Rick Warren - How to Keep Your Tank Filled Instead of Running on Empty

I want to begin today with two questions. The two

questions survey okay, and the first question is this, be honest,

don't lie. How many of you have ever run out

of gas? Can I see your hands? Great? All right?

The rest of you I hate? Okay, all right, you

are my kind of people. Those you raise your hand.

The rest of you you didn't raise your You can

go home right now. You don't need this message. You

are too perfect, and I envy you. You're honestly in

my hall of fame. Now here's the second survey question.

Everybody can raise their hands on this one. How low

do you let your gas tank get before you refill? Okay,

so when you refill after a quarter of a tank low?

How many of you do that? You can go home

right now. You don't need this message. All right. When

your tank is half empty, how many of a refill?

All right? When your tank is three quarters of an

tank empty? Raise your hand? All right? All right? Uh,

when you are five miles past empty, raise your hand.

You need to stay. Okay, those of you raise your

hand that you need to stay for this message. Now,

what I want us to do today as we start

in this next message of the series, strategies for stressful

time is I want us to look at how do

you keep your tank filled instead of running on empty?

And before we do the antidote the solutions to staying

spiritually and emotionally and relationally filled so that your tank

is full, I first need to identify the ten reasons

that you run out of gas. Okay, I want get

out your pencil and write this down, the ten reasons

you run out of gas. Because each of these reasons

why we run out of gas in our car actually

parallels the reasons the ten reasons why you feel spiritually

empty or emotionally empty too, so as I give them

to you. As we go through this list of ten things,

I want you to circle the number of reasons that

actually apply to your spiritual or emotional condition if you're

feeling a little low, a little running on empty right now? Okay,

here they are. Number one. First reason we run out

of gas is not starting out with a full tank.

Not starting out with a full tank. Now, we're gonna

look at some of the antidotes to these later on,

but how you start your day sets your day. Not

starting out every day with a full tank means you're

going to be on empty much of the day. Number two,

being too busy to stop and refuel. That's the second

reason we run out of gas when you're too busy

to stop up and refuel. And some of you can

relate to that in your emotional life and your relational life,

in your spiritual life. Number three, ignoring the owner's manual

and pushing my car farther than it was created to go.

You got a ten gallon tank or fifteen gallon tank

or twenty gallon tank or whatever it is, you need

to know what the owner's manual says. When you push

it passed further than the owner's manuel tells you, you're

gonna run out of gas. Now, I hate tell you this,

but you're not superman. You're not superwoman. You have limits.

And one of the limits that God puts in your

life is actually in the Ten Commandments, and it says this,

Every seventh day is for worship, rest, and relaxation. It's

called the Sabbath. And if you ignore the Sabbath, you

don't take a day for worship, rest and relaxation, then

you're gonna pay for it, and you're gonna be running

on empty most of your life. Here's the fourth cause

that we run out of gas emotionally and spiritually, not

just in our cars. Number four being unaware of hidden

links leaks. Being unaware of hidden leaks that are draining me. Now,

most common causes of leaks in your life, because you

are draining energy all the time, are your relationships. They

drain you, and your responsibilities they drain you. I don't

know if you realize this, but conflict drains you of energy.

Criticism drains you of energy. Disappointment drains you of energy.

Frustration drains you of energy. You've experienced all of these

during the pandemic. Grief when you have a loss, drains

you of energy. These are common leaks that empty your soul. Right,

and when you're not unaware of the hidden leaks in

your life, you're gonna run out of gas pretty quickly,

emotionally and spiritually. Okay. Number five being in a hurry.

Being in a hurry drains your tank. Now you already know,

you already know that going fast waste more gas. I

mean you know that when you're driving really fast, rapid acceleration,

speeding up. You know when the light turns green, that

burns a lot of gas. Faster and the faster I drive,

the faster, I'm gonna run out of of gas and

my tank is gonna go low. Now the same is

true with your soul. That when you're in a hurry

and you don't pause enough to refill, then you're gonna

your your tank is gonna go empty. Quicker and the

faster you go in life, the faster the pace of

your life. Are you hearing me, The faster the pace

of your life, the quicker you are gonna get too

empty on the e of your of your gauge. So

y'at ask yourself, what is the speed of my life today?

If I'm running on empty, if I'm running on fumes,

if I feel a little low, I feel down, I

feel a little discouraged, then maybe you're maybe you're still

going too fast in this pandemic? What is the speed

of my life? Number six six common cause of running

on empty and having an empty tank is not paying

attention to my gauges. Not paying attention to my gauges. Now,

those of us like me who have a d D,

we don't pay attention to the gauges. I rarely see

that gauge. I've got to have a big light come

on gone. You are stupid and you're on empty, and

you need to stop and get some gas right now.

I don't pay attention to my gauges, but the same

is true in life. Did you know that you have

gauges in your life that can tell you if you're

getting you're empty? You can What are the spiritual and

emotional gauges in your life? Let me just give you

a few of them. Your sleep, your sleep pattern. When

you're not getting enough sleep, guess what you're heading toward empty?

