← ONE | A Potter's House Church
Loading summary
Transcript36 lines
- [00:00]
A
Foreign.
- [00:04]
B
Hey, good people, this is Torre Roberts. Blessings to you and welcome to the ONE Podcast. I'm excited that you're here. ONE is a community of dynamic and vibrant thought leaders, preachers, teachers, and just a community of wonderful people all together. And we're excited to bring you this weekly podcast from our Services from ONE in la. If you haven't been to one, I encourage you to check it out. You can go to one the Word one O N E online and find out all about the service times and all about the teachers and all the philanthropic things that we have going. I believe you're going to be blessed to be a part of it. And speaking of being blessed, we're getting ready to get into a teaching right now that I believe is going to bless you. So tune in, enjoy, and I'll be back with you at the end.
- [00:55]
A
So we're going to go on a journey this evening all about Jesus. I love how unplanned that was. That makes me smile. So we're going to start in Matthew, chapter 11, verses 27 through 30. Ooh, people came ready. That means somebody was waiting on that one. I like that one. I love the subtitle that it gives for this. In my version, it says Jesus gives true rest. It says all things. This is Jesus speaking as he was teaching to the multitudes. All things have been delivered to me by my Father, and no one knows the Son except the Father, nor does anyone know the Father except the Son, and the one to whom the Son wills to reveal him. This is where the meat of it comes in. 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. I love that it says rest for your souls. Some of us are looking to Jesus for rest in the body. Some of us are looking to Jesus for rest in the mind. And yet he says, what I came to give you is rest in your soul. Because if you have rest in your soul, then you can get to the rest of the mind and you can get to the rest that your body needs. But if your soul is still troubled, then we can't really get the other things in order. 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. Spirit of the living God, your word is present in this place. You've brought forth A great expectation in your people for what your word can do. And I know, Lord, that you can not only meet it, but you can exceed it. So, Holy Spirit, we give you complete dominion in this place. Have your way. Have your way with our minds. Have your way with our hearts, with our ears, with our spirit, yes, with our souls, that we may experience your Word in a fresh, new way. And that when we are done with this encounter, that it's a lasting one. Let it be an encounter that brings us even closer to you and takes us deeper into your Word and with more intimacy with you, Holy Spirit. So have your way. In Jesus name, amen. I was actually studying this verse with a couple of my brothers, and it stuck. And it was one of those things where I was like, ooh, I want to dig some more. So away we went. I've heard this verse so many times because it sounds like such an easy exchange where Jesus, at the very end, he just says, take my yoke upon you, learn from me. And. And then he ends it, My yoke is easy and my burden is light. Just hearing that brings peace. Just that understanding of Jesus knowing, listen, if you're approaching me, the chances are pretty high that you are carrying a burden that is heavier than any burden you being with me could have. So he brings forth this proposition. He says, put whatever that is down and take me instead. And his promise is that my yoke is easy and my burden is light. I love beginning from 27 because 27 gives us some insight into why his yoke is so easy and his burden is so light. Verse 27 starts, and it says, all things have been delivered to me by my Father, and no one knows the Son except the Father. Verse 27 is where my comfort begins. I'm all just knowing where this is headed. I'm comfortable because I'm ready to put down whatever yoke I have to take on Jesus. But when he starts with, all things have been delivered to me by my Father, this tells me that whatever it is that I need, he has. And not only do I know he has it, I know he has it because he states, it came from my Father. He doesn't just have it for the sake of being, he has it because of where it came from. So the setup is there, first and foremost, all things. Let's be very clear when he says this. All things have been delivered to me by my Father. This is where it starts. And then he says, no one knows the Son except the Father, nor does anyone know the Father except the Son. So everybody really Chills at all things, all things gets very exciting until he says, there's one other thing you need to know. Before we get to all things, we need to make sure we have the relationship clear. No one knows. And this is Jesus. No one knows me except my Father. And then he says, and nor does anyone know the Father except the Son and the one to whom the Son wills to reveal him. So in order for me to get to the all things, that gets all of us so excited in terms of wanting to relax and relate and understand that Jesus has got it all taken care of. Before I can get to the all things, I need to clear up something. First and foremost, all things comes from the Father. But the only way to get to the Father is through the Son. So I need to establish a relationship with Jesus before I can worry about the all things. I need to work out this one thing, which is my relationship with His Son. And my relationship with his Son is according to. I love this. And the one to whom the Son wills to reveal him. This word reveal speaks of. It's almost like an uncovering, like a cloak is being taken off. Because up until this point, a relationship with the Father had not been fully, fully revealed to God's people yet. Because Jesus had just come. So what he's saying is, the only way you're going to have a full and complete and open relationship with the Father is through me and whom I will to reveal my Father to. This Word will stuck with me. Because the fact that the Father entrusted the Son enough to decide who would reveal him to others speaks to me that there is an alignment between the will of the Father and the will of the Son. So much so that he says, jesus, you can reveal me to whom you choose. Understand? Everyone here who has a relationship with Jesus, it was not by accident. No one here stumbled upon Jesus. No one here looked onto Jesus. There was grace that got us to Jesus, but no one lucked our way to it. He chose you. Every single person under the sound of my voice. Just understand, once you accepted that Jesus was Lord, it wasn't because you pulled a lucky number out of a jar and Jesus said, that's the lucky number. Now we're gonna rock together. No, he chose each and every one of us. What would we all look, sound and act like if we legit treated ourselves and treated each other as if we were all chosen by Jesus? Let that settle in. Everybody you see that has a relationship with Jesus, regardless of how we feel their relationship with Jesus is, Jesus chose them. Jesus chose you. Jesus chose me. And I can trust in him choosing me, because his will is the will of the Father. So as I accept the will of Jesus, I am accepting