Bobby Chandler - Open the Gift
- Watch
Summary:
In launching the new series «The Gift of Rest,» the preacher emphasizes that rest is a divine gift from God, as Jesus invites the weary to find rest in Him (Matthew 11:28), yet many believers struggle to accept it due to cultural hustle and personal misunderstandings like fear, false guilt, and viewing rest as laziness. Drawing from the Sabbath commandment in Exodus 20 and its serious Old Testament enforcement, he argues that rest is essential for physical health, spiritual renewal, and trusting God’s control. He concludes that intentionally opening this gift through faith and obedience leads to blessing, peace, and stronger relationships, urging the congregation to plan rest as an act of worship and trust.
Preparing Our Hearts for a New Series
We are starting a brand new series, and I wanted to prepare our hearts for this series because this is something that God has been speaking to me about for a good while. I’ve been telling our staff I’m so ready to preach this, but before I do, I want to ask you a very fun question. I want you to raise your hand high if you enjoy accepting gifts. Raise your hand high! Most of you! Somebody just clap to that! Amen! I love this church! All right, if you’re in a new relationship, you might want to jot that down, okay? Their love language is gifts! I got it!
Now let me ask you a weirder question: how many of you struggle with accepting a gift? Raise your hand if you have a hard time accepting a gift from somebody. Let me give you an example: maybe you’re in your workplace and you’ve been doing a great job, and people have recognized it. So you have a co-worker who just wants to honor you; they want to celebrate you. They go out and get you a gift card, and they get you this really nice card and say, «Thank you so much for everything you do!» They give it to you, and immediately your mind starts to panic. Oh my goodness! How do I react? You get like this weird smile, like, «Thank you!» You know, like you don’t know what to do. And so you go out, and the next thing you know, you’re at Target buying a card and a gift card just to say thank you because you have a hard time accepting a gift.
The Struggle to Accept Gifts
For some of you, maybe you are a successful business leader or a business owner, and all of a sudden you’re going through some financial struggles, and it gets a little difficult. You have a friend who comes up to you and says, «Hey, you know what? I want to bless you with some money. I want to help you out a little bit. I know your situation. I know what you’re going through. Let me help you.» But your pride stops you from accepting the gift. It can be difficult sometimes to accept a gift. Isn’t that a weird thought? Accepting a gift can be a difficult thing to do.
What I want to do is something I’ve been praying about. We’re going to start a series today about how God has a gift for you, but I have seen over and over again many believers who will not open this gift because they have a problem and a hard time accepting it. I’m going to explain why. The title of the new series is this: The Gift of Rest. The gift of rest! Let me say this very clearly: rest is a gift from God. Will you say it with me? Rest is a gift from God! Look at somebody next to you and tell them, «You need some rest! You need some rest!» I see what’s going on this morning. Thank you for being here! But rest is a gift from God.
Jesus Offers Rest
Jesus said this in Matthew 11:28: «Come to me, all who are weary, all who carry heavy burdens, and I will give you rest.» Because rest is a gift from God. But how do you achieve rest in a culture today that tells you to hustle, hustle, hustle, hustle? That’s all you ever see! You ever see the cool posters and the graphics on social media, and they always have somebody who’s really fit, and they’re moving, like, «Keep going! Keep hustling! Don’t ever stop! Sleep is for the weak!» Right? Or you picture Rocky Balboa out there fighting somebody because boxing’s really big right now, like, «Yeah, I’ll sleep when I’m dead!» You’ve heard somebody say that before.
Let me share the truth with you: you’re going to die a lot sooner than you planned if you don’t get rest! Right? You’re going to die a lot sooner than you planned if you don’t get rest! I saw this article online by the Sleep Foundation. They did a sleep study on exactly what happens to our bodies if we don’t get enough rest. If we don’t get enough sleep, first of all, it could really affect your social life. It recommends about seven hours a night, but if you don’t get enough sleep, then it makes you a little moody. It makes you a little uncomfortable. Maybe you have a poor memory because you didn’t get enough sleep before. You don’t want to have conversations; you’re a little antsy, or you’re just kind of irritated by people.
The Consequences of No Rest
Not only that, but it can also cause obesity. When we’re not getting enough rest, see, our bodies recover while we’re sleeping! Muscles recover while you sleep, your metabolism gets better as you sleep, and so when we have a lack of sleep, our bodies start to go through this, and we seem a little irritable, right? Maybe some of you experienced that this morning coming to church, «I didn’t get enough sleep; don’t talk to me!» When we pray, it might get a little bit better for me, but not only that! Sleep studies show that it could have extreme consequences on your heart. Did you know that if you do not get enough sleep, it increases the risk of heart attacks, heart disease, and even a stroke?
