Finding The Rest You're Needing | Lawrence Campus | October 11, 2026

I'm Jeff Pittman.

I'm one of the pastors around here.

And we're going to dive into God's word today.

We're going to look at what he says in the Bible and then try to teach you some points for us to take home in application as well.

Now I'm a runner.

I've been a runner for a long time.

And it was a few months ago, uh maybe several months ago now, that I got added to a thread, like a text thread of other runners from Spring Lake Church.

I thought it'd be kind of nice to kind of do running with other people.

It was always kind of nice to share some tips along the way and that kind of thing.

Well I didn't know was this group of people are wild men.

They are crazy people.

They often would run, maybe text them about opportunities to run together, and they run at five in the morning during the weekdays.

That means you have to get up in the fours in order to get ready, to ready running, and be somewhere at 5 o'clock to run with them.

And uh I don't normally do that, although I'm a morning person, but not a get up in the fours type of morning person.

That's not who I am.

But I did it a few times, and it's just fun to be with these guys uh as well.

Uh but they're even crazier than just getting up in the morning and running.

Uh, four of them decided they wanted to do the Iron Man 70.3 this year in Madison.

So if you don't know what Iron Man is, it's a long triathlon, if you will, and the 70.3 is to add up all the distances of the different disciplines in that triathlon.

It's a 1.2 mile swim, it is a 56-mile bike ride, and it is uh it's a half marathon, so 13.1 miles of running all in a row.

You do all of that as well, which is which is crazy, crazy talk for us as well.

I got an opportunity to actually go uh there and watch them.

Okay, so I didn't want to be part of them.

And so my job was to kind of encourage them along the way as well.

You want to see a picture of them?

Here's a picture of my buddies who uh who did the half iron man there.

Uh see how happy they are?

See how happy they are?

They're smiling so much here.

This is them at the end of the race.

So they're having a blast during that time.

But and they and they and they they're smiling there because they had just competed for six to seven hours in a row.

And they had trained for this event, right?

They've trained, they prepared for it, they put it on the counter, they did different preparations for that, and then they crossed the finish line.

There's this sense of joy, there's a sense of completion, there's a sense of satisfaction.

When you cross that finish line, you can say, you are an Iron Man at that point.

And they're so happy for that moment as well, which is great, great to see.

Now, if I showed you a picture of what their faces looked like during the half marathon portion of it, it wouldn't have been smiling, right?

It wouldn't have been.

In fact, actually, I do a lot of running as well.

And if you're a runner, you realize that in a race, they send you emails saying, Hey, do you want your pictures?

Do you want your pictures?

Because they have people on the race car, of course, taking pictures.

They want you to spend a lot of money to get pictures.

I never understood that really at all because um most people look horrible when they're running.

Why would you want that picture at all?

So their faces are usually like, ugh, you know, or like, just now they might perk up a little bit if you say, like, you kind of they know someone you know, they might like muscle up a smile, you know.

But when you're in the half marathon part of a Iron Man, they are just getting through it.

Right?

There's they're just doing everything they can to get through to that point as well.

There's a difference that they have, there's an adversity they're facing, there's an effort they're here, there's a deep prayer that's happening during that last section of that.

They weren't always smiling during that event.

And even though the journey that they had was tough and grueling at times, they all felt the joy.

They all felt the satisfaction of finishing.

In fact, I know several, at least a couple of those guys, probably all of them, are looking to schedule their next one, right?

Because they have such an excitement for finishing and being an iron man.

Now, we're in Hebrews, in a whole series we're here during the series we're in now.

We're gonna be Hebrews 4, so you can go over there if you want.

But today, the author of Hebrews talks about this like concept of rest.

And he talks about rest all the time.

Over ten times in this verse, this section we're reading today, he talks about rest.

And like uh our Iron Man athletes we talked about today, uh, rest is not simply uh resting like napping or resting from fatigue, although that is part of rest.

Resting that this author is talking about is also talking about completion, like finishing strong, being done, having a wholeness, a fullness of life as well.

And the author of Hebrews is encouraging the readers to keep going, to keep the faith.

