Choosing Wise Burdens

Choosing Wise Burdens I. Christians do well to seek to understand God’s will for their lives. EPH 5:17; ROM 12:2. A. God’s precepts are the benchmark of understanding. PSA 119:34, 104, 128. B. Proper understanding should give us a holy love of biblical burdens and a holy loathing of unbiblical burdens. C. The teachings of Christ and His apostles are the supreme guide for a life that is well- pleasing to God. 1TH 4:1-2. II. Christ’s burden is light. MAT 11:28-30; LUK 10:40-42. A. By contrast, Pharisees will impose unbearable burdens upon others. MAT 23:4. B. Without yielding to or understanding the Scripture, saints will heap unnecessary burdens upon themselves which stifle spiritual growth and peace. LUK 8:14; HEB 4:10-11. C. This study is designed to set saints free from unnecessary burdens. JOH 8:32. III. We are to study to be quiet (1TH 4:11). Quietness is an acquired state; effort will be needed for it. A. study: With inf.: To endeavour, make it one's aim, set oneself deliberately to do something. B. quiet: Of persons (or animals): Making no stir, commotion, or noise; causing no trouble or disturbance; remaining at rest; not moving or acting. (Also of nature or disposition.) Habitually or naturally peaceful or averse to making a stir, noise, etc. C. This quietness is to go along with the activity of work. 2TH 3:12. D. We are to study to do our own business working with our own hands. 1TH 4:11. E. This is 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. a preventative against being a busybody. 2TH 3:11-12. busybody: An officious or meddlesome person; one who is improperly busy in other people's affairs. officious: Unduly forward in proffering services or taking business upon oneself; doing, or prone to do, more than is asked or required; interfering with what is not one's concern; meddlesome.” busy: Occupied with constant attention; actively engaged; doing something that engrosses the attention. Busybodies are preoccupied with false burdens. Attending to false burdens leads to neglect of God-given burdens. MAT 15:1-9. IV. Christ has not burdened us to: A. finish Calvary’s work for Him. HEB 1:3; 10:14; JOH 19:30. B. save the planet. GEN 8:22. C. save the culture and correct all its injustices. JOB 40:9-14 ct/w ACT 2:40. D. eliminate all poverty. MAR 14:7 c/w GAL 6:9-10. V. Saints need to guard against assuming responsibilities that God never gave them, especially when those artificial burdens are substituted for burdens that God has given. A. What of the parents who are so consumed with attaining a better standard of living that their soul or their children’s proper training is neglected? LUK 8:14; EPH 6:4. B. What of the woman who is so consumed with noble causes that she neglects her house or children? 1TI 5:14; TIT 2:5. C. What of the man who spends disproportionate amounts of time in personal pleasures to the neglect of his work and domestic responsibilities? ROM 12:11; 1TI 5:8; 2TH 3:10. D. What of the church which keeps its members so wrapped up in programs and duties that it Choosing Wise Burdens Page 1 of 3 actually becomes a threat to the family? VI. Taking care of our own is our burden. A. Our eternal salvation is based upon this. HEB 9:12, 24. B. Every man should prove (make trial of, try, test) his own work. GAL 6:3-5. 1. Do this rather than proving another man's work or aspiring to be what you are not. PRO 14:14. 2. Each will be held responsible for his own work. 1CO 3:8. 3. One's own works should be his/her praise and rejoicing. PRO 31:31; ECC 3:22. C. Every man should do his own business. 1TH 4:11. 1. Jesus was always focused on his appointed business. LUK 2:49; JOH 4:34. 2. He did not allow himself to be swept up in the distracting noise of agendas. MAT 12:19 c/w 2TI 2:4. 3. He was not “...righteous over much...” (ECC 7:16). D. Servants should obey their own masters. TIT 2:9. E. Each minister must fulfill his own ministry. COL 4:17; 2TI 4:5; 2CO 10:13-16. F. Parents should train their own children. 1TI 3:4-5, 12. G. Each husband should rule his own wife and let that wife submit to her own husband. EPH 5:22-24, 33. H. We should provide for our own that the church not be charged (1TI 5:4, 8, 16). Note that piety must first be shown at home. I. A woman is to be a keeper at home. TIT 2:4-5; 1TI 5:13-14. 1. keeper: One who has charge, care, or oversight of any person or thing; a guardian, warden, custodian. 2. The word translated “keeper at home” is oikouros which means a stayer at home, i.e. domestically inclined (a “good housekeeper”). 3. The work of Christ is expressed in terms of domestic duties. EPH 5:26-27. 4. Wives who work at home are a great deterrent to socialism which would otherwise absorb the responsibilities of the wife. 5. The virtuous woman is industrious but not to the neglect of her home duties. PRO 31:27. 6. Being a keeper at home is not a waste of a young woman's time and talent. J. By such means as these, saints work out their OWN salvation. PHIL 2:12. K. For all of its benefits, the internet probably seduces more Christians away from their God- given burdens than anything else in history. VII. If you neglect your God-given burden, you are being slothful no matter how much you may be diligently attending to other things. MAT 25:24-26. A. sloth: Physical or mental inactivity; disinclination to action, exertion, or labour; sluggishness, idleness, indolence, laziness. B. disinclination: Want of inclination or liking; slight dislike or aversion; indisposition, unwillingness. C. idle: Of persons: Not engaged in work, doing nothing, unemployed. D. Note that the busybody of 1TI 5:13-14 learns to be idle. E. A slothful man can be active in hunting but lazy about roasting what he took in hunting. PRO 12:27. F. PRO 24:30-31 and ECC 10:18 describe what is under the care of a slothful person. Apply this to an office, a garage, a car, or one's body. Choosing Wise Burdens Page 2 of 3 VIII. The sum of this study is that Christians can be all the Christian that God would have them to be by simply applying themselves diligently in whatever godly calling they are found. A. A faithful, diligent father, mother, employee, etc. who is doing what God has burdened them to do is every bit as much the spiritual Christian as the greatest preacher. LUK 7:8-9. B. Exchange the yoke that you and others placed upon you and take the yoke of the Lord Jesus Christ. MAT 11:28-30. C. Jesus’ yoke is bearable. 1JO 5:3. D. Jesus’ yoke provides rest. 1. rest: The natural repose or relief from daily activity which is obtained by sleep; Intermission of labour or exertion of any kind; repose obtained by ceasing to exert oneself; Freedom from or absence of labour, exertion, or activity of any kind. Freedom from distress, trouble, molestation, or aggression. Spiritual or mental peace; quiet or tranquility of mind. 2. If the Lord is leading us and we are bearing His yoke, we will find quietness. PSA 23:2; PRO 1:33; ISA 32:17. Choosing Wise Burdens Page 3 of 3