Daily Radio Program with Charles Stanley - In Touc... - Letting God Handle Your Burdens - Part 2

Welcome to the InTouch Podcast with Charles Stanley for Thursday, March 5th.

When you need rest and peace, go to Christ. Let him lift the weight of your troubles.

Listen now and learn to let God handle your burdens.

What would you say is the most difficult and the most destructive burden to bear?

What you may have in a pen, you'd save the loss of love when something like that.

No, the most destructive burden to bear is the burden of guilt.

Guilt over the past. Guilt over something in your life that you think you can't handle.

Or guilt over something you think will never change and that you can't ever do anything about it.

What we need to ask is this, how are we to handle the burdens of our life?

And I want you to turn if you will to Matthew chapter 11 and look at three verses here.

Here is God's answer, very crystal clear answer to how you and I are to handle the burdens in our life.

Listen carefully. Come to me, all who are weary and heavy laden, and I will give you rest.

Take my yoke upon you and learn from me from gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls.

For my yoke is easy and my burden is light.

You say, well now wait a minute, I don't see any answer that it's here.

Just listen carefully. He says, first of all, come to me.

Well, coming to him doesn't necessarily remove the burden or alleviate it.

Because you know what we do oftentimes? Here's what we do.

We will come to him with the burden and what we say, well I'm just going to turn it over to him.

What we do, we don't turn it over to him, we just discuss it with him.

Well, they God, let me tell you about this.

Now, here's what I feel. I think if you would do this and so.

Well, here's what you promised in your word, that you supply all of my needs according to your riches and glory.

I'm bringing this to you. Thank you very much.

Walk away and what? I'm heavier than I was before.

Because I've been in this big discussion with God, and what did I do?

I just discussed it. I didn't deal with it.

Discussion is not the issue.

So first of all, he says, come to me and then look what he says do.

He says, I have some instructions for you.

Now listen to these instructions because I'm not just telling you something that I think.

I'm telling you something that I know by experience, over and over and over again,

in many facets of all the years that I live. I know that it works.

He has never failed to keep his promise.

So look at his instruction now. Look at these verses.

Here's what he says. First of all, come to me.

All you lay with heavy laden and weary and tired and worn.

He says, I'll give you rest.

Now, having come to him, I have two other requests.

Listen, take my yoke upon you and learn from me.

I'm gentle and humble and heart.

You'll find rest for your souls.

Now, two things I have to deal with.

You want God. Listen carefully.

If you want God to deal with your burden and lift it off of you.

You say, but you know what?

You just don't know how bad this burden is.

That's making them what it is.

There are no exceptions in this passage.

He didn't say, come and I'll do accept.

Here's what he said. Come to me and notice what he said.

I want you to read it because if you don't read this,

I just want you to mark it in your Bible.

There are two things here that we, what we do is we just sort of read over these two things

because we don't think about what they mean.

Look what he says.

First of all, verse 29,

take my yoke upon you.

Now, what in the world does that mean?

Well, you've seen pictures of the oxen that wouldn't yoke across them

and holding them both of them yoke together,

so they walk together, they pull together,

everything's together,

or you've seen these yokes that place on personal

so they can carry weight and they're equal weight on both sides.

But the whole idea of the yoke is submission.

Now, watch this because you're prone to turn it off right here.

He says, take my yoke upon you.

But listen to what he says.

My yoke is easy.

Listen, a yoke,

if you'll think about what that will do to your neck and your shoulders,

for long it would be red and blistered.

Next thing you know, you couldn't even do that.

Here's what he says.

My yoke is easy.

Why?

Because it never touches you.

But on the other hand, here's what he's saying.

You want me to bear your burden and take your burden.

Surrender your will to me.

Get under the yoke.

When you get under the yoke, here's what he says.

You get under the yoke with me.

I take all the weight off.

Now, listen to something I'm going to say very carefully.

Jesus Christ is not a place we dump at burdens.

He's not a dump.

He's not a dump.

And many people have the idea, well, I'll just go to Jesus and say,

Lord, here's my burden and I'm asking you to take it away

and I'm going to fast and pray and do all these things.

You'll take it away.

He's not going to do that.

We don't dump it on him.

Here's what we do.

We surrender ourselves to him.

And what do we do?

We get under this yoke of surrender and submission to him.

He takes the weight and what do we do?

We begin to walk and concert with him.

We begin to think the way he thinks.

We begin to look at things from his perspective.

It is not a matter of dumping it on him.

It is a matter of coming into relationship with him.

And the relationship is submission to his will.

So that, listen, if this burden in your life is something

that does not belong there, what will he do?

He will take it away and give you a sense of peace and confidence.

If it is a burden that he has allowed for a specific reason

that he knows is for our good, what will he do?

He will leave it there, but he'll do the same thing.

He takes the weight away.

And so therefore you and I can live in any circumstance

in situation in life and what,

with a sense of confidence that my Lord Jesus Christ

who went to the cross and died for my sins,

is living his life in and through me,

which is what he said he would do.

Now he has the burden that he's allowed there,

but he's lifted it.