So isn’t it ironic that we live in a culture today that tells you to hustle, don’t stop, keep going, keep moving, yet this is the very thing that’s killing us and taking us out? The truth is: no rest leads to death! No rest leads to death! And so I wanted to ask this question because if we live in a culture today that tells us to keep hustling, why did God create us this way? Why did God create our bodies to need physical rest, to need to just wind down, and listen, or just have some peace of mind?
Three Truths About Rest
I want to share three truths with you real quick. These are some small truths, but point A is this: the reason God created our physical bodies to rest is this: there is a blessing when we receive rest through God! There is a blessing we receive from God through rest. Psalm 127:2, New Living Translation, says this: «It is useless for you to work so hard!» Let this sink in! «It is useless for you to work so hard from early morning until late at night anxiously working for food to eat, for God gives rest to His—what? —His loved ones, His believers, His followers, His disciples!» The Amplified Version states it like this: «For He gives blessings to His beloved even in His sleep.» Are you telling me that the Scripture says that we receive a blessing from God when we have physical rest? That even in our sleep God is blessing us?
But how? How does God bless us when we sleep? Because when you sleep, you give your mind rest! You get to escape the anxieties, the worries, the problems that you’re facing right now. We were talking about this this week in my own house, how my boys and my wife have a hard time shutting their minds off. Any of you struggle like that? Your mind is just always going, always going, always thinking. Or maybe when you lay down at night, you start thinking about all the problems! Did I say this to them? Did that come off the right way? Did that Facebook post go too far? Like, I don’t know; am I going to get the promotion? Am I going to pass the test? And you start driving yourself crazy, and the next thing you know, it is 3 a.m. I don’t want to be awake at 3 a.m. That’s a scary time. Help me, God, to go to bed! It is hard for some of us to shut our minds off.
Calming the Anxious Mind
In fact, it was funny because just this weekend, my oldest, Micah, he’s this way, and he comes downstairs and goes, «Mommy and Dad, I got to tell you something!» I’m like, «Why are you not in bed right now?» He looked at us and said, «I was just thinking!» He’d be really embarrassed for me saying this, but he’s like, «I was just thinking, and I just want to know, is the zombie apocalypse real?» Like, where have you been watching? He’s like, «Nothing! Nothing! No zombie stuff! Just okay, there’s this one cartoon, and I started watching!» I’m like, «Why are you thinking about zombies?» But his mind just keeps going! And even though it’s comical, we do the same thing. A lot of times, we lay down and our heads just keep going and going and going.
So the reason why Scripture says that it’s a blessing to have physical rest and sleep is because God is going to calm your mind! There’s trust in that! There’s a trust that God is bigger than my problems, bigger than my anxieties! Proverbs 3:24, New Living Translation, states it like this: «You can go to bed without fear; you need to believe it! You will lie down and be able to sleep soundly!» But you can go to bed without being afraid because you trust the Lord. See, this blessing allows us to wake up the very next day refreshed. And when your body and mind are refreshed, you’re able to take on the problems of life!
Now what are you created to do? You were created in the image of God to glorify God! Are you able to glorify God and tell people about Christ when you’re drained, when you’re tired, when you feel like you have nothing left, when you feel irritable? Right? Just being around people! We have to be refreshed to take on the problems of the world and to take on the things in our lives, the opposition we face to trust God.
Rest Reminds Us We Are Not God
Point B is this: rest reminds us we are not God! Rest will remind us that we are not God! We can’t take on everything; we’re not perfect! There will be times where you break down; there will be times where you cry; there will be times where you feel like you don’t have the answer, even though you keep praying for it, right? But rest reminds us that our bodies are nothing like God because God does not need sleep! Scripture is very clear: God does not need sleep! Psalm 121:4, New Living Translation: «Indeed, He who watches over Israel never slumbers, and He never sleeps.»
Here’s the good news: you can rest because God is always watching over you! You can sleep because God will never sleep! He’s never just going to walk away from you! Even when you feel like, «Okay, God, I’m not doing anything. I don’t know what to do.» He’s like, «Rest! I’m here! You don’t know what’s coming at you; I do!» God knows the future; He knows everything that you’re about to face! So in that moment, He is saying you need to rest right now because I never sleep, and I’m around! It reminds us that we are not God, that we need Him, that we need to trust Him.
But let me ask you this difficult question: Is the reason you’re not sleeping well at this moment because you’re not trusting God? Is there something in your life right now that’s hard? It’s heavy? It keeps you awake at night? Are you not trusting God? Because Jesus said this is the reason I came! I came for this: to give you rest! Remember Matthew 11:28! Jesus said, «Come to me, all who are weary, all who carry heavy burdens, and I will give you rest!» So Scripture is telling us to give them over to a God who never sleeps, so He can take your burdens away.
