0:07 Thanks Lord for what we've heard so far. And God for his goodness and what he's doing in our midst. I want to share something I believe the Lord is making more clear to me 0:24 concerning being a burden bearer. In Matthew 11 28 through 30 It says, "Come to me all who labor and 0:45 are heavy laden and I 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." 1:04 Um you know, this is a very familiar passage of scripture and has been dear to me as a Christian as long as I can remember from my early days of being a Christian. It's something that has been a very important 1:21 scripture in my in my life. >> [clears throat] >> Um that when I'm weary and burdened, I can come to him and he upholds me and lifts my burden. And I believe that this will be the case until that my journey's end. 1:40 That I'll always be able to go to the Lord if if I'm if I have a heavy burden that's always the invitation from the Lord is to come unto me and he'll give me rest. But I'm starting but I'm seeing it in a different light. 1:57 Uh Jesus lifting my burdens and giving me rest is not just for me uh to be carefree and burdenless uh that I he comes he lifts my burden and now I'm just free uh and I'm carefree and I don't have any more burdens to bear. 2:16 Uh but he gives me rest so that I can share his burden uh and learn from him. And one of the way I see uh in is that he has a burden for those who are around me uh beginning in my home 2:33 uh and and now I can partner with him in carrying that burden. Uh and what's wonderful is that I still will be able to be at rest um and find rest as I share that burden with him. And in that scripture I see um 2:53 if I see it clearly it seems like he gives me rest and then there's another level of rest when I bear the burden that he has and I share that burden with him. He said then I'll find rest for my soul. Uh seem like there's a a a second level 3:09 of rest because I'm sharing that burden with him. And uh there's a verse uh that the Lord has reminded me of uh recently in Numbers 10 um and 29 3:29 one of the verses in relation to uh being a a burden bearer. Numbers 10 uh 29 and also verse 32 but in 29 Moses 3:46 said to uh Hobab the son of Reuel the Midianite Moses' father-in-law so he's talking to this particular person. And in verse 32, he said, "And it shall be, if you go with us, indeed it shall be 4:04 that whatever good the Lord will do to us, the same we will do to you." Um and then one of the ways that the Lord has been good to me is he helps me with my cares and my burdens. Um and another familiar scripture is 1 Peter 2, 4:22 sorry, 1 Peter 5. and 7. He says, "Casting all your care upon him, for he cares for you." And I believe in some way, and 4:41 especially in in in intercession, that I can make someone else's cares and concern my own, because the Lord has put his care in my heart for them. And may the Lord continue to help me grow in this. >> One of the things >> [clears throat] 4:58 >> I believe the Lord has been convicting me about um for a while now, consistently uh challenging me, is what I do with with what I receive in the church in terms of a message or an exhortation or even a conviction. 5:18 Um what do I do with it? Do I go back home and and just have a little bit more knowledge? Um for example, the message this morning to seek to dwell in the Lord's presence more and more, uh to have more reverence, to have 5:36 um to have a greater hatred for sin. Now, whether I like it or not, I've increased in knowledge. If someone comes and asks me, "Tell me about Sunday's message. What did you hear?" I have the right answers. But the Lord's been challenging me, is 5:51 that is that taking effect in your life on Monday when you're at work um in a meeting has the presence of the Lord become more real for you? Do you hate even the slightest idea of sin when you're tempted? Or is it just 6:08 a little bit more knowledge? And I was thinking of um of what Jesus told the Pharisees in Matthew chapter 23 and verse 5. Um he said "They do all their deeds to be seen by others. For they make phylacteries broad and 6:30 their fringes long." I was thinking about about this that this is actually in the Old Testament as um as a law. In Deuteronomy 6 um verse 8 and also Numbers 15 that God actually tells them uh literally "Wear the word of God. Put it 6:49 between your foreheads and then on the fringes of your garments." But what the Pharisees did was they focused on on just that. And for me, I'm not tempted to go out and wear God's word on my forehead tomorrow. Uh some of us might wear God's word on a 7:09 t-shirt or or something like that, but that's not my temptation. My temptation is to just grow or increase my knowledge. But the reason these commandments were given was that they actually do them. And by doing them, that they love God. 7:23 If we If I turn back to Deuteronomy chapter 6 uh where this command was given in verse 8 God says, "You shall bind them as a sign on your hand. And they shall be as frontlets between 7:41 your eyes." But if you go back to verse 4, when God started speaking, it says, "Hear, O Israel, the Lord is the Lord our God, the Lord is one. And you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your might. 7:57 And that was the purpose of it. And these words I come at verse 6, and these words that I command you shall be on your heart. You shall teach them diligently to your children and shall talk of them when you sit down in your house, when you walk by the way, 8:11 and then when you lie down, and when you rise. In other words, the point of it was to keep God's word, not just to put it on your forehead. And if you switch to Numbers 15, um and verse 38, um 8:31 And the Lord said to Moses, verse 37 and verse 38, "Speak to the people of Israel and tell them to make tassels on the corners of their garments throughout their generations and to put a cord of blue on the tassel of each corner. 