Infinite Worth February 22, 2026

Well, good morning, fellowship, say good morning to those who are in the chapel with us and those who may be watching somewhere around central Arkansas or somewhere around the country, somewhere around the world. We're glad that you're here with us. Also, maybe some guys and some ladies that are joining us from prison on the Pando app. We're glad that you're with us this morning as well. If you have your Bibles, I want you to go to Isaiah chapter 28. Isaiah chapter 28 is where we find ourselves this morning in this series called Infinite Worth. For those of you who haven't had a chance to meet yet, my name is Brandon Bernard. I'm one of the teaching pastors here at Fellowship. Many of you already know this, but sometimes at West Little Rock, you might forget this. We're one church in multiple locations. We have seven campuses all across central Arkansas and God is moving in this place called Fellowship Bible Church. And I'm so thankful for this people, so thankful to be a part of this church family. And so I hope and pray that you will be encouraged this morning as we meet together and as God speaks to us through the power of his word. I also want to encourage you when you came in or maybe when you leave today, we have these prayer guides. I know that we printed a lot of these. I've seen quite a few left over. I'm hoping that people are taking these and using these. We're in a year where we're talking about God's kingdom come, his will be done on earth as it is in heaven. I think you know this, but just in case you don't, that phrase comes from a prayer, right? That Jesus taught his people to pray for God's kingdom to come, his will to be done on earth as it is in heaven. So we have these little cards here that just kind of give you a prompt for something to pray each week, basically through the month.

And so I want to encourage you this month, we're actually praying for God's kingdom to come and his will to be done in our state and in our country as it is in heaven. So I just want to encourage you to make sure you have one of these and join us in prayer. Join us as we pray that God may work because when we pray, God stirs our hearts. He changes us. He works in the midst of our lives. And so prayer does really change things. So I want to encourage you, if you haven't been doing that all year long with us, man, jump in. We've got plenty of cards for you to take, put it on your fridge, put it in your car, put it somewhere where you'll remember it and just join us in praying together. And on that note, let's take a moment and just pray for God to meet us here this morning. He's already met us here in song. So let's pray together. Father God, thank you so much. For you are a God who is worthy of praise and glory and honor. God, there's no one who's like you. There's no one greater than you. There's no one stronger than you. There's no one mightier than you. There's no one more comforting than you. God, you are the God of peace. You're the God of grace, God of love, God of forgiveness, God of justice, God of mercy. And you're worthy of praise and glory and honor. And I just pray that today you will be glorified here in this place. Lord, I wanna pray for just all of us here today. You know the condition of our hearts. You know us better than we know ourselves. And so you know what's on our minds today. You know what's flooding our thoughts today.

You know what's consuming us in many ways. And so God, I just pray that you would meet us at our very point of our need and Lord, that you would show us what a great and mighty God you are and that we actually can find our rest in you. And so I just pray that you would speak to our hearts this morning. Lord, I pray for our volunteers who are loving on our kids right now who are speaking the truth of Jesus to them and playing games and eating snacks and singing worship songs and telling stories of who you are, Jesus. I pray for our special needs friends this morning who are buddies and who are ministering to those and their families. And I just thank you for that. Lord, would you continue to encourage them and strengthen the heart of our volunteers as they love and serve our church and our families in this way. Lord, we pray for this community that needs Jesus. Lord, there's a lot of people right around us who don't know who you are. They're rejecting you. Their life is frantic and it's panicked and it's all kinds of things that are going on and they just don't realize that you're the answer. And so I pray that you would help us as a people to care about that. Pray about that. Share your good news with others around us. Lord, lead us in that way. And we pray for the nations, Lord. Your word says, let all the peoples praise you. Let all the peoples praise you. And that's exactly what we pray for, Lord, that everyone in this country, in this nation

