That's what happens.
That won't work with the message, OK?
I'm going to preach till I'm done, amen?
I'm thankful for it.
You know, it seems like the only time people notice the sound
booth is when something goes wrong.
I am thankful these guys work so hard every week.
They're here all the time.
Let's give them a hand.
And that's about the only time we appreciate them
is when something goes wrong.
So we got to do better on that.
I'm going to ask you this morning.
This is going to be a little awkward.
It's going to be fun.
You've got to be self-disclosing a little bit.
I want to know something about you.
And I want you to be willing to share that with those around you.
But we're all doing it at the same time, so it's not a big deal.
How many of you are people who love naps?
Naps.
Raise your hand.
Come on, be proud.
Be proud of the lazy people, amen.
All right.
No, I'm joking.
You guys, who here?
OK, I'm figuring something about you
when it comes to your sleeping patterns.
How many people are night people?
Night people.
Where are my night people at?
OK, very cool.
Who are morning people?
Yeah, this is, yeah, OK.
Very, very, very good.
We talked, I've talked about this before.
My wife and I have very different sleeping patterns.
I can literally sleep anywhere.
It doesn't take me long to fall asleep.
And apparently, I'm loud when I sleep, whatever that means.
She's very quiet when she sleeps.
And here's what happens.
She has to have complete silence when she sleeps.
And so if there's like the cord on the fan bumping
against the fan, she can't.
Who's like that?
Anybody like that?
Can't sleep if that's going on?
She's literally looked at me at one point and said,
please stop breathing.
And I'm like, I don't think I want to do that.
I don't.
Kind of weird.
Why am I talking about rest today?
You know, as human beings, we're not very good at rest.
Or maybe either we do too much resting.
Some of you are really too good at rest, right?
Or we don't rest enough.
Have you ever felt like you were working very, very hard,
working really hard at something and getting nowhere?
Have you ever been that way?
Or maybe you're working very hard and going no.
Or maybe you're really working hard.
And then after a period or a time of life,
of working very hard at something,
you realize I've been working in the wrong direction.
That's a scary thing to do, to work all your life
to achieve something.
And then when you achieve it, I think
that's, I won't bring up his name,
but I think that may be what's going on sometimes
when a sports star retires.
It's like, OK, now what do I do?
Because they've worked really hard.
And I'm not saying they did it in the wrong direction.
You guys probably know what I'm talking about.
But I'm not saying they did something wrong.
I'm just saying that if your life is completely consumed
with being this sports star and then you're no longer
the sports star, something happens.
I believe that there are a lot of parents
that are pushing their kids to be successful.
And we'll find that they have discipled their children
to be being successful at the wrong things.
We rush around life trying to fill it with activity
and experiences and fun and wealth.
And I don't think that that's necessarily wrong.
I'm not voting for not having fun.
I'm not voting for not having some good experiences.
I'm not saying that there's something righteous automatically
about being poor.
That's not what I'm saying.
But I'm just saying that sometimes we
can pursue the wrong things.
It is in our Declaration of Independence,
which speaks life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.
You guys know it.
And it isn't necessarily wrong, but those things themselves
won't satisfy.
You could pursue some things and give your life
to some things that won't satisfy.
And there is a busyness and there is a lack of rest
when you pursue the wrong things.
When you think about the word rest,
here are some synonyms, some similar words.
You think of words like peace, calm, comfort, composure,
refreshment, recreation, relief, tranquility.
Sometimes you think of the word sleep.
I told Nate Wallen when I came in, hey,
I'm talking about rest today, but that is not
a license to nap in my sermon.
Don't be sleeping in my sermon, amen.
But we think about those words.
But then there's the antonyms.
Those are the opposites, anxiety, burden, busyness, worry,
stress, distress, noise, angst, disturbance.
I want to ask you a question.
Which one of these most describes your life?
If you were to pick a list, which list most describes
your life?
If I were to ask you which list most describes your spiritual
life, which one would it be?
I hope it would be list number one and not number two.
I'm not saying that if you follow God,
that life will be perfect and comfortable.
That's not what I'm saying.
But there is a contentment that can
happen in the midst of all of that.
Augustine said this, you arouse us so that praising,
you may bring us joy because you have made us and drawn us
to yourself.
And our heart is restless until it rests in you.
Have you felt that before?
Our hearts are restless until it rests in you,
speaking to God.
This quote expresses the truth about the pursuit of happiness
that so many people embark on without thought of God.
