Filling Your Empty Tank

Good morning! Good morning! Good to have you here. Grab your message notes, would you, that look like this fuel is the name of the series that we started last weekend on Mother's Day. And as you're taking out those notes from the bulletins that were handed to you as you came in, a few years ago I told some of you the amazing story of this man, Francis Gary Powers, the famous spy pilot. He piloted the U-2 spy plane over Russia when it was shot down. And he survived that crash from near outer space altitudes, plus hard time in a Soviet prison.

After he was released he went on to pilot a series of the world's most dangerous experimental aircraft. What a survivor. But sadly he lost his life years later in another crash. He was piloting a simple traffic helicopter for a Los Angeles radio station. And it went down and he was killed. And you know why that plane crashed? One reason. He ran out of gas. After surviving all these experimental aircraft, after surviving a Soviet prison, he ran out of gas. And what a lesson for you and me. You could be the most skilled person at your job. You could be the most talented, even the nicest person on the planet, but you could crash and burn if you just run out of gas.

And if you believe the research, most of us here in America are running on fumes. A recent poll found that most Americans feel a desperate need to "slow down." A management newsletter that I was reading said eight of ten American workers are headed for major collapse. That is a stunning statistic. Richard Swenson, the author of the best-selling book Margin, says that in America we've added the equivalent of one month of extra work per year since 1969. And I just saw another survey that said the average U.S. mom spends 11 hours per week just driving her kids around. And that's just average. And it all drains the tank.

And so today what we're going to do is we're going to look at what God has to say about filling your empty tank. And we're not just going to look at what God has to say about filling your empty tank. We're actually going to fill the tank. We're actually going to spend some time after the message just relaxing in God's grace and letting Him fill you if you feel like your tank is empty today. Because running on empty is not a new issue. There are many examples of people who felt just like this in Scripture. One of them is in our text today, 1 Kings 19.

Let me set up the story for you. In 1 Kings 18, the chapter before this, Elijah experiences this great miracle from God that is seen one of the story. They had a God contest up on a place called Mount Carmel. And the whole nation of Israel turned back to God. A once in a lifetime miracle for Elijah. An emotional high fire comes from heaven and consumes this altar he has set up. He begs God, prove to the people that you really exist. And literally fire comes from the sky and consumes the altar and the people turn back to God.

Scene 2. The next chapter, Jezebel, the wicked queen, puts out a death threat on Elijah. And just a day or two after this amazing miracle, Elijah has what you and I would call today a nervous breakdown. And look at the way it's described in 1 Kings 19 verse 1. Elijah was afraid and fled for his life. He went to Beersheba, a town in Judah. Now stop there for just a second. If you're not careful, these town names can just be like, and he was in blah, blah, blah, and he went to blah, blah, blah, town and blah, blah, blah. And it doesn't make any sense and you skip all over it, right?

Just come back from Israel, you may have heard. We were just there with a group from the church. These things take on some new meaning because we were on Mount Carmel and it's in the north part of Israel. It gets the cool breezes from the ocean and the precipitation from the ocean. It is actually pretty lush. It's pretty thickly wooded. It's a nice place, Mount Carmel, where this story starts. But it says he goes down to Beersheba, a town in Judah. Beersheba is dry and dusty and hot in the Negev desert. These are the ruins there. Most times of the year, it is in the 90s and in the hundreds. This is a place like, well, I won't say it out loud, but you can insert your own Central Valley City joke right here, okay? So that you get the emails, not me.

And it says, it says he left his servant there is the next phrase. This is a classic sign of depression. You isolate. If you know the story of Elijah, you know that his servant was so faithful to him, more like a friend than a servant. But Elijah leaves him for really no good reason. And then it says he goes on, what? Alone? Where? Into the wilderness. Now the wilderness there would have been the Negev desert. Here's a picture of it, very barren. Look at that. Very lonely. If you're depressed, is this gonna perk up your spirits? I don't think so. It's fascinating that he goes there. And it gets worse. It says there, he sat down under a solitary broom tree and prayed that he might die.

