Creative Rest

The one who gives the blind their sight, the one we call Prince of Peace, and the one who promised they'd never leave. I have just a sense tonight that every one of us maybe need to touch the Lord in one of these four ways. Maybe you're in a situation where you feel that there's just been death pressing in. It's a relationship that's dying, or a job that's dying, or it's a hope that's dying in your heart. Maybe you're in a place where you don't know where to go. You're blind in an area of wisdom. Maybe you're just going through a real tumultuous time. There's tension and anxiety. You need peace today. Maybe you just need to know the Lord's with you whatever you're going through. I could take the time to illustrate. How many of you know at least one of those in your life right now that's true? The people that didn't raise their hand will pray for you because their lives are... Now let's do it this way. Let's begin tonight. Seriously, let's begin. We'll sing that chorus just one more time in a moment. If you turn to someone and share with them, you know, I need the Lord to touch me tonight in the area of peace, wisdom, or vision. To give me life where I'm finding death moving in, or just to know He's not going to leave me. Find one other person, just one or two, and tell them, here's where the Lord needs to touch me. And agree with one another. Go ahead. Go ahead. Share with one another right now. Go ahead and do it, please. The Lord's going to do that tonight. He's going to touch you at that particular point of need. I will bless only you. For there is no other God who is kinder to you. You're the only way. Only you are the mother of life. Only you can make up my next life. Only you are God's Prince of Peace. Only you are this sweet melody. Only you are God's. For only you, only you, are the art of life. Only you can give the bloodless sight. Only you are God's Prince of Peace. Only you promise you'll never leave. Are God's. Everyone give the Lord an applause tonight. You are the only one. Hallelujah to your name. Author of life. Giver of sight. Prince of Peace. Let me know it's true. He's the only one. Only him. The great deception of our society is they're looking elsewhere for life. For meaning. For provision. Only you, Lord, are that to us. Amen. Well, let's be seated, shall we? So good to see everyone tonight. Lots of kids are here. How many were at the picnic yesterday? Let me see your hand. Alright. Now we're going to sing together. Ready? How dry I am. It was tough, brothers and sisters. Now, is there anyone... I don't... I'm sure I was probably the only one that was saying, Lord, Monday night was so nice. Tonight, oh, it's so nice. No one else asked... What's the one question you don't ask God? That's it. Why? Why? However, he's in control. How about you just say you had a good time anyhow? That was the good part about it. We sure did. I was just talking to someone tonight that's here in our service who brought their husband last night. He doesn't go to North Way. But he had an opportunity to meet some people and just begin to see that, you know, Christians are real people. Not fakey, flakey people. For the most part, yeah. Okay, well, he learned that and it was great. Now, I know why the boys and girls are standing here and I want to get right on with it because it's so wonderful to share with you tonight. Yesterday morning, we had a great prayer meeting. Folks, we had 150 people in morning prayer. We went up and prayed over that land and just said, Lord, you've got to do it. And we're believing for that. We gave thanks, as I'm sure you've been, for what seems to be movement in the Supreme Court. So we're seeing some things begin to happen. But we had a special guest tonight. I'm sure tonight there's some visitors here in our service. We're glad you're here as a visitor. But we have a very special group of guests here tonight we want to welcome. All the way from the Soviet Union have come to share in tonight's service. We didn't tell you this was going to happen tonight. We weren't really positive it was. But I want you all, boys and girls, and everyone else that's here tonight, to give a warm welcome. I'm going to ask Pastor Alexei, where did you go? There he is, Pastor Alexei from Russia. Now, you might as well bring that up. That's going everywhere else you go. I know, but I just want to explain something about it. Come on up here, Alexei. Yesterday, Pastor Alexei, for the first time, saw a softball game. You ever seen one? Held the bat in the fat end. I've done that before. Had some hits. And really had a good time at the picnic. It was just great to have him. His wife, Olga. Come up here, let's welcome his wife, Olga. Remember, since they understand virtually nothing we're saying, your faces say a lot. But they did bring a friend who is their interpreter and also a native of the Soviet Union, Michael. Let's give him a hand. So good to have them, amen. Now, if you're newer to our church, you would need to know that for some time we've been developing a relationship with the church that Pastor Alexei leads in Riga in the Soviet Union. And over the next couple of weeks, he'll be sharing with us about what's happening there. And folks, it's so exciting. I asked him when he visited our home two nights ago, I said, Alexei, could you have been here, could this have happened three years ago? That you