Danger of Missing Rest pt.2

The speaker discusses the concept of rest and its connection to salvation. They emphasize the importance of faith and trust in God in order to enter into His rest. They explain that rest is not simply a physical state, but a spiritual one, where one can experience peace with God and the world. The speaker also mentions the example of the Israelites in the wilderness and how their unbelief prevented them from entering God's rest. They conclude by stating that although true rest will be fully realized in heaven, it is available to believers in the present as well. our salvation and question whether we can lose our salvation or not. And guess what? We're going to begin to question God. We're going to begin to have unbelief and uncertainty in that. And so he said over and over, he said, harden not your hearts in chapter 3. And they talked about when the children of Israel was in the wilderness, how that they provoked God because of their hardened hearts. And it was all because of unbelief. They just did not fully trust God. And so if they didn't trust God, therefore, they're not going to obey God. And so we came to chapter 4 last week, and we begin to look at this idea in verse 1 where he says, let us therefore fear lest a promise be left us of entering into his rest. Any of you should seem to come short of it. And so we saw there in verse 1 that the availability of rest still is available today. It still exists. He tells us and warns us that be careful or else we will never enter into our rest. If it didn't exist, then we wouldn't have any problems of missing it. But since we do have rest, there is the opportunity for us to miss it. And so we saw that the authority of rest in verse 2 through 4, he said, for unto us was the gospel preached as well unto them, but the word preached did not profit them, not being mixed with faith in them that heard him. For we which have believed do enter into rest, as he said, as I have sworn in my wrath, if they shall enter into my rest, although the works were finished from the foundation of the world. For he stayed in a certain place of the seventh day on this wise, and God did rest the seventh day from all his work. When we looked at the authority of rest, why does it continue to exist and why is it still here? And we find that the authority for rest comes through the gospel that Jesus Christ has given us. And the gospel is the good news. Now, we've emphasized last week we are not talking about the gospel of salvation. We're not talking about the gospel of Jesus Christ in his death, burial, and resurrection. The gospel that we are talking about here in chapter 4 is the gospel of rest, the good news of rest, that even in this wicked and perverse world and generation, we can have rest. Not only can we have it, but God desires that we have it. God wants us to have rest. As a matter of fact, he gave us the invitation. He said, come all you that labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. That is something that we can achieve. That is something that we can obtain right here and right now. And so our party is we have to believe. We have to have faith. We have to trust God enough that we're willing to obey God. And then we're going to see someday that we are going to have to endure long enough for it to come to fruition. And we'll look at that Sunday. But we have to do our part and believe. God has already done his part. And he tells us here in verse 4 that he's speaking of a certain day. When was the day that God finished work and gave rest? It came on the seventh day. God, it says, on the seventh day. On the sixth day, he finished all of his work, all of his creation. On the seventh day, he completed his creation, his work, and he rested on the seventh day. And he desired for Adam and Eve to live in that rest, in that perfect state. It didn't mean that we wasn't laboring, that there wasn't jobs to do, because we know that Adam and Eve was placed in that barn for the purpose to dress it, to keep it, to enjoy it, to do all of that that was there. And so he says in verse 5, And in this place again, if they shall enter into my rest, seeing therefore it remaineth that some must enter therein, and they to whom it was first preached entered not in because of unbelief. Even though Adam and Eve was given a perfect environment, a perfect world in the garden, they never did, for a very, very short time, experience God's rest. And what happened? They did not believe God. Satan was able to tempt Eve. And what happened? Immediately we found that they began to work. They began to sow fig leaves together to try to cover their nakedness. We see that they began to hide from God rather than fellowshipping with God. And so this rest has to do with the idea of peace with God. To be at peace with God and to be at peace with everything that is here in this world. And so God has done his part. He finished the creation work. Therefore he has given us rest. But we have to do our part and we have to believe. And so what is the immediate action? Look again what he says in