It's a solitary broom tree. Broom trees are intriguingly what is known as fire replacement species. That means they're a kind of tree that kinda has as its ecological niche, its specialty to spring up on parched ground. It's when there's been a fire over a big area and the land is literally burned out. That is where you will find broom trees flourishing. So there is a picture being painted here in this verse by the author of First Kings. This is a really great picture of both a literal and psychological landscape of burnout. I mean Elijah is depressed and then he makes choices that make him feel even worse. He prays that he might die and basically he's not giving God any say in the matter because he's going to a part of the world where he is going to die if there is not some intervention.

And this is typical running on fumes, self-destructive behavior. You isolate, you wander away, you leave friends behind, you start a cycle of self-loathing, self-destructive patterns of behavior. And you know what? I love that this story is in the Bible. I love that it doesn't end with the end of First Kings 18. And there was a great triumph and God did a miracle and next great story. Let's go on to the next miracle. I love that the author includes Elijah's nervous breakdown. In fact, I can be honest with you, I relate to this chapter way more than the previous one because this shows Elijah was just like me and just like you. And it's in the Bible so that you and I can see how God responds when we feel like this.

Because I do sometimes. Now you may not need this message today, but you may someday. And I will guarantee you that there is somebody you know that is running on empty right now and needs this message. This is one of those messages that you hold on to so that when you go through the dark days or a friend does, you can pull out the outline or you just get real familiar with the story. In Second Kings 19 you remember where it is in the Bible and then you can read what God said to do. So let's look from this story at some signs that you are running on fumes. And these are all adapted from an excellent article called "Avoiding Personal Burnout" by Rick Warren where he, this famous pastor, talks about his own burnout as a pastor.

Four things in Elijah's story. Number one, I depreciate my worth. This is a sign that you're running on empty. I put myself down mentally. You know we don't have a gauge on our souls that goes from F to E, do we? But this is one of the signs. This is one of the gauges. When it starts to be this little tape going on in my mind that says over and over, "I'm a nobody. My life doesn't matter. I'm insignificant." That's a sign. Your fuel gauge is running on E. First Kings 19. "I've had enough, Lord," Elijah said. "Take my life from no better than my ancestors who have already died." He's comparing himself to his ancestors saying, "I am no better than those guys." Now jot this down. This reveals one cause of burnout. Comparing. Comparing.

He's comparing himself with his ancestors. If you're like me, what you tend to do is compare your life with the accomplishments of other people and think, "Man, I am not doing enough." Ever do that? Then once you start comparing, you begin to criticize yourself. In fact, show of hands, how many of you would say, "I am my own worst critic." How many of you would say that? "Me too." You start to say to yourself things like this, "I must. I should. I have to. I ought to. I've got to." You start with comparing. You move to criticizing. Then you go to feeling guilty about all the work you haven't gotten done compared to all these other people. In fact, you ever have so much to do on your to-do list that there is no way possible you're going to get it all done yet when you don't get it all done, you feel guilty because you didn't get it all done yet. It was physically impossible to get it all done. You are setting yourself up for burnout.

Now Elijah compared himself with his ancestors, but maybe you compare yourself with somebody else here at church. Or you compare yourself with one of your own brothers or sisters. Or you compare yourself to somebody else at work or somebody else in your line of work and you go, "How come I didn't? I'm not accomplishing as much as them? How come I'm not like..." Listen, you're a different person. Comparing is always a dead end. And then there's a second sign here that I'm fatigued. I'm running on empty and it's this, "I underrate my work." I underrate my work. Ever do this? First Kings 19, 19, Elijah replied, "I have zealously served the Lord God Almighty, but the people of Israel have broken their covenant with you, torn down your altars and killed every one of your prophets." In other words, I have worked so hard and for what? Nothing changes. Ever said that?

But you know what? Here in this case, it wasn't true. In fact, the opposite was happening. They had just in fact turned back to God. They had just torn down the altars to Baal. Now a few people like the queen were not repentant, but Elijah was focused on that and then he blamed himself for something that was out of his control, which was the response of the queen. This is the second major cause of burnout controlling, trying to control everything. And I call this the Atlas Syndrome. When you're acting like the whole world rests on your shoulders. Can you relate to this picture of Atlas? Right? You ever feel like this? Like everything is my response. I have to do everything. But we've talked about this many times. There are a lot of things in your life that are just out of your control, right? Most things. You never will be able to control them.

