Bible Teaching

Calvary Temple Teaching Library

The Divine Rest Pt.1

Let's turn to the book of Hebrews. We want to talk a little bit about the divine rest. We're living in a day when there's anxiousness. We have the conflicts that are going on. Isn't it neat to look on the news? I was looking at the news last night and to see names like "United States troops have just crossed the Euphrates." Isn't that cool? We understand that in this particular hour that we're in, we're going to see more and more biblical names and these regions spoken of because we are living in the day of the coming of the Lord. I believe that. I believe that we are the people that are going to see Him with our eyes! As the trumpet of God sounds, the dead in Christ will rise and those of us that remain will be changed in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye. Can you say, "Praise God" for that? We're the people that are going to see that. Can you imagine? Any moment the sound will pierce our spiritual ears and we'll hear, "Come up hither." Praise God! Think about it! Everything that we've meditated on, everything that we've dreamed about, that "eye hath not seen, nor ear heard, neither have entered into the heart of man, the [great] things which God hath prepared for [us]." We're going to partake of them. The greatest treasure of all, we're going to see Him, praise God, as He is and we're going to be like Him! Are you ready for that? Is that what lights your fire? Is that what turns you on? Praise God, everybody else is looking for some type of natural stability. We are looking for some kind of good investment; we want to make sure that we have everything set up for ourselves and for our children in the next generation. There may not be a next generation. This may be the generation that sees the coming of the Lord! We need to prepare ourselves. In preparation for this hour that we're in, for our own hearts and also for our children, we need to learn to walk in the divine rest.

I don't know about you, but it's almost laughable to me to hear on the television.... You'll see people come on and they'll make statements like, "Make sure that your children don't watch the news because this could be so devastating for them." Then they buy them these video games with mayhem. They don't know; they don't care that their children are watching R-rated Texas Chainsaw Massacres. We're concerned that our children may be devastated by the fact that there's a puff of smoke on the screen, a war, thousands of miles away. Did you see on television the other day--it was interesting--that in between the sorties in Babylon, the kids would go back out and have street games, street ball games? We're worried that in America our children are going to be devastated if they see a puff of smoke on the screen. We're a bunch of weaklings as a nation and breeding more. It's the generation that trusts in the arm of the flesh and creates their own weakness. We need to teach our children to trust in the Lord our God. Amen? That's what we're going to talk about. The divine rest, in a day where there's turmoil, in a day when we realize that.... I can't comprehend this! The sniper thing and people were afraid to go out of their houses and go to work. Give me a break! Especially Christians! Has the Lord given His angels charge over us or not? "A thousand shall fall at [our] side and ten thousand at [our] right hand; but it shall not come nigh [us]." Can you say, "Amen" to that? This is what we need to teach our children. Fearful of disease, fearful of Aids, fearful, but we have not received "...the spirit of fear [praise God]; but of power, and of love, and of a sound mind." Amen? We can't allow the unbelief, which is only faith in the belief that there is no God. Unbelief, the belief that there is no God. Faith in fate. We're a people that are not subject to fate. We're a people whose steps are ordered by God. We're a people, beloved, as we begin to enter into this study, who have been chosen by God. Known from our mother's womb, separated unto this hour, praise God! "If God be for us, [nobody] can be against us."

I was talking the other night--it's embarrassing, the things--We are going to finish that up tonight. Richard wanted to finish up some of the audio and the video. Got finished, and some of the things--how God supernaturally brought us here to Virginia. Its fun for me to.... "This is your life." I was looking at the pictures. I told the guys back there it's really pitiful when you think you're cute! I can't help it. That picture of me sitting on the steps with my puppy and the little Band-Aid on my arm, my shoe untied. That's cute, man! There just isn't any way around it, if I do say so myself, and I will! As you look back at your life and I've shared my testimony. A kid that was raised--I'd never heard the name of Jesus but in vain. How God preserved me, as I've shared with you. So many times I should have died. I remember drowning one time as a child. I was blacking out, everything was going, and how I was saved at that time. I remember also almost drowning again in an undertow out in the Pacific Ocean. Being dragged out, I mean way out, by this undertow as a little kid. We were just on our own and that thing spit me out and I was real happy about that! God preserved me through some of the other stupid things that I've done, so many times. Stabbed and shot at and the car things, driving and not remembering when you left and when you got back because you were so drunk. Just missing head-ons on Highway One outside of Big Sur as we'd race down the coast with our lights off. You stop now and you look back and say, "God had His hand on you." Can you say, "Praise God" for that? God had His hand on you. He's brought you to this hour. Nothing formed against you could prosper. God has ordained us for this day. We are a peculiar people. It's not fate, it's God's sovereignty and we can't take it lightly.

