The Character of Jesus — Matthew 9

0:00 Good morning. Good morning. Open your Bibles to Matthew chapter nine. Matthew chapter nine. Have any of you ever heard Randy Travis music Christmas CD?

0:18 Anybody? Have you heard where his song is not a silent night? I haven't heard that one. Oh. How much a few hours?

0:24 It's... I don't have the gift of singing. No. So I'm not going to try to exercise it at this moment. But I find that song extremely interesting because he takes another angle.

0:37 And the song starts with saying it wasn't a sight of night. She was having a baby. And so she was crying and probably in pain having the baby. So anyway, listen to it. It really blesses me.

0:50 But I like this Silent Night song as well. Don't get me wrong. I'm just saying there's another version as well. Okay. So what we're gonna talk about today is the character of Jesus, the character of Jesus.

1:01 We're be looking into talking about them. But first of all, I have to say that the last two weeks, I've been extremely blessed starting out with Mrs. Spiller. The funeral was so encouraging to me, especially when the grandchildren were playing music in honor of her. And that really blessed me and to hear the nice words.

1:23 And then Scott, know, hearing the words that they were saying about your dad, and it it was such an encouragement to hear that and and what you said about your dad also Friday night. I went home. Was like, that was that was a beautiful thing, you know, to to give honor to our parents and so, I I was, you're supposed to go administer someone at a viewing, but I was more ministered to. You know, I went home more blessed. I was like, wow, Lord, this is unique how you work.

1:52 But I thank God for that, that, you know, even through grief, he can speak to you through the people who are grieving. Yes. So amen for the body of Christ who can love each other and and be there for one another. I don't know what I do without the body of Christ in my own life. Amen?

2:08 Isn't it important and such a blessing? All right. So let me start out with a statement that Jeremy, I shared it with you at one time. And this is a statement. The most important thing about you is what you think about God.

2:25 Did you hear that one? The most important thing about you is what you think about God because people are going to hurt you and disappoint you. And one of the the greatest arguments of people that I'm trying to encourage to listen to the word of god who who once sat like you is that, well, I used to go there, but somebody hurt me. I used to go there, but I saw people who weren't real or whatever. Whatever their excuse is.

2:54 Right? And so what they do is they associate the behavior or the action where somebody hurt them or something to God. And so consequently, they say, I'm not I don't want to hear about God because when I tried the God thing, was hurt. So that's why the most important thing about you is what you think about him. What you think about him.

3:14 And so what I want to do today is draw your attention to focus you on the the character of Jesus. We're going to look at his heart of compassion. Alright? And then we're going to look at his character. And then finally, we're going to look at his mission, his mission.

3:51 Amen. And if anyone might be visiting us, we're grateful that you're here. We pray that you would feel at home. Matthew nine and verse nine, as Jesus passed from from on from there, from where he was, he saw a man called Matthew sitting in the tax office, and he said to him, follow me. And he rose and followed him.

4:14 And it happened that as he was reclining at the table in the house, behold, many tax gatherers and sinners came and were dining with Jesus and his disciples. So apparently, Matthew, once he heard the voice of Jesus, a call of Jesus, invited his buddies, the other tax gatherers. It says if an engineer gets saved, he calls a bunch of engineers over. Right? And so forth.

4:38 Alright. So he calls all the the tax guys, you know, and come on, and some other sending buddies of his. Come on over. Let let's have a meal and and so they're there and look at verse 11 and when the Pharisees saw this, they said to his disciples, why is your teacher eating with tax gatherers and sinners? And when he heard this, he said, it is not those who are healthy who need a physician, but those who are sick.

5:06 And notice this text, verse 14, but go and learn what this means. This is the heart of Jesus. This is his compassion. He's quoting from Hosea six:six. Go along with this means, I desire compassion and not sacrifice, for I did not come to call the righteous but sinners.

5:25 And so they were, I guess, disappointed in many ways with God. They they thought that God should have brought a deliverer by now, and and they were under the the rule of the Romans. But more than the Romans, their disappointment was with the religious sector, which is what most people have been hurt by even today. The religious section, and these men oppressed them kept them at bay and looked down on them, and they knew it, and they felt distance from this religious group and what they represented. And so when Jesus breaks into the scene, suddenly he goes up to a person that the religious people say, you don't get near them.

