Mark, Galatians 1, we'll come back near the end of the sermon, but if you would, please
turn over to the book of Mark, chapter six. Book of Mark, chapter six. I want to preach
tonight on the command to rest. The command to rest. And say, wait a minute, this is a
Baptist church, this is a soul-winning church. You guys are all fired up about getting out
there and knocking all the doors and getting everybody saved and go, go, go. And that's
true. But there's also a command in scripture for us to rest. And that's what I want to
preach about. Sometimes we need to be reminded that it's okay to take a break. That it's
okay to slow down a little bit and keep our pace. Because I don't know about you, I'm
in this for the long haul. The Christian life is something I want to live until the very
end of my life. And in order to do that, you have to understand that you can't be going
100 miles an hour all the time. Sometimes you need to back off a little bit, slow down,
and catch your breath so you can get another sprint in. And of course, the Christian life
is often been likened unto a marathon, not a sprint. And that's what it is. It really
is a marathon. You have to think in terms of not years, but decades. You have to think
about the fact that you want to serve God with your entire life. So in order to do that,
we all have to understand that there is a command to rest. You know, sometimes we want
to rest, but sometimes people feel guilty. They say, you know, maybe I shouldn't be taking
it easy here. Maybe I should out be doing this, or out doing that. But the Bible is
real clear, and we'll see here tonight, that God is a God of rest. He's the God of all
comfort. He's the God that gives rest unto his people. Jesus said, take my yoke upon
you, for my burden is easy. My yoke is easy, my burden is light, is what he said. Or there
was something similar. I'm probably paraphrasing a little bit there. But you get the point
that Jesus is a God, you know, of course he wants us to labor, wants us to work for God,
but he wants us to do it for the long haul. Not to just blow in and just get all fired
up and then just fizzle out. You know, there's that saying that I heard growing up. It's
better to burn out than fade away. Well, you know what, that's not true. That's not biblical.
It's better to slowly fade out than to just burn up all at once. It's better to slowly
burn rather than just be somebody who has a lot of show, a lot of lights, and then fizzles
out very quickly. We want to be people, as God's people, who are going to serve him over
the long run. In order to do that, we have to understand the command to rest. Now if
you're there in Mark chapter 6, look at verse 30. And the apostles gathered themselves together
unto Jesus and told them all things, both what they had done and what they had taught.
So if you recall, he had sent them out two by two and told them to go preach the gospel,
and they've done all these great miracles and they're coming back and they're very excited
about everything that's taking place. And rightfully so. You know, they're doing a lot
of work. They're very active, right? And of course, Jesus in verse 31, he said unto them,
you know, well, that's great. Now get back out there and do it again. Right? What are
you doing here? Why did you stop? What are you telling me for? No, it says there in verse
31, and he said unto them, come ye yourselves apart into a desert place and rest awhile.
And he said, you know what, you guys are doing a lot of work. You're putting a lot of effort
in there. I'm glad for that, but why don't you come apart for a little while, come into
a desert place with me and let's rest. You know, sometimes it's important for us just
to get alone with God. You know, sometimes the Christian life, you know, there's a lot
of stress involved. There's a lot of just go, go, go. There's a lot of work that we
have to do. And you know, if we're not careful, we're going to end up, you know, like, like,
like like Martha, you know, who, who was very cumbered about, about much business. You know,
we should shoot. Sometimes it's best to just sit at Jesus' feet and listen to what he has
to say. You know, there's plenty of work to do. You know, there's always going to be another
soul to save. There's always going to be, you know, the door to knock. There's always
going to be more work to do. The work is limitless. You know, the fields are white unto harvest
and there's not enough labors to begin with. We understand that and we can work our fingers
to the bone, but some, and we should at times, don't get me wrong. I'm not saying we should
just bow out of the Christian life and just make life, you know, you know, just put it
on cruise control. But sometimes as we see here, when we've done a lot of work, when
we've been putting in the effort, that's a good time to do what Jesus said, to come
apart into a desert place and rest a while. You know, take some time to recuperate, to
recharge. For there were many coming and going, he said, and they had no leisure so much as
to eat. I mean, they couldn't even find a place to sit down. They couldn't even stop
and get some food in their mouth because there's so many come, so many people coming, wanting
to see Jesus, seeing Jesus, going away. There's a lot of hustle and bustle. It's just saying,
wait, let's just take a break. Let's go apart and let's pray. Let's take, let's rest and
just get apart. And they, and then it says there in verse 32, and they departed into
a desert place by ship privately. Okay. So after going out and doing his great works,
Jesus takes his disciples aside privately in order to rest a while. And what that should
show us, and if you would keep something in Mark, but go back to, you can go to Exodus
if you'd like, Exodus chapter five. You know, I'm going to read from there. If you'd like
to join me there, you can, but keep something in Mark. What this shows us is that God is
not just the senseless slave driver. You know, God's not just up in heaven, just trying
to crack the whip on us. Now look, there's times, you know, when we need to crack the
whip, there's certain things we don't take a break from ever. You know, we don't take
a break from the Bible reading. We don't take a break from prayer. We don't take a break
from church. These are things that we should be involved in. These are things, those are
the things that are going to give us rest. I mean, you know, church is a little different
for me now, having been the deacon for, you know, almost two years and having doing the
preaching three times a week, that's a first for me. And there was, but there was, you
know, over a decade, almost 20 years of me being in the pew. And I can tell you from
experience, that's not a lot of work to show up and sit down. You know, it's pretty easy
to just, I mean, we can't say, oh, I got to take a break from church. It's just so hard.
