1 00:00:00,000 --> 00:00:02,000 I love you Lord. 2 00:00:03,240 --> 00:00:08,880 Sorry, I just always a song on my lips. I was and well I was actually gonna start singing amen. 3 00:00:10,480 --> 00:00:15,120 Cindy was mentioning that that that's a song that was always sung, but the church I grew up at like we'd have 4 00:00:15,920 --> 00:00:18,760 we'd have potlucks down in the basement and 5 00:00:19,440 --> 00:00:25,480 it's where I don't know y'all I don't I don't eat them very often anymore, but I could I could 6 00:00:25,480 --> 00:00:40,480 kill a few egg salad sandwiches and I feel like maybe it's just a memory, but I feel like we would always say the prayer and then someone would say amen and then we would all sing the amen song and that would happen at church camp and stuff like that. 7 00:00:40,480 --> 00:00:43,480 So like yeah, there's just these songs that are in our heads. 8 00:00:44,480 --> 00:00:53,480 Well good morning. If you haven't met me before if I haven't got to mention before I'm not just a guy that randomly like talks about songs that are stuck in my head, but my name is Greg Hampton. 9 00:00:53,480 --> 00:00:58,480 I'm one of the pastors here. I would love to meet you have coffee with you talk about Jesus with you. 10 00:00:58,480 --> 00:01:01,480 Just get to know you and hear about your life. 11 00:01:02,480 --> 00:01:08,480 We have been going through a bunch of stuff this summer, but we get to start with something fresh today with a short little series. 12 00:01:08,480 --> 00:01:11,480 It's called rest live work. 13 00:01:11,480 --> 00:01:18,480 We've said since the beginning of the church when we first planted the church, we've said that we wanted to call productless home and right. 14 00:01:18,480 --> 00:01:31,480 Adopt the spiritually homeless that we wanted to be a place where no one was left out and we said that because we wanted it to be a place where all those people all of us could learn to rest and live and work in a great house. 15 00:01:32,480 --> 00:01:46,480 Pastor Jen years and years and years ago. This isn't my notes, but I'll just say anyway we she had this great idea to have an actual house that was like an art center and you could do a lot of different things and it would have art studios for people. 16 00:01:46,480 --> 00:01:59,480 And it was going to be called the house and when when we started praying about plant the church Jen was the first person we asked if she'd be a part of it and we just knew that the church needed to be called the house. 17 00:01:59,480 --> 00:02:13,480 Now it was going to be the German spelling of the house was my memory was H A U S and so I looked up the origins of the etymology of the German spelling of house and it said as referring to a family that. 18 00:02:13,480 --> 00:02:26,480 That lived and worked in a great house and I was like that's it that's it but as I went along I realized that if all we ever said was live and work that people wouldn't know that they could also rest. 19 00:02:27,480 --> 00:02:41,480 So it's like no from the beginning we have to let people know that rest actually comes first that it is rest live work and so my hope for us today for you today is that when you leave here that you feel lighter. 20 00:02:41,480 --> 00:02:53,480 You feel presence of God it gives you the sense of lightness and hope that you'll experience that today that you'll experience the rest of God because we're not just talking about sleep. 21 00:02:54,480 --> 00:02:56,480 It's more than taking a nap. 22 00:02:56,480 --> 00:03:15,480 It's more than taking a nap. So let's open up our Bibles we're going to open up to Genesis to the very beginning what Tim Mackey the biblical scholar would call page one and turn to Genesis one if you don't have a Bible you can grab one of those blue ones on the table. 23 00:03:15,480 --> 00:03:30,480 Grab one you can take it home with you if you need it otherwise download a Bible from any of the digital app stores. 24 00:03:31,480 --> 00:03:35,480 I'm going to reference a few different passages but we're only going to read this one passage today. 25 00:03:35,480 --> 00:03:47,480 We have a tradition of giving the scriptures our full attention one of the ways we do that is by standing together if you would like to stay with me you can otherwise just give the scriptures your full attention as I begin in Genesis one verse 27. 