6:12 Those people, they're nasty. Because you know what a tax gatherer was, right? Tax gatherer was somebody who was a traitor. And so they looked at these guys and like, how could you do that to your country? And there was a lot of hate towards these people.

6:28 But these people who attacked were human beings that had feelings. And you know what? They felt lonely, and they felt their need of love like anyone else does. So God didn't say, you know, there's some kind of strange animal. Let's stay away from them.

6:44 But God could see through their greed, if you will, of being tactical, of turning their back on their own country and extortioning from them. God could see through that, and he can see a human being that had some needs. And so we're not familiar with Matthew's background or his other buddies or the other tax collectors and the other sinners as they're called here. We don't know what was going on, but it's not any different from what you and I go through when people we... That we hang around with go through.

7:17 Right? I think of my neighbor to the side of me. They don't acknowledge Jesus. The neighbor told me he's Muslim. And they just kind of got together, and they don't know any different.

7:31 And my job is not to say, stay away from me, but my job is to say to them, whenever you want to talk, I'm here. And the good thing is he came up to me and said, I have a lot of questions. I said, that's Okay. When you're ready, give me a call. I gave him my number.

7:45 I gave him a track. When you're ready, let's get together and let's talk. They need to know that you're open to that, to receiving them and not putting up a wall. In fact, last night, Zach thank you, Lord. Zach brought up a young man, and the young man had questions.

8:01 And he didn't understand salvation. He didn't understand who Jesus was. And so all the college and career guys attacked him in love, in love, right, including myself. And because we wanted so much to get him to understand that Jesus is God and that he loves him. And so we were able to leave in a good note.

8:20 He wants to come back. Praise God for that. And I want to quote MacArthur right here as he's considering this text. He said, Christ feels the pain that hurts us and the weight that burdens the weight of burdens that grind us down. And in his gracious, loving kindness, he heals our hurts and lifts our burdens.

8:40 And so Matthew can actually say, for the first time, someone approached me and loved me and and and could look beyond all my sin and all my crookedness of my life, and I can feel accepted, and he came to eat in my house without condemning me. They were already felt condemned because the Pharisees says, Why are hanging around those guys? You know who they are? Of course, Jesus knew who they were. He knew everything about them.

9:10 He he could he could see their pain and their need, and they needed to be loved just like you and I do. Yeah. I know maybe we didn't go and rip somebody off for their taxes or steal from them, but still, you have needs. And so let's continue another encounter with Jesus, chapter nine and verse 36. And seeing the multitude, nine thirty six, notice what he says again.

9:35 He felt compassion for them. So we're looking at the character of Jesus and his compassion because they were distressed and downcast like sheep without a shepherd. Then he said to his disciples, the harvest is plentiful, but the workers are few. Therefore, beseech the Lord of the harvest to send out workers into the harvest. So as he looked at the crowds, because, you know, he was going from town to town to different areas, and as I looked at the crowd, he could see the desperation in their eyes and in the crowd.

10:07 And he goes, I feel compassion for them. Now, changes because the people all around us are just as desperate and just as dark. And so what he says is, here's what we're going do. Because I already died and resurrected, I'm in heaven, here's what you're going do. You're going to pray, and here's your prayer.

10:24 Lord, there are so many needs. Send people to go and touch those people with their needs. Someone that can understand them and go and hook up with them and connect and show them that you love them. Wow, what a prayer. And so the Lord laid this prayer on my heart since I was meditating on this.

10:42 Lord, I need to pray more that you would send people because the harvest is ready. People need the Lord. And they're desperate. I know they're hiding behind the cloak of I don't need them and all that, but inside this, yes, they do. Yes, they do.

10:57 Yeah, I heard that. I've been there, but you still need the Lord. And you need to hear the good news of Jesus Christ. And he's compassionate towards you, he loves you, and he told me to pray for you so that you can hear about how he loves you and accepts you. And so is again, we're getting to see his heart.

