Experience Rest and Joy in Jesus

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Hey, welcome to Renewed Mindsets, the totally awesome podcast for Gen Xers who are ready to bust a move with the hand we were dealt.

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I'm Rick, and if you're feeling discontent with the way life has turned out, well, we're the goonies you're looking for.

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We're here to guide you in purging what you think you know, breaking free from conforming to this world and transforming your mind into the Christ-centered powerhouse.

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It was destined to be.

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Calm that mullet and grab a can of new Coke.

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It's time to get radical, dude.

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I'm so glad you're here.

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So yesterday I put out an episode which was a promo for my Wisdom for the Day podcast, which I love.

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I'm working on the anniversary episode, for sure, but I woke up this morning feeling guilty for not having a real show for you, and one of the show's producers and my future wife said, and I quote I'm not happy about that episode.

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You didn't feed me, wow.

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So before I did anything else today, I recorded a little something to feed y'all, forgive me.

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So I want to ask you a question today.

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Have you ever felt exhausted?

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Maybe it was a really long work week, or maybe you took a really long shift at work, or you had to watch somebody else's kids for a long time and it was rough.

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You know, whatever it might be.

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Do you ever feel just pure exhaustion?

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I know I have.

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I want to look at the words of Jesus in Matthew 11, 28.

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These words are simply amazing to me.

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He says come to me all of you who are weary and carry heavy burdens, and I will give you rest.

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So what's really cool about this verse is that, if you look at the literal meaning of the words, the words weary and heavy laden literally mean worked to exhaustion.

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So we could paraphrase this verse and say and some of us yeah, it's easy to see that we're exhausted Come to me all who are worked to exhaustion and I will give you rest.

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And some of us, yeah, it's easy to see that we're exhausted.

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And we might even recognize our own need for rest.

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But I think a lot of times we choose to do anything and everything to try to find rest, except for coming to Jesus.

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But let's look at what he says in the very next verse.

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For coming to Jesus.

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But let's look at what he says in the very next verse.

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He says take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and lowly and hard, and you will find rest for your souls.

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Now, this is an amazing promise that he makes us, and I know I've been focusing on physical rest, but that's not the only kind of rest that Jesus is talking about.

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He's talking about rest that involves our whole being.

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He actually says for my yoke is easy and my burden is light.

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And when you look at the literal meaning of those words easy and light you can paraphrase those words to say comfortable and pleasant, and I think a lot of times we don't look at it with that kind of meaning in mind.

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You can paraphrase those words to say comfortable and pleasant, and I think a lot of times we don't look at it with that kind of meaning in mind.

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But when we really look at the kind of rest that Jesus wants us to have, I got to ask the question why don't we come to him more often to find that rest?

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So I'm going to look at three specific reasons why we don't come to Jesus for rest.

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The first one is that it might be a sin that we're dealing with and we're not willing to let go of it.

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Yeah, that's keeping us from coming to him, and at first, you know, sin promises to be comfortable to us.

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It promises to fulfill us, but in the long run it's just so exhausting.

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Not just physically exhausting sometimes, but also sin exhausts us in our spirit and in our soul.

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And here's the thing A lot of times we don't want to let go of it because it's comfortable to us.

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I'm going to tell you right now, that was tobacco for me at one time.

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But for God, he knows that we need comfort.

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He understands that, and I think that's the very reason that Jesus sent the Holy Spirit to be our comforter.

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Here's the thing God knows how to comfort us a whole lot better than we know how to comfort ourselves.

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And I think that Jesus one of the reasons that he sent the Holy Spirit to be our comforter, and not just our teacher and not just our guide, but he sent the Holy Spirit to be our comforter because he walked the earth as a human and he understands that humans need comfort.

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Jesus understands that we need comfort and he understands that we need comfort and he understands that we need rest.

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And then, for others of us, what's stopping us from coming to Jesus to find rest is a sense of accomplishment that we have to live up to.

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An accomplishment is not always a bad thing, obviously, but at the same time, it can still be exhausting.

