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So from now until Easter, every day, I've given you the scriptures you're supposed to read every single day. The only thing we're reading is the Gospels because that's how you learn about the goat. The goat is in the Gospels. Don't just tell me what the Bible says. Tell me what the goat says. Right. Okay, so you can go to lifechange.org and you can download it. It's set to start tomorrow. Or if you want it to come right to your phone, you can text the word goed to the number on the screen. It's going to come to your phone, and you'll see this goated Bible reading plan that we're going to be in until Easter. I want to call our attention to the book of Matthew, chapter number 11, beginning at verse 28. Listen to the words of Jesus here. He says, come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. Somebody say, I want that take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I'm gentle and humble in heart and you will find rest. Not for your body, for your soul. How many know what it feels like for your soul to be tired? That's when no matter how much sleep you get, you don't get rest. For my yoke is easy. My burden is light. I want to stop the reading of scripture there and talk from this subject in our time together. I want to talk from the subject the third way I see. Do we have any more chairs in this building? We have no more chairs anywhere. Are any of the men in here willing to stand up so that some of us. We have people standing up. Three services on in on New Year's Eve. My soul can't take it. I'm just a Baptist preacher with the Holy Ghost, and I just. Y'all, let's let some of these sisters sit down, y'all. Okay, if it's a little organized chaos for a minute, all y'all don't have to get up, brothers. Everybody don't have to get up. I just don't want people standing. I don't want anybody standing unless the brothers. We can sit on the floor if we want to, Indian style. Amen. We'll straighten it out. Clap your hands for these brothers that are willing to help us here. Amen. I don't. I want to talk from this subject today. Y'all gonna have to lean in all month. Did you hear what I just said? Not gassing you from now to Easter. No gas, only maps. I want to talk from this subject the third way. The third way. Clap your hands in anticipation that God's gonna speak to us through his word. The third way. This past week, NBA superstar LeBron James surpassed Michael Jordan in the amount of 30 point games in an NBA career. This accomplishment reignited the argument of who is the goat? For some people it is the six time NBA champion, six time NBA Finals mvp, former defensive player of the year, perennial all Star Michael Jordan. For other people, it is the four time NBA champion, most versatile player to ever play the game of basketball, the inimitable LeBron James. Let me hear who believes it's LeBron in the building. Let me hear who believe it's MJ in the building. Regardless of where you stand in this argument, both of these men's careers are evidence of an axiom that they would articulate if you asked them. They would tell you you can't be your best self by yourself. I say if you were to have, and I were to have the privilege of engaging in a conversation with these two men who both have legitimate arguments to be dubbed and designated as the greatest basketball players of all time. As great as they are, as accomplished as they are with the degree of expertise that they have demonstrated in the area of professional basketball, these men, who, who are arguably goats, will tell you you can't be your best self by yourself. They will tell you that there comes times when someone other than you has to help you bring out the best in you. That there will be seasons and situations where you have the ability, but you don't have the experience, or you got the experience but you don't have the ability, or you got the willpower, but you don't have the wisdom or you got the energy, but you don't have the expertise or you got the desire and you don't have the development. And in these situations and circumstances, we need God by his grace to send us a gift on two legs that helps pull out of us what he put on the inside of us. And our ability to recognize these relationships, see our need for this relationship and manage these relationships properly will determine if you progress into purpose or if you stay stuck at a level that is less than God's best. LeBron would tell you, Mike would tell you, Kobe would tell you, Tiger would tell you, Serena would tell you, Venus would tell you, Tom Brady would tell you, Jerry Rice would tell you, Wayne Gretzky would tell you you can't be your best self by yourself. God puts it in, but very often God will use others to pull it out. And ladies and gentlemen, this Is true. Watch this. Not just for the game of basketball. This is also true for the game of life. You cannot be your best self by yourself. And if you were having a conversation with mj, who's my goat? If you were having a conversation with mj, MJ would tell you, if you want to be mj, you need to get you a Tim Grover. MJ will tell you the greatness that you saw in me on the court was tied to the greatness I submitted to off the court. He would say, did you hear what I just said? He would say that you wouldn't be calling me a champion on the court if I had not submitted to the expertise of Tim Grover off the court. Darius, who is Tim Grover? Tim Grover is a man that MJ came into relationship with and solicited his services after MJ came, Kept losing to a team called the Detroit Pistons. They were called the Bad Boys. I'm talking