The Weightless Ease of Real Christianity | Matthew 11:25-30 | Pastor Neil McClendon

Jesus didn't come to rub people's nose in their bad stuff.

He came to say, Hey, I'm inviting you to the good over here.

It's called the kingdom.

Your little kingdom is not big enough to satisfy you.

My kingdom is getting bigger and bigger every day.

And so instead of, oh, God's telling me to stop this bad stuff.

I got no pity for you, bro.

Look at me.

Here's why.

Because I'm praying and I'm encouraging you to ask, hey God, what's the good you're inviting me to?

This podcast is brought to you by Grand Parkway Baptist Church, helping people to know, enjoy, and glorify God.

For more information about Grand Parkway, visit our website at grandparkway.org.

Amen.

Let's pray together, Church.

Lord Jesus, we just tell you we could do that forever because we would never run out of things to say to you.

We all had a junior high relationship where we try to stay on the phone as long as we could, but we eventually fell asleep or ran out of things to say.

But we never run out of things to say to you, about you, and for you.

That's why when we say praise your name forever, we could do that.

We say that if we had a thousand tongues, it wouldn't be enough to tell you how much you mean to us.

But even though that's true, increase our capacity to worship you.

Give us more to appreciate about you, Lord, from your word and by your spirit.

This is what we're asking for.

So illuminate the text today, Lord, and give your people understanding.

This is our prayer.

We prayed in Jesus' name, and everyone said, Amen.

Amen.

You can have a seat.

If you got a Bible, I invite you to take it.

Open up to Matthew chapter 11.

Matthew 11 · chapter mention

And if you're our guest, let me say, Welcome.

We're so glad you're here.

We're teaching and preaching through the gospel of Matthew.

We're up to chapter 11.

We'll start this morning, verse 25.

I want to talk to you this morning about the weightless ease of real Christianity.

The weightless ease of real Christianity.

Because religion is heavy, but Christianity, there's an ease and a weightlessness to it that I think you'll see from the text this morning.

Now let me give you the context.

What's happened before was Jesus went into these cities and he demonstrated things that tell everybody know I'm the Messiah.

I'm the long promised one you've been hearing about in Sunday school since you were four, okay?

I'm here now, and so you can repent and give up your kingdom and live in my kingdom.

And they were like, thanks, bro.

We like our kingdom, we like being in control of our stuff.

Uh and so they did not repent.

And it was so obvious that Jesus demonstrated who he was.

He told these people, listen, if I'd done in Sodom and Gomorrah what I did in your towns, they'd have repented a long time ago.

Uh and so Jesus is coming off the heels of that, and he just kind of contends for what real Christianity is like.

All right?

Uh Matthew chapter 11, verse 25, he says, This at that time Jesus declared, I thank you, Father, Lord of heaven and earth, that you have hidden these things from the wise and the understanding and revealed them to little children.

Matthew 11:25

Yes, Father, for such was your gracious will.

All things have been handed over to me by my Father, and no one knows the Son except the Father, and no one knows the Father except the Son, and any one to whom the Son chooses to reveal him.

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.

Now, if we're going to understand the weightless ease of real Christianity, there's four things we have to see in the text today.

And the first one I want you to see is right there in verse 25 and 26 is this that salvation is for the for the childlike.

Salvation is for childlike people.

Keep in mind that Jesus is just finished talking to these cities who wouldn't repent because they didn't believe that Jesus was the Messiah.

They couldn't see Jesus for who he really was because it was hidden from them.

Now, these religious leaders and scholars of the day, they were intellectually arrogant, self-sufficient, secure in their own theological knowledge.

They were like, we're good, bro.

We appreciate the Jesus show, uh, but we're good.

We're gonna keep believing what we've always believed.

Now, the Bible's very clear here.

Now, I want you to listen carefully.

I don't want you to misunderstand what's happening, okay?

Because some of you, if you if you fade out and start thinking about football, like some of you gave up on the Texas-Ohio State game last night in about the third quarter.

And you woke up surprised this morning.

Uh and so just stay with me.

I don't want you to miss anything.

When I say that salvation is for the child, like, this is what I mean.

It says it right here in the thing.

It says that hey, he's hidden these things from the wise and understanding.

And not only has God done that, but Jesus thanks him for the fact that he's done that.

Now, God hides the truth from them by letting them rely on their own human wisdom, which cannot acknowledge spiritual realities like the kingdom of God.

And the reason it couldn't or they wouldn't is because it was a threat to their kingdom, okay?

Now, you may be thinking, well, that's kind of unfair for God to hide this from them.

And I would just ask this question: on what basis did they deserve it to begin with?

For something to be unfair, then it has to be fair for it to go this way.

You know, uh oh, it's only fair that.

Now, if you think that way, you're always gonna lack sufficient motivation for worship.

