WEBVTT 00:00:00.239 --> 00:00:07.519 So do you ever feel like you're carrying a load that's just too heavy? 00:00:08.960 --> 00:00:11.119 Any anybody know what I'm talking about? 00:00:11.439 --> 00:00:12.160 Maybe not. 00:00:12.720 --> 00:00:15.759 Uh do you ever feel like you're carrying something you were never meant to carry? 00:00:16.000 --> 00:00:21.519 Like, okay, so the load's heavy, but even the fact that even you feel like the load you're carrying, you were never meant to carry it. 00:00:21.839 --> 00:00:27.839 And there's a there's a restlessness to this, a deep inner restlessness that can stem from a whole bunch of different things. 00:00:27.920 --> 00:00:32.320 It can stem from shame, it can stem from self-worth, it can stem from fear, anxiety. 00:00:32.479 --> 00:00:45.039 It can even be that anxiety that you won't become the person you thought you would become, or the person that your parents thought you should become, or the person of faith you thought you should become. 00:00:45.759 --> 00:00:51.600 Is it possible, possible, that you're carrying something you were never meant to carry? 00:00:51.920 --> 00:00:54.000 And so there's that passage that Sam read. 00:00:54.159 --> 00:00:56.320 Come to me, Matthew 11, 28 through 30. 00:00:56.479 --> 00:01:00.799 Come to me, all who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. 00:01:00.960 --> 00:01:02.880 This is Jesus talking to religious people. 00:01:03.119 --> 00:01:04.719 Take my yoke upon you. 00:01:04.879 --> 00:01:22.400 So he's saying, My way of life, my teaching, take it 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, my way of life, my teaching is easy, and my burden is light. 00:01:23.040 --> 00:01:28.480 So several years ago, Christy, my wife, she talked me into running the Peachtree Road Race with her. 00:01:28.640 --> 00:01:31.200 I've ran the Peachtree Road Race one time. 00:01:31.280 --> 00:01:34.719 So it tells you something about how much I loved the Peachtree Road Race. 00:01:34.959 --> 00:01:44.400 I know many of you, probably most of you love the Peachtree Road Race to say you don't like the Peachtree Road Race to say like you don't like babies or America, you know, those kinds of things, but I I did not like it. 00:01:44.640 --> 00:01:46.079 I've let her down in many ways. 00:01:46.239 --> 00:01:49.120 We don't drink coffee in the morning and share our devotions together. 00:01:49.200 --> 00:01:50.239 That's one way I've done that. 00:01:50.400 --> 00:01:52.239 Peace Tree Road Race is another one. 00:01:52.400 --> 00:01:55.120 And so I know you love it, so just bear with me. 00:01:55.280 --> 00:01:57.760 My experience was it's very hot. 00:01:58.000 --> 00:02:03.359 I'm in a very long line that doesn't end for a very long time. 00:02:03.840 --> 00:02:06.719 And you weren't really running, you were more dodging. 00:02:06.879 --> 00:02:12.080 There's one group of people that I wanted to be with, and they were the people on the side of the road. 00:02:12.319 --> 00:02:17.680 They're eating omelets and drinking mimosas, and I'm I'm like, why am I not there? 00:02:17.840 --> 00:02:21.840 Like, they are the those are my people over there. 00:02:24.159 --> 00:02:25.680 It was just worse than I thought. 00:02:25.840 --> 00:02:27.919 It was worse than I thought it would be. 00:02:28.159 --> 00:02:29.759 It was just a burden for me. 00:02:29.919 --> 00:02:33.759 I think Christy had a great time, she's having a great time, and I'm just like, this is awful. 00:02:33.919 --> 00:02:35.680 I so I know you love it, you love it. 00:02:35.759 --> 00:02:38.800 But some of you love The Bachelor, so I'm just saying we're all different. 00:02:38.960 --> 00:02:39.280 Okay? 00:02:39.599 --> 00:02:41.199 That's just what I'm saying. 00:02:42.400 --> 00:02:48.000 But there was one thing that there's one thing that I uh that I experienced that was great. 00:02:48.159 --> 00:02:55.520 And it's as you run, there's these kind of little tables on the side, little tents, and there's there's water set out for you. 00:02:55.680 --> 00:03:00.960 And it's like the one place where you can go and stop running, and you're not the lazy guy who didn't train. 00:03:01.280 --> 00:03:06.960 It's a legitimate resting place along the way, and people are dumping water over their heads and shirt. 