Rest Rehab: ACT

Well, friends and family, my privilege this weekend tonight to be able to introduce to you somebody that really needs no introduction is one of our favorite teaching pastors here at the Summit Church. I have been told that I now have the distinct privilege of being everyone's third favorite preacher here at the Summit Church. And I will say whether this guy's number one or number two, I'll let you decide that. But Curtis Andrusko has been on our team for quite some time now and does a lot of different things here at the church.

One of the most talented individuals I've ever had a chance to work with up close. My daughter, one of my daughters said, I was telling stories about what was going on at work and I was talking about being on a team and she said, who's on that team? And I mentioned Curtis as Pastor Curtis being on the team.

And she said, Dad, it seems like Curtis is on every team. And that's about true. There's very few places in this church that his ministry and his wisdom and his leadership have not affected. He is an anointed brother. He preaches with passion. He preaches with clarity and conviction. And it has yet to fail. It is yet it has never happened where he did not bring a word that God did not use it to speak to me and reveal something to me.

So this is not going to be the first time that that ever happened. So I want you to open your heart. I want you to open your Bibles and I want you to prepare yourself to hear the word of God at all of our campuses, which you put your hands together and welcome Pastor Curtis Edrusco. Well, welcome Summit family. My name is Curtis. So good to see so many of your faces.

I know a lot of joining us online. If you have never heard me tell my story, I became a believer, a follower of Jesus in February of 2008. So a little almost 13 years ago. And as I've told my story to you guys, the six months leading up to February 2008 were some of, if I'm just being honest here, some of the most miserable six months of my entire life. It was miserable because I was trying to have a foot in both worlds. I was trying to live in this church world, trying to bring myself to God, but then I was also still back in the party scene and it was just horrible. It felt like I was being torn in two constantly. And during that six months, God was drawing me closer and closer and nearer to himself. And there was this verse, the single verse that kept popping up everywhere.

When I say everywhere, I mean everywhere. And that verse is where we're going to be today. And that is Matthew chapter 11, verse 28. I'm going to say it like a thousand times.

So if you can't get there quick, that's fine. I mean, Matthew chapter 11, verse 28, you've probably heard it. It goes like this. It says, come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. The six months leading up to my salvation, I saw, I heard, I took that verse in over and over and over. There I was in 2007. I was tired. I was weary. I was burdened.

Honestly, I was just done. But then praise God, my eyes were opened and I finally came to know him. Now, I wish I could stand here and tell you that since February of 2008, not a single thing has gone wrong in my life. It's just been rainbows and sunshine. It's been nothing but joy and happiness with Jesus, but I would be lying.

In fact, one of the things I have learned over the last 12 years in my walk with Jesus is that often the very thing that led me to Jesus in the first place has now become the very thing that keeps leading me back to Jesus over and over again. My battle against the burdens and the anxieties of life coupled with the weight of responsibilities often take me from this free worshipper to a wearied worrier. It's no secret that we live in a world that is addicted to technology. Relationship skills are dwindling. Families are splitting up. Anxiety has a seat at almost every single table. Our kids live in a fishbowl of comparison and society bullies any and everyone it deems fit to. You look up any survey or research right now on mental health in 2020 and every single negative thing has increased. Right now in our country, we are battling depression and anxiety at historic rates. And on top of that, it just seems like there are never enough hours in a day that even when you use every single hour, every single one of them, you end the day by being worn out and just crawling across the finish line. One author said it like this. He said, we have taskmasters in our heads that chide and berate us if we simply sit down and rest. They beat us over the head with unfinished tasks that are in front of us and they blame us as lazy, good for nothing wimps if we even sneak away for a breath of fresh air. He said we could spend our whole lives neglecting a Sabbath rest, never realizing that this may be the very reason why our lives are weary and empty in the first place.

I think if I were to sum up all of the emotions going on in the world right now, I'd sum it up in one word. Tired. You tired? Like I'm not just talking about sleepy tired. I'm not talking about the tired that can be fixed with a bed. I'm talking about a soul wearied, energy depleted, joy stealing tired. A tired where you can no longer relax. A tired where you can no longer just be at home by yourself and sit in your thoughts because you have lost all sense of inner peace. You feel this?

