Okay, let's go to Matthew 11,
Matthew chapter 11 again. As some of you were here and
looked at this with me, Wednesday night, yet you know we did not
finish it. The Lord says here in verses
28 through 30, Matthew 11, Come unto me, all 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 you shall find rest unto your soul. My yoke is easy, and
my burden is light. Come unto me." As Peter said, to whom coming? Peter said to the church, unto
whom coming? You either believe he's precious
and you keep coming. You keep coming to him. To whom? Coming continually. Why do we
need to come to Christ? Well, he's talking to those that
are laboring and heavy laden with guilt, with sin. And we
saw how it's a blessing of God to make somebody know their sin,
their guilt. A blessing. And he says, come
unto me. I'll get rid of it. I'll remove
it. And I'll give you rest from burying
it. In verse 27, look at this. He just finished saying, All
things are delivered unto me of the Father. All authority is given unto me
in heaven and earth, he says. I have the power to do this.
I have the authority to do this. I have the ability to do this.
I have the commission to do this. I've been commissioned of my
God. Everything's been given into my hand. And I give it to
whomsoever I will. Come to me. All. Doesn't matter
who it is. Doesn't matter how bad you are.
Come to me. I'll give it to you. I'll give
you this rest. Remember Joseph? Pharaoh appointed
Joseph charge of everything. All the storehouses. All the
storehouses. And Pharaoh told everyone in
Egypt at that time, if you need anything, go to Joseph. Go to Joseph. Will Joseph give
it? Will Joseph give it even to his
brethren who did this to him? Especially his brethren. Delights
to do it. He's tender, he's kind, he's
gracious, he's compassionate. This is what our Lord is going
to tell us here in a moment. I'm meek and lowly. Come to me. You can come to me. The unapproachable
one. He says, come to me. I'm getting way ahead of myself
here, but I've got to tell this. A lightning might strike or,
you know, something might happen. He says, come unto me. Now, this
is God talking. God who is made flesh and dwell
among us. God, the incomprehensible God,
is higher than the heavens are of the earth, yet was made meek
and lowly, made himself. He says, Come to me. The unapproachable
God became an approachable man. Come to me. It was said of an
ancient, I think it was a Roman ruler. It was said this of the man.
He was so great, so powerful. So great was this man so absolutely. Sovereign and powerful. I mean,
he could just kill you. He didn't like the way you look.
It was said of him that. You dare not speak to him or
if he if someone didn't know him, they dare not. In other
words, if they if someone did go to him and dared to speak
to it, they didn't know him. They didn't realize who it was. And yet, it says, if you didn't,
you didn't know who he was. If you didn't go to him, you
don't realize who he was. In other words, he was so great,
yet he was so willing to listen to anybody. Who is this speaking? Well, our
Lord, who has all authority. Come unto me. What does it mean
to come to Christ? We have already looked at this,
haven't we? Everybody wasn't here. Come unto me, all ye that
labor and are heavy laden, guilt of sin. That's our big problem.
And we're going to bear it all the days of our lives unless
our Lord removes it. He says, come unto me. What does
it mean to come to Christ? Well, it means, first of all,
to believe Him. to believe him. You're not going to call on him
whom you've not heard. You're not going to believe in
him whom you've not heard. You're not going to come to him
whom you've not really heard. You're not going to come to him. But if you've heard of what you
are and see your need of this one,
then come. Come quickly. Come quickly. It's to believe Him. Believe
Him. It's to be persuaded of your
need of Him. And it's to be persuaded that
He's willing and able. He's willing and able. What is
it to come to Christ? Well, it's to come, first of
all, and this is important, because there's a world of people
out there believing on Jesus so they can get a better job.
or so they can meet a spouse or something like that, or get
their arthritis taken care of. That's not why you come to Christ. You come to Christ worshipping
Him because when you finally hear who He is, He's worthy to
be worshipped, whether you get anything out of Him or not. When
you finally hear who He is, even if you don't feel like you're
one of His own, Before he even tells you he's
your salvation, you get mercy from him. Before that, you see,
well, he's worthy to be worshipped, and I need to start worshipping
him, thanking him for what he's done thus far. It's to worship
him. How do you come to Christ? Well,
obviously, he's not visible to us. He's not flesh and blood
anymore. So how do we approach him? How
do we come to him? How do we call on him? In prayer.
