Source: https://fromdeathtolife.wordpress.com/category/burdens/
Timestamp: 2019-04-23 16:38:31+00:00

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Burdens – My Father's Place – A ministry without walls, proclaiming Jesus Christ to the world.
I have a song in my heart, a song of the gospel of Jesus Christ! It goes far beyond the manger . . .
Colossians 2:13 When you were dead in your transgressions and the uncircumcision of your flesh, He made you alive together with Him, having forgiven us all our transgressions, 14 having canceled out the certificate of debt consisting of decrees against us, which was hostile to us; and He has taken it out of the way, having nailed it to the cross.
1Peter 1:18 knowing that you were not redeemed with perishable things like silver or gold from your futile way of life inherited from your forefathers, 19 but with precious blood, as of a lamb unblemished and spotless, the blood of Christ.
Luke 2:10 But the angel said to them, “Do not be afraid; for behold, I bring you good news of great joy which will be for all the people; 11 for today in the city of David there has been born for you a Savior, who is Christ the Lord.
Hebrews 9:26 Otherwise, He would have needed to suffer often since the foundation of the world; but now once at the consummation of the ages He has been manifested to put away sin by the sacrifice of Himself.
he humbled himself and became obedient to death—even death on a cross!
John 20:16 Jesus said to her, “Mary!” She turned and said to Him in Hebrew, “Rabboni!” (which means, Teacher). 17 Jesus said to her, “Stop clinging to Me, for I have not yet ascended to the Father; but go to My brethren and say to them, ‘I ascend to My Father and your Father, and My God and your God.’” 18 Mary Magdalene came, announcing to the disciples, “I have seen the Lord,” and that He had said these things to her.
Romans 1:4 and who through the Spirit of holiness was declared with power to be the Son of God by his resurrection from the dead: Jesus Christ our Lord.
I stand in awe, what can I do, but bow and praise and worship You!
You, too, will stand in awe, if you have eyes to see and ears to hear. And you, too, will bow and praise and worship Him!
A foreshadowing of God’s great, amazing provision — His one and only Son, Jesus Christ!
What better time to contemplate such a thing! It is GOOD Friday, the church’s observance of His crucifixion. Why is it GOOD? Because of what happened three days later! He rose! Hallelujah!
vv. 1-2 The Lord calls Abraham responds immediately. He hears God’s voice and says, “Here I am.” So should it be for all of us!
The Lord gave the command for Abraham to do what seems out of character with God, for it was never in His mind to have children burned as a sacrificial offering to Him (Jeremiah 7:31, 32:35). Only those who worshiped other Gods did such things!
So why did He ask?
He gave this command so Abraham would act out prophecy. Hebrews 11:17-19 reveals the mind of God and of Abraham, as he offered his one and only son, the one who was to continue the promise that Abraham’s descendants would bless the earth (see v. 18). Abraham believed that, even if Isaac was sacrificed, God would raise him from the dead. The Lord’s request and Abraham’s response was a type, a symbol of something.
And there, offer your son, your one and only Son, whom you love1 God recognizes Isaac as the only seed of Abraham, the one through whose descendants the world will be blessed.
Where have we heard that? John 1:14! John 3:16! For God to make this extreme sacrifice, our need must be great, beloved!
Do you already see the parallel to God the Father offering God the Son — His one and only eternally existent, sinless Son?
vv. 3-4 Abraham made preparations, and began the journey to the place the Lord had shown him when the Lord spoke to him. He saw it in the distance, on the third day.
v. 5-6 Now Abraham and the lad (adolescent, teen) went to worship, leaving his two servants behind. Abraham told his servants that both of them would return. See Abraham’s confidence in God! Note: Isaac carried the wood on his back — he was not a little child, but an adolescent, old enough to carry a large load of wood.
Do you see that Jesus Christ also carried a large load of wood on His back, even His cross?
v. 7-8 “My father!” Isaac asked about the lamb for the sacrifice. There was none. What would they offer?
