Receiving Requires Rest
Foundation Statement: Receiving requires rest and rest requires faith (They didn’t
receive the promise land because they wouldn’t rest and they wouldn’t rest
because they lacked faith)
I.
Isaiah 7:1-9-Receiving requires
rest
A. 2-When they got the evil
report it moved them; they were disturbed, trembling, unstable
1.
4-God’s
command to them was to be quiet; be at peace, rest, lie still, be undisturbed
2.
Is
this resting required if they want to receive? Can you be worrisome and
restless and have the care and at the same time receive from God and have him
take care of it? NO
B. It’s very interesting
that the strategy of the enemy to destroy these people began with the enemy
endeavoring to vex these people
1.
Vex-Distressed,
Sickening Dread, Grieved, Distressed
2.
Your
enemy wants you troubled and disturbed and weary with no peace and no rest
3.
If Satan can get you
vexed, distressed, agitate, not resting it gives him an opening into your life
a. A breach is a breaking
through, a breaking open, an opening
b. If Satan can’t get you
vexed, there is no breach
c. When the shield of faith
is up there will be no breach-Ephesians 6:16
1)
Proverbs
30:5-When you’re shield of faith is up, God becomes your shield
d. 1 Peter 5:7-8-Satan is
looking for an opening
1)
If
you’re in this vexed state it’s evident that you have the care & Satan has
an opening in your life
2)
If
you have the care, then Satan has an opening
C. Satan so desperate wants
to get you in a frantic, distressed, agitated, frustrated state because if you
are in that state, then you do have the care and he has an opening in to your
life
1.
Peace
and rest and faith closes him off
2.
Anybody
who is in a state of resting, he’s endeavoring to get them restless-1 Samuel
17, Daniel 3
D. 9-If they won’t believe, if
they won’t rest they won’t win
1.
CEV-If Ahaz and his
officials don’t trust me, they will be defeated.
II.
1 Samuel 1-When we enter
into rest God goes to work
A. 6-Satan has her
sorrowing, frustrated, grieved, troubled, trembling and she’s not resting
1.
Does
she have to yield to any of these things? NO – Isaiah 26:3
2.
People
often times feel justified to yield to these things because of the seriousness
of their situation and if they do they are wrong
3.
Is
it okay to be frustrated, sorrowful, discouraged, heavy and restless? NO. Is it
okay in certain instances? NO. And if you yield to those things you will not
receive from God – John 14:1
a. Nobody is exempt from
having feelings like these, but nobody is justified in yielding to them
4.
7-This
type of lifestyle when on year after year
a. She’s not resting, she’s
restless, she’s toiling and it’s getting her no closer to what she desires
b. You can see the weight of
this situation is heavy on her and the care of this is in her hands
5.
She’s
weeping and not eating and I would guess she wants God to feel sorry for her so
much that He gives her a child
B. Unthankfulness is an
enemy of rest; being unthankful will rob you of peace and keep you from resting
1.
8-Just
from what we know from these verses Hannah’s life is pretty good; She’s got a
good husband, she’s got breath in her lungs, food on the table; She’s better
off than Ruth, when Ruth started out, but Hannah has got her eyes on the one
thing she doesn’t have
2.
When
you get your eyes on what you don’t have and what you can’t do it’s going to
stir up Unthankfulness in your heart and you’ll have no peace and no rest
3.
You
get thankful you get peaceful and you can rest – Philippians 4:6-7
C. She’s praying, she’s
doing something that looks spiritual, but she’s not doing the one thing that
she needs to do and that’s rest in God and trust him
1.
She’s
angry, she’s chaffed, she’s discontented and she prays and faithless prayer
a. You can pray to God and
it have no faith in it and it will yield no results
b. This is Babylonian based
religion; This is cry and wail and pray all at once and maybe God will do
something; that’s not the Kingdom
c. Is God getting anything
out of this? Is this pleasing Him? – Hebrews 11:6, Romans 15:13, Hebrews
4:3
1)
People
will try to call what she is doing faith, but it’s not
2.
11-She’s
possessing affliction and misery with her words
3.
10-11-This
is prayer infected with toil
a. Feel sorry for me and do
something and I’ll even give my son to you – That’s Babylon
b. She’s trying to make it
happen; Forget by grace through faith, she’s playing, “Let’s make a deal.”
c. She is toiling to obtain
and trying to establish here on righteousness
d. Has she done Matthew
6:33?
4.
12-16-She
thinks she’s being spiritual
a. 15-That’s a bad
confession
b. 15-Great you poured out
your soul before the Lord, but have you released any faith? I’m glad you cried for an hour and 15
minutes and shared all your negative thoughts and feelings with Him, but do you
have any faith? People’s whole prayer lives are based on this “pouring out of
their soul” and they never release any faith.
1)
Hebrews
4:14-16-This doesn’t say come boldly to the throne of grace and pour out your
soul before him; it says come boldly to the throne of grace holding fast to the
confession of your faith.
2)
Psalm
62:8-Pour out your heart, but your heart should be full of faith
3)
You
can pour out your soul for 3 hours, nothing changes until you get in faith
4)
Maybe
you wouldn’t need to pour all that negative stuff out if you never let it in to
start with
D. 18-Here we have some
faith
1.
17-If
you’ll shut up and rest and stop working, God will start working ---
Peace-Quiet, Tranquility
a. She finally released the
care of this thing into God’s hands & the moment she did he took care of it
2.
