Speaker 1: 0:19

So we are. You are a whole person. You know that. I think that sometimes we need to be reminded of it. You are body, soul and mind.

Speaker 1: 0:33

I think oftentimes in church, you know, the main thing we hear is like soul, soul, soul, soul, and rightfully so. It's eternal. It's a good thing. God cares about your soul, but not as often do we talk about the body and hardly ever in a lot of churches actually do we talk about your mind. But I want to talk about the body and the mind today and how it relates to your spiritual and physical health, and I want you to know that God cares about your mind and the health of it.

Speaker 1: 1:07

In fact, jesus would say it this way in Matthew, chapter 2, verse 27. He said love the Lord, your God, with all of your heart and with all of your soul. And we would expect that God with all of your heart and with all of your soul, and we would expect that we would expect him to say that. But then he says this and with all of your mind. And if we find ourselves where our mind is struggling or it is unhealthy, it can be really difficult to fully love God or feel God's love in what he has for us because of the unhealth of our mind. I imagine every one of us is dealing with some sort of stress right now, literally every day. It comes from literally every area of our life and stress, I'll tell you right now, it can be a good stress at times. It doesn't always have to be a bad stress. I had some stress that I've experienced that was good stress. I'll show you actually this video from 23 years ago. Check this out.

Speaker 2: 2:02

Let's have a look at the first item up for bids today A delightful new swimming pool, Bob, I'm going to say $1,100. $1,100? And an actual retail price $2,200. A hand-painted jewelry armoire? I'm going to go with $950, Bob, $950. Actual retail price $759. Stylish new luggage.

Speaker 1: 2:52

I'm going to have to say $420. $420.

Speaker 2: 2:56

Actual retail price $1,360. Parents of the United States Marine Corps has joined us to bid on this. A new washer and dryer $1,150, bob $1,150. Actual retail price $910. Winner new karaoke system $11.50, bob $11.50. Actual retail price $9.10. Winner new karaoke system $350, bob $350. Actual retail price $8.19. You win, jerry. That's an enchanting collection of sand sculptures. I'm going to say $500, bob, $500, even Aaron. Actual retail price 515.

Speaker 1: 3:51

I was ready to fight somebody. I mean, it's just, stress can be good, it's stressful. That was. I was up there the whole time it was. I got a Hoover wind tunnel vacuum as a consolation prize and some couch cover. So it can be good, but also you can experience really traumatic express. Some of you guys have experienced one of those things. I go camping the same spot for 23 years in a row and I've seen hundreds of bears, bears like this. This is the first picture in 23 years ever taken of a bear. I saw them on Father's Day this year and everyone always gives me a hard time. They're like you see bears all the time and you don't ever take a picture or video. And all of a sudden it clicked in my head oh yeah, people want to see this. So I took a picture and then I thought they want to see a video. So I peeked around the corner. I was like, let me get some cool video of this bear so you can check out this cool video.

Speaker 2: 4:59

Hey Help Help Help Help Help. Hey help Joe Joe help me Help. Hey, help Joe Joe, help me Help Help. Hey, no.

Speaker 1: 5:35

Y'all are sick. What are you laughing at? You guys are like it's the best, listen to like a little child screaming like a baby for help. Like you guys are messed up. I have the chills right now Like that's yeah, that's called acute anxiety. That is a stressful, traumatic situation. It ended up lasting actually another hour and a half. It didn't end well for one of us. Unfortunately that's for another day. So, yeah, there's stress that can be bad. Actually, let me actually define stress for you, because today we're talking about stress and burnout.

Speaker 1: 6:05

Stress is a state of a mental or emotional strain or tension resulting from adverse or very demanding circumstances. Like adverse or demanding circumstances could include, but aren't limited to, things like you just might be under pressure right now, facing big challenges. You might be feeling a lack of control in a situation or shouldering heavy responsibility or feeling uncertain about your future. It might be because you're facing multiple issues actually at the same time or feeling the effects of past experiences on present ones or lacking the resources or support you're looking for. It might be triggered by illness or injury, parenting, infertility, bereavement, abuse, marriage, divorce, relationships or caregiving. You might have actually lost your job or be employed long-term or looking to retire, feeling the pressure of deadlines or exams that you're taking, work strife it could be a new job you might be moving, you might be dealing with difficult neighbors or family dynamics that have been broken, or worrying about money or drowning in debt. Did I find it? I mean, there's a hundred other things right, and not all stress is bad. Some stress is really good, you know, like the last moments of that sports game that we're watching, stress ebbs and it flows, and some stress is situational, it's unexpected or it's untimely. Some stress is seasonal. We know when that's going to happen. Some stress is a certain time of the day or a time of the week or a certain time of the year. It rises and it falls, depending on the season or depending on what you do for a living or, again, your family dynamics.

