Spring Thou alone within my heart,
rise to all eternity. OK, turn with me to the book
of Matthew, the Gospel of Matthew, chapter 11. And let's read again, verses
28 through 30. Matthew 11, verses 28 through
30, the Lord Jesus Christ is speaking and says, Come unto
me. all ye that labor and are heavy
laden, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you, and learn
of me. For I am meek and lowly in heart,
and ye shall find rest unto your souls. For my yoke is easy, and
my burden his life. Now, the Lord said in his Sermon
on the Mount, blessed are the poor in spirit. He said, blessed are they that
mourn. He said, blessed are the meek.
So the things that he says are to the poor, to those that mourn,
those that are meek. It is learned of me. Scripture
says this, it says, He healed all that had need of healing. All who had need of healing,
the Lord healed them. The gospel, what the Lord is
saying right here. He's saying to those who need
what He's saying. And I pray, I hope and pray that
someone in here this morning, I hope I am one of these poor
and needy I was thinking a moment ago,
reading this again, how the church at Laodicea was rebuked by the
Lord for their lukewarmness. Remember? He said, I would that
you were cold or hot, not just lukewarm. He said the reason
for that lukewarmness was that they were rich and increased
with goods and had need of nothing. So this is for the needy. He's saying this to those who
labor and are heavy laden. Labor and heavy laden. Heavy laden with a sense of their
own sin and guilt and laboring and they're trying to get rid
of it. And he promises rest. He says, come to me. Before he
said, come to me, he said, all things are delivered unto me
and my Father. I have it all. Come to me, the needy, the poor
and needy. Come to me, he said. He promised
rest. He promised relief. He promised
peace. He promised to lift this burden.
The heavy laden are under. He promised to lift this burden. But you know the strange thing
our Lord says here in how this burden is lifted. And this is also what it means
to come to Christ. The way he promises rest, he
says, is by taking a yoke on you. That just doesn't make sense
to the natural man, does it? To relieve this burden, you're
supposed to take this yoke upon you. Take my yoke upon you. You say, that's strange, isn't
it? Take this burden, it says a burden, a yoke is somewhat
of a burden. But he says, in conclusion, he
says, my yoke is easy though, my burden, my burden. It is a
burden, but it's light. All right, let's look at what
this means, and I hope someone is needy here this morning. I
hope someone needs this rest that he's speaking of. He says,
take my yoke upon you. The yoke of Christ. What is the
yoke of Christ? We've looked at this many times
before together, but yet I worked harder and longer
on this message than I ever have. So give me your undivided attention,
will you? The yoke of Christ. What is it
to take this yoke of Christ upon you? And I just simply looked
it up in Webster's dictionary. A yoke is a bar or frame of wood
by which two draft animals, oxen, mules, horses, are joined together,
joined at the head or the neck for working together. especially
for drawing a plow or pulling a load. That's what draft means,
to pull, draft. So this yoke is something that
joins together two for a purpose, the purpose of working together,
pulling together. Mr. Webster also said this. He
said the yoke is something that reduces an animal to subjection. to submission, to service. And it's something that joins
or links or associates one with another. A yoke, as we pointed
out before, is always two. It speaks of a yoke in Scripture. It's talking about a pair, this
yoke. And this yoke of Christ, Christ
says, take my yoke upon you and learn of me. This yoke of Christ
is at least three things. At least three things. It represents
the yoke of ownership, the yoke of discipleship, and the yoke
of service. All right? The yoke of ownership.
Whenever you see a pair of oxen or mules or whatever, or horses
that are yoked, joined together, they have this yoke upon them,
or collar Somebody owns them. That's very plain, isn't it?
Wild oxen or wild animals, horses, are not yoked. They're out there
running free. And the Lord says, take my yoke
upon you. Be owned by me. Scripture says that about his
people. They're not their own. You are not your own. I started to say one of the Lord's.
