Let’s pray.

Father in heaven, I ask that you would speak to each and every one of us today. Let us hear your voice and be obedient to your commands. God, we know that when we heed your words for us, you will lead us to good things. Lord, we thank you for this gathering here. Your people, the church, called by God to seek your presence. Let us encourage one another with your word, and honor you with our actions throughout the week. Give us confidence to live out the eternal victory you’ve already secured for us.

Lord, if there are any people who need your encouragement, provide a supernatural portion of power for them. Provide faith and keep us from wavering, regardless of the storms we are facing in life. We pray these things in Jesus name. Amen.

Introduction

Pastor Ken told me that my job today is to convince you all to join a life group in the next few weeks. But I’m going to skip the convincing. None of you need convincing that being part of a close knit group of friends is good for you.

Instead, I going to share how God wants to give you his rest so you are not dragged down by the chaos and disorder of life.

If you have your Bibles, open them to Hebrews 3:7-19.

Scripture

⁷ Therefore, as the Holy Spirit says,

            “Today, if you hear his voice,

            ⁸ do not harden your hearts as in the rebellion,

on the day of testing in the wilderness,

            ⁹ where your fathers put me to the test

and saw my works for forty years.

            ¹⁰ Therefore I was provoked with that generation,

            and said, ‘They always go astray in their heart;

they have not known my ways.’

            ¹¹ As I swore in my wrath,

‘They shall not enter my rest.’ ”

¹² Take care, brothers, lest there be in any of you an evil, unbelieving heart, leading you to fall away from the living God. ¹³ But exhort one another every day, as long as it is called “today,” that none of you may be hardened by the deceitfulness of sin. ¹⁴ For we have come to share in Christ, if indeed we hold our original confidence firm to the end. ¹⁵ As it is said,

                           “Today, if you hear his voice,

                           do not harden your hearts as in the rebellion.”

¹⁶ For who were those who heard and yet rebelled? Was it not all those who left Egypt led by Moses? ¹⁷ And with whom was he provoked for forty years? Was it not with those who sinned, whose bodies fell in the wilderness? ¹⁸ And to whom did he swear that they would not enter his rest, but to those who were disobedient? ¹⁹ So we see that they were unable to enter because of unbelief. (Hebrews 3:7-19 ESV)

Here’s what the writer of the Hebrews is implicitly saying:

• God wants to give the people that he loves his rest.
  • Just so we’re clear, “God’s rest” is not an exotic vacation you take to get away from the pressures, and the people you have to deal with on an everyday basis. Its not like going to an all inclusive resort.
  • God’s rest is actually the restoration of God’s created order in your life, so that you can be free to live as he originally created you, and not dragged down by the chaos and disorder of life as we now know it outside of God.
• If you are somebody God loves. You know God loves you because you received forgiveness from your sins against God through faith in Jesus Christ as your Lord and savior. Then God wants to give you his rest.
  • He wants to free you from the chaos and disorder of your life, so you can live your fullest life by being in fellowship with him.
• Church, at the heart of what the writer in the Hebrews is saying is that we were created by God so that we could be lavishly loved by God.
  • In fact, the reason the Bible tells us to love the Lord our God with all our heart, mind, and soul, is because we are the recipients of God’s overwhelming love.
  • When we find ourselves in God’s love, we will have the rest he created us to have. The same rest he had on the seventh day, when he rested from his work of creation to enjoy all that he made as good.

Philosophically and theoretically that’s all good. Yes, that is fulfillment in life that we always wanted. The life we dreamed of having.

Now, here’s the problem. The greatest obstacle we face in obtaining God’s rest is the very fact that we’re living life.

Our very lives are the reason we don’t and can’t experience the rest God wants to give us. It’s not because God doesn’t give it to us. His rest is available to us right now.  It’s just that the activities and the circumstances in our lives distract us enough to keep us from accepting God’s rest for us. You see, the thing about life is that the purpose of chaos, pain, hurt, and troubles causes a disillusionment with God’s love which distracts us from paying attention to who God actually is and what he is actually doing for us. Here are some examples.

• Like, why does your water heater, car, and AC break within the same pay period? Has that ever happened to you? You know, the unexpected expenses that magically snowball just as you’re about to break free from debt and start giving generously. So you have to go get a side hustle and then a side, side hustle, and you still haven’t lived in faith.
• Maybe, it’s the drama in your relationships. Because the people in your life are horrible. Horrible boss. Horrible employee. Horrible wife. Horrible husband. Horrible brother. Horrible sister. Horrible mother. Horrible father. You’re constantly dealing with their drama and the brokenness of their lives bleeds into your own.