Speaker 1: 8:02

And I think part of adulting, if you will, is understanding and developing a certain amount of resilience, responsibility, fortitude and a kind of grit to navigate the stresses of life. And if you don't, if you can't figure that out, when life gets challenging, oftentimes what happens is we can fold. When life gets challenging, then you avoid, you blame, you numb to the stresses that just then kind of naturally arise and actually growing into a responsible adult is really a process of leaning into stresses that come and developing sure feet and a thick skin around some of those things. See, we even see stresses all throughout the biblical narrative in the Bible. Stress is not abnormal and we shouldn't expect that we can avoid it. But the issue is here's the main deal that we can avoid it. But the issue is here's the main deal.

Speaker 1: 9:02

The issue is whether or not we're managing it in a healthy way, and if we aren't, it can lead to something that's even more debilitating than stress, and that is burnout, burnout. Burnout happens over time, when we're under a lot of stress and we're not dealing with this in healthy ways. Let me show you the difference between the two really quick comparing. Stress is over-engagement, over-engagement. Burnout is suddenly where we're disengaging. Stress shows itself in overactive emotions. You know everything that's taken place. Burnout exposes itself when suddenly we have blunted emotions.

Speaker 1: 9:40

Stress is urgency or just living in a season of hyperactivity. All the time. Burnout shows itself in helplessness and hopelessness. Stress is a loss of energy. Burnout is a loss of motivation and hope. Stress is anxiety issues. Burnout is detachment and depression.

Speaker 1: 10:03

Stress can cause physical damage. Some of you may have heard, people literally have strokes or heart attacks from stress. Burnout is emotional damage. Stress, as I just mentioned, can be life-threatening. Burnout can cause you to think that life isn't worth living anymore, and sometimes we are so driven with our purpose and our passion that we allow these massive amounts of stress into our life. But if we aren't coming from a position of well-being, then we can't stop it from sending us in a tailspin and ultimately we can end up in a ditch. And some of you right now are relating to what I'm saying, maybe relating to what I'm saying a little more than you want, because you might fit some of this description. You're burned out right now and I want you to know that that does not mean you're done, and I want you to know that that does not mean you're done. I want you to know that there is hope and there is help, and God can help you. Let me also define, then, burnout. For you, burnout is a debilitating condition that erodes energy, optimism and effectiveness, and the prevalence of burnout is far greater than the willingness to talk about or to deal with it.

Speaker 1: 11:23

Burnout actually develops in these six different stages. Think of it like a train that you're on and it makes stops along the way to kind of expose what's going on and where it's ultimately headed. The first stage is this emotional exhaustion, emotional exhaustion. Are you finding yourself emotionally exhausted? Stage two is an increased frequency or a duration of negative assessment, that inner critic that's got a really loud voice that is doing this negative assessment for you. The third stage is a loss of emotional stability for you. The third stage is a loss of emotional stability, personal discipline and resiliency when you found that suddenly you don't have the discipline you had or the resiliency to deal with things that are normal and expected for you in your day-to-day or your month-to-month.

Speaker 1: 12:10

Stage four is really scary. Stage four is actually isolation. This is where some of the biggest damage takes place. Stage five is diminished work effectiveness. It's just you can't get the things done that you used to be able to get done. And finally, stage six is identity impairment and confusion.

Speaker 1: 12:28

I don't know who I am anymore. I don't know why I'm here anymore. I don't know what my purpose is. I am lost and confused and, as you know, I am not a doctor or a therapist although we've been running by all of these messages that we're doing by a doctor and a therapist, but I do know Scripture and I get to study Scripture and I want to tell you there are plenty of examples of the very thing that is happening to people, this very thing that's happening to people all throughout Scripture. I actually want to use one of those examples today for us there are as many throughout the Old Testament and the New Testament and maybe we can understand how to spot the signs of burnout and how to then manage stress so we don't end up in a ditch.

