Made to Rest

[SPEAKER_00]: You are listening to audio from Citizens Church located in Plano, Texas for more information about this ministry or to give to this ministry Please visit citizenschurch.com Alright, good morning everybody

[SPEAKER_01]: All right, my name is Corey, I'm one of the pastors here.

[SPEAKER_01]: It is a joy to be with you this morning.

[SPEAKER_01]: If you're new or new-ish, welcome glad that you're here.

[SPEAKER_01]: If it's home for you, it's good to see your face.

[SPEAKER_01]: It's really good to be with you guys.

[SPEAKER_01]: A little over two years ago, now I was at home alone.

[SPEAKER_01]: Kids were at school.

[SPEAKER_01]: Why does it work?

[SPEAKER_01]: And I had nothing to do.

[SPEAKER_01]: I know, right?

[SPEAKER_01]: bit strange.

[SPEAKER_01]: It actually felt kind of anxious.

[SPEAKER_01]: So I did what I normally do when I feel that way and I got to moving.

[SPEAKER_01]: I went for a run and when I got home from my run I started getting husband points.

[SPEAKER_01]: I did the dishes.

[SPEAKER_01]: It's great.

[SPEAKER_01]: I did something unique.

[SPEAKER_01]: I saw laundry in the dryer and I folded it.

[SPEAKER_01]: and put it away.

[SPEAKER_01]: That's extra points, right?

[SPEAKER_01]: Thank you.

[SPEAKER_01]: I appreciate that.

[SPEAKER_01]: That wasn't sarcastic.

[SPEAKER_01]: I sat down and watched a little bit of a show that I've been making my way through on Netflix all before lunch.

[SPEAKER_01]: But what was there?

[SPEAKER_01]: that made the day strange was this feeling that I couldn't stop, like I couldn't rest, that I hadn't done enough.

[SPEAKER_01]: So even after that I kept feeling my day with more, the anxiousness continued to, to where I didn't really know what to do with myself.

[SPEAKER_01]: Now, that's not really unusual, that feeling, it's not an unusual feeling for me, it might not be an unusual feeling for you either.

[SPEAKER_01]: Um, not knowing what to do with ourselves and filling it up with with more time, but what was really challenging and even confusing for me in that moment is that I was two weeks into a two months sabbatical from work.

[SPEAKER_01]: I wasn't able to stop and rest, it's literally all that I was responsible for.

[SPEAKER_01]: That's it.

[SPEAKER_01]: And I saw some things in me in that time that a week off and a month off wasn't my primary need.

[SPEAKER_01]: I actually discovered that I didn't really know how to stop.

[SPEAKER_01]: In the book, The Common Rule, if you haven't read it, it's a good one, you should get it.

[SPEAKER_01]: The author nailed my experience on sabbatical.

[SPEAKER_01]: He said it like this.

[SPEAKER_01]: He said there's more going on than just our bodies need for physical rest, though, for many of us that need shouldn't be understated.

[SPEAKER_01]: Our souls need rest too.

[SPEAKER_01]: But the rest that our souls need is not simply taking a napper of vacation.

[SPEAKER_01]: It's the rest that comes with realizing we don't have anything to prove anymore.

[SPEAKER_01]: And I know, as I talk about this, I know that I'm not the only one that wrestles with this.

[SPEAKER_01]: this inability to stop or to rest.

[SPEAKER_01]: You know, like your rest, not feeling like rest.

[SPEAKER_01]: The carousel of anxiousness, the apparent inability to stop or even slow down.

[SPEAKER_01]: We live in a time in place culturally.

[SPEAKER_01]: We don't do ourselves any favors.

[SPEAKER_01]: The digital age is made as people who can work all the time because we can work all the time.

[SPEAKER_01]: We are a face ID away from jumping right back into work all over again.

[SPEAKER_01]: We're always available, pressing up against our innate, my innate desire to take on God's and communicable attributes like His self-sufficiency.

[SPEAKER_01]: We live in the hustle culture.

[SPEAKER_01]: It's all over our metropolitan area.

[SPEAKER_01]: That if you stop, you're falling behind.

[SPEAKER_01]: That if you stop, it's like admitting that you're limited.

[SPEAKER_01]: Business at times, the way we talk about it, almost seems like a badge of honor.

[SPEAKER_01]: Our students feel this.

[SPEAKER_01]: college students feel this, you guys feel this too, don't you?

[SPEAKER_01]: We feel this, and it's a problem.

