TM

Bearing gods Image

fall 2013: Personal Study Guide Ed Stetzer General Editor Trevin Wax Managing Editor

the gospel project for students

personal study guide, Fall 2013 volume 2, number 1 PRODUCTION and MINISTRY TEAM Vice President, Church Resources: Eric Geiger General Editor: Ed Stetzer Managing Editor: Trevin Wax content editor: Andy McLean DIRECTOR, STUDENT MINISTRY PUBLISHING: Jeff Pratt DIRECTOR, student ministry: Ben Trueblood Send questions/comments to: Content Editor, The Gospel Project for Students Personal Study Guide, One LifeWay Plaza, Nashville, TN 37234-0174, Or make comments on the Web at www.lifeway.com Send questions/comments to: Publishing Team Leader, The Gospel Project: Personal Study Guide, One LifeWay Plaza, Nashville, TN 37234-0102; or make comments on the Web at www.lifeway.com. Printed in the United States of America

The Gospel Project for Students (ISSN 1939-0742; Item 005508013) is published quarterly by LifeWay Christian Resources, One LifeWay Plaza, Nashville, TN 37234, Thom S. Rainer, President. 2012 LifeWay Christian Resources. For ordering or inquiries, visit www.lifeway.com or write LifeWay Church Resources Customer Service, One LifeWay Plaza, Nashville, TN 37234-0113. For subscriptions or subscription address changes, e-mail subscribe@lifeway.com, fax (615) 251-5818, or write to the above address. For bulk shipments mailed quarterly to one address, e-mail orderentry@lifeway.com, fax (615) 251-5933, or write to the above address. We believe that the Bible has God for its author; salvation for its end; and truth, without any mixture of error, for its matter and that all Scripture is totally true and trustworthy. To review LifeWays doctrinal guideline, please visit www.lifeway.com/doctrinalguideline. Unless otherwise noted, all Scripture quotations are taken from the Holman Christian Standard Bible, copyright 1999, 2000, 2002, 2003, 2009 by Holman Bible Publishers. Used by permission. Scripture quotations marked (NIV) are from the Holy Bible, New International Version, copyright 1973, 1978, 1984 by International Bible Society. Scripture quotations marked (NLT) are taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright 1996. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Inc., Wheaton, IL 60189 USA. All rights reserved. Photos: iStockphoto and Getty Images

TGP Personal Study Guide

SESSION 4

Created to Rest

hen is the last time you truly rested? Our techno savvy society makes it even more difficult to get away from the demands of life. Phones, tablets, and email inboxes chime and tweet at all hours of day and night, alerting us to new messages, new statuses, new needs, new demands, and new obstacles. The fact that were so much more connectedsomething we celebrated at one timemakes us more restless and weary. We long for rest but not because were weak and lazy. The sigh of the weary is the heart cry of the whole world. We long for it because we were made for it. Sin disrupted it, but in Christ, its offered to us once again. In recent weeks, weve looked at how human beings were created to reflect Gods glory through our relationships and our work. This week we see that one of the ways we reflect God is through resting and enjoying the fruit of our labor. God designed our bodies for rest. Due to our sin, however, true rest is often disrupted and becomes difficult to find. Either we make an idol of leisure or we refuse to rest. But because of Jesus, we are invited to enter Christs rest and find our joy in His work done on our behalf.

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Ready Your Heart

No Sleeping in Church
Genesis 2:1-3 Thus the heavens and the earth were finished, and all the host of them. And on the seventh day God finished his work that he had done, and he rested on the seventh day from all his work that he had done. So God blessed the seventh day and made it holy, because on it God rested from all his work that he had done in creation. Ask any youth minister what their least favorite youth event is, and most of them will reply lock-ins. Now dont get me wrong, the happenings of a lock-in are fun, getting to play things like bowling, laser tag, scavenger hunts, and basketball, etc. Dont forget the healthy food involved: pizza, Oreos, candy, and anything caffeinated to drink. But the lock-in stops being fun when sleep-deprived students start getting cranky. Plus, assuming the lock-in is on Friday night, you lose most of your Saturday, you dont feel good at church on Sunday, and before you know it, its back to school or the office on Monday. For whatever reason, this long standing tradition among youth groups across the country still survives. Some youth ministers survive it and others refuse to schedule it. Despite the amount of fun built into one seemingly endless night, no one leaves unaffected by the lack of sleep. I remember one lock-in in particular as a student. I woke up early to go to school that Friday. I played with my friends when we got out of school. Then, I stayed up all night for the lock-in. We played, ate gross food, and kept playing until we could hardly stand. Around 3:00 a.m., the youth minister put in a video in hopes that it would sooth some of us to sleepit didnt work. After surviving to see the sunrise, I had an 8:00 a.m. basketball game to play in. After the game, I went home to take a much-needed bath and then finally fell asleep, or more like a small coma. When I woke up, it was time to get ready for Sunday school the next morning. Despite all of the sugary fun these events bring, and the opportunities they create for students to break out of their normal routine in order to stay awake with friends, they do reveal something quite telling about us as humans. They show how utterly dependent we are upon sleep and how important it is for the health and vitality of the body. It shows us our finitude the fact that we are not God, the One who never slumbers nor sleeps. Sure, we may deny our need for sleep in the moment, thinking we are invincible, but like me, it always catches up to you in the end.

