Returning and Rest
I.
Returning and rest is a
key to the Kingdom of God-Isaiah 30
A. 1-They are making plans of
how they can take care of themselves and they are not seeking the Lord
1.
They
are making plans without the Lord, they are making deals and coming into
agreements with other nations, but it’s not of God’s spirit
a. The Living Bible-You ask advice from everyone but me and decide to do what I
don’t want you to do. You yoke
yourselves with unbelievers (2 Corinthians 6:14), thus piling up your sins.
b. ERV-They make plans, but they
don’t ask me to help them
2.
Matthew
6:33-Seek first the Kingdom and His righteousness-His plan and my part
B. 2-They have made Egypt
their source and they are looking to Egypt to be taken care of
1.
To
have put their faith and their trust in Egypt to take care of them
a. Strength-Place or means of safety, protection, refuge, stronghold,
fortress, rock
b. Psalm 9:9-These are
things the Word tells us that God is supposed to be to his people
2.
They
decided all of this on their own because they are trying to take care of
themselves
a. ERV-They are
going down to Egypt for help, but they didn’t ask me if that was the right
thing to do. They hope they will be saved by the Pharaoh. They want Egypt to protect them.
b. MSG-Going off to Egypt
without so much as asking me, Running off to Pharaoh for protection, expecting
to hide out in Egypt
c. TLB-Without consulting me
you have gone down to Egypt to find aid and have put your trust in Pharaoh for
his protection
C. 3-7-Any time any man
tries to meet any need he has without God he will ultimately fail to do so
1.
3-Looking
to something other than the Lord to take care of you will leave you
disappointed, disgraced, and humiliated
a. Psalm 127:1-2-It’s a
useless endeavor to try to meet your own needs without God
b. Egypt could not profit
them and could not help them because Babylon/the world wasn’t designed to help
our profit anybody
2.
5-If
it is “without God” it will yield no profit and be of no help (John 15:5)
a. 6-You’re going to take
all of your stuff and go look to a people who will not profit you
b. 7-Babylon’s help, the
worlds system is vain and empty
c. The strength of
Babylon/Egypt/The world is doing nothing, wasting time, yielding no fruit
d. MSG-Anyone stupid enough to trust them will end
up looking stupid – All show, no substance…And you’re going to lug all
your stuff down there, your donkeys and camels loaded down with bribes thinking
you can buy protection from that hollow farce of a nation. Egypt is all show no substance.
e. ERV-But they will be disappointed. They are depending on a nation that
cannot help them. Egypt is a
useless – it will not help.
That useless nation is Egypt.
Egypt’s help is worth nothing, so I call Egypt the “Do nothing Dragon.”
D. 8-They were instructed to
write this down about the world’s system for the coming generations; This must
be a big important issue to God
1.
ERV-Now write this on a sign so that all people
can see it and write this in a book.
Write these things for a future time. This will be far in the future.
2.
MSG-So, go now and write all this down. Put it in a book so that the record will
be there to instruct the coming generations.
E. 9-14-There’s a truth that
some people don’t like to hear preaching like this because trusting God is
uncomfortable for carnal, fleshy people
1.
The
plan of God always requires faith and that God be your only source (That’s uncomfortable for a lot of people
because they are used to being their own source and using no faith) – Jeremiah 40:10-12
a. If they stay where they
are they are going to have to trust God as their source; If they go to Egypt
they can trust Egypt as their source; Beware
of the place that requires no faith (It’s called Babylon)
b. 2 Chronicles 20-It takes
faith to go to a battle and stand still and not fight
2.
12-They
despised THIS WORD about the Kingdom vs. Babylon
and instead continued to trust in Egypt
3.
12-14-They
wouldn’t repent and because they wouldn’t destruction comes
F. 15-The victory is found
in returning and rest
1.
Returning
and resting are the things they are not doing and not walking in
a. First off they won’t return/repent;
they need to repent of trying to take care of themselves
b. Secondly they haven’t
been resting and trusting; they want to take care of themselves through their
own plan and labors and they won’t rest and trust God and this is keeping them
from their victory
1)
The
opposite of rest is trying to take care of it yourself through toil and your
own effort
2.
How’s
their victory going to come? Repent and rest and trust
a. 15-They would not return
and rest, they wanted to not repent and continue to toil
b. 16-They said “no” to the
rest and chose their own effort instead
G. 17-These people are a
sign of how not to do it
H. 18-What’s God waiting
for? Repentance and rest
1.
He’s
waiting for you to stop trying to take care of it yourself and look to him
2.
