So many things in this world seem to turn out to be imposters. They promise so much, they look so good, but when you finally sacrifice everything to get that one thing – whatever it happens to be – it almost always disappoints. Have you ever wondered why that is?

After more than five decades living on planet Earth I’ve experienced here in Australia where I live, quite a few elections, after all Australia is a democracy and so we have regular elections. Every three years for our federal parliament, every four years for our state parliament and every few years for local government. So I have countless times heard politicians promising the Earth in order to get elected.

Aspiring Prime Ministers, aspiring State Premiers, aspiring local councillors adamantly proclaiming that this is what they will do and this is what they won’t do if only we’ll elect them. And each time I want to believe them, I do believe them, maybe the best way to put it is I put my hope and trust in them to lead our country, our state or our city in the right direction.

But no sooner do we elect them then all those rock solid promises seem to go out the window. Now there are often very good reasons for that, circumstances change, the economic outlook changes and so on but if I had a dollar for every time I felt deflated and disappointed through the breaking of the promises I heard before election day I think I’d be a pretty wealthy guy.

I know that it’s tough being a leader and a politician and I really feel for those people and respect them and all that but you get my drift. And yet it’s not just politicians and governments that so often disappoint us, let’s not pick on those mostly hard working, mostly decent and honest people who step forward to lead in our society, so many other things disappoint as well even though they had promised so much.

I wonder in your life what have you been disappointed in. What was it that promised so much and then you tried it and it left you so terribly deflated when it failed to live up to the promise, hmm? Perhaps it was a relationship, a marriage perhaps. The courtship was so wonderful then ten, fifteen, twenty, thirty years down the track – nothing.

Perhaps it was a child whom you brought into this world in great love and sacrificed for for so many years only for that son or daughter to go completely off the rails and desert you and reject you and the value’s you tried so hard to distil in them. Perhaps it was a job or a career choice; perhaps it was something that you’d saved hard for and bought only to discover that the sacrifice just wasn’t worth it.

I remember once, many years ago when I was earning lots of money, jetting around the globe, business class of course as a high-priced IT consultant, I bought myself a really expensive car, beautiful thing it was. Smooth curves, deep burgundy paint work, gorgeous soft creamy colour leather seats, that wonderful new car smell that you get, every electronic gadget you can imagine, four-wheel steering so you could turn the thing around on a pin head, really an amazing piece of luxury engineering.

I was so delighted when I picked it up from the showroom. It cost a huge amount of money and I went into debt to buy it because I just had to have it. And just a few years later I was on an overseas business trip and left it at the airport. When I came back I discovered that there had been a really big hailstorm. That beautiful sleek, shiny, deep burgundy skin had so many craters in it from where the hail had hit it that it looked a bit like, I imagine, the surface of the moon would look like.

I had it repaired of course but ever after that it had a leak in one of the rear passenger doors they could never find and fix so that when it rained I’d get a little swimming pool on the floor behind the driver’s seat that I had to empty with a cup. I ended up selling that car for a tiny fraction of what I paid for it.

Are you getting my drift here? So many things in this world disappoint and yet we chase after them with all that we are. We sacrifice our money, our energies, our time, our emotional strength to them over and over again trying to get them to work, trying to squeeze out of them that satisfaction that we’ve been looking for but over and over again they slap us in the face.

And when that happens to me I think to myself, ‘You dummy, haven’t you figured it out yet?’ Please don’t get me wrong, there are many good things in this world for us to enjoy and God does want us to enjoy them. Marriages are a good thing, a gift from God. Children, well yeah, they’re a good thing too, an amazing blessing from God and the things we can buy and do, they’re all great but when we get to sacrificing our money, our energies, our very lives on their altars that right there is wrong.

I want to share with you today what is probably a very familiar passage from Gods Word, the First and Second Commandments from Exodus chapter 20, verses 1 to 6, have a listen.

Then God spoke all of these words. I am the Lord your God who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery and you shall have no other gods before me. You shall not make for yourself an idol whether in the form of anything that is in heaven above or that is on the earth beneath or that is in the water or under the earth.

You shall not bow down to them or worship them for I, the Lord your God, am a jealous God punishing children for the inequity of their parents to the third and fourth generations of those who reject me but showing steadfast love to the thousandth generation of those who love me and who keep my commandments.

