SPEAKER_00: Welcome to the Lookout Weekly Podcast.
SPEAKER_00: Church of the Lookout is in Boulder, Colorado, and our vision is Jesus abiding in his presence, growing in his family, and living on his mission to transform the world with awe-inspiring love.
SPEAKER_00: Visit us online at the lookout.church.
SPEAKER_00: Good morning.
SPEAKER_00: So good to be with you guys.
SPEAKER_00: Hey, if if you're uh if you're a guest here today, just like Michael said, we're so glad you're here.
SPEAKER_00: Um we can't wait to get to know you.
SPEAKER_00: In fact, after the service, you'll see a sign that says connect with us.
SPEAKER_00: And we'll have plenty of chance to connect after the service because it's gonna be food and the whole thing.
SPEAKER_00: So we hope you're planning on sticking around, even if you didn't know that.
SPEAKER_00: Um, because food is, it turns out, what gets people to church, right?
SPEAKER_00: All right?
SPEAKER_00: Am I right?
SPEAKER_00: No, it's gonna be a great afternoon.
SPEAKER_00: Um if we haven't met yet, my name is Luke, um, and I get to share the word this morning.
SPEAKER_00: And uh and so we're gonna open our Bibles to Matthew chapter 11.
SPEAKER_00: If you have your Bibles, turn to Matthew chapter 11.
SPEAKER_00: Always encourage you to bring your Bible.
SPEAKER_00: Um, we will have the scriptures on the screen, and uh and we're gonna read this together.
SPEAKER_00: Now, one of the things that we do here at the church often is after we read the scripture, the kind of the passage for today, we take a moment just to accent gratitude to God.
SPEAKER_00: We say, I'll say this is the word of the Lord, and then together as one, we say, Thanks be to God.
SPEAKER_00: And the reason we do that is because we remind ourselves we're not reading a blog post, we're not reading a comment section, right?
SPEAKER_00: We're not reading a Fox News article.
SPEAKER_00: We are we are reading the Word of God, and it's a gift to us to receive the Word of God.
SPEAKER_00: Amen?
SPEAKER_00: So I'm gonna read this together and we'll respond together.
SPEAKER_00: Matthew chapter 11, starting in verse 25.
SPEAKER_00: At that time Jesus declared, I thank you, Father, Lord of heaven and earth, that you have hidden these things from the wise and understanding and revealed them to the little children.
SPEAKER_00: Yes, Father, for such was your gracious will.
SPEAKER_00: All things have been handed over to me by my Father, and no, and 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.
SPEAKER_00: Come to me, all who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest.
SPEAKER_00: Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find a rest for your souls, for my yoke is easy, and my burden is light.
SPEAKER_00: This is the word of the Lord.
SPEAKER_00: Thanks be to God.
SPEAKER_00: Come on, let's pray.
SPEAKER_00: Jesus, I thank you today for your word.
SPEAKER_00: I thank you that we get to share this space together as your people.
SPEAKER_00: Holy Spirit, we thank you just to enliven our hearts today.
SPEAKER_00: Open our eyes to see you.
SPEAKER_00: And God, give us the grace to continue to follow you and all the things that you've called us to.
SPEAKER_00: I just thank you even now for your presence to rest on us.
SPEAKER_00: It's in Jesus' name.
SPEAKER_00: Amen.
SPEAKER_00: So as we've already established, we're coming into the end of summer, and some of you guys are in denial.
SPEAKER_00: It's not, don't get don't live in denial.
SPEAKER_00: This is happening, all right?
SPEAKER_00: Um, and it and it's the beginning of the school year for many of us.
SPEAKER_00: Um and so uh summer is a very full, if you I don't know how this is in your household or in your community, it's a very full time, right?
SPEAKER_00: Um uh and and we keep waiting for that time where it's not as full.
SPEAKER_00: Do you guys ever do that thing where somebody asks you, like, oh, you know, it's things are really busy right now, but you know, two months, check back in two months from now, because it's gonna be better.
SPEAKER_00: Can I give you a hint if you haven't figured this out?
SPEAKER_00: It's not gonna be better, all right?
SPEAKER_00: Two months from now is not better for you.
SPEAKER_00: Um because everything is full.
SPEAKER_00: There's not a slow month.
SPEAKER_00: We keep waiting for the slow month, there's no slow month.
SPEAKER_00: It just turns out everything is all on all the time.
SPEAKER_00: We never think we're busy six months from now.
SPEAKER_00: You will be busy six months from now.
SPEAKER_00: Um that's the way our world is working.
SPEAKER_00: And so coming back to school, there's a lot happening.
SPEAKER_00: Maybe you feel that more, some of you feel that more than others.
SPEAKER_00: Um and it there's times where it just feels like everything fills up to the max, right?
SPEAKER_00: Work-home relationships.
SPEAKER_00: It's actually not all bad.
SPEAKER_00: Um, but what you what you what you've noticed though is as a culture, we've kind of we seem to normalize a sense of exhaustion, have we not?
SPEAKER_00: Um it's just become a way of life for so many of us.
SPEAKER_00: And so when we don't know what to do about it, we have to do our best, use our most creative energy to find ways to unexhaust ourselves, right?
SPEAKER_00: To relax, to take the pressure off.
SPEAKER_00: And good news, there is no generation in human history that has been better resourced for rest than in the modern age, right?
SPEAKER_00: With the best, most advanced technology for solving every single one of your daily inconveniences.
SPEAKER_00: Okay?
SPEAKER_00: We have outsourced almost every form of inconvenience.
SPEAKER_00: So if you need food, we got you covered.
SPEAKER_00: DoorDash will bring it right to you, right?
SPEAKER_00: Need a ride?
SPEAKER_00: Not a problem.
SPEAKER_00: Call that Uber.
SPEAKER_00: Need anything else?
SPEAKER_00: Amazon, right?
SPEAKER_00: Anything else.
SPEAKER_00: And it and that's just the baseline, right?
SPEAKER_00: Just we've we've we've we're smart.
SPEAKER_00: We've found ways to figure out how to outsource the parts of life we don't like, right?
SPEAKER_00: So here's a few other examples of that.
SPEAKER_00: If you go online, you can see this.
SPEAKER_00: American Furniture Warehouse, they have one of these.
SPEAKER_00: I'm going to show you a photo of a$16,000 massage chair.