So many times we just think that we're just stumbling through life. Your steps are ordered by God! As I look back at some of this--we've looked at how God supernaturally ordered our steps personally to this ministry--and we celebrate our thirtieth anniversary here in ministry. It wasn't by chance. God has a plan and it's not finished yet. I don't know what the end of it all is going to be, but it's not finished yet. I'm excited about what God has for us here in the future! We've had some great times, but I believe the best is ahead. Can you say, "Praise God" for that? You know the picture that the men had made here for me? I don't know how many of you got a chance to see it; it was phenomenal! I told the guys in the meeting Thursday, "Something's missing." They said, "What's that?" I said, "Janet's not in there." If you'll look in the foyer back here you'll see that picture again and Janet has appeared in the picture. It's a neat picture! She's now back in a faint--not as faint as Ron Wahlrobe was--but slightly faded in a ghosting, standing there with her hand on my shoulder. Thirty years of that. Thirty years of that, and I believe the best is ahead! We can't represent that thirty years with her not there. It's an interesting thing to see our steps being ordered, and yet, here we are now and in God's sovereignty, He's taken her home and given me another gift. I call Greer my gift. In my old age, God's given me this gift, precious helpmeet standing by my side. What a fabulous ministry she's been to me in these last six months! Should the Lord tarry, in thirty more years who knows what we're going to see? I believe we'll see this. We'll see a stronger generation of believers than we've ever seen in this fellowship. We're going to see a group of warriors that are going to be the delight of God's heart if He tarries. If we'll remain faithful and we teach them how to rest in God's spirit.

Let's look at Hebrews, chapter 3, beginning at verse 12. We want to set the foundation of how to protect our hearts against the anxiety of unbelief, the fear of unbelief, and learn to come into that divine rest. "Take heed, brethren, lest there be in any of you an evil heart of unbelief...." To be in anything but rest is evil in God's sight. Not just non-productive, not that it's not the best for us, but God says to be in unbelief, or to be in fear, to be outside of His rest--which you're going to see in just a moment as we go to the Word of God. You're going to see that to be outside of the rest is to be out of the presence of God because those two things are synonymous. Exodus 33, verse 14, "And he said, My presence shall go with thee, and I will give thee [say it] rest." "My presence shall go with thee, and I will give thee rest." God is calling us into that walk in the spirit, into that awareness of His presence at all times. You cannot be aware of God's presence and be anxious. The two things don't go together. The moment fear has taken your heart, you've lost sight of the presence of God. I didn't say He wasn't there. I didn't say that you weren't still in relationship with Him. I said that you've lost sight of His presence. You've lost the awareness of His presence, His promises, His power, His love. To be fearful is just an absence of the awareness of the love of God for you. You've forgotten that He loves you. Whenever we rest in that love of God, we're at peace. We're able to continue in that area of peace. "But exhort one another [verse 13] daily, while it is called To day; lest [there be in any of you a hardening of the heart] through the deceitfulness of sin. For we are made partakers of Christ, if we hold the beginning of our confidence stedfast unto the end." "But exhort one another daily, while it is called To day; lest any of you be hardened through the deceitfulness of sin."

This deceitfulness of sin, the deceit, is this: that there is another way, that there's an area that we can walk in of self-sufficiency, that there is some type of a peace and productivity that comes from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, self-reliance, self-sufficiency. The deceitfulness of sin says that we can make it in the natural; we can make it in our own strength. The deceitfulness of sin, we're not just talking about the lusts and the appetites. Listen to what the original sin was--independence--the deceitfulness of sin that says you can make it on your own. It begins to harden our hearts against God. It begins to stiffen our necks when we begin to embrace what the world is trying to seduce us with, the science of our day, the knowledge of our day. All of this technology that causes us to boast in man to where we become gods. Our eyes have been opened and we've become as gods. We begin to understand the universe. We're able to go in now with our super microscopes and look into the atomic realm and split atoms. We've become as gods. The genetic engineering, and our eyes have been opened and we've become as gods. We begin to grow organs and we begin to make medications that will prolong life and we've become as gods. Our eyes have been opened. We've shrunk the earth with our technology through communication and through flight, and we've become as gods. We've turned the power of God into a myth in the minds of most men today. Every time we trust--I didn't say partake, I said trust--every time we trust in all that this world system trusts in, our hearts are being hardened. Every time we seek the solutions in the arm of the flesh, our hearts begin to be hardened and we begin to enter into that unbelief. We lose the rest. We lose the peace of God. God begins to be far from us.