about y'all too young for this. I'm talking about Isaiah Thomas, Joe Dumars, Bill Laimbeer, Vinnie the Microwave Johnson. They were called the Bad Boys because they played basketball like it was football. Do I have a witness in here? Yeah. They had what was called the Jordan Rules, and that is every time MJ came into the paint. Make him feel it when he comes into the paint. Put him on the ground. And MJ was bullied and beaten and battered and bruised. But one day. Come on now. If I had a Baptist church, they would have knew what to do right there. But one day. That's it. That's it. One day he got sick and tired of being sick and tired. One day he realized that I got the skill, but I don't have the strength. So I need to solicit the expertise of a person who specializes in strength and conditioning. And so his name was Tim Grover, and he started working with Tim Grover. And Tim Grover gave him the strength to marry to his skill. And he went from losing chronically to the Detroit Pistons to becoming a perennial NBA champion and Finals mvp. And Kobe. If I had a Baptist church, Kobe wanted to be like mj, but then Kobe heard who made MJ like mj. Colby said to Tim Grover, if you did it for Mike, hit me one time. Tario. I said, if you did it for Mike, you can do it for me. Do I have a witness in here? I said, do I have a witness in here? Yeah. They had Grover on the court, but you got Jesus off the court. You got the skill, but you need some strength. And when you marry your skill with Jesus, Strength. There are some things you can do after Jesus that you couldn't do before Jesus. You are my strength. Strength like no other. Listen to this. God put some things in me that it takes others to draw out of me. Wherever there is greatness you do see, very often they submit to the greatness of someone you don't see. Listen to me. Every goat at some point was a lamb. Did you hear what I just said? Every goat at some point was a lamb. And many people, when it comes to the game of life, aren't experiencing life as God intended because they won't let Jesus do for them what Grover did for Mike. Watch this. They let Jesus save them, but they won't let him train them. Yep. Being saved determines if you get to heaven. Being trained determines what life is like here on earth. Did you hear what I just said? You can be saved and stuck. You can be saved and sad. You can be saved and stagnant. The state of being saved but not being trained is what the apostle Paul calls carnal. And I want to know, am I talking to anybody in 2025 whose conviction is. Whose persuasion is, I don't want to just be saved. I want to be trained. Yeah. What Grover did for Mike in the game of basketball, I want Jesus to do for me in the game of life. Because I got a revelation that it is not the intention of my creator in my creation for me to live a life where I'm just sinking or surviving. Ah, the thief comes but to steal, kill, and destroy. But I have come that you might have life and have it more abundantly. That's not sinking. That's not surviving. That's thriving. I feel a thrive in 2025. Does anybody feel a thrive in 2025? We call it human flourishing, that no creator creates anything. He does not intend to flourish. You don't need training for existing, Corey. They didn't hear me. You don't need training for existing. You do need training for flourishing. So the question is this. Not has Jesus become your redeemer, but has Jesus become your rabbi? Because in the text, he's extending an invitation to his people to be more than their redeemer, but to be their rabbi. To be more than the person that gets them to heaven, but to be the person that trains them on how to live on Earth. Matthew 11 allows us to eavesdrop on a conversation where Jesus is extending an invitation to be more to people than they've allowed him to be. Did you hear what I just said? He's extinct. He's saying to them, I am more than what you've been experiencing. Let me go. Let me. I'm getting ready to run the New Jersey. He's saying to them, I am more than what you've been experiencing. Do not limit the totality of my existence to the limitations of your experience. The God you see is the God you get. But the God that you get is not always all that I am. Come on here. You've heard me teach this before. In Mark, chapter six, Jesus goes back to his hometown in Nazareth and he is teaching in the synagogue. And the people who are listening to him teach say these words. Is this not the carpenter's son? Isn't this Joseph's son? Isn't this Mary's son? Watch this. Because they saw him as a person who was the son of a carpenter. And in that historic context, you followed in the footsteps of your father when it came to the family business. So all they saw was a carpenter. And the Bible says he could not do many miracles there, only lay his hands on a few sick people and heal them. So a few people got what was available for many. Some people saw a carpenter. Other people saw Christ. If you see a carpenter, you can get your house fixed. But if you see a Christian, you can get your life fixed. Cause the God you see is the God you get. Some people are just settling for salvation. But do I have anybody in the room that says, I'm not just settling for salvation. I got to have transformation I want exceedingly and abundantly. Why should I be bound when Christ has set me free? He's extending an invitation to them to say, hey, I'm more than what you're experiencing. So listen to his words. Come unto me. He said, come to me. Come to me. See, here's what you got to understand. He is positioning himself as a rabbi. Now, I know my daddy wasn't a rabbi, so you think