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Ingleside Presbyterian Church A Congregation of the Presbyterian Church in America |
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Ingleside Presbyterian Church A Congregation of the Presbyterian Church in America |
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We are continuing in a new
series about running on empty.
How many of you kind of know the kind of
gas mileage your vehicles get?
How many of specifically know what kind of
gas mileage you’re getting?
You old O.C. types…
There are things that cut down on gas
mileage.
Surprisingly, driving with your windows
down can cause “drag” on the vehicle.
Driving habits—fast starts and high speeds
cut into mileage.
But weight really cuts into your mileage.
When you’re hauling something…the heavier
the load you’re carrying, the faster you run out of gas.
This morning, I want us to look at how to
lighten our load.
When you have a lot going on, that overload
can drain you, like an overload in your car drains you of gas quickly. I have no doubt that some of
you are on overload.
You may be physically or emotionally
overloaded.
You may be overloaded relationally…and I’m
not merely talking to families with lots of kids.
Some of you are overloaded with work that
you have at school or at work.
You’re overloaded with health issues,
financial things, etc. Have you ever felt like you’re
putting your fingers into the holes of a dam, but you don’t have enough
fingers to stop all the leaks?
Too many expectations.
Too many responsibilities.
Too many activities and too many decisions.
And it seems like they all have to be done
IMMEDIATELY!
Nobody seems to have margin in their lives.
Everybody is trying to do so much.
We often don’t have time for what is really
important because every moment is packed.
I don’t believe that can possibly be God’s
will for our lives. If we aren’t careful we are
passing that crazy lifestyle on to our kids.
Kids are learning to be workaholics at an
early age, because we aren’t modeling for our kids balance and health.
As a result, kids are learning to be
stressed out and overloaded and running on empty at younger and younger
ages. In the Bible, there was a guy
who really understood “overload.”
His name was Job.
Hear what Job said about his life (Job
6:2-3)
“Oh that my vexation were weighed & all my
calamity laid in the balances! For then it would be heavier than the
sand of the sea; therefore my words have been rash.”
The Message paraphrase puts it this
way:
“If my misery could be weighed & if you pile the
whole bitter load on the scales, it would be heavier than all the sand
of the sea!
Is I any wonder I’m screaming like a caged
cat?”
I would say that Job is running on empty. Jesus summarizes the secrets to
stress management in three simple sentences that we find in Matthew 11.
I believe it gives you virtually everything
you need to know about stress management.
All the books, seminars, conferences and
pills cannot equal these three statements of strategy for reducing
stress that Jesus gives. This message will not reduce
the amount of stress in your life.
We cannot control most of the circumstances
that invade our lives on a daily basis.
What could change is this: You don’t have
to be stressed out by stress.
You don’t have to be overloaded by it when
God is the One carrying the stress in your life. Jesus says this in Matthew
11:28-30:
“Come to me, all who labor & are heavy laden, & I
will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you, & learn from me, for I am
gentle & lowly in heart, & you will find rest for your souls. For my
yoke is easy, & my burden is light.”
Three important words in this
passage—you can circle them—come,
take, and learn.
The first principle you need if you want to
reduce the overload in your life is to…
We have to turn to Him as our
starting point.
In Scripture, people come to Jesus for a
variety of reasons.
Some came to ask a question.
People came to Jesus to be healed.
People came to Jesus because they were
upset, they had a conflict or a problem, or they wanted eternal life.
But Jesus says here we can come to Him for
“rest.” You may have never thought of
that.
You’ve probably come to Jesus for answers
to your prayers or for encouragement.
You’ve come to Jesus for a lot of things
but Jesus says we should come to Him for rest—a very special kind of
rest.
It is
“rest for
your souls.”
This is much deeper than physical rest.
The biggest source of your stress is not
from worn-out muscles.
The issue is not tired muscles—the issue is
a tired mind.
It’s tension, worry, anxiety, guilt and
resentment.
It’s problems that you’re thinking about
over and over in your mind and that is where you need relief. Now, we all have preferred
methods of unwinding when we’re overloaded or exhausted. You may go to a
movie or out to dinner.
You may have a hobby or sport that you
like.
It could be to take a nap.
Those are good things, but these things
will never give you rest for your soul.
All the naps in the world will not
de-stress you in the soul region.
There is only one thing that can rest your
soul—God!
God can give you that inner peace that
de-stresses you. Is. 40:29 & 31a:
“He gives
power to the faint & to him who has no might he increases strength.
They who wait for the Lord shall renew
their strength.”
We are told to wait for the Lord.
What does that mean?
The answer to stress is not a plan,
program, philosophy or pill.
It’s a Person.
It is our Sovereign, the Lord Jesus Christ
who says, “Come to me.” He doesn’t even say, “Come to
church,” which is a good thing.
But you need time alone with God.
You need a quiet location in order to wait
on the Lord.
