Creflo Dollar - Resting in the Arms of Jesus - Part 1
If you have your Bibles, open them up with me to the book of Hebrews chapter 4, I'm gonna read verses 1 through 11 in the NLT as we end this series on what it means to fall from grace. Today, I wanna talk to you about resting in the arms of Jesus. Resting, and the focus on that word "resting," in the arms of Jesus. Many have asked, "Well, if we're not doing works, then what do we do"? We got to learn how to rest in the arms of Jesus. Especially now, with stress at an all time high, people are just being attacked in their emotions like I've never seen.
It is time to understand that the rest is still available, and it is something that as Christians, I don't know if we've really gotten a hold of, but there's a warning given here that if we don't enter into this rest and we could end up like the generation of Moses and even Joshua, who they entered into Canaan land, was later pulled out because of their unbelief. Let's look at this, verse 1, "God's promise of entering his rest still stands". So, it's still available. The part that I want you to be watchful of is that, why hadn't it been entered into? What happened with Israel when they could have entered into that rest, and Joshua, his generation?
The Bible even says here, they didn't even obtain it. "God's promise of entering his rest still stands, so we ought to tremble with fear that some of you might fail to experience it". That some may, even into this day and time, they will fail to experience the rest. Hm, verse 2, "For this good news, that God has prepared his rest, has been announced to us just as it was to them. But it did them no good because they didn't share the faith of those who listened to God". So he says, "We ought to tremble today if somehow we crown ourselves as Christians, but we still don't believe". He says, "You don't get in to God's rest without believing it, without having faith". Somebody say, "I believe it".
Without having faith, without believing it, you still won't enter in. And Christianity has become this thing of trying to work and perform with your self-efforts to try to deserve to get in. He says, "But if you don't believe, you don't enter in". They died in the wilderness because they didn't believe. They didn't receive rest when they even got to Canaan, because they didn't believe. World Changers, I wanna declare for you right now, you believe, praise God, you will enter into that rest.
Next verse. He says, "For only we who believe can enter his rest. As for the others. God said, 'In my anger I took an oath: "They will never enter my place of rest,"' even though this rest has been ready since he made the whole world". And if you read in Hebrews 3, it talks about how they didn't enter in because of the rest, because of their unbelief. "We know it is ready because of the place in the Scriptures where it mentions the seventh day: 'On the seventh day God rested from all his works.' But in the other passage God said, 'They will never enter my place of rest.' So God's rest is there for people to enter," it's there for you to enter, "But those who first heard this good news failed to enter because they disobeyed God," they didn't believe.
And notice he says, "Because you didn't believe, you disobeyed". He calls unbelief disobedience. "So God set another time for entering his rest, and that time is today," I'm talking about right now, I'm talking about today, we gonna enter into this rest today. "God announced this through David much later in the words already quoted: 'Today when you hear his voice, don't harden your hearts.' Now, if Joshua had succeeded", if he had succeeded, most people thought he said, "But if he had succeeded in giving them this rest, God would not have spoken about another day of rest that's still to come".
So, even Joshua and them getting in Canaan, obviously, they didn't believe, even in Canaan, to enter into his rest or it says, "I wouldn't still be talking about it". So there is a special rest still waiting for the people of God. Mm-mm-mm. Something we gonna get into ladies and gentlemen, that's gonna be the beginning of a move of God in your life like never before. "For all who have entered into God's rest have rested from their labors, just as God did after creating the world".
And you're gonna find out here, what he's saying is all those who enter into God's rest, they have rested from their self-effort, they have rested from their performance, they have rested from what they've been trying to do to get God to do something for them, instead of resting and believing it's already done. "So let us do our best to enter that rest, but if we disobey," or don't believe, "God, as the people of Israel did, we will fall". Do you understand that today's teaching is the most important teaching that you have ever heard? Because today, you're gonna find out not only how to get victory, but how not to fall. How not to fall.
Now, allow me the opportunity to just sow this into your head. The word "rest," the definition, after I looked at the dictionaries for conclusions, I'll show you the dictionary. When you look at the word "rest," it means to cease from action and motion. The dictionary says, you stop doing what you're doing. It means to stop from labor or exertion. But now how does this relate to God's rest, this definition? Well, God's rest, it means no more self-effort, no more trying to please God by your feeble, fleshy works. And the moment you enter into God's rest, work ceased as a way to please God, because you can't do enough work to be perfect.