Don't throw it in when the tough when when it gets rough in life.

Now, give some context for the book of Hebrews.

It's an unknown author, but we sort of highly know that the author of Hebrews has a Jewish background.

We know that because he's often referencing uh Old Testament stories and uh stories that the Jewish people wouldn't would have known, that the Gentile believers wouldn't have known as well.

So he's a Jewish uh author with a Jewish background as well.

And he's often likely reading or writing to Jewish believers in Jesus.

And we know that because the amount of times he referenced back into the Old Testament as well.

We also realize that during this time, that those Christians, those Jewish believers in Jesus, were facing persecution.

They're facing difficult times, they're facing uh tough times for their faith.

And in the midst of this, these trials and this these difficulties, there's a temptation that they have just to fall back into their Jewish faith.

See, they were Jewish, they still are Jewish, and they became followers of Jesus.

And then life is getting harder.

And in the midst of those trials, they're thinking, oh, maybe I just kind of come back and just get rid of the Jesus part of my Jewish faith.

And the author of Hebrews is telling them, don't do that.

Keep on go and keep fighting and going forward.

Now, this is important for us to know as we read today, because we are good to know the context of the scripture that we're reading.

Now, we are unlikely to face the persecution that the early church went through.

Like that, those specific persecutions.

And we're unlikely to fall back on our Jewish faith because most of us in this room probably don't have a Jewish background in their faith.

I know I don't have that as well.

But we all have somewhere we started for before we became a follower of Jesus.

And when our faith gets tried and our faith gets tested, we're likely to fall back upon what we had before.

And in America, in the Western culture, it often is ourselves.

So we're often tied between am I going to be the leader of my life and rely on my own abilities and things that are within me, or am I going to cling to the faith that Jesus has, cling to God in the midst of these trials and difficulties in my life?

And so for us, we may not face the same persecution that the Hebrews did, that the readers are reading here, but we do face difficulties in our life.

And the question is, are we going to those difficulties are we going to cling to Jesus and follow him, or are we going to fall back onto ourselves?

Well, let's dive into the scripture this morning.

This is Hebrews chapter 4, starting in verse 1.

Hebrews 4 · chapter mention

It says, Therefore, since the promise of entering his rest still stands, let us be careful that none of you be found to have fallen short of it.

For we all have had the good news proclaimed to us, just as they did.

But the message they heard was no was of no value to them, because they did not share the faith of those who obeyed.

Now we who have believed enter that rest, just as God has said.

So I declare on oath, in my anger, they shall never enter my rest.

And yet, this were his works have been finished since the creation of the world.

For somewhere he has spoken about the seventh day in these words.

On the seventh day, God rested from all his works.

And again in the passage above he says, They shall never enter my rest.

Therefore, since it still remains for some to enter that rest, and since those who formerly had the good news proclaimed to them did not go in because of their disobedience.

God again set a certain day calling it today.

This is this he did when a long time later he spoke through David, as in the passage already quoted.

Today, if you hear his voice, do not harden your hearts.

For if Joshua had given them rest, God would have not spoken later about another day.

There remains then a Sabbath rest for the people of God.

For anyone who enters God's rest also rest from their works, just as God did from his.

Let us, therefore, make every effort to enter that rest, so that no one may perish by following their example of disobedience.

For the word of God is live and active, sharper than any double edged sword, it penetrates even to divide in dividing soul and spirit, joints and marrow, it judges the thoughts and attitudes of the heart.

Nothing in all creation is hidden from God's sight.

Everything is uncovered and laid bare before the eyes of him who must give account.

So here we talk about this again.

One is the seventh day rest, the day that when God created the whole earth.

So he in Genesis we read that God had different days, he did created different created creation and different steps every day.

And the seventh day, he rested from his work.

And he looked over and saw what he all created.

Now we know that he's not resting from fatigue.

God doesn't get tired.

It wasn't like he was exhausted from creating all of creation.

He rested because he was complete.

He was done.

And he looked over at his work with satisfaction for what was created.