[SPEAKER_01]: Stopping and rest are undervalued and for many of us, we'd say that it feels impossible.

[SPEAKER_01]: I decided to conduct my own informal poll.

[SPEAKER_01]: I'm sure that there's plenty out there and research about this, but I just started asking around the last couple of weeks.

[SPEAKER_01]: And these were the responses that I got when I asked about what his rest looked like for you.

[SPEAKER_01]: The most common response was usually an exhale.

[SPEAKER_01]: But then I don't know.

[SPEAKER_01]: Another common response, I'm not sure I can do that in this season.

[SPEAKER_01]: Another common response, it was an if-then if I do that, then this will happen.

[SPEAKER_01]: as these are response.

[SPEAKER_01]: So if this conversation feels a little close to home or personal, I hope you would lean in because it does to me too.

[SPEAKER_01]: And I think we all know that we need to stop.

[SPEAKER_01]: I think we all know that we need to rest.

[SPEAKER_01]: My own kids realize their own need to stop and rest.

[SPEAKER_01]: Our own social sciences, our secular sciences and our world tell us this.

[SPEAKER_01]: So is this simply a scheduling problem?

[SPEAKER_01]: Are we one download of a good app away that's gonna schedule our day and help us rest?

[SPEAKER_01]: is that what we need, church you are made to stop, you are made for rest.

[SPEAKER_01]: It's God's design for you and it can be reclaimed and Christ.

[SPEAKER_01]: Let's pray and jump into the passage.

[SPEAKER_01]: I've got to love you and I'm glad to talk about your scriptures together.

[SPEAKER_01]: I'm glad to be with this body of believers, this family.

[SPEAKER_01]: Lord, thank you for their presence in my life.

[SPEAKER_01]: God, I pray now Lord and Jesus name as we talk about

[SPEAKER_01]: Learn that you would move and power.

[SPEAKER_01]: Come Holy Spirit as your people gather around your word, Spirit of God would you move.

[SPEAKER_01]: I love you.

[SPEAKER_01]: Pray these things Lord in Jesus name.

[SPEAKER_01]: Amen.

[SPEAKER_01]: Okay, so today we're continuing our series called Made, we're covering our humanity through Christ.

[SPEAKER_01]: And then we've been discussing these three things.

[SPEAKER_01]: You can see on the graphic behind me, there's these three areas where we're taking a look at our humanity through Christ.

[SPEAKER_01]: She's a through these three areas of God's design sends distortion and Christ redemption.

[SPEAKER_01]: So we'll keep doing that today with these three things in mind.

[SPEAKER_01]: If you're writing stuff down, here's what you want to talk about.

[SPEAKER_01]: Second, we are restless because of sin's distortion in our life.

[SPEAKER_01]: We are a restless people, and then thirdly, Jesus is our rest.

[SPEAKER_01]: So God made us to rest, we're restless, Jesus is our rest.

[SPEAKER_01]: So first, let's go to God's design and talk about how God made us to rest.

[SPEAKER_01]: Look at Genesis 1, 31, the 23, so a Jackie rep or some minute ago.

[SPEAKER_01]: And God saw everything that he made and behold, it was very good.

[SPEAKER_01]: And there was evening in the morning and in the sixth day.

[SPEAKER_01]: Thus, the heavens and the earth were finished and all the hosts of them.

[SPEAKER_01]: And on the seventh day, God finished the work that He had done.

[SPEAKER_01]: And He rested on the seventh day from all His work that He had done.

[SPEAKER_01]: So God blessed the seventh day made it holy, because on it God rested, there it is again, twice, from all His work that He had done in creation.

[SPEAKER_01]: So God, as He stopped, looked at His created order, proclaimed that it was very good and said, it's finished.

[SPEAKER_01]: And then we come to the moment where God rests it.

[SPEAKER_01]: I think it's really important that we define what that is and what that is not.

[SPEAKER_01]: Let's talk about what it's not because God definitely does not wear out, he never tires, he does not get weary, okay?

[SPEAKER_01]: He does not need to stop.

[SPEAKER_01]: But the word here, when it says that God rests it is the word Shabbat.

[SPEAKER_01]: It's just said that God ceased.

[SPEAKER_01]: He stopped.

[SPEAKER_01]: He stopped to do this.

[SPEAKER_01]: He stopped to enjoy his creation.

[SPEAKER_01]: The one who never tires or grows weary, stopped to enjoy all that he had made.

[SPEAKER_01]: And also notice this, there was no evening and morning.

