Ex 33:14, And He said, "My presence shall go with you, and I will give you rest." 
This morning, we will bring our consideration of this passage to a conclusion. At the same time, isn’t it glorious that, because the Lord is forever with us, we are constantly able to know the rest and the peace that He is in our lives? We do not always permit ourselves to know Him in this wondrous reality, because, like Peter walking on the water, we often find our eyes and hearts being distracted from looking to Him. We get ourselves caught up in the crashing waves of emotionally charged panic and fear of the moment, and must continually be re-focused on the fact that He is our peace and He is our rest and He is our surety. 
We pick this up with the Psalmist’s encouragement in Ps 37:3-9, where all the cares and the concerns of this age that we so often worry and fret over, are set aside in the manner in which we count on God to be our everything. Ps 37:3-9, Trust in the Lord, and do good; Dwell in the land and cultivate faithfulness. Delight yourself in the Lord; And He will give you the desires of your heart. Commit your way to the Lord, Trust also in Him, and He will do it. And He will bring forth your righteousness as the light, And your judgment as the noonday. Rest in the Lord and wait patiently for Him; Do not fret because of him who prospers in his way, Because of the man who carries out wicked schemes. Cease from anger, and forsake wrath; Do not fret, it leads only to evildoing. For evildoers will be cut off, But those who wait for the Lord, they will inherit the land. 
	In this passage is contrasted the fact of the rest that is ours in God and the worry and the trouble and the upheaval that is inherent in this realm. When, even as Christians, we are not settled in the goodness and the trust that God has all things well in hand, we will find ourselves in a constant state of turmoil and discontentment and disappointment. This happens as we find ourselves looking to what others have and are doing rather than to the Lord and all that He has given us in Jesus Christ. 
	Whenever we compare ourselves and our circumstances to others, we will always be in a constant state of disruption and confusion and despair. We will always be thinking that they are better than us or that we are better than them. Our minds will be constantly struggling with the thought that we could never live like they do, making the choices that they make. Or, we will continually bemoan the fact that they have so much more than we do. They have the latest and the greatest things. They have youth and vitality and looks and fortune. They can do anything they want and not seem to pay any cost for the manner in which they live their lives. Why are they so prosperous and so well liked in their community? Why does it seem that they never have any of the issues or the problems with which we have to struggle day in and day out?  
	We always seem to be questioning and struggling and comparing and fretting and worrying because we are the focus and the emphasis of our concentrated anxieties. Rather than coming into the reality of Jesus Christ as our everything and that we are so blessed and enriched in Him, we center our attention and our heart and our emotions and our frustrations and our anger and our jealousy and our evil surmising and our wicked intentions on our lack of what those evil doers and schemers always seem to be able to have and do.
	The Palmist gives us two direct sets of commands in this passage. One set deals with us when we are looking at what others have and are able to do in this realm. …Do not fret because of him who prospers in his way, Because of the man who carries out wicked schemes. Cease from anger, and forsake wrath; Do not fret, it leads only to evildoing. Notice that this is a command to us. Do not fret and cease from anger. It is a choice that we make when we look at others and envy what we think they have and we do not have. 
	Do not fret and cease from anger. How much different would be our lives and our perspective and our rest and our peace if we would only obey this command from God? How much satisfaction and thankfulness and joy would be flooding our hearts and minds if only we would stop looking at others and their situations and circumstances and just wholly concentrate on the gracious love and faithfulness that is ours in Jesus Christ? It would absolutely transform our conception of life. It would cause us to be filled with satisfaction and trust and delight in the truth that we are God’s own beloved children, in whom He delights and desires to bring forth only the very best that He has for us.
