 Good morning everyone. I hope y'all can hear me okay? Yeah, can I just get a thumbs up if you'll are? Yeah, okay great. Thank you. Thank you for being here today. My name is Smitha Nelona and I'm one of the staff at Bible College. So I'll just be leading us in today's talk through today and then through all of the questions. Before we begin, would someone be willing to open us in prayer please? Okay, maybe I'll call on somebody, sorry. Anand, would you be willing to open us in prayer please? Okay, Jeffina's raised her hands. Okay, thank you. Jeffina, you can go ahead. Let's pray. J. Heavenly Father, we come to you under the name of Jesus. We thank you for this day, we thank you for the time of mentoring hour that you have given us Lord as we gather together as students help us to learn a little more about you. We ask you to open our spiritual minds and our spiritual ears and I still listen to you and in the end we give you all the glory and all our Jesus. In Jesus' name I pray. Amen. Thank you. So I think last week there was one question that was asked that didn't get answered so we'll first just look at that question and then continue with today's session. The question was how do you build your patience as a leader especially when the people that you are leading are not listening or cooperating? So I'll just share my thoughts and then if anyone staff nearby faculty want to add please feel free to do so. So the question is how do you build your patience as a leader especially when the people that you are leading are not listening or cooperating? So yeah since a leader one of the main things is to be able to get other people to work together with you on whatever the goal is. One important thing is to understand what is it that's keeping people from being supportive or from being cooperative. Are they lacking the vision for what you're doing or are they in some reason for some reason not happy about something? So understanding what it is that is that is keeping them from getting on board with what you're working on and the best way to do that is to of course meet with those people address it with them directly and talk to them about what is it that they are finding challenging or what is it that they have not understood about what is expected of them. So understanding what the issue is and then once you understand it then taking the steps to address it. So if it is a lack of understanding of what is required of them then to help explain to give them the direction, the motivation or the instruction or even maybe the learning that they need to be able to do what they need to do. But if it is something where they are not happy with something that you are doing then look for ways if there is something that you can change about what you're doing in the way you're leading to look at ways to do that to change the way you're leading in that situation. But on the other hand if it's just an unwillingness to work with you then to give them the freedom to leave that assignment or leave that project because you can't leave people who are unwilling to be part of the team and so to allow people who in that case to step out of the whatever the project is that you allow working on is also a good thing. So those are my thoughts. I hope that answers your question. I think Rin had asked this question. Is anyone on staff would you like to add? Nothing from my answer. Thank you. Rin did that answer your question. I think you had asked that last week kind of okay do you want to kind of is there something specific you're looking for or something else that you want to ask? You're welcome to ask. Okay sure. Okay so we will go into today's topic. So we're looking at rest and I'll share a little bit more about why I want to talk about this topic and what scripture says about rest. So let me just share my screen. Okay so why we're talking about rest. So I think it's a topic that has definitely come up in more recent years. People are talking more about the importance of rest within the church and but it's still not very commonly talked about topic because we are all so busy trying to achieve something right. There is this idealization within culture itself of staying busy staying productive achieving as much as you can within the least amount of time or even having these goals that okay before I turn this age I want to have done all of these things and so we have these big goals and usually it involves working a lot towards that. So rest is not something that is considered important that is even recognized as something we should think about and because of that we see that there are a lot of consequences of a lack of rest that have affected us without us recognizing it as a church or even as people in general in society. We hear about so much sickness so many young people having heart attacks even seemingly healthy people right people who are going to the gym who are in the gym and they have a heart attack while they're working out. So just recognizing that even though we might be doing all of the what is considered as healthy eating healthy exercising all of those things thinking about how much rest are we giving ourselves overall and are we allowing ourselves to be physically emotionally spiritually healthy so that we can continue to serve the Lord continue to do what God has called us to do for as long as as we are here. So just a few things that have been found from a lack of rest a lack of rest can result in a compromise of our health and a compromise in our quality of work so the longer we are working the heavier our workloads are that adds a significant amount of stress to our bodies. So there was a study done this is in the US and 36% of workers talked about experiencing chronic work stress so that means they are constantly under stress it's not a day or a month or a week but constantly experiencing work stress leading to anxiety, insomnia, muscle aches, increased blood pressure, weakened immunity and that kind of stress can also further lead to heart disease, diabetes, depression so that lack of sleep or the one the thing of constantly working can lead to a small thing of say not sleeping enough and then from not sleeping enough to to having body aches from there going to heart disease so it kind of piles on and adds on and snowballs into something that is a lot bigger than what it started with. Also when people are exhausted it affects their