Finding Rest: Embracing Jesus' Invitation to Renewal

Summary

In today's gathering, we explored the pervasive sense of weariness that many of us experience in our fast-paced, demanding lives. This exhaustion manifests physically, emotionally, and spiritually, often leaving us feeling overwhelmed and disconnected from our true purpose. We live in a world that constantly pushes us to do more, achieve more, and be more, leading to a cycle of relentless busyness and burnout. This is not the life we were meant to live. Jesus offers us a different way, a path of rest and relationship rather than relentless striving.

In Matthew 11:28-30, Jesus invites us to come to Him, to lay down our burdens, and to find rest for our souls. This invitation is not about adding more to our to-do lists but about entering into a relationship with Him. Jesus calls us to exchange the heavy yokes we've picked up—whether they be the pursuit of wealth, approval, or success—for His custom-made yoke, which is light and easy. This yoke is designed specifically for us, aligning with our unique purpose and calling.

To embrace this life of rest, we must learn to Sabbath, to intentionally set aside time for rest and worship, acknowledging our limitations and trusting in God's provision. We must also let go of the spiritual to-do lists that burden us, focusing instead on the disciplines that truly connect us to God and bring life. It's about finding what fits us, what God has created us for, and living in that space with joy and freedom.

Life wasn't meant to be weary. By coming to Jesus, we can find the rest and purpose we long for, stepping into the life He has designed for us—a life of significance, peace, and fulfillment.

Key Takeaways:

- The Burden of Busyness: Our modern lifestyle often leads to physical, emotional, and spiritual exhaustion. We are constantly on the go, trying to meet endless demands, which leaves us feeling depleted and disconnected from our true selves. Jesus invites us to lay down these burdens and find rest in Him. [01:12]

- The Call to Relationship: Jesus' invitation in Matthew 11:28-30 is a call to relationship, not religion. He desires for us to come to Him, to spend time with Him, and to find rest in His presence. This relational approach contrasts with the exhausting demands of religious to-do lists. [11:29]

- Custom-Made Yoke: Jesus offers us a yoke that is custom-made for us, aligning with our unique purpose and calling. By spending time with Him and learning from Him, we discover what we were created for and can set aside the burdens that don't fit. [16:18]

- The Importance of Sabbath: Observing the Sabbath is crucial for our well-being. It is a commandment designed for our benefit, allowing us to rest, worship, and replenish. By prioritizing Sabbath, we acknowledge our limitations and trust in God's provision. [22:36]

- Freedom from Spiritual To-Do Lists: Spiritual disciplines are meant to bring life, not burden. We must discern which practices truly connect us to God and let go of those that feel like obligations. This freedom allows us to enjoy our relationship with God and live out our purpose with joy. [25:34]

Youtube Chapters:

- [00:00] - Welcome
- [01:12] - The Burden of Busyness
- [03:31] - Emotional and Spiritual Exhaustion
- [04:46] - The Trap of Religion
- [07:49] - A Better Way
- [08:50] - Jesus' Invitation
- [11:29] - The Call to Relationship
- [13:10] - Relational Moments
- [14:06] - Understanding the Yoke
- [16:18] - Custom-Made Yoke
- [19:45] - Discovering Purpose
- [22:36] - The Importance of Sabbath
- [25:34] - Freedom from Spiritual To-Do Lists
- [31:18] - Embracing God's Buffet
- [34:43] - Overloaded Ships
- [36:29] - Letting Go of Heavy Yokes
- [38:26] - Learning to Sabbath
- [40:55] - Invitation to New Life

Study Guide

Bible Study Discussion Guide

Bible Reading:
- Matthew 11:28-30

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Observation Questions:

1. What are the different types of exhaustion mentioned in the sermon, and how do they manifest in our lives? [01:12]

2. How does Jesus' invitation in Matthew 11:28-30 contrast with the religious practices of the Pharisees mentioned in the sermon? [08:50]

3. What does the sermon suggest about the significance of the yoke Jesus offers compared to the yokes we often choose for ourselves? [16:18]

4. How is the concept of Sabbath described in the sermon, and why is it considered important for our well-being? [22:36]

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Interpretation Questions:

1. In what ways does the sermon suggest that our modern lifestyle contributes to spiritual exhaustion, and how does this relate to Jesus' call to come to Him? [04:46]

2. How does the sermon explain the idea of a "custom-made yoke," and what implications does this have for understanding our unique purpose and calling? [16:18]

3. What does the sermon imply about the relationship between observing the Sabbath and trusting in God's provision? [23:46]

4. How does the sermon challenge the notion of spiritual to-do lists, and what alternative approach does it propose for connecting with God? [25:34]

