How to Find Rest | Matthew 11:25-30

You're listening to the Bible Guys, a podcast where a couple of friends talk about the Bible in fun, in practical ways. Hey, everybody, Happy Friday. Man, it's good to be here. Tgif today it is wonderful Chris, Today's a big day. It is a big day because it's Friday. We're wrapping up our entire week on the peace of God. Yes, and all the promises that God gives us for peace. And today we're going to be reading one of my favorite passages of course. Yeah, and so that's really important. But before we do that, it's very very important to our people that we don't forget the most satisfying, satisfying, joy giving segment that we do for our fans. Our fans love to know what made Chris mad this week. I don't think so, but okay, And it doesn't take you long usually, no, I remember to meet you. Get to these pretty quickly. Yes, so I was, and thank you in advance. Yeah, for sinking us. I was pretty irate the other day. It was actually like four days ago. On the way home, I stopped at our local taco bell, meaning the taco bell like half a mile from my house, and I walked in and there was a lady, a young lady, and she was behind the counter where you would normally order. There is a computer there, there's a computer screen. There is everything you need with the paying thing is right there. Yes, I walked over and I said, hey, and I only wanted to get one item, just one item, actually two items. I just remember I got an item for Steven too, but I wanted to get one item for me. Yes, and I walked up to the counter and I said, I would like a chili cheese burrito and a chicken Quesadia. And she said, I'm sorry, sir, but you have to use the kiosks. And I said, what do you mean? Because that's not my taco bell, but apparently it is now and so I turn around. I look, and by the way, the whole restaurant's EFETI. I'm the only human in the whole thing, the only human. And she goes, no, you have to use the kiosks. And I turn around, I go, what do you mean? Okay? So I walked over and first of all, it's different than McDonald's, which means like you're taking a little bit of time. You have to read everything because it's new And what I discovered is when I stand in front of the human and say I would like one chili cheese burrito and one chicken Quesadia, it takes about two seconds, but instead I spent the better part of like three and a half minutes. And I bet you I had to hit like I tapped that screen. I'm not kidding. Two items fifteen times? Wow, skip, don't donate? Would I like a fry? Would I like this? Suggest this? You know, by the way, he wanted to like no sauce on it. So I got to figure that out. I got to go through there and figure that out. And by the way, I couldn't even do it. Oh, not to mention it didn't have any bahah blast freeze. And then and then and then I'm thinking to myself, if I ever ordered this again, Uh my wife loves bahah blast freeze. I wasn't ordering one, right, but I literally said, because again, we're the only ones in Taco bell I said, why isn't there a baha bahah blast freeze on here? She goes, there is. I said, no, there's not. I just looked. And she comes walking out and she goes, let me show you, and she goes clickly clicking, and she goes, no, there isn't Like do you offer baha blast freezes? Yes, but they're not the little Kiosta. Anyway, here's here's what I'm mad at. You already know you know, you already know what I'm doing. Yes, well you've just made me mad. I'm saying, just take my order, for the love of God. Right, there's nobody else in the building, just let me do it. And not only that, but then it makes me mad for automated check out lines at Kroger, right, like where's the human interaction? Like like what about feed you? Like you automatic? Do you? Yeah? I like those because I get out so much quicker than waiting in line behind Grandma who came barely. Yes, but that's just a matter of whether or not they have enough lines open. That's a grocery store, probably punching my number and go yeah okay. But still the whole point is what about the bank teller drive throughs? Yeah? Right, I don't know. I don't go to the teller. I'm only four minutes in. Please let me tell you something. I walked into a P and C bank and I wanted to make a U a transaction and literally, there's not a single drive through at the PNC bank, and there's not a single teller. There's not a teller window in this bank. There's just like people sitting behind desks and cubicles, and there's one ATM machine outside. And have you ever seen the come where you can call a video person. No, So this big, huge ATM machine has a video person. And all I was doing was like making a deposit, and I said, I want to make a deposit, and they says, well, what can I use the machine? I said, I just tried three different times. It's not making one. And she goes, oh, let me help you. She gets out of her cubicle, walks over this ATM machine, punches seventeen buttons, and then all of a sudden, this guy in the video