Rest in a Wrecked World

Introduction:

Good Morning 9 or 11 AM Grace Community Church family, it is an honor and a privilege to be able to stand up here in front of you this morning to deliver the Word. I want to thank Pastor George, Neil and Jeff for the opportunity and the years of discipleship they’ve had on my life. Thank you David for another great week of worship, I do miss worshipping with you all every Sunday morning but I am grateful to be here today.

I’m aware not all of you know me so for those of you who do, now’s the time to just tune out for a second. My name is Nick Hartman, I grew up here at GCC and currently am a student pastor in Columbia, Missouri at Midway Heights Baptist Church. My wife Haley and I met in college and have been married for almost 15 months. My parents are Marjory and Dan and I’m sure you know one, if not both of them. Thank you for joining us here this morning and I look forward to hopefully meeting you today.

Shifting focus now, so if you tuned out, tune back in. Let’s talk 2020, what a heavy, harsh year it’s been. Take this slow - A pandemic, which is a word I’ve used maybe five times before this year has led to job loss, a divisive political environment, the loss of loved ones, terrible medical diagnoses, you name it and someone around you or you is going through it. It’s not over yet and it will likely get worse with false promises of hope that many politicians will be making. In the coming months, there will be people trying to sell all of us a false hope and false promise of happiness.

2020 is not the only time in history where things have been hard. Difficult things happen all the time. Part of what has shaped our lives is the tough times we’ve lived through. Today, we are going to discuss another Psalm of David, Psalm 62. Similar to what Pastor Neil shared last week, this is a song that David sang about God in which he describes his power, person and presence. It’s a song where David sings about finding rest in God’s presence. This Psalm was written at a time when lots is going wrong in David’s world. He has lost a son, his enemies continue to advance on him, he’s struggling personally and his anxiety is high. So the question is what do we do when we are getting crushed against the rocks? Where do we turn? Where do we look for our refuge and our strength?

Let’s take a look at Psalm 62

At some point today, I’m sure you will eat lunch whether at a restaurant or at home. You will proceed to turn on the TV, kickback in your favorite chair and fall asleep. This is not a bad way to spend our day of rest. But for some reason by 9 or 10 PM and for some of you by 8 PM, you're tired again. So that afternoon nape really didn’t give a true rest, it was just a moment of rest.

TRANSITION POINT: True rest can only be found in God. True rest is not a physical rest but the place where we go when the world around us is falling apart. Moment by moment, day by day when nothing is going our way, where do you turn? It is in these moments where we can find:

Rest in God’s Refuge

Here we see David is in desperate need of rest. As mentioned, all of the world’s burdens are on David but he declares this truth, “I am at rest in God alone.”

TRANSITION POINT: We will not be able to find true rest, as David found it, until we look where David looked. The true rest that David sought:

Begins with Recognition

True rest begins with recognizing it’s source. If you’ve ever been on a hike in the woods and all of a sudden you come across a beautiful stream of water, you want to find its source. It could be a waterfall, a pond, a small lake...regardless that stream has a place where the water is coming from.

When my brothers and I lived in the house right next door to here, we would often venture into the woods behind the house. I’ll remember the first time that Ben and myself went back there and found this stream. As curious 8 and 6 year old boys, we wanted to know where the water came from. So we walked and walked and finally we came across this beautiful, small waterfall. The water was cascading over the hill and the sound was so peaceful. There was no doubt in our mind, this is was the source of the stream. The source of the water required a little bit of searching but when we found it we knew immediately what it was.

God is the source of the only true rest we will ever receive. There will be things in this world that will try to offer us a false rest but the only true rest we will ever find is the rest God offers us. No good night of sleep will be long enough, no vacation will relax us enough, no time away from social media will suffice...these will help but they are not the answer.

It is only God who gives authentic, perfect rest and we must seek him to be our refuge in the wreckage.

One thing that we have that David did not, is hope in Jesus. I know many of you know what Jesus said in Matthew about those searching for rest but what a reminder it is to us -

“Come to me, all of you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. - Matt. 11:28.

Jesus bore the burden that we cannot. He took the wreckage, the brokenness of our lives and as God and as man, he took on the punishment that we could not so that we could have the rest and the salvation that we do not deserve.

