Lighten Up

So we're in a series talking about the art of rest. We started last weekend. I hope if you weren't here, you'll go online and watch and listen to that sermon. Last week, I talked about how what you believe about God is the most important thing about you. In fact, if you don't believe the right things about God, your soul will actually never be at rest. What we believe about God, really, really important. So if you weren't here, I hope you'll go online and catch up with us. I think that sermon will really help you. Today, I want to talk about lightening up. Do you guys know anybody that just needs to lighten up? Like just calm down. Somebody was teasing me recently. They say, when I say calm down, down has two syllables. Calm down. That's the Texas in me. But I want to talk to you today about lightening up because many of us have a heaviness in our souls. So I'll ask you today, do you have a heavy soul? And there's all kinds of different seasons in life and different things that happen. But sometimes life just weighs us down. And there's a heaviness in our souls. And so I want to talk to you today about lightening up a bit. And just know that there were moments in Jesus's life when he had a heavy soul.

And so there's nothing wrong with that. But you don't want to live that way. You don't want to stay there. Your soul is the real you. And when there's a heaviness, it doesn't matter where you are. It doesn't matter what good things are happening. If there's a heaviness in your soul, you'll miss out on the good things. If there's a heaviness in your soul, you'll miss out on the joy that God has for you, on the joy that he wants you to experience. Usually when we talk about ourselves or we talk about quality of life, we talk about our bodies. You know, we all think if we just had a lower percentage of body fat, then life would be perfect, right? And that's what our culture says and all those kinds of things. Here's the first point I want to make. And then we'll build on this and we'll talk about lightening up today. We are not a body with a soul, but a soul with a body. Just think about that for a minute. We are not a body with a soul, but a soul with a body. We all know this, we just don't think about it. I mean, when you go to a funeral,

you can look there in the casket and you see the body of the person. The body is there, but are they there? No. Our body is like our earth suit. It's what the real us is walking around in. But most of us, we think about caring for the body, you know, making sure the body's healthy and all of that, but your soul is actually more important. The soul is the real you. I'll give you a verse, a scripture. 1 Thessalonians 5, 23 says that you and I are made up of body, soul, and spirit. Have you heard that before? Body, soul, and spirit. Some theologians actually believe that that is a reflection of who God is, that we're made in God's image and God is triune and so he made us triune. God is father, son, and spirit. We are soul, body, spirit. So if you mirrored that with what makes up the Godhead and what makes God God is God has a body. That's Jesus. If you wanna know what God is like, you read about Jesus in Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John in your New Testament. Those are the biographies of Jesus. If you've never read the Bible before,

that's a great place to start. But Jesus is God incarnate, God in the flesh, God with a bod. And so God has a body, it's Jesus. God, his soul, his essence, his character would be the father. It's who he is. God is an infinite, eternal spirit without any boundaries or limitations who has an intellect, personality, feelings, and will. The intellect, personality, feelings, and will is the essence of who and what God is. That would be represented in the father and then of course you have the Holy Spirit. And the Holy Spirit is actually the spirit of Jesus. And when you give your life to Jesus, the Holy Spirit moves in. You and I have a body, soul, and spirit. I'm gonna give this to you quickly. Your body's what you're walking around in. It's what everybody's worried about. It's what we need to take care of. And by the way, taking care of your body's really important. There are two big things in the Bible. One is salvation, give your life to Jesus. And the other is stewardship. Manage everything that he's given to you while you live your life. What you think you own is really just on loan. Even your very breath is borrowed.

So the two big things in the Bible are salvation and stewardship. So you wanna care for your body. But your body's not the real you. Your soul is the real you. And your body carries around your soul. Your soul can be happy, sad, anywhere in between. And then you have The spirit, now here's what the Bible teaches about that. Your spirit is either alive or dead. Your spirit is how you connect with God. Adam and Eve, way back in the Garden of Eden, it said that if they eat of this fruit and they don't trust God, they've sinned, they will surely die. What died is their spirit. It's this connection with God. And so when you give your life to Jesus, the Holy Spirit connects with your spirit. And in Ephesians, in the King James Version, I like how it says it, it says that your spirit is quickened, made alive in Christ. And that's your connection with God. This is why a worship song can really move you. And you can see the words and you feel this connection with God. It's almost a supernatural thing. But somebody else that doesn't know Jesus can look at the words,

