But before we do that, I'm going to read some verses in Matthew chapter 11, well-known, but very important verses, which really set the tone for the word of God that I hope to preach to you today. So in Matthew chapter 11, verse 25, At that time, Jesus said, I praise you, Father, Lord of heaven and earth, that you have hidden these things from the wise and intelligent and have revealed them to infants. Yes, Father, for this way was well pleasing in your sight. All things have been handed over to me by my father, and no one knows the father except the son, nor does anyone know the father. except the Son, the Son except the Father. I got that reversed, so please let me start over there. Nor does anyone know the Father except the Son, and anyone to whom the Son wills reveal Him. And the verses that contain some words that we're gonna be thinking about are in these next verses. Come to me, all you who are weary and heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you all will find rest for your souls, for my yoke is easy and my burden is light. As is often the case, I come never having been here before. Many of you don't know. A few of you I may have met at some time over the past 37 years that my wife and I have lived in Colorado. But when asked to preach in such a situation, what I want to do is I want to do one thing, really, with you. I'm used to preaching expositorily. I think that's a word, going through passages. But today, I have one goal, and that is for you to understand and to embrace the biblical teaching about the B word, burdens. And the sermon title is Bearing Biblical Burdens. In the book of Galatians, And I would have you know I preached a sermon from Galatians 5 when I was asked in my home congregation back around the 4th of July and one of the things that I Want to do is when I am preaching to take note of a number of things the certainly the situations in the congregation if I know them I now through your Pastoral prayer and other things know a little bit. You did use, thank you, one of the words that I will note a little later on, the word one another. I guess that's two words actually. But in the providence of God, Acts chapters 10 and 11, portions of those were read today, and it ties right into Galatians, the book of Galatians that Peter encountered there in Acts chapter 11, and I'm going to turn there so that I can, I should have put a bookmark in when I saw this. In chapter 11, Verse two, and when Peter came up to Jerusalem, those who were circumcised took issue with him, saying, you went to the uncircumcised men and ate with them. Those men that are identified there are the very men that troubled the apostle Paul enough that he wrote the epistle to the Galatians, because in this area, when Paul was there in a part of Turkey, What the scriptures tell us is that these men who were there to trouble, they got a name over history, Judaizer, that these men came into the Galatian church, which was a church primarily of new converts from the Gentile communities around them, not from the Jews, although there were both. that were involved in this, but these men, and I want to be careful, and I don't want to have a seminary quiz about this after the service, but I'm going to summarize in a very basic way the things about the Judaizers are more complicated than this, but essentially what they were doing is they were saying, Jesus, yes, but in order To belong to Jesus, you must first become a Jew, essentially. You must first embrace the tenets of Judaism, practices of Judaism, the law of Moses, and all these other things. And that's why in chapter one of Galatians, Paul, in very, very strong language, says no to that. All are saved. whether out of the Jews or out of the rest of the world, called the Gentiles, by a faith in Christ, which is a gift of God, and not by anything else but that. And it's to this particular issue that Paul addresses this letter to the Galatians. And in chapter five, my fourth of July sermon, which was about freedom that we have in Christ, I just flipped back a page and Paul says in verse one of chapter five, it was for freedom that Christ set us free, therefore keep standing firm and do not be subject again to a yoke of slavery. What he's talking about is these men from Acts chapter 11 that Paul speaks of very strongly and very much in opposition to that we find in his letter to the Galatians. And so it's with that in mind, and just from the fact that the scriptures teach us, Paul is remembering what Jesus said, if you are in me, you will be free and you will be free indeed. And so from that and from that quick background, I view chapter six of Galatians as Paul's closing remarks. In summary, I will just say, and some of you children, you can be looking for this as well, that there are words about burdens or carrying that we're gonna talk about, and there are more than one of them in this chapter, so just be looking for these things. Galatians chapter six. Brethren, even if anyone is caught in any trespass, You who are spiritual, restore such a one in a spirit of gentleness, each one looking to yourself so that you too will not be tempted. Bear one another's burdens and thereby fulfill