verse 7. He limiteth a certain day, saying in David, Today, after so long a time, as it is said, Today, if you will hear his voice, harden not your heart. We mentioned last week that what he's referring to is he is going back to Psalms 95, verse 7 and 8, where David said, For he is our God, and we are the people of his pasture and the sheep of his hand. Today, if you will hear his voice, harden not your heart, as in the provocation, and as in the day of temptation in the wilderness. And so God said in Genesis chapter 3, or chapter 6, right before the flood, if you remember, he said, My spirit shall not always strive with man, for that he is also his flesh, yet his days shall be a hundred and twenty years. And so it came to a point, because of the evilness and the wickedness of man, that God began to limit the opportunity to have rest, to offer this forgiveness and this peace with God. He said, I am going to limit it, for man is no longer going to live for 800 years. Now they are going to have a hundred and twenty years to be able to make that deal. And so David is saying, Man, we don't need to waste time, because we don't know when that opportunity is God is going to remove it. We saw finally when the ten came back from looking into the promised land and gave an evil report, what happened? That was it. God said, Guess what? None of you are going to go into the promised land except for Joshua and Caleb. And so we have to, entering into rest has to be done and has to be taken action upon immediately. We cannot afford to wait. And so that brings us to verse 8 tonight. And we're going to look at the attribute of rest. And notice he says, For if Jesus had given them rest, then would he not afterward have spoken of another day? Now the rest that the Spirit is speaking of is not a physical rest from Canaan. That is only a picture. Remember, if the Canaan was told and was given to Israel, that was a promise that was made to them. It was a physical place that they would have and that they would enjoy. And so the picture here is not Canaan. Canaan is not the rest that we still have. And he gives an example of this because if Canaan would have been the rest that they were to have, then guess what? They would have all been at rest because Joshua led them into Canaan. As a matter of fact, I was reading and studying it today. What happened? He told Joshua to take the Ark of the Covenant and lead it down into the Jordan River and stand there. And while he did, the waters parted and the people went across the Jordan River. And when they got to the other side, they put 12 stones there by the river as a memorial of what God had done for them. And so they entered into the promised land. But did the children of Israel ever experience rest? No. What happened? We find that they obeyed God at Jericho, but then we find because of their disobedience after the victory of Jericho, they go to Ai and God allows them to be totally humiliated and defeated to the point that Joshua all of a sudden falls down on his face and says, Lord, you promised. You did this. And God tells them, hey, there's some sin in the camp. There's some problems. You did not obey me. And so he's not talking about literal Canaan as being our rest. And so what exactly is he talking about? When he comes to Hebrews, we are talking about that spiritual rest. We are talking about what the Israelites should have enjoyed physically, a place that God had provided them everything that God drove out the enemies. As a matter of fact, I was reading again when they marched around the walls of Jericho, there was not one single person that ended up killing or destroying somebody else. God took care of it all. As a matter of fact, I read something today. We often get the idea that it was everybody that marched around. But it wasn't. It was just the priest and seven other priests that was there. And it says the armed men, the soldiers, the fighters that was there, which would have been the men above the age of 20. It said they were to take their weapons. But yet here they're marching around the city. They're not to speak a word if they're not to use their weapon. God was going to give it to them. And when the walls came down, what were they to do? Run in there and claim your victory. It's easy to claim when God's destroyed everything and God's taken care of everything. And so we come to verse 9 and it says, There remaineth therefore a rest to the people of God. When you look at cults in our world, in our society today, cults always promise everybody happiness and wealth and health. We're seeing this prosperity gospel today. We are seeing it going through Pentecostalism. We're seeing it go through just about every denomination that's out there. We find these individuals that are promising this happiness. They're promising this wealth and this health. But we never find that as promised in the word of God. We never find the promise that God is going to make us wealthy for following him. We never find the promise that God says your life is going to be full of health and everything is going