You tired? You know, it seems like every few years I come across a book that just absolutely blows my mind. Now, I'm not talking about Pastor JD's new book that just released, but you should go get that. And in fact, all proceeds from that book go to fulfilling the mission of Christ and wait if you buy now. I'm not talking about that book. You should go get that book. It's a fantastic book. I'm not talking about the Bible.

Of course, the Bible blows my mind every time. But I'm talking about a book by a pastor named John Mark Comer called The Ruthless Elimination of Hurry. If you've never read this, you need—well, I was going to say you should rush out and get it, but that would be hurrying to go get the book on hurry. So don't hurry out and get it. Just hop on Amazon and get it, but don't hop on right now because we're preaching, okay?

So anyways, it's a great book. And in that book, he gives 10 signs. These are 10 signs from a counselor that he knows, but he gives 10 signs that you're suffering from what she calls hurry sickness, okay? 10 signs you're suffering from hurry sickness. So I want to go through these, and I want you to rate yourself. On a scale of 10, how many of these you actually have, okay? Number one, be honest. Irritability. It's just dead silent, y'all, already. You're always on edge.

C.S. Lewis said, how you act when you are interrupted is how you really are at the core. Number two, hypersensitivity. Find yourself sensitive to things.

Think everybody's out to get you? Hypersensitivity. Number three, restlessness. Restlessness. The kind of restlessness that even when you do stop, you can't seem to relax. That type of restlessness. Number four, compulsive overworking. Ain't nobody got a problem with that, do we?

Not in America. Compulsive overworking. Number five, this is an interesting one, numbness. Numbness. Some of you find it easier to feel nothing than to feel everything all at once.

Number six, how about this? Escapist behaviors. This is like binge watching TV, like excessive social media use or alcohol use. How about excessive caffeine use to get through the day?

Escapist behaviors. Number seven, maybe you feel disconnected from your identity or calling. You feel like you have so much going on in life. You are so tired.

You're so weird. You're so burdened that you can't actually accomplish and move forward in what you feel like God has called you to do. Number eight, you are not able to attend to basic human needs. I'm talking about like sleeping, eating, exercise. Like how many of y'all have ever gotten to two o'clock in the afternoon? You're like, I haven't even eaten yet. Like that type of hurry sickness, okay? Number nine, hoarding energy. You're just saving up all your energy because you know a bad day's coming. This is actually a sign of a hurry sickness. And then number 10, this last one, slippage in spiritual practices.

So your spiritual disciplines, your quiet time, your small group, going to church, serving, giving those things become less and less frequent. Be honest. How many of those out of 10 do you have? How many of you have at least five out of the 10? Raise your hand.

Or if you're in your home group, put online. Five out of 10. Okay. How many have at least seven out of 10?

Raise your hands high. Come on. Come on. Seven out of 10. Anybody have 10 out of 10?

Anybody just nail it. 100%. Well done.

A plus. Okay. That's all right. I have at least seven out of 10.

At least seven out of 10. Like we having fun yet? I'm just here to pass along all the guilt and shame to you guys.

Make me feel better that I have this sickness. Okay. And some of you are like, no, that's not me. I saw you didn't have your hand up. You're like, that's not me. Like, all right, how about this? Tell me that when you're at the grocery store, when you're trying to find a checkout line, you may be in one and you see one shorter and you zoom right on over.

Okay. Hurry sickness. On your way to church, maybe. When you stop at the red light, you're counting cars, right? And you're like, oh, there's less cars in this lane. So you get over it. These are signs of hurry sickness. Okay. We all suffer from it.

It's okay. It's a sickness. That's why I'm preaching on it. When I first got into ministry, somebody told me that if I just preached from my weaknesses, I would never run out of material. And so I'm here to preach on this. And in fact, I'm even going to try to preach. Those of you that have heard me preach, I'm an excitable guy. I speak fast. I get on my toes.

