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Living a Legacy - 2026-10-03 For His Kingdom Series: The Great Invitation part 2 · Your Network of Praise

0:01
S1: Why do Christians get overwhelmed and burned out? I would
0:04
S1: say it's because of these two things. Expectations that God
0:07
S1: never placed on them, but they placed on themselves and
0:10
S1: they've allowed other people to place on them. And the
0:13
S1: second reason is unrepentant sin. It's not whether or not
0:17
S1: you will burn out. It's just a matter of when.
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S2: Well, how about you? Are you right at the gate
0:25
S2: of spiritual burnout? How do those two reasons apply to
0:28
S2: your situation? And what's the possible connection to legalism? Hi,
0:33
S2: and welcome to Living a Legacy with pastor and author
0:37
S2: Doctor Crawford. Lawrence Crawford served as senior pastor of Fellowship
0:41
S2: Bible Church in Roswell, Georgia. I'm Bill Davis. Glad you're
0:44
S2: with us today. In a moment. The second part of
0:47
S2: Crawford's message, The Great Invitation, is part of our series
0:50
S2: in Matthew, and we're headed to Matthew chapter 11. Crawford
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S2: joins us here before the message. And Crawford, we've learned
0:56
S2: that this passage follows Jesus rebuke of the scribes and
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S2: Pharisees who failed to accept Jesus message and the message
1:04
S2: of John the Baptist. And Jesus is denouncing legalism. In
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S2: our passage today, reminding the scribes and Pharisees he. He's
1:12
S2: not impressed with their fanfare and show. And that's the
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S2: real tension in this chapter, right?
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S3: Yeah. It's. The tension in this passage has to do
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S3: with the context of the passage itself. You know, the
1:25
S3: larger message here is that John the Baptist had been
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S3: rejected by the Pharisees and religious leaders because, you know,
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S3: he was telling them what they didn't want to hear
1:34
S3: about repentance. And and he was aligned to Jesus. And
1:38
S3: so all of this stuff is coming down. And Jesus
1:41
S3: takes the opportunity to point out that, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no,
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S3: you're try harder, work harder, and be like the Pharisees.
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S3: It's not going to get you anywhere and it's not
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S3: going to get anything but condemnation. But you come to
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S3: me and you know, you just received my love, my mercy,
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S3: my grace, my power. And you'll find rest for your souls.
1:59
S2: All right. Let's jump right in. We're in Matthew chapter 11,
2:03
S2: verses 25 through 30, Matthew 11, verses 25 through 30.
2:08
S2: Here's Crawford on living a legacy.
2:14
S1: Can you imagine how these Pharisees and everybody who rejected
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S1: Jesus felt when they died? Now he Lord, he. He
2:25
S1: knows the father. The second part of the verse says here,
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S1: all things have been handed over to me by my father,
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S1: and no one knows the son except the father, and
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S1: no one knows the father except the son. Nose. Nose, nose.
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S1: That word. No. There is or translated nose is epigenome.
2:45
S1: It does not mean just to be familiar with. Just
2:50
S1: to be familiar. You know, like if somebody says, hey, Crawford,
2:53
S1: do you know Tony Dungy? Yeah, I know Tony Dungy. Crawford.
2:56
S1: Do you know. Yeah, yeah, yeah. But that's not the word,
2:59
S1: if you ask me. Do you know your son? What
3:01
S1: are you talking about? Yes, I know my son. The
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S1: word no. Here is the idea to know completely and thoroughly.
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S1: It is profound intimacy. There's no need for dialogue. There's
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S1: a sense of oneness about this expression. The intimacy with
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S1: the father. Five times in verses 25 to 27, God
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S1: the Father and God the Son know each other, and
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S1: the name father is mentioned five times. Five times. We
3:41
S1: are one. And furthermore, Jesus underscores the crowd. Everybody listen
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S1: to him. Now you need to know something. You don't
3:51
S1: even know God unless I choose to show you. Would
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S1: he get that from. Look at the last line of
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S1: verse 27. Unbelievable. And anyone to whom the son chooses
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S1: to reveal him. Chooses to reveal him. I'm going to
4:13
S1: make a statement here. Technically speaking, you did not choose
4:19
S1: to trust Christ as your Savior and Lord. Yeah, you
4:26
S1: made the decision, but you didn't make the ultimate decision.
