Lake Ellen Men’s Winter Retreat 2007

Living Light

Matthew 11:28-30

FIDAY NIGHT

[Video clip: Forrest Gump arriving in Viet Nam – Base Camp]

Good evening men, and welcome to Base Camp! That’s where we are this weekend - a friendly outpost in enemy territory. We’ve come to this place to rest from the battle – to be surrounded by a band of brothers – to get some R&R, and hopefully some instruction and intel on facing the enemy when we return.

When Gary called and asked me to share this weekend with you men, I was humbled and excited to do so. I can’t tell you how jazzed I get to look over a group of men who have spent their hard earned money, given up a weekend that could have been spent doing any number of activities, and come to a remote wilderness area with the intent of joining with other Christian men! 

Some of us arrive here at base camp feeling spiritually exhausted and worn out, we’ve grown weary in our well-doing. Some of us have been engaged in the battle with the enemy and are fatigued and weary. If that’s you Jesus has great news for you. In Matthew 11:28-30 we read these words from Jesus:

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.”

The theme for this retreat is Walking Lite. Between now and Sunday morning we are going to talk about several twists on this theme. Tomorrow morning we are going to talk about Running light, tomorrow evening, fighting light, and Sunday morning about Walking Light.

But tonight, just arriving here at camp, I want us to start off with a focus on Living Light, that part of the Base Camp experience that focuses on R&R – rest and renewal.

In these verses, Jesus extends to us an invitation to have our burdens lifted – to find rest in Him. What a wonderful promise for those who accept it. Rest from chaos; help with our burdens and cares. This is not a promise of easy going, however. In fact, Jesus tells us we are to take on His yoke – to join Him in His work. We are invited to live light - to work light, walk light and serve light. There is a promise of rest, but this promise, like so many others in Scripture, requires us to act. There are three keys to living light - three steps we take that are our responsibility if we want to know the freedom and joy of living light in our relationship with Christ.

The First Key to Living Light is:

1) “Come to Me” (verse 28).

”Come to me all who are weary and burdened.” What a great invitation! Jesus is extending an open summons to every one of us who feels tired and weighed down by life.

This invitation to “Come” is first a call to salvation. “All who have been beaten and battered by life, come to me, and you will find what it is that you need and what it is that you’re looking for – rest for your weary soul, and a lifting of the burden you bear.” We first find this rest and relief when we accept Christ as our Lord and Savior. That’s why David wrote, in PS 62:1, “My soul finds rest in God alone; my salvation comes from him.”

It’s an invitation for those who are weary and tired of searching for meaning and purpose among the things that the world offers. You’ve tasted the world and found that it does not satisfy and now you are hearing the call of the Savior to come. When you do, you will find rest. You will find peace that no one and nothing else can offer. No longer is the future filled with uncertainty and fear, because when you leave this world you are assured of a glorious future in heaven with God. The future is not burdensome because it is not unknown – we know our mission, our leader, our destiny and our final victory. I trust that every man here tonight knows of this rest – this peace with God that leads to light living.

The problem we face when we try and share this invitation with others is that there are a whole lot of people that won’t admit that they’re weary. I can remember when my son, Andrew was around two. He would fight sleep as hard as he possibly could. You could see the concentration on his face, he was not going to give in to the exhaustion and miss out on what was going on around him. He would have his eyes half closed and his head dropping on his chest but when you asked, “Andrew, are you tired?” He would open his eyes, lift his head and emphatically state, “No!” Then he would do all he could until he finally crashed. Some don’t realize just how weary they are…

Others have been carrying around the burdens of this world so long that they don’t even realize it any more. I’m a runner, and in my training, I sometimes wear ankle weights – 5 pound weights around each ankle. It’s not so heavy that I really notice it – in fact I sometimes forget about it over the course of a day – but when I take them off, wow! What a difference! So many in our world are burdened down with a lot more than a 5 pound weight – they are carrying around huge burdens, but they’ve gotten so used to it that they don’t recognize it, or they are so lost in denial that they refuse to admit it – but Wow! What a difference when they find relief. Men if you are tired of chasing after satisfaction in this world – or are burdened by a load of guilt over your past – Come to Jesus and find rest!

