Burdens

Wow. I love those spontaneous moments where you learn how young your church is when you start singing to him and everybody's like, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, you know, they're like looking over the next person. Oh man. Okay.

It's like, is anybody else singing or has that just been up there? The worship team's like, I don't know. You sometimes you just have to call us beta spade, right? Yeah.

Okay. Okay. Well, we are continuing our family meetings series. And over the last couple months, we've been talking about what is God's heart for this cultural moment?

What is God's heart as things are happening right in front of us as there's on the screens of our world, there's injustices taking place in what is God's heart for justice? And so we've been talking about that the last four weeks has been about racism. If you haven't been around, I want to encourage you to go listen to any weeks that you missed. I really believe that they all built on top of one another.

And so if you need to, you can just start at the first one. But we're, we're talking about what's God's heart and then how do we deal with it? How do we actually walk it out? And there's a, there's a passage in Matthew where Jesus, he starts talking about his yoke.

And many of us have heard the story that Jesus goes, my yoke is. And my burden is, yeah, you know the story. Okay. He said that.

We're supposed to have some type of revelation around peace or something like, take all the burdens off of me. And, and it's better with Jesus, right? This kind of like, surfacing thing that we've adopted as what he's trying to communicate to us. But when you understand the cultural context of what Jesus is saying, as a rabbi, what he's trying to communicate is something different than, Hey, I'm offering you peace.

Because in the, in the first century, a rabbi would have a thing called a yoke. And his yoke was his interpretation of the law or the old covenant. And so when Jesus is speaking as disciples and others, he's saying, take my yoke or my interpretation of truth on you. And you wear my interpretation of truth.

And then you carry it. And it's a burden, but the burden is supposed to be light. But what happens in life is that we start grabbing burdens in a subconscious way all of the time. And then in the first century, we had Jesus responding to religious leaders that were actually putting burdens on people with their interpretation of the law, right?

And that's what was happening. So Jesus is actually speaking to people and he's going, you know what, you need to take on a new interpretation. And it's a perfect fit for you. The yoke, just like with an ox, where there's actually two oxen and they're set next to each other and they both have yokes that are custom made.

And Jesus is saying, my custom yoke that I put on you as we co-labor is actually a yoke that fits you perfectly. So that the weight is not too heavy for you because I'm burying the majority of it. I think in our day, what we're experiencing is unprecedented in terms of the burdens that we carry as individuals. Just picture this.

You've got, you know, I'm on social media, right? And I see, it's like, oh, there's an ad. And it's like, how you preserve that? I just made this up.

This is, I'm going to go with it. It's the thing that came to my mind. It's like, oh, this is a, this is a case for my baseball cards when I was little. That's going to really preserve my baseball cards.

I probably need to grab that. So I'm going to click on that link. And then I go back to Instagram and then it's like, oh my goodness, Brussels, there's a bombing of Brussels. Oh, Lord, please just, just bring redemption through that.

And then I, I click on the news and there's someone in the streets that's dying because of police brutality or something like that. And I'm carrying that and it's like, oh no, next month it actually happens in my neighborhood or my city. And then I'm going to, I just read an article about sex slavery. And then I just got a text message from my mom about my grandma that's on her, her deathbed.

And then I just had a conversation with my coworker and him and his wife are getting a divorce. And, and we start realizing that globalization has actually created a massive burden that all of us are subconsciously carrying and we're unaware of you think about any other generation in the past, new most of the people that were in their neighborhood and what was happening, you know, before the 20th century, you kind of know what's happening in your neck of the woods and you're carrying the burdens of the people around you. But in 2020, we are carrying the injustices of an entire planet through screens. And we're being exposed to all of the pain and all of the suffering.

And it breaks us because we are actually mood with compassion because we have God's heart, right? And so it's it can be overwhelming. And then there's the pressure of I have all of these things and now I need to post something. And if I don't post something on the day that I'm supposed to post something, then I must not, I must be a racist.

And so there's actually not just, there's, there's starts to be stipulations and burdens that we're carrying that culture is imposing on us. And there's expectations and obligations. It's just like when Paul is writing to the Galatians and he's going, you were running the race. Who has bewitched you?