Today we’re kicking off a new series of messages that I’ve called God’s Very Best For You. It’s a really important series because this idolatry thing is something that you and I want to do over and over again. We want to take the good things of this world many of them perfectly good things and then place them above God in our lives.

And as we’ll see we often do that by rationalising that these are after all blessings from God. He wants me to be happy, He wants me to enjoy the good things of this world and of course He does but do you notice that there are two parts to this transgression of, if I can call it this, idolatry.

There is the making of the false image, “You shall not make for yourself an idol whether in the form of anything that is in the heaven above, that is on the earth beneath or that is in the water under the earth.”

And then there’s the worshipping of it, “You shall not bow down to them or worship them for I the Lord your God am a jealous God punishing the children for the inequity of their parents to the third and fourth generation of those who reject me but showing steadfast love to the thousandth generation of those who love me and keep my commandments.”

Now this is something that we’re going to chat quite a bit about over the next few weeks on the program but right now let me ask you, what is it in your life that has become a false image? That idol, that thing that you’ve made for yourself be it a career, a reputation, a relationship, a possession, whatever it is that you have placed above God by worshipping it.

By sacrificing your life and your resources in order to have it by pouring all your energies and all your time into it to try and squeeze that satisfaction out of it that it’s meant to give you that the world promised you it should give you. What is it in your life? Come on what is it?

Do you see how easily you’ve rationalised that behaviour away by telling yourself that it is after all God’s blessing and God does, after all, want you to be happy and to enjoy your life. Yeah, I know this is confronting. I know it’s uncomfortable but here’s the thing, God loves ...

One of the reason that so many people are so exhausted with life, is that they’re carrying the heavy burden of worry, around on their shoulders. I wonder … if you know anyone like that. You can’t enjoy life, you can’t find the rest you so desperately need, when you’re carrying around the worries of the world. You just can’t.

I’ve met people in this world and all they do, all the time, is worry. It’s part of our human nature, I guess, when confronted with something beyond us; something that appears to be overwhelming; something that could well have negative consequences in our lives and here’s what we do: we turn it over and over and over in our heads. We imagine each of those negative consequences that could arise over and over and over. And can I tell you, that sort of thinking just drives you into the ground. It’s like ‘around and around and around we go’ and from experience, I can tell you, it’s just exhausting. You probably know the feeling because no doubt, you have been there too.

Well, over the last few weeks we have been talking about entering into God’s rest – actually finding a deep rest instead of carrying the weight of the world round on our shoulders. But when we are worrying – around and around – there can be no rest because worrying robs us of God’s rest. That’s why we need to deal with that once and for all. My hunch is there are a few people today – perhaps me included – who need to hear what God has to say on worrying.

Remember last week, if you were with us on the programme, we talked about the fact that God loves us and because He loves us, He wants us to have rest. Have another listen. Psalm 127, beginning at verse 2:

It is in vain that you rise up early and go late to rest, eating the bread of anxious toil; for he gives sleep to those whom he loves.

Anxiousness is about worrying, isn‘t it? And whatever the one big thing is that each of us is worrying about in our lives, right at the moment, it’s a bit like a dark cloud that hangs over us that never goes away. Jesus knew that! That’s why He had this to say about worrying – this habit that we have fallen into; this worrying that we do that robs us of the rest and the peace that God wants us to have.

Have a listen – I love the way He calls a spade a spade and tells it the way it is. And look, if you need a wakeup call; if you need some healing from this habit of worrying, please listen closely. Perhaps it’s a familiar passage but may … maybe; just maybe, it’s something we need to hear afresh and anew because when God speaks into our lives through His Spirit and His Word, He can bring healing in an instant into something that has been troubling us for a life time. Here we go – Matthew chapter 6, beginning at verse 25:

“Therefore I tell you,” said Jesus, “do not worry about your life, what you will eat or what you will drink, or about your body, what you will wear. Is not life more than food and the body more than clothing? Look at the birds of the air; they neither sow nor reap nor gather into barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not of more value than they? And can any of you by worrying add a single hour to your life? And why do you worry about clothing? I mean, consider the lilies of the field, how they grow; they neither spin nor toil, yet I tell you, not even Solomon in all his glory was clothed like one of those. But if God so clothes the grass of the field, which is alive today and tomorrow is thrown into the oven, will he not much more clothe you—you of little faith?”

