He Will give us rest

intro:

Today Pastor Ryan talked about rest and I wanted to ask you guys. What’s the most restful thing you’ve done in your life?

The most restful vacation…Most restful trip…Maybe just most restful day you’ve had

What has been your most restful moment?

Now a follow up what does rest mean to you? What does it look like for you?

Does rest look like you on a beach suns out sunglasses are on and you’re just relaxing and listen to music

Or just rest, look like you’re at the gym, exercising, enjoying yourself and disconnecting from the rest of the world

Personally, I think rest comes from a place of understanding who God is

Rest comes from knowing that I am at peace with God

The first step for us to have rest is for us to be able to lay down our burdens to God

We lay down the fact that we are sinners in need of a savior at the feed of Christ

And he takes that weight upon him on the cross, pays the penalty for it

And gives us a new name before we were a child of wrath and now we are a child of God

And if we have given our life to Christ, if we have confessed Jesus as our Lord and Savior, we have this kind of rest

But if you’re in this room and you haven’t given your life to Christ, I’m gonna break it down for you very quickly and straightforward hopefully

You and I have seen and fallen short of the glory of God

And because of that sin, there is separation from God, and that separation in this life will lead to eternal separation in hell

We are separated from God’s goodness, his grace and his mercy for eternity in hell

Ephesians 2:4–5 ESV

4 But God, being rich in mercy, because of the great love with which he loved us, 5 even when we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ—by grace you have been saved—

And all we have to do is accept Jesus as our savior acknowledge him as Lord and believe that He is God he did die for our sins and rose again for our salvation

Romans 10:9 ESV

9 because, if you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved.

This is the beginning of peace with God. This is the beginning of our relationship with Christ.

This is the beginning of rest

We are no longer heavy with sin, but we are forgiven

We no longer walk within the shame of our history, but we walk within the reality of Christ victory

And if you don’t know Christ, I ask that you would know Christ today that you would pray to him confessing that you’re a sinner in need of a savior and asking him to be your savior

Feel free to talk to a leader myself I’d love to continue this conversation

But for some of us in this room, we’ve known the Lord for a long time

We have given our life to Jesus to be our savior

And we have this beginning of rest this beginning of peace

And I wanted to bring you to a passage couple passages that bring me peace in my turmoil

They bring me rest when my mind is racing

Psalm 23

A Psalm of David. 1 The Lord is my shepherd; I shall not want. 2 He makes me lie down in green pastures. He leads me beside still waters. 3 He restores my soul.

What I love about this section

Is that we are the sheep and he is the shepherd

You see this Shepherd in this Psalm is God and we are the sheep

And sheep do not like to rest unless they feel provided for protected and safe

And God has a good Shepherd will remove the barriers to rest.

God provides peace with him so that we will not be burdened by our history, but overwhelmed by his victory

God can provide us this rest. He can bring us to the place to lie down and give it to him.

And when we rest when we lie down, and when we accept his leadership, he will begin to restore our spirit

I know some of us are younger in this room

But have you ever felt the weight of life just on your mind?

Everything’s going wrong, Anxieties on the rise and it just feels like you don’t have any time to do anything restful

Or maybe you’re like me and you feel like you haven’t earned rest

You haven’t earned downtime

I truly believe that rest is a gift from God that we are given

And it’s a gift of the devil doesn’t want us to receive

Because if you and I are well rested, how easily influenced are we?

Satan didn’t come out to tempt Jesus until he was hungry until he was weak physically

How much more so with us???

As Christians, we must rest in the Lord

We must find time for God to restore our souls

How many have you have seen the movie cars?

Lightning McQueen is racing and he skips his pitstop or his rest stop

He keeps going and going, but then his tires blowout because he didn’t take care of himself he didn’t rest and he barely makes it to the finish line.

If we don’t stop to rest in the Lord, we will break down and we will be susceptible to attack from the enemy

So my question for us is are we resting?

Are we relying on Jesus to lead us? Are we relying on God for rest and peace?

The only way for us to ask is to do it with God

Just because we’re on a beach, doesn’t mean we’re resting

Just because we’re doing an activity we enjoy doesn’t mean we’re resting

It has to start with understanding of our peace with God

That this moment is holy because God is with us and everything flows from that

I wanna leave you with one Bible verse. I find to be such a good reminder of where I personally find rest.

Psalm 27:4 ESV

4 One thing have I asked of the Lord, that will I seek after: that I may dwell in the house of the Lord all the days of my life, to gaze upon the beauty of the Lord and to inquire in his temple.

You and I can gaze upon the beauty of God all the days of our life at home on vacation at At gathering…

It doesn’t matter because if we have peace with God, if we have given our life to Jesus

Then we can see him work in every situation

And we can find his rest and peace wherever we are at whether we are in the valleys or the mountain tops he is there…

Let’s pray…