Rick Warren - A Prayer to Surrender ALL Your Burdens to God

How low do you let your gas tank typically get

before you refill it? How many of you have ever

run out of gas? Would any of you like to

tell us why you ran out of gas? Can you

run out of gas emotionally? Of course you can. Spiritually,

of course you can. Can you run out of gas

in a relationship? Yep. Can you run out of gas financially? Yep.

How do you keep your tank full? In Matthew chapter 11,

Matthew 11:28–30

verses 28 to 30, Jesus says this. If you are tired,

all right, we can just stop right there. That's most people.

If you are tired from carrying heavy burdens, that's overload,

that's no margins. Come to me and I will give

you rest. Take my yoke upon you and then learn

from me for I'm gentle and I'm humble in spirit

and you will find rest for your soul. Now for

the yoke I share with you is easy to wear

so the load is light. Now I'm going to give

you five or six steps on how to keep your

tank full today. The first four are all in that

section of Scripture right there. The first four are all

right there. So why don't you write these down? Number one,

first step, if you want to have a full tank,

get fed up. Get fed up. And I'm talking about

get fed up with how I've been living today. You've

got to get dissatisfied. Nothing happens in your life until

you get dissatisfied with the way your life is. As

long as you're willing to live in a rut. As

long as you're willing to live stressed out. As long

as you're willing to live overextended. As long as you're

willing to live sick and tired of being sick and tired.

Nothing's going to happen. Why? Because you didn't get fed up.

Nothing happens until you just get dissatisfied. Go, I'm not

going to live this way anymore. And I don't know

what it's going to take in your life to decide,

I'm not going to live this way anymore. You might

have heard nine messages and go, yeah, that's all good.

But you're still going to live the same way. Stressed out, overextended,

running on empty, pressured, tired as a dog, and all

these things. Because you never intended to make a change.

You didn't get fed up. Now, what causes us to

get dissatisfied? What causes us to finally make a change

in our lives? Pain. Pain. We don't change when we

see the light. We change when we feel the heat.

And when you feel, when the heat gets hot enough

and you end up in the hospital and you're flat

on your back, sometimes God has to lay you flat

on your back to make you look up to him.

In Psalm 23, it says, he makes me lay down

in green pastures. Has God ever had to make you

lay down because you weren't smart enough to lay down

on your own? He makes, sometimes the shepherd has to

make the sheep lay down. You've done too much. You've

done enough. You need to recharge. You need to refuel.

Nothing happens. Now, the first part of the verse says this,

Matthew 11, 28. If you are tired, from carrying heavy burdens. Well,

you gotta recognize you're tired. You gotta recognize you're carrying

heavy burdens. Are you tired of running on empty? Are

you fed up with the pace of your life? Are

you willing to do something about it when you say,

I'm gonna change somehow. I refuse to live this way anymore.

Something's gonna break if I don't change. Yeah, well, if

you make that decision, you won't break. You're gonna have

a breakthrough. Now, if you don't get fed up with

the pace that this culture teaches you to live, you

only have two choices, break down or break through. Now,

if you say, okay, Rick, I'm in, then this might

be one of the most significant messages you've ever heard.

So let's go through the next step. Step number two,

get fed up is one. And step number two is

come to Jesus. Come to Jesus. In fact, Jesus in

this passage uses three verbs. Come, take, and learn. Come, take,

and learn. That's these next three steps. First he says,

come to me.

Come to me. and I will give

you a sermon. Oh no, that's not what it says.

Come to me and I will give you what? Rest. Now,

I want you to notice, come to me and I'll

give you rest. That's the second phrase. Here's the second

step to refilling your tank, is to come to Jesus.

I want you to notice who you're to come to,

and I want you to notice what he promises to

give you. First, Who are you to come to? He

doesn't say come to church. He doesn't say come to religion.

He doesn't say come to rules. He doesn't say come

to rituals. He doesn't say come to regulations. The antidote

for the stress and the overload that you feel in

your life is not a plan for time management. That's

not a bad thing, but it's just not the antidote

for your soul. A plan for time management, it's not

a program For stress relief. It's not a philosophy. It's

not a pill. It's not a plan, program, philosophy, pill.

