Introduction:
(Matthew 11:25-30):
- Recognize who invites you.
- Respond to the almighty.
Jeremiah 18:11b-12 - "Return, every one from his evil way, and amend your ways and your deeds." But they say, "That is in vain! We will follow our own plans, and will every one act according to the stubbornness of his evil heart."
- Return to Jesus and find rest.
- In Solitude .
Mark 1:35 - "And rising very early in the morning, while it was still dark, he departed and went out to a desolate place, and there he prayed."
Luke 5:16 - "But Jesus often withdrew to lonely places and prayed."
- In Stillness .
Psalm 46:10 - "Be still, and know that I am God..."
Psalm 37:7 - "Be still before the Lord and wait patiently for him."
- In Silence .
Habakkuk 2:20 - "The Lord is in his holy temple; let all the earth be silent before him."
Isaiah 30:15 - "“For thus said the Lord God, the Holy One of Israel, “In returning and rest you shall be saved; in quietness and in trust shall be your strength."
- In Solitude .
Sermon Notes (PDF): BLANK
Hint: Highlight blanks above for answers!
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00:00-00:46
Good morning, Harvest. Happy New Year. We're in Matthew chapter 11 this morning, so if you would turn there. And we're going to be looking at the verses towards the end of the chapter, verses 25 through 30, but we're going to do a review of sorts. So it's the new year. Well, this 24 went fast, at least for me it did and New Year comes what do people typically do? Make resolutions. Has anyone here made some resolutions this year? If you want to raise your hands. But why do people make resolutions?
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Well because we want to improve in some way in our lives. We wanted to eat healthier.
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We want to get in shape.
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We want to quit smoking or drinking.
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I'm going to save some money.
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I think getting in shape seems to be one of the biggest resolutions people make.
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I notice every year at the gym, the first week of January, it's packed.
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By the end of the month, all those new resolvers, they're all gone.
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I used to make resolutions, and I stopped several years ago, mostly, I think, because I didn't keep them.
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I was in good company.
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Research suggests that only 9% of Americans follow through on their resolutions.
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And statistics show 23% of people quit their resolution by the end of the first week.
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43% quit by the end of January.
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And by the second week of February, 80% of resolutions have been abandoned.
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So why do so many people quit?
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One study indicated 35% of the respondents, they had unrealistic goals, or they had too many resolutions.
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Another 33%, they just didn't track their progress.
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And the last 23%, they just forgot about their resolutions.
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I'd like to suggest another reason why people quit on their resolutions.
02:21-02:33
They're so focused on the goal that they just overdo it on day one and at the first sign of pain or discomfort or failure they just they quit.
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They quit.
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Too hard.
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I tried.
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Too hard.
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The problem is people focus too much on the goal instead of the process.
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They focus on the final result instead of simply enjoying the doing of their task.
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They zero in on walking 10,000 steps instead of just enjoying going for a walk.
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I suppose that this isn't surprising in an outcome-focused, an outcome-oriented culture such as ours.
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We focus on the result and don't consider how the process itself can change us.
03:14-03:20
We view process as important only insofar as it gets the outcome that we're looking for.
03:20-04:48
is what matters. The process is only the means to an end and if we learn anything from the process it's only meaningful if what we learn helps us improve the outcome and results in more success. You know this this mindset pervades our lives even our walk with Jesus Christ. We feel like we've got to have something to show for ourselves. We've got to prove ourselves and to others that we're living meaningful lives and we're living life to the fullest. So we make resolutions and we aim high. And as a result, our lives become a frenzy of activities. Long hours at work, striving to get to the next promotion, consulting the life coach to unleash the power within, getting the kids to into activities and sports, going on that dream vacation, and you know and traveling a long way and just so I can work remotely. All these all this activity it leaves us kind of exhausted and and weary and longing for a moment's rest. But we don't rest because there's just so much we think that has to get done. Well, it's amid all this ceaseless activity that an invitation arrives.
