1 00:00:00,000 --> 00:00:08,000 Heavenly Father, thank you again that we can open up your word and we can learn of you, about you, from you. 2 00:00:08,000 --> 00:00:12,000 Lord, I would pray that your Holy Spirit again be present. 3 00:00:12,000 --> 00:00:20,000 Fill me as I present your word so that it might be proper, appropriate, and lead the thoughts towards you. 4 00:00:20,000 --> 00:00:23,000 This we pray in your name, Amen. 5 00:00:23,000 --> 00:00:29,000 Various branches of the military have their slogans for recruiting. 6 00:00:29,000 --> 00:00:37,000 I don't watch cable anymore. I had to look up what the most recent slogans were, for example, the United States Army. 7 00:00:37,000 --> 00:00:45,000 But I remember as a child seeing the advertisements, the helicopters piloting in and people repelling from ropes, 8 00:00:45,000 --> 00:00:51,000 jumping over the obstacle courses, swimming through mud, or maybe it was a Navy SEAL popping up out of the ocean. 9 00:00:51,000 --> 00:00:57,000 They got the masks on and the air tank and they do what military people do, and they're recruiting ads. 10 00:00:57,000 --> 00:01:06,000 Well, so I thought, well, I remember the slogan when I was a child, but what other slogans were there for the United States Army? 11 00:01:06,000 --> 00:01:09,000 This was one during World War I. 12 00:01:09,000 --> 00:01:16,000 You can if you can picture Uncle Sam pointing the finger and saying, I want you for US Army. 13 00:01:16,000 --> 00:01:19,000 Maybe we've seen those posters. 14 00:01:19,000 --> 00:01:28,000 Then you get into the fifties to the seventies, and the slogan was this choice, not chance and modern Army green. 15 00:01:28,000 --> 00:01:35,000 In other words, when you joined the Army, you had a choice of job training, travel, the branch that you could work in. 16 00:01:35,000 --> 00:01:37,000 You could choose your specialty. 17 00:01:37,000 --> 00:01:40,000 You had a choice to participate. 18 00:01:40,000 --> 00:01:42,000 It wasn't happen chance that you were there. 19 00:01:42,000 --> 00:01:44,000 So they were encouraging that. 20 00:01:44,000 --> 00:01:51,000 Then you get into the seventies, the decade of seventy one to eighty, and it was today's Army wants you. 21 00:01:51,000 --> 00:01:54,000 So the clearly they are driving the point home. 22 00:01:54,000 --> 00:01:57,000 You are who we want to participate in this. 23 00:01:57,000 --> 00:02:06,000 Come be a part of something more or bigger or challenging or fulfilling or patriotic, whatever the case is. 24 00:02:06,000 --> 00:02:08,000 But we want you to be a part of it. 25 00:02:08,000 --> 00:02:09,000 Not that guy. You. 26 00:02:09,000 --> 00:02:10,000 That was the messaging. 27 00:02:10,000 --> 00:02:11,000 We want you. 28 00:02:11,000 --> 00:02:18,000 Then and this is the one that I really remember this from nineteen eighty to two thousand and one. 29 00:02:18,000 --> 00:02:21,000 This was the longest stretch for a US Army slogan. 30 00:02:21,000 --> 00:02:24,000 Be all you can be. 31 00:02:24,000 --> 00:02:25,000 We know that one. 32 00:02:25,000 --> 00:02:27,000 We've seen that one. 33 00:02:27,000 --> 00:02:29,000 Maybe you just right here. 34 00:02:29,000 --> 00:02:31,000 You're like, oh, sitting on my couch and I was watching this. 35 00:02:31,000 --> 00:02:36,000 And next thing you know, they go to a commercial break and it's be all you can be in the Army. 36 00:02:36,000 --> 00:02:37,000 Right. 37 00:02:37,000 --> 00:02:38,000 Be all you can be. 38 00:02:38,000 --> 00:02:47,000 I remember that the most recent ones, I guess presently I didn't I had no idea this was their slogan right now. 39 00:02:47,000 --> 00:02:52,000 Presently, it's warriors wanted. 40 00:02:52,000 --> 00:02:57,000 Warriors wanted, they wanted to I guess they're they're putting forth a strong front. 41 00:02:57,000 --> 00:03:01,000 We want warriors that can be you. 42 00:03:01,000 --> 00:03:05,000 Prior to that, it was Army strong. 43 00:03:05,000 --> 00:03:06,000 I've seen that one. 44 00:03:06,000 --> 00:03:08,000 I've seen that on stickers. 45 00:03:08,000 --> 00:03:12,000 I saw that in posters and and you know, I would get recruiting things. 46 00:03:12,000 --> 00:03:15,000 Hey, I'm like, I'm a little too old for that. 47 00:03:15,000 --> 00:03:18,000 But Army strong. 48 00:03:18,000 --> 00:03:26,000 The one, though, that we're going to talk a little bit about, do we remember one that I haven't mentioned? 49 00:03:26,000 --> 00:03:29,000 Army of one. 50 00:03:29,000 --> 00:03:32,000 You remember that one Army of one. 51 00:03:32,000 --> 00:03:34,000 It did not last long. 52 00:03:34,000 --> 00:03:40,000 If you saw it, you were privileged to see that slogan from somewhere between 2001 to 2006. 53 00:03:40,000 --> 00:03:44,000 Very short Army of one. 54 00:03:44,000 --> 00:03:53,000 Maybe not a bad principle if you're thinking of a recruiting mindset because it was we are going to develop you into the best single soldier you can be. 55 00:03:53,000 --> 00:03:56,000 Good news is everybody is going to be a good single soldier. 56 00:03:56,000 --> 00:04:00,000 Therefore, the Army is going to be full of good single soldiers. 57 00:04:00,000 --> 00:04:03,000 It was hyper individualistic. 58 00:04:03,000 --> 00:04:09,000 You're going to be a fantastic woman or a man that participating in the U.S. 59 00:04:09,000 --> 00:04:10,000 military. 60 00:04:10,000 --> 00:04:12,000 You're going to be able to do everything. 