Turn to Genesis, for just a second, in chapter 3. We've talked about the deceitfulness of sin, the hardening of the heart. God's original intent for man was for total dependence. We've been taught as Americans that independence is what we need. We're a proud people and an independent people and we pull ourselves up by our bootstraps. (I've never really seen anybody do that.) We boast in our natural abilities. We see that God's original intent for man was that man would exhibit His glory, that he would commune with Father and have fellowship with Him. We see the creation of man in chapter 2. The fact is that God made man, chapter 2:15, to dress this garden that He had made, the Garden of Eden, the one that was being dressed. It wasn't one that [Adam] had to labor in by the sweat of his brow so that he could exist. There's a difference between having to plow and grow your fruit and live by the sweat of your brow, and dress, just pruning and continuing to make beautiful and enjoy. It was there for his enjoyment. This garden, the beauty of nature, all of us enjoy that. (We had such a great time as we were out west and got to go into Yosemite and enjoy the grandeur of God's creation. I love going through the different groves of the giant sequoias. I love to hear the wind. Have you ever been up into the real high elevations and just sit quietly and hear the wind blow through the trees? It's the voice of God, it's the breath of God. I'd just take my Bible and go off over the hills up there at Tahoe and just sit and read and meditate and fellowship with Father and hear Him speak.) I enjoy the beautiful gardens, the flowers, the colors, and the fragrance. Can you imagine the purity of the streams that flowed through this garden? It makes Perrier look like sewer water. Pure and fresh, and the Lord makes us lie down beside still waters and He restores our soul. God intends rest for us. Amen?

How anxious are you today about the things of life? I get anxious, I get uptight. It's interesting, the things that really bug me. You know what bugs me most? Inanimate things. I was ticked-off yesterday! The truck wouldn't work, the transmission. That makes me mad! When I pay for something mechanical, I expect it to work, bless God! I hate mechanical things that don't work properly! They're worthless if they're not doing what they were created to do. I'm patient with people. I'm not real patient with stuff. I told you what I did with my computer that one time. I did the same thing with my computer that I did with Lady, my dog, that time. My computer wasn't working. I took that thing out and threw it in the trash. Richard said, "We could have repaired that." I said, "It went the way it should have gone. That thing died a death. I didn't buy it to repair it!" I'm just confessing my sins to you; I'm not telling you that this is how you're supposed to live. Those things make me mad! I'm basically a pessimist. I really am. In natural things I'm a pessimist. I'm a paradox to myself also because in the natural things, the trivial things, and the things that really don't mean anything, I'm pessimistic. In spiritual things and eternal things, I'm an optimist. The things that really matter, I'm optimistic. I know I'm weird but it's the truth, it's where I live. I battle these things and I realize that these other things are the flesh and, basically, I think what it boils down to is pride. It boils down to selfishness whenever you're anxious or upset about these things that aren't going your way. I would encourage you not to miss it in either area, but if you are going to miss it in one, don't miss it in the eternal. Don't miss it in the spiritual things where it really counts. Then you should be able to have sufficient to put this other in order.