the law of Christ, for if anyone thinks he is something when he is nothing, he deceives himself. But each one must examine his own work. And then he will have reason for boasting in regard to himself alone and not in regard to another, for each one will bear his own load. The one who is taught the word is to share all good things with the one who teaches him. Do not be deceived, God is not mocked. For whatever a man sows, this he will also reap. For the one who sows to his own flesh will from the flesh reap corruption, but the one who sows to the Spirit will from the Spirit reap eternal life. Let us not lose heart in doing good, for in due time we will reap if we do not grow weary. So then while we have opportunity, let us do good to all men and especially to those who are of the household of the faith. See with what large letters I am writing to you with my own hand. Those who desire to make a good showing in the flesh try to compel you to be circumcised simply so that they will not be persecuted for the cross of Christ. For those who are circumcised do not even keep the law themselves, but they desire to have you circumcised so that they may boast in your flesh. But may it never be that I would boast except in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, through which the world has been crucified to me and I to the world. For neither is circumcision anything nor uncircumcision, but a new creation. And those who will walk by this rule, peace and mercy be upon them and upon the Israel of God. From now on, let no one cause any trouble for me, for I bear on my body the brand marks of Jesus. The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with your spirit, brethren. Amen. It has been my practice over the years to distribute an outline when I preach, mainly because I got into the practice of appreciating outlines of pastors that I sat under. They've become, for me, I've just taken those outlines of sermons and put them in folders with the books of the Bible, and I've been very glad to be able to go back and see what those men have done. Also, to be thankful to go back at my own outlines But one of the reasons I do it is that if you are wondering what God would have you do on a Lord's Day afternoon, there are gonna be some verses in here that you might decide you wanna go and look up or think about if the things that I declare to you in the name of Christ today are so. When we talk about bearing and burdens, we're talking about specific words. The scriptures say that each and every scripture is God-breathed. And that has always meant to me, as I've studied, that in any case, each individual word that I find in a text, God put it there. Now, I understand, and one of the reasons some of us end up going to seminary and taking classes about biblical languages and other things is to, because we understand that the original way that the scripture was written, including that portion that Paul wrote with large letters in his own hand, ordain of God and once we really understand the meaning of those words we find out that indeed it is of God. And so the words that we're gonna talk about are in various verses, and as you look them up and piece them together as I've tried to do in preparing to preach today, what you will find out is, yeah, now I understand that the word that he uses here in verse five, for each one will bear his own, in my translation it says load, I don't know what yours does, but, Versus, in verse two, bear one another's burdens. Those are two different words, and it's because two different kinds of things are intended by Paul to be communicated to us. So I just am going to start with a brief overview of the things that directed the conclusions that I share with you this morning. So of bearing and of burdens, bearing is a verb, How many children have learned what verbs are? How about participles? Then you really get into advanced grammar at that point. So bearing is the idea, the Greek word is the idea of carrying something. And burdens are the word that I'm using to define the words that are nouns, that are things that we think about. And those are the things or the items that we carry. And whether it's simply something that you carry or burden depends on what? One thing would be how heavy it is. The other thing would be how serious it is. Not all burdens can be put on a scale and weighed, but rather, burdens are often difficult things that happen and struggles that we have that we really need to deal with. And I'm so thankful that in the pastoral prayer this morning, those kinds of things are addressed, that we all have burdens. So we're gonna talk about three kinds of burdens today. Two of which are biblical, one of which is not. And thus the sermon title today, Bearing Biblical Burden. So we have this carry word, verb which refers to the expending of human effort to carry the burden. hold something, and whether you're gonna take it somewhere else, whatever you're gonna do with it, it's just the verb that is used in the context often, just the idea of things that people carry, and the biblical examples, I actually, put this later down in my sermon under Roman numeral C, but these are examples of this