All of a sudden you have all of these burdens that you're carrying that is beyond what you've been taught. And there's been things that have been heaped on you. And the Lord is saying, I want to actually take some of those things off. What's yours to carry and what's yours to hold and what's not?

And so it opened your Bibles to 1 Corinthians 12. I think the Lord has some truth for us tonight. How do we carry the burden? What does it look like to carry God's burden for justice?

Over the last four weeks we've been talking about Jesus' yoke on the topic of racism, Jesus' truth and his opinion on the topic of injustice. And now we're going to talk about, okay, how do we carry that interpretation and actually carry the burden? Because Adam and Eve in the garden, remember they worked before the fall. Remember they were commissioned to actually work the ground, right?

And so it's part of our call as humans to work. And it's a good thing that we're called to work in heaven. You are probably going to have a job and you're going to love it. Okay?

See, we think of this as a theory like it's just going to be a long worship service. It's for sure not. I love worship, but I'm so glad it's not an eternal worship service. We get to actually worship him in everyday life in the New Jerusalem, in the New Heavens and the New Earth.

It's going to be the best. It's going to be awesome. Okay. 1 Corinthians 12 verse 17, if you're there, say hallelujah.

All right. Think of it this way. If the whole body were just an eyeball, how could it hear sounds? And if the whole body were just an ear, how could it smell different fragrances?

But God has carefully designed each member and placed it in the body to function as he desires. A diversity is required. If the body consisted of a single part, there wouldn't be a body at all. So now we see that there are many parts and functions, but one body.

I would be wrong for the eye to say to the hand, I don't need you. And equally wrong, if the head said to the foot, I don't need you. In fact, the weaker are parts, the more vital and essential they are. The body parts we think are less honorable.

We treat with greater respect. The body parts that need to be covered in public. We treat with propriety and clothe them. But some of our body parts don't require as much attention.

Indeed, God has mingled the body parts together, giving greater honor to the lesser members who lacked it. He has done this intentionally so that every member would look after the others with mutual concern so that there will be no division in the body. Verse 26, and that way, whatever happens to one member happens to all. If one suffers, everyone suffers.

If one is honored, everyone rejoices. This passage that we just read right before it and right after it, Paul's talking to the Corinthians about giftings. He's talking to the Corinthians that every single person, so everybody look at me. All of you, Paul's talking about this, all of you have been given a manifestation of the Holy Spirit, a gift of the Holy Spirit, a calling, a passion.

He's the one that deposited it in you. He's the one that activates it. And he's the one that works inside of you. He works through you, okay?

And so Paul is saying, all of us have gifts, talents, passions, callings. And he's saying, okay, knowing that, there's honor that's given for the body and the roles that we take on. So every person in this room has those callings, passions, skills. It's like the ability and also the function.

So let's look at the eye, right? The eye has the ability to see and its function and its purpose is to see and then communicate with the brain, right? And so all of us have talents, abilities, and we have function in everyday life. You have a job.

You go to work. So in everyday life, you function as a part of the body and you have talents that get communicated through your everyday life. What happens most of the time, and we see this in this passage, is that if people are an eye, they are most passionate about seeing. If people are an ear, they're most passionate about hearing, right?

Knees are really passionate about bending. That's cool. Feet are most passionate about walking and they're the best at it, right? What oftentimes happens in the body and in culture is the person that we take our passion, our gift set, our calling, and we see other parts of the body through the lens of our calling, passion, and gift set.

And so there's judgment from the eye as they look at the knee. Because when the suffering happens, the knee doesn't respond the same way to the suffering that the eye does. So what happens is I'm through, let's say I'm an eye. Okay?

No, that's weird. I'm an eye and I'm seeing through the lens of my gifting, my passion, my competency, my experience, all of those things. I'm seeing the knee and I'm going there a little bit less than. And how they responded to that injustice, they didn't even post on Instagram, right?

And they don't seem like they're really carrying God's heart. When all along the knee is doing things that are unseen, or maybe a better example is the lung, right? The lung is at work, but nobody can see it. And sometimes the lung is jealous of the hands, because the hands are seen publicly, right?

