Removing Burdens

Automatically transcribed — lightly cleaned for readability. Wording is the preacher’s own.

My name is Luke. Morning everybody. It's my privilege this morning to get to open the Word of God with you. And my hope is that it will, well more than my hope, my prayer is that this morning God would speak to us in a way that is timely.

So we are in the middle of our Christmas series, which is all about a slow Christmas. Last week Pastor Cameron kicked our series off and he talked about how this longing we have in our hearts during the Christmas season, we're all kind of long for this kind of Christmas nostalgia, this kind of like this warm fuzzy feeling. We want something out of the holidays and the question that Cameron kind of posed is do we really want Christmas or are we actually longing for something more? Or are we longing for someone more? Perhaps our own hearts are chasing after not just nostalgia and warm feelings and presents and hot chocolate by the fire, but we're actually seeking to know and be known by God. And I think that this is our desire is that this Christmas season we would slow down to make room for Jesus in our lives. Now I am a movie buff. I love movies. I love film. What are some of your guys's favorite Christmas movies? Die Hardin. I was ready for that one. Die Here Home Alone.

It's a wonderful life. Muppet Christmas Carol is the definitive Christmas Carol. Fight me. Rudolph the red-nosed reindeer. The Grinch. There's only one answer. There's only one Grinch that we will watch. You can decide which one I'm talking about. Christmas vacation. Pastor Cameron said that one. Now what I didn't hear, what I didn't hear, I love Polar Express. That's one of my favorites, but one of the ones I didn't hear is the one with none the other Arnold Schwarzenegger himself. Jingle all the way, right? Arnold Schwarzenegger plays a all-too-busy dad who forgot to get his kid the most sought after toy of the season and he goes head to head with Sinbad the mailman and they fight over getting a turbo man and trying to capture the Christmas spirit. And one of the reasons I love the movie is because it's got bombs, explosions, jet packs, but it's also it's all kind of like this for me that movie typifies this kind of Christmas mad dash. This idea of just like oh we gotta run and we gotta do this and I gotta accomplish this and this is gonna be happening and this is over here and that's kind of how the holidays end up feeling to us.

Whether we're chasing down the coolest and greatest and latest toys or we're just trying to get the turkey done in time or we're trying to make the cookies or I'm trying to remember oh this party is that day but not this day. All of a sudden holidays don't feel very much like a holiday. I kind of have this question is like why is it that the most wonderful time of the year all of a sudden feels like a burden? Why is it that this time that we sing songs about and we make so like we put so much sappy sentiment sentimentality into it that it all of a sudden it's not all that fun, right? At some point it becomes a bit of a burden and we get to all the way we're like rushing rushing for the whole month of December and then maybe we get a little bit of time Christmas Eve the kids have gone to bed and then you remember oh I gotta wrap the presents still. At least that's what my parents did. But why why is it all of a sudden that Christmas and these holidays don't feel like a gift they feel so much more

Like a burden? It's chasing all of these things and how in the world did a celebration turn into a to-do list? I think this is a question is like we somehow take good things and those good things become burdens. I was thinking about this and I was thinking about treadmills, right? Something that a number of us will get on come the new year after we start some resolutions but you know how you know what treadmills were originally invented as? They were originally introduced in Great Britain as a labor device for prisoners so they would put the put the prisoners on it and they would walk on these like essentially a stair stepper for eight or twelve hours a day as part of their punishment and then somebody thought that would be a great thing to turn into a thing everyone should have in their home. And that is the history of the treadmill. But treadmills the reason that is like that they can kind of cause this sort of like despair is that it's a lot of moving but you don't ever actually go anywhere, right? I mean at best you're planet fitness and you're staring up at like HGTV or something as you're walking along. That's that's your

Thing that's your thing I guess. But I feel like that's kind of this like this is this definition of the way our society and the way culture kind of feels. This idea of always moving but never arriving. A lot of energy expended, a lot of effort always going towards the next thing but we're never quite there. How many of us feel like we're always walking towards our next mile marker only to feel like we've never actually arrived. It's kind of like chasing a mirage. You know if we're chasing financial stability well okay I hit this mile marker but then do I need to chase this. If I'm chasing status or I want people to like me guess what there will always be another person down the road who doesn't like you yet. We can always find another thing to chase. This is put in really stark words in Ecclesiastes chapter 2. You know this is gonna be a great Christmas sermon. I'm going to Ecclesiastes. Ecclesiastes is in the Old Testament and it's part of what's considered the wisdom literature of the Bible. It was thought to maybe have been written by King Solomon but it's a reflection on life. It's a reflection on the meaning of life. Ecclesiastes chapter

