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[0:00] This message was recorded at Vision Baptist Church in Alfred, Georgia. It is our prayer that you will be blessed by the preaching of God's Word. Take your Bibles, if you would, and turn with me to Matthew chapter 11. Matthew chapter 11.

[0:11] We serve a great God. We have a great book that explains us about Him. We can learn about Him. And in this passage, the Scripture is calling us to come to Him. He invites you to come to Him.

[0:23] Look, if you would, in Matthew chapter 11, in verse 20, the Bible says, Then began He to upbraid the cities, wherein most of His mighty works were done, because they repented not.

[0:34] Woe unto thee, Chorazin! Woe unto thee, Bethsaida! For the mighty works which were done in you, if they had been done in Tyre and Sodom, they would have repented long ago in sackcloth and ashes.

[0:47] So here's what's going on. Jesus has been stationed in Capernaum, and He has been doing His ministry, and He is looking around at people that have really been ignoring Him.

[1:00] They've not been fighting Him. They've not been flocking to Him. They've been ignoring Him. And so the first thing He does in this passage today is He severely rebukes them.

[1:10] He said to them, If these things had been done, that had been done in you, they would have repented. They saw, and they would have seen, and they would have repented. You have ignored.

[1:21] He rebukes them because they did not repent. He rebukes them because of their, not because of their rebellion, but because they ignored Him. I hope you'll listen to this.

[1:32] They didn't rebel. They're kind of like us. You know, we go to church all the time. We love God. Quote, unquote, we just, and we're not really bad at Him. We're not really for Him. We're just kind of indifferent.

[1:44] And that's where they were found. They didn't stand against Jesus directly. They simply ignored Him. They were indifferent. They continued living their lives, doing their business, unaffected by all that Jesus was doing.

[1:59] Jesus and what He was doing was so insignificant to them, they didn't even find it worth arguing about or discussing. They did not take Jesus seriously.

[2:11] The majority of the world is like these three cities, indifferent. In the parable of the wedding feast that you find in Matthew chapter 22 and verse 5, you find that attitude.

[2:22] The Bible said they made light of it. And they went their ways, one to his farm, another to his merchandise. In that story, there's this big wedding feast, and the guy that's in charge invites them to the wedding feast.

[2:35] And when he does, the people get the invitation to the wedding feast. They're like, not interested. I got a lot of other stuff to do. They're not mad about it. They're not glad about it. They're just like, nah, I got a lot to do.

[2:45] Not important to me. They paid no attention to the invitation. They went on their way. They continued doing their business.

[2:56] They didn't mistreat or kill the messengers. They didn't get mad. They weren't ugly. They just didn't care. Apathy. Matthew 22, 6, in that same story, it says, And the remnant took his servants and entreated them spitefully and slew them.

[3:09] But not these guys. Not these guys. What they did was just ignore him. That's what's going on in the passage. They're just ignoring Jesus. It's kind of like what happened when Noah was building the ark.

[3:22] That ark would condemn them. But here's what the Bible says in Luke 17, 26. And as it was in the days of Noah, so shall it be in the days of the Son of Man. They did eat and drank.

[3:33] They married wives. They were given in marriage until the day that Noah entered into the ark. And the flood came and destroyed them all. Can you imagine? Here's a guy building this great big boat. And he is preaching for 120 years.

[3:45] And saying to them, you better repent of your sins. You better get to know God. You better come to God because you're doing wrong. And God is about to destroy. Death is at the door.

[3:56] God is about to destroy. Come. And some of them got ugly. And some of them got mean. But the majority of them just went about their life. Crazy old Noah over there in the corner.

[4:07] Preaching and acting like something important is about to happen. But we will ignore him. We will eat. We will drink. We will get married. We have lives to live. We don't need to worry about what he said.

[4:18] Luke 17, 28. They did the same thing in the days of Lot. They ate and drank and bought and sold. They planted and they built. They didn't criticize. Some did.