particular carry word that in the Bible, the times that this is used is people carry shoes. In fact, this is the word that we're looking about to carry. The John the Baptist shoes that essentially when he talked to Jesus, he said of Jesus, I'm not even worthy to untie his sandals is often the way, but it's literally to carry his shoes. We carry the responsibilities of work. People carried water bottles in Bible times. They didn't call them that, but they did call them pitchers of water or something like that. They carried money belts. I heard some prayers for those who might be carrying unborn children. pallbearers were those who would carry the casket of people who had died. People carried stones, and the verse that I note there are they carried stones in order to stone Jesus. People get carried. Acts 3 talks about the pull of Siloam and the paralytic that was not able to get up there and get there, so people would carry him there. The gospel is carried to the nations. In Acts 9, that's when the Lord says to Ananias, you know, don't go ahead and do what I'm asking you to do because Paul is going to be an instrument of mine to literally carry the gospel to the Gentiles. And each of us is called to carry our crosses as Jesus did his, which is what the two verses there. You can look those up as you would like later on. But so we have this verb to carry. That's what I suggested was the idea of the kinds of things that the Bible talks about in regards to that. So going on then to the second of these words, which I, turn my page, essentially when I preach I just took your outline and I spread it out. two more pages so I could write little notes in there. We also have a noun that I would call is a heavy word. In other words, it refers to things that are hard to carry because they are heavy. But it also speaks of things that are, and some of our young adults probably do this, that are heavy. In other words, consequential things, including the gospel itself, things of eternal consequence. So at that point, the word might be better translated, weighty, weighty things that we might do. And those verses are all significant there on the heavy words. The third word, or the second noun, is the word that originally I called the bear word. We have burdens to bear. But it really, literally, the word is more of like the where word. And it refers to something associated with individual people. Um... that characterizes them, that each of us, as we bear our own load in Galatians chapter six, verse five, it's kind of like we are responsible to bear that which belongs to us and is defined as belonging to us. I imagine if I went out to talk to any fashion designers, we have anybody here that's in the fashion industry, they might say, you are what you wear. I'm certainly sure Pierre Chardin or whoever, I don't know all of their names. I see their names at JCPenney's when I look for clothes, and usually I avoid all of those brand names, I can't afford them. But it's the idea that what we carry is that which only we can carry and nobody else. And then finally, the fourth word associated to these things and coming out of what Jesus said, come to me you who are weary and heavy laden is the word that refers to a yoke. not an egg yolk, but a yolk that is a implement that was used in biblical times and even today it's still used in different places. Essentially a harness that you put on oxen or other beasts of burden to be able to control them. for work, and it's interesting saying from Psalm 32, and in Psalm 32 there's something similar where we are not to be like animals that need to have a bit and a riddle put in us so that we can be controlled, but rather as Christians we are to be self-controlled by the Spirit of God. So as we think about this text, Galatians 6 and Matthew, I would just say one general statement about this, and that is that some things we carry or we bear are easy, and some are not. Some things that we carry are pleasurable, enjoyable, some are not. And some things we carry are of God, and some are not, thus the remainder of this morning's sermon. So let's go on to the legitimate burdens that God puts upon his people. In other words, in my sermon titled The Biblical Burdens. Before I get there, if you wanna know my overall Outline has three points, so pretty normal in most churches that I am involved with. But the Bible says there are burdens to bear, there are burdens to share, and there are burdens to beware. The first two are biblical burdens, the third is not. So burdens to share. In Galatians chapter six, in the first two verses, we find this heavy word. And when Paul says, brethren, if anyone is caught in any trespass, you who are spiritual, restore such a one in the spirit of gentleness, each one looking to yourself. so that you too will not be tempted, bear one another's burdens and thereby fulfill the law of Christ. What we have here are burdens that are defined and designed collectively, which means for all of us together, who are spiritual. for collectively for believers. So this is a command and it is an imperative. This is a command to the people of God, the body of Christ, that one of the things that we are called to do is to