Title: The Right Fit
Text: Matt 11:28-30
MP: Sin makes you tired. If you want rest, be like Jesus. (Meekness)
Labor Day is a bit ironic, don’t you think? We take an entire weekend off to celebrate work, labor and holidays, and how do we spend it? By doing all those chores around the house we’ve been putting off ‘til things slow down. It just doesn’t seem right.
We take vacations in order to recreate - to re-create ourselves. We need that time off so that we rest, and when we’re rested, we’re more effective.
If you’ve ever used a band saw or a chain saw or just about any kind of power tool, you know there’s a maximum amount of work it can do. But you also know that if you’re approaching that maximum, you’re getting to the point where the tool isn’t as effective as it should be. There’s a sweet spot where the tool is doing what it’s designed to do, and then there’s a spot where it can accomplish the things it shouldn’t but can. That difference is the difference between breaking up concrete with a jackhammer and some jacks.
Any chef knows, cutting with dull blades is a bad idea. It’s harder to do, and it’s a lot less safe. Taking the time to sharpen your blades – to better fit them to the task at hand – is a very effective and productive way to work.
Well, this morning, our text is an invitation from Jesus to be more effective in our lives. He has a simple offer for us. Come to Me, Jesus says, and I will give you rest. Learn about me, he says, and things will work. Take up my burden, in exchange for yours.
But the rest Jesus offers isn’t like one day off at the end of a long hot summer. No, our Jesus wants to give us the kind of re-creating rest that gives our lives meaning.
His prescription is actually pretty simple. He just wants to focus us – sharpen us and fit us for his kingdom.
So, perhaps it is fitting this Labor Day to see how it is that God will accomplish that work in us. How is it, like the prayer ‘Away in a Manger’ goes, that he fits us for heaven? How is it that coming to him, taking up his yoke, is real rest?
I should start by telling you that a yoke is something you put on an ox to pull a plow. It ties the ox – the powerhouse – to the farmer so that they can do something together. But understand this: When Jesus is inviting you to take up his yoke, you aren’t the one providing the power or the direction in this relationship. Back in Jesus’ day, typically a farmer would plow with two oxen. One big old ox would be doing most of the work, and one younger who would be learning the ropes, so to speak. You get three guess which one you’re supposed to be.
Remember that Jesus is telling you to do just one thing – and it isn’t pull. He says ‘learn of me.’ Get to know how this yoke works. I’m actually doing the work for you. This burden is light. You know I find it interesting that Christ would use the word Chrestos to describe his yoke. You can say use the word ‘light’ to describe it, but the phrase ‘it fits well’ might be more appropriate. When you are yoked together with Christ, under his guidance, direction, and education, it works like a well-oiled machine.
Of course he knows how to fit the yoke on you. He made you. He formed you before the world was made. It’s no accident that he was a carpenter, skilled and able to make the best fitting yokes around.
Contrast that to the burdens we carry every day. Our way of life can be joy or it can be a burden. And the difference is simple: if our way of life conforms to what God intended, joy is a natural outgrowth of that. It’s like putting an orchid in sunlight or a fish in water. It’s like peanut butter and chocolate. It’s just right together.
When we’re not about the right things, it’s obvious too. Not conforming to God’s will is awkward. It’s like the fish on a bicycle. Deep in our souls we know something’s not right. That lack of conformity has name, it’s called sin. And, I’ll tell you something about sin. Sin tires me out.
Ecclesiastes calls it ‘a chasing after the wind,’ the hope that somehow, this time, that sin is going to satisfy. But all it does is demand the work without the reward.
Back in 1930, there was an up and coming attorney named Joe Cater. In an era of prohibition, he had made quite a career rooting out the corruption and cover up that was the hallmark of that time. He was only 41, but he made it all the way to the highest court in New York. Initially, he was energetic. But people began to notice a change. He grew tired, listless. Finally, on August 6th, he left $25,000 and a note for his wife. It simply read, “I am very weary. Love, Joe.” He got into a taxi to head to a play. He was never seen again. The case rocked the nation. Newspapers started calling him, ‘The missing-est man in America.’