26 00:03:47,480 --> 00:04:12,480 It says this so God created humans in his image in the image of God created them male and female he created them God bless them. God said to them be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth and subdue it and have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the air and over every living thing that moves upon the earth. 27 00:04:12,480 --> 00:04:34,480 God said see I have given you every plant yielding seed that is upon the face of all the earth and every tree with seed in its fruit you shall have them for food and to every beast of the earth and to every bird of the air and to everything that creeps on the earth everything that has the breath of life I have given every green plant for food and it was so. 28 00:04:34,480 --> 00:04:54,480 God saw everything that he had made and indeed it was very good and there was evening and there was morning the sixth day thus the heavens and the earth were finished in all their multitude on the sixth day God finished the work that he had done and he rested on the seventh day from all the work that he had done. 29 00:04:54,480 --> 00:05:09,480 So God blessed the seventh day and made it holy because on it God rested from all the work that he had done in creation. Let us pray. God of every tribe every tongue every color every nation. 30 00:05:09,480 --> 00:05:30,480 We thank you for the scriptures that they have persisted throughout the millennia that we still have them to read to learn from and I pray whatever you have for us to learn today I pray that it would stick that would become a part of the framework of our faith that our faith would become stronger as we become more like your son Jesus. Amen. 31 00:05:30,480 --> 00:05:53,480 Rest is from the beginning. Rest is from the beginning. I don't think that it can be emphasized enough just how important it is that rest is part of the very first story in the Bible. 32 00:05:53,480 --> 00:06:05,480 That from the very beginning of the Bible from the very first pages that God is the one that models rest. 33 00:06:05,480 --> 00:06:25,480 The trouble is that most of us are probably used to getting paid after we work. Is that you? So it's easy for us to read that concept into the Bible to think of rest is something we get after we've worked when we're already tired. 34 00:06:25,480 --> 00:06:44,480 And we can read it in. We can see that in Genesis if we want to. God worked and then God rested. Right? We can see that if we want to. He gave the humans a job to do and we could assume that they had to do it before they could rest. 35 00:06:44,480 --> 00:07:06,480 But do this with me. Imagine that you're Adam and Eve. God creates you on day six. God gives you a purpose. And then you go to bed. When you wake up it is day seven. 36 00:07:06,480 --> 00:07:21,480 You open your eyes and you find God resting. What do you do? Do you go straight to work? 37 00:07:21,480 --> 00:07:34,480 Let's take it a step further. The Rabbi Abraham Eshel wrote that God may have finished creating the world and humanity on day six but his final act of creation in Genesis was actually on day seven when he created rest. 38 00:07:34,480 --> 00:07:49,480 Not just rest, the concept of rest. Because we're not talking about sleep. We're talking about the rest from work. What happens is he creates it and he sets it apart. 39 00:07:49,480 --> 00:07:58,480 He actually looks at all his creation and as you read through Genesis 1 you see he creates things and he calls it good. He creates something and he calls it good. He creates something and he calls it good. 40 00:07:58,480 --> 00:08:11,480 He creates humans and he calls them what? Very good. But in all of the scriptures the first thing that God calls holy is what? A day. 41 00:08:11,480 --> 00:08:35,480 A time. Not a place. A concept. Of rest. So now you wake up day seven with that in mind. You see God, maybe you even see God create rest. Maybe you even see God call it holy. 42 00:08:35,480 --> 00:08:55,480 It's just hard for me to imagine that Adam and Eve wake up and just get straight to work. They've known God for a day. I don't know about you but I feel like if I wake up on day seven and he's resting I'm like oh man I get to hang out with him more. 43 00:08:55,480 --> 00:09:00,480 Maybe it's okay to just wake up and rest with God. 44 00:09:00,480 --> 00:09:15,480 Because that kind of rest, that kind of rest can shape everything that comes after. The live and the work. 45 00:09:15,480 --> 00:09:30,480 This reminds me of the Exodus. Israelites had escaped their captors. God had sent Moses to lead them out and after 400 years of toil and slavery it says that they spent 40 years in the wilderness. 