00:03:07.120 --> 00:03:13.360 One guy dumped it down his shorts, and that was weird and strange, but I saw it. 00:03:13.599 --> 00:03:14.479 I didn't do it. 00:03:14.639 --> 00:03:15.599 I didn't do that. 00:03:15.759 --> 00:03:19.759 Uh but I had a cup of water, and it was it was fantastic. 00:03:19.840 --> 00:03:22.159 It was these little stands, little cups of water. 00:03:22.240 --> 00:03:23.599 There's nice people there. 00:03:23.919 --> 00:03:24.960 You take a cup of water. 00:03:25.120 --> 00:03:33.199 You know, amidst all the misery and all the frustration, here's this moment under this tent where you can get a little bit of refreshment. 00:03:33.439 --> 00:03:35.919 It's this feeling, you've had it, you've had it. 00:03:36.000 --> 00:03:40.000 It's this feeling that amidst the misery is going to be okay. 00:03:40.159 --> 00:03:41.360 You're gonna make it. 00:03:41.520 --> 00:03:43.120 It's a moment of rest. 00:03:43.439 --> 00:03:48.960 And here's the wording it's bountiful refreshment, is what it is. 00:03:49.120 --> 00:03:50.960 And this is what Jesus is saying. 00:03:51.280 --> 00:03:55.680 Amidst the frustration of life, come to me. 00:03:55.919 --> 00:04:00.159 All you who are weary and burdened, which is you and it is me. 00:04:01.280 --> 00:04:06.400 Come to me and I will give you bountiful refreshment. 00:04:06.960 --> 00:04:10.479 He says, My way of life is different from the burdensome striving. 00:04:10.560 --> 00:04:11.520 It's a different race. 00:04:11.680 --> 00:04:14.240 It's light and it's free. 00:04:17.360 --> 00:04:20.560 So a yoke was you know, you probably know what a yoke is. 00:04:20.720 --> 00:04:30.800 A yoke is put upon an animal out in the fields, and the yoke is the animal pulls the yoke, and it usually is just so heavy for that animal to pull and to get the work done. 00:04:30.879 --> 00:04:36.879 And so he comes into that imagery, and that imagery was also used as for a rabbi's teaching at the time. 00:04:37.040 --> 00:04:40.079 So a rabbi's teaching would be called their yoke. 00:04:40.240 --> 00:04:49.360 And so he comes into that imagery and he says, okay, so so much of these yokes, this way of life, these teachings, so much is burdened. 00:04:49.519 --> 00:04:51.600 It's about what you do. 00:04:52.160 --> 00:04:58.319 And he comes into that and he says, you're carrying a load you were never meant to carry. 00:04:58.639 --> 00:05:00.079 My load is different. 00:05:00.240 --> 00:05:02.240 It's bountiful refreshment. 00:05:02.399 --> 00:05:11.040 See, it's it's so easy for people of faith, so easy for people of faith to begin to use spirituality as just another way for merit. 00:05:11.839 --> 00:05:21.439 You use merit in your workplace, you use merit in your neighborhood, you use merit for value out in the world, and then you come into faith or spirituality and you just use merit again. 00:05:21.680 --> 00:05:22.879 And it's just the same thing. 00:05:22.959 --> 00:05:25.199 It's the same thing in a different place. 00:05:25.279 --> 00:05:26.639 And Jesus says, no, no, no, no. 00:05:26.720 --> 00:05:29.199 Like that's a different yoke. 00:05:29.680 --> 00:05:33.600 My way of life, faith in Jesus, is a different yoke. 00:05:34.959 --> 00:05:38.240 So two points, and we say these all the time. 00:05:38.560 --> 00:05:44.000 And it's not just me saying them, it's anybody who gets up and preaches on a Sunday morning, it's our classes. 00:05:44.160 --> 00:05:48.079 We say these all the time, but it's the heartbeat, it's the power. 00:05:48.240 --> 00:05:49.040 And so two points. 00:05:49.199 --> 00:05:56.399 Point number one, you are relieved of having to justify yourself before God. 00:05:57.920 --> 00:05:59.680 That's no longer on your list. 00:06:00.160 --> 00:06:06.000 This is why the yoke is easy and light, is because your work is easy in light. 00:06:06.160 --> 00:06:13.360 It means you're justified before God by his work for you, Christ on the cross, not your work before him. 00:06:13.680 --> 00:06:16.959 So it means your work is easy in light. 00:06:17.120 --> 00:06:18.639 The cross is sufficient. 00:06:18.800 --> 00:06:34.959 That abstract idea that God loves you and his love is unconditional, that abstract idea, concrete in the cross for you to know and understand God's humility, his care, his favor toward you that is secure. 