It means you are quiet and sit alone with
God.
You just sit there.
You could ask one question at the outset:
“Lord, is there anything You want to say to
me?”
And then just be quiet and sit there. You may not experience a flash
of lightning or come across some brilliant thought.
I’ve never heard God say anything aloud to
me.
But He can put thoughts in your mind.
When God puts a thought in your mind, that
is inspiration.
When the devil does it, we call it
temptation.
You have thoughts; God has thoughts; and
Satan has thoughts.
And they all come into your mind at
different times. When a thought comes into your
mind you need to verify it with the Bible.
You ought to read your Bible.
You ought to pray. That is talking to God
and having Him talk to you.
But waiting for the Lord requires being
quiet and most folks don’t know how to do this.
They always have the radio or television
on.
If I were to stop right now and say nothing for
five minutes, some of you would start to get really nervous.
We don’t handle silence well. Notice what Jesus says about
praying in Matt. 6:6.
“When you pray, go into your room & shut the door & pray to your Father
who is in secret. And your Father who sees in secret will reward you.”
The Message paraphrase says,
“Find a
quiet, secluded place so you won’t be tempted to role-play before God.
Just be there as simply & as honest as you can manage. And the focus
will shift from you to God & you will begin to sense His grace.”
When you pray in front of others, you
may be concerned about what they are thinking of your prayer.
Why don’t we listen to Jesus
more often?
Why don’t we come to Him?
We usually come to everything else.
Often times, when believers are stressed,
coming to God is not their first choice.
Over and over the Bible implores us to cry
out to God.
To talk to Him.
To cast our burdens on the Lord.
If you know God through His Son
Jesus Christ, then you are God’s child.
He is your Dad.
Paul reminds us (Rom. 8:15):
“For you did not receive the
spirit of slavery to fall back into fear, but you have received the
Spirit of adoption as sons, by whom we cry, ‘Abba! Father!’”
If you are overloaded this morning, the
first thing you need to do is to cry out to God.
You come to Christ.
Now the second step is a little harder…
One reason we get stressed out
is because we try to control too much.
You think it all depends upon you.
You are not the general manager of the
universe.
You could resign and it won’t fall apart.
Try this experiment.
Take a bucket of water and put your hand
into it.
Pull it out and see what kind of hole you
leave.
I know that is profound…but the greater
your need to control, the more stressed you’re going to be in life. I think everyone is a control
freak, just in different ways.
Some
folks are very overt and obvious about their need to control.
They boss everyone around. Others have
sneakier ways that aren’t so obvious.
Here is Jesus’ second solution—take
my yoke upon you.
Now
that may sound like a burden, but please understand what a yoke is.
It’s not the yellow part of an egg.
A yoke is a piece of wood that brings two
farm animals together, so the load is shared—so the load is lighter.
It is not a harness.
That is used on a single animal and they
have to pull the whole load.
But a yoke teams you up with at least one
other so the load is halved.
It is sharing the load together and Jesus
wants to share our burden. This yoke is actually a symbol of two things:
·
It’s a symbol of partnership.
Jesus isn’t saying, “I’m
going to add to your load.”
He’s saying, “I’m going to take some of
your load onto Me.”
The Lord doesn’t get tired.
He has a stronger back than you.
Stress should tell you that you aren’t
yoked to Jesus Christ.
Stress is a warning light telling you that
you are carrying this on your own. You may be a Christian, but
stress should tell you that you aren’t connected to Christ.
If your yoke is not easy and your burden is
not light, it means you’re pulling it by yourself.
·
It’s a
symbol of control. Farmers yoke animals together
so they will go in the same direction, to the same place at the same
time.
If you’re yoked to another animal, you
can’t go faster or slower.
We get in trouble when we’re
not yoked to Jesus.
What happens is we go too fast or in the
wrong direction and we get sidelined and fall into a ditch.
But if you’re connected to Jesus, He knows
exactly where to go in your life, because He created you.
He knows the time and space, the place and
pace in your life.
A yoke keeps you from getting into trouble.
It’s a guidance mechanism.
Psalm 55:22 says,
“Cast your burden on the Lord, &
he will sustain you; he will never permit the righteous to be moved.”
When I am yoked with Christ, we move
together in the same direction and the same pace.
We’re talking about “pace” next week in a
message about slowing down.
The truth is, you are already
yoked to something in life.
It could be your job or to the expectations
of someone else—your parents, your spouse, a teacher, whoever.
You may be yoked to making money.
You may be yoked to being a success.
You are tied to something.
You may even be yoked to your own ego.
Years ago, Bob Dylan sang that you’re going
to have to serve somebody.
It could be the devil or the Lord, but
you’re going to serve somebody.
You may even be yoked to yourself, which is
the worst burden and bondage of all.
When Jesus says that His yoke
is easy, the Greek word means, “It fits perfectly.”
