Why You’re Exhausted: The Secret to Resting in Your Identity in Christ

Are you tired of trying to "become" a better Christian? What if the biggest struggle in your life isn't your lack of discipline or your battle with sin, but your effort to achieve an identity you already have?

In this final session of our series, Austin Gardner (50+ years of ministry experience) breaks down the theology of rest. Using Hebrews 4:10 and Ephesians 2:6, Austin explains that spiritual rest isn’t about doing nothing—it’s about stopping the attempt to earn God’s favor.

In this video, you’ll discover:

The "Finished House" Analogy: Why we keep trying to lay foundations for a home Jesus already built.
Sitting vs. Striving: What it means to be "seated in heavenly places" while the world tells you to keep climbing.
The 52-Year Marriage Secret: How resting in a relationship actually produces more fruit than working for it.
David & Goliath Reimagined: Why the victory was won for the whole army before they even moved a muscle.
Stop asking, "What do I need to do?" and start asking, "What is already true because I am in Christ?"

Connect with Austin https://waustingardner.com/

Key Verses Mentioned:

Hebrews 4:10
Ephesians 2:6
John 15:4
2 Corinthians 5:21
#Grace #RestInChrist #IdentityInChrist #AustinGardner #BiblicalTeaching #FinishedWork

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Transcript

Austin Gardner 0:27

This is going to sum up what we've been going over for, I don't know, maybe 10, 15 sessions. I haven't learned all the lesson, and I'm not finished, but I am for today. I was uh writing a little bit ago thinking about the difference and the way God loves us and the way we love each other, and how we use the word love is uh depends on you, and sometimes we get confused. So all that it all runs together.

Why We Confuse Love

Austin Gardner 0:53

But anyway, I want to talk to you today about rest, living from what is already true. And so let me ask you something. What if the biggest struggle in your life is not sin, not discipline, and not effort, but trying to become something you already are? Now I need to pause there.

Rest And What Is Already True

Austin Gardner 1:21

You see, I think we would say, I need discipline. That's what I need. I need discipline. That'll solve my problems. I just got to get victory over this sin. I just need to work harder and try more. But what if the exhaustion that people feel is not because life is hard, but because they're living it from the wrong place. After all, Jesus did say, Come unto me, all you that labor and are heavy laden, and I'll give you rest. One of the overlooked verses in the Bible is found in Hebrews 4.10, for he that has entered into his rest, he also has ceased from his own works as God did from his. Notice that phrase, ceased from his own works. I've read all those verses in Hebrews. That always confused me about the rest. Don't really work it in now. But rest is not doing nothing. It's just stopping to attempt of the attempt to become what you already are. I don't have to work. It was a gift. It was given to me. It's like

It Is Finished Not Started

Austin Gardner 2:29

finishing a project. When it's done, you stop working. Not because you're lazy, but because it's complete. So rest means something is already finished. Something's already finished. Now that's a hard thing for us to get a hold of. What's finished? That's the question, isn't it? That's the Bible question. Jesus said it's finished. Well, what's finished? I think a lot of us would say it's the down payment for our sins. I think we would say, well, he saves us and he rescues us, but we're supposed to learn him and act like him and follow in his footsteps and be like he wants us to be. We look at it's finished, and we think he said, it started now. Now you can continue it on. But actually what he said was, it is finished. The work that defines your relationship with God is already complete. You see, you're not earning your way into God. You're not paying your way, you're not paying off a mortgage where he paid down with the down payment, and you finished paying it, and you're still content. You keep living there if you don't keep paying. It's not what's going on here. It's like walking into a house that's already built where you didn't lay the foundations, you didn't build the walls. When you got there, it was already finished. And so you rest in the house. That's what happens in salvation. That's what happens in us. Why is it so hard for us to rest? Why do we struggle so much with it? Because it's like,

Why Effort Feels Safer Than Grace

Austin Gardner 4:05

I need to do something. I think maybe that's the story of my life. I need to do something. We've been trained to think you earn it, you deserve it, you maintain it. We tend to think if it's free, it's worthless. But we trust our effort more than we trust grace, if we're honest. We trust our effort more than we trust grace. Imagine being given a gift, but you keep trying to pay for it. The giver says, it's already yours, but you keep working because that feels safer. So we choose to strive, struggle, instead of rest. Our position is to be resting. Let's bring it back to everything that we've said so far in all this series. You are in Christ. You are crucified with Christ. You're raised with Christ. You're seated with Christ. You're made righteous in Christ. You're a new creature in Christ. He is our champion fighting our battles for us. We win, not because we win, but because he wins for us. In Ephesians chapter 2 and verse 6, it says,