But this invitation to “come” is also a standing offer to find rest even after the initial salvation experience. Jesus says, “Come to me, and I will give you rest.” That’s the initial relief we find in Jesus from the sin and death of this world. But then He goes on to say, “take my yoke upon you and learn from me…and you will find rest for your souls.” This is an ongoing relief from our burdens that comes as we learn more and more from Him, and give more and more of our burdens to Him. When the world is pressing in on all sides and we feel like we can’t stand up under their weight any longer, Jesus says, “Come.” The world keeps wanting to attach those ankle weights to us, but Jesus wants us to keep coming to Him. He wants us to lay our burdens down and to give them to him and when we’ve done that and we trust that He can handle them, you will experience rest. Men – some of you have known the initial rest in Christ that He gives at salvation – but you need to learn the final rest in Him again – let go of the burden and find rest.

That’s why Peter writes to believers in Christ, “Cast all your anxiety on him because he cares for you.” (1 Peter 5:7) And David writes in Psalm 55:22, “Cast your cares on the LORD and he will sustain you; he will never let the righteous fall.” 

Coming to Jesus, and bringing our heavy load to Him is to be a daily, ongoing practice. Listen to Psalm 68:19, “Praise be to the Lord, to God our Savior, who daily bears our burdens.” You may have come to Jesus years ago, or two days ago, and had your burden lifted – but it is in the daily coming to Jesus that we keep living light.

 The next step to living light is:

2) Take My Yoke – (verse 29)

I just love the way Jesus communicates. He uses all sorts of communication techniques to get his point across. He tells stories, he uses current events, he uses object lessons like a coin or a fish, if he’s at a well, he talks about water, if he’s in a field, he talks about flowers. In this verse, he uses oxymoron. You know what oxymoron is – it’s when we use words or concepts that are contradictory – like “pretty ugly” or “awfully good.”

Jesus says, “Come to me if you’re burdened and weary and I will give you rest.” Then he immediately follows that with “take my yoke upon you…” “Come and lay down your burden, and take on my burden.” He talks about being free from burdens and finding rest, then says, “Come and work with me…” (MSG) 

A yoke is a symbol of work. It is a symbol of servitude. You don’t usually equate the idea of a “yoke” and “rest”. If you come from a farm area, you may be familiar with a yoke. It was a carved piece of wood that was part of the harness used as a means of controlling and guiding the animal, whether it was oxen, donkeys, horses or mules in useful work. It was fitted to the neck and shoulders of the animal to allow them to pull with all their strength. 

An easy yoke was custom-designed to the size of the animal to allow the animal to pull harder with as little discomfort as possible. Like a pair of football shoulder pads that have been adjusted to fit a particular players shape, an easy yoke allows the animal to push against the load with maximum efficiency. And Jesus tells us this: His yoke is easy. It will not choke us, it will not drag us down. It will be well fitting and custom made for us. His yoke is easy and He also says that His burden is light.

In Jesus day, when a person decided to become a student of a particular rabbi, they would “take on the yoke” of that rabbi. That teacher would instruct them in the teachings and traditions of the faith, and it was anything but light. In the Jewish first century, a relationship with God was a suffocating burden. The demands of the law and the rules and regulations that had to be followed were breaking the backs of many Jews who could not shoulder the load. That’s why Jesus said, "And you experts in the law, woe to you, because you load people down with burdens they can hardly carry, while you yourselves will not lift one finger to help them.” 

Most religion today is much the same. They are all about burdens – loading people down with a pile of rules and schemes to please God. You see it in the news – poor souls flailing themselves with whips, pilgrims crawling for miles on their knees, or blowing themselves up – all in an effort to gain God’s approval. 

But think about this – Christianity is the only religion in the world where we don’t do the work to get to God – He did all the work! Jesus came and lifted the burden from us by fulfilling the law for us and freeing us from it. He carries the load. Nothing we do can earn us a spot in the heart of a holy God – but when He already has us in His heart, and loves us with a perfect love, then there’s no limit to the depths he will go to rescue us from sin and death. That’s exactly what He did – “The word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we beheld his glory, the glory of the only begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth.”

