Living the Easy Life
Part 2 in series The Shape of Things to Come Wildwind Community Church
David Flowers
September 13, 2008
We’re talking about following Jesus – about living our lives as his disciples – learning from him not how to live his life, but how to live our lives the way he would live them if he were us. I told you last week that most people believe that following Jesus is difficult, if not impossible, and I told you that this week we’d focus on how easy it can be to follow Jesus.
This is not to say it requires no effort. Anything worth doing requires effort, and anyone worth following will lead you to places you probably would not go if you were in charge. Following Jesus will be like that. Sometimes it will test you and try you. Sometimes you will fail. Sometimes you will simply not succeed as wildly as you might have hoped. But you can be a disciple and still fail! The gospels are full of accounts of how the disciples failed this and that test, but through it all they were still disciples. In fact the only reason you are following Jesus and not leading him is because he will always get it right and you will sometimes, and perhaps often, fail. If you were not the kind of person who fails, you would have no need to follow Jesus because you would have nothing to learn from him. People who never fail do not need to follow Jesus.
Now to get us started talking about living the easy life as a follower of Jesus, I want to first acknowledge that some of you have not decided to be followers of Jesus, for different reasons. I understand this. But this sermon is for you! See, Jesus said that we all must count the cost of following him. We must add up everything we stand to lose if we follow him, and then add up everything we stand to gain if we follow him. Yep – we do a pros and cons list. Jesus recommended this for two reasons. First, because Jesus was positive that a life as his disciple is the greatest, most peaceful, happy, and successful life you can ever hope to live. Jesus has nothing to lose by honestly asking you to count the cost. Second, if you are to make progress as a disciple of Jesus, you must realize that that has to be prioritized in your life above everything else. It is the most important thing. So if you are not a disciple of Jesus this sermon is for you because in this sermon we will help you see what you will get by following Jesus. Perhaps we can help you decide if this is something you would like for yourself.
Okay, let’s look at this easy life Jesus promised us. We’re going to be looking at Matthew 11:28-30 tonight, out of both the New International Version, and The Message translation. Let’s look at them both right now. Jesus said:
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."
In other words…
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."
First of all, who is Jesus addressing here? Verse 28 (NIV) – people who are weary and burdened. Verse 28 (TM) – people who are tired and worn out and burned out. In order to understand what it means to live an easy life as a disciple of Jesus, we must understand first that Jesus’ invitation is to those who have found that living the way they live is exhausting. It’s for people who can’t keep up the pace – those who wish they could drop out of the rat race. Jesus calls to people who have come to the end of themselves, and yes – that means even in a religious way. Jesus calls to people who are getting tired of playing religious games, people who have maybe sat in church and been guilted again and again, and are convinced they can never be the person their pastor or their church wants them to be. Jesus calls to people who aren’t sure if they can play by the rules, and are pretty convinced they can never live a life that’s as morally impressive as the lives of others may be. Jesus calls to those who don’t know much about the Bible and feel inferior because of it. Is Jesus calling to you, here?
My friends, we begin here. It’s not the call of Jesus that has discouraged you, frustrated you, worn you out, burned you out, exhausted you, and maybe disillusioned you with God, with church, or whatever. What has burned you out is living outside that call, whether that means rejecting God completely or even being a “Christian” but trying to impose our own agenda on everything and force spiritual growth. What has burned many of us out is all we do to get to God that just ends up being a big self-imposed guilt trip and focuses us on our insufficiencies and inabilities and leads to failure and frustration.
Let me show you how that guilt-trip thing works. (Read section from the book on prayer.) This book and books like it, sermons like it, ideas like it are largely responsible for why we don’t see the easy way of Jesus.
So now it’s clear who the invitation is to. But what is the invitation for? I mean, what is it REALLY for? Listen to some preachers and you’ll hear an invitation from Jesus to a life of misery – abandoning all the fun things in your life, saying goodbye to treasured things like – like – happiness. I mean really, the fact that people are routinely surprised when they come to Wildwind for the first time and actually enjoy the music and actually find the people to be authentic and warm, and actually find the sermon inviting and challenging is a testimony to the fact that the popular perception is that a Jesus-following life is a life of bad music, even worse sermons, guilt, and abandonment of authenticity, humanness, and happiness.
Is that what Jesus invites us to? Not at all. In fact it is safe to say that the theme of this passage is “rest.”
The word “rest” shows up in verses 28 and 29 of the NIV, and in verse 28 of TM. Verse 30 in TM refers to learning to live freely and lightly.