Adam was walking with God in absolute, perfect peace and tranquility. The term that we've used so many times for you--and this is where I believe, in this raunchy generation in which we live, this ungodly generation in which we live, this vile Sodom and Gomorrah in which we live, we and our children should be able to exist in innocence because that was God's original plan for man. The thing that I see about Adam that I so want in my spirit, and in my ability to trust in God, is a childlike innocence. The miracles that we're acknowledging and part of what we said was God preparing us to come here to Virginia that you see back there on that display board. The display--for those of you that didn't get to see it--they put up in the foyer and the new picture that I was just talking about is back here in this foyer. I was sharing with someone just as we were coming into the auditorium, I said, "You know, those miracles came about by a childlike faith. A heart of innocence, a trust and a rest in the integrity of the Word of God and the promises of God." Nowhere near the knowledge of God that I have now, but where did the power go? Where did the trust go that was there? Power doesn't come by knowledge. The miraculous doesn't come by knowledge. It doesn't come by experience. It comes by trust and rest and innocence. It comes by absenting our self from the hard heart of unbelief of self-reliance and the embracing of the knowledge that man has and boasts of in this day. It comes by returning to the Garden to an absolute dependence upon our Father for everything. I don't know how to go out. I don't know how to come in. I don't know how, but my eyes are on You. The divine rest. Jesus said it this way, "I didn't come to speak My own words. I didn't come to do My own will, but the will of He that sent Me."

Adam was created to dress this garden, to just enjoy it and to involve himself in the handiwork of God. Now there's something interesting about the dressing of the garden. God did not build Adam a hammock. Most of us equate rest with a hammock. Rest is being involved in the presence of God, the beauty of God, the glory of God, the kingdom of God, the ministry of God, the family of God, the brothers and the sisters. It's not just separating yourself to a hammock, isolating yourself, doing nothing. You will never know rest when you're consuming life upon yourself, your time and your energy upon yourself, but when you're dressing the garden of God. You know what? This is the garden of God. The body of Christ is the garden of God. This is what brings God His glory today, the church. Adam was dressing the Garden and he was bringing glory to God. The Lord said, "I just want you to know, Adam, that everything here is yours and you can partake of it. Freely partake! The only thing you can't have, verse 17, is '...the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, thou shalt not eat of it: for in the day that thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die.' You shall surely lose your peace. Your soul will lose its rest. Your eyes will be opened, your heart will be hardened and you'll be separated from My presence."

We know that the Lord saw that it was not good for [Adam] to be alone and made him that helpmeet. In the wisdom of God, He removes from him that feminine side and sets woman at his side to be a helpmeet, one to stand and labor with him, to commune with him, to look at his baby pictures and tell him how cute he is. (Men have a great ego; they need it stroked all the time.) Here's the great gift of God to the man, bone of his bone, flesh of his flesh. The enemy seduces her and--we've taught so many times about this and I don't want to get off track--the order is broken and Eve fails to go to the covering of her husband, Adam, and is seduced by the enemy into having her eyes opened. As the enemy said, "You'll not die. Partake of the knowledge of this kingdom. You'll not die. It won't kill you." I want to tell you something. You're being seduced daily. Your children are being seduced daily, by everything that is secular, and I'm not even saying that it's necessarily immoral, or something that we would look at and say this is obscene. I want to tell you something. If it's secular, it is seducing our hearts! We need to be aware of it! As long as we're in the world, there will be that seduction. It's just being aware of it. It's knowing what's taking place. "It won't kill you!" Yes, it will! If it ever creates in you a heart of unbelief, a heart of depending upon it instead of God, if it ever becomes excessive in your life, if it becomes your treasure, it will kill you. It doesn't have to be immoral, perverse; it just has to be "instead of." God is calling us here and telling us that we can partake of everything but this one fruit. See it for what it is, beloved, the fruit of independence. That's what was on that tree, the fruit of independence, the fruit of "other than God." "Thou shalt have no other gods before me."

The fruit's partaken of, the eyes are opened, and we come to the part that I want to address this morning. Verse 7. "And the eyes of them both were opened...." Adam had to have partaken of that fruit because of his love for Eve. Adam had to partake of that fruit because he didn't want to be alone again. How can you be alone and have the presence of God? What God had meant as a gift to him replaced the Lord in his life. Don't let your children, don't let your spouse, don't let those great gifts come between you and the presence of God. Don't ever think that to lose everything in the natural is to be alone. He said, "I will never leave thee, nor forsake thee." Amen? We're talking about the divine rest, the presence of God. What would have caused that man to partake of that fruit knowing the consequence? There's no question in my mind the love that Adam had for Eve. He thought she was beautiful. Of course, we know because she was taken from him that's probably what it was. She probably looked a lot like him. He probably looked at her and said, "You know, I don't look bad with long hair." I have a question. I wonder how beautiful she was when his eyes were opened.

