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.

GOD’S REST COMES ON GOD’S TERMS

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.

EMOTIONAL 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...