61 00:04:12,000 --> 00:04:18,000 Climb the walls and swim under the barbed wires and defend the territories and fight for liberty. 62 00:04:18,000 --> 00:04:22,000 You have the strength and we will develop it even further. 63 00:04:22,000 --> 00:04:27,000 An Army of one. 64 00:04:27,000 --> 00:04:31,000 But you notice that it was fairly short lived 2001 to 2006. 65 00:04:31,000 --> 00:04:37,000 Some of the other ones went for two decades, 10 years, three decades almost for the be all you can be. 66 00:04:37,000 --> 00:04:44,000 The current one has already are the next one after that Army strong went from 06 to 2018. 67 00:04:44,000 --> 00:04:51,000 Why was it that that only lasted for roughly five years? 68 00:04:51,000 --> 00:05:00,000 Because while maybe they wanted to get the idea across that if everybody was a good strong individual unit, then collectively they would be a good 69 00:05:00,000 --> 00:05:02,000 strong unit. 70 00:05:02,000 --> 00:05:11,000 Well, that messaging fell flat and the Army realized that it missed out on the teamwork element of what participating in the military 71 00:05:11,000 --> 00:05:13,000 involves. 72 00:05:13,000 --> 00:05:19,000 No soldier left behind doesn't come through in an Army of one. 73 00:05:19,000 --> 00:05:21,000 Right? 74 00:05:21,000 --> 00:05:24,000 If I've got what it takes and I can get out, that's good. 75 00:05:24,000 --> 00:05:26,000 What about them? 76 00:05:26,000 --> 00:05:28,000 I have not served in the military. 77 00:05:28,000 --> 00:05:30,000 My oldest brother did. 78 00:05:30,000 --> 00:05:37,000 He served in the Army and then my grandfathers both served during World War Two. 79 00:05:37,000 --> 00:05:41,000 Perhaps I've got other family members that I just am unaware of. 80 00:05:41,000 --> 00:05:46,000 My father in law almost served in World War Two. 81 00:05:46,000 --> 00:05:48,000 He had he had his draft papers. 82 00:05:48,000 --> 00:05:49,000 He had gone to the office. 83 00:05:49,000 --> 00:05:52,000 He had his equipment and World War Two ended. 84 00:05:52,000 --> 00:05:56,000 So he he was that close to being in the Pacific arena. 85 00:05:56,000 --> 00:06:03,000 But missing out on the teamwork was obvious for those five years. 86 00:06:03,000 --> 00:06:06,000 And so they shifted course. 87 00:06:06,000 --> 00:06:12,000 You know, many people get too caught up in it. 88 00:06:12,000 --> 00:06:15,000 I would even narrow this down and bring it right close to home. 89 00:06:15,000 --> 00:06:21,000 The United States and most Western cultures are guilty of hyper individualism. 90 00:06:21,000 --> 00:06:23,000 You got this. 91 00:06:23,000 --> 00:06:25,000 It's you don't share with others. 92 00:06:25,000 --> 00:06:27,000 That's a sign of weakness. 93 00:06:27,000 --> 00:06:29,000 I can handle it. 94 00:06:29,000 --> 00:06:34,000 We don't need and you can even see this in the breakdown of the community as the generations have gone by. 95 00:06:34,000 --> 00:06:40,000 But many people just take this individualism to an unhealthy level. 96 00:06:40,000 --> 00:06:44,000 And I would say that it's time to shift our slogan on this. 97 00:06:44,000 --> 00:06:53,000 I would say that as Christians, as Adventists, we need to, yes, understand that there is an individual component, but that's not the be all and end all. 98 00:06:53,000 --> 00:07:01,000 There is a teamwork portion to our discipleship walk. 99 00:07:01,000 --> 00:07:03,000 Teamwork is necessary. 100 00:07:03,000 --> 00:07:05,000 Teamwork is important. 101 00:07:05,000 --> 00:07:12,000 And for far too many people that are missing out on the teamwork element, they're struggling. 102 00:07:12,000 --> 00:07:19,000 And we can't overemphasize the struggles that people are going through in our community inside of our own churches. 103 00:07:19,000 --> 00:07:22,000 There are many different ways that we can see this. 104 00:07:22,000 --> 00:07:26,000 We can imagine people that are struggling with with. 105 00:07:26,000 --> 00:07:28,000 Jobs. 106 00:07:28,000 --> 00:07:38,000 But they go, I'm just going to double down and and lift myself up by my bootstraps and I'm just going to get through it when you could be reaching out and someone could help you. 107 00:07:38,000 --> 00:07:40,000 You could be you could be prayed for. 108 00:07:40,000 --> 00:07:45,000 Someone might know of a job opening somewhere else that is a better fit. 109 00:07:45,000 --> 00:07:59,000 Maybe you're struggling in your relationships, whether you're dating or friends or a marriage and you just I'm all alone and no one knows what I'm going through or no one cares to hear what I have to say. 110 00:07:59,000 --> 00:08:02,000 So we just muddle along. 111 00:08:02,000 --> 00:08:08,000 One step in front of the other, except that we find maybe we aren't progressing very far forward. 112 00:08:08,000 --> 00:08:11,000 Maybe you've got baggage in your life. 113 00:08:11,000 --> 00:08:15,000 I have yet to meet a person without baggage. 114 00:08:15,000 --> 00:08:19,000 Some people's suitcases are just a little bit bigger. 115 00:08:19,000 --> 00:08:29,000 Most people, if you live long at all in any time period, you're going to collect baggage. 116 00:08:29,000 --> 00:08:32,000 You're going to collect a little bit of dirt under your shoes. 117 00:08:32,000 --> 00:08:36,000 It's it's tough sometimes. 