Episode Transcript
[00:00:04] I know tonight we are going to begin a new little series, if you will. A thought that I don't know how it came to me. I was digging and looking and it's got a dual purpose. Meaning when you hear the title of the series, you're going to think, okay, it's about me, but it's really not about you. Okay?
[00:00:22] And so tonight I'm thankful for God's word. Matthew chapter number 11. If you have your Bibles tonight, Matthew chapter number 11, very familiar scripture that we're going to gather around tonight and to look at and to kind of break apart about what God's word has said. If I had to kind of single this sermon tonight or give a title to this one sermon tonight, it would be A word for the weary. That's what I have at the top of my page, A word for the Weary. And so tonight, as we think about that and we think about what God calls us to, as we look at this series, a me centered life, we're going to take a look at the commands that Jesus calls us to follow him deeper.
[00:01:09] And some of those commands are come to me, follow me, abide in me.
[00:01:20] That's where we get the me from. And what does it look like in when we just heed the invitation, heed the word of God to take him at his word, to come and to follow and to abide and to remember and to live our lives accordingly. What does that look like?
[00:01:37] And so tonight, when we think about that together, God calls us, as we grow in our walk with him, that the focus shifts off of me and it always moves to the Lord.
[00:01:53] And so the longer we walk and the deeper we walk with God, it becomes less about me and more about Jesus.
[00:02:03] And so when we think about that tonight I sit in a bunch of room, a room full of people that are probably just like me.
[00:02:12] You think that I can take care of it or you think that, okay, I know the answers, I've got it figured out. I have the solution or God, I've got this all planned out. How many of you have it all planned out? Don't raise your hand. I'm going to be jealous of you. Okay?
[00:02:30] I thought I had my life planned out, right? And then Jesus jumped right in the middle of it.
[00:02:35] And here's what we need to understand when we surrender to the Lord and it's not about us, it's about Him.
[00:02:43] That is where the me centered life takes root and is blessed and is led by God. And so tonight, those who are self sufficient, self centered or even self serving.
[00:02:58] Jesus simply gives an invitation of three words, come unto me.
[00:03:04] And that's where we're going to start at tonight. Matthew, chapter 11, only three verses. But here's what the challenge is. Week by week in this study, the invitations are going to move deeper. So maybe you already said I've accepted that invitation.
[00:03:21] My prayer tonight is it challenges you in a new way.
[00:03:24] And then next week we're going to move deeper in that invitation, in that walk with the Lord.
[00:03:30] That sanctification process involves maturing in the ways of the Lord. And I can guarantee you one thing, I don't care how old you are, how young you are, how long you have been a Christian, you have not reached that yet. You have not reached perfection yet until you stand face to face with Jesus.
[00:03:52] And so these commands or these invitations are just to a deeper walk. Tonight I'm going to just start out by reading Matthew, chapter 11. Three verses, Matthew 11, 28, 29 and 30. Listen to what Jesus says. If you got a red letter Bible, all of these words, every one of these words are in red. Jesus says these words, come unto me all ye that labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn of me, for I am meek and lowly in heart and ye shall find rest unto your souls.
[00:04:30] For my yoke is easy and my burden is light. Father, tonight just meet us in this place. Lord, teach us from your word. God, we thank you for your presence and let the Holy Spirit be our guide tonight. That is my prayer as you join us together around your word. Minister to every heart that is represented tonight. Those that will listen later on. God, use this to edify the saints. Lord, I pray and equip us just to move and walk closer to you. I pray in Jesus name, Amen.
[00:05:06] Tonight there are really two points. For those of you that are taking notes, it's going to be a little bit different. Okay? And I want to explain this before you start writing down. Okay? There are really two parts of an invitation that you're going to see.
[00:05:18] And under each one of those parts, there are three things I want you to see. Okay, so now you're all confused. Okay, it's not three points like normal, okay, but really two things. Two part invitation that we read tonight and that Jesus extends to every single person. I believe that's what the Bible teaches. I believe when he says, come unto me all, all means all.
