Week 2 Sunday Sept.13th, 2015 Topic: The Labour that brings rest part 1. – Faith, hope and Love.

Week 2 Sunday Sept.13th, 2015

Topic: The Labour that brings rest part 1. – Faith, hope and Love.

1Cor.13:13 (The Amplified Bible)

“And so faith, hope, love abide [faith – conviction and belief respecting man’s relation to God and divine things; hope – joyful and confident expectation of eternal salvation; love – true affection for God and man, growing out of God’s love for and in us], these three; but the greatest of these is love.”

From our text scripture here, whether or not we are laboring to enter into God’s rest shows in our lives in three qualities namely; our faith, our hope and our love life.

Faith and hope: Last month, we looked extensively at faith in relation to rest and refreshing. We saw what faith means and we also looked at some elements of faith and showed how faith can be a major player if we are going to enter into our rest and refreshing as intended by God. 

In Heb.11:1 we are told that faith is the substance of things hoped for and the evidence of things not seen. Also, in Gal.5:6, we are told that faith works by love. When we put these scriptures together with our text scripture today, it becomes clear that the labour required to enter the rest of God would happen as we walk in faith and demonstrate the hope of our eternal salvation and the love of God towards God and men. 

How does this work? First, we need to walk in faith; a lifestyle ordered by the word of God or Godly values. However, for faith to be truly the faith of God, it hinges on the hope of our eternal salvation as shown us in the text above. As long as we stay joyfully expectant of our eternal salvation, our faith would have a resting place. Then for our faith to truly work to the point of leaving behind us an eternal legacy, we must demonstrate the third quality of walking in love. 

Since we have seen the quality of faith for rest extensively last month, we shall just look at the connection between hope and faith and how to release faith today. 

Faith and hope as exemplified by Abraham

Heb.11:8, Rom.4:1, 17-24 - From our texts here, God called Abraham to go to a place He would show him even though he did not know the place, he went ahead and trusted God to fulfill His promise. 

He hoped to get there and he demonstrated faith by taking steps to get there by actually obeying God to go. If he merely believed God without taking any action, his faith would have been questionable and there is no way he would have entered the Promised Land. 

Lessons:

1. When we first hear a promise of God, our hope is stirred up; we receive the word with joy like the person in the parable of the sower who could not bear fruit to perfection in Luke 8:13-14. This group of people hears the word and receives it in the hope of getting the goodies promised. However, they are not willing to pay the price of getting to the end of the journey of fulfilment. These kinds of people are easy prey to persecution and they become victims to the cares of this life and over time; they would lose the patience required to get to the end of the journey that would bring them the rest of fruitfulness which is the end of the promise. In 2Cor.4:13-14, Apostle Paul refers to those who would follow through to the end as people having another spirit; not the regular one like others. In verse 13, we see that apostle Paul and his company believed and therefore spoke in accordance with what they believed. The reason for this is seen in their hope of eternal salvation as shown in verse 14. 

For example, in Numbers 13-14, the popular opinion demonstrated by the evil report of ten spies and the unpopular opinion demonstrated by the “another spirit” of Joshua and Caleb. All of them hoped to get to the Promised Land from the beginning but only two of them paid the price of faith to get there. This takes us to the next way faith and hope works.

2. Faith speaks what is hoped for with full persuasion that what is believed must come to pass. In the case of Abraham in Romans 4:17-24, he kept giving glory to God by consistently saying what he hoped to see in the end and the result was that he entered his promised land of the father of many nations. This was his rest and he is still there until today.

3. Faith keeps moving on even when the hope of what is expected seem to be shaken by circumstances. No one ever enters rest who allows contrary circumstances to deter them from the direction of God. This is why Abraham believed in hope against hope. See Romans 4:18. Even when his body spoke against his hope of bearing a son with his old barren wife, he refused to stagger at the promise of God. He never allowed unbelief to rob him of the fulfilment of God’s promise. 

4. Even when hope seems taken away, faith will keep you going until the fulfilment of God’s promise. See Acts 27:20-25; in this account, all the people in the imminent shipwreck had lost hope until Paul received a word from the Lord that none of them would be lost in the shipwreck. This goes to tell you that faith keeps working even when all hope is lost. Therefore even though faith and hope work together, faith is stronger than hope because even when hope is taken away, faith can still help you take the journey to the end.  

5. Finally, whereas hope is the trigger for faith to start to grow, faith is what sustains hope even if hope is lost. The loss of hope would not necessarily result in the loss of the promised fulfilment as long as one maintains their faith in God’s word and act accordingly until the end. When you maintain your faith in God’s word, you are indeed operating in the rest of God because the means by which we enter our rest is mixing the word of God with faith or commensurate action based on the promise. See Heb.4:1-3, Rom.4:1-25.

