Hey everyone. This is Troy. So, I want to ask you a question today: have you ever
felt exhausted? Maybe it was a really long work week, or maybe you
took on a really long shift, or maybe you had to watch someone else's kids for
a long time and it was rough. You know? Whatever it might be, have you ever felt
just pure exhaustion? I know I have. I mean, we have three little kids right now.
I understand what it means to be exhausted. But I want to look at the
words of Jesus in Matthew 11:28. These words are simply amazing to me. He says,
"Come to Me, all who are weary and heavy-laden, and I will give you rest."
So, what is really cool about this verse is that, if you look at the the literal
meaning of the words, the words weary and heavy-laden literally mean "worked to
exhaustion." So, we could paraphrase this verse and say "come to Me, all who are
worked to exhaustion, and I will give you rest." Snd some of us—yeah, it is easy to
see that we are exhausted. And we might even recognize our own need for rest, but
I think a lot of the times, we will choose to do anything and everything to
try to find rest, except for coming to Jesus. But let us
look at what He says in the very next verse. He says, "Take My yoke upon you, and
learn from Me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find the rest for
your souls." This is an amazing promise that He makes us. Snd I know I have been
focusing on physical rest, but that is not the only kind of rest that Jesus is
talking about. He is talking about rest that involves our whole beings. He
actually says, "For My yoke is easy and My burden is light." And when you look at the
literal meanings of the words, easy and light,
you can paraphrase those words to say "comfortable" and "pleasant." And I think a
lot of times, we do not look at it with that meaning in mind.
When we really look at the kind of rest that Jesus wants us to have, I have got to
ask the question: why do we not come to Him more often to find that rest? So, I am
going to look at three specific reasons why we do not come to Jesus for rest.
The first one is that it might be a sin that we are dealing with—that we are not
willing to let go of—that is keeping us from coming to Him. And at first, you know,
sin promises to be comfortable to us. It promises to fulfill us. But in the
long run, it is so exhausting—not just physically exhausting, sometimes—but also
sin exhausts us in our spirit and in our soul. And here is the thing.
A lot of times we do not want to let go of it because it is comfortable to us, but
God knows that we need comfort. He understands that. I think that is the very
reason that Jesus sent the Holy Spirit to be our Comforter. Here is the thing.
God knows how to comfort us a whole lot better than we know how to comfort
ourselves. And I think that Jesus—one of the reasons He sent the Holy Spirit to
be our Comforter, and not just our Teacher, and not just our Guide—but
He sent the Holy Spirit to be our Comforter because He walked the earth as
a human, and He understands that humans need comfort. Jesus understands that we
need comfort. He understands that we need rest. And then for others of us, what is
stopping us from coming to Jesus to find rest is this sense of accomplishment
that we have to live up to. And accomplishment is not always a bad thing,
obviously, but at the same time, it can still be exhausting. And what I do a lot
of the times is I set up this standard of achievement in my mind. And
then I just keep working towards it. And I do everything I can to accomplish
whatever it is I am working toward. But what happens when I am doing that and I am
not taking the time to wait upon the Lord, and to get guidance
and direction from Him in my work, is that I end up working at it in my own strength.
And I am not getting my strength from Him. But here is what Nehemiah 8:10
says. It is really awesome. It says, "The joy of the Lord is your strength."
When we take time to wait on God, to
allow the Holy Spirit to fill us with His joy, we are going to have
strength directly from God. And it is not going to be us relying on our own
strength to get things done. And I think part of the reason that joy is a fruit
of the Spirit is because God understood that we would need strength. He knew that
we would need rest. And then for others of us, the reason we are not coming to
Jesus for rest is because we have allowed the worries and the cares of this world
to rule over our lives. And the reason we have done that is because we are
focused on on what is going on around us, and we are not focused on our eternity
with Christ. See, Jesus says in John 14, "Do not let your heart be troubled; believe
in God, believe also in Me. In My Father's house are many dwelling places; if it
were not so, I would have told you; for I go to prepare a place for you." Jesus is
talking about the hope that we have in an eternity with God. And here is the
thing. The reason I think we allow worry to rule in our lives sometimes is
because we are putting our hope in the things around us—the things that we can
have on this earth—instead of putting our hope in the eternal work that Jesus
completed on the cross. See God knew that we would need hope. I think that is why
Jesus said, "Don't let your heart be troubled." He knew that we would need hope.
He knew that we would need rest. Even when we understand our need for
rest, it is so easy for some of us to put off rest as unimportant or
unnecessary right now. But I believe that God rested on the seventh day of
creation for a reason. And it was not because He was tired.
He is God. He does not get tired. It was not because He was exhausted. I believe that
God rested on the seventh day of creation for our sake. One, so that we
would know it is okay to rest. It is okay. And more than that, it is important.
It is necessary. The answer to exhaustion in our bodies, and our souls, and even our
spirits, is rest. And we receive that kind of rest by coming to Jesus. And here is
what is so amazing about Jesus's promise to us. It is that there isonly one
requirement. He does not say, "Show Me all the good
works you have done." He does not say, "Show Me everything you have
accomplished." He simply says, "Come, and rest."
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