When I'm Worn Out (November 3rd, 2019) - Mike Armstrong

All right, you guys ready to get into God's Word?

I know that I am itching for this.

If you would grab uh your Bibles right now and turn in them to uh Matthew chapter 11, just kind of a one-off uh message this morning.

Matthew 11 · chapter mention

Finished our last series last week, our new series begins next week, and so uh one kind of a one-off in the middle here.

But uh question for you as you're getting turned to all of that.

Uh can you uh kind of recall in your mind a time where you were absolutely exhausted uh physically?

Some of you are thinking, like right now, like the time change, the one hour didn't help, right?

But maybe for you, you'd you know, you you exerted some physical energy and you remember just being super wiped about that.

I was kind of thinking about that uh this week, and the time that just so quickly comes to mind for me uh was this is gonna sound really random, but that one time I went ice climbing, right?

Like again, random kind of thing.

But I was part of uh uh a one-year Bible college program up in Huntsville, Ontario.

Actually, Jeremy uh did this uh this did this program as well.

And uh one of the things that we did, we did all kinds of like canoe trips and rock climbing and all kinds of things.

One of the things we did was was ice climbing.

And I'd never really done this before, and they'd given us a wee bit of training.

And so I remember we got up one morning, you know, really early.

Keep in mind it's like you know, January, February in Muskoka, so it's freezing cold and uh automatically miserable.

Right?

And so we got up and we loaded up and we had these like 40-pound packs uh on our backs full of gear and food because we're gonna be spending the day out at this remote location.

I remember we drove like an hour or two, we got to this place, and we realized we have to hike two hours across a frozen lake in Muskoka.

Right?

That sounds like fun, right?

And so I remember there was like two or three feet of snow.

We didn't have snowshoes, that seemed like a good idea at the time, I guess.

And so we're just trudging for two hours.

It was like we were sweaty, it's like minus 25, like not really great uh from that standpoint.

But then we got to this place where you know water would fall down these, you know, the Muskoka rocks picture, all that, and it would freeze, and it was this really great spot uh to try and uh and ice climb.

And so I remember we had about 40 of us out there, and we spent the whole day.

It was a beautiful day, actually, it was quite sunny, and uh we spent time climbing.

Now, for some reason, I decided to wait uh to the very end.

All right, and so I was the very last guy in our group to go climbing, and I remember never really having done this before.

You know, you've got the crampons on, you know, those like spikes that you attach to your feet, and you've got the axes and stuff.

And I remember uh Kai, Kai Ballantyne, who's now the pastor of Harvest Muskoka, he was the director of this program.

He was blaying me.

He's the one with the harness on, and he's got the ropes, and he's making sure that I don't fall to my death.

Right?

So I was I started to climb, and I remember it was like you know, 10 or 15 minutes of me just swinging these axes and and kicking.

You can imagine how exhausting it is.

I remember I had the leashes from the axes tied around my wrist, and because my arms are over my head and I'm swinging, all the feeling is just kind of like running, draining out of my hands, and so my hands were like numb, and so you just kind of feel like you're throwing it like this.

And about 10, 15 minutes in, I looked down, and literally I was my feet were like this high off the ground.

Okay, I had I had 60 more feet to go to get to the top of this.

And I remember Kai like, you're doing great, man.

You know, like it's getting dark, right?

And so I remember just kind of like it was so tough.

I was so physically exhausted, I was mentally exhausted.

I'm just trying to will myself to keep going.

And you know, when you're a rookie, you don't know where to swing and you don't know where to where to hit.

And so it was just it was a disaster.

But finally, finally, I made it to the top.

I made it back down.

I'm like, I can't believe I'm done.

That was so exhausting.

And then it settled in on me.

Wait a second, you got a two-hour hike in the dark across a frozen lake.

I just remember getting into the car and just putting my head down and being like, I have never been this tired in my life.

Any other physical activity I've ever done, I always think not as exhausting as that day I went ice climbing.

Now, have you ever been, have you ever been wiped out like that?

Right?

Have you ever, have you, have you ever felt that way, not just physically, but have you ever felt that way spiritually?

You ever you ever thought about that?