will ultimately give you praise for the God that you are, for what you have done, what you're doing, and what you're going to do. Lord, speak to our hearts this morning through the power of your word, by the power of your Holy Spirit. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen. Amen. God's glory is grace and rest. And we come to this passage in. Isaiah 28, and this is our third week in our series. I wanna remind you of our definition, really, of God's glory, because we've been talking about God's glory, right? We're spending a year where we talked about making disciples a little bit, we preached through the book of Galatians where we talked about God's grace, and now we're in the book of Isaiah where we're talking about God's glory. And the way we've defined that here is by simply just saying God's glory is the public display of his infinite worth. Like his worth knows no end. He is infinitely worthy. That's why in heaven they keep singing over and over and over again, worthy is the lamb who was slain. Worthy is our God to receive glory and honor and power

because God is worthy of all praise and all glory. And so we just say God's glory is the public display of his infinite worth. And so today, this particular passage tells us and shows us that God's glory is actually grace and rest to his people. Grace and rest to his people. Now that's pretty important because rest is something that's kind of hard to come by, it feels like. Now this isn't just exactly the rest that the Bible speaks of because it's gonna be a fuller definition, but a quick Google search will let you know about the restlessness that's found in our country. This will not surprise many of you at all. In the US alone last year, $65 billion spent on sleep aids. $65 billion, that's from everything to mattresses and pillows and melatonin and all that kind of stuff. Matter of fact, it said that $1 billion alone has been spent on melatonin. That didn't even include sleeping disorders. If you start kind of going down those numbers and medical costs and all that kind of stuff, it starts creeping into $94 billion. So I don't think it's any surprise to us that when you think about the restlessness that's found in the country, it's real, right? There is something that's going on, whether it's anxiety or whether it's something

that we can't sometimes even help in our own lives, but there's something that's causing a restlessness in us. There was a song that was released over 34 years ago in 1992, and here's what the lyrics said. I'm in a hurry to get things done. Oh, I rush and rush until life's no fun. All I really gotta do is live and die, but I'm in a hurry and I don't know why. I think this is gonna spike on Spotify today. I really do. I think that, I think it's gonna be stuck in your head all day long. You know, it's interesting that the title of that album was actually called American Pride. This was from the group Alabama, but you know, I'm in a hurry to get things done. I'll give you another quote. This one was released over 1,600 years ago, and here's what it says. Because you have made us for yourself and our hearts are restless till they find their rest in thee. That's from St. Augustine in his book, Confessions. You've made us for yourself, talking about God, and our hearts are restless till they find their rest in you. I'm gonna dig a little deeper and give you another quote. This one was released almost 2,000 years ago, and we don't know who the author of this one is

because it comes from the book of Hebrews. It's not on the screen, but I want you to listen to what it says. So then there remains a Sabbath rest for the people of God. For whoever has entered God's rest has also rested from his works as God did from his. Let us therefore strive to enter that rest so that no one may fall by the same sort of disobedience. God's glory is grace and rest to his people. So maybe it would be good for us to listen today, to listen to what God's word has to say to us about rest, about trusting in him and what that means for us. So we're gonna pick up in Isaiah chapter 28. I'm gonna read verses one through 16. And here's what it says. It says, ah, it's almost a way of saying whoa, but ah, the proud crown of the drunkards of Ephraim and the fading flower of its glorious beauty which is on the head of the rich valley of those overcome with wine. Behold, the Lord has one who is mighty and strong like a storm of hail destroying tempest, like a storm of mighty overflowing water as he cast down to the earth with his hand. The proud crown of the drunkards of Ephraim will be trodden underfoot and the fading flower of its glorious beauty which is on the head of the rich valley. will be like a first ripe fig before the summer. When someone sees it, he swallows it