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S1: You decided yes, but it wasn't really your choice. We don't.
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S1: We don't come to God unless he draws us. And
4:45
S1: Jesus says, Jesus says nobody comes to God. Unless I
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S1: choose him. I've been given that authority. John 146 says
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S1: this I am the way, the truth, and the life.
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S1: No one comes to the father but through me. Second
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S1: Corinthians chapter four talks about our eyes being blinded. Only
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S1: God can reveal himself. You see, you need to read
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S1: this verse in a broad context there of these religious
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S1: leaders rejecting Jesus. And Jesus is making a clear clarion statement.
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S1: Their rejection of me has not diminished who I am.
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S1: I am the Lord of history. And I control your
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S1: eternal destiny. You don't come to me proud and full
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S1: of yourself, but you come to me submissively, honoring who
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S1: I am. Now. This invitation. Is to the open and responsive.
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S1: It is from the sovereign of the ages. And is
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S1: for the purpose of rest. There are three concepts that
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S1: I want us to grab Ahold of in verses 28
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S1: through 30 and this great, great invitation. Three concepts, three ideas.
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S1: Because I think Jesus spells rest by using these three words.
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S1: He spells rest relief. He spells rest, guidance, he spells
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S1: rest joy. That's how he spells rest. He spells it relief.
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S1: He spells it guidance, and he spells it joy. I
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S1: want you to look at the very first word. Verse 28.
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S1: He says, come. Come to me. Put that together. Put
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S1: it together. Put it together with what did he just
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S1: say in verse 27? That he is Lord, right? That
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S1: he's over the universe, right? All power is in my hand, right?
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S1: He says, come to me. Come here. Come to me.
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S1: In contrast to the Pharisees, they said, do. They said, perform.
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S1: Try to make it happen. Maybe if you're good enough
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S1: and you keep 600 of these laws, 600 plus of
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S1: these laws, God will say, okay, you're in the club.
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S1: Let me go take you through the initiation sign of
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S1: the bottom line. You'll make it. We can't make ourselves
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S1: right with God. I want you to hear me, hear me,
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S1: hear me, please hear me. We can't make ourselves right
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S1: with God. You can't pray enough to be right with God.
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S1: You can't read your Bible enough to be right with God.
8:02
S1: You can't share your faith enough to be right with God.
8:06
S1: You can't go to enough Bible studies to be right with.
8:09
S1: You cannot make yourself right with God. We don't do
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S1: those things to make ourselves right with God. We do
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S1: those things because we are right with God. And if
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S1: you think that the more you read, the more you pray,
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S1: the more you memorize that somehow or another. It's going
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S1: to draw the attention of heaven. Then we've all misunderstood
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S1: the gospel. I didn't say those things were unimportant. We're
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S1: going to see this in a moment. In fact, Jesus
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S1: says they are. You'll see this in a moment. But
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S1: our our, our relation, our walk with God is a
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S1: relationship with Jesus. You come to me. To me Further,
9:01
S1: Jesus doesn't invite us to come to his teaching or
9:04
S1: to come to his miracles, but to come to him.
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S1: Come here, come here. Come to me. Come to me.
9:15
S1: You know, you don't stop at what Jesus does. Get
9:18
S1: to who Jesus is. Come here. Come here. That's the
9:23
S1: problem with too many of us Christians. We're always hanging
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S1: around what Jesus does. And we don't get to Jesus.
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S1: Come here, come here. It's like my grandchildren or my
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S1: children when they were small. They get frustrated about something.
9:41
S1: Something's not working out. Their toddler something. They scoop them up, say,
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S1: come here honey, come here, come here. You're right, you're right,
9:50
S1: you're right. It'll be all right. What do you do
9:53
S1: when a friend of yours, a dear friend of yours,
9:55
S1: is overwhelmed with grief? Bad news. And they're weeping. You
9:59
S1: just grab them. guy here. Come here, come here. That's
10:04
S1: the tenderness of this line. Who are you going to?
