Burdened

When I was in the Army I was in the infantry and a lot of the time would do training out in the woods where we would go on patrol and practise walking around tactically and stuff like that. We would have out rucksack and I remember doing one training event where we were going to be doing a lot of walking, some of it through sand, this is Fayetteville and as we called it “Fayetnam.” I was carrying my rucksack and I was the SAW gunner so instead of magazines on my vest carrier things I had these drums of ammo that were in my rucksack. A lot of it. We all had it but I had a lot more. Plus we had a bunch of other junk so this thing could get up to and sometimes over 100lb. And man there were times it felt like my back was going to break. I remember one time in particular it felt like my spine was going to snap like a twig. Some of you all, if not all or most of you all, came through that door carrying a burden and you feel like you are going to snap. Its not a physical weight, but its worse because it on you all the time and you can’t just set it down. You don’t know what do with it. You find relief here and there, take a drug, chase a pleasure, distract yourself for a time, but when that wears off and it wears off quicker each time, you still got that burden and it feels heavier than before. Thats my question tonight? Are you burdened? This isn’t a question just for the non-believer either. But for the believer we need to be reminded of what to do with our burdens. If you don’t have a relationship with Jesus, tonight the question is. Are you tired of this burden? How much more heavy does it have to get before you say “I can’t carry this thing anymore.” I need rest. Rest that I haven’t been able to find in anything else I have tried.

This passage is for us. Those who are burdened. I want to discuss two way the Jesus offers relief.

The first was is: Jesus shows up.

Matthew 11:25–27 “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. 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.”

Who are the little children? In Matthew Jesus refers to little ones, as those who are humble. Those who recognize they need God. Matthew 19:14 “but Jesus said, “Let the little children come to me and do not hinder them, for to such belongs the kingdom of heaven.”” Jesus is praising God the Father, that it was God’s will to reveal himself to the humble and lowly and not the “wise and understanding.” You can be smart and be a Christian. This is not to mean Christianity is for dumb people. If you are a believer you should want wisdom that comes from the Lord. There are 31 chapters in Proverbs. 31 days in a month. Great way to get wisdom right there, a chapter everyday of the month. Matthew 5:3 ““Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.” That is who Jesus is calling out to, to be his disciple and to go to heaven. Those who are poor is spirit are those who recognize, through the grace of God, their need for God.

Who are the wise and understanding? Well the wise in this context are those who have studied the Law, the Pharisees, who think they know everything because they are the “wise and understanding of their time.” In our context, the wise and understanding is not those who seek wisdom from the Lord and understanding from scripture, but it is those who think they have it all figured out. Steven Hawking was one of the smartest people to ever live when it came to his mind and what he did for science and math. But he denied the existence of God to his death. Unless he repented on his deathbed, as far as we know about him, he died a fool. Psalm 14:1 “The fool says in his heart, “There is no God.” If you think you have it all figured out, that you don’t need God for anything and you can do it on your own, and there are many who do think that because they have good jobs and are making a lot of money and getting accolades for their achievements so they think they have life figured out. Those are the fools. If you don’t know Jesus and you think you have it all figured out you don’t know the answers to the most important questions of our lives, the questions that have eternal consequences for how we answer them.

When Jesus reveals himself to you, there is no going back. There is no option to be the same again. The Bible is full of stories, not of people searching for God because they were good and righteous people, but of God showing up and revealing himself. God reveals himself in his timing and he will put you in the exact spot he wants you to be when he does. Some of you it was here. You were out doing whatever is was you were doing. Chasing something, whether it was money, pleasure, drugs, and God has put you right here and now he is revealing himself to you and you have nowhere to hide from him. God is perfect in his timing and it is not our timing. Isaiah 55:8–9 “For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways, declares the Lord. For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts.”