Perhaps for you it's been this like gradual, you know, realization deep, you know, in your soul and in your in your spirit, that this world, that this, this life, like man, man, it's just something's not right about it.

Right?

Like this this world is is messed up.

Right?

The the you know, it just doesn't, it just doesn't quite work out the you know, the way that you know everyone says that it should work out, or or the way that I would like it to.

And for you, maybe it's this subtle or or maybe not so subtle ache somewhere inside of you that the kind of wonders that's gnawing at the back of your mind and your heart, like, man, man, there's gotta be more to life than this, right?

Why am I so empty?

Right, why am I so dissatisfied and and so unhappy?

Why does, why does everything, it seems, from like my relationships to you know my pursuit of the good life to you know my inner peace, why does all of that seem like so far out of reach?

Right?

Like I'm stretching for it, I'm I'm going for it, but I can't seem to wrap my hands kind of around that.

And maybe what you've noticed for yourself is that there's there's anger starting to creep in about that.

Or it's a root of bitterness, or or maybe you're just flat out, you know, discouraged, or it's even got so far as where you're kind of despairing of life itself.

Now, maybe for you it's that you're unable to kind of articulate all of this, and you're like, something's wrong, but I can't quite put it into words, or or maybe for you, you're kind of like a fighter, right?

You're you're kind of tough, and so whenever something you don't get something, it just makes you kind of double down and go after it even harder, and I'm gonna accomplish this, I'm gonna get that thing that my heart desires.

Okay, but in all of it, in all of it, one thing is just becoming more increasingly clear to you is that man, I I'm I'm weary from this.

Right?

I am I am worn out.

I'm just feeling I'm feeling beat down, right?

It's something that you you just you feel it inside, and and for you, it just it starts to affect everything else, right?

It affects, it affects us mentally, it affects how we think, it it drains us physically even.

I think these are all these things are all somewhat connected, and and and you you know you're just kind of at the place where you're like, man, I I could I could cry at any moment here, I could, I could scream.

This is bothering me so much.

Well, listen, if if any of that sounds familiar or you find yourself there, or maybe sense that this is where you're headed, listen, you've come to the right place.

Because we're gonna take a look today at this incredible invitation that Jesus offers us here to come to him, right?

To come to him when we are spiritually weary and and just worn out.

Right?

And this is uh this is an open invitation for everyone.

I'm I'm really just gonna lay my my cards on on the table here.

Like if you don't know Jesus Christ as Savior, right, the the message here uh this morning, the invitation is to find your true rest in him, to get saved, right?

To turn from sin and embrace him.

And for those of us who have done that and we do know Jesus, the message here this morning is really to find lasting and deeper rest for our wandering hearts and our wandering souls and find that satisfaction in the truth of the gospel, right?

To remind ourselves of that, because ultimately, no matter who you are in this room, no matter who we are, there is no rest apart from Him.

There really isn't.

And so I want to read uh this passage today, it will be familiar to many of you.

Matthew chapter 11, uh starting in verse uh 28 here, uh down to verse 30, and then we'll pray.

Matthew 11 · chapter mention

It says this it says, Come to me, all who 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.

Lord, I pray that as your church assembles here this morning, and Lord, as we bring ourselves before you again, Lord, I know that there are people in here who are wandering, I know that there are people here who are lost and they're just worn out.

Lord, some of them are just trying to find ultimate meaning and hope and things that were never designed to uh give that to us.

Lord, they're looking for meaning, they're looking for hope, they're looking for energy and joy and what have you, Lord, in the things of this world, Lord, the things of this world are empty.

Lord, I pray that you would highlight that, I pray that you would make that so clear in each and every heart today.

Lord, I pray that if there is someone here who does not know Jesus, I pray that today they would repent, that they would turn away from their sins and embrace Jesus Christ, Lord.

I pray that they would embrace you as the one who took care of our sin burden for us, who takes it off of our hearts, who forgives us and who offers us new life.

Lord, I pray today that as those of us who are aware of that and have done that, once again open up your word, Father.

I pray that you would highlight for us the different burdens that we carry, Lord, the different, the different weights that we hold on to, Lord, that we need to give back to you.

