[00:00:01] Speaker A: Thanks for tuning in to the Met Church Podcast. Here at the Met, we are all about connecting people to God and one another. If you have any questions or want more information about what's happening here at the church, then head to our
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[00:00:25] Speaker B: Well, good morning, everybody. We're in a series where we're challenging us all to consider the legacy that we one day will leave. We're all going to leave a heritage. We're going to leave a legacy. We are all going to be remembered for something by someone.
And the thing that I want to really underscore in this series is the fact that you and I are in charge of how we will be remembered.
We talk about the fact that we are actually preaching our funerals while we're living. We're actually giving the material to our family that one day they will recall whenever they memorialize us.
So it's important, honestly that we hit the pause button every now and then on our life to consider, how will I be remembered? And maybe even go beyond that and say, how do I want to be remembered?
And we started out by talking about that. It's tied to the life that I live. What kind of a life am I living? How am I conducting myself? I'm large and in charge of me. How connected am I to my Savior? How obedient am I in my daily life? So the life that I live is one of the things that I will be remembered for. Last week I told you the second thing. Not only the life that I live, but the love that I lavish. I'll be remembered by how well I love my family, by how well I love other people, by how well I love my God.
And so a lot of people may be able to do a lot of things better than you.
Maybe they can speak better, sell better, sing better. But let me tell you, nobody can love Jesus better than you. And when you say, this is my goal, my ambition is to love God with all that I am. And then the natural result of that is you're gonna love other people. And you'll be remembered not only by the life that you have lived, but also by the love you've lavished this morning. I wanna take the next step and I wanna suggest that we will be remembered by the load, the load that we lift.
The Bible tells us in Galatians, chapter six, in verse two, that we are to bear one another's burdens. We are to do what we can to lift the load that someone is carrying. And then he said, in so doing that we fulfill the law of Christ so we will be remembered by the load that we lift. Did you know everybody is carrying some kind of a burden? I don't care who you are from, where you've come in this morning, whether you're watching online or where you'll listen to a podcast later on, or you'll even catch his service later, at some point in time, I can tell you what we all have in common is we all carry a burden. Everybody in this room is broken. We're just broken in different places.
Everyone is dealing with something. Everyone is going through something. Some people carry physical burdens, and you carry those with your hands.
Maybe it's an illness that you're struggling with, or maybe it's a difficulty in your family that you're navigating through. There are those physical burdens that people carry.
Then there are emotional burdens that we carry. If the physical burdens are those that we carry with our hands, those emotional burdens, we kind of carry those in our head.
We try to navigate through those burdens that we carry. And then there's the third burden that we carry, and those are spiritual burdens, and we carry those more or less in our heart.
But everybody, the thing I don't want you to miss is everyone is carrying a burden this morning. We are carrying burdens this morning.
One of the dynamics of the early church, the church at Jerusalem, you see it in Acts chapter 4, in verse 32. The dynamic of that early church was in the Greek a principle called koinonia. We talk about that a lot because that's a dynamic that should be in everybody's church. It should certainly be in our church. And koinonia simply means to first and foremost share something with someone.
Share something. That is the basic connection you have with someone. And by the way, you're probably not going to share something with someone that you don't trust.
Everyone has shared something with someone that they did that they thought they could trust, but the person ended up to be untrustworthy.
In fact, Proverbs says that confidence in an unfaithful person is like a broken foot or a broken tooth. If you've ever experienced either one of those things, you know how uncomfortable that is. And that's saying when you put your confidence in someone who cannot be trusted and they burn you, that's a terrible thing to happen.
Happens sometimes in church. You tell a friend Pray for me about this. And next thing you know, this confidential prayer request is coming at you from 15 other sources.
Somebody posted up, don't tell anyone.
Pray for my friend. And all of a sudden you're realizing that it's gone everywhere.
But part of koinonia is to be in a relationship with someone where you can trust them enough to say, I'm struggling with this. Pray for me. That's part of koinonia, to share something with someone.
The second part of koinonia that goes much deeper than that is to share in something with someone.
That's when you go over and you mold their yard.
That's maybe you send them food.
That's maybe you do something unsolicited, but so needful. And you just kind of. You just do that for them and you withdraw from them because you don't wanna be a burden to them. You wanna be a blessing to them. But you're. You're going beyond just sharing something now. You're sharing in something.
