Real Rest

So, does it ever feel like the world is conspiring against you to keep you from the one thing it is that you feel like you need?

That experience.

I mean, it's actually a reality in a sense, especially if you believe the Bible, because there's this jerk named Satan that's always working against us and trying to keep us from that.

But it just feels like sometimes that there's one thing that I want.

And no matter how hard I work for it, no matter how much I progress towards it, it's elusive.

I mainly feel that way with sleep right now.

In my life, I have all these conditions that have to be met before I'm allowed to go to sleep.

That's just the way life works right now.

And really what it means is that I have to put my family to bed first.

And so we've got three kids.

We've got we've got Judah, and he's the first one to go down every single night.

He's pretty easy.

You have to follow a very specific pattern with Judah.

I know many of you have young kids, or you have, so you get this.

You can remember these days at least.

And if you haven't yet, look forward to them.

So, Judah, it's really simple.

You gotta make a bottle, an eight-ounce bottle, and it has to be just below like scalding hot.

I don't know what it is about Judah, but if it's if it's like even lukewarm, he doesn't want it.

It's gotta be significantly warm.

That's the only way he takes his bottle, just not too hot to injure him.

So you make the bottle, you feed him the bottle, you change his diaper, you rock him, you put him in the crib, he's good.

He goes, I mean it takes a little while, it's it's a process, but he's he's not too bad.

Then there's Lily.

Lily turned three this past week.

Um I put a joke on Facebook that she turned, we we brought her into the world three years ago.

She's been trying to run it ever since.

That's that's how Lily is, and I've told a lot of stories about her.

See, with Lily, and I'm gonna preface this by saying, I'm a I'm a nice dad, I'm a kind father.

I really do believe that.

But I'm just saying with with Lily, you've got to be firm.

Because if if Lily smells weakness, like she's got you.

And so with Lily, there is no, hey, hey, little girl, it's bedtime.

No, no, no, no, no.

That that does not fly.

With Lily right out of the gate, you've got to go, bedtime.

And she'll look at you and go, but yeah, no, no, I said bedtime.

And as soon as she knows that you mean business, she begins to bargain with you.

We usually hang out in our basement before it's time for bed, and so the first bargaining chip for Lily is carry me up the stairs.

And honestly, if you're ever watching Lily for some reason, just go ahead and give in on that one.

Otherwise, you make her walk up the stairs.

It's gonna take you a long time to get up the stairs.

She draws that out, and so you say, Okay, you pick her up, you take her to bed.

And then she's got all these demands.

She wants water, she wants a snack, she wants a story, she wants a song.

She has all this, she wants a very specific way of being tucked in that can change at the drop of a hat, but it's very important you do it the specific way that she wants.

And the deal with Lily is really simple.

You've got to give in to like three of her demands.

If you give in to two or one, no, that's not gonna fly.

She's just gonna see that as unreasonable.

But if you give in to like four, again, she smells weakness.

And it's gonna embolden her, and you're gonna have a fight on your hands like you've never experienced before.

And so everything kind of culminates with me putting Lily in her bed and then saying, I love you, good night.

Do not get out of bed, and then I shut the door.

That's how it ends every single night.

And she's still gonna get out of bed like five times.

That's just how she is.

Then you gotta put Liam to bed.

Liam's not hard, but he's very like, he needs to be spoiled to go to bed.

I don't know what it is.

He's got some some complex, he thinks he's royalty or something.

So he wants you to tell him a story, to pray with him, to sing him a song.

But the thing is, while you're doing those things, he insists that you be scratching his back.

Or like scratching his arm.

And sometimes, like a dog, he'll even just roll over and lift up his shirt, and he wants you to scratch his belly.

And it's very odd.

I never envisioned being a dad and like telling someone a Bible story while scratching their belly.

It's an odd, odd thing, you know?

But it's just whatever it takes to get them to bed.

And then I have to put Megan to bed.

And this is a whole other scenario.

Because, yes, and yes, Megan is my wife, but you don't understand, and I don't think she's in the room right now, so I can ask your help.

She, my wife will not let me go to bed unless she's ready to go to bed.

I I don't know, I, and I need help.

Like when we first got married 12 years ago, I would be the one wanting to stay up later because she she worked as a teacher, so she got up like at 4 30 in the morning, she had to get to school early.

I got to sleep in a little bit, so I'd be up.

I'm in my early 20s when we first got married, and and she'd go, hey, time to go to bed.

