Chris Hodges - Working To Rest
All right, family. Find a seat, everybody, everybody. You guys like that two-minute mingle, don't ya? Y'all think it should be a three-minute mingle? What you think, huh? It's good to see everybody. How are you tonight, everybody? Y'all doing great? Good, good, good, good. I'm glad to see you, and I'm ready to get into God's Word together. Y'all have your Bibles tonight, everybody, yeah? Yes, no, maybe? All right. Hey, before we jump into the Word of God, let me just make a few comments to you. First of all, I want you to know that I love you very, very much, and I prayed for you already today. And I just want you to know that I care for you very, very much. I'm grateful, especially for this group, the Wednesday night crowd.
You guys, you know, you really are the core, the family, and come on, give yourselves a good hand, everybody! God bless you guys, all the campuses and everybody that is now joining us. I also want to thank you for your amazing consistency in your generosity. Today is May 1. I got up first thing this morning, spent some time with God, and then I have my little moment on the first of every month to honor God with my giving, and it was just a special moment. I was thinking about you while I was giving. I just wanted to thank you. I don't know if I do that enough, but your generosity makes a massive difference here in Birmingham and around the world. We've never had a church where that has had to be, like, pushed or maintained.
There's other places where they really kind of have to keep it on the burner all the time or it falls off, and you've never been that way. And it means a lot to me that you're just so consistent, and we don't have to, you know, come up with a bunch of videos to, you know, try to move your emotions. You're just very disciplined in honoring God with the first, and I want to thank you guys for that. I know most of you give digitally and online, and I hope you've turned that into some kind of a moment where you just honor God and kind of have a worship moment when you do if you're not giving here in the service, but God bless you as you give your tithes and offerings.
I also wanted to say we have... well, they're not a guest, but my daughter and son-in-law is in the house tonight, everybody. Yeah, just... and I think some of you have asked, like, "Where has Dustin and Sarah been"? You know, and I'm just so proud of 'em. They've been in what is now the second year of missions training, and they've been in school learning. And they both felt a strong missions call on their life, and I'm so proud of them and mad at 'em at the same time. And so, you know, 'cause, like, 'cause I miss them so badly. And would y'all show some love to my daughter-in-law 'and' son-in-law, I mean daughter and son-in-law? God bless you guys. Love ya. So they're kind of passing through right now, and we're gonna have a big party at the house tomorrow night, too.
My oldest grandson turns eight years old tomorrow, so we get to celebrate that. And then we also have another friend, a guest, in our house tonight. I'm in some meetings with him tomorrow, and he's the president of one of our leading missions arms, one of the places that we invest in. And he came not to be in the service necessarily. He came so we could have some meetings tomorrow, but he came in early to be here with you, and we didn't even plan this, right in the middle of worship.
I said, "Hey, come up, and say hi to everyone". He leads a ministry called "One Hope" with a focus specifically on getting God's Word to every child in the world, and just this year, I'm so proud 'cause I'm a part of this community. I feel like every place that we invest in, they feel like family to me, so I take it very personal. So I always say "we," but through our efforts together with "One Hope," just a few months ago, we reached the two billionth child reached with the Word of God around the world. Come on, y'all, welcome Rob Hoskins to the stage! Come on, give him a good hand, everybody! A missionary is in the house! I love you so much. Say hi to everybody.
Rob Hoskins: Thank you so much. Wow, it's so great to be at Highlands again. It's been, man, almost five years since I was here last time, way too long. And just from the moment you walk into this place, you just feel the anointing. I don't know if it's just the First Wednesday or is it always like that, is it?
[b]Chris Hodges: It's always like that.
[b]Rob Hoskins: It's always like that, I know that. And so thank you for allowing me to be here tonight for this service. Looking forward to my time tomorrow with Pastor Chris, always do. But, you know, I just felt like, with the whole Highlands family, with the ARC in general, just want to show honor where honor's due. And it was probably 20 years ago when I met your father-in-law, when Pastor Billy just met me, and he had a missionary heart, as you know. I'm glad that one of his grands is gonna go be missionaries. He's shouting in heaven right now for that. I know you're probably not happy, but he's really happy about it.
And when I met him, I was just sharing with him the story of "One Hope," and he just started crying. He just started weeping because he was seeing the vision almost immediately, and I don't really know why, but I believe it was the Lord. And he just had told me a few months after that, he said, "We're just gonna adopt you. We're just going to adopt 'One Hope.' We're just going to take you on as one of our ministries". And because of that, the ARC has been by far the most generous church family in all the world that "One Hope" has had. So I just want to, I know you probably honor him all the time, but I just want to honor Pastor Billy tonight for his investment in "One Hope" and Pastor Chris passing on that legacy, and he's one of our great champions for "One Hope".
