Sabbath > Summer

Hebrews 4

For a lot of people assume that summer equals rest, but sometimes the summer drains you just as much or more than the rest of the year!

Rest has a price: Whether it’s buying a matress, going on vacation, or having the peace of mind about the future, rest always comes with a pricetag.

Context: Israel’s rebellion against God in the wilderness

The context: Israel had rebelled against God’s will and became disobedient to God. They wanted to enter the land of rest while keeping themselves living in disobedience to God.

Unbelief produces unrest

Hebrews 3:16–19 (NIV)

16 Who were they who heard and rebelled? Were they not all those Moses led out of Egypt? 17 And with whom was he angry for forty years? Was it not with those who sinned, whose bodies perished in the wilderness? 18 And to whom did God swear that they would never enter his rest if not to those who disobeyed? 19 So we see that they were not able to enter, because of their unbelief.

Principle #1. Rest is a promise of God: Living in rest or unrest will bring you closer to God or farther away from him.

Hebrews 4:1–2 NIV

1 Therefore, since the promise of entering his rest still stands, let us be careful that none of you be found to have fallen short of it. 2 For we also have had the good news proclaimed to us, just as they did; but the message they heard was of no value to them, because they did not share the faith of those who obeyed.

You can exclude or include yourslef in this promise.

Rest transforms our identity to become more like God

Exodus 20:9–11 NIV

9 Six days you shall labor and do all your work, 10 but the seventh day is a sabbath to the Lord your God. On it you shall not do any work, neither you, nor your son or daughter, nor your male or female servant, nor your animals, nor any foreigner residing in your towns. 11 For in six days the Lord made the heavens and the earth, the sea, and all that is in them, but he rested on the seventh day. Therefore the Lord blessed the Sabbath day and made it holy.

Summer is the perfect time to make a more intentional effort to grow in our obedience to God, to seek his face, and find transformation

The carrot and the stick

The idea of the constant pursuit of

The Confessions of St. Augustine (Chapter 1)

Great art You, O Lord, and greatly to be praised; great is Your power, and You wisdom infinite. And to you would man praise; man is only a particle of Your creation; man, that bears about him his mortality, the witness of his sin, the witness that You resist the proud: yet would man praise You; he, but a particle of You creation. You awake us to delight in Your praise; for You made us for Yourself and our heart is restless, until it finds rest in You.

Our hearts are restless until we find rest in Him

What would give your life rest?

Israel didn’t learn the lesson and later on Israel was punished for their disobedience

Ezekiel 20:12–20 (NIV)

12 Also I gave them my Sabbaths as a sign between us, so they would know that I the Lord made them holy.

13 “ ‘Yet the people of Israel rebelled against me in the wilderness. They did not follow my decrees but rejected my laws—by which the person who obeys them will live—and they utterly desecrated my Sabbaths. So I said I would pour out my wrath on them and destroy them in the wilderness. 14 But for the sake of my name I did what would keep it from being profaned in the eyes of the nations in whose sight I had brought them out. 15 Also with uplifted hand I swore to them in the wilderness that I would not bring them into the land I had given them—a land flowing with milk and honey, the most beautiful of all lands—16 because they rejected my laws and did not follow my decrees and desecrated my Sabbaths. For their hearts were devoted to their idols. 17 Yet I looked on them with pity and did not destroy them or put an end to them in the wilderness. 18 I said to their children in the wilderness, “Do not follow the statutes of your parents or keep their laws or defile yourselves with their idols. 19 I am the Lord your God; follow my decrees and be careful to keep my laws. 20 Keep my Sabbaths holy, that they may be a sign between us. Then you will know that I am the Lord your God.”

Your obedience to following the commandments of Jesus is directly connected to your faith

Ezekiel 20:16 NIV

16 because they rejected my laws and did not follow my decrees and desecrated my Sabbaths. For their hearts were devoted to their idols.

Restlessness is connected to idolatry

Resting breaks the expectations the world sets on us to be human doings not human beings. We regain our true identity as believers when we find rest.

The faith of some who are here has been stunned by lack of rest

Restlessness results in rebellion

There are people who’s walk with Jesus has been stunned by their lack of rest

Principle #2: Real rest begins whith a relationship with Jesus the redeemer

We don’t follow the law of Moses, but the commandments of Jesus

Matthew 28:20 NIV

20 and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age.”

The summer can be the enemy’s window of opportunity to get to you if you don’t take this season intentionally:

With you at the center of your plans

How does this rest look like:

1. Obedience to the commands of Jesus

2. Hearing God’s voice

Hearing God’s voice secures rest for the heart

Hebrews 4:7–8 NIV

7 God again set a certain day, calling it “Today.” This he did when a long time later he spoke through David, as in the passage already quoted: “Today, if you hear his voice, do not harden your hearts.” 8 For if Joshua had given them rest, God would not have spoken later about another day.

3. Rest from works:

Hebrews 4:9–10 NIV

9 There remains, then, a Sabbath-rest for the people of God; 10 for anyone who enters God’s rest also rests from their works, just as God did from his.

4. Entering God’s rest requires an effort!

Hebrews 4:11–13 NIV

11 Let us, therefore, make every effort to enter that rest, so that no one will perish by following their example of disobedience. 12 For the word of God is alive and active. Sharper than any double-edged sword, it penetrates even to dividing soul and spirit, joints and marrow; it judges the thoughts and attitudes of the heart. 13 Nothing in all creation is hidden from God’s sight. Everything is uncovered and laid bare before the eyes of him to whom we must give account.

Having a busy schedule keeps us from seeing the sin and disobedience to God in our lives

Hope for the disobedient

Hebrews 4:14–16 NIV

14 Therefore, since we have a great high priest who has ascended into heaven, Jesus the Son of God, let us hold firmly to the faith we profess. 15 For we do not have a high priest who is unable to empathize with our weaknesses, but we have one who has been tempted in every way, just as we are—yet he did not sin. 16 Let us then approach God’s throne of grace with confidence, so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help us in our time of need.