Like the man on the life raft surrounded by water,
so many people find themselves trying to drink the salt water
and getting no satisfaction for their thirst.
Water, water, everywhere, and not a drop to drink.
I think that's exactly a great picture of our world
if we're not careful.
So many people long to be satisfied by money and drink
and drugs and sex.
So many try to be satisfied even with religious activity
and find themselves still longing and still unsatisfied.
Their hearts are restless.
Solomon expressed it this way, vanity, vanity, all is vanity.
It's a chasing after the wind.
It was felt by the Samaritan woman
when Jesus said to her, whoever, who soever
drinketh of this water shall thirst again.
But who soever drinketh of the water that I shall give him
shall never thirst.
But the water that I shall give him
shall be in him a well of water springing up
into everlasting life.
The woman saith unto him, Sir, give me of this water.
Give me this water that I thirst not.
Neither come hither to draw.
I need satisfaction.
I need my thirst quenched.
Now, why am I bringing all this up?
I have a commitment.
I'm not saying every message I ever do
will be in this pattern.
But I have a commitment to go verse by verse
as I teach to the Bible.
And I'll admit to you that when I read Hebrews chapter 4
verses 1 through 11 today, Matt told me before the service,
he was the one reading it.
He goes, man, this is a tough one to read.
I said, this will be a tough one to preach.
These are some deep thoughts in here.
But you know what?
I'm in Hebrews 4 this week because last week I
was in Hebrews chapter 3.
And when you dive into this passage,
I'm telling you, it is an amazing thing.
Who wants rest?
You guys look tired.
You need some rest.
Today's text uses the word rest nine times between verses 1
and 13.
So I've entitled today's sermon simply with that one word,
rest, rest.
When we get to these verses in Hebrews chapter 4,
we find ourselves in the middle of an exposition
or a commentary by the author of Hebrews on Psalm chapter 95.
And we talked about that last week.
The author used three different expressions
to talk about this illustration of the journey
that the children of Israel took.
They came out of Egypt.
You guys remember this?
Out of Egypt, they entered into the wilderness.
And then eventually they were making a decision
to go into his rest, the Bible says,
or into the promised land, into Canaan.
Last week I made this statement.
I've made it the last two weeks.
Jesus is incredible at transformation.
And some people have looked at this idea of into my rest
or into Canaan as exclusively talking
about going into heaven, into salvation, that kind of a thing.
But that's what we said last week.
And I'm sticking by this interpretation of the passage.
Rest here is not exclusively talking about heaven.
The children of Israel go into Canaan and they still fight.
There's no fighting in heaven.
Who's done with the drama, amen?
And sin and all that comes from that?
I'm so excited about that.
So when we get to Hebrews chapter 4,
we find him continuing to teach about this idea of rest
entering into Canaan.
What we said is that Canaan is this idea
of the victorious, transformed Christian life.
And I want to prove it to you in this passage today.
We got to talk about what rest is.
He's been giving us a warning using an illustration that's
talked about in the Book of Numbers in the Old Testament
and then referred to again.
This is so important to understand.
It happened and it's written down the Numbers chapter 13 and 14.
If you want to get a lot out of this sermon after this is done,
I hope you do, go back today and read Numbers 13 and 14.
Because that's the story of the children of Israel coming to,
and this is what he talked about, coming to the edge
of the promised land.
They came out of Egypt.
They walked through the wilderness.
They're going to this land that God had promised them.
And when they get to the land, they have a decision to make.
Are we going to obey God?
Are we going to believe God and go in?
And what we learned last week is that the Psalmist, David,
refers back to that time and says,
be careful people today who are reading my song that I wrote.
That you don't have an evil heart of unbelief
like your ancestors did in Egypt because when they had a chance
to go in, but they didn't go into the promised land
because of unbelief.
They didn't experience all that God had for them
because of unbelief.
And so this is the second warning passage
in the book of Hebrews, there's several of them.
The first one we read in Hebrews chapter two.
We get to chapter four and here's another warning passage.
The rest that I'm talking about today
is not dealing specifically with physical rest,
although the concept I express can impact our physical lives.
Today, I want to talk about God's rest
and how it can be a place of transformation and victory
for the child of God.
Do you want to get to heaven and stand before God
without regretting how you invested your time?
Who's for that?
Want to get to heaven and go, man, I live my life the way
God wanted me to live it.
Do you want to get to heaven and say, man,
I invested in people, I invested in things that are eternal,
I invested in my relationship with God,
I invested in all that I did and I didn't do it,
God did it through me and I experienced his rest.