[00:05:44] And tonight all may mean you if you have not accepted that invitation.
[00:05:51] So it's two parts of the invitation.
[00:05:53] And the first part of that invitation, you can write this down, is the invitation to come.
[00:06:00] A word for the weary is an invitation to come.
[00:06:05] That invitation has three parts that I want you to look at. Look at verse number 28 again. Come unto me, all ye that labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest.
[00:06:19] This invitation to come, part number one of that is personal.
[00:06:26] This invitation is personal.
[00:06:29] I may be going out on a limb by saying this. All of us have received an invitation at some point to come somewhere.
[00:06:37] Maybe you type in the address into your GPS and you take off. You really don't know what you're getting into.
[00:06:43] Or maybe you are just going to get to that location. And really what that invitation is asking you to do is show up.
[00:06:52] Somebody thinks enough of you. They desire your presence to be where they are.
[00:06:59] And so when we think about an invitation to come, somebody wants you to be with them.
[00:07:06] That could be in a celebration, a marriage, a wedding.
[00:07:11] That could be time to mourn.
[00:07:15] Whatever the occasion, it could be a meal. Come out. Have you come out and eat with me, right?
[00:07:20] Baptists, don't turn those invitations down. I want you to know that. Don't turn those invitations down.
[00:07:25] But when we think about those invitations, we're invited to go and spend time to be with someone. That's exactly what Jesus is. Is doing here. Jesus is extending this invitation that he wants you, he wants everybody to be with him.
[00:07:47] This invitation, in simple terms, offers us to come.
[00:07:53] And when we understand that we are the desire of Jesus, he wants us present with him.
[00:08:00] We are reading on the heels of a chapter, chapter number 11, where we see people are rejecting Jesus.
[00:08:08] If you go back and read the beginning of chapter 11, they have rejected John the Baptist. They have rejected Jesus. We studied this briefly in Luke, okay? Matthew takes it a little bit deeper, but they're rejecting everything.
[00:08:25] And so the final invitation is this. Come, come. Come be with me.
[00:08:31] Come unto me.
[00:08:33] And as we think about this invitation to come, it's not an invitation to church.
[00:08:38] It's not an invitation just to say hello to Jesus. It's an invitation to reach those that will trust him and have faith.
[00:08:48] So when you read that invitation to come, it's not just come and sit down in a pew for an hour and go home. That's not the invitation.
[00:08:56] The invitation is, come and be with me. Come have faith in me. Come believe in me. Put your faith in me. Everybody else is doubting who I am. You need to come to me. You need to believe in me. Does that make sense.
[00:09:14] And so Jesus really wants us, our presence with him, our faith in him. And so this invitation is far reaching and, and it's direct, specific to the individual. It's a plea just to trust him to come unto me.
[00:09:31] The me centered person has accepted the genuine plea or the invitation and has a personal relationship with Jesus.
[00:09:44] Everybody on board.
[00:09:46] When Jesus says, come, you have responded. And you said, I will trust you and I will believe in you. I, I respond to that invitation. It's a personal plea, a personal invitation.
[00:10:01] Notice those three words, come unto me.
[00:10:07] You're not the focus. Jesus is.
[00:10:11] So when you accept this invitation, it's not really about you, it becomes about Jesus.
[00:10:20] Your life is now lived, spending time with the Lord Jesus Christ. So this invitation, first is personal, but it also, the second thing, it has a purpose.
[00:10:34] And we need to see that purpose.
[00:10:36] Look at the second part of verse number 28, come unto me. That's the first part. All ye that labor and are heavy laden.
[00:10:46] When we look at this invitation as it is extended, I want you to see that word, all.
[00:10:54] All. I don't know what your version says, but my version says that all that labor and are heavy, lame. Those people that are weary, tired, burdensome. This invitation to come is for you.
[00:11:08] Now, tonight, I hope you're not sitting here saying, no, I'm good.
