Theology of Rest

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Gretchen Saffles
Good afternoon, ladies, we are so glad that you are here for this session on the theology of rest. My name is Gretchen saffles, and I am the founder of an online ministry to women called well watered women. Our mission is to create theologically rich and engaging resources to grow your love for God and His Word. I am also out of breath because we walked here really fast.

Gretchen Saffles
I am also came really fast. We came we just got here. I’m also the author of the well watered woman, and a book that is actually releasing in a couple of months, in September, word before World, 100 devotions to put Jesus first. I am a mom to three little kids who keep me on my toes and keep me tired, which is why I’m speaking on the theology of rest, because God knew that I had a lot that I need to learn about this and he has brought a lot of transformation.

Amy Gannett
We have both been talking as we’ve prepared for this session and been praying for you. We want you know we’ve been praying for you as we’ve been preparing this session. We’ve both been sharing with each other how much the Lord has met us in His Word and challenged our own hearts and lives as we have studied this topic together. So we’re excited for what God has for us. My name is Amy Gannett, and I’m the founder of two online brands. The first is tiny theologians. We create discipleship resources for kids ages two to 12 on topics of biblical literacy, theology, church history and more. And then also, we also have a podcast. There might be some I passed a seven year old in the lobby of the Westin yesterday, and I heard her say to her mom, mom, I hear Tori and TJ’s mom somewhere. So I honestly think that I will not ever go by Amy Gannett again. I will just go by TJ and Tori’s mom. So if you have little ones, you can check out that podcast. It’s a really fun ministry. It’s been fun to watch it grow. The other brand that I founded it’s called the Bible study school house, and it’s a resource for adults who want to go deeper in God’s word every single day. We think that being a nerd about God’s word is pretty fun and kind of cute, so we make accessories, Bible study resources, and write Bible studies that help you go deep in God’s word. So we have two booths in the exhibitors Hall in the market, so come see us. I’d love to meet you, but also love to share with you the things that God has led us to create. We are so grateful that you’re here, and you’re likely here because the concept of rest, maybe even either baffles you, intrigues you, fascinates you or challenges you, and if that is the case, you are in good company. Look around. We are all learning and growing together, aren’t we? Isn’t it nice to know that God has called us to grow in these things together? You are not alone. You don’t struggle with this concept alone or on your own. You’re not the only one who is curious about these things and wondering how to grow in them. So you are in good company. We’re going to look to God’s Word today, and we’re going to grow together as we talk about a theology of rest. So before we dive in, let me pray for us, and let’s ask the Lord to mean this in a special way. Lord, You are the King of our rest, and we know this in our heads. Would you help us today? Know it in our hearts? Would you show us how the rest that you have provided to us through Christ, the rest that you promised us at the end of all things, would you show us, Lord, how this might apply to our daily lives here in our daily lives now, I pray that each woman here would be ministered to by your Spirit, that as We speak, as we share, that you would give each woman here a sense of how you are calling and directing her Lord lead us at this time as we work through Your Word, we thank you in the name of Christ, amen. So we’re going to be going through four sections. Chris and I are going to pass off back and forth, and we are going to basically be tracing the meta narrative of Scripture. We’re going through the big story of Scripture, and we’re going to look at rest in four primary chapters of the biblical story. So Gretchen is going to start with creation. I’m going to move to one we’re calling Command. Gretchen is going to address Christ, and then I’m going to talk about consummation. So if you’re making notes, that’s where we’re headed. Gretchen, will you talk to us about what God says in creation and how it helps us understand a deeper theology of

Gretchen Saffles