[4:28] They didn't attack. Some did. The majority simply ignored what was going on. And that made Jesus angry. That made him angry. Look at your Bible.

[4:40] Matthew 11, 22. He's angry. He is upset about just being ignored. He would rather you punch him or embrace him but not ignore him.

[4:51] Just like he's not important. The fact is he says in Revelation chapter 3 that he prefers that you be hot or cold, not lukewarm. He would rather there be some reaction.

[5:02] In Matthew 11, 22 he said, It shall be more tolerable for Tyre and Sodom at the day of judgment than for you. And thou, Capernaum, which art exalted unto heaven, shall be brought down to hell.

[5:14] For if the mighty works which have been done in thee had been done in Sodom, it would have remained unto this day. So get the story. You remember Sodom and Gomorrah and how they got destroyed? Fire came down from heaven and just obliterated them.

[5:26] He said, You know what? If Sodom and Gomorrah had seen such great moves of God, if Jesus, if God in the flesh had come and lived among them and they had seen him, they would have repented and I would have never destroyed that city.

[5:40] But they didn't. I didn't show them. I did show you and you ignored. You know what? Sodom and Gomorrah is better off than your city. Verse 24, I say to you that it shall be more tolerable for the land of Sodom in the day of judgment than for thee.

[5:54] So he uses a word in verse 21. Got your Bible open? Matthew 11, 21. Circle the word woe. Woe unto thee, Chorazin. Woe unto thee, Bethsaida.

[6:05] For if the mighty works which were done in you had been done in Tyre and Sodom, they would have repented long ago in sackcloth and ashes. God said, Man, I can't believe this.

[6:15] You are seeing God. You are watching God work and God move and you just ignore what God's doing. It's just not important to you. You're just ignoring it.

[6:27] Whoa. It'll be more tolerable for Sodom and Gomorrah and the day of judgment. You get that word? More tolerable. In other words, God's going to bring a punishment on Sodom and Gomorrah.

[6:39] And we know how horrific that was. That was a horrible place of immorality. That was a place where a man, the most righteous man, was willing to give his daughters to the Sodomites.

[6:51] This is a place where men came and wanted to have sexual relations with the angels that came down. And everybody in the world heard that and they were like, yeah, that's a wicked place. And God said, yeah, well, believe me.

[7:02] I'm not as upset with them as I am with you. That's pretty wild and pretty strong statement right out of the Bible. They had seen the miracles. They knew God was at work.

[7:13] It just didn't matter to them. The Bible says in Hebrews 10, 26, For if we sin willfully, after that we have received the knowledge of truth, there remains no more sacrifice for sins, but a certain fearful looking out of, out looking for of judgment and fire indignation, which shall devour the adversaries.

[7:36] Do you understand what's going on? Jesus has been at work. They're not mad and they're not glad. They're just like, who cares? It's not a big deal. So what if he's raising people from the dead?

[7:48] So what if he's working miracles? So what if he's got a human flesh not impressed, not impressed at all? You need to remember that the greater privilege brings the greater responsibility.

[8:01] The greater privilege brings the greater responsibility. The greater the light, the greater the punishment for not receiving it. So the passage of scripture, Jesus is reprimanding them.

[8:13] He's saying, I cannot get over this. You guys are just ignoring me. I'm the God of heaven. I know the Father. The Father knows me.

[8:24] I've been working miracles. I've been doing great things. And you just act like I'm not even here. I am upset with you. The cities that he mentions, there's Tyre and Sidon.

[8:37] And Tyre and Sidon, they represent the corruption and the worthlessness of the pagans, the immoral and the godless. Tyre is a city where, when the Bible says in Isaiah 14 and Ezekiel 28, it's going to explain who Satan is.

[8:53] Tyre is the city where that false god was who represented the devil was. Now you've got to be a Jew to understand what an insult that is. They think they're the best people in the world.

