The Yoke Series

The Yoke

Discipleship Series 2023

CCCAG 2-11-24

Scripture- Matthew 11:28-30

This morning we will be continuing the series on discipleship.

This is a continuation on where we left off a few weeks ago when we talked about picking up our cross and following Jesus.

We will be focused on Jesus making this point using something other than a cross, and in this case, it’s going to be something called a yoke.

If you aren’t Amish or an older farmer, you probably don’t know what a yoke is.

The picture on the screen is what Jesus is referring to here. Two animals, typically oxen, would stand next to each other and have this put over them so that they could pull a plow, or a cart, or a sled with materials on it.

An interesting fact I came across when I was studying for this message-

A typical ox can pull 5000 pounds, but if you add another oxen, it doesn’t double the power of a single ox, it triples it to 15,000 pounds.

So, yokes were used quite often to maximize the ox’s power.

Another fact about yokes. Take a look at the picture again- what do you notice about the size of the loops that went around the neck?

They would typically have an older, experienced ox with a younger ox. They did that because the older ox would, through example, teach the younger ox exactly what the master wanted, and how to maximize their efforts.

In essence, among these two oxen, discipleship happened when both animals were under a yoke.

Keep that in mind as we look to today’s scripture. We will come back to this point a few times.

Let’s go to the scripture-

A quick background- Jesus is in the northern area of Israel preaching in the cities around the Sea of Galilee. His message is beginning to grow a little sharper in that he starts stressing the need to repent more often and is denouncing the religious establishment run by the Pharisees.

Jesus then teaches the people what the answer is to many of their spiritual burdens -

Matt 11:28-30

28 "Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, 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."

Prayer

With my new job which focus’ on behavioral health and psychiatric nursing, I have been thinking a lot lately about how people deal with stress and the pressures that life throws at them.

Some people use substance like nicotine to calm them down, either through smoking, dipping, or chewing.

Some people use alcohol to give them a sense of relief from stress and pressure.

Another way that people deal with stress that is becoming increasingly popular is THC.

Within a few years, Wisconsin will soon become a state where Marijuana and THC, which is the chemical (Delta 9) in marijuana that gets you high will be legalized. However, it’s already legal to have THC (Delta 8 & 10), as long as they chemically alter it just a little by adding an oxalate molecule.

So, this version of THC, that is actually more potent than what you get from pot, is right now being sold in most of the gas stations in our area.

But it’s not just recreational chemicals. It’s seen in the top prescriptions filled in this country right now.

In 2023, out of the top 50 prescribed medications, over 1/3 of them were antidepressants or for other mental health issues.

Obviously, our world has a lot of stress going on. That stress wears us down and drains us to the point of being very weary with life.

That’s where we are going to start today, but looking at the weariness being experienced by so many today-

I. Weariness and burdens

I’ve been teaching on this a lot recently, but I want to again remind you that humanity is a spiritual creature that lives in a physical body. (Repeat)

That’s important to remember when we talk about stress and things that get you depressed, worried, tempted, and tried. This is because of a spiritual war being waged.

Eph 6:12-13

For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms.

NIV

All of these stressors coming at you right now are deliberate attacks from the enemy to wear you down and make you weary, feeling defeated, feeling like you can’t measure up, and rip away any hope that you might have.

Again, this is deliberate. The enemy knows how to attack us in general, and has a dossier on you in particular on which kind of attacks work on you personally.