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Application Questions:

1. Reflect on your current lifestyle. Are there areas where you feel physically, emotionally, or spiritually exhausted? What steps can you take to address these areas and find rest in Jesus? [01:12]

2. Consider the yokes you have picked up in your life, such as the pursuit of wealth or approval. How can you begin to exchange these for the yoke Jesus offers, which is designed specifically for you? [16:18]

3. How can you incorporate the practice of Sabbath into your weekly routine? What challenges might you face in doing so, and how can you overcome them? [22:36]

4. Identify any spiritual to-do lists that have become burdensome for you. How can you discern which spiritual disciplines truly connect you to God and bring life? [25:34]

5. Think about a time when you felt disconnected from your true purpose. How can spending time with Jesus help you rediscover what you were created for and live in that space with joy and freedom? [19:45]

6. How can you create space in your life for relational moments with Jesus, setting aside the busyness and focusing on being present with Him? [11:29]

7. Reflect on the sermon’s message about overloaded ships. Are there areas in your life where you have taken on too much? What can you let go of to prevent sinking under the weight of unnecessary burdens? [34:43]

Devotional

I'm ready to provide the 5-day devotional based on the steps outlined. Here it is:

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Day 1: The Weight of Relentless Busyness
In our modern world, the constant push to achieve more can lead to a profound sense of weariness. This exhaustion is not just physical but also emotional and spiritual, leaving us feeling disconnected from our true selves. Jesus invites us to lay down these burdens and find rest in Him. This is not about adding more tasks to our lives but about entering into a relationship that offers peace and fulfillment. By accepting His invitation, we can break free from the cycle of relentless busyness and find true rest. [01:12]

"For thus said the Lord GOD, the Holy One of Israel, 'In returning and rest you shall be saved; in quietness and in trust shall be your strength.' But you were unwilling." (Isaiah 30:15, ESV)

Reflection: What is one area of your life where you feel overwhelmed by busyness? How can you intentionally create space for rest and connection with Jesus today?

Day 2: Embracing a Relationship Over Religion
Jesus' call in Matthew 11:28-30 is an invitation to a relationship, not a set of religious rules. He desires for us to come to Him, to spend time in His presence, and to find rest for our souls. This relational approach contrasts with the exhausting demands of religious to-do lists that often leave us feeling burdened. By focusing on our relationship with Jesus, we can experience the peace and rest that comes from being in His presence. [11:29]

"And this is eternal life, that they know you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom you have sent." (John 17:3, ESV)

Reflection: How can you prioritize your relationship with Jesus over religious obligations today? What specific step can you take to spend more time in His presence?

Day 3: Discovering Your Custom-Made Yoke
Jesus offers us a yoke that is custom-made for us, aligning with our unique purpose and calling. This yoke is not burdensome but is designed to fit us perfectly, allowing us to live out our God-given purpose with joy and freedom. By spending time with Jesus and learning from Him, we can discover what we were created for and set aside the burdens that don't fit. This is an invitation to live a life of significance and fulfillment. [16:18]

"For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them." (Ephesians 2:10, ESV)

Reflection: What are some burdens you are carrying that do not align with your God-given purpose? How can you begin to let go of these and embrace the yoke Jesus has for you?

Day 4: The Gift of Sabbath Rest
Observing the Sabbath is crucial for our well-being. It is a commandment designed for our benefit, allowing us to rest, worship, and replenish. By prioritizing Sabbath, we acknowledge our limitations and trust in God's provision. This practice is not just about physical rest but also about spiritual renewal and connection with God. Embracing the Sabbath allows us to step back from the demands of life and find true rest in Him. [22:36]

"Remember the Sabbath day, to keep it holy. Six days you shall labor, and do all your work, but the seventh day is a Sabbath to the LORD your God." (Exodus 20:8-10a, ESV)

Reflection: How can you intentionally observe the Sabbath this week? What changes can you make to ensure you have time for rest and worship?

Day 5: Freedom from Spiritual To-Do Lists
Spiritual disciplines are meant to bring life, not burden. We must discern which practices truly connect us to God and let go of those that feel like obligations. This freedom allows us to enjoy our relationship with God and live out our purpose with joy. By focusing on what truly brings us closer to God, we can experience the fullness of life He offers. [25:34]

"For freedom Christ has set us free; stand firm therefore, and do not submit again to a yoke of slavery." (Galatians 5:1, ESV)

Reflection: What spiritual practices feel like burdens rather than life-giving connections to God? How can you adjust your spiritual routine to focus on what truly brings you closer to Him?

Quotes

"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)

Chatbot

Transcript

What was the most surprising thing in this sermon?

Were there any personal stories shared?