they're having the same moment that you're having, but there's no connection with God at all. The Holy Spirit is what connects you. You are body, soul, and spirit. But the soul can get heavy because of life. Some of you, your soul is heavy today because of what's going on in life. There's a health diagnosis. It's concerning your body, but it's weighing down your soul. Or it could be the diagnosis of a friend or family member. It's affecting their body, but it's weighing on your soul. You could have a heaviness of soul because of a relationship. It could be your marriage. It could be with a child that's wayward. It could be with somebody at work, a friend, a sibling, but relationships cause a heaviness in the soul. Doom scrolling. Does anybody know what doom scrolling is? Where you're just flipping through your phone and you're in that echo chamber of how terrible and awful the world is? That can cause a heaviness in your soul. If you watch the same news network constantly, you're probably gonna have a heaviness in your soul because they never share good news. Has anybody noticed? You're never gonna flip on a news channel and, hey, we got some good things for you today. They're just gonna give you the brokenness of the world

over and over and over again. How's your soul? Is there a heaviness there? Because God desires for you and I to actually live freely and lightly. This is Matthew chapter 11, verses 28 through 30, and these are the words of Jesus. And he talks about here rest for our souls. He says, come to me, all you who are weary and burdened. Now, weariness would mean you're carrying something. Burdened means you're weighed down. There's something on you. He's referencing a heaviness of soul. All you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. And then he says, take my yoke upon you. A yoke is something you carry. Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart. And you will find, read it with me, rest for your souls. For my yoke is what? And my burden is? Light. It's God's desire and God's will that you have a lightness in your soul. So let's do a soul test. How do you know if there's heaviness in your soul? I'm gonna ask you a few questions. How often do you laugh? How often do you laugh?

Somebody's doing just fine over here. I don't know if any of you guys heard that. How often do you laugh? If you don't laugh a lot, there's probably a heaviness in your soul. How often do you smile? Now, some people, when their face is resting, they just look angry, okay? And then maybe you have that. We're not gonna talk about it. You know what I'm saying, all right? Some people just have that. But how often do you smile? Watch this. It's interesting. When you do that, your soul lifts just a little bit. You wanna practice? Some of you look really grumpy. I'm gonna count to three and I want you to smile at me. Are you ready? One, two, three. There's just something that happens. So your soul is connected with your body. You can actually do some things physically that bring a lightness to your soul. We're gonna look at what Jesus did here in just a minute. Do you laugh? Do you smile? My dog, we had a Rhodesian Ridgeback for a long time. His name was Charlie.

And I used to, when people would say, do dogs go to heaven? I'd be like, they're a dog, right? But then I got a dog and I'm like, definitely in heaven. Charlie is hanging out with Jesus right now. I am positive. But I could tell how my soul was doing with how I treated Charlie. So like if I came home, Charlie was 124 pounds. He was really large. dog had a great big head and if I sat on the couch and Charlie came and put his head on my lap and I was like somebody get this dog away from me that meant there was a heaviness in my soul I didn't know that at the time but looking back I could tell my affection or lack of affection towards Charlie had to do with how my soul was was doing if I wanted him around if I wanted to pet him if I was like oh good dog my soul is probably doing fairly well but if he was a pain it's because I was in pain can anybody relate to that is there a heaviness in your soul one of the ways that I know my soul is light is when it's light I sing for no apparent reason Robert Watson always makes fun of me about it because we'll be walking across campus to go record a podcast or something and I'll just start singing for no reason and he knows when I do that that I'm doing pretty well and if he hasn't heard that in a while he knows that I'm carrying most likely something heavy last one for me and hopefully you can relate to some of these examples if my truck truck is dirty like cluttery on the inside my soul's probably heavy it's probably because I'm running so fast in life that I'm not taking care of the little things and so if you hop in my truck and there's a bunch of junk in it my soul's not doing well how is your how is your soul Jesus says if your soul is heavy if you're weary and burden come to him and you will find rest a lightness of soul because his burden is easy his yoke is light there's a lightness in your soul

when you practice the way of Jesus so let's just think for a second what's the way of Jesus there's there's what he teaches and so when you obey Jesus the fruit of that is lightness of soul and so let's think about some of the teachings of Jesus because some of Jesus's teachings sound crazy Jesus taught that we are always to forgive that sounds crazy and right now soon as I said that you know we're always to forgive you're like yeah yeah yeah I'm the exception this is you don't know right we all have that now let me give a caveat there's a difference between forgiveness and trust to forgive is to cancel a debt it's to literally in your mind and heart you don't even have to tell the person it's to say you don't owe me anymore and Jesus said you always want to forgive in fact it's right there in the middle of the Lord's prayer forgive us our debts as we also have forgiven our debtors it means to let it go it means to say you don't owe me anymore and it means to close the account now that doesn't mean you have to continue the relationship because there's a difference between forgiveness and trust but when you forgive somebody and you let it go there's a lightness that begins to show up in your soul which also means there's no greater burden than the burden of bitterness somebody owes you and you're carrying that around and you won't let it go it's eating at your soul it's toxic bitterness will affect your soul to the extent that even though that one person owes you eventually everybody will owe you and it will close the door on love and your heart and your mind put those things together in your soul you can't let love out and you can't let love in it just closes the door on love so when Jesus says forgive us our debts as we also have forgiven our debtors you want to be in the flow of forgiveness all the time he knows what he's talking about he's brilliant so if you're here today and you're carrying around bitterness your soul is going to be heavy and here's the other thing everybody around you will feel that heaviness and that weight because eventually bitterness will break your soul you weren't made for it so it doesn't mean you forget it doesn't even mean that you necessarily continue the relationship the person might not be