00:06:36.720 --> 00:06:37.040 Right? 00:06:37.279 --> 00:06:43.920 It's that exchange we talk about all the time that our sin and shame is put upon him, and then his righteousness is put upon us. 00:06:44.000 --> 00:06:46.879 So we're secure based on his work for us, not our work for him. 00:06:47.120 --> 00:06:49.839 That's what we wake up into every day. 00:06:50.000 --> 00:06:53.360 That's why the yoke is easy and light. 00:06:55.360 --> 00:07:05.680 And when we learn this and learn to walk in this, and we learn more about it, and learn to trust in it, we learn that we're secure, which means we don't have to pretend we're something we're not. 00:07:06.560 --> 00:07:08.240 That's light and that's free. 00:07:08.399 --> 00:07:21.199 Christian mystic writer Richard Rohr, he says that it's this place of rest, this place of rest is where we can finally see and hear and understand the darkness that's always been there. 00:07:23.600 --> 00:07:34.879 So I said last week, to pretend like the bear in your kitchen that's going through your fridge is not in your kitchen going through your fridge does not mean the bear in your kitchen going through your fridge is not there. 00:07:35.759 --> 00:07:37.120 He's still there. 00:07:37.439 --> 00:07:40.160 Whether you roll over in your bed or not, he's still there. 00:07:40.319 --> 00:07:48.720 Whether you shove it down, some reality of your brokenness or imperfection, whether you shove it down or not, it's still there. 00:07:48.800 --> 00:07:55.279 And actually the shoving of it or the putting on the blinders to it actually makes it worse. 00:07:55.680 --> 00:07:57.680 It doesn't go away. 00:07:58.959 --> 00:08:17.279 But to live in a measure of honesty and confession before God, where you're secure in His work for you, and so you can see these things inside of yourself and confess them over and say, I'm imperfect, and this is who I am, and you live in the grace of God towards you, now you live in a reality, live in the reality to receive before God. 00:08:17.439 --> 00:08:19.759 Now the yoke is easy. 00:08:20.160 --> 00:08:21.519 And what happens? 00:08:21.680 --> 00:08:22.399 It's crazy. 00:08:22.480 --> 00:08:26.639 You don't become a crazy, oh, you're gonna run off and do crazy stuff. 00:08:26.800 --> 00:08:29.040 Actually, transformation begins. 00:08:29.519 --> 00:08:30.480 So it's point number one. 00:08:30.560 --> 00:08:33.039 You are relieved from having to justify yourself before God. 00:08:33.200 --> 00:08:39.039 Point number two, you are relieved of having to create your own value. 00:08:40.480 --> 00:08:42.480 I mean, we just exhaust ourselves. 00:08:42.639 --> 00:08:46.799 I exhaust myself trying to create my own value. 00:08:46.960 --> 00:08:49.039 Listen, you're already loved. 00:08:50.000 --> 00:08:55.120 You're already loved, you're already valuable, you're already beloved. 00:08:56.639 --> 00:08:59.679 This week I found myself getting defensive about something. 00:09:00.159 --> 00:09:06.720 I was defensive, and because I was defensive, then I become offensive, because I'm defensive, then you become offensive, and and all because, why? 00:09:06.879 --> 00:09:07.840 Because I'm insecure. 00:09:08.480 --> 00:09:12.000 If you're being defensive or offensive, it's because you're insecure. 00:09:12.080 --> 00:09:24.799 And so I was insecure that my value was secure, and because I'm insecure, then I become defensive, or I become on the offense, and you're on the defense, and you're on the offense, and all of a sudden you're playing a game, you don't have to play. 00:09:25.200 --> 00:09:26.399 I mean, there's the rest. 00:09:26.559 --> 00:09:30.399 There's why the yoke is easy and light, it's because it's a game you don't have to play. 00:09:30.639 --> 00:09:35.440 The idea of creating your own value is a game you don't have to play. 00:09:35.519 --> 00:09:43.039 And so if you're on the defense or the offense in reaction and relating to people, you're in a game you don't have to play. 00:09:45.039 --> 00:09:46.879 You're relieved of that. 00:09:47.279 --> 00:09:50.720 Because your value before God is secure. 00:09:50.879 --> 00:09:55.759 Your value as a human being is secure in his love toward you. 00:09:56.240 --> 00:09:58.159 And it's not just abstract. 