And I'm going back to what I'm saying that should be the dynamic of a church is we should be responsive to people and we should be receptive to people when they're going through things, because everyone's going through something.
I heard a psychologist who compared Christians to porcupines.
He said, christians remind me of porcupines on a cold night, that they're driven together because of the cold in order to survive and to keep warm. But the minute all of these Christians get together and they're realizing they're touching someone, they're close to this person, and this person is close to me, out come the quills and they drive themselves away.
And then they get back out in the cold. And because of the cold and because of the circumstance, they come back together to survive, and they come back together to get warm. And all of a sudden, again, they realize, this person's touching me, I'm too close, they know too much about me, and out comes the quills, and they drive themselves away.
This psychologist said in watching that, he said, I've learned the word that churches use to describe that. They call that fellowship.
But he says, to me, it looks like some weird dance that Christians do.
And let's be honest, we've all done that dance.
We've all done that because it's not natural to. To be sensitive to the people around us. It's natural to care about ourselves and to care about the things we're going through and to be kind of desensitized to the people around us who may be going through something as well.
That's why he said, bear one another's burdens. And when you're doing that effectively, you are fulfilling the law of Christ.
There was a band when I was growing up called the Hollies.
Some of you of a certain age may remember that group. They had a lot of big songs. And one of the songs that came out by the Hollies was a song entitled He Ain't Heavy, He's My Brother.
Now, I don't know how many of you remember that song. It's a great song. But did you know that song is actually rooted in reality.
There's a home in the suburbs of Omaha, Nebraska called Boys Town.
And the home is designed to help high risk kids.
And back in 1918, the man who ran the home, Boys Town, was named Father Flanagan.
And Father Flanagan had observed this young man who was carrying this other young man up a flight of stairs because this young man had polio.
And he noticed that this young man would carry his young friend up that flight of stairs every day. And Father Flanagan caught him one day and pulled him aside and, and he said, I just noticed how you're carrying your young friend up that flight of stairs. That seems to be such a heavy burden for you to bear and how you do that day in and day out. And I see you're the only one that's doing that. How do you carry that heavy load?
And then he responded to him in that famous line, he said, father, he ain't heavy. He's my brother.
I'm carrying him because he's my brother.
You see, when you're in a relationship with someone and you love someone, it's not a burden, it's a blessing to help them carry their burden. You see, the highest motivation, I talked about it last week, it's not the law.
That's the lowest level that I do what I do because I have to.
I told you, the lowest motivation you have to feed your children is because there's a law on the books that says if you don't, we're gonna take em away from you.
Now, that law is there for the stupid people and you gotta have it, but most people don't need it. There's not a parent in this room that will leave here in a little while and say, I gotta feed these kids. Gosh, they're gonna take em away.
I'm gonna have to clothe them. I gotta give them a place to sleep. Well, if that's the motivation that's driving you to do that, that is absolutely the lowest level of I'm doing what I'm doing. So I'm saying that the only reason you're bearing the burdens of other people is the Bible says, bear one another's burden. Okay, God, I guess I gotta do it.
Well, I mean, thank God that you're gonna make the effort. But would you agree the highest motivation is not. I have to. The highest motivation is. I love to.
I love to do this.
This is what I live for.
It's second nature to me to be sensitive and try to find. To be responsive to people when they're going through something. And guys, that's what he's driving at.
He's saying that when you love God as you ought, you'll love people as you should.
So the problem is, primarily and fundamentally, spiritually, if I'm struggling bearing one another's burdens, I need to check my heart.
I need to check to make sure that my heart is in the right place. Because you cannot love God without loving who he loves. And he loves people.
John 3:16. For God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son that whosoever believes in him would never perish but have everlasting life.
So if I love God, the closer I get to God, the more the qualities of God will be developed in my life. And one of those qualities is to love people. And by the way, that will result in me being willing to bear other people's burdens.
So let me talk. First of all, if you're taking notes, let me talk about those burdens that we share.
Galatians, chapter one, Brothers. And I would add, sisters, if someone is caught in a sin, there's a burden called sin. If someone is caught in a sin, you are spiritual. Restore him gently. Watch yourself, that you also will be tempted. And the next verse, as I read a moment ago, is, bear each other's burdens. There's a burden that we bear that people bear, and we all are guilty of. It's a burden of sin.