Pause and Reflect

Are you the type of person that enjoys plenty of rest? How does sleep deprivation affect you? Have you ever wondered why God created us with the need for rest? Why is this a good thing? How does rest improve your relationships, your grades, and your work performance?

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Ready Your Heart

Mad About You

Ecclesiastes 6:1-7 There is an evil that I have seen under the sun, and it lies heavy on mankind: a man to whom God gives wealth, possessions, and honor, so that he lacks nothing of all that he desires, yet God does not give him power to enjoy them, but a stranger enjoys them. This is vanity; it is a grievous evil. If a man fathers a hundred children and lives many years, so that the days of his years are many, but his soul is not satisfied with lifes good things, and he also has no burial, I say that a stillborn child is better off than he. For it comes in vanity and goes in darkness, and in darkness its name is covered. Moreover, it has not seen the sun or known anything, yet it finds rest rather than he. Even though he should live a thousand years twice over, yet enjoy no gooddo not all go to the one place? All the toil of man is for his mouth, yet his appetite is not satisfied. As a child, one of my favorite movies was Disneys Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs. In fact, there is no telling how many times I have actually seen the movie. Several scenes and memories from the movie stand out above the rest. For instance, I clearly remember loving the music because I could sing along; I remember Dopey and Doc as being my favorite dwarfs; and I remember often crying when the queen turned into the witch. Snow White is portrayed as a lovely young lady who is kind, gentle, and beautiful. In fact, the queens magic mirror declared that Snow White was the fairest one of all. Blinded by jealousy, the queen tried several tactics to kill Snow White so that the queen would be the most beautiful in the land. After the huntsman failed to kill Snow White, the queen morphed into a witch and delivered a poisoned apple to Snow White. After eating the apple, Snow White was overcome by the witchs incapacitating spell. This may be a bit of a stretch, but I can easily imagine that before the queen enacted her evil plan, she probably experienced a wide range of emotions. Her appetite was probably gone. She probably couldnt sleep. And if she had any other relationships, they were probably fractured too. All of these problems were self-inflicted because of her jealousy, bitterness, and anger toward Snow White. How often do we lose sleep because of ill feelings towards someone else? How often are we robbed of quality rest because of guilt, anger, hatred, malice, or jealousy? When there are things going on within our hearts that need to be made right, the side effect can easily be lack of true peace and rest.

Pause and Reflect

Have you ever held a grudge against someone without him or her knowing it? Why? How would your attitude change if people could read your thoughts? What steps do you need to take to reconcile a fractured relationship?

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Ready Your Heart

Amazing Grace
Hebrews 4:8-11 For if Joshua had given them rest, God would not have spoken of another day later on. So then, there remains a Sabbath rest for the people of God, for whoever has entered Gods 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. For a complete reading of this passage, read Hebrews 4:1-11 in your Bible. At the time of the accident Michelle was a senior in high school. Over the years she had always been a good student, had lots of friends, and was very involved in her church. She did not begin as a wild and rebellious child by any means. Her mistakes were the result of poor decisions she made at a senior party in celebration of graduation. Knowing that it was a bad choice to even attend, she let her guard down thinking that it would be okay, and that just being there wouldnt damage her walk with Christ. At first, it seemed she might have been right. But after a couple of hours into the party, and after the constant temptation from the people and things that were present, Michelle began making one poor decision after another. And the poor decisions she made that night followed her into her college years, until it became quite obvious that Michelle was far from God. You see, the accident Michelle was in was in regards to her faith she wrecked her faith. She was no longer living out those earlier commitments she had made to God, her family, and her church. Instead, she was living for herself as she tried to indulge every sinful desire within her heart a heart that became more restless and callous as the years passed. That is, until she met Teresa, a young woman who ministers to college students on the campus she attended. Teresa was not only friendly and loving toward Michelle, but she also shared a similar story. And it was through her own personal story that she was able to communicate to Michelle the grace and mercy of God. She was able to share with her the true rest and comfort that is found in having a relationship with Christ, which is the relationship we all need in order to heal our restless souls.