You're not your own. That's redundant. And if you're
one of the Lord's. You're not your own, you're his.
You own, you're owned by him. He owns you. How did he? How are you owned by him? How
did the Lord get these people? Well, several things. The Lord
spoke of his sheep in John 10. He says the father gave them
to him. The Lord God in heaven, the Father, owns all things and
everything is His, but He elected or chose a people to be His people,
His eternal sons, and gave them to Christ. That's how we're owned
by Him. They were a gift from the Father,
a gift. And yet Christ had to purchase
us like old Gomer, you know, was up for auction. She'd sold
herself in sin and harlotry, hadn't she? And Hosea was there. The Lord told Hosea to go and
you buy her. He paid the price. And Hosea
paid for Gomer and took her home with him, married her. So it is with us. God's people
were bought with a price. You're not your own. Bought with
a price, and the price being precious blood. It's the infinite
price. The blood of the Lord Jesus Christ.
He bought his people. They belonged to him. So to take
his yoke is to willingly submit to being owned by him. Willingly
submit to being owned by him. Would you have Christ to be your
owner, your Lord and your master and your ruler? That proves whether or not you're
under the yoke. Do you want to be owned by him? To be owned by him is to willingly
submit to his control, his direction. Scripture says, cannot I do with
my own what I will? Yes, he can and he does. That's
what he does. And the person who takes this
yoke, is the one who willingly submits by his grace, God's people. Why are they willing? Because
he bought them. They're his and all his people,
thy people. You see, if they're his, they
willingly submit. They take this yoke. They bow
the head and submit to this yoke of ownership. The world who says,
we will not have this man. reign over us. We will not be
owned by anyone. We are free. God's people don't
want to be free. They were free, they thought,
before the Lord took possession of them. And they about killed
themselves. They would have ended up destroyed
had not the Lord took possession of them. Like a wild animal. put his yoke on. And to take
this yoke is to willingly submit to him being your owner. You know, you take a yoke, an
animal, in order to be yoked. And I've done this, literally
done this. I asked Brother Charles Hudson, you remember the first
time I put that, bought that harness for Molly? You remember
that? The yoke? I didn't even know
which end was up, did I? Ignorant city boy, you know,
I didn't know which end was up on that draft collar. And Brother
Charles, his daddy plowed with him and so forth, he came over
and showed me. I didn't know that Molly, I'd
heard that she'd worked, and the man I bought her from said
she'd worked for him, been trained. I didn't know. I didn't know
how she would respond. An average animal, an animal, unbroken animal,
you take this big old ring, right, Kelly, and you just hit at it,
hit at their head with it. They want anything but to be
yoked. They lift that head, that stiff
neck up. Not me. But old Molly, I didn't know
her. But I got this collar, you know.
And she just lowered her head. And I just slipped around. She'd been broken. Somebody had
already broken her. And she submitted. She bowed. She took the yoke
and put that old horn and all that stuff, strapped her all
up, you know, all that stuff all over, jangling and jangling,
you know. And I thought, how's she going to react? Well, she
just went right to work. Hooked her up and she just pulled. And this, just take this yoke.
Our Lord says, bow your head. Bend the knee. Submit. I own
you. And there's no better rest. There
is no rest except to be owned by somebody. That's what our Lord says. You'll find
rest with a willing believer, you know? The willing believer,
the believer, and all believers are willing. They bow to His
reign. They bow to His rule. They bow
to His sovereign rights, His ownership. They love it that
way. Not only do they bow to it, but it's not like, well,
I have to do this because they love it to have it so. You know, marriage, marriage
is a yoke. The Lord warns us, warns all
believers, be not unequally yoked together with unbelief. It won't work. If you are one
of the Lords and they are not, it won't work. A tamed, broken
animal and an unbroken one won't pull together. It won't work. Can two walk together
except they be agreed, Amos 3.36? No. No. The yoke of marriage And it is
a yoke. It's a wonderful thing to be
owned by somebody. If you've got a good yoke partner. It's a wonderful thing. This Hulamite maiden over in
the Song of Solomon said, I'm his. I'm his. You know, the thoroughly modern
woman doesn't like this. A thoroughly modern man doesn't
need to, for that matter, be owned by somebody. The child of God does. God has
given them a Christ-like mate. It's I and His. And He's mine. He's mine. And we're pulling
together. Yoke together. Join together.
Married. And you, Scripture says, are yoked to somebody. You're
married to another. Married to another. Now, the
purpose of a yoke is not only to join together, too, but it's
to teach. I said an unbroken animal will
not supersede the yoke. Well, if you own one, you've
got to break it. And you're going to have to put something on his
head. That's how you break it in the temple. You've got to
put something on his head. Because that proud, stiff neck, as we
noted before, will not bend until you bend it. And this yoke our
Lord puts on us is to teach us, to break up. To teach us, to
lead us, to guide us, to direct us. Without a yoke, you don't,
you know, without a bridle, without a bed, you're just wandering
aimlessly, right? A yoke is for the purpose of
teaching. For the purpose in a yoke, back
to a yoke, a yoke is for one thing, pulling together. For
two, as I said, two, to pull together, to work together. Why did I read Ephesians 4? Have you caught it yet? He said,
I am beseeched in meekness and lowliness. that you endeavor
to keep the unity of the spirit, the working of every part working
together for one purpose. Who's driving us? Who's got the
reins? Who put the yoke on us? Who owns
us? Who knows where he's going? We
don't. Those two animals don't know where they're going. But they're going to go wherever
he says they go. So this yoke is to teach, and
every, I said it's a yoke of discipleship, a yoke of ownership,
it's a yoke of discipleship. A disciple is a learner. That's
what a disciple is. The men, the apostles were called
disciples, meaning they were learning, always learning. But
who was teaching? They learned everything they
knew from Him. They're disciples. And every believer is a disciple. We take this yoke of discipleship. Every believer is a lifelong
student of the Lord Jesus Christ. We're in a school of Christ.
It's a lifelong school. And since we're talking about
yokes and so forth, we've got a man in here who knows a lot
about horses and all. You've had some horses for years,
haven't you, Kelly? Do you quit schooling them? Well, if you leave them alone
for any length of time, they'll revert back to some old habits
and all that. You've got to keep schooling them. Well, every believer
is a disciple. A lifelong student of the Lord
Jesus Christ. Paul was 60 years old when he
wrote Ephesians. And he said, oh, that I might
know him. Didn't it? Oh, he said, I want
to know him. Well, don't you know him, Paul?
Well, yeah, but I just don't feel like I know him at all. I want to know him, want to know
him. And we're in the school of Christ,
learning of him. You see, this is why God's people,
this is why God's preachers preach Christ. That's what he tells
them to do, and that's what they do. They preach Christ. And God's people, who are disciples
of Christ, that's why they come here. They want to learn of him. Peter concluded his letter by
saying, grow in grace. and the knowledge of the Lord
Jesus Christ. Disciples, learners of him. We
learn of him. He is the subject. He said, take
my yoke upon you and learn of me. You know, I've been preaching
here anyway, 17 years in March. A little longer than that in
other places, but that seems like a long time to me. It's
not, compared to some men. But nevertheless, it's not a
novice, it's not a beginner. And when I started studying this,
the yoke of Christ and the heart of Christ, I thought, I don't
know anything about this. So we learn of him. He's the subject. We never quit
learning because we don't know in part. Once again, Paul was
an old man when he said we preach in part. We know in part. I'm 50 years old now, and I just
now feel like I'm learning something, what it is to be a husband or
a father. And maybe when I'm old, real
old, I'll finally learn something. Do you agree, Brother Henry?
You're always learning. You never quit learning. Then
you're an expert, aren't you? Scripture says if anybody thinks
they know anything, they know nothing yet. We're learning off him. He's
the subject, John. He's the subject. Have we begun to comprehend the
slightest part of his glory? Let's start with this. Great
is the mystery of God in us. This cloud that covers his veil. Great is the mystery of God in
us. God was manifest in the flesh. It's God. The One that made us.
What a mystery. So we learn of Him. He's the
subject. Who He is. What He did. Where He is now.
Why He did it. And we learn from Him. We learn of Me. Call no man rabbi. He said, One
is your rabbi. Who's that? The Lord Jesus Christ. Master. We learn from him. He's the teacher. He's the teacher. You know, Jeanette, only if the
Lord teaches us something will we learn it. People can tell
us all they will, can't they? Just the same with the preacher.
You know, the Lord speaks through men, but only when the Lord speaks
through a man will you hear him. He won't. Nobody will. Our young
people will not hear me until in the fullness of time. God
sends forth his spirit and speaks to them himself. We learn from
him, a disciple, seeker, student. It's a yoke of service also. A yoke of service. To take his
yoke, as we said, is to be yoked together for the purpose of pulling
together in the service of the master, the one who owns The animal is the one that we're
serving. You don't serve yourself. He
said, now take, now please stay with me, OK? He says, take my
yoke upon you and learn of me. You'll find rest. There will be no rest for those
who are not yoked to Christ. and his people. The yoke of service,
as I said, this yoke is for the purpose of pulling together in
the service of the Master. Yoke together, pulling together,
Scripture says, laborers together for one end. One purpose. That's what this yoke is all
about. One purpose, one end. What's that? Why did God create
everything? Why did God create everything?
His glory. Scripture says, For His glory
they are and were created. Why did He make us His people?
Isaiah 43. Why did He make us His people?
That you might behold My glory. For My glory. He created us for
His glory. To glorify Him. It's all for His glory. Pulling
together for the glory of God. And the glory of God is served
through the body, the good of the body of Christ. And he promised
rest. Our Lord says, I'll give you
rest under this yoke of service. I'll give you rest. The Lord
said it's more blessed to give than to receive. It's more blessed
to serve than to be served, he said. He said, I'm as one among
you that So the Son of Man came not to be ministered unto, but
to minister. I'm a servant. He said, I, your
master, your Lord and master, have washed your feet. Learn
of me. More blessed to give than to
receive. To serve than to lead is much more blessed. You know,
here's what I'm trying to say. Self is a hard taskmaster. If we try to serve ourselves,
if we live for ourselves, if we try to make ourselves happy,
you will never find rest, because self cannot be satisfied. Try to serve the world. Try to
go after the world. Try to serve the world. Be like
the world. Keep up with the Joneses. You'll never find rest. You'll just keep on keeping on.
Well, I finally got to this point in the world since age. Something
we've changed. Now this is it. This is the way
to go. Head in this direction. Over here it is. Like, you know, when I was a
teenager, you know, all of a sudden, he found the way, man. We were
enlightened. This is the enlightened generation. We're all doing things
this way. And we all did it this way. Oh, boy, things changed,
didn't they? They changed. And they went this
way and this way. And, you know, it all came back
around again. And just keep the endless cycle.
Searching, searching, searching, searching. Let's go this way.
Let's do this. Let's go there. Follow us. We got it. We found
it. Let's take my yoke upon you. Learn of me. Don't listen to
anybody else. Learn of me. Rest for yourself. Try to serve yourself. You can
never satisfy yourself. Self can never be satisfied. Never. It's a hard task. All right, let's look at the heart
of Christ, OK? He says, take my yoke. upon you
and learn of me." And then he gives himself. The Lord uses
himself as the greatest example of one under the yoke. That's
what he's talking about, Jenny. He says, learn of me. Take my
yoke upon you. Learn of me. I have this yoke. Now, let me say this before we
go any further, OK? Listen carefully. The Lord Jesus
Christ was meek and low. The Lord said this when he was
a man upon this earth. He's talking about submission,
subjection, and service and all that. When he was a man upon
this earth, he said, you learn of me. You learn. You watch me. You look at me. You learn of
me. This is the way I am. Then, he's not that way now. Jesus Christ is no longer gentle
Jesus meek and mild. No, sir. No, sir. Hebrews says this very clearly.
We see Jesus made a little lower than the angels, lowly, for the
purpose of death. He said, now we see him high,
glorified, lifted up. He's no longer meek and lowly. He's high and lofty. You know that. You know that.
The world doesn't know that, you see. They think he's still
that way. They don't know why he was that
way to begin with. All right? You understand that?
He's talking about when he was a man. At that point, he said,
I am meek. and lowly. All right. He said,
and now he uses himself as the supreme example of taking the
yoke of ownership. Who owned him? The Father. He said, I always do those things
that please my Heavenly Father. Did that delight him? Oh, it was his love, his life,
discipleship. He learned obedience, Hebrews
says, by the things he suffered. Though he was a son, yet learned
he obedience. He submitted to the Father in
all things. Service? Did he have this yoke? Was he a servant? I've already
quoted it to you. He said, I was one among you
that served. I'm here to serve. What did he
serve? What was his goal, Tammy? What was it that he came to serve?
Of glory. What else? God's people. That's it. That was his whole
life. Was he resting? Did he have peace? Did he have joy? Was he content? That's what rest is. Rest is
peace. It's not being worried. Rest is joy, not being sad because
of this or that. Rest is contentment, not wanting,
wishing, hoping. Did he have all that? Did he? Didn't work a job. All the things that cause us
worry and trouble. Submitted, totally submitted
to his head in all things, yoked, yoked. And he says, learn of
me. I am meek and lowly in heart. In heart, see out of the heart
of the issues of life. This is not some feigned outward
show of religion. I've known people who talked
real meek and real humble and lowly and talked about themselves
in such a way, but they were far from being that way. Proud.
I knew a man all the time. Every time he'd do something
out of meanness, he'd do it in a pious way and he'd, later on,
he'd ask for forgiveness. And before long, and men do you
know who I'm talking about, before long he would, I'd get so sick
of hearing him say, you're sorry. Because he wasn't sorry. He did
and said what he said on purpose, but he wanted to appear to be
meek. This is, he said, I'm meek and
lowly in heart. God looketh on the heart. This, you know, Mother Teresa
is a proud rebel, was a proud rebel against God. Proud rebel. Why? How do I know
that? She set herself up as an object
of worship. In heart. I look on the heart. Now, Christ
said, I am meek and lowly in heart. Meek and lowly. Now, again,
I looked at just these words up in Webster's dictionary. Meek,
lowly. Brother Barnard used to say,
you need two books, you need a Bible and a dictionary. I'm
growing to understand what he meant by that. Just look up a
word in our English language and see what it means. Meekness.
What does meekness mean? It means this. It means gentle. It means mild of temper. Mild
of temper. What causes temper? You get offended or something doesn't go your
temper, mild temper. Nothing bothers you. Meek, not easily provoked or
irritated. What irritates us? We don't get
our way. People do things we don't like.
People bother us. in an Irish faith. To be meek
is not irritating. To be meek is to be patient under
insult or injury. No matter what comes your way,
receive it. Did you hear all that? He said,
You learn of me. Now, the Lord didn't have to
take anything from anybody. Everything they said against
him was a lie. Every insult was just that. He
didn't deserve it. Neatness is to be gentle, mild
of temper. Mild of temper. Neat. Listen to this. Lowly. What lowly
means? Lowly means humble. Lowly means
not proud or ambitious. Lowly means low in position,
inferior, secondary. Does that remind you of any person? Maybe Philippians 2 or something
like that. Does that remind you of anything?
Lowly means inferior or secondary. who thought it not robbery to
be equal with God, made himself of no reputation,
inferior, secondary, and took upon him the form of a servant
and became obedient even to the death of the cross. Oh my, I wanted you to turn,
I'm running out of time, over to Hebrews 2, but it talks about the high sun being
made lowly for the suffering of death, and it says, because
the children were partakers of flesh and blood, he himself took
part in the same. Christ, the glory of God, for
the glory of God, the good salvation of his people, became secondary. His rights, who he was, he had
a right to everything. But he waived it. Are you understanding
where we're coming from here? He said, learn of me, you'll
find rest. He had all rights, all authorities
given unto me in heaven and earth. Unto him whom the angels bow,
and every knee bow, and every tongue. He who had all reputation. He who was the only one worthy
of titles and honor and glory and everything. reduced himself
to nothing and nobody and says, now you learn of me, you'll find
rest. You try to be somebody. The Lord said to the prophet,
he said, seekest thou great things for thyself? Seek them not. Why would a billionaire
need or want anything? Several years ago, one ran for
President of the United States, old Ross Perot, isn't he? He's a billionaire. Why? What
do you think? If you had a billion dollars,
you'd just sit in the House all day. You'd never want anything. Well, he did, and he didn't.
He didn't. He wanted to be, what did he want? President! Why? Not enough fame. Not enough glory. I want it all. I want to get
as high as I can get. Well, how high have you gotten?
Well, you get as high as you get. Not very high. Worms, you
know, can't get very high. Oh, my. God, Christ, the highest. He in the highest became a worm.
He said, I'm a worm. And no man saw him wanting to
learn to be and rest. There's no rest for somebody
moving up in the world, is there? Somebody wanting to be somebody,
there's no rest. Somebody that's content to be nobody. Does that
make sense, Dan? Makes perfect sense. Makes perfect sense. Secondary.
Now the world says, you ain't nothing. You're a nobody. Hath
not God chosen the foolish things of this world, things that are
not, to bring to nothing things at all? You see the wisdom of
God, don't you? Hath not God chosen the foolish
things, things that are not, things that are nothing? Yea,
he that is least is greatest. Who's going to inherit? Who's
going to inherit the earth? I mean, who's going to be on
the new earth? Everybody that's nothing. All
nobodies. God's going to inhabit his new
earth with a bunch of nobodies. Why? Because they'll appreciate
him. They'll see him as everything and all and in all. Anybody sees
anything in themselves, anything at all, they're not going to
be that. And all those nobodies, no ones from nowhere, They're just going to be happy
to be there. They're going to be happy to
be there. Those who realize they're dogs, appreciate the cross. They just
take a cross. He said, learn of me. Christ
meekly endured the death shame and even the death of the cross.
He said, learn of me and you'll find rest for your soul. Rest in him, who he is, what
he did. Learn of him as our example.
Willingly, meekly submit to God's will, God's providence. All insult,
all injury. Become lowly. That is secondary. Be content to be secondary. You
know, if you're lowly, you should never be offended by anything
or anybody. If you're really lowly. I can never offend my dog. I can't. Sometimes I call him,
you're stupid. Sometimes I call him smart. Other
times, you're stupid. You're acting like a dog. He's
never offended. Why? He's lowly. He knows he's dumb. A lowly person
will never be offended. Never be offended. If meek, you
know if you're meek, humble, you'll never be jealous. Never be envious. Would you like
that? Never be jealous or envious. Humble. Get what you get. Be happy about it. Our Lord said,
My yoke is easy and my burden is light. My yoke is easy and
my burden is light. Scripture says the way of the
transgressor is hard. As we noted, the way of the world
is hard, trying to get ahead. But to follow, you take a yoke,
you're a follower, not a leader, a follower. And you know, I thought about
this congregation, and I told this to someone not long ago
that I just would not want to be a pastor anywhere else because
99% of the folks in here are just
content to be followers. Meek and lowly. It's true, isn't
it? You think about every person.
Just think about somebody in here. How would you characterize
it? Meek and lowly. It's true, and you think that
of, just think of somebody. Meek and lowly. That's the way
God's people are. They're like Christ. They're
content to be led. It's easy to be, it's easy to
follow. And having closed with this illustration,
it's easy to follow. My yoke is easy. Burden is light. Some of us went on a vacation
recently. And the fans and the Hudson's and some others and
all my life all my married life anyway. I have driven our automobile
wherever we've gone. I mean nearly every mile I haven't
I mean I just I just she says I don't trust her to drive well
I try. You know, every now and then
I let her drive and I'll sleep with one eye open, one eye closed. She's a good driver. She's a
good driver. Never had any real, I don't know,
highway mishaps back into somebody's car every now and then or the
garage door or something like that, but a good driver. Nevertheless,
I have always driven every mile. And I like to have the map. I
like to have them out. I just like to know where I'm
going. Are you that way, Stan? Stan, are you that way? Are you
content for Hannah to say, well, we turned it, or would you like
to look at it yourself? All right, after you drive 12
hours, are you resting? Are you relaxed? You have a good
trip? Yes, I'd crunch it. Managed it. She jumped out of
the car. She's been sleeping for 10 hours. Oh, it's wonderful. Right. This is hitting home,
guys. But on that vacation that we
went. I said, we're driving your car,
not we, but you are driving your car. And I sat over in the passenger
side. And Ron Fannin and Wesley Hudson
had the Atlas. I didn't even have a map. It
secretly is driving me crazy. We were going to a place I didn't
know where I'd never been before, and I didn't know. But nevertheless,
they had the map. And I trusted them to get us
where we were going. And I sat over in that seat,
and all I did was rest. I looked out the window. Boy,
this is fun. This trip, taking a trip is fun,
isn't it? Read a while, laugh, read some
more, look out the window. Let's eat something. Just rested
the whole way. Why? I wasn't leaving. I was following her. Somebody
else was in charge. And that's so, just can't rest. Oh, that's good. Well, our God
brings and rules. Take this yoke. The old yoke
is faith. That's what it is. This yoke
is faith. Learn faith. Submit. Bow. Follow. Follow. You'll find rest. It's easy.
It's easy. It's like, you know, the Lord,
and now, He said, you must, through much
tribulation, enter the kingdom of heaven. This road is not smooth. Our Lord didn't promise that.
He said, you must, through much tribulation, enter the kingdom
of heaven. Yet, he promised. He said he
would not put on us. There are burdens, there are
trials. He said he would not put on us. And he's the one who
decides who can carry what. And he said he would not put
on us more than we're able to bear. My burden is light. And Paul said this light affliction.
Paul had more on him than any human being ever. Didn't he? Ever! And died alone by his head
cut off. But he was resting. He's under
the yoke. He said, I'm a bond slave. Willing. And he said, and Paul concluded
by saying, this light affliction. Light? Paul, how can you say
what you're going through is light? Christ said it would be light.
He said, it would not put on me more than I was able to bear.
Did he bear it? He sure did. A slight affliction
worketh for us a far more exceeding eternal weight or burden of glory. Take my yoke on you. Learn of
me, meek, lowly, hard. You'll find rest for your soul.
My yoke is easy. The way of the world, the way
of the trans- It's hard. It's hard. And my burden is life. It's life. Okay, let's sing a
closing hymn. In number three thirty four and
let's stand. To sing the first and last verse. In number three thirty four. Be Thou my vision, O Lord of
my heart. Not be all else to me, save that
Thou art. Thou my best thought, by day
or by night. Waking or sleeping, Thy presence
my light. Last verse. I, King of Heaven,
my victory won. May I reach heaven, O bright
heaven's sun, heart of my own. Never be calm. Still be my vision, O ruler of
all. I don't know if I'm going to
be able to do this. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. you Thank you. you.