There's a tendency to judge others through the lens of our ability and function. And oftentimes what we do is we take on how other parts of the body respond to injustice or respond in life. We take that on is that's how I need to respond. So the eye trying to be a nose doesn't that's really draining.

That's really tiring. If you're an eye and you're trying to smell, it doesn't work and you take on the burden of trying to smell when you're an eye and that doesn't work. Okay? A lot of times what happens in the body is that we adopt the world's point of view that the key is just top down leadership.

So in November, I'm going to get political a little bit. In November, we're going to vote for president, right? And the world is convincing us that once we put in a president, they're going to fix the problems. All you have to do is go vote and the problem is going to get fixed.

See, the world thinks that it's top down leadership, but then Jesus steps into the scene of human history and he starts getting on his hands and knees and starts washing people's feet. And he's going, no, the way is actually the upside down kingdom. It's an upside down bottom up kingdom. It's the everyday, menial, little stuff you can't microwave transformation.

See, we think, oh, I did my job. I voted and I didn't reject passivity. I didn't accept responsibility. I didn't leave courageous.

I didn't be I wasn't fueled by the future. I voted though. Listen, our passions for God's heart of justice cannot be expressed through voting for a candidate. That the injustices that we're seeing in America today is not fixed by legislation.

It can be helped in some little way, but we're talking about the whole body of Christ actually needs to be the body and step in with his yoke, his interpretation of truth. And then what we need is nurses and doctors that have a celebration that celebrate life. We need teachers that are actually unbiased as they teach. We need we need mechanics that are prophetic.

We need barbers that are really counselors. We need we need politicians and they're gonna they're gonna do a good job at legislating the kingdom if they're believers. We want that. So it's not like, oh, that's never gonna do anything.

But we have the as the body need to be ourselves with his yoke. You leaving this or the best thing that can happen today is you leave wanting to be you by the power of the Holy Spirit. That is the best case scenario. You want to be you.

You want to be in health insurance. You want to be a salesman. You want to be a mom or a dad. We need dads tucking kids in at night.

We need moms going to bookstores and practically buying a book that opens our children's mind to God's heart for diversity. We need to actually practically look at this and go, oh my goodness, this is a long game. One of the first things that when Katie and I sent a video to the whole community after George Floyd was murdered is we sent a video and we said, you can't microwave injustice. You can't microwave justice.

I'm sorry. We have to believe that there can be change in one generation. And I believe it starts with everyday believers. It starts with Christianity changing in one generation, the expression of Christianity changing in one generation.

It's actually all of us living every day with a new yoke, a new interpretation. Man, landlords with patience. Oh man, that's intense. Entrepreneurs making equitable hires.

Engineers carrying the word of revelation. Baristas sowing seeds of hope with words of knowledge. You in your everyday life is actually the key to injustice being ended. So how do, but the long is looking at the eye and the long is going, but how they're carrying it seems the way that you're supposed to carry it.

And we've got to, we've been in comparison mode so much that I think subconsciously we've been carrying the burdens of the world in a way that we weren't supposed to carry them. Because how I carry it is going to look different than how you carry it and how you carry it is going to look different than how your spouse carries it. And we have to be okay that we're going to carry it differently. If one suffers, everyone suffers.

If one is honored, everyone rejoices. Suffering when pain happens, we have to acknowledge that the pain is there as the whole body. And then we all respond in a different way. If my knee gets hurt, my eye looks down, but my eye can only look down if my neck moves down.

And my hand can grab a band aid, but I have to actually lift my shoulder and my elbow to open up the cabinet. And if I don't actually deal with my knee, then it starts impacting my back because I'm baby in it, right? There's an interconnectedness across the board in the body, but the solution isn't every part of my body acts like a hand. It's not going to work.

It's not going to fix the problem. It's not actually going to help the pain that's going on inside of my knee. You have to be a mom. You have to be businessman for the sake of the world, for the sake of the body.

You be you. Please don't think that you have to be a mouth in a church building to do your calling. To actually bring justice, you don't need to be an Instagram social media influencer. Listen, we don't need any more Instagram influencers.