And I'm like, I haven't had a bedtime since I was like 14 years old, you know, so I'm gonna stay up, and she'd be like, No, no, no, come to bed with me.

And I would say, I honey, it's like 10 o'clock, I'm not tired.

And then she would like guilt me.

She would say, Are you saying that you would rather stay up and watch that game than come to bed with me?

I was like, I mean, it depends.

When you do you mean like go to bed, or do you mean like go to bed?

Like, because if you just mean go to bed, then yeah, actually, I would rather watch the game.

Just help me.

Like I said, she's not in the room right now, so this does not leave the room.

Does not leave the room.

But see, now, now I'm the one that gets up early.

Now I'm the one that wants to go to bed.

And she wants to stay up, and so I can't, she will not let me go to bed unless she's ready.

If I fall asleep and she's not ready to go to bed, she will wake me up.

Does anyone else have that experience?

Like I fall asleep on the couch and she nudges me, are you asleep?

I'm like, yes.

I got up an hour and a half earlier than you.

I can't keep staying up as late as you.

It doesn't work like that.

I need sleep, but but she makes me, and her routine is kind of like the kids.

She has certain things that you have to do.

Number one, it's always, can we watch a show?

And I say yes.

But a show is a very general term to her.

A show can be like four shows, five shows.

So we'll watch a show, and then after that show, she'll go, can we watch one more?

And I'll say yes, because she won't let me, she won't let me go to bed.

I'm powerless.

I just can't.

And and I have to watch as many shows as it takes, and finally, when when Lily's gone to bed and Judah's gone to bed and Liam's gone to bed, and Megan has finally had what she needs to go to bed, I I can sleep.

I finally get to sleep.

And then after like two hours, one of the kids will cry, and that question will come up in our bedroom.

It's such a strange question.

If you only know this if you've had kids, um, do you want to go get that?

Or do you want me to?

Like that's the question.

And it's just it's so hard for me to get sleep.

And I know many of you are in the same boat or you've been there.

It's just it's hard, and at the end of the day, I just want some rest.

I just want some rest.

Anybody tired this morning?

Like in life in general, just you're you're tired.

Okay, we've been talking about the real things that God has for us for the last several weeks.

We're beginning our year, 2017, with a series called A Year of Real.

And so we've talked about real purpose, and we've talked about having real wisdom in our lives, having real love, the real things God gives to us.

And today we're gonna talk about real rest.

Because honestly, if there's there's one thing that might describe the world that we live in, it is restless.

We live in a restless world.

We are expected to go.

Right?

And we're just expected to go at a pace that is that is crazy, especially if you were to compare it to the paces that people have lived in in times past.

We would look at that and go, that's all you did today?

I mean, it was hard work, but the pace was so much slower.

We've got to go.

From the time we wake up till the time we go to bed, it's just it's go, go, go, go, go.

And we, frankly, as a as a nation, I'm not trying to pick you out specifically, maybe you're the exception to the rule, but as a nation, as a world, we're not good at stopping.

We're not good at resting.

We honestly don't know how.

We're restless.

But Jesus offers us real rest.

In fact, in Matthew chapter 11, Jesus states something that it's really become one of the most famous things that he ever said.

Matthew 11 · chapter mention

We'll read it verses 28 through 30 in the message version or what we're looking at.

Jesus says, Are you tired?

Worn out, burned out on religion?

And you could replace on religion with a number of things in your life.

He says, Come to me, get away with me, and you'll recover your life.

I'll show you how to take a real rest.

Walk with me and work with me, watch how I do it.

Learn the unforced rhythms of grace.

I won't lay anything heavy or ill-fitting on you.

Keep company with me, and you'll learn to live freely and lightly.

I want to read this one more time, but I want you to keep in mind as we read this that this is not someone writing to our world today.

At least not specifically.

I mean, it's crazy.

This is Jesus talking to people who lived 2,000 years ago, but what he says seems like it is custom tailored for our world now.

Doesn't it?

I mean, it feels like he's written it directly to us.

That's why the Bible's so incredible.

He says, Are you tired?

Are you worn out?

Are you burned out?

Come to me, get away with me, and you'll recover your life.

I will show you how to take a real rest.

Walk with me and work with me.

Watch how I do it.

Learn the unforced rhythms of grace.

I will not lay anything heavy or ill-fitting on you.

Keep company with me, and you'll learn to live freely and lightly.

