Are You Weary?

 

[The following is a manuscript of my message delivered at Pilgrim Reformed Church on Sunday morning, the 7th of September, 2025.  A recording of our service should be available on our YouTube streaming channel: 

https://www.youtube.com/@pilgrimreformedchurch1992/streams.]

A couple weeks ago, we looked at the gift of the Sabbath, that one day each week to rest and worship.  God set the example for this when He “rested” for one day after creating the universe in six days, not that He needed rest but to show us that we need rest.  And more importantly, that we need to take time, to purposely set aside the time, to spend with Him, to worship Him.  This is why He gave us the Sabbath.

Today we look at the rest God has ready for us, a rest He has promised us, and what we need to be mindful of in order to secure that rest.  Please listen and follow along as the now uncertain author of the Letter to the Hebrews tells us about heeding God’s word to gain His promise of rest, from verse 16 of the 3rd chapter of that book through the 16th verse of chapter 4, and I’ll be reading from the New Living Translation of our Holy Bible this morning…

3:16 And who was it who rebelled against God, even though they heard His voice? Wasn’t it the people Moses led out of Egypt? 17 And who made God angry for forty years? Wasn’t it the people who sinned, whose corpses lay in the wilderness? 18 And to whom was God speaking when He took an oath that they would never enter His rest? Wasn’t it the people who disobeyed Him? 19 So we see that because of their unbelief they were not able to enter His rest.

4:1 God’s promise of entering His rest still stands, so we ought to tremble with fear that some of you might fail to experience it. 2 For this good news — that God has prepared this rest — has been announced to us just as it was to them. But it did them no good because they didn’t share the faith of those who listened to God. 3 For only we who believe can enter His rest. As for the others, God said,

“In My anger I took an oath:

‘They will never enter My place of rest,’”

even though this rest has been ready since He made the world. 4 We know it is ready because of the place in the Scriptures where it mentions the seventh day: “On the seventh day God rested from all His work.” 5 But in the other passage God said, “They will never enter My place of rest.”

6 So God’s rest is there for people to enter, but those who first heard this good news failed to enter because they disobeyed God. 7 So God set another time for entering His rest, and that time is today. God announced this through David much later in the words already quoted:

“Today when you hear His voice,

don’t harden your hearts.”

8 Now if Joshua had succeeded in giving them this rest, God would not have spoken about another day of rest still to come. 9 So there is a special rest still waiting for the people of God. 10 For all who have entered into God’s rest have rested from their labors, just as God did after creating the world. 11 So let us do our best to enter that rest. But if we disobey God, as the people of Israel did, we will fall.

12 For the word of God is alive and powerful. It is sharper than the sharpest two-edged sword, cutting between soul and spirit, between joint and marrow. It exposes our innermost thoughts and desires. 13 Nothing in all creation is hidden from God. Everything is naked and exposed before His eyes, and He is the One to whom we are accountable.

14 So then, since we have a great High Priest who has entered heaven, Jesus the Son of God, let us hold firmly to what we believe. 15 This High Priest of ours understands our weaknesses, for He faced all of the same testings we do, yet He did not sin. 16 So let us come boldly to the throne of our gracious God. There we will receive His mercy, and we will find grace to help us when we need it most.

--Hebrews 3:16-4:16 (NLT)

Let us pray…  Heavenly Father, we thank You for offering us rest, in this life and in the next.  And thank You for letting us know how we can attain that rest.  In this life, You give us rest through Your peace, an inner peace even as the storm rages around us.  And when these days on earth are finished, You will give us an everlasting peace and rest if we live this life in a manner that pleases You.  We know that we should be more obedient, especially when it comes to showing our love to others and sharing our witness with them.  But, Father, we’ve seen so much evil all around that we have trouble trusting others, let alone loving them.  Please forgive us our failures, Father.  Help us be more obedient to Your will, more open and caring, more compassionate, showing Your love to others so that they too might find salvation through Jesus.

Speak to us now, Father, that we might hear Your voice through Your Spirit within us and better grasp the message You have for us this day.  Please keep us strong in our faith, of one mind and one purpose in our love, our worship, and our service.  And please keep us healthy and safe through these trying times.  This we pray in the precious name of Your Son, Christ Jesus our Lord.   Amen.

The sign in the store window read: "NO HELP WANTED".  As two men passed by, one said to the other, “You should apply -- you'd be great.”  There's an old traditional saying that, “God gives the birds their food, but He doesn't throw it into their nests.”  In a 1994 issue of Bits & Pieces magazine, a farmer observed that, “The hardest thing about milking cows is that they never stay milked.”

Some labors seem never-ending.  Prolific authors Robert A. Heinlein and Isaac Asimov helped popularize the expression “TANSTAAFL”, an acronym of “There ain't no such thing as a free lunch.”  Someone has to pay for it.  Someone has to work for it, and that someone is usually us.  Even the birds have to leave their nest to go search out their food.