[00:11:13] We know if you just live life, you're going to carry some burdens.
[00:11:20] And there's a burden so heavy in life that you cannot carry without Jesus. And that's the burden of sin.
[00:11:29] And we understand that this invitation has a burden. It is a plea, but it is a purpose that Jesus recognizes. There are people that are carrying a burden that they do not have to.
[00:11:43] And that burden, what we're looking at here is because of the religious laws and the rules, the 600 rules that the Israelites had to make sure that they didn't violate every moment of their life.
[00:11:58] Could you imagine that going through a checklist in your mind? I didn't do that. No, I'm good. I'm good. I'm good. I'm good, I'm good. Oh, I messed up there. I got to go. I got to go.
[00:12:09] I gotta make sacrifice.
[00:12:10] I gotta get atonement for that sin. I've gotta kill something. I messed up.
[00:12:16] Could you imagine the burden? Every single moment of every single day, 600 rules that you cannot violate.
[00:12:26] I don't even like the thought of that.
[00:12:29] Could you see how that becomes a burden?
[00:12:33] Instead of religion.
[00:12:36] Oh, excuse me. Instead of relationship, religion now carries a Burden, it's what can't I do?
[00:12:44] And so this system was exhausting.
[00:12:48] And it was a burden for those that were believers.
[00:12:53] But also the other burden that was present here was the Israelite people were under Roman rule, and so the Romans were in charge.
[00:13:03] And their system of ruling people left a people, yes, existing. But they were not living their lives because of the religious law and the Roman law. They really were bound in so many ways.
[00:13:21] And so religious responsibility and Roman rule has led to a burden that these people are now carrying. Jesus recognizes that every one of the Jews were carrying this burden. And he was there offering an invitation to come.
[00:13:39] The purpose of this invitation was that you can lay down your burdens, that you can lay down your wearied heart.
[00:13:50] If you are bound by work, you could lay all that down and you could give it to the Lord Jesus.
[00:13:57] As I mentioned earlier, the burden of sin, that weight alone carries consequences, carries guilt, and carries shame.
[00:14:11] And I want to just say this tonight. If you're a believer in Jesus, certainly we ought to feel guilty when we mess up before the Lord. But you also should know you can turn that over to the Lord and it's forgiven if you walk away from that.
[00:14:28] Some of you are holding on to things in the past and they're weighing you down. You should not be carrying that.
[00:14:36] If you have been forgiven by the blood of Jesus, it has been forgiven.
[00:14:42] And so that burden alone, even in today's time, weights people down.
[00:14:50] So those who are burdened, those who carry a heavy load, Jesus simply says, come to me. And the purpose of this invitation is you don't have to carry this anymore.
[00:15:02] Does that resonate with us tonight?
[00:15:07] The third thing of this first part of the invitation is a promise. Look at the end of verse number 28 and I will give you rest.
[00:15:21] That promise is an amazing promise.
[00:15:26] I want to do something real quick. I want you to flip back to Mark, chapter nine. In my Bible, it's just one page back. Yours might be two, but Mark. Excuse me. Matthew, chapter nine. Sorry, I said Mark. Matthew, chapter nine.
[00:15:39] Matthew, chapter nine, verse 36.
[00:15:44] Now remember, through Jesus eyes, now he says this.
[00:15:49] When he saw the multitudes, he was moved with compassion on them because they fainted and were scattered abroad as a sheep having no shepherd.
[00:15:58] Do you see the burden that's on the people?
[00:16:02] They're being pressed down. They're being.
[00:16:05] They're being weighted down by so much, and they're running around and they need a shepherd.
[00:16:12] Jesus sees people that need him tonight. Look, from my point of view, I See people that need Jesus and hopefully from your point of view, you see somebody that needs Jesus, right? But if we fling these doors wide open, I know we can talk about how bad the world is. But through the eyes of Jesus, they need him.
[00:16:37] They need a shepherd. The world needs a shepherd.
