The Easy Yoke 1988

I once met a man on Berner Highway who told me, I gave my life to Jesus Christ, but it ain't working for me. Nothing's changed. Reading from Matthew chapter 11, starting at verse 28, Jesus is speaking to us all.

Come to you, come to me, all you who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am meek and lowly in heart, and you shall find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light.

Now, the guy out there in the back hall, he was told he's absolutely welcome here, but he's got to behave himself. He's got to sit still, or he has to go. One or the other.

Our policy, for those of you who think that's awful to say, is that the door of this church is open to everybody. Everybody's welcome. But the rule of the game is, as long as you don't mess it up for everybody else, no matter what condition we're in, we can be drunk, and people are welcome here drunk, as long as they don't tear the place up so that we can't concentrate.

It's very important that we can listen. Now, this man I met on Verna Highway was basically saying, I came to Jesus like he invited me, but I didn't find any rest for my soul. And what he expressed is really what many, many, many professing Christians feel in their hearts.

I'm trying to follow Jesus. How come my soul hasn't found any rest? When we have this rest for our souls, then we can function in the kingdom of God. We can love God.

We can believe Jesus. We can love our neighbor. We can wash our brother's feet.

We can go out there and be hope to the hopeless. And we can keep doing this on and on and on without burning out. When we let that rest for our souls, then we become like Christian skyrockets.

We shoot up and put on a wonderful display of faith and love for a brief time and then we burn out. Many churches are really warehouses for burnt out Christian skyrockets. You know, we once had zeal and then it played itself out.

And now we come together and we try to help to conserve that little spark that might be left. And we exhort each other and we encourage each other, but no fire comes. And no fire will come, no lasting fire, until we get rest for our souls.

When we get that rest for our souls, which Jesus promises, then we can keep going. We burn with a fire that never goes out. We're not up on wings like the eagles.

We run and are not weary. We walk and we don't faint. Everything hinges in the body of Christ and in the individual believer on finding that rest for our souls which is promised.

That inner Sabbath that fills us with the order and the peace of heaven, even while we live down here in the middle of a war zone. Let's listen one more time to this promise we probably all know by heart from Jesus this invitation. But notice that if we're going to have rest for our souls, there are some things we have to do.

Come to me, all you who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am meek and lowly of heart. And you shall find rest for your souls, for my yoke is easy and my burden is light.

We always hear that word come, but we don't always seem to hear that take my yoke, learn. And there are many, many, many professing Christians who endlessly come to Jesus. All the time they're coming over and over and over again.

They come, but they never take the yoke and they never learn. Here I am, Lord. I'm back again.

Praise the Lord. I come to you. I give you my all.

I surrender all to you. It's so wonderful to be up here on the mountaintop with you, Lord. I'm going to build a booth for you.

I'm going to stay here forever. I'm going to sing to you just as I am without one plea, but that thy blood was shed for me and that thou bidst me come to thee, O Lamb of God. I come.

I come. But the minute Jesus says, okay, come over here and get under this yoke with me and learn from me in the real world, they're gone. They evaporate.

And they're gone until the next moment of revival. And then the whole thing plays itself again. What's needed if we're going to have rest for our souls is we have to get under that yoke.

He says, take my yoke on you. Come on under this thing with me. Link yourself to me.

You will not learn from a distance. You will only learn under the yoke with me. The Christian who has no soul rest is the Christian who is unyoked, full of ideas, full of good intentions, full of marvelous plans, full of deep insight into other people's sins, full of scripture quotes, but in their own personal life, loose as a goose, distant from Jesus, no discipline in the things of God, that person will not have any rest for his or her soul.

Don't be afraid of the yoke. It's easy. It's light.

The weakest person in this gathering right now can carry it. And it is under this yoke, this easy yoke, that we find rest for our souls. Specifically, the easy yoke, first of all, is to carry Jesus' burden with Him.

Reading from Matthew 26, verse 36, Then Jesus went with them to a place called Gethsemane, and He said to His disciples, Sit here while I go yonder and pray. Taking with Him Peter and the two sons of Zebedee, He began to be sorrowful and troubled. Then He said to them, My soul is very sorrowful, even unto death.

Remain here and watch with Me. Jesus is asking these men to be with Him, to stay awake with Him, to support Him with their hearts, to pray with Him. What an awesome privilege.

When Jesus chooses us to be His disciples, He doesn't choose us to be spectators. He chooses us to carry the weight of the glory with Him, to carry the burden with Him. When He prays, He wants us to pray with Him.

When He weeps over Jerusalem or Detroit or Philadelphia or New York, He wants us to weep with Him. When He has compassion on the multitude, He wants us to have compassion with Him. When He goes out there looking for that one lost sheep, He wants us to be there at His side.