to be wonderful. It's not there. God never promises these things. And so it's not talking about a physical rest. What he is talking about is a spiritual rest. God's rest is future in its fullness. But I want you to understand it is present in its manifestation. Now, we all know that until we get to heaven, we will not fully experience rest. Because it's not going to be until we get to heaven that God is going to wipe away all sin until Satan is completely destroyed. Everything is wiped away. Everything is taken care of. Then we will be at complete peace and rest. However, we do have Jesus Christ so we can rest in the reality of the manifestation of rest right now. Because Paul said to be absent from this body is to be present with the Lord. We're already there. Christ has already defeated death. Christ has already defeated the flesh. Christ has already defeated Satan. And so just like in Ephesians chapter 6 where we said what? He said, therefore, put on the whole armor of God. What is that armor? Jesus Christ. We'll trust in him, believe in him, because he has already defeated all of this. Some people who experience the greatest amount of rest that comes from God are some of the busiest, the hardest working, non-resting people from a physical standpoint that you could ever imagine. It doesn't mean that we physically don't do anything. We are to be busy. Matter of fact, the Bible says, we did this back when we did our 200 where we said what? Awake. Redeem the time because the days are evil. Nowhere does the Bible command us to be taking naps, to be sleeping, to be resting right now. What does he tell us? To be watchful. To be prepared. Even at night we are to be ready because why? He said the Son of God is going to come what? As a thief in the night. If we are sleeping, if we are not on guard, then guess what? We can stand to be able to miss the return of Jesus Christ. And so if we're living in this rest, we're still working, we're still busy. But guess what? From a spiritual standpoint, what he's talking about is that if Joseph would have given them rest, then it would have been over with. And that's where all we would have to do to get rest is move the cane in. But Joshua couldn't give them rest because of their unbelief. Only Jesus Christ can give rest. Kind of makes a unique deal here in verse 9. He says, there remaineth therefore a rest for the people of God. That rest all of a sudden changes Greek words. The rest there is the word that we get the word Sabbath rest. In other words, he's been using a different word for rest that we can enter into that we have. But now he swaps it and he says, now there remaineth therefore a Sabbath to the people of God. So what is he talking about when he talks about a Sabbath for the people of God? Because we don't keep the Sabbath anymore, right? The Sabbath was done away with under the law. When do we serve Jesus Christ? When do we worship him? On the first day of the week. Why? Because that's when he was resurrected. He is alive. And so what he's saying is, is there is a Sabbath for us. And what the author is trying to make is, the point is, is that God is the point. There is a Sabbath. What was the purpose of the Sabbath? We are not created for a job. We are created for God. Adam and Eve was created in the likeness of God for God. But because they were created for God, God gave them a job. A lot of times, most of us, we look at we are here to have a job and we forget about our relationship with God. And so we work, we get busy, and what do we do? We neglect God. We forget about God because we're trying to do it on our own. And when he's talking about a Sabbath, that's what the purpose of the Sabbath was for. It was to let us know that God is the provider of everything. God is the one that gives us this. It's also to show not only that God is the point, but God is the provider. Get your finger here in Hebrews chapter 4 and turn over to Deuteronomy chapter 5. Deuteronomy chapter 5. I want you to see this and grasp this tonight because when I begin to understand this rest that God tells us that we can have and that we can experience, it begins to radically change the way that I view life here on this earth. In Deuteronomy chapter 5, God never wants us to forget that ultimately we depend upon him for our provision. In Deuteronomy chapter 5, if you're there, look at verse 12. He says, keep the Sabbath day to sanctify it. Sanctify means to set apart. It's holy. It's different. In other words, we have seven days a week. He says, take the Sabbath day and set it apart as the Lord thy God hath commanded thee. Six days thou shalt labor and do all thy work. But the seventh day is the Sabbath of the Lord thy God. In it thou shalt not do any work, thou, nor thy son, nor thy daughter, nor thy maidservant, nor thy maidservant, nor thy ox, nor thy donkey, nor any other cattle, nor thy stranger that is within the gates, that thy maidservants and thy maidservants may rest as well as thou. And so he goes on in verse 15 and he says, remember that thou was a servant in the land of Egypt and that