Spiritual Burnout

Have you ever had a job that you really liked and you started going to that job and it was just invigorating? You just wanted to get there, you loved going there, and you worked and you just put everything into it. And over the years, you started just get worn out. Over the years, the stress of the job, sometimes the lack of sense of accomplishment or moving forward, and it got to the place where you just lost interest. Going to work was difficult. You're easily exhausted. You get to work and at eight o'clock and by ten o'clock you're tired. And you shouldn't be tired. You know you shouldn't be tired, but you just you've lost your drive. You desire to keep moving forward. Maybe you're a mother or grandmother. There's a lot of grandmothers taking care of children today. And I have lots of conversations with them about how much they love their grandchildren and how much it means to them to spend time with them and take care of them. But as time goes on, the stress of that is overwhelming. It's the noise. It's the clutter. And you hear this from mothers all the time, every day I get up and I have to do this through the same stuff, the same dishes, the same diapers. It's just wonderful. You love them and yet there's a point where mothers and grandmothers just wear out. They just say, doing this is exhausting. I feel like I have no fuel. I feel like I have no life. I feel like I have no personal feelings. I've heard mothers say that before. I don't feel much anymore. I just go through this routine. Or maybe you have given many, many years in service to the congregation and you've worked hard and you've given, you've given, and you're given.

And now you're just tired. It's hard to give. And maybe you come to church and you feel like, you know, I come, it's my routine, I have to do it, I don't feel excited about going there. And at the end you don't go home feeling spiritually encouraged. You don't go home feeling spiritually uplifted. It's just like, well, I got through another thing on my list. You know, we do that sometimes.

We get life as just a list. Today I get to mark something off my list. You're just getting through your list. So you can get, you know, exhausted at the end of the day. They have a term for this that appeared in the 1970s in the business world. It was called burnout. It's an interesting term. It was sort of tied into the fact that airplanes, you know, or jets have flame outs. Where, you know, something stops the fuel flow from being complete and all of a sudden there's this sort of explosion and then there's nothing.

You know, you've got to get somehow the fuel get backing in back into the engine or you're going to crash. And so it was burnout. You don't have any fuel left. Or the little bit of fuel you have keeps you going. But it doesn't, you're not productive. You're not happy. This is a different issue than other issues we talk about sometimes like depression or grief.

Burnout has a very specific reason for it. And it is something that's happened in your life where you get to the place where there's a grind to what you're doing and you've lost interest in it and you're not productive anymore and you're tired a lot. Now we can suffer from spiritual burnout. That's what I'm talking about today. I'm talking about burnout on your job or whatever. But spiritual burnout. That we do this, oh you put in some prayer. I've known people that have actually timed their prayers because they say, well if I just get out and pray, I pray for three or four minutes and then I lose concentration.

So I now time my prayer and then they're exhausted because they feel like at the end what did I achieve except making myself stay here on my knees? What have I done except exhaust myself as I now go to the next thing I do which I have to fit into this time frame? It is easy over time. Some of you remember maybe you were new in the church and the excitement you felt and the energy you had.

For those who grow up in the church, there's still an energy that's there when you start to realize and repent and receive baptism. There's this energy, this new infusion of excitement in your spiritual relationship with God. But over time anybody can and will experience a stage of burnout. That spiritually there just isn't anything there. And you're struggling with a sense of exhaustion, a sense of just lack of production. You know you're not doing things you should be doing, but you don't know how to get there.

Well, you know the steps, but you don't have the energy to do it. What do we do when we're faced with spiritual burnout? Let me give you some symptoms and then we're going to look at a classic case in the Bible of spiritual burnout of a person who had huge amount of spiritual energy and accomplishment and God was with them and this man had all kinds of things in his life that obviously God was with him.

And yet he reached the point where there was no fuel left and then we'll look at how God dealt with it. It's very interesting how God dealt with the fact that the man just burned out. There's nothing left to even function anymore. Here's symptoms of spiritual burnout. Now these symptoms are a lot of times what you'll find in the business world when they tell management these are signs of burnout in the workplace.

But this is more than that. This is looking at this from a viewpoint of our spiritual life, our Christianity. The first one is a loss of zeal for Christianity as a way of life. You know the doctrines, you know the beliefs, but you grind through this way of life. You compromise with things. You just don't have the energy to do things right, to do things the way you know you should. Second is a lack of desire for prayer and Bible study. You know you should do it.

You feel compelled to do it. I should do this. How many times have you said that? I know I should be praying. I know I should be studying my Bible because that's my connection with God. That's how I talk to God. That's how God talks to me. And God's drawing you towards it and yet you just don't seem to have the energy to do it.

