Transcription
This morning at uh, Fille Baptist Church, thank you for having us. As you can tell from this morning's worship service, my house is never quiet. Um, it's a lot of fun; keeps me on my toes. But at least they love to be here together and worship the Lord uh, this morning with me. Turn to your Bibles to Matthew chapter 11; we're going to camp out in three verses this morning: 28, 29, and 30.
I was actually very excited when I got the opportunity and invitation to come with you here this morning because I'd actually been praying about when I could share this message, um, completely on its own, as I love to do. As my rides to and from work—I work vocationally, so um, I commute to and from work—I was praying, and uh, it's kind of—sometimes I practice preach to myself and just kind of have conversations with God and try to make the commute a time of prayer. I ended up praying over this verse that we're going to be in this morning. And if you've ever been in church for a while or been in Christianity or the Bible for a while, you've probably heard this verse, because it's a very popular verse. We love it; we love to put it on coffee mugs and t-shirts and little plaques for our kitchens and things. It's a beautiful verse. So I've heard it and read it and encouraged myself and others with it probably thousands of times. But a few weeks ago, just spending some private time in prayer with God on my commute to and from work, God just lit up the scripture, um, in a way that I had not seen in my years of reading this verse. And that's one of the things I love about the word of God is that it is—going—it says it is the Living Word of God. No other book is like this. You could read some books maybe three or four times, and then you're out of new inspiration and information. But the word of God, you could read it for decades and come back to the same passage, and God just lights something new in a way you've never seen before, and I love it. So this morning we're going to read these three verses in Matthew 11: 28, 29, and 30.
"Come to me, all who are uh, labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls; for my yoke is easy and my burden is light." Let's pray as we dive into God's word this morning.
Heavenly God, Father, I just thank you for this morning where we could come together in a house dedicated to your worship, in your name, oh Lord. I pray as we gather together and hear your word that we would hear your word, not my words, Lord, but only yours; that you would get all the honor and the glory, Father; and that we would leave this place equipped and encouraged from an encounter with you, Lord; that we would go out as lights into the darkness to declare your name. It's in your Son's precious name I pray. Amen. Amen.
So, like I said, if you've been to church or studied the Bible any period of time in your life, you will probably have heard these verses, because these are amazing verses. "Come to me, all who are weary and heavy laden, I will give you rest." That is an encouraging verse. Like I said, we love to put it on our coffee mugs and our t-shirts and our—and our plaques and our kitchen and all these things, because it's an encouraging thing. And I loved this verse for years, but let's just break it down for a couple of seconds as we look at it. First, the very thing he begins with is "come." If you're going to look through this whole ver—these series of verses and you break it down word by word, the very fact that he begins this with the word "come" is amazing. Yeah, because sometimes we can read over small words, but when you look at them, they have amazing impact to what the verse is telling you, because he says "come." The very thing we hear from this entire passage is that this is an invitation. This isn't a happenstance; this isn't, "Hey, because you were around," um, "because you happen to be nearby." It's an invitation to come. This morning we're going to hear an invitation from Christ, from his word, and that is amazing, because God has no reason to give us any kind of invitation, and yet he freely does. It's not a—it's not a command; it's not a dictation; it's not a kingly edict, which it could be. It's an invitation to come, and that is amazing that we're getting an invitation. And not only an invitation, a personal invitation, because the next words are, "Come to me."