the will of the Father. This I love so much. Because now when I think of the encounter in the garden of Gethsemane, that encounter is even more special to me, because that encounter is where Jesus kneels down. And if you're not familiar with it, you will be very soon. Jesus goes into a garden. He is overcome with the grief of what is about to take place. He takes three of his hitters with him to pray over him, and his hitters fall asleep. These are supposed to be the ones. This is the Sons of Thunder, and they like out multiple times. And in this encounter in the garden of Gethsemane, he is praying for this cup to pass from him. He's saying, listen, I don't want to do this. And then my favorite, one of my favorite words in the Bible, nevertheless, not my will, but your will be done. Now, what I've just said, this is Matthew 11, Matthew 11, the will of the Father and the will of the Son are one. Yet we find ourselves in this part of Jesus Walk where what we're reading is that Jesus will and the Father's will in that moment, for that time, for that encounter in the garden, are not the same will. And even then, he still says, not my will, but your will be done. That should speak to all of us human beings, all of us walking out what God has called for us to walk out, all of us who are beating ourselves up because our will doesn't align with the Father in a given moment, in a given season, in a given point in time, Jesus himself had that moment and he acknowledged where his will was and then submitted his will to the Father. So for us, that's an example. We have to acknowledge where our will is and submit our will to the Father. Because even Jesus was able to acknowledge and be truthful and say, my will is different from his. I pray that that lessens a burden. There's someone who has been just struggling with the notion, oh, my goodness, I know the will of the Father, but then I have my will, and they're not the same. Something must be different. Wrong with me. Permanently wrong with me. Could I suggest to you that you are having an encounter or perhaps a season, but that encounter, and that season is not your identity. That is not your permanent path forward. Because you can have a moment, just as Jesus did, where you can declare, nevertheless, and prayed till blood was coming out as sweat, nevertheless, Even though the people who were supposed to cover me in prayer, they fell asleep nevertheless. Not my will, but your will be done. So when I understand that the will of Jesus, the Son, and the will of the Father are aligned, and they're not just aligned because that is the identity. They're also aligned because Jesus has willed and purposed himself for it to be. So you put these two together, that means that is a will that I can observe. So I establish all of this because I want all of us to know how important it is that we are all chosen, every single person who has decided to start a journey first and foremost by acknowledging Jesus as Lord and Savior. That happened because the will of Jesus was in alignment with his Father. And his Father said, you, you, you now, not you later, not you by accident, you now in this place, in who you are, in your environment, with your friend set, with your friend circle, you right now, inconvenient, probably you right now. This is how strong the will of Jesus is in him choosing us. Wow. That was just the first verse. Let me get to verse 28. Now, Jesus bids us to come to him. Come to me, all you who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. My goodness. I didn't give y' all a title. I really just jumped right in. I was very, very excited about this. So if you guys have been paying attention, we have entered into a series of identity. And so we have had our series focusing on a piece of our identity that ends in one. So for today, for this encounter, we can title this balanced one. We'll see. We'll get to where the balance comes in in a second verse 28. Come to me, all you who labor and are heavy laden. I will give you rest. Now, what I learned about this word rest, as I was looking it up, was that this was not just the kind of rest where we just stop, put our head on a pillow, sleep, wake up 14 hours later, and feel refreshed. That is in somebody's prayer point, perhaps mine as well. But let's get into where he's speaking of, what kind of rest he's speaking of. This is the kind of rest that comes from reestablishing balance. Because as we are walking in our journey with Jesus, one of the most stressful things, not only physically, but in terms of our soul and our spirit, is when we realize that we do not have the balancing of burden and of weight that we're supposed to have in our lives. And so when Jesus says, I will give you rest, this word, rest. Yes, it speaks of repose, to refresh, to take ease and give or take rest. Now, the reason it's important for us to understand this version of rest in terms of balance is because let's look at the part earlier where it says, come to me. All you who labor and are heavy laden looked up this word labor. We're going to be looking up a lot of words just so we know I'm one of those. I'm like, I need to know what each one of these words means because it unlocks a lot of context for me. This word labor is to feel fatigue, to work hard labor, toil, to be wearied. So everyone who is fatigued, who is laboring, who is wearied. This word heavy laden. Ooh, let's get to the meat. This word heavy laden means to overburden. Well, it means to load up. Kind of like you would load up a horse or you would load up a camel for a really long trip. So it's to overload, to burden. Figuratively speaking, it speaks of to overburden with ceremony or spiritual anxiety. That's what I said. What? Wait a minute. I thought we were just talking about lifting heavy things. And then he started talking about my spiritual anxiety. Oh, just like Jesus, to get right to the point. So when he's talking about those who labor and are heavy laden. Now I need to zoom out a little bit. When Jesus comes to this earth, there are two particular factions I won't say he warred with, but he was very, very not happy with. He was very, very angry with the Pharisees. He was very, very angry with the Sadducees. Yes, this is loving, forgiving Jesus. But when it came to the Pharisees and the Sadducees, it was. Was on site with them. And the reason it was on site with them was because of what it is they did to his people. And this is where we get to the laboring and the overburdening with ceremony or spiritual anxiety. The Pharisees and the Sadducees were the religious scholars of the time. And what they would do is they. They felt that it was their job to protect and preserve the purity of the laws, the religious laws of the land. But what they also then did was they not only took the laws which I believe the numbers, there were 613 commandments. We'll have to study whether that was the actual number or whether 613 is a special spiritual number. That's a debate among scholars. I'm going to keep moving. There were 613 believed to be commandments. On top of that, they created literally thousands more laws. And what they did was they would tax the people with these laws. In other words, they were expecting everyone to follow these laws, and