Podcasts about matthew 11:28-30

Are you carrying silent burdens that no one else sees? It's time to find real healing and rest. In this powerful Sunday sermon, Pastor Donnie McClurkin shares a heartfelt message about understanding and experiencing the true rest that God offers. Drawing from Matthew 11:28-30 and 1 Peter 5:7, Pastor Donnie reminds us that while many know God, few fully lean on His support, continuing to live stressed and overwhelmed. Pastor Donnie explains the trichotomy of man—body, soul, and spirit—and challenges us to stop masking our inner wounds with superficial faith. Through personal stories and biblical truth, he shows how unresolved pain can block us from the freedom Christ intended. If you are ready to experience the peace and healing only Jesus can give, this message is for you. God does not want us to live burdened or broken. He invites us into His rest, calling us to cast every care on Him and walk fully in healing and wholeness. Sermon Scriptures: Matthew 11:28-30; 1 Peter 5:7   We stream live every Sunday at 11 am ET and every Wednesday at 8 pm ET. Visit our website: https://perfectingfaithchurch.com  Connect with us on social media!  Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/PerfectingFaithChurch/  Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/perfectingfaithchurch/  X: https://x.com/PFCNY   Tiktok: https://www.tiktok.com/@perfectingfaithchurch

This sermon to start 2025 explores Jesus' invitation to share his yoke and to take up his "light" burden. Preached at St Moses Church, Charles Village Campus, Baltimore City, on January 5th, 2025, by Saint Mo's elder and Navy chaplain, Doyle Dunn.

In today's episode, Spiritual Fitness Coach Alejandro Duran introduces you to a very powerful Bible passage that will help you Win Today over worry and fear! "Sirs, what must I do to be saved?" That was the question of the Philippian jailer who witnessed the miraculous jailbreak of Paul and Silas. But this question has been asked by millions of people throughout the ages - people who realize their sins and shortcomings. Thankfully, the answer isn't a secret! Discover the impact of grace from salvation through transformation when you read Gospel and Grace, the latest in our Pillars of Faith Series. This devotional is perfect for individual study and for sharing Gospel truths with the people you want to reach for Christ! Click the link and it's yours with a gift of any amount.Thank you for supporting the mission of Christ.

Guy Kassongo

Mark 8:34-37: “Whoever desires to come after Me, let him deny (ownership of) himself (his soul), and take up his cross, and follow Me. For whoever desires to save his life (his independent soul-life) will lose it, but whoever loses his life (his independent soul-life) for My sake and the Gospel's will save it. For what will it profit a man if he gains the whole world, and loses his own soul? Or what will a man give in exchange for his soul?” (A) The DIGNITY of HAVING a SOUL. (1) The soul is created by God (Genesis 2:7). (2) The soul is created in God's image (Gen 1:27, Psalm 8:4-5). (3) The soul is created to be eternal (immortal). (4) The soul is created for fellowship with God (Jeremiah 9:23-24). (B) The DANGER of WASTING your SOUL (Luke 12:15, 2 Chronicles 1:15, 9:20,22-23, Mark 10:21-22, Ecclesiastes 9:3). (1) You can never gain the whole world anyway. (2) What we do gain, we can't keep. (3) Even if you could gain the world and keep hold of it, it would never satisfy. (C) The DISASTER of LOSING your SOUL (Ezekiel 18:4, Mark 8:36-37) (1) When the soul is lost, its true value becomes clear. (2) Once the soul is lost, it is irreversible (Hebrews 9:27). (3) Once the soul is lost, it is lost forever (Mark 9:48). (4) What we accumulate on earth has no value towards eternity. (D) The DELIGHT of SURRENDERING your SOUL (John10:10, Romans 5:8, Isaiah 53:6, 2Corinthians 5:17, Romans 10:9-10). Matthew 11:28-29: "Come to Me, all you who labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take My yoke upon you and learn from Me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls."

In today's episode, Spiritual Fitness Coach Alejandro Duran introduces you to a very powerful Bible passage that will help you Win Today over worry and fear! With daily prompts to help you receive, reflect, and respond to God's Word, our Spiritual Fitness Journal is the perfect companion to help you experience and track spiritual growth! Get this offer for a gift of any amount today.

We all love adventure. We want to go someplace new. We want to explore. We want to sense the excitement that only a journey can bring. This is why we watch the shows we like. This is what some of us save up for trips. There are small journeys we take each day and the larger journey of life. There are journeys that our feet go on and inward journeys that our soul goes on. Both entice us with a great prize: that we would transcend. The deep-down allure of a journey is a call to change, grow, to transcend. The Bible is a record of our journey with God. If you feel like you are stuck on your journey, or you feel like you're just ready for another great chapter this series will help you explore your why, so you can find your way.

Once a quarter, New Creation dedicates one week where we rest, reducing our schedule and stepping into intentional rest with God and one another.  Today, we  hear and respond to Jesus' invitation to come to him and learn the rhythms of rest.

Pastor  Lloyd and his wife Karen have been married for over forty years, but Lloyd will tell you that they never stop learning new ways to improve their relationship. Marriage is an ongoing project - and God intended it that way! Today we'll complete message number two in Lloyd's three part series on marriage he shared as guest speaker at Calvary Chapel Miami's marriage seminar.  Colossians chapter three is our reference point once again today. 

 It's Valentine's Day and, appropriately enough, the topic of discussion continues to be marriage today, as Lloyd Pulley continues his series, “Finding Rest” Today's message was originally shared at a marriage seminar at Calvary Chapel of Miami.

God's word sets forth very specific roles for marriage too, and we have got to really understand what He's saying in order to have a Godly marriage. That's what we'll do over the next several broadcasts - get to know our roles in marriage. Pastor Lloyd shared this series at a marriage conference at Calvary Chapel of Miami, and  it's our pleasure to present it to you now.

The benefits of resting in Christ come only to believers in Christ

Today we are going to take a look at Matthew 11:28-30. I think we all need to hear these words over and over again, "Come to me, all of you who are weary and carry heavy burdens, and I will give you rest." We need to stop working for love and rest in God's grace. The music on the podcast is from John Nugent. John is a Chicagoland area musician who has been a real blessing to Tabor Church. Support the show

This week Pastor Tim speaks from Matthew 11:28-30 where Jesus calls the weak and heavy laden to come to him for rest. If we look through the gospels, we find that Jesus repeatedly is calling out to those who are forgotten, isolated, ostracized and invisible, those who are invisible in plain sight.  Pastor Tim encourages us to continue to see these same people in our daily lives and extend the love of Christ to them -- just as Jesus did. 

Jesus says, "Come to me, all who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest." What an invitation! I. You are invited to come to a Jesus, v28. II. You are invited to receive rest from Jesus, v28b. III. You are invited to be a disciple of Jesus, vv29-30. 

In this episode of In the Word, On the Go, best-selling author and speaker, Hannah Anderson reflects on Jesus's words of invitation and comfort in Matthew 11:28-30. Hannah says, "Jesus says 'Come to me.' In my anxious and burdened state, I found myself rushing to every other coping mechanism. But he himself is the rest for your soul." Special Guest: Hannah Anderson.

We receive lots of calls but some are way more important and definitely should be answered. This episode looks at a very specific and personal call the Lord has for all everyone of us. An invitation is made that refreshes and brings hope to the weary!

