Connect with God, rest in Jesus

Connecting to God in church camp

Wow, welcome brothers and sisters. After four years, we finally arrive together into church camp. Yeah. Are you excited? Isn’t it great here? To be able to rest, to spend time connecting to God, connecting others. As I continue to could say this time, this space is for connecting to God. Gary Thomas says that there are people who have different temperments in their way to connect to God. Besides the usual worship time of song and word, some of us are naturalist, when they see God’s creation, the beauty of nature, we are drawn toward worship and adoration. So please, if you’re a naturalist, spend time walking around the campsite, enjoy the nature, walk on the becah tmr. Connect with God. Then there are those who are also ascetic, they like to quite time to meet God in solitude and austerity. So hopefully the church camp could provide more of these times for you, esepcially the early morning devotions, take time to read the bible and pray to him. Even use the church camp book to journal and talk to God. Use this camp to quiet your soul, connect with God. Then there are those who are caregiver, they love God by really loving others, connecting with others. Connecting with others on a spiritual level draws them even closer to the Lord. Church camp is a prime time to connect to God by sharing with others, caring for others as we also draw closer to God. I pray that through this church camp, it find your relationship with God be reconnected, renewed, reengerized, and maybe even our whole church. Let’s pray.

Dear Lord, thank you for giving me this time into church camp. We need you, we need your peace, joy and hope. We need your word. So we stand hungry, hungry like deer of thirst for water. We today humbly come before you, May the Holy Spirit continue to mold us, change us into your likeness. In Jesus name we pray. Amen.

Before I get into the passage, I would like to let you know a bit of our thinking behind our talks in camp. As we discern the will of God, the church camp committee and the pastors named it “connect”. “Connecting with God and others”, so this would be the first year where the whole church, all congregations come together under one teaching. To do that it encounters some challenges, because we all speak different language. So please bear with each other, we would have all three languages avaliable. And because of that challenges, the speakers would be a mix of our pastors and external speaker who would preach in different languages, and hopefully nobody felt they left out. Tmr we have two lovely pastors, Dharsh and Gloria preaching to us on how to connect with others. And on Sunday, we would have Rev Calvin, our supported missionary to preach to us Jesus final prayer.

So back to our passage connect with God, rest in Jesus. This passage that we read provide key insights of how do we connect to our God, our heavenly father, the king of kings and lord of Lords. In this famous invitation of Jesus, I summarize it into three words for all of you. One attitude, one person, one command. And the attitude in humble.

Attitude - Humble

Matthew 11:25-26 “At that time Jesus declared, “I thank you, Father, Lord of heaven and earth, that you have hidden these things from the wise and understanding and revealed them to little children; yes, Father, for such was your gracious will.”

This passage is often quoted when we are weary, heaven laden and verse 28 sounds so good. I will give you rest, just come. Maybe the picture we see is this Jesus who is so warm and fuzzy, streching out his arms, and it is this blue sky and green grass. But that is not the context of this passage. He was saying these words in a deeply conflicted and unrepetant world. IN verse 23, Jesus denouces the people of Capernaum of their disbelief, he said Matthew 11:23 “And you, Capernaum, will you be exalted to heaven? You will be brought down to Hades. The idea is this: this city that witnessed more of JEsus miracle than any other city did not humble itself and accept Jesus and his kingdom, but they sure liked the dog and pony show. After Jesus came through town and did all they did, they didn’t believe. There is this pride that is blocking them to connect with God.

And so in verse 25, Jesus speaks of “the wise and understanding” verse “little children”. For the wise and understanding have the gospel hidden from them, while it is “revealed…to little children”. Here the contrast is not against the smart and the dumb or the adults and the kids, but rather between “those who are sufficient and deem themselves wise and those are dependent and love to be taught.” It is the contrast in the gospel between “the entire religious aristrocracy” and the twelve ordinary men, between the Scriptural savvy scribes and the seemingly gullible fishmen. It is difference between the Pharisee who lift the eyes to Heaven (O Lord, I’m glad I’m not like them”) and the tax collectors who pounds his chest (“O Lord, have mercy upon me, a sinner”) It’s the difference between Caiaphas, who pointsat our Lord and demands in effect, “Are you the son of God” and the Roman centurion who points to Christ cruified and says “Truly this was the son of God”. IT’s the difference between the rich young ruler who walked away distraught, with his camel-sized pockets still heavy with gold, and little Zacchaeus who climed up a big sycamore tree and after he came down opened his hearts to Jesus and pockets to the poor. It’s the difference between conceited self-reliance and meek dependence upon God through Christ.