the Lord thy God brought thee out thence through a mighty hand and by a stretched out arm. Therefore, the Lord thy God commanded thee to keep the Sabbath day. So as we look at this and we notice this, what is the purpose that God gave Israel for the Sabbath? Well, number one, it was a time to reflect on God's salvation. He gives an example. Why are we taking this Sabbath day? To sit back and reflect that we once were in Egypt. We once were in the world. We once were wicked and dead in our sin. But guess what? God brought us out. God delivered us from that bondage. And so it is an opportunity to reflect upon salvation. That's what he's telling them here. You work six days, but on the Sabbath day stop from all of your work and rest. And then he gives an example so that you can remember that you're no longer a servant or a slave of the world, but I have delivered you. And so now, with that in mind, go back to Hebrews chapter 4. Jesus is the ultimate rest. Now look at what he says in verse 8. For if Jesus had given them rest, then would he not afterward have spoken of another day. Therefore, remaineth therefore a rest to the people of God. For he that is entered into his rest, he also has ceased from his own works as God did from his. Now notice the attentiveness of rest. That Jesus there is referring to Joshua. It's all in the transliteration that is there. We're not talking about Jesus Christ. We're talking about Joshua. For if Joshua had given them rest when they went into the Canaan land, then would he not afterward have spoken of another day. But yet what happened? Joshua did not give them rest, and so there has to be another day. When did that day happen? When Jesus Christ cried, it is finished. He rested from the redemptive work that is there. So verse 11 says, let us labor therefore to enter into that rest, lest any man fail after the same example of unbelief. We use the phrase, let us labor. That means to make haste, to work diligently. The idea is simply that we with intense purpose and intense concern enter into that rest. If Jesus Christ has provided for us a rest, and our part is belief, then guess what? We need to work to do it. How do we obtain it? Through belief. This is not something that you play with. This is not something that we can take or we cannot take. And this is the danger of not finding God's rest, which is a sub-point to the ultimate danger of the danger of unbelief. What unbelief causes is not being able to enter into God's rest. How do we get into God's rest? Remember back up there in verse 4? We believe. We believe and trust Jesus Christ. And so here what he's saying to them is enter into that lest you fall like they did. What was happening here? These Jewish converts were falling out of Christianity. They were forsaking God. They were not trusting God. They were not believing God. Because why? All of the persecution that was going on. God, we're following you, but we are not seeing our enemies fall, right? We're not resting here. We are fighting for everything that we have. They're fighting amongst this persecution. And what was beginning to happen? They said, let's go back to Judaism. Let's go back to the shadow or the picture. The same exact thing that Israel did when they were in the wilderness. What happened? God showed them what the Canaan land and the promised land looked like. But you know what? There's giants in that land. This is going to be too much work. This is going to be too hard to accomplish. Let us go back to Egypt and let us be slaves. And they gave us all this food at night. They took care of us. They provided us with everything. That's what he is referring to right here. Verse 11 is saying, don't be like the Israelites. Don't die in the wilderness, but strive. Be a Caleb. Make haste. Hasten. Give diligence to enter into riches. It is still available. God cannot be trifled with. Now here's what's interesting because look at the next verse, verse 12. It's a verse that we memorize. It's a verse that we quote. It's a verse that is used for many different things. But I want us to look at it. What does it mean in the context of what it is being said? Look at what he says. Understanding what verse 1-11 means. He says, for the word of God is quick and powerful and sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing even to the dividing asunder of the soul and spirit and of the joints and morrow and is the discerner of the thoughts and the attempts of the heart. Now what is this verse actually saying? He's saying you better give diligence to enter into God's rest because God's word is a living and powerful sword. God's word is a force that is able to pierce down into the innermost part of your heart to see if you are real or if you're not real. God's word is what tries us to tell us whether or not we believe or we don't believe. And look at what he's telling us. This is a word of warning. Don't trifle with God because, listen, God's word is going to penetrate your heart. God's word is going to see if you are real or if you are true. And you may say, well, I believe