relationships with people it's more likely that when someone is tired that they miss read or misunderstand other people's intentions they are quicker to be offended they are quicker to project negative motives on other people and then respond negatively to others because they think that people are against them for some reason so that also comes from a lack of rest from being overtired and then finally also the spiritual implications of a lack of rest we say that God created both work and rest so both of those things are a blessing from God but when we don't take the time to rest we we don't take the time to be with God because resting resting is about just enjoying being who God has created us to be and being with God in that time of rest and so when we don't learn to have that rhythm of work and rest we often are not giving that kind of time to enjoy God and enjoy his presence in the way that rest will allow us to so with that we look at what scripture says about rest so rest began right in the Garden of Eden right after God created so we read in Genesis 1 31 to 2 3 God saw everything that he had made and indeed it was very good so the evening in the morning with the sixth day that's the heavens and the earth and all the host of them were finished and on the seventh day God ended his work which he had done and he rested on the seventh day from all his work which he had done then God blessed the seventh day and sanctified it because in it he rested from all his work which God had created and made so we see here God resting does anyone think that God was tired and needed the rest no right he he didn't need physical rest he didn't need to take a break he chose to do that so it automatically puts value on rest not as something that you do just because you have to or I'm physically tired so I have to rest or a mentally tired so I have to rest rest is something we choose to do as a part of the rhythm of life of just as I choose to wake up and work I choose to rest just as a rhythm that is healthy and good for me and in this rest God just as God blessed us with work and gave us that is something that we can contribute to something that is uniquely handed to us as something that is a responsibility for us to carry out rest is something that we take on just to rest in our worth in God to say I am worth the rest I'm worth I'm worth this blessing of just being I don't have to always do something to be worthy of worthy of respect worthy of people's whatever it is people's attention worthy of God's love we are not seeking our worth in things we do it's in that rest that we that we establish our self-worth and we remember that our worth is not in the things that we are doing it is in who we are and who God has made us so from here from the Garden of Eden the next time we see see this rest talked about is in Exodus and this happens after the Israelites have gone through so we we go through we go through Abraham we go through Jacob we go through Isaac all of these people generations and generations Joseph going to the going to Egypt and then the Israelites becoming slaves and they have gone through the worst experience right so they've been in Egypt and at that time the way days and weeks were counted in Egypt was that it was a 10-day week and the Israelites obviously didn't have a day off so they had three 10-week days in a month and the Israelites are working every day of those 10 days there was no day off there was no rest and if they complained they were given more work so they're coming out of this situation of having physically labored 10 days a week in harsh conditions and God tells them to take a day off okay so that is something that's like totally outside of anything they can understand right what does it mean to take a day off what does it mean to take a break to rest so we see here for the first time God commands it in Exodus 16 23 he said to them this is what the Lord commanded tomorrow is to be a day of Sabbath rest of holy Sabbath to the Lord so bake what you want to bake and boil what you want to boil save whatever's left and keep it until morning this is God's instruction to them about picking up the manna daily so they do that six days a week and then on the seventh day he says don't go out and pick anything this is a day of rest so stay at home stay indoors rather instead on the sixth day you go out and you take extra for the next day something that they were forbidden to do for those six days on the sixth day he says do that and so they do it but on the seventh day some of them still go out right and obviously make God angry at the fact that they can't trust in him but this is from that working everyday mentality they don't know how to stop and it's just like can we trust Lord with this can we just stay indoors and not take anything will the food get spoiled like it did before all of those questions so Exodus 28 to 11 now this was something for me as I was preparing also that just hit me that the Sabbath is actually part of the Ten Commandments and we would never ever think to throw away any of the Ten Commandments but somehow the Sabbath is something we have so easily forgotten and we kind of like never think about do we do this as an individual as a follower of Jesus do I ever like think about one of these commandments which is to remember the Sabbath day so yeah right in the middle of the Ten Commandments remember the Sabbath day by keeping it holy six days you shall labor and do all your work but the seventh day is a Sabbath to the Lord your God on it you shall do you shall not do any work neither you nor your son or daughter nor your male or female servant nor your animals nor any foreigner residing in your towns for in six days the Lord made the heavens and the earth the sea and all that is in them but he rested on the seventh day therefore the Lord blessed the Sabbath day and made it holy and so we see here the Sabbath is a day that is blessed as a day of rest for us and also as a day that is to be set apart for God a day when we are worshiping God through our rest so the word here also for us to take note of is remember the Sabbath day something that we have failed to do is to remember it and somehow God I think knew that he needed to put that word in there because we would forget and then lastly we'll just look at Jesus's example of resting so we see in the New Testament Jesus did talk about the Sabbath but oftentimes