Like you are responsible as a parent to your family, right? But you're not responsible for every choice your family members make. I've seen parents who look like this. I mean, you can't see the world. You can't see the chains, but this is literally their physical posture because they have unrealistic expectations and unrealistic guilt. They think, "I should be doing better as a parent. There's so much to do. My kids turn out wrong or make any wrong choices. It's my fault because I wasn't good enough." And that's not true. We underrate our work, the good we have done, because we're trying to control all the outcomes. And related to this, number three, I exaggerate my problems, right? I exaggerate my problems. I get focused on the negative rather than the positive. I see the cup is half empty, not half full. But if you do this, you are setting yourself up for burnout.

Look at Elijah, verse 10. "I'm the only one left." And now they're trying to kill me. Can you hear the pity party he's having in this verse? God, I'm the only person in the whole world who loves you. Only one. One. And it's me. He's so drained, right? He can't focus on reality. Have you ever been that tired? So worn out that you can't think straight and you get the chicken little complex. The sky is falling. All the wheels are coming off of everything. It's a disaster. And you're just in a bad mood. That's the only thing that's happening, right? The cause here is emotional reasoning. Emotional reasoning is when you listen to your feelings rather than facts.

In fact, God tells Elijah a little bit later on in this chapter, "All along there were seven thousand true believers who never did bow down to an idol." Seven thousand. He wasn't the only one by a long shot. But emotional reasoning goes like this. "I feel it, therefore it must be true." But have you learned that feelings lie? Just because you feel something doesn't mean it's the truth. I'll tell you a story about me after Lori and I had dated for four years. Four years. And I had proposed and then broken off our engagement twice. I know. We actually went to see a marriage counselor and we weren't even married yet. We were kind of ahead of the curve in this area. But I had some serious issues with understanding love. And the biggest lesson I learned from that marriage counselor was that I had bought so much into the, you know, "Sha-la-la-la-la-la-la-kiss-de-girl" Hollywood image of what love was all about, those feelings, nothing more than feelings, that I was reasoning with my emotions.

I was over-analyzing every little ebb and flow of my emotions. We'd go out to a restaurant and I'd go, "Why don't I feel the same elation that I felt when we went to this restaurant the first time? What is wrong with me?" You know? Way over it. And it was ruining this amazing relationship. And when I think of what I could have lost, it's unbelievable how childish I was being. But our counselor said, "René, emotions are awesome, but love is a decision. Love is a choice. Love is a commitment you make." And that commitment, listen, that commitment enables you to sail through the ups and downs of the tides of your emotions. And that just collect with me. And you say, "All right, thanks for sharing, René. What's this have to do with me?" Here's what.

Some of you came to church today saying, "Why don't I feel like God is very close to me? Why sometimes I come to church and I feel like He's there, sometimes He's not. Why sometimes I sing a church on Sunday morning, I sing a song and I feel so close to God, then on Monday morning I wonder where is God? I don't feel that anymore." He's in the same place He was when He sang that song on Sunday. He's with you. He's always with you. He hasn't backed off. He hasn't moved. It's only your emotions that have changed. Beware of emotional reasoning. Emotional reasoning, something I've got to battle in my own life, but it's part of burnout. And then the most damaging consequence of burnout is the fourth one, "I abdicate my dreams." You forfeit your future. You forget your goals. You basically just want to give up.

Notice what Elijah did. He prayed that he might die. "I've had enough, Lord," he said, "take my life." The cause of this is pain, deep pain. I don't know about you, but it really hit me hard when I heard that Junior Seyal took his own life a couple of weeks ago. If you're not a football fan, Junior Seyal was an amazing football star who played for the San Diego Chargers, but he was in such pain. And I'm not excusing him here, and I'm not judging him either, but there was a great article in the Honolulu Star Register that was written by a football player who knew Junior Seyal, who played in the NFL. I found it online. And he had a lot of insight, actually, of this very articulate article. He said Junior was in so much pain, and he said, "I see this in a lot of ex-players." Not just physical pain, he said, not just physical pain from all the injuries and concussions, but actually emotional pain, because his whole identity had been built on being a star football player.