And so I don't have to feel the weight of it.

He says surrender, take my yoke upon you.

And if you notice how loving that he says these things,

take my yoke upon you and learn from me for I'm gentle,

humble in heart, you'll find rest for your souls.

Here's what he says.

You're in turmoil, in battling your heart,

civil war going on all the time.

He says here's what happened.

If you will surrender your life to me,

and surrender your burden to me,

I'll take away that anxiety, fretting,

feaming, worrying, all of that,

and you'll find rest for your soul.

And there are multitudes and multitudes of people

who live in the civil war.

Things in their life going on that they know that are not right.

The burden of sin, the burden of loss communication,

the burden of financial things they've gotten themselves

into, all kinds of burden.

If they were to stop and list them,

they'd have a nervous breakdown sitting right there.

And so God says, I want to relieve you of the burden.

I want to relieve you of the burden.

He will either take it away when you surrender your life to him

or if it's something he's going to use for God's

and direction to fulfill his purpose of your life.

Well, you have the same result.

What? You don't feel it.

When he takes it away, you don't feel it.

When he, listen, when he leaves it there

but takes it away, you still don't feel it.

God will equip you to face any circumstance of life

but it begins with surrender, not dumping.

So why do you keep saying that?

Because that's what people do.

It's going to turn it over you.

No. I'm going to get out of the yolk with him.

So that's the first word of instruction.

Surrender.

What am I doing? I'm surrendering my burden and my life.

The second thing you'll notice, he says,

and learn from me.

Well, notice, no, watch this carefully.

The surrender is an act.

One time act, I might have to do it many times since an act.

Learn is a process.

Have to learn from him.

If I want God to lift my burden

and enable me to live with peace in my mind,

I've got to begin to learn who he is.

He says, learn of me.

What am I to learn about him?

I'm to learn about who he is.

I'm to learn about his love.

I'm to learn about his forgiveness.

I'm to learn about his chastisement,

realize that it's not a lack of love,

but motivation on his part to get us in the right path

doing his will.

He says, I am to learn of him.

And notice what he says.

I'm humble of heart.

I'm gentle in spirit.

If you could just get this.

Jesus Christ is not in the business of condemning.

He said, I didn't come into the world to condemn the world,

you, him, that the world might be saved.

God loves you.

And Jesus Christ, very life,

is an expression of the love of God.

His death is the greatest expression of the love of God ever

demonstrated by God to mankind.

He wants to take your load,

but you've got to be willing to surrender it to him.

It's the surrender.

That's the big stumbling block.

Surrender.

You mean to tell me that I'm just to say to him, Lord?

Here's what I'm going through.

I don't know what to do.

I don't know how to deal with it.

I don't know what to do about it.

It's so much in my past.

What does he want you to do?

He wants you to come to him in prayer and lay it all out.

He knows every bad thing you've ever done,

every bad thing you've ever thought,

every bad thing you ever thought about doing,

or doing what you would do if you could doing what and do.

He knows all about that.

You know what he says?

I'm willing to forgive you.

I'm willing to cleanse you.

I'm willing to give you a new beginning.

He's in the business of remaking people.

He's in the business of absolutely transforming a person's life,

not destroying them.

He wants to take your burden.

Are you willing to give it to him?

Listen, watch this.

He doesn't take your burden without taking you.

He doesn't.

He says, my yoke is easy.

Why do you say that?

Because he wants us to get under the yoke and what does that mean?

Did we surrender ourselves to him?

Come under, listen.

Come under his rulership and guidance in our life and what happens?

He just takes that load right off of us.

Could it still be there?

Yes.

Is the weight there?

No.

So, what is he saying?

He says, come to me.

Learn from me.

Now, there are a couple of things implied, for example, here.

So, we're talking about submitting everything to him.

But think about what has to happen as a result of that.

If I'm to come to him and submit myself to him and learn from him,

it means I also must trust him.

You know why people won't come to him?

They don't trust him.

You see, if I come to him with my burden,

let's say it's something that's just terrible in the past.

You say, how can I trust God for that?

Why not?

Have you ever come to him and God said, not forgiving you for that?

No, he's never said that.

He wants you to come.

He desires for you to come.

He longs for you to come.

He loves for you to come to him with that burden.

But I can tell you, he's not going to take the burden

without taking you.

Therefore, your spirit, soul, mind, and body,

you must surrender your life to him.

And then you have to trust him.

If you don't trust him, you won't do it.

Somebody says, well, if I surrender my whole life to him

and put my trust in him, then he could call me to be a missionary.

Or he could call me to be a pastor.

I don't know why people think of bad things when they think about that.

Or he could call, he may take my child.

That's the devil.

I may lose my husband.

That was the way we think of all these things.

What kind of God is that?

You've got a God that's not that this Bible knows nothing about.

It's a God of love.

The very presence of Jesus is an expression of the awesome love of God

that he'd send his only begotten son of the world to down across.

But much of sinners like us, and you question whether he loves you or not?

Yes, he loves you.

Trust him.

Listen to this verse.

I gave you a while ago and said, it's my favorite key verse.