If I'm being honest with myself, which could be hard, freely and lightly are not words I would use very often to describe my life.

Very, very rarely, if someone were to say, Hey, how's it going?

Would I say, oh man, it's just been free and light.

You know?

Not a care in the world.

I'm just sort of floating by.

Just enjoying life.

Life is just moving along at a snail's pace, and I'm loving it, it's relaxing, it's good.

That's this is not the case at all.

In fact, if you walk up to someone and say, Hey, how you doing, almost always the response you get is like, good, busy.

Right?

Busy.

And sometimes the people who say they're busy, because I've been this person many times, I am this person many times, are aren't necessarily busy, but they're making themselves busy because we live in a world that basically teaches us that if you're not busy, something's wrong.

You need to be busier, you need to be doing more.

What are you doing?

Get moving, go faster, higher goals, more aggressive goals, whatever it is, we've got to go.

And so we are we are restless.

And here we have Jesus saying, Hey, would you like life to be free and light?

Is that appealing to you?

Do you need a real rest?

You know, we're so restless as a society that we don't even know how to take a real rest.

Like, we really don't.

The best thing that our society has come up with for rest is the concept of a vacation.

That's the best thing.

Because there's nothing more relaxing than spending all of your money, packing a bunch of stuff, traveling halfway across the country with the pressure of getting there on time, praying to God that it does not rain, that the weather is completely cooperative, and waking up every day going, I have to have a good time today.

I have to have a good time.

Today must be good, right?

That is so, it's just so relaxing.

Have you ever been on a vacation and you got back from it exhausted?

Like you got back from the vacation, you're like, I've got to get some sleep.

Like you need a vacation from vacation.

I've been on some vacations that were disastrous, but even the vacations I've been on that were were incredible, where things still went really well, there were still moments where it was it was exhausting.

In fact, this last holiday season, Megan and I took our kids to Chattanooga for two days.

Yeah.

It's one of those cities that just brings out passion in people, right?

Chattanooga.

We went to Chattanooga because it's an hour and a half away.

And that's about as far as we're willing to drive with our three children.

And so we went there for two days just to have a little bit of a family getaway, and and it was it was amazing.

It honestly was.

We had a blast.

We ate so much good food.

And and if you've been here long, you know I really like I like to talk about food.

I just do.

And I just have to tell you guys about a new discovery that I made in my life.

It's a little restaurant in Chattanooga called the Maple Street Biscuit Company.

Okay?

Does anyone have you been to this place?

I want to show you this.

Hold on.

I'm gonna just okay.

You need to understand, I don't have I don't have Twitter, okay?

I don't really post on Facebook.

So when I take a picture of food, it's not because I'm gonna like send it out.

It's because I want to remember it.

It's because there's days that I need to pull up my phone and just stare at this.

I ate this twice at the Maple Street Biscuit Company.

Here's what this is.

Every morning, the Maple Street Biscuit Company, who has not paid me to endorse them, I want to make sure you know that.

Um they uh they they make these biscuits from scratch.

And on that biscuit, you can't quite see it because it's just gloriously covered, uh, it's a fried chicken breast, applewood smoked bacon, slice of cheddar cheese, fried egg, topped with homemade spicy sausage gravy.

And I ate it twice within a 24-hour period of time.

Because sometimes you have to abuse yourself.

It's just life.

You have to do that.

And and I'll just say I'm I'm being serious.

If anyone wants to go, I I figured it out this morning.

If if if we can meet here on a day of the week, like five o'clock, if enough people want to, 5 a.m., we'll be at Chattanooga at 6 45 or so.

We sit down, we eat.

We still have time to get back here by 9, and I think it's worth it.

And so if you want to, let's make a little carpool.

Seriously, like reach out.

I would I will do that.

As long as enough people want to go, um, I'll do it.

Why not?

My life is valuable, so is my time.

Let's do this, okay?

So suffice it to say, the food was amazing.

We did some great stuff in Chattanooga.

We went to the aquarium, that was a blast, our kids loved it.

Liam loves the ocean, so he was just obsessed with it.

Uh, and then we went to Ruby Falls.

Anyone ever been to Ruby Falls?

Okay.

Awesome.

So a lot of you can picture it.

If you haven't been to Ruby Falls, you get in an elevator, you go underneath the earth, you are you are in this underground cavern, cave that stretches for like a mile, and you just walk through it and and you're there, and you see this waterfall at the end underground.