[00:16:41] And this invitation has a promise and a hope for so many that are carrying burdens that they don't have to.
[00:16:50] And that promise is this.
[00:16:52] I will give you rest.
[00:16:55] Can I ask you a question?
[00:16:57] What does that four letter word mean to you?
[00:17:00] What does rest mean?
[00:17:03] If I took a poll tonight across this sanctuary, you might say, oh, it's a good night's sleep. No, no, no, that's not what Jesus is promising.
[00:17:13] You might say peace deep down, soulful rest. Soulful peace. That's what Jesus really wants to give you.
[00:17:24] So here's what I want you to know. There are times that I have sleepless nights, but I can rest in Jesus.
[00:17:31] There's nights that our old bodies give us a fit and you say, jesus, I need retinol. You've got rest if you have Jesus.
[00:17:40] The promise is this.
[00:17:42] The world needs something that Jesus is offering. The invitation has been given and it's rooted back in the days of the of Exodus chapter 20 where he says this six days shall thou labor and do all thy work. But the seventh day is the Sabbath of the Lord thy God. It is rooted in the Sabbath, this promise.
[00:18:03] But here's what you need to understand. Rest is not rooted in a day when Jesus came. Rest is rooted in a person. And his name is Jesus Christ.
[00:18:17] So when we are looking for rest for the weary soul, what do we need to do? We don't need to take a nap.
[00:18:27] But that soul filling rest, there is only one answer. There's only one place that that can come from and it is Jesus.
[00:18:36] And the question is this. Will we come to him and accept that invitation knowing that he is the answer? And will we trust him? What is weary, it is weighing us down. Will we give it to him that he can give us rest?
[00:18:58] How many tonight?
[00:19:00] And I don't want you to raise your hand.
[00:19:03] How many tonight are feeling the heaviness of something?
[00:19:09] I don't care what that something is.
[00:19:11] Jesus doesn't care what that something is.
[00:19:14] Tonight, if you are an unbeliever, you bear the weight of the heaviness of sin tonight. Tonight, if you're a believer and you're holding on to that past, you're carrying the weight of sin that you should not be carrying.
[00:19:29] There's freedom In Jesus, there's rest. In Jesus, whatever heavy that you are carrying, Jesus offers to shoulder that if you will simply come to him.
[00:19:44] Has anybody in here heard of the Atlas of Arrington?
[00:19:51] Oh, good, I stumped you on something.
[00:19:54] I'm going to explain it to you.
[00:19:57] You'll know once I explain to you.
[00:20:00] If you go down 29, cross into the lovely county of Nelson, Virginia.
[00:20:06] I know I just said a cuss word in church. I know that. I'm sorry.
[00:20:12] Those of you Nelson, please forgive me for that. I'm sorry.
[00:20:16] There's a beautiful farm, Oak Ridge Farm. Everybody know where I am.
[00:20:21] If you go down Oak Ridge a half a mile off of 29, go down Oak Ridge Farm.
[00:20:26] There's a statue that stands there of a man holding the world on his shoulders. Do you know what I'm talking about? Now that's the Atlas of Arrington.
[00:20:38] And really, if it's a beautiful sight, go down there and see it sometime. Drive by it. I hope I don't get you. Get you trespassing or something. I'm sorry if I do that. But it's a pretty. It's a man, sculpted, carved, strong, bearing the world on his shoulders.
[00:20:57] Tonight, that's the picture of some of you and me at times.
[00:21:03] You're carrying something that you were not designed to carry.
[00:21:08] And Jesus says this. If you will just come to me, I will give you rest. I will take it off of you.
[00:21:16] But you've got to let me carry it.
[00:21:19] You've got to come and give it to me. You've got to lay it down.
[00:21:24] And so tonight, if you are bearing a heavy burden, a word for the weary is this.
[00:21:30] Just take the invitation to come to Jesus. Accept that invitation to come to him.
[00:21:37] Now, there's a second part of the invitation.
[00:21:39] And I pray tonight that you understand that second part.