That's what we want.
So I believe that although this is a difficult passage
and although there's gonna be a lot that we do here,
this concept is connected all throughout scripture,
I'm gonna show you that.
And this particular concept of rest and trust,
we'll talk about it.
It's the key to having a spiritual satisfaction,
a fulfilling life with God,
the transformation that God wants to do in your life,
you understand, you aren't just saved to get you out of hell
and get you to heaven.
Who's glad you're not going to hell?
Going to heaven.
But you're saved for a reason now.
God wants you to have something in your life now.
He wants to transform you now.
He wants to use you now.
This is the key to the Christian life
that we're gonna talk about today.
And so here's what I'm saying to you today.
You can express transformation through the rest
that only God can give.
Think about the seeming contradiction in that statement.
You can be transformed by rest.
It gives you a clue to the fact
that you can't do it on your own.
God's the one who's gonna have to do it in you.
You can experience transformation through the rest
that only God can give.
Here are three keys to experiencing God's transforming rest.
The first key is this.
You need to know what God's rest is.
What is God's rest?
Now, he mentions it throughout this passage.
And I'm not necessarily gonna go at it one verse sequentially.
I wanna just give you some of the rest
that he talks about here.
The first rest I wanna talk about
is what he mentions in verse four.
Look at what he says.
We've already read the passage.
Let's read verse four.
Here's what it says.
For he's spake in a certain place of the seventh day
on this wise and God did rest the seventh day
from all his works.
Now, one of the things you gotta realize
when you're reading Hebrews,
Hebrews is all about better.
Jesus is greater.
There's a part of me that's saying to you today.
Jesus is greater at transformation.
He's way better than legalism.
He's way better than everything we try to use to change us.
God has an incredible resume at life satisfaction,
transformation, salvation, all of it.
And so, and of course he's talking to the Hebrews
and he keeps going back and quoting passages
in the Old Testament.
So the study in the book of Hebrews
is only a study on this new testament book.
It keeps pointing us back, have you noticed?
It keeps pointing us back to the Old Testament.
Here he talks about this Old Testament concept
of creation rest.
You guys remember what happened?
When God created the world, he did it in six days.
Yeah, he did.
Six days.
On the seventh day, the Bible tells us that he rested.
The Jews called this the Sabbath.
It was the Sabbath.
It was to be a day of rest.
It's in the Ten Commandments.
God gave man work to do before the fall,
but his relationship with man was characterized by,
and his relationship with man at that time
was characterized by intimacy with man.
God walked with Adam in the cool of the day.
Who thinks that sounds pretty cool?
To experience that kind of closeness with God.
And he gave him one law, one command,
eat of any tree of the garden,
but if you eat of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil,
in that day you will surely die.
You'll die.
He asked man to trust him.
Adam did not trust God, though, did he?
Eve was tempted by the serpent.
He told her that God could not be trusted.
He told her that God only said that command
because he knew that they would be as God's knowing,
good and evil.
He said that Adam and Eve would not surely die,
remember?
And Eve believed the serpent over God.
A lack of faith.
Adam took of the freedom and he ate it
because he saw that his wife had eaten and he did it.
In that moment they realized their own sinfulness.
They realized their own shame.
They saw that they were naked.
They hid themselves from God.
They even tried to stitch an apron of fig leaves
to cover themselves and we've been covering ourselves ever since.
Fellowship between God and man was broken.
And interestingly, one of the consequences of this sin
is that there was now toil and work.
When God created the world and saw that it was good
and it was perfect, before sin came, before the curse,
man had work.
Work is not part of the curse.
People in our culture need to understand that.
Work is a good thing.
God says if you don't work, you don't eat.
There's like a war on work in our culture, have you noticed?
Okay, so work is not a bad thing,
but there was toil and work.
Look at what God told Adam.
In Genesis 3.17-19, I'll put it on the screen.
And unto Adam he said,
Because thou hast harkened under the voice of thy wife,
And as eaten of the tree of which I commanded thee,
saying, Thou shalt not eat of it, cursed is the ground for...
Thou shalt not eat of it.
Then he says this, Cursed is the ground for thy sake.
In sorrow shall thou eat all thy days of thy life.
How many of you have noticed that the ground is cursed?
Anybody have weeds?
Yeah?
You ever plant something that didn't grow like you thought it should?
And it's work.
But there's toil in it.
He says, Out of the sweat of thy face,
Shalt thou eat bread till thou return unto the ground,
for out of it was thou takest, from dust thou art,
and unto dust shalt thou return.
