July 7, 2025 • 25 mins
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
God's promises are always in your reach, but not necessarily
in your hand.
Speaker 2 (00:05):
Doctor Tony Evans says, you won't experience what God offers
until you act on what you've heard.
Speaker 1 (00:11):
Unless the word preached is grabbed by faith, it remains
dormant in your experience.
Speaker 2 (00:19):
This is the alternative broadcast featuring the timeless Biblical teachings
from the archives of doctor Tony Evans. God promises believers rest,
and some people think that means taking a break from responsibility,
but in the Bible, rest means entering into something the
Lord has already prepared for us well. Today, doctor Evans
(00:41):
explains how believers can experience the kind of peace and
power that rises above life's challenges by stepping into the
spiritual zone God calls rest, Let's join him. In the
Book of Hebrews, when.
Speaker 1 (00:53):
A player says he's in the zone, they are typically
in a conflict.
Speaker 3 (01:00):
They're playing against another team.
Speaker 1 (01:01):
That wants to block them, stop them, but they're unable
to do that because this player is in a state
of mind and state of being that transcends the trouble
that they're up against or the team that is resisting. There,
God has a zone that he wants his people to
(01:24):
operate in, and the zone is called rest. The Book
of Hebrews was written to Jewish Christians who wanted to
throw in the towel. They wanted to quit. They were
going through problems, difficulties, challenges. Some were in prison, Some
are losing their property. They were being rejected, They were.
Speaker 3 (01:47):
Going through a whole lot of stuff. They had become
weary as Christians today.
Speaker 1 (01:55):
I want to talk about the first eleven verses that
sets the stage for the last versus of this zone
he calls rest. He warns them in verse twelve of
chapter three, take care, brethren, that there not be any
one of you an evil, unbelieving heart that falls away
(02:15):
from the living God.
Speaker 3 (02:17):
Why do you need the church? Verse thirteen. But in
carriage one another.
Speaker 1 (02:20):
Day after day, he says they were not able to
enter his rest. When he talks about rest, he's not
talking about sleep, He's not talking about.
Speaker 3 (02:33):
Taking a nap.
Speaker 1 (02:36):
The word rest referred to the promised place of blessing
that they were too experience for which God had provided.
They did not arrive at God's intended destination for them,
and wound up spending forty years running in circles in
(02:57):
the wilderness because of an belief.
Speaker 3 (03:02):
Not because God didn't have a plan.
Speaker 1 (03:04):
But they never entered the plan. They never arrived at
the destination that he calls rest, the zone, this space
of experiencing God's favor in spite of challenges. God's promises
(03:26):
are always in your reach, but not necessarily in your hand.
They have to be entered into even though they have
been provided. So Rest refers to the inherited benefits that
God has provided for believers to experience, both collectively and specifically.
(03:54):
This is why Paul in Ephesians chapter one praise a prayer,
and he praised the church at Ephesus will come to
understand their inheritance.
Speaker 3 (04:06):
God has written a will with your name on it.
Speaker 1 (04:10):
Of the benefits and favor that He has for you
to inherit. But just because it's in the will doesn't
mean you have inherited the benefit. You must enter it,
he says. They did not enter the zone, in this case,
(04:32):
the Promised Land, which are the blessings the favor that
God has bequeathed to his people generically and to each
one of us individually. So he is writing this that
they don't miss what Israel missed in the Old Testament,
by not following through on entering the rest, that is
(04:56):
grabbing the inheritance. So having said that, he says, there
remains a promise of entering the rest. In verse one,
that is your favored gifting from God, he says. In
verse two, they had good news preached to them, but
(05:16):
it did not profit them, So evidently preaching is not enough.
Speaker 3 (05:23):
He says. The good news was preached.
Speaker 1 (05:26):
But it was not profitable, So hearing a sermon doesn't
mean you benefit from the message. The preaching was done,
but the prophet was not experienced.
Speaker 3 (05:41):
He says.
Speaker 1 (05:41):
And the reason they did not profit from what was
preached is that it didn't get united by faith in
those who heard. Unless the word preached proclaimed is grabbed
by a faith, it remains dormant. In your experience.
Speaker 3 (06:07):
Many Christians live with dormented sermons.
Speaker 1 (06:12):
It doesn't go anywhere beyond the service because it doesn't
get united with faith, which keeps you from getting the
inheritance of favor that God has already put.