Well, other example used to describe rest was the promised land and the wilderness.

And so this is a story that the readers would have known very, very well.

But let me refresh you as well.

There's a time in history where the Jewish people were enslaved in Egypt.

And it got really bad from there.

Really, they were treated poorly, not cared for well in that regard.

God heard them and saw them in the midst of that and rescued them out of slavery.

You might have heard this from the story of Moses and going through dry land in the Red Sea.

So he rescued them out of slavery.

But on the other side of the Red Sea, there's a bunch of the Israelites became grumpy.

Some of them said they wish they'd gone, they would have been back in slavery.

They were ungrateful with what God had done for them and started to doubt the goodness of God in the midst of what he's doing in the midst of his life.

So what God did, he said, that that generation, the generation of people who passed through the Red Sea, they will never enter the promised land.

This promised, this land that God promised for the Jewish nation.

And that was gonna, so that that's why you hear about the 40 years of in the wilderness, that this is this time that God is just testing and also uh uh caring for uh the Jewish people in the wilderness during this time.

But that generation was not able to go into the promised land, which which the author is calling rest.

Now, the promised land speaks to this time where things are this union with Christ that was so deeply that they'll depend on him for everything.

It's not an area.

The promised land still had work involved, they still had to till fields and care for each other and all those different things as well, but it represented a time where there's a strong union, it's supposed to be a strong union with God, a connection with God that was deep and everlasting.

See, this rest was a freedom from the influences of the nations around them as well.

It was a connection with God that was deep and lasting.

Well, the other example he used was this eternal rest, what the author calls Sabbath rest.

This is this is going into the future of an eternal rest where God's gonna, where everything will be made right again.

And just like God rested in the seventh day, all would be perfect.

You see, there's a time when God created the earth and created everything, and it was perfect, but sin broke that, and so there's a time where God will make it all perfect again.

So we talk about Sabbath rest, he's talking about there will be a future time where everything will be made right the way it was meant to be.

It'll be perfect and complete.

Because rest is completion as well.

Now, this rest is in the past, we're referencing the creation of the earth.

There's a rest opportunity there.

There's also rest that's into the future when the new creation comes, when Jesus returns back to earth.

But that rest is also present and available for us here today.

We can taste a portion of this rest even today now.

That's what we mentioned in verse 7.

That verse 7 says, God again set a certain day calling it today.

We can have this rest.

At least a taste of this rest today within our own lives.

And we see this within the life of Jesus in the New Testament here.

In Matthew 11, Jesus says, Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest.

Take my yoke upon you and learn from me.

For I'm gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls.

For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light.

Now hear that scripture.

I want that.

For me, I want that for you.

And Jesus says, Hey, you're going through burdens.

You're weary.

This is life is a struggle.

Come to me, and I will give you rest.

You mentioned before, rest isn't always an alleviation of worries, it's an alleviation of struggle in life.

In fact, later on in the same book of Matthew, Jesus says this in Matthew 16.

Then Jesus says to his disciples, Whoever wants to be my disciple must deny themselves and take up their cross and follow me.

So in this scripture, he's saying, take up your cross, which we know means that Jesus carried his cross to his crucifixion.

So life will be difficult as a Christian.

But then at the same hand, Jesus is saying you can have rest for a weary soul.

So how do we understand how to how to how to keep these two tensions together?

See, the rest that the Bible talks about isn't a lack of trials, isn't it a lack of difficult parts of our life, is the fact that we are so connected to Jesus that no matter what we go through, being in the presence of Him, being connected to Him is worth it and better and restful than if we did it on our own.

See, walking with Jesus through the ups and downs of life is far better than a life left to ourselves.

And that's the rest that God promises us.

And this this is the first point we have today.

The promise of rest is open for us today.

Now, the original audience, they might have thought this was unattainable because they heard the stories of the Israelites kind of continuing the failing to receive this rest, specifically the story of the Jewish people in the wilderness.

They always failed to receive the rest that was promised toward them.

So they could easily think, man, this rest is never available here.

But the author is saying it is.