And so, Father, I pray that you would give each one of us rest today.

I pray that you would show that it is in Jesus Christ that we find our rest.

I pray that we would see the beauty of that.

I pray that you would stir our hearts with joy and affection for Jesus.

We pray all this in his name.

Amen.

Amen.

Well, here's uh the first thing here this morning in your notes.

All of this is on the screen if you're new to our church.

Uh, but here it is.

When I'm spiritually weary and worn out, I will come to Christ with all the burdens that I'm carrying.

Now, um, as always here, uh, we want to be really mindful uh to not just kind of cherry pick a couple of verses out of the Bible, right?

I just read to us from uh Matthew 11, verses uh 28 uh to 30 here, uh, but they're obviously very clearly part of uh kind of a larger paragraph and a larger narrative uh that's going on.

And so as as faithful Bible readers and as studyers of God's word, we have to always be really careful here that we never violate the context.

We don't just, you know, cherry pick and isolate verses and uh kind of make them mean what we want them to mean when really the context, the verses around those verses, give us very uh crucial meaning and shine light and understanding on the thrust of those verses that we're looking at.

All right, so before we can really begin to unpack uh verses 28 to 30, we have to understand a couple of things here.

We have to understand that in that in that previous paragraph that you see above that in verses 11 or sorry, in 11, verses 20 to 24, hey, Jesus had just said some very heavy things.

All right, he had just condemned uh Khorazin, Beth Seda, and Capernaum.

All right, these were cities that he had traveled to and traveled through.

These were cities with people in them who had had flatly rejected him as the Messiah.

All right, despite all the miracles that he had performed in that area, despite the very clear teaching that he gave them of the gospel, of the Christian life, all of that.

And so, because of that, because of their rejection, he had very strongly, again, asserted there that it would go better for Sodom.

Okay, you guys remember Sodom and Gomorrah?

Remember the story of Lot, right?

Because of the wickedness in that city, because they they failed to repent and they rejected the message of Lot and they rejected the Lord, God literally sent fire from heaven that that consumed them.

And so here Jesus is saying, hey, listen, it would go, it's gonna go better for Sodom, okay, that that that story that you're very familiar with on the day of judgment, then it would go for then it's gonna go for you three cities.

Right?

Because of your willful unrepentance, because of your stubbornness, because of your sin.

Now, John MacArthur notes that uh what's very common in Jesus' teaching is that he presents us uh with a like a full picture of God.

Right?

He is both a God of judgment and wrath, okay, and a God of compassion and love.

Okay, both are true.

And it's really important that you and I, we don't lose our sight of either one of those things.

Right?

And it would appear that many Christians, many churches all over the world, have have kind of, you know, we slide naturally into one of those categories.

Right?

Like some churches, all they want to do is focus on the love of God and and and talk about the good things and talk about the joy of all of that.

And some of them, some Christians are very, very good at articulating that and and emphasizing that, which is so great.

But it can be to the exclusion of sin and coming judgments and and hell.

Right?

Other churches, though, they they can and Christians, they slide the other way.

And it's like, do you have any kindness in you whatsoever?

And it's all just like railing on sin, and it's it's hammering them, and it's and it's judgment, and it's doom, and it's gloom, and there's like you remember that like God is a God of love, right?

But you know, at the same time, the positive of that is they're very good at at presenting the reality that that sin is deadly serious.

And so we have to be really careful here that we that we continue to hold both up, right?

That we keep both in mind.

Again, sin is, it's no joke in God's eyes, right?

It very much has eternal consequences, and that's something as as created beings made in God's image, that that that should cause us to shudder in in holy fear, right?

But at the same time, God's love and and God's compassion is just so vast and and and so intense, right, that he was willing to come down into this world that we're doing a fantastic job of making a mess of, right?

And he would take our sin uh upon himself, right?

And and and break down that that barrier, right?

That barrier which is our sin that makes us enemies of God.

So because of his hatred of our sin and his love and compassion for us, as seen in the cross, we can be reconciled to him.

Right?

We can be we can be forgiven.

We can be redeemed, we can be adopted as his as his children and and invited into his family and in and declared innocent, right?

