Lightening Your Load
Matthew 11:28-30
I have a friend who tells the story of borrowing a vacation trailer from a church member and taking his family on vacation to Lake Tahoe. He hooked this rather large trailer up to his car which he had never done this before and they headed north. He didn’t stop to consider that the more weight I was carrying the fewer miles per gallon I was going to get. So as he was driving through LA and the gas tank said half empty he thought that’s no big deal. This is a big tank. They started heading up the mountains and all of a sudden we had this big heavy headwind coming against us. He started watching the gas gauge drop. There was no off ramp on the road up the mountain and no place to turn around. There were no gas stations either. You just have to keep going straight up the mountain. 20 minutes before it happened he said, “We’re going to run out of gas.” I could see the needle going down. And sure enough they did. He pulled the car over to the side of the road and hitchhiked his way to get some gas, and then filled the tank. When they got to the top of the mountain, he immediately refueled. The point is the heavier the load you’re carrying, the faster you run out of gas. Today in this series we’re going to look at this issue of lightening your load.
Slide 2 Image of donkey Some of you are like this donkey, you are really on overload. I have no doubt about it. You’re overloaded physically or you’re overloaded emotionally. Some of you are overloaded relationally. You’re overloaded with work and rebuilding, you’re overloaded at school, or you’re overloaded with kid’s activities, health issues, finances and the list goes on and on. And you’re feeling the burden of the weight and beginning to run down.
Perhaps you can relate to this man’s letter, “I can’t remember the last time I felt refreshed and rested. My life has been on overload for years. There are too many expectations, too many responsibilities, too many activities and too many decisions. It all just seems like it has to be done immediately. I often feel like I’m putting my finger in the holes of a dam but I don’t have enough fingers to stop all the leaks. I’m tired of always rushing to the next activity. Even after a good night’s sleep I still feel drained and fatigued. When I look around I see that this feeling is not unique. Everybody’s overloaded. Nobody has any margin in their lives. Everybody is trying to do so much. We don’t have time to do what’s most important because every moment is packed. This is madness. It can’t be God’s will for our lives. I really want to learn how to rest and relax in God’s plan. Not just for my own health but because I can see how my kids are learning the same crazy lifestyle.” Job understood overload: “If my misery could be weighed, [my load, the burden that I’m carrying] and if you could pile the whole bitter load on the scales, it would be heavier than all the sand of the sea! Is it any wonder I’m screaming like a caged cat?” Job is on overload and in danger of burning out. He’s running on empty.
In our Scripture today, Jesus summarizes the secrets of lightening your load. This is honestly all you need to know about stress management. All of the books, seminars, tapes, conferences, pills, etc cannot equal the three strategies for reducing stress that Jesus gives. So today we’re going to look at how you can deal with the stress of life. The amount of stress in your life will not go down. You can’t control what’s going to happen in your life but you can control how you deal with it. There will always be stresses in life but you don’t have to be stressed out by it and you don’t have to be overloaded by it.
There are three keys to lightening your load. First, come to Jesus. In other words, turn to Him. In the Bible people come to Jesus for lots of different reasons. They come to ask Him a question or to be healed or to have a conflict resolved, a problem solved, or a spiritual issue clarified. But Jesus says did you know that you can come to Me for rest. But it’s not just any kind of rest: it’s rest for your soul. This is much, much deeper than physical rest. The biggest source of your stress is not worn out bodies but a tired mind. It’s tension, worry, fear, anxiety, guilt and resentment. That’s what you need relief from. Let me ask you a very personal question. When you’re stressed out, exhausted and overloaded, how do you typically unwind? Some of you say, “Let’s go to a movie.” Some say, “Let’s go out to dinner. I don’t want to cook tonight.” Some say “I have a hobby,” or you might have a sport that you like to do. Or you say, “I’m going to take a nap.” There’s nothing wrong with any of those things but they will never give you rest for your soul. It’ll rest your body but it won’t rest your spirit, your soul. There’s only one thing that can rest your soul – God. Only He can give you that inner peace which de-stresses you.
Isaiah 40 says,“He gives power to those who are tired and worn out; He offers strength to the weak. Those who wait on the Lord will find new strength.” The solution to your overloaded soul is to wait on the Lord. What does that mean? He’s saying if you’re stressed out, the answer is not a plan, a purpose, a priority, a program, a philosophy, or even a pill. It’s a person. Jesus says, “Come to Me.” He doesn’t even say, come to church or a Bible study or even a small group. When you are overloaded the starting point is the only person in the universe who understands soul rest and He invites us to come to Him.
