Welcome to the InTouch podcast with Charles Stanley for Wednesday, March 4th. Is stress wearing you down? Discover how Christ can replace your stress with calm confidence. True stress relief begins with letting God handle your burdens. Why is it that some people go through difficulty, hardship, pain, carry heavy burdens in their life, and somehow they just keep on smiling, shoulders are up, smile on their face, joy in their heart?
Not complaining, not moaning and groaning about the life that they have to live. On the other hand, here's someone who has less challenges in life. and it just looks like they can't handle it. They simply say, I just don't think I can handle much more.
Well, more than likely they're handling something God never intended for them to handle. and ask yourself the question. When you have burdens that come into your life, how do you handle them? Do you handle them correctly? Biblically, according to God's Word?
Or do you find yourself just complaining and trying to escape them in some fashion? How are we to handle the burdens of our life? And I want you to turn, if you will, to Matthew chapter 11 and look at three verses here. Here is God's answer, very crystal clear answer to how you and I are to handle the burdens in our life. And if you'll remember this passage, he's been talking to some folks and telling them about God's judgment to cities and so forth.
What's happening? And then he comes down to verse 28, and here's what he says: Listen carefully. Come to me. all who are weary and heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart.
and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy and my burden is light. You say, Well, now, wait a minute. I don't see any answer that it's here. Just listen carefully.
Now let's define what we mean by a burden. A burden is the heaviness of the heart. A heaviness of the spirit, a heaviness of the soul, something that weights you down emotionally or mentally or spiritually. You just know that there's a weight upon you. And oftentimes you may have felt those things and thought, well, I think I'm getting sick.
Not sickness at all. It may be a burden, it may be for something as a result of something you have done. It may be a burden that God has sent, but let's distinguish between these burdens. For example, there is a God-given burden. In the Old Testament, the burden, for example, you'll read especially in the King James Version.
It will say, the burden of the Lord came to Isaiah or Ezekiel or Jeremiah. And what that meant was simply this: this would be. A divinely communicated message from God. given for the purpose of warning the nation or the people or a person. The burden of the Lord came to Isaiah, Jeremiah, Ezekiel.
Or the other word that's used in other translations is the oracle of the Lord, which is the same thing, a word from God.
So oftentimes he would give warnings in the Old Testament concerning the nation or people or families, and it was a word of God, it was a burden.
Now what that meant was simply this. That prophet felt the compulsion, the weight, the absolute necessity of delivering that word. He couldn't live without it. He had to deliver the Word of God. And so those burdens oftentimes come into your life and my life for different reasons.
But a burden is a heaviness. It's a weight that you and I feel. And when I think about this passage and think about what Jesus said and how he said it, and then I think about how God places burdens upon our heart.
Now, in the Old Testament, it was a burden for a nation, as we say.
Well, you say, well, how does God place burdens upon your heart and mind? For example, You may feel for some reason, unknown to you, this very, very strong desire to witness to someone. It's such a heaviness, you can't escape it. You've just got to go say something. Burden from God.
He wants to do something in that person's life. Or you may feel a burden to pray for someone. You don't even know all the Ideas about what's going on in their life, but you just feel very strongly God wants you to pray for them. And in fact, it's a heaviness in your heart. Before you go to bed at night, you say, I just got to get out here and talk to God about them.
Or it may be a burden to give someone something. You want to help them in some fashion. You don't know what they're going through, but God has burdened your heart. It's one of the ways God directs you and me by a burden.
Now most of the time we get burdened about something, we want to sort of eliminate it in some fashion and say, well, you know, I must just have a little concern or whatever it might be. No. Oftentimes, God is burdening you. Placing this heaviness, this weight upon your soul, your spirit, your mind, in order to do something that He wants to accomplish in your life. For example, Any man or woman called of God to serve Him, and let's say, for example, here's a young man called to preach the gospel.
How does God usually call people like that?
Well, once in a while it may be some very definite experience like Paul's Damascus or experience, but most of the time that's not true. Usually, It's a feeling that God places. And then it increases till it's something you can't escape, it's a burden. It's something you in other words, the pressure is so great, you just know you have to do it. And that's why when a man or a woman runs from God's call in their life, I'm telling you, you're running to a disaster.
When God burdens your heart to do something or burdens a man to preach the gospel and He does otherwise, I can tell you, I used to teach in an institute where almost all of those men had avoided God's call earlier in their life and finally they had to give up. When God burdens your heart for a very specific thing, then you need to listen to it. And when I think about that, I think about something God has placed on my heart that is so strong, so absolutely clear in my mind, such an absolute compulsion from God to say it, to tell it, to share it, to teach it, to proclaim it, whatever it might be, I could not live without it. It is a burden from God.
Now, and I would say to any man of God, whoever he might be, if you're out there preaching and you don't have any burden from God, You're not ready to preach no matter who you are. You may be educated, you may be experienced, but if you just walk out and you just want to tell a few stories and talk about this, you don't have any compulsion, you don't have any drive, you don't have any feeling of absolute necessity to share what's in your heart. There's something wrong you need to deal with.
