Burnout

Something that is, I don't know if the word is common, but something that isn't unheard of in many of the professional fields of endeavor today. There's many business executives who fall prey to this, doctors, lawyers, policemen often all prey to this. But it's something that can befall anyone, no matter what profession they have or if they have no profession at all. And this condition where people just lose all their focus, all their energy, all their commitment to do what they have been doing. Sometimes they lose all interest in life, sometimes it's just in a particular, particular subject or aspect of their lives that they lose interest in.

And it's almost as if they get overloaded on some things that the emotions that they put into, whatever they're doing, or the effort that they put into it, or the time they put into it, is so much that there comes some point where they just kind of hit a wall.

They hit a wall and they just can't deal with it anymore. The condition I'm talking about is one you've all heard of. It's called burnout. Burnout. And it can, like I said, happen to anyone. And it's particularly damaging when it does hit someone. Careers have been lost, livelihoods have been lost, families have been lost.

All sorts of things have been lost when someone hits burnout. The ones who, there are some who come through it okay, but when people hit rock bottom, they don't always bounce back up again. It affects them the rest of their lives and their reputation of what they did and how they handled that situation can follow them. You know, Christians can have burnout too. And it's particularly damaging and alarming when a Christian burns out. You know, God gives us His Holy Spirit and that Holy Spirit is a flame of fire in us.

So literally, when a Christian burns out, the Holy Spirit can disappear. And when the Holy Spirit disappears, our eternal life is at stake. So it's more than just a career, it's more than just a livelihood. It's our eternal life at stake if Christians burn out.

There are a lot of symptoms along the way that indicate that you might be heading toward burnout. I'm going to talk to those in a little bit, but let me read a couple of definitions of burnout. I got these from the Internet. You can literally go in and type in burnout and find thousands of articles on it, from psychologists to people who have been through it, and in all trades and all fields. Let me just read a couple of them here so we're all clear on what we're talking about here.

It says, Burnout is commonly described as an exhausted state in which a person loses interest in a particular activity and even in life in general. It's a state of emotional, physical, social, and spiritual exhaustion. It can lead to diminished health, social withdrawal, depression, and a spiritual malaise. You can kind of get the picture of what's happening. People just aren't who they used to be. They kind of are coasting through life to begin with. Pretty soon, they just disengage from life or a particular endeavor altogether.

Many times, burnout is the result of an extended period of exertion at a particular task or the carrying of too many burdens. For those of us, I don't think any of us are overburdened by church or are studying the Bible too much or praying too much. Maybe that would be a good thing if we were overburdened by that. But sometimes, our lives can become so cluttered and we have so many things going on that take so much of our time that we just get overwhelmed and sometimes we just don't even see the way out.

How do I get rid of this activity? How do I get rid of this responsibility? How do I do this in life? Sometimes, it's church that people will say, well, that's the one I can give up. I can kind of put it on the side for a while. Burnout can be common among those in high-stress jobs who feel forced to please an earthly master in order to maintain their job and continue to provide for their families.

So that's one. Let me read another one as well. Burnout is a widely used name for severe emotional, nervous, and physical exhaustion. It's a non-technical term which tends to cover a number of different but similar conditions. The most consistent symptom is a chronic tiredness which affects the total being, the body, the mind, and the spirit.

It's a weariness which can't be remedied by a good night's sleep. The person suffers a chronic lethargy. They lack the strength to undertake even the simplest task. Their creativity is totally exhausted. They can scarcely think straight. Their drive and application are non-existent. Even the thought of work leaves them depleted. It's a tough situation to find yourself in, isn't it? I don't know if any of you have been there.

I've never been to that level. But as I've thought about this and I've for reasons thought about it in terms of church things and looking around, I can see that there were times in my life when there were symptoms of burnout. Maybe as we go through some of these symptoms, you'll recognize some of those yourself. If you recognize the symptoms, it's just like with any disease. If you recognize the symptoms, it's much better to deal with it and find a way out of that situation before it becomes full-blown.

As I said before, burnout for a Christian is extremely dangerous. Let me give you a few of the physical symptoms here. We'll go right into the emotional ones as well. Sleeplessness is one of them. For some people, they just wake up every night. I wake up almost every night for two hours. I come to actually enjoy those two hours in the middle of the night. I don't think it's from burnout. I think it's just... I don't know what it is.

But if you find yourself never waking up and all of a sudden you find yourself not being able to sleep, it might be an indication that there's too many things or things going on in your life that are causing you distress and the emotional fatigue. Fatigue is one of them. A decreased concentration. You just can't finish anything. You don't want to finish anything. Maybe you read the Bible and you think, I just can't even get interested in the Bible.

I read it and it's just like, nah, it's there. I don't find anything interesting in it anymore. Maybe it's the same way with prayer life. You know, it's like, I just don't feel the way I used to about it.

It can be marked by frequent pain. Headaches, stomachaches, other pains that come and go with it because when we're exhausted, physical pain can sometimes be an indicator of what's going on up here or that we're doing too much. An increased irritability. Men, they say, tend to get angry more. And probably wives know this. When we get frustrated, sometimes we can lash out and say things or too tired. Women, they say, tend to cry more when they're feeling the symptoms of burnout.

And if you see yourself doing that more and lashing out at people or crying more for no reason, you might begin to take a look at your life. They lose perspective. They don't see things rationally anymore. What you might have been able to tell them four or five months ago or four or five weeks ago, now they just kind of ignore it. It's like, that doesn't make sense at all. I don't want to do that. I don't get that anymore.

