Jesus' Kind Invitation

Matthew chapter 11, and we are going to read verses 20 through 30. Then Jesus began to denounce the cities in which most of his miracles had been performed, because they did not repent.

Woe to you, Chorazin! Woe to you, Bethsaida! If the miracles that were performed in you had been performed in Tyre and Sidon, they would have repented long ago in sackcloth and ashes.

But I tell you, it will be more bearable for Tyre and Sidon on the day of judgment than for you. And you, Capernaum, will you be lifted up to the skies?

No, you will go down to the depths. If the miracles that were performed in you had been performed in Sodom, it would have remained to this day. But I tell you that it will be more bearable for Sodom on the day of judgment than for you.

At that time, Jesus said, I praise you, Father, Lord of heaven and earth, because you have hidden these things from the wise and the learned and revealed them to little children.

All things have been committed to me by my Father. No one knows the Son except the Father, and no one knows the Father except the Son, and those to whom the Son chooses to reveal him.

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 am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls.

For my yoke is easy, my burden is light. Sometimes we receive invitations to attend maybe a graduation party, maybe a wedding and reception.

And this morning, I'd like to direct your attention to the best invitation anyone has ever received. It's an invitation from the eternal Son of God, who became man, Jesus of Nazareth.

And it's not an invitation that he sent from heaven, but it's one that he brought himself. An invitation he came all the way from heaven to make personally, 2,000 years ago, and that he's still sending into all the world, wherever his gospel is preached today.

We have it recorded in Matthew 11, 28 through 30. Here are the invitation of the Son of God. 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 am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls.

For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light. As we consider this invitation from Jesus, we want to ask several important questions, and the first is, who is invited?

When an invitation comes, it's important to know who are the ones invited. Sometimes in our home, it will say, to Mr. and Mrs. John Heaney. Other times, it will say, to Mr. and Mrs. John Heaney, and family.

And that's important, for the boys to know whether they're invited or not. And it's always important to see whose name is on the invitation, and never more important than this invitation from the Son of God.

Who's invited? All you who are weary and burdened. All you. You see the broad scope of this invitation.

It's a wide invitation, because the world is full of people who are weary and burdened. And why are they weary and burdened?

Because though we were made by God and for God, we've rebelled against God and declared independence of Him. We didn't want to be ruled by Him.

We wanted to be our own boss and do as we pleased. And so we all, like sheep, have gone astray from God. We've turned from Him, and we've turned to His own way.

Each of us to our own way. That's the essence of sin. To say to God, my way, not your way. Now, this is true of every one of us.

It's the sinful nature we inherited from our parents, and that they inherited from their parents, right on back to our first parents, Adam and Eve. But it's not only the sinful nature that we inherited, it's also the sinful choice that we made.

Every one of us. Choosing to go our way rather than God's way. To break from Him, to ignore Him, to go it alone.

And the consequences are disastrous. Namely, we're weary and burdened. You see, that's Jesus' diagnosis of the human race.

Weary and burdened. Instead of being holy and happy, we became sinful and miserable by declaring independence from God.

You see, we were never made to be independent of God. We were never created to live independently from Him any more than a fish was meant to live without water or a bird was meant to live without air.

We were never meant to live without God. So here we are, needy, dependent creatures who have been specially designed and created for a relationship with God in which we are the receivers and He's the giver and He protects us and provides for us and we receive that from Him.

We were designed in this way to need God. But now, we have turned from Him and we're separated from Him. And the result, we're weary and we're burdened.

The picture is of a man with a huge bundle on his back, a heavy weight and it's bent his back down and it's hard going.

He's tired. He can barely walk with that burden. Weary and burdened. But the burden that Jesus is speaking of is not a physical burden but a burden that reaches the very soul of a man, the innermost part, the heart of man.

There, if you could see the hearts of people as you meet them, you would find people weary and burdened. Now, what contributes to their weariness?

What contributes to the burden that they're bearing? There's many things and Jesus says, all of these, whatever your cause for your burden, all are invited.