Prayer. Call upon me, he said. I'll answer
you. How do you come to Christ? Public
worship, right here. Our Lord said, where two or three
are gathered in my name, I'm going to be there. Didn't he?
He said, where two or three. That's his promise. Where two
or three people are actually, from the heart, truly gathered
together to worship him in his name. That's what that means.
who really want to learn from him. He said, I'm going to be
right there. I'm going to be there. So you want to come to
him, you want to be spoken to by him and feel his presence,
go where his people are. Be like Simeon. You remember
Simeon? He kept going to the temple,
kept going to the temple. The Lord told him, you go to
the temple one of these days, you're going to see my Christ.
I mean, you're really going to see him. You're going to lay
hold on him. I mean, you're going to lay hold on him. He'll keep
going. He didn't know when, and he kept
going, kept going. His wife didn't go, but he went. I got to, he said. The Lord promised.
One day, just like every other time he went, he went. Lo and
behold, a woman came walking in, and her son was the Took him up in his arms and said,
I'm ready to go down. Ready to die. Be where he is. To come to Christ is to fellowship
with his people. And again, two or three are gathered
in his name. That doesn't just mean worship
service. That means God's people. Like those disciples on that
road to Emmaus, remember? They were walking along. What
were they talking about? Talking about Christ. Two of God's people, two of His
disciples, walking along, talking about the Lord. And who joined
them? The Lord Himself. I've done that.
I've done that. Not too long ago, on our back
porch, the Lord met with me and three others. Yeah, He did. I'm
not getting dramatic here or mystical. I'm telling you the
truth. This is what our Lord did, and this is what He does.
you that were there. It's true. Did not our hearts
burn with them as he opened up the scripture? Well, be where
he is in fellowship with his people. The Lord is not among
these unbelievers, but he is with his people. To
come to Christ is to leave everybody and everything for him. I came to church this morning,
to the church house. I left my house. I left that to come here. So
you leave whoever and whatever to come to him. Some people have
literally, over the years, literally left all to go where the gospel
was, to go be with Christ's people because it was not where they
were. Some people have literally left family because some of you,
maybe this morning, left someone at home who is not a believer.
And you say, you can stay here if you want. I've got to go wash
up. That's what it means to come to Christ. And our Lord promised,
anybody that's left houses or land, mother or father, son or
daughter, husband, wife, anything for me, for my sake, I'm going to restore it to you.
To come to Christ is to trust Him. I mean to really cast all
your care on Him. Is this worth saying again, y'all?
To come to Christ is to cast all your care on Him. It's to
trust Him. It's to go to Him as a beggar
before a King who has the whole universe at His disposal. A great
King. Now, you don't come presumptuously.
You don't come familiarly. You don't come irreverently,
disrespectfully. But you come before a King. But
you're coming before a good King. I mean a good King. A greater
than Solomon. I love to think about the days
of Solomon. Wouldn't you? I would have liked to have lived
under Solomon for a little while. A little while. Until he got
sidetracked. But for a little while, wouldn't
you? He says, Every man dwells under his own vine and fig tree.
I bet there was, like that old western, Home on the Range. I bet there was never heard of
Discouraging Word. How could it be? Had Solomon
reigning and ruling, a man with all that wisdom, and everybody
had vine and fig tree, and boy, times were good. And if you liked
anything, you could go to Solomon. Anybody, anybody could go to
Solomon. His daddy taught him that. Well,
he'd look, and there was old Mephibosheth, an old man, 89
years old, still up there, sitting at the king's table. And Mephibosheth
told him, Son, you be like your daddy. Anybody could go to him. What do you need? Go to this
great king. What do you need? Well, I got
a lot of needs. Ask him. I've got the ability. Oh, greater than Solomon's here,
he says, come unto me. Trust me. Go to me. Come to me. Go to him. Trust him. Go to him
as the most guilty, vile, wretched, hopeless, helpless, gutter-dwelling
sinner, he's able to say to the uttermost,
them that come unto God by him. Doesn't matter how bad. Go to
him. Cast all your sin on him. He'll take it. He'll take it.
