JUN 24 2018 | Rest: Finding Spiritual Rest S1E1 | REST

Sea Change Church · Rest: Finding Spiritual Rest · "REST" Pastor Adam Stadtmiller · June 24, 2018
Automated transcript. Not reviewed for accuracy.

Good morning, church. I am Chris Peterson, and my husband Dave and I have been blessed to go to this church since 1998 as members and serving in this congregation. And this morning I'm going to read the scripture, which is Genesis 2, 3. Thus the heavens and the earth were completed in all their vast array. By the seventh day, God had finished the work he had been doing. So on the seventh day, he rested from all of his work. So God blessed the seventh day and made it holy.

Because on it, God rested from all of his work that he had done in creation. The word of the Lord. One of the originals. I love it. So if you are new here, you're one of the new originals. So no one ever gets that. It's funny, but nonetheless. I had a question this week to myself because I said a lot of jokes that people didn't get. And I thought, is the joke still funny if nobody laughs? Like, because I know it's funny.

There's a plane of funniness that you're just not getting to is what I'm thinking. So maybe not. We are dropping a new series here at the church on rest. Super excited. This is a series that I preached in 2014 when I started reshuffling my priorities, what life looked like, what the starting point of everything I do is about, what the church I wanted to lead was about. And it was instrumental in creating what you're experiencing now.

Instrumental for me and what I'm doing as a pastor and what I'm doing in my own life. And we're going to have four episodes. We've been trying to kind of drop our sermon series like Netflix a little bit. Just kind of episodic, long, massive story arcs that you can jump into. We're also going to be putting them on thumb drives. So the David series, the Jonah series, that you can just get in the back and take them and give them to a friend.

Hey, are you struggling with depression, anxiety, whatever, or the meaningless of life? You can just go give them to friends that you think, hey, this 10-part series. And you give it to them all at once just like Netflix does. So we're kind of modeling that. As I was listening to John, I just want to start with a different intro. Would you turn that fan off? I am just freezing up here, and that's very rare. Oh, thank you, John. I appreciate it.

I didn't expect you to have, one of our guests, to have to go do it. But nonetheless, thank you. All family. Everybody want to give me a cup of coffee while we're at it. No, I'm just kidding. I really want to, you know, you've seen that show, Pimp My Ride. I want to do Pimp My Pulpit. I want like a coffee thing, Wi-Fi, a lounge chair, blender for protein shakes if I start getting a little lost. As John was playing that, I changed the intro to the sermon.

And what I generally do, if you're new here, I will spend 8 to 12 minutes setting up the message before we actually get into the text. And so if you're wondering, when's he ever going to get to his notes? It's every week, and I'm usually tapped out by 32 minutes. So just so you know, I want to give you a heads up of where we're at. As John was playing, I felt something prophetic in what he did. There's all prophecy does not come via voice.

And we tend to make the prophetic just about maybe it's about a dream or it's about some other thing. But I believe God speaks to us in a number of ways. And I believe if our church had a theme song that started with every episode on Sunday, imagine this is a TV show and it opens up with a theme song. I want you to know that what he just played right there would be it. And in a world where churches are turning up the reverb and they're turning up the distortion and they're turning up the noise and they're setting the smoke machines.

And that's great. I'm sure it's working for tons of people. That's just not where we as a staff are leading. It's not that we don't have fun. It's not that we're not current in different things. But there is something about the spirit of rest and the spirit of our soul. And so the opening, and thank you, John, for doing this, the opening has just changed. And it's this. If your life had a theme song, what would it be?

And then to figure out what that music would be. And I'm not talking about the music you like. Because if my life had a theme song, it would be on continuous 80s loop. You know what I mean? Like alternative. Alternative 80s loop. That's what it would be on. I get into the pop a little bit, but mostly alternative. Echo and the Bunnymen. Oh, and worship. I forgot. Sorry. Worship as well. I was going to say that, right?

I got my Spotify report back in January or the end of the end. And it says, this was your year in a nutshell. Did anybody get that? Like, this is what you listen to the most. And like, it was 25 songs and every single one of them was an 80s song. Like, I just listened to the same things over and over again. And then I pray over each one. No, that's not true. I'm not talking about the songs you like because I don't want, you know, Morrissey to be the theme of my life.

Obviously, he's singing about things that really I'm not trying to live or the Smiths or some of you people don't know who Morrissey is. Nonetheless, Frank Sinatra or whatever. But I'm talking about if you had to pick a theme song that said, this is the life I want. And I'm continually trying to help people envision who God has created them to be and then to be that person. I'm not saying set goals. I'm not a goal guy.