“Therefore do not worry, saying, ‘What will we eat?’ or ‘What will we drink?’ or ‘What will we wear?’ For it is the Gentiles who strive for all these things; and indeed your heavenly Father knows that you need all these things. But instead, first strive for the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these other things will be given to you as well, “So do not worry about tomorrow, because tomorrow will have enough worries of its own. Today’s trouble is enough for today.” (Matthew 6:25-34)

You know the bit I really like, that hits me between the eyes in this, is Matthew chapter 6, verse 27, it says, “And can any of you by worrying add a single hour to your life?” I mean, it’s blindingly, glimpsingly obvious, isn’t it? Worrying about something has a zero positive effect on the outcome; worrying isn’t going to produce a good outcome. If there are retrenchments going around in the company where we work, worrying about whether we’re going to be next, simply isn’t going to change the outcome. In fact, worrying actually has a negative effect because it immobilises us – it stops us from using our imagination; our creativity, to find solutions; it stops us from doing the things that we can do to fix the problem.

Here’s a classic: ‘Oh, I’m worried about the debt I’ve racked up on my credit card – how am I … how am I going to pay it off? What am I going to do? I know I’ll go and buy something to make me feel better!’ Right? I mean, that’s what people do! Not only is worrying never, ever, ever going to have a positive impact on a problem, it more often than not, robs us of the solution.

God knows. He knows what we need. He knows we need a job and income and food and somewhere to live … He knows those things. And He also knows when our body is going to fail us. He knows the precise instant when we will leave our bodies behind and go and stand before Him. He knows that! Man, worry is useless and above all, it robs us of God’s rest.

I truly believe that God wants you and me to understand that today and I truly believe that His Word is going to have a powerful and a mighty impact on both of us today. The Lord’s advice is simple: just give it up! Stop worrying and replace that worrying with something else – focus your mind and your energies and your heart on something else.

First strive for the kingdom of God and his righteousness and all those other things will be given to you as well. (Matthew 6:33)

And so that’s what I choose to do when the devil sows seeds of doubt and worry in my mind. My friend, the devil wants us to worry – he knows that it robs us of the rest of God, the peace of God, the joy of God, the power of God. And today is a day for us to decide to leave that behind – to focus our lives on seeking after God and His Kingdom and His goodness; on living our lives out for Him, first and foremost and then all these other things that we need will be given to us as well. That’s the promise! He loves us, He’s our Dad; He will give us what we need. He will let us travel through whatever He chooses and one day … one day, when we stand before Him, none of those things will matter anymore.

So listen, do yourself a favour, don’t worry about tomorrow; just don’t! It’s not my idea, it’s His!

You know something, I think we would worry a whole bunch less if we truly came to grips with the fact that God … God isn’t just the King of Kings and the Lord of Lords, He’s also our helper. Now, a close friend of mind, Graham, turned seventy just recently. He was a Colonel in the Army when I was a Captain serving under him and then we formed an I.T. consulting firm together with a third guy and we did that way back in 1988. Graham was a year younger then than I am now. And as I was writing his birthday card just recently, I stopped to think back on what incredibly hard work it had been starting off that consulting firm.

The three of us left the Army – none of us really had ever run a business or worked in the private sector before. And those first five to seven years we had to cast something new out of that coalface. We had to develop experience and develop a client base and develop a company from scratch....

So many people are struggling to get enough rest in their lives. One of the reasons for that, is that we think we can burn the candle at both ends, we think we can do it our way. But … God made us. He knows us.  Maybe we need to try, His way.

I remember once, way back, when I was a teenager. You know how difficult teenagers can be when they are growing up. And there’s a reason for that, being a teenager is about moving from childhood to adulthood and that means establishing yourself as someone who is independent of your parents. And because it’s a learning time, okay, we all make lots of mistakes as teenagers, that’s why God put us in families with parents who have both the love and the maturity to cope with our mistakes and to guide us through that growing up process.

Anyhow, I must have been pushing the boundaries quite a bit and my father said to me, he said this, ‘Son, I love you very much but as long as you live in my house, under my roof, eat the food I provide and wear the clothes that I buy for you; you’ll do as I say. If you don’t like it, then there’s the front door. Go and live on the other side of it.’ Well … well, I was so offended. How dare he say that to me? How dare he?