It's kind of what I do, but I'm going to even try to slow myself down as a way to apply this tonight. All right. So here it is. Pastor Curtis, here I am. I'm a pastor who lives a hurried, anxiety-filled, wearied burden life. And left to my own devices, I only have reason to despair. But I'm a pastor. Left to my own devices, I only have reason to despair, but Jesus.

Y'all, it's no secret where I'm going today. Yes, you may be weary, but Jesus. Yes, you may be tired, but Jesus. Listen, sometimes we can point to exactly what's causing our weariness, but oftentimes we can't. Because most of the time it's not just one thing. It's often this cumulative, multi-layered intersection of complexities and emotions and sin and suffering and physical frailties that just pile up on our backs and make us tired and weary and burdened.

And in most cases, complex burdens cannot be relieved by simple solutions. But Jesus, in Matthew 11, let's see what he does here because he steps in and he speaks a word into our tired and weary lives that is so simple and so hopeful and so refreshing that it almost seems too good to be true. You've probably heard the old saying, if it's too good to be true, then it probably is. Dare I present before you that if Jesus is involved, that if you think it's too good to be true, I promise you it's even better. So let's read this refreshing word together.

I want you to drink this word in like a glass of ice water on a hot day. And so in fact, I'm going to read the verses and then there's going to be some verses that are underlined on the screen. I want you to say those out loud, okay? So I'm going to read it.

The underlined ones, you read those out loud. All right, wherever you are. Matthew chapter 11, beginning in verse 28, Jesus says, come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest.

Some of y'all, it's hard to even say that word. Verse 29, 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.

Light. In case that slipped by anyone, I actually want to read a different translation this time, and I just want you to listen. Don't even look at the words. Maybe you even need to close your eyes now. I just want you to let this wash over you. It's actually from the message, which is actually more of a paraphrase of the Bible.

It's not really a translation, but it's brilliant here I think. Just listen to the words of Jesus. He says, are you tired, worn out, burned out on religion? Then come to me. Get away with me and you'll recover your life. I'll show you how to take a real rest. Walk with me and work with me. Watch how I do it. Come learn the unforced rhythms of grace, because I won't lay anything heavy or ill-fitting on you. Keep company with me and you'll learn to live freely and lightly.

Isn't that beautiful? Church, we are gathered together, whether in person or in homes or digitally, and you walked in or you tuned in without knowing what you are walking into. But there are other brothers and sisters in Christ. They're all here. And let me tell you, I have invited a doctor to our little meeting today. His name is Jesus, because we're about to have a little intervention, okay? We're gonna have a rest intervention. Using Matthew 11, we're gonna go through a few stages of what I wanna call rest rehab, rest rehab. And I'm gonna be super Baptist and give you an acronym just to remind you of how to proactively rest. That acronym is gonna be ACT, A-C-T. We're gonna admit that we're tired. We're gonna come to Jesus and then we're gonna take his yoke. We're gonna go through those, okay?

And don't be scared by this word rehab. We're all gonna go through it together and I'm gonna make it real easy, I promise you. In fact, let's go ahead, all of us together, let's just get step one out of the way.

It's the A in our ACT. Step one is to admit I am tired. Let's say it together on the count of three, okay? Just say I'm tired.

One, two, three. I'm tired. If you're online, you can type it. If you're next to somebody, you can tell them.

If you're by yourself, you can just write it in a journal between you and the Lord. The goal is just to get it out there. One more time, okay? On the count of three, let's say I'm tired.

One, two, three. I'm tired. Step one complete. Boom. Y'all did it, all right?

We're making good headway here. And doesn't it just feel good for some reason to know that so many other people are jacked up as well, doesn't it? Like, it just feels good.

I don't know why. We're all sinners, okay? We're all here. We're all looking for Jesus.

We all need Jesus. So step one, A, is to admit that we are tired. So now that we all know that this message is for you or maybe for your spouse, okay?

Now that you know the message is for you, we're gonna move on to step two. Step two is to come to Jesus. Come to Jesus. Look at verse 28.