Speaker 1: 13:12

The example, the main example, I'm going to use today is from the Old Testament. It's from a prophet named Elijah Isaiah. Excuse me, elijah was someone that God called to deliver his message to this evil king named Ahab and his even more evil wife named Jezebel, and he wasn't a guy that delivered good news and certainly wasn't appreciated by anyone. He lived every day in fear for his life, god. We don't hear a lot about kind of the early season of Elijah, but we know that God called him and really any prophet that there was had kind of a hard job because it was delivering news to people that God wasn't pleased and he was going to bring some sort of judgment to them because they weren't caring about righteousness and justice, which that's what God's about. And so this was his way of saying, hey, this is going to happen now if you don't change what you're doing. And so he would bring that bad news about God's judgment and then have to face whatever response they would have.

Speaker 1: 14:08

And so his first assignment here was to declare a drought that was going to take place in a famine that would take place for years. That's stress. Then, because of this, he had to escape and leave the country. Stress he had to totally depend on God. Now some of us and we say too in the church world like, oh yeah, when I'm out of control and depending on God, it's the best place I've ever been and it can be Right, right, right, it sounds really good. But you know too, I know you too, you're like I would much rather be in control of this circumstance and never have gotten there. So stress. Then, when the water actually did dry up, he had to go live then with a Gentile. Now, for a Jewish man, this was a huge deal, tons of stress. He didn't help the widow who was starving, along with her son, her only son. God actually gave him the message to give to her of like, hey, you need to make your last bit of food for me because I need to eat. That's a stressful situation. Ultimately, then son ends up dying, brings him back to life Story for another day.

Speaker 1: 15:05

Stress Then, ahab. King Ahab now has been on the hunt for them. Ahab had sent people everywhere to find him and to kill him. In 1 Kings 18.10, it says as surely as the Lord, god lives, there is not a nation or kingdom where my master this is talking about Ahab someone's delivering this message to Elijah, where Ahab has not sent someone to look for you. And whenever a nation or kingdom claimed that you were not there, he made them swear that they could not find you. Stress, three years of that, like you're in America's most wanted Well, israel's most wanted right With posters everywhere. And then, after three years, we read about how he comes back and challenges Ahab to a duel.

Speaker 1: 15:53

Like a real duel, like a wah, wah, wah wah wah, like a good one right here and people show up for it. So Elisha challenges Ahab and Jezebel's prophets of the idol Baal there's 450 of them and they go up on this mount where people thought that Baal lived, because up in the mountains is where they walked around in this thunderous so Mount Carmel. He goes up there and he challenges them to a duel and they're going to build their altar to Baal and he's going to build an altar to the monotheistic one, true creator of the world, the universe, god. And what's going to happen is in this duel they're going to both call down fire to burn this stuff up, and Elijah lets these 450 prophets go first. And what you have is this scene where they're up there, they're dancing, they're screaming, they're like tearing up their clothes, they're cutting themselves, calling down this fake God down to call on fire and burn up this altar. And what Elijah does it's really funny if you read this. He literally starts mocking them. He's like maybe you guys should yell louder, he can't hear you. Then I'm not kidding, I mean this is in scripture. Then he goes. Maybe they're relieving themselves and they don't have time to come right now and answer your stuff. I mean like he's literally just sitting there poking at him right and nothing happens. So now it's Elijah's turn, and then what he does is crazy. He asks for their most precious commodity at the time, which is water. They go down and bring up water and he builds a trough around the altar, fills it up with water and then douses everything the wood and everything, just to make it even more extravagant. And he calls on the Lord, and the Lord sends down fire and burns up and consumes everything. Like this huge ta-da moment. The entire nation is here to watch this duel. Then Elijah tells people to execute the false prophets and they do. We will reconcile that later. That's for another day.

