The Yoke the Cross the Crown

Verse 14 through 17, for all who are being led by the Spirit of God, these are the sons of God. For you have not received a spirit of slavery leading to fear again, but you have received a spirit of adoption as sons by which we cry out, Abba, Father. The Spirit himself bears witness with our spirit that we are children of God.

And if children, heirs also, heirs of God and fellow heirs with Christ, if indeed we suffer with him, in order that we may also be glorified with him. Go with me to Luke chapter 9. Luke chapter 9, verses 23 and 24. And he was saying to them, to them all, if anyone wishes to come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross daily and follow me.

For whosoever wishes to save his life shall lose it, but whosoever loses his life for my sake, he is the one who will save it. And then turn to Matthew chapter 11 and just leave it there as I want to start. In chapter Matthew 11, verses 28 to 30.

Come to me, come to me all who are weary and heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart. And you shall find rest for your souls, for my yoke is easy and my load is light.

Now there are three symbols that I find in these three different selections that I have read to you. The last symbol that I want to talk about was in the first passage from Romans. And although those verses do not mention a symbol directly, it is there nevertheless indirectly.

Children of God are heirs of God and joint heirs with Jesus Christ. And picture in this a crown. There is a royal status that we come into when we come into life.

After repentance and into life, there is a royal status that we come into in our inheritance in Christ. That's where he's leading us. In Luke 9, 23, it refers to denying our cross.

It does not directly refer to his cross, but he says your cross. And then Matthew 11 refers to his yoke. And so I want to talk to you about his yoke, my cross or your cross, and his crown.

His yoke, which is also my yoke. And then in addition, we are to take up our cross daily or we cannot, it says, be his disciple. And we then become heirs, or that's where we're heading.

And the meaning of which carries with it the concept of kingship, of authority, of dominion, of power, of reigning. And allow me to use the symbol of a crown to illustrate this. His yoke, my cross, and his crown.

Let's bow in prayer. Holy Spirit, we ask that this afternoon that these words would be in the flow of what you are speaking to us. And you are speaking to this body.

I pray that you would minister to everyone, everyone in general, but to some in particular. As you are giving us and we're hearing your call to come to you. And Lord, let no one escape that call as we've already been challenged.

And the exhortation to our hearts as we begin this afternoon's session. And as we come down to the midway point of this conference. Let no one escape the convicting power of the Holy Spirit.

Some who are already feeling it and hanging out on the peripheral. And some who escape, are trying to escape, but may be walking the halls or leaving this room. But oh God, search them out wherever they are and bring them to you and to your cross.

Knowing these words we pray in Jesus' name. Amen. The question that I want to address myself is this.

Do we know the relationship between the three symbols that I bring to your attention? To be a joint heir with Christ is first of all to be yoked together with him. And to be yoked is to accept one's very own individual and personal cross. Then and if we wear the yoke and accept our cross.

We will know what it is then to move in the power and authority of sonship. But before examining these symbols, let me set the background to who Jesus was addressing himself to. And in Matthew 11, if you take it into consideration with a parallel in Luke the 10th chapter.

It appears that Jesus was addressing three classes of people. First of all, his very own disciples. And then secondly, the 70 who had just begun their own ministry, their own parachurch ministry.

They had just come back from healing and evangelistic crusades. And they were very high because of what had happened. And then he is speaking to, of course, the multitudes in general who followed him.

And when he said, come unto me all who are weary and heavy laden and I will give you rest. He was referring to national Israel. Who had been laden down with a burden of fulfilling the law and the sacrifices.

Yet without having entered the rest of forgiveness. And the assurance of salvation that he was bringing to them. But a secondary meaning may also be here.

And that Jesus may have been referring also to the weariness of the 70 who had just returned from service and ministry that they had performed. Now I doubt that there's anyone here today who is weary over the burden to find salvation by the works of the law. When it comes to your personal salvation, you realize it's not of works lest any man should boast.

But when we're talking about service and ministry and working the works of God, it is still not our works lest any man should boast that pleases him. And I believe that there is another kind of weariness that's here because I know I've been there. And I've come to conferences like this with the kind of weariness that I'm talking about.

It's the weariness of service, of carrying out the necessary legitimate works of your ministry. Some of you are weary from pastoral duties, from teaching and counseling, from discipling people, from evangelism, from administrative responsibilities and those myriads of other things that are necessary. Therefore the call in these words, come unto me are your words.

It's the call that the Holy Spirit is making to you. You see there is a call that comes from him and there is a call that comes from our ministry. And they're not one and the same necessarily.

