Good morning. It's great to be back. Great to be back with you and us all worshiping together. I really appreciate uh Ken being here. It's so nice that uh when he's able to join us, I had to look around for a uh stool to sit on. One thing about Ken is he can actually stand up and talk at the same time, which is impressive. I'm not quite the multitasker. I kind of have to focus a little bit more. Um if it's your first time here, we're sure glad that uh you're here. Hope you can tell that you can just relax and and be yourself. Um, today is roughly the seven-year anniversary of our first Sunday ever uh as a church together. Um and so some of us remember that all the way back. We had gotten this building and it started construction, but we met for the first time at Dave and Buster's in Marietta. And it was kind of a supposed to be a statement, you know, this was going to be different and not real churchy, and and it was a good place for us to start. And part of the deal, we rented a room there. They don't open, I think, till maybe noon, and so we rented a room starting at uh at 10. But if you rented a room, included was free lunch. And so every Sunday we had church, and then we had a free buffet lunch for everyone that came. And uh the amazing thing is even then we only had 75 people that came. You know, it seems like you could just announce free lunch and 500 people would come. But uh so that's how we got started anyway. And then we moved over here to the youth side um nine months later, and we're here for a few months, and then we had um close to a couple hundred of us and and moved into this big room uh uh that October. And uh a lot's happened since then. It's really just been amazing what God's done, the way that He's uh changed lives and healed bodies and and healed minds and healed relationships, and it's just been an exciting time. And and I think um personally it's been great to to see all that, but I think that that for Susan and I just the friendships um and and really to become family together is the thing I appreciate uh the most. And you know, the other reason I mention it is because really seven years is kind of a big time in God's economy. And so I think that uh we've got uh exciting times uh ahead of us uh soon. Um want to mention Wednesday nights at his hands, it's going strong. Maybe you're like me. I've been uh traveling on business quite a bit and uh haven't able been able to be there, but any of us can come any anytime. I mean, there's something for each of us. We can just jump right in. There's child care and uh we'll learn a little bit and and we'll make great friends, and so that's Wednesday nights at uh seven o'clock. A couple things to put on your calendar a little bit down the road is October 28th is uh this year's uh Telgate Sunday. And that's always uh fun. It's kind of like a church picnic, but better because football's involved and uh and chili. But uh we'll have every year that's just a great time. We'll get together and and have a kind of a typical Sunday. We'll wear um those of us that want to will wear jerseys, which again is kind of like a typical uh Sunday. Got a bunch of people representing um this morning, and then we'll hang out, listen to some tunes, have a chili cook-off, and and then uh I know Bill and Chris have been working hard to make sure we got the best high-def signal there is, and uh we'll come in and watch the Falcons game, what is the largest big screen TV, I think, in the county. And it for some reason we always have to pick a uh a game. We try to pick it when the weather's, you know, gonna be a little bit cooler, and it needs to be a one o'clock game on the road. And for some reason, I think three out of four years it's been the Eagles, and it's the Eagles again this year, and that's always a tough game, but we're due. And uh so anyway, plan for that Saturday, October 28th. And then the next Sunday is even a more exciting day, and that's Baptism Sunday. And it's it's one of the greatest days uh here at his hands. And and you know, baptism isn't a ritual, it's just an exciting statement. You know, I'm all in, it's a God thing and a Holy Spirit thing. And and each time we have 50 to 80 people, you know, that uh they get baptized. And we'll talk about uh that more as we get closer. But uh that'll be Sunday, November uh fourth. Um I was gonna remind you, Susan just did, but uh um the prayer in the prayer room, you know, if if if any Sunday when we walk in uh feeling heavy or stressed or those type of things, we just don't want to leave that way. We got just great people that can pray with us and we can help each other out and we can give those things to uh to God. So be sure if that's you to stop there uh on the way out. All right, let's uh let's pray now. Father God, Abba, Father, Daddy, Father, we just praise you. We thank you for adopting us as your children, for loving us, for bringing us together as a group and a family, and just uh all you're doing here and and uh with everyone, uh not just here, but but around us. We just praise you and thank you for that. Holy Spirit, we just praise you for being our teacher and just ask you to uh teach us