And we're celebrating two billion children, a lot because of what Highlands and ARC has done to provide this work. My dad had this vision 35 years ago. It was during a time of brokenness, and the Lord showed him that the enemy was forming his weapons of warfare against the next generation. Have we seen that in the last 35 years? And he just began to show him that it wasn't gonna decrease. He was gonna keep fighting a fight against the next generation so Satan could prolong his rule and reign here on earth, and he began to see how he was gonna form his weapons of warfare against them.
And when my dad saw that vision, he just began to weep. He began to intercede in God's presence. He said, "Lord, what am I seeing and what am I gonna do"? The Lord said, "The only thing that will overcome these lies is truth. My Word is truth. Take my Word, and give it to every single child in the world". And I make a commitment to you tonight. I make a commitment to Highlands. I make a commitment to the ARC. I make a commitment to Pastor Chris that until Jesus returns, we're gonna make sure that the Word of God goes into the hand of every child, every single young person on the planet. Thank you, Highlands, for partnering with us. We love you. Love you.
[b]Chris Hodges: Come on, y'all, show some honor to a missionary in the house. Thank you. Yes. Y'all can be seated. That kind of takes me back. You know, we used to have Wednesday night services, and we always had a missionary or someone in the house that we were able to honor and give a missions report. And let me pray as we open up God's Word together. Are you ready, yes or no? Yes? Y'all kind of like, "Where's the screen at"? I actually texted the team. I said, "I just want to mix it up a little bit tonight," and I'm just gonna preach old-school here today, everybody, with my notes and my Bible here. So if you have your Bible, hold it close to your heart, and if you love the Word of God, just have it in your heart right now as I pray.
[b]Father, we thank you for the incredible honor of being able to open up your Word, and we do agree that your Word is truth. And it's not only just true, but it transforms your words. John 6:63, "Our spirit and life, they actually contain the power for their own fulfillment". These aren't normal words, these are power words. And God, we make room in our heart right now for the Word of God to address anything in us that needs to change, that makes our life better, that confronts us, that comforts us. Lord, we respect, and admire, and love, and we hold true to the Word of God tonight. Thank you for our Bibles, Lord. Thank you for this time together. Blessed we pray, in Jesus's name, and everybody said a good amen.
All right, open your Bibles with me to Hebrews chapter 3, and I've got a very simple message on my heart tonight. And I wanna give you kind of what caused it to transpire. You know, what happens for me is when I get in several different conversations with people about certain things both in the church and outside the church, I often think that the Holy Spirit is emphasizing that for everybody's sake, and so, this message has really come out of conversations that I've had with pastors, that I've had with some of the people here in the church, with some of our staff right now, and I wanna talk about rest. I wanna talk about the spirit of rest.
And I told you Sunday that I was gonna talk to us about the importance of slowing down. I'm seeing some trends right now in the pastor world, and have I spent a lot of time there. In fact, yesterday I was in Missouri training 600 pastors and got back in time for us today, and oh, by the way, y'all wanna hear something fun, yes or no? Okay, and I'm actually going to North Carolina. I'm not gonna tell the Sunday crowd, only the Wednesday crowd, and don't tell anybody, okay, everybody? But I'm going to North Carolina, Tammy and I are, on Friday and Saturday, and I'm speaking at the baccalaureate service of a university there, and then they're awarding me an honorary doctorate, everybody, so how 'bout that? Yeah.
So, I shall require you to call me Dr. Hodges from now on. No, just kidding. That is not what you're gonna call me. But anyway, so I'm very, very honored to receive this very distinguished degree and honor. So anyway, but I talked to a lot of pastors. I've talked to a lot of different people. It's something I do. There's so much of what, you know, I do that you do not see, and I'm very grateful for that. But I was recently in conversation with a pastor, and I'm formally mentoring him. And so I was helping him out with some things, and he said, "Man, I'm really burned out, and I'm stressed out". And then his question was: "And so, do you have a therapist you can recommend me? Do you have somebody like a counselor or somebody that I could talk to"?
And by the way, I'm not against that if you need to speak to somebody. I said, "Well, sure. I mean, there are people that you probably could talk to that might be able to help you". I said, "But let me ask you a question first". He goes, "What's that"? I said, "Are you observing the Sabbath"? He goes, "What do you mean"? I'm like, "Are you observing the Sabbath"? He goes, "I don't understand". I said, "Do you have one out of every seven days where you're stopping from your labors and you are honoring that just like you would honor not committing adultery, not lying, not stealing, not disrespecting your parents, not taking the Lord's name to vain. Is it...does, like, that day carry that much weight in your life as maybe those other commands"?
He goes, "Well, not all the time". I said, "So, if I said, 'Are you committing adultery?' would you say, 'Not all the time?'" And he almost said, like, "Well, it's not the same". And I said, "No, no, it's not only not the... it is the same. It's even higher up on the list than murder and adultery. You're violating a principle and then trying to find a secular solution for something that you're disobeying in in God's economy". And I just said, "Let's do me something, just try one thing for me first. Before I send you any phone number or point you in the direction of someone else that might help you other than God, other than doing that", and again, I'm not against that. I said, "Would you just try for at least one month or six weeks, would you just be very, very faithful to this Sabbath"?