Dear brothers and sisters, humble ourselves before the Lord. It is nearly a pre-requesite to connect to God. And so if we want to connect to God, are you little enough in your own eyes to see him for who he is. You see, as we are in Christ for a long time, we have been doing bible study, listening to preaching a long time, we thought we are big shots in the church. You see God is not looking for big shots, he is not interested in the somebodies of this world. He is interested in the nobodies. Are you enough of a nobody for him to be interested in you. That is before him do you humbly confess your unworthiness, emptiness and helplessness.? Do you acknowledge that by yourself you are not good enough for God. or has your education, wealth, power, position, talent or knowledge puffed you up and made you a proud peacock, with your feathers spread too wide to walk through the narrow gate of Jesus.

God oppose the proud, but give graces to the humbles. Matthew 23:12 “Whoever exalts himself will be humbled, and whoever humbles himself will be exalted.” Do you want to become a son or a daughter of the heavenly Father? You must become childlike in faith, trust and depdence. You must become like a newborn; yes you must become as you were born again. This world doesn’t appreciate humble, Appetite says, “Be sensuous, enjoy yourself.”Education says, “Be resourceful, expand yourself.” Materialism says, “Be satisfied, please yourself.”Psychology says, “Be confident, fulfill yourself.” Pride says, “Be superior, promote yourself.” Humanism says, “Be capable believe in yourself. Only God says, “Be wise, humble yourself.”

Illustrate:

Last year, for me ministry is not particular easy. I entered into some kind of conflict with multiple people, multiple groups, which really is unavoiable in pastoral ministry. I could say it’s everybody else’s fault except me. But I would be stupid to think that this is not an ocassion for God to humble me, God to teach me, God wants to draw me closer to him. And yes, me too have pride in my heart and this , that I thought when I gained all this knowledge and in this position I could grow the church, I could solve problems in the church. But no, God is telling me he is the one that make things grow. He also sometimes humble us so we could really start connecting back to Him. Don’t waste the harder moments of life, use them to humble yourselve before God, to connect back to a gracious God, to let him refine me. For me, I pray that all of this soften my heart even more, to different people in the church, to be slower to speak, slower to anger, always speaking words that build up. Will you humble yourself by confessing your sins, will you humble yourself to accept sometimes we might be humiliated?

Person - Jesus

The second word to connect to God is one everybody should know, the one person, it is Jesus.

Matthew 11:27 “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 anyone to whom the Son chooses to reveal him.”

In verse 25,26 Jesus says the only way into the kingdom is through humility, and in verse 27 on the contray gives us perhaps the four most seeminly arrogant claims in the history of humanity. He calims the following: He has all authority over all things, which I take to mean everything - all power and all wisdom and all authority in heaven and on earth. He also as God’s son really knows God Father. We can’t know God except through knowing the Son. We can’t know God unless he chooses to reveal him to us.

Aren’t those the lofty claims made here by the one who calls himself lowly in heart? I’m not reading this wrong, am I? And aren’t these claims very offensive today? In one verse Jesus manages to offend the whole world. Jesus calims he has all authority is handed to him and that like God he has lordship over heaven and earth. It go against all our human hearts, right? We want to have authority over things, we don’t want somebody or a God to have authority over us. Then there is Jesus claim he is the son of God. That claim is considered blasphemous by Mulisms. And irrelevant to Buddish and athiest because the existence of God - let alone some son of his - is unnecessary for moral behaviour and meaning life. How offensive! Then there’s his claim that knowledge of God comes only through knowledge of him. That notion certainly attackes the multifacted belief systems of HUnduism and othert religions and leaves the postmodernists speechless, for it undermines the agnostic notion that we cannot know God. But lastly, he even claim that we can’t know God unless Jesus choose to reveal him to us. That is a fatab stab wound in the heart of self-autonomy. Don’t I determine my own destiny. Isn’t all of life in my hands? Don’t I freely will all I do? How offensive.

All these claims are down right arrogant - unless they are true. And we know that, in all the fulfilled promies of the prophets, to a man who is sinless in temptation. To also watch out for the lowly, preach good news to the poor, heal the suffering, welcome the outcasts, have compassion on sinners. And finally to the death and resurrection of Jesus. A God that love us so much that he sent his only Son for us. So to connect to God, you need Jesus. You need to accept Him as your Lord and Saviour. You need to acknolwedge he has all authority in heaven and earth. He is the son of God. You cannot know or connect to God without him at all. Friends, this is the key, after humbling ourselves, we need to know Jesus. We actually need to come to him daily to connect to Jesus. Colossians 2:9 “For in him the whole fullness of deity dwells bodily,” God revaled himself fully in Jeuus Christ, through what he did on the cross and all that he have taught.

