Tonight's message, I don't think I'll keep you long. It'll be like a Toronto Maple Leafs playoff run. It won't be long. Amen. All right. So, I mean, I could have gone with it either Toronto or Montreal, but I figured. Matthew 11, verse 28. We'll get there eventually, but I'd like to read a portion of scripture just as an illustration, a jumping off point, if you will, for tonight's message. with the text and the subject that I'm going to be covering, we can really, it's difficult for someone who is going to preach and you get one shot at it to cover all the bases. And so I'm going to do my best. I don't plan on being that long, but just what the Lord laid on my heart, you know, as staff, we're encouraged. We have a staff calendar that is shared with everyone in the office. And so many times you see the events of the week and pastor, he posts where he's going to be, when he's going to be there. And we saw this coming up. And so I kind of, sometimes you have that feeling, okay, he'll probably ask us to preach at some point in time while he's out of town. And so you start thinking about meditating and praying about what the Lord would have you preach on. And this passage of scripture just kept coming to my mind over and over again in Matthew chapter 11, verse 28 through 30. And it's a passage that we know, it's one that we often see on inspirational quotes or hanging in someone's kitchen or entranceway. And it's a truth that I think we take for granted. It's a truth that we take for granted. And we'll read Matthew 11, verse 28 and 30. It says, come unto me, all ye 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. If you would go to Luke chapter 10, verse 42, Luke chapter 10, verse 42, what I'll do is I'll jump down to verse 38, and we'll see an illustration here. The contrast between Martha and Mary, it says, Now it came to pass in verse 38, As they went that he entered into a certain village, and a certain woman named Martha received him into her house, and she had a sister called Mary, which also sat at Jesus' feet, and heard His word. But Martha was cumbered about much serving. And came to him, and said, Lord, dost thou not care that my sister hath left me to serve alone? Bid her therefore that she help me. And Jesus answered and said unto her, Martha, Martha, thou art careful and troubled about many things, but one thing is needful, and Mary hath chosen that good part which shall not be taken away from her. And so we see here that Martha got all worked up about what Mary was not doing. And as I was thinking about Matthew 11, verse 28, we all like the idea of resting, don't we? Oh, yeah. Oh, yeah. A college student who has a paper due as many I'm not sure if it was a full blown paper, but I know of many given their report on their status, whether it was WhatsApp or Instagram, they posted the sun coming up as they were finishing their paper due eight o'clock that morning. I don't know how accurate that was, whether they got a half hour of sleep, two hours of sleep. But I know when I went to bed on Friday, late on Friday, I saw one of the students at our computer at home finishing things up. So we know how important rest is. Sorry, I tattled on you there. All right, but get used to it. It runs in the family. All right. But, you know, we enjoy our rest this afternoon after we ate. There was a lot of things to do. Get ready for choir, the cantata practice. And then also you have the weight of preaching the service like this. And so, man, your body wants that rest and you just have to fight through it. And sometimes we give in to that rest. Amen. How many gave in to the rest this afternoon? All right. And rest is a good thing. Amen. We get so burdened about with the things of life and the cares of this life. And so when we look at this passage of scripture, what a wonderful thought that we can... Savior. Jesus Christ invites us to come to Him and to rest. And as you would read in the previous chapters, you would see how He rebuked some of the cities. He pronounced a woe on Chorazin and Bethsaida. And if you would look at those villages along the Sea of Galilee, you would see that those were fishing villages. Those were villages where people, many people made their livelihood, whether either working out in the field or fishing and working and farming in those days, it wasn't that they had some 500 horsepower tractor, you know, with on tracks. No, they did most everything by hand. And if you would study going through Bible manners and customs and looking how the fishermen would fish back in the day, we view it today as relaxing, right? We go to the men's retreat, and depending who's driving the boat, for the most part, it's relaxing. Amen? Sometimes it can be a little unnerving, depending who's driving the boat. Amen? We got some that'll testify to that. Anyways, moving on. But we view fishing as relaxing. But who Jesus is addressing, he's addressing the crowd and all those people, they were probably, they were used to hard work. They were used to laboring. They were used to giving themselves to just eking out a living. And here Jesus Christ says, come unto me, all