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Essential Rest For First Responders - from Bold As A Lion, Responders In Faith Conference

• Police and Fire Chaplain Collab

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We speak to first responders and families about why true rest is essential, not optional. Scripture, story, and hard-won lessons show how to release what we carry, reset priorities, and return to the work with clear hearts and steady hands.

• defining what is essential versus noise
• Proverbs 28 courage rooted in righteousness
• word first, then works in Mark 6
• come apart and rest before you fall apart
• R.E.S.T. framework release, evaluate, savor, tune
• modern distraction and the cost of sleeplessness
• practical scriptures for peace and resilience
• honoring military, firefighters, and law enforcement


SPEAKER_00:

So I welcome uh every one of you here tonight. This is like a dream I started as uh chaplain in 1995, City of Miami, PD, and uh don't want to spend a lot of time in that, but I do want to say that to see this tonight, to be here, to know what God has in store for tomorrow, to have military here, to have firefighters here, and to have law enforcement here, and then to have the spouse. You know, some of you you brought your wife, and this was open to sons, to daughters. It's uh it's a very special thing. We um we're gonna pray right now, Father, in the name of Jesus. Do a miracle that I can maybe speak the shortest I've ever spoken before, and that would be a miracle. Uh Lord, touch hearts. Thank you for the worship, thank you for your presence. Lord, there's uh a group next door, they might get noisy, but we know that that you're God, and we want to be focused on what you have for us tonight. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen. So the story goes that there was a young kid who had a little rowboat, and he would bring people from the shore to the little island where everybody would go to. This is what he did. For those of you that don't know 09, that that was his 09, and 06 is when he stopped today. So this very proud man who was very educated, very learned, if if that's a word that I'm not making up. I've been known to make up words, you know. The young man picked up the professional on the shore and he's rowing towards the island. And so the young man said to the little kid, says, Hey, so uh what do you know about the arts? And he says, Sir, I don't know anything about the arts. And he says, You don't know anything about the arts. You've wasted half of your life, son. He kept rowing. He says, So what do you know about the sciences? Says, sir, with all due respect, I just row the boat. I don't know much about science. And and the man again in the pride, he says, You don't know anything about sciences. You wasted half of your life. And he went on, and then he says, Well, what do you know about what do you know about the studies of archaeology and gave him a lot of information? And the little kid, like I'm doing, tried to ignore the noise. And he said, he said, sir, with all respect, I I don't know much about archaeology, or I just I just row this boat. But by that time, the water inside the boat was up to the man's ankles. And the man looked at the boy and says, What's going on here? He says, Well, the boat's taken in water, and it looks like the boat is gonna sink. Sir, you do know how to swim, right? He says, I don't know how to swim. He says, Sir, then you've wasted all your life. You know, sometimes we don't know what essential is. And in law enforcement and firefighter and military, comparatively speaking, it's a good gig. It's a good job. I did it for years, and you get the con time, you get the vacation, you get the salary, and then the new door opens for off duty. And then you start working, and the money starts coming in, but then you realize you need a boat, and then you get a nice boat, and you need a better truck, and then you get a truck and the house, and you guys know the deal. And now you're doing off-duty and you're working, and it's taking in water. Your family's taking in water, your wife is taking in water, your husband is taking in water, and and next thing you know, with all the trauma that you're exposed to, whether you believe in it or not, you know, PTSD is real and it starts affecting you, and now your sleep patterns, and before you know it, you're taking some substance, and and you don't know what's essential. So a while back I had the privilege of having a training in in this very uh facility about a year ago, and then I was asked to come back and do the same teaching, and it might be repeat for some of you, but I would venture to say that the subject tonight uh is a subject that's very close and dear to my heart. Because very few people today take it seriously, they don't know that it is essential. If you have your Bible with you, if you go to Proverbs 28, and I would invite you to do that, this book of wisdom here gives two perspectives the wicked and the righteous. And then it starts with saying the wicked they flee when no one is pursuing them. But the righteous, they are as bold as a lion. And so