Now, my dad passed away a few years ago now and I am no longer a teenager – I’m in my fifties – I have some grey hair and hopefully, just a bit more wisdom and maturity in life than I did back then. And what I realise now is that all that my parents provided me with in those growing up years, was a privilege and a blessing and because they were the providers, it came on their terms, not on mine.

Now this week on the programme we are continuing in a teaching series that I’ve called “Oh God, I Need a Rest” and today’s programme is about ‘how’ … how to enter God’s rest.

I know that this is a subject that kind of hits the spot with many, many people – quite simply because so many people are tired. Tired of the grind, tired of the stress, tired of the problems, tired because they work so hard, tired because … well, there are so many things that can make us tired … so many!

This week we are going to look at how to enter God’s rest – how – rubber hits the road! And the first part of the ‘how’ comes back to the story that I shared with you about my teenage years and that tough lesson of love that my father had to teach me when I was being precocious and self-centred as teenagers sometimes are. What was the lesson? Simply this: that the blessings that my parents heaped upon me came on their terms, not on mine.

I always find it interesting that of the Ten Commandments, the first four are about our relationship with God – how we should honour Him. And the very next one, the Fifth one, is about us and our parents. Have a listen to it because the lesson we need to learn is reflected right here in the Fifth Commandment of the Ten. Exodus chapter 20, verse 12 says:

Honour your father and your mother so that your days may be long in the land that the Lord your God is giving you.

See, the blessing of long days is attached to obedience. God blesses us when we honour our parents and get this … this Commandment comes ahead of: “You shall not murder”, which is number six; “You shall not commit adultery”, which is number seven and “You shall not steal”, which is number eight, and so on. So God considers it of first importance after our relationship with Him and that … that is the first thing that we need to know and to learn about blessing. It comes on the terms of the giver, not on the terms of the receiver.

And it’s exactly the same with blessings that God gives us – peace and rest. Those come on God’s terms and that’s something that I’ve had to get through my thick skull. It’s taken a while, and you know, to be honest, it’s still a work in progress.

See, spiritually, when it comes to obeying God, I think we want to be teenagers – we want the blessing on our terms, as though somehow we deserve it. Well, let’s get a revelation together today you and me: we just don’t deserve it! God’s blessing is an act of grace that comes to us through the death of His Son who paid for all our sin.

In a nutshell, here it is, Adam and Eve had a perfect existence in the Garden until they disobeyed God. Genesis chapter 3, verse 11: God said to Adam:

Have you eaten from the tree of which I commanded you not to eat?

And so they lost their perfect existence. We’ve done that too in rebelling against God and we read through the whole of the Old Testament and we see how incapable humanity is of honouring God and so God sends His Son to pay for my sin and for yours to open the door again so that we can have a relationship with Him. But have a listen to what the New Testament says about God’s peace and rest and how we get it – how it becomes available to us. Hebrews chapter 4, beginning at verse 9. Grab a Bible if you have it and join with me. It says this:

So then, a Sabbath rest still remains for the people of God. For those who enter God’s rest also cease from their labours just as God did from his. Let us therefore make every effort to enter that rest so that no one may fall through disobedience. (Hebrew 4:9-10)

The one thing that takes God’s Sabbath rest away from us is what? – disobedience! And actually that’s something that I’ve learned in my walk with God. It’s something I know in my experience. See, when I have decided on occasions to go my way; to do things my way – just like the old Frank Sinatra song – against God’s will, you know what happens? There’s no rest; there’s no peace – life all of a sudden, starts getting complicated. If we harbour anger in our hearts, if we fail to forgive people, if we steal or lie or grumble or commit sexual immorality, against God’s will – and all those things are against God’s will – we lose any sense of peace. And without the peace there’s no rest.

On the other hand, when we obey God, well, have a listen. First John chapter 5, verse 3:

For the love of God is this: that we obey his commandments. And his commandments are not burdensome for whatever is born of God conquers the world. And this is the victory that conquers the world – our faith

When we obey God we have victory. And what does victory bring? Well, when there’s a war and finally, one side wins in victory, what comes next is peace – what comes after that is rest. When Israel entered the Promised Land they fought battle after battle after battle to take the Promised Land from those who were living in it. And they obeyed God and what happened? Joshua chapter 21, verse 44:

And the Lord, listen to this, And the Lord gave them rest on every side, just as he had sworn to their ancestors.