Are you feeling weary, fearful, and stressed in life? There is an answer that will relieve your pain. You see, all those who come to Jesus will find rest for their souls and cease from their hard labors. Join us today as we dive into Matthew 11:28-30. www.kingdomrock.org

Are you feeling weary, fearful, and stressed in life? There is an answer that will relieve your pain. You see, all those who come to Jesus will find rest for their souls and cease from their hard labors. Join us today as we dive into Matthew 11:28-30. www.kingdomrock.org

Are you feeling weary, fearful, and stressed in life? There is an answer that will relieve your pain. You see, all those who come to Jesus will find rest for their souls and cease from their hard labors. Join us today as we dive into Matthew 11:28-30. www.kingdomrock.org

Katrina Shenk look at discipleship through the lens of Matthew 11:28-30.Support the show (https://tithe.ly/give?c=397080)

A music podcast featuring Trish Vrolijk's setting of Matthew 11:28-30, "Come to Me." Accompanied by her husband Brad on guitar, Trish originally recorded the song in her living room to be shared on Facebook. For the lyrics of the song and to comment on this podcast, please visit the webpost.Stay up to date on how the church is dealing with these unprecedented events on our For A Time Like This web page. There you will find resources, words of encouragement and more podcasts.Subscribe to the show wherever you listen to audio and recommend this episode to your friends. We invite you to rate us or write a review of what we are doing on Apple Podcasts. Reviews help others join the conversation.* * *This podcast is created at saint benedict's table, a congregation of the Anglican Church of Canada in Winnipeg, where we've been making great audio since 2006. Listen to other recent episodes on our website and see our entire catalogue of almost 500 shows on our hosting page.Our MissionTo provide rich and stimulating audio resources to the wider church and engage topics and issues relevant to the concerns and questions of the larger culture in which we live.

Second message on Matthew 11:28-30, "Come to Me, all you who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take My yoke 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 and My burden is light.”

First of two messages on Matthew 11:28-30, "Come to Me, all you who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take My yoke 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 and My burden is light.”

Pastor Jeff concludes our series of Sunday morning messages where we’re taking a long look at how we can trust, experience, and understand the love of God. We want to explore the Bible to answer the question: Does God Really Love Me? The messages of this series, we explore some of the ways we might answer that question from a biblical perspective, and we will focus on these passages so that we can transformatively trust, experience, and understand that God is love. This week we look at Matthew 11:28-30, through a sermon message titled The Identity Thief of Exhaustion.Support the show (https://tithe.ly/give?c=397080)

In this episode of "In the Word, On the Go," pastor, podcaster, and author, J. A., Jeff, Medders, discusses the kindndess of the Lord who calls us to find rest in him. Jeff says, "Jesus's commands are not back-breaking. We're united to the One who's already obeyed everything he's called us to obey. And he's empowering us to do it." "In the Word, On the Go" is sponsored by the New Growth Press (https://newgrowthpress.com/?aff=26). Special Guest: J. A. Medders.

28Then Jesus said, “Come to me, all of you who are weary and carry heavy burdens, and I will give you rest. 29Take my yoke upon you. Let me teach you, because I am humble and gentle at heart, and you will find rest for your souls. 30For my yoke is easy to bear, and the burden I give you is light.”

We are a culture that is worn out! Retreating is the cessation of something to do something else, to engage in a better way. Clear your calendar, shut down your

Brad Sullivan Proper 16, Year A August 27, 2017 Emmanuel, Houston Exodus 12:1-14 Romans 13:8-14 Matthew 18:15-20 Our Pre-Harvey Lives Are Dead and In the Tomb Last Friday, I was volunteering over at FamilyPoint Resources, a little ways down Memorial from here. Family Point has after school programs for children in this area along with other services for children and families. With school not yet in session last week, FamilyPoint opened up to have some hang out time for the neighborhood kids, and I was there to help with that. I spent a little bit of time on the soccer field, but mostly built LEGOs with a group kids. It’s great getting to see what they come up with and how excited they are to show off their creations. There was the occasional dispute over, ‘that piece is mine,’ but mostly we just built together and admired each others’ creations. Afterwards, I was talking with the executive director, Stephanie Hruzek, about Family Point and the needs of the neighborhood. They need folks to come help with after school, of course, and they’re also assembling teams to help muck out houses. All are welcome to join in those efforts, by the way. One thing that was so heartening and wonderful in Stephanie’s and my conversation was the seeming role reversal of families that Family Point is used to serving, coming out to help serve others, be it through mucking houses, helping at Family Point, or just helping out a neighbor in any way they need. The humanity that she has seen in the wake of Hurricane Harvey has far surpassed the damage done. Fear of the other and fear of the unknown seem to be down right now, and our shared humanity is coming to the fore. Stephanie shared her joy at this recognition of, this living into our shared humanity, and our hope and prayer is that this seeking out and reaching out for the other continues. Reaching out for one another and recognizing our shared humanity feels like pre-Harvey burdens have been lifted off our shoulders, burdens we were not even all that aware of: burdens of fearing others or ignoring others. Amidst these burdens which we often carry, Jesus says, “Come to me, all you that are weary and are carrying heavy burdens, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you, and learn from me; for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light.” (Matthew 11:28-30) Jesus’ yoke is his teaching, his way. As much as our religion has at times tried to make Jesus’ way difficult and heavy, the way of Jesus, the teachings of Jesus are easy, and light. The way of Jesus takes other burdens off our shoulders and lightens our loads as we walk this life together. Helping others with our post-Harvey, newfound common humanity has felt lighter than before. This is the way and the teaching of Jesus. Post-Harvey, we’ve been walking in the way of love, and we’ve been less encumbered by the burden of fearing the other, less encumbered by the burden of ignoring the other, less encumbered by the burden of enmity towards the other. Friends and family who have had estrangement growing over differing political and religious beliefs have found that such differences don’t matter in the wake of Harvey. Our petty differences and even our important differences do keep us…different, but they don’t need to divide us. If we need to be divided, God will sort that out later on. In all seriousness, Jesus taught on several occasions that any sorting out of the people, any dividing of humanity that needs to happen will be done by God at the end of the ages. In the mean time, Jesus taught that we are to live with each other, sometimes to put up with each other, but above all to love each other and to live out our common humanity. Paul told the church in Rome to “owe no one anything except to love one another.” The burden of fear keeps us from loving one another, and there are few heavier burdens than fear - except perhaps a desire for vengeance. Before Paul wrote to owe no one anything except to love one another, Paul wrote, “Repay no one evil for evil…never avenge yourselves, but leave it to the wrath of God…” (Romans 12:17-19) Desire for vengeance may seem justified, but it is a heavy burden, and Jesus’ yoke, his teaching, seeks to lighten that burden. “If another member of the church sins against you,” Jesus taught, “go and point out the fault when the two of you are alone. If the member listens to you, you have regained that one. But if you are not listened to, take one or two others along with you, so that every word may be confirmed by the evidence of two or three witnesses. If the member refuses to listen to them, tell it to the church; and if the offender refuses to listen even to the church, let such a one be to you as a Gentile and a tax collector.” Ok, so if we’re being honest, going up to the person who has hurt you and going to them with your heart in your hand letting them know that they hurt you is not an easy task. Doing so requires courage and vulnerability. You might just get hurt again. Going to someone and seeking reconciliation, however, is so much easier and lighter than carrying around the burden of hurt forever. The weight of carrying that pain around is hard and heavy, carrying the accompanying fear and mistrust takes are hearts of flesh and turns them into hearts of stone, weighing us down even further. We trust less and less and fear more and more, when we don’t seek reconciliation, and then we end up with our pre-Harvey burdens of fearing the other, ignoring the other, and holding enmity for the other. Seeking reconciliation is a far easier and lighter burden than the burden of carrying fear, mistrust, and enmity. Even if you can’t be reconciled, Jesus taught that you still don’t carry the enmity around. You drop it. You let it go. If you can’ t be reconciled, then let that person be to you as a gentile and a tax collector. On the one hand, you’re considering that person to be outside of your life, apart from you. On the other hand, what grudge would you hold against someone who is not a part of you? Let the grudge go, let the person go, and wipe the slate clean. It would be up to the other person at that point to rebuild the relationship. At the same time, gentiles and tax collectors were a part of Jesus’ and the early church’s mission field, so there is a writing off and a starting over in Jesus’ teaching about when reconciliation doesn’t occur. Death and resurrection. Such is the way of Jesus. Such is his easy yoke and his light burden. Our shared humanity, seeking out the other without fear, forgiving and actively seeking reconciliation: these are ways of Jesus that we absolutely need in our post-Harvey lives, and what we need in our post-Harvey life as Emmanuel. We need each other. We always did, but pre-Harvey, we felt secure enough in other things not to realize our need for each other quite so acutely. Our pre-Harvey lives are dead and in the tomb. Our post-Harvey lives and post-Harvey life as Emmanuel is emerging from the tomb. Post-Harvey, we have been woken from sleep, and we realize just how much we need each other. More than a building, more than programs, we need each other. Emmanuel Episcopal Church & School is a new creation by water and the Word. We need to stay joined together, and we need to discover new ways to join together as well. In our post-Harvey, resurrected life, we need to keep reaching out into our community. We are a church, a people, without a building right now, and this is a challenge for us, and it is also a wonderful opportunity to live into our common humanity. Without our building to gather in and serve from, we get to gather and serve in other people’s buildings. We get to gather and serve in other people’s homes. We get to join with our neighbors as they gather and serve us. With prayer and reconciliation, we get to continue in this resurrected life, sharing in our common humanity as a new creation by water and the Word, following in the easy way and light burden of Jesus.

