Yeah, so I'll go ahead and sit down. Amen. Go see Brother Martin tonight. Amen. We were waiting for him to get here so we could start church and he made it. Amen. So Martin and Martin. Yeah. Martin and Martin. So the M&M hour or something like that. Amen. All right. Matthew chapter number 11, the Lord speaks to us tonight, beginning verses 28, 29, and 30. I can't tell you how many times that in the past, when I pastor, they go make a hospital visit, or sometimes somebody even on their deathbed, or perhaps at a funeral. Maybe somebody going through something really hard, something really heavy, a lot of weight. And these verses were always coming to my mind and read to them. And not only it's the word of God, but it's God the word preaching it, amen. And the Lord says, come unto me all you that labor, and are heavy laden, and 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 burden is light. Seems like a contradiction, doesn't it? My yoke is easy, my burden is light. The great invitation, amen. Let's pray. Father, thank you for tonight, for the folks that are purposed to come. Pray that you might bless them for it. Pray that you might continue to bless this church and be with Brother Eccles as he's out of town. Please keep him safe, if you would, and return him home at the appointed time. And God, I pray that you might speak to our hearts tonight May your will be done in Jesus name. Amen. I know we all have burdens at one time or another. And, uh, I want to look at that tonight a little bit more in depth. And in addition to this text here. But in this text, the Lord gives this invitation to anybody and all to come unto him that labor and heavy laden. We do go through burdens, we go through heaviness, and we are heavy laden at times. If you've never been burdened and heavy laden, all you gotta do is get married. Amen. Or have children. The grandchildren aren't as much of a burden or heavy laden as kids are, but I mean, that'll do it to you. Put you on your knees, amen, prayer. Sometimes we have to make a living for ourselves, don't we? And provide for our families. sometimes by the sweat of our brow, and that's a burden. It's something laden, it's a weight that's always there. We go through all kinds of things, even teaching a Sunday school class can be a weight or a burden, thinking about those you're gonna teach and the lessons from the scripture you're gonna give to them and the burden of the responsibility. Preaching is often the same way, pastoring is that way, being a pastor's wife is that way. Being a church member is that way, helping carry the burden of the church body, if you will, that's heavy laden oftentimes. Sometimes I understand that people that grow older have this issue. I'm only 75, so someday I'll get to know what that's like. A while back, I said, Donny, I said, it just feels strange being the same age as old people sometimes. But there's a burden that comes with age, amen. There's a burden that comes with all these things. No matter what we do in life or where we go, there's always a burden to be born. But you know, that's what develops us too. This makes us stronger, too. If you ladies were to take a look around tonight at this fine specimen of men, you'd realize we didn't just get this way by sitting around. No, we lifted weights. We jogged. We ran bleachers. We did all kinds of things to get to be the fine specimens that we are, amen? One-arm pushups, things of this nature. I came home one night and tried to do some of those pushups where you push up and crack your hands, and all I did was crash on my hands. Oh, I cried out, amen? I can do half of a one-arm pushup on the way down. Can't come back up though, that doesn't work. But at any rate, this is how you do get strong physically is through exercise, same way through your Christian life. Development is through exercise and the Lord takes us through that. Sometimes it seems like we go from valley to valley or burden to burden, but that's all right because the Lord's very near. We just sang it, didn't we? So either saying it by faith or hypocrisy was in our voice, but I believe that we really believe that. He tells us here to come unto me, says a great invitation from the Lord, instructing him, I want you to come to me, all you that labor and heavy laden, and here's what I'll do, I'll give you rest. Well, rest is such a great need in our lives, we come apart to rest. We've lost this art of coming apart. We know how to come apart, go to pieces, but I mean, coming apart before we come apart. It's an art that we need to relearn, if you will, and I think that if we can come apart, then we don't have as much of a tendency to come apart, to go to pieces about things. And the art of coming apart and spending time with the Lord is kind of a lost art, if you will, I call it that. We don't have enough time, it seems like, to do it. We get wrapped up and stuff. Before you know it, the day's over and we're in bed and we're snoring away. And we wake up the next morning and hit it again. Here we go. And boy, the time, even just a few minutes, would be a blessing just to walk with him. Sometimes it's good just to go outside and sit, go for a walk. We have a driveway that's two-tenths of a mile long, and I can make it to the end. Coming back, though, I've got to make a phone call for somebody to come pick me up. But at any rate, we do need that time apart. This is one reason, personally, I enjoy hunting. I enjoy just getting out and just sitting for a while and just thinking about things and things of this nature. I've been known to go sleep in a deer blind, wake up and see a nice buck out there and miss him. I've been known to go sleep behind the steering wheel. Put it on autopilot and try to make it down the road. I hope the guy that invented these brrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr No, it's okay. But anyway, these things