The Place Of Rest
Introduction
We live in a very tense, uptight and fast paced world filled with hurry...
A Washington newspaper carried the story of Tattoo the basset hound. Tattoo didn’t intend to go for an evening run, but when his owner shut the dog’s leash in the car door and took off for a drive – with Tattoo still outside the vehicle, he had no choice. Motorcycle officer Terry Filbert notice a passing vehicle with something dragging behind it. He commented that the poor basset hound was, “picking them up and putting them down as fast as he could.” He chased the car to a stop, and Tattoo was rescued. But not before the dog had reached a top speed of 25 miles per hour, falling down and rolling over several times.
Too many of us are living our lives like Tattoo, picking them up and putting them down as fast as we can – rolling around & feeling dragged through life.
Time magazine noted that back in the 60’s, expert testimony was given to a Senate sub-committee on time management. They predicted that advances in technology would radically change how many hours a week people worked. There forecast was that the average American would be working 22 hours a week within 20 years. “The great challenge,” the experts said, “would be figuring out what to do with all the excess time.” Over 40 years later, after major advances in technology – how many of us are wondering what to do with all the excess time on our hands?
How many of us feel like that? Let’s take a group quiz to see how many of us are being dragged through life. Fill in the blanks:
I’m ready to throw in the…
I’m at the end of my…
I’m just a bundle of…
My life is falling…
I’m at my wit’s…
I feel like resigning from the human…
Just when you thought you were getting ahead, along come faster rats. But remember, he who wins the rat race is still a rat.
Ecc 2:22 What does a man acquire from all his labor and from the anxiety that accompanies his toil on earth? 23 For all day long his work produces pain and frustration, and even at night his mind cannot relax! This also is futile!
Learn how to experience rest
Ecc 2:24 There is nothing better for people than to eat and drink, and to find enjoyment in their work. I also perceived that this ability to find enjoyment comes from God. 25 For no one can eat and drink or experience joy apart from him.
If all we needed was physical rest we can always take a nap. If we needed only emotional rest, we can always take a vacation. But where can we find spiritual rest? How can we obtain relief regarding the deepest issues of life at the deepest level of our hearts.
The more things change the more they stay the same.
Ecc 1:3 What benefit do people get from all the effort which they expend on earth? 4 A generation comes and a generation goes, but the earth remains the same through the ages. 5 The sun rises and the sun sets; it hurries away to a place from which it rises again. 6 The wind goes to the south and circles around to the north; round and round the wind goes and on its rounds it returns. 7 All the streams flow into the sea, but the sea is not full, and to the place where the streams flow, there they will flow again. 8 All this monotony is tiresome; no one can bear to describe it: The eye is never satisfied with seeing, nor is the ear ever content with hearing. 9 What exists now is what will be, and what has been done is what will be done; there is nothing truly new on earth.
Jesus spoke to this very issue 2000 years ago.
Mat 11:28 Come to Me all you who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. 29 Take My yoke on you and learn of Me, for I am meek and lowly in heart, and you shall find rest to your souls. 30 For My yoke is easy, and My burden is light.
3 Instructions That Lead To Rest
1. COME TO ME
Jesus regularly invited people to come to Him to meet their needs.
Christianity begins with meeting Christ personally.
Going to McDonalds does not make you a hamburger. Going into a garage doesn’t make you a car. Going to church does not make you a Christian (you must meet Christ personally).
Gathering information about Jesus does not make you a Christian. Joining a group does not make you a Christian. Having Christian parents doesn’t make you a Christian.
You become a Christian by choosing to answer His invitation to turn from your own ways and come to Him.
SPIRITUAL REST Will BE GIVEN: “Come to me & I will give you rest”
1. Rest for those who labor: (gr. Labor to the point of exhaustion, toil) SELF EFFORT
He is not speaking merely to the working class laborer, but to sincere, conscientious people who are trying to balance the scales of good deeds vs. bad deeds to be accepted by God. You never know how your account is balanced at any time.
Human effort falls far short of the standard God requires.
He is not saying “Don’t plan.”
Arabian proverb: “Trust God, but tie your camel.”
Proverbs 21:31 says, “A horse is prepared for the day of battle, but victory comes from the LORD.”
The cross is the place of exchange where what I am is placed on Him and what He is, is given to me. My bad deeds are removed and placed on Him. I rest on His perfect deeds credited to my account.
2. Rest for those who are heavy laden: (gr. To load up, overburden) BURDENED
These stagger under the heavy weight and burden of sin.
Living for yourself, for possessions, prominence and pleasure is a burden.
Ecc 5:10 The one who loves money will never be satisfied with money, he who loves wealth will never be satisfied with his income. This also is futile.
Nicolas Cage: “I wonder if there is a hole in the soul of my generation. We’ve inherited the American dream, but where do we take it?”
Harrison Ford: The actor whose movies have grossed over 2 billion dollars said, “you only want what you ain’t got.” What ain’t he got? “Peace!” was his answer!
Ecc 5:12 The sleep of the laborer is pleasant – whether he eats little or much –but the wealth of the rich will not allow him to sleep.
In Jesus Christ the full penalty has already been paid. You can begin life anew and have the page wiped clean. God did not send Jesus to rub our sins in, but to rub them out. He bore the guilt and paid the penalty, there is nothing left to pay. Come and rest in what Jesus has done for you.
