(Part of this sermon was inspired by a message I read at "30 Minutes One Sunday" - but beyond the initial comments, the remainder of the sermon went in a completely different direction than that which I read!)
Many of us here today have had, or still have, many problems in our lives. We are under constant stress from one thing or another: perhaps we or someone we know and love is extremely ill; or our finances are a bit shaky; or a significant relationship is our life is in turmoil; or we find ourselves stuck in a behavior we know is wrong, but we just can’t seem to shake it; or we are dealing with some other mental, emotional, or spiritual crisis.
It could be any of a thousand and one things that afflict us, but the result is we feel tired; or we find ourselves being angry at other people for almost no reason at all or, even more commonly, we feel unable to think good thoughts or do what we believe are good things.
We are not at peace. Our life is mark by inconsistency. Something is eating away at us.
So what do we do about it?
A lot of people do nothing. They just live in their rut assuming that for some reason the misery they are feeling is somehow meant to be their lot in life.
Then there are those who take a more proactive approach. They believe that they should be more at ease with themselves and with the world around them, so they employ many different strategies in order to “fix” themselves as they address the problems in their life.
In some cases they look for solutions on the shelves of the local library or bookstore – as they read the latest self-help release from the new age gurus.
In other cases they feel that might be able to get a grip on their problems, and find a happier and more fulfilling life by acting on the advice outlined in 30 minutes by one of the pop psychologists on radio or television.
Or perhaps their search for a solution leads them to one of the many means of escapism: too much television, substance abuse, over-eating, or the total immersion of oneself in one’s job.
Yet, despite all their efforts – these same folks find themselves just as tired and unhappy as those who have done nothing. In fact, they typically find themselves even more miserable since the rules and regulations and principles and means of escapism that they employed to help themselves actually require a lot great deal of effort while providing nothing of lasting value in return.
Perhaps, as a last ditch effort, some folks turn toward religion! They turn to the values and principles taught by some pastor, preacher, or Sunday School teacher. They turn to the LAWS and COMMANDMENTS of some religion in an attempt to cope with the problems that beset them.
That’s what Paul did. In the later half of Romans 7 we discover that Paul turned toward RELIGION (with all its rules, rituals, regulations, and requirements), only to discover that religion didn’t work either. Paul discovered that the good that he would like to do he did not do and the bad that he did not want to do he ended up doing anyways.
Have you been their? Have you ever felt like there was some kind of war going on inside you. Have you ever found yourself saying with Paul: “What a wretched person I am! Who will rescue me from this body of death?"
Who will rescue me?
Who will rescue me from the aimlessness of my life?
Who will rescue me from my pain and loneliness?
Who will rescue me from the negativity of the world?
Who will rescue me from myself?
We’ve tried everything. We’ve tried a dozen different self-help gurus. We’ve tried the pop-psychology we hear on the radio and watch on the TV. We’ve worked with several different plans and formulas, tested various philosophies and principles, and experimented with nearly every self-help guru available on TV and Radio, yet nothing seems to be working. We’ve even tried to make it under our own steam, but our own effort and energy, and we just can’t seem to make it. We feel tired and desperate and we look toward the heavens and cry: “Who will rescue me?”
You can’t hear Paul’s words and not sense his feeling of hopelessness. He is sharing a bit of his testimony. He speaks about how he felt tired and trapped. He tells us that all of his efforts to clean up his act only left him feeling frustrated. Even when turning to the LAW OF GOD to help set him on the straight and narrow, he only felt defeat and despair. He calls himself “wretched” as it is translated in some versions of the text: “miserable”; “pitiful”; “desolate”; “heartbroken”. His one plea was this: “Who will save me?” “Who will free me from this life that is dominated by sin?” “Who will rescue me?”
Then Paul answers his own question: “Thank God! The answer is Jesus Christ our Lord.”
We experience victory in the Christian life the same way we entered into the Christian life.
How did we enter into the Christian life?
Was it through doing good deeds? No!
Was it by turning over a new leaf and trying hard to live a more ethical and moral lifestyle? No!
Was it by going to church every Sunday and putting money in the offering plate? No!
Was it by engaging in a certain number of religious practices and observances? No!
How did we enter the Christian life? It was by grace through faith! We trusted God to save us, to redeem us, and to remake us.
Do you really think that God’s plan is to save us by His grace – and then to leave us to our devices? Of course not! We experience victory in the Christian life the same way we entered the Christian life – by grace through faith. It’s by trusting Jesus – by living in relationship and intimacy with Christ.
