Hey. Good morning. Well, guess what? We’re going to open our Bibles to Hebrews again. So you can open your Bibles to Hebrews four. And our text today is versus one through 13.
We’ve been working through this book for a while, and the title this morning is A Recipe for Rest. And I don’t know about everybody, but it’s funny, the first two people I said Hi to this morning, I was like, how are you? They’re like, I’m so tired. What’s wrong? But then it happened again and again.
So I know at least those two need this message this morning, but I hope some of you guys got some good rest. A lot of the Miami people and your new bed might have been a little tough, but I just want to say I’m really glad you guys are here. Welcome, missionaries. That’s how I see you. I do.
I’m so glad you’re here. And there is much work to be done, you’ll see. But, yes, we’ve been journeying through Hebrews. And if you’re joining us now, I just kind of want to get you up to speed. And I’ll summarize so far that we’ve learned that the author of Hebrews has one agenda in mind, and that really is his main agenda is to say that Jesus is better.
Yes, it’s a sermon. It has little introduction. Within the first sentence, he kind of skips his name and who he addresses it to, but he just wants to talk about Jesus. And he does that very quickly. And he not only wants to talk about Jesus, but he wants to elevate Jesus above anyone and everyone he can think of. That Jesus is the greatest and most supreme being that there is. Jesus.
So this is our fourth week now doing this. In the last couple of weeks, yeah, the last couple of weeks, I’ll just summarize the first thing was that Jesus, he is a better word spoken to us from God that God used to speak in the past through prophets, but now God speaks through a better word, and his name is Jesus. And then we did a side tangent because he does this like five or six times in Hebrews, saying, Jesus is better. Let me actually give you a warning real quick. Jesus is better.
Jesus is better. And then so his first warning comes and he says very early on, you got to pay attention. Which that’s a good place to put that warning, because he has a lot of good stuff to say. Saying, pay attention to this better word spoken to us because you don’t want to miss it. So then he goes on to compare Jesus to Angels, all powerful, impressive Angels. And Jesus is better than those too. And then Jesus is better than all of humanity.
He gives us a way to escape the fear and the power of death, that he’s better than death, that he can overcome that like no man can. But more specifically, he’s better than the best of men, namely Moses, right? Moses. He was the great leader of God’s people early on. The great leader that was face to face with God.
Jesus is better than him. And if you’re a Hebrew, that is an impressive claim. And here we are at the end of chapter three. Before he enters chapter four, he wants to give a second warning and he wants to issue another warning. And he says, well, speaking of Moses, let’s think about how the Israelites responded to Moses. Right?
With Moses people, they did not respond to Moses when God would have them enter into Canaan, the promised Land, and enter into rest. Well, now we have Jesus and he wants to lead us to rest, just like Moses. And the warning, Eddie did a great job summarizing it and distilling it into these three words. Don’t miss out.
First, pay attention to this better Jesus, but don’t miss out on what he is offering us. That’s what he started in chapter three. And in verse twelve, I thought we could backtrack and read verses twelve up to chapter four. So flip your page and let’s begin. Chapter three, verse twelve.
Be careful, here’s the warning, be careful then, dear brothers and sisters, make every effort or make sure that your own hearts are not evil and unbelieving, turning you away from the living God. You must warn each other every day while it is still today so that none of you will be deceived by sin and hardened against God. For if we are faithful to the end, trusting God just as firmly as when we first believed, we will share in all that belongs to Christ. Remember what it says today when you hear his voice don’t harden your hearts as Israel did when they rebelled. And so was it those who rebelled against God even though they heard his voice? Wasn’t it the people Moses led out of Egypt? And who made God angry for 40 years? Wasn’t it the people who sinned, whose corpses lay in the wilderness? And to whom was God speaking when he took an oath that they would never enter his rest?
Wasn’t it the people who disobeyed him? So we see that because of their unbelief, they were not able to enter his rest. So he’s talking about the Israelites, right? Long ago, God promised them the land of Canaan, a land of rest where the milk just flowed and the honey was there, but most of them never made it. Most of them missed out.
Do you see why they missed out? It says, because they were filled with unbelief and they were rebellious and their hearts were hard. Ultimately, beyond this land of milk and honey, he was actually pointing to a greater reality that today we also can enjoy this kind of rest. It was actually never about Canaan. We’ll see that as we look closer.