There's a feeling of helplessness. And emotionally, people become exhausted. That can manifest itself in feelings of dread. They just dread going to work, dread going to someplace else, fearing that something awful will happen. They may develop a persecution complex. People are talking about me. Everyone's against me. Something's not right there. They lose their enthusiasm. They lose their optimism. They become discouraged. Or once they might have been a very able executive or a very able doctor, fireman or policeman, now they don't even know if they can do that anymore. They just lose the confidence that they had before. The next four, there's many more I could go through.

Depression is one of them. Are quite interesting. People that are suffering from this and one of the symptoms is, they begin to withdraw from people. They don't want to be around the people they were before. Maybe they don't show up for the meetings anymore. Maybe they don't want to talk in the neighborhood. Maybe they don't want to be at church.

They begin to withdraw. Once you saw them and they were there, there is now a time where they just begin to withdraw and they're no longer a part of the group. They just are there. Going along with that is an avoidance syndrome.

They begin to avoid people. They go out of their way not to run into someone that they're afraid they're going to have to answer to or that may bring up a topic that they don't want to discuss. They may avoid a boss. They may avoid people. They may avoid roles in their lives and just avoid it altogether and just cut it out, if you will. They become less approachable. Once they might have been a very engaging person that you could go up and talk to now by the look on their face and the way that they respond to you, you can tell, I don't want anything to do with you.

Because we get those signals off to people. We're either approachable or else we put a wall up that people don't approach us. When we notice something about someone that's changed in their personality, we might be thinking.

When they may be thinking or I might be thinking or you, something's going on. Something's going on that I need to look to. There's a feeling of wanting to just give up. I just give up. I can't do it anymore. I'm not worthy of this. I can't do it. And the last one I thought was very interesting that showed up. It was an openness to destructive behavior.

That when people are emotionally drained, when they're on the road to burnout, they're more open to doing things they would never have done when they were in full command and when they were arrested in doing things.

We might just call it an openness to sin because destructive behavior is sin. Let me read what this says. It says, One of the most destructive effects of burnout is the increased susceptibility to destructive behavior.

Temptations long held at bay seem to take on new strength, and the sufferer may have much less resistance to them. Old patterns may return, new harmful patterns may develop. Now, as we're talking about burnout and things burning out of our lives and the flame going out, in the other world, in the professional world, you can see that in people they don't have the desire to do and keep up their standard of work, their standard of morals. If it's a Christian, if it's a Christian, he can let down his guard, and all of a sudden very serious things can happen, as he no longer can resist the things that the Holy Spirit used to give him the strength to do.

He no longer has the desire even to do that. He just lets it happen. And so you can see how burnout for a Christian, and if we're exhausted, and not just by the things we do in church or what the church or what God expects of us, but what we do in our everyday lives, if it's too busy, if it's too much, if there's never a way out, if there's always something on our plate, something eventually has to give. I hope it's not God. I hope it's not the church. I hope it's not the things that are important to us, that really should be important, the most important thing to us.

But other things may have to give, but all too often it may be church, because that's the one that you can kind of just, church, God, that you can kind of just shove off to the side, I guess, if you will. Well, burnout is a modern name for an age-old problem. You know, we're all humans. The way they were in the Old Testament is the way we are here. Now, what we experience today, we live in a world of technology and modern things, but the things that we experience are no different than what men of the Old Testament, women of the Old Testament, and women of the early New Testament faced.

They didn't call it burnout, but it's evidence in the Bible that some of the figures that we know very well, and probably a lot of them, faced this in their lives. So today I want to say, what does the Bible say about burnout? What can we learn from it? What is going on, and what can we look at? It's some of the major figures of the Bible that we look up to. Did they ever have this? And when we feel these feelings of, we can't concentrate. We just don't want to do that. Whatever. Is that... are we alone in that?

Is that something brand new? Is that something we should say God has left us? No, not at all. Let's go back and look at King David. He's going to be turning back to 2 Samuel 11. And we talk about King David a lot. God calls him a man after his own heart. And you know that in King David's life, he made some monumental mistakes. I mean outright sins. The sin with Bathsheba, the sin of having Uriah murdered. Let's look in on David here in 2 Samuel 11. In 2 Samuel 11, we find David, a very active, a very energetic David.

In a kind of state here in Chapter 11, as we begin the chapter, that's different than what people would think of him. Before this, he was very active, and we'll talk about that in a minute. Let's look here at verse 1. It happened in the spring of the year, at the time when kings go out to battle, that David sent Joab and his servants with him in all Israel. And they destroyed the people of Ammon and B'Sijraba, but David remained at Jerusalem. Now, it wasn't frequent that David was remaining at Jerusalem. David would have been out there in the battle.

He would have been leading the charge. He was a warrior. He was always at the forefront of things. But this spring, this spring, he just wanted to stay home. Let someone else do that. I'll just stick back here in Jerusalem and let them handle the battle, and that will be something that he thought would be okay for him. Now, as we look at Daniel in chapter 11 here, we have to think back on what Daniel has been through, because he has had a very trying life, if you will.

Before he was actually officially proclaimed king, he was anointed king many years before by Samuel, and for years he ran from Saul. He was always on the run. Here he is, anointed king, and then Saul, the king of Israel, is always looking to kill him. Now, I don't think that was a lot of stress. He had all this going on. He always had to look over his shoulders. He had to move from this place to that place. He couldn't settle down any place.

He had to go to foreign lands. He had all these things going on, and in the midst of it, God gave him two opportunities to kill Saul. And yet, David had his wits about him at that point. He didn't kill Saul. Any number of people would have said, you know what? If that guy's out to get you, why wouldn't you go ahead and kill him? David wasn't going to be the one to lay a hand on the Lord's...

on the God's anointed. He had his wits about him. He was thinking clearly. He knew who he was. He knew what he was about. All that time.