Another gauge. Your irritability when everybody around you notices you're

more irritable than normal. Guess what. That's a gauge. It's

a gauge that says you're running on fumes. You're running

on empty. You're a lot less irritable when your tank's full.

Emotionally and spiritually, your relationships are a gauge. How are

you getting along in your relationships? That's a gauge in

your life to tell me tell you whether you're on

empty or whether you've got a full tank. I hate

say this, but your weight. Your weight is a gauge

of how you're handling life. How about your attitudes? Okay,

your attitudes. How about your generosity? Generosity, you're much more

generous when you've got a full tank. When you don't

have a full take, you're not very degenerous in life

with your time, your money, or what anything. Worship attendance

is a gauge. When people start falling off and stop

going up going to church services, going to worship, that's

a gauge. They're all kinds of patients. How patient are

you that that's a good indicator of whether you've got

a full tanker or you're heading toward empty. Each of

these are gauges of how empty or full your soul is. Now.

The seventh common cost of being over being empty gas

wise out of gas is this being overloaded. Being overloaded

when your car is carrying too much weight, it uses

more gas than when there isn't as much weight in

the car. The heavier the load you carry in a vehicle,

the sooner you're going to run out of gas. I

can tell you from personal experience. Years ago, I borrowed

a vacation trailer to take my young family on a vacation.

So I attached the trailer to my car. I'd never

pulled a trailer before, and I headed north for a

family vacation, and I did not consider that carrying more

weight behind my car meant that I was going to

get fewer miles per gallon. I thought, well, I just

get the normal miles per gallon. I can go this far.

But I didn't realize that. And climbing climbing up the Grapevine,

you know the mountains north of LA, and you're going

up the mountains out of l with very strong winds

coming against you. I helplessly watched my gas gauge goo.

There's no place to turn around. Okay, there's no place

to turn around. There are no gas stations. And when

we did run out of gas inevitably on the Grapevine,

I had to leave can the kids in the car

and hike up the mountain to the nearest town, which

was Gorman. You all know where that is, and Gorman

and get a thing of gas and then hike back down.

And some of you are making that mistake right now,

when you're carrying a heavier load than you normally carry,

you're running out of gas sooner. Reminds me of a

story I heard the other day about a pet delivery

truck and there was guys going down El Toro Road

in his car behind him watching this happen, and this

pet delivery truck. At every stoplight, the driver of the

truck gets out with a big tube before and starts

beating on the side of the truck. And when it

turns green, he would get back in the truck and

he would go. But he gets to the next light,

red light, he gets out, he beats the truck with

a tube before gets back in the truck. He does

this three or four times, and finally the guy falling

behind him gets too curious and at the next light

he stops and says, what are you doing? And the

driver explained, well, this is a two ton truck and

I'm transporting four tons of canaries, so I have to

keep half of him in the air all the time.

Some of you feel like that you got so many

things in the frying pan, you got so many things

on your agenda, you gotta keep half of them in

the air all the time because you're overloaded. And if

you're trying to say to yourself, I can't handle this,

it's too much, you may need to load. Okay, that's

a typical cause of running on empty. Okay, too big

of a load. Number eight. The eighth common cause of

running out of gas emotionally, spiritually in your life is this,

assuming the limits of my tank don't apply to me. Now,

I happen to have a big SUV, a big Ford suv.

You know, I've driven one all my life, and it

holds like twenty six gallons. Some of you your car

doesn't hold half that amount. But when you think that

your tank is bigger than it really is, and you

assume that it doesn't apply to you, there's a word

for that. When I take on more than I could

really handle, it's called pride. Pride, And honestly, you, guys,

I meet a lot of people who are proud of

being workaholics. They all live in Orange County, California. They

are proud of how hard they work, and they think

they're invincible. But the truth is they're running on empty.

Pride drains your tank. Humility refills your tank, all right.

A ninth cause of why you run out of gas

emotionally and spiritually and even relationally. Ninth cost is not

knowing where to find a filling station. Now, this isn't

such a big problem anymore because we all have smartphones

and you've got Google Maps and Apple Maps and all

these other things. But before that happened, you remember, you go,

where in the world's a gas station? And you had

no idea where what, Especially if you're out on a

long trip, you go, I have no idea, is their

gas station in the next town? And you know, when

you don't know where you could get refilled, that's problem.