Now, growing up in New England, many of us might know people or even come from a—a Catholic background, or people who we know in Catholic backgrounds. And for a lot of people, the thought of going directly to God is something that's foreign to them. We've learned, at least in a New England context, that God—you have to go through like a priest. Like a lot of our people, friends, family, co-workers, if they have any relationship with God at all, they probably think a Catholic mindset of, "I go to the priest; I go to the pastor." Heck, even those of us who grew up in Baptist or Evangelical churches can have a tendency to think, "Well, if I go to my pastor, that's a lot better than if I pray myself." We have this mentality of, we go through a third party to get a better connection with God. And yet God here is saying, "Come to me," not "Come to the church," not "Come to the temple," not "Come to the priest," "Come to me." This invitation is personal; it's a direct line between us and God. His invitation isn't by third party; this isn't, you know, he's not outsourcing this material. He's saying, "Come to me." And it's not only a personal invitation, it's an inclusive invitation, because he says, "Come to me, all," not "Come to me, some," not "Come to me, those who've got it together," not "Come to me, those who have gone to church for x amount of years or have read their Bible or have tied the certain amount." He says, "Come, all." The invitation of Christ, the Gospel of Jesus Christ, isn't for those who fit the certain contingencies; it's for all. It's an open invitation from God, and that is amazing. Because in our heart of hearts, in our weakest moments, in the moments where we struggle, we have a time believing that God could invite me—that we still have to figure it out; that I have to get my life together; that I have to—I have to look a certain way before God could love me or use me. So many people who had no relationship with God or church or whatsoever, when they hear the gospel, a lot of the times the first question they ask the pastor or the Christian is, "Yeah, but do I have to stop doing X, Y, or Z before I can come to God and know me? Do I have to stop drinking? Do I have to stop smoking and doing drugs? Do I have to stop, you know, in this—in—um, this out-of-marriage relationship? I have to stop doing this, this, this, this." And the answer is no. You will, when you know God, hopefully, but you don't have to get your life together. God comes and finds you where you are. You don't have to look perfect for Christ; he invites you where you're at, and he brings you closer to him. So this is a personal invitation, and this is—is an inclusive invitation. He says, "Come to me, all who are weary and heavy laden." Which of us hasn't ever been weary? Heaven later—that's all of us in this room and all in the world. And I—not the church, not Bible study, not Seminary, not any other thing—"I will give you rest." Jesus—is not only inviting us, but he's telling us he is the source of everything that we need to—to be in relationship with him and in right standing with God and to have the rest for our weary souls. Not Bible study, not church attendance, not anything else. Now, don't be wrong, these are great things, but when they substitute the invitation and the relationship God is asking for us, they become not good things. So many people say, "Hey, why are you going to heaven?" "Said, well, because I've gone to church my whole life." Or, "Why are you a Christian?" "Well, I've gone to church my whole life." That's not what Christian means; you're a churchgoer, and praise God for that; that's a good habit. But a Christian is someone who knows Christ and is known by Christ. He is saying here, "Come to me, and I will give you rest," no one else, no other thing, no other system—"I will"—this is a personal invitation to the world to come to him. And then he says, "I will give you rest," not "not maybe," not "I hope not," "hopefully things will figure out," "hopefully we'll get you on the right track." He is the solution for the rest and the weary, the brokenhearted and the lost. We don't need to hope one day that we stand before God and we will be accepted by him. We can know, if we know Christ, if we've accepted his invitation, if we have come to him, the source for the weary and broken soul. There's going to be many people one day who will attend heaven, and they knock on the gates and they say, "Let me in! I preached in your name; I performed miracles in your name; I pastored churches; I evangelized the lost." And he's going to say, "Get away from me; I never knew you." That's a terrifying thought of someone sitting in this pulpit preaching the gospel and yet never believing it, never accepting it, thinking their status or their church attendance is what would earned them into heaven. You cannot earn that invitation; it is freely given to you.