Jesus says, come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. Now, context is very important here. In fact, one of my jobs as a Bible teacher is to help you learn how to read your Bible for yourself. And one of the most basic and important Bible principles that there is when reading the Bible for yourself is to remember that context is king.

Context is king. So that begs the obvious question of what is Jesus' context here? Who is he speaking to in this passage? Well, in Matthew 11, Jesus is speaking to a group of weary, worn out people who have spent their lives running on what Pastor Brian likes to call the treadmill of religion. It's a group of people who are carrying the yoke of the Torah, the first five books of the Bible, and all the 600 plus commandments that you must follow in the Torah in order to be approved by God. See, in addition to the commandments in the Old Testament, distance and separation were actually very marks of the Old Testament. So in Exodus, God tells Moses not to come near him because he'll die. In Numbers, anyone who is impure has broken a commandment must be sent outside of the camp where God dwells because you can't be near God.

In Leviticus, it was only the spotless priest who could enter into the inner court of the tabernacle and temple and approach the presence of the Lord. So this is the group, this is the context that Jesus is speaking into. The audience he is speaking into here, they're used to hearing, they're used to hearing the Jewish law speak harshly to them saying, go, pay very close attention that you follow every last little law and commandment lest you break one single one of them and perish. And see, the problem with this works based approach toward God is that you just never know when it's enough. It's exactly what Jesus says here.

It's tiring, it's wearisome. Because when do you know that you've done enough to please God? How many church services do you have to go to? What dollar amount do you have to give? How often should you be sharing your faith?

How long should your quiet time look? Am I praying enough? Am I sharing enough? Am I giving enough? Am I serving enough?

Am I living good enough to have God's approval on my life? In fact, in Matthew 23, Jesus talks about these same people saying they tie up heavy burdens that are hard to bear and they lay them on people's shoulders. You see the same imagery as in Matthew 11? In Acts 15, Peter speaking to a crowd with the exact same problem, he says, now, therefore, why are you putting God to the test by placing a yoke on the neck of the disciples that neither our fathers nor we have been able to bear? This is the type of teaching the Jews are used to hearing at this time.

And then along comes a Jewish man named Jesus who bids them come. Not do or learn or take or perform, just simply come. Come in this context. It's a present tense imperative. Imperative is a command.

Present tense now. Jesus is commanding them. He's commanding you to come now.

Not tomorrow, not next year, not when you have your life together. Jesus isn't just inviting us. He is lovingly commanding us to step off of the treadmill of morality and religion and to rest in him. He's saying, leave your labors, leave your self-reliant efforts, lead your sins, your presumptions, leave everything and everybody you have trusted in and just come to me and I will give you rest. There's nothing else to do other than simply come because God's rest is a gift to be received, not a transaction. We cannot earn it.

Jesus already paid for it so we just receive it as a gift. There's nothing we can do. One of my favorite shows is Parks and Recreation. Any Parks and Recreation people? Anybody think it's better than The Office? Anybody bold enough?

Okay, wow, a lot more than I thought would be. Y'all can argue about that online, okay? Well, if you've never seen Parks and Rec, probably the best character on there is this guy named Ron Swanson, okay? Ron Swanson is a man's man. He's a mustachioed man. He loves camping. He loves woodworking. He loves steak. He loves scotch. This is like, just think like Pastor John Muller just wearing like Dockers khakis and a polo. That is Ron Swanson, okay?

Just a man's man. And in one of the episodes, Ron kind of gets roped in with this guy named Chris who is the opposite of Ron. He gets roped into going to do this kind of like meditation yoga thing.

It's like a work thing. He's forced to go. And so Ron literally stands there the entire time.

That's like the episode. He just stands there. And afterwards, Chris is just amazed by this and he's like, Ron, like what were you doing that entire time?

And Ron just says, he said, I just stood there. I was just quietly breathing. There were no thoughts in my head whatsoever. My mind was just blank.

