Hallelujah.
How many of you ready to see Jesus?
Hallelujah.
I'm ready to see the Lord.
Even so, Lord, come quickly.
Amen.
It's so good to see you in the house of the Lord today.
If you have your Bibles with you, be turning with me to Matthew's Gospel, Chapter 11.
And in our opening prayer today, I want us to remember Brother Harry Harmon, 90-year-old
preacher of the Gospel, about to make his transition from this life to glory.
And we just want to pray over the family and pray over him.
I'm sure he's ready, expecting.
Ninety-nine years old, probably been ready to see the Lord for quite some time.
Amen.
Before we leave this morning, we're also going to be praying over our resident missionaries.
We'll be leaving Saturday for Zambia, and we want to pray over them, the Lord's grace
and mercy.
Amen.
And his anointing so that it's as they go forward, the words that they say are just
going to do some great things in people's hearts and lives.
Amen.
Matthew's Gospel.
Again, it is so good to see you in the house of the Lord today.
If you are visiting, thank you so much.
You could have been anywhere today, but you chose Hopewell, and I'm grateful and thankful.
And if you haven't already been blessed through your worship, then your wood's wet.
Because the Spirit of the Lord's been in this house today.
Amen.
And that's my whole modus operandi, to encounter him.
Amen.
And I thank each of you for being here today.
And for the visitors, if you leave today, I don't know what this thing's going to end
like, so I'm getting this ahead.
If you'll go out those doors to my left and stop at that counter, they've got something
special for you.
You don't want to pass that up.
Amen.
If you don't leave a card, at least take the goody.
You'll save me about five pounds.
That's the priest portion.
Matthew's gospel chapter 11 verse 28.
Let's see what the Spirit of the Lord has to say to us today.
Come unto me, all you that labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest.
Take my yoke upon you.
Learneth me, for I am meek, lowly in heart.
You shall find rest under your souls, for my yoke is easy and my burden is light.
Simple thought today, it's time to take five.
It's time to take five.
Y'all know what that means, right?
Take five.
Take a little break.
Take a little, yeah.
So I'll pray for you if you pray for me, because it's going to take longer than five to get
to this.
Amen.
Father, we love you.
We thank you.
Thank you for your word.
We thank you for your anointing, the sweet, awesome presence that's in this house today.
I ask God that you would move and you'd have your way in every heart and every mind.
Use me, Lord, today.
I surrender myself to you in the lovely name of Jesus.
And the church said amen and amen.
On Wednesday, Mr. Kathy and I are celebrating 37 years.
She's put up with me for 37 years.
I love you, baby.
Happy early anniversary.
Amen.
God is good.
He's faithful and true.
Saturday weekend, the unofficial close to summer.
Doesn't mean it's going to be cool on Wednesday.
It'd be cooler than it has been, but it's not winter yet.
But it is the unofficial close to summer.
I've seen some of you taking the advantage of the white taboo after today, or after Wednesday,
rather.
So I've been told by the fashion police.
Can't wire white after Labor Day.
I don't know who did that or why.
But anyway, there you go.
Labor Day was set aside as a day for appreciation to hard work.
Early on, it was established by the labor movement to get fair and equal labor laws
and so that the employer can't treat you like a slave and pay you like one.
And it's a day for a time to just take a little breather, take five, take a little rest.
The world in which you and I have become accustomed to, I think is referenced in the story of
Alice in Wonderland by the Red Queen who would say, now here, you see, it takes all the running
you can do to keep in the same place.
If you want to get somewhere else, you must run at least twice as fast as that.
Doesn't that the way you feel like sometimes, like the hamster on the wheel?
You just kind of going around and around and spinning life is taking things out of control.
And all you can do and seem to do is you're managing just to keep up.
If you're going to get ahead, you've got to go faster than what you're doing just to get
ahead.
And unfortunately that causes us to miss a good portion of life and the joy that the
Lord wants to bring us in our lives.
And this day and age when it seems all we have, all of us got a burden of some kind.
We have some type of weight that we're carrying.
We have some type of trouble that we're facing.
Amen.
Problem.
But our scripture today brings us some assurance that we're not alone in the burdens that we're
bearing.
Amen.
You're not alone when you step inside the hamster oil.
You're not by yourself.
There are many who face the burden of bodies that don't do exactly what we want them to
do.
Mine just continually wants to eat.
That's not what I want it to do.
Others face simple facts and difficult facts that they're living alone after they've lost
a loved one.
Others are coping with this world by themselves, bearing burdens.
We have financial difficulties.