Jesus tells a parable, because he loves to tell stories to teach us, because sometimes we just need simple illustrations. And I know he probably did it for me too, but he tells a story of a man who has a banquet, and he sends out his servants to go invite everyone. It's time, and people give excuses why they can't come. So he tells his servants, "Go out into the highways and into the byways, the alley—in—in the gutters and invite everyone," because Jesus was teaching his disciples even then, the Kingdom of Heaven is open to all who will come and accept his invitation, not because you are self-righteous, not because you are great and holy, but because God is holy and because he loves you. That is the good news of the good news. Amen. That God loves you and invites you in—to come into him. But this is where the verse ends. In fact, it goes on, and this is where it always became conflicting and confusing to me in my youth as I read this verse. He says, "Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls; for my yoke is easy and my burden is light." We just read an amazing verse about how Jesus says, "I am rest for the weary and the heavy laden," but then he goes and he says, "Now take on my burden." That doesn't seem to make sense. That has always been confusing and conflicting to me. Say, "God, why are you telling me, 'Come to me when I'm be down and I am weary,' and then say, 'And I, by the way, I'm going to give you a burden'? That doesn't seem like rest." No one comes home after a hard day of work expecting to lie down on the couch and then say, "Okay, here, by the way, can you go bring in all the groceries? Can you go lift all of the heavy furniture?" That's not rest. And that was confusing. But as we go and we read this—this is where God encountered my soul as we were driving and talking to—and from—from the car ride—is that first of all, which one of us hasn't been in that situation where we wondered, "God, why? God, why this burden? God, why these heavy—heavy laden? This—why these trials and these tribulations? Why am I going through these things? Why are you telling me 'Come to you for rest,' and these things are weighing me down?" Who among us here hasn't had trials and tribulations, hard times and questions and wondering, "Why is the storm raging so bad? Why is the water coming up to my ears? Why, Lord, are—where are you? I'm hurting; I'm—I'm weary, and you said I would find rest in you, and I don't feel rested; I feel weary and I feel broken, and I'm wondering, God, why?" Anyone of us here has had a moment like that. Maybe you're in that moment; you're crying out to God; you're saying, "God, you told me you were the rest for my soul; you told me, 'Father, follow you,' that you loved me, and yet I am still broken and getting beaten down, and I'm wondering, God, why am I going through this? Why the burden? Why the struggle? Where are you, God? It hurts. You told me you were the rest for my soul, so why are you giving me a burden? Why isn't everything easier? Why isn't everything better?" In fact, Jesus promised his disciples over and over again, "Those who follow me will be persecuted; those who follow me will uh, face trials and tribulations." The promise of Christianity isn't life is going to float a couple of inches above the ground and everything's going to be perfect and blessed. In fact, he promises life will be hard. "If they hated me, they'll hate you. Life will have trials and tribulations, and blessed are those who go through them." God, that's—that's not a great sales pitch. "Why aren't you making this easier? Why are you saving me from the pain? You're supposed to love me. Why?" And as I'm praying over this, you know, a lot of times I'd preach that verse or share that verse with someone in discomfort, and we kind of breeze over those verses because it's kind of confusing. Like, "Okay, God says he's going to give you rest, but he's also going to give you a yoke; it's going to give you a burden. He says it's light, but he's still giving you one." And that was always kind of—it felt conflicting until you remember what a yoke is. He says, "My yoke is easy and my burden is light." A yoke is a device that binds two creatures together for work. You would see it with oxen or horses or donkeys, where they would use them—bind them together with a yoke, and then they'd put them to work. Now that still seems like work. "God, why are you giving me more work? You're telling me you're going to give me rest, and yet here you go," until I remembered, when you yoke something together, you are binding these two together till they step as one. Christ, like I said, just gave us a personal invitation to himself. His yoke is not a burden to you because he carries it. He's calling you to yoke yourself together with him because he wants you to bind your life to his and to walk step in step with him, and him step in step with you. The invitation to Christ doesn't say that life is going to be perfect and flawless and easy, but he promises that he will be with you every step of the way. His last words to his disciples before he ascended into heaven were, "I will be with you always, till the end of the age." His promise to his followers: "I am with you." We might have heard that poem, uh, "Footprints in the Sand." You know, it's a beautiful—imagery; it's not scripture, but it's beautiful imagery of a man having a dream, walking on the beach, and he looks back and sees the footprints in the sand, and it's his life's image in the sky, and he talks to God. He says, "God, why was there only one set of footprints in my most trialing and tribula life?" And the answer was, "Because I carried you." Then God is calling us to yoke ourselves together with him because he wants to bind our lives together. In the book of Galatians, Paul writes, "For this life I now live, it is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me." You ask God, "God, where are you? Where are you in the midst of trials and tribulations? You told me 'Come to