this morning. And and Jesus, thank you for being our friend and our savior, for showing us what our father is really like. And we love you and thank you. It's in your name we pray. Amen. So, has anyone heard of the Franklin Expedition? You might have heard of the Franklin Mint. You know, sometimes it's called Lord Franklin's expedition. It's been the subject of a couple of plays. Clive Cussler wrote a book in 2008 called Arctic Drift, and uh the Franklin Expedition was kind of the center of that historical um story. It took place in in 1845, and Captain Sir John Franklin was a Royal Navy officer. He was an experienced explorer, he had he had commanded two Canadian Arctic expeditions. When he was 59, he led his uh fourth and his last expedition. And they were going to explore the last unnavigated section of the Northwest Passage, and they had two sailing ships uh to do it. And in retrospect, the most unusual part of this expedition was actually what they decided to take along as supplies. Their supplies included a 1200-volume library for the officers. They had fine china, they had crystal goblets. Each officer had his own silver and silverware engraved with their initials on it. What they didn't bring was a lot of fuel. Um they only brought 12 days worth of coal for their auxiliary engines. So the ice came a little early in 1845, and both ships became stuck in the ice in the Canadian Arctic. A few months later, with no fuel, not enough essential provisions, Captain Franklin died. Eventually, all 128 men who were on this expedition died as well. But perhaps the saddest chapter of the story involves two officers. Two officers salvaged wood from the boat once the boats were stuck in ice, and they made these two big sleds, and they got ropes, and they loaded up the sleds with what they thought they needed most, and started dragging these sleds through the ice and the snow and the wind. A search party found the officers and their sleds. They had both collapsed and died. But before they died, they had dragged their sleds over 65 miles through the ice and snow. And what was so important that they would drag those sleds over 65 miles, uphill, downhill, wind, snow, ice. Both sleds were loaded with engraved silverware. You know, that seems a little ridiculous. I mean, how could you risk your life? How could you spend your last days pulling a weight so unimportant? And it's a question I could probably ask myself. Because from time to time, I actually do not pulling silverware, but feeling responsibility or feeling pressure or feeling weight, dragging stuff along that's just foolish and ridiculous to carry. You know, it could be obligations, it could just be stuff that needs to be taken care of, it could be grudges, it could be attitudes, it could be anything that adds weight that I don't need to be pulling through life. And we're gonna start a new series this morning, and for the next six weeks, we'll have a one-week break in there. Um, we're gonna look at one of the most famous, perhaps most beautiful things that Jesus ever said. For the last couple of months, this verse has been my favorite verse in the Bible. You know, I've read it or prayed about it or thought about it almost every single day. It's become a very uh meaningful verse to me. A couple months ago, I kind of hit a wall. It was a combination of a uh of a lot of things. You know, work was real busy, started a new company 16 months ago. I'd kind of forgotten what it takes to start a uh a new company, but that creates travel and it creates time pressure and work pressure and that kind of stuff here. And and my role uh here is is exciting and rewarding, and it's a volunteer role, but it has its own type of uh you know struggles and and uh pressure and situations. I have a family life like like us all. You know, I have an extended family that goes from here to Oregon uh to Florida, and so there's always, it seems, an intermittent crisis uh somewhere in my extended family. So really just normal stuff, right? I mean, work and church and and uh and family. And I know that my life responsibilities are nothing compared to the things that that some of us are going through uh right now. But nonetheless, for me a couple months ago, it just felt like, you know, one day it was just like, wow, overwhelming. How am I gonna how am I gonna do this? What a you know, kind of kind of out of uh gas. And the truth is it wasn't too much. It was really just how I felt for the most part. Um but has anyone ever felt like that? I mean, if not, I'm gonna feel like a super dork. So is anybody feeling like that, maybe even this morning a little bit? That things are just too much, there's it's stressful, life is hard. Um, you know, what do I do? Not enough left quite in the tank. You know, it might be that the pressure's building, it might be that you're stressed out, it might be that we can't sleep, you know, or we're getting the high blood pressure, or however it feels to any uh one of us. And that's how I felt, not all those things at the same time, but uh but just a little overwhelmed. And then something Jesus said came to mind, and it kind of stayed there, you know, just like