He took it. And ask him to say, He'll do
it. Come on. Oh, don't labor. Don't try to get there. You can't
get there. You can't climb one foot of Sinai's mountain. You
cannot remove one sin from your back. You cannot erase one block
from your record. You can't do it. A thousand years
lived on this earth will not erase one sense of guilt. It won't do it. You can't do
penance. But Jesus Christ, with one word,
will justify you from all things. Like that woman casted his feet, and with one word, he said, I
say unto you. They said, the brawl says, killer. What do you say? He said, I say,
justify. Completely, totally exonerated,
completely. Forgiven all forgotten, justified as if she had never
seen it. She's going out of here scot free. Come on. Anybody need to come
to this person? This can't come unto me. Oh,
yeah, I can't. You don't know yourself, do you?
To whom coming? If you woke up a sinner, buddy,
you better be coming to Him right now as we speak. Come to Him. Come unto Me. I'll give you rest.
Rest. What is this rest that Christ
gives? It's that freedom from guilt.
It's what you had for so long and couldn't get rid of it, labored
to get rid of it, and couldn't, yet the gospel Well, the Word
does, doesn't it? It does. That's why we have to
keep coming back to hear the Gospel. We have to keep coming
back to remove the guilt over and over again. To have this rest. Because we
get out there in the world and get dirty and vile again, feel
like it anyway, and we come back and Christ says, you came to
the right person. And He gives rest all over again
from this renewal. Restore my soul. Say unto my
soul that you are my salvation. Say it again. And we saw how
that Christ gives rest. How does He give rest? How does
He take away that burden? By putting it on Himself. By putting it on Himself. Have
you ever carried something so heavy and couldn't carry it anymore
and somebody take it from you and them carry it for you? That's what he did. If we confess
our sin, what it means to come to Christ is absolutely come
naked, confess all your sins and all of it. We have a high
priest. It's this so-called Catholic
people all over this land right now going to a man to confess
their sin, a little booth, and they keep going, keep going,
keep going, and he can't get rid of one of them. But yet we do have a high priest.
And he's touched. And he's more than touched. He
can bear them all away. Take and remove them. And we
don't have to pay one indulgence. But they do. Faithful. And the blood of Jesus Christ
cleanses us. Rest, rest, rest. I like the
sound of the word, don't you? I just about didn't get to it
again. And the Lord says, take my yoke upon you. Why wouldn't
you? Why wouldn't you present what
this yoke is? And there are several horse people
in here this morning, and everyone in here is raised mostly in rural
areas. You know what this yoke is. a device that an animal, generally an ox, a
mule, a horse, or something, wears, is fitted with to enable
it to perform work. Okay? It couples or yokes, the
word means couple, it couples that animal to a plow, it yokes
it to a plow, or it yokes it, couples it to another animal.
A yoke usually in scripture speaks of two. Elisha was plowing one
day with twelve yoke of oxen. That means twenty-four oxen.
Kelly, this was a man. Twenty-four oxen. How many reins
is that? You know, there's a rain running
to each one of them. You ever seen those stagecoach drivers,
those people? They got rains in each finger,
and they just... Those fellas are amazing. Amazing. Well, Elisha, who was God's man,
was plowing with twelve yoke of oxen, twenty-four oxen. See
that? This man. And so a yoke, generally speaking,
is two. Our Lord says here in verse 29,
take my yoke upon you and learn of me. Take my yoke. Now, the
reason the Lord calls it a yoke, when you think of a yoke, you
think of hard work, don't you? When you think of a yoke, you
think of something that's a bondage. You think of being put around
animal doesn't want it, and he's forced to submit. But our Lord calls it a yoke
because that's what the world thinks about religion. Young
people listen to it. I remember thinking as a young
person, like some of you probably think now, that going to church was hard bondage. Terrible bondage. Your mother and father would
open you and put you in a car and drove you there and then
sat you in a pew. Oh, this is awful. Come on, admit it. Do well, be
honest. I told you about that preacher's
young boy. He always taught his young son.
He never did say we're going to church, like people say. Which
is good. I mean, you don't say that we
don't we're going to worship the Lord. That's the way we should
tell our children that we're going to go worship the Lord.
