From our Sunday service on June 2, 2024, Philippians 4:11–13, Hebrews 4:9–11, and other passages on finding rest in Christ. Watch the full message: Satisfied: Finding Rest in Christ on YouTube.
A Topical Message on Being Satisfied in Christ
Our message today is titled “Satisfied: Finding Rest in Christ.” The idea of the message is that all we need is Christ to be satisfied. I will admit I’m doing things a bit differently today. I’m usually an exegetical preacher, which means I go into a passage and go straight through it. Today the Lord put it on my heart to do a topical message on finding satisfaction in Christ. I’m trying to step out of my comfort zone, so if I get a little tripped up, have some mercy on me. I’ve seen a lot of unrest around me, and I’ve felt unrest myself at times. I don’t think it hurts for us to take a service and just look at what it means to find rest in Christ.
There is a struggle common to the human condition, and that is finding yourself without rest. It’s the struggle of not being satisfied in your life. That could be in all kinds of ways: not being satisfied with the wages you get at your job, with where you are at this stage of life, with how your kids behave, or with politics. There are so many areas where we can find ourselves lacking satisfaction.
There’s another struggle, the feeling of uneasiness. A lot of times we find ourselves in situations where we become anxious or uneasy, or we’re just not sure what’s going on. In our first service we talked about dealing with hard times where we don’t see God at work, when He is at work while we’re seeing in the dark. Often we can’t see where God is leading us or how He is working. That’s the feeling that things are slightly out of our control, or, God forbid, completely out of control. God tells us we can be satisfied, but what does that look like in that situation?
Or maybe we struggle with the feeling that our hardship will never end. I know this can be a real reality, where you have one hardship after another after another, and just when one situation resolves, boom, you’re hit with another. In Bible college we talked about Satan setting up dominoes and knocking them down. If you’re in ministry any length of time, you will realize that Satan usually has a plan. He doesn’t just act haphazardly. He sets up a few events to knock down at the same time to discourage you. That might be a reason we’re not finding rest, or maybe you just have the feeling that peace will never come to you.
I have some encouragement today. Christ promises that we can find rest in Him, and this rest is outside our circumstances and outside this world’s rules. There is a peace for us. Let’s look at Philippians 4:11–13, where Paul is speaking.
Not that I speak in respect of want: for I have learned, in whatsoever state I am, therewith to be content. I know both how to be abased, and I know how to abound: every where and in all things I am instructed both to be full and to be hungry, both to abound and to suffer need. I can do all things through Christ which strengtheneth me.
Philippians 4:11–13
This is a very familiar passage. If you ever went to Bible camp as a kid, you might have said this verse every single meal. Here Paul is talking about his struggles in life. He was a missionary, so his supply of food and money went up and down all the time. His freedom also went up and down as he was in and out of prison for preaching the gospel. But Paul takes a side note here to talk about the goodness of God. “Not that I speak in respect of want” means he isn’t talking out of his own needs and isn’t worried about them. Paul has arrived at the place where he realizes you can find rest in Christ no matter the circumstances.
He says, “I have learned.” It wasn’t easy, and it isn’t something that comes naturally. You’re not going to wake up one morning and say, “Rest in Christ finally came. I have it every day now.” Paul says he learned to be content in whatever state he was in. It’s not natural to be content in any of life’s circumstances. It’s not natural to have peace when hard times come. What is natural is to let worry and anxiety overcome you and bring you down. But God has given us more than that. He has given us a promise of rest in Him.
Paul says, “I know both how to be abased and how to abound.” He knows what it is to be knocked down a few levels and to be lifted up a few levels. “Everywhere and in all things I am instructed both to be full and to be hungry, both to abound and to suffer need.” This is the simple truth that we need to be all things to all people. With those who are hurting, we need to hurt, and with those who rejoice, we need to rejoice. Paul has suffered and he has been blessed, and he knows how to associate with both. No matter what, in verse 13, “I can do all things through Christ which strengtheneth me.”
So the question today is, can we find a peace that exists outside of our human condition? Paul says the answer is yes, and today through Scripture I want to show you that the answer is yes, because Christ can enable it in us. Our main idea today is that God wants to give you His rest. Today we’re going to talk about what it means to enter into God’s rest.
The Rest God Offers
Our educational passage is Hebrews 4:9–11. Hebrews is a really great book. The Bible doesn’t tell us who wrote it, and there have been arguments throughout history, but we know one of its authors was the Holy Spirit. It’s such an encouraging book. It talks about Jesus as our great high priest and our intercessor, who prays for us, enables us, and has given us such great gifts, greater than anything that could have existed in the Old Testament law. Here the author tells us how great Christ is because He provides a rest for us.
