GRADUATION SUNDAY: Enter Into His Rest

Christo Möller
Transcribed by DaVinci Resolve (with edits)

Our Plans

When I finished high school, I had a lot of plans. I had a lot of stuff I wanted to do, and needless to say, a lot of my plans were not always good plans. Right? A lot of my ambitions were not necessarily good ambitions or led by the Holy Spirit. I made some bad decisions in my life. But eventually, through God’s grace and his love for us, he turned those things around to be a blessing in my life.

For example, when I was 16, I was told that God is gonna use me in America one day. And right after high school, I was on my way to America, right? Nothing else mattered. And I applied for a visa, I think like six times. And I was just like, “Dad, God spoke. We’re doing this. I’m gonna do this.” And I tried and tried and tried, and it didn’t work out. The timing wasn’t right. I think especially because I hadn’t met Natasha yet, and she plays such a big role in my life now and here in America, amen? So eventually God’s plan worked out.

But this morning, I want to talk to you about God’s plan for us to live in rest and what does that mean for us today. What does it mean to rest in the promises of God and what he has for us, and how do we apply this to our lives and to our future plans going forward? How do we rest in Him? Amen?

God’s Plan for Rest

In Hebrews 4—I’ve got most of the scriptures up here, so you don’t necessarily have to turn to it. I spoke to a friend at one point, and he mentioned that it’s so nice to have the scriptures here, and then it’s easy to read and easy to follow. So in Hebrews 4, the writer here describes a rest, and he describes a promise for us to enter that rest. If you have your Bibles open, you will see that there’s a heading that says, “The Sabbath Rest.” But when the writer here speaks about the “rest,” he talks about the rest on the seventh day; he talks about the Sabbath rest. He also talks about us entering a lifestyle of rest. So what does the Sabbath rest look like for us in Jesus when the Commandments had been fulfilled by Jesus? Do we still have to keep the command of resting, you know, on the seventh day—which is good, right? It’s fun not to work for one day, but what does that mean? Is that necessary? Or is there something deeper? Is there something more here where we enter into a lifestyle of rest?

So in this passage it says:

Therefore, since the promise of entering his rest still stands, …

So I want you to note there that there’s a promise. There’s a promise of entering his rest and it still stands. The promise is still relevant and valid for us. It still stands.

… let us be careful that none of you be found to have fallen short of it. For we also have had the good news proclaimed to us, just as they did.

He’s referring here to the Old Testament. He says, “They heard the good news, they had the promise, but they did not believe the promise.” In chapter 3 it says they could not enter his rest because of their disobedience and disbelief.

… just as they did; but the message they heard was of no value to them, because they did not share the faith of those who obeyed. Now we who have believed enter that rest.

So I told a friend of mine this morning, “I might not have a lot of questions, but here’s a good question for you. Do you believe the promises of God for your life?” Amen? Okay, okay, here’s another question. Does God lie? No? Okay. The devil lies, right? Amen? Okay, so if God says, “I promise you that there is a rest for you to enter in,” is God lying to us or is there a rest for us to enter in? There is a rest, amen? There’s a promise and it is for those who believe. Do you believe? Do you believe the good news? Do you believe in the promise of God? Amen.

In 1 Timothy 6—this was just a quick add-on—1 Timothy 6, verse 12, it says:

Fight the good fight of faith.

It says fight to believe. Hold on to believing the word of God. Hold on to believing. Don’t give up believing. There’s not, that I know of—you can correct me after the sermon, I get that a lot, but you can correct me if I’m wrong—there’s not a lot of passages where God tells us to fight. We’re not the ones fighting, but here Paul writes to Timothy and he says, “Fight to hold on to your faith. Don’t let go. Don’t let go of the promise that God has for you. Don’t forget to hold on. Stand in faith. Believe the promise that God has for you.”

Background on the Sabbath

Now, this—what they’re talking about here, like I said, is the Sabbath rest. So for us to understand the Sabbath, we’re gonna look a little bit at what it was in the Old Testament and what it is now. In the Old Testament, in Exodus, in chapter 20 verse 8–10, it says:

Remember the Sabbath…

This is part of the Commandments, the 10 Commandments.

Remember the Sabbath day by keeping it holy. Six days you shall labor and do all your work, but the seventh day is a Sabbath to the Lord your God.