Speaker 3 (06:27):
In the will for your life. Right.
Speaker 1 (06:30):
You know, if you have a bag of semen, your
goal is to have concrete. You have semen because you
want to make concrete a bag of cement that you
buy from home depot or those.
Speaker 3 (06:51):
Is the foundation for cement.
Speaker 1 (06:54):
But it's insufficient for semen, because semen must be mixed
with saying the water. Unless semen is mixed with sand
and water, you'll never have concrete. Not because you don't
have what you need for it, but you don't have
the mixture to get it.
Speaker 3 (07:15):
God's word is semen.
Speaker 1 (07:18):
It's solid, but you're not able to walk on it
unless it's mixed with faith so that it becomes concrete
in your experience. He says that they did not benefit
from it, and they did not enter his rest.
Speaker 3 (07:41):
Over and over and over again.
Speaker 1 (07:45):
He calls rest his rest, but it's his rest for
them to rest. He says, I have a place of rest,
and the place of rest is my so I want
my rest to become your rest. So if your rest
(08:08):
is not my rest, don't be surprised. There is no rest,
that is no experiencing of the divine favor for which
you have been inherited as a believer in Jesus Christ.
Speaker 3 (08:24):
Because he's writing the saints.
Speaker 1 (08:27):
Just as Israel, they were God's people, but they didn't
enter into the place of rest.
Speaker 3 (08:35):
They lived all of their lives in circles.
Speaker 1 (08:40):
He told them, when I bring you into the place
of rest, there will be enemies.
Speaker 3 (08:47):
So he's not talking about heaven. And you don't have
enemies in heaven.
Speaker 1 (08:54):
In the Promised Land where Jebusites, Hittites, Emirds, Canaanites, Dites,
those were in Caata. So rest does not mean there
are no problems. Rest does not mean there are no challenges.
Rest do not mean they are no heightes that you
have to deal with. But he says in the zone,
(09:16):
in the place of rest, the enemies no longer call
the shots in the place of rest. So to hear
about rest is not to hear about a problemless Christian existence.
Speaker 3 (09:33):
That is a false theology.
Speaker 1 (09:36):
But it does mean that those challenges, those problems, those
circumstances are no longer defining your existence because you are
bequeathed the inheritance which puts you in a rest zone.
Speaker 3 (09:51):
Now he goes into some deep theology here about the Sabbath.
He connects rest with the Sabbath. He says in verse three,
for we were bleeved entered that.
Speaker 1 (10:12):
Rest, just as he said, as I swore my wrath,
they shall not enter my rest. Although his works were
finished from the foundation of the world. For he has
said somewhere concerning the seventh day, that's the Sabbath. And
God rested on the seventh day from all of his works.
And again in this passage, they shall not enter my rest.
(10:37):
But then he says verse nine, there remains a sabbath
rest for the people of God. So the seventh day
is the Sabbath. Watch this, he says. To understand rest,
you have to understand God's rest if you want to
understand your rest, because you're entering into his rest. So
(10:58):
and in order to enter into his rest, you have
to understand what his rest is, and his rest with
savage rest.
Speaker 2 (11:04):
Doctor Evans will have more for us on the promise
of prepared rest when he continues our message in just
a moment now. The lesson we're hearing today is the
kickoff for Tony's insightful four part series called Ready Set Rest,
a powerful look at what it means to enter God's
rest and live from a place of peace rather than pressure.
(11:27):
Rest isn't something we earn, if something God's already made available.
If you'd like to review this message again or share
it with someone you know, we'll send you the complete
audio collection of the series as our thank you gift
when you support The Alternative with a financial contribution, and
as a special bonus, we'll also include Tony's encouraging book
(11:47):
Kingdom Stewardship, a fresh look at how managing God's resources
his way can bring clarity, peace and purpose into every
area of your life. This special double offer won don't
last long, so visit Tonyevans dot org today to make
your request or collus at one eight hundred eight hundred
(12:07):
thirty two twenty two. I'll share that contact information again
after part two of today's message. Here's doctor Evans.
Speaker 1 (12:16):
God did not create Adam on the first day. He
did not create mankind first. He created mankind last. Before
he created mankind, he created the sun and the moon
and the stars, and separated the water from the land,
and card light and darkened and animals and vegetation.