I want to tell some of you young people this. Pastor Jeff was talking to some of you boys. You'd better get some ears to hear, some of you young men. You need to change your eyes from the natural to the spiritual. Beauty is not outward! It's inward. I was sharing with Pastor Jeff--he was talking about the boys. These boys are looking around and just like the guys and girls and we're over familiar. They're looking and some of these guys--some of our boys are really in love with themselves. They really think that they are special. I guess their moms have told them that. It's something that they've lost sight of what God is doing. Some have even verbalized this, "Well the girls that are here--I mean God's going to have fly somebody in here supernaturally, somebody special, because I'm special." I want to tell you something. We have some precious gifts here in our midst. Some of these young ladies, beautiful young ladies, and I'm talking about spiritually and physically. We have girls that are attractive young ladies but they may not fit the stereotypical "fox." You better watch out for the little foxes! They spoil the vine! The point I'm making is this. If you're not going to look for character.... (I'm off course, I want to get back.) If you're going to marry for beauty, the physical, what about this? How about you find this, whatever this ideal is, this beautiful young lady. Why she'd marry you I don't know! If that happens, and you're on your honeymoon and right after the ceremony you pull off from the premises and the limo is struck by a truck and she's now a paraplegic. After five or six operations on her face, she begins to look somewhat like a human again. I wonder how much character was in you, who were looking for the physical, to stay with that woman and minister to her the rest of her life. I'd encourage you young men to look at your own hearts and understand what it means to know the presence and the peace of God. To be at rest in His ordering your steps and the gift that He has to place in your life. That's enough of that for this morning. I want to talk with our young men here next week some. I believe the Lord's given me something to share with them.

I wonder how beautiful Eve was now, having caused him to forsake his God. I wonder how beautiful she was, having seduced him from the presence of his Creator. I wonder how beautiful she was now that they were no longer holy. I wonder how beautiful she was being the author of his fear. The guy had never been afraid in his life. Do you see what it is that we are to contribute to one another's lives and what we are to sow into? Listen to what happened here as the Scripture goes on. It says, "And the eyes of them both were opened, and they knew that they were naked.... And they heard the voice of the Lord God walking in the garden in the cool of the day: and Adam and his wife hid themselves from the presence of the Lord God...." Now where did we see that the peace of God was? In His presence. Where is the rest of God? In His presence. Now they're hiding themselves from what? The presence of God. Sin, disobedience, unbelief, independence will make you hide from God. The anxiety will breed more anxiety and the unbelief will breed more unbelief and the condemnation will breed more condemnation until there's an ability to be able to fall on The Rock and be broken. God will draw you to that in His love.

What we need to see for this morning, as we're winding it down in this morning's teaching, is this. There is a rest to the people of God, Hebrews tells us. There is a peace in the presence of God that's afforded to every one of us as we forsake the life of independence. The question we have to ask this morning is this. Listen. Are you running from the voice of God? Look what it says! "And they heard the voice of the Lord...." Whether it's in teaching the Word, whether it's in your study, how are you responding to the voice of God today? What a tragedy! God walks in the cool of the day. What was the highlight of Adam's life is now offensive to him. The Word of the Lord becomes offensive to him. The fellowship of believers has become offensive to him. The teaching tapes have become offensive. "It offends me now that I'm expected to be in these meetings. It offends me now that there's some emphasis being made on my discipleship training contributions. It's offensive to me that what I see as a disputable matter is being addressed by somebody else." It didn't used to be offensive. Why is the voice of God offensive now? It used to be your delight. It used to be your rest. It used to be your trust. It used to be your safety. You were thankful and now, somehow, it's assaulting you. Now, instead of running to it, you're hiding yourself from it. I wonder if it has something to do with an evil heart of unbelief. I wonder if it has to do with an independent spirit, a treasure other than the pearl of great price.