screen comes up and says, can I help you? And he's my teller and he's sitting somewhere and like, you know, bangkok, Yeah whatever. Well, and I'm thinking to myself, like, are you kidding me? Where's the human interaction? Yeah? You know, I mean, bring me back to nineteen fifty five. So that's what your irate about. I am I rate that I have to use I have to use a what what is it called a kiosk? Kiosk? Where's the human human to human? I just want to buy a chili cheese. I think I should have the option to do both. If there's a cash register on the front on the front counter, and there's somebody just standing there, I should be allowed to go. Further than that. I don't. I don't want the option of anything else. Human read What if you can't read, right? If you can't read, then then that's you should tell him. I'm sorry, I can't read your kiosk. You remember Wayne's World when he goes I could read and it said Oscar nomination, Oscar Performance. But it's like, yeah, what I mean, what are you going to make somebody say that they're illiterate? I don't know, right, Yeah, that's what you should have told him, I can't read your kiosk? I did? I did? I did? Yeah, Okay, yeah I don't. I don't want to say that I did one time go off on a guy and say somethings better. Yeah, but but yeah, I mean, where's the human interaction? That's what I'm mad at. I don't know. People, if you owned the humanity of. It, if you own a business and you have the option to go with no humans or human connection. Please do the human connection. Well, it's more expensive, substantially more expensive to do the human connection. Like like you know, Elon Musk is getting ready to roll out all these robots. Yeah, and they're going to have all of them. Said that before, But I don't see any robots. Yeah, they're coming, They're twenty twenty six is what he says. That's not true. Yeah, Well they've got like over two hundred thousand built. I'll believe it when I see it. His trillion dollar pay is incumbent upon over a million sales. So they just offered him a trillion dollar pay package. But he has twelve things he has to hit over the next ten years, and one of them is they have to sell a million robots. Are you going to buy a robot? Well, they're only be like twenty five twenty six thousand bucks. So I told Chad, I was like, I might get rid of Chad and buy three robots. Hey, that's a big compliment to Chad. That's a pretty big compliment to Chad. It's just gonna take three robots to replace Chad. Hey, that's a pretty good deal. Chad's our executive pastor. I heard a church so but no, I was just joking. I wonder how many robots it would take to replace me. Am, I as complicated. That's all it needs to replace you. I can tell chet ChiPT to do things in the voice. Of chat shept can't hug people in the lobby, that's true. That's true. So anyways, talking about being hugged, what Jesus said. Let me give you one big spiritual. Hug, Yeah said, Come to me all who are weary and carry heavy burdens, and I will give you rest. Yeah. I think there needs to be maybe a forethought on these trends. We need to spend probably a bit more, a little bit more effort. Well that's what you can be mad about next week. I gotta be honest. You're a mariachi band. Yesterday transition was the best ever. It was one of the best I've ever heard ever. But this one was really bad. Fun this one was bad, But no, yesterday it was so great. Yeah. Hey, speaking of mariachi bands, you know he's not in a mariachi band, Peter. So. In this passage in Matthew chapter eleven, John is in prison John the Baptist, Jesus cousin. Yeah, and he sends to Jesus, goes, are you really the one? Which I told you just one? That is one of my favorite messages. Right, He's like, are you just shoot straight? You're really the one? Right? Who? I love that because he's about to die. Yeah, and I think he knows that. And so Jesus uh sends back, Hey, go back and tell John what you've seen and what you've heard the blind sea, the lame walk, those with leparsyerk, the deaf, here the dead or race of life, good news being preached to the poor. And then added, God blesses us, who's not fall away because of me? Right? And so John's disciples go. He's talking to the crowds, He's telling them all these things. It's perhaps one of the most meaningful passages for me personally, and all of the Gospels. The fact that John is struggling with his faith, the. Fact that John, more than anybody else, should not doubt the fact that his job, which was anointed by an angel, and he has seen miracle after miracle after miracle, and his only job was to say, here comes the Messiah. After four hundred years of silence and after thousands of years of prophecies, and he baptizes Jesus. He's related to Jesus. He's inside conversations with Mary, Joseph and everybody else. And yet because his life was at stake, and because he was about to die, he didn't ask to be rescued. He didn't ask to be you know, to pull the Jesus influence card. He just he was