ye that labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Verse 29 says, 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. And so here in verse 28, jumping right into the passage of Scripture, praise the Lord, we're baptizing three, we see the invitation given. We see the invitation given. And here we see Jesus Christ, He's looking out to those who are following Him, and He says, come. He says, come. You know, many in this passage of Scripture were used to the rabbis in the synagogues telling them what they needed to do. They had to do this to be accepted of God. What happened, many of the rabbis of that day, they put the traditions, the Jewish traditions above the scriptures, and then they told the people that this is what you have to do to please God. And here the contrast between the rabbis and Jesus Christ, the rabbi said, do this, this, and this, and God will accept you. And Jesus Christ, what did he say? He said, come. He said, come. And so we have the invitation and that invitation is open to all. Who is the one doing the inviting? Who is the one inviting? Have you ever invited someone over? someone over to someone else's house, it gets awkward. The homeowner says, oh, I've never done it, but I've been there when it happened. It gets awkward real quick. But here, Jesus Christ himself, he's looking not only to the people in this passage of scripture, but everyone else who has darkened or populated this earth, he is saying, come. When others say, do, do, do, Jesus Christ says, come. He's the one that is inviting us. He is the only one with the authority that can invite us. He is the virgin born Son of God. He is God. As we heard this morning, He is the Lamb of God that takes away the sin of the world. He is the King of kings and He is the Lord of lords. And He's the one that looks at you and I tonight and He says, come. He says, come. It's an invitation. given by an almighty, all-powerful, the only God. It's a simple invitation. It's a simple invitation. Let me ask you, have you come to Him? This evening, have you come to Him? I'm talking about salvation. I know not many unsaved people or not many unchurched people come to church on a Sunday night. Many of us, this is how we live our life, coming to church, Sunday school, Sunday morning, Sunday night, and Wednesday, but it could be that you've never come. to Jesus Christ. You've never personalized that invitation into your heart. And Jesus Christ is telling us, come unto, not a list of rules, not a list of decrees. He's saying, come unto who? Me. Come unto me, Jesus Christ. We're invited. It's a simple invitation. John 7, verse 37, it says, in the last day, that great day of the feast, Jesus stood and cried, saying, if any man thirst, let him come unto me and drink. It's a simple invitation. God wants you to come to him in salvation. You know, carrying your own burdens, Carrying your own labors. Have you ever tried to do a difficult task all by yourself? I remember we had just moved out of a house and we were in an in-between time. And I still remember we needed an apartment-sized freezer. And we rented an apartment in Milne Park on Stephen Street and Morden. And guess where we were? We were on the third floor. We got our steps in. But I remember we, one evening we went and we bought an apartment size freezer. And I believe Sarah was expecting Abigail at the time. And so guess who was going to carry that apartment size freezer up three flights of stairs? Not Sarah. All right. And so I remember doing that. And it's not the weight that gets you, right? It's the awkwardness of those appliances, right? Amen, guys. You're with me. And so I remember it was just, it was a difficult task. It was laborious. I was heavy laden. So was she with child, but that's different. All right. But it was laborious and it was helpful. The last few steps, someone came out and helped me get up the stairs. Praise the Lord for that. But it's hard doing things ourself. And you and I, we cannot carry the weight of our sin. The weight of our sin just loads us down. It crushes us. And eventually that sin, that rejection of Jesus Christ, and us seeking to take care of our own sins in our own way, it will condemn us. We cannot do it. And so, accept God's invitation, and accept Jesus Christ's simple invitation. It's simple. This invitation is open to all. The Bible tells us that God is not willing that any should perish. John chapter six, verse 37, it says, all that the Father giveth me shall come to me, and him that cometh to me, I will in no wise cast out. That's a wonderful thing. If you come to Jesus Christ tonight and you say, dear heavenly Father, please forgive me of my sin. I repent of that sin, come into my heart and save me. He's not gonna turn his nose up to you. He's not gonna say, well, let me think about it. He's not gonna do any of those things. He's gonna say, welcome. He's gonna accept you. And when we're accepted of Jesus Christ, that's all we need. And so we need to come to Him. Have you come to Him? Has there been that point in your life where you have accepted Him? Sadly, some reject the invitation. Don't