Well, let's think about some of the things that add weight to this heavy burden. First, there's the crushing weight of life's troubles. life itself can be hard.

Not everyone is born with a silver spoon in their hand. It can be hard just to make a living. The weekly rat race, the cares of life, the pressures of bills to pay, crushing responsibilities, difficulties at work, health problems, financial problems, broken relationships, disappointments, shattered hopes, rejections, failures, worries about the future.

And not just one or two, but many of them together, heaped upon the other, cause us to be weary and burdened. But again, it's not so much the troubles themselves, but facing these troubles without God.

We were made to face all of this with God. With him as our help and our comfort and our strength, but now it's facing all these troubles without him, and so we are weary and burdened.

We do not have him as a friend to help us, but as our enemy, the one we've run from, the one we have offended, the one we have disobeyed and chose to live without.

And so we're left to bear the burden alone. That's a heavy load to bear. No wonder men are weary and burdened and broken by life's troubles.

And yet, these are the very ones that Jesus invites. Come to me. What else makes for a heavy burden? Well, there's the crushing weight of sin's consequences.

You know, the Bible does speak about the pleasure of sin. It says it lasts for a short season. But it also speaks of the long-term consequences of sin, both in this life and in the life to come.

The Bible says the way of the transgressor is hard. The very way of life of transgressing and sinning against God, it's a hard road to take.

A sinful life is hard. It's hard on the sinner. You can often see it in the face of the sinner. It leaves something of its hardness even upon their very physical constitution.

Oh, sinning comes easy enough, but it's dealing with consequences of sin that is hard. Those words spoken in a rage, they cannot be recalled.

We've got to deal with those consequences. That wild drinking party is followed by a hangover. And what we did while we were under the influence can never be undone.

There's the burden of regrets for past sins. If only I had not done that. If only I had done this.

What a burden to bear. Past regrets. As we heard from a professional football player even this week who said that because of 30 seconds of his life in which he was physically abusive to his wife, he will be paying for the rest of his life.

The consequences of sin are heavy. They are a burden to be borne. Indeed, Jeremiah says they weary themselves with sinning.

And all of this with no God to help bear the burden because we didn't want God. We're going it alone, you see. And yet here is Jesus making an amazing invitation to just these burdened by sin.

And then there's the wearisome bondage to sin. Being a slave to sin. Not being able to stop sinning.

The addiction of sin. The destructive habit that controls them. They continue to sin because they are a slave to sin. And so they return to their sin like a dog returns to its vomit or as a sow returns to her wallowing.

they cannot stop. The chains of sin contribute to the heavy weight that they are bearing. And then there's the wearisome chase after happiness.

They work hard at being happy. They work hard to make more money, to get more things, to go more places, to be somebody. But it's all that wearisome, disappointing work because they're never contented, bouncing from one thing to the next.

seeking happiness here and then there like a bee that floats and bounces from flower to flower. Seeking happiness in all the wrong places, growing increasingly weary with each failed attempt.

There was a young man that lived many centuries ago named Augustine. And he was seeking for happiness and meaning in life. and he sought it in a female lover.

And he never found it in her. He only found rest when he came to Jesus Christ. And he later wrote, You have made us for yourself, O Lord, and our heart is restless until it rests in you.

You see, there's the wearisome chase after fulfillment, happiness, seeking it everywhere but where it's to be found.

And yet, these are the very ones that Jesus is inviting. What other things contribute to the heavy load?

Well, there's the weight of a guilty conscience. Because as much as we might try to forget God, God has planted a conscience in every sinner's heart.

It's his own megaphone that reminds us there is a God. He is the judge of all men it is appointed unto men once to die and then the judgment.

There is hell to pay for sin. There is everlasting torment to suffer by unrepentant sinners. And that guilty conscience is like a gnawing worm that spoils the pleasures of sin.

It weighs heavily upon them. They know they must die and face this God in judgment but they're not ready to face him. They've sinned against him. And so they're a slave to the fear of dying.

