Worry to Rest

Intro:

Do you worry? Do you ever feel overwhelmed by the weight of worry? I know I can feel like this at times. But life does not need to be an everyday struggle with worry. Let me tell you a story...

1000 Illustrations for Preaching & Teaching What’s Your Worry?

Thomas Carlyle was an anxious, serious, searching type of person. He had a soundproof room built in his London residence so he could work in unbroken peace. However, a neighbor had a cock that crowed rather vigorously during early morning. Carlyle complained to the owner about it. Whereupon the neighbor replied that the rooster crowed only three or four times at most. “But,” answered Carlyle, “if you only knew what I suffer waiting for that cock to crow!” Like Carlyle, many harrassed and suffering people spend their days waiting for something dreadful to happen!

Don’t be like Carlyle

Thomas lived a life of woriness of his life of peace to be broken apart that his life fell apart because of his worry. Live a life that Jesus told to live not how Thomas did. In Mathew 11:28-30 we find out how Jesus wants us to live so lets dive in to Gods word.

The Call: v28

"Come to me." Jesus is stating this because He is the ONLY way. Jesus is showing His authority. There is no other way besides Jesus. We must come to Jesus out of a personal trust in Him.

"All you who labor and are heavy laiden." Sin and worry puts a burden on our shoulders that we cannot carry, it crushes us without Jesus. We must cast our cares upon Him because he cares for us (1 Peter 5:7). As humans we try to just put everything upon ourseLves and try to do it ourselves, this is a mistake. As humans we cannot handle the weight of worry, we were not made to try to carry the weight of worry on our shoulders. We will be crushed under the sin of worry if we try to carry it ourselves. Some might carry the burden of regret from the past or worry of things from the past. You have been carrying this weight maybe your whole life. Everyone has some kind of worry that tries to destroy you, but Christ has an answer for this.

"And I will give you rest." When your mind is in a state of worry all the time, there is no room for peace. We should have a mind of peace (Phillipeans 4:7). We can only have this mind of peace through the one that gives peace, which is Christ. There is no worry that Christ cannot help. There is no worry that Christ cannot take away.

The Christ: v29

“Take my yoke upon you”

What does yoke mean?

Without being under the yoke of Christ we are crushed.

What does John Macarthur say about yoke in teaching?

What does yoke mean? In Ancient Israel when training a new animaL (such as an ox) to plow, ancient farmers often yoked it to an older, stronger, more experienced animal who bore the burden and guided the young animal through the learning process. In the same way Christ wants to carry our burdens with us, we must just let Him do this. If we cannot trust in Christ, then we are lost and will be crushed by the weight of sin, by the weight of worry, by the weight of your regret. In a quote from John Macarthur talking about what a yoke means in teaching, he said this, "A student was often spoken of as being under the yoke of his teacher, and an ancient Jewish writing contains the advice: "Put your neck under the yoke and let your soul receive instruction". Just as the student was under the yoke of the teacher, we should come under the yoke of Jesus by trust in who He is.

“and learn from me”

- Just as the student of the teacher we should learn from Christ through what He teaches us through prayer and through scripture.

“For I am gentle and lowly in heart”

- The gentle and humble heart of Christ is what brings us rest. It is because of who Jesus is that we get rest.

“and you will find rest for your souls”

- Only Christ can satisfy the rest that is needed for your soul. (John 6:35)

The Comfort: v30

“For my yoke is easy”

- Christ takes our sin upon himself so that he can guide us in a life of righteousness

Let him take off the weights that are on your shoulders.

This life may be hard, but with Christ there is joy and peace.

The Lord takes on our burdens of sin upon himself to guide us in a life of righteousness in Him. Let Him take the worry off your shoulders so you can walk with Him in peace. This life may be hard at times with different things we have to handle in life but He is a guiding us along the way.

“and my burden is light”

- Christ does not shame us for our sin and for worry but frees us through making our burden light by Him helping carrying it.

- We have a merciful savior that would do this for us.

-What ever worry you are going through (Financial, Health, Sin) trust Jesus by giving Him your worries.

Christ does not add more burden upon our shoulders and tells us how sinful we are, instead he takes the burden that we actually deserve to be crushed by. Our savior is so merciful to let us have rest in Him. Jesus as the merciful savior He is, tells us in this verse to no longer carry this burden of sin upon your shoulder but to come to Him and give it over to Him and have rest. Jesus takes on the burden with us and makes it easy and light. So whatever you might be going through whether that be worry from Sin, all they way to worry of health, worry of financial stability or any other worries. You can trust in Jesus and He will provide true rest.

Gospel: This ability to have rest in Christ was not free. Christ paid the ultimate sacrifice on a cross to die for our sins and for us to have a relationship with Him. But also He was not defeated by the grave, he rose 3 days later and defeated the grave and death, so do not be afraid or worry, but trust in our savior who has full control. Do not be like the people from Jeremiah 6:16 when responding to this gift of rest.