2025-05-25 Sermon Notes - Daniel Lyons' Notes

type:
  - "[[Sermon Notes|Sermon Notes]]"
speaker: "[[Nate Shurden]]"
date: 2025-05-25
location: Cornerstone Presbyterian Church
passage:
sermon series:
sermon link:
subjects:
  - "[[rest]]"
  - "[[faith]]"
  - "[[Work|work]]"
  - "[[unbelief]]"
title: Rest That's Better Than Summer Vacation
takeaways:
publish: true

Series	Location	Subjects	Takeaways	Sermon Link
-	Cornerstone Presbyterian Church	rest faith work unbelief	-	-

💡Big Idea

Takeaways and Next Steps

📖Bible Passage

Hebrews 4:1-11

Let's fear therefore, lest perhaps anyone of you should seem to have come short of a promise of entering into his rest. For indeed we have had good news preached to us, even as they also did, but the word they heard didn't profit them, because it wasn't mixed with faith by those who heard. For we who have believed do enter into that rest, even as he has said, "As I swore in my wrath, they will not enter into my rest;" although the works were finished from the foundation of the world. For he has said this somewhere about the seventh day, "God rested on the seventh day from all his works;" and in this place again, "They will not enter into my rest." Seeing therefore it remains that some should enter into it, and they to whom the good news was preached before failed to enter in because of disobedience, he again defines a certain day, today, saying through David so long a time afterward (just as has been said), "Today if you will hear his voice, don't harden your hearts." For if Joshua had given them rest, he would not have spoken afterward of another day. There remains therefore a Sabbath rest for the people of God. For he who has entered into his rest has himself also rested from his works, as God did from his. Let's therefore give diligence to enter into that rest, lest anyone fall after the same example of disobedience.

Points

❓: How can we truly rest? What does it mean to truly rest?
Illustration: In Homer's Odyssey, Odysseus is really his own obstacle? Each story is an example of him being tempted. He is searching for rest at home in Ithaca.
- A goddess tempted him with sex but Odysseus could see that she was a false rest and a poor substitute to his commitment to his wife.
- ⭐: In this life we encounter these moments that appear to be rest and yet they provide no rest.
⭐: rest is foundational
⭐: rest is multidimensional
⭐: rest is eternal

Rest is foundational

Hebrews points back to creation to show the origin of rest.
- Genesis 2.2 On the seventh day God finished his work which he had done; and he rested on the seventh day from all his work which he had done.
  - Notice that on the seventh day God finished His work and in a separate statement He rested.
    - Now God did not stop working. He is always working and if He were not this universe would cease to be.
      - ⭐: God continued working on the seventh day and His work on this day was resting
      - Resting requires work.
In our protestant culture we love work. We highly value it.
- But, perhaps we love work a little too much.
Interestingly God commands us to rest. God thought this so important that He put it in the ten commandments
- Exodus 20:10-11 but the seventh day is a Sabbath to Yahweh your God. You shall not do any work in it, you, nor your son, nor your daughter, your male servant, nor your female servant, nor your livestock, nor your stranger who is within your gates; for in six days Yahweh made heaven and earth, the sea, and all that is in them, and rested the seventh day; therefore Yahweh blessed the Sabbath day, and made it holy.
Rest is essential
Rest is not optional.

Rest is multidimensional

Did you notice that this passage in Hebrews 4 is a little hard to follow? This is partly because the writer is using rest in multiple manners. It is multidemensional.

Rest is a promise we believe.

To receive the land of rest, one must first find the promise of rest from God.
- ⭐ faith is a form of rest. When we place our faith in a good and powerful God who can fulfill His promises for us, we can rest in Him, knowing that He will be faithful.
  - When we disobey God, it is because of our unbelief.
    - It is because we think that something else is more good than what God has promised.
    - It is because we believe that there is some other better way to get or achieve the good things that God has promised.
    - When you disbelieve, you will disobey.
Case study: The people of Israel sent spies to scope out Canaan. Ten feared giants and superior armies. But two, saw great blessings from God and rested in their faith knowing that God would deliver Canaan into their hands.