[00:21:43] Look in verses 29 and 30.
[00:21:48] Take my yoke upon you and learn of me.
[00:21:53] For I am meek and lowly in heart.
[00:21:56] And ye shall find rest unto your souls. For my yoke is easy and my burden is light.
[00:22:05] The second part of that invitation, the first part was to come. The second part is to take.
[00:22:10] And really there are three things that Jesus offers you to take.
[00:22:16] As we think about this invitation, the first thing tonight.
[00:22:21] Well, let me just say this. Most of the time, when we accept the invitation, there's going to be something there for us.
[00:22:29] So remember, they want your presence.
[00:22:32] But usually if you accept an invitation, there's something there. If you accept an invitation to go to a wedding, more than likely you're going to get a dinner.
[00:22:42] And don't lie. Some of you sign up for the dinner. I know that. Right.
[00:22:48] Maybe tonight we think about that invitation.
[00:22:52] What does Jesus want us to receive? What does he want us to take that he's going to offer to give to us?
[00:22:59] And when we think about a me centered life that you can go and you can live your life with the things that Jesus gives you, the me centered life. Jesus offers not only for us to come to him, but he offers us to take these three things. The first one is this.
[00:23:19] They're all going to start with a nail.
[00:23:23] There's a load that you need to take.
[00:23:28] Jesus uses the word yoke here.
[00:23:31] And he says this. Take my yoke upon you.
[00:23:36] Now when we read that word, it's like, okay, Jesus, you asked me to come to you. You asked me to lay stuff down and then you're going to give me something else.
[00:23:44] Why would I do that?
[00:23:50] I know where I am, I know my location and I know my background.
[00:23:56] Many of you know what a yoke is.
[00:23:59] A yoke is a wooden harness that would go around the animal's shoulders.
[00:24:06] I'm thankful to have grown up on a farm where my grand grandfather used a team of horses to pull to plow his garden for fun.
[00:24:16] That didn't make sense to me. He had a tractor sitting in a barn. He's gonna go hook up the horse. Pops, what are you doing?
[00:24:25] But part of that harnessing up that team of horses was to put that yoke around the teen's neck.
[00:24:35] And when you harness that yoke on that horse or that mule, my grandfather had a team of mules when he would harness, put that yoke on him and all he had to do was say a word or give a little kiss.
[00:24:50] And those mules knew what to do.
[00:24:53] They went to work that yoke. That collar on the animal's shoulders allowed them to bear weight they could not bear alone.
[00:25:07] That yoke was used to describe the responsibilities of the people's faith.
[00:25:16] Jesus was meant to carry the things that you are trying to carry.
[00:25:21] And all this invitation is, is when you cannot carry something, you've got to realize there's somebody that wants you to take his yoke upon you.
[00:25:34] He wants to walk beside you that he can harness that yoke that you are trying to bear alone and he wants to walk with you.
[00:25:43] Just as that team of mules would cinch down and they would pull tons and tons and tons of weight.
[00:25:49] Jesus wants to bear that weight, but he has to walk beside you. He needs to be right beside you in order to help you bear your load.
[00:26:02] There have been seasons in my life that I've told Jesus, I don't need you.
[00:26:09] I can do this by myself.
[00:26:13] And what I found out that the yoke that Jesus offers makes things much lighter.
[00:26:24] When we think of the load that Jesus wants us to carry. When you trust Jesus, when you rest in Jesus, when you come to Jesus, he offers you his load, it's not burdensome as the one that you are trying to carry.
[00:26:40] And when I describe that team of two horses or two mules pulling together, Jesus simply wants to walk with you and bear the brunt of your load.
[00:26:51] He has something lighter to offer you. You don't have to carry it alone.
[00:26:59] You know what the ultimate yoke is?
[00:27:02] The ultimate yoke is the cross.
[00:27:08] When I look at the cross, I see something that I should have carried.
[00:27:13] I see my payment for sin. I see death. And what God's Word teaches me is, that should have been mine.