[9:03] And the people of Tyre, they're extremely wicked. And the people of Tyre, they're just an abomination. And they know that. And the God of heaven, Jesus, looks at them and says, you know what? Tyre and Sidon, as wicked as they were, as godless as they were, as far away from God as they were, if they'd have seen what you're seeing, they would have responded.

[9:21] But you are ignoring me. And then he uses the word Sodom, the city of Sodom. And he talks to them about the city of Sodom, the wicked city. But if they'd seen it, they would have repented.

[9:33] Sodom is moral depravity. Moral depravity. It is like such an abomination that God sends fire and brimstone from heaven and destroys the city.

[9:43] And God says, guys, I'm at work among you. Jesus said, I'm working among you. I'm working miracles. He lives in Capernaum. You know, that's his home city. That's where he does his ministry out of.

[9:55] They know him. He lives just down the street. They know who he is. But they're ignoring him. And he says, hey, I'm tired of being ignored. Tired of being ignored.

[10:06] You are ignoring my work. Before I give you the last thing about that, can I just say to you, boy, what a sad state that Christians can get into today. You can get into it.

[10:17] I can get into it. We can get to the point in our spiritual lives where, you know, when we first got saved, we really got excited about the things of God. But now we're not cold. We're not mean.

[10:28] We're not mad. We're not upset. We're just kind of blah. We just sit on the bench, sit on the seat, listen to the message, go about our lives. The Bible's not that real, not that powerful, not that important.

[10:39] Serving God's not that big a deal to me. Though we're saved and God's not going to get angry with us, God's not going to send us to hell. So that's not the point. It's pretty sad to think that it's kind of like when you got married, you were on that honeymoon.

[10:50] You were so excited about being married to your wife. And now you're kind of like, ho hum, this is the way it is. Just accept it. All the romance is gone. And he's saying, hey, don't be indifferent.

[11:01] Let me give you one more thing about this little part of the scripture here. It's pretty obvious that there are degrees of punishment. Because in the day of judgment, it will be more tolerable for one group than it will be for the other group.

[11:14] In the day of judgment, it will be more tolerable. So those that have heard more truth and know more truth and had more opportunity will receive the most punishment.

[11:26] And by the way, another truth in the passage is this. Being religious and being Jews was no guarantee the punishment couldn't come. The Jews would have felt secure in their traditions and in their families.

[11:39] Can I just say one of the sad things is I've been raised and my mother's family was a godly family. My uncles on my mother's side were godly. Two of my cousins were missionaries.

[11:51] Several preachers in the family on my mother's side. My dad's side was not like that at all. But my mother's side was that I've been in church all of my life. And somewhere along the way, people like you and I, people like you and me, we've become very complacent and satisfied.

[12:05] And Jesus loses his all. That ought never be the story of us. It ought to be, boy, I know him. And before I move on, can I just say this?

[12:17] The more light you have, the more responsible you are. The more you know, the more responsible you are. And you could actually be sitting in this auditorium today and not born again and not on your way to heaven.

[12:29] You are religious like the Jews were. You're religious like the Jews were. You know all the answers. You know all the things. You know all about God, but you don't know God. And you're just indifferent. You're like, well, you know, I've heard it all.

[12:40] And I know everything you're supposed to do. And I could tell you how to get saved. I could tell you all that stuff. But it's just not that big a deal to me. That's the person that most angered him in the story. Not those who rebelled against him so much.

[12:53] Not those who were just absolutely cold and rebellious and wanted to hurt him. He was looking for those. He was angry with those who just said, ah, not important. Not on my radar.

[13:04] I don't care. God's not that big a deal. Where are you this morning? Where are you living this morning? Does God make your radar? Does the word of God capture your attention?

[13:17] Do you realize how important God is? Or are you indifferent? Are you like, eh, not a big deal. Either way you want to go. Take your Bible. Let's go to the second passage of Scripture this morning.

