WHERE CROWDS GATHER----DARE TO BE DIFFERENT
MATTHEW 11: 28-30
28 Come unto me, all ye that labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest.
29 Take my yoke upon you, and learn of me;; for I am meek and lowly in heart: and ye shall find rest unto your souls.
30 For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light.
We are living in a day that is different from any other day in the history of time. The churches are coming together Sunday after Sunday and Wednesday after Wednesday or whatever days and doing the same old things over and over.
Now we almost all work and the big majority of the people that come into God’s house are heavy laden. And I believe that it goes without saying that we need rest. I’m not talking just about physically, even though most do, but I am talking also about spiritually.
In this last day we are in, the devil is wearing us out. He is smart enough to know that if he can wear us down physically it will affect us spiritually.
The devil is not as dump as some suppose him to be. Just stop and look around at the condition of the people around you today. I’m talking about out there in the world you live in. Satan is attacking in every area that you can think of. If you think I am just talking, then think for a moment about anybody you can think of. It may be a friend or a family member. See if you don’t discover in your mind that things in their life are hecktic in the hour we are living in.
Most of the people you think about are labouring, heavy laden and they need rest.
The words right out of the mouth of Jesus was come unto me. If you are in that catagory, come to me and I will what? He said I will give you rest. Do you think He was just kidding around? Do you think He was just joking? Why did He say those words if He didn’t intend to do what He said?
You say, "I’m coming to church. That’s what he said and I am doing it. I’m here on Sunday and I’m here on Wednesday, but I am tired, I neen rest. What is wrong? Why is it not coming to me when I need it so badly?"
Before this morning is over I am going to tell you why I think so many people that are so faithful, come time after time, so tired in body and spirit, and return home the same way they come.
Jesus said, "Take my yoke upon you." In other words receive my open, free, and loyal relationship. Let me come upon you in Spirit and you will find rest in your soul.
He is saying to us this morning that there is nothing He can’t do for us if we will just learn how to allow Him to. I know----some have been in this thing so long they know all there is to know about the way God opperates. They don’t need some out of town little fat preacher like me to come waltzing in and try to tell them what to do.
But that is not the case. If we’re coming and going time after time, not receiving the rest we came for, and we can learn how to get it, then I think we ought to try and listen.
It’s more than learning how to be debt free, it’s more than learning how to receive thirty, sixty, and a hundred fold, it’s more than new clothes, it’s more than new automobiles, it’s more than new houses, it’s more than all that and much more. Church, it’s about being set free, it’s about being delivered, it’s about being healed, it’s about being free from the bondage of this wicked world and being delivered into the arms of a Saviour who loves us enough to come and die for us and then live again and go to prepare a place for us in glory so that we can forevermore
be with Him and our Heavenly Father.------That’s what it’s all about. (Glory to God)
I’ve spent a lot of time in the past few weeks trying to figure what is wrong. I am sure that God has shared with me some information that would propably shock most of the church world and I am also sure that most wouldn’t want to agree with me or accept it.
As best as I can this morning I want to try and tell you what God has spoken to me concerning the issue of receiving from Him whatever it might be that we need.
We all know the formula don’t we?--------FAITH! And not just faith alone, but putting it to use.
We are all educated to the hilt about the fact that faith is the substance of things hoped for and the evidence of things not seen. We’re even drowned in the fact that faith the size of a grain of mustard seed will move mountians. And without faith it is impossible to please God.
Isn’t it amazing, with all we know, that we can come into the church building time after time and leave the same way we came or even worse because we can’t understand why God doesn’t do what He said in His Word He would do?
Well, the fact of the matter is, He will do excatly what His Word says. The problem is this. We can know all there is to know about faith and have faith the size of a mountain, and bring it with us to church in abundance, but if we don’t act upon it, nothing can happen.
Let me try and explain what I am trying to say by using some scripture that God placed upon my heart. Many times you have read, heard, and listened to messages on this scripture, but never like the Lord impressen upon me this past week.
Turn with me please to Luke 8: 43-48
43 And a woman having an issue of blood twelve years, which had spent all her living upon physicians, neither could be healed of any,
44 Came behind him, and touched the border of his garment; and immediately her issue of blood stanched.
45 And jesus said, who touched me? when all denied, Peter and they that were with him said, Master, the multitude throng thee and press thee, and sayest thou, who touched me?