rest? Absolutely. So Amy already listed a few of the reasons why you’re here. Curiosity. Maybe it’s something that challenges you, but my guess is you’re tired. You’re here because you see the theology of rest, and you’re going, I want that, so I’m going to go to this session. I need to learn about this. I need to learn how to implement this in my life. Is it something that I can actually achieve and enter into in your season of life? Maybe you are so weary, because we know that exhaustion is. Not only physical, there’s mental exhaustion, there’s burnout, there’s spiritual exhaustion. If you’re in that place, you’re obviously with a lot of company, because I feel the exact same I’m coming into this session feeling weak and weary. And it just so happens that in God’s sovereignty. When I was asked with Amy to speak about the theology of rest, he knew the season that I was going to be in, because that’s what God does. He prepares us and He equips us with His Word so that we can receive by grace the rest and the truth and the promises that he so freely gives. We are all intimately acquainted with stress, with anxiety, with burnout, and honestly, burnout has become the norm in our society. If you’re not tired, then what are you even doing? We live in a world where rest is either lazy or a luxury, where if you’re not being productive, then obviously you’re not doing anything that’s worthwhile. Because we find our identity in how much we can produce, how much more can we manage our time so that we can accomplish more. And we live in a culture where burnout is normal. The amount of books that have been released on burnout recently is astounding, because we are all so connected to this world that we are disconnected from God and we’re disconnected from others. Because, as we’re going to see in these different four different meta narratives, is that God created us for connection, not only with him, but with his people, and that we actually find rest in that. So we’re going to look back at the origins of rest, which begin in Genesis, after God created the heavens, the earth, mankind in six days. On the seventh day, God created rest, Genesis, two, one through three says, Thus, the heavens and the earth were finished, and all the host of them. And on the seventh day, God finished his work that he had done, and he rested on the seventh day from all his work that he had done. So God blessed the seventh day and made it holy, because on it, God rested from all his work that he had done in creation. The Creator of all things is also the creator of rest. God rested on the seventh day, not because he had grown tired, not because he was out of ideas, not because he really just needed a nap and to zone out from the rest of creation. He rested because he completed his work. He finished it, and his rest was a delighting in his good creation. His rest was actually this invitation for us now to enter into the finished work that he has done. We see here three important truths about the establishment and the creation of rest. So first, we see the purpose of rest. God rested from all of his work. We rest often because we are exhausted. We rest when we’re forced to. And yet God shows us that we are not to work for our rest, but we work from our rest. The Hebrew word for rest in this passage is related to the Hebrew noun Shabbat, or Sabbath. God’s rest was a celebration of his work, an invitation for all of creation to rest and to delight in worshiping Him and fellowship with Him. And second, we see the sacredness of rest. This seventh day God set apart as holy, He blessed it. And we are going to see this extended into the command of rest prior to God’s blessing, the seventh day, he blessed his creation, and He said, Be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth. But then he creates man and woman. He gives them the same command, but they’re not the same as all of creation, because only man and woman are made in God’s image. And he tells them to be fruitful and multiply, fill the earth and subdue it. Now, this was a connection that I made, and you may have already made it before, when I was studying this, that God created Adam and Eve the day before he rested their first full day of life, they rested with God. Isn’t that incredible that we were created not only to work for the glory of God, but to rest for the glory of God. This command to be fruitful and multiply is actually part of God’s rest command, because in order for us to be fruitful and multiply, we have to rest. We have to recognize our limitations. We. Are limited, he is limitless. And next, we see the pattern of rest. Rest has always been a creation ordinance set in motion by God himself for the blessing the abundance and the flourishing of his people. Ultimately, rest requires us to recognize that there is a day and a night, because before creation, there was no time. God is not bound by time. God is able to do anything. Scripture tells us, Psalm 121, that he never sleeps. So when we are sleeping and we when we are completely unproductive, like lumps on a log. We have no idea what’s happening in the world. God is keeping it moving. He is still birthing stars, even when we are submitted to this limitation that he has given us. We rely on our God for food provision, literally for breath in our lungs. When He created Adam, he breathed life into him. But we’re also reliant on God for joy, peace, for provision, for purpose, and we’re given it right here. But God’s good work, as we know, is quickly tarnished in Genesis chapter three, when Adam and Eve disobeyed the command not to eat of the fruit of the knowledge of good and evil. And in that moment, the communion with God was broken, and we see that thorns arise out of the ground and that they’re going to face toil and sweat in their labor. And yet we are not without hope, even though Adam failed in following God’s word and living according to his ways, there would come a future savior who would rescue us, who would give us hope, and Amy’s gonna share more about the command of rest and what happens next.

