Do you ever feel tired? Do you ever feel weary? If you don't, you would be rather unusual. You see if you are an adult of average weight, here is what you accomplish in 24 hours. The heart beats 103, 689 times. Your blood travels 168 million miles. You breathe 23,040 times. You inhale 438 cubic feet of air. You eat 3 1/4 qtr. lbs of food. You drink 2.9 quarts of liquids. You lose 7/8 lbs of waste. You speak 25,000 words. You move 750 muscles. Your nails grow .000046th inches. Your hair grows .01714 inches. You exercise 7 million brain cells.[1]
Now we all experience what is called physical fatigue, but there are other kinds of fatigue that in my opinion are far worse than the physical kind. There is mental fatigue. There is emotional fatigue and worst of all, there is spiritual fatigue. Now for physical fatigue you need sleep, but for any other kind of fatigue you need rest. There is a difference. You can go to a drug store and buy something that will put you to sleep, but you cannot buy anything that will give you rest, because rest is not a condition of the body, it is a condition of the soul.
I saw a Starbuck's commercial recently and I felt that I was watching reality TV because even though I don't drink coffee, it hit me where I find myself far too often.
If there is one term that describes where people basically are living today it is overload. Most of us are overwhelmed, overworked, over committed, over anxious, over matched, over extended and over loaded. Our tanks are on empty and we are running on fumes most of the time.
Let me tell you what overload is. It is a symptom of deficit living. Overloaded people live in deficit - emotional deficit, relational deficit, and spiritual deficit. If you have ever overdrawn your checking account, you know the immediate stress and pressure that comes. You immediately want to find a way to cover it, but where do you find money when you are completely out?
Well, it is just as possible to get overdrawn in life. When you are overwhelmed, you find yourself living in deficit. You get overdrawn in your marriage, overdrawn with your kids, and you just plain run out of the spiritual, mental, relational, and emotional currency that it takes to really enjoy life.
It is not uncommon for one child to have the following commitments: school for eight hours five days a week, homework an average of 2-3 hours a night, perhaps piano lessons which doesn't include practice time, maybe karate lessons or perhaps they play soccer or football or baseball or they play in the band or they have a job. Notice I haven't even talked about church and youth group activities.
I've noticed something for the last several years that has really bothered me. Has it occurred to you that you rarely ever see kids outside playing anymore? I know there is more than one reason for that including all of these technological toys that keep them inside, but a big part of the problem is many children have no down time. They don't have any time to play. They don't have time to read, draw, build stuff with legos and very little time to enjoy their family. Why? They are overloaded.
Guess What? When kids are overloaded, so are parents because who do you think has to take the kids to all these activities? I just gave you the schedule for one child. Multiply that schedule by 2 or 3 kids and you can see how life starts spinning out of control for everybody and the tail literally begins to wag the dog.
Overloaded people need words that begin with the prefix "Re." Words like: restore, revive, recover, reflect, relax, replenish, renew, and refresh. Stop with that last word - refresh. In the next four weeks, I want to share with you how life can be shockingly refreshing whether it is lived on a sunny Saturday afternoon or a rainy Monday morning. I don't believe rainy days and Mondays always have to get you down. You can "smooth out your day" and find life to be "shockingly refreshing", but there is one condition. You must be where you need to be in relation to Jesus Christ and Jesus Christ must be where He needs to be in relation to you.
I want you to listen to these words of Jesus that we are going to study today, which are as refreshing as enjoying a cool breeze, sitting under an umbrella at the ocean and drinking cold lemonade.
"Come to Me, all you who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take My yoke upon you and learn from Me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For My yoke is easy and My burden is light." (Matthew 11:28-30)
Eugene Peterson in his contemporary English version called "The Message" quotes it this way. "Are you tired? Worn out? Burned out on religion? Come to me. Get away with me and you'll recover your life. I'll show you how to take a real rest. Walk with me and work with me - watch how I do it. Learn the unforced rhythms of grace. I won't lay anything heavy or ill-fitting on you. Keep company with me and you'll learn to live freely and lightly."
Now in verse 28 the word "labor" literally means working to the point of absolute exhaustion. The word for "heavy laden" pictures a man laboring under a tremendous burden that is so heavy that he can no longer carry it. He is talking about a state of unrest.