And when we were in this conversation, he goes, "What does that look like"? And here's a pastor, honestly, he should know what a Sabbath is, but anyway, I explained to him what it looks like, and I'm gonna explain some of those things to you tonight as well, and it just kind of dawned on me that a whole lot of people could probably benefit from the conversation that I had with this pastor. Can I hear a good amen everybody, right? And I just wanna speak to us about something that you probably already know you like, you know this, but you may not be doing this. And I have this thought of the number of things that we know that we don't do, and then we're wondering why things aren't working out.
Let me just give you a thought here, just to kind of in the introduction of this message. The knowing is not what's powerful. It is in the doing. Do you know the difference between knowledge and wisdom? Knowledge is knowing something. Wisdom is the ability to live it out. In fact, the Bible says, "Wisdom is supreme; therefore get wisdom". So don't just know it, literally, I need you to know how to do this thing. I need you to, it literally means, it translates in the Hebrew, "skill in living". I need to have not just the knowledge of how to live, but I need to have the skill set to be actually to live it out, and I want to help us with that. Because another Proverb says in Proverbs 26, "Do you see a man wise in his own eyes? There is more hope for them than a fool".
So, I'm trying to narrow the gap between what we know and what we do, and I want to tackle this one area because I think of all the things, at least in the pastor world, and I think it's true, honestly. The statistics would prove it out actually in the church world as well. And by the way, it's not you. It's all the people who aren't here tonight that actually needed to hear this of the priority of putting God first in your life. Can I hear a really good amen out there, everybody?
And so, I wanna break this down by doing two things. I wanna teach it to you first out of a passage of scripture that I deeply love in Hebrews chapter 3. I wanna kinda teach it to us first, and then I wanna give you some practice. Y'all know me, I'm not gonna leave you without something practical to actually do, but I was actually backstage. This is not gonna be on the screen 'cause I was just back there while you guys were mingling. I was actually looking through my Bible, and I had this verse that just came to my mind. I wanna read it to you. Do y'all mind if I just teach just, like, normal like this everybody and not be all polished and everything, just kinda let you hear it like I'm feeling it right now?
Listen to this verse out of Isaiah chapter 30. It says, "This is what the Sovereign Lord, the Holy One of Israel, says: 'In repentance and rest is your salvation, in quietness and trust is your strength, but you would have none of it. You said, 'No, we will flee on horses.'" Horses were always a representation of human strength. Like, no, no, no, I got stuff to do. I don't have time to do that. I have stuff to do. Basically, to modernize that. "No, we will flee on horses," and the Bible says, "And therefore you will flee! And you will ride off on swift horses. And your pursuers will also be swift. A thousand will flee at the threat of five, you will all flee away until you are left like a flagstaff on a mountaintop, like a banner on a hill".
In other words, you're all by yourself and wondering where God is. And then it says in verse 18, "Yet the Lord longs to be gracious to you; therefore he will rise up to show you compassion. For the Lord is a God of justice. Blessed are those who wait for him". And then in the very next, two chapters later in chapter 32, I wanna read you another one. This is just, I'm just back there getting these verses that were popping up in my head. I wish they were in my notes. "The fruit," verse 17 of chapter 32 says, "The fruit of righteousness will be peace". So how do you know when you're really in a right relationship with God? There's a peace going on in your soul. And I want everybody to look up here at me, and I want you to hear this, as a pastor who cares for you. Like, if you don't have that, if you don't have peace in your soul... now, I cannot control the peace that's around you.
There is nothing but chaos always around us, but you can have peace in the middle of that chaos, everybody. You absolutely can. And the Bible says it's a fruit. So if you don't have peace in the middle of all that, it's telling you something. And it says 'cause "the fruit of righteousness is peace; its effect will be quietness and confidence forever". Verse 18: "My people will live in peaceful dwelling places, in secure homes, in undisturbed places of rest". So, the mark of the Holy Spirit, you know this in Galatians chapter 5. Like, the mark of the Holy Spirit, or the fruit, or the effect of being full of God... again, I'm not talking about circumstantially, I'm talking about inside of you is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control.
In other words, there is an effect of knowing if the Holy Spirit is in your life doing its work, and I'm saying that to you as an encouragement, not as a rebuke. I'm saying if you're going through something right now and all the chaos that's happening around you and you don't have peace on the inside, I'm telling you, you're missing something that you could actually have. Like, there's peace available for those who are full of the Holy Spirit. I want to show you how to get it, and I want to tell you some of the same things both spiritually and biblically and practically about just the spirit of peace. Like, we're gonna really get the spirit of peace in our lives. And I want us to go to chapter 3 of the book of Hebrews, and that's all Old Testament.