But spiritually and emotionally, a lot of people don't know

where to get refilled to. And now, of course filling station,

Saddleback Church and all the other good churches that preach

the Bible teach the Bible, they are emotional and spiritual

filling stations. But you know, during COVID, a lot of

people are running on empty emotionally because they've gotten out

of the habit of going to their filling station, and

so they're not getting refilled at least on a weekly

basis through the church service. Sometimes I look like you

coming in here, and I see you, you know, on

a Saturday or Sunday, and I feel like you come

walking in just really drained, and I feel like I've

got jumper cables and it's my job to attach them

to you and go and get all right, get out there,

go for another week. Hang on. You know, I'm like

a spiritual coach. I'm like the guy slapping Rocky in

the corner going pouring water on. Go go, go guy, man,

you can do it. I know you get out there

and do another round. And I know you're getting beat

up on a weekly basis, and you know I love

you as your pastor, and I feel like my job

is to to be a spiritual filling station, is to

help you get recharged and refilled emotionally and spiritually for

the weekend. But if the people who've gotten out of

the habit of coming don't do that, they're just getting

more and more drained. Finally, the tenth reason, and this

really has to do more with if you've never driven

a car, and that is not knowing how to refill

my tank. I have to admit that when I got

my newer car, I didn't know how to open the

gas tank. I kept looking for the thing to pop

for it to open, and I couldn't figure it out,

and then finally figured out, oh, you just press on

it and it opens up on its own. But I

didn't know how to refill my tank for several days. Now,

the feeling of emptiness during COVID pandemic is at an

all time high. A lot of people are feeling empty

right now, They're feeling drained. But I want to tell

you this, everybody, listen, what we're going through is not new.

People have gone through periods of draining and feeling empty

for centuries and actually millennia. Let me just show you

a couple of things on the in scripture from the Bible,

look up here on screen. In Lamentations, chapter two, verse eleven,

Jeremiah says this, my eyes have no more tears, and

I'm sick to my stomach, and I feel empty inside.

That's thousands of years ago. Guys, you may be feeling

that today. Well. Jeremiah, who wrote that book, Jeremiah Lamentation,

felt that. He said, I feel empty inside. How about

this one? Look on the screen, Job chapter seven, verse three.

Job says, I am given months that are empty. Sounds

like a pandemic. I'm given months that are empty and

nights of misery. So Job understands if you're feeling that way.

How about this one In Isaiah, This is out of

the amplified translation. Isaiah says this, I have labored, I

have labored in vain, and I've spent my strength for

nothing and in empty futility. He said, I'm feeling empty.

Or how about this one one more second Samuel three

thirty nine. David says this, even though I am the

appointed King, I feel empty. So you may be on

top of your game, you may be at the pinnacle

of your career. You may get your cut name on

the cover of some magazine. David says, even though I'm

the King, I feel empty inside. Now, before we look

at the solutions, I'm gonna pause right here, and I

want you to look at that list of ten things

on your outline, and I want you to go back

and circle the numbers that apply to your life. All right,

circle that. Look at that list and go through it again.

All right, let's look at it again. If you'd say,

not starting out with a full tank every day, that's me.

Check that one. Circle it being too busy to stop

and refuel. Circle that one ignoring the owners of Anuel,

pushing my car or my life further than it was

created to go. Being on number four, being unaware of

hidden leaks, leaks, maybe you got conflict in your life.

Number five being in a hurry uh. Number six, not

paying attention to my gauges. Maybe you need to check

that one. Number seven being overloaded. I got too much

to do right now. Number eight, assuming that the limits

of my tank don't apply to me. Number nine not

knowing where to find a filling station. Obviously you know

that one. You don't have to circle. Circle that. Number ten,

not knowing how to refill my tank. If you circle

the last one, you came to the right weekend, because

that's what we're going to look at. How do you

refill your tank? Now? What does Jesus have to say

about all this? What does Jesus have to say when

we come to him with an emptiness in our lives,

an empty soul, an empty heart, empty of character. How

does Jesus respond when you say, I got nothing to give,

I'm all out of gas, I'm living on fumes. What

does Jesus do when you come to him in your emptiness?

Does he scold you no? Does he judge you no?

Does he reprimand you say, oh, you should be full? No?

In fact, he does the exact opposite. Jesus says this

in Matthew chapter eleven. Look at this Matthew chapter eleven,

Verses twenty eight to thirty. He says this, if you're tired,

I would assume that includes a lot of people sitting

here right now and those who are listening in Daily Hope.

If you're tired, most people are tired today because of

what we've been through the last eighteen months. If you're

tired from carrying heavy burdens, come to me, Come to me,

and I will give you a whole lot more to do.

Oh no, that's not what he says. He doesn't say,

come to me and I'll give you a whole bunch

of new things to do. No, he says, I will

give you what rest. Anybody like that. That's what Jesus says.

When you come to in with your emptiness, come to

me and I will give you r e st. Now

he's not talking about physical rest. You can get that.

He's talking about emotional and spiritual rest. You can be

physically rested and still feel empty inside. We're not talking

about physical emptiness today. You know the last two days.

You know what I did each of our grandkids when

they turn kay and I take them on a ten

on a two day trip to wherever they want to go.

In California, and it's on your tenth birthday. The last

of our grandkids turned ten. Claire turned ten this week,

and so we said, wherever you want to go in California.

Some have gone to San Francisco, some have gone to Tahoe.

Claire decided two days of Disneyland. I walk my tushy

off for the last two days. First day, we walked

nine point two miles. I measured it over thirty thousand

steps in Disneyland. We've been on every ride you can

possibly imagine, and we were there for two days. I'll

be honest with you, guys, I'm tired today. But that

didn't have to do with my emotional state. It doesn't

have to do with my mental or physical or spiritual state.