And Chris, kind of this yogi, the supernatural guy, you know, he's like, that's fascinating. Like it takes me so long. He said, it takes me a ton of work to get to that kind of clear headspace. To which Ron replies, the wisdom in this, he said, then don't try so hard. This church is the beauty of Jesus's invitation. Don't try so hard.

Stop trying so hard. Just come. Jesus's invitation does not impose any harsh conditions on us. It's not do this and then come. It is just simply come.

And who can come? Look back at the text, verse 28. Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. All, everyone, anyone, all you who are weary and burdened.

That indicates a condition that already exists. Jesus does not invite those of us who feel righteous and worthy enough. He invites those who are weary and burdened right now. And you know, I think one of the beautiful things in this passage is that there's a reason I think that Jesus doesn't give these burdens any special names.

You notice that? Because I think Jesus is saying, when I say all, I mean all. Maybe your burden is from trying to follow the law and earn your way to God. Maybe your burden is from religion.

Maybe it's a burden with some type of sin or anxiety or an affliction or some situation that you were in right now. Jesus does not say, come to me if you have this specific problem or this particular difficulty. He simply says, come all.

And so the question is so obvious. Have you come to Jesus? I told you at the beginning that we were going to go through rehab together and that nobody was going to have to do it alone. And that includes right here because I think we all need to come to Jesus today, perhaps for different things, but we all need to come to Him. So some of you right now need to come to Jesus for the first time and experience Him as Redeemer. You need salvation today. You have been tired.

You've been weird. You've been burdened just like I was all throughout 2007 before I finally came to Jesus and I received rest. You need to come to the full realization that you are a sinner in need of a savior, that that desperate and empty feeling you feel on a daily basis can only be fulfilled by Jesus and Jesus alone. And so you need to repent of your sins. You need to make a 180 in your life and turn from the burden of your old life and enter into the restfulness of the new life that Jesus gives you when you come to Him. Others of you need to re-experience the rest that comes from coming to Jesus. This is those of you that know Him as Savior, but you're just burnt out.

You're tired. Your weary life is overwhelming. Come back to Jesus today. Lean back into Jesus.

Rest in His finished work, the work that gives joy and peace and rest for your soul. Whichever camp you fall into there, I just beg you not to go somewhere else. Don't look to other people for relief. Don't wait for help to come just as you are this very day. I beg you come to Jesus.

You've admitted you're tired. Come to Jesus. Now our last step is to take His yoke and rest.

Last step. Look at these three verses again. Verse 28.

It's going to pound it into your head to get it. Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn from me.

For I'm gentle and humble in heart and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy and my burden is light. In this book that I mentioned earlier, The Ruthless Elimination of Hurry, the author points out that Jesus's imagery here of an easy yoke is a bit odd, especially given how far removed we are from any type of agrarian economy or society. So we forget often that a yoke is actually a tool for work. A yoke.

If you're a kid, I'm not talking about the inside of an egg, okay? I'm talking about these wooden beams that go over two oxen. They link two oxen together and then you attach the yoke to something else like a plow so you can plow a field. And if we read this, so often we read the Bible and we just fly past. But if we read this, this is really interesting because don't you find this strange that right after Jesus gets done offering us rest, now he's offering us a yoke. Again, a yoke isn't created for rest. It's created for work.

So isn't the last thing that a burnt out worker needs is a tool to work? Like I don't, I'm here before you. I don't want a yoke. I want a vacation. That's what I want. I want to go somewhere and I want the concierge to take my yoke and then usher me to the all-inclusive pool.

That's wrong. I don't, I don't want a tool. I want some time off. Okay, Jesus. That's what I need when I'm tired and weary and burdened.

We'd expect Jesus to say, like if I'm, if I'm Jesus, thank God I'm not. But if I'm Jesus, I'm saying, come to me, all you who are remembered and I will give you rest. And I'm saying, hey, and that yoke that's weighing you down, take that thing off.

Throw it aside. Be free of that thing. Run, fly, soar, be free. But see, Jesus here knows something that we don't. Because Jesus understands that life is just an unending series of burdens and that there is no way around the weight of responsibility that is life this side of the resurrection. And so, yeah, if he told us, told us just to throw aside everything and run free, it might work for a day, a week, maybe even a month.