118 00:08:36,000 --> 00:08:38,000 Some of that baggage, rightfully so. 119 00:08:38,000 --> 00:08:41,000 We don't broadcast it as a side note. 120 00:08:41,000 --> 00:08:52,000 I actually think that's one of the worst things that's happened since the invention of social media airing out skeletons online for a bunch of strangers to see has become the norm. 121 00:08:52,000 --> 00:08:59,000 I think that's an unhealthy approach, but that's not to say that the other extreme is the healthy approach. 122 00:08:59,000 --> 00:09:05,000 If you've got some baggage, I would encourage you to find someone you can trust. 123 00:09:05,000 --> 00:09:12,000 Share and get encouragement and find people who will love you in spite of your baggage. 124 00:09:12,000 --> 00:09:14,000 You can work through and develop this. 125 00:09:14,000 --> 00:09:21,000 In other words, what I'm trying to say is that everyone has a yoke that they are carrying. 126 00:09:21,000 --> 00:09:27,000 Everyone has a yoke on their shoulders around their neck that they have. 127 00:09:27,000 --> 00:09:29,000 Everyone does. 128 00:09:29,000 --> 00:09:41,000 Everyone is trying to pull a load or carry a burden. They're trying to do labor and do work with an implement for work alone. 129 00:09:41,000 --> 00:09:43,000 By themselves. 130 00:09:43,000 --> 00:09:47,000 Now, I might say that if you were a Clydesdale, you could do it. 131 00:09:47,000 --> 00:09:52,000 Those are large horses, big, gorgeous. 132 00:09:52,000 --> 00:09:54,000 Maybe you could do a lot of that. 133 00:09:54,000 --> 00:09:57,000 We are not that. 134 00:09:57,000 --> 00:10:01,000 We are sinful, frail humans. 135 00:10:01,000 --> 00:10:06,000 I praise God that in His Word, He remembers that we are dust. 136 00:10:06,000 --> 00:10:12,000 He knows that like the blades of a grass, we pop up and we die to Him like a season. 137 00:10:12,000 --> 00:10:17,000 When you've lived for eternity and you look at the lifespan of 80 years, what is 80 years? 138 00:10:17,000 --> 00:10:19,000 I'm grateful for that. 139 00:10:19,000 --> 00:10:24,000 He remembers that we have those shortcomings in our short time span. 140 00:10:24,000 --> 00:10:33,000 But He also knows that we all have our own plow that we're pulling behind us, our own sled labored down. 141 00:10:33,000 --> 00:10:39,000 So when we turn to Matthew 11, and thank you Janet for reading it so wonderfully. 142 00:10:39,000 --> 00:10:42,000 I was very, very pleased when she volunteered. 143 00:10:42,000 --> 00:10:44,000 She said, I want to do it like we can do that. 144 00:10:44,000 --> 00:10:46,000 That was great. 145 00:10:46,000 --> 00:11:01,000 When we get to Matthew 11, what we find in our verses and to lead up to that, what we have is some challenges to Jesus' Messiahship. 146 00:11:01,000 --> 00:11:10,000 We have first John the Baptist's disciples coming up and bringing this question, are you the one who is to come or shall we look for another? 147 00:11:10,000 --> 00:11:12,000 That's doubt. 148 00:11:12,000 --> 00:11:13,000 That's a challenge. 149 00:11:13,000 --> 00:11:16,000 It's not going the way we were expecting it. 150 00:11:16,000 --> 00:11:18,000 Are you Him? 151 00:11:18,000 --> 00:11:26,000 Then you get down to the unrepentant cities where Jesus denounces cities where His works had been done, but they had turned Him away. 152 00:11:26,000 --> 00:11:29,000 They had denied Him. 153 00:11:29,000 --> 00:11:36,000 I mean, I can imagine the frustration and many of us may even know this firsthand where you put in the effort, you put in the work, 154 00:11:36,000 --> 00:11:43,000 you self-sacrifice, and then people close the door in your face, if it will. 155 00:11:43,000 --> 00:11:48,000 And so Jesus pronounces a woe on those cities. 156 00:11:48,000 --> 00:12:00,000 It will be more tolerable for the ones that faced judgment in Sodom and Gomorrah than it will be for those who turned away the Messiah in person. 157 00:12:00,000 --> 00:12:11,000 But then we get to this in verse 25, at that time Jesus declared, and it is believed that this was a public prayer. 158 00:12:11,000 --> 00:12:17,000 It is believed that this is another evidence of Jesus praying where people could hear Him. 159 00:12:17,000 --> 00:12:25,000 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. 160 00:12:25,000 --> 00:12:29,000 Yes, Father, for such was your gracious will. 161 00:12:29,000 --> 00:12:40,000 He is praising God that one, there are wise, humble people who recognize Him as the Messiah that He is, and they receive Him as such. 162 00:12:40,000 --> 00:12:54,000 And then two, He is also thanking His Father that the gospel, that the gospel to those who believe themselves self-righteous is undiscoverable. 163 00:12:54,000 --> 00:13:04,000 And that might be a real warning for us today if you have not approached the gospel or Jesus or the Word of God with a sense of humility seeking Him. 164 00:13:04,000 --> 00:13:10,000 And you just approach it as a tool or you know you have the answers. 165 00:13:10,000 --> 00:13:17,000 This message is for you, that humility is necessary to find Jesus. 166 00:13:17,000 --> 00:13:21,000 Otherwise, you will keep getting in your own way. 167 00:13:21,000 --> 00:13:26,000 In verse 27, He continues, All things have been handed over to me by my Father. 168 00:13:26,000 --> 00:13:37,000 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. 169 00:13:37,000 --> 00:13:43,000 One of the primary roles of the Messiah was to reveal God to humanity. 170 00:13:43,000 --> 00:13:56,000 From Eden until Christ's time, roughly 4,000 years had passed, and men and women, mankind has done a great job at misrepresenting our Heavenly Father. 171 00:13:56,000 --> 00:14:05,000 Gross perversions that we have then credited to God are all across humanity's history. 