And in this narrative, he's talking about people that have been so overwhelmed by the mistakes that they've made that. That they now have found themselves in a crushing situation that they cannot seem to get out of.
They've stumbled, they've fallen, they're broken as a result of sin. And as I said, we're all guilty of sin. We're just guilty at different degrees of sin. And this is talking about someone who is guilty of a sin that was so serious that it broke them down.
It broke them down.
And he's saying that the people who should respond and try to bear the burden of that type of person are primarily the spiritual people.
And I will go on to say that I think that's probably the only people who care enough to do that are people who are sensitive to that. And then he said, the result of helping that person is restoration. It's an interesting word.
We get the idea of resetting the bone from restoration. Resetting a bone. I don't know how many of you guys have ever broken a bone.
That's a very uncomfortable circumstance. I've had that happen before. And let me tell you what you appreciate about anyone who's helping reset the bone. You appreciate them being gentle, wouldn't you say?
I mean, when you go to a medical professional and you go to the hospital, you know, the first thing you don't want to hear when you go through the door is, well, what were you doing when you broke that bone? Because if you were doing something bad, I don't know if we're gonna help you.
That's how the church responds. Were you sinning when you broke that bone?
Did you do something stupid? You brought it on yourself. Remember the attitudes of the people toward the Good Samaritan?
One of them was the attitude of the priest who said, well, God's judging you, and that's why those guys beat you up. And then you had the judgment of the Pharisee who said, well, you know, you did this to yourself. God didn't do it to you. You did this to yourself. And so they left him in the ditch.
It was a Good Samaritan who came along and his heart went out to him and said, I'm gonna help you. I'm gonna restore you.
And not everybody has that response, but, man, we're all gonna be brought. That's why he said, consider yourself realize sooner or later you're gonna need the thing that you are called upon to the service. You're called upon to render.
There's a locked in law of likeness that says, whatever you want, you give away.
Proverbs 17 says, if you want friends, be friendly.
Try that when you go to the restaurant in a little while, smile at the waiter or the waitress, and I promise you they'll smile back.
Cause whatever you want, you give away. Now don't give them one of them cheesy I've been up to something crazy grins, but a genuine smile most of the time. Unless they're just crazy and there's some crazy people out there. But most of the time, if they're sane, they'll respond in kind.
And so he's simply saying, consider yourself. Realize that sooner or later you may be broken. Sooner or later, you may. And you're gonna want the right people to respond to you, and you'll want the right people to try to restore you.
So he's saying, guys, that we have a responsibility to broken people to try to help them be restored, to reset the bone, to help them get back on their feet, to get back into the game, to give them health again. And that's part of the role of a church, is to restore broken people. So sometimes the burdens we share or sin, sometimes the burden we share get this is sorrow.
Sorrow. Listen to this. Verse 2 Corinthians, chapter 11, verses 3 and 4. Blessed be the Father of God, even the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of mercies, the God of all comfort, the God of all comfort, who comforts us in all of our tribulations so that we may be able to comfort them which are in any trouble. How do we do this? By the comfort wherewith we ourselves are comforted of God.
He's saying there's a progression. He's saying that sooner or later, maybe our body isn't broken, but sooner or later our hearts are gonna be broken.
And what you find when your heart has been broken, that the God of heaven sees it and the God of heaven will respond to it. And this beautiful word of comfort comes into play.
Jesus said, when I ascend, the Holy Spirit will descend and I won't leave you as orphans, I'll leave you. I won't leave you comfortless. I. I'll send the Holy Spirit and he will comfort you.
In fact, in one place where Jesus promised the comfort of the Holy Spirit. It's a nautical term. It's the idea of a vessel at sea that's in trouble and sinking, and suddenly, like a Coast Guard clipper comes alongside of the struggling vessel and rescues everyone on board.
So you're sitting in a room like this, or you're watching online and you're taking on water and you're feeling like you're going under in the presence of the Holy Spirit comes alongside of your life and rescues you and comes on board. That's comfort.
And he's saying, when I've received comfort, then I now have the tools to comfort other people. I comfort people with the ability that God has given me through receiving comfort from him. Now I can comfort someone else.
The reason that's important, as I've told you before, is you can't give something you don't have any more than you can come from somewhere you've not been.
And once we have received comfort, what he's doing is he's saying, I'm equipping you to comfort someone else.