46 And Jesus said, Somebody hath touched me; for I perceive that virtue is gone out of me.
47 And when the woman saw that she was not hid, she came trembling, and falling down before him, she declared unto him before all the people for what cause she had touched him, and how she was healed immediately.
48 And he said unto her, Daughter, be of good comfort; thy faith hath made thee whole; go in peace.
Praise God, there is no doubt that after twelve years of doing all that she thought she should do, when she did what she did on this day, she was instantly delivered. Notice she had spent all her money and was still sick and that this healing was free-----on her part. But let’s not forget that for us, our healing was bought and paid for some two thousand years ago with an awful price.
What I want you to notice is that there were a lot of people around Jesus. The Word says that the multitude thronged Him. I mean, there were lots of people gathered to one place in His presence.
Now turn on over to chapter 18 in this same book.
Look with me at verses 35 to 43.
35 And it came to pass, that as he was come nigh unto Jericho, a certain blind man sat by the way side begging;
36 And hearing the multitude pass by, he asked what it meant.
37 And they told him, that Jesus of Nazareth passeth by.
38 And he cried, saying, Jesus, thou son of David, have mercy on me.
39 And they which went before rebuked him, that he should hold his peace: but he cried so much the more, Thou son of David, have mercy on me.
40 And Jesus stood, and commanded him to be brought unto him: and when he was come near, he asked him,
41 Saying, What wilt thou that I shall do unto thee? And he said, Lord, that I may receive my sight.
42 And Jesus said unto him, Receive thy sight: thy faith hath saved thee.
43 And immediately he received his sight, and followed him, glorifying God: and all the people, when they saw it, gave praise unto God.
Well, praise God, we now see in this story that another has been healed.
Here we have the same situation again and this is what God showed me this week. Do you see again in this scripture that, first of all and most importantly Jesus was in the area, and next that there again was a multitude of people in his company.
The point I want you to see is not so much that both times the scripture said multitude or many, but there were people gathered where Jesus was. We may not have a multitude this morning, but we are people gathered here in His name, which means that He is here. Why does that mean He is here? Because the Bible says where two or three are gathered in His name that He will be in their midst.
Now I believe that, most likely, when there are people gathered in His name that some of them are labouring, heavy laden, and need rest. And I also will say again that most of the time they go home like or worse than when they came.
I know that I am famous for saying that we don’t have to do that, and we don’t. Today I am saying that and I can tell you why you don’t have to leave here defeated. The why is because The Lord Jesus Christ is here.
You say, "well He, according to what you say is always here, but I still leave here tired or bound."
Let me show you, by telling you, what the Lord shared with me this week, based upon the last two portions of scripture we read together.
I never thought about it this way, but this is what I believe He said to me-------In both stories we read about, Jesus was in the midst of some people. I mean He was there and they were there, but there was nothing going on just because of that fact.
They could have met just like that Sunday after Sunday and Wednesday after Wednesday or whatever and nothing would have happened.
They could have known everything there is to know about the Bible and still nothing would have happened. They could have had all the faith that a person could have and still nothing would have happened. What I mean is that whatever they knew or whatever amount of faith they had just sitting around where Jesus was would have never caused a move of God.
To cause Jesus to do the maraculous, someone had to not only come there or sit there, but somebody had to do something.
The woman with the issue of blood had to reach out to Jesus before anything happened. The blind begger had to cry out to Jesus before anything could happen.
I would have to believe that in two multitudes of people, there had to be more than one person in each bunch that needed deliverance or rest from God, but only two reached out or cried out to Him.
My point is this. We can gather in here time after time, week after week and gather around Jesus sick, hurting, with sin in our lives, or whatever other problem you might think of. But if we just come in sit, get up and go out, we will never have any relief and we will just keep on thinking that God’s Word is not working for us.
But the truth of the matter is, we can sit in His presence till we are blue in the face, but until we come unto Him by reaching out or crying out, we will never be delevered.
Too many times we are sitting when we ought to be standing and we are quiet when we ought to be crying out to God.
Please believe what I am saying to you. Please, don’t leave here today, if you need a touch from God, like you came.
