O Come All Ye...Burdened with Pastor Andrew Richardson

Welcome to the MetaCurch Podcast.

My name is Clayton.

I'm the pastor at MetaCurch, and I hope that today's message is inspiring and enlightening and really builds you up wherever you're at in life.

We're feeling good this morning, man.

It was awesome to be here with you today.

If you are at Holodas or Petranko Vineyard watching online, we're glad that you joined us here today.

Oh, my name is Andrew, and I absolutely love getting to be here.

I want to get the opportunity to be here.

Pastor Clayton has been someone that I have looked up to.

And I just want you to know this.

Maybe you've heard it, but just to be reminded, uh, God is doing something special here at MetaCurch.

God is doing something big and something special, and it's cool to see what God is doing.

So we're jumping into week two of a Christmas series.

Oh come all ye.

And in this series, we have been looking at the different things that we bring into this Christmas time.

Everyone thinks of Christmas or brings in different feelings to Christmas.

Last week, Pastor Tony did an amazing job where he unpacked who and what we are putting on the throne of our life.

And today we're gonna look at the scriptures and we're gonna see another aspect of Christmas.

And you know, Christmas time is meaningful for us as believers because it's during this time, it's during this season where we know that there is a Savior that has come to the earth in the middle of the mess, in the middle of our hurts, in the middle of our pains, and he has come down to this earth to be with us.

With the pressures and the exhaustion, all that we are feeling today, what this Christmas season can be, and what I hope you can leave today feeling as an encouragement, knowing that we have a God that has come down to this earth, and we get that from Matthew 1, verse 23 that says, See, the virgin will become pregnant and give birth to a son, and they will name him Emmanuel, with it, which is translated, God is with us.

Matthew 1:23

I want to be very clear from the beginning that we celebrate Christmas because there is a God that is with us.

But what about when we don't feel it?

What about in this Christmas time when we are just exhausted and you hear this idea that there is a God that is with us, but there is something inside of you that just doesn't feel like that.

So today my message is oh come all ye burdened.

Will you pray with me?

God, right now, in this moment, I pray that you begin to just be present here as you already are, God.

That you calm our hearts, God.

Whatever struggles or burdens or pains that we brought in here today, God, I pray that in this moment we can feel peace.

In this moment, as we unpack the your words together, that we can see how we can gain strength and peace in this season.

And in Jesus' name we pray.

Amen.

Amen.

So uh I love Christmas season.

Anyone love Christmas?

Yeah, we can interact today.

It's okay.

Yeah, yeah, okay.

I love Christmas, uh, specifically growing up as a kid.

I mean, what's not to like about Christmas, right?

You get school off and then you get presents.

Like that is just the best thing about Christmas.

But now, as we have uh now 13-month-old baby, uh, she has been doing great, but now that I have uh about a year-old baby, uh uh things are a little bit different, right?

We have family that are out of town, I have nieces and nephews, so a season that I loved because growing up it was a rest, it was peace.

Now, parents and people in the room, you understand it's a little chaotic, right?

There's a lot more that goes into it.

I just want to relax.

And don't get me wrong, I still love Christmas, but if we can get real here at Metachurch, there's an exhaustion that can come with Christmas.

Uh a pressure that gets added to us.

And we're hearing all about how great Christmas is, but there's something going on inside of us that is just, it begins to expose the pressure, it begins to bring about the exhaustion, it begins to let us understand all of the expectations that we have had, and maybe you're here and you really are feeling that pressure right now.

Maybe you walk into family gatherings feeling anxious, not knowing what's going to happen in those conversations.

You survived Thanksgiving, but Christmas is coming, right?

Or maybe your financial pressure is real.

You see all of the gifts that your kids are asking for, but you just look at the bank account and don't know how you're going to make it work.

Maybe you're navigating this holiday season as a holiday season without a loved one.

Maybe Christmas begins to bring up old wounds, old hurts, or there's anxieties that are keeping you up at night.