But yes, he wanted us to find rest. They craved rest, right? And they missed it. And so we, too, we should take warning. And our main message here in this text is that for us, the failure to believe or unbelief, we call it unbelief. That forfeits our rest.
Unbelief forfeits rest. And unbelief might seem like an extreme or a strong word for anyone that let’s say you showed up to Church. Congratulations, but I don’t think unbelief is beyond you. I know it’s not beyond me. It doesn’t take much in life honestly for our faith to be shook.
And then unbelief can start to settle in very quickly after that. The nations are raging right now, and that’s on a global scale. But then on a personal scale, I don’t know what your week’s been like. One bill can come in the mail and it can just rock your world. Like God, I thought you were going to provide.
You provided for me this week. Then you sent a bill. Like, I don’t know, it’s very real, right? Or any little thing can shake our faith and shake us towards unbelief. And I don’t want us to think that that’s beyond us.
In Hebrews, in verse twelve, where we started in chapter three, he describes unbelief symptom as turning you away from the living God. Right? That’s what it looks like when you’re turned away from God. You start to pay attention to other things as if God isn’t the best thing anymore. It’s a condition of your heart where other things get your attention and you’re like, more affection goes towards whatever that is than towards Jesus, instead of Jesus.
He’s better, but he doesn’t get the attention he deserves. He can become less than. He can start to become subpar to anything else. And all these idols, they can just creep into our hearts and they can easily capture spot number one rather than Jesus. So does this text is this something you think maybe we should entertain for a bit?
Is it beyond us to miss God’s rest? I don’t think so. So our main text today is chapter four. And with that in mind, with all of that in mind, I think you’ll know where we’re going, and you’ll be with me now. So let’s begin and open your Bibles to Hebrews four.
And what I see in verses four through 13, I call it The Recipe for Rest. That’s the title of our sermon this morning, the Recipe for Rest. Because if you want to distill what he’s saying so you don’t miss out on God’s rest, there’s three things that really stand out, and they’re right here. This is your main note taking slide here. Just write these down.
What you need to not miss God’s rest. You need fear, you need faith, and you need fight. Three FS. I want to make it so it’s so simple you can write on your hand if that’s what you like that. Fear, faith, and fight.
Rest. That’s what it takes. Our culture really doesn’t know how to rest.
We almost prize if we burn the candle at both ends. It’s almost a competition of who got less sleep right? There’s very few of us I bet about half the room got the appropriate amount of sleep, if we’re lucky here.
But honestly, we don’t know how to sit still. We’re restless. We fidget. We don’t know how to have peace. The ironic thing is we do spend a ton of money in our society on trying to get rest.
We spend $85 billion per year just on the sleep industry. That’s like mattresses that are perfectly soft, like those dehumidifiers or the apps that you subscribe to that have the most uninterrupted noise. Static, snow, all that kind of stuff. Blackout shades. We cannot make it happen.
We are a restless people. Does anyone actually have a sleep routine? I’m curious to help yourself. Oh, man. Even more like this.
You might consider it. Maybe you’re young enough in this crowd and not need it yet, but, man, if you actually have any, let’s say you have two small kids in your house. Actually, can you turn the slide twice?
But, yeah, you’ll see, these are, like, my most treasured possessions in life right now. Most valuable possessions, because without that supply, that hatch, that’s what we have. You touch it and the noise comes on and your kid just falls asleep. It’s like magic, but there’s a lot of variables. It’s not just that I have to have the temperature I think it’s 74 degrees. And the fan has to be on kind of touching the wal so it vibrates the wall and adds, like, a soothing vibration to the room. The blackout shades have to be. Molly wants me to put tints on the windows behind the blackout shades.
We do everything we can for our kids to fall asleep because our rest depends on it. We’ve found a recipe for rest in our home, at least on a physical level. Right? And I just think that that’s just how it is, though. Our rest is fragile.
It’s futile to chase it because it’s so fleeting. Like the three FS, right? Right now it’s fragile, futile and fleeting. But with fear, faith, and fight, we can overcome that because we are a chronically tired people. And I’m talking about spiritual chronic fatigue.
We long for rest, and God designed that we would rest in him. If you think about the garden, did they have to till the soil, like, for all the fruits to come? Was there sweat pouring out for them to make things happen? No. Cause that’s the result of the curse?