[00:27:24] And Jesus says, look, you don't have to carry that.
[00:27:27] Put it here.
[00:27:30] I'm going to the cross. I went to the cross.
[00:27:35] That your load may be lighter, that you don't have to go through death, that you can experience life and freedom in the name of Jesus. Because I bore the load for for you, The first thing you've got to take is Jesus yoke the load that Jesus offers you.
[00:28:01] Look at verse number 29 again. He says, take my yoke upon you and learn of me.
[00:28:10] Second thing you need to do after taking the load is that we must learn.
[00:28:15] It's how we grow.
[00:28:17] And when we come, we take of the wisdom and knowledge of the Lord.
[00:28:22] We learn from His Word. We learn from one another. We learn his ways.
[00:28:27] And we are to grow in trusting in him and His Word.
[00:28:32] Jesus wants to teach us.
[00:28:35] Jesus wants to grow us.
[00:28:38] And so that yoke requires us to walk with Jesus through this learning process.
[00:28:45] When you take the yoke, you also take the opportunity to walk with Jesus every day. And Jesus wants you to learn not from the world, but learn from Him.
[00:29:01] I will say this.
[00:29:03] At almost 44 years old, the process of learning never stops.
[00:29:13] I want to respond like Jesus would.
[00:29:16] I want to love people like Jesus would.
[00:29:21] How do I do that?
[00:29:25] By learning from what Jesus did, learning that he extended an invitation for people to come.
[00:29:34] You know what I've learned? I've got to extend that invitation too.
[00:29:39] Not to come to church, but to come to Jesus as Savior.
[00:29:44] Jesus invited people. Why can't we?
[00:29:48] We're learning From Jesus, right?
[00:29:51] He says that his way is the best. His burdens are lighter.
[00:29:58] There's salvation in the name of Jesus. Amen.
[00:30:01] Church. Why would we want to go and ask people to come come to Jesus?
[00:30:11] I've learned that. I've got a lot of things to work on.
[00:30:14] Anybody else learn that lesson?
[00:30:18] My attitude sometimes is not right.
[00:30:23] The preacher gets a funky attitude. Yeah, sometimes a preacher gets a funky attitude.
[00:30:28] Bad taste in his mouth.
[00:30:31] I need to be willing to learn.
[00:30:34] And there's so much. There's so much from God's word to take in and learn.
[00:30:41] The last thing tonight that I want to challenge you with are two words that are right in scripture that start with an L.
[00:30:49] Look at verse number 29. Take my yoke upon you and learn of me, for I am meek and lowly. There's your first word. Lowly in heart.
[00:30:58] And ye shall find rest unto your souls. For my yoke is easy and my burden is light.
[00:31:07] The last two words, they're together.
[00:31:10] They are lowly and light.
[00:31:13] What does it mean to be meek and lowly in heart? Jesus is described as this kind of person in scripture. And as you walk with him, yes, you will come and you will take his yoke and you will see the heart of God.
[00:31:26] When you walk with Jesus, you will see God's heart.
[00:31:31] He will correct you.
[00:31:37] Have you ever seen a team of horses corrected?
[00:31:42] Some of you have?
[00:31:45] Sometimes that's not a pretty sight.
[00:31:50] When you walk with Jesus. Guess what? There's going to be correction there.
[00:31:55] When we understand the heart of Jesus, that he cares for you. But more important than you, he cares for your soul.
[00:32:05] Tonight, the greatest concern in the world is for the soul of men and women.
[00:32:11] Jesus cares for wearied, tired souls.
[00:32:17] And the heart of God just simply says this. If you will come and if you will take me, if you will let me walk with you, I will give you something that you cannot find anywhere else.
[00:32:31] I will teach you from a lowly and gentle and loving heart.
[00:32:36] I will give you joy and I will give you mercy.
[00:32:40] I will show you my faithfulness to you.
[00:32:44] The heart of God desires a relationship with you. That's what the heart of God desires. A relationship with every person.