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S1: Who are you going to? Guys like me. We have
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S1: hurt people. We. We have preached all this performance stuff.
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S1: It's about Jesus. Come to me. Word labor there. By
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S1: the way, the way to understand this text is a
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S1: discipleship pattern that's in here. It's born through the process
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S1: verbs that he takes that could go that route. And
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S1: I want to go there, but let me just give
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S1: it to you. Come take, learn, come take, learn, come take, learn,
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S1: come take, learn. That's the process of discipleship. Come take, learn,
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S1: come exchange, learn, come exchange. That's the process there. He says,
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S1: come take, learn. But he says, he says, come to me,
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S1: all of you who labor. The point being that they're
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S1: tired of hard toil. You've been working and working and
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S1: working and working and working. You know the old line.
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S1: There's no rest for the weary. This can't make it.
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S1: And working and working and working and working and working
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S1: and working. He said, come here. He says, heavy laden.
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S1: This is the heavy yoke of legalism. Oh, he's trying
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S1: to prove how valuable you are to God and the
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S1: people who are watching you. Oh, he's trying to impress them.
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S1: Come here. Now, I've gotten some emails during this Matthew
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S1: series that I was too hard on the Pharisees. I
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S1: guarantee you, I am not as hard as Jesus was.
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S1: You you read the whole book and then come back
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S1: and talk to me. For example, over in Matthew chapter 23,
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S1: verse four. If you think I'm. I'm. I'm hard on them.
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S1: Listen to what Jesus said to them. He says they
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S1: tie up heavy burdens hard to break, and lay them
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S1: on people's shoulders, but they themselves are not willing to
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S1: move them with their fingers. He picked these people up.
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S1: Because they don't know as much as you do. And
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S1: you don't do as much as you know. And Jesus says,
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S1: for those of you who are tired of that stuff,
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S1: don't you come here, come here. Let me just share
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S1: this with you. You know, people's weariness comes from enduring
12:42
S1: the burdens of expectations and their own sin and consequences.
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S1: Practically speaking, I think that's the reason why people get
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S1: burnt out. If you would push me in the corner
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S1: and say, why do Christians get overwhelmed and burned out,
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S1: I would say it's because of these two things. One
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S1: expectations that God never placed on them, but they placed
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S1: on themselves and they've allowed other people to place on
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S1: them unreal expectations. And the second reason is unrepentant sin.
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S1: And you don't want to deal with your sin and
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S1: the consequences of that. And you combine that with unmet expectations.
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S1: It's not whether or not you will burn out, it's
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S1: just a matter of when. And some of us are
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S1: living it right now. You're trying to pile holiness on
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S1: a garbage heap, and you need to take care of
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S1: the trash in your life. You got all kinds of
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S1: mess going on inside of you, and then you're wondering
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S1: why you can't sleep at night. You wonder why you
13:42
S1: have this little subtle guilt. And while just under the surface,
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S1: there's this little bit of anger that's just keep, keep
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S1: eating away at you. You keep ignoring the lying that
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S1: you're telling. You keep ignoring the lust that's in your heart.
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S1: You keep ignoring the things that you've done wrong, and
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S1: you're expecting God to bless you. And all the while
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S1: you're projecting a holiness image that you don't really have.
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S1: And the walls are starting to close in on you.
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S1: You can't sleep at night. You got nervous twitches and
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S1: going on all this other kind of stuff. The classic
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S1: sign of burnout because guilt is eating away at you.
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S1: Aren't you tired? It takes more work to pretend than
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S1: it does to obey. Aren't you tired? Aren't you tired
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S1: of making other people God in your life? Aren't you
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S1: tired of those expectations? They don't come from God. Who
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S1: are you trying to impress? Your husband is not God.
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S1: Your wife is not God. Your children are not God.
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S1: Your pastor or staff members, not God. Who, who who's
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S1: asking you to do these things? This is what Jesus
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S1: is saying. I didn't lay this burden on you. I
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S1: didn't place this on you. God didn't do this. Come here.