if they didn't, they were not fit to have a relationship with the Lord in their mind and in their judgment. And so in their piety, they were observing all of these customs and traditions, things they literally made up. But they made them up not to bring people closer to God. They made them up to distance themselves from the people. So with every law and with every regulation they made in their minds, they were elevating themselves while leaving the people who they were supposed to be teaching about these laws further and further away. Because the more people tried to follow the laws, the more stressed out and overburdened and anxious in the spirit they became. It's one thing to try to follow 613 laws and you don't have a phone. Some of us are Bible scholars, but if I take your phone, if I take it with that Internet connection, got a little problem. Never mind the 6 13, but the literally thousands of others, men and women of God, were stressing out because they were breaking laws and literally not even knowing it, and they were being held by it. And what started to happen was Jesus calls them out for it. Oh boy, does he. But what he starts to do is say, come to me. All of you who labor and are heavy laden, all of you who have been saddled all of these laws, all of you who've been saddled by all of this legalism, all of you who are spiritually anxious because you're worried about how you're doing, what you're doing instead of why and who you're doing it for, all of you who are so stressed out about how you look coming to church, all of you who are so stressed out because you missed one day in your Bible plan, all of you who are stressed out because you're like, am I reading the right translation? Am I reading it at the right time of the day? Am I reading it from the right scholar? Am I reading it from this way? Am I reading it? All of you who are stressed out about the details and missing Jesus, missing the entire point of any encounter you have with His Word, which is to get closer to the Father. If you have an encounter with the Word and you don't get closer to God, some we missed. I'm glad we memorized all of Psalm 119. But if I'm no closer to God than I was before I memorized it, I missed something. All scripture is God breathed all, which means any encounter I have with Scripture, it is my responsibility to check and see. Did that bring me closer to him? Did that invite the Holy Spirit in me? Did that clear my ears so that I can hear the voice of the Father through the word that I read? I'm honoring my prayer time. I'm honoring my time with him. Is my prayer time bringing me closer to Him? Or is my prayer time just checking off a box? Because once our prayer time just checks off a box once saying grace over my food just checks off a box once, just sitting down and reading my Bible just checks off a box. It's only a matter of time before I find myself spiritually anxious because I am laboring, I am toiling, I am working, and I am no closer to my Father. I'm not learning anything new about His Son. And I do not hear the Holy Spirit any clearer than I did in all of my doing. So the climate that Jesus is speaking to is one where the Pharisees and Sadducees have been doing this to the people at large. I'll get it to. I think it's Matthew 24. I may go there. We'll see how much time we have, but I'm gonna move forward. So when he says, come to me, all you who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest saying, listen, I am He. I am because of who I am as Jesus, because my will is the same as my Father's. Come to me. And this is where your spirit can rest. Enter into the presence of the Lord, and that's where your spirit can rest. It's not going to be in your rituals. It's going to be in your sensitivity to his presence. Because no one can anticipate where Jesus was going to be. The only person who knew where Jesus was going to be was Jesus. There were towns where the disciples were, like, let's turn up here. It's hot. We've done all this healing. They know your name. They're ripe for it. Jesus said, it's not my time to be there. So for us, it is very, very important that we are mindful that our encounters with His Word, our prayer time, is all about getting closer to the Father, communing in the Spirit with Jesus and being able to hear the Holy Spirit clearly. I'm still only in verse one. Okay, 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. Now, the yoke was fascinating unto me. So for those of us who have studied our Bibles, and if you haven't, congratulations, you're about to get a crash course on yolks. Because some of us have heard, don't be unevenly yoked. We don't know what that literally means. I have a picture of a yoke, and this, if we could put the picture up with the two cows, it should come up behind me in a little bit. There it is. So you see the thing that's connecting the two of them, that is a yoke. That yoke is connected to whatever burden is on the other side of them. And the idea of a yoke was it was around the necks of those who were the beasts of burden, and it shared the load between them so that they could then move this thing forward. So when he talks about my yoke is easy and my burden is light, most of the time, people think of this yoke. But I found that interesting because when I looked up the definition of the word yoke, I'm not going to try to pronounce that word. It's zyugas. I got it right. It says it's a coupling. It speaks of servitude. And then we get to the literal definition of it, which is where I had to do a little more digging. Literally, it is the beam of balance as connecting the scales. So now I'm looking at this differently, but because what I see here are two forces that are chained, not chain, are chained together to move a load together. This here says that this is also the literal definition. In other words, a beam that balances. Now, with a yoke like this, the one behind me, what a lot of scholars have said, and I'm not going to disagree with them, but this is what I have heard. When Jesus speaks of us taking on his yoke. The idea of it is we're both yoked together, me and Jesus. And what they would do with these yokes is at times they would have animals who were bigger and more used to carrying a load connected to one that was younger and couldn't carry as much of a load. And then the younger would learn from the elder, but the bigger one, the stronger one would carry most of the load, and they would do most of the work. And so the idea of this being, when I take on Jesus yoke, me and Jesus are yoked together. Jesus clearly is much bigger than I am in the Spirit, so he's going to be doing the heavy lifting. And I love that idea. That gives me some rest, that helps put my spirit at rest, because it means that I don't have to carry the burden of trying to walk out this thing called life that God has given me all by myself and not. But. And there's also a second type of yoke that I wanted to take a look at, which I actually think applies even more so to this verse. Can you show the second yoke? It's the gentleman holding up the. Can you guys see that? Okay. That is called a milkmaid yoke or a porter's yoke. That yoke is a beam. It's a balance beam. The idea being once you gave someone that yoke, they