when he talked about it he was talking to correct especially the Pharisees and Jewish leaders because they had so forgotten what was the purpose of the Sabbath and they had made it something that was rule-based something on which they placed their identity as Jewish people without remembering the heart of God in it and out of God is for mercy for our good right for our benefit but that was not the way they were looking at Sabbath and so that's what a lot of Jesus is teaching in the New Testament is on the Sabbath but we're looking here at more how did Jesus talk about rest or how did Jesus himself rest in Mark 6 30 to 32 the apostles come back to Jesus and they tell him all the things that they had been doing all the work that they had been doing after he had sent them out and his response to them is come aside by yourselves to a deserted place and rest a while for there were many coming and going and they did not even have time to eat so they departed to a deserted place in a boat by themselves so we see here Jesus is actually saying there are needs that are people coming they're not giving you a break you need to step out of this place and go away to get rest we don't see him saying oh there's so much need don't stop working keep serving keep preaching keep healing keep doing all of these things he himself is affirming that the disciples need to take a break and need to get some rest and then Luke 8 22 to 23 now it happened on a certain day that he got into a boat with his disciples and he said to them let us cross over to the other side of the lake and they launched out but as they sailed he fell asleep and a wind storm came so we see here Jesus himself in the middle of the storm like that that could have been the worst time to choose to rest but he knew what he needed to do and there was a lesson to be learned in it of course but choosing to rest whatever it may be if it's time to rest it's time to rest and so Jesus did that okay so there are different kinds of rests that we can look at so there's a spiritual rest so this is coming to salvation in Christ like receiving what Jesus has done on the cross is a form of resting where we say that we're not going to any more depend on our own works on our own righteousness to be saved but we rest in what Jesus has done on the cross and so he goes 4 9 to 11 talks about this rest it says there remains then a Sabbath rest for the people of God for anyone who enters God's rest also rests from their works just as God did just as God did from his let us therefore make every effort to enter that rest so that no one will perish by following their example of disobedience and then another example of spiritual rest is a rest which is a form of just expressing our confidence in the Lord Isaiah 30 15 this is what the sovereign Lord the Holy one of Israel says in repentance and rest is your salvation in quietness and trust is your strength but you would have none of it so there is a form of spiritual rest that that is important there's also emotional and mental rest i won't read all of these passages but all of these passages are talking about rest for our souls right resting from resting from anxiety Sam 377 do not fret because a few more prosperous in this way so just being able to quiet in ourselves to to be like Sam 23 those sheep who completely trust in their shepherd to take care of all of their needs who don't have to keep striving for something striving for to meet our daily needs or striving to take care of ourselves or our families but just being able to be led by the shepherd to rest in in the blessings that he surrounded us with to just reflect on all that he's done for us and be refreshed in that so and then Jesus in Matthew 11 28 to 30 come to me all you who are labor and heavy late in and I will give you rest so recognizing that our rest comes from God himself so being able to lay down all of those burdens whether mental emotional that we are carrying and being able to trust God with them and then the last one is physical rest so that rest of actually sleeping scripture talks a lot about sleeping right so Sam 48 I will both lie down in peace and sleep for you alone oh lord make me dwell in safety and then look at Ecclesiastes 512 the sleep of a laboring man is sweet whether he eats little or much but the abundance of the rich will not permit him to sleep so yeah these are just some verses I want us to look at some things for us to think about that when we are resting there is a holistic rest that we should look at it's not just about sleeping but just about not doing work it is about resting our whole being because there is healing that needs to happen in every part of who we are so some key takeaways God instituted rest we see that right in Genesis rest honors God so the Sabbath was given as a day to be set apart for God it's an act of worship to God rest establishes our self-worth so rather than seeking self-worth in our work or in our accomplishments when we rest we say we affirm that we are worthy of everything that God has given us not because of what we do but because of his love for us rest ensures time to refocus and establish dependence on the Lord rest ensures refreshing and renewal rest is an act of faith so yeah when we're tired and worn out other parts of our other areas of our life are affected and so rest kind of ensures that we're healthy in every way spiritually emotionally mentally physically and rest ensures longevity so that we are able to continue to serve the Lord for a long time so some applications look for ways where you can set aside time to rest daily weekly and annually so don't don't wait till you're exhausted after weeks and weeks of working and then just crash at the end of those weeks instead think ahead of time think about when you would like to take breaks in a month or in a year and plan your work accordingly but also take time daily and every week set aside time set aside the day to just rest in God's presence in in a week pace yourself so plan how you're going to work know how much you can do how much you should do and when you should stop and the last one which I think is very very important for us in the church especially is learning to say no because I think we feel such a pressure when we're in ministry or when we're serving in the church that everything is so important everything is for God everything is for the kingdom and so we have