172 00:14:05,000 --> 00:14:16,000 From sacrificing children to the gods, to claiming terrible natural disasters as acts of God, we misrepresent the God who embodies love. 173 00:14:16,000 --> 00:14:26,000 The God who describes His character as patient and kind and long-suffering, merciful, gracious, not only to you, but to generations after you. 174 00:14:26,000 --> 00:14:29,000 We misrepresent that. 175 00:14:29,000 --> 00:14:44,000 I have heard stories, I have heard girls and boys say, how can I trust my Heavenly Father when my earthly father has hurt me so profoundly? 176 00:14:44,000 --> 00:14:48,000 How can we harmonize those? 177 00:14:48,000 --> 00:14:59,000 Jesus is saying that one of His primary purposes was to reveal the genuine and true character of our Heavenly Father. 178 00:14:59,000 --> 00:15:04,000 That was a job of His, if you will, and it was paramount. 179 00:15:04,000 --> 00:15:12,000 He says elsewhere in John, at the request to show us the Father, and He goes, haven't I been so long with you? 180 00:15:12,000 --> 00:15:18,000 You have to make that request of Me. If you have seen Me, you have seen the Father. 181 00:15:18,000 --> 00:15:24,000 When you read Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John, what do you see of Jesus? 182 00:15:24,000 --> 00:15:26,000 Love. 183 00:15:26,000 --> 00:15:32,000 The willingness to be quiet when others might be condemnatory. 184 00:15:32,000 --> 00:15:42,000 An interest in serving, getting down in the dirt and the mud and touching the sick, not withholding a loving touch. 185 00:15:42,000 --> 00:15:52,000 You see someone who, in the midst, when he could hurl back condemnation and judgment, and he had a right to do so, 186 00:15:52,000 --> 00:15:59,000 rather he knelt and he just wrote in the dust and let the men who read it judge themselves. 187 00:15:59,000 --> 00:16:08,000 I mean, that's a beautiful example of grace and patience and remembering the frailty of mankind. 188 00:16:08,000 --> 00:16:14,000 If you want to see the Father, you look to Jesus. 189 00:16:14,000 --> 00:16:22,000 As Messiah, Jesus repeatedly defined that as one of His main purposes. 190 00:16:22,000 --> 00:16:31,000 Throughout the centuries and the millennia of history, mankind has consistently misrepresented God. 191 00:16:31,000 --> 00:16:40,000 Other examples maybe we're familiar with is you have the angry God of the Old Testament versus the gracious Jesus of the New Testament. 192 00:16:40,000 --> 00:16:43,000 Have we heard of that? 193 00:16:43,000 --> 00:16:50,000 Or that Jesus needed to appease the wrath of God. 194 00:16:50,000 --> 00:16:54,000 That Jesus continues to go into the heavenly courts. 195 00:16:54,000 --> 00:16:56,000 No, no, no, Father, hold on a moment. 196 00:16:56,000 --> 00:16:59,000 I know you're angry, but let's calm down. 197 00:16:59,000 --> 00:17:01,000 Maybe we can hold our breath and count to ten. 198 00:17:01,000 --> 00:17:03,000 I don't know. 199 00:17:03,000 --> 00:17:12,000 Or we say this, that Jesus needed to convince the Father that mankind was worthy of love and salvation. 200 00:17:12,000 --> 00:17:14,000 I've heard that argument. 201 00:17:14,000 --> 00:17:18,000 There are still some denominations that teach that. 202 00:17:18,000 --> 00:17:26,000 And then there are some that teach that other saints in heaven go to Jesus and say, please listen to me. 203 00:17:26,000 --> 00:17:27,000 They're worth it. 204 00:17:27,000 --> 00:17:28,000 Now take it to the Father. 205 00:17:28,000 --> 00:17:39,000 You have this chain of of of intermediaries just because the Father is so angry and mad and wrathful at mankind. 206 00:17:39,000 --> 00:17:46,000 You need all of these points of separation, people pleading that he not just wipe us out. 207 00:17:46,000 --> 00:17:49,000 That's baked into some doctrines. 208 00:17:49,000 --> 00:18:02,000 But rather rather than those misrepresentations early in Jesus ministry, he stated that God loves the world so much that he sent the sun. 209 00:18:02,000 --> 00:18:06,000 He didn't have to be convinced of it. 210 00:18:06,000 --> 00:18:09,000 He already knew it elsewhere. 211 00:18:09,000 --> 00:18:18,000 He also swear Jesus declared himself to be the demonstrator and the revealer of our father of God. 212 00:18:18,000 --> 00:18:23,000 But what does that mean for our yoke? 213 00:18:23,000 --> 00:18:33,000 Well, because when Jesus declares himself as the revealer of God, immediately on the back end of it is an invitation to come to him. 214 00:18:33,000 --> 00:18:36,000 I have revealed to you the character of God. 215 00:18:36,000 --> 00:18:38,000 Now come to me. 216 00:18:38,000 --> 00:18:39,000 There's a delay in this. 217 00:18:39,000 --> 00:18:42,000 We saw that. 218 00:18:42,000 --> 00:18:46,000 No one knows the father except the son, anyone to whom the son chooses to reveal him. 219 00:18:46,000 --> 00:18:51,000 And then immediately, verse twenty eight of Matthew eleven, come to me. 220 00:18:51,000 --> 00:18:56,000 All who labor and are heavy laden and I will give you rest. 221 00:18:56,000 --> 00:18:59,000 These two things are never separated in the gospel. 222 00:18:59,000 --> 00:19:05,000 The revelation of Jesus, the revealing of God, the father and the invitation to join them. 223 00:19:05,000 --> 00:19:07,000 They are never separated. 224 00:19:07,000 --> 00:19:09,000 They go hand in hand. 225 00:19:09,000 --> 00:19:20,000 Jesus never makes himself known to the hungering and the thirsty soul without also offering his righteousness as sustenance. 