could put their loads on it, and then all you would have to do is pick it up and it would carry the load instead of you. Now, when I look at this yoke, I think this fits my relationship with Jesus as he's describing it here, a little bit better. Because what Jesus is saying is, my yoke is easy and my burden is light. If you look at that thing, if you look at the yoke behind me, instead of having to figure out how to carry two pails, that gentleman only has to figure out how to carry one beam. And that one beam in ball involves the weights being balanced. You see porters yokes like this in the marketplaces of the. Of biblical times. And what would happen is the marketplaces had very narrow entryways. And so when merchants came from different cities and wanted to sell their goods, they would load their goods on donkeys and horses and they would bring them right to the mouth of the marketplace. But because the entrance was so short or so narrow, they had to leave the animals outside and they had to go get a yoke and put all of their goods on the yoke and then carry the yoke on their back into the marketplace. The yoke allowed for more of a burden to travel and balanced. So now when I'm looking at this and we're talking about Jesus is saying, take my yoke upon you. This isn't about me and Jesus entering into something that is around both of us. Perhaps this is about me picking up the ways of Jesus and the life of Jesus and the teaching of Jesus and the more model of Jesus and taking it on me. Because Jesus, who he has said in his word, has overcome the world. Do not fear. I can put whatever my load is on him and just hold him. Whatever has been burdening my spirit, I put it on Jesus instead of putting it on me. Now When I read Take my yoke, for my yoke is easy and my burden is light, like, oh, I'm trying to lift all of the worries and concerns of the world, and all I need to do is hold Jesus. Because Jesus, as it said in the very first verse, all things have been delivered to me by my Father. Whatever problem I think I have, my Father has already delivered a solution to Jesus. Jesus has all things because they've been delivered to him, to my Father. All of my concerns delivered to him by my Father. So instead of me trying to carry all the concerns, perhaps my focus just needs to be on taking on the yoke that is Jesus and placing that on me. If you think of it another way, anybody here who does. Anybody here? Well, we're trying to get our summer bodies on, so you know what that is? Anybody in the weight room. If I gave you 1040 pound plates and said, I want you to find a way to carry all of them at one time and walk, you got two ways to try this. You can try to pick up all of the plates and stack them on you, or you can put them on a bar and pick up the bar. Jesus is that bar. Jesus is the beam. Jesus is the one who balances your burden. So instead of you trying to carry the worry and concern of the 60s, 70s, 80s, 90s, aught, 2010-2020-2030-2040, 2050, perhaps I should just carry the Eternal One who has mastered all of my concerns in any era or time period and let him hold all of that while I just hold him. So now when we're talking about taking on his yoke, my job is now, how can I take on the teaching and the manner of Jesus? Verse 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. Learn from Jesus. Learn from him. Become gentle and lowly in heart. And that is where the rest for my soul comes from. It's not from me trying to solve all of my problems on my own. It's not from me trying to carry all of the burdens on my own, trying to carry the burdens of my family all on my own and the previous generation all on my own and the generation coming all on my own and the generations of families that are none of my business, all on my own. It is about me taking on the yoke of Jesus, the character of Jesus, the name, knowledge of who Jesus is, accepting him as my Lord and Savior. My work is to take that and place that on me. And he balances out my burden. Now, he does not get rid of my burden because I still need to walk out life. And this is one of the big things we trip over as believers is we believe that the minute we know Jesus, we declare Jesus as Lord and Savior, we get baptized, we find a church, we get a Bible plan, and all our problems are supposed to disappear. And for three weeks and five days, we're in the euphoria of the high of doing the new thing and everything is great. And we start to be super optimistic over things that probably we shouldn't be optimistic over because we're just going to glaze over it with the high high of doing this new thing. And then reality hits. I still have to work out life. I still have to walk out the life God has given me, which means I'm still going to have problems. I'm still going to have to overcome obstacles. That's why when Jesus said, do not fear, I have overcome the world, that was a war warning. If everybody focuses on the overcome the world part, don't miss the part where he said, do not fear because he knew. So for us, we have to remember when life happens to us as it is going to, it is my responsibility. The yoke that I pick up is not the problems of the world. The yoke that I pick up is not the burdens of the world. The yoke that I pick up is the presence of Jesus and what wisdom and understanding and knowledge I can get from him. Picking up Jesus as my yoke and the rest that that gives me. The rest from spiritual anxiety that that gives me. When I have that rest, that's when I can receive word about how to deal with what I'm dealing with, not how to make it disappear. So when he says, take on my take on my yoke, for my yoke is easy and my burden is light, I'm like, ooh, that sounds that. That. That works for me. Now, to be clear, in a world where continuing in your walk is a challenge, I'm not saying that it is easy, but it is much easier than trying to take on all the burdens of the world on our own. That's why he said, by comparison, you getting in your word and getting to know me is easy. You getting in your prayer time and getting to hear from my Father is easy. You getting to know the Holy Spirit for yourself and developing a unique and intimate relationship with the Holy Ghost, easy compared to what it is we're doing without them. I looked up this word easy. One of the definitions of easy is useful. I was like, oh, that's different. I just expected easy to mean ease. I said, I get that part. Says, for my yoke is easy. So my yoke is useful. When you pick up and carry Jesus, there's things that he could. They're actually useful. Whatever it is I'm carrying, whatever burden I've taken on that does not involve Jesus, perhaps it is not useful. And that's why I have spiritual anxiety, because I know what I'm doing is not serving a purpose. What I'm doing is not serving his purpose. This word yeezy, better. Gracious, kind. My yoke is gracious and kind, and my burden is light. This word burden, when you break it down, actually has the definition an invoice. It's a shipping term. So you know, when you ship cargo, you have an invoice of what's on the ship. And so when he says, my burden is light, some of us have taken on burdens. We don't even know what they consist of. We don't know what it is we've taken on.