Keep on going, keep moving, keep looking for it, keep moving towards this available rest.

Okay.

And that's available for us today as well.

See, God desires for all humanity to have this type of rest, this union with Christ.

So if you were listening to me today, if you're breathing air into your lungs, God wants you to have this rest.

This perfect contentment, this perfect completion, this union with Jesus.

This rest is also elusive.

See, within all of us, we have this desire within our stockship to make better parts of this world.

We we work hard for our families.

We work hard in our work to make money to provide for things around us as well.

We try to make be good neighbors to people in our neighborhoods as well.

As a society, we work to cure diseases and solve problems, and we've seen some success in this in regards over the last several decades at least.

But satisfaction and contentment is still elusive.

The more we try, we realize that it just doesn't really seem to satisfy.

Anxiety in our culture is even high, even in the midst of all this advances we have.

And throwing the fact that sin is in our life as well and it breaks us.

It really impacts our relationship we have with Jesus, but it kills us inside as well.

Sin is rampant in our lives, and it takes, it takes, it's looking to take us down.

You see, we see this as in past as pastors as well.

We see us in pastors, we see the mountain times experien uh experiences.

We see people who have a great experience with Jesus.

We see baptism services, we see weddings, we see births of new kids, and we are excited about all the different things that God is doing in our lives, see the goodness of life as well.

But we also see uh the difficulty in life.

We see the relational challenges, we see divorces, we see abuse, we see trials that people are going through as well.

Life is a mixture of ups and downs, and throughout all of it, outside of Jesus, we don't get this contentment, this peace, this rest that God wants for us.

So, how can we obtain this?

How do we reach out and get this rest?

So to obtain this rest, that's our second point, is that our response matters.

God's offering us rest, but in order to take hold of that, we have response on our end.

See, rest is used multiple times in this chapter, but there's also another common theme we see.

There's a connection we see between faith and belief, and obedience and disobedience.

What we see here is that when there is unbelief and the lack of faith, that leads to disobedience, and the author is saying that goes, that leads to us not entering any rest.

But when there is faith and belief, and that is strong, that leads towards obedience in God, and that leads us to rest.

You see, our response matters.

But what do we mean by belief and faith?

Well, the biblical view of belief and faith goes beyond just an intellectual understanding.

We can't just understand it in our minds about what belief that we believe in Jesus.

It also means our lives have to be aligned towards him as well.

Faith and belief is also a practical and active thing in our lives.

It means we orient our entire lives around God.

That our connection with him is above everything else in our lives.

We have an allegiance to him more than anything else in our lives.

Or as kids say today, Jesus is my ride or die.

We're all in with Jesus.

Now, this sounds great in theory, but this gets tested in our trials.

This last uh Tuesday, I went on a field trip with my uh sixth grade uh daughter.

We went to a camp, uh, to a YM State camp, just to do some rock climbing stuff.

We did some fishing, we did some archery.

It was a beautiful day.

It was a gorgeous day.

We're in the Northwoods.

I remember walking through kind of little paths, realizing, God, you are good.

This creation is just amazing.

You did all this for us.

I'm so thankful for that.

So this creation drew me to acknowledge God and to worship God in the midst of that as well.

We also find ourselves cleaning to God in difficult times, right?

I remember being a 16-year-old and uh coming home to my house and seeing my daughter, my daughter, my sister on the front porch and she's crying, right?

And we come up to her and say, What's going on, Katie?

And she's like, Yeah, mom just got taken an ambulance over to the hospital.

She had an emergency.

And at that point, this is early enough, we don't have any cell phones, that kind of stuff.

I didn't know what's going on.

I'm gonna tell you, my prayer life jumped up quite a bit at that point.

Right?

Because when I don't have any tools, when I have nothing I can do to help a situation, I lean upon God.

I'm like, oh God, I need you right now because I don't I don't know else to do.

I'm just like struggling.

How can how can I need your help in the midst?

We often find in my life, I often find myself clinging to God when I see his other world, I see the beauty of creation, I see that he's doing something that's beyond my abilities.

And where I need him in a way I can't do anything about something.