It's actually really beautiful and cool.

So we go to Ruby Falls.

We're expecting to be there for like maybe an hour and a half.

We're thinking it's the day after Christmas.

How many people go, you know what?

You know what I really want to do after I open my presents?

Go to a cave, right?

We kind of thought we we'd we'd go and and it would be light, uh, but it was not.

It was like the busiest day of their year.

In fact, they they were even surprised.

We asked some people working there, hey, is it always like this?

And they're like, I don't know what's going on.

This is nuts.

And so we had to wait in line for an hour and a half just to get onto the elevator, okay?

So we get on the elevator, because we're there, we're like, we might as well just do this.

We get into the cave, okay?

And then we realize, oh yeah, this is the time that Judah eats dinner.

We thought we were only, we thought we'd be there and back by the time it was, it was time for him to eat.

And he he was only like seven, eight months old at this time, and so you know, babies, when they're hungry, they're not understanding.

There's no, there's no, you can't look at a baby and go, just an hour.

It's just, you know, what's the difference between 5 p.m., 6 p.m.?

Just an hour.

No, no, no, no.

Like when babies don't have their food, they just start to scream and to yell.

And if you've ever wondered to yourself randomly, just at home, man, I wonder how loud a baby's scream is inside of a cave, right?

Where it's just nothing but rock and the sound, because you know, if you're in a cave and you just go like, hello, it'll stretch forever, I wonder how a baby's screams sound in a cave.

And I will let you know the answer to that.

I know, I've solved that mystery.

It's loud, it's excruciatingly loud.

And if you've ever had a baby and they're being really fussy and in a in an environment that there's other people in, and you know how you feel bad.

You just feel bad.

And you end up apologizing to everyone over and over again.

Because we're with this whole group and we're just walking going, I'm so sorry, you know.

Like, we didn't feed him.

You know.

Do you happen to have anything in your purse?

Do you have anything at all?

Like a banana?

Is there anything?

Did you bring something?

And we're sitting there, and it was it was non-stop for like an hour and a half.

He's just screaming at the top of his lungs.

And if you've been on that trip, sometimes you hit these like really narrow passageways where you have to move over because another group's coming back.

And so we'd be holding in every group that would walk past us, you could hear him whispering, like, there's that baby, that's the baby.

I think that's the baby.

And we were sitting there going, sorry.

It was terrible.

We got back from Ruby Falls exhausted.

Like I slept so, so well that night because it was it was exhausting.

We went there to relax.

That was the whole point of our trip.

We went there to relax, to rest.

But even when you try to rest, life has this way of robbing you of that experience.

So when Jesus says, I will give you real rest, we should pay close attention.

Because Jesus can actually deliver.

Jesus, he follows through.

When Jesus says something, he he does it.

And when he promises us real rest, it's not this conditional thing.

It's not Jesus saying, hey, so long as everything goes according to plan and the world around you cooperates, I will give you real rest.

No, this is Jesus saying, I, the one whose name is above all names, over heaven, over earth, I will give you real rest.

And see, what I want to suggest to all of us this morning is that only Jesus can give us real rest.

Because only Jesus can address the real restlessness in our lives.

See, we tend to think of rest, we immediately go physical, right?

Physical rest.

And that that's kind of like the tip of an iceberg.

It's the part you can see, but it by no means encompasses the entire iceberg.

Physical rest is what we notice, because we feel it.

And honestly, physical rest isn't that hard to address.

You can take a nap, you can go to bed, you can sleep in in the morning, and you can temporarily deal with that physical restlessness that you might have.

But but what about the restlessness of your soul?

What about the restlessness that comes from not a lack of sleep, but but a lack of a lack of being able to cope with what life is throwing at you?

What about the anxiety and the worry that we feel all the time because we're not sure how things are gonna work out?

Because our plans are not going according to plan, because we cannot see light at the end of the tunnel that we're in?

What about the restlessness that comes from that?

Because I believe at the end of the day, that's the real restlessness that we're struggling with.

Not a lack of a few hours of sleep here or there, but a lack of being able to rest.

Being able to say, it's gonna be okay.

It's gonna work out.

Everything's not falling apart.

This is this is gonna be alright, this is gonna be okay.

That's the that's the real rest we need, and that's the rest that only Jesus can give.

That restlessness that we feel because we don't know, we're uncertain, we're we're anxious, we're worried, we have no idea how things are gonna play out.