Others face the facts of the hardships of life.
Others have broken dreams.
They have broken relationships somewhere within a family dynamic.
Others have the burdens that they're facing making choices that affect their everyday
life.
Still yet others facing burdens.
They deal with sin and the temptations of sin, burdens of guilt and grief, burdens of
conflicting loyalties, burdens of providing for our families.
And it seems like that is getting more difficult.
We understand that the life that we're living is filled with stress and different stressors
with cares and worries, situations that call on us to make choices and decisions that sometimes
are not pleasant to make and they're not easy to make.
But yet we are challenged daily with those types of decisions.
When we think about those types of decisions in the world in which we're living, I am so
glad that the word of God speaks in to every situation, every circumstance, every crisis,
every burden, every trouble, every storm, all of these things that come into life.
I'm thankful that the word of God speaks hope and assurance that we do not have to go through
it alone and we are not by ourselves.
I know how the world turns things around.
I know how you can feel.
I know how the enemy attempts to try to make us feel that we're facing every situation
by ourselves.
But I'm here to share with you the assurance that you are not alone this very morning.
You are not, if you're a child of God, you have not been forsaken.
You have not been left to deal with the antidotes of life by yourself, but he has given you
a wonderful promise and a great invitation.
However, for many of us, we do not seize the invitation that has been extended, but I'm
here to encourage you this morning to accept the invitation and show up.
Amen.
And let God bring you into a moment in time where you can take five.
Every now and then it's good just to get a fresh breath.
It's good to just set aside and just get a respite for a moment.
It's good just to know that things are settling and that God is for you and not against you.
And it doesn't matter what the enemy is coming against you with, that he has not forsaken
you in it and you are there.
We hear this wonderful, wonderful invitation.
We've been given a respite.
We've been given the opportunity to be provided with a little bit of relief in life.
So we have that invitation.
Jesus says, it's more of a command than it is an invitation.
He says, come unto me, come now.
In Psalm 55 and 22, the psalmist says, cast thy burden upon the Lord and he shall sustain
thee.
He shall never suffer the righteous to be moved.
We hear him command, come unto me.
It's like Peter, when he asked him, could he walk on the water?
Lord, if that's you, bid thou, it's me to come to you on the water.
And all he said was, come, come on.
Here it is.
Get out of the boat and make your way.
Sometimes we have to hear the word of Jesus and know it's a response to the faith and
the longing and the reaching of our hearts and soul and that he's responding to you with
a command, come on over here.
You come on, I'm here.
I'm on your storm.
I'm walking on your storm.
I'm walking across your dilemma.
I'm walking across the crisis that you think about to take you out, but I'm standing above
it.
I'm standing on it.
And what I invite you to do is come out here and stand with me.
He's telling us that he is able to bring victory in our lives.
He is able to sustain us in the depths of the storm and the throes of the winds of the
midnight hour that he is able to say, come unto me.
Why?
Because it gives me an assurance and a confidence.
He's standing on my situation and my situation isn't threatening his wellbeing.
And if he bids me to come unto him, then it will not threaten my wellbeing because my
invitation is to come unto him.
Come unto me.
The word come by definition means to move towards something, to move with a specified
purpose.
We have an invitation to come to him with a specified purpose.
Come unto me, all you that labor and are heavy laden, and here's the purpose.
My purpose for my invitation is that you might have some rest.
I know how life is.
I know how the devil is in life.
I know how the enemy against your soul is trying to keep you torn up day and night,
night and day through the course.
No rest for the weary we hear.
There's no rest but in the midst of it.
Well, in the midst of it all, we hear Jesus say, come, I've got a purpose for you.
I know you're working hard.
I know you're laboring.
I know you're heavy laden.
I know the load of the cares of this life are weighing you down.
But what I want you to do is make your way forward.
You've got to come over here to, ah, you've got to come over here to where I am.
Because where you are is the crisis.
But where I am, I'm standing in the course and the vein of victory on your behalf.
But if you'll move from where you are to where I am, then the rest that I offer you, the
peace that I'm going to provide, you will find it near me.
Now, you see, when we think about the disciples with Peter's occasion and he hears the Lord
say, come out of the boat, it takes great faith to leave the only safety that you have.
The only safety for them rationally was to stay in the boat.
But let me tell you something, not always, sometimes the boat will fall apart beneath
you, but as long as Christ is for you.
Hallelujah.
We'll find ourselves like the apostle Paul in the book of Acts.
He stood before those after that storm, it ravaged for days on end.
And he stood and he told them, the angel of the Lord has spoken to me.