Now once again there could be other reasons for that. We're talking about very specific reason here. So we have to put all these symptoms together and then look at an issue to see whether burnout is an issue in your life or not. Because there could be other reasons for some of these same symptoms. You begin to withdraw from church activities and from fellowship.

You no longer feel the desire just to fellowship with other people of like mind. You might come to church. Well, you're commanded to do that. And once again you're going through the motions. You know when you're burned out you still go through the motions unless you become those classic cases of the 55 year old executive. We have lots of money, big house, wife, family, and suddenly he just burns out.

Quitsie's job gives up everything he has and runs off to Tahiti with his secretary. And everybody goes he went crazy. And of course six months later he says, I went crazy? What did I do here? I just didn't have the energy to do this anymore. So the solution was what? And burnout can lead you to some pretty wacky conclusions. We make some very bad decisions when we're suffering from burning. It is becoming chronically depressed. Now, depression is a different thing, but burnout can lead to depression. One of the things that happens we have to look for in burnout is you become increasingly cynical and negative.

You know, if you get overly involved in keeping up with the news, you burn out from it. Now, we should keep up with the news, but if you get overly involved with all the negative and bad stuff happening in this world, guess what happens after a while? You keep it up long enough.

All your conversations will be about what? All the bad stuff in the world. All your conversations will be cynical and negative and you have no purpose. Which brings us to point number six in this list is a loss of purpose. Why am I doing anything? And you start asking yourself, why do I do this? Why am I doing this? The seventh symptom is a loss of desire to help others, to serve others.

You no longer want to serve anybody. You're just happy being, doing your own stuff, living your own life, and yet we know from the Bible that serving other people is an integral part of Christianity. And you just lose the desire to do it. The desire isn't there anymore. You don't have the energy to do it. And then the last sort of stage is this. You become complacent about personal sin. You sort of begin to compromise even with your behavior.

Because you just don't feel the energy to do anything else. These are symptoms that over the years, I have to admit there's been times in my life I've started to suffer these symptoms. And believe me, I've talked to many, many, many people over the years who have gone through an experience like this. Where they just don't have anything left. It's like they'll people say things like, I just don't have any fuel left in the tank. To do this is just harder than I can live it. Now we're going to look at a classic case of a person who suffered burnout. What we're going to do is look at, first of all, how God worked through this man in a remarkable way. I want you to look at his experiences. And these were experiences that all happened in a very short period of time. Burnout happens with us usually over a long period of time. It's not just a series of huge events. It's a thousand little events that wear us out. We just get emotionally, spiritually, and physically exhausted. And we just get worn out. In this case, this is such a great classic example because this happened very quickly. This happened real quick with this person because of the enormity of the events that he experienced. So let's go to 1 Kings. Let's look at some events in the life of Elijah. 1 Kings. 1 Kings chapter 18.

Verse 1. And it came to pass after many days that the word of the Lord came to Elijah in the third year, saying, Go present yourself to Ahab, and I will send rain on the earth. Now what had happened was that God had sent a drought on the land. And he had said, he had prophesied, this drought is going to happen, and it had happened. And now God goes to Elijah and says, You go tell the king that I'm going to let it rain. So he will know I stopped it and I started it. Now what's interesting here is he runs into Obadiah. And basically Obadiah had killed all the men of God. And Obadiah had taken a large number of prophets and hid them, because Obadiah actually worked for the king, and hid them to save them. So he had put his life at line. Obadiah is an interesting study here too, in his life. And Ahab said, Now you go tell him that you go tell the king, that you're a man of God, but you're in the king's palace there, that I'm coming. And Obadiah says, I can't do that, he'll kill me. He hates you. Now understand Elijah here, the remarkable amount of faith he has. The fearlessness this man has. Obadiah says, I'm not going to tell him he'll kill me, then he'll come kill you. And Elijah says, no, he won't. God's got control of this. The faith, then the fearlessness, and the energy is just absolutely amazing. Let's skip down to verse 7. And as Obadiah was on his way, suddenly Elijah met him, and he recognized him, and he fell in his face and says, is that you, my Lord Elijah? And he said, yes, it is I. Go tell your master Elijah is here. Now I love this response. So he said, have I sinned? Okay. Well, what have I done that God's going to do this to me? Have I sinned that you are delivering your servant into the hand of Ahab to kill me?

And he goes on and explains what Ahab's been doing is he finds out rumors where you are, even in other countries, and he sends out assassins to kill you. And then he gets the king of those countries to send him an official statement that says, no, he's not here. I mean, he's willing to go to war over killing him. And Obadiah says, I'm going to go tell him you're coming. What have I done that God hates me so much?