- [39:06]
C
We just took it on.
- [39:08]
A
Jesus said, you take me on, you're going to know exactly who I am. You're going to know exactly what I bring to the table. Jesus does not trick you into anything. Some of us have been tricked into the burdens that we carry. We didn't even realize we were carrying. Just, oh, that's very heavy. Where did that come from? It's like that bag where you just kind of put two pounds in, and then you put two more pounds in and you put three pounds in. And after a while, your bag is carrying 100 pounds. You don't know how I got there. Two pounds at a time. Some of us are carrying two pounds at a time. Burdens, got tricked into them. Jesus is saying, my burden is light. My invoice. You're going to know what you're getting into when you are with me, because you're with the one who, what, has everything delivered unto him from his Father. I want. I want that yoke. I'm going to take the Jesus yoke because the yoke of the world, no matter how well I strategize, I cannot balance the yoke of the world because that is not my burden. He says, my yoke is easy and my burden is light. This word light, when you look it up, also speaks of not just in weight, but. But it means quick and agile. So not only if I am carrying my yoke, if I am carrying the presence of Jesus with Me. And this is what I choose to carry. It also means it will not keep me from moving forward. There are burdens that we take on that literally keep us from walking out. What God has called for us to walk out. We're stopped because the burden is too great. Because. Because it wasn't ours to begin with, to have. And nothing will make people more spiritually anxious than knowing that there is a path. There is a lamp unto your feet and a light unto your path. But you can't follow the path that has been illuminated in front of you because you are carrying a burden that is stopping you. Jesus said, put that down. Carry me as your yoke. Put me on. Reminds me how Paul says, throw off the old man, put on the new man. Put me on. And if you put me on, I will balance out whatever burdens you are carrying so that you can continue to move forward. So now when I see this verse, I realize, number one, this is not about me dumping my problems and running. This is about me having an appropriate response in the Spirit to that which burdens me, which is Jesus. Jesus. I'm going to pick up Jesus. I'm going to cast my burdens, cast my cares, Jesus. I'm not going to solve this by myself, Jesus. I'm going to observe the wise counsel the Spirit has for me. Jesus. I'm not going to call the same people I call for help because perhaps. Perhaps the people that I call for help might become a burden because they're not the people who are supposed to help with this problem in this season. I'm going to pick up Jesus because his yoke is easy and his burden is light. There's way more on here, as you can see by me continuing to scroll. Not gonna do all that. But I am gonna leave you with one last thing, and then we're gonna get into questions. I started to look on this word burden and the beam and the scales, because it speaks of this yoke being the beam that holds two scales up. And it reminded me of Proverbs 20 and 23. Says Diverse weights are an abomination to the Lord and dishonest scales are not good. The Lord. And when we look at this word abomination, there are other translations with speeches. The Lord is disgusted by diverse weights. In other words, diverse weights, meaning disproportionate burden disgusts the Lord. When we are carrying what we are not supposed to carry, God says, that's not right, and that's why he sent Jesus. Too many of my people are carrying burdens. They're not supposed to carry trying to follow religious laws from people who are keeping them further from me than bringing them closer to me. Too many of my people are trying to solve problems without me. So I'm going to send Jesus. I'm going to send Jesus. I'm going to align my will with Jesus. I'm going to entrust everything to Jesus. And then I'm going to send Jesus wrapped in flesh to earth for them to see and and hear and know and testify of and be changed by. I'm going to send Jesus so that they can pick him up instead of all of the burdens that have been dumped on them. Because as it says here in this Word, the Lord, it is an abomination to have weights that are not weight balanced. We were called to walk balanced. But what restores and maintains balance in our lives is Jesus. If Jesus is missing from your plan, it is not balanced. Either we're feeling too much responsibility because there are responsibilities that aren't ours, or there are responsibilities that we're not even aware of that we have not picked up one way or another. This is not balanced until Jesus is the yoke that is upon my shoulder. Until Jesus is the yoke that I choose to carry. Until my responsibility to every situation and circumstance is Jesus. And if Jesus says therapist, Jesus and my therapist. And if it's Jesus and a doctor, it's Jesus and my doctor. Please don't get religious on me in this place. I start with Jesus. And Jesus will use all of the resources because it has all been entrusted delivered to him. He will give me knowledge and insight on what is available to me on this earth to relieve or balance the burden that I have. But I can't skip over Jesus. And when we do this, we find ourselves truly balanced. When you see people walking very balanced in the Spirit, it's not that they're not carrying heavy things. It's not that they're not dealing with heavy issues. It's that they have received knowledge and insight from Jesus on what to do and how to do it and help me, Jesus. Not only have they received this knowledge and insight and they've heard from the Holy Spirit, they're doing what he said. This is the part some of us are praying to hear from the Lord. I want to hear the Holy Spirit. I want to hear the Father. I want to know the voice of the Lord for myself. And you pray and you fast for six weeks. You showed up at 3am Nothing happened. Then all of a sudden, boom. God gave you a word. You sat on it for five. And then we're like, lord, why aren't you talking? I prayed, I fasted. I heard from you one time. I figured this was going to be a regular thing. What happened. If we're going to take on the yoke of Jesus, means we are also responsible to do what we are told. What we hear from the voice of the Lord through his Son, what we hear from the Holy Spirit. Holy Spirit, who was given to us as a gift and a promise from his Son so that we would always have access to the voice of the Father. My Fitbit says I'm way active right now. Just buzzed me down, like, bro, you need to slow down. Listen, I'm