a song sometimes sticks in your head. Well, thankfully this verse kind of stuck in in my head. And uh it's something Jesus said in his hometown. You know, Jesus had his own stress. You know, he can he can really relate to that. He can really emphasize what it feels like to be human and to have pressures and to have struggles and to have stress and to be tired. Um day he got on a off on a boat and he traveled to his hometown. As soon as he got off, uh he told a man, Be encouraged, my child, your sins are forgiven. You know, the religious leaders, instead of being excited about that, condemned Jesus. They said, That's blasphemy. Who does he think he is to say something like that? You know, then Jesus would say, Well, what's more difficult, saying your sins are forgiven or to heal someone? Because the man was paralyzed. And so he healed the man and he walked away. Jesus went to dinner with uh Matthew and a bunch of Matthew's friends, and and uh Matthew and his friends were pretty wild. And so he goes to dinner with them, and the the the religious leaders, the the senior pastors, the seminary professors. They said, Why does your teacher eat with such scum? And they stayed on Jesus' back. I mean, why doesn't his followers fast like we do? Why why doesn't he do what we do? Jesus heals, and this is the same day, Jesus heals a woman, he raises a young girl from the dead, he heals a blind person, and then he casts out a demon from a man who couldn't speak. And the Pharisees and the religious leaders in his hometown say, Oh, he can cast out demons, all right, but he gets his power from Satan, the Prince of Dons. I mean, can you imagine how that felt to Jesus? How frustrating and discouraging that would be, how angry he would feel. But Jesus kept going. He kept going through this whole area, and he was healing, it says all kinds of illnesses and all kinds of diseases because he had compassion for the people. He loved the people, and they were glad to get healed, but you know what didn't happen is the people in that area didn't turn to Jesus. And the religious leaders just kept pounding on him. And Jesus gets so frustrated. He says, if the city of Sodom had experienced miracles like this, it would still be here today. See, these were the so-called experts on God. They knew everything about God, but they didn't recognize God when he was standing right in front of them. And so Jesus says something that's a good example for us when we get frustrated. He prays, and he says this in Matthew 11. O Father, Lord of heaven and earth, thank you for hiding these things from those who think themselves wise and clever, and for revealing them to the childlike. Yes, Father, it pleased you to do it this way. My father has entrusted everything to me. No one truly knows the Son except the Father, and no one truly knows the Father except the Son and those to whom the Son chooses to reveal him. And then my current favorite thing, Jesus says, It's Matthew 11, 28 through 30. Then Jesus said, Come to me, all you who are weary and carry heavy burdens, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you, let me teach you, because I am humble and gentle at heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy to bear, and the burden I give you is light. Okay, well, this is something that's obviously memorable and famous as far as things that Jesus says. It's profound in a lot of ways. You know, the most important thing really is that it's a personal invitation from Jesus. You know, Susan talked about that in the Lord's Supper. Just how informal, if you will, and how personal Jesus is. Come to me. You know, and he's saying this in contrast to what he's experienced. He's like, forget the religion, forget the rules, come to me. An invitation into an actual relationship with Jesus. And this is big because Jesus did not come to establish a belief system, he did not even come to establish a religion. Jesus came to re-establish a relationship with us, with him, with the Holy Spirit, and with our Father. Come to me, he says. All you who are weary and carry heavy burdens. Now, the specific contrast he's making is to the religious people that want to get off Jesus' back, or really anybody else's back. You know, everything was a big deal. Jesus later would say, Oh, you demand all these things, but you don't lift a finger even to help them. You know, everything had to be done right. Everything was so important. Jesus says, you know, if you're tired and you're tired of all of that, take my yoke. Take my yoke. You know, and they lived in an agricultural society and they would know what a yoke is. And I would tend to think of a yoke as something, you know, an oxen would wear, and it'd be a big, heavy thing, and an oxen would pull a cart or a plow. But the the yoke Jesus was thinking of would be just as common, and it would be a double yoke. And it's the way they trained young animals and young oxen. You take a big, strong, mature oxen, and they would have a yoke, but then there would be a smaller yoke, and the young animal would have that on them. And the the larger animal would be doing almost all the work, of course. But the younger animal