So he does. And so then Elijah goes and appears before Ahab.

Then Elijah says, let's go down to verse 15. Then Elijah said, as the Lord of hosts lives before whom I stand, I will surely present myself to him today. Now you talk about fearlessness. I mean, this is the opposite of this fearlessness, this faith. Don't worry, Obadiah.

You don't have to go. I'm going. I'm going to appear before him today because the Lord of hosts is made. The Lord of armies is sending me. Why do I fear him?

Then verse 17. Then it happened when Ahab saw Elijah, that Ahab said to him, is that you, O troubler of Israel? I love Ahab's approach here. Ahab wasn't the problem.

It's like you're the problem. You're the one who's making a nut rain. Isn't that a God? Elijah has the ability to make a nut rain.

The trouble of Israel. And he answered, I am not troubled, Israel, but you and your father's house have. You talk about courage.

And that you have forsaken the commandments of the Lord and have followed the bales.

Now therefore send and gather all Israel to me at Mount Carmel, the 450 prophets of Baal, and the 400 prophets of Asherah who eat at Jezebel's table. Now Jezebel is the queen.

And if Ahab is the bad guy, you know, behind every... the old saying, behind every great man is a great woman. Well in this case, behind this wicked man is a wicked woman.

And she makes Ahab look like a, you know, a wimp.

And he says, now gather all the people who want to kill me, and let's get the first group together. There's only 850 of them. I have them overmatched. Now I want you to think about what he asked the king to do. Get the 850 pagan priests who want to kill me, and bring them into one place.

And who's going to appear? What? Elijah and his army? No, Elijah.

The zeal here, and the connection to God is amazing. He knows God is with him.

This energy, this zeal, it's coming from God.

This man is on fire. He's absolutely on fire. And they gather all the priests together. And you know the story. It's fascinating. It's a great story. He gathers them together, and he says, well, let's have a little test. You do some sacrifices to Baal, and I'll do a sacrifice to God. But you have to bring down fire from heaven to do it. And so they build the altar. They put their animal on it. They dance. They sing. They pray. They cut themselves. So they're bleeding all over the place. They do pettings. They do everything they can. And of course, he says, maybe he's asleep. He's asleep. Just yell a little louder. He could probably hear you there. Now, he taunts them. Now, remember, he's alone. He taunts them.

When time is up, he builds an altar, puts an animal on it, and soaks it in water so that there's no way... In fact, he has to build a trench around it to contain the water that runs off of. There's no way a human being can start a fire there. He has a short prayer. Fire can douse from heaven and consumes everything. I mean everything. The stones, the water, everything's gone.

And then he says to all the people around, grab them. And he says he takes them down to the river and Elijah kills them.

Now, that's commitment. Now, God had obviously told him to do it. But understand the amount of spiritual, physical, emotional energy. There's nothing easy about anything God asked him to do here.

But God's with him. He's dedicated. He just keeps moving forward. And he does what he's supposed to do. So let's go down to verse 41. So he stands up to the king, faith, fearlessness, zeal. He stands up to all these pagan priests and destroys the entire pagan religion in just a short period of time. Now, I don't know how long it took him and I don't know how much help he had to kill all these priests, but that's a bloody, bloody business to kill human beings.

It's not an emotionally easy thing to do, even if they're the enemies of God, to kill another human being. He killed him by the hundreds. Him and whatever. I said, I don't know what help he had. It just says Elijah killed him. I assume someone helped him.

Because God told him to you. Now, you're talking about a level of commitment. That's commitment, right? That's commitment. Now, let's go to verse 41.

Then Elijah said to Ahab, Go up and eat and drink, for there is a sound of abundance of rain.

So Ahab went up to eat and drink, and Elijah went up to the top of Carmel. There he bowed down on the ground and put his face between his knees and said to his servant, Go up now and look toward the sea. And went up and looked and said, There is nothing. And seven times he said, Go again. Now, notice the struggle he's going through now.

Absolute faith. He told the king, God's going to fix this, and I just killed everybody.

Okay? I just killed everybody because God's going to fix it. And now he goes, okay, God, is it time? And nothing happens. Not once, not twice. He just keeps praying. But God, you told me to tell him. Now, notice the struggle. Imagine the emotional struggle. We're going to put ourselves in his mind a little bit here. This zeal, this excitement, this faith, this fearlessness.

And yet now it's like, you're going to do it right? Seven times. Seven times he goes back, back, back, struggling with, you told me to do it. When are you going to do it? Verse 44.