There was toil in work now.
Distance between God and man came to be.
There was a break in the relationship,
since separated men from God.
Just a few verses later we see God drove man
even out of that perfect place, the garden.
And our relationship with God was broken.
It was not characterized anymore by intimacy or closeness
or anything even resembling rest.
It was broken because of sin.
But God gives this example of rest and even puts rest
into the Ten Commandments and says,
You're gonna rest on this seventh of the Sabbath day.
So you have creation rest.
You also have Canaan rest.
Look at verse five, chapter four verse five.
Look at what it says.
And in this place again, here's another place that he's quoting.
This is what the writer of Hebrews is saying.
Hey, here's another place where it talks about rest.
If they shall enter into my rest.
Here the author is pointing out the connection
between these words for rest.
God talked about rest after creation.
It was the seventh day rest.
He talks about it again here in Psalm 95.
It's speaking about going into Canaan verse six.
Look at what it says.
Sing therefore it remains that some must enter therein
and they to whom it was first preached enter in.
Not, not in because of unbelief.
Why would David warn his reader?
This is what he's trying to say.
He's quoting Psalm 95, which was written by David.
You guys know who David was, right?
David's the boy that God used to kill the giant
who became the king, who wrote all the Psalms.
Singer, songwriter.
I mean, he's a great guy.
You guys just got that.
Okay.
David, what the writer of Hebrews is saying is
why would David warn his reader in Psalm 95
about not entering rest?
The children of Israel did not enter into the promise land
the first time they approached it.
Why not?
Why did they not go in?
Unbelief, right?
Who agrees?
Unbelief.
Okay.
The author is saying something about David bringing this up
again years later.
He says verse seven.
Again, he limited the certain day saying in David,
today after so long a time, as it is said,
today if you will hear his voice, hard not your hearts.
For if Jesus had given them rest, they would,
then would he not after it has spoken of another day?
This seems complicated, but it's really not.
He says that David is referencing the Canaan rest
that was to be experienced by the children of Israel.
When he talks about rest, he's saying,
remember, they didn't enter into rest.
They didn't enter into Canaan.
But he's saying today.
He's not saying yesterday, he's saying today.
David is saying today, meaning the day that he wrote it,
the day he was in.
David is saying to enter his rest today.
He's saying, listen to God's voice today.
Don't harden your hearts to God.
When?
Today.
Believe God.
So the author of Hebrews is making the point that the rest
that God is offering to them is not just a land,
it's not just freedom of bondage from Egypt.
It was, it was just, if it was just Joshua getting them into Canaan,
then David would not have spoke, if rest, here's what I'm getting at.
Are you getting it?
I hope you get it.
If rest was just the term that was being used only about the children of Israel
getting into Canaan, why is David bringing it up?
Because Joshua is referred to as Jesus in verse eight, but don't get confused.
The Old Testament name, Joshua, is the New Testament name Jesus, Yeshua.
My brother's name, my name is Benjamin, son of the right hand, favorite son.
My brother's name is Shadrach, which means it's a name to pagan God.
But his second name, his first name is Joshua, Yeshua, it's Jesus.
So when he says Jesus here, it's just the New Testament form of Joshua.
It's very clear.
Look at verse eight.
For if Joshua, Jesus had given them rest, if they had gotten into Canaan and gotten rest,
then would he not have afterwards spoken of another day?
David wouldn't still be talking about rest.
If all rest was, was them getting into Canaan.
That's what he's saying.
This is bigger than just getting into Canaan.
This is bigger than just creation rest.
What is it?
He says that David is referencing the Canaan rest that was to be experienced by the children of Israel.
But David is saying to enter into his rest, God's rest today.
He is saying, listen to God's voice today.
Don't harden your hearts.
Believe God.
The author of Hebrews is making the point that the rest that God is offering to them is not just a land and a freedom of bondage from Egypt.
If it was just Joshua getting him into Canaan, then David would not have spoken after another of this rest that's still available.
So remember what we're trying to see.
This is what it is.
Megan started doing something different, keeping the main point on the bottom.
She makes my power points for me.
Aren't you guys, isn't that awesome?
She does that.
What is God's rest?
That's what we're asking the question.
There's a creation rest that's referenced.
There's a Canaan rest that's referenced.
God rested after he created the world and man's relationship to him and creation rest was intimacy with him.
When they sinned, toil, brokenness and a lack of intimacy with God and death came to be the experience.
There was a Canaan rest.
