Rest For The Stressed

The Crossing Community Church

“Rest For The Stressed”

Pastor Jim Botts

August 11th, 2002

Introduction

We live in a very tense, uptight and fast paced world filled with hurry...

A Tahoma, Washington newspaper carried the story of Tattoo the basset hound a while back. 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. They forecasted 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?

Our world has become the world of the Red Queen of Alice and Wonderland: “Now here, you see, it takes all the running you can do to keep in the same place. If you want to get somewhere else, you must run at least twice as fast as that.”

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…

Apparently we’re all experiencing the rat race. Just when you thought you were getting ahead, along come faster rats. But remember, he who wins the rat race is still a rat.

We need to learn how to experience rest. 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.

Jesus spoke to this very issue 2000 years ago in Matthew 11:28-30

**Read Matthew 11:28-30 NKJV**

This passage contains 3 commands from Jesus that lead to rest.

I will experience rest for my soul as I obey Jesus’ command of…

1. COME TO ME “Come…all…and I will give…”

Jesus regularly invited people to come to Him to meet their needs.

NOTICE: What Jesus did NOT say, “Come to church to find rest”

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 through a moment of time choice to answer His invitation to turn from your own ways and come to Him. You will find that He’s been waiting for you all along. Have you done that? Can you look to a time when you decided to answer His call to come

You say, “but my life is really a mess, I don’t think I am ready to come." HIS INVITATION: Come one, come all, come as you are!

**If you’re hungry: Did you realize that you have a hungry soul?

John 6:35 Jesus said to them, "I am the bread of life; he who comes to Me shall not hunger, and he who believes in Me shall never thirst” (NASB).

**If you’re thirsty: He will satisfy our soul’s thirst if we come.

John 7:37-38 Now on the last day, the great day of the feast, Jesus stood and cried out, saying, "If any man is thirsty, let him come to Me and drink. He who believes in Me, as the Scripture said, ’From his innermost being shall flow rivers of living water.”