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And what I do a lot of times is I set up this standard of achievement in my mind and then I just keep working towards it and I do everything I can do to accomplish whatever it is because I'm working towards it right.

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But what happens is when I'm doing that and I'm not taking the time to wait upon the Lord and to get his guidance and direction from him get his guidance and direction from him In my work is I end up working at it at my own strength and I'm not getting my strength from him.

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Here's what Nehemiah 8.10 says.

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It's really awesome.

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It says the joy of the Lord is your strength.

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Yeah, the joy of the Lord is your strength.

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When we take time to wait on God, we allow the Holy Spirit to fill us with joy.

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We allow the Holy Spirit to fill us with his joy, and we're going to have to have this strength directly from God and it's not going to be us relying on our own strength to get things done right.

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And I think that's part of the reason that joy is a fruit of the Spirit, because God understood that we would need strength.

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He knew that we would need rest.

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And then for the rest of us?

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The reason we're not coming to Jesus for rest is because we've allowed the worries and the cares of this world to rule over our lives.

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And the reason we've done this is because we're focused on what's going on around us and we're not focused on our eternity with Christ.

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See, jesus says in John 14, do not let your heart be troubled.

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Believe in God, believe also in me.

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In my Father's house are many dwelling places.

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If it were not so, I would have told you, for I go to prepare a place for you.

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Jesus is talking about the hope that we have in an eternity with God.

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And here's the thing.

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The reason I think we allow worry to rule in our lives sometimes is because we're putting our hope in the things around us, the things that we can have on this earth, rather than putting our hope in the eternal work that Jesus completed on the cross.

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So God knew that we would need help.

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I think that's why Jesus said don't let your heart be troubled.

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He knew that we would need help.

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He knew that we would need rest.

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Even when we understood our need for rest, it's so easy for some of us to put off rest as unimportant or unnecessary right now.

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But I believe that God rested on the seventh day of creation for a reason, and it wasn't because he was tired.

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He's God, he doesn't get tired.

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It wasn't because he was exhausted.

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I believe that God rested on the seventh day of creation for our sake, so that we would know that it's okay to rest.

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It's okay and more than that, it's important, it's necessary.

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The answer to exhaustion in our bodies and our souls, and even our spirits, is rest, and we receive that kind of rest by coming to Jesus.

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And here's what's so amazing about Jesus' promise to us it's that there's only one requirement.

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He doesn't say show me all the good works you've done.

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He doesn't say show me all the good works you've done.

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He doesn't say show me everything you've accomplished.

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He simply says come and rest.

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In a fast-paced world with noise and distractions, it can be hard to find moments of peace and clarity.

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But what if you could start your day with a moment of wisdom and reflection Introducing Wisdom for the Day, a short daily podcast dedicated to sharing godly wisdom from the book of Proverbs?

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Imagine, in just one year you'll have learned the entire book of Proverbs, giving you a foundation of wisdom to carry with you for a lifetime.

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So why not start your day the right way?

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Subscribe to Wisdom for the Day now and begin your journey towards a life filled with godly wisdom, available at wisdomforthedayorg and wherever you get your podcasts.

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Wisdom for the Day, because a little wisdom goes a long way.

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Well, that's all for this week's show.

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You know the name of this show speaks my hope for you.

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It's taken from the words of Romans, chapter 12, verse 2.

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Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind that, by testing, you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect.

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If you enjoyed what you heard, do me a favor, please, and tell someone you know about it.

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Visit renewedmindsetscom to hear past episodes, read the blog and check out the new merch.

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And, as always, while you're there, send me a voicemail by clicking the button at the bottom right corner of the main page.

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Tell me what you think about this show.

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I just might play it on a future episode, until next week.

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I'm Rick, I love you.

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Are you ready to go See ya?

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The intro and outro music for the Renewed Mindsets podcast is Are you Ready?

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By Floodgate From the album Are you Ready?

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Copyright 2002, offbeat Ministries Incorporated.

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Floodgate can be found on Apple Music and iTunes.

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Music used with permission.

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Ha ha, ha, ha, ha ha.