Renew- Come To Me!

Introduction:

As we continue with our Worship of the Lord this morning, let us take a few moments before we open up the Word of the Lord to prepare our hearts to hear from God.

Let’s Pray Together!

If you have a Bible, I want to invite you to open them up to Matthew 11:25-30 with me this morning.

25 At that time Jesus said, “I praise you, Father, Lord of heaven and earth, because you have hidden these things from the wise and intelligent and revealed them to infants. 26 Yes, Father, because this was your good pleasure. 27 All things have been entrusted 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 desires to reveal him. 28 “Come to me, all of you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. 29 Take up my yoke and learn from me, because I am lowly and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. 30 For my yoke is easy and my burden is light.”

( Mt 11:25–30.)

Over the last several weeks we have been talking about how we need to be renewed in our lives. This is something that all of us long for. Renewal is something that all of us need. No matter where you are in your walk with the Lord… Renewal is a vital part of life. We have this tendency to get lost. We are like sheep.... that is what Jesus said anyway.... and we often like to go out on our own.

You can just simply think about how much has changed in the past few years and it starts to weigh heavy on you. Depression rates are up. Anxiety rates are up. Cost of living is up. Everything in life seems to be spinning out of control. This is why we need renewal in our lives. We need to be reminded of where we can find rest.

Yet, at the same time, I know that many of us who have gathered here this morning are here to celebrate something really really special. Here in just a few moments we are going to baptize three girls who have found this rest and peace for their souls, and they want to share what Christ has done in their lives by being baptized here this morning.

It certainly is an exciting time. It is a reminder.... no matter what is going on in your life… God is at work in and around you. He is not far off and distant. He is near. He is close.

Body:

So, before we baptize these three girls, I want to share a few things with you from this passage of Scripture that I think all of us need to hear because it is so easy to get distracted and beaten down by life that we forget that we are able to run to Christ.

Main Point: Find Rest In Christ.

This sounds so easy and cliche, but this is the truth of Scripture. This is what God tells us to do if we want to find rest.

Now, there are a few things that we need to understand as we come to him.

We Need To Understand Our Condition.

In this passage of scripture, Jesus say’s that “ALL of you who are weary and burdened....”

This describes everyone of us. This is humanity in a nutshell.... but He is not simply talking about the weariness and burdenedness that comes from everyday life. NO! He is talking about a weariness and burden of trying to obtain the favor of God.

The idea of being weary is that he is talking about someone who is just beaten down. They are carrying a load that is too much for them to carry. And because of this load.... they are often burdened beyond their abilities. No amount of work or effort is every going to give you the rest that you are seeking. Many of us try to find peace and rest by “DOING SOMETHING.”

Sometimes we are doing something so that we can be assured that when we die we can go to heaven… some of us are doing so many things because we think by doing them we will some how reach peace and rest. If I can only get out of debt, get that house, buy that car, get that promotion....get that person to notice me, get________________ whatever you want to throw into that blank.....then I will be happy; I will be at peace; I can find rest.

The thing is though.....this is not the way we are designed. Nothing in this world is going to be able to satisfy that want in our hearts. This is what makes us weary and burdened. WE never arrive at what we think will make us happy.

But, truth be told, it actually runs much deeper than the sufferance level. There is something now right with our own hearts. We have to see that we are

Infected With Sin. Now, I do not mean infected as we caught something bad. We are born sinners. We all have rebelled against God and have gone our own way. We have broken His laws and deserve His wrath.

Deep down in our hearts we know this to be true....and that is why we try, in our own power, to seek peace on our own. Deep down we know that something is not right so we start trying to fix the problem.

We Are Weary and Burdened.

I do not know what that looks like for you this morning, but I have a feeling that many of us in this room feel that way with something in our lives. This is our condition.

2. The Father Has Made Away.

Knowing our condition, God the Father could have left us alone and let us be. As the “Lord of Heaven and earth...” as this texts says....meaning He is the Master over everything, that was He right to do so. But God in His mercy did not leave us in that kind of state. The Father had plan, that was from the foundations of the World, to come and save humanity from its sin.

This is what we see going on in verses 25-27 of the text as Jesus is priases God for the Work that He had Done. Jesus offers up praise to God because God has revealed His work to the infants of the world.... and not to the wise and intelligent… not to the ones who had everything together and knew all of the right answers.....not to the ones we would think would get it… but to the infants…to those who are completely and totally dependent on God.