So God lays burdens upon our heart to direct us, to guide us, to lead us, to get our attention, for example. How many people will tell you the story of how God finally got their attention in something that they could not handle, they could not deal with, and they could not escape?
So all burdens are not bad. Many of them are very, very good. They're good for us.
So if you're facing one of those things and asking God what in the world He's doing in your life, then maybe that's exactly what He's doing.
Now, we said, for example, the burden of guilt is the heaviest. I want you to turn, if you will, to the 38th Psalm for a moment, and I want you to listen to what the psalmist says in this 38th Psalm. Because guilt, for example, the result of sin in a person's life, is extremely, extremely devastating. That 38th Psalm. And look, if you will.
In this fourth verse, and I'm going to give you time to find it. Psalm 38, verse 4. Listen to what the psalmist says concerning a burden here and how we feel. He says, for my iniquities, that is my sin. are gone over my head.
As a heavy burden, they weigh too much for me. When a person is living with guilt, It is affecting them mentally, fragmenting their thinking. It is affecting them. Physically, it is affecting them. Spiritually, it is affecting them physiologically.
Listen, you can't live with guilt. The burden of guilt without it affecting you. God doesn't want you living with guilt. He's willing to forgive you, willing to cleanse you, willing to give you a new start in life. Guilt is a burden.
That is the result of sin in a person's life.
Now sometimes, rare exception, a person can feel guilty when they're not guilty. They've been taught something erroneously.
some theology that is absolutely untrue.
So sometimes it's false guilt. Watch this. It doesn't make any difference whether it's false guilt or true, genuine guilt. The effects are the same.
So, if there's a sense of guilt in your life, that is a burden. It is a destructive burden. Is it a deceptive burden? And it is a burden that can lead to all kinds of other situations and circumstances in your life, affects every part of your life.
So burdens are realities.
So I want us to read this passage again because it's very important. We get the tone of what Jesus said as well as the words. Here's what he said: He said, Come to me. All who are weary and heavy laden. I'll give you rest.
Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I'm Gentle and humble and hard, and you'll find rest for your souls. My yoke is easy and my burden is light. You say, Well, how can that help me? I'm going to show you in a moment. How are we to handle our burdens?
And I would simply say, first of all, do exactly what Jesus said. Listen to this. You say, well, Papa, I'm not even a Christian. then you really need to listen. Because I'm going to tell you something.
Where are you going to have your burden either removed or lifted so that you don't have to bear the weight of it? You have no other place to go. that there is no one Anywhere who has the wisdom and the power of Almighty God, or the love for you who desires to rescue you from that, or enable you to live with it. Have to think about it and at the same time not bear the weight of it. There's only one person who can do them, and that is Jesus.
So I want you for your own sake to listen carefully. He says, come to me. Not go somewhere else. Come to me, Jesus said. Come to me, he said.
And what Will he do? He says, come to me all who are weary and heavy laden. His invitation is all-inclusive. That means whether you're a believer, Or whether you're a person who's never believed, Jesus' invitation isn't just the believers. He says, Come to me, all you who are heavy laden, burdened down, and I will give you rest.
Now Whether you're an unbeliever or a believer, you and I have an invitation to come to Him for what reason? to deal with, as he says here, to deal with the burdens of our life. And what is the first burden that he wants to deal with? And that's the burden of sin in your life. If you have never trusted Jesus Christ as your personal Savior, you have a burden.
It's an awesome burden. Listen, it's a burden unless dealt with.
Well, listen, will cause you to lose. the privilege of living eternally with Almighty God. If you die without Christ, you're going to be separated from Him eternally. And so therefore there is a burden. That burden of sin.
Here's what he says: My little children, these things I write to you that you sin not. But if anyone sins, we have an advocate with the Father Jesus Christ, the righteous, who's paid our sin debt in full. Which means that if you're not a believer, you can ask Him to forgive you of your sins, surrender your life to Him. And what happens? He immediately deals with the burden of sin in your life.
He paid the penalty. Right now, you've already begun to pay for it. You say, well, what do you mean begun to pay for it? Because when you bear sin in your life, You think you're not paying for it. You have already begun to pay, listen, pay the debt of sin.
It's affecting you in ways you don't think it's affecting you because you don't see it. Because you may not necessarily feel it, but it's there. It's like those termites that start. When they start, you don't hear them. But there comes a point at which you can hear something going on.
There comes a point at which you can just touch the wall, and your finger just goes right through. Living with sin. is a horrible burden that has destructive effects in a person's life.
So, but look at this invitation. Come to me, all ye that labor and are heavy laden, and I'll give you rest.
So this invitation is universal. It's offered to every single person. And the second thing I want you to notice about it is it's motivated by love. That is, he's willing to deal with the burdens of our life.
