I hope you are being refreshed by the rain we are getting this week. We definitely needed it. This past Sunday in worship we continued our series on prayer, “Cruisin’ with Christ.” We talked about “Pickup Truck Prayers” and learned how to cast our burdens on God. If you are feeling worn down or burned out, I’d encourage you to listen to the sermon or read it below.
“Pickup Truck Prayers”
Brimfield Faith UMC / September 26, 2010
Matthew 11:28-30
Brimfield Faith UMC / September 26, 2010
Matthew 11:28-30
BEING THE PICKUP TRUCK
We are continuing this week in a series on prayer called, “Cruisin’ with Christ.” The thrust of the series is based in the idea that prayer is the vehicle that transports us closer to God. We often have strange and ill-conceived ideas about what prayer is and is not. Some of us are intimidated by prayer and others think prayer doesn’t work and is a waste of time. We have often been mistakenly taught that prayer must be done in a certain way, in certain places and at certain times. As we liken prayer to different types of vehicles, my hope is that we come to better understand prayer. Prayer is about relationship with God. It should influence our lives as much as the automobile. To benefit from prayer we need to approach it as the vehicle that brings us closer to God.
With that in mind, this morning I want to talk about pickup trucks. By show of hands: How many of you currently own a pickup truck? Ever owned a truck? Lived with someone who owned a truck? Know someone with a truck? How many of you have ever used a pickup truck to haul stuff?
Pickup trucks are versatile and useful for hauling loads. The pickup truck is a vehicle that has been synonymous with rugged Americanism and the idea that real men drive pickup trucks. And if you are a die hard, you only drive a Ford or a Chevy. I’ve never owned a pickup truck but this is what I’m told. Today, of course, there are plenty of different types of pickup trucks. We have the standard light pickup like the Ford Ranger. We have the heavy duty pickup truck like the F350 Diesel. Then there is the extended cab and the short bed. The variations on the pickup these days are seemingly endless.
Now the traditional pickup has never been a passenger-minded car. The ride isn’t smooth. The seats aren’t comfortable. There is limited space for people to sit. In short, it is a vehicle that has been designed for its practicality and usefulness. It is designed to haul heavy loads and pull items. If you’ve ever tried to move a bed, chair, or table, you know that the pickup truck has the capability to carry loads that passenger cars cannot.
When you need to move something, pickup trucks are great, but because of their limitations many people don’t own them. Instead, having a friend with a pickup truck is invaluable. That is, of course, unless you are the friend with the pickup truck. When you become ‘the pickup truck’ friend, you can easily find yourself moving other people’s stuff every weekend. The pickup truck friend can quickly find themselves being taken advantage of.
You don’t have to own a pickup truck, to know what it feels like to be taken advantage of. If you have a knack for being kind, compassionate, or caring, people will try to dump their problems on you in hopes that you will help fix them. So often, we treat each other like pickup trucks and ask someone else to deal with our junk. We use people for their utility and function. When this becomes a regular pattern, it weighs us down and burdens us. Do you ever feel like ‘the pickup truck’ friend and feel like you are carrying everyone else’s worries, burdens and junk?
Carrying your own burdens without even considering the burdens of other people can be a tiring job. It can wear us down and beat us up. And yet, God promises us hope, life and a sustaining presence if we learn to turn those burdens over to him.
GOD’S TRUCK
Instead of allowing the world to treat us like a pickup truck, God invites us to use his pickup truck. God’s pickup truck is designed to carry our burdens and the burdens of the world. Listen to the invitation in Matthew 11 again in the Message. “Are you tired? Worn out? Burned out on religion? Come to me. Get away with me and you’ll recover your life. I’ll show you how to take a real rest. Walk with me and work with me—watch how I do it. Learn the unforced rhythms of grace. I won’t lay anything heavy or ill-fitting on you. Keep company with me and you’ll learn to live freely and lightly.”
Our district superintendent, Valerie Stultz, read this passage at a clergy gathering this week. I loved the way Peterson articulates Jesus’ invitation to each of us. In the context of this invitation, Jesus is talking about the extra rules and regulations that the religious Pharisees of the day laid out. It was virtually impossible to walk with God and to commune with God. Jesus is inviting his followers to do just that follow him. He is inviting you and me to walk with him and work with him. To watch him and learn from him. We don’t have to work really hard to catch a glimpse of God. We don’t have to live up to unrealistic expectations.
Instead, we can live our lives in sync with Jesus. When we learn to live with our hearts and minds focused on God, we learn how to live an unburdened life. God understands that we are going to encounter difficulties and struggles and wants to help with them. When life treats us like a pickup truck, God offers his pickup truck to carry our burdens. The invitation of Jesus, then, is to load up God’s pickup truck and allow him to carry them. Instead of you carrying all of your burdens and everyone else’s God invites us to dump our junk in his trunk.
