In this sermon, the speaker emphasizes the importance of finding rest in God amidst the burdens and struggles of life. He highlights that God desires to give us a spiritual rest that goes beyond occasional moments of relief. The speaker refers to the story of Joshua and the battle of Jericho, illustrating how God can provide victory and deliverance when we trust in Him. He concludes by encouraging listeners to cease from their own labors and instead carry the burden of longing for the abiding presence of God in their hearts.

Let us therefore fear lest a promise be left to us of entering into his rest any of you should come short of it For unto us was the gospel preached as well as unto them But the word preached did not profit them not being mixed with faith in them that heard it For we which have believed to enter into rest as he said 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 spake in such in a certain place of the seventh day on this wise and God did rest The seventh day from all his works and in this place again if they shall enter into my rest Seen therefore it remaineth that some must enter therein and they to whom it was first preached entered not in because of unbelief Again, he limited in a certain day saying in David today after so long a time as it is said today If you'll hear his voice harden not your hearts and if Joshua and it says Jesus in some of your translations But it's actually Joshua and if Joshua had given them rest Then he would have not have afterwards have spoken of another day There remaineth therefore a rest to the people of God for in that he entered into his rest He also has ceased from his own works as God did from his Let us labor therefore to enter into that rest lest any man fall after the same example of unbelief Father we thank you for your word this morning and we thank you for the rest that you want to give to us We ask that as we look at it, we'd understand this rest We'd understand what it is that you have for us how wonderful it is and how to enter in That we Lord could cease from our own labors these things that exhaust us that tire us that push us to the limits Lord that we could learn to rest in you and a greater and greater way Teach his fetus Lord from your word in Jesus name. We ask it. Amen Well here we have this morning as we've already of course just read in there the wonderful thing is is to realize here is the Lord tells us over and over within this threat of this text that the reality of The spiritual rest that God wants us to know that he wants to see is to be able to enter into To realize there honestly and truly is a rest just to give some of those verses again It says let us therefore fear lest being Or a promise being left of us of entering into his rest any of you should come short of it Down into verse 3 for we which have believed to enter into rest as he has said Down in verse 4 for he spake in a certain place on the seventh day on this wise and God Did rest the seventh day from all of his works verse 5 and in this place again If they shall enter into my rest verse 6 seen then it remaineth that some must enter therein Down verse 8 and if Joshua had given them rest then he would have not have afterwards spoken of another day There remaineth verse 9 therefore a rest for the people of God and he that has entered into this rest Over and over verse after verse The rest that God wants to give us where we really the Bible tells us we cease from our own labors We cease from our own efforts our own energy our own genius our own Responsibility the burden of our own life upon ourself. That is one of the greatest and most wonderful thrilling aspects of the Christian life that day by day the issues the Responsibilities the trials the burdens the struggles that come upon us within our homes our families our health our finances our careers, whatever it may be the stresses of life the burdens the griefs the sorrows the struggles the Agonies to realize that God wants us to discover in him all of those things. He watches us. He sees us Experience them and yet he is with us all the time wanting to give it to me Offer it to me. Let me have it cease from your own labors And here as he goes on now in the book of Hebrews He wants to give us here another one of these wonderful analogies as we have saying been saying throughout the book of Hebrews as we've been teaching it is that all of these wonderful Old Testament pictures that we have been looking at They're merely allegories or pictures of the finished work that Jesus Christ have none of them actually did the work But they were an outward Representation of what Jesus inwardly wants to do within our lives so when Moses came along and he delivered the children of Israel out of bondage and Out of you know Egypt out of slavery and into freedom This was something there that you know That that wasn't a picture of what Christ would do Moses took him from one side of a river to another Took them from you know slavery to freedom and yet at the same time They still had you know that a lot of issues and struggles obviously going on within their life But it was a picture on how Jesus Christ comes and he's our deliverer Not just from one side of a river to another but a one end of eternity to another from the pit of hell To the heights of heaven there that he presents us now faultless before God. We are his children Just as Aaron the high priest was a high priest who went in there into the Holy of Holies in this tabernacle Just built by men to symbolize something though It's something when we pick up the New Testament We realize that is a physical visible picture of what Jesus Christ did in heaven where there he goes into the Holy of Holies eternally by his own shed blood Offers himself for us to make atonement for us, you know Aaron the high priest symbolized something all of which it happened