The Yoke

[00:00:00] Well, good morning. [00:00:02] Beautiful day out there. [00:00:05] Okay. [00:00:07] What do you think is the most important thing about you? [00:00:15] Now, I'm not going to ask for answers. [00:00:18] What is the most important thing? [00:00:21] I think it is hope. [00:00:25] The most important thing about you is hope. Have you got it or not? Got it. [00:00:32] Now, one of the problems with retirement, particularly, I think, for the male species, we found our identity in our performance, what we did, and now we stop doing it. [00:00:49] And you say, what's the meaning of life? [00:00:53] Now, that's where your hope comes in. [00:00:56] But hope should be something that is with us all the time. [00:01:01] It's not the personal hope. [00:01:04] It's the hope that God shares with you. [00:01:11] So God is a God of hope. [00:01:14] Now, our reading. [00:01:18] Jesus said, all things are being committed to me by my Father. [00:01:23] All things. What do you mean? [00:01:25] What's he on about? What's he talking about? [00:01:30] God has a dream. Can I use that word? [00:01:33] You may not find it in Scripture. But you see, we are dreamers. [00:01:39] All our politicians are dreamers. They're hoping to bring about change. They're hoping to do something better. [00:01:48] So hope. [00:01:49] God's hope is something that he has fixed in his mind. [00:01:55] Something that begins before creation. [00:01:58] God has a plan. [00:02:01] God is going somewhere. [00:02:05] And we are essential to that plan, the realization of God's plan. [00:02:12] And as Jesus said, it's all being committed to me. [00:02:16] So the fulfillment of God's plan is in the hands of Jesus. [00:02:22] He's responsible. [00:02:24] And then he goes on to say that no one knows what I'm on about except the Father. [00:02:32] The Father is the only one who really knows what Jesus is on about down here on earth, people. Oh, he's healing and he's doing this and he's doing that. [00:02:44] But what's he really after? What is he really doing? Only the Father knows. [00:02:50] And he said, and nobody knows what the Father's on about except the Son and those to whom he chooses to reveal it. [00:03:04] So therefore, he has a desire to. Whatever God is on about, you know, the glorious future, Jesus knows what it is. [00:03:17] He's willing. He desires to share it because he's the key. [00:03:24] But he can't do it all on his own. [00:03:27] It requires many, many more humans. [00:03:32] We humans are central and the key to the fulfillment of God's vision. [00:03:39] And so Jesus wants to reveal it, make it known to us. [00:03:45] And in this passage, he does it by three invitations. [00:03:51] He says, come to me, all you who labor and are heavy laden, and I'll give you rest. [00:04:00] Oh, there's a problem. [00:04:05] Now, we call it the Sin problem. [00:04:09] Okay, it is a problem. But what is the result of the sin problem? [00:04:15] We are unavailable to God. [00:04:18] It's our unavailability which is the problem. [00:04:23] God has this dream which requires human beings, but we're not available. [00:04:31] Now, that's our problem. [00:04:34] Because of sin, we're unavailable. [00:04:37] So Jesus has to, first of all, make us available. [00:04:42] See, our problem is we're hung up. All our problems and all our addictions and all the things that are going wrong. And so we're so concentrated on ourselves and our problems, our needs, we're not available to God. [00:04:59] So the first thing he has to do is make us available. [00:05:04] Okay, we need salvation, we need forgiveness, we need liberation, redemption, all those words, so that we become available. [00:05:19] That's the purpose of the forgiveness. [00:05:23] That's the purpose of the cross, that we should become available. [00:05:29] Now, those who are unavailable, he says, come, take, take my yoke, learn of me. [00:05:40] So this is the. If we don't get to this stage, if you're hung up simply on salvation, that's all you think you need, you're going to miss out because we need to be incorporated into what Jesus is doing. [00:05:58] And so he talks about the yoke. [00:06:02] We all know what yolks are, don't you? [00:06:05] You see them every day? [00:06:09] Yep. [00:06:11] Okay. [00:06:12] So I was fortunate enough at the age of 10, my father took us to Africa. [00:06:17] He was tired of farming in South Australia. [00:06:20] And so we went to Africa where they used oxen, bullocks. [00:06:26] And this is a model of the basic African yoke. [00:06:32] Okay, now this is a miniature. The normal one is about almost 2 meters, you know, wide as my arms. [00:06:40] And they are heavy. [00:06:42] Okay, so that's the basic. [00:06:47] And then they add. [00:07:00] So they add these sections and then they have a rope that is attached, and then you have a chain which is hooked to the yoke. [00:07:21] And that's your basic yoke. [00:07:24] Now, they weren't light. I think I was about 14 before I could actually lift them up. [00:07:30] Now in the morning, you got them all. Now, they had 14 oxen to a Spanish. [00:07:38] And so he had the yokes all lined up, all connected. [00:07:42] And what you did is that you. [00:07:45] The lead ox, and you'd prop it up and the ox would come, bend his head and you would tie him in. [00:07:59] And so with the rest, and so then you could. Then you attach it to the plough or whatever, and off you went to work. [00:08:08] Now, the amazing thing is single furrow plough pulled by 14 oxen. [00:08:15] I think that was overkill. But so what did it? What is Jesus talking