God’s Prescription for Rest - Tony Nguyen

Passage: 1 King 19:1-18

Sermon Note:

1. Rest is a Gift: that you may remember your identity, and the purpose of why you do what you do.

a. Rest so that you may Delight and know Him more

b. Rest so that He can prepare you to do what He has planned for you. Before God can work through you, He has to be With you.

c. Rest requires faith. The promise is that if you have the faith to rest, he can do for you in 6 days what you felt you need 7 days to do.

2. In the same way, today we see the burn out of a man name Elijah and God’s prescription for Rest

I. God cares for Elijah, physically, emotionally, and Spiritually

a. Elijah’s work led him to a place of burnt out and depression

b. Our world’s way of dealing with tiredness, we are either...

i. Physical—pop a pill to feel better

ii. Emotional—talk and talk, don’t do anything but just be able to word vomit

iii. Spiritual—you blame yourself and your sin and your inability to Love the Lord

c. God’s Prescription is all 3

i. Physical healing: gave him food

ii. Emotional healing: spoke to him

iii. Spiritual healing: gave him direction to find God

II. Sabbath Plan needs to include all 3

a. Time

i. Sundown to Sundown 24Hr period

b. Sheer Inactivity (Unplanned)

i. Give yourself time to do something unplanned or unstructured (play a game, watch a show, go out)

c. Intentional Activity

i. Contemplative Rest (spiritual): Prayer and the Word

ii. Recreational Rest (Physical): Do something fun that’s planned out

iii. Aesthetic Rest (Emotional): Works of God you find beautiful (hike, museum, nature etc.)

d. Things to Consider

i. Introvert or Extrovert

ii. Don’t necessarily count family time as sabbath

iii. Be accountable for specific seasons when you can’t

1. Don’t let it stretch for more than 2-3 years

2. Still have your rhythm of prayer and the word with God

III. The way you know that you have been doing this Rest well, is that you can hear His voice