And they spend all their lives afraid, fearful of death because death would bring them face to face with their God who is their enemy and their judge.

A God who's angry with them and whose law condemns them because of their sin. that's not a light burden to add to all the others that they are bearing.

And so they are weighed down, weary, burdened, and to all such Jesus says, come to me. You know, sometimes a guilty conscience will make a man wear himself out in religion.

I know I'm guilty. I've sinned against this God and so the natural heart says, well, I've got to do some good things to make up for my bad things. And so they work real hard at religion.

And they deny themselves many things trying to do more good than bad. But it's all a wearisome business. They can never undo one of their sins.

And they can never rest because they never know whether they've done enough. to satisfy God. Wretched business, this trying to save themselves. And so Isaiah sums it up.

The wicked are like the tossing sea which cannot rest, whose waves cast up mire and mud. There is no peace, says my God, for the wicked. Have you been to the sea?

Have you stood by the shore? Have you watched the waves as they come and go? Stirring up mire and mud, never resting, the sea never rests, it just goes on and on, such as the man, the woman, the boy, or girl without Jesus Christ.

No peace, agitated state of unrest continually. I wonder if you are one of these whom Jesus describes as weary and burdened.

If so, is it not encouraging to find that Jesus knows you? That Jesus is aware of what others sitting around you and even living with you may not know that you're weary and burdened.

And is it not even better to know and to find in this verse that these are the very ones that Jesus is inviting? All you who are weary and burdened, whatever the cause for your weariness and burdened state, all of you.

Notice it's not you who are worthy, but you who are weary. weary. Whoever you are, whatever you've done, even those of you who are trying to deny that you are weary and burdened, the invitation is for you.

So that's the important first question. Who's the invitation for? It's for all you who are weary and burdened. The second question we want to ask is what is promised to all who accept this invitation?

If we come, what will we receive? In one word, rest. Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest.

So you've had a long day of hard labor. Not eight hours, but twelve hours, and you're bone tired.

You can barely drag yourself out of the car and into the house. And what does that bed feel like that night? It's rest. It's relief from the weariness, the burden.

That's the picture that Jesus uses. That's what he promises to give, but it's not physical rest. It's rest that he says is soul rest.

Rest for your soul, because the burden goes deeper than just physical weariness. It's a burden in the heart and the soul, and that's the kind of rest that Jesus promises.

Rest for the weary. Is there a sweeter word for a burdened soul? Then rest. A deep sense that all is well between God and me.

Indeed, all is well that ends well. and now I can know that my end will be not hell, but heaven with him. That's rest.

That's peace. And notice this is a rest not that you achieve or earn, but that he gives. Come to me and I will give you rest. It's his free gift to all who come.

Now how can this Jesus give you such rest? It's because of who he is and what he's done. Consider how he gives us rest from a condemning conscience that damns us to hell for our sin.

That weight of a condemning conscience. How does Jesus give us rest from that guilty conscience? Well, he's God's sinless son. And he came to die as a sacrifice in the place of repenting sinners.

They deserve to be damned for their sins. But he takes their sins upon himself and he bears them to the place of judgment. And there on the cross, God punishes those sins in him, the substitute in the place of the sinner.

He was damned by his father in the place of the sinner. Christ died for sins, the righteous for the unrighteous, to bring us to God.

He paid the full penalty for all our sins. And because he paid it all, as we sang, all my sins are forgiven.

The full debt has been paid. They're remembered no more. Never again will a sin be held against me in judgment before God to meet out to me its punishment.

all the wrath of God that would have been mine in hell forever was poured out on him until he cried, it is finished. He did pay the last penny that I owed for my sin.

He suffered. He drank the cup right down to the last bitter drop. There's nothing in the cup left for me to drink. You see how it's the blood of Jesus that cleanses our guilty conscience.

It's the blood of Jesus that silences the conscience that condemns us to hell. The blood of Jesus says Christ has died. I have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ so there's no condemnation left for me who is in Christ.