People say, "Well, that's the Old Testament". Let me give you some New Testament here. Are you ready for it? Are you ready for it? Okay, Hebrews chapter 3, verse 7 says, "So, as the Holy Spirit says: 'Today, if you hear his voice,'" and I have prayed that in this service you would hear the voice of God in your mind and your heart, "if you hear the voice of God, do not harden your hearts as you did in the rebellion, during the time of testing in the wilderness, where your ancestors tested and tried me". By the way, I want to submit to you that the testing and the trying isn't "God was saying, 'Hey, here's some good things,' and they said, 'No, we wanna do bad things.'"
They were just really, their testing came through the fact that they weren't trusting God. So, God was saying, "Hey, I'm gonna do this for you". And they didn't trust God to believe that for them. He says, "And that is why I was angry with that generations; and I said, 'Their hearts are always going astray, and they have not known my ways.' So I declared on oath in my anger, 'They shall never enter my rest.'" That actually means that that will remove my blessing and my presence in their life that produces rest, and he does that so you'll come back to it. Is everybody with me?
Go to chapter 4, just continue the thought in verse 1: "Therefore, since the promise of entering his rest still stands," in other words, that's something that is still available to you, "let us be careful that none of you be found to have fallen short of it". In other words, if you're living your life right now and you're not experiencing, regardless of the chaos around you, you're not experiencing the peace and the rest of God on the inside, it's trying to tell you something, that you may not be in a trusting, a faithful, relationship with God, or actually, you're being disobedient to one of his principles.
So if you feel the way, "For we have also heard the good news proclaimed to us, just as they did, but the message they heard was of no value to them, because those who heard did not combine it with faith," I'll explain that to you in just a second, "But now We who believe," or who have faith, "enter into that rest". I'll teach you that in just a second.
Jump down to verse 9, last passage: "There remains," everybody say remains. In other words, it's still available to you, "then, a Sabbath-rest for the people of God; for anyone who enters," in other words, you have to take the steps toward it, "for anyone who enters God's rest also rests from their works," they're not trusting their own efforts. They're not on those horses, right? You're not out there by yourself, "just as God did from his. Let us, therefore, make every effort to enter that rest, so that no one will perish by following their example of disobedience".
So I wanna teach this to you. We're stepping into a season. I honestly, I think it's probably true for you too, May's one of the busiest seasons for people's lives because of final exams and weddings and proms and graduations and all of that. I know it's a very, very busy season, but hopefully, you're also planning to step into a season of rest. I know I am. I've got my rest plan. I love y'all so much, but I cannot wait, everybody, alright? Just to actually tone it down just a little bit and just kick the feet up and replenish. But I wanna give you three principles that are out of Hebrews chapter 3 and 4, if you're taking notes, and then I'm gonna give you three principles on the last of the three principles.
So I'm gonna give you three principles, and then the last principle has three practical steps to this that I wanna give you. And the first three are more the biblical truths principle, and that is number one, be sure that you do not ignore his call to rest. So if you're currently living life right now and you're in the process of warning signs that are going on in your soul right now, I'm asking you don't ignore that. And what God will do to get you to move back is he is known that when you step out from underneath his umbrella of covering, and his covering comes through his principles found in God's Word, when you step out from under it, it rains on you, okay? And you get wet, and life gets more miserable than it has to, but you have the ability to step back under it.
What he does for us, and it's a gift, is he sometimes allows, doesn't create, but he allows pain to happen in your life to let you know there's an umbrella over here, but you're out from underneath it and you're getting wet right now. And those warning signs are actually gifts from God, and I'm telling you that when they happen to you, ask yourself, is something wrong? In your prayer time with God, ask yourself. Actually, I have a filter. I don't know if I've ever shared this. I know I haven't shared this at this level. I've shared it in some mentoring-sized rooms with pastors. But I actually have a filter of whether I'm not in a right relationship with God, and I mark it by my personal time with God every day, that if I go three days without getting revelation out of God's Word, like hearing the voice of God and getting revelation, I start saying, "What did I do"?
'Cause something's wrong, Lord. I mean, I'm just, I'm reading this book, and I'm going through these motions, but it's been three days and I ain't felt anything, heard anything, and it ain't you, it's me. And that's my little filter. If I go that long, three days, and I don't sense the presence of God or actually get, I'm reading the Word of God, I mean, and revelations just jumping off the page. I just start repenting. 'Cause the problem is, Jeremiah says this, that "the heart is deceitful above all things". The problem with deception, y'all know what the problem with deception is? You're deceived. Like, if I said, "Are you deceived"? and you said "no," that's what deceived people say.