It's a person. It's a person. Come to me. Me.

What you need is not a religion. What you need

is a relationship. The answer to the stress in your

life is not a plan, program, pill. It's a person.

Come to me, Jesus says. I'm the one who made you.

I know everything about you. He's God. Come to me. Now,

in the Bible, people came to Jesus for all kinds

of things. Some came for forgiveness. Some came for healing.

Some came for advice. Some came for eternal life. Some

came for food. Some came to criticize. Some came to question.

Some came as skeptics. You know what the thing is?

Jesus didn't care why people came to him as long

as they came. Jesus doesn't care why you come to

him as long as you come And you can come

and say, God, I'm just wiped out. I'm tired. I'm

worn out. I'm stressed. I'm depressed. I'm lonely. I'm guilty.

I'm ashamed. I'm angry. I'm bitter. I'm unfulfilled. I'm worried.

Jesus doesn't care why you come. Just come. He says,

come to me. Come to me. The answer is As

a person, come to me and I will give you rest. Now,

look at this verse on the screen. In John 6, 47,

Jesus says this. Whoever comes to me, I will never reject.

So you don't have to worry. Well, you don't know

all the stuff I've done. It doesn't matter. Jesus says,

come to me. But you don't know my background. Come

to me. But you don't know what I'm doing right now.

Come to me. but you don't know the stuff I

plan to do tomorrow. Come to me. Doesn't matter your past,

your present, your future. You just come. Jesus says, come

to me. I'm the answer. Not a seminar, not a therapy,

not a book, not a tape, not all this other stuff.

Come to me. And he says, I will never reject you.

Now notice what he gives when we come to him.

He says, whoever comes to me, come to me and

I will give you rest. Now, later in the verse,

he says, I will give you rest for your soul. Now,

that's a much deeper need than physical rest. Because honestly, friends,

your problem isn't tired muscles. Your problem is a tired mind.

Your problem is a tired emotions. Your problem is a

tired spirit. It's a spiritual problem. It's a soul problem.

You need rest for your soul. Not your muscles. Some

of you need rest for your muscles, but most of

us need more exercise for our muscles. It's not that.

That's not the problem. But we need rest from tension.

We need rest from anxiety, from hurry, from worry, from stress,

from the expectations of others, from comparison, and all these things.

How do you unwind when you're exhausted emotionally? How do

you unwind when you're overloaded emotionally? How do you get

rest for your soul? Well, a lot of people, first

choice is entertainment. Turn on the TV. Watch a movie.

Maybe exercise. Do a hobby. Got a sport. Listen, all

those things are fine, and they'll rest you. your body,

but they won't rest your soul. None of those things

can rest your soul. You got to come to me, Jesus,

to rest your soul. None of these can restore your soul.

Only God can do that. The next verse, Isaiah 40,

29 and 31. He gives power to those who are

tired and worn out and he offers strength to the weak.

You're weak, he'll give you strength. You're tired, worn out,

he'll give you strength. Those who wait on the Lord

will find new strength. Circle the word wait. Those who

wait on the Lord will find new strength. When we're

empty inside, all around the world, culture says, go. When

you're empty, fill it with activity. When you're feeling empty

on the inside, you need to have more, you need

to be more You need to do more. You need

to go more. And that'll fill you up. How's that

working for you? It doesn't fill the emptiness. It doesn't.

It just doesn't fill the emptiness. So culture says go.

Jesus says come. Come to me. Come just as you are.

And what you really need is time with God. That's

what it means to wait on God. Matthew 6 says this.

Find a quiet secluded place so you won't be tempted

to role play before God and just be there as

simply and honestly as you can manage and the focus

will shift from you to God and you will begin

to sense his grace okay so first I gotta get

fed up and second I've gotta come to Jesus okay

here's the third thing give up control oh boy Here

we go. Now we're talking about what the real issue

is with the stress in your life. Give up control.