as soon as it's in his hand. In that day, the Lord of hosts will be a crown of glory and a diadem of beauty to the remnant of his people, and a spirit of justice to him who sits in judgment and strength to those who turn back the battle at the gate. These are real with wine and staggered with strong drink. The priest and the prophet, real with strong drink. They're swallowed by wine. They stagger with strong drink. They reel in vision. They stumble in giving judgment. For all tables are full of filthy vomit with no space left. To whom will he teach knowledge and to whom will he explain the message? Those who are weaned from the milk, those taken from the breast, for it is precept upon precept, precept upon precept, line upon line, line upon line, here a little, there a little. For by people of strange lips and with a foreign tongue, the Lord will speak to this people to whom he said, this is rest, give rest to the weary, and this is repose. Yet they would not hear. And the word of the Lord will be to them, precept upon precept, precept upon precept, line upon line, line upon line, here a little, there a little, that they may go and fall backward and be broken and snared and taken. Therefore, hear the word of the Lord, you scoffers, who rule this people in Jerusalem,

because you have said we have made a covenant with death and with Sheol, we have an agreement. When the overwhelming whip passes through, it will not come to us, for we've made lies our refuge, and in falsehood we have taken shelter. Therefore, thus says the Lord God, behold, I am the one who has laid as a foundation in Zion a stone, a tested stone, a precious cornerstone of a sure foundation. And whoever believes will not be in haste, will not be in a hurry. Now, I'm sure that when you hear me read that, you're like, what in the world is he talking about? Drunkards and Ephraim and flowers and all kinds of stuff. And it's a lot. I wanna give you just a little bit of context. If you haven't made this a resource, I encourage you to. It's called Isaiah for You by a guy named Tim Chester. We have used these commentaries a good bit in our small groups. But he talks about this background a little bit of what's going on in Isaiah 28. And the way he said it was so beautiful, I thought that I would say it to you. His message begins about the pride of Ephraim's drunkards. Ephraim is another name for the Northern Kingdom. Some of you know this Bible knowledge, some of you don't, it's okay. But years ago, Israel basically broke off into two tribes, or two basically kingdoms, if you will.

And there was the Northern Kingdom that actually kept the name Israel. And then there was the Southern Kingdom that took the name Judah. So you have Northern Kingdom, which is referred to as Israel. It can be a little confusing. You have Southern Kingdom that's referred to as Judah. Ephraim is another name for the Northern Kingdom. Twice, Isaiah describes his glorious beauty set on the head of a fertile valley. Here's what Chester says. He says, it's like a scene from a picture postcard, but it's about to be ruined. God is about to send the Assyrian army to rip through it like a hailstorm. The people of Israel are about to be plucked from their homes like ripe figs being plucked from a tree. And then he goes on to say this. The media love to show before and after photographs when hurricanes and floods have taken place. I think everyone can identify with that. We see it on the news. He said, that's exactly what Isaiah is doing on these verses. Israel is full of national pride and self-confidence, but it's misplaced. It's flimsy. And then he says this. I like this visual.

They're sitting in a garden shed as the hurricane descends and the floods arise. You hear that? They're sitting in a garden shed as the hurricane descends and the floods arise. They trust in their own strength, but they will not stand. So I don't want you, some of you will love to nerd out on this and go deep into the history of all that, and that's good. Some of you are like, man, can you just kind of tell me the bigger picture? Well, I can. Here's the bigger picture. It's in your notes. The problem in this passage is God's people rejecting rest in God. That's it. Now some of you go, oh, thanks. That's helpful. So these drunkards of Ephraim, northern Israel, they weren't living kind of how they wanted to live. But ultimately what you're gonna see in this passage of both Israel and Judah is they were rejecting God's rest. Rejecting rest in God, in finding Him as the sole satisfaction of their lives. trying to arrange other things in their lives that would give them some kind of peace,

some kind of satisfaction, some kind of strength, some kind of glory, some kind of wisdom in their own world. And what you're gonna realize is that actually this passage has more to say to you than you think it does. It's actually more relevant than what it may even sound like as I read it to you. So the problem is, is God's people rejecting rest in God. Now here's the first thing. Israel sought rest by trusting in their own strength, seeking their own glory, and living by their own wisdom. Does that sound familiar? They were trusting in their own strength, they were seeking in their own glory, seeking their own glory, they were living by their own wisdom. That's what they were doing. They had actually sought to try to make some kind of treaty with Assyria, but Assyria is gonna be the one that actually comes in and kind of wipes them out. Like a hailstorm that just kind of comes and wreaks havoc. And that's exactly what this passage is saying, is that they were living it up. They were enjoying the beauty of their creation, so to speak. They were enjoying kind of their world, their rich valley that was fertile, overcome with wine. They were enjoying the fine life, so to speak. And they were trusting in their own strength, living for their own wisdom or by their own wisdom,