here on earth But it was a picture of what was actually going on in heaven Well here as we look at Joshua and in chapter 4 the one that was now to come along there to give them rest from their enemies Moses got them out of Egypt, but he didn't get them into the land of rest He got they were in the wilderness, you know going around in circles for a 38 40 years And as they found themselves is going around and around and around There they still had all the same burdens and struggles and trials instead of the taskmaster being Egypt or Pharaoh Now they had one just as wicked it was themself You know the we're no better of a master of our own life than anybody else is and somebody else Tells us what to do and we are so angry at them for forcing us So we go off into Liberty and run our own life and don't do any better with it Now don't don't have any more answers than anybody else did We're not in the the land of rest or a victory yet and here Joshua He was now taking them not only, you know But through the Red Sea that Moses brought them through but now through the Jordan River on into a land There was typified as a land of rest That they were to bring them in a figurative picture where they now were deceased in a sense from their labors and know God's blessings It tells us in Joshua 13 1 though. It says now Joshua He was old and stricken in years and the Lord said unto him thou art old and stricken in years and there remaineth yet Very much land to be possessed here Joshua had gone along and he'd fought hard and for a number of years and they still didn't really fully enter into that rest So they went back and had some more battles in between Joshua 13 and Joshua 21 It tells the Lord speaks again. He's in Joshua 21 43 it says and the Lord gave unto Israel all the land Which he swore to give unto their fathers and they possessed it and they dwelt therein and the Lord gave them rest round about according To all that he swore unto their fathers and there stood not a man of all of their enemies before them the Lord Delivered all of their enemies under their hand and there failed not ought of any good thing Which the Lord had spoken unto the house of Israel all of it came to pass and here through the years They finally inherited they finally entered into all of these things that God had promised them They had them and then at the end of Joshua's life a few chapters later in Joshua 24 13 It tells us and I have given unto you the Lord speaks unto him the land which you did not labor Cities which he built not And he dwelt in them and vineyards and all of yours which you planted not do you eat? Now therefore fear the Lord and serve him in sincerity and in truth and put away the gods which your father served on the other side of the flood and of Egypt and you serve the Lord your God here is Joshua now as he said they're looking back now through it. They finally entered into this rest They have these cities. They didn't build all of yours and vineyards. They didn't plant wells They didn't dig and all these blessings they had and so they found in a sense rest and in a peace But yet here is the writer of Hebrews tells us though And kind of his basic argument here in this particular section is is that God had promised again the children of Israel Arrest were told there of course in verse 1 as we all you know read it But they truly, you know, they failed to truly enter into it they figuratively sort of entered into that rest but not truly and But his promise still stands. He still looks at us He says there still remains a rest for the people of God. It is still there The promise of God hasn't ended he tells says if Joshua there in verse 8 had given them rest And he did give them a rest, but he didn't give them a spiritual rest He gave them a national rest he gave them a political rest sort of a thing But not a spiritual rest that the national rest that that physical rest though was just a type It was a symbol of where God now looks and he says that rest that they had nationally that rest that they had Politically is to be a picture of the rest I want to give you spiritually where you know what it is to cease from your own labors and he says had and he goes on here in the text that we read if Joshua had given them rest then he wouldn't speak of later of when David spoke there in verse I think seven again Says there he limited a certain day saying in David and this is out of Psalm 95 today after so long time He says today if you'll hear his voice in other words many many years after Joshua They still had not entered into this rest They hadn't discovered it and God still says well, they maybe didn't enter into it. It's still there There still remains a rest for the people of God and he's looking there and says I want you to have it And so essentially here the thing is is that the whole aspect of this section of Scripture is there is still a rest There remains therefore a rest for the people of God as he says in verse 9 and he relates this rest In this text as well in verses 4 and in 10 to God's rest for it says in verse 4 for he spake in a certain day Of the seventh day on this wise and God did rest the seventh day from his works in verse 10 It says for he that has entered into his rest. He has also ceased from his works as God did his Here the writer says God, you know worked for six days created created created seventh day God rested and now that some may think that there God rested because he was just so tired as if boy that That exhausted me. Those were a tough six days I didn't realize how hard it was gonna be to make creation, you know and to do all of this No, what it means there to rest isn't it's not an arrest because of exhaustion It's a rest in the sense that he is merely as he's never he wasn't as if he was tired at all of Creating the world's the rest there. It merely speaks of a completion of