SPEAKER_00: This is the Harrison 3D smart massage chair, only 16 grand.
SPEAKER_00: Um, this is not just a chair that vibrates your back, but it does body scanning as 114 airbags, voice control, Bluetooth, heated massage, and my favorite, zero gravity reclining.
SPEAKER_00: I love that phrase zero gravity, because apparently even gravity is now a problem we're trying to solve.
SPEAKER_00: Right?
SPEAKER_00: Like somebody needs to get on this gravity problem.
SPEAKER_00: All right, so if if if if a chair, if a full-bombed chair isn't uh, you know, isn't up your alley, let me introduce you to an eyeball massager.
SPEAKER_00: Okay, this is the Renfo eye massager.
SPEAKER_00: It can be yours for the price of$109.
SPEAKER_00: And uh, and if you can just imagine somebody wearing this and getting their eyes massaged.
SPEAKER_00: And so uh it comes uh combined with air pressure, heat, vibration, and music and nano mist mode.
SPEAKER_00: Nano mist.
SPEAKER_00: You strap it over your face and it massages your temples.
SPEAKER_00: So apparently we've come to the place where even our eyeballs need a day spa.
SPEAKER_00: All right, so that can be yours.
SPEAKER_00: Go, you can search online for that.
SPEAKER_00: You can thank me later, by the way, solving each and every one of your problems.
SPEAKER_00: So, and those are kind of like the you know, the wearables.
SPEAKER_00: Uh we've we've done this with mattresses too, right?
SPEAKER_00: I don't know how many of you have sophisticated mattresses, but um mattresses have come a long way, right?
SPEAKER_00: So I'll introduce you to a$13,000 smart bed.
SPEAKER_00: This is a Star Reap.
SPEAKER_00: Um$13,000 smart mattress, right?
SPEAKER_00: It can track your heart rate, it will cool one side and warm on the other.
SPEAKER_00: Thank you, Jesus, right?
SPEAKER_00: Gently adjust when you snore.
SPEAKER_00: Again, my wife is like, thank you, God, sign me up.
SPEAKER_00: Um the bed, the bed is working harder at your rest than you are.
SPEAKER_00: So that's what's really interesting.
SPEAKER_00: Um the it has a crazy wild feature in this particular mattress.
SPEAKER_00: Some of you have mattresses that go up and down, and that's cool, but that's kind of old news.
SPEAKER_00: This one has something even better.
SPEAKER_00: It actually helps you, it rocks you like a baby when you sleep.
SPEAKER_00: So for$13,000, your mattress can do something your mother used to do for you for free.
SPEAKER_00: Okay?
SPEAKER_00: But it does, it's not just us who are stressed out.
SPEAKER_00: Our pets are stressed out, apparently.
SPEAKER_00: Um, our pets face a lot of anxiety in 2026.
SPEAKER_00: And there's technology to solve their problem too.
SPEAKER_00: Weighted anxiety vests, okay, calming pheromone diffusers, dog-specific relaxation playlists on Spotify, CBD treats, the whole thing.
SPEAKER_00: Our dogs now have anxiety regimens, entire anxiety regimens, okay?
SPEAKER_00: Um, but you know, you go over to Cat World for a second, I'll introduce you to brand new, just hot off the press technology.
SPEAKER_00: This is the litter bot the litter robot 5 Pro.
SPEAKER_00: The Litter Robot 5 Pro.
SPEAKER_00: It's only$899 for a litter box.
SPEAKER_00: Listen to me.
SPEAKER_00: You need this.
SPEAKER_00: Litter box, it's a self-cleaning cleaning litter box with AI cameras and can recognize individual cats because you need this.
SPEAKER_00: It monitors their bathroom habits, tracks their weight, sends data to your phone.
SPEAKER_00: So if you want, you can be notified every time your cat leaves something behind.
SPEAKER_00: Okay.
SPEAKER_00: Because this is what you need, guys.
SPEAKER_00: Um, thank you, AI, for analyzing the bathroom habits of our cats.
SPEAKER_00: Okay, let me keep going.
SPEAKER_00: Another one, this is an automatic ball launcher for our dogs.
SPEAKER_00: Um, it's a way to play fetch without having to do anything, okay?
SPEAKER_00: Uh, which is really funny to me because I thought that the point of getting a dog was for companionship.
SPEAKER_00: But it turns out, uh, you know, if if you buy this particular device, you're actually saying, like, listen, I I don't want you to be my companion.
SPEAKER_00: It's just, I don't want to have to be your companion.
SPEAKER_00: I want you to take care of yourself.
SPEAKER_00: Okay.
SPEAKER_00: All right, last one, last one.
SPEAKER_00: I think you guys got the point.
SPEAKER_00: Last one.
SPEAKER_00: Here's what's really uh interesting.
SPEAKER_00: Uh just like where technology is going to give us the rest that we need, okay?
SPEAKER_00: The invention number five here is the invention of the sleep score.
SPEAKER_00: Some of you guys have wearable devices, Apple watches, just got my wife an aura ring, right?
SPEAKER_00: It tells you everything about your life, uh, but particularly your sleep, sleep tracking.
SPEAKER_00: Um, because that's what we needed.
SPEAKER_00: We need a jewelry now that measures and grades our sleep.
SPEAKER_00: And so the re the way this happened is we were living so stressed out that our sleep was being affected.
SPEAKER_00: We weren't sleeping that well.
SPEAKER_00: And so, but now, because of all these devices, our sleep has actually become a metric that it knows when we wake up, it checks our score.
SPEAKER_00: Uh and and and now, what's pretty crazy, there's a new documented condition called orthosomnia.
SPEAKER_00: It's anxiety caused by your own sleep tracking data.
SPEAKER_00: Okay.
SPEAKER_00: So we took the one thing that was supposed to be restful and we turned it into a performance review.
SPEAKER_00: So every morning your phone is basically telling you you wake up to a notification, hey, good morning.
SPEAKER_00: Just want to remind you, not only are you a failure at life, you're a failure at sleep too, right?
SPEAKER_00: You can't even get sleep right.
SPEAKER_00: So here's the funny thing is that all of that, so you know, we'll put that aside here for a second.
SPEAKER_00: For advances we've come, you know, we can pat ourselves on the back, we have all kinds of things to help us with our life, solve all the inconveniences.
SPEAKER_00: For advances we've become in our methods and modes of relaxation, they seem to be no cure for the utter exhaustion that we seem to still feel in our very bones, right?