MESSAGES FOR SEPTEMBER, 2015 Week 1 Sunday Sept.6th, 2015 Topic: What Rest is and why we need to enter rest

Theme: Understanding How to Labour To Enter Divine Rest – Matthew 11:28-30, Heb.4:9-11

Week 1 Sunday Sept.6th, 2015

Topic: What Rest is and why we need to enter rest

Text: Matthew 11:28-30, Heb.4:1-11.

Introduction: From our text scriptures above, we can easily glean what rest is from the mouth of the Lord and from the Letter to the Hebrew Church. Here we see the Lord making an open invitation to all who are weighed down and burdened to come to him to find rest and He also went on to provide the way they can find rest as learning of Him. However, our text in Hebrews makes us understand that much as we are invited to rest, not all who actually receive the invitation to rest get to the place of rest because of the major hindrance of unbelief. So while rest is assured by the Lord, there is a monster called unbelief that could stop those who allow it from entering into their rest. Last month, we took the time to look at faith and how it can help us get to our place of rest and refreshing. This month however, we shall be looking at how we can actually enter into rest in spite of our enemy – unbelief. First we must establish from scripture what the Lord means by rest and see some examples of people in the bible who entered into rest and check our lives to know in what areas we have also entered the rest of God.

First, Rest is preceded by a promise of God. The entire bible is a promise of God to people that if they would live in a certain way, He would commit to bring to pass all His intentions for them. See 2Tim.3:16-17, Ps.119:105, Joshua 1:8, Ps.1:1-3, Matthew 7:24-27.

Second, when we hear and receive the word of God, we prove our reception of the word by first doing what the word says. The first thing the word of God commands us to do is repent and become a part of the body of Christ. When we do this, we become saved and the journey into God’s promised land of all the good things of life and eventually an eternal abode with God commences. Acts2:26, 38-39; John 3:16-18.   

The good things of life are spiritual, soulish and physical. This is why in 3John 2, we are told that we are wished above all things prosperity and health even as our souls prosper. This sums up the good things of life. Man is spirit, soul and body; prosperity is required for all areas of life. See 1Thess.5:23. 

Thirdly, on the journey of life to our promised land of blessing with total wholeness; nothing broken and nothing missing, the first thing we must enjoy is spiritual prosperity. When we find rest here, rest in every other area of our lives is guaranteed. In John 17:3, we learn that we are actually experiencing eternal life when we know Jesus Christ and the father in our personal experience. It is impossible to know Him if you don’t hear His voice. Thus if you are really his sheep, you must pay the price to hear his voice through learning. Remember, He says “learn of me…” see Mt.11:29, John10:27, Rm.8:14, 16.

Fourthly, whatever you hear from God by His Holy Spirit and His written word is what you will be tested on to know if you qualify for the promised land of blessing or not. See Heb.4:1-3, Matthew 7:24-27. You qualify when you hold on to what God says till it comes to pass for you [Heb.10:23, 36-39]. Those who failed this test were those who did not mix the word with faith [Heb.4:1-3]. The way we mix the word with faith is by doing what the word says.  

Some examples of those who entered rest in the bible include Abraham and Sarah who were promised children and received the promise of a son after 25 years and then had to die not having received the promise of becoming parents to many nations. However, that promise is actualized today several hundreds of years later. This is because the promises of God are usually transgenerational. We must therefore raise our children to follow in our steps to continue to walk with God. Another example is Joseph who had to go through the process of slavery to obtain the promise and He did enter rest by first walking in the word of God and later rising from the prison to the palace overnight. 

When John the Baptist was born, it was said concerning him by prophecy that He would be the forerunner of the most high. The process to get there made a hermit of him and the day He baptized the Lord, he entered the Promised Land. See Luk.1:76-77, Matthew 3:11-17.

Why do we need rest?

Rest is like giving birth to a baby that is conceived. If a pregnant woman does not give birth to the baby for instance, she cannot be relieved of the weight and could even be killed from the abnormality. This is why many of the children of Israel died in the wilderness as they could not deliver their promise because of unbelief. The place of rest is the place of fulfilment, rewards, comfort and refreshing. When God finished making the world, He rested on the 7th day and was refreshed. See Ex.31:17.

You cannot keep fighting battles without victory. Therefore rest is the place of victory. As we learn of the Lord on a daily basis, everything will eventually culminate in victory for us. See Rev.2-3. 

Conclusion: What has God promised you? Whatever you are going through now is the process by which you will get there; so don’t give up, keep trusting in the Lord; it will come to pass.