I. Joyfully Praise God With Others For His Ongoing Salvation

1 O come, let us sing unto the LORD: let us make a joyful noise to the rock of our salvation.

2  Let us come before his presence with thanksgiving, and make a joyful noise unto him with psalms.

Praise should effect our mental, emotional, and physical facilities

II. Reduce Stress By Recognizing His Sovereignty And Ownership

3  For the LORD is a great God, and a great King above all gods.  4  In his hand are the deep places of the earth: the strength of the hills is his also. 5 The sea is his, and he made it: and his hands formed the dry land.

The God who made us knows what’s best for us & has all the power to bring it about

III. Do Knee Bends Of Worship To Our Creator

6  O come, let us worship and bow down: let us kneel before the LORD our maker.

Worship = Response To Revelation (Gen 22)

IV. Relax In The Knowledge That He Is The Best Shepherd

7a For he is our God; and we are the people of his pasture, and the sheep of his hand.

V. Feed On His Word Daily

7b Today if ye will hear his voice,

VI. Cut Out The Fat Of Temporal Desire

8  Harden not your heart, as in the provocation, and as in the day of temptation in the wilderness: 9  When your fathers tempted me, proved me, and saw my work. (1Cor 10)10  Forty years long was I grieved with this generation, It is a people that do err in their heart, and they have not known my ways:11  Unto whom I swore in my wrath that they should not enter into my rest.

VII. Exhort One Another To Keep Up The Effort

Heb 3:7  Wherefore (as the Holy Ghost saith, To day if ye will hear his voice...12  Take heed, brethren, lest there be in any of you an evil heart of unbelief, in departing from the living God. 13  But exhort one another daily, while it is called To day; lest any of you be hardened through the deceitfulness of sin. 14  For we are made partakers of Christ, if we hold the beginning of our confidence steadfast unto the end;

15  While it is said, To day if ye will hear his voice, harden not your hearts, as in the provocation.16  For some, when they had heard, did provoke: howbeit not all that came out of Egypt by Moses.17  But with whom was he grieved forty years? was it not with them that had sinned, whose carcasses fell in the wilderness?18  And to whom swore he that they should not enter into his rest, but to them that believed not?19  So we see that they could not enter in because of unbelief.

4:1  Let us therefore fear, lest, a promise being left us of entering into his rest, any of you should seem to come short of it.2  For unto us was the gospel preached, as well as unto them: but the word preached did not profit them, not being mixed with faith in them that heard it. 3 For we who believe do enter into rest 11  Let us labour therefore to enter into that rest, lest any man fall after the same example of unbelief. 12  For the word of God is quick, and powerful, and sharper than any twoedged sword, piercing even to the dividing asunder of soul and spirit, and of the joints and marrow, and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart...16  Let us therefore come boldly unto the throne of grace, that we may obtain mercy, and find grace to help in time of need.

Questions for Reflection/Discussion/Response:

1. If God is in control, a the best shepherd, why do we get stressed out when things don’t turn out like we expect?

2. What helps you listen to his voice?

3. Why do we get tripped up repeatedly by desire? Why can’t we see it for what it is?

4. what’s the between belief and effort? why don’t people labor more?

5. What makes exhortation effective?