There remaineth therefore a rest to the people of God. For he that is entered into his rest, he also hath ceased from his own works, as God did from his. Let us labour therefore to enter into that rest, lest any man fall after the same example of unbelief.
Hebrews 4:9–11
For a bit of context, the author of Hebrews is drawing back from the Old Testament and using the children of Israel as an illustration. What’s so famous about the children of Israel? They wandered in the wilderness for 40 years. They had an opportunity to go into the Promised Land, but because they didn’t have faith, God said they would have to wander in the wilderness. They were so worried about the Promised Land that they ended up wandering in the wilderness for the rest of their lifetimes. The author of Hebrews says these people lost the rest of God in their lives, and we can see this as a picture of the rest Christ can give us.
Why did they not go into the Promised Land? Their lack of belief in the ability of God to overcome the hardships ahead. They were worried about the Canaanites and the Philistines and all the other nations they would have to fight. Rather than going in with confidence in God, they had fear and lost their faith, and because of that they wandered in unrest for 40 years. This is a spiritual example to us. If we don’t rest in God and don’t have faith in God, we’re also going to lose the comfort of that spiritual Promised Land.
How can we enter into rest? There are three points today. First, entering into rest requires faith in Jesus Christ. Second, entering into rest requires reliance on God’s will. Third, entering into rest requires a step of faith.
First, Faith in Jesus Christ
Hebrews 4:9 says, “There remaineth therefore a rest to the people of God.” Here is our first requirement. If you’re going to enter into God’s rest, you must have a relationship with God. This rest is for the people of God. It’s not a rest for the unsaved or for the entire world. It’s a rest for those who have put their faith in Jesus Christ.
Entering into God’s rest is a spiritual journey. Paul didn’t walk on the road to Damascus, hear Jesus speak to him, and suddenly have all the peace of the Lord. He had to learn day by day how to have faith in God and allow himself to enter into God’s rest. If the rest is for the people of God, it’s not just for anyone. So if anyone here today hasn’t put their faith in Jesus Christ, I’m sorry, but you can’t enter into the rest of God. There’s some work that needs to be done first. The first fruit of the blessings of God is to accept the gift of salvation. Without that, nothing else can come.
What are some verses that talk about this? I’m going to combine a few verses from John 4 and John 7 so you don’t have to turn multiple times. In John 4, Jesus is speaking to the woman at the well.
Jesus answered and said unto her, If thou knewest the gift of God, and who it is that saith to thee, Give me to drink; thou wouldest have asked of him, and he would have given thee living water. … Jesus answered and said unto her, Whosoever drinketh of this water shall thirst again: But whosoever drinketh of the water that I shall give him shall never thirst; but the water that I shall give him shall be in him a well of water springing up into everlasting life. … He that believeth on me, as the scripture hath said, out of his belly shall flow rivers of living water.
John 4:10, 13–14; 7:38
This woman is going every day carrying a huge container of water to get water for her family. Is that an easy thing to do, to haul pounds of water in and out of the city? Jesus takes this as an illustration of what He can offer. In our lives every day we have some kind of struggle and we have to work. This lady was hauling the water back and forth, back and forth, and Jesus asks her for a drink. She asks why He’s asking her, since she’s a Samaritan. Of course Jesus extends His grace and tells her the truth. He tells her that He’s the Messiah, and He says it to the lowest of society. I think there’s something to draw out of that, but that’s not our focus today.
The focus today is that Jesus says He is the living water. In the Greek, that’s “zoe,” which they would call a spring or fountain. They called it living water because it’s water that doesn’t stop. It’s always flowing. Jesus says, “If you had talked to me, I would have given you a fountain that never ends, a fresh fountain of water. You wouldn’t have to walk and struggle all these days carrying all this water to and from here.” This is a picture of the burdens we have to carry. If you just have faith in Jesus Christ, He can take your burden and replace it with comfort. Instead of having to haul the water every day that you need, He can give you everything you need. “Whosoever drinketh of this water shall thirst again, but whosoever drinketh of the water that I shall give him shall never thirst.” There are no more needs when you’re with Christ. He fulfills your spiritual needs. In John 7:38, Jesus is proclaiming that He is our satisfaction.
Now, can man live by water alone? No. There’s another verse about that, John 6:35.
And Jesus said unto them, I am the bread of life: he that cometh to me shall never hunger; and he that believeth on me shall never thirst.