And then he was finally ordained king, or anointed king, or coronated king, or whatever the word you want to use. But even if you look back in the chapters leading up to chapter 11, you see that his reign was mixed with controversy. Ishbo Sheth, the son of Saul, was looking to be king. He ended up being murdered, and then David got the crown. You have this incident where David was going to bring the ark back to Israel from the Philistines.

Remember Uzzah? As they were bringing the ark back, Uzzah reached out to just stabilize it. And he died. And David... David took that into account because it was David who said, let's move it. And I think David probably thought about that a lot, and he took it to account that and blamed himself probably for Uzzah's death.

Because he realized, why did God allow that to happen? Why did Uzzah die? All he was looking to do was to stabilize that ark. And David went back and he learned and he studied the Bible and looked at the details. And he had the answer. We didn't do our homework. We didn't see how God orchestrated to do that. And then when they did it exactly the way God said, everything was fine. That had to be a traumatic experience in David's life. We find, you know, when the ark comes back, he's on an emotional high. God promises him that as long as he will obey God, he and his descendants will always have sit on the throne.

When the ark comes back, he will always have a seat on the throne. And he will always be on the throne. And David, had to just be on overload. Everything I do, I do it by the goodness of my heart and look, now there's a war. Now there's multiple wars and now people are dying and all I wanted to do was show my respect. He had a lot of things going on for a lot of years. He was probably very tired.

He was probably emotionally exhausted. And in Chapter 11, when we see him, he says, I'm not going out to battle like I normally do. I'm going to stay behind. I'm going to stay behind in Jerusalem. And it was a telling time for him to do, because as we go here in Verse 2, we see David doing something more out of character for him. Verse 2, it happened one evening that David arose from his bed, couldn't sleep, went out, stood on his rooftop, walked on the roof of the king's house, and from the roof he saw a woman bathing, and the woman was very beautiful to behold. So David sent and inquired about her, and someone said, isn't this Bathsheba, the daughter of Elam, the lion, the wife of Uriah the Hittite?

And David sent messengers and took her. She came to him and he lay with her. For she was cleansed from her impurity, and she returned to her house, and she conceived. Now, the strong David, who withstood the urge to kill King Saul, certainly knew that committing adultery with Bathsheba was wrong. He knew the Ten Commandments of God. He knew that the seventh one was clearly in force. He clearly knew that. But something about him was at a weakened state, just like we read about. He was open to it this time.

He no longer had the strength to say, I want to, but I can't. The temptation that might have been there many times before, that he withstood, this time he couldn't withstand it. Something was different about David. He should have been able to withstand it. Certainly, in all the years after that he was, in all the years before that he was, this time he couldn't. What was it about David? Was he on the road to burnout? Was he emotionally overloaded? Was he displaying the symptoms of something that he should have, that later he understood what was going on with him?

But he let down his guard. He no longer had the strength. You know, when the Holy Spirit burns out and it was fading in us, that strength and that power that we may get used to having disappears, and no longer can we say no to something like David found himself involved in here. So, he goes ahead and he commits adultery with Bathsheba. She concedes. Now, David still doesn't really recognize his sin. He's not in this full state of mind. He's not repenting, but he's thinking, how do I cover it up? A very natural human reaction, right? Now, I just need to cover this up. I can't let anyone know this.

So, he calls for Uriah, tries to set Uriah up so that he'll go in and sleep with Bathsheba, that they can pawn the child off as his, but Uriah says, no way. I'm not going to do. I'm not going to take that comfort that my other soldiers don't have.

David is a little frustrated. Why won't Uriah do that? And notice what David does. You know the story? He sets it up that Uriah is on the front lines of the battle so that Uriah will be killed. No doubt that Uriah will be killed. Now, here's David. He has no...he doesn't even consider this like, ah, can I take Uriah's life because of my sin? Can I really let him die because of something that I've done? He's so exhausted, it's like he's emotionally detached. I'm going to go ahead and let him do.

He has to die. That's not the David we saw before. That's not the David we see afterwards. This is the David that's totally different than the David that we know from the time when he was a teenager and the time until he died.

He's in a different state of mind. He's letting things happen to him, and he's detaching himself. And his morals and his ideas and his behavior are just vanishing.

And he does something that we would think is unthinkable for David. And he does it. He does it.

You know, that could have been the end for David. That could have led to complete burnout for David.

God could have looked at David and said, you know what? The sins you committed are just too much. You committed adultery, but then you had her husband killed. Come on. Is there any coming back from that?

David could have thought, you know, I'm done. I'm done with it all. I don't want to live this way of life anymore. I don't want to do that anymore. I'm just going to go back to the way I am. It's going to do what I want to do naturally. I don't want to do this anymore. It could have been the end for David. He could have come to a complete burnout and given it all up.

He could have. But he didn't. And God wasn't going to let him do it, let him take that step without a battle.

God, when we find ourselves in that state, He's not going to let us just drift away, never to be seen again. He's not going to let us give up the thing that is the most precious thing in our lives.

He's going to be there to try to pull us back. It may not be in the way that we expect.

But God didn't let David go. He knew who David was. He knew what was going on with him. He understood what was happening with him. Yes, He'd become sluggish in his life. Yes, He'd let things go. Yes, He'd become tired. But God understood that. It doesn't say that God was going to just kind of overlook it and say, Not a problem, David. Just keep going on with life. But God was seeing what David would do with this. How would He come out of this doldrums that he was in, this sense that he was of fading away, and the David we knew and then knew afterwards, or know afterwards, what was happening with him?

God sent Nathan. You know, this fate with David, it went on for months. It went on all through the time that the baby was being, until the baby was born, the whole nine months it went on. Not once during that time did David say, Man, I really made a mistake. I need to go and repent. It's like it never dawned on him. It went on and on and on until God, it tells us in chapter 12, verse 1, until God sent Nathan to David. Nathan's a prophet, a man of God.