There was a Canaan rest that was a promise to his promised land entering in his rest.
There's a connection between this word rest though and something else.
So if it's not just this land, if it's not just what happened at creation, then what is God's rest?
Well, there's a salvation rest.
There's rest by salvation.
Look at verse 10.
Let us therefore fear.
Sorry, this is verse one.
Let us therefore fear lest a promise being left us of entering into his rest.
Any of you should seem to come short of it.
For unto us was the gospel preached as well as unto them, but the word preach did not profit them,
not being mixed with faith in them that heard it.
Let me read that again.
Take it slow.
Let us therefore fear lest a promise being left of us of entering into his rest.
Any of you should seem to come short of it, short of what?
Short of his rest.
For unto us was the gospel preached as well as unto them.
Who's the them?
The children of Israel.
There's a comparison here.
The children of Israel had a gospel, some good news preached to them.
We've had some good news preached to us.
Do you see the connection?
But the word preached did not profit them.
Why?
Not being mixed with faith in them that heard it.
There's a way to miss the rest.
Do you get it?
You can miss out on this rest that God is giving.
Do not believe the good news that is preached to you.
That's how you miss out on it.
The children of Israel in Numbers 13 and 14 were preached to by Moses and Caleb and Joshua.
Those guys' message was that God has given us this land.
It's already ours.
Rest is available.
We just got to go in and take it.
We got to go get it.
And they were scared and they didn't go in.
They said a couple things.
This is even in my notes.
They said, ooh, there's a laptop there.
I'll step on the laptop.
They said, we're not going to go in because there's giants in the land.
You guys remember this?
We're like grasshoppers in their sight.
They said this about the land.
There were probably some big people in the land.
But then they also said that land is a land that eats people alive.
That's what gentling is trying to do.
It eats people up.
What's interesting is God tells them, okay, fine, you won't believe.
He says to Moses, this is so funny.
Go back and read it.
He says to Moses, I'm just going to wipe them all out and I'm starting over with you, Moses.
These people are heart-hearted.
They're heart-headed.
I did all this stuff.
I just released it from Egypt.
I got them through the Red Sea.
There's a cloud.
What more do you need for me to know that I'm God and that I'm going to get you through to this promised land?
You're scared of tall people?
Seriously?
That's what Caleb is saying.
Listen, you've got to go in.
Then Moses says, I'm starting over with you, Moses.
Moses says, if you do that, your reputation with the people that we just left would be that.
So God says, fine.
Everybody 20 years older is not going to go in.
Except for Caleb and Joshua.
And then he says, the rest are going to fall.
This is the last chapter he's quoting.
Numbers, your carcasses are going to fall in the wilderness.
You know what happened?
They said, we're not going in.
This is kind of like a brief summary.
The children of Israel, we're not going in.
Moses goes to God and God tells them, go tell them, you can't go in.
I'm not going to let you go in.
And then they were like, some of them, we're going to go in.
And you know what happens?
They try to go in.
And all the Malachi, they came and killed them.
Is that dumb or what?
They were scared of them, so they disobeyed God.
But then they weren't scared to go in without God.
And they died.
That is a stupid plan.
Who agrees?
And then later on, they rebelled against God.
And what did God do? He opened up the ground and the land ate them.
The very things that they were scared of, they experienced rather than just trusting God.
Do you get it?
Okay, so they didn't believe Joshua and Caleb and because they didn't believe Moses,
they didn't believe God.
And so God said, I will not let them enter into my rest.
This didn't mean that all of them that did not go into Canaan because of unbelief were not regenerate,
were not saved. That's not the point.
There was a rest that they did not experience because they didn't believe God.
There's a rest that we experience when we do believe God.
Look at verse 10.
Here it is. We're talking about salvation rest.
Look at it.
For he that has entered into his rest, he also has ceased from his own works as God did from his.
You're saved. You stop depending on your own works to make you right with God.
You know how you get into heaven?
Jesus' works.
Jesus' righteousness.
Jesus' substitutionary death for you on the cross.
Jesus being poured out, God's wrath being poured out on Jesus,
Jesus giving his good works to our account. That's how you get in.
That's so cool.
We don't get in because of our works. We get in because of his righteousness.
So you believe God and God counts it for righteousness.
The rest is to cease from labor.
And this is what he's saying.
So this idea of rest includes salvation, but I believe it means more than that.
Why? Well, there's another part of this idea to rest.
There's a salvation rest, but there's also rest through sanctification.
Here's what that means.