Come on. Is it really that hard? I mean, I know you have to look at me. I know you have
to listen to me. And sometimes I could be a little bit of, you know, maybe hard to put
up with, right? Don't aim in that. But, you know, I know it's a joke. But anyway, I'm
just saying, look, you know, sometimes it's hard to do some things in the Christian life,
but going to church, reading our Bible, those are the things that give us rest. You know,
coming here is like coming to that desert place. Look, there's many out in the world
coming and going. There's a lot of hustle and bustle out there. It's nice to have a
place where you can come and rest a while. Come on the weekend and hear the preaching
the Word of God. You know, get the spiritual manna that you need to go back out into the
world and live the Christian life and do what you need to do for God.
So don't get me wrong. There are some things we should never give up. In fact, those are
the things that are going to give us rest. Prayer, you know, taking our burden to the
Lord, you know, and pouring out our hearts before him, you know, taking and casting all
our burdens upon him. You know, he cares for us. You know, we can take these things. You
know, a lot of times we're worn down by the burdens that we're carrying. We need to just
take them to God in prayer. Prayer is not something we take a break from. Bible reading
is not something we take a break from. But the ministry, the work that we do, the knocking
on the doors, you know, some of these things, and you could even apply this just to life
in general. You know, sometimes there are seasons where we have to put in a lot of hours
at work. Your moms are, you know, going through a certain season with certain children where
they're having to spend extra time to teach them certain subjects or whatever it might
be. You can apply this, you know, beyond just the spiritual, you know, application of work
or of church. You know, sometimes there are seasons where we have to, you know, put our
nose to the grindstone and really go at it. But that, you cannot sustain that over an
entire life. Sometimes you have to just back off, slow down a little bit, and take a rest.
You know, a great example of this is the fact that, you know, what we did last Sunday. We
had a smaller group show up for the soul winning, which is, you know, fine, whatever. You know,
but I said, hey, we had about six guys, including myself, and I said, let's just go up to Mount
Lemon. Let's go up there. Let's talk about the church. Let's talk about what we're doing
here. And let's get up out of the valley and let's get up in what was like the 80s. You know,
go up there and enjoy the view, take in the cool weather. It was nice. And it was a rest to our
souls. You know, it was, we felt refreshed. You know, we were able to come back down, go and have
the evening service and go back at it this week, you know, this afternoon and knock some doors and
be refreshed. You know, God's not this senseless slave driver in heaven. God's not just expecting
us to just work ourselves to the bone until we just, you know, completely fall apart. And,
you know, there are slave drivers in the Bible, right? I had you go to Exodus five.
We know the story in Exodus five about, you know, Pharaoh, right? It says there in verse three,
and they said, the God of the Hebrews hath met with us. Let us go. We pray thee three days
journey into the desert and sacrifice the Lord our God, lest he fall upon us with pestilence or with
the sword, of course. So this is Moses coming saying, hey, let the people go. And the king said
in verse four, it said unto them, wherefore do ye, Moses and Aaron, let the people from their
works. What do you mean take a break? What do you mean three days off? What do you mean paid,
you know, apply this wherever you want. You know, what do you mean take a break? You know,
this isn't God speaking. This is the world speaking. This is the world's mentality.
And the world does have this mentality. And they will work you, work you, work you, work you, work
you, work you. You know, sometimes we can work for somebody that's like that. You know, if you've
ever had the unfortunate, you know, situation of having to work for a boss, it was like this.
It was just nonstop all the time. You know, often that guy doesn't keep employees around very long.
Now again, there's certain times where, hey, we have to hit it hard. We have to go hard.
The work's coming in. It's time to work. And then there's seasons where we can slow down a little
bit. But this is the world's mentality. What do you mean let the people from their works get you
unto your burdens? You know, he's saying, get back to work. What are you even here talking to me for?
What do you mean? You're coming to the boss. You're asking for time off. You know, what are
you doing? Get out of here. Go back to work. This is the world's mentality. And Pharaoh said,
behold, the people of the land now are many and you make them rest from their burdens.