and I confess Jesus Christ. But if you've never observed a real repetitive saving faith, when judgment comes, the word of God will cut you wide open and reveal the hypocrisy. You remember what Jesus Christ said? Lord, Lord, in that day will there not many say, Lord, did we not what? Prophesy in thy name. Did we not cast out devils? Did we not do mighty works? All three of these things is an action that we do. It is a work. But what was the response of Jesus Christ, who is the word of God? Depart from me, you workers of sin, iniquity. I never knew you. See, when they stand before the judgment seat of Christ and we stand before the great white throne judgment, it's going to be the word of God. It's going to be Jesus Christ that is going to go in. And listen, we may fool each other. And we may let each other think, man, he is a good Christian. He loves Jesus Christ. He's following. Look at this guy. He always volunteers to work every Bible school. He teaches Sunday school class. He pastors the church. He does whatever. But guess what? The word of God looks into our heart and sees the hypocrisy. Remember how many times Jesus Christ rebuked the scribes and the Pharisees? He said, man, he said on the outside, you are a whitewashed sepulcher. Man, you look beautiful, man. You are all cleaned up. You're painted. Everything looks good. But you walk into that tomb and guess what? It's nothing but dead bones and disease and destruction. See, the word of the Bible knows the condition of our heart. And it will tell you whether or not you have actually professed Jesus Christ as your Savior. First John, anybody that is struggling with their salvation, I tell them, read First John. Because First John, he starts out and he writes, I am writing this letter that you may what? Know that you are a child of God. Know that you are saved. You can know that you are saved. How can you know? By believing on Jesus Christ. If you lie and you say you've never lied, then what's happening? You're lying already because everyone has sinned, right? And so he breaks this down and he looks at what we are doing and what's going on in our life. So many times we take verse 12 and we use it to say, isn't the word of God wonderful? Man, it is an instrument of salvation. Man, it can show people right and wrong. It is a wonderful tool to comfort our soul, man, right? You know, the word of God is going to find this out. It is a source of joy. It is a source of food. And I agree. But here in this verse, the word of God is a source of terror. Because the word of God is, you may fool me and you may fool each other. But guess what? You're not going to fool God. That's what this verse is talking about. It lays to the very bare root of our heart and opens it up. And the word of God becomes a sword of execution. Why didn't the people get to go into Canaan land? It wasn't because God didn't promise them Canaan land, but because of their unbelief. And what happened? Because of their unbelief, God spoke. And what did he do? He laid out wrath. He said, ain't none of you going in, except for Joshua and Caleb. And so, see, it's a deal. If you want to see the sword of execution, you can go to Revelation chapter 1, verse 1. It's all through Revelation. That's why as Christians, if we have entered into his rest, and we are saved and we are children of God, Revelation ought to be a source of joy, not a source of fear. But if you are not living for Jesus Christ, if you're not in the will of God, if you're not saved, it ought to scare the daylights out of you. Look at what he said in verse 1. The revelation of Jesus Christ, which God gave unto him, to show unto his servants things which must shortly come to pass. And he sent and signified it by his angel unto the servant of John. And then he goes and he describes him down here as his mouth sharp as a two-edged sword. Let's see what verse is that in chapter 1. Verse 14, and his head and his hairs were white like wool and white as snow, and his eyes were as flame of fire, his feet like undefined brass, as if burned in the furnace, his voice as the sound of many waters. I must have went down too far. 15, 16, and he had in his right hand seven stars, and out of his mouth went a sharp two-edged sword, and his countenance was as the sun shineth in his strength. Look over at chapter 2, verse 16. Repent, or else I will come unto thee quickly, and will fight against them with the sword of my mouth. That's his words. That's the sharp two-edged sword. It is a sword, it is a word of wrath, and he will use it to fight with them against those that do not obey. And then if you go over to Revelation chapter 19 in verse 15, you'll find this startling accusation. In verse 15 it says, And out of his mouth goeth a sharp sword, and with it he should smite the nations, and he shall rule with them with a rod of iron, and he treadeth the winepress of the fierceness and wrath of the Almighty God. Look at verse 21. And the remnant were slain with the sword of him that set upon the horse, which sword proceeded out of his mouth, and all the fowls were