And Nathan went there, and Nathan told David a story. He constituted a way that David could understand this about someone who was taking the lambs and the pests of man, and David was incensed that someone could do that.

And when Nathan said, David, you're the man, you've done this.

David didn't battle. David didn't make excuses. David didn't blame God or the circumstances. David repented. David did something very important. He listened. He listened to Nathan. He didn't turn Nathan away. He didn't say, I don't want to hear what you have to say. I don't want to hear anyone talk about what it is. I'm going to be who I am. I'm going to do what I want. And you know what? I'm the king. I can do whatever I want. He listened. He paid attention. And he turned back to God. He turned back to God. And he became a man after God's own heart. God wasn't going to let David just drift off, never to be heard of again. Another man like Saul, who just didn't do, didn't live up to the expectations that God had for him. David made the choice to listen. And he didn't read it in the Scripture. It wasn't like he had a scroll and was reading one day and thought, oh, thou shalt not commit adultery. That's what I've done. Thou shalt not murder. Oh, that's what I've done. It wasn't in prayer that God opened his mind. It was when someone else came to him and told him, this is what you've done, David. And he listened. And he paid attention. Let's go back. Let's go back to Hebrews 6. The author of Hebrews, some think it's Paul. The Bible doesn't tell us who it is. He saw that the same thing would happen in New Testament times because he addresses a few things here. We're chapter 6 of Hebrews beginning in verse 11, a verse that caught my eye a few weeks ago. Hebrews 6, 11, We desire that each one of you show the same diligent to the full assurance of hope until the end, that you do not become sluggish, but imitate those who through faith and patience inherit the promises. Don't become sluggish. Don't let down. And if you see yourself becoming sluggish, take note. Take note. To before warn is to be forearmed, they said. Take note. What's going on with me? What is happening that maybe I should look at? Is there too much going on in my life that I need to have something ease? And it's not God. Not walking away from Him. It's not walking away from church. It's not walking away from truth. But something has to give because for Christians, burnout is a matter, truly, of life and death if we allow it to progress. Hebrews 10, verse 26. If we sin willfully, after we've received the knowledge of the truth, there no longer remains a sacrifice for sins, but a certain fearful expectation of judgment and fiery indignation which will devour the adversaries.

The common teaching in the world is that once saved, always saved. Once you're baptized, you are good. You are good for eternity. It's simply not true. It's not in the Bible. Over and over again, we can lose salvation. David could have lost his salvation. The other men we talk about could have lost their salvation. You and I can lose our salvation.

God's not going to want that to happen. God doesn't want that any should die, but that all should come to repentance and receive eternal life. And like David, when we find ourselves in a state, because we will make mistakes, but we have to repent. We have to come back to God. We have to turn back to Him. And when He calls, we need to listen however He calls.

And not just discount it and say, God's okay with this, God's okay with that. God's okay with complete obedience and submission to Him. That's what He's okay with when we completely yield to Him. Let's look at another man here. Let's look at a couple of the prophets. We know the prophets were men of God. He gave them His Holy Spirit. And the prophets of the Old Testament had a tough, tough, tough life. Let's go back to Jeremiah. You know, God put the prophets, like Jeremiah and Ezekiel, their lives were nothing like the lives we have today. Ezekiel, you read through what God had Him do. His life was totally committed to God. And He just did what God said to do.

Jeremiah, we talk about him. For 40 years, he was preaching to a nation that didn't want to hear what he had to say. He was all alone. No one wanted to listen to him. He was emotionally exhausted, as you can imagine. Here in chapter 20, we look on one of the times where Jeremiah has come out of an incident, not the only one of which. As you read through Jeremiah, you see that he was in turmoil and tough straits many, many, many times. And many, many times, he was just so tired. You can see it in his words. You can feel it in his voice. He was just tired, but he kept going on. Here in chapter 20, as you read the beginning of chapter 20 there, you see that he just been put into stocks. People didn't like him. And he's now been released. And he goes to God, and he says these words beginning in verse 7. He says, Verse 8.

But his word was in my heart like a burning fire. Shut up in my bones. I was weary of holding it back, and I could not. I wanted to. The easiest thing would have been to just say, I'm not doing this anymore. I'm not following you, God, anymore. I'm not doing what you want. But I couldn't. I knew that that was my commission. I knew what I needed to do. I knew what I was called to. And it was a burning fire in me, and I couldn't give it up.

For I heard many mocking, fear on every side, report, they say, and will report it. All my acquaintances watched for my stumbling, saying, Perhaps he can be induced. Then we'll prevail against him, and we will take our revenge on him.

Ah! Can you imagine what life that was like? If every time you went out and you said something that God said, Tell this. Tell this to your neighborhood. Tell this to your workforce. Tell this at school. Tell this wherever you are. And every time people were mocking you, and they got to the point where all they wanted to do was set you up. They wanted to find you fall, so that they could mock you more. And then they wanted to have their vengeance on you. Can you imagine what that would be like? To be dealing with that day in and day out? And Jeremiah had a whole nation that was listening to this. He was giving them words of God. And they didn't want to hear it. We don't want to hear any of it, they said. And he had to face this day in and day out. He was plunged into stocks. He was plunged into a cistern.