Abraham didn’t say, “You!” Rather, he said, “God will provide FOR HIMSELF the lamb. Provide — that is see. God will see to it! Abraham was confident of it. He believed God, he knew His faithfulness. And they walked on.
Behold, the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world! Go to Isaiah 53. God saw to it that this sinless Lamb of God bore not only a cross, but our sin, taking the punishment we deserved! And it pleased the Father to do it!
v. 9-10 Isaac willingly accepted being bound and laid on the altar. Abraham was ready to kill and offer his son. It was the same to Abraham as sacrificing himself, for Isaac was his true seed, the promised son.
The Lamb of God, the Son that the Father promised us, willingly accepted being bound, beaten and mocked, for our sake!
v. 11-12 The angel of the Lord (God’s voice) called from heaven. “Abraham, Abraham!” The obedient Abraham said, “Here I am.” Don’t do it! “Now I know that you fear God, because you have not withheld your son, your only son, from Me.” From Me! It is the Lord who is speaking.
I know you fear God —- literally, I know you are a fearer of God, one who worships, reveres, has confidence in, trusts, and loves (see Easton’s Bible Dictionary).
v. 13-14 A ram, a grown lamb, a sacrifice provided seemingly out of the blue, seen by Abraham as he raised his eyes from the altar on which his one and only son laid. A provision by God! On the mountain of the Lord, the mountain where it shall be seen, Mount Moriah!
Do you see it? Jesus Christ, the grown Lamb of God, the one and only Son of God, offered in place of us, a wrath-bearer, taking upon Himself what we deserved!
And it took place on the mountain called Moriah. Many scholars believe Moriah, the mountain where Isaac was bound and prepared to be offered, is the very mountain where the Lamb of God was provided by the God the Father!
Do you see Him on the mountain? YHWH yireh, the root of which is of ra’ah, which means to see! If you really see it, you will bow down and worship God the Father and God the Son right now!
v. 15-18 The Lord promises that Abraham’s confidence in Him yields great reward! He repeats His promise from Genesis 12 and 15, but adds that Abraham’s descendants will be as the sand on the seashore, and that they will possess the gates of their enemies.
Beloved, if you believe in and are a follower of Jesus Christ, you are a recipient of this promise (see Romans 9:8)!
Why did the Lord promise? Because Abraham obeyed, knowing the Lord so well at this point in his life, and loving Him, that he trusted Him even with his one and only son.
Isaac is not mentioned again until Genesis 24, when Abraham’s servant is sent to bring a wife for Isaac. Well! What a picture of Christ, three days in the grave and risen, and His bride, the church, being prepared now by the Holy Spirit for Him.
So what will you do in response? While you were yet a sinner, Christ died for you!
While you were yet hostile toward God, He sent His Son! (See Romans 5:8, 10). He demonstrates His own love for us by doing so.
Do you see the Descendant of Abraham, Jesus Christ, through whom the whole world is blessed, when men and women repent, confess their sins, and receive what He has done?
My brother, my sister, fellow believers, and those who are just now believing, will you respond to this grace of God, this love of God, this sacrifice of God on your behalf, this Son who bore our sins?
Confess your condition, confess your rebellion, confess your sin. He will save you who are just now believing!
And brothers and sisters in Christ, your response is Romans 12:1. Christ’s extreme sacrifice requires your extreme commitment, completely and entirely committing yourself to Him! That’s your part of the deal. Then you are able to speak Galatians 2:22 with the Apostle Paul.
Then Christ will live in you and through you, for the glory of God and the salvation of many! Hallelujah!
Rest! For your soul! It is a gift from Jesus Christ. I will show you how to receive it.
In v. 28, “rest” means intermission from labor, a refreshment to strengthen.
But in v. 29, “rest” means cessation of labor, refreshment, and re-creation.
Jesus does both. First v. 28, when you come to Him, and v. 29 when you take His yoke upon you. We’ll get to that later.
Why does He command it. He knows you have no rest, you are rest-less.
If you are rest-less, you are weary (fatigued from labor) because you are heavy- laden (loaded up, overburdened).
