You have the Word of the Lord, will you, this morning. I want you to turn to the 11th chapter of Matthew, verse 28. And I have spoken up on this quite a few times before, but as I go back over it, well, I find many things that I have left out. The Word of God has not left anything out, but sometimes when we get As preachers, we get to preaching and we, you can always find something that you've left out, you know. And that you thought, oh boy, I wish I'd have said something about that. And you go on down the line and you say, I've left a whole lot out of God's Word here that should have maybe been spoken of. And I'm sure that after I get through this morning that I'll find that I've left some more out. It never, it always is new. The Word of God is always new. Because as you know, you read through the Word of God and you study, you see God reveals unto you new things. And so, I believe it's very appropriate this morning that we talk about this. And so, as I read, In the 28th verse it says Jesus saying that come unto me, come unto me all ye that labor and are heavy laden and I will give you rest. I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn of me for I am meek and lowly in heart and ye shall find rest unto your souls. For my yoke is easy, and my burdens are light. You know, many, many times, I don't know about you folks, but many times in my life, this scripture has came to me when I was maybe in some kind of problems in my life and maybe sick in my life. And this always, God reminds us that, you know, We have to come to Him. We have to go, oh, where can I go but to the Lord? And so, as Jesus, the call here now is not to the endemic world. This is to God's people. And this call is a call to those who are weary and who are God's people. It's not to everybody that this call is made. First of all, I want to point out, he says, come unto me. And I want to point out where it says, it is God that worketh both the will and the do whereby we come unto him crying, Abba, Father. I believe that you have to be born again and know the Lord in your life to be able to answer this call. Now, there may be people who tries to answer this call, but God is only talking to those who have been born again of the Spirit of God, who know the Lord, and who know to come to Him because in the time of troubles and trials and tribulations in our life. So, it's only to those who God is calling. And sometimes people say, You know, I didn't hear God call. Well, if you're a child of God, you've heard His call. And you hear this call in the time of trouble. Now, I don't believe this is a one-time thing. I believe we have to come to the Lord sometimes daily. And, you know, when we have to go to the Lord and we need to talk to Him and we have all the problems in our lives and we want to talk to the Lord. And he says, the only way that you can talk to me, he says, you must come to me in the Spirit and in truth and I'll hear you. So we need to be, this is a very serious thing when you're talking to the Lord. It's not like me and you talking. You have to really want to come to the Lord and be in the Spirit of God to be able communicate with God. Because the Spirit of the Lord, that's why the Lord says, quench not the Spirit. How can we communicate with God? Or how can you hear the Lord when you quench the Spirit and you know you're going on about doing your own thing? You know, the problem of some Christians, they think they can handle things in life their self. They don't think about the Lord and they don't pray and they don't listen to what God's Word says. And you know what happens? They get in trouble. And we get in trouble. And we're guilty of that too. Because I know I am when I don't listen to what the Lord is telling me or what the Lord says. And the call, so we hear the call is not to everyone. Not to the world. Not to the lost. Not to the ungodly, but to those who have been born again of the Spirit of God, to those who have life. You can't hear this call unless you've got life. So God speaks and we hear. God speaks and we hear. You know, I've thought about this many times when God has spoken to us before You know, when we were on our road to Damascus like Paul was, and the Lord speaks unto you, you hear the Lord. And you know who it is. You're not in ignorance of who is calling you or talking to you. So we know the Lord's voice. He says, My sheep hear My voice, and they will follow Me. That's what the Lord says. So we hear the voice. of the Lord. We hear it as a little still voice in our hearts and so we come bowing down and wanting to know more about the Lord and wanting to hear the Lord, what He has to say, what He is telling us. Through His Word, He may at first through the little still voice call us and through the Holy Spirit and we hear that But then we learn to study God's Word. And I believe this is how He speaks to us through His Word. Now, if He wanted to, He could still speak to us vocally. But I don't think God does that anymore. It's through His Word He speaks to us now. And so we are to listen to what God says in His Word. Common to me. Come unto me all ye that labor and are heavy laden. So we're called, only God can call and fill our lives with his presence and in the inner sanctuary where we dwell with God. You