of coming apart and getting some rest into our souls. Our minds need rest, our bodies need rest, but our souls need rest. Does that remind you of Psalm 23? But King David of old said he'd lead me beside the still water and allows me to lie down in green pastures. And what does he do? He restores my soul. We need that time alone, don't we, beside those still waters and those green pastures just to lie down, let the Lord restore our souls. And he says, something interesting, it sounds contradictory. Really? Take my yoke upon you. I kind of want to say, I think I already have a yoke. Why do I want another one? Why do I want to take somebody else's yoke? Well, this isn't just anybody's, this is the Lord's yoke. And he asks us to yoke up with him. You see a team of oxen pulling something, and they're working together. He says, take my yoke upon you. Learn of me, for I am meek and lowly in heart, and you shall find rest unto your souls. There he is again, talking about that rest. It's hard to imagine finding rest while being yoked. finding rest while you're burdened, finding rest while you're heavy laden. But that can happen with the Lord. And he says, his yoke is a little bit different than ours. His yoke is easy and his burden is light. So it is true, isn't it? And when we get married, we have children, we make a living, we go through things, we get a job, we serve the Lord, and we do things, and all these areas have different burdens and ladens that come with them, and a yoke that's tied in with them. But if we do it with the Lord, we can make it. We can make it. We've been married 51 years, is that right? Just making sure, don't wanna get in trouble. We've been married 51 years, that's pretty close to half a century. Yeah, and we're going to sign up for another 50. I'm still learning. And we sing that little Sunday school song about the Lord. He's still working on me. Well, I'd sing about, she's still working on me to make me what I ought to be. But anyway, that yoking together enables you to make it. Somebody said, talking about how he and his wife argue, I said, we are Christians, we don't argue, we just have intense moments of fellowship. It happens on occasion. Did I say daily? No. But anyway, we yoke up together to get the job done, if you will. Raising of the children, to making a living, to serving the Lord, to doing something together. Yoke up together. But with Him, it's possible. Otherwise, we're going to crumble under the thing, if you will. I want to look at some yokes that were instructed to learn to bear in life. Turn with me if you would please to Galatians chapter number six tonight, Galatians chapter number six. The Apostle Paul takes this principle that the Lord lays down and he talks about burdens and bearing burdens. He says in Galatians chapter six, brethren, If a man be overtaken in a fault, ye which are spiritual, restore such in one, in the spirit of meekness, considering thyself, lest thou also be tempted. And he says this, bear ye one another's burdens, and so fulfill the law of Christ. This has with the implication, of course, that your brother has a burden, and you have a burden, and you're to bear one another's burdens. There's times when you need to come alongside a brother and encourage him. There's times when a brother needs to come alongside me and encourage me, help me bear my burdens. Brother Martin, you okay? It seems like you're kind of down in spirit tonight or whatever the case might be. And brothers come alongside to kind of pray with you about something, or is there a need, helping you bear one another's burdens. You might have a loss, they might have a loss. They might have a burden that's pretty obvious that you see by going through something in life. Maybe it's health, who knows? what the case might be, but we're supposed to bear one another's burdens. When we do that, we fulfill the law of Christ, which we just talked about. Because the Lord says, yoke up of me and find my burden easy, my yoke is easy, my burdens are light. And so we yoke up together, it makes a lighter weight to be carried by both of them, amen. I hate to go through life by myself. I hate to even think I have to do that. So thank the Lord for other brothers and sisters in Christ. You know, when we first met a year or two ago, whenever it was, and we were in a shopping center for the first time, there was instant fellowship. Why? Because we have the same Father. See? And among Christian, you have that instant fellowship. Your pastor and I are getting to know each other. We haven't spent any time together, but we're getting to know each other over text and so forth. And I was teasing him about tonight a little bit, and he threw it back. And he's got a good spirit about it. I enjoy verbally sparring with him a little bit of time I've got to spend with him. And at a preacher's meeting here or there, when they've come over to the church there in Cassville for service or two in the past. And I enjoy his spirit. Just that kind of spirit helps you bear a burden. You know, who wants to be around an old grouch? Who wants to be around somebody that's got molly grubs or the poochie lip disease or whatever, you know? I mean, who enjoys that, you know? You ever ask somebody, how you doing? And then they tell you. And you wish you hadn't asked them in the first place, but you really were interested in them. I mean, I don't mind helping you bury your burdens. I just don't know that you need to tell me about them all the time. Oh, I got another one I need help with, you know? But if that's the case, then so be it. but to bear one another's burdens, and so fulfill the law of Christ. Then he goes on down in verse three and says, for if a man think himself to be something when he is nothing, he deceives himself, but let every man prove his own work. Then shall he have rejoicing in himself alone, not in another, for