not seeking God's glory, not seeking God's rest, not seeking God's face. Maybe it was kind of flirting around a little bit, like some people go to church and it's like you got a little bit of Jesus kind of sprinkled in you, so to speak, like churches around you. Like these people, yeah, they knew about God, they knew about His ways and those kind of things, but that's not really their focus. The focus was on themselves, not on God, His kingdom, His ways. 2 Timothy 3 kind of describes it this way, as you think about people trusting in their own strength. Chapter three, verses one through five. Understand this, that in these last days, there will come times of difficulty, for people will be lovers of self, lovers of money, proud, arrogant, abusive, disobedient to their parents, ungrateful, unholy, heartless, unappeasable, slanderous, without self-control, brutal, not loving good, treacherous, reckless, swollen with conceit, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God, having the appearance of godliness, but denying it's a power, avoid such people. Let me just encourage you with these words today. Man, people wanna say the Bible's not relevant. Come on, come on. This is where you don't just read the Bible, this is where the Bible reads you, and it reads me.

People be lovers of self, lovers of money. It's been going on for centuries, fellowship. That's exactly what's happening in this passage. They're taking great pleasure in themselves, they're taking great pleasure in their own strength, taking great pleasure in their own wisdom. Their sin was licentiousness, okay, big word for us. Their sin was licentiousness. They were just doing whatever they wanted to do, living however they wanted to live, which by the way, we spent 13 weeks in the book of Galatians talking about, sometimes people will misuse grace. And they'll turn grace into a form of licentiousness because they'll say, we can do whatever we wanna do and live however we wanna live, because hey, it's all grace. God is the cosmic grandfather who winks at you when you do wrong. That's not it, that's not biblical grace. So their sin was this licentiousness, that they do what they wanna do and live however they wanna live. Romans 1, 28 through 32 says, and since they did not see fit to acknowledge God, God gave them up to a debased mind to do what ought not to be done. And they were filled with all manner of unrighteousness, evil, covetousness, coveting what people wanted or had, malice, they're full of envy, murder,

strife, deceit, maliciousness, they're gossips, slanderers, haters of God, insolent, haughty, boastful, inventors of evil, disobedient to parents, that's made both lists by the way, foolish, faithless, heartless, ruthless. And though they know God's righteous decree, that those who practice such things deserve to die, they not only do them, but they give approval to those who practice them. This has been around for centuries. It's exactly what's happening in the Northern Kingdom. They're doing all these things, living out all of these characteristics. They didn't see fit to acknowledge God. They're making it about themselves. Their sin was licentiousness, doing whatever they want to do, living however they want to live. This passage is actually, you're gonna find out that in verse 14, basically when you turn. turns the corner a little bit, he's actually trying to warn Judah to say, look, don't live like the Israelites. Don't live like the Northern Kingdom. Like, learn from them. Assyria came and wiped them out. And Judah, by the way, was making another deal with Egypt. I mean, it's like, they're going back to Egypt, literally. Making a pact with Egypt, like,

we need protection from our enemies, we need protection. We're not gonna trust God, we're gonna trust Egypt. And so they're gonna make some kind of pact with Egypt. And Isaiah's saying, listen, look at the Northern Kingdom. Look what happened to them. Do not do this. What's interesting, though, is that Judah, not saying that they didn't have any licentiousness in them, because they did, because they're human, but here's what Judah's issue was. Judah sought rest by trusting in their knowledge and their obedience to the law, right? So again, I'm not saying that Judah was not licentious. I'm not saying that they weren't trying to do what they wanted to do, but it just had a different spin on it, and the way that they were kind of doing it was, we're gonna do this by our knowledge, so they are seeking to live by their own wisdom in some ways, but then they're trying to add to what God's Word's all about. So they're trying to obey the law, add to the law, and we see that they're trying to make deals with other nations, precept upon precept, line upon line, like you see these rule upon rule. That's kind of what that means. In our notes, we talked about this. It seems to make perfect sense that it's the religious leaders getting drunk on creating and following the rules