Christ justice was satisfied by Jesus who is already punished in my place so who can condemn me anymore? It's Christ that died better than that.

Christ who rose again and who right now is in heaven showing himself as the substitute sacrifice in my place. No one can condemn.

There's no more wrath for me to bear. Rather there is only love and nothing that can separate me from his love.

Now that's rest. That's rest for my soul. that goes right down to the bottom and says peace to my heart. Think how Jesus takes away the heavy burden of the fear of death.

Because now I'm ready to die. I'm ready to meet my maker who is now also my savior. So the worst that death can do to me is transplant me into heaven.

no more the heavy weight of the fear of death. But rest. Rest. And then there's rest from the burden of trying to save myself by making myself good enough for God.

No, Jesus has done all the saving work. It's finished. So I do not have to try to do more good deeds than bad deeds in order to save my soul.

He has done it all. There's rest in that. In my wearisome search for happiness, it's over. I found it. He found me. I've been forgiven of my sin.

What joy, what peace, what rest in this relationship with Jesus Christ who is my joy, my delight, and who has enough about him to make a man content.

And the wearisome bondage to sin is broken, no longer a slave to sin because if the Son shall set you free, you shall be free indeed. Christ has triumphed over sin and I share in his power now to defeat sin in my life.

He saves me from that drudgery of a life of sin and its consequences, both in this life and the life to come. He delivers me from sin.

Yes, there are consequences to our sin, even as Christians, but there's no hell at the end and he's with us to bear the consequences as our friend and as our helper.

What about the weary burden of life's troubles? We said that men and women are weighed down because of just the cares of life and life's troubles. Jesus does not mislead us here.

He does not tell us if you become a Christian, if you come to me, you will never have another trouble in your life. Not at all. Those who come to Jesus will find that they too still have crushing responsibilities and pressures and difficulties and health problems, financial problems, relationship problems, disappointments, rejections, failures.

But with these problems they now have Jesus Christ as their best friend. That's the difference. And there's rest. We don't face these troubles alone, away from God.

We face them with God, who's for us. All that he is for us, that ever present help in trouble to give us his strength, the one who daily bears our burdens with us!

and who invites me to cast all my cares upon him because he cares for me. That spells peace and rest, even in life's troubles.

And I now have rest from the worrisome fear of the future because my ultimate future is heaven and every day until then has God's goodness and mercy and presence guaranteed to me.

And God's promise that whatever happens to me, he will work together for my good. That's how Jesus gives rest to those who come to him.

And when Jesus promises rest, he keeps his word, he's faithful, and he's able to do all that he has said. So we've seen who is invited by Jesus, all you who are weary and burdened.

We've seen what is promised if you come to him. He will give you rest, soul rest at the very depths of your being. Now thirdly, what is the invitation itself?

What is this invitation from Jesus? And the essence is found in those first three words, come to me. Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest.

Jesus' cure for the weary and burdened is come to me. me. Isn't that refreshing? There's no fixing yourself first. It's just come as you are.

Come with your burdens. Come with your weariness. Come with your sin. Come as you are, but come to me. I'll notice several things about this invitation.

He invites us to himself. You know, there were many prophets who were sent with a message from God, and their message was return to God.

Go to God. Jesus does not come announcing, go to God, but come to me. And that's because he is God.

He is God. And here he is, wooing us back to him, for whom we were made and from whom we strayed. That was the source of our greatest rest and misery that we turned away from him.

and now here he is saying, come to me. Come back. Come to me, sinner. The cure is a person. We don't come to a church.

We don't come to a formula of self helps. We don't come to Bible reading or come to our praying. No, we come to a person. And the person is the eternal son of God, the only mediator between God and man, the man Christ Jesus, the only savior for sinners, the only way to the father's home, who is himself God in the flesh and therefore able to save to the uttermost all that come to God through him.

Salvation is a very personal thing, you see. It's in a person. All of its blessings are bound up in God's eternal son. I wonder if you've ever realized that, that the greatest need you have is a person.