God Speaks in Dreams
Here’s what’s really cool to me: why do we need physical rest? Why is it that we need our bodies to lay down and sleep? Point C is this: God speaks to us in dreams! That’s good! God will speak to us in dreams! Let me read to you Job 33:14–15, New Living Translation: «For God speaks again and again, though people do not recognize it.» How are they not recognizing it? «For He speaks in what? In dreams and visions of the night when deep sleep falls on people as they lie in their beds.»
You know how many times my wife and I have had a dream that we have written down that has been a warning or something prophetic about a thing we need to do in our lives? Especially my wife; she has a whole dream journal where she documents everything! In fact, the reason my family moved out here on faith is that we had a dream about it. I’ve shared this story before. My wife had a dream because I was having a hard time. «Okay, God, are you really telling me to do this?» And she had a dream that we were in a car at her house. The car was packed down, and I was sitting in the driver’s seat, but I couldn’t put my foot on the pedal because I was too scared. And so I’m pretty sure in the dream she put her foot down, and usually what she does, «Come on! Let’s go! What are you doing?»
Because of that dream, it gave me the confidence! «God, are you telling me to do this?» Here’s a big one that has always meant so much to me: when my daughter was born and she had all her medical conditions, God gave my wife a dream of her future husband! In fact, she has a name; she has it written down and sealed so that Gabriella would never be able to see it. Through the ups and downs of her procedures, every time I started to worry about her well-being, I remember that dream! She’s going to be okay! We’re going to get there! Isn’t it so cool?
You see why the enemy doesn’t want you to sleep? Because when you sleep, you hear from God, and the Bible tells us that when God speaks to our dreams, He shows us prophecies, He shows us warnings, He gives you direction on what you need to do. This is really powerful stuff! Let me show you Job 33:16–17: «He whispers in their ears and terrifies them with warnings.» Why? «Because He makes them turn from wrongdoing, the things that will take you out.» He shows you visions: this person you think is good, but God knows what’s really going on! Come on! God will warn you! This person you can’t trust! Or, «Don’t tell everybody what I’m doing right now!» Joseph made that mistake; he got the dream, «Hey, I’m going to tell my brothers!» Bad mistake! But still, God’s word came true! What God speaks always comes true! All you need to do is be obedient, and that’s a confidence and a peace! You want to talk about rest? That is real rest—to trust the Lord in that way!
But He turns us from our wrongdoing, and He keeps us from pride. Job 33:16–17: This is why God created our bodies to need physical rest.
Open the Gift!
And it’s amazing to me; I started looking at all these things, and I have a lot to teach you guys today. This is more of a teaching series, but I’m excited about it because I’m just now giving you my title! Some of you are like, «Well, that’s three points; we’re ready to go! Then early lunch today!» No, we’re just getting started! Okay? So the title of today’s message is this: Open the Gift! Open the Gift!
Here’s the reason why I need to tell you this: because over the years in ministry, I have learned over and over again that believers and church people can be the worst about resting! I mean the worst! And I believe it’s because of three misunderstandings that we face. Because a lot of us, as soon as you hear, «You need to rest; you need to take a day off,» well, I can’t do that! Maybe you feel that way right now in your workplace or even at your home, right? Whatever you do throughout the week: «If I take one day off, Pastor, everything’s going to fall apart! You know how many people need me? You know how many people have to call me and need my direction and help on all these things? You’re telling me to take a day off? Ha! I got kids! You don’t take days off! You try to hide in the bathroom; their little fingers are underneath the door!» Moms, you know exactly what I’m talking about!
Me and my wife try to escape on the porch, and we’re like, «We have to sneak out!» We seriously, like, «They’re watching TV? Yeah, it’s time!» All right? And we’re like, «We’re going on the porch!» And somehow, every time, Ty just kicks the door open like, «What’s up! Saw you out here!» Then everybody else comes too; dogs too; everybody’s just there! It can be hard to rest! And that’s why I want to teach you that this is important though, and you have to be intentional about it! I’m going to train you through this series that you actually have to plan to rest! That’s a weird thought, but you got to! You got to plan to rest!
Misunderstandings About Rest
But first of all, it’s got to mean something to you! Because I’ve seen a lot of Christians and a lot of believers say, «Let’s just rest! I’ll get sleep! Ha! Ha! No! You need it! It’s not an afterthought; it’s not an option! And I’m going to show you today that it’s actually a commandment from God!» But the reason why I see so many believers struggle with this is because of three misunderstandings. And so I want to bring up these misunderstandings, and I want to explain them to you.
The first misunderstanding is fear. I mean, like I just said, I see it when I tell somebody, «Hey, you need to take a Sunday off! Take a day off this week! Don’t think about church!» That’s funny, Pastor! No, I mean it! Don’t think about church for a day! Sunday, when my family was on vacation, was the first Sunday in a long time that I completely rested! Did not look online! «At that moment, I’ll look at it the next day. I’ll see it because I trust what God is doing in this place,» and it’s a freeing feeling to say, «You know what? Today, God, all that you’ve given me, I’m going to enjoy it,» which was my family!