Rest from the sensation, rest from the legalistic self-activity, that's what it means in God's rest. Secondly, in the dictionary, it meant to, you know, to have peace. But in God's rest, it means to be peace with God, be at peace with God, be free from guilt, no need to worry about sin because sin is forgiven. No more anxiety, no more pressure, no more shame, no more guilt, because in God's rest, all that's been taken care of.
The third definition I saw in the dictionary of the word "rest," to lie down and to be settled or to fix or to be fixed. So that relates to God's rest, is you could be established in Christ, be rooted and grounded in Christ. In other words, this rest means you need to rest, God's rest says you need to be established in Christ. No, up and "down, Oh, I'm saved," one day, "I don't know if I'm saved," the next day. "Oh, I'm righteous," one day, "I don't know if I'm righteous," the next day. He said, no, you need to get established in Christ, not moving from doctrine to doctrine, not moving from philosophy to philosophy, not being cast to and fro with every wind of doctrine. When you rest, you're settled.
The fourth definition of resting in the dictionary, it says, remain confident and put your trust in him. How does that relate to God's rest? Enjoy security. You have trust in God's care for you. No more being afraid about God not taking care of you. You now rest in the assurance that God's got me.
And then the last one, rest means to lean on or to trust on, and to put all of these together, here's what the rest of God, or God's rest means for us, as referring here in Hebrews 4 and 11. It means, here it is again, you done heard it for three or four years, it means to totally depend on God for support. It means to totally depend on God for support, totally depend on God for help, totally depend on God for the power, totally depend on God for everything you need. When you're resting, the authenticity of the rest is that you find a person who is in total dependence upon God for everything, you literally have a new relationship, your relationship with God is a relationship of trust, a relationship of rest, a relationship of total dependence upon God.
This relationship has a complete surrender and a complete trust in God. It is no longer how many times you can do this or how many days you can do that, and the intensity of doing this. He is saying that to rest is a complete, total dependence upon God for everything that needs to happen in your life, and while you are alive on this earth, I trust God, I trust God. And I'm telling you right now, you ought to start opening your mouth up when people start asking you about stuff and say, "You know what, I trust God". "Well, how's everything going"? "Not too good right now, but I trust God". It ain't no problem telling them, you know, reality what's going on, but put that "but" in there, because that "but" means I'm gonna zero out whatever is going on and what remains is that I trust God.
I depend on God. I don't know how this is gonna turn out, I don't even know what to do, I don't even know the first step to take, I don't know where the money gonna come from, baby need a pair of shoes, look, you got a light bill due. I don't know, I feel like I'm about to lose my mind and go crazy. I don't know how he gonna do it, but the man that trusts God, something will happen when you lay your head down on the pillow, glory to God. Somebody shout, "I trust God". And he is saying, "I need you to enter into that". He said, "They wouldn't enter in, in Moses time. They wouldn't enter into that in Joshua's time". And he says, "It's still remaining today and it is still waiting on whosoever will to rise up and say, 'Some men trust in horses and some men trust in chariots, but I trust in the almighty God.'"
Now, rest is not inactivity because some of you were ready to go get your pajamas and a coat and just sit back and... that's not what it is. Rest is not inactivity, it's not rest from work, it's rest from the dead work, but it's not rest from work, but it's rest in work. It's rest while you're in motion, it's rest in doing the last thing he told you to do. Rest while you are working. In other words, you got bills to do, but you're still going to work. You don't sit there and say, "Well, I don't make enough money so I stay home". No, you're still going to work because you're dependent on God to make up for what you don't have. You're not resting from activity, you're resting in activity and rest while you're working.
This is what God wants from us. He wants us to rest while we're doing what we're doing. You're in motion, trusting God, you're trusting God, you walking, trusting God, you're dressing the kids up, trusting God, clean your house up, trusting God, doing all the things you do, trusting God. Don't know how this gonna come out, listen, somebody said, you know the rent is $500, I ain't got but $200, I'm gonna write the $200, I trust in God. You'll be so amazed what God can do with a person that will dare to rest in the midst of activity, in the midst of doing what you do, I don't know how I'm gonna feel, I might not feel better, but I'm gonna do what's right because it's right, and I trust God that something gonna happen right in the middle of that.