"[And the voice of the Lord caused them to hide themselves] from the presence of the Lord.... And the Lord God called unto Adam, and said unto him, Where art thou? And he said, I heard thy voice in the garden" Now what is that voice supposed to do? It's supposed to bring what? Peace and rest. "I heard thy voice..., and I was afraid, because I was naked...." Are you afraid? Then you're naked. The robe of righteousness is gone. The clothing of the Holy Spirit, the presence of God, the power of God is gone. The garment of faith is gone. The armor of God is gone and you're naked and you're alone and you have become your god. It's pretty easy to find out where we are, then, in our walk in the Spirit, isn't it? It's by how we respond to the voice of Lord. Do we run to it or do we run away from it? It's by how we respond to adversity. Is there a peace? What do we do as we're out about Father's business and things seem to become a little bit adverse in life? The trials begin to come in and things are not going our way. It's not smooth sailing. We wonder what is going to happen next. Are you able to rest? Do you pick up the bucket and begin to bail? Are you able to turn around and look and say, "You know, maybe I ought to respond to this situation the same way Jesus does." What did Jesus do when the storm hit and every one else was in fear and concern that they were going to die? About Father's business, going to be destroyed! The Lord spoke and said, "Let's go to the other side." They are halfway there and they are convinced that what is going to happen? They're going to perish. They're going to sink. Now how does sinking halfway fulfill the declaration of Jesus who said, "Let's go to the...." What? The promises of God have declared, "Go to the other side." All of the circumstances say you're going to die in the middle of this thing. You'll never finish this course. Fear strikes their hearts, that's natural. There are things that can bring fear to our lives. Our children are contracting some kind of a disease, the perils of just life here on this planet. As natural beings we're going to have to deal with fears and anxieties. We're not talking about just being able to walk totally oblivious. We're talking about how we make conscious decisions in the midst of our fear, in the midst of the attack, to choose the rest of God.

Now, I can choose one of two things. I can choose a bucket or I can just go back there and snuggle in with Jesus in the back of the boat. Can you see yourself doing that? Everybody else is just bailing and yelling, "Oh, we're going to perish!" You just go back there and snuggle up there. (On the cruise you have to go to your--whatever your stations are and you've got to practice putting on your little life vest. Everybody stands at the place you're supposed to gather if there's an emergency at the lifeboats.) In life we have one life preserver, don't we? I can just envision this. I can envision that boat going down and me and Jesus just floating to the other side. Waterbed. Somebody in the morning is walking over on the shore on the other side and we just wash up. Whoosh! One thing I'm convinced of, we're going to the other side. Amen? That's the rest of God. That's where we have to live every day of our lives. The circumstances say you're going down. Jesus said, "We're going to the other side." What do you have to do? Just divest yourself of all independence, wrap your arms around Him and go to sleep. Go to sleep to every natural method and wait for the Master to speak again. The last words He said were, "We're going to the other side." What's the last thing you've heard from God, that you know was God, that you rested upon? That's your Bethel, praise God, and if you have to go back to that, go back. Whatever else you have to leave to get back to Bethel, get back there and listen to the voice of God, and do what He tells you to do, because there is a rest.

Listen to what the Master says. Turn over to Matthew 11:29, a passage that we're all very familiar with. Matthew 11:29, "Take my yoke upon you, and learn of me; for I am meek and lowly... and ye shall find rest unto your souls." "Take my yoke upon you." If there's no rest, if your soul is not at rest, you're not yoked up with Jesus. You're independent. I like to picture myself in this yoke with the Lord. We all know what a yoke looks like. We all see ourselves yoked up with Jesus and we're pulling our weight. Jesus is over here and Jesus is walking and we're yoked up, and we're pulling our weight with Him and we're yoked with Jesus. Wrong picture. Picture it this way. Jesus has His yoke upon Him and He's pulling this thing and you're feet are just missing the ground. We can't add anything to Him. Amen? You say, "You mean, we're supposed to do nothing?" I didn't say that. We're doing all that we can do. "Take my yoke upon you, and learn of me; for I am meek and lowly...." That word "lowly" is an interesting word. It just means to be even, level, even, not hyper, not up, not down, patient.