And it came to pass the seventh time. He said, There is a cloud as small as a man's hand rising out of the sea. So he said, Go up, say to Ahab, prepare your chariot and go down before the rain stops you. He says, It's coming. Tell him to go. Tell him to get back to the palace because the chariot is going to be bogged down if he waits any longer.

Now, once again, the struggles. We've gone through these events. Each event is a different struggle. Each event is a different even test for Elijah. Elijah's got to struggle through physically. Remember, this is a physical human being.

I mean, you think of the exhaustion of being involved in the slaying of all these priests.

The physical exhaustion that takes place. And now he said to struggle and struggle and struggle in prayer for waiting for God. When are you going to do what you said you would do? And now something amazing happens. Verse 45. Now, it happened in the meantime that the sky became black with clouds and wind and there was a heavy rain. So Ahab rode away and went to Jezreel. So Ahab jumps in his you know, has him hitch up his chariot and he's whipping this chariot trying to get away from the rain through the rain to get back. So he's you know, he's out of the rain. Then the hand of the Lord came upon Elijah and he girded up his loins and he ran ahead of Ahab to the entrance of Jezreel.

Now you can imagine Ahab's whipping those horses. He's riding. There's a boiling storm coming behind him. Wind and rain. He's got he's staying away. This looking back, looking back. He gets there and at the gates is Elijah. Uh, what took you so long? Now men don't outrun horses. This is, the Lord did this. He gave him a physical strength he could not have. It would have burst the heart of any man to try to run that far that fast. God gave him special physical strength. You know, you have to be absolutely on a spiritual high at this point, right? Stood up to the king, tore down the religion that was destroying Israel. And, you know, the rain came just like you would prophesy. God told you to prophesy and you would outrun a chariot. I don't know. That's pretty good day's work. A little more packed than my days. Think about what that, all the effects of all that is on the person that God's working through. Now see, once again, you and I are going to experience this level of God's work in us in such a short period of time. Ours comes little bit at a time and it adds up. It's not a series of few events in a short period of time. It's thousands of events over a long period of time. But it's the same result. And what was the result for Elijah? Does he lack belief in God? No. Does he know that God exists? Yes. Has God done great miracles through him? Yes.

Has he been faithful to God? Yes. Has he obeyed God? Yes. I mean, he's done it right.

Then we get to chapter 19.

And Ahab told Jezebel all that Elijah had done and how he had executed all the prophets with the sword.

Now, Jezebel, like I said, she makes her husband look like a wimp.

He had stood up to Ahab and Ahab was afraid to kill him. He saw him as a man of God.

Jezebel was pure wicked. Killing him would do her, would make her happy.

Then Jezebel said a messenger to Elijah saying, so let the gods do to me. The more also, if I do not make your life, is the life of one of them by tomorrow about this time.

Now, what would you think Elijah would do? Come get me. Yeah.

Come get me. I've killed 850 of them. Come get me. I spoke and it rained.

Come get me. I've already stood up to your husband. How are you going to scare me?

But think about everything he had been through.

Think about all that had happened to him and what his physical and emotional and spiritual state must have been. He was exhausted. He was, and I think it was a polion that said, well, maybe, I think it was a polion. Exhaustion makes cowards out of every man.

He was exhausted. And what does he do? Well, we just heard.

And when he saw that, he arose and ran for his life. You know, it doesn't say he decided to withdraw. He decided to think about it. He decided to go off and pray. It says he ran for his life.

He's in a panic and he's getting away as fast as he can.

And he went to Beersheba, which belonged to Judah, and left his servants there.

Okay, so leave me alone. I'm getting... You don't want to be around me. I'm a marked man. I'm out of here. Verse 4, And he himself went a day's journey into the wilderness and came and said, Down under a broom tree. I have no idea what a broom tree is. I should have looked that up.

And he prayed that he might die and said, is it enough?

You know, he's not praying. He's not like Jonah. He's praying for death because he's angry. Okay, he's not praying for death because he's depressed or he's praying because he says, I don't have anything left. There's nothing more in here. It's enough.

As a human being, there was nothing left.

Now, Lord, take my life, for I am no better than my father's.

This is classic burnout, spiritual burnout. I, I, I, there's nothing left. There's nothing left to give anybody here. And, you know, this can happen to human beings at all levels. I mean, sometimes that happens in a marriage where one or two of the partners will say, You know, I just have anything left to give. It's okay. Maybe there's burnout involved here.