46 00:09:30,480 --> 00:09:40,480 Why? Well I think two reasons. First the Bible says that it was a consequence of them not trusting that God would lead them into the promised land right away. 47 00:09:40,480 --> 00:09:47,480 Secondly, I think that every consequence of God has a purpose. 48 00:09:47,480 --> 00:09:53,480 Did you hear that? Every consequence of God has a purpose. 49 00:09:53,480 --> 00:09:58,480 I think that purpose was rest from their labor. 50 00:09:58,480 --> 00:10:13,480 That purpose was rest from the kind of work that they had been forced to do for 400 years and that kind of rest from that kind of work would teach them how to be shaped in the way that God was hoping. 51 00:10:13,480 --> 00:10:21,480 See the Israelites had had 400 years of nonstop work, 400 years of being told that they were slaves. 52 00:10:21,480 --> 00:10:31,480 But then it's in the wilderness that they receive rest. It's in the wilderness they relearn who they are. It's in the wilderness they receive God's teaching. 53 00:10:31,480 --> 00:10:39,480 It's in the wilderness they learn how to worship. It's in the wilderness they learn to trust God for their daily bread, for their every need. 54 00:10:39,480 --> 00:10:49,480 And it's in the wilderness they're made ready for the life and the work that is still to come. 55 00:10:49,480 --> 00:10:58,480 Maybe you need to hear this, that if you're in a wilderness right now, God's trying to shape you. 56 00:10:58,480 --> 00:11:03,480 God's trying to remind you who you really are. 57 00:11:03,480 --> 00:11:08,480 God's trying to remind you of who he is. 58 00:11:08,480 --> 00:11:14,480 You can find it. You can fight it with closed fists. 59 00:11:14,480 --> 00:11:22,480 You can be angry about it. And you can feel like you're being punished or you can see it as a gift from God that has a purpose. 60 00:11:22,480 --> 00:11:31,480 And you can choose to rest in it and let God shape you and prepare you for your tomorrows. 61 00:11:31,480 --> 00:11:35,480 Because the wilderness can be a gift. 62 00:11:35,480 --> 00:11:39,480 Where God leads you with a pillar of cloud by day and fire by night. 63 00:11:39,480 --> 00:12:02,480 Where he gives you fresh bread every morning. Where he teaches you to rest. Where he prepares you to live and work in the promises that he has for you. 64 00:12:02,480 --> 00:12:14,480 I feel like too often so many of us when we experience a wilderness we think that it's because God's mad at us. 65 00:12:14,480 --> 00:12:24,480 The Israelites spent 40 years in the wilderness because they were not yet ready to fight the battle that was coming. 66 00:12:24,480 --> 00:12:39,480 They spent all that time in the wilderness because for 400 years they'd been lied to about who they were. 67 00:12:39,480 --> 00:12:47,480 Sometimes we leave our Egypt and we take our bondage with us. 68 00:12:47,480 --> 00:12:55,480 Sometimes we need some time in the wilderness to learn to let go of the ghosts of our shackles. 69 00:12:55,480 --> 00:13:06,480 Sometimes we forget that even being in the wilderness at all is a sign that you are no longer in Egypt. 70 00:13:06,480 --> 00:13:12,480 Rest is accepting that God is working for you. Not against you. 71 00:13:12,480 --> 00:13:20,480 Rest is learning that even when it feels like your world is falling apart that God is working to build you up. 72 00:13:20,480 --> 00:13:28,480 Even when I don't see it you're working. Even when I don't feel it you're working. 73 00:13:28,480 --> 00:13:36,480 God wants us to stop and rest. But the work of God, the work of God is always moving in you. 74 00:13:36,480 --> 00:13:43,480 It's always moving around you. Everything, everything you experience has the opportunity to teach you something. 