Apply:

Dear brothers and sisters, so today, if any one of you still haven’t put your faith in JEsus. Today might be that day, that you commite yourselves to Jesus, so humble before him, you confess your sins, you can connect with GOd. Because he is indeed the lord of heaven and earth. He is the only way to know the Father, and only through him God will reveal himself to you and me. And so I invite you, if God is moving you today, don’t delay anymore. Today commite yourself to Jesus so you can start the journey of God revealing himself to you. If you have made such decision, please let us know, let your friend know. But for all those who are Christians, I challenge you to think about Jesus daily. Sometimes we said we believe in Jesus, that Jesus is our Lord and our saviour, but our mind is not even focused on him. I’m asking you to develop a habit of really marinating your mind and your soul in the bible, especially four Gospels. We slowly but surely orient our lives toward the things of Christ, and we become deeply familiar with his story so we can share it whenever anyone asks us for the reason for the hope we have in him. We are to humble ourselves, we are to connect with Jesus, but lastly, Jesus asked us to take his yoke. Take his yoke.

Command - Take my yoke

Matthew 11:28-30 “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.” 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.””

If there is one thing every human longs for, it is rest. We all long to rest in peace not only after we die but also we are alive. Who doesn’t want the inward and outward peace that comes from being in a right relationships? Jesus claims that the ultimate rest - the longing of every human heart for the most right of all relationships - comes only through being in relationship with him. Not only does he says come to Me to connect with God, he says I’m the rest-maker. I’m the one you must embrace. Jesus has this invitation. Jesus does not only invite those who have found their self-worth, who are self-satisified, who are self-righteous. He does not invite those living the life of ease. Here Jesus invites “all who labor and are heavy ladened”. He invites the tired, the poor, the tempest-tossed, those huddled masses yearning for free. Are you that today? After this few years you might feel you are tired, you are with a heavy heart when you come in. Just come, come to him today, come to him daily, come to him humbly, and you will find rest.

But the way this rest is achieved sounds strange. After the verse I will give you rest, perhaps you are expected to read something about a vacation destination, a new recliner, a relaxing massage. Instead you find a work order: “Take my yoke upon you” (v29). Do you know what a yoke is? It’s an instrument for work. It is a wodden frame that is placed upon the shoulders in order to make a load or burden easier to carry. It is designed to distrubte the weight in equal proportions to both sides of the body. It would be one animal or two. Jesus doesn’t promise escape from reality, but he promises the right and fit equipment to deal with it. His yoke has something to do with his teachings, because he added “and learn from me”. To understand this yoke, we need to know the context. He was talking to heavy yoke of the scribes and Pharisees. It is not those ‘heavy burdens”, as Jesus called them that Israel’s ruler have laid upon “people’s shoulders”. Biblical burden, if we call them that, have a lightness to them because they have been graciously given by God as gifts to help us, given from the mouth of a man who is indeed, in every way, “gentle and lowly in heart”, one who has carried them himself - our Lord Jesus. Now compared with the hundred of Jewish laws, there are fewer commands from Christ to carry. True, but there is something to carry. Let’s not push the Sermon on the Mount, the parables, the Great commission off our backs. Those teaching bring rest. Rest comes from working, obedience. Rest comes in seeking first kingdom of God and his righteousness. Rest comes from knowing God’s grace through Jesus Christ and carrying his cross. Rest come from a right balance of Sabbath rest and work, as Jesus shows us in his way of live. Take my yoke, you will be working, walking, moving forward, carrying what I tell you to carry. Life might be uncomofrtable, hard and trying , but walk my way and you’ll find rest, the refreshment that comes from forgiveness, the renewal that comes with purposeful living, the rest that comes from a balance of sabbath and rest. Today take him up on it. Put his yoke over your shoulders and give it a try. See if learning from him, walking forward with him at the lead, trusting him as an infant bring rest. See if he brings the shalom of right relationships, satisfaction of salvation.

Apply:

My life would be regarded as happy and protected, raisied up in a middle-class Christian family I guess. I guess i”m always a bit pround, in a way that I don’t need others to affirm me, don’t need others to help me. But God really brought me down when I was a young worker. I lost important relationship, lost my job, lost my confidence. My mum at that time so concerned about me she bought a ps2 for me. But it was when I was finally humbled, like a child before God, that I connect with Jesus, I was able to deeply, deeply touched by God’s love. A love that drives me to take his yoke. At those few years I have decided to be called by God to do ministry. And the ministry of church sometimes drains you, sometimes make you so tired, but strangely it is also in those times, by obeying God, that I find deep rest, a deep rest that comes from grace, a deep rest from knowing yourself, your purpose. There were all these new ways of thinking and speaking and living. And as I walked forward in faith it felt surprising light. I felt that my body and soul, my whole self is desinged to carry this.

So take him up on it. How heavy is all that junk you are carrying on your back? Has partying, enjoying yourself brought you rest? Has the perfect girl and guy brought you rest? Has education success or career sucess brought you rest? Has material, owning a car, owning a ps5 owning a home brought you rest? Following Jesus may be hard, it is a yoke, obeying Jesus is not easy. But from my experience and this passage, it works. He brings this rest every human being longs for, the rest that comes only by being in the right relationship. So lets be humble, come to the Son, and take up his yoke as we connect to God, both now and in life to come.

Let’s pray.