Sunday 07/06/14 Freeville/Homer Ave
UMC’s
Sermon Title: “I will give you rest”
Old Testament Scripture Lesson: Psalm 45:10-17
New Testament Scripture Lesson: Romans 7:15-25a
Gospel Lesson: Mathew 11:16-19, 25-30
Today is the fourth Sunday after
Pentecost, the day that the Holy Spirit moved over the early church like
tongues of fire. On this day, the Christian Church was born, and as such, we
remain in a season after Pentecost. We will remain in this season through Christ
the King Sunday, the week before Advent begins.
This morning though, I want to talk
about finding spiritual rest and spiritual peace in Jesus Christ. You see, Jesus
promises to set us free from the things that bind us, if we believe in him and
trust him. In pursuing him, in seeking him, in serving and loving others, we can
find peace and rest in our souls, in Jesus Christ.
In the way that so many people chase
after things, or accomplishments, or trophies, or the things of this world, Jesus
says these are not the things that will ultimately fulfil you.
I mean let’s think about it for a
moment, there was that excitement when you were a child on Christmas morning.
You tear open your gifts, you are very excited at your new toys, yet within a
couple of months, those toys are in the toy box, with all of the other lonely toys.
So while things, accomplishments, trophies, and or the things of this world can
be very exciting, they are often fleeting and short term.
How then, can we find longer and
deeper spiritual rest and spiritual peace? I mean can’t that item on the QVC
channel fill that void you have within? Can’t the latest infomercial product
that always has, “but what there’s more!” fill that void within? I know that we
have all bought some of those things in the past. You know that knew kitchen
appliance that was going to revolutionize your kitchen and how you lived? The
one that is now sitting unused in the cupboards in your kitchen, with all of your
other kitchen items. Maybe in a way then, our cupboards, our closets, and our
attics, can be our new adulthood toy boxes for our Christmas or anytime gifts.
Further, many of us even forget what
we even have in our closets, our drawers, and sometimes even in our cupboards.
I can’t tell you how many stories I have heard of people who have moved, and
literally felt like that they were in flea market as they go through there attics
or closets. Perhaps one says to the other, “Honey, did you know we had a new unopened
blender in the attic?” Then the other person responds, “yes honey, don’t you
remember you bought that on QVC five years ago, because you were going to start
making juice drinks to get more healthy.”
How many of us can truly admit to
finding something in our homes at some point, that we forgot we even owned?
Yet in the moment we bought them, these
things seemed fulfilling. One day though, this church, this town, and
everything in it will be gone. Who knows what this county will look like in
200-years. Will thousands live here, will everything be completely different?
In just thinking about how much that this country has changed in the last
hundred years, how can we confidently know what things will be like many years
from now? Or even in ten years?
Yet many of us plan, continue to buy
or obtain these things, and for many us, when we put our heads on our pillows at
night, we still don’t fully have peace and still don’t fully have spiritual
rest. Many of us don’t have true internal freedom.
In this being the Fourth of July or
Independence Day weekend, we remember so many who gave their lives in defense
of their country. In believing that freedom was worth everything. In this way,
for us Christians, if we really want true spiritual peace and if we really want
true spiritual rest, Jesus wants everything we have, not just some. True
freedom, whether it is in our lives, in our country, or in our souls, costs
everything.
In our gospel
reading for this morning, Jesus tells us, “Come to me, all you that are weary
and are carrying heavy burdens, and I will give you rest.” This certainly
sounds easy enough right? I mean we put our faith in Jesus Christ, then we have
spiritual rest and we have peace? Yet this isn’t always so easy for us is it?
For example, do we have as much freedom
and liberty in our country today, as we would like to have? I mean soldiers who
have served and died for our freedom, have already died for serving their
country, so our nation is now completely fixed right? Since they served and
died, our freedom is now finitely secured forever right? No, this is not the
case. Like our faith, our freedom, our liberty, is something that we constantly
have to strive to grow and struggle to improve.
If Jesus will
give us spiritual peace and spirit rest so easily, then why do we all know some
Christians who sometimes don’t seem to have rest or spiritual peace? Did there
dose of spiritual peace and rest not take when they accepted Jesus Christ?
To me these
are deep and real questions that many Christian struggle with. I mean if Jesus
promises us spiritual peace and spiritual rest, how come sometimes we seem to
have neither of those? I mean after all, we believe, yet we might still not
have “the peace that passes all understanding” as the Bible puts it.