I mean, look what all he's done for us. This is a privilege. It's an honor. It's not something
that we have to do. And it's a privilege. It's an honor. Look, it's just
a little while. I'm going to go worship the Lord. Oh, well, this young boy, one
day, one Sunday morning, his dad woke him up. He was about,
I don't know, maybe six or seven years old. He said, son, get
up. Time to get up. And the little
boy said, just real honestly, he said, I don't want to go worship
the Lord this morning. Be honest now. Be honest. I don't want to go worship. Well,
but it's our reason to serve. There was a time, young people,
when I thought it was just pure bondage to my parents. Do you
know actually now? This is where I want to be. It's absolutely where I want
to be. I get here. You're not going
to believe it. I get here sometimes three hours early. Three hours. Can't wait. I'm looking in the eyes of some
of you, some of you saying no way, no way. There's only one
way. Only one way. May the Lord have mercy on you. Show you it's not a yoke, it's
easy, it's light, it's a Really a pleasurable thing. It's a yoke
because it is labor, it is service. We are in someone's service.
We are. We are owned by somebody. Whenever
you have an animal, a work animal that you own, you've got to have
something on it to show it and everybody else that it's yours. And in order to control it and
make it do what it needs to do, you've got to put something on
it. No matter what it is, a dog,
a collar, a horse, a halter, an ox, a yoke, and on and on.
Right? An unowned animal doesn't wear
a yoke. A wild animal doesn't wear a collar. So what this is,
is a yoke of ownership. A yoke of ownership. Now, I remember
when I first got and my dogs. And, you know, they're born without
a collar. They don't want a collar on them. And I remember the first time,
every one of them, the first time I tried to put that collar
on, oh, man, what are you doing? And he put it on me. Trying to
get it off, trying, trying to get it off. Well, over the years,
over the years. They don't even know it's there.
And give them a bath or something like that and say, come here,
Annie. Come here, put your collar back on. Put it right on. Don't mind a
bit. It wasn't anything hard about
him putting that on me. And one time, my dog didn't have
a collar on. He ran off. I told you that story. And I never, about never saw
him again. And now he's got a collar that's got his name and my phone
number on it. It's pretty important to wear
a collar. The yoke of profession. The yoke of profession. I'm coupled
to someone. I'm married to someone. That's
what this is. That's what this is. It's a good thing. The yoke of
profession. It's a restraint, it really is.
I'm married to somebody. See that? I'm owned by somebody. That's not here. It's here. Right? It's not here. But it's here by choice. It's
right here by choice. Put those things in bull's nose,
he didn't want it there. Ah, boy. A yoke of ownership,
a yoke of profession, and a yoke of his commands. Now, the Scripture says the way of the transgressor is
hard. The way of the transgressor is hard. I just told you that
a wild animal doesn't wear any kind of yoke or collar or anything,
right? And you think, oh, boy, he's
free. He's happy. Now, are they? Wild dog out there. Is that what you think of a wild
dog running down the street? Oh, he's happy. He's free. Generally, they're skinny. They're gaunt. What are they
doing? Looking for something to eat. And soon they'll end
up roadkill. An old horse, a wild horse. Boy,
they're free. Maybe some horse in a pasture
or whatever sees a wild one out there running free. Boy, where
shall I see him? No, you don't either. He's scared to death. That wild horse out there is
scared of his own shadow. Something, he's prey. He's prey
to somebody or something. And that's how you end up. You're
safe. You're hedged back. You're being
provided for. Somebody owns you. It's not going
to let anything happen to you. If you've got a real good master,
you've got it made. If you're Molly, she's a workhorse and ain't never
done a lick of work in her life, at least since I owned her. But
you know, I'm glad I brought her up. Robin's brother owns
her now, put her out to pasture, retired her from service. Retired
her from what? Anyway, her dad has him. He's a retired gentleman, wanted
an old horse, and gave Molly to him. You know, one time, Robin,
Molly did work for somebody when I got her. An old man, seventy-some
year old man owned her, bought her when she was just a Philly
and trained her to pull a plow. He still plowed with horses.
And the old man said that she was too fast for him. She was
too young, too fast, because she was only about three years
old at the time, you know. And he had an old 25-year-old
plow horse over there in the field. He did retire. And he
bought Molly. Needed fresh blood, you know. Well, he couldn't give up with
her. So he sold her, and I bought
her. And one day, I bought her for a pet. But one time, I tried
her out, bought a harness and all that, bought a yoke and all
that, and a single tree and all that, and Henry and I. I didn't know what I was doing,
but I hitched her up. And Charles Hudson came over,
and I first put the collar on upside down. Anyway, got it on
her. You know that she, I didn't know
how she was going to react. I hear that big old collar, that's
a great big old thing, a heavy, you've seen them, big old leather
collar. I had her tied up and I went toward her like this.
