To the weary, nothing sounds sweeter than rest ... but where does true rest come from? We each need a kind of rest that no amount of sleep or relaxation can bring. Jesus gives us the answer!
I Will Give You Rest
Thursday, October 20, 2011
It’s known as the Christmas Book and it comes every year from the well-heeled Neiman-Marcus department store in Dallas. But this year, investment bankers and oil people may have to do without the luxury of Christmas pasts.
swell
It’s called the Neiman-Marcus Christmas book and since 1926, this catalogue of fantasy gifts has offered one-of-a-kind treasures that are definitely in the category of being for the person who has everything. This year to help you rest, there’s the 75 thousand dollar, 18-foot diameter, hand-painted yurt … an outdoor tent structure with down-filled pillows and a hand-blown glass crystal chandelier. This Mongolian portable structure for jet-setters is made to look like a genie’s bottle. Even if you had the money and were so inclined, will this yurt get you the rest you really need? Better I think the words of the Lord Jesus that “I will give you rest.” Welcome to HT, I’m CM sharing the GS that’s all about Jesus and a program we’re calling “I Will Give You Rest”, part of a weeklong series called Blessings from a Broken Economy. On the line with us from Chatanooga, Tennessa, Dr. Lance Wesher who teaches at Covenant College. He’s a former investment banker and a part of the Association of Christian Economists.
SONG -
I Will Give You Rest. This is HT and part of series on Blessings from a Broken Economy. In a few minutes, we’ll go to Colorado Springs and hear what one church is doing to help its members who are out of work and looking for jobs.
How do you face economic stress, maybe with a long hard recession to come? It’s one thing to say, “With a smile” but I think it takes so much more than that. If you’re a follower of Jesus then you have that “so much more.” You have a resting place.
If you’re feeling a deep-seated strain for any reason right now, anywhere in the world, it means you’ve forgotten your resting place; you need to remember your resting place. Do you remember where it is? It’s in Jesus.
Matthew 11.28 “Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest.
Jesus is our resting place.
This theme of resting in the Lord runs wide and deep through all the scriptures. God gives his people rest. He calls them to rest in him. And again and again they forget their resting place. That was the problem in the days of Jeremiah. Jeremiah 50 verse 6, the Lord says, “They have forgotten their resting place.”
What about you, have you forgotten your resting place?
The Lord doesn’t just give us rest – he IS our rest. The great difference between believers and unbelievers is that we aren’t living on our own, we have the Lord. That was the issue for Moses as he led the people in the wilderness. He told the Lord, “Exodus 33.15-16 “If your Presence does not go with us, do not send us up from here. How will anyone know that you are pleased with me and with your people unless you go with us? What else will distinguish me and your people from all the other people on the face of the earth?”
We who are believers in Jesus have his presence; his presence goes with us and gives us rest. That’s what the Lord told Moses, Exodus 33.14 “My Presence will go with you, and I will give you rest.”
But then we come to Jeremiah 50 and the Lord says, “(My people) have forgotten their resting place.” We need to remember our resting place. And we need to return to our resting place again and again. Like the psalmist in psalm 116 we need to say, “Return to your rest, O my soul, For the LORD has dealt bountifully with you.“
Rest. To the weary, road worn person there’s no word that sounds so rich and sweet as this: rest. Look around at the world and you’ll see masses of weary people and maybe you see a weary person when you look in the mirror. I do. The world is a restless place. Life can feel like a burden we take on our shoulders every morning. We go at it like we’re doing battle on our own. No wonder we get worn out.
But as believers we know we’re not on our own. The Lord is with us. He is our rest. We can rest in him. He invites us to come and rest in him, to give him our burdens.
Matthew 11.28 “Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest.
There’s rest now, for the journey, and there’s full and forever rest up ahead.
Who could possible count all the believers who are now in Heaven who once lived in this trouble filled world? They had issues. Maybe it was war. Certainly bad economic times have come before, plenty of sickness and of course spiritual oppression. Their feet were sore. At times they were desolate and ready to give up until they heard those sweet words and returned to their rest. And then one day they heard the Lord say, “Come and enter your rest.”
A rest still remains for the people of God. But there’s rest now even before we get there. Are we resting now? I think a lot of us aren’t and I think part of the problem is that we don’t clearly understand what our rest IS here and now. Why do we followers of Christ Jesus have so much restlessness and weariness? I think it’s because we’re not seeing what those words of Jesus really mean: “I will give you rest.”
First, do we really understand the rest of Jesus accomplished for us on the cross?
Do we rest in his work? Do we find deep peace in his what he’s done? Or, are we still trying to justify ourselves – either to God or to other people? Do we live with a guilty conscience, always distanced from God because we haven’t quite measured up?