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S1: Second word is guidance. He says, take my yoke. Here's
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S1: what I want you to. I want you to pay
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S1: attention here. You're going to think I'm contradicting myself, but
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S1: I am not. There's some wrong views of legalism as
15:30
S1: well as there's some wrong views of grace. He says,
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S1: take my yoke. Now I want you to. I want
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S1: you to understand something here. The very fact that he says,
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S1: take my yoke is an indication that followers of Christ
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S1: are not relieved of all work, but we'll find the
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S1: work fulfilling and rewarding. Followers of Christ doesn't mean if
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S1: you're in grace that I.
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S4: Don't work, I don't.
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S1: Perform. Where did you get that from? You didn't get
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S1: it from Jesus. You didn't get it from the Bible.
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S1: You don't get it from that. The fact that he says,
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S1: you take my yoke on me implies that there's stuff
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S1: to be done. But the implication is, is how it
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S1: is being done and who's doing the work, who's bearing
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S1: the burden. But there is stuff to be done. Take
16:13
S1: my yoke upon me and learn from me. Yeah. I
16:17
S1: want you to read your Bible, Crawford. I want you
16:19
S1: to pray. Crawford. I want you to work. Crawford. I
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S1: want you to share your faith. Crawford. I want you
16:24
S1: to do all of that. But if you do it
16:26
S1: in the energy of your flesh, you're going to burn out.
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S1: But if you do it under my power and authority,
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S1: it will be exhilarating. Get. Get in the yoke with me.
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S1: The way they taught young ox, how broke them and
16:39
S1: taught them how to plow, was to yoke them up
16:41
S1: with an older ox. And whatever the older ox would do,
16:44
S1: the younger ox would do. That's the word picture here. Well,
16:49
S1: it's like my dad. And if you're past 45, you
16:51
S1: know exactly where I'm going with this. You couldn't do
16:54
S1: this today with all the seat belts and helmets and
16:56
S1: that kind of thing. I grew up when we didn't
16:58
S1: have helmets. And some of you are saying, yeah, that's
17:00
S1: the problem. You have plenty of concussions. Yeah. But remember
17:04
S1: your dad when you want to drive the car. Most
17:06
S1: of us our dads did this. If you're older, you know,
17:10
S1: I was like 4 or 5 years old. And sometimes
17:11
S1: my father would go to this little parking lot, like
17:14
S1: we'd be out there, and he put me on his lap.
17:17
S1: He says, come on, CW, let's drive. I thought I
17:20
S1: was driving, but I wasn't driving anything. I was on
17:23
S1: his lap. His hands were on the steering wheel, my
17:26
S1: hands on top of his hands, and we were turned
17:30
S1: and I thought I was turning. I couldn't reach the battle.
17:34
S1: I couldn't touch anything. He had complete control. I think
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S1: it's a picture here. Come here, come here. Get on
17:43
S1: my lap. I got it. When he says, learn from me.
17:51
S1: That's the Greek word methanol. It's the same root word
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S1: for disciple. I want to, I want to, I want,
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S1: I want to teach you what a dependent life will
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S1: look like. I want to show you how you can
18:06
S1: go through this life and be more fruitful than you
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S1: ever dreamed of, thought, and yet have more peace and
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S1: joy than you ever could imagine. Learn from me. Learn
18:18
S1: from me. And he says you will find rest. I
18:24
S1: think the rest that he's talking about is, is, is,
18:27
S1: is the relief of finding what we have been looking for.
18:32
S1: You don't have to search for it anymore. Here it is.
18:35
S1: I think that's what he's talking about. But there's also
18:39
S1: the deeper rest that comes from surrender and obedience. I
18:45
S1: don't have to look for it anymore, but I don't
18:47
S1: have to struggle anymore. Now the last word is joy.
18:55
S1: Verse 30 says, for my yoke is easy and my
19:00
S1: burden is light. Look at the word easy there. You
19:02
S1: might want to circle that word easy. It's a very
19:03
S1: interesting Greek word. The word easy could have been translated
19:07
S1: well fitting or pleasant. It's. My yoke is well fitting
19:17
S1: or pleasant. You won't get splinters when you're yoked up
19:20
S1: with me. It won't rub your neck and shoulders raw. No.
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S1: My yoke is tailor made for you. All I'm trying
19:32
S1: to say is that we all live here. We all.