We're all going to make it.
Just don't jump ship.
We're going to make it.
We're going to lose everything on the boat.
We're going to lose the boat, but we're not going to lose a life.
If you remain steady with me, just stay close to me.
And some of them swam, some of them grabbed a plank, a piece of the ship, but they all
made it ashore.
What does that have to do with me?
Don't abandon the ship of Zion.
The old ship of Zion, the songwriter talked about is he who is extending the invitation
to you to come to him.
Do not abandon him.
Do not leave him.
Do not forsake him.
Why?
Because he's not leaving you and he's not forsaking you.
And he's the only hope and the respite that you're going to get in a sin-cursed world
and in a Christ is written life.
He is the only hope that we're going to have.
And the only rest that we're going to get will be found in him.
Songwriter put it this way, just as I am with one plea, but that thy blood was shed for
me, that thou bidst me come to thee.
O Lamb of God, I come.
I come just as I am.
Thou wilt receive, wilt welcome, pardon, cleanse, relieve because thy promise I believe.
O Lamb of God, I come.
I come.
Hallelujah.
He's given an invitation.
He's extended it to you.
And when we think about the validity of the word come, he says, come to me.
He didn't just say come to some unknown position.
He didn't just come to any space out there.
But he says, you got to come to me.
My invitation is that you move forward toward me because when you come to me, I've got your
answer.
When you come to me, I've got your help.
Who is the me?
He is the son of God.
It is Jesus Christ, the righteous, the same person that said, I am the way, I am the truth,
I am the life, I am the bread, I am the door, I am the vine, I am the light, I am that I
am.
It's his declaration in the darkness of your night and when circumstance overwhelm and
you can't see, you come to him and he is the light.
Hallelujah.
When you can't find a way of escape, you go to him because he is the door that unleashes
the goodness and the grace.
He is the one when you can't hold on.
Take hold of the vine and the truth of the vine will carry you through when you're so
desperate and hungry and in anguish.
He is the bread that will sustain you.
Come to me.
We spend our time going so many places but he said, come to me.
He didn't say come to Wal-Mart.
He didn't say come to Food City.
He didn't say come to Bass Pro.
He didn't say come to Dr. Phil.
He said come to me.
He knows who he is.
He knows what he can offer you.
He knows what he can provide for us when there is no other.
We go to him.
John 6 37, all that the Father giveth me shall come to me and him that cometh to me I will
in no wise cast him out.
Jesus said I'll welcome you when you get here.
Has folks ever invited you somewhere and they not be home when you showed up?
Huh?
If you ever showed up and wanted to overstay your welcome, they say well, just turn the
light off and get ready to leave and then just leave you sitting there.
They will go on to bed because you've stayed a little too long.
They cast you out.
Jesus said you can come to me.
The lights always on.
That what old Tom Bodette said, we'll leave the light on for you.
Amen.
It's better than staying at a hotel express.
When you come to him, he says if you'll come to me, I'll have provision for you.
If you'll come to me, I'll have an answer for you.
If you'll come to me, I have sustaining grace for you.
When you're at your wits end, where do you go?
You go to him.
When you're burdened down so heavily and you don't know how you're going to get up tomorrow
to make it through another day, you go to him.
He says come to me.
There's so many in this world making promises, but what we're doing is making our way to
he who has spoken because he who has spoken has the authority and the power of heaven
and releases it upon the earth.
When we come to him, we live in this world of empty promises.
You got one party that says if you'll come to me, I'll make you rich.
There's another party says if y'all come to me, we'll make you happy, but they can do
nothing.
It's like when the devil made Eve a promise.
You'll never die and you'll be a smartest God.
He told a lie.
But I'm here to tell you he that has spoken the truth to you and the invitation of karma
is one who cannot lie.
He's not made empty promises as everybody around can make a promise and not withhold,
but he's made a promise that he can fully keep because he's fully empowered to keep
the burden carrying and the weight lifting promise to us.
He that speaks the invitation to come is able to do what he says.
He has all power in heaven and on earth.
He holds the keys to death, hell and the grave.
He is the wonderful counselor.
He is the mighty God.
He is the Prince of peace and the government of the whole thing.
He bears on his own shoulders.
He bears it all.
This is who has spoken to you come to me.
He who was is and is to come.
He is the Alpha and the Omega.
He is the beginning and the end.
He is the Lord of Lords.
He is the King of Kings.
He's coming with righteousness and truth.
He's coming to reign.
He is.
He's faithful who promised.
He will not deceive nor lie or break any promise.