reject the invitation. John chapter 5 verse 40 through 47, it says, search the scriptures for in them you think you have eternal life. And he's saying what was happening is the rulers of that day, they were, yes, they were preaching the scriptures, but they put all their weight on the scriptures and what they wanted to do is they wanted to discount the person of Jesus Christ. And we know that Jesus Christ, his ministry and his officeship was confirmed and revealed to the Jewish people time and time again, but what did they do? They rejected him. over and over and over again. Search the Scriptures, for in them ye think ye have eternal life. And he says, And they are they which testify of me, and ye will not come to me, that ye might have life. I receive not honor from men, but I know you, that ye have not the love of God in you. I am come in my Father's name, and ye receive me not. If another shall come in his own name, him ye will receive. How can ye believe which receive honour one of another, and seek not the honour that cometh from God only? Do not think that I will accuse you to the Father. There is one that accuseth you, even Moses, in whom ye trust. For had ye believed Moses, ye would have believed me, for he wrote of me. But if ye believe not his writings, how shall ye believe my words? They rejected Jesus Christ. Don't reject Jesus Christ. Jesus Christ is a person. It's not a church. It's not a statement of faith that you say you agree with in some mental assent. No, it's in the person of Jesus Christ. Don't reject God's invitation. Don't reject His invitation. You don't have to reject Him. Accept Him today. And so it's a very clear invitation. Come, come unto me, all ye that labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. There's nothing like knowing that you're doing right. There's nothing like knowing that you're going home. The other day, well, it was a bit of a long day and a lot of things going on ministry-wise. And I remember telling Sarah, I said, I just want to go home. I just want to go home and I just want to go to bed. Praise God, amen. I just wanted rest. And there's nothing like knowing as a true born-again believer that your eternity is secure with Jesus Christ. That's where we have our rest. It's not in our own righteousness. Our own righteousness, Isaiah tells us, is as filthy rags, but our righteousness is the righteousness of Christ that has been placed upon us. That's where we find rest. I remember as an eight-year-old boy, night after night, I would go to bed and I would cry and I would be anxious and I would be worrying about where I'd spend eternity. I did not want to go to hell. There's no rest in that. It could be that you come to church week after week after week after week, you hear the messages, you want to believe that, yeah, I did that, but you know in your heart and the Holy Spirit comes to you over and over again and says, settle it, settle it, settle it. Accept that invitation. That's when we find rest. You know that one night, I finally said, you know what, I'm gonna get this settled. I went downstairs and I got the assurance of my salvation. And you know what? I had rest that night. It was settled. It was settled. That's where we find rest. Mary and Martha found rest. We can find rest too. So we have the invitation, come unto me, all ye that labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Verse 29 tells us, take my yoke upon you and learn of me, for I am weak and lowly in heart, and ye shall find rest unto your souls. Take my yoke upon you. We say, well, what was this phrase talking about? Yes, in the Middle East and in Jerusalem, in the Palestine area, There's a lot of agriculture that goes on, and they're familiar with the oak, and we think about the yoke that are put on oxen as settlers traveled across the prairies, and the heavy wooden yokes were put on the oxen as they pulled the carts. And we think of that, and that can be one application to this verse, but what Jesus Christ is talking about here, this phrase was often used in the culture of the day to refer to a teacher's disciples, where they would yoke up, where that student would pull up alongside the teacher, the rabbi, and that teacher would guide them side by side as they learned from the master. And that's what Jesus Christ is telling those that come unto him that are heavy laden, those of us who are saved and we have that security in Jesus Christ. Now he's saying, you need to be my disciple. You need to yoke up with me. To take the yoke of Jesus, there are some things we need to let go of. There are some things we need to let go of. I remember, I'm not sure where I saw it, but we all know what reels are on Instagram and people send their status update and they shoot you memes. And I've been flooded with pumpkin spice memes because for reasons I'll leave alone. But I mean, I don't even, anyways. But I remember seeing this toddler on one of these videos, a toddler, his dad bought him an ice cream, just a small little baby cone. And the kid must've been three or four years old. He really didn't have a grasp of what the dad was doing, but