I'm just tired. So thank you guys, figuring it all

out on your own. Goodbye. No. No, you know, you

can be physically tired but not spiritually empty and not

emotionally empty. Or you could be physically fit. Some of

you are physically fit, you look like it, but you're

emotionally empty or you're spiritually empty. So Jesus when he says,

come to me and I'll give you rest, he's talking

about rest for your soul. In fact, he says that

later in the passage, if you're tired of carrying heavy burdens,

come to me and I will give you rest. Take

my yoke upon you. Then learn from me, for I'm

gentle and humble in spirit, and you will find rest

for your soul. That's the refilling your tank. For the

yoke I share with you is easy to wear, and

it makes the load light. The load is light. Now.

I want you to circle. If you're taking notes, circle

the word come, circle the word take, and circle the

word learn. These are the first steps. Ready, Step number one,

get fed up with how I've been feeling. Get fed

up with how I've been feeling. Nothing is gonna change

in your life until you get this satisfied with it,

dissatisfied with the way that you feel. Right now, you

have to come to the point in your life, my friends,

where you say, I'm not gonna live this way anymore.

I've had enough. I'm not gonna stay this way anymore.

I'm going to change. I'm gonna do something about the

way that I feel. Nothing happens until you get desperate.

You see, it's just too easy to put up with

everything you're going through even when you don't like it,

simply because it's familiar. It's uncomfortable, it may be even painful,

it may be even empty, but is familiar. So what

is it that's gonna cause you to finally get fed

up with your current situation, your current circumstance, and the

way that you've been feeling about it. I've talked to

thousands and thousands and thousands of people about this issue

over the last forty two years a saddleback pastor, and

I've discovered that there are only three times when people

really really change. Three things change people pain perspective and

no other choice. Pain perspective and no other choice. You're

not gonna change the situation you're in. You're not gonna

change the way you feel until you either have enough

pain or you change your perspective or there's no other choice. Now,

let me show you just three Bible examples of what

I just said. First, Solomon. Solomon says this about pain

in Proverbs chapter twenty, verse twenty seven to thirty. He

says this, the Lord gave us a conscience and a mind,

so we cannot hide from ourselves. I know when I'm

in pain, I know when I'm empty. But he says,

sometimes it takes a painful situation to make us change

our ways. Everybody agree with that. Sometimes it takes a

painful situation to make us change our ways. You see,

we don't change when we see the light. We change

when we feel the heat, and when the heat's on.

We never change until the fear of change is exceeded

by the pain. And that's why you stay with situations

and circumstances, and stay even with the feelings of emptiness

and dissatisfaction in your own life, because you're not enough

pain yet. You haven't hit the bottom. It hadn't gotten

that bad yet for you. And until you get so discomfortable,

so dissatisfied, we only change when our pain is greater

than the problem or the fear of change. So pain

will cause you to change. Number two, we get this

from the story of the Parable of the Jesus, Parable

of the Prodigal Son, the story of the Lost Son.

You remember that guy, he's a young kid, and he says, Dad,

I want my inheritance. Now I'm leaving, And he leaves,

takes all of his inheritance and goes to Las Vegas

Downtown Strip and spends all his money on wine. Women's

song and he says this. It says there about about

the situation. He wasted everything he'd been given on foolish

living till he was broke, miserable, and starving. He had

to get a job feeding pigs. Now you remember, pork

is anathema for Jews. This guy's Jewish and what's he doing.

He's feeding pigs. So he's got it not only a

dirty job, he's got a job he's not supposed to

even be doing. He had to get a job feeding pigs,

and he became so hungry he is willing to eat

the pigs food. You got to be pretty hungry to

eat pig slop. But finally he came to his census.

That's perspective. I've been teaching you on perspective every week

in this series on strategies for stressful Times. We talked

about it last week. How you got to have God's perspective.

He came to his senses, and that's when we change.

He came to his census, and he said to himself,

what's saying to himself? Self? Talk? You talk to yourself

all the time. He said to himself self, this is

not right. I don't out to stay this way if

I don't want to. Finally, he came to his census,

They said himself, why am I living like this at

my father's home? Even the higher servants eat better than

I do. So he decided to get up and go

home to his father. Solomon says, pain will motivate me,

and the prodigal son says a perspective. Hey, I don't

have to live this way. The people who work for

my dad eat better than I do. I go home,

just be a servant, and that would be better than

what I'm living right now. So pain and perspective. But job,

I mean. Jonah, the third guy, gives us an example

of how we change when we finally have no other choice.

And when Jonah hits bottom, and I mean literally bottom,

he's thrown over board on a ship he sinks to

the bottom of the ocean. And in Jonah chapter two

we have Jonah's prayer at the bottom of the ocean,

and one of the things he says in Jonah two

seven one of my favorite verses in the Bible. When

I had lost all hope, I turned my thoughts one

again to the Lord. When you don't have any other choice.