We'll get to that in just a minute.

But I just say it like this: man has always thought he was smarter than God.

Man has always thought he was smarter than God, such that when God revealed himself, man said, I appreciate that, but I'm gonna keep believing what I believe.

The book of Romans says it like this in verse chapter 1, verse 21.

It says, For although they knew God, now that's not Christian's knowledge, that's not covenantal knowledge.

That is, they knew that there was a higher power, God existed, blah, blah, blah.

For although they knew God, they did not honor him as God or give thanks to him, but they became futile in their thinking and their foolish hearts were darkened.

Claiming to be wise, there we are again.

It's like going to the Grand Canyon to feel good about yourself.

Claiming to be wise, they became fools, and they exchanged the glory of the immortal God for images resembling mortal man and birds and animals and creeping things.

Now, what what what's that last part?

That's kind of creepy right there.

Speaking of creepy things, they exchanged the glory of a mortal God for images resembling mortal man and birds and animals and creeping things.

What the Bible's telling us there is that when you refuse to honor God, it's not that you'll worship nothing, it's that you'll worship anything.

So, what goes in this big God void, this God space for these people, the Bible called it idolatry because they they had images that resembled man, birds, animals, and and creeping things.

Again, when you refuse to honor God, it's not that we'll worship nothing.

Uh okay, I I I'm a nihilist or I'm a nun.

Is it where they they they check the box on the survey now?

No, you're not.

You worship something, okay?

God reveals saving truth based on a person's heart attitude rather than intellectual capacity or education.

Don't miss what Jesus is saying here.

Salvation is not something that's only for real smart, educated people who've got their act all together.

Matter of fact, it's so simple that children can understand it.

Allow me to demonstrate.

Uh, the the the father of intelligent of the intelligent design movement was a man named Philip Johnson.

Philip Johnson uh was a law professor at UC Berkeley.

UC Berkeley, when I say UC Berkeley, do you understand what I'm saying when I say that?

Say amen.

Like there's Harvard, and if you get into UC Berkeley, you say no to Harvard.

Because Harvard is just overrated.

UC Berkeley is one of the most, it's the intelligentsia uh-uh-uh of the country there.

And so he's 39, he's a tenured law professor at UC Berkeley, he is an avowed atheist, agnostic, he is skeptical, he he he's like, dude, I don't need any of this.

And then he goes on a sabbatical uh to England, and and when he was there, one of the things that began to speak to him was the architecture of the churches.

He began to realize this is all kind of there might be something here.

He comes back to California and his daughter, Katie, goes to vacation Bible school down the street in a little church outside their neighborhood.

And on Thursday night, they had a little program.

Program all came together, the kids are up there singing, and he was in the audience watching his daughter sing.

Now no one knew, like I don't know, no one knew what was going on in the heart of this man because he was this, he was the father of the all-well intelligent design.

We don't need God.

I can explain it all to you.

He was the guy, the intellect that pioneered all that belief, okay?

All that theory.

And so he is in the crowd.

No one knows what's going on in his heart.

He no one knows that when he was in England, God began to reveal himself to him.

I don't know what's going on in your heart, but I do know this that God reveals himself.

And when he reveals himself, it comes in different ways.

But you here's what here's what it feels like.

You begin to realize that God speaks a language that you understand.

And he's out in the crowd, no one knows what he's been dealing with.

He's starting to realize maybe what I believe and teach is really not true after all.

Looks up on the stage, his daughter Katie is singing with a bunch of other boys and girls, and they're singing this song.

Jesus loves me, this I know, for the Bible tells me so.

Little ones to him belong.

They are weak, but he is strong.

And in that moment, Philip Johnson realized, I'm weak.

And God is strong.

And that's when he came to faith.

A writer writing about this experience described it like this: He said, Witnessing the pure, uncomplicated faith and joy with which she sang the words made him realize that his own intellectual pride and hyper-rationalism were keeping him from a profound truth.

He realized he wanted the same genuine relationship with God that his daughter possessed, which led him to finally put his faith in Christ.

Now, uh, allow me to remind you of the second verse of that powerful psalm because it captures the simplicity of the gospel.

And this is why I say to you this morning that one of the first things the Bible teaches us is that salvation is for the childlike.

What do you mean, the second verse?

It says this Jesus loves me, he who died, heaven's gate to open wide.

He will wash away my sin and let his little child come in.

If you hear anything today, matter of fact, the rest of the sermon, you should be asking.

If you're an atheist, a diagnostic, you're jaded, you're cynical, you've grown up around religion, and your heart is hard toward it, you're just like, you people are all hypocrites.

Just ask this God to reveal himself to you, to speak a language that you understand, because it is that simple.

That is the good news of Christianity: that Jesus loves you.