Whenever I have a question, always go to this one.

Trust in the Lord with all your heart.

Lean not to your own understanding.

Just trust him.

In all your ways, acknowledge him.

Yeal to him, obey him, surrender to him.

He'll direct your path. He'll show you exactly what to do.

Proverbs 3, 5, and 6.

Show you exactly what to do.

Do you believe that?

If you believe that, what will you do?

You will come to him, surrender your life to him,

lay the burden down before him.

Listen.

And then anticipate and expect and watch and observe how he deals in your life.

And the fact that the weight is gone.

When he takes the burden away.

And I've heard wonderful testimonies of the years,

and a lot of people have gotten saved,

and maybe they lived a pretty raunchy life.

And it's one of my friends who calls it living in the brow patch.

And they get saved.

And one of the first things they talk about

is how that just makes me want to cry.

How they feel.

What do they feel?

The weight's gone.

The guilt's gone.

All the past is gone.

Now they have a brand new beginning.

But there's one other thing that's required of us.

It's implied here.

And that is, we must leave it with him.

Now, how do I know that I can leave it with him?

Because of who he is.

Because of what he said, what he's promised.

And because he has the power to handle it.

It's hard to know I can leave it.

But here's what we do.

We bring it to him in some of you go home today.

Maybe you get on your knees and you'll cry out to God

and you'll tell him, Lord, today I heard the message and today

I'm just going to lay it down before you got.

I want to thank in Jesus' name.

You're going to take this off me, Lord.

You know how bad I've been?

You know the things.

Some of this is my fault.

Some of it's not yet.

I was going to leave it with you.

Amen.

In Jesus' name, hallelujah.

Gosh, I hope God heard what I had to say.

I trust He did.

So here's what I want you to realize.

It's not a time of discussion.

It's a time of surrender and trust laying it down.

No matter what you're burdened.

No matter how long it's been there,

it's a man I've been living with this for years.

You can get rid of it today.

It may be healed.

Well, I think about people, for example,

who have theological problems.

They've grown up believing you can lose your salvation.

Lose your salvation.

Sinner caution, lose your salvation.

That's living with this awful burden of uncertainty.

If I die today, I may go to hell.

So what happens?

When a person suddenly realizes they're eternally secure,

whoo, goodness, they begin to want to shout and praise God.

They want to just sail out across the auditorium.

Why?

But the first time in their life,

free of the burden of fear of dying without Christ.

Then, of course, they're people who believe other things,

the Bible teachers, and believe them wrongly,

who said, thank God, praise the Lord.

Thank God I've been burdened with this for years and years.

You mean God can still use me?

Yes.

After what I've done, yes.

And they get free.

So ask yourself this question.

What is the thing in my life that is burdening me?

How do I deal with it?

Same way.

I come to Him.

I lay it all out.

I surrender to Him.

I trust Him, lay it before Him.

And think about this.

You don't have to beg and plead, sacrifice, fast, and pray,

and make God a bunch of promises.

There's not anything in here about this.

Come to me, take my yoke upon you, submit yourself to me.

Learn from me.

Begin to walk in my ways is what He's saying.

I'm gentle and humble in heart.

And you'll find rest of your souls for my yoke's easy.

My burden is like, you know what He's saying?

Why carry something so heavy when my way is light?

Why deal with things that are so difficult when my way is easy?

You know, when I think about things that people are dealing with,

I just want to weep sometime.

And think, oh, God, if they just knew the truth.

And that's my challenge to you.

To believe the simple truth of the Word of God,

now you have to make a choice.

Well, I believe what He said

and give Him this burden.

Remember along with yourself.

All I keep bearing it,

and one of these days, hope I'll die before long,

was I can't handle it too much longer.

And when somebody says to you,

I don't think I understand this much longer.

I've had all I can handle.

I can't take it. This is it.

Here's what I know.

They just confess that they are bearing a burden

God never intended for the bear.

And my prayer is, if you have never been saved,

you've never trusted Jesus,

you have a reason to feel the burden.

That burden can be removed right now.

The moment you say to Him,

Lord Jesus, I'm trusting you as my personal Savior.

I've sinned against you.

I believe that your death at the cross

paid my sin dead in full.

I don't feel it.

I don't understand it all.

But I'm trusting you.

That's what your Word says.

And I'm going to take it for what it says.

I'm asking you to save me from my sins now.

In Jesus' name, amen.

What happened?

All that sin that suddenly disappeared.

You saved by the grace of God.

If you're a believer and you're carrying it,

you don't have to feel the weight of it.

It may be that it'll take it away completely.

But if he doesn't, his will will happen.

He'll make it possible for you to sing to the top of your voice.

Smile sincerely and rejoice in the Lord

while you're living right in the middle of it.

Because he said he took the weight.

And it's easy living compared to the life you live without Christ.

Thank you for listening to part two

of letting God handle your burdens.

If you'd like to know more about Charles Stanley

or InTouch Ministries, stop by InTouch.org.

This podcast is a presentation of InTouch Ministries at Lanta Georgia.

InTouch.

InTouch.