Genuine Rest
How many people have undergone the process of moving from one place to another..? Maybe one home to another, an apartment to a home, maybe downsizing in your later years? It's been said that moving is one of the most stressful events of life. I can certainly think of worse things, but it's up there, and it's exhausting.
And if you look at your life in general - have you ever felt like if you had just one more hour, one more day, one more week - then you could maybe catch up with everything you have do to? Have you ever felt like perhaps your abilities didn't quite match up with what was expected of you..? Have you ever felt like, it doesn't matter how fast you go, how hard you try - it just isn't enough..? Do you need rest?
And I'm not actually talking about just physical rest. If that was the case - you could just take a long nap or a vacation. But what I want to talk about is a 'spiritual rest' - a rest which can affect all the other aspects of your life. - A 'rest' which genuinely affects the deepest issues of our lives at the deepest level of our hearts. And I want to start us thinking along those lines with Jesus' words from Matthew 11:28-30 (NIV)...
Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. (29) Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. (30) For my yoke is easy and my burden is light.
We of course believe Jesus, but how often do we experience that rest He's talking about in our everyday lives? Is there something we might be missing? We go to Church, we try to do all the right things and it still seems like we just get exhausted. I've always said that 'being a follower of Jesus isn't easy, otherwise everyone would be doing it'. But Jesus did say His 'yoke is easy'. Can both things be true?
I don't want to 'split hairs' here, but I think they can. I'm referring to the world giving us a hard time in following Jesus. Jesus is talking about our relationship with Him. Those are two different things. I think the key is - sometimes we make things harder than they really are. Pay attention to those first three words in that passage – "Come to me". I think what many of us forget and need to do is…
I. Come to Jesus
"What do you mean? I came to Jesus, I was baptized; I come to Church on Sunday!" ...Yes, I understand that – but do we actively, intentionally seek Jesus in our daily lives? Is He the One we turn to in the morning and the One we think about at the end of the day? I think many of us are so tired doing everything else there is to do that we forget WHO we are supposed to be living for...
John 7:37-39 (NIV)
On the last and greatest day of the Feast, Jesus stood and said in a loud voice, "If anyone is thirsty, let him come to me and drink. (38) Whoever believes in me, as the Scripture has said, streams of living water will flow from within him." (39) By this he meant the Spirit, whom those who believed in him were later to receive. Up to that time the Spirit had not been given, since Jesus had not yet been glorified.
Sometimes we avoid talking about The Holy Spirit because we don't want to be seen as too Pentecostal, too religious. But God did promise to fill us with His Spirit! If you live your life without acknowledging God's presence in your life daily - you're neglecting one of the biggest sources of strength and power you have!
Do you seek Jesus first and foremost to fulfill any hunger or thirsts that you have - or - do you try to fill them with activities and things and then end up more thirsty and exhausted in the end? Notice that Jesus said, "Come to me", not just…
A. 'Come to Church'
Don't misunderstand – I'm not saying you shouldn't be here on Sunday morning. Being an active part of the Church, the Bride of Christ is vital to the life of a believer! But you attending a Church service is not the end goal. There's a huge difference between 'regularly filling a seat in a pew' and pursuing an ongoing and growing relationship with Jesus.
Believe me - I cannot encourage you strongly enough to be here at Deep River every single Sunday. But it's not just for Deep River's sake - the purpose is to deepen your relationship with Jesus! A friendship with me, a relationship with me won't get you very much - but a growing relationship with Jesus is everything!
The fact that you are here tells me that you do understand that meeting together as a body of believers is vitally important. But don't confuse just coming to 'a building' with a relationship with Jesus. Your source of spiritual rest will not necessarily come through Church attendance – it only comes through Jesus!
Understand who Jesus was speaking to when He said, "Come to me" in that last passage from John. At that time He was speaking to very religious Jewish people - people who were going to the temple extremely regularly - people who were still currently celebrating the Feast of Tabernacles. But you won't find rest simply in attendance, rules, tradition or religion.
If your top priority is simply to work hard to earn spiritual rest – you will not find it. Jesus didn't say, "All you who are weary and burdened, come to Church." He said, "Come to me." You can absolutely find Jesus in the Church – but there are many who 'come to Church' and completely miss the Savior they so desperately need...
AND to further make the point, notice Jesus didn't say…
B. 'Come work for me'
The Bible teaches that service is vital to the life of a believer - but service alone will not bring you rest. Think about it - you don't have to raise your hands - but those of you who have been in the Church for a good while - any of you feel completely, 100% satisfied with the work you've done for God? Anyone feel like they could stand at judgment day and boast about their personal accomplishments? Not me! And I do this for a living!
Jesus said, "Take my yoke upon you". Think about the fact that a yoke is a crosspiece used to hook TWO oxen together to work. I think most of us have the mistaken idea that we're simply to work for Jesus instead of with Jesus. Jesus isn't asking us to pull the weight alone – He's inviting us to come alongside Him and work with Him. It's then that we understand when He says, "my yoke is easy and my burden is light." Sometimes the best rest you can get is by serving alongside Jesus.
- In scripture, we find a time when Jesus sent His disciples out to preach to the masses. The people were responding in droves and the disciples were healing people and even casting out demons. The crowds became so great that the job became almost overwhelming for the disciples! We see this about the disciples in Mark 6:31 (NIV)...
Then, because so many people were coming and going that they did not even have a chance to eat, he said to them, "Come with me by yourselves to a quiet place and get some rest."
Notice that Jesus didn't say, "Look at all these people, there's more work to be done! They need you!" He said, "Come with me – get some rest". There's a time for work and there's a time to just sit in God's presence. He's not encouraging just lazing around – He's talking about a purposeful retreat to rest with God! Only after spending that time with God will we be prepared to serve effectively with Jesus for God's purposes. That's how we find rest!