would be able to leave the Soviet Union and travel freely in America and visit other churches. He said it couldn't have happened a year ago. That's how much God's been doing to give some liberty to these people. And the stories they were sharing with us were marvelous. Just before he left the Soviet Union, they were in the middle of having an all-city revival with up to 30,000 people in attendance. And it's marvelous to hear how it all fit together and perhaps we'll learn some more of that at a later time. But let me just tell you one of the highlights to us was this. One of the theme songs of this crusade, this open-air evangelistic outreach crusade in the largest arena in the Baltic states. Would you like to know what one of the main songs became the favorite of the whole crusade? It was from Journey Through the Veil, Jesus is My Rock. Isn't that great? So, isn't it amazing to think that something that we had a part in producing and making possible and the Lord gave to one of our people to write and share with us has now found its way, whatever it is, 10,000, 12,000 miles around the globe and Christians in another part of the world are sharing it. Here's the best part. Would you like to hear Alexei play and sing Jesus is My Rock tonight? Huh? Okay, here we go. Before we start singing, I would like to say a couple of words to you. First of all, receive a great Christian greeting from Christians in Soviet Union. Hallelujah. Hallelujah. Praise the Lord. Even today, it seems to me that I am having dreams. But now I think that I am awakened. Hallelujah. Yesterday, I played baseball for the first time. Pastor Jay was a member of the opposite team. His strokes were also very good. And this is good that you are a pastor. Because a real pastor must have a good stroke. Hallelujah. Let's clap to Pastor Jay. But to speak about the spiritual front, then we are in the same team. We are in the same team, in the same church. Hallelujah. Because today we don't have a Russian church or an American church or African church. We have the only church. The Church of Jesus Christ. And we are all members of that church. Hallelujah. And we have the same enemy today. The devil. He is our enemy. And the victory is guaranteed by Jesus Christ. Hallelujah. The Son of God will soon crush Satan under our feet. Amen. Hallelujah. Hallelujah. And now we are going to sing a song. But before we sing, we want to warn you that we are not professional singers. My ministry is writing letters in English and duplicating videocassettes. Olga's ministry is... She's a housewife. She's backing Alexei at home. And Alexei is also... He isn't a singer as well. He's just a leader. He's just a teacher of our musicians. Yes, I did. We never sang in such context. So please excuse us if we won't sing well. We liked your repertoire very much. And one of these songs is now our favorite song in our church and in many churches in general. It's a song called Jesus is my rock. And so we hope you will sing along. Jesus, help me. Lord God Almighty, Hallelujah! God of Israel, I am His heavenly King, Hallelujah! Lord God Almighty, Hallelujah! Lord Almighty, Hallelujah! Lord God Almighty, Hallelujah! Lord God Almighty, by the blood of Jesus, By the blood of Jesus, by the blood of Jesus in all victory, In all victory, I'm going there to be. Hallelujah! Alleluia! Lord God Almighty! Halleluja! Hallelu-Yah, Lord God Almighty Hallelu-Yah, Hallelu-Yah, Hallelu-Yah, Hallelu-Yah, Hallelu-Yah, Hallelu-Yah, Hallelu-Yah, Hallelu-Yah, Hallelu-Yah, Hallelu-Yah, Hallelu-Yah, Hallelu-Yah, Hallelu-Yah, Hallelu-Yah, Hallelu-Yah, Hallelu-Yah, Hallelu-Yah, Hallelu-Yah, Hallelu-Yah, Hallelu-Yah, Hallelu-Yah, Hallelu-Yah, Hallelu-Yah, Hallelu-Yah, Hallelu-Yah, Hallelu-Yah, Hallelu-Yah, Hallelu-Yah, Hallelu-Yah, Hallelu-Yah, Hallelu-Yah, Hallelu-Yah, Hallelu-Yah, Hallelu-Yah, Hallelu-Yah, Hallelu-Y Ya-Le-Leh, Ya-Le-Leh, Yol Mah Ya-Le-Leh, Ya-Le-Leh, Ya-Le-Leh, Ya-Le-Leh, Ya-Le-Leh, Ya-Le-Leh. Wooo nominal Now go ahead and be seated please now Alexa and Michael and Olga will be here with us for several weeks and Sherry of course will be hosting them and I don't know if they have time in their itineraries for some visits in homes but if you would like to have them it would be a marvelous interesting thing for you and maybe a home group to have them over for an evening and I for your spirit will be encouraged lifted tomorrow night they're going down to CTV so if you're home tomorrow night it is at 8 o'clock when what's getting together they'll be on that program and we'll be spending some time here in our staff with Alexei and Michael and all just encouraging each other in the Lord and then of course next week at the homecoming weekend of missions there'll be an integral part of that and if all goes as planned Alexei will be preaching next Sunday and he is the genuine article there is nothing fake okay and by the way don't be afraid thank you so much okay once again though if you'd like to consider hosting them or visiting with them in your home marvelous opportunity for you please see Sherry will you be after the service at the mission table or okay don't run up to them and try to start inviting them work through Sherry or call the missions office tomorrow and we'll take care of it okay I kids all right we're gonna go wasn't that great it's so exciting just to know that the Lord is working all around the world