This issue of always having to win, and one-up, and get my rights, hear my way, and all this stuff - no, no. That's not the best way of life.
The best way of life is: blessed are the peacemakers. He said: I willingly crawl up on a cross and die, so that none of us have to live this way anymore - and He did. He took Satan's best shot: cat o'nine tails lashes; nailed to a cross. You can't do anything more to somebody than kill them; publically humiliate them; make a complete spectacle out of them.
He sat on that cross, and He took all the rejection, all the gossip, all the slander, all the hate, all the anger, every bit of bad thing in the world. He took Satan's best shot, and it killed Him. He descended into hell, and He looked at Satan right in the eyes, and He said: boy, is that all you've got? Not even the gates of hell can prevail against this yoke.
Closing PrayerI bless you tonight to know that you follow a Rabbi who believes in you more than you believe in Him.
Let me challenge you. Unless you've been given Shmekah - which you haven't - you can't make up your own yoke.
Even the parts of Jesus' yoke that don't make any sense, like: in order to be first, you've got to be last; in order to be great, you have to be a servant; in order to get, you've got to give; in order to live, you've got to die - even the parts of Jesus' yoke that goes: that's not what my daddy said; that's not what my granddaddy said; that's not what my denomination said.
When the Lord showed me this, I sat for three months before I could speak of it, and I repented. I said: God, the yoke of my denomination, is not the yoke of my Rabbi.
I'd been taught to be hard on people; and the Lord spoke to me and He said: Shane, you will either be covered in the dust of your Rabbi; or you will be covered in the dust of your own issues. If you're covered in the dust of your Rabbi, then you will cover people in the dust of your Rabbi; but if you're covered in the dust of your own issues, then you will cover people in the dust of your own issues.
And I had stood on stages, and I had made people feel guilty. I had put condemnation on them. I had done things that my mentors, some of them had told me: it gets good altar calls - that's what you do.
But I had ruined people because I did not cover them in the dust of my rabbi; I covered them in the dust of something else. I had to repent. Are you covered in the dust of your Rabbi? Or are you covered in the dust of your dad?
Are you covered in the dust of past hurts? Are you covered in the dust of anger and resentment? Are you covered in the dust of rebellion?
How about your home? Husbands, when you go home tonight, is your house ruled by compassionate, grace, slow to anger, abounding in love and forgiveness? Or is your house ruled by your iron fist, because that's how your dad said you rule the home? Do you rule your home with the dust of the Rabbi, or do you rule your home by the dust of your own stuff?
How about you wives: is your behaviour towards your children dominated by the yoke of your Rabbi; or is it dominated by the yoke of your own issues? Do you talk to them the same way your mother talked to you; or do you talk to them how Jesus would?
Jesus died, not so that just we could go to heaven; Jesus died so we could have the best life here, now, today.
Jesus, Your way is the best way for my life.