John 6:35
That bread of life refers to the manna in the wilderness. As the Israelites wandered in their unrest, God fed them every day with what they needed. It was miraculous, and Jesus says, “I am that bread that sustains you. I am that miracle of bread that comes every day. I’m the water you need to drink and the bread you need to eat.” The thing about manna is that it came every day, and you couldn’t keep it. You couldn’t store up your bread for tomorrow, except on the Sabbath. The picture is that God gives us, as it says in the Lord’s Prayer, our daily bread. God sustains us each day. He doesn’t give us more so that we have it for the whole week at once. It’s not like on Sunday morning you come to church and God says, “Okay, here’s your allotment for the week. Spread it out.” No. “I give it to you every day. You come to me every day, and I’m going to give you a little bit of my bread and my water, and I’m going to sustain you and fill you.” This promise assures us that by coming to Christ each day and putting our faith in Him, our deepest spiritual needs can be met and satisfied.
So Christ Himself is the foundation for entering into this rest. As Paul said in Philippians 4, “I have learned, in whatsoever state I am, therewith to be content,” because “I can do all things through Christ which strengtheneth me.” I can’t just do all things, period. I can’t do all things on my own, but I can do all things through Christ. If Christ is the source of strength, then the one without Christ cannot enter into His rest.
Second, Reliance on God’s Will
We saw that entering into God’s rest requires faith in Christ. Second, entering into God’s rest requires reliance on God’s will. Let’s look back at Hebrews 4:10: “For he that is entered into his rest, he also hath ceased from his own works, as God did from his.” Here is another requirement. First, there remains a rest for the people of God, so you have to be a person of God. But it also says the one who enters into His rest has ceased from his own works. What is this talking about? You have to stop going your own way. We have to stop going down our own path and trying to force our own will on what our life looks like.
In the first service I talked about how often we can’t see how God is working things out for our good. We have a limited amount of information. I can see what this person thinks, and I can see what the situation is over here, but outside of our limited human perspective, we’re really blind to the situation. What percentage can we truly see? Maybe we know four or five people’s opinions. Even at our jobs, how much is outside the scope of our knowledge? When God comes into our lives with the full view of the whole picture, who are we to question Him and His direction for our lives? It would be like us taking a puzzle, putting together two pieces, saying “That’s a beautiful picture,” and walking away. Jesus has the whole puzzle. He’s putting it all together and building it out for us. As I said in the first service, you don’t see the picture until you’ve gone way past today and look at it from the future backward. So God says, “If you want to rest in me, you’ve got to cease from your own works. You’ve got to stop trying to do things yourself.”
This also refers to salvation. One of the steps is to stop trying to get to heaven on your own. You can’t get salvation from God while still trying to work your own way to heaven. In the same way, you can’t get the peace of God in your life while you’re still trying to work your own will. If we want the satisfaction of God in our lives and want to enter into God’s rest, we must surrender to the will of the Lord.
Jacob and His Own Staff
How many people learn too late, after spending years and years pushing away from the will of God? It reminds me of Jacob the deceiver in the Old Testament. He wanted to receive the blessing of God that was promised to him. Sure, he was going to be the blessed child who was prophesied. It was always going to happen. But Jacob thought he needed to do it his way. He lied to his father, he lied to his brother, and he had his mother tied up in all these schemes. He ended up getting a job with his uncle through his family’s reputation, when he didn’t actually represent the reputation his family had. He ended up marrying the wrong woman because he was deceived, then his marriages fell apart, and everything he did went horribly wrong. And yet time and time again he thought, “I can outsmart him. I can make this work. God gave me the promise, so if I do this, this will happen.” He ends up getting kicked out of Laban’s household and is forced to go back to his homeland and confront his brother.
He says one line that stands out to me and that I’ll remember for the rest of my life: “with my staff I passed over this Jordan.” He has walked his entire life with his own staff, walking his own way. God had already promised him all the things he was working so hard for. It was only when he faced a situation he couldn’t overcome, his brother coming with 400 men whom he thought were coming to kill him, that he thought, “Maybe I shouldn’t be forcing my own will on God’s will. I know God has promised me this, but maybe I should stop trying to make it happen.” If you notice, God always comes to him first. But here he turns around and says, “God, I need to talk to you. I crossed over this Jordan River on my own, and I need help. I’ve walked down this pathway for decades on my own, and I’m done. It doesn’t work. I haven’t had rest a day in my life. I was afraid of my father finding out, afraid of my brother killing me, afraid of going back home to my family, afraid of Laban. I was working in the heat and the cold, suffering, and none of the blessing I was promised has come to pass. Maybe it’s because I’m trying to do it my way.” He says, “I’ve got to drop my staff and follow you.”