it's interesting that you think, well, why do the wicked flee? There's this thing called guilt that we suppress, that we ignore, that in our present day, it doesn't come up. They don't talk about guilt, they don't talk about sin. Everybody's good, everybody's happy, you can do it, rah-rah, rah, you can do it, blah, blah, blah. And a lot of guilt is not really felt because the presence of God is not welcome. But when the presence of a righteous, holy, loving God shows up, if you haven't dealt with sin, if you haven't dealt with guilt, you flee. Some of the stories in the Old Testament of the army of the Lord, remember Jonathan, his armor bearer, going against a whole army. What happens is that God is smiling on his servants that are trusting God. And so God and two against the wicked, the wicked flee. David, right? He goes up against a lion, he goes up against a bear. Why does the lion and the bear flee? Because David in his righteousness, it says here, the righteous are as bold as a lion. And then when David goes up against Goliath, I mean, we saw the David movie, and I enjoyed it because man, they made that Goliath look so big. And David is righteous, his righteousness is in God. But one of the reasons that David is so righteous is because he is very familiar with what's essential for survival, for success, for triumph. Now it's interesting that Proverbs 28 is written by Solomon, and Solomon is David's son. And so you gotta wonder how many conversations did David have with his father? How much interaction, how much did he observe? The stories. Did David tell him the stories about the lion and the bear and and Goliath and other things in his life? It is good to be here tonight. And what a what a beautiful thing it is when you know the stories of God's spirit moving on a land. There's this guy called Charles Finney. And Charles Finney in the area of Rochester would come back then in his horde, horse, and and and and his chariot or or wagon trail, whatever you call it. But but he would get off sometimes and he would pray over the town that he was going to go visit. And as he would pray, the Spirit of the Lord and Charles Finney would connect in such a way that the Spirit of God would say, You could move on, and he would move on to the next town. He wouldn't even go into that town and preach, but the people working in the factories, the people working in their jobs, all of a sudden, they would begin to drop to their knees and saying, Lord, we need you, Lord. The conviction of sin, the conviction of the need for God, the conviction of the goodness of God, the love of God, it would come upon the people and they didn't need, they didn't need anything external because it was real, it was genuine, it was internal. The righteousness of God. When you're a firefighter and you see so much, when you're in the military and you see so much, or you're in law enforcement and you see so much, and one shift, sometimes you see what people don't see in a lifetime. You got this meter, which is called the baloney meter. And when a pastor is full of bologna, hopefully I'm not tonight, but but if I am, you already spot it, you already know it. If the doctor's full of baloney, if the person that's working with you, you're the sergeant, you're the lieutenant, if they're full of baloney, or if your lieutenant or sergeant is full of baloney, you know it. When God shows up, you know it. When someone's genuine, you know it. And so the righteous, they're they're as bold as a lion. In 1995, I would end my prayers in Jesus' name. The only people that gave me a little flax, maybe I shouldn't say it, but some of the some of the chaplains, they would say, you know, you can't pray in that name. And I said, Why can't I pray in that name? He's my savior. That's how I got here. I'm not shoving Jesus down anybody's throat. Can I give you an illustration real quickly here? When you do in a building, you got a plumber and you got an electrician and you got a carpenter. So imagine the plumber and the electrician saying, Hey, we don't want to hear from the carpenter. Let's push the carpenter into the corner because the carpenter offends me. I'm offended by the carpenter. I'm offended. And so you deal with the plumber, you deal with the electrician, but you need the carpenter for framing, you need the carpenter for construction. And it's a funny thing in martial arts, right? You know, we're gonna do judo, we're gonna do karate, but we don't do um jujitsu or kung fu. Imagine that. And you got a guy like Bruce Lee, and part of the reason he becomes so popular is because he takes all the styles. He takes, he he gets the information of everything and then he processes it. But in our society, somehow we manage to try to put Jesus in the corner, and we'll do anything and everything. But this praise the Father, praise the Son, praise the Spirit. Three, we we're kind of like fearful, and you know who's dropped the ball? It's not the atheist, it's not the agnostic, it's the believers. It's the believers that we haven't walked in this righteousness where we could be as bold as a lion. And so to make the connection quick, because I did say I I now