00:09:58.399 --> 00:09:59.840 We know it in the cross. 00:10:00.000 --> 00:10:03.360 Do you ever feel like you're pulling a heavy load? 00:10:03.519 --> 00:10:06.000 It's probably not from the practicals in your life. 00:10:06.159 --> 00:10:07.039 That's what I always think. 00:10:07.120 --> 00:10:09.039 I always think it's from the practicals in my life. 00:10:09.840 --> 00:10:15.759 It's just so heavy, it's I'm feeling so thin, I'm feeling thin, and I'm so thin, and I need to feel whole. 00:10:15.840 --> 00:10:22.799 And because it's the practicals of my life, and it's almost always the practicals are revealing something deeper. 00:10:23.519 --> 00:10:36.159 It's revealing something about where I place my trust, where I place my value, where I'm understanding my value, where I'm understanding my absolution and my redemption and my position before God. 00:10:36.480 --> 00:10:43.600 I've been learning this week that we live our lives between our lived lives and our unlived lives. 00:10:43.840 --> 00:10:47.039 So we live our lives between our lived lives and our unlived lives. 00:10:47.120 --> 00:10:48.240 I didn't come up with those terms. 00:10:48.399 --> 00:10:51.440 A British psychologist Adam Phillips, who wrote this book called Missing Out. 00:10:51.600 --> 00:10:52.960 He came up with this idea. 00:10:53.120 --> 00:10:57.919 And that we live our lives between our lived lives and our unlived lives, meaning this. 00:10:58.399 --> 00:11:00.799 You want those friends, but you don't have them. 00:11:02.240 --> 00:11:04.879 So you have your lived life, your unlived life. 00:11:05.039 --> 00:11:07.279 You want those friends, you don't have them. 00:11:07.519 --> 00:11:09.279 You want that house, you don't have it. 00:11:09.440 --> 00:11:11.039 You want that job, you don't have it. 00:11:11.200 --> 00:11:13.039 You want that sense of purpose, you don't have it. 00:11:13.120 --> 00:11:14.720 You want that sense of peace, you don't have it. 00:11:14.879 --> 00:11:18.480 You want that sense of wholeness, you don't have it, you want that, you don't have it. 00:11:18.639 --> 00:11:23.519 And so we live our lives in this frustrating middle ground. 00:11:25.120 --> 00:11:29.519 And we just think, oh, if I just get my act together, it's gonna be better. 00:11:30.159 --> 00:11:32.159 It's extremely frustrating. 00:11:32.320 --> 00:11:33.279 It's exhausting. 00:11:33.440 --> 00:11:35.039 So what do we do? 00:11:36.080 --> 00:11:39.679 Well, we try to work our way out of this frustrating middle ground, right? 00:11:39.840 --> 00:11:41.600 That's why we we love a church. 00:11:41.679 --> 00:11:45.200 I think we can come in and work our way out of this frustrating middle ground. 00:11:45.759 --> 00:11:47.120 Try to escape out of it, right? 00:11:47.200 --> 00:11:49.759 I mean, we go to Las Vegas for a few days. 00:11:50.320 --> 00:11:52.480 The Philson Leather Goods catalog. 00:11:52.639 --> 00:11:54.000 Does anybody get the Philson? 00:11:55.360 --> 00:11:55.919 Anybody? 00:11:56.320 --> 00:11:58.799 You laugh because apparently some of you get it. 00:11:58.960 --> 00:12:00.000 I bought a wallet. 00:12:00.159 --> 00:12:03.679 I got a wallet for Father's Day from Philson Leather Goods. 00:12:03.919 --> 00:12:05.919 Their cap don't get their catalog, by the way. 00:12:06.000 --> 00:12:11.679 It's the most beautiful people, and they're in canoes on mountain lakes with a leather handbag. 00:12:11.759 --> 00:12:17.440 And you're just thinking, if I have that leather handbag. 00:12:18.799 --> 00:12:19.120 Oh. 00:12:20.960 --> 00:12:22.240 It'd be wonderful. 00:12:22.480 --> 00:12:22.720 Right? 00:12:22.799 --> 00:12:27.919 I mean, just to escape for a moment this frustrating middle ground. 00:12:30.000 --> 00:12:35.519 Whether it be in a worldly way or some religious striving way, just that's our natural reaction. 00:12:35.600 --> 00:12:37.200 But it's a it's a blind reaction. 00:12:37.440 --> 00:12:38.159 It's hopeless. 00:12:38.240 --> 00:12:39.440 It doesn't give you rest. 00:12:39.679 --> 00:12:41.679 Either way, it actually puts you to work. 00:12:41.919 --> 00:12:55.360 So I try to have a lunch appointment every day, but I love, I actually love the days when I don't have a lunch appointment because I go home and I fix lunch and I sit in my chair and I turn on a Seinfeld episode. 