The Offer on The Table

Kendall: Hi, Porch. Please take a seat as we read God's Word together from the gospel of Matthew, chapter 11, verses 28-30. "Come to me, all who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you, and learn from me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light." Now, our second message in our series Disciple.

Timothy Ateek: What's up, Porch? How are we doing tonight? It's so good to get to be here with you. If we've never met before, my name is Timothy Ateek. People call me "TA." I'm one of the pastors here at the church. If you don't have a church home, I want to invite you to join us on a Sunday sometime.

Before we jump in, just a couple of things. First, I want to say "Hello" to everyone watching online. So, Porch.Live Des Moines, Porch.Live Boise, Porch.Live Fresno, and everyone else watching, thanks for joining us tonight. Secondly, I'm so thankful for Kylen Perry. Would you guys give it up for your leader? I love what God is doing through him. It's such a joy to partner with him in ministry.

Thirdly, we're about to jump into the Word of God together. I don't know what your view of the Bible is, but my view is that when we open it, it's like we're opening up God's mouth. We have an opportunity to hear from God. I don't know if you came here tonight expecting for God to speak to you, but I believe he wants to. So I just want to give you a space really quickly to pray and ask God to speak straight to your heart.

This might be new for some of you. Maybe you haven't talked to God in a long time or ever, but I want to invite everyone here to just say, "God, would you speak to me clearly tonight?" Pray that really quickly. Then I want to invite you to pray for the people around you, for the other people in the room. Would you just say, "God, speak clearly to them as well"? Then I want to ask you to pray for me. Would you pray that God would speak clearly through me to you?

Lord God, my prayer is that we would have eyes to see you tonight. I pray that we would have ears to hear from you, and I pray that our hearts would be receptive to everything you want to say to us tonight. We give this time to you. In Jesus' name, amen.

I want to start tonight by sharing with you how I proposed to my wife on June 2, 2006, which was a long time ago. Kat was living in Dallas, and I was living in Austin, Texas. I convinced Kat that I was going to have her fly from Dallas to Austin to see me. The way I convinced her of this was I bought her a fully refundable flight on Southwest.com. I sent her the e-confirmation, and then I called Southwest and got my money back.

Without Kat knowing, I made my way from Austin to Dallas. I went up to her work without her knowing. I was in cahoots with her boss and her coworkers. They lured her away from her desk, got into her purse, came outside, unlocked her car, and put her keys back. All the while, Kat had no clue she was about to be punked.

I got into her car. I put two dozen roses. I sprinkled rose petals all over the car, and then I put a note that said, "Tonight is a very important night in the history of our relationship. Change of plans. Go home and get changed." So, Kat came out to her car, expecting to drive to the airport, and instead she found that blissful love had vomited all over the inside of her car.

She then made her way back to her apartment, and when she opened the door, there was a trail of rose petals from the front door all the way into the bedroom, and there on the bed was me. Not really. No. I'm just making sure you're paying attention. I'm so sorry. There on the bed was another note that said, "See you at 6:00," two dozen more roses, and then a dress I had bought for Kat. Ladies, I know what you're thinking. You're like, "You bought her a dress? That is so dangerous."

You're right except the good news is Kat has a twin sister. So I was like, "Would Kat look good in this dress? Yes. Great. Good. We're good to go." At 6:00 p.m., Kat comes out of her apartment. I'm standing there in front of a limousine with two dozen more roses. We get in the limo and make our way to downtown Dallas. There's that building that has the hole in the middle of it, and on the floor right below that there's a restaurant.

We sat and watched the sun go down, and right there in the middle of dinner, I took her by the hand and said, "Kat, will you please pass the Sweet'N Low?" And she did. So, we finished up dinner, we got back into the limousine, and we drove to my cousin's house. Now, I know what you're thinking. "You went to your cousin's house on the night you proposed?" Yes, I did, because my cousin shares a backyard with former Dallas Cowboy football player Daryl Johnston, aka "The Moose."