Or maybe you're that one person that, hey, I'm gonna make Christmas perfect.

Anyone that comes to my house, Christmas is gonna be perfect.

So then you start planning and spending all this money and doing all this, and you're then placing all the pressure on yourself, working yourself and running yourself to the ground.

And if we can be honest, we're here today and we're exhausted.

And this exhaustion it ties directly into our spiritual health and our relationship with God.

See, as I was thinking about Christmas, I don't know if we realize, but Christmas time is a time where Jesus is talked about more than any time in the year.

We're shopping and we're hearing Christmas music that's speaking about Jesus.

Maybe we see the Christmas pageants and the stories and the plays.

What are they doing?

They're sharing the story of Jesus.

Or we look at the nativity scenes that are on sale at the stores.

What are they doing?

They're displaying the birth of Jesus in a season where it's so clear, Emmanuel, God is with us in a season where Jesus is everywhere.

In that season, we're still tired.

I want to encourage us all today to be real, to come in here today, and to understand and to recognize that maybe we are exhausted, maybe we are tired.

So we're gonna look at Matthew 11, verses 28 to 30 here in a second.

Matthew 11:28–30

And I really believe that these words from Jesus can bring us true rest.

Before we get into this passage, we have to understand a little bit what is going on here in this passage.

So here in Matthew 11, we're stepping into the middle of Jesus' ministry.

If you know anything about Jesus during this time, he had been healing, he had been teaching, he had been uh sending out his disciples.

At this point, he wasn't just a new person walking around.

At this point, people were recognizing him, people were going to Jesus because they knew of the miracles, they knew of what Jesus could do.

And at this moment that we're gonna read here in a minute, Jesus is speaking to different people.

It's a mix of Jewish people and disciples who who are learning, and also there's the religious leaders.

And these religious leaders are those that are watching Jesus closely.

You ever have people like that in your life that are just waiting for you to say something and mess up?

No, no one here, right?

We're all we're all perfect, right?

No, but but but they were waiting, they were leaning in, they were trying to get Jesus to say things and watch him closely.

And it's in this crowd that people are spiritually hungry, they're confused.

In many ways, they're exhausted.

And right here in this moment, Jesus says something.

Jesus says something so impactful and powerful that when people are starting to question Jesus, to maybe go away from Jesus, to reject Jesus, he says something here in verse 28.

It's an invitation.

Come to me, all of you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest.

And there's so much here that we're gonna look at, but uh first I want to see the words come to me.

What we can get from this is that Jesus is offering an invitation.

I don't know if you've received invitations or if you sent out invitations, you know you have the list of people you want to invite.

I didn't get many growing up, it's okay.

I'm still recovering from not getting invited to things, but you know, invitations, you have certain people you were trying to invite, but what we have to know about this invitation is it's not exclusive.

This invitation is an invitation to all people.

He says, Come to me.

It's a universal invitation, he is inviting everyone, and this is not new to Jesus, this is not new to the ministry of Jesus.

If you were to watch what he did in his life and his ministry over and over, Jesus is someone who is actively seeking.

Jesus is someone who is actively inviting people.

He is continuing to say, Come to me, to the hungry, to the thirsty, to the curious, to the hurting, to the skeptic, to the exhausted.

His posture all throughout his ministry is come to me, come and see, come and drink, come and rest.

So maybe you're here and you have a view of Jesus, that he's someone that just forces something upon you.

I want you to know that he is not going to force this upon you, but he is offering it to you.

He's saying, Come to me.

It's an invitation, and hear me, this invitation is not an invitation just to a cool event or a cool party.

This invitation is one that can lead to true life transformation.

He's not gonna force it upon you, but he is offering it to you today.

So my question is, are you going to receive that invitation?

So, who is exactly he talking to?

He says, Come to me, all of you who are weary and burdened.

So, as your pastor teaches here often, uh it's important to engage with the text.

What is it saying?