11:16 He saw the people without direction, without a shepherd. The the religious people were just like, again, they they were mean to them, and they just condemned them, and they felt guilty and dirty around them. Check out chapter 14 now, the same book, and verse 14, fourteen fourteen. We're going to see the same word again, the same phrase. Okay.

12:05 Well, he knew who was going to believe and who wasn't. You're not going to believe in me, but you have a need right now. You're sick, whatever it was. And here's what I'm going to do. I'm going to heal you whether you respond or not because I'm so full of compassion.

12:19 You remember the 10 lepers? He healed 10 of them, and only one came back. And Baal said, thank you, Lord. The rest of them? Oh, I'm healed.

12:26 Good. I'm gone. Right? But he still healed them. The Bible puts it this way.

12:31 The Lord sends his rain and his blessings on the good and the evil. They hate him. They're cursing him. I don't care. I'm still going to give you food.

12:41 I'm still going to give you health. I'm going to give you provision. You're going have a job. I'm going give you a family. Whether you acknowledge me or not, because I'm so full of compassion.

12:48 And this is what the text is teaching us. He was healing them regardless of their response. And so it reminds me of the passage that we're looking at in our last week in Isaiah chapter seven when Ahaz was in trouble and and and god sends Isaiah the prophet and said, go and speak to him. Go encourage him and he says, look, look, Ahaz, god wants to speak to you. He wants to encourage you.

13:15 Why don't you ask him for a sign? Ahaz didn't have any interest in God, any interest in God at all. And so in fact, he already had come up with his own device. I don't need God. I'm going to come up with my own plan to fix my problem.

13:29 But the prophet is saying, come on, ask God. Now, I don't want to provoke God. Now, the reality is you don't want to hear from God. But here's what God said to him. I'm going to give it to you anyway.

13:42 I'm going to I'm going to give you the sign anyway. Whether you want to hear it or not, I'm... Because this is so important. And here's the sign. What was it?

13:50 Emmanuel. God is with us. Wow. In the midst of rebellion and a person didn't want to hear it, not only him but the whole people around them didn't want to hear it. He still gave it to him because god was so excited to introduce to us this prophecy about Jesus.

14:10 And so, he felt compassion. He was healing the sick whether they believe them or not or respond to him or not. He's still so full of compassion. And you know that's the way God is. That's the way God is.

14:21 I've seen God do great work in people's lives, and they still haven't come to him. But God still loves them, and they still matter, and they're still important. Now turn to Matthew chapter 12. Matthew 12, and notice then a more detailed explanation of the heart of Jesus, the compassion of Jesus. And let's let's start in verse one.

14:44 At that time, Jesus went on the Sabbath, Matthew twelve one, through the grain fields, and his disciples became hungry and began to pick the heads of grain and eat. But when the Pharisees there goes the religious people again. When the Pharisees saw it, they said to him, behold, your disciples do what is not lawful to do on the Sabbath. Now that's not true. They could walk through the field of grain and they could pick some grain if they were hungry, right?

15:14 It's like if you're walking by an apple orchard and you're hungry, you grab an apple and eat it. You could do it on a Saturday. So the Pharisees invented this rule. They added to the law this rule that you can't do that. But it wasn't in the Bible.

15:30 All right? So they made it up. A lot of people call it tradition. All right? And so it made up stuff.

15:37 And again, they were oppressing the people. The people couldn't see that God was compassionate and loving and kind of wanted to bless them. All they could see was this heavy handed, that's wrong. That's wrong. That's wrong.

15:49 You're a sinner. Stay away. And the people were like, man, what is God like? What is god like? And so Jesus says to the Pharisees, let let's talk a little bit about this.

16:00 Verse three, have you not read that what David did when he became hungry and and and he and his companions? Verse four, and he entered the house of God, and they ate the consecrated bread, which was not lawful for him to eat. All right, now, some explanation. Inside of the temple, they had 12 breads, okay, 12 things. And every day, would take out the old bread and bring in fresh the next day.