[SPEAKER_01]: It was to be a day or a time that had no end.

[SPEAKER_01]: God enjoying his creation and creation and joy and God.

[SPEAKER_01]: Check and see this beautiful blessing, the holiness of this day, that how God made it, how we designed it first, that God created a rest first world.

[SPEAKER_01]: So the first thing is not get moving, or Adam, the garden needs tending.

[SPEAKER_01]: Instead, it's rest with me, delight with me.

[SPEAKER_01]: Enjoy relationship with me.

[SPEAKER_01]: So community then has created on the six day and immediately enters into the blessing of this seven-day reality.

[SPEAKER_01]: That's worth sitting with and thinking with for just a minute.

[SPEAKER_01]: Their first full day was in a work day.

[SPEAKER_01]: The first day was a day of rest with God.

[SPEAKER_01]: They wake up to a world that was already prepared and very good.

[SPEAKER_01]: It doesn't wake them up and say, it's time to make this thing happen, humanity receives, Adam and you get to enjoy and they dwell with God.

[SPEAKER_01]: And then they work from that dwelling.

[SPEAKER_01]: This is the work that's not toil.

[SPEAKER_01]: It was purposeful and fruitful and meaningful and joyful and even restful.

[SPEAKER_01]: Community was created to rest with God and then work from the rest.

[SPEAKER_01]: Like Scott said last week, we're made to cultivate and exercise dominion and multiply from a place of delightful dwelling with God.

[SPEAKER_01]: Work was not the problem.

[SPEAKER_01]: Work was not the problem.

[SPEAKER_01]: It was a part of God's good design.

[SPEAKER_01]: Work was never supposed to be the source of humanity's identity, your security, your significance.

[SPEAKER_01]: It was always God.

[SPEAKER_01]: So back to my sabbatical again.

[SPEAKER_01]: Somewhere in the middle of my sabbatical,

[SPEAKER_01]: the loss of work, the loss of efficiency.

[SPEAKER_01]: I had to start to wrestle with some things that were going on inside of me.

[SPEAKER_01]: I wasn't resting, it was constantly restless.

[SPEAKER_01]: Every morning, waking up with this low-grade home in my heart in my mind that I needed to do something.

[SPEAKER_01]: I needed to work on something and needed to be useful that I couldn't stop.

[SPEAKER_01]: I felt like I had to work to be valued to be loved by God and the people around me.

[SPEAKER_01]: So I started praying through this, confessing this to people around me, and I was able to name the lie that I was believing.

[SPEAKER_01]: I believed that God had made a work first world.

[SPEAKER_01]: And in a work first world, I am only loved by God and others to the degree that I am useful to them.

[SPEAKER_01]: So to me, back to Genesis, it undid me to see Adam and Eve waking to a rest-first world.

[SPEAKER_01]: I mean, imagine that for a moment.

[SPEAKER_01]: Adam and Eve's eyes open on day seven.

[SPEAKER_01]: Everything around them's finished and good.

[SPEAKER_01]: Now imagine if they had jumped up and run off to the garden to start tilling and tending and working.

[SPEAKER_01]: And God would have said, out of boy, Adam or Eve, you missed us, fine.

[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah?

[SPEAKER_01]: No, his invitation was come and be with me.

[SPEAKER_01]: Come and walk with me.

[SPEAKER_01]: So here's what I want to ask us then.

[SPEAKER_01]: How many of us when we think about what makes God pleased with us, go straight to what we do?

[SPEAKER_01]: Straight to our action, straight to things we do for him.

[SPEAKER_01]: Somewhere deep down, we believe that God only loves us when we're useful.

[SPEAKER_01]: But that's a work first world.

[SPEAKER_01]: That's not how God designed it.

[SPEAKER_01]: He made it rest first, we're beloved.

[SPEAKER_01]: We are made to stop.

[SPEAKER_01]: you were made to rest with God.

[SPEAKER_01]: Second, because it sends distortion, I think we find that we are restless.

[SPEAKER_01]: So we're restless.

[SPEAKER_01]: We're made for a day seven existence.

[SPEAKER_01]: We're made to live with God to enjoy God, which leads us to work with purpose and joy and rest in his presence and his providence.

[SPEAKER_01]: But in Genesis 3, we see how sin wreaks havoc on this day seven existence.

[SPEAKER_01]: Turn and look at Genesis 3 with me.

[SPEAKER_01]: We're going to walk through kind of Genesis 3, a lot of scriptures, but I want us to have a look and see the restless existence that got ushered in by sin.

