Rest may feel impossible, but Hebrews announces hope: an unending Sabbath still awaits God’s people. This rest is more than relief from work; it is the completion of striving and joy in God’s presence—humanity’s created purpose. Sabbath offers a foretaste of that future, while exposing the taskmasters, desires, fears, and false identities that keep our hearts restless. Its difficulty is part of its gift: it reveals our bondage and invites us to trust God rather than manufacture rest ourselves.

Jesus displays God’s commitment to that promise. Throughout his ministry and Holy Week, he released people from bondage, trusted the Father through rejection and suffering, completed his work on the cross, and rested in the grave. His resurrection opened the way into God’s eternal rest. Believers strive to enter that rest by holding to their confession, remembering that their identity is hidden with Christ, and approaching the throne of grace.

When anxiety and weariness rise, we can trust the Sabbath Keeper who finished his work, defeated death, and promises to bring his people home.

We can only rest when we enter into the mission of God. What is the mission of God? Isaiah 58 describes it as a fast that looses bonds of wickedness and frees the oppressed. And sharing bread with the hungry and bringing the homeless/poor into your house. Jesus says what you have done to the least of these you have done unto me.

What if we struggle to rest because of unforgiveness? The Bible teaches us that if we want to experience the rest of God, we need to release those who have sinned against us. In the same way that Christ forgave us and released us from our bondage, we are called to do the same for others. So who do you need to forgive?

Luke tells us about Jesus in a very unique way. It's all through the lens of "sabbath". Jesus defines, and begins his own ministry in terms of sabbath. Our God is committed to giving rest. If that is what Jesus was doing then.... Isn't that what Jesus would be doing now?

The blessings for following God's law apply to the sabbath! But so do the curses! Find your rest entering into Christ's sabbath, and be blessed.

So God is calling us to rest. And He's calling us to bring rest to our house. So we're resting together? What does that look like in real life?

Sabbath is war against anything that would take God's place in your life. In the Ten Commandments, the Sabbath command comes immediately after the commands about God’s place in our lives. In Sabbath rest, we are remembering who God is and we are being like him and giving rest to others.

Sheep are restless. The hardest thing, is getting them to rest. Sheep would rather be consumed than rest. Sound familiar? The sheep think they know best, but the shepherd makes them rest.

We can only rest if we trust God. In Exodus 16 God teaches his people how to trust him by giving them the Sabbath and teaching them how to rest. They had to let go of their anxiety about what they would eat tomorrow and trust that he would provide for them. What if the Sabbath would you rest from your anxiety?

Rest is an act of war in the cosmic realm, because when we try to rest we realize there is a war all around us. When we try to rest that’s when our taskmasters go to work. In this sermon we look at four snapshots from Exodus that show us who the taskmaster is and how he tries to keep us in bondage.

This sermon explores how our view of work affects our ability to receive God’s gift of Sabbath rest. Work is good, reflecting God’s activity and contributing to flourishing, but sin distorts it into an object of worship. Whether someone is driven by ambition or trapped in an unfulfilling job, the same lies operate beneath the surface: “You are not enough” and “You do not possess enough.”

Work carries the burden of providing identity, significance, security, and meaning—gifts only God can give. The inability to rest reveals what occupies the heart’s throne. God therefore commands Sabbath after commandments concerning worship, teaching that honoring him begins with trusting him enough to stop.

Sabbath restores identity by reminding believers that they are not their jobs, income, performance, or accomplishments; they belong to God. The sermon encourages Christians to stop working, to offer their jobs and surrender their worth to God, and thank him for his magnificent provision.

Rest is intertwined into creation as God established his divine rhythm of time. In creation we learn that we were created for rest. But it's hard to rest when there's so much to do! It's easy to trade rest for escape. But God wants us to worship Him by resting.