Living life, parenting, retirement and ministry can all become burdensome. These burdens can often be almost more than we can bear. We have grown to accept this as a part of living life in the twenty-first century. Imagine if you will if Jesus would have chosen to live in modern America rather than ancient Israel. How would He have acted? Would He have carried a pocket calendar? Would He have worn a watch? Would have He went around with a Blackberry strapped to His side? Could you imagine Him receiving a text message during the Last Supper? As I examine Jesus’ life there is no indication that He worked twenty hour days. He went to sleep at night without having healed every disease in Israel and without ministering to everyone who needed ministered to. There also seems to be some needs that He chose not to meet. Why? I believe it was because He fully understood what it meant to be human. He understood the limits that were built into humanity. Jesus obviously knew how to prioritize and balance life. This allowed Him to make the best use of His time. However, we are so overloaded and burdened. We are busy doing so many good things that many times we fail to see that we are not busy doing the best things. Life has made us so busy we often look at ministry as an added burden rather than a joy. As we continue to look out how to make room for life, I want us to discover that Jesus desires our lives to be joyful rather than burdensome.
I. Life can often resemble running on a treadmill going no place.
A. Life has become so burdensome and predictable that we often dread getting up in the morning to face another day.
1. Modern Americans are a very fearful people. We are surrounded by so much uncertainty we fear what each day may hold.
2. The vast majority of Americans hate the lifestyle that we are trapped in but feel helpless to anything about it.
3. In the 1960’s people began to call this the age of anxiety. People started realizing that life had become too much for them to handle. However, in recent decades things have gotten worse rather than better.
4. In all honesty we need to rest more from the emotional anguish that accompanies life rather than physical labor.
5. Studies have shown that the majority of Americans spend ten percent more than they have. This includes not just money but time and energy as well.
6. We work hard, play hard and when it is all said and done we crash hard.
7. Joy and relief from burdens cannot be bought with money. The pursuit of wealth may be the single greatest obstacle to making life less burdensome.
B. Jesus’ words are so meaningful and relevant for a people that feel like they are working harder and harder but getting nowhere.
1. These words provide an attractive proposition to all of us who have been wearied and burdened by life.
2. The literal translation from the Greek would say, “All the ones laboring and ones having been packed.”
3. You have to admit that the idea of stepping off the treadmill is quite attractive. However it makes perfect sense we are called to follow Christ not society and no one has ever set a better example of living in the limits which God designed.
4. The problem lies in the fact that we are squeezing living out of life. We are so busy running that we do not have the time to soak in life and enjoy it.
5. Jesus is offering His followers a way to once again find joy and to begin living life.
6. Those who are burdened and exhausted need renewal and refreshment.
II. Our lives are so overloaded that there is no space for Jesus.
A. With the passing of each decade there is less room for worship and other church related activities in our busy schedules.
1. A recent study revealed this fact. The study concluded that Sunday morning is no longer "sacred" time: job responsibilities, sports leagues, family outings, housework and many other things get in the way of traveling to a church building for worship at a scheduled time.
2. Another study: The Obstacles to Growth Survey was a five-year study whose findings suggested that Christians worldwide are simply too busy for God. The survey collected data from over 20,000 Christians aged 15 to 88 across 139 countries. It found that on average, more than four in ten Christian people say they ‘often’ or ‘always’ rush from task to task.
3. It’s easy for us to be involved in many different efforts and good causes, but the truth is, busyness does not guarantee fruitfulness. It also does not confirm that we are in God’s will.
4. Perhaps our greatest problem is that busyness has almost become like a competition. There are people who find their sense of importance in the things that they do. To be busy means you are doing something of value.
5. Our plates are so full that we cannot squeeze in one more thing. Our relationships do not get the time they need to be properly nourished and that includes our relationship with God.
6. Our lives simply flow with the river of the culture caught in a never ending cycle. Each twenty-four hour period brings very little change. Work eight-ten hours a day, sleep seven hours and eat three times. With every passing day the pace of the culture gets rougher and faster.
B. Jesus is offering each of us a solution to the problem of being overloaded.
1. At first thought these words do not make any sense. How can adding Jesus to an already loaded schedule help cure our overburdened and over loaded lives?
2. Jesus is not claiming that discipleship is easy. The basis for these words are found in the fact that Jesus will not weigh us down with needless burdens.
3. He gives us His Spirit and example to give us the wisdom and direction to reorder our lives and priorities in a way that we can live life to the fullest without self destructing.
4. Isaiah describes this rest and renewal that Jesus promises to bring into our lives.
5. He gives strength to the weary and increases the power of the weak. Even youths grow tired and weary, and young men stumble and fall; but those who hope in the Lord will renew their strength. They will soar on wings like eagles; they will run and not grow weary, they will walk and not be faint. (Isaiah 40:29-31—NIV)
III. When life is lived beyond our limits we more often than not experience no grace.
A. Jesus is talking to a people that have been weighed down by the endless rules and regulations of their religious leaders.
1. The Jewish religion was based on strict adherence to the Law and the oral traditions passed down.
2. The problem was that man failed miserably at this endeavor. So many became overloaded as they spent more and more time trying to live up to the expectations of their religion and culture.
3. When we our caught in a never ending cycle of trying to reach expectations that are impossible for us to reach we discover there is no grace. There is no room for mistakes or failures.
4. Jesus’ words promise a remedy to this simply on the basis of His character and the grace He extends.
5. Discipleship is not a free ride but the effort put forth in following Him would not be fruitless or end in never ending cycles of frustration and guilt by trying to please God by being good enough.
6. In fact Jesus picks up the slack when we don’t measure up through His sacrifice on the cross. That is called grace.
B. There is hope for all of us overloaded and frustrated strugglers to be able to step off the treadmill and discover grace.
1. Instead of continuing to live a frustrating and joyless life through Christ we can experience a fulfilling and joyful life.
2. Even though we continue to try and often fall short of the mark, Jesus reminds us that His yoke is easy because He promises to share our burdens and help us carry them.
3. Unlike the Jewish religion and the expectations of a society moving at frenzied pace Jesus promises never to overload us with a bunch of needless expectations.
4. Ghandi provided some appropriate words on this subject. “There is more to life than increasing its speed.”
5. Instead of speeding life up Jesus is offering to help us slow things down so we can discover the things that are of real importance: faith, ministry and relationships.
6. Through Christ you will find a friend to share the burdens which will turn your frown into a smile and the gripes into a song
Dr. Richard Swenson in his book “Margin” provides this description that very closely relates to the subject of no place, no space = no grace. Many of the annoyances of modernity do not yield to quick analysis. We wouldn’t exactly label them evils---more like frustrations or nuisances. They are like heartburn rather than homicide. You can’t pick out a villain. Yet you have a headache anyway. Sometimes you suspect there must be a computer virus hiding deep inside the center of the earth clogging its gears. Maybe that’s why so many things continue to backfire after all these years. Why can’t the person using the sophisticated computer seem to clear up my magazine subscription? Why doesn’t the IRS know the answers to its own questions? Whatever happened to friendly clerks? Why is it we don’t feel confident that when the world awakens tomorrow, we will all be one day closer to victory?