It's Jesus Christ, the living son of God, who became man, died, was buried, rose again, and now lives to save all who come to him.

So he invites you, come to me, come to me. You know, he says to you, your greatest problem has been that you've been staying away from me. You've been running from me, you've been turning your back on me and trying to make life work without me, and I'm inviting you to turn around and to put an end to living that way.

I'm inviting you to renounce and reject your lifestyle of living without me, to repent of living by yourself and for yourself. I'm inviting you to end the distance between you and me by coming right now as you are to me.

You coming to me. Jesus coming to Jesus means trusting in him to be your savior and your master.

I want us to see both those points in our text. This invitation is an invitation to come to Jesus to trust in him as our savior and our master.

First of all, you come to Christ to receive him as your savior, realizing you sinned against God and that that's your greatest problem. You come to Christ, trusting in him to save you from your sins.

You come to receive peace with God through the sacrificial death of Jesus Christ. And we need to be careful that we don't misunderstand the invitation.

When Jesus says, come to me, he's not talking about the physical movement of your body, that you get up from where you are and you physically move somewhere. to where Jesus is.

If Jesus was at the front of the church, we would invite you to come forward to the front of the church to meet Jesus, but he's not physically here, he is in heaven. But the wonder of it all is that he can be reached by you wherever you are.

He is reached by the cry of faith. Faith that believes that he exists, faith that calls upon him. You come to Jesus then by believing prayer.

That's how you come to Jesus. You end that distance, you walk your own way and put distance between you and him and now you come to him in prayer and you come close to him and you cry out to him.

It's by prayer that you come to Jesus. And so you say, Lord Jesus, I believe you exist, I believe you are God and I've sinned against you and I deserve your everlasting punishment in hell.

But you died for sinners. And your death has taken away the punishment for all who believe on you.

That they should not perish but have everlasting life. So I believe you are able to save me. Save me now. You promise to give rest to whoever comes.

I am coming now for rest, for peace with God through you. Save me. You see, coming to Christ is trusting in him to be your savior, to save you from your sins.

But you not only come to Christ to receive him as your savior, you come to Christ secondly to receive him as your master, your Lord. For verse 29 continues the invitation.

It doesn't end at verse 28. There's more to the invitation. Come to me. But then it goes on and says, take my yoke upon you and learn from me. That's part of the invitation too.

Come to me and take my yoke upon you to learn from me. Now, a yoke was a symbol of servitude, submission to another.

To be under the yoke was to be under someone's rule. And so to be, to take upon me the yoke of Christ is to take the rule of Christ upon me.

To be under his yoke is to be under his rule. And that means I come to him to have him save me from my sin, but I also come to him to submit my will to him, to be taught by him what to believe, how to live.

It's no longer my will, it's your will. be done. We willingly put our necks under Christ's yoke to be led and taught by him.

A submission to his instruction and obedience to his commandments. And it's all part of his invitation. Come to me and put your neck in the yoke with me.

Take my yoke upon you and learn from me. You see, you cannot have me as your savior if you don't take me as your master. Because your taking me as your savior will be proved by your following me as your master.

If you really have faith in me, then you will do what I say. Otherwise, your faith is phony. Charles Spurgeon on this point gives the illustration of, let's say you're seriously ill and the doctor comes to your house on a visit and he says, oh, I see exactly what's wrong with you.

What are you eating? And you tell him, well, you're feeding that disease. You've got to stop eating that. You need to take this medicine. Do you believe that I can help you?

Yes, doc, I've got faith in you. Okay, then quit eating this way, start eating this way, take this medicine. I believe you, doc. and he comes back and he finds you sicker still.

He says, what you been eating? Well, the same old stuff. I told you to stop eating like that. You been taking the medicine? No, you haven't been taking the medicine.

I didn't like the way it tastes. You don't trust me. You don't have faith in me. If you did, then you would do what I say. And it's in that sense that Jesus calls us to him and says, come to me and receive me as your savior.

I will save you, freely give you peace with God. And as you come to me as your savior, you also are taking me as your lord, your master, to be ruled by me.