the father, the kid was there licking an ice cream cone and the father took a $50 bill. Took it out. He said, give me your ice cream cone. And the kid reluctantly gave his dad the ice cream cone. And then his dad set the $50 bill on the table and the ice cream cone. And he said, pick one. Pick one. And you know what the toddler picked? He picked the ice cream cone, which probably could have bought 50 more of those. Amen? But the kid didn't want to let go of that ice cream. It tasted good right at the moment. And you know what? Many of us, we want the yoke of Jesus, but yet we're not willing to let go of some things. And I trust we have a better understanding than a toddler does. Yes, he didn't understand the value of money. He just knew what he wanted at that time. But sad to say, many Christians, we want the immediate satisfaction that the world gives us. But yet, here Jesus Christ is saying, take my yoke upon you. Take my yoke upon you. Learn of me. Learn of me. I am meek and lowly in heart. We are not willing to let go of the cares and the phylacteries of life. Why are we unwilling? Because as he goes on to say in verse 29, he says, and learn of me. Why are we unwilling to drop some of the things, the cares of this world, and we don't yoke up with Jesus Christ. We don't draw alongside of him because we haven't taken the time to learn of him. You and I need to learn who Jesus Christ is. Not in some theological, yes, in some theological way where we can get an A on a theology paper, but we need to learn of him in a personal way. A way that only you and God know How many of us have that kind of a relationship with our Heavenly Father? We haven't taken the time to learn of Him. Are you learning of Him? Are we learning of Him? That's a true sign of the disciple. Are you a disciple? Are you a disciple? We see time after time in the scriptures where those who were truly disciples, they followed him. They let go of some things. Luke 8, verse 35, Then they went out to see what was done, and came to Jesus, and found the man out of whom the devils were departed, sitting at the feet of Jesus, clothed, and in his right mind, and they were afraid. What was that man doing? He was saved. He was relieved. He was freed from all the pain that those demons had inflicted upon him. And what did he want to do? He wanted to learn of Jesus. He wanted to have that personal relationship with Jesus Christ. And that's what you and I, many of us are missing this evening. We haven't taken the time to know Jesus Christ in an intimate way. We don't know him. We're burdened down with the cares of this world. We don't have any rest. We don't have any peace. But we're too busy following after the things that we want. And we're just heavy laden. We're cumbered about with many cares. Mary chose the better part. And that was sitting at the feet of Jesus, learning of him. Learning of him. Are we learning of him? 1 John 2, verse 6, it says, he that saith he abideth in him ought himself also to walk even as he walked. Are you walking how Jesus walked? Well, you say, I don't know. We can tell. The scriptures show us how Jesus walked. The Scriptures point how Jesus walked. The Scriptures tells us to walk as Jesus walked. Luke 10, verse 42, But one thing is needful, and Mary hath chosen that good part, which shall not be taken away from her. No one can take it away from you. No one can take your walk with God away from you. You may go through a dark time. You may go through the loss of a loved one. You may go through sickness. You may go through trials. You may go through even imprisonments. And we see through the example of the Apostle Paul that even in the imprisonment, what happened? He had that relationship. He was still learning of God. He was taking the yoke upon him because he had learned of Jesus Christ. He had learned how meek Jesus was. He had learned how lowly he was. And in that time of trial, he found that rest in his soul. Is there rest in our souls this evening? Do we have that peace of God which passeth all understanding? Why? Why don't we have that? Because we're not in the yoke with Christ. We're doing our own thing. And Jesus Christ says, take, take. Take my yoke upon you. Someone once said, regarding these passages of scripture, there is rest in obeying the Lord. There is no rest in the ways of the world. All through Proverbs and Ecclesiastes, we have the wisest man giving us pointers, giving us Proverbs, giving us principles that we can live our life according to, so that we don't have to make the same mistakes that he did. I just think of one of the examples that he gives us in Proverbs 23, verse 35. It's talking about the drunkenness. In Proverbs 23, verse 35, it says, They have stricken me, shalt thou say, and I was not sick. They have beaten me, and I felt it not. When shall I awake? I will seek it yet again. There's no rest in the way of the world. There's no rest in the way of the world. And how many of us are following the ways of the world? We've accepted the world's philosophy. The Lord's way is the best way. The Lord's way is the best way. And time after time in the Old