Brad Sullivan Proper 16, Year A August 27, 2017 Emmanuel, Houston Exodus 12:1-14 Romans 13:8-14 Matthew 18:15-20 Our Pre-Harvey Lives Are Dead and In the Tomb Last Friday, I was volunteering over at FamilyPoint Resources, a little ways down Memorial from here. Family Point has after school programs for children in this area along with other services for children and families. With school not yet in session last week, FamilyPoint opened up to have some hang out time for the neighborhood kids, and I was there to help with that. I spent a little bit of time on the soccer field, but mostly built LEGOs with a group kids. It’s great getting to see what they come up with and how excited they are to show off their creations. There was the occasional dispute over, ‘that piece is mine,’ but mostly we just built together and admired each others’ creations. Afterwards, I was talking with the executive director, Stephanie Hruzek, about Family Point and the needs of the neighborhood. They need folks to come help with after school, of course, and they’re also assembling teams to help muck out houses. All are welcome to join in those efforts, by the way. One thing that was so heartening and wonderful in Stephanie’s and my conversation was the seeming role reversal of families that Family Point is used to serving, coming out to help serve others, be it through mucking houses, helping at Family Point, or just helping out a neighbor in any way they need. The humanity that she has seen in the wake of Hurricane Harvey has far surpassed the damage done. Fear of the other and fear of the unknown seem to be down right now, and our shared humanity is coming to the fore. Stephanie shared her joy at this recognition of, this living into our shared humanity, and our hope and prayer is that this seeking out and reaching out for the other continues. Reaching out for one another and recognizing our shared humanity feels like pre-Harvey burdens have been lifted off our shoulders, burdens we were not even all that aware of: burdens of fearing others or ignoring others. Amidst these burdens which we often carry, Jesus says, “Come to me, all you that are weary and are carrying heavy burdens, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you, and learn from me; for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light.” (Matthew 11:28-30) Jesus’ yoke is his teaching, his way. As much as our religion has at times tried to make Jesus’ way difficult and heavy, the way of Jesus, the teachings of Jesus are easy, and light. The way of Jesus takes other burdens off our shoulders and lightens our loads as we walk this life together. Helping others with our post-Harvey, newfound common humanity has felt lighter than before. This is the way and the teaching of Jesus. Post-Harvey, we’ve been walking in the way of love, and we’ve been less encumbered by the burden of fearing the other, less encumbered by the burden of ignoring the other, less encumbered by the burden of enmity towards the other. Friends and family who have had estrangement growing over differing political and religious beliefs have found that such differences don’t matter in the wake of Harvey. Our petty differences and even our important differences do keep us…different, but they don’t need to divide us. If we need to be divided, God will sort that out later on. In all seriousness, Jesus taught on several occasions that any sorting out of the people, any dividing of humanity that needs to happen will be done by God at the end of the ages. In the mean time, Jesus taught that we are to live with each other, sometimes to put up with each other, but above all to love each other and to live out our common humanity. Paul told the church in Rome to “owe no one anything except to love one another.” The burden of fear keeps us from loving one another, and there are few heavier burdens than fear - except perhaps a desire for vengeance. Before Paul wrote to owe no one anything except to love one another, Paul wrote, “Repay no one evil for evil…never avenge yourselves, but leave it to the wrath of God…” (Romans 12:17-19) Desire for vengeance may seem justified, but it is a heavy burden, and Jesus’ yoke, his teaching, seeks to lighten that burden. “If another member of the church sins against you,” Jesus taught, “go and point out the fault when the two of you are alone. If the member listens to you, you have regained that one. But if you are not listened to, take one or two others along with you, so that every word may be confirmed by the evidence of two or three witnesses. If the member refuses to listen to them, tell it to the church; and if the offender refuses to listen even to the church, let such a one be to you as a Gentile and a tax collector.” Ok, so if we’re being honest, going up to the person who has hurt you and going to them with your heart in your hand letting them know that they hurt you is not an easy task. Doing so requires courage and vulnerability. You might just get hurt again. Going to someone and seeking reconciliation, however, is so much easier and lighter than carrying around the burden of hurt forever. The weight of carrying that pain around is hard and heavy, carrying the accompanying fear and mistrust takes are hearts of flesh and turns them into hearts of stone, weighing us down even further. We trust less and less and fear more and more, when we don’t seek reconciliation, and then we end up with our pre-Harvey burdens of fearing the other, ignoring the other, and holding enmity for the other. Seeking reconciliation is a far easier and lighter burden than the burden of carrying fear, mistrust, and enmity. Even if you can’t be reconciled, Jesus taught that you still don’t carry the enmity around. You drop it. You let it go. If you can’ t be reconciled, then let that person be to you as a gentile and a tax collector. On the one hand, you’re considering that person to be outside of your life, apart from you. On the other hand, what grudge would you hold against someone who is not a part of you? Let the grudge go, let the person go, and wipe the slate clean. It would be up to the other person at that point to rebuild the relationship. At the same time, gentiles and tax collectors were a part of Jesus’ and the early church’s mission field, so there is a writing off and a starting over in Jesus’ teaching about when reconciliation doesn’t occur. Death and resurrection. Such is the way of Jesus. Such is his easy yoke and his light burden. Our shared humanity, seeking out the other without fear, forgiving and actively seeking reconciliation: these are ways of Jesus that we absolutely need in our post-Harvey lives, and what we need in our post-Harvey life as Emmanuel. We need each other. We always did, but pre-Harvey, we felt secure enough in other things not to realize our need for each other quite so acutely. Our pre-Harvey lives are dead and in the tomb. Our post-Harvey lives and post-Harvey life as Emmanuel is emerging from the tomb. Post-Harvey, we have been woken from sleep, and we realize just how much we need each other. More than a building, more than programs, we need each other. Emmanuel Episcopal Church & School is a new creation by water and the Word. We need to stay joined together, and we need to discover new ways to join together as well. In our post-Harvey, resurrected life, we need to keep reaching out into our community. We are a church, a people, without a building right now, and this is a challenge for us, and it is also a wonderful opportunity to live into our common humanity. Without our building to gather in and serve from, we get to gather and serve in other people’s buildings. We get to gather and serve in other people’s homes. We get to join with our neighbors as they gather and serve us. With prayer and reconciliation, we get to continue in this resurrected life, sharing in our common humanity as a new creation by water and the Word, following in the easy way and light burden of Jesus.

John 14:2, Psalm 3, Matthew 11:28-30, Joshua 1:5,9

"in Long Beach as it is in Heaven." For more information visit: garden.church

"in Long Beach as it is in Heaven." For more information visit: garden.church

One of the reasons people don't want to grow up is that they lack a good picture of what a healthy mature adult looks like in the physical as well as in the spiritual. When kids don't see their parents having fun & enjoying life, they may not want what you have. Others will follow when they see something worth following. We challenge you to have fun. Show up, early, ready to work, with a positive attitude & a teachable heart. And if you do this consistently others will notice & begin to ask why you are different. Lighten Up! Enjoy Life!