But it’s still difficult because we think all the time, «Well, how are things going to get done? For me, it’s like, ‘Who’s going to preach for me? Who can be here on a Sunday? Who can get these things done? ’» And so I want to ask you this, and I really want you to think about it: Is God limited on showing up based on you being in the building? Is God limited on showing up even in your workplace based on you being there? Is God limited even in your own family, in your situation? He’s not! I wasn’t on this stage last Sunday, and all I kept hearing was, «Pastor, that was a great Sunday! Okay, Pastor Felix coming for my job!» But one’s enough! He said, «One week’s enough!» I didn’t have to be on this stage! I don’t need to be! Because all this—what God is doing—He’s doing it! That’s what I love about the culture here! I just want you to experience God and how good He is!
We worry, and yeah, we need to take responsibility. Be responsible! Plan out what you can! But when those plans get out of whack, don’t allow yourself to go out of whack because God is still in control! But He’s not limited by you showing up in the building!
False Guilt and Family Ministry
The second misunderstanding is this: this is a big one, and I like to call it false guilt! False guilt! It’s this idea, «Okay, God, I want to serve you! And I want to serve you! I want to please you!» and it’s almost like you get to a point in your mind where you’re creating this checklist: «If I do this, I please the Lord! If I do this, I please the Lord! If I do this!» But if I don’t do it this week, God may be upset with me! If I’m not able to keep going, maybe I’m not going to please the Lord the way I want to do it, and my intentions are good; but God, I’m just—and we keep going and keep going and keep going!
Listen, this is why this is important: I never want to hear from this church a child say, «The church stole my mommy and daddy.» I never want that to be heard! Because I’ve seen it over and over again! Get this: I’ve seen divorce because of the church, because of neglecting the family and going and working—trips, this and that, and trying to save everybody else—but your family’s over there being completely neglected! I’ve seen it! And the reason why I called it like a false guilt is because Satan is so clever in this: «Well, if you don’t serve today, you’re not a good enough Christian! Your family will be okay, but they’re going through something now! That’ll be fine! You got a purpose to serve God! Don’t worry about your own feelings!»
But see, that’s where Satan always twists the Scripture because what is your first ministry? It’s family! And the Bible is very clear about that! For Paul tells this to Timothy out of 1 Timothy 5:8. Listen to this; it’s heavy: «But those who won’t care for their relatives, especially those in their own household, have actually denied the true faith. Such people are worse than unbelievers.»
It’s hard to do though because I’ve been very convicted in this in my home. I mean, my wife and I, we’re trying to show an example to be in the Word at home and to show our kids that and pray and lead, because sometimes when you’re at home, you’re so comfortable; you’re yourself, you know? And I know that’s my temper flying off: «Who touched this? Who broke that?» I’m like, «Is it really worth it? Is it really worth it to scream right now to get onto them?» And lately, I’ve been praying this: «God, I want to act like I do out there doing ministry; I want to act like that in my own home and do ministry here! Because if my kids don’t see it, if they see Daddy on stage preaching, that’s a problem! And they’re going to run away from the Lord! They’re not going to believe it; they’re not going to see it as true!»
And so we need this! But what do you have to do? This is a false guilt! You have to make sure your first ministry is taking care of your family! Because listen: Paul was telling Timothy, he said, «Listen, a pastor is not able to serve if he is failing his first ministry! He’s not able to do it! You can’t come here with a smile and pray over people and help people when you go home, and everything’s just, I don’t mean your life’s going to be perfect, but something has to change! And if you’re investing everything into the church outside your home, then that’s a problem!» And you need to put it in perspective: family is my first ministry.
Rest Feels Like Laziness
The last misunderstanding is this, and this one made me laugh a little bit: this feels lazy! And I think that’s the big misunderstanding! I tell people, «Hey, you know what?» And I told them that for the month of June, we’re going to take this seriously, because one of our core values as a church is rest! I want to make sure that families are taken care of, and I’m going to encourage you this month: take vacation! Take vacation! Spend time with your family! I don’t know what’s behind me—everybody’s laughing—but spend time with your family!
And here’s what I’m telling you: enjoy it! But when I say that, people are like, «Well you mean be lazy?» Isn’t it funny that people ask, «Well, how do I rest? What do you want me to do? What do you mean—what do I want you to do? Can I mow my yard? I got that new zero turn right now, Pastor, and I mean it’s pretty fun!» Yeah, go mow your yard, just don’t do the work you usually do all through the week! Whatever you do all week, take a break from it for one day, and focus on your family! Do something you enjoy and have fun, and realize that God has given this to you!