I don't ask our church to set goals. We don't live according to goals because I believe that goals are limiting. Any goal you set, Ephesians 3.20, will tell you that anything you can hope, dream, or imagine, God will do more than you can ever hope, dream, or imagine. So, hey, goals are great. If you need goals to get out of bed in the morning, great. I mean, just keep going after them. I'm not saying they're wrong. I'm just saying that that goal model, I was in every church I was in, we'd have this goal time, and I hated it.

I would just make stuff up, you know what I mean? Like, oh, set it. And then once you hit it, and I found that the goals, no matter how high I set them, God usually accomplished them. And then I was able to go home like in June. You know, it's June. We got it sorted, you know. I don't even got to work the rest of the year, you know. I found goals were self-limiting. I found that if we live according to our values, God will exceed any goal that you'll ever set.

Living according to values is a lot easier. It's easier to rest at night and to say, well, maybe I didn't meet my quota, but did I live according to my character? Did I live according to my goals? These are the things that bring rest. And so the question is, if you had a theme song for your life, which was a picture of not just the best you, because I've said it over and over again, that the best you you can be is a low bar.

Like, the best you you can be, you don't want to be the best you you can be. You want to be supernaturally better than the best you you can be. That's what the Bible promises, that he will make you exponentially greater with spiritual gifts beyond who he has created you to be. I was at my daughter's fifth grade graduation, and they said, you know, be the best you you could be. And I just wanted to go, no, no, don't tell them that, because the best you you can be is so far short of what God has for us.

And so I know that might be some rewiring of the brain and some new thinking, but if our church had a theme, you know, I would love it to be what John just played. Because it's a theme of just chill out and enjoy the beauty. And I love talent. Talent makes me weep. When I watch surfers, I watch people that play music, I watch this 14-year-old or 12-year-old girl do this Janice Joplin thing. Maybe you saw it. It was on Britain's Got Talent.

I don't remember her name. And she's like, she's all awkward, and she, like, can't really talk to the judges. And then she just busts into this Janice Joplin thing that'll just, like, I'll put it on the church website thing. Thing. I still call it the thing. I'll put it on the church website so you can see it. Like, I just started crying. Talent makes me weep. And talent, because it comes from God. And so back to this idea of who we would be as a church.

I would love us to have that kind of place. This is a place where you come to find solace outside of that craziness. And churches can have other themes, and I think churches should have different themes, and ours wouldn't be the best. But if you want to know what we're all about, then I would, you know, listen to what just happened there. Because that is where I want to go. And I still want to have fun doing it. With that said, we are moving into this series on rest.

And we're starting at the very beginning in Genesis with this Genesis 2-3. It says, The heavens and the earth were completed in all their vast array. And I love that. And one thing the atheists, evolutionary atheists agree, because not every atheist is an evolutionist. Evolutionary, you know what I'm saying. Evolutionary atheists and creationists agree on is that everything has a purpose. That there is a purpose. So they will say, well, the purpose, that the reason that evolution did this, and I'll just say it's creative.

So we want to find common ground when we speak to people. So we have a lot in common with evolutionary theory. And the number one thing is that everything was formed for a purpose. They won't use the word created. But start there when you talk to your atheist friends. And then talk about what that purpose is. I have found recently, as identity politics, meaning whatever man thinks is true, has begun to bend what science means.

That atheists are getting more and more upset with how far we are moving away from science in order to prove what we want. But I have found over and over again, whether it's religion or science, that all of those are submissive to man's will. Man will always win when it comes to deciding what man wants. And so we can make science say whatever we want. We can make the Bible say whatever we want. But back to the evolutionary atheist, we have a ton in common.

And it's finding the purpose and the meanings of things. As I've been studying for this series on rest, which I'm so excited about, there's a few books that I've been reading that I just want to offer up to you. If you want to go deeper, you can dive as deep into the pool as you want. We do not have a hierarchy of teaching where you all come and I teach you as the most learned scholar. And then you go and basically have a quasi-spiritual life based on my spiritual life.

And the only revelation you ever get from God is when I speak to you or you hear something from Chris. Like so many people's major revelations come from their pastor's teaching. I should be the final stop on a vast array of what God has spoken to you all week. And that you have a life outside of that. And so what we want to do is we want to basically play tennis where I volley to you, you volley back to me. And you go deeper and we learn as a congregation.

And so some of the books I've been reading as we look into this, I'll get to in a moment because I rabbit trailed and didn't finish the verse. So we're going to go to verse 2, which if you're new, get used to that. Verse 2. By the seventh day God had finished the work he had been doing. So on the seventh day he rested from all of his work. So God blessed the seventh day. He made it holy because on it he rested. It doesn't say slept.

