Hebrews 4:1-13

            {Prayer}

            Out on of our morning walks this past week, I told Jessica that I was going to be preaching on rest. She laughed at me and then said, “Who are you to be talking about rest?” In return I chuckled and was like, “Yeah, you’re probably right.” And while she is right about me chasing down rest … this sermon, like other sermons … is not only for you, but it’s for me as well.

            As we get into this, I want you to imagine that you have a backpack on. Now, this backpack is loaded up with rocks. Each rock represents something. Each rock represents a burden. The burdens we carry are different for each of us, but they could include things like pressure from work, family responsibilities, trying to make ends meet, dealing with doctors, uncertainty about something specific in the future like the arrival of an associate pastor, or uncertainty about the future in general.

            Every day along your life journey, another rock is added into your backpack. And each day the backpack gets heavier. Yet you continue to push on. You push on your journey thinking that you got this, you can carry this all on your own! People with lighter backpacks come and walk along side of you asking how it is that they can help, how can they lighten your load. But you push on thinking, I’ve got this! I can do this! Some people come and walk along side of you encouraging you to push on, that in a little while things will get better and soon enough you will be able to take some rocks out.

            Eventually though … as you continue to carry all these rocks on your back … you reach a point where you are completely exhausted. You’re physically drained. You’re back aches. You’re barely able to keep on moving forward. Maybe you even collapse under the weight of the burden.

What would happen if someone would come alongside you and offers to carry the load for you, to take those burdens off of your shoulders? You see … this is the rest that God offers to us. God wants us to cast all our burdens upon Him. But the thing is, just like the Israelites walking in the wilderness, you and I, we refuse to let go of the burdens. We insist on carrying the backpack. We insist on holding onto the things in our backpack, our worries and our doubts, instead of trusting in God’s promise of rest.

            This promise of rest from God … it comes in the form of the Third Commandment. “Remember the Sabbath day by keeping it holy” (Ex. 20:8). In Hebrew, the word Sabbath literally means to rest. Also, the word holy means to set apart. In other words, the Sabbath, the day of rest is to be holy, to be set apart from any other day. It is to be different than the other days of the week. The Sabbath, the day of rest, is God’s invitation to set the backpack down.

            But the thing is … we don’t stop and set the backpack down. We look at our lists, at the things we need to do and think that I have keep pushing on or I will never get it done. If I don’t get it done … what will people think of me? 

            We look at our family responsibilities and wonder how can I be in all these different places at the same time? When am I going to spend time with my family when I have this meeting or that obligation to fulfill? What will my kids, what will my spouse think of me if I can’t be home?

            We look to the future and wonder what will it be like. Not knowing, we feel like we have to do everything we can to make sure that our families and our kids will have a good and stable future full of opportunities.

            But here’s the thing … and this is a hard lesson that I’m still learning myself … sometimes we refuse to take off our backpack, even when we have the chance to rest. We’re afraid that if we stop, everything will fall apart. It’s that mindset of “I can do this, I’ve got this,” that keeps us holding on, even when we need to let go.

            In giving us the Sabbath day, a day set apart to be different than all the other days, God is showing us that there is a rhythm to life. There is a rhythm to work and rest. Think about it, and I need to remind myself of this … God wouldn’t have told us to stop, to rest, to remember the Sabbath day and to keep it holy if it wasn’t important. God wants you and me to trust Him. Trusting Him means letting go. Letting go of the weight we feel pressured to carry.

            Jesus even invites us to lay down our burdens, to take the backpack off and put it down. He says, “Come to me, all of you who are weary and carry heavy burdens, and I will give you rest” (Matt. 11:28 NLT). Jesus is inviting us to trust that He will provide for us not just when things are going along fine, but He will provide for us even when we pause to rest. It’s okay to rest. It’s okay because God gives us permission to rest. This resting, it is an act of trust.

            This was something brought up at the Field of Faith event this past Wednesday night. One of the ways we can actively step into that trust is by making time for God’s Word. You see, rest isn’t just about stopping our physical work, it’s about being refreshed by spending time in the Word, in the presence of God. When we open His Word, we allow Him to speak into us, bringing us peace and perspective. Just like the backpack can feel lighter after we set it down a while, our souls are renewed when we pause to hear from Him.

            Daily time in prayer, meditating, inwardly digesting Scripture, or simply sitting in the quiet with God … that allows us time to cast our worries on Him. It allows us to receive His promises anew. It’s in these moments that God reminds us that the world doesn’t rest on yours and mine shoulders … it rests in His hands.

            Learning to trust in God’s promises through His Word gives us both the physical and the spiritual rest we so desperately need.

            The Israelites, wandering in the wilderness, they were offered both physical and spiritual rest through the Promised Land. But they rejected God’s gift because they didn’t trust Him. They kept doubting. They kept arguing and testing God. Psalm 95 tells us how God responded to them. “For forty years I was angry with that generation … They are a people whose hearts go astray … They shall never enter my rest” (95:10-11). The hearts of the Israelites had turned from trusting in God’s promises to relying on themselves.

            Many of us carry the same spiritual burden. We try to figure out life on our own, thinking that I must earn God’s favor or manage every problem. Hebrews 4 warns us not to fall into the same trap. “Since the promise of entering his rest still stands, let us be careful that none of you be found to have fallen short of it” (4:1).

            When we refuse to trust in God … it’s like we’re adding more weight to the spiritual backpack. We add on the weight of doubt, self-reliance, and the pressure of being perfect. These aren’t just physical burdens, they are spiritual struggles. The more we try to carry them ourselves, the more spiritually exhausted we become. But true spiritual rest comes only from trusting in Jesus, who has already done all the work for us.

            When we cling to our own efforts, we run the risk of missing out. Missing out of God’s promises, missing out on the true rest He offers. We labor and trek on the journey under the weight and burden of self-reliance and doubt. Doing so … we risk not entering God’s rest due to unbelief.

            And God doesn’t want that for us or for anyone. God wants everyone to be able to complete the journey, to enter into the Promised Land and to receive His eternal rest. Knowing that we can’t do it on our own, God sent us His rest in the person of Jesus. Jesus is our rest. Jesus is the one who carried the heavy burden of sin and death upon His back and on His shoulders. Through faith in Jesus, we can stop striving to earn God’s forgiveness and enter into God’s rest. Entering into God’s rest, He does the heavy lifting for us.

            Remember earlier when I mentioned how others with lighter backpacks will walk along with us and offer to lighten our loads? Jesus does something different. Jesus doesn’t tell us, command us, or ask us to carry our burden alone. Jesus doesn’t come up alongside us and ask if He can take some of the weight off. No, Jesus comes up alongside of you, sees the burdens you’re carrying, without asking, takes your backpack off of your shoulders, looks at you with love and says, “Let me carry this for you.”

            Jesus takes it and carries it for you. Jesus as our rest, in the great exchange, takes the heavy burden of your sins to the cross and gives you rest and peace from guilt, from striving to earn God’s favor, and from feeling that everything is going to fall apart if we let go. Jesus went to the cross to free us. Jesus rose and ascended into heaven to prepare a place for you. A place of eternal peace and rest.

            Whether we are looking for relief from the physical demands of life or if we are looking for relief from the spiritual weight of sin, Jesus is our ultimate rest. May we learn to and actually let go of the backpack of burden, trust in Him, and receive the rest He promises. Amen.

            The peace of God, which surpasses all human understanding, guard your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus our rest and our Lord, now and forever. Amen