Rest for Your Souls
Scott Bayles, pastor
Blooming Grove Christian Church: 12/31/2017
If you’re anything like me, now that we’re looking at Christmas in the rearview mirror, you’re probably ready for a little rest and recovery!
The thought of rest is one that seems all too elusive in today's lightning-speed culture of news, technology, work, demands of daily duties, children's activities and even church commitments, especially during the holidays. Holidays can be pretty hectic. Between Thanksgiving and New Year’s Day, it seems there’s a holiday event every day. Often, we feel obligated or compelled to attend each one, regardless of our already busy schedules. All this business, of course, mixes into a corrosive cocktail of conflict, strife, and stress. We get burnt out—emotionally, physically, and spiritually drained. Sometimes you just want to take nap.
Some of us crave rest more than others. In fact, my wife saw this t-shirt online and just had to have it. It says, “I love Jesus… and naps!”
I don’t know anyone who loves naps as much as my wife does, but we all need rest. Psychology Today lists some symptoms of being overly burdened and burnt out, including: chronic fatigue, insomnia, forgetfulness, impaired concentration, loss of appetite, anxiety, depression, anger, and a depleted immune system, making you more vulnerable to infections, colds, flu, and other immune-related medical problems.
On the other hand, rest and relaxation restores our energy, repairs our bodies, clear our thoughts, improves our focus, lifts our moods, stimulates creativity, and allow us to get much more accomplished with less effort.
Now before you take that as an invitation to sleep through this sermon, as much as we need physical rest for our minds and bodies, I want to talk about a rest that’s deeper and more revitalizing than simply taking a nap or a vacation. I want us to think about rest for your soul.
Do you ever feel weary and worn-out deep in your soul? Drained souls send desperate messages. Snarling temper. Waves of worry. Festering guilt and fear. Hopelessness. Sleeplessness. Loneliness. Resentment. Irritability. Insecurity. These are warning sings. Symptoms of a weariness deep within—proof that something within you is starting to shrivel.
So where do you find rest for your soul? Jesus gave the answer Matthew 11. If you have a Bible or an app on your phone, open it to Matthew 11:28, where Jesus offers this warm and welcoming invitation:
“Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. 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. For my yoke is easy and my burden is light.” (Matthew 11:28-30 NIV).
Jesus’ gracious invitation is open to all. Nobody is omitted or neglected. If you’ve ever felt weary and worn-out deep within, this invitation is for you. And within this invitation, Jesus gives us three simple steps to experience rest for the soul.
Step number one is—come to Jesus.
• COME TO JESUS
Experts make all sorts of suggestions for experiencing rest and overcoming exhaustion. They offer you sleeping pills at night and five-hour energy pills in the morning. They recommend diet and workout programs that promise to make you healthier and happier. Eastern philosophies encourage you to find peace and rest through meditation or yoga. But this deeper spiritual rest is not a pill, a program, or a philosophy; it’s a person: Jesus himself.
Jesus begins by saying simply: “Come to me…” (Matthew 11:28). The simplicity of Jesus’s promise is both striking and refreshing. Jesus doesn’t offer us a four-fold path to peace-giving enlightenment, like the Buddha did. He doesn’t give us five pillars of peace through submission as Islam does. Nor does he give us a click-bait headline, “10 Ways to Relieve Your Weariness,” which we self-help-oriented 21st century Americans are so drawn to. Unique to anyone else in human history, Jesus simply offers himself as the universal solution to all that burdens us.
And his simple promise is audacious. The only way that this isn’t megalomaniacal lunacy is if Jesus is who he claims to be: the omnipotent, omniscient, omnipresent Son of the Living God. His simple promise implies a power behind it more than sufficient to lift what weighs us down.
If you want to experience real rest, it starts when you come to Jesus. But how do we do that? What does it even mean to come to Jesus?
Run a finger over the Gospels and you’ll discover all sorts of people coming to Jesus for all sorts of reasons. Some people came to Jesus for healing. Some people came to Jesus for forgiveness. Some people came to Jesus because they were hungry. Some people came to Jesus because they had big questions about God and life. What all of these people had in common is that each one of them believed that Jesus could meet their needs. They had faith that Jesus could heal them. They trusted that he could feed them. They believed that he could forgive them. They had confidence that Jesus could answer life’s biggest questions.
That’s what coming to Jesus means. It is not about repeating a sinner’s prayer. It is not about walking down an aisle. It is not about filling out a Decision Card. It’s about putting our faith and trust in him, believing that Jesus really is who he claims to be and that he alone can meet all our needs. This if his invitation to weary and weighed-down souls: Put your faith in me. Trust in me. Come to me.
But that’s just the first step. The second step in experiencing real rest is—connecting with Jesus.
• CONNECT TO JESUS
As Christ continues, he paints a vivid word picture: “Take my yoke upon you… For my yoke is easy to bear, and the burden I give you is light” (Matthew 11:29-30 NLT).
As I’m sure many of you know, a yoke is a heavy wooden harness that fits over the shoulders of an ox or oxen. It’s then attached to a plow or cart that the oxen are to pull. Since Jesus grew up in a rural area and trained as a carpenter who likely produced and repaired farm equipment, Jesus was quite familiar with yokes. Using this agricultural imagery, Jesus is inviting us to connect with him, link up with him and learn from him.