you and you would find rest for my soul.' Where are you?" "I am walking with you. I can't get any closer. Bind your life to mine; walk step and step with me, and I will walk with you." He's calling us—that—that—that is why his yoke is easy and his burn—his light, because he carried it and he carries us. When you're yolked together with him, you walk step and step with him. That's why he says, "Take up my yoke and learn from me." A disciple was meant to be someone who didn't just attend their lessons and listen to their—their services; it was literally someone who was trying to imitate and become more and more like their teacher. Christian literally means a tiny Christ. When—when you bear the name of Christian, when you say, "I'm a follower of Jesus," it doesn't mean because I attended a church service; it means because your life is bound together in Christ by the blood of Jesus and you walk step and step with him. Paul gave the greatest example of this to his own disciples, and he said, "Follow me as I follow Christ." God is calling us and inviting us to walk step in step with him, to bind our lives together. The good news of the Gospel isn't that one day you will go to him in heaven. I've talked to many people, and they think that the go—the good news is that one day you'll die and you'll go to heaven, not hell. That is great news, but that is the icing on the cake, because the good news is that God is inviting you to have a relationship with him, to walk step and step with him today, in this life and forevermore. Not just a ticket to heaven; he's calling you today to know him and to be known by him, to walk step and step with him, to yoke yourself together with him, and he will give you rest. We won't be free of trials; I can't promise that, and neither does he. But you look at the disciples as they went through trial, and they were singing in chains; they were saying how blessed it is to be counted worthy of suffering for the name of Jesus. Over and over again in the book of Acts and through church history and even today we see people who, when they are living lives with Christ, doesn't matter the trials and tribulations, sometimes they even rejoice in a way that seems crazy, but because Christ is the rest and refuge for their souls.
Brothers and sisters in Christ, if you have had a relationship with Christ, whether for a little while or for a long while, I want to remind you who is the rest for your soul and what a relationship with Christ is. It is not about a ticket to heaven; it is not about attendance at places of worship, about binding your life together with him and walking day by day with him. He has called you to himself. You and I have a purpose on this earth; he has a ministry for you and a calling upon you and to walk with him and to join him in his work. You might not all bear the title "Pastor" or "missionary," but you might be the greatest data entry analyst or plumber or electrician for Jesus in your community. You were called to be a missionary to your homes and to your workplaces, because even though sometimes we feel like, "God, I—I'm not official; I'm not a pastor; I'm not a professional; what could I do to the work of God?" And yet God has said, "Pick up my yoke and learn from me; work with me. I have worked for you. I—you know, I've been to Bible College; I have the title 'Pastor'; I preach in front of people; I teach people and disciple them," but that doesn't mean I can walk into your situation and be a better missionary to your friends and families and co-workers than you are, because this is what something I get to share with people over and over again; I will probably say it over and over again till the day God calls me home, is that there has never been a you in history. You were the first—for better or worse—you were the first you there's ever been, and that is by God's design. Your gifts and talents, your histories, your trials—where God has placed you, he has placed no one else—to light up your corner of the darkness for the name of Jesus Christ. You don't have to be a Billy Graham; you don't have to be a pastor or an evangelist; you are an evangelist to your own corner of the world, to your friends and your family. This is why God is calling us to yoke together with him that we might share in his work. And if you have never heard this before, if you were sitting in this room and you've been going to church for how knows how long, but you have never accepted the invitation of Christ, do not leave this place today without encountering him and making sure you know, because you are not promised tomorrow. Yet Christ is giving you an invitation. The Book of Revelation says he's at the door and he knocks, waiting to be invited in. He's sending you an invitation, church. And if you do not know him, you—not leave this place without knowing him, because he loves you and he will continue to pursue you, and he has so much more for your life than where you are now, and he will be with you always, till the end of the age. And the Bible says he has never once broken a promise, and he's not going to start with you. So this morning, church, go and be encouraged and remember, his yoke is easy and his burden is light. Let's pray.
Heavenly God, Father, I just thank you for this morning where we can come together and worship your name. I pray, Lord, and thank you for who you are and your good news, oh Lord. I pray that you would draw us close to you and that we would celebrate and rejoice in your good news; celebrate and delight in the fact that you are with us in the storm and remind us, Lord, that you walk step and step with us and we walk with you; that you are binding our lives together, not just for a ticket to heaven, but a life with you now. And I pray we would live it to the fullest, for you have said, "I have come to give them life, and life abundantly." Let us live that life with you, joined together, for you are our rest and our peace. And it's in your Son's holy and precious name I pray. Amen. Amen.