I think I got seven minutes left if I'm gonna try to do my time. Solomon learned, I believe, from God and his dad. And tonight I I want to share with you that I make no excuses for the gospel, because I'm I'm not ashamed of the gospel. It's it's the power of God to transform lives, to make the alcoholic sober, to make the broken marriage healed and restore, to make that cop that's hard and his wife doesn't understand him, to make him sensitive enough for his wife that he's actually praying for his wife, and he watches God do a miracle. And he doesn't ask for an offering afterwards, or that female cop that she's tough and bad, but she's able to trust her husband and love her husband. And she's law enforcement in the streets, but in the home, she knows her role and she does it well, and it influences the kids and even the dog and the cat. It's an interesting thing. Firefighters they go on a scene and they stabilize and stabilize and get the patient off and drop them off at the hospital, and they see all this trauma and it takes a toll. And so get to the point, if you turn with me to Mark chapter 6, there's an interesting thing here that shows you essential for survival. So this is the apostles, Jesus has sent them out, they're coming back. In verse 30, pick up with me, and you could read, and you could see the apostles gathered to Jesus, and they told Jesus all the things, both what they had done and what they had taught. Notice that, that's very important. They came back and they told Jesus, hey, we did all of these things, and we also taught your word. And now look at the response of Jesus in verse 31. And now Jesus said to them, Hey, come aside by yourself to a deserted place, and right now what you need to do is you need rest. You need to rest for a while. Now, here in the text, it goes on to say there were many coming and going. They did not have even time to eat. And a lot of people think that's the reason that Jesus says to them, Come aside, come apart and rest. But quickly, I'm trying to establish biblically here in the context that the reason that Jesus says, come apart and rest, is because if you don't come apart and rest, you will come apart and you will fall apart. It's just a matter of time. You've seen it, I've seen it. Good cops, good firefighters, you've seen it, good military men, good military women, you've seen it, I've seen it, and they never come apart to rest. They don't know what rest is. In our society, we don't know what rest is. Just when we thought we were getting the hang of it, they came up with these little things in my lifetime. I remember when I got this first cell phone deal and I thought it would be rest. And now people, when they drive in the car, it's cell phone time. They forget how to drive. Not you guys here. We're we're the holy, you know, but but it's like everybody's on the phone. 24-7. They wake up in the middle of the night and they check the phone, and there's no rest. And so, firefighter, he's got all that trauma. Military man, they got all those transfers, all those places, and and and they're not they're not hearing from the Lord. They're godly, they love the word, but they don't, they never come apart and rest. And so Jesus says to his disciples, come apart and rest. Why does he do that? Can I suggest to you there in chapter six, Mark, look with me at verse two? Here in this chapter, go to verse two and notice that Jesus, when he sends them out, the Sabbath had come, and Jesus began to teach in the synagogue. So the order is the teaching, the important thing is the word of God. So Jesus began to teach. That's verse 2. Now notice with me verse 6. You drop down to verse 6, and they marveled because of their unbelief, and they went about in the village. What were they doing? Teaching. Teaching is the important thing, it's the vital thing. If you go there with me to verse 12, Mark chapter 6, verse 12, notice that they went out, and the first thing they did, they preached that people should repent. That's verse 12. If you go to verse 13, it says, and then the works came. They cast out many demons, they anointed many with oil that were sick, they healed them. Stop a second. I look to your eye for communication. The order is the word of God first, the teaching first, and then the works of God, the healings, the miracles, the demons coming out, the people getting restored. But the important thing is the word. Now go back with me there. Mark chapter 6, look what happens. Then the apostles gathered to Jesus and they told him all the things, but notice that they get the order wrong. They spoke first about the things they had done, the work, and what they had taught was beginning to take a secondary spot. And right away Jesus knows you guys have been working too hard. You're drifting, you're losing focus. And then he said, Come aside by yourself to a deserted place. You guys need to rest. That word rest, if you're taking notes, is a word that means that word rest means to keep quiet, to keep calm, to be patient. Is a word that means to be patient in expectation. I like that because it rhymes and I'm a frustrated poet. Patient and expectation. Am I doing good