Freely and lightly. Resting. Let me ask you something. How much would your life have to change in order for you to be able to tell me at this time tomorrow that you have lived freely and lightly in a state of rest since leaving church tonight?
Most people would say, “A huge amount. My life would have to change radically in order for me to be able to say that tomorrow.” THIS – THIS is what you are called to. This is the life God called you to. A life of freedom. A life of lightness, not heaviness. A life of rest, not of chaos. So why so much chaos in the church? One main reason. There is chaos in the church because most people who claim to follow Jesus are tacking Christ-following onto all the other priorities of their lives.
• Go to work.
• Mow the lawn.
• Play with the kids.
• Change the flat tire.
• Do the dishes.
• Fix the computer.
• Attend the meeting.
• Take kids to soccer, gymnastics, softball, music lessons, cheerleading practice, etc., etc., etc.
• Pay the bills
• Take my vacation
• Pacify the boss
• Bawl out my coworker
• Follow Jesus
o Read my Bible
o Go to church
o Go to small group
o Pray for no less than X minutes
o Go to ministry training
o Feed the poor
o Cultivate generosity
o Learn humility
o Work on bad temper
o Etc.
o Etc.
See, for most people, following Jesus is another thing they do that includes its own subset of tasks – and these tasks compete with everything else we are already doing. This, my friends, is a recipe for exactly the exhaustion and weariness and burnout that Jesus called us away from.
Where did Jesus call us away from this? Well, certainly in the passage we are looking at. But also in passage like this:
Matthew 16:24 (NIV)
24 Then Jesus said to his disciples, "If anyone would come after me, he must deny himself and take up his cross and follow me.
Or the one we looked at last week:
Luke 14:27 (NIV)
27 And anyone who does not carry his cross and follow me cannot be my disciple.
Or how about this one:
Matthew 6:33 (NIV)
33 But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well.
Or another from last week:
Matthew 13:45-46 (NIV)
45 "Again, the kingdom of heaven is like a merchant looking for fine pearls.
46 When he found one of great value, he went away and sold everything he had and bought it.
Even this controversial barn-burner from last week:
Luke 14:26 (NIV)
26 "If anyone comes to me and does not hate his father and mother, his wife and children, his brothers and sisters--yes, even his own life--he cannot be my disciple.
In various ways, all of these passages are talking about exactly the same thing: moving discipleship to Jesus off our list of things to do and placing it squarely at the center of our lives. What’s the Matthew passage again?
Matthew 6:33 (NIV)
33 But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well.
Seek first his kingdom. Make your pursuit of God your highest priority. Now don’t get me wrong. This point is hugely misunderstood. The kingdom of God is a matter not of rules but of the ________? The heart! We live from the heart. I’ve heard sermons or read books before that say, “If you read your Bible for a total of one hour this week, but watched TV for a total of eight hours, that means you value God eight times less than you value television. This completely misses the point, and is ridiculous. Why? Because we are comparing apples and oranges. Unlike following Jesus, watching TV is something you don’t have to learn to do! We lay heavy burdens of guilt on people with shallow and thoughtless comparisons like that. If you told me you value fitness and went to the gym every day last week, but that you watched eight times as much TV as you spent in the gym, I may or may not question your TV viewing habits, but I could never conclude from that that you value TV eight times more than fitness! You are simply not capable of spending as much time exercising as you spend watching TV!
Yet people are looking for leadership and if a spiritual leader makes an ignorant comment like that, most people will go out and work harder, try to pray more often, or longer, or pretend to have faith they do not yet have. This is the opposite of discipleship. Discipleship is a process, like getting physically fit. We don’t tell a beginning runner that they should run a marathon because we know they will get discouraged and find it impossible to be proud of their progress. But so often in the church we tell beginning disciples that they have to do things, without any regard for whether or not they are capable of doing what we have asked. So we end up laying these heavy burdens on people, assuming that the way we make super-saints is by telling them they aren’t trying hard enough. Indeed some of you here tonight – the biggest reason you are experiencing exhaustion and not God is because you are trying too hard!