bear one another's burdens, to share with others the burdens that they carry, and as well expect that others will share our burdens with us. Paul says this is part of the law of Christ, and in chapter five, verse 14, Paul defines what was in his mind when he wrote these words of what the law of Christ is, when he says, for the whole law is fulfilled in one word, in the statement, you shall love your neighbor as yourself. And if you're wondering about how we do that, or a place to start, it would be with the one and others commanded in the Bible for the body of Christ. We're to pray. for one another, we are to support one another, we are to help one another, we are to teach one another. I would say if you want to count up and figure out how many one another's there are in the Bible, May the Lord be with you as you do that. I was told when I was in seminary that there were 76 of them. I still keep counting and sometimes I get 90 and sometimes I get 47. I don't know what the rules are, but all of the different things that the body of Christ is called to do as we labor together in one body in support and help and encouragement of one another. And Paul suggests that a good place to start would be bear one another's burdens. The one and others of the scripture are clear. It's not hard to say, I can't find any in there. There's two words you're looking for, one and another. In your English Bibles, They are doable. These are things that we're asked to do, that it's not like, well, Lord, I don't have the gifts to do that. The things that we are called to do as the people of God are things that we all are able to do. Now, I understand that there may be physical and other limitations that the Lord has some within our numbers to bear, but they are also right things to do. They're not always easy. Sometimes they are easy, but they are important. It is a command that must work both ways. And what I mean by that is, after 40 something years of serving the Lord as a pastor, The general statement, the 80-20 rule I've found to be true in almost any situation I've found myself, not only in the church, but also for many years I've also been involved in tent making as a part owner and a worker in a manufacturing company. And the 80-20 rule is simply that usually you'll find in any organization that most of the work is done by 20% of the people. The rest of the work is done by 80% of the people. So 80% of the work is by 20% of the people, and 20% is by 80. I don't know what it is in this particular congregation. I never share with anybody, even in my own congregation, whether the 80-20 rule really applies to us, but out there it does. And so I'm speaking here probably more to the 20% than to the 80%, those who, and we know who they are, that just, they live to serve the Church of Christ, and some so exceptionally. But what I have to say is, the Apostle Paul, in the name of the Lord, is saying, bear one another's burdens. And these people do that. The problem with them is almost everybody like that, I've concluded, doesn't do well with the other side of this, which means they are not willing to allow others to share their burdens with them. So they become the strong, silent people who are always there when you need them, but oftentimes, all of a sudden, you say to them, why didn't I know that you are bearing this burden. I would have loved to have helped you. There seems to sometimes be a pride thing, so I would just say if the shoe fits in this area, too, of any of you, if you're one of those people that just, yes, I'll help everybody else, but I will not allow anybody else to help me. You need to change. You need to understand that we all bear burdens that trouble us, and all of these people here in this congregation, the children included, are ready to help you if you'll let them. It's also this particular word, this share burden word, heavy word I mean, that Paul uses in Romans 15 one. In Romans chapter 14, we have the chapter about how we deal with the dividing issue in the church that involves what Paul calls the weaker brother. And it's a tough passage to sort out all of the things, but the conclusions are clear. And I would suggest that Romans 15 verse one is Paul's conclusion for us. to everything that he said in that chapter. In other words, no matter what you are getting out of Romans 14 and what it talks about, things that are allowable, things that are not allowable, Paul is saying, now we who are strong ought to bear the weaknesses of those without strength and not just please ourselves. I believe that's a good summary of what Paul was trying to say there, and that it is the responsibility of the stronger brother to bear the burdens of those that think differently. And the great wisdom of what Paul has to do here goes under the fact that, in my view, nobody reads this chapter who belongs in the kingdom of God and says, I'm a weaker brother. We all tend to view ourselves as stronger. And what Paul is saying, as soon as you determine you are the stronger, you now have the biblical responsibility to accommodate and administer to those who disagree with you in these things. So we have burdens to share. Secondly, we have burdens to bear, and