Right. And ever since we’ve broken our relationship with God there in the garden, we have been chasing after rest. And really, the whole story of the scriptures is God sending Jesus to redeem us back to the time when we’re in the garden in his presence, resting in his place. And so let’s actually read here verses one through seven. We’ll split it in half, Hebrews four, one through seven.
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 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. 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 world, we know it is ready because of the place in the scriptures where it mentions the 7th day. On the 7th day, God rested from all of his work. 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. But those who first heard this good news failed to enter because they disobeyed God. So God said, another time for entering his rest. And that time is today. God announces through David much later in the words already quoted, today, when you hear his voice, don’t Harden your hearts.
So you have the wilderness story in the background. That’s the backdrop of our story. And now we get to consider this warning as well as the amazing opportunity that is now yours. Did you hear the good news from verse one? This should be great news to you, right?
If you’re longing to rest in Jesus and experience it, you would hear this wonderful news. God’s promise of entering his rest still stands. The offer is still valid. It’s here and available to you today only. It really is a limited time offer.
It says, and it compels us to grab a hold of it today. Did you see that word today in there? Yeah, it’s actually in there many, many times. He repeats today only today only. Like there is a sense of urgency about this.
You should tremble at the thought. He says, you should tremble with fear that some of you might miss out. He’s saying the FOMO is real and it’s appropriate. You must fear missing out on this kind of rest. It’s the only thing worth fearing at this point, like give your full attention.
You’re paying attention, right? Don’t miss it. So how long is this offer good for? Look where we ended in verse seven. And God said another time for entering his rest and that time is today. Today, when you hear his voice. Today, do not Harden your hearts. Today is the only day it might be good for you. Consider that. It’s a real reality. It’s the only opportunity you can actually be certain of that you have today to enter God’s rest.
There’s a lot of urgency behind his warning here. Andrew Murray, a great theologian, said it this way. He said, God’s great word to us is today. And Satan’s favorite word is tomorrow.
So the first one is fear. Fear, that is first and foremost. And it’s quite motivating. It can be and is an appropriate motivator for you to get towards God’s rest. It’s a biblical motivator.
Find God’s rest. But in verses in chapter four, verse two and three, it’s really clear that the most essential ingredient is your faith. That’s the most important ingredient in this recipe. That it comes down to us hearing God in His Word, His Word to us, and believing what he says His Word to us, namely Hebrews has not said it’s the Bible in your hands, it said, the Word is His Son, right?
The word is expressed in Jesus. That’s who you need to take at his word. Your faith should be there. Faith is essential. And the Israelites just did not have it.
They had every reason to. They witnessed the miracles. This was the generation that saw the Red Sea part and all the Manna just come down from heaven. They saw God’s miracles and they didn’t believe Him. It is not beyond us to do the same.
Our belief in His Word, specifically His Word in the supreme and better Son, namely Jesus. That’s our access card to get to find his rest. Without faith, we will, it says, never enter. It’s very clear like we need it. And so where is your faith today? How is that?
It’s worth analyzing if it’s that important, don’t say, I believe, I’m good. And he did an amazing job connecting last week to faith to the way you live. Faith is displayed in how you live. So where is your faith today? Knowing that it’s more than just saying, I’m good, I believe.
What is your life saying? We need to get that right. And verse eight we’ll continue. We’ll read through the end, verse eight, chapter four. Now, if Joshua has succeeded in giving them this rest, I’ll just pause.
Joshua. We haven’t heard his name yet. We’ve kind of moved on from Moses. Now we’re moving on to a new character. You think they’ll compare Jesus to Joshua?
Let’s see now. If Joshua had succeeded in giving them this rest, God would not have spoken about another day of rest still to come. So there is a special rest or a Sabbath rest still waiting for the people of God. For all who have entered into God’s rest have rested from their labors, just as God did after creating the world. So let us do our best to enter that rest.
But if we disobey God, as the people of Israel did, we will fall. For the word of God is alive and powerful. It is sharper than the sharpest two edge sword, cutting between soul and spirit, between joint and marrow. It exposes our innermost thoughts and desires. Nothing in all creation is hidden from God.
Everything is naked and exposed before his eyes, and he is the one to whom we are accountable.
There’s a lot of good stuff in here, and we’ll get into all of it here. But sure, the older generation, they missed God’s rest. They just missed it. But eventually we say goodbye to Moses. All right.
Now a new guy comes on the scene, Joshua, the new leader of God’s people. And guess what? Joshua succeeded where Moses failed to deliver. He actually got to bring them into the promised land. He was the one that guided his people into Canaan and was filled with faith.
