Doing Part 7

This Preaching in Shorts sermon series is called “Doing” and looks at what disciples DO.

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We are in a series called “Doing”. It is about doing what Jesus did. About following Him. About what it means to be a disciple. Doing is what should spring forth from a life of being in relationship with God and others. We will be using the Gospel of Matthew as the foundation for this series.

Over the last few weeks, we talked about developing the heart of a disciple and about developing a private relationship with God, which includes giving, praying, forgiving, and fasting. We have talked about not being judgmental, treating people the way we want to be treated and the importance of having compassion for the people all around us. Today, we are going to look at an amazing promise that comes from being a disciple, the promise of soul rest.

Scripture Reading

Matthew 11:28-30 (MSG)
28 “Are you tired? Worn out? Burned out on religion? Come to me. Get away with me and you’ll recover your life. I’ll show you how to take a real rest. 29 Walk with me and work with me—watch how I do it. Learn the unforced rhythms of grace. I won’t lay anything heavy or ill-fitting on you. 30 Keep company with me and you’ll learn to live freely and lightly.”

Here is the same passage in the NIV:

Matthew 11:28-30 (NIV)
28 “Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. 29 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. 30 For my yoke is easy and my burden is light.”

1. There is nothing like a good yoke

Matthew 11:29a (NIV)
29 Take my yoke upon you and learn from me,

Jesus is giving us a great word picture. The yoke was a frame that fit like a collar on the neck and shoulders of two animals. When the two animals were yoked together, the tasks were easier to perform. And, if one of the animals was younger, it could learn from the older, wiser, more experienced animal.

Jesus is saying that we are to be yoked to Him. Teamed up with Him as we go through life. As we do, we can learn from Him. Because He is who He is, He will take the fullest share of all our burdens. Linked to Him, our burdens are truly made light. This doesn’t mean we never have to go through difficulties in our life. I have said often times that in this fallen world and broken planet we will have hard things to deal with. Jesus even said,

John 16:33 (NIV)
33 “I have told you these things, so that in me you may have peace. In this world you will have trouble. But take heart! I have overcome the world.”

It means that we can experience rest and peace in the midst of difficulties because He is gentle and humble and He is with us and for us.

So..

2. Is the yoke on you?

Matthew 11:29 (NIV)
9 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.

One of ways of knowing if you are in the yoke with Jesus and experiencing His rest for your soul, is that you will tend to be a joyful and more gentle person. You will be more eternally focused than temporally focused. More other centered than self centered.

Philippians 4:4-7 (NIV)
4 Rejoice in the Lord always. I will say it again: Rejoice! 5 Let your gentleness be evident to all. The Lord is near.

But, I have to tell you that being joyful and gentle is way easier when it is convenient.

Let me tell you about the gym the other day….

I was kind of stressing over a few different issues so I was kind of releasing some steam in my workout. I had my headphones on and they were cranked up to some Chris Tomlin and I was just kind of totally self absorbed. At one point, I dropped the weights a little heavily on the machine. I like the noise. I like to grunt a little. But this is a coed gym, not everyone likes grunting and the sound of weights crashing back into place. Some people like to sit quietly on the bike machines while they watch TV. They might actually dislike the grunting and weight dropping enough that they stop what they are doing, enter your space and ask you to be quieter.

This nice lady asked me to please be quieter. I said, “Oh, I’m sorry”.

Now, the miracle here is that those were the words that came out of my mouth, because that is not what I was thinking.

Who do you think you are?

Do you know who I am?

Get yourself an Ipod and wear headphones.

I will show you, I will go buy you a set of headphones. I will heap some coals on your head with kindness.

This a gym, there should be grunting and crashing of weights.

I am going to crash the weights again just to show you.

The whole time, this verse is going through my head

Philippians 2:3 (NIV)
3 Do nothing out of selfish ambition or vain conceit, but in humility consider others better than yourselves.

If Jesus yoke is not on you, you are pulling your own yoke and you end up with a pain in the neck. Most times, it is not the other people that are the pain in the neck, it is our self focus making us feel like we are being bothered.

One of our favorite old sayings around here is, “If people are not on my heart, they are on my nerves”. If people aren’t on your heart, you probably are not …

3. Getting the yoke

Matthew 11:30 (NIV)
30 For my yoke is easy and my burden is light.”

If you are stressed, bothered, worried, fearful, anxious, and life seems like a giant pain in the neck, you are probably not getting the yoke. So what do you do?

Philippians 4:6-7 (NIV)
6 Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God. 7 And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.

Pray. Stop pulling your own yoke. Get hooked into His. Change the focus from you to Him. Get thankful. Lord, my life is yours, my time is yours, everything I have was a gift from you, down to the next breath that I take. And as you do, this amazing thing happens, the peace of God which transcends all understanding, doesn’t make sense, enters in and guards your heart and mind. Rest for your soul. That is what disciples get to experience. Soul rest, the peace of God, in a broken and fallen world that needs to know there is hope.

His rest for our souls, allows us to move into His harvest field with compassion, without being critical and judgmental, loving others well and treating people the way we want to be treated. His rest for our souls allows us to seek first His kingdom instead of being consumed with trying to fix the broken things in our life in our power. His rest for our souls allows us to live without fear and worry. Make sure that the yoke is on you today, because that is where real life is found.

5 – 2 – 1

Related posts:

1. Doing Part 6
2. Naturally Supernatural Part 3
3. Doing Part 4
4. Developing a Disciple’s Heart – Part 1
5. Developing a Disciple’s Heart – Part 3

Tags: disciple, featured, Jesus moment, love, Matthew, ministry of encouragement, mission, one more, Preaching in Shorts

Category: Preaching in Shorts