know, we can dwell with God. And I preached a sermon one time on about dwelling with God in the inner sanctuary. I believe sometimes when we're in times of troubles and trials and tribulations in our lives and we come to the Lord and we dwell with Him in spirit and in truth and we can sit and hear Him speaking to us and it's so clear It's so clear when you read God's Word, what He's saying unto us. He says, Come unto Me, all ye that labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. There's no other rest. You can't find rest in the world. You can't find rest any place except in the Lord Jesus Christ. Our Lord gives us the rest that I'm talking about. He comforts us in the time of troubles. And I'm not talking about, you know, people today, they just worry their self to death about what this is going on and that's going on. And yes, these things are going on. But if you are trusting in God and you're trusting in Him and not the world and not the other things of the world. If you're trusting in God, then you have the sweet peace and the rest that we need to go through this old weary world. I'm not telling you that you're not going to have problems, because you are. You're going to have problems, but the Lord says, bring it to me and I'll help you. I'll get you through this. By the grace of God, Paul said, By the grace of God, He is going to take us through all that we have to go through in this life if we're really looking to Him and trusting in Him for our sweet peace in life. There is no other peace. There is no other rest except that of the Lord. And so that's why he says, come unto me all ye that labor and heavy laden and I will give you rest. All the grace that you need, God will give you in the time of need. That's why he says we come before the throne of God and we ask for his help in the time of need. So, we are given, we are given the grace and the rest that we need to go through the trials and tribulations of life. I'll give you comfort, he says. I'll give you what you need. That's God's promise. Do you think God is going to break His promise? I don't believe that God has ever broke a promise that He has made to His people. because He loves us. He gives us strength. When it seems like that you have been beaten down by the worries and the trials of life, then we can run to Him and dwell with Him and He'll give us the sweet peace and the strength that we need and the rest in our lives that we need, the comfort that we need in life. You have grown weary I'm sure many times of things in life. You're in the valley of afflictions a lot of times in life. And we get, you know, we are sick and we're downtrodden many times in our lives, aren't we? But only the Lord can take us through what we have to go through in this life. There is hope. There is healing with the Lord. And there is a cure for everything that we have need of, and that is the Lord. So he says, come unto me. Come unto me. He doesn't say anything else about going anyplace else. He says, come unto me. How close are we to the Lord? How close do we cling to Him? How much do we love the Lord? You know, we don't love Him like we should. We don't worship God like we should. But I read a little article one time where this preacher says there are times in our lives, in God's people's lives, where they can come into the inner sanctuary and they can dwell with God. And they can talk to the Lord in peace. And He'll send His healing power down upon you and give you tranquility in your life for a while, I believe. I've found that to be true. But when we go out and we get away from the Lord, there's no tranquil life. There is no peace in our lives. There is no rest. And we're just like wandering around and trying to depend upon something else to get us through this and to get us through that. But only the Lord, only the Lord can give you the peace and rest that we need in this old weary world. He says, I am the way. And I know that's talking about eternal life. But He is the way in this life while we live here in this weary world. He is the way. You know, a lot of people say, well, all I need to do is go to the doctor. Well, who's in God's hands? The physician is in God's hands. When Barbara went to have her surgery, well, you know, I pray God got his hands. And when people go through surgery, we pray, God, be with them and guide their hands. And so we look to the Lord. We come crying, Abba, Father, unto Him, even in the time of troubles. So, you know, he goes on to say, all ye that labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. So, we have a personal savior. We have one that knows our needs, each one of us, each one of us. Now, isn't that amazing? You know, it's so mind-boggling to us that here is God and he knows all that we need in life and he's going, he says he'll give us not our wants but our needs in life. And He has always been there to help us. He says, I'll never leave you. And we need to look to that because that is God's promise. He says, I'll never leave you. He says, take my yoke upon you and learn of Me. You know, as a new Christian starting out, I didn't know very much about the Lord. a period of time in my life I've been seasoned. And I get more seasoned as I go on. And I know more about the Lord. And that's my prayer, to