He’s the only one. Joshua and Caleb, their faith brought them in. And so Joshua did an amazing thing. He led God’s people. He was a wonderful leader.
In fact, at the end of Joshua’s life, if you look or write later, Joshua 21 44, it says that the Lord gave them rest on all sides. It’s kind of the conclusion of Joshua’s legacy that they entered in fought a bunch of battles, and God gave them rest. He did it. He was a great leader. So why do we need Jesus?
Why do we need Jesus if Joshua gave them rest? Well, let’s just be clear. He says ultimately that the rest that we’re talking about in Hebrews, it makes clear that God’s intention for us to have rest really was never just about Canaan. That was just something to kind of get us thinking about what God ultimately had in mind.
And that offer is the offer we have today. So Joshua, Joshua, oh, he’s a great leader for sure, but he is better than Jesus. He too. He bows before Jesus. And what’s super cool is this might be over our heads.
So sometimes Greek is great, sometimes that can still confuse us more. But I have to share that the Hebrew readers of Hebrews would know that as they look at the story of Joshua and they’re talking now about Jesus, they would know that the name Joshua in Greek was actually Jesus, that Jesus was just a Greek way to say Joshua. So we’re comparing two Joshua’s here. And I think it’s an interesting side note that Jesus took on a Greek name that says a lot. How his promise wasn’t just for his people. But the comparison is really clear.
A better rest is ahead, brought to us by a better Joshua. So the question here, metaphorically speaking, which Joshua are you going to follow? The one who gives temporary rest. It’s already expired. Just know whatever temporary rest you’re seeking, whatever Joshua you’re seeking, that too will expire.
But you have the option to follow the one who leads you to eternal rest. That’s the choice you have. And you should choose the better option, the better. Joshua. We do settle, though, for the shadow rather than the reality.
We settle for just the analogy rather than the substance. And there’s so many things in the scripture that are just he’s like everything has been set up to point to Jesus. Jesus Joshua points to Jesus. The Sabbath itself. You think that’s important?
We still do that. That didn’t expire in the Reader’s time. Well, the Sabbath also. It just points to Jesus. The Sabbath is a day of rest.
Jesus offers us true rest, and he refers to the Sabbath like three times in the text. We just read verses three, verse four, and verse nine. But the Sabbath, it was a day where they had to rest. They were forced to rest. They might have been restlessly sitting in it, might not have actually felt restful.
I got so much to do, I’ll be stoned if I do anything. They might not have actually felt rest all the time. But the Sabbath, it was instituted as a symbol of the true or incoming rest in Jesus. In Colossians two, verse 16 and 17, note this. It spells out a couple of things that were shadowplays of what was to come.
And it says, the Sabbath, the Sabbaths every week. They are only shadows of the reality yet to come. And Christ himself is that reality where Christ is the substance. Everything is pointing to Jesus. Jesus, who wants to restore the rest we can’t find. In verse ten, as we keep going through the scripture, we see that he says, for all who have entered into God’s rest have rested from their own labors, just as God did after creating the world.
And I think that the meaning of this verse in verse ten really strikes at the heart of the gospel. I love this. For all who have entered into God’s rest have rested from their labors. Like man, that means here is just that, sure, on the Sabbath, you got to rest from your works.
But we too, if we’re following Christ into his rest, we also have our own form of work to rest from. He wants us to rest, namely our works and our strivings and all of our efforts to just be good enough to enter God’s rest. Every culture, every religion is pointing to, how will I be good enough to find the rest in peace? Kind of rest in peace? How am I going to find that?
How’s that actually going to be a reality when my days are done. And so he’s saying, you can rest from all those strivings to be good enough. Because just face it, you know that no matter how hard you work at it, you’re never going to measure up. You’re never going to measure up to enter God’s presence and feel worthy because you can’t undo the things of the past. You can pretend that something can outweigh the other.
It’s really what Islam is a lot about, you know, like, how much points do I have on the good and how much on the bad? But we know deep down we need our account just wiped out. We need a clear slate. So trusting in his work in verse ten, on our behalf, we no longer have to put our stake and all our good works or our strivings to have access. The access card is now faith and God.
Jesus does all the work. It sounds kind of like a priest, right? Someone working on our behalf to clear our debts. Sounds like a priest. Well, you’re going to see next week.