2 and it's it's thinking about the world as it is and as we experience it and the author kind of comes to this conclusion that he really kind of sums up here in chapter 2. We're gonna start in verse 4 and read through verse 11 here. So this is him kind of describing his great like his endeavor in life. Well all the things that he's done and then the conclusion that he's come to. Verse 4 he says, "I undertook great projects. I built houses for myself and planted vineyards. I made gardens and parks and planted all kinds of fruit trees in them. I made reservoirs to water groves of flourishing trees. I bought male and female slaves and had other slaves who were born in my house. I also owned more herds and flocks than anyone in Jerusalem before me. I amassed silver and gold for myself and the treasure of kings and provinces. I acquired male and female singers and a harem as well and the delights of a man's heart. I became greater by far than anyone in Jerusalem before me. In all this my wisdom stayed with me. I denied myself nothing my eyes desired. I refused my heart no pleasure and my heart took

Delight in all my labor and this was the reward for all my toil. Yet when I surveyed all that my hands had done and what I had toiled to achieve everything was meaningless. A chasing after the wind nothing was gained under the Sun." He kind of goes down any lists. He's like these are all the things I have these are all the things I chased. I denied my heart no desire my eyes no pleasure and at the end of chasing every single thing drinking it all to the very last drop I got to the end and I still wasn't satisfied and worse than that he was not just that he wasn't satisfied it was all meaningless. He chased all of these things how what more of a kind of a description can you think of than being on a treadmill chasing all of these things but getting to the end and saying it was all meaningless. This is I think the state of our world. I think we are constantly being sold images and things to chase. I reflect about this in my own life. This was a while ago now but one evening I was scrolling on

Instagram which is not a great way to use my time but I was doing so and I saw this advertisement for this I think it was a like some sort of like whole house power bank thing and I really wasn't all that interested in like the power bank I was just interested in the house that had the power bank I was like that is a really nice house and I was just like oh like that lighting fixture and next thing I knew I was scrolling and looking at gadgets for my house and lighting fixtures and how to incorporate mid-century modern design and other than I was scrolling scrolling scrolling and about half hour later I was thoroughly dissatisfied with the house that I lived in but boy I was like I was perfectly content before I was perfectly happy I really enjoy my bed I really like my house but all of a sudden because of somebody was trying to sell something to me somebody had my attention for a moment and they began to sell me a desire all of a sudden I was dissatisfied all of a sudden all the work I had put

In my house wasn't worth anything anymore because I wanted a different house and I wanted a new lamp the world is constantly selling us pictures and images of what it says the good life is like and guess what the good life is always the thing you don't have yet nobody no nobody's gonna get on a commercial and say you know what you've got all you need no everybody's gonna be say no you guess what this new thing you don't have yet we are always chasing the good life but it's always gonna leave us on this treadmill Jesus kind of summarizes this idea that is said so well in Ecclesiastes Jesus says it in Matthew chapter 16

Matthew chapter 16 in verse 26 Jesus was really good at asking rhetorical questions that just get right at the heart of the matter Jesus asks this question verse 26 of chapter 16 he says what good will it be for someone to gain the whole world yet forfeit their own soul or what can anyone give in exchange for their soul Jesus like you can you can get it all you can chase everything but what's that going to ultimately give you there are more people than we can count you could go down a long list and I didn't have time to of people who have been successful like King Solomon who've gotten all of the things who chased everything and then they realized that it really wasn't worth it if we look up at the people we think are the most happiest in our lives and we look at the rich and famous people of our in our world and we're like surely they've got it they don't seem any more happy if you ask me they seem just as discontent just as chasing the next thing just as messy and making

