Study Notes

I.      Matthew 11:27-Jesus’s invitation of ease to those working in their on effort

A.    You can hear Jesus saying come here and let me show you how to live life

1.       You haven’t lived life if you haven’t lived it with the ease that’s available in me

2.       Watch how I do it, cause you aren’t doing it right

B.     Jesus bore the hard, toilsome, uneasy life for you

1.       Thorns are representative of a hard graceless life; working in your own effort-Gen3:19

2.       Jesus had thorns on his head showing you I’m baring this hard, graceless, works-filled life for you so that you can live a life full of grace and ease-John 19:5

C.    Come over here because you’re working, you’re tired, life’s become hard and heavy for you, you’re carrying a bunch heavy stuff and I want to give you rest/ease

1.       Apparently the people he is calling don’t have this ease

2.       The insinuation is you’re trying to do something in your own effort

D.    Hook to him and watch how he does it

1.       He’s not doing it like you; his life wasn’t full of wearisome effort and heaviness

2.       John 16:33-Be of good comfort-take ease

3.       Jesus called his load light-Hebrews 12:3

E.     That hard life is not God’s plan

1.       Genesis 3:17-19-This sorrow-pain, toil, hardship entered in after mankind fell and hardness and heaviness and sorrow wasn’t in God’s original plan

2.       Deut28:65,Gal3:13-You shall find no ease; part of the curse

3.       Psalm 25:12-13-God’s interested in injecting ease back into the life of people who will look to him and do what he says; (What man is he that fears the LORD? him shall he teach in the way that he shall choose. His soul shall dwell at ease; and his seed shall inherit the earth.)

II.     Jesus said watch how I do it so how did he do it?

A.    He accessed this ease through meekness and humility

1.       Meekness and humility are the 2 ingredients that will produce and ease on your life

2.       Humility is looking, and meekness is yielding-John 5:19,30,8:28

3.       Learn of me-Watch what I do-John 5:19, 30, John 8:28

a.      He only did what he saw and said what he heard and the moment you go beyond that or fall short of that you have just engaged your own effort

B.     John 8:28-Meekness-I always do those things that please Him

C.    John 5:19,30,8:28-Humility-I can do nothing of myself

1.       Humility recognizes its inadequacy apart from God & its TotalDependencyUponGod

a.      In yourself you are nothing-Galatians 6:3; In Him you are something-1Jn4:17

b.      In yourself you know nothing-1 Cor 8:2; In Him you know all things-1 John 2:20

c.      In yourself you have nothing-1 Cori 4:7; In Him you have all things that -2 Peter 1:4

d.      In yourself you can do nothing-John 15:5; In Him you can do all things-Phili 4:13

2.       When you begin to recognize your inadequacy apart from God and your total dependency upon Him it’s going to keep you looking up

a.      Jesus knew how dependent upon God he was and he was always looking up

3.       Eyes that are lifted reveal humility of heart-Matthew 14:19, John 11:41

a.      Humility keeps you looking up because it knows “I can do nothing of myself”

b.      How humble you are is not determined by how humble you say you are, but it’s determined by how dependent you are on God and how much you look to Him

c.      Humility is measured in how much are you looking to Him

4.       Eyes that don’t look up are evidence that pride is in the heart

a.      Pride doesn’t recognize it’s need for God and believes it is self-sufficient

b.      Pride thinks it can pull it alone and work something up in it’s own effort and it will always end up tired

1)       Being worn out and tired and heavy is always the result of pride

5.       You never see Jesus trying to work anything up in his own effort that’s pride; All you see the master doing he is looking to the Father and doing what he says

III.   Grace is the entity that brings ease to your life

A.    God’s grace on you is his strength, his power, his ability empowering you and enabling you to do what you can’t do and make what was hard for you easy-2Cor12:9

1.       My grace is sufficient-possessed with unfailing strength

B.     There’s enough grace in God to make even the hardest stuff easy

1.       Gen18:14-Nothing is hard to God; when His grace comes on you hard stuff gets easy

2.       Hebrews 4:16-Help makes it easier and enough help makes it easy

a.      He is grace, he’s going to help you and make it easy-Jn1:14,Heb10:29,1Pet2:3

b.      Jesus said when you hook to me (Grace) it’s easy

3.       2 Corinthians 9:8-When all of God’s grace abounds towards you, whatever you’re facing immediately becomes easy

C.    We see hard stuff being easy all throughout the scripture

1.       EX: David, Three Hebrews, Gideon 300, Moses and the red sea, Jehoshaphat

2.       We’ve looked at like with God’s grace we can struggle through, but not so

3.       Grace (isn’t just the forgiveness of your sin) is the empowerment to experience sweatless victory

IV.   Looking and yielding, humility and meekness are the two ingredients what will tap God’s grace and produce and ease on your life-1 Peter 5:5

A.    Only the humble get the grace and will experience this ease we’re talking about

1.       My first response in every situation was to look up/look in

B.     Grace will be absent where meekness and humility are not present; where there is no looking and no yielding, there will be no grace

1.       How did this hard life, this hardship enter into the life of man? It was result of Adam’s not being meek and not being humble-Humility looks to God, meekness yields to him

2.       When meekness and humility are removed grace is lifted and life will be hard

3.       A life of looking and yielding will be one full of grace and ease

a.      There’s nothing to yield to if you don’t look so why aren’t we looking more? PRIDE

C.    Eyes that are lifted reveal humility of heart and those same lifted eyes will always see God’s grace being poured down-1 Peter 5:5, Matthew 14:19, John 11:41

1.       People aren’t looking to him because they lack humility and that’s why there’s no grace and that’s why their lives are so hard

a.      The more you recognize your dependence on God, the more you’ll look to him and the more you look to Him the greater grace you’ll have on your life

b.      The humble get the grace because they seek the grace and grace makes it easy

2.       Just how much will you look up? it will determine the amount of grace you see

a.      Your grace/your anointing will never be any greater than your humility

b.      Your grace/your anointing will be capped by your humility

D.    Humility is I have to see and hear first or I can do nothing, meekness is doing it and these characteristics added and ease to his life; Jesus lived an unforced life-Mt11:28

1.       When you begin to live a life where you so dependent on God that you look to Him before you do are say anything and then do what He says, you will tap His grace in such a way that you’ll experience a supernatural ease, in the midst of the hardest situations

2.       Jesus simply heard and spoke and saw and did and then the Father would work through and great things would happen; these are the unforced rhythms of grace

E.     This whole thing come down to being led by the spirit

1.       You look to Him, hear him and yield to Him and He is grace and He is your helper and the more of Him you have the more grace you have the more help you have the easier life becomes