That's when you turn to the Lord. Now, nothing is

going to change in your life. That emptiness, that despondency,

that depression, that feeling of unfulfilled nothing's going to change too.

You get dissatisfied with the way you are, and it

will either be pain, or it'll be perspective from what

we talk about here, or it'll be you have no

other choice. But sometimes it requires all three. Now, that's

why Jesus starts his solution to your emptiness by saying

this look on the screen. If you're tired, in other words,

if you're not tired of the way you're living, Jesus

doesn't have anything to offer you. Let me just be

honest with you. If you're satisfied with the way you're

living right now, Jesus has nothing to offer you. If

you're self satisfied, even smug about what happens happening in

your life, I don't need anything, nothing needs to improve

in my life. Jesus has nothing to offer you. On

the other hand, if you are tired, that means I

get fed up. I am tired of living the way.

If you're tired from carrying heavy loads, if you're not

tired of trying to solve all the problems by yourself.

Jesus can't help you. So let me ask you. Are

you tired? Are you tired of running on empty? Are

you fed up with the emptiness that you've been feeling

in your life? And are you willing to do something

about it? As I said, we don't change until we

feel the heat. You have to come to some point

in your life where you go, I have had enough.

I refuse to live this way any longer. It is

a point of dissatisfaction. Now let me ask you in

personal question, friend a friend, do any of you You

don't have to raise your hand on this, but do

you feel you're at a breaking point right now? If

you do, I want you to write this down. I'm

gonna put it on a screen. Write this down. A

breakdown is the door to a breakthrough. Just write that down.

A breakdown is always the door to a breakthrough. There

is no breakthrough until you have the breakdown, the breakdown

of my pride, my arrogance, my self sufficiency, a breakdown

when I realize I can't do this on my own.

A breakdown is always the door to a breakthrough. And

I want you as your friend to have a breakthrough. Now, now,

let me give you another thing to write down. Write

this down underneath it. I can't make a comeback until

I admit my set back. I can't make a comeback

until I admit my setback. If you're unwilling to admit

that you have a setback and that you're empty, that

you need God's help in your life, nobody can help

you right now, I can't have a comeback. Every comeback

requires a setback first. But you got to admit it now.

Once you've done this first step, which is get fed up.

I'm fed up with a way I've been feeling. Now

you're ready for step two. It's real simple. Three words.

Come to Jesus. Write that down. Come to Jesus. That

means you bring the good and the bad in your life.

You bring the frustrating and the painful, You bring the

shameful things in your life, you bring the exhausting things

in your life. You bring everything to Jesus, and you

come to Jesus. Jesus says this. If you're tired, Okay,

I'm fed up. If you're tired from carrying heavy loads,

heavy burden, come to me and I'll give you rest. Now,

notice who you're to come to and what and what

you're to come to. He says, come to me, and

what he gives you back? Who do you come to Jesus?

What does he give you back? Rest? And Notice, friends,

It doesn't say come to religion. Religion can't help you.

He doesn't say come to rules. Rules can't help you

when you're empty. He doesn't say come to rituals. Rituals

can't help you when you're empty. He doesn't say come

to regulations. Regulations won't help you when you're empty. He says,

come to me. Come to me, the antidote to your emptiness,

the antidote to your own load, the antidote to all

the ucky things that you're feeling right now, that overloaded soul,

that empty soul. It's not a plan for time management, okay.

It's not a program for stress relief. It's not a philosophy.

It's not a program, it's not a pill. It's a person.

Come to me. You come to Jesus, not to religion

or that you come to Jesus. Now, I've studied scripture

all my life, and you know I've discovered that in

the Bible People came to Jesus for a lot of

different reasons, some of them good, some of them bad.

Some came for forgiveness, some came for healing, some came

to Jesus for advice. Some came for eternal life because

they had a question. You know what, Jesus didn't care

why people came to him, as long as they came

to him. Jesus doesn't care why you come to him,

just that you come to him. Look at this verse

on the screen John six thirty seven. Who Jesus says,

whoever comes to me, I will never reject, And notice

what Jesus promises. Look and the next thing he says,

he says, come to me, and I will give you rest.

What kind of rest? Rest for your soul? That's much

deeper than physical rest. Your problem right now is probably

not overloaded muscles. Some of you probably need your muscles

a little You need to use them a little bit more.

What you have is not overloaded muscles. What you have

right now is an overloaded mind. You have an overloaded spirit.

You have an overloaded soul. And we need rest, not

from physical work, probably, but from tension. We need rest

from anxiety. You know what, I'm talking about. We need

rest from hurry, we need rest from worry. Now that's

a different kind of rest. As I said, I just sleep.

You know, how you unwind when your physical tired is

one way. How you unwind when you're exhausted and overloaded emotionally,

I don't know. What do you do? What do you

do when you're physically, I mean spiritually and emotionally mentally exhausted?

What's your first choice? Watch a movie, do your hobby,

do an exercise, Go do a sport. You know what.