Introduction In Matthew, chapter 11, we look at an invitation in which Christ is commanding, inviting us to come into his rest. The world has a desperate need for the truth that Christ gives us here today, we have a desperate need for the peace of Jesus Christ. Is that not true? We watch in the streets of New York, in Barcelona and Sydney and all over the world, peace protesters with their angry faces and their burning flags and their fits of rage. We see, again, the need for the truth of this text, the peace that only Christ can give. This world is in the throes and the power of the evil one, the devil, and he is not a peaceful being. We're going to talk about that this morning, but because of our casting in our lot with him, because we as a race have joined in Satan's rebellion, we do not know the peace of God, we do not know the peace that only God can give. As we look out over the nations, we see turbulence, we see churning, we see a casting up of mire and muck. We see a great deal of unrest all over the world. One of the most fascinating little phrases that I've noticed in the Book of Revelation happens at the end. In Revelation 21:1, it says, "Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth, for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away, and there was no longer any sea". It's kind of strange. What does God have against the sea? I think the sea is a majestic and a beautiful thing. The ocean's a powerful but it's not a very peaceful thing. There's a great deal of churning all the time, and in the Book of Revelation, Chapter 13:1, it says, "The Dragon stood on the shore of the sea and I saw a beast coming out of the sea, he had 10 horns and seven heads with 10 crowns on his horns and on each head a blasphemous name." So, up out of the sea comes this beast. Earlier in the book of Daniel, it'd been the same thing,. It'd been the winds blowing over the sea and out of it, come a succession of beasts, representing human government, wicked human government. The sea represents the churning turbulence of world history of the nations, and out of it come all these filthy beasts, this government which is so anti-God. Revelation 21:1 says, there'll be no more sea because there will be a king and he will rule greatly over his kingdom, the kingdom of God at that time, and there'll be no more churning up of mire and muck and sin for the old order of things will have passed away. It says in Isaiah 17:12, "Oh, the raging of many nations, they rage like the raging sea. Oh, the uproar of the peoples, they roar like the roaring of great waters." So it is as we look over world history today, we see the raging of the nations and the lack of peace, and all of that comes from the fact that we are not at peace with God. It all starts with individual rebellion against our Creator. We need the truth of this text more than ever before. Jesus stands before a rebellious people. Realize the context of this invitation. Jesus had denounced the cities in which most of his miracles had been performed because they did not repent, they were not accepting Christ, they were rejecting him. Capernaum and Chorazin and Bethsaida were representative of the cities of Israel that were listening to the gospel and rejecting it. Jesus stood before that rejection and said, "Come to me all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. Take My yoke upon you and learn from me for I am gentle and humble in heart and you will find rest for your souls for my yoke is easy and my burden is light." He's inviting weary burdened sinners. "Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened," he says, "And I will give you rest." He's inviting people that are sick of sin, sick of the struggle with sin, because sin is a crushing tyrant everyday. Sin is the most vicious ruler there has ever been, and you get weary of it. You get weary of the effects of sin in your life. "Come to me," said Jesus, "All you who are weary and burdened and I will give you rest." Even greater is the crushing burden of a guilty conscience of knowing that you have sinned and knowing that God is holy and that the law of God stands against you, and that you're accused and that someday, you will have to give an account to God, a meticulous and perfect account for every careless word you've ever spoken. If you don't know Christ, you have no savior, and you know that you're condemned and there's nothing for you except the fearful expectation of judgement and raging fire that will consume the enemies of God. What a terrifying way to live. The Authority of the Yoke Jesus said, "If that's oppressive to you, a sense of the condemnation that hangs over you because of your sin then come to me and I will give you rest." I want to show you what the king commands. He invites weary burdened sinners and what does he invite them to do? Simply to come to him. That's all, "Come to me," he says, "And receive a gift." Nothing you could ever earn. "Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest.” It's a gift of grace. That's who he invites and invites them to come simply to Him through repentance, and faith, that's all. But then he commands something of them, and we're going to zero in on that. "Take my yoke upon you and learn from me for I am gentle and humble in heart and you will find rest for your souls." Then he says, “…for my yoke is easy and my burden is light." Now what does this mean, "Take my yoke upon you?" What is a yoke? It's a simple wooden structure that connects a beast of burden to a plow or some other piece of farm equipment. It enables them to stay, perhaps, two oxen to stay together and pull in the same direction. There's a physical meaning of this yoke and that's the way the Bible uses it in some cases. But ordinarily, when the Bible speaks of a yoke, it uses it metaphorically. It refers to the authority of a king or a master, good or bad, over a subject or a slave. The yoke represents authority. It's used for example, of the Egyptian's domination over the Israelites when they were slaves in Egypt. In Exodus 6:6, "Therefore, say to the Israelites. I am the Lord, and I will bring you out from under the yoke of the Egyptians. I will free you from being slaves to them, and I will redeem you with an outstretched arm, and with mighty acts of judgment." So the yoke represents the authority badly used by the Egyptians but the authority of the Egyptians over the Israelites. In another instance, Jeremiah had a wooden yoke that he went around with and a false prophet came and broke the yoke and said, "God will not give us over to Nebuchadnezzar." God said, "Make an iron one, he can't break." "There's no way that you're going to escape the authority of Nebuchadnezzar." That's how the Bible uses the term “yoke.” It's a matter of authority of a king or a master over a subject or slave. Good or bad, that's how the word is used. What then is Christ's yoke? Jesus says, "Take my yoke upon you." Some commentators think that it's Christ's way of religion. Learn to do religion the way I'm telling you to do religion. There's some backing for this because it speaks of the yoke that our forefathers put on the necks of the descendants of Israel. It mentions that in the circumcision struggle, but I don't think that's what's going on here. The overall context of Matthew's gospel is the kingdom of heaven. Jesus is presenting himself as the King of the Kingdom of Heaven, so when He says, "Take My yoke upon you," is he not declaring himself to be a king? Is he not in effect saying, "Stop rebelling against me, throw down your weapons of revolt and come back under my authority"? Isn't that what he's saying? "Allow me to be your ruler, allow me to be your king." I think what he's saying is, "Let me be your Lord, your master, your ruler." He's going to describe his yoke as easy and his burden as light and we'll talk about that in a moment, but I think that's what he's commanding. "Let me rule your life, obey me, submit to my authority." Now bowing the neck under Christ's yoke is an extreme burden, actually impossible for the unregenerate. For somebody who has never been born again, they would never do this, they would not bow their neck to Christ, they would not yield to Him, no matter how much He assures them the yoke is easy and the burden is light. This is the one thing they will not do. Charles Spurgeon put it this way, "Observe dear friends that our Lord Jesus Christ does lay a yoke and a burden upon his followers. He uses these words that none may presume to enter his service without due consideration. Religion is not a matter for the trifling. The service of the meek and lowly Christ is no child's play. There is a yoke that is to be borne by all his disciples, and the neck of self will must be bent low to receive it. There is a burden to be carried for Christ and all the strength that God gives us must be used for his glory and honor." So there is a yoke, but then Spurgeon goes on and says this, "If you are going to come into Christ's kingdom, you must repent, and believe the good news." What does “repent” mean? It means to turn away from self-rebellion. It's impossible to do this if you're unconverted. Spurgeon said, "Some of you would not find Christ's yoke easy or his burden light. That is the very last thing you would find them to be in your present condition, but you would find his yoke to be heavy and his burden impossible for you to bear. Some of you are mere worldlings, lovers of pleasure more than lovers of God. It may be that some of you are self-righteous and proud of what should be your shame. In any case you are un-regenerate and our text would not be true of you, in your unconverted state." Basically you cannot obey this command if you don't come to Christ first. Simply come to Christ, simply trust in Him, believe in Him as your savior and then you will be able by the power of the Spirit to bow your neck to his yoke. Now Jesus says, "Take my yoke upon you and learn from me." Literally, I think it means “be my disciple”. "Let me disciple you, let me teach you, let me instruct you." We must have a word of instruction, because we die from lack of the word of God, don't we? We perish from a famine of hearing the word of God. Jesus says, "I will be your instructor, I will be your teacher, I will give you everything you need. Learn from me." And he describes his yoke, as easy and his burden as light. Now stop with me for a moment and consider how shocking this really is. Christ's yoke easy and his burden is light? Realize that already he has demanded of His disciples complete and total perfect obedience. You don't get any days off from this yoke. Do we ever get a break from the yoke of Christ? Are not his standards perfection and nothing less? Does he not claim a loyalty higher than any other relationship we have on Earth? It is higher than even your love for your life itself and you must demonstrate every day a willingness to take up your cross and follow, a willingness even to die. How can Jesus call that yoke easy and that burden light? Seven Reasons Christ’s Yoke is Easy & the Burden Light I think there are seven reasons why Christ's yoke is easy and why his burden is light. Let's look at them. First, because of Christ's perfect nature. How does He describe Himself in this text? He says, "I am gentle and humble in heart and you will find rest for your souls." If Christ were a raging tyrant who delighted to make us suffer, who took pleasure in our pain, would his yoke be easy and his burden light? No that's describing sin, and the devil, actually, but not Christ. The Kingdom of God is good news, because God is such a good king, because Christ is such a good king, and therefore because of his personal nature, his perfect nature, his yoke is easy and his burden is light. Christ is perfectly humble. He submitted to the yoke of his father. He did everything that God commanded him to do. His will, his food, was to do the will of Him who sent Him and to finish His work, and so he was perfectly humble. We have a king who's willing to take off his garments of glory and get down on his hands and knees and wash our dirty yucky feet. He doesn't do it just once, he does it all the time. He's very humble in dealing with us, he's very lowly. He condescends and lowers Himself to take care of us. That's the nature of our king. Therefore, we can take His yoke upon us because He is gentle and humble in heart, because of