This transcript was generated by whisper.ai.

This is our last day together, day five of our look through Matthew chapter 11.
We've been talking this week about the struggles that keep us from living this
life of faith that Jesus has for us. We've talked about doubt, talked about a
critical spirit, we've talked about indifference and apathy, we've talked about
pride.

For those of us who are followers of Christ, there is one last struggle that may
be the most common of all, maybe the most dangerous of all, is the struggle with
weariness. We want to serve, we want to make a difference, we're just tired. Not
only physically tired, we're spiritually tired, we're weary in our bones and
we're weary to our souls.

To those who struggle with weariness, Jesus has something to say to you. If
you're feeling, if I could just get enough rest, if I could just get a little
more time to have a break, I don't just feel physically tired, you say to
yourself, I feel pressured, I feel pushed this way, I feel pulled that way. The
Bible calls it weary.

If you're feeling that way, just close your eyes right now. If you're driving,
don't close your eyes, just sort of spiritually close your eyes. Just close your
eyes right now.

Take a deep breath and listen to these words from Jesus' lips. 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.

Do you hear that? Do you hear that to the depth of your soul? Jesus says it's
okay to get some rest.

What's the answer to weariness? Rest. Obviously, more work is not the answer to
weariness.

Jesus says, I will give you rest. It's just in this generation that we've added
a new word to our vocabulary, workaholic. It's not that we're working any harder
than people used to.

It's more that there are so many things to do and pressures upon us that we've
forgotten how to rest, physically, spiritually, how to rest. I hear people say,
even committed people say, I would rather burn out than rest out for Jesus.
Well, either way, you're out.

Jesus doesn't want you out. He wants you in, and these verses tell us He wants
you to find rest in Him. Physically, when it comes to rest, we spend more on
recreation each year in America than we do on education, construction of new
homes, or national defense, but we often come home from all that recreation more
tired inside than when we started.

If you've ever been glad when the vacation is over, you're not alone. We need to
learn to get some rest inside, where it counts. So let's use these words of
Jesus to help us to think about some questions that have the potential for
bringing some genuine peace, genuine rest into your busy life.

We're going to look at four words, focus on four words, come, give, take, and
learn. And in those four words, Jesus tells us how to have rest. "First come,"
He says, "come to Me.

" And the question behind that is, are you coming or going? I don't know whether
I'm coming or going, you say. That's the confused state that we often live in.

No wonder we feel tired. Oftentimes we think we have to go in order to get rest.
We have to go away.

So we have the great summer vacation expedition. But so many vacations, have you
noticed they're losers? We fall into the three traps.

We wait too long, so we're too tired. We do and spend too much, and we expect
too much. A vacation can be a good thing for your family, but it can't give you
the rest for your soul that only Jesus can give.

So Jesus says, you want to get some real rest, come to Me. Get to a place where
you can spend time with Me. It can be just a few minutes at the start of a day,
but do it regularly at the start of every day.

It could be a few hours that you set out on a weekend just to sit in Jesus'
presence. But just think, I have so many things to do. Rest is not going to come
into your life because you finished all the things that you have to do.

Rest is going to come into your life when you come to Him. Come to Me, Jesus
says. That's where it starts.

And then the second word is give. And the question behind that is, are you
trying to earn your rest? Jesus says, I will give you rest.

Rest isn't earned, it's given. We have this common idea that we have to earn our
rest. I hear people say, I have earned this vacation.

I've earned a weekend off. You deserve a break today. Jesus takes aim at all
those theories.

He says, I will give you rest. Rest is a gift. The word leisure comes from a
Latin word, lyceri, which means to be permitted.

And Jesus is saying, it is permitted. I want to permit rest in your life.
Somebody has written about play.

We forget sometimes how to play as adults. Somebody's written that play is a
taste of the paradise from which we came and a foretaste of the paradise which
we will enter. Just joyfully being in God's presence, joyfully enjoying God's
creation.

Revelation 14, 13 says, they will rest from their labor, for their deeds will
follow them. God's not going to ignore what we've done, but there is this sense
of, I can rest in Him. Watching children is a great way to learn about play.

And the fact that rest really is a gift. We rest not because our work is done.
We rest because God commanded it.

God created us for it. We have a need for it. The world, the church genuinely
needs rested Christians.

The way that many of us work for Christ and do so much for Christ, have so much
intensity. People outside of the church look and think, I don't want to be like
that. I'm already busy enough.