And if he had to retire from that, he was aimless. He felt adrift. He felt purposeless. He felt like his life had no meaning, and that's the worst kind of pain. That's an insightful article. And some of you may be at that point this morning. What do you do when you hit that point and burn out? What do you do when you say, "I don't think I can handle one more day of pain or this kind of rejection"? What do you do when you feel like Elijah? Well, keep reading, because what you do is the four things that God leads Elijah through. On page two, I'm going to look in the second half of this message at four ways to refuel, four ways that God takes care of Elijah.

And I want you to look at this. This is not really kind of a to-do list as much as it is a let God minister to you in these four ways list, because these are always that God lavishes his grace on Elijah. God doesn't go, "Elijah, get back to work. Do these things." Watch how he just shows grace to Elijah when Elijah feels this way. Number one is I need to rest my body. Rest my body. And then he, Elijah, laid down and slept under the broom tree. Now look at this very carefully, because I'm going to ask you some questions about this. But as he was sleeping, an angel touched him and told him, "Get up and get back to work. Get up and get over it." No, what does he say? Get up and what? What was that? Get up and what? Say it again?

I love this verse. This is my life verse right here. It says, "He looked around and there beside his head was some bread baked on hot stones and a jar of water." Yeah, and you got to know that's got to be the most delicious bread and delicious water like ever. And so Elijah eats and drinks and realized what a whiner he had been. No, he what? Say that again? Laid down again, and then the angel of the Lord came again and touched him and said, "Now get up and stop being such a baby." No, he touched him and said, "Get up and what?" Say it again? Eat some more. Are you hearing this? God's first step to getting over burnout, first step, he says, "Elijah, step number one, sleep and eat." Step number two, sleep and eat. Are you getting this?

I love this about God. God didn't say, "Elijah, remember what happened two days ago? Get rid of that bad mood. Come on. You're bringing everybody down." You know? No, because God understands your body better than you do. Look at this great verse in Psalm 127:2. I want you to read this verse out loud so it kind of sinks in. Let's read this together. God wants his loved ones to get their proper rest. You know what? Sometimes, listen, the most spiritual thing you can do sometimes is sleep. And as I look out on this church right now, some of you are being extremely spiritual right now. That's all I have to say. No. Now, maybe you're thinking to yourself, "Ah, wimps rest." Right? "Powerful people. Power through these kinds of feelings." Well, here's some great powerful people.

Vince Lombardi, famous football coach, said, "Fatigue makes cowards of us all." And this was an explanation of why he was such a big proponent of rest and days off for his players years before other coaches did that sort of thing. What about Walt Disney? Nobody could ever accuse him of underachieving. Yet did you know that he took a nap every afternoon? A practice he started only after he had a serious nervous breakdown in the late 1930s. What about Picasso? He was famous for taking naps in the middle of painting. He'd be painting and go, "Wow, I'm a little fatigued." And he would just take a nap right then, seriously. And then he would wake up and keep painting. Winston Churchill took a nap every day during World War II. He said, "This is how he got all his energy." And how about Jesus? You ever realize that the Gospels describe Jesus taking naps? Because they do. He took a nap in a boat. When the wind and the waves were blowing all around him, he's still, he's in the bow while all the disciples are freaking out.

And how does this apply to you? Look at Mark 6:31–32. I don't think this is in your notes, so jot down this reference. Mark 6:31–32. And Jesus said to them, his disciples. Check this out. Come aside by yourselves to a deserted place and rest awhile. For there were many coming and going, and they did not even have time to eat. Does that last sentence sound like your life? Well, maybe Jesus Christ is saying to you, his disciple today, come aside by yourself to a deserted place and rest awhile. Have you ever found this, sometimes one good night's sleep changes your whole perspective? Ever found that? One good night's sleep. Your whole perspective has changed.

