give people rest. And that's actually one of the reasons why I chose to come on staff here, River Oaks. I wanted to come to a church that was involved in church planting. I wanted to come to a church where the senior pastor was someone that I could respect and work with, but it was essential. I wanted a church that understood that the gospel is something that gives rest to people. Because I was in need of rest when I came here. After 11 years of planting a church and two years before that of training to do church planting, I was tired. And I got a few weeks off between that church and this church. And most of that time was involved in looking for houses and packing and taking care of all those details plus a sort of significant crisis from the church and still water. And it was not enough time really to decompress from that calling as a senior pastor to this calling as an assistant pastor. And I thought that I would come here and I would be tired. But something really wonderful happened when I came. I started working and I found that I had a lot of energy. And I found I was probably working as much, probably more than I was before, but it felt lighter. And so for me, the tire that I had felt I think was very much a spiritual and emotional tire. Now there are all kinds of tires, right? Sometimes we go to the doctor and with an undiagnosed ailments and some of the first two questions they ask are, or what, right? If you begin to get enough rest, are you getting exercise? And there are certainly good questions, right? We need to pay attention to our bodies. But the Bible and the New Testament, the way that they talk about rest is often at a much deeper level that has to do with things like faith and salvation and identity. And I think what God is asking in the book of Hebrews, he's asking us is, do you rest? And do you know my rest? And my guess is that for many of you, this has been a long tiring year. Probably you've looked forward to this Christmas break at the time to rest. I hope that you got it. I'm sure some of you didn't. Parents of young children, you probably didn't get as much rest as you would have liked. And maybe, though for some of us, the thought of starting a new year of work and of school starting back up, it exhausts you just thinking about it. Maybe the presses you. Well, this passage is for you. This passage from Hebrews chapter 4. And let me give a little bit of background before I read the passage. It's not what's in your bulletin, well, part of it. I'm going to start in chapter 4, verse 1. But the background here is the preacher or the writer is referencing a time in the history of Israel. And you probably know about this. If you've seen the new movie Exodus, you know about this. The time in Israel's history when Moses brought the nation of Israel out of Egypt and he brought them out into the desert to go to the Promised Land. And that was actually a pretty quick journey. It actually was a matter of actual weeks or even months to get to Canaan, the Promised Land where they're wanting to go. But when they got there, God did not let them go into the Promised Land because their hearts were not ready to go there. And the Promised Land is what the Bible talks about is the place of rest. Right? Moses was leading them there. And the preacher here uses the Promised Land as a metaphor. And that Israel's journey as a metaphor for us of our journey as Christians today. How we are also journeying to a place of rest, but our place of rest is heaven, and the new heavens and the new earth. And so with that background in mind, would you stand as I read Hebrews 4, 1 through 11? Therefore, while the promise of entering his rest still stands, let us fear, unless any of you should seem to have failed to reach it. For good news came to us just as to them. But the message they heard did not benefit them because they were not united by faith with those who listened. For we who have believed entered that rest, as he had said, as I swore my wrath, they shall not enter my rest, although his works were finished from the foundation of the world. For he is somewhere spoken of the seventh day in this way, and God rested on the seventh day from all his works. Again in this passage he said they shall not enter my rest. Since therefore, it remains for some to enter it, and those who formerly received the good news failed to enter because of disobedience. Again he appoints a certain day today. Saying through David so long afterward, in the words already quoted, today if you hear his voice do not harden your hearts. For if Joshua had given them rest, God would not have spoken of another day later on. So then there remains a Sabbath rest for the people of God. For whoever has entered God's rest has also rested from his works as God did from his. Let us therefore strive to enter that rest so that no one may fall by the same sort of disobedience. Let's pray. Father we pray that you would help us to understand this passage. It's complicated. It brings a lot of theology into play but help it. Holy Spirit make this simple to our minds and our hearts. That we would hear from you this morning that we would learn what you would have for us to do and that you would give us the obedience and the faith to do your will. Not just to hear the word but to obey it as well. We pray this in the name of Jesus. Amen. Please be seated. Good speakers like to occasionally catch their listeners by surprise, catch them off guard. And I think the preacher here does that in the very first verse, verse one of our text. Look at it again. I'm reading one more time. It says this. Therefore while the promise of entering his rest still stands, let us fear, unless any of you should seem to have failed to reach it. That's