The reason for overload is we're trying to control everything.

The reason we do too much is we're trying to

control everything. And we go around with it all depends

on me and I've got to hold it all together.

And listen, the greater your need to control, the more

overloaded and the more stressed you're going to be in life.

Sooner or later, you're going to realize most of the

things that matter in life are beyond your control. Here's

what Jesus says. This is what this verse means. I

need to explain it to you. He says, first come

to me. And then he says, take my yoke upon you.

Matthew 11, 29. Take my yoke upon you. Now he's

not talking about a chicken yoke, an egg yoke. He's

talking about a yoke, which is, as you know, a

piece of wood. where you put two cattle together to

pull a cart. Instead of one cow pulling the cart,

you yoke two cattle or four or six or eight,

or you can yoke horses, but you yoke animals together

to pull the cart. And that way, what it does

is it's a wooden frame that joins two animals together.

It actually lightens the load because you're not pulling it

all by yourself. Now, let me explain this. You say,

wait a minute, this doesn't sound very relaxing to me.

Take my yoke upon you. Sounds like more of a burden.

I'm already carrying too much. And Jesus says, take my

yoke upon you. The purpose of a yoke is to

share and lighten the load. It's not to put more

on you. It's to take it off you. The purpose

of the yoke is so you're not pulling the cart

all by yourself. Jesus says, yoke up with me and

I'll help you pull it. When two animals team up together,

It's a whole lot easier than one animal. The reason

you're so stressed out and overloaded, you're trying to carry

everything by yourself. God never intended for you to carry

everything in this life by yourself. So he says, take

my yoke upon you, yoke up with me. And in

verse 30, Matthew 11, 30, he says, my yoke is

easy and my burden is light. Why is my burden light?

Because He's gonna carry it with you. He's gonna take

the load that you've been carrying and he's gonna share

it with you. And the New Living Translation says, my

yoke fits perfectly. In other words, it fits your shape. Now,

I need to explain to you, a yoke is a

symbol of two things in the Bible. First, it's a

symbol of partnership. And what you have here is an

offer from Jesus Christ offering to be your life partner.

He says, yoke up with me. You weren't meant to

carry me. All of the load by yourself. Jesus says,

I'll take part of it. Jesus isn't going to add

to your load. He doesn't have any load. There's nothing

that he needs to carry. He has no load. So

if you yoke up with Jesus, it's not like he's

putting it on you. He's taking it off you. He

has no load. Psalm 55, verse 22. Pile your troubles

Psalms 55:22

on God's shoulders. That's yoking up with him. He'll carry

your load. and help you out. And the message, I

love that translation on that verse. Now, who do you

think's got a stronger back, you or God? Obviously, God does.

So if you're yoked, unyoked, then nobody's pulling your load

with you. You may know the Lord, but you're carrying

the load yourself. And if your life right now is

not easy and light, it means one thing. You at

this moment are not yoked to Jesus Christ. You're not

in partnership. You're not letting him carry the load. Every

time you get detached from Jesus, every time you get

disconnected from Jesus, you're going to get stressed because you

weren't meant to live that way on your own. So

a yoke is a symbol of partnership. Second, a yoke

is a symbol of control because you use a yoke

to guide the animals. And when you guide the animals,

you keep them from going off in the ditch. And

you keep them going at a pace that they can manage.

A yoke keeps us from going off on our own,

getting into trouble. Look at these verses. Galatians 5, 25.

Since we live by the Spirit, let us keep in

step with the Spirit. I can't go faster than God.

Sometimes that's frustrating because sometimes you're in a hurry and

God's not. The most difficult room to be in in

a house is God's waiting room. When you're waiting on God,

God said, I'm going to do it. We're going to

go at my pace. Keep in step with the Spirit.

Romans 3, 23 in the message paraphrase says, our lives

get in step. Here's how we get in step. Our

lives get in step with God by letting him set

the pace. Who's setting the pace in your life right now?