Declared righteous.

All of that is what the Bible talks about uh when it says uh get saved.

Okay, so all of this here is the is the message that Jesus had been revealing all throughout his earthly ministry.

Right?

Some accepted it, others rejected it, many of them did.

For those, you know, blinded by their their hard hearts and their stubborn pride, this was uh a very stern word.

Right?

It was a strong rebuke.

I mean, think about you know how that would have landed on those three cities.

Okay, but again, for those who who had humble themselves and and had soft hearts, you know, this message of salvation through through grace was was a gloriously freeing thing for our souls, right?

As we're soon gonna see.

Now, again, we're gonna get into verse 28 to 30.

I promise we are getting there.

I know there's a little bit more front end here today, but first let's just take a quick peek here at verse 25.

And so looking at the beginning of this paragraph, look what it says.

It says, At that time Jesus declared, I thank you, Father, Lord of heaven and earth, that you have hidden these things.

Like, what what what things are those?

What are these things?

Well, it's the truths about God's kingdom and about salvation.

He says, I thank you, Father, that you have hidden these things from the wise and understanding.

Right?

Like, what are you, you know, what's it what's he talking about there?

You have to understand the the wise and the and the understanding.

He's kind of using that term, you know, kind of tongue-in-cheek or sarcastically.

Right?

This would have been directed at, you know, that the types of people that were in those three cities that he just condemned, right?

They're they're wise and understanding in their own minds.

Right?

They're they're not actually, though.

He's just saying that they're proud and they're and they're arrogant.

Right?

So God had sovereignly used their own hard-heartedness to hide the message of salvation for uh from them.

Right?

And it says there that he hid it from the wise and understanding, keep going, and revealed them to little children.

Okay, other translations use the word uh babes.

Okay, this is to say that that God saves those who are humble and lowly, uh like children, right, who sense their deep spiritual need.

Okay, babies, if you think about them, right, they are so, so completely dependent on their parents, right?

On those around them for their every single need, right?

For sure, which is of course just a picture of how dependent on God we are for our every spiritual need.

Right?

We're totally unable, we're totally, we're totally helpless uh to save ourselves.

Right?

We can't do it.

No amount of morality, you know, stacked up gets the job done, right?

We need Christ to accomplish that work of reconciling us to God.

Okay?

Now, verse 26.

He says, Yes, Father, for such was your gracious will.

All things have been handed over to me by my Father, which speaks, of course, to the authority that Jesus had and has.

He says, And no one knows the Son except the Father, and no one knows the Father except the Son, and anyone to whom the Son chooses to reveal him.

Okay, so he's essentially explaining here, you know, or showing us the unique and unified relationship that Jesus and the Father had.

Right, as one commentator uh put it, they are uh one essence.

Right?

They are there are they are inseparable.

Okay, so so make m no mistake here, this is Jesus, when he's saying this, he's he he's equating himself with God.

He's equating himself with God.

He he is God.

Okay, which again, understand, that's the very reason that that the Jews killed him.

He wasn't ambiguous about that, you know, especially as his ministry progressed.

He's very clear.

And and the and the Jews, I mean, they they hated him for it.

Right?

They absolutely despised him when he said things like, you know, I and the Father are one.

Right?

They were like, that's that's blasphemy.

Like, you know, the man can't say that, right?

It's because they missed that he was the Messiah.

If Jesus was merely a man, he would never have been able to, you know, pay our debt.

He wouldn't have been able to secure our salvation, you know, salvation for his elect.

He wouldn't have been able to give us the new status as you know, friends of God.

Okay, and so with all of that in mind, he delivers these words now in verse 28.

Remember, I promised we'd get there.

Here's what it says: it says, Come to me.

You know, understand that this is at the end of the day, it's an invitation to come to Christ in faith.

It's an invitation, right?

It's ultimately a call to submit your life to his lordship and and and receive him as your personal savior.

Right?

He says there, come to me all who labor, right?

All who all who tire, right?

All who have grown weary, all of all of you who are you know kind of worn out from all of your toil and and you know, all of your hard work, you know, laborous work.

He says, he says, Come to me all who labor and are heavy laden.