an interesting phrase there. Let us fear. Let us fear. It's really the opposite of what we usually hear in the Bible which is what? Do not fear. That's what the angels told all the people in the Christmas stories. The shepherds, the Mary and Joseph do not fear. I bring you good times. It's a great joy but the preacher here says, let us fear. Lest we fail to reach it. The promised rest that he's talking about. Now here's what that sounds like. I think on first reading. It sounds like this. It's something like it's just like some of the Israelites didn't make it into the promised land, right? Some of the Israelites died in the wilderness because of unbelief. So you should be afraid. You might not make it to the promised land too. Now that that sounds strange to my ears at least because it sounds like for a couple of things, it sounds like number one. It sounds like works righteousness, doesn't it? You better get to work or God's not going to let you get to heaven, right? You need to be afraid. The second thing it sounds like it sounds like just the opposite of rest because if I am fearing, if I am afraid, I'm not going to relax. I'm not going to be able to sleep. Now I'm not going to be able to rest. So what's going on here? Why should we fear? Lest we not make it. Well, we need to bring in the second verse. Before we get too far with verse one because it says this, says, good news came to us just as to them, but the message they heard did not benefit them because they were not united by faith with those who listened. Now we need to hear that, right? Because in other words, preachers saying good news was preached to those people long ago, but some of them didn't get it, some of them believed, some of them didn't believe, but good news was preached to them and it's preached to us as well. And faith is really the defining factor in what we fear and what we rest in. Because in order to truly come to God, to really know and trust the true God, you don't have to know this about God, that God is actually the scariest thing in the whole world. I don't know if you've thought much about that, but think about it. There's no one or no thing that is bigger, stronger, and has the potential to do more damage than God. In fact, this passage talks about his wrath. His wrath is a real thing that he pours out on people, on nations. There's nothing that's bigger than God. God has more power than anyone else, and he has more power to pour out his wrath on us and to hurt us. So the first step in knowing God is knowing how awesome he is. That's the thing that the Bible talks about as the fear of the Lord. This is actually the beginning of wisdom, to know that God is rightly to be in, we're to be in awe of him. But the second step in knowing and trusting God is knowing that he can be trusted, because even though he is all powerful, he's also good. And he actually loves his people. And when you trust God, here's what happens, even though before he was frightful, when you trust him and you become part of his people, everything else loses its power to be fearful. Nothing else can scare you if God is on your side.
And that means you can rest. The rest is a trust issue. If you don't trust God, you can't rest in him. When my daughter was two years old, I was a big thunderstorm that woke her up and she came running into our room. And she was kind of shaking. And I wasn't sure she was going to be able to get back to sleep. But as soon as she laid down in between my wife and me, she was able to relax. Almost instantly and go back to sleep. Because her trust in us was greater than her fear of the storm. And the preacher here is pleading with people to pursue and know God, because the alternative is truly frightful and eternity apart from him. So rest is a trust issue but it is also an obedience issue. Now there's another hard verse that we need to deal with, I think, which is the last verse in the passage, verse 11, which says this, let us therefore strive to enter that rest so no one may fall by the same sort of disobedience. I can. It was a little bit like verse 1, it strives to enter the rest so you don't fall by disobedience. And you may be thinking, if you've done much theology of that, and it doesn't sound right, that sounds like works righteousness. That sounds like we can lose our salvation or we can somehow earn it. And what is this striving to gain rest? Doesn't striving indicate that we're working to get saved. That go against the gospel. You would be right. But here's an important thing. I want to share with someone, say, stuck with me. It says, Jesus is against earning but he's not against striving. Jesus is against earning but he's not against striving. And what that means is that it is Jesus and his work alone that saves you. You cannot earn your own salvation. You cannot work enough to work off your sinfulness, do enough to please God on your own. That's why Jesus had to come. He had to come to do the work on our behalf. And so salvation is completely by grace. In fact, Ephesians 2, many of you know these verses. It sums it up very well. Ephesians 2 says this, by grace you've been saved through faith. This is not your own doing. It is the gift of God. Not a result of works that no one made boast. When I was in college, I started a Christian band because when you go to Baylor, that's what you do. You started a Christian band. And I named the band because I started, I got the name and I named Ephesians 2 even though there were more than two of us. Because I had been just meditating on that passage. It has so gripped me. And it really becomes these verses that I had held onto. And it's really the core of reform theology. It's justification by faith. It is by grace, you're saved. Salvation is a