Jim Van Gelderen: Welcome to the Thee Generation Podcast. Well, here we are, just a day or two now away from twenty seventeen. I don’t know about you, but every new year, it takes me a little while to get used to saying the new year.

Probably some of you have even dated things with the wrong year. Well, we’ve all done that and we’re certainly excited about a new opportunity, a new year. There’s something about fresh snow.

There’s something about a new year. There’s something about a blank slate. We’ve all been there.

But let me just say, young person, as you look forward to a new year and you’re part of the the generation. Let me encourage you in these next couple days before the new year, to reflect on the fact that God has a will for your life in twenty seventeen, and it’s probably much bigger than you can imagine.

And I just want to ask you a question about twenty sixteen, and I hope you’ll stay with me just for a moment. We won’t be long together, but I think there’s something here that for each one of you. And the question I want to ask you is, if you had to characterize twenty sixteen, would you characterize it as a year of rest or a year of lack of rest?

And what I mean by rest is not physical resting on a bed. It’s a rest in your heart. Sometimes we would use the word peace or just the idea of no anxiety.

Well, that’s the way that God wants us to live. And honestly, if you’re a Christian and you’d have to say, you know, preacher, I’d have to be honest, most of my year really probably is not characterized by the word rest. Well, let me just tell you that God wants you to live a life of rest in twenty seventeen.

Now, that is not inactivity in the Bible. Rest is his activity through us, and we’re at rest because we’re depending on Jesus to enable us to do his will. Hebrews three and four.

If you’ve never really studied them or spent time, they’re great chapters. Hebrews three is perhaps where some of you lived in twenty sixteen. It describes the children of Israel who came right up to the promised land at Kadesh Barnea, and they didn’t believe God.

Whenever you and I don’t believe God, we will never be at rest because I’m going to come to this in a moment. Faith is absolutely essential to rest, and I’ll explain why in a moment. But they looked at the giants.

They looked at these towns that had walls, and they. They looked away from Jesus, and all they saw was the obstacles. Now, young person, let me just tell you this.

In life, when you look at the difficulties, the obstacles, the hardships, the walls, uh, you’re certainly going to sometimes feel like what? This is just, you know, a lot of anxiety. What’s going on.

And that’s what the children of Israel did. And they said, we can’t do this. We cannot.

We can’t defeat these people. But there was two men. One was his name was Caleb, the other were Joshua.

And they didn’t have their eyes on the obstacles. They had their eyes on the obstacle remover. I put it this way.

Their eyes weren’t on the giants, their eyes were on the giant killer. And of course I’m talking about God. As a result, both of those men had the privilege of going into the land and which is a picture of rest and seeing God conquer the land and give them a land that has really is theirs even to this day.

So chapter three is a life of defeat. It’s a life of unbelief. It’s a life of discouragement.

And many believers live their tragically because they. They have their eyes on the problem instead of the solver of the problem. Let me put it this way.

I sometimes put it this way to teenagers and adults for that matter. We’re the Messer uppers. God is the fixer upper.

Now that brings us to chapter number four. I’m going to read a couple of verses here in chapter number four. Verse number two.

For unto us was the gospel preached as well as unto them.