And if you really trust in me, you will do the one as well as the other. It takes faith to trust him.

it takes faith to put yourself under a new master, doesn't it? To put your neck into his yoke and say, Lord, wherever you go, I'm with you.

I'm going. That takes a lot of faith to live a whole new way. And the Lord knows that. And so he concludes his invitation with three encouragements for coming to him and putting your neck in the yoke, his yoke, and learning from him.

What are these encouragements for coming to Jesus? Well, I am gentle and humble in heart. You will find rest for your souls.

And my yoke is easy and my burden is light. Let's look at them one at a time and we're done. Three encouragements to come to Christ as Savior and Lord. First of all, we have the heart of Jesus revealed.

Here's why you need to come and come right now and receive me as Savior and Lord because I am gentle and humble in heart. It's one of the rare places, maybe the only place in the Bible where Jesus himself tells us what's in his heart.

He shows us in many places. You can see it in the way he acts what's in his heart. But here he actually tells us what's in his heart. He says I'm gentle and I am humble in heart.

You see, you may have some fears about coming to Jesus to receive him as your Savior and master. I mean, if I come, what kind of a master will he be? Some masters are not worth following.

What will he be like? And Jesus wants to allay all your fears and he tells you you can safely put your neck under my yoke because I am gentle and humble in heart.

I'm not like your old task master, harsh and heartless that leads to misery and weariness and burden. But I am gentle and humble in heart.

In the War of Independence, several battalions of the Continental Army were having to hastily make their way to a location along less than pleasant trails. And in one place a storm had brought down a huge oak tree across the path and the cannon on wheels could not get through the path because of the oak tree.

And so the men were trying to move the tree out of the path and the lieutenant was yelling obscenities at his men slipping there in the mud to get with it as he sat high on his horse giving orders.

But they were getting nowhere. After a while, another man on a horse appeared. And he sized up the situation. He got down off of his horse.

He got down in the mud and said, Men, let's put our shoulders together. And heave on three. One, two, three.

Heave. Over and over and slipping in the mud, they went until finally the tree was removed. And the mystery rider got back on his horse and as he rode off, he said to the lieutenant, the next time you need something moved, you might get down yourself and help them rather than just barking orders from your horse.

As he rode away, the lieutenant said, Who was that man? And they said, That's George Washington, the commander-in-chief of all the continental army. It's no wonder they counted it a privilege to serve him, to fight for him, to march barefoot through ice and snow for him.

He was not some high and arrogant despot, but humble and gracious in heart. And this master Jesus who invites you to come to him and to put your neck in the yoke with him, he's not harsh and heartless either.

He's gentle. He's humble. Oh, so gently does he lead us as a shepherd leads his sheep. He knows what we can handle.

He doesn't shout orders. His voice will not be heard in the street shouting, was the prophecy of him. He does not break the bruised reed or quench the smoldering wick.

What a tender teacher. So patient. He's kind and forbearing with our failures. He knows our frame. He remembers that we are dust.

He knows what it's like. He's been here. He's gentle. And he's so humble. He didn't stay in heaven barking orders. He came down to where we were all the way down to become a nobody.

He who is God became a nobody. Who is that? That's the carpenter's son. That's all he is. To become a servant, obedient unto death, even the death of the cross.

This one was damned for us on the cross. He's not asking us to do anything. He's not done.

He's the greatest servant of all. He did all this forgetful of himself in order to meet our needs. He laid down his life to save us. He took up our griefs and carried our sorrows and our burdens.

Oh, who would not gladly serve him? Count his service, our greatest privilege. Can you feel the attraction between Jesus, coming from Jesus' gentle and humble heart?

He is wooing, he is drawing people to come to him. It's perfect rest to be the servant of such a master. It's in the yoke of subjection to Jesus where we actually find rest for our souls.

It's like coming home and we instinctively feel, I was made for this. Not to govern my own life without him, but rather to be governed and to be taught and to be led by God's own son.