But the reason why I was laughing is that me and Pastor Felix had a conversation about this this week because last week he got on the stage and told you to move in faith. He’s like, «Great Pastor! I get one chance to preach; I say move in faith, you come up here telling them to rest.» But here’s what I want to make clear: it doesn’t contradict each other! It does not contradict each other! In fact, intentionally planning to rest is moving by faith! Meaning: on my calendar this day, taking my hands off, Lord, I’m trusting you! Whatever happens, I know you’re in control!
Rest is a gift from God because when we rest, we are actively trusting God! But it’s a gift too! He’s such a good God! He’s given you this gift, this gift of rest—to enjoy life, to enjoy His goodness, to have peace of mind! So why is it that we struggle letting go? Why do we want to hold on to this busyness and these things that are driving us crazy? The things that keep us awake at night—these anxieties, these worries, and these burdens? Jesus said again for the third time: «Give them to me because I have a gift for you, and it’s to rest!»
The Sabbath Commandment
But let me ask you this question: how important is it to God for us to actually rest? Biblically, what does that look like? Because when I talk about rest—see, if I were to go over the commandments, let me just play a little game. If I said, «Hey, the commandments tell us don’t lie,» you would say, «Yep, not going to lie! Honor your father and your mother. Okay, yeah, I could do that! Have no other gods before God. Okay, I can do that! Don’t make any idols. Okay, I could do that!» Rest? That’s a good one! But that’s how we think about it! I see it all the time! The Ten Commandments! But there’s one we look at, and we chuckle, and we don’t think it’s as important as the others! But it is, on God’s standards! They’re just as important! It’s just as equal! Why? Because we need it! This is a principle we are to live by! It’s a commandment! Again, it’s not an option!
So let me show you! If you have your Bibles, turn to Exodus chapter 20! Exodus chapter 20, and in verses 1-7, New Living Translation says: «You must not have any other gods but me. You must not make for yourself an idol of any kind. You must not misuse the name of the Lord your God!» So the very first three commandments are all about our relationship with God, and then the last six commandments are all about your relationship with other people! God instructs us on how to deal with people: «Okay, honor your parents; do not steal; do not kill; do not lie» and so on.
But what is commandment number four? Exodus 20:8-9: «Remember to observe the Sabbath day! Remember to keep it holy!» Now, what is the definition of holy? First of all, it means to plan one day out of the entire week completely devoted to worship God! Did you know that enjoying time with your family is worshiping God? That needs to be preached more! Spending time with your spouse is worshiping God! Just taking in all that God has given you, because that’s how it becomes real! People ask me all the time, «Pastor, how do I know God? How do I hear His voice?» And I’m like, «Well, enjoy His presence!» «Well, how do I do that? Do I need to worship? Do I need to sing? Because I can’t sing really good, and that’s probably going to scare some birds at my house!» No, just look around you! You’re healthy! You get to go out to eat today! You’ve got a car! You have a home! You got somebody that loves you! All of these are gifts from God that you can enjoy!
And so to be holy, to me, means to set apart a day that is different from every other day! It says, «You have six days each week for your ordinary work, but the seventh day is a Sabbath day of rest dedicated to the Lord your God.» So for the tribes of Israel, Saturday was actually their day of rest; it was the seventh day for them! But please remember this because this is a big question! But in the New Covenant, because of Jesus Christ, and remember Jesus came, what? Not to abolish the law but to fulfill it! And what I love about this is that Jesus came out of perfection and He’s showing us—because it wasn’t just the Ten Commandments, the Levitical rules, all these laws and all these things that tell you how to be perfect, how to be completely set apart from the rest of the world! Nobody was able to attain that; nobody was able to do it! Everybody messed up except Christ Himself! Jesus came to fulfill the law!
The Seriousness of the Sabbath
And so I say this so we don’t get in our head or become like a Pharisee: «Okay, what does this mean? I can’t do anything?» No, no, no! Just enjoy the day! Pick one day out of the week to celebrate who God is and what He’s doing in your life! But I’m going to show you how important it is, the penalty in the Old Testament for breaking this law. This one was death! Imagine that! Exodus 31:14, New Living Translation: «You must keep the Sabbath day holy, for it is a holy day for you! Anyone who desecrates it must be put to death!» That’s how much it meant to God!
And we look at that, especially in our culture, we’re like, «Well, that’s kind of harsh because I thought we served a good God that just loves us,» and He does! But I’m going to explain! Let me show you another story! This is found in Numbers chapter 15:32–36! It’s probably not a passage of Scripture you’ve ever heard preached before, or at least it’s rare! But this is what it says: «One day while the people of Israel were in the wilderness, they discovered a man gathering wood on the Sabbath day. The people who found him doing this pretty much—he’s just gathering sticks on the Sabbath day—took him before Moses, Aaron, and the rest of the community, and they held him in custody because they did not know what to do with him! They’re looking at this man: ‘Okay, he’s just working; he’s just gathering sticks. It’s the Sabbath day. It’s supposed to be the day of rest! ’ We know the penalty is death, but do we really do this?»
