Where are you going to go?
Matthew 11:28-30
A man was watching the news one night when it was reported that a car was going the wrong direction on the freeway. The man knew his wife was on that freeway and became very concerned so called her on her cell phone. She answered and he said, "Dear, there’s one car going in the wrong direction on the freeway." She exclaimed, "One car! There are hundreds of them!"
With it being a few weeks past the devastating disaster or Hurricane Katrina the recovery process has begun but it will be a long time to recover. Why this happened, I don’t know. Some may ask, “Why did anyone have to die”? The warning went out days before the storm.
Census tells us that the areas hit the worst were those who were in the low income. Many didn’t have cars or the money to leave even if they wanted. And now they have no place to go back to. Everything they had is gone.
So now where do they go? What to they do? Many states including our own are sending out the welcome mat. People are opening up their homes to strangers. Many are offering relief and I believe that is what God would have for us to do as well.
I was listening to the radio and I heard one guy from New Orleans stated that they would not forget the help they have received even if it meant bring the Mardi Gras to us. No thanks I was thinking. This might have been God’s allowed this, like when He destroyed Sodom and Gomorra.
But just think of the one who is trying to find their way back. Where are they going to live? Where are they going to work? Where are they going to go?
And it is not just the Hurricanes that we have faced over the years. We have just gone through the anniversary of 9/11. You have the killings of Columbine. All over the world you have disasters and in our own lives we have our own storms.
I can remember when I had a house fire several years ago. The fire did not do that much damage but the water and the smoke damage made the house unlivable. So we lived with my in laws while waiting on the house to be repaired.
But where should the Hurricane victims go? Where should anyone go? The answer is found in our text. Matthew 11:28-30 (Read)
So where should we go? We should come to Jesus. Before we dwell on that let’s review our text a little more closely so that we know how to come to Him.
How do come to Jesus?
a. The request
Notice in verse 28 it states, “Come to Me ALL you who labor and are heavy, and I WILL give your rest”.
Jesus gives the invitation of come and then He gives the response of those who respond to the invitation, “I will give you rest”. Jesus was always inviting people to come to Him and He would meet their needs.
Notice it did not say, “Come to church to find rest”. Going to McDonalds doesn’t make you a cheeseburger; it just makes you smell like one. Going to a garage doesn’t make you a car. And going to church does not make you a Christian. Many people who have problems come to church looking for answers. But the answer is not the church but it should be found there. The answer is the relation and the relation that begins with answering the invitation of coming to Christ.
You see there are a lot of people who believe in God. They know who He is and what He is about. They know a lot of information about Jesus. They know of Him but do not know Him because they have never answered the invitation to come to Him.
If you are hungry or thirsty then Jesus says in John 6:35, And Jesus said unto them, I am the bread of life. He who comes to Me shall never hunger, and he who believe in me will never thirst.
And His invitation is come one, come all, and come just as you are.
b. The response.
When you respond to the invitation His response is I WILL give you rest. When we think of rest, we think like Webster defines it; “To stop work; to place or lay”. In other words He is talking here about stopping self-effort. He is not talking here that when we come to Him that we don’t have to work. Remember it was God who created work. Genesis 2:8 The LORD God planted a garden eastward in Eden,
But the rest that He gives is a Spiritual rest. Our efforts fall short of what God’s standard. He is saying here, you don’t have to work out your Salvation, just lay your sins on Me and I pay for them in full.
It is a rest for the “heavy laden” it states, those who struggle with the burden of sin. Living for yourself, for possession, your pleasure is a burden. Harrison Ford, the actor whose movies have grossed over 2 billion dollars said this. “You only want what you ain’t got. And what you ain’t got is Peace”.
When you answer the invitation your slate has been washed clean. Don’t let Satan rub your past in, when Jesus came to whipped it out. Come and rest in what Jesus has done for you. He bore the guilt and paid the dept, there is nothing left to pay.
c. The reply (Vs.29)
“Take my yoke upon you.”
A yoke as you well know was a harness that connects a pair of oxen. As used here in our text it speaks of Jesus’ yoke of grace rather than mans yoke of rules and religion. Most people who have not accepted the invitation think that in order to do so then you must first clean up before you accept the invitation. That is not the yoke that Jesus refers to here. No one before Jesus was able to keep the law. And no one sense Him will be able to either. That is why that Jesus said, “My yoke is easy. It is impossible to keep the rules and religion. His yoke is easy compared to man’s yoke.
So what does it mean to take on His yoke?
His yoke pictures three things.
1. Connection
Be with Me Jesus says. Yokes are made for two, not one. We are not meant to go though life living apart from God. His yoke fits well and is lighter than the one we’ve been trying to pull by ourselves. Be connected to Jesus.
2. Direction
Follow Me. That is what He told the disciples and that is what He is telling us. When you think of a yoke you think of a forward motion of two connected together. You cannot be yoked to Jesus and go your own way anymore. We need to follow Him and His direction in our life.
3. Cooperation
Work with Me. To be yoked together means that we cooperate with His work. When we accept Christ we are not to do what we want to do but rather what He has for you to do. So often we try to do what we want to do without even asking Him what He has for us to do. That is not cooperation.
Rest by placing all your cares and all your burdens on Him by taking His yoke.
d. The result (Vs.29)
Learn from Me.
When we answer the request; and we hear the response. Then we reply to that response, and we have the result. The result is that we learn that rest He gives is a free gift. We learn that He loves you and He cares about you. The more you learn about Him then the more you begin to find rest in Him. It is what we call trust.
You learn to trust Him and when you do that then you can rest in the assurance of no matter what storms this life hits you with, you can trust that it will be ok because as long as you have Christ. Then you have all that you need.
There was a story of one 47-year-old man who lost everything he had to Katrina. He found refuge in Baptist church miles from his home. You find him not sitting around felling sorry for himself. Not complaining about the tragedy he endures. But you find him in church praising God. He said, “All that he had was not his to begin with. The Lord had given it to him and the Lord chose to take it back.”
This man has come to Jesus and he has that peace that we have been talking about. So before we close this morning let me give you just a few more reasons why we should come to Jesus.
First of all, we can come to Him for Freedom.
Ephesians 1:7, In Him we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of sins, according to the riches of His grace.
Free from sin. Free from the guilt of the past. His blood paid it all.
We can come to Him for comfort.
2 Thessalonians 3:16, Now may the Lord of peace Himself give you a peace always in every way. The Lord be with you all.
You receive a comfort knowing that what ever you are going through right now. He is right there with you.
You can come to Him for strength.
Philippians 4:13, I can do ALL things through Christ who strengthens me.
God will never ask you to do anything without providing the means and the method to which to do it.
He can come to Him to receive peace.
John 14:27, Peace I leave with you, My peace I give to you; not as the world gives do I give to you. Let not your heart be troubled, neither let it be afraid.
You can come to Him for Joy.
John 15:10-11, If you keep My commandments, you will abide in My love, just as I have kept My Father’s commandments and abide in His love. These things I have spoken to you, that My joy may remain in you, and that your joy may be full.
Notice what that says is when we have the right relationship with Him is when we experience that joy.
And most importantly, when you come to Him you receive eternal life.
John 6:4, He who believes in Me has everlasting life.
You see we all are going to live. It is where we live that becomes our choice. We can choose to live with Him and spend an eternity in Heaven. Or we can reject that invitation and spend eternity in a place called hell, where there is torment and flames.
So where are you going? Why don’t you come to Jesus!
