<p>Free sharing permitted under the Creative Commons <a rel="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/3.0/us/">BY-NC-ND 3.0 (US)</a> license.</p>

Advent HOPE Sabbath School

Carissa Vitorovic

Finding True Rest

I have a brilliant, beyond brilliant idea she excitedly explained.

Now when my older sister said these words, I already knew 1 of us was about to get into trouble, her, and 1 of us was about to get hurt, me.

And yet this day, it was far too tempting to pass.

You see, My parents and my 3 sisters and I were on a trip to the southwest of the United States.

And as we were vacationing through, 1 day we went on a hike in the desert and we met up with a ranger.

Now this ranger shared something with our family that to me as a young girl was quite shocking.

He told us that you can actually eat cactus.

Now for many of you listening, you're saying well, yes, of course I always knew that.

All I knew is my grandparents had a cactus lantern.

I was not allowed to go anywhere close to it.

I thought we were supposed to be afraid of cactus, and now here I'm being told you can eat it?

Ginger Lee, my dad, with the permission of the ranger, cut off a piece of cactus, put it in a bag, and we took it home to prepare for dinner that night.

And thus we pick up the story with my older sister coming to me with a brilliant, beyond brilliant idea.

Carissa, why don't we make dinner for mom and dad while they're gone?

They had just left to go on a walk around the campground and and honestly that didn't seem like such a bad idea.

How kind of us to make dinner for our parents while they were out on a walk.

And so after thinking over her suggestion, I said, well, sure, let's do it.

Grabbing that piece of cactus gingerly, we began like Wild West women to scrape off the big thorn with a rock.

But what I did not know, is I did not know there were small hair-like thorns also enclosed.

And so as the meal continues, and as I scrape off those thorns, somehow I wiped my nose and I touched my lips and all of a sudden my fingers, my nose, my lips, they began to burn.

Suddenly I realized why it was that cacti was not to be touched.

And there in a frenzy, as my fingers feel on fire and my nose and my lips, my parents arrived home to the scene of what should be a nice candlelit dinner.

And in great fear and concern, my sisters rushed to them.

Thankfully, my parents came up with a wise, albeit painful solution.

How do you get invisible thorns out of your nose, your lips, and your fingertips?

And if you can imagine, I have not forgotten the pain and the unique circumstances of that evening, of that dinner that did not go according to plan.

Sometimes my little sister, who is now a grown woman, will still send me pictures of cacti just to enjoy seeing my shivers going down my spine, just to see me just cringe at the thought of a cacti.

Now some of us may have unfounded fears such as spiders or the boogeyman under the bed or or maybe we have more realistic fears of losing our job or a family member experiencing the COVID illness.

And yet we realize that the Bible says that we don't have to fear.

But today we're going to look at a verse in which God seems to say the exact opposite, where the Bible in fact encourages us to fear.

And no, I'm not referencing the fear of reverence.

It's a totally different type of fear, and 1 which I pray we all have today.

Heavenly Father, today we just wanna thank you for this Sabbath, Lord.

God, I wanna thank you for this sanctuary in time, this moment where we can pause.

And Lord, I pray as we open your word, open our hearts, Lord.

Father, I really pray that the Holy Spirit and Jesus alone be lifted up, Lord.

May your words be spoken, may your thoughts be lived, And Father, may we draw closer and ever closer to the cross and to heaven is our prayer.

In the name of your son, Jesus Christ, amen.

Long days stretched into weeks and soon stretched into months.

As 1 by 1, the days on the calendar were crossed off.

Now I'm not speaking of 2020, though we probably often said the same thing.

But rather I'm considering a much longer period in history, the 400 years of Israelite bondage in Egypt, a time filled with great brutality, of slavery, of hatred.

When will we finally be set free, they wondered, as the days swept into years and into generations.

And yet after long years of bondage, when deliverance finally came, the same mindset of doubt, of questioning God, of skepticism was retained and ultimately prevented that generation from entering into the promised land.

The inspired writer of Hebrews, Paul, records the story in this way.

In Hebrews chapter 3, and if you'll turn with me there, that's the focus of our study today, Hebrews chapter 3, verses 7 through 11.

Speaking of this time period, it says, therefore, as the Holy Spirit says, today if you'll hear his voice, do not harden your heart as in the rebellion as in the days of the trial and the wilderness when your father's tested me and tried me and saw my works 40 years Therefore I was angry with that generation and said, they always go astray in their heart and they have not known my way.

So I swore in my wrath, they shall not enter my rest.

You see the Israelites seemed to only believe as far as their eye could see.

And in reality, there was no belief at all.

