Born for the Burdened

6 · Uses Freddie the Moose's perfectionist Christmas approach to expose the congregation's own performance-driven approach to Christmas—and by extension, their faith

You know, one of the best things probably to come out of the pandemic is Freddie, and I am especially grateful for him today And you might be wondering why. Well, his approach to Christmas I think is indicative or illustrative of many of our approaches to Christmas. You know, we got to get the cards out, but before we do that, we got to take the perfect picture.

And then we got to like get it just the perfect size where it fits within the card and it's not bigger than the card. And then we got to send the cards out to people. I found out this last week that the Christmas cards are really kind of a southern thing. And I was like, oh, interesting. Well, we're in the south-ish.

El Paso is kind of like in its own weird section as far as like, are we south, are we north? Like, we're El Paso, dude. So I love that. But we got to get everything decorated on the house. We got to get the tree in the perfect place with the perfect lighting with the perfect ornaments.

So that Christmas is perfect. We got to get all of our cookies done just perfectly, right? It's how we do it.

It's the most wonderful time of the year, except for all of the stress of trying to get it perfect.

7 · Asserts that Christians replicate the perfectionist Christmas pattern in their faith, creating checklists and rules that are visible to unbelievers and become a stumbling block, despite verbal denials that such formulas exist

The sad thing is we don't only approach Christmas that way. Many times we approach our faith that way too, right? We approach our faith with this like, man, everything's got to be just so. Like, you can see evidence of that on Instagram, you know? Bible, coffee, pen, journal, #blessed.

Like, that's how we approach our faith. You got to have the the leather-bound journal with the, I don't know, calfskin, goatskin Bible. You got to have a coffee cup that says something inspirational on it. And those things outflow into the rest of our lives, right? That's how it works.

And we may think, we may say, "Nah, there's no checklist, Vince. There's no formula to get this right." But in our practice, our practice says something different. Why can I say that? I can say that with confidence because when unbelievers say, "Man, I don't want to be a Christian because of all the rules you guys have to follow," they get those rules from us. They get that checklist from us.

That checklist that they don't want to keep comes from us and our practice.

8 · Names the problem directly—Christian faith often resembles Pharisaical religion through punctiliousness, which burdens rather than frees, stacking loads until people cannot walk

The truth is, many times our faith can look more like the faith of the Pharisees than the faith that Jesus instructed us to have.

Religious punctiliousness. Ricky used that word a few weeks ago, and I was like, "Man, that's a great word." And it's like, I think I know what that means. Like, pretty sure, but I'm not sure. So I looked it up, and sure enough, it sounds exactly— I mean, it means exactly what it sounds like it means. Like, religious punctiliousness, attention to detail, or correct behavior.

Wow, that's us, isn't it?

We have to do these things in order to be accepted. That type of religion, it does nothing but burden people. It doesn't free people. It doesn't give people rest. It stacks up a load on top of them that before you know it, they just can't walk.

And they're like, "Ah, this is horrible." That's not restful.

9 · Pivots from diagnosis to solution, introducing hope as the sermon's central offer

But you know what? There's hope.

10 · Establishes the sermon's main thesis—Jesus was born for the burdened—and connects it to Advent hope and the universal failure to keep even self-imposed standards of righteousness, let alone God's

Today we're going to see that Jesus was born for the burdened. Jesus was born for those who have a load on them that they're carrying. Today we lit the third candle of Advent, the hope candle.

It's the pink one. It's the one that's a different color. You may be wondering, "Why has it got a different color?" Well, it's because it's the hope candle. You can read about that later. We don't have time.

But why hope? Well, it's because Jesus came to give hope to those struggling under the yoke of religious duty. Those who feel like they have all of these things to do in order to be right with God. And you know, we can even see evidences of that kind of stuff when something happens good to one of our friends. We're like, "Man, you must be living right." Or we ask questions like, "Hey, what kind of prayers are you saying?" Because we want to do the same thing, right?

We see God did something for him.

Jesus came to give hope to those who struggle with never being able to keep even their own measure of righteousness. You know, a lot of studies and questions have been asked of people of, hey, are you able to keep even your own standard of righteousness? And the answer is always no. So if we can't keep our own standard, we definitely can't keep God's standard.