When Cindy went to heaven, one of the things as I was trying to navigate through that experience that I hope would happen would be somehow or another to make sense of that kind of loss.
I had a man and his wife one weekend after a service pull me aside in the lobby. And they didn't know anything about me, they knew nothing of my story. I came to find out and asked me the question. They said, after hearing you speak, you've gone through something, haven't you? You've been broken over something, haven't you?
And I said, well, yes. And I started. He goes, no, no, no, I don't need to know.
He said we had a boy, a 17 year old son that died.
He said it was the most heartbreaking, soul crushing thing that we've ever tried to navigate through. And here's what they said to me.
They said, my wife and I promised ourselves we will never sit under another pastor who has not been broken by something.
And they say, for whatever it's worth to you, it translates broken people connect with you.
And can I tell you guys, when I got in the car that day, in some small measure I was able to see some purpose in what I've been through, that God was using me in some way. Filtering this through the work of the Holy Spirit in some way to connect with people out in the room that are broken. Cause we're all broken.
Not that we all have the answers, but we know the one who does. And not that he'll give us all the reasons, but we know one day we'll know.
And in the middle of here and there, we just simply trust God. And I'm just telling you friend, when God has comforted you, he has equipped you then to comfort other people. Because there's some people who are not only broken because of sin, they're broken because of sorrow.
There was an evangelist who's in heaven today named Ron Dunn.
And Ron Dunn talked about the experience he had where he lost a teenage child.
He said, after preaching to thousands of people through all of these years, I went through a crisis of faith that put me on a spiral where I didn't think I'd ever see the sun shine again.
He said I wasn't sure that I could ever preach again.
He said a dear friend called me and he knew of the struggle I was having. And he said, hey, why don't you and the wife, we have a home down on the beach. Why don't y' all just go stay in our house, get away, take as long as you need, and when you're ready, you come back.
Ron said we took him up on that offer and we went down and he said I'd walk down the beach in the early morning of the hour, early morning of the day. He said the birds were singing, but I didn't hear them.
The waves were crashing on the beach, but I didn't hear it or see it. He said, there were beautiful days, but I didn't even notice it. He said, I was so overwhelmed with what I was going through. My heart was so broken that I couldn't see the beauty all around me. He said one day, he said it was like an epiphany. He said, I woke up and for the first time since my child had died, he said the burden had lifted off of my heart. He said, I couldn't explain it. He said, I went in and told my wife and she was doing better. And I said, I don't know. Something has happened.
We've had something happen. I mean, it's just almost miraculous what has happened. And he said, we collected ourselves and we were able to go back. And he said I was able to re. Engage in work and back then before emails, he's going through his correspondence and he read a letter from one of his dearest friends.
And his friend said to him, ron, I've had you and your sweet wife on my heart since the homegoing of your child. I cannot imagine the burden that you're carrying. I cannot imagine the hurt that you're navigating through. He said, but here's what I've asked God. I've asked God, God, would you let me carry their burden?
Would you let me come alongside of them and help lift that burden off of them? He said, when I looked at the date of the letter, it was the exact day that for the first time walking down that beach, I walked the beach without the burden that I'd carried.
He said, you'll never convince me of anything other than the Holy Spirit supernatural allowed some part of that grief to be shared by a brother who loved me and cared for me.
That's the role. That's what I'm talking about. I'm not talking about getting in people's business. I'm not talking about getting nosy about what. I'm just talking about coming alongside of it.
I'm talking about finding ways with people that trust you and people with whom you trust. I'm talking about finding ways to share and to lift that burden.
Sometimes it may not even be in the words that you say.
Trust me, I've gone through this, and I can tell you sometimes there are people that try to say things to you. You just wish they would quit talking.
Zip it. Zip it.
I had a person tell me one time, I know just what it's like. You've lost your wife of 42 years. I know just what it's like. They said, I lost my dog. We'd had that dog for 15 years and lost our dog. I said, God love you. How are you dealing with that?
How are you managing? I mean, I get it. We all love dogs much better than cats. But I'm just saying cat would have been no problem. But a dog, I mean, I get that. And I know what they were trying. They were just trying to find, you know, some level, some point of. So I wasn't criticized. I just thought, you don't get. Well, I probably just didn't need to hear that.
Your dog, my wife. Yeah, I get that.
I'm just saying, if you don't know what to say, sometimes you say nothing.
Sometimes it's just your presence.