What’s funny is that when he wrestles with God, God touches his thigh and gives him a limp, so he has to lean on others for help for the rest of his life. God forbid we be like Jacob, where God has to come and punch our thigh and make us limp so that we rely on other people and realize we need to rely on God. How much more peace would we have in our lives if, instead of trying to force our pathway to God’s blessing, we allowed God to open the pathway for us?
Come unto Me
In Matthew 11:28–30, Jesus gives us a beautiful invitation.
Come unto me, all ye that labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you, and learn of me; for I am meek and lowly in heart: and ye shall find rest unto your souls. For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light.
Matthew 11:28–30
Oh, that Jacob would have learned this: it’s not difficult when you go to the Lord and follow Him. Yes, there is a yoke and some burden you have to carry, but it’s a lot lighter than trying to do it yourself. It’s a lot lighter than trying to force success in your life by going outside the Lord’s will.
Entering into God’s rest does not mean we stop working, period. It’s not that I’m going to enter into the rest of the Lord, quit my job, sit on the couch and watch my favorite show, and all the blessings of God are going to come to me. God’s rest still involves work, whether in our jobs to survive or in the ministry to serve others. But there is some work we can be freed from. We can drop some of these burdens.
We can drop the burden of the guilt of sin. Christ has paid for our sins. If you’re carrying a burden of guilt for a sin you’ve done in your life, you don’t need to carry that anymore. Christ came and died on a cross so you could take that guilt and set it down. Should you go to people and make it right if you’ve wronged them? Absolutely, because you’re not going to have peace until that conflict is resolved. But if you are a believer in Christ, you can find rest in the Lord by nailing that guilt to the cross and walking away. You don’t have to carry it anymore.
We can stop worrying about not being enough. Some of us feel like we haven’t arrived where we needed to. Maybe we didn’t accomplish much in life, or we had big goals when we were younger and now it seems impossible. Let me tell you, you can stop worrying about not being enough, because through Christ we have everything we need, and through Christ we are more than conquerors. As Paul says, we can do all things through Christ. As long as there’s breath in your lungs, there’s still opportunity for you to do great things in your life, and God, if you’ll let Him, wants to do that.
We can find strength. The Bible tells us that we are conformed to the image of God. As we study the Word, pray, and meditate with the Lord, we grow in strength, and He will transform us to be more like Christ.
We can find peace in knowing we have someone who guides us. I’m reminded of Jeremiah 29:11.
For I know the thoughts that I think toward you, saith the LORD, thoughts of peace, and not of evil, to give you an expected end.
Jeremiah 29:11
God has a path for our lives. God is always treading out the path for us to walk, if we let Him. Looking back on my life, I could not have imagined the path I’ve walked so far. I was so shy as a kid. I never would have imagined I’d go 900 miles away to college, or that I’d get a master’s degree. I didn’t plan these things out. It wasn’t what I would have done if I were choosing my own path, walking by my own walking stick. But God day after day has been good, and day after day I just saw the next step and said, “I’ll take it.” Did I trip up some days? Yeah, let’s be honest. Pastors still trip up from time to time. We’re all human. But there’s a path being laid out for us, and God has thoughts about what He wants to do with your life. He doesn’t look at anyone in this room and say, “You don’t have a purpose for ministry,” or “You’re messed up. I don’t want to use you.” God sees every single person in this room and says, “I know a way I can use you.” It may not be in this church. It may not be in a leadership role or a teaching role. But God has a path for you to walk where He can use you spiritually for the good of the kingdom, and I can say that as a fact. As we walk on God’s path, things may surprise us, but none of it surprises the Lord. He knows exactly where He wants to lead us.
So trusting in God’s will and yielding to His guidance brings a lightness and ease in our burdens. We don’t have to feel guilty about sin. We don’t have to worry about not being enough. We don’t need to worry if we don’t have enough strength to do what God wants us to do. We can find peace in knowing there’s someone guiding our path. This means a few things: Satan cannot destroy us, our sins cannot overcome us, and our God will direct us. Satan can only do what God allows. I could tell you stories, though I won’t today, of the times Satan has shown up to wreak havoc in the ministries I’ve worked in, and of people who fall into his traps. But the truth is you don’t need to worry about Satan, because he’s held back by God. You’re not allowed to be tempted above what you are able, and God will make a way of escape if you follow the path God sets. Sure, Satan is going to show up from time to time, but God is greater than Satan, God is greater than our sins, and God can lead us where we need to go.
