Come and Find Rest: Obtaining Rest in a Restless World

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Learn more at harvest.org. And while you're there, browse our library of free eBooks designed to help you grow in your faith. Come to me.

Just come to me and you'll find rest. This is the day when the lost are found. This is the day for a new beginning. Amazing grace, how sweet the sound. Oh, can you hear when the angels are singing?

This is the day, the day when life begins. Cacophony. That's a great word.

And no, it's not a drink at Starbucks. It's a mixture of harsh, discordant sounds. It's the sound of being stuck in a New York City traffic jam. Our lives are like a cacophony sometimes. Maybe they're sounds, maybe they're discordant thoughts, or such a collision of priorities and urgencies that we just need some peace and quiet. Today on A New Beginning, Pastor Greg Laurie shows us where they're found.

They're found at the foot of Jesus. This is the day, the day when life begins. I don't know if you read this article in the paper recently, but it is now official. Research shows that dogs are more intelligent than cats. So cat lovers are going to have to just deal with that. A scientist at Oxford University found the size of an animal's brain determines that. And because dogs are more social, their brains are larger.

And it makes total sense. I mean just think about the way a dog treats you and the way a cat treats you. I mean when you come home, maybe after being gone all day, think how you are greeted by a dog. I mean they're just beside themselves with excitement.

Happy days are here again. You know they're jumping up and they want to lick you. They welcome you when you come home. Cats. They are mad that you left in the first place. I think cats hold grudges.

Don't you? When you talk to a dog, have you ever noticed that sometimes they will kind of tilt their head. Almost like they are trying to understand what you are saying.

You talk to them. What are you telling me? Cat just looks at you and walks off. It is just like it doesn't even give you the courtesy of that. You know when you are sad, a dog will try to comfort you. Cats don't care how you feel.

As long as you know where the can opener is. When you take a dog for a ride, they are beside themselves with excitement. They want to be right next to you with their head hanging out the window. Cats have to have their own private basket or they won't go at all. And try pulling out a leash. What does a dog do?

They are so happy. They are going to go on a walk. Pull out a leash. You think a cat would let you put a leash on it? Let me just ask you this question. Have you ever seen anyone walking a cat? It doesn't happen.

That is just the way things are. Speaking of taking dogs for walks. Things didn't go so well for Tattoo the Basset Hound. This is a true story.

According to the Tacoma, Washington newspaper, Tattoo did not plan on going for an evening run, but when his owner shut the dog's leash and the car door and took off for a drive with Tattoo still outside the vehicle, he had no choice. The article said a motorcycle officer noticed a passing vehicle with something dragging behind it. I am not laughing. I am laughing.

I am. Something dragging behind it. He commented that the poor Basset Hound was picking them up and putting them down as fast as he could.

You know Basset Hounds. They are a little lower to the ground. Their legs are a little smaller. So imagine poor Tattoo with those little feet trying to keep up. So the officer chased the car down. Tattoo was rescued.

He was fine. But the car had reached speeds up to 25 miles per hour. And at times Tattoo got dragged a little bit. Have you ever felt that way?

Drug through life like Tattoo the Basset Hound. We are picking them up and putting them down as fast as we can. And there is all this pressure to do so many things. You find yourself saying things like, I am ready to throw in the...that's right. I am at the end of my...that's right. I am just a bundle of...my life is falling.

Wow. You guys are messed up. Listen to you. Complaining in the middle of a sermon. I am at my wits.

You see what I am saying. We could sum up our lives this way. Hurried. Worried.

Buried. And there is so much pressure to do so many things. Let's think about the words of Jesus for a few moments that I think are so relevant. Matthew chapter 11 starting in verse 28. "'Come to Me, all you who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take My yoke upon you and learn from Me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For My yoke is easy and My burden is light.'" Now these verses are often quoted when we want to tell someone how to come to Jesus.

And that is a completely appropriate use of them. However they are not limited as an invitation to the nonbeliever only. These words of Jesus are to any person that is stressed out. Any person that is under pressure.

Any person that is carrying a burden of any kind. The expanded translation of the statement of our Lord from the Greek goes as follows. "'Come here to Me, all of you who are growing weary to the point of exhaustion, and you are loaded with burdens and you are bending beneath your weight. I alone will cause you to cease from your labor and take away your burdens and refresh you with rest.'"

So He is saying, "'Come here to Me.'" And by the way that is not an invitation to lazy people. A Christian should be the hardest workers of all. In fact the Bible tells us in 1 Thessalonians 3 11, "'Settle down and get to work and in your own living do not grow weary of doing good.'"

So it is not to a lazy person. It is to a weary person. And why are they weary?

Well presumably because they have been working hard. In fact this carries the idea of someone who is at the point of utter exhaustion. You are not only exhausted but you are heavy laden. You are loaded down with weight.