A guy named Daniel Jocelyn wrote a book called Why Be Tired? And he has a great quote, "Rest is repair." This is a great quote for workaholics who feel like, "I can't rest, I'm not doing something. You are doing something. Rest is repair." That's when you're asleep is when the little fix-it guys in your body come out and do their job. Not speaking scientifically, of course, but that's the truth. Never make a major decision when you're tired. It will almost always be wrong. Wait until you've gotten that good night's sleep. Now I call this rest my body. I probably ought to call it restore my body because I don't want you to get the wrong idea. You have to sleep and eat, but exercise is a big part of this.

I think the only reason God doesn't tell Elijah to exercise is because if you read the text, Elijah's basically a distance runner, whether miraculously or just by natural inclination. Elijah's described a couple of times as running several miles. At one point he runs a 14-mile trek running the whole way. So apparently this guy's getting enough exercise. But are you? Caitlin Volk, who is our venue service producer, sent me an email the other day. She just finished her master's degree in psychology and it was an email about all kinds of recent research showing that exercise is as beneficial to patients suffering from depression as other kinds of therapy. It doesn't mean it can replace other kinds of therapy, but it's as beneficial. When you get out, in fact, these articles say even exercising one time shows benefits, let alone exercising several times.

So make sure you get your proper exercise and rest and proper diet as well. A cool jar of water right there, a blessing to my soul. Now before we move on to point two, I want to address something here. Some of you may be tempted right now to think, "I cannot wait till René moves on to some meat," right? This is lightweight stuff. All this stuff about resting. This is all kind of like touchy-feely felt-need stuff. Let's get back to expository Bible teaching. Okay, Father's Day, we're going to start an expository series in 1 Peter so you can relax. You'll enjoy that. But this is not lightweight stuff. This is meat. You know why? If you're not doing this, then you're short-circuiting your ability to do God's will in your life. That's how foundational this is. That's how important this is.

There was a famous pastor in the 1800s in America named Robert Moraine McShane. He was from Scotland. He was a Presbyterian pastor. And he was famous as a circuit writer. He would write around on the weekends, he would preach as many as 18 different services in different churches. And everybody was like, "That's amazing and impressive." Since he wore his body out, he died in his 40s. And he knew that it was his fault because he wore his body out. In fact, he had a famous quote. He said, listen to this, "God gave me a horse and a message to deliver. I have killed the horse, and so I can no longer deliver the message." Don't kill the horse. Make sure you are taking care of your body physically. You're a physical being so that you can do the great things, the wonderful purpose that God has planned for you. This is not something lightweight.

More on this in a second. But the next thing God leads Elijah through is this. I need to release my frustrations. Release my frustrations. You know what they say? Any area of your life that you can't talk about is out of control. Any area of your life that you can't talk about is out of control. And so the second step in filling your empty tank is just to say, God, this is the way I feel. Look at Elijah, verse 9. "There he came to a cave where he spent the night. But the Lord said to him, 'What are you doing here, Elijah?' And Elijah replied, 'Well, I have zealously served the Lord Almighty.' And then he just unloads in the next verse, 'I've been a good person following your plan for my life, but now I'm all alone. I'm frustrated. I'm depressed, and I'm getting no results, and this stinks.' And then God asks him again a couple of verses later, and Elijah vents again in exactly the same way, word for word. 'I'm depressed, and I'm all alone, and I'm frustrated, and getting no results, and this stinks.'

Which shows you one thing. He's been rehearsing this in his mind over and over because he repeats it verbatim a second time. But God already knew all this. So why did God ask Elijah not to get informed, but for Elijah to get unburdened? And that shows us that this is okay. Have you ever wondered why some of the Psalms got into the Holy Bible? Because some of those Psalms are pretty vindictive. Have you ever decided, like some year in your life, I'm going to read through the Psalms as my personal devotional time. Just ask, 'Lord, may this come true in my life?' And you have this great spiritual idea, then you get to some of the imprecatory Psalms. And in some of them, David's saying things literally like, 'God, I hate my enemies. They're talking about me behind my back. I know they are. I want to see them dead. Once you kill them, I want to pull out their teeth.' That's in the Bible.