every man shall bear his own burden. So there's unbearable burdens that we're supposed to help each other bear, and then there's burdens that we're supposed to bear by ourselves. There's some things in my life that are mine to bear and nobody else's. But I'm bearing him with the Lord, if I let him do that, if I yoke up with him. But I don't need to necessarily invite you into all of my burdens, because there's some burdens, it says, for every man shall bear his own burden. There are some burdens that are mine to bear, and I have to bear them. And they're given to me for a reason, for a purpose, for a cause. Sometimes it's responsibility, or duty. Sometimes it's something that befalls me, but it's my burden to be borne. And when that's the case, it doesn't need to be toned to the whole world. There needs to be some things that are just private, that the Lord wants me to yoke up with Him. And then there's burdens where we bear one another's burdens, so together we yoke up together with the Lord. And so there's bearable burdens and unbearable burdens, but we all have them to bear, either with another brother or on our own, but always with the Lord. Always with the Lord. If you go through and read the rest of the text here in Galatians, and even some of the verses before chapter six, you'd find something really interesting take place, and that is as you bear these burdens and you live for the Lord, there's some things that take place that'll be a result of this, if you will, in verse number 17. Paul says, from henceforth let no man trouble me, for I bear in my body the marks of the Lord Jesus. So there's another thing that we'll bear in life if we're living for the Lord, that's the marks of having lived for him. You live for the Lord, it's gonna cost you something. And we get so concerned about this sort of thing sometimes. Why me? Why does it have to be me? Well, it's interesting that you ask that question because I was just thinking about some people back in our text there in Matthew chapter 11, I've made a note of and I thought about some of the burdens that the apostle Paul had to bear. And some of them he bore on his own, and some of them he bore with other brethren, going into towns and starting churches and different ministries. But some of those burdens were his own to bear. But he bore them well. And he bore them with other brothers in Christ, and together they bore these burdens. I think about the church there at Jerusalem, the first church established there in Jerusalem, and the burdens that must have been on them to establish that church and get it up and going and keep it going. But there were about 120 in that room, the Bible says in Book of Acts chapter one, and they bore the burden of that ministry of that church there in Jerusalem. And so coming from Judaism into Christianity, what a burden that was to bear as a testimony, as a witness. But they bore it together as a church body under the leadership of Peter as their pastor and mother. He did some preaching on the day of Pentecost, didn't he, man? And seeing 3,000 souls saved, baptized, added to the church. And he said, man, that's, that's, that's, fruitfulness. Yeah, but with that is a burden. Now we got to provide for them, got to teach them the word, got to help them grow. And now that church start to other churches. So all these burdens are bearable, just like this missionary letter you read tonight. He's not doing that by himself. Good morning. He's bearing that burden, asking you to help him bear that burden. So bear it financially, bear it prayerfully, but help him bear it, help him carry that burden so he can, as he yokes up the Lord, he can get the job done, if you will. I thought about some other folks in the Bible, like Mary and Martha and Lazarus, and what took place there, and that burden that was borne when they lost Lazarus, their brother, and he was dead. And what were they gonna do when they were trying to bear this burden? And then Jesus comes along and helps them bear that burden. Lazarus come forth, and here he comes, amen. And boy, that was a easy yoke. That was a light yoke when the Lord came along. Anytime the Lord shows up, things get lighter. They get less heavy, if I can say it that way. It's easier to bear the burdens when he's there. We see people go through stuff in life and say, man, how do they make it? Well, without the Lord, you don't. That's a very simple statement, but it's pretty profound. Without the Lord, you're not going to make it. Paul says, I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me. And yet without him, I can do nothing. And so it's really simple. You've got to have him. You've got to work with him and allow him to work in and through your life. the burdens that your pastor bears, the same burdens that a missionary might bear, and that is shepherding the flock. A lot of the burdens that are there, none of them can ever know, except somebody in that position, but you help him bear it through prayer for him. and through support and helping him with the ministry. And same thing with a pastor's wife. The burdens that a pastor's wife bears are unbelievable. You see, when I pastored, it was easier for me to follow the Lord than it was for her to follow me because she was following somebody that's fallible. But the burdens that I bore weighed heavier on her oftentimes than it did on me. and something I thought was light and no big deal, and we were hurt to death, see? And so we need to pray for folks like that. And Sunday school classes, my goodness, what a privilege, but what a burden that is. What a burden that is. I remember the first Sunday School class I ever taught was third grade boys in El Paso, Texas, and they put me in a little cubicle and drew a curtain behind us, and they sat on a wood bench and a semicircle, and all they asked me to do was pass the Bible around, let the boys take turns