[SPEAKER_01]: Let's have a look at it.

[SPEAKER_01]: First, look at Genesis 3 verses 7 and 8.

Genesis 3:7

[SPEAKER_01]: You see, the relationship with God is broken.

[SPEAKER_01]: Shalom is lost.

[SPEAKER_01]: It says, then the eyes of both were opened, and they knew that they were naked, and they so had fig leaves together and made themselves loincloths, and they heard the sound of the Lord walking through the garden in the cool of the day, and man in his wife hid themselves from the presence of God.

[SPEAKER_01]: This is a restless, anxious existence

[SPEAKER_01]: The first response to sin was shame.

[SPEAKER_01]: Second, look at verse 15, chapter 3, verse 15.

[SPEAKER_01]: We're listening between God and woman, between man and woman is broken.

[SPEAKER_01]: He says in Genesis 3, 15, says, I will put enmity.

[SPEAKER_01]: There's the strife between man and woman.

[SPEAKER_01]: Instead of joyful partnership, there's now blame.

[SPEAKER_01]: Instead of this beautiful, togetherness, there's conflict and domination, the relationship with man and woman's broken.

[SPEAKER_01]: Thirdly, look at verses 17th or 19.

[SPEAKER_01]: Relationship to work is now broken.

[SPEAKER_01]: He says, curse it is a ground because of you, and pain shall eat of it all the days of your life.

[SPEAKER_01]: Thorns, and this one, you shall bring forth, and you shall eat the plants of the field by the sweat of your face, you shall eat bread, so you return to the ground.

[SPEAKER_01]: Purposeful work has turned a toil and struggle, thorns, and sweat, and frustration, and resistance, and futility, and then finally,

[SPEAKER_01]: It says, therefore, the Lord God sent them out of the Garden of Eden.

[SPEAKER_01]: Adam and Eve are sent out of the Garden.

[SPEAKER_01]: Suddenly, humanity is living east of Eden, exiled from the Garden of Rest, from Shalom, a place of fullness and rest with God, to restlessness.

[SPEAKER_01]: And if you keep tracking through the biblical narrative, this continues to be the story of God's people.

[SPEAKER_01]: We see how restlessness continues in them.

[SPEAKER_01]: Now, slaves in Egypt and their Pharaoh's economy

[SPEAKER_01]: as a slavery is, endless production.

[SPEAKER_01]: They were making brick, brick, more brick, constantly working, never resting.

[SPEAKER_01]: And then God hears their cries and rescues them.

[SPEAKER_01]: And after rescuing them, God begins teaching them how to stop and actually how to rest again.

[SPEAKER_01]: If you would, it'll be up on the screen, but notice the difference if you were to go and look at the way the 10 commandments speaks about the Sabbath to stop, to rest.

[SPEAKER_01]: It's listed in two different ways, and Exodus 20 verses 8 and 11 says like this, remember the Sabbath day and keep it holy.

Exodus 20:8

[SPEAKER_01]: That's in both places.

[SPEAKER_01]: For in six days, the Lord made the heavens and the earth and all that's in them and rested on the seventh day.

[SPEAKER_01]: He rests on the seventh day.

[SPEAKER_01]: So he says, remember the Sabbath day.

[SPEAKER_01]: Why keep it holy?

[SPEAKER_01]: Why?

[SPEAKER_01]: Because in six days, the Lord made the heaven and the earth.

[SPEAKER_01]: Why stop in rest?

[SPEAKER_01]: Because we have a creator God and we are not.

[SPEAKER_01]: Why stop in rest?

[SPEAKER_01]: because you have a creator and it's not you.

[SPEAKER_01]: You can stop or remember who made you.

[SPEAKER_01]: They remember you were made for this to stop and enjoy.

[SPEAKER_01]: And then look at dinner on May 5th versus 12th and 15th.

[SPEAKER_01]: Notice a difference.

[SPEAKER_01]: Again, it says observe the Sabbath day and keep it holy.

[SPEAKER_01]: That's the same.

[SPEAKER_01]: He says you should remember that you were a slave in the land of Egypt.

[SPEAKER_01]: And the Lord your God brought you out from there with a mighty hand and an outstretched arm.

[SPEAKER_01]: Therefore, the Lord your God commanded you to keep the Sabbath day.

[SPEAKER_01]: with no stopping and no rest, remember who extended their arm and might empower to rescue you.

[SPEAKER_01]: And guess what?