He died for you, he will wash away your sins, he opens up the gate of heaven and he waves those big windmill arms of grace like a third-bade coach at baseball.

It says, Come on in, man.

Come on.

This is what you were created for, okay?

This is what it means when the Bible says that, hey, salvation is for the childlike.

He hides it from the know-it-alls and he reveals it to little kids.

Secondly, salvation requires revelation.

Salvation requires revelation.

What do you mean?

It's verse 27.

Jesus says, All things have been handed over to me by my Father.

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.

Now, one of the biggest issues with salvation these days is that too many people want to take credit for it.

You do, the church does, preachers do, preachers are the worst.

Uh somebody asked me recently, he said, Hey, how many, how many, how many people came to Christ this pasture at Grand Park?

Well, I said, I don't know.

I'm sure some did.

I'm sure some saw their friends getting baptized and thought, I want to do that.

Let's just give us some time and we'll see who's bearing fruit and keeping repentance and who's walking under the yoke of Jesus and enjoying Jesus even more.

And they're like, So you don't have like a number?

No.

No.

No, but I do know this every time the Bible's taught that God's revealing himself to people.

And I matter of fact, I think there's people in my congregation that have been in church their whole life, they've never given their life to Jesus.

They've given their attendance and their affection to church, but their hearts never really been converted.

Because salvation requires revelation.

Well, see, again, one of the biggest issues with salvation these days is that everyone wants to take credit for it.

You do, the church does, preachers do, and God does.

God wants to take credit for it.

I say it like this: your salvation is as secure as the nature of the person you believe to be responsible for it.

Let me say it again.

Your salvation, my salvation, is as secure as the nature of the person you believe to be responsible for it.

Somebody asked me a while back, they said, Have you ever doubted your salvation?

I said, Not a day in my life.

And they kind of looked at me like, easy, bro, that's kind of arrogant.

Not really, because I know it had nothing to do with me.

And it's not rooted in me in my nature.

I know that God revealed himself to me in mercy, so I don't doubt it.

I've never doubted.

And I'm not saying you're bad if you've doubted it.

I'm just saying that when because I was such a wretched sinner.

I couldn't hide that.

I grew up in a small town.

Everybody knew it.

When I came to faith, I didn't have, I had to explain why I was no longer doing these things.

They were like, are you?

I mean, when I went to my high school to get my transcript because I wanted to go back to college, I wanted to go back, I wanted to go to college.

My high school principal, okay, I did not, I didn't become a believer until after I graduated.

My high school principal threw my transcript on the floor, school teachers, and he said, I'll give it to you for free because you'll be dead or in the pen by the time you're 21.

I went to public school, kids.

Yes, yes.

And so I knew there's no within me, there is no good thing.

But God revealed himself to me.

Salvation requires revelation.

Let me define those two words, salvation and revelation.

First of all, salvation, what is that?

It refers to God's act of delivering people from sin and its consequences through faith in Jesus Christ.

This is what I mean when I say salvation.

It's God's act of delivering people from sin and its consequences through faith in Jesus Christ.

It's about being brought into a relationship with God because we're all born outside of a relationship with God.

You'll hear this a lot in the culture.

Well, we're all God's children.

No, we're not.

We're God's creation, but we are not God's children.

Matter of fact, the Bible goes so far to say we are by nature God's enemies.

We're born alienated, separated from God because of our sin.

Now, this is not something, a relationship with God is not something we achieve through effort, self-hatred, or moral improvement.

It's something that God freely gives.

Now, I understood this.

I'd heard about this watching Oprah years ago.

Yes, I was just flipping channels one day, an Oprah was on, and for some reason I stopped.

And I was like, What?

And then not long after that, I was on an airplane, okay?

And I was minding my own business, and we got about 30 minutes into the flight.

It's like a two and a half, three-hour flight.

Pulled out my Bible, started reading my passage I was going to preach on when I landed.

Uh, and this lady next to me was dressed really nice.

She was very demure, very quiet, very business-like.

Uh, and and and and she kind of looked over like, oh, you got a Bible out.

And I was like, Did I make it awkward?

I almost said, she kind of looked at me and I almost said, I'm on the aisle seat because I have more miles than you.

But I didn't.

I just let it hang in the air.

And and she looks over and and and it we kind of made eye contact, and and she said, So is that a part of what you do for a living?

I said, Yeah, very much so.

It's a big part of what I do for a living.

I said, Tell me what you do for a living.

And she said, I'm a procurement specialist.

And I was like, A, I need to get a better job title.

And I said, I am lost right there because I don't fake it, but I am curious.

I'm not nosy, but I am curious.

And I said, A procurement specialist?

What exactly is that?

And she said, Well, because she was reading like Wine Spectator magazine or something, had her little glasses on.