But Jesus came for those who are struggling under that burden. See, there's good news in 2020. Jesus was born for the burdened.

11 · Reads the primary text of Matthew 11:28-30, Jesus' invitation to the burdened to come and find rest through His yoke

All right, so let's jump in. Matthew 11, starting in verse 28.

Jesus says these words: Come to me, all who labor and are heavy laden, and I will will give you rest.

Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy and my burden is light.

12 · Directly addresses potential objections by naming specific manifestations of performance-based faith—hesitancy to serve, comparison to others, Bible-reading guilt, fear of losing salvation—to help listeners identify their own burdens

So you may be sitting there thinking You know what, Vince, I'm not really burdened by religious duties. Like, I think I'm good there. Well, have you ever said something like, hey, I'd really love to serve there, but I'm not ready?

Or, hey, you know what? Kids ministry sounds like a fun place, but I don't— I mean, like, I don't really know if I should be, like, leading kids or teaching kids. I'm not like Miss Teresa.

You're putting a standard there. Or maybe you've thought, "Hey, I can't share my faith with someone. I don't know the Bible well enough. I don't know enough to be able to like go and tell people about Jesus because I just don't know." Maybe you think, "Hey, a real Christian wouldn't drink, smoke, or chew or associate with those who do." This is an easier crowd than the first service. First service it was like pin-drop silence and I had to like give them the cue, my cue, hey, that's like a joke only not funny.

And then they go, haha, you're not funny.

Maybe you feel like if you don't read your Bible one day, you're a bad Christian. Maybe you feel like if you don't try hard enough, God will never accept you. Maybe you think that you were good enough so Jesus saved you, and that if you do too many bad things, he will un-save you. Maybe those are some of the thoughts that you have. So you keep a list of things that you have to do running, and you do them, and the drudgery of this list is never-ending, and you feel like there's no break, there's no rest, there's no— joy, and there's no end.

This list just keeps going, growing and growing and growing.

13 · Uses the El Paso recycling service suspension and rate increase to illustrate how religious duty lists never shrink or give back—they only grow with new fees and justifications

You know, recently I was talking with a friend of mine who, uh, brought up the recycling, uh, situation here in El Paso and that they'd stopped recycling. Now I know the recycling department all caught COVID, okay? This is not like indicting those guys. I Hope and pray that they have already or are on the road to recovery.

But it's kind of— draws a parallel between the way the government operates and the way that this list of ours operates, okay? So I'm telling my friend, "Well, don't you mean like they went to 2 weeks?" He's like, "No, they went to 2 weeks and then they just quit entirely." And I was like, "Oh, so are they going to give us a reduction in our bill?" And he looks at me like, "You know that's not how it works, man." And I was like, "Well, I guess you're right, but we could hope, right?" And then I was talking with another friend about this, and he said, "Yeah, not only are they not going to cut our rates, when they restart, they're actually going to raise our rates." And I was like, "No! But you're right." But you know, they'll— They'll come up with something to make it more palatable, right? They'll come up with some flashy name like a fuel charge or a technology fee or an environmental fee to make us go, "Oh, okay, it's going to something at least."

14 · Establishes the paradox that religious work can burden believers more heavily than their former sins because the redeemed heart, now loving God, adds layers of duty in the mistaken belief that the saved should be doing these things

That's how the list of religious duties works. It never shrinks.

It never gives back. It never gives a refund. It never gets easier to bear. It only grows and grows and grows.

How does it grow? Well, it grows through either our interpretation of those duties changes and it stacks more up, or our feeling of like, "Oh yeah, I'm doing pretty good. Yeah! Woo!" And then we think, I can't be doing this well if I'm doing everything I'm supposed to be doing. And so we add to it, right?

We add to it.

And if we're working hard to earn God's favor, Jesus breaks in and he says, come to me. Come to me all who labor and are heavy laden. You see, oftentimes religious work lays a heavier burden on us than our sin ever did. Why is that? Well, because for one, when we were in our sins, we loved our sins.