I never saw this. I never realized that this is a Sabbath “to the Lord your God.” I always thought this is the day I get to stay at home, not go to school, my dad mows the lawn, I play Legos or video games—this is my day. That’s what I thought. That is how I saw this. It was like, “Yeah, we need to rest. I need a day off of school. This is great.” But here it says that this is a Sabbath “to the Lord,” and he says that this is a gift that he has given us. It’s something—it’s not a burden to us. It is a free gift of God saying, “Wait, hold on. Why don’t you take a break? Take a break from all you have to do, all the work, all the labor. And by the way, take your Sabbath with me. Spend time with me. Forget about all the worries and the stresses and everything else of life. Just, I want a day with you. I want to spend this day.” Does this replace our quiet time with the Lord daily, our daily devotion? No, but it puts a whole day aside to say, “Lord, I want to spend this day with you.”

Now the problem in Jesus’ time, with the Pharisees, was that they turned this blessing, this gift that God had given us, into a burden. They said, “Now you have to work to rest.” Jesus says something different. Jesus says, “No, no, no, no. I give you rest from the work.” The Pharisees says, “No, we have to add all these different things, all these different laws around it. We got to build this whole thing around this one law so that you can uphold this one law, not so that you can find rest in this one law.” And I got some of these laws—it’s called the 39 Sabbath Laws. It’s still—the Jews still practice this today, and I wanted to put it up here to give you an idea of how silly this can become.

So reaping, right? This is—there’s 39 of them. This is just one. This is just the one for reaping. It says:

“This includes cutting or plucking any growing thing, plucking a flower or plucking a fruit from a tree.”

You’re not allowed to do that on the Sabbath, according to the Pharisees, right? They didn’t have lawnmowers. You don’t have to ask me where that is written, okay? They didn’t have that. But this—I pulled this from their website, from like the Jewish Orthodox website. Okay.

“The same is true of mowing a lawn. It was also legislated that we do not handle any growing flowers or plants. It is also forbidden to climb a tree or smell a growing flower.”

Do you think that’s harsh? Does that sound like a burden? Does that sound like rest? That sounds harsh, right?

“Fruit which falls from a tree on the Sabbath may not be used on the same day.”

So they’re building these laws around what we are supposed to have as rest.

Let’s look at this next one. I just had three of them. I didn’t want to spend too much time with this.

“Harvesting - This includes all harvesting operations such as binding grain into sheaves or bales, gathering fallen fruit into piles, or placing them into a basket. This is even true in a private enclosed yard where carrying is permitted.”

Burning. This was—I really enjoyed this one.

“This involves making a fire or causing anything to burn. Even throwing a toothpick into a fire is considered a violation of the Sabbath.”

So don’t be throwing anything into any fire, okay? It’s so funny how it’s specifically a toothpick. Why a toothpick?

“Obviously, this forbids such acts as striking a match or turning on a stove. It also prohibits smoking…”

Sorry for those who smoke.

“… on the Sabbath. An automobile engine works by burning gasoline, so turning the ignition and stepping on the accelerator…”

Kids, that’s the gas.

“… causes it to burn. It is therefore forbidden to drive a car on the Sabbath.”

That’s considered work. That’s not considered rest.

“In general, any use of electricity…”

So by the way, switching on a light, the TV, any use of electricity.

“… violates the spirit of the Sabbath.”

So obviously, these laws have evolved somewhat, right? There’s some modern parts to this, but these were some of the laws that the Pharisees had built around the Sabbath rest. It sounds like suddenly the Sabbath rest is now Sabbath burden. You’ll have one day in the week where you get burdened. Imagine those who had to prepare for the Sabbath forgot to prepare some of that stuff, and they were sitting there in the dark, in the cold, whatever the circumstances, hungry. Doesn’t sound graceful, amen?

The Sabbath According to Jesus

But Jesus says something different. Jesus says, “No, the Sabbath was made for man, not man for the Sabbath.” He says we shouldn’t be working to earn that rest; we get the rest as a gift from God. He says that in Matthew 23 verse 4.

No, sorry, let’s look at Matthew 23 verse 4. The Pharisees here—Jesus is talking about the Pharisees. He says:

They tie up heavy, cumbersome loads and put them on people’s shoulders, but they themselves are not willing to lift a finger to move them.