Those are all good things. Those are all good things,

but none of them can restore your soul. Only God

can restore your soul. That's why Jesus said, if you've

got soul emptiness, you've got soul depression, you've got soul overload.

Come to me, Isaiah forty. Look at this verse on

the screen. He gives power to those who are tired

and worn out, and he offers strength to the week.

So when you're inside, when you're empty inside, let me

just point out the differences. When you're empty inside, you

know what culture says, the world says, when you're empty inside,

you need to do more. You need to have more.

You need more things. You need to make more money.

That's why you're empty. Make more money, get more things,

do more things, travel the more places. Culture says, the

antidote to your emptiness is go go, go, go, go,

go go more. Jesus said, no, don't go. Come come

to me and come just as you are. He's not

gonna nag, You're not gonna judge you. He's gonna says,

I'll give you rest. Now we come now to the

third steps. First, get fed up with how I've been feeling.

And then second, come to Jesus because he's gonna give

me rest for my soul. Now here's the third step,

big one. Three words. Give up control. Give up control.

You see the real reason for overload in your life

is because we try to control things too much. We

try to control things too much. We don't even realize

how much we try to control things too much, but

we act subconsciously as if it all depends on me.

I have to hold everything together. I gotta make it

all happen. Now listen, I love you, guys. I just

want to tell you that the greater you need to

control things, the more overloaded and stress you're going to

be in life. You got to learn to give up control.

The greater your need for control, the more overloaded, the

more empty, the more stressed, the more depressed you're going

to be in life. Jesus's third solution to running on empty?

Is this the next part of that verse. Take my

yoke up on you. That's the third step. Get fed up,

come to Jesus, give up control. Now, obviously this needs

to be explained. What's he talking about here? Take my yoke? Well,

he's not talking about an egg yolk, Okay, not that

kind of yellow egg yolk. He's talking about the wooden

frame that you put over two animals farm animals so

that they work together. And when you take two cattle

and they're pulling, they're gonna pull a wagon together. You

put a yoke over both of them and then they

pull the together. He said, wait a minute, Wait a minute,

that doesn't sound very relaxing. Take my yok. That sounds

like more like a burden. I'm already carrying too much

of a burden. Why in the world would I want

to take jesus joke on me? Because you don't understand

the purpose of a yok. The purpose of a yoke

is to lighten the load, not to make a heavier load.

The purpose of a yok is so that you share

the load you're carrying. You're already carrying the load, Jesus says,

yoke up with me and I'll help you carry it.

See when two animals team up together, it makes the

load lighter, not harder. Now Jesus is God, he's not

carrying any load. He has no load because he's God.

He's not carrying anything. And he goes on to explain

that in the next verse, verse thirty. Look at that verse.

He says, for my yoke is easy and my burden

is light. I'm not gonna dump more on you when

you're tired, when you're worried, when you're empty, when you're frustrated.

He says, I'm going to take it off you by

helping you carry your load. He says, my yoke is

easy and light. I love the new Living translation says,

my yoke fits perfectly. In other words, it's not uncomfortable,

it's not rough, it's not tight, it's not painful. Now, friends,

a yoke is a symbol of partnership. It means you're

no longer going through life by yourself. You're teamed up

with God, and he's going to help you carry the load.

You weren't meant to go through life carrying your load

all by yourself. Hear and me. You weren't meant to

go through life carrying the load that you're carrying all

by yourself. So he said, I'll take part of it. Now,

I'll carry it with you. He doesn't have any load.

He's God. He doesn't add to your load. He takes

it from you and says, I'll share it. Now, you're

not carrying the load by yourself. Now, this principle of

giving up trip control to God, it's all through the scriptures,

and it's really the antidote to peace. Let me show

you some verses Psalm fifty five, verse twenty two. Pile

all your troubles on God's shoulders. He'll carry your load

and help you out. I love that in the message.

He'll carry your load and help you. You pile it

on his shoulders. You've yoke up with him. Let me

ask you who's got a wronger back. You are God,

Jesus says, join up with me, Come to me, give

up control, join with me, and all put the load

on me and we'll carry it together. Now what does

that mean, Well, let me just be real honest with you.

If you're feeling overloaded right now, it means that at

this point, right now, you are not yoked to Jesus Christ.

When I feel overloaded, when I feel stressed out, when

i feel I'm going under, every time I feel that way,

it means that somehow I've gotten detached or disconnected from Jesus.

I've gotten detached or disconnected. So this yoke is a

symbol of partnership, but it's also a symbol of control

because it's used to guide animals. You see, when when

I'm yoked with Jesus, we move together in the same direction,

at the same pace. When I'm not yoked to Jesus,

I can move at a pace that's too fast, and

I can go off in a ditch very easily. But

if you're yoked to Jesus, there's no way he's going

to let you outpace yourself. And there's no way he's

going to let you go off in a ditch. There's

no way you can go on a ditch. If you're paced,

you're partnered, you're yoked with Jesus. A yoke keeps us

from going off on our own. He keeps us from

getting in trouble. Galatians chapter five. Look at that verse

on your outline. Since we live by the spirit, let

us keep in step with the spirit. How by being

yoked to Jesus, partnering with Jesus, how do I keep

in step with the spirit? Next verse Romans three twenty eight.