There is a call that comes from a pastor to a pastor from his congregation. There is a call that cries out from our converts and from our fellow workers and from the body of Christ at large. The calls and the demands on the ministry, on the minister and Christian worker are often loud and long and persistently agonizing.

And you would not be a good pastor or worker or director or whatever God has called you to if you did not heed those calls. I know that there are in this place, I know some of you that are in this place and I have high respect for you as choice servants of the Lord. And you're known by another symbol.

Jesus used it. It's a towel. And you are servants who have willingly washed the feet of weary disciples and you've done it so much that you've come at this place and you're weary from that.

But what we've been saying and what the Holy Spirit is particularly saying on this occasion and it began with a message this morning is that in the process of all of this, your and my spiritual life can become deteriorated and decayed and denied and perhaps even in a disastrous situation that unless you come to God this day, you may leave from this place and you will burn out in your works. And you find yourself in a situation where you respond more to the call of and for service than for communion with the Lord. And if anybody has a right to speak on this subject, I think I do.

I've got a track record of service that I'm proud of in one sense and I'm ashamed of in another sense. Like Martha, some of you are thus anxious about many things encumbered by the necessary while neglecting the better part of ministry and that part Mary chose sitting at the feet of Jesus in loving fellowship with Him. Turn with me to Matthew the 28th chapter.

We have in this place ministers, workers who have heeded the call to go into all the world and particularly to the world of the subculture. And Jesus in Matthew 28, 18, 19 and 20 gives one of the most important instructions that Jesus gave to His disciples. We call it the Great Commission.

But I want you to note prior to this instruction where He took them when He gave them this Great Commission. Look at verse 16. It says, But when the eleven disciples proceeded, He took them on a journey to Galilee to the mountain which Jesus had designated or where He had first appointed them to the ministry.

To the very spot where He had chosen them as one of the twelve. And why would He do this? Was there significance in the location? I believe there was. It was at the Mount of Appointment where He spent all night in prayer prior to appointing them.

It was there that He gave them power against unclean spirits and to heal all manner of sickness and all manner of diseases. And it was there according to Matthew 11, 1. It was there that He called them to be with Him. Not only to go out from Him, but first of all to be with Him.

And Jesus therefore takes them back. Not just to a geographical location, but to a place of great spiritual importance. They still would not be able to minister unless He was with them in the power of the Holy Spirit and unless they continued in fellowship with Him.

And apparently they realized this. For in verse 17 it says, And when they saw Him, when they saw where they were, and they were reminded of the first anointing, the first call, the first appointment, is that they worshiped Him and they doubted. And I'm so glad that they doubted.

Because you see by now all of the human and fleshly ministerial zeal was being drained out of them. And they had doubt their ability to fulfill the commission being given to them. And listen, when I started in the ministry, I had all kinds of doubts that I'd ever be able to fulfill it.

And then when I got into it, I had no doubt that I could do the whole job. The only problem with my vision in New York City always that it was too big. And they were drained.

And they had a sense of their own inadequacies. And that's what He was trying to bring them back to. When He gave them the greatest announcement and pronouncement and commission that He'd ever given to them, He takes them to a point to realize that.

And so our call to go and to preach and to teach and to baptize and all other aspects of ministry is nothing without a sense of His presence and of our own frailties as we are reminded of our appointment to ministry. And I believe one of the things, Brother Dave said it last night, what the Holy Spirit is doing is bringing you back. Bringing you back to a place of simplicity and trust in Him that you once had and somehow lost sight of it in the midst of all of the performance of your ministry.

If I want to know the power of Christ to reach the nations, I must know Him constantly and personally at a place where I hear the intimacy of His voice and His call to me, come unto me. I remember Brother Bob was saying something this morning. It reminded me of something in my own life where he said he would get involved in visiting the sick and pastoral duties and then he'd come in and could justify spending the time relaxing before television or whatever.

And I remember a time when I was in the same position, but in particular I waited for weeks to see, this was some years ago, weeks and weeks I waited to see the Super Bowl. And wouldn't you know it, wouldn't you know it, as it begins to come on, the Holy Spirit speaks to me and said, would you go aside and just spend some time with me? And you know something, I went. But that was a long time ago.

And I want you also to know that I don't want you to think, and it's been said and I want to add to it, that there's not any one of us who get up here to speak that have escaped from having to go through our own personal repentance. And some of you are here for the first time and it's heavy to you. This is the third time for us.