I'm not one. I know I didn't take the traditional path to rabbinical leadership. So you think I'm not one? You think I'm illegitimate? I don't have the seminary degree. I don't have the things that you think qualify me for this. So he's positioning himself as a rabbi because rabbis had to extend an invitation for people to become their disciples. Did you hear what I just said? Yeah. Yeah. So he is extending to them an invitation to come learn from him. Watch this. Rabbis were more than teachers of the Torah. They were masters of spiritual life. They taught the word of God for the purpose of showing you a way of life. So Jesus here, come on here. Is positioning himself as a rabbi and saying to them, if you are weary, burden, let me show you another way. I want you to see how specific he is. Because some of us need to learn from Jesus. All of us. All of us. Everybody. Everybody needs to learn from Jesus here. Because Jesus specificity in the text is a lesson. It is a revelation for you and I not to try to force feed people help they haven't demonstrated they have an appetite for. Come on in here. He says, if you don't have the self awareness to know that you are weary and heavy burdened, don't come to me. Y'all missed it. Come on here. Because you cannot add value to people who are unaware that they need value added to them. You can't help people and convince people they need help at the same time. You can only help people that have been convinced they need help. And some people aren't weary enough. Some people aren't burdened enough. He's speaking to people. He's saying, hey, I can't help you unless you have a revelation that the way you live in your life is only leading to weariness and burden. Come on here. When he says weary, he's not talking about physical fatigue, is he? Yeah. Because if he was talking about physical fatigue, he wouldn't say, come unto me if you're weary. He would say, take a nap now. Don't tempt me with a good time. You start talking about naps. Let me see if I got the right crowd in here. Yeah. Some of you are in a season of life where you get excited about going outside. The others of us, we're in a season of life. We get excited about going inside. We'd be like, oh, this sleep I'm about to get today, where you going? Inside. Whoo. Has anyone ever asked you to do something and you committed to it, and then the time comes around to do it and you're saying to yourself, why did I commit to do this? And then by the grace of God, they text you and say they can't make it. You say, oh, man, I was looking forward to going. He's not talking about that kind of rest. He's talking about emotional and spiritual exhaustion. He's saying, the way you are living life is wearing you out. The way you are managing your relationships is wearing you out. The way you are managing conflict is wearing you out. The way you're handling betrayal is wearing you out. The way you dating in these streets is wearing you all the way out. Come on here. It is wearing you out. He says, come to me because your way's not working. And he says, if you come to me, here's what I'm going to give you. Rest. Now, watch this. This isn't rest from work, he says, because the way I'm going to teach you to live is going to require work. But it is rest from work that will never work for you. Come on here, Church. He says, the way you've been working, it's never going to work for you. Working harder this way doesn't work. So please don't go into 20, 25 trying to work harder the wrong way, because hard work only works if you're working hard at the right thing. He said, I'm going to give you rest from a way that don't work. Is that what he says? Come on. He says, take my yoke upon you and learn from me. How long have we been quoting this? Without even asking, what's a yoke? I mean, we quote it and shout, take my yoke. Oh, Shando, Eddie, I'm coming in a Honda. A yoke was a beam with, like, these harnesses on the inside that you would put over the neck of an ox and you would pare oxen under the yoke because the yoke was the way the human controlled the ox. God almighty. I feel good in Baptist this morning. We ain't got time. I might feel. I feel a little hoop on me this morning. To turn the ox, you had to turn the yoke. There's no way you could turn the ox without turning the yoke. There's no way you could turn the ox without turning the yoke. Now, I'm not preaching about this, but singles con 20, 25. That's not. That's not a cute conference. That's a real conference there. Yeah, I'm preaching. We got. Yeah, it's going to be a whole situation. I'm. See, this is the imagery Paul is using when he says, don't be unequally yoked. Come on here. Unequally yoked means you got an ox on one side and a donkey on the other. The ox compliant and submitted to the voice of authority. The ox is temperamental. I mean, the donkey is temperamental and the donkey is moody, and the donkey can be stubborn and the donkey can have its own mind. So when the Bible says, don't be unequally yoked, he's telling you, if you're an ox, do not get underneath the beam with a donkey. Because when the master say, come, the ox is going to try to move but you don't know what the donkey's going to do. Jesus says, get out from underneath what's been guiding your behavior. He says, take that off of you. Here's what we call that. Repentance. A change of mind that leads to a change of direction, a disavowing and a renunciation of that which is guiding me in ways that's inconsistent with God. Repentance isn't remorse. Repentance isn't. Is a change of mind. Repentance is preceded by a revelation. This killing me. I'm better than this. I'm called