Rumors flew. It became widespread knowledge that he had taken up a mistress. And then, it turned out, he had begun to get involved in mob activities himself. That $25,000 came from campaign contributions with a definite taint. No wonder he was tired. He was spending so much energy covering his tracks that he couldn’t take the time to see where he was going.
Only last year was the mystery finally solved. It turned out that he had, in fact, been killed by the taxi driver – who in turn was working for the mob. ‘Be sure your sin will find you out.’ And be sure that in the meantime there is no rest for the wicked.
So, if sin tires you out, what brings you joy? Well, conforming to the fit already established. You see, your task is pretty simple – Jesus says it here. Your call is to learn of him.
Jon Courson pointed out something here pretty important: This is the only place in all of the Scriptures where Jesus is going to give a first hand account of who he really is. Oh, he’ll use metaphors all over the place, but if you want to know Jesus heart, this where he says it. He says, ‘take my yoke upon you and learn of Me: for I am meek and lowly in heart.’
Meekness is the opposite of being assertive or aggressive. It means looking out for Number One, last. It’s related to humility – concerning ourselves with others rather than ourselves. It’s a job to look out and care for others. But it’s easy to see the rewards. In high school, I worked in a florist shop for a few weeks. It’s amazing how few people complain when you’re bringing them something nice. There is a joy that comes from serving that is totally unlike being served.
What makes the job of meekness hard isn’t that it’s complex, but rather that it is simply difficult to put myself aside. Jesus was lowly and meek. That runs counter to our experience, even counter to our values sometime. But that’s who he is. He’s meek – and that wasn’t necessarily what I had in mind.
After all I’ve seen bumper sticker: the meek shall inherit the earth, but I want the stars. Everybody who makes it big – from Bill Clinton to Bill Gates – they didn’t get to where they were by being rolled over. I want to succeed. That means I’m gong to look out for number one! But if we are going to learn from him, we have to at least listen to Jesus and see what He’s doing. Maybe if I watch him at the plow, I might figure out what meekness means.
As we watch Jesus, we know that he’s going to stand before his executioner as silent as a lamb before the shearers. But we also know that he’s going to turn the tables on the money changers at the Temple. You see, when we hear ‘meek’ we often think ‘weak,’ but that isn’t the case. Meekness is a conscious choice not to rely on our own strength. It is a conscious choice to choose to let others’ needs come before our own.
When a doctor deals with the mentally ill, he chooses to understand how the diseased brain is seeing the world, and then deals with that. He has the power to try force reality back on someone who has had it taken from him, but he chooses to call the sick person back under their own power. Meekness is power, but its power controlled.
I love how Jon Courson describes it. He says:
“Picture a big, gentle Saint Bernard surrounded by yapping, snapping, little Chihuahuas. Now the Saint Bernard could open his mouth and chomp the Chihuahuas down in one gulp. He could take his paw and knock them away with one swipe. But the powerful Saint Bernard patiently puts up with the yappers and snappers at his feet. That’s meekness.”
Contrast that control with sin. As Christians, we know that sin has no claim on us. We know that we’ve been forgiven. But there is still this uncontrolled power at work in us trying to tear us away from Christ. It is a lack of control.
We weary ourselves trying to break out of it. We get tired and fatigued either by struggling to conform to every jot and title of the law, legalistically weighing every action and thought. Or, we give up and try to live luxurious lives catering to every sin we can think up or imagine. After all what is sin, but a burden, a chasing after the wrong things? It’s a marathon run backwards. Both legalism and hedonism are recipes for a very tired and misspent life.
But if you want rest, it’s easy. Come to Jesus. Learn from him. Learn what it means to love the Father, and he will give you rest. As Augustine once said, ‘The soul is restless unless it finds its rest in Thee.’
As Christians, we have an unlimited amount of power at our disposal. The only question is, are we willing to yoke ourselves to that power. Are we willing to submit to the control of the one who is willing to teach us how to use it? Are we willing to learn from him to follow him, or are we going to plow our own fields the way we think it should be done? It’s only easy if you take up the right yoke from the right master who knows the right fit.
Would you pray with me?
