You can carry this yoke

Good morning, everyone. Welcome to "Try Jesus!" If this is your first time joining us, it’s great to have you with us. I would like to thank all the new members for joining "Try Jesus."

 

I would also like to welcome those in Illinois, South Carolina, Minnesota, Maine, Missouri, Washington, and Iowa. It is a pleasure to have you with us today. The Lord continues to expand his word!

"I was glad when they said unto me, Let us go into the house of the LORD."  (Psalm 122:1 KJV). The Lord is indescribable and uncontainable. We gather to seek him above all today. He is an amazing God!

Our Lord continues to pave the way for the righteous. Authentic born-again believers shall not be moved from his mighty guiding hand! The Lord is our rock and our salvation this morning! He is our defense against ungodliness.

Oh, what a Savior we have Jesus! He continues to love us unconditionally. His love for us is beyond measuring. He is the lover of our soul. Do you know him this morning? If not, why not? Why would you reject such great love?

I pray this Indescribable relationship has made your life less cluttered and weighed down since last week's message. Do you believe heaven is a place where people are burdened down?

Jesus came to fill our lives with the same presence people enjoy in heaven. Psalm 71:8 proclaims that our mouths show praises all day, and with God's glory all the day long. Throughout our circumstances, God is our refuge.

From your heart, let's welcome the Savior of our soul. "Heavenly Father, we thank you this morning for being the redeemer of our broken lives. Thank you for watching over households and blessing them with joy and peace.

Thank you Lord, for giving us the breath of life this morning. We never take for granted what may come tomorrow, but we know according to your word that we sit in heavenly places because our names are written in your book of life.

Lord, we acknowledge our dependence on you for wisdom, guidance, and peace. We pray for a revival of your truth in our communities and wisdom for our leaders to govern wisely. Lord, you are in control of this nation.

 

As there continue to be twist and turns among leaders in those involved in war, Lord, we ask for your hedge of protection over the brave soldiers in Israel and our nations soldiers to be safe from those who reject peace.

As we sit before our screens, we ask that you remove distractions from our homes and our minds. Open our hearts to your truth and strengthen our fellowship, even through this virtual space, in Jesus’ name, Amen."

How many of you love light delights? Last week, I mentioned one of my favorite chefs, Gordon Ramsey. Today's message again involves what most of us love, food. I was thinking about how often Chef Gordon prepares light meals.

In many of his shows, you usually have the appetizer, main entrée, and dessert. Would you say there's a difference between light meals and prepared rich meals? On some of Ramsey's shows, the chefs will elevate low end food.

If you shop at your local grocery stores, they will always have an aisle or section in the story that carries light foods and dietary foods and supplements that are light on our bodies. They are supposedly not heavy on our digestive system.

But we all know that we can even overindulge on the light items if we are not mindful of our intake. So then, it's possible to have too much of a good thing, right? Can something good, light,  and plentiful be burdensome?

So, if you go shopping for light food products at your grocery store, products like leafy greens, fruits, and lean proteins, and have a cart full of these items, they might be a burden when carried to your vehicle.

The items might be a brief inconvenience to carry from your grocery store, to your car, to your home, and maybe to your fridge, but the benefits of carrying all those good healthy products ultimately benefits the recipient, yourself.

So, carrying some things has lasting benefits, right? Last week's message focused being burdened down with things in our lives that are detrimental to our lives, especially our souls, which live forever.

In last week's message we were told to cast all our cares upon him (Jesus) because he cares for us. (1 Peter 5:7). Jesus is our burden bearer. Last week's message involved surrendering all those unnecessary deadly burdens to his shoulders.

But once there is this transference of our heavy-laden sins for his cleansing righteousness, (2 Corinthians 5:21) he will then ask something of us. First, if you have a Bible, let’s look at a few passages related to this spiritual transfer

Please ask God to cause his words to germinate and take deep root into your spirit. "For he hath made him to be sin for us, who knew no sin; that we might be made the righteousness of God in him." (2 Corinthians 5:21 KJV).

24} "Who his own self bare our sins in his own body on the tree, that we, being dead to sins, should live unto righteousness: by whose stripes ye were healed. 25} For ye were as sheep going astray; but are now returned unto the Shepherd and Bishop of your souls." (1 Peter 2:24-25 KJV).

"For as by one man's disobedience many were made sinners, so by the obedience of one shall many be made righteous." (Romans 5:19 KJV).

This exchange (if you will), is similar to when you purchase the wrong item at your retail store and go back to exchange it for a different size. This exchange is beneficial to the one willing to make the exchange.

This is an endearing love trade off. It's an imputation. It just simply means our sins were imputed (attributed) to Jesus, and his righteousness is imputed to us.

Jesus is therefore our substitute. Jesus, being sinless, took the role of a substitute to bear the judgment we deserved. He took our filthy heavy sins to the cross.

Because of this great sacrifice and justification, authentic believers through faith in Jesus are declared righteous and accepted by God. It's not because of our own works, but because of what Jesus did for us.

So, as Jesus carried our sins on that cross, a crossbeam (patibulum) that weighed (approximately 75–125 lbs). Historians and traditional scholars estimate the full cross probably exceeded 300 lbs.

And we mustn't forget he carried it approximately one third of a mile. I assume that would be more than you would typically carry your groceries from the store to your car.

Oh, lest we forget (my tears may start falling), he carried this on beaten, scourged, raw skin and muscle. Think you could carry your groceries with raw skin peeling off your hands?

And so, because of extreme physical exhaustion and blood loss, Simon of Cyrene was forced to help carry the load. This is where God certainly can relate to how we struggle and are in need of help to carry our burdens.

Today's message centers around Jesus asking us to carry something in exchange for what he carried for us. You could say it's similar to you helping an elderly lady with overbearing groceries she's trying to carry to her car.

But now Jesus asks us to do carry something for him. Please read this main passage aloud into your spirit, family, or study group. Remember beloved, God is pleased when we read his living words back to his heart.

"Then said Jesus unto his disciples, If any man will come after me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow me." (Matthew 16:24 KJV).

"Then Jesus beholding him loved him, and said unto him, One thing thou lackest: go thy way, sell whatsoever thou hast, and give to the poor, and thou shalt have treasure in heaven: and come, take up the cross, and follow me." (Mark 10:21 KJV).

Before we move on to a few other verses, please take a look at why the rich young ruler could not take up his cross in verse 22. Have you ever had your arms so full of stuff you couldn't carry anything else?

Sometimes you can tell when someone selfishly cares more about their stuff than yours because they carry a "me, myself, and I attitude." Spouses sometimes deal with the "my stuff before yours mentality."

The rich young rulers’ arms were filled with the burdens of wealth that would bring sadness and grief of what Jesus was asking of him. Does this scripture apply to all wealthy people, no it does not.

God doesn't ask all those who accumulate wealth to depart from it all. If that were the case, then explain Solomon to me. What about Abraham and Job? God blesses many individuals to become wealthy so they can bless others.

Many people carry burdens of jealousy and envy against others just because someone has wealth and they do not. They want to take their wealth away forcibly and spread it to themselves and others.

That Robin Hood mentality has never worked throughout history. I wonder if these people have read the parable Jesus spoke about in (Matthew 20:1-16). God owns all that is in the world.

And yes, the person who has everything on earth can still lack what is most important, eternal life and a relationship with God. But