Sinners love their sin. I know I loved mine. It didn't put that big of a burden on me. But when the Lord changes our hearts and makes us hate our sin, and we start loving the Lord, and we think, man, we got to do all these things, right? We've got to do this, and then we've got to serve, and then we've got to give, and then we've got to serve outside of the church.

We've just got all this stuff we've got to do, do, do.

And we forget that that puts a burden on us much heavier than our sin sometimes. Because we're thinking now, someone who's saved would be doing this stuff.

15 · Asserts that Jesus' invitation to come is for the explicit purpose of giving rest, and that those who seek to earn their way have never experienced the rest Jesus offers—a particularly acute need in 2020

And Jesus, to that, Jesus invites us to come to him. "Come to me." Why? So that he might give us rest. And if you've ever thought that you could earn your way to God and find rest through never-ending work and never-ending lists of rules and things that you have to do and expectations, you've never experienced the rest of Jesus.

And look, we're all looking for rest this year, aren't we? We all are.

16 · Uses his own breaking of Christmas decoration rules to illustrate the universal longing for rest in 2020, showing how even he, the Christmas guy, is searching for relief through early decorations and hoping for a better year

I mean, I'm one of those guys, again, I love Christmas, but I got certain rules about Christmas, okay? I'll start listening to Christmas music publicly October 1st. Yeah, we can talk after the service if you want to, but I do that.

But like, Decorations? They don't happen until Black Friday, the day after Thanksgiving. You got to let Thanksgiving be thankful, you know, just in itself.

Not this year. This year one of my neighbors, like I want to say October 1st, it was early October, they already had their tree up in their window. They had the lights along their fence. Like, man, they are decorated up. And I drove by, I was like, I was like, "Whoa, that's a bit early." And then I got to thinking, "Hmm, maybe I don't love Christmas as much as I say I do if I'm not decorating in October." But then, first weekend in November, what happened?

I broke my own rule, broke my own rule and decorated. Why? Man, we're looking for rest. This year's tough sometimes, man. And it's like, hey, you know what?

Let's shed some light early. Let's give hope early. Let's point people to the hope of the Messiah born in Bethlehem a few weeks early. Why not? It couldn't hurt, right?

We're all looking for rest. And we think, hey, even folks like me who, man, like I'm coming to the end of the year, I still got gas in the tank. I'm still good. It's like, yeah. You know what?

The quicker we get to Christmas, the quicker we're done with this year, and maybe, just maybe 2021 will be a little different.

I doubt it.

Oh, did I say that out loud?

17 · Corrects the false refuges—new year, Christmas, Thanksgiving—by asserting that Jesus alone offers the rest being sought

But the thing is, Jesus is the only one that offers rest. Rest. Not a new year. Not anything else that we may search for rest in. It's not Christmas.

It's not Thanksgiving. It's not any other thing that we think, "Oh, yeah, if I just do that, that will give me rest. If I do that, that will make it where I don't have to work anymore."

18 · Connects the earlier worship song's phrase 'in sin and error pining' to the congregation's present longing, showing that Christmas is God's answer to the ancient wait for hope

You know, the song we were singing earlier, it really captures this, this longing and this desire for rest for all of us. 'in sin and error pining.' Oh man, in sin and error pining. They were waiting.

They were hoping for something different. See, Jesus was born for the burdened. Burdened by both sin and error. And waiting. Those folks were waiting for the right time.

They were hoping for hope, but they didn't see any of it ever coming to fruition. And Christmas, the birth of Jesus, God is answering that longing.

19 · Establishes the Advent paradoxes—King born to die, immortal born to be crucified, sinless killed for sinners—and connects this to the soul feeling its worth when Christ appears, contrasting the worthlessness produced by works with the worth given by Christ

Advent, this longing for the coming of the Messiah is answered in Bethlehem. Born, a baby who's born a king yet would die like a criminal. Born, the immortal born, yet He would die on a cross. Born sinless, yet would be killed for the sins of His people.

That is why the song goes on, "Till He appeared and the soul felt its worth." See, working and trying to earn, it makes us feel worthless. And then comes Christ and our soul finally feels its worth. Worth. See, we're all weary. We were all weary.

We were all hopeless. And then out of darkness light comes, and with the light hope comes. Hope for a better way. Hope for a better operation than just work.