know more about God. The Apostle Paul, the great Apostle Paul, his prayer was that he wanted to know more. And I'm sure at the very, when he breathed out the breath of life, that was still upon his heart and in his mind. He wanted to know more about the Lord. So, and he says, take my yoke upon you and learn of me. Now I ask you a question. A yoke, you know, we know what a yoke is, don't we? A yoke is for, to be two horses or two cattle to be put together to pull a plow or something, yoked together, you know. And so, he says, I want you yoked to me. Now, I ask you a question. Who better to be yoked to? I don't know of anyone that I'd rather be yoked to than the Lord. And you know, when you're yoked to the Lord, he makes the straight and narrow. When you're yoked to the Lord, he is leading. You know, there's always one cow or one horse who, when they're bridled together or yoked together, who does the turning and who goes the straight. And there's one horse that, if you don't know, never raised on a farm, there is one that knows what to do. And the other horses are the ones that's yoked to him follows. So, that's what the Lord's saying here. Be yoked to me. and follow me and you're going to be all right. Don't you worry about all that's going on in your life or in the world. Don't be yoked to the world because if you're yoked to the world, they go every which way. But the Lord, if we're yoked to the Lord, we go His way. And when He turns, we turn. When He says, do this, we do it. That's what we should do if we're yoked to the Lord, truly yoked to the Lord. So, we are yoked to Him and He says that we are to follow Him and to serve Him and to be coupled to Him and to be together with Him and to be in submission with Him. Submission unto Him. to God has all authority. He has all authority over us. So we need to listen to what the Lord says, not what the devil says or not what the world says. I've always said if you're undecided of what is the right thing to do, don't do it. If the Word of God says don't do it, we shouldn't do it. Because we're yoked to Him and we need to follow Him. A yoke is a wonderful thing when it's the yoke of the Lord. The yoke is wonderful if we just are yoked to the Lord. So all down through the ages of time, God's people should have been listening to Him. We should listen to Him and be yoked to Him. The only place we can find rest and peace is in the Lord. So that is the call to His people here when we've got problems in life. Oh, where can I go but to the Lord? He said, My yoke is easy. God doesn't lie. The Lord doesn't lie. My yoke is easy and my burdens are light. God has not given us anything too hard to do. You hear people saying that, Oh, my life is just too hard to serve the Lord. It's too hard to get up on Sunday morning and go to church. It's too hard to get down on your knees and pray to God. It's too hard to read the Word of God. But God hasn't given us anything too hard to do. That's why the Lord says, take up your cross and follow Me. And when we do that, oh, it may be, you may at times think it's too hard, but if you're trusting in the Lord and put your life in His hands, then it's not too hard. We turn over to, I want to just take the first part of that labor and heavy laden and show you that it's only God's people that can come to this call. You can't worship God through false religions. You can't worship God through, through Buddha. You can't worship God through Hinduism. These people does not know what a comfort it is to be in underneath God's everlasting arms. They can't hear the call because they're worshiping a false god. They can't hear that coming to me all ye that labor and heavy laden and I will give you rest. There's no rest in Buddha. There is no rest in false religions. There is no rest in Mohammed. There is no rest in Judaism. There is no rest in the Pope. There is no rest in the Mother Mary. The only rest we can find is in the Lord Jesus Christ, our God, our God. So he says, I just want to read to you from John the 6th chapter, I believe it is, 44th verse. He says, No man, now listen, he says, No man can come to me except the Father which has sent him, draw him. So when he says come over there, come all ye that labor and heavy laden, He said, no man can come unto me unless the Father draweth. All right? And I will raise him up in the last day. Of course, I know this is talking about eternal life. But it's also true in this life. There's many a people today who are thinking that they, you know, who don't know a thing about the calling of the Lord. And they have a head knowledge of God and they think that that's all that they need is a head knowledge of God. But you need a lot more than that. Because that's not going to draw you. That's not going to comfort you. That's not going to do anything for you. Only the Lord can comfort you and draw you to him. So now we jump over to verse 63, and he says, It is the Spirit that quickeneth the flesh profit nothing. The word that I speak unto you, they are spirit, and they are life. But there are some of you that believe not. For Jesus knew from the beginning who they were that believed not, and who should betray Him. God's people. We are the children of God. And we have a hearing ear. We hear Him. Sometimes when