in Galatians verse five here in chapter six, we have the word, the bear word, or the wear word. But each one, verse four, must examine his own work, and then he will have reason for boasting in regard to himself alone and not in regard to another, for each one will bear his own load. Each of us then have, by God, assigned a particular burden here. And this word is talking about things that we can handle ourselves and need to handle ourselves. One of the verses that really clarifies this for me, in Luke 14, verse 27, Jesus says, whoever does not carry his own cross, does not bear his own cross, does not wear his own cross, and come after me cannot be my disciple. And so there is one critical, very personalized and personal item that only each one of us, and children, this includes you, can handle, can carry. And that is your faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. Back in Mark chapter one, when Jesus begins his public ministry, it's a very brief and succinct statement that has been kind of the model of my entire ministry as a pastor and as a Christian through the years, that Jesus began to go out and to teach, repent, and believe in the gospel, the good news of Jesus Christ. John 3.16 is very individualized, sometimes abused, sometimes misused, but a very clear calling to understand that each one of us needs to put our faith and trust in the Lord Jesus Christ, and if we do that, we have the promise that we will be saved. I'm not talking outside of the doctrines of race, but the understanding that that verse means what it means, is that you need to put your faith and trust in Jesus Christ. And if you seek that, you will find him. So what that means to all of us, and I'm gonna particularly pick on the children today in this point of our sermon, is You must put your faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. Your parents can't do that for you. Your elders in the church cannot do that for you. Your baptism does not do that for you. Your good intentions, your church denomination, You're being good boys and good girls. All the things I just said are very important things. Your parents are important. They are training you in the ways and the things of the Lord. And they are acquainting you with the understanding that you need to put your trust in Jesus Christ. And if you do, you will be saved. They can't do that for you. They pray for you. I pray for my children and my, we have now 13 grandchildren, 14th on the way, which we were not expecting, but I always wondered, is 13 a real good number? And the Lord gave us news recently that it's going to be 14. But each one of us must put our own faith and trust in the good news. of Jesus Christ, and really not in the good news of him, but in him, in Jesus Christ himself, that if you will trust him, he will save you and he will use you throughout your entire lives. There is one item that It speaks about individual responsibility and caring, the use of the same word, and that's back in chapter five, verse 10, where the Apostle Paul says, I have confidence in you and in the Lord that you will adopt no other view, but, going on, the one who is disturbing you will bear his judgment. whoever he is, speaks again to the individual nature of this, that if you do not put your trust in Jesus, ultimately, you will face the judgment of Almighty God himself. In this section, as he talks about our individual responsibilities, Paul then gives us a warning and an encouragement. The warnings in verses six and seven, it's for children and for adults. And Paul is essentially saying, if you think you can pull the wool over God's eyes and fool him about these things, you need to think again, because no one is able to do that, although the whole fallen world simply thinks that if they don't believe that there is a God, then these concerns will go away. And Paul says they don't go away. There's also in chapter six, verses nine and 10, an encouragement to all who are weary and heavy laden, that if you do not lose heart, there is an end goal to this life which we live in the flesh. And if you are faithful, he will be faithful. And if at times you aren't faithful, he still will be faithful because he cannot deny himself. And so it is an encouragement to hang in there, to continue to understand that God knows what's going on. He knows the burdens that you're bearing. And he will help you. Then thirdly, in our outline, there are thirdly, burdens to beware of. That doesn't make the symmetry of that work. I want you a year from now, a month from now, when you're facing burden, say, oh yes, I remember a sermon that, is this a burden that I need to share? Is this a burden that I need to bear or wear? Or is this a burden that I need to beware of? It doesn't flow the way that it needs to. And I would suggest in these two chapters, going back into chapter five as well, that Paul gives us three different places where we need to beware. The first is, found in Galatians 5 verse 1, the burden of legalism. In other words, the characteristic of what these Judaizers, these people who were saying, yeah, well, yes, Christ, but you need to do all of these other things that conform with the law of Moses. They