What is your burden that fatigues you from the labor of carrying it?
He commands you to come to Him. He will give you rest. It’s a gift from Him.
You are carrying a heavy burden. You are carrying sin. You are in a single yoke, a human yoke, made for a single human to bear. He wants to break it TODAY!
Hallelujah! It is Christ and Him alone who can do it. He was sent by the Father for that purpose.
When does He break the yoke of your burden? When you come to Him. When you respond to His imperative, authoritative and urgent command.
Why does He break your yoke? To give you rest (373, intermission from labor, a refreshment to strengthen).
Once He has broken your yoke, He commands you to take up HIS yoke.
Take HIS yoke upon you. Didn’t He just break the one that was on you? Why would you want to take another yoke?
The yoke Christ is asking you to take up is the kind used with two animals — one animal is older, the other younger. The older teaches the younger what to do, whether they are attached to a plow or to a cart.
Some say Matthew 11:28-30 refers to a yoke designed for a human. Surely, that’s the one He’ll break, as I said above, but if He commands you to take up HIS yoke and learn from Him, then He must be in it with you. Glory to God!
Why? Because it is the only way you will learn from Him. It is submission to Him, submission to the will of God. It is a yoke of submission, it means you have been crucified with Christ so He can live in you.
Then you have that cessation of labor, that re-creation that I talked about in the beginning of my message. Hallelujah! No more single yoke, no more burden of the sin nature you were born with.
In His yoke, He is the One who will continually teach you His humility and His meekness.
You submit to His yoke, and it will be easy to learn, because He is in it with you!
You gladly obey, because you have submitted.
But all of your life, He will show you how to be more and more like Him, going from image to image and glory to glory (1Corinthians 3:18)!
Oh, beloved! You will find rest for your souls, refreshment, cessation of your rest-lessness, and re-creation.
Re-creation — the old will go, the new will come.
You will be a new creature, with a new heart, a new life in Him, no longer heavy-laden with sin, but set free, indeed!
VERY IMPORTANT NOTE: Not free TO sin, but free FROM slavery to sin!!!!
It is rest from slavery to sin.
It is an inward change, where you rest and He works through you.
It is submission to His yoke, which is easy, carrying the burden He carries, which makes it light. He gives you the power to carry it.
What burden did AND does He carry? He carried a cross, it is true. He tells us to take up our cross and follow Him. That is submission, that is obedience. Taking up our cross is like taking up His yoke.
So what is the burden? I asked the Holy Spirit to show me.
It is that we will see as He sees. We will see the lostness of the world, and the hardness of hearts. We will see the vast fields white for the harvest. We will see the sheep without shepherds. You will feel the grief He feels, but you will also feel the joy He feels, joy unspeakable and full of glory!
John 15:18 “If the world hates you, you know that it has hated Me before it hated you. 19 “If you were of the world, the world would love its own; but because you are not of the world, but I chose you out of the world, because of this the world hates you.
The world will hate you, and the world that has wormed its way into the church will hate you.
But He is in the yoke with you, which makes seeing and experiencing all these things bearable. And you will walk in His power, and through you, He will free the captives, through us! So the burden is light and pleasant!
Beloved, do you see that it’s not about getting blessed?
It’s about blessing God by obeying His Son’s command. It’s about submission to God.
Certainly, the side benefit of following Jesus’ command is certainly freedom from slavery to sin and intimacy with God the Father and God the Son through God the Holy Spirit, and that is surely a blessing!
Are you in it for what you can get from Him, or are you in it to know Him intimately, to have a relationship with Him?
He will give you rest, like your first good night’s sleep in eons.
He will break the yoke of sin that’s on you.
You will take up His yoke, submitting to Him fully, no longer seeking what’s in it for you, but living to learn Him more and more.
He will teach you more and more deeply what it is to be humble and lowly like Him.
And you will find rest for your soul, that cessation from the labor of carrying your sin. Total cessation. Freedom from slavery to it.
Come now to Him. He says it urgently and authoritatively and imperatively!

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