Messes of their own lives as we are prone to be what does it give us if we chase and have all these things but we've lost our own life the promise the promises of the world can't deliver just like a treadmill can't take us anywhere the promises that the commercials the promises that the beliefs that we're gonna have this thing or experience this thing is finally going to soothe that ache inside of us is ultimately a shallow promise it's it's ultimately only salt water that we're drinking we can continue to chase those things but we'll never get anywhere so you might be okay but then what Luke is life just meaningless sex that you just read that from Ecclesiastes what is the meaning what are we supposed to be chasing how do we let go of these burdens that we find ourselves unwittingly carrying how do we get off of the treadmill is the question Jesus gives us an alternative if we go back a couple chapters to Matthew chapter 11 he's gonna give us an alternative give us a choice Matthew chapter 11 verses 28 through 30

Matthew 11 28 through 30 these are the words of Jesus he says 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 heart and you will find rest for your souls for my yoke is easy and my burden is light now we've read this passage a number of times this past year because if you remember all the way from January we said that we were seeking the face of the Lord through prayer and through Sabbath and all and this is one of those passages that we've come back to over and over again saying Jesus invites us into a place of rest but maybe we need to spend a little bit of time just thinking about the imagery that's in this passage because Jesus is saying to pick up his yoke and you might be like Luke what's a yoke like is that yellow thing in the egg what are we talking about so I have a picture for us up here so you can see there's two cattle and they're pulling behind them kind of a wagon with a log on it and

There's this yoke which is what is holding them together and is essentially just tying them to the weight that they're dragging behind them often they were double yokes like this and so there's two cattle together there relates to that passage where it talks about being unequally yoked but this would be the type of thing that you would put on a beast of burden and it would use it to either walk around in circles in order to grind grain or maybe to pull a plow or a wagon or a burden it was a thing of work and so it's kind of strange when we read this because I think we would immediately think well Jesus is telling us to take the yoke off right and just be free because that sounds very American right just lay off any yoke and be free go do what you want live your life but Jesus here is actually saying something else he says come to me all who are weary and burdened I will give you rest and he says what take my yoke take my yoke upon you so Jesus is saying you're weary and burdened you're carrying a burden I want you to take that burden off and then what pick up my burden pick

Up my yoke that's kind of counterintuitive isn't it we're like well are we just trading yokes are we just trading burdens what is this all about Jesus is giving us a choice between two different burdens and here's the thing you have to have a burden there is there is no way in which you're going to escape this world in which you do not have some sort of purpose drive goal burden or thing that you're pursuing even if you're like Luke I'm not that type a I'm not doing that many things I'm like okay but are you pursuing comfort right yeah sure you might not be trying to climb the top of a ladder but you might be pursuing comfort you are always serving or choosing something Bob Dylan put it great he said that you got to serve somebody this is the truth that we cannot escape and so we are given the option between these two yokes what are these two yokes first is the yoke of the world what's the yoke of the world what is the burden that we are carrying almost by default couple of things that I think we might carry or chase after these burdens the first is

We often chase people's praise in people's opinions that's a heavy weight that's and I know what that's like I know what it's like to walk away from an interaction and be geez I'm so stinking awkward like I don't think they liked me very much oh I shouldn't have said that oh you know what like I'm afraid that I may have said this and this may have hurt you know like it's one thing to take into account someone's feelings but it's another that I'm still decades removed from certain situations wondering if that person remembers the one thing I did or said when I was interacting with them and what they still think about me when chances are they've completely forgotten about me we so often will do in chase things in order to try and make other people happy try and please them try and make sure I'm doing everything so that they like me but the thing is that they're not liking me they're liking an image of me they're liking the chameleon camouflage of me it's a burden because you can never make everybody happy somebody will always be out there that doesn't that you're not quite sure whether or not they like you or not another thing

Another yoke we can pick up and chase is possessions in comfort I've already talked about this one a couple of times today is what's the thing that we want what's the comfort that we want what's the type of lifestyle we want to have we can always be chasing that in inflation we'll make sure that will always keep moving out of reach anyways other things that we continue to chase is we can always continue to chase achievement and success there's always another thing to do another goal to make another race to run another person to be to another place another place to get prestige or respect these are things that we're always looking whether that's we want to be the best on our sports team whether that's we want to be our best at our job whether that's we just want to have the best lawn in the neighborhood we're always chasing something and then finally one thing that I think unfortunately too many people carry a yoke that I find all too often even here inside the church is people chasing after God's approval I can't tell you how many people I have talked with who have said I'm just trying to do things so that God will