You know, she just put her head down. I put that thing on her,
put all that. Let's go to work. Just so willing, so obedient. Well, you know, I sure didn't
plow 40 acres with her. I just skidded the log around
to see what she'd do. Took it off of her. That wasn't
too hard. It wasn't my land. That's the
last time I ever did it. That's 16 of the work I got out
of her. But she was willing. She was obedient. And I didn't
abuse her. I didn't abuse her at all. The
Lord says, take my yoke on you. Take it. Learn of me. You know, generally, as I said,
a yoke is a pair of animals. Oxen, mules, horses, whatever. You know the best way to break
an unbroken animal? Yoke it or hitch it to an old,
experienced horse. That's the way. I've got some
young ones over there. I don't know if I'll ever do
anything with them, but if I did, I'd go get Molly and hitch them
to her. And I know how they'd react.
Don't you, Kelly? I know how they'd react. Whoo,
man. They'd hurt themselves trying
to get out of that yoke. And hopefully Molly would say, you
ain't getting out. And you're just going to kill
yourself. And if you just settle right down, it'll be okay. You
don't have to watch me. It'll be all right. Just do what I do. One foot in front of the other.
Come on now. Until finally they say, well, this ain't too bad,
is it? It's just all right. That's how
you teach a young man. Our Lord says, take my yoke upon
you and learn. Who better to learn from about
this yoke than the Lord Himself, huh? He yoked Himself, did He
not? He who is God, He whom everyone
and everything serves, does serve no one, but whom He served, became
a servant. He said, I am one among you that
serveth. The Son of Man came not to be
ministered unto, but to minister. and give his life a ransom for
a minute. Take my yoke upon you. Learn
from me. Look what he says here. I love
this. I am meek and lowly in heart. I submitted, absolutely, totally
submitted to the Father's will in all things. Meek and lowly. Submissive. Resigned. The Scripture says, I always
think about a horse, and this, if you be willing and obedient,
you'll eat the good of the land. If your best horses are, you
can turn them out, can't you, Kelly? Best one, you can turn them out.
They go in and out and find pasture. That's what the Scripture says. I'm meek, so, Missy, resign.
You'll eat the good of the land. I mean, you'll find rest for
your souls, he says. You'll find rest for your soul.
Now, this is talking about inner peace here. The Lord, that rest
he gave is in removing of sin and guilt and all that. That's
eternal rest with God, salvation. Right here, he's talking about
inner peace from turmoil, rest from everything that disturbs
you. And so this is what rest for your souls, sleep. This is what he's talking about
here. Comfort, assurance, contentment. What is it? Our Lord said, take
my yoke upon you and learn of me. I'm meek and lowly. I'm an
obedient child to my Father. See, my Father does know best.
Our Lord knew this. Father does know best. Everything
He says is best. Christ knew this. All His commandments
are not grievous. He said they're not grievous.
He said the good, the right, the just, the true, it's not
just a good way, it's the only way. Christ knew this and he
said, I will and I must be about my father's business. It's the
only way. And though he was a man of sorrows
and acquainted with grief, yet nothing bothered him. Nothing
troubled him. Right? He was not discontented. The things that excite our misery
and our covetousness and our emotions and our desires are
the things that absolutely make us just distraught and this and
that. He wasn't that way. Not at all. Why? Father knows
best. He did what he says. My father, our Lord, didn't take
home He didn't have a place to live. He didn't have a tent. You say, but he's the Lord. He
can just whip one. He didn't. Yeah, he could have. He could
have, boom, would have had a mansion. He didn't. He depended on people
to put him in their house. He depended on the Father to
lead people to put him in their house. He lived by faith as a
man. He never one time did one thing
to provide for himself. Not one stick of bread, not one
piece of money. Never! He could have, but he
didn't. Oh, but where we going? Dumb animals, aren't they? Dumb,
stupid animals. Our Lord said this to His disciples.
He said, listen to me, listen to me. The sparrow doesn't sow,
but the Father feeds them all. Are you not worth more than many
sparrows? Take no thought for tomorrow. Now, learn of me. Turn up a minute. And rest. Rest. Now, if we, our treasure, if
we heap to ourselves treasure and heap and heap out of our
own cupboards and all that, and no, maybe we'll lose something.