16:27 The bread that was left over is what the priest could eat. It's like when you go to Panera, you can get the leftover bread for free and hand it out. But that's exactly what it was. That's exactly what it was. They would go get but it was only for the priest.

16:44 But here comes David. Somebody's trying to kill him, him and his group, his companions, and they're desperate. I mean, they're hungry, right? They're hungry. And he goes up to the priest, can I have some bread?

16:55 Now, technically, he wasn't supposed to have that bread, but God overlooked it. And he didn't say he sinned. The priest said, you know what? You're hungry? We're not supposed to do this, but you're hungry.

17:08 I'm going give it to you because there's a need. So the need overrode the law. You see it? Right? It's it's like like the the old guy never passed the speed limit, right, until someday somebody's chasing him with a gun.

17:22 All of sudden, he gunned. Like, what happened? Dude, you sinned. Yeah. But the needle overrode the the law.

17:26 Right? I was trying to get away from the guy trying to kill me. And so so that's the idea. God says, I know I set that rule up, but this guy had a legitimate need, I'm going to overlook it because I want to bless this man who's hungry. Right?

17:42 And so but the money was donated for the building. Yes, but there's a family that has a need. We're going to take that money for now and provide food for this family because there's a need right now. You understand? And so that's the idea.

17:56 So then he goes on to a second example in verse four. Verse of verse... I'm sorry, verse five. Have you not read in the law that on the Sabbath, the priests in the temple break the Sabbath and are innocent? Now what is that all about?

18:12 You know that the Sabbath means that on Saturday, the priest of the people, nobody was supposed to work. Alright? So you couldn't set your alarm, get up, and and let let's go, you know, nail wood and build our whatever you do for a living. Right? You're not supposed to do that.

18:26 You're supposed to rest on that day. But guess what the priest had to do? The people who bring their sacrifice to the priest and the priest priest had to kill the sacrifice, you know, drain the blood, and do all this work and and burn the the... So in other words, they're working. On Saturday, they worked twice as hard.

18:44 You ever killed an animal? That's a lot of work. I used to work at a pig place where we killed animals all day long. Don't ever do that. That's a nasty job.

18:57 Dubuque So packing, it was a nightmare of my life. I'll never forget it. So I had to gut 1,200 pigs per day. Oh, okay. Yeah.

19:06 Yeah. And the smell. Okay. I'll leave that alone. I'll leave that alone.

19:11 So the idea was that the had to do that. They had to kill the animal. They had to gut the animal. They had to do and at the end of the day, the priests were like, I'm worn out. Guess what they were doing?

19:23 It's called what? But god said, but do you know that they're innocent? Because they're doing god's things. They're doing god's things. So, so then he goes on and and he says something that just got the Pharisees angry.

19:54 I'm greater than the temple. He's talking about himself. I'm greater than the temple. And look at what he says in verse seven. The same expression.

20:01 You're going to see this quite a few times in Matthew. Verse seven. But if you had known what this means and guess where he's quoting? Hosea six six again. Same thing, he keeps quoting that text.

20:12 I desire what? Compassion. I desire compassion and not sacrifice. You wouldn't if you understood this, you would not have condemned the innocent. The guys who picked the grain, they were innocent.

20:27 David was innocent. The priests were innocent. And all you do is you condemn people, but you don't offer them any love. Again, I'm going to quote John MacArthur one last time. In practice, the Pharisees treated other men with less respect than they treated their animals.

20:46 Because in their hearts, they didn't respect, much less love, their fellow men, including their fellow Jews. So they did not refuse to do acts of mercy because of devotion to God's law, but because they lack compassion. They had no love. They had no love. And then he goes on to give the example in verse 11.

21:08 And he said to them, what man shall be among you who should have a sheep that falls into the pit Okay. The eyes are getting a little blurry, I'm sorry falls into the pit on the Sabbath, will he not take hold of it and lift it out? How much more value is a man than a sheep, so then it is lawful to do good on the Sabbath? So he goes on to give another example. He says, look, you have your animal, and back then the animals were pretty valuable.