And she said, Actually, I procure specialized items for high-end individuals.

And all of a sudden, I hated my job and wanted hers.

And I said, What exactly does that mean?

Like in English, and she said, Well, if a man wants to get his wife a rare piece of art for the 20th anniversary, I find what auction it's on it it's on sale for, whether it's Sotherby's or Barney's or blah, blah, blah, blah, blah.

And I go, I'm the one that raises the paddle and I buy it for an undisclosed buyer.

She goes, I've got watches, purses.

She goes, I bought a purse for a man, it was$17,000.

And I was like, How about a$50 purse and$16,950 in the purse?

I didn't say that.

I was just like, this is actually fascinating.

And I said, So you give people presents.

And she said, Well, actually, there's a difference in a present and a gift.

At this point, I am I'm hooked.

I'm like, keep talking, Susie.

And I said, Well, okay, what's the difference in a present and a gift?

She goes, A present, your name is Neil, right?

I said, Yeah.

She said, Neil, a present is something that I know you want, and I go get it for you and I present it to you.

That's a present.

That's why it's called a present.

And I'm like, okay.

And then she said, But a gift is something that you have no idea it's coming, but I want you to have it, so I get it to you.

I purchased it for you and I gift it to you.

And sitting next to a procurement specialist on a plane at 33,000 feet, I understood salvation in a whole new way.

This is why the Bible says salvation is a gift, not a present.

Ephesians chapter 2, verse 8 and 9 says this for by grace you have been saved through faith.

Ephesians 2:8

This is not your own doing, it is a gift of God, not a result of work, so that no man may boast.

Now, there's four things about salvation you have to understand.

Number one, salvation requires faith in God.

This is why he says, For by grace you are saved through faith.

It requires faith in God more than you have in yourself.

Second thing about salvation, there's nothing we can do to cause our salvation.

For by grace you've been saved through faith, and this is not your own doing.

Like I have a friend, we're probably more of an acquaintance, and he's not a Christian.

He used to identify as an atheist or an agnostic.

He pings back and forth.

I'm like, they're different, but okay.

Uh and so we had lunch a while back, and he said, So I mean, I no longer, I mean, I know there's something, but I'm not quite there yet.

What do I do?

I said, just I'm I'm gonna keep praying.

You keep praying, God, please reveal yourself to me.

If you're really real, reveal yourself to me.

What I did not do is pull out a little religious pamphlet called a tract, open it up and say, You see, man is sinful and separated from God and the wages of sin is dead.

No, I'm not trying to argue him into the kingdom.

I said, He said, So what I said, man, he said, How do I know?

This is a great question.

He said, How do I know God's revealing himself to me?

I said, You'll find it harder and harder to enjoy your sin.

He was like, What?

And then he paused and he went, I actually I know what you're saying.

I said, It's a sign, it's mercy.

Sin doesn't appeal to you, or even if it appeals to you, it doesn't satisfy you like it once did.

It's a sign God is ruining you for this ordinary life, and he's calling you in to this extraordinary new life called Christianity.

He's like, Okay.

So there's nothing we can do to cause our salvation.

The third thing you should know about salvation from this passage, it's a gift, not the result of our works.

And this is not your own doing, it is a gift of God.

And it's not your own doing, it is a gift of God.

Can you imagine someone giving you a gift and then you're taking credit for it?

For example, can you imagine if if someone walked up to you after church today and said, Hey, Bill, I understand you really like Tahoe's.

I got you a fully loaded top-of-the-line LT trim package, RS1, whatever they're called.

I had a red line, my look up and go, what is that?

Uh, and handed you the keys, and it's brand new.

You know that, you know what a new car smells like?

Say amen.

It smells like debt.

Dave Ramsey on line one.

Uh uh, no, can you just imagine?

Just go with me for a minute.

You're just like, oh my gosh, this is my fantasy vehicle, and this guy dropped it on me.

I don't know who you are, but thank you.

And then you went to work tomorrow, and one of your friends said, Hey Bill, how was your weekend?

You said, Oh, I bought myself a new Tahoe.

You walk in, and somebody said, Hey, Bill, you smell like you sm you smell like you got some new cologne.

No, that's leather, is what that is.

Because my new Tahoe is pimped out with all leather in it.

My my my my my Honda smells like pleather, but this is real leather.

And you spend all day telling people about how you saved your money and sacrificed and you invested and you got the money, and then you bought yourself this new Tahoe.

At this point, you should be thinking, what are you obsessed about a Tahoe for?

I'm not.

Some of you, that's the way you talk about your salvation, like you bought it.

And the God who gifted it to you is offended when you do that because you're robbing him of the glory of your conversion.

It's a gift, not a result of your works.

And then he says this, so that no one may boast.

So that no one may boast.

Now, I have friends that are snarky.