God revealed His Plan to them. Think about that for a moment. In our condidtion, sinners before a holy God, it takes an act of God to reveal His plan to us. We are dependant upon Him to work in our lives and the lives of those around us to see any kind of spiritual change.... and He so loving does this work.....

WHY? WHY Does He do that? Look at verse 26.

26 Yes, Father, because this was your good pleasure.

Because HE WANTED TO. That is it. That is the reason given here in this text. Because He is loving and kind and He wanted to.

But, we have to ask....how then does he reveal this plan to us? We find the answer in verse 27.

27 All things have been entrusted 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 desires to reveal him.

This text reminds me of one of my favorite passage in Scripture, and that I John chapter 1. Listen to these words…

1 In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. 2 He was with God in the beginning. 3 All things were created through him, and apart from him not one thing was created that has been created. 4 In him was life,, and that life was the light of men. 5 That light shines in the darkness, and yet the darkness did not overcome it...14 The Word became flesh and dwelt among us. We observed his glory, the glory as the one and only Son from the Father, full of grace and truth. 15 (John testified concerning him and exclaimed, “This was the one of whom I said, ‘The one coming after me ranks ahead of me, because he existed before me.’ ”) 16 Indeed, we have all received grace upon grace from his fullness, 17 for the law was given through Moses; grace and truth came through Jesus Christ. 18 No one has ever seen God. The one and only Son, who is himself God and is at the Father’s side—he has revealed him.

God The Father Reveals His Plan By Sending God The Son To Earth.

This is the 3rd, thing that I want us to see from this text. This is how God designed us to find rest for our souls.

Notice Jesus’ words in verse 28-30. Let’s look at those again.

28 “Come to me, all of you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. 29 Take up my yoke and learn from me, because I am lowly and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. 30 For my yoke is easy and my burden is light.

Look at what Jesus says here. ‘Come To ME.” Not to an action or an idea. Not to some list of things to do or don’ts. Not a statement of faith..... But come to a person.... Come To God The Son.

Who is to come? Well we already looked at this at the beginning… but the call is to ALL WHO WEARY AND BURDENED. No one is excluded here. This is an open invitation from Christ to come and find rest.

How are we to find this rest? We are to take His yoke. A yoke was a wooden beam, for the lack of a better way to explain this, that bound two animals together to plow a field. He says to us… come and be bound to me.... come and learn from me....this is a call to come and become a disciple of Christ.

What is a disciple? A Disciple is someone who is following Christ, Growing in Christ, and Goes on Mission with Christ. This is what Jesus is inviting us to.

Why Would anyone go and do that? You have to love this… “BECAUSE I am lowly and humble in heart...” Out of all of the things Jesus could have said in that moment, he says that he is lowly and humble. He kind and gentle. He loving and caring. He is one who sees us in our weaknesses and yet still tells us to come to Him.... to come and follow Him..... because, besides the fact that He is lowly and humble.... we wil find rest for our souls. This is because His way is easy and his burden is light.....because we don't do it in our own power.

When we come and follow after Christ… When we become His Disciples.... When we say we want to be yoked together with Jesus.... we are given the Holy Spirit inside of us who aides us in carrying out His commands. He starts changing us from the inside. We are no longer doing all of the work.... God is doing all of the heavy lifting…and it changes from a burden to a delight because God gives us a new heart with new desires. He starts revealing things in our lives that are destructive and He makes us new.

Conclusion:

This is the beauty of the Gospel message. We are all sinners in the sight of God. All of us have sinned and fallen short of His Glory. We have all broken His commands. If you do not believe me, let me prove it to you this morning.

(Go through 10 commandments)

(Explain our stance before God)

(Explain Why Jesus went to that Cross)

This is what Jesus has done for you this morning. I want to ask you this morning about your own life, I dont know what your struggles are or anything.....but I know this… we all need a savior…and we all need to be encouraged to cling to Him.

In Your life right know, where do you stand with Jesus? Are you weary and burdened by your sins? Do you need to trust in Christ today to save you?

Are you a believer who is struggling and dont know where to turn?

I want to encourage you with the words of Christ one more time because I believe they are the only words that bring life...

28 “Come to me, all of you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. 29 Take up my yoke and learn from me, because I am lowly and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. 30 For my yoke is easy and my burden is light.”

Main Point: Find Rest In Christ.

Let’s Pray Together.