He rested from all of his work that he had done in creation. And so you can tag God's work is creative. It's life-giving. When God works, it's not toil. It's life-giving. There's so many. You could take a deep dive. Like Morpheus coming to you with the red pill right now. You could like take that and he will show you. This verse will show you how deep the rabbit hole goes. Millennials are like, what? I was born in 2000.

I didn't see the matrix. Here's some books I've been reading. First is Thrilled to Death by Archibald Hart. You don't have a picture of that, but if you want to write that down, it's not in your notes. Thrilled to Death about how living for adrenaline destroys the human emotions, the mind, the soul. I interviewed him and I have an interview. I'll put that up as well. One I got onto this weekend, a friend sent to me, is Why We Sleep by Matthew Walker.

It's an audio version. It is so good. I have been taking a deep dive into Why We Sleep. Powerful book. Listen to it. You can get it on audible.com. And then this is one of my favorites. It doesn't have to be crazy at work. Okay? Like, think about that model. Well, because the model I see at work, for most work and most people, is there is a frenetic pace to what we are doing. I would argue that the frenetic pace is on purpose because it makes us feel like we have a purpose.

That you've done something. You might just be picking up a rock and dropping it over and over again on your foot, but you've done something. So at the end of the week, you can say, we did something, but did that thing create what you were trying to create? I can read a few things here off of this. You can't see it, but I'll do it. And this is from Base Camp. And I would suggest reading this book as well. On the left, it says, it doesn't have to be crazy at work with a cross through 80-hour weeks.

Fully packed schedules. I want you to know I leave 35-40% of my schedule every week empty. Because if you fill your schedule, the unexpected happens. And then where are you? Zero margin. Little hint. 40% of your schedule. Leave it completely blank. So you can have creative work, all types of things. Super busy. We don't want that. Endless meetings. We try to have as few meetings as possible here. All-nighters. Sunday afternoon emails.

Unrealistic deadlines. Constant interruptions. How many of you set your phone to sleep? I just want you to know, my phone is on sleep 100% of the time. My father didn't have a phone when he was working and he was very successful. He had a phone, but he didn't have one that buzzed and interrupted him constantly. And so he would check his phone. He would check with his messages because it was on a tape. We used to have this thing.

You'd press a button and there'd be a tape. Remember that? And he would call into the office and he had quarters. How many of you remember the times where you had quarters in a jar in your car? Yeah, right? So what did you use those for? Because you had to go check your messages two or three times a day. And you're not living with zzzz, zzzz. Is it actually, if you read, you know, if you can read and study about it, that will cause post-traumatic stress disorder.

It is alerting the body with an alarm constantly. I wrote a paper on it. Perhaps, has your phone ever rung in your pocket and you look but the phone didn't ring? Come on. Yes, it has. You have felt your phone ring before when it didn't ring. And the reason is it's called phantom ring syndrome. It means your body is so tired of being alerted to things that it will alert you before it thinks you're going to be alerted.

Your phone can be on sleep. You do not have to. Who said we have to keep up with technology? You know, it's just going to get faster. If you check your messages three times a day, is that enough? No. You got to, we got to be able to get a hold of you immediately. Who says? Who says? Maybe if you weren't alive before the internet, you remember living at a pace that was, that was livable. That didn't kill people's souls.

And now you're going to get bad Yelp reviews. I couldn't get a hold of that guy because I wrote him an email at five in the morning. He didn't get a hold of me by 730. Who says? Slow it down. What does success mean? Constant interruptions. Overflowing inbox. Chats blowing up. If you're in a group chat, get out. I'm in a group chat. They're in here too. There's like nine guys in a group chat. They chat like 14 year old teenagers.

They know who they are. You know who you are. I'm in that chat. You notice I hardly ever respond. It's just because I like you. I'm in it. You're the only chat I'm in. Hashtag Spencer. Hashtag Brian. Hashtag Alex. Hashtag Jason. Can't sleep. I had that problem. I sleep nine to ten hours a night now. Nine to ten every night. Oh, you're lazy. Okay. I guess I'm lazy. But I sleep good. And I'm more creative. I'm better. You're better.

More sleep you get. Read the book on sleep. See what it means. No time to think. Stuck in the office. It doesn't have to be crazy at work. This is by Basecamp. We're going to keep going. We're setting up this entire message. We'll get to that scripture in a second. Because it is important, obviously. How to run a calm company. It says 40 hours. It says, it's kind of blurry right there. Quiet calendars. I love that one.