When we don’t
truly have spiritual rest or spiritual peace in Jesus Christ, sometimes we can grow
frustrated over this. We can grow disillusioned or jaded. We can even become
unhappy with others, and in the process further damage our sense of peace and
rest, and in turn attempt to cause damage to others peace and rest. In the same
way, we might on our nation’s independence day still might not be happy with where
our current freedoms and liberties are in this country, do we realize that our
faith, our freedom, and our liberties is a constant process? That is costs
everything.
In the Old
Testament reading from Psalm 45 from this morning, we hear of how a daughter of
Israel will leave her father’s house and be married to a king. This daughter
will be showered with wealth, gifts, and favor from the richest people who
serve the king. The princess will have “gold-woven robes.” Yet the scripture
ends with the promises of sons being born between this woman and the king. Due
these sons, the king’s family name will be celebrated for generations. So the
real prize her, the real peace, the real spiritual rest, is not the stuff, is
not the money, is not the fame, it is the gift of from God of the children in
this case. That God and God alone can give us peace and spiritual rest, and
things of this world cannot.
In the Apostle
Paul’s epistle or letter to the Romans from this morning, he says something so
honest. He says, “I do not understand my own actions. For I do not do what I
want, but I do the very thing I hate.” The Apostle Paul then says he does
things that he shouldn’t do, because of the “sin that dwells within me.” In
fact, the Apostle Paul then says, “For I know that nothing good dwells within
me, that is, in my flesh. I can will what is right, but I cannot do it. For I
do not do the good I want, but the evil I do not want is what I do.” Then the
Apostle Paul says, “Now if I do what I do not want, it is no longer I that do
it, but sin that dwells within me.” So even the Apostle Paul did not always
have spiritual rest or spiritual peace.
Brothers and
sisters, in our humanness then, don’t we often do things that separate us from God?
That separate us from Jesus Christ? For every day we wake up, is another day
that the Lord has given us. Each day, do we begin the day by giving the Lord
all that we are, and all that we have? Do we truly trust in Him for spiritual
rest and spiritual peace? Or do we just believe in Him, but not fully trust
him?
If we want true
spiritual peace and true spiritual rest we must do this thing called faith one
day at a time. And let me tell you, sometimes as your pastor, I, make a mess of
my own spiritual peace and my own spiritual rest, but I would imagine that I am
not only one. How many of us have truly had days or times when we didn’t let Jesus
take the wheels of our lives. In fact, we then needed to turn the car around
because we realized that we had left Jesus five miles behind at a bus stop.
If we want to
find true spiritual peace and true spiritual rest every day, we must focus of
Jesus, and put our full faith and our full trust in God. Anything less, is us
steering the vehicle, and don’t we often make a great mess of things, when we try
to do everything without God?
I would like to close this message
this morning with a story called “Painting Peace.” Here is how it goes, “There
once was a King who offered a prize to the artist who would paint the best
picture of peace. Many artists tried. The King looked at all the pictures,
but there were only two he really liked and he had to choose between them.”
“One picture was of a calm lake.
The lake was a perfect mirror, for peaceful towering mountains were all around
it. Overhead was a blue sky with fluffy white clouds. All who saw this
picture thought that it was a perfect picture of peace.”
“The other picture had mountains too.
But these were rugged and bare. Above was an angry sky from which rain fell and
in which lightening played. Down the side of the mountain tumbled a foaming
waterfall. This did not look peaceful at all. But when the King looked, he saw
behind the waterfall a tiny bush growing in a crack in the rock. In the
bush a mother bird had built her nest. There, in the midst of the rush of angry
water, sat the mother bird on her nest… perfect peace.”
“Which picture do you think won the prize?”
“The King chose the second picture.
“Because,” explained the King, “peace does not mean to be in a place where
there is no noise, trouble, or hard work. Peace means to be in the midst of all
those things and still be calm in your heart. That is the real meaning of
peace.”
I saw a Christian t-shirt recently
that says, “know Jesus, know peace.” The “knows” on this shirt are spelled “k-n-o-w,”
yet on the shirt the “n-o” of each of the two “knows,” along with Jesus is
highlighted in a different color. This means that the shirt was simultaneously saying
if you know Jesus, you know peace, and without Jesus you will have no peace.
In the end, spiritual peace and
spiritual rest are not always easy, but Jesus says in today’s gospel reading, “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 then, wake tomorrow morning
and every morning and do our best to put our full faith and full trust in Jesus
Christ, so that we can truly have spiritual rest and spiritual peace, even if
we know we are going to mess it up. For when we remove all the things that
block our path (illustration), and we focus of Jesus, then and only then do we
truly have spiritual peace and spiritual rest. Put your faith and your trust in
him, and daily pursue spiritual peace and spiritual rest. Amen.
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