Lord’s Supper service
“And you will find rest”
Today is our quarterly Lord’s Supper service
As most of you know
We take the Lord’s Supper very serious
It is a time to take a look at ourselves
Our lives
It is a time to take a look at our commitment to Christ
And then
After we have done that
Come with a clean heart
A prepared mind
To celebrate
The Life
Death
Resurrection
And
The Sacrifice
That Jesus gave for each of us
This is a time to reflect
A time to remember
------Pause-----
We all have times in our lives when the weight of the world seems to just press heavily on us
Times when we feel that we just cannot go on
Jesus speaks to us in these times
He speaks to us in the hard times
Often he speaks to us in the storms of life
Matthew 11:28 is one of my favorite verses of all times
Besides John 3:16
This is one of the very first bible verses that I memorized
28 Then Jesus said, “Come to me, all of you who are weary and carry heavy burdens, and I will give you rest.
When I think of heavy burdens
Being man who has made a living most of my life with my hands
Think of weight
Like the picture on the screen now of this little pick up with too much to carry
Sitting on the axel
Springs compressed
Unable to move
-----Show picture------
Or of this poor donkey in Africa
Loaded down with way more too carry than even seems possible
The look on this little guys face says it all
----Show picture-------
I think of burdens so heavy they sometimes knock us off or feet
----Show picture-------
Or make us lay down and quit
-----Show picture---
I know that my savior is able to lighten any load
Including physical loads like these
But
I believe it is our emotional and spiritual burdens that Jesus is talking about here in this scripture
As many of you know
Many of us carry burdens that seem just as overwhelming as the ones in those pictures
And those emotional and spiritual burdens can break us down like that little pickup
Or steal the joy in our lives like the sad donkey in the second picture
Jesus says
“Come to me, all of you who are weary and carry heavy burdens, and I will give you rest.
Come to me
All of you
All who are tired
Wore out
Beat down
Used up emotionally
Come to me all who have troubles
Come to me all who have struggles
Come to me all who don’t think you can go on
Come to me all who are knocked off your feet
Ready to quit
And
I will give you rest
How
You may ask
My load is so heavy
No one understands
How Jesus?
How can you give me rest?
Me, Jesus
My burden is so heavy
Some of you may be saying
I have problems with my kids
I have problems with my marriage
I have problems in other relationships
I have money problems
Job problems
Health problems
Addiction problems
I have Death and illness in my family
Jesus
I feel I just can’t go on
So what do you mean?
You will give me rest?
Matthew 11:28 again
Then Jesus said, “Come to me, all of you who are weary and carry heavy burdens, and I will give you rest.
I want you to notice here
Jesus does not say
Fix your problems
Clean up your life
And then come
He says
Come to me
And I will give you rest
So what does this mean?
I will give you rest
Does this mean with Jesus, all your problems will go away?
Just say a prayer
And bam
No more problems
No
And let me go one to say that anyone who tells you differently is not being honest with you
When I think of rest
I first look back to the back to the book of Joshua
In the Old Testament
He
God
Guided his people to the Promised Land
A land flowing with milk and honey
But if you have read and studied the Old Testament
You know that they often faced trials
But
Rest meant that God was with them
He provided
Protected
Comforted
His children in the hard times
And blessed them for their obedience
In the New Testament
We tend to think of rest as being heaven
Glory
Beulah land
The streets of Gold
And I know that as believers in Jesus there is that promise of rest waiting for us
In the next life
In eternal life
I can tell you this is very comforting
I know that when the troubles of this life are over
That we will find rest with God
In paradise
But
I believe that in this passage of scripture
Jesus is talking about more than heaven
He is talking about more than the afterlife
What I know is that Jesus promises us
Rest from our burdens in this life as well
Heaven later
But
Help for today
So preacher
You may be saying
I have so much on me
I can’t breath
I can’t think
I can’t focus
And
I don’t think I can go on
How
Do I
Find this rest
First notice Jesus says come
Come to me
Come to me
And I will give you rest
I will give you peace
I will give you comfort
You see
How we look at a problem often determines just how big it is
And when we focus on the problem
We can’t see Jesus
But
When we focus on Jesus
We often can no longer see the problem
So the first step is to change of way of thinking
Romans chapter 12
From the NKJ
And the NIV
Say that we can be transformed by the renewing of our minds
I love the poetic way that sounds
But love the way the NLT says it because it removes the possibility of misunderstanding
From the NLT
Romans 12:2
Don’t copy the behavior and customs of this world, but let God transform you into a new person by changing the way you think. Then you will learn to know God’s will for you, which is good and pleasing and perfect.
Our first step in finding the rest Jesus promises is to come to him
Then we need to change the way we think
Change the way we think of ourselves
Our problems
God
You see Romans says don’t copy the behaviors and customs of this world
This world
The unbelievers
The lost
The confused
The uncommitted to Jesus people in this world
Handle their problems how?