SPEAKER_00: There's kind of a low-grade exhaustion in our culture, and we're trying to get at it and invent our way out of it to find the refreshment we need.
SPEAKER_00: But come on, let's just be honest.
SPEAKER_00: Some of us are just tired, and we're tired not just in one way, we're physically tired, we're emotionally tired, we're mentally tired, we're spiritually tired, relationally tired, existentially tired.
SPEAKER_00: And it really tells us something that even despite our best efforts to unburden ourselves, we don't know quite how to get to the core of what we need on our own.
SPEAKER_00: Which is this is when we come into the words of Jesus, the passage we just read, when Jesus is creating this invitation.
SPEAKER_00: This is what makes this so powerful because Jesus comes to us and he and he and he talks to anybody who'd be willing to listen.
SPEAKER_00: He says, Come to me, all who are exhausted.
SPEAKER_00: And he didn't say, I'll give you a convenient life.
SPEAKER_00: He says something better, but it's a little more expected.
SPEAKER_00: He says, Come to me all who are all who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest.
SPEAKER_00: Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart.
SPEAKER_00: And you will find rest for your souls.
SPEAKER_00: For my yoke is easy and my burden is light.
SPEAKER_00: This first invitation from Jesus in this passage is really just simple.
SPEAKER_00: He says, Come to me.
SPEAKER_00: And we read the full context of the passage a little bit ago, and he's he's thanking the Father.
SPEAKER_00: This whole passage starts with him thanking the Father.
SPEAKER_00: He says, Father, thank you that you've revealed yourself not just to the wise and understanding, but to the script.
SPEAKER_00: The passage says to the little children.
SPEAKER_00: It actually in the in the text it's probably more accurate, the little ones, which doesn't necessarily have to be children, just anybody who feels little.
SPEAKER_00: Has anybody feel felt belittled by life?
SPEAKER_00: This is what Jesus is talking about.
SPEAKER_00: Anyone who is who is aware, if you're aware that you don't quite have it all together, come to me.
SPEAKER_00: Come to me.
SPEAKER_00: And he doubles down that the kingdom of God is not just for those who seem to get by all the time and seem to have all the things and the personality, the competencies, and the life hacks to pull it all together.
SPEAKER_00: But it's for those who sometimes feel like it's all just kind of piling up, and I can't get to it fast enough.
SPEAKER_00: Anybody ever feel like that?
SPEAKER_00: I feel like that from time to time.
SPEAKER_00: Dale Brunner, a scholar on this passage, he he he worded it like this.
SPEAKER_00: He said, This is an invitation from for whom religion has become a grind, for whom being good is laborious, from those whom the juice has gone out of life, and all that's left is the rind.
SPEAKER_00: You know exactly what he's talking about, for whom the juice has gone out.
SPEAKER_00: All I have, I've been squeezed, and I can't produce more than what I've already done.
SPEAKER_00: Jesus said there's a special invitation for you.
SPEAKER_00: It's for those who want to do the right thing, who want to stay on top of the wall, who want to please people and serve God, but just kind of along the way, there's just this sense of, ah, I don't feel adequate.
SPEAKER_00: I don't, I lack what I have to do the basic things.
SPEAKER_00: And if that's you in this room, I just want to, I just want to say to you today, you're in good company because that's Jesus' invitation.
SPEAKER_00: Jesus' invitation isn't, you better get your crap together.
SPEAKER_00: Jesus' invitation is come to me, all who are weary, and I will give you rest.
SPEAKER_00: Come on.
SPEAKER_00: Some of us are better than others at staying on top of things, right?
SPEAKER_00: Some of you look around the room like, ah, this message is good for me, but that person over there, they don't seem to need this because they they seem to have it all figured out.
SPEAKER_00: Listen, all of us have a limit.
SPEAKER_00: All of us, at one point or another, will get will hit a limit of what you feel capable of, and that's where the gospel finds us in this moment when Jesus says, Come to me, and he will give you rest.
SPEAKER_00: And how does he give us rest?
SPEAKER_00: This is really interesting.
SPEAKER_00: This is great.
SPEAKER_00: When Jesus says, Come to me, I will give you rest.
SPEAKER_00: What does he say next?
SPEAKER_00: He says, Take my yoke upon you.
SPEAKER_00: Okay, let's talk about that for a second.
SPEAKER_00: We have to do a little work on this one to understand what he's talking about.
SPEAKER_00: As we've established before, I know nothing about farming.
SPEAKER_00: This is like old school farming.
SPEAKER_00: This is like a yoke, right?
SPEAKER_00: So a yoke, here's what a yoke looks like.
SPEAKER_00: A yoke is uh basically a wooden piece of wood and just looks like this, and it kind of has a place for the the wooden part of the yoke sits on top of the necks of two different oxen.
SPEAKER_00: The the loop that goes beyond it will go like be uh underneath the neck and it yokes them together.
SPEAKER_00: Now, Jesus, you have to understand about Jesus, Jesus was a master teacher, and so every time he was teaching a key principle in the kingdom, he wasn't just trying to take the most bizarre word pictures and say, well, we'll see what they do with this one.
SPEAKER_00: Usually it's things that were around.
SPEAKER_00: So, like if you go back to Sermon on the Mount, when Jesus is like, consider the sparrows of the air, it's probably like, well, sparrows were flying by.
SPEAKER_00: Like, hey, look at the sparrows, right?
SPEAKER_00: Or like, consider the lilies of the field.
SPEAKER_00: They were probably walking, you know, they're looking out in the field around the mountain.
SPEAKER_00: There's probably a lot of lilies in John 15.
SPEAKER_00: When he's he says, I am the vine, you are the branches.
SPEAKER_00: They're probably walking through a vineyard at a point in time.
SPEAKER_00: This is probably no different.
SPEAKER_00: Jesus is pulling a metaphor from what they very well know is how the ground gets tended to, how the ground gets worked, and what's required for that.
SPEAKER_00: And what's required for that is oxen that are bound together with this, what we call a wooden yoke.
SPEAKER_00: Now, it's it's kind of a strange thing for Jesus to turn the phrase after he says, I will give you rest, and immediately he starts talking about a yoke, because a yoke is a work instrument.
SPEAKER_00: It's carved wooden beam that fits over the neck, as we've talked about.