communication? Hey, when's the last time that anyone in this room was able to sit anywhere in your house and say, Lord, I'm in patient expectation. I'm not moving until I hear you speak to my heart. That's rest. And Jesus says, you need to come aside to yourself. I wish I had more time. This thing, notice that it says, to a deserted place. Do you notice that there? And he said to them, verse 31, come aside by yourself to a deserted place. So if you do a word study there, it speaks about a place that there can be no interruption. Have you noticed that when you try to do a diva, you begin to hear the cat and the dog, and you don't even own one? Have you noticed that? Have you noticed that when you try to pray all of a sudden you remember, oh man, I lend that guy$50 and they haven't paid me? You begin to hear things in your house. You get your weapon, you, you, you know, it's funny. It's funny that everything will come at you to distract you so that you don't rest. And if you don't rest, you won't survive. You won't make it. The battle is too intense, the trauma is too deep. But here's the main thing: military, firefighters, law enforcement. You're that thin blue line between insanity and sanity. So without people knowing it, they're in a battle, and it's the disorder, the the evil one of disorder that's trying to destroy you, so you won't do your job effectively. And all you need to do is learn how to rest so the Lord can wash you. Lord can refresh you, so the Lord can open your eyes. I'm almost running out of time. So let me tell you what rest means. Take that word rest, R E S T, and I'm just gonna run through some things here very quickly on what rest is because I would like you to leave here knowing what rest is. So let's start with the first one. Rest. I'm telling whether I should do this or not. Maybe I could do this in two minutes. Maybe two minutes. Just the the conversation. I I went to the cell phone store and I'm walking out, and he was a good salesman. He says, Hey, you want to watch? And I said, No, no, no, no. He says, It'll track your steps, it'll track your exercise, it'll track your blood pressure. I said, No, no, no, no, no, no. He says, it'll track your sleep. I went, got my attention. I didn't know this. So I got the watch. And during night it's supposed to track my sleep. There's awake time that you're asleep, but you're awake. And then there's the rem time where it's when your brain reboots. Rapid eye movement, rem time. Then there's the deep sleep time, which is when your body reboots. And then there's the sleep time where you sleep. I didn't know that. But I did know this, and that's why I stopped. That I wasn't sleeping the same. And people say, Oh, when you get older, you drink cocaine. No, no, no, no. Is that we don't know what rest means. Does it happen to you? You wake up in the morning. And me and my wife, we used to joke around. I used to say, Did you get the tag? She would say, What tag? I said, The truck that kept running me over and over last night while I was sleeping. Because you wake up and you got old as pain. You're not resting. You're trying to sleep, but you're not resting. And you go to church and you're on the cell phone. And you go to church and you're up and down. And you go on a call and you go on the next call and you go on the next call, and then the sergeant, then the lieutenant, and then the politics, and you're a fighter fighter, and you give it all you have, and the person doesn't show up, and now you gotta do a little bit overtime, and you're working, and when you start is good, you're gonna make a difference, and it's good, you're you're successful, and you're military, but all of a sudden it begins to take a toll. And now on your day off, you sleep and you sleep and you're saying, Why am I not rebooting? What's going on? And sometimes they go to the psychologists and the psychiatrists and they go and they try everything and anything acupuncture, jump hot pool, cold pool. They try everything except rest. You guys give your life on the line. You guys serve. You you ladies, you serve. So tonight, rest. Let me tell you the first R letter word. What does rest mean? Release. Release. When you truly rest, when you're in the presence of God, when you got your scriptures, when you're reading them and you're resting, there's a releasing that's happening. That your mind and your soul and your spirit is letting go. You're releasing. This is the way that Peter put it. 1 Peter chapter 5, verse 6 and 10. If you go home, read it, it says, Humble yourself, therefore, under the mighty hand of God, that he may exalt you in due time. Listen to this casting all your worries on him because he cares for you. He's got you. Et te tiene, te tiene en la mano. We used to sing that. He's got the whole world in his hands. Your sergeant, your lieutenant, your chief, your department, your agency. He's got it. It's a funny thing. When you want to be righteous, everybody just gets on your case, right? But he's got your enemy. And when you come to rest, you release post-traumatic stress, disorder, you haven't released. But you gotta you gotta cast your cares upon him because