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Oh joy, another thing to do, another event to add to the calendar, but let's see who it's from. Why, it's from Jesus, and he says, "Come to me, all who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest." Let's pray. Our gracious God and Father, Our Lord and our God and our Savior, we pray this morning that you open the eyes of the blind, that you give hearing to the deaf, that you raise and wake the dead.
05:36-07:31
And I pray, Lord Jesus, that everyone in this room hears you call them. We ask in your great name amen so we've got an invitation the first thing we need to do is recognize who it is that is inviting you we're gonna focus as I said on Matthew 11 25 through 30 this morning but Matthew has a profound and illuminating lead-in to these verses at the beginning of the chapter Jesus is to messengers from John the Baptist. John was in prison and he was getting a little concerned and so he sent messengers to Jesus. He wanted reassurance that Jesus was the Messiah. "Are you the one we're looking for or will it be someone else?" And Jesus answered by paraphrasing Isaiah 35 verses 5 and 6 and some other verses in the Old Testament that told the Jews how they could recognize Jesus or how they could recognize the Messiah when he when he showed up. So Jesus said, "Go tell John the blind see, the lame walk, the lepers are cleansed, the deaf hear, the dead are raised, and the poor are hearing the gospel." There's an agreement here between the scriptures and their fulfillment. It's a double proof that Jesus is the Messiah. After John's messengers left, Jesus spoke about John to the crowd. There was a crowd of people around him and Jesus rhetorically asks them, "Hey, when you went out looking for John the Baptist in the desert, what were you looking for?
07:31-09:53
What were you expecting to see?" And Jesus answers, "You were looking for a prophet. You thought he was the Messiah but he said he wasn't. But you went out looking for a prophet. You know the Jews had this idea that Elijah would come back and that he would he would announce the Messiah and Jesus again quotes Isaiah and he asserts that John the Baptist was in fact the Elijah who is to come. And who is this Elijah going to proclaim? The Messiah. And who did John point to? Jesus. Behold the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world. The one whose sandals I am not even worthy to untie. So now we have three proofs that Jesus is Messiah. The scripture, his miracles, and John's testimony. And all these proofs reinforce each other and how did the crowd respond yeah what have you done for us lately Jesus Jesus says you're like little kids you're dissatisfied with everything and then Jesus goes on to denounce the cities of Chorazin Bethsaida and Capernaum because those are the places where he had performed most of his miracles and the people hadn't repented Jesus said Sodom on the day of judgment is going to be better off than all of you because if Sodom had seen and heard the things that I have done they would have repented all the people in Sodom would have repented and yet the crowd of people before Jesus remains unrepentant in verses 25 and 26 of Matthew take a look there Jesus declares why the crowd hasn't repented. He says, "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." Underline little children there, we might come back to that before the end. And you see the crowd is not filled with little children but with so-called wise ones, worldly ones, who think they know it all.
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The smart folks, the type A overachievers, the keep-working-at-it folks, who whether they're scrupulously religious or wise in their own eyes, they look down on the poor and the simple and the sinners and the strugglers.
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They don't recognize Jesus because they have their own expectations of a mighty conquering king as Messiah.
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Whereas Jesus in their eyes is uneducated, common, poor, simple. He's not the Messiah they want, but he's the Messiah they need. And then Jesus follows up this astounding statement in verse 27.
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He says this, "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." Jesus speaks here much like he does in John's gospel.
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And by clearly identifying himself with the Father, many in his audience would have understood him to be saying, "I am God." So this is a fourth proof that Jesus is Messiah.
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He's one with the Father and the Father has handed over to him all things In other words, Jesus has been given all power all authority in heaven and in earth by the Father Let me ask you what would you do if you had all authority How would you handle?
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having unlimited power You can probably imagine many things and you may flatter yourself that you would only do what is good and right But you probably wouldn't do what Jesus did Jesus used his authority and unlimited power To obey his father to wash dirty feet Become the last and the least to be poor and homeless to heal and raise people to raise the dead Most importantly to put himself in the hands of angry sinners who tortured him and put him to death But importantly for our study this morning Jesus uses his power and authority to reveal the Father to whomever he chooses So we should ask To whom has he chosen to reveal the Father?