This talks about the burden that the Pharisees put on us to try—or on the people at the time—to try and earn that rest.

Mark two verse 27 and 28 says:

Then Jesus said to them, “The Sabbath was made for man, not man for the Sabbath. And so the Son of Man [Jesus] is Lord even of the Sabbath.”

The Yoke

Okay, now, like Steven always says, “Now I will start my sermon.” I’m not kidding. This—like, last night I had all this stuff up, and this morning I deleted half of it, and then I thought, “Maybe the background is a good idea. Maybe we should just have that background so we understand the message.” And what I want to share with you now, this is really what I believe God had placed on my heart to share with you.

So we’re talking about the Pharisees putting a burden on us. In those days, they used a yoke as a tool for ox or donkeys or whatever to carry a load, to plow the fields, to do work, and so forth and so on. And Jesus is saying the Pharisees is putting this yoke or this burden on you to try and earn or achieve your rest. It is a burden for us to try and achieve it.

And it’s funny that in the Old Testament it says we should not yoke an ox and a donkey together. That won’t work well. So it’s two animals that has to work together. But what happens is—Josh, do you mind? Will you help me quick? What happens is—okay, this is not a yoke, but it’s going to be one right now, okay? A yoke actually looks like this. Bil, will you put up the picture? Okay, that’s a yoke. This is kind of half of a yoke. But—are you taller than me? Almost. Just don’t stand on your toes. Don’t do that. Okay, so put this on you, but you will have to put your hand around there, otherwise it’s gonna fall off. Okay. So for now— I’m sorry, I’m gonna be mean—for now, I’m the ox. Okay, Josh is the donkey. It’s just an illustration. Geez, I’m sorry, man. I love you, brother. Okay, and so what would happen is, if the two animals are supposed to work together, what would happen a lot of times—if they’re not the same, if it’s an ox and a donkey—they might not move at the same speeds. Do you know that donkeys are stubborn animals? So the ox might try to move and then… dude. Right? It’s not gonna work. Or maybe there’s a direction that the ox needs to move into, and the donkey goes the other way and pulls the ox off of the direction he’s supposed to go to.

Paul also says that we should not be unequally yoked. It’s kind of the same principle. He talks about spouses and marriage, right? But the same thing happens. You see it in the Old Testament, where the husband or the wife—either/or—would possibly be saved and the other one not, they’re from a different nation than Israel, and they marry outside of the nation and they serve other gods, and then when the one might want to go this way, the other one goes that way, and they pull the child of God away from him. And we see it all over the Old Testament. They start worshiping false gods. So we should not be unequally yoked. Also you should not yoke a donkey and ox.

What you should do—actually what should happen—is they would yoke two oxes together. But normally it would be an older ox and a younger ox, okay? Because the older ox would be able to carry the load a little bit more. Does that feel better? Yeah, it does? Nice. I got your back. You’re an ox now. I’m a little older. Am I older? I’m a little older than you. Yeah, a smidge. And I’m—you’re an ox now. I’m carrying—I’m helping him with his load. I’m taking all of it?! And guess what? Because we’re of the same kind, when I move, he moves with me. And I give him the pace. I can move really quick, and I can go into the—come, we have to go this way. We have to go this direction. When I stop, he stops. He’s learning from me, and I’m helping him with his load. Do you guys see that? Thanks, Josh. I hope I didn’t go too far here with the sermon.

Find Rest in Jesus

So, in Matthew 11, Jesus is speaking to the multitudes. He’s speaking to people from all over. People have come to hear him speak. People from all different cultures and races and nations—they’ve come to hear Jesus speak. And he speaks to them and he gives them this invitation and this promise. He says to them:

“Come to me, all you are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest.”

He invites them to come. If you’re burdened, if you’re tired, if you’re weighed down, if things are too much—maybe a circumstance, a struggle, maybe family, maybe friends, maybe relationships—he says, “Come to me if you’re weary, if you’re burdened.”

And he promises this. He says:

“I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you…”

You remember me and Josh? Jesus is the older ox. He says, “Take my yoke on you. I’ll help you carry the load, and learn from me. When I move, you move. When I stop, you stop. When I go into this direction, follow me. We’re gonna go in this direction. If I go this way, come with me.” He says, “Learn from me.”