For 75 years a missing persons case in NYC has remained unsolved. One evening in August of 1930 Joe Crater, a successful Supreme Court Judge for New York, waved goodbye to some friends after dinner at a restaurant, got in a taxi, and disappeared. Nothing in his past or present could explain his strange disappearance except possibly a note he left with a check for his wife. The note simply said, “I am very weary, love Joe”
http://www.nydailynews.com/front/story/338782p-289273c.html
A WORD TO THE WEARY
A Topical Study of
MATTHEW 11:28–30
Although it took place in the 1930s, it remains one of the most mystifying missing person cases in FBI files. After spending an evening eating out with friends, a forty-five-year-old New York judge hailed a taxi and was never seen or heard from again. The FBI immediately became involved. They suspected a kidnapping by someone who held a judicial grudge against him. But that didn’t seem to pan out. They then suspected Mafia activity because he was an outspoken enemy of the Mafia. But again, that led nowhere. To this day, there is only one clue that remains. When his wife returned to their apartment the evening her husband disappeared, there on the table was a check for a large sum of money made out to her and a note attached to it in her husband’s handwriting which simply said,
I am very, very tired. Love, Joe
The question remains—were those words merely a comment made at the end of a particularly trying day? Or was his note saying, “I’m tired; I’m fatigued; I’m weary; I give up”? To this day, we can’t be sure. For lack of further evidence, it is presently believed he rode off in a taxicab to an unknown destination where he took his own life because weariness had weighted his soul. I think all of us from time to time can relate to that kind of weariness. I’m not speaking of physical fatigue—the kind of fatigue you feel after mowing the lawn or playing a set of tennis. No, I’m speaking of the weariness which comes from life itself.
If you are of average weight and height, here is what you will go through in an average twenty-four-hour period: Your heart will beat 103,689 times. Your blood will travel 168 million miles as your heart pumps approximately 4 ounces per beat. You will breathe 23,040 times, inhaling 438 cubic feet of air. Your stomach will take in three and a half pounds of food and 2.9 quarts of liquid. You will lose seven eighths of a pound of waste. If you are a man, you will speak 4,800 words, and if you are a woman, you will speak close to 7,000 words. You will move 750 muscles and exercise 7 million brain cells.
No wonder we’re tired! But there is a weariness much more draining than physical fatigue. It’s the kind of weariness you feel when you just don’t know if you can go on another day. It’s the weariness a father feels when his child is doing wrong, the weariness a friend feels who has been abandoned or misunderstood, and the weariness a wife feels whose husband has rejected her. It’s the weariness that can take a toll on even the most seemingly successful individual—even on a successful judge.
There is One, however, who said, “Come to me, all you who are weary…” (see Matthew 11:28). How I appreciate that! The Lord of the universe invited anyone who is weary to come to Him. If I were the Lord, I don’t know if I would make that kind of invitation. Keep in mind that at this point in Matthew’s Gospel, Israel is rejecting His invitation to make Him King. Consequently, no longer is Jesus speaking to a nation corporately, saying, “Repent: for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.”
No, now He is speaking to individuals personally, saying, “Come to Me, any who are weary, any who are laboring.” Would you have called this group of people? I’m not sure I would. If I were giving an invitation, I don’t think I would have said, “Come unto me all you who are laboring and weary—feeling as though you’re depressed to the point of death, despairing because of divorce or disease, death or discouragement.”
No, I think I would say, “Come unto me, all you who are happy—let’s celebrate life together! Let’s lift each other’s spirits!” Or maybe I would have said, “Come unto me, all you who are wealthy. Come and share your prosperity!” Or maybe, “Come unto me all you who are wise. Let’s dialogue and philosophize and interact intellectually.” But the personal invitation Jesus extended to people individually as the nation rebelled against Him corporately was: “Anyone who is weary, come to Me. Those are My people—the weary ones.”
Come unto me…
Jesus didn’t say, “Run to Me.” So often in my weariness, I can’t run. I can only stumble to Him or crawl before Him. But that’s okay. He just said “Come” any way we can.
Come unto me…
He didn’t say, “Go to church.” He didn’t say, “Listen to a sermon.” He didn’t say, “Get some counseling.” He didn’t say, “Read a book.” He said, “Come to Me.”
Come unto me, all ye that labour…
What causes us to be weary in our labor? I believe the answer is found in Exodus 5.