	The second set of commands in this passage is exactly that reality, Trust in the Lord, and do good; Dwell in the land and cultivate faithfulness. Delight yourself in the Lord; And He will give you the desires of your heart. Commit your way to the Lord, Trust also in Him, and He will do it. And He will bring forth your righteousness as the light, And your judgment as the noonday. Rest in the Lord and wait patiently for Him…    
	Trust in the Lord…cultivate faithfulness…Delight yourself in the Lord… Commit your way to the Lord, Trust also in Him…Rest in the Lord and wait patiently for Him… Note the full focal point of these instructions is upon the Lord. At every turn, with every effort, with every view, it is always the Lord Whom we see and seek to obey and to please. As that is the way of our minds and hearts and thoughts, we will not be so caught up in the ongoing worldly struggle and utter futility of trying to attain the things that this world promotes as necessary and beneficial. We will only seek and strive to honor the Lord and to wait upon Him to make every provision for our needs. As we desire more and more of Him only, so will He meet that desire of our hearts. He will do so with increasing expressions of bringing us into the greater and greater measure of the knowledge of His beauty and His peace and His rest to the joy of our hearts and minds.     
Again hear the Psalmist as detailed in Ps 116:5-9. Ps 116:5-9, Gracious is the Lord, and righteous; Yes, our God is compassionate. The Lord preserves the simple; I was brought low, and He saved me. Return to your rest, O my soul, For the Lord has dealt bountifully with you. For Thou hast rescued my soul from death, My eyes from tears, My feet from stumbling. I shall walk before the Lord In the land of the living. 
We see how the Psalmist had to encourage himself to rest in the Lord and to forget about the issues of the day in the light of Who the Lord God Almighty is and what He has continually and faithfully done. There is no doubt that salvation and comfort and rest are found in the mighty majesty of trusting in and counting on the Lord. He details how God has made Himself known through His graciousness and compassion and faithfulness and sovereignty and mercy. Therefore, we are to fix our eyes upon Him and hearten ourselves and uplift our souls unto Him rather than being discouraged and disheveled and distraught. 
The Prophet Jeremiah gives voice, in Jer 6:11-19, to how the Lord regards those who refuse to seek Him and His rest in this present age. Please follow along with me in reading this passage together, Jer 6:11-19. This is such a vivid declaration of how this world age is so manifestly seeking only the false peace that will never be found apart from full and utter obedience to the Word of the Lord God Almighty. 
Jer 6:11-19, But I am full of the wrath of the Lord: I am weary with holding it in. "Pour it out on the children in the street, And on the gathering of young men together; For both husband and wife shall be taken, The aged and the very old. "And their houses shall be turned over to others, Their fields and their wives together; For I will stretch out My hand Against the inhabitants of the land," declares the Lord. "For from the least of them even to the greatest of them, Everyone is greedy for gain, And from the prophet even to the priest Everyone deals falsely. "And they have healed the brokenness of My people superficially, Saying, 'Peace, peace,' But there is no peace. "Were they ashamed because of the abomination they have done? They were not even ashamed at all; They did not even know how to blush. Therefore they shall fall among those who fall; At the time that I punish them, They shall be cast down," says the Lord. Thus says the Lord, "Stand by the ways and see and ask for the ancient paths, Where the good way is, and walk in it; And you shall find rest for your souls. But they said, 'We will not walk in it.' "And I set watchmen over you, saying, 'Listen to the sound of the trumpet!' But they said, 'We will not listen.' "Therefore hear, O nations, And know, O congregation, what is among them. "Hear, O earth: behold, I am bringing disaster on this people, The fruit of their plans, Because they have not listened to My words, And as for My law, they have rejected it also. 
The Lord will not allow this age to pollute and to substitute anything for the truth of Jesus Christ. As much as the lie is put forth that rest and peace are found in the ways of the world, so fully are those ways shown, by God, as useless and fruitless and leading to destruction. The only true rest is found, as the Psalmist declared, when we Trust in the Lord…cultivate faithfulness…Delight yourself in the Lord… Commit your way to the Lord, Trust also in Him…Rest in the Lord and wait patiently for Him…
This is further emphasized by the Prophet Ezekiel in Ezek 34:11-16. In this passage, he makes known just how much the Lord will do to bring peace and rest to those who will seek Him with all their heart and mind and being. Ezek 34:11-16, For thus says the Lord God, "Behold, I Myself will search for My sheep and seek them out. "As a shepherd cares for his herd in the day when he is among his scattered sheep, so I will care for My sheep and will deliver them from all the places to which they were scattered on a cloudy and gloomy day. "And I will bring them out from the peoples and gather them from the countries and bring them to their own land; and I will feed them on the mountains of Israel, by the streams, and in all the inhabited places of the land. "I will feed them in a good pasture, and their grazing ground will be on the mountain heights of Israel. There they will lie down in good grazing ground, and they will feed in rich pasture on the mountains of Israel. "I will feed My flock and I will lead them to rest," declares the Lord God. "I will seek the lost, bring back the scattered, bind up the broken, and strengthen the sick; but the fat and the strong I will destroy. I will feed them with judgment. 