Ultimately Rest is a person that we must meet.

Rest is a person that we've got to meet, get to know and love.
- We rest in the character of God. We know who He has revealed Himself to be.
  - We know that He is faithful and He will not forsake us.
  - We know that He is good and He will not allow evil to triumph.
Observation: Have you noticed that we go on vacation and yet we end up feeling less rested than before?
- It's because we are trying to go to rest without the Gospel of rest.
- When we rest on vacation, we are seeking to please ourselves, and so is everyone else around us, and our selfishness conflicts with each other.
❓: Why did God rest?
- Was it because He was tired? No. God doesn't get tired.
- God made the world in 6 days, and He got something that we all want but none of us can ever find satisfaction. He looked at His creation and He saw that it was all good.
Case study: The point of getting the promised land in Canaan was not to get rest.
- Hebrews 4:8-9 For if Joshua had given them rest, he would not have spoken afterward of another day. There remains therefore a Sabbath rest for the people of God.
- These people did not find rest in the promised land. Why?
- The writer of Hebrews points forward to a future rest that is yet to come.
  - What is this rest? Is it the land of Canaan? No.
  - Hebrews 4.2 For indeed we have had good news preached to us, even as they also did, but the word they heard didn't profit them, because it wasn't mixed with faith by those who heard.
    - They also received the Gospel, the Good News. How? Through God's covenant with His people.
Observation: God regives us the ten commandments in Deuteronomy 5. It's basically the same as Exodus 20 except for the 4th commandment, which is the same but has a new rationale.
- Deuteronomy 5.15 You shall remember that you were a servant in the land of Egypt, and Yahweh your God brought you out of there by a mighty hand and by an outstretched arm. Therefore Yahweh your God commanded you to keep the Sabbath day.
- God wants us to remember why we rest. We rest because we are now redeemed from slavery. Freed from the oppression of others, freed into the kingdom of God and freed from the oppression of our own sinfulness.

Application

Come to Christ who will give us true rest:
- Matthew 11.25 At that time, Jesus answered, "I thank you, Father, Lord of heaven and earth, that you hid these things from the wise and understanding, and revealed them to infants.
- But how can we trust that Jesus will give us this rest? Because He already did all of the work.
  - On the cross Jesus experienced the utter restlessness that hell is all about.
  - And He conquered sin and death and He said It is finished.
- There is no work that you can do that can bring you true eternal rest.
  - You cannot substitute the rest that God provides us in Christ.
Illustration: Remember that old hymn Trust and Obey for there is no way to rest than to trust in Jesus.
- When we trust and obey Him, we can rest in Him, knowing that one day He will say to us "Well done".

Further Study

💬Discussion Questions

What does "rest" mean to you in your daily life? How does the sermon's description of true rest from Hebrews 4 challenge or expand your understanding?
The sermon notes highlight the idea that "resting requires work," referencing God's rest on the seventh day after finishing His work. How do you interpret this paradox, and how does it influence your view of rest?
Hebrews connects entering God's rest with faith and warns that disobedience stems from unbelief. How do you see the relationship between trusting God and experiencing His rest? Can you share an example from your own life?
The notes state that "Ultimately Rest is a person that we must meet" – Jesus Christ. What does it mean to you that true eternal rest is found not in a place or activity, but in a person?
Considering Jesus' statement "It is finished" on the cross and the sermon's point that He "already did all of the work," how does understanding Christ's completed work enable us to find true rest in Him?
The sermon mentions that even vacation can leave us feeling unrested if we lack the "Gospel of rest." How does centering our pursuit of rest and satisfaction on Christ change the experience compared to seeking it elsewhere?
Hebrews 4:8-9 points beyond the rest in Canaan to a "Sabbath rest for the people of God" that remains. How does this future hope of ultimate rest shape how you live and seek rest today?
Hebrews 4:11 encourages us to "give diligence to enter into that rest, lest anyone fall after the same example of disobedience." What practical steps can we take to actively pursue and abide in the rest God offers in Christ?

2025-05-25 Sermon Notes

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