All sorts of things happened to David. People didn't treat him kindly. That was his life. Do you think that David or Jeremiah got to the point where maybe he was even a little emotionally overwhelmed? That he might have been reaching a plate where he had just so much on his plate, so much to do, so many things coming at him from every angle that he just couldn't deal with it anymore. I think some of the times there were some symptoms of burnout beginning to occur with Jeremiah. When you look at the verses we read and other verses we could go back to in Jeremiah, we see him talking to God, approaching him, saying, I don't want to do this. Why? Why is my life like this? What is going on? And I wonder, when we find ourselves overwhelmed, when we find ourselves like so many things are happening, things are coming at me right and left. I just can't do it all. How do we talk to God? Do we ever take it to Him? Do we let Him hear what our feelings are? Christ says, cast your cares and concerns on me. Jeremiah did just that. And when Jeremiah did that, it was like there was something inside him that said, I can't let go of it. I can't not do this. I have to do it even though the physical me doesn't want to do it. Let's go back to Matthew 11. Matthew 11, verse 28. There were times in Jeremiah's life that he just wanted to run. He wanted to get out of Judah. He wanted to get away from God. He wanted to leave it all behind. But to his credit, he never did it. There may be times in our life we want to run. We just want to stay away. We want to forget that God has called us. We want to give up the fight that we've given. Not because of what goes on in church, but because of maybe every other thing that goes on in our life that keeps us too busy and too focused. Because, believe me, Satan can use burnout and he can use busyness and he can use all the attitudes of service and all the good things that we can do that can just consume our lives. All those things he can use against us if we let him. Christ says, don't run from me. Verse 28, You feel that way. You're tempted to run away. Like Jeremiah might have been tempted to run away. You're not going to find rest for your souls by running from God. The only way you will ever find rest, the only time you will ever find any kind of satisfaction or purpose in life or any meaning in life, is to go to God. Never ever, ever be tempted to give it up. Never ever be tempted to think it's not worth it. Never ever be tempted to think, my life would be better if. No, your life won't be better if you don't keep up with the truth. Your life will always be better when you keep the truth and hold fast to it. There's a lesson there in those verses that Jesus Christ said. Sometimes we can be tempted and we see someone going through some rough spots in their life. And sometimes we can say, you know what? I just want to tell that person exactly what they need to do. I'm just going to hammer them. They need to do this, they need to do that, they need to do that. You know, this is what the verse says. There is it. Christ didn't say, come to me and I'm going to hammer you. I'm going to tell you exactly what you're doing wrong. I'm going to tell you exactly what kind of a cad you are for disregarding the calling I've given you. He says, come to me. I'll be gentle. I'll be lowly.

I understand what you are going through because what has happened to you, as it says in 1 Corinthians 10, is not unlike the things that have happened to other men. No temptation has occurred to us that hasn't happened to others. It doesn't mean He's going to pat us on the back and say, hey, it's okay, just keep living the life. But there is a way back.

There is a way back and it's not always a hammer. There may be a time for a hammer, but maybe not the first time. Maybe not the first time. Maybe there's understanding. Maybe we handle things like God did with David. He didn't drop the hammer on him. When he had Uriah killed, he let it go on. And Nathan approached him. David didn't need the hammer.

Maybe the hammer was there in a way when Nathan said, you are the man. Jeremiah wanted to run, but he never did run because he knew what his calling was and he knew that he would not find satisfaction or peace anywhere else if he ran.

But God knew, God knew, and he would have told Jeremiah, and he tells us, come, you're weary, you've got too many burdens, come. Come to me. Let's go back to Galatians. Galatians 6. Paul writing in Galatians. I think when we read some of these verses, Paul saw some of the things that were going on with some of the people in the churches there. He knew what life could be like. Maybe sometimes in his life he felt he had reached the point where he needed to be buoyed up and come back to God. Let's pick it up in verse 7, Galatians 6. Don't be deceived. God is not mocked. For whatever a man sows, that he will also reap. Well, we can all be deceived. We can let ourselves just begin to think, ah, you know what, this is the only right thing to do. Obviously, the churches are working for me. Obviously, truth is not working for me. The easiest thing to do and the best thing to do for me is just give it up. No, not the answer. That's human reasoning. That's being deceived. God says, don't be deceived. What you sow, that is what you do in life, that's what you will harvest. For he who sows to his flesh will of the flesh reap corruption. But he who sows to the spirit will of the spirit reap everlasting life. The choice is death or everlasting life. It comes down to that. You sow to the spirit or you sow to the flesh. You put God first or you put self, world, family, children, job, or something else first. The thing is, God says, I need to be first and I want to be first, and he's looking for people who will put him first in every single situation. When we sow to that spirit, that's sowing to an everlasting life. Verse 9, let us not grow weary while doing good. Somebody says that. Jeremiah was feeling weary, tired, tired of this. Let us not grow weary while doing good, for in due season we shall reap if we don't lose heart. In due season we will reap if we don't lose heart, if we don't give up, if we don't throw it all away. Say, it's just not for me. Don't weary in doing good. Let's go back to Jeremiah again. He's got some words. The worst of that effect as well. Jeremiah 31. Jeremiah 31, verse 25. Now, this verse is speaking of a future time, but what God is going to do for the people of the millennium and the future, He does for us now when we have His Holy Spirit and when we yield to Him and we give ourselves to Him. Verse 25, God speaking, for I have satiated the weary soul, and I have replenished every sorrowful soul. You're looking for being satiated? You're looking to be satiated? God is the one who provides it. Looking to be replenished? Re-energized? God's the one who does that. He energizes the weary soul. He satiates the sorrowful soul, or the opposite. He satiates the weary soul and replenishes the sorrowful soul. It's Him! Jeremiah came to know that. He understood that principle or came to know there is nowhere else to learn. For Christians, there is no option to give up realistically. I mean, the alternative is death. How could there even be a choice? There's not a choice.