he cares for you. Not here, but I wonder, you know, you went through that bad divorce, and they took the car and they took the house and they took the bank account, and they got into your retirement, and they took everything, and you haven't released that. You're carrying it. You see someone that reminds you of your your spouse, and and right away your blood pressure changes. And then you go to church. I forgave, I forgave, and you just you know, release, Lord. They took it, but I give it to you, Lord. Fuakata. Fuakata. Release. Psalm 55, 22 says, cast your cares, cast your burdens upon the Lord. And we don't rest, we meditate. Ha hum, ha hum, ha ha hum. But we're we're carrying it. We're carrying it. We stop someone that reminds us of somebody, and we don't act the same. They got you. The enemy's got you. Every time you're having a good time, he just brings that memory, and right away you, I'm fine, I'm fine, I'm fine, I'm fine. Rest, release it, let it go. At the cross. What does that mean? Well, I'll tell you what it means. If you think about Jesus at Calvary's cross, why is Jesus able to say, Father, forgive them? Forgive them. They don't even know, they don't realize what they're doing. And we could forgive eleven, but Judas? Forgive Judas? Judas. I was at Calvary Chapel, Miami the other day. Pastor Sach was teaching how it's true. In his ministry, he's never dedicated a kid called Judas. You never see a couple, she's praying. What are you gonna name the kid? Oh, Juditas. We're gonna call him Judas. The guy's a betrayer. Nobody likes a betrayer. So what do you think? Jesus likes a betrayer? Jesus worked with Judas with all the love he needed. But when it got to a point he says, Okay, what you're gonna do? Go ahead and do it quickly. He released it. He realized it's that officer that gets to that call, and that baby's dying, and you do everything you can because that baby's reminding you of your baby. You do everything, but but the baby's time was done. The Lord called the baby to heaven. And when you rest, you need to release that. Surfside, that whole building. We need to learn in your business, in your profession, if you don't learn to rest, if you don't learn to release, you could be the brightest, you could go to all the training, you could have all the influence, you could have all the acolytes, you could be the top, top, top, but life will get you. Because Jesus said to his disciples, come apart to rest, or you're gonna fall apart. Release. Let me give you the next one much quicker because we want to have the worship team come back up. The E in rest stands for evaluate. The word evaluate means to measure, to measure what's important. So when you rest, you release, but after you let go, you begin to evaluate. Okay, what's really important in my life? What's gonna get me to the place that when I get as old as Raz, I can still laugh at myself. Sometimes we take ourselves so seriously, and life is funny, it takes turns that you don't expect. There, there's a lot of turns in my life I didn't expect, and but I'm still laughing because you know what? The Lord's got it. God's got it. God's got my reputation, God's got my life. It belongs to the Lord. Thank you. Evaluate what's important. Philippians chapter 3, verse 7 puts it this way the things that were gained to me, I count them as a loss for Christ. And yet I count everything as a loss for the excellence of the knowledge of Christ, Jesus my Lord, for whom I have suffered the loss of all things. I count them but dung that I may gain Christ. Paul had to evaluate. There were things in my life that were gained, but now they're a loss. You know, I wanted to make that promotion, that was a gain. I wanted to have that reputation, that was a gain. I wanted to be chief, that was but but for Christ, for my wife, for my kids, for the ministry that God's given me, evaluate. When you rest, you evaluate and you realize what's important. The est is savor, sabor, flavor. Psalms 34, verse 8. This is the way that the psalmist put it. Oh, taste and see that the Lord is good. Blessed is the man, blessed is the woman that trusts in him. I look to your eyes, get this. When you rest, you release, you evaluate, you begin to see what's different and what's valuable. Lord, you're valuable. Time with you is valuable. But then you flavor, you savor. Man, God is good. Have you ever spent time in the Word? And God speaks to you, He refreshes, and you say, Lord, this is this is good. I wish I had more time, but I gotta go to the last one. So rest, the T in rest stands for tune. You fine-tune your life with God. When you rest, you release, you evaluate, you savor, you flavor, but then you tune. Philippians 3 13, Paul put it this way. Brothers, I don't count myself to have apprehended, but this one thing I do. He fine-tunes here. He says, I forget the things that are behind, and I reach forth towards the things that are before me. You fine tune when you rest. There's something about getting back up from a time of rest that you remember, yeah, this is important. Yeah, this is this is what's really important in life. You notice a wonderful radio station called God's