Why is that in the Bible? And you say, 'God, may this come true in my life? How do I apply this in my life?' Here's how. God allowed those Psalms in so you could know it's okay to tell God all your feelings, no holds barred. He allowed those Psalms in, not that it was okay for David to go out and do that stuff, but it was okay for David to release those emotions to God. Listen, there is no emotion you could express to God that's going to make him stop loving you. You can come to God as his beloved child, and you could say, 'God, I feel unloved, even by you. God, I know you say not to worry, but frankly, I'm so worried right now.' God, sometimes I wonder if you even exist. God, I feel so sexually frustrated right now. God, I can't stand this. Sometimes I feel like I just want to take my life. There is literally nothing you could say that would shock God to the point where he would go, 'What? How could somebody who calls himself a Christian feel like that?' He's not going to be blown away by anything. You can talk to God about it. Release your frustrations.

Look at 1 Peter 5:7. In fact, let's read this out loud together. Let me hear you. 'Cast all your cares on him because he cares for you.' Remember that picture of Atlas? God doesn't want you to feel burdened. That's not how God wants you to be. That's a picture of God. He's the one who's bearing the cares of the world, the weight of the world. This verse is talking about Jesus. Pour out your heart to Jesus and find a good friend, maybe your spouse. Tell them what's going on. They're not mind readers, but you know what? I bet they want to help you. You don't have to go on for volumes. You could probably, like Elijah, put it into a neat little paragraph or two and say, 'This is what's happening right now.' Tell them how you feel and they can help you.

The number three, refocus on God. Get a fresh awareness of God's power and presence in your life. Refocus on God. Look at what God tells Elijah to do. This is a classic passage of scripture. Verse 11, 'Go out and stand before me on the mountain, the Lord told him.' And watch this, 'As Elijah stood there, the Lord passed by and a mighty windstorm hit the mountain. It was such a terrible blast that the rocks were torn loose, but the Lord was not in the wind. After the wind there was an earthquake, but the Lord was not in the earthquake. And after the earthquake there was a fire, but the Lord was not in the fire. And after the fire there was the sound of a gentle whisper. And when Elijah heard it, he wrapped his face in his cloak and he went out and stood at the entrance of the cave."

Now what is going on here? The Bible actually doesn't explain this. But here's what I think. What has just happened in the previous chapter? God worked through fire and through wind. And I can imagine the earth even shaking a little bit on that altar up on Mount Carmel. Elijah has just seen God work literally through fire from heaven. And I think God is saying, "Don't just look for me in the big thunder moments." "I sent fire from heaven, but most of the time I speak in a whisper." I'll be honest with you, I love the big fire from heaven moments when I think to myself, "Man, that was a God thing." Those are the times I think back in the history of this church, just, you know, I think back last fall we raised over a million pounds of food for the hungry, something I think no other church has ever done. It was a miracle. I can't believe it still to this day. Fire from heaven moment.

Our beach baptism where we had over a hundred people baptized right on the beach and people saved that same day and it was awesome. A fire from heaven moment. And you know what? I want a fire from heaven moment every day. But God is saying, "I don't bring fire from heaven every day. Most of the time I speak in a gentle whisper, a whisper so small you have to stop and hear through the wind, through the earthquake, through the fire to hear me speak." You say, "How can I apply this practically?" God's whisper is all around you. And your ears are tuned to it. Listen, they're tuned to it when you spend time in the Word of God and when you live soaked in God's Word, you can hear his whisper in baby gurgles, in bird songs, in rustling leaves and friends' laughter, and ocean surf, and so many more ways. And he's whispering, "I love you." And he's whispering, "I will never leave you." And he's whispering, "Come home to me." But you have to be still and listen for the whisper.

And here's why. Because the root of all burnout really is idolatry. It's idolatry when you think about it. I get so busy that I forget to listen to the whisper. I forget God's power. I forget God's presence in every day. And I become so self-focused even in my Christian walk that really I'm following an idol. I'm acting like I have to make it all work that if there's going to be results, it's all up to me. And soon I'm giving my life, I'm sacrificing my soul, my breath, not for God, but for a counterfeit God. Here's a book I've been reading lately, Timothy Keller's book, Counterfeit God. I really recommend this. It's really great. It talks about all the counterfeit gods that exist in American society today, even in Christian American circles. It's a short book. It's a quick read, big print, my kind of book, right? Only flat spot is no pictures. But otherwise it's a great book.