would be learning alongside and growing. And eventually that younger animal would become mature, and a cart or plow for them wouldn't feel any heavier than when he started next to next to the teacher. Take my yoke, is what Jesus says. I am humble and gentle at heart. So the book of Hebrews says that Jesus is the perfect represent representation of God, or he's the exact representation or replica of God, our Father. Now, religion says God's demanding. You know, he's somewhat angry. He's never quite happy. We can always kind of be on guard because the next shoe is probably about to drop soon. Jesus says, here's the truth. I am humble and I am gentle to my core. To my core. I am humble and I am gentle. And as a reminder, now Jesus is not talking to the self-right righteous. He's already prayed. Thank you, God, for hiding that from them, but revealing it to people who really want to know. He's talking to people like us, people who struggle, people who sometimes think we're not good enough, think we don't measure up, know we need help. Come to me, Jesus says. To me. Connect with me. It's okay. I'm safe. I'm gentle. I'm humble. And you will find rest for your souls. Now, soul is a bit of a Christianese word. You know, it's not one we really use kind of the same way the Bible does. And so when I think of soul, I sort of think of spirit just automatically, you know, like souls go to heaven, and of course our bodies go to heaven too. But just the way that we talk about our soul. But I want to make sure we know exactly what Jesus is promising, because our soul is really what we would call our personality. You know, it's our mind, it's it's how we think about things, it's our strength, it's our weaknesses, it's it's who we are. If someone said to you, hey, describe yourself, and they gave you maybe 15 minutes, you would take 15 minutes describing your soul. You know, kind of what we are internally, who who we are. Um, you know, it could be, I love to read, I have a temper, I love my kids, I'm insecure about my appearance, I'm hoping to travel someday, I'm worried about money. All those things would be describing a soul. How we feel inside. It could be you enjoy riding your motorcycle and you're sensitive and you have faith and you pray a lot, but still you're afraid of dying and you're stressed out about work, and you like 80s rock music, you know, and you hope to start a charity someday. I mean, that's that's your soul. And so when Jesus talks about Rest for your soul. Our soul is all that. It's who we are on the inside. When we're stressed, when we're worn out, when we're anxious or worried, it's our soul. Does that make sense? Jesus says, you will find rest for your soul. With me, he says, you can take a deep breath and rest. You will find rest for your soul. For my yoke is easy. And the burden I give you is light. And we tend to gravitate, and by we, I mean Christianity, we tend to gravitate by how hard things are. You know? How we've got to take up our cross every day, how we've got to be willing to die for our faith, how we have to die to ourselves every day, just how hard everything can be. What if overall, even through struggles, Jesus wanted our lives to feel easy? What if he wanted our life to feel light and light-hearted? You know, we've talked about kind of what led up to this famous thing Jesus says and the crux of what he says, but I haven't mentioned what affected me so much in that verse. You know, this verse is encouraging, but I wouldn't say it necessarily made me feel that much better while I was overwhelmed. Um, because I'd heard it for years, but I was still stressed out. You know what I mean? And so sometimes, if anything, it might have even made me feel a little bummed out, like, man, I'm screwing up. You know, why why can't I get this thing figured out? I'm missing out on something. Um but it was the four words that actually got stuck in my head. It was four words, literally like a song stuck in my head. And those four words are let me teach you. Come to me, all you who are weary and carry heavy burdens, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you, let me teach you, because I am humble and gentle at heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy to bear, and the burden I give you is light. Jesus says, You know, I know you need help on this one. Let me teach you. And that gave me great hope, personally, because God's taught me things before. You know, when I first kind of came to God, I had this experience, you know, where I cried out to Him and I said, God, uh, just show me what you're really like. Because I'd been taught God was one way. You know, and I've been like, God, show me what you're really like. And so over a period of time, I read the Bible front to back, but every every day I said, God, teach me what you're like. Show me what you're like. And so that's what he did over that time. You know, and I couldn't believe it. I couldn't believe his desire for relationship from the very start. You know, I couldn't believe the love and the mercy. I couldn't believe that he talked to Moses like a man talks to a friend. You know, and he taught me so much about