Comfortably paced days. Done at five. No weekend work. Days without meetings. Days without meetings. I try to at least schedule three to four days a week without meetings. You know, you can live without meetings and do it really, really well. It's possible. Trust me. Go on. People are, you guys are just looking at me like I'm crazy. No knee-jerk reaction. Light inboxes. Great night's sleep. Respond when you're ready.

Work from wherever. Imagine that. You know, it's interesting. We have about 450 people coming to the church these days. Maybe about 250 to 300 in a service. 450 in our universe. A lot is going on here. You see it. We will have days where the phone will ring twice. Like, I've been in the system where it's just constantly ringing off the hook. You can come on a Thursday or a Friday. And you can come and find a spiritual place.

And there are, we have active days. Tuesday's an active day. We have a few active days here. But there are multiple days during the week where you can come and just sit and have library-like quiet in this church and in this place. That is intentional. And what we're trying to do is to come against the chaos and the tyranny of the moment to create what I believe is actually the culture of heaven. I believe it's the culture of heaven.

And I don't think you can argue with our success. It's not my success. Our success based on all the schematics. If you want to look at the schematics of attendance, of what we've done, on how our budget has grown, you put that, I'll put up what we have done in the last four years against any church in the nation. And we will be in the top 5%. I guarantee it. I do this for a living. We're like, yay, yay, I mean, cool.

It was never a goal. It's not been a goal. It was never a goal. And I've never desired to have that happen. But I'm going to say that that has all happened with rest being our core value. That we start from a place of rest. People are just looking at me right now. It is crazy. It is like I put on a space alien outfit. One of the things we want to do is model something for you that you can replicate. You know what bothers me in the Western church?

Creating these stages where we talk about authenticity. We tell we should all be authentic. But then we put a product up on stage that you could never replicate. With everyone looks perfect. No one has any problems. We got it all figured out. And from there, we just keep replicating something that you can never do on your own. We want to replicate something. We want to do something that you can replicate at home. Moving on into the scripture.

Or continuing on. You'll see on your notes. The World Health Organization. I believe this is in your notes. It might not be. Has says there is a world sleep epidemic right now. A world sleep epidemic that is affecting our health. As much as any other pandemic. More than Ebola. More than all these other pandemics. More than malaria. A world sleep epidemic that is affecting our health. As great as, if not more, than any other disease.

It is a pandemic. Let's look at the sleep right now. The most restless nation. Our sleepless nations. Do you have that one? There it is. Here we go. Now, you need eight hours of sleep. Read the book, Sleep. You need at least eight hours for your body to function. To not, you know, you'll move quicker into Alzheimer's. Into cancer. Into hypertension. We are the only species that denies itself sleep for no legitimate benefit.

We are the only species of all species. Every living species in some way rest. But we are resting less and less. I'll read these to you. We have London. Seven hours and two minutes a night of sleep. Denver. Seven hours and two. Brisbane, Australia. Seven. Let's go down to the fives. Tokyo, Japan. Five average. Five hours and 46 minutes of sleep. Seoul, Korea. 5.55. Dubai. The Arab Emirates. 6.32. Mexico. 6.32. Two. We are killing ourselves.

We are running ourselves to death. And we're doing the same thing with our environment. We do not give our environment rest. And does anybody understand that a model, an economic model that has to be based on growth, will eventually destroy itself? Have we ever thought about that? I love GDP. I love moving it in the next direction, growing the economy. But there will come a point where the earth will win. Because the earth does know how to heal itself.

And if, let's say, I was an evolutionary atheist, I would believe that we will eventually bring our, that this, our species, human beings, we will bring ourselves to extinction. And then once we are gone, the earth would heal itself again. Because God has created it to rest. Everything around us rests but us. So my question as we start this is, how's your rest? How's your pace? How's your sleep? How is your relationships?

How's your emotions? I believe, personally, that much of the anxiety and depression that we see, bipolar, is self-created. That doesn't mean everybody. There are chemical imbalances people are born with. But I believe we can create chemical imbalances. Because we won't slow down. The culture of heaven is rest. Rest, that says in your notes, is the most undervalued spiritual discipline. I believe it's in your notes. Before prayer, it might not be, I think I added these things in.

Before prayer existed, rest existed. You see, God doesn't pray to himself, right? God prays, prayer was created. It's the language of heaven so he can have a relationship with you. But before prayer, there was rest. And I would say that if you don't have rest, if you don't have a spiritual rest within your heart, within your soul that actually gives you the ability to sleep, because sleep is not rest. They're two different things.