And then of course, we know the story. Verse six, and Pharaoh commanded the same day the taskmaster,
the people and the officers saying, you shall give no more straw, excuse me, you shall give,
you shall no more give the people straw to make brick as heretofore. Let them go and
gather straw for themselves. So he doesn't even like this idea of, even the idea of them taking
a break. He says, you know what, you make their work that's hard, even harder. Now they have to
gather the straw as well and still make the same tale of bricks. But is that the Lord's attitude?
Is that how the Lord works? Or that's how the world works. That's their philosophy. God is not
this senseless slave driver like Pharaoh. You know, sometimes you go, Lord, I need a break. He
says, you know what, take one. Lord, you know, I need to slow down a bit and just rest a minute and
catch my breath. He says, you know what, go ahead, take a break and gather yourself. I mean, the Lord
provided many instances of rest in the form of the Sabbath, in the Sabbaths. I mean, we see that
throughout Scripture. I mean, look in Exodus chapter 23, if you'd like, go there. It says in
verse nine, Exodus 23 verse nine, also thou shall not oppress a stranger for you know the heart of
a stranger, seeing you were strangers in the land of Egypt and six years now thou shalt sow thy land
and gather thy, and shall gather in thy fruits thereof. He's saying, look, you're going to work
for six years. You're going to go out and you're going to, you're going to, you know, anyone who's
ever been involved in agriculture that knows that's hard work. That's sun up to sundown.
You know, that's, you're working every day. You're out there, no matter what the weather,
you have, you have to do it. Otherwise that crop's not coming in. And he says, look,
you'll do that for six years. You shall sow your land. But on the seventh, verse 11,
thou shalt let it rest and lie still, that the poor of thy people may eat, and what they leave
the beast of the field shall eat. And like manner shalt thou do with thy vineyard and thy olive
yard, six thou days shalt thou do thy work. And on thy seventh, and on the seventh thou shalt rest,
thou, that thine ox and thine ass may rest, and the son of thine handmaid and the stranger may be
refreshed. So he's saying, look, you're going to work six years and you're going to rest the
seventh. You're going to give everything a break on the seventh. And it's going to be,
you know, a blessing to other people. The poor of the land are going to be able to eat. The
strangers are going to be able to eat. And then he, so he says, you know, that's a, that's an
annual, you know, every, every six years. I don't know what that would be. It's not annual, but he's
saying, look, you'll have a whole year off. Now I'm not saying they just sat around and did nothing.
I'm sure they kept themselves preoccupied with other things. There was other work to do. Maybe
that's the time to, you know, sharpen the tools, get the barn fixed, whatever it is they had to do.
But he's saying, you're going to let the land rest. You're not going to go out and sow the
field and harvest the crop. You're just going to let it grow, let the land rest. You know,
and that was kind of a Sabbath to them. It was a Sabbath more to the land, of course,
you know, and science has shown us that there's, you know, there's, there's value to that,
that you let the soil, you know, regain the nutrients that it's lost and so on and so forth.
But, you know, he's also saying that you're going to rest every six days or every seventh day is
also going to be resting. You shall do no work. It's so that everything else can rest so that the,
you know, the beasts of burden can rest so that your servants can rest and so that you can rest.
So God even provided one day a week for us to take a rest. You know, that's not, you know,
and that's not something that we do today. You know, that's not something that we don't observe
the Sabbath. You know, we don't have respect to an holy day anymore, but you know, it is a
principle that we can apply. It is something we can look at. And now look, if a guy wants to work
seven days a week, you could do that. I don't think you're in sin to do that, but you know what?
I think there's some wisdom in taking a day off and resting or maybe taking every 14 days off
or every one day a month, take some time off, do what you need to do to what? Recuperate,
to catch your breath, to slow down and not just let life turn into just this long, hard, arduous
task. You know, to slow down and take a rest. God's not a slave driver. I mean, God expects us to
work hard. God gives us work to do, but God also provides rest. If you look at verse 14,
he goes even further. He says, three times shalt thou keep a feast unto me in the year,
and thou shalt keep the feast of unleavened bread, and thou shalt keep the unleavened bread seven
days as a command in the time appointed of the month Abib, for in it thou camest out from Egypt,
and none shall appear before me empty, and the feast of harvest, the first fruits of thy labor,
which thou hast sown in the field, and the feast of ingathering. So here's these three feasts.