Those of you who are who are loaded down with with with burdens, with with spiritual burdens.

Okay, later in in Matthew's gospel, in chapter 23, verse 4, uh Jesus criticizes the Jewish religious leaders for placing just these insurmountable, these impossibly heavy burdens on the people.

Right?

Just these very legalistic, very, very crushing demands of the law that were that were cast in such a way as to say, you know, you know, do these things.

Right?

Follow these rules so that God will love you more.

That's kind of the gist of how they were coming at it.

Obey these laws so that you can be a true follower of God.

But do you see how that's just a that's just a religion of works?

A gospel of works.

They're saying earnest.

Right?

Go out there and earn God's love through your obedience.

Perform so that He'll forgive you.

Behave properly by following these tedious rules that we have placed on you that go even beyond and further than scriptures do.

So that God doesn't reject you someday.

These are spiritually heavy laden burdens that, again, they're impossible for anyone to bear.

Whenever we try to earn God's love or or garner his favor or try and work in such a way that hopefully he'll give us the forgiveness that he owes us by way of some kind of spiritual performance in his eyes, what ends up happening is we inevitably just grow weary.

Spiritually, we just wear down.

Why?

Well, because it's nothing but labor.

It's nothing but just slavery.

We become so heavy laden on a soul level there because you know we're we're constantly at the end of the day, we're we're wondering in our minds and we're wondering in our in our hearts, like, you know, is what I'm doing good enough?

Right?

Is God impressed yet?

How much more do I need to do?

Is it good enough?

Am I good enough in his eyes?

Okay, but the glorious news of the gospel is, I mean, it's just so amazing, is that how straight up it is.

Right?

It just tells us it doesn't hold back.

It's just like, no, you're you're not good enough.

Right?

It doesn't try to hide that.

The gospel tells us that you and I, we are we are hopelessly, helplessly lost in our sin.

Right?

And no good behavior on our part will fix that.

Only Christ can fix that.

And listen, that's that happens to be the very thing that he came to do.

Right?

The impossible task of becoming righteous in God's eyes through our works, right?

The gospel tells us, again, very upfront, that Christ lived righteously for us.

Right?

The the crushing labor that's required to even try to obey God's law in its entirety.

Right again, that's that's such a weight, right?

So heavy laden.

That's a burden that we just we just can't carry that around and have any kind of peace, any kind of joy.

Right?

The gospel tells us that.

All the world's religions, do you know this?

All the world's religions tell you to go out and earn it.

All of them.

Christianity, the the the Bible, right, is the only one that tells you you can't earn it.

Stop, stop trying, it it's it's fruitless, it it's it's painful.

Every other religion is is is in its own way telling you, you know, do this for God, and maybe at the end of the day, he'll kind of let you into whatever their version of heaven might be.

Perform, perform, perform.

Work, work, work.

That's the message of every religion.

The Bible doesn't say that.

Jesus instead, he says, Bring it all to me.

Come to me, and I will give you rest, it says there.

It says, I will do it for you.

I will take that burden.

It's way too much for you to take on, but listen, it's not too much for me.

That's what Jesus says.

Now listen, we're gonna unpack that word rest there here in the next thing, but before we do, think this about this a little bit and really want to ask you the question you know, what kind of spiritual burdens do you happen to be carrying around?

What are the spiritual burdens that are heavy laden on your soul?

Right?

Do you know what they are?

Have you identified them?

Do you have a sense as to how your heart functions and all the different legalistic ways that you try to earn God's favor, or the different ways that you try to perform for him, or the different things that you try to do when Christ has already done all those things for you and he just offers it to you as a gift of grace?

What are the burdens that you carry?

We're gonna have a couple of them up here on the screen because these, listen, these will just wear you out if they haven't already.

Here's the first one.

How about worry?

Worry.

Do you carry this around with you?

Some of us carry such worry and such spiritual anxiety.

I think all of it at the end of the day, it's rooted in fear.

Some of us, we've carried this around for years and years and years to the point where we've kind of just like kind of gotten comfortable with it to some degree.

And it's sort of like that family member that you don't really get along with, but you're like, I kind of gotta just accept them.