I know what some of you are thinking. If God really wanted to give me his rest, he wouldn’t have created all these people and told them to live in such close proximity to me. And if you’re thinking that, well, welcome to Cedarbrook. We’re glad you brought your own version of crazy here today.

So, if God really wanted to give the people that he loves his rest, and the problem is that life gets in our way, then how can we receive what God wants to give us?

According Hebrews 3, there are two rhythms we can practice to live in God’s rest. First is this:

Point 1. Pay attention to God

 Let’s look at verses 7-12 again.

⁷ Therefore, as the Holy Spirit says,

            “Today, if you hear his voice,

            ⁸ do not harden your hearts as in the rebellion,

on the day of testing in the wilderness,

            ⁹ where your fathers put me to the test

and saw my works for forty years.

            ¹⁰ Therefore I was provoked with that generation,

            and said, ‘They always go astray in their heart;

they have not known my ways.’

            ¹¹ As I swore in my wrath,

‘They shall not enter my rest.’ ”

¹² Take care, brothers, lest there be in any of you an evil, unbelieving heart, leading you to fall away from the living God. (Hebrews 3:7-12 ESV)

This is a quote from Psalm 95. Psalm 95 refers to an event that happened in Numbers 14.

In Numbers 13, Moses sends 12 spies to spy out the land of Canaan before they start their conquest of the land God had promised them. The promised land was where the nomadic nation of Israel would finally settle and find “rest” as God promised their forefathers, Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob before they were slaves in Egypt. Well, after 40 days, the spies returned, and ten of those spies were really pessimistic about the situation and convinced the rest of the people that they were all going to die unsurly deaths if they tried to live in faith, obeying God as he guided them into the promised land of Canaan.

Long story short, the entire nation of Israel lost faith in God because of what these 10 guys said. They lost hope and decided to abandon the very God who has been supernaturally delivering them and providing for them out of his love and compassion.

Now, I’ve been wrestling with why the author of the Hebrews quotes Psalm 95 instead of retelling the actual story in Numbers 14; and the conclusion I arrive at is this: it’s because the author didn’t want us to miss the “how” in paying attention to God in our lives. And the how is referenced in Psalm 95, which the people in Numbers 14 failed to employ. Let me read the first part of Psalm 95 that provides the how for God’s people.

This is Psalm 95:1-7.

¹Oh come, let us sing to the Lord;

let us make a joyful noise to the rock of our salvation!

            ² Let us come into his presence with thanksgiving;

let us make a joyful noise to him with songs of praise!

            ³ For the Lord is a great God,

and a great King above all gods.

            ⁴ In his hand are the depths of the earth;

the heights of the mountains are his also.

            ⁵ The sea is his, for he made it,

and his hands formed the dry land.

            ⁶ Oh come, let us worship and bow down;

let us kneel before the Lord, our Maker!

            ⁷ For he is our God,

and we are the people of his pasture,

and the sheep of his hand. (Psalm 95:1-7a ESV)

The Psalmist says that we will pay attention to God if we remind ourselves of the truths about God in every circumstance we face. Isn’t it funny how if we’re not reminding ourselves of who God is, that we easily forget to pay attention to him? 

So, according to the Psalm, these truths about God we need to remind ourselves of:

• God is great
• God is above other gods
• God controls the earth, the mountains, the seas, and the very land we walk on
• God is our maker
• God calls us his own
  • And so he does not stop speaking to us, and we would hear him too if all the other noise in our lives didn’t drown him out.

When we sing about these truths, and make joyful noises about these truths, and come before him with these truths, our attentions would rightly be on God, the author and finisher of our life, and not the contours of our lives.

Church, whenever the rest of God is escaping you, take the advice the Psalmist prescribes and what the author of the Hebrews is echoing: Sing to the Lord, make a joyful noise, come into his presence with thanksgiving. God is faithful and he will continue to be faithful to you because he loves you.

So sing to God passionately, praise him contagiously, and pay attention to him relentlessly. When you do just that, you will not harden your heart and lose faith like the Israelites in the wilderness when they faced the potential of hardship in their lives.

Horatio Spafford, was an American lawyer from Chicago. Desiring rest for his wife and four daughters Spafford planned a European trip for his family in 1873. However, due to unexpected last-minute business developments, he had to remain in Chicago, but sent his wife and four daughters on ahead as scheduled on the S.S. Ville du Havre sailing to Paris. He expected to follow in a few days. On November 22 the ship was struck by another boat and sank in twelve minutes. Several days later the survivors landed in England, and Mrs. Spafford telegrammed her husband, “Saved alone.”