226 00:19:20,000 --> 00:19:22,000 It's never. 227 00:19:22,000 --> 00:19:24,000 I see that you have this need. 228 00:19:24,000 --> 00:19:26,000 Well, go forth and get it. 229 00:19:26,000 --> 00:19:29,000 I see that you have this need rather. 230 00:19:29,000 --> 00:19:32,000 Come to me and I can provide it. 231 00:19:32,000 --> 00:19:35,000 Always together, always joined. 232 00:19:35,000 --> 00:19:44,000 I heard in Jesus is saying you've struggled all this time trying to to work a job that is a challenge to overcome a temptation. 233 00:19:44,000 --> 00:19:51,000 Maybe you recognize you're trying to fight off an unseen or unknown enemy out there. 234 00:19:51,000 --> 00:19:57,000 You might not have yet learned the words to put to it, but you know something is beyond this mortal coil. 235 00:19:57,000 --> 00:19:59,000 If you will. 236 00:19:59,000 --> 00:20:06,000 Something extra and unknown darkness is pressing in on you, even if you can't describe it. 237 00:20:06,000 --> 00:20:13,000 Jesus says, I know that you've been seeking and trying to discover meaning or purpose in your life. 238 00:20:13,000 --> 00:20:18,000 But when he says all you who labor and are heavy laden and I will give you rest, he. 239 00:20:18,000 --> 00:20:30,000 He is denouncing that hyper individualism where we hold on to our own yoke and do it ourselves and keep on plowing forward, even though we can't move the instrument. 240 00:20:30,000 --> 00:20:34,000 Because he's saying, I'll give you rest. 241 00:20:34,000 --> 00:20:37,000 You're going to get tired doing it all alone. 242 00:20:37,000 --> 00:20:40,000 It's going to wear you out. 243 00:20:40,000 --> 00:20:42,000 You will either have burnout. 244 00:20:42,000 --> 00:20:44,000 You will give up. 245 00:20:44,000 --> 00:20:46,000 You will say, why fight any longer? 246 00:20:46,000 --> 00:20:49,000 I might as well do what I want or give into the temptation. 247 00:20:49,000 --> 00:20:50,000 I can't resist it. 248 00:20:50,000 --> 00:20:52,000 No one's helping me. 249 00:20:52,000 --> 00:20:56,000 And I'm exhausted. 250 00:20:56,000 --> 00:21:00,000 Have you ever been exhausted in your spiritual walk? 251 00:21:00,000 --> 00:21:02,000 Ever been tired? 252 00:21:02,000 --> 00:21:09,000 Ever just wondered how much longer do I have to keep doing this before I feel that that promise sense of victory? 253 00:21:09,000 --> 00:21:16,000 Maybe it'll ease up in a moment and and the uphill won't continue to be an uphill. 254 00:21:16,000 --> 00:21:20,000 You know, there's one trick when you go when you go hiking with kids. 255 00:21:20,000 --> 00:21:24,000 Or really anyone else who complains when you when you walk. 256 00:21:24,000 --> 00:21:28,000 If you're hiking in the woods and you start to hear the questions, how much longer? 257 00:21:28,000 --> 00:21:30,000 Here's the trick. 258 00:21:30,000 --> 00:21:33,000 Only one more mile. 259 00:21:33,000 --> 00:21:36,000 Every time that question is asked, only one more mile. 260 00:21:36,000 --> 00:21:41,000 My dad shaking his head because I did that trick with him on a trip. 261 00:21:41,000 --> 00:21:47,000 We thought it was a 10 minute walk and it was like an hour or almost there right around the next curve. 262 00:21:47,000 --> 00:21:50,000 How much longer on the uphill? 263 00:21:50,000 --> 00:21:52,000 Just an extra hundred yards. 264 00:21:52,000 --> 00:21:53,000 We're almost there. 265 00:21:53,000 --> 00:21:54,000 You can see the sky. 266 00:21:54,000 --> 00:21:57,000 Look around you. 267 00:21:57,000 --> 00:22:02,000 We think that will be the case in our Christian walk in just sometimes our daily lives. 268 00:22:02,000 --> 00:22:09,000 We think that it just one more mile and then it'll happen that piece that everyone says I'm going to have will be there. 269 00:22:09,000 --> 00:22:11,000 The mountaintop experience. 270 00:22:11,000 --> 00:22:13,000 I'm going to achieve it. 271 00:22:13,000 --> 00:22:16,000 One of these days. 272 00:22:16,000 --> 00:22:24,000 Have you ever been disappointed that it didn't come or in your timing or when you thought it would happen or. 273 00:22:24,000 --> 00:22:26,000 And then you just go. 274 00:22:26,000 --> 00:22:29,000 Boy, I'm tired. 275 00:22:29,000 --> 00:22:30,000 I've been that way. 276 00:22:30,000 --> 00:22:34,000 I felt that way. 277 00:22:34,000 --> 00:22:44,000 Clergy in all denominations, certainly through what clergy faced with our recent pandemic and then on the back end of it. 278 00:22:44,000 --> 00:22:52,000 Pastoral burnout and then drop out was measurable across denominations. 279 00:22:52,000 --> 00:22:56,000 It's very real. 280 00:22:56,000 --> 00:23:00,000 So if you're going through it, know that you're not alone. 281 00:23:00,000 --> 00:23:01,000 You haven't been the first. 282 00:23:01,000 --> 00:23:04,000 You won't be the last. 283 00:23:04,000 --> 00:23:08,000 And Jesus recognizes it because he can't. 284 00:23:08,000 --> 00:23:15,000 In offering the rest, he recognizes in us the need for the rest. 285 00:23:15,000 --> 00:23:17,000 And I am grateful for that. 286 00:23:17,000 --> 00:23:18,000 He knows you. 287 00:23:18,000 --> 00:23:20,000 He knows you personally. 288 00:23:20,000 --> 00:23:24,000 He knows what trips you up and he knows what tires you out. 289 00:23:24,000 --> 00:23:31,000 And he's willing and wanting to give that rest that you and I desperately need. 290 00:23:31,000 --> 00:23:35,000 If we go on from there, our next verse take. 291 00:23:35,000 --> 00:23:39,000 And this is how we get the rest. 292 00:23:39,000 --> 00:23:42,000 Because Jesus then says, Take my yoke upon you. 293 00:23:42,000 --> 00:23:49,000 Learn from me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. 