Amy Gannett
It is easy for me. I don’t know if it’s easy for you to hear a command from God and add it to my to do list. It almost feels as if, as if it belongs in the work category. But in Scripture, we’re actually seeing two things simultaneously happen, and we’re gonna unpack these as we talk about God’s command to practice rest. The first is this, is that God’s command to rest is actually an invitation to mirror his character. It’s an invitation to be like him in a way that the sin, or the sin, the sin of the fall, tarnished in us. If you think Adam and Eve in the garden when God invited them to rest alongside him that first seventh day of rest. They had no sense of shame in doing so. God invites them to delight in all of the goodness of creation, and they had no sense of being more productive somewhere else. They had no sense of guilt over what was left undone from the day before. They simply were able to receive God’s invitation to do what God Himself was doing, to rest and to delight in the goodness of creation. So I hope that as we unpack this command of rest, we see first that it is in God’s commands all of them, all of them throughout the Old Testament, are an invitation to more fully mirror his character in a way that the fall has prohibited us from doing. So, that’s the first thing. It’s an invitation to mirror God’s character. And the second thing is this is that God’s commands acknowledge the way that the world operates as a result of the fall. It acknowledges the reality of who we are and the human limitations God has given us just in his design, but also acknowledges the fact that the fall is something that affects all of creation. At creation, both work and rest were blessed experiences. Work was not toil, yet work was laboring alongside God in a creative way. Gretchen and I both work in creative fields we get to. We get the privilege of imagining something God would have us create, and then over months, sometimes years, of writing and editing and designing and dreaming and praying and entrusting it to the Lord. We get to hold those things in our hands. Sometimes we get to be a part of God’s creative work. And so many of you get to do that also. Adam and Eve got to participate in God’s creative work. They got to joyfully cultivate the earth that God had made to bring forth plants, seeds that were made to bring forth fruit for them to eat. What a delight that would have been now as a result of the fall, work is now more toil. There is toil in work because the ground now produces weeds. The ground now produces thorns, that work that is really an invitation to partner with God, is tarnished. Blessed, and the same is true of rest, work and rest were both blessed experiences. Our experience of rest is often confused for leisure or sloth when we think about what it would mean to rest. I don’t know if this is true for you, but I often think of how so many people encourage us online to practice self care. It’s a very inward, isolated, self motivated experience. And yet in the garden, we see God’s invitation to rest is very outward. It’s very communal. It’s very fixed on the central presence of God. And in the fall, we see that tarnished. So while work and rest were both blessed experiences, both are affected by the fall, and that is the reality that you and I are living in. So if you come here discouraged, thinking I don’t see work and or rest in that light, that’s okay. It’s because all of us live under the burden of the fall because of sin, work and rest is no longer what God intended it to be in our lives. Andy Crouch has written a great book the tech wise family, and in it, he talks a little bit about this tarnishing of work and rest. And he says this, the pattern of weekly rest, God’s seventh day blessing of rest is fundamental to human flourishing and to the flourishing of the whole world that depends on our care, but it has been disrupted and distorted by human greed and sloth. Instead of work and rest, we have ended up with toil and leisure, and neither one is an improvement. And strangely enough, technology, which promised to make work easier and rest more enjoyable often has the opposite effect. We toil. We work anxiously. Can you relate to that? Our work is often fruit, fruitless, rather than fruitful, and we can often feel as though we have never done enough. And God, in His grace here right after the fall, extends his people this command an invitation to better mirror his character. God invites His people to rest by giving them the command to rest. We can see this in so many places. God commands in the 10 Commandments that we observe the Sabbath, that we remember it, that we recall it. But he says this in a myriad of other places throughout the Old Testament. Here are just a few promises of God to lead his people into rest as they seek to follow his command and better mirror his character in the world. In Exodus. 33 he says, I will go with you and will give you rest. The psalmist in Psalm, 23 reflects, you make me lie down in green pastures. In the psalmist in Psalm 55 says, I would fly away and be at rest, speaking of the presence of God. Psalm 62 my soul finds rest in God. Psalm 127, he grants sleep to those he loves. Jeremiah six, you will find rest for your souls. Speaking again of the promise of God, these are invitations to mirror God’s character, to better represent him in this world. So God gives this command in the Old Testament, not as an added burden to the fall, not as another to do list, but as an invitation to come alongside him and delight in his creation. Andy Crouch says this at one other point in his book. He says, If toil is fruitless labor, you could think of leisure as fruitless escape from labor. It’s a kind of rest that doesn’t really restore our souls, doesn’t restore our relationship with God and others, and crucially, is the kind of rest that doesn’t give others the chance to rest leisure is purchased from other people who have to work to provide us our experiences of entertainment and rejuvenation. God has not called you to a life of leisure or entertainment, but he’s inviting you into a deeper rest, and the rest that he is offering you is all a result of the work that Christ has done on your behalf. So hear this command to rest that God extends his people throughout the Old Testament as an invitation to mirror his character, but also as a sister in Christ, as someone who is purchased by the blood of Jesus. Here that is made possible because of who Christ is.