about, he says, take my yoke upon you two oxen to the Spanish. Jesus is in the yoke and he needs a second. [00:08:40] See, it requires two. [00:08:43] And so he invites us to come into the yoke. [00:08:47] Oh, what's that mean? [00:08:52] Well, think in terms of the oxen. [00:08:57] Any dreams he had to do of visiting the cows that day or munching the grass over in that paddock, forget it. [00:09:05] He had to surrender his will, he had to surrender his dreams, he had to surrender his ideas and come into the yoke. [00:09:14] And the Lord would tie him in. [00:09:20] So that requires complete surrender, complete submission. [00:09:27] Not my will, but yours be done. [00:09:31] And so you come into this yoke and ooh, that's great. And in your heart is a desire to please the Lord, a desire to do his will. [00:09:46] And so you start galloping off down the paddock and before you know where you're struggling, you have to ease back and you say, oh, I went too fast, now I need to slow down and now it hurts on the other side. [00:10:01] So the thing is, how do you produce harmony? [00:10:07] These two have got. These two oxen have to work together. [00:10:12] Well, I don't know what they did in Africa. I can't remember ever seeing it done. [00:10:17] But I know I gather in Thailand and other places that two oxen. [00:10:24] Now one may be experienced, the other could be a novice, a beginner, or two oxen that have never worked together before. [00:10:33] You put them both in the yoke, you remove the chain, you tie their tails together and you put them out in the paddock for the day. [00:10:45] Now, it's called bonding, Is it? You'll find they're going to fight. [00:10:53] They're going to pull against one another and then the tail hurts, so they pull back. You know, are you going to struggle? They might spend all day struggling, fighting, until finally one of them says, I surrender your boss. [00:11:09] Now the Ledox is in the right hand side. [00:11:14] Now they will work in harmony for the rest of their trip. [00:11:20] You see, you surrender to come into the yoke, but now you need to. [00:11:30] Well, it's not a simple thing to say, Jesus, you are Lord. [00:11:35] You almost fight your way to that point where you really surrender on a deeper level. [00:11:42] And so then you find you're in the yoke with him. [00:11:48] Now, stage three. [00:11:51] Come all you labor, take the yoke. [00:11:55] Now learn of me. [00:11:58] And there were two things. [00:12:01] The old English was meek. [00:12:03] Some of you probably remember the King James gentles, you know, they use other words. The word meek. [00:12:12] Now the word meek had a very bad reputation in English. [00:12:16] It's sort of a meek person was a wimp, you know, a yes person, you know, never asserted themselves. [00:12:26] Actually one of the interesting things when you go back to the Roman empire, the empire was maintained and expanded by the military soldiers. [00:12:37] You had foot soldiers and you had cavalry. [00:12:41] Cavalry. You got a rider and a horse and they had chappies would go out looking for suitable horses and what they were looking for is strong, powerful horses that were meek. [00:12:58] Now a meek horse was one who knew how to obey because the caval requires that they have horses that can obey instantly. [00:13:11] Not argue, not debate, but instant obedience. [00:13:18] Wow. [00:13:20] Now Jesus learnt that art, that skill, son though he was, he learned obedience by what he suffered. [00:13:29] And having been made perfect, we have to be trained in the skill of obedience, you see. [00:13:41] Am I, what does it really mean? [00:13:47] Now it's not something you can produce yourself because everything you decide to do is going to be self oriented. [00:13:58] See the first person in my life is who? Me. [00:14:02] Whatever happens, my first reference point is always me. [00:14:09] And you've got to learn to live with that. [00:14:15] And what does this obedience mean? [00:14:18] If I give you an example of a few years ago, one of my daughters in law, you know, it's a weekday, it's about 2:30 in the afternoon and I get a call from Karen and she says I'm not feeling too well today, could you pick up the boys from school ever had that kind of situation? [00:14:41] Now my natural, normal and appropriate response would be no, I'm too busy. [00:14:49] I'm preparing for Sunday, you know, and I've got more important work to do. [00:14:56] And what does the Lord say? [00:14:58] We're in the oak. He says, who are you thinking of? [00:15:04] Oh, me. [00:15:06] So what are you going to do with you? [00:15:11] I have to say no to myself, no to my desires, no to my dream, no to and go and pick up the boys, not grudgingly, but gladly. [00:15:29] See, obedience is. Obedience to Jesus is something, oh I got to do it. No, it's something I choose to do. [00:15:38] Now he has to enable me. We're in the yoke together. [00:15:43] He says, I've learned the art of obedience. [00:15:48] Now I want to train you. [00:15:50] Now it may take a long time to get there, but that's what he's after. [00:15:57] You learn the art, the skill of obedience which is saying no to self and yes to him. [00:16:07] The second thing he says is that we should be gentle and you have another struggle, humble in heart. One of the translations, this is a little bit different. [00:16:24] This is the servant attitude. [00:16:31] You all understand what serving means. [00:16:36] Now over There in Africa, we used to go to school by bus. [00:16:40] And at one stage, the bus terminus was outside our back door. [00:16:48] There