Sometimes it's just a note, a text, an email. Just simply to say, for some reason, God put you on my heart and I prayed for you today.
Sharing a burden.
The second idea that I'm talking about when we talk about the load I lift, are not only the burdens that we share, but get this, sometimes it's the burdens that we shoulder.
He says down in verse four and five, each one should test his own actions, that he can take pride in himself without comparing himself to someone else. Translated, check yourself before you wreck yourself. But anyway, verse 5, each one should carry his own burden.
Now, I know when you read that, you say, well, that sounds contradictory. It's not contradictory at all. In the first part, he's talking about a crushing burden of that you're helping someone carry who is not capable of carrying it. And so you're trying to restore them in their brokenness. In this case, he's saying, but in the midst of that, you and I are gonna be called upon to share to shoulder some burdens that no one else can carry for us.
One of the ideas of it is a woman when she's pregnant with a baby.
That is a burden. It's a beautiful burden. But that is a burden that she alone can carry.
Her husband can't carry that for her. Her family can't carry that burden. She cares. So it's the idea. It's like a child going to school with a backpack.
That's their burden that no one else can carry. That's their backpack. They've got things to do. That's their stuff. They need their stuff to get through their day. So it's this idea that you and I are going to bear burdens.
God will ordain certain things that we are to carry. Listen to this. Acts, chapter 15, verse 28. It seemed good to the Holy Spirit. Now listen who this seemed. This is a good idea. It seemed good to the Holy Spirit and to us. Listen to lay upon you no greater burden than necessary things. Did you know sometimes the Holy Spirit says that burden's gonna be good for you? I'm gonna let you carry that.
What?
I thought God was gonna take all the burdens away.
Not always.
There's some burdens that you and I bear that we bear them because it keeps us dependent upon God.
Have you found this about you? Have you found yourself praying more when you're in trouble than you do when you're out of trouble?
Have you found yourself praying more when you're feeling pressure than you pray when you aren't feeling pressure?
Could it be that God is allowing the pressure that he places on us, the necessary burdens, to keep us in a state of humility and dependence upon him?
That's why he said, I won't put any more necessary burdens on you. There are some burdens that are necessary. You're just gonna have to carry some of these things, and it will keep you humble and it will make you stronger. It's like weight resistance. When you go to the gym, there's weights on the bar because it's necessary weight so that you can build stamina and build strength.
There are some things, ladies and gentlemen, you and I bear that's building spiritual strength.
When the weight of the world is pressing down on your chest through prayer, you push that back up toward God.
And when the weight of the world presses down on your chest, you push that up through prayer, back up toward God. And in that resistance training, he's building some spiritual muscle. And God is saying, I'm gonna keep you in the gym.
You're stronger, you're better for it. You're more humble with it. And there are some burdens that you and I will shoulder.
So there's burdens that I share, and there's burdens that I shoulder. Here's a third Thought we'll go home.
Then there is the burdens that we shed.
There's some burdens that we just need to rid ourselves of.
Listen to Psalm 55, verse 22. Cast your burden on the Lord, and He will sustain you. He will never permit the righteous to be moved.
Go to The New Testament, 1st Peter 5, 7. Casting all your care upon him, for he cares for you.
There's some burdens you're carrying this morning. God didn't design you to carry.
That's why engineers will build what they call into the stress of a structure. They will build load limits.
They'll tell you on a bridge, they'll tell you in an elevator how much weight this thing can handle. Because structurally, it's only designed to carry so much.
A load limit. Did you know you got a load limit?
And if you allow God and you walk with him, he knows what you can carry and what you can't.
But what happens is we start bringing extra burden. Sometimes unconfessed sin. I'll go back to that is a burden. We need to confess that sin. We needed to say to God, I'm carrying this guilt. I'm carrying this weight, and I just need to bring it to you.
Sometimes it's anxiety. Sometimes you're just worrying about things that are out of your control. I told you, there's two things you should never worry about.
Number one, things that you can do something about. If you can do something about it, quit worrying about it and do something about it.
That's why if I've got something I dread to do, I try to do it the first thing in the morning. Get it out of the way. Cause if you're like me, you'll fret about that thing all day long. So get that hard conversation. Get that hard task. Get that done. The first part of your day, get it behind you and move on. So don't worry about it. If you can do something about it, do it. Second thing you should never worry about are things you can't do anything about.