We're going to do some of this, so we may not get in to it a lot tonight, but on Wednesday we're going to talk about this aspect of faith and patience. "[Those] who through faith and patience inherit the promises [of God]." The ability to endure, the ability to be level, to not be tossed to and fro by every wind of doctrine. To establish ourselves in the promises of God that are yea and amen, sure to a thousand generations. The laboring that's necessary to enter in to the rest of God. I want to tell you what that rest will do. The rest of God, the peace of God, that divine rest, is what enables you in the lion's den to sleep when nobody else is sleeping. The rest of God is what causes the angel to appear in the prison and you rise up and the shackles fall off of your hands. The rest of God causes you to sing praises at midnight with your bleeding wounds. The rest of God will cause you, in the time of God, to rise up, walk to the bow and say, "Peace, be still." That's what we want to look at in this particular study as we go on. Jesus speaks here to us and makes it very clear. He says "Listen, you have to take My yoke upon you. You need to learn of Me. Understand who I am. I am not...." Jesus is not your co-pilot! Amen? Bumper sticker, "Jesus is my co-pilot." Jesus is not your co-pilot. You are cargo! We are totally dependent upon Him. Without Him we can do... nothing. That's when you have the best rest. The ability to put ourselves in the place, through obedience, of where there has to be His visitation or we perish, will be some of the greatest moments of rest that you'll ever experience in your life! It's when you'll learn of Him. It's when you'll know what it means to take His yoke upon you. In the trials of life when you're totally helpless, you'll know what it is to have the yoke of Christ. To be yoked with Him doesn't mean you're pulling your weight. It means you're not going any other direction; you're hooked up with His direction. You've obligated yourself to the course of the straight and narrow, the highway of holiness. You've said, "I'm going wherever this yoke takes me, wherever it takes me. He'll lead me beside the still waters. He will restore my soul. His rod and His staff, they comfort me. Oh, yes, there is the valley of the shadow, but I'll fear no evil for thou art with me. 'Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life: and I will dwell in the house of the Lord forever.'" We begin to learn of Him. We learn what His purpose is, what His will is for us. He wants to do us good, praise God. We learn that He still wants to restores us to that place of innocence in the Garden of Eden. He wants us to come into the garden of His presence, the fragrance of His presence. There's a garden that features the Rose of Sharon and the lily of the valley, the fragrance of God's good grace.

As we end this morning, turn over to Psalm 116, and we'll finish with this passage for this morning. What we want to return to is that childlike faith. This is what we're going to be studying in these next courses. That innocence--no independence--just an innocence and a dependence. At the alumni game the other night, I was holding Hope and she said, "What's that?" She grabs my mouth and opens it up. Kids are cool. "What's that?" I said, "What?" She said, "What's that silver stuff in there?" I said, "Those are fillings." "What's that?" I said, "Well, I had cavities when I was young and they put the silver in there to fill them up." "You have cavities?" "No. I had cavities and they filled them up with that silver." "Oh. Well, how come your teeth are crooked?" I said, "God made them that way." "Ok." I mean, innocent. They just want to know--inquiring minds. The point I'm making is, in this innocence, the relationship is so pure there's no thought of rejection. There's no question that's stupid. There's an awareness of the love, the acceptance. Can you approach Father that way? Can you run to Him and jump into His lap and truly say, "Abba"? Or do we approach Him on a formal basis with our own merit? If we haven't accomplished enough today then, "I just don't deserve an audience. I have to clean myself up." They don't care about that. They jump up there, hands sticky from the last sucker or candy they had. It's in your hair and on your clothes. They just want to hug you and you don't say no. You hug them and send your clothes to the cleaners. Those hugs are precious. You may not be getting those later, you know, when they get "cool." You take those hugs while they're there. Sometimes we get too "cool" for God. We grow up too much. We need to be little Peter Pan Christians. I don't mean little fairy-looking guys. I'm just talking about not growing up!

Found Psalms 116:7 yet? "Return unto thy rest, O my soul; for the Lord hath dealt bountifully with thee." For you to be uptight is to say, "God hasn't treated me right. God's not treating me right. God doesn't care." "Return unto thy rest, O my soul; for the Lord hath dealt bountifully with thee." Can you say that God's treated you right this morning? Has God dealt bountifully with you? We have far more than we deserve, amen? We deserve a devil's hell and yet God has chosen to love us, to call us His children, praise God, to call us heirs and joint heirs with Him. To cause us to be raised up and seated with Him in the heavenlies someday. We are a blessed people and we need to rest in those eternal promises. Even in the adversities that are temporary right now, these are things that will usher us in to that final eternal reward. If things don't get better here, they will there, praise God. That's the rest that we need to enter into. If we don't, we'll have a heart of unbelief.