And it'd be good for us. But now, he said, having food
and rain, you never, our Lord said this, Nancy, you and I love
this verse. He said, I, David said it. Our Lord said it through
him. David was an old man. He said,
listen, I've been young and I'm now old. And he said, I've never
seen God see forsaken, the righteous forsaken, a believer. Never,
ever. Or his seed begging bread. David
said, I've never seen. He knew a lot of people. He had
a vast kingdom. David knew a lot of people. He
had a vast kingdom. And he said, I've not seen one.
I've never seen one of God's people sitting on a corner begging.
Or without a place to stay. Not one. Not one. Greater than Solomon is here.
And our Lord said, I am meek. My loving father, he loves me. He's not going to let me go without.
He's promised me. Promised me. Now look at this. This meekness and lowliness,
what is meekness? Men, I want every man in here
to listen to me, listen to this with all your, every fiber of
your being, okay? Our Lord said, you learn of me.
Now, this is the greatest, the only man who ever lived. Only
man. And the Lord, how he described
himself, was meek and lowly. Men want to be great men. Men want to be strong men. Men
want to be, you know, want to have respect. Men want to have
authority and so forth. You cannot demand it. You cannot
demand it. You got to earn it. How do you
earn that? The Lord said, take, learn of
me. Meek. Now, meekness doesn't mean
weakness. What does meekness mean? Oh,
we need a long time here. Meek. Meekness means to be mild. Gentle. You see, a strong man
is a man who's in control of his emotions. That's what the Proverbs says.
It says a man is greater who can control his anger than a
man who overthrows cities. That's what the Proverbs said. Anybody can lash you out. Any
big old fella can punch you in the face and knock you out, or
even a little fella. That doesn't mean he's tough.
That means he's weak. That means he's quick-tempered.
And that means someday somebody bigger and rougher than he is
is going to send him out. There's always somebody bigger
and tougher than you. Boy, this would take a man, wouldn't
it? To know that no matter how far
this fight goes, nobody wins. I'm winning it right here. Just
keep hitting me. He did, didn't he, Stephen? Oh,
he who could have called twelve legions of angels and said pummeling,
bumping, bumping. What would you do if you had
the power? Snuff them out! No, not him.
Even Pilate, who had beheld the strongest Roman men ever to walk
before him, the greatest gladiators the world ever known, when this
man walked before him in thorns and rags and bleeding and been
puffed and spit running down his face, he said, there's a
man. I wish I was like him. Almost. That's a man. There's a man. Gentle. To be a man needs to be gentle.
Easily entreated. The modern definition of a macho
man, you know, or what we think of as a man, a fellow who's rough,
gruff and, you know, strict and, oh no, easily entreated. Gentle
man. Tender, kind. Tender, kind, meek. I'm meek. Moses. The reason the
Lord put Moses in charge of so many people. Because it was said
of him, he's meeker than any man on earth. What a vast people Moses had
to look over. But he was the best man for the
job, wasn't he? Anybody could come to him. I
mean, the rebels felt his wrath, but the lowest of the low could
come to him and just feel like he's He's listening to me. The
great Moses. Ameek. And lowly. Lowly means humble. Not easily
offended. Oh, we need this. You know that?
Not easily offended. Lowly. Servant. Not easily defended. You know, if we really think
we're nothing. Listen to me now. If we really think low thoughts
of ourselves, we won't be easily offended. This is why we get
in fights. Isn't it? This is why we get
in these squabbles with people and why we're so easily defensive
and all, because we think too highly of ourselves. Somebody
said we ought to, he said, we're dead. We need to act like we're
dead. And we are. We need to act like we're dead.
We need to be like that fellow down in the grave. We need to
go to the cemetery. And you go to a cemetery and
walk up to a grave and start cussing that fellow. Cuss him. Cuss him out. Call him every
name you can think of. What's he going to do? Doesn't faze him. Well, brag
on him. Tell him how great he is. Tell
him how handsome he is, smart, and tell him he's strong, and
I want to brag on him. What is he going to do? Nothing. Doesn't
pay him. He's dead. Wouldn't you like
to be like that? That's where we need to be. That's
where our Lord was. Wasn't it? Wasn't it, Jeanette? Said they
came to make him king. Don't need that. They called him a devil. My father knows who I am. He
didn't bother. Say it when you'd like to be
like that. Well, learn of me. The Lord said, learn of me. Men, you're going to be a man,
in the real sense of the word, and I'm talking to men. Be like
Christ. Love your wife. How? As Christ loved the church and gave himself for her. Gave himself. The greater responsibility
lies on a man's shoulders in a marriage. Yes, sir. Just like
it does our Lord. All right, why does he say, he
said, now my yoke is easy, my burden is light. Let's quit with
it. My yoke is easy. My burden is light. It is a yoke.