Pause and Reflect

Do you find yourself ever trying to earn Gods grace, love, or favor? Do you think you could ever deserve that from Him? Is there something secret in your life that you feel is preventing you from true peace and rest? Have you prayed for Gods grace and forgiveness? If not, are you trying to earn it through good works?

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The rest God gives has been...

Another way we reflect God is through resting and enjoying the fruit of our labor. God designed our bodies for rest. Due to our sin, however, true rest is often disrupted and becomes elusive. Either we make an idol of leisure or we refuse to rest. But because of Jesus, we are invited to enter His rest and find our joy in His work done on our behalf.

Designed.
Rest, in Gods world, isnt merely a luxury. Its a deep need. Resting allows us to step into the very wiring of Gods world, living in a way that Hes designed us to live. We acknowledge our finitude: were small and weak creatures utterly dependent upon Him. As we rest, the universe spins on without us. A billion galaxies boil away in space, nations rage, oceans rush against shorelines, and the milk in the fridge creeps closer and closer to spoiling. Nothing we can do will change any of those facts.
A great benefit of Sabbath keeping is that we learn to let God take care of usnot by becoming passive and lazy, but in the freedom of giving up our feeble attempts to be God in our own lives. Marva J. Dawn
Did you know that sleep deprivation is used as an effective means of torture, breaking down the body, mind, and will of a person as they are robbed of one of their deepest needs? Wait long enough, and it will inevitably result in madness. Sleep isnt a luxury; its a needlike eating and breathing.

God did not just deliver Israel

from the bondage of Egypt, He delivered them into His own presence! They were saved from slavery for God. Gods love is signified not only in His delivering us from the bondage of sin but also in His expectations of fidelity from us.  In what ways does rest require faith? How does faith in God enrich rest?  What does our need for sleep tell us about our dependence on God?

Disrupted.

Just as our work has been twisted into something it was never meant to be, our rest too has been corrupted. We spend our lives earning, spending, and consuming. But many of us never enjoy the fruit of our labor. We crave more. Pleasures fail to satisfy, and we continue our vain search for more.

For many of us, weve been robbed of rest. Blinded by sin, spurred by ambition, we live restless, reckless, and empty lives of ceaseless and joyless work. We fool ourselves into thinking that its truly better to live these hurried, ceaseless, frenzied lives, rather than allowing God to give us the gift of rest.

For others of us, because work is hard, and because we feel weary, we withdraw from work. We become a man or woman of leisure, looking for every opportunity to escape responsibility and find a comfortable chair somewhere.

We cant really rest because were horribly frightened of what might happen if we take our eyes off our activities or email or social media. What might we miss? What might happen without us? Its the reason so many of us are online before we even get out of bed in the morning. Were anxious about whats happened while we slept.  ave you ever felt burned out on the busyness H
of life? What led you to the brink? What makes people despair of work and become desperate for a break? Discuss if this is why people go on vacation. I n what ways does our culture promote a lazy lifestyle?

Redeemed.

The answer to our hurry and the answer to our apathy is the same: we need to hear the gospel. The life, death, and resurrection of Jesus transform our relationships to work and rest, and they invite us into the deepest, truest kind of rest.
In the light of the gospel, rest is restored both as a good in itself, and as a good in relationship to work. Taken together, its a radical alternative to the world. Work doesnt define us, and thus rest can be received as a gift.

In what ways does the finished nature of the gospel speak to your motives for work and rest?  What is the doctrine of justification by faith, and how does it inform me about my ability to rest securely in Jesus Christ?

Conclusion Our mission is most effective when we are modeling a better way

of being human, a way that recognizes our creaturely dependence on our Creator and beckons people to taste the sweet rest of Jesus Christs salvation. Work and rest. We reflect God to the world by doing both.  In what ways is our mission hindered by our failure to rest? How does the message of entering Christs rest influence the way we do evangelism and missions?

Encore

created to rest The rest God gives has been...