When Moses was living in the house of Pharoah, that would have been a convenient time for God to show up. Didn’t have to be a burning bush, God could do it anyway he wanted. When does God show up? He shows up after Moses has lost everything. He grew up in royalty as a son of Pharaohs daughter and God showed up when Moses had lost all that because he murdered a man and was working for his Father in law as a Shepherd. Paul was persecuting Christians and gave approval at the death of the first Martry of the Christian Church recorded in the Bible at the stoning of Steven. Could God have showed up then? When Stephen said Acts 7:56 “And he said, “Behold, I see the heavens opened, and the Son of Man standing at the right hand of God.”” God could have opened Paul's eyes right then if he wanted so Paul could see what Steven was seeing. It was when Paul was traveling on a road to Damascus. God showed up. Why did he do it when he did? I don’t know. But it was the will of God to do it when he did. Do you have a free will? Sure. We choose to go after the things we desire. But what has that free will done for you? If I may be blunt, has it worked out for you in the past? Because if we’re being honest it hasn’t. and I am speaking from somebody who made a mess of their life and was saved by grace, not as somebody who has it all figured out, but how has following your will worked out for you? Its not a question to put anybody down. I had to ask admit that myself. IF left to my free will apart from God I just make a mess of everything and the only freedom I experience is deciding which false god to chase after. When God shows up, surrender to him. When he reveals himself as he is doing now, not through my words but the words of scripture. Or even through a sunrise or sunset. When you look at a sunset and its beauty, that’t God’s creation giving glory to him. Do you humble yourself to the creator of all you see? Or do you want to try and figure it all out on your own and deny your need for the creator.

You are right where God wants you to be to show up in your life and turn everything on its head. It could be you came for a snack. Could be like Paul you are just going to the next thing. But Jesus shows up. He probably won’t hit you with a flash of light and blind you and speak in an audible voice. But he will cut through your hard heart. Could be a song we sing. Could be a verse we share. Could be over a process of different things where you feel it happening. Before Steven was stoned he told the Pharisees Acts 7:51 ““You stiff-necked people, uncircumcised in heart and ears, you always resist the Holy Spirit. As your fathers did, so do you.” Don’t resist the Holy Spirit.

Here is my story of Jesus showing up and revealing himself, and I think its interesting to share with you guys because he didn’t show up at my worst moment. Over a decade ago I was living in Norfolk and the closest I got to death was when I was in recovery, so I wasn’t actively using, and I decided to get a beer with dinner. Not smart if you're in recovery. That turned into a few more beers and once I got a buzz my mind got fixed on using. I made the call, got what I wanted, my wife wasn’t my wife then but she was living with me. I didn’t want to do it around her so I would usually go somewhere else but she begged me to do it at home. She would always throw it out and stuff like that but she promised she wouldn't mess with me. So I say in the living room, did my thing, and next thing you know I got all the EMT and everybody else around me. My wife had to do CPR on me until they showed up and hit me twice with NARCAN. You would think that would of gotten my attention. No. Do not underestimate a hard heart. Do no underestimate our fallen sin nature. We are not good people who just need some nudging to get to God. We are wicked people with hard hearts.

Fast forward until about years ago. I am living what I thought would be the dream. I have a job where I only work 2 days a week so 5 days out of a week I can do whatever I want. I wasn't rich by any means but I didn’t have to stress about money which in Norfolk I was always broke, largely due to my addiction. In the Army I was stressed a lot and now I didn’t have a care in the world. I wasn’t using opiates. I smoked weed and did what I wanted. It was the life I fantasized about when I was in Norfolk and in the army. No money or work stress. Do what I want. God did not let me enjoy any of it. IT was grace but it was driving me nuts. I had not a care in the world and yet I was miserable. Then I started to read my Bible again. Why? Because God put it on my heart to. IT made not other sense for me to just start reading my Bible again. I read the parable of the talents in Matthew and it tortured me. That story drove me nuts. One day I drove up to Boone, to buy weed, and I was taking my wife's car and she had a Christian station on and a preacher was on. I usually turn it off but I liked his voice so I kept it on. The weight of this parable was growing on me. And Jesus showed up. Something in me broke. I was feeling the crushing weight of my life of failures and sins when God used that preacher to speak to me as he bellowed out in a preacher voice “no amount of sin can separate you from the love of the cross.” Something in me broke that day. I have a dramatic element to my story. Maybe yours will have a less dramatic moment, and honestly I have that moment but it was a string of things in my life where God was showing up, revealing himself to me.

When God shows up. When you feel your heart soften. Humble yourself. Don’t resist him. When Jesus showed up in Gerasenes he flipped everything on its head. Jesus shows up and a demon possessed man they couldn't restrain is sitting in his right mind, pigs had gone running into the water to drown themselves, I mean when Jesus shows up everything changed. And what did they do? They begged him to leave. So Jesus got in his boat and left. If you are feeling like God is softening your heart, that Jesus is showing up and revealing himself to you, do not resist him.

The second way Jesus offers relief by giving us rest. Jesus gives us rest.

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.””