TRANSITION POINT: True rest is found only in God alone and it begins with our recognition of this, just as David does here. David begin with this recognition and then displays another really important point about rest, that it is:

Best in Silence

I don’t know about you but I sleep best in a mostly silent room. We have a fan going for both the air flow and the white noise. If you’ve ever been to a hotel where there is an active world going on, it can make it difficult if not impossible to rest.

Silence is where we find the most physical rest but that’s not what David is saying here, what David is saying is that the time he spends with God is time that he spends away from the noise of life. Away from the wreckage and the carnage and the brokenness of the world. David retreats to God and in Him he finds rest and refuge.

2020, as we mentioned, has been a season of demand. The pandemic has demanded our attention for us to stay safe. Politicians have demanded our cooperation and have desired for our vote. Racial tensions have created a demand for resolution, for change. Everything is demanding that we do something now.

You might be here today and feel a little like David, exhausted, beat-down, battered and in need of silence. But yet we hold on to something, we hold on to the desire to be in the know because we fear missing out. The true rest we can find in God is found in the distance from the noise.

Silence is hard to come by and it is hard to make time for but it is in silence that we can find true rest and it is in this silence where we can fully understand the salvation that is found in Jesus alone.

No politician can give you rest. No news outlet can give you rest. No social media app can give you rest. True rest can only be found completely in God. It in our active retreat to Him taht we begin to distancing ourselves from the noise.

Silence can make people uncomfortable, I know this because I’m one of those people. But it is in this discomfort that can more fully connect to God. It's part of the reason David desired silence and rested in God alone. It was in the silence of God’s refuge that he found the rest he needed and he recognized that it was alone in God this was found.

Jesus spent much time in silence as well, he often went away from the crowds, the noise, the demands and spent time with His father, alone. He valued the moments with God and when he distanced himself from the noise he lifted up prayers, he garnered strength, he found true rest.

TRANSITION POINT: Our true rest comes when we retreat to God and look to Him as our refuge and our hope. In this retreat, we can more fully share our burdens, our emotions and ourselves in the silence with God. In this retreat and reliance on God, we are able to:

Bear through difficult times

We talked earlier about how 2020 has made all of us feel like we’ve been tossed against the rocks. We feel knocked around, beat-up and beat-down, David did too. Yet he finds his rest, his hope and his salvation in God alone.

This is an important note: the God that David worships is the same one that sent His Son to die and be a ransom for many, for you and me. The God that David worships is the same God that brought the Son who died, back to life to show not only the power of the Son but the power of Him. The God that David worships is the very same God that rules over the world today and trust me when I say this, nothing that has happened in 2020 has been a surprise to Him and nothing that has happened in your life has been a surprise to him.

The God, David is describing here, is the very same God we worship today. He is the very same God that provides us with what we need to bear through the difficult times. All that we need is Jesus. He is our comforter, our all in all and our only hope.

David doesn’t look elsewhere for his hope when his enemies are attacking, he boldly declares that his refuge and his strength is found in God alone. David describes God as a fortress and in God, David will not be shaken. He finds all hope is God alone.

TRANSITION POINT: So what’s David getting at here? It’s this, our rest can be found solely and completely in God alone. If you try to find your rest anywhere else, you may have temporary satisfaction but it will never be true rest. Temporary satisfaction looks like the vacation that you just got back from and enjoyed your time. Temporary satsification is house you’ve worked hard to buy or that new bed you’re sleeping in. None of these things are bad but they won’t give us rest in the wreckage of the world. The only thing who gives us rest in a wrecked world is God alone. This means, we must do as David did. We must retreat to God and recognize, believe and know that we can find rest in God’s refuge. In doing so, we must:

Reject False Rest

We’ve talked about it already, the world around us is eager to show us all the places we can find rest. Whether this is our political tribe, our racial, socioeconomic or sexual identification, our jobs, where we live or what we own. These are all places where false rest is offered. They are things that take our attention away from the true refuge we have in God alone. They offer us rest for brief moments but they are the things that David warns about in this Psalm, and we first see David warn that:

Our position doesn’t offer rest, v. 9

David starts verse 9 by saying that no matter where you stand in society whether poor or rich, known or not, it does not matter. The poor he compares to a breath in the wind. The rich a delusion, seen for a second and gone. The high and low estate’s were a place in the societal norm of things but David says that positions in society don’t offer a refuge because they come and go. These positions are delusions, mere breath in the wind, they go up and come down.