They're just supposed to stop what they're doing and all go to Jerusalem and sacrifice and eat of
the sacrifices. I mean, you talk about a potluck, you know, that's what's going on here. God's
saying we understand it's also the sacrifices and all that. It was ceremonial, but God, if you
recall, also let them partake of those sacrifices. They would go and eat with the priest. The poor
would come. The stranger would come. Everyone got together these three times in a year,
and they would enjoy these sacrifices together. That was a time of rest. That was a time to get
together, fellowship. That's kind of what we're going to do, as you read in the flyer,
on that anniversary Sunday. Normally on Sunday afternoons, we'd go out 100 whatever degrees
for two, three hours sometimes and knock doors in Tucson and try to give people the gospel,
because that's the goal of this church. We're a soul-witting church. We want to knock every door
in this city. But here's the thing, sometimes we're going to go ahead and stop. There's some
Sunday, it's on an anniversary Sunday, once in a year maybe, probably more than that if we're
honest, right? We are Baptists after all. We're going to stop, and we're going to get together,
we're going to eat, and we're going to enjoy each other's company, and we're going to rest
a while. And you know what? There's nothing wrong with that. And this has to be preached,
because a lot of times you'll run into the hyper-spiritual types who want to say,
they're souls to save. What do you mean we're going to stop and have a potluck on that
anniversary Sunday? There's people dying and going to hell. Well, I'll remember that while you're
still working your secular job. Maybe you should just sell everything you have and never give rest
to your eyes again if you're so concerned. That mentality is out there, and we don't need to be
beat up or made to feel guilty that every once in a while we need to stop and take a rest. We see
God has provided rest for his people in the Old Testament. Jesus is taking his disciples aside
and giving them rest. And even the Lord himself rested at times. I mean, Genesis 18. Go to Genesis
18 rather. Genesis chapter 1. I mean, God made everything in six days. What did he do on the
seventh? He rested from all his labors and saw that everything that he made was good.
You know, chapter 1 of the Bible, you see God doing what? Taking a break,
resting from his labor, stopping, enjoying what he's made, seeing that it's good. That's the
nature of God. God's not this taskmaster saying, hey, you need to go ahead and just work as hard
as you can. And if you don't like it, I'm going to make you work even harder. That's not God.
That's the world. But in Genesis chapter 18, look at verse 1 that says, the Lord appeared unto him,
of course, speaking of Abraham, and appeared on him in the plains of Mamre. And he sat in the
tent door in the heat of the day. And he lifted up his eyes and looked and lo three men stood by him.
And when he saw them, he ran to meet them from the tent door and bowed himself toward the ground
and said, my Lord, if now I found favor in thy sight, pass not away. I pray thee
from thy servant. Let a little water, I pray you be fetched and wash your feet and rest yourselves
under the tree. And I will fetch a morsel of bread and comfort ye your hearts that you shall
pass on for there you are come to your servant. And they said, we don't have time for that. We're
on a mission here. Can you say we're busy? What do you mean stop and eat? No, it says so do as thou
has said. You know, the Lord accepted that from Abraham. So you know what, Abraham, I appreciate
that. I will stop and I will rest and I will eat. And then we know they went on and he told them
their plans. And of course, we know Genesis 19, the story of Sodom and Gomorrah, right? But the
point I'm pointing out here, the point I want to make here, rather, is that he said, look,
pass not away, I pray thee from thy servant. Verse four, let a little water, I pray you be
fetched and wash your feet and rest yourselves under the tree. He wants God to stop for a while,
rest with him so that he can talk to him, commune with God. You know, we ought to have
that same mentality. Maybe we need to be the ones to ask God to stop and rest a while with us,
to stop and just sit down and slow down and just speak with God and just be in fellowship with the
Lord. The Lord accepted it. He didn't say, you lazy bum, we got work to do. No, he said, you know
what, so do as thou hast said. The Lord accepted. So the purpose of rest is not to be lazy, but the
purpose of rest is to be refreshed in order to continue laboring. You know, we don't want to get
so relaxed that we just, we get so used to that, so comfortable with that, that now we feel like,
hey, this rest thing is pretty good. I think I'm just going to keep this going indefinitely.
You know, enter the welfare system, right? Enter, you know, unemployment. You know,
unemployment is a very dangerous thing. You know, this is kind of a relevant topic because of the
fact of, you know, people have been laid off a lot because of the whole COVID thing. You know,
a lot of things have shut down. People are getting let go. They're having to go on unemployment,
and I understand that, but here's the thing. You know, I'm not against it. You're paying into that
system. If you need it, it's there, but don't just rest on your lures and say, well, as soon
as it runs out, you know, I'll go ahead and take care of that whole job thing. You know,
people do that. They say, hey, you've got X amount of weeks of unemployment, and they're like, well,
I guess I'll just wake up at noon every day in my pajamas, you know, and just eat cereal the
whole afternoon and maybe get on, you know, some job search, and if I find just the right job,
but then as soon as, you know, a week or two out from that thing coming to an end, all of a sudden,
it's, you know, they're up early. They're making themselves look sharp. They're going out. They're
pounding the pavement. You know, we don't want to be that guy. I'm not saying let's turn rest
into this permanent condition, and that's just something I thought I'd throw out there,
but, you know, the purpose of resting for a while is to be refreshed in order to do what? In order
to continue laboring, in order to keep going so that we can go back at it even stronger and
continue going back at the work, to not just fade, not to just burn out. Go ahead and turn
over to Ecclesiastes chapter 7, Ecclesiastes chapter 7. The Bible says in John 4,
when therefore the Lord knew how the Pharisees had heard that Jesus made and baptized
more disciples than John, he left Judea and departed into Galilee, and he must needs go
through Samaria. So Jesus is like, look, I got to go here. I got to go through Samaria. I got
to go over here. He's working. He's ministering. Then cometh into a city of Samaria, which is called
Sychar, near the parcel of ground that Jacob gave to his son Joseph. Now Jacob's well was there.