for more than this. This not working for me. This is less than God's best. Get off me. I need another yolk. I'mma say that one more time. I need my Pentecostal Church right here. Get off me. I need another yoke. Jesus said, take my yoke upon you. So is he literally saying he got a wooden beam he want us to get under? No. Rabbis use the term yoke to describe a set of teachings. The way in which they read the Scriptures and the way in which they modeled mastery of the Scriptures in the way that they lived their life. So rabbis were more than educators. They were examples. Which is why you had to be with him to learn from it. Peter, you can't keep fishing and learn from me because there's some stuff you're only going to learn by walking with me. Did you hear what I just said? Yeah, yeah. It's certain stuff you're only going to learn by walking with me. If you heard of the term the Lord's Prayer, wave at me. Wave at me. I'll follow with yard. You heard of that? Okay. Do you know that that prayer is in response to a question that the disciples asked that Jesus never sat them down and said, let me give you a six part series on prayer. Do you know if you go to Luke 11, you will see that they saw him pray and after seeing him pray, they said, teach us how to pray. In other words, we've been praying. We're Jewish men, we're sons of the commandment, we've been through Bar mitzvah. But I'm saying you pray and when you do it, you get results that I don't get. So your greatness has exposed my deficiency in an area I was satisfied with until I got introduced to the Third way. Come on here. Jesus's yoke is what I'm calling the third Way. The third way to do what? Live life. You got culture's way, not praying at all. Church's way. Praying ritualistically. Then you got the King's way. Praying because of relationship. A third way, see, because there's three ways you can live your life. Culture's way, that's the world's way, Church's way, that's religion's way. The King's way. That's the way of the Rabbi. You've met Jesus the Redeemer. For the next three months, I want to introduce you to Jesus the Rabbi. You need Jesus the Redeemer to get saved. You need the Rabbi after you've been saved. Many of us are saved but don't know the third way. Because the Christian faith is a way of life. It is not God just changing something in my life. It is God changing the way I live my life. Which is why he says, take my yoke up on you and learn from me. Now that makes sense, doesn't it? He says, learn from me. Now, contextually, I'm not going to bother this Reggie, but contextually, do you know who Jesus was talking to here? He was talking to religious people. He said, learn from me. You learn some stuff in church, but learn from me. Oh my. Everything you were taught wasn't from me. And you only get the life I promise when you live life my way. So now you're saying my way don't work because you're following religion's way and you think it's mine. So you quit me. And I ain't disappoint you. Come on here. And here's what's scary. Everybody has rabbis. Most people just don't know who they. All of us are being taught. We just hadn't chose who taught us. So if I would ask the average believer, hey, how are you managing your relationships? They're going to tell me. And if I would say, where you get that from? It's probably not Jesus, but whoever is influencing, whoever's the dominant influence in the way you manage your relational life. That's your rabbi. Some people's rabbi is music. I'm not even going to bother this. This is why music in church should be put through the filter of a theological mind. Watch this. Cuz most Christians theology comes from music. They know way more songs than they know scripture. I mean, I know I'm right about it. You say quote a scripture, they can't give me a song. They know songs. So if the theology of the song is off, they're believing God to perform something he never promised. And so they leave him over break over him breaking a promise he never made. He said, I want to teach you the third way. And most of us are second way believers who thinking we are third way because of our tenure. Tenure doesn't get you. Third way. Teaching does. It doesn't matter how long you. How long you've been a believer. It is. Have I gotten exposed to teaching that does more than teach me to like Jesus, but to be like Jesus. Why don't you want to be? Why wouldn't I want to be like the goat, the greatest human to ever live? Why wouldn't I want to live that way? It's like trying to play basketball and not wanting to be like LeBron or Kobe or Mike. Why wouldn't I want to learn from the best to ever do it? We all have rabbis. Many of us just don't know who they are. Well, I think I ought to. What did Jesus say? I don't know. And that's because for many of us, we've been taught to like Christ, but not what Christ is. So I'm going to need at least the Easter to tell you what the rabbi has to say about prayer and what the rabbi has to say about fasting and what the rabbi has to say about managing conflict and what the rabbi has to say about managing relationships. My goat is not Grover. It's Jesus. Listen to me. He says, take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I'm gentle and humble in heart. This is what he says. This sets Jesus apart from the religious leaders whose pride and harshness made approaching God seem impossible. Here's what he's saying. I'm gentle and humble in heart. Are y'all ready for this? I'm wrapping up here, but I got to give you this. Do you want it? Here it is. He's suggesting, I'm going to help you reach a spiritual standard. I know I got my foot on a stronghold