If Christ is setting the pace, your life is light

and easy. If you're setting the pace, it's probably overloaded

and stressed. You see, what you need, I'm telling you, friends,

you need a pace setter. And it is a pace

setter who can tell you how to speed up and

slow down in your life. You know, it's interesting that

in Scripture, we never have any record of Jesus running anywhere.

He was never in a hurry. And you won't be

either if you're connected to Christ. Now let me let

you in on a little secret. You're going to be

yoked to something in life. If it's not Jesus, it's

going to be something else that will drive you and

push you and pull you. It might be the expectations

of other people that you're yoked to. What do other

people think? It might be the expectation of your boss

or your spouse or a friend. You're going to be

yoked to something. If you're going to be yoked to something,

why not choose the easiest yoke? Why not choose the

yoke that's light? And easy rather than the one that

the world offers you, which is stressed out and overextended.

He says it's easy. By the way, that word easy

also means perfectly shaped. It fits your shape. It fits you.

It's easy. It rests easy on you. And by the way,

take my yoke as an exchange. I exchange my heavy

yoke for Jesus' light yoke. That's a good deal. That's

a big take a deep breath yoke. Okay. Now, here's

the problem. The fact is, most of you, you don't

have one yoke on you. You've got a dozen on

you right now. You've got yokes that other people have

put on you and put on you and put on

you and expectations of others and on you. And you've

got so many yokes, you're crushing under the weight. Now,

he says, take my yoke. What is he saying? Give

up control. You're not gonna be at peace until you

do that. Until you give up control of your life

to God. And every time I give up control, God

gives me peace. I come to Christ. No matter what

I've done wrong, he will accept me, not reject me.

And then I give up control, I take up his yoke.

So now he's gonna pick the pace and he's gonna

pick the direction of my life. And it gets light

and it gets easy. And every time I take that

yoke off, I'm going to put another heavy one back

on me. Then the next thing he says is learn

to trust. Number four, learn to trust. This is how

you keep your tank filled. Learn to trust. We did

an entire message on this. Pastor Kurt led this. And

it was learn, worry less, and trust more. Matthew 9, 29,

the second part of the verse says this. Learn from me. Remember,

he says, come, and then he says, take, and now

he says, learn. Learn from me, for I am gentle

and humble in heart, and you will find rest for

your souls. I have to admit, friends, I was a

Christian for 30-something years and never understood, how in the

world does gentleness and humility lower my stress? I just

never got it. He goes, learn from me because I'm

gentle and I'm humble. And I'm going, I don't get it.

I don't see how that would make me less stressed

and fill my tank. But he says, you'll find rest

for yourself. Jesus modeled how to live with purpose and peace.

That's why he says learn. And this fourth step to

reducing overload is to follow Jesus' model. He says, watch

how I do it. Watch how I live. That means

you've got to read the Bible. Watch how I live.

And then do the same. He says, if you want

to be healthy, you want to be balanced, Learn from Jesus. Now,

learning is a process, which means it takes time. You

didn't get overloaded overnight. And you're not going to get

un-overloaded overnight. An overloaded lifestyle, you know, you took a

long time to get in this bad situation. But you can,

whatever you learn, you can unlearn and you can learn

from Jesus. Now, what was Jesus' secret of peace? Well,

he only does what the Father tells him to do.

So he's gentle and he's humble. He's not trying to

be aggressive. He's not trying to be arrogant. He did

what God told him to do and he didn't worry

about the rest. 12 times in the book of John,

he says, I only do what my father tells me

to do. He says, I just do what God tells

me to do, what the father tells me. Why don't

you try trusting God instead of worrying and see if

that doesn't lower the overload, the stress? give you a

little bit more margin in your life? Look at these verses.

Psalm 20, verse 24. Since the Lord is directing our steps,

why try to understand everything that happens along the way?

If God's directing your steps, you're yoked with him. I

don't have to understand it. I know he's taking me

in the right direction. And I know he's not going

to take me into a ditch. Psalm 142, 3. When

I'm ready to give up, hang on, some of you,

I just described you. You're ready to give up. You're

ready to give up on your marriage. You're ready to

give up on your life. You're ready to give up

on your dream, your health, your career, your education, your boyfriend.