trustworthy but you have to forgive it's God's will for you and otherwise you will live with a heaviness of soul another crazy teaching of Jesus you ready for another crazy teaching of Jesus how about this one forgive your enemy forgiveness forgive your enemy and bless those who curse you Love your enemy. It's crazy. But it'll make your soul light. By the way, the best way to defeat an enemy is to make them your friend. It's pretty brilliant. If you started to love people that disagree with you, your soul would become lighter. If instead of having to win arguments, you chose to win over people, your soul would become lighter. The way of Jesus always works. And his burden is easy, and his yoke is light. There is rest for your soul. Those are a couple of teachings of Jesus. There are obviously a whole lot more. But what did Jesus do? Okay, well, one of the things Jesus did is Jesus prayed on the regular, usually early in the morning. There are lots of instances where Jesus gets up before everybody, probably had really good strong coffee, right? Probably not. But he gets up early, and he goes off by himself outside in nature to pray.

That's an idea. There's a lightness of soul that comes when we practice that. Now, for some of you, you're like, you know, I feel guilty, I don't do that. Well, that's because you've got a one-year-old at home, and you're taking care of them. There are different seasons of life. Jesus was a single man who had, you know, 12 disciples, and he had a little more freedom in his schedule than some of you young moms do. So don't like burden yourself with something that you're not in a season to practice. But just know that Jesus would pray regularly. He tended to do that outside by himself. And that's the way of Jesus, and there's a lightness of soul that comes with that. I'll maybe give you one that you haven't thought of. You know what else Jesus did? He disappointed people all the time. They wanted him to do something, and he would go, nope, not doing it. And because of that, there was a lightness in his soul. Jesus was not an approval addict. If you are an approval addict, there will always be a heaviness in your soul. Here's why, because you can't make everybody happy. Have you noticed? If you're a leader, I can just tell you, leader to leader, that's really true for you.

Do you know what leadership is, by the way? I'll just give everybody a leadership lesson. You ready? This is a bonus. Here's what leadership is. It's disappointing people at a rate they can stand. There you go. These are people I haven't disappointed yet. But it's coming, because in leadership, everybody's pulling at you. Leadership, in its very essence, is confrontation. It's not necessarily a bad thing, but you're confronting current reality to change it, or you're confronting a cultural mist in your organization that needs to be addressed. Leaders confront all the time, which means they disappoint people all the time. Really good leadership is just disappointing people at a rate they can stand. It's okay to tell people no. I'm gonna give you an example. When Christmas rolls around this year, you're gonna have to disappoint somebody, because your parents want you at their house, and your spouse's parents want you at their house, and you've got your own family, and all of you wanna be at your house. Who you gonna disappoint? Own it. By the way, choose your house and your spouse

over everybody else, and just disappoint all of them. I can't tell you how many times when I've called somebody, and I said, hey, I know we had an appointment, but this came up with my kid, and I've gotta disappoint one of you, so guess who I'm choosing? I'm gonna disappoint you and make my kid happy, because my relationship with my kid is a lifelong deal, and I'm trying to build trust with them, because eventually, the only influence I'll have with them is what trust they have in me, so I'm gonna disappoint you, and I'm gonna love on them. You guys see this? Can we own it? If you're an approval addict, there will be a heaviness in your soul. You gotta get used to not everybody liking the decisions you're making. Now, that doesn't mean you're a jerk. It doesn't mean that you're not kind. You're always kind. It just means you're not nice. Here's the difference between. being nice and being kind. Nice ignores reality. Nice is like in the South when we say, oh, bless your heart. Kindness is, hey, I've got to disappoint somebody and it's either you or my 17-year-old son and I care about you, I need to reschedule