today pastor Jeff come on up real quickly and give us the signals here with you please okay we're gonna dismiss the first through the sixth graders all in one shot hopefully all the air will survivors of the trip to Grenada we survived and it was a great trip and we appreciate all your prayers and although all the support that you gave us we're going to sing in Grenadian yeah man yeah that's as close as we get but these guys I want to tell you before we they have a lot of things they want to share with you tonight we should be out by 930 these young men and women did a fabulous job in Grenada and if you'd have been there you've been really proud of them they had opportunities to do a variety of ministries and they're going to share it to some of those things but I was able to go to with a group of them to to a ministry to to a village where just poor children just surrounded them and these young young men and women truly did minister to the children unique ways I saw them go and build on a church building and a very difficult circumstance and yet they endured it and even ate the food afterwards some of them even survived it I just saw them do great things the finale of the whole thing was when they did an open-air meeting on Monday night just before we left and there they had the opportunity to share their faith with a with a number of people in an open-air meeting and they got to share some of them got to preach some got to share their testimonies to share a song we just want to share tonight a few of those things with you and they're going to share their testimonies as well as some songs Joel has a couple songs he's going to introduce to you from Grenada that they learned okay these are songs that we learned in Grenada at an open-air meeting we went to the first night that we actually ministered there there was just a meeting out on the crossroads in this village under the stars with one streetlight that was the first time we heard these songs and they really encouraged us so we're going to share them with you first one's called what you think about Jesus what you think about he's all right what you think about don't try to tell me that's not a lie he opened up my blinded eyes set my spirit free all I want to know about is what you think about tell me that God is dead spoke to him this morning Why did I set my spirit free? All I want to know about is the man from Galilee. All I want to know about is the man from Galilee. This next one is, Look What Jesus Did. Look what Jesus did, how he saved me, he saved me. Look what Jesus did, he washed me in his blood. Look what Jesus did, how he saved me, he saved me. Look what Jesus did, he washed me in his blood. Praise God, I know that I am saved. Look what Jesus did, how he saved me, he saved me. Look what Jesus did, he washed me in his blood. Look what Jesus did, how he saved me, he saved me. Look what Jesus did, he washed me in his blood. Praise God, I know that I am saved. Okay, this next song is a children's song that we got to sing at the preschools that we went to and visited. One was 15 kids, and the other was 40 kids, and they were just in a small room with, all they had was like an alphabet. They didn't have any writing utensils or anything, so it was pretty poor villages. This is called Jesus Loves All the Children, and there's a bunch of hand motions too. The kids really like it. Jesus loves all the children, skinny, fat, short, long and tall. Whether it is raining or if the skies are blue. Jesus really loves you. Jesus loves all the children, skinny, fat, short, long and tall. Whether it is raining or if the skies are blue. Jesus really loves you. Jesus loves all the children, skinny, fat, short, long and tall. Whether it is raining or if the skies are blue. We're going to ask a few of them to share. Let's start with Becky. This is Becky Irwin. I can't thank God that really showed me through the Grenadians that mission work isn't going out and beating people over the head with a Bible or something, telling them that you have to be saved or go to hell. I think he showed me that it's really just going out and showing his love through a smile or a song or just a touch. Amen. This is Wayne Reed. Before I went down there, I incorporated being happy with being wealthy and material gains and stuff. But when I was down there, even with the YWAM people, I saw they have nothing, but they're just so happy. And that just really changed my heart. Amen. Ingrid? I think it was when we went into a village, they were all so poor. Some of them didn't have food or shelter or even clothing. But they were so happy praising God. I mean, it was amazing that you don't have to have anything as long as you have God. And through that, God showed me that I can pray a sincere prayer, but it doesn't do any good unless I back it up with my actions. I can't go out and do something different. I have to do what I prayed for. And so he showed me how to just wholeheartedly turn my low foot over to him and say, I'm yours. Do with me what you want. Amen. Joe? Okay. Before I went down there, I was really struggling with direction in my life. And one of my prayers was that God would give me direction. So through circumstances down there and things that happened up here while we were down there, he gave me direction. After high school, I'm going to go to college to become a preacher. And it's just after that