“Come to Me, all that labor, and are heavy-laden. Take My yoke on you. Learn in Me”.
Why can you learn in Me? Because I've got two qualities that are really amazing. One is: I'm meek; and the other is: I'm humble.
Humble means: I accept who I am, according to what God says about me, and I trust God.
I'm meek - it doesn't mean I don't get angry and uptight about everything that goes on. I've got my inner life under management. Meek; humble.
The opposite of meekness is anger? Why am I so angry? What is happening in my heart? What is it I need to learn? Where do I need to let go my rights? What is the injustice I need to let go of? Those are the kinds of questions God will answer, so you can come to peace. Then in the asking the questions, you'll find peace, because He's given you insight.
Now this is a lifestyle. The lifestyle Jesus wants us to have is: to come to peace and rest.
Does that mean you've solved all the problems? No, but what it does mean is: you're not letting the problems get inside you, and wreck your life; so when people look at you, they say: “there's one thing I don't want to be in the world, is like you. You're miserable, sad, angry, depressed - and you're a Christian! I don't think I want this Jesus you're talking about”.
This is the problem. This is why Christ is misrepresented so much, because we haven't learnt to come to the place that the rest of faith brings, and learned to relax and enjoy the journey.
Closing PrayerFather, we just thank You, You're teaching us, helping us. Lord, You're speaking to our hearts and minds today.
I wonder is anyone here, who's never made the decision to receive Jesus? Today would be a great day to start, make that decision to connect with God, connect through Jesus Christ.
Jesus said: to all who received Him, and believed on Him, He gave power to become something, a child of God.
It wasn't power to do something; but power to become something. Power - the right and privilege to be a child of God.
How many felt challenged about this whole issue of Rest in your personal life? You've realised there's many turmoils, and you don't stay at rest very long. Perhaps you like to be at rest in a meeting like this, for an hour or two on Sunday, but the rest of the week it's not quite like that. You felt God just speak to you - to just start to develop and cultivate your intimacy, your faith, your trust in Him.
It's a word that God wants us to get a hold of in our hearts. It doesn't mean we're not busy for God; it means that in the busyness - we're at rest. We're at rest from strife, fear, anxiety, trouble.
Father, I just pray that Lord, as we've looked at these keys, that we will come to experience the reality of being at peace, and being at rest in Jesus' mighty name.
Why don't you just pray for someone next to you, that they'll experience the blessings of that. You might even have prophetic word, to encourage them and bless them in their journey. God bless you. Have a great week everyone.
Prelude: Report from Asia Trip (first 18 mins of Audio)
[Pastor Mike] We had amazing testimonies of people getting breakthroughs, of things that had gone back over years in their life: people that had been adopted, people that had been sexually abused, people that had had traumas in their life - amazing encounters with the Lord.
We had people out-to-it on the ground, just under the power of God, for long periods of time; and last night was incredibly touching.
In that particular church, we had an altar call I hadn't done before, but the girl gave a testimony, and she'd been really had a hard time at home, rejected by family, rejected by her father, and struggled with relationships.
She got into same sex relationships during her teen years, brought a lot of shame around her life, and she stood up and courageously testified how, in the last time we were up there, she'd come to the Lord.
She'd been set free, and had come to just a clean life, now walking with the Lord, and it took a lot of courage to share a testimony like that.