a piece of a satisfaction essentially the Sabbath rest of the soul where you just look at you look at all of this and say eyes and it's wonderful not Exhausted not a tired But here this is what God wants for us He wants to give us this sense of arrest where we can look at life and we just cease in a sense From our own labor. This is what Jesus talked about when he says come unto me All you that labor and are heavy laden And he says I you know, we'll give you rest this wonderful, you know thing He says if you are you doing your own work? Are you burying your own burdens? Are you struggling through all of the issues of life all by yourself? What are you doing that for Jesus it come to me if you're laboring I will give you this rest this rest of God that just as God rest God, you know in his work is ceased You too can know this rest within your life. He said take my yoke upon you and learn of me He says I'm meek and lowly of heart and he says you shall find rest if you do this You will find rest for your soul. He says for my yoke is easy My burden is light and so here he tells us that I think that one of the most important things First of all for every one of us is to stop and realize Do we know God has such a realm for us that there is such a place that spiritually God wants us to have this rest How many of us you know through you are already thinking maybe about the week ahead of you and the struggles in the burdens and the tasks and the responsibilities Sometimes maybe some people come in here and sit down in church and it's maybe one of the quietest times you really have all week Long and therefore you to get it's almost. Okay, I get a little space here The guy's probably gonna go for 30 40 minutes So I can now just space off and think about all the burdens I've got all the struggles I've got and plan out my week and I know what some of you do you sinners, but the Timing Jack we got to work on timing but the But so often at the same time, where's we still get out of here and the weight of the world is upon us and We just and even though we're Christians were praying During the week and we're asking for this and thanking God for this and yet still the weight of the world is on us for our homes or our marriages or our families or our careers and the burdens and this mental strife and grief and Struggles of life and we're carrying them day in and day out Driving down the road in in the weight of the world is on us You were sitting there in the office and somebody can just come by in a moment. Say hello. Is it what? Just scaring me like that for what are you bothering me for? I didn't you But we're on edge And so often because of the weight of it all and here the Bible God wants us to know I have a rest for you I have a place where you can actually cease from your own labor Where you can lay all of your cares upon him knowing that he cares from you and cast your cares I'll bear every burden Every sorrow every grief and if we don't know that You can't go there You can't go where you don't know You can't experience a life You don't know exists if me if you just think the Christian life is you just trying to mimic what you think God would do If he was trying to do what you're trying to do If you merely just look at the Christian life as something that you're there to sweat it out struggle it through And and just ask God for a little you know help here and there Rather than realizing there's a place where you say Lord. This is your job to live the Christian life live it in me I've got the body That's about all I got but you've got the love you've got the power you've got the wisdom you've got the genius You've got the plan You've got the ability to do absolutely anything and everything and so why don't we take what you got and I got you don't happen Have a body right now. I do I Got what you want, and you've got what I want rest How do we get the two together? And then after he tells us over and over and over about this rest that he has that he wants to give us he kind Of throws us here, you know something out of left field in verse 11, and he says let us Labor therefore to enter into that rest now he turns around He says rest rest rest rest verse after verse that remains the rest and they say oh, yes, I wanted and now he turns he says Let us therefore labor to enter in So we know I thought you just said we're gonna cease from our labors I just thought you just said we're gonna cast all of our cares upon you for you care for us I thought there that this was what the whole subject is and now you turn around you say let us therefore labor But here's where the catch is and It's a very simple one And if you don't hear anything else I've got to say today I suppose this is the only way I know how to say it and but essentially I believe God wants to take all of our cares All of our burdens all of our trials all of our labors all of the things that weigh us down all of the things that are heavy upon us and God wants to leave us with one simple labor. I'll take all the other burdens the only burden I want to lay upon you is the burden of entering into my presence is The burden of entering into my rest that the great burden the great longing the great You know desire the great labor of your life is not the external labors out here It's the internal labor of personally knowing me of entering into my rest and into my presence Simply there God wants to lift every single burden upon Upon himself. He wants us to cast every care upon him and he wants only to put one upon us And that is the burden of knowing him The burden of our heart there of looking to him the burden essentially of himself it's interesting back and that's the same thing God wanted to teach the children of Israel through Joshua and It's several occasions there. It tells us they're about Joshua and when they're coming into the land They're