He’s setting us up perfectly. The next subtitle in my Bible says Christ is our high priest, and he’s kind of setting that up. There’s a masterful, just eloquent way to talk about how amazing Jesus is. He meets every need, and he will meet that, too. I’m so glad we have someone that can bring us into true rest here, because every day I crave it, I need it, and it’s here in the last element of the recipe here, fear, faith.
It’s in verse eleven. And this is an interesting verse that follows verse ten, because verse ten, we just heard that for all who’ve entered God’s rest have rested from their labors. But then he says, So let us do our best to enter that rest, or let’s make every effort or let’s take the pains to enter that rest or strive. Sprint, right. Sweat, do what you need to do, just go after it.
And I think that’s interesting. That man a lot like my own recipe for rest. When I have to put my kids to sleep and I know what I need to do, I put a lot of effort into that. But I want to secure my rest. And it’s laying down your labors, but fighting and sweating, you won’t miss it because the danger is real and the loss, it would be a horrible loss if you missed his rest. So make it happen. And so there you have it, the recipe for rest. Fear, faith and fight by whatever it means necessary, fearfully and faithfully fight to enter God’s rest. That rest is available today.
We know that it’s not far off, meaning it’s not a rest in peace kind of thing. We have one of the only but when he says that, it really means that this is not just a generic kind of rest, like put your feet up, get your latte, or put on Netflix. He’s talking about a specific rest. That rest, meaning God’s rest only this kind of rest can be found and offered by God. He’s the only source of this kind of rest.
It’s his rest, and he gives it to us freely. But I think many times we do settle for a different enticing form of that rest. We, just like the Israelites, we think maybe I’ll be more restful if I go back to the things that I’m used to, the things early on, like back to Egypt. Maybe that means I’m going to go back to finding my escape in pornography.
We think that that’s going to give us rest, but it’s just a cycle. It’s a trap. It promises like, yes, you won’t have to worry. Right.
Like pornography. The message is everything in pornography says yes, yes, yes. Right. When the world like, it’s such a lie. And I think things like drugs, I’m just going to say there’s lots of examples, but lots of things, right.
Alcohol, things that we want to escape to that are just counterfeit forms of God’s rest. It might be materialism, maybe, like going out and buying all the things you want, thinking that’s going to make you feel at ease. Like, I’m good. Now we arrived. Like we got what we wanted.
It could be binging on entertainment or Netflix is just the easy example. But there’s so many forms of just numbing your mind out and you pick your form. But if you choose that rest, you are not choosing God’s rest. So that really does hit home. Like, you pick your form of counterfeit rest.
I don’t know what it is for you, but you do. And all of these lesser forms of rest, the effect they have is like three, verse twelve. They Harden our hearts when we hear his voice. The very thing we’ve been warned against. Today, when you hear it, don’t harden your hearts. That’s what these forms of rest do.
They Harden our hearts so that we won’t hear His Word, so that His Word won’t penetrate our hearts, so that Jesus voice doesn’t get through to us because we’re good and we’ve shut him off. And honestly, here, as you look at verse twelve, you see good reason why verse twelve is in there. And I’ll say Hebrews four, verse twelve, that is probably the most iconic scripture in all of Hebrews. Here it is.
I’ve read this scripture so many times in Bible studies and I’m like, God, what’s the context here? This is about entering God’s rest and not dulling and hardening your heart to his voice, because the voice of God is nothing to be trifled with. It’s nothing to take lightly or to dismiss. You might try today. You have today to do what you want, but you might only have today.
And so as we come to verse twelve, let’s see what he says regarding the voice of God that offers us rest, verse twelve. For the Word of God is alive or living and active and powerful. It is sharper than the sharpest two edge sword. Cutting between soul and spirit, between joint and marrow, exposes our innermost thoughts and desires. Nothing in all creation is hidden from God.
Everything is naked and exposed before his eyes, and he is the one to whom we are accountable. So having just wrapped up a compelling warning to us to not miss his rest by rejecting His Word, he employs a really powerful metaphor and an impressive one regarding His Word. He calls it a sword, the sharpest of sharp swords, an instrument of judgment. Because just like a sword, God’s word it has the power to penetrate and uncover and lay bare our hearts. I might be fooling myself about whether I’m actually seeking rest in God.
