Are you experiencing burdens in your life, maybe it is a health or financial burden? Cast your cares daily upon the burden bearer and load lifter, our Lord and Savior.

<p>Are you experiencing burdens in your life, maybe it is a health or financial burden? Cast your cares daily upon the burden bearer and load lifter, our Lord and Savior.</p>

<p>Free sharing permitted under the Creative Commons <a rel="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/3.0/us/">BY-NC-ND 3.0 (US)</a> license.</p>

HopeLives365

Mark Finley

Jesus: Burden Bearer, Load Lifter, Life Changer

My topic today is Jesus, burden bearer, load lifter, and life changer.

Father, as we open your word, we do pray that we would personally experience Jesus as our burden bearer.

We come to church today, many of us carrying burdens.

Some of those burdens are for our children.

Some of those burdens are for our marriages.

Some of those burdens are for our health.

Some of us have lost loved ones and there's a pain in our heart.

We pray today that we would encounter Christ and in this presentation we would find hope.

For 70 years, atheistic communism claimed that Christianity was mere wish fulfillment.

Communist philosophers argued that Christianity was a crutch totally unnecessary in a sophisticated modern society.

And so when representatives of the University of Moscow approached me during our Kremlin evangelistic series and wanted to study the changes that were taking place in people's lives that were coming to the meetings, I was thrilled.

Because I knew that Moscow University's sociology department was an objective think tank largely composed of atheists and unbelievers.

And that if we could quantify changes that were taking place in people's lives that were coming to our meetings, that this would have a ripple effect throughout the Soviet Union, that it would have a powerful effect.

He was the principal researcher, the deputy director for public opinion research center at the faculty of sociology in Moscow.

He was also a guest lecturer at Yale University.

And so he and his capable assistant Tatyana agreed that they would do a sophisticated scientific study on the people coming to our meetings to see if there was any changes.

Tatiana had come to our meetings at Pahana University about a year before.

And there were changes that were taking place in Tatiana's life, and she believed that there were changes that were taking place in other people's lives as well.

He approached the survey and the study believing that there might be some change, but the change would not be very remarkable and it certainly could not be measurable.

We met 3 times before the survey was taken.

We agreed that in the six-week series, the survey would be taken someplace after 4 weeks.

We also felt that we needed between a thousand and 1500 completed surveys if we were going to have objective data.

Now the survey consisted of 37 different scientific questions that would evaluate people and their study of the Bible, what impact it had on their life, it would evaluate their emotions, it would evaluate their family relationships, etc.

Our sample group consisted of 1169 people that actually filled out Moscow University's Sociological Survey.

Gasparelli, he said the results were astounding.

He said, I expected some change but not the change I actually found.

92.4% of all the people coming to our meetings actually were reading the Bible.

96% of those people were actually studying the Bible.

Now what impact did this have on their lifestyle?

What impact did this have on their thinking processes?

Negative emotions like fear, worry, anxiety, depression, can you believe it, were reduced tenfold.

They were 200% less likely to smoke if they were coming to our meetings.

They were 300 percent less likely to drink alcohol.

65 percent of the people coming to the meetings, though they came from an atheistic background, in 4 weeks, 65% of them said they had more positive family relationships.

40% of them said that their efficiency at work had improved.

In short, people attending the meetings and studying the Bible and had come to Christ had a more positive outlook on life, they discovered a clearer sense of purpose and they had a deeper sense of inner peace according to the University of Moscow that was composed of atheistic unbelievers who were taking the study.

Now when the attendees at the meeting understood that they were created by God, that they had purpose in their life, when they accepted Christ and they were free from the guilt of their past, when they felt that Jesus was their Lord and Savior, there were transformations that were taking place in their life.

The sociology department at the University of Moscow was absolutely amazed.

We were not surprised at that because we had read what the Apostle Paul says, take your Bible and turn to 2 Corinthians chapter 5 verse 17.

2 Corinthians chapter 5 verse 17 becomes the basis for our Bible study this morning.

And I'm praying that God will touch some heart.

I'm Praying that our burdens would be lifted, that Jesus, the load lifter, would lift your load.

I'm praying this morning that we would experience a life-changing experience.

Therefore, 2 Corinthians 5, 17, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation.

King James Version says a new creature, better translation is he's a new creation.

Old things have passed away, behold all things have become new.

So that text leads us to ask 4 questions.

Question number 1, What does it mean to be in Christ?

Question number 2, how do we become a new creation?

Question number 3, what are the old things that pass away?

Question number 4, What does the new life consist of?

Now to understand these questions, it's necessary to understand Paul's statement in the light of the church at Corinth.

What was Paul meaning when he said to the Corinthians, if any man is in Christ, any woman in Christ, they are a new creation?

Old things are passed away, all things are become new.

Understanding the background of Corinth helps us to understand the real power of the Apostle Paul's words.

Now Corinth is located about 50 miles west of Athens, Greece.

It's situated on about a 4 and a half mile isthmus.

So picture Greece kind of like this and Athens would be up here and here's this isthmus, about 50 miles from Athens, a little bit northwest.

Now there was a saying in the ancient world, this series of little isthmuses or islands are called the Polypenesis.

And there was a saying that if you sailed as a sailor around the bottom of the Polypenesis, around the bottom of this isthmus where Corinth was located, you better write out your will ahead of time because the storms were so bad, the weather was so catastrophic, that it would be likely that you would never come back.

Sailors would dock their boats here, and on a very small paved narrow way, their boats would be pulled across by an ingenious series of pulleys so they would not have to sail around the bottom of the Papinesus.

They could be pulled across, get into fairer weather, have some protection by the land, and sail this way.

So Corinth became a port city for transient merchant men who would travel to that city.

It was a bustling city, it was an active city, it was an extremely wealthy city because they received the tariffs from all of the cargo that went there.

By its wealth, luxury, trade, population, Corinth well merited the title, the Paris of Iniquity.

Now, there's another aspect of Corinth that you should understand.

If we're going to really understand this text, if any man is in Christ, he's a new creation.

We have to understand the background of Corinth.

Now it was 1 of the wonders of the ancient world.

Aphrodite was the Greek goddess that was associated with love, beauty, passion, pleasure, and procreation.

There were a thousand pagan priestesses that served as escorts in immorality to the thousands of visitors that came to Corinth for the shipping trade.

Their payments were made to the temple at Corinth and it made Corinth a wealthy city.

These temple ladies were supported by foreigners and their proceeds of their vice, the city received this steady income that was taken in to the city's treasury.

Chamberlain puts it this way, if the gospel could triumph in Corinth, it can win under any circumstances.

So if the gospel can triumph in Corinth, if it can make a difference in that godless, sex-centered, thrill-jaded, morally twisted generation in that city.

If Corinthians could be changed by the grace of Christ, the gospel can make a difference anywhere.

So Corinth, in a sense, was a test case for the power of the gospel.

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Jesus: Burden Bearer, Load Lifter, Life Changer

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