The Moose had a private lake in his backyard with fountains and waterfalls. It was really beautiful. So, I walked Kat up the driveway. I had set up a projection screen. I sat her down, and I pushed play on a slideshow that showed her a slideshow of her and me from birth to present. She teared up. I said, "Bam!" After the slideshow, I walked her down to the lake. It was dark, but the path was lit with candles. The water was dark, but we had put floating candles in the water.

There in the water was a rowboat with two dozen more roses. I had Kat get into the rowboat, and then I rowed the two of us out to the middle of The Moose's lake. There in the middle of the lake, I got down on one knee and asked Kat if she would marry me, and she said, "Yes." That was an incredible thing. After she said, "Yes," we hugged it out, and then I said, "Hey, let me row the two of us back to shore. Let's knock on my cousin's door to get your ring in the light."

So, we went up to the door, we knocked, they opened the door, and her family was standing right there, which was amazing. Then 10 seconds later, 20 of her closest friends came running around the corner, and estrogen just exploded into the night sky. Then we spent the rest of the evening celebrating the fact that a girl like that would say "Yes" to a dude like this. That's it. That's all I wanted to share with you tonight. I'm going to pray, and then we can get out of here. Hopefully your life was changed in the name of Jesus.

Hey, here's the reason I share that with you. I share that with you because I'm really proud of the way I proposed. Some of you have probably heard it before, and you're like, "Dude…" You were mouthing along because you've heard me share it so many times. I share it a lot because I'm really proud of how I proposed. I'm proud of it because of the lengths I went to to invite Kat into a lifelong relationship together.

Yet what I want to share with you tonight is a far greater proposal. It's a proposal that puts my proposal to shame. It's a proposal from Jesus Christ to you and me. The lengths Jesus Christ went to for us are far greater, and the invitation to us is so much sweeter. It's not just an invitation to life now with Jesus; it's an invitation to life with the eternal Son of God, not just now but for all of eternity. It's an invitation into the relationship you have actually been made for.

So, tonight, as we continue this series that is called Disciple, we're taking a step closer to Jesus, because we don't want to just be people who know about Jesus; we want to be people who draw near and know Jesus intimately, who know who he is, who know his character, who draw near to his heart and have our lives changed by him.

Now, when you think about my proposal with Kat, there were kind of two components to it. There was the invitation from me, and then there was the response from Kat. We're going to see the same proposal from Jesus. We're going to see his invitation to us, and then we're going to see our response to him.

The greatest proposal in the history of mankind is found in the passage Kendall just read. It's Matthew, chapter 11. In verse 28, we find the proposal. We find Jesus' invitation to us. Listen to what he says. "Come to me, all who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest." There it is. That's the proposal. That's actually the greatest proposal in the history of the world. It's honestly found in those first three words, "Come to me."

So, let's clarify really quickly. I need to make sure everyone is on the same page. When Jesus says, "Come to me," it is nothing short of an invitation to be with Jesus now and for all of eternity. It's not first and foremost an invitation to up your church attendance. It's not first and foremost an invitation to open up the Bible and try your hardest to follow all of its rules. It's not first and foremost an invitation to just be better to yourself, kinder to yourself, and kinder to other people. No, it is nothing short of an invitation from Jesus to be with Jesus, now and for all of eternity.

If you're exploring Jesus…you're not sure what you think about him…I want to be clear. This isn't just my opinion. If the Bible is true, then what the Bible would tell you is you have been made for Jesus. Your soul has been made to be satisfied by and in Jesus. So, the craving of your soul for satisfaction will not find fulfillment until it is fulfilled by the one for whom it has been made: Jesus Christ.

So, I just want to be clear. This is his invitation to you. It is an invitation from Jesus to be with Jesus. Don't let anyone sell you for anything less. Don't settle for anything less. I'll explain it this way. Several years ago, my wife and I had some friends staying with us, and we could hear them in the other room on the phone ordering Mexican food. It was right around dinnertime, and Kat and I were both really hungry.