You know what snarky means?

Yeah, it's like your kids.

They get an attitude, and you want to grab them by their fat little face and say, I am your mother.

You do not talk to me that way.

This is pain.

This is at a three.

You want me to go to seven?

Your molar's gonna dislodge in the back.

No, I got some friends that are snarky, and they pop off about God.

And I'm like, oh man, you're bringing Kool-Aid to a gin party, punk.

Go ahead.

And they're like, What's your God so insecure?

You have nothing to boast about.

I'm like, oh, we can't boast, but we can worship.

See, all the unconverted person can do is boast.

They brag about their accomplishments, their achievements, and their experiences.

A Christian worships.

They don't want to boast.

You want to say things like, like, some of y'all are mad at Click, we we could have sang in those stands of 04,000 tongues to sing.

We didn't get to my favorite verse there.

You're like, oh man.

Oh, so many people grew up in church, we started singing at Calvary, you were like, Oh, that's that's that's hymn number 166 in the Baptist hymnal.

I'm gonna get my praise on here.

Get these kids up off of mama.

Whoa! Mercy there was great, and grace was free.

Pardon there was multiplied to me.

There, my burden so found found a liberty at Calvary.

Yeah, yeah.

See, a converted person doesn't want to boast, but they do want to worship.

See, this is four things about salvation.

I wanted to find two words salvation and then revelation.

Revelation, not like the last book in the Bible.

Like, like here's what revelation means it's an unveiling or an opening of a curtain where you just kind of pull the Curtain back, and you're like, oh, oh my gosh.

See, instead of leaving people to guess who he is and what he's like, God takes the step of communicating with us.

And there are two things that God reveals uh that lead to salvation.

Number one, God reveals himself, uh, and then number two, God reveals our true self.

This is why the Bible says in James, it says if you read this, it's like looking into a mirror.

You ever read that part?

The Bible reveals yourself to you.

So when God reveals, I said revelation, it's not some kooky kind of thing.

No, God reveals himself.

Think of Isaiah in Isaiah chapter 6.

Isaiah 6 · chapter mention

He says, In the year that King Uzziah died, I saw the Lord high and lifted up, and the train of his robe filled the temple.

And above him were seraphs, angelic beings, flying with two wings that covered their feet, with two wings that covered their face, and with two wings they flew, and they were crying out to one another: Holy, holy, holy is the Lord God Almighty.

The whole earth is full of his glory.

He re God revealed himself to Isaiah, and Isaiah saw himself.

See, when God reveals himself, you see yourself.

The reason some of you are cocky and arrogant and self-assured is because God's never revealed himself, so you're still full of yourself.

You've never been drained of yourself.

The rules don't apply to you because your parents are cowards and they didn't apply the rules to you.

So you're like, hey God, you know, check me out.

I mean, it was leg day at the gym.

Get a load of these quads.

And you can't feel what a clown you are in the eyes of God.

He's so merciful.

But Isaiah says, Oh my God, my eyes have seen the king.

I'm ruined, I'm undone.

I'm a man of unclean lips, and I live among a people of unclean lips.

What am I gonna do?

And merciful God sends an angel with a coal hot off the altar and says, Oh, your lips are unclean, pucker up.

Yes.

See, when God reveals himself, there's two things that God reveals that lead to our salvation.

He reveals himself and he reveals our true self.

We should learn to discern which one of these a person needs to see more clearly, God or themselves.

When people come to my office for counseling, I'm always in my spirit, I'm asking two questions.

Does this person need to see God more clearly, or do they need to see themselves more clearly?

I'm not reading the DSM 7 manual trying to diagnose your mental health status.

That's not my training.

My training is does this person need to see God more clearly, or do they need to see themselves more clearly?

Because this is the essence of the revelation that God gives.

Now, by the way, I know that it can sound verse 27.

Are you still with me?

Say amen.

Verse 27, see if you stop at verse 27, you're out of balance and you miss the beauty of the gospel, okay?

Because there's people that read verse 27, no one knows the father except the Son, and no one knows the Father except the Son, and anyone to whom the Son chooses to reveal him.

This is what I mean when I say salvation is about revelation.

Absolutely, okay?

Uh unmistakably, never, I I don't absolutely, that is the Bible, okay?

So some people say, Well, well, if well, if God, what about what if someone wants to become a Christian, but God doesn't reveal himself to that person?

And I just asked this question, listen very carefully.

I asked this question.

Uh well, on what basis can this person have a desire for God if God's not already revealing himself to this person?

So don't get all caught up in your theological underwear about, well, are you a Calvinist or or 15 yards for being a Calvinist?

No, I'm not a Calvinist.

So when you walk up to me in the lobby, everyone's like you're selling drugs and lean over and go, hey Pastor, are you a Calvinist?