And as I looked at this, I asked the question: why does Jesus say weary and burden?

Why does he say that at all?

Why doesn't he just say, Hey, come to me, everyone?

Why does he say weary and burden?

Well, if you look at who he's talking to, I think that the particular people in the audience really help us understand why he uses these words, weary and burden, and what this can mean for us today.

So, as we looked at earlier, these are everyday Jewish people.

They're also disciples and religious leaders.

And in this culture, they are living in a culture that has become shaped by the Pharisees, a group of religious leaders who are stacking rules and expectations.

Later in Matthew, it says that they tie up heavy burdens and leave people crushed by them.

So I love Jesus because he's recognized who he's talking to, the people that are around him, and they have been crushed by all of what's going on.

So when he says weary, he's talking to the people who are exhausted from striving.

Maybe that's you here.

Just trying to be good enough, trying to just keep every rule, just trying to measure up, trying to earn God's approval.

This exhaustion right here comes from your own effort of just trying to be good enough.

So speaking to the people that are weary, that are exhausted in their own selves, just striving, but he's also speaking to the people that are burdened.

And what this means is this burden, what this speaks to is to be crushed under the weight that others put on you.

I understand and I want to acknowledge that a lot of maybe the struggles you are going through in life right now maybe aren't situations you have put yourself in, but they are burdens and situations that have been put upon you.

So to be burdened by religious pressure, to be burdened by legalistic expectations, to be burdened by guilt and shame.

Know what that feels like, right?

This is the heaviness that comes from external demand.

So what he's doing is he's speaking to people, not only the unbelievers, but he's speaking to those who are worn out.

And he's speaking to those who also genuinely believed in God.

So there's a group of people that didn't quite know what they thought yet, but they were exhausted because they were striving, and then there's a group of people that are trying their best, but everything just keeps putting getting put right on top of them.

And here's the beauty about Jesus: He invites every single one of them.

Y'all, we serve a God that is come to this earth.

We serve a God that sees you in your exhaustion, that sees you in your pain.

We serve a God that not only sees you and leaves you there, but a God that offers an invitation.

So, what does this mean for us?

Maybe we're not going through exactly what's happening here, but maybe we're holding on to many pressures.

Trying to hold something together.

Or you're here and you've put these expectations on yourself.

Or you have listened to the opinions and the demands of others, and you've tried to perform, you've tried to succeed, or maybe you were trying to hold everything that is broken in your family.

So you hear this, but you're just so exhausted, you're just so tired because this Christmas season has brought out all the emotions, and maybe now you feel like you're the one that has to carry that.

And the same Jesus that's speaking to the weary and the burden at this moment is the same Jesus that's speaking to us today with whatever you were holding on to, and he offers this to you today.

He says, Come to me.

And you hear this often here at MetaCurch is that the ultimate rest, this is important.

The ultimate rest is the rest of our salvation that's found in Jesus.

And that rest is one that we cannot achieve on our own.

That is found through the perfect life, death, and resurrection of our Savior Jesus.

And when we believe in Him, that is secure.

It's not based on what we've done, it's based on who He is.

So if you're here and you haven't believed in that, you can experience that true rest today.

Just as Jesus in this passage is talking to those that might not believe yet, he's also speaking to us that if you don't believe, you can experience that rest, that ultimate rest today.

But he doesn't just stop there, he goes deeper, as Jesus often does.

And as he does that, he speaks to something.

How that we can truly experience this rest, and he's inviting us into something.

It's a daily rest at our soul level.

Let's continue.

Verse 29 and 30.

Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, because I am lowly and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls.

For my yoke is easy and my burden is light.

So, what he's doing here is he's using the illustration of a yoke.

And in this time period, they would have all known what that is.

It was like a wooden harness used for two animals so that they could walk together.

And what this yoke did is it wouldn't necessarily make it lighter, but it would then allow them to share to share the load, kept them moving in the same direction.

So we got this picture.