in their relationship with God that Jesus has to denounce. So when it talks about Judah kind of being drunkards, the prophets and priests being drunkards, yes, that could be physically, yes. That could be a literal thing, that they're getting drunk, but in some ways, it probably is more likely symbolic to say they're getting drunk on the rules, so to speak. Like this is what they're filling their lives with, to be controlled by the rules, like here are rules, there are rules, precept upon precept, line upon line. Like we're gonna make these rules up until they become a burden that put upon the people they themselves couldn't live up to. Again, I don't wanna get too deep for us in some ways, but there were 613 commandments that the Israelites had kind of put upon themselves. It's what Jesus speaks to in some ways, some of the burden that they were putting on themselves. So Judah was actually seeking rest by trusting their own knowledge and obedience to the law. Matter of fact, Matthew 15, one through nine kind of speaks to this. The Pharisees and scribes came to Jesus from Jerusalem and said, why do your disciples break the tradition of the elders? They do not wash their hands when they eat. It's like I'm hearing my mother in my head, right? Like it's, and he answered them and said, and why do you break the commandment of God

for the sake of your tradition? I love Jesus. Man, he was so good, so good with the question. These Pharisees and scribes that come to Jesus are like, listen, why do your disciples break the tradition of the elders? Why do your, they're breaking the tradition of who? Of God? No, no, the elders. Why are they breaking the tradition of the elders? They don't wash their hands when they eat. And Jesus said, I got one for you. I got one better for you. Let me just one up you. And why do you break the commandment of God for the sake of your tradition? For God commanded, honor your father and mother, and whoever reviles father and mother must surely die. But you say, if anyone tells his father or his mother what you would have gained from me is given to God, he need not honor his father. So for the sake of your tradition, you've made void the word of God. You hypocrites! There's an exclamation point there. And let me tell you something, this isn't little gentle Jesus meek and mild. This is Jesus coming strong. Well, did Isaiah prophesy of you when he said this? These people honor me with their lips,

but their heart is far from me. In vain they worship me, teaching as doctrines the commandments of men. Do you see what's happening? It's legalism. Right, their sin was legalism. That's what it was. And so when you look at Judah, they're becoming drunk upon the rules, so to speak. They're building all these rules for themselves, and they honor God with their lips, but their hearts are far away from him. It reminds me of an A.W. Tozer quote. I've said this before years ago. A.W. Tozer was a pastor a long time ago. He's written some books, and he just said this. Christians don't tell lies. They just go to church and sing them. That's sometimes what our lips are saying these things, but our hearts are checked out far away from God. And what happens is it's almost this form of legalism. And that's what God was saying. He's saying, listen, you've taken something, and you've turned it for your own tradition, making it feel like there's some kind of loophole in God's commandments, and you're saying that this is really kind of a way of honoring God, when in fact it's not. It's not. So some of the people in Judah,

they were dealing with this sin of legalism, where they were trusting in their knowledge and their obedience to the law of God. And some of you may. We find yourself not in a licentious place. It's almost like the same thing between the prodigal sons, right? Like you've got the younger son who's going out and living worldly, kind of doing what he wants to do, and then you've got the older son who's at home, and for years people thought he was the one that loved his father, but the reality of it is they both were just as distant from the father. The younger brother and his licentiousness and the older brother and his legalism, both of them needed the father's love. So you see this in this passage where you've got Ephraim, the northern kingdom, and you've got Judah, the southern kingdom, and they're not resting in God. So neither licentiousness nor legalism bring rest in God. Neither one of those bring rest in God. If you're looking for the blank, that's not there. You can just write that down. Some of you are freaking out. You're like, whoa, I don't know where it is. It's okay, take a picture of it. I wanna read this quote to you from a guy named Marshall Seagal.