His perfect nature. Secondly, we can take His yoke upon us and it is easy and his burden is light because of his perfected work. Christ has already borne the heaviest yoke. He's already carried the weight of our sins, and He did it right to the cross. Jesus was humble enough to die on the cross. "He who being in very nature God, did not consider equality with God something to be grasped, but made himself nothing, taking the very nature of a servant being made in human likeness and being found in appearance as a man, he humbled himself and became obedient to death, even death on the cross." Because of Christ perfected work on the cross, His yoke is easy and his burden is light. We don't drink his cup of wrath, we drink from his cup that's persecution, but we don't drink it to the bottom the way He did. He drank the cup of God's wrath. Isaiah 53 says, "Surely he took up our infirmities and carried our sorrows, yet we considered him stricken by God, smitten by him and afflicted." But He was pierced for our transgressions, He was crushed for our iniquities, the punishment that brought us peace was upon Him, and by His wounds, we are healed, we all like sheep have gone astray, each of us has turned to his own way.” The Lord has laid on him might we say the crushing burden of our sin, our judgment. So his yoke is easy and his burden is light, because He's already carried the heaviest load for us when He died on the cross. Thirdly, His yoke is easy and his burden is light because of the simplicity of being a servant. What do you have to worry about when you're the servant of an all powerful and all providing master? Just do what you're told, that's all. Don't fret anymore about finances. Don't be concerned anymore about the future, about your physical health. Don't fret yourself over the unfolding events, current events. You can pray for all of these things and you should, but don't be anxious over them as though you are somehow king over them. It's a simple life. The simple life of being the servant of a good and powerful providing master.Hs yoke is easy and his burden is light, because of the simplicity of being a servant. Fourthly, because of the perfection of Christ commands, Christ's yoke is the way that He rules your life, you bow your neck to him, you put your neck under His yoke and then he says, "This is the way, walk in it." If he wants you to go left and you go straight or right, you're going to have problems, aren't you? But might I suggest to you that straight or right is sin anyway, and God's commandments protect you from sin. 1 John 5:3, "His commands are not burdensome." No, do you know what is burdensome? Sin is burdensome, sin is the enemy. I want to fight sin with all of my heart when I see it and Christ's yoke, God’s commands, actually protects me from the very thing that would seek to destroy me. That's why his yoke is easy and his burden is light, because it's much easier than sin. Is it not easier for a man, let's say, to resist lust than to pick up the pieces of a broken marriage after committing adultery? Is it not easier to bow your neck to Christ commands so that you don't have to face the grief of a broken world? Christ's yoke is infinitely easier and his burden infinitely lighter than the alternative, which is sin. Fifthly, Christ's yoke is easy and his burden is light because of the hopefulness of a life well invested under His yoke. Do it his way and you will store up treasure in Heaven. You will know that every moment the labor, the service, the sacrifice that you're giving matters. It adds up for something worthwhile, you're not wasting your life, you're not sowing to the wind and reaping a whirlwind. You're not sowing seeds on the rocky soil or on the hardened path and nothing comes of it, instead as a result of following Christ's yoke, you are storing up treasure in heaven. You're building a kingdom that will never end, and everything you do therefore has value, it is worthwhile. As we submit to His yoke as our king and follow his ways, then our service to him lasts for eternity. It's valuable. But if you don't, your life will be blown away as dust in a storm. Your works will be torched with fire and they will burn like wood hay in stubble, and there will be nothing to show. It says in 1 Corinthians 3, "We will suffer loss." But as we follow Him, as we keep in step with the Spirit and do the good works that He's ordained in advance that we should walk in them, then we store up treasure. His yoke is easy and his burden is light, because we have a sense of hopefulness always that our life is counting and pointing toward the future. Sixthly, his yoke is easy and his burden is light because of the powerful assistance that he gives you in bearing it. He doesn't just put a heavy burden on you and stand back and watch you as you lift it. No, that's the scribes and Pharisees. Matthew 23:4 says, "Woe to you scribes and Pharisees, you hypocrites, you tie up heavy loads and put them on men's shoulders, but you yourself won't lift a little finger to help them." Is that our Christ? Oh, not at all. He dwells within us, by the power of the Spirit and any burden that he's put on us, He's already fully borne himself, he's given us an example and he steps up inside us and enables us to obey every command, to follow every inclination of His will. Hebrews 13:21 says, "May God equip you with everything good for doing His will and may he work in us what is pleasing to him." God puts a heavy yoke on me and then gets inside me and helps me to lift it. He gives me the strength to follow. Augustine put it this way, "Give what you command, and then command what you will." His yoke is easy and his burden is light, because He assists us from within by the power of the Spirit to bear it. Seventhly, his yoke is easy and his burden is light because of the sweetness of the love we bear to Christ. We're glad to carry his yoke because we love Him. We're glad because in a way he's yoked right next to us walking with us. He is God with us, we're not alone. Every burden that we bear we do in fellowship with Christ, we're not alone. We have come to him and he is giving us rest. You remember Jacob served an additional seven years to get Rachel? It said the seven years that he served were as a few days to him because of his love for Rachel and so it is with us, seven reasons why His yoke is easy and His burden is light. God’s Promise of Rest What does the king promise for us? He promises rest for your souls. Satan is an inherently restless being. Remember when God spoke to Satan in the Book of Job, he said, "Where have you come from, what are you doing? He said, "I'm roaming around on the earth.” That's what he does for a living. He roams around all the time and why? Because he's a restless being, what does he have to look forward to? The lake of fire, that's it, he knows his time is short and so he roams around restlessly, not only him but his demons too. In Matthew 12:43, Jesus speaking of demons says, "When a demon comes out of a man it goes through arid places seeking rest and does not find it." Satan and his kingdom are in a restless place.When you're in sin, do you not feel also the restlessness? Nothing satisfies, Christ comes to give peace and freedom from that. The Bible says, "There is no rest for the wicked," but they're like mire churned up all the time, like the waves as we said at the beginning.There are counterfeits. Satan tries to counterfeit the peace that Christ alone can give. There's drugs, there's alcohol, there's sensual pleasures, there's careerism, there's all kinds of worldly things but none of them can take the place of the peace that Christ can give, Christ alone can give it. What are we talking about when He says, "I will give you rest"? First of all, peace with God; a relationship of peace with God, a status of peace, that He's no longer at war with you. Romans 5:1, says, "Therefore since we have been justified through faith we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ." God's not at war with you anymore if you're in Christ. You have a status of peace with God, that's the rest that He gives you. It's the end of your soul, it's the goal of your soul, it's what you've been searching for all this time. I think about the pioneers in our country’s early history, going across our nation to populate the west. Can you imagine being on one of those wagon trains going across the deserts of Colorado, Utah, Nevada and coming up over the last mountain ridge and seeing a fertile valley California, where you knew at last you've reached your desired haven. This is home at last. It's well watered land, free for the taking, you can settle there, you survive. You've come to the end of your journey. That's Christ after you've searched for everything. Augustine put it this way, "You have made us for yourself O God and the heart of man is restless until it finds its rest in you." Christ gives you peace with God and you know your sins are forgiven. But there's another kind of peace isn't there? Philippians 4:6-7 it says, "Do not be anxious about anything but in everything by prayer and petition with thanksgiving present your requests to God and the peace of God which passes all understanding will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus." What is that? It's an experience of peace right now in the middle of your circumstances. Oh, but you don't know my circumstances you might say. Well, I can guess there's really only so many circumstances that people tend to go into. Christ does know your circumstances and it is possible to know the rest for your souls that God intends even in the middle of very terrible and difficult circumstances. Do you think God is all stirred up and turbulent about the current events this week? Is God on His throne saying, "What am I going to do? I don't know what to do, it's getting confusing, help me out, why don't an angel come give me some advice." Is this our God? Not at all. He knows what He's doing. Don't you want to experience His peace through anything you go through? The peace of God, this is the rest that Christ offers. Ultimately, he offers you a Sabbath rest in perfect face-to-face fellowship with God having crossed the spiritual Jordan. Death into His presence you will find rest for your souls in Christ But he also offers you peace with God now, forgiveness of sins, justification, He offers you the peace of God, an experience of God's peace no matter what your circumstances and then He offers you in the future peace and His presence, a Sabbath rest, an eternal Sabbath rest in the very presence of God. That is the peace that he offers here in Matthew 11:28-30, "Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn from me for I am gentle and humble in heart and you will find rest for your souls for my yoke is easy and my burden is light." Application What application can we take from this? First, come to Christ, the gentle king, come to Him for salvation. Can I urge you if you don't know for sure that your sins are forgiven through faith in Christ, that you don't know whether you've ever come to Christ and received the peace that he alone can give, that you not walk out of here without talking to me or one of the other ministers about your soul. Come to Christ through faith, through simple faith. If you have already come to Christ can I urge you, are you bowing your neck to Him, to His yoke every day? I you're not, if you can honestly say you're not, would you not say that all the trouble in your life is connected to the fact that you won't take His yoke upon you, that you want to run your life your way, you're not yielded to the king and following His instructions. Can I urge you gently and tenderly to repent and allow Christ to be your king. Bow your neck to him, take His yoke upon you and learn from Him, become like Him, gentle and humble in heart, peaceful and trusting under the hand of a master as Jesus was under the hand of His father, learn from Him. Thirdly, live your life free from anxiety, free from concern. Live in the peace of God through prayer and through obedience and through trusting, looking forward to your eternal Sabbath rest by trusting Him no matter what you're going through, whether financial difficulties, marriage difficulties, parenting difficulties, physical health difficulties, struggles that you're having. Trust Him and let Him give you the peace that only He can give.