Love me I do I'm just not good enough I'm not living up to this standard that I know I'm supposed to be I'm not there yet I'm trying my best and I keep messing up I'm not there yet I remember was having a conversation with someone and I asked them I said do you think God like likes you because like I know if I ask you do you think God loves you I know you'll say the yes because that's what the Bible school taught you but like do you think God likes you and I were like no I think God is angry at me most of the time too many of us are carrying a burden thinking that we need to earn God's love earn God's approval and that's not a burden that we're called to carry Jesus is offering us a yoke that he describes as light he offers us what he describes as rest he says come take my yoke upon you and learn from me for I am gentle and humble and heart and you will find rest for your souls for my yoke is easy and my burden is light Jesus was specifically giving this command in this teaching in

The middle of a religious context where people were giving them laws and regulations about how they had to keep G keep God's law in order to earn God's approval in order to be a good God follower and Jesus saying come just learn from me be in relationship with me and the obedience and all of that other stuff will fall in line later Exodus chapter 33 verse 14 puts it this way this should be a familiar passage for us because we just studied Exodus all summer the Lord replied my presence will go with you and I will give you rest where is rest found it's in God's presence it's in relationship with God that's what we're chasing ever since the garden and Adam and Eve laughed and they sinned humanity has been trying to get back to the garden back to a place of rest and relationship with God Jesus here is giving an offering say come pick up the yoke come carry my yoke and be in relationship with me the only burden we are to carry the only burden we are called to carry is the relationship with

Jesus the only burden that God or that Jesus is calling you to carry is to just be in relationship with him learn what it is to receive grace and love from Jesus and then to carry that love and grace to others and you're like Luke that doesn't sound like a burden I'll tell you what one of the hardest things in life is to carry grace and love for yourself and for others there are so many people who are ungracious and we struggle I myself find myself struggling to give grace to people that's a hard burden I'm still having to learn with I have to continually come back to and say Jesus remind me of how you've been gracious to me remind me of your love for me so that when I'm interacting with other people I can begin to mirror that more clearly that's the burden that we're meant to carry in life it's inside of relationship that ultimately obedience finds its source we're not trying to be good boys and girls in order to please God we're here to be in relationship with God and out of that

Flows fullness of life and so how do we pick up this burden how do we do it I think Paul gives us an example of this in Philippians chapter 3

Philippians chapter 3 verses 7 through 8 Paul describes this dynamic that I think is key to the spiritual life

He says but whatever were gains to me I now consider loss for the sake of Christ but what is more I consider everything a loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord for whose sake I have lost all things I consider them garbage that I may gain Christ and be found in him not having a righteousness of my own that comes from the law but that which is through faith in Christ the righteousness that comes from God on the basis of faith I want to know Christ yes to know the power of his resurrection and participation in his sufferings to become like him in his death and so somehow attain the resurrection from the dead Paul here he describes everything is garbage everything is rubbish everything is a loss in comparison to knowing Jesus and becoming more like him that's the most precious thing I could have and that's the thing I'm chasing after this is a key idea in the spiritual life of Christianity if we don't understand this concept we will not get very far I was thinking about this and how to kind of illustrate it and I was thinking about you know it's it's that time of year it's cold outside but I mean really for

Most of us this doesn't have to be cold outside for us to do this but grocery shopping has ended I remember being a kid right and I grew up in Ohio and back in the 90s and so plastic bags were a thing and I remember my mom would come home from Sam's Club or Walmart and we would go out to the car and we would because there was my mom had to do a lot of grocery shopping there was five boys and so we all would put arms through all the bags and try to pick up as many of them as we could and make our way to the door only to find that our hands are so full that we can't open the door you're right and then we're trying to get our hips and trying to trying to you know trying to open the door trying to kick it down right and I may still do this from occasion right you get your hands full of everything and you're trying to get into the door and you manage to get the one door open the screen door but now you got to get the other door open

That's harder and I feel like that's us in the spiritual life sometimes is that our hands are so full that we can't open the door to let Jesus into our lives I think we're so busy trying to carry and hold so many different things trying to do it all that well Jesus is on the other side of the door and he'd love to come in and sit with me but I just can't get the door open because my hands are too full I think that's what's going on if you are with us for in Christianity for a long time you'll hear us talk about things like fasting why is fasting so important because fasting is the act of practicing letting go it's an act of saying I'm gonna let go of something so that I can lay hold of Jesus all the more that song that has been around and is echoed in so many other songs I surrender all why is surrender such an important part of the Christian life because it teaches us to lay things down to let go of things so that we can grab