We're to come to Jesus, take His yoke and, He said…
II. 'Learn from me'
No matter how much we think we know - we always need to learn more from Jesus. And I find it interesting that that phrase "learn from me" in the NIV can also be translated "learn of me" in the King James version.
I absolutely want every single one of you sitting here today to be 'plugged in' and serving in some way. You were designed to serve; to be used for God's purposes! But first and foremost I want you to know Jesus! - Do you know Jesus more than you did a year ago? Not 'know more about Jesus', but know Jesus more! We can't be so busy with stuff, that we miss out on simply listening to Jesus - learning from Him, of Him!
If you're so busy with life, going around and doing things that you don't stop and listen; don't stop and learn from Jesus, of Jesus – how do you know if you're doing the right things? Are you applying what you learn from your relationship with Jesus to everyday situations, and issues, and your values and habits...? How do you know if what you're 'religiously doing' really matters?
One of the first things we need to learn, and many times 'relearn' over and over is - Jesus has called us to…
A. Obedience
Do you feel you've gotten to the point in your spiritual life where you actually love to obey God and His Word? Listen to King David from Psalms 119:164-167 (NIV)...
Seven times a day I praise you for your righteous laws. (165) Great peace have they who love your law, and nothing can make them stumble. (166) I wait for your salvation, O LORD, and I follow your commands. (167) I obey your statutes, for I love them greatly.
Would people describe you as one who loves to obey God's laws?
I remember years ago when Josie was really little, we were working hard on learning to obey. I had given her half of a banana and I was feeding 'little Winston' (at the time) the other half. She grabbed a huge chunk and I told her not to put the whole thing in her mouth. She, of course, shoved the whole thing in her mouth. I said, "Josie, why'd you do that? Daddy just told you not to!" With her cheeks full of banana, she said, "Because I was hungry."
I understand – but I told her not to do it. What she didn't understand is that because she disobeyed she then had to go sit in time out. What she didn't understand was that if she had obeyed, there were four more bananas and I would have gladly given her another whole one. What she didn't understand was that her way just got her 'a mouth full of banana' and a punishment. My way would have actually filled up that hunger which was her very reason for disobedience in the first place.
I think that's sometimes how we act with God. God's Word tells us not to lie, not to steal, not to murder, not to gossip, not to get drunk – God tells us to value human life made in His image, to treat sex as something sacred between a man and a woman in the context of marriage, He tells us to love Him and to love others. And what do we tend to do? We do things our way and then give God our excuses of why we didn't obey Him - but then still expect His blessings.
Of course I cared about Josie's reason for disobeying, because she was hungry – but I wanted her to obey rather than give me excuses. She was the one who suffered for not obeying – not me. She missed out on something better. When we give God our excuses rather than our complete obedience – we are the ones who miss out on something much better for our lives!
John 14:21 (NIV)
Whoever has my commands and obeys them, he is the one who loves me. He who loves me will be loved by my Father, and I too will love him and show myself to him.
God doesn't force His way on us! He gives us a choice. Do you want to obey and be blessed - or disobey and miss out on that blessing - and possibly receive a punishment? God gives us the choice to obey, and it is so important to learn - that from obedience...
B. Comes freedom
The choice to follow God's way leads to freedom! The choice to ignore His way ends up being the Devil's way which leads to slavery to things, to addiction, to obsession, to fighting, to fear, to separation and loneliness, to loss and hurt and pain, and ultimately to death.
Listen to what Paul says in Romans 13:3 (NIV)...
For rulers hold no terror for those who do right, but for those who do wrong. Do you want to be free from fear of the one in authority? Then do what is right and he will commend you.
- I love cruise control. I think the best thing about it is, when I see flashing red and blue lights in my rear view mirror – I don't have to panic. When I choose to use it - I don't have to worry if it's me the police are pulling over because I set my cruise control; I know I'm okay. Now, when I choose to not set my cruise control – then if I see flashing lights I immediately panic and look to my speedometer to make sure I'm okay.
Why is it that when I choose to set the cruise control and choose to limit my speed that driving is then less stressful? Cruise control is really a restriction, isn't it – and aren't restrictions bad? Shouldn't I hate that restriction? That restriction is there to help me, to make sure I obey the law and therefore have no fear of being pulled over. That restriction frees me!
From obedience comes freedom.
Galatians 5:1 (NIV)
It is for freedom that Christ has set us free. Stand firm, then, and do not let yourselves be burdened again by a yoke of slavery.
Jesus said, "For my yoke is easy and my burden is light."
Which law have we received from God that isn't ultimately for our own good? Which of the Ten Commandments could we just get rid of and make life a whole lot better? "Honor your father and mother"? "Do not kill"? "Do not commit adultery"? "Do not steal"? Would our lives be better or worse in the long run if we just whittled that list down a bit?
So What?
Jesus says, "For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light". A lot of people don't believe those words. "No way is following Jesus easy. Look at all the things you have to give up. There are so many rules to follow."
People who think like that are under the delusion that once you die that's it; end of story. To understand Jesus' words, you have to understand this life from the perspective of eternity. You see, whether you believe it or not, you are going to be around for the next 999 million years, and then for a few hundred billion more after that. Now out of those billions of years, Jesus asks us to accept His 'yoke' on earth for 60, 70, maybe 120 years at most...? What we do in this very short time determines where and how we will spend eternity.
Are you willing to live a life of submission to Jesus' yoke in exchange for an amazing life here and the promise of genuine, fulfilling spiritual rest AND a future in Heaven? Jesus says, "Come to me". - It's your decision. He is the One and only way to the Father!