Speaker 1: 17:49

Like why that all went down, but they're still memorializing this moment that was so huge. Here's a statue from a trip went on a couple years ago to Israel. He got to teach from the top of this mount and after they did this, after they had this moment, the clouds began to appear and it started to rain after three years. Like what an incredible moment. Like he worked really hard, went through all of this stress for that thing to finally take place. Like what a win for God, what a win for Elijah. Like the project went through. You got the deal. Like all of that thing, all that stress, it's finally paid off. Look at this moment. Not so much for Elijah.

Speaker 1: 18:31

It says in 1 Kings, chapter 19,. It says Now Ahab told Jezebel everything Elijah had done and how he had killed all the prophets with a sword. So Jezebel sent a messenger to Elijah to say may the gods deal with me, be it ever so severely. If by this time tomorrow I do not make your life like that of one of them, I'm going to kill you, whatever it takes. Elijah was afraid and he ran for his life. When he came to Beersheba in Judea, he left his servant there, while he himself went a day's journey into the wilderness. He came to a broom. Bush sat down under it and prayed that he might die. I have had enough, lord. He said, take my life, I am no better than my ancestors. And then he lay down under the bush and fell asleep.

Speaker 1: 19:27

Elijah is burnt out. He is emotionally exhausted. I find it really interesting that after such a high moment like you finally got there, you finally did it he's finding himself completely spent and undone because all of that stress that hasn't been dealt with has added up to burnout. He has an increased frequency and duration of negative self-assessment I'm no better than my ancestors. He has a loss of emotional stability and resiliency. I have had enough stability and resiliency. I have had enough. I'm done. Lord, take me. He feels totally isolated. And just a few verses later he replied I have been very zealous for the Lord, god Almighty. The Israelites have rejected your covenant and torn down your altars and put your prophets to death with the sword. I'm the only one left and now they're trying to kill me too. He feels totally isolated. He feels like he's no longer effective. He has identity impairment and confusion. He asked God to take his life. He is messed up.

Speaker 1: 20:38

So what does God do to help Elijah with his burnout? I think that this is like the most practical stuff that we can miss. Oftentimes we just kind of slide by some of the practical ways and the tools that God gives us in stories like this and stories in the New Testament. So let me go through some really practical and tactical tools that can actually help us when it comes to dealing with stress in a healthy way to avoid burnout. First, he takes care of him physically. He provides food, water and he lets him sleep. So simple, so practical Food, water and sleep, it says. Then he laid down under the bush and fell asleep. It says dealing with burnout.

Speaker 1: 21:45

This is where you should look first. If you're dealing with a lot of stress in unhealthy ways, this is what you should evaluate first. Are you eating right? It's actually that important. It's so simple, it's so practical. This is the way God created us. This is what he's showing us. Are you eating right? Are you getting enough sleep? Really, are you getting enough sleep? What kind of proactive things can you do to actually modify your behavior and workload to make that happen? And if your excuse in your head right now your voice back to me is like I don't actually have time for that, that's a lie. You actually you're in control of your time. You're actually in control of what you put in your mouth and eat. You're in control of many of the decisions you make. As long as you're not giving power to everyone else that's making those decisions, what things are you proactively doing to change or modify that behavior and workload to make that happen? The second thing is he reminded him about the big picture. God reminded Elijah about the big picture. God reminded Elijah about the big picture when stress and burnout show up.

Speaker 1: 22:46

It can actually really cause us to drift and forget priorities in the main things and suddenly the not main things become the main things. That urgent can overpower the important and we give all that we have to the next thing and the next thing and then actually have nothing left for the important things. You know, we live in those quadrants, those boxes. You have the urgent, then you have the importance, and then you have the need to do and then you have like the want to do, like that would be nice, and when you're in an unhealthy place of stress that can lead to burnout. It's because you are living in the urgent box all of the time and you're finding I never have time for the things that are actually important to me or the things that give me life. Right. And this is not really again a lie that we've been told Like everything's an emergency, everything's now Everything's. That's just not true. If we were just to stand back and evaluate, there's rarely ever an emergency like a real emergency, like really urgent, like we know the things that are coming up. We were just unprepared for it. Like you knew they were going to turn off the power 30 days ago. It didn't just happen a couple hours ago, right. But when we're living in the urgent box, everything is now. I need this now. It needs to get done now. It should have been done yesterday and we can live in that place where we can find ourselves very unhealthy very quickly and God has to remind us our priorities. So we have time for the important things and the need to things and the I should things.