[13:29] Matthew chapter 11 and verse 25. Now Jesus is going to pray. Now Jesus is going to pray. Verse 25. At that time Jesus answered and said, I thank thee, O Father, Lord of heaven and earth, because thou hast hid these things from the wise and prudent and hast revealed them unto babes.

[13:48] Even so, Father, for so it seemed good in thy sight. All things are delivered unto me of my Father. And no man knows the Son but the Father. Neither knoweth any man the Father save the Son.

[13:59] And he to whomsoever the Son will reveal him. Now watch this story right here. He wants you to come to him. That's what the passage is about. He's tired of being ignored. He is tired.

[14:10] The great God and creator of all the universe came down from heaven and lived among us. And you should see him and know who he is and trust him. Now he turns and says to the Father, Father, I thank you that you don't have to be some really big, smart know-it-all to get to heaven.

[14:27] You don't have to be some great intellect to get to heaven. And he even makes a comment in his prayer. He said, I thank you, Lord, that you hid it from all the erudites. You hid it from all the smart guys.

[14:38] Look at verse 25. He said, thou hast hid. Why don't you put a circle? Thou hast hid these things from the wise and the prudent. Those that are smart, those that know stuff, those that understand, and you revealed them unto the babes.

[14:52] It's kind of what he said in 1 Corinthians. When Paul wrote the church of the Corinthians, the first letter, he says, hey, guys, I know there's not many smart among you, not many noble, not many high-ups.

[15:03] Y'all are just kind of common people. That's who God has saved. And that's what the story is. Somewhere along the way, these religious leaders, man, the Jews, they should have known about Jesus.

[15:16] They should have accepted him. They know. Can you remember 30 years before? Do you remember what happened at Bethlehem? When the Herod gets the visit from the three, or from the wise men, Herod comes.

[15:32] They come to him. They say, hey, we've seen a star. And we know he's supposed to be born. And Herod's like, I don't know anything about that. And he turns to the Jews. He said, y'all know anything about it? They said, give us a second.

[15:43] They run in the back room. They turn on their laptop computers. They get out their iPads. They go to search it in the scriptures. They come back. Yeah, he's going to be born in Bethlehem. You're exactly right. We got it. We know.

[15:53] They've known. 30 years, they've known. They knew when he was being born. They knew. But yet, they rejected him. The guys that should have understood rejected him.

[16:05] Can I just say that's kind of like it is in religion today? We've read like the most religious people in the world. The Southeast of the United States, we're eat up with religion. But we don't know God.

[16:16] That's what he's saying in the passage of scripture. Look with me if you would. Salvation was largely rejected by the spiritual know-it-alls. That's what verse 25 is saying.

[16:27] The spiritual know-it-alls. The religious people. Those that had all the commentaries. Those that had all the copies of the scripture. They rejected him.

[16:38] Verse 25. It was hid from the wise and the prudent. The Jewish leaders who should have embraced Jesus did not. Guess who did?

[16:48] The social outcasts. The sinners. The beaten. The broken. The failures. They did turn and believe in Christ. It wasn't a matter of intellect, but of faith.

[17:01] It was for those who would come helpless and broken. It was for those who could see their need. It was hid to the wise and the prudent. That's how we got the gospel, by the way.

[17:14] You fellow Gentiles with me. You fellow pagans with me. Those Jewish people that should have understood. Those Jewish people that should have accepted. Those Jewish people that should have said, Oh, we got 39 books of the Old Testament.

[17:25] We understand all these great things. And when Jesus came, they should have been immediately at his feet saying, We knew you were coming and we're ready for you. They didn't do that. And so God will move progressively over to us and give us an opportunity.

[17:39] And our group of people, now we're talking back 2,000 years ago, our group of people, man, we didn't care about God. We were pagans. We had our own gods, false gods. We totally rejected God.

