Transcript
Every person, whether they realize it or not, is trying to find rest inside themselves. There are many poor substitutes for that rest. But the true rest is what we see in Matthew 11 when Jesus says, "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." And the rest that Jesus is referring to is patience of the soul, quietness of the spirit. No matter what's going on around you're calm inside because you have something that only God can give that the world can never take away. And there's nothing you can do in works to ever achieve this rest that Christ is offering.
Jesus says you have to give that old way up. Stop trying to do it on your own and learn from him. Notice here it says in the scripture, learn from me and you will find rest for your souls. And to unlock this verse and really understand what Jesus is saying, he says earlier, take my yoke upon you. Now, we're not a farming civilization, but all a yoke is, and there's a picture here on the screen, a training device used between two bowls.
An older bull would be yolked to a younger bull. And the older bull would actually be teaching this younger bull what it is like to plow the fields. And the younger bull would go along the way and u be being pulled and led by this older bull thinking, you know, it's part of this process. But in reality, the younger bull isn't really bearing any of the weight.
It's all the older bull that's doing the work. And here Jesus is calling on anyone who would believe to come and be joined with him. Learn how and what it means to truly serve and follow God. And so in the Christian walk, Christ is always with us leading the way. And there is a burden. He says, "For my yoke is easy and my burden is light." But there's still a light burden.
It's not oppressive like the 613 laws and how they were being used by the Jewish people to try to earn their way to heaven. But instead it's saying from salvation that only comes from belief in Jesus's sacrifice, you now live a life led by Christ where all you're doing is loving other people because God first loved you. So we don't have to focus our life on what we can't do, but instead we're so busy preoccupied doing what God calls us to do that we're not going to make time.
And Paul says this. He says, "So be led by the spirit so you will not gratify the desires of the flesh." And because Jesus is there beside us and in us giving the strength to do it and leading us to where we need to go, we just get to be happy that we're involved, grateful that God's grace and mercy included us. We didn't have to. It's a reminder that we're not doing it on our
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