Do you love Me? Lord, you know that I love you. Feed My sheep. My sheep are My burden because I love them.

I lay down My life for them. And if you love Me, you're going to be with Me, carrying the burden with Me. And the amazing thing is that we find that when we pick up this burden with Jesus, which He gives us, our heavy hearts become light and our restless souls find rest.

Secondly, the easy yoke is to labor at Jesus' side. In John 9, Jesus says, We must work the works of Him who sent Me while it is day. Night comes when no one can work.

Notice He doesn't say, I must work the works of Him who sent Me. We, together. But at the same time, we need to remember also that it's His yoke, not ours.

It's not Jesus at My side, laboring at My side while I do My thing. It's Me at Jesus' side while He does His thing. And we often like to picture Jesus walking at our side.

Jesus walking at our side. He's the silent partner. We decide what road to take.

We choose what door to open. We run the program. Jesus is at our side to bless it.

That is not a vision of the Lord. That's a delusion! When we get under the yoke with Jesus, we're walking at His side, laboring at His side. He chooses what door to open, and He can show us, and He decides what road to take, and He can make that clear.

He runs the program, and we fit in. And so on your job, you're standing at Jesus' side, under His yoke, sharing His labor. You'll never do better work, and life from God will flow forth from you.

And in your home, you're standing at Jesus' side, under His yoke, sharing His labor. You'll never be a better parent, spouse, son, daughter, friend, and life from God will flow from you. All of us are threatened by this whole idea of being yoked to Jesus all the time.

It's like I've become a Siamese twin. I can never get away from it. I'm stuck! We're afraid of that.

It's our nature. The only thing is, outside from under that yoke, away from that yoke, is where the heavy burdens are, and where all the trouble is. The only place where we have any freedom, any ease of heart, any peace, any rest for our soul, is under the yoke.

My yoke is easy. My burden is light. Standing at His side, laboring with Him, is absolute rest.

Thirdly, the easy yoke is to learn Jesus' poverty of spirit. Take my yoke upon you, and learn from me, for I am meek and lowly in heart. We are not, by nature, lowly in heart.

There's not one of us who is naturally humble. No matter what, how we walk, we can walk through doors backwards, we can crawl around on our hands and knees, but basically, we are proud, self-centered, hard, impatient. Our whole mindset is to make the world and the universe revolve around me.

And feed our hungry ego. And the old world keeps going on its own way. And just when we think we have found ourselves a little self-esteem, steps right on it.

Now here comes Jesus, God the Son, the Word by whom the worlds were made, and He says, get rid of those useless burdens, and come on over here and get under this yoke with me. Let me teach you to come to me, get under my yoke, and learn from me. And I will teach you.

Learn my heart, learn my mind, learn my attitude, learn my way. And the basic lesson I'm going to teach you is how to be poor in spirit. How to be open, empty, thirsty, yielded to the living God.

And you will learn that not under us, but under my yoke. Finally, the easy yoke is to learn Jesus' childlike faith. Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am me.

What does it mean to be me? A wimp? Gullible? Naive? No. And that's exactly what God the Son did. Emptied himself of his glory and became a child in Mary's arms.

When he grew to manhood, his only link with the eternal Father was childlike faith. The Holy Spirit came to him, filled him, empowered him, guided him, because he kept turning to the Father with childlike faith. It was childlike faith that drove him out of his baptism.

It was childlike faith that drove him out into that terrible wilderness. It was childlike faith that caused the Spirit, that healed the sick and opened the eyes of the blind through him. Childlike faith that enabled him to submit to the Father's will and go to the cross and lay down his life and you say, oh, if only I had such childlike faith.

If only I could believe that way. And he says, get under my yoke and I'll teach you. Stay under my yoke with me and you will soon have the faith of a child and your soul will find rest and your life will burn with a fire of heaven that will never go out.

Many of us are looking forward to a time, perhaps on this side of the grave, but even more on the other side of the grave, when we will rest. The rat race will be over and the pressure will be off and the Lord will come to us and he will say, sit at my table, I'm going to serve you. That time is coming but the rest which we will enjoy when that moment comes is already here.

The same joy, the same peace, the same rest of soul which will be ours at the banquet in the kingdom is waiting for us now. Waiting to be the atmosphere we breathe through the remaining days that we have on this earth. Waiting to fill us with the power we need The rest of soul that we so desperately need all of us is waiting for us right now under the yoke where we carry Jesus' burden with him.

Where we labor at his side. Where we learn his poverty of spirit. Where we learn his childlike faith.

Come to me all you who labor and are heavy laden and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn from me for I am meek and lowly in heart and you shall find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy and my burden is light.

Let's wait upon the spirit in a period of silence now.