RJ - Far North Queensland Regional Meeting
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Come
Come
Thanks to Matt & Shauna
28 Come to Me, all you who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. 29 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. 30 For My yoke is easy and My burden is light.”
There are those here that are tired, maybe on the verge of giving up
Maybe you’re “keeping face” - to maintain the image of cohesion, respect and dignity among your peers
Yeah, church is great, I’m going super well…yep..marriage & kids are fantastic
I felt the lord say “come to me”
In this forum we can be real - what we have endeavored to do in our region
COME - so much in that one word
There are choices to be made.
How willing am I to stop humble myself and and incline my ear?
Come is a verb. An active choice to slow down, stop and incline your heart. It is a choice, you get.
2. TO ME - there are so many things we can go to.
Jesus is the way to rest.
Self reliance
When our resources were removed, our dependence on Jesus increased
Everything you do, if its going to be effective, must come through the empowering of the Holy Spirit
It’s not that Jesus isn’t available, we just try everything else first
We forget to come to Jesus -
Not so much a lack of a holiday, but a lack of intimacy
If our mind and our heart are out of step with Jesus, everything becomes difficult to bear.
Mary & Martha
41 But the Lord said to her, “My dear Martha, you are worried and upset over all these details! 42 There is only one thing worth being concerned about. Mary has discovered it, and it will not be taken away from her.”
3. ALL WHO ARE WEARY & CARRY HEAVY BURDENS
ALLL - Jesus is available to all
What is heavy in your life right now?
Some of us live under the crushing belief that our standing before God is dependant upon our performance and actions
Others, consciously or unconsciously, try to ear the respect and admiration of others (who, unfortunately for us, don’t really care all that much)
How have we learned in the wrong way, about how to please God?
We have to be careful we are not creating unnecessary burdens for ourselves
4. I WILL GIVE REST
There is a rest in Jesus
This is how people who have been through intense trouble, persecution & heartache can say its all been worth it.
1 The Lord is my shepherd; I shall not want. 2 He makes me to lie down in green pastures; He leads me beside the still waters. 3 He restores my soul; He leads me in the paths of righteousness For His name’s sake. 4 Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil; For You are with me; Your rod and Your staff, they comfort me. 5 You prepare a table before me in the presence of my enemies; You anoint my head with oil; My cup runs over. 6 Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me All the days of my life; And I will dwell in the house of the Lord Forever.
11 You will show me the path of life; In Your presence is fullness of joy; At Your right hand are pleasures forevermore.
31 But those who wait on the Lord Shall renew their strength; They shall mount up with wings like eagles, They shall run and not be weary, They shall walk and not faint.
5. YOKE YOURSELF TO JESUS
We take off the yoke of expectation
We take off the yoke of performance
We take of the yoke of comparison
Yoke yourself to Jesus and learn from Him - our servant King, lowly, gentle and meek
Dwight Pentecost ( Design for Discipleship) - There was an old farmer plowing with a team of oxen. As I saw this team I was somewhat amazed, for one was a huge ox and the other a very small bullock. That ox towered over the little bullock that was sharing the work with him. I was amazed and perplexed to see a farmer trying to plow with two such unequal animals in the yoke and commented on the inequality to the man with whom I was riding. He stopped his car and said, ‘I want you to notice something. See the way those traces are hooked to the yoke? You will observe that the large ox is pulling all the weight. That little bullock is being broken into the yoke but he is not actually pulling any weight.’ My mind instinctively came to this passage of Scripture where our Lord said, “Take my yoke upon you, learn of me; for I am …” In the normal yoking the load is equally distributed between the two that are yoked together, but when we are yoked with Jesus Christ, He bears the load and we who are yoked to Him share in the joy and the accomplishment of the labor but without the burden of the yoke.
If you are feeling heavy & burdened, maybe you have yoked yourself to the wrong things?
Remember, it’s His Church!
WHERE TO FROM HERE?
Cultivate space
Listen
Ask questions when you pray - dialogue
Make God your first contact
Get a word for you
Quite striving - do what you are called to do and let God do what He does best
Watch what you are consuming
Seek out strong support networks
The more we receive in
silent prayer in His
presence, the more we have
to give to the world.
By slowing down we
actually catch up with Him.-Peter Scazzero