But he says something about burnout in one of the latter chapters of this book. He says, "If you," listen, "If you are overworking, driving yourself into the ground with frantic activity, ask yourself, 'Do I feel that I must have this thing to be fulfilled and significant?' Has something or someone besides Jesus the Christ taken title to your hearts functional trust, preoccupation, service, and delight? To whom or what do you look for life-sustaining stability and security and acceptance? What would really make you happy?" These questions and questions like them tease out whether we're serving God or idols. And I think God is saying here to Elijah, "My man, ironically, you were fighting idolatry and then you made your own success your idol." Because what would have made Elijah happy is to have a hundred percent success and no more opposition and it was idolatry.

God's saying, "Look, what I gave you as a task was to spread the message. The success or failure of that, that is not up to you." So you've got to change your focus from self to God. Maybe you say, "Well, how does changing my focus on God going to help me with my burnout?" Listen, because then you're, listen, you're focused on God's power, not your weakness. You're focused on God's grace, not your failure. You're focused on God's unconditional love, not your critics. So change your focus to God. This is the root of it all. You repent and you turn back to God and you listen for the whisper.

I'll tell you something that happened to me this week. Thursday I decided to actually practice what I am preaching. I know it's a shock, but sometimes I try to do that. And I went to the Monterey Bay Aquarium for a spiritual tank refill all afternoon on Thursday. Have you ever done this? I just sat in front of these huge tanks and I had my Bible on my iPhone, a rediverse, and then just look at God's creation. Enjoyed watching the fish, both large and small. Very refreshing. These were God's masterpieces. And I even took a behind the scenes tour, which was super fun. And somebody asked the question of our tour guide, why don't the sharks eat the other little fish in the tank or even nibble on the divers? You know, ever wonder that when you go to the aquarium? And she had a great answer.

She said, "Hey, if I made you a turkey sandwich every single day of your life, would you ever go out and hunt turkey? If I made you a turkey sandwich every day of your life, would you even make your own turkey sandwich?" She said, "Even sharks get docile and forget how to hunt when they are hand-fed every day." Well, I thought this is one potential disadvantage, one of the unintended consequences of the Scripture sandwiches that we make for you every weekend. Are you following my train of thought here? We can give you these kind of Scripture sandwiches and feed you just enough that maybe you forget how to hunt for yourself. But listen, you need to be reading God's Word yourself between Sundays and praying yourself between Sundays and worshiping God on your own between Sundays, making your own sandwiches. You need that skill to survive in the wild.

Weekend messages are not enough. This is one of the reasons that we put together the Daily Devotions. I mentioned these last weekend too. And get into these. Feed on God's Word. Listen for the whisper. And you can hear it more finely all around you when you're spending time in His Word. You're praying. Use those Daily Devotions each week. And you know what? If you're sitting here today and you don't even have a Bible, we always have free Bibles available for you at the information desk and in the visitor's center. Now, this is not get another Bible to add your collection of 15 that you're already not reading at home, right? This is for people who really don't have Bibles, and we've got some available for you. But take time to refocus on God.

And then the last point that God makes to Elijah, I need to realize I'm not alone. When you're in pain, all you can see is yourself. But if you look around, you'll find people ready to help. This is what God tells Elijah, "Go back the way you came to the desert of Damascus. And when you get there, anoint Hazael and Yehu and Elisha." God says, "You're going to do ministry now with some buddies because you were never meant to do it all alone." Listen, you may feel exhausted right now, bone tired. But one of the good things about being in a church is that there are people around you right now who are ready to help you. You are not meant to do life alone. And this is one of the reasons we say, "Don't just come to the weekend services." Now, we're glad you're here, and some of you are visitors, or you're coming from a long way away. But if you can, get involved in the church, in small groups, in service, in men's and women's and youth activities during the week.

Why? Because then you get to know other people who can help you and other people that you can help. But I want you, as we wrap this up, to note the dimensions of recovery. And you have to allow God to work on all four dimensions in your life. There's the physical dimension. Get more rest. That corresponds to the first point. The emotional dimension. You tell God and somebody else you trust what you really feel, corresponding to the second point, the spiritual dimension. You refocus the center of your life around Jesus Christ because he's God and you're not. And the relational aspect. You get involved in community. You don't do it alone. You get help.