Sleep is a byproduct of rest. And if you don't have rest, you ain't going to sleep. It says, before there was prayer, there was rest. How important is rest? One could argue by that, that rest is perhaps more important than prayer. And without proper rest, you will not be able to pray well. But it existed before rest, before prayer. Prayer, excuse me, rest existed before the Bible. It didn't exist before God's word. But God's word is contained in a book so we can understand it.

And rest existed before the Bible. I will say that rest, if you do not have rest, you will not be able to comprehend what you were reading. If you read the book, sleep. It talks about how it affects your mind. Matter of fact, you can go much longer without water. You can go much longer without food, more so food, than you can without rest. One bad night of sleep will immediately affect your ability to live well. It will affect your emotions.

You can go seven days without food. You can go longer without food. Sleep is important, but we are not getting it. Rest. And I think the Western church has done a poor job at modeling this for us. I would say the Eastern church is well now. They're following us well. Because we feel like we have to, the Great Commission means we have to do every element of the Great Commission. Let me just tell you. You don't have to do every element of the Great Commission.

We are under this work production model that makes us feel that we've got to be in Jerusalem, Judea, Samaria, and to the ends of the earth. And you got to do it all. Sometimes somebody just needs to lock down a corner. Just lock down the corner you live on and let somebody else, like a little light all over, lock down their corner. I was in England recently, and I was in Tintagel, where the castle that they have that they talk about King Arthur is from.

And we were there. And I went to this little church in the middle of nowhere, and there was a brass plaque on it. And the church was, it could have fit in here. It was a small little church. And on the wall it said, To vicars such and such and so and so, it was like from 18 whatever, this plaque. And it said, who faithfully served this parish for 48 years. And I thought to myself, he probably had 40 people that he managed.

40 people that he just managed and cared for for 48 years. And it was enough. You know what we're losing the art? We're losing the art of the local church pastor. And we are doing a poor job modeling it for you by saying, you know, having pastors who care more about their notes falling off their page. Who care more about reaching people who are not in their congregation than caring about people who are in their congregations.

That God is building their platform. You know, I got to tell you what, one of the best things I ever did was forget about my platform. I don't care about my platform. I don't care about writing another book. I don't care about none of it. You know what I care about? Just being here and doing this really, really well. That doesn't mean God won't open something up. I don't know. But I don't really care. As soon as you can let go of that and your purpose, you can slow down.

Because your purpose is to know God and to rest in his love. That's your purpose. And then all of a sudden, the work that you do outside of that purpose will begin to be creative. It'll begin to be fun. And it'll be like God's work. God didn't say when God finished, he slept because he was so darn tired he couldn't just handle it. Because he worked himself to the bone. It said when God was finished, he rested. He went and chilled.

There's a difference between sleep and rest. Here's the key point as we move into the sermon. Key point is when we enter into rest, we incur a blessing on our life. While simultaneously entering into the presence and the very nature of God. Let me say this again. Because there is such a production model in the Western church. And I'm besmirching us as church leaders, not the church. So I don't have a problem talking about us as leaders.

I don't want to talk about the bride of Christ. But as leaders, I think we've done a really poor model at letting you know what pleases God. It is so easy to control a congregation with the next vision, with the next thing, with the next shiny thing we're going to do. And let me tell you why. Because people are good-natured. They're good-hearted. They want to serve God. They love God. Pastors know this. Pastors, we can easily create something.

And people will jump on board to do it. Because it gives them a sense often that their spiritual activity is spirituality. And so over and over again, pastors, this is the next thing we're doing. We're taking this mountain. We're taking that hill. And people in America especially will jump on that train. They will get behind you. And they will run, run, run, run to death while their kids are not doing well in school.

While their wife is going through depression and anxiety. Over and over again. And they will just keep getting on board. And we will keep throwing the carrot out there a little bit further. And I don't know if you've seen it. But I've seen it. And what I want to do as a church. And I want to change the whole model. I want to change the model and say this. That God, that your purpose is being a child of God. And being loved as a child of God.

And resting in his presence. And I've got to say that once you can do that. It's almost like you never have to work again. Because work becomes this creative exploration. This adventure with God. I have to force myself not to work. And not because I'm trying to produce self-worth like I used to. Or trying to create something that other people around can look at. And say, hey, that was awesome. Look at Adam go. Yay. And then I can go and feel good at night.

Because everyone around me thinks that I did well. I actually love serving God so much more. I have to force myself not to get here at 6 in the morning. On my days off, I had to frame rest as work in my mind. So I could actually rest. Because it takes a lot of effort to rest. Because as soon as I slow down, the demons start speaking. They start talking to me. You've got to move. And you know what I'm just going to do?

