Matthew 11:28. Come unto me all ye that labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest.
Come all ye saints of Christ, come from far and wide, let us gather in the virtual reality of His tabernacle so that we can praise and worship Him, on this His special day! And all God’s children declared a loud and proud: ‘Praise the Lord God Almighty for His goodness to the children of men! Bless His holy name!’
Yes friends, it’s the Lord’s Day again, and that calls for celebration and exaltation, while seeking wisdom, guidance and encouragement for the next seven days. We can’t meet in person, but they certainly can’t stop us from meeting by technological means. So let’s fire up those pieces of technological wonder, as well as our hearts, souls, bodies and minds and open the proceedings with a soulful piece of worship written by Fernando Ortega, titled ‘Give Me Jesus.’ But we’re going to do the live, soulful rendition by Danny Gokey.
Ah mih people, this song has become one of my favourites since I first heard it last year. And yuh know, earlier this past week, when I began thinking about what we’d sing today, that just flashed into my mind, and obviously it was game over! (smile) So let’s get with it; let our sacrifice of praise rise to high heaven as the black youngster on the rich sounding piano leads us into soulful, scintillating song. And please don’t forget the sweet background vocals from the diversified choir.
‘Ohhh ohhh, Give me Jesus… In the morning, when I rise In the morning, when I rise In the morning, when I rise Give me Jesus. (Chorus: Give me Jesus, Give me Jesus. You can have all this world, Just give me Jesus.) When I am alone, Oh When I am alone, When I am alone, Give me Jesus. (Give me Jesus. Give me Jesus, Give me Jesus. You can have all this world, Just give me Jesus. For He is all that I need. Just give me Jesus) When I come to die, Oh, When I come to die, When I come to die, Give me Jesus.
(Ohhhh Give me Jesus. Give me Jesus, Give me Jesus. You can have all this world, Just give me Jesus. Oh it’s all I need, all I need is Jesus. So Give me Jesus. Give me Jesus, Give me Jesus. You can have all this world, You can have all this world, You can have all this world, Just give me Jesus. Give me Jesus, Give me Jesus, He’s all I need. He’s all I need.
Give me Jesus…in the morning when I rise…when I lay my head down… when I wake up, when I lay my head down, said I need him, said I need you… said I only want Jesus…when I wake up… Yeahh! Just give me Jesus. All I need is him. We worship you, we worship you, say we worship you Lord. You’re the answer to my prayers, you’re the calm in the storm, you’re my rest and my refuge…oh yeahhh…’
Yes mih bredrin, yes! Who says worship ain’t sweet and uplifting eh? Tell them they don’t know what they talking about, especially when yuh worshipping Jesus, our Lord and Saviour, the One who sacrificed His sinless life on the cross at Calvary to pay for our abominable sins and thus established reconciliation with our heavenly Father, our Creator and Provider! Wow! Worship must be sweet when yuh worshipping the Light of the World; the Way the Truth and the Life! How could it not be eh, when Jesus is ALL anyone ever needs!
The song tells the gospel truth! In the morning when I rise, all I need to do is turn to Jesus, surrender my day to Him and He will lead and guide me in wisdom and truth. He is the answer to ALL our prayers, our calm in the storm, our refuge and strong tower. Then when I am alone, feeling lonely…oh mih people, NO ONE provides comfort like our Sacrificial Lamb, because He can empathize with our problems since He also experienced rejection, dejection, disappointment, ‘sufferation’ and all the negative things that this world throws at us.
And there are no better, more comforting words in the Good Book than those of His Great Invitation. ‘Come unto me all ye that labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you, and learn of (from) me; for I am meek and lowly in heart (gentle and humble): and ye shall find rest unto your souls. For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light.’ (Matt. 11:28-30) Now who in their right minds would ever want to turn down such an inviting and comforting invitation eh? A lot of people turn it down though. That means we have plenty people in our world who aren’t in their right minds. (smile)
So while we’re here on earth, Jesus is ALL we need. And when we die, He’s still ALL we need because He’s our Saviour, who paid our sin debt in full, so that we can enter paradise with Him and enjoy eternal life. Brother! What a magnificent and magnanimous Deity is our Jesus: LOVING, merciful, compassionate, graceful, forgiving, faithful…etc. etc.!
So why would we need anyone else in this life, or the hereafter eh? When we wake up, when go to sleep, when we need comfort, when we need forgiving, mercy, grace, compassion, strength to face the day, He’s the ONLY One who can provide it all! That’s why we can refuse ALL that this world has to offer, once we have JESUS! Keep the wealth and the power, the social and celebrity status of this evil world. We’ll settle for JESUS!
And besides, He’s promised that if we put His Father and Him first, seek the kingdom of God and its righteousness, all that we need will be given to us, because the Father knows what we need, and He won’t let us go lacking anything! (Matt. 6:33) No wonder Bruh David could proclaim, and so too can we: ‘The Lord is my shepherd, I shall not want.’ (Ps.23:1)
And even when it comes to earthly riches, who was the richest man ever eh? Solomon! The Lord made him that because he asked for wisdom and understanding to rule His people. So if the Lord thinks we need earthly wealth, He can also give us that, for He owns it ALL! So why bother with this wicked world and their worthless stuff eh? We can’t carry any of it with us.
And anyway, where we saints are going we don’t need it, for heaven is richer and more priceless and beautiful than earth ever will be – mansions and streets paved with gold…and JESUS, our shining star! So let’s keep leaning on Him nuh, holding tightly to His hand, and when He comes knocking at the doors of our hearts, let’s open quickly and receive Him with a hearty ‘Welcome my Lord and Saviour! Welcome!’ Much LOVE!
…Jesus made us…saved us…and will look after us for ever…Glory be…