Our lives get in step with God by read it

in aloud with me together, letting him set the pace.

Circle that letting him set the pace. If you're setting

the pace, it's probably the wrong pace. You know. It's

interesting to me that we have no record in scripture

of Jesus running anywhere. Jesus was never in a hurry.

You won't be either, if you're connected to Christ. Many

years ago, I found this poem and it's been a

lot to me during tough times. It's called the Lord

is my pacesetter. The Lord is my pace center. I

shall not rush. He makes me stop and rest for

quiet intervals. He provides me with images of stillness which

restore my serenity. He leaves me in the ways of

efficiency through calmness of mind, and his guidance is peace.

And even though I have a great many things to

accomplish each day. I will not fret, for His presence

is here. His timeliness is all importance, will keep me

in balance. He prepares refreshment and renewal in the midst

of my activity. By anointing my mind with his oils

of peace, my cup of joyous energy overflows. Surely, harmony

and effectiveness shall be the fruit of my hours. For

I shall walk in the peace of my Lord and

dwell in his house forever. Truth is, friends, You're gonna

be yoked to something in your life. There is some

kind of controlling entity in your life. It may be

your own expectations, the expectations of your parents, the expectations

of your boss, expectations of society. You're going to be

yoked to something. Why not choose the easiest yoke, Jesus,

the easiest yoke. If God likes you, and you like you,

and somebody else don'tlike you, that's their problem. God says,

my yoke, it's perfect. It's based on your shape. Well,

of course, it's based on your shape He made you. Now,

notice he says, take my yoke. That's an exchange. What

that means I take off the one I've been carrying,

that yoke where I've been yoked to the world's expectations,

what everybody expects me to do, and I put on

the yoke of God. What Jesus says? You know what,

the truth is, most of you don't have one yoke

on you. You got a dozen. You have more than

one yoke around your neck. Right now. You're trying to

please everybody, and those yokes are piled on top of

each other. And no wonder you're tired because so many

people have so many expectations in your life. Take them

all off, Jesus, Let's do an exchange. I'll take all yours,

you take my one, which is easy in light, and

I'll pull the load with you. You see, when we think

that the answer to our emptiness is escape, I gotta

get to Tahiti, God says, the answer is not escape.

The answer is give up control. Give up control. Every

time I give up control, my load gets lighter, and

God gives me peace quickly. The last couple number four,

he says, come, then he says take, and then he

says learn. And here's the thing. One third, fourth thing.

Learn to trust. Learn to trust. This is the antidote anxiety,

worry lessen, and trust more. And this is the fourth

thing Jesus says to do. The rest of that verse,

he says, and learn from me. Learn from me, for

I'm gentle and I'm meek, I'm humble in heart, and

you will find rest for your souls. You know, Jesus

modeled how to live with peace and purpose, and the

fourth step to refilling your spiritual and emotional tank is

to follow Jesus' model. He says, learn from me, watch

how he lived, and do it the way he did.

Learn from Jesus. Now, if you circle the word learn,

learning is a process. You don't learn it overnight. You

didn't develop your overloaded lifestyle overnight. You're probably not gonna

get out of it overnight, but you're gonna learn to trust.

What can I learn from Jesus? Learning is a process.

Learning takes time. What can I learn from Jesus? Well,

he says, you'll learn how to be gentle and humble.

What How's that gonna help me? Learning to be gentle?

That doesn't seem like it's gonna help me, because I'm

stressed out and tired. Why is gentle and humble so important?

I mean, Jesus didn't say, learn from me and I'll

teach you how to have endurance and stamina. That's what

I would expect him to say, learn from me and

I'll give you endurance and stamina. No, he says, learn

from me and I'll teach you how to be gentlemen

and humble. Why because listen very closely. The two biggest

causes of overload and stress and emptiness in your life

are aggression and arrogance. What let me explain aggression is

we don't want to wait for anything. We're aggressive. We

don't want to pause for anything. We don't want to

consider anything. We don't want to be patient for anything.

We want to just jump right in. And we get

over committed because of our aggressive behavior. See the opposite

of gentleness, being aggressive rather than being gentle, and that

puts stress on you. And the other is arrogance. What's

the sign of arrogance when we try to control everything.