20 · Pivots from the problem and promise to the mechanism—how does Jesus' rest actually work?

But how? How does that— how does this better thing work?

21 · Expounds the yoke metaphor by explaining the two-ox agricultural practice where the younger ox bears no load but learns while walking beside the experienced ox, revealing that Jesus' yoke means He does all the work while we learn

Well, Jesus answers that question. With, "Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls." So we're weary, we're burdened, hope is gone, souls are tired, and Jesus is like, "Hey, come to me if you're tired, and I'll give you rest." Okay, Jesus, how do we do that? He's like, "Take my yoke." Now look, it's 2020.

Maybe not all of us know what a yoke is. A yoke is a wooden utensil that's used to link two oxen so that they could pull farming equipment, okay? This thing means a lot of work. I thought you said rest, Jesus, and now you're talking about a yoke. That doesn't sound very restful.

Well, check this out. The yoke— there was always an older ox and a younger ox, okay? So always One is in training. And the younger ox, he would get no load. Okay?

In a sense, the yoke was the older ox's. And all this other one does is kind of let it rest around his neck and it kind of touches him every now and then. And he's just kind of walking there learning the commands of the farmer and learning how to walk between the aisles and the rows. And he's just figuring things out. He's not pulling anything.

It was the older ox's yoke. And Jesus is saying, "Take my yoke." He's not saying, "Hey, get yoked up and let's work." He's saying, "No, take my yoke and you don't have to do any of the work.

You can take my yoke, I'll do it all because I can." Do it all. That's the image that He's using.

22 · Identifies the content of the learning—we learn who Jesus is, not just what He does, and His identity is gentle and lowly in heart

And He's saying, "Take this yoke up," and do what? "Learn from Him." What do we learn? Hold on, what do we learn?

We learn who Jesus is. See, and in doing so, we find that we don't just come to Him because of what He does for us. We come to Him because of who He is.

Who is he?

He's the one who's gentle and lowly in heart.

23 · Provides grammatical-historical support for the strength of Jesus' self-description—'I am' in the strongest Greek form—revealing this is not incidental characterization but essential identity

You know, this verbal construction in the Greek is the strongest form of being. Some people call it the emphatic, but I don't want to go necessarily that far. But it is like, "I am." You know, we talk a lot about John and the 7 "I am" statements in John and how they're all the ego, a me.

He's talking about the state of his heart. "I am gentle and lowly in heart." That's what we learn about Jesus. We learn who he is.

24 · Cites Dane Ortlund to emphasize that this is the only place in Scripture where Jesus explicitly reveals His core identity, and the revelation is surprising—not austere or exalted but gentle and lowly

Dane Ortland writes of this, "In the one place in the Bible where the Son of God pulls back the veil and lets us peer way down into the core of who he is, we are not told that he is austere and demanding in heart." We're not told that he is exalted and dignified in heart. We're not even told that he is joyful and generous in heart.

Letting Jesus set the terms, his surprising claim is that he is gentle and lowly in heart.

25 · Clarifies the biblical meaning of 'heart' as the center of being and essential identity, not emotions, reinforcing that Jesus' gentleness and lowliness are not behaviors but His very essence

You know, when the Bible speaks of the heart, it's not talking about emotions. You know, we oftentimes equate our heart with our emotions, and we conjure up images of the heart with the arrow piercing through it and someone's name on it, right? And we're like, "Oh, the heart." But no, it was the center of being in the Bible. It's who you really are. Dane Ortland says it's what gets you out of bed in the morning.

It's what drives you. It's what fuels every interaction you have. It's the heart. And Jesus is saying that he is gentle and lowly in heart. It's not that he acts gentle, you know, every now and then, but that he is gentle.

Jesus doesn't say that he has an attitude of lowliness. In heart. No, that his heart is lowly.

26 · Interprets 'lowly' as 'accessible' through Ortlund and contrasts Jesus' accessibility with the inaccessibility of other religious leaders

Dane Ortland goes on to say that lowly is meaning accessible. He's accessible to people. We can come to him.

That's a totally different picture than what we see in other world religions, isn't it? Between their leader versus our leader.