21:39 It's equivalent to a car, right? Somebody buys a car, you pay a lot of money for it, you have insurance on it, you're taking care of it, and all of a sudden something happens to it, And you say, well, I'm just going to leave it there. It's Saturday. You're like, well, no, I need it for work tomorrow, so I better go get it to a mechanic. So he says, you have an animal and it falls into a hole and it's going to die in there, you're going say, you know what?

22:01 I better pull it out because I have to plow tomorrow or load up the donkey or whatever they did back then in that culture. You do that, right? Oh, yeah, yeah, right. Because I don't want my animal to die. He goes, Okay, here's a man that has a legitimate need.

22:18 Right? And so I'm going to bless him. I'm going to heal him Saturday or not. See, because they didn't understand, god is in the people business. He's in the people business.

22:33 People often to what religion I am. I'm in no religion. I'm in the relationship business where Jesus knows me personally, and he's teaching me to be compassionate as he is. Nothing to do with religion. In fact, my dad says, I fled from religion to come to know Jesus Christ in a personal, intimate way.

22:53 Right? And so, god created us in his image and he wants a relationship with us and he's interested, and he knows you, he knows your pain and your hurt, and he cares about you, and that is a blessing. To know that, that he values you. You are immensely valuable in the sight of God. And he never puts you aside.

23:18 He never forgets your name. I forgot somebody's name today. So he doesn't forget your name. He knows who you are, and he knows your needs. And he wants to extend his compassion towards you.

23:47 I am gentle and humble in heart, and you shall find rest for your soul. So what do we learn about the character of Jesus? We learn that Jesus is full of compassion. But as far as his character, his person, he said, especially right there, I am gentle. I am gentle.

24:04 And I have not often been gentle in my life, and I'm asking the Lord to help me to be like Jesus, which he was gentle and he was humble. Always humble. He didn't go around saying, hey, guess what? You know that I'm God? You know that I can make fire come down from heaven right now if I want?

24:27 Do you want me to see me do some great things, dude? Man, I can show you that he he was humble. He just did the work of God. Notice in 12 and verse 18, we're going to start with 14. This is one of what they call the the the gems of the New Testament when explains talks about Jesus.

24:47 But let's look at what the Pharisees were thinking. But the Pharisees went out and they counseled together against him against Jesus as to how they might destroy him. He's full of compassion and blessing people, and they couldn't stand him for doing that. He's he's full of character. He's gentle and humble, and they wanted to destroy him.

25:07 But Jesus, aware of this, withdrew from there, and many followed him, and he healed them all. Notice. He healed them all, and he warned them not to make it known in order that what was spoken through Isaiah the prophet might be fulfilled. Isaiah 42 verse one. But we're going read it right here.

25:26 It's a quote. Behold, my servant whom I have chosen, my beloved in whom my soul is well pleased, I will put my spirit upon him, and he shall proclaim justice to the Gentiles. And so when we're looking at the character of Jesus, we're looking at that he was gentle and humble. But the next thing you see is that he's introduced as a servant, as a servant. He came to serve.

25:50 I didn't come to be served, but to serve. Oh, my word. What a character. And Jesus said, this is my servant who I'm introducing. Look at him.

26:02 He pleases me in every way, absolutely submissive to my will. I came to do the father's will. I'm not here to do my own thing. But the father came to send me to do a task, and that was to save man from their lostness. Because god loves man.

26:17 He's so full of compassion that he's going to do whatever it takes to save him. And so here I am, lord. I'm your servant. I'm your servant. And so God's response is this.

26:29 I chose him. He's absolutely obedient to me in every way, and he's my beloved. I so pleased with him because he serves me in every way. And so how beautiful to hear from God himself that he was so pleased with Jesus because he was such a servant and totally committed to do whatever God wanted. And he says, I love him.

26:54 Oh, he's my beloved. Look at how he obeys me in every way. And then the next thing we see is, I want to put my spirit upon him. In his human nature, he needed to be empowered by the Holy Spirit. And if he needed that, how much more you and I.

27:11 Right? Have you noticed how difficult it is to live the life of Christ? Have you noticed the old flesh hanging around every day, every night, even in your dreams sometimes? Is that holy spirit take hold of me? Because I can't live a life without you.