So you have to deal with that first. But we can get this way spiritually, and it's a, it's a very dangerous place to be. And yet God gives through Elijah how he deals with it. You know, what would God say? You know, Elijah, what we're going to do is punish you. You have a bad attitude, boy. After everything I've done, and you have this bad attitude, I'm going to let Jezebel have you. That's not how God responds to this at all. God responds to the three areas of his life that he's suffering in. Okay, there's three areas here that he needs to truly deal with. And the first one is, notice verse five, that as he lay and slept under a broom tree, suddenly an angel touched him. Under a broom tree. Suddenly an angel touched him and said to him, arise and what? Arise and pray? Arise and fast? Arise and eat. When we are suffering from any kind of burnout, and spiritual burnout is mainly what we're talking about here, he says, okay, I'm suffering from spiritual burnout. The first thing I need to do is spend more time doing this. The first thing I need to do is study the entire book of Isaiah. The first thing I need to do, and when Elijah said it's enough, the first thing God did was say, get some sleep and have a good breakfast. He dealt with the physical side of this exhaustion. He dealt with his physical nature. You and I, even when we're suffering from spiritual burnout, have to deal with the physical nature. We're not immortal souls encased in a body. We are a living being. Therefore, our emotional and spiritual state and the state of our body are connected. They are connected. He tells him to eat. Notice the next statement.

Then he looked, and there at his head was a cake baked on coals and a large jar of water. So he ate and drank and did what? And laid down again. And the angel of the Lord came back the second time and touched him and said, arise and eat because the journey is too great for you. So he arose and ate and drank, and he went in the strength of that food for forty days and forty nights as far as Horeb, the mountain of God. The first thing he did was he dealt with this physical nature.

You know, when we're suffering from burnout, two things to start with. How am I eating and how am I resting? Because burnout needs, whether it's physical burnout, you know, when I tell about all the other things we can burn out on, burnout needs for us to deal with our physical nature.

You know, if you're living off of, like, Mark Smith, sugar and processed foods, but remember, he is a unique human being. Okay, he's just not like the rest of us. If we live like that, we won't have the physical energy to keep going. If we're not getting enough rest and sleep, we will not have the physical energy to keep going.

We have to go back to, first of all, now I'm not saying you can never have a piece of a comp pie, but not all the time.

It's amazing how many people I talk to when you sit down and say, okay, there's these issues in their life and the first thing you say, what are you eating and what kind of rest you're getting? And the first thing they say, because one of the signs, by the way, burnout, you can't sleep. Your mind's just going, going, going, going, going, going. You can't sleep.

So the first thing is, okay, let's eat right and let's get some rest.

Now maybe take a little vacation, just a day. Or if you get some extra time, where you simply eat right, start getting back and eating right.

But sometimes I sit down with people and say, explain what you eat.

And, you know, their day consists mainly of some processed sugar cereal for breakfast and five cups of coffee and three cokes.

You know, in some processed bread with high nitrate meats for a lunch.

And that's all they eat. And then they can't figure out why they have no energy and they're just, they can't function. Well, human beings can't function on diets like that. And first thing God says, and I guarantee you, the cakes that were brought to Elijah wasn't a bundt cake. Bundt cakes are okay to eat once in a while, that's all I'm saying. What I'm saying is that wasn't his diet, okay? God gave him something that nourished him and said, sleep some more. Let's get you rested up. You've been through an ordeal here, son. Let's get you rested up and let's give you some food and let's get you right back where you need to be. One of the blessings for, so first of all, we have to start with, what are we eating and are we getting enough rest? Now there's other physical things we can do, but those are the two places to start. Okay, we're just talking about baby steps today.

Baby steps. Because we can destroy our health through what we eat and then we don't know why we don't have any energy. Which brings us to a gift that God gives us that has a physical blessing that many times if we're not careful we ignore and that's the Sabbath. The Sabbath has this huge spiritual benefit, but it also has a physical benefit. When he says it is a day of rest, it is a day of rest. Unfortunately, what we do is we bring all of our problems, all of our worries, our anxieties, and that's what we think about on the Sabbath. So how we have a physical issue that we are physically tired and not nourished. To deal with burnout, you have to deal with both of those things. We have to eat proper nourishment on a daily basis and we have to get proper rest. And the Sabbath is a day of rest. Now there's activity in this day too, but it is to be a day where we would draw from our normal work. So there's a great physical benefit to this day. Now the second thing I want to talk about that God does for Elijah, he deals with him physically. Physically. Physically, Elijah, let's get rested up. Let's get some right nourishment in you, nutrition, and then we'll take the next step. So now, after doing that, it's interesting. God doesn't send him back to work right away. He gives him 40 days of rest. Now you and I don't ever get 40 days of rest.

