How the Gospel Gives Us Rest
Transcript
Good morning. My name's Chet. I'm one of the pastors here. We are in the fourth week of our Hammer and Hammock series where we're talking about work and rest. Two things that take up the majority of our time that we're going to either be working or we're going to be not working. And we've got to figure out how to do that well.
We've got to figure out how to have a healthy balance. And so what we did was we started off the first week talking about that God has designed us to have a rhythm of six days of work and one day of rest. So this is actually how God created the world, that he worked, that he began the world by laboring, and then he rested. And if you think about that, for a cosmic being who is beyond time, beyond energy, like he's who can create everything in an instant, to take six days to create everything and then to take a day where he does nothing, is a crazy concept. But God designed it that way and worked that way so that we might follow his pattern.
And he instituted this into the world. And it says that he blessed the seventh day and he made it holy, meaning the seventh day, the Sabbath, is set apart from the rest of the week. And that it's blessed so that those who befriend the Sabbath will be blessed. Those who take part in it will be blessed, will receive the goodness of that day. And so what we're talking about is how do we work for six days and rest for one. And I love the little video we have because we're on different sides of this.
There are some of you who love work. You love being busy. You love the energy. And there's some of you who love rest. And so what we've talked about is that some of you who want to rest four days a week and kind of work three need to change your lifestyle. You need to work six and rest one.
And some of you who are like resting one day a week sounds ridiculous. You're watching the first half of that video and you're like, yes, chopping things, hammering things. Yes. Being a mom, doing yes. And then it goes boop, doop, doop, doop, boop. And then you start seeing people in a hammock and you're like, oh, that sounds so stupid.
I hate the second half of that. And some of you are like, the first half seemed awful. But when that dog started like trotting through the field, that was amazing. And your little spirit wakes up. And so what we're trying to do is figure out how to have a healthy pattern here. There's a first century Stoic philosopher.
His name was Seneca. And he was looking at the Jewish people who practiced the Sabbath, who one day a week did nothing. They had a day of preparation for it where they would get ready to do nothing the next day. And he says that it was absurd. He looked at the Jewish people and said they spend almost a seventh of their life in inactivity. And so as we start today, what we're going to be talking to is the person who kind of agrees with Seneca.
We're talking to the person who is just consistently busy. And I think that there's two types of this person. There's one person who says, look, I get it. The Bible tells us we're supposed to rest. It's in the Ten Commandments. I'm aware that those ten are pretty important.
But you tell me how on earth I'm going to do that. I have like 17 children. I don't think it's actually 17, but it feels like it. I have three jobs. I have you're looking and going. There's no way like I would love to take one day off a week.
That would be amazing. But I'm not going to ride a unicorn to work. And this also isn't going to happen. Like unless that magical thing happens, this magical thing isn't happening. Some of you are just looking and going like, look, sounds great, but there's no way to do that. And on the other side of that, there's someone else who just goes, that doesn't even sound great.
But taking a day, one day a week to do nothing sounds excruciating. And if I'm honest, stupid. And I don't want to. And there's some of you who feel that way. It's just like, no. I mean, I get that it's good and people should rest or whatever.
But like I got a vacation coming up later. Plus, I got some leagues and stuff I'm in. And I just said, I'm not really going to do it. And so we're talking to you today. We spent the past couple of weeks talking to the person who wants to sleep most of their life. And we tried to say, here's why work is important.
Here's why work is valuable. But today we're talking to the person who doesn't ever want to stop or feels like they can't. And we're actually going to spend the next two weeks. So today we're going to talk kind of more big picture, heart level stuff. And next week we're going to talk about all the practical things. So hopefully today you'll leave with a lot of practical questions of like, okay, I'm on board.
But I still need to know how on earth to do that and what to do in a Sabbath. That's next week. So if you get a little annoyed and feel like a lot of your questions aren't answered today, then I did my job because they're not supposed to be. So here's the thing. I read a book called Switch. And what Switch talks about is how to make a change in your life.
And the big kind of example they give is that they say everybody, functions like a person riding on an elephant. That there's an elephant and there's a rider. And the rider is intelligent. The rider understands facts and figures. The rider likes PowerPoints. And the elephant doesn't.