If you said "yes," you would actually not be deceived. If I say, "Are you deceived"? "Yes". No, then you're not. You're now, because you actually said you are. 'Cause you're now not... are y'all following me, everybody? And that's why there's this verse I pray. Literally, I try to pray it every single day of my life, I do most every day, out of Psalm 1:39: "Search me, Lord, know me". Is there an offensive way in me? Did I do something? Because I don't ever want to live my life, come on, everybody, alone without the presence of God in my life. I need the peace and the presence of God inside of me. I'm not living my life just screaming about the circumstances around me. No, I'm staying in the spirit of rest, and I want you guys to have that.
Jesus said in Luke 21, "Be careful, or your hearts will be weighed down with dissipation, drunkenness and the anxieties of life, and that day will close on you unexpectedly like a trap". In fact, that verse is teaching us out of the signs of the end of time, that if you're going through life and you feel all of these symptoms that are happening around you, don't ignore his call to step back underneath that umbrella. And I want to say this as a pastor to anybody that's listening to me right now, that if you're not yourself right now, chances are something's wrong. You've stepped out from underneath something that God either asks you to do that you're not doing or you're doing something that you know that grieves the Spirit of God.
And by the way, God never expects you to be perfect. He just expects you to be repentant. So I mess up all the time, but I try hard not to stay there. So whenever I'm... and I know it because all of a sudden, I don't have that peace. Are y'all following what I'm trying to teach you? I'm trying to give you a beautiful, this is a mature word. This isn't a Sunday word. This is a mature word. If you're going through life and it doesn't, all of a sudden doesn't feel right, it's you. And we just like, "Okay". And if you don't see it, that's fine, but just say, "Lord, would you please put a finger on an area of my life that's just not right"?
Now, by the way, your body will also do that when God doesn't. For some of you, you're feeling that in your body right now. Something's not right. I'm not sleeping like I used to. Something's wrong. I've got something going on. Some of you guys have been irritable in ways that it's even out of character for you. I know for a fact that whenever I get, you know, and I'm not the most patient person you'll ever meet anyway. It's hard to discern sometimes. But if I get a little irritable, Tammy will even say, "What's going on"? And I usually go, "Nothing," which means there is. And my body's done this. I've told you the stories of about ten years ago, when I was having panic attacks, and I just couldn't understand it.
I mean, I thought actually something was going on with my heart, and it was my lifestyle. It was the way I was living, and I actually had been violating the principles that I'm teaching to you every month of my life. I was never being true to the rest principles and to the Sabbath principles and to honoring God at least one day a week and I was totally not doing that, and all of a sudden, my body was catching up with it, and it started screaming at me. And thank God, I had my heart doctor, who's actually a member of the church. I went to see him, and I said, "Man, I think my heart's messed up. I'm having these panic attacks. It's like this 800 pound man sitting on my chest. My arm's going numb". Like, I had every symptom of a heart attack.
He said, "Well, Chris, I'm gonna tell you something. You know, we can do stress tests and we can do the nuclear stress test". He said, "But you know, you can pass those and still have problems with your heart". I said, "Well that's not good. Why do y'all have those"? you know? He said, "Especially when someone's as good a shape as you". Come on, everybody, you know that's true. Don't laugh that hard. That hurts my feelings, okay? And I said, "Well what's the one that you know for sure you can, you know, for sure for sure"? He goes, "Do a heart cath. I need to go in with a camera through one of your veins".
You know, he went in through a vein in my leg and went up and took pictures of my heart. I was like, I said, "Brother, do it, man. If that's what you think I should do, just do it. I need to know. I don't need to guess. I need to know". And I was completely convinced that was what's wrong with me, and I'll never forget sitting in that little consultation room. You know, I was still kind of groggy coming out of the anesthesia, and Tammy's sittin' there, and the doctor looked at me. He had this kind of, like this, he was doing this, you know? Just doing this little, and I said, "What's up? What'd you find out"? He goes, "Well, your heart's perfect". I said, "That's what I'm talking about, and that's good. That's really good news".
He goes, "What's the bad news"? He goes, "You're crazy". And he says, "You have a life," listen to me, somebody needs to hear this, "You have a life cocktail right now that you're mixing every day through what you eat and what you don't eat that you should eat and what you... too much caffeine and the way you travel," and he started just, you know, being a pastor to me, this doctor did. And he says, "You gotta change your ways or your body's screaming at you right now". Don't ignore his call to rest, everybody.
Well, you say, "Well, I'm too busy". Listen to me. Don't ignore his call to rest. You need to get back up underneath the blessing of God and how do you know it? The effects of righteousness is rest and peace. This is how you know. I'm just trying to teach you something that's gonna save your life one day. The second thing I would show you out of this passage is you have to step into the realm of faith. Notice that it combined the concept of faith. Like, faith people are rested people. Real rest doesn't come from resting, it comes when your soul is connected to the power of God and you know God is at work.