God speaks to us, we shut Him off. Sometimes we quench the Spirit. Oh, I don't want to do that. You're just going about your own way, you know. And every time that you do that, it's not pleasing to God. Every time you do that, Matter of fact, it's a sin, I think. And we're all guilty of that. And we have to repent to the Lord and do like David done, sometimes pray that the Lord will return to us the joy of our salvation. That's what David prayed when he got in all kinds of trouble. That's what happens to man when he goes on his own. He gets into trouble. Everything that man has ever tried to do without the Lord in his life, it's just clabbered. It's no good. It's no good. He says in verse 64, But there are some of you that believe not, for Jesus knew from the beginning who they were that believed not, and who should betray Him. And he said, Therefore, say I unto you that no man can come unto Me except it be given unto him of My Father." No man. No man can come unto Me. You can't come unto God with a head knowledge. You have to have the spiritual knowledge. You have to be born again of the Spirit of God to be able to have fellowship with God. Well, that would go a little bit further. Over in John, I believe it's John the 10th chapter of John, the 25th verse, he says, Jesus answered them. Jesus always had an answer for people who questioned. even for you, He'll show you. I believe He'll show you. It might not be today or tomorrow, but He'll show you in His own way and His own time. If you're not following the Lord, He'll show you. Jesus answered them, I told you, and you believe not, the works that I do in My Father's name, they bear witness of Me. You want to be sure of something? You have to wait upon the Lord. You may have to wait a while. You know, I was thinking, there have been many times and many prayers in our lives, I'm sure, that we prayed about things that, you know, we didn't know. And I'm glad that we don't. We don't know the end of what's going to happen. But the Lord knows. And, you know, our prayers don't persuade God to do this or to do that. I think prayer is obedience unto God. And every time we pray, if it be thy will, O Lord, if it be thy will, O God, if it be thy will, I want this in my life. It reminds me of this girl. And she is praying. You know, she's always praying about the Lord sending her someone, a husband. And she just prayed and prayed and prayed, but she still, she wasn't still married. And she, so, she got the thought, well, maybe if I pray about something different, the Lord will send me a husband. So she started in praying, and she prayed in earnest. She said, Lord, I want you to bless my little brother, and I want you to bless my little sister, and I want you to bless my father and my mother, and God blessed them to have a wonderful son-in-law. So, she got around that by asking the Lord still to send her a husband, but to bless her mom and dad with a son-in-law. So, in the 26th verse, he says, But ye believe not, because ye are not of my sheep. You are not of my sheep. As I said unto you, my sheep Hear my voice. Now, this is positive. This is right on track. The Lord says you will hear His voice. He says, My sheep hear My voice, and I know them, and they follow Me. They follow Me. Come unto Me, all ye that labor and heavy laden. You hear that. Have you ever heard that in your life before? I hope you have because it's not just a one-time thing. It's sometimes every day, every hour maybe when we've got problems in life and even when we've not got problems in life. I like to talk to the Lord and give Him honor and glory and thanks for just being God and being in my life. My sheep hear My voice, and I know them, and they follow Me. They follow Me. They hear My voice. And I give unto them eternal life, and they shall never perish, neither shall any man pluck them out of My hand." Listen. Listen to what the Lord says. The invisible power of a great God, the invisible power of the Holy Spirit in those who are brought into living union with Christ. That's what gives us a hearing ear, is the Holy Spirit. That's what gives us a living union with Christ. That's what bonds us together here in the church, the Holy Spirit, because we We are spiritual. And we discern the Word of God. The Word of God is spiritually discerned. So we need to listen to what the Lord is telling us. We need to listen to what the Lord is saying. And we walk in the Spirit of the Lord. And He brings forth and produces the fruits of the Spirit. Now what is the fruits of the Spirit? We all know what it is. The fruits of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, long-suffering, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, meekness, all of these things. And what makes us happy in life? These should be the joy and what we are Wanting in life is the joy and peace of the Lord. Come unto Me, all ye that labor and heavy laden. I'll give you rest. I'll give you peace. I'll give you joy. And I'll give you the long-suffering you need. And I'll give you the goodness. Only God's goodness is worth anything. He says our goodness is as filthy rags. I want God's goodness. in my life. I want God's meekness in my life. I want God's fruitfulness in my life. Come all ye that labor and heavy laden and I'll give