[17:50] But over the next 30 or 40 years, the world will hear about Jesus. And those who worship dozens of gods and hundreds of gods and thousands of gods, they will turn to Jesus as their Savior.

[18:01] And they'll be saved. And the salvation moved. To the ignorant. Us. To those who didn't know. Us. To those who didn't have the 39 books of the Old Testament. It came to us.

[18:13] God. Oh, the Gentiles were ignorant. They were selfish and they were sinful. But they will hear and they will believe. Look if you would at Matthew chapter 11 and verse 26.

[18:25] Remember this. God is the author of salvation. You need to know that. The Bible says, Even so, Father, for so it seemed good in thy sight. Can I get you to write down Hebrews 12, 2 in the margin of your Bible right there?

[18:39] In Hebrews 12, 2, the Bible said, Looking unto Jesus, the author and the finisher of our faith. The author and the finisher of our faith. Now look just, wait just a second. You got to know that we are not teaching Bible or Baptist doctrine.

[18:52] We're not teaching what Baptists believe. Because that's not what's important. We're not teaching what man came up or what man believed. We're not teaching what Christians believe. We're teaching what God wrote. And the plan of salvation was a God thing.

[19:06] The Bible says, Looking unto Jesus, the author and the finisher of our faith. Finisher of our faith. God knew it. Salvation starts with God. It's God who chose to save us.

[19:17] In Psalm chapter 8, David says, I can't even understand why you even consider us. I don't even know why we enter into your mind. We're just little specks of nobodies. But you loved us.

[19:28] And you came down to us. And you visited us. Never forget that God is at work. We love him because he first loved us. We did not come to him because we were good.

[19:39] The Bible said in Romans 5, 8, But God commended. God showed. God proved his love toward us. And while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us. Even Jesus recognized the Father and prayed to him.

[19:52] He was concerned with what looked good in the Father's sight. In the Father's opinion. That's what he was concerned with. That's what he was looking to. What's God's opinion?

[20:04] Now, I want you to understand something. That you'll never get to God with your plan. You'll never come up with a good enough plan to please God. God in heaven will never say, Wow, I didn't think of that.

[20:15] That's a good thing to do. You're smart. God in heaven will say, I wrote a plan. And I gave you a plan. And not only did I write a plan, But I finished my plan. Looking unto Jesus, The author and the finisher.

[20:27] God never put the pressure on you To be good enough to come to him. He put the pressure on him To save us, To die for us, To love us, And to save us. He's the author and the finisher of our faith.

[20:40] Look at Matthew chapter 11 and verse 27 In the passage of scripture, if you would. Jesus recognized God and his power. Look at 27. All things are delivered unto me of my Father.

[20:53] Everything I got, Everything I believe, Everything I teach, Everything I practice, I got it from the Father. And no man knows the Son, But the Father. Y'all don't know me.

[21:03] You don't understand me. But God does. I came from the Father. I'm his. I am him. God in human flesh. Neither knows any man the Father, Save the Son. You know what he's saying? Nobody knows God but me.

[21:14] And nobody knows me but God. Because I'm God. I understand me. I understand him. He understands me. He's claiming very clearly Not to be one of us.

[21:26] He's like, You bunch of termites Don't understand me. I'm God. God knows me. And I know God. Then he said, Neither knows any man the Father, Save the Son. And he to whomsoever the Son Will reveal him.

[21:38] Jesus is telling them That he is God In human flesh. You need to know that. We're not serving a good prophet. We're not worshiping a great teacher.

[21:50] We are not. We don't have a man-made religion. We have come to God Based on what God said And God coming down Born of a virgin God taking on human flesh The glory of God revealed in flesh John chapter 1 and verse 14 It's God.

[22:07] God. And that's who we're honoring And loving. He is showing them That he and the Father Know each other. And by the way He can show you The Father.

[22:18] Look at 1127 He says, And he to whomsoever the Son Will reveal him. Thomas in John 14 Jesus said, Hey, don't let your hearts Be troubled. Be not troubled. Hey, I'm leaving.