And I've I've read it a couple times, but that word's nowhere here in the Bible.

No, I am a Biblicist, though.

I do believe what the Bible says.

And the Bible says that salvation is about revelation, not discovery.

I did not find Jesus, He found me.

And I remember being Christian like 10 minutes, and we were singing out of that little faded burgundy book on the back of the pew called a hymnal, and we sang a song that says, Years I spent in vanity and pride, caring not my Lord was crucified, knowing not it was for me he died at Calvary.

And I was like, Whew.

I wasn't boasting.

I was weeping because I was like, What?

I wasted 18 years of my life not caring about the thing that matters most.

But here's the thing you'll never meet anybody who says, I want to become a Christian, but God just hadn't revealed himself to me.

Because any desire for God is a sign that God has revealed himself to that person.

And so if you're here today and you're like, hey, I'm not there yet, there's no pressure.

Do I want you to come to faith?

Absolutely.

But when I say God reveals himself, I mean God speaks the language you understand.

And look at me.

When he speaks that language, you are responsible for what you do with it.

Here's the third thing I want you to see in the text today.

See, this is where the balance comes in.

All are invited into a relationship with Jesus.

All are invited into a relationship with Jesus.

Verse 28, come to me, all who labor and are heavy laden.

Remember, I said a minute ago, I said, hey, if you don't keep verse 27 and verse 28 together, uh, you lose the balance and the beauty of the gospel.

Here, verse 27 again.

All things have been handed over to me by my father, and no one knows the Son except the Father.

No one knows the Father except the Son, and anyone to who the Son chooses to reveal him.

My Calvinist friends love that.

Well, if God wants to save the elect, he's going to.

I don't have to do anything.

Look at verse 28.

Same Jesus, same train of thought.

Come to me.

What's the next word?

Uh one more time.

Come to me, what?

All.

Come to me, all who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest.

All are invited into a relationship with Jesus.

See, we got to learn to look for, listen for, and ask two questions of people.

What are they laboring for and what is weighing you down?

What are you laboring for?

And what's weighing you down?

Like this happened the other day.

Like when you're laboring, like, ah, I'm striving, I'm trying, and then what's weighing you down?

I was driving on 59, minding my own business, and all of a sudden I'm doing like the speed limit plus two or three or eight miles.

Uh, and all of a sudden, a car comes flying by me, and it is loaded so far down in the back that the bumper's almost dragging on the asphalt.

And I just got curious and sped up.

And I was kind of like, what is in the back?

Why is this thing so laden down?

I'm like, are they smuggling people out of Mexico?

I should follow them and call Donald Trump and get them deported.

I got so curious, I missed my exit on purpose.

I followed them for five extra miles.

Finally, we're we're heading to downtown Houston.

I went, I could get shot.

Let me just take the next exit.

But look at me.

When you see people that are heavy laden, when they're they're weighed down, this should make you curious, not condemnatory.

You shouldn't be like, oh my God, man, right?

You should be curious, like, hey man, you seem kind of heavy.

Is everything okay?

Because Jesus says, Hey, come to me, all you that labor and are heavy laden, because all are invited into this relationship with Jesus, okay?

So if you see someone coming towards Jesus, you can know that God's revealed himself to that person.

I'm not so sure.

I'm not sure why this becomes so controversial for a lot of people nowadays, but none of us are helped by denying what the Bible clearly teaches.

And here's the thing we don't talk about enough.

Look at what he says there.

He says, Come to me, all you that labor and heavy laden, and I will give you rest.

How do you define rest?

Because, see, here's something about rest.

Rest is both a promise and a punishment in the Bible.

This is not in your outline.

I was sipping my coffee by 6:30 this morning, and the Lord's like, hey, write this down.

I was like, okay.

Rest is both a punishment, a promise, and a punishment in the Bible.

What do you mean?

In the book of Hebrews, he says, there's a rest for the people of God.

That's a promise.

There's a rest, not a nap, a rest.

This this state of being.

There's a rest for that's the promise.

And then God punishes people and he says, they will never enter my rest.

You should ask yourself today, hey, have I ever entered into the rest of God?

Am I just resting?

You say, okay, well, I don't know what that means.

Here's my definition for rest.

Rest is the experience of sitting down on the inside and living in a state of calm and patient expectation.

Rest is sitting down on the inside and living just in this state of calm and patient expectation.

Now, here's the last thing that the Bible says.

Now, by the way, people that I'm not going to get into this, I'll talk about tomorrow on a podcast, but look at me.

People that never entered into God rest, you have what's called a shadow self.

And you pushed a lot of things into your shadow self.

Things that you like.

I couldn't bring this out in public and talk about it.

I couldn't tell my spouse about this.

I couldn't tell my friends about this because you feared their rejection, okay?