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Matthew chapter 11 tells us the crowd and He has given the crowd for proofs that he's the Messiah that he is God Almighty The scripture the signs superiority and sonship They all add up to one conclusion Jesus is God Almighty and he has all authority I'm a lawyer. I used to try cases and I'll tell you in a trial court These are all valid types of evidence to prove a case He's got the documents he's got eyewitness testimony and including hundreds of people who could have stepped forward and said he healed me He delivered me from my leprosy. He raised my son from the dead and You have the testimony of Jesus himself and who's the jury the whole crowd They've all seen and heard these things this stuff didn't happen in a corner Jesus is not speaking to select groups of people or only certain types of people He's speaking to everyone who was there the Pharisees the Sadducees the Romans the rich the poor tax collectors Jews Gentiles Saints sinners and everyone in between He's speaking to all of humanity You know who else is in this crowd All of you all of us here and Anyone past present and future who reads or hears these words of Jesus?
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We're all part of the great crowd of all generations of all time Jesus says he has all authority to reveal the Father to whomever he wants and he reveals him to everyone Notice Jesus does not give an ultimatum Doesn't make a demand. He doesn't issue a mandate. He could demand recognition and obedience He could terrify and command the crowd, "Bend the knee!" and they would have been powerless to resist him.
14:33-14:54
And instead, the Lord God Almighty gives a simple invitation, "Come to me, all who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest." If you recognize that it is God himself who invites you, what should you do?
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you should respond to the Almighty.
15:02-15:29
What Jesus is giving here is the original, the true, and only call to be unburdened by what has been. But unlike a politician, Jesus, because he's God Almighty, can make good on what he promises. Although he doesn't seemingly demand an answer, we should respond. He has spoken so kindly and given such a nice invitation.
15:30-16:15
We really ought to RSVP with the Almighty. You know what an RSVP is, right? You see it on a wedding invitation or, you know, a party invitation, and we think, "Oh, I got to give a response." What does RSVP mean anyway? Well, it's an acronym for the French phrase "Respondez si vous plaît," or literally "respond if it pleases you." Now we may think we only have to RSVP if we're going to attend, but RSVP really means "give an answer." "Yes, I'm coming." "No, I'm not." So what sort of an invitation is this that Jesus is giving us?
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Even though Jesus doesn't mention sin, he doesn't mention repentance, he is very much calling people to salvation. We can know this because first people are going away from God. We always have been.
16:34-19:32
As Isaiah 53 6 says, "We all like sheep have gone astray. We have turned every one to his own way." So Jesus is calling us, "Turn around, turn towards him." In other words, "Repent." Second, people are laboring and they're heavy laden or burdened. In Greek, the word translated labor refers to being weary and completely worn out and the word translated heavy laden refers to teaching. People in the crowd are laboring under the burden of what they've been taught. It boils down to this. People are being crushed by what they believe. For instance, the Jews in the crowd were not only laboring under the law itself but also over 600 rules that the Pharisees had developed to help them avoid breaking God's law. The Greeks and the Romans, the other Gentiles of the time, they had a wild pantheon of gods to keep satisfied with sacrifices and prayers. You know, the world is not very different today. Even now there are religions that emphasize rule-keeping to prove your goodness and virtue. Even now people worship, though they may not want to admit it, an abundance of things that are not God's. Self and money and work and sports, atheism, evolution, New Age spirituality, and a hodgepodge of borrowed religious ideas all blended into a relativistic worldview and it has its own malleable moral code. But I'll tell you, no amount of rule-keeping, sacrifices, or good works can make a person right with God. And Jesus pushes it all aside. He replaces every religion, philosophy, and form of self-righteousness with a simple "come to me." Ironically, the sticking point for many people is going to be their labor and heavy burden. They don't want to come to Jesus because they want to continue laboring because in their heart of hearts they believe I've got to work to prove my worth and satisfy my ego. And besides I'm really not that weary yet. I'm not exhausted yet. They want to imagine themselves strong enough to bear that burden. I just need to keep going. I'll get all my ducks in order here soon and I'm alright. I'm not perfect, but I'm good enough. If I just give it another good old college try, I will achieve my goals. I don't need God.