willing to accept his fate. But he just had to hear the words and say, just tell me, because I just need to hear from you. You are the son of God, right, yeah, please tell me. I haven't wasted my life on nothing. And even those of us who have been Christians for thirty years or more, even those of us in ministry, even those of us who who have seen miracle after miracle, when when the stakes are high and when when life is low and when the pressure's on, it's okay to have doubts. It's okay to like, you know, people feel so guilty about having doubts. And it's like even John the Baptist, and then and then I love how Jesus also didn't save him. Yeah, like he didn't spare him he didn't come and rescue him. He actually just said he basically said, here's scripture to prove that I am who I say, I am, right, Go tell John. And he started mentioning all the things that Messiah should have done, and this is what I'm doing. Go tell John these things. Then he gets frustrated. Jesus is like, he turns to the crowds as John's disciples go back to the prison to tell John. Jesus turns and starts teaching the people, and it's like, you, guys. You know, no one's greater than Yeah. You go running out there, Oh, look at John. He's this crazy guy in the woods, and you're just attracted to him for so many different reasons. And I'm telling you, nobody has ever been greater than John. And you don't even know what you were looking at. And by the way, that means it's a true statement, because Jesus said it, no one's ever been greater. And then he says, yet even the least person in the Kingdom of Heaven is greater than he is. But he's talking about no one who has ever lived. Yeah, no one who ever lived. Think about all the people who have lived, all the people and of the human race up until that point. Yeah, up until the Kingdom of Heaven, right, yep. And then he says, so John's out there preaching about the Kingdom of Heaven. It's been forcefully advancing. Violent people are attacking, and he's talking about King Herod at this point, and he's like, you guys are like, oh, maybe he's the resurrect at Elijah. Maybe he's right, and Jesus just like frustrated with them, like you don't even know what's going on. And then he goes to, what can I compare this generation? It's like children playing a game. This isn't a game, people, right, And then he said, you know, you were frustrated because John didn't come out and spend all this time eating and drinking, and so now all of a sudden, some of you're saying, oh, he's possessed by a demon? Are you serious? And he's just really frustrated. But wisdom is shown by to be right by its results. He says, this is what I can tell you, right, you can look at his life and you can tell what's real. And then he is he's mad about the towns where he's done a bunch of miracle and they didn't respond. So he's connecting John's ministry to his ministry. Listen, you keep getting all these opportunities. John came and told you repent, the Kingdom of Heaven is near. And you were like, oh, let's have some fun, John, do some miracles. John, let's do it. You're kind of a wild man out in the desert. John. And then you're like, you're no fun. You don't eat and drink. You see, you have no idea what you just missed. And then he turns any pivots to was it Corsine and Bethseda and he's like, and then here I show up. I'm raising people from the dead. I'm making blind people see and lepers be healed. And you people totally blew it off. And then he goes, it's gonna be really rough for you and the judgment. You people who had an opportunity and then blew me off. It's gonna be rough for you and the judgment. So you see, Jesus, really there's a lot of emotion. Yeah. In Matthew chapter eleven, and then he prays at that time, Jesus prayed this prayer. I love it. Motions are spilling over Jesus praise, and he says, Oh Father, in verse twenty five. At that time, Jesus prayed this prayer, Oh Father, Lord of heaven and Earth, thank you for hiding these things from those who think themselves wise and clever, and for revealing them to the childlike Yes, Father, it pleased you to do it this way. My father has entrusted everything to me. No one truly knows the son except the father, and no one truly knows the father except the son and those to whom the son chooses to reveal him. And then Jesus said, and here's the promise today. Come to me, all of you who are weary and carry heavy burdens, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you. Let me teach you because I am humble and gentle at heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy to bear, and the burden I give you is light. So it's interesting they think they're so clever. They're just out playing games. God, thank you for holding it back from the people who think they're so smart. Thank you for making it available for those who have a childlike faith. And then he literally invites, are you worn out by this world like I am, Just run to me like a little baby, like a little