I'm already stressed enough. They're twice as stressed as I am. The world is not
looking for a stressed life, they're looking for a rested life.

Are you trying to earn your rest? Jesus says, I will give you rest. Third word
is the word take.

And the question behind that is, are you trying too hard? Take my yoke upon you,
Jesus said. You'll find rest for your souls.

Take my yoke. You might be trying to take the yoke all on yourself. A yoke is
the picture of what we put on a horse or an ox to pull a plow.

And that yoke would cause you to be able to pull the load. Well, Jesus says,
take my yoke. Jesus isn't trying to add more to our lives.

The idea is, now we're pulling together with Jesus. And it's not like Jesus, you
pull the way that I want to pull. It's always, I'm pulling together in the
direction that he wants to go in life.

Some people, when it comes to rest, they couldn't get rested in a month-long
vacation. They're doomed to be tired at the end of every day because they're
trying too hard. It's all about me.

It's all about what I can do. It's all on my shoulders. And Jesus says, put it
on my shoulders.

Take my yoke upon you. Trying too hard, I'm not talking about the energy that
you put into your work. I'm talking about the reason behind your work.

Is it all for you? Is it all about you? Jesus said here that life does have a
yoke.

It does have a burden to it. But it can be easy. It can be light.

Take my yoke. That means you take his task upon your life, but it also means
that you take his strength into your life. Whatever yoke you put on, it's either
going to drain you or it's going to strengthen you.

And any other yoke, besides being yoked together with Jesus, is a yoke that
drains you because it can't give you spiritual strength. He's the only one who
can give you the spiritual strength that you need to face life. So the question
behind this is whose yoke do you have on?

If it's the yoke of success or of prosperity or self-advancement, the wrong yoke
means you're putting pressure on your heart, your life that was never meant to
be there. My yoke, Jesus said, is easy. Now that doesn't mean it's easy to do.

The word easy here actually has behind it the idea of the fit of the yoke. It's
the idea that Jesus' task, the direction he wants you to pull in, it fits your
life perfectly. It gives you a real sense of the rightness and effectiveness
that God wants to have in your work because it enables you to really rest when
it's time to rest and really work when it's time to work because you're doing
what he's called you to do.

You're not trying so hard because it's his yoke and not yours. Of all the things
about rest, this is the most difficult for us to learn. But you know what?

I'm going to spend the rest of my Christian life learning this one. How to pull
in his direction, not my direction, how to rely on his strength, not my
strength. Take my yoke upon you.

And then the final word is the word learn. And the question behind that is who
is teaching you how to rest? Learn from me, Jesus said.

I'm gentle and humble in heart and you'll find rest. You will find rest for your
souls. Learn.

Where are you learning how to live life? Jesus says learn from me. And by the
way, I am gentle.

I am humble. I will gently and humbly form and fashion your character and values
and lifestyle into something that is truly beautiful. He's talking here about
the power of humility.

Jesus expresses that power towards us in his death on the cross and also the way
he works and ministers in our lives now. He's patient with you. God doesn't have
to be patient with you, but he is.

That's his humility. He also wants to bring that humility into my life, into
your life. One of the reasons we live in a continual state of pressure is we
take ourselves too seriously and we don't take God seriously enough.

We're prideful about ourselves and we forget God. When we're humble about
ourselves, then we can remember God. Remember who God is and what God wants to
do in our lives.

So those four words, find rest for your soul, Jesus said. Come to me and you
will find rest for your soul. Those four words, let's focus on them together
again as we close in prayer.

Would you pray with me? And let's just do what Jesus invited us to do. First
come, come to him.

In your mind, just sit in the presence of Jesus right now. Jesus, here I am
before you, with you. And then the word give.

Recognize his gift of rest that he wants to give. I will give you rest. Hear
that from him.

Receive that gift from him right now. Jesus, give me the rest that only you can
give. Then the word take.

Jesus, instead of my direction, I want your direction. Instead of my strength, I
want your strength. Instead of my yoke, I want your yoke.

So I take your yoke upon me. Teach me what that means today. Then the word
learn.

Jesus, I want to learn humility from you today. I want to learn to find rest for
my soul today. Thank you, Jesus, that when we talk to you, we know that you're
listening to us.

And thank you, Jesus, that as you listen, we know you're acting in our lives in
humility and love. So we pray this day, as we come to you, that you would give
that promised rest for our souls. And we pray it in Jesus' name.

Amen. Amen. Make sure to join us next week.

We continue together in our study of the book of Matthew.