So either I'm going to distract. Get on Netflix for 250 hours. And stream. You know. I'm going to distract. Or I'm going to work. I mean, that's it. As soon as I slow down. That's the temptation. But I had to tell myself, rest is work. And if rest is my work. So I can sit in a chair for three hours. And read or do nothing. Or go sit on a patio. When was the last time you went and sat for two hours. And did nothing. But being you in the presence of God is not nothing.

It's incredible. I want to say, what does it look like to have rest? To redo your whole model. And why are you running so fast? Now granted, there are seasons in your life. There's cancers that come. There's single moms who's, you know, the father left for one reason or another. And they're working two jobs. And there's seasons of that where you're on the treadmill and there's a reason. And I get that. And I understand that not everybody has the opportunity at the moment.

And different things happen. But how much of it is self-created? How much of the thing and the chaos that you have in your life is self-created? And chaos brings adrenaline. Chaos brings dopamine. Chaos brings a sense of purpose. Chaos brings a sense of purpose. I was in Madrid one time when I was 19 on a missions trip. And they had all this. I've told this story before. They had all this pigeon guano poop, whatever you want to call it.

And it was up. The pigeons had gotten into a roof up above. And the roof was falling down like three feet. Because for like a hundred years, they hadn't cleaned out the pigeon poop that had lived up there. And it was this deep. And it gets hot in Madrid. You know, it gets hot. And so you're up there and there's all the fumes. And it was hard. And it was three feet thick. And they, you know, I had to move this pigeon, whatever.

And so I went up there and I cracked it away. And I was in this room like cracking pigeon poop away. This is what I was doing on the mission trip. And I threw it out a window. And there must have been like a thousand pounds of pigeon, you know, whatever. And I remember I moved it there. And the next day the guy says, oh, the pile can't be there. The pile's got to be there. And I was like, you know, and so I said, okay.

So I got my shovel. And the whole next day I moved the pile from here to like here. And when I was done, I felt like God spoke to me through the pigeon poop, which he often does. The mess of life. And I thought, I thought I heard him say, don't let your life be like that. Where you're just moving one pile of stuff. For no reason. Stuff. And then you worked really hard and you go home and you think, man, I accomplished something today.

All I did was move a pile of stuff. Six feet. You know what? From that point on, I just wanted to live a life where I'm just not moving things for the sake of moving them. So I can feel like I did something. Slow down. Rest in God. So your key point is when we incur, when we walk into rest, we walk into a blessing. I'm not going to get through the whole sermon. I already knew that. I know when I'm going to end, so don't worry.

But there are those of you I appreciate. They say, Adam, we wish your sermons were longer. We want you to preach more. You say that, Chris. Other people are like, when's this guy tapping out? God blesses our work. But when you enter into heaven, it's going to say, enter into my what? Right? So there is a blessing that is incurred. If you want just a blessing, enter into the rest of God. We see it here that he blessed.

We'll get there in just a second. But it says, when we enter into his rest, we rest into his blessing. And I got to say that work, if you go to the, in the Genesis passage, in Genesis 3 or 2, it says that he will, as part of the curse, he will greatly increase your toil in work. All of a sudden, work went from being this overseeing where things were producing. You know, man just oversaw what God did. He was a tender of the garden.

He wasn't planting. He wasn't doing all this stuff. Man just sat there. God had all this production, and man and woman together. They cared for the, they just cared for the stuff. It produced on its own. Part of the curse is that it got harder, and the tending became work. The tending became drudgery. What I think is so interesting is, while God does bless the things that we do in him in our work, we have oftentimes, as a church, pointed at the work and at the struggle, and said, man, we worked really hard.

That's blessed. Work and toil is not what the scripture says is blessed. Now, I'm not saying that God does not bless what we do. I'm not saying we shouldn't work. I'm not saying we just tap out and all go to Cabo. I'm not saying that. We work very diligently at this church, and if you come around, we work very, very hard. But what I do want to say is, the model actually says that the blessing is upon the rest. And what day did he bless?

Which day? He blessed the Sabbath. He blessed the day of rest. Why didn't he bless the six days, too? That's great. It was creative. It was blessed because he was a part of it. But the day that he blessed, and went, if you want to look at the Jewish scriptures, and you want to look at the Old Testament, when you enter into the Sabbath, you are entering into God's actual holiness. That if you want to find the holiness, it isn't in, you know, burning the candle at both ends, and then looking at it and saying, God really blessed us.