child, and I'll give you the rest you need. It's it's a beautiful passage. Yeah. And uh and I love by the way that Jesus often referred to the yoke of the Pharisees as heavy. Yeah, and and so he talked about how to describe so that a yoke is a piece of wood that connects to oxen or calf or excuse me, or cows or donkeys, two animals, and and it's it's a piece of wood that wraps around their necks. And and so you would place it so they could pull together, so. They could pull together, so so one could lean on the other, right, and so if this one's pulling, this one pulling, and it keeps them pulling at the same time. Because if you have, you know, two animals that that are pulling, it's going to be hard to make sure that they that you're you have a straight line and you know they're in fields and they and part of the you know, talent is is making straight lines. So so the yolka is a tool that that ensures that. And then when he talked about earlier. He often uses the yoke and says, don't be unequally yoked, right, And he's saying, like, hey, just like everybody knows if you put an ox and a donkey together that you're going to go in circles because one is much much stronger than the other. So then he gives us instructions not being in, you know, important relationships with unbelievers, because we'll be unequally yoked. And so that's certainly a warning against marriage, right, that's certainly a warning against some of the most important relationships in our lives, especially the most important, which is marriage. So there's a direct application to that. But in this case, what he says is is he says, the yoke of the Pharisees is heavy. So if you get yoked up with a Pharisee who's all about the rules and the burdens and the laws. And remember he wasn't just talking about the precepts. He was talking about the Pharisees who created laws on top of the laws. Right. Yeah, So Pharisees would do this really weird thing where they would it wasn't we it was just burdensome. How they would create laws to make sure that you didn't break the laws. And it was like a guardrail. They were saying like, hey, we don't want to get you too close to the cliffs, so we're going to create this guardrail so that you don't even come close to the cliff. But the problem was is that they were treating the guardrail laws just as important as the actual laws of God. Right, so if the rule wasn't like, you know, if the rule was like, you know, don't take ten steps, they would say, well, don't even get close, don't even take eight steps. And if somebody took nine steps, they would say you broke God's law. And they were like, that's not God's law, that's your law. Right, God said ten steps, right right, that's what they would do. So they created all these laws and all these extra things. And so Jesus referred to their yoke as burdensome. And yet what he's saying about his yoke is he's saying, come to me, because mine's light. And you're going to find out that you're not going to feel like a slave. You're not going to feel tired, you're not going to feel you're not gonna sweat and and feel like this is, you know, a task that's too hard for you. My burden is light and my my yoke is easy to bear. I think that that is amazing how Jesus is almost like flipping the tables on the fact that he is going to be a person that if you if you walk with Jesus and Jesus is the one who does the pulling, then you're just gonna, you know, you're gonna you're you're gonna experience something that is much easier because Jesus is doing the heavy pulling. Yeah. So, uh, I've done some hunting in an area where there's a lot of Amish people and so they use horses and oxen. Yeah, and I just looked this up to confirm it. But I had an Amish man tell me that a yoke exponentially increases the impact. Thank you for saying exponentially and not exponentially exponentially like everybody says, no, I don't, but yeah, yeah, there you go. That's a yoke. So he's in a cider mill, sits on their shoulders, it sits on their neck, but leans into their shoulders. Are actually leaning in right, so they lean in with their shoulders and what it does is it gives almost perfect alignment, which is what you have to have. H So, one oxen typically can pull five thousand pounds one oxen. Wow, so you got one thousand pound ox being able to pull five thousand pounds of weight. But when you align them almost perfectly together, it's not uncommon for them to go more than fifteen thousand pounds. Oh really, So one oxen at five thousand plus one oxen at five thousand, you think it get ten thousand pounds. Yep. But two oxen hooked up together in perfect alignment can go exponentially larger. With greater weight, they can accomplish more. So it's interesting. Jesus is not saying, give all your burdens to me and I'll carry them for you. He doesn't say that. Jesus says, you're trying to pull five thousand pounds. Hook up to me. It's not gonna feel like anything, right, right, that's what he's saying. He says, my burden