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God is for weaklings. I'm the captain of my soul and in the end I will make my life meaningful. You know this mindset is part and parcel of the human condition.
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It always has been. The Prophet Jeremiah gave a similar call to return to God in chapter 18 of his book. He said, "Return everyone from his evil way and amend your ways and your deeds." And how did the people respond? "But they say, 'That is vain, we will follow our own plans, we will everyone act according to the stubbornness of his evil heart." So that's the no response to the call. In the short run it's the easy response because you don't have to do anything different than you're doing right now. It may be more difficult to respond yes because coming to Jesus requires a hard gut check. You have to ask yourself, "Am I weary and burdened?" Have you come to a place where you see that all your striving only moves you farther away from God? Are you ready to admit that you are all wrong about life and how it's to be lived? Are you ready to admit that you're doing it all wrong and you are sinning and everything that you do and you fail to do. We are extremely reluctant to make such an admission. But you see before you can respond to Jesus's invitation with a yes, you must admit you're not the boss. That you have no power to fix your sinful nature or or undo the consequences of your sin.
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And no matter what you resolve, you can't permanently fix yourself and undo the consequences.
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It is to admit that you're not capable of self-improvement and that all your resolutions amount to dust.
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This is the most difficult thing any person can do.
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Jesus is really calling us to recognize that our lives are a vanity of vanities. It's all vanity.
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You may say, "Well, Sprouk, that's true of unbelievers. It doesn't really apply to me because I believe in Jesus." Now, remember in that crowd, Jesus was speaking to religious people, including his own disciples. Understand that Jesus' invitation isn't a one and done.
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It's not a one-time invitation. It's a wide open continuous constant invitation to all believers and unbelievers alike for all of life. Understand this. You respond to God day by day, moment by moment, whether it's "yes Lord, I will do that" or "no, in this particular matter or habit or lifestyle choice, I'm going to do what pleases me." You get to choose. Jesus lets you respond to him as it pleases you." But notice Jesus makes a promise to everyone who says yes to his invitation. He promises to give them rest. He says, "Come with your exhausting burdens to me and I will give you rest." So Jesus' invitation is for salvation, yes, but there is more.
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It's an invitation to live all of life in him. It's an invitation to be with him, to abide in him, to live in the presence of the one who is always present with you.
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So if you want to RSVP with Jesus with "yes, I will come," what's next?
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What do you do with any invitation you accept? You show up.
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So you have to return to Jesus and find rest. Come to Jesus, you return ready to get the rest he promised and he says this in verse 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. For my yoke is easy and my burden is light." You're probably thinking to yourself, "A yoke? Jesus, you promised to give me rest." Not a yoke. A yoke sounds hard and heavy. Jesus, it sounds a lot like when you said if anyone wants to be great, they've got to be the slave of all. To be first, I've got to be last. If I want to live, I got to die to myself. And if I want to be her disciple, I must take up my cross. Jesus, a yoke, it just sounds difficult and inconvenient. What is a yoke anyway? Well, there are different kinds of yokes.
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Some are bars, which is worn over the shoulders to balance and carry heavy loads. There are single and double yokes for animals so that it can be hitched to a plow or a wagon and put to work. When Jesus says take up his yoke, most scholars agree he is referring to a double yoke, like looks like the one in this picture. It is a large wood bar that connects two animals together so they can work as one. Now notice that one bull is smaller. This is a younger, untrained bull. A farmer wouldn't yoke two young inexperienced bulls together because they would just they would just go go go they would work too hard too fast and wear themselves out before the work is done if they could even be controlled to go in the right direction. So the farmer yokes the inexperienced bull to a larger trained bull. That larger bull teaches the younger one the way to go at a steady pace. You should also note that the older, stronger bull is probably pulling most of the weight. He's doing most, if not all, of the work. It's implied in Jesus's invitation that you're already wearing a yoke. Jesus isn't asking you to do something that you aren't already doing. Every one of us is yoked to something or someone because recall in verse 28 Jesus referred to being heavy laden by what you believe. Where exactly have you gotten most of your beliefs?