were putting on the new converts really a works-based religion. And so somehow you're standing before God is gonna be involved with what you do, so you need to make sure that you have a checklist that you do all of these things. So legalism is what I have called for the purpose of this sermon based on what Paul says. It's burdening others with requirements beyond the burdens that God puts upon us in the scriptures. That's what these Judaizers were doing. Peter takes a stand with this same thing back in Acts chapter 15 at the great council in Jerusalem where the whole question of the Galatian problem was discussed by the apostles with the elders and Peter stood up Now therefore, why do you put God to the test, verse 10 of chapter 15, by placing upon the neck of the disciples a yoke which neither our fathers nor we have been able to bear? to carry, and yet always, and I think it is sometimes a characteristic, it seems, of the reformed branch of the Christian church that we subtly and in other ways can do a good job of simply trying to put our expectations, which may not be from the Word of God, upon those around us. I think some of that is that we are well-trained and well-versed in the scriptures, but legalism is a destructive thing, and yet it can come into the church in many different ways. And so Paul says in chapter five, verse one, because the Judaizers were doing this, why would you wanna go back to that? Because Jesus has set you free. Paul goes on in the middle of chapter five beginning in verse 13 to say there's another burden that if you opt to go this way that it will be a burden to you that is not a biblical burden, that is the burden of license. And license is burdening others with no requirements at all. And so Paul, after talking about this legalistic enemy that he is speaking against and saying you cannot do that, then he turns around and says, but, in verse 14, you were called to freedom, brethren, only, or but do not turn your freedom into an opportunity for the flesh, but through love serve one another. And I've always viewed that the, the biblical teaching is, if you have over to this extreme legalism that we are gonna define everything and how you to do it, and we're gonna be very specific in all of those things. And on the other hand, you simply say, as the spirit moves, go. that both of those are burdens because they are outside of the teaching of the scripture, which has to be a correct balance between these kinds of things. And the gospel that Paul preaches is teaching us to follow that balance that we need to have. So beware if you are on either end of that spectrum, and beware of those who you see as being on either end of that spectrum, that they are trying to steal your freedom that you have in Christ from you. It's easy to do that in all kinds of noble things I've found. We have a congregation that has probably and not designed to offend. I haven't looked if there's any gluten-free stuff over there. But we have a congregation of many gluten-free people and many not gluten-free. And we finally learned that at Fellowship Meals that if it's gluten-free, it will be on a dark green napkin. And if it's not, it won't. Now we've gotten more sophisticated and we have little plaques that we've had printed out so that when you bring your crock pot in you can put one of those plaques that indicates the nature of gluten. And we've done that knowing full well that there are some people in our congregation that will If you catch them in the corner, we'll say, I think everybody in the world would be healthier if they got rid of that gluten. And people on the other side are like me, that I feel like opening a donut store and calling it gluten tag. So anyway, so that's one area. Food is an area. Weaker brother, Romans 14. Education of our children is one of those areas. I am of the homeschool, I am of the Christian school, I am of the public school, I am for whatever works best. But we need to be careful that because we have drawn hard and fast things where the scripture maybe isn't definitive in those things, that we not burden others in an improper way. The Reformed Presbyterian Church for many years, and I don't know about with the Bible Presbyterian Church, but with other Reformed denominations, the OP Church, the PCA, and others, I've gone through 40 plus years of being a pastor, so been through a lot of the interactions that we all cooperate, but it used to be said that Most of them say, we are with you, Reformed Presbyterians, except over the issues of wine, women, and song. And now it's down to women and song, because in 1980, we came to understand that the scripture does not require the total abstaining from alcoholic beverages. But it is interesting, that was in 1980, that we are still dealing in our presbytery with a retired pastor who every year keeps bringing in papers about why we must use wine in communion. One of those other areas that we need to be careful that we are not making what we believe become that which we expect others to believe. I'm sure you can think of other areas as well. And so the third item under this last point is the determination of others to recruit you to their erroneous