75 00:13:43,480 --> 00:13:50,480 Something I'm trying to teach my kids. I wrote it on the dry erase board the other day. I posted it on Facebook. 76 00:13:50,480 --> 00:14:00,480 I said our mistakes are not self-condemnation. Our mistakes are learning opportunities. 77 00:14:00,480 --> 00:14:08,480 And when we learn to learn from our mistakes that is a superpower. 78 00:14:08,480 --> 00:14:13,480 Wherever you are, whether you are just getting out of Egypt, whether you're 20 years into 40 years of wilderness, 79 00:14:13,480 --> 00:14:29,480 or if you are on the edge of your promised land, every step along the way is an opportunity to learn from what God is trying to teach you. 80 00:14:29,480 --> 00:14:36,480 Especially when you feel like things are falling apart. Especially when you feel like you can't put it all back together. 81 00:14:36,480 --> 00:14:43,480 Solomon knew this. Solomon is, Psalm 127 is attributed to Solomon and it says this, 82 00:14:43,480 --> 00:15:03,480 Unless the Lord builds the house, those who build it labor in vain. Unless the Lord guards the city, the guard keeps watch in vain. It is a waste of time to get up early and stay up late, trying to make a living. 83 00:15:03,480 --> 00:15:21,480 Now here's the kicker, listen, because the Lord provides for those he loves even while they are sleeping. 84 00:15:21,480 --> 00:15:26,480 I don't know about you but when I'm asleep I am worthless. 85 00:15:26,480 --> 00:15:36,480 It happens all the time. Cindy will ask me, hey did you hear the storm last night? I'd be like no, I was dead to the world. 86 00:15:36,480 --> 00:15:42,480 I think whether it's American Christianity or if it's just the trend of religion in general, I don't know. 87 00:15:42,480 --> 00:15:56,480 But we are constantly told that how much we do and how hard we work and how much we accomplish, maybe even how much we know and how right we are about it. 88 00:15:56,480 --> 00:16:03,480 We're told that those are the things that will mark just how blessed we'll be by God. 89 00:16:03,480 --> 00:16:07,480 The scriptures just don't agree with that. 90 00:16:07,480 --> 00:16:15,480 Rest is from the beginning. Rest is all along the way through the scriptures from Genesis to Exodus to Solomon and the Psalms. 91 00:16:15,480 --> 00:16:21,480 And then we get to Matthew 11 and we find out that rest is found in Jesus. 92 00:16:21,480 --> 00:16:28,480 It's when he says, come to me all who are weary and heavy laden and I will give you rest. 93 00:16:28,480 --> 00:16:35,480 My yoke is easy, my burden is light. Jesus is saying, you've been working so hard. 94 00:16:35,480 --> 00:16:40,480 You've been following all the rules to feel like you belong, to feel like God will accept you. 95 00:16:40,480 --> 00:16:47,480 But I have an easier way, a lighter way, a restful way. 96 00:16:47,480 --> 00:16:52,480 Jesus isn't asking us to write his name on the burden that we bear. 97 00:16:52,480 --> 00:16:57,480 Jesus is not asking you to write his name on the burden that you bear. 98 00:16:57,480 --> 00:17:02,480 He's asking you to lay your burden down. 99 00:17:02,480 --> 00:17:08,480 Those are two really different things. 100 00:17:08,480 --> 00:17:15,480 And as I was writing this sermon, I mean, over coming up on 11 years, I've preached about rest many different times, 101 00:17:15,480 --> 00:17:18,480 like you're trying to write a fresh sermon about rest. 102 00:17:18,480 --> 00:17:21,480 As I'm writing, as I'm writing, I'm changing and changing and changing. 103 00:17:21,480 --> 00:17:31,480 And I just thought, you know, the only real way, the best way that I can possibly end this is with a form of worship. 104 00:17:31,480 --> 00:17:35,480 And to give us all a chance to lay our burdens down. 105 00:17:35,480 --> 00:17:39,480 There's a song that I listen to sometimes on repeat. 106 00:17:39,480 --> 00:17:42,480 It's called Starts and Ends. 107 00:17:42,480 --> 00:17:45,480 And there's something unique about this song. 108 00:17:45,480 --> 00:17:50,480 One of the reasons we've never sung it is that it never repeats. 109 00:17:50,480 --> 00:17:54,480 Like there's no verse that repeats. There's no chorus that repeats. 