Resisting A Rest // Mustard: The Seed That Can Change Everything (Part 7)

This message, presented as week seven of the “Mustard” series, focuses on the critical importance of rest and faith, specifically addressing those who “can’t stop working” or who constantly struggle to manage time when God desires time with them. Pastor Michael Todd shares that embracing rest may be the “most important message to your next elevation”.

The central theme is that believers often actively “resist a rest,” a play on the phrase “resisting arrest”. The resistance to submission, whether to a police officer or to God’s principle of rest, only escalates problems.

Announcements and Series Updates

Before diving into the sermon, several announcements were shared:

• Conference Version 4 is Free: The registration ticket price for the upcoming conference, themed “Faith in the Fire,” has been removed as a step of faith and a “seed into the generation”. Refunds are being issued to those who purchased tickets. Registration opens the following Sunday.
• New Series and Book: Pastor Charles Medaf is launching a new series titled “God Chose Me” following this message. Attendees are encouraged to support Pastor Charles’s new book, which is set to release on the 17th. The goal is to make space for others to shine and possibly create resources like a publishing or record company under Transformation Church.

Rest is God’s Rhythm, Not a Reward

The sources emphasize that for many, their greatest downfall will be “not embracing the gift of rest”.

1. Challenging the Grind Culture: The sermon challenges the atmosphere of “grind,” “hustle,” and “more,” which encourages people to resist taking a rest. Phrases like “rise and grind” and “early bird gets the worm” are described as being fueled by principles of the enemy, making people think they are productive through busyness.
2. A Standard, Not a Suggestion: Rest is not a reward earned after completion of a project or reaching a goal; it is “God’s rhythm” and a divine standard. The standard is set in Exodus 20:8: “Remember the Sabbath day, to keep it holy. Six days you shall labor… but the seventh day is a Sabbath, a rest, a pause unto the Lord your God”.
3. The Pattern of Creation: God set the pattern by resting on the seventh day after six days of creation. Man was created on the sixth day, meaning man’s first full day of experiencing God was the seventh day—the day of rest. This established the rhythm: rest first, then work.

The Faith to Rest

The act of resting requires the same level of faith as believing God for big things. Rest is trusting that God will multiply efforts and take care of matters even when striving ceases.

• Rest is for Restoration: Rest is essential for restoration. When God wants people to give out something, he wants to put back in more than they gave out, leading to a life lived in the overflow of peace, kindness, joy, and relaxation.
• Better Decisions: Being rested leads to better decision-making, discernment, and patience. Many people make all their major decisions from a “depleted place”.
• Avoid Fake Rest: Rest is not simply trading one noise for another (e.g., being tired of kids and watching TV). Vacations are often planned so busy—with activities like snowmobiling, jet skis, and constant picture-taking—that they wear people out instead of offering true restoration.

The Promised Land Is a Place of Rest

When Joshua prepared the tribes to enter the Promised Land, he told them to “remember what Moses the servant of the Lord commanded you,” calling the Promised Land “a place of rest”.

• The true blessing and wealth of the Promised Land is not necessarily more power, prominence, or things, but peace and the ability to still rest regardless of catastrophe.
• The Promised Land (the promise itself) can be “held up because you are too busy being busy”. Trying to “outwork God on the day he told you to lay down and rest” shows a lack of trust in His ability to do more with a day off than human effort can do with a day on.

The Shepherd Makes You Lie Down (Psalms 23)

The scripture “The Lord is my shepherd, I shall not want… He makes me lie down in green pastures” (Psalms 23) illustrates that rest is sometimes forced.

• Wandering Leads to Trouble: A shepherd must make a sheep rest because if left unrestrained, the sheep will wander. Most temptation, comparison, and going wayward happen when people wander during the time they are supposed to be resting.
• Forced Rest is Kind: God’s kindness sometimes manifests when He makes you do something you need. The shepherd sometimes breaks the leg of a wandering lamb so that it cannot walk for a season, forcing it to stay close and learn the lesson before a wolf comes. This enforced rest allows for healing and prevents wandering in the next pasture.
• The Reflection of Still Water: God leads us beside “still water”—the only environment where one can truly see their own reflection. Rest provides the clarity to see inward issues like pride, entitlement, or addiction that are masked by busyness.

If a person refuses to rest, God may allow the consequences of life circumstances to “consume you until you concede and obey”. This forced depletion can lead to mental clarity loss, dependence on energy drinks or other substances, and desperation. In response to the desperate and weary, God offers rest as a medicinal gift.

Rest is Essential for Leadership and Fruitfulness

The principle of rest applies to all areas of life, including ministry and even physical land:

• Protecting the Flock: Leaders who are constantly grinding set a bad example and their anointing drips out onto things they shouldn’t be touching. Pastor Todd shared that he intentionally forces himself to take extended time off (sabbatical) every year to combat the addictive nature of platform ministry, restore his identity, and spend time looking in the mirror. This “miracle of margin” has saved his life.
• Learning from Consequences: Carl Lentz, a former Transformation Church associate, shared that his downfall occurred because he was tired and “never rested,” doing six or seven services a week and always responding to outside demands. God made him lie down, which, though painful, was an act of love to save his life.
• The Sabbath for Land: God is so serious about rest that he commanded the land that provided crops to have a Sabbath. Because the Israelites refused to let the land rest, God allowed the entire nation to be taken into captivity so the land could finally enjoy its neglected Sabbath years. This demonstrates that things can bind and trap people not because they are bad, but because they “won’t accept the gift of resting”.
• Holy Ghost Power in the Pause: The “pause is not just for power, the pause is for his presence”. Before the Holy Spirit fell on Pentecost, Jesus told his disciples to wait in a room and pause, despite having already been commanded to make disciples. The power needed for the next season comes after the decision to obey God and pause.