The Promise of Prepared Rest

God's promises are always in your reach, but not necessarily in your hand. Dr. Tony Evans says you won't experience what God offers until you act on what you've heard. Unless the word preached is grabbed by faith, it remains dormant in your experience. This is the alternative broadcast, featuring the timeless biblical teachings from the archives of Dr.

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, Dr. Evans 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 a player says he's in the zone. They are typically in a conflict.

They're playing against another team 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 are up against or the team that is resisting them. God has a zone. That he wants.

His people to operate in. And the zone is called rest. The book of Hebrews was written to Jewish Christians. Hmm. wanted to throw in the towel.

They wanted to quit. They were going through problems, difficulties, challenges.

Some were in prison.

Some were losing their property. They were being rejected. They were going through a whole lot of stuff. They had become weary. as Christians.

Today, I want to talk about the first 11 verses. That sets the stage for the last verses. Of this zone he calls rest. He warns them in verse 12 of chapter 3: take care, brethren, that there not be any one of you. an evil, unbelieving heart that falls away from the living God.

Why do you need the church? Verse 13, but encourage one another 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 taking a nap.

The word risk referred To the promised place of blessing. That they were to experience for which God had provided. They did not arrive at God's intended destination. for them. And wound up spending 40 years.

Running in circles in the wilderness. because of unbelief. Not because God didn't have a plan, but they never entered the plan. They never arrive at the destination. That he calls rest.

the zone, this space. Of experiencing God's favor. In spite of challenges. God's promises 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.

This is why Paul in Ephesians chapter one prays a prayer. And he prays that the church at Ephesus will come to understand their inheritance. God has written a will with your name on it. Of the benefits and favor. That he has for you to inherit.

But just because it's in the will doesn't mean you've inherited the benefit. You must enter it, he says. They did not enter. The zone. In this case, 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 grabbing the inheritance.

So having said that. He says there remains a promise of entering the rest in verse 1. That is your favored. Gifting from God. He says in verse 2: They had good news preached to them, but it did not profit them.

So evidently preaching is not enough. He says the good news was preached. 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. He says, 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.

Proclaim. is grabbed by faith. It remains dormant in your experience. Many Christians live with dormant sermons. 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 in the will for your life. You know, if you have. A bag of semen. Your goal is to have concrete.

You have C-Man. Because you want to make Concrete. A bag of cement. that you buy from Home Depot or Lowe's. Is the foundation for cement.

but it's insufficient for CMAP. Because cement Must be mixed with sand and water. Unless seamen 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.

God's word is see me. 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. Over and over and over again, 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 rest.

So I want my rest to become your rest.

So, if your rest 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, because he's writing to saints. Just as Israel They were God's people, but they didn't enter into the place of rest. They lived all of their lives in circles.

He told them, when I bring you into the place of rest, There will be enemies.

So he's not talking about heaven. You don't have enemies in heaven. In the promised land, there were Jebusites, Hittites, Amorites, Canaanites, the IT. Those were in Canaan.

So rest does not mean there are no problems. Rest does not mean there are no challenges. Rest does not mean there are no ites that you have to deal with. But he says, in the zone, 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. That is a false theology. 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.

Now he goes into some deep theology here. About the Sabbath. He connects rest with the Sabbath. He says In verse 3. For we who have believed entered that 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. Yeah. And God rested on the seventh day from all of his works. And again, in this passage, they shall not enter my rest.

But then he says, verse 9: 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, in order to enter into his rest, you have to understand what his rest is, and his rest was Sabbath rest. Dr. 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. Rest isn't something we earn, it's 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, 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't last long, so visit TonyEvans.org today to make a request.

Or call us at 1-800-800-3222. I'll share that contact information again after. Part 2 of today's message. Here's Dr. Evans.

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 caused light and dark and animals and vegetation. And he did all of that.

Until his creme della creme of his creation was made, the creation of mankind, but he did it last. 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 he was tired.

He rested because he was finished. When God told Israel to go to the promised land. He said, You will find there wells that you did not dig. Cities and houses that you did not build. Farmland that you did not plan.