And each time the Holy Spirit ministers and speaks to us, but it was not just now, it was prior to this. It was because the Holy Spirit began to deal in our hearts. And we had our own personal calls to repentance and it was because of that that out of this grew a desire to have this.

And as the Holy Spirit began to make it sensitive to come back to the place where he first appointed us and anointed us to a ministry of relationship with him. Come unto me is not a one-time call. It is a daily ongoing place of worship and communion with the Lord.

Hebrews 4.9 says something that's interesting to me. You don't have to turn to it. Very quickly I'll read it.

It says, there remains therefore a Sabbath rest for the people of God. Now most of my ministry I was under a bondage to the ministry. In that I thought that you worked for the Lord six days and then went to be with him at the end of my labors for a Sabbath spiritual rest and being revived, refreshed.

But you know something that has happened to me and oh I thank God for it. Now the Sabbath to me is on the first day of the week. I don't mean on the calendar.

But you see we are to work from rest not towards rest. We work from him and in him not just for him. True service flows naturally from my life in Christ and thus it is the work of love.

And there should be, there is and should be no effort to it. No perplexity, no anxiety such as Martha experienced. It is doing what the Lord findeth you to do and doing it readily and without question.

But it can only be performed in communion. Now if you want to know your spiritual condition, test yourself by these words. Come unto me.

Think of all the times that you as I do. Think of the times that you have not come to him. Think of all the works performed for him on one's weekly schedule that we have not come to him about.

Things done by sheer experience or based upon one's past knowledge. Those things that are done mechanically or human even fleshly. How many of you will agree with me that after some years in your ministry you know it so well, you can do it so well, you can do it so professionally, ecclesiastically that you can get by for a while by not even coming to him or at least you think you can.

Or nobody else knows it, nobody else knows it because you're still going on sheer experience. But it is this neglect in coming to him that leads to weariness and heaviness and then to sin. If we are not spiritually focused and centered inwardly, it is because we are too concerned.

We are concerned too much about our external focus. Paul said in Galatians 6.14, God forbid that I should glory save in one thing. Not in his testimony he had a dramatic one.

Not in his gifts he had many. Not in his ministry he had one of the mightiest ones. He gloried not in his converts and yet he had every reason to boast about them.

And some of you, and I speak to my peers now, some of you Teen Challenge workers, you know we used to do this. I don't know if you still do it, but every time we would get together we'd all want to get up and tell what we're doing, doing, doing for the Lord. This project, that project.

And if you're still into that or you still go around and say you've got the best center better than anybody else, well I forgive you for saying that. But God doesn't want us to glory in those things. He said I glory in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ.

And when the center of our focus is external, if it's in our ministry or in our position or in our title and in our works, rather than being internal, it leads to weariness on one hand and pride and self-centeredness on the other. And Paul says the cross is the great equalizer. Apostle Paul was consistent in this.

Others lived and centered their ministry in their ministry. But Paul's good works were the peripheral and simply the natural result of other more important things. He referred to those works as the outer, outer court.

And he lived constantly in the basement while others lived or wanted to live in the heights of Christian gifts and works and service. And yet he did more evangelism and soul winning and teaching and church planting than any other man, but that was not his focus. He said in Philippians, the third chapter, he said although I myself might have confidence even in the flesh, if anyone else had a mind to put confidence in the flesh, he said I for one.

And a few verses later he tells, he says, but whatsoever things were gained to me, those things I have counted lost for the sake of Christ. More than that, more than that, more than what he used to be before he knew the Lord. But he said I count all things to be lost in view of the surpassing value of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord, for whom I have suffered the loss of all things and count them but rubbish in order that I might gain Christ.

In verse 10 he says that I may know him and the power of his resurrection and the fellowship of his suffering being conformed to his death. And so Paul understood the command. He understood the call, come unto me.

Now I want you to note that this call requires a yoke, a cross, and then a crown. Christ said the purpose for which I have called you to come unto me is in order to put your neck in this here gizmo. Take my yoke upon you.

What does he mean? First Corinthians 1.9 says God is faithful through whom you were called into fellowship in a yoke with his son Jesus Christ our Lord. Now the call of Jesus in Matthew 11 is not a casual insignificant call. Let me call your attention to something regarding this.

The words have a much larger meaning than what first meets the eye. This is a transitional call. Christ is calling his disciples away from something and unto something.

The Jews had for centuries been under the heavy burden and yoke of the sacrifices which according to Hebrews 9.9 cannot make the worshiper perfect in conscience. And now the Lamb has been announced. Now they can begin to come to me, come unto him, and enter into a new and living way.