But none of us have to go face the king, you know, kill 400 or 850 people, or at least the 450 of Baal. We don't have to, you know, pray and reign comes upon an entire nation. And we don't have to face Jezebel. So, okay, we don't, our days are a little different than that.

But he gives him 40 days of rest. And then he says here in verse 9, And then he went into a cave, so this is part of this rest, and spent the night in that place.

Behold, the word of the Lord came to him, and he said, What are you doing here, Elijah?

Your rest is up. And here's the thing with burnout. We can start physical rest, and then we just sort of get lethargic, and we just stay there. Well, if we get some physical rest, you'll start getting some energy back. And now he's getting some energy back.

And God shows up and says, Okay, you rested up. What are you doing in the cave?

And he said, I have been very zealous for the Lord God of hosts, for the children of Israel have forsaken your covenant, tore down your altars, and killed your prophets with the sword, I alone and left, and they seek to take my life.

Now we have the issue of emotions. He had some physical energy back. He had been nourished. He had some rest. And now it's like, but you know, I'm all alone here. There's nobody with me. Jezebel's out there probably got assassins all over the place trying to kill me.

I just, why do I even do this? He had to deal with his emotional state.

So once we deal with the physical part of Berno, we have to deal with the emotional part. And usually it's because we're thinking very, very negative thoughts. We're thinking very negative thoughts.

We're not zeroed in on God, but we're thinking negative thoughts. You know, it's, I talked about the Sabbath. Leave a mark here. We'll come back. Let's go to Isaiah 58.

What do we think about on the Sabbath? What do you think about? What is your emotional state on the Sabbath? Because what you think about on the Sabbath as this special blessing from God, and our emotional state on the Sabbath is going to affect the rest of the week.

It's going to affect what we do the rest of the week. Because this is where God energizes us. Now, God energizes us all days of the week, but this is special. He says on this day, let's make sure we don't burn out. The Sabbath is God's plan. It's God's way of dealing with our physical burnout.

So notice what he says. Verse 13, if you turn away your foot from the Sabbath, you know, people say, well, okay, under the new covenant, how am I to keep the Sabbath? We don't keep it exactly like they did in the Old Testament. No, but this will explain. This verse explains how we are to keep the Sabbath in its spiritual intent as well as any place in the older New Testament. He says, if you turn away your foot from the Sabbath, from doing your pleasure on my holy day and call the Sabbath a delight, find joy in this day in the way God designed it. Now we say, I can't find joy without playing two hours of video games. I can't find joy without, you know, we fill in the blank. And God says, no, those are the things that are draining you of your energy. Those are the things that are literally making you where you can't function.

One of the symptoms of real, the last stages of burnout is that you can't do two things at the same time ever because you can't concentrate long enough. Your brain just, it's all over the place. Sometimes you think, well, we're going crazy. No, your brain is saying, I can't handle this amount of information. I can't handle this stress. You have to slow this down. And God says, on the Sabbath, slow down, slow down and take out of your mind all the clutter and say, this is good. Now, for a lot of people, the first couple, you know, they keep the Sabbath the first weeks or even months, it's strange. What am I supposed to do? Is it a day of boredom? I go to church, but what am I supposed to do? You keep the Sabbath long enough and it's like, oh man, what would I do without the Sabbath?

Because it is God's way of rejuvenating us on all these levels, physically, emotionally, and spiritually. He says, the Holy Day of the Lord honorable, so if you call the Sabbath a delight, the Holy Day of the Lord honorable, it shall honor Him. This is a God-focused day. We focus on God this day and we tend to focus on God the rest of the week. Because why? We have the physical, emotional, and spiritual energy to do it. This is all it has to do with exhaustion.

Burnout has to do with exhaustion. If I'm physically exhausted, I can't respond to God properly.

This is a day to eat right. This is a day to get extra rest. That's why we love potlucks on the Sabbath. I think potlucks are good for us Christians on the Sabbath, especially Larry's collard greens. And yes, it's okay to have a cookie on the Sabbath. Then if you're eating a box of Oreos every day the rest of the week, you're in real trouble. And it's one of the reasons why you have no energy. He says, the Holy Day of the Lord honorable and you shall honor him, not doing your own ways. You're finding your own pleasure. You're speaking your own words.

We center this day on God and we find something from God. It's interesting how Elijah had to first be physically helped. And now it's emotional. He says, I can't do this. I feel better now. I have some energy. Man, I just went 40 days without eating anything. It's great. Now, obviously, God said, okay, well, after 40 days, he ate because he only went 40 days. But God said, okay, look, I've just done another miracle for you.

I'm giving you nourishment. I'm giving you rest. You've had a vacation. Yeah, but emotionally, he still, I can't do this anymore. I can't take the stress of it. So let's go back.

