Pastoral Message
(for members and friends of)
Geeseytown and Newry Lutheran Churches
5th Sunday after Pentecost
July 5, 2020
We begin by remembering:
28 "Come to me, all you that are weary and are carrying heavy burdens, and
I will give you rest. 29 Take my yoke upon you, and learn from me; for I am
gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. 30 For my
yoke is easy, and my burden is light." (Matthew 11:28-30)
Let us pray:
You are great, O God and greatly to be praised. You have made us
for yourself and our hearts are restless until they rest in you. Grant that we
may believe in you, call upon you, know you and serve you, through your
Son, Jesus Christ, our Savior and Lord.
Scripture: Romans 7:15-25 & Matthew 11:16-29 & 25-30
Thoughts from the Pastor:
The theme of our gospel lesson from Matthew 11 is the yoke of
discipleship. We learned last week in our gospel lesson that a disciple is a
learner. The moment we began to believe in Jesus we became a disciple
and a learner. Now this learning about Jesus and God will take us a life
time and we are really never done learning about Jesus and God. I have
always wondered if we continue to learn about Jesus and God after we are
in heaven with them. Personally, I believe we will continue to learn about
them in eternity.
Looking at verse 28 from our gospel lesson, “Come to me, all you that
are weary and are carrying heavy burdens, and I will give you rest”, we see
that Jesus wants us to come to Him and have a relationship with Him. Now
this relationship is for eternity and He will never let go of us. Jesus is the
Son of God and He came into this world for you and me with salvation
through grace and faith in Him; but, He also came with much more. He
came with a divine love from God.
Verse 29 shows us that Jesus is gentle and humble of heart. As a
learner and disciple Jesus has opened His heart to us and shown us what
God is really like, “gentle and humble of heart.” Opening His heart also
reveals to us Jesus and God’s love for us. Our God knows everything
about us, and probably more than we know about ourselves. God can look
into your heart at any time because God is always with us.
Through our relationships with others God wants us to show others
grace, love and mercy. These three blessings from God help us when we
feel burdened and yoked by life’s challenges. We often feel “yoked.” We
are at times burdened, driven, exploited, and loaded down by life’s
challenges, and sometimes we wonder how am I going to get through this
challenge? One time when I was growing up I asked my Grandfather
Henry, if there were anyone with no problems and challenges in life. He told
me the cemetery was full of them. Please remember God’s Holy Spirit is
always with you helping you through difficult circumstances and times.
When we show others God’s grace, love and mercy that we have
received from God, people will see that you have been yoked by Jesus into
servitude with him. When Jesus says “Come to me,” he is inviting us to be
part of his ministry as his disciples to the world showing them God’s love,
grace and mercy. His yoke shows others God’s love, grace, and mercy in
our ministries also includes our families, our churches, and everywhere we
go in life. His yoke of servitude prepares us to obey Him without question
which is the key to grow in our faith im Him. Growing in faith with Jesus will
last all of your life and into eternity.
Yours in Christ,
Pastor Henry
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