But this is a transition in that individual commitment was introduced in contrast to the corporate call to the nation of Israel that rejected him and a long line of prophets. And when the house of Israel rejected his call as they had done so, Jesus had just ministered in the cities of Chorazin and Bethsaida and Capernaum and they rejected, they would not repent. You'll see it in Matthew 11 and 20.

He began to reproach the cities in which most of his miracles were done because they did not repent. And it's now that Jesus, it says at that time, verse 25, Jesus begins to introduce a new approach and he makes the call to raise up a spiritual Israel out of nations and tongues and tribes and by virtue of those who accepted his personal and individual call. Jeremiah had prophesied in chapter, Jeremiah 34, 33.

He says, but this is the covenant which I will make with the house of Israel after these days, declares the Lord. I will put my law within them and on their hearts I will write it and I will be their people. I will be their God and they shall be my people.

And Matthew 11 is the beginning of the fulfillment of having a people that will be my people. And it begins with this personal and individual commitment to the will and purposes of God. Now please follow me.

We all know that there is a corporate expression of our faith and our worship and our ministry. But there must not be the corporate expression without the personal and individual response come to me. Now in the ministry and in respect to this corporate expression, there are many parts, many things today in the body of Christ that you can identify yourself with.

There is, if we want to use the word camps, there is a faith camp. There is a restoration camp or a unity camp. There's a church growth camp.

And I suppose some people are going to label this a repentance camp. But I believe that all of us really and only want to be in one camp and that's his camp. It says come unto me.

However, many today, especially younger ministers, feel like they should be identified with some camp. They may in fact seek acceptance in their ministry in this camp or another camp. And this is basically brought about by the need for corporate fellowship and the desire to be a part of the body or be a part of somebody or some body.

A pastor told me this. He said, I feel pulled by all kinds of different persuasion in camps today. He said, I see the church down the road from me embrace a certain teaching that blesses people or they like it and they flock there and I wonder is there something wrong with me should I join that camp.

He said, I go to a church growth seminar and I wonder do I get on this bandwagon and grow a larger church so I'll be accepted in the circle of the super pastors. And he confessed to me. He said, I tell you every time I go to the pulpit, he said, there's something in me that wants to be positive that tells me I got to be positive and I select positive music, I preach a positive message and every exhortation I get I am obsessed with trying to be positive.

He said, I know that's wrong. And there is a danger in today's climate of charismatic hype to want to be a part of this corporate or mass movement of the spirit. And while there may be good in many of these movements, one's desire or need for identification with it can be fleshly.

You see, God calls us first individually and personally and vertically. And if you don't know your personal and individual place in God, you can't know your place in the body and you will end up being somebody's clone. Paul said in Ephesians 4.15 that we are to grow up unto him in all things, which is Christ, which is the head, even Christ.

And the next verse what follows says that we are to be fitly joined together in the whole body. But we can't function in the body until we are connected to the head. And a lot of so-called unity that is going on today is a headless unity.

There is also a call for relationship theology, and it can end up with a people in fellowship with one another, but disconnected to the headship of Jesus Christ. Do you know who you are in Christ? I don't just mean in a salvation experience, but I mean in an ongoing relationship experience with him. Have you come to him for personal identification at the cross? Do you have a constant fellowship and submission to his headship? Don't be a clone or a parrot or minister to the herd.

Don't drift into some camp and take up an identity that is not yours by personal possession. And that's the seduction that is going on, and that's why our hearts go out to younger ministers who are up for grabs today with all that comes down the pike, and our hearts are with you and our burden is for you, that you will not fall into it until you have a relationship with him. Hallelujah.

That's the only way you're going to be protected from it all. Don't even go home and preach repentance until you have come into personal repentance. A.W. Tozer was asked why his preaching was so negative.

He said, I just want to turn the herd. Don't be one of the herd. Heed the call, come unto me.

Too many are chasing mass movements before they've come to understand the meaning of the yoke and accepting a personal cross. And the reason that they chase mass movements is because so many people are promising crowns without yokes and crosses. And who wouldn't want to, especially a young Christian that doesn't know any better, a young person, who wouldn't want all the covenant promises without the curses and without paying the price for those covenant blessings? Mass movements often miss God.

That's what we've been saying from this pulpit. Israel in Christ's day saw the miracles and heard his teaching and witnessed signs and wonders, but they still didn't come to him. And what did Christ do when the cities and people rejected him? He did what he always does.