To wait on the Lord means as the Scripture says “finding a secluded place” and just being quiet and sitting there alone with God. That’s difficult for us because we get uncomfortable in silence. Most people don’t know how to be quiet. They always have to have the radio or tv on or they have to be doing something. Waiting on the Lord is not reading the Bible or sharing your list of prayer concerns with God. It’s getting in a comfortable place and saying, “God is there anything You want to say to me?” And then just listening 10 or 15 minutes, just waiting before the Lord. Most of the time there will be no big flash of lightning or big brilliant thought but there will be a sense of pece which comes to you. I’ve never heard God specifically say something aloud to me. He doesn’t need to. He puts thoughts in your mind. That’s called inspiration. When the devil puts thoughts in your mind it’s called temptation. And everyday you’re choosing one or the other of those thoughts. When you just sit quietly, a thought will come to your mind and you’ll know God has spoken to you in that moment. How? Check it out with the Bible. God will never say anything which contradicts His Word. Come to Jesus and wait before the Lord.
It seems that when we’re overloaded, on the verge of burnout or in the midst of crisis, we usually turn to everything else: friends, families, self-help books, pills or alcohol A lot of times we think we can handle it on our own and other times we just don’t realize that God is waiting for us to call on Him. Over and over in the Bible God tells us, “Cry out to Me. Call out to Me. Talk to Me. Cast your burdens on the Lord. Bring them to Me.” If you’re running on empty this weekend the very first thing you need to do is cry out to God. Come to Christ.
The second step is a little harder, Give up control. That’s so important because the reason you’re on overload is you are trying to control too much. You think it all depends on you. If it’s to be, it’s up to me. I’ve got to hold it all together. I’ve got to make it all work. News flash: you’re not the general manager of the universe. You can resign and it won’t fall apart. The greater your need to control, the more stressed you’re going to be in life.
Control freak slide I know what some of you are thinking, “I’m not a high control person. I married one but I’m not a high control person.” But everybody is a control person, just in different ways. Some people are very overt and obvious about their need to control. They go around bossing everybody around. Others are not as obvious about it. But everybody wants control of their own life. Jesus says, “Take my yoke upon you.” That doesn’t sound too relaxing. Take something else on? That sounds like more of a burden. I don’t need to take any more on. I need to take it off. What is a yoke? A yoke is a single piece of wood that brings two farm animals together, so the load is shared, making it lighter. A yoke is not a harness. A harness you put on one cow or one horse or one camel or elephant or whatever. They have to pull the whole load. With a yoke you team up two or more together so the load is lightened. The purpose is to make it easier on the animal not harder.
A yoke symbolizes two things. First is partnership. Jesus is saying let me shoulder the burden with you. You were never meant to carry all your problems, difficulties and stresses by yourself. Let Jesus help you. Let him share the burden of your load. God doesn’t get tired. He has a stronger back than you. So when you yoke up with Jesus, it’s not so you can share His load. It’s so He can help you with your load. Jesus wants to partner with you and reduce your stress. If you feel overloaded right now, it means at this very moment you are not yoked to Jesus Christ. Stress is a warning light saying, you’re carrying this on your own. You’re not yoked up to Him. You’re not in partnership. You’re not teamed up. The proof of that is you’re stressed out. For Jesus says, “My yoke is easy and My burden is light.” If your yoke is not easy and your burden is not light, it means you’re pulling it all by yourself. Every time you get detached, disconnected from Jesus Christ, the stress is going to go up in your life. Every time you get reattached, yoked to Jesus and He’s helping you pull the load, the stress goes down.
The second thing a yoke symbolizes is control. Farmers yoke up farm animals so that they will go in the same direction, to the same place, at the same time, in the same pace. When you are yoked to another animal you can’t go faster and you can’t go slower and you can’t go in this direction when you’re supposed to go in that direction. We get into trouble when we’re not yoked to Jesus Christ. What happens is we go too fast, we go in the wrong direction, we get sidelined and fall off in a ditch. When you’re disconnected from Jesus, you’re going to get off pace or off course. But if you’re connected to Jesus, He knows exactly where to go in your life because He created you. He knows exactly the pace you should go because He shaped and formed you. And He knows the time and the space and the place and the pace in your life. A yoke is a guidance mechanism for your life. When I’m yoked with Christ we move together in the same direction and the same pace.
You’re going to be yoked to something in life. It may be your job, your parents, your spouse, your boyfriend or girlfriend, a teacher or even the expectations of others. You may be yoked to making money, power or success. But you are tied to something. You may even just be yoked to yourself, which is the worst burden and bondage of all. If you’re going to be yoked to something in life you might as well choose the lightest, easiest yoke. Jesus says, “My burden is easy.” The actual word is “My yoke fits perfectly.” In other words, it’s custom fitted to you.” God knows how you’re wired. He knows your personality. He knows what you can handle and what you can’t. There’s an old legend that says when Jesus was a carpenter the sign probably read, “Joseph and Sons: our yokes fit best.” When we take on the yoke of Christ, it reduces our stress because we’ve finally given God control of our lives. Jesus says, “Come to Me, give up control and I will give you peace.”