Speaker 3 (12:35):
And he did all of that.
Speaker 1 (12:37):
Until his crim dela krem of his creation was made
the creation of mankind.
Speaker 3 (12:43):
But he did it last.
Speaker 1 (12:46):
In other words, he didn't create man until he established
first everything for man. After he created everything for man,
he rested. He did not rest because it was tired.
He rest because he was finished. When God told Israel
to go to the Promised Land, he said, you will
(13:10):
find their wells that you did not dig, cities and
houses that you did not build, farm land that you
did not plan.
Speaker 3 (13:23):
Because I'm gonna get the ice.
Speaker 1 (13:26):
The Hittites amorized, jepicizes Knites, and I'm gonna let them
do all the work for you, so that by the
time you get there, it's set up already.
Speaker 3 (13:39):
So God's rest.
Speaker 1 (13:42):
Is when He's pre prepared something that you enter into.
So the rest of God is when you experience his
pre prepared favor, pre prepared blessing.
Speaker 3 (13:59):
Everything he's ever going to do, he's done.
Speaker 1 (14:02):
But that doesn't mean you experience it until you enter it.
It has to be entered in order to be experienced
Verse ten. How do you know when you've entered his rest?
For the one who has entered his rest, God's rest
has himself also wrested from his works, as God did
(14:24):
from his. So the way you know you've entered his
rest is that you are doing what God did, taking
advantage of something he's pre set up, something he's already
taken care of before you have gotten there. We spent
a lot of our time trying to create stuff or
(14:46):
make it happen. When you're in the zone, it has
already happened, and you're just taking it because God has
pre doone it. And the way he says that you
enter it, and the only way to enter.
Speaker 3 (15:03):
It is by faith. It's the only way to get
in is rest.
Speaker 1 (15:10):
The freedom of being in the zone of rest, when
you don't have to make stuff happen, but you're just
flowing with God having already made it happen, and.
Speaker 3 (15:20):
You're just hooking up to it. How do you get
that rest? How do you get the rest?
Speaker 2 (15:24):
The zone?
Speaker 3 (15:26):
He tells you in verse eleven.
Speaker 1 (15:28):
Therefore, let us be diligent to enter that rest so
that no one will fall through following the same example
of disobedience, let us be diligent to enter the rest.
There we're diligent. Some versions of the Bible translate it
(15:50):
this way. Let us labor to enter his rest. A
new American standard says, let us be diligent to enter
his life rest. He says, I want you to work
to interest. Now that sounds like an oxymoron. I'm trying
to get rest, and I gotta work to get there.
(16:10):
He says, I want you to go to work to
interest and don't be like them, because remember, He's already
said the.
Speaker 3 (16:21):
Only way to get to rest.
Speaker 1 (16:23):
Is by faith. And faith is a term of function.
Faith is acting like God is telling the truth. Faith
is acting like it is so, even when it's not so,
in order that it might be so something because God
said so. Faith is measured not by how you feel,
(16:43):
but which way do your feet move? Okay, how do
you labor.
Speaker 3 (16:53):
To rest to interest?
Speaker 1 (16:56):
Because to move by faith you often have to work
against your natural impulses. To move by faith, you often
have to work against your natural instincts. To move by faith,
(17:17):
you have to work to get rid of people who
are trying to move you from faith. To move by faith,
you have to work to override what some of your
university professors taught you that disagrees with the ways of God.
To walk by faith me mean you have to override
(17:37):
what mama taught you, what Daddy taught you, what your
culture taught you, what your race taught you. And sometimes
that takes work. It takes work to say no to
something I've been taught all my life. Know to my
way of thinking, know to my education, know to how
I view economics. It takes work to do that sometimes,
(17:58):
but the work is a work of faith because you're
believing God. But you have to work to get rid
of that other stuff that doesn't want you to believe God.
Speaker 3 (18:08):
So you can believe God and enter into rest.
Speaker 1 (18:11):
And that often takes work, but it's not work to
earn something. It's the work of faith of rejecting that
which has rejected God. So you can enter into his rest,
because if you don't into His rest, you just stuck
with your work of trying to make it and force
(18:33):
it and create it. And God says, I've predone it.
This is a pre prepared meal. You just have to
put it in the microwave.
Speaker 3 (18:46):
Remember Israel.
