Finding Sacred Rest: God's Invitation to Breathe in a Breathless World

The Work of the Past Year

Family Fun Day

Special meals - Anniversary meal, Christmas lunch, Valentines’ Meal, corps lunches

Harvest quiz

Overflow worship

Remembrance Sunday services

Christmas carolling

Storage clearing

Una Voce

All the building work

Ascot Brass / Songsters concert

Easter

Pizza making and even a netball tournament

Weekly stuff:

Homeless ministry

Hub - growing

Rehearsals

Funerals, Thanksgiving Services, farewells

Admin

I thank God that so many of you have been involved in all of this

You’ve worked hard.

Been positive.

Encouraged and supported each other.

Also spent much of the past 12 months reminding ourselves that we are not only involved in God’s work here, but wherever we find ourselves

On our frontlines.

Striving to be the best ambassador for Christ as we can be.

Being the answer to our own prayer that people would see Christ, and only Christ in us.

Loving those who hard to love.

Seeking to find the deep joy in even the most difficult of circumstances.

Being a peacemaker in our homes and places of work.

Showing patience in the face of daily frustrations.

Treating the people we live with, work with, come into contact with, with kindness and gentleness.

Being faithful to God’s purposes for our lives.

Exercising self-control.

Again, I am so grateful for the many of you who are striving to be good followers of Jesus on your frontlines every day

And now we come to the end of a season, the summer holidays, where perhaps we need to remind ourselves:

Rest isn’t a reward for the finished - it’s a resource for the faithful.

Once, again Jesus wants to say to us:

Matthew 11:28-30

Matthew 11:28–30 NLT

Then Jesus said, “Come to me, all of you who are weary and carry heavy burdens, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you. Let me teach you, because I am humble and gentle at heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy to bear, and the burden I give you is light.”

MESSAGE NOTES

If you’re feeling exhausted after all the busyness of the past 12 months, if you’re feeling weary, Jesus says: Come and I will give you rest

Doesn’t that sound beautiful?

Come to me.

I will give you rest.

Do you need to hear those words this morning?

Come to me.

I will give you rest.

If there is one thing many of us are longing for at the end of this busy season, then it’s rest.

Jesus says, if you want rest, then I am the Rest-Maker.

I’m the one you must embrace.

If work is a grind.

If you feel you’re carrying desperate burdens.

If you feel crushed by life’s load.

Then come to me is a tender call to intimacy with Jesus.

Over this summer period, some will think they will only find the renewal and refreshment they need to go on being Christ’s followers here and on their frontlines on the soft sand of the beach, or a holiday escape somewhere else.

That can certainly help.

I’m not suggesting holidays are a bad idea!

But they are no substitute for using these next few weeks to reconnect fully with Jesus.

To ensure our relationship is right with him.

To allow him to give us the rest we need.

How could we not respond to such an amazing invitation?

Notice closely what Jesus says:

Come to me

Not Go to God.

Come to me.

Jesus says, I have come to seek you out.

As much as you may be looking for Jesus, he is looking for you.

What love, grace, mercy!

That Jesus, God the Son, the Creator of the Universe, invites us to rest in him.

Come to me.

That’s the very heart of God.

Jesus offers us his pure love.

He offers it to us unselfishly.

He offers us his redemption and rest.

Jesus literally says to us, I will rest you

His presence will give the rest your weary soul needs.

Rest in his loving arms.

Allow him to take the burdens off your aching backs.

He doesn’t mean stop working for God.

Stop being his follower.

Stop growing as a disciple.

But he does mean finding the peace we need in him.

Finding a sense of fulfilment in him.

Discovering a sense of being put right with God and with the world.

Jesus says, trust yourself to me, and you will find that rest you crave.

He doesn’t promise your burdens will go away.

He doesn’t promise you’ll never feel weary again.

But he does promise you continued renewal and refreshment on your journey through life.

He goes on to speak about his yoke

You will have heard many sermons (including mine) that told you a yoke is heavy piece of wood placed across to oxen, to help them share the burden of ploughing or carrying.

In other words, Jesus is saying, allow me to share the burden.

Partner with me, and you’ll find my work more easy to bear.

You’ll find my burden is light.

But a yoke can also be a piece of wood that one person places on their shoulders to carry a heavy load themselves

Perhaps Jesus is saying to you, for this season, lay all of your burdens on me.

Give me your work for a little while.

I can take it.

And as we come to Jesus, and receive his rest.

As we use this summer to hand over our burdens to him, we will find a rest that will enable us to go back to the tasks he has given us with renewed vigour.

So, take the time to pause and recalibrate this summer

The summer holidays may not stretch out as the glorious, unstructured, lazy days of our school days.

But most of us will have a bit more time perhaps to slow down and connect with God in different ways.

Perhaps one of the best ways we can do that - especially in the warmth and sunshine - is to get out into nature.

In a study of 20,000 people, reported in 2019, a team led by Mathew White of the European Centre for Environment & Human Health at the University of Exeter, found that people who spent two hours a week in green spaces - local parks or other natural environments, either all at once or spaced over several visits - were substantially more likely to report good health and psychological well-being than those who don’t.

Spending time in nature and with God is good for you!

So, why not get out there this summer, and enjoy the world around you, and the presence of your Saviour who says, Come to me and I will give you rest?

Remember: True rest is found not in the absence of work, but in the presence of Jesus.

Disconnect from the hustle and the busyness.

Disconnect from your electronic devices.

Make room for rest.

And make more room for Jesus, the Rest-Maker.

SB742 - When shall I come unto the healing waters?

When shall I come unto the healing waters? Lifting my heart, I cry to thee my prayer. Spirit of peace, my Comforter and healer, In whom my springs are found, let my soul meet thee there. From a hill I know, Healing waters flow; O rise, Immanuel?s tide, And my soul overflow! 2 Wash from my hands the dust of earthly striving; Take from my mind the stress of secret fear; Cleanse thou the wounds from all but thee far hidden, And when the waters flow let my healing appear. 3 Light, life and love are in that healing fountain, All I require to cleanse me and restore; Flow through my soul, redeem its desert places, And make a garden there for the Lord I adore. Albert Orsborn (1886-1967) © The General of The Salvation Army. Used By Permission. CCL Licence No. 135015 Copied from The Song Book of The Salvation Army Song Number 742