I don't know. What are you ready to give up on?

It says there, when I'm ready to give up, he

knows what I should do. And if I'm yoked up

to him, he's going to lead me in the right direction.

How do I learn to trust more? Faith comes from hearing.

The word of God. It goes back to that making

time with God every day in the Bible. Reading the

owner's manual. All right. Learn to trust. Come to Christ.

Give up control. Learn to trust. All right. Let me

give you two more. These are fast. We'll just quit.

Number five. Start every day by filling my tank. Start

every day by filling my tank. Get alone with God.

And get alone with his word. Faith comes from the

word of God. That's where you get to trust. And

number six, stay connected to my church family. Stay connected

to my church family. We were not meant to go

through life alone. The very first thing God said about

humankind is he said, it's not good for man to

be alone. God hates loneliness. It's not good for your soul.

Being alone and being lonely are two different things. Being

alone with God, that's a good thing. Being lonely, that's

not a good thing. Now, whether you ever get married

or not, you need relationships. You need people in your life.

We need each other. Look at these two verses. Hebrews 11, 25.

Let us not give up the habit of meeting together

as some are doing. Instead, let us encourage one another

all the more. Now, the next verse, Ephesians 1, 23.

The church is Christ's body. And notice, it is filled

with Christ who completely fills everything else. So what do

you call a spiritual filling station? The church. I'm filling

you up right now. I'm filling you up right now.

Christ fills the church and Christ fills everything else. The

church is filled with Christ And he fills everything else.

What's weighing you down? I don't know. Problems, finance, aging parents,

health issues, finances. God brought you here today. No matter

which campus you're at. God brought you here today so

he could say this to you. Come to me. Come

to me. Come to me. Look at this verse on

the screen. Come to me, all you who labor. In

other words, you're a workaholic and you're heavy laden and

you're overburdened. I love this from the Amplified Translation. And

I will cause you to rest. I will ease and

relieve and refresh your souls. Take my yoke. Team up

with me. Take my yoke upon you and learn. Learn

from me, for I'm gentle and I'm humble at heart.

You'll find rest, relief, and ease, and refreshment, recreation, and

blessed quiet for your souls. This is the most important

invitation you will ever receive in your life. This is

the most important invitation you'll ever get. Jesus is saying

to you, come to me. You come to Christ. You

turn to Jesus. You give up control. You learn to trust.

Let's bow our heads. Have you ever come to Jesus?

The starting point in unloading and the starting point in

refilling an empty tank is to talk to Jesus about it.

Tell him exactly how you feel. Tell him what's frustrating you.

You know, sometimes even your best friends don't want to

listen to your burdens. But Jesus will never ignore you.

And he wants to be your partner. And he wants

to be your pace setter. What an offer. So pray

this prayer right now. Dear God, just say it in

your heart. Dear God, I'm tired of being tired All

the time. I'm tired of trying to control everything. I'm

tired of a life without rest and peace and margin.

Forgive me. Forgive me, dear God, for all of the

ways I've tried to be God. And I've tried to

control everything. And for the things that I've turned to

for relief instead of turning to you. Today, Jesus Christ,

I come back to you. Say this, I want you

to be the pace setter of my life. I want

to stop trying to control all the things I never

could control in the first place. Forgive me for my arrogance.

Forgive me for allowing my insecurities and my ego to

take on more activities I could possibly imagine, manage. Forgive

me for pridefully overloading my schedule and filling my life

with less important things that I really had no time

for what matters most. I want to learn from your model, Jesus.

I want to be gentle and humble like you so

that I can have the peace that you offer. Father,

I want to thank you for the liberation, the freedom

that's going to come to many, many people this day

in many, many places as they hear this message because

we're coming to you and we're giving up control and

we're learning to trust. I pray your blessing of peace

on everyone in Jesus' name. Amen.