Not to be confused with Steven Seagal. Marshall Seagal. He says this, whether we are drawn to, this is so good, whether we are drawn to misuse grace or feed our pride or both at different times in our lives, God himself has paved the path between lukewarm licentiousness and worn out legalism. But we have to be willing to resign from being the center. Those who use grace to justify sin and those who obey to justify themselves have one great problem in common, self, not Christ, is at the center. Everything, grace and law, faith, work and church, Christ and everyone else revolves around me. But if Christ becomes the blazing sun, if Christ becomes the irresistible center of gravity, then grace will truly reign in us and bear the fruit of real righteousness. That's where we find true rest is when God is at the blazing center of our lives and not ourselves. So the solution in this passage is that true rest in God is trusting in Christ, the true cornerstone. True rest in God is trusting in Christ, the true cornerstone. You know, it's interesting because he says in verse 14, therefore hear the word of the Lord, you scoffers, like these mockers who rule this people in Jerusalem. I like the way Chester said it because he says when it's precept upon precept,

precept upon precept, line upon line, line upon line, it's as if the people of Israel are saying to God, like God's saying blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. Like you're just saying these words. But what we know is this, is that they're not gonna do it. Verse 12, to whom he said, this is rest, give rest to the weary, this is repose. He's saying, listen, rest in me, rest in who I am. And it says, yet they would not hear. That's why we need to listen today, fellowship. Some of us just don't wanna hear. We don't wanna hear that we're dead in our sins. Some of us don't wanna hear that we need to confess repentance before the Lord for the sins that we're living in. We don't wanna hear that. And yet that's what God's saying to us today. True rest comes in trusting in Christ, the true cornerstone. In ancient Israel, you know this, the cornerstone was the crucial first stone set in construction. It serves as the foundation's cornerstone to bind two walls that come together, ensure structural integrity, to find the alignment for the entire building. As the most solid, costly stone, it determined the buildings, especially the temple's stability and direction. It was the most important building in the temple

was the cornerstone. Everything was built on that. And people would have known that. They would have known, they would have seen that picture. Jesus would have been talking about being the true cornerstone, which he does. He talks about being the true cornerstone. People wouldn't have been standing out there kind of going, I don't know what a cornerstone is. They knew exactly what it was. It was the foundation upon which everything else is built. I was talking with someone last night who was talking about something that was built in their home and that because something was off from the beginning, they had to go over and redo it because it wasn't started right. It was off. Well, Jesus Christ is the true cornerstone. First Peter 2, one through 12. So put away all malice, all deceit, hypocrisy, envy, all slander. Like newborn infants long for the pure spiritual milk, which by the way, they talked about milk in here, right? They're weaned from the milk because they're like, we don't need this. We don't need this. We're so spiritual. We know what we're supposed to do. We don't need this. It says like newborn infants long for

the pure spiritual milk that you may grow in salvation if indeed you've tasted the Lord is good. As you come to him, a living stone rejected by men, but in the sight of God chosen and precious, you yourselves like living stones are being built up as a spiritual house. To be a holy. priesthood to offer spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ. For it stands in Scripture, behold, I'm laying in Zion a stone, a cornerstone chosen and precious, and whoever believes in him will not be put to shame. So the honor is for you who believe. But for those who do not believe, the stone that the builders rejected has become the cornerstone and a stone of stumbling and a rock of offense. They stumble, why? Because they disobey the word as they were destined to do. But you're a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for his own possession, that you may proclaim the excellencies of him who called you out of darkness into his marvelous light. And once you were not a people, but now you're God's people. Once you had not received mercy, but now you've received mercy. Beloved, I urge you, I'm pleading with you as sojourners and exiles. He's reminding us that this world is not our home to abstain from the passions of the flesh,