you these things in life. What a blessing. What a blessing to know that only God can give you these things. Then we turn a little bit further over into, well, let's go back one in closing this morning. Let's go back over to Psalms 91. Psalms 91, verse 1, He that dwelleth in the secret place of the Most High shall abide under the shadow of the Almighty. Now, don't we want to dwell under the shadow and underneath His everlasting arms, under the shadow of the Almighty? Where is there a better place to dwell? Is there a better place to find peace in our lives than in the Lord? I will say of the Lord, He is my refuge and my fortress and my God. In Him will I trust. trusting in the Lord. Surely He shall deliver thee from the snares of the fowler, which is the world and the devil, and from the noose of the pestilence. He shall cover thee with the feathers under His wings, shalt thy trust. His truth shall be thy shield and thy bunker. His truth, not some man's word, I want to know God's Word, not some man's Word, because man's Word, if it's from man, I'm not talking about preaching now. I'm talking about some man that don't know a hoot about spiritual things. And they try to tell you how you get through life. You know, you go to all these head shrinkers and all these people, and they're trying to tell you How that you can manage things in your life and they don't know a thing about life. I heard the other day that there was more of these people who commit suicide than anybody else is these head shrinkers. They commit suicide more than anybody else does. I'll tell you what we can find and level our minds out is in the word of God. and talking to the Lord. I believe that would help people more than anything. Then as we go over and I want to go to another Psalms as I think about it. Psalms 63. Now, I want to just say something here to all the young folks in the church and maybe the old folks too. In Psalm 63, the Lord is talking about in our early lives, about rising up early and seeking praise of God, our Lord. And it's also talking about when we awake of a morning, the first thing we do that should be on our minds is, what am I going to do today to serve the Lord. Am I going to witness to other folks? I try to make it a point every day of my life if I'm out someplace to witness. To witness and tell about the Lord. In Psalm 63, O God, my God, early will I seek Thee. My soul trusteth in Thee. My flesh longeth for Thee. in a dry and thirsty land where there is no water. I think here he's talking about spiritual life. The water represents spiritual. Like I was saying a while ago, talking to the Lord, being able to communicate with God and being able to communicate with those that are spiritual who live here on this earth. And sometimes we get in a dry and thirsty land. We get dry. And we have to go to the Lord. To see the power of thy glory, so as I have seen thee in the sanctuary. You see, he talks about, and there's many places in the book of Psalms, I believe David teaches about being close to God and going into the inner sanctuary. in a time of prayer. You know, I think a lot of times we need to just get in our prayer closet, shut the door, and close the world on the outside. When we come into the house of God, we need to leave the world on the outside and sit and enjoy God's Word and His presence in our lives. Because you know, maybe when we're outside the preaching of the Word of God, we don't pay as much attention as we do when we're in the house of the Lord. And me and Brother Mark was talking a little while ago about this is a place of worship. This is a place that we can come together and worship the Lord. And let us dwell in the inner sanctuary, being close to God, feeling the essence of God in our lives. It's a good place. It's a wonderful place. I believe that God has blessed this building in the sense that it's a place we can come and dwell together. He has sanctified this place, I believe. It's a special place. It's a place we can come. Now, I'm not saying you can't worship God outside the church because you can't. But here is like on Sunday morning and Thursday night or whenever we're gathered together, It's a special time for me that I can come and visit with you folks and talk about the Lord and preach to you the Word of God. Come all ye that labor and heavy laden. Come into His inner sanctuary and dwell with Him. Leave the world on the outside. Leave your troubles on the outside. Leave everything on the outside except the Lord. You know, well, God's here. The Lord is here. You can't leave Him no place unless you quench His spirit and block Him out. God is here with us. So this morning I hope, as I've tried to teach, that maybe that you have learned something about being close to the Lord and about His inner sanctuary and about His call to us to come and to dwell with Him, not just in the time of trouble, but in the time of goodness, when you're on the mountaintop, when you're in the valley, wherever you might be. Just give God all the honor and glory in everything that we do, we should do it to the honor and glory of God. If it's not to the honor and glory of God, then don't do it. May the Lord bless and keep you is my prayer. Has someone have a song? Number one. Let us stand and sing number one.