Right?

That's kind of how we are with our worry sometimes.

Right?

What is your what is your worry doing to you?

Has it caused you just constant fear?

Is it causing you to just battle with despair?

Maybe for you your worry is always about how my life is gonna go, and you know, how is this, how is this gonna work out?

And you know, what about my job?

And what about where I'm gonna live?

And what about the person I'm going to marry?

What about the person that I am married to?

And you're constantly worried instead of trusting the Lord with all of those things, instead of releasing that burden to him.

Maybe for you, it's just this worry that you have nagging at you about like, am I measuring up to the Lord?

Am I pleasing enough to him?

And you're worrying about it, where Jesus says, Come to me with your worry.

Come to me with this.

This is a burden that you can't carry.

I already approve of you, I already love you, I've already done everything it takes to make you right in God's eyes.

Do you carry worry?

Do you carry this burden of self-sufficiency?

That's the second one.

Like maybe for you, you're a you know, a very gifted and very accomplished person.

The rest of us, like you make us sick, right?

You're just so good at everything, like everything you do just seems to turn to gold.

And for you, because of that, it's it's kind of turned into pride.

And for you, every problem in your life is is just something to be conquered.

And you're like, I can I can fix this problem, I can take care of this.

And the gifts that you've been given and the abilities that God has given you have turned into you, just being like, you know, God, you can be over there.

I'm gonna go take care of this.

I'm gonna fix this.

Your pride is inflated, and it actually becomes a burden.

You may not even be feeling it like that or thinking of it like that, but it is.

And Jesus says, Come to me with your with your self-sufficiency, with that whole attitude.

Humble yourself.

You aren't good enough to fix everything, you're not good enough to fix your sin problem.

Jesus did it for you because you are insufficient.

Humble yourself.

Let him carry that.

Here's a third spiritual burden that I think we carry sometimes.

It's just our weakness.

Just our weakness.

You know, some of us, I think, are very aware of our weakness.

Right?

We know that we battle sin, we see our sin, it's in front of us constantly, and we're kind of worn down from all of that.

And maybe we kind of, you know, we pray about it and we're trying to bring it to the Lord and all of that stuff.

But I think sometimes we can kind of get caught in the trap and kind of our you know, Christianity and the communities that we're in.

We get caught in this trap of trying to keep up appearances, right?

Like I'm I'm a weak person here, but I feel like I need to like present this like rock solid, you know, picture of this person who's got it all together.

Right?

And I need to, you know, bring my family to church, and we need to, you know, look like we're the million-dollar family.

And the reality is there are major weaknesses in your life.

Maybe in your marriage, maybe it's in your in your parenting.

You know, or for you, you're weak, but you're you're just trying to be strong, but it's in your own strength.

Jesus says, Come to me with your weaknesses.

I know you are weak.

We are weak.

It's better for us to be open about all of that, not just with the Lord, but with others as well.

Again, for someone here today, the message for you is bring these burdens to the Lord and become a Christ follower.

Repent and turn of your sin that's that's against the Lord, hand over all of that, all those things that your heart is carrying.

The world will not solve those problems for you.

They will not give you what you are craving and yearn for most of all.

Allow the Lord to forgive you, receive that, allow him to be your savior.

Have him take these things off of your shoulders and onto his.

Again, for those of us who are saved, but we still kind of carry and lug these, you know, crushing burdens all around with us.

The message isn't become a Christ follower.

It's to remember that you are a Christ follower.

Right?

To continue to repent about how you've you know carried these burdens around with you, how you've you've tended to kind of you know slide back into legalism and thinking I gotta do a bunch of stuff for God or He's not gonna approve of me.

It's to remind yourself of the gospel and then he already approves of you, he already loves you.

And when we don't come to the Lord with these burdens, we don't come to Jesus.

We carry these weights that just kind of lurk around in the corners of our hearts.

And when we don't shine the light of the gospel on those dark areas and instead just continue to kind of carry them or try to fix them in our own misguided and kind of pride-fueled ways, right?

It just becomes like exhausting.

Like I almost want to, I'm not gonna get you to do this, but I almost want you to like put your hand up.

Like, do you feel that?