Third, a Step of Faith
We’ve seen that entering into rest requires faith in Christ and reliance on God’s will. Lastly, entering into God’s rest requires a step of faith. Let’s look at Hebrews 4:11: “Let us labour therefore to enter into that rest, lest any man fall after the same example of unbelief.” Once again he’s pointing to the example of the people wandering in the wilderness for 40 years. Notice what it says: “let us labour.” Labor means work. Like I said, one day you just don’t wake up and enter into God’s rest. The author of Hebrews also says we have to work to enter into His rest. What does that mean? Taking a step of faith is an essential step for entering into rest. We usually think of work as the opposite of rest, but here we need to think of labor as a step toward receiving rest.
Think about that example of unbelief. The Israelites didn’t have the faith to walk into the Promised Land. What happened 40 years later under Joshua, when they went to the Promised Land? One day they’re sitting by the Jordan River, and God tells Joshua that He is going to cut off the waters of the Jordan and that Israel will cross it on dry ground. Did Joshua get up and walk across dry ground? No. If you remember the story, Joshua had to get up, go to the leaders, and tell them what God said. The officers had to go through the camp and tell everybody some crazy stuff: “When ye see the ark of the covenant of the LORD your God, and the priests the Levites bearing it, then ye shall remove from your place, and go after it.” Everybody is looking at the Jordan River, and what does it look like? It’s still fully flowing. They had to take a huge step of faith. Everybody in that camp had to leave their tents and follow the ark to a river that was supposed to be dry but was overflowing its banks.
In human terms that’s not logical. But “I need you to do it anyway, even though it doesn’t make sense.” So they’re all lined up at the river, ready to cross, and it doesn’t part until the priests carrying the ark step in and their feet are dipped in the brim of the water. Then the waters cease. Once again, they would have missed out on the rest of God if they hadn’t had the faith to get their feet wet, to pack up everything they owned and prepare to enter into God’s rest.
That’s the point here. We’re not going to enter into God’s rest if we aren’t willing to take a step of faith. In our moment, it’s not going to make sense to rely on God. Our internal human self is going to be anxious and worried. It’s going to say, “How can I rest when I know about all these problems? How can I know God is going to take care of it when I look around and just can’t see it? How can I find peace in this time if I just don’t know?” What God wants you to do is get your feet wet. He wants you to pack up and prepare for Him to bring the rest, and once you’ve prepared and taken your step, you’ll find that rest there.
Complete in Christ
Colossians 2:9–10 reminds us how great Christ is to us.
For in him dwelleth all the fulness of the Godhead bodily. And ye are complete in him, which is the head of all principality and power:
Colossians 2:9–10
If we try to find the completeness in our lives in anything else, we’re going to miss it. We’ll only find it in Christ alone, as our song said today. If we’re looking to find peace in financial security, we’re never going to find it, because you’re always going to need another dollar. If we’re going to find our peace in our health being perfect, I’m sorry, but you’re still going to have aches and pains. There’s always going to be something. If we’re going to find our peace in being able to have a plan for the next 20 years, I’m sorry, it’s not going to work. But there is a completeness in Christ. If we pack up our bags and get ready to walk in faith, God will open that door. Sure, we may only see a couple of feet ahead at a time. We might open that door to find another door three steps ahead. But God promises that if we look forward and follow Him, He will provide everything we need.
To conclude, let’s remember the encouragement from the Psalms. Psalm 107 talks about all kinds of chaos and drama going on in the world, whether weather or war. Verses 8 and 9 say:
Oh that men would praise the LORD for his goodness, and for his wonderful works to the children of men! For he satisfieth the longing soul, and filleth the hungry soul with goodness.
Psalm 107:8–9
There is satisfaction in God. Psalm 34:8–9 also says:
O taste and see that the LORD is good: blessed is the man that trusteth in him. O fear the LORD, ye his saints: for there is no want to them that fear him.
Psalm 34:8–9
The challenge is to taste and see that the Lord is good. If you haven’t put your faith in Christ to save you, do that. But if you also haven’t put your faith in Christ to sustain you, I would encourage you to do that. Taste and see that the Lord is good. Put down the staff of trying to cross your own Jordan River. God can part that Jordan, but you just have to get your foot wet and step in.
To review, to find God’s rest, simply follow three steps of faith: have faith in Christ, rely on God’s will, and take that first step of faith. As we embrace faith in Christ, rely on God’s will, and take those steps of faith, we can enter into the divine rest God offers us.
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