But the burdens of life are going to catch up to you. So what Jesus does instead of giving us a temporary escape from the weight of life, he offers a new way to carry life. This is what Jesus offers in taking up his yoke. He offers us the, he allows us to be linked to him, to be yoked to him, to take his yoke, to take his strength, his wisdom, his joy, his ease in facing all of life's burdens.

And because now we are linked with Jesus, now we can rest. Augustine, an early church father, compared Christ's yoke to a bird's feathers. Like if you ever thought, maybe my mind is just weird like this, but on one hand, a bird could actually complain about the weight and the burden of its feathers, right?

But on the other hand, it's the bird's wings and feathers which ask to actually enable it to soar. Like sails may add weight to a ship, but it's how the ship itself comes to sail. That's what it's like to take up Jesus's yoke. Do life's problems go away?

Absolutely not. It's not that the burdens of the world go away, but now you have a new way, a new strength, Jesus's strength to carry these things because you are linked with Jesus in carrying the burdens of the world. So Jesus doesn't offer us an escape from life, but rather a new way to go through it.

He offers us a new way to bear responsibility. It's not released from the pressures of the world, but new resources and strength for the pressures because you're yoked with Jesus and you're living life at his pace and with his strength. So yes, you put his yoke on and you serve him in his way, but that yoke is not a burden that weighs you down.

It's a buoy that actually keeps you afloat. That's why 1 John 5 says for this is the love of God that we, disciples of Jesus, keep his commandments and his commandments are not burdensome. And this is where it gets really good because now, listen y'all, we can stop seeking rest as a means to an end because we have now been yoked with Jesus who is our rest. Jesus is both the means and the end to our rest.

Jesus is the very great reward of the gospel. And so in this verse, when he tells us three things, he says, come to me, take my yoke, learn from me. What he knows is that as we come to him, we get rest. As we take his yoke, we get rest. As we learn more about him, we are inevitably going to want to come to him more, receive more rest, take his yoke even more, learn more about him, come back. It's this cycle of rest because Jesus is our rest. And so now that you believe by faith that Jesus is your rest, you can get super practical and actually make a plan to rest.

You can take hold of what is yours, what you have been given in Christ. Like, I actually think most of you believe what I'm saying here. I think most of you believe that you need rest, but you still fail to rest.

Why? Because we just don't practice it. We simply lack the rhythms and the habits that allow for it.

And again, real talk, I'm not great at this. This has been one of the not most convicting sermon I have ever put together and preach because resting is so hard for me. My wife would be the very first person in line to tell you how little I rest. I actually love the busyness of Christianity. I love serving. I love preaching. I love being active in the church.

I love being busy with spiritual disciplines. I love my Bible checklists, but I often skip the other part, the rest, which is actually crucial to accomplishing all the other things that I love doing. And so practically, ironically, it actually takes a lot of preparation and discipline for me to leave work undone and rest, to turn my phone off for a day, to pause my inbox for a day. Some of you just hearing those things, you're like, I could never do it. I'm one of those people right now to leave laundry undone for one more day. It takes discipline for me just to engage in what should be regular activities, to just take time to read a book, to go on a walk or play with my kids, activities that have no, literally no impact on my bank account or any type of GDP, even if it's a kingdom GDP in my career. All right.

And this kind of life, if you're up for living it with Jesus to walk at his pace, let me go ahead and tell you, it is completely out of step with 21st American culture, 21st century American culture, but it's what it means to walk with Jesus's yoke and not your own. If you hear nothing else from me, hear this. Rest is not laziness, it's medicine. It is a built in medicine. Rest is not laziness, it's medicine. Rest reminds us that God is the very point of our lives, not work. Rest reminds us that God is the provider in our lives, regardless of how much money you make. So how can we rest? As we land the plane here, how can you rest? Let me get super practical here. Pastor Rick Warren, which many of you probably heard that name, gives probably the most practical plan for rest that I've ever seen.