filled with their flesh. And the remnant were slain with the sword. That's his word. When Jesus Christ speaks, what is this? This is the Word of God. This is the voice of God. In the beginning was God, right? John chapter 1, in the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God, and the Word did what? Became flesh and dwelt among us. Who is this Word? Jesus Christ. And so he speaks with his words. And what's he doing? He is laying aside. He is bearing the shame and the hypocrisy in a life. And so this Word of God, the Word, the sword, all of a sudden becomes a sword of execution. And so now go back to Hebrews chapter 4 and verse 13, because here's a very powerful closing verse on missing the danger of missing his rest. Look at what he says in verse 13. Neither is there any creature that is not manifest in his sight, but all things are naked and opened unto the eyes of him with whom we have to do. Don't think that you can find a religious activity by your profession of faith in Christ, by having turned from the old life and kind of facing toward Jesus Christ, full God, into believing you're for real if you're not. You cannot do it. It is impossible. Everything is naked and open before him. The word means that all the disguises are ripped up. The facts are laid bare. God can see what you are. Notice the phrase there, opened under the eyes of him. It's interesting because that word itself is very unique. It's rare. It's real unique. Let me give you what it means. The word that is used here, opened under the eyes of him, all of the meaning of this is wrapped up in two little thoughts. It's a word that's used in connotation with a wrestling. In the Greek days when the New Testament was being written, in wrestling it was used for a seizure when they were wrestling or a pull by the throat in such a way that an individual could not move. And so this word that opened under the eyes of him in wrestling, this word was used to grasp them by the throat and literally pull the life out of them. Drain it where they cannot breathe or move. And what he's saying is you can't run for God continually. There comes a time that when God is going to grab us by the throat and hold us face to face, sooner or later we will have to face God. The second way that this word is used in the ancient times is used in a reference to a criminal. When a criminal was under judgment, and I was reading about this the other day, they would take and they would strap a dagger around him to his chest and they would stick the point of it right here. Because you know in America, what do we have? Everybody has a right to look their accuser in the eye, right? And so if that dagger is strapped to their chest and poking at their throat, guess what they're not going to do? They're not going to look down in shame and not make eye contact with the judge or the person that is accusing them. That's what this word is talking about. And so in other words, it gives the idea that the judge wanted to look face to face with that individual. And so when you take the wrestling term of grasping them by the throat and you take this idea of the dagger being placed under their head so that they have to do, the idea here is that God takes us and lifts our chin to his face where we are face to face with God for this confrontation. We can't hide from that. We can't let our hypocrisy be there. Don't ever think for a minute that you're going to live your life the way that you want to live it. You know, that's the problem that we have in our society today. We have forgotten, well, all we want to talk about is that God is a God of love, right? God loves us. God forgives us, right? And so we can just come up with whatever we feel like being today or doing today. It's OK. But guess what? It's not because God is holy and God is away. And so we come to the conclusion of this. Notice what he says. He says, neither is there any creature that is not manifest, revealed in his sight, but all things are naked and opened unto the eyes of him with whom we have to do face to face with him. Seeing then that we have a great high priest that is passed into the heavens, Jesus, the son of God, let us hold fast our profession. For we have not a high priest which cannot be touched with the filling of our infirmities, but was in all points tempted like as we are, yet without sin. Therefore, let us come boldly unto the throne of grace, that we may obtain mercy and find grace to help in the time of need. What's he saying? What he has said all through chapter 3 and chapter 4. I went down through there and in my Bible, all these highlights where it says, harden not your hearts. Harden not your hearts. God one day is going to say, you know what? I'm tired of it. And he's going to grasp us by the throat. And we're going to look at him face to face where his mouth is going to become a sword of wrath. And what he's telling us to do is guess what? Jesus Christ is our high priest. He is there ready to make reconciliation for us. There's going to come a time that guess what? Jesus Christ is going to say, depart