which war against your soul. It's not gonna be easy, it is a battle. Keep your conduct, the way that you live your life among the Gentiles honorable, so that when they speak against you as evildoers, they may see your good deeds and glorify God on the day of visitation. This stone, the builders rejected has become the chief cornerstone, but it's also a stone of stumbling and a rock of offense. Why? For the people who are interested in doing God's word, living according to God's word. And so here you see this truth, people either stumble over or stand on the cornerstone. It's pretty simple. People either stumble over it or they stand on it. Either you want to live in God's rest and you want to do what he says, you wanna follow his word or you don't. You wanna place your faith and trust in Christ or you don't. And either it's gonna become a stumbling for you because you just can't get past yourself, can't admit your need for Christ. Look, we know that in a crowd this size and listening online that some people are joining us today who aren't believers in Jesus. And if you're not a believer in Jesus, thanks for being here. We're glad you're with us.

We hope we get to know a little bit more about you and your story. And we'd love to see you realize that Jesus is all you need. Matter of fact, we have a bulletin here for those who are in the room here. And you know what, if you want to know more about Christ, you can actually fill this out. You can fold it and you can put it in the giving box as you leave today, just like this. Just put it in the giving box and someone will follow up with you. If you don't wanna wait for a follow up, just stop by our Connection Center. For those of you online, fill out the digital connection card. Tell us that you wanna know about Christ. We'd love to have someone follow up with you. Maybe you're stumbling over different things, but you can't put your faith in Christ and you wanna have a conversation about that. But the rest of us, are we standing on Christ, the cornerstone? You know, over the past few weeks, I've been in some situations, funerals, different places, different things where people have found themselves in a deep pit. A deep pit. But for the believer, there's something deeper than the pit. It's God himself.

It's Christ, the cornerstone. That when life falls apart, it's firm at the bottom because Christ is the cornerstone. And when we go to our lowest of lows, we have something that we can rest on. The cornerstone. So I wanna give you application in the few minutes that we have left this morning, because you read a passage like this, the drunkards of Ephraim and Judah and being weaned from milk and all these kind of things and go, I don't even know, man. I don't know how this works. So what is the application for this passage? Well, it's about resting. God's glory is grace and rest. So it's about resting. So I wanna give you just three things here. The first thing is this. It's resting in God's grace begins with surrender, okay? So if you wanna find that rest that's escaping you, now, I'm not saying that you're gonna get your best night of sleep ever. We still live in a fallen, broken world. But if you want true rest, because again, true rest is not about a nap and how many hours you sleep a night. True rest is about the joy that you enter into.

True rest is about having deep satisfaction in Christ. True rest is not blown by the wind of culture and blown by the things that are around us that are so hard to deal with in our lives. True rest brings a settleness to our heart. Even that. that we talked about even last week. So resting in God's grace begins with surrender. It means removing yourself from the center and putting God at the center. Isaiah 30, 15 says, "'For thus says the Lord God, the Holy One of Israel, "'in returning and rest, you shall be saved. "'In quietness and in trust shall be your strength, "'but you were unwilling.'" Like he leaves room for the fact that there were people who were unwilling. But he's saying, listen, for you, in returning and rest, you shall be saved. In quietness and in trust shall be your strength. Grace gives us rest from the rules while still encouraging us to find real freedom in obeying Christ. So it gives us rest from the rules. Like we don't have to be strained by that. Grace gives us rest in the rules while still encouraging us to find real freedom in Christ. So it's not about walking away from the law. We can actually follow the law and the commandments. We will actually delight in them, what?