We were listening to them order. That sounds creepy when it comes out of my mouth, but that's just reality. We were listening to them in a different room order Mexican food, and we were like, "Man, I want that. I want what they're ordering. That actually sounds really good." The only problem was we were on a budget. We wanted restaurant-quality Mexican food, but we didn't want to spend the money to get it.

So we were like, "Let's do the next best thing." We went and spent over $20 on food from Taco Bell. It sounds like we have some Taco Bell fans in the room, so I want to be clear with you. I'm not trying to disparage Taco Bell, but the reality is when you're looking for restaurant-quality Mexican food and you go to Taco Bell…

There are times of the day when Taco Bell will taste better than others, and the time we were looking to eat was not one of those times. Just imagine spending over $20 on food at Taco Bell. That's a significant amount of food for two people. It resembled what we were desiring, but it did not taste like what we were wanting. It looked similar to what we wanted, but in the end it did not satisfy.

My fear is that many people in this room are having the same experience with their version of Jesus or Christianity. So, I just want to be clear. Maybe Christianity for you is doing things for Jesus, but you have little experience being with Jesus. If that's your experience, it will not satisfy and you have settled. You've settled for the wrong understanding of Christianity and the wrong version of Jesus.

Maybe Christianity for you is just about becoming a better person. You want to be more loving to yourself and more loving toward others, and Jesus helps you with that, and at the same time, you don't necessarily need Jesus for that. If that's your version of Jesus and Christianity, in the end it's not going to satisfy and you've settled.

Maybe Christianity for you is about going to heaven when you die, but for now, Jesus is more of a roadblock to satisfaction than a remedy for it. The Jesus you know is boring, unsatisfying, and exhausting. If that's the Jesus or the Christianity you know, I want you to know you have settled. If your understanding of Christianity is it's a solution for the weak, a quick remedy for people who are in tough times…

If that's your understanding of Jesus or Christianity, I'm just telling you, you have the wrong Jesus and the wrong Christianity. Christianity is nothing short of a proposal from the God of the universe to be with him now and for all of eternity. It is life with Jesus, the King of Kings and Lord of all Lords, the one for whom your soul has been made, and you will not be satisfied apart from him.

You might hear me say that, and you're like, "TA, I don't know you, and you don't know me, so for you to state emphatically that I won't be satisfied apart from Jesus…" You might hear that and be like, "Look. I'm not buying it." I'd just say, "That's okay." Go on the search. Go look for satisfaction. There are people in the Bible who did just that, but in the end, the life you're looking for is only found in Jesus. Jesus says, "Come to me."

Now, as he continues, we're going to see who he's actually proposing to. Before I talk about Jesus' proposal to us, I want you to think about this. If you're here and you desire to be married one day, which means there's a desire in you to hopefully either propose to someone or be proposed to, I want you to envision the person opposite you. When I say "opposite you," I mean the person standing with you, the person either you're proposing to or the person proposing to you.

My guess is whoever you picture, you only think about their positives. Right? It's someone who's incredibly good-looking, really godly, and really funny. No one thinks about their negatives. On June 2, 2006, on the day I proposed to Kat, I assure you Kat wasn't sitting there like, "Praise God I get to be married to a man who's going to be moody. He's not going to be able to fall asleep at night unless he's wearing socks, and I'm going to have the joy of watching him go through a box of Kleenex every few days due to severe allergies." No. (I just shared way too… You didn't need to know any of that.)

But look. To be married to Timothy Ateek, that's what you get. You don't think about the negatives. You only think about the positives. Okay. Well, now I want you to see who Jesus wants. I want you to see who Jesus wants to be with now and for all of eternity. What does the text say? Jesus says, "Come to me, all who labor and are heavy laden…" That word labor in the Greek carries the idea of being worn out from struggling or grinding through life. That idea of being heavy laden means to be burdened or overloaded or weighed down.

So just wake up, and here's what's happening. Jesus is saying, "The reason I left heaven and came to earth is for those who are worn out in life. It's for the people who are worn out and fighting losing battles against various sins in life." The people he wants are the people who are tired of giving in to porn and tired of giving in to drinking too much and tired of giving in to hookups and tired of spending money they don't have.