Speaker 1 (18:46):
Remember Israel, because that's his backdrop. You said, not like them,
didn't enter. So Moses sent twelve spies into.
Speaker 3 (18:55):
The Promised Land. Twelve spies.
Speaker 1 (18:59):
He did not send them for them to decide, can
we take the Promised Land.
Speaker 3 (19:06):
God had already told them this is your land.
Speaker 1 (19:11):
I want you to enter it, to take what I've
already declared is yours. But I want you to be
to be part of the process, so you go enter it.
So they send in the twelve spies. Twelve spies come back.
We start off with the majority report, ten spires. They said,
(19:34):
the land is magnificent, just like God said. But there's
a problem. There are giants in the land, the Nephilema
in the land.
Speaker 3 (19:48):
We can't take that land because we are grasshoppers in
their site.
Speaker 1 (19:55):
Them folk are so big and so bad they will
stop on us. Don't even have time to hop. We
are grasshoppers in their sight. We are nobody's.
Speaker 3 (20:09):
So. I heard what God said, but let's be practical.
Speaker 1 (20:14):
I heard what God said, but let me tell you
what my eyes saw. I heard what God says. Let
me tell you how I feel. I heard what God says,
but let me tell you what I think. I heard
what God said, I got nine other people who agree
with me. So even though God said it, it's just
(20:36):
not practical.
Speaker 3 (20:39):
Then there were two.
Speaker 1 (20:42):
Joshua and Cad. Joshua said, Caleb said, wait, wait, wait
a minute, what a y'all talking about. God has already
declared this is ours. So how big they.
Speaker 3 (20:57):
Are, how bad they.
Speaker 1 (20:58):
Are is an point We should be discussing methodology, not
whether we're gonna go on not. God has already predeclared
it's ours, So let's get up in here and get
what belongs to us, because God has already said it's ours.
(21:22):
But it says the nation believed the majority report and said,
complain against Moses. You brought us here. Wish they could
go back to Egypt, and the Bible says, and the
anger of God fumed against them. But God, come on, then,
why why can't you be a little sympathetic to your peeps?
(21:43):
Why can't you why can't you be a little bit
more patient with the people. Because they saw me open
up the Red Sea, because they saw me turn the water, admiral,
They saw me open up the Jordan River. They have
(22:04):
seen me bring manner from on high.
Speaker 3 (22:07):
When you've seen what.
Speaker 1 (22:08):
God can do yesterday, you shouldn't have to take to
move with God today, even when it doesn't make sense
to enter your rest. You know why a lot of
us want into God's rest. We haven't walked with them
long enough to see them do so. And because we
didn't see anything yesterday, we don't know that we can
(22:29):
trust him today.
Speaker 3 (22:31):
So we go to all the means, human.
Speaker 1 (22:33):
Wisdom, secular thinking to do what his inheritance will take
care of that we just have to enter. The beautiful
thing about the zone of Rest is that God has
already taken care of it.
Speaker 3 (22:47):
If we will enter it.
Speaker 1 (22:50):
I want you to grab your inheritance, grab what God
has already declared for you. You'll find out how to
find out out, but you grab it. You don't settle
for getting by. You don't settle for trying to make it.
You don't settle for doing the best you can. You
don't settle until you're in the soul.
Speaker 2 (23:12):
Doctor Tony Evans on how we can enter Rest and
experience God's pre prepared blessing. As I mentioned earlier, you
can get a copy of this short but powerful series
for yourself on digital download as well as on a
CD album or USB flash drive. Ready Set Rest contains
four messages that will help you experience the peace God
(23:35):
has already prepared for you. And as a bonus, we'll
also send you Tony's book Kingdom Stewardship, which reveals how
true freedom and purpose come when we manage every part
of life, not just our finances, according to God's plan.
Both resources are yours, with our thanks. When you make
a contribution to support this ministry, get the details and
(23:57):
make your request today at Tony Evans dot org or
call our twenty four hour resource Request line at one
eight hundred eight hundred thirty two twenty two. That's online
at Tonyevans dot org or by phone at one eight
hundred eight hundred three two two two. When life wears
(24:17):
you down, giving up can feel like the only option.
But tomorrow. Doctor Evans explains why staying rooted in God's
word is the key to pressing forward, and how scripture
becomes the doorway to experiencing God's purpose, peace and power
even in the middle of life's hardest seasons. Be sure
to join us
God's promises are always in your reach, but not necessarily
in your hand.