I'm so blessed. That might be true because God blesses our work. But if you want to live in the richness of where the blessing actually is, it's in the rest. I want to say, we as churches, we have got so hard to help our people realize that the blessing is in the rest. And that work was bookmarked between the rest. Let's look at that here. God blessed the seventh day. Restoration, and he restores. I just put this in the notes.

Rest is the bridesmaid of restoration. If you are not feeling restored, if you are feeling overwhelmed, if you are being broken down, that rest is the bridesmaid of restoration. We see that God blessed the beginning and the end. First thing, if you go down on your notes where it says the biblical narrative is one that begins and ends in rest. It'll say beginning on your notes. Genesis 2, 3. Because I want to make sure we are picking apart the scripture, not just having Adam's fun thoughts.

Genesis, they're fun though. Genesis 2, 3. God rested on the seventh day. So in the beginning, it says that God rested. God created the world out of, or in, out of, it should say out of, a deep state of rest. You have to realize before God started his work, we were in rest. So the beginning of the work, before the work, was a deep state of rest. God then worked, and it ended up in a deep state of rest. Do you see, we so often start with work so we can get to the weekend.

I was listening, I was walking through somewhere yesterday, and I was listening to, was it Eddie Money? Everybody's working for, my voice is out, for the weekend, right? Everybody's needs a second chance. Yeah, okay, remember that song? I'm working for, and I thought, that's not true for me. And I thought, that is true for me. Because I love the weekends, because I can't wait to go preach. And I can't wait to be at church.

So I am working for the weekend. But I hate that whole mentality. Oh, it's, you know, I'm listening to the radio. Oh, it's hump day, Wednesday. Or, oh, it's Monday. Just another man egg. That's the Bengals. I'll do the hits. I do the hits here. I don't hate Monday. I love coming to work here. I absolutely love it. I love it. I don't hate work Monday. When I hear that, I'm like, oh, that just must stink for you. You need a new job.

Then it's like, oh, it's hump day. We're there. We have margaritas tonight, because we're getting closer to Thursday. Which I really, we all kind of tap out at 11 o'clock on Thursday anyways, right? And then all the weekend's here. Woo, woo, woo. What a waste of life. You are not living abundant life if you're only living it two days a week. Can you find abundant life in your work, in the things that you're doing, that it's creative?

And if your work is just toil, how do you add creativity back into your work? The model with God is completely different. It says, in the beginning, God did what? He created. Creation's fun. Do you like to create? Do you like to create a garden? Do you like to create music? John's over here. He's creating music. Do you create, you know, there's a new flavor at 31 Flavors called Mom's Making Cookies. Why can't it be Dad's making cookies?

I actually make better cookies than my wife. But like, in the kitchen, maybe you create. You know what I mean? You love to create. When God works, it's creative. One of the things I love about being a head pastor is how creative it is. It's so fun. Is your work creative? If it's not, if you're in a, you know, somewhere, then I would think about switching positions if you can. It was what? It was formless. It was empty.

Darkness was over the surface. It was still. And the Spirit of God was doing what? It was just hovering. I dig that. I dig that picture. You know what I want to do? I've been doing this thing lately. I lay in bed. I love bed. I love sleep. Trust me, I'm not lazy. And part of people are like, you can't preach that, man, because everybody's just going to think you're lazy. I am the farthest thing from lazy. I'm a grinder.

Everybody on our, I have, I try not to send emails. Like, I'll wake up at 4 in the morning sometimes. I'll think, I want to get out of bed and go to work. And I used to do that. I used to get up at 3.30, go to work, start sending emails to people at 4 in the morning, 5 in the morning. No mas. So my new thing, I just go and lay in bed. I take naps four days a week. Okay? So, Pat, what do you do? It would be nice to be a pastor, wouldn't it?

Yeah. Come try it. Whenever you're ready, come try it. I'll let you, I'll give you a month. Well, I'll just give you a month, see if you can do it. Go home, take a little nap. And I lay there, and I think, no one's attacking me. Because when I had anxiety, it was always this constant feeling of anxiety, and you couldn't sleep, and I couldn't rest. And so I understand that. And it was self-created, I believe. And I lay there, and I think, no one's attacking me.

It's warm. There's food in the fridge. This is what everybody wants. Everyone wants that place of peace and rest and joy where you can just sit and be and let the presence of God hover over you. And I just say, practice that. That is the spot. But you know what I immediately want to do when I get there? I've got to go do some more work. I have to force myself. It's like work to stay there. When was the last time you sat just in the dark and let the presence of God hover over you?