What's hard for me to have faith and belief, I don't think I'm alone here, is when I can do things about things in my life.

The things my normal, routine parts of my day, I can often go on an autopilot where I am leading myself instead of God.

You know, so my role here at Sprint Lake, I'm an executive pastor, I meet with a lot of staff members.

I have a lot of meetings with staff members, we talk about their lives, what's going on in ministry, we can uh solve problems, things like that.

We try to look at a strategy and how they're how that's aligning with what God's doing within our church.

It's kind of a big part of my role is meeting with staff members.

I do it a lot, so much so that I can easily go into those meetings without really, really preparing and praying about that.

And just saying, hey, I'm just gonna kind of go in here and do my normal things.

I might imagine you have the same thing in your life too.

Like those routine things you do, whether you're going to work or be with your family, and you realize you might be relying on yourself for that.

But it takes belief, takes faith to say, God, what are you doing in the midst of our day?

What are you doing today?

How when I go into this meeting, when I go into this situation, how are you working and how can I come alongside you and be part of what you are doing in this situation?

That's what I found, as strange as it is, in the routine things of my life, that's where I find my brief.

And my faith rely to switch over to relying on myself and not upon God.

That's an important distinction because to find rest, to find true contentment and peace and fulfillment in life, the author is saying you must have belief and faith in God in all circumstances.

That's tricky.

But the author's Hebrews is pleading.

Rest is attainable.

Grab hold of it.

Not by striving on our own, not the American way of doing that way, but by not by forgetting the blessings of God and complaining to God about what was broken in this world, what happened with the Jewish people in the wilderness, but by trusting in God for our contentment, satisfaction in our life in every aspect of our lives.

And that rest is available today.

Now, much of this discussion has been on faith and belief, you know, disobedience and obedience.

It's unseen by the world around us.

I mean it's a heart issue, right?

So I could go ahead through my life and do the same things that God wanted me to do, or same things I want to be doing, but you wouldn't know if I'm doing out of my own power or if you're doing if I'm doing out of God's power within me.

It's a heart issue.

You can't you can't look into my heart with what God's doing in my heart, or what I'm if I'm going out on my own in this in this part of my life.

But God can see through all of that.

He can see through every heart issue that we have.

Just to reread this part here, this is verse 12.

For the word of God is alive and active, sharper than any double-edged sword, it penetrates, penetrates even to dividing the soul and the spirit, joints and marrow, it judges the thoughts and attitudes of the heart.

Nothing in all creation is hidden from God's sight.

Everything is uncovered and laid bare before the eyes of Him to whom we must give account.

See, God is the one we give account towards.

He's one of the stand before and say, Are you faithful or are you not faithful?

So how we act and how goes on our heart really matters forever because he sees all of that.

See, the focus on these passages are for people who simply are playing along, kind of playing the Christian game.

These are people who go to church, maybe post biblical texts on social media, and from outside it seems like they're doing all the right things, but inside they're just playing the game and rely on their own abilities more than God.

I remember being a middle school student, early middle school ages, and I was, I grew up in a church environment that was more traditional in church, in the way they did church, so it's a confirmation opportunity, they had confirmation classes that we had to.

I remember having to go before the clergy and talk about like answer some questions and thinking, I'm not sure I'm gonna stay around here.

I have a twin brother, so we were we were kind of strategizing what we're gonna say here, and we just realized that we're just gonna say Jesus to everything he asked me, you know?

And so I went through this confirmation process and really just asked a bunch of questions, whatever, and I just said Jesus-y things, you know, from that standpoint as well.

It really wasn't a heart thing for me at all.

It's just like I want to get through this process, right?

And I think for a lot of people, we just kind of get through our days.

Go into church and be part of church, religious activities is part of what we do in life.

And we can often slip into the realities that we're not really following Jesus, we're following our routines and following our selves.

Maybe more of a comical example of this because it's election season, right?

We get a lot of politicians out there.

If you guys ever see politicians go in and try to use a use a Bible verse in some of their campaign speech uh some speeches, and realize that's the only time they ever open their Bible, is actually during that campaign speech.