Because I'm gonna get the ice. The Hittites, Amorites, Jebusites, Canites. And I'm going to let them do all the work for you.

So that by the time you get there, it's set up already.

So God's rest. Is when he's pre-prepared something that you enter into.

So the rest of God is when you experience his preparedness. Pre-prepared favor. Yeah. Pre-prepared blessing. Everything he's ever going to do, he's done, but that doesn't mean you experience it.

until you enter it. It has to be entered. in order to be experienced. Verse 10, how do you know when you've entered his rest? For the one who has entered his rest, God's rest, has himself also rested from his works.

As God did 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 preset up.

Something he's already taken care of before you have gotten there. We spend a lot of our time. trying to create stuff or make it happen. Yeah. When you're in the zone, it has already happened, and you're just taking it because God has pre-done it.

And the way he says that you enter it. And the only way to enter it. It's by faith. Yeah. It's the only way to get in is rest.

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 you're just hooking up to it. How do you get that rest? How do you get the rest, the zone?

He tells you in verse 11, therefore. Let us be diligent to enter that rest.

So that no one will Four. Through following the same example of disobedience. Let us be diligent to enter the rest. The word diligent.

Some versions of the Bible translate it this way. Let us labor to enter. His rest. A new American standard says, let us be diligent to enter his rest. He says, I want you to work.

to interest.

Now that sounds like an oxymoron. I'm trying to get rest and I got to work to get there. He says, I want you to go to work. To entre rest. And don't be like them.

Because Remember, he's already said. The only way to get to rest 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 simply because God said so.

Yeah. Faith is measured not by how you feel, but which way do your feet move. Yeah, yeah, yeah. How do you labor? To rest.

to enter rest. 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, 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 may mean you have to override 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. No to my way of thinking, no to my education, no to how I view economics. It takes work to do that sometimes.

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 so you can believe God and enter into rest. 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 enter into his rest, you just stuck with your work. Of trying to make it and force it and create it. And God says, I Pre-done it. This is a pre-prepared meal. You just have to put it in the microwave.

Remember Israel? Remember Israel? Because that's his backdrop. He said, not like them who didn't enter. Moses sent 12 spies into the promised land.

12 spinners. He did not send them. for them to decide. Can we take the promised land? God had already told him, this is your land.

I want you to enter it. To take what I've already declared is yours. But I want you to be part of the process.

So you go enter it.

So they send in the 12 spines. 12 spies come back. We start off with the majority report. Ten spies. They said the land is magnificent.

Just like God said. But there's a problem. There are giants in the land. The Nephilem are in the land. We can't take that land.

Because we are grasshoppers in their sight. Them folks are so big and so bad, they will stomp on us. We won't even have time to hop. We are grasshoppers in their sight. We are nobod.

So I heard what God said. Yeah. But let's be practical. 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, but I got nine other people who agree with me.

So even though God said it. It's just not practical. Then there were two. Joshua and Caleb. Joshua said, Caleb said, wait, wait, wait a minute.

What y'all talking about? God has already declared this is ours. Yeah. So How big they are, how bad they are is an irrelevant point. Wow.

We should be discussing methodology. Not whether we're going to go or 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. But it says the nation believes the majority report. And said, complained 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 now. Why can't you be a little sympathetic? To your peeps. Why can't you be a little bit more patient with the people?

They saw me open up the Red Sea. Curves. They saw me Turn the water. Admiral. They saw me.

Open up the Jordan River. They have seen me bring manna from on high. When you've seen what God can do yesterday. You shouldn't hesitate to move with God today. even when it doesn't make sense to enter your rest.

You know why a lot of us won't enter God's rest? We haven't walked with them long enough to see him do so. And because we didn't see anything yesterday, we don't know that we can trust him today. And so we go to all the means, human 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 if we will enter it? I want you to grab your inheritance. Grab what God has already declared for you. You'll find out how to find that 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 zone. Dr. 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 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 make a request today at tonyevans.org or call our 24-hour resource request line at 1-800-800-3222.

That's online at tonyevans.org or by phone at 1-800-800-3222. When life wears you down, giving up can feel like the only option. But tomorrow, Dr. 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.