Introduction
God reveals
Himself to His people through Jesus Christ.
When we look at Jesus, we see God, the Father. Yet not everyone sees God in Jesus. Even miracles cannot convince some
people. What truly helps us to see God
in Jesus is humility. When we humble
ourselves and admit we are not as wise as we think, we begin to hear the voice
of God calling us.
Do you realize how much you need
God? Have the worries and burdens of
this life weighed you down enough to see him yet? Listen, oh people, for the voice of God to
you today.
Matthew 11:28-30
28 Then Jesus said, “Come to me, all of you who are weary and carry heavy burdens, and I
will give you rest. 29 Take my yoke upon you. Let me teach you, because I am humble and
gentle at heart, and you will find rest for your souls. 30 For my yoke is easy to
bear, and the burden I give you is light.”
An
Invitation
Jesus offers an invitation. He does not invite just anyone. In this passage, He invites only a particular
kind of people—those who are weary
and carry heavy burdens.
We are an “inclusive” people and so we imagine Jesus would
invite all people. Jesus wants to save
all people, but there are many people who do not want to be saved. The frustrating Truth is there are many
people who do not really believe they need to be saved.
In Jesus’ time, there were whole towns who rejected His
ministry. Jesus cursed the towns of
Korazin, Bethsaida, and Capernaum because they saw Jesus perform miracles and
yet still refused to turn to God. It was
primarily the cripple, poor, and outcast that saw Jesus as the Savior they
desperately needed. Very few of his
early followers were the rich, influential, people of means. The frustrating Truth is people who feel like
they can handle life by themselves rarely come to Jesus. It is those who are “weary” and carry heavy
burdens that recognize their desperate need of a Savior and come to the Lord.
The Weary
Are you
weary this morning? There are many
things that can make us weary. Sometimes health problems can make you
weary. We saw this in Jesus time; that
is why healing stories were so much a part of Jesus’ ministry. It is frustrating and scary when your body
breakdowns. It reminds you so quickly
how fragile life is and that you are not really in control of very much. We pray for healing, but sickness can be a
blessing because it can brings us closer to Jesus.
Some people are weary because they are too
busy. We live in a world where we must
go, go, go! We try to pack so much into our
lives and into our family’s lives that we are run ragged. We are tired physically, mentally, emotionally, and spiritually. We are stressed by our fear of failing. We never feel like we have enough time, money, or fulfillment in life. The only hope is that all this business
finally brings a weary person to their knees so they can hear Jesus' voice
calling them to surrender it all to Him.
Some people are weary because the world is such
a dark place these days. We fear our
children and grandchildren’s will not know the world we grew up in—the
prosperity, the kindness, the freedom, the values, the communities we have come
to cherish. We don’t want our world to
fall apart and we don’t want our children to suffer in a dark future we cannot
fend off or control. Some are weary with
worry about the future. Perhaps in our
weariness we will turn to Jesus.
Some are weary because they keep making the same
mistakes over and over again. Like an
alcoholic who keeps drinking even though he knows it is destroying him and
those he cares about, we keep making the same mistakes again and again—disappointing
our friends and family. At first, we
thought we could change on our own, but experience has worn us down to admit we
are trapped in our bad behavior. We are
ashamed of our mistakes and tired of our failures. Praise the Lord! We are better off than most because Jesus
says, “Come to me all you who are weary…"
What about you?
Are you weary?
Perhaps you are weary for another reason. There are a thousand ways this world can make
you weary. I could never name them all,
but you know your heart. You know why
you are weary. Rejoice, then, for Jesus
invites you to come to him!
The Heavy Laden
Are you
carrying a heavy burden? There are many
heavy burdens we must carry in this life. It is a heavy burden to be a parent in this
world. Just the typical responsibilities
are heavy enough: assuring your kids’ basic needs are
provided—food, shelter, clothing, education, extracurricular activity—sports, band, social
life (parents in America today are some of the busiest people on the planet. We have so many worries for our kids. We worry about their physical and mental well-being. We worry about their future (will they be prepared for life and will the
world they inherit be worth living in).
Caring for children is not the only heavy burden. Being responsibility for any other human
being is a heavy burden. Often children grow up to take on the burden of
carrying for their parents (and the parents are burdened because they have
become a burden to their children).
In the business world, we can be responsible for
the welfare of employees under our leadership.
We feel the burden of caring for them and enabling them to provide for their families. We carry an especially heavy weight when we
must fire an employee for one reason or another.