Like just, I'm wiped.

Because again, it's it's fruitless, it's it's destined to fail.

I mean, no wonder we get so spiritually weary and worn out.

Because we're carrying all these things around with us when we were never designed to carry them.

Right?

Only Christ can.

But hey, when I'm in that place, I will come to him with all the burdens I'm carrying and find satisfying relief under the yoke of his grace.

That's really the second thing here this morning.

Take a look at verse 29, then.

It says this.

It says, uh, Jesus says, Take my yoke upon you.

Now I think we've talked about uh what a yoke was or is uh before, but I think we have a picture of this uh for you.

You've seen this before.

A yoke is like uh, you know, used in farming uh back in the day, and uh now we use tractors, of course, for all of this, but you know, yoke was like that heavy kind of wooden cross beam that would go across the necks, across the shoulders of two plow animals.

I believe those are you know oxen or something.

Clearly I'm not a farmer whatsoever, right?

But that's what it would happen.

They would go across the necks of them and it would keep them, you know, kind of on a straight line together.

Right?

It would keep them from kind of going off and it would keep you know one from getting ahead of the other and all of that.

And listen, on top of that, okay, it was it was very much a key part of the harness, okay, that the that the farmer would use to you know to get the animals to submit uh to his guidance.

Okay, now on top of all of that, keep in mind here that a yoke was was often seen back in this day as uh as a symbol of oppression.

Right?

It was this it was this heavy thing, right?

It was this it was this weighty thing, and it was and you know, animals couldn't wait to get that off.

I mean, if you have a dog, you can't they can't wait to get the leash off, right?

That's the same kind of idea here.

But notice how Jesus is telling us here that his yoke is much different than that.

Right?

He says, Take my yoke upon you and learn from me.

And he's showing again that that ultimately we're to we're to submit ourselves to the lordship of Christ and learn from him, right?

When we become Christians, we are his we are his disciples.

Okay, but far from him being this like oppressive teacher or or or ruler, right, who crushes us with burdens and and and demands that we must accomplish, again, in order to earn his favor, his love, or his forgiveness, whatever, which again, mind you, is exactly what the religious leaders were saying to the Jews, right?

Instead, Jesus shows us exactly what kind of you know ruler, God, and teacher he is.

Right?

He's showing us what his yoke is like uh like.

He says there in verse 29, part way down, he says, for I am gentle and lowly or or humble in heart.

And when you come to me, you will find, you see that there?

Rest.

Right?

You will find satisfying relief, okay, continue there, for your souls.

He says, For my yoke is easy, meaning it's it's it's good, it's it's pleasant.

That's the kind of yoke that that I have, that I am, and and my burden or the load, right, the the weight that he places on us, he says, is is light.

Right?

So Jesus is saying here that when you and I come to him by faith, and when we submit to him and and we confess our sin and we you know offload or unload that that burden and the weight of all of that, you know, for our rebellion against him, for for trying to earn that love and that forgiveness, for trying to prove ourselves to him or make ourselves righteous in his eyes somehow, through through all the different self-effort ways that we do that, which again, that was the message that the Jewish leaders were peddling.

Right?

Remember how they were saying things like, you know, you've got to be circumcised to be in the true family of God.

You better do that.

You better, you know, adopt you know these Jewish customs.

They would say that to the Gentiles, right?

You've got to eat the foods that we've got to stay away from the foods that we stay away from if you want to be truly what loved, if you want to be a real Christian.

Right?

They were adding to the gospel, they were they were adding it, they were making it about works, right?

And that that works-based religion, again, is just something that wears us down.

Right?

Again, it's this exhausting thing spiritually.

It doesn't produce salvation, it doesn't produce joy, it doesn't produce rest, it doesn't produce relief.

None of that.

Jesus is saying here that when we take his yoke of grace, meaning that when we trust him again by faith and rest in what he accomplished, his finished work, not ourselves, not our self-righteousness, not our man-made efforts to get to God or get him to like us, when we do this, we're, you know, we find that that satisfying soul-level relief that we so long for.

Right?

The only soul-level relief, the only rest that exists in the entire universe.

Because again, we've stopped.