For Jewish Rabbi’s like Jesus, though, the term yoke carried another meaning as well. Different rabbis had different sets of teachings. A rabbi’s teaching, which was really that rabbi’s interpretation of how to live the Torah, was called that rabbi’s yoke. When you followed a certain rabbi, you were following him because you believed that rabbi’s set of teachings and interpretations were closest to what God intended through the Scriptures. And when you followed that rabbi, you were taking that rabbi’s yoke upon yourself.
Thus, we take up his yoke—we connect with Jesus—when we embrace Christ’s teaching. For Jesus’ original audience, learning Christ’s teaching would have involved traveling to remote locations and listening to him speak. Today, we have it easy. All we have to do is open our Bible and read.
The little red letters splashed across the pages of Matthew, Mark, Luke and John are Jesus’ words to the world and to you. But it’s not just the red letters that belong to Jesus. It’s the black ones too. They’re all his. The whole Bible contains the teaching—the yoke—of Jesus.
One of the reasons this book has endured throughout the centuries is that it dares to tackle the toughest questions about life. What happens after I die? Is there a God? What on earth am I here for? What do I do with my fears? The Bible answers all of life’s most important questions and concerns.
The problem is—many of us don’t actually read our Bibles. In response to the many surveys the Barna Research Group has conducted, George Barna once said, “Americans revere the Bible, but by and large they don’t know what it says.” That’s unfortunate, because it’s in the teachings of Jesus that we find rest for our souls. When the pressure and stress of life build up, many people like to relax with a good book. How much more restful it is to relax with The Good Book!
So, step one is—come to Jesus through faith. Step two is—connect to Jesus through his word. And, finally, step three in experiencing rest for your soul is—conform to Jesus.
• CONFORM TO JESUS
In other words, it’s not enough to listen to the teachings of Jesus; we need to learn from them. Again, Jesus said, “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” (Matthew 11:29 NIV).
Going back to the agricultural imagery, farmers in ancient times (and not so ancient times) often yoked a younger untried ox with an older experienced one so that the younger ox to could learn to copy the behavior of the older ox. By yoking the two together, the younger ox became like the older ox.
In the same way, when we yoke ourselves to Jesus, we not only listen to him, we learn to be like him. Elsewhere, the Bible says, “For God knew his people in advance, and he chose them to become like his Son” (Romans 8:29 NLT). The NIV says, “to be conformed to the image of his Son.” In short, you were created to become like Christ. That’s what Jesus is hinting at when he says, “I am gentle and humble in heart.” He’s not simply saying, “I’m a kind patient teacher.” He’s inviting us to have a heart like his! Only then will we experience soul-deep, satisfying rest.
Just imagine what that might be like.
What if, for one day, Jesus lived your life for you?
What if, for twenty-four hours, Jesus wakes up in your bed, walks in your shoes, lives in your house, and assumes your schedule? Your boss becomes his boss, your kids become his kids, and your headaches become his headaches. Your health doesn’t change. Your circumstances don’t change. Your schedule isn’t altered. Your problems aren’t solved. Only one thing changes—your heart.
What if, for one day and night, Jesus lives your life with his heart? What would you be like? Would people notice a difference? Your family—would they see something new? Your co-workers—would they sense a change? And how about you? What alterations would this heart transplant have on your stress levels? Your mood swings? Your temper? Would you sleep better? Would you see sunsets differently? Would there be a little more spring in your step?
Adjust the lens of your imagination until you have a clear picture of Jesus leading your life, then snap the shutter and frame the picture. What you see is what God wants. The Bible says, “In your lives you must think and act like Christ Jesus” (Philippians 2:5 NCV). Think and act like Jesus. The heart of Christ-likeness is having a heart like Christ. Jesus felt no guilt; God wants the same for you. Jesus had no bad habits; God wants to do away with yours. Jesus had no fears; God wants you to be fearless too. Jesus had no anxiety about life or death; you needn’t either.
But the thing is—you can’t reproduce the heart of Jesus on your own strength. New Year’s resolutions, willpower, and best intentions are not enough. The only way for us to conform to Jesus is to first come to Jesus and connect with Jesus. It’s a three-step process and you’ve got to go in order. When you do, you’ll experience real rest, like you’ve experienced before.
Conclusion
It's ironic. The reason for the season is Jesus, yet through the holidays, actually setting time aside for Him and with Him can feel impossible.
But if your spirit is weary and worn out, if you’re feeling burdened and burned out, if you’re sluggish and stressed out, then you need some rest!
If you haven’t already, you need to come to Jesus. Lay your burdens and baggage at his feet and trust in him to help you carry them. If you’ve already come to Jesus in faith, then you need to connect with him. Turn off the electronics, tune out the world, and turn your attention to Jesus. Get into his word and let his word get into you because that’s how we conform to Jesus and develop a heart like his.
Invitation
Do you need refreshed and revitalized deep within your spirit? Wherever you’re at today, I’d like to help you take the next step toward experiencing rest for your soul. You can talk to me after church, call me at home, or you can come forward now, while we stand and sing.
Let’s stand and sing together church.