Cause if you can't do anything about it, what are you worried about it?
Turn it over to God. Point those toes up toward heaven and go to sleep. Quit counting sheep. Talk to the shepherd.
And as often as you think about it, take it to him, push it back toward him. And I'm just suggesting to your mind and heart that there are load limits that you and I have. And when we get out of those bounds and we get into a point where we are overloaded and we are stressed out, it's because we are carrying burdens he didn't design us to carry. So he's saying, shed those burdens, cast those things on me. Now here's what happens when you pray for God to relieve the burden. One of two things happen. Number one, he will, he'll take the extra burden off of you. Or number two, he'll give you the strength to carry it happens every time.
The thing we're praying about this morning might end up being necessary.
That's why I'm praying. Cause I don't know, he hadn't given me a word on that. So I'm assuming I'm carrying a burden I shouldn't be. So sometimes I'm carrying this and I bring it to him and he doesn't take it off of me. Why is he not taking it off of me? He is determined, sovereignly, providentially, that I need to carry that at least for a period of time.
When our twin grandbabies were young, Cindy and I had them over the house one time. And so Cindy was upstairs with Sam and they were playing and Emma was downstairs with her baby carriage, little baby doll at the bottom of the stairs and she was struggling, getting that baby doll in the carriage up the stairs. And so she says, papa, would you help me get this upstairs? And so what I did, I reached down in one arm and I picked up Emma, I reached down in the other arm and I got the baby carriage with the little doll in there and I carried them both upstairs.
And I thought that's exactly what happens when we go to God.
Sometimes he just lifts his child up and then lifts the burden that his child is carrying and he carries both of them.
And what makes burden sustainable is you've got a God in heaven who's not only picking you up, he's picking the thing you're carrying up.
He's got you and he's got it.
And until he relieves you from it, trust him, he'll carry both of you.
He will not fail.
Had one of our sweet families who were here in the 9:30 service. And many of you read about the Elliot family. It's been on the news.
They were hit head on by the drunk driver. She died on scene.
Both of his arms were broken. Their 12 year old girl in the back was injured with a broken arm. It's a miracle any of them survived.
I did their memorial service not too many days ago and they're just a miracle of God's grace.
And I was just sharing with them the fact that sometimes we carry these burdens of Grief. And God allows us to go through these things. And when you go through something similar to what they're going through, it's a fork in the road.
This thing will either draw you closer to God or this thing will drive you farther from him.
And the choice is yours.
But what I found is whenever I choose to allow the things that I've gone through to draw me closer to God, my relationship with God and my fellowship with God means I'm in touch with the very one who's in the presence of my loved ones.
I told those kids, 17 year old, 12 year old and 9 year old, your mama's with Jesus.
And every time you pray, though you can't hear her and you can't see her, you're talking to the one who's in her very presence.
And the closer you get to him in some ways, the closer you are to her.
I remember when the kids would stay, Cindy and I would go out of town.
Either my mom or Cindy's mom would keep them, right? It's what grandparents typically do.
And it was so funny cause Benny, Cindy's mom, who's in heaven, she was all about knowing where they were. She made sure everything they ate was, you know, nutritious and good.
And you didn't have to, you never thought about it when Benny keeps the kids. Billy didn't like it, Shannon didn't like it. You know, there's a real close association with mothering and smothering.
And so for example, Billy would be going down the hill on his bike and Benny, my mother in law would be literally in the car behind him, following him and he's headed to the woods, trying to get away, she's right behind him. So when we called in and we said, where'd they get? Well, at 4 o' clock they were here and at 5:15 they're coming in and I've got dinner for, I've got vegetables, I've got protein, I've got all this stuff. Never worried, just didn't even think about anything.
My mother on the other hand, I'd call in and I'd say, mother, how are the kids? She'd go, they're good. I said, where are the kids? Cindy wanted to talk to them. Ah, they're here somewhere. And I said, well, where are they? Oh honey, I don't know. They left this morning. I just told them be home before dark.
I'm covering the phone going, they're fine, no worries, mother's got it. So my mother had a little looser rein on the situation. Than my mother in law had. She kept a little tight rein on those kids. But my point is we were comforted. Even though we didn't talk to them, we talked to her because she knew about them.
And when you go through something like a loss like that, and when you go to God in prayer, you're talking to the one who's in the presence of those that you've lost.
