Are you tired and worn out
is that you are you pushing yourself too hard for too long are you deep down tired and exhausted
the Bible word for that is weary maybe you're caring for a aging parent who's sick or you're a
single mom balancing school work kids if you don't have the time or the money to take a real break
adding that to your already busy life has you missing sleep and feeling stressed
you have to work overtime or a second job to make ends meet every area in your life has stress
marriage family work school you're worn out and exhausted with no end in sight stress is a killer
I wonder what brings the most stress into your life is it your family maybe some friend
maybe it's your job maybe it's your health maybe it's the direction of our nation
but when you look around there's just stress everywhere this is a time and a period of great
stress and people are feeling it and they're bearing it and they're going to all kinds of
means to eliminate it in their life and yet it doesn't work anything to get rid of this feeling
that we have that somehow it's bearing us down and grinding us down and we're looking for an escape
and it's interesting that none of the things we've come up with has an escapement to it
so what do you do is there an answer is there hope Jesus knew what you would face
he understood weariness and fatigue so he offered a way out a beautiful promise found in Matthew
chapter 11 listen to the words of Jesus who said 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
see not that's a phrase you don't hear very often if ever in today's world take my yoke
or yoke in order to really understand that promise we've got to figure out what it means
Jesus said take my yoke upon you for my yoke is easy and my burden is light now you know
what a yoke is a yolk is a wooden cross beam that is designed for ox oxen to pull so that
two can pull as a team with far more power than if two were separate and we're pulling
and so he used that as a symbol for us as an analogy and he said you need me right
beside you to go through life you need me on one side of that thing and you get
in the other do not get in that by yourself do not get in a single yoke Jesus is saying
you'll be crushed get in a double yolk and I will always be with you and I will walk with
you every step of the way you put your head in one side I'll put my head in one side and
I promise I will do more than my fair share of pulling more than my side and more than my weight
Jesus said come to me place yourself in the yoke choose to join to me connect yourself to me I
won't place unnecessary burdens on you I won't be mean or cruel when you get here alongside me
I will do the pulling for you my yoke is easy and my burden light when you yoke yourself to Jesus
you move at his speed instead of your own he does the striving he does the pulling he does
the hard work it's arriving on time his time not ahead of him or behind him but beside him
when you come near the end of your strength
you're nowhere near the end of mine because my strength never ends
so give me your weakness and your weariness come to me with your tiredness and fatigue
I'll replace it with a strength that is way beyond your own because in your weakness
I am strong the reason I'm stressed is because I'm carrying things that God never asked me to carry
I'm worrying about things that God never asked me to worry about I'm carrying the wrong yoke
when life is too heavy when you don't have the capacity when there are no answers for
the problem you have come to me Jesus says and in me you're going to find rest how
he tells us take my yoke upon you and learn from me for I am gentle and humble in heart
and you will find rest for your soul for my yoke is easy and my burden is light
and you and I in this moment want to say is that even possible here's what I love about Jesus as
he begins this invitation to you and me is he says hey come to me all you that are weary and burdened
you get that Jesus doesn't say hey you know no actually life's not that hard you shouldn't be
stressed no he says hey life is hard life is hard you're going to find yourself in moments where you
are just absolutely weary where what you're having to carry is greater than your capacity to carry it
come unto me all of you who are weary life's hard and life heaps unfairness on what is already hard
and Jesus doesn't minimize that he says hey all of you all of you who find life too much
you find the burden more than you can carry come to me because I'm willing to offer
rest and I do the part that I'm supposed to do and then when my ability and capacity
becomes insufficient it's in that moment that God's sufficiency fills in the rest
see it's in that moment that I go look I don't have to stress on that problem worry because
when when all of my strength and when all of my intellect and wears out that's when Jesus's
capacity his ability and his strength kicks in that's the wonder of being paired with him
stop trying to navigate your problem in your own capacity you're wearing the wrong yoke
if you would come join my yoke then when we reach the limit of your ability that's when
my ability would step in for you that's why you can say my yoke is easy and my burden is light
and that is God will not give you more than what he can handle
have you noticed I didn't say you can handle why because he expects you to do your life with him
that's why what I wanted to say is this God will not let you have more than what he can handle
that in the midst of my struggles in the midst of my problems if I know that God is with me
then I don't need to be stressed about my problems let me just say this again in the
midst of whatever is going I don't care how dark it is I don't care how broken it is I don't care
how big it is if in the midst of my struggles if I can live with the absolute confidence that God
is there with me and that God is bigger than my problems then I don't have to live with stress
if God is with you it's okay y'all there's no if no answer what's about it life is just
gonna happen and here's the thing I'm just trying to get some of you to see
that if you have this faith if you if you really believe in this God and you know
that God is with you instead of stressing out about the stuff that comes your way
act like you know he's with you walk with the Godly confidence walk by faith and not by sight
we need God in our life and as Christian people the promise of God is this I will be with you
and God is with you God is with you in the in the things that you face
so much of what we think is important so much is what we put value on will come and go will
come and go things that today we think are so important so stressful so crushing to us
will come and go and we will get to the other side life is this journey where we are stepping forward
life is this journey when we are stepping forward we're moving through and things come
and they go one step at a time day by day you've got to walk read the book of Ephesians
the book of Ephesians talks about us being in the heavenlies yes it does but it also mentions seven
times that the Christian life is a walk we're to walk day by day do you know what victory is
victory's getting breakfast for the kids in the morning dressing the children getting them off
to school victory is going to work it's cleaning the house it's it's its daily Bible study it's
your quiet time it's prayer it's visiting the sick it's being sweet to your wife it is all day every
day hot day cold days doll days bright days good days bad days walking the Christian life so when
Jesus says put my yoke on he doesn't mean when you feel like it he means all day every day throughout
life in every season because that is when you're going to most need it every time you have it on
it's when you almost need it that's how we avoid being crushed instead with Jesus we are fine