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Most likely you're getting them from what the New Testament writers call the world. The New Testament writers tell us that the whole world lies in the power of the evil one, and people living under that power are dead in their trespasses and sins following the course of this world, following the Prince of Power of the heir who is now at work and the sons of disobedience. He has blinded the mind of unbelievers to keep them from seeing the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God. If you're not wearing Jesus's yoke, you're wearing Satan's. And he is a suave and smooth and sophisticated angel of light, and he can make you feel pretty good about his yoke. He gets you feeling wise and accomplished and even righteous about your life. He persuades you that overall it's not that difficult.
27:53-27:58
Everybody's got their ups and downs. Everyone else is more or less pulling the same kind of load.
28:01-28:44
But be honest with yourself and recognize how hard, how difficult, how time-consuming and futile Satan's yoke is We started this message by talking about resolutions We make resolutions because we're chafed and burdened by the yoke That you're wearing and you want to change But Satan the deceiver will even encourage you to make resolutions because he knows your resolutions only address the symptoms of your yoke They do nothing to put it off and destroy the yoke itself To come to Jesus, you must put off the yoke you're wearing and take on the yoke of Jesus.
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Believe me, Jesus will take Satan's yoke off of you and destroy it.
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You need to notice the difference between your current taskmaster and Jesus.
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Jesus says he's gentle and lowly in heart.
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Jesus is revealing here and really nowhere else in the Gospels, revealing his heart for you.
29:11-30:11
He says, "I am gentle and lowly." He is the great I am. There's a direct connection to what Jesus says here and what he said to Moses out of the burning bush. There's also an echo of Exodus 34 6 when God announced his character and his name to Moses and he said, "The Lord, the Lord," or "I am, I am a God merciful and gracious, slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love and faithfulness." Yes, the God, God most high is gentle and lowly in heart toward you. He also says, "His yoke is easy and his burden light rather than the world a yoke that promises independence and self-fulfillment. Jesus's yoke is the life-giving and living word of God. It is himself.
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Jesus is not just directing us to do what he says but to do as I do and when it comes to doing He is yoked with you.
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Remember that one ox was smaller than the other.
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You don't wear Jesus' yoke of teaching and his life alone.
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He is yoked with you to show you how to go, to learn from him, to guide you as you walk in the light.
30:44-31:49
Jesus' yoke, when you think about it, looks more like a strong, encouraging arm around your shoulder than it does a heavy weight. Remember in verse 28 Jesus promised to give rest and here in verse 29 he promises we will find rest for our souls rest in the deepest part of our being because we're yoked to him. I hope you're asking well how do I do this? How do I come to Jesus? How do I be with him. Isn't he far away? No, no, he promises to be with you. In John 15 he says he abides in us. He is with us always to the end of the age. He gives us his Spirit who is in us and will be with us forever. Your Savior and your God dwells with you. The question is what are you doing to dwell in and with him?
31:50-33:12
So here's the application. If you want to find rest for your soul in Jesus, you must resolve to be with him. You need to spend time with him. You need to make a change in your daily pattern of living, not by making a resolution to actively do something more, but by getting into the practice every day of simply being still in the presence of Jesus. In a way it's a resolution to do nothing. The process rather than the outcome is the goal. Along with the disciplines of reading scripture and meditating on it, memorizing it, prayer and fasting, there is an ancient practice of silent stillness with Jesus. Let's look at the biblical basis for doing this? What does this practice look like? Well first you need to be in solitude. You need to find a secret place where you can be alone and without distractions. You need to be in the secret and solitary place where only God sees. So leave your phone somewhere else. Jesus did this regularly.