Doesn't care. The elephant is your emotions. It's your heart level desires. And so what the point of the book was is that if you just talk to the rider, but you don't get a hold of the elephant, nothing will change. And we know this to be true. Some of you are like, I'm going to quit smoking.
I know that it's bad. I've seen the little pictures they put on the cartons. I get it. I know that there's a general who became a surgeon. And he has some warnings for me. I get it.
And you're like, I'm going to stop. And the elephant's like, that's cute. Because you're not like the elephant heading in on board with the facts and figures. Some of you are like, this is it. I'm going to start working out. I'm going to start eating right.
I'm going to start tomorrow. And the elephant's laughing at you and then takes you to McDonald's like you. Some of you are like, I'm really, this is the semester when I'm really going to study. I'm going to get ahead on my stuff. I won't show up to class and be like, wait, we have a paper due today. I'm going to already know about it.
I'll have already written it. And your elephant is playing Xbox. It already left the room. It wasn't even paying attention to your PowerPoint. You showed it. And that's what's happening here is that some of us are going, okay, I'm on board with the idea of a Sabbath.
I'm on board with the idea of rest. But we've got to actually untie the soul level, heart level knot. Otherwise, we won't ever actually be able to rest. So I want to talk to all the elephants in the room a little bit today. Grab your Bibles. Go to Hebrews chapter 3.
Here's what I want us to understand as we go to Hebrews chapter 3. It's on page 581 if you have one of the blue Bibles. If you don't own a Bible, take our blue Bible. That's our gift to you. You were not made to endlessly strive. You were not designed by God to endlessly strive.
You were designed by God to do good work, to carry weight, but not ceaselessly. God commands that we rest. And if we don't, all you will have is joyless toil without rest. And eventually, you will burn out. If we don't rest, all you will have is joyless toil. All of life will lose color.
All of life will lose joy and hope and happiness. And all you'll have is just ceaseless toil. And then eventually, you'll die. Or you'll throw off everything in life that holds you down, that weighs on you. And you'll try to escape. You'll derail everything.
So we have to figure out how to do this. And we have to overcome what's stopping us. Let's pray and then we'll look at the text. God, we thank you for this time we get to spend together. And we pray that in these moments for the person who does not know how to rest. Who does not know how to stop.
Who does not know how to sit still. Who does not know how to enjoy moments of quiet and peacefulness. We pray that you would help us to see you in all your glory today. And that the cross might set us free and invite us into rest. In Jesus' name, amen. So in the book of Hebrews, the author, we don't really know who the author is.
Some people think it may be somebody writing some stuff that Paul taught. Some people think that it might be Luke. But we really don't know. In the book of Hebrews, the author is going through and systematically saying, See this? Jesus is better. See angels?
Jesus is better. See Moses? Jesus is better. And he's just consistently saying, Here, let me show you how Jesus is better than this. How Jesus is the fulfillment of this. Let me show you the temple.
Let me show you how Jesus is better than that. And he just consistently does that. And so we're going to pick up in Hebrews 3, verse 14, where he's begun to talk about Moses and the law. And what he said earlier was, Jesus is better than Moses. And that if we're not careful, we'll join with the people who are following Moses and we'll run away from Jesus. So let's pick up in 14.
For we have come to share in Christ, if indeed we hold our confidence firm to the end. So he's saying we belong to Christ, we share in Christ, if we keep it, if we keep our confidence, if we keep walking with Christ. As it is written, and he's going to quote from the Old Testament, he says, Today if you hear his voice, do not harden your hearts as in the rebellion. So now he's going to talk about what that rebellion is. He says, For who were those who heard and yet rebelled? Was it not all those who left Egypt led by Moses?
And with whom was he provoked for 40 years? Was it not with those who sinned, whose bodies fell in the wilderness? And to whom did he swear that they would not enter his rest, but to those who were disobedient? So we see that they were unable to enter because of unbelief. All right, so here's what he's saying there.
