28 “Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. 29 Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. 30 For my yoke is easy and my burden is light.” Matthew 11:28-30

What are the great yokes sitting on your shoulder? People suffer under the yoke of desire, money, and ambition. We have so many things and people pressing down on our shoulders that we feel overwhelmed. Where do you feel pressure? Why do you feel bogged down and stuck? If you think about it, we feel weary and burdened because of things that have nothing to do with God. 

God says, “Take my yoke and learn from me.” God’s yoke is the only yoke we should place on our shoulders. Think about this. The only burden we should feel in life… the only thing pressing down on our shoulders should be the yoke God puts on us and nothing else. Not money. Not the desire to succeed. Not relationships. Not even family. 

What is the yoke God puts on our shoulders? Two things. The first yoke God puts on us is to serve Him. Serve only God. Do not serve money. Do not serve people. Do not serve your job. Serve only God. Next, obey only God. Our only burden in life is to do what God says to do in every situation we meet. What is God telling me to do here? What is God’s command?

We agonize and fret when we struggle to figure out what our next course of action should be. We torture ourselves with decision-making and the regrets that follow bad decisions. Throw all this away! There’s nothing to fret about except finding His will and doing it. What will happen to my business or family if I listen and obey God? Don’t even think about the consequences. Free yourself of those burdens. Serve God and obey Him and let the chips fall where they may. When Joseph served and obeyed God, at times, it seemed as if he made the wrong decisions. But those decisions that landed him in slavery and jail ended up being stepping stones to becoming the governor of Egypt. 

When we place these two yokes on our shoulders, serving and obeying God, we are met with three results. First, we become gentle. We’re not fighting at every corner and creating consternation. We’re gentle. We’re calm and at peace with ourselves. Regardless of what we face, we’re merciful, forgiving, sympathetic and considerate. We become gentle human beings. When Daniel faces angering the king and being thrown into the lion’s den, the only yoke on his shoulder was serving God and obeying Him. He didn’t agonize or feel stressed. When we serve and obey God, we’re at peace and gentle because there is nothing to fear except God. There is nobody to serve except God. There is nobody to lean on except for God. 

Next, we feel humble. We know our place in the world. There is a creator, and we are His creation. In other words, we give all power to God, and we’re nothing more than His humble servants. “God, do as you please. I will obey to the end.” We don’t look at conditions or what will be best for us: we look only to God and His commands. That’s the only burden on our shoulders. So we’re gentle and humble. 

Finally, when we serve and obey God, we will find “rest for our souls.” How good does this sound? Rest for the soul. How many of us crave to find rest for our souls but just never find it. We look for it in all the wrong places. If we place the yoke of serving and obeying on our shoulders, we will experience rest for our souls. No more worrying or anxiety. No more muddled and chaotic situations. 

Let us put on the right yoke from God and throw off all the wrong yokes that have been burdening and holding us down. Putting on God’s yoke means serving only God and obeying Him. Where do we start? Start in your everyday life. Start doing these two things in the trivial parts of your life. It’s like climbing a mountain. Keep taking tiny steps, serving and obeying, and make your way up the mountain. Every time we serve and obey, we climb a little higher. That’s why they say Christianity is the way for the hard worker, not the talented or skilled, meaning God does not reward talent but hard work and faithfulness. So let us do with all we have and be yoked with Jesus:

• Cast off our old yoke.
• Place the yoke of God on our shoulders.
• Climb that mountain through serving and obeying. 
• Reap the rewards of gentleness, humbleness, and finding rest for our souls. 

Click for Korean sermon https://soundcloud.com/yhpaik/1983-8-7-mixdown, https://soundcloud.com/yhpaik/1983-8-7-mixdown-1