294 00:23:49,000 --> 00:23:50,000 We know what a yoke is. 295 00:23:50,000 --> 00:23:53,000 Maybe we've heard sermons before on this passage. 296 00:23:53,000 --> 00:24:02,000 It's the implement that joins together a pair or more of animals for often farm, but it doesn't have to be farm, but labor, work, right? 297 00:24:02,000 --> 00:24:10,000 You can picture two bulls or oxen or donkeys or Clydesdales. 298 00:24:10,000 --> 00:24:16,000 If you can picture a pair of them or four of them lined up, they're yoked together. 299 00:24:16,000 --> 00:24:21,000 Well, why do you yoke together two animals instead of letting one have at it? 300 00:24:21,000 --> 00:24:25,000 Stronger makes the work easier. 301 00:24:25,000 --> 00:24:33,000 It allows two animals to do an exponentially more work longer. 302 00:24:33,000 --> 00:24:41,000 And the two animals will be less tired at the end of it because you have shared work between the two of them. 303 00:24:41,000 --> 00:24:43,000 They can pull a heavier implement. 304 00:24:43,000 --> 00:24:47,000 They can plow a field longer and later. 305 00:24:47,000 --> 00:24:52,000 They'll probably still be hungry at the end of it, but they get more work done. 306 00:24:52,000 --> 00:24:59,000 And Jesus is saying it's time to trade in your yoke for mine. 307 00:24:59,000 --> 00:25:05,000 Because remember, we all have a yoke. 308 00:25:05,000 --> 00:25:09,000 How many of us have had more than one car? 309 00:25:09,000 --> 00:25:10,000 I've had more than one car. 310 00:25:10,000 --> 00:25:13,000 We've owned more than one car. 311 00:25:13,000 --> 00:25:18,000 Maybe there's debates about when the best time is to trade in the car, that mysterious 100,000 miles. 312 00:25:18,000 --> 00:25:20,000 Oh, I can't go at 101,000. 313 00:25:20,000 --> 00:25:22,000 I'll lose so much value. 314 00:25:22,000 --> 00:25:24,000 Maybe that's when you trade it in. 315 00:25:24,000 --> 00:25:28,000 Maybe you don't have the luxury of trading it in just because a mileage is coming up. 316 00:25:28,000 --> 00:25:33,000 And you go, I'll trade it in when it dies, when it breaks. 317 00:25:33,000 --> 00:25:42,000 I am awfully proud of the fact that I broke two engines in a little Ford Ranger because it was a four cylinder and I worked it like a six. 318 00:25:42,000 --> 00:25:46,000 I worked it hard, broke one engine, replaced that one. 319 00:25:46,000 --> 00:25:50,000 And I could tell I had that sense about to break this one. 320 00:25:50,000 --> 00:25:58,000 It's kind of starting to clank in ways that I've heard before, starting to kind of peter out a little bit when I'm pulling mulch in ways I have heard before. 321 00:25:58,000 --> 00:26:03,000 Time to unload before I don't want to pay another for another engine. 322 00:26:03,000 --> 00:26:06,000 It's time to get a bigger truck. 323 00:26:06,000 --> 00:26:10,000 Well, Jesus is saying that about your yoke. 324 00:26:10,000 --> 00:26:23,000 You are taking a yoke and you're piling on your burdens and you're trying to go it alone and you're trying to accomplish what he has called you to do and try to be a disciple and try to all the good things. 325 00:26:23,000 --> 00:26:26,000 Sometimes it is good things. 326 00:26:26,000 --> 00:26:34,000 But if you're trying to take your little four cylinder and work it like a six or an eight, you're going to break. 327 00:26:34,000 --> 00:26:41,000 You're going to clank and you're going to clatter and you're going to you're going to peter out and you won't be able to move it. 328 00:26:41,000 --> 00:26:44,000 And maybe you'll break down on the side of the road. 329 00:26:44,000 --> 00:26:45,000 Been there. 330 00:26:45,000 --> 00:26:47,000 It's no fun. 331 00:26:47,000 --> 00:26:48,000 I recommend not doing it. 332 00:26:48,000 --> 00:26:55,000 And Jesus is saying it's time for you to trade in your yoke for mine. 333 00:26:55,000 --> 00:26:58,000 And when you take on my yoke. 334 00:26:58,000 --> 00:27:00,000 Good news. 335 00:27:00,000 --> 00:27:02,000 You're not alone. 336 00:27:02,000 --> 00:27:04,000 Good news. 337 00:27:04,000 --> 00:27:07,000 You are now partnered up with me, your savior. 338 00:27:07,000 --> 00:27:09,000 Good news. 339 00:27:09,000 --> 00:27:11,000 When you trade in your yoke. 340 00:27:11,000 --> 00:27:25,000 Now you have my yoke and I am the creator, the redeemer, the sustainer, the king of kings yoked up with you, not just walking beside you with the whip cracking it. 341 00:27:25,000 --> 00:27:28,000 We are a pair moving forward. 342 00:27:28,000 --> 00:27:30,000 We are joined. 343 00:27:30,000 --> 00:27:32,000 We are connected. 344 00:27:32,000 --> 00:27:36,000 When you work, I'm working and when I'm working, you're working. 345 00:27:36,000 --> 00:27:39,000 It is the perfect partnership. 346 00:27:39,000 --> 00:27:50,000 And praise God when we are when we are linked up with the creator of the universe, name something that can't be done. 347 00:27:50,000 --> 00:28:04,000 We will look at we will look at an evangelism meeting or we will look at a cooking school or we will look at teaching our youth or a one on one Bible study and we will say I can't do it. 348 00:28:04,000 --> 00:28:05,000 You're right. 