[22:28] I'm going to heaven. I'll prepare you a place. And I'll come back to you. And Philip goes, Well, Lord, If you'd just let us see the Father It would suffice us. We'd be happy. It'd be sufficient If we could just see the Father.

[22:40] And Jesus looks at Philip and says, You've seen me? You have seen the Father. So we serve God. In human flesh. God. Come down from heaven.

[22:51] God. Who will reconcile the world to himself Through Jesus Christ. God in Christ. 2 Corinthians chapter 5 Verse 18 and following. God in flesh Who reconciled the world Unto himself.

[23:03] So. So far you've seen two things. So far you've seen That God was upset. Jesus was upset With those who ignored him. The majority of the world This morning Will go on about their business And Jesus will not Cross their mind.

[23:17] I'm not talking about India. I'm not talking about China. I'm not talking about Africa. I'm talking about South. Is it South U.S. Southeastern United States. I'm talking about Right here in our community. The majority of people He will little cross their minds.

[23:29] He said You should pay attention. If you had all If you had all If Tyrensiden had seen What you've seen right here In Bethesda And what you've seen right here In Capernaum If they had that They would have believed.

[23:44] You and I have every opportunity. Then he said Can I just clear up Something with you? Father thank you For showing These ignorant people How to know you. All the know-it-alls They don't know you.

[23:55] But God I'm God in flesh And now I can reveal the Father. So God's come To give you eternal life Through Jesus Christ His Son. And then he comes To a great invitation. Look at Matthew chapter 11 And verse 28.

[24:08] This is one of my favorite passages In all the scripture. Matthew chapter 11 And verse 28. One of my favorite passages In all the scriptures. The Bible says In Matthew 11 to 28 Come unto me All ye that labor And are heavy laden And I will give you rest.

[24:22] Take my yoke upon you And learn of me For I am meek And lowly in heart And you shall find rest Under your souls For my yoke is easy And my burden is light.

[24:33] Look at what he says Come unto me. That's the whole point Of the passage. The whole point of the passage Is he invites you To come to him. He invites you To come to him. He's tired of being ignored.

[24:43] He is God in the flesh Come to see you. And he invites you To come to him. The first thing I want you to look at In verse 28 is He said Come unto me All ye that labor Would you put a big circle Around the word all?

[24:55] Not a one of you In this room Is off the invitation list. None of you Will show up And say He'd say No you aren't invited. He invites all To come to him. Come unto me All ye that labor And are heavy laden Everybody Come to me.

[25:10] It's a clear teaching In the scripture That our father Loves the world. For God so loved the world That he gave his only begotten son. He is not willing That any should perish But that all Should come to repentance.

[25:20] He takes the death For every man. He is a propitiation For our sins But not ours only But for the sins Of the whole world. So you serve a God Who invites everybody To come to him.

[25:30] Come unto me All ye that labor And are heavy laden That means in China God is saying I want you to be saved. That means in India God is saying I want you to be saved. We are not serving The God of the Americans.

[25:42] We are not serving The God of the Europeans. We are serving The God of all creation. The God who loves Everybody Everywhere And wants everybody To be saved. Come unto me All Come unto me all Would you all say that with me?

[25:55] Come unto me All ye that labor. Can you say that much to me? Are you ready? Come unto me All All ye that labor. I want you to get that word all. You should put a circle Around that word all. It runs throughout your Bible That God loves people.

[26:09] The whole Bible Is written about this. We are sinners. He loves us. He came to earth To save sinners. He came to save sinners. So the first thing You ought to get a hold of Is he came to save all.

[26:22] The second thing is Notice who he invited. He invites those That have found their lives To be too heavy And burdensome. Look at verse 28 If you would. Come unto me All ye that labor And are heavy laden And I will give you rest.