110 00:17:54,480 --> 00:18:05,480 It's just new stanza after new stanza after new stanza of just like heart piercing truth. 111 00:18:05,480 --> 00:18:14,480 And I thought I wanted to give us the opportunity to listen to this song, to watch the video that goes along with it, to see the words. 112 00:18:14,480 --> 00:18:18,480 It's eight minutes. 113 00:18:18,480 --> 00:18:23,480 And I said at the beginning that I want to when you leave here today to feel lighter. 114 00:18:23,480 --> 00:18:26,480 And I hope that as you listen to this song, I'm going to sit up here. 115 00:18:26,480 --> 00:18:30,480 I might even get up and walk around. I want to model for you what worship looks like. 116 00:18:30,480 --> 00:18:37,480 Because worship is the top way that I know how to lay my burdens down. 117 00:18:37,480 --> 00:18:45,480 And you should feel free as you listen to this to do whatever you need to do to feel like you're actually laying your burden down. 118 00:18:45,480 --> 00:18:49,480 Because rest is from the beginning. 119 00:18:49,480 --> 00:18:53,480 Rest is a gift. 120 00:18:53,480 --> 00:18:56,480 Jesus does not need us to write his name on our burdens. 121 00:18:56,480 --> 00:19:01,480 He needs us to lay them down and to take up his yoke. 122 00:19:01,480 --> 00:19:07,480 For his yoke is easy and his burden is light. 123 00:19:07,480 --> 00:19:10,480 And after this, we'll share communion. 124 00:19:10,480 --> 00:19:20,480 Let's worship. 125 00:19:40,480 --> 00:19:50,480 My soul thirsts for things I can't explain. 126 00:19:50,480 --> 00:19:58,480 In my bones I beg and need to pray. 127 00:19:58,480 --> 00:20:06,480 If my heart is without a ground, my effects run both ways. 128 00:20:06,480 --> 00:20:14,480 The flesh is a feather and a needle. 129 00:20:14,480 --> 00:20:38,480 There is a spirit awakening me. 130 00:20:38,480 --> 00:20:46,480 When real life and peace won't make a difference. 131 00:20:46,480 --> 00:20:54,480 When all these thoughts start feeling like these things. 132 00:20:54,480 --> 00:21:02,480 Like the world is a round and I'm bound to come undone. 133 00:21:02,480 --> 00:21:10,480 There is a shifter, a priest. 134 00:21:10,480 --> 00:21:25,480 There is a converter who converts me. 135 00:21:25,480 --> 00:21:33,480 In my soul finds rest. 136 00:21:33,480 --> 00:21:48,480 Where it makes no sense, the number sets in fear. 137 00:21:48,480 --> 00:21:56,480 All my broken ground is in fear. 138 00:21:56,480 --> 00:22:11,480 All my broken knees, all my feelings, we're dead. 139 00:22:11,480 --> 00:22:33,480 It feels like I'm living where I stand marching and the cross stands free. 140 00:22:33,480 --> 00:22:55,480 All the things I do, all the times I do, all my days we're dead. 141 00:22:55,480 --> 00:23:19,480 It feels like I'm living where I stand marching and the cross stands free. 142 00:23:19,480 --> 00:23:47,480 Lay your burden down upon the top of the world. 143 00:23:47,480 --> 00:24:16,480 Lay your burden down upon the top of the world. 144 00:24:16,480 --> 00:24:44,480 Lay your burden down upon the top of the world. 145 00:24:44,480 --> 00:25:12,480 Lay your burden down upon the top of the world. 146 00:25:12,480 --> 00:25:32,480 Jesus, my peace and peace, my reconciled, you're my every good. 147 00:25:32,480 --> 00:25:53,480 I surrender all what I'm needing for you, my every good thing. 148 00:25:53,480 --> 00:26:14,480 You're my medicine, you're my spirit I see, you're my every good thing. 149 00:26:14,480 --> 00:26:35,480 All my days and nights, all my days to die, all my days to die. 150 00:26:35,480 --> 00:26:53,480 You're my headache's friend, first and last refrain, you're my every good thing. 151 00:27:05,480 --> 00:27:20,480 Lay your burden down upon the top of the world. 152 00:27:20,480 --> 00:27:33,480 Lay your burden down upon the top of the world. 153 00:27:33,480 --> 00:27:46,480 Lay your burden down upon the top of the world. 154 00:27:46,480 --> 00:27:51,480 God, I pray you teach us how to lay these things down. 155 00:27:51,480 --> 00:28:01,480 Take off the yoke of the world and take up your yoke that is easy, that is light, leads to rest, leads 156 00:28:01,480 --> 00:28:08,480 to life and meaningful work.