My friend, the rest of God, His peace, come on His terms and not on ours and the sooner we get that, the sooner we will enter God’s rest.

Peace, rest, satisfaction, contentment … I don’t know one person on this planet who doesn’t want those things in their lives. Do you? But I know lots who are the way I used to be – troubled, stressed, torn on the inside; people who chase after what this world has to offer; what the advertising industry holds out as being THE holiday, or THE car, or THE house, or THE clothes, or THE watch – whatever it is that’s going to deliver us rest.

The problem is, none of those things can because rest is something that comes when we are at peace inside and there’s only one place – only one – where I’ve found that. You see, for us to have rest the battles have to cease. Israel … Israel was entering into the Promised Land, they had to fight battle after battle to take the land that Go...

So many people in this world are so … tired. Exhausted. And it doesn’t matter how clever you are, how emotionally resilient you or how strong you might be … when you’re tired, you’re just not functioning at your best. When you’re tired, you’re simply not enjoying life.

Last week on the programme we kicked off a new series of messages called, “O God I Need a Rest,” because this is what so many, many people need – a rest. So many people are tired, too tired, to have quality time with their friends or their family; too tired to be truly part of a faith community; too tired to enjoy life; too tired, well, just too tired. And here’s the funny thing: we just keep on keeping on – same commute, same pressures at work, come home at night exhausted, up the next morning, Friday – weekend, collapse, back on Monday again.

We just keep going – we know something is wrong – we know life shouldn’t be like this but it is and that’s it and there’s nothing I can do about it, so I just have to keep on going. I’m trapped on this treadmill that I can’t get off. And you don’t hear too many people talking about this problem either – we know we are all tired, just get on with it. Now I have absolutely nothing against hard work, but where’s the balance; where’s the joy; what’s the point?

Today I’d like to share with you that this exhaustion; this tiredness is not God’s plan for our lives. As we saw last week, it says in Psalm 127:

It is in vain that you rise up early and go late to rest, eating the bread of anxious toil, for God gives sleep to those whom he loves.

In other words, God wants us to have a rest. That’s why we are talking about rest – a simple straight forward ‘how to’; how to enter into God’s rest – how to live smack, bang in the centre of God’s peace. Last week on the programme we saw that God, after His mighty act of creation, rested and that He thought that, that day of rest was so important that He commanded His people to keep a Sabbath day, set apart for Him.

Now He didn’t rest because He was exhausted; He rested to sit back and enjoy His creation. So for God, right up front there, is a simple pattern of work and rest. You and I we need both and actually that wonderful creation; that sense of work and then enjoying this world, that’s something He’s also gifted to us – humanity.

See sometimes, we imagine that God’s blessing and His goodness and His whole rest and peace thing can’t possibly be for us. But come and have a look with me at what He did with all He created – let this rock your sock off! Genesis chapter 1, beginning at verse 26:

Then God said, ‘Let us make humankind in our image, according to our likeness; and let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, over the birds of the air, over the cattle, over all the wild animals of the earth, and over every creeping thing that creeps upon the earth.’

So God created humankind in his image, in the image of God he created them; male and female he created them.

God blessed them, and God said to them, ‘Be fruitful and multiply, and fill the earth and subdue it; and have dominion over the fish of the sea, over the birds of the air and over every living thing that moves upon the earth’.

God said, ‘See, I have given you every plant yielding seed that is upon the face of all the earth, and every tree with seed in its fruit; you shall have them for food.’

And to every beast of the earth, and to every bird of the air, and to everything that creeps on the earth, everything that has the breath of life, I have given every green plant for food.’ And so it was.

God saw everything that he had made, and indeed, it was very good. And there was evening and there was morning on the sixth day.

Thus the heavens and the earth were finished, and all their multitude.

And on the seventh day God finished the work that he had done, and he rested on the seventh day from all the work that he had done. (Genesis 2:2-3)

There it is! God creates this stunning universe, hands it over for the man and the woman, for you and for me, to enjoy that creation. ‘Here, here, it’s yours, subdue it, till it or farm it, be fruitful, multiply and enjoy.’ See God only rests once He’s created everything and given it away to the people; to the man and the woman – both of them made in His image. That’s the joy He has in His creation. And then in Genesis chapter 2, verse 15:

The Lord God took the man and put him in the Garden of Eden to till it and to keep it.