After receiving his wife’s telegram, Horatio immediately left Chicago to bring his wife home. On the Atlantic crossing, the captain of his ship called Horatio to his cabin to tell him that they were passing over the spot where his four daughters had perished. As he passed over their watery grave, Horatio wrote this hymn:

When peace, like a river, attendeth my way,
When sorrows like sea billows roll;
Whatever my lot, thou hast taught me to say,
It is well, it is well with my soul.

Though Satan should buffet, though trials should come,

Let this blest assurance control,

That Christ hath regarded my helpless estate,

And hath shed His own blood for my soul.

Those are the words to the classic hymn, “It is Well with my Soul.”

How could it be well? In 12 minutes, he lost four of his kids in a tragedy outside of his control.

• It was well because Horatio was paying attention to God.
• He heard the voice of God through the cuts, chaos, and disorder of life; and
• because he did not harden his heart to God’s voice, Horatio heard the voice of God comforting him with the knowledge that Horatio’s kids were now with their Father in heaven in the glorious rest of eternity.

The second rhythm the author of the Hebrews urges us to apply, is to:

Point 2. Encourage one another

Hebrews 3:13.

¹³ But exhort one another every day, as long as it is called “today,” that none of you may be hardened by the deceitfulness of sin. (Hebrews 3:13 ESV)

• Encouragement in the Bible is not a pat on the butt or a high-five atta-boy.
• Biblical encouragement is exhortation.
  • Exhorting is a type of encouraging that can be described more like “coaching”, or “influencing.”

What the author of the Hebrews is saying is that we really need to be coaches to other Christians so that they would pay attention to God and follow him. So the type of coaching we need to do is to coach each other toward holiness.

Holiness is being set apart for God and the work God has for you.

But not only is the author saying that we need to be coaches, the author is also saying we need other Christians to coach us toward holiness as well.

You see, we need to make space in our lives to coach one another toward holiness and allow others to exhort us in the same way. When we’re coached and coaching each other, the likelihood that our hearts will be hardened by the deceitfulness of sin decreases.

What does this look like, because clearly what the writer is saying is not as simple as passing by one another saying, “Hey you, go be holier.”

Instead, like a real coach, we are to press into each other so that we would know God better, but also that we would inspire one another to know God more which makes us holy.

Church, what I want to emphasize that the writer emphasizes is the urgency!

The writer says to do it today.

• Not when we have our technique in paying attention to God perfect.
• Not when our lives are fully together.
• And definitely not when our lives are totally a wreck and a half.
• But we must make time to do this today for others and for others with us.

So how do we effectively exhort one another toward holiness?

Three questions you have to ask and answer to coach others, and yourself toward holiness:

1. How did God speak to you today?
2. What distracted you from paying attention to God?
3. Who did you exhort?

These three questions help us be set apart to hear from God, stay focused on him, and the work he has for us in making disciples of all nations.

Practice that after church today.

Find somebody you didn’t come to church with today, and ask each other these three questions. If they answer, “I don’t know” to any of those questions, or if they respond with nothing, then you need to get their phone number and call them later this week because they need personal coaching, because this type of group coaching won’t cut it.

These are the questions at the heart of every conversation you have with people, the purpose of every Bible study, and the very thing you’re attempting to accomplish through each act of service.

If you’re asking and answering these questions with others daily, you will find accountability and strength to live in faith. More than that, you’d be encouraged by this truth in verse 14.

¹⁴ For we have come to share in Christ, if indeed we hold our original confidence firm to the end. (Hebrews 3:14 ESV)

Our original confidence is that when we receive Jesus as our savior because he acknowledged and accepted Jesus’ death on the cross was to pay for our sins against God, we freely received holiness as a gift from God. Now, we have the responsibility for actively following Jesus in faith. Meaning, we have to live out all the good work God planned for us and is completing in us to become the holiness he already gave us the moment we accepted Jesus. That’s what the writer means by holding onto our original confidence.

We all know sometimes that the confidence which we once had gets derailed by life. The writer of Hebrews knew that. God knew that it would happen also. That’s why God sent his son to walk with us in flesh. As a model for us. It’s why God sent us his Holy Spirit when his son ascended into heaven. It was so that God would always be with us. It is also why he created the gathering of his people, called the church.

Don’t get discouraged from continuing to pursue holiness because you were derailed by life. But in your derailment, cling to your brothers and sisters in this spiritual family, they will encourage you in faith because they share Christ and the same confidence you have in him with you.  