Gretchen Saffles
So in Luke 416, through 18. This is at the start of Jesus’s public ministry. He stands up in the synagogue, and he takes the scroll, and he reads from Isaiah 61, one through two, which says, The Spirit of the Lord is upon me because he has anointed me to proclaim good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim liberty to the captives and recovering of sight to the blind, to set at liberty those who are oppressed, to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor. He rolled up the scroll, sits down, and then he drops this bit. Gold bomb, and says, Today, this scripture has been fulfilled in your hearing. And I would assume if there were pens back then, you could hear a pin drop, because Jesus came to fulfill this saving work to rescue us from the fall, because under the curse of the law, we experience the presence of fear and anxiety of injustice and unrighteousness, and you see all of these different things that Christ lists here go back to this call that God gave to flourish. Christ came to undo that work so that we could then enter his rest and live the life that flourishes under his authority. This passage encompasses His purpose, the saving work that he was going to accomplish for his people, because where the first Adam had failed. Christ came to fulfill all of God’s word, to fulfill all of these prophecies and these promises to his people. As Jesus continues his ministry, the Gospels Note seven different times he healed on the Sabbath. Let me tell you, every single time he healed on the Sabbath, people were not happy because they saw the Sabbath through Old Testament eyes and also through narrower vision than what the Old Testament law had provided them. The Pharisees had heaped upon the people even more laws. And so when Jesus would heal someone on the Sabbath, they would go, no, no, no, you can’t heal somebody on the Sabbath because that is work. Christ instead offers his counsel, his unwavering word that the Sabbath is not meant to be a burden to his people like they had made it. The Sabbath is always meant to be a blessing for the people of God, and also to be a way that we bless those around us. Resting is not something that is only solitary. It’s actually an act that impacts our neighbors, going back to the Old Testament, law when Jesus or when the Lord is telling us to rest. He also says that those who worked for the people, for the Jews, they were also to rest. So this invitation extended to all people, and when Jesus accomplished his work, when he healed these different people on the Sabbath, their response was one astonishment at the work of God, but also serving Christ, they followed him. They served those who were around him. And there’s a specific story in Mark 223, through 28 where Jesus is walking through grain fields with his disciples, and they grow hungry, so they pluck heads of grain to eat. And the Pharisees see them doing this, and they are not happy. Well, Jesus, in turn, redefines the view of what it means to actually enter God’s rest. First, he tells them that the Sabbath was made for man by God, and it’s for our good. We are not creators of rest. We are not creators of Sabbath. We are recipients of it. Sabbath. Rest has always meant to be a blessing, not a burdensome task. And next, Jesus explains that he is Lord of the Sabbath. He is the one who has authority, because he is the one who is the creator, one with God, the Son of God. He is the Word made flesh, who brings life into existence. We ultimately set aside our work for something even better, that sweet communion with our God as we recognize that we cannot keep laboring without hitting a limit, but when we set aside the things that we are doing, because the reality is, our work is never finished, even when you finish something, I always have a to do list, And I’ve got several on my phone, and I’m always adding to them, so the satisfaction of marking it off is quickly erased because I add something else to it. There’s always things that need to be done, and yet God calls us to recognize our limits. Even when Adam and Eve were created, they were limited. They were made in the image of God, but they were not God. And yet we convince ourselves that we are, we are the ones who have the authority we can stay connected in all the different ways, while ignoring our Bible, while trying to escape our need for literally sleep by drinking more and more coffee so we can bring. Juice more and more. And yet Christ, he’s bringing this reminder that I am Lord of the Sabbath, and Jesus, he goes on to teach in March Mark chapter three, that the Sabbath is a day for doing good. It’s a day for saving lives. It’s not a day for pride or hardness of heart. As a matter