27:28 If Jesus needed to be empowered by the Holy Spirit, how much more you and I? And so he said, I'm going put my spirit upon him. And you remember the spirit of God led him into to be tempted and empowered him. The spirit of God was guiding him as he was doing the will of God. And so I will put my spirit upon him, and he shall proclaim justice to the Gentiles.

27:48 Wow. The Jewish people couldn't stand this part. Is there any way we can go into the Old Testament and take that part out? So we can say that he just came to the Jews and only them? People do that with the word of God, too.

28:04 We heard it last night. Somebody doesn't like the word of God. How about if I just remove that little phrase because it bothers me? How about if I remove the phrase where it says, he's going to do justice for the Gentiles. He's going to love everybody.

28:19 The Jews, that was a struggle when when they started preaching the gospel. You mean, Jesus loves the Gentiles too? He loves everybody? Yeah. Peter, go over there and go speak to Cornelius.

28:31 I... But lord, I've I've never been into a Gentile's house. I'm not gonna contaminate myself. Go over there and preach to him and tell him, give him the gospel. Alright?

28:40 And he went. And they believed. And he went back and he met with the rest of the Jews. And guess what? I can't deny it, man.

28:46 They got saved. They got saved just like we did. Because God's love isn't limited to any group of people, but to all the world. To all the world. And so notice to the next text how important.

29:03 He will not quarrel nor cry out, nor will anyone hear his voice in the streets. All right. We just got through this campaigning, right, a couple of last month. Aren't you glad you don't have to hear those? And I approve this.

29:15 Aren't you glad you don't have to hear that anymore? For three and a half years, we don't have to hear it again. Thank you, lord. Right? So it wasn't Jesus going with his disciples.

29:24 Hey, man. Let's campaign. Let's get a poster up and say, Jesus is the Messiah. Right? Everybody come and look in with the bullhorns.

29:31 Hey, come on. A big pep rally. He's the one. Look at him. Right?

29:36 He wasn't waving banners or doing all that. He was just doing the will of God. And as he was doing it, it became evident that he was the Christ. And so he wasn't looking for a big following, a political party. And so the zealots and other political parties, including religious sector, wondered why he didn't buddy up with the rich and influential.

29:58 Why is this man hanging around the losers and the sinners and the broken, people with everyday needs? What's wrong with this Jesus? See, he was blowing them out of the water. They couldn't understand them. Why does he have compassion to those we stay away from them.

30:16 And so they were kind of baffled at his approach. If this is the Messiah, shouldn't he be trying to hang around and buddy up with the guys with money and that can influence and can help? No. As a matter of fact, notice a text, verse 20. One of my favorite verses of the Bible.

30:50 When I'm walking by, guess what I do? I finish pulling it out. Right? So in other words, it's just barely hanging in there. You have the power to break it, to hurt it, destroy it, or to try to fix it.

31:03 Jesus, the Bible is saying this, there's a broken reed barely hanging on, and Jesus didn't come to break it off. He came to heal it. The idea is they used to use reeds for music. And they would cut out and and you know, make like a little flute like thing. And once the flute was no good, they would just toss it out.

31:21 And that's the way the Pharisees looked at them. Oh, this is an old man. There's no more value. Put them aside. And they would look at the poor, and they said, well, we don't gain anything from them.

31:33 And so they would trample over them. And the people knew it. They felt it. And then he goes on to a second example, a smoldering wick. Anybody who knows my wife knows that candles are a staple of our home.

31:49 Right? Seven or eight a week or more on a good week. Right? And so you know what a candle looks like when when... I shouldn't be doing that.

32:00 Well, you know what a candle looks like when when it's starting to fade out? Just about done. And and then it starts to... The flame starts going away and just a little bit of smoke is coming out. What do we normally do?

32:10 What do we normally do? Right? That thing's no good. Boom. And so Jesus uses that illustration to demonstrate again, here's a person that's barely hanging on.

32:23 They have no hope. Maybe they're doing drugs. Maybe their spouse left them. Maybe their kid died in an accident or overdosed. They're barely hanging on to life.