Third, learn to trust. Jesus says you’ve got to learn a different way and that’s Jesus. Why? Because Jesus modeled peace. The third step in lowering the stress in your life is to follow Jesus’ example. If you want to be balanced and healthy in life, then follow Jesus’ example because nobody lived a more balanced and healthy life than Jesus. But that’s not something that happens overnight. It takes time. You have to learn to live differently. You’re not going to change overnight. Why? Because you didn’t get in the mess you’re in instantly. The stress that’s built up in your life, the overload, the habits, the work habits, the play habits have taken years to develop. Those things don’t just fall off overnight. It’s like an onion. You peal it a little bit at a time. So you’re going to have to unlearn certain things one at a time and it won’t happen overnight. Not only that but you’re going to have to develop new habits and you’re going to have to practice them day in and day. It takes time. This is the start of a new life.
The only way you’re going to be able to do that is if you trust Jesus unequivocally and that means taking on his characteristics of gentleness and humbleness. You say, Wait a minute! That’s not exactly what I need to learn. Why not teach me endurance and stamina or confidence and courage or time management and goal setting? Why gentleness and humbleness? Because the two biggest causes of stress in your life are aggression and arrogance. Aggression is when we do things too quickly. We don’t wait or ponder or plan. We just jump right in with both feet. In America we are taught to be aggressive. The early bird gets the worm. You only go around once in life. You’ve got to get out there and make it happen. Living life aggressively by not thinking it through, not pacing yourself, and not waiting on God has caused you to become over-committed. Too many of us have gotten ourselves in more things than we could possibly do. It’s always easier to get in than it is to get out. It’s always easier to commit than to fulfill. It’s always easier to fill your schedule than fulfill your schedule. That’s being too aggressive in life.
Second is arrogance. Arrogance is thinking you know what’s best for you so you try to control your life. I know what’s best for me and my life would be a whole lot easier if you’d just get with my program, and that includes you, God. The truth is when we try to do it all, have it all, be it all and have it our way, you’re acting like God and saying with your words and actions that you don’t trust God. Why do we have such a hard time trusting God?
Mark Brunner writes, “It’s funny that sometimes we find ourselves content to let God handle the ordinary things in life…but, when it really comes to the hard things, the things that really seem impossible and we have little if any faith that they will ever happen, we are often tempted to trust our own means rather than give the problem up to God. Being content to wait on the Lord for the impossible is something that most Christians just have a hard time doing. Why are we so reluctant to give God the impossible things and then sit back and wait for an answer? We know that God has done the impossible in the past. He created something from nothing. How impossible can you get? Even the simpler things like parting the waters of the Red Sea and sending manna and quail to His children in the desert were accomplished without so much as a bat of a Holy eyelash. Yet, when it comes to our impossible, the things that have us so stymied that we are at a total loss for a solution, we often find ourselves thinking that we know God could do it, but it seems so far-fetched that He would. So we fight on alone, trusting that somehow luck or pluck will get the job done.”
We need to remind ourselves every day that God is God and we’re not. You do what God wants you to do and you don’t have to worry about the rest. The reason why Jesus wasn’t stressed out, the reason he is gentle and humble is that He only did was concerned about what God, told Him to do. He didn’t worry about anything else because that was his lone desire and he knew God would take care of the rest. He just said God, I’ll do what ever you want me to do. Not my will but thine be done.” 12 times in the book of John. “I just say what the Father tells Me to say… I go where He tells Me to go… I do what He wants Me to do…” and as a result there’s a sense of peace, gentleness and humbleness in His life.
You’ve tried everything else to reduce your stress, why don’t you try trusting God? Why not turn everything over to him and see if that doesn’t reduce the overload in your life. Come to Jesus. Give up control. Learn to trust him with everything and see if that doesn’t dramatically shrink the pressure in your life.
Evangelist James Brown writes. “Some years ago when I was learning to fly, my instructor told me to put the plane into a steep and extended dive. I was totally unprepared for what was about to happen. After a brief time the engine stalled, and the plane began to plunge out-of-control. It soon became evident that the instructor was not going to help me at all. After a few seconds, which seemed like eternity, my mind began to function again. I quickly corrected the situation. Immediately I turned to the instructor and began to vent my fearful frustrations on him. He very calmly said to me, ‘There is no position you can get this airplane into that I cannot get you out of. If you want to learn to fly, go up there and do it again.’ At that moment God seemed to be saying to me, ‘Remember this….there is no situation you can get yourself into that I cannot get you out of. If you trust me, you will be all right.’ That lesson has been proven true many times over the years.