God knew we could never bear the burden of our sins on our own, so he came and took on that burden for us. When Jesus calls us to take on His yoke, it’s not about our salvation – it’s about our growth.

I live on a small farm. We have a bunch of trees on our lot. Shortly after we moved there, we had a huge windstorm that knocked down 14 trees. We went and bought a chain saw, and started cutting up the downed trees. My kids were young at the time, and they really wanted to help – especially the boys who were 8 and 10. The would pick up the small branches and help pile them up for a fire, while I cut the larger branches and trunk into pieces for burning later. When I would want to move a large piece of tree, they wanted to help. But it was a burden that is far too heavy for them. Even if we split the weight 50/50, it would still be too much for them to bear. So, I would carry about 98.5% of the load and they hold on to one end and the job gets done.

But that’s changed now. Now they take the heavy end! They grown stronger and matured as they’ve faced the realities of life.

When we’re yoked with Christ, our burden is light, not because problems go away, and not because God won’t ever ask anything of us. Jesus doesn’t say that there will be no burden, or troubles. In fact, He said, “In this world you will have trouble…” Sometimes we will indeed face burdens that we can’t handle on our own - but we are never alone! We are in the yoke with Christ!

There’s an amazing thing about yokes. When yoked with a partner, something happens called “synergy.” Steven Covey defines “synergy” as “One plus one equals three – or more!” When you take a horse that can drag 3,000 pounds alone, and put it in a yoke with another horse that can pull 3,000 pounds, the two together can pull nearly 10,000 pounds.

When we are yoked with Jesus, our burden is light because when we encounter situations in which the burden is too much for us to bear, Jesus is there, shouldering the load and the burden is carried together. On our own, the burden would be too much, but with Him, it is light.

But even with all that being said, the primary purpose for the yoke is not to help us bear the load. How many times have we heard that we are in the yoke with Jesus to make life’s burden’s easier to bear? That’s true – but it’s not eth primary reason Jesus called us to be yoked with Him. Look closely at what Jesus says. He says, “Take my yoke upon you and learn of me…”

3) Learn From Me - This is the third key to living light.

The main reason Jesus wants us to be yoked to him, is so that we can learn. When we are yoked with Christ, we will learn from Him and begin this process of sanctification. Let me give you an example from a farm experience.

A long time ago a pastor went by to visit a farmer who was plowing his field with a team of oxen. The pastor noticed that one of the animals was apparently larger than the other, so he asked the farmer about it. The response from the farmer was very interesting. He said that the big animal was an older animal that was well trained and the smaller one was a young animal that was new to the yoke. The pastor asked if it was wise to put the younger, more active animal with the older, more docile one. The farmer said, “Well you see, it’s like this. That older ox is the best ox that I have ever had; he knows his way around the field. The reason I put the younger one with him is so that the older, more knowledgeable ox could teach him how to plow. If I never put them together the younger one would never learn. By himself the younger ox would pull too hard at first and wear himself out. He’d wander all over the field and fight the reigns. He’d never learn - but together – with this old, seasoned animal, he learns to cooperate with and rest in the strength of the older ox.”

Jesus invites us to come to him, to stop bearing the burdens of this world alone. If you’ve been burdened down with “religion,” trying to do good and be good enough to earn God’s favor – come to Jesus. He’s already done the heavy work for you – accept the rest he will give to your soul – ask him to take the burden of your sin away – do it tonight!

If you are a believer, and you’re exhausted by the spiritual battle – come to Jesus. Find rest for your weary soul.

Tonight, as we begin this retreat, I encourage you to decompress a little. Use this evening and the time here as a time to blow off some steam, get some needed rest, enjoy the chow and camaraderie. But let’s also use this as a time to yoke up with Christ, and allow him to teach us, over the next two days, some new tactics in how to endure in the battle, how to engage the enemy effectively, and how to live light – but BE light in our world.