of fact, the Sabbath, and his rest is where we have soft hearts to receive the good words of God, to receive the blessing that he has given of rest in Matthew 1128, through 30, I’m sure you’ve heard this passage before, Jesus calls all who are weary to come to Him and find rest for their weary souls. Well, just prior to this, he was just talking to Pharisees and to all of these unbelieving cities, saying, Woe to you. You did not receive my word. You were hard in your heart, and you saw my miracles, but you didn’t believe me. This reminder is for us that in order to enter the rest that God has for us, we have to believe His Word, to come to him in full submission and surrender, knowing that his ways are higher than our ways, and his gifts are good gifts to his people. So who are the weary and the heavy laden that Christ is asking to come to Him. They were those who experienced the burden of the law. They knew they couldn’t keep these hundreds and 1000s of commands. They knew that they were failing and falling short. But the weary and the heavy laden, they’re also those who are physically tired. They are literally carrying burdens. They’re tugging along all their children and all their bags and all the things, and at the end of the day, they collapse onto the bed because they are exhausted. And the weary and the heavy laden are those who are dealing with emotional unrest. Maybe they’re in an experience where they have not been able to see the justice of God displayed.

Gretchen Saffles
They’re the people who are spiritually dry, the weary and the heavy laden. It’s you and it’s me that Christ says come. He doesn’t say come when you have everything all together, he says to come in our weariness and our heavy burdens, Christ’s gift is a sure promise for us that we can acknowledge that He is Lord, and we can lay aside our labors to be approved by man. We can surrender this desire to be approved by God, because we could never earn that. It is only through the gift of Christ, which we’ll see in Hebrews three, seven through 411, this is one of the main passages in the New Testament that speaks about the rest that God gives us. It goes back to Psalm 95 and in this specific passage in Psalm 95 the psalmist is writing about Israel. When they were set free from the Egyptian yoke of slavery, they’ve gone through the Red Sea, and they are God has brought them to the land of Canaan, to the Promised Land. Well they go and they see the people, and they’re like, Oh no, no, no, no, no, no, God. Like this is they are too big and they are too strong, and we cannot overcome them. Well, they didn’t get to enter God’s rest. Instead, they were under judgment. They had to wander in the wilderness for 40 years. And so this passage is going back to that time, and it’s warning us, do not harden your hearts when you hear the word of God, we are instead to receive His Word, implant it in our hearts, and it produces a harvest. It goes back to the flourishing command that God has given us. And in order to flourish, it’s not according to the world’s ways that says, do more be more productive. Read this book, do more self care this way. Instead, it is according to God’s ways that we can rest and we can know that it is through Christ that we don’t have to keep striving. I don’t have to I don’t have to sit up here and prove myself to you guys, because I am approved by God. When Christ gave up his life on the cross, what were those three words that he said, It is finished. God rested when he finished his good work, and he delighted in it. Christ came and he completed all of the work that the Father had commissioned him to do. And on the cross, when He breathed His last, he says, It is finished. I have done the work that I was to do, and now my people can enter this rest to know that we are saved by grace, through faith, not because you attended this conference, not because you lead women’s Bible study, not because you go to. Church every week and serve in children’s ministry because of His grace and because of the faith that he has imparted to you. Hebrews four, nine through 11. Let me pull this up. I was it’s hard to juggle all these different things. Hebrews four, nine through 11. Says so then there remains a Sabbath rest for the people of God. For whoever has entered God’s rest has also entered, has also rested from His works as God did from his Let us therefore Strive to enter that rest, so that no one may fall by the same sort of disobedience. That disobedience was unbelief. So we enter this rest through the work of Jesus Christ, through the one who said it is finished on our behalf. And that is what Amy is going to talk about, is the future rest that Hebrews talks about, that there awaits for all of us.