I don't know what to do. Neither do preachers know what they're supposed to do. Jeff? By the way, give me, give me, give me. Jeff went as a staff, and the staff we need to really acknowledge. They sacrificed a lot to go on this trip to really minister. The staff that we have here that went, Dave Gogler, Jeff Baer, and Shelly Marks, and we're just really grateful for them. And, of course, Sherry Yip went with us as well to help us make it through the transition. Thanks, Jeff, for sharing that. No, it was real interesting. One of the nights still in an open-air meeting, there was two busloads of kids. You should see the roads down there. They're quite interesting. I'm blessed with our roads up here now after seeing their roads. But the first busload was dropped off, and we kind of just were put in this place, and we didn't know really what to do. We just kind of were mingling around with the kids. And we just all sat down on a cement wall. It was real neat because all the kids come up. They're real interested to see what's going on, but they all really like the girls with their long hair. Everybody goes up and plaits all the girls' long hair, and Shelly was sitting beside me. What is it? Braids. Braids, yeah. Yeah, well, they call it plait down there. It's just braids up here. I'm speaking Grenadian now, you know. Genuine is a new word I learned. But anyways, Shelly was holding this little girl. She was, what, 3, somewhere in there, 2 or 3 years old. And I was sitting right beside her. She got up to go do something, go with one of the kids or something, and she handed me this little girl. And this little girl just kind of went like this. I mean, she really grabbed ahold of me strong, and all of a sudden I saw, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, and everybody come over. All these little kids. I mean, there had to be, what, 30 little kids? And they're just all pointing at me, and they're just going, ah, ah, ah, laughing at her. And I didn't know what to do. I didn't know if I did something wrong in the culture, or, you know, I'm just kind of sitting there stuck. So I just start saying, she's my friend, she's my friend. And they just were looking at me real strange, like, what's she doing? And afterwards, we talked to Jim Weaver, and apparently down there, as we learned, excuse me, as we went along, the father doesn't have anything to do with the family down there. And it really was just all of a sudden I realized in my life how fortunate we are as Americans. You know, it's a good feeling to have fathers like this man and Jay and all the rest of us. You know, it brings tears to my eyes. So that's all. Amen. I forgot one. Well, every morning we had mandatory prayer time, and I guess it was the first time that I realized, you know, how important prayer was, especially when things are going good. You should pray then as well as when you're in trouble. That helped me. It's a great time. We want to just conclude. We hope to come back and be able to share some slides with you in the future and share some of the things that we saw and experienced. We want to share one other song with you that we took down there that the kids wanted to just share what this song tells about God and what it means to us and what we learned about God and how this song expresses that. Just before we sing, Tom, I want everyone to know the names of the kids, because I see them more than you do, and I can't remember them all, but pick one and go to them afterwards and tell them you care about them. So go ahead and write down the line and tell them your name real loud and what school you're going to next year, okay? My name is Walter Tonantino. I'm going to Swickly Academy next year. Step out a little bit so they can see you on the side. I'm Kimberly Adler, and I'm going to Swickly next year also, and I'll be in 11th grade. Step. Shelley Marks. Step up so I can't see you. Shelley Marks. Step. I'm Becky Irwin. I'll be a junior at Seneca Valley. I'm Wayne Reed, and I'll be a senior at Hampton High. Shannon McCabe. Conner Richlands. 10th. Long names of schools. Kelly Walker. Eden. Eden. What grade? 10th. I'm Vicki Irwin. I'll be going to Lowridge College. I'll be a freshman. My name is Jared Welsh, and I'll be a junior at North Allegheny. My name is Ingrid Priestley, and I'll be a senior at North Elk. Hi, I'm Joe Welsh. I'm going to be a senior at North Allegheny next year. I'm Jim Berg. I'll be a junior at Northgate next year. Can't see him. All the way up here. You didn't see him, did you? There he is. I'm Jim Berg. I'll be a junior at Northgate next year. I'm Haley McCarroll, and I'll be a senior at Ambridge next year. I'm Sarah Sutlevich, and I'll be a junior at North Allegheny. I'm Mindy Gehring, and I'll be a junior at Seneca Valley. I'm John Cornelius, and I'll be a sophomore at North Hills. I'm Dave Gogler, and I'm part of the staff. What year? Senior. I'm Cheri Iff, and I'm going to be a senior at Seneca Valley next year. You wish. Okay. I'm Jeff Bair, and for the moms, too, I really appreciate you guys, too. Not only for the dads, I felt like I left you guys out. I really appreciate it for you guys, too. I meant to. He's going to introduce himself, then he's going to lead us in a song. I'm Joel Reed. I'm a sophomore at Penn State. This next song is a tribute to a Trinian god. You made the stars above You spoke the word of love The