coming into this land of rest. They're coming into this land of victory. They're coming into this land of Overflowing blessing into their life and as all of this is to happen as they're coming into Canaan It says in Joshua 3 2 it came to pass after three days that the officers or officers went through the host and they commanded the people saying when you see the Ark of the Covenant of the Lord your God and the priests and the Levites Bearing it then you shall remove it from removed from your place and you will go after it and there it shall be a space between you and it of 2,000 cubits by measure Come not near unto it that you may know the way by which you must go for you have not passed this way heretofore And Joshua said unto the people sanctify yourselves for tomorrow. The Lord will do wonders among you And Joshua spake unto the priest saying take up the Ark of the Covenant there you put it upon your shoulders They were to carrot carry it there were to bear it upon their shoulders and he says in Passover before the people and they took up the Ark of the Covenant and they went before the people and the Lord said unto Joshua this day I will begin to magnify thee in the sight of all of Israel that they may know that as I was with Moses So I will be with thee and thou shalt command the priests that bear the Ark of the Covenant saying when you come unto the Brink of the water of Jordan you shall stand in Jordan and Joshua said unto the children of Israel come hither and hear the words of the Lord your God and Joshua said hereby you shall know that the Living God is among you and that he will without cease or without fail Drive out from before you the Canaanites hippotites Hittites Jebusites Jebusites Perizzites Gergashites Amorites Jebusites and the termites and behold Just want to know if you're listening and he says be verse 11 He says behold the the Ark of the Covenant of the Lord of all of the earth passes over before you unto Jordan Now therefore take you 12 men out of the tribes of Israel out of every man a tribe And it shall come to pass that is the souls of the feet of the priests that bear the Ark and the Lord your God of all of the earth they shall rest in the waters of Jordan and the waters of Jordan shall be cut off from the waters that come above and Below and they shall stand upon a heap here the Lord told the children of Israel He said you want to go into this land of rest He says I want you for one thing I want you with every one of you tribe 12 tribes I want you'll all select one representative of the 12 tribes a man for every tribe And he says and then they're gonna go out here with the priests and there will be the priests that will take the Ark of the Covenant They're that which was symbolized the presence of the Lord the Lord's in back in Exodus 20 He spoke about the Ark of the Covenant he said there will I commune with thee and thee with me the Ark of the Covenant to the children of Israel was the Symbol of God's abiding presence with them and he told the priests He says you will carry the Ark upon your shoulders There was the Ark of the Covenant was to have rings on it and stabs or poles that went through and then they the priest Bore the Ark upon their shoulders now the Lord the day they're going into the land He says I want to them the priest to pass through the people with the Ark of the Covenant and as they see it pass I want them all to stand back ultimately 2,000 cubits in other words He says I want it to be in such a way as they're going down There to the riverbank that the people all stand far enough back that every single one in a distance is able to see it that You don't have something or what's going on with in the middle of all these people know you all stand back 2,000 cubits well over a mile and he says and as the people there they were in an hour to watch these Representatives of theirs and the priest that bore the Ark. He said I want you to see the key to this They will bear the Ark the presence of God upon their shoulders They're gonna walk down to Jordan and when they walk down to Jordan They're gonna step out into the water and they're gonna put their feet in the water And as they walk out into the water He says I will stand the water up in a heap on one side And then they will all walk through and then you will all follow on dry land Which is precisely what it was that happened the Lord told the children of Israel essentially don't worry How things are going to do the miracle of the whole power of living is to where I'll take all the burdens I'll take all the trials But the one thing that you will bear upon your shoulders upon your heart the one weight you will carry is the burden or the weight Or the longing or the deep desire for that abiding presence of God within your heart That's what you will bear upon your heart That is what you will bear in the amazing way and simply that God has created life as if I bear him If he is the one that I long to my heart in my life to be caught up in Then in that all the other things they just amazingly and wonderfully disappear You don't have to be a Christian too long to where you realize these times in your life You cried out God you're it you're everything and at those times everything fails, isn't it? Well, that isn't just to be an occasion here and there that's to be every day of life every day he is to be again the burden a Few chapters later when Joshua now, they're going into the the first battle He's looking at Jericho and as there as he's even thinking and looking at Jericho and wondering about it How is he gonna take it? What's gonna go on? You know what this thing and as he's looking and thinking about Jericho the next thing, you know, all of a sudden there You know, maybe he's trying to figure out how many battering rams are going to need to get in How are we gonna strategize? Where are we put