33:13-33:46
Well, Jesus didn't have a phone, but if he did, he would have left it behind. But he did seek solitude regularly. Mark 1.35 says, "And rising very early in the morning, while it was still dark, he departed and went out to a desolate place where he prayed." Luke 15.6 says, "But Jesus often withdrew to lonely places and prayed. So the first thing is get alone with God and then be in stillness.
33:46-34:29
Be still. We're constantly on the move whether for earthly pursuits or to prove our Christian bona fides. We're hurrying for the day to get ready. We're commuting, we're working, we're serving, eating, exercising, shopping, traveling, on and on and on. What did your four weeks between Thanksgiving and Christmas look like? We wear ourselves out with activity and anxiety because we can't or won't be still and falling asleep on the couch in front of the TV doesn't count. If you're going to be yoked you need to be still. Farmer would have a hard time putting a yoke on an animal that's constantly running around.
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If we're going to know Jesus, be still.
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Psalm 46.10 says, "Be still and know that I am God." Psalm 37.7 says, "Be still before the Lord "and wait patiently for Him." All right, you're alone, you're still, and now you need to be in silence.
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From the moment we wake up, We are filling our ears with noise and our minds with information.
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I'm not going to ask, well I will ask, but you don't have to answer.
35:10-35:13
How many people, the first thing you do in the morning when you wake up is you grab your phone?
35:17-35:20
We are constantly in noise.
35:21-35:28
We're looking at news, social media, we're looking at the TV, we're listening to the radio, we're listening to music, we're talking to other people.
35:29-36:53
God's Word calls us to be quiet in the quiet. Habakkuk 2 20 says, "The Lord is in His holy temple. Let all the earth be silent before Him." Isaiah 30 15 says, "For thus said the Lord God, the Holy One of Israel, 'In returning and rest you shall be saved. In quietness and trust shall be your strength.'" I hope you're beginning to see that what Jesus is saying to us is not new with him. It goes all the way back to the Old Testament. I suggest you combine your moments of quiet stillness with the disciplines of reading God's Word and prayer. You can go get your cup of coffee or tea if that's what you like, and go to your secret place and worship there in silent stillness. While you're still, think about his mercy and his kindness. This is not a time to empty your mind of all thoughts. No, instead you want to contemplate God's awesome power. Meditate on a verse of Scripture. Turn it over in your mind. Think about his love and his sacrifice that has assured your salvation. Magnify him in your heart by recalling the words of a favorite hymn.
36:55-37:32
And then follow this silent devotion time with reading the word or prayer. In fact, prayer flows naturally out of quiet stillness. This quiet time every day can be the most holy thing you do all day. I know there are people, some who may be right here, for whom the idea of being quiet and still for even five minutes is terrifying. There are others who view being quiet and still as a waste of time, but it's not a waste of time. There are many, many good reasons why you should do this.
37:34-39:13
You see, by deliberately putting yourself before the Lord in silent stillness, you are expending the most precious resource you have, time. You're using your limited time to be intentionally present with Jesus. Now we all have 24 hours a day, but none of us know how many days we have. But the Lord knows, and he recognizes the sacrifice and the worship involved and being still with him and he is pleased with you. It's never wasted time. Do you recall Martha and Mary? Martha was in a frenzy getting dinner ready while Mary's just sitting silently at Jesus' feet. Martha complained to Jesus about Mary's lack of help and Jesus answered her, "Martha, Martha, you are anxious and troubled about many things. But one thing is necessary, and Mary has chosen the good portion, which will not be taken away from her. It's also good for you mentally, emotionally, physically, and above all, spiritually, to be still. For at least a few moments, you're not hurrying or doing or striving. You aren't trying to do anything but be present with Jesus. You're soaking up calm and quiet in the presence of your Creator. Your heart rate slows, your blood pressure goes down, your whole body is at peace.
39:15-39:34
He's giving you rest and you are finding it. There are many experts, life coaches, gurus, others who advocate being still. Go online, look it up, being still. But there are some differences between what they encourage and what the Bible's teaching.