We've stopped trying to perform.

We stopped trying to earn his love.

Instead, as we understand the gospel, we've realized that he already loves us.

We realize that he's already given himself for us and he's granted us salvation as a gift, right?

That's that's grace.

And that's what his yoke is like.

It's easy.

Right?

It's light.

Because the forgiveness that you and I all know deep down that we need, right?

That that acceptance, the compassion, that love that we long for in our souls, and the security from all of that, that that brings us, as we understand the gospel, we realized He accomplished it.

Right?

It's done.

No more spiritual work required on our part.

Right?

And as you and I, as we begin to like absorb that and and and and rest in that in deeper ways, man, like what an amazing thing.

What relief that just again begins to kind of root itself deep down in our souls.

And then all of a sudden, as we're starting to get what Jesus did for us and we just receive it, all of a sudden, man, it becomes like, man, I want to obey now.

Now now I now I want to follow him.

Right?

And I want to do whatever he tells me to do, and it's my joy to do that, and my entire motivation begins to change.

Right?

No longer do I do I feel like I you know I have to obey, or else God is gonna smack me.

Or he might not forgive me, he may not love me.

Now I now I get to obey.

Right?

What a privilege.

Because I see that he's already granted me forgiveness, he's already poured his love into my heart through grace.

Right?

Those things are mine, those are things I can't lose.

Right again, as the gospel begins to click in kind of deeper ways for us, that that spiritual weariness, right?

That that feeling of being kind of worn out that we often feel when we're trying to earn it, right?

That that begins to lift.

Right?

That that burden, that that heavy, oppressive yoke uh lifts.

It gets it gets lighter for us and and we become energized.

Right?

Just like how, you know, when you're when you're when you're down and you're carrying the spiritual burdens and that wears you out spiritually, and it starts to wear you out mentally, and it wears you out physically, and you feel like your vitality is drained, when you start to take Christ's yoke upon yourself, that all reverses.

Right?

Mentally, all of a sudden you're thinking clearly again.

Physically, you have energy to serve him.

Like I want to do this, this is my joy.

I will I will go above and beyond.

It's the least that I can do.

And I am like, I am I am all about, all about living life in the power of his grace and for his glory.

Is this a message that you need today?

I can tell you that it's it's one I need.

Right, even just yesterday.

Right?

I had kind of a weird week, and I was away at a conference, and you know, there's just a whole bunch of things falling into this week, and you know, I got to the message like way, like, way later than I usually would, and I had you know way more to do in a short amount of time, and you know, I started feeling, you know, like I started feeling in my heart somewhere, uh, in in you know, my spirit, I started feeling like, man, I need to I need to prove myself as a preacher.

Right?

I need to prove myself to the Lord.

I need to show him that I'm that I'm capable of this.

I need to, I honestly, I need to show you a little bit too.

And I'm starting to feel that even as late as like yesterday afternoon.

And it kind of struck me here as I was kind of working through this.

I'm like, wait a second, I don't have to prove this to the Lord.

He doesn't need that from me.

Christ, I already have everything I need from him.

Right?

I don't need to prove it to him.

I don't even need to prove it to you.

You certainly don't need that from me.

You don't need me standing up here trying to, you know, act all strong and act like I've got all this together and I can do this.

No, you need you need a person who simply admits their weakness, understands that, understands that they got the love of God completely, that's resting under the light yoke of God's grace, and and and whose spirit is working through me to bless and edify the church.

But again, it's not really about me, it's just showing you how I am wrestling with it.

Right?

I've preached probably a thousand sermons, and to give you a sense, like less than 24 hours ago, I'm still kind of thinking through this kind of spiritual burden and weight that I've got to like unload.

And as I was beginning to do that, I'm starting to feel this like, ah, this relief, right?

This this rest.

And so I want to encourage you, this isn't this shouldn't be a heavy thing, but encourage you to really kind of think through the different ways that that kind of plays itself out in your life.

Think through what are the ways that you're trying to earn God's favor or prove yourself to him.

What are the weights that you're carrying around with you?

And remind yourself of the gospel.

Remind yourselves of what he has already accomplished for you to uh for you to his glory.