[SPEAKER_01]: It wasn't you.

[SPEAKER_01]: You have a rescue, you were made to stop and enjoy and remember that.

[SPEAKER_01]: Now, if we're honest, we're not so different.

[SPEAKER_01]: We're not making bricks, but we're living east of Eden as well.

[SPEAKER_01]: You know, as followers of Jesus, we still battle the restlessness.

[SPEAKER_01]: Even when we mentally, or even in our heart acknowledge our need for rest, and remember that we have a good creator, and remember that we have a rescue, even when these things actually happen, and it's still hard for us to stop and rest in them.

[SPEAKER_01]: Because this restlessness, I think, is created three distortions, and I think they sound a little bit like this.

[SPEAKER_01]: There's three of them, two are kind of similar.

[SPEAKER_01]: First one, sounds like this.

[SPEAKER_01]: I can't stop.

[SPEAKER_01]: Korea, I hear you, but I can't stop.

[SPEAKER_01]: or if I was adding to it, I can't afford to stop.

[SPEAKER_01]: I can't afford it.

[SPEAKER_01]: Do you know what's at stake?

[SPEAKER_01]: The job, the kids, the momentum, and reputation, if I'm honest to me, underneath all those stakes is a question, what am I trying to prove?

[SPEAKER_01]: What am I seeking to earn?

[SPEAKER_01]: We work and work because we're trying to build an identity for ourselves.

[SPEAKER_01]: And if we stop or afraid the whole thing will come down, we're restless.

[SPEAKER_01]: Second.

[SPEAKER_01]: I think a distortion sounds like this.

[SPEAKER_01]: I live to stop.

[SPEAKER_01]: It sounds like I really need to make it to Friday.

[SPEAKER_01]: I need the weekend.

[SPEAKER_01]: I need a vacation, I need to break.

[SPEAKER_01]: I think some of us are great at stopping.

[SPEAKER_01]: We plan it, we have it, we protect it, we count down to it.

[SPEAKER_01]: But really what's happening in our heart is just an attempt to escape the restlessness.

[SPEAKER_01]: And the stop is where we hope.

[SPEAKER_01]: The stop is where we hope everything will be okay.

[SPEAKER_01]: Once I can get to that, everything will be okay.

[SPEAKER_01]: And maybe you're a student in here, you're an athlete in here, who barely asked time to breathe, you live for the break for the off season for the end of this semester.

[SPEAKER_01]: That's living for the stop without actually resting.

[SPEAKER_01]: We're asking a day off to give us what only God can provide.

[SPEAKER_01]: That's it.

[SPEAKER_01]: He's the only one that can provide it.

[SPEAKER_01]: Thirdly, the third distortion sounds like this.

[SPEAKER_01]: I stop, but I don't rest.

[SPEAKER_01]: And maybe you do stop.

[SPEAKER_01]: You're great at protecting your evenings, maybe even your weekends.

[SPEAKER_01]: But then what you reach for, whatever's closest, your phone, a show, a snack that was on car, a scroll, those aren't necessarily bad things, but is rest there?

[SPEAKER_01]: Is that where rest is?

[SPEAKER_01]: Churchly in, pay attention to whatever time is truly your own checking your screen time, looking at your commute.

[SPEAKER_01]: In a free moment, whether it's five minutes or five hours, have a look at how you spend it, what we do with our time can tell us what we crave.

[SPEAKER_01]: Often what we reach for, we're just making us more restless.

[SPEAKER_01]: For the parents in the room with three kids, like me, got some teenagers in my house.

[SPEAKER_01]: And when they're finally all the homework's done, everybody's in their pet rooms that everybody's sleeping, I know the experience of falling onto my bed and scrolling until I fall asleep.

[SPEAKER_01]: And I can tell you the next morning, I did not wake up feeling rested.

[SPEAKER_01]: Stop.

[SPEAKER_01]: Come on, resting.

[SPEAKER_01]: Listen, I know that feeling and I want to invite you to notice what our souls are actually craving.

[SPEAKER_01]: This quote has been said many times on the series already I'm going to say it again from Augustine.

[SPEAKER_01]: Our hearts are restless until they find their rest in New Lord.

[SPEAKER_01]: So they answer the rest that evades us so vehemently, it's not necessarily a place or a time frame.

[SPEAKER_01]: It's actually a person.

[SPEAKER_01]: We'll get number three, it's this, Christ, the redemption of Jesus leads us to this, that Jesus is our rest.