all the forces to try to go through this wall? you know over that wall or through this gate or where we break in to try to win this battle is you can almost just Sense there is Joshua looking at this city Strategizing the battle ahead of him the week ahead of him the birds ahead of him And as he's doing that all of a sudden a man appears before him with a sword in his hand he startled he jumps back He's not that for us or for adversary He says neither But as captain of the host of the Lord do I stand before thee? Here all of a sudden there is he's kind of looking at in life. He's looking at his week. He's looking at the battles He's trying to work it out the next thing, you know, somebody there's like he's got a sword He said oh, no, whose side are you on their side or ours? You're obviously a warrior He says I'm not on either side However, I do happen to be commander-in-chief of all of the armed forces of heaven and earth Joshua it isn't am I on your side of their side? The issue is whose side are you on? Who are you resting in and then he says take off your shoe? That the place we're on us ten. This is holy ground and there is Joshua knew what it was just to bow Before the Lord himself and realize you're the battle aren't you it is it isn't Jericho The Lord then he stretches out and he points to Jericho and he says that have I given unto thee this day Don't worry about how you're gonna take it Here's what I want you to do I want you to take the ark the same way you got into the land in the first place is the way you're gonna fight the battle I Want the priest now day by day to walk around the outside and all the people can watch the priest bear the ark As they just go around as they surround Jericho as they look at Jericho as you meditate on Jericho I want you to see me. Don't worry about Jericho Day by day as you do this and you just learn to rest your focal point is not the battle. It isn't Jericho It isn't the struggles. It's the fact Lord. You are powerful enough to handle every Jericho in the world. You created it What is too hard for you? And then as I'm gonna drill it in and drill it in day after day as it is the art goes around day after day and They meditate on it. You'll come to the realization Battles of life have nothing to do with the cities or the people it has to do with keeping your eyes upon me resting in me And the last day when we get around you just shout Just cry out to me and then you watch and you see the walls as they come tumbling down and You know, the amazing thing is when I look there in life God has this way of where he gives us this amazing thing in life all of these Relationships all of these struggles none of which we were ever even designed or created to handle He did not create you to handle a marriage or to raise children Those are dear Jericho's. Yeah, though you actually you were so excited. I want to get married. Remember that then you got married Whoa, is this a city or what? You know or something there to try to the walls that get built up in a marriage or in a family the tensions And yet and all of the things that humanly just to your undoing that can happen until something happens You realize the Lord this is you isn't it? this is your way of wanting to teach me to fully depend upon you and So often we're there we're trying to figure out how many battering rams am I gonna need to get through to this woman? You know or this man or this child? How am I gonna strategize? Where am I gonna get through the walls? How am I gonna climb over? How are we gonna take this and win something? In the meantime, the Lord looks there and he says When you're gonna learn that you're not gonna break that down you're not gonna win it It's not until you just let me go around and the real burden isn't the people It isn't the struggles. It isn't the relationships. It's me teaching you to trust me in everything It's me bringing you to the place where you just say Lord. This is really yours, isn't it? You really have an answer for this, don't you? You really you can handle all of this something. We're so thrilled about yesterday. I married my niece well, I did the ceremony the I Started But the in which it's funny I've probably done Well over five or six hundred weddings and they're all the same. They're all I can't believe You know, you look at him at each other. He's literally the ceremony When do I get to kiss her? When do I get to kiss you want to say don't ever forget that Remember that a year from now to 10 20 years Always be when do I get to kiss her? You know, when when do I you know, she's there I'm looking to my niece, you know, and she's looking there and she says and I'll submit to you promising I mean, isn't this a riot you look at this sort of it. I mean we do this thing We call the marriage ceremony where we where we get you mean We invite our uncles and aunts and grandmas and grandpas and all of our cousins and all of our friends and people up and down the street and the neighborhood and we spend tens of thousands of dollars and we get into these beautiful outfits and then he goes and rent stuff to try to make himself look good and everybody comes in and You got this wonderful thing to watch two people Stand up and have the courage in front of God and everybody lie through their teeth and And you and and and then I'm the one giving them the script, you know, I'm thinking what am I But the but then you head off and now okay, there's the river there's Jericho go get it But until we realize there remains a rest until something happens where I realize God you are the one that must do it And Something happens within us that we realize Lord. I want to labor to enter into that. I Want to discover that you truly are the one That can solve it That all the burdens and the issues and the struggles of life they have nothing to do with the cities that you come to