If you're an influencer, listen, if you're an Instagram influencer, social media influencer, we want you on the team, but and we love you and I think that there's value in it. But God's strategy isn't isolated to a post. It's not isolated to going to a protest. There's this pressure to be an activist.

Activist campaign to make governmental or societal change. That's what an activist is. Jesus' strategy looked a little bit different and it was almost like a virus that you couldn't get control over because it was an everyday virus that spread everywhere rapidly because it was a people. It was like it was unstoppable because it wasn't attached to one person up here and calling that revival.

It wasn't the anointed person that's going, and now you encounter God. Oh, you fell over. Now you really know who God is. It wasn't an event that happened for 72 hours.

Revival is actually a people that's living in everyday life that's woken up to who they are in God and then stepping out in obedience and loving people in front of them. That's what revival is. So you are called to be revival on feet, but it's also justice on feet. You are now justice on feet.

You've gotten his interpretation of truth and now you get to carry that in every part of who you are. That's what we're called to do. That's what we're called to step into. This is not a season.

This is a justice lifestyle. We're a justice people because it's a justice gospel and it's going to be the little things that will change everything. It's the little things, the little conversations, the little confrontations. What I want to do is spend some time and we're going to spread out throughout the room and I want to spend some time taking off certain burdens that we've taken on as we've maybe subconsciously not even been aware of what we've been taking on.

And some of us, if you look at culture, there's over 30% of our country is clinically depressed and has anxiety. And then you take all of the nation and then the church. I think there's so many of us that are struggling in that way. And then you start adding burdens on top of that.

And another burden. And then you should have said this and you should have done that. And if you would only react like they did. And if you would only put a different filter and set it a different way.

And there's all of these burdens that we're starting to take on. And our shoulders just aren't broad enough. We actually need to be obedient to who we're called to be in our everyday life. And God is celebrating that.

So what I want us to do is we're going to, let's all stand up and you're free to spread throughout the room. If you want to sit down somewhere, if you want to go to the back and the front on the stairs, wherever is going to help you connect with the Lord so that you're not distracted by someone around you. Okay. So we're going to close our eyes.

I want us to picture a person in our life that we've looked at and thought, man, they are really the ones that are carrying this thing. The way that you're supposed to carry in justice. They're really the ones that are doing it right. They're really the ones that kind of define for you what it looks like to be carrying God's heart or being an anti-racist or a truth finder.

And I want us to picture that person. And I want us to just spend time under our breath honoring that person and who they are and how God has made them. Their gift set, their calling, just celebrate them and your heart. Lord, thank you for how you built them, the passions that you've given them, the call that's on their life, the influence that they have.

And I want us to, in our imagination, just picture taking that person, maybe an image of them in your mind and looking over at the Lord. The Lord is sitting with you and just kind of taking that person and setting that person in the Lord's lap. And maybe just saying something like, Lord, would you just take this person? Would you take all of what they represent and just, would you take this person?

Take the burden that I've had to be like them. Would you take that off of my shoulders? I just give that to you, would you take it? I really believe that the Lord is wanting to expose any lies or any burdens that we've taken on that are not the ones that he's actually placed on us.

So maybe you can ask the Holy Spirit question like, Holy Spirit, would you open my eyes to see a burden or burdens that are not mine to hold? Just asking your own words. Just, Lord, are there any burdens that I have, that I'm not supposed to be carried? It doesn't have to do with just injustice, it can be an endless amount of things.

You can take those things as they come up in each one and just have a time of connection with the Lord to say something like, Lord, would you take this too? Would you take this off my shoulders? Is there any other burdens that I'm carrying? Any worries, any even good things, they're usually good things that I've been carrying?

Or anything that is good that you're just saying, you know what, that's not yours to hold, not yours to carry right now, not yours to bear. Is there anything else in the Lord you're highlighting to me? I really feel like the Lord is highlighting names that some of us in the room have been carrying people that we've been carrying. The Lord's just saying, yeah, you've been carrying them so well, you've been doing such a good job of just praying for them.

I think that the Lord might be inviting some of us to hand over that person, the breakthrough that we're wanting to see, just hand that over to him for him to carry for a little bit. Just turn it into conversation. Lord, would you take this, this person? I know you're a good leader.