Jesus therefore, what? Being wearied with his journey. God knows what it's like to get worn out.
I mean, that's one of the beautiful things about Jesus Christ. You know, he was tempted in all
points like as we are, yet without sin. He knows what it's like to put in a hard day's work. He
knows what it's like when the flesh is weak and tired and just needs to rest, and that's exactly
what he did. It says, being wearied with his journey, he sat thus on the well. He said, oh,
let me take a break, right? And of course, we know even while he was taking a break,
he continued to minister to the woman at the well, and that's another story.
But rest is required for the long haul. Look, he had needs to go through Samaria. He had a
destination to go to, but even he in his journey took a moment to take some rest. We could think
about the example of Elijah, right? When he's on his, he's running for his life from Jezebel.
He knows despairing of his own life. He wants to die. He goes under the tree, and he lays down.
He takes a nap, and the angel comes and kicks him in the ribs and says, you lazy jerk. You know,
get moving. You know what's he doing? He says, eat, and then he rests some more. He wakes him
up again and says, eat some more for the journey is long. You know, he lets Elijah rest. He lets
him eat. He lets him recover. He lets him catch his breath before he goes on that 40-day journey
to Mount Sinai. Think about the example of Joshua. You know, when he's coming back into
his homeland, he's left Laban, his father-in-law, and he's bringing his wives and his children and
all of his livestock, and he's coming to meet, you know, he meets Esau, his brother in the way,
and Esau's like, hey, let's go. Let's get going. Let's get back there. Let's go see
the family. You know, what does Joshua say? Yeah, let me just crack the whip on these people.
Let me get the kids and the women moving. Let me go tell them to get the lead out, you know.
No, he says, you go ahead. I'm going to lead on gently, lest I should overdrive the people.
He's like, look, I'm going to keep a pace because I don't want to wear everybody else out.
You know, and that's the kind of, that's kind of, you know, something we should look out for
in ministry often. You know, sometimes we get in, there's certain ministries out there where it's
just, hey, we're here to just grind you to powder. We're here to just work you to the bone, and I'm
not saying there isn't something to be learned from that. You know, like you can develop character
from that, and we should be willing to put ourselves out there, but you know what? There's
also got to be seasons where we just don't overdrive people. Ministries should be careful
to not just run people into the ground. You know, we should be careful not to do that to our own
families. We should be careful not to do that to ourselves. Just allow ourselves to get driven
into the ground. We should always be, understand that sometimes we need to slow down and just lead
on gently. Just go on softly, lest other people be burnt out, and that's exactly what will happen if
you don't rest. That's why it's a command in Scripture. That's why there's so many examples in
it of Scripture, examples of it in Scripture, that if you don't rest, if you don't obey this command,
if you do not take heed to what I'm preaching tonight, you will burn out. It will happen.
It's guaranteed. That's just, that's just human nature. That's just how we are. We're just designed
that way to where we need rest. I mean, if you don't think you need, if you say, I don't need rest,
okay, don't go to sleep tonight. Stay up for 24 hours. Your body will drag you to the floor and
put you to sleep eventually. You might be able to make it 24, you might make it 36, you might even
make it 48, but eventually you're gonna fall over and maybe even, you know, suffer some catastrophic
injuries on the way down. Your body will shut down. You are made to rest. God commands it,
and if we don't rest, if there are, if we just make our whole life just this, my life is just
going to be the season of just outworking everybody, outpacing everybody, you know what,
probably your motivations are wrong, but not only that, you're probably going to burn out eventually,
and you know what, you'll probably be the person that isn't there 10 years from now,
20 years from now. You know, it's like the story of the tortoise and the hare. Who won?
The tortoise, right? Why? Because he just kept plugging along. He just slept slowly going along,
just kept a steady pace. Of course, the hare certainly have a part in that too, but
without rest, people burn out, so don't go to extremes. You know, this is just some practical
preaching tonight. Don't go to extremes. Look at Ecclesiastes. Are you in chapter seven?
Ecclesiastes chapter seven verse 15. All things have I seen in the days of my vanity.