Speaker 1: 24:12

I liken it to when I was young. I remember being at a park and there was a house on fire next to me and I was like freaking out, like oh my gosh, the house is on fire. People had called 911. And it felt like it took forever for the fire department to show up and when they showed up, it was like they were on a coffee break. I remember this really specifically. They kind of got out and they were like, oh yeah, that thing's on fire. And then they like walked over and like let's put some clothes on. They're like, hey, what do you want to do? Paper fire? Like get garden hoses out, why aren't you running in there and knocking it down? And it was because they were actually being really methodical and calm in the midst of an emergency which actually got to take care of it quicker than if they just went in there like, whoa, let's take care of this right, that's the urgent box. You can't think through things like you should. I had a. It was like an epiphany for me. Maybe this will be really helpful for you.

Speaker 1: 25:03

I have a friend who was a paramedic and I was telling him one day. I was like, oh man, I jacked my knee up and he was like, oh, what happened? And I was like, oh, it was at Costco and I was putting away my stuff up in Fairfield. I was putting away my stuff in the back of the street. There'd been a wreck and I'm like, oh my gosh. So I threw my stuff down and, like nobody's around, I started running over there. Well, I'm an athlete and sometimes you get injured and so, like I hit something sideways and all of a sudden, like I'm like almost to it. I'm like, oh gosh, what did I just do to my knee? Like, oh, I jacked my knee up trying to do that. And he's like why were you running? And I was like because you know there was an emergency. It was like a crash. And he's like that wasn't your emergency and I was like what do you mean? Not my emergency, he's like you know, because like you responded like that. You actually were incapable of helping. Like you could have helped if you walked over there like a calm human being and assess the situation, helped, and I was like crazy, urgent box, right.

Speaker 1: 26:00

The third thing is God told Elijah to find a partner, a person, a ministry partner for him. He was under the false assumption that he was completely alone, he was completely no-transcript and could do it alone, and that just wasn't true. Isolation actually took his resiliency and accountability and God reminded him that he wasn't alone. In fact, he tells him he's like there's actually 7,000 other of you just like you that have never been to need to fall in and you need to have a constant companion. You were never meant to do life alone. In fact, it's in isolation that Satan gets to us, that he gets way too much of a voice that becomes louder than a whisper and becomes a shout to us. And Elijah was burnt out, but he didn't stay that way. He didn't stay that way even though he had this incredibly dark time and out of all of the great examples of Scripture, he was one of the few that finished well. Now, not all of them. Everyone that we see finishes well.

Speaker 1: 27:08

So how do you make your story something like that? Because the fact is we know this you're going to deal with stress. There's literally no avoiding it, but to prevent burnout, the best thing you can do is to catch it early. Remember the first stage emotional exhaustion. You might be feeling a loss in vitality, feeling emotionally overextended and having prolonged stress. Those of you who are responsible for the wellness of others are actually at greater risk. Honestly, you might feel responsible for specific outcomes without full control of the inputs. You might have inadequate boundaries for self-care in overriding personal needs to actually serve others, and so it is so, so important that you stay replenished.

Speaker 1: 28:07

This is an area your replenishment is an area that you actually have control over. You have control over this. You can do something about this, and I love how practical God is. We actually see this with Jesus in the New Testament. We see him do the same thing with the disciples After his disciples were under so much stress. They had gone and they had been like giving themselves fully and pouring themselves out for others, and then come back and they were just exhausted, and Jesus scoops them up and takes them away and retreat. And what do we see him do? Feeds him food, gives him food, gives him water, gives him solitude to replenish and have rest. And so I wanna give you one of the most practical tools that I think maybe we've ever given you here to help maybe you avoid burnout and combat the stresses of life. This is called a replenishment cycle, so this is practical and tactical, like all the way down to it.

Speaker 1: 29:09

So how this works is who are you at your best? Like when you're your best self, what does that look like? And this little guy I'm going to use right here is called PISE. It stands for all of the areas of your life. P is personal, that's you like your body. I is intellectual right, e is emotional and S is going to be spiritual. This really is you whole. Your whole self represents all areas. So, when your whole self and in these quadrants are at their best, what does that look like and what does it take for you to get there? And you need to be super specific in clarifying about this. So let me show you just a little bit of mine.