And He gives the man a woman to be his wife, his partner and they enjoy this life in the Garden, safe, at rest, working, resting in relationship with God. That was God’s original plan for His people – that He would be their God and that they would be His people – safe and at rest. Now we know that Adam and Eve ruined that and we will look at that later on in the programme but for now let’s just stick with God’s original plan.

It was never His plan for us to be out of close relationship and fellowship with Him or with each other. It was never His plan for us to be amid strife and conflict. It was never His plan for us to be carrying around heavy burdens. It was never His plan to see you and me groaning under the burden of a weight that was crushing us. Those things were never, ever His first and His best plan for us.

What’s befallen us has done so because Adam and Eve and then you and me, in our turn; we all in our own way, in our own time, have turned our backs on God. As I said, that’s for later. But if you are somehow imagining that God couldn’t possibly bring you peace and rest into your life, then it’s time to think again. Look at what He did – He created the whole universe, handed it over to Adam and Eve; to us, to humanity, to enjoy – both to work and to rest, just as God Himself had done.

This is the point I believe God wants us to get today; that right from the very, very, very beginning, His plan was a good one. And here’s the thing: there’s a reason why they call Jesus ‘The Saviour.’ A lot of people wonder to themselves, ‘What could He possibly save me from? I’m not lost, I’m not in trouble,’ and so they conclude they don’t need Jesus. And sadly, let me say, all too often, these are the very same people who are carrying around those heavy burdens. These are the very same people who are being crushed under the yoke of slavery to their sin. That’s why Jesus came; that’s why Jesus said – Matthew chapter 11, beginning at verse 29 – He said:

Come to me, all you that are weary and are carrying heavy burdens, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you, and learn from me; for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light. (Matthew 11:29-30)

God has heard the cry of His people and He has come to do something about it – that’s His plan for you and for me.

Every now and then I get to thinking, ‘God, why am I so tired? Why do I have to work so hard?’ I’m sure that’s a thought that’s gone through your mind just once or twice as well. And when we are in the middle of this tiredness and exhaustion, we keep going and we keep going and through our blurry eyes, it seems we see things just from a human perspective – a purely physical and emotional perspective. The fact that sometimes life is just hard work and we are tired – ‘Well, that’s how it is! What alternative do I have? I’ll just keep on going till I drop.’ Right?

But tiredness and exhaustion; they’re not just human; they’re not just physical and emotional. There’s a deep spiritual dimension to hard work and exhaustion – a dimension that starts almost at t...

Man it’s been a tough few years, hasn’t it. Everything seems to have changed. Pandemics, wars, division, strife … not to mention the usual things life throws at us day after day. Perhaps that’s why so many people in this world are so tired, so exhausted. Perhaps … you’re one of them.

I don’t know if you’ve noticed but some people seem so tired – exhausted. As though there’s a plague quietly creeping over humanity. Now I’m sure this varies somewhat from country to country and from culture to culture. I’m sure that there are some people somewhere living idyllic life, you know plenty of rest, relaxation but to tell you the honest truth most of us don’t know any.

People seem to be working harder, competing more, clamouring more to buy the things and have the things that we’re told that we should buy and have. Some people are struggling just to survive, just to get enough food on the table, many in fact. Others are drowning in debt.

Yet others still aspire to a career and then discover that this thing they idolised, this career has in fact turned them into indentured slaves. Long hours, long commute, the traffic, the train and you know, you don’t have to be working like a mad man to be tired.

There are many people who don’t work, people who are lonely who are tired. See I think that tiredness comes not just from working too hard. It comes from carrying around heavy burdens. And so that’s why I’m asking, why is it that everyone is so tired? What’s going on here? What can we, you and I, do about it?

That’s what we’re going to be looking at over the coming few weeks on the program – exhaustion and tiredness.

And just in case you should think that this is something new. Just in case that you should think that this plague of tiredness and exhaustion is something that’s exclusively related to the excesses of western materialism. Have a listen to this, this is Jesus 2000 years ago. You can read it in Matthew’s Gospel chapter 11, verses 28 to 30. Jesus said:

Come to me all you that are weary and carrying heavy burdens and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn from me for I am gentle and humble of heart and you’ll find rest for your soul. For my yoke is easy and my burden is light.

