At Rest in Christ
At Rest in Christ"*
Psalm 23
Grace and Peace to you from our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ!!
Our Society seems to be moving at an ever increasing pace. Faster and Faster we scurry around in search of something. We are always wandering and moving. It is said that the average person will change jobs 7 times before retirement, and will live in 11 different homes before they retire. Today people move from Job to job, home to home, and relationship to relationship all in an effort to find peace and happiness. But the cold reality is, that this rat race we live in only leads us further from real Peace and rest.
-Lillian knew this. She was at peace with her-self and with her Lord.
-Lillian found her peace and rest, not in the things of this world, but in the comfort that comes in knowing her Lord. She found rest in the words of Psalm 23.
"The Lord is my Shepherd, I shall not want."
I. There is rest in God
A. Society and things of this world offer no rest.
1. Work to achieve--just leads to wanting more
2. have an argument with your spouse, find another.
3. the Job getting on your nerves, sue the company
B. These are false rest. Add to it Alcohol, drugs, crime--there is no rest in this world
C. True rest is found in Putting our lives under the Good Shepherd.
"He maketh me to lie down in green pastures; He leadeth me besides the still waters; he restoreth my soul; he leatheth me in the paths of righteousness for his name's sake."
II. Real Rest, real Comfort, Real Peace is found only in Christ.
"Come to me all who are tired and burdened and I will give you rest,"
"Yea though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil, for thou art with me, thy rod and thy staff, they comfort me."
"I will wipe away every tear from their eye and there shall me no more mourning or crying, no more sadness or suffering."
B. God promises to comfort us in the face of all trials and tribulations.
1. God's Comfort begins for the Christian at their Baptism
a. forgiven of all our sins
b. Claimed as God's child
2. Their comfort is sustained in the Lord's Supper
a. Forgiven of sins
b. Strengthening of our faith
c. Assured of eternal Salvation
- Lillian knew this, she was not afraid of the future, She was not afraid to die.
She lived her live to its fullest because she know where she was going and to whom she belonged
- She loved the Hawkeyes and Haden Fry
- She loved to fish and get away to the trailer on the river
- Lil and Gil loved to tease and laugh
- Her baking was famous
- The way she would make each neices desert for them
- The Cookies that were so good they made the Courier
- She loved life and she loved her family
- She was heard wonder how she wold ever survive if it were not for Eileen
- She boasted to friends and neighbors of her neices
She was at peace with the world and with her Lord.
III. We are at Home with the Lord
A. "I have gone to prepare a place for you, I will come back to take you to be with me, that you may be where I am."
1. Lillian now sits at the Table of the Lord.
a. Her enemies, Sin, death and the devil have been defeated
b. She is victorious through Christ.
2. Her head has been anointed with the everlasting oil of Life
3. She is living with all the Saints of Old, including Gil.
B. All believers have the same offer of Peace.
Conc. We who remain, who still run around looking for rest, can take an example for Lillian. Real lasting rest is found only in the Lord. Amen.