gift. You can't earn it. You can't deserve it. It's a free gift that God gives you. But then the verse that follows right after those verses says this, for we are God's workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works which God prepared beforehand that we should walk in them. You've been saved completely by grace but not just to sit around and do nothing to be God's workmanship, to be a part of what God is doing and renewing the worlds. And when you do that, when you walk with Jesus and doing those works, it is utterly fulfilling. You're not doing them to earn but you are striving. Striving is a good word for us. It means we've understood the gospel. We've understood our mission, what God is doing in and through us. But there's another side to that striving, isn't it? Because let me ask you this, do you sometimes feel guilty when you rest? Do you sometimes feel like you're not giving your all to God when you stop and you take time off? Some of us have been conditioned to think that. We have to give God everything all the time and always have to be doing it. Can't stop. I remember talking to a local pastor and still water. We were in a prayer meeting and as we were sharing and he just looked exhausted and I went up to him afterwards. He was about to leave and I said, you know what? Have you taken a day off recently? And I'll never forget his response. He said that he said, I'll rest when I get to heaven as his eyes are bloodshot and he looks like he's just desperately needed to nap. You know, and this is a good man. And I understand what he was trying to say. That sounds very spiritual, doesn't it? And I understand what he was thinking. We need to be willing to sacrifice for our calling. The apostle Paul talks about being poured out like a drink offering in his work and his gospel work. God has called him too. But here's the thing. Rest is not a luxury. It's a command. It's a part of the Christian life. It is not just the destination where we're going. It's actually also the mode of transportation. God can be able to just be still and know that I am God. Let God work through you. When you're still, Holy Spirit does things through you. The devil would have us be constantly busy. But I love what verse 8 and 9 you're saying. It says, if Joshua had given them rest, the Israelites remember we're going into the promised land. He had given them rest. God would not have spoken of another day later on. So then there remains a Sabbath rest for the people of God. Here what are you saying here? Joshua who brought the people into the land to their destination. This is a major event in the life of Israel. He's saying, Joshua didn't really give them rest. There's another Sabbath rest. Now this would have been shocking to the first people who would have heard this sermon. Because if there's one thing Jewish people in that time could do well, it was keep the Sabbath, right? They knew how to keep the Sabbath. They knew how to rest. They knew how to guard and the Sabbath and not work. And here you say, no, they didn't get it, right? The problem is that they misunderstood God's intention for the Sabbath because the Sabbath is really about finding your rest in a person in a relationship. Not about activities or even lack of activities. Sabbath rest is about finding the Lord of the Sabbath, including your trust and rest in Jesus. And the Sabbath he's saying is a future state as well as a current state. Sabbath is a picture of the future, a time when we will rest completely in the very presence of God. Not one day a week, but every day. And yet God gives us the Sabbath as he himself says he rested on the Sabbath. And the Sabbath is good. Time off from working is good for us. It's a gift from God. And why does God tell us not to work on the Sabbath? Well, again, when you rest, you pronounce your trust in God. You say I'm going to trust that God will take care of me. I don't have to be like the world and continually striving, doing everything I can to make as much money as possible. God will take care of my needs. I can rest. So how can we practice Sabbath in this life? Practically speaking. Let me give you a couple of practical things here. One thing in learning to rest is live out of your gifting. What are your gifts? What are the things that God has gifted you to do? And how can you use them well? Because when you use your gifts well, God has really designed you to gain energy from that. And to benefit you and also those around you. This is the genius of how the church is supposed to work. Church is supposed to be everyone using the gifts that God has given you. God has given every single person in this church, even the youngest among you, gifts to benefit the church. And that doesn't always happen, does it? And often it's just a core, like 20% if it's a 2080 principle, 20% of people doing the work and 80% of the people watching. But the New Testament model is everyone using your gifts so that we can rest and benefit from each other. So learn to live out of your gifting. The second thing is don't be a slave technology. I don't know about you but this is definitely one for me because I have five mics self constantly in front of screens, right? I got to check that email. I got to check on that project. I got to check Twitter, Facebook, see whatever I was doing. I got to check the blogs. I got to check to see if anybody's written an article about my sports team. Something's going on. Something new is happening. And there is a lure and a restlessness with the internet isn't there. I remember seeing a cartoon once where there's this guy sitting in front of his computer and you know his 4 a.m. and he's got his sweatpants and sweatshirt on and he's got a big grin on his face and the caption