27 · Uses Alexander Hamilton and the musical to illustrate how leaders typically operate through attack and dominance—the opposite of Jesus' gentle and lowly character—to sharpen the contrast

Go read some of their books if you're not familiar with some of the other religious leaders of our time. But think about this, no other religious leader, political personality, brand ambassador, many of our bosses or other people in places of authority or power, they're not generally described as gentle and lowly, are they? Normally they're not. There are a few examples that prove that rule.

Sorry, there are few examples— they would be the exception that proves that rule. Man, sometimes words are hard.

So here's just one quick example: Alexander Hamilton. You know, we look at the musical— man, great musical, love it. But it like brings back into focus how politics worked back then, right? Man, the ad hominem attack, like attacking the person rather than the idea, that was how they went. Is it any different today?

The attacks on not only the person but maybe even their followers, their group of supporters. And Jesus is saying, "Hey, I am not that." Because that is the opposite of gentle and lowly.

Jesus is saying, "I am gentle and lowly in heart. Come to me. Learn from me. Learn from me who I am. Don't learn from yourself and all of your ideas of what you think I expect.

Learn from me who I truly am."

28 · Returns to the universality of the invitation—'all who labor and are heavy laden'—emphasizing that Jesus' gentle and lowly nature makes the offer genuinely accessible to everyone burdened

Oh, and find rest for your souls. Because Jesus is the one who can give that rest. And look at this invitation. Who's it extended to?

All. All who labor and are heavy laden. That's good news. It's good news for us. That's great news for us.

Jesus is gentle and lowly and He extends this to all who labor and are heavy laden.

29 · Provides two biblical examples—the woman caught in adultery and Levi the tax collector—to demonstrate Jesus' actual gentleness and accessibility in practice

He's gentle enough not to rebuke or condemn the woman caught in adultery, just to admonish her, "Do not sin any longer." He's lowly and accessible enough that a tax collector named Levi would come to Him and become His follower and repent of his wickedness.

30 · Directly applies the invitation—you do not need to clean up your life before coming, you come with your burdens, and rest is a gift, not something earned

So you don't need to get your life together, to come to Jesus. Come with your burdens. Come heavy laden and find rest for your soul. That's the offer. That's the offer.

Come to me, all who weary and are heavy laden. He doesn't say, hey, come to me after you get rid of your burdens and you quit working so hard. No. Come, all who labor and are heavy laden.

And I will give you rest. It's a gift. You don't have to earn it. It's given freely by the one who can give anything.

31 · Grounds the assurance of acceptance in Jesus' essential nature—He will not turn away those who come because gentleness and lowliness are who He is

That's because that is who he is. We come to him because of who he is. He will not turn away one who truly comes.

32 · Supports the claim that Jesus will not turn away the broken with Isaiah 42:3, showing this is not sentiment but scriptural promise

It's what scripture says in Isaiah 42, a bruised reed he will not break and a faintly burning wick he will not quench.

33 · Synthesizes the argument—Christ's essential gentleness and lowliness mean He was born for the burdened, and the means of receiving rest is simply to come to Him

It's true because in his very being he is gentle and lowly in heart.

What hope for the burdened, right? What grace for the burdened. Christ was born for you if you are burdened. So that we might find rest for our souls in Him. How?

We come to Him. We come to Him.

34 · Qualifies the offer—Jesus' gentleness and lowliness are extended to those who come and take His yoke, not to those who refuse to repent, as shown in the preceding context of Matthew 11 where unrepentant cities face judgment

Look, Jesus isn't this way to everyone. Jesus isn't gentle and lowly in heart to just everybody. He's gentle and lowly in heart to those who come to Him and who take His yoke upon them.

But in the verses right before this, He's not gentle and lowly with these other cities who will not repent, who will not come to Him.

Those who won't repent and won't come, He makes this statement: "It's going to be better for Sodom on the Day of Judgment than for you." But if you come to Him, He's gentle and lowly.

But you must come.

35 · Guards against sentimentalizing Jesus' gentleness by clarifying through Ortlund that gentleness does not mean negotiable terms—you come on His terms—but that His gentle embrace is never outmatched by the depth of human sin and failure because gentleness is His essential being

Dane Ortlund says gentle and lowly does not mean mushy and frothy. Doesn't mean like, "Oh, hey, you know, hey, you can come on your own terms." No, you come on His terms. You take His yoke.