It's real crazy. Number one, he says, you must divert daily. Divert daily. This just means whatever relaxes you, try to do it at least once a day. So for some of you that's reading a book, it might be going for a walk, it might be journaling. For me, it's working out.

Some of you might be watching a show. Again, it's not falling into doing those things the entire day. It's just divert daily from the regular rhythms of life, right? Number two, he says to withdraw weekly. Withdraw weekly.

The Bible has a fancy word for this. It's called Sabbath, okay? Once a week, put your phone away. Don't work.

Once a week, be present with the people who are physically in front of you. What a concept, okay? And then number three, he says abandon annually. Abandon annually. This means to disconnect completely. This is like a vacation. If you have the resources to do that, if not, some type of staycation is perfectly fine. The point is just to get off the grid for a week. There's just something about taking a week off that makes you realize that usually a lot of the things that you're stressing about really aren't that big of a deal.

And so you divert daily, you withdraw weekly, and you abandon annually. Y'all want to end with this. I hope it kind of brings us home. As a little kid, I used to sometimes get scared at night. I'm sure a lot of you did. Don't make fun of me.

It's fine. I used to get kind of scared at night. And we lived in kind of this little ranch-style home. And if you're in the living room at my parents' house growing up, you could look straight down the hallway, and the first door on the right was my bedroom. And so as a kid, sometimes when I would get scared, my parents would let me make like a little pallet where I'd make a pallet and I would have my head sticking out of my bedroom where I could look down the hallway and I could just see my parents in the living room.

And so at night, it would kind of ease my little, you know, seven-year-old heart. I don't know what I was scared of. I don't know what was going on.

I don't know why I remember this so vividly, but I really do. I don't know why at seven, it was just hard for me to be in my room by myself. Maybe it was this fear of the unknown or stress of the dark or the burden of being alone.

Maybe at that age of my life, it was questioning why the Green Ranger had to become bad and the White Ranger, or why Zach and Kelly couldn't stay together, or maybe I was scared because I went behind my mom's back and watched an episode of Are You Afraid of the Dark and I was just terrified, like 90s kid, okay? But eventually I would doze off and then the strangest thing would happen. Every single time I'd wake up the next morning and I'd be in my own bed and I'd look under the covers and I'd have my pajamas on.

And as a seven-year-old, I'd look around like, this is crazy. And I'd ask the question, I'd say, how did I get here? I was tired. I was worn out. I passed out. How did I get here? Listen, I'll tell you how I got there.

When I didn't have enough strength, when I was tired, when I was burdened, when I fell asleep, while I was sleeping, while I was resting, Dad found me and he picked me up and he put me in his arms and he took me where I needed to be. Some of you right now are so restless. You're so anxious. You're so worried.

You're so stressed. You're saying, God, I gotta do this. God so and so is relying on me for that. God, I've got this bill to pay. God, I've got these kids. God, I've got these relationships. God, I'm supposed to be doing this.

I've got this deadline. And what God wants you to do is just come and rest. And while you trust and while you rest, there is one who neither slumbers nor sleeps. It's your heavenly father. He is the faithful one. He will be the righteous one. He will be the holy one. He will be the all sufficient one. He's all powerful.

He's all knowing. He's the beginning. He's the end.

He's everything in between. And he has already bore the ultimate yoke as he carried his own cross up the hill to Gogatha where he would prove his love for you on the cross. And now because of his sacrifice, all who come to him will certainly not be cast out, but will be welcomed and given rest.

On the cross, Jesus bore the unrest that you and I might have eternal rest. Church, your dad stands ready to carry you today. Would you come to him?

Would you come to him? God, I pray today that everyone who finds themselves tired, weary, burdened, that they would come to you, that they would rest. We would take up your yoke. We would learn from you, follow you and find more rest. God, would you ease anxieties? Would you strip away stresses?

Would you overturn circumstances? God, would we find peace and joy and rest in Jesus and Jesus alone? It's in his name I pray. Amen.