Rest in a Restless World

I must admit, I love my cell phone! I love what it can do! I love the people I can connect to, the tasks I can accomplish, the selfies I can take, the pictures I can take, the txts I can send, the facebook posts. I love it! I use it everyday! Sometimes too much but there is an important truth about a cell phone.

It must be recharged or it will become useless.

I am the same way!

You are the same way!

God created us that way!

He paved the way!

We need to be recharged or we will stop accomplishing what God created us for!

We have been walking through the series

Toolbox for Success:

· Ignoring Naysayers

· Focusing on What Matters Most

· Procuring Peace in Perilous times

· Finding Rest in a Restless world

Our today is found in Matthew 11:28-30

Matthew 11:28–30 (NIV)

28 “Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest.

29 Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls.

30 For my yoke is easy and my burden is light.”

I want to look at this passage because we can live our lives depleted, discouraged, diminished, EXHAUSTED - instead of rested and at rest

· Rest doesn’t meaning sleeping all day – although it includes sleep

· Rest means working hard to do what we can – then relaxing knowing God can do what we can’t

· Rest means – I can’t do everything – I shouldn’t do everything

· Rest means – I need a break or I will break!

I wanted to examine this thought by suggesting 3 mistakes we can make and then offering Hope through Jesus Christ.

Rest Come From:

1. Lookingin the right place

2. Learning from the right people

3. Leaningon the right partner

I. Looking in the right Place

· There are two Places people look to find rest for their souls

o Religion

§ Cain – wanted it his own way – first false religion

§ Tower of Babel – Make a name for themselves – Glory themselves over Obedience to the true God

§ Nicodemus – John 3

· Was the epitome of a successful human

o Right family – Right education – Powerful – Wealthy – Followed the Law – Conservative

o Yet Jesus looked him in the eye and said

John 3:3 (NIV)

3 Jesus replied, “Very truly I tell you, no one can see the kingdom of God unless they are born again.”

Religion – following rules and regulations- will never give you Rest for your soul – because there is no assurance you will have done enough!

· John 3:16–18 (NIV)

· 16 For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.

· 17 For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him.

· 18 Whoever believes in him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe stands condemned already because they have not believed in the name of God’s one and only Son.

There is no rest for those who Look in the wrong Places – Religion

The next Character in John 4

· The Samaritan woman at the well

· Tried to find Rest in Relationships

· If Nicodemous was the pinnacle of humanity

· She was at the other end

o Born to a wrong family

o Born the wrong gender - A woman in a male dominated world

o Made wrong choices

§ A woman who had been married multiple times and was living with someone who was not her husband

o An outside – An outcast

o She trusted in Relationships to find rest for her weary soul

· Rest is never found in relationships because no human can meet our greatest needs

o Not your spouse

o Not your children

o Not your best friend

· John 4:13–14 (NIV)

· 13 Jesus answered, “Everyone who drinks this water will be thirsty again,

· 14 but whoever drinks the water I give them will never thirst. Indeed, the water I give them will become in them a spring of water welling up to eternal life.”

Stop looking in the Wrong Places

· Start looking at the Right Savior – Jesus

Matthew 11:28 (NIV)

28 “Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest.

II. Rest comes from… Learning from the right People

Matthew 11:29 (NIV)

29 Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls.

· Yoke – Heavy wooden harness that fits over the neck of oxen

· Then it is attached to a plow – The oxen pull together to accomplish the work

· The Law was the heavy Yoke

· Acts 15:10–11 (NIV)

· 10 Now then, why do you try to test God by putting on the necks of Gentiles a yoke that neither we nor our ancestors have been able to bear?

· 11 No! We believe it is through the grace of our Lord Jesus that we are saved, just as they are.”

Jesus was saying here – take off the over burdensome teaching of the Pharisees

· They have taken the law – perverted it for their own purposes

o Made it an impossible burden with no hope

§ Produced pride in their lives

§ Despair in the lives of the people

· So much of our fatigue and burdensome toil stems from pride. If we are successful, our egos are inflated and we try for more. If we falter, the rejection of others and our self-condemnation weigh us down in guilt and self-doubt.

· It is much more freeing to take Christ’s attitude of serving others.

· Jesus said, Listen to me.

o Take my yoke of teaching – Listen to me – Learn from me

§ I am gentle

§ I am humble in heart

o Jesus came to serve

Who are you listening to?

· Are they teaching the Word of God above all else?

· Are they lifting up Jesus or themselves?

Rest comes from Listening to Jesus’ teaching

III. Rest comes from

Leaning on the Right Person

· A farmer would yoke an older ox to a younger one

o The younger would learn from the older

o The older would shoulder most of the burden

· Don’t Lean on yourself

o Your strength will run out

· Don’t Lean on others

o They can’t carry themselves – they can’t carry you

· Lean on Jesus

o Learning to lean, Learning to lean, I’m learning to lean on Jesus

o Finding more power than I’ve ever dreamed

o I’m learning to lean on Jesus!

How do we do this?

· Jesus I need your help – I am weary, worn and wondering what is going on.

· I trust you in this life and for the next

· Please Help me!

Rest is not lying in soft beds of ease;

Free from all labor, with no one to please.

Rest is not quitting, no burden to bear.

Rest is reclining in heart, on His care.

Rest can be found in trouble and pain;

When dark clouds are gathered and threatening rain.

Rest is relief found in life’s darkest hour;

To know He is with us and held by His power.

Rest is not found by fulfilling our dreams.

Dreams often vanish; hopes lost, so it seems.

Rest is the promise our Lord made to all,

Who faithfully trust Him, refusing to fall.

There remains a sweet rest for people of grace;

Who enter that rest while in ‘seeking His face.’

This life, so uncertain, can never destroy,

The rest that is found when His will we enjoy.

Rest is secured, the hour of believing.

Today you may enter, His will now receiving.

His yoke now is easy, the burden is light.

He draws near to comfort and steady your plight.

Rest comes the moment you answer His call.

Depend on Him fully, no worry at all.

Rest settles the mind, anxiety none;

With love now abiding, the victory’s won.

Phil Simmons