Let me say it this way: the people who know God is at work are more rested because even when it doesn't look like God is at work, you know he's at work, so you're not worried about it anymore, and your faith actually brings rest to your life. So actually, if you are not rested or not at peace in your soul, it actually can maybe be your faith level that just needs to rise. 'Cause really, it comes from trusting God. It allows you to get into that heavenly perspective and that belief that I'm not even worried about tomorrow even though I got a lot to worry about. God's got me. If his eye is on the sparrow, I know he's watching me. And I just wanna encourage you that this is not all just natural and slowing down. It's like it's faith.
Write this in your notes if you're a notetaker: faith people are calm people. Go read Matthew chapter 6. Jesus brought this beautiful, they don't worry about their clothes, what they're gonna wear, what they're gonna eat, 'cause they know that their heavenly Father has got them. And so it says, and what is the solution for somebody who doesn't have clothes and food and anything to wear? "Seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and he'll take care of you". Like, faith people are rested people.
And people come up to me, it was just yesterday. I was with some pastors. We closed this training session with all these pastors by doing Q and A, and one of the questions was, are you concerned about, and it listed a bunch of the stuff that's in the news right now. Are you worried about this? And I said, "Actually, I'm not". Because I know that God doesn't... again, my theology is that God doesn't create it, but God uses it, and God actually does his best work in crisis. And I personally don't enjoy it. I sure wish things were a little quieter and a little nicer right now, but I know this is actually the best opportunity for God to do a great work in our life.
By the way, can I remind you that the last time we had protests and rioting on college campuses like this was during the Vietnam War, and that's exactly when the Jesus revolution broke out, all right? So I'm just trying to... God is setting us up for revival, and he does it because there's so much pain. And so faith people look at all the pain, and they either go "ow" or they go "ooh". There's this opportunity, and if you see it as an opportunity, that's what faith is, everybody. Are y'all with me tonight? I feel like I'm preaching about 62% better than you, all right. I really do believe this. There's almost this optimism to that I know God's at work, actually, and he does his best work in crisis. I always tell pastors.
I say, "People don't come to church during good times. They come to church during bad times. In good days, they go to the lake house. In bad days, they come to the church house, everybody". That's right. In fact, Rob, I was at a missionary event once and this Iranian pastor walked up to me, and he walked up to me. He said, "Tell your president to bomb us". And I said, "Well, first of all, I don't have his number". You know what I'm saying? And I kind of like gasped and I laughed at the same time. I'm like, "What do you mean by that"? He goes, "Boy, every time we have things like that going our country, we get so many people saved". I'm like, "Well, I'll let him know".
You know, like, I don't know. What do you say, right? And it taught me something. It taught me something about the faith of someone who can see the problems and know that God is still at work versus the ones that are like, "Oh my God, where are you"? No, no, no. Faith people are calm people. You know, they have the peace of God even in the middle of all that. That's why Philippians 4 says, "Do not be anxious about anything, but in every situation, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your request to God".
Let me pause right here and say: what circumstance would require that verse? A lot of bad things going on. If it's telling you don't be anxious, you must be anxious, and if you've got a pile of prayer requests, you know, that's why the verse is there. And it says, hey, when you're going through that, give it to God "and the peace of God, which transcends all understanding" in the middle of your anxiousness and all your boatload of prayer requests, "will transcend all understanding". You know what understanding means? It means you're not gonna understand how God's working. Faith people are calm people. You gotta combine it with your faith. "What will transcend all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus".
I've only been to Israel twice, and by the way, let's just continue to pray for what's going on in the Middle East. And as for us and as for me, we're standing with Israel. You know what I'm saying? So I know there's a lot of craziness going on out there. Come on, give God praise, everybody. But I had this story about this pastor, a friend of mine, who actually went to Israel. And all of us pastors, we always tell these, you know, the sheep and flock, and of course, the big thing that we all know about sheep and shepherds is that the sheep, I mean, two piles of sheep in two different herds can actually crisscross through each other, and the shepherd can just say his, you know, just speak anything, and the sheep know his voice.
This is John chapter 10. And they can actually intermingle, crisscross through, as they're, you know, going to different fields, and not one of them will end up in the other one. They know their shepherd's voice. And this pastor said he was in Israel, and there was these sheep, but the shepherd was behind, you know, driving them. And it blew all of his theology and all of his great stories that he'd been telling in church all these years, and it kinda disappointed. And he said to the tour guide, he says, "You know, I always heard that shepherds just walk out in front, and they just speak, and these sheep follow". And he goes, "And now, here I am, and that's not what happens".
I mean, he's actually behind them, you know, driving them. He said, "Brother, that's not the shepherd, that's the butcher". And if you feel led by the shepherd or driven by the butcher, like, if you were to characterize your life right now, are you being led by the shepherd or driven by the butcher, you know? And that's why we just got to, in the middle of the chaos that's around us, come on, everybody, we have to have the spirit of rest, spirit of peace, knowing that God's got us. And the last thing that that text said that just stuck out to me, number three, is we gotta make an effort to enter the rest. Make every effort.