because I'm gonna disappoint you and make my kid happy right now. That was kind, but it was straight. You see the difference? Okay, Jesus was brilliant at this. Jesus is the only person in the world that's ever existed that had no Messiah complex whatsoever, which is so ironic. The Messiah is the only person that's ever lived who didn't have a Messiah complex. You and I feel like we gotta fix everybody, we gotta make everybody happy, everybody's problems our problem. Be very careful with that because if you're carrying all that around, there will be a heaviness in your soul. I'll give you one more, you'll like this one. Jesus took naps. Jesus was not addicted to busyness. Jesus was busy. He had lots of people pulling on him all the time. I mean, if you can heal people, you're in high demand. Right? Everybody wants to be part of your schedule. Everybody wanted to touch him, get close to him, crowds would push, you know, to try to get to him. I mean, all of those kinds of things. And yet Jesus would take a timeout and he would get away by himself to pray and sometimes just to rest.

Jesus every week, because he was Jewish, would practice the Sabbath, which means one day a week he didn't work. He just enjoyed his life. And it was funny because the religious people had all these rules about the Sabbath and Jesus was like, you guys are ruining it. Because that's what religious people do, they ruin things. God gave the Sabbath to people that were slaves for 400 years. The Jewish people were in Egyptian bondage and so God gives the law to Moses and he says, I want you to tell your people one day a week to just trust me. You're not a slave anymore. Everybody look at me here for a second. Do you live like a slave? To your job, to your responsibilities, to everybody's opinion of you. Because if you live like a slave, there will be a heaviness in your soul. The way of Jesus is different. But if we learn to practice the way of Jesus, there's a freeness and a lightness that comes with that. Jesus was very chill. There were moments when there was heaviness in his soul. But for the most part, he was relaxed. Not a worrier, not anxious, not a people pleaser. Just living for God and out of that, enjoying the love of God in his life

and then loving others well. This is where we find lightness of soul. I'm hearing your notes. Souls get heavy because we carry what only God is meant to carry. Souls get heavy because we carry what only God is meant to carry. When you think about your life right now, especially if you have heaviness of soul, is there anything that is really God's responsibility that you are taking responsibility for? I've mentioned this practice on the regular. I'm gonna do it again. One of the most powerful things you can do, and some of you have heard me say this, but you've never done it. The power's in the practice, like actually do it. If you will sit down and make two lists. First list, what you're in control of. That list is gonna be really short. Second list, what is not in your control. By the way, none of the actions of other people is under your control. If you're trying to control somebody, you are gonna have a heaviness of soul. And so what can you control? And then what's out of your control, and then here's what you do. Everything that's out of your control, you just pray and you give that to God,

and then you just take responsibility for what you can control. So take responsibility for your life. Be an adult. If you need to make some changes, make some changes. Take responsibility. But then everything else that's out of your control, just give that to God. The more that you do that, and the more that you practice that, you'll have to do it daily. Like it's like a daily thing. It's not a one-time decision. But the more that you choose to do that each day, the lighter your soul will be. I do it in the mornings. You guys have heard me talk about this before. I have a little. and that's my prayer journal and I'll write things down. And every day I give things to God that I know are out of my control. And I'm like, God, that's yours. I'm just gonna trust you with that. And then here's what I'm gonna do today. And it just helps you live freely and lightly. Let me show you this passage of scripture. In this passage, it's out of a book called Lamentations. And the reason the book is called Lamentations is because the people are lamenting. It's a difficult season for the Jewish nation.

Very difficult things are happening. There's a heaviness of soul across the nation. And the writer, as he writes these words, is experiencing heaviness of soul, but in that, he gives us a prescription of what to do when our souls are heavy. Pick up with me here. Lamentations chapter three, beginning in verse 19. He writes, I remember my affliction and my wondering. In the original Hebrew here, it means can't find peace. Like lost, you're looking for peace, but you can't find it. I remember my affliction and my wondering, the bitterness and the gall. In my Bible, where it says gall, I have of it all written out to the side, the bitterness and the gall of it all. I well remember them. By the way, he said remember twice. Did you notice that? I remember, I well remember. It's what he's focused on. I well remember and my soul is downcast within me. Yet, this I call to mind. Okay, everybody look at me. First question to ask yourself if you're feeling a heaviness of soul is what are you calling to your mind? You gotta think about what you're thinking about. I saw a scary movie the other day with my brother and you know what I was in the scary movie?

