. You see my you see my paths, you

observe them, you scrutinize them, you sift through them.

But equally, you see my lying down.

You see my lying down Holy Spirit God, oh God, bring

healing and rest. Bring healing and rest God, to

weary souls and lives that are just physically expended.

God bring a rest God repair Lord broken down bodies and repair

God. I pray Jesus stressed out and

extended Lord cardiovascular Lord's systems and pulmonary

systems because we have betrayed the commandment to rest.

Hallelujah, Jesus rather than sister Mason, come on church,

talk to God. Oh, I've just just never had a

pastor someone tell me to rest. I'm telling you tonight, you

need to find a rhythm of rest in your life.

It's biblical, it's biblical, it's spiritual and it's putting

trust in the one who really has it all in the palm of your hand.

Listen, Sir, listen friend, it doesn't all depend upon you.

It doesn't all depend upon you. I would be a little too proud to

think that it does. It doesn't all depend upon me.

God, I need that rest. I'm coming into you tonight.

You said come, I'm coming into you tonight.

You have one time. In the New Testament scripture,

he told his disciples, he says, let's come apart to a solitary

place. They've been doing all kinds of

ministry. He said, let's come apart to a

solitary place. Why?

They needed to rest. He said.

We got to make this a part of the mode and the rhythm of life.

It's got to be a part of it. Listen, your family needs it to

be a part of it, Father and mothers, your children need it

to be a part of it. Some of your sanity and mental

health needs rest to be a part of it.

Let's talk to God. Let's talk to God.