Burdens are lifted at Calvary

A magazine for ammunition must not stay under continual tension. If always stored at max capacity, the springs are in danger of weakening and causing a miss-feed in the gun. Likewise, we can not always stay under continual pressure. We must find a way to release the tension and allow ourselves a break from the pressures of life.

This may be a vacation, but it does not have to be. A simple walk or sitting somewhere quiet is sometimes enough. Find a place or method that will allow you to step bak and refocus.

I can tell you this, if you are waiting on someone else you will not find rest. If you are waiting for a better time, you will not find rest.

To enjoy a tine and place of rest, we must work with intentionality.

You may say, pastor, I am retired and have more time than I can handle. Yet, even you may need a time of rest from the prisons of fear, worry, and loneliness.

Hebrews 4:7–11 NKJV

again He designates a certain day, saying in David, “Today,” after such a long time, as it has been said: “Today, if you will hear His voice, Do not harden your hearts.” For if Joshua had given them rest, then He would not afterward have spoken of another day. There remains therefore a rest for the people of God. For he who has entered His rest has himself also ceased from his works as God did from His. Let us therefore be diligent to enter that rest, lest anyone fall according to the same example of disobedience.

1. The place of rest

Hebrews 4:1–3 NKJV

Therefore, since a promise remains of entering His rest, let us fear lest any of you seem to have come short of it. For indeed the gospel was preached to us as well as to them; but the word which they heard did not profit them, not being mixed with faith in those who heard it. For we who have believed do enter that rest, as He has said: “So I swore in My wrath, ‘They shall not enter My rest,’ ” although the works were finished from the foundation of the world.

A. In God’s will

B. In obedience

Hebrews 4:11 NKJV

Let us therefore be diligent to enter that rest, lest anyone fall according to the same example of disobedience.

2. The person of rest

Hebrews 4:14 NKJV

Seeing then that we have a great High Priest who has passed through the heavens, Jesus the Son of God, let us hold fast our confession.

A. Jesus-the bearer of burdens

B. Jesus-the finisher of labor

3. The product of rest

Hebrews 4:16 NKJV

Let us therefore come boldly to the throne of grace, that we may obtain mercy and find grace to help in time of need.

A. His presence

B. Mercy

C. Grace

Today many of us have been [so] conditioned by efficiency that times [of sitting on the porch] feel unproductive, irresponsible, lazy, even selfish. We know we need rest, but we can no longer see the value of rest as an end in itself; it is only worthwhile if it helps us recharge our batteries so we can be even more efficient in the next period of productivity.

A Coca-Cola Philosophy & Empty Calories

Studies reveal that 37 percent of Americans take fewer than seven days of vacation a year. In fact, only 14 percent take vacations that last longer than two weeks. Americans take the shortest paid vacations of anyone in the world. And 20 percent of those who do, often spend their vacation staying in touch with their jobs through their computers or phones.

The point? Even when we do vacation, we do it poorly. But even if we did vacation well and took great amounts of time off for restorative rest, vacations are a poor substitute for a weekly day of rest. I think the devil loves taking that which is of God and giving us cheap knockoffs. When God invents sugar, the devil makes Sweet’N Low.

In the 1990s, Coca-Cola had a well-known campaign depicting people doing hard work, then popping open a cold bottle of Coke and taking a swig. We yearn for the “pause that refreshes. ” Unfortunately, we try to refresh ourselves with empty calories, or vacations, which are not what we really need. Our souls stir, longing for rest. Not for the frills of a can of saccharine drink, a sugary vacation. No, what is missing is the rest found in God.