to do everything that comes our way we can't lose any opportunities but to recognize that that we need that kind of rest right what we looked at today and and if we are not there to do it someone else will do it it's all right and sometimes it's okay if it doesn't get done so just recognizing when when we need to say no and having the discipline to to prioritize our rest to the extent that we say no to certain things however good they might seem so that's all I wanted to share with us today um if there are any questions any thoughts you would like to share please go ahead oh since there are no questions can I just help Rin with her a question about sure yes please yes how a leader can build a patience so basically you know the leader should take time for self-reflection just to understand what you know triggers or what they react to in terms of their own the situations they face and you know what tests their patience so just to understand their own triggers and their reactions and the reasons why they become impatient so that's one thing they can do the other thing is you know just to take time to assess whether their expectations for themselves and others are realistic sometimes you know we can have way too high expectation for ourselves and expect that of others and when it's not met then we the leader can get impatient can get frustrated so to just see if the leaders goals are something that is attainable something or whether they are expect what they're expecting of others is also something that is attainable and then if it's not just to adjust their expectations so that they don't get impatient and another thing they can do as a leader is to work on improving their own communication skills just to be very clear about what they are expecting the work that needs to be done to provide the information that is easily understood by the team members and also you know to delegate those tasks and appropriately and also trust the team member to carry out their responsibilities in the way that they would like to do with their own skills with their own you know creativity and not micro manage everything because when you do that then we get the leader can get stressed and impatient because it's not being done the way they think needs to be done and the way they want it to be done with their own creativity their own skills and their own understanding so don't micro manage just delegate the tasks responsibilities but ensure that what you want the goal or the outcome is clearly mentioned and you know ways things can be done in different ways but the outcome can outcome can be the same so you know that's very important and also you know take time to cultivate a good rapport relationship with the team members so when you are giving them feedback you know it's well received if there is no relationship that is built and you're giving a feedback then it will not be taken well and also it's important to ask your team for as a leader to ask your team for feedback about the the leaders leadership style so that you know you can improve and I think this ways a leader can develop their own patience and because you answered the second part of it I thought let me just answer how a leader can build patience. I hope that helped Rin. Thank you Smita. Thank you Rin. Thank you yeah thank you Sabina for addressing that that first part. Okay are there any questions or if we don't have any questions I think we can close and everyone can get some rest. That was a good joke. That was a really good one at the baking of the rest and we have a long day to go. Thank you. Okay thank you all for joining. We'll see you next week. Sorry. Can I add something? Yes please. Yes please. Yeah so I just thank you so much for the presentation. I really appreciate it. I was very thorough and you know taking us back to understanding of rest as far as you know the scriptures are concerned but my maybe it's a question. The question is more regarding the balance between work and rest because yeah rest is very important but then like when we look at the way it got created us the seven day week of creation he worked six days and then he rested on the seventh day so you know there seems to be a balance there and also the fact that when got created Adam and Eve it was part of his design to assign them work. So work was very much part of the perfect world. It wasn't a burden or it wasn't you know something that originally man would not need to do and then suddenly the world got corrupted with sin and therefore work came into the picture. Work was a part of the perfect world. So yeah any thoughts about or comments rather about like work and rest and the balance between the two. Yeah I guess even the other faculty if there are any thoughts can't be shared. Thank you. Thank you. Yeah that is a good observation that rest came at the end of six days of work so you have to rest from doing something. If you're not resting from doing something then you're just being lazy. So just to to affirm that yeah God just as God had given us rest as a blessing work is also given to us as a blessing and and it is so that we can serve his world. We can be stewards of all that God has created. So learning that rhythm right we see in even in the seven day week that it was a rhythm of six days of work and one day of rest. So having that kind of mentality of I work I work for a certain period of time and I do all that needs to be done and then I take a break. I complete my work and then I take a break but then obviously sometimes your work doesn't get completed within that week or within the certain hours that you have but having that kind of a rhythm of working and then taking a break working and then taking a break. So this my encouragement through this was to just remind us to take that break every whether it's a daily or weekly break whatever it is but to of course say that we should be working hard the rest of the day. The break comes to rest to rejuvenate us at the end of those days of working. So the other thing is to recognize how long so ever that talking about pacing yourself right recognizing what is a good rhythm for yourself. Now we can't tell everyone you need to work your you obviously have your work requirements right 8 hours a day to work at least that minimum but we can't tell everyone how much work they should be doing in those 8 hours or you need to recognize what you are able to do what