He deals, he finds a people somewhere, hallelujah. And all we're saying to you is, make up your mind you want to be that people that have a heart after God. The situation in the church now is similar.

We've had a charismatic movement, a renewal movement, a so-called born-again movement. The Gallup poll has indicated a church size today, I'm sure, much larger than what is the reality, but large nevertheless. But how many in such a movement, and this is where I begin to come to the heart of what I want to say, how many in such a movement are aware of the full meaning and moving of the Spirit? And we are today historically in the body of Christ, we are in a transition from what has come down the pike in the past to where the Holy Spirit is going.

And it's a time of sifting and sorting and sanctifying of a true and holy remnant. When Jesus found that as a nation, there was no response to His message of repentance, He turned and did what He always does. When the masses are not willing to pay the price of accepting the yoke and taking up a cross in order to wear the crown, He turns and He calls forth a remnant.

God is and has always been a God of the remnant. And by remnant, I don't mean ashfor and no more. I'm not talking about religious snobbery.

I'm not talking about a holier-than-thou attitude. I'm simply saying that whenever or wherever a people fail to fulfill the full and total purposes of God, He does find a people somewhere after His own heart. And when the church as a body fails to move in righteousness and holiness, as well as faith and power, and there's no doubt that the church today is moving or says it's moving in faith and power.

But when a church wants to move only in faith and power and not in righteousness and holiness, God finds a people who will move along two tracks of truth rather than just one. And you pardon me for saying this, but it's right here in my notes, I gotta say it. I see a church and a people wanting to ride a one-track monorail to a charismatic Disney world.

And God wants His church riding an old-fashioned train moving along a dual track of faith and holiness. Hallelujah. Turn with me to Micah, chapter 4. I don't know if the other ministers are gonna get into Micah 4 or not.

And they haven't, so I'll get there first. And it will come about in the last days, Micah 4, that the mountain of the house of the Lord will be established as the chief of the mountains. And Brother Bob ministered this morning, you can cross-reference this with Ezekiel 43 and 12, where it says the entire area on top of that mountain shall be a holy area.

It will be raised above all of the other camps. You see that? It'll be raised above the hills. And the people will stream to it.

And many nations or peoples will come and say, come and let us go up to the mountain of the Lord and to the house of the God of Jacob that He may teach us about His ways, that we may walk in His paths. For from Zion will go forth the law. Now, you wanna know why this is the remnant? Who else but the remnant will go up when they announce, when the call goes out, that this is a meeting, we're gonna preach the law.

I mean, go home and announce a repentance conference and see how many turn out. That He may teach us about His ways, that we may walk in His paths. For from Zion will go forth the law, even the word of the Lord from Jerusalem.

And He will judge between many peoples and render decisions for mighty distant nations. And if I can paraphrase the rest of it, it says they will beat their swords of the Lord into plowshares in order to break up the fallow ground of their own hearts. And they will hammer their spears of spiritual warfare into pruning hooks to lay their own flesh at the altar of burnt offering.

Now, that's what I read when I read that. And I ask you, have you felt His plow sharing? That's a part of what is going on here. If you're feeding on these or whatever, that's the plow trying to break up some fallow ground.

There's a pruning hook that's going out to get a hold of some of your flesh and asking you to come and lay it upon an altar of sacrifice and leave it here and burn it, hallelujah. In verse 4, And each of them will sit under his vine and under his fig tree with no one to make them afraid. And no one to make them afraid.

You won't be afraid of the fear of man anymore when you come to Jesus, you have a word from Him. For the mouth of the Lord of hosts has spoken, though all the peoples, though all the rest of the peoples walk each in the name of his God or his teaching, as for us, we will walk in the name of the Lord, our God, forever and ever. And in that day declare, oh my goodness, this blessed me.

My brother Dave first shared a message, I think I'm breaking out, the breaker's out. He used this, I don't know if he'll preach that message. And it blessed me when it came to this part, it said in that day declares the Lord, I will assemble the lame.

You know who the lame are? There are people who have recognized that there's something wrong with their walk. And they just want to get it right. They just want to get it straight.

And I will assemble the lame, and He'll heal your lameness, hallelujah. And I will gather the outcast, because when you begin to preach what God has in your heart, like the brother last night, you'll become an outcast perhaps. You'll be looking for a congregation to pastor somewhere, another congregation.

But He said, I will, and verse 6, even those whom I have afflicted. I'll never forget last time we were meeting before prayer, and somebody in our group said, boy, there's a lot of distress, there's a lot of turmoil going on in this conference, and a lot of people are feeling the heaviness of the message. And your brother Warnock said, good.