While Jesus’ invitation sounds romantic and wonderful, the reality of living it out can be difficult. I want to suggest two ways that can help us take advantage of God’s pickup truck.
UNLOADING AND RIDING
#1. Dump it ALL in: (v.28 “Come to me…”)
The first invitation of the pickup truck is to dump it all in God’s truck. That begins by simply crying out to God in our time of need and exhaustion. Like a good friend, God is always ready to respond to our needs. He is simply waiting for the call. He is the friend who says, call me anytime you need something. Depending on our views of prayer, we might not think that God cares about the little stupid problems of our lives. The reality is that does. God wants us to give him everything. He truly and genuinely wants us to dump our burdens in his truck. He wants to free us from the burdens of the world and fill us with the joy of the Lord.
He encourages us to cry out to him. To moan, gripe and complain directly to him. If he didn’t want us to do this, he would have left certain Psalms out of the Bible. Instead there numerous examples of Psalms that dump it all on God. Listen to Psalm 13 as it expresses anguish and despair of the world.
1 O Lord, how long will you forget me? Forever? / How long will you look the other way?
2 How long must I struggle with anguish in my soul, / with sorrow in my heart every day?
How long will my enemy have the upper hand?
3 Turn and answer me, O Lord my God! / Restore the sparkle to my eyes, or I will die.
4 Don’t let my enemies gloat, saying, “We have defeated him!”
Don’t let them rejoice at my downfall.
5 But I trust in your unfailing love. / I will rejoice because you have rescued me.
6 I will sing to the Lord / because he is good to me.
The Psalmist understood something important about suffering, struggles and difficulty. As Christians, we sometimes think we aren’t supposed struggles and burdens and so we try to cover them up and ignore them. God wants us to do the exact opposite. We need to acknowledge them and share them with God. We don’t need to gloss them over but we can linger on them in prayer with God. This Psalm teaches us how to dump our burdens on the Lord. We can and should be brutally honest with God. This act of dumping our junk in God’s truck gives us freedom and restoration. We can find new strength when we trust God with our stuff.
As you engage in holy groaning, I think a good way to make sure you are actually giving it up to God is to visualize it. So, as you are listing your problems to God, envision yourself literally placing your baggage in the back of God’s pickup truck. God wants you to put your junk in his trunk. That is what God’s pickup truck is designed for. God is a big God and wants us to cast our cares upon him. Jesus says, “Come to me, all who are weary and are carrying heavy burdens.” We don’t need to carry the burdens any longer. God wants to carry them for us. God wants us to experience his easy yoke and light burden which brings us to our next point. Once you have unloaded your truck and loaded up God’s, you are invited to get in the passenger seat.
#2. Ride in the passenger seat: (v. 28 “I will give you rest.”)
The second invitation of the pickup truck is to ride in the passenger seat. Jesus wants to give us rest. He knows how stressful and difficult life can be. He wants to teach us a way of life that energizes and rejuvenates. The Message phrases it as: “Learn the unforced rhythms of grace.” We are invited to walk with God and to have our lives restored. To live free of worry, fear, anxiety, and despair. This doesn’t happen overnight but it is a life-time process of learning.
The invitation is to ride in God’s truck and to relax with him. When we carry our own burdens, we tend to drive with one eye on the road and one eye looking back at our issues. We can never enjoy the scenery and the journey. Instead, we are burdened by that which we carry. Riding with God means those concerns are no longer there. You do not have to continually look back to make sure your junk is still in God’s car. We prayed about the stuff as we placed it in the truck and now we can trust God for it.
Prayer in the passenger seat focuses on restoration and relationship God. We know God is in control and so we sit back and enjoy the ride. We learn to ride like a child. In the previous verses of Matthew 11, Jesus talks about having a childlike faith. When Caleb rides in his car seat, he is content. He isn’t watching through his mirror, telling me to watch out for dangers. He plays with his feet, sucks on his pacifier, and takes naps. He trusts that I will get him to our destination safely.
In the same way, we need to trust God to get us to our destination. We’ve presented our problems to God and he will help us. The ride in the truck enables us to focus on our relationship with God and not simply problem-solving. We look around at the scenery. We learn the ways of the road. We learn the ways of God. We learn to find rest for our weary souls.
CONCLUSION
The invitation for God’s pickup truck is twofold: dump it and ride. When you dump it…
Dump it daily. Dump it often. Dump it early. Encourage others to dump on God.
When you are on the ride… enjoy it, rest in it, trust God for it.