8:44 And it shall be a tassel for you to look at and remember all the commandments of the Lord to do them, not to follow after your own heart and your own eyes, which you are inclined to do." And that focus or their emphasis for you 8:58 to look at and remember, it's not for other people. The Pharisees had made it a law so that other people would look at it and remember, but for us, for myself to look at and remember and follow the Lord. And the Lord has been challenging me 9:10 with that, saying, "Alan, you've increased so much in knowledge. We've heard the elders say that if you've been in a CFC church for about a year, you've you know all the core teachings. There's there won't be a doubt in your mind what 9:22 the core teachings are. But I've been in a CFC church, one place or the other, for uh almost a couple decades now. And I know a lot of things. Uh I know the right answer. Sometimes I'll be sitting through Q&A sessions and I'll be like, I know I know the 9:38 answer. I know what Brother Zac is going to say. I've heard this before. But what the Lord has been challenging me is, has that become true in your life on a Monday, on a Friday um when nobody else is watching? When you're tempted to be in a bad mood 9:53 or you're tempted to be to have a bad attitude towards this colleague or this person who's rubbed you the wrong way um or give someone the silent treatment? Have those answers has that truth become true in your life? Um I was thinking of 10:08 of it in this way. If I had two trees in my backyard I planted two trees and only one of them produces fruit, the second one. But if I keep watering the first one and it's grown tall and there are some benefits to it, it provides some shade 10:23 but it's never going to give me fruit. And I can keep increasing in knowledge, um keep having the right answers year after year, conference after conference, Sunday after Sunday. There's going to be no fruit unless I water the second plant, the second tree 10:40 so that it can grow. I remember Jared Brother Jeremy Utley once had given us an image of two concentric circles. And the outer circle is doctrine. He said, "This is a large outer circle, but there's a small little inner circle 10:55 called devotion." And he said, "Our focus in life, our focus Sunday after Sunday, conference after conference is not primarily to grow this outer circle, make it bigger and bigger but rather to grow that small inner circle of devotion and say, 'Lord 11:10 since last conference or since last Sunday that circle has grown.' Like we were hearing this morning sin has become a little bit more ugly to me, Lord. You your presence has become a little bit more valuable. And I want to seek that with all my 11:25 heart. Um Brother Zac used to say uses this term, a spiritual checkup. Um you need a spiritual checkup every now and then to see how you're actually doing, not how much I know, how do I compare when I every now and then I'll I'll be in a another church 11:41 when I'm not in town or when somebody asked me to visit. And I look around and I'll be comparing myself to them in terms of well, that little thing that they do, I don't agree with or I think I know the right answer to to how exactly you need to praise 11:55 or or yeah, the you know, I I don't approve of the fog in this um in this room right now as we're singing. But that doesn't really matter. What really matters is like we heard this morning, am I spending more time in the presence of 12:11 the Lord? Has Jesus become a little bit more precious to me? Um have I have I gained further ground in my battle over sin? Have I become a little kinder to my children? That's what matters and the Lord has been convicting me about that and 12:29 in terms of a spiritual check up, I I recently went for my physical and I think I have a lot of right answers about what my diet should be, how much protein should be in it, um how I should avoid carbs, greens need to be in my diet. 12:44 And it's it's all wonderful, right? I can keep increasing in my knowledge of uh what my diet needs to be. But if I go for a check up and they say, well, your blood sugar levels are really high or your cholesterol is really 12:56 really bad, your bad cholesterol, it doesn't matter what I know or what I think my diet should be. The numbers matter. Um and I feel like the Lord has been giving me a spiritual check up and saying, Alan, you need to grow that inner 13:09 circle. That plant which bears fruit, that needs to grow. I was encouraged by um um the verse in Titus 2:11 um where it's the same word to dress yourself or to adorn yourself in with the word of God. 13:27 Uh Titus 2:11 says, "For the grace Sorry, um 2:10. Uh the last part. So that in everything they may adorn the doctrine of God our Savior. To put on the teaching, but there is hope. Verse 11, "For the grace of our God has 13:44 appeared, bringing salvation for all people, training us to renounce ungodliness and worldly passions and to live self-controlled, upright, and godly lives in the present age." I'm not alone. I don't need to go figure this out on my own. 13:58 But as I increase in the knowledge, as I increase in doctrine, the grace of God has appeared. What I have that old covenant uh Israelites didn't have is that I have the grace of God. And Romans 14:13 says, uh "Put on the Lord Jesus Christ." Or in 14:15 other words, as we heard this morning, be filled with the Holy Spirit. And then these things will become true in my life. I was encouraged that it took 13 years for one of Evan Roberts' prayers to be answered. Uh if it took 13 years for him, I'm 14:28 encouraged that to keep continuing um and asking the Lord. And Jesus uh again told the Pharisees in John 5:39-40, "You search the scriptures, thinking that in them you have eternal life." For me, I I go to conferences thinking 14:43 that I'll find eternal life there, but it's all meant to point me back to Jesus. Um and the word we heard this morning, to be in his presence continually. Amen.