The people he wants are the people who are worn out, exhausted from trying to be someone who crushes everything in life, which means they're well acquainted with what it feels like to be a failure, because no one can crush all of life. The people he wants are the people who are exhausted from trying to please everyone and the people who are so tired of the season of life they're in.

Maybe that's you right now. Maybe you're sitting there saying, "Look. I'm so over this season of life." You're so tired of being single and so tired of your wedding not being on the wedding circuit you find yourself stuck on. He wants people who are worn out from the hard in life. Maybe you're battling chronic pain or maybe you're in a situation where you're actually having to parent your parents.

I would imagine there are people here who are in a place where they say, "I don't know if I can take another day of it," whatever it is for you. Jesus says, "You're the type of people I'm looking for." He's looking for people who are worn out trying to be good enough for him, people who are exhausted from trying to be a good Christian.

What's interesting is when Jesus said, "Come to me, all who labor and are heavy laden," what was going on in the day and time he was speaking in was the religious professionals of the day, known as the Pharisees, were people who took the laws of the Old Testament (there were about 613 of those) and created pages and pages and pages and pages and pages of more laws.

They began dumping all of these laws and requirements on the people, and they saddled them and weighed them down with all of these expectations that they said were from God. So, if people were going to be God-fearing people, they had to live under the crushing weight of these rules and regulations. Jesus is like, "These are the people I want. The people I long to spend now and all of eternity with are the people who are absolutely worn out on life."

As I was preparing for this message, I was reminded of a scene in the Will Smith movie The Pursuit of Happyness. I don't know if you've ever seen it. If you haven't seen it, that's okay. Will Smith is in this moment where he's on the brink of homelessness, and he has this job interview coming up. The day before his job interview, he's painting his apartment at home. The cops come to the door and arrest him because he has failed to pay some parking tickets because he doesn't have money to pay them.

So he spends a night in jail, and he gets out of jail just in time for his job interview. So, he shows up to this company, and he's wearing jeans he painted in and this tank top undershirt that has paint on it. You see him trying to tuck it in with paint on his shirt, and his hair is all messed up. He's walking into this meeting with the C-suite executives of this company, and he's just trying to put himself together even though he looks awful.

He sits down in front of these guys in very, very expensive suits, and he begins to try to explain to them why they should take a chance on him. The main guy, who looks like the CEO of the company, looks at him and is like, "Hey, what would you say to someone who walked in wearing what you're wearing?" The implication is, "We don't give job offers to people who show up and present themselves like this."

Yet Jesus would bust into that C-suite meeting and say, "That's exactly the type of person I want. In fact, I only give offers and proposals to people like that, the people who don't have it together, the people whose lives are barely holding together, the people who are so worn out and exhausted, those who have been shackled, in prison spiritually, bound up in sin. Those are the people I came for. Those are the people I want to do life now and all of eternity with."

So, he says, "Come to me, all who labor and are heavy laden…" Then he clarifies exactly what he's offering. He says, "…and I will give you rest." He says the exact same thing in the next line. He promises rest two times in two verses. My high school Bible study leader, if we were studying this passage together, would have instructed me to write the two letters BP next to those verses, standing for "Bible promise," because he wanted us to identify the times in the Bible where God gives something we can count on and bank on.

There's no "maybe" or "possibly" to this. There's no uncertainty. You can count on this. You come to Jesus, and he gives you rest. That's what he wants to offer you tonight. He wants to offer you rest. Does anyone here just need a break in life right now? Is anyone honest enough to say, "Yeah, rest sounds pretty great. So, what's Jesus going to do? Is he going to somehow give my boss a nightmare that calls him to move my PTO from 10 days to 15 days? Is that how Jesus works? Because if so, I'm in. Count me in. If that's how this Jesus thing works, I'll take it."

That's not what we're talking about. When Jesus promises rest, there are two facets to it. He's talking about rest one day, and then he's talking about rest today. When he talks about giving rest, he's talking about giving rest one day. When I talk about that, I'm talking about life for all of eternity in heaven with Jesus.