God of Abraham The only great I am You are creator of the world But most of all, you are my God The Father And now you set me free from me And now you are my life But most of all, you are my God The Father, Son, and Holy Spirit Three in one Amen Amen Let's all stand together, shall we? It's exciting to hear how God allows us to be part of what he's doing in the nations. Let's praise him together. Oh, praise the Lord, all ye nations. As we sing this together, let's let it be a declaration of our faith. How God's going to move to stretch us all. Oh, praise the Lord All ye nations Praise him All ye people For his mercy's all-kindness His faith's all-knowing And truth of the law In God and man Oh, praise ye the Lord Praise ye the Lord Praise ye the Lord Oh, praise the Lord All ye nations Praise him All ye people For his mercy's all-kindness His faith's all-knowing And truth of the law In God and man Oh, praise ye the Lord Praise ye the Lord Praise ye the Lord For his mercy's all-kindness His faith's all-knowing And truth of the law In God and man Oh, praise ye the Lord Praise ye the Lord Praise ye the Lord As we worship you Worship you Yes, Lord From every nation That you worship you Yes, you worship you You have redeemed us From every nation Dear God Lord Jesus, as we've heard of these reports And as we've participated together What you're doing in the nations, Lord It just brings to bear to my own spirit tonight Lord, how small-minded we've become Lord, how focused we've become on If the car's dirty Or if the windows haven't been washed Or if the dinner wasn't just right, Lord We thank you, Father, that every once in a while You let us just get up on the high place And see the world as you see it The millions and, Lord, even billions of people That you've died to bring to righteousness, peace, and joy Lord, we thank you that when it's all said and done, Lord It's not the stuff of the things Or the buildings or the accumulation, Lord But it's what we've done in obedience To touching this world Oh, God, do it, Lord Jesus Purify, my heart Oh, Lord For the pure in heart Shall see Spirit, come love me My soul be holy Sing it once again Purify, my heart Oh, Lord Shall see Spirit, come love me My soul be holy Lord, we just take these moments to confess that desire of our heart Just to be pure Lord, forgive anyone tonight who By virtue of their own preoccupation with self Their own interests other than yours, Lord Have allowed the cares of the world to choke out their joy Allow us tonight, Father God, to confess truly anything Would that be an impediment to the fullness of joy tonight And the peace that passes all understanding We love you, Son of God Let me share a word with you right now If I might, go ahead and be seated Turn your Bibles with me to Matthew 11 Jesus was very intent on seeing the mission fulfilled What was his mission? It was to save us That was his mission, to save the world But he knew that once he left the earth That someone else had to carry on that mission What was his strategy? Get an international satellite TV broadcast? What was the strategy of Jesus to change the world? What was it? Raise up 12 men, come on You've all heard this before His strategy was to raise up 12 men to be his disciples Then they were to train up others as well And faithfully multiply his life As the Holy Spirit enabled them Interestingly, in chapter 10 In chapter 10, Jesus sends out those 12 disciples And gives them their first taste of ministry For some of these senior hires tonight They had their first taste of real ministry Giving beyond their own comfort zone Stretching out a little bit for others Jesus did that with those disciples And he told them to go out and to heal the sick And to deliver the possessed To comfort the broken hearted To care for the needs of people That's what Jesus told them to do And they went out and did it And then we read in 11 Chapter 11 where I had you turn originally In verse 28, they had returned to him Luke chapter 10 fills in the gaps of the story And this is what he says when he sees his disciples And they came back On the one hand rejoicing in what they'd seen On the other hand wiped out by the magnitude of it all And here's what he said to them Come to me Verse 28 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 Would you agree that one of the most difficult things to do In our culture is to rest The intensity level of living in America And the pace that we keep Even when we're supposed to, it's difficult to rest Tonight I prepared a teaching And I was going to just address In rather thorough fashion The struggle that we have with coming to rest And what that means Because dear ones God did not intend for us And I think Jesus very clearly says it right here He did not intend for us To go down a spiral of ever increasing Burden and weight and heaviness And discouragement He intended for us To live a joyful life Amen And what I see Amongst so many of us who are Very intent, I mean we want to please God We want to do what Jesus said We try so hard sometimes To please people, we try so hard sometimes To cover all the bases, to do everything we're supposed to do That we lose the very joy That really is the message that we have to communicate And I want to share with you Something I'm discovering Who are candidates for this first of all? What are the two words, two adjectives That describe the kind