[SPEAKER_01]: So the answer to our rest is existence, isn't just a better schedule or a better habit, it's a person.

[SPEAKER_01]: Okay, so this stopping, this Sabbath, was a gift of God's people, a data stop and delight in our member of Creator and remember, rescue the Redeemer who sustains you, but this stopping was always meant to point to something.

[SPEAKER_01]: The day itself was not the main thing.

[SPEAKER_01]: Like, would Jesus say to Matthew 11, verse 28 to 30, he says, come to me, all who labor and are heavily laid in, I will give you rest.

Matthew 11:28–30

[SPEAKER_01]: Take my yoke upon you and learn from me for I am gentle and lowly and heart and you'll find rest for your souls.

[SPEAKER_01]: For my yoke is easy and my burden is light.

[SPEAKER_01]: Did you notice that Jesus said, I'll give you rest two times?

[SPEAKER_01]: Do you remember how I was mentioned?

[SPEAKER_01]: at the Sabbath in creation, and he took his rest two times.

[SPEAKER_01]: Jesus is calling them back to how they were designed, calling them back to what they were made for.

[SPEAKER_01]: This invitation to life with Jesus, notice he doesn't say, come to the Sabbath, he says, come to me, and here's what he's saying.

[SPEAKER_01]: It's like what God said to Israel in Exodus 20, remember that I am the author of creation, you are not.

[SPEAKER_01]: You don't have to be, you can't be.

[SPEAKER_01]: There's rest in that.

[SPEAKER_01]: There's rest in that.

[SPEAKER_01]: Okay, you are not the creator.

[SPEAKER_01]: Secondly, remember, Deuteronomy chapter 5, here what God said to Israel, that Jesus is again saying to us, remember that I alone rescued you from slavery to sin, by my, and my power, I overcame sin and death and the grave for you that your soul could be at rest.

Deuteronomy 5 · chapter mention

[SPEAKER_01]: So it offered to us in Jesus.

[SPEAKER_01]: This is why he could say just a chapter later in Matthew chapter 12.

Matthew 12 · chapter mention

[SPEAKER_01]: It's why he could say it's such a wild being as the son of man as the Lord of the Sabbath.

[SPEAKER_01]: It's always all pointed to him.

[SPEAKER_01]: Blood of the gospel of Jesus Christ.

[SPEAKER_01]: The gospel of Jesus Christ because of Jesus because of the gospel we can once again live in a rest first world.

[SPEAKER_01]: Because the gospel has the same exact pattern here.

[SPEAKER_01]: The same pattern.

[SPEAKER_01]: The gospel is the same pattern.

[SPEAKER_01]: We get to rest in Christ's finished work on the cross, and then live from the rest that we have in Jesus.

[SPEAKER_01]: We move back towards work, understanding its purpose, what it is, and what it's not for.

[SPEAKER_01]: Okay?

[SPEAKER_01]: And it sets us free.

[SPEAKER_01]: We're free from restless striving.

[SPEAKER_01]: And this is where it begins to be something that we know, that we sense and feel the urgency for it, and it starts to move into the way that we live.

[SPEAKER_01]: Because most of a lot of my restlessness comes from not really believing in a rest first world.

[SPEAKER_01]: It comes from acting like I live in a work first world, but that's not what the gospel says.

[SPEAKER_01]: Because in Christ, because in Christ, we have nothing to lose or prove or hide or gain.

[SPEAKER_01]: So, you no longer have to strive to prove your value.

[SPEAKER_01]: because of what Jesus did for you on the cross.

[SPEAKER_01]: You are wildly valuable.

[SPEAKER_01]: You are made in His image.

[SPEAKER_01]: He sent His son to die for you.

[SPEAKER_01]: This is how valuable you are.

[SPEAKER_01]: You don't have to strive to build your identity.

[SPEAKER_01]: You don't have to keep working.

[SPEAKER_01]: You become someone or pretend to be somebody.

[SPEAKER_01]: In Christ you already belong to somebody and your identity is received and never achieved.

[SPEAKER_01]: Ever.

[SPEAKER_01]: ever.

[SPEAKER_01]: You don't have to strive to control your future.

[SPEAKER_01]: You are not your own provider and protector and savior and sustainer.

[SPEAKER_01]: You can work hard without believing that everything depends on you.

[SPEAKER_01]: Because it doesn't.

[SPEAKER_01]: It just doesn't.

[SPEAKER_01]: You don't have to strive to earn God's approval.