He's saying that Moses led a group of people out of Egypt. The Israelites were slaves in Egypt, and then God sent Moses to go lead them out of Egypt, to go declare, Let my people go. And the Pharaoh was like, No, I will not let them go. And he's like, Let them go. And they were like, I will not let them go. Let them go.
Like that. And that's what happened. And then God sends plagues. And then the Pharaoh decides to finally let them go. And then when they come to the Red Sea, God parts the Red Sea. And there's all this miraculous stuff that takes place to get the Israelites out of Egypt, the slaves to be set free.
And then God gives them his Ten Commandments. And God declares, I'm going to bring you into a rest. I'm going to bring you into the promised land. I'm going to bless you. And you'll get to be my people. And he institutes the Sabbath at this point.
He says that your value doesn't come from your work. You're no longer slaves. You don't have to endlessly, ceaselessly toil. You're going to work six days. You're going to rest one. So this is what God does.
But then the people rebelled, which is terrifying, by the way, that they could see so clearly who God was and what he had done and that he could rescue them from slavery and they could still reject him. That's what the author of Hebrews is saying. Don't do that. Don't be invited into something so beautiful. Don't see so clearly who God is and then reject that. He says if they did it, we're in danger of doing it.
Because you would look and say, if God sent plagues and if he parted the Red Sea, if these people walked on dry land with two sides of water on the side of them, like I think I would get to the other side and go, you know what? I think God's real and I think he's good. And then they walk around in the wilderness for a little while and they're like, I want something else. And he says, that's terrifying. Don't do that. And so his point is, they, because they did not believe, did not get to enter into the rest that God was offering.
He was inviting them into the promised land. He was inviting them into the rest, but they had unbelief that kept them from the rest he had welcomed them into. Let's keep going. Therefore, while the promise of entering his rest still stands, let us fear lest any of you should seem to have failed to reach it. For good news came to us just as to them, but the message they heard did not benefit them because they were not united by faith with those who listened. For we who have believed entered that rest, as he has said.
As I swore my wrath, they shall not enter my rest. So what he's saying is, those who believe enter into the rest of God, enter into the salvation of God, enter into the promised land of God, and those who disbelieve, who have unbelief, are not welcomed in. That's the major point he's making here. And he's talking about metaphysical rest. Beyond just our physical life, beyond just what we can touch, it's this eternal rest. He's not talking about the Sabbath yet.
What he's saying is that those who believe are welcome into a rest that is offered by God through salvation. And those who have unbelief do not get the rest. Do not get the eternal rest offered by God. Then he says, although his works were finished from the foundation of the world, he has somewhere spoken of the seventh day in this way. And God rested on the seventh day from all his works. And again, in this passage, he said, they shall not enter my rest.
Here's what we need to understand. He says, those who believe get to enter the rest, just like God worked and rested. And those who have unbelief do not get to enter the rest. And this is mirrored. It is pictured in our lives so that if you have an inability to rest, I want to argue with you today that that means you have a practical, functional unbelief in the gospel at work in your life. That if you're a Christian, but you can't sit still, if you're a Christian, but you can't stop, if you're a Christian, but you can't rest, I want to argue with you that you have a functional unbelief.
That you might say, no, I really believe in Christ. I really know who he is. I really, but the problem is those who know Christ are marked their entire life. Even their work is marked by a rest because we're not having to strive to prove ourselves. That we're welcomed into a rest that only comes through salvation. That we're actually, if we're unable to rest, we're looking to something else to satisfy us, to assure us that we're okay. to give us our value, to give us our worth, that we have unbelief.
That God has invited us to rest from our works, to rest from our labor. And we are, like them in the rebellion, hardening our hearts and saying, I want something else. I need something else to validate me. I need something else to give me my worth. I need something else. So I can't stop.
I can't rest. I can't do nothing. I can't have inactivity because I need it to tell me I'm okay. And that is a practical unbelief. I want to read a quote by Judith Shulovich. She was writing for a New York Times.
