Download Rest in Stress 2-3 - Palma Sola Community Church

July 12, 2015
Page 2
Back To The Basics
REST IN STRESS
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Intro: Hebrews 3:14-19 ; 4:1-2.
Hebrews, Chapters 3 and 4, are the major extended New Testament passage that speaks to
the point of this necessary doctrine.
The following statement has been said in one way or another by many teachers of the Word
of God who sought to discover and experience the full Christ-life in their human form, which
comes by faith alone.
“You haven’t lived as a Christian until you have been in a place where you are helpless,
where there is no human solution, where there is nothing that you can do or say, where you
are so numb from the shock of pressure that you can’t even pray! You haven’t lived until you
have been in that place. For sooner or later God brings every believer to a dried-up brook (I
Kings 17). And every believer must face a set of circumstances where the situation is black
and hopeless, where there is no human solution”. -- I Kings 17:1-24 ; 18:1-2 ;
I Kings 19:1-4 ; God’s grace = 19:5-8 ; “the Flesh” = 19:9-14.
Note: The absence of conflict is not the normal Christian life. The normal Christian life is
ceasing from our works in trying to be a good Christian, (that’s the deceit of the spirit of
independence, “I will be like the most High”), and resting in God and His Word by faith.
The absence of conflict is not an indication that we are resting in God. Having the “peace”
of God in your stressful circumstances is the indication that you are resting in God.
Last week we started to consider this basic doctrine for living a Godly life. We are calling it
“REST IN STRESS”, and we referred to this teaching as it has been called, the “Faith-Rest
Life.” The teaching of this doctrine from God’s Word has been written about, and here are
some of the titles:
All Things New; The Compelling Indwelling; Let Us Go on to Maturity; THE
RENEWED MIND; SPIRITUAL MATURITY; the FAITH-REST LIFE; Lifetime Guarantee;
the Cross & Sanctification; The BELIEVER’S TRUE IDENTITY; THE LIBERATING
SECRET; born
crucified; The Green Letters; THE MYSTERY OF
GODLINESS; FAITH THAT WORKS; LIFE MORE ABUNDANT; The Rest of the
Gospel.
And there are more titles, with each author expressing from the Word of God, how God
opened their understanding to finding and experiencing a life that is pleasing to God, a life
lived by faith. That is the normal Christian life. -- Hebrews 11:6.
July 12, 2015
Page 3
Back To The Basics
REST IN STRESS
I. When a believer tries to be Godly by religious works, it will always open the door to “the
flesh”, and your religious works done in your own effort, are “the flesh”.
Philippians 3:1- 10.
II. The Christian life must be a life of living by faith in the Word of God, not by our emotions,
or by self-effort that is usually expressed in religious activity that we’ve been told is necessary
to experience God. -- Galatians. 3:1-3, 5:25 ; Colossians 1:24-29 ;
Colossians 2:6-7.
III. The Apostle Paul had learned from the Scriptures, and then experienced this God
established principle for LIFE, a life of rest in God by faith. -- I Corinthians 10:1-6 ;
I Corinthians 10:31-11:1 ; 15:4 ; Philippians 4:4-9.
Note: The record of Moses and the Children of Israel in the wilderness is given to us
as an example, as a type (ie. a physical example that usually has to do with a physical
item or event that teaches a spiritual principle that is a God established spiritual law. In
the Corinthian letter we are referred to the record of the experience of the Jews in the
wilderness). The example (the type) here is a warning against independent self-for-self
living, stated in verse 6, and the danger of pride in verses 11- 12.
IV. Moses didn’t enter into the place of God’s rest and peace. WHY? Because in a time of
faith testing that was causing emotional stress, he sowed to “the flesh”, thus what he sowed
he reaped (Galatians 6:7-9). -- Numbers 20:1-12 ; Deuteronomy 3:23-29.
The Bottom Line; Peace, rest in stress, is not external, but comes from within, through the
ministry of the indwelling Holy Spirit. -- Romans 14:17-19 ; Galatians 5:22.