He said, good. And I used to get upset, because I have to do some things on the outside sometimes, and in every conference, there's always a minister or two who walks the halls. They're not in here.

They walk the hall. They go make telephone calls. Or they pretend they do.

I don't know. Maybe some of them are legitimate, some of them aren't. And it got me upset until the Lord showed me something like that.

He said, thank God for it. They're under the conviction of the Holy Spirit. I just hope they don't walk out the door.

I hope they get back in here. They're being afflicted. And He said, I will gather, even those whom I have afflicted, I will make the lame, hallelujah, a remnant and outcast a strong nation, and the Lord will reign over them in Mount Zion from now on and forever.

Hallelujah. Back to Matthew 11. Jesus turns away from the national movement, and He says to His own, come unto me, all ye that labor and heavy laden, and I will give you rest.

And He didn't say this to an inactive people. He said it to evangelists. If you harmonize the Gospels, you will see that it was said, the 70, I believe, were included in that.

And in fact, they were enthused by the fact that even the devils are subject unto us through His name. And He said, don't rejoice in this, that the spirits are subject to you, but rejoice that your name is recorded in heaven. And to these very same workers, He says, come unto me.

Get your head in this yoke with me and learn of me. Because you see, there is always a danger in disciples who are newly endued with power and enjoying the freedom of sins forgiven. And they're going forth to tell the world about this.

There's a danger in it. Is that they go. They go without Isaiah's woe.

And there are several times when, in fact, when Peter made his great confession of faith, Jesus said, don't tell anybody. I mean, He just made one of the greatest declarations of faith. He said, thou art the Christ, the Son of the living God.

And Jesus said, don't tell anybody yet. Because you're not ready yet. You haven't come to the cross yet.

You haven't put your head in my yoke yet. You haven't picked up your own daily cross. And Jesus understood it in such a people, the first stirrings and movements in the spirit is manifested in enthusiastic service.

They want to save everyone and heal everyone and cast out everything. And so He says to them, He said, now hold on just a moment. There is something else that you're not considering and this is not, we're not preaching it.

We used to, I was raged like this. He said, you're not hearing all my teaching. He said, come unto me and I'll give you rest.

And they all say, oh, I'm for that. And okay, that's all right, I'm for rest. And then He says, take my yoke upon you and learn of me.

A yoke? What do you mean a yoke? Bless God, I'm free. I'm bound to no man. A yoke sounds legalistic.

That sounds like bondage. It sounds like quenching the spirit. It sounds like legalism.

And by the way, I don't have time to get into this, but there is a new legalism today. The new legalism is it's anti-tradition. It's the casual look.

It's the overhead projector. It's all anti-traditional things that become legalism. It's a new legalism.

It's anti-legalism. It's just another form, but that's another message. But have you ever seen anybody wear a miniature yoke around their neck? Jesus is talking about putting one's head in it.

And unless charismatic power and faith and freedom and zeal and service and all the gifts and callings of God are brought into subjection to Christ, the church will become arrogant and proud and rebellious and a bunch of undisciplined, unruly sons saying, give me the inheritance that belongs to me. And we have a church today between the parlor and the pigpen, and I'll tell you about that later. But all of our zeal and energy and vision for God, all the charismatic gifts, all of our plans and programs and projects must be channeled and submitted under His yoke for it to effectively glorify God.

This yoke is His will, and as long as you and I are yoked with Him, His will is going to be accomplished. And when He pulls, all you have to do is follow. When He stands still, all you have to do is stand still.

And this way we have fellowship in service, communion in service, submission in service, repentance in service. You will be a co-worker. This is what it means to be a joint heir with Jesus Christ.

And I just wish one of the kingdom preachers or the ones who preach such a tremendous message about our covenant blessings would just tell you the truth, what it means to be a joint heir with Jesus Christ. It's to get your head in the yoke. Hallelujah.

To be a joint heir with Christ, it just doesn't mean power. It means restraint. It means power under authority.

And no wonder Jesus said, when you get in the yoke, you'll find rest. When you're yoked to Him, He helps shoulder the load. And you don't have to move unless He moves.

Hallelujah. That's why His yoke is easy and His burden is light. Glory to God.

And I don't know why it took me so long in my ministry to learn to move from rest and move from the yoke. Hallelujah. It takes a great burden off of you.

Glory to God. Now the second symbol, and let me go very quickly. One we teach so little about is taking up our cross.

Turn to Luke the ninth chapter, if you will. To those who are called unto Him, He promised a yoke. To those who would follow Him, He says they must take up a cross daily.