says I did it. I got to the end of the internet. It's just funny because there is no end is there. You know there's a million new web pages that go up every single day and there is that restlessness. What's new? Now what can I find out? What can I learn? How can I be entertained? We need to learn how to Sabbath from our technology from time to time. Third practical thing. Be content with whatever stage in life you're in. This is hard. And so many of us we can't wait to get to the next stage. When you're in high school you can't wait to get to college. When you're in college you can't wait to get out into the real or get a job. You get married. When you get married you can't wait to have kids. At some point you can't wait for them to get out of the house. And you keep going and hoping for new stages to make your life just right. And the problem is at some point you run out of stages. And if you haven't enjoyed them you haven't rested in your life. Enjoy the stage of life you're in. And the fourth practical tip. Make relationships more than important in your work. Put your kids ahead of your career. Put your friends ahead of your career. Put your marriage ahead of all of those things. I don't think you'll regret it. Take time off from work. Rest. Joy relationships. Directed by God. But here's the thing. If all you do is not work or restructure your life you're not really going to get the rest that the New Testament talks about. Because real rest has to do with becoming comfortable with who you are. It's about becoming deeply satisfied with who God has made you to be. It has to do with doing away with shame. Learning forgiveness. It has to do with recognizing that God loves you for who you are right now. Rest is a soul issue. Sim Keller says that's the work underneath the other work. That all the vacations in the world cannot cure. That's the restlessness beneath the weariness that has got to be dealt with or we're going to die. That restlessness takes so many different forms. Some people are holding on to things that have happened to them years ago. They can't let go of it. And they're not really at rest. Some people are trying to live up to this impossible image that some parents or coach or friends gave them at some point in their life. And their souls are not at rest. This is the rest that only the gospel can bring. There's a new movie in theaters called Unbroken. I don't think I'm ruining the movie because it's called Unbroken to let you know that the hero is named as Louis Zamperini. And he endured a lot through World War II. Not only was he shipwrecked on a raft in the middle Pacific Ocean for 47 days. He also was in a concentration of POW camp in Japan and tortured particularly while I once sadistic guard named the bird. And I haven't seen the movie. I've heard it sort of gives short shrift after the war. It really shows him triumphant through all that adversity. But I read the book. And in the book, really the last third of the book is about when he comes back from war. And he's been set free. He's no longer a prisoner. He's no longer a soldier. But coming back to America, he finds a new kind of bondage because he is not free of the past. He still thinks about the bird, that guard. He still carries around this anger and bitterness. And it imprisons him. And he has trouble sleeping at night and he begins to drink heavily. And his marriage begins deteriorating. But then he gets invited to go to a Billy Graham crusade. And he hears the gospel. And he as he told his biographer, everything changed. When he came to know Jesus. When he truly knew how much Jesus loved him, he could then begin to forgive. And he then became set free. His soul found rest. Verse 10, I think sums this up so well, for whoever has entered God's rest has also rested from his works as God did from his. When you believe the gospel, you enter God's rest. And this is not just a one time believing something you can go in and out of. This is an ongoing state. This is your new identity. This is your new state, a state of soul rest in God. The gospel, the good news, that Jesus Christ came from heaven to live for us, to die for us, to save us from our enemies. That's the message of Christmas. That's what Moses and Israelites were looking forward to. That's the good news that was preached to them. They were looking forward to. And that's what we look back on and we grasp as our hope. And that means that God is no longer angry with you because of Jesus. You can stop running away from him. You can stop running on the performance acceptance treadmill. God loves you. He is not angry with you. And if God loves you, it doesn't matter what anyone else thinks of you. You can rest in that assessment that you are loved and accepted. That changes everything. It changes the way that you work. It changes the way that you rest. It allows you to rest as you work. Because God has done the ultimate work in Jesus. Would you pray with me? Father, we are people who don't know how to rest. Well, we're constantly thinking about what we need to do. We're constantly wrestling with ghosts from our past and fears of our future. We pray, Father, as we enter into a new year that you would help us to keep time as you keep time. That our past in Jesus has been taken care of. That the present is a continual gift. And that the best is yet to come. That in you, there's nothing that we can face. It's too big for us. Because we belong to you and you are Lord of all things. Whether I pray for those who are struggling to find rest, pray that you give that to them. And thank you. Help us to work and strive out of great thankfulness to share that good news with a world that so desperately needs to hear. It's you pray this in the name of Jesus. Amen.