were two little girls who lived further back on another farm. And they would. This is the rainy season, the wet season. [00:16:59] And they would walk from their place through to the bus carrying their shoes and their socks in their bag. [00:17:08] So they would turn up nice, clean feet. Ha, ha, ha. And so they've got mud in their feet, you know, and so they've got very dirty, grubby feet. [00:17:24] Now, it was either my mother or my father. [00:17:28] They would sit those kids on the step of the bus and wash their feet. [00:17:36] Great. [00:17:37] Now, this teenager had one secret horror. [00:17:41] That one day Mum and Dad would not be available and I would have to do the dirty job. [00:17:49] Me, a servant? No way. [00:17:55] See, we need to be trained. [00:18:00] There's a difference between servant or serving and being a servant. [00:18:05] My first term in Japan, which lasted seven years, I eventually became the pastor of a church, which means I served the congregation right on my terms. [00:18:22] Okay? [00:18:24] The second term on the field, which was six years, we were put in charge of headquarters. [00:18:30] Now, this was the headquarters not just for the mission, but for the denomination. [00:18:35] So it was the center of everything. [00:18:37] That's where the transport truck was, and that's where they had conferences and monthly meetings. [00:18:47] Well, now we learned what it meant not just to serve, but be servants. [00:18:55] You see, if there was a conference and they had a speaker, Faye and I could sit at the back. [00:19:02] But we were always available to be taken away, so we just couldn't dare and relax and enjoy it. [00:19:08] We had other responsibilities. [00:19:12] And so, you know, it might be 7 o' clock in the morning, and I'd get phone call, oh, we need this or we need that. And so I'd drop everything. [00:19:20] I found I couldn't plan the day because I was everybody's beck and call. [00:19:31] One of our missionaries, his language better than mine. He spent all day Thursday preparing Sunday's sermon. [00:19:39] I would sometimes say, lord, we've only got 20 minutes and we've got to prepare a sermon. [00:19:46] I discovered what it meant not just to serve, but be a servant. [00:19:51] And that's what Jesus is looking for, you see, He's a servant. [00:19:57] He said, I didn't come to be served, but to serve. [00:20:02] And I will train you. [00:20:06] So you see, we're in an apprenticeship. [00:20:10] It can only happen within the yoke. [00:20:15] He can save you out there, but then he invites you to come into the yoke. [00:20:22] And you say, coming into the yoke, boy, that's hard work. [00:20:31] You know, and this is heavy and bullocks are strong. [00:20:37] While we're over there, things began to change and they shifted, began to shift from oxen to tractors. [00:20:44] So you got to get the tractor and the bullocks were put into retirement. [00:20:49] Well, during the rainy season they'd be plowing along and all of a sudden you hit one of these sinkholes and the tractor would down get bogged. [00:21:00] You can bring in another tractor and pull it out. No, that could get bogged. Now what you did, you went back, got the bullocks out of retirement, put the 16 or the Malding it, attach a chain to the tractor, crack the whip, and they would pull it out. [00:21:20] They were strong, they were powerful. [00:21:25] And then Jesus has the audacity to say, my yoke is easy and my burden is light. [00:21:33] Whoa, whoa, whoa, Lord, what do you mean, a yoke is heavy? [00:21:41] It's for hard work. [00:21:46] What you discover in the yoke, you realize for this I was designed for this, I was saved. [00:22:00] This is the best place I can ever be because I'm working. I'm learning to work with Jesus. [00:22:12] I'm not working for Him. [00:22:14] We're in it together. [00:22:18] He knows where we're going. [00:22:20] He knows. He is the trainer. He's training me. [00:22:25] He's changing me. [00:22:27] He's making me useful. [00:22:31] Because of sin, we're unavailable. [00:22:35] He has made us available. [00:22:37] And now he has to train us and make us useful to Him. [00:22:44] And you find it's within the yoke. [00:22:49] How far have I traveled? [00:22:53] When you think of the yoke, where are you? Outside the yoke. [00:22:59] You need Jesus to fix you up first, free you from your hang ups, your burdens. [00:23:07] And then he invites you into his yoke. [00:23:10] And then he invites you to let me train you. [00:23:16] Am I willing to be trained? Am I willing to be changed? Am I willing to be made suitable for the Father's dream? [00:23:27] Three invitations. [00:23:29] You've got to get to number three. [00:23:34] It's serious. [00:23:36] Let's pray. [00:23:39] Lord, we thank youk that yout love us, you care for us, and, Lord, you desire that we join youn in youn work, join youn in youn future. [00:23:58] Lord, deal with me. Am I really willing to come into the yoke? [00:24:05] Am I willing to take on what it means to be in the yoke with you? [00:24:12] Lord, am I willing for you to change me, to grow me, that I may learn the skill of obedience, the skill of serving, which is loving? [00:24:23] Lord, help us not to just hang around our salvation as if that's what it's all about and look beyond that to the future to which you are inviting us. [00:24:39] Lord, help us that we may follow you, that we may work with you, and that we will allow you to make us what we need to be for your glory, so that you can accomplish the Father's desire, the Father's will. [00:24:58] Thank you, Lord. Amen.