39:35-41:42
What those experts teach is inward focused and it's really alone. And they can tell you what to do, but they aren't doing it with you. They aren't helping you with the yoke that they're laying on you. You know if Jesus had only just said take my yoke upon you he would have been just like any worldly teacher who's encouraging us to be still. But he didn't. There's a difference. Jesus says come to me all and I will give rest. The difference is profound. This is Christ focused, silent stillness. This is companionable stillness with Him and you have nothing to prove. You don't have to impress Him with words or deeds. When we're still with Jesus, He gives us His rest. He gives us His peace. He gives us His very presence. We can compare being in the presence of God to a parent looking at an infant in love. The gulf between that adult and that infant is immense. That newborn baby has no comprehension of the parent, no context to understand who this person is, what are they even, what is she what is she saying? No comprehension. But over time, through continuous interaction, the child begins to recognize the one who loves him, begins to understand what is being said and done, and begins to understand just who it is that provides comfort and help. You see, when you're silent and still in Jesus presence and you do it regularly, you will begin to hear and recognize Jesus.
41:44-41:48
You will begin to glimpse with spiritual eyes the one who you worship.
41:49-41:52
It's only in quiet stillness that you can hear him.
41:53-42:00
When you first try this, your mind may be filled with your to-do list for the day, and with the things that cause you anxiety and worry.
42:01-42:04
Well, you need to replace those thoughts with thoughts about Jesus.
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give up. This is another thing it could be easy to quit. Don't give up, keep at it.
42:11-42:49
Start with just a few minutes every day and you will learn to be still physically, mentally, emotionally. It's going to take time to break old patterns and habits of busyness, but if you daily sow seeds of silent stillness with Jesus, you will reap a harvest of rest throughout your day. As David says in Psalm 131, "I have calmed and quieted my soul like a weaned child with its mother." Like a weaned child is my soul within me.
42:50-42:53
Remember I said to underline Jesus' statement about revealing the Father to little children?
42:54-43:10
Here's why. Because when you're still and quiet with Jesus, you begin to understand that you, yes, you, beloved, are one of the little children to whom Jesus has revealed himself in the Father.
43:14-43:25
Our ministry theme this year is "God Wants Your Heart." In October, we learned He wants your heart in giving. In the book of Job, we learned he wants your heart even in suffering.
43:27-43:45
We're going to see in Matthew next year in the Sermon on the Mount that he wants your heart in all of life. I encourage you in this new year to put aside all your resolutions to do actively something and replace it all with a simple resolution to rest in Jesus.
43:48-43:55
You have been called. You are invited by your Creator to be yoked to him and find rest.
43:57-44:23
Come to Jesus. Get to know him. You will be transformed, and a year from now you will be a very different person. And if we all resolve to rest every day in Jesus, what kind of congregation might we be collectively a year from now when Lord willing another new year is at hand. Do you want to know? Are you eager to know?
44:26-44:35
Because the great and awesome Almighty God, the gentle and lowly I Am, has invited you to himself.
44:37-44:44
How will you respond to his invitation? Will you resolve to rest? Let's pray.
44:46-44:57
Most gracious Father, our Lord, our God, we thank you for Jesus and his call to come to him.
45:00-45:29
I pray, Lord, that you have awakened every heart in this room, to everyone who listens or sees this message, to hear Jesus himself calling, "Come to me." And God, you would be glorified, and you will be our God, and we will truly be your people.
45:31-45:35
And it's in Jesus' name and for His glory we ask it. Amen.
Small Group Discussion
Covering Matthew 11:25-30
What was your big take-away from this passage / message?
What are some differences between our understanding of rest, and the rest that Jesus says He will give and that we will find?
What are some differences between a worldly yoke and the yoke Jesus offers?
Do you take time to be still each day? Why or why not?
How might not being quiet and still in God’s presence negatively affect your practices of studying scripture and prayer? Conversely, how could being quiet and still have a positive impact on your other practices?
If you regularly practice silent stillness, describe how it has deepened your friendship with Jesus.
Breakout
Encourage and pray for one another to “resolve to rest” in Christ in 2025.