There is a just man that perisheth in his righteousness, and there is a wicked man that
prolongeth his life in his wickedness. Be not righteous over much, neither make thyself
over wise. Why shouldest thou destroy thyself? He's saying, look, don't be righteous over much.
You don't feel like you have to right every wrong in the world. Be not over much wicked,
neither be thou foolish. Why shouldest thou die before the time? He says, look,
if you're going to try and do too much, you know, if you try to be too wicked,
or if you try to be too righteous, you know, I'm just going to live for God every day. I'm
going to knock every door. I'm going to get off work. I'm going to knock until the sun goes down.
I'm going to get up early, and I'm going to read my Bible for three hours. I'm not saying that we
can't read our Bibles too much, but we've got to be practical. We can't go to these extremes.
I mean, a lot of times, you know, in that topic of Bible reading, particularly people,
you know, they realize that they're behind their Bible reading. They're not doing the
Bible reading that they should. So what they do often is they try to make it up.
They say, well, you know, hey, I got saved later in life. I've never read the Bible.
I'm X amount of years old. I'm going to try and read it six times this year,
and you've never read it once. Good luck with that. How about trying? He said, I'm going to
read the Bible an hour every single day. Look, if you can read the Bible an hour a day, great.
Do it. But a lot of times, people who've never read it, they start, oh, I'm going to read an
hour, and then they get into it, and, you know, month goes by, two months, maybe they're doing
okay, maybe just a few weeks even, and they find out, and then they look at the calendar,
I haven't read my Bible in days, and then another year goes by without having read the Bible.
Maybe we should just start out and say, I'm going to read my Bible for 15 minutes today,
and once you get a habit of that, once you get that going, now I'm going to read for 30 minutes.
What I'm saying is this, no matter what it is, Bible reading, prayer, soul winning,
your family, whatever, have realistic expectations. Don't be over much,
righteous. Don't be righteous over much, or you're just going to destroy yourself.
You're going to fail. You know, little by little. Be sensible and live in reality.
There's only so much, there's only so many hours in the day, there's so many days in a week,
so many weeks in a month, so many months in a year, so many years to your life.
Live in reality. Pace yourself. Have practical, sensible goals, and don't be afraid to take a rest.
You know, sometimes we might say, I'm wearing down in the Christian life. I don't know if I can
make it another year. Well, how about this? Make it through today. How about just make it through
today? You know, and then tomorrow, worry about tomorrow, and just see if you can make it through
today, and then when you get to tomorrow, try to make it through tomorrow, and then try to
make it through the day after that, and just pace yourself one day at a time. Sometimes people,
they just look at life, they just look at the grand, the whole picture, and they're overwhelmed,
because it is overwhelming. I gotta live for God for the rest of my life.
Well, yeah, but you know how you do that? One day at a time. Jesus said,
sufficient unto the day is the evil thereof. Don't be over righteous. Don't be unrealistic
in your goals. Be sensible. Live in reality, and look here in Ecclesiastes.
Go over to Ecclesiastes chapter 12. Ecclesiastes chapter 12.
He says in Ecclesiastes 3, and also that every man should eat, and drink, and enjoy the good
of all his labor. It is the gift of God. You know, it's the gift of God for you to work hard,
but it's also the gift of God for you to enjoy that. It's also the gift of God for you to stop,
take a day off, and enjoy the family that you're working for. It's also the gift of God for you to
stop, take a day off, and go enjoy nature that God has created for man. You can go behold something,
you know, and see something, or go do something recreational, whatever. God has given that to us.
God's not just up there just every day. You must just, you know, be laboring, and working hard,
and not, you know, God allows us to take a break is what I'm saying. It says it's the gift of God
to enjoy the good of all his labor. Look at verse, chapter 12 verse 13.
Look, you will accomplish more in the longer run, in the long run, by pacing yourself and resting
as needed. That's how you're going to make it through the Christian life. And so, again,
very practical sermon. Here's some tips, you know, because some people really struggle with
this, and they get overwhelmed, and they think, I just can't get everything done that I want to get
done. I can't get everything done that I need to get done. You know, take some time to learn time
management skills, honestly. That's something that people lack. You know, I know it was something I
lacked, you know, when I got into position, you know, as deacon, you know, when I found out real
quick when you work in the ministries, there's a lot of things that go on behind the scene,
and you know what it is? It's a lot of little things. It's a lot of little details. Send this
email, you know, go take care of this little thing, write this check, you know, whatever,
go fix this one. You kind of got to be a jack of all trades a little bit, you know, you got to go
take care of all these little projects, and if you don't write those things down, you know, it's one
of your, and one of your out the other. And I actually took the time to read a book, you know,
listen, you know, watch some YouTube on time management skills. Yeah, it's a dry subject,
but you know what? It'll probably help you if we haven't done that already, and don't keep
unrealistic schedules. You know, I've known people who have just kept these unrealistic hours
that nobody else keeps. They just keep these crazy schedules, and you know what? They're always
unsustainable. They keep at it for a little while, but I'm just like, okay, any day now that whole
schedule is going to flip around, and it usually does. You know, learn some time management skills,
and don't keep unrealistic schedules. The Bible says in Ecclesiastes 10,
if the iron be blunt, and he do not wet the edge, then he must put to more strength,
but wisdom is profitable to direct. Look, if you get some wisdom and knowledge and understanding
about these things, about how to manage your time and do what you, you know, that's going to give
you wisdom, and you're going to find out, wow, I've got a lot more time than I realized on my
hands. There's a lot more that I can accomplish than I thought I could because you're being wiser,
or you could just be like the guy who's going through life with a dull axe trying to cut down
a tree. You know, just put it, ah, I just can't get everything done, but I'm working so hard.