preaching, okay? This is how I preach. I get excited. We were called not to walk overburdened, but to walk balanced. Highs, lows. Shaking. Not shaking. Balanced. And that balance comes from taking on Jesus as our yoke, not the world. I really am gonna stop right there. Yeah, we're gonna rest there. So my prayer is that tonight for anybody who has felt a little unbalanced, let's not pretend that the world isn't acting the way that it is. My prayer is that there's some perspective that has been given. Because anyone who feels overburdened, may I suggest to you that that is because Jesus is being underutilized. If you're feeling overburdened, and I felt means the Holy Spirit is being underhouse. If I'm feeling overburdened, it probably means the Father is being under obeyed. I don't even think that's a word, but everybody caught it. Someone looking at the dictionary right now, don't bother me. I don't think that's a word. My goal for tonight is that we take our place as balanced ones. The idea of Jesus being the one, the one who is in the center, who makes the weights appropriate for those who carry him as their yoke. I pray that that's an idea that we hold onto and that we rest in so that our spirit can be at ease. Because as I said earlier, for some of us, we're trying to get our mind right and get our body right. But if the spirit ain't right, those two are never going to come around. Don't know who needed to hear that. But if you have ears to hear, please hear it, fam. Take Jesus as your yoke, and when you put him on, then the load that you carry will be balanced and you will be refreshed enough to carry a balanced load. Sometimes the most refreshing thing is not, oh, Help me, Jesus. Some of us are so overburdened, we just want to put the thing down. But if you put the thing down and take a nap and eat a protein bar, hopefully not in that order, but you pick up the same unbalanced burden and put it back on, that was not really rest. You just paused. But if the load is still unbalanced when you pick it up, that means at the root, at the core, something has not been addressed. We have picked up the wrong burden in the wrong way. Pick up, Jesus. I'm done.
- [52:35]
D
All right, that was some good word. And I'm sure there are some people with some questions about Matthew 11:27-30. So if you have questions, line up right here. We're gonna take a couple of you. And this is questions pertaining to what Pastor EB Just dove into. All right, here's our first question.
- [53:03]
A
Hey, Pastor, what's up?
- [53:06]
D
So my question is in verse 29, when it says, take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart. I was just wondering, like, why Jesus points out those two qualities out of all of his qualities in the context of taking on his yoke.
- [53:26]
A
Ooh. I think gentle and lowly in heart speaks to who Jesus was at the core, which was his humility. And so if we're going to take on his yoke, that means we have to take on his characteristics. The first thing I think of when I think of Jesus is he who knew no sin became all of my sin. And for someone to not know sin, to be in his place next to the Father, and to leave a place next to the Father to come down here. For me, that level of humility is a core principle of who he is. So as he says, I want you to take this on, but watch this. Take this on. Because I am gentle and lowly in heart. Gentleness and humility are two of the easiest things to take on. They're the easiest things to accept. And by easy, I just mean your spirit is relaxed when you are around people who are gentle, who are genuinely gentle and lowly. If he came to you and was yelling and screaming with chariots of fire behind him, you might accept him, but it would be a different kind of acceptance. You would accept him because you were scurred. That's not the relationship Jesus wants to develop with any of us, which is why he describes. I'm so glad you asked that question. I am gentle and lowly in heart. Understand? I am taking on your burdens, and I don't have to I'm doing it because I love you. And this, when he engages us with this, is what allows us to say, okay, I'll take that on. I will take on the yoke of someone who loves me, even as they have seen the sin I haven't committed yet and still on my behalf died so that I could be made whole and redeemed to the Father. So I hope that answered your question. I just get excited about Jesus.
- [55:40]
D
Hi.
- [55:41]
A
Hello. So my question is, I'm trying to understand. So Jesus is the one choosing us. Correct. But then what happened to the one that he doesn't choose? And what the purpose of evangelizing to.
- [55:55]
D
People because we don't know if Jesus chose them or not.
- [55:58]
A
Ooh, that's an excellent question. I love this question. Here's why I love this question. Because this is one of those Evangelizing can be tricky because we like to believe we know who's going where, because we'll read a person like, oh, yeah, you're going to heaven. I'm going to evangelize to you, because I think you're already on the way there. Let me just give you a loving nudge. Meanwhile, it is not up to us to know who. When you speak of evangelizing, that is an assignment, which means God has appointed me and assigned me to evangelize in this way, to this place, person. My job, once I've received that command, is to just do. It's not up to me to figure out whether they get where they're supposed to go or not. There's a parable, and it speaks of the vineyard. It's way too long. I'm trying to shorten in my brain right now, but it speaks of how. Now I'm not going to use that because we'll be here till 10 o'. Clock. Long story short, when it comes to those. Yes, yes, I will use it. There's a parable that speaks of how there are the tares that come up with the wheat. And so the tares come. The tares are sown by the enemy, and the tares come up with the wheat. And he looks at the Lord and he says, hey, we should take the tares out. He says, no, let them come up together, because in the right time the tares will be separated from the wheat. Number one, we do not know when that time is. Number two, we are not the vinedresser. So we don't always know the difference between the tare and the wheat. And so if I'm not careful, I will uproot what's supposed to be wheat treating it like a tare. And now I'm out of alignment. I'm not trying to get swept away because we know what happens with the tear. The tears are gathered up and burned. I don't want to be gathered up and burned. So this is why when we evangelize, we. We. If God says, give this person the opportunity to know who I am, I do my job, and whatever they choose is between them and the Lord. Mm. Hi. Hey.