Transformation, spiritual growth. That's what it means.
Because look at the next verse.
Let's read them together. Verse 10.
For he that has entered into his rest has also ceased from his own works as God did from his.
Let us therefore, let us what? Labor. What?
You just said we don't have to do what? Let us labor therefore what?
To enter into that rest.
Let's send a man fall after the same example of unbelief.
The Bible makes it very clear that we don't go to heaven based on our own works.
Do you get it?
We do not get saved based on our works.
The Bible says in Ephesians 2, 8 and 9, for by grace are you saved through faith.
And that not of yourselves, it's a gift of God.
Here's what clarity?
Not of works, less than any man should boast.
And if you know a man, you know he'd boast.
Right?
If we got there on our own, we get to heaven.
Go look at how good I did.
We didn't do anything.
He did.
All we do is believe, not of work.
That's a whole coffee conversation if you want to have it.
Not of works, less than any man should boast.
We're not saved by works, we're saved through faith.
But we are saved for good works.
Look at the next verse, Ephesians 2, 10, for we are his workmanship.
You know what workmanship is?
That word is poema.
Poem.
You know poems don't write themselves?
Sculptures don't sculpt themselves.
Paintings don't paint themselves.
Who does it?
The artist.
Who sculpts the sculpture?
The sculptor.
Who writes the poem?
Sissy men.
Right, sissy men write poems.
I'm joking.
I wrote my wife a poem after our second or third date about Chinese food.
Something like, General Sal's and Lo Main, would you go with me again?
Something like that.
Sissy men, amen.
Here he says, we're his workmanship, his work of art created in Christ Jesus.
Don't miss the point.
Here's the point.
I gave an illustration at the wrong time.
Don't miss the point.
We're created in Christ Jesus unto good works, which God has beforedened that we should walk in them.
After we get saved, we're gods to work on.
We are his poema, his masterpiece.
And that's why the writer of Hebrews is saying, so let us labor, what?
Let us labor, therefore, to enter into that rest.
Lesson in the man should fall after the same example of unbelief.
Work to enter rest.
What does that mean?
This isn't talking about working to enter salvation.
So rest has to be more than salvation.
It's talking about labor to enter in God's rest.
A good way of thinking about this word labor in verse 11 is to give diligence to, to stay focused on, to pay attention to this, to make this the bullseye of your walk with the Lord.
Now, remember the question we're trying to answer.
What is the concept of the word rest here?
What exactly is God's rest?
If it's not just the day that the children of Israel took so seriously that Sabbath day.
If it's not just an expression of a land.
If it includes salvation, but isn't just referring to salvation.
It has something to do with being made more like Jesus.
If something that we are to labor, it is something that we're to labor towards.
You can't have God's rest without being saved.
You get it?
You can't.
Not God's rest.
You can have like a false sense of rest.
And there's some of us that need to go wake a world up that's dying.
Trying to find their rest.
And who are restless until they find the rest in him.
You get it?
You can't have God's rest if you're not saved.
But you can be saved and not be experiencing the rest of God.
So what is it?
Well, let's put it all together.
This is what I wrote down this week, trying to define this.
Because if you get this, then you'll get the whole sermon.
Are you ready?
God's rest is a settled and spiritual state of being that includes being right with God.
Close to God.
Walking with God and living out his will in your life in a way that brings him glory and you joy despite your circumstances.
It includes salvation by necessity and is the pathway to a growing spiritual maturity.
Let me say that again.
I know this is a big concept.
God's rest is a settled and spiritual state of being that includes being right with God.
Close to God.
Walking with God and living out his will in your life in a way that brings him glory and joy despite your circumstances.
It includes salvation by necessity and is the pathway to a growing spiritual maturity.
What was lost in the garden, the ability to walk with God and enjoy a thriving fellowship with him,
has been made possible by salvation.
But just because, you know what I mean?
You can talk to God.
Every day.
You don't have to pray.
You get to pray.
You don't have to read your Bible.
God can speak to you through the Bible.
You can have a thriving relationship with God.
Where he begins to change.
I'm not saying you can be a good church member, attend and get no one to stand up.
There's so much more than just showing up on Sunday.
What was lost in the garden, the ability to walk with God and enjoy a thriving fellowship and rest with him,
has been made possible by salvation.
But just because you're saved doesn't mean that you have this thriving relationship with God.
You have access to God.
He comes to live inside of you.
You spend time with him and rest in him and fellowship with him.
We experience his rest even when difficulties are part of our life.