Well, you're not using wisdom. Maybe your goals are unrealistic. You know, maybe you don't
understand time management well enough. Maybe you need to look into some of these things,
but look, you know, God gives us, God commands us to rest. God allows us to rest to what purpose
so that we can refresh ourselves and get back in the fight, go back into the work. You know,
after resting in the boat, you know, Jesus and his disciples go right back at it, don't they?
He didn't go back at the other side and say, well, you know, there's this spa up the hill.
We're going to go up there and we're all going to take it easy for a while, and we're going to get
in the sauna. It's going to be great. We're just going to take a three month hiatus. No,
there was rest a little while. They rested a while, but as soon as they got on the other side,
the boat, right? And if you're still in Mark six, verse 33, and the people saw them departing and
many knew and ran a foot thither out of all cities and out went them and came together unto them.
They said, oh, there they go. Quick, let's run around to the other side of the shore. They're
all waiting for him. Hey, breaks over. Did you have fun? Great. Now it's time to get back to work.
And it says, and when they, and the day was now, and it says he began to teach them many things.
He got out and said, well, it's time to go back to work. And when the day was now far spent,
his disciples came unto him. This is a desert place. And we know the story, right? He feeds,
he feeds the thousands. He performs that miracle, the loaves and the fishes.
And, and, but I want to draw your attention to verse 42. And it says, and they did all eat. So
the throngs fed, right, miraculously, and they were filled. And they, the disciples, you know,
took up the 12 baskets. So he's already got, he's like, all right, go clip, you know, go feed the
people, go gather up the remnants, grab the baskets full of fragments and the fishes. And
the loaves were about 5,000 men. And straightway he constrained disciples to get in the ship.
And they're thinking, great, another break. Nope.
He says, hey, get back in the ship. And he constrains them to get into it.
And when he had sent them away, he departed to a mountain to pray. And when the evening was come,
the ship was in the midst of the sea. And he alone on land, he saw them toiling and rowing,
for the wind was contrary unto them. So he sends them right into a storm.
That didn't take, you know, Jesus, you know, it's not like he failed to check the weather.
You know, he knew what was going to happen. He says, get in the ship and go. And he knew
the storm was coming. And when he saw them toiling and rowing, for the wind was contrary
to them. And about the fourth hour of the watch of the night, he cometh unto them,
walking upon the sea, and I love this next verse, and would have passed by them.
And he saw them, oh, there they are. He's just going to keep right on going. They're out there
just, oh, we're going to make it. But Jesus walking on the water just says, you'll be fine.
Just keep toiling. Just keep rowing. Just keep going through the storm.
I'll see you on the other side. Of course, we know the story. They saw him. They cry out. He
comes into the ship. But it says he would have passed by them. He was perfectly content to just
let them go ahead and just toil and work away. It says he saw them toiling and rowing. And they're
out there just working hard. Right? Listen, God lets us rest. God commands us to rest. Why?
So we can get the strength that we need to do what? To go back into the storm. To go back into
the work that we need to do and face the storms that we have to face. That he knows are coming.
He's going to give us rest. You know, and take it when you can get it. When God gives it, enjoy it,
but just mark it down. There's a storm coming. So go ahead and take the break and enjoy the rest.
But there's work still to be done.
You know, we think about the example of Paul. I'll go ahead and wrap up here. Go over to 2
Corinthians chapter 11. The example of Paul. You know, you read about the life of Paul,
and it just seems like, you know, you read through Acts, and you read the Epistles,
and it just sounds like, man, that guy just every other day, he's just doing this, he's just doing
that. Is that really how it went? I mean, what you're reading about are a lot of his, you know,
greater exploits. You know, I think there was a lot of days where not a lot happened with Paul.
I mean, he was still preaching. He was still getting people saved. He was probably doing
all the things that an apostle did. But it wasn't just I'm raised in the dead over here. I'm getting
stoned over there. I'm on a ship getting shipwrecked. I don't think that was every day
for Paul. I think there was a lot of days that were just normal days for Paul. But we read
through it and we think, wow, that's the Christian life. But you also have to remember there's a lot
of downtime that isn't, I mean, who wants to read about that? Who's going to read that?