you can improve on how you can work better within the time you have all of those things so that you can take a break at the end of it and you're not working constantly because you're not unable to finish your work so yeah those are my thoughts but please if any of the other faculty would like to add to that. Yeah thank you so much thank you Smita I do have another question if that's okay I'll post it on the chat thank you okay why does it seem harder for our generation to take time off to rest I'll share just a few thoughts and then if any of our faculty as well would like to share please do. I think we are very influenced first of all by a western mindset and that whole idea of the American dream in so many ways affects us as well the American dream is to own a house to own a car to retire so those were some of the things that people work so hard for so that at some point they can retire and then relax for the rest of their lives and that mindset or seeing even looking at the west and seeing that prosperity is something that the world has just kind of run behind so it is that desire to prosper in whatever way we view prosperity now we as as because of God definitely don't have that mindset but we have somehow adopted this thing of achieving we want to achieve we want to do more we want to think which obviously is a great thing when we're doing it with a heart for God but we forget our limitations in the in the process we forget that we are also human human beings that we have certain physical limits we have certain mental limits certain certain things that will wear us out and we need to we need to recognize that that's something that we forget from a ministry perspective I think on the other hand from a secular perspective I think it is this just just getting more getting as much as we can achieving more reaching there is so much self-worth I think that is tied to all of that but on one hand and on the other hand it is the consumeristic side of it wanting more wanting more money wanting more to own more wanting to earn more money all of that yeah but would anyone else like to add something to the faculty yeah just want to add just a couple of thoughts thank you for that those thoughts for that study I just feel that you know sometimes just seizing from activity doesn't equate to rest you know because the reason I'm saying is like like even tied to that question which Nancy asked you know how does it seem harder for a generation because the thing is we are constantly bombarded with information you know whether it's social media or whatever it is you know there's always a stimulus to our minds and even if let's say we're not working we we think we are resting by you know scrolling through you know Facebook or Instagram but there is that especially you know if you're going through Instagram Instagram reel and you know there is a constant bombarding of information you know your mind is stimulated so there's actually no rest you know so just seizing from physical activity or the quote-unquote you know the professional work or ministry work that you're supposed to do does not equal equal or even you know sometimes you say okay I'll go on a vacation and I'll rest the thing is that you're carrying everything you know with you know like someone said wherever you go there you are you know that so your mind is constantly working over time and there's no like this businessman once he said you know I wish I could switch off my mind you know I'm asleep I'm lying down but my mind is racing I wake up my mind is racing so the thing is to come you know even as we seize from that activity the thing is to come to that place of really resting you know in the true sense of the word you know put away anything that might you know stimulate that might you know in the right I mean if it's a stimulus in the right way that's fine if it's something refreshing that's fine but yeah so so those are some things that actually prevent us from resting truly resting I would say so yeah we really need to find that rhythm and also find what works and it's a very individual thing another thing I want to say is also you know when we say take rest it's not rest from the Lord you know in the sense the the Bible talks about how seasons of refreshing come from the Holy Spirit so I think a great place to rest is just be quiet in the presence of the Lord you know there's so much of you know rest that comes from the fact that we are in the presence of the Lord and who is the Prince of Peace and so all these activities and all that's troubling just comes to a place of all the storms you know come to a place of seizing and you realize that in that whatever 30 minutes 40 minutes one hour you're so refreshed you're so charged so yeah so rest is also not taking a vacation from God but really truly you know relaxing in his presence and receiving from him yeah some thoughts thank you thank you pastor yeah thank you Smita thank you pastor Jaykumar that was really helpful any other thoughts anyone wants to share anything Hey Smita if I may just echo what you just said to all the musicians out there you know one of the most important things in music besides the notes are the spaces the rests when we learn music you know you learn a lot about the notes and you know what to play and one of the favorites quotes is a good musician knows when to play a great musician knows when not to play so that's about taking giving space and you're not doing anything and I'm sure most of us know of Beethoven we must have would have heard and we would have heard some music of his and he said the rest is more important in music than the notes itself and so his famous symphony symphony number five again we would have heard that would have start like da da da da da da you know it's that whole big symphony the grand symphony starts with the rest and so and if there was no rest every piece of music that's ever written will still be playing now and so it has to stop somewhere so for all the musicians out there from the musical perspective it's those spaces and those rest that emphasizes and gives more significant to the notes that's being played so and I think we can kind of draw a parallel to my life as well so thank you thank you instruction okay um I think we can close we have about three minutes left um so we can close today and we gather again next Thursday thank you all for being here have a good day