We need to understand that Jesus’ death means the struggle is over. Jesus has done it all – so we don’t have to live striving to get it right all the time. We can’t. But Jesus has done it for us. There’s no more condemnation for us. Jesus’ death on the cross took it away. If we live under condemnation we won’t ever have rest. We need to receive the gospel more deeply and know that Jesus absorbed all the condemnation into himself on the cross and took it away from us. His resurrection was a declaration from God that now we’re fully and completely justified.
There’s no more need to justify ourselves. We’re righteous in the eyes of God because of Jesus. And we can rest in that and live out of that rest. We can live freely as the fully accepted sons and daughters of God, giving our lives to him in joy instead of struggling to find peace through our own efforts to measure up.
Second, Do we understand that we have Jesus himself?
That he’s with us in a very real and profound way all the time? That his presence is like a fortress, a security, a shelter in the storm? HE himself is our resting place. HE is our secure place. We’re not alone. His presence is with us and it’s a quiet place of security and peace. Just like the Israelites passing through the wilderness, his presence goes with us wherever we go. We can rejoice in that reality as we live through all the struggles all the problems -- that would normally rob us of rest:
Psalm 31: 19-21 “How great is your goodness, which you have stored up for those who fear you, which you bestow in the sight of men on those who take refuge in you. In the shelter of your presence you hide them from the intrigues of men; in your dwelling you keep them safe from accusing tongues. Praise be to the LORD, for he showed his wonderful love to me when I was in a besieged city.”
Third, do we understand the desire of Jesus for us to have rest?
Do we see into his heart? Do we know the deep compassion he has for us and that, in his compassion, he longs for us to come to him and rest? Do we rest in his love?
Matthew 9.36 “When he saw the crowds, he had compassion on them, because they were harassed and helpless, like sheep without a shepherd.”
“Harassed and helpless.” Honestly, I don’t think that any two words give a better description of how we feel a lot of time – harassed and helpless. And we feel that way because we’ve forgotten that our Shepherd is with us. We’ve forgotten our resting place. And Jesus has compassion for us when we forget. And like the good shepherd he is, he makes us lie down in green pastures; He leads us beside quiet waters. He restores our soul. We’re invited, weary, worn, harassed and helpless, to come to Jesus and rest in his love. We’re invited by Jesus himself. He opens the door like a Father welcoming home his sin weary children, with his heart breaking for them. He says, “Come home to ME, come rest in ME.”
We need to know the heart of the Lord. He describes it for us just so we won’t get confused and think he’s some sort of harsh demanding person. He says,
Matthew 11.28 -30“Come to Me, all who are weary and heavy-laden, and I will give you rest. 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. “For My yoke is easy and My burden is light.”
I am gentle. I am humble in heart.
Jesus is quoting from Jeremiah. The Lord told the people, in Jeremiah 6.16
“Stand by the ways and see and ask for the ancient paths,
Where the good way is, and walk in it;
And you will find rest for your souls.
Jesus is saying, “I am the good way. I am the ancient path. I am what the entire Bible has been talking about from the very beginning all the way to the very end. Come to me. I am gentle and humble in heart. You can find rest for your souls in me.”
Even if you’re loaded down with guilt and ready to die, throw yourself in faith on me. I’m a loving, personal Savior and you’ll find in me the rest your weary spirit is desperately seeking.
Are you worn out trying to keep all the plates spinning? Are you burdened trying to live the Christian life? Jesus says, “Rest in my cross.” He’s not saying, “Get it all right.” He’s saying, “Come to me and rest.” Are you tired from carrying all the burdens on your own back? He says, “Give them to me. Find rest in me.” Do you feel like you’re out there on your own? He say, “Rest in my presence.” Does your heart feel undernourished? He says, “Rest in my love.”
What a rest Jesus is! When we come to him we come to the rest of God. The rest that God promised to give his people.
Don’t forget your resting place. That was the great sin of the Old Testament saints, “They have forgotten their resting place,” Forget everything else, but never forget that your present, your true, and your only resting place is Jesus.
SONG –
Rob Wollen interview with prayer
Would you join me in prayer right now? I think we should pray. Father
Haven Today, “The Lord, My Rest”. You can call us at 1-800-654-2836, that’s 1-800-654-2836. And when you go online, be sure and listen to the sample chapter, or read the sample chapter, we have of the book by Octavius Winslow, “The Lord, My Portion: Daily Need Divinely Supplied”. We want to thank you for your helping us and we want to continue the ministry that we’ve begun in these few minutes today, through this amazing book written by a friend of Charles Spurgeon’s, “The Lord, My Portion: Daily Need, Divinely Supplied”. 1-800-65-HAVEN or just go to haventoday.org. Now, let me give you our mailing address as well if you’d like to write us and please let us know the station you’re listening to as well.