I don't know if you he realizes or not, but

your ego, my ego is responsibility for more stress and

overload in my life than I realize. Your ego is

responsibility for more stress and arrogance in your life than

you realize. You try to do it all. That's ego,

that's pride, that's arrogance. You try to have it all,

you try to please everyone. You try to act like

superwoman or Superman. That's arrogance. The more arrogant you are,

the more egotistically driven you are, the more stressed you're

going to be. The most stressful people I know are

no are the most arrogant people I know. The antidote

to the two biggest causes of stress in your life

are generalist and humility. What does that mean? It means

I need to remind myself every day. I'm not God,

and I'm not everybody's savior, and neither are you. What

was Jesus' secret of peace? He only did what the

Father told him to do, and he didn't worry about

the rest. If you go read the Book of John

twelve times. In the Book of John, he says, I

only do what the Father tells me, and he says,

follow my model. Why don't you start trusting God? Try

trusting God. Let me give you a couple verses. Look

at this layer on the screen Proverbs twenty, verse twenty four.

Since the Lord is directing our steps why try to

understand everything that's happening along the way. Hmm, we keep

trying to figure it all out, He says, why don't

you just trust God? Learn to trust? So I'm one

forty two. Verse three says this, when I'm ready to

give up. Maybe you're feeling that way when I'm ready

to give up on my marriage, or my job or

anything else. When I'm ready to give up, he knows

what I should do, learn to trust. How do I

trust more? Look at this verse on the screen Romans

ten seventeen. Faith comes by hearing the word of God

that leads us to the last two steps Number five.

Start every day by refilling my tank. Start every day

by filling my tank. Now we've talked about this so

many times. I don't feel like I have to go

into it in any detail. But I'm talking about a

daily quiet time. I'm never gonna stop talking about this

because it is the key to stability and the stee

key to energy in your life. Matthew six' Six jesus

says this in the message find a, quiet secluded place

so you won't be tempted to role play Before, god

and just be there as simply as honestly as you,

can and the focus will shift from you To god

and you will begin to Sense his. Grace start every

day by filling my. Tank REMEMBER i tried to teach

you over a year. Ago HW fw AND hwlw his,

word first, word his, word last. Word start the day

With god's. Word in the day With god's. Word, finally

one more, step number, six stake annected to my spiritual.

Family that's going to keep you refueled and refilled and

keep it from going. Empty you're, Here you're connected to

your spiritual. Family your family is sattle back Church hebrews

eleven twenty. Five let us not give up the habit

circle the word. Habit let us not give up the

habit of meeting together as some are. Doing, instead let

us encourage one another all the. More why DO i

need to be? Connected stay connected to my spiritual, Family

because when you're empty and when you need to be.

Filled here's What, God god says about the church last

verse on your. Screen it's on the, Screen phesians, one twenty.

Three the church Is christ's, body and it is. Filled

that's the opposite of. Empty it is filled With christ

who completely, fills which is the opposite of. Empty everything else.

Empty you need to be at. Church you need to

be with your brothers and sisters In. Christ they will

help refill your. Emptiness, okay let's wrap it. Up what's

weighing you down right? Now problem with your, children problem

with your, finances problem with aging, parents problem with your,

health problem WITH, covid problem WITH i don't, know BUT

i will tell you. This god brought you here today

so he could say this to. You let's look at

the verse one more time on the. SCREEN i love.

This in the amplified, Translation jesus says this to, you

if you're, empty come to. Me come to, me all

you who labor and are heavy laden and, overburdened AND

i will cause you to rest that. Soul. REST i

will ease and relieve and refresh your. Souls take my

yoke on. You partner with me and learn from, me

For i'm gentle And i'm humble in, heart and you

will find, rest relief and, ease and refreshment and recreation

and blessed quiet for your. Souls and that beautiful the amplified. Translation,

friends it's, hot but that doesn't make this any less.

Important this is the most important invitation you will ever

receive in your, life and you took enough time to

show up to Let god give it to. You here's the.

Invitation get dissatisfied the way you've been. Feeling come To,

jesus not to anything. Else come To, jesus give up,

control learn to, trust and stay. Connected that's bower. Heads

have you ever come To? Jesus the starting point in

unloading is to talk To jesus about what you feel empty.

About tell him exactly how you, Feel tell him what's frustrating.

You you, know sometimes even your best friends don't want

to listen to your. Burdens But jesus will never ignore.

You he wants to be your. Partner he wants to

be your, friend he wants to be your. Pacesetter and

he is making you the most amazing offer in the

universe and no one else can offer. It come to

me AND i will give you deep soul. Rest pray this,

Prayer Dear. God just say in your, Heart Dear, God

i'm tired of being tired all the. Time i'm tired

of trying to control. Everything i'm tired of a life

without rest and. Peace forgive me for all the Times

i've turned to other things for relief instead of. You,

Today i'm coming back to. YOU i want you to

be the pacesetter of my. LIFE i want to stop

trying to control everything in the first. Place forgive me

for my arrogance and my. Aggressiveness forgive me for not being.

Patient forgive me for allowing my insecurities and my ego

from taking on more activities THAN i could possibly. Manage

forgive me for pridefully overlooking my schedule and overloading, it

fulfilling my life with less important things SO i have

no time for what matters most time with. YOU i

want to learn from, You. JESUS i want to learn

from your. MODEL i want to learn to be gentle

and humble like you SO i can have the peace

that you. Modeled help me to take these steps this.

Week in your, NAME i Pray amen