ways, I use erroneous because if it's not in the scripture, then it may or may not be something that you would think is sensible and good, but if the scripture does not require it, then we have to be careful that we not make that the major, but rather that we are focusing particularly on our expectations of one another upon Jesus, who is alone the way, the truth, in the life. In Galatians chapter 6, Paul says as he gets close to the end, see with what large letters I am writing to you with my own hand. It's very likely and very often biblical writers might have somebody who was a scribe that would take dictation or whatever else. But the fact that Paul says, I didn't ask anybody else to put this verse in here, I'm doing it myself, indicates the urgency and the strength with which he is concerned that we not allow ourselves to live the freedom we have in Christ according to the expectations wrong expectations or not in the Bible expectations of others. So in closing, with Paul, I say, where is your boasting? In verse 14, he says he will boast only in the cross of the Lord Jesus Christ. Secondly, with Paul, are you ready to bear or wear or carry the stigmata of Jesus Christ. He says in the second to the last verse of this precious book, from now on let no one cause trouble for me, for I bear on my body the brand marks of Jesus. One of the best understandings of what Paul is bearing, that's the carry word, the brand marks of Jesus. The Greek word is stigmata. The stigma of Jesus is that that Greek word referred to the way that barbarians dealt with, criminals and slaves and other doers, that they would put a brand on them so that everybody would know to, essentially Calvin's suggestion is, everybody would know to despise and ridicule such people. And Paul says, when it comes to the gospel of Christ, I am thankful that I have his brand on me. And my question for each of us is, are we? Are you ready to stand with Jesus, are you ready to speak to others about Jesus and his gospel? Are you ready to serve others, especially those of the household of the faith, but others around you in the name of Jesus? Are you committed to being sacrificial in your lives in order that Christ may be raised up and that it will not be about you? Are you able and willing and ready, even though it's very hard, to suffer? for the sake of Christ, because over and over, Jesus and the apostles talk about that as one of the characteristics and one of the burdens that the people of God will bear until the Lord calls us out of this life into eternal life with Him. And I just encourage you to remember 1 John 3, where the apostle John says, when it comes to biblical burdens, the commandments of Jesus are not burdensome. Oh, and by the way, I looked at the calendar and saw that there's an election coming up, and I'm thankful that I'm not the only one, but I would encourage you to remember, after a well-stated prayer that we made about the fact that we must recognize who's in control, that God raises up kings, God takes down kings in his time and in his way. We are to render Caesar as unto Caesar, future sermons perhaps. But that Jesus who said those wonderful words that we read from Matthew chapter 11, also said, in John's gospel that we are not to be troubled and that he has gone into heaven itself to prepare our place there. And that while we suffer as we go through chapters, the things that chapters 14, 15, and 16 of John's gospel speak about, he has promised that he will be with us always to the end of the age. And with that promise, Do not be troubled. Believe in God. Believe also in his son, Jesus Christ, and you will be saved. Let's pray. Father in heaven, thank you for your word of truth. We are thankful for your people. We're thankful for the body of Christ that meets here in Windsor, in this place each week. We're thankful for all those who are part of this body as they share in the ministry, in the bearing of one another's burdens, and in the caring of the gospel to a needy world and a needy community. Lord, we thank you for caring for us. We thank you that you have told us that you are always faithful to the promises that you have made. And Lord, we stake our lives on that as we go forth now to live for you in a new week. We thank you for the days yet to come. We pray that we will be able to go forth and be examples of the believer to this needy world. And we pray the same for our children as well. We're thankful for the elders that we have to stand guard over this congregation and over the church, wherever it assembles around the world. And we're thankful that you have given us these words, calling us as individuals to put our faith and trust in you, calling us as parts of the body of Christ in whatever place you have put us to bear one another's burdens. And you have called us also to go forth, to reflect those fruits of the spirit that were the precursor of this chapter that we've looked at today. And so, Lord, bless us, keep us, build your church. May many more this week, through the ministry of the gospel in our congregations, call upon the name of the Lord, that they might grow in grace and in the knowledge of Christ. For we pray in his name, amen.