It is service. This is what our Lord said. Take
it. You've been called to service, you haven't been called to be
served. You're a member of the body to be served, to serve,
not be served. Every part of the body serves
the rest of the body, does it not? There's not one single part
of my body that works as independent. My liver doesn't do what it wants
to do. It serves my brain somehow. My little toe serves my left
ear somehow, doesn't it? Yeah, it does. And if we're members
of the body, that's what we're called to do. Serve. Well, all
the burden's not on my little toe. It didn't do it at all. Pretty
easy, what it's called to do. Pretty light. Christ says, My
yoke is easy, my burden is light. It's not, I'll not put on you
more than you're able to bear. And why is his burden, his yoke,
light? Why is it light? We have an old
saying. Let me give you an illustration
of where this old saying came from. There was a young boy,
about thirteen years old, walking down a country road along with
his little brother. His little brother, about four
or five years old, had a long way to go home. Walked home down
an old dirt road. And the little four or five year
old got so tired, and finally his big brother picked him up,
put him on his back, and piggybacked. Started carrying him down that
road. Long came a fella on a wagon. I said, son, where are you going? He said, Timmy Jones live up
the road here going home. He said, well, got a long way
to go. He said, got a pretty heavy burden
on your back, don't you? And the boy said, mister, he
ain't heavy. He's my brother. It's not a burden. This ain't
secretators. This ain't work. That's my brother. You ask a woman who all her life,
spends all her life caring for her husband and children, oh,
you've worked hard, haven't you? Oh, it's nothing. It's nothing. My dad reminded my wife and Hannah,
my daughter, that when we four children were growing up in our
house, my mother, every morning of our lives, fixed all four
of us children whatever we wanted. If the oldest, my brother Robbie,
wanted ham and eggs, she'd fix that. If Danny wanted oatmeal,
she'd fix that. If Becky wanted cereal, she'd
fix that. If I wanted pancakes, she'd fix
that. Now, ain't that incredible? You
ladies can't believe it, can you? It's true. I never heard
her ever, ever, ever to this day. She still doesn't. Never
heard her utter one complaint, or one word of being tired, or
reprimanding us for, why don't you eat scrambled eggs like your
brother? Do you have to have pride? Never. If you'd ask her, and she's worked
harder than any woman I know. She really has. Still, this does.
It entertains hundreds, has entertained literally hundreds of thousands
of people. You'd ask her. And I'm not just bragging on
my mother, I'm bragging on my pastor's wife, who's worthy. If you ask
her this day, boy, you've worked hard, haven't you? No. There's
nothing. Why? Love. Love beareth a multitude. Love beareth all things. Love is a whole case. What can I carry? That's what
loves it. How much can I do carry? And this yoke, here's a few more
things to note about the yoke. The less you fight it, the easier
it is. Right, Kelly? The less you fight
it, the more you fight it, the more it starts chafing you.
And the more you wear it. You know that? Like those dogs
of mine. The more you wear it, the more
you get used to it. The more you get used to it.
Take my yoke upon you and learn of me. I'm meek, lowly. You'll find rest for your soul. My yoke is easy. Nobody's called
upon to do too much. And it's light. If it's love,
it'll be light. It'll be light. All right, let's
sing in closing. Jeanette, if you'll come up.
Number 393. 393. I think it's a pretty good hymn to sing after
that. Take my life and let it be. Consecrate it, Lord, to thee. Stand with me. Number 393. Take my life and let it be consecrated,
Lord, to Thee. Take my hands and let them move
at the impulse of Thy love, at the impulse of Thy love. Take my feet and let them be
swift and beautiful for thee. Take my voice and let me sing
always only for my King. Always only for my King. Sing the last verse. Take my
love, my God, I pour And find me in tender store