"Building a Church Through Outreach"
A Day of Rest
ELCOG 3/16/08
Text: Hebrews 4:11
As I begin today’s message I want to remind you of a question that I asked last Sunday; "Where is the power that God promised? Where are the signs and wonders?" This is a serious question that church needs to deal with because the bible clearly says in…
Mark 16:17
17And these signs shall follow them that believe; In my name shall they cast out devils; they shall speak with new tongues;
Acts 4:30
30By stretching forth thine hand to heal; and that signs and wonders may be done by the name of thy holy child Jesus.
Acts 4:31
31And when they had prayed, the place was shaken where they were assembled together; and they were all filled with the Holy Ghost, and they spake the word of God with boldness.
Last Sunday I asked why we aren’t experiencing this power from God. Why are we not following in the supernatural and today in the first part of this message I want to try and answer this question.
In the first section of Hebrews 4 I believe that we can find one of the reasons that God is not doing everything that He can do. Now, we know that God is all powerful and we know that He can do anything he wishes, but I also know that we as his believers can limit what he is able to do.
In Mark 6 Jesus was on a miracle tour, but the people stop his power from really being effective.
Mark 6:5
5And he could there do no mighty work, save that he laid his hands upon a few sick folk, and healed them.
Mark 6:6
6And he marvelled because of their unbelief. And he went round about the villages, teaching.
Notice a problem that Jesus had: unbelief. They could not receive him because they knew that he was the son of the carpenter. They knew his earthly background and could not fully except his heavenly background.
But we know the full story. So what is our problem?
Heb. 4:2
2For unto us was the gospel preached, as well as unto them: but the word preached did not profit them, not being mixed with faith in them that heard it.
There lies the answer for many of us today. We have great preachers that saturate our lives with the word. You can come to this church and hear a great gospel message and while you are getting ready you can hear a great gospel preacher on T.V. and then on your ride to church you can hear another gospel message on the radio in your car. Lour problem in the United States is not a lack of the word. We have plenty of options to hear the word, our problems lies in the fact that we can not benefit from the word because we do not have FAITH mixed in with our hearing.
We must be willing to lean our entire life on the personality of God. We must have absolute trust and confidence in His power, wisdom, and goodness. We must not only hear him - we must trust HIM!
If we are going to experience the fullness of God and his gospel then we must learn to trust every aspect of His word. We must rely on Him for our every breath. We must have an increase faith in the God that speaks the word! Let this church be united in faith. Let us have a corporate unity and a corporate faith.
James 1:22
22But be ye doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving your own selves.
James 1:23
23For if any be a hearer of the word, and not a doer, he is like unto a man beholding his natural face in a glass:
James 1:24
24For he beholdeth himself, and goeth his way, and straightway forgetteth what manner of man he was.
James 1:25
25But whoso looketh into the perfect law of liberty, and continueth therein, he being not a forgetful hearer, but a doer of the work, this man shall be blessed in his deed.
James 1:26
26If any man among you seem to be religious, and bridleth not his tongue, but deceiveth his own heart, this man’s religion is vain.
James 1:27
27Pure religion and undefiled before God and the Father is this, To visit the fatherless and widows in their affliction, and to keep himself unspotted from the world.
So to help answer the question that I asked in the introduction; we must be doers of the word. That means we must believe in and subscribe to the word.
Now listen to verse 3:
"For we who have believed (adhered to and trust in and relied on God) do enter that rest, in accordance with His declaration…"
We need to enter into His rest. A time of rest is a time without struggle. If we could believe in the word of God and link faith with our hearing then we could stop all this struggling and live in His rest.
Notice verse 6:
Heb. 4:6
6Seeing therefore it remaineth that some must enter therein, and they to whom it was first preached entered not in because of unbelief:
Some people will not enter into His rest because of unbelief. It seems that it all flows around the same thing: believing or unbelieving. As Brother Nick said believing is adhering to like glue. We must be doers of the word!
Verse 9-11 (amplified version)
9 "So then, there is still waiting a full and complete Sabbath-rest reserved for the true people of God;"
10 "For he who has once entered God’s rest also has ceased from the weariness and pain of human labors, just as God rested from those labors ."
11 "Let us therefore be zealous and exert ourselves and strive diligently to enter that rest, that no one may fall or perish by the same kind of unbelief and disobedience (into which those in the wilderness fell)"
God has a place of rest reserved for the true believers of God. He has a place of refuge from your storms. He has a place of help, hope, and rest if you will only believe in the true God. We must stop playing games and begin to trust in the power of God to transform our lives! A place of complete rest, takes complete trust!
I love verse 10, those who have entered into this place of trust and rest have ceased from the weariness and pain of human labors. God wants you to have this real rest. He wants you to flow in the real power but you must trust him and his word!
Verse 11: Let us exert (put into action, as influence or force) ourselves. Put our faith into action. Let us put our trust into action. So that we can enter into the rest that God has promised! Let us diligently strive to have the completeness of God in our lives!
Part of this completeness of God comes in His word:
Heb. 4:12
12For the word of God is quick, and powerful, and sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing even to the dividing asunder of soul and spirit, and of the joints and marrow, and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart.
We must operate in this word with faith so that we can enter into His rest.
Let me begin to close: I want to point out a couple of more things.
Verse 14-16 - We have a High priest that is able to feel our hurts and our pains. He is able to understand our weaknesses and our infirmities. If we believe and if we trust His word then we can have access to this High Priest.
Let us then fearlessly, confidently, and boldly draw near to the throne of grace that we may receive mercy and find grace to help us in our time of need.
He is here to help us. He is hear to give you rest. He is here to do the impossible, but we must activate our faith when we hear the word. When you hear a message like this today, you must act on it. You must put your faith to work. Believe God and watch God take you into his place of rest.