Amy Gannett
Theologians have a phrase when talking about something that Christ has accomplished on our behalf, that we enjoy now and yet await the full realization of that accomplishment, and it’s the already and not yet, the now and not yet. And that is the reality as we talk about this final C consummation, as we look ahead to the joy of heaven, the new heavens and new earth, that God has promised for all those who have placed their faith in Jesus, He has promised us this consummation where he is bringing his full work to completion. He is going to consummate or bring to fullness or full reality, his work, the work that he began at creation, the work that he furthered in the person of Christ after the fall, and the work that he will bring to create to culmination, he calls rest. As we look to the new heavens and new earth. We can look at many descriptors in Scripture, but the primary metaphor that Scripture uses is rest that awaits the people of God. And as we unpack this theologically, we’re going to be looking at a passage in Isaiah as we talk about what it means to enter this rest, as the author of Hebrews tells us to strive to not be negligent, so that we might not fail to enter this rest. To keep our eyes fixed on this rest. As we look at this final section of the metanarrative of the Scripture and consider what it might mean for us, let us remember that because of what Christ has done, we are experiencing the already and the not yet because of what Christ has done, our ultimate work, our ultimate striving to be right with God is completed on our behalf, and our ultimate rest being made right with God and resting in his sovereign care and salvation is already accomplished. We experience that now you’re invited to experience that and delight in that and enjoy it. Now, the consummation of all things yet awaits us. That’s the not yet part. There is a final, fullest rest that awaits the people of God, you and I, that is ahead of us, but God has still invited you to enjoy the rest of heaven, the rest that Christ has accomplished on our behalf now. And how do we do that? As we rest in the limits God has given us, surrendering ourselves to a savior, saying, I could not make myself right with God. Jesus had to do that on my behalf. And you know what he did? He accomplished it. I’m not faux made right with God. I’m not temporarily made right with God. I’m not made right with God only when my to do list is done or my righteousness is at least moving in the right direction. You are made right with God because of Christ’s finished work. You can enjoy the rest that God offers you now, even as we await that which is not yet, we’ve talked about how at creation, we see these themes of work and rest at play. God created his people to work in delight and to rest in delight. And the fall affects both of these things, work and rest were affected by the fall, and when scripture forecasts for us, foreshadows what is yet to come in the consummation of all things, we see these two things at play, work and rest. We’re going to be looking at Isaiah chapter 65 and this chapter casts a vision of the fall being reversed in the new heavens and new earth in the fall. We’ve mentioned this the fall affected several things about our broke our relationship with God, broke our relationship to one another, broke our relationship with the Earth and the curse of sin God said would show up in two prongs. Minute ways our relationship with nature, there would be thorns and thistles that would cause our work to be toil, and also there would be great pain and childbearing, the fruitfulness of the womb would become more painful, as it was affected by sin. And in Isaiah, chapter 65 which I’m going to read a section for us, here we see the reversal, the undoing, the untangling, the unraveling of the curse. So as I read these verses, we’re going to read 17 through 25 I want you to listen, because so many of us live with the imprint of the fall so heavily pressed upon us we can’t lift our heads above it, because we have experience that’s our daily experience, is life in a broken world. But listen as this knot of the fall, our relationship with all of creation, our relationship with producing families, producing community, our relationships with one another, the relationships of parents to children, the fruit of the womb, all of these things, listen as God forecasts as this knot is going to fall loose in the consummation of all things. This is what he says in Isaiah 65 For behold, I create new heavens and new earth, and the former things shall not be remembered, to come into mind, but be glad and rejoice forever in that which I create. For behold, I create Jerusalem to be a joy and her people to be a gladness. I will rejoice in Jerusalem and be glad in my people. No more shall be heard in it the sounds of weeping and the cry of distress. No more shall there be an infant who lives but a few days, or an old man who does not fulfill his days. For the young man shall die 100 years old, and the sinner 100 years old shall be accursed. They shall build houses and inhabit them. They shall plant vineyards and eat their fruit. They shall not build and another inhabit. They shall not plant and another eat. For like the days of a tree shall be the days of my people and my chosen shall long enjoy the work of their hands. They shall not labor in vain or bear children for calamity, for they shall be