That is that has plagued humanity from the beginning.

You can look back to a story like like the story in Exodus.

Exodus chapter 33.

Exodus 33 · chapter mention

Moses is having this conversation with God, and this is about 1500 years before Jesus.

Moses is leading the nation of Israel.

God's told him to do this incredible thing: take the the Egyptians, take the people of Israel out of Egypt, and then take them into this promised land.

But things are not going according to plan.

And so Moses talks to God and he says, God, Lord, you have been telling me, take these people up to the promised land.

But you haven't told me whom you will send with me.

You've told me I know you by name and I look favorably on you.

If it's true that you look favorably on me, let me know your ways, so I may understand you more fully and continue to enjoy your favor and remember that this nation is your very own people.

You ever feel like you have to remind God of things God has said?

You're like, hey God, remember when you told me that you loved me?

Yeah, so I'm not feeling that at all.

Um would just love it if you would, you know, confirm that somehow.

That's what's happening.

Moses is saying, Hey God, God, I love you.

And you remember that time that you said I should take these people, there's like a million people with me, uh, I should take them to the promised land.

I'm still waiting on the details on how exactly that's gonna happen.

And you said I'd do this, but you haven't given me the specifics, and it's not working out.

Moses is at his wit's end, he's losing it, and he's going, God, I don't know if I can do this.

What am I gonna do?

You've got to help me and look at God's response to him.

The Lord replied, I will personally go with you, Moses, and I will give you rest.

Everything will be fine for you.

This is God saying, Moses, chill, out.

I've got this.

I'm with you.

You can you can rest in the comfort of knowing that it's on me.

It's on me.

See, when we when we rest, when we really rest, some interesting things happen.

When we when we stop and just pause for a little bit, hey, this is actually really convenient.

A lot of you guys are wearing Julio Jones jerseys today.

It's like a little, yeah, it's like the one-one looks like a pause button, so for you, it's just like just go ahead and hit your chest, and you can pause today.

Like when you from where I'm standing, that's what it looks like.

When you when you stop and actually hit the pause button on everything happening in life, for a moment, you have some stillness.

See, stillness is the opposite of restlessness.

And when you have stillness, you remember a few things, some really important things.

Number one, you remember that God is God.

That's why Psalm 46 10 says, Be still and know that I am God.

It's really hard to remember that God is God when we're going here and there and doing everything and trying to control everything and all this kind of stuff.

Be still and know that I am God.

Sometimes I think I'm God.

That can come out really wrong, depending on the context.

I don't believe that I actually think I'm divine and that I have all power and all knowledge, but sometimes I live life as if I'm God because I'm trying to do it all.

In my mind, I actually believe that it's all on me.

I live that way all the time, and it's stressful.

It drives me crazy.

I think that way about this church sometimes.

That like it's it's on me.

That oh man, if the message better be good.

If I don't say the right things or or it doesn't come out the right way, it's all gonna fall apart.

Right?

And that's ridiculous.

That's such a small display of faith.

But sometimes my faith is small.

The good news is all God asks for is small faith.

So as long as we give him what we got, he's good.

But sometimes I literally believe that it's on me.

I think about my family.

I I love my wife so much and and my three kids.

I love all of them so much, and I want their lives to be fantastic.

I would love to ensure their safety and their comfort and their success.

And whenever I try to do that, sometimes I basically decide in my heart, I'll be God.

It's on me.

Their success, their health, their well-being.

That's that's on my shoulders.

And when I live that way, believing that it's all on me, I'm literally living as if I'm God, and I unfortunately cannot bear the weight of being God.

It doesn't work.

I've experienced it far too many times.

I'm not good at being God.

I'm downright bad.

But you know who is really good at being God?

God.

He's super, he's a natural when it comes to being God.

He just does it.

And when I'm still, when I rest and stop and remember who he really is.

See, in those moments, I get to fire myself from the responsibility of being God, which is wonderful.

And I get to experience what Moses experienced.

I get to experience the reassurance that comes from remembering that God's the one who's got it.

It's God who wants to carry the weight.

And so maybe you're here today and you're going, okay, I feel all this stress in my life.

I'm restless.

I'm restless in my career.

I want you to understand, hey, it's important to work hard, it's important to do your best, but God's got it.

He's got you.

Let him be God.

Just be still and let him be who he is.

Maybe you own your own business.