Speaker 2 (00:05):
Doctor Tony Evans says, you won't experience what God offers
until you act on what you've heard.
Speaker 1 (00:11):
Unless the word preached is grabbed by faith, it remains
dormant in your experience.
Speaker 2 (00:19):
This is the alternative broadcast featuring the timeless Biblical teachings
from the archives of doctor Tony Evans. God promises believers rest,
and some people think that means taking a break from responsibility,
but in the Bible, rest means entering into something the
Lord has already prepared for us well. Today, doctor Evans
(00:41):
explains how believers can experience the kind of peace and
power that rises above life's challenges by stepping into the
spiritual zone God calls rest, Let's join him. In the
Book of Hebrews, when.
Speaker 1 (00:53):
A player says he's in the zone, they are typically
in a conflict.
Speaker 3 (01:00):
They're playing against another team.
Speaker 1 (01:01):
That wants to block them, stop them, but they're unable
to do that because this player is in a state
of mind and state of being that transcends the trouble
that they're up against or the team that is resisting. There,
God has a zone that he wants his people to
(01:24):
operate in, and the zone is called rest. The Book
of Hebrews was written to Jewish Christians who wanted to
throw in the towel. They wanted to quit. They were
going through problems, difficulties, challenges. Some were in prison, Some
are losing their property. They were being rejected, They were.
Speaker 3 (01:47):
Going through a whole lot of stuff. They had become
weary as Christians today.
Speaker 1 (01:55):
I want to talk about the first eleven verses that
sets the stage for the last versus of this zone
he calls rest. He warns them in verse twelve of
chapter three, take care, brethren, that there not be any
one of you an evil, unbelieving heart that falls away
(02:15):
from the living God.
Speaker 3 (02:17):
Why do you need the church? Verse thirteen. But in
carriage one another.
Speaker 1 (02:20):
Day after day, he says they were not able to
enter his rest. When he talks about rest, he's not
talking about sleep, He's not talking about.
Speaker 3 (02:33):
Taking a nap.
Speaker 1 (02:36):
The word rest referred to the promised place of blessing
that they were too experience for which God had provided.
They did not arrive at God's intended destination for them,
and wound up spending forty years running in circles in
(02:57):
the wilderness because of an belief.
Speaker 3 (03:02):
Not because God didn't have a plan.
Speaker 1 (03:04):
But they never entered the plan. They never arrived at
the destination that he calls rest, the zone, this space
of experiencing God's favor in spite of challenges. God's promises
(03:26):
are always in your reach, but not necessarily in your hand.
They have to be entered into even though they have
been provided. So Rest refers to the inherited benefits that
God has provided for believers to experience, both collectively and specifically.
(03:54):
This is why Paul in Ephesians chapter one praise a prayer,
and he praised the church at Ephesus will come to
understand their inheritance.
Speaker 3 (04:06):
God has written a will with your name on it.
Speaker 1 (04:10):
Of the benefits and favor that He has for you
to inherit. But just because it's in the will doesn't
mean you have inherited the benefit. You must enter it,
he says. They did not enter the zone, in this case,
(04:32):
the Promised Land, which are the blessings the favor that
God has bequeathed to his people generically and to each
one of us individually. So he is writing this that
they don't miss what Israel missed in the Old Testament,
by not following through on entering the rest, that is
(04:56):
grabbing the inheritance. So having said that, he says, there
remains a promise of entering the rest. In verse one,
that is your favored gifting from God, he says. In
verse two, they had good news preached to them, but
(05:16):
it did not profit them, So evidently preaching is not enough.
Speaker 3 (05:23):
He says. The good news was preached.
Speaker 1 (05:26):
But it was not profitable, So hearing a sermon doesn't
mean you benefit from the message. The preaching was done,
but the prophet was not experienced.
Speaker 3 (05:41):
He says.
Speaker 1 (05:41):
And the reason they did not profit from what was
preached is that it didn't get united by faith in
those who heard. Unless the word preached proclaimed is grabbed
by a faith, it remains dormant. In your experience.
Speaker 3 (06:07):
Many Christians live with dormented sermons.
Speaker 1 (06:12):
It doesn't go anywhere beyond the service because it doesn't
get united with faith, which keeps you from getting the
inheritance of favor that God has already put.