There's two animals, there's this yoke that is holding them together so they can be in the same direction, so they can help share share and carry the load that it's behind them.

So it's not making the work heavier, it's making it possible because the load is shared.

And this isn't just a farming tool, this was something that they talked about in this time in the Jewish culture, especially among rabbis.

It was a figure of speech.

It was a figure of speech that meant to enroll under a teacher, to learn the way of life, to submit to instruction.

So what he's doing when he says this is he's referring to this yoke that they would understand for animals and for farming, but also so that they would understand that it means to submit to and to enroll under a teacher.

And the thing about a yoke is the stronger animal always carried most of the weight.

The weaker one just had to stay close.

And that's the picture that Jesus is giving us.

See, he's not asking you to be strong enough, he's asking you to stay close enough.

I'll say that one more time.

It's super important.

He's not asking you to be strong enough.

He is asking you to stay close enough.

He's not asking you to carry more, he's asking you to let him carry what you can't.

See, the yoke is not about your strength, it's about your connection to his strength.

That is what it means to be aligned with him.

And he says this: it says, Take my yoke upon you and learn from me.

All right, so what is he talking about?

See these words, take and learn.

They are not passive, they require movement, they require intention.

This is important because maybe you've heard this verse before, you've heard it taught, or you've heard it around verse the day, whatever it is, and you're like, Cool, I love this.

I'm gonna give my burn us to Jesus and peace out, man.

I'm gonna go watch Netflix or the Spurs, right?

That's not exactly what this is saying.

What he is saying is not hand me your problems and leave now.

What he's saying is hand me your problems and walk with me.

Stand next to me, stay near me.

Align your steps with mine.

A yoke brings two animals side by side, helping them share the load.

It's not an image of just checking out and leaving, it's an image of connection.

So when Jesus says this, he is inviting us into a relationship where rest is not passive, it's relational, it's a way of life.

And hear me, there can be busy seasons that you can still find rest.

So I'm not talking about just clearing your calendar, I'm talking about aligning yourself with Jesus so he can carry the weight.

He's teaching us something significant is that you don't randomly drift into true rest, you walk into it with him.

Think about it like this.

Anyone gone to physical therapy recently, maybe?

I now have a kid, so my back hurts all the time.

I don't know why, but I'm just trying to pick up a toy and I'm like, what is going on?

Oh my goodness.

And then you know when your back hurts, you just get angry at the world, right?

Like that's me.

Um, so you know, going to physical therapy, this is what it would be like.

Be like you walk into physical therapy and you just announce, I'm here.

I mean, who does that?

But, anyways, let's pretend you announce I'm here, I'm at physical therapy.

You know what's gonna happen now?

I'm gonna go ahead and I'm gonna just take a nap, and then I'm gonna wake up, and this is all gonna be good, right?

My back's not gonna hurt anymore, no issues are gonna happen.

That's ridiculous.

They would look at you and they would say, No, that's not what's gonna happen.

What's gonna happen is I'm gonna instruct you on the stretches you're supposed to do.

I'm gonna guide you during this workout.

I'm gonna give you some pointers and some tips.

I'm going to help guide you.

Why?

Because healing comes from participation with the one who knows the way.

In the same way, when we're exhausted and tired and weary and burdened, no matter who we are, Jesus offers that rest, but he says, Walk with me, learn from me, stay close to me, and I will show you the way.

And that is how we can receive rest for our souls.

Let's continue and read when it says, and you will find rest for your souls.

For my yoke is easy, and my burden is life, is light.

And we've looked at what it means and how we can do that, but I really want to look at when he says, Find rest for your souls.

And this word rest really translates more, or this word soul really translates more to our inner being.

And what he's saying here is to receive a rest that goes deeper than just sleep.

And this word that he uses here for soul is one he uses often when he talks about gaining the whole world but losing your soul.

He's talking about the state of your soul, the state of what you are experiencing.

And what he's saying is that he can settle your soul.

