An Invitation to Rest

Matthew 11:28–30 NIV

“Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. 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. For my yoke is easy and my burden is light.”

Introduction: Loading a backpack with rocks, weights. - burdensome relationships, finances, work stressors, fears of the future, and others.

We Have Heavy Burdens

Different Kinds of Burdens:

* Burdens – People do harmful things to us.

* We do harmful things to ourselves

* We have an enemy who does harmful things to us.

* This world is simply full of calamity and systems that are not healthy.

Dealing with Expectations:

* John’s Expectations – Messiah/King who will restore all things. – Kick-out corrupt religious rulers/Kick-out the Roman Government.

* Similarly – Our complications we too have political expectations both on God and people, and leaders to be the saviors of our world – To solve all of our problems, and when that does not happen according to our way we truly wonder, is this the right way?

* Religious Expectations – John’s ascetic life-style vs. Jesus’ “Glutinous” Life Style – Different Religious institutions put religious expectations on us, but it is like they can not make up their mind.

* This can create a skepticism in our life in which we do not know what to believe anymore, so I will believe and follow whoever seems to make sense to me at the time.

* So, people did not believe in Jesus when he healed sick people miraculously, and cast out demons.

- Secretariet Movie Clip

Jesus wants to give us rest from our burdens

Jesus Restores our Life

“The rest he promises is a release from the drudgery of sin, not from the service of God, but an obligation to the duty we owe to him. Note, Christ has a yoke for our necks, as well as a crown for our heads, and this yoke he expects we should take upon us and draw in” (Matthew Henry, commentary on Matthew 11, https://www.blueletterbible.org/Comm/mhc/Mat/Mat_011.cfm?a=940028).

Proverbs – Wisdom personified as a female, pre-creation, helped create the Universe, and we are called to listen to her, and if we do (Pr. 8:35 “For those who find me find life and receive favor from the Lord.”)

Sirach 51:23-27

23 Draw near to me, you who are uneducated,

and lodge in the house of instruction.

24 Why do you say you are lacking in these things,

and why do you endure such great thirst?

25 I opened my mouth and said,

Acquire wisdom for yourselves without money.

26 Put your neck under her yoke,

and let your souls receive instruction;

it is to be found close by.

27 See with your own eyes that I have labored but little

and found for myself much serenity.

Gospel:

* He has given us the Gospel – His Word, His Wisdom to live by.

* On the Cross he takes our sins.

* Jesus said, in this world you will have trouble, but take heart, I have overcome the world.

* Jesus then gives us the Holy Spirit, because we carry burdens too heavy for us to carry. “It is not in the Bible, that God gives us too much to handle.” But, “13 No temptation[a] has overtaken you except what is common to mankind. And God is faithful; he will not let you be tempted[b] beyond what you can bear. But when you are tempted,[c] he will also provide a way out so that you can endure it.”

* Prayer Conversation – Lord, I need your Holy Spirit, and need your help with this burden. I need your Yoke.

* Ultimate revival = Restoration when He comes back.

How do we find this rest?

Spend Time Giving Your Burdens to Jesus.

“God created us in his image. He is a God who works and then rests. When we rest we honor the way God made us. Rest can be a spiritual act—a truly human act of submission to and dependance on God who watches over all things as we rest” (Adele Ahlberg Calhoun, Spiritual Disciplines Handbook: Practices That Transform Us [Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press, 2015], 75).

The Pattern of Creation - A Pattern of Life not just

7th Day - Everything Rests - Focuses on God, Trusts God for provision, Communion with God.

Every 7 years - Debt Cancellation and re-set.

Every 70th Year - Year of Jubilee

The Gospel - Jesus Dies on Good Friday - "It is Finished" His work is Done. Rests on Saturday (Sabbath) - Rises on Sunday - New Creation -

The Ultimate Rest is when he Comes again, and all creation rests from Evil.

“These [social media] platforms are designed to trap viewers in a social media rabbit hole: They offer bite-sized content that makes it easy to quickly consume several videos or posts in a row, they often automatically suggest similar content, and many of them even automatically start playing similar videos, reducing the potential for interruptions. While presenting users with engaging content isn’t necessarily a bad thing, the accessibility of this media is exactly what makes it so hard for users to break free from the rabbit hole and get back to whatever they were working on” (Kaitlin Woolley and Marissa A. Sharif, “The Psychology of Your Scrolling Addition,” Harvard Business Review, January 31, 2022, https://hbr.org/2022/01/the-psychology-of-your-scrolling-addiction).

2 reports on the radio.

Humans impulse buy easier when scrolling. The mix of messages deadens our senses to be able to make rational decisions.

Good News - Teens and Young people are beginning to realize this on their own to manage their social media usage.

3DM - Semi-Circle - Do We rest from our Work, or do we work out of our rest.

- Two ideas here - Do we re-charge and re-focus so we may produce good fruit, or are we just trying to get by so we can crash.

Second - Are we living out of the rest "Grace" God has given us from Christ, or are we living for human approval, expectations, rules, our own sinful nature?

My Sabbath Rythmns - What I do to find rest in Jesus.

Develop strong habits to guard your rest—such as removing devices from bedrooms and places of rest, establishing a bedtime routine and ruthlessly sticking to it, and observing what types of activities you use to distract yourself instead of resting. For an older crowd, invite a young person to give a quick tutorial about how to turn on daily alerts for bedtime and wake times on their phones, and how to review daily screen time. For those with young kids in the home, make a quick video about family device-docking stations in a place other than bedrooms. This could be a quick, silly video made about a family in the congregation that has already done this, in the style of a Mr. Rogers field trip.

Conclusion:

And focus some time with the Lord where you give your burdens over to Him.