in the week that is ahead of you and the Employment issues that are going on or this or whatever it is. That's facing you today or this week and nothing to do with that That's just merely the script in a sense God writes to say now Let's see if you really want to labor to enter into rest If you really truly want me and you want to value me and my power and my presence and my work within your life More than anything in anybody than winning or losing or strategizing or how it's going to be done That the labor is of learning to stand on that hill and to keep your eyes upon me as I encircle something and I go around Oh There is if we spend as much time, you know They're watching God as we do figuring battering rams on how to win Strategizing how high a ladders I'm gonna make to have to get over the wall Trying to figure out all the other things in life if we just sat there and just learn to look to him Instead of going to the wife and say this is what you did You know and to be able to walk around and say Lord show me what she needs Let me walk around this for a few days Let me look to you. Let me see your rest your power What is it that I can say? What is it that I can do? What are your answers in this if we could labor and then spend half the time? Sitting before God waiting upon him seeking his power. Oh That if we had labor that way That's so often it is something that this is when the Bible says let us labor I suppose this is the labor of life If God could focus our hearts and our desires and our attention say Lord, this is the labor I want to have and it also is the labor of life. It is the greatest labor I suppose in a sense of all of life and it's the most worthy and the most wonderful I suppose of all labors. I Remember All of our three sons deliveries But I remember I suppose our first one the best or the first labor that gene had There and since it was it was actually my birthday And we're having a little birthday party with my parents in the evening and genes kind of excited because he feels I think today's the day I said, that'd be great. She said I give you a child for a birthday. This is we this is before they did sonograms We didn't know boy or girl and we this is before Lamaze we didn't know we had no idea what we were in store for this is back in the old days when the doctor said you're pregnant and You know sort of a thing and then and and all and let me know, you know when it's time Well, how will we know he says? Oh, you'll know Okay, you know just in case we don't want to did it happen, you know, yeah, it happened yesterday I forgot, you know, we we were not trained on what to look for anything He just said when you go into labor, you'll know it. Okay, then we'll see And so here she's going into labor. She can feel the pain We're having you know dinner with my parents and we're talking about it Wouldn't this be exciting get a child for my birthday present. This is kind of neat and gene. She's all excited and So my parents leave to go home. Well, she calls the doctor and he says yeah, it sounds to me like you're getting it's gonna You know be there and I'll call the hospital Let him know you'll be coming in and you can call him let him know too and so we did and then gene goes in and she lays out this outfit that she's gonna wear to the hospital and That she's already planned. She's got her going to the hospital outfit there that she's got and then she goes in and she does her Hair up because you know all their hair just I mean we're going to have a child This is the most exciting thing we've done, you know here And so she's she's got the outfit laid out and she does her hair all up and she's got all of her makeup on just You know, perfect, you know Yeah, wonderful good and we just that's all we knew it and so then they're getting closer we get in the car We drive to the hospital, you know, the wheelchair and get her out take her in and she's I mean, I'm a baby I mean, so that's great She looked beautiful, you know sort of thing it's just great this was so exciting and these pains are getting a little closer getting a little bit more intense and And and then after about an hour real labor hit and The next thing, you know, I mean I'm watching in the space about ten minutes There were after this real labor hit the party was over. I And my wife turned into a terrorist, you know before you know, my very eyes I won't wait a minute What's happening here? Something's gone wrong This is terribly terribly wrong. This is to be a wonderful exciting thing. She's looking at me with his eyes, you know Penetrating they melted my being going through me. I'd and this is what happened There's a distance between us here somehow or another and her her beautiful hairdo It looked I mean it looked like the wreck of the Hespers, you know or something there and and in a little while I'm here her makeup was Everywhere, but where it started, you know, and and it's her face is contorted into this Animal sort of a bean, you know as I'm looking at all of this this happening and she's she's sweating You know like a lady mud wrestler or something there and it was losing and I'm looking at what's what's Happened here is she's literally in the battle of her life You know sort of and we are absolutely confused and now you realize why they call it labor you know sort of a thing when the But you know, that's perhaps in one sense a very fitting thing And a very appropriate thing to happen. I suppose in a way to have something as wonderful result as A family, I mean it's something that you look at and of course everyone at the end of that, you know, it's worth it Somehow another it's something you look at and you realize that was a labor that was worth it When you realize there with all of the fight and all the battle and all of the struggle that went on It ought to be something that I suppose is greater