You know what’s interesting? The younger ox starts to imitate the older ox. And pretty soon, the younger ox will become an older ox. Isn’t that what Jesus says of us? He says we should imitate him. We should become like him, and we should teach others like he taught us.

He then says:

“You will find rest for your souls, for my yoke is easy.”

It’s easy.

“And my burden is light.”

This doesn’t mean that life is suddenly rainbows and butterflies. But it means that as we approach life, we look at it differently because we’re yoked with Jesus. And guess what? You’re not alone. You’re yoked with Jesus. And when he moves, you move.

And there’s a sense of trust here, amen? There’s trust happening here. I’m in a trust relationship with him. I don’t try to go my own way. I don’t try to follow my own plans. I trust Jesus to lead me. I want to learn from him.

Jesus is quoting a scripture here from Jeremiah. He’s quoting Jeremiah 6 verse 16. It says:

This is what the Lord says:

“Stand at the crossroads and look,
and ask for the ancient ways.”

When you come to a decision, right? There’s a decision, there’s a crossroad. We look and we stand at the ancient paths.

“And ask where the good way is…”

Try to find the good way.

“… and walk in it
and you will find rest for your souls.”

This is the scripture that Jesus is actually quoting. He’s saying, “I’m the good way. Be yoked with me. You will find rest for your souls.”

Now there’s a lot of theological argument around what kind of rest is this and what is your soul? Is this like, “I can rest on Saturdays?” For me, it’s on Fridays, by the way. Is it, “I’ll rest one day when I get to heaven, and I’ll just suffer my way through this life?” Or is there a rest that we get now, like the writer of Hebrews explains? He says, “We enter into this rest,” present tense. “Now we enter into this rest.”

And so the Hebrew word here—I was battling with this all week. My wife said to me, “Remember, you gotta practice what you preach here. You gotta figure out how you—you gotta believe.” So the Hebrew word here for “souls,” “I’ll give you rest for your souls,” is nephesh. I practiced that too. Nephesh. Okay? And nephesh means—could be your soul, living being, life, self, desire, emotions, mind. That sounds like now, doesn’t it? Whenever I have a struggle, whenever I’m facing stress and anxiety and my emotions are all over the place and I don’t know what to do and I panic, it’s all happening here. I can sometimes feel it in my body. I can sometimes feel my heart racing, or like something shaking or weird happening. But he says he gives you rest for your souls—your emotions, your mind.

What Jesus’ Rest Looks Like

So how do we do this? How does this work? How is this possible? Well, the writer of Hebrews says if you hear the good news and you… believe! I know, I’m sorry, I apologize. I’m the youth pastor, and usually when I do that, the kids shout it out, “Jesus!” So we’re gonna work together. If you hear the good news and you believe (thank you!), then we enter into that rest. Have faith, believe, trust in the Lord.

Psalm 91 verse 1 and 2 says:

Whoever dwells in the shelter of the Most High
will rest in the shadow of the Almighty.

And I will say of the Lord, “He is my refuge and my fortress,
my God in whom I trust.”

The Hebrew word here for “trust” is batach. Batach. I’m gonna show you what that looks like. This is pretty cool. I didn’t know this. Every time I have to do a sermon, I go into like crazy study for two/three weeks, and then I find these cool stuff that I didn’t know about. Batach—to trust—looks like this. You guys ready?

Did you see it? Did everyone see that? Yeah? Hey, it’s not hard for me to get up yet, okay? That means to trust! Isn’t that crazy? To surrender, to let go, to trust God, to have faith.

I read a book once, and there was a conversation in the book, and the one guy said to the other one, “Why don’t you just trust God?” And the other one said, “Well you mean I should just do nothing?” And the other person responded, “Well, if you trust God, it means that he is doing it, right?” Shows you how warped our idea is of trust. “Lord, I trust you, but I’m gonna do this.”

It doesn’t mean we just sit down with our hands folded. It means you trust God in everything that you do in your lifestyle. Remember, it’s a lifestyle of rest. We don’t enter a day of rest; we enter the Sabbath rest lifestyle. We live rest.