Being a leader in the
church can be a heavy burden. Think about our HR
committee. They must oversee the staff
of our church—people they love and consider brothers or sisters in Christ. Yet they must also relate to our staff as
“employees.”
I think of Andy
Andrews, the chairman of our Trustees Committee, who has the responsibility of
overseeing our church facilities (and dealing with the dreams and expectations
of hundreds of church members who care deeply about this property and the
ministries of our church).
Another heavy burden
so many Americans carry is debt. The average American household has $132,086 of debt—$15,310 of it in credit cards![i] Debt piles up. In the beginning, it is only a small
payment. However, as debt rises, it consumes
more and more of a family’s income until it can seem impossible to bear.
Perhaps the heaviest
burden to carry is guilt and shame.
There is nothing worse for a person than to bear the guilt and shame of
having wronged another person (or worse) having wronged God. It is a terrible burden to feel unforgiven.
What about you?
Do you carry heavy burdens?
Rejoice, then, for Jesus invites you to come to him!
The Yoke of Christ
Jesus
said, “My yoke is easy to bear, and the burden I give
you is light.” A yoke is a wooden crosspiece that is fastened over
the necks of two animals and attached to the plow or cart that they are to
pull. It is an image of the Christian
life. It might seem an odd
image—the idea that we are like animals wearing a yoke and pulling a cart. You might think, “Forget that! Who wants to have a yoke around their
neck?” Well, as you have seen, you
already do. Life is heavy load to pull and we are not
free of the weight of it as long as we take breath.
If you are breathing, you have yoke around your neck. The only choice you have is which yoke you
wear and who is pulling with you.
Jesus said, “My yoke
is easy to bear…” A yoke is made of
wood. An especially good yoke is
customized to fit a particular animal.
First the yoke is made to the general size and shape to fit any animal
(say an ox). Then, a yoke can be made
more comfortable by a carpenter who carves the lines and curves of the yoke to
fit exactly over an individual ox’s neck and shoulders. In this way, the yoke is now customized for
that individual animal and will not fit on any other animal as comfortably as
it fits the particular animal for which it was made.
Remember, Jesus was a
carpenter. It is quite likely that some
of his work as a carpenter was to customize yokes for oxen in his day. I could imagine this saying in our scripture would have made a nice slogan for the sign over his carpenter shop. Can you imagine it? "My yoke is easy to bear..."
When it comes to the yoke of life, Jesus
has one that is custom made just for you.
We go through life trying to fit ourselves into all the roles this world
tells us we are supposed to be. We try
to be like the people we admire (or that the world tells us we should admire). We try to keep up with the Joneses, but we
our last name is not Jones. However, Jesus has a life
that's custom made just for you. If you
are weary, if the heavy burdens of your yoke is chaffing you, go to Jesus and
exchange it for the yoke he made just for you.
It is light and easy to bear.
There is another thing
about a yoke. It is made for two. In life, you don’t pull the weight all by
yourself. You pull it with someone else. Who are you pulling with in this life? It may be that you've been yoked with the wrong people.
Our church secretary's daughter was visiting the church office this week and we were talking about this sermon. She thought a yoke was just something inside an egg! When I showed her a picture of the yoke and said how Jesus said we were yoked, she said, “You better like who you are yoked with. What if you're yoke to someone ugly!” Haha! That'll preach!
Some of us are yoked with the wrong things or people. And the things or people we're yoked with are pulling in the wrong direction or not pulling at all. That's not good. You better make sure you're yoked to the right person.
Some might think the right person to yoked with is your wife or
husband. That's would be better than being yoked to the world, but it's still not the answer. Your should be on the team with your spouse, but your spouse is just a person and sometimes they fall. If your primary reliance is on your spouse, they're going to let you down. Sometimes they don't pull their weight and sometimes they fall--and when they do, they could drag you down with them. Don't rely on them to do what only Jesus can do.
Jesus said, “…the
burden I give you is light.” He should
know. He is pulling it with you. People will let you down, but Jesus won't. Jesus never stumbles and falls. Jesus always pulls his weight. Jesus can help you pull any load or carry any burden because he's doing it with you and he has the strength to carry anything--even a cross.
Invitation
“Come to me, all of
you who are weary and carry heavy burdens, and I will give you rest. I invite you to come to Jesus and find rest. Go him, take off your burdens
and lay them down before Jesus. Bow your head in prayer right now. Tell him your troubles. Give them to him and let them go. Put on
His yoke and go forth in peace.
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