- [58:28]
E
My name is Azayna.
- [58:31]
A
Hi.
- [58:32]
E
My question was specifically, like, for me, for someone that has trauma from having to be the one to figure it all out, how can I make small steps to be able to trust him enough?
- [58:46]
A
Ooh. Okay. You said as someone who has always has to figure it out. When you say that, do you mean figure it out for you? Yeah.
- [58:59]
E
How I grew up was very much like, I grew up, I guess not fast, but I had to, like, figure a lot of things out. I was, like, already an adult at, like, a very, like, young age. So it's really hard for me to be, like, I guess, in a sense that I can trust specifically, like, in, like, a man or like, God and things like that to be able to be like, you care for me enough that, like, I don't have to worry about it. Instead of that being, like, a comforting thing, it, like, stresses me out.
- [59:27]
A
Ah, that's that spiritual anxiety we were just talking about. Okay, couple of things. One, what you said was so heavy, because I know you're not the only person who understands what it is to have to grow up quickly. My first I want to say prayer. This will be a speaking prayer, is that your childlike nature be restored to you, not just physiologically and mentally, but spiritually. That's necessary not only for you, but for all of us. Jesus said, unless you all become like these children, you will not enter into the kingdom. So there is a level of innocence, and there is a level of childlike faith that is at the core of who we are, that allows us to do as God calls us to do, to enter into his kingdom. So, one, my very earnest prayer is that your childlike faith, faith is restored to you. And number two, this is going to be the challenge. You have to say no to you. It's easy to say no to other people because they leave. You say no to them, they get mad, and they're gone. You don't have to face them. They're gone. When we have to say no to us, we still see ourselves in the mirror. So Here is. My additional prayer for you is that you can continue to say no to you in order for you to be able to say yes to him. Because as long as you're continuing to say yes to yourself first, you won't be able to hear him. And I know this from experience because I had a lot of years saying yes to me and I'm like, I think back on those years and I'm like, oh, that was God trying to tell me not to do that. That was God telling me to do this, but I wanted to do because I figured I needed to, because I need to handle me and take care of me. You will have to become used to saying no when I say saying no to you, saying no to you as you being the author and finisher of your faith, not saying you need to deny who you are. Don't do that. You have a God given identity and your job is to continue to discover that God given identity through your time with Him. What you will have to say no to is when God, when you, when your ear for God's voice crystallizes and you start to hear him real clearly, say yes to him before your voice has a chance to come in and counter what he said. So that's a, and that's a habit that takes time to build for all of us. It's a habit that takes time to keep because sometimes, you know, we say yes to the Lord, things start going great, we get on autopilot and then we think we could take over the wheel. So my encouragement for you is to, and I suspect that God has already begun to speak to you in terms of, uh huh, yeah, there it is. There are already areas where God has spoken to you and said, give this to me. And specifically he has given you instruction on what to do. Rehearse following those instructions. And what will happen is as you follow those instructions, what takes place and the clarity with which you hear his voice eventually begins to, I don't want to say drown out, but his voice becomes louder, your testimony becomes louder. And then your voice in terms of you trying to interrupt that thing starts to lessen. So a work in progress. But number one, find your inner child because she deserves to be heard and to live through you. And two, God speaks to you. You hear him rehearse, practice doing the little things, because he will ask you to do, help me, Holy Spirit. He's going to ask you to do a lot of little things within the next month. Little things like turn on the hot water instead of the cold water. Little things Practice hearing and obeying the little things. And I think that will help you.
- [64:27]
F
What's going on?
- [64:28]
A
Hey. Hey.
- [64:30]
F
So my question has to deal with the spiritual anxiety. When you brought that up, I underlined it a bunch of times. And I just want to ask you to speak to discerning between spiritual anxiety and spiritual disciplines. And. Because, yeah, like, we should. Like how Jesus is like, when you pray, when you fast. So. And obviously he wants us to read the Word. So how do you discern between doing it out of, I guess, like an obligation versus doing it out of the discipline that we as believers should have?
- [65:10]
A
Ooh, I'll make sure I heard the question right. We're trying to have. We're trying to discern the difference between obligation.
- [65:19]
F
Yeah. Like the spiritual anxiety of, like. I guess spiritual anxiety more refers to maybe the guilt or feeling, like, the weight of not doing something that you should be doing in quotes versus what you like. Spiritual disciplines that we should all develop.
- [65:38]
A
Okay.
- [65:39]
F
Without quotes.