And I have a lot of friends that are business owners, and that is that is a challenge because, man, feeling like it's all on you, you've got all these people working for you, you've got the bills, you've got the overhead, you've got all this stuff, you've got to have vision, you've got to take the business in a direction, and you can feel like it's all on you.

But I want you to know this morning, and take this how I mean it, it's not all on you because you're not God.

So don't carry weight that you don't need to carry.

Maybe it's your kids.

Maybe you're in a different stage of life than me, and your kids have grown.

And they're making their own decisions, but you don't like the decisions they're making.

And you're sitting there going, no, no, no, no, no, no, please, no.

I raised you the way I raised you so you wouldn't go this way.

And you're looking at that and you're you're you're maybe freaking out a little bit.

And you've got to stop and remember, hey, you did your job the best you could.

And sure, you probably made mistakes, we all do, but you're not God, so don't try to be God.

Let God be God and remember that He has got them.

He loves them more than you.

And you don't have to be the one in control.

You can give the control away.

See, our restlessness comes from our need to be in control.

But when we stop and we give it to Him, when we're still and when we say, Hey, I don't want to be God anymore.

Well, He actually does what He promises to do.

He gives us rest.

We go back to Matthew chapter 11 as we wrap up.

Matthew 11 · chapter mention

Subtle cue for the worship team to make their way out.

Are you tired, worn out, burned out on religion?

Come to me.

Get away with me, and you'll recover your life.

I'll show you how to take a real rest.

Walk with me and work with me.

Watch how I do it.

Learn the unforced rhythms of grace.

I won't lay anything heavy or ill-fitting on you.

Keep company with me and you'll learn to live freely and lightly.

Notice what Jesus' answer to restlessness is.

Are you tired?

Are you worn out?

Are you burned out?

He says the answer is him.

He says, okay, if that's you, come to me.

And maybe you're here this morning.

You've never you've never come to Jesus.

And that's okay, by the way.

We all come to Jesus in our own time at our own moments.

But if you've never come to him, I'd encourage you this morning to come to him.

And what that means is that you just say in your heart, I believe, I'm yours, I need you.

I don't want to be the God of my life anymore.

I would like to fire myself from being God and hire a new one.

The good news is he's free.

And so if you've never come to Jesus this morning, you can come to Jesus.

But for those of you who have already come to Jesus, notice that it doesn't stop there.

He says, Hey, are you tired?

Are you burned out and worn out?

Okay, come to me, then what?

Walk with me.

Are you walking with God?

And what does that even mean?

Sometimes we have these phrases in our vocabulary as Christians that we just say all the time, how's your walk, man?

You walking good with God?

Like, what is what?

Well, no, walking means are you are you going in the direction that God would have you go?

And are you going at the pace that God would have you go at?

Notice that he doesn't say come sprint with me.

God's not going, hey, you wanna you wanna run?

You wanna go for a run?

Anyone here like to run?

You enjoy running?

Yeah, of course not.

Sorry.

Nathan actually does like to run.

You don't love running.

You look no, you don't love running.

No, you don't.

That's a lie.

You're a liar.

No one, no one loves, no one runs and goes, like, I'm having so much fun right now.

They're like, that's why you like, well, when is this over?

That's the only thing you're thinking.

I don't believe you.

But he doesn't say that.

He doesn't say, run with me, sprint with me.

He says, walk with me.

God's pace is almost always slower than ours.

Almost, almost always.

And so maybe you've come to Jesus.

But are you walking with him?

Or have you gotten ahead of his pace because you're trying so hard?

Just pull back and walk with him.

His presence is the answer.

His presence is what gives you the rest that you need.

That's what he says.

Come to me, walk with me, work with me.

Isn't work the opposite of rest?

Well, that all depends on what you're doing and who you're doing it with, right?

I remember before I was part of this team, other jobs that I had, and I would check the schedule, and uh who I was working with, who I was scheduled with would greatly affect how much I looked forward to those shifts.

I'd be like, oh, yay.

I'm working with that manager today.

They're so great.

You know what I mean?

And and I want to have grace for people, I want to be that, but it's just, you know, there's people that can make it, they can make work unbearable.

And then there's other people who just make work free and light.

And they have this way of making you forget that you're actually working hard and you feel like you're you're doing something you enjoy, maybe something that even has purpose and meaning.

That's Jesus.

When you work with him, and by the way, we all get to work with him.

When you work with him, work is rest.