Father, we thank You for Your Word this morning. We ask that You would strengthen our hearts and cause us to rejoice in Your good blessings and the promises of God that have caused us to hope upon You. You've dealt bountifully with us. You've given us Your Word. You've given us Your Spirit. You've given us the fellowship of the saints. You've given us all good things to enjoy. You've given us everything that pertains to life and godliness in Christ Jesus. How could we do anything but say, "Rejoice, oh my soul"? Our trust is in You, our hope is in You, our delight is in You. Father, forgive us for our unbelief, our fear, our anxiety, or our questioning the circumstances that we find ourselves in. There's nothing that's unique. You've been tempted in every way and without sin. There's nothing that's taken us but such as is common to man. Other men have been where we are and they've come out successfully to Your glory. You are no respecter of persons. As we'll go on to see in the study, there is no rest without labor. There is no labor in rest. We're laboring to cease from our own works. The labor is to stop trying to help God. The labor is divesting ourselves of independence so that we could enter the rest of God. God is working through us to will and to do His good pleasure. Make it real, we ask, Father, in Jesus' name. Amen.

Let's stand before the Lord this morning. Father wants to deal with every one of us where we are. We've talked about it with our children. God is looking for perfect hearts. Good and honest, the true heart. The parable of the sower says that the seed can be sown into it and it brings forth fruit a hundredfold. He's looking for innocence. Someone that doesn't think they know everything. Someone who isn't trusting in their own merit, someone who isn't enamored with themselves and thinking of themselves more highly than they ought to think, a true humility. A person that says, "What I do have, God's given me and it's all there for His use, His glory." What is it that He's doing in your life at this moment? Are you in one of those moments where there doesn't seem to be a lot of opposition? Just rejoice in that and fortify your heart! The next trial will come, because if you've born fruit, you're going to be pruned to bring forth more. Are you in the pruning process? Are you under trial and adversity right now? The Bible says count it all joy. Are you rejoicing that God has found you faithful to put you in the position you're in right now? "Count it all joy when ye fall into [different] temptations; knowing this; that the trying of your faith worketh patience. But let patience have her perfect work that ye may be [made mature, complete], wanting nothing." "In every thing give thanks: for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus concerning you." Are you able to give thanks in everything? That's the fruit of the presence of God, the peace of God, the rest of God. Ship is filling up with water! Hallelujah! Thankful that the ship's sinking? Nope, I'm just thankful that I'm in the will of God. I may get to experience the fastest sinking of a ship in the history of man. What a privilege, if that's what God's called us to. I just know my steps are ordered by God. If I cast the care upon Him, if I'll remain at rest, He will express His care for me. Therefore, I will be anxious "...for nothing; but in every thing by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving [I'll let my] requests be made known unto God. And the peace of God, which passeth all understanding, shall keep [my heart and my mind]." I'm at rest because "...all things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are the called according to his purpose." Nothing can cause me to back off of Romans 8:28. Therefore I will remain at rest. "But you're about to loose your business!" All things work together for good. "But you're wife's about to die!" All things work together for good. "You have cancer!" All things work together for good. I know of no independence. My steps are ordered. I'm not my own; I'm bought with a price. Why should I worry about something I can do nothing about? But through prayer and supplication with thanksgiving, I thank You that You care for me. I thank You that You died for me. I thank You that You've promised that You'll never leave me nor forsake me. I thank You that I'm a son of God, an heir and joint heir in Christ Jesus. Hallelujah! Just rejoice in Him this morning! Just thank Him for His love for you! Oh, hallelujah! You're worthy, Lord! Oh, Lord, You're so good! Hallelujah! Glory to God! Let's sing this together and just delight ourselves in the Lord this morning.

(Singing) "Oh Lord, You have been good...." Oh, hallelujah, we rejoice in You, Lord! We delight in You, Lord, and we thank You for the work You're doing in us, Lord! You're our delight, Lord, and we glory in Your presence! Cause our boast to be in You alone, Lord! We say that without You we can do nothing, but we also boldly say, "I can do all things through Christ which strengtheneth me." That is our boast, Father, and that is our testimony, in Jesus' name. Amen. Amen. Praise God.

Before you go, turn to somebody next to you and say, "There is a rest in God." Amen. Go in peace, God's love go with you.

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