SPEAKER_00: And uh and and and and and the farmers commonly what the reason the reason he used this, because farmers would commonly pair a seasoned ox with a younger, untrained one.
SPEAKER_00: Here's a photo like that right there.
SPEAKER_00: The stronger ox naturally carried more of the pole, not because the yoke was uneven, but because it had greater strength and maturity.
SPEAKER_00: It knew the well-worn path, right?
SPEAKER_00: But what's really interesting, what's really strange about this, is for Jesus to offer a yoke.
SPEAKER_00: Because you notice that a yoke is not a mattress.
SPEAKER_00: Uh, he didn't offer a massage chair.
SPEAKER_00: He offered a wooden beam that you put on your neck, all right?
SPEAKER_00: And so if you were listening to this, if and if you were tired, probably the last thing you that would the most the last least appealing thing at this point in time is come enter my rest by putting on this work instrument on your neck.
SPEAKER_00: Um but Jesus, what what Jesus is doing here is he is reminding us of something that we often miss.
SPEAKER_00: That the most restful gift he can give us is not a convenient life, but a new way to carry life with him.
SPEAKER_00: It's with him, it's in his pace and his power and his direction.
SPEAKER_00: Now hang with me.
SPEAKER_00: Oftentimes, especially in our culture, what happens when we get into this the place of burden, burdensome, an overwhelmed feeling, our our knee-jerk reaction is I gotta get out of this yoke.
SPEAKER_00: I got a yoke, and I gotta get out of this.
SPEAKER_00: So we think about how do I get out of whatever I'm carrying at the particular at this particular moment.
SPEAKER_00: So we we try to get out of a sense of burden by eliminating things from our life.
SPEAKER_00: That's not always the wrong thing to do.
SPEAKER_00: Uh, clearing space in our lives and rearranging our lives often uh um offers a temporary reprieve, but you'll notice it never quite gets to the core because some of us, the way we live life, is like, okay, this isn't working.
SPEAKER_00: I gotta get out of my job, I gotta get out of this relationship, I've gotta get out of town.
SPEAKER_00: I gotta get out of something.
SPEAKER_00: Something needs to leave for me to get the reprieve that I'm feeling.
SPEAKER_00: But he but here's what's interesting: this is a good word for us today.
SPEAKER_00: In this particular passage, Jesus didn't actually offer escape.
SPEAKER_00: He offered new equipment.
SPEAKER_00: He didn't offer you escape, he offered you new equipment.
SPEAKER_00: He doesn't say that you won't be a part of the pulling.
SPEAKER_00: He says, I'm gonna teach you a new way to live the life that I've actually given you.
SPEAKER_00: Okay?
SPEAKER_00: Hang with me.
SPEAKER_00: He says this: take my yoke upon you and learn from me.
SPEAKER_00: So again, a yoke is how a young oxen was trained.
SPEAKER_00: It was trained to know how much to push, the strength at which to push, or when to pull back.
SPEAKER_00: It was trained to know the right pace.
SPEAKER_00: How fast is too fast, how slow is too slow.
SPEAKER_00: It is trained to go the right direction, to be aligned with the more mature ox.
SPEAKER_00: And Jesus is saying, listen, when you yoke yourself to me, you will get the rest you need because I'm going to train you into the life that I've actually given to you.
SPEAKER_00: And you're gonna learn from my pace and my rhythm and my speed.
SPEAKER_00: And sometimes it's faster than you, sometimes it's slower than you, but either way, it's a pace that actually will lead to life.
SPEAKER_00: Much of what makes life burdensome is when we don't know where we're going and we don't know what at what at what speed to go.
SPEAKER_00: And so Jesus says, Listen, if you want rest, I'm gonna invite you to come to me.
SPEAKER_00: We're gonna take off the yoke that you're wearing that's not leading to life.
SPEAKER_00: But I'm not just sending you off to be free.
SPEAKER_00: No, no, no.
SPEAKER_00: If you want to learn life, it's not just about do your own thing, it's about be yoked to me.
SPEAKER_00: And you're gonna yoke you, I'm gonna yoke you myself to you, you're gonna yoke yourself to me, and together we're going to live this life.
SPEAKER_00: And you're gonna be shocked.
SPEAKER_00: That when you live at the life that when you're yoked to Jesus, how it actually leads to refreshing and life and peace and joy, because you're not on your own, you're living at the pace of God.
SPEAKER_00: Come on.
SPEAKER_00: You're not on your own.
SPEAKER_00: You are submitted to the one who knows you and made you.
SPEAKER_00: This is good news for us.
SPEAKER_00: This is why Paul, later on in the New Testament, said, hey, listen, keep in step with the Spirit.
SPEAKER_00: Keep in step with the Spirit.
SPEAKER_00: If you're going too slow, you better speed up.
SPEAKER_00: When my wife and I take walks, one of our issues is we have different walking paces.
SPEAKER_00: All right.
SPEAKER_00: We love taking walks.
SPEAKER_00: I love taking walks.
SPEAKER_00: She likes to walk a little faster.
SPEAKER_00: I like to walk a little slower.
SPEAKER_00: So one of our challenges, we've got to, we gotta, we gotta, we've gotta stay in step with each other.
SPEAKER_00: That this is gonna go well.
SPEAKER_00: Otherwise, I'm gonna have a conversation with her 15 feet behind her, right?
SPEAKER_00: But we we sync up over time so we can be together and we find a pace that works.
SPEAKER_00: Keep in step with the spirit.
SPEAKER_00: Now, uh I I was hoping to find, have purchased a wooden yoke for this morning to illustrate the point.
SPEAKER_00: I couldn't do that.
SPEAKER_00: Apparently, they don't sell them anymore.
SPEAKER_00: That's one thing you cannot get on Amazon.
SPEAKER_00: So I'm gonna ask for two volunteers, maybe from this section over here.
SPEAKER_00: I need two volunteers to come up.
SPEAKER_00: I'm gonna try something.
SPEAKER_00: I can pick on somebody.
SPEAKER_00: Come on, come on, come on, come on.
SPEAKER_00: Come on.
SPEAKER_00: Nick and Ryan.
SPEAKER_00: All right, all right, all right, all right.
SPEAKER_00: Come on, Nick and Ryan.
SPEAKER_00: All right, come down here, guys.
SPEAKER_00: Come down here.
SPEAKER_00: We're gonna yoke you guys together, okay?