Now listen, this helps. I know this from personal experience because I have been through this. Some of you remember that about a year after I came to TLC as a pastor, I ended up in the hospital with severe anxiety attacks. Money was very tight here then. I mean, we were losing money every week. We were in two and a half million dollars of debt. Thank God that's not the case anymore. Thank God. But back in those days, partly because of that, I didn't have the blessing of a Mark Spurlock as executive pastor. I didn't have the blessing of a Valerie Webb as my admin and an office manager. I didn't have the blessing of a Kelly Welty doing the slides in the media. I didn't have the blessing of a Kevin Deutsch doing the sermon notes and the ads. And I was trying to do all their jobs and my job too at the same time and doing poorly, frankly.

Those days, I would work until late in the evening and by the end of my first year here, I was empty. The tank was drained physically, emotionally, spiritually, and relationally. And I remember coming home one day and flopping on the bed and telling my wonderful wife, Lori, "I hate my life." Isn't that a wonderful thing to hear from your spouse? I hate my life. Hate it. And I said, "I just want to quit." She said, "Quit your job." I said, "I want to quit everything. I want to somehow get into the witness protection program and just move and start over. I want to change my name at last." From René Schleppford and Tony Stark or something cool, "I just want to go." And about a week after that, I had this anxiety attack and I had no idea. I thought anxiety attack meant you were chewing your fingernails or something. What it means is you have symptoms of a stroke and a heart attack and horrible things.

She rushes me to the emergency room and the doctor there who was on duty that day, Dr. John Jackson, he's retired now. He's the father of Rebecca Jackson who plays violin up here. And thank God for a godly doctor because he said, "Well, tell me a little bit about your job." And I told him, "So hard. I have to do it all alone. I'm the only one. Now they're trying to kill me." They are. And he goes, "Well, actually, I know all about your job. My family's been going to Twin Lakes for about a month. I just wanted to hear what you'd say." And then he says, "Listen, René, I'm going to give you some medication to kind of help you reboot here, anti-anxiety medication and some sleeping aids." But he said, "What you really need to do," and he went through these four things.

He said, "You need to get physical rest. You need to reveal what you are going through to the church board very bluntly." He said, "You need to reconnect with God with some time away," and he said, "I'll write you a doctor's note if that's what it'll take." And then God blessed me with a great team that I didn't have before, so I didn't have to do it alone. Great board members, great staff. And I look back on that time that I just wanted to quit that close 16 and a half years ago. And I am so glad I didn't give up, or rather that God didn't give up on me, because God wasn't through with me and he wasn't through with this church and what I would have missed. 17 years of adventure.

Well, you know what? God is not through with you either. I have no doubt that in a crowd this size, some of you are here this morning and you're looking straight ahead and you're trying to act like nothing's wrong, but you feel just like Elijah, even to the point where you have considered checking out, taking your own life. And do you understand what is happening in this moment? God brought you here today because He loves you. And to say to you in spite of the burnout, "You are not alone. Other people have felt this way too. Your pastor has felt this way." And He is telling you right now, "God is not through with you yet. God has great plans for you. And if you will let Him, God will minister to you through His grace in these four areas." And I would just like to start it by praying for you right now. Would you bow your heads in a word of prayer with me?

Father, I pray for all those who are running on empty right now. Speak to them. Let them know that your spirit is saying, "I love you. I am always with you." And you can make it through the Father's help. And I want you to pray this prayer in your heart. Just something like this. "Lord Jesus, you know how tired I am. Lord Jesus, you know how frazzled my emotions are. You know how often I feel like I just can't make it anymore. I need you to restore my soul. And today I am repenting of my idolatry and I am surrendering the control of every area of my life to you. I'm going to follow you." Maybe that's a step you're taking for the first time in your life. But maybe it's a step that you've been needing to take for years. Say to Jesus, "Help me get the rest I need. Help me to refocus on you. Help me to get connected here at church where I can receive support. God, I am heavily laden. I am weary. And I am coming to you for rest. In your name I pray. Amen.