God loves rest. You know what rest is? Rest, we'll talk about this in a couple weeks. Rest is faith. Rest is saying, God, I'm going to give you enough margin to do something beyond what I can do on my own. If you're grinding constantly, constantly, constantly because things might fall apart, then you're going to get you results. I learned a long time ago I don't want Adam results. Adam results are insufficient. People will come to me and say, you know, whether it's this thing or the thing, and they'll say, yeah, you did that so great.

And I always chuckle. I'm like, if you really knew the back story, like, it's all God. It's completely all God. And I feel like there's moments in my life where I've been able to live beyond who I was created to be. Because you give God the margin to win a victory. I say, when was the last time you gave God margin to win a victory in your life? I have a lot of friends that are real estate agents, man. Man, because of the new technology, that is a difficult profession.

Because people expect you constantly, constantly, all night. Who's going to get the next thing? To be able to slow down and say, you know what? I don't work. You know what? I'm going to pull a little Chick-fil-A. I don't work on Sunday. You know? Sorry. Tap out. There's a blessing there. And the blessing is in the rest. Continuing on. And in the end, in Revelations 14, 13, it says, Then I heard a voice from heaven say, write this, Blessed are the dead who die in the Lord.

From now on, yes, says the Spirit. I love that. You want the Spirit saying, yes. Yes, says the Spirit. They will what? Rest from their labor, for their deeds will follow them. God is just waiting for you to slow down. Let me give you a little secret. God doesn't need you. Okay? I say this all the time to the staff. And I say it to myself, and it makes me sleep really good. The church was here for 100 years without us.

It can continue without us. It doesn't need you. You know, I tell staff all the time. You know what I mean? Sometimes it's just like, you know what? I'm sick. I'm going to come in. We have grinders here. Like, everybody on staff is a grinder. If you're on church, they're a grinder. I have to regularly say, look, you have like a fourth stage flu. Please don't come in. Ah, I've got to get those emails out. No, you don't.

We'll survive. The church has been here 100 years without your email. It'll survive. Give God the margin to move on. I'm going to close with this. Well, actually, I'm going to wait for that for next week. Let me just find a good closing point, dropping off point, and then we're done. Oh, I'm going to go to this on your notes. Rest is not laziness. Proverbs 13, 4, as we come in for a landing. Rest is not laziness. Proverbs 13, 4 says, the soul of the sluggard craves and gets nothing, but the soul of the diligent is made fat.

The question is, in regard to getting where I guess we're trying to get to, how fast do you have to get there? I had been in this job two weeks, and I was at this thing, and I was at a pastor gathering. I'm never comfortable at pastor gatherings. I'm just not. I don't know, and I don't play well with my kind, I guess. And so we're there, and a lot of that has to do with me, like, you know, in the past doing competition and stuff, but I'm just enjoying myself, and the guy comes up to me.

He's a big church, really fast-growing, mega churchy guy, and he comes up. He goes, bro, when are you starting a second service? I'm two weeks in, dude. I'm now five years in. We still ain't started the second service, and I'm in no rush to get to the second service. We'll see what God does, but it's these goals of having to get, and who is setting your goals? Who is setting your margins? And when is enough enough? Because here's what I've learned, and we'll close with this.

I have met a lot of people. There's the people who have never gotten the shiny thing that they want, okay? So they have this thing. It's a partner in marriage. It's the job. It's to write their book. It's to dance their dance. It's to sing their song. They've never gotten it. And they are so bummed and so frustrated, and where is God, and whatever, and my purpose, and we just feed you purpose because us pastors know it sells, and you'll keep coming.

So we just feed you your purpose, and we just give it to you, and then they are so frustrated. And then I've met people on this side, and John, sorry to keep bringing you up, but you work with a lot of gifted, talented people, and maybe many of you have as well. They've come to the top of the mountain. They've been to the top of the mountain. They have summited. Matter of fact, some of them have summited Everest, the spiritual Everest, multiple times, and they get on the other side, and they think, what's next?

That's not fulfilling. And the emptiness of being at the top of the mountain. Read Ecclesiastes in this book series as well. I forgot to mention Ecclesiastes. Solomon experienced it. The emptiness of reaching all of your goals and realizing, is there anything more than this, I believe, is a greater emptiness than those who have never reached their goals. I've got to say, the only thing that will fulfill you is Jesus Christ, the love of God, the presence of God, knowing that you are a child of God, that you are accepted, and when that happens, your purpose will come down and it will lay at your feet, because you no longer have to chase it on a treadmill.

And so I want to say, can we stop worshiping at the idol of purpose, and just love God day by day, and have rest for our soul. Amen? Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen.