Help for a Weary Soul
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19 But you, O Lord, reign forever; your throne endures to all generations.
20 Why do you forget us forever, why do you forsake us for so many days?
21 Restore us to yourself, O Lord, that we may be restored! Renew our days as of old—
22 unless you have utterly rejected us, and you remain exceedingly angry with us.
Prayer
Introduction
We are going to take a short break this week from our study of Philippians this morning. We will resume it next week picking up where we left off.
I have to admit, I am tired. Exhausted really. Not so much physically. I’m not about to fall asleep or anything like that, but I am totally drained. Spiritually, emotionally, and even mentally, I feel like I’m walking through a desert and that there is no oasis anywhere in sight.
I may be the only one this morning that feels that way or ever has felt that way, and if so, I’m sorry, but this sermon is pointed more towards me. I need to preach the Gospel to myself this morning. But the reality is that many here this morning probably do feel the same way I do. Many of you likely feel beat down by various things and need some rest and rejuvenation. Maybe you’ve felt that way before, or you know that there will likely be a season in the future that is difficult to walk through.
Fortunately, we are not the first people to feel drained and empty. Fortunately Scripture tells us where we can find rest.
Scripture
Our passage this morning is . If you are able, please stand for the reading of God’s Word. We do this to show appreciation to God for His Word and in recognition that these are among the most important Words we could possibly hear this morning. says,
28 Come to me, all who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest.
29 Take my yoke upon you, and learn from me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls.
30 For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light.”
28 Come to me, all who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest.
29 Take my yoke upon you, and learn from me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls.
30 For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light.”
“Come to me, all who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you, and learn from me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light.”
28 Come to me, all who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest.
29 Take my yoke upon you, and learn from me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls.
30 For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light.”
28 Come to me, all who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest.
29 Take my yoke upon you, and learn from me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls.
30 For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light.”
Thank you, you may be seated.
Weariness and tiredness are part of life. Everyone needs sleep. Everyone needs spiritual refreshment. These things are part of the normal ebb and flow of living. That is to say, rest is not a bad thing. God instituted rest into the created order by Himself resting on the seventh day.
Resting and recovering is actually a good thing. It proclaims that we are dependent creatures. It causes us to rely on He who does not grow weary or faint. That is what our passage ultimately tells us, that if we come to Christ, we will find rest for our souls.
Certainly, there are ways to misuse rest. When resting and recovery become slothfulness and laziness, we have taken the good gift of rest and misused and abused it. On the opposite end of that spectrum is the person who refuses to rest. Who is proud and acts as if they don’t need times of recovery. When a person does this, they are rejecting idea that they need God. That they are dependent creatures. They reject that every breath they take is not really their own, but is from God.
Resting and recovering in Christ is a good thing and is necessary. In fact, refusing to rest rightly is condemned in Scripture. Even in our passage, Christ says to come to Him all who labor and are heavy laden. Not doing so is disobedience. Scripture actually condemns those who will not rest in God. says this,
11 For by people of strange lips and with a foreign tongue the Lord will speak to this people,
12 to whom he has said, “This is rest; give rest to the weary; and this is repose”; yet they would not hear.
“For by people of strange lips and with a foreign tongue the LORD will speak to this people, to whom he has said, “This is rest; give rest to the weary; and this is repose”; yet they would not hear.”
Or consider which says,
16 Thus says the Lord: “Stand by the roads, and look, and ask for the ancient paths, where the good way is; and walk in it, and find rest for your souls. But they said, ‘We will not walk in it.’
“Thus says the LORD: “Stand by the roads, and look, and ask for the ancient paths, where the good way is; and walk in it, and find rest for your souls. But they said, ‘We will not walk in it.’”
It is the rebellious heart that refuses to rest. And to be clear, I am not talking primarily about physical rest. Physical rest is included in this. It is necessary. The person who does not rest like they should physically is probably not resting like they should spiritually. These things are connected, but ultimately what we need is rest in Christ.
But how do we find rest in Christ? I mean, it is easy to say, “Rest in Christ!” But how? What do I do to rest in Christ? There are some who would say that you have to just let go and stop striving. To become nothing and just be filled up. I don’t think that is accurate though. It sounds more like eastern meditation than what Christ says in our passage. Jesus speaks about taking on a yoke – His yoke.
“Take my yoke upon you and learn from me.” Christ equates taking His yoke with learning from Him. Being discipled by Him. Think about the concept of yoking animals together. You take two animals and you basically connect them. You cause them to walk step in step. To act as one creature. Where one animal turns, the other goes as well. Resting in Christ – finding rest for your weary soul doesn’t come from trying to passively become one with Christ. Instead it comes by actively yoking with Christ. Becoming His disciple and walking step by step with Him. As the passage in says, walking in the good, ancient path.
Maybe a different analogy will help. Think of your spiritual life like a sponge. Life wrings your sponge out. Doing ministry wrings your sponge out. Trials and temptations wring your sponge out. Sometimes it feels like you have been wrung out and left in the sun and you’ve become shrunken and dry and hard. A sponge in that state is useless as a sponge. But a sponge isn’t meant to be wrung out over and over again without being dunked into a bucket and filled with fresh water.
Life is like that. We are constantly being wrung out, so what bucket do we need to be dunked into? We need to be saturated with Christ. We need to dive deeply and regularly into His Word. We need fall on our knees in prayer. We need to hear the proclamation of the Word of God. We need to sing psalms, hymns and spiritual songs. We need what they called in the olden days, the “ordinary means of grace”. We need to walk in lockstep with Christ – yoked to Him. Walking in the good, ancient path. What Christ is calling us to is to be disciples of Him. To learn from Him by walking with Him.
There are many causes to spiritual weariness. Most of the causes are just part of life like I mentioned earlier. Life, ministry (and when I talk about ministry, I don’t mean only what the pastor does), temptations and trials. All those things and more can and do tire us. But Scripture doesn’t condemn being weak and tired. Scripture condemns trying to find rest somewhere other than in Christ.
We see that all around us – even in our own lives. People who are struggling turn to all sorts of things to try to feel better. They may turn to alcohol or drugs, or maybe they turn to entertainment and hobbies and leisure and ultimately slothfulness to mask their spiritual dryness. Sometimes people turn to things that are not bad in themselves. They may turn to pets or family or their children to try to get filled up, but none of those things can give the type of rest and fullness that we all so desperately need. Only Christ can. Walking in his path.
There are many people in this world who labor and are heavy laden. People who are not believers are weighed down and encumbered with the guilt of their sin, but without Christ, there is no rest. That is ultimately what Hebrews chapters 3 and 4 teach. That true rest only comes through Christ.
So, in our culture of busyness and constant going. In our culture of escapism where we try to numb ourselves to reality through entertainment or substances. In our culture where laziness and binge-watching is considered a virtue. Our culture is crying out for rest. Everywhere you look, people are asking for someone to lift their burden. And we, because we know True Rest can point people to Him. We can tell everyone who labors and is heavy laden to flee to Christ. He will give you rest if you will become His disciple.
That is the beauty of this passage. All who are weary can find rest in Christ. As I said in the introduction, I’m tired. I’m beat, but in Christ I can find true, restorative rest. If you are like me and feel beat down, there is rejuvenation in Christ. If you feel like wandering in the desert wilderness, know that Christ is near ready to give you water – life – himself. Look at with me.
1 For I do not want you to be unaware, brothers, that our fathers were all under the cloud, and all passed through the sea,
2 and all were baptized into Moses in the cloud and in the sea,
3 and all ate the same spiritual food,
4 and all drank the same spiritual drink. For they drank from the spiritual Rock that followed them, and the Rock was Christ.
“For I do not want you to be unaware, brothers, that our fathers were all under the cloud, and all passed through the sea, and all were baptized into Moses in the cloud and in the sea, and all ate the same spiritual food, and all drank the same spiritual drink. For they drank from the spiritual Rock that followed them, and the Rock was Christ.”
I don’t have time to unpack this entire passage, but simply put, Christ is not far off from you to drink from. Fill your sponge and let it be wrung out over and over for the glory of Christ. Because when we are weak, He is strong. It always was his strength that carries us through. If you are in a season of drought, drink from the spiritual Rock of Christ and drink deeply from that fountain that will never run dry. Every other fountain will fail. Only in Christ can we find rest and spiritual nourishment – only by walking with Christ – yoked to Christ.
I want to make one small corrective before closing. I don’t want to make it sound like entertainment or leisure are necessarily bad things in themselves. The problem is when we turn to things other than Christ to find spiritual rest. Nothing can satiate our spiritual thirst but Christ.
Conclusion
This sermon has been long on application, so I will not belabor the point here. If you’re a Believer and you feel weary, flee to Jesus. Dive into His Word. If there is unconfessed sin in your life, that will drain you so quickly and dry you right up. Confess and repent of it and be filled. Find rest. Cast off that burden and take on Christ’s. Brothers and Sisters, let us all rest in Christ by being submerged in His Word, and in prayer and in the other means He has given us.
If you are an unbeliever, this passage is as much to you as to the believer. Christ calls you to take on His yoke. To walk with Him. To be His disciple. You cannot remove the weight of sin and guilt on your own. Every attempt to remove it or to hide it proves to fail eventually. But Christ’s burden is light and His yoke is easy. Call out to Jesus. Repent of your sin. Throw it off and take up Christ’s yoke. Trusting in Him alone and walking in His way.
We are about to transition into a time of worship through response. We believe that any time we hear the Word of God, we respond either in worship or in rebellion. Please do not rebel by seeking rest outside of Christ. Flee to Him. Worship Him by obeying and walking with Him as His disciple. Worship Him by learning from Him. I will be on the front row worshipping with you. If you need anything at all, please come talk to me. I’d be happy to pray for you or talk to you about how Christ’s burden is light and easy. The front is also always opened if you’d like to pray up here. Let us worship Christ who is our great Sabbath Rest.
We will use as our closing prayer, so let’s pray.
5 For God alone, O my soul, wait in silence, for my hope is from him.
6 He only is my rock and my salvation, my fortress; I shall not be shaken.
7 On God rests my salvation and my glory; my mighty rock, my refuge is God.
8 Trust in him at all times, O people; pour out your heart before him; God is a refuge for us. Selah
Amen.
As you will probably hear through the grapevine, Ruby is no longer an employee of Emmanuel Baptist Church. The Trustees voted unanimously on Wednesday night to terminate her employment and did so on Thursday afternoon.
The reason for her termination was because of serious discrepancies found in the church’s finances. The church is hiring a CPA to audit our finances and we are working with law enforcement as they investigate the situation. Because of the nature of an ongoing investigation, there is not much more we can say about it at this time.
However, there are some things we want you to know. First, the church is committed to being as transparent and opened about the process as we can be. We believe that sunlight is a good thing and that things that are hidden should be brought to light. Second, we are committed to learning from this situation and fixing any failures within the church that allowed this to happen. Third, we are committed to the truth. Because of our commitment to the truth, we will not be able to give details until we are certain that the details are true. As the saying goes, “Falsehood flies, and the truth comes limping after it”.
We understand that there will be rumors and talking and questions, but let me encourage you not to feed the rumor mill, and not to believe everything you hear. There will be things that we cannot comment about right away, but we will tell you everything we can. If you have questions, we have asked Kevin Payne to be the spokesperson for this issue, so feel free to direct your questions to him, and direct other people to him if they have questions as well.
Let me pray for you and us as a church.