SPEAKER_00: This is gonna be great.
SPEAKER_00: So here's here's what I want you to do.
SPEAKER_00: I want you to take this one, tie it around your ankles.
SPEAKER_00: Okay, and don't talk to each other.
SPEAKER_00: No communication.
SPEAKER_00: Tie it around your ankles, tie this on your upper leg, okay?
SPEAKER_00: Around your upper leg.
SPEAKER_00: All right.
SPEAKER_00: So we're gonna yoke these two guys together.
SPEAKER_00: These are strapping young men.
SPEAKER_00: And uh this is a thing, all right?
SPEAKER_00: Okay, now okay, so you guys got it.
SPEAKER_00: Okay, uh, real quick, guys, go over there and give Michael a high five.
SPEAKER_00: Run over there and give Michael a high five.
SPEAKER_00: Okay, all right, right run back over here.
SPEAKER_00: Come over here.
SPEAKER_00: I want you to do the same thing over here.
SPEAKER_00: Come on, let's go.
SPEAKER_00: Let's go.
SPEAKER_00: Oh, there we go.
SPEAKER_00: Okay.
SPEAKER_00: See, these guys have it figured out.
SPEAKER_00: Okay.
SPEAKER_00: All right, come over, go, go, go give Bob a high.
SPEAKER_00: He needs a high five over here.
SPEAKER_00: Betty, Bob and Betty.
SPEAKER_00: Give it up for Bob and Betty over here.
SPEAKER_00: Come on.
SPEAKER_00: Okay.
SPEAKER_00: All right, so okay, so the things are coming down.
SPEAKER_00: All right.
SPEAKER_00: Now, they're they're yoked together.
SPEAKER_00: Now, just across the room, real quick.
SPEAKER_00: They did pretty good there.
SPEAKER_00: All right.
SPEAKER_00: That could have gone a lot worse if that were you.
SPEAKER_00: If that were any of you, that would have gotten a lot worse.
SPEAKER_00: These guys just happen to be very coordinated.
SPEAKER_00: But if they're yoked together, if they got the both legs tied together, what would what would help them get to where they're going faster?
unknown: Working together.
SPEAKER_00: Working together?
SPEAKER_00: What else?
SPEAKER_00: Communication.
SPEAKER_00: What is that?
SPEAKER_00: Cooperation?
SPEAKER_00: Practice.
SPEAKER_00: Being in sync.
SPEAKER_00: What was that?
unknown: Listening.
SPEAKER_00: Listening.
SPEAKER_00: Okay.
SPEAKER_00: A lot of the same things.
SPEAKER_00: Now, um, you guys said a lot of the same things.
SPEAKER_00: What helps is cooperation.
SPEAKER_00: They were kind of doing that.
SPEAKER_00: You notice Ryan, he the first thing he did was he put his arm around Nick, uh, around his back.
SPEAKER_00: And then they both did that.
SPEAKER_00: They both put their arms around each other and they said, we're gonna do this.
SPEAKER_00: And in cooperation, participation.
SPEAKER_00: You guys said a lot of the right things, but you know what really helps when you're yoked together is for somebody to take the lead.
SPEAKER_00: Somebody to take the lead.
SPEAKER_00: No, I just want like, okay, Nick, Nick and Ryan, you guys figure this out.
SPEAKER_00: Somebody take the lead.
SPEAKER_00: Go walk up to those steps and then come back.
SPEAKER_00: Come on, pretty good.
SPEAKER_00: They got it.
SPEAKER_00: All right, guys, give it up for Nick and Ryan.
SPEAKER_00: So tell me, someone take take the lead.
SPEAKER_00: So here's the thing.
SPEAKER_00: This is this is beautiful.
SPEAKER_00: We talk about being yoked with Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: When we're yoked to Jesus, what he promises is like, listen, if you follow my lead, I'm gonna show you the path of life.
SPEAKER_00: I'm gonna show you what actually leads to life.
SPEAKER_00: We when we when we let him take the lead, what it means is we're communing with him, we're practicing his ways, we're learning a new way to live that gives rest to our soul, more than our ability could ever achieve.
SPEAKER_00: His rest is better than any vacation you will take.
SPEAKER_00: His best, his rest is better than any massage chair you could purchase.
SPEAKER_00: His rest is but is far better than anything you just leave on your own.
SPEAKER_00: When you enter into a life of staying in step with the gentle pace of Jesus, there's something that actually gets to us, but it is something we have to learn.
SPEAKER_00: We were yoked to him, and then we have to learn to walk like him.
SPEAKER_00: And why is that good news for us?
SPEAKER_00: Because he is gentle and lowly.
SPEAKER_00: Another way to say it, Jesus, his way is it's simple and uncomplicated.
SPEAKER_00: Who could use simple and uncomplicated in their life right now?
SPEAKER_00: Jesus is patient because he knows that he's walking with little ones.
SPEAKER_00: Come to me, little ones.
SPEAKER_00: I have an invitation for you.
SPEAKER_00: I'll be patient with you.
SPEAKER_00: I know you're slow to learn.
SPEAKER_00: I know that.
SPEAKER_00: I'm patient with you.
SPEAKER_00: I'm thought Jesus is thoughtful in his correction.
SPEAKER_00: And those who respond to his leadership find, oftentimes to their surprise, that following him is actually refreshing.
SPEAKER_00: Following Jesus in his pace, he doesn't say you're not gonna have a burden.
SPEAKER_00: We all he's given us all something to carry.
SPEAKER_00: Some burdens are not ours to carry.
SPEAKER_00: Some he does actually give us burdens to carry.
SPEAKER_00: That's what he's talking about here.
SPEAKER_00: It's like, come with me.
SPEAKER_00: I'm gonna show you how to carry what I've called you to carry.
SPEAKER_00: And that looks a lot of different ways.
SPEAKER_00: Maybe in your work, in your day, what would it be like to start every day and you pray over your day rather than just launching off into your day?
SPEAKER_00: It's like it starts and you're off.
SPEAKER_00: You pray over your day, your appointments, your commitments, your activities, the things that you've agreed to, and you you step back and you say, Jesus, I'm yoked to you today.
SPEAKER_00: What is your heart?
SPEAKER_00: What is your way?
SPEAKER_00: What is your posture today?
SPEAKER_00: It's so much better than just rushing through your day to get it all done.
