A true relationship with God through Jesus is a win situation for us! For the yoke we share with Him is easy and His burden is our blessing. This sermon “Are You a Beast of Burden?” was preached by Paster Pamela on Sunday 3rd March 2024.
Sermon Transcript
If you have your bibles, please turn with me to
Matthew 11:28-30
Otherwise, read from the screen above.
Matthew 11:28-30 Jesus said,
“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.”
Let us Pray
Holy Spirit I pray that your Word will challenge us all to action. May we be doers of your Word and not just hearers. Hearing is good, but only when we put it into action. Amen
I am so grateful that I wasn’t born a donkey in Pakistan!
The donkey as you may know is considered to be A Beast Of Burden, for centuries upon centuries it has carried ridiculously heavy loads for mankind.
It is said that the donkey has been one of the most abused animals throughout history because people have cruelly overloaded the species.
And it still goes on today in third world countries like Pakistan. I was reading an article dealing with Pakistan animal welfare on Friday and it stated that,
at present there are about 10,000 brick kilns across the country of Pakistan where at least 90,000 donkeys and mules are being used for the delivery of raw and baked bricks. In addition to this, donkeys and mules are also used in coal mines.
In the coal mines of Khushab and Chakwal alone, about 6,000 donkeys and mules are used for the transportation of coal from a depth of up to 1524 metres. And despite the horrendous treatment dished out to these animals (many are not even fed properly, for example, they are given much less fodder than dairy animals), despite this, agriculture and economic experts believe that working animals play an important role in economic development. According to their estimates, a donkey and a horse are responsible for earning the livelihood of about eight people. And for this reason, a blind eye is turned to their torturous plight.
Take a look at this poor donkey…just a tad overloaded wouldn’t you say?
Have you got another photo there?
It’s very upsetting to see isn’t it?
Sadly, people too become burdened just like donkeys.
It seems the older we get the more experienced we become at carrying heavy burdens.
Hey, those burdens just keep on coming. Life keeps throwing them at us!
Some people are given huge burdens, very early in the piece, when they are just small children …sexual, emotional, physical abuse are enormous loads for young people to carry and quite often those heavy loads determine the quality of the journey these people will have for the rest of their lives.
But the bottom line is we are all burdened with sin the minute we are born.
The consequence of sin is and always has been (since the Garden of Eden) man’s biggest burden. Mankind has the burden of sin because he is yoked with Satan.
‘Yoke’ is an unusual word isn’t it? One that we don’t hear too often now days. And when I talk about yoke I’m not talking about the yellow bit in the middle of an egg.
Yoke was a word that was very well understood in the Bible times.
A ‘yoke’ in the literal sense is a wooden frame joining two working animals.
Could we have that next picture please?
Doesn’t look very comfortable does it?
These working animals are joined so that the burden of what is being pulled is shared between the two animals.
I’m saying it again, these working animals are joined so that the burden of what is being pulled is shared between the two animals.
This is exactly what yoke meant in the bible.
However, metaphorically speaking, in the Bible ‘yoke’ also describes an individual’s subjection to another.
‘yoke’ also describes an individual’s subjection to another.
This then means that mankind is born in subjection to Satan.
The Bible very clearly outlines this fact.
And because we are born in subjection to Satan he places all manner of burdens of sin upon us with the aim of destroying us. This is how he operates.
Now what sort of burdens of sin does Satan get us as his donkeys to carry?
**Use someone…. Place upon them the burden of JEALOUSY, ANGER, GOSSIP, LIES, THEFT, IMMORAL THINKING, ADULTERY, HATRED, RACIAL PREJUDISM, GUILT, GREED, SELFISHNESS, IMPATIENCE, INTOLERENCE, UNFORGIVENESS, ADDICTIONS, FEAR.
Because people are yoked with Satan (or in subjection to Satan) they quickly become involved in the burdensome activities of his evil realm.
And there is NO REST when you are yoked to him, and his evil realm, because he is relentless in his quest to destroy you.
Just like there is no rest for the overloaded donkeys of Pakistan. There is no rest for people doing Satan’s business.
Satan fully abuses his donkeys!!!
Satan doesn’t care about you.
He’ll tempt you to do wrong and then kick you in the teeth when you’ve done it. He’s good at placing the burden of sin and guilt on your tired back.
BUT Jesus understood all of this when he said in,
Matthew 11:28-30
“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.”
‘Come to ME, all who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest!’ Jesus is saying,
If you are weary and burdened come to Him! Cast ALL your cares (ALL YOUR BURDENS) on Jesus.
1 John 3:8 ‘…The Son of God appeared for this purpose, that He might destroy the works of the devil.’
Jesus is in the business of unloading donkeys like you and me.
HE GETS RID OF THE DESTRUCTIVE LOAD THE DEVIL PLACES ON US BECAUSE He destroys the work of the evil one!
Jesus Christ dealt with your load on the cross of Calvary. He carried the burdensome load which just so happened to be the weight of the world on His back.
In doing this, Jesus purchased us DONKEYS and dealt with the loads that we carry.
When you become born again, you must take off those sinful burdens and lay them at the feet of Jesus.
Jesus wants to take them ALL. YES!!
**REMOVE BURDENS FROM the person. (JESUS SAYS I’LL HAVE THOSE THANK YOU, THEY ARE MINE I’VE ALREADY PAID FOR THOSE.)
Don’t you dare hold onto any of your burdens.
He’s paid for them all, THEY ARE HIS!
And He’ll take them and throw them into the sea of forgetfulness.
You might remind God every now and then of a bad burden you used to carry for Satan, the old master, and God will say, “What burden? I can’t remember, I’ve already dealt with that one.”