349 00:28:05,000 --> 00:28:07,000 You can't. 350 00:28:07,000 --> 00:28:11,000 But you and Jesus can. 351 00:28:11,000 --> 00:28:16,000 You and Jesus can trade in your yoke for Christ's. 352 00:28:16,000 --> 00:28:20,000 Learn of him because he wants to reveal himself to you. 353 00:28:20,000 --> 00:28:25,000 Model yourself after his character that's gentle and lonely and hard. 354 00:28:25,000 --> 00:28:33,000 He's in other words, he's saying I'm not a big hardened bull that's just going to drag you behind me trying to play catch up. 355 00:28:33,000 --> 00:28:36,000 We're in this together, Jesus says. 356 00:28:36,000 --> 00:28:39,000 You will find rest for your souls. 357 00:28:39,000 --> 00:28:45,000 It's tough to wrap our minds around finding rest while we're plowing. 358 00:28:45,000 --> 00:28:49,000 It's tough to wrap our minds around when we take on the yoke of Christ. 359 00:28:49,000 --> 00:28:54,000 That's not permission to stop. 360 00:28:54,000 --> 00:28:59,000 It means you get to work and be rested while you're working. 361 00:28:59,000 --> 00:29:02,000 How do we harmonize that? 362 00:29:02,000 --> 00:29:11,000 Well, anybody that has tried to go through a tough time in their life all alone, but then they have found a partner in it. 363 00:29:11,000 --> 00:29:23,000 A person they can trust, a person they can confide in, a person that will pray with them, maybe lend a little bit of financial help if that's necessary, maybe provide other resources if that's necessary. 364 00:29:23,000 --> 00:29:24,000 It's true. 365 00:29:24,000 --> 00:29:30,000 It doesn't all of a sudden end the tough time. 366 00:29:30,000 --> 00:29:36,000 But ask someone who has not gone through it alone and they will tell you it's easier. 367 00:29:36,000 --> 00:29:41,000 If you're not alone, even while you go through it. 368 00:29:41,000 --> 00:29:43,000 It's easier. 369 00:29:43,000 --> 00:29:46,000 Jesus is saying this walk is not going to be easy. 370 00:29:46,000 --> 00:29:47,000 Don't fool yourself. 371 00:29:47,000 --> 00:29:50,000 It's still labor. 372 00:29:50,000 --> 00:29:53,000 But when you're laboring with me, it's easier. 373 00:29:53,000 --> 00:29:55,000 It's restful. 374 00:29:55,000 --> 00:29:58,000 You can have the strength that I'm willing to give you. 375 00:29:58,000 --> 00:30:02,000 And I want to give you because then he says my yoke is easy. 376 00:30:02,000 --> 00:30:06,000 My burden is light. 377 00:30:06,000 --> 00:30:14,000 You're not going to be all alone trying to pull your sled by yourself. 378 00:30:14,000 --> 00:30:23,000 In November, we are going to we're going to have a weekend emphasis on the intersection of mental health and spirituality. 379 00:30:23,000 --> 00:30:35,000 With some scary numbers when it comes to mental health, depression, anxiety, the number of people that don't get help, don't seek help, aren't offered help, that kind of thing. 380 00:30:35,000 --> 00:30:49,000 We recognize that that also through a little bit of research in our immediate community, stress and anxiety about the present and the future is one of the top 15 concerns for the Ringgold community. 381 00:30:49,000 --> 00:30:54,000 So this church leadership saw that and said, let's let's do something. 382 00:30:54,000 --> 00:30:57,000 Let's offer the yoke of Jesus. 383 00:30:57,000 --> 00:31:04,000 Let's offer a community in the Ringgold Seventh-day Adventist Church where people can come and not no longer be alone. 384 00:31:04,000 --> 00:31:12,000 Let's offer something that we know is a need because we would like to turn the trend. 385 00:31:12,000 --> 00:31:14,000 We would like to see people getting help. 386 00:31:14,000 --> 00:31:16,000 We would we want we care for. 387 00:31:16,000 --> 00:31:23,000 We love people whom we haven't even met yet and we want to invite them here and lead them to Jesus. 388 00:31:23,000 --> 00:31:28,000 Let them trade in their yolks for Jesus yolks. 389 00:31:28,000 --> 00:31:31,000 We're doing that in November. 390 00:31:31,000 --> 00:31:33,000 You saw the dates in your in your bulletin circle. 391 00:31:33,000 --> 00:31:34,000 Then please be here. 392 00:31:34,000 --> 00:31:36,000 I think it will be very good. 393 00:31:36,000 --> 00:31:39,000 I'm excited about it. 394 00:31:39,000 --> 00:31:47,000 If you're wanting to wonder how we can experience this light burden and the easy yoke of Jesus three suggestions. 395 00:31:47,000 --> 00:31:53,000 One moving forward and in the same direction as Jesus. 396 00:31:53,000 --> 00:31:59,000 Yokes for animals don't work if one wants to go to the right and the other one wants to go to the left. 397 00:31:59,000 --> 00:32:01,000 It just doesn't work. 398 00:32:01,000 --> 00:32:08,000 If you through reading him reading through the Gospels reading from Genesis to Revelation. 399 00:32:08,000 --> 00:32:18,000 If you are coming across his revealed will his revealed character and the Holy Spirit says you're out of step with Jesus. 400 00:32:18,000 --> 00:32:24,000 Prayerfully ask that the Holy Spirit get you back into step with Jesus. 401 00:32:24,000 --> 00:32:26,000 You have to be moving in the same direction as him. 402 00:32:26,000 --> 00:32:30,000 Otherwise you're fighting against him and there's no rest in that. 403 00:32:30,000 --> 00:32:37,000 Move forward and in the same direction as Jesus meaning that you have to look for the direction Jesus is going. 404 00:32:37,000 --> 00:32:44,000 Put the effort in to don't struggle to carry the weight yourself. 405 00:32:44,000 --> 00:32:50,000 Jesus says I will help you take him up on the offer. 