The people of Israel were in Egypt. Four hundred years previously, they left the Land of Promise due to famine and headed south to Egypt where there was plenty to eat. They lived there for a while, enjoying the abundance and prosperity. But suddenly the situation changed when a new Pharaoh came on the scene, looked at the Jewish people, and said, “We’ve got to control these people. How? We’ll enslave them.” So for hundreds of years, the people of God were enslaved by the Egyptians, baking bricks in the blistering, burning sun for the construction of Pharaoh’s monuments. It has been documented that the Israelites baked enough bricks to build a wall ten feet high and five feet thick from LA to New York City. When Moses said, “Let my people go,” Pharaoh answered,
Ye shall no more give the people straw to make brick, as heretofore: let them go and gather straw for themselves. And the tale of the bricks, which they did make heretofore, ye shall lay upon them; ye shall not diminish ought thereof: for they be idle; therefore they cry, saying, Let us go and sacrifice to our God. Let there more work be laid upon the men, that they may labour therein; and let them not regard vain words. Exodus 5:7–9
The Hebrew word translated “labour” in verse 9 has the same meaning as the Greek word translated “labour” Jesus used in Matthew 11. Do you sometimes feel like you’re stuck in Egypt, endlessly making bricks for Pharaoh under the blistering sun? Maybe you’ve said, “I’m going to Egypt. I’m going to labor to get ahead in my career,” or, “I’m going to work hard for this material thing.” And for a while, it seemed enjoyable. But then, just like Pharaoh, it turned against you, and the very thing you thought would be wonderful is now a taskmaster—cracking the whip and enslaving you.
“Come to Me,” the Lord says. “All you who are weary from labor, all you who have realized Pharaoh is a fake and Egypt is a rip off, come to Me.”
We have a tendency to think, I’m going to be so happy when I accomplish this task, when I reach that goal, when I get this business or that toy.
And we labor and labor until we finally say, “This isn’t working out the way I thought it could, the way the commercials promised it would. I’m miserable. I’m tired. I’m weary.”
Come unto Me, all ye that labour and
are heavy laden…
What does it mean to be heavy laden?
Ah sinful nation, a people laden with iniquity, a seed of evildoers, children that are corrupters: they have forsaken the LORD, they have provoked the Holy One of Israel unto anger, they are gone away backward. Why should ye be stricken any more? ye will revolt more and more: the whole head is sick, and the whole heart faint. From the sole of the foot even unto the head there is no soundness in it; but wounds, and bruises, and putrifying sores: they have not been closed, neither bound up, neither mollified with ointment. Isaiah 1:4–6
The Lord says to His people, Israel, “You’re beat up and bruised and hurting and desolate and destroyed because you have been laden, loaded with iniquity.” You see, Pharaoh makes us labor, but sin makes us heavy laden. Sin weighs us down.
David went through a season of sin on more than one occasion. During one such time, he wrote,
There is no soundness in my flesh because of thine anger; neither is there any rest in my bones because of my sin. For mine iniquities are gone over mine head: as an heavy burden they are too heavy for me. My wounds stink and are corrupt because of my foolishness. I am troubled; I am bowed down greatly; I go mourning all the day long. For my loins are filled with a loathsome disease: and there is no soundness in my flesh. I am feeble and sore broken: I have roared by reason of the disquietness of my heart. Psalm 38:3–8
Sin will make you tired. What does Jesus say? He says, “Whether you’ve been seduced and sucked in by Pharaoh’s mentality—working for the world and finding it to be nothing but bricks and weariness—or whether you’ve been heavy laden with iniquity, come unto Me.”
Come unto Me, all ye that labour and are heavy laden,
and I will give you rest.
How?
Take my yoke upon you…
The Greek word translated “carpenter” used in Matthew 13 to describe Joseph refers to a finish carpenter rather than for a framer. Tradition has it that the carpenter shop where Jesus worked with His father, Joseph, specialized in making yokes. To yoke two oxen together, the skilled carpenter designed the yoke to fit each ox individually. Since there was always a lead ox yoked together with one who would follow, the yoke was designed in such a way that the lead ox would pull the greater weight. The follower, or assistant ox, was just to go with the flow.
Take My yoke upon you…
Jesus used an analogy well known to the people who listened to Him when He said not only, “Come unto Me,” but, “Yoke with Me. Let Me be the lead ox. Go with My flow. Don’t try to figure out or change My direction. Let Me lead you.”