Everywhere you turn in the world in which we are living you find unrest. There is international unrest, social unrest, moral unrest, and economical unrest. If you are tired of living on the edge or living on edge, if you are tired of a life that is nothing more than another day and another dollar, if you are tired of feeling that all you are doing is making time and taking space, if you are burdened down and beaten up, tired of your job, tired of your marriage, tired of your problems, tired of pain, tired of guilt or just tired of being tired, listen up and let Jesus show you how to "smooth out your day."
Now the key to living life to the fullest and making life something you enjoy from the beginning rather than endure to the end is found in three verbs in these verses. The verb "Come", the verb "Take" and the verb "Learn." In those words lie the secret on how to "smooth out your day."
I. Listen To The Concerns Of Jesus
"Come to Me, all you who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give your rest." (Matthew 11:28)
The first thing that Jesus says is so simple. He says simply, "Come to Me." That is, get in My presence, listen to My voice, hear My words. When you come to Jesus just as you are, He will give you all that He has and all that He has will be all that you need. Now when Jesus says come to me, what he really means is, you've got to turn your back on anything and everything that you might substitute for Him.
You see the reason why so many people are restless, tired, burned out, on edge, frustrated and stressed is because they are looking for rest in all of the wrong places. There are some people who try to find peace and rest in pleasure.
Pleasure
Drink
Party
Hop from Bed to Bed
Woman to Woman
Marriage to Marriage
Trying to find the rest that is just not there.
Others try to find it in performance. They work. They scramble. They burn the mid-night oil. They do all that they know to do, the best way they know how to do it, but still no rest.
Other people try to find it in position. They climb all over other people and even step over their own family trying to get to the top only to find out that if you ever do get to the top, it wasn't even worth the trip.
Some people try to find it in possessions. Do you know what the Bible says about making money? It says that no matter how much you make, you will never have enough.
"Whoever loves money never has enough money; whoever loves wealth is never satisfied with his income. This too is meaningless." (Ecclesiastes 5:10 NIV)
People just don't understand that money can buy a house, but it can't buy a home. Money can buy influence, but it can't buy friendship. Money can buy sex, but it can't buy love. Money can buy anything except happiness. It can take you anywhere except to heaven.
If you are looking for rest and peace and contentment and satisfaction I'll save you a lot of heartache and a lot of trouble and give you a shortcut by letting you know that you won't find it in pleasure, performance, position or possessions. You will only find it in a person - Jesus Christ. It was Augustine who said, "The soul is restless and it will not rest until it finds its rest in God."
II. Live Under The Control Of Jesus
"Take My yoke upon you" (Matthew 11:29) Now, a yoke was a wooden bar that was especially made to fit around the neck and shoulders of an ox. The farmer would attach a harness to that yoke and then the farmer could control that big ox and guide that ox anywhere he wanted him to go. The reason why Jesus used the yoke is because it was a symbol of submission.
What Jesus is saying here is, if you want to find rest in this life, and you want to find peace in your heart, you've got to get under my authority and submit yourself totally to me. In a war, peace cannot come until one side surrenders to the other side. The same thing is true in life. If you haven't found out yet, you will soon. Life is a war. Everyday is a battle. You will not have real peace until you surrender your life to Christ.
People think of surrender as being an act of defeat, but in life surrender to Jesus Christ is the first step to victory.
I have a habit in my life at Christmastime that every time I go by one of those Salvation Army people ringing those bells, I always put money in that bucket. Now, one of the reasons I do that is out of respect for the man who founded the Salvation Army. His name was William Booth. Those who knew him said that William Booth was one of the most contented, joyful, happy, satisfied people they ever knew. He never had a lot. He wasn't a rich man though he could have been wealthy. He put all the money back into the organization that he founded for ministry. Someone once asked William Booth, "Mr. Booth - What is the secret to peace in your life?" William Booth replied, "I never say no to the Lord."
