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Listen "Questions - So, You Asked About Rest | lazy | Hustle | Exhaustion | Culture - Video"
Episode Synopsis
Sermon Notes: August 3rd
Matthew 11:28-30
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Check us out at: https://citylightvicksburg.org/
Or check us out here: https://www.facebook.com/citylightvicksburg
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The yolk god has for us is actually easy. How can I discern between laziness and a healthy desire for rest?
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Our American context places us between 2 states of being - grinding continually in hustle, and seeking escape from reality. Both of these two extremes come from our cultural context, and both of these come from the same place - extreme exhaustion.
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Jesus’s call to discipleship is to urgent submission. No if’s, or’s, or but’s. So, we give God our YES! But, when we give God our yes, Jesus in response, gives us rest.
.
Who needs Jesus’ rest? All of us. In a narrow sense, Jesus gives us rest from trying to fulfill the Old Testament law. It IS exhausting. But you don’t have to be from the Jewish community to be called by Jesus when he says “all who are burdened.” The word “All” is important here.
.
Why do we need the rest? In 2014 - 44% of those in the work force feel burnt out. 51% feel used up. 81% of teens feel pressure about their plans/social standing/etc. This pressure comes from outside forces, true. But also from theirselves. These are staggering numbers, but they should not be shocking to us. We are taught, in our culture, we must push ourselves to reach our full potential. We’ve bought the lie, that we must place the unfair burden of performance on our children and ourselves. And yet… we are surprised when a rising plane crashes, when it only had fumes in the tank.
.
All of this is leaving us exhausted. We are trying to be everywhere for everybody, and we weren’t created with the capacity, and never intended to have the capacity to be that way.
.
The answer - in your exhaustion - is not to turn inward and escape reality. So, what do we do? We turn to Jesus, and follow him into rest.
.
When we try to become someone else’s rest, we will harm both of us. But Jesus can make that claim, and become the rest we need, because he IS God.
.
So why does God invite us to come to him? He invites us because He’s God, but also because, we are not. God is with us, in us, for us, but we are not Him. We were created with the weaknesses that we have. Weaknesses that the serpent exploited to cause the fall, actually!
.
When we refuse rest, when we refuse to accept the limitations, we were designed with, an already tired soul becomes a crushed soul. In an attempt to step out of our place, and become like God, we get out of step of simple obedience with God. Thanks be to God that we have the opportunity to have simple obedience!
.
He really loves us. God really loves us. And God really ‘likes’ us too. He doesn’t do all this out of requirement. God delights in his creation. And we shouldn’t view our God as one of necessity. We should delight in Him as well! But we should view Jesus’ invitation to get rest in Him, as one of delight. So how do we get that rest? “Take my yolk upon you.” - obeying His word, being discipled by Him, and rejecting everything else. And know that in our failures, we have Grace.
.
So why does it feel hard? Why does the yolk feel hard? It’s because we haven’t traded in the "other ones." In order to train our heart to say Yes to God, we have to train our heart to say no to the other gods. We cannot rest in Christ, when we are yolked to our performance, or the pace of our life, or finding significance, or just being focused on our phones, or prosperity, or validation. We cannot rest under the yolk of Jesus when we are trying to be perfect in everything else.
.
If the Yolk of Christ feels burdensome it’s because we’re still yolked to other little -g- gods, too.
Matthew 11:28-30
.
Check us out at: https://citylightvicksburg.org/
Or check us out here: https://www.facebook.com/citylightvicksburg
.
The yolk god has for us is actually easy. How can I discern between laziness and a healthy desire for rest?
.
Our American context places us between 2 states of being - grinding continually in hustle, and seeking escape from reality. Both of these two extremes come from our cultural context, and both of these come from the same place - extreme exhaustion.
.
Jesus’s call to discipleship is to urgent submission. No if’s, or’s, or but’s. So, we give God our YES! But, when we give God our yes, Jesus in response, gives us rest.
.
Who needs Jesus’ rest? All of us. In a narrow sense, Jesus gives us rest from trying to fulfill the Old Testament law. It IS exhausting. But you don’t have to be from the Jewish community to be called by Jesus when he says “all who are burdened.” The word “All” is important here.
.
Why do we need the rest? In 2014 - 44% of those in the work force feel burnt out. 51% feel used up. 81% of teens feel pressure about their plans/social standing/etc. This pressure comes from outside forces, true. But also from theirselves. These are staggering numbers, but they should not be shocking to us. We are taught, in our culture, we must push ourselves to reach our full potential. We’ve bought the lie, that we must place the unfair burden of performance on our children and ourselves. And yet… we are surprised when a rising plane crashes, when it only had fumes in the tank.
.
All of this is leaving us exhausted. We are trying to be everywhere for everybody, and we weren’t created with the capacity, and never intended to have the capacity to be that way.
.
The answer - in your exhaustion - is not to turn inward and escape reality. So, what do we do? We turn to Jesus, and follow him into rest.
.
When we try to become someone else’s rest, we will harm both of us. But Jesus can make that claim, and become the rest we need, because he IS God.
.
So why does God invite us to come to him? He invites us because He’s God, but also because, we are not. God is with us, in us, for us, but we are not Him. We were created with the weaknesses that we have. Weaknesses that the serpent exploited to cause the fall, actually!
.
When we refuse rest, when we refuse to accept the limitations, we were designed with, an already tired soul becomes a crushed soul. In an attempt to step out of our place, and become like God, we get out of step of simple obedience with God. Thanks be to God that we have the opportunity to have simple obedience!
.
He really loves us. God really loves us. And God really ‘likes’ us too. He doesn’t do all this out of requirement. God delights in his creation. And we shouldn’t view our God as one of necessity. We should delight in Him as well! But we should view Jesus’ invitation to get rest in Him, as one of delight. So how do we get that rest? “Take my yolk upon you.” - obeying His word, being discipled by Him, and rejecting everything else. And know that in our failures, we have Grace.
.
So why does it feel hard? Why does the yolk feel hard? It’s because we haven’t traded in the "other ones." In order to train our heart to say Yes to God, we have to train our heart to say no to the other gods. We cannot rest in Christ, when we are yolked to our performance, or the pace of our life, or finding significance, or just being focused on our phones, or prosperity, or validation. We cannot rest under the yolk of Jesus when we are trying to be perfect in everything else.
.
If the Yolk of Christ feels burdensome it’s because we’re still yolked to other little -g- gods, too.
In God we trust