Way Radio. They give a free phone app. You go to the Android store, you could go to the uh Apple store, and you put in God's Way Radio, or you could go to GodswayRadio.com, and then you could just download the app and you got the radio station. So there's two life programs, one at 3 30, one at 704, and the one at 704. It's called Life for Jesus. So this last Friday at Life for Jesus, there's a seven-year-old young man that calls, speaking about courage. That was the theme. Courage. And this young man says, you know, courage. Sometimes I'm afraid, but God gives me courage. What I want to get you to see here, what I'm trying to communicate is to fine-tune what's important, what's valuable. Isaiah chapter 30, verse 15, God said to his people, in returning and repentance and in rest, you're going to be saved. In quietness, in confidence, that's where your strength is going to be. But then he says this to his people, but you didn't want it. Isaiah 26, verse 3, God said, Isaiah says that about God. God is going to keep in perfect peace the person whose mind is stayed on him, on her, because they trusted in God. In Exodus 33, God says to Moses, My presence is going to go with you, and I'm going to give you rest. In Matthew 11, 28, Jesus says, Come to me. Are you weary? Are you burdened? Come to me. And I love this. Jesus says, I'm going to give you rest. All you got to do is take my yoke upon you, learn from me. I'm gentle, I'm humble in heart, and you're going to find rest for your souls because my yoke, Jesus says, is easy, and my burden is light. There was a while there in Calvin, Miami. We say, How you doing? Man, easy. Light. Father, I pray. I pray that as the worship team comes back up, as we worship you one more song, Lord, please. I pray that the men in this room, the woman in this room, the wife in this room, the sons, the daughters, the family, Lord, the pastors in this room, they would learn to rest, to release, to evaluate, to savor, to tune, to fine-tune, to trust. You know, as we close uh this session tonight, I gotta tell you that there's a pastor friend of mine, I love him dearly. One of the smartest guys I've ever met. He knew the Bible, he knew the word, he had a legacy. His father is an incredible individual, my pastor. But my friend, he didn't sleep for one year. The worries, the sickness, the cancer, he battled, and for one year he didn't sleep. And and I taught this message rest in his church, but he was in Israel, and one morning two shots were heard in the room, and he took his life. He left a beautiful wife, a daughter that's now 18 years old. I would have never thought my friend would have done that. You don't know how important rest is until you pass a certain line that you don't have it and now you can't get it. It's very difficult to get it. I gotta believe all of you guys here tonight and ladies, you know rest, but how about the person that works with you? What kind of believers are we? When you're in a room, do you give off rest or do you give tension, stress? So as we worship tonight, I hope if God spoke to you tonight that maybe you say, God, I want you to teach me something. I want you to teach me rest. If you learn rest, it's essential. And maybe your dream won't happen, but God's dream for you, it will be fulfilled. You will reach it. Romans chapter 12 says you can't miss the will of God when you present your body as a living sacrifice. Military here tonight, thank you for what you do. Firefighters here tonight, from the bottom of my heart, representing a church, a family, and a community. Thank you for what you do. Law enforcement here tonight, it's just words, but it's the best I have. You know, like we say to God, hallelujah. That's all like God. Hey, thank you for use what I got. But that thank you is encapsule. You might want to go for the house, you might want to go for canine, you might want to go for the special detail, you might want to go for this and that, but if you go for rest, you're gonna hit the target. And if God wants you to be the chief, you're gonna be the chief. But if you forsake rest, God is gentle enough, you'll catch up, he'll get you back in track. But there'll be a payment that will be far beyond what you could really afford. So, fathers, we thank to you now, if there's anyone here tonight that that maybe you spoke to their heart and they would say, Lord, if there's one thing I want to learn, it's true rest. Lord, that we've taken vacations and we've rested and we come back more tired than when we started. Lord, teach us, teach us how to vacation, how to rest. That the husband and the wife, they they look into each other's eyes and there's more love, there's more passion, there's more purpose, there's more priority. Lord, the kids, the house, it's a resting place. It's a shelter, it's a storehouse. Father, if anyone here tonight needs prayer, may they come to the front at the end and pray with me or one of the pastors here, or maybe the person that invited them. Lord, my final request is help us to be a people that we live in that rest, that people that we contact, they see it, they get it, and they want it. In Jesus' name I pray. Amen.