00:12:55.519 --> 00:13:03.440 And it's just this great 24 minutes of rest amidst a day of work. 00:13:03.759 --> 00:13:06.480 And that's usually how we think about rest, right? 00:13:06.639 --> 00:13:08.639 I mean, rest is uh it's the nap. 00:13:09.279 --> 00:13:11.360 Rest is the vacation. 00:13:11.840 --> 00:13:15.600 We usually think about rest as the separation from reality. 00:13:16.320 --> 00:13:22.559 So I'm gonna separate from this frustrating middle ground that I exist in, from who we really are. 00:13:23.360 --> 00:13:25.679 So we work really hard to escape. 00:13:25.919 --> 00:13:27.200 But here's the good news. 00:13:27.360 --> 00:13:28.399 This is the good news. 00:13:28.559 --> 00:13:33.360 Jesus is talking about a way of life here that's not a separation from reality. 00:13:33.919 --> 00:13:39.519 Because what we see throughout the scriptures is that God goes into messes. 00:13:39.840 --> 00:13:43.440 He goes into frustration, into hurt, into suffering. 00:13:43.919 --> 00:13:54.960 That God's actually in the frustration middle ground with you, and he wants to come into that and start to help us live a life of rest while we are in this. 00:13:55.840 --> 00:13:59.120 And see, it's the only place you'll ever live. 00:14:02.240 --> 00:14:08.159 And it's the only place you'll ever truly be loved by God, because that's the place He lives. 00:14:10.480 --> 00:14:14.639 So Jesus says, Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened. 00:14:14.879 --> 00:14:18.159 And you come not because you come not because you're so dedicated. 00:14:18.639 --> 00:14:19.440 You're not. 00:14:19.840 --> 00:14:21.919 You are not, neither am I. 00:14:22.080 --> 00:14:24.399 That is not why you come to the Lord. 00:14:24.480 --> 00:14:28.639 You do not come to the Lord because you are so dedicated that you don't. 00:14:28.960 --> 00:14:35.679 You come because He is so irresistibly loving and gracious to you. 00:14:35.759 --> 00:14:37.919 And when you see it, you come. 00:14:38.720 --> 00:14:40.080 This is what Jesus is saying. 00:14:40.159 --> 00:14:43.200 He says, He says, I'm gentle and lowly. 00:14:44.000 --> 00:14:44.799 Here's what he's saying. 00:14:44.879 --> 00:14:54.159 He's saying, dare to see and understand God as gentle and lowly. 00:14:54.480 --> 00:15:09.279 Dare to see God that He would have regard toward you like a father to a child, like a mother to a child, but not as a policeman, not as an angry school teacher. 00:15:09.840 --> 00:15:17.759 See, rest is not found in transferring a merit mentality and spirituality, but rather embracing a completely different way of life. 00:15:17.919 --> 00:15:23.440 That's what Jesus is talking about: a different yoke, a different way of life, a different teaching. 00:15:25.440 --> 00:15:28.480 Your list for today is long enough. 00:15:29.039 --> 00:15:34.159 You don't have to add to it self-worth and forgiveness and redemption. 00:15:34.480 --> 00:15:37.440 That work is God's work on your behalf. 00:15:37.600 --> 00:15:46.879 So, my brothers and sisters, dare to begin to understand God and his regard toward you as gracious and secure. 00:15:47.039 --> 00:15:56.720 And may you live in that rest and may you walk in the way of freedom, for his yoke is easy, and his burden is light. 00:15:56.960 --> 00:15:58.320 Let's pray together. 00:16:00.159 --> 00:16:10.960 God, we thank you that you are not the policeman or the angry school teacher waiting to get us. 00:16:14.159 --> 00:16:21.200 But you have shown yourself as gentle and lowly, a different way for us to live. 00:16:21.440 --> 00:16:29.279 And we confess so often we live in a frustrating middle ground between our lived lives and our unlived lives. 00:16:29.519 --> 00:16:31.840 The life we have and the life we want. 00:16:32.399 --> 00:16:37.200 And we get so frustrated, and out of that we do some crazy stuff. 00:16:38.480 --> 00:16:45.840 And we thank you that you meet us there, not when we get our acts together or when we get perfect. 00:16:46.799 --> 00:16:51.279 Thank you that you love us as we are, not as we should be. 00:16:52.159 --> 00:17:01.600 Help us to trust more in the work of Jesus for us that we might know this freedom and this lightness. 00:17:02.159 --> 00:17:03.679 In Jesus' name we pray. 00:17:03.919 --> 00:17:04.559 Amen.