And when you live that way, the way you were meant to live, you find true rest. Your old way of life under master self only left you weary and burdened, but life under the new master rest.

rest. Yet there's another encouragement to us. Not only the fact that I am gentle and humble in heart, but there's also the second encouragement that says, and you will find rest for your souls.

He repeats. Here's the promise of Jesus repeated. The promise of Jesus repeated. Can I come to him and put my neck under his yoke and entrust myself to him and be safe?

Oh, it's perfect rest to be a servant of this master, you see. And so we find the promise is repeated. He's repeating it for our behalf.

If we've got any questions, he's just telling us again. No, it's rest. It's rest. So come to me. Come to me. And then there's this third encouragement.

The yoke of Jesus described for my yoke is easy and my burden is light. If I come and take your yoke upon me, what will that yoke be like? Oh, he says, my yoke is easy.

My burden, oh, it's so light. There's no need to fear it. It's nothing like the wearisome burden that you're under now. There's no guilt in this yoke.

There's no wrath in this yoke. There's no condemnation in this yoke. There's only love in this yoke. It's the way of holiness and happiness, not of sin and misery. It's the perfect law of liberty, this yoke of mine.

It's the law that gives freedom. The yoke of my law is not only holy and righteous, but it's also good. So good. It's good for you.

There's nothing in it to hurt you, only that to help you. The yoke of my law only forbids what's bad for you and what's keeping you from what is even better. It only commands what is best for you.

So my commands are not burdensome. Therefore, you're good. It's an easy yoke. It's a light burden.

Because when you come to me, I'm with you in the yoke and I bear the heaviest part. And you get all my resources and all my power and you get a new heart and a new will and new desires.

And a new heart does not find my yoke to be burdensome at all, but rather to be easy. A light burden with Christ in the yoke with you.

What a Savior. What a Master. You see the encouragements? Are you thinking about coming to Him? You're burdened down. You're also burdened down with life's troubles and your sin and your guilty conscience and judgment coming and death is coming.

How can you go on living this way? And He is inviting you to come and He's promising you life. Life. And He's promising you rest, peace, soul rest.

And if you have any doubts, He's seeking to encourage you. As you come to me, you'll find me to be gentle and humble. As you come to me, you'll find that indeed it leads to rest of soul and you'll find that my yoke is easy and my burden is light.

You know, it's never enough simply to receive an invitation. you've got to go to receive what is being offered.

And it's that way with Christ. Here's the invitation. Come to me. Take my yoke on you. I'll give you rest. But you've got to go to Him. And I wonder if there's anyone here that's tired of a guilty conscience that condemns them to hell.

Is there anybody here that's tired of trying to make life work without God? Anybody here that's tired of trying to save yourself? Tired of being a slave to sin?

Being drug around by sinful desires? Tired of bearing the heavy burdens of life alone without Jesus?

Then come to Jesus. Come to Christ. You don't have to carry your weary burden a moment longer. Right where you are in your seat. Come to Jesus.

Call upon Him to save you. And He will give you all that He is. Salvation. A new master. New resources. Rest.

Peace. Will He receive me if I come? Whoever He calls. He says, whoever comes to me, I will in no wise cast out.

Come to me. I turn away none. All you who are weary, come, and I will give you rest. Let's pray. Father, we thank You for Your Son, for giving Him up for us.

Lord Jesus, we thank You so much for this gracious invitation. It tells us that You know us. You know us through and through. You know the things that burden us and weigh us down.

And You don't just leave us in our misery, our self-chosen misery of sin, but You rather come and we're the very ones You invite. and I thank You that this room is filled with people who took You at Your Word and came to You.

And when we came, we found You to be just what You said, gentle and humble in heart. And we found, indeed, that rest for our souls that we couldn't find anywhere else.

And we found that Your yoke is indeed easy and Your burden is light and we wondered that we didn't come to You sooner. Would You please draw others this day to come as they are, even now, even right there in their seats to cry out to You to be saved.

We ask in Jesus' powerful name. Amen. Amen.