She, she's a New York Times author. She is, grew up Jewish and then she kind of, as she got older, she just rejected her practicing Jewish faith. And then she realized that she started really, really struggling and about every weekend around Friday night, she said she just got depressed. And the point of the article is she realized that she needed the Sabbath. That she had practiced it religiously growing up and that it was very aggressively enforced and that she just kind of rejected all of that. But then she was striving endlessly and exhausted.
And so every Friday night she would get depressed and she realized I need to rest. And that's the point of her article. Now she's writing from the standpoint of a Jewish person, but I think that she gives some very clear pictures of what it feels like and what it's like for us to not be able to rest. She refers to our neurotic drive to achieve. That there's something wrong with us, but we have to constantly have something that we're marking off, that we're checking off, that we're achieving, that we're adding to our list of who we are. She says, I love this quote, she says, oddly, one of the few times a parent can truly, not that quote, I'm reading a different one.
I'm going to get to that one in a second. Oddly, one of the few times a parent can truly relax is when lingering on the sidelines of a child's baseball or soccer game. There's nothing like being forced to be somewhere and do very little for an hour and a half to declench the muscles of the mind. I love that phrase, declench the muscles of the mind. So what she's saying is that there has to be this time that we rest and she keeps going and I like this quote as well that uses bigger words so it's going to be up here.
So when she's talking about the Sabbath, she's talking about this time where we specifically stop to take a long period of rest. Not just a little bit of time, not just time that's forced on us, but it's actually we force it into our schedule. She says this, not only did drudgery give way to festivity and family gatherings and occasionally worship, but the machinery of self-censorship shut down too, stilling the eternal inner murmur of self-reproach. She says, this is the purpose of the Sabbath. I think her argument is helpful, the words that she uses here, that there's this self-censorship, there's this eternal inner murmur that by forcing ourselves to stop, we're forced to face and this is why some of us loathe having nothing to do.
Because what happens is when everything ceases, when our activity ceases, when we no longer have something that we're being productive, it's as if a maestro walks to the stand in our mind and just starts making all of this stuff, starts singing and crying, yelling at us. Like some of you, you go to rest, you go to sit down, you're like, finally, I'm going to take a nap and you lay down and it's this immediate, you really should be doing something else. You're being kind of lazy right now. There are other things that you could do that are more important with your time that you actually could, maybe you should actually get some of this work done you've been saying you were going to do so that you can spend some time with your children later.
Maybe like immediately like lists and tasks and so I don't know how long you can stand it, five minutes, ten minutes, fifteen minutes and then you're up. You got stuff to do. Maybe some of you lay down and finally you're exhausted and you're like, I'm going to go to sleep and you lay down in bed at night and your brain's like, hey, you want to replay everything that happened today and judge yourself? And you're like, no. And your brain's like, it's going to be fun. And you reevaluate your entire day and you start trying to figure out how you're going to do better the next day.
That you have this inability to stop. You have something to prove, something to earn. You've got an inner murmur, this self-censorship, this self-correction that is constant. Maybe some of you, your brain's consistently telling you, rest is for weak people and you're not weak. Rest is for the unimportant, but you're important. That there's something about you getting called in on your day off, there's something about you having to do work on your day off that confirms for you in your soul that I matter and I'm valuable and I have worth.
Other people can take time off, I can't, and that means that I'm worth something. That I'm accomplishing something. That I'm doing something. You work through lunch and it's a badge of honor because of how important you are and how much you matter. For some of you, you've brought this into your relationship with Jesus. So the stuff that the Bible talks about, about walking with Jesus where Jesus says things like, come to me all you who are weary and I'll give you rest, doesn't feel like your relationship to Jesus.
You don't feel like a weary person who got to go rest with Jesus. You don't feel like someone who's drinking deeply from a cool well or an unending river. You actually feel like someone who's accomplishing a lot of tasks and presenting Jesus with your checklist of all the good things you've done. So that your Bible reading has become, I'm going to read this much, I'm going to memorize this much, I'm going to do this much and it's become this, I'm going to labor for you Jesus and then I'll present to you what I have accomplished. And so even in walking with Jesus, you've brought in this idea of I have to be active and I have to be purposeful and I have to display to you what I've done.
