Better...At Being Tired

This podcast is a ministry of Grand Parkway Baptist Church, helping people know, enjoy, and glorify God.

For more information about Grand Parkway, visit GrandProkway.org.

Let's pray together.

God, because there's no one above you, and because you are Lord of all, then your words and your being have an authority in our life that nobody or nothing else does.

And so let your words be authoritative today, but also let them be inviting.

It's not just we're here to hear a lecture.

We're here to be invited by our Father who loves us, who says to Jesus, so you said to your followers, be of good cheer, O little flock.

It's your Father's pleasure to give you the kingdom.

We're here to get a greater measure and understanding and taste of the kingdom, Lord.

Fill our mouths and our ears and our minds with the juicy goodness of who you are and a reminder of who we're called to be.

We pray these things.

We want these things.

We ask for these things in Jesus' name.

And everyone said, Amen.

You can have a seat.

If you've got a Bible, I invite you to take it.

Open up to 1 Kings chapter 19.

1 Kings 19 · chapter mention

1 Kings chapter 19.

1 Kings 19 · chapter mention

If you don't have a Bible, there's one on your row there.

I'm on page 301 this morning.

301, if you're our guest, we're in a series we're calling better.

Better, kind of in culmination with the beginning of the new year.

Things we