Rest can never be found in a position that is always moving. A position that always moving looks like always desiring the next big thing. Always seeking the next job or opportunity. Hear me out church, your rest isn’t found in your work or your position, it is only be found in God alone.

We must not place our hope for true rest in our job, our family or our net worth. Reject it, and place your rest solely and completely in Jesus alone. When our hope for true rest is found in Christ alone, we won’t care about our place in the world around us, we’ll just care about our place with Jesus.

Remember what Jesus said in Matthew 11, “Come to me all who are weary and I will give you rest.” If you have never rested in Christ alone, you will have an opportunity to make that decision today and I ask these questions with that in mind,

TRANSITION POINT: Are you weary? Are you battered against the rocks? Come to Jesus and he will be your true rest. You rest cannot be found in your position in society or in a political candidate, reject it. The reason why rest cannot be found here is because all of these things will eventually fade away. There is a definite end to them, the job, the political candidate or platform. But God is not, He is everlasting. So if you desire a true, lifelong rest - retreat to God alone. Our position is not the only place where false rest is found:

Our possessions don’t offer rest

We all like to have the next big thing. We all like to have nice things. In my lifetime, this has been true with the phone you carry. I have many many friends who upgrade their iPhone every time the new one comes out. In fact, when I got my iPhone upgraded after 4 years of the iPhone 7 Plus, the saleswomen pushed and pushed for me to get the newest upgrade plan added on.

Why do we care so much about what we own? Why do we often make gods out of our possessions? Whether it be our car, our house, our grills or our shoes? The truth is because it goes back to where we find our rest. I guarantee none of us find rest in the things we own, we know better. Rather the rest we are seeking is really rest in what others think of us. We receive security and satisfaction by comments like, “you have a beautiful home...” “a nice car”, “I like those shoes”. These aren’t bad things to say or receive but if we constantly desire them from others, we’ve placed our rest in the wrong thing.

David here is speaking against placing rest in the things we own but only in God alone. Why? He recognizes that our possessions carry no weight compared to God. He recognized that God is so holy, so great and a mighty rock for us that worldly possessions have the power to steal our attention from the refuge we can find in God.

TRANSITION POINT: There is nothing wrong with owning nice things especially when we are thankful and worship God with them. It is when our heart is desiring the next big thing or believes that when we have that thing, we’ve made it - we can recognize that we are seeking false rest.

When our heart isn’t set on God for our rest, we will always be searching for rest in false places. We need to reject the idea that we need positions and possessions to be at true rest. It is only in God and through God that our rest can be found. Why? Because God alone is our salvation and we can find hope, peace and:

Rest in God’s Redemption

What’s beautiful about this, is that David, hundreds of years before the Messiah - Jesus, comes, recognizes that it is only through God that we are redeemed. He find his salvation and his refuge in God. Is God your mighty rock? Have you rested in the redemption that God has graciously given? Have you found your salvation in God alone? Or are you working to be saved?

TRANSITION POINT: Here’s an important reminder for us all, nothing we can do can save us. Our redemption is solely:

Dependent on God

It was God who created the world. It was God who created man. It was God who gave man authority. It was God who inspired a law to follow. It was God who chose the nation of Israel. It was God who sent Jesus to die for and be the Savior to the sinful world. It was God who called Peter, James, John and Jesus’s disciples. It was God who called Saul away from persecuting him and into a relationship with him. It was God who sent Paul to preach to the Gentiles. It was God who built the church. It was God who created you and me. Everything that happens in our lives was and is and will be dependent on God.

When I graduated last year in December, I struggled to find a job. At that time, jobs were everywhere. In fact I applied for 17 and ended up interviewing for more than 10. It was a battle, it was a journey, at times I wondered if I wasn’t good enough to be hired. If I didn’t work hard enough in school, if my resume wasn’t good enough. It was in these moments that I had the choice, to either depend on and trust God or try to figure out what I was doing wrong. In the beginning, I tried to do both but I realized they weren’t mutually exclusive. I conceded to trust God to bring the right opportunity and he did for that time. Yet it was a painful process that required me to be reminded that my worth isn’t dependent on what other’s think of my resume. It’s dependent solely on God alone.

Our personal redemption is no different. David recognized this in Psalm 62, in this recognition he reminds us that our salvation is dependent on God alone and so we can find refuge in God alone.