Now last week I told you that our calendar gets in the way of discipleship to Jesus more than anything else. And that’s true. What you’re doing with your time determines whether or not you can make spiritual progress. And I’m not talking here about devoting more time to prayer and Bible reading and attending church. For some people that might be an important thing, but mainly what I’m talking about is simply being spiritually available for God to speak to. Why are so many Christians not experiencing the peace and rest and freedom and lightness Jesus called us to? Because instead of taking the cross of Jesus on our backs, we are carrying the weight of the world. We have accepted that we have to live our lives the way the world does. We have accepted that we must spend our money as the world does, spend our time as the world does. We have accepted that the best way to raise our children is to expose them to limitless opportunities, which takes limitless time and costs limitless money, until we cry out for relief from the limitless stress we are under. We have accepted that Christmas, the birthday of our Lord, is a time to run ourselves ragged buying mostly worthless junk for people that will often be lost or broken within weeks or months. We have often accepted the world’s way of getting ahead, and we are easily made frantic and fearful when things do not go our way. Instead of seeking Jesus’ kingdom first, we have bought into our culture hook, line, and sinker. Then we often cry out, “How come God isn’t giving me the peace he promised?” This desperate emptiness, my friends, is the cost of NOT following Jesus and for those who believe following Jesus costs too much, I submit that not following Jesus costs way more. But the truth is Jesus always told us that we cannot have God’s peace if we do not tap into God’s life.
John 15:5 (MSG)
5 "I am the Vine, you are the branches. When you’re joined with me and I with you, the relation intimate and organic, the harvest is sure to be abundant. Separated, you can’t produce a thing.
Now I’m not going to tell you that you should take your kids out of soccer, or cheerleading, or whatever. In fact I’m not going to tell you anything except what God’s Word has said:
Romans 12:2 (MSG)
2 Don’t become so well-adjusted to your culture that you fit into it without even thinking. Instead, fix your attention on God. You’ll be changed from the inside out. Readily recognize what he wants from you, and quickly respond to it. Unlike the culture around you, always dragging you down to its level of immaturity, God brings the best out of you, develops well-formed maturity in you.
It is not for me to say what you must do, but what I can say is that followers of Jesus must structure their lives so that following, serving, and obeying Jesus is possible. In the way most of our lives are structured, doing what Jesus said is nearly impossible. Restructuring does not mean making sure that our ratio of God-chasing to TV-watching is 80-20 or any other percentage: it means coming out of the attachments we have to the sick schedules the world has us on, and making it a priority to live in communion with God and learn to do what Jesus said.
Wildwind is going to focus on helping you do this this year. Two years ago I challenged everyone in the church to get away and spend time in silence and solitude for at least four hours, and report back to me what happened. Most people said that was one of the most amazing experiences of their lives. This year we will be coming to you – in sermons and in small groups and in special events – and helping you learn what you are capable of as a disciple of Jesus, and giving you opportunities to take practical steps to grow in discipleship. I will be taking a few spiritual retreats this year, and I will invite you to come along with me on one of those. I will teach you what to expect, what to do, and what to avoid. We will do a concert of prayer this year and you will be gently invited – but in no way expected – to attend. I will be giving you specific spiritual challenges around the Advent/Christmas season and the Lenten/Easter season that will help you take new steps forward.
Sometimes you will succeed, sometimes you will fail. And we’ll be here not to guilt you, but to encourage you as we all do this together. (Or at least, those who so choose.) In this environment of gentle encouragement, we will learn to hear the gentle and encouraging voice of God, which always applauds our successes and is patient in our failures.
The easy life is possible.
Following Jesus and doing what he said can actually be done if we put into our lives, slowly and intentionally, the kinds of practices that will help us become – with God’s grace – the kind of people who simply do it naturally and easily. We can do this. And what if we did? What if you could learn to bless those who curse you? What if you could learn to love your enemies? What if you could eradicate selfishness and lust from your life? What if you could learn to communicate about God to other people like Jesus did – naturally and authentically and warmly, using the right blend of truth and grace? What if you could root out anger in your life? What if you could learn to love yourself as God loves you and have as much patience with yourself as God has with you? What if you could learn to stop listening to the voices in your life that drown out God and keep you isolated from him? What if you could stop giving yourself those spiritual beatings and learn to live carefree in the care of God, even as you pursue him?
That is our direction for this year. We are going to learn together – at least all who desire to do this – will learn together how to structure our lives around discipleship to Jesus. My desire for us this year is that by year’s end we will no longer even care to refer to ourselves as Christians, but will delight from then on in calling ourselves Disciples of Jesus, or Followers of the Way, as we see the changes God is bringing to us. This is a journey we will take together. I will lead you. Sometimes Brent will lead you. And as always, the most important thing about Brent and I is not who we are leading, but who we are following. So I invite you to join us this year as we learn how to be students in the easy way of Jesus, to cash in our lives that are too often ruled by the world and its values for a life increasingly centered on Jesus and learning to do all he commanded us. We will learn together, this year, the unforced rhythms of grace. Will you learn with us? Let’s pray.