And the passage of Scripture tells us that God spoke to Moses and said, «You need to put this man to death, and the whole community must stone him outside of the camp!» How do you preach that? How do you explain that? «Hi, Pastor! You’re telling me he was just gathering some sticks? I know it’s a holy day, but we all make this mistake! What do you mean that they actually stoned him to death? God would do something like that?» Yeah, because it’s important to rest! It is a commandment! But why? Why would God do such a thing?
No Rest Leads to Death
I want to share two points with you. I told you I got a lot of information I’m throwing at you today! But the first point is this: no rest will lead to death! Okay, we’ve gone over that physically, yes! Our bodies can actually die if we don’t get enough rest! And mentally, we’re not prepared; we’re not able to speak to people; we’re not even able to do ministry if we completely feel drained! It can kill our relationships; it can kill everything in our life!
Okay? No rest will lead to death! But Israel—here’s what I need you to understand—Israel was chosen as God’s nation! The Jews were chosen as God’s people! They were a special group of people! This was a special nation! Deuteronomy 14:2: «You have been set apart as holy to the Lord your God, and He has chosen you from all the nations of the earth to be His own special treasure!» We read this, and we know this about Israel; we know this about the Jews! But also, why were they chosen? What heaviness is upon the nation? Now this means that they are to carry the seed of Jesus Christ, the Redeemer of all of us, to be forgiven of our sins!
So here’s what I need you to understand: because we look at it like, «Man, the guy was just picking up sticks!» No, no, no! This was a nation that had to survive! They couldn’t afford any mistakes! They had to listen to God’s commands because, listen to me, God doesn’t just tell you to do things just because! He’s always telling you to do something to protect you, to heal you, to give you guidance!
Why Israel Needed Rest
And so what do we know? We know that because they had the holy seed of Christ coming out of Israel, Isaiah 9:6: «For a child is born to us; a son is given to us, and the government will rest on His shoulders! He will be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, the Prince of Peace.» They were chosen, and because they were chosen, there’s a calling and a price and a heaviness! And this meant that they had to rest!
Why did they have to rest? Because rest would make them healthier! Rest would allow them to get over their sickness! Rest would allow them to become stronger! Rest would be able to give their bodies what they needed to keep going, to keep traveling, to go through all these trials! It was rest that would keep them moving! What else would rest do? It kept them mentally focused! Can you imagine Moses not getting rest? All the people coming to him complaining, «We need this! We need this answer! How come God’s doing this?» Can you imagine what was going through his head? What if he didn’t rest? Would have Moses had a big poster on his wall, «Sleepless for the Week?» We live by it! We live by this motto, and sometimes God leads us to the sea that He’s about to part, and we’re too tired to even see the miracle! And instead of walking in the presence of God and enjoying His rest, we turn away! You know why? Because we’re sick and tired!
And the nation of Israel could not become sick and tired! They had to be mentally focused! They had to be healthier than everybody else! Have you ever noticed that when you look at Daniel, right? When you look at their diets, their physiques, the Bible is very clear: a lot of times they had the best bodies! They had the best health! Why? Because God was keeping them strong! He was keeping them strong to take on the battles! And that’s the third thing: they needed to rest because you know how many battles they faced? Everybody wanted to kill them! Why? Because Satan knew that the seed of Christ was coming from Israel! He knew that the chosen people had to carry this seed!
So they had to be prepared for battle! Guess what? You do too! You do too! Every day is a battle against your flesh! And I’m telling you, if you do not rest up in the Lord and see that He is good, see that He protects you even when you sleep, so that your mind can get away from all the anxieties and problems of life, you’re not going to feel prepared to take on those battles! And every time you give up, every time you walk away, just think about somebody else’s life that wasn’t impacted in that moment! And God wanted to use you!
Rest as Evangelism
You have to be rested! I’m telling you right now: if I don’t get rest, you’re going to notice! You’re going to notice in my sermons: «Did he study this week?» It’s a heavy thing! I pray every week, and I told my staff, «I never want to come up on the stage and preach something to you where people say, ‘Duh! I’ve always known that! I’ve always heard that before! ’ No! I want to preach a revelation!» Because God tells us that when we step into His presence, we step into His mysteries, and He reveals these things, and He takes the veil away from our eyes so that we could see things in a brand new way!
And this insight of the Word of God coming to life actually changes your life! And maybe you’ve never thought about it this way before, but I’m telling you today that rest is a gift from God, and it’s been given to you for a very long time! But are you opening it, or have you just let it sit because you have a problem or a hard time accepting gifts?