That which he has stated, he will perform.
So if he has said come unto me, all you that are overworked and overburdened and I'll give
you rest, when you get there, he'll lighten your load.
Amen.
He'll take the burdens of this life and lighten our load and give you a respite in the midst
of the storm.
It doesn't matter the wilderness that you feel like you're wandering or the desert through
which you feel as though you're crawling through, nor the darkness that you feel like you're
groping trying to get out of.
If you can just get to him, if you can just get to him, he's invited.
He's made you welcome.
And if you can just make your way to him, whatever's got you bogged down, whatever's
got you exhausted and flabbergasted, whatever's got you confused and overwhelmed, he's going
to be the one that'll take his hand and lift a burden.
He's going to make your work easy.
He's going to let you take five.
Lord invites each of us to come to him.
It's for any person, for every person, those wanting to be saved and those wanting to be
lightened, whosoever will come unto him.
This invitation is all inclusive.
It includes any.
So don't think I'm not preaching to you today because I am.
It's for you.
It's conclusive as well.
He is the author and the finisher of the faith which we are living.
He's the originator and he's going to be the one who completes it.
He's the one who is also promised.
He that began a good work in you is also able to complete it.
This invitation come as exclusive as well.
It rules out any other method other than him.
It's singular in access.
So it's a very exclusive club, but it's all inclusive so long as you come to him.
You can't go to Hare Krishna.
You can't look up, what is it, Song Yong Moon?
You can't go and stand by Mohammed's grave.
You couldn't even get access to where they say his last footstep is on that temple mount
platform in that rock.
You can't get in there and find help, but you can come to Jesus.
And you don't have to be in a sanctuary.
I heard one man testify how the Lord saved him in his bathroom and he used a commode
for a throne.
It doesn't matter.
He used a commode for an altar.
It doesn't matter where you meet Jesus so long as when you hear the word come and the
invitation to move forward toward him, you begin to make your way there.
I've heard him getting saved in the woods.
I've heard him get saved under cars.
I've heard of people getting saved in and everywhere on the face of this earth.
Why?
Because the moving power of the invitation of Jesus Christ who declares, come unto me.
There's deliverance from wherever you are.
If you're on the sea, if you come to him, he'll calm the wave.
If you're in the midst of a fiery furnace, if you come to him, he'll see that you're
not burned and the flames not kindled up against you.
If you feel like you're walking through the rivers and you're drowning in life, you can
make your way to him and he'll declare that the waters will not overtake you and the floods
will not drown you.
If you simply make your way to him, there's no other way.
There's no other gate.
There's no other door.
But when you get to him, he's better than some of these sci-fi movies you watch with
these time traveling door opening devices.
He's got one on Dr. Strange, you know, he does this.
And the door begins to spin.
He just steps out there.
No, Jesus is better than that.
He just shows up.
He don't need... He don't need all that.
He just shows up.
How do you know, preacher?
Because after his death, burial, resurrection, his disciples were scared to death hiding
for their lives behind locked doors and there wasn't no... And he come through.
He just walked into the room.
And when he got into the room, he said, look, I am here.
And he breathed on him some peace.
He said, receive ye the Holy Ghost.
My God, he'll make his way to wherever you are.
If you're in Elijah and you're in a cave somewhere and you've done junk called the Juniper berry
juice, you can stand.
He'll make his way.
And a still small voice, he'll speak into your situation.
Well, I did not realize the marvel was going to make an appearance today.
But evidently, you've seen it and you're getting the point.
Thank God he don't need all that.
He is space and time in continuance.
Why?
Because he's in your tomorrow waiting on you to arrive.
But he's walking with you through today.
How so?
Because he's omnipresent.
What's that mean?
He's everywhere all the time.
Hey, it's time we take five.
Labor Day gives you a day off.
Don't work yourself to death tomorrow.
Taking a break, sit down and rest.
One of the most spiritual things you can do is rest.
Jesus separated himself many occasions away from the crowd, away from ministry.
He went to the mountain.
He didn't just do nothing.
He prayed.
He talked to the father and he was rested, refreshed, renewed.
Coming to me all you that are feeling fatigued, toiling and weary, heavy laden, overburdened,
financial stressors, physical stressors, emotional stressors.
Tori Tittenboom put it this way, she said, worry does not empty tomorrow of sorrows.
It empties today of strength.
Worry doesn't empty tomorrow of sorrows.
It empties today of strength.
How pastor?
You're stressed about tomorrow and you'll never enjoy the grace of God today.
But if you'll take five, rest in his grace today.