And even though it may not make this sense, this side of heaven, trusting in God is always the safe side of that road to be on.
Allowing it to draw you closer to him than drive you away from him is always a safe way to be on.
And I would close by telling you when it gets overwhelming and it gets difficult. Remember this. He is the burden bearer.
There's nothing you bring him that he can't handle.
You may be sitting in the room this morning and maybe guilt has gotten to you. In your heart, you're just thinking about maybe some failure in your personal life, maybe some sin, moral failure in your life, maybe something you said, maybe something you thought, maybe something you did.
Can I remind you this morning, there's not a sin that you've committed that God will not forgive, ever.
Not one.
In fact, the only sin the Bible talks about that is a sin that is the unpardonable sin. Blasphemy against the Holy Spirit. One of the same. It means to die without receiving Jesus. The Holy Spirit draws you to the cross. The Holy Spirit wants you to receive Jesus. And when you reject Jesus, if you die in that condition, God said, that's the only sin I will not forgive. That's when you reject my son. You will not be in heaven with me for eternity if you turn my son down and walk under the blood of that cross under your feet as though it means nothing to you. He said, you won't be in my heaven, but every other sin he'll forgive.
And I can tell you, when you bring your sins to him and you, you know what confess is. By definition, the word means agreement. That's all it means. It sounds Christianese, but it just means agreement.
It just means that God, you were right, I was wrong. I wished I'd listened to you. I wish I'd been obedient. So I'm confessing, I'm agreeing with you, and I'm asking for forgiveness. And God, those who come to me, he said, I will in no wise cast out. He will absolutely forgive those who come to him.
And you can confess anything to him.
And sometimes we have such a diverse group in our church, who have different religious backgrounds, sometimes because of their religious tradition, they feel like they need to confess to me.
Can I help you with that? That's just not necessary.
I hear a lot of stuff now. Trust me, I will. If you just feel like you need to talk to somebody, I'm happy to talk to you, but I don't need to know the nitty gritty.
I have learned however, that if you want someone to keep talking, never look shocked. You. Oh. Huh? You buried them? Where? Really? No, I've never heard that one.
But I'm just saying, I'm just saying to confess a sin, you don't have to bring that to me. The only time it talks about confessing your faults one to another is when you've wronged someone. That's all that is. You just go and say, man, I'm sorry I said this about you. I am so sorry I hurt you. That's when you do that. But man, if it's a private thing, you just go to your heavenly Father and there's no sin that he will not forget. Look, there's no problem you have that he can't solve. He's the burden bearer.
I said a moment ago, some of you are carrying burdens he didn't design you to carry. He can lift that burden or he'll lift you as you carry that burden.
So there's not a sin he can't forgive. There's not a problem that he cannot solve.
There's nothing. Listen to me. There's nothing he can't do. He is the burden bearer.
So I would tell you this morning as I close, he can be trusted.
I said going into the message, you're really only confide in and rely on people you trust. You can trust him.
He's promised, I'll never leave you.
I'll never forsake you. I'll never disconnect from you physically and I'll never forsake you emotionally. Every way I can be about you, I'm all about you.
He knows our heartaches and heartbreaks.
He knows our struggles and our sins.
I said a moment ago, if you come to him, he will in no wise cast you out. He's been tracking you and following you and watching for you all of your life. He brought you here sovereignly. He brought you here because there was something he wanted you to hear.
And this morning all you have to do is respond to him and say, lord Jesus, lift the burden from my heart. Give me a compassion to be sensitive to people who are bearing the burdens around me.
Help me to make a difference in someone's life. What a great thing to be remembered for.
Let's pray.
Father, thank you for your word.
Thank you that your word never returns. As Isaiah said, it never returns void.
It always hits the mark. It always hits its purpose.
So I pray your word will find purpose and fulfillment in our hearts today.
Help us not just to have heard your word, but help us now to be obedient to whatever your spirit has led us to do.
I pray finally for my friends who may never have trusted you, that this might be the moment right where they are, where they simply pray and say, lord Jesus, with everything I know about me, I now trust all that I know about you. Come into my heart, forgive my sin. And I pray this prayer in Jesus name. Amen.
[00:37:56] Speaker A: Thank you so much for tuning in today. If you have any questions or prayer requests, please contact us by visiting metchurch.com so that we can follow up with you this week. We look forward to seeing you next week.