The story is told of a battleship cruising the Atlantic, off the northern coast of Maine. One stormy evening, the commander was notified, “Sir, there’s a light ahead. Oncoming vessel.”
“Signal the oncoming vessel: change your courses ten degrees to the west.”
The message was sent.
But a light flashed back, “Change your course ten degrees to the east.”
“Signal again,” barked the commander. “Change your course ten degrees to the west. I am an admiral!”
The light flashed back, “Change your course ten degrees to the east. I am a Seaman Third Class.”
By this time, the admiral was incensed as he thundered, “Signal again: Change your course ten degrees to the west. I am a battleship.”
And the message came back, “Change your course ten degrees to the east. I am a lighthouse.”
So, too, as we impudently and impetuously say to the Lord, “Lord, let’s go my way,” He answers, “No. We’re going My way.”
I am the Lighthouse.
I am the Light of the world,
The Rock of your salvation,
the Creator and Sustainer of your soul.
I am the Alpha and the Omega,
The One who knows the beginning from the end.
Trust Me.
For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light.
In Acts 15, questions arose concerning Gentile converts and whether or not they should follow the laws and the rituals and be circumcised. Peter gave this response:
Now therefore why tempt ye God, to put a yoke upon the neck of the disciples, which neither our fathers nor we were able to bear? Acts 15:10
Sometimes I hear people say, “I’m so burdened. It’s so tough being a servant. It’s so hard to be a brother, a musician, or a witness.”
If it’s heavy, it’s not His burden because His burden is light. If what I’m doing is tough and wearisome to me, then I know it’s not the Lord who has placed that burden upon me. His burden is easy. His load is light.
Jesus would say to you today, “Come to Me. Don’t labor under the burdens of Pharaoh. You’ll become weary if you do. Don’t become heavy laden under the bondage of sin. It will rob you of your energy. Don’t become enslaved by the laws of the Pharisees. You’ll be weighed down. Just come to Me. Yoke with Me. Learn of Me. And you’ll find rest in your souls.”
Even the Rabbis saw this. There is a kind of rueful parable put into the mouth of Korah, which shows just how binding and constricting and burdensome and impossible the demands of the Law could be. “There was a poor widow in my neighbourhood who had two daughters and a field. When she began to plough, Moses (i.e. the Law of Moses) said, ‘You must not plough with an ox and an ass together.’ When she began to sow, he said, ‘You must not sow your field with mingled seed.’ When she began to reap and to make stacks of corn, he said, ‘When you reap your harvest in your field, and have forgotten a sheaf in the field, you shall not go back to get it’ (Deuteronomy 24:19), and ‘you shall not reap your field to its very border’ (Leviticus 19:9). She began to thresh, and he said, ‘Give me the heave-offering, and the first and second tithe.’ She accepted the ordinance and gave them all to him. What did the poor woman then do? She sold her field, and bought two sheep, to clothe herself from their fleece, and to have profit from their young. When they bore their young, Aaron (i.e. the demands of the priesthood) came and said, ‘Give me the first-born.’ So she accepted the decision, and gave them to him. When the shearing time came, and she sheared them, Aaron came and said, ‘Give me the first of the fleece of the sheep’ (Deuteronomy 18:4). Then she thought: ‘I cannot stand up against this man. I will slaughter the sheep and eat them.’ Then Aaron came and said, ‘Give me the shoulder and the two cheeks and the stomach’ (Deuteronomy 18:3). Then she said, ‘Even when I have killed them I am not safe from you. Behold they shall be devoted.’ Then Aaron said, ‘In that case they belong entirely to me’ (Numbers 18:14). He took them and went away and left her weeping with her two daughters.” The story is a parable of the continuous demands that the Law made upon men in every action and activity of life. These demands were indeed a burden.
He says, “My yoke is easy.” The word easy is in Greek chrēstos, which can mean well-fitting. In Palestine ox-yokes were made of wood; the ox was brought, and the measurements were taken. The yoke was then roughed out, and the ox was brought back to have the yoke tried on. The yoke was carefully adjusted, so that it would fit well, and not gall the neck of the patient beast. The yoke was tailor-made to fit the ox.