SPEAKER_00: It's so much better to check in with Jesus and say, How do you want me to work today?
SPEAKER_00: What do you want me to think about?
SPEAKER_00: Who are the people you've given to me today?
SPEAKER_00: Because it's better than rushing through it all and then resenting it all on the backside.
SPEAKER_00: So we pray over our day, we pray about our relationships.
SPEAKER_00: We ask God, we have burdens that we carry relationally.
SPEAKER_00: Which ones are yours to carry and which ones need to be surrendered back to God?
SPEAKER_00: Some of us have burdens to carry.
SPEAKER_00: That's okay.
SPEAKER_00: But He wants to show you how to carry that burden with the resource of heaven.
SPEAKER_00: Right?
SPEAKER_00: You ask Jesus about even your rest.
SPEAKER_00: When is it time to stop?
SPEAKER_00: And when is it time to start moving again?
SPEAKER_00: There's so many times we just live with an assumption that we've got it figured out.
SPEAKER_00: I'm gonna plow this field myself and I'll report back to Jesus at the end of the day.
SPEAKER_00: It's like, no, this is the life that we've been given.
SPEAKER_00: And his promise here is that it should be marked by a sense of there is a lightness.
SPEAKER_00: It's not always, it's it doesn't always feel easy.
SPEAKER_00: But there is a lightness in following Jesus, isn't there not?
SPEAKER_00: We allow him to speak to us.
SPEAKER_00: We allow him to teach us, we learn from him.
SPEAKER_00: How do we learn from him?
SPEAKER_00: In in the word, we learn from him, his ways, his thoughts, we learn from him in community as we draw from the riches of the inheritance of the saints.
SPEAKER_00: We learn from him in prayer, we learn how to agree with God about reality.
SPEAKER_00: And then over time, what we find is as we're yoked to Jesus, we start to look a lot like him.
SPEAKER_00: So we go back to this first photo of the young and the old ox, and this is where we start, but then we end up looking more like this over time.
SPEAKER_00: We'll end up looking like this.
SPEAKER_00: I'm looking a lot more like you, just two oxen.
SPEAKER_00: Beautiful oxen.
SPEAKER_00: I'm not just doing things like you, I'm looking more like you.
SPEAKER_00: And your way of being is more like you.
SPEAKER_00: Here's the reality this morning, and this might be a new idea.
SPEAKER_00: We are all already yoked to something.
SPEAKER_00: You have a yoke that you're carrying.
SPEAKER_00: It's not a matter of if, it's about what.
SPEAKER_00: We're all yoked to something, and when you don't know what that is, you'll be driven by either external forces or internal pressures all the time.
SPEAKER_00: Nobody is a lone ranger.
SPEAKER_00: So in Jesus' day, the yoke that people carried was the law of the Pharisees.
SPEAKER_00: They put a heavy yoke on people because they were always demanding, always asking more.
SPEAKER_00: Um it was, it was relentless.
SPEAKER_00: It was the yoke uh of keeping up.
SPEAKER_00: And maybe you feel like that too.
SPEAKER_00: Maybe the yoke that you kind of operate, the operating system of your day is today.
SPEAKER_00: It's about keeping up.
SPEAKER_00: It's about the yoke of the American dream.
SPEAKER_00: I gotta, I gotta, I gotta achieve.
SPEAKER_00: It's the yoke of letting not letting people down.
SPEAKER_00: Maybe that's for some of us here today.
SPEAKER_00: That's the yoke that you're carrying.
SPEAKER_00: I can't let anybody down today.
SPEAKER_00: Maybe it's the yoke of not being a failure, or the yoke of what will my parents think?
SPEAKER_00: Or what will my kids think?
SPEAKER_00: And then what happens is when we have these yokes and that they're unnamed, it's these drives that drive, it shapes our decisions, it shapes our attitude, it shapes how we come back home after work, it shapes our conversations with our spouses or our friends or our kids.
SPEAKER_00: And sometimes it's just the internal pressure to keep a certain kind of life together.
SPEAKER_00: Has anybody ever felt that?
SPEAKER_00: Some of us are pressured externally.
SPEAKER_00: Things are coming at you.
SPEAKER_00: Some of you are pressured internally.
SPEAKER_00: I know what that feels like.
SPEAKER_00: For me, I love my work.
SPEAKER_00: I love getting to do this, I love serving the church.
SPEAKER_00: I love all of the things I get to do.
SPEAKER_00: I have not checked the clock in my entire adult life.
SPEAKER_00: I'm always wishing there was more time because I love what I get to do.
SPEAKER_00: Um, but with my shadow side, my my side that Jesus is still healing over time, there's this internal pressure and it's driven by you're not enough.
SPEAKER_00: It's not enough.
SPEAKER_00: What you're doing is not enough.
SPEAKER_00: People need more.
SPEAKER_00: I need to create more.
SPEAKER_00: And if I if I just had more time, I would just keep grinding it out.
SPEAKER_00: One more.
SPEAKER_00: If I just do one more thing, respond to one more thing, do one more thing, then I will satisfy.
SPEAKER_00: I will get this field plowed, right?
SPEAKER_00: And there's this thing of it's not enough, it's not enough.
SPEAKER_00: It's something I have to keep, always pay attention to.
SPEAKER_00: And again, this isn't part of my process that Jesus is healing.
SPEAKER_00: And I know He is, he's He is healing.
SPEAKER_00: I'm so much further along than I used to be on this.
SPEAKER_00: But I'm becoming aware that if I can, if I if I if I consciously surrender that yoke back to Jesus and receive his yoke, what happens is he slows me down from the inside out.
SPEAKER_00: He'll readjust my direction.
SPEAKER_00: He'll show me when I'm just getting into my own head and overcomplicating things.
SPEAKER_00: He'll show me how to pull and carry weight without actually destroying my life or my relationships and the things he's actually called me to.
SPEAKER_00: He'll show me how to do good work without losing the essence of who he's made me to be, which is his beloved.
SPEAKER_00: You guys with me?
SPEAKER_00: That's just a s, that's just a snap, that's just a sneak peek of this right here.
SPEAKER_00: It's completely different for you.
SPEAKER_00: But we have to understand what we're yoked to because God has called us to be a different kind of people, but first to experience the rest of God.
SPEAKER_00: Here's how Eugene Peterson says it in Matthew, Matthew 11.
SPEAKER_00: In the message paraphrase, he says it like this Are you tired, worn out, burned out on religion?