Hand over the control, the fear, around if it doesn't happen. It's not a burden that I was created to carry. I think the Lord is inviting us to take on a new vision for our everyday. The Lord's wanting to highlight to us a new perspective and a new vision for what it means to be me and everyday life.

So Lord, would you give me a new vision? You can just turn that into your own words. Lord, give me a new vision. For me, me, me, with you, me being me with you in everyday life.

Would you just start speaking to me? At least you're giving me pictures, giving me scriptures. I want to carry your yoke. I want to walk with you.

I believe all over the room he's speaking to plumbers and he's speaking to teachers and nurses. He's speaking to entrepreneurs. Give me a new vision for my nine to five. A new vision to carry your heart through, your heart of love, your heart of justice.

At any point you get stuck or you kind of, nothing's happening in your heart. You just can re-engage with the Lord and just say, and you just start a conversation with him that's honest. Sometimes we feel the burden and the pressure to being a good Christian and we just have to stop that. We're going after a connection, not being good and doing the right thing.

Just raw conversation. Maybe you're not connecting at all right now and you're like, this seems like it's been pointless. And he's the type of leader that wants you to be honest to talk about how you're not connecting. I'm sensing that the Lord is really highlighting two elements of love that he's wanting to infuse into your vision for your everyday life.

Maybe as a mom, as a dad, as a student, whatever it is, whatever your everyday looks like, whatever gift set that you have, whatever manifestations of the spirit you have, sensing that the first Corinthians 13, patience and kindness, is meant to be infused into that vision of everyday. That vision of being an entrepreneur and carrying his heart into that space. Lord, you're going to change. You're going to transform our city through things like patience and kindness.

You're going to radically advance the kingdom of God through patience. Maybe we can just ask him another question. Is there anything else that you want me to know about the things that I'm supposed to shoulder with you? Is there anything else that you want me to know?

Anything else that you, that would be our first step together. Just ask questions like that in your own words. Anything else you want me to know? Any next steps for me to listen to pray for us and commission us out that he is so happy that you are you.

When God the Father ripped open the heavens, do you remember that? He literally rips open the heavens and looks down at Jesus before Jesus does any ministry, any miracles before Jesus does any of the good stuff that we read in the Gospels. And he says, this is my loved Son that I like a lot. That's what he says.

He literally rips open the heavens just to say, I love my Son and I like him. And the Lord is saying that over his sons and daughters tonight. So if you've given your life to Jesus, the Lord is saying that to you tonight. That I love you, Jeremy.

And I like you, Jeremy. And I like your smile and I like your humor. And I like all of those elements and intricacies of your personality. And Jenny, you're the best.

I love all of the elements of the history that we have with each other that no one else knows about to see. With the Father, when he was saying, I love you and I like you. That wasn't this one dimensional thing. Like the Father wasn't going, I have this emotion of love.

I really love you. No, he was going, oh my goodness, all of the little intricacies of Jesus, awkward dad jokes, even though he wasn't a dad, right? All of those little moments of history that he was unseen for 20 years, that he was the lung that nobody ever saw. I love that Jesus.

He was going, man, I love the Jesus that was working with his hands and totally was mad about stubbing his toe when nobody was in the shop. I love that Jesus. I like him. And he's saying that over each one of us.

And you go to work tomorrow. So Lord, I just declare over these everyday believers that they are revival on feet, that they're justice on feet, that they're the body in motion. And Lord, I thank you that you are actually changing the expression of Christianity in one generation, that in that our children are going to carry themselves differently than we carried ourselves as connected sons and daughters of God, as sons and daughters of God that actually carry identity and intimacy and mission. And it's just who they are.

So Lord, I just declare that it's the small things, it's the little things, it's the little obitances and it's the little yeses of our hearts that will transform the world. So Lord, I declare that by everyday us renewing our mind, our lives are being transformed. And I just declare that there's people that are transforming as we speak and that our city is transforming as well. Lord, here we go, you and us.

We love you. We love being connected to you as we plow together in the fields. In Jesus' name. Amen.