406 00:32:50,000 --> 00:32:53,000 If all of a sudden you just go I'm going to take that. 407 00:32:53,000 --> 00:32:57,000 I take all the suitcases back. 408 00:32:57,000 --> 00:32:59,000 Jesus doesn't force it. 409 00:32:59,000 --> 00:33:02,000 He will let you have whatever burdens you want. 410 00:33:02,000 --> 00:33:07,000 If you hang on to them yourself your yoke will forever be heavy. 411 00:33:07,000 --> 00:33:12,000 And then finally be refreshed in Jesus. 412 00:33:12,000 --> 00:33:19,000 There is still more work to do but you can find rest in him. 413 00:33:19,000 --> 00:33:24,000 The more you read about Jesus the more you pray to your Savior. 414 00:33:24,000 --> 00:33:30,000 The more you desire to look at others the way that he looks at others and at you. 415 00:33:30,000 --> 00:33:35,000 The more you pray that his character be your character. 416 00:33:35,000 --> 00:33:37,000 That you extend grace like he does. 417 00:33:37,000 --> 00:33:40,000 That you forgive others as he's forgiven you. 418 00:33:40,000 --> 00:33:48,000 The more you put these things into practice you will be refreshed because then you will be living a life in Jesus. 419 00:33:48,000 --> 00:33:50,000 Modeled after Jesus. 420 00:33:50,000 --> 00:33:56,000 He will be not just there but it will be a part of you. 421 00:33:56,000 --> 00:33:58,000 A part of your life. 422 00:33:58,000 --> 00:33:59,000 A part of your experience. 423 00:33:59,000 --> 00:34:06,000 The abiding that Jesus talks about is like a family member that you want to move in. 424 00:34:06,000 --> 00:34:09,000 Actually moving in and making a home with you. 425 00:34:09,000 --> 00:34:10,000 They've hung up the curtains. 426 00:34:10,000 --> 00:34:12,000 They've put down a little area rug. 427 00:34:12,000 --> 00:34:14,000 They've helped you make dinner. 428 00:34:14,000 --> 00:34:16,000 They've helped you clean the bathrooms. 429 00:34:16,000 --> 00:34:17,000 They are a part of your home. 430 00:34:17,000 --> 00:34:18,000 They contribute to it. 431 00:34:18,000 --> 00:34:21,000 They live with you. 432 00:34:21,000 --> 00:34:25,000 That's the picture when Jesus says I abide in you and you in me. 433 00:34:25,000 --> 00:34:28,000 We're making a home together. 434 00:34:28,000 --> 00:34:30,000 And that can be refreshing. 435 00:34:30,000 --> 00:34:32,000 That can be restful. 436 00:34:32,000 --> 00:34:35,000 Jesus can provide that. 437 00:34:35,000 --> 00:34:42,000 I would encourage you that as we are looking forward to the upcoming seminar. 438 00:34:42,000 --> 00:34:44,000 And again I told you this was a soft introduction. 439 00:34:44,000 --> 00:34:45,000 Our upcoming seminar. 440 00:34:45,000 --> 00:34:48,000 If you or someone you know could benefit from it. 441 00:34:48,000 --> 00:34:50,000 Please attend. 442 00:34:50,000 --> 00:34:53,000 Invite and attend. 443 00:34:53,000 --> 00:34:55,000 We will be talking about some practical things. 444 00:34:55,000 --> 00:34:58,000 We will be looking at how the Bible can help us with that. 445 00:34:58,000 --> 00:35:02,000 We will even look at how Christians have gotten it wrong. 446 00:35:02,000 --> 00:35:04,000 And how can we do a little better. 447 00:35:04,000 --> 00:35:10,000 We're going to take a whole bunch of options and points to it. 448 00:35:10,000 --> 00:35:16,000 Where I pray that God will bring us to a healthy and healthier understanding. 449 00:35:16,000 --> 00:35:21,000 Until then trade in your yoke for Jesus. 450 00:35:21,000 --> 00:35:24,000 Stop carrying your burdens by yourself. 451 00:35:24,000 --> 00:35:26,000 Link up with Him. 452 00:35:26,000 --> 00:35:28,000 You will get more accomplished. 453 00:35:28,000 --> 00:35:30,000 You will find rest in the middle of it. 454 00:35:30,000 --> 00:35:36,000 And it will allow you to keep moving forward from now all the way until Jesus comes back. 455 00:35:36,000 --> 00:35:39,000 Trade in your yoke for Jesus. 456 00:35:39,000 --> 00:35:40,000 Let's pray. 457 00:35:40,000 --> 00:35:42,000 Heavenly Father thank you for your word. 458 00:35:42,000 --> 00:35:44,000 We thank you that in you we can find rest. 459 00:35:44,000 --> 00:35:50,000 We thank you that while there is no guarantee that tough times will completely disappear. 460 00:35:50,000 --> 00:35:52,000 That challenges will completely fall away. 461 00:35:52,000 --> 00:35:56,000 That hurdles will no longer need to be crossed. 462 00:35:56,000 --> 00:36:00,000 Or we are grateful that you have promised that we don't have to do it alone. 463 00:36:00,000 --> 00:36:02,000 You will lift us. 464 00:36:02,000 --> 00:36:03,000 You will carry us. 465 00:36:03,000 --> 00:36:05,000 You will strengthen us. 466 00:36:05,000 --> 00:36:08,000 You will raise us up with your right hand. 467 00:36:08,000 --> 00:36:10,000 We praise your name for that. 468 00:36:10,000 --> 00:36:14,000 Lord today I pray that that not just be pleasing and pleasant words. 469 00:36:14,000 --> 00:36:18,000 But it be a reality in all of our lives. 470 00:36:18,000 --> 00:36:25,000 I pray that what we face whether personal emotional spiritual physical. 471 00:36:25,000 --> 00:36:28,000 Lord I pray that you would yoke up with us. 472 00:36:28,000 --> 00:36:33,000 Lord bless us with your presence bless us with the power of the Holy Spirit. 473 00:36:33,000 --> 00:36:38,000 Bless us with your partnership in our lives. 474 00:36:38,000 --> 00:36:40,000 Lord I thank you so much for loving us. 475 00:36:40,000 --> 00:36:42,000 We pray all these things in Jesus name. 476 00:36:42,000 --> 00:36:52,000 Amen.