Rest

 Read Matthew 11:25-29

Anyone ever get—I’m going to use a highly technical term here—just plum worn out? Have you ever been just plain tard? It’s like tired with some extra exhaustion.

Anyone ever get weary as in weight of the world weary?

Anyone ever feel like they just need a good nap three or four times a day?

In the Marine Corps, I ran on 4 hours of sleep a day.  I was good with that. In fact, I thrived on 4 hours and was always ready to go.

Sometimes I would go 3 or 4 days on a major operation with no sleep. Those were days where I could fall asleep standing up if that was the only chance that I got.

Here is a short Public Service Announcement. Smoking kills. Snuff gives you cancer.

OK, thanks for that Tom. Maybe I should explain why I brought that up.

Back in the day, I stayed awake for 5 straight days for 3 or 4 college semesters. I studied without any sleep at the end of each semester. I had finals and term papers and put them off until the very end.

How does someone do this? Coca-Cola and Copenhagen.  Dipping helps you stay awake, really?

How can this be? After you put in a fresh dip of Copenhagen, there was always a little on your fingertips.  A quick brush of the sides of your eyes and you were good for another half hour.

You young folks need to google Pappy Boyington when you get home. When these World War II Marne pilots had to stay awake for extended periods, they would rub a little tobacco in their eyes.

Just so you know, back in the day smoking was just becoming suspect as being unhealthy but Copenhagen and Red Man were good for you.  They also only cost a quarter. That was one thing that fit into my meager college budget.

Just a quick rabbit trail. I got out of college debt-free.  It took me an extra year but I took out a loan from my hometown bank at the beginning of each semester, and worked real jobs, not those student jobs that were easy but didn’t pay squat. I had my loan paid by the end of the semester.

I was working about 40 hours a week, more if I could get it. My grade point would have been better off if I had waited to pay off my loans until later, but I have no regrets

I have gone long periods without sleep many times.

I remember being on an operation in Norway in the early Fall. It was a little too early for snow, but not for freezing rain. We had been going for 30 or 40 hours and came to a point where we were not going anywhere for a little while.

It wasn’t enough time to set up a bivouac or anything along those lines but it was enough to try to grab 15 minutes of sleep. I told my driver to wake me in 15 minutes. He had gotten plenty of sleep over the past couple of days, but I was in need of a short nap.

I must have gone to sleep right after I told my driver to wake me because when he awakened me, my right leg had been encased in ice. I was in the passenger seat of a jeep and jeeps leak. The freezing rain landed on my leg and made a legsickle.

I realized this and gave my driver a funny look. He said, “I wasn’t going to wake you until the 15 minutes were up. You needed the sleep.”

I chipped the ice of my leg with the butt of my pistol and we resumed our movement.

You know that if we got 8 hours a day of sleep, we would sleep a third of our lives away.

How much sleep do we really need? I don’t know, but we do need rest on a regular basis.  Yes, we can’t go without sleep for too long or we will just collapse.

But if we go without rest, we will burn out and be dysfunctional. We won’t be focused. We won’t be effective.

We need rest and in this crazy world, we need more rest than we realize.

I didn’t say we need a lot of rest, but we need to rest on a regular basis.  What do I mean?

We rest from the day.

We rest from our labors.

We rest from our worries—which we shouldn’t have but we do.

We rest from our problems.

We rest from our battles.

We rest from our injuries and ailments.

We need rest from our bills and obligations and schedules and our own time management.

Sometimes if I take my grandkids on vacation, I have to rest from my vacation.

Some of you say that we have to rest from Tom’s sermons.

I have to rest from my sermons. For about 2 hours on Sunday afternoons, I am worthless to the world.

We need rest. Jesus knew that and knows that. He gets it.

Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest.

We need to receive the rest of the Lord. We need to turn over so much that we were never intended to carry to our Master. We need rest. Jesus offers rest.

Rest renews.

Rest empowers.

Rest relieves

Rest restores.

Rest invigorates.

How important do you think this rest business is?  God thought it important enough to tell us to rest one day out of seven.  It is important.

You can debate which day of the week that is and have good biblical foundations for something other than it can only be Saturday, but you were designed with rest in mind.

So here is where we wrap this up.  Here’s Tom’s bullet. 

You were designed with rest in mind.

Here’s the words of Jesus

Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest.

We were made to get rest—rest to our very soul.  Jesus offers rest. So, let’s go to Jesus again and again and get our rest.

We need it. We’ve got work to do. We are to put his words into practice.

So, what do you take with you this week?  This one is just too easy.

We need rest.

Jesus gives rest.

You were designed with rest in mind.

Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest.

It’s the easiest connect-the-dots puzzle that you will ever do.

We need rest.

Jesus gives rest.    Amen.