Not only will he grant you strength for the day that you're traveling, but he'll grant
you grace for the morrow that you enter.
It's a response.
Coming to me all you that are laboring and heavy laden, I will give you rest.
Repose, reprieve, refresh, peace of mind, rest of heart.
What can be said to those who receive life debilitating news?
I think it's best captured in an old song.
When darkness veils his lovely face, I rest on his unchanging grace.
And all around my soul gives way, he then is all my hope and stay.
On Christ, the solid rock I stand, all other ground is shifting sand.
All other ground is shifting sand.
That's who says come.
Christ, rock of ages, cleft for me, let me hide myself in thee.
Right?
That's who's saying come.
That's who's inviting you to make your way.
You've heard the story of Horatio Stafford, I know.
Very successful lawyer in the late 1800s.
Big financial crisis.
He sends his wife and four daughters on a trip.
225 people on board.
They were traveling by ship, of course.
There's a collision at sea and how there's a collision at sea with that type of sailing,
why two ships would be that close together.
Only 87 people survived.
His wife was one of those among the survivors.
And finally made her way to land, she telegraphed her husband.
These are her words.
Saved alone.
Children lost.
What shall I do?
Stafford left for France to go be with his wife and bring her back home to Chicago.
And in despair, overwhelmed with grief, I can't imagine how long it took him to get
to her, thinking about losing his four children.
But in that process, he pinned his one and only him.
He said, when peace like a river attendeth my way, when sorrow like sea billows roll,
whatever my lot, thou hast taught me to say, it is well, it is well with my soul.
And we have an invitation.
When things aren't well, when the billows of life, the waves of life seem to be crashing
down on our very existence, can we too say, it is well?
I think I find myself with the originator of that phrase.
I find myself with a Shudamite woman.
After she had received the promise of the prophet, a son was born to her, but in the
field working with his father, grabs his head and dies.
They bring the boy home to his mama.
She lays him on the prophet's bed, tells the husband, I need some transportation made ready,
some servants to go with me.
I've got to go find the man of God.
And he says to her, woman, it's not time to go to church.
There's no festivals, there's no feast.
Who even knows where he's at?
I'll find him.
You just make way.
And on her journey, when she sees the man of God turns and says, is that not the Shudamite
woman, he's going to meet her and ask her if everything's all right.
Here's where I find myself.
Is it well with thee?
It is well.
Is it well with thine husband?
It is well.
Is it well with thine son?
It shall be well.
That's where I find myself.
It is right now, but I'm coming to him.
It isn't so good at the very moment, but I'm making my way to him.
You see, when she made her way to the prophet, she was making her way to access to God because
God used the prophet.
He had put his spirit upon the prophet and the prophet would move and the prophet followed
her home and the prophet raised her son back to life.
When you come to him, when you come to Jesus, that's our access.
We don't got to find a prophet.
You can come alone at any time.
You can approach him at your discretion and you can declare it shall be well.
Stand with me all over the house.
When you don't have anywhere else to go, you can go to him.
Please remember this invitation.
When you need to take five spiritually, emotionally, you come to him.
You find him because he said come.
It isn't so good right now, but it shall be.
Amen.
That's faith.
And I express my faith because of my invitation.
Isaiah 40, 29 says he gives power to the faint, to them that have no mind.
He increases their strength.
Who's that for?
Those who are laboring just to make it.
It's not that you have to get up and go and face the grind and work every day.
That becomes physically fatiguing, but when you have to get up and face the devil every
day, you face the enemy and you make go through the grind of spiritual warfare daily.
You get spiritually tired, fatigued, exhausted.
The Psalmist said in 73, 26, my flesh and my heart fail, but God is the strength of
my heart and my portion forever.
Second Samuel 22, 33 says God is my strength and power and he makes my way perfect.
It shall be will folks.
He knows what you're facing.
He knows the storm.
He knows the fire.
He knows the wilderness.
He knows it all.
He knows the burden that you're carrying.
He knows why you're carrying it.
He knows what the enemy has done against you.
He knows how he's turned loved ones away from you.
He knows.
And you know what he says?
Come to me.
He knows if your body's failing you.
You know what he says?
He knows if you're tormented financially, spiritually, emotionally.
He knows if the battle's in your mind.
He knows what happens in the midnight hours.
You know what he says?
Come on.
If that's you today.
I extend his invitation to you.
Come.
I want to pray with you.
I want to pray for you.
I want to pray over you.
He knows what's going on.
He knows everything.
And if you need him, you got to come.
You got to move your way forward.
Take your way forward.