Hold of Jesus Christian life is letting go of things that are not Jesus learning to count all things as garbage compared to knowing Jesus Christ so my question for you is what are you willing to lose in order to find Jesus this Christmas season what are you willing to say I count as a loss in order to be with Jesus this year I mean I mean this very practically you're like this isn't just like some sort of spiritual principle I'm talking about I'm talking about like what are you going to take off of your calendar to slow down I want to read you this quote from John Ortberg I read this I think earlier this year but I think it's just so pertinent he says this he says for many of us the great danger is not that we will renounce the faith not that we will become not Christians the great danger is that we will become so distracted and rushed and preoccupied that we will settle for a mediocre version of it we will just skim our lives instead of actually living them I think the great danger for us is not that we

Forget that Jesus is the reason for the season it's just that we get too busy to do anything about it I think we are danger the great temptation is for us to be busy to be ever moving about pastor Cameron talked about Mary and Martha Martha was running about being a good hostess doing many good things it wasn't that she was doing bad things but she was doing a lot of things Mary sat at the feet of Jesus being with him learning from him in relationship with him and Martha gets all upset and she says Jesus don't you care that I'm doing all these things and Mary isn't and Jesus says Martha Martha there is but one thing that is good and necessary and it won't be taken from Mary this is our life is that we right now in this Christmas season we're being tempted to pick up all of these burdens to just say yes to all the assumptions to run around like it's crazy all the way up until the day of Christmas and maybe if we're lucky we'll get a few

Minutes of break what if we actually slowed down because I think that the busyness of our schedules I think the frantic Nick frantic pace of which we tend to do things is actually keeping us from being with Jesus what are you willing to lose what are you willing to say no to in order to find Jesus this season I'll tell you that for my wife and I we've been each evening we've been lighting a candle and we've been opening the devotional that the women's ministry is going through right now on the Advent devotional view and reading that and in some evenings we've been playing board games and just trying to spend time together trying to do something intentional other than scrolling on our phones and we don't do it perfectly I'm not saying that we're like the perfect example but I'm telling you that for me it's better for my soul than going breakneck pace numb myself in the evening until I fall asleep and then do it all over again we have to take sort of a radical stance to say no to things to slow down to be with other people and to do the things that Christ

Calls us to so I would encourage you to wrestle with that question last week pastor Cameron asked you the question of who do you want to be Christmas Eve how do you want to show up do you want to be kind of this mad dash crazy busy and anxious person come Christmas time or do you want to be able to walk up with actual joy and be enjoying the people around you and the question is what are you going to willing to sacrifice what are you going to be willing to slow down or I know that there are others of you in this in this room who maybe you don't need to slow down maybe you need to say yes to something very intentional maybe you need to take a risk and step into some community maybe you need to say I'm gonna involve myself in something that feels uncomfortable that feels risky that feels vulnerable with other people so that I might be known and I might experience God's love and community that way if you're fine if you happen to find yourself in that other part of the pendulum you're like Luke I

Don't have a problem slowing down I'm slow okay you know what I meant I'm I'm actually having a hard time engaging you need to engage you need to find a way to grab hold of it's a two-part action let go of and grab hold of like go of what is filling you and keeping you busy so that you can grab hold of Jesus what do we need to do to make room Joseph and Mary came into Bethlehem and they found there was no room at the end because the whole town was just full if Jesus were to come into your house Christmas Eve would it not be full but would you be just too busy to let him in let's pray as the worship team comes back up

Heavenly Father Lord I asked that you would capture our hearts and our minds that you would begin to help us to see all things as loss all things as garbage that are not knowing you Lord I know that you are calling us to be your people to be people who live like you love like you and serve like you and Lord I know that we can't do that if we are just simply too busy to be with you Lord help us to be with you this Christmas season help us to not just intellectually know that this is all about you but help us to make our lives and our days about you Lord I just want to again thank you for that invitation that you call us towards that invitation to lay off burdens and to pick up your burden Lord I pray that you would help us to do that we would lean into you and know what it is to be loved by you in Jesus name we pray amen Conduit my prayer for you today is that as you go from here you would find that

You have the space to be with Jesus because he desires to be with you Conduit you are loved go in peace