And it's not restful and it's not joyous. Some of you feel like anytime you rest you've just pushed off the important things. If I rest now, I'm just going to have more to do later. If I stop now, I'll just complicate all next week. There's no way I could take an entire day off because it's just going to ruin everything and so that you consistently just never take time off. You never really stop.
You kind of rest and you kind of, I know some of you are like, well it's kind of rest but I also like it'll be more restful if I just get all the laundry done and then I'll really feel good if I can just get the grass cut and that'll be restful. And one of the ways that I'm going to rest this week is I'm going to invite five people over to my house and that'll be restful even though you hate people and you're just going to bring them over because you're kind of supposed to and then you'll feel better about yourself if you can and you've added in all this activity when you were designed for some inactivity so that you might actually have to face the maestro. You might actually have to take the time it takes to steal the inner murmur. That we were designed to stop so that we might come face to face with some things that God actually wants us to face.
This is why I think one of the helpful things that Adam Gibson who from Midtown came and spoke to us the other day, two weeks ago, said that there's a difference between rest and entertainment. There's a difference between rest and just kind of numbing our minds with watching television and that sort of thing. that some of that is us turning up the television so that we can drown out the course of the inner murmur but rather than actually facing it, unclenching it, walking in it and figuring out how to have true rest in Christ. I was talking with Nadine Pabone. She's one of our group leaders and she serves a lot in our church in a couple different areas and we were talking about this and just how busy she is and she said one of the reasons she doesn't like resting, she doesn't like taking time off is that she became a mom when she was 17 and that she actually doesn't know who she is apart from being a mom, being a wife and doing ministry and that when she rests she comes face to face with the fact that she has placed her identity in her activity so that if you looked at her and said, hey, take the day off, go do something you enjoy, her response is, I actually don't really know what I enjoy.
I watch a lot of children's programs. I fold a lot of laundry. I've got four children but I don't really know what I like. I don't really know what refreshes me and what she realizes when she comes to those moments of your whole day is cleared and you can rest, she comes to the face to face with the fact that I don't really know who I am outside of the things that I do and for some of you, you've placed all of your identity in work, you've placed all of your identity in your activities, you've placed all of your identity in who you are and what you do so that when you have a day off, you come face to face with the fact that you actually don't know who you are and it's excruciating.
So your inability to stop tells on you. Your inability to pause your life declares to you, it snitches. Your inability to stop tells on you that you actually have an internal issue with knowing who you are and being able to rest in the salvation that's offered in Christ. That you have an inability to stop because you have an inability to rest in the fact that Jesus has done all the work on your behalf and you still have something to prove and you still have something to achieve and you still have something you need to assure you that you have value. So how do we fight this?
That's offered in Christ. That you have an inability to stop because you have an inability to rest in the fact that Jesus has done all the work on your behalf and you still have something to prove and you still have something to achieve and you still have something you need to assure you that you have value. So how do we fight this? How do we silence the inner murmur? How do we learn
How to rest? How do we learn how to quiet ourselves so that we might be able to enjoy what Christ has offered? verse 8 I love this verse for if Joshua had given them rest God would not have spoken of another day later on so then there remains a Sabbath rest for the people of God for whoever has entered God's rest has also rested from his works as God did from his now again
This is beyond our weekly rest this is beyond the regular Sabbath but he talks about this Sabbath rest and what he says is if Joshua had given them rest then God wouldn't have kept talking about this idea now we got to understand who Joshua is for this to be really encouraging because if you don't know who Joshua is you're just like neat Joshua he failed I don't know him but he dropped the ball here's who Joshua
Is Joshua is the person who took over after Moses died and Joshua actually led the people into the promised land so he delivers them into God's promised land and he begins to set up them following the Lord and practicing the laws and so here's what it just said the promised land and obedience to the law will not provide for you rest and some of you have convinced yourself it will some of you have said if I can just achieve enough if I can just work hard enough if I can finally