32:34 In fact, some of them might even be thinking, I want to take my life. I have no hope. I don't know what to do. Jesus didn't come and say, you know what? Boom.

32:42 He didn't do that. He came and he lifted them up, people who were broken. There's that woman with five husbands. You imagine how she felt? Listen, she felt like trash.

32:56 Five failures and then the next... I'm just moving in. I'm not even going to marry you, you know? Everything fails in my life. And so Jesus goes up to her and he saves her.

33:09 And so this is what this is talking about. This is what Jesus came to do, to reach people who are broken and hurt. So smoldering wick, he would not put out until he leads justice to victory, and so we know that he did, right? He was victorious on the cross, and he rose from the dead? Wow.

33:34 And in his name, the Gentiles, you and I, will hope. Will hope. Wow. How blessed we are that Jesus was so full of compassion and that he had such character that he came to reach the broken and the needy. Right?

33:52 And so then we go to his calling to himself. Draw your eyes back to Matthew 11 and verse 28. Come to me, all who are weary and heavy laden, and I will give you rest. This is the promise from Jesus. I don't know what your load is today, what's your issue, what's bothering you.

34:14 We we know sometimes we don't wanna share it with anybody. There's a burden. There's something that really has you anxious and worried. And you're like, Lord, I'm so weighed down. He goes, come.

34:30 Come on. Come to me all who are weary. Are you weary? You probably are. Probably are.

34:37 You could be weary of being sick. You get tired of being sick. Right? I remember my sister was sick for years. She said, I'm just so sick of being sick.

34:48 So come to me, all you who are weary and heavy laden, you got loads, something's weighing heavy on you, and I, the promise of Jesus, will give you rest. And praise God, the believer has learned to rest in the Lord, Right? To trust him, and he gives you peace in the midst of whatever burden you have on your life, which reminds me of Galatians, where it says that we're supposed to help each other with our burdens. But then he says, but each of you carry his own burden. So yes, there is a sense in the body has to help each other out with burdens, but there's also a sense that we're responsible to carry a certain amount of burden ourselves.

35:29 Right? And so then he says, take my yoke upon you and learn from me. I am gentle and humble in heart, and you shall find rest for your soul. And you know what? If you're not saved, there you go.

35:41 Come and find rest for your soul. Because if you're not saved, you don't have peace in your heart. You can pretend, but you don't. You can pretend, but you don't. And if you are saved, find rest in Jesus.

35:54 I don't know what you're going through, but find rest in him. Find rest in him. I don't know who hurt you in the past. I don't know why you're broken, but you are. And Jesus says, come on, find rest in me.

36:08 Find rest. For my yoke is easy and my load is light. And that's the promise of God that he's going to give you rest. Wow. What a person.

36:18 What a character. He's worthy of us putting all of our rest and burdens on him. And he says he's going to give you rest and you're going to be able to, as David said in chapter four of of Psalm, when his son was trying to kill him and and he cried out to god and here's what he said. I'm going to lie. I'm going to lay my head down and and I'm going to sleep and then he said, god gave me sleep.

36:44 I was able to sleep Even though I had the threat of my own son trying to kill me, that was a pretty big burden. But I was able to sleep that night. Can you imagine? Some lady tells me the other day, can't sleep. I'm taking pills.

36:58 I'm doing all I can't sleep. I said, well, have you ever thought of asking God? No. Well, I said, well, the Lord said he'll give you rest. Why don't you pray and ask him to give you rest instead of taking pills to sleep?

37:10 Wow, I never thought of that. Jesus says, come on. I'm gonna help you out. And so the compassion of Jesus, the compassion, the character of Jesus. He doesn't break people.

37:26 He comes to heal and bless and save. And of course, the calling, come on, I'm gonna give you rest. Father, thank you for your word. Thank you for the Lord Jesus, our blessed savior. No wonder we worship him.

37:40 No wonder we wanna serve him. What a character. What a man. What a God that we can totally trust and we can put our burdens on him and he promises to give us his rest. Thank you, Lord, for this.

37:54 Encourage your people, I pray. In Jesus' name, amen.