There can't be burnout for Christians. Let's go back to Jeremiah 17. Jeremiah 17, 9 is kind of a memory verse. Verse 9, The heart is deceitful above all things and desperately wicked. Who can know it? Well, David could have said that, right? Man, I followed my heart when I saw Bathsheba bathing out there. I followed my heart when I had Uriah killed. He knew better. He knew. But he did it anyway. He followed his heart. And his heart was deceitful. It made him think he was doing the right thing for month after month after month after month after month. He thought he was doing the right thing. Who could know it? If you had asked David six months before that happened, he would have said, No, I know God's law. I'm going to follow God's law. I'm not going to do the things that he ended up doing. Same thing can happen to us if we follow our heart, and we don't follow the Spirit, and if we don't follow God. First, I, the Lord, search the heart. I test the mind, even to give every man according to his ways, according to the fruit of his doings. God tests us, because he wants our heart in tune with him. He wants to know that time after time after time, when there's a choice to be made, we choose God. We choose his way. We choose him over job, family, event, or whatever it is. We choose him. We obey him. We follow him. That's what he's perfecting in us, because that's what a requirement of being in his kingdom is. We follow him. And when it comes to our attention, we repent, because we all make mistakes. We all falter in those areas. But when we falter, we repent, and we turn back to him. Dropped on to verse 13. Jeremiah knew what the alternative was. He says, O Lord, the hope of Israel, all who forsake you shall be ashamed. Those who turn from you for whatever reason it might be, all those who turn from you shall be ashamed.

Those who depart from me, M, God speaking, those who depart from me shall be written in the earth, because they have forsaken the eternal, the fountain of living waters. That's where their end will be, because they let burn out, or a symptom of burnout, or sluggishness, or following their heart rather than following God.

That's where their end will be.

So Jeremiah, to his credit, he wanted to run, he didn't run. He caught himself, and he realized there is no alternative. It is God. And for every one of us sitting in this room, there is no alternative. The only choice is God. The only choice.

Keep that in your mind when you are feeling weak, and when you are feeling sluggish, and when you are feeling like you just want to disappear, or not do what God says. Remember, the only choice is God. The only choice is God.

Let's look at another man. Let's look at Elijah.

Let me return back to James. Let's go back to James 5.

As we begin to talk about another prophet who God did miraculous things through. You know the stories about Elijah. You know the faith he had in God, and how he worked wondrous things, not by his doing, but because of the faith he had in God, and God worked some mighty things through him.

We can look at Elijah and say, wow, if I could just be like him, if I could just be like him. James 5, verse 17. I just want to look at the first phrase there. James says, Elijah was a man with a nature like ours.

Elijah was a man with a nature like ours.

Like you, like me. David was a man with a nature like ours. Like you, like me. Jeremiah was a man with a nature like ours. Like you, like me.

And they were susceptible to things that you and I are susceptible to. And God used them, and they yielded to God, and they allowed God to correct them, to instruct them, to build them into who they were going to be.

And they'll be there in the kingdom.

But Elijah, strong, faithful Elijah who did so many things, had appeared in his life, where it looks like he was developing or displaying a few symptoms of burnout. Let's go back to 1 Kings, 1 Kings 19.

As you're turning there, let me give you the back story here about what went on in Chapter 18 of Kings. It's the incident where there is a challenge between Elijah and the prophets of Baal.

And Elijah says, we'll come here, we'll offer the sacrifice, and whatever God consumes the sacrifice, he's the God.

And you remember the sacrifice, the prophets of Baal march around forever and ever and ever and ever, and fire never consumes the sacrifice. Elijah calls on God, God consumes it, and Elijah.

Elijah didn't do it. God did it. Elijah had faith in God, and he had confidence in God through all that time that he could issue that edict, and that he could do those things.

And he had to be on the emotional high. An emotional high. Can you imagine what it would be if you had challenged someone, and 450 people who were against you believed something else, and you proved that the God you and I believe in is the true God and the only God. Can you imagine the high you would be on? It would be sensational, right? God did it. This is great. I can't have it felt better ever in my life. And Elijah slew those 450 people.

The adrenaline was flowing. God gave him the strength. It was a tremendous statement of what happened that day in Israel.

Later on, after he did that, it hadn't rained there for four years, and he prays to God, and all of a sudden it rains.

Ah, a tremendous time, a tremendous time in Elijah's life. He didn't take credit for himself. He knew it was God. But you can imagine the emotion that he's feeling. Now, before we go into chapter 19, we can have those times in life, right? We have times when we feel spiritually strong. We see God working in our lives. Maybe he's opened up a door that we knew was only him who could have done it. Maybe we've had a disease heal that we know only he can heal. Maybe we've gone to the Feast of Tabernacles.

And for eight days, we had a magnificent feast. Saw everyone every day. Had a magnificent time getting to know each other. The sermons were wonderful. We come back on a spiritual high. We don't want to go back to the world, but we have to go back to the world.

But we're so high and so happy and so filled with God's Spirit.

Well, that's kind of how Elijah was feeling, even maybe more so than that.

So in chapter 19, verse 1, in the heels of all this, look what happens to Elijah.

Verse 1, Ahab told Jezebel all that Elijah had done. Also, he had executed all the prophets with the sword.

Elijah thought, they're going to serve God now. There is no choice, right?

Then Jezebel sent a message to Elijah saying, so let the gods do to me, and more also, if I don't make your life as the life of one of them by tomorrow about this time.

Wow! He didn't see that one coming. He didn't expect to get the douse of cold water thrown in his face that quickly.

Just like when we come back from the feast, maybe it's like we go back to a job that's a boss that's all over our case about something or family situations that just haven't resolved.

Or financial issues or whatever it is. It's like, whoa, I'm back in the real world. It could be disheartening and it could be discouraging.