is easy, and my yoke is easy, and my burden is light. When you connect to me, I'm going to help you pull. And they would have everybody would have known that this is one of those things. Here's your problem. Guys. You're trying to ride your bicycle and I've got three hundred and fifty horses in my corvette. Right right, You're trying to pull this thing with a rope and let me hook up my tractor to it. Right. That's what he's saying. So he's not saying there's not any work to be done. He's not saying it's not a burden. He's just saying, if you're exhausted, no wonder you're exhausted. You're trying to pull it on your own. You're trying to muscle up this marriage, You're trying to muscle up your finances. You're trying to you're living like the world lives and then wondering why the burdens of life are so heavy. He said, if you'd come and decide you'd hook up with me, connect to me, I'm going to need you to go in line with me, which means you know Jesus that if you love me keep my commandments, you need to go with me. I'm not going with you. You need to look up because it's my yoke, it's not your yoke. Now we're gonna hook my yoke up to your burden, and if you are in alignment with me, then it's not gonna be the burden that it was when you're trying to pull it on your own. You'll be able to do exponentially more. And so what's really great about the yoke is is it distributes evenly across their shoulders. They're both leaning in with the same intentionality, and then they're not wasting energy fighting pulling here, pulling there. They're just leaning in on one spot and it gets that thing going. So I was at a place we were doing some hunting, bird hunting in the middle of the winter. Pheasants and some Amish guys were out in the middle of this pond and they were cutting ice. It was a really clear pond, and then the horses, the wagon, the ice wagon fell through the ice wow and they couldn't get it out, and so there were only there was only one horse and he got stuck. You could see him. He's just digging and he's just churning. It was one of those great big he's on the edge. Yeah, he's partly in the water and partly on the edge of this this steep pond. He's trying to get out of it and there's a road that goes down, you know, like clearly a driveway. This is where they go cut ice all the time. There's a driveway that goes down to it, and he's just destroying that driveway. And he's going right, he's going left. He's just there's kind of a little bit of panic trying to figure out to get He can't get it because it's too heavy. He's stuck in the water. Everything's heavier in the water, all that kind stuff. You can't do it. So they calmed him down, and then some guys down the street come back with two big draft horses, just like you know, giant like Clydesdale looking on. Was only the bigger than the Clydesdales. Come in, They hook up, went out like there was no problem at all. It was like I hooked it up to you know, I'm kind of bulldozer or something, and it just popped right out. So now all of a sudden, all three of them pulling together in this way was no problem at all. And that's what I think of every time. This is what Jesus is trying to say. Are you wiped out and exhausted by the life you're living, Well, then clearly, if you're exhausted by the life you're living, you're not totally hooked up to my yoke yet. And so that's it. You got to get in alignment with Jesus. And he doesn't promise that you won't have to pull the load. He's just saying you'll pull it with you. Well, that is a great place to end, I think, and a great wrap up of this of this verse. You know, and I love it. Says he will give you rest. I love that too. Yeah, we will find rest. Oh, we all long for rest, right, It's part of peace and it's and it's rest. Have you ever been holding something so have you thought you were going to drop it? Yeah? Oh, and then you know you're thinking this is going to be terrible, and then somebody steps in the next thing you know, you're like, yeah, it feels so good to have somebody else come and help you grab that. Ord and you experience a physical rest of your muscles. Rest emotionally is you know everything else right. In college, we got my car stuck one time and I was trying to push it out. I couldn't get out. I couldn't get out. Next thing, you know, like five guys from the dorm came, I got behind it and just popped right out. It fell. I was exhausted. I was just covered in sweat and mud. I was just wiped out. And then the guys you go whoop that. I'm like, what was that working so hard on mine? What didn't literally twenty minutes ago, if I just walked over the dorm I could have got those same five guys. Yeah right, But I think that in that moment when you finally do run to Jesus and you do finally align with him and he takes the pressure off, you're gonna wonder, why didn't I do this sooner? Right? Right? Yeah? Yeah, that's great. Well, hey, that is our time, so we will hopefully see you on Monday on the Baba Gush