And let's look at verse 11 of chapter 19 of 1 Kings.

So we're back in 1 Kings chapter 19 verse 11.

So here's what God tells him after he says, I can't do this anymore. It's enough. I'm the only one. I'm alone. See, it's now we're talking about emotions. He's not exhausted anymore physically. I just feel alone. I don't, I just don't want to do this anymore. I'm worn out.

He said, go out and stand on the mountain before the Lord. Behold, the Lord passed by and a great and strong wind tore into the mountain and broke the rocks and pieces before the Lord.

But the Lord was not in the wind. And after the wind and earthquake, but the Lord was not in the earthquake. And after the earthquake of fire, but the Lord was not in the fire. And after the fire, still small. God shows up, shakes the mountain. There's a little, you know, a little fancy expression of power here, just a little bit, you know, to make Elijah remember something. It is God who was working through it. Of course he couldn't do this on his own. Of course, physically, emotionally, spiritually, he couldn't do any of this on his own. And God reminds him who he is. And this is what God wants to do with us spiritually, where we're burned out. The emotional part of it to say, remember, I know how small you are. I understand where you are emotionally. I understand it.

But you got to understand who I am because I will do it in you.

And it's interesting, all the show of power, but there's no this big booming voice. How dare you?

There's this little small voice that says, verse 13, so it was what Elijah heard it. They wrapped his face in his mantle and went out and stood at the entrance of the cave. And suddenly a voice came to him and said, remember, you already asked him this, uh, what are you doing here? Why are you hiding out in a cave? I mean, I just, don't care if you've had a 40 day vacation. You rested, you're well fed. You're the better. He's probably the best health of his life.

And he said, I have been very zealous for the Lord. See, I'm burned out. I've given all I have. I've been zealous. I've given everything I am. And I've given it to you, God, because the children of Israel have forsaken your covenant, torn down your altars and killed your prophets with the sword. I alone are left and they seek to take my life. He says, I emotionally can't deal with this. Nobody listens to me. I've given all I've had. I've given up my, you know, he probably gave up any house and wealthy. He gave up everything.

He gave up everything. And he says, and I can't give up anymore. There's nothing more to give. Besides, I'm by myself. Skip down the verse.

Skip down to verse 18. Here's what God says, because God now responds to him. So we're getting towards the end of God's response.

Yet I have reserved seven thousand in Israel, all whose knees have not bowed to Baal, and every mouth that has not kissed him.

God says, you're not alone. First of all, you have me.

I just, sure, I just caused an earthquake for you. Just to show you, I'm here.

And besides, there's seven thousand other people struggling just like you in Israel.

There's seven thousand other people that are trying to obey me. There's seven thousand other people who haven't worshiped Baal. Oh, remember Obadiah?

That's what he could have said. What about your old friend Obadiah? Why not him?

Now, there's seven thousand of you out there.

In other words, he says, you can't feel this way. It's not true. Here's the problem with emotions. Many times, they're not true.

There are things we tell ourselves, and the emotions aren't true.

His emotions weren't true, and now he had to deal with that.

You can imagine Elijah's response. Seven thousand? Yeah, they're all over the place.

What about the 150 guys that Obadiah has hidden?

What about them and their families? There's priests out there still obeying me.

There's people out there still praying to me, still obeying me, still keeping the Sabbath, still obeying God's laws. He said, there's people out there doing that.

Just because you didn't know about him, and he lets him see a bigger picture. You know, there's a fascinating scripture in Isaiah 40. Let's turn there. I wasn't going to go there, but...

Isaiah 40.

Verse 25.

Guys, as to whom then will you liken me?

Or to whom shall I be equal, says the Holy One?

Lift up your eyes on high and see who has created these things, who brings out their host by number and calls them by name, by the greatest of his might, by the strength of his power. Not one is missing.

He goes on. He's telling the people of Israel through Isaiah. He says, who is like me? Just look at the stars!

Sort of like Elijah. Here's a little fire. Here's a little earthquake. Remember who I am.

Here he just says, God, look at the stars. Remember who I am, God says.

Stop all these negative, dysfunctional emotions. I'm the only one. I don't have anything left to give. No one listens to me anyways. He says, and go do it!

Verse 31. But those who wait on the Lord, that's this whole passage.

Verse 25 is where he really starts this thought. And then verse 31. But those who wait on the Lord shall renew their strength, and shall mount up with wings like eagles.

And they shall run and not be weary. They shall walk and not faint.

God says, remember me, and wait for me. Remember me, Elijah.