That's why Paul and Silas can be in jail and sing.
Do you get it?
The jail cell is horrible.
They're like, man, I love this cell.
It's so...
Who wants to go to prison?
Me either.
Let's vote not to go to prison.
Who's for some religious liberty?
But if I believe this word, if I end up going to prison, I just have a different ministry.
Because guess who goes to prison with me?
They can't get him out of me.
They can't get him out of you.
Are you with me?
It's not about our external circumstances.
It's about an internal peace with God.
It's about an internal joy that can't be taken away no matter how bad it is.
How do you get there?
Well, number two, if that's what rest is,
and he says, labor, what's the labor? The labor is don't get distracted by everything else.
Stay focused on my satisfaction is not in my job.
My satisfaction is not in my position.
My satisfaction isn't in what people think of me.
My satisfaction isn't in my stuff.
Stuff goes away.
Where's your first car?
Unless you're like 18 or 19, it's gone.
Stuff goes away.
Who's the only one that satisfies?
That's it.
So how do you need to know how to access this rest?
How do we do it?
It's complex and simple at the same time.
You access it by faith.
By faith.
Look back at verse one again.
Let us therefore fear.
Let us promise being left of us,
entering into his rest, any of you should come short of it.
There's a coming short of God's rest by not being saved in the first place.
And what I want to tell you today is just because you're in the church building,
doesn't make you a Christian.
Just being in the garage doesn't make you a car.
Right?
And so if you're not saved, the Bible says today is the day of salvation.
Jesus died for you.
You can believe in that.
But if you're here and you've been doing the Christian life,
and you're not satisfied, it's not Jesus that's bad.
It's not Jesus that's messed up.
It's you.
It's me.
There's days this past week where I wasn't in God's rest in that way.
I wasn't sad.
Do you owe me?
Saved.
Not always satisfied.
So if you're not saved, get saved.
Your heart will be restless until you find your rest in him.
If you're saved by trying to get your satisfaction from the world,
stop!
Stop!
Your heart will be restless until you find rest in him.
Some of the most defeated and discouraged people I've ever met
are people who are saved but are living a defeated Christian life.
They can enjoy their sin because the Holy Spirit is convicting of their sin.
They can't like it like they used to like it.
They do not have the joy that God produces that's a fruit of the Spirit.
For the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, patience.
It's something God produces.
They're grieving the Holy Spirit.
And that's why the writer of Hebrews says in verse 11,
let us labor, therefore, to enter into that rest.
Warren Wearsby said this.
This is so good.
About this rest.
The Canaan Rest for Israel is a picture of the spiritual rest we find in Christ
when we surrender to him.
When we come to Christ by faith, we find salvation rest.
When we yield and learn of him and obey him by faith,
we enjoy submission rest.
The first is peace with God.
The second is the peace of God.
Do you get it?
It is by believing that we enter into rest.
It is by obeying God by faith and surrendering to his will
that the rest enters into us.
Do you get it?
This concept of rest is all over the Word of God.
When we rest in God, he transforms us.
Jesus told his disciples in John 15, verse 1,
I am the true vine.
And my father is the husbandman.
Every branch in me that beareth not fruit, he taketh away.
And every branch that beareth fruit, he purgeth it,
that it might bring forth more fruit.
Now you are clean through the Word which I have spoken unto you.
Abide in me.
Remain in me.
Rest in me.
And I in you, as the branch cannot bear fruit of itself
except it abideth in the vine, no more can ye accept ye abideth me.
I in the vine, ye are the branches, he that abideth in me
and I in him the same bringeth forth much fruit.
For without me you can do some stuff.
Is that what it says?
For without me you can do nothing.
Verse 7, a few verses later.
If ye abideth me in my words and my words abideth in you,
ye shall ask what ye will and it shall be done unto you.
Herein is my father's glorified that ye bear much fruit.
So shall ye be my disciples, as the father hath loved me,
so I have loved you, continue in my love.
If ye keep my commandments, ye shall abide in my love.
Even as I have kept my father's commandments and abideth in his love.
These things have I, this is so good.
You get this.
Why am I telling you to abide in me?
Why am I telling you to rest in me?
These things I have written unto you that my joy might remain in you
and that your joy might be adequate.
Whose joy?
His joy in us being full.
Who's for that?
Man, I'm for that.
Stay, remain, abide, and when you do, God will produce fruit in your life.
He'll help you to obey.
He'll help to change you from the inside out.
And then verse 11 happens that my joy might remain in you
and your joy might be full.