It's kind of a Revelation 21-type thing. If you've never read Revelation 21, I would encourage you to go read it. A day is coming for those who know Jesus where all of the struggle of life will come to a complete conclusion. There will be no more pain, no more death, no more battle against sin, no more tears, because Jesus Christ is going to make everything new. He's going to make things exactly how they should be, including you. There will be complete rest.

But when he offers rest in his proposal, he's not just talking about rest one day; he's talking about rest today. But Jesus isn't telling us we need to stop working altogether and just take a long nap. He's not talking about ceasing from our work in order to rest. What he's talking about, when he offers rest, is bringing refreshment in the midst of the struggle. I'll explain it this way.

Just a few months ago, I started going to CrossFit. I know what you're thinking. "Really? You? Are you sure? Because I'm seeing you in high definition right now, and I don't see much fit to that cross." Anyway, I started going to CrossFit. In the last three months, I have been pushed harder than I've ever been pushed before, which means I have experienced despair more than I've ever experienced before.

There have been some workouts I'm in that, five minutes in, I'm like, "I am done. I'm done with this." So I'm just trying to make it. But then something will happen in the midst of the workout where I'm exhausted, I am worn out, I have given up, I'm ready to be done with this thing, and then I will remember the breakfast I am earning from this workout.

I begin to picture that banana granola crunch pancake from First Watch that I just might get to experience, and something happens in that moment. It unlocks these reserve tanks of energy, and I begin to work out with purpose again. I'm like, "Oh my gosh! I'm actually crushing this WOD right now." (Workout of the Day, by the way.)

I think that's a hint of what Jesus is talking about. He's like, "Look. I'm not telling you you get to take an indefinite vacation from your job. I'm talking about refreshing you in the midst of the struggle." Think about it this way. In regard to your losing battle against sin… I would imagine there are hundreds, if not over a thousand people in this room who might feel like you are losing the battle against some sin in your life.

What if Jesus brought you here tonight just so he could remind you that he hasn't given up on you, that he wants you, that your sin isn't the truest thing about you, that he isn't mad at you? His goal is to keep forgiving you, and he wants to continue to give you a new start every morning. He's committed to resourcing you with everything you need for victory.

Every day, he's giving you the assurance that the victory over your sin has already been secured through his death, burial, and resurrection. Not just that. When you put your faith in Jesus, he puts his Holy Spirit in you. You might not realize this, but if God lives in you by the presence of the Holy Spirit, then you actually have the same power living in you that raised Christ from the dead. Not just that. He has given you his Word so you can know his ways and walk in his will. But not just that. He's going to surround you with his people who will fight for you.

So, maybe he brought you here tonight just to remind you you aren't fighting alone. If you find yourself in a place where you feel hopeless, I think Jesus brought you here tonight to say, "Hey, hope isn't lost. I'm still with you. I'm still for you. I still love you. I haven't given up on you. I'm not mad at you, but I hate your sin. I'm so committed to you that I'm not leaving until we deal with this." My hope is, for some of you, that just unlocked some refreshment. You just for a moment believed, "Maybe all hope isn't lost."

Or maybe, in regard to that feeling that you're a failure because you're not doing enough or crushing life enough or you haven't achieved enough and it's all on you to make it happen… Maybe Jesus brought you here tonight to say, "You don't have to crush all of life. In fact, you never will because you're not me."

You're not God, and that's okay. You don't have to crush life because Jesus already has. What do I mean by that? I mean Jesus crushed life. He lived a perfect life. In fact, he's the only one who ever lived a perfect life. But he didn't just crush life; he crushed death for you and for me, and he walked out of the grave to give you hope that you can as well.

I tell you that just to say maybe, for some of you, that refreshment comes in the form of you believing that your insufficiencies are actually a gift because they remind you of your need for Jesus and God's power is actually perfected in your weakness. Maybe, in your exhaustion from trying to please others, Jesus brought you here tonight to say, "I'm already pleased with you, not because of what you're doing for me but because of what I get to do in you."