the offspring of the blessed of the Lord and their descendants with them. Before they call, I will answer while they are yet speaking, I will hear the wolf and the lamb shall graze together. The lion shall eat straw like the ox and dust shall be the serpent’s food they shall not hurt or destroy. In all my holy mountain, says the Lord, do you hear the already and not yet? In this God is forecasting for his people, for the nation of Israel, a promise of them entering a new era as they walk with Him, as they abide under his command to rest as they receive His commands as an invitation to mirror his character in the world. He’s going to provide them this new environment of living as they follow His ways. This is a doctrine that theologians call common grace. As they walk in the ways of God, they are what one of my favorite former theologians says they are going with the grain of the universe. God embedded part of his character in the way he created the entire world. And it’s not just for Christians to enjoy an experience. There is part of God’s character embedded in the fabric of creation. And Eugene Peterson says that when we go with God’s ways, we’re going with the grain, and if we go against the grain, we’re gonna get splinters. God has created all of creation to enjoy his character as they enjoy his rest in creation. That’s what God is inviting his people into as he builds this Jerusalem City for them here on Earth, as he builds it for them in the Old Testament, for them to enjoy. But he’s saying, this is not the final destination. Look ahead to the consummation of all things, when the wolf and the lamb will grace together, there will be a peace that comes from the shalom of God, the peace of God, the Shabbat. This the Sabbath of God that only comes when God brings all of this work into its final and fullest realization, the tangle that was caused by the fall that not that we all live within our stomachs, is going to fall loose, and we’re going to see how our relationships with one another is meant. That was always meant to be fruitful is now fruitful. The relationship that we were meant to have with the Earth is now fruitful. Yet again, when you picture the new heavens and new earth, I think a lot of us can be challenged when we hear maybe a seven year old answer, what do you think heaven is like? And they’re like, well, it’s as much chocolate ice cream as you could possibly eat, or it’s a million Golden Retriever puppies. Now that would be pretty great, wouldn’t it, but a lot of us have these sort of temporal, earthly views of the new heavens and new earth. We think of the consummation the rest of all things being leisure, being Netflix, being a bad. Lit with candles. While none of these are bad things in and of themselves, God has so much more for us. He has work that is meant to be fruitful and rest that is fruitful because he is bringing about the new heavens and new earth, the consummation of everything he began. So before we close our time together, Gretchen, and I really want to get practical. We’ve looked at creation, we’ve looked at the command, we’ve looked at Christ and how he fulfills this. And we’ve forecast ahead, looking ahead at what it means for the consummation of all things to be our ultimate hope. As Christians, this is what we look to but before we close our time, we want to get a little practical for a few minutes. We only have a few moments left. But how do we do this? How do we enjoy the rest that God has promised us? We are living in the already, not yet. We can look ahead with hope to the consummation of all things, but we live here and now. So how do we do this? How do we live into the rest that God has for us? And I’m going to offer a few practical points, and I’m going to turn it over to Gretchen to close our time. But here is my biggest encouragement to you as you feel this in the everyday grooves of your life, is to honor the limits God has given you. God created man and woman before the fall with human limits, a need to sleep, a need to eat, limited human power. God alone, friends, is all powerful. You are not all powerful. And you do yourself, and you do God, and you do your community no favors. When you pretend that your energy is limitless, that with the right amount of coffee, with that, with the right schedule, the right life hack, get that one planner. I’m going to hack it, and I’m going to be

Gretchen Saffles
all powerful. I haven’t found the planner. You haven’t tried a lot,

Amy Gannett
but we can often convince ourselves that if we had the right life hack, that we could somehow escape our God given limits. And as we fix our eyes on Jesus, we realize afresh that he alone is all powerful. He alone is all present. You cannot be picking up from from ballet and dropping off at baseball practice at the same time. You can’t be working and staying home with your kids at the same time, you can’t be asleep and being productive in your yard. At the same time, God alone is all present. And you can study until you feel like your brain is going to fall out. You can drink enough coffee and prop your eyelids open in the library, and yet you will not be all knowing. God alone is all knowing. So as we fix our eyes on the unchanging character of God, who alone is all powerful, all present and all knowing, we are reminded of fresh of our own god, given limits, and we surrender to Him in delight and in joy and in rest.