Remember what Jesus did for a living before
His public ministry.
He was a carpenter.
Now carpenters didn’t build houses in those
days.
They built furniture and farm implements.
Jesus probably made many yokes in His
lifetime.
A good carpenter would measure the animal
to make sure that the yoke fit well and would not rub the animal the
wrong way and bruise the animal.
They would custom make the yokes. God’s yoke is custom made.
It is easy to wear because it fits you.
God knows you.... He knows how you’re wired
up.
He knows what you can handle and what you can’t
handle.
God’s yoke allows us to exchange our heavy
worries and burdens and cares for His lighter load.
You don’t have to please everyone anymore.
If we did a true x-ray of our lives, we
probably aren’t carrying only one yoke.
We are carrying dozens of them.
You have financial yokes, physical yokes,
relational yokes, work yokes, community yokes, church yokes…all these
different yokes. (The yoke’s on you!
I know—that is lame.) Jesus is saying, “Take off all
these other yokes and yoke up with Me and I’ll help you pull the load.”
We often think that the antidote to stress
is escape.
If I could just get a week in If you’re overloaded and
stressed out and running on empty you should come to Jesus and give up
control.
Then there is the important third key…
We are to learn from Jesus
because He has modeled peace.
He has modeled how to live with purpose and
peace.
So, follow Jesus’ model.
Watch how He did it and then replicate it.
Do what He did.
No one has ever lived a healthier life than
Jesus Christ. He
tells us to
“learn.”
Learning doesn’t occur overnight.
It takes a process and takes time.
You learn to reduce stress in your life.
It won’t leave you instantly—unless you
suddenly drop dead.
Why won’t it happen instantly?
Because you didn’t get into the stress mess
you’re in instantly.
Stress builds up, over time, so these
things don’t just fall off overnight. Think of the process like an
onion.
You peel it a little bit at a time.
Layer after layer.
To learn from Jesus, you have to un-learn
some things that you’ve been doing for months or years.
You must be willing to learn.
Notice
what we are to learn from
Jesus—gentleness and humility.
You would think He would teach us endurance
and stamina or confidence and courage.
You might want Him to teach you time
management and goal setting.
He tells us to learn gentleness and
humility from His life.
How come? Two huge stressors in our lives
are arrogance and
aggression—the opposites of
gentleness and humility.
Aggression happens when we do things too
quickly.
We don’t wait or ponder the situation.
We just jump in with both feet.
“The early bird gets the worm.”
(However, the second rat gets the cheese.)
It is always easier to fill your schedule
than to fulfill it.
We are guilty of not pacing ourselves. The other problem is arrogance.
Arrogance goes back to the idea of trying
to control everything.
I know what it best.
Some brides do that.
She walks down the aisle to get married
during the processional.
She comes to the altar and then sings a
hymn.
Afterwards, the process continues:
“I’ll alter him!”
You were good enough marry, but you’re not
good enough to stay married to so I will alter him. Now, ladies, guys do
the same thing, only we’re sneakier.
The antidote to aggression and arrogance is
gentleness and humility. You need to remind yourself
that you’re not everyone’s savior.
Remember that God is God and you’re not.
You simply do what God wants you to do and
don’t worry about the rest.
Jesus didn’t worry about what
other people thought.
He didn’t even have His own preferences.
He did what His Heavenly Father wanted Him
to do.
Twelve times in the Book of John, He says,
“I just say what the Father tells me to say…I go where He tells Me to
go…etc.”
The result was a sense of peace in His
life. Why don’t you try this?
Try trusting God 100%.
You’ve tried virtually everything else.
See if that doesn’t reduce stress in your
life.
Come to Jesus.
Give up control and learn to trust.
See if that doesn’t dramatically reduce the
pressure in your life.
Gal. 5:25
“If we live by the Spirit, let us
also walk by the Spirit.”
Let God set the pace…we’ll talk more about
that next week.
How do I learn to trust?
How can my faith grow so I can trust God
more?
It’s by the Bible.
The more you get God’s Word into your life,
the more your faith will grow.
The Bible says,
“Faith comes from hearing the
word of God.” ( You get all kinds of
invitations in life.
Invitations to weddings, to birthdays, to
parties.
But the greatest invitation you will ever
be offered is the one we looked at today in Matthew 11:
“Come to me, all who labor & are heavy laden & I will give you rest.”
What is weighing you down? Health? Children? Job? Worry? Finances? Aging parents? Indecision about the future? The greatest weight is a separation from God but Jesus took that load on the cross. 1 Pet. 2:24 “He himself bore our sins in his body on the tree, that we might die to sin & live to righteousness. By his wounds you have been healed.” The answer is in a growing, vital relationship with Jesus Christ. Please pray with me. Please visit us at our next worship service.
In Christ,
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| Copyright © 2010 Ingleside Presbyterian Church | |
