We were made for the eternal rest of God, but what exactly is the rest of God? The author of Hebrews encourages us to enter that rest and to strive to do so. In this Easter sermon we learn how the finished work of Christ opens up the eternal rest of God for those who strive to enter it by faith.

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.

What is your relationship with work? And how does it keep you from rest? When God created the world he established a liturgy of time, a weekly rhythm of work and rest. But our relationship with our work is complicated. The fall of humanity twisted our relationship with our work. Sin lies to us and tells we were made for work and we can use our work to satisfy our deepest longings and identity. But our God gives rest, and he teaches us to rest before he teaches us to work.

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.