God makes good literature. God's like, and then Paul, you know, had to get some new sandals,
so he went down, you know. Who cares? You know, it doesn't tell you about all the mundane facts
that Paul had to, you know, go through as a matter of just living in this world.
Look at verse 22 of 1 Corinthians, 2 Corinthians 11. He says, Are they Hebrew? So am I. Are they
Israelite? So am I. Are they seed of Abraham? So am I. Are they ministers of Christ? I speak as a
fool. I am more. In labors more abundant, in stripes above measure, in prisons frequent,
in deaths oft, of the Jews five times received I forty stripes save one. Thrice was I beaten with
rods, once was I stoned, thrice I suffered trip. A night in the day have I been in the deep,
in journeys oft, in perils of water, in perils of robbers, in perils by my own countrymen,
in perils by the heathen, in perils by the city, in perils in the wilderness, in perils in the sea,
in perils among false brethren, in weariness, in painfulness, in watchings oft, in hunger and
thirst, in fastings oft, in the cold and nakedness, besides all those things that are out,
which cometh upon me daily, the care of all the churches. Who is weak? And I am not weak. Who is
offended? But I burn not. If I mud, sneeze, and glory, I will glorify the things which concern
my infirmities. You read that and you think, wow, that guy just must have been nonstop for him.
But you know what? It wasn't. It wasn't always like that for Paul. I mean, Paul did go through
all those things. But look, that didn't just, it wasn't just like that started and it's just that's
all it was for the rest of his life. There was probably a lot, I mean, think about all the times
he spent in prison. There probably wasn't a, when you're sitting in jail, there's not a whole lot to
do. There's not a whole lot going on. You know, there's a lot of just hanging around. There's
probably a lot of things that we, you know, in between all those commas there, there's a lot of
time that went by. You're reading about a life that took a whole lifetime to go by. This was
accomplished over many, many, many years of Paul's life. And how did he go through all of it?
Well, Paul was prepared by doing what? Having spent time alone with God. Go to Galatians where
you were when we started. We'll close here. You know, Paul did a lot. No denying it. Wrote a lot
of the scriptures. Greatest Christian that ever lived. I don't think any, I mean, you can argue
that if you want, but that's my opinion. I mean, you look at what the guy did, what he accomplished.
I mean, preached the gospel to the Gentiles. We're indebted to this man. Started churches.
I mean, he obviously was a very busy man. He went through a lot and suffered great things.
But how was he able to do that? Well, look here in Galatians chapter 1, verse 13.
For you have heard of my conversation in times past in the Jews' religion, how that beyond
measure I persecuted the church of God and wasted it, and was profited in the Jews' religion above
many of my equals in my own nation, being more exceedingly zealous of the tradition of my
fathers. But when it pleased God, who separated me from my mother's womb and called me by his
grace to reveal his son in me that I might preach him among the heathen, immediately I conferred
not with flesh and blood. Neither went I up to Jerusalem to them which were apostles before me,
but I went into Arabia and returned again into Damascus. Then after three years I went up to
Jerusalem to see Peter. I mean, Paul gets saved and the first thing he does isn't go, he's not
immediately going into 2 Corinthians chapter 11 where he read. He goes into Arabia. You know what?
Then he goes into Damascus and he's there three years just kind of minding his business.
He's in there in Damascus just getting in the Bible, getting to know the Lord.
He's just taking his time. He's resting. He's preparing. He's getting the strength that he's
going to need to go do all these great works that are going to take him a lifetime to achieve.
And I guarantee you that throughout Paul's life, through all these great upheavals,
all these victories, and all these highs and lows that he went through,
there were a lot of times where Paul probably just stopped, rested,
waited, and recuperated, recovered, refreshed himself, and then went right back at it.
You know, Paul's life played out over decades. We just don't read about all the uneventful seasons
and all those periods of rest that he took, but I guarantee you that they're there. Why? Because
he's a man like anybody else. And here's all I'm saying tonight. Look, we need to get the work done,
but look, the work that we have to do is a lifetime of work. Just like Paul, we have a
lifetime of labor ahead of us. And if we're going to make it all the way to the end and accomplish
everything that God has for us to do and get to the end and hear those words, well done,
thou good and faithful servant, enter thou into the joy of thy Lord, you're going to have to obey
the command to rest. You know, if we want to look back on our lives and be pleased with what we've
accomplished, you know, we have to look to the example of godly men like Paul, like Elijah,
like Abraham, like all these other men. And we have to even look to the example of the Lord himself
who provided seasons of rest, who commanded rest, and even took himself rest. And we have to heed
that command to do what? The command to rest. Let's go ahead and pray.