But again, I would have you note the context in which Jesus said this. Again, it's after Peter's great confession. You know, Jesus has said to them, Who do men say that I am? What do the multitude say that I am? In verse 18.

But who do you say that I am? Verse 20, And Peter answered and said, The Christ of God. And right after this great confession, Jesus immediately interjects these words in verse 22. He said, The Son of Man must suffer and be rejected by the elders and chief priests and scribes and be killed and be raised up on the third day.

And then He goes on. And He goes from talking about His cross to their cross. Taking up their very own cross.

And Peter reacts again in the parallel. Scripture says, Peter said, I had a hard enough time with the yoke and now a cross. God forbid it.

Lord, this will never happen to you. Because if it happens to you, He knew it was going to happen to Him. And what Peter was saying is what they're saying today.

Why interject doom and gloom and suffering and judgment? We're moving along. You know what? I read the mail that comes in. You know why people are mad at Brother Dave's writings and whatever? He's messing up their revival.

He's messing up their revival. Peter was saying, We're moving along so well in this new revival. My goodness, you told us you're giving us the keys to revival.

He said, You gave us. You said we're going to have the keys to victory and power. And to enable us to evangelize the world.

No, not a cross. You see, disciples never change, do they? They don't like to hear about crosses before crowns. They don't like to hear about suffering and self-sacrifice and self-renunciation right in the middle of great confessions of faith.

Six times in the Gospels, Jesus tells His followers that they must take up a cross. And as the yoke symbolizes fellowship and communion and service, the cross symbolizes suffering and self-denial and crucifixion of self. And some of the favorite words among many of today's popular teachers and preachers and writers are these words, winning, success, prosperity, dominion, and possession.

And note how many Christian books have that theme in it. For example, there's even a book entitled Winning Through Prayer. Would you believe winning through prayer? Another one says the double win.

I don't know what that is. The double win. There's another new one out I just saw.

It says, Reaching Your Real Potential Through Prayer. You see, everything that's taught about inheritance is all self-serving. And the trouble with some of this triumphant theology is that there is no cross in it.

I refer to our cross as much as His cross. It completely avoids the cross of self-denial and suffering and being crucified to one's selfish desires. The condition in the church reminds me, when I was a kid, we used to play baseball.

And there wasn't enough of us, and so we had to use little kids, real little kids. And so we gave them an advantage. When we played and hit the ball, we had to run the first, second, third, and then home.

When they played, all they had to do was to run the third base and home. And how easy it is to win when you don't have to touch all the bases. And we have a people who want to run from third base to home again, avoiding touching all of the bases of biblical truth.

And self-denial is at the heart of true religion. It's the very birth pangs of spiritual joy. My goodness, what's the first? I was preaching the other day, and God suddenly just gave me a picture.

It wasn't visualization. It was just an illustration of what the people who I was talking to, I got a picture of a baby just being born, and the doctor didn't spank it. And we have a people who are being born, and they're not being spanked.

And because it's a spank, it produces a cry. And when there's no cry of repentance, there's no life, and you have a stillborn birth into the kingdom of God. We can't win the world until Christ wins our hearts.

We will not know true success as disciples until the Holy Spirit has dominion over our hearts. And there is no conversion until we are converted from our own self-will. There are no real crowns without crosses, and without the cross of Christ coming up against our selfish wills, and it winning, hallelujah, it winning.

Let me go quickly to my final point. I'm skipping a little bit. I've got to conclude.

Finally, I take you to the crown. Romans 8, If children, then heirs, heirs of God, and joint heirs with Christ. If so be that we suffer with him, we may be also glorified together.

I'm so glad that God does want to take his people into their inheritance. We are a royal priesthood. We are kings and priests unto God.

We're destined for the throne. We need a people in a church that lives in Ephesians chapter 1, having a spirit of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of him. Verse 18, if you want to turn to it, it says that the eyes of our understanding be enlightened so that we may know what is the hope of his calling and what are the riches of the glory of his inheritance in the saints and what is the surpassing greatness of his power towards us who believe.

These are in accordance with the working of the strength of his might. And in Romans 8, Paul depicts the same thing in terms of our sonship. And he points out that there is a connection between assurance of sonship and freedom in the spirit.

When the Holy Spirit bears witness with our spirit that we are children of God, then we know that we're heirs of God and joint heirs with Christ. In other words, the life and power of God that we see in Christ are to be our inheritance by the Holy Spirit and in the Holy Spirit. Everything that the Father gives to the incarnate Son, he also has begun to give through him to many adopted children.