I want you to notice something else. Jesus says, "Take My Yoke." In other words we are to take the same yoke that Jesus also took. Jesus is not asking us to do something He did not do Himself, because He voluntarily took on the yoke of His father in heaven. Jesus said in John 8:29: And He who sent Me is with Me. The Father has not left Me alone, for I always do those things that please Him." (John 8:29)
He also said this: "For I have come down from heaven, not to do My own will, but the will of Him who sent Me." (John 6:38)
The only person who ever lived on this planet with perfect peace in His life from the time he was born to the time He died was Jesus Christ. The reason for that peace was He had put on the yoke of His heavenly father and surrendered His will to the Father's will.
Now we get down to the crux of the real matter on how to smooth out your day. The question you need to ask yourself and answer today is this. What is going to guide you in the moral and spiritual decisions you have to make in your daily life? If you are single, are you going to live together before you marry? Are you going to have sexual relations before you marry? If you are a single woman and you get pregnant, will you get an abortion? If you are married and things are kind of tough will you get a divorce? You are a business person and you've got a chance to make some money, but it will require some shady ethics, some questionable practices, what will you do? You really only have two choices in every type of decision like that, that you'll make in your life. Either you will follow God in what He tells you in His word or you'll follow the world and what it tells you with its customs.
If you are going to have peace and rest and if you are going to smooth out the days of your life you must live under the absolute control of Jesus. Incidentally, the earlier you get under this yoke the better, the happier, the more joyful and peaceful you will be. Listen to this verse: "It is good for a man to bear the yoke while he is young. (Lamentations 3:27, NIV)
The earlier in life that you surrender your life to Jesus Christ the better off you will be.
III. Learn From The Conduct of Jesus
"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." (Matthew 11:29-30)
Jesus tells us we are to "learn from Him." We are to get into His school on a daily basis and let Him be the teacher and we are to be the student, but in this case Jesus is not only the teacher, He is the subject. That phrase can also be translated "learn of Me."
Even 2,000 years since He was raised from the dead there is still so much on a daily basis we can learn from the life of Jesus. You think you carry a heavy load? From the day that Jesus Christ was born, He carried the weight of the entire world's sin, sorrow, and suffering on His shoulders. Everywhere He went people were standing in line crying out touch me, bless me, heal me, hear me, help me, and teach me, but He never lost His peace and He never lost his patience. He was always cool, calm and collected. That is why He can say, "If you come to Me, I will give you rest." That word rest doesn't mean to just quit working. Do you know what the word literally means? It means to "be refreshed." That same word is used in this passage.
"I am glad about the coming of Stephanas, Fortunatus and Achaicus, for what was lacking on your part they supplied. For they refreshed my spirit and yours. (I Corinthians 16: 17-18)
It is used again in this verse. "Let me have joy from you in the Lord; refresh my heart in the Lord." (Philemon v. 20)
A life lived with Jesus, in Jesus and for Jesus is shockingly refreshing.
Just a few years ago, Teresa and I took a mini honeymoon trip to San Francisco. We drove down the coast and went by a place called San Juan Capistrano, California. Many of you know that the Swallows are little birds that are famous for migrating to and from this beautiful place in California. Did you know that every March hundreds of these little birds fly 6000 miles over the ocean from Argentina all the way back to San Juan Capistrano, California? Now how do they do it? They can't swim and they certainly can't fly 6000 miles without stopping.
How do they do it? Each swallow carries a large twig in its mouth. When the birds get tired, they drop their twigs into the water, land on them and rest until they are ready to resume their flight.
Life is a journey over water. Sometimes the water is still, sometimes the water is choppy. Sometimes the water is smooth, sometimes the waves are rough. Some days it is nothing but sun and some days it is nothing but storms. We all get weary in the flight and when you do, you can go to the cross of Jesus and lay that cross on the water of your life. No matter what kind of water it is, it will always float and you can always rest.
Some of you here today are weighted down with sin and with guilt. If you are tired of not being where you ought to be spiritually, you are tired of trying to fight the battle of life by yourself and own your own, and if you would like to come to the one who can smooth out every day, then all you have to do is come to Jesus. He will forgive your sins. He will get rid of your guilt. He will ease your yoke. He will lift your burden and He will give you a rest that will last the rest of your life.
[1] The Executive Speech Writer, Newsletter Vol. 15, No. 6.