Remember, I'm the one who caused it to rain. Remember, I'm the one who brought down fire on your offering. Remember, I'm the one who gave you the strength to kill those men who I wanted killed because they were wicked. Remember, I'm the one who were with you when you stood before Ahab and declared, and he said he was going to kill you, but he didn't, did he?

Remember who did all this? Wait for me, and stop trying to do all this yourself. And stop thinking about the failures, and look at me.

And so spiritual burnout starts with dealing our physical nature. But then it also deals with this emotional nature of stopping looking at ourselves, and stop being consumed with our own negativity, and looking at God.

Looking at God, because it's only God that can do it.

And so in this now, he begins to deal with our spiritual nature because he gives us this bigger picture. It says they will renew their strength. In other words, they've lost their strength.

Isaiah 40 is about being renewed. It's about dealing with spiritual burnout. You will be renewed. And so then God deals spiritually.

He deals with them emotionally, and then by the end, he might start with sleep and have some food. He ends with, look at me. Now you can be spiritually renewed.

Look at me. If we only look at the physical, we will become cynical and negative, and we will give up.

We have to look at God, and God made him look at him.

He made him look at him. You know what's very interesting if you go back to 1 Kings?

You know what God then said? By the way, I have a job for you. I want you to go over to Syria. Of course, they don't like you any more than the Israelites, but I want you to ordain the next king of Syria. You're going to show up in the palace and say, God's chosen you, and I'm going to ordain your king. You see, once God deals with us, and we understand, okay, I have to get this physical rest. I have to take care of my physical body.

Just like he did with Elijah, and the Sabbath is part of that. Then he says, let's deal with the negative emotions here, Elijah. You're not the only one. Okay, you're really not. Let me explain it to you.

It deals with the emotional side, which the Sabbath is part of that.

And then he says, now let's deal with who I am. God says, that's what the Sabbath is about, right? We're here about who God is. The Sabbath is the greatest gift. I mean, obviously, the Holy Spirit and Jesus Christ, but I'm talking about just the things that God has us do. What God has us do, the Sabbath is his gift in dealing with spiritual burnout. It's a tool. Remember, the Sabbath was made for man, not man for the Sabbath. He was made for us because, oh my, if I let you people run seven days a week, kill yourselves. So this is for us. He has to command it because we won't even want to do it because we just want to run, run, run, do our own stuff. So he has to command us to do it.

And he ends this with Elijah, now son, let's go do. He puts him back to work. Now Elijah has to go back and face another king, face more danger, do all kinds of things.

He has to do all kinds of things. And Jezebel's out there still trying to kill him because God takes care of her. God takes care of her. Elijah doesn't have to.

So what we have here is a classic understanding of a man who spiritually burns out and how God deals with it.

So one last scripture. Let's go to Hebrews 6.

Hebrews chapter 6.

Verse 9.

But beloved, this is the writer of Hebrews says, but beloved, we are confident of better things concerning you. Yes, things that accompany salvation. These are things that go along with salvation that we speak in this manner. For God has not adjusted to forget your work and labor of love, which you have shown toward his name. He says God hasn't forgotten all that you've done all these years, even though you feel exhausted at times. God hasn't forgotten it. He's worked through you. He helped you accomplish these things. The labor of love, which you have shown towards his name and that you have ministered to the saints and do minister. And we desire that each of you show the same diligence in the full assurance of hope until the end. In other words, keep it up. Don't stop. Now you may have to stop sometimes and get some physical nourishment, physical rest, rest of the brain. You know, we have to rest this brain every once in a while, too.

Our brains can't handle everything that's thrown into it.

He says, and we desire that each of you show the same diligence to the full assurance of hope until the end. Now notice that you do not become sluggish. That's the sign of spiritual burnout. You don't have any energy and you just don't. You're just sluggish. He says, do not become sluggish, but imitate those who through faith and patience inherit the promise. Imitate those who through faith and patience endure. They go through their times of burnout and come out strengthened, as it said in Isaiah, strengthened as we see that Elijah experienced. Remember, when you are suffering from the symptoms of spiritual burnout, which everybody does from time to time, remember Elijah, you need physical food and rest. You need emotional rest.

You need spiritual rejuvenation by having God show you who He is. Of course, that would include Jesus Christ showing you who He is. And then you need to return to meaningful activity. God says, okay, you're rejuvenated now. Go do. A lot of times after going through burnout, though, you actually cut some things out of your life. You realize there are things that aren't that meaningful.

And what you do is you return to meaningful activity. And remember that this day is part of that process because it's in this day that all of that rest is given to us. Physical rest, emotional rest, and spiritual rest in God and Jesus Christ.