Is that a description of you today? Maybe you have come here with a burden of some kind. Maybe it is the burden of a sin that you have been struggling with.

Maybe it is the burden of physical pain or the burden of problems in your family or the burden of grief. Jesus says, "'Come to Me.'" And what will happen to the person who comes to Him? Verse 28, "'I will give you rest.'" And this word rest means to be refreshed or revived.

What kind of rest is that? Well for starters this would be the rest that comes with the assurance of salvation. If you put your faith in Jesus Christ never should you doubt the fact that you are right with God and that you are going to heaven. The Bible says in Romans 5, having been justified by faith we have peace with God through the Lord Jesus Christ. So we need to rest in the finished work of Christ that He accomplished on the cross, which we will be remembering in a few moments at the communion table. That our Lord went there and shed His blood for every sin that we have ever committed and God's righteous demands have been met by Christ. And therefore we can rest in that finished work so you don't have to sweat the small stuff.

Sure you as Christians will have your problems and your challenges and your trials, but you know that you are saved and you are safe in the Lord's protective care. Now this word that Jesus uses here in Matthew 11 for rest is an interesting one. Sometimes in the New Testament it is used for chains falling of someone's hands. Chains falling of someone's hands. So it carries the idea of being released from any kind of bondage.

The child of God should not be under any kind of legalism or any kind of vice. Jesus says, I will give you rest and relief. This word that Jesus uses for rest is also used to describe a person who is in financial debt.

So I will give you rest from financial debt. Now that is not a literal statement necessarily, though the Lord can provide for our needs, but it really is a statement about our debt of sin and the repercussions of it. That because we put our faith in Christ the Bible says we have been justified and that word means that our sins have been forgiven and the righteousness of Christ has now been placed into our account. And finally in Greek literature the word rest is used to describe a door that you can't quite open and then suddenly flies open.

It is sort of like getting access to something. So once I have come to Christ what should I then do? Now this is very important. Jesus says, you that are exhausted, you that are weary, you that are burdened with weight, come to me and I will give you rest. I will forgive you of the spiritual debt that you have. I will put my righteousness into your account. I will break the chains off of you and I will give you free access into my presence. Now what?

Very important. 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. Maybe if we were to update this today it would be like Jesus saying, give me the steering wheel. I don't know about you but I don't like to be driven by my wife. Now my wife is a very good driver.

She is very careful. But I am the worst backseat driver that has ever lived. Turn right. Get in the right lane.

Get in the right lane. Get in it. No. No. No. Ok. Hurry.

Go around that person. Watch. You know.

And that is how I am. So she will just say, fine. You just drive the car. And I will say, good. Yes. You know. And usually I am driving the car but occasionally if she is picking me up somewhere she will have to put up with me for the time that it takes to get me from A to B.

And I think she has just found it easier to say, here. You just drive the car. Ok. And a lot of times we can be that way with the Lord. He says, give me the steering wheel. And we are saying, Lord speed up. Speed up. Turn right.

No. Lord get out of this lane. Lord don't like this. Don't like this. Change this.

And he wants to be in control. Pastor Greg Laurie will have the second half of his message in just a moment. Hey everybody. Greg Laurie here. You know my uncle Fred Jordan had one of the first Christian TV programs out there. It was called Church in the Home.

I remember watching it as a little boy when I was living with my grandparents. Well we have Church in the Home for you every weekend. It's called Harvest at Home. And you can find it at Harvest.org. We have worship and a message from God's word.

So join us this weekend for Harvest at Home at Harvest.org. Well today Pastor Greg is showing us how to find rest in Christ. Based on the Lord's words, take my yoke on you and learn of me.

For I am meek and lowly in heart and you shall find rest to your souls. Take my yoke upon you. What was a yoke?

It had nothing to do with an egg by the way. A yoke was made of wood. It was hand hewn to fit the neck and shoulders of the animal that was to wear it in order to avoid pain or discomfort. So back in the ancient culture the yoke was an expression that was used to describe submission. When you said someone was yoked to something or someone it communicated the idea that you were submitted to that. When the oxen is yoked to the cart under the direction of the driver they have submitted themselves to that power. So when Jesus says take my yoke upon you it means submit yourself to Christ every day and every way.

So some might say well that kind of freaks me out a little bit. Are you suggesting that to really follow Jesus you are to serve and obey Him? That is exactly what I am suggesting. And that is exactly what Jesus is saying.

But before you bristle at that idea consider this. Everyone is yoked to something or someone. Maybe another way to explain it would be to say you are in sync with something. There are people that you are in sync with.

There are ideas you are in sync with. There are relationships that you are yoked to. So I guess the question is who or what do you want to be yoked to? Some are yoked to the power of sin. They are under its control.