And so you just push it over here on the down low into what's called in the therapeutic world in the shadow self.

And some people have a very developed shadow self because they struggle with a lot of shame and a lot of fear of rejection.

If they knew, what would they do?

So you manage people's impression of you by pushing things down here into the shadow self.

That's not rest.

That's like going to the swim pool and you're a little kid trying to hold the beach ball under the water.

Remember that?

When it gets away from you, it pops up and you're like, oh my gosh.

Hey, look at me.

Exert yourself.

Some of you are laboring to keep it on the down low.

That's why you're so tired.

You're not, you haven't entered into God's rest because you're laboring so hard to just keep pushing it over here where nobody knows.

And I just say to you that rest is both a promise and a punishment.

And some of you are punishing yourself because you've never entered into God's rest.

Here's the fourth thing I want us to see in the text today.

Uh, is that this relationship shows itself in discipleship.

This relationship shows itself in discipleship, okay?

It's not about what you did a long time ago, it's about who you're becoming and who you become since in.

Verse 28 says, Come to me, y'all who labor and are heavy laden, 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.

Now, this relationship shows itself in discipleship.

When Jesus said, My yoke is easy, look at me.

He's not saying like the yoke that they used to put over two oxen, like, get in here and we're gonna strive together.

No.

No.

The yoke is referring to his teaching.

You say, How do you know that?

Because he says, right here, he says, uh, the his teaching, what we call the gospel, the good news of Christianity.

It refers to Jesus' teaching.

Here's how we know that because he says, Take my yoke upon you and learn from me.

Not learn about me, like history, learn from me.

Relationship.

Big difference in those two.

And see, when I say it shows itself in discipleship, this is what I mean, okay?

It's not cherry-picking uh five manageable commands out of the Bible, like a guy said to me one time, well, I know the Bible says God is love, and so my goal is just to be a very loving person, so I think I'm good.

And I just lovingly tell you, you're not good.

That is not the gospel, that is not Christianity at all.

Well, what is it?

It's submitting and subjecting your life to the whole entire teaching of Jesus.

This is what he means when he says, Take my yoke upon you and learn of me.

Uh, no one knew this better or more than a man named Dallas Willard.

Dallas Willard's written a lot of books.

He taught at the University of Southern California.

He says that he called it the easy yoke.

He said this.

He said, The easy yoke of Jesus is an invitation to learn an entire lifestyle of living and working in God's unforced rhythms of grace, bringing the kingdom to bear on all the areas of your life and the people you encounter rather than straining under heavy religious burdens.

Hear that last part again.

Bringing the kingdom to bear on all areas of your life and the people you encounter rather than straining under heavy religious burdens.

I wonder if any of you here today are straining.

Any of you watching online are straining under heavy religious burdens, because that's what religion and religious people do.

It's not what Jesus did, it's not what he saw.

Matter of fact, when he saw it happening, he spoke to it.

This happened in Matthew 23.

We'll get to this later on, but he said this in Matthew 23.

Then Jesus said to the crowds and to his disciples, the scribes and the Pharisees, the religious lecturers and professors of the day, they sit on Moses' seat.

They're tenured professors.

We can't fire them.

So do and observe whatever they tell you.

Show respect to their position, but not the works they do.

Do not imitate the person.

Why?

For they preach, but they do not practice.

They tie up heavy burdens, hard to bear, and lay them on people's shoulders, but they themselves are not willing to move them with their finger.

Now, the people that Jesus is talking to here in Matthew 11, they know all of this, okay?

And so when Jesus drops this bomb on them, 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.

Hey, by the way, this is free.

A sign that you're growing in your understanding of and experience of Jesus is that initially he says, Come to me and I will give you rest.

But as you mature as a Christian, you learn to find rest.

Do you hear the difference?

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

But as you mature as a Christian, you learn to find rest.

You don't need people to tell you, oh, this is what you need, and this is what and it, no, no, no.

You learn to find rest.

Because he says, Hey, learn from me.

I'm gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls.

And then he drops this on us, for my yoke is easy and my burden is light.

If you had to take two words to describe the Christian life, what would you pick?

I asked my wife earlier this week.

We're talking about today, and she said, How are you feeling?

How can I be praying?

And I said, Well, what two words would you pick to describe what it's like to be a Christian?

She said, Some words that sounded good, like she had learned them in Sunday school as a kid, and I enjoy just going, ah, wrong.

Are you gonna tell me?

I'll tell you on Sunday if you come to church.

Yes.

Hey, I'm just about done.

Look at me.

Especially if you're here and you're an atheist, you're an agnostic, you're jaded, you're cynical, you think everybody here's a hypocrite, and I'm the biggest one of all.

Hear this.

Jesus said, there's two words to describe what this is like: easy and light.