The scriptural witness is overwhelming in the assertion that the victorious Christian life comes through the same means by which we gained entry into the Christian life. Victory come by GRACE through FAITH. Victory comes by trusting, depending, and relying on Jesus to be our source of life and our strength for living.
Galatians 2:20 teaches us that “this life we now live we live by faith in the Son of God who loves and gave Himself for us”
I Corinthians 15:57 says “…thanks be to God, who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.”
II Corinthians 3:18 says that “as the Spirit of God works within us, we become more and more life him.”
Ephesians 3:16 tells us that we are “strengthened with might through His Spirit” as work in us.
Victory comes by trusting, depending, and relying on Jesus to be our source of life and our strength for living. But we don’t do this do we? It is just seems too silly to expect that something so simple can solve such a complex problem.
In my experience the greatest hindrance that stands in the way of people experiencing the victorious Christian live is that we refuse to accept the simplicity of the truth that victory comes by grace through faith – with nothing else required.
We think is has to be more complicated. We think there has to be a catch. We rebel against the notion that GRACE is our only means to victory because all that grace asks of us is that we TRUST JESUS. We think there has to be a catch. We think that it somehow must be dependent on ME. We cannot accept or believe that things might be easier than they appear.
“That can’t be enough,” we reason. “God certainly expects and demands and requires something from me before I will know victory.”
We reject “GRACE through FAITH” and embrace “personal effort through works and good deeds.:
And so, like Paul, we find ourselves struggling and straining to live up to THE LAW; or to the demand of our RELIGION; or the expectations that we feel have been placed upon us by our PARENTS, our SPOUSE, or our SOCIETY AT LARGE.
Yet no matter how hard we try, no matter how much we stress, no matter how hard we strain – we only end up more frustrated. Then we start to think that even God might be conspiring against us. And then we start to view God as a harsh taskmaster whose aim seems to be to hinder and thwart us every step of the way.
I want you to hear me clearly right now. God wants us all to have peace and fulfillment. God wants us to know victory. God wants us to unlock the unique supernatural abilities that He has placed within us to equip us to advance His kingdom. God wants us to experience the power to accomplish everything God has planned for our lives.
I want you also to know that there is nothing complicated here. There are no rules, rituals or requirements. There are no secrets codes or special knowledge that you need to unlock and experience victorious Christian life. There is only a call – a call to yield yourself to God in faith by abiding in a relationship with Jesus Christ, trusting HIM to be your source for living.
That was the discover Paul shares in Romans 7:24-25a
Jesus taught the same lesson when He said: “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 spirit, and you will find rest for your souls, for my yoke is easy and my burden light!”
“Come to me, take my yoke upon you, my yoke is easy and my burden light.”
The yoke of religious rules is very heavy that weigh us down with its expectation and demands about what we need to do or not do. The yoke of the LAW is a terrible burden about tasks that you will hate doing. But our focus is not on RELIGION or the LAW. Our focus in on a relationship with Jesus – and this yoke is EASY.
No, the burden of Jesus is like the one in the old story about a man who comes upon a little boy carrying a still smaller boy, who was lame, upon his back.
"That’s a heavy burden for you to carry", said the man.
"That’s not a burden", came the answer, "that’s my little brother".
Wherever Jesus sends us and whatever our call, it is a burden built on the life of Christ that has been made to give not only us, but our whole world rest.
We need to give up our old way of looking at life and assume the way of seeing and living that Christ wants us to have, - the one that concerns our heart, - the one that is suited to us.
“Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened.”
“Come to me you who are tired of doing it all under your own steam and I will give you rest.”
“Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, learn from me for I am gentle and humble in spirit, and you will find rest for your souls. You will find rest, for my yoke is easy and my burden light.”
“Who will rescue me? Thanks be to God it is our Lord Jesus Christ.”
There’s an old hymn (it can’t be found in our new hymnals) that speaks of our ability to find rest in Christ when nothing else and no one else can help. The hymn is “Come Unto Me” and one verse asks:
Are you disappointed, wandering here and there,
dragging chains of doubt and loaded down with care?
Do unholy feelings struggle in your breast?
Bring your case to Jesus, He will give you rest.
Come unto me, come unto me, I will give you rest
Take my yoke upon you, Hear me and be blest
I am meek and lowly, come and trust my might
My yoke is easy, and my burden is light.
Who will rescue me?
Jesus invites us: “Come to me, learn from, take my yoke upon you - and I will give you rest...”
