Finding Rest: Embracing Jesus' Invitation to Renewal

"I'm so glad you guys are here making the move with us today in a new strange setup. Well, it's not new. For some of you, it's kind of a PTSD of being back at the Sheraton, but glad that you're here. You know, if there's ever been a wonder of what the national mood is, how we feel as a country, that got answered about two months ago. Elmo of Sesame Street fame has apparently an ex-account. Twitter is now called ex. Elmo has an account. Elmo put a post up at the end of January. He said, Elmo is just checking in. How is everybody doing? 9,000 responses in 24 hours. And the answer collectively was not good. That we're not doing good. 20,000, more than 20,000. Now responded. And there were several, of course. You can imagine some people put some funny jokes in and things like that. But people said things like this. Their response was, the world is burning down around us. I'm feeling depressed and broke." [00:00:05] (67 seconds) (Download raw clip | Download cropped clip)


"Another person said, Elmo, I'm tired. I'm tired. And I get it. Like, it's not new to us. I mean, it's new from probably the last 30 years. Which we live. You know, we are going faster than we've ever gone. We're busier than we've ever been before. We're living in a world and a lifestyle that is go, go, go, go, go. And we're starting now, 30 years later, maybe. We're starting to see the ramifications of it. Things like mental health crisis at an all-time high. And just that feeling of exhaustion and tiredness and being weary. We've got, like, physical. Like, I'm not trying to weed out the dads. But I hear moms say this all the time. Moms, you ever feel like an unpaid Uber service? Right? Yeah, because we go, go, go, go every day, every minute. We're just moving." [00:01:12] (60 seconds) (Download raw clip | Download cropped clip)


"schedule something with just a handful of people. Like our family has some friends. Their son is in the hospital in Austin. He's been there for a while. He's going to be there for quite a bit. And they were saying, hey, can you guys come down? We said, yes. And so just the four people in my family, we're trying to like figure out when we can go down and see him. And I finally looked at my wife and I said, we're just going to have to go like in pairs. Like, I don't know if all four of us can go. We can't get the four of us and our busyness, our schedule to be able to get to Austin, right? But like we live that way. March Madness just happened. And I just want to remind you that I won first place. Just remember, don't ever forget that until next year. I have a standing bet with a buddy of mine. He lives down in Austin. And so for the last 10, 12 years, we just kind of play head to head. And whoever loses, both families go to dinner and the loser has to pay for their whole family. Now he's got more people in his family than me. So I'm always like, that's not fair. I should like get some kind of reprieve. But luckily I usually beat him. I beat him again. And so March Madness ends the beginning of April. And so we start trading texts like, hey, when are you taking me to dinner? We're going the first week of June. Literally, it's the first time two families could get their schedules aligned because we're so busy." [00:01:58] (77 seconds) (Download raw clip | Download cropped clip)


"Some of that probably comes from the physical exhaustion of going so fast that we're, we're into the emotional reserves that we have, living on the margins of our emotions. And then when things happen that are bad, they go from bad to tragic because we don't have the emotional capacity because we're so emotionally exhausted, we can't handle those things. It comes into things like, you hear people say like, I don't know if I can make it through the day. It's emotional exhaustion. The emotional exhaustion that a dad feels when he's looking at his kids and they're making decisions that he's worried about. Emotional exhaustion. The emotional exhaustion, students maybe, of feeling abandoned or betrayed by some friends and they all went and did something and left you alone. And that emotional exhaustion begins to sit in." [00:03:39] (47 seconds) (Download raw clip | Download cropped clip)


"Spiritual exhaustion comes when we lean into religion over relationship. You hear people talk about that, like, I hate religion, I want a relationship with God, but religion is this list of works and to-dos. I've got to do this, and I've got to do that, and I have to have this kind of quiet time, and I've got to be here, and I've got to watch these kind of movies and not those kind of movies. I've got to listen to K-Love. I've got to listen to K-Love. If I don't, God's not going to approve. I'm going to get to heaven, and all my country music's not going to be there. It's just going to be K-Love, and I'm not going to know any of the songs, and we're singing around the throne. I've got to do this, and I've got to do that. I've got to work, work, work, work, work. That's religion, and it is exhausting." [00:04:46] (41 seconds) (Download raw clip | Download cropped clip)


"Come to me, all of you who are weary and carry heavy burdens. Come to me, all of you who are physically exhausted and emotionally exhausted and spiritually exhausted. You're carrying those heavy burdens, and I'm going to give you rest. Jesus is speaking to his disciples. He's speaking to first century people. But listen, sometimes when we read in the story, we're like, yeah, their life was different. You know, in a lot of ways, their life is the same. The people that Jesus was talking to, they had jobs, and they were living month to month or paycheck to paycheck. They had the stress of, am I going to be able to get food on the table for my kids? They had relationship issues just like we do. They had neighbors they may not like. They had neighbors they may not like. They had neighbors they may not like. They had people they worked with or family members that there were struggles with. They had the same kinds of weariness that we did, the same physical exhaustions, the same emotional exhaustions. Unfortunately, their spiritual exhaustions may have been more because the religious leaders of the day, the Pharisees is what they were called, they had over 600 spiritual rules that you had to follow in order to be right with God. And so they're carrying all this and still trying to spiritually do all of these things and keep all of these lists. And hey, it's the Sabbath, so we're not supposed to work on the Sabbath. So what can we do? We can do this, but we can't do that. If I do that, I'm going to be in trouble, but I'm going to do this. How do I do this? Do I wash my hands a certain way? And what do we do right before we eat? And all of these different rules they had to know and live. And if they messed one of them up, they've got to go get cleansing for those things. It was just spiritually exhausting." [00:09:08] (91 seconds) (Download raw clip | Download cropped clip)