[SPEAKER_01]: We can subtly turn following Jesus into another one of our world's complicated performance systems.

[SPEAKER_01]: We're trying to read our Bible enough, pray enough, serve enough, parent well enough, give enough, do enough, but there's rest.

[SPEAKER_01]: There's rest for us in Jesus.

[SPEAKER_01]: I love this prayer.

[SPEAKER_01]: This is what Pastor Scottie Smith is, how he prayed about this.

[SPEAKER_01]: He said, there's no greater rest than to know you, O God, are at peace with us.

[SPEAKER_01]: To be certain that you are resting and rejoicing over us and love.

[SPEAKER_01]: And our never-ending calling now is to hear and believe this gospel and respond accordingly.

[SPEAKER_01]: not to get you to love us and know the difference that makes Hallelujah many times over.

[SPEAKER_01]: Since our never ending calling then is to hear and believe this, to rest in the good news of the gospel and respond accordingly, I want to talk about what does that responding look like?

[SPEAKER_01]: That's why an actual stopping and resting becomes a beautiful response to the gospel, okay?

[SPEAKER_01]: We can stop and enjoy the Creator, we can stop and celebrate, we can stop and remember our rescue, okay?

[SPEAKER_01]: I think when we talk about the why we need to rest, we're made to rest, that it's found in Jesus, that's the who of it.

[SPEAKER_01]: But I think a lot of times that how evades us.

[SPEAKER_01]: Hebrews 4, 10 through 11 says this, it says something that sounds kind of contradictory as I've been talking to you about rest for the last 20 minutes.

[SPEAKER_01]: It says for whoever has entered into God's rest, that's in Jesus, has also rested from his works, that's his striving as God did from his.

[SPEAKER_01]: And let us therefore strive to enter that rest.

[SPEAKER_01]: Of how the NIV says it says, make every effort to enter that rest.

[SPEAKER_01]: So the author of Hebrews, encouraging us to be diligent to pursue trusting in Jesus to be our arrest.

[SPEAKER_01]: Real arrest.

[SPEAKER_01]: Here's what we'll see with it.

[SPEAKER_01]: Real arrest requires work at risk of sounding contradictory, real arrest requires work back to my Sabbath again.

[SPEAKER_01]: Not working for two months was a strange effort for me.

[SPEAKER_01]: It was really hard.

[SPEAKER_01]: Not working was really complicated.

[SPEAKER_01]: It felt like a lot of work.

[SPEAKER_01]: I am a people-y person.

[SPEAKER_01]: I know that surprises everybody.

[SPEAKER_01]: I enjoy time with all my humans.

[SPEAKER_01]: Yes.

[SPEAKER_01]: It was hard for me to say no.

[SPEAKER_01]: I love to help.

[SPEAKER_01]: I have a pickup truck because I love to help people.

[SPEAKER_01]: Yes, you can borrow my truck.

[SPEAKER_01]: That'd be great.

[SPEAKER_01]: I would enjoy that and let someone say something, and I was like, you know, I love to work, but learning how to stop, this required a lot of work for me.

[SPEAKER_01]: This required a lot of sacrifice and practice and honestly and honestly you guys, repenting from a lot of my attempts to be self-sufficient.

[SPEAKER_01]: It felt very far from me.

[SPEAKER_01]: And it's still something that I wrestle with today.

[SPEAKER_01]: Real rest takes work.

[SPEAKER_01]: So three invitations then as we move to close.

[SPEAKER_01]: Considering your heart, your season of life, your loves, the way that God has fashioned you as a human being, just three encouragement through challenges.

[SPEAKER_01]: First, I hope that you had learned to rest for a moment.

[SPEAKER_01]: Learn to rest for a moment.

[SPEAKER_01]: I know I said earlier that our need is not necessarily like actually like sleep, but you know what?

[SPEAKER_01]: Sometimes the most spiritual thing you can do is take a nap, like in the first service like a mom said amen, so I don't.

[SPEAKER_01]: I didn't hear any moms and hear say amen, but that's fine.

[SPEAKER_01]: NAP, a practice that I got from that book that I mentioned earlier, the common rule encourages kneeling prayer throughout the day.

[SPEAKER_01]: I'm gonna put that in.

[SPEAKER_01]: It happens at least twice a day, sometimes more.

[SPEAKER_01]: Where in it, I'll make the Sun language sign for, sorry, to God for acting like I don't need him.

[SPEAKER_01]: I slow down.

[SPEAKER_01]: Take notice of beauty in a moment and acknowledge it out loud.

