Experiencing God's Rest Series

Experiencing God’s Rest

Slide

It is good to rest.

Everyone here today, I am certain looks forward to rest at some point or another.

Especially in today’s society, there is so much emphasis put on busyness and work, that it seems rest is hard to come by.

We go to work and labor all day, we come home and microwave a meal to save time, eat our meal and head off to get our kids to a sporting event in our cars that have given us the ability to travel great distances in small amounts of time compared to 100 years ago.

We talk on our cell phones while in our cars to help us save time.

And while we are at our kids events.

We come home and throw our dishes from dinner into the dishwasher so we are not stuck wasting time washing them by hand.

But alas, all of these time saving devices have given us great amounts of time to rest and relax, right?

Wrong. Even with all of the time saving devices that we have today, we have failed to really find rest and in fact I would argue we are less rested than we used to be as a society..

It is not that we don’t want it or need it, we just fail to find it.

The fact is we need rest.

God has designed us to need rest.

How is it though that we can really experience rest if not through time saving devices?

Well, today, we are continuing in

Hebrews 3:16-4:13 (turn there),

Slide

Last week we talked about the Israelites who were led out of slavery in Egypt, out of captivity, which for us is symbolic of us being led out of slavery to sin, but those Israelites grumbled and rebelled against the Lord and followed the path of a hard heart despite God’s continued work in their presence.

And now the author tells the readers that they will miss out on the Spiritual rest that God offers just like the Israelites missed out on the Physical Rest in the land of Canaan by following the path of a hard heart.

Hebrews 3:16-4:13

16 Who were they who heard and rebelled? Were they not all those Moses led out of Egypt? 17 And with whom was he angry for forty years? Was it not with those who sinned, whose bodies fell in the desert? 18 And to whom did God swear that they would never enter his rest if not to those who disobeyed? 19 So we see that they were not able to enter, because of their unbelief.

Heb 4:1 Therefore, since the promise of entering his rest still stands, let us be careful that none of you be found to have fallen short of it. 2 For we also have had the gospel (good news) preached to us, just as they did; but the message they heard was of no value to them, because those who heard did not combine it with faith. 3 Now we who have believed enter that rest, just as God has said,

"So I declared on oath in my anger,

’They shall never enter my rest.’"

And yet his work has been finished since the creation of the world. 4 For somewhere he has spoken about the seventh day in these words: "And on the seventh day God rested from all his work." 5 And again in the passage above he says, "They shall never enter my rest."

6 It still remains that some will enter that rest, and those who formerly had the gospel (good news) preached to them did not go in, because of their disobedience. 7 Therefore God again set a certain day, calling it Today, when a long time later he spoke through David, as was said before:

"Today, if you hear his voice,

do not harden your hearts."

8 For if Joshua had given them rest, God would not have spoken later about another day. 9 There remains, then, a Sabbath-rest for the people of God; 10 for anyone who enters God’s rest also rests from his own work, just as God did from his. 11 Let us, therefore, make every effort to enter that rest, so that no one will fall by following their example of disobedience.

12 For the word of God is living and active. Sharper than any double-edged sword, it penetrates even to dividing soul and spirit, joints and marrow; it judges the thoughts and attitudes of the heart. 13 Nothing in all creation is hidden from God’s sight. Everything is uncovered and laid bare before the eyes of him to whom we must give account.

Ok, What is this Spiritual rest that the author is comparing to the rest in the land of Canaan?