So, resting is not easy, it's hard, and so, you actually have to work hard at it. And a lot is expected of a guy like me, and honestly, and I'm not better than you. There's a lot expected of you, okay? But a lot of you, and I'm just here to give a pastoral warning to somebody. You're giving out greater than you're on the receiving side. Let me say it like this. You're very good at giving. I'm very good at work. I love work. Nobody has to motivate me to work. I enjoy the fire out of it. You ask Tammy. I am in my office almost all, I have to discipline myself to not work 'cause I enjoy what I do. It's never felt like a day of work in my life. I have to work to rest, and some of you need to work to rest. Because you're getting to a place, listen to me, where the amount that's going out of you is greater than the amount that is coming in you.
I'll give you this little thought out of Acts chapter 3, and it's just a story, but I just wanna give a point out of the story. It says, you know, "One day Peter and John were going up to the temple at the time of prayer, at three in the afternoon. And a man who was lame from birth was carried to the temple gate called Beautiful, where he was put every day to beg from those going into the temple courts. And when Peter and John's saw, was about to enter, he asked them for money," he was a beggar, "And Peter looked straight at him, as John did. And then Peter said, 'Look at us!' So the man gave them his attention, expecting to get something," so they said, "Hey, look at us". And he thought, "Oh my goodness, I finally, I got somebody who's actually gonna give me some money".
And then Peter said, "Silver or gold I do not have, but what I do have I give you. In the name of Jesus Christ, walk". And when I read that, I thought, there's a story there that's a story all by itself that I just read, but Peter is basically saying, "I can't give you what I don't have, but I can give you what I do have, and I'm asking you, 'What do you have?'" And are you as intentional about having as you are giving? I'm talking about your soul, your time, your energy, your emotions. 'Cause I try to give a lot, which means I have to have as much energy and times... are you following what I'm trying to say to y'all? Matthew chapter 10 says, you know, "Freely I have received; freely I give".
So, the point I'm trying to make to you is do you have a plan to be a receiver of the things of God? And I don't know if everybody does as intentional as I want it to or you need it to, and that's where I wanna close. In fact, Tyler, go ahead and play behind me and make the rest of this sound really spiritual, okay? It's gonna be great, very anointed. It's just anointed when Tyler's on the keyboard. I may go off on a song too. We may just worship here a little bit. Y'all want to, everybody? So there are three things that I'm gonna ask you not to let happen randomly. I'm gonna ask you to make them intentional so that you obey this command of God, and the first is, I'm gonna give it to you in the language of an old pastor that taught it to me.
So I didn't make this up, okay? I just, I love it 'cause it rhymes. It has alliteration to it. And that is: divert daily. Everybody say "divert daily". Like, if you don't have an everyday time where you're stopping your life, and it's not about giving out, it's about taking in, and it's about spending time with God, then I'm just here to tell you it's hurting you.
And I found a stat this week, I wanna read it to you, it just is so cool, that those, listen to this, who spend time with God every day, prayer, fasting, the Word, worship, whatever, you spend time, but you do it daily, listen to this, if you do it three out of the seven days, there's almost no significant change to the things in your life at all if you do it three out of the seven days, but if you spend time with God and worship, prayer, and the Word at least four times or more, the feelings of loneliness go down 33%. The feelings of bitterness go down 40%, and sexual lust and temptations go down 60% if you can get to at least four out of the seven days every week.
Now that is scientific proof that what God is recommending to us to do intentionally actually serves you incredibly well. And I talked about it a couple of Sundays ago, the daily quiet time. I'm telling you, what rested people do is they have this ability to divert daily. Here's the second one, and that is: withdraw weekly, withdraw weekly. And I'm talking about a Sabbath. Really, the meat of this is around this second one, that if you're not, if you're not, if you're not following the Sabbath day, and I'm going to explain what that should look like, if you're not following the Sabbath day, truly following it, then you're not only in disobedience, and y'all know I don't normally talk that strong, but I feel like I needed to say it that strong, you're not only in disobedience, but you're separating from the life and the peace of God that he wants for your life, and I want you to test it to see if it's true.
So, again, it's in the top ten. Exodus 20, in fact, in the Ten Commandments, it's the only one that's this long. Like, some of the Ten Commandments are "thou shalt not commit adultery," no more commentary. "Thou shalt not murder," nothing else. And then the Sabbath one is like a paragraph: "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. On it you shall not do any work, neither you, nor your son, your daughter, manservant, maidservant, animals, aliens within your gates. For in six days the LORD made the heavens and the earth, and the sea, and all that's in them, but he rested on the seventh day. Therefore the LORD blessed the Sabbath day and made it holy".