Elijah has been through a very emotional experience over the course of his life. He didn't see this one coming. He never expected Jezebel to say, I'm going to take your life, Elijah.

I'm going to take it by tomorrow at this time. More than he could deal with at that time.

He had already been through a lot. His emotions were shocked. And look what he does in verse 3.

Elijah, who had just faced up to 450 prophets of Baal, who stood before them and didn't waver, didn't care what they thought, he gets an edict from Jezebel. And what did he do?

He arose and ran for his life.

I just want out of here. I don't have the energy to stand up to this. I don't want to be here. I don't want to take this one on too. I just proved everything that I thought that I needed to prove.

And now I've got this happening. He ran. And he went to Beersheba, which belongs to Judah. And he didn't even take his servant with him. He just wanted to be alone. I'm leaving everything behind. I'm just leaving.

Does that sound like the Elijah of the chapter before? Does that sound like the Elijah that we've seen anywhere in the dealings with Elijah? No.

He's hit an emotional block. He's at a stage where he's a human and there's only so much he can take. And he's on overload.

And he does what natural people like Elijah and you and I do. He goes into a place where he's doing some self-protection. He runs.

He runs and he wants to hide. And he doesn't want to deal with it anymore. And verse 4 is a very telling verse when you see what state Elijah is in.

Things that maybe someone in here has said at some time in their lives.

He went himself on today's journey into the wilderness and Kaden sat down under a broom tree. And he prayed that he might die.

Man, just hours before, he's been on an emotional high. He was ready to take on the world. No matter what comes my way, I can do it with God's help.

Now he's like, just want to die. I don't want to do it anymore. I'm done. He says, it's enough. It's enough.

I can't take it. I can't take it. God, just let me die. I don't want to do this anymore. I am finished, is what Elijah says.

Does that sound like Elijah? No, it sounds like someone who's displaying some of the symptoms that we talked about that's on the way to burnout.

He's on overload. He's on overload. He has so much going on, there just came a point where he couldn't deal with it anymore.

Doesn't say it's right. Says it is very human. Says that even if Elijah can go through that, you and I can go through it.

Elijah doesn't want to be around anywhere. Look at verse 5. He lay and slept. He had no energy left. He found no interest in anything anymore. He wasn't interested in what... Before, he just said, I just want to sleep. I don't want to be around anyone. I don't want my servant around. I just want to be left alone.

As he lay and slept under a broom tree, suddenly an angel touched him and said, arise and eat. And there he found some food.

God knew what Elijah was going through. He wasn't going to let Elijah alone. He wasn't going to let Elijah just continue on the path to burnout without else reaching out and saying, Elijah, I'm here.

You've got to eat. I'm still there with you. I'm still providing for you. Here, eat. And he ate.

Verse 7, the angel of the Eternal came back the second time and touched him and said, arise and eat, because the journey is too great for you.

So he did. He ate and drank, and he went into strength of that food forty days and forty nights as far as four of the mountain of God.

It went on for a long time with Elijah. He didn't realize where he was going. It doesn't say during that forty days and forty nights that his energy came back.

It doesn't say that during that time, it's like, you know what? I'm ready to go out and do the work of God again.

I'm ready to do whatever he says. No, he was just going to Horeb not to do the work of God. He was going to retreat into a cave.

It was getting worse. It wasn't getting better.

And I was on a Horeb, and I'm going to go into a cave. I'm going to go into a cave all by myself.

That's where I'm going to be. That's what my life is going to be from now on. Can't deal with it anymore.

I don't want to deal with it anymore. It's too hard.

What you're asking of me, God, is too hard.

Well, Elijah went into that cave.

Elijah went into that cave.

God didn't let him sit there.

Verse 9, it says, God the Lord came to him, and he said, Elijah, what are you doing here?

What are you doing hiding in this cave?

What do you think you're going to accomplish in there?

Well, Elijah has an excuse. He goes, you know what, God? I've been at work for you forever.

I have done everything you have ever asked me to do, things that have happened in my life I never believed that could happen.

I've done it all for you, and here I am all alone.

No one wants me. The Queen wants me dead. I don't even have my servant. I just don't want to do it anymore.

I'm the only one left in Israel. What good did all my work do? What did it do? What good was it?

God tells him, well, no, Elijah, it's not all about you.

There are 7,000 other people in Israel who haven't bent the knee to Baal.

There are others besides you. Yes, what you've done is good. You haven't bent the knee to Baal, but, Elijah, it's not just you.

Others go through this. You're a man after the same nature that you and I are. That Elijah was, that David was, that Jeremiah was.

And he says, Elijah, get out of that cave. Now the time is enough.

Elijah listened. He listened. He didn't say, nope. He was at a cross point, a crossroads in his life, too. He could have said, you know what? God, I'm really done. I'm not listening to you anymore. I don't care what you do. I don't care what message you send. I don't care what you do. I don't care if you send the earthquake. I don't care if you send the storm. I don't care what you send. I'm not listening anymore.

And his burnout would have been complete, and his life would have been over. He would have been an asterisk in our book, a very, very sad tale. He listened. He came out of the cave, and he listened to the still, small voice. Not the thunderous storm voice, not the earthquake voice, the still, small voice of God. And God said, get out and start doing the things again, Elijah.

Start doing what I tell you to do, to his credit. Elijah did that. And we know the rest of his life, and we know that Elijah didn't give up. Elijah went on, and he continued with his life. He had a tough period in his life, just like you and I may have tough periods in our lives, but he didn't give up. He listened to God, and he knew that God was going to be there, or he recognized that God was going to be there. And he paid attention to him. And he did just walk away, never to be seen again, never to be heard from again, giving it all up, the most foolish decision and choice that anyone could ever possibly make, giving up God, giving up the truth, giving up the things that are the only things in life that really should matter to us, and that nothing would come before it.