19:36
S1: We all live here. And if we don't learn how
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S1: to deal with the burdens in our lives, we're going
19:45
S1: to be a sorry lot of people. I want you
19:50
S1: to think about these three questions. One is, will you
19:54
S1: receive his invitation? My biggest worry every Sunday morning. Just
20:00
S1: about is that after the message, after we worship this
20:03
S1: kind of thing, you can almost see the spiritual equity
20:07
S1: going out of the drain when we get into the
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S1: parking lot, because we get distracted by other stuff and
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S1: what we're going to do. Will we respond to this invitation?
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S1: Will we come? Second question is, will you place all
20:24
S1: of the stuff you've been carrying in his hands? Will
20:29
S1: you give up the right to perform? Will you repent?
20:36
S1: And then will you give up trying to make your
20:41
S1: walk with God work? Will you get that up? What
20:47
S1: I mean by that is surrender to him and say,
20:51
S1: Lord Jesus, I want to pursue you and not just
20:55
S1: the stuff about you. Will you live your life in it?
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S1: Through me?
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S2: Doctor Crawford Lauritz here on living a legacy in Crawford.
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S2: That's it. I mean, we we assume our performance driven
21:14
S2: Christianity impresses God and it doesn't. We need to acknowledge
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S2: our emptiness and our feeble attempt to please God and.
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S2: And to seek his grace.
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S3: Yeah. You know, grace is everything in the Christian life, Bill.
21:26
S3: You know, we we come to Jesus by grace. We
21:30
S3: we grow in Jesus because of grace. We are effective
21:34
S3: in the Christian life by and through grace. It's all grace. Now, now,
21:40
S3: it doesn't mean that we don't work, but we work
21:43
S3: from a heart of gratitude, not from a heart that
21:46
S3: tries to curry favor with God. And so that's what
21:51
S3: this message has really been all about. Uh, yes. Yes
21:55
S3: we pray. Yes, we read our Bibles. Yes, we share
21:57
S3: our faith. Yes, we are faithful, but we're faithful because
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S3: we're grateful. We're grateful for what Jesus has done. Let's
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S3: pray together. Holy father, thank you for this great invitation.
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S3: And Lord, so many of us have struggled with working
22:13
S3: harder and trying to be get get you to smile
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S3: at us or to gain your attention, or to think
22:18
S3: that our hard work is going to somehow or another
22:21
S3: earn points with you. May we just rest in your
22:25
S3: your love and mercy. May we fall into the tender
22:29
S3: arms of grace. The grace of our great God. The
22:32
S3: acceptance and love that you give to us. And that
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S3: the smile that you have, father, is not, is not
22:38
S3: contingent upon what we do. So, Lord Jesus, we pray
22:41
S3: in the name of your son that we will receive
22:44
S3: your grace, your mercy, your loving kindness, and bask in it.
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S3: In Jesus name. Amen.
22:50
S2: Amen. The Great Invitation, the title of today's Living a
22:54
S2: Legacy message. To hear it again, visit our website living legacy.org.
22:59
S2: Living a legacy.org. Well, for the past couple of weeks,
23:03
S2: I've been asking you to be part of our living
23:05
S2: Legacy roll call. It's a simple way for us to
23:08
S2: know who you are and where you listen from. So
23:10
S2: many have responded. Michael listens from Clarksville, Tennessee. Kimberly listens
23:15
S2: on WGN near Indianapolis, Indiana. Frida is a regular listener
23:20
S2: in Anderson, California, and John listens from Oak Park, Illinois.
23:24
S2: And we'd like to hear from you. Join the roll call.
23:26
S2: Let us know your first name and where you'll listen from.
23:29
S2: You can contact us through our website, living a legacy.org. Well,
23:35
S2: for the next couple of weeks, we're going to step
23:36
S2: away from our series in Matthew to take a look
23:39
S2: at what a regular diet in God's Word looks like.
23:42
S2: We'll also investigate real biblical community and we'll study intentional ministry.
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S2: Hope you'll join us right here for Crawford Lawrence. I'm
23:50
S2: Bill Davis. Thank you for listening. Living a legacy is
23:53
S2: a production of Moody Radio.