Let me make this point, okay? So why would God allow this man to die? He’s just gathering wood? Why would God do such a thing? If God is so loving, why would He do that? The penalty of death was to show the importance of one person dying due to rebellion—listen to me—than the whole nation of Israel dying off due to exhaustion! Because they were holy! So they had to look different from everybody else!
Imagine this: because I heard a pastor say it like this, it was unheard of at their time to have a day of rest! So imagine somebody trying to get with them: «Hey, on this day, we need to do something!» «No, no! We can’t!» Why? «Because I’m going to honor God that day! I’m going to rest!» «What do you mean, rest? What do you mean you get a day of rest?» «Yeah, this is a day that we honor to God—what does that mean? What does that look like?» It was actually evangelism! It was a ministry tool to tell people, «Hey, listen! About my God! He loves you so much, He commands that you take a day of rest and enjoy His presence and know that He’s in control!»
Well, tell me more! In the culture today, there are people out there dying seeking rest, and they don’t know how to find it! You do! But are you telling them about it? And it’s the reason you’re not telling them about it because you’re not living it out! Have you not been taking it seriously to actually rest in the Lord?
The Consequences in Our Lives
And Israel failed God many times. They were never perfect! There were many times that they rebelled against God! But God’s word always comes true! In Jeremiah 31:3-4: «Long ago the Lord said to Israel, ‘I loved you, my people, with an everlasting love! With unfailing love, I have drawn you to myself! And God says, ‘I will rebuild you, my virgin Israel! You will be happy and dance merrily with your tambourines! ’» And the Hebrew language for it was a prophecy that came back to life to this day! No other language has ever done that before because God spoke something over His people, over His nation!
But you understand it was a command! If you want to get here in life, if this is going to succeed, you gotta rest! Let me say it again: not resting will always lead to death! Guess what? Not resting will kill your marriage! It will kill your marriage! No more romance! No more time together! No more intimacy! None of that! You’re just going through the motions! You’re just busy! You’re over there, and she’s over here, and you just got kids, and you’re going, going, going!
And so something I was reminded of while we went on vacation and something me and my wife try to do as much as possible is we do sneak out on the porch and we try to sit there, and we just look, and we just talk! And it may be about nothing, but at least it’s some time together! Because once we go back in, «Daddy! Mommy! We need this! We gotta cook! We gotta eat!» And so we try to have this time together to speak! Because it’s so easy to just, «Hi! I’ll see you next week!» God doesn’t want you to become roommates!
But what are you chasing? Not only that, but not resting brings death to being a parent! And what I mean by that is because where we used to be supportive to our children, now we’re too tired to focus! And your kid is trying to tell you something very important, but you’re just—your mind is elsewhere! And you got to get all these projects done, and maybe you’re irritable, and so you start yelling at them, and all of a sudden now you’re no longer supporting them! You’re just criticizing and criticizing! And that’s the relationship! Death to mental and physical health! You’re too busy to eat healthy! «I gotta go! I gotta get fast food, fast food, fast food!» Next thing you know, you have no more energy! Right? And this is your life! And you’re just trying to chase the wind! Solomon said, «Don’t do it! Don’t chase the wind!» You’ll never catch it! Don’t miss what God is doing right in front of your eyes! Seriously! This is what God wants for us!
We were never meant to hustle, because you’re not in control! We were meant to walk in obedience because He is in control! And that is a rest! I desire for the rest of my life!
Choose to Open the Gift
My last point is this: you have a choice to refuse or open the gift! You actually have a choice! God’s not going to force you to open up this gift! He’s not going to force you to look at this commandment and take it seriously! He’s not going to force you to do that! But I will tell you the number one reason for the death of a church is because people never stop until they never come back! And I’ve seen it over and over again! Church hurt because I kept going—I kept serving! I kept doing all these things, and I never stopped! And they just wanted more and more and more! So I just never went back! And I’ve seen people completely walk away from the church and even a relationship with God because they got tired!
And that’s not the motto we are to live by! If it’s a commandment—and also, the church needs to rest and realize we can just be in the presence of God! Hebrews 4:1, and I love this because the author of Hebrews is taking the idea of the Sabbath from the Old Testament and relating it to today, and he says, «God’s promise of entering His rest still stands! It’s still here today! So we ought to tremble in fear and all and respect of what God is commanding from us! But some of you might fail to experience it!»
The author of Hebrews is saying that this is a gift, yet many believers will never experience it! How? Hebrews 4:6: «So God’s rest is there for people to enter, but those who first heard this good news, they failed to enter because they disobeyed God!» Lack of faith! That’s why I’m telling you when Felix got up here—Pastor Felix got up here and said move in faith—the same thing to take a day out for the Lord!