I'll just finally feel okay I'll finally reach this moment where I'll tell myself I've done enough you've convinced yourself that if you're good enough if you behave well enough then finally your soul will be at rest and it won't and some of you have said if I can just get to the promised land and I don't know what your promised land is certain amount of money certain Job title kids out of your house I don't know what you think the promised land is but you keep telling yourself if I can just get there if I can just get there
If I can just get there I'll get rest and let me tell you something Joshua fails every time but there is a Sabbath rest for the people of God and it is found in Christ that we actually get to cease our striving our endless desire to prove our value our worth to assure ourselves that we're okay because of Christ I want to read from Galatians chapter 2 verse 16 and verse 21 he says yet we know that a person is not justified that means made right
That means that you won't ever actually be able to stand and say I'm perfect I've done it I've achieved it I can rest he says you're not justified by works of the law but through faith in Jesus Christ so we also have believed in Christ Jesus in order to be justified by faith in Christ and not by works of the law because by works of the law no one will be justified to use the language of Hebrews by works of the law no one will find rest 21
I do not nullify the grace of God for if righteousness were through the law then Christ Jesus died for no purpose so here's what he's saying in Galatians he's saying that if we consistently have to work to prove that our value comes from our work that we're going to present to God something amazing that he'll finally accept us that what we're doing is we're looking at the cross and saying no thank you we're hardening our hearts towards it we're nullifying the grace of God
And we're rejecting the offer of free salvation to actually lay down our work so here's what I want to say if you're in Christ and your faith is in Christ you've been given rest that is beyond any rest the world can ever offer and therefore you actually can rest here you've been given an eternal rest and therefore are free to rest here because you have nothing to prove
And you have nothing to earn it's all been carried out in Christ and if we're unable to rest here I believe it tells on us that we actually don't believe that we've been assured what we've been assured and given what we've been given in Christ you see our actions show what we believe that through as Christians we show what we believe
When we face adversity we show the hope that we have when we face loss we show what we believe by the way we spend our money we show what we believe by how we rest every week that you ought to be able to shut everything down and be fine and here's the thing that you need to know if you're in Christ you have value you have worth you have been given everything you need verse 11
Let us therefore strive to enter that rest so that no one may fall by the same sort of disobedience so what he's saying is let us work really hard to believe this truth to find Christ and so here's what I want you to understand in order for you to Sabbath in order for you to rest in order for you to enjoy this you actually have
To put in effort some of you say I don't know how on earth I'm going to take an entire day off and the truth is the way your schedule is set up right now you're not that's why there was a day of preparation for the Jewish people you actually have a lot of work to do the day before you
Rest but then you actually get to shut everything down to declench your mind to silence the inner murmur and rest so let me let me tell you this it's the gospel that allows you to actually rest and it's actually resting that helps you believe the gospel that you're actually going to have to fit this into your
Schedule so that you can come face to face with the maestro and Jesus can stand up risen from the grave and tell them all to shut it and sit down that Jesus is able to do that but we actually have to come face to face with all of the inner murmur and we have to take the time it takes to sit and listen and face it
And hear it so that we might actually begin to silence it we have to work to rest and you can't rest as long as your activity saves you as long as your movement and work and effort validates your existence so it's rest that helps us believe this it's actually practicing this rest that proves to us
That this is true and gives us the time to rest in Christ and the salvation that he offers there's a movie called Chariots of Fire it came out in late when did it come out in the 70s it's about two guys in England that both run track one's name's Eric one's name's Harold one of them is Jewish and one of them is a Christian they're both very fast
They're going to get to go to the Olympics it's based off of a true story some of you haven't seen this movie but you've heard the song boom boom boom boom ka ka ka ka ka ka ka ka bum bum bum bum bum bum bum bum bum bum bum bum and I don't care what it's put to the back of you get excited it's like ba da da da da da da da da da and you're like I can accomplish anything I ever wanted to
That's that song okay I think some of y'all should put that as your ringtone that wakes you up in the morning or whatever you just hear boom boom boom ka ka ka ka you just pop out of bed so anyway it's about these guys that are in the Olympics and they find out on the way to the Olympics that one of the events is going to be on a Sunday and so Eric who is a world class runner and this is his event