The Bondage of Sin Turn in your Bibles to Matthew 11:28-30. I have an incredible sense of anticipation and delight in taking on these verses. I'm so excited to be able to proclaim to you the invitation that Jesus gave when he said, "Come to me all you who are weary and burdened, I will give you rest,” because I've found in this world that there is no rest like that which Jesus gives. It seems to me that rest is the one thing that Satan cannot counterfeit. It's a gift of God through Jesus Christ. He's offering it to all of us freely, without money or cost. He's offering it to any who will come and take it from him. As I look around the world today, I'm thinking much about the tyranny and bondage that fills this world. I don't mean the tyranny and bondage of bad human government, such as that of Saddam Hussein in Iraq, although that's grievous enough. I'm thinking of the wide-reaching effects of a far greater tyranny and bondage, and that is the bondage of sin and the devastation that comes to our lives through our own sin and through the effects of the sins of other people to us. I think that that sums it all up, doesn't it? When you look at the grief in your life, all of it has come through sin. Either your sins directly and the effects of your own sin or the sins of other people, whether you knew them or not. It's a terrible bondage. We see the effects of it, too, physically in the world, don't we? We know that somewhere in the world, this morning, a drug addict is waking up and feeling the effects of last night's excesses and resolving in his heart never to do it again, and later today he'll begin again to seek to meet that craving because he's in bondage. We know that somewhere in the world today, a wife is crying her eyes out because last night, she found out that her husband has been unfaithful to her, or a husband is struggling with things like internet pornography or other forms of immorality, and he feels a bondage and he cannot break it. There's a tyranny to it, but he has no answer. We know that somewhere in this country today, a baby will be aborted because her mother sees no way out of the hopeless situation, no sense of hope, just a sense of desperation,or an old woman will lie crying in bed because her children have forgotten her through their selfishness and their busyness. They won't come to see her and won't get active in her life. We know that somewhere in this hemisphere, perhaps in Haiti, there are orphan children that are climbing around on dump piles looking for enough food to survive, and some of them will die from the diseases that they catch there. All of this has come through the tyranny and the bondage which is sin. It's an amazing thing that Jesus stands in the midst of all of this as sin makes its powerful, boastful call over our lives saying,”I am the God of this world and there's nothing you can do to break my tyranny." A greater and stronger voice says, "Come to me all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble at heart and you will find rest for your souls, for my yoke is easy and my burden is light." What an astounding thing this is. An Invitation to Sinners We've been talking in the Gospel of Matthew about how Jesus is the King of the Kingdom of Heaven. But it's an incredibly unusual thing for a king who seeks to advance his empire to do so by standing before rebels and saying, "Please come back to me. Please come and bend your neck to my yoke and submit to my rule." Inviting rebels to submit? This is not the way it's usually done. When Alexander the Great wanted to take over the world, he got his army together and he got on his horse and he crossed the Dardanelles and he took on the Persians. When Julius Caesar wanted to turn the Roman Republican into an empire with himself as emperor, he crossed the Rubicon with his legions and marched on Rome. When Genghis Khan wanted to take over the greatest empire and land mass that the world has ever seen, he got together the greatest cavalry the world had ever seen. These Mongols were able to shoot at a tiny, little ring with an arrow at full gallop backwards, and conquer China. That's what you do if you want a larger kingdom. You don't do this: You don't stand humbly and quietly and spread out your arms before Chorazin and Bethsaida and Capernaum who have rejected you and say, "Come to me all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest." That's not the way it's done. But it is the way it's done in the Kingdom of Heaven. We see the lion of the tribe of Judah, who is fit and worthy to take the title deed for the earth. No one else is worthy, not Alexander the Great or Julius Caesar or Genghis Khan or Napoleon or any of these other great world leaders and conquerors, none of them worthy to take that scroll. But this one is, the lion of the tribe of Judah. He is sovereign and he is powerful. He says, "All things have been committed to me by my father." He's a sovereign king, he is a lion. He rules. And when he roars, the nations will tremble. But then John says, "I saw one looking like a lamb who is slain and he took that scroll." And so, this lion, the lion of the tribe of Judah, advances as a lamb, gentle and humble in heart, offering rest for souls of people who have been rebelling against him. This is an astounding thing. Have you entered into his rest? Have you come to Christ? Have you found him to be rest for your souls? If not, come today. Today is the day of salvation. Even if you have already come to Christ, come again and again and again. Some people think, "This is an Evangelical Baptist Church, so we're going to have people walking the aisles at the end and invitation all that, and I don't need to do that because I did that before." So you've come to Christ, and then that's it, right? Oh, no, come to Christ again, and come to him again and come to him again and again. For Jesus said to the woman at the well, "Anyone who drinks of the water that I give him will never thirst, but the water that I give him will become in him a spring of water, welling up again and again to eternal life." So as often as you're thirsty, you come to Jesus and drink. This invitation is for you, if you are a weary and burdened sinner. If you're a weary and burdened sinner, Christ is reaching out to you and inviting you to come. I'm going to take this text and divide into three parts. We're going to look at one of those three parts today. We're going to look at whom the king invites. Later we're going to look at what the king commands and what the king promises. But I'm so excited to tell you what the king commands and what the king promises, I'll do that again also today. Who Does the King Invite—Weary, burdened Sinners Whom does the king invite? He invites weary, burdened sinners like you and me. And what does the king command? Bow your neck to him. Submit to his yolk. Put his yoke upon you, stop fighting against his sovereign rule. Let Him be your king. Let Him be your Lord, learn from him, and let him run your life. That's what he commands. Well, what does he offer? What does he promise? Rest for your souls, rest now, and rest for ever more. Rest in this world, the peace of God, a sense of peacefulness in your soul; that it is well with your soul. And what value could be placed on that? You can't buy it. It's of incredible value, but how much greater peace with God, positionally, that God is no longer at war with you and that your sins are forgiven through faith in Christ, and that when you die, you'll be welcomed into heaven by God himself. So whom does the king invite? He invites weary, burdened sinners. And what does he command? Submit to him, put your neck in his yoke. And what does he promise? Rest for your souls. Let's look at the first, whom the king invites. First of all, I want you to realize that the king is God. He's God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit. Therefore, God the Father invites, and God the Son invites, and God the Holy Spirit invites. In the Old Testament, in the Book of Isaiah, God the father invited rebellious Israelites to come to him. He said, "Come now. Let us reason together. Though your sins are like scarlet, they shall be as snow. Though they are red as crimson, they shall be like wool. If you are willing and obedient, you'll eat the best from the land. But if you resist and rebel, you'll be devoured by the sword, for the mouth of the Lord has spoken." Is that not the same invitation? "Come close to me, and you'll find forgiveness." It’s an invitation to forgiveness. Later in Isaiah, he makes an invitation to feasting. In Isaiah 55:1-3, he says, "Come all you who are thirsty, come to the waters. And you who have no money, come buy and eat, come buy wine and milk without money and without cost. Why spend money in what is not bread in your life on what does not satisfy? Listen, listen to me, and eat what is good, and your soul will delight in the richest of fare. Give ear and come to me, hear me, that your soul may