God doesn’t want you to carry your burdens alone. If you find others dumping their junk on you, don’t panic and give it to God. Also encourage them to give it to God. Pray with them so they can do it. Encourage them and you to will be encouraged. Dumping and riding with God are better done with others. So find others to help you dump it on God and grow with the Lord together. Finding rest and finding life.
We are continuing this week in a series on prayer called, “Cruisin’ with Christ.” The thrust of the series is based in the idea that prayer is the vehicle that transports us closer to God. We often have strange and ill-conceived ideas about what prayer is and is not. Some of us are intimidated by prayer and others think prayer doesn’t work and is a waste of time. We have often been mistakenly taught that prayer must be done in a certain way, in certain places and at certain times. As we liken prayer to different types of vehicles, my hope is that we come to better understand prayer. Prayer is about relationship with God. It should influence our lives as much as the automobile. To benefit from prayer we need to approach it as the vehicle that brings us closer to God.
With that in mind, this morning I want to talk about pickup trucks. By show of hands: How many of you currently own a pickup truck? Ever owned a truck? Lived with someone who owned a truck? Know someone with a truck? How many of you have ever used a pickup truck to haul stuff?
Pickup trucks are versatile and useful for hauling loads. The pickup truck is a vehicle that has been synonymous with rugged Americanism and the idea that real men drive pickup trucks. And if you are a die hard, you only drive a Ford or a Chevy. I’ve never owned a pickup truck but this is what I’m told. Today, of course, there are plenty of different types of pickup trucks. We have the standard light pickup like the Ford Ranger. We have the heavy duty pickup truck like the F350 Diesel. Then there is the extended cab and the short bed. The variations on the pickup these days are seemingly endless.
Now the traditional pickup has never been a passenger-minded car. The ride isn’t smooth. The seats aren’t comfortable. There is limited space for people to sit. In short, it is a vehicle that has been designed for its practicality and usefulness. It is designed to haul heavy loads and pull items. If you’ve ever tried to move a bed, chair, or table, you know that the pickup truck has the capability to carry loads that passenger cars cannot.
When you need to move something, pickup trucks are great, but because of their limitations many people don’t own them. Instead, having a friend with a pickup truck is invaluable. That is, of course, unless you are the friend with the pickup truck. When you become ‘the pickup truck’ friend, you can easily find yourself moving other people’s stuff every weekend. The pickup truck friend can quickly find themselves being taken advantage of.
You don’t have to own a pickup truck, to know what it feels like to be taken advantage of. If you have a knack for being kind, compassionate, or caring, people will try to dump their problems on you in hopes that you will help fix them. So often, we treat each other like pickup trucks and ask someone else to deal with our junk. We use people for their utility and function. When this becomes a regular pattern, it weighs us down and burdens us. Do you ever feel like ‘the pickup truck’ friend and feel like you are carrying everyone else’s worries, burdens and junk?
Carrying your own burdens without even considering the burdens of other people can be a tiring job. It can wear us down and beat us up. And yet, God promises us hope, life and a sustaining presence if we learn to turn those burdens over to him.
GOD’S TRUCK
Instead of allowing the world to treat us like a pickup truck, God invites us to use his pickup truck. God’s pickup truck is designed to carry our burdens and the burdens of the world. Listen to the invitation in Matthew 11 again in the Message. “Are you tired? Worn out? Burned out on religion? Come to me. Get away with me and you’ll recover your life. I’ll show you how to take a real rest. Walk with me and work with me—watch how I do it. Learn the unforced rhythms of grace. I won’t lay anything heavy or ill-fitting on you. Keep company with me and you’ll learn to live freely and lightly.”
Our district superintendent, Valerie Stultz, read this passage at a clergy gathering this week. I loved the way Peterson articulates Jesus’ invitation to each of us. In the context of this invitation, Jesus is talking about the extra rules and regulations that the religious Pharisees of the day laid out. It was virtually impossible to walk with God and to commune with God. Jesus is inviting his followers to do just that follow him. He is inviting you and me to walk with him and work with him. To watch him and learn from him. We don’t have to work really hard to catch a glimpse of God. We don’t have to live up to unrealistic expectations.
Instead, we can live our lives in sync with Jesus. When we learn to live with our hearts and minds focused on God, we learn how to live an unburdened life. God understands that we are going to encounter difficulties and struggles and wants to help with them. When life treats us like a pickup truck, God offers his pickup truck to carry our burdens. The invitation of Jesus, then, is to load up God’s pickup truck and allow him to carry them. Instead of you carrying all of your burdens and everyone else’s God invites us to dump our junk in his trunk.
While Jesus’ invitation sounds romantic and wonderful, the reality of living it out can be difficult. I want to suggest two ways that can help us take advantage of God’s pickup truck.