of people he's talking to? What are the two words? Weary and heavy laden The word weary The word weary Literally means fatigued by the journey How many people here are fatigued by the journey? You know I shared with you I traveled 4,000 miles on a little vacation I said the one word that did not describe that vacation was Rest, that's right I knew what it was like Sherry and our friends from the Soviet Union Sherry and I traveled 11 hours the other day from New York City When they got here, Sherry said Something I probably can't even repeat She said, what was it? I'm a whooped pup or something like that I'm wiped out I mean we've traveled all this How many know the journey fatigues you? Sometimes just doing the things you do Just taking care of the kids How many moms would say, that can be fatiguing? Up the hands go, it's summer time But just being a faithful believer Without a ministry can fatigue you And you know something, when you're fatigued You are vulnerable You are prone to forgetting the promises And losing the power The other word he uses there is the word burden And that word burden means That you've been loaded down Literally it was a picture of when they put bricks on a person Do you feel tonight like you've got a load on your back? Are you burdened tonight? You say, what do you mean burdened with what? Problems? Maybe But I want to talk tonight Right now to the people who are burdened with other people You know some of you have a tremendous compassion I marvel at how much you give to people And I want you to know that we serve in a congregation Who have committed themselves To meet the needs of people I marvel at the magnitude I cry when I hear some of the things that are happening to people Listen to this One home group leader In one week shared with me These were the six things that he had to do One was to visit with a terminally ill woman To counsel with a pastoral staff person About the vision for their group To meet to discuss the unemployment situation Of a member of his group That had gotten so far down That he didn't know which way to turn To prepare the teaching for that week To edify the rest of them And to in the midst of all that Take care of a little bit of a rebellion problem That they were having within their own family And I started thinking Plus all the other responsibilities How many of those kinds of things can be a burden? When you care for people You carry a burden I don't believe Jesus did these things because he had to I believe he had a burden for people We have burdens But dear ones Look what he says If that's you If you're weary tonight If you're fatigued by the journey If you're burdened If you've got a heavy load on you tonight Here's what Jesus said Come to church Now it doesn't say that Now I'm not sure Honestly I have to tell you After tonight I may shift gears And talk about some of these things on Sunday again I know this much Church is not the answer To not come to church Is a sure way To cut yourself off But that's not the answer Jesus said come To me When I was Given a little time We had arrived at a cabin up in the Rocky Mountains To spend four days To stop moving It was wonderful I mean the van ran all night Because I thought it was supposed to I finally got some time And I went up to this little spot And I said Lord Isn't there something you want to tell me Isn't there something And I said I confess I haven't been able to hear you All I've been hearing is the wind in my ear And the kids saying Daddy are we And those kinds of things And I said Lord What's on your heart for me now I want to know And I don't share this Because I feel like it was some revelation That makes me In fact if it does anything It makes me Vulnerable before you But the Lord shared with me That the one thing he wanted me to do Wasn't To figure out all the questions we have about Saturday night coming Or all the issues that have to do with What the church is going to do on the property Or how many ways I can encourage them You know what he said He said the one thing I want you to do Is I want you to concentrate on knowing me First of all my response to that was to be like Of course Like some of you are saying Big deal But do you know that in the end folks When all the achievements are read off And all of the crusades Are tallied up And all of the Wealth and accumulation is Put in a pile Do you know what's going to really matter in heaven What did Jesus say to the ones That did all these works And had all these victories What did he say to them Depart from me for I Never knew you And I want to share with you tonight That the Lord just spoke to my heart That in the weeks and months And years ahead I'm to concentrate on knowing him I know what that means I don't know what that means in fullness But I know that from this point I've got to reorient a bit I want to say to you tonight Jesus is saying to some of you Come unto me If you're weary and heavy laden Come unto me And you'll find rest for your soul You'll find rest He says, look at it For my yoke is easy What does that mean? When you see a picture of a yoke What do you see? You see an ox and You see always the two, right? That's the purpose of a yoke So that the two can work together And though the picture Isn't a pleasant one Can you see that the principle is Jesus is saying Be yoked with me How many of you know that if Jesus were your partner And e