and I ain't backing up. Devil, I'm going to help you. Jesus is going to help you reach a spiritual standard without you experiencing spiritual abuse. Listen to me. Don't clap. Listen to me. The fact that many people confuse spiritual standards with spiritual abuse says something about the absence of emotional health in the body of Christ. The reality that many people are attracted to spiritual abuse is an indication of the absence of a whole soul. You are spiritually trauma bonding. He's comparing his yoke to the yoke of the Pharisees. And he's like, this is burdensome. It is abusive, it is spiritual bullying. It is toxic. But you think it's a standard. And he said, so you got to be talked to. That way to grow. I mean, everything I just said, if you have to be insulted and abused, something is wrong. And if you have to abuse and insult people, then something is deficient in your soul. Also, if you have to be pejorative to be persuaded, then that's a larger problem. Because the fruit of the Spirit shouldn't just be emanating from your life. It should be demonstrated when you're trying to help other people change their life as well. He says, my yoke is easy, My burden is light, and you will find rest for your soul. Jesus is offering himself as the teacher. I'm dontario. I said, he is offering himself as the teacher. He's your savior. He says, now I want to. I want you to let me be your teacher. He decides if he is a teacher. You decide if he's yours. But the teacher can only help the teachable. So one of the primary goals of this foundational message is just foundation work. We just excavating exegetical excavation. That's all we're doing here. It's important here because the purpose of this message is not just to get us to see Jesus as a teacher. It is also to get us to look at ourselves and see, am I teachable? This means we must be intentional about identifying and addressing issues that impact our teachability. And there are three that I see that are perspective pervasive in the body of Christ. I'm sharing them with you, and we're out. Number one, this is what gets in the way of our teachability. Prideful dismissiveness syndrome. This is an illogical overestimation of one's own wisdom or ability which causes a person to dismiss information they need because they arrogantly and ignorantly assume they don't need it. I don't need that series on prayer. I don't need that. Then there's past success syndrome, which is where there's great past suggest syndrome. It's an over. No, that ain't it, guys. Y'all. Okay, that on the screen there. There we go. Okay. Lower third. That's right. An illogical over reliance on past success that inhibits an individual's ability to see that what got you here won't take you there. Now, here's the thing. Many of us have an emotional attachment because of the nostalgia our previous experience, previous spiritual experiences bring to us. You got an emotional attachment to the kind of way of practicing your faith that gave you a foundation, and you should honor that. But a foundation is all it could give you. It ain't working. The Way you think it's working now? Having church ain't enough now to hold a marriage together? We had some church. It's not enough to raise children. It's not enough. Come on here. So some of us, some of us are like, we want to go back to the old time way. That way has given you all it can. So you're trying to resurrect something that God wants to stay buried. He doesn't want another Azusa. He want to do a new thing. He doesn't want an old awakening. He want to do a new thing. But sometimes that allegiance to what worked in the past is keeping you from the third way. And then last but not least, process preference syndrome. This is an illogical attachment to the way things are done at the expense of results. It's an irrational commitment to a specific method of process even when it hinders achieving the desired results. It's I want stuff done a certain way more than I want results. So when the way of the rabbi teaches me to do something a way I don't prefer, I sacrifice the results because I prioritize the way. Come here, Karate Kid. Wax on, wax off. Why you teaching me? I didn't come here to wash your cars. I came here to learn karate. Wax on, wax off. Naaman. I want to be healed. Go. Go dip in the Jordan. We can't find another river other than the Jordan. It's one of the reasons I love our New Jersey family so much. Right now they're watching the simulcast because they don't have process preference syndrome. They say I'll prefer my pastor to be standing on the stage there physically, but I would rather hear from my man of God on a screen than somebody else that's not my man of God in person. Y'all missed it. Because what do I want? I want the word. I'm not at a circus. He's a preacher of the gospel. I need the message and some stuff God's trying to do, trying to teach us the third way. But our process preference gets in the way. Lord, make me teachable. I want to learn the third way. I know church way and I'm weary It's wore me out. I know the world's way I'm trying your way I turn from every other way I repent because the king's way is at hand. Father, I pray that you give us the grace, the courage and the wisdom to follow you into the third way. Break pride, Break preference, break past success syndrome and make me open to the new thing. You want to show me about you. You are more than what I've experienced. And I pray the prayer moves. Moses, show me your glory. Show me a side of you I haven't seen. Not by might, not by power, but by my spirit, says the Lord. In Jesus name, Amen. Really quickly, if you're here today.