Trying to fix them their selves
They can’t do it
And when we as Christians try to deal with problems as the world does
Neither can we
We have to change the way we think of our problems
Give them to Jesus in prayer
I mean really give them to him
Trust him to handle things
Thank him for the chance to grow
Praise him in the storm
So
We need to come to him
We need to change the way we think
Then continuing in Matthew 11
Verse 29
29 Take my yoke upon you. Let me teach you, because I am humble and gentle at heart, and you will find rest for your souls.
Take my yoke Jesus says
You may ask
What does this mean?
Take my yoke
Jesus is using terminology that would be common in that day
----- Show picture------
A yoke in that day was a wooden beam used to hitch a ox or a donkey, a mule or a horse to an implement or a wagon
Often a yoke would also be used by people as well
What Jesus is telling us is that we all have burdens to bear
But
When we hitch up with him
Take my yoke upon you
He lightens our load
His yoke is salvation
His yoke is redemption
Come to him
Change the way you think
Accept his payment for your sin
And begin finding rest
But there is more
He continues in verse 29
“ Let me teach you”
How do we learn?
We learn by reading
We learn by studying
We learn by watching
When we let Jesus teach us
We learn to find joy in the hard times
And we find rest for our souls
And we often find rest for our bodies and minds as well
Because we find peace
We quit fighting the burdens and let Jesus help us carry them
Jesus goes on in verse 29
Because I am humble and gentle at heart, and you will find rest for your souls.
Because I am humble
Not proud
Often our burdens grow into unmanageable balls of mess
Because our pride won’t let us ask for help
Won’t let us lay our burden through prayer on Jesus
Won’t let us lean on our brothers and sisters
Pride is a peace killer
Pride is a rest killer
We Must humble ourselves just a Jesus did when he allowed himself to be given up for the sins of the world
Jesus was also gentle at heart
Not angry
Not bitter
Not seeking revenge
Not shifting the blame
To find this rest Jesus promises
We must come to him
We must change the way we think
We must accept him
We must let him teach us
We must humble ourselves and find the gentleness in our heats
We must rid ourselves of
Anger
Bitterness
Resentment
A desire for revenge
We must accept responsibility for our actions
Our words
Our decisions
And we must as
Romans 12:3 says
Be honest in your evaluation of yourselves, measuring yourselves by the faith God has given us.
We must take a hard honest look at ourselves
Our lives
Our burdens
And see what we need to change \
In order to find rest
Verse 30 of Matthew 11 says
0 For my yoke is easy to bear, and the burden I give you is light.”
Jesus says we will have burdens
But when we pull with him
Our burdens are lightened
He will give us rest
He will give us peace
He will give us comfort
He will show us the way
I recall a story I heard or read somewhere
A man had a dream
In his dream he was carrying a huge cross on his back
A massive wooden cross that he could barely lift
As he labored under the weight of it he came to a gate
Jesus met him there at the gate
And said Sir
Welcome
Come on in
As he entered the place
Jesus told him
You can lay your cross down here
And you are fee to stay as long as you want
But when you leave you must choose a new cross
Any cross you like
The man walked the aisles for what seemed like eternity
Looking at all of the crosses
And on each aisle the crosses got bigger and bigger
Finally he arrived back near the gate that he had come in
And Jesus said
Have you made your choice?
There on a table by the gate was a tiny cross
A tiny cross that would fit in your front jean pocket with much room to spare
He said to the Jesus
I want that one
Are you sure the Jesus asked
Yes
I want that little bitty cross
Ok Jesus said
But this is the same one you brought in
The Lord’s Supper is a time to remember
A time to reflect
A time to realize
To take a honest look at our selves
And to take a loving look at Jesus
And see the burden he carried for us
Please listen to this song
You loved me anyway--- by the sidewalk prophets
As our men pass out the juice and bread
Take this time to look inside yourselves
Take this time to deal with Jesus
Is there something you need to change?
Something you need to confess?
Someone you need to forgive?
A decision you need to make?
Please take this with a clean heart
If you are not a believer
Or not prepared in your heart
I ask you to pass
I Corinthians 11:17-26
On the night when he was betrayed, the Lord Jesus took some bread 24 and gave thanks to God for it. Then he broke it in pieces and said, “This is my body, which is given for you.[a] Do this in remembrance of me.”
EAT
25 In the same way, he took the cup of wine after supper, saying, “This cup is the new covenant between God and his people—an agreement confirmed with my blood. Do this in remembrance of me as often as you drink it.”
DRINK
26 For every time you eat this bread and drink this cup, you are announcing the Lord’s death until he comes again.
Close from the heart
Pray