Too often, we unintentionally make salvation a product of our works. We feel like the more we do, the more we say, the more we help, the more we serve, we can reserve our spot in heaven. Yet we are not saved by our own power, we can’t be saved by our own power because we are sinners. We are broken. As broken people, we need something other than ourselves to put us back together and that brokeness is healed by God alone. So today I’m here to tell you that you can rest in God’s redemption alone. You don’t have to work hard to save yourself, God has already made a way through Jesus.

TRANSITION POINT: Our redemption cannot be found in our own ability, we cannot work hard enough to receive it. Hard work is a wonderful thing but redemption is dependent on God alone and you can rest in the fact that you don’t have to work your way out of your sin and that Jesus, who called you to rest in Him, took our sin and used his life as a ransom for ours. When we work, we work out because of salvation, not for our salvation. We know this becasue Jesus’s:

Death on the Cross

Jesus’s death on the cross is the reason why our salvation can be found. Jesus died the death you and I deserved. He took the full brunt of sin for us so that we can rest in his redemption. We must understand that there is nothing in our own ability that can save us. We must understand that our sin leads to death but God’s mercy is greater. We must understand that through Jesus’s death on the cross, a free gift was given. It is in this free gift, the gift of salvation that we can find eternal rest. Through Jesus, we can sing the same song that David sang about God because He is a refuge for us. We can boldly proclaim the gift we’ve been given to the world around us.

One of the best accounts of this occurs in the Gospel of John. In John 4, a woman goes to the well to get water but she goes at an odd time at high-noon, in the middle of the heat so can avoid everyone. This woman was full of sin, she had five husbands, all divorced and was living with a man who she wasn’t married to. Jesus encounters this woman and sparks a conversation. Through this conversation, Jesus calls the woman out of her sin. The woman recognizes that he is the promised savior and in her excited state, she leaves her water jar and goes to tell the town about Jesus, the Savior who she met that day. She was made new. She found rest in Jesus.

Just like the woman at the well, when we recognize and believe that salvation is through God alone, we are redeemed and made new. And just as the woman at the well, we can find rest in this redemption. Just as the woman at the well had her soul calmed by the savior, we can enter that same calm and just as the woman at the well went and shared the news, we can too.

TRANSITION POINT: When the winds and waves in the world go after our soul, we can find peace in the loving mercy of Jesus. It’s in this redemption, where we can come to a point where we give God our all. Where we can find true rest in him. And by this point, if you are still questioning whether God can be trusted, I promise you He is:

Deserving of our trust

God deserves our trust alone. David is very explicit in verse 8 - trust God at all times. If our life and our salvation are dependent on God, why do we think he can’t be trusted all the time? God deserves our trust because He has done more for us than we will ever do for him. God deserves our trust because He gave up more for us than we can ever give up to Him. Yet, it can be hard to trust God when things don’t go the way we think they should go or answers don’t come when we think they should come.

This is something that I have found difficult in my life. We know God is moving some pieces around but we don’t know what and we don’t know when. It’s difficult to rest in God and wait on him in this season. But I’m reminded by this text that He is a refuge for me and He is a refuge for you. We can trust in Him at all times.

We can rest in the redemption that He has given us through Jesus. Trusting God means understanding that even in the times when what should happen isn’t happening, God is still good. Trust God means trusting him with everything: our finances, our careers, our families and our life. Why should we trust God? Because He is a refuge for us…

TRANSITION POINT: Our Salvation rests in God alone. It is through His redeeming love, through his action of sending Jesus for us that we are saved. God’s active work of sending Jesus is more than enough to deserve our trust.

Conclusion:

As we begin to wrap-up today, I pray you will see the beauty of this song by David. This Psalm rings true for us today. It was well beyond its years in recognizing the truth of the Gospel that we know today. Jesus, as God, the Son, is where our allegiance belongs. Jesus is where our salvation comes from. Jesus is the rock, the salvation and the source of true rest. So even in a wrecked world, Jesus is our only hope.

If you don’t know Jesus as your savior but you feel a burden today on your heart to enter into his loving-kindness, I pray that you will find someone to talk to, myself, Pastor Jeff, an elder near you. This is a moment for you to turn away from your brokenness and find the only healer in Jesus.

If you know Jesus as your savior, in what ways do you need to rest in him more. Have you found false rest in the things of the world? Maybe you’ve tried to find rest in other menial things, today you have the chance to say no more. Today you have the chance to find rest in Jesus at all times. The world is wrecked but there is rest and refuge in God alone. Let’s pray.