I don't want to be under that power to you. That is why we are told in Isaiah 10.27 that the Lord can end the bondage of His people and break the yoke of slavery. Some are yoked in a relationship to nonbelievers. In fact the Bible speaks very specifically to that and says in 2 Corinthians 6.14, Do not be unequally yoked together with unbelievers. For what fellowship does righteousness have with unrighteousness or light with darkness? Needless to say this is why a believer does not want to become romantically involved with a nonbeliever.

Why? Because chances are they are going to pull you down more than you are going to pull them up. And I know that many people have thought that they are going to go out and win people to Christ. You know I remember when I first became a Christian about a week or so afterwards I felt a very strong call by God to share the gospel with pretty girls.

I thought someone is going to reach him and I am the guy. And the Lord showed me that was not what I was supposed to be doing. But you know you might say, Well I will just date this person.

I will win him to Christ. Well you know the reality is they may drag you down. Because it is easier for you to go backwards than it is for them to go forward. Don't be unequally yoked together with a nonbeliever. So you are yoked to someone. You are yoked to something. Why not be yoked to Jesus?

So what does this mean practically? Well He says, take My yoke upon you and learn of Me. How am I going to learn of Him?

Well we are told in Scripture low in the volume of the book He has come and has written of Him. So I am going to learn of Jesus by studying this book. And by the way that is not just the red letters. You might have one of those Bibles that has all the words of Christ in red. So when you get to the Sermon on the Mount you can hardly read it.

It is just red pages. But all the words in Scripture are inspired by God. Not just the Sermon on the Mount. Not just the words our Lord spoke when He walked this earth.

They are inspired in Genesis and in Exodus and Isaiah and Jeremiah and right on through the Old Testament into the New Testament into the Epistles right up to the book of Revelation. So take His yoke upon you. Now I want you to notice something else. He says, My yoke is easy and My burden is light. Really. Now when I think of a yoke I don't think of something that is light.

But a better translation would be well fitting. You see the carpenter would custom design the yoke for the animal that would use it. And in the same way God when He gives you this yoke where you are committed to Him and submitted to Him it is not burdensome. In fact 1 John 5.3 says this is the love of God that we keep His commandments and His commandments are not burdensome. You know some people say that Christian life is a drag. It is just a bunch of rules and regulations. I don't like to live by the commandments of God. Really.

Which ones are you struggling with? Are you bummed out that you can't steal, kill, lie, and murder people? Was that something you would have done otherwise?

Don't the commandments make sense when you stop and think about them? Years ago I was looking in the backyard and I saw this brightly colored little bird nestled in the grass shaking. I looked very afraid. That is probably because my fairly large German shepherd was looking right at you. And I think that bird knew that you know it was going to be curtain soon.

So I walked out. Where did that bird come from? It looked like someone's pet bird actually. And I kneeled down and I put my finger out and the little bird jumped right on my index finger. So I walked in the house and Kathy is cooking something in the kitchen. I said, Kathy look what I just found. Look at that bird. She took and threw it in the pan. We ate it. It was very. No I am kidding. In one sermon I have talked about dragging dogs and eating birds.

Ok. So I said, look at this little bird that I found. She said, where did you find that? It was in the backyard. I think it is someone's pet. Well what do we do with it? Well I don't know. And Jonathan said, well there is a little girl down the street that has a bird cage.

Her bird died. Shall I get it? I said, yeah run and get it. So he runs down the street. Brings the cage back.

We set it on the counter. I open up the little door of the cage. The bird is still on my finger. I bring my hand over to the cage door and he jumps right in. I didn't have to push him in. He jumped in. Got up on the perch. He is swinging back and forth.

Happy days are here again. He liked being in a cage. Now that goes against conventional wisdom. Some would say, hey man don't put the animals in the cages ok. Set them free.

This bird was about to be an appetizer for my dog. He didn't see the bars of that cage as a prison keeping him in. He saw those bars as walls of protection keeping predators out. So we can look at the commandments of God in the same way. Oh yeah. You can say, oh it is constraining and makes my life miserable or you can see them for what they are.

They are a barrier of protection to keep your predators, your enemies, your adversaries out. His commandments are not burdensome. He says, my burden is light and my yoke is easy. Take my yoke upon you and learn from me.

Then number four. I am to just come to Him. When I am burdened. When I am overwhelmed with worries I need to come to Jesus with them.

You know there is really nowhere else to go. Jesus did not say when you are burdened or overwhelmed with weight that you should go to counseling. Nor did He say you should just go read a book or even go to church or even go hear a sermon.

Though those things are all good. I mean I am preaching a sermon right now aren't I? But I know ultimately the answer is to go to Jesus.

I just talked to a father whose daughter died just the day before Thanksgiving. And he said, what words helped you? I said, well I don't know what words helped me. I just know who helped me. And I know where I needed to turn. And I know where I need to turn.

You know it is not so much that you need words. You need the living Word. You need Jesus. When you are under pressure you need Jesus.