Turn to your neighbor and say, "It's time to rest". Now, Psalms 46 and 10 puts it like this, I wanna read it in the King James and then the TPT. Psalms 46 and 10, he says it like this. He says, "Be still and know that I'm God". My goodness. "I will be exalted among the heathen", he said, "The heathen gonna start exalting me, when they see what I can do with you, but I can't do nothing with you until you get still. See, I need you to be still and know," just like that army was coming against these Israelites, and they prayed because they didn't know what to do. And the Lord told them, "Just be still".
And then they just started praising God, because you can't be still in God and not praising. You can't be still in God and not worship him. The devil needs to run when worship starts coming out your mouth. "Be still, and know that I am God". You gotta know God gonna move. You don't need to be jumping out no window because you don't know how you gonna make it, you gotta be still and know. Glory to God. You don't need to be taking no gun out and shooting everybody because you frustrated with everybody, "I'm gonna kill everybody and kill myself".
You got to know God. And I'm telling you, that's about to come to the end, because that kind of stuff gonna bump in to saved folks, and saved folks know what to do in the middle of that kind of chaos. They don't know what to say about it, because they might be a little shaken, but they know how to... And that joker gonna drop that gun and run right in the arms of the police. You don't mess with somebody that's filled with the Holy Ghost, that knows their God. Y'all got to help me, I feel like preaching now.
Now look at this in the TPT. He says, "Surrender your anxiety! Be silent, stop your striving, and you will see that I am God". How many of you want to see that God is God? He says, "Surrender your anxiety, stop being anxious and stop worrying". Surrender your anxiety, how many of you know what I'm talking about when I talk about being worried and anxious? You don't know what's gonna happen, you're trying to be peaceful and at ease, and your heart still beating fast and then you kinda humming, trying to hum it away, and you're trying to read the scripture and your body still responding from it. And he says, "Surrender your anxiety". That's the same as cast your care on him. He said, "Now be silent".
Some of us just need to shut up when we don't know something, just shut up, just don't be trying to talk to yourself, just shut up. I'm gonna show you an anointing of shut up in just a moment. It ain't part of the gifts of the Spirit, but it'll work. "Surrender your anxiety! Be silent, stop your striving," stop you trying to do what you think is necessary for this to work, "And you'll see that I am God. I am the God above all the nations", wonder what it is, "And I will be exalted throughout the whole world".
Wonder what it is, the fact that I can go out in the street and bring somebody in who is sick, that don't go to church, and just tell them, "What you need to do is believe Jesus," and they come in, they get healed instantly. And then some other Christian has been here for 40 years, and still trying to get well. Maybe there's some striving going on that you need to let go of and just believe God, all right. Now, look at Matthew chapter 11:28 and 30. Matthew 11:28 and 30, let's look at this in the New Living Translation.
Now listen to this, "Then Jesus said, 'Come to me, all of you who are weary and carry heavy burdens.'" How many of you know what it's like to carry some heavy burdens? Yeah, ain't nobody gonna raise their hand in here. I sure know what it's like to carry some heavy burdens. But you know what he said? He says, "And I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you. Let me teach you, because I'm humble and gentle at heart, and you will find rest for your souls".
I declare that over everybody's life, that your soul will enter into a rest right now. Some of you are tired in your soul and I speak it right now, in the name of Jesus, that there's a rescue for your soul, praise God, your mind, your will, your emotions, hallelujah. He said, okay, I wanna keep reading but that's all, verse 30, yeah, "For my yoke is easy to bear, and the burden I give you will be light". You know what he's saying here, trust God to take care of you. Trust God to take care of you. Say it out loud, "I trust God to take care of me".
Now, listen to this very carefully, under the old covenant, people would work first and then rest, okay? Under the new covenant, you start with God's rest, and then your work will be empowered out of that rest. In other words, you learn how to rest in God and then you work out of rest, and when you work out of rest, work out of depending on God, work out of trusting in God, your work will be empowered.