Picture a large field full of wildflowers. Their food and water come from God. They wait on God for growth and beauty. They do not work. They do not strive. They do not worry. They simply wait. And God provides!
Do you want more?
Psalm 3:5 “I lie down and sleep; I wake again because the LORD sustains me.”
Here is a thought: “Why would God suffer and die for someone He planned later to neglect?”
The sense of relief of burden is real for all who’ve come to Christ. The Bible calls it “peace with God.”
2. TAKE MY YOKE (upon you)
YOKE: “a type of harness that connects a pair of oxen.”
A pair of connected oxen was typically called a yoke of oxen.
Used metaphorically to refer to submission to a teacher
In NT times the phrase, “to take the yoke of” was used by rabbi’s to refer to “becoming a submitted pupil of a teacher”
In the NT, the word has two figurative ideas.
1. The yoke of rules and religion. MANS YOKE
Act 15:10 Now therefore why do you tempt God by putting a yoke on the neck of the disciples, a yoke which neither our fathers nor we were able to bear?
This is the way most people are familiar with the idea of relating to God – through rules and religion. This is not the “my yoke” that Jesus speaks of.
2. The yoke of relationship. JESUS YOKE
Jesus said that His yoke is easy “well fitted.” It fits the need.
His yoke is easy compared to man made religious yokes.
His burden is light compared to the burden of human effort.
JESUS SAID "MY YOKE:" Jesus commands we take up HIS yoke to find rest
There is only rest in a personal relationship with God based on the finished work of Jesus.
Philippians 4:6 says, “Don’t worry about anything, but in everything, through prayer and petition with thanksgiving, let your requests be made known to God. 7 And the peace of God, which surpasses every thought, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.”
Which yoke have you been under? Jesus’ or man’s?
Psalm 54:4 says, “God is my helper; the Lord is the sustainer of my life.”
We access all that God has for us through our choices.
Yoke Pictures Three Things:
1. Connection “Be with Me.” Yokes are made for two, not one. We were not meant to go through life living apart from God.
2. Direction “Follow Me.” The idea of a yoke pictures the forward motion of two connected together. You cannot be yoked to Jesus and go your own way anymore.
3. Cooperation “Work with Me.” We cooperate with His work.
J.H. Jowett summarized the thought this way…
The fatal mistake for the believer is to seek to bear life’s load in a single collar. God never intended man to carry his burden alone. Christ therefore deals only in yokes! A yoke is a neck harness for two, and the Lord Himself pleads to be One of the two. He wants to share the labor of any galling task. The secret of peace and victory in the Christian life is found in putting off the taxing collar of “self” and accepting the Master’s relaxing “yoke.”
3. LEARN FROM ME
We come, take up His yoke, the process of learning begins.
Gentleness: Strength under control (Jesus as the example).
Psalm 18:32-35 says, “God—He clothes me with strength and makes my way perfect. 33 He makes my feet like the feet of a deer and sets me securely on the heights. 34 He trains my hands for war; my arms can bend a bow of bronze. 35 You have given me the shield of Your salvation; Your right hand upholds me, and Your humility exalts me.”
Jesus’ gentleness draws us to Him with our cares and concerns.
1 Peter 5:7 Give all your worries to him, because he cares about you (NCV).
THE REST HE GIVES (FREE GIFT): Once and for all we rest in His work on the cross for us to make us acceptable to God (real relief for the labor and burden of our lives apart from God).
Mark Twain said, "I’m an old man and I’ve known a great many troubles, but most of them never happened.”
THE REST WE FIND (DISCOVERY): There is no need to fear what Jesus might do in your life. He is gentle and humble. The more you learn that about Him, the more you will find your rest in Him.
Mat 6:25 “Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or drink, or about your body, what you will wear. Isn’t there more to life than food and more to the body than clothing? 26 Look at the birds in the sky: They do not sow, or reap, or gather into barns, yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Aren’t you more valuable than they are? 27 And which of you by worrying can add even one hour to his life? 28 Why do you worry about clothing? Think about how the flowers of the field grow; they do not work or spin. 29 Yet I tell you that not even Solomon in all his glory was clothed like one of these! 30 And if this is how God clothes the wild grass, which is here today and tomorrow is tossed into the fire to heat the oven, won’t he clothe you even more, you people of little faith? 31 So then, don’t worry saying, ‘What will we eat?’ or ‘What will we drink?’ or ‘What will we wear?’ 32 For the unconverted pursue these things, and your heavenly Father knows that you need them. 33 But above all pursue his kingdom and righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well.
Illus: One day a man went by to see a farmer who was plowing his field with a team of oxen. The man noticed that one of the animals was seemingly a little bigger than the other so he asked him about it. The response from the farmer was very interesting. He said that the big animal was an older animal that was well trained and the smaller one was a young animal that was new to the yoke. The man went on to inquire as to why he put them together and this is the answer that He got.
“Well you see, it’s like this. That older ox is the best ox that I have ever had; he knows his way around the field. The reason I put the younger one with him is so the older, more knowledgeable ox could teach him how to plow. If I never put them together the younger one would never learn. By himself the younger ox would pull himself to death, but together he learns to cooperate with and rest in the strength of the older ox.”
Does your life feel like the ox whose pulling himself to death? Rest comes from obedience to Jesus’ commands. COME to Me, TAKE My yoke upon you, LEARN from Me.
Hebrews 4: 11 So we must make every effort to enter that place of rest. Then no one will be lost by following the example of those who refused to obey. (GWT).