Or to put it another way, for God to be our Father means that he becomes active in the spirit to bring us into possession of the inheritance he has prepared for us in Christ. And this is where and why we have dominion to pray for the sick that they might be healed. This is why we have this exceeding greatness of his power to minister to the needs of people.

And yet, we must understand that crowns come by way of a yoke. But we don't stop with the yoke. It comes also by way of the cross, but we don't stop at the cross, our cross.

We have to move on. He wants to be glorified in us. This is his divine program.

But there is a great deal of difference between being an heir and actually coming into possession of it. We are called to be good soldiers of Jesus Christ. But just as in the United States armed services, all men and women are soldiers from day one.

But not all wear the crowns or bars of achievement. It depends on how many yokes they bore and how many crosses they carried daily. All persons in schools of learning are students.

But there are first-grade students and there are postgraduate students. And God says that we are destined to be joint heirs with him. We are to reign with him according to Ephesians in wisdom, righteousness, and power.

But I don't believe that he shares his postgraduate power with rebellious sons. He says the crown is available if we suffer with him. Our crucifixion qualifies us with capacities that make it possible for us to reign with him.

But we've got to touch all of the bases. To go Christ's way is to be conformed to his likeness. And this means reaching glory through suffering and participation in his cross.

And when Jesus says, come unto me and follow me, he was and is saying that we in our way have to come where he was in his way. And Brother Bob said it this morning and it's to the point of Gethsemane where he prayed the prayer that he prayed was not answered and has to be converted into a prayer of accepting his father's yoke. And in the process of accepting father's will, there is the silence of heaven.

The son has to obey in self-sacrifice with no obvious success. In fact, it appears his mission and ministry is a failure. And even after the resurrection, he appears in resurrection power to his disciples.

And what do they do after they have seen him? They go fishing. They go fishing. You see, to be a joint heir with Jesus Christ is to travel a road and pay a price.

One should sit down and count its cost before making loud pronouncements about being a king's kid. Or the other language we hear about reigning with Christ. I want to know and I want to move in the wisdom and revelation and power of the Holy Spirit.

I want to move in his inheritance, hallelujah. But I have no illusions of a path that leads me to such a crown and I hope you don't either. Go with me and I close with this to Luke chapter 15.

Because I see a church today between the parlor and the pigpen. Luke chapter 15, the story of the prodigal. Show me a group or a teaching offering crowns without crosses and I'll show you a prodigal ministry living between parlor and pigpen.

The cry of a prodigal Christian and ministry is this. Give me the inheritance in Christ that belongs to me. And with that inheritance they go outside father's house and consume the blessing on their own lust.

And this leads to spiritual famine. And wherever you find such prodigals, they are functioning between parlor and pigpen, between father's house and disaster. Or worse, they're at the point of eating with a swine.

And if there is a heart of a prodigal inside you, then get it out at this conference and do what he did. He repented. And what did he say when he returned home? He was willing to do and to be what he refused in the first place.

He said, make me one of your hired servants. Father, give me the yoke. Give me the cross.

Now I'm ready to accept father's discipline, father's will, and father's yoke. And his repentance leads to life. Hallelujah.

The father outfitted him with a robe of righteousness. He placed a ring of betrothal on his finger. He issued him sandals, giving him now the privilege of service.

Hallelujah. He can go in and out of father's house with the sandals, with his feet shod, with the preparation of the gospel of peace, because now his priorities are in the right place. And then he ate the calf of blessing.

And so take your pick. It's the calf, eating the fatted calf. It's either steak or pig's food.

And that's the position the prodigal was in. You see, the food we eat is determined by the menu that we eat from. God help us to accept his yoke.

My cross. Let's stand together. Hallelujah.

Hallelujah. Glory to God. Lord, we pray today that this would just be another of the line upon line and precept upon precept that you are bringing forth in this conference.

And you're trying to free us, Lord. Oh God, I pray for my brothers and my sisters who have been living off of their ministry because they have not come to you. They've not been coming to you.

Oh God, let this be a coming unto you in this conference. Oh Lord, break. Hallelujah.

Break, Lord, every heart that is in rebellion. Oh God, we know that the flesh would rather do anything than to come to you. We'd rather do anything.

We'd rather serve. We'd rather do anything than come to you. But oh God, break that.

Break that, that we might come to you. Accept your yoke and that cross that you have for us so that we might know the true inheritance that is ours in Jesus' name. And we thank you.

And we thank you.