I might be lying to myself. God’s spirit and voice is definitely speaking. It is speaking, but perhaps my heart might be hard. Maybe I’m aware and I’m lying to others as well. That’s not beyond possibility.
But what he’s saying here with this metaphor is God’s Word will penetrate your heart. He’s going to unwire you and lay you bare on the table every distinction he knows he sees. He’s searching your heart. And I rest so much with peace, knowing God knows my heart. And he offers me this.
I don’t always know my heart, but he does. And his word has it speaks to every part of my heart. He knows it all. He knows all. He knows if I have a mask on my heart or if there’s a charade going on, he knows all the twisted parts of my heart, and I’m so grateful for that.
He knows my thoughts, my intentions, my motives here. The raw me is seen by the word of God. Nothing it says here will be veiled from facing the music of God’s word that goes out and intends to have an effect on us. And it’s an interesting word, one more Greek word for us, the word in language here what we read as laid bare or exposed.
It’s the only time this word is used in scripture because it’s kind of a secular word, the word trachēlismena. And it really quite literally means to take someone by the throat, to take them by the throat, or to bend back their neck. And it’s a wrestling word. It’s the WWE of the Hebrews times. The word is going to put you in a chokehold, is what he’s saying.
It has that effect that it will bend back your neck so that you are locked in a situation with an opponent who has a sword and you will not be able to look away. Your gaze will be fixed straight ahead, and you will have to face the music of the word. What’s interesting, when you see, like the word of God or the Logos of God is living and active, to whom we must be accountable, he’s saying, to whom we must give our own Logos back to Him. We must give our own word back to the Word. So he has a lot to say and a lot to offer us.
May we not refuse it. May we not miss it. I see that we’re going to have to give our word back to God. Here, another context of this word is used a lot is in a criminal trial.
Back in the day, they would make sure that the person on trial would face the court. And the way they would do that is they would have a sword that pressed into their chin and they would not be allowed to look down. They would have to fix their eyes on those they were accountable to. And that’s the effect of the Word, that it goes out to us, and it’s a good word to us, but we will have to answer to it. Both of these situations are serious face to face moments.
And some day, sooner or later, we’re going to have to meet face to face with God, with the truth about His Word and the truth about ourselves. It’s a good word. So to conclude, just ask yourself this question. Are you fearfully and faithfully fighting to enter God’s rest? Or is your heart hardened to that?
All right. Is there God’s Word guiding you this morning? Whose rest are you pursuing? These are all one in the same question. They’re all from the same warning.
If you’re turned around and you just don’t know where to go, maybe even a lot of this Old Testament, Joshua, Moses stuff, that’s like a whole nother I never heard of that. That’s okay. The simple, plain and simple message is, follow Jesus. Just follow him. He is the Word.
He’s the one that we need to listen to and pursue. We need to follow Jesus. He’s the better Joshua, and he’s leading us into the real promised land. So spend time in the Word, see how Jesus lives and follow suit. That’s the practical.
Let him lead your life. Jesus is a better Joshua, and he’s going to guide us safely to a better rest. And I love about Jesus. We’re going to end with his words here. You can actually display the next slide.
He doesn’t make it hard or difficult or esoteric. He doesn’t use Greek to offer us rest. This is the most tender and beautiful invitation to enter his rest. And these are red letters. These are Jesus words.
Rest, all pointed to following Jesus. And Jesus himself says, Then Jesus said, Come to me, all of you who are weary and carry heavy burdens, and I will give you rest. Jesus wants us to find rest, but find true rest, and we know it’s found in him. Let’s pray that we might fight to enter his rest. Amen.
Dear God, thank you so much for this morning. And thank you, God, for the rest. That we can truly just know that you have us, God, that our strivings and our laborings can cease when we trust God, that you will do the heavy lifting in our life. May we take you at your word, God, that you are enough, but really that you are better. Better than anything.
And may we continue to have faith, God, that you will provide for us, whatever our needs are, but especially our rest. We can rest in you, and we just love that we are so loved by you. It’s an amazing reality, God, and I’m so grateful for it. Be with us here. We’re going to take Communion in your honor, in your memory, and in the hope God that you still are just awaiting a moment when you’ll bring us finally to heaven, which is clearing the enemies out of the land.
I know we have eternal life starting now, but there’s still enemies all around that are living in a spiritual sense. And I just pray God that you take the things out of our life and really bring us true to you in heaven where we can truly rest for our souls. In Jesus’s name we pray Amen.