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Come to Me
by Mike Stine
Two men were involved in a day long wood
chopping contest. One man worked furiously at the task, stopping only
for a short lunch. The second man took a more leisurely attitude toward
the work. He appeared to be resting quite often and took a longer
lunchtime. When the contest was over, the first man was very surprised
to see that the second man had chopped more wood. “How did you chop
more wood than I? Every time I looked over at you, you seemed to be
taking a rest.” The second man replied, “What you didn’t notice was
that as I rested, I was sharpening my axe as well”
We too need to take
time to rest and to sharpen ourselves if we are to be as effective as we
can. We cannot continue to go day after day without sleep. When we
find ourselves in a difficult situation, we need to be able to step back
from this and take a break.
Jesus said in Matthew
11:28-30, "Come to Me, all who are weary and heavy-laden, and I will
give you rest. 29 "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.
30 "For My yoke is easy and My burden is light."
Jesus has come into the
world that we might find rest in Him. So often in life we try to do
things our own way and we try to do them under our own power. Sometimes
our pride gets in the way of asking for help. Other times we don’t
realize that we even need help because we believe that we are doing fine
as we are.
Jesus came into the
world to help all of us, because we all need help. Some of us need
food, some of us need shelter, some of us need medical help, others need
someone to love them. We have a God who is capable of providing all of
these things for us. We all have one need in common however. We are
all in need of forgiveness.
Romans 3:23 tells us
that, “all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.” We have all
done things we know that we shouldn’t have. It is in our nature. We’ve
been disobeying since we were little children. God cannot tolerate our
sin and it keeps us away from him.
Humans all have another
thing in common aside from our need for forgiveness, we are all mortal.
No matter how rich or poor, how good or bad we are, we will all one day
die. When that day comes we will stand before God and we will be judged
according to our relationship with him. It will not be a matter of how
many good or bad things we have done. It will be a question of do I
have sins that God has not forgiven because I have not asked him to? If
we do, we will not be allowed to remain in the presence of God.
Fortunately, there is
an easy solution to this problem. God has given all of us the solution
to our problem of sin. God sent his son Jesus into the world as a
sacrifice for us. In Jesus, God offered each of us rest from our sins,
rest from the punishment of our sins. Romans 6:23 tells us that “The
wages of sin is death but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ
Jesus our Lord.”
What makes Jesus
different from everyone else, why is he a worthy sacrifice for our
sins? It is because Jesus came to earth as a man and lived a perfect
life. Although he was not deserving of death, he was crucified on a
cross. But death could not hold him and he rose from the grave on the
third day. Many people were witnesses to this.
So what must be done to
accept this gift and to enter into God’s rest? Romans 10:9 says, “If
you confess with your mouth, ‘Jesus is Lord,’ and believe in your heart
that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved.”
To declare that Jesus
is Lord means that we live our lives in reflection of this truth. We
try to stop doing wrong. We desire to help others out whenever
possible. It doesn’t mean that we will stop sinning. It doesn’t mean
that all of the temptations of the world will go away. What it means is
that you love God and you will follow his laws and do what he asks of
you to the best of your ability.
When Jesus says, come
to me all you who are weak and heavy laden it is an invitation for us to
cast away the burdens of sin and the troubles of our conscience.
Becoming a Christian does not mean that life will suddenly become
great. Becoming a Christian does not mean that you will have all of
desires fulfilled. Becoming a Christian does not mean that life will
get easier.
Becoming a Christian
means that we have made peace with God and that our sins our forgiven.
It means that when we die, we will not pay the penalty of our sins and
instead may be with God in heaven forever. It also means that we have a
God in heaven who will listen to our prayers and will answer our
requests according to His perfect will.
Jesus offered all of us
an invitation to come to him. Tonight I extend that invitation to
everyone here. If you have not asked Jesus to forgive you of your sins
and you would like to enter into the rest that he is offering, you can
come forward and someone will be willing to pray with you. Or if you’ve
heard of Jesus and believed in who he was and is but simply have not
lived the life that God has asked, you may come forward and rededicate
your life to this purpose.
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