live." That is an invitation from God the Father to the Israelites and through them to us, to come very close for feasting, to stop wasting your life on things that don't matter, that don't satisfy, and to come very close to him, to have a banquet with God Himself. We see that God the Father invites, he invites us to come. God the Son invites. Jesus invited again and again and again, not just here in this wonderful text, but in many places. Speaking to his disciples in Matthew 4:18-19, walking beside the Sea of Galilee, he saw there Peter and John and James and Andrew, four disciples, and they were fishing. What did Jesus say to them as he walked by them? He said, "Come, follow me and I will make you fishers of men." Later in Matthew 9, when he sees Matthew the tax collector sitting at the tax booth, he walks by and he says, "Come, follow me." Jesus is an inviting God, an inviting Savior, saying, "Leave behind your old way of living and come follow me." He says the same thing in his parables. His parables have in them an invitation to come. There's the parable of the wedding banquet when the father sends out messengers, servants to those who are invited to the banquet. He says, "Then he sent some servants and said, 'Tell those who have been invited that I've prepared my dinner. My oxen and fattened cattle have been butchered and everything is ready. Come to the wedding banquet.'" In the middle of his parables there's an invitation, "Come to the banquet." Speaking to hungry and thirsty and desperate souls in John chapter 7, on the last and greatest day of the feast, Jesus stood and cried out in a loud voice, "If anyone is thirsty, let him come to me and drink." He also speaks to dead people. He speaks to Lazarus in the tomb, and what does He say? After the stone is removed, he speaks to Lazarus and he says, "Come forth," and he comes. You see, Jesus is an inviting God. Let me stop for a moment. I've struggled with this thing, and maybe you can help me. Is this an invitation or is it a command? Well, what's the difference? I've thought a lot about this, and I can't resolve it. Who is it that's saying "Come"? Is he giving us an invitation, or is he giving us a command? Let's say the difference is a command is something negative that's hard and burdensome and so we have to kind of do it. Is that the truth? Are not all of God's commands delightful? It's sin that's burdensome. What about an invitation? You say, "Well, an invitation is something that if you don't take up on, at least there's no penalty. It's a good thing that you're invited." Is that true? If you don't take Christ up on this invitation, do you realize what kind of penalty there is? Eternal hell. So is this not both an invitation and a command? I can't work it out. The fact of the matter is it's the king, and he's inviting you to come into his presence and feast and be with him. He gives us an invitation, just like he gave Lazarus an invitation to come out of the tomb, "Come out of that tomb, Lazarus." Aren't you delighted that Lazarus took him up on his invitation and came out of the tomb? Aren't you glad they didn't have to send somebody in the tomb and go get him? while." He came out. On judgment day, he'll give an invitation. He will say to faithful stewards, "Well done, good and faithful steward. You've been faithful with a few things. I will put you in charge of many things." What's the next? "Come, enter into the joy of your master." There's an invitation. In the instance of the sheep and the goats, the King will say to those in his right, "Come, you, who are blessed by my Father. Take your inheritance, the kingdom prepared for you since the creation of the world." Our God is an inviting God. God the Father says, "Come." God the Son says, "Come." God the Holy Spirit says, "Come." At the end of the Bible, in the Book of Revelation, Revelation 22:17. The Spirit and the bride say, "Come. And let him who hears say, 'Come.' Whoever is thirsty, let him come. And whoever wishes, let him take the free gift of the water of life." Around the world today, the Father, the Son, and the Spirit are inviting burdened sinners to come very close, to come close for salvation. This is a mysterious context, is it not? Think about the context of Matthew 11:20-30. Jesus is dealing with people responding to his ministry, to his miracles, really, and he condemns the cities in which most of his miracles had been performed because they didn't repent. "Woe to you, Chorazin. Woe to you, Bethsaida," he says. "Woe to you, Capernaum, because you didn't repent." There wasn't any organized, it seems, opposition to him in those cities; they just were indifferent. They didn't care. They didn't want to change their lives. They did not repent. Jesus denounced these cities. And yet, he's standing there holding out salvation to any who will come. Isn't that incredible? Right in the face of opposition, right in the face of indifference, he's standing there saying, "Come to me all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest.” Also, it's in the context of him proclaiming, preaching divine sovereignty; that He's sovereign over all things. He's sovereign in that he prays to his Father, and his Father is Lord of heaven and earth, and his Father conceals things from the wise and learned, reveals them to little children, because it was his good pleasure. This is our Sovereign God. He says, "All things have been committed to me by my Father. I rule over all things, heaven and earth. They've been given to me. I'm sovereign over things. Sovereign over salvation and over the events of life." The sovereignty of God clearly portrayed and proclaimed here. He says, for example, "No one knows the Son except the Father, and no one knows the Father except the Son, and those to whom the Son chooses to reveal him. Come to me all you are weary and burdened." There's no seam, no division, no chapter subtitle put in there. It just flows right from verse 27 to verse 28: Divine sovereignty and human responsibility, and an appeal to the sinner to come. One of my favorite preachers was the Calvinist Charles Spurgeon, who believed in the sovereignty of God and was one of the greatest evangelists in history. He preached 11 sermons on Matthew 11:28-30. Charles Spurgeon never tired of this text. He loved to preach it, because he saw the sovereignty of God flowing out into a general and free invitation. Now, you say, "Wait a minute. This doesn't make sense. How can it be? How can God be sovereign? How can there be predestination? How can there be election and still a free Gospel appeal?" I'm going to tell you, in the end, I don't really know. My own intellect, my own wisdom is limited. But there doesn't seem to be any problem for Jesus, does there? He proclaimed sovereignty in verse 27, and gives a free Gospel invitation in verse 28. He's not troubled by this at all, but does it very clearly. Now, I've already quoted Revelation 22:17, it says, "Whosoever will, let him take the water of life freely." Christ sees no conflict to this; he just says, "Whosoever will, come to me and find rest for your souls." It's not a burden at all. But other scriptures teaches that no one, absolutely no one, will respond to this invitation if the Father doesn't draw them first. "No one can come to me," said Jesus, "unless the Father who sent me draws him, and I will raise him up at the last day." John Murray said, "It is a moral and spiritual impossibility for sinners to come to Christ if God the Father doesn't draw him." And yet, God does draw sinners to Christ. Jesus says, "All that the Father gives me will come to me, and whoever comes to me, I will never drive away." How does that happen? Well, it happens in the moment of preaching. When someone stands up, like me, and says, "Jesus is saying to you, 'Whosoever will, let him come.'" The appeal goes out to the ends of the earth. The message of faith is proclaimed, the gospel is proclaimed. And that message of faith that we are proclaiming, that if you confess with your mouth, "Jesus is Lord," and believe in your hearts that God raised Him from the dead, you will be saved. Faith comes by hearing the proclaimed message. So at the moment of a proclamation like this, faith springs up in the heart and people come. They come to faith in Christ. Reminds me, this is an illustration that I thought of on 9/11/2001. There were firemen the next day going over the rubble, and they were calling out, calling down into the rubble. Who were they calling for? They were calling for live people. It stands to reason, doesn't it? “If anybody can hear me, make a sound and we'll get you out." There's a general call going out, and who's going to respond? Those that are alive. So it is with the gospel mysteries. The Father's work goes out and regeneration occurs. Then for the first time, you hear the gospel. Oh, you'd heard it lots of times before, but for the first time you hear it as Christ and he's standing and inviting, and he's