Rhythms Week 05
A Rhythm of Rest

Today’s Big Idea—We live in a 24/7 world that never stops, never ceases. We are all living essentially on overdrive, and it is costing us dearly in our health, our relationships, our peace, our worship, our careers, and our very lives. Most of us seem to have forgotten something that God clearly warned us to always remember—remember to rest…

(Exodus 20:8 ESV) Remember the sabbath day, to keep it holy.

“The Sabbath is a gift we do not know how to receive. In a world of doing, going, and producing, we have no use for a gift that invites us to stop. But that is the original gift: a gift of rest.”—A. J. Swoboda. Subversive Sabbath

(Matthew 11:28–30 ESV) “Come to me, all who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. 29 Take my yoke upon you, and learn from me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. 30 For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light.”

(Matthew 11:28–30 The Message) “Are you tired? Worn out? Burned out on religion? Come to me. Get away with me and you’ll recover your life. I’ll show you how to take a real rest. 29 Walk with me and work with me—watch how I do it. Learn the unforced rhythms of grace. I won’t lay anything heavy or ill-fitting on you. 30 Keep company with me and you’ll learn to live freely and lightly.”

You will have to overcome the enemies of rest…

1. in who you are.

persona—the image or personality that a person presents in public or in specific settings that is not their true self

(Psalm 139:14 NLT) Thank you for making me so wonderfully complex! Your workmanship is marvelous—how well I know it.

2.  your life for sin.

(Isaiah 57:20–21 NKJV) But the wicked are like the troubled sea, When it cannot rest, Whose waters cast up mire and dirt. 21 “There is no peace,” Says my God, “for the wicked.”

(Psalm 32:3-4 ESV) For when I kept silent, my bones wasted away through my groaning all day long. 4 For day and night your hand was heavy upon me; my strength was dried up as by the heat of summer.

3.  to the will of God.

(Hebrews 4:6 NLT) 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.

4. is critical.

(John 7:3–8 NIV) Jesus’ brothers said to him, “Leave Galilee and go to Judea, so that your disciples there may see the works you do. No one who wants to become a public figure acts in secret. Since you are doing these things, show yourself to the world.” 5 For even his own brothers did not believe in him. 6 Therefore Jesus told them, “My time is not yet here; for you any time will do. 7 The world cannot hate you, but it hates me because I testify that its works are evil. 8 You go to the festival. I am not going up to this festival, because my time has not yet fully come.”

“Come to me, and I will give you rest.”—Jesus

(Matthew 11:28–30 ESV) “Come to me, all who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. 29 Take my yoke upon you, and learn from me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. 30 For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light.”