than most any other labor that we would ever have in our life fitting But you know at the same time I Think a lot of us as Christians We look at that we enter into spiritual labor kind of like the way we did our first child In the sense we enter into it was sort of the ad same attitude, you know I want to grow spiritually and we almost have our little outfit that we want to lay out. I'm gonna go to church I'm gonna learn Christ I'm gonna go to church. I'm gonna read the Bible I'm gonna worship and I'm gonna pray and I'm gonna have these little additions into my life in this happy little Christian life It's Christian home this Christian family or whatever else and then it isn't long until real labor hits and we're in maternity ward screaming our lungs out and Yet God looks and he says this is the labor and it's fitting That the greatest labor of your life is the labor to bringing forth the rest of life entering into that rest Discovering that rest of what it really is in all of the struggles of life that want to grasp you that want to control you that have held you hostage almost to their anger and their impatience and their frustrations and taking control of your mouth or your attitudes your behavior or your you know spitting little remarks and Finally, they've just manipulated you and they've and you begin to say I will go through any labor to see this cease And where somebody else takes over And I can rest From these things That's the great labor and it's a worthy labor. It's fitting and Then when we would look there and when the writer of Hebrews said let us therefore labor to enter into this rest It ought to be something the Lord says you look at me and you trust me and you rest in me and do it Today five times Here in these verses. He says today verse 7 He says today if you will hear his voice in chapter 3 verse 7 It says today if you heard a voice chapter 3 verse 13 today Lest any of you be hardened verse 15 of chapter 3 while it is said today if you will hear his voice Hebrews 4 7 today after so long time it has said today if you will hear his voice over and over five times He says right now today Enter in to this rest About the children of Israel somebody once wrote. He says they came to the gates of Canaan, but they never entered in they came to the land of promise, but they perished in their sin and So we are ever coming to the place where two ways part one leads to the land of promise and one to a hardened heart and Either something happens Lord today. I want to enter in I'm right at a crossroads Am I gonna go back and fight Jericho and then the next city in the next city in the next city? This husband this wife this child this responsibility these finances this health or am I gonna stand back? And labor to keep my eyes upon you and do it today There remaineth yet a rest for the people of God. He has one for you He has one for you today. I Read a story the other day of an orphanage Some people from a church group They got all the children's names in the orphanage in their age and they got Christmas presents for them and at Christmas time They took them all over and they had all of these Packages and all of the children are all gathered together So excited and as they stood up and they called out one child's name after another each one He just ran up and picked up his you know His present and they were just so thrilled so excited and then they called, you know one name Billy nobody answered And they said Billy, you know and and and there's nothing and they're looking around They say Billy and they look over and they notice there's one kid that he's kind of looking to the right and he's looking to The left. He's he kind of holding on his chair. He's leaving leaning forward But they said Billy first Billy and Then one of the other you know kids in the room screens back at him. He says Billy that means you and Then somehow or another it just penetrated realizing he jumped up out of his chair and he came forward He'd never wasn't used to receiving gifts in the thought even though he heard his name And he leaned forward. He thought could this be me, but he went back Not could be me So somebody said Billy he means you And today I'll tell you you said maybe you sit there on the edge of your chair So I wouldn't be wonderful. That was my name wouldn't be wonderful. If that was me arrest That he's that God's talking about wouldn't be wonderful if I could enter into this. Well, I want to tell you something. He means you He means you today today today today The Lord looks at every one of us. He's no respecter of persons. He says what I did for Joshua Moses Or the Apostle Paul I do for you Enter into my rest next week. We'll look at more of how Faith wonderful adventure of faith But today enter in father. We thank you for your word and your love and we ask that today Each one of us would hear you say today there remains a rest. Aren't you tired? Aren't you exhausted? I Think Lord you must be so amazed at us sometimes looking at how we will stress now We'll strain how we'll even cry out and say I can't take any more I've reached the limit And then we fall asleep in our exhaustion utterly exhausted wake up the next day only to go back right to it To pick up the burden again to carry it all To go through the day and you watch this through these endless cycles. It seems never resting Lord, I pray that today today today we would hear your voice and We would have this great longing Lord. How do I make you the burden of my life? How do I make you the one that I want to look at and say it isn't the cities. It isn't the battles That I want to be the burden anymore. It's the burden of knowing Jesus Christ. Oh that I may know him The power is resurrection the fellowship of his suffering Lord May we want to know you deeply take your word minister to us father even today in Jesus name. We ask it Amen