AMP-It’s
the people who look to him that get the victory and the help
3.
21-God’s going to take
care of you by showing you what to do
II.
There is no rest in
Babylon, but rather there is toil because you have to take care of you
A. Anytime a man tries to
meet his own needs and take care of himself toil will always be the result
1.
Toil is to labor with
wearisome effort; it’s trying to obtain something through self-effort
a. Toil happens every time
man tries to take care of himself – Trying to obtain through self effort
2.
Toiling
is pain, is labor, is hardship, is grievous, is vexing; There’s no peace in
toil, there’s no rest in toil
a. It comes out of this idea
that I go to take care of myself so I toil and there’s no rest in it
b. Toil can show up in hard
work, in strife, in stress, in worry, in torment, in prayer and spiritual
principles
B. Babylon teaches man that
you toil to obtain; In the Kingdom will obtain without toil-Matthew 6:28
1.
In Babylon the only way
to get it is by the sweat of your brow; they sweat because they toil; In the
Kingdom the only way to get it is by grace through faith (there’s no sweat in
the Kingdom)
2.
Babylonian
Toil
a. Genesis 3:16-17-Sweat and
sorrow came in when man was providing for himself
b. Exodus 1:13-14-There’s
was toil and weariness and sweat in Egypt
c. Genesis 16-Abraham and
Sarah were toiling trying to make that happen
d. Genesis 13-The herdsmen
were toiling, Lot was toiling, Abraham was resting
e. Genesis 11:3-4-The
building of this tower is toil
f.
Psalm
127:1-2-It’s vain to toil
3.
We
see people who roll with God aren’t toiling
a. Genesis 2:16-Adam was to
eat freely of the trees; no toil
b. Exodus 16-They gathered
the manna in
c. 2 Chronicles 20-They
gathered the spoils for three days
d. Daniel 3,6-There was no toil
in this
e. Proverbs 10:22-The
blessing makes rich with no toil
f.
Matthew
6:28-Jesus came preaching increase without toil
g. Luke 5-When Peter toiled
he got nothing, when he rested he got abundance
C. The Spirit of Babylon vs.
The Spirit of the Kingdom
1.
Babylonian
Ideology
a. The fuel of Babylon is fear (Fear that you won’t be taken care
of)
1)
Genesis
11-They are afraid of being scattered
2)
Genesis
16-They are afraid of the promise of God not coming to pass
3)
Numbers
14:1-They afraid they’re going to die
4)
Jeremiah
42:16-They afraid that if they don’t go to Egypt they won’t be taken care of
b. The philosophy of Babylon is I’ll TAKE CARE of it (So I got to take care of it)
1)
When
there’s a fear that you won’t be taken care of you naturally try to take care
of it yourself
a) Genesis 11-They’re going
to build a tower
b) Genesis 16-Abraham is
going to sleep with Hagar
c) Numbers 14:1-They are
going back to Egypt
d) Jeremiah 42:16-They’re
going down to Egypt
2)
If
I don’t take care of it, then I won’t be taken care of
c. The labor of Babylon is toil (I’m going to take care of it by
toiling)
1)
Any
time man tries to meet is own needs without God toil will always be his method
a) You are going to contend
and strive and fight for it and labor and toil to take care of you
2)
There’s
no rest in any of these instances (Genesis 11, 16, Numbers 14, Jeremiah 42);
There’s fear and fear is not rest; fear is toil
a) 2 Corinthians 4:16-Fear
will wear you out
d. The smell of Babylon is sweat (When I toil I sweat)-Genesis 3:19
1)
Sweat
representing I’ve labored, I’m wearisome
2.
Kingdom
Ideology
a. The fuel of the Kingdom is love (My Father loves me)-1 John 4:16
b. The philosophy of the Kingdom is My Father takes care of me (B/C
He loves me)
1)
Matthew
6:25-33-Your Heavenly Father feeds them; 1 Peter 5:7-He cares for me
c. The labor of the Kingdom is faith, obedience, and rest
1)
I
do what he tells me to do, I say what he tells me to say and I rest
2)
There’s
no toil in Daniel 3, Daniel 6, Judges 6, 2 Chronicles 20, Luke 5; there’s
faith, there’s obedience, there’s rest, but no toil
d. The smell of the Kingdom is Victory (That life produces victory)
– 2 Corinthians 2:14
1)
What
smells good is victory without sweat
2)
It’s
God causing them to triumph; they are not overcoming through their effort
3.
To
function in the kingdom it is required that you be still and rest and not
toil