	We have the promise of God, Who can not lie, nor can His Word fail, Who tells us that He will gather together whom He will gather together as the shepherd gathers the flocks from all the hills and pastures. He will bring them to rest under His protection. And then, in His oh so wonderful promise, "I will feed My flock and I will lead them to rest," declares the Lord God. "I will seek the lost, bring back the scattered, bind up the broken, and strengthen the sick… 
	This directly leads us to the words of Our Lord Jesus Christ as recorded in Matt 11:27-30. He is the Good Shepherd and He is the One Who calls us unto Himself and gives us rest. Matt 11:27-30, "All things have been handed over to Me by My Father; and no one knows the Son, except the Father; nor does anyone know the Father, except the Son, and anyone to whom the Son wills to reveal Him. "Come to Me, all who are weary and heavy-laden, and I will give you rest. "Take My yoke upon you, and learn from Me, for I am gentle and humble in heart; and you shall find rest for your souls. "For My yoke is easy, and My load is light." When we come to Jesus, He sets aside all the garbage that this world puts forth as its treasury of peace. He makes Himself fully known as our Peace and Our Safety and Our Healing and Our Comfort. 
	Our final passage on this subject is Heb 4:1-13 as the Writer to the Hebrews gives the description of the rest that is ours in Jesus Christ. Please turn in your Bibles to it, Heb 4:1-13, and follow along as we read it together. 
Heb 4:1-13, Therefore, let us fear lest, while a promise remains of entering His rest, any one of you should seem to have come short of it. For indeed we have had good news preached to us, just as they also; but the word they heard did not profit them, because it was not united by faith in those who heard. For we who have believed enter that rest, just as He has said, "As I swore in My wrath, They shall not enter My rest," although His works were finished from the foundation of the world. For He has thus said somewhere concerning the seventh day, "And God rested on the seventh day from all His works"; and again in this passage, "They shall not enter My rest." Since therefore it remains for some to enter it, and those who formerly had good news preached to them failed to enter because of disobedience, He again fixes a certain day, "Today," saying through David after so long a time just as has been said before, "Today if you hear His voice, Do not harden your hearts." For if Joshua had given them rest, He would not have spoken of another day after that. There remains therefore a Sabbath rest for the people of God. For the one who has entered His rest has himself also rested from his works, as God did from His. Let us therefore be diligent to enter that rest, lest anyone fall through following the same example of disobedience. For the word of God is living and active and sharper than any two-edged sword, and piercing as far as the division of soul and spirit, of both joints and marrow, and able to judge the thoughts and intentions of the heart. And there is no creature hidden from His sight, but all things are open and laid bare to the eyes of Him with whom we have to do. 
	This passage ties together all the aspects of the rest of God as we have considered over the course of looking at it. We are called to enter into the rest of God in Jesus Christ and to honor Him as He gave us the example Himself in the creation of all. Let us not harden our hearts with selfish goals and ambitions and jealousy, but rather seek to know more and more of the rest that God has given us in the abiding presence of His Only Begotten Son. So be it!
And He said, "My presence shall go with you, and I will give you rest." Amen. 

This morning’s benediction is Ps 145:10-12. All Thy works shall give thanks to Thee, O Lord, And Thy godly ones shall bless Thee. They shall speak of the glory of Thy kingdom, And talk of Thy power; To make known to the sons of men Thy mighty acts, And the glory of the majesty of Thy kingdom. Amen.