That is where you need to go. Come to me. Not even just come to my teachings though it includes that. Come to me you that are laboring and are heavy laden and I will give you rest. Again to quote the verse I cited earlier, come to me all of you who are growing weary to the point of exhaustion and have been loaded with burdens and are bennied beneath their weight. I alone will cause you to cease from your labor and take away your burdens and refresh you with rest. The psalmist cried out in Psalm 61 too, from the end of the earth I cry out to you when my heart is overwhelmed lead me to the rock that is higher than I.

For you have been a shelter for me and a strong tower from the enemy. Notice that Jesus does not say learn of me or take my yoke upon you first. Before that He says just come to me. He doesn't say make those changes in your life and come to me. No.

Just come to me. Modern culture would say something different. It would say well if you can just get that promotion.

If you can just get that house. If you can just take that vacation then you will find rest. Materialism would say build it up and you will find rest. Pleasure mania would say live it up and you will find rest. Religion would say keep it up and you will find rest. And Jesus says come to me and you will find rest. Having been justified by faith we have peace with God. I am reminded of the statement of Corrie ten Boom when she said, look within and be depressed.

Look without and be distressed. Look at Jesus and be at rest. Good words for those of us who need the Lord's rest today. Pastor Greg Laurie with a message called Come and Find Rest here on A New Beginning. Now we realize sometimes interruptions happen as you listen to these studies, but you can hear what you miss by going to our website. Today's full broadcast is available there. It's called Come and Find Rest.

In fact, you can even download an MP3 and listen at your convenience. Our web address is harvest.org. Well Pastor Greg, we're talking about your new book, Billy Graham, The Man I Knew. Now Billy died just shy of his 100th birthday, and I was marveling at how many decades his ministry spanned.

It started around World War II and grew up through the time of the Korean War, the Vietnam War, the turbulent 60s, the 70s with the Jesus movement, really all the way up past the dawn of the new millennium. And I know you have some surprises you're revealing to us drawn from your new book, including the fact that he was really good at seeing where cultural trends were headed. He really did. You know, there's an amazing video out there, you can Google it, where Billy spoke in Silicon Valley to many of the top technology people, and he took that opportunity to speak to them. And because he was so well respected, they all gathered to hear what he had to say. And as always, he shared the gospel with them. But Billy was always an early adopter of new technologies.

I've mentioned the fact that he was on television and radio and making films that had the gospel in them long before anybody else was doing it. And Billy also understood that the internet was a powerful tool, and he used that as well. Way back in 1971, Billy made this statement, and I quote, there will be worldwide lawlessness. There'll be an overemphasis on sex, and there'll be an acceleration of technology, end quote.

That sounds like a description of what's happening right now. And he understood these things were coming, and he always looked for opportunities to use these platforms to reach more people with the gospel. So this is just one of the many things I bring out in my new book called Billy Graham, the Man I Knew. The reason I wrote this book was to introduce Billy to a younger generation. You know, a generation of people that have heard his name, but they have no real point of reference.

He doesn't seem like a real flesh and blood person. But I think after reading this book, you'll feel like you met Billy Graham and even spent some time with him, and I think you'll appreciate and understand why God used him in such a singular way. So I'll send you a copy of this book, Billy Graham, the Man I Knew, for your gift of any size to our ministry. Whatever you send, it will be used to reach more people with the teaching of God's word and the proclamation of the gospel. You know that here at A New Beginning, we're one of the few ministries that actually throw the net, as I like to say, which means we invite people to come to Christ, and many do, thanks to your prayers and thanks to your financial support. So whatever you can do to help us, it's appreciated, and we'll send you your copy of Billy Graham, the Man I Knew. Yeah, it's a unique look, an evangelist's look, at the life of history's greatest evangelist.

It's a celebration of a remarkable life. Again, the title is Billy Graham, the Man I Knew. Can we send a copy your way? As Pastor Greg said, we're making it available to thank you for your donation of any size. And please know there are no churches or large organizations covering all the expenses.

No, it's only through the investments of listeners that these insights can come your way each day. So thanks for being a partner with us. And with your donation today, be sure to ask for Billy Graham, the Man I Knew. And today is our last opportunity to mention this, so get in touch right away. You can write a new beginning, Box 4000, Riverside, California, 92514. Or call 1-800-821-3300. Call any time, that's a 24-hour phone number, 1-800-821-3300.

Or just go online to Harvest.org. Well next time, Pastor Greg points out the need for spiritual renewal in our land and how believers are called to serve. But we'll see if God sends us to do a job, He gives us the tools to get it done. Learn more next time on A New Beginning. Hey everybody, thanks for listening to A New Beginning. This is a podcast made possible by Harvest Partners. So for more content that can help you know God and equip you to make Him known to others or to learn more about how you can become a Harvest Partner, just go to Harvest.org.