Some of you are here tonight, and you don't feel like anyone is choosing you. You are spinning your wheels just longing in insecurity for someone to look at you and to want you and to choose you, and Jesus is like, "I already chose you. Come to me. I choose you. I want you. I want to be with you now and for all of eternity. I don't need you to be somebody that everyone wants you to be. I want you to be who I am making you to be." So, maybe you can lean into that and enjoy that and live with this appreciation that Jesus Christ has chosen you, he's with you, and he's working in you. I promise you the life you are longing for is only found in Jesus.

This is how great his proposal is. If you want to talk about the lengths Jesus has gone to to invite you into relationship with him, the eternal Son of God left heaven, was born to a virgin, grew up perfectly, lived the life not one of us could live, and went to the cross to take our punishment. The wrath of God was poured out on him so it wouldn't be poured out on us, and then he rose from the grave victoriously, demonstrating that you and I don't have to live in slavery to our sin for all of eternity. We can live as free children of God because of the blood of Jesus Christ. Amen?

So, that's his invitation to us. "Come to me, all who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest." That's the first aspect of the proposal. It's his invitation. But there are two aspects. When I proposed to Kat, Kat had to respond. When we were sitting in that rowboat in the middle of The Moose's lake, Kat had two options, "Yes" or "No." One would be a joyful row back to shore, and the other one would be super awkward. She had to respond, and she responded with the word yes. Then all of her actions followed that response.

She began planning a wedding. I say she because the best thing for me to do was to stay out of the way. She began to prepare to move to Austin. She didn't say "Yes" to any date with any other guy. I tell you that just to say Jesus' proposal to us deserves a certain response, and Jesus spells out what that response is in verse 29. This is our response. He says, "Take my yoke upon you, and learn from me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls."

So, he starts out and says, "Take my yoke upon you…" That's weird language. A yoke is that piece of farming equipment, that bar that's put over an ox's neck to lead and guide and direct the ox when working the field. Jesus is saying, "Yeah, like that. Take my yoke upon you. What I want to do in your life… I don't want to just be your ticket into heaven. I want to be your leader. I want to be your guide. I want to be the one who helps you move through every moment of every day."

But not just that. In the Bible, the word yoke is used in different ways. Yoke is also a reference to a servant, to someone who enters servitude from being conquered. So, it is somebody who has been conquered who then lives in submission to a king as a servant. Jesus is like, "Look. An aspect of discipleship requires waving the white flag of surrender and submission."

An aspect of your relationship with Jesus has to be Jesus conquering you in the sweetest of ways. It is you coming to a place where you're like, "I'm done living for myself. I'm done living under the rule and reign of sin, which is leading me toward death. Jesus, I surrender to you. I wave the white flag, because you, Jesus, are the King of Kings and Lord of Lords. You are the one and only one who has conquered sin and death."

Is that your understanding of Christianity? Is that the relationship with Jesus you have? I think our tendency is to believe there are different subscription levels to Christianity. It's kind of like this. Awhile back, without telling anyone in my family, I just straight up canceled Netflix. The response from my family was a mutiny. They rose up in rebellion. They shook their fists at me. It was crazy. So what did I do? I was like, "I guess we're getting Netflix back."

I canceled it to save money, but I was like, "I won't be staying in this house much longer if I don't get Netflix back." So I got online, and I began to research, "Well, are there options?" I found out you can get Netflix for cheap. Now, the video quality… You're not going to be able to discern the faces, and the ads are going to be just as long as the show itself, but you can get it on the cheap. If you want better quality and no ads, it's a different subscription level.

Sometimes I think that's how we treat Jesus and Christianity. Some of us just want the base subscription. "Look, Jesus. All I'm looking for is heaven." "Okay. Well, that's just going to cost you a prayer. Just pray the prayer and you'll get into heaven. That's fine." It's like, "Great. That's all I need. Thank you so much. I want the cheap version. That'll work."