Elijah didn't do it. And we learn in these things a few things about ourselves. We see, number one, something that should be very encouraging. God doesn't give up on us. It's always us who give up on God. David didn't give up, or God didn't give up on David, Jeremiah, or Ezekiel. How does he kill Elijah? Or Ezekiel either, for that matter, or anyone else.

He's not willing that any should die. And when we go through the tough times of life, we may have times when we're on overload. Don't ever run from God. Jeremiah never ran from God. Don't run from Him. That's not the answer. Listen when God is saying things. It didn't come through the Scripture. It didn't come through prayer. It didn't come through God Himself. But when Nathan went to David, he listened.

When God said in a still small voice to Elijah, Come out of that cave, Elijah. Get back to work. He listened. Listen to God. Listen to God. You know, we go through these times in our lives that we learn some very valuable things, as Jeremiah did, as Dan and David did, as Elijah did. And sometimes we're going to see some of our brothers and sisters maybe going through a period of time that's a little tough, that they're kind of looking at things and it's just like, they're not the person they used to be. They're not the person they used to be. It's not during those times that God lays the hammer down.

It's at those times when we feel that way. You want to talk to someone. And that someone you talk to should be someone you trust, and that someone you talk to shouldn't lay the hammer down. Christ said, come to me. I am gentle. I am lowly. My yoke is light. Let's go back to Galatians 6. You know, last week, I guess it was the week before I was here, but we turned to 2 Corinthians 1 and we were talking about comfort, and we said, blessed are those who mourn for they shall be comforted.

God comforts us, and in 2 Corinthians 1, 3, and 4 it says, you know, we have to learn how to comfort each other. When we say someone hurting or having a problem, it's something that we need to be aware of and be able to help and encourage. Chapter 6 of relations, verse 1, brethren, if a man is overtaken in any trespass, or if you see him in burnout, if you see him doing things, just aren't what should happen.

If a man is overtaken in any trespass, you who are spiritual restore such a one in a spirit of gentleness, considering yourself lest you also be tempted. Don't give in to them. Don't start doing the things that they're doing, but help them. Help them come back. It may be your still small voice that they pay attention to.

Maybe something else. But don't lose contact. God never loses contact with us. We're the ones who tell God we don't want contact. If you ever find yourself in this, don't lose contact. Don't give up talking to God, and don't give up talking to each other. We need each other. If you've got a problem, talk. Come and talk to me. If you don't want to talk to me, talk to someone who's spiritual, someone who is going to help you through that, someone who's going to be empathetic, someone who's going to help you through the tough times of life and may be able to help you find that light again.

And that will be patient. And that won't issue an edict or something like that. Someone like Christ, who said in Matthew 11, 28, and 29, come to me and do that. You know, brethren, we all need each other. There is a reason that God began a church, and He puts us all in the body, He puts us in. More and more I learned that. More and more I understand why God said in Hebrews 10, 24, 25, don't forsake the assembling of yourselves together.

It's more than just friendships. It's more than just small talk. There's a reason God wants us to be with one another and to know each other, and to love one another in the way that He did. It's beneficial on every single level. We have to have fellowship with God, but without fellowship without each other, we're fooling ourselves. We're fooling ourselves. We need each other. Let's go back to Malachi, Malachi 3. I mentioned Hebrews 10, 24, and 25.

You can write down Hebrews 3, 13, and 15, another one where God says, don't forsake, don't not be with one another. Follow what He has to say. He knows what our spiritual health needs. He knows where we need to be. Let's go to Malachi. Last book of the Old Testament, Malachi 3. Malachi, God, lays out some questions to His people. He's real back then, us today. Verse 14, God says, it's useless to serve God. It's useless to serve God. What profit is it that we've kept His ordinance and that we have walked His mourners before the Lord of hosts?

What good did it do? What are we doing all this for? I've been at this for 10 years, 20 years, 30 years, 50 years, 60 years. What good has it done? What has changed? What has happened? So now we call the proud blessed. For those who do wickedness are raised up.

They even tempt God and go free. Look what's happened. Even the proud! We're calling them blessed. The ones who do wickedly, they're raised up. What's the point? They're saying. Verse 16, Then those who feared the Lord. Notice what they did. They spoke to one another. They spoke to one another. They did just run off and hide. They just didn't run off and go away. They spoke to one another. And the Lord listened and heard them.

So a book of remembrance was written before Him for those who fear the Lord and who meditate on His name. They listened. They talked. They didn't avoid. They didn't withdraw. They didn't throw in the towel and say, I'm not talking to anyone about it. They talked. They knew each other. We all need each other. God knew we would need each other.

Don't ever, ever, ever count it as a minor thing when God says, do this, do that. Don't forsake this or don't forsake that. He had a reason in mind. Be where God wants you to be. You know, I said several times, I'm going to finish with this. Oh, you know what? I didn't read one thing. I do want to read one thing here. I want to go back. I forgot, I'm looking at my notes here. The people who endured burnout, the policemen, the doctors, the lawyers who had that. There is one thing that the researchers found out that they had in common.

I should have said this before Malachi 3, but forgive me. Remember Malachi 3, 14, 15. Says this, the researchers found that one thing these people who had burnout had in common was the ability to share their feelings of weakness and frustration with others who understand. Successful doctors, policemen, and counselors act as props for each other. They have learned how valuable this support can be. We need to learn how valuable the support that God has built into our lives can be. Don't neglect it. Don't forsake it.

And don't let the symptoms of burnout take you away. Don't let burnout burn out God's Holy Spirit. There is no option for us. Seek help. Seek God. Don't run. And don't become a victim of burnout.