Identity In Christ And Sitting Down

Austin Gardner 5:17

hath raised us up together and made us sit together in heavenly places in Christ Jesus. Did you catch that? Sit. In the Old Testament, the high priest and the priest, they didn't have a place to sit. But Jesus sat down when he finished, because he finished. It's not, it's it's sit. It's not run, not strive, not climb, sit. That's what he did. That's what he tells us to do. You don't work your way into this. You rest in what you already are. Think of a chair. You don't analyze it, you don't test it endlessly, you just sit down expecting it to work. Because you trust the chair will hold you up. Well, what what does rest look like on a daily basis? What's it look like in real life? What's it look like when you wake up in the morning? I have to admit that I wake up many mornings, I have for many, many years of my life, and I say to myself, what do I need to do today? No, it's okay to do what you do, but I want God to be pleased with me. I want God to be

What Rest Looks Like Daily

Austin Gardner 6:31

proud of me. I want to earn his love. I don't want him to be disappointed in me. And so what we need to do is wake up in the morning grateful, thinking about what's already true about us because of Jesus. So we feel the pressure that we have to handle this. But Christ is my life in this very moment. Christ in you, the hope of glory. That's what it says. It's Christ in you. We mess up, and when you fail, we don't say, I gotta go back to square one. We say, My position hasn't changed. You don't fall in and out of Christ. You live from what is already true. Now here's the paradox. When you rest, life actually flows through you. He that abides in me brings forth much fruit. Fruit doesn't come from striving, it comes from abiding. Think of a tree again. The fruit appears when the connection is healthy, not when the branch tries harder. I think about

Abiding Produces Fruit Without Striving

Austin Gardner 7:45

my wife being a mom and my wife being my wife. You know, she just got married to me and she we just accepted that. And she didn't really work at it, but boy, you wouldn't believe the amount of work she did. But she didn't do it to be my wife, and she didn't do it to make me like her, and she didn't do it so we'd stay married for 52 years. She loves being my wife. I love being her husband. We just we do all kinds of stuff, but not to be, but because we are. Not to be, but because we are. Rest is not the absence of life, it's the source of it. Do you follow at least a little bit of this? Are you catching on to it? Let's kind of try to put some of it back together. Levi paid tithes. Levi paid tithes because he was in Abraham. You died, you raised, were raised, and you were made righteous in Christ because you're in Christ. Christ now lives in you, and your life is Christ. Christ is our life. So the Christian life is not becoming, achieving, or striving. It's resting, trusting, and living from what is already true. So maybe the greatest shift you can make is this. Stop asking, what do I need to do? And start asking what is already true because I am in Christ. Because when you see that, you stop striving and we start resting. You don't work your way into life. You rest in the life you've already been given. You and I have talked over Levi being in Levi. We've talked over being in Christ. We've talked about Adam is the head and Christ is the head with two heads, and whichever one you're in, that's the characteristics. In Adam, all die. In Christ, all are made alive. We've talked about what happened to us. We've talked about the fact that Christ is in us. We've talked about the fact that the Bible has always taught this. We've talked about what it means a little bit to abide. We've talked about righteousness being righteous in Jesus. We've talked about why we miss it. Now we're talking about why we rest. Have you ever thought about that day that David and Goliath were fighting? I think that's probably my favorite one. I know I've mentioned it in several of these podcasts, but David's the only one gonna run out there and sweat. David's the only one in danger.

Your Champion Wins The Battle

Austin Gardner 10:25

David's the only one doing anything crazy. Goliath is screaming and ranting and raving against the people, but David is going to answer. And David's gonna win the victory. And when David wins the victory, all God's people won the victory. I couldn't fight death and hell and win. I couldn't fight sin and beat it. It's not in me to fight it and beat it. I don't have it. But in Christ, my champion, he did. That's a life-changing thought. That's a life-changing thought. So I want you to really meditate on who you are in Christ. Who you are in Christ. You know, I never doubt I'm Betty's husband. I never doubt that I'm loved and accepted. I never doubt, I don't ever go to bed at night worried if she's gonna kill me. I don't ever worry if she's cooking food if it's gonna kill me. I trust her. I just rest in this marriage. I've been resting in it for 52 years. In fact, is I find it funny how the young people get married and then they gain the guy gains weight because he's resting so much. So I bring you back to our time about Jesus. You need to understand who he is. You need to understand you're in him, you need to understand he won the victory, and you understand that you are identified as being in him. And it's really not about us. And that's going to change a whole lot. That's gonna change how we

Rest Changes How We Judge Others

Austin Gardner 11:53

can I say this without being too rude. I will judge everybody and how critical we are and how we compete with everybody, and how I have friends on Facebook who just blast other people because you're sinning. And really the sin was the broken relationship. So I just challenge you to meditate on it, think about it. If anything of value has been said, it might have helped you. Share it with somebody else, talk to me about it. Thank you so much. I'd love to hear from you. God bless you. Have a great day.