[00:32:55] And so when we think about tonight, a lowly heart and rest for our souls.
[00:33:02] There's no other place that it can be found other than Jesus.
[00:33:08] Hebrews 4:15 says, we have not a high priest which cannot be touched with the feelings of our infirmities.
[00:33:20] He understands tonight, whatever you are carrying, he knows it.
[00:33:28] And I'm Thankful that we're part of a church and a body of believers, that everybody doesn't have to know what you're carrying.
[00:33:36] You don't have to tell the preacher what you're carrying.
[00:33:39] You need to tell the most important person. You need to talk to Jesus, and you need to let him carry that burden.
[00:33:46] And so tonight, the lowly heart, the heart of Jesus is the heart of God.
[00:33:52] And when we understand that Jesus yoke is easy and his burden is light, it's not a religious system that weighs people down.
[00:34:03] It boils down to a relationship.
[00:34:06] And Jesus yoke is what each of us need. It is pleasant. It is useful. His yoke is for your life will not be a burden. It's because what he has designed for you.
[00:34:20] When Jesus says, take my yoke upon you, he has designed a plan for your life, something that he wants you to carry, and only you can carry it with his help.
[00:34:32] It's not made for Jeffrey to carry.
[00:34:36] Physically, I don't have the shoulders to bear Fred Cox burden. Look at these shoulders right here.
[00:34:43] But listen, Fred Cox's yoke is very different than mine.
[00:34:50] God carved out that yoke for Fred and said, fred, if you'll walk with me and you'll trust me, I want to teach you, I want to love you. I want to carry your burdens. There are things that are going to come in your life that you're going to have to deal with, and you don't have to carry them. Fred, I'll carry them for you.
[00:35:12] Here's my yoke. If you'll just take it.
[00:35:15] It's light.
[00:35:17] Oh. And on paper, it may seem heavy, but this yoke is for you.
[00:35:26] Tonight he does that for each one of us.
[00:35:30] There's a yoke that he has designed for you that if you carry it and you are in his will, that yoke, even though it is hard, it becomes lighter.
[00:35:43] And so tonight, as I wrap this up, Jesus carries the bulk of what you deal with in life.
[00:35:54] What this is not doing, it's not promising you a life free of trouble.
[00:36:01] It's promising this. If you come and you take, Jesus will walk with you.
[00:36:13] That's the beginning of the invitation.
[00:36:18] Just trust me, will you? Have faith.
[00:36:22] Nobody's believing what John the Baptist said. Nobody believes what I said. But if you believe it, if you come unto me, if you will trust me, rest for your weary soul, you will have it, because I will bear those burdens tonight.
[00:36:45] I'm thankful.
[00:36:47] Because what Jesus gives us, we can carry with his help.
[00:36:55] He says, I'm right beside you.
[00:36:58] And I've got the heavy part of this.
[00:37:02] So tonight, church lesson number one. It's off the book, an invitation for the weary.
[00:37:13] And I normally don't do this on Wednesday night, but I'm just going to start out with a little quiet time because you and God need to talk after this. You and God need to talk. Me and God need to talk.
[00:37:25] You and God do your business for just a few minutes.
[00:37:29] And then I want to have a moment of prayer and then we'll move into prayer time. But while our minds are focused on what we're carrying and what you need Jesus to carry, we need to take a little time to spend with him. And here's what I'm going to do. If you want to do that right there where you are, you can. If you want to come up to the altar and do it, I don't care where you do it.
[00:37:47] But tonight, let's make a commitment that we will trust in faith Jesus Christ with our lives, with our future, with our burdens, that he will help us carry them.
[00:38:00] Amen.
[00:38:02] Tonight, believers keep one another accountable. In that we reminded. Hey, you don't have to carry this.
[00:38:10] I'm praying for you. Jesus has it.
[00:38:13] Jesus has this.
[00:38:16] Let's go to the Lord in prayer.
[00:38:40] It.