1. designed (Gen. 2:1-3). A rhythm of work and rest is woven into our world. Even Gods work of creation follows the pattern. In Chapter 1 of Genesis, we see God work for six days, calling the whole creation into being in steady rhythms. On the seventh day, God rested from His work. Do you see the authors emphasis on the seventh day? He mentions it three times. This repetition signals to us that the seventh day is important. This seven-day-week was the way Gods people would mark the passing of time. The week provided a rhythm in which they would live. For six days, they would follow God by working in creation, and on the seventh, they would join Him in rest. Notice also that God blessed the seventh day and declared it holy. This is the first thing in the Scriptures that God sets apart as holy. Its a sacred mark on our calendars, a way of measuring time that reflects what God intended when He made the world. For God, and for the first man and woman, there was no tension between work and rest. Work and rest werent opposite poles pulling people in two different directions. Instead, they were a partnership, a coherent rhythm of life that reminded people that God was the Lord of Creation. He worked, and He calls us to work. He rested, and He calls us to rest. Resting allows us to step into the very wiring of Gods world, living in a way that Hes designed us to live. We acknowledge our finitude: were small and weak creatures utterly dependent upon Him. As we rest, the universe spins on without us. A billion galaxies boil away in space, nations rage, oceans rush against shorelines, and the milk in the fridge creeps closer and closer to spoiling. Nothing we can do will change any of those facts. The invitation to rest is an invitation to acknowledge that we know our weakness, we know that were dust, and we know that Hes got the world in His hands. 2. disrupted (Eccl. 6:1-7). Unfortunately, rest is not immune to the corrupting effects of sin on the world. Just as our work has been twisted into something it was never meant to be, our rest too has been corrupted. For many of us, weve been robbed of rest. Blinded by sin, spurred by ambition, we live restless, reckless, and empty lives of ceaseless and joyless work. The vision set forth by the author of Ecclesiastes is tragic, isnt it? We spend our lives earning, spending, and consuming. But many of us never enjoy the fruit of our labor. We crave more. Pleasures fail to satisfy, and we continue our vain search for more. And yet, thats the life so many of us live. We fool ourselves into thinking that its truly better to live these hurried, ceaseless, frenzied lives, rather than allowing God to give us the gift of rest. As the psalmist says, In vain you get up early and stay up late, working hard to have enough foodyes, He gives sleep to the one He loves (Ps. 127:2). Our restless striving is vanity! A blessing is offered to us, and we choose more busyness, more hardship, thinking that we know better, that our efforts might prove something about who we are. Or we believe that things will fall apart without us.
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Encore

Others make the opposite mistake. Because work is hard, and because we feel weary, we withdraw from work. We become a man or woman of leisure, looking for every opportunity to escape responsibility and find a comfortable chair somewhere. Its the folly of the sluggard, a foolishness that throws its hands up in hopelessness in the sight of hard work. Its the kind of folly that the proverbs address again and again: The slacker craves, yet has nothing, but the diligent is fully satisfied (Prov. 13:4). It might be the student who copies the homework assignment from a friend, or the student who has the minimalist attitude of aiming for a passing C in all of his classes. Or it might be the athlete who constantly makes up excuses to get out of practice to go home and watch television. Sometimes, its even more subtle. Its the student who says theyre too busy to serve in church or help someone in the congregation. Its anyone who wants to consume without contributingin church, work, family or elsewhere in the community. 3. redeemed (Heb. 4:1-11). The answer to our hurry and the answer to our apathy is the same: we need to hear the gospel. The life, death, and resurrection of Jesus transform our relationships to work and rest, and they invite us into the deepest, truest kind of rest. This passage is referring to the Israelites, whose journey towards rest was merely a foretaste of the rest offered in Jesus. Moses and Joshua led them from slavery in Egypt, through the wilderness, and into the promised land, where they rested from their journeying and lived with God in their midst. But the author of Hebrews points out that another rest remained. A day was coming when a greater gift of rest would be given to Gods people. As the author notes: We who have believed [Christians] enter the rest. The one who enters His rest has rested from his own works, just as God did from His. He concludes the statement with an interesting phrase, Let us then make every effort to enter that rest. The book of Hebrews goes on to show how Jesus fulfilled the promises of the Old Testament, taking the place of the priest and the sacrifice to once and for all atone for our sins. The promised rest, the deeper rest for Gods people, is a rest from all of our anxious efforts at trying to prove ourselves to God. Where Israel had to regularly return to the temple and continually offer sacrifices to pay for their sins, Jesus made a one-time payment, a perfect payment. Christs work means we can rest from having to justify ourselves. The gospel comforts us with the good news: Jesus is enough. Hes enough to forgive us, to restore us, to make life meaningful and good. In Him, we have nothing to earn, nothing to prove, nothing to win. We can rest because Jesus has finished the most important work in our lives. Conclusion When we fail to take time to rest, we fail in our mission. Gods kingdom is not extended through gritted teeth and determination of people who cant stop working. We can proclaim the doctrine of justification by faith (that people are made right with God by faith in Christ alone, not by works) as much as we like, but if our lives are examples of feverish, self-justifying activity, then we discount our message with our lives. Our mission is most effective when we are modeling a better way of being human, a way that recognizes our creaturely dependence on our Creator and beckons people to taste the sweet rest of Jesus Christs salvation. Work and rest. We reflect God to the world by doing both.
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