Speaker 1: 29:50

So, for me personally, like my body when it's at its best there's two things you don't need to do a ton. Make it simple for yourself to win. There's two things. The first thing is five times a week I need to work out and then you would say for how long or what are you doing? 30 minutes, really specific. If I'm working out five times a week for 30 minutes, my body's in a much better place. The other thing for me is five times a week I need to be doing less than 1,500 calories a day. I have plenty of calories to use, so everyone they should own whatever works for them. But that basically means for me hey, I'm eating pretty well, like I'm taking care of myself, I'm aware of what I'm putting into myself. So then we have intellectual Like what is the intellectual thing for you?

Speaker 1: 30:41

So for me, 30 minutes, seven days a week. I need to read something that's engaging my brain. I need to read something, I need to learn something, I need to discover something. Some of you maybe it's a podcast, or studying a material, or making or creating something. You know with your hands. It can be your thing. The other thing that I need to do is, once a month, I need to have a lunch or two hours with a mentor or an intellect. A mentor or an intellect. What do I mean like that? So for me, I understand what I mean is because I need to have a conversation or a lunch with somebody that's going to challenge me. That's not going to just friend me in that moment, it's going to teach me something. Honestly, when I meet people that have like a vernacular that's a bit out of my reach, that really makes my brain go. That's a really healthy place to challenge me, really makes my brain go. That's a really healthy place to challenge me and help me learn something and understand something. It makes my brain work. That's where, intellectually, I'm at my best.

Speaker 1: 31:47

Emotionally. For me, once a week I need to have a date night with my wife. This is imperative for my emotional health. When my person's good, I'm good. When I'm good, my person's good, kind of deal. It doesn't have to be a date night out for us. It can be a date night in. It can just be quality time. It's not a business meeting about family stuff, it's just the us stuff, it's just my person. Like I'm being refreshed and refilled by my person emotionally, who's just there for me and wants to hold my hand or sit there and talk or, you know, stare at each other. I don't know. You can pick your thing, whatever works for you.

Speaker 1: 32:22

The other thing that I need to do is, once a week, emotionally, I need to have a date night or family night with the family, with my kids, so I can hear what's going on, so I can laugh. I mean, that's one of my main things is, I love to laugh with my kids and I will laugh uncontrollably just to make them laugh. It's a fun thing, like we do. But that's really important emotionally to know everything is well and at its best when I'm dealing with the stresses of life. So then, spiritually, what's that thing for me? So, 30 minutes seven times a week, so that's every day. For 30 minutes, I need to have solitude, I need to just have silence where I can just listen and not talk, where it's like do you have anything for me, god? I'm just going to sit here in my own space and try to quiet all the other voices and see if I can hear yours. Maybe you have a word for me today, maybe you don't. Sometimes it happens, sometimes it doesn't, sometimes it's just a great time of just quiet self-reflection. 30 minutes every day. And you're like how do you find 30 minutes every day. You can do it. You find moments and times when everything's just quiet.

Speaker 1: 33:25

The other thing for me is I need to spend 30 minutes seven times a week studying something new. So for me, I literally can ruminate on a verse or an idea for months and just discovering what does that mean? What does this mean to me? How can I apply this here? Just 30 minutes where I can study something new. That's maybe different than what I'm going through with everyone else. That's a plan, right? So this is really simple. This is me, this isn't you. This is an example.

Speaker 1: 33:54

You get to take this template and be like okay, if this is me at my best and replenished, what does that look like? So then what I have to do is either weekly or monthly. You can choose what's good for you. I got to go through and I got to evaluate this stuff, so I would go through and I would be like all right, am I working out 30 minutes five days a week? I'll be honest with you guys right now, while we're doing this, I'm doing about three.

Speaker 1: 34:16

So for me, that would be yellow. I would make that yellow and be like okay, it's yellow. Then I would ask the question is it yellow up, down or flat? And so for me this is actually yellow up and that means that it's not where I want it to be. But I actually have a plan because this next week I'm going to start like a little diet thing that I'm doing. I got some accountability with it and I'm going to be hitting my watch rings and doing that stuff.

