Less Effort More power
This is the first of a two part series called less effort more power
Jesus said a lot of stunning things a lot of controversial things. We sometimes become familiar with them or sometimes we don’t understand how radical and how relevant they were to the people listening at the time.
Matthew 11:28 Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. 29Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. 30For my yoke is easy and my burden is light.”
Jesus is issuing an invitation. Come.
What did Jesus say the result of coming to him would be? REST
In Jesus days the teaching of a rabbi would be described as the yoke – the rules, the laws that that rabbi would put on his disciples. Jesus is saying “take my yoke and learn from me” – learn my ways. My ways are different. What did Jesus say about his yoke, about his ways? EASY (kind, pleasant, gracious)
This is shocking – Jesus is saying his ways are easy! Sometimes it’s as though we think he isn’t telling the truth. Hold up there Jesus – are you sure “easy” is the right word?
So these are two things to focus on here REST and EASY.
So important he says it twice.
Jesus did not say come to me you who are weary and burdened and I will give you a workout programme, I’ll set you on a treadmill. He said I will give you rest.
If Jesus is saying his ways are easy and he will give me rest, does my life reflect that? Does it match up? Pressures mount up and we lose our rest, we lose our ease. We start to feel the pressures of the expectations of others, the everyday pressures of life, the fear of what others may think, of letting other people down, our sometimes faulty view of God’s expectations of us and as a result there are Christians everywhere feeling defeated, discouraged and worn out with trying so hard and fearful of letting God down, worried about not doing enough for God. And who are not actually living in his rest that he promised.
And often I’m one of them. Last Sunday – eating lunch, sitting in the sunshine –I ought to be doing something. That is not living in rest.
I’ve got this to do list I my head od all these things I “need” to do.
Church website – pressure to get it sorted. Where does that pressure come from? Me.
What is rest?
We could do an amazingly detailed bible study on “rest” we could look at the idea of the Sabbath in the OT, how it was wrongly interpreted by the Pharisees who made it legalistic, we could look at the way it’s interpreted by the new testament writers, we can look at the theology but what I think Jesus meant most importantly when he was speaking to these people was that rest means rest. Not laziness, but rest. Rest where you’re relying on his ability not your ability.
There’s a well known saying – When the going gets tough the tough get going. ???
When the going gets tough you need to be living in rest. Jesus did. There was a storm on the boat he was in with his disciples. He was asleep.
We’re in the boat and worrying about what we ought to be doing, the expectations of others, our sense of powerlessness in difficult circumstances rob us of our joy, we’re worried that it’s all going wrong, and we grit our teeth and keep going but we want to give up but we don’t because somehow we feel that god wants us to persevere, maybe he’s testing us and we don’t want to let him down because then we’ll feel even worse. .. and Jesus is asleep!
Is it my birthright to be fearful and worried and stressed and anxious?
If I’m going to take hold of my birthright, if I’m going to take hold of all the blessings of the promised land I need to do so from a position of rest . Rest for your souls.
Rest is not casualness with God, it’s not laziness. It’s relying entirely on him and enjoying his provision and his blessings in every circumstance.
Rest is permanent
He didn’t say come to me, rest up for a little while– and then I’ll set you to work, I’ll give you this massive to do list starting with reading the bible in a year. There’s nothing here to suggest that the rest would be temporary.
He didn’t even say from time to time you may get weary then come to me and I will give you rest. NO Rest is designed to be our permanent position. Not just some theological concept of rest from our having to try to please God but a real experiential rest. Rest for your souls. Rest for my very being. Rest for everything that I am.
Isaiah 40 –
He gives strength to the weary and increases the power of the weak. 30Even youths grow tired and weary,and young men stumble and fall; 31but those who hope in the Lord will renew their strength. They will soar on wings like eagles; they will run and not grow weary, they will walk and not be faint
I have somewhat misunderstood this as a verse for those who are living christian life and are feeling tired, weary, weighed down and god will strengthen you and help yopu recover– those who hope in the lord wont grow tired and weary. It doesn’t say they will grow tired but then the lord will refresh them till they get tired and themn he will refresh them again. “Hope” is not at the crisis point. It is ongoing.
It’s very clear – those who hope in the Lord will run and NOT GROW WEARY
That’s what I want my life to be like!
Of late I have grown weary. That’s not my birthright
My birthright is that I can run this race of life as a christian and not grow weary.
Rest means you can run and not grow weary!
Rest means less effort
Most of the time when I hear a preach, or read a book I’m left thinking that I will do more.
Dave gilpin was speaking about this and he used an analogy that ws so relevant to me. Tennis. He was playing against his old bible college principle and running around expending lots of energy and his opponent was winning easily with virtually no effort.
My style of tennis is very energetic. There’s a problem – I’m getting older! Opponent – power and positioning. Metaphor for my life. I put so much effort into things I don’t need to do. I have a to do list as long as your arm. I need power and positioning. Less effort.
Less effort from us and more responsiveness to him
In Zechariah 4 – talking about rebuilding the temple
God does not say – you’re slacking, get off your backsides, put some effort in.
Not by might or power (not by effort, not by hard work, not by human energy) but by my spirit says the Lord.
You don’t need more effort, more activity – You need more of the spirit
There are verses that say “make every effort”. But it’s every effort with his power.
Conclusion
Jesus defined that coming to him resulted in an easy yoke and rest
The legalist in us is always whispering in our ear saying we ought to be doing more.
I’d love someone to call themselves Rest Church
I heard this recently –
The old testament is about obeying and behaving
The new testament is about believing and receiving
Of course there is obeying in the new testament too. But where is the emphasis and where is the starting point? In the new testament the emphasis is on faith (believing) and receiving new life, the spirit – everything else flows out from that.
Jesus said come to me. Coming to him is believing and receiving. Come to him and what do you get – a light burden, an easy yoke and rest
Less effort from us and more receiving from him
5 ways of getting back to where you should be:
- Resign. Stop trying to take responsibility for everything. Richard frequently used to say “I resign”
- Keep handing things over to God (he can do things without our help)
- Only do things when God says
- Rely less on yourself and more on the Holy Spirit
- Expect that you can run and not grow weary.