Church,

Big idea: Being faithful is more we than me

I want to address some of you who are deconstructing your faith. Don’t deconstruct alone! Do so with other people, with other Christians.

We live in a broken, fallen, world, where sickness, death, and violence are prevalent. Life will cause you deconstruct your faith at one point or another. And that’s okay.

Even when life causes us to deconstruct our faith and our views of God, if you have people who are journeying with you through your deconstruction, reminding you of who God is, what he saved you from, and what he saved you for; then you will always have somebody you can reconstruct what you deconstructed in a stronger, healthier way.

Each and every encounter with other Christians should prompt us to reflect on the our own brokenness, sadness, and sicken and then point us toward the cross where the veil separating us and God was ripped from the top down so that we could enter in the rest of God.

Verse 15.

¹⁵ As it is said,

                           “Today, if you hear his voice,

                           do not harden your hearts as in the rebellion.”

¹⁶ For who were those who heard and yet rebelled? Was it not all those who left Egypt led by Moses? ¹⁷ And with whom was he provoked for forty years? Was it not with those who sinned, whose bodies fell in the wilderness? ¹⁸ And to whom did he swear that they would not enter his rest, but to those who were disobedient? ¹⁹ So we see that they were unable to enter because of unbelief. (Hebrews 3:7-19 ESV)

Church, each and every one of us is responsible to speak the words of God to others, so that they would hear the voice of God.

• That’s what a faithful Christian witness is.
• It’s not converting people to faith.
• It’s simply speaking and acting so others would hear the voice of God themselves.

Earlier I said that the writer of the Hebrews was referring to the events found in Numbers 14 to encourage Christians to pay attention to God and to encourage one another in faith. In Numbers 14 there is a deconstructing of faith by the nation of Israel because ten spies, leaders, all influencers, decided they would not exhort the people of Israel. Listen to this:

³¹ Then the men who had gone up with [Caleb] said, “We are not able to go up against the people, for they are stronger than we are.”

² And all the people of Israel grumbled against Moses and Aaron. The whole congregation said to them, “Would that we had died in the land of Egypt! Or would that we had died in this wilderness! ³ Why is the Lord bringing us into this land, to fall by the sword? Our wives and our little ones will become a prey. Would it not be better for us to go back to Egypt?” (Numbers 13:31, 14:2-3 ESV)

The Israelites deconstructed faith despite the fact that they walked out of Egypt free from their enslaving masters and the masters gold and precious jewels. They walked through the parted Red Sea and saw Pharoah and his armies swallowed whole. They were eating manna, literally bread from heaven, and quail for a meal that God was providing daily. And instead of being coached to pay attention to the God who was redeeming them all along, they were coached to abandon the God who loved them dearly.

Listen to what faithful exhorting sounds like. This is Numbers 14:6-9.

⁶ And Joshua the son of Nun and Caleb the son of Jephunneh, who were among those who had spied out the land, tore their clothes ⁷ and said to all the congregation of the people of Israel, “The land, which we passed through to spy it out, is an exceedingly good land. ⁸ If the Lord delights in us, he will bring us into this land and give it to us, a land that flows with milk and honey. ⁹ Only do not rebel against the Lord. And do not fear the people of the land, for they are bread for us. Their protection is removed from them, and the Lord is with us; do not fear them.”(Numbers 14:6-9 ESV)

Did you see what questions Joshua and Caleb were answering?

• How did God speak to you today?
  • God said, he is with us
  • Do not fear the people who have no protection
  • Obey God because he delights in us and we will have rest
• What distracted you from paying attention to God?
  • The people of the land
  • The fortifications in the land

If in the past, you walked away from your faith or if you’re considering walking away from faith, then receive faithful exhortation. God loves you and wants to give you his rest.

If you see somebody who is losing their faith because of the potential of difficulties in life, then be faithful, and exhort them. God wants all the people he loves to receive his rest.

Let’s pray.

Father in heaven, you are our beloved. And we want to hear your voice. You come, leaping upon the mountains, bounding over the hills for us because your love for us so great.

Lord, we love when you speak to us. Lord, that is why you sent us your son. That is why we strive to live in faith because we know that you want to give us what we need to fulfill us like we were created to be. So let us enter faithfully into communion with you. Let us encourage one another by faith and through faith because we know you have already completed the work that lies ahead of us.

Today, I pray that we would know your goodness in our lives. And if we don’t know it or are finding ourselves shaken by life, help us institute rhythms to be encouraged and encouraging in faith. In Jesus name we pray. Amen.