But you must come to the repentant Jesus, who is gentle and lowly in heart. Ortland goes on to say, "His heart of gentle embrace is never outmatched by our sins and foibles and insecurities and doubts and anxieties and failures." For gentle lowliness is not one way Jesus occasionally acts toward others. Gentleness is who he is.

36 · Issues direct evangelistic appeal to those who have not yet come to Jesus in repentance, removing objections by asserting that Jesus Himself is not the barrier—He is waiting with outstretched arms

So if you haven't come to him in repentance to take his yoke upon you, won't you come now?

What's holding you back?

What's keeping you from coming to Him? It's not Jesus.

He's there waiting, arms stretched out. He's waiting to touch you like He did the leper and make you clean. He's ready to embrace you like the father did his son who had run off and and kind of went wild.

He's waiting there. "Won't you come?"

37 · Returns to the primary text to expound the final phrase about the easy yoke and light burden

He goes on to say, "For my yoke is easy and my burden is light."

38 · Sets up contrast between Jesus and the Pharisees to interpret why His yoke is easy and light

Think about the difference between Jesus and the other religious leaders of his time.

39 · Cites Jesus' critique of the Pharisees in Matthew 23:4 to contrast their burden-laying with His burden-bearing, showing that His yoke is easy because He carries the full weight

He said of them, "They tie up heavy burdens hard to bear and lay them on people's shoulders, but they themselves are not willing to move them with their finger." Jesus says, "Hey, come to me. Take my yoke. I'm pulling it all.

I'm doing it all. I'm not going to put a burden on you. The burden is on me." You just walk with Me. Learn from Me. Learn about Me.

40 · Grounds the kindness and lightness of Jesus' yoke in His completed work—He has borne God's wrath, paid sin's price, earned perfect righteousness, and gives it freely through faith, leaving nothing for us to do but receive

You know, another way to translate the word that is easy here would be kind. Why would Jesus' yoke be kind and His burden light? Oh, think of what He's done. Think of what He's done already. He's taken God's full wrath against our sin on Himself, right?

He's paid the price of our sin. He's earned all of the righteousness righteousness that could ever be earned, and He then gives that to us through faith. Man, He's done it all. He's done what we could never do. That's why His invitation to take up His yoke is so unique and hopeful for the burdened.

41 · Returns to the sermon's thesis and issues the invitation again as the argument reaches its climax

See, Christ was born for the burdened. Won't you come? Won't you come?

42 · Closes with Ortlund's capstone image of Jesus' yoke as a non-yoke that buoys rather than burdens, with Jesus living in our place of need and never tiring of embracing us because it is His very heart

I'm going to finish with another Dane Ortland quote.

He says, "His yoke is kind and His burden is light." That is, His yoke is a non-yoke and His burden is a non-burden. What helium does to a balloon, Jesus' yoke does to His followers. We are being buoyed along in life By His endless gentleness and supremely accessible lowliness, He doesn't simply meet us at our place of need.

He lives in our place of need. He never tires of sweeping us up into His tender embrace. It is His very heart. It is what gets Him out of bed. Dead in the morning.

He was born for the burdened.

43 · Final direct application—lay your burdens down and take up His non-yoke and non-burden because that is who He is

So won't you come now to him?

Lay your burdens down and take up his yoke and his burden, 'cause it's a non-yoke and it's a non-burden. 'Cause that's who he is.

44 · Closing prayer applying the sermon's invitation both to unbelievers who have not yet come and to believers who have accumulated their own burdens along the way

Let's pray.

Lord, what grace that your Son said these words to us, that your Son still says these words to us. When we read the Scriptures, he speaks these words to us. And He is speaking them to us now. He's saying, "Come to Me." So, Lord, if there is someone here today, either in person or online, who has not come to You, Lord, we pray that they come and they lay their burdens down and they take up Christ's yoke and Christ's burden. Lord, if there are those here who have come, but yet we sometimes accumulate our own burdens along the way, Lord, help us to come lay them down and to take up Jesus' true yoke and his true burden.

We ask these things in Jesus' name. Amen.