Redeeming the Time – Part 4
This newest series of messages on Internet Pastor is called “Redeeming the Time”. If it seems like life keeps speeding up and getting busier and you don;t know where the time is going, you will find this series helpful.
We have been talking about how busy life has become for so many of us. The more we pack into our lives the faster life goes and it causes us to forget what is most important and to lose the joy of life. We are often weary, irritable, and joyless. Today we are going to spend some time talking about in invitation that Jesus gives to all of us. It is an invitation filled with hope and life. An invitation to find rest for our souls. It also gives us three very practical steps for living the life that God has created us for.
Matthew 11:28-30 (NIV)
28 “Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. 29 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. 30 For my yoke is easy and my burden is light.”
Three simple principles are found in these verses, come, take, and learn. These three simple principles will change your life.
1. Come – Go to Jesus
What or who do you normally go to when you are weary, when life isn’t working, when it seems like life isn’t fair? Even as believers Jesus is not often the first “go to” on our list. To use a basketball analogy, He is actually kind of like the sixth man, for many of us. We are happy to have Him on the bench so that we can bring Him in when our starting unit is quite getting the job done, but He isn’t a starter. Our starters are often a very scary line up of ways we choose to escape, but while they are often fast acting, they don’t last, and it is our soul that suffers. None of the escape tactics we try bring rest to our souls. Only Jesus can do that.
Our culture often tells us that when we feel empty, tired, lost, we need to do more. If I could just do more of have more then I would be at peace. It isn’t about “do” it is all about “go”. As Jesus invites us into His rest, we “go”. It is perhaps the most simple of all invitations and yet it is one we often don’t respond to. It is this simple:
Matthew 6:6 (MSG)
6 “Here’s what I want you to do: Find a quiet, secluded place so you won’t be tempted to role-play before God. Just be there as simply and honestly as you can manage. The focus will shift from you to God, and you will begin to sense his grace.
Why is that we so often don’t respond to this incredible invitation? That is the second point.
2. Take – Let Go
We keep thinking we can take care of things in our strength, in our own way, in our own power, and in our own time. You can’t. And as long as we are trying to be in control we will never find rest. Jesus says to “take His yoke”. We sometimes get confused with this part of the invitation because taking on something sounds like we are adding even more into our already too busy lives. “Oh, so now I have to add Jesus yoke in here as well, great”. Taking on the yoke that Jesus talks about is a letting go of the control you think you have. The greater your need for control the more stressed and weary you will become. A little control issue is when you always have to drive your car. A big control issue is when you need to be the one driving in someone else’s car. (Even if you don’t actually do it, if the whole time you are in the car you are thinking about what the other driver is doing, you have a control problem).
A yoke is basically a device that attaches two farm animals together so that they can work as a team in order to lighten the load. A harness is something you put on one animal. A yoke is something that you put on two so it is a shared burden. A yoke is a symbol of a partnership. Jesus is saying that He will help us with our problems, not add to them. He wants to lighten our load.
Psalms 55:22 (NIV)
22 Cast your cares on the LORD and he will sustain you; he will never let the righteous fall.
His yoke not only lightens our load, it guides our steps. Yoked to Jesus we are now in step with Jesus in our lives. Following where He leads.
Galatians 5:25 (NIV)
25 Since we live by the Spirit, let us keep in step with the Spirit.
Have you ever noticed, that in the Bible accounts of Jesus life, that He was never in a hurry? I have never read of Jesus running anywhere. Think about it. He was never in a hurry. He wasn’t scurrying and running. He walked. He was settled in the understanding that God has a plan.
One time Jesus had a friend named Lazarus who was close to death that was three miles away from where He was and it took Him three days to get there. Why? He knew God had a plan and in this instance God didn’t want to heal a sick man, He wanted to raise a dead man. Let go and learn to walk in step with Him.
Go to Jesus, let go and
3. Learn – Let God
The third part of the process is to learn to trust God. Let God be God in your life. Jesus is our model for life and ministry. We learn to trust God watching how Jesus lived and then doing it.
Jesus life is a picture of peace and balance. Learn from Him. It takes time for us to learn and to change. We didn’t get in the mess we are in overnight and we won’t get over it overnight, but we have to look to Jesus and learn from Him. We have to let God be God in our lives.
“Learn from Me for I am gentle and humble in heart.”
Two of the things that we have to learn are gentleness and humility. I think this is a fascinating contrast to our culture. Culturally we have become the opposite. We are aggressive and arrogant.
Aggression keeps us in a hurry. Got to have it now, got to do it now. I want what I want. It is dog eat dog and you only go around once.
Arrogance keeps us thinking we can do it on our own. I can handle this. I can take on more.
But Jesus says that soul rest is found in gentleness and humility. We need to remember everyday that we are not the center of the universe. We can’t solve everyone else’ problems, we can’t even solve our own.
How do we learn that? Watch Jesus. Listen to Jesus. Hang out with Jesus. He is gentle and humble. How did He do it? He was completely dependent on God.
John 5:19 (NIV)
19 Jesus gave them this answer: “I tell you the truth, the Son can do nothing by himself; he can do only what he sees his Father doing, because whatever the Father does the Son also does.
John 12:49 (NIV)
49 For I did not speak of my own accord, but the Father who sent me commanded me what to say and how to say it.
How much different do you think your life would be if you learned to live that way? If you really lived life for “an audience of one”. Do you think it would change your stress levels? In order to find life we need to focus on God’s purpose for our lives, remembering what is most important and trusting in Him.
Go to Jesus, let go, and let God. Come, take, and learn.
In the Bible people came to Jesus for a lot of different reasons. Some came for forgiveness. Some came for answers. Some came for healing. Some came for deliverance. Some came for salvation and some came to Him for eternal life. But Jesus tells us we come to Him for rest for our souls as well. If you are weary, overloaded, stressed out, worried, go to Jesus, let go and let God.
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