As they stood on the edge of the Red Sea and as they questioned whether they could obtain deliverance, mountains on either side, the Egyptians behind them, they questioned, can God truly deliver us?

When their baskets of bread became low, when they began to fear starvation there in the wilderness or simply were just tired of the same food day after day.

And yet the reality was they still had food in their basket.

And yet the reality was God was still going to provide for them and had provided for them.

As they cried about the lack of water when there was still water in their jugs, and when God again had miraculous provision ahead of them.

This continual, I don't believe God, he can't do it, he can't provide, he's not enough.

This continual skepticism, even though God time and time and time again had proven himself faithful and had truly provided for their every need.

And yet nonetheless, they doubted the power of God.

And because of this, they did not enter into his rest.

The word rest here, used in Hebrews chapter 3 and chapter 4, a total of about 8 times, is the Greek word, and please if you speak Greek just cover your ears for a moment here, it's the Greek word katapasis, Which means it's a state of inactivity that follows cessation from labor.

After you've labored that period of rest.

I love to have a nicely decorated and clean and tidy house with everything in its place.

Clearly I don't have children, but it brings me so much joy after I've gone through the house and I've dusted everything and everything's polished and everything's thick and sand, to sit down on my couch or maybe sit down on my bed and to just look, to just admire, to just enjoy the work of my hands.

Maybe you've experienced the same thing when you have made something out of wood or maybe you poured a concrete slab or or maybe you did a really nice set of sutures on a patient or step back to admire the pearly whites on your patient in the dental chair.

Whatever it may be, it's kind of that picture, the picture of an artist that paints the very last stroke on their painting and then steps back just to take it all in.

And that's exactly the word that is here used as a picture of God ceasing from his work, stepping back, and just enjoying the labor of his hands.

A clear analogy is given here to the Sabbath day when again that is exactly what God did, but he did not rest in his work alone.

He invited humanity to also rest in that work with him.

The rest spoken of here in Hebrews chapter 3 and 4, it's twofold.

It's the rest that's experienced in the promised land salvation, but it's also the rest that's found in keeping, in truly keeping the Sabbath day.

Though it's twofold, it is intricately intertwined.

Because you see, the truth is, we are not immune to the power of skepticism, to the unbelief that kept, that prevented the Israelites from entering into the promised land.

And in fact Hebrews gives this warning in Hebrews chapter 4 verses 1 through 2.

It says, Therefore since a promise remains of entering his rest, let us fear, lest any of you seem to have come short of it.

For indeed, the gospel is preached to us as well as to them, but the word which they heard did not profit them, not being mixed with faith in those who heard it." I truly believe that skepticism is among the most lethal of sins.

It causes us to lose our grounding, to rely on ourself, on our own knowledge, and on our own wisdom.

To think that if we don't fully understand God and all his working, then he just can't possibly exist, is to mean that my mind, my brain, my comprehension is equivalent or greater than that of a deity.

And it's a risk that we all can encounter.

We, too, can be prevented from entering into God's rest through the dangers of skepticism, both the weekly Sabbath experience, but also as we're going to see the Sabbath rest, the rest of salvation that is also offered to us.

But today, skepticism is not the only ditch we need to fear.

1 of my favorite chapters in the Bible is Isaiah chapter 58.

Every Sabbath morning, I read Isaiah chapter 58 and ask for a deeper understanding and application of this in my life.

Isaiah chapter 58, if you'll turn with me there.

And we're gonna be looking at verses 1 through 8.

Isaiah 58 Verse 1 says, cry aloud, spare not.

Lift up your voice like a trumpet, tell my people their transgression and the house of Jacob their sin.

Yet they seek me daily and deny to know my ways as a nation that did righteousness and did not forsake the ordinance of their God.

Back to Menu

Finding True Rest

Transcript

Sponsor

Recorded

Related

The Sabbath: A Memorial and a Battlefield

54m

Rest in a Restless World

54m

Apologetics

Defending the Sabbath

1h 1m

A Study in Hebrews

A Study in Hebrews, Part 4: The Promise of Rest

40m

Revelation Made Simple

4. Revelations Eternal Sign

40m

OYC 2012 Plenary Sessions

Parables in Marriage: The Honeymoon

48m

Nehemiah

There Remains Therefore a Sabbath Rest

45m

How to Keep The Sabbath

1h 8m

The Big Questions (Evening Meetings)

7. How to Ace Your Exams and Still Be Normal

1h 13m

Sanctuary, Salvation & Our Savior

Sanctuary, Salvation and Our Savior: Sabbath and Sanctuary

31m

Jesus on Prophecy

13 How to Observe the Day of Worship?

47m

The Sabbath

The Sabbath - Of the Old Testament and the New Testament

36m

Sound Doctrine