Now here—this is even more interesting, and I had to—immediately when I found this, I called Brandon to the office. I was like, “Dude, tell me about that other word that we learned about once with worship and stuff.” So get this, the Hebrew word for worship—I gotta get the pronunciation right—is shachah. Shachah. And to worship in Hebrew, shachah—I’m gonna show you what it looks like. Okay, are you ready? Everyone ready? Okay, this is what worship looks like in Hebrew—shachah.

Isn’t that crazy? How when we trust God, we are worshiping God! We’re letting go of everything. We say, “God, you got this. I trust you. I don’t understand my circumstances. I don’t know what’s happening and why and where, but I know you know. I trust you. I give it to you. I’m gonna surrender before you and worship you and lift you up in the midst of my circumstances.”

Romans 8 verse 28 says:

We know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him.

We don’t always understand what’s happening and why. We don’t even always understand how free will plays into everything. But we know that God promised something. And he said if we trust him and have faith in him and believe in him, that we’ll enter this rest, this life of rest. As we surrender to him, as we worship him, as we trust in him, he will give us rest.

It’s the kind of trust that King Hezekiah had when the Assyrians was at the gate. And the Assyrians are standing at the gate shouting at King Hezekiah, and he says, “Hey, you’ve been defeated. Why don’t you just come out and surrender? Who do you think you put your trust in that you won’t just come out and surrender?” And Hezekiah goes to the temple and tears his clothes and throws sackcloth on his head and prays before the Lord, and God delivers them from the Assyrians. It’s that kind of trust.

It’s the kind of trust where Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego is thrown to the fire and they say, “Hey man, this is rough circumstances. I don’t understand it; my emotions are all over the place; I’m anxious, I’m nervous, there’s fire, this is hot, people are dying. But even if I burn, I trust in the Lord. I will put my trust in the Lord. I’ll worship my Lord. You can throw me in the fire.” And so God delivers them.

But it’s the same kind of trust that Stephen had when they stoned him. God had a plan for Stephen, and they stoned him. And he said, “God, I trust you.” And Stephen died. It’s the same kind of trust. It is resting in God, no matter the circumstances.

It’s the same kind of trust that Paul has when he is shipwrecked, or when he gets bitten by a snake, or when he gets stoned and beaten. And he says, “Hey man, you can’t—it doesn’t matter, because to live is Christ and to die is gain. It doesn’t matter to me because my trust is in the Lord. I find rest in the Lord. My focus is on the Lord. My circumstances look different to me because my focus is on him, not on my circumstances.”

It’s the same kind of trust that Jesus has when the plan is for him to give his life—to be sacrificed, beaten, crucified for us. Not fun circumstances. And he says, “Lord, Father, into your hands I commit myself.” It’s that kind of trust.

It’s to be yoked with Jesus, saying, “Jesus, I don’t know—I don’t understand all this stuff, but I know that when I’m yoked with you, my burden is easy. My burden is pleasant. It’s light, and I will learn from you. When you go, I’ll go. I will trust in you. I’ll surrender to you. I’ll give you my plans.” This is a lifestyle of rest. This is us entering into a life of the Sabbath rest. It is trusting God no matter what happens.

Commit It Into His Hands

I want to give you these five words, and I want to challenge you or invite you to practice this as you go forward, as you make your plans, as you face circumstances—whatever you may go through, practice this. Say, “God, I don’t know, but I commit into your hands. I don’t know; my kids are making crazy choices, but I commit them into your hands. I trust you. I don’t see what’s happening here. I don’t understand what’s going on, but Lord, my circumstances, I commit it into your hands. I’m nervous about this and that and this outcome and this job or this taste or this decision, but Lord, I commit this into your hands. I trust you. I don’t know how I’m going to pay this bill, but I trust you. I don’t know about this sickness, this pain, this diagnosis. God, I commit this into your hands. I trust you.”

When I spoke to Steven, he always says to me when I do a sermon, “What do you hang your hat on?” Like, what’s the application here? How do you hang your hat? And then I always see my hat like drop to the floor. Where’s the… where’s the… how do I hang the hat, right?

As Christians, this is our hook. It is being in prayer. It’s not a pie in the sky. It is being in prayer. It is being in the Word of God. It is being yoked with Jesus, looking at what he did, learning from him, moving when he moves, stopping when he stops. It is committing your plans to him. That is the practice. “Lord, I trust you. I commit this into your hands.”