1. Grace, mercy,
and, peace to you from God our Heavenly Father and our Lord and Savior Jesus
Christ. Dear family and friends of Gary. At a time of grieving like this, those
who are present, and I on behalf of this church, offer your family and all who
were close to Gary our deepest sympathy.
May our Lord, who knows your needs, comfort and give you strength and
faith to uphold one another. Today we’re
going to look at Matthew 11:28-30. We
hear the words of our Lord Jesus who says, “28Come
to me, all who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. 29Take
my yoke upon you, and learn from me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and
you will find rest for your souls. 30For my yoke is easy, and my
burden is light.” This verse is
fitting for us to look at, since the last few years of Gary’s life haven’t been
easy with all of the health problems that he’s suffered through.
2. Christians
know that when we’re confronted with struggles, sickness, and sorrow we have a
sure source of comfort, strength, and hope in Jesus our Lord and Savior, the
one who died on the cross to save us from our sins. When we live by faith in
our Good Shepherd and Savior, we know that He will lead us through all the
valleys of life, until that blessed day comes when his angels will welcome us
to our eternal home in heaven. This is why Gary’s parents brought him to the
baptismal font on September 17th, 1950 to be washed and cleansed of
all of his sins and to know that on that day, Gary was clothed with Christ and
received the promise of eternal life. And
this faith in Jesus as our Lord and Savior from sin, death, and the power of
the devil is what led Gary to confess with his lips that Jesus Christ is Lord
when he confirmed his Christian faith on the day of his confirmation on June 6th,
1965. And it was this same Christian
faith that Gary had that led him to be married with Gail at St. John Baldwin
and to raise their children here by having them baptized, attend Sunday School,
and be confirmed.
3. We all know that Gary dealt with a long and
difficult illness. When he was going
through all of his health problems, where could he and his family turn to for
peace and comfort? Well, the words of
our Lord Jesus here in Matthew 11:28-30 speak to the problems that Gary
faced. Our Lord Jesus says, “28Come to me, all who labor and
are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. 29Take my yoke upon you,
and learn from me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest
for your souls. 30For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light.”
4. Jesus continually invites us to leave our
heavy burden of sin and shame on his shoulders and in return to accept a light
burden from him. Those who leave their
heavy burden of sin with Jesus aren’t going to be without a burden altogether. Gary’s long-term illness that he fought can
remind us of that. And when we think of
our own lives as Christians, all of us have problems and burdens of our own
that we have to deal with. But, Jesus
has given us another burden to carry in the place of the heavy burden of sin. It’s the yoke of the cross of Calvary. This yoke of the cross is what every
Christian bears as a result of being a disciple of our Lord Jesus. For in the same way they have persecuted me,
so they will persecute you, Jesus says.
Though our heavy burden of sin has been lifted, there will still be
trials and tribulations, for a disciple isn’t above his master.
5. And yet,
compared with the heavy burden of sin which has been lifted from us, the yoke
of Christ is easy and his burden is light.
A Christian knows that these crosses don’t come upon him by chance. They’re sent into his life by a loving God
and are intended for our good. The
Christian also knows that God will never let the cross become heavier than he’s
able to bear. With each trial of faith
God will also provide the ability to endure.
God will supply to you the necessary strength for each new day. That’s why the burden of being a disciple and
follower of Jesus will draw us closer to Him.
The afflictions that we encounter in our own mortal flesh, which is
slowly wasting away because of our own sinful nature, will be turned to the
eternal good of our soul on account of what our Lord Jesus did for us through
His death on the cross and His glorious resurrection from the dead.
6. Finding rest
in Jesus doesn’t mean He will remove and shield us from all pain and sorrow, or
lift each heavy agony of life. That’s
not His promise. The promise of our Lord
Jesus is that He will be with us in our pain and suffering and see us through
it. Christ will lighten every heavy load. At the end of each day we have the comfort as
we place ourselves in His care. Rest in
Jesus means that we as Christians have certainty and reconciliation. In Christ we have sure forgiveness of our
sins. Through His cross we are
reconciled with God our Heavenly Father.
God’s wrath toward our sin is removed.
Through Gary’s baptism into Christ this promise was given to him as well,
as the Apostle Paul reminds us in Romans chapter 6.
7. What matters
most of all is to be able to live—and to die—with the sure confidence that when
our Lord calls his people to their eternal home, Jesus our Good Shepherd
himself “will lead them to springs of
living water. And God will wipe away every tear from their eyes” (Rev
7:17). Living
and Dying in Faith in Christ Jesus—we receive our eternal rest. Amen.
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