And they fumble through it all, or what they're saying there does not even closely align with how they act on the campaign trail at all.

That is just funny in that regard as well.

So if you're only using those times for your own betterment, right?

Maybe Abertuity is saying, is God real, is Jesus really the leader of your life, or are you just kind of using that situation for your own betterment as well?

That's true for almost all of us, can slide into these situations.

But the author of Hebrews is saying, you may be able to fool people around you, but you'll never be able to fool God.

He can see everything.

And here's the good news, though.

He's not looking for perfection, he's not looking for you to make every decision exactly the way he wants you to make it.

He's not looking, he's just looking for, he's just looking for faith and belief in him.

In fact, admitting that we aren't perfect is the best place to start.

Admitting that we don't have what it takes is the best place to start because Jesus is there with his arms wide open, willing to take you in.

That's the first step towards belief, is saying, I don't have what it takes.

I need you, God, to take over my life.

Before we wrap up here, let's just take a pause and look at the heart, what God is saying here.

So at times we can study scripture, we can go dive a little deep into what rest means and what faith and belief really mean in this regard.

We can talk about the Old Testament stories in the wilderness and all these different things, which are really important for us to understand, understand the fullness of scripture.

But I don't want to miss this.

It's like God desperately wants us to have rest.

See, God created this world back before the seventh day of Him resting, and it was exactly perfect.

There was no sin in the world at all.

It was a perfect, perfect world.

But humanity entered and sinned, and from that moment on, humanity continued to sin, including us today.

And because of our sin, it broke the perfectness of the world that we live in.

And God at that moment had every right to turn on us and say, forget them.

So that's not what God did.

See, God had compassion for us, he had a heart for his creation, namely us, human beings.

In Matthew 9, Jesus said this when he looks over at the crowds.

He said, When he saw the crowds, he had compassion on them because they're harassed and helpless, like sheep without a shepherd.

So we have sinned against God.

In the midst of that sin, he looks at us and says, I still want you to be reconciled back to me.

Friends, God's desire for you is to experience this rest.

It's a miracle.

It's a gift of divine proportions that we do not deserve at all.

But he provides a pathway for us back to Him.

If you struggle, if God loves you, let me clear it up.

He does.

He cares much for you.

He provided Jesus so you can come back to relationship with him.

If you feel like this world is unsatisfying, no matter what you do in your life, whatever success you achieve, you feel like, eh, it's just unsatisfying.

It's just not complete.

I still want more, you are right.

Because that's supposed to draw you towards God.

You only experience lasting fulfillment when you give your life to Jesus.

If you're going through a difficult season of life at the moment, you're feeling inadequate, like you don't have what it takes to solve that problem, you are right.

You don't have what it takes.

But God does to enter into this situation, to provide solutions in that solution in those situations, and to provide you rest, contentment, peace, and trust.

You go back to my Iron Man story we had earlier today.

My part that day was not to run the Iron Man with them, but to encourage them.

So I went around the course and found them all around the whole Madison area that time.

And I found them, I said, You're looking great.

Keep it going.

You're almost there, stick to it.

I give them a fist bump, I'll give them a high five, and I encourage them to keep on going on their race.

I think the authors of Hebrews is still saying that to the readers and to us today.

No matter what you're going through in life, keep going.

You're almost there.

Stick to it.

Your faith matters in Jesus.

Do everything you need to do to cling to him through life.

More than anything else, give your life fully to Jesus and you will find rest.

Father, we see in this scripture the heart that you have for people.

And when we understand a glimpse of that, we're overwhelmed by it.

You care for people so, so deeply.

Even when we don't deserve it.

And we're thankful for that.

And our response to you, Father, is out of gratitude, is to believe in you, to trust in you, to have faith in you, to give our entire lives into your hands.

When we do it on our own, we muck it off.

But when you are in control, you lead us to peace, contentment, fulfillment, and completion.

We're excited about that.

Help us to have faith in you that is deep and everlasting.

So your son's name we pray.

Amen.