- [65:40]
A
So I will say this. When it comes to. What was the word you used? The obligation of it. Yes. When you're doing anything out of obligation, there's angst. There's angst and anxiety because you feel like you have to. And there is not a relationship with God that I've read where it was not a choice once. The element of choosing once. I'm going to say this very carefully. Once you don't feel like you are aligning your will with His. Because when you understand what I'm doing is in alignment with his will, there is an ease and a joy that comes from that. Even if it's difficult and we've all had it, everybody has had to give God a hard yes. But in giving him that hard yes. When you knew it was in alignment with his will, you. That's how you know it's not from obligation. Because if it's obligation, there is angst there. Even as you're doing it and you're doing it well, you still do not feel the rest that comes from taking on him as the yoke. That's how you know it's obligation. If it stresses you as you are doing it, obligation shouldn't be stressed. Reading your word. Don't try to play with me today. Try to have y' all out by Sunday. Don't do this. Your word should not stress you out. Prayer should not stress you out. Keeping your prayer time should not be a stressful thing. Once it becomes a stressful thing, like you're losing sleep because. Because you didn't pray, you and God need to have a conversation about what prayer really means, because that means prayer has just been something you need to check off so you can get some sleep. Instead of being an intimate time with the Father where you can just be with him. Nobody's turning down the time to just be with him. If I offered somebody a vacation right now to Cancun, ain't nobody gonna be like, no. Nah, too stressful. I don't want to plan. Not trying to go to Bora Bora. Too stressful. Don't want it. Everybody's getting on that plane happy. Our time with the Lord should feel like that. When it starts to not, that's when it's obligation. That's a fantastic question.
- [68:36]
D
Hey.
- [68:36]
A
Hey, what's going on?
- [68:38]
C
2023, I was faced with a hard yes. I think the hard yes was retiring from playing professional basketball. I didn't want to, not even close, but someone was telling me that I needed to for so many reasons, and I walked away. And so now so many opportunities have been coming my way. Me helping kids in the community, being from Chicago, and I have so many job opportunities of mba, people calling and all these different things. But it's not fulfilling to me. I don't feel like it will fulfill me. And just because everybody else was saying, you know, take it. You know, this is it. Money, money, money. I never, like, was the type of person to just chase the money, you know? And I just. I feel like the toughest thing from what you was talking about is I don't even know how to walk with God. I don't even know how to really listen. But the first time I actually did listen, I feel like I made the right decision. But now in this stage in my life, I don't know how to listen to him. And sometimes I don't even know how to speak to him and actually feel like, you know what I'm saying, I'm asking the right questions, or just like, I'm trying to make sure that I make the right decisions and not make him feel like I'm not really listening to him. You know what I mean?
- [70:19]
A
I do.
- [70:20]
C
So it's, you know, just really trying to figure out, like, you know, how do I walk with him in this stage in my life? You know who.
- [70:30]
A
Man? What's your name?
- [70:38]
C
Jerome Randall.
- [70:39]
A
Jerome Randall? Yeah. You have no idea how many people you just set free by just saying what you just said. I want to encourage you in this. I'm a little overcome, if I'm honest, because your story's not different from mine. For me, it wasn't basketball, it was acting. And what we normally don't speak about is after the hard yes is. What makes the yes so hard is God doesn't give a whole lot of details. After you just say yes, and then it's just like. And we really do. We. We think he's going to, like, dump an instruction manual on us that's going to guide us through. And the reason that there is that expanse of nothing. Ooh, thank you, Jesus. It's a void. That is a Genesis 1 moment. It's a moment where now, as I love the beginning of creation so much, because it speaks of how God was hovering over the deep and the earth is without form and void. God calls us into seasons where everything at times has to be without form and void. And a hard yes will put you in a without form and void season. The only thing that caused order in that without form and void was his voice. So the fact that you are even aware that his voice is the voice that you need to hear, I need to encourage you in this because I wish more people were doing it for you. Because from what you're telling me, you are saying no to things that could very easily take you out of this and make life easier for you. But you know to say no, which means you hear Him. You hear Him. That might be all you needed to hear for tonight, but you hear him because where you could easily say yes, your inner voice known as the Holy Spirit, is talking to you, telling you no, and you're doing it. That's incredible. That's amazing. So here's what. I will encourage you in quiet time with him and being comfortable in quiet time with Him. So establish time with the Lord, where you don't say nothing. That's real hard, especially for me. I love to talk. Establish time with the Lord where all you do is listen. You get accustomed to the quiet that is his presence with you. And when you get accustomed to that quiet, when he whispers a direction, one word, one thing, you have cultivated the environment of the quiet of his presence. So you hear him super clear. Then I would suggest you're much further along than you believe. Don't make this any harder or more complicated than it needs to be. Continue to spend time with Him, Spend time in His Word, because what you'll start to find is that what you hear in the Spirit corresponds to something in His Word. And then you hear something in the Spirit, then you read it in the Word. Then you go to church and somebody preaches on it, and the confirmations will start to stack up over and over and over. But it starts where you are now with that hard yes. And as someone who gave the hard yes and had to continue to say no to opportunities that people were giving me to try to take me to the other side, stick with it, bruh. It's worth it.
- [75:36]
B
Hey, family. Well, I pray that you were just as blessed by this teaching as I was. I'm just so grateful again to be a part of a dynamic community full of love, full of revelation and wisdom. One has been a movement that's been blessing people for over two decades, and I'm so glad that you got an opportunity to experience it. I also have a podcast called the called it's right here on wherever you're listening to this Spotify or Apple or wherever you're listening to this podcast. You can just look up the call T H E C A L L E D with myself, Terray Roberts. This is designed for entrepreneurs, leaders and business people. It's a weekly podcast and it will bless you. But hey, I enjoyed having you here. Meet us here next week. Check out the call. Much blessings to you. We'll catch you next time.