UNLOADING AND RIDING
#1. Dump it ALL in: (v.28 “Come to me…”)
The first invitation of the pickup truck is to dump it all in God’s truck. That begins by simply crying out to God in our time of need and exhaustion. Like a good friend, God is always ready to respond to our needs. He is simply waiting for the call. He is the friend who says, call me anytime you need something. Depending on our views of prayer, we might not think that God cares about the little stupid problems of our lives. The reality is that does. God wants us to give him everything. He truly and genuinely wants us to dump our burdens in his truck. He wants to free us from the burdens of the world and fill us with the joy of the Lord.
He encourages us to cry out to him. To moan, gripe and complain directly to him. If he didn’t want us to do this, he would have left certain Psalms out of the Bible. Instead there numerous examples of Psalms that dump it all on God. Listen to Psalm 13 as it expresses anguish and despair of the world.
1 O Lord, how long will you forget me? Forever? / How long will you look the other way?
2 How long must I struggle with anguish in my soul, / with sorrow in my heart every day?
How long will my enemy have the upper hand?
3 Turn and answer me, O Lord my God! / Restore the sparkle to my eyes, or I will die.
4 Don’t let my enemies gloat, saying, “We have defeated him!”
Don’t let them rejoice at my downfall.
5 But I trust in your unfailing love. / I will rejoice because you have rescued me.
6 I will sing to the Lord / because he is good to me.
The Psalmist understood something important about suffering, struggles and difficulty. As Christians, we sometimes think we aren’t supposed struggles and burdens and so we try to cover them up and ignore them. God wants us to do the exact opposite. We need to acknowledge them and share them with God. We don’t need to gloss them over but we can linger on them in prayer with God. This Psalm teaches us how to dump our burdens on the Lord. We can and should be brutally honest with God. This act of dumping our junk in God’s truck gives us freedom and restoration. We can find new strength when we trust God with our stuff.
As you engage in holy groaning, I think a good way to make sure you are actually giving it up to God is to visualize it. So, as you are listing your problems to God, envision yourself literally placing your baggage in the back of God’s pickup truck. God wants you to put your junk in his trunk. That is what God’s pickup truck is designed for. God is a big God and wants us to cast our cares upon him. Jesus says, “Come to me, all who are weary and are carrying heavy burdens.” We don’t need to carry the burdens any longer. God wants to carry them for us. God wants us to experience his easy yoke and light burden which brings us to our next point. Once you have unloaded your truck and loaded up God’s, you are invited to get in the passenger seat.
#2. Ride in the passenger seat: (v. 28 “I will give you rest.”)
The second invitation of the pickup truck is to ride in the passenger seat. Jesus wants to give us rest. He knows how stressful and difficult life can be. He wants to teach us a way of life that energizes and rejuvenates. The Message phrases it as: “Learn the unforced rhythms of grace.” We are invited to walk with God and to have our lives restored. To live free of worry, fear, anxiety, and despair. This doesn’t happen overnight but it is a life-time process of learning.
The invitation is to ride in God’s truck and to relax with him. When we carry our own burdens, we tend to drive with one eye on the road and one eye looking back at our issues. We can never enjoy the scenery and the journey. Instead, we are burdened by that which we carry. Riding with God means those concerns are no longer there. You do not have to continually look back to make sure your junk is still in God’s car. We prayed about the stuff as we placed it in the truck and now we can trust God for it.
Prayer in the passenger seat focuses on restoration and relationship God. We know God is in control and so we sit back and enjoy the ride. We learn to ride like a child. In the previous verses of Matthew 11, Jesus talks about having a childlike faith. When Caleb rides in his car seat, he is content. He isn’t watching through his mirror, telling me to watch out for dangers. He plays with his feet, sucks on his pacifier, and takes naps. He trusts that I will get him to our destination safely.
In the same way, we need to trust God to get us to our destination. We’ve presented our problems to God and he will help us. The ride in the truck enables us to focus on our relationship with God and not simply problem-solving. We look around at the scenery. We learn the ways of the road. We learn the ways of God. We learn to find rest for our weary souls.
CONCLUSION
The invitation for God’s pickup truck is twofold: dump it and ride. When you dump it…
Dump it daily. Dump it often. Dump it early. Encourage others to dump on God.
When you are on the ride… enjoy it, rest in it, trust God for it.
God doesn’t want you to carry your burdens alone. If you find others dumping their junk on you, don’t panic and give it to God. Also encourage them to give it to God. Pray with them so they can do it. Encourage them and you to will be encouraged. Dumping and riding with God are better done with others. So find others to help you dump it on God and grow with the Lord together. Finding rest and finding life.
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