And at some point in life, we know what that is like when our soul is just tired, and it's different than physical exhaustion.

Y'all don't know what I'm talking about when you actually get a full night rest, when you actually are eating right or doing the things you know you're supposed to be doing to feel better, but there's still an exhaustion.

There's still something that's keeping you up, that's that's weighing on you.

There's something deep in your soul that you don't know what it is, and you've tried everything, but you just still are overwhelmed and exhausted.

And when he's saying this, it's deeper than him saying, Hey, I'm gonna make it to where you clear your schedule and you can relax, or hey, you can finally take a nap.

No, he is saying, hey, you can actually experience something deeper.

You can actually be someone that That walks around in life when all the chaos is around, but have a peace and a rest for your soul.

Because we can be people that are aligning ourselves with Him.

And that is my prayer today, that in this moment that today God can begin to settle our fears and to settle our anxieties.

And to do that, we have to bring that to Him, to whatever is going on in life.

And I've shared with you before, last time I was here, that our daughter, as she was born, she was in a NICU for a while, and that started us in a season of just craziness.

Doctors' appointments and all of the things that came from that.

And I share that again because that has uh uh entered us into a season of just so much going on, of so much, maybe not getting as much rest, but what God has begun to show me, and I believe He can teach us all today, is it's not about what's going on around you that can dictate your rest, it's about how close you stay with Jesus that can dictate the true rest in our soul.

I know what it's like to just have the chaos around us and to not know what's gonna happen later today or tomorrow, but to just trust in Him.

And it's at that moment that we can experience rest for our souls.

It's in this holiday season where if we're honest, it just brings up everything.

We're restless, we're burdened.

And I just want you to know today that you can experience true rest today.

And at that moment, when you can experience that rest, it can refresh you, and that the chaos around you then has no match.

You know what happens when we walk in that rest is that the circumstances lose their power.

It's shame loses its grip, fear loses its volume.

We can gain peace and stability and confidence in Christ because of the rest that we find in Him.

It does not come from your situation changing, it comes from you being aware that God is in the middle of your hurts and your pain.

It's Jesus not changing what's around you, but changing you.

I want that rest.

I need that rest.

He says, Come to me.

And I will give you rest.

He offers that invitation to us today.

And maybe you hear this, and maybe you're a little skeptical.

And you go, okay, Andrew, cool.

That sounds great.

He says these words, I get that, I've heard that before, but how come we can really experience this rest?

We know that because Jesus wasn't someone that just said something, he actually showed us, and this really connects to the Christmas story because we read earlier in Matthew 1, and I want to look at this again because it really is important.

This is when the angel was talking to Joseph, and the angel was telling Joseph some instructions and quoting a prophecy, and says this see, the virgin will become pregnant and give birth to a son, and they will name him Emmanuel, which is translated, God is with us.

And the reason this is important is because the purpose of this book being written was to show the Jewish people and the whole world that Jesus was the promised Messiah.

And what Matthew is doing, and what he continues to do, is reach back into Old Testament prophecy and to show and to prove that this actually fulfills Scripture, to show us the Savior that Jesus came to be.

And right in the beginning of Matthew, he wants us to know something.

That Jesus didn't just come to this earth to correct us or come to this earth to lead us.

Yes, he did, but he came to this earth to be with us.

That is what Christmas is about.

It is God with us, it is God near us, it is God stepping into the world that we are in.

And the fulfillment of prophecy here is from Isaiah 7.

It says, See the virgin will conceive, have a son, and name him Emmanuel.

We see it from the Old Testament to hundreds of years later.

Y'all, the world that we are living in, the season we're in right now, we know there's hurts.

We know there's pains and anxieties and fears and restlessness.

And yet, from the very beginning, this was God's plan to send Jesus to the world to provide a way out.

We see during the Christmas season our Savior stepping into the middle of the mess to be God with us.

And when we know that, and we actually don't just hear that, but apply that to our life, then we know that we are not serving this distant mystical figure.