Deal with your burdens people. Don’t keep holding onto them. Give the load to Jesus. And certainly, DON’T take any of them back once you’ve left them at the cross.
I read this little story a long time ago.
In the Philippines the driver of a wagon was on his way to the market when he overtook an old man carrying a heavy load. Taking compassion on him, the driver invited the old man to ride in the back of the wagon. Gratefully the old man accepted.
After a few minutes, the driver turned to see how the man was doing.
To his surprise, he found him still straining under the heavy weight, for he had not taken the burden off his shoulders. Even though he was in the back of the wagon!
Jesus offers rest to all those who trust Him completely! So often we Christians do this very thing in the spiritual sense BUT By faith we need to lay ALL our burdens on Him, we are no longer in subjection to Satan, we are not yoked with him, we are no longer slaves to sin, we are yoked with JESUS! We are yoked with JESUS! We are yoked with JESUS!!!
If we give (Jesus) our sinful burdens, then and only then are we resting from the work that Satan would have us do. Because Jesus said,
“Come to Me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest.”
Satan’s work is carrying burdens of sin!
You don’t want to do that no more….
Jesus wants you to give to Him the old burdens from the evil master and rest in Him…that’s point ONE in this sermon.
The first sentence of the verse. Let’s go back and find the other treasure that lay within the verse.
“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.
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.
Jesus is telling us to take His yoke now and put it on us.
We’ve got rid of Satan’s yoke of slavery. And by the way, Satan is not gentle and humble, he’s abusive and full of arrogance and pride.
Now we have to put on the yoke of Christ, who is gentle, humble, not even slightly abusive. He’s the BEST MASTER EVER.
Like two oxen are yoked together to do work, that’s what Jesus wants us to be with Him.
God’s got a job to do and we will only LEARN from HIM if we work with HIM.
A lot of people cry to God and say
‘I want to know more about You Lord!’ and yet they do nothing for the cause of Jesus Christ.
How do you learn about God? I’ll tell you how,
By working with Him.
The scripture says,
‘Take My yoke upon you and learn from Me.’
‘Do you want to understand Jesus?
Do you want to know Him and the power of His resurrection?
Do you want to become more like Him?’
Well work with HIM.
God’s got a job to do, are you working with Him?
He hasn’t burdened you; He’s gifted you to do His work.
And the minute you use those gifts for Him you are blessed not burdened.
Now a lot of us don’t want to do that.
A lot of us want to get yoked with Jesus and then pull and say, ‘No Jesus let me lead you, let me have my way, follow me!!! You see Jesus I want to do this, and that, and the other thing, and then I’ll do your thing!’
But life becomes very miserable as we pull against the One who is not able to be swayed from the direction that He’s going.
Think about it, we were originally created to be in subjection to God.
If we are not subjected to Him then we will not have true rest.
Remember the story of Jonah? Ps Bree spoke so well about him the other week. God gave him a job to do. He said, ‘Jonah, go and tell those sinful people in Nineveh that if they don’t turn from their evil ways they will be destroyed.’
But Jonah didn’t want to do that.
‘You’ve got to be kidding Lord, there’s no way I’m going down there they will probably put me to death!’
So, Jonah headed in the opposite direction.
Jonah broke the yoke that God had placed around his neck.
And what happened?
He was in a storm until he finally did the will of God.
In other words, Jonah was not at rest, until he did the will of God.
You see when you are not doing that which God has told you to do there is NO REST.
We need to follow His direction. If we do not
then we are not truly yoked with Him.
And we will not learn from HIM.
Jesus wants you to put on His yoke and learn from Him as you do… that’s point two
Now for the final point…. POINT THREE
The verse ends with… For My yoke is easy and My burden is light.”
When we are yoked with Christ, and when we move with Him in the direction that He is going, our life becomes a life of rest because His burden is light for us who are yoked with Him.
Okay in life when you develop a meaningful relationship with a person you share all their good points but also you share their problems.
And some people have incredibly serious problems which are otherwise called BAGGAGE.
e.g.
If you marry a person who has a serious anger issue then you will experience their anger and share their load.
If you marry a person who has a gambling problem then you will share their financial burden if they do not bring it under control.
If you marry a person who struggles with jealousy then you will have a fiery relationship and carry their problem.
This is why you must be very careful with whom you marry. Because some people bring huge baggage into the marriage and your once easy single life suddenly becomes burdensome by someone else’s baggage. True?
The bible talks very clearly about not being unequally yoked…hey its common sense.
But the final point is, our relationship with God can not fail and is not BURDENSOM because HE IS PERFECT and TRUE, without BLEMISH… He has NO BAGGAGE of His own because of HIS perfection.
Therefore, His burden is incredibly light. In fact, as I said before HIS burden in reality is BLESSING!
Relationship with God is a win win situation.
*He takes our load from the old evil master…. and gives us rest.
*He tells us to be yoked with Him and to learn from Him….and this gives us rest.
*And then the yoke we share with Him is easy and His burden is light because God doesn’t carry baggage but blessing.
Hey, it all sounds too good to refuse!
So, my question to you is: –
Are you carrying an unnecessary load?
Because if you are, you need to give it to Jesus. Get rid of the load. I don’t care what it is, if it’s not His, you’re not meant to be carrying it. So, throw it at the foot of the cross.
Anger, resentment, jealousy, unforgiveness, adultery, addictions, promiscuous behaviour,
fear, prejudice, greed, impatience, intolerance and pride. Lay it all at the feet of Jesus and put on His light, easy, comfortable yoke of love.
Let us pray..