There is an old story which tells how a man came 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 no’ a burden,” came the answer. “That’s my wee brother.” The burden which is given in love and carried in love is always light.
Take my yoke upon you and learn of me (ἀρατε τον ζυγον μου ἐφ̓̔υμας και μαθετε ἀπ̓εμου [arate ton zugon mou eph‚humas kai mathete ap‚emou]). The rabbis used yoke for school as many pupils find it now a yoke. The English word “school” is Greek for leisure (σχολη [scholē]). But Jesus offers refreshment (ἀναπαυσιν [anapausin]) in his school and promises to make the burden light, for he is a meek and humble teacher. Humility was not a virtue among the ancients. It was ranked with servility. Jesus has made a virtue of this vice. He has glorified this attitude so that Paul urges it (Phil. 2:3), “in lowliness of mind each counting other better than himself.” In portions of Europe today people place yokes on the shoulders to make the burden easier to carry. Jesus promises that we shall find the yoke kindly and the burden lightened by his help. “Easy” is a poor translation of χρηστος [chrēstos]. Moffatt puts it “kindly.” That is the meaning in the Septuagint for persons. We have no adjective that quite carries the notion of kind and good. The yoke of Christ is useful, good, and kindly. Cf. Song of Solomon 1:10.
Yoked together
With Whom? A Meek man
With what? A light burden, noy a heavy one (Chrestos)
Why? I will give you rest.
Come unto Me, all ye that labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you, and learn of Me; for I am meek and lowly in heart…
This is the only autobiographical statement Jesus ever made.
He didn’t say, “Learn of Me because I am majestic and mighty,” or “Learn of Me because I am powerful and prominent.” He said, “That which you discover when you learn of Me will refresh you, for I am meek.”
When I study the Scriptures and learn of Jesus, I am always amazed at His goodness, His grace, His kindness, His gentleness, and His meekness.
Jesus says, “Come to Me—you who have been burned out by Pharaoh, you who have been wearied by the folly of sin. Yoke with Me—don’t try to maneuver Me, steer Me, or demand of Me. Learn of Me, for I am meek and lowly.”
The result?
…And ye shall find rest unto your souls.
You’ll find what your heart is craving: Shabbat. Sabbath. Rest.
“My yoke,” Jesus said, “is easy.” It’s not religion—it’s relationship. It’s not Judaism—it’s Jesus. It’s not the law—it’s love.
…
One of the hardest parts about my computer job is convincing people to use the right tool for the job.
…
…
When Jesus is saying, take up my yoke, that’s an invitation to be hooked up with him.
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Long Branch Baptist Church
Halfway, Virginia; est. 1786
Sunday, September 3rd, 2006
Enter to Worship
Prelude David Witt
Meditation Isaiah 58
Invocation
*Opening Hymn #339
“It is well with my soul”
Welcome & Announcements
Morning Prayer [See Insert]
*Hymn #379
“I Need Thee Every Hour”
*Responsive Lesson [See Right]
*Hymn #375
“Tis’ so sweet to trust in Jesus”
Offertory Mr. Witt
*Doxology
Praise God from whom all blessings flow / Praise Him all creatures here below
Praise him above, ye heavenly host / Praise Father, Son and Holy Ghost. Amen.
*Scripture Matthew 11:25-30
Sermon Michael Hollinger
“The Right Fit”
Invitation Hymn #214
“All the way my Savior leads me”
*Benediction
*Congregational Response
May the grace of Christ of Savior / And the Father’s boundless love
With the Holy Spirit’s favor / Rest upon us from above. Amen.
* Congregation, please stand.
Depart To Serve
RESPONSIVE LESSON
Thus says the Lord: Stand at the crossroads, and look, and ask for the ancient paths, where the good way lies; and walk in it, and find rest for your souls.
But they said, “We will not walk in it.”
Ah, sinful nation, people laden with iniquity, offspring who do evil, children who deal corruptly, who have forsaken the Lord, who have despised the Holy One of Israel, who are utterly estranged! Why do you seek further beatings?
Why do you continue to rebel? The whole head is sick, and the whole heart faint.
Again I saw all the oppressions that are practiced under the sun.
Look, the tears of the oppressed—with no one to comfort them! On the side of their oppressors there was power—with no one to comfort them.