17-Eil
by the Spirit of God gave her the Kingdom (the plan) and his righteousness (the
right thing to do) and when she did what she desired was added to her
3.
18-In
returning and rest she got her victory
a. She didn’t find her
victory in being vexed and toiling in spiritual principles
4.
While
she’s vexed there’s an opening for the enemy to keep this from happening in her
life
a. The moment she got in
peace, the opening closed and God was able to move in her life
III. Trying to establish your own righteousness through self-effort rather
than by faith is Babylonian based religion-Romans 10
A. You can be passionate and
have the right intentions and get no results; you can put a lot effort into the
wrong thing and it will yield no results
1. You can
be passionate and ignorant but ignorance will keep you from the results
2. They
were ignorant of God's righteousness in particular of how to obtain it
B. They are
trying to obtain their own righteousness through what they do; They want to obtain
righteousness, but they are depending on themselves and they are depending on
what they are doing to obtain it
1. 1-He wants them to be saved,
but where is their salvation and victory? Is their victory in their toiling and
laboring? No it’s in returning and rest – Isaiah 30:15
a. They need to return and look
to God instead of looking to themselves
b. Who are
they looking to in regards of obtaining this righteous? They are looking to
themselves trying to be their own source
c. You can toil in scriptural principles trying
to obtain something on your own and not by looking to God at all; Receiving is
found in the balance of doing what you have to do to receive while not
depending on yourself, but rather depending totally upon him
d. Many people inject spiritual principles with toil & when
they do, those principles have no power
2. They
would not submit to Gods way and went about doing it their way; they way was
labor and toil while His way was faith and rest
a. They
never got righteous through their own way, and neither will you
C. 4-Christ
is the end of working for righteousness to every one who believes
1. 6,7-Righteousness
which comes by faith doesn’t talk like work still has to be done, but rather it
talks like the work is finished; Jesus finished the work
a. Part of
the Kingdom is understanding that the work is finished and everything that
pertains to life of godliness is setting on a table before you
2. When
faith begins the toil ends
a. The
fatigue will stop when the work stops
D. 8-10-Righteousness
which comes by faith talks like the work is finished and all you have to do to
receive is believe and speak
1. In Salvation you did Matthew
6:33: Lord what’s your plan? What do I need to do and say?
a. His plan for you was
salvation; you needed to confess Jesus and believe with your heart that God
raised him from the dead and you got saved; That’s how everything in every of
our lives works
2. You could try to establish
your own salvation forever, but until you do what God says you’re not going to
get saved
a. Until you seek God and find
out his plan and the right thing to do and say you’re going to be circling the
problem in toil and it might be prayer toil-Matthew 6:33
3. You never toiled for your
salvation; you believed, you obeyed, you rest; Why would you toil for your
healing?
a. Instead of trying to do
1,000 different things to obtain something you don’t have there’s only one thing
you need to do and it’s Matthew 6:33 – What’s your plan? What do you want
me to do?
E. 17-21-Faith at it’s origin
is a choice
1. 11-15-To call you have to
believe, to believe you have to hear and to hear somebody has to preach
a. Is preaching key to your
victory?
b. It’s the gospel of peace,
not the gospel of toil and struggle
2. This is where toil comes in
because sometimes we think we have to hear more and more before we can believe;
Faith is a choice and you have to choose to believe
a. Hearing does not always equate
to believing if you choose not to believe
b. You can hear and hear and
hear and never believe if you don’t choose to
3. Certainly, if your faith
seem week it can develop by decision and by hearing
IV.
Matthew 11-Jesus wants us
resting in the Kingdom, not toiling in Babylon
A. Matthew 6:33-God
revealing to you the plan and what to do and say is paramount in the kingdom
1.
25-The
Father is not showing everybody what to do and say
a. He will show anybody, but
he’s not showing everybody
2.
He
hides it from the proud, but he shows it to the humble
a. The proud would be the
people who try to take care of stuff without God and those people don’t need
God’s direction because they think they can take care of it on their own
3.
27-The
Father gave Jesus all things to do and to say – Why? Because in his
humility Jesus sought him for it
a. The Holy Spirit will take
of the Father’s and show it to you-John 16:13-15
b. He’ll show you what to do
and what to say (His plan and what your part is in the plan)
B. 28-He doesn’t want you
toiling through life; He wants you to have rest
1.
He
didn’t say come to me and I’ll show you how to labor better
2.
29-Hook
to me; In Babylon you’re not yoked to him, you’re doing it yourself; In the
Kingdom he has a part and you have a part
C. Jesus was (meek) yielding
and (Lowly) humble
1.
I do what the Father says
and I don’t try to take care of stuff
2.
He
didn’t try to take care of stuff-1 Peter 5-7
D. How did Jesus do it?
1.
He
never tried to take care of anything – John 5:19,30
2.
He
sought first the Kingdom and His righteousness-John 5:19,30,8:26
a. You don’t look to Egypt,
you don’t look to yourself, you look to Him and he’s going to show you the plan
and he’s going to show you what to do and what to say and you do it and you say
it and you rest and you stay in faith and you trust and you rest
b. Proverbs 8:13-You don’t
get wisdom if you don’t seek it
3.
He
did what the Lord showed him
4.
He
step backed and trusted and rested in faith
E. In the Kingdom there is
time where you rest-Mark 4:26
1.
He’s
laboring so that he can rest
2.
Our
flesh likes to be busy on all the time, trusting in our own effort