[SPEAKER_01]: Ooh, here's a good one.

[SPEAKER_01]: Turn your phone off for just an hour.

[SPEAKER_01]: At first it will feel anxious, but eventually it will feel like rest.

[SPEAKER_01]: Second, learn to rest for a day.

[SPEAKER_01]: As we've talked about being still, I'm sure some of you have thought of Psalm 46, verse 10, being still and knowing that he is God.

Psalms 46:10

[SPEAKER_01]: I've said another way, cease your striving, and know that he is God.

[SPEAKER_01]: And so you can rest for a day, embrace for a day, feast with people for a day, celebrate the God the Creator for a day.

[SPEAKER_01]: Be mindful of your salvation that you know and joy in Jesus Christ for a day.

[SPEAKER_01]: So if you need to do this alone, so if you need to get with other people to do this, so there might be restful.

[SPEAKER_01]: Listen, practicing a day of rest is supposed to make us feel like we can't get it all done.

[SPEAKER_01]: because you can't get it all done.

[SPEAKER_01]: That is the reality.

[SPEAKER_01]: You cannot get it all done.

[SPEAKER_01]: We can't do it all.

[SPEAKER_01]: Rest like this for this day.

[SPEAKER_01]: Protects us from acting out the lie that we can.

[SPEAKER_01]: Rest first world.

[SPEAKER_01]: I listened through our women's Bible study on how they talked about this.

[SPEAKER_01]: I had a crew who said it like this.

[SPEAKER_01]: She said, God can do more with our rest than we can with our striving.

[SPEAKER_01]: Amen.

[SPEAKER_01]: Thirdly, lastly, learn to rest for life.

[SPEAKER_01]: Church, hey, good news.

[SPEAKER_01]: One day, God's kingdom will come and the final rest that your soul, your body, as longing for, will be here.

[SPEAKER_01]: The new heavens, the new earth.

[SPEAKER_01]: dueling with God again, walking, enjoying life with Him, rest, delightful work.

[SPEAKER_01]: We've got to create this for His presence, again, dueling with His people and restored creation.

[SPEAKER_01]: No more striving to prove self, no more restless searching for what only God can give.

[SPEAKER_01]: One day, our work will be fully restored.

[SPEAKER_01]: So when we stop now, we're not just resting from our work, we're rehearsing the gospel.

[SPEAKER_01]: rehearsing a rest-first world.

[SPEAKER_01]: And we're looking forward to the day when the rest of Christ's already secured for us will be fully and finally experienced.

[SPEAKER_01]: Church you are made for rest.

[SPEAKER_00]: Let's pray.

[SPEAKER_01]: Look at a love you and I'm glad I'm glad.

[SPEAKER_01]: I'm so glad because of Jesus we can live in a rest-first world.

[SPEAKER_01]: Look at him aware of where

[SPEAKER_01]: I am aware of cultural norms in the battle against what maybe is even in our own heart.

[SPEAKER_01]: I've got to help us to strive to enter into the rest of Jesus.

[SPEAKER_01]: Help us to help each other do that, God.

[SPEAKER_01]: We've got to, I'm aware that as we have this conversation today, Lord God, that there

[SPEAKER_01]: in the soul of many in the room, hearing this.

[SPEAKER_01]: God, I am aware that there's frustration in many.

[SPEAKER_01]: I know that that sigh out, that beleaguered exhale of longing for rest is in many.

[SPEAKER_01]: So God, would you meet?

[SPEAKER_01]: Would you meet the people of this church right now in this moment?

[SPEAKER_01]: It's still quiet moment.

[SPEAKER_01]: Oh, God, would you remind them?

[SPEAKER_01]: How good it is that,

[SPEAKER_01]: They're not the creator and sustainer of everything around them, and they don't have to be you, never ask them to be.

[SPEAKER_01]: Remind them of the rescue that they have in Jesus, that you delighted to give them.

[SPEAKER_01]: The set them free from sin and death.

[SPEAKER_01]: Would you be enressed in this moment?

[SPEAKER_01]: Got to love us Sunday morning, there's parts of this time, this hour and a half that we have together in here.

[SPEAKER_01]: The feels like what our soul needs the most, our body needs the most, our whole person needs the most.

[SPEAKER_01]: So go, would you meet with our brothers and sisters now?

[SPEAKER_01]: I love you, Lord.

[SPEAKER_01]: Prisings in Jesus' name.

[SPEAKER_01]: I remember.