Speaker 3 (06:27):
In the will for your life. Right.
Speaker 1 (06:30):
You know, if you have a bag of semen, your
goal is to have concrete. You have semen because you
want to make concrete a bag of cement that you
buy from home depot or those.
Speaker 3 (06:51):
Is the foundation for cement.
Speaker 1 (06:54):
But it's insufficient for semen, because semen must be mixed
with saying the water. Unless semen is mixed with sand
and water, you'll never have concrete. Not because you don't
have what you need for it, but you don't have
the mixture to get it.
Speaker 3 (07:15):
God's word is semen.
Speaker 1 (07:18):
It's solid, but you're not able to walk on it
unless it's mixed with faith so that it becomes concrete
in your experience. He says that they did not benefit
from it, and they did not enter his rest.
Speaker 3 (07:41):
Over and over and over again.
Speaker 1 (07:45):
He calls rest his rest, but it's his rest for
them to rest. He says, I have a place of rest,
and the place of rest is my so I want
my rest to become your rest. So if your rest
(08:08):
is not my rest, don't be surprised. There is no rest,
that is no experiencing of the divine favor for which
you have been inherited as a believer in Jesus Christ.
Speaker 3 (08:24):
Because he's writing the saints.
Speaker 1 (08:27):
Just as Israel, they were God's people, but they didn't
enter into the place of rest.
Speaker 3 (08:35):
They lived all of their lives in circles.
Speaker 1 (08:40):
He told them, when I bring you into the place
of rest, there will be enemies.
Speaker 3 (08:47):
So he's not talking about heaven. And you don't have
enemies in heaven.
Speaker 1 (08:54):
In the Promised Land where Jebusites, Hittites, Emirds, Canaanites, Dites,
those were in Caata. So rest does not mean there
are no problems. Rest does not mean there are no challenges.
Rest do not mean they are no heightes that you
have to deal with. But he says in the zone,
(09:16):
in the place of rest, the enemies no longer call
the shots in the place of rest. So to hear
about rest is not to hear about a problemless Christian existence.
Speaker 3 (09:33):
That is a false theology.
Speaker 1 (09:36):
But it does mean that those challenges, those problems, those
circumstances are no longer defining your existence because you are
bequeathed the inheritance which puts you in a rest zone.
Speaker 3 (09:51):
Now he goes into some deep theology here about the Sabbath.
He connects rest with the Sabbath. He says in verse three,
for we were bleeved entered that.
Speaker 1 (10:12):
Rest, just as he said, as I swore my wrath,
they shall not enter my rest. Although his works were
finished from the foundation of the world. For he has
said somewhere concerning the seventh day, that's the Sabbath. And
God rested on the seventh day from all of his works.
And again in this passage, they shall not enter my rest.
(10:37):
But then he says verse nine, there remains a sabbath
rest for the people of God. So the seventh day
is the Sabbath. Watch this, he says. To understand rest,
you have to understand God's rest if you want to
understand your rest, because you're entering into his rest. So
(10:58):
and in order to enter into his rest, you have
to understand what his rest is, and his rest with
savage rest.
Speaker 2 (11:04):
Doctor Evans will have more for us on the promise
of prepared rest when he continues our message in just
a moment now. The lesson we're hearing today is the
kickoff for Tony's insightful four part series called Ready Set Rest,
a powerful look at what it means to enter God's
rest and live from a place of peace rather than pressure.
(11:27):
Rest isn't something we earn, if something God's already made available.
If you'd like to review this message again or share
it with someone you know, we'll send you the complete
audio collection of the series as our thank you gift
when you support The Alternative with a financial contribution, and
as a special bonus, we'll also include Tony's encouraging book
(11:47):
Kingdom Stewardship, a fresh look at how managing God's resources
his way can bring clarity, peace and purpose into every
area of your life. This special double offer won don't
last long, so visit Tonyevans dot org today to make
your request or collus at one eight hundred eight hundred
(12:07):
thirty two twenty two. I'll share that contact information again
after part two of today's message. Here's doctor Evans.
Speaker 1 (12:16):
God did not create Adam on the first day. He
did not create mankind first. He created mankind last. Before
he created mankind, he created the sun and the moon
and the stars, and separated the water from the land,
and card light and darkened and animals and vegetation.
Speaker 3 (12:35):
And he did all of that.