from me, you orphans of iniquity. I never knew you. And so what does he do? He says, enter boldly into the throne room. Of mercy. Of mercy. God, I'm a sinner. I believe you. All of sin has come short of the glory of God, right? Therefore, I'm trusting you for my salvation. I'm trusting what you did. You lived a perfect life. You never sinned. But I am here. And so it all comes back to the same exact thing that we find in Adam and Eve. We find in the nation of Israel. We find in the time of David. We find through the kings. All through the Bible is, are you going to hear what God's telling you to do? And are you going to obey? Every bit of it all through the Bible. Are you going to harden your heart in unbelief and disobedience? That's the danger of missing the rest. See, God came to give us life and life more abundantly. But unbelief can cause us to miss that life and life more abundantly. John goes on and explains on that and says for the believer, there is a sin of the dead. Just like the Israelites, they left out of Egypt. They all made it out there. They all got to the edge of the promised land. But what happened? Did all of them get to enter? Absolutely not. And not every single believer that is a Christian today is going to find rest in Jesus Christ. Only those that don't harden their hearts and obey what God has to say. And so that is the danger that we're looking at. And then in two weeks, we'll come back and we will see the next danger that he's talking about. But if you look at this and you study these dangers and you read the book of Hebrews, you will see that there is this downward spiral. And where does it start? It all starts with neglecting our salvation. How many times did the nation of Israel say, why did you lead us out in this wilderness to die? We had water in Egypt. We had food in Egypt, right? We had everything in Egypt. And then God for four years in the wilderness provided them with manna every single day for morning, noon, and night. And what happened? He said they loathed it. They hated it. Man, why can't we go back to Egypt where there's variety? And then he shows them after eating all of this manna while they were there, he shows them into the promised land. They come back with grapes and smoking honey and everything is what you said it was. However, you see the same thing is true with us spiritually. And it's sad that we have so many Christians today that claim to be saved, that claim to be children of God, but have not entered into rest. Because we have neglected our salvation and we don't really believe God. God, why are you doing this to me? Why are you allowing this to me? God, I was a lot better off before I became a Christian. I had more money when I was lost. I had more friends when I was lost. I had more time on my hands when I, right? We've all heard the excuses. We've all heard everybody. But he said there remained a rest. And the question is, is do you want it? Do you want it? And how bad do you want it? Do you want it bad enough that you'll obey God? Dearly father, we thank you so much for your word tonight. We thank you for the rest that you have provided for us. So a rest that even Joshua couldn't leave. But praise God, your son, Jesus Christ came. And he fulfilled everything that was there in the law. He crossed every T and dotted every I. And there on the cross of Calvary, he cried, it is finished. And on the third day, you brought him forth from the grave. And father, because of that, we can live in rest. Even though we won't fully understand and fully comprehend everything about the rest later. Right now, we can live as a Sabbath. We can live as a day knowing that everything is about you. It's not what we want to do. It's Lord, what would you have me to do? And we understand that you are the provider. Everything that we have, you gave us. You gave us the job. You provided us with the bodies. You've given us everything so that we are able to work and get this stuff. And all of this stuff is not from us. It's still from you. Father, we just thank you so much for what you have given us in Jesus Christ. And help us to come boldly to your throne room. And help us just to throw ourselves upon the mercy of the court. And help us to accept the sacrifice of your son, Jesus Christ. Confess our sins. And just start believing you. Start trusting you. Start living in your power. Help us to put on the whole arm of God. That we may be able to stand against the wiles of the devil. Help us to trust you through it all. Knowing that you have already defeated Satan. Help us to look to you, the author and finisher of our faith. As we run this race of life. Even though it doesn't mean we're not working. Even though it doesn't mean we're not busy. But Father, it does mean that we can live in risk. Help us not to miss your risk. Help us not to get to the point to where it's too late. That you have to grab us by the throat and look us in the eye. And tell us you will never enter again. Because of your unbelief. Father, we thank you and we love you. In your most precious name we pray. Amen. you