saying, "whosoever will" means me. I should come. The Gospel appeal goes out. Now, who is invited? According to this text, you who are weary and heavy laden. He says, "Come to me, all you who are weary and heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Come, ye sinners, poor and needy, weak and wounded, sick and sore." Jesus, ready stands to save you, full of pity, love, and power. That's who he's appealing to: Weary and heavy laden. The Greek literally says, "Those who labor, those who are burdened, those who are under a crushing burden and they feel the weight of it." I think of the slaves in Egypt, when Pharaoh took away their provision of grass, and they had to go out and cut their own grass and their quota of bricks was not decreased at all, and they felt the task masters lash on their backs. This is a metaphor for the burden of sin, a slavery to sin. Some people think that this burden refers to those that are crushed by the demands of the Mosaic Law, or crushed by the burdens of the law. The Ten Commandments, we break them every day. We feel it. Some people think it's the burden of religiosity, trying to work out your salvation apart from Christ, trying to be a good person, trying to do it through religion, trying to give a little more money, or do a few more good deeds, pray a little longer, fast a little bit. Like Martin Luther, in the middle of his cell as a monk, laying on the stone floor with his blanket up in his cot. He wouldn't put the blanket on him because he thought his own physical suffering would make him more attractive to God, and that God would forgive his sin. But the problem that Luther found is no matter how much he tried to do enough for God, there was never an enough. It didn't matter how much you did in your religiosity. It was never enough, because God is holy and perfect. So then we have the weary, burdensome sense of religion crushing us at that moment. Scribes and Pharisees, Jesus said, "They tie up heavy burdens and put them on men's shoulders, but they don't lift a finger to move them." The Pharisees set up a religious system that nobody could survive. In Acts 15:10, it says, "Why do you try to test God by putting on the necks of the disciples a yoke that neither we nor our fathers have been able to bear?" The crushing burden of religiosity, trying to earn your salvation through good deeds. Galatians 5:1 says, "It is for freedom that Christ has set us free, stand firm then, and do not let yourselves be burdened again by a yoke of slavery." This is religiosity, a sense that I'm going to try to save myself by being good person. I'm never going to do that stuff again. I'm going to start doing all kinds of good things. Well, how's it going? Do you find yourself pulled again and again to that stuff, the very things you've repudiated? Do you find yourself unable to live up to the perfect standards you know are in the Bible? It's a crushing burden, isn't it? The burden of trying to earn your own salvation. You never will, because God's standards are perfect. But you know, I don't think these are the burdens. I think the real burden is sin; it's not the law of God. Frankly, God's commands are not burdensome. It's sin that's a burden. Sin is a devastating, vicious tyrant and task master. In C.S. Lewis’s Screwtape Letters, the older uncle Screwtape talking to the younger demon Wormwood, giving him advice on how to tempt us, said, he's dealing with the topic of pleasure, say, "You need to be careful with pleasure, because pleasure really belongs to the enemy.” That's God, by the way. "Pleasure is the enemy's. We don't get into pleasure, but we have to use pleasure to entice people into sin. But we've got to wean them off it as quickly as possible. Here's the recipe for success. Ever-increasing bondage to the sin with ever-decreasing pleasure in it. That's a winning combination." You go ask the addict, "How much pleasure do you get out of your addiction?" They'd give anything to trade it if they could. But they're stuck, and so they're in bondage. So it is for all of us, in bondage to sin apart from Christ. Along with that comes the crushing burden of a sense of impending judgment from God, the burden of a guilty conscience. Job said in 31:4, "Does he not see my ways and count my every step?" Does He not see my ways and count my every step? Jesus said, "Men will have to give an account on the Day of Judgment for every careless word that they have spoken." That leads to a burdened conscience. In Lamentations 1:14, it says, "My sins have been bound into a yoke, by his hands, they were woven together. They've come upon my neck, and the Lord has sapped my strength. He's handed me over to those I cannot withstand." Sin becomes the crushing yoke on our neck. We can't survive the crushing burden of a guilty conscience. Edgar Allan Poe in his grim story, “Tell-Tale Heart”, speaks of a man, probably insane, who killed another man and hid his body in his house. In the middle of the night, the policeman comes and knocks on the door, because the neighbor had heard a single cry. He lets this policeman in, so proud of himself that he has thoroughly disposed of the body and any evidence of the crime. He's thoroughly convinced that he's going to be able to nonchalance his way through this interview with the policeman. But as he's sitting there, he starts to hear the pounding of a heart in his ears. He's uncomfortable, because he knows what it is. It's the beating heart of the man that he's murdered. He's afraid that the policeman will be able to hear it. And eventually, under the pressure and the weight of a guilty conscience, he confesses his crime. The policemen hasn't heard a thing. So also Christian in Pilgrim's Progress feels the burden on his back of guilt from sin, and it does not come off until he comes to the cross and it rolls off into the empty tomb. But what are we going to do to free ourselves from guilt? There's only one thing: "Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will take that burden off you. I will die in our place under the wrath of God. I will take all of your sins on myself and I will extinguish the wrath and curse of God for you. If you only come to me, I will take away your burden." So whom does the king invite? He invites sinners, weary and burdened sinners, and invites them to come to him. He doesn't say, "Come to a program. Come to a religion." He says, "Come to me." Come to a person. So it's not to what does the king invite weary burdened sinners; it's to whom. He invites us to come to himself. To a personal, intimate relationship with Jesus Christ. "Come to me and I will give you rest." You look to him and he can and will free you from your burden of sin. He commands that you bend your neck to his yoke. You can't come to Christ the Savior and not have him as your Lord. But Jesus comes to free you from the guilt and the burden of sin. Ultimately, He promises you a rest that only he can give. Application What application can we take from this? First of all, I want you to marvel at the grace of Christ our King. We don't deserve this, do we? We do not deserve a king to stand in front of us like this, gentle and humble in heart, and welcome us back to himself. And he doesn't do it just once, does he? He does it again and again and again. As often as we need, he invites us very close to come. Secondly, I want you to feel the burden of sin and hate it. I want you to hate sin as much as Jesus does. I want you to realize that all the grief you have in your life comes from your sin and from the sins of others to you. Therefore, I want you to feel the weight, the burden, the heaviness of sin so that you will despise it. Well, what then? Then you come to Christ. I'm appealing to any who have never come to faith in Christ that you would come today and trust in him. Do you think that you can stand before him without his forgiveness, without the blood of Christ, and survive Judgment Day? You cannot. So come to Christ today. Don't leave this room without coming to Christ. If today, you hear him calling to you, come to him and let him save you from sin. But if you've already committed your life to Christ, do you think this text has nothing to say to you? Suppose you're wrestling with immorality. Suppose you're wrestling as a spouse with relational problems, bickering and arguing, and selfishness. Suppose every time a trial comes in your life, you respond with frustration and irritation rather than faith. "Come to me," said Jesus, "and I'll free you from that. Come to me and I'll free you from immorality. I'll free you from internet pornography. I'll free you from abortion. I'll free you from spousal abuse. I'll free you from alcohol abuse. I'll free you from prayerlessness. I'll free you from laziness. I'll free you from unbelief. I'll free you from disrespect for authority. I'll free you from sin. Come to me." If today, you hear his voice, don't harden your heart. That's good for every day, day after day. Come to Christ.