Gretchen Saffles
God has given us so many ways that we can incorporate rest into not only our weekly routines and rhythms with the Sabbath, but also into our days. So each week, we have this opportunity to enter God’s rest is we fellowship with the body of Christ, with our local churches. That fellowship and coming together, worshiping God is a part of the rest that he has given us. We come alongside each other with our arms linked, knowing that life is hard and that life is long, but God is faithful. It’s a preaching to our hearts that we don’t keep the world going as much as we try. We are not the ones that have that all together, but God is and we rest each day when we set aside our labor at the end of the day too, because the fact is, we all need sleep. I know some of us might need more than others, but we all have to submit to sleep at some point, even if you try to evade sleep for so long. I mean, science shows you will die if you literally never sleep. God created us with this actual physical need to rest, to shut our eyes, and when we do that, we have absolutely no control. I mean, I’m just laying in my bed in the dark. I have no clue what’s going on around me, but my God does, and when we submit to that, not out begrudgingly, like, Oh, I wish that I just could do more things. And that I’ve said this before. I wish I didn’t have to sleep. If I didn’t have to sleep, I could get so much done. You write, and yet I have to. And part of that submission is worshiping God. We rest when we listen to God’s Word, through the reading of God’s Word, through the hearing of God’s word, and when we receive it with soft hearts, knowing that this word is life and that it will actually produce the flourishing abundance that we long for, because we go back to creation, to the command, we go to Christ and to the consummation of rest. All of it has to do with fruit bearing. Be. Fruitful and multiply. Well, we are not the fruit bearers. God is the fruit bearer, who does the work in us. And lastly, we rest by repenting of our sins, turning our gaze to Christ, who is faithful to forgive, to turn his eyes away from those sins and remove them as far as the east is from the west, so that we can walk in freedom. Rest, ultimately, is our protection. It’s an invitation. And we get to hope and come to Christ, our gentle and lowly Shepherd, our Great High Priest, just as we are today. And we get to know that we can receive His rest, knowing that there is a promise future rest that is coming and oh how glorious it is going to be. So let’s pray heavenly father, God, we come to you tired and weary and worn out living in this fallen world is hard, and yet we have a Savior who understands. We have your word to lift the burdens from our hearts. We have the invitation to come to Christ and to receive soul rest, God, I pray that we would not turn away from you with hardness of heart, thinking that we can keep going on our own, that we keep everything in motion but Father, I pray that all of us would enjoy your good gift of rest of setting aside our labor to recognize that you alone are God, to rejoice and to delight in fellowship with you, God, Father, I pray that each woman would walk out of here better understanding this good gift that you have given in Christ, so that we do not need to strive Lord, but that Christ has already finished the work. God, what a joy it is to know that we can enter that rest and to know that we have this future, eternal hope that is secure, that we don’t have to work for God. We thank you, and we praise you, and we pray that we would be women who not only work for your glory, but God, who rest for your glory, knowing that that is then going to produce ripple effects in the lives of everyone around us in the fruitfulness that you call us to do in Jesus’ name. Amen.