Jesus does not say “come unto me all who are intelligent enough to figure out there is a God. All who are good people. He is asking us, asking you, are you weary? Do you feel the burden crushing you. The yoke in this context is about how the Pharisees had used the Law to put a burden on the people. He calls them out for it in Matthew 23:4 “They tie up heavy burdens, hard to bear, and lay them on people’s shoulders, but they themselves are not willing to move them with their finger.” The message of Jesus is not “try to be a better person and when you fail its ok because I am going to forgive you because sin is not a big deal.” The standard Jesus gives is not hard to do on your own, its impossible. Matthew 5:48 “You therefore must be perfect, as your heavenly Father is perfect.” The message of Jesus is: If you try to be a good person without walking with Jesus, without living with the grace upon grace that he gives, the law is going to crush you. Jesus did not die on the cross just to show a brutal demonstration of love. Jesus died on the cross because God cannot tolerate sin and his justice and holiness had to be satisfied. If you are trying to be a “better person” without Jesus, trying is going to crush you. If you try and get your life together without the grace of God, you will either go nuts from trying and failing or it will puff up your pride so much you erect a statue of yourself in your heart and then on the day of judgement you will weep and say “vanity. it was all vanity.” dust in the wind. Maybe your burden isn’t so much trying to be a good person. Maybe your burden is an addiction that whatever you try and do you can’t seem to shake it. Maybe your burden is a bunch of situations and circumstances with your family or your legal process that you can’t do anything about and you feel like you don’t have control.

Jesus is calling us to bring our heavy burden to him and take his yoke. There is no promise here of an easy life devoid of any struggle or hardship. What he promises is peace and joy that nothing else can give and he walks with us. On Monday I was praying with a brother and he has a burden. He is a Christian but he has a burden on him. We prayed that God would resolve the situation, but we also acknowledged his way are not our ways and His will be done. But the prayer I have faith God will answer is when we pray “God teach me to have peace and joy in any circumstance.” God doesn’t promise our life with get easier in the sense that we won’t have any obstacles. He doesn’t promise our life will get anymore comfortable. But he promises peace and joy through these things, something the world will never experience apart from Jesus.

Jesus says to take his yoke. So there is a responsibility. There is a cost of discipleship. Jesus asks us to count the cost. Yoke is used to mean servanthood. So Jesus is saying, come serve me. Be my disciple. I will give you rest.

Some of you guys are carrying a burden, and you’re trying to carry it all by yourself and its killing you. I hear a volunteer say one time they saw a guy grab a handful of debbie cakes and run out or something. I’ll tell you why that doesn’t make me mad and thing “oh they’re taking advantage of us.” We do want to stop that sort of thing because we dont want one person to be the reason the guards stop us from brining snacks. But I am not mad, personally, because if that person came here to get some snacks and doesn’t care about Jesus, they’re hurting. Whether they show it or not that person is carrying a burden that is breaking them and they are trying to carry it all on their own. We were not meant to carry these burdens alone.

If you came in just for a snack. Good. I am glad you’re here though please just take one. I want you here. You may have come up here for whatever reason you had thinking you would get a snack and whatever else. But God willed you to be sitting right where you are. And He is asking you. Are burdened? Are you tired of trying to carry all this stuff you got going on on your own? Is doing it on your own working out for you. We are all volunteers, your brothers in Christ, not because we got it all figured out, but because at one point in our lives God showed up. He revealed himself to us and we said Jesus I cannot carry this burden on my own. Its killing me. I will take your yoke upon me. Now I am here. With more joy and peace than I ever had before. And I still stumble, get caught up in sin, and I have to go back to the cross and repent. I have to be reminded that I cannot do it on my own. I am here to ask are you burdened. Are you ready to stop trying to do this on your own? What is it going to take? How much heavier does this load need to get before you bend your knee to Jesus? If you are looking for a sign. Its right here. God may not shout at you in a thunderous voice, you probably aren’t going to encounter a burning bush or be stuck blind, but God will speak to you. God will reveal himself to you. He is doing it right now. You see that sunset. You hear these scriptures. You hear our worship and and our prayer? Don’t resist the Holy Spirit.

God has you right where he wants you. If you’re a Christian, then brother let me remind you we still have a tendency to try and do it on our own. Lets encourage each other daily to give our burdens to Jesus. If you are not a follower of Jesus. What more do you want from God. Jesus owes you nothing and has given you everything. Because he loves you. He wants to ease that burden and give you rest.

Lets Pray.