Testament, He came to the nation of Israel and He said, My way is the best way for you. Here's the way, walk ye in it. In Isaiah chapter 48, verse 17 and 18, it says, thus saith the Lord, thy Redeemer, the Holy One of Israel, I am the Lord thy God, which teacheth thee to profit, which leadeth thee by the way that thou shouldest go. Oh, that thou hadst hearkened to my commandments, then had they peace. had thy peace been as a river, and thy righteousness as the waves of the sea. Jeremiah 6, verse 16, it says, Thus saith the Lord, Stand ye in the ways, and see, and ask for the old paths. There is the good way, and walk therein. And listen to this, it sounds a lot like Matthew 11, verse 29, And ye shall find rest for your what? Your souls. But they said, we will not walk therein. See, to be a disciple, it takes a submission. It takes an admitting on our part that we need help from the instructor. We need to submit ourselves to our Heavenly Father, to Jesus Christ, His Son. God's way is the best way. And how do we submit? How do we walk in the way? We obey His Word. Not to be accepted of Him, but because we love Him. Do we love Christ enough to keep His commandments? John 15, verse 10-14 says, If ye keep my commandments, ye shall abide in my love, even as I have kept my Father's commandments and abide in His love. These things have I spoken unto you, that my joy might remain in you, and that your joy might be full. This is my commandment, that ye love one another, as I have loved you. Greater love hath no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends. Ye are my friends, if ye do whatsoever I command you. John 16, 33, these things have I spoken unto you that ye in me, ye might have peace. In the world, you shall have tribulation, but be of good cheer. I have overcome the world. 1 John 5, verse three, for this is the love of God that we keep his commandments and his commandments are not grievous. Jesus will give us rest. Amen. Jesus will give us rest. Are you seeking rest? Let me ask you, are we obeying him? Not out of a sense of duty, not out of the sense of guilt, but think about what Christ has done to you. He's lifted that heavy burden. He's done that for you. Jesus will give us rest. I like what, as I was driving home yesterday, this thought came to my mind as I was meditating on this. I said, Jesus will give us rest, not retirement. Jesus will give us rest, not retirement. Many times we think if we're going to truly have rest, then I'm not going to do anything. But what is rest there for? What is rest for? Rest is there for a recharging of the batteries, if you will, reinvigorating. It's a time where we can just relax and get strengthened again. And time after time you see Jesus Christ doing that, but it wasn't so that He could just live a life of ease. It was so that He could get that rest, the strength that He needed to do the Father's will. Why? Because He loved His Father. He wanted to please His Father. How much do we want to please God? Jesus will give us rest, not retirement. So how do we have this rest? How do we keep this rest before us? How do we make sure that we're walking like a disciple should walk? Someone who really loves the Lord, and I can't judge that for you. I can only search my heart and make sure that I am coming to the Lord and I am taking His yoke. I am learning of Him. So how do we do this? How do we do this? I took the word rest and we'll look at a few things regarding the word rest. First of all, remember, remember. How do we have this rest? Take my yoke upon you and learn of me for I am meek and lonely in heart and ye shall find rest unto your souls for my yoke is easy and my burden is light. How do we find rest? We need to remember. Remember all the goodness of God. Remember all the goodness of God. Exodus chapter 13 verse three says, and Moses said unto the people, Remember this day in which ye come out from Egypt, out of the house of bondage, for by strength of hand the Lord brought you out from this place. There shall no leavened bread be eaten. He's telling the nation of Israel, remember, remember. Sometimes we get cold in our Christian walk. Sometimes we don't feel like getting our devotions done in the morning. Sometimes we don't feel like praying. But we need to remember what God did for us. If we would think about what he saved us from, that everlasting darkness, that phrase as we stand before the great, someone who does not know Jesus Christ stands before the great white throne judgment and Jesus Christ says, depart from me, I never knew you. And you're cast into that lake of fire. It's not just hell, it's a lake of fire. It's a lake of fire. Have you ever jumped into the lake? What happens when you jump into the lake? Cannonball. I don't wanna make light of it, but that lake consumes you. It covers you entirely. That's what hell, that lake of fire is gonna be like. That's what we're saved from. That's what we're saved from. Remember all the goodness of God. And we could count our blessings over and over, but praise the Lord. Remember all the goodness of God. Deuteronomy chapter eight, verse one, it says, but