What the author of Hebrews is saying is that, first of all, as they followed Moses—the people of God followed Moses—there was a promised land! This promise for them was peace and comfort and a rest flowing with milk and honey! This is what I have for you! What did they do? They saw, «Oh, there’s no way! There’s no way we’re entering into this land!» You’re saying the same thing about your life! «There’s no way this situation is going to change! There’s no way I can rest because this is not going to work out!»
And what the author of Hebrews is saying is, «You need more faith!» Because if you rebel against God and turn away, you will never be able to enter into the rest, the gift that He actually has for you! A gift that you were meant to open as a believer to trust the Lord as your Father! I don’t care how scary it looks! I fear the Lord more than I fear this world! For all who have entered into God’s rest, verses 10 and 11 have rested from their labors just as God did after creating the world!
So He says, «Let us do our best to enter that rest, because if we disobey God as the people of Israel did—listen to this warning—we will fall! If we do not rest and take time into this, we will fall! And that is why God took it so seriously out of the Old Testament! That’s why the penalty for this was death! The nation of Israel could not fall for the seed of Christ had to be born to restore, to redeem, to forgive us of our sins! And the author of Hebrews explains it like this!
A Personal Illustration of Rest
And I have a little illustration we want to bring that out! Do you have the beach chair? Oh, there it is! I’m sorry; my bad! But the author of Hebrews explains it like this: there’s a rest that you and I can have! But opening this gift is an act of obedience and faith! What is God telling you to do? Do you trust Him?
So this is something weird about me! Thank you! These two things usually don’t go together but today they are! I’ll tell you what: I’m actually going to sit it like this and stand behind it! I was going to sit in it; this is weird! I’m weird! I have a hard time taking vacations! That’s what’s weird about me! I have a hard time taking vacations! It’s hard for me sometimes to think of time off! But also, I feel like there’s a lot of responsibility in that! I have a lot of little ones, a whole family to take care of! And I always think, „Well, if we go far, what if we get a flat tire? What if something happens? Oh my goodness! Do I have enough money? Are we going to survive?“ My wife’s love language is vacation! Like, we better go somewhere very soon!
And just to let you know, we’ve taken some staycations, but it has actually been over six years since we’ve taken a full week vacation somewhere else! The reason why is because when we adopted Titus, after that adoption, she became pregnant with Gabriella! There were medical conditions that we couldn’t travel anymore! And then we moved out here; we planted a church! Next thing I know, I look back—it’s been six years! No vacation! Staycations! But you know, it’s not safe!
And so God was telling me, „It’s time! It’s time to rest! It’s time to go on vacation!“ And I started to worry, and I’m like, „Okay, God, everything’s going to be okay! It’s going to be fine!“ The next thing I know, the news is talking about gas like completely going out! And I’m like, „God, what are you doing? Is this a sign? Did I just—are we not supposed to do this?“
And I’m telling you, I kept hearing this voice of God say, „It is a gift for you, and I have given it to you for so long! I want you to have peace! I want you to enjoy your family! But it’s been a very long time since you’ve opened it! Will you just actually relax and open the gift that I have for you?“ And we were able to go to the beach! But this also spoke to me because there’s a very sweet couple in this church, and they came to me and my wife and they told us, „You’re never too busy to make memories!“
Don’t ever be too busy to make memories! That’s what’s so important! Because when you make memories together, you celebrate what God is doing! Let me share the truth with you: you will always regret busyness, but you will never regret the memories! You will at the very end of your life—are you going to be like, „I was so busy! I was always driving! Got a lot of hours clocked in!“ You think you’re going to stand before God, and He cares about that? What about your heart?
But if He asks you, „Did you know me and what I have for you?“ And last week, I’m telling you, I was able to sit on the beach with my family, and it was a gift! A gift that I was able to finally enjoy! Because that was time for me to open it! When I’m telling you, you may have a hard time accepting gifts, but it’s time to open it! It’s time to take this seriously! Your stress, your anger, maybe you’re irritable—maybe this everything crashing down—are you resting and enjoying what the Lord is doing?
I’m going to have you stand up right here! I’m telling you, this series is going to be different because I’m going to get on this stage, and I’m going to encourage you to rest more! It’s not about being lazy! When I say rest, biblical rest is not about being lazy! It is about being intentional about a day dedicated to God! It is about being intentional on becoming a stronger family! It’s about actively moving in faith because now you know that God is in control!
So I’m telling you, as a believer, God has set the gift in front of you! Will you open it today and let go of your anxiety and your burdens? Maybe there’s something going on in your marriage and you say, „Today, we’re gonna have fun! I’m going to focus on you!“ Maybe there’s a relationship, and it’s hard and it’s difficult! Today, we’re gonna celebrate God! Maybe it’s been a long time! I want you to enjoy being in this place! So God is telling us, „Don’t burn out! Don’t hustle! Because you can sleep and know that He is taking care of us!“
Close your eyes!