Speaker 1: 34:42

So I have a plan. It could be flat if I'm just it's yellow. I'm not doing it, but I don't have a plan. Or it could be down because it's like it's yellow. I really don't have a plan and I got vacation coming up, so we're going to get real bad. I'm going to be yellow man. I'm going to expose myself. I'm yellow right here. That's like a three days, but it's up for me. Like I said, I got a plan. Then I go over to let's see reading yeah, doing that one, that one's green. I'm green right here. I'm hitting on my people. This is great Summertime, our family thrives in this. So I'm green right here. I'm getting solitude, which is great. Everyone's leaving me alone, and then I'm getting to study some stuff.

Speaker 1: 35:30

So then once you do that, you kind of identify and you're like oh, there's like your gas gauge, right. And then you take the whole thing and let's say for you it ends up being right here. But you look at the whole thing. You're like where am I at After you look at all your colors, be honest with yourself. And for some of you that are experiencing burnout, you're like, golly, that thing is red. Red means you're going to be dead. That's where that's going. This is burnout, right. And so that's like that's like beyond the tire pressure thing on your dashboard. That's like check the engine pressure thing on your dashboard. That's like check the engine, like this thing's going to shut down and this is the gas to get you where you're trying to go and to deal with your regular stuff.

Speaker 1: 36:06

So you want to evaluate that whole thing and look at it when it's yellow, be like, okay, what are some simple tweaks that I can do? And get out of the urgent box and work on the important box so you can actually be around and healthy for the people you love and the important things that you've been asked to do with purpose. So we're actually gonna throw some of this stuff up online. I don't know if I'm gonna give you all you know. I'm letting you read my life right now. This is great. But you can do this. I encourage you to use these really practical tools. I mean, this is biblical stuff. This is biblical stuff. This is body, mind, soul, spirit, like it's the whole thing right here and that's who you're made up of, that's who you are.

Speaker 1: 36:44

And Elijah he was out of whack, like there was great things that was going on. He actually produced things, he did things that we were asked of him and things happened. And then he responds to God after this big moment happened and he was so faithful by like feeling a little sorry for himself. And then he says this. He says, god, I've been so zealous for you. Like translation is God, I've been putting in 50 plus hours a week. God, I've been working overtime for you. I'm the only one left. It feels like I'm the only one who's been faithful and now people are trying to kill me.

Speaker 1: 37:26

Like what is this? Here's what God said to him Go out and stand on the mountain in the presence of the Lord, for the Lord is about to pass by. Then a great and powerful wind tore the mountains apart and shattered the rocks before the Lord, but the Lord was not in the wind. After the wind, there was an earthquake, but the Lord was not in the earthquake. After the earthquake came a fire, but the Lord was not in, was in, and when Elijah heard it, he pulled his cloak over his face and he went out and stood at the mouth of the cave. Here's what that means Most of the time, when we're burned out, we're looking for some massive move of God.

Speaker 1: 38:21

We're looking for the wind, we're looking for the earthquake, we're looking for the fire, and it's not that God can't or won't move in those ways, but most of the time, friends, he speaks in a whisper, in a gentle whisper, whisper, and he says I'm not asking for you to find me on some mountain or vacation or beach somewhere and waiting till then. I'll just deal with it. Then there's rest, there's refreshment, there's rejuvenation. I'm asking to meet with you in your living room or on your porch, your back porch, in a daily rhythm of your daily life, in a gentle whisper, in the words of Jesus of Nazareth are you tired, worn out, burned out? Come to me, get away with me and you will recover your life. I will show you how to take 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 too heavy or ill-fitting on you. Keep company with me and you will learn to, and lightly so. Friends, may we have ears to hear. There is hope because he loves us and there is help because he loves us.

Speaker 1: 40:13

Would you pray with me, father? Thank you for your practical hope and practical help. Would you give us the courage to actually engage with that today, in this very week? God, would you just give us the freedom to invest into ourself and be replenished through you so you can work through us? Would you give us permission to let those things go and to find appropriate rhythms of rest? Thank you for your scripture. Thank you for the Holy Spirit that's in this place right now. That's going to move. Would you do what you do? We love you. We are so thankful for the gift of your son, jesus and the Holy Spirit at this time to move in us. In your name, we pray Amen. Would you all stand as we respond to worship, as we respond to worship. I can't go back to the beginning.