SPEAKER_00: Come to me, get away with me, and you'll recover your life.
SPEAKER_00: I'll show you how to take a real rest.
SPEAKER_00: Walk with me and work with me and watch how I do it.
SPEAKER_00: This is the great line.
SPEAKER_00: Learn the unforced rhythms of grace.
SPEAKER_00: I won't lay anything heavy or ill-fitting on you.
SPEAKER_00: Keep company with me, and you'll learn to live freely and lightly.
SPEAKER_00: Learn to live freely and lightly.
SPEAKER_00: Learn the unforced rhythms of grace.
SPEAKER_00: Do you know that's available to you?
SPEAKER_00: That's available to us today.
SPEAKER_00: As we watch him, as we learn from him, how did you do this, Jesus?
SPEAKER_00: There is a way to break free from the yoke of chronic exhaustion.
SPEAKER_00: And that does not mean God is careless about the places where we feel it.
SPEAKER_00: But this matters because his delight is when we live with freedom and joy in his presence.
SPEAKER_00: That's the delight of God.
SPEAKER_00: And to be clear, this is about us individually feeling the light and easy yoke of Jesus and feeling that sense of refreshment that comes with being yoked to him.
SPEAKER_00: But it is about more than that.
SPEAKER_00: This is also about your effect in this world.
SPEAKER_00: Because the reality is not only are we yoked to Jesus, but there's other people in our life that are kind of yoked to us.
SPEAKER_00: And your presence in your world affects how they feel as well.
SPEAKER_00: So when we learn the way of Jesus, it shifts atmospheres around us.
SPEAKER_00: He's teaching us to live in a lighter way.
SPEAKER_00: That is good news for the other people in our life.
SPEAKER_00: Because when we're driven, we end up driving the people around us.
SPEAKER_00: There's nothing wrong with ambition and achievement.
SPEAKER_00: There's nothing wrong with that.
SPEAKER_00: But I'm saying there's a kind of drivenness that has an effect on your family, has an effect in your marriage, has an effect on your kids.
SPEAKER_00: There is a kind of being, if you're living in the world with chronic anxiety, that the people around you know that.
SPEAKER_00: They feel that from you.
SPEAKER_00: You realize that.
SPEAKER_00: The state you are in is the state that you give to others.
SPEAKER_00: So when we allow God to get to us, it also becomes an invitation for the rest of the world to experience the same kind of peace and refreshing in the Holy Spirit.
SPEAKER_00: Are you guys with me here today?
SPEAKER_00: This is our gift to the world.
SPEAKER_00: When we follow Jesus and learn from him, our greatest gift to the world are the places that he's currently transforming us to look more like him so that we can offer it as refreshing into the world we live in.
SPEAKER_00: And that's what we need, guys.
SPEAKER_00: So it's the missional part of taking on the light and easy yoke of Jesus because your kids need you to do this.
SPEAKER_00: Your parents need you to do this, your co-workers, your colleagues, your neighbors.
SPEAKER_00: This is a gift to the world.
SPEAKER_00: Now, someone might ask, how can Jesus in one place say that the path is narrow and hard?
SPEAKER_00: And it's the narrow and the narrow path is the one that leads to life.
SPEAKER_00: And here say that the yoke is easy and light.
SPEAKER_00: This feels a little bit incongruent when you map his teachings upon each other.
SPEAKER_00: Because to be clear, Jesus is not saying there's no such thing as suffering, there's no such thing as hardship or hard decisions, or you know, there's no cost.
SPEAKER_00: There is a picking up our cross.
SPEAKER_00: But yeah, and I mean, even in the new the Sermon on the Mount, when he says things like, forgive your enemies, pray for those who persecute you, trust God to feed you in clothing, those are nothing less than supernatural, by the way.
SPEAKER_00: Like try to do that on your own.
SPEAKER_00: And you will be hard-pressed.
SPEAKER_00: When Jesus says, love God with everything and love your neighbor as yourself, that's actually impossible outside of God.
SPEAKER_00: And yet, when we watch him do it, when we orient ourselves or watch him do these various things, what happens is his resurrection life becomes our resurrection life.
SPEAKER_00: It gets at us from the inside out.
SPEAKER_00: He is the one who gives us the energy, the equipment, and the power to enter into his life.
SPEAKER_00: Because when we're yoked to him, we do not pull alone.
SPEAKER_00: Amen?
SPEAKER_00: He gives us his very life to live the life that he's called us to do.
SPEAKER_00: And this is what makes it light and refreshing is he's the one that has moved before we move.
SPEAKER_00: So the psalmist in Psalm 23, he gets at the very nature of God when he talks about Jesus as the good shepherd, and you guys know this.
SPEAKER_00: Psalm 23, 1 through 3, the song, the Lord is my shepherd, I shall not want.
SPEAKER_00: He makes me lie down in green pastures.
SPEAKER_00: Oh man, you can't make me do anything, God.
SPEAKER_00: He's gonna make you lie down.
SPEAKER_00: You better sit your butt down.
SPEAKER_00: I prepared this pasture.
SPEAKER_00: You're gonna sit down and you're gonna be quiet.
SPEAKER_00: That's what a good shepherd does.
SPEAKER_00: All right.
SPEAKER_00: So when you're yoked to Jesus, he's gonna make you do some things.
SPEAKER_00: All right?
SPEAKER_00: He's gonna go places that you didn't want to go.
SPEAKER_00: He's gonna make you, you know what?
SPEAKER_00: See that green pasture over there?
SPEAKER_00: You're gonna sit down and you're gonna like it.
SPEAKER_00: You're gonna drink amazing water and you're gonna get sunshine.
SPEAKER_00: And I'm gonna teach you to enjoy the life I've given you.
SPEAKER_00: This is what a good shepherd does.
SPEAKER_00: This is what being yoked to Jesus does.
SPEAKER_00: He leads us beside still waters.
SPEAKER_00: He restores our souls.
SPEAKER_00: Thank you, God, that you know what leads to restoration.
SPEAKER_00: I don't always know how to restore myself.
SPEAKER_00: I think I do.
SPEAKER_00: But he knows how to restore me.
SPEAKER_00: He knows how to lead me to paths of righteousness for his name's sake.
SPEAKER_00: Come on, who who is who is that good news for here today?
SPEAKER_00: This is good news for us.