But some of you are like, "No, I'll take the silver package. I don't want just heaven; I want some of the feels. I want to be able to show up to church, and I want to leave feeling better about myself. There are going to be times in my life where I need some grounding in life, so I'll take the silver package."

"Okay. Well, that's going to cost you a little bit more. It's going to cost you more than a prayer. You are going to need to show up to church some more." You're like, "Okay. That's fine. I can do that." But then there's the platinum package. That one is going to cost you the most, but you know what? If you subscribe to the platinum package, you're not just going to get heaven, you're not just going to get the feels, but you're going to get these amazing God stories in life, but it's going to cost you full surrender to Jesus.

The platinum package is the package. Jesus invites you to full surrender not to take something from you but so he can give you all of himself. You will not be fully satisfied until you receive as much of him that he's willing to give you. So, I just want to encourage you to evaluate. What's keeping you from surrendering to Jesus? What's keeping you in a place where you're believing the base package or the silver package is still a real option when Jesus is explicitly saying, "Take my yoke upon you. Wave the white flag"?

But not just that. He says, "Take my yoke upon you, and learn from me…" Okay. Well, that's important. You have to decide if Jesus is going to be a source of wisdom or the source of life. Do you know what's interesting? The first person to tell you something becomes the authority on that thing. Do you realize that? I see this in my kids.

Most recently, one of my kids has come home and been like, "Did you know that Chuck E. Cheese recycles their pizza? Yeah, this kid at school told me that." I was like, "Well, he must be the authority on pizza from Chuck E. Cheese." You can Google it. Chuck E. Cheese has clarified that they don't, in fact, recycle their pizza.

We have to unlearn some stuff, because if we're not careful, we're going to listen to a bunch of different voices in our lives, and our tendency is going to be, "Well, they said it, so it must be true." Jesus is saying, "When you come under my yoke, you know what? I become your final authority. Learn from me."

So, the question you need to answer is…Are you willing to be instructed by Jesus? Are you willing to learn all of life from him? I need to warn you. What is wise to Jesus will seem foolish to the world. Are you willing to learn from him, from his Word? I would imagine that some of you are sitting there like, "Why should I? What gives him more right to speak into my life than anyone or anything else?"

I hope the case I'm building for you is that the eternal Son of God became a human, that God himself took on flesh. Jesus tells us exactly what he is like. Don't miss this, because here's the thing. You're not going to want life with Jesus unless you're responding to the right Jesus. You have to realize that your view of Jesus is going to determine how you respond to Jesus.

Jesus says, "Take my yoke upon you, and learn from me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls." He says, "I'm gentle and lowly in heart." What you have to understand is when the Bible talks about the heart, it's talking about the control center of someone's being. It's what makes you you. It's what drives you and directs you. It's what gets you out of bed in the morning.

Jesus is saying, "Look. You need to know I'm gentle." A guy named Dane Ortlund wrote an entire book on these two words. It's called Gentle and Lowly. He does an incredible job of helping us understand what Jesus is saying when he says he's gentle and lowly. In regard to Jesus being gentle, Dane Ortlund says, "Jesus is not trigger-happy. Not harsh, reactionary, [or] easily exasperated. He is the most understanding person in the universe. The posture most natural to him is not a pointed finger but open arms." Is that your understanding of Jesus?

But he's not just gentle; he's lowly. Dane Ortlund explains it this way: "The point in saying that Jesus is lowly is that he is accessible. For all his resplendent glory and dazzling holiness, his supreme uniqueness and otherness, no one in human history has ever been more approachable than Jesus."

Then he goes on and says, "This is who he is. Tender. Open. Welcoming. Accommodating. Understanding. Willing. If we are asked to say only one thing about who Jesus is, we would be honoring Jesus' own teaching if our answer is 'gentle and lowly.'" As I was journaling through this passage yesterday, just to make sure it had invaded my own heart, here are the things I wrote to Jesus. I said, "You're gentle with the worst parts of me. You have the most patience in the areas where it would be easy to be impatient. You make a holy, all-knowing, all-powerful God accessible. You stoop low enough to be near to me."