himself. Then there's another time when I really wanted all of the Holy Spirit. You know, I just craved might be the right word, everything of uh God. And so it's like, show me, you know, teach me. And then the same thing happened, you know, where I'd read his word and I'd say, show me. And uh, and he would. And so this gave me great hope. And so the first thing I did is I went out and I bought a new Bible for this occasion, for this new session. And um, and the reason I did that is because I wanted to get a red letter Bible. Now, I like my Bible, but it's a regular Bible, and you know a red letter Bible is where Jesus' words are all in red. And to me, I took this kind of literally. You know, Jesus said, Let me teach you. And so I decided I was gonna get up every day, and I was gonna only read red letters. And every day I was gonna say, Jesus, teach me. And so that's what I've done for the last couple of months. Um, got a cup of coffee, sat down with a notebook, and said, Jesus, just please, please teach me. Read what he said out of his lips, and then wrote down what I felt like he wanted uh me to write down. And so over the next month and a half, we're gonna look at that together. What Jesus taught. And not, it's not what I've learned. There's some things God's you know taught me. We're all in process. And there's some things God's taught me. I say, hey, God taught me this, it's really exciting. Let me let me uh share it with you. But there's other times, in fact, most of the time, where we're learning together. You know, and so this is what this is gonna be: is God teaching us together, us learning together. Jesus teaching us how to live light, how to live easy, how to have rest in our souls. Um in this case, we didn't have to go far. I'll say, let me say this just quickly, is the, you know, we all really are in process. And so there's different things that we get to. And so, like last year, last fall, one thing I didn't feel like I needed much help in was anger, because I don't really get that angry, you know, until something happened that made me really angry. And then I realized, you know, I got I could be taught in this area. And looking back, that was like a really good thing, and it's exciting. Then there's other things I know I struggle with. And so when I get to a point like this, like I've always wanted this, you know, rest and peace and and and to live life lightly. And so coming to this point where it's like, great, now's the time. We're in this transformation that God changes, but now is the time for me to learn this. I mean, it's thrilling to me because it's something that I've always wanted uh to know and learn. And so in this case, if we're gonna look at what Jesus said, we don't have to go too far because Jesus isn't saying this famous saying, Um, you will find rest for your soul, sitting on a hillside or or standing in the synagogue. He's actually walking with his disciples. And so the very next verse says this At about that time Jesus was walking through some grain fields on the Sabbath. His disciples were hungry, so they began breaking off some heads of grain and eating them. But some Pharisees saw them do it and protested. Look, your disciples are breaking the law by harvesting grain on the Sabbath. Jesus said to them, Haven't you read in the scriptures what David did when he and his companions were hungry? He went into the house of God, and he and his companions broke the law by eating the sacred loaves of bread that only the priests are allowed to eat. And haven't you read in the law of Moses that the priests on duty in the temple may work on the Sabbath? I tell you, there's one here who is even greater than the temple, but you would not have condemned my innocent disciples if you knew the meaning of this scripture. I want you to show mercy, not offer sacrifices, for the Son of Man is Lord even over the Sabbath. Now, Jesus is going to have more to say about the Sabbath as we learn from him. But what he says, first thing, he says, Let me teach you. And then the very first thing is it's not about the rules. It's never really been about the rules. It wasn't about the rules during the time of David. It wasn't about the rules during the time of Moses. It's not about the rules now, it is about mercy and it's about love. The two greatest commandments love God and love people. And so if someone's hungry and walking through the field and the grain is right there, who cares about the rules? Show a little mercy. Have a little love, Jesus says. And so if you're here, and this is all kind of new, you know, like the Lord's Supper, you know, what exactly am I supposed to do, or worship, or anything? You know, I mean, this should help us all just relax. You know, it's not a big deal. Jesus' closest followers were just regular people. They were hungry, they're walking through a field, and they eat. But then Jesus makes an even bigger statement. He says, Hey, I'm over everything, even the Sabbath. In other words, not only is it not about the rules, it's also about me. Come to me. In Colossians 2, it says, So don't let anyone condemn you for what you eat or drink, or for not celebrating certain