Nothing comes completely free of charge – it is earned by someone’s or something’s labors.  When it comes to telling all about Jesus and making disciples, there's a lot of work to be done.  But we can still take time to rest a bit.

Our author of this great letter to the Hebrews quotes scripture often, at least three times in our relatively short passage.  He doesn’t give a citation for any of those quotes, but he probably didn’t need to.  Each quoted scripture comes from what we now call the Old Testament, but back then it was the only testament, the only scripture for the Jews.  And after all, that was his audience: the Jews, the Hebrews, fairly recent converts to Christianity who would have been familiar with the scripture the author quoted.  For us, though, not so much.  But if you’re interested and want to dig a little, there are three quotes in chapter 4 verses 3, 4, 5, and 7 that come from verses 7 through 8 and 11 in the 95th Psalm and from verse 2 of chapter 2 of Genesis.

The whole point of this, though, is that those who refuse to heed God’s commands, who fail to obey Him, will not gain that eternal rest I mentioned earlier.  And for those who do hear God’s voice, we are warned not to let our hearts harden, but to remain compassionate, merciful, and loving, to keep our faith intact and strong.  God has not hardened His heart against us all.  His offer of rest still stands, His peace is still ours for the taking.  For we have a great High Priest in Jesus who intercedes for us because He understands our weaknesses.  He is our example.  He suffered trials and tribulations like us, even worse than us, yet He never sinned.  And He gave His life to cleanse us of our sin, but we need to stay clean.  This is how we please God - by repenting of our sin, keeping our faith strong, and loving as Jesus loves us.

Speaking of Jesus’ love, our Gospel writers saved so many instances of Jesus showing His love, in His deeds and His words.  The obvious, of course, was when He gave up His life for us, that we might be freed from the chains of sin.  But there is another time, much earlier in His ministry, when Jesus took pity on us and covered us with His mercy, all with a promise.  You’re probably familiar with this.  Please hear the loving, compassionate words Jesus spoke, as recorded by the Apostle Matthew in verses 28 and 29 of the 11th chapter of his Gospel account…

28 Then Jesus said, “Come to Me, all of you who are weary and carry heavy burdens, and I will give you rest. 29 Take My yoke upon you. Let Me teach you, because I am humble and gentle at heart, and you will find rest for your souls.”

--Matthew 11:28-29 (NLT)

Are you weary?  Do you feel heavy laden and overwhelmed?  Then come to Jesus and lay your burdens at His feet.  What He requires of us is so little, only that we love others in the way He loves us.

Even though He is our Lord, even though He is God, He doesn’t Lord His authority over us.  He is humble, and asks that we be humble, too, and in our humility, to show His love to all we meet.  For we are His church, we are His arms and legs and mouth, we are His representatives here on earth.  And when we represent Him well, when we do the simple things He asks of us, He will give us rest, in this life and in the next.  He will calm the storms within us, and He will welcome us into heaven when that time comes.

No matter what we labor in, no matter what we’re weary from, Jesus offers rest.  In the blessed name of Christ Jesus our Lord.  Amen.

Let us pray…  Almighty God, thank You for loving us enough to send Your Son, who in turn loved us enough to give His mortal life for us, that we might be seen as clean of our sin in Your eyes.  And thank You for offering us rest in this world of constant unrest.  But sadly, Father, we don’t always do what we need to do to gain this rest.  We don’t always behave in a manner that pleases You.  But we do try to not keep living our old lives, following our sinful ways.  We try to be more obedient, but we need Your help, Father.  Please remind us of our debt to You and our need to follow Your commands.  Remove all distractions that pull us away from spending more time with You, and forgive us those times we fail to live and behave righteously.  Please help us reach out to others and share with them all You teach us through Your word.  Help us lead them to Jesus so they too may be saved. 

Father, please shield us from Satan as he attacks our faith, trying to make us his own.  Help us be better servants, glorifying You in all we do so that the world can see You in us, through our deeds, in how we live.  And help us remain strong, faithful, and true to You in all things, no matter what comes our way.

Please hear us now, Father, as we pause for just a moment to speak to You through Your Spirit within us, promising to be more obedient to Your commands, and seeking Your help to do so…

Lord Jesus, thank You for offering us Your peace and rest when we are weary, when our burdens become more than we can bear.  We love You, Jesus, and thank You for all You have done and continue to do for us.  Please forgive us, Lord, when we struggle to love others like You want us to.  We know we disappoint You when we let our hatreds and prejudices get in the way of showing Your love as we walk through each day.  Please help us be more like You in how we live and behave.  Help us reach out to the non-believing world, sharing the Gospel message, showing Your love through our love.  Give us the words to say, show us the deeds to do to lead the lost to You.

Holy Spirit, please shield our minds and our hearts from Satan’s lies and the world’s empty promises.  Guide us around all the devil’s traps and snares.  Help us see though his temptations.  Help us keep our focus on the things of heaven and the needs of others rather than on anything this world might offer.  All this we pray in the blessed name of Christ Jesus our Lord.  Amen.