[26:37] So all these people That are so Burdened Would you look this way Just a second Listen Everywhere you go in the world People want to know God. And they are doing the best They know how to do.

[26:50] If you go to India And you go to the Ganges River You will see people They are drinking polluted water They are bathing in polluted water They are burning their ancestors And throwing the ashes in the river And every one of them Everything they are doing Is to know God.

[27:06] If I take you to India You will see that If I take you to South America You will see that If I take you to Africa You will see that If I take you to China Which is an atheistic country And denies God There is still something Beating in their hearts.

[27:19] They want to know God. There is a hunger to know God Though they don't even understand it. It is amazing. I remember I went to China The first time in 1999 And I was praying That God would give me Some young men That would go work in China And we could do something To reach China And I was concerned With how do you reach an atheist?

[27:36] How do you do it? So I thought Well maybe we will start With a creation And maybe we will start With different things To prove that the word of God Is the Bible So we can make a difference In their heart And our mystery Has arrived in China And when they went out And started talking to people They just said this Hey did you know You sinned against God And you're dealing with the guilt And God can save you Through what Jesus Is on the cross And they were like Yeah we know that They didn't know about God But they knew They knew they needed somebody And it was the great God of heaven Come unto me All you that labor And are heavy laden Southeastern United States Our people are so burdened Down with religion See Religion has placed All these rules on them And they're all Into religious activity God will love me If I God will love me If I do God will love me If I don't And there's all these things But he said No no no no Come to me All you that labor And are heavy burdened The Jews made rules According to Jesus That they wouldn't even move With their little finger Everybody had a bunch of rules And Jesus said I just want you to come to me Quit ignoring me

[28:36] I'm God in the flesh Come to me Here's the great invitation And by the way If you come and you say Man such a burden I got to carry my wife's body To this place To be burned And I just got to hope And pray something happens from it Or I've got to do something To one of my children Or whatever I got to do He said No no no no Come to me Come to me I won't ask more work of you I did all the work I am the author And the finisher Of your faith There's not a part You have to do Listen to this God didn't do 90% And ask you to do 10% God didn't say I went to Calvary And that gets you 98% Of the way You only got to go 2% No God said I just did it all Just received a free gift For the wages of sin is The wages of sin is death But the gift of God is Eternal life Through Jesus Christ our Lord You know what The God of heaven Looks at you and says Hey every religion in the world Wants something from you I came to give you something And not ask something Come unto me All ye that labor And are heavy laden And I will give you rest

[29:38] Look if you would Look at verse 29 Then in verse 29 He said Take my yoke upon you And learn of me If you're living A beaten down life You can come to Christ And find what you need To enjoy life To have peace And rest in your soul But let me explain Something to you Some of you are going To be like Well wait a minute now Brother Austin That's not quite true You know good and well You're going to tell us That as Christians There are things That we should be doing Actually The truth is I'm going to tell you There are things That you should be And not doing But here's what he said Take my yoke upon you Now yoke is a submission thing In a yoke In a yoke Which is You know this big piece of wood That goes over two animals backs Or two animals necks Or maybe sometimes Like in Peru Be over their heads But there's These This yoke One of those Is the leading animal They can't both be leaders So one of them is the leader And the other one follows And Jesus said You come I'll take the lead I'll direct I'll guide I'll pull the majority of the weight You just get in beside me

[30:38] And I'll show you Everything to do Jesus said I didn't ask you to Do anything to get saved And even after you're saved Here's what he wants Submission Take my yoke upon you That's saying I acknowledge that you are God I acknowledge that you are Lord I acknowledge that I ought to live my life for you I realize that it is you That's above everybody And you have the rights to tell me Take my yoke upon me Upon you And learn of me I am meek and lowly in heart You shall find rest to your souls You don't have a tyrant God you're serving You don't have a God Who is so hung up on himself That he sits up there in majesty And requires you to sacrifice your children Or requires you to do anything He says I'm the God of the universe I paid the debt And you can be saved I'm meek And I'm lowly I'm tender And I'm kind From all the bit From the very beginning of the scriptures He's the God of mercy He's the God of grace He's the God of opportunity He's the God that offers you A new life