holidays, or new moon ceremonies or Sabbaths, for these rules are only shadows of the reality yet to come, and Christ Himself is that reality. You know, the answer is always going to be Jesus. We spent eleven weeks together talking about wisdom from the book of Proverbs. In 1 Corinthians 1, it says, God has united, has united you with Christ Jesus for our benefit. God made him to be wisdom itself. So we talk about wisdom. What's the best example of wisdom? Jesus. We talk about how to love each other, Jesus. We talked about marriage for a few weeks. Paul says the absolute best example of marriage? Jesus. How Jesus loves the church. Learning how to live? Jesus. The answer is always going to be Jesus. And the first thing Jesus says when he says, Let me teach you to live easy and to live lightly, is it's not about religion, it's about a relationship with me. And so I think that for us this morning, that might feel a little anticlimatic, which is good. And the reason it would feel that way is because we sort of know that, right? I mean, that's not like a big uh revelation. That's what we're trying to be about together, that it's not about religion, it's about Jesus, and it's about love, and it's about mercy. But for any of us who are feeling burdened and stressed out and a little bit heavy, it really should be encouraging. Because if Jesus says this is the very first step towards living lightly and living easily, well, we're already on our way. You know, we're already started. It's the first thing that Jesus teaches. It's a relationship with Him. Come to me. And so hopefully we're on that path. We're taking that step. And this morning really is meant to be an introduction. I think what Jesus says the next couple of weeks is going to be different. It's going to be outside the box, it's going to be a little mind-blowing in some ways. In fact, what we're going to talk about next week, I'm still trying to get my head wrapped around how exactly am I going to put this into my everyday life because Jesus says it is one of the keys to living lightly and living easily and living freely. And it's a life changer for sure. So 65 miles of pulling a sled, weighed down with nothing important. And what would that take? How many miles a day could you pull a sled like that? Maybe two or three. You'd get more tired as you went. You know, so maybe two or three, four weeks. Stress, strain, exhaustion. It seems almost dumb unless I think about 10, 20, 30 years of pulling stuff along that I don't need to be carrying. And so I'm excited about these next uh weeks. Life with God is such a process, and that's the whole thing, is he changes us from the inside out. And I believe that one thing he's going to do for us is he's going to help us all to live life a little easier, a little lighter with him. Jesus says, Come to me, all you who are weary and carry heavy burdens, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you, let me teach you. Because I'm humble and gentle at heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy to bear, and the burden I give you is light. So for the next few weeks, we'll just let them teach us. And we'll stop there if the worship team will come up. Well, we've already talked about the most important thing. If y'all want to stand, we'll get ready for this last song. And I'm going to show you Ken's not the only one that can talk and stand. But, you know, the most important thing, the first step, always is the same. You know, it's always the same. The first step has to be connecting with Jesus. You know, and so I guess that's the main thing we talked about this morning, that it's not religion. You know, and if you're here and you've been burnt by church or by self-righteous people or by religion in general, I mean, you're in a good place, join the crowd. Because that was Jesus. And he said, forget all that stuff. That's not it. Come unto me. Just come to me. And there's not a big process. There's nothing to get notarized. You don't have to walk an aisle. You just connect with Jesus in your own words, in your own way. You know, Jesus, I need you. Jesus, help me. Jesus, I am stressed out. Jesus, teach me, save me. Whatever it is. And we're created in God's image. You know, we have a spirit inside of us, and that spirit comes alive. It connects with God's spirit, and immediately we kind of come to life. Life forever and life for now. Because he's going to start changing us from the inside out. And so you can do that this morning. That's obviously the first step. Hope you guys have a great week. Look, you know, look, let's not wait for Sundays if we're going to learn this together. Let's not wait for Sundays. Let's keep our eyes open because Jesus is going to teach us all through the week and uh through each other. So let's pray. So, Father, we praise you. Thank you for being so good to us, adopting us, your own children. And Jesus, we we thank you for for being the answer to everything. And we thank you for your promises, and specifically this promise to teach us, to teach us how to live life lightly and easily. And we thank you for that, and we trust you for that. And it's in your name we pray. Amen.