Verse 30.

Take my yoke upon you and learn to me.

For my yoke is easy and my burden is light.

Christianity, being a Christian, is easy and light.

Like I have a friend that lives with his girlfriend.

Okay?

And we get together and have lunch, and it's the one topic he wants to avoid.

And so, because I'm like Gus from Lonesome Dove, I like to kick a pig every here and again.

I say, Hey, how's the living together going?

And he's like, Come on, bro, you gotta bring that up.

I'm like, not bringing it up, doesn't make it not exist.

How's it going?

He goes, Oh man, I mean, I mean it's okay.

I mean, every once in a while she cries, you feel bad because she's lying to her grandmother.

She won't tell her grandmother we're living together.

Now, by the way, if you're in the room, you're living together, look at me.

I ain't mad at you.

I'm not gonna find you in the lobby and go, you sinners, come here, let me talk to you.

But I will tell you this, okay, because how many of you, when I say Christianity is easy and light, if you're like, mmm, I don't know about that, say amen.

Yeah, some honest people, and you're like, I feel like I'm carrying a telephone pole around all day.

Now, here's what makes it light, and here's what makes it easy.

Anytime you hear the gospel, you come to church, or you hear the gospel taught, and it convicts you of something, it points out something and says, Hey, that's wrong, that's sin, that's bad.

Don't focus on that.

Okay?

Stay with me.

We're almost done.

Don't focus.

Oh, the Bible says that's wrong, that's sin, that's bad.

Oh, can you believe the preacher said that?

Ah! Some of you, I know this about you.

Some of you, I'll say something you don't agree with.

You'll go to one of our elders and ask them about Neil's sermon.

Yes.

And I'm like, they can come to me.

And then the elder goes, Why don't they come to you?

Because they don't want the truth.

They want you to rescue them from the gospel.

Please, to agree with me, he's harsh.

I'm easy and light.

And you're a bunch of liars.

No.

So if you're living together, I would say the same thing, but I say my friend's living with his girlfriend.

And it's just simply this instead of getting pseudo-offended, like, oh, this is bad and sin and wrong, it's all those things.

You should really ask yourself, and hey, what not what is the bad that Jesus is pointing out?

What is the good that God's inviting me to?

This is always the way God operates.

He's like, come again.

Stop crying, okay?

Because I ask you, how's the shacking up going?

Well, men don't like that language.

So what?

You have you language it ain't gonna change the nature of it.

Stop crying about the sinful and the bad and the wrong.

Ask yourself, what is the good God is inviting?

Here's what makes it light, people.

And by the way, this is why Jesus came.

You're like, what do you mean?

The first recorded words of Jesus, Matthew 4, verse 17.

Matthew 4:17

Repent.

Repent.

Stop doing it.

Repent.

Why?

Because the goodness called the kingdom of God is here.

And so people didn't, Jesus didn't come to rub people's nose in their bad stuff.

He came to say, hey, I'm inviting you to the good over here.

It's called the kingdom.

Your little kingdom is not big enough to satisfy you.

My kingdom is getting bigger and bigger every day.

And so instead of, oh, God's telling me to stop this bad stuff.

I got no pity for you, bro.

Look at me.

Here's why.

Because I'm praying and I'm encouraging you to ask, hey God, what's the good you're inviting me to?

Does that make sense?

Say amen.

You should ask yourself, walking out of here today, don't go to one of our elders, go, can you believe he said this?

I mean, rescue me from this.

No, no.

Ask yourself, be as offended as you need to be.

I don't try to offend you.

But you should ask yourself, if you really want to change, hey God, what's the good you're inviting me to?

God, what did you what did you reveal to me today that I need to act on?

What I need to do with what I heard today, this is how you change.

You don't change by complaining and finding people that agree with the smallness of your opinion.

You change because you respond to the good that God invites you to.

So, what is the good that God invited you to as a result of having been here this morning?

Let's pray together.

If you're our guests, just relax.

We like to teach what the Bible actually says, and then we give you some soul space to think about it.

This is this time, some questions will come up.

Let's just spend about the next 90 seconds just thinking.

God, it's just like you to invite us to come just as we are because you come just like you are.

That's why you reveal yourself to us and you reveal our true self.

Not our curated self we put out on social media, not the self that we believe our friends will accept and still be our friend.

All the stuff that we push over here into the shadow self that you know about, who you are, is so much better than that.

We don't have to live in fear of it.

That's why we can come as we are.

We could come taste the grace that is ours in Christ because of Christ.

And we can take your yoke, we can submit ourselves to your teaching and find rest.

It's not another pour of red and ambient.

It's rest that only comes from God.

We were created for it.

And would you reveal it to your people, I pray, in Jesus' name, when everyone said it.

Thank you for listening to this message.

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