Jesus finishes that section by saying, "For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light." That word easy in the Greek means kind. He's saying, "My yoke that I place on you is actually kind." Dane Ortlund described it as like telling a drowning man he must put on the burden of a life preserver. Here's what you need to understand. You're going to be yoked to something. Don't you want to be yoked to something kind? You just have to make sure you have the right Jesus.

Several years ago, I knew this guy who's a worship leader, which meant he was giving the majority of his time to leading people to Jesus. Unfortunately for him, he had the same first and last name, same spelling, as a political figure who was considered by many people to be racist, oppressive, and extreme.

Anytime this political figure would do something that would catch fire in the news that seemed racist, oppressive, or extreme, this worship leader would get blown up on social media. People (at the time, it was on Twitter) would tweet horrific things at him, so he would have to post something that was like, "You've got the wrong guy. Two people can have the same name, you know. You've got the wrong guy. That's not me."

I just wonder if there are times Jesus is looking at us like, "You've got the wrong guy." Some of us are like, "Jesus is irrelevant, incompetent, boring, and unsatisfying," and I wonder if Jesus is like, "You've got the wrong guy. That's not me." "Being a Christian is exhausting. It's impossible to have a job and do everything for Jesus that he wants me doing for him." I wonder if Jesus is like, "That's not me. You've got the wrong Jesus."

"Man, Jesus is disappointed in me. He's close to giving up on me. I think he just tolerates me." You've got the wrong Jesus. You've got the wrong guy. Jesus Christ is responsible for the greatest proposal in all of history. "Come to me, all who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you, and learn from me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light."

So, how do you respond to a message like this? For some of you, let me invite you to repent of a low view of Jesus tonight. Maybe, for you, it's not racing out of here, and when we go to sing a song, you just get on your knees or you get before the Lord, and you say, "I've had the wrong Jesus. Would you forgive me, Jesus? I repent of a low view of you."

Maybe some of you just need to declare your love for him. That's going to be a great moment to be like, "Thank you for your proposal to me. The answer is yes, and I love you back. Thank you, Jesus, for all that you are. Thank you for my salvation. Thank you that you are gentle with me. Thank you that you are accessible to me. You're holy, holy, holy, yet you want to be with me now and for all of eternity."

Maybe, for some of you, your response is to just start learning from him. It's to start reading his Word to learn from him. Some of you are going to say "Yes" to Jesus' proposal for the first time. Do you know what's interesting? When I was telling my proposal story, I guarantee you there was at least one person in this room who was like, "There's no way that's true." Some of you are like, "I bet he's embellishing." Yeah, that's what I'm doing. I'm lying to you to get you to like me on a church stage.

Everything I said is 100 percent true, yet something in you hears the lengths I went to for Kat, and you're like, "There's no way that happened. There's no way." My hope is that some of you might be having that type of realization with Jesus. "There's no way. There's no way the God of the universe would want me if he knew where I've been, if he knew what I've done. You're telling me God put on flesh and gave his life, that he died to have me." It's 100 percent true, and the invitation to you tonight is to come.

If that's you, if you're realizing for the first time that Jesus Christ is inviting you to come to him… He's inviting you to be forgiven by him, to be satisfied in him, to find your hope in him, to find your strength and your peace in life in him. He's inviting you to surrender to him, to be led by him, and spend all of eternity with him.

If that's you and you want to say "Yes" to Jesus, I invite you right now, in the quietness of your own heart, to just say that. Say, "Jesus, yes. Yes. Would you come into my life tonight? Would you save me from my sins tonight? I surrender my life to you tonight." Then, for everyone else, would you respond to the Lord, whether it's repenting from a low view or just declaring your love for him or just beginning to learn from him? Do business with the Lord right now.

Jesus, we thank you that you invite us to come, that you want us. God, would you draw us close to you? Would you give us eyes to see just how sweet you really are? Thank you, Jesus, that you are gentle and lowly. Amen.