reading it, and then we'd talk about it a little bit and that kind of thing. And man, I was scared to death in there, scared to death. But never thought I was getting anywhere with them. So we left El Paso and I told the boys, this is my last class with you. And they all said, okay, bye. Except one, that one that was always causing trouble. Do you know the little preview of the Antichrist? And he was in the class and he came up, grabbed my legs and started crying, oh brother Martin, don't leave, don't leave. And you think, well maybe you have made a difference. So the burden that you bear when you're trying to teach them, you don't see any result, but who can tell? Because we can't see the heart. So know this when you're teaching, when you're singing, when you're doing something like that, when you're witnessing, the results are really up to the Lord. But the burden that we bear is the responsibility of getting the message out. It's that burden that is light. And so we have individual burdens and so forth. But I was even thinking about, about all through the scripture, Old Testament, New Testament, different people that carried the weight to get the gospel out. And now, quote, it's our turn, it's our turn, it's our turn. And you ever think about all the churches in the New Testament, church at Corinth and Galatia and Philippi and Thessalonica and so forth, they're non-existent today. But we're here existent, and the church in Cassville is existent, and two churches I pastored are existent, and we were all here as a result of those churches of the New Testament years ago. So that baton, if you will, has been passed on, so now the burden's ours. I'll tell you what, it can be light, or it can be as heavy as you want it to be. if we yoke up with him and together, man, what a great thought can take place there, see? And so it goes beyond the thing of poor little me. It's this thing of really spending time alone with him and taking Matthew's word and meditating on verses 28, 29, and 30 in Matthew 11 where it says, come unto me, all you that labor and are heavy laden, I'll give you rest. Sometimes His commands are heavy. Sometimes the cross that we bear is heavy. Sometimes the teachings that come to us from God's word are heavy. Because some things preach and teach easier than they live. to sing that song, Burns are lifted at Calvary. But we sing that with a smile on our face, but that's a bit harder to live than it is to sing. But it can be done, amen? It can be done. In Matthew chapter 17, verse five, the Lord God said this of the Lord Jesus. He said, this is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased. Hear ye Him. Hear ye Him. Well, do we hear Him in this text? Do we hear Him inviting us to come unto Him? God has instructed us to listen to the words of the Lord, and the words of the Lord are a great invitation to us. It's an invitation to trust Him, to lean upon Him. Perhaps the greatest rest we need is this rest He talks about in this verse 29 and in Psalm 23, and that's a rest for our souls. You ever see some Christians going through something, and they're whistling, and they're singing some hymn that they got out of the hymnal, and they got a smile on their face and a spring in their step, and you go, how in the world are you doing that? You just lost a child. You just got somebody in the hospital. You just had an auto accident. How is it you're doing that? Well, learn how to yoke up with him. Learn how to trust him. Learn how to lean on him, see. It's not easy. But sure, it's realistic and it's possible. In fact, he asked us to do it. So whether you have to bear your own burdens or help your brother bear his own burdens, or bear marks of having been serving the Lord as Christians, sometimes the marks are verbal, Some sound was slanderous, but that's okay, amen? That's okay. If there's anything to learn tonight, I think it's this thing, that this isn't, I've said it at the introduction, this is an invitation from the Lord. Will you accept it? Will you accept this great invitation? Just like getting saved. Somebody invited you to get saved, they presented the gospel and said, wouldn't you like to get saved? Wouldn't you like to call upon the name of the Lord to be born again? And at that moment, you accepted or rejected that invitation. And here tonight, he invites us again. If you're burdened tonight, if you're heavy laden tonight, he's asking you to come into me. Yoke up with me, amen? My yoke's easy, my burden's light. Well, what a blessing that is, amen? What a blessing that is. It's good to know that not only do we have the Lord, we have some folks to help us in time of need, and this great invitation come unto me, amen? I don't know you tonight, I don't know what's going on, but we have burdens and you have burdens. I think probably all God's children have burdens. But won't we just come to him tonight? So I just wanna cast some mature feet. I can't carry this one alone. And I need to yoke up with you, I need some help. Just being honest with him tonight. Would you stand with me for a prayer, please? Our Father in Christ's name, I pray you take this simple message tonight. And you speak to our hearts, and if there's a burden here tonight, which undoubtedly there is, there's enough of us, that we might come to you tonight and just yoke up with you. We might get back into your Word and study. We might get back in your Word and see how other people bore up under it. I look at the life of Job and others that have gone before us with burdens. Father, we might trust you as they did. Father, tonight, your will be done in our lives. Father, thank you for always being there. Thank you for being ever present. Thank you for your having a heart for our heart and concern for our souls finding rest. Father, please, may that will be done, if you would, in Jesus' name. Amen. You come tonight, she please.