Says I don't do things on Sundays that's my Sabbath that's the Sabbath and I'm taking it off and so the whole movie is about this guy who could go win a gold medal and like the kings and the people over at Britain are coming to him and saying you should do this and he actually looks at him at one point and says I know y'all are in charge of this country but I have a bigger king who's in charge of everything and he raises kingdoms and he lowers kingdoms
And I'm going to do what he says and even if you don't believe you're just like that was amazing I'd love to say that to a king and he doesn't run now Harold has run his entire life facing anti-Semitism that people just dislike Jewish people and he's run running has actually allowed him to enter into society running has actually allowed him to have people value him running has been his thing that he's used to show that he has value that he has worth
There's this line in the movie where he actually says when that gun goes off I have 10 seconds to prove my existence I've got 10 seconds to prove my existence I've got 10 seconds to show that I have value now Eric doesn't run not because he's trapped not because he's hemmed in by God's rules he doesn't run because he's free he doesn't have to prove that he has worth he's been given worth in Christ he's free to run
Or not run one of the lines that he has in the movie is he says that God's made me fast and when I run I feel his pleasure see running for him was just a way to worship God to honor God to enjoy God and if it came down to it he could rest or not rest run or not run because he he was free and for some of us our work is us saying I've got 40 hours I've got 50 hours
I've got 60 hours to prove my worth I've got this project to earn my right to exist I've got these children that'll prove that I should have been here and you're free because Christ has given you his worth he's given you his value it's sealed in the cross and the empty tomb and you are free it is unassailable it will not be taken from you that when he says come to me
You who are weary and I'll give you rest it's a promise for eternity and it's practiced now that we get to cease our labors we get to rest and we get to practice practically reminding ourselves that I have my value in Christ and I can spend a seventh of my life in inactivity and unproductiveness and walk in front of the king and be saved by his work that's why God
Takes slaves out of Egypt and says you will practice the Sabbath this is how your week works now because slaves only have value as far as they're able to work they only have value in their productivity and he's looked at us and declared in Christ you are not slaves your value does not come from you or what you have done it comes from Christ and you are free to feel his pleasure in your work and to stop
And accomplish nothing and know that he ceased from his labors that he rose from the grave that he left the cross that your fate is sealed and you have freedom and value and hope in him so the Sabbath the taking a day off every week helps us untie that knot it helps us actively practice and remind ourselves of that truth and it's that truth that allows us
To consistently take that time to rest Matt's going to come back up we're going to sing so we're going to practice the Sabbath to rebel against the notion that our value comes from our labor that our identity comes from our activity that we're going to rebel against that idea that we're going to practice rest because we know that in Christ our value has been carried out our identity has been sealed and we're going to do this so that we might remember who Jesus is and what he's done
Because our work and our activity is cluttering our view of him and it's lying to us in our inability to rest our work has lied to us and told us that we need it in order to be okay and all we need is Christ the way we're going to end today is we're going to sing a song here in a minute but we're going to take communion before we do that communion is a practice that has been given to the church it was instituted the night before Jesus went to the cross where he took bread and he broke it and he said this is my body broken for you
And he took a cup and he shared it with his disciples and he says this is the new covenant of my blood poured out for you and as we go from here learning how to practice the Sabbath and learning how to rest so that we might have Jesus silence the inner murmur of self-censorship and self-reproach before we do that we're going to practice communion which is a reminder of why we get to rest that Jesus Christ went to a cross that he did the work for us that our value is carried out in him and that he has accomplished for us all that we need for salvation
And for rest that there's a better rest that Joshua couldn't give us that hard work couldn't give us that the promised land wouldn't give us but that Christ did so in a moment I encourage you to take some time to pray to reflect to repent where you need to and if you're a Christian we invite you to take communion if you're not a Christian this is something given to the church so you're welcome to to stay seated and then in a moment stand and sing with us let's pray God I pray that everyone here would know true rest
That's found only in surrender to you that's found only in faith in Christ and then I pray that that would practically be carried out as we become some hard working well resting people I pray that we would be able to cease from our labors and have inactivity so that we might come face to face with you and watch you silence the chorus of accusation of doubt the burden of proving our value we love you
And we praise you in Jesus name Amen