Now, Jesus made it clear. It's not about a particular day, it's just that one out of seven. 'Cause it can't be it can't be a particular day on a weekend for me. It can't be Saturday or Sunday. Those are work days for me. My Sabbath's Monday, but Sabbath is an enduring principle. We know that at Exodus 31: "It will be a sign between me and the Israelites forever". So this isn't... and then, course, Jesus validates it in the New Testament, but it's this one day where it literally doesn't even mean rest, it means cease from laboring. I'm just gonna say it. Can I say it like I want to say it, everybody? It means we're not gonna chase kids around every soccer field in Alabama. We're not gonna, you know, just... no, we're gonna set us out a day and make it holy and replenish. Just replenish.
I've done a lot of study. I should do an entire message for us on just the Sabbath, and I'm gonna bring this to a close, but I was reading about it from a Jewish author that I read about. And they said, let me just read you the ten things that they say every Sabbath contains: Not working for wages, not competing for rewards, that means athletics and games, making time to relax and do nothing, can I get a better amen somebody? Reading and studying spiritual materials, playing with the family, taking leisurely strolls and talking with each other, enjoying meals, the best meal of the week with friends and family, attending religious services or spiritual services, church, praying and meditating, and this is on her list, not mine: lovemaking with your spouse, can I get an amen, somebody?
But it was an intentional day to rest your body. I felt like somebody just needed to hear that. You need to rest your body a little bit better, and not just like, "Well, we're going on vacation next month". No, I'm talking about every week. You can't sustain that pace to recharge your soul, let your soul get fed again. Some of you guys, your soul is just in shambles right now. And then to refocus your spirit. Lord, I recommit to you, and I just wanna say this, and I'm saying it to the wrong crowd. Y'all are the Wednesday night crowd. I'd like to get this, maybe we can put it on the app, John. Get it out to the whole church. Like, I'm asking you, church, that God's asking for a day, not an hour at Highlands, but a day, where he set us out a day to honor and to worship him. Are y'all receiving this, everybody?
Come on now. I mean, Tammy and I do this faithfully. We really do. I disconnect from my phone all day on Monday. I don't answer any emails or texts. Tammy and I went out to eat this past Monday. We have been doing that date lunch or date night for going on 38 years, sat there with our calendars. I gooed and gawed at her for about a 30 minutes, like, "Oh, you're the most beautiful thing ever". All right, let's talk about our calendar for a few minutes. We do a little work together. We're aligned. We rest. Took a nap. It's awesome. Y'all wear me out on the weekend. I want y'all know that. No, I'm just kidding. And you need it. You need it as much, if not more, than me.
So I'm going to divert daily. I'm going to withdraw weekly, and then I'm gonna abandon annually. I'm gonna find time every year to get away. That's a vacation, and I'm not talking about a vacation like most people have them, where they're more tired when they get back from the vacation than they went. Some of y'all are like, you go home from your vacation, and you're like, "My God, I need a vacation". Okay, because, I'm trying to say this as respectfully as I can without being like a fussy preacher, but we're not supposed to see how much we can do in our lives. The goal isn't just do as much as we can. No, no, it's to replenish our soul. Such as I have, I give.
So, the invitation of Jesus, I'll close with this prayer. In fact, why don't you go ahead and stand with me, but don't leave yet. Just stand with me for a second. Just stand. You've been sitting a long time. Just stand for a second. But just stay for just... give me another minute or two. Jesus said, "Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest". And then he says this crazy thing that seems to contradict what he just said, "Take my yoke upon you," yokes were used to accomplish a lot of work. So a yoke was what you did to work. And he's basically saying, "I'm not asking you to slow down or stop working. I'm asking you to do it the right way so that you can actually," don't miss this, "you can actually produce more if you did it the right way".
And just like the tithe, like you, God will bless you on more on 90% than you will keeping your 100%. The same is true with your Sabbath. God can do more in six days than you can by yourself in seven. And by faith, we say, "God, I got a lot to do, but I'm not, I'm gonna slow down and get your strength and take your yoke upon me," and watch what happens. Your soul's better. Your rest is better. Your spirit's better. You're at more peace even though chaos is going around you, and then you have the almighty strength of God. And I feel led to close this way.
I want every head bowed and every eye closed. If you need to repent to God for not following any of his principles, I want you to lift your hand right now. Like, you said, "Man, God, I have violated this. I have ignored something that is on an important list, and I'm just saying I'm sorry, Lord. I am sorry. And God, right now, we," like I've had to do so many times, God, "we repent". What a healthy, beautiful thing it is to repent. Just to say, "God, we stepped out from underneath the umbrella and then wondered why we're getting wet. And Lord, we're just saying to you we're stepping back under your principles and your way, your enduring values and principles and commands that are for us".
And Lord, I speak the spirit of rest over every person at Church of the Highlands. God, give them the wisdom of knowing how to divert every day, to withdraw every week, and to abandon every year, Lord God. I speak blessing on them. Let the peace of God. Now, everybody open your hands before the Lord. And God, we're asking for the effects of righteousness, the rest and the peace of almighty God. We pray in Jesus's mighty name.