thou shalt remember the Lord thy God, for it is he that giveth the power to get wealth, that he may establish his covenant, which he swear unto thy fathers as it is this day. Remember all the goodness of God, not only of salvation, but all the good things he's given us here. All the good things he's given us here, our friends, our family, the houses we live in, the cars we drive, all those are the blessings of God. You know, we could have been born somewhere where they make less than a dollar a day. We could have been born somewhere where we have to live from meal to meal, not knowing where that next meal is coming from. We got a good. God has blessed us. Remember all the goodness of God. If you want to look at Hebrews chapter 10, verse 16 to 23 a little later, I would encourage you to read it, but for sake of time, we're gonna be moving on. But rest, remember, remember. And then E, examine, examine. Examine our lives. If we're gonna find rest, we need to examine our lives. Psalms 39 verse 23 says, Search me, O God, and know my heart. Try me and know my thoughts, and see if there be any wicked way in me. What is he saying? What is the psalmist saying? He's saying, examine me. Let me know what's going on. He's saying, search me. What does it mean to examine? It means to take a part. It's not a casual glance. Sometimes we have these character deficiencies and we may say something, we may tell a little white lie, or we may say something off the cuff that hurts someone, and we just say, oh, it's just a little thing. Oh, it's not a big deal. And we kind of just brush it off. But here the psalmist is saying, hey, don't brush it off. Say, I need God to search me. And that's what we need to do on a daily basis, sometimes more than once a day. We need to examine our lives and just see, you know what? Am I a clean vessel for the Lord? If we have known sin in our life, how can we have rest? How can we have rest? We can't. Then we need to surrender. We need to remember all the goodness of God, we need to examine our lives, and then we need to surrender. Surrender my will to the will of the Savior. Some of the things we have to give up, some things we have to give up, we need to surrender our will to the will of the Savior. That's what Jesus Christ did. He surrendered his will. He said in the Garden of Gethsemane, he said, not my will, but thine be done. And that's what our prayer should be. Every day, you know, there are things that we want to get done. There are dreams that we have in our life. And there are some dreams that we look at and we strive for. But let me ask you, are you surrendered to the will of the Father? Is His will your will? As we heard this morning, many times we want to persuade God to make our will His will. It doesn't work that way. I didn't, Lord willing, I didn't go to any of my college courses when I was going through college with the idea that I'm gonna teach the teacher something. That's ridiculous. But how many of us come to Our heavenly father, our teacher, the one who tells us to learn of him. And we say, God, this is what I'd like you to do. And this is how I would like you to do it. And we try and teach him a few things. It doesn't work that way. That's a surefire way to have him resist us. Why? Because we have a proud heart. We need to surrender ourselves. So remember all the goodness of God, examine our lives, surrender our will to His will, and then we need to trust Him. We need to trust Him. You know, there were many times as I was going through Bible college and even through grade school, this is what the teacher said, and so you believed it. Amen? And so as we come to God, as we come to the one, the almighty, all powerful, the only wise God, and we come to him and he invites us to come unto him, take his yoke upon you and learn of him. And so as we come to him and he begins to teach us some things, we have to trust him. Are you trusting Him? You come to Him and He may say something that is really hard. He may say, I want you to give up this hobby. I want you to give up this job. We have to trust Him. He knows best. He knows best, Proverbs 3, verse five and six, and it's one that we know very well, and many have memorized it, and it's Brother Helm's life verse. It says, trust in the Lord with all thine heart, and lean not unto thine own understanding. In all thy ways acknowledge him, and he shall direct thy path. We need to trust him. We need to trust him. Let me encourage you, remember what God has done for you. Examine your life, surrender your will, and trust Him. And trust Him. Then we'll have that peace, we'll have that rest, and then the Christian life is not gonna be such a burden. It's not gonna be, many of us, we look at the service of God and we say, oh, how in the world? There's no way I can do it. It's so hard. Why? We haven't learned of Christ. For some, you haven't accepted His invitation to come. You're still carrying your own burdens. You're still heavy laden with the weight of sin. You need to come to Him and be saved. Us, we need to take up that yoke. We need to go to our Savior and we need to say, teach me, teach me.