This is what we get to happen, what happened.
I'm watching this happen in our church.
It's incredible.
People come to a service, they hear the word preach,
and for the first time they choose to believe God for salvation,
and they're saved, and they begin to change because God,
now they know I'm not going to hell, I'm going to heaven.
We see people get into a Sunday school class,
and they connect with the word of God,
and the people of God begins to impact them,
and they belong sometimes before they believe,
and then they start to believe, and God begins to grow them.
We see people get into discipleship,
and they take God's word on a more daily basis,
and they experience God growing them
because they're learning to be in the Bible every day,
to talk to God, and to do that,
and God is changing them slowly and surely.
They're changes that they begin to see,
the things that used to satisfy them
don't satisfy them anymore.
They begin to have an appetite for the things
they never thought they would have a hunger for.
Things they used to love, they despise,
they begin to have an affection for things they never even knew existed.
That's when the Bible goes from some old, dusty book
to what's going to change,
what's absolutely living and changing inside of me.
Do you get it?
Here's another verse, not just John 15, Romans 12,
I beseech you therefore, brethren,
by the mercies of God that you present your bodies
a living sacrifice,
laboring to enter to rest, right?
Living sacrifice,
holy, acceptable to God, which is your reasonable service,
and be not conformed to this world,
but be transformed by the renewing of your mind
that you may prove what is that good and acceptable and perfect will of God.
Notice when he says,
but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind
that it's in the passive voice.
Be ye transformed.
He doesn't say transform yourself.
He says be transformed how?
By the renewing of your mind.
You know how your mind's made new?
The Holy Spirit wrote a book.
When you get saved, the Holy Spirit comes to live inside of you.
It's amazing.
And he changes you from inside health.
It's the renewing of your mind.
You know what that is?
It's rest.
When you spend time with God hearing from his word,
he changes your thinking, he changes your values,
he changes your desires.
His spirit interacts with his word and changes you.
You work to stay close to Jesus and to hear from him.
He works in you to transform you.
You believe he transforms.
That's the whole sermon in four words.
You believe you rest, you abide, you remain, he transforms.
You got a labor to do that because man sometimes
everything is keeping you from that.
Everything is keeping you from that.
Are you with me?
You work to stay close to Jesus to hear from him.
He works to transform you.
You live by faith, he does the rest.
So, key number one, what's rest?
Key number two, you need to pursue,
you need to access God's rest.
How do you do it?
You do it by faith.
You believe.
Key number three, you need to pursue God's rest.
Look at verse seven.
This is so good.
Again, he limits a certain day saying in David,
today if you're so long a time as it is said today,
if you will hear his voice hard, not your heart.
For if Jesus had given them rest,
then would they not afterwards have spoken of another?
Therefore, there remaineth therefore a rest to the people of God.
That word for rest is a different word
than what's used in the whole rest of the passage.
One word used for rest, this word for rest is sabatismos.
It's sabath rest.
There remaineth therefore a rest, a sabbath for the people of God.
You know heaven's going to be a rest?
It will, it will.
So this is what Isaiah says.
It's what I want you to feel today.
I don't want you to be like,
that's a really neat idea, Pastor Ben.
I want you to like decide today to pursue rest,
to pursue God, transform, to believe God.
There's a promised land, let's go in.
Let's go in.
Let this proclamation get stirred up with faith in you
and let's go in.
Can you imagine a church full of people
being transformed by Jesus and on his mission?
What could happen?
What I'm saying is Jesus could change the city
and change some family.
Are you with me?
If we'll let him.
Isaiah 556 says,
call ye upon him while he is near.
Let the wicked forsake his way and the unrighteous man his thoughts
and let him return unto the Lord and he will have mercy upon him
and to our God for he will abundantly pardon
for my thoughts are not your thoughts
and neither are my ways, your ways sayeth the Lord.
It's a simple invitation that God's making,
that Jesus is making.
Get trying to get satisfaction on your own.
Pursuing happiness in things or people or power,
even in ministry alone won't satisfy.
You know what Jesus said?
What a great way to end the sermon.
You know what Jesus said?
Come unto me, all ye that are labor,
that labor and are heavy laden,
and I will give you rest.
Take my yoke upon you and learn of me,
for I am meek and lowly in heart,
and ye shall find rest unto your souls,
for my yoke is easy and my burden is light.
Come unto me, all that are labor and heavy laden,
and I will give you rest.
Would you bow your head to close your eyes with me this morning?
Are you saved?