Then I saw that all toil and all skill in work come from one person’s envy of another. This also is vanity and a chasing after wind. Fools fold their hands and consume their own flesh.
Better is a handful with quiet than two handfuls with toil, and a chasing after wind.
Again, I saw vanity under the sun: the case of solitary individuals, without sons or brothers; yet there is no end to all their toil, and their eyes are never satisfied with riches.
“For whom am I toiling,” they ask, “and depriving myself of pleasure?”
This also is vanity and an unhappy business. I saw all the living who, moving about under the sun, follow that youth who replaced the king; there was no end to all those people whom he led. Yet those who come later will not rejoice in him.
Surely this also is vanity and a chasing after wind.
There is no soundness in my flesh because of your indignation; there is no health in my bones because of my sin. For my iniquities have gone over my head; they weigh like a burden too heavy for me. My wounds grow foul and fester because of my foolishness;
I am utterly bowed down and prostrate; all day long I go around mourning.
For my loins are filled with burning, and there is no soundness in my flesh. I am utterly spent and crushed; I groan because of the tumult of my heart.
Peace I leave with you; my peace I give to you. I do not give to you as the world gives.
Do not let your hearts be troubled, and do not let them be afraid.
Come to me, all you that are weary and are carrying heavy burdens, 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.
Jer 6:16; Is 1:4-6; Ec 4:1, 4-8,15-16;Ps 38:3-8; Jn 14:27; Mt 11:28-30;
MORNING PRAYER
Lord of all power and might, the author and giver of all good things: Graft in our hearts the love of your Name; increase in us your true religion; nourish us with all goodness; and bring forth in us the fruit of good works; Forgive us, Lord those things in which we failed you. Remind us of your love and your forgiveness.
PRAY FOR FORGIVENESS OF YOUR SIN
Lord of all power and might, the author and giver of all good things: Grant to our friends and family the comfort and rest that come from knowing you we pray. We ask that you would work peace in the bodies of those we love. Heal Martha in particular this week we pray. Work in her life and in the life of those around her that she might know your peace. Lord, too, we pray for Susan Schulz. Grant peace in her body and in those she loves. Lift up Warren and Emma. Protect them as they rest in you. Bring them home safely to us. Lord we ask for Lee and Marian your mercies. Continue to heal Kathy and Mark. Support Irene and these others we pray:
PRAY FOR YOUR NEIGHBORS
Lord of all power and might, the author and giver of all good things: Grant to our country your guiding hand, and let us be in your divine will we pray. Bless our President, let him seek you. Bless our Congress, let them choose your will. Bless our Court, let them judge with your divine justice. Bless our church, dear Lord. Let it be your body – wholesome and perfect to you.
PRAY FOR YOUR COUNTRY AND CHURCH
Lord of all power and might, the author and giver of all good things: We praise you that you are our God. You sustain us in trying times. You give us joy and peace. You even give us the will and the words to pray back to you, even as we pray the prayer your Son taught us, saying: Our Father …
ANNOUNCEMENTS
Warning: Homecoming may be closer than it appears! In only three weeks, we’ll be celebrating the 220th Anniversary. To prepare, there is a signup sheet on the piano – please volunteer to take out a task and do it! Any items not done by September 16th will be done that day by all of us who can show up. Thanks to Betty Privett and Richard Puryear for already knocking some items off the list!
Our homecoming speaker for September 17th will be David Fox, pastor of Marshall Baptist Church – one of the six started by our church. Please be sure to invite your friends.
Bill Matlack will be starting up Sunday School soon. We will be reading Phillip Yancey’s book What’s So Amazing About Grace? Tentatively assume that it will begin sometime after Homecoming – possibly even on September 24th.
SCRIPTURE READING
25 At that time Jesus said, “I thank you, Father, Lord of heaven and earth, because you have hidden these things from the wise and the intelligent and have revealed them to infants; 26 yes, Father, for such was your gracious will. 27 All things have been handed over to me by my Father; and no one knows the Son except the Father, and no one knows the Father except the Son and anyone to whom the Son chooses to reveal him.
28 “Come to me, all you that are weary and are carrying heavy burdens, and I will give you rest. 29 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. 30 For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light.”