He says, keep company with me.

It just means he's saying, remember that I'm your friend.

Jesus said this to his disciples, hey, I don't view you as slaves.

I don't view you as just servants because a servant doesn't get all the information.

The master doesn't give the inside scoop to the servants.

You're my friends.

You are you are a friend of God's.

He views you as his friend.

Keep company with him, spend time with your friend.

Because when you are in his presence, restlessness gives way to rest.

That's how you get real rest.

You're in his presence.

That's what Jesus says.

You want rest?

Come to me.

Walk with me, work with me, keep company with me, and you will recover your life.

You will learn to live freely and lightly.

And look, I experienced this like everybody else.

It is hard sometimes to carve out time and be in his presence because the world does not cooperate with us.

A few days ago, and maybe this is too much information, you'll just have to forgive me, but a few days ago, I had a moment, an opportunity to spend time with God, and I was so excited.

The only person at our house was Judah, it was me, and Judah went down for a nap, and so I'm like, I got two hours.

And so I went into our bathroom and I turned on the bath.

I was wearing swimming trunks, and uh I wasn't, but sorry.

So I just thought that was weird.

So I was like, I'm gonna take a bath and I'm gonna pray in the bathtub, like a baby or something.

I don't know.

Uh baths are cool, baths are really cool.

And so I I I turn the water on, and it like takes a while to fill up a tub, you know what I mean?

And uh and I get this worship station on my phone, I get it all turned to the right, the right playlist, and I'm ready to go, and I'm like, I'm just gonna get in this warm bath.

I'm literally going to just soak, literally, in God's presence and pray.

And the second that I that I got in the tub, Judah woke up and just started crying.

The second.

And I sat there and went, God, no.

Thank you for my children.

You know?

And so that life did not cooperate with me that day, but I'm saying that because one of the beautiful things that we have here is we we carve those moments out together.

And that's why that's why it's such a privilege and an honor when we get to worship together on Sunday mornings.

Or at things like more, this upcoming Wednesday night.

Like someone is going to watch your children if you have kids, so you can have, and by the way, they're gonna have God's time, but so you can have some time to be in his presence because when you're in his presence, you get still and you find rest.

And the storms get calm, and the worry and the fear gives way to faith.

Restlessness becomes stillness in the presence of God.

That's why Jesus said the answer for rest is me.

So come to me, walk with me, work with me, keep company with me.

We're gonna pray, and we're gonna have one more worship song.

The Super Bowl is not till 6:30.

I finished three minutes earlier than I did at the nine o'clock service.

And that's a big accomplishment for me.

It's two minutes now.

Dang it, I just looked at the clock.

Um, but we're still gonna go with it.

We're gonna focus on the positive.

You you have you are free to go.

And there's no pressure.

If you need to get somewhere, I get it, that's fine.

You're free to go get your kids, and I know we want to beat the traffic or whatever.

But you may not get another uninterrupted five or six minutes to be in God's presence today.

That may not happen.

But we've carved out a few minutes here.

And so, what I want to encourage you to do right now is to worship God for the next five minutes and surrender.

All the stuff that you're worried about, all the stuff that's going through your mind, all the things that need done, all the things that make you restless, for the next five minutes, you don't have to be God.

Just let him be who he is, be in his presence, and ask him to give you the rest that he promises, to give you that trust that it's gonna be okay.

Because just like he was with Moses, he's with you.

He's with you, and he loves you.

Pray with me.

Jesus, thank you so much for promising us something that we really need.

We need rest, Lord.

We need a rest for our spirit and a rest for our souls.

We love you.

We love you so much.

And God, there's not one of us in this room that isn't dealing with something, burdened by something.

And God, you know my heart, you know all the junk that I deal with, and yet you still love me.

I just ask right now, Father, that we would understand the privilege that belongs to us.

Just a few moments in your presence can change lives.

A little bit of time with you, Lord, sets us up for so much.

I just reminded that Moses spent 40 days on the top of a mountain with you so that he could spend 40 years in a desert.

Those 40 days gave him the strength he needed for 40 years.

And Lord, I believe that these next five minutes can give us the strength that we need for the next week ahead.

So we're inviting you, Spirit, Holy Spirit, we're inviting your presence into this room.

We're asking that you would make yourself known to us and that you would give us rest.

Real rest.

That we would be still in our hearts and that we would know that you're God.

We love you, and we ask all this in your name, Lord.

Amen.