Now, look at the words he uses here in this passage. He says, Come to me, all who are weary and heavy laden, and I'll give you rest. I'll make it possible for you to live with peaceful mind and heart, no matter what you're facing in life. Take my yolk up onion. I'm going to explain that.
Learn from me. For I am gentle. And humble in heart, and you'll find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light. Does that sound like somebody who doesn't care?
No, it does not. Doesn't that sound like a God full of love? That He loves you and me enough that He doesn't want us living in bondage to anything, living borne down on the inside. Living with the weights and the cares of life, living with things that have happened in the past, past regrets, living with things that others have done to us, or whatever it might be, God doesn't want us living like that. He says, Come to me, all you that are heavy laden, burdened down with these things, and I'll give you rest.
It is an invitation. That's motivated by love.
so that you never have to fear coming to him.
Some people say, Well, I'm not a Christian and I don't know what God may do. I can tell you this. Whatever he does in your life, You can spell it L-O-V-E love. That's who He is. That's how He operates.
Listen, that's what motivates us to come to Him. That He loves us no matter who we are. And listen, He will deal with these burdens in our life no matter what the burdens may be. For example, turn to the 55th Psalm for a moment, and I want you to notice a couple of Psalms here. 55th Psalm.
And um If you'll notice what he says in this 22nd verse, listen. He says, cast your burden. Upon the Lord, He'll sustain you. You don't have to live with it. Cast your burden upon the Lord.
He will sustain you, uphold you, provide for you, energize you, encourage you, motivate you, equip you, deal with you in such a way that it is an expression of His love. Then if you look at Look, if you will, in Psalm 68. And I want you to notice one word especially in this 19th verse. Here's a God who desires to lift the burden. And if you'll notice in this passage, nowhere does he say that he will remove all your burdens.
He doesn't promise to remove them. He says, what will he do? He will lift it. Look in this 68th Psalm, 19th verse. Blessed be the Lord.
who daily bears our burden.
Now listen. If he bears it, I don't have to bear it. Why should I live with bearing these burdens in my life? When he says He daily bears our burden. What does it say?
He's daily involved in your life. He daily cares for what's going on in your life. He daily understands where you are, knows what's going on. He has the wisdom and the power to deal with that burden, whatever it may be. You don't have to bear it.
It may be a financial burden in your life. You say, well, is he answering my finances? Yes. You say, well, I got myself in this mess. Is he still interested in helping me?
Yes. Somebody else did it to me, yes. In other words, it doesn't make any remember, come unto me, all you that are heavy laden, I'll give you rest. I'll give you the ability to have peace of mind, confidence, and trust. and a quietness of spirit no matter what you're going through, no matter what you're facing, no matter what the burden may be.
There's nothing that he cannot handle. No pressure, no burden so heavy that he can't lift it. For example, I could lift a thousand pounds on my shoulder. If there's always at least an eighth of an inch between my skin and the thousand pounds, I'll never feel it. Right?
I'll never feel it. Because you see, something is keeping it off my shoulder. No matter what you're facing in life, God is ready to do what? To enable you to walk with that burden, live with that burden without feeling the weight of it. You say, well, does that mean that I won't think about it?
No. But it means that I'm willing, listen, I'm able to live in the midst of it. Think about it. even talk about it. Without bearing the weight of it, because that's what He promised, that's exactly what He will do.
And there are many of us who can give testimony. Things that are burdens that are there. that we can't remove. We can't remove it. And the issue is this, not whether to remove it, because you see, God knows that to remove some burdens would be to our disadvantage and to leave some there.
while he's bearing the total weight of it. is an awesome experience because we learned something about him. And he enables us and become a testimony to other people.
So when you look at this passage and he says, Come to Him, all of us, no matter who we are. He will bear them. Here's an expression of His love. Here's the motivation of His love. And Rhoda Remember what he says, for example, in 1 Peter 5:7.
He says, Cast all your cares upon him, he'll care for you. That means, in other words, the implication is, if I give it to him, I don't have to bear it. That is exactly what he wants us to understand. I don't have to bear what I've given to him. Many people living their lives every day.
Borne down with all kinds of burdens. Think about, let's say, for example, here's a mother. Husband walked away. She has three small children to raise. One of them is in the first grade, one of them is in the nursery, one of them is in the fifth grade.
She's got to go to work every morning. She does her best to get them there on time, then she's got to get to work on them. She's got to dress them, feed them, and so forth. And you know what? That isn't just once in a while, that's daily.
I'm so glad he put that verse in there. He bears our burden daily. What that means is, he will help me daily, strengthen me daily, undergird me daily, provide for me daily, daily, daily, daily. That's the thing that gets to folks.
Well, why doesn't God remove this? Because here's what I have to face every day.
Well He knows exactly how. to enable you and me every single day of our life. Thank you for listening to Letting God Handle Your Burdens. For more inspirational messages like this one, visit our online 24-7 station. And if you'd like to know more about Charles Stanley or InTouch Ministries, stop by intouch.org.
This podcast is a presentation of In Touch Ministries, Atlanta, Georgia.