Speaker 1 (12:37):
Until his crim dela krem of his creation was made
the creation of mankind.
Speaker 3 (12:43):
But he did it last.
Speaker 1 (12:46):
In other words, he didn't create man until he established
first everything for man. After he created everything for man,
he rested. He did not rest because it was tired.
He rest because he was finished. When God told Israel
to go to the Promised Land, he said, you will
(13:10):
find their wells that you did not dig, cities and
houses that you did not build, farm land that you
did not plan.
Speaker 3 (13:23):
Because I'm gonna get the ice.
Speaker 1 (13:26):
The Hittites amorized, jepicizes Knites, and I'm gonna let them
do all the work for you, so that by the
time you get there, it's set up already.
Speaker 3 (13:39):
So God's rest.
Speaker 1 (13:42):
Is when He's pre prepared something that you enter into.
So the rest of God is when you experience his
pre prepared favor, pre prepared blessing.
Speaker 3 (13:59):
Everything he's ever going to do, he's done.
Speaker 1 (14:02):
But that doesn't mean you experience it until you enter it.
It has to be entered in order to be experienced
Verse ten. How do you know when you've entered his rest?
For the one who has entered his rest, God's rest
has himself also wrested from his works, as God did
(14:24):
from his. So the way you know you've entered his
rest is that you are doing what God did, taking
advantage of something he's pre set up, something he's already
taken care of before you have gotten there. We spent
a lot of our time trying to create stuff or
(14:46):
make it happen. When you're in the zone, it has
already happened, and you're just taking it because God has
pre doone it. And the way he says that you
enter it, and the only way to enter.
Speaker 3 (15:03):
It is by faith. It's the only way to get
in is rest.
Speaker 1 (15:10):
The freedom of being in the zone of rest, when
you don't have to make stuff happen, but you're just
flowing with God having already made it happen, and.
Speaker 3 (15:20):
You're just hooking up to it. How do you get
that rest? How do you get the rest?
Speaker 2 (15:24):
The zone?
Speaker 3 (15:26):
He tells you in verse eleven.
Speaker 1 (15:28):
Therefore, let us be diligent to enter that rest so
that no one will fall through following the same example
of disobedience, let us be diligent to enter the rest.
There we're diligent. Some versions of the Bible translate it
(15:50):
this way. Let us labor to enter his rest. A
new American standard says, let us be diligent to enter
his life rest. He says, I want you to work
to interest. Now that sounds like an oxymoron. I'm trying
to get rest, and I gotta work to get there.
(16:10):
He says, I want you to go to work to
interest and don't be like them, because remember, He's already
said the.
Speaker 3 (16:21):
Only way to get to rest.
Speaker 1 (16:23):
Is by faith. And faith is a term of function.
Faith is acting like God is telling the truth. Faith
is acting like it is so, even when it's not so,
in order that it might be so something because God
said so. Faith is measured not by how you feel,
(16:43):
but which way do your feet move? Okay, how do
you labor.
Speaker 3 (16:53):
To rest to interest?
Speaker 1 (16:56):
Because to move by faith you often have to work
against your natural impulses. To move by faith, you often
have to work against your natural instincts. To move by faith,
(17:17):
you have to work to get rid of people who
are trying to move you from faith. To move by faith,
you have to work to override what some of your
university professors taught you that disagrees with the ways of God.
To walk by faith me mean you have to override
(17:37):
what mama taught you, what Daddy taught you, what your
culture taught you, what your race taught you. And sometimes
that takes work. It takes work to say no to
something I've been taught all my life. Know to my
way of thinking, know to my education, know to how
I view economics. It takes work to do that sometimes,
(17:58):
but the work is a work of faith because you're
believing God. But you have to work to get rid
of that other stuff that doesn't want you to believe God.
Speaker 3 (18:08):
So you can believe God and enter into rest.
Speaker 1 (18:11):
And that often takes work, but it's not work to
earn something. It's the work of faith of rejecting that
which has rejected God. So you can enter into his rest,
because if you don't into His rest, you just stuck
with your work of trying to make it and force
(18:33):
it and create it. And God says, I've predone it.
This is a pre prepared meal. You just have to
put it in the microwave.
Speaker 3 (18:46):
Remember Israel.
