Rest 101

September 19, 2021

Podcast Preview

The pastor who mentored me was and is a hard worker. He’s a guy who will have an email in your inbox at 4am and will respond to your message after 10pm. He works hard, and he taught me how to work hard, too. But there was something that I have always appreciated about him. He made sure that I knew- if you’re going to work hard, you’re going to need to rest hard. Take a break! 

That’s a biblical teaching. Did you know that? It’s called the third commandment! Remember the Sabbath Day and keep it holy. Take a break. Rest in Jesus. 

This week we begin a new sermon series called “SCHOOLED.” For the next four weeks we will look at teachings from Jesus in Matthew chapter 12. 

Here’s the first teaching. While you rest, God goes to work giving you more spiritual rest than could ever imagine possible. 

Matthew 12:1-14

12 At that time Jesus went through the grainfields on the Sabbath. His disciples were hungry and began to pick some heads of grain and eat them. When the Pharisees saw this, they said to him, “Look! Your disciples are doing what is unlawful on the Sabbath.”

He answered, “Haven’t you read what David did when he and his companions were hungry? He entered the house of God, and he and his companions ate the consecrated bread—which was not lawful for them to do, but only for the priests. Or haven’t you read in the Law that the priests on Sabbath duty in the temple desecrate the Sabbath and yet are innocent? I tell you that something greater than the temple is here. If you had known what these words mean, ‘I desire mercy, not sacrifice,’[a]you would not have condemned the innocent. For the Son of Man is Lord of the Sabbath.”

Going on from that place, he went into their synagogue, 10 and a man with a shriveled hand was there. Looking for a reason to bring charges against Jesus, they asked him, “Is it lawful to heal on the Sabbath?”

11 He said to them, “If any of you has a sheep and it falls into a pit on the Sabbath, will you not take hold of it and lift it out? 12 How much more valuable is a person than a sheep! Therefore it is lawful to do good on the Sabbath.”

13 Then he said to the man, “Stretch out your hand.” So he stretched it out and it was completely restored, just as sound as the other. 14 But the Pharisees went out and plotted how they might kill Jesus.