Scared. Scared. Which made no sense because I was in a big old comfortable chair with a big old soda that I paid $104 for. With a big popcorn, I was not in danger. But I was scared, why? Because that's what I was calling to mind. Make sense? Just because you feel it doesn't make it a fact. I think that was from the Holy Spirit. For somebody here this weekend, that was God's word for you. Just because you feel it doesn't make it a fact. Worry is just meditation in the wrong direction. What do you call to mind? So he's remembering how terrible it is and he's remembering these things and his soul is downcast. But then he says, yet I call to mind. And therefore, so he's changing his mind. He's focusing on something different. Yet this I call to mind. And therefore, I have, what's the next word? Hope. Hope is a choice. Ah, hope is a decision. It's a decision to call some things to mind. It's a decision to focus on something different. If you lack hope, that's on you.

Call to mind some different things. Yet this I call to mind. And therefore, I have hope. What's he calling to mind? Verse 22. Because of the Lord's great, what's the next word? Think about God's love. If you're like, I can't imagine. Think about the cross. Think about the resurrection. Think of a time in your life when you had good things happening. Because what's going on is you're lost a little bit. You're wandering around like he says. You can't find peace. Change your focus. Because of the Lord's great love, we are not consumed. For his, what's the next word? Compassion's never fail. He hasn't forgotten you. He's still compassionate towards you. He expects less from you than you do. And he loves you. Everything you've ever done, he's aware of. Everything you are yet to do, he's aware of. He loves you. He is compassionate towards you. The name Jesus, I talked about this last weekend, means the Lord saves. He came to save you.

He wants to help you, to rescue you. His compassions never fail. Look at this. every morning. One of the things I tell God just about every morning with my really good cup of coffee is, first of all, thank you for this really good cup of coffee. And two, thank you that I woke up to a brand new batch of your mercy today. I woke up to a brand new batch of your compassion. I woke up to a new dose of love because the love of God and the grace of God and the goodness of God comes up with the sun, circling the earth every single day. New every morning. Great is your, next word? Faithfulness. He will never leave you nor forsake you. Well, it feels, the feelings aren't facts. Call the right things to mind. Tell yourself the truth. Hope, love, compassion, faithfulness. Focus on those things. That's what the writer is writing. I remember the bitterness and the gall, yet this I call to mind. Hope, love, compassion, faithfulness. Verse 24, I say to myself, who's he talking to? Himself. The most important conversation you have every day

is the conversation you have with yourself. You're like, what about God? Well, you gotta tell yourself to talk to God. You're like, I ain't talking to myself. Well, you talk to a golf ball. Come on, go, get in the hole, right? I talk to arrows, come on. Like it was the arrows' fault. I say to myself, talk to yourself, tell yourself the truth. I say to myself, the Lord is my portion. Therefore, I will wait for him. What does it mean to wait for him? You make the two lists. To wait on God is you do what you can do until God does what only he can do. That's what it means to wait on God. For all of you who are lazy and irresponsible, you're not waiting on God. You're just being lazy and irresponsible. You're not waiting on God. You're just being lazy and irresponsible. You gotta do what you can do until God does what only he can do, and he'll meet you in the middle. So take responsibility for what you can control, what you can do, and then everything out of your control, you give that to God and you wait for him to do what only he can do. Make sense?

He'll meet you in the middle. And the more that you learn to live that way, because this is a daily thing, the lighter your soul will be. Big question, as it comes here on the screen, what are you calling to mind? What are you saying to yourself? And what are you focused on? And what are you focused on? Because the way of Jesus is not a burden. It's the way of hope and love and compassion and faithfulness. It says God is bigger than my enemy, so I'm gonna trust my enemy to God and love my enemy and bless those who persecute me. And yes, I was done wrong, and yes, it's not fair, but life is not fair. There's only two fairs in life, the state fair and the county fair. That's it. Everything else is up for grabs. And so do you run around the rest of your life screaming that it's not fair? Or do you get over it and learn to live freely and lightly? Cancel the debt, decide whether or not you wanna trust, but you move on. Because God is great, and God is good, and in Jesus' name, he's got you. Be free. Lighten up.

Laugh, sing, play. Get grateful. You can choose to be heavy or you can choose to be happy. Choice is yours. Because you're not a body with a soul. You're a soul that happens to have a body, and so care for it and follow the way of Jesus. Would you guys pray with me? Let's pray together. Holy Spirit, Give us wisdom of these things. Help us to pay attention to what we're calling to mind. And to pay attention to what we're saying to ourselves. I pray for those who right now, there's a heaviness of soul just because of the happenings of life. I get that. But I pray that we would learn even in this moment of what it means to wait on you. To take responsibility for what's us. And to just trust you with the rest. And in that, may we learn to live freely and lightly and find rest for our souls. Teach us, we pray in Jesus' name, amen. Amen. Amen.