 So these weren’t people burnt out by an industrial age that He was talking to. We’re pretty much talking rural agrarian subsistence economy here back in the 1st century land of Israel. So carrying heavy burdens is nothing new. I mean we all carry heavy burdens from time to time.

It’s funny that the Greek mythology came up with Atlas. You’ve seen this picture of this man stooped over carrying the weight of the world on his shoulders. And I guess that’s how many people feel. These heavy burdens that Jesus was talking about, these heavy burdens come in so many different shapes and sizes. I’ve carried a few of them around in my day and I’m sure that you have too.

Sometimes we’re just plain working too hard and we need a rest. Or there are pressures at work and maybe pressures at home and it feels like we’re living in a pressure cooker. And my hunch is that that’s not how we’re meant to live.

Sometimes it’s relationships, a particular person who is hurting us or who’s betrayed us or who’s ignoring us or who’s fighting with us or who’s trying to squeeze us into some mould into which we don’t fit. Sometimes it’s because we’re trying to do things or to be things we were never meant to do or be.

I remember when I started out as a consultant in the IT industry many years ago. I used to think that I had to pretend to my clients that I could do everything. I can tell you that’s a pretty stressful way of living. Sometimes the burdens about our self-esteem or self-worth. We compare ourselves with other people and we come up with a conclusion that we just don’t match up.

Or others have expectations of us, we have expectations of ourselves that, well, we’re just struggling to meet. Or sometimes it’s money problems, ‘I’ve lost my job, I don’t have a job’. And for many people listening today they can’t even put food on their table for their kids. Those are real burdens. Sometimes it’s loneliness, like a padded prison cell where we scream and no-one can hear us.

Do you see how this list goes on and on? And you know, sometimes it’s just this sense that something’s not quite right, something’s wrong, we just can’t put our finger on it. Other times we know what’s causing our stress, we know what’s causing our tiredness because we’re running away from God, we know that we’re rebelling.

And as much as we try and convince ourselves that we can do it our way, it’s so exhausting pulling in the opposite direction to God. Exhaustion, tiredness, man sometimes we need a rest, a holiday, a day off, a break away from the grind.

But can I tell you something? I’ve had holidays in the past where I didn’t get any rest either because while you can perhaps get away from work or even home and the day-to-day routine, many of those burdens and pressures I’ve been talking about just don’t go away because you’re on holidays, do they? You can be sitting on a sandy beach with waves rolling in and yet still carrying the heavy burden of a failing marriage or financial debt or the fear of what’s going to happen when you get back to work.

Here’s the thing, burdens come in many different shapes and sizes, they do, and over the coming weeks on the program we’re going to look at a lot of these different burdens – the things that we carry around, the weight of the world on our shoulders. The things that, try as we may, we can’t seem to put down even though we want to rest, even though we want to get rid of them out of our lives.

That’s the thing, so often these burdens are so hard to get away from and to put down and to rest from and I’ve come to the conclusion as a self-reliant individual as I am, I just can’t do that on my own. Here’s the thing, I believe, I truly believe with every fibre of my being that God wants to give us rest. I believe that God hears the cries of His people and that He has the answers.

Do you remember when God’s chosen people, the nation of Israel, the descendants of Abraham, they were in slavery in captivity in Egypt? Do you remember what God said to Moses? Exodus chapter 3, verses 7 and 8:

The Lord said, ‘I have observed the misery of my people who are in Egypt. I have heard their cry on account of their task masters. Indeed I know their sufferings and I’ve come down to deliver them from the Egyptians and to bring them up out of that land to a good and broad land, a land flowing with milk and honey’.

See we so often dig ourselves into a hole. So often we’re living out consequences of our own rebellion against God. So often we look at life and kick ourselves and think, ‘Oh man, if only I hadn’t, you know, whatever it is’. And that sense of regret makes things worse.

And sometimes we’re just carrying burdens that aren’t our fault. Being oppressed by other people or by circumstances completely out of our control. Well here’s the thing, I believe that God wants to set us free. I believe that God wants to give us rest and peace and well-being. In fact I don’t just believe it, I know it because Jesus said:

Come to me all you that are weary and carrying heavy burdens and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn from me for I am gentle and humble of heart and you will find rest for you souls. For my yoke is easy and my burden is light. (Matthew 11:28-30)

That’s what we are going to be exploring together over these coming weeks on the programme – God’s peace and God’s rest because He means it for my life and He means it for yours too.

You know there...