No, we are aligning ourselves with Emmanuel, God with us.

And when we do that, something shifts.

When we do that, we can begin to be people that know that not everything depends on us.

We can stop carrying the weights on our shoulders and stop thinking that rest is something that we achieve, but no, it is something that we receive.

And the reason this connection is important is because from Matthew 1 and prophecies before that, all the way to Matthew 11 and later, we know that God was always meant to be Emmanuel, God with us through Jesus, and we see this, and because of that, you were never walking alone, and not through grief, not through anxiety, through conflict, through disappointment.

The God that came to us at Christmas is the God that stays with us today.

And when we get that, when we truly understand that, we know that He is telling us today, Emmanuel, God with us is telling us, come to me and I will give you rest.

The one saying that is the one who confronted the religious leaders with truth.

The one who's saying that is the one who entered our world.

The one who is saying that is the one who stepped toward us and invites us to step to him, the one saying that is the one who carried the cross and was to carry our burdens, the one who's saying that is the one who comforts us, the one who's saying that is not just some random person, but it is our Savior Jesus who is saying, Come to me and I will give you rest for your soul.

I don't just want to hear these words, I want to experience it.

I want to be able to go and continue in this Christmas season and be someone that has true rest.

And what this Christmas season is a reminder of.

It's a reminder of God coming close to us so we can finally experience rest.

The gentle king born in a manger is the same teacher offering rest today.

As I was praying over this message, I really felt in my heart, you know, for the people that have been following Jesus for a while.

And that moment that you believed in him, you were you were excited, you got that rest, but then things started to drift.

And maybe you're here, and you feel like it's too late for you to experience that rest.

Like, like you know you're good, you you come to church, you do all the things that you know you're supposed to do, but still there's something inside of you that is like, no, I feel like it's too late for me to truly experience that soul rest.

Well, my prayer for you today is that in the middle of this busy season, that you can stop, that you can take a breath, and you can understand that the same God that offered you true rest and your salvation, however long ago that was, is the same God that's offering you that soul rest today.

Don't ignore it.

And maybe for some of you, as I speak this, as I say this, you hear these words, and you know that God has been calling you to do something.

You know, He's been calling you to maybe cut something out of your schedule or to meet with someone or to whatever that is, or maybe some of you, you you, if you're honest, there's not much about your schedule or your circumstances that you can change, and that is okay, but I believe that no matter who you are and what is going on, that God truly, Jesus truly is offering you rest today.

And maybe you've heard that, but are you actually going to live like that, aligned with Jesus?

Not just giving him your problems and leaving and going to get new ones so you can bring them back to him later, but to actually align yourself with him.

What would your Christmas look like?

Yo, what could our Christmas look like if we left here and truly lived this out?

Because he is God with us.

And he says, Come to me, all who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest.

Now, for those that don't know Jesus yet, today is the time, the day that you can take your first step in trusting in Jesus.

Jesus is inviting you in to believe in him, to follow him, to find ultimate rest in him.

So if you would all go ahead and pray with me.

If you've never had a moment in time where you've made the decision to trust in Jesus, that he's paid the price for your sins, and you and you're here today and you've heard this message, and you hear that there is a God that is Emmanuel, that is God with us, that then offers us rest in our hurts and our pains.

And if that's you today, and this is your day, and the spirit is stirring something inside of you to say, Jesus, I believe in you as my savior.

If that's you, could you just raise your hand today?

By raising your hands, you're saying that I put my faith in Jesus.

And for those that raise your hand, Jesus sees you, he accepts your faith, which means you have been given eternal life.

I want to pray this prayer.

For those that raise your hand, you can pray this prayer with me, and it's going to ask all the believers as well to pray this in the room if you can repeat after me.

Jesus, today I choose to put my faith in you.

I believe you are God.

That you came to the earth, that you died for my sins, I believe you rose again.

Thank you for loving me and forgiving me of my sins.

Amen.

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