"Jesus says, come to me. It's a relational call. Come to me. All of you who are weary, carry heavy burdens, and I'll give you rest. It's relational. Verse 29, he says, take my yoke upon you. Let me teach you because I'm humble and gentle at heart and you'll find rest for your souls. Now, now all of a sudden, as we read this, it kind of skews from, you know, Texas. I mean, we're Texas, but we also don't probably have a whole lot of yokes. You know how I know that? Because I asked on Facebook for a yoke because I wanted to show it to you. And people are like, nope, don't have one anymore because we have a little thing called tractors. We don't need yokes anymore. But a yoke, we got, I got a picture of one. A yoke was something that was put on a pair of oxen and oxen would pull a plow. Again, this is an agrarian community. And so the oxen would get the yoke. It and pulling in the same direction." [00:13:56] (53 seconds) (Download raw clip | Download cropped clip)


"So we don't understand yokes. But when Jesus says, take my yoke, all of his original hearers understood exactly what he was talking about. Now, what's interesting is Jesus says, take my yoke as if I'm not going to force it on you, but you should take it. And what Jesus is saying here is, listen, he's like, we've got a yoke. We all have something to do. We all have burdens of life that we're going to carry. But what Jesus is saying is some of you have picked up the wrong yoke. Like you picked up a yoke that, wasn't fit for you. You picked up a yoke that's, that's, that's really not made for you. You, you, you picked up the yoke of, of wealth and went, I want this one. Somebody walked over and picked up this yoke. This was the yoke of popularity. I want this one. Someone picked up and said, I want the yoke of everybody to like me. I want to have the self-esteem. I'll pick up this yoke of I want to be a person of influence and power. Pick up this yoke of I want my kids to be X, Y, Z. And Jesus says, you've picked up some yokes, but you've picked up the wrong yoke. Come to me. Let's just be relational. Let's spend some time. And through that time, I want you to lay down the yoke that you have, and I want you to take the one that I have for you. Because the one that I have for you is designed for you. It's made for you. More on that in a second. He says, take my yoke. He says, come learn from me." [00:14:40] (82 seconds) (Download raw clip | Download cropped clip)


"You're not going to feel the weariness. You're not going to feel the burnout and the wear because you're going to be doing exactly the same thing. Exactly what you were created to do. And you're going to exchange weariness for purpose. You see, life wasn't made to be weary. That wasn't what God's plan was. God's plan, even when sin happened in the Garden of Eden in Genesis chapter 1 and the world broke, Jesus had a plan for you to wear the yoke that he custom made for you. That fits you. But you got to figure out what your purpose is. And for some of us, it's going to be hard because our parents drilled into us when we were kids that you're supposed to make money. Maybe you're not. Maybe you're supposed to take care of your family and that's it. Live in faith. People say you got to have a great education. Our family prides education, education yoke. But you get to know Jesus and all of a sudden you go, you know what? This is what God's created for me for and this is where I'm actually going to fit in his purpose as best and I don't need a doctorate to do that. Some of you might. Some of your yoke might be what God's called you to do. You need a doctorate or you may need to have some wealth to accomplish the things that God wants you to do. Money's not bad. Education's not bad. But it's not everyone's yoke." [00:19:30] (74 seconds) (Download raw clip | Download cropped clip)


"God's not up there going, hey, if you don't murder, I'll feel better. Hey, if you'll take a Sabbath, it'll be better for me. All of those things that God says, hey, here's some things I need you to do because I and I know what's best for you. You were created with boundaries. I was too. You were created with boundaries. And if we push the boundaries, weariness and exhaustion happens. God says, hey, one time a week, once every seven days, I need you to stop. I need you to rest. I need you to worship. I need you to replenish because that's the way I created you. So when you find the yoke that Jesus has for you, you're going to be able to do it. You're going to be able to do it. You're going to put it on. Here's one thing that I promise. Everyone's yoke has Sabbath as a part of it. It has rest. And here's what happens. If you go, I don't have time. Listen, I'm preaching to the preacher. When I say I don't have time. What I'm actually saying is, God, you're not big enough to handle the things that I need to handle. That's what you're saying. You're saying, God, I know you're God, but God, you just don't understand. I know you created the universe with a word. God, I know that Hebrews says that you sustain the entire universe now, but God, you don't know my stuff. My stuff. It's a lot, God. Like, I know you're probably busy and stuff, but I'm really busy. And what we say when we go, God, I can't Sabbath, even though you've called me to. What we say is, one, I don't trust you." [00:23:24] (91 seconds) (Download raw clip | Download cropped clip)