[31:38] Come unto me All you that labor And are heavy laden Take my yoke upon you And learn of me We take his yoke We submit to his leadership And he carries our load He carries our load He comes and he says Hey I'll take the load I'll do the work You follow along You can get rid of your baggage You can get rid of all the junk Out of your past I want you to understand That when you come to him You come tired You come laboring You come heavy laden Which means a whole bunch of weight on you You can come to him And listen to me No religious rules No religious rules There's no religious rules All the commandments of the Bible Were simply to show you That you failed God And guys that are hung up on the rules Are like the Jews And the Jews wanted to walk around And say I got my checklist out today I'm doing real good And that's why they couldn't get saved They couldn't get saved Because instead of letting the

[32:38] Ten commandments say You are in trouble And you need to be saved They walked around saying The Ten commandments show me How much better I am than you And so they walked around saying I'm not You messed up on number ten I got all ten right You got an eighty I got a ninety That was the way they were doing it But the simple And the wicked We saw our sin Kind of like when the Pharisee and the publican Went to the temple to worship And Jesus is the one That told the story And the Pharisee walks in And he holds his hands up And he looks to heaven And he says God I sure thank you I'm not like this guy I'm not like him I'm a good guy I pray And I tithe And I do all the good stuff That I should And the other guy walks up And beats his chest And says God forgive me I'm a sinner And Jesus said You know who went home Justified That guy Who recognized his need No religious rules Come to Jesus By the way The guilt from your past failures Put it on Jesus He takes it He takes all of your guilt He takes all of your failure He takes all of that All the blame

[33:39] And resentment you feel All the anger Over past abuses He takes it You're never feeling good enough Or accepted enough He takes it Come unto me All you that labor I know you got all this blame And resentment I know you got all this anger And all this That you feel from past abuses Come unto me All you that labor And are heavy laden I'll give you rest Come to me I made you I'll give you rest Come to the one Who can make a difference In your souls Take my yoke upon you And learn of me For I am meek And lowly in heart And you shall find rest Under your soul For my yoke is easy And my burden is light I wish you'd marked Two times the word rest Is found At the end of verse 28 He said I will give you rest And in verse 29 He said You shall find rest Under your soul So listen to this I'm not inviting you To religion He wants you To come to him He invites you To come to him But he's not inviting you To a list of rules He's not inviting you To religion He's not inviting you

[34:40] To norms and mores He's inviting you To receive a free gift That he paid for On the cross of Calvary Come unto me All you that labor And are heavy laden And I will give you rest I will give you rest Instead of all the pressure Being on you The pressure will be on me I am the author And the finisher Of your faith What you earn Is hell What I give you Is salvation Come And trust the God Of heaven Today He invites all of us To come to him He invites all of us It's time to quit ignoring him It's time to quit acting Like he's not important It's time to realize You serve a great God That God is worth it It's time to realize That God in human flesh God in human flesh Offers you salvation It's time to accept The invitation To trust God And since I think Probably the majority of you Are already born again And you're on your way to heaven Can I say to you After you're saved Some of us still hang on To a bunch of junk From the past And we never fully accept

[35:42]  What Jesus did on the cross He took your blame He took your guilt He took your mess And he changes that You are a new creature Old things are passed away Behold all things Are become new Trust him today He invites you To come to him Today Father in heaven I love you And I trust you We'll work in hearts I pray you'll save some people I pray to God That you'll help some people That are saved This morning To trust you With all the junk Going on in their life That they would believe you And accept you And look to you And I will give you praise This message was recorded At Vision Baptist Church In Alfred, Georgia For more information Log on to www.visionbaptist.com Where you can find Our service times Location Contact information And more audio And video recordings Thanks