SPEAKER_00: And so we learned the yoke.
SPEAKER_00: This is actually what we're gonna be talking about over the next several weeks.
SPEAKER_00: We're gonna start a new teaching series called Forms, and it has to do with the way God forms us and shapes us from the inside out.
SPEAKER_00: Again, it's not a question of if we carry a yoke, it's which one.
SPEAKER_00: And are we intentional about entering into the yoke of Jesus?
SPEAKER_00: Because it matters for us and it matters for the world we're living in.
SPEAKER_00: But today, here's what we're gonna do just as we bring this to land.
SPEAKER_00: This is gonna sit with us a few different ways, but I just want to invite you across the room.
SPEAKER_00: We're just gonna be quiet before Jesus here today.
SPEAKER_00: Just close your eyes with me.
SPEAKER_00: We invite you, Holy Spirit, to speak to us.
SPEAKER_00: We thank you, God, that your plans for us are good.
SPEAKER_00: Thank you, God, that you know what's best for us.
SPEAKER_00: Just a few invitations this morning.
SPEAKER_00: We'll just start with a couple questions.
SPEAKER_00: What's the yoke that you came into this room carrying today?
SPEAKER_00: Can you feel it on your neck?
SPEAKER_00: Is it an internal pressure?
SPEAKER_00: Is it an external pressure?
SPEAKER_00: Are you walking in the light and use the yoke of Jesus?
SPEAKER_00: If so, praise God.
SPEAKER_00: Are you wearing a yoke that God's never called you to wear?
SPEAKER_00: And this morning, are you willing to come to him to receive a new yoke?
SPEAKER_00: To learn from him, to watch him, to be led to green pastures besides still water.
SPEAKER_00: To be shown how to carry what you've been called to carry.
SPEAKER_00: And we're going to give a moment to respond, okay?
SPEAKER_00: Let's just sing this together.
SPEAKER_00: So this morning, before we continue with this song, I just want to invite some of our ministry team, our prayer team.
SPEAKER_00: This is, I think, going to be an important part of this morning.
SPEAKER_00: These are people who are available to pray, to pray with you.
SPEAKER_00: And I just believe God wants to release some burdens here today.
SPEAKER_00: He wants to release some burdens.
SPEAKER_00: So if you're on the ministry team, you can come up to the front or on the sides.
SPEAKER_00: I mean, just a couple things here this morning.
SPEAKER_00: Maybe as I was talking, you became you realized that in life, you've been trying to find ways to unburden yourself.
SPEAKER_00: You've been exhausting a lot of energy to kind of make things right.
SPEAKER_00: You're casting things off, you're quitting things, you're canceling relations, you're doing all kinds of things.
SPEAKER_00: But you haven't yet consciously said, Jesus, show me how to take up your yoke and teach me how to walk with the things that are actually exist in my life.
SPEAKER_00: God maybe didn't call you to quit everything in your life.
SPEAKER_00: He just wants to teach you how to walk through it.
SPEAKER_00: But you need to come to Him.
SPEAKER_00: And if that's you, as we continue singing, I just want to invite you to come as a response and say, God, teach me to pick up your yoke.
SPEAKER_00: And maybe you can just come and just use it as a confession.
SPEAKER_00: I want to take up the yoke of Jesus because I've been trying to do it on my own.
SPEAKER_00: And maybe for some of you, you have burdens, and they're real burdens on your life.
SPEAKER_00: They're burdens you're carrying for others.
SPEAKER_00: Maybe you're a caretaker of somebody in your family.
SPEAKER_00: And it's not the kind of burden that you can just hand back to God.
SPEAKER_00: You know, it's like this is an actual thing.
SPEAKER_00: And listen, that's a real thing.
SPEAKER_00: And maybe it's a burden.
SPEAKER_00: There's some people that have burdens for things going on in the world, what's going on in Puerto Rico right now with the lack of water or other parts of the earth.
SPEAKER_00: There's burdens that we carry.
SPEAKER_00: We're trying to do our best to do something.
SPEAKER_00: But maybe Jesus wants to show us how to carry that burden in a way that doesn't destroy us, that only leads to life.
SPEAKER_00: And for you, I just want to say, man, get the wisdom of God.
SPEAKER_00: Ask Him to lead you.
SPEAKER_00: And maybe for you, you need prayer today to carry real things in your life, and you need the wisdom of God to do it.
SPEAKER_00: Some of you just need to know that you're not carrying burdens alone.
SPEAKER_00: And this is part of the gospel here today.
SPEAKER_00: When you're yoked to Jesus, what he's saying is, listen, I'm not just giving you my strength and giving you my power, I'm giving you my very presence.
SPEAKER_00: You are not on your own.
SPEAKER_00: And you need to experience that in your being that God has bound himself to you in covenant love.
SPEAKER_00: So those are three invitations this morning.
SPEAKER_00: If God is speaking to you as we continue singing this song, go to a ministry team member, ask for prayer.
SPEAKER_00: Or if nothing else, sit with Jesus and let him lead you to life.
SPEAKER_00: Let's sing this again.
SPEAKER_01: Thank you, Lord, for your plans for us.
SPEAKER_01: That you'll never leave us, you'll never forsake us.
SPEAKER_01: And that we get to to practice with you.
SPEAKER_01: That's your your yoke is easy.
SPEAKER_01: It's still a yoke, but it's easy.
SPEAKER_01: Because you're leading us.
SPEAKER_01: So God help us to take this into the week, to ask that question.
SPEAKER_01: Who is our yoke to today?
SPEAKER_01: Who is our yoke to?
SPEAKER_01: Lord, reveal that to us.
SPEAKER_01: So we can realign.
SPEAKER_01: So we can take your yoke.
SPEAKER_01: Thank you, Lord.
SPEAKER_01: For your plans, that you're patient, that you're gentle, that you're good.
SPEAKER_01: We love you, Lord.
SPEAKER_01: Once again, we give you our lives every way.
SPEAKER_01: In Jesus' name.
SPEAKER_01: Amen.
SPEAKER_01: Hey, God bless you all.
SPEAKER_01: If you guys are dismissed, make sure you stick around.
SPEAKER_01: Even if you didn't bring any food, that does not matter.
SPEAKER_01: We have way too much.
SPEAKER_01: So please enjoy the picnic with everybody after service, and we'll see you out there.
SPEAKER_01: God bless you guys.