Speaker 1 (18:46):
Remember Israel, because that's his backdrop. You said, not like them,
didn't enter. So Moses sent twelve spies into.
Speaker 3 (18:55):
The Promised Land. Twelve spies.
Speaker 1 (18:59):
He did not send them for them to decide, can
we take the Promised Land.
Speaker 3 (19:06):
God had already told them this is your land.
Speaker 1 (19:11):
I want you to enter it, to take what I've
already declared is yours. But I want you to be
to be part of the process, so you go enter it.
So they send in the twelve spies. Twelve spies come back.
We start off with the majority report, ten spires. They said,
(19:34):
the land is magnificent, just like God said. But there's
a problem. There are giants in the land, the Nephilema
in the land.
Speaker 3 (19:48):
We can't take that land because we are grasshoppers in
their site.
Speaker 1 (19:55):
Them folk are so big and so bad they will
stop on us. Don't even have time to hop. We
are grasshoppers in their sight. We are nobody's.
Speaker 3 (20:09):
So. I heard what God said, but let's be practical.
Speaker 1 (20:14):
I heard what God said, but let me tell you
what my eyes saw. I heard what God says. Let
me tell you how I feel. I heard what God says,
but let me tell you what I think. I heard
what God said, I got nine other people who agree
with me. So even though God said it, it's just
(20:36):
not practical.
Speaker 3 (20:39):
Then there were two.
Speaker 1 (20:42):
Joshua and Cad. Joshua said, Caleb said, wait, wait, wait
a minute, what a y'all talking about. God has already
declared this is ours. So how big they.
Speaker 3 (20:57):
Are, how bad they.
Speaker 1 (20:58):
Are is an point We should be discussing methodology, not
whether we're gonna go on not. God has already predeclared
it's ours, So let's get up in here and get
what belongs to us, because God has already said it's ours.
(21:22):
But it says the nation believed the majority report and said,
complain against Moses. You brought us here. Wish they could
go back to Egypt, and the Bible says, and the
anger of God fumed against them. But God, come on, then,
why why can't you be a little sympathetic to your peeps?
(21:43):
Why can't you why can't you be a little bit
more patient with the people. Because they saw me open
up the Red Sea, because they saw me turn the water, admiral,
They saw me open up the Jordan River. They have
(22:04):
seen me bring manner from on high.
Speaker 3 (22:07):
When you've seen what.
Speaker 1 (22:08):
God can do yesterday, you shouldn't have to take to
move with God today, even when it doesn't make sense
to enter your rest. You know why a lot of
us want into God's rest. We haven't walked with them
long enough to see them do so. And because we
didn't see anything yesterday, we don't know that we can
(22:29):
trust him today.
Speaker 3 (22:31):
So we go to all the means, human.
Speaker 1 (22:33):
Wisdom, secular thinking to do what his inheritance will take
care of that we just have to enter. The beautiful
thing about the zone of Rest is that God has
already taken care of it.
Speaker 3 (22:47):
If we will enter it.
Speaker 1 (22:50):
I want you to grab your inheritance, grab what God
has already declared for you. You'll find out how to
find out out, but you grab it. You don't settle
for getting by. You don't settle for trying to make it.
You don't settle for doing the best you can. You
don't settle until you're in the soul.
Speaker 2 (23:12):
Doctor Tony Evans on how we can enter Rest and
experience God's pre prepared blessing. As I mentioned earlier, you
can get a copy of this short but powerful series
for yourself on digital download as well as on a
CD album or USB flash drive. Ready Set Rest contains
four messages that will help you experience the peace God
(23:35):
has already prepared for you. And as a bonus, we'll
also send you Tony's book Kingdom Stewardship, which reveals how
true freedom and purpose come when we manage every part
of life, not just our finances, according to God's plan.
Both resources are yours, with our thanks. When you make
a contribution to support this ministry, get the details and
(23:57):
make your request today at Tony Evans dot org or
call our twenty four hour resource Request line at one
eight hundred eight hundred thirty two twenty two. That's online
at Tonyevans dot org or by phone at one eight
hundred eight hundred three two two two. When life wears
(24:17):
you down, giving up can feel like the only option.
But tomorrow. Doctor Evans explains why staying rooted in God's
word is the key to pressing forward, and how scripture
becomes the doorway to experiencing God's purpose, peace and power
even in the middle of life's hardest seasons. Be sure
to join us
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