As we find our delight in Christ, not in the rules themselves, not in our own interpretations of it, but in Christ himself. Matthew 11, 28 through 30. "'Come to me.'" Here's the invitation. This is why resting in God's grace begins with surrender. "'Come to me,' Jesus says, "'all who labor, you're heavy laden. "'I will give you rest. "'Take my yoke upon you the way I do things. "'Take it upon you and learn from me, "'for I'm gentle and lowly in heart, "'and you will find rest for your souls. "'For my yoke is easy and my burden is light.'" Jesus is the one who says, come to me. Come to me. I will give you rest for your soul. One pastor says it this way. One of the great blessings of seeing the Christian life in this way, seeing Christ as superior, seeing Christ as the blazing center of your life, seeing Christ as infinitely worthy, infinitely glorious. When you and I see him that way, it protects us against licentiousness and legalism. It opposes licentiousness because our energy is aiming at holy delights, not worldly ones. And it opposes legalism because the efforts we're making

to confirm our security, like I press on to make it my own because Christ Jesus made me his own, are not efforts that draw attention to our worth or merit, but they're efforts that draw our attention to Christ's worth. Christ's worth. That we wanna put him at the center of our lives. Last couple things. Resting in God's grace grows through spiritual disciplines. These habits of grace, scripture, prayer, fasting, solitude, spiritual community. So I just wanna get this real practical with you that resting in God's grace, it grows through spiritual disciplines, habits of grace, spending time in God's word, saturating your life with the scriptures, being in the word, let the word be in you, reading the Bible, let the Bible read you. Listen, there's a love and an appetite for God's word. He wants to stir it up in your life. That we're growing in these spiritual disciplines of prayer. We're giving you opportunities to pray even together as a church. Fasting, where you take a break from food or you take a break from screens or you take a break from your phone, you take a break from something and you don't just take a break from it, you do it so you can seek God more in the midst of that. True rest in God's grace

is engaging these spiritual disciplines and spiritual community. If you're not in a discipleship group here at Fellowship, we wanna help you do that. We wanna help you get in a place of community, whether it's women with women, men with men, it's couples with couples. Sometimes we have groups that are both couples and singles and individuals who are in that. We've got groups for all kinds of people and so we wanna encourage you to be involved in this. Maybe you've been resisting that, rejecting that, kinda going, man, I used to do that or man, it didn't work out or I just don't know and all those kinds of things. We wanna invite you into that because spiritual community is one of the ways that you learn to rest in God's grace. Last thing I would say is this, a little bit of a combination of a quote from a guy named Paul Miller and just kinda something I added to it, but resting in God's grace will not give us a less hectic life, but it will give us a less hectic heart. That's good. I love the way Paul kinda said that. Resting in God's grace will not give us a less hectic life. Look, your life's probably gonna be busy.

There are things you can make to give you a little more margin sometimes, but it's not gonna give you a less hectic life, but resting in God's grace will give you a less hectic heart. And in the midst of that, it frees you to be able to love others well. It frees you to serve others well. It's a rest that God gives us. And by the way, I don't have time to go into it, but God in his word, he ties rest to belief and unbelief. If you look in Hebrews chapter four, he talks about this rest. And the people who don't have rest is because they don't believe. And the people who receive this rest. both here and now and in the life to come is because they believe. I close with a quote from Christopher Love, who was a Puritan way back in the day. I'm gonna transpose his King James language and read it to you this way. Here's what he said. Here in this world, joy enters into you, but in the world to come, you shall enter into joy. I like that. Here in this world, joy enters you. Like you might, you know, it might, it enters you, but for those of us who believe and trust in Christ that rest in the future, we're entering into joy.

It's a place of joy that's rock solid. Jesus Christ, our cornerstone. Are you trusting in him? Let's pray together. Father God, thank you so much for this day. Thank you for your word. Jesus, thank you that you are the chief cornerstone that if we will stand on you and build our lives on you. Lord, it doesn't mean that everything's gonna be easy in this life. It doesn't mean that we're not gonna face difficulties and pain and struggle. But Lord, what it means is is that you're the cornerstone. So when we lament, we lament with hope because you're the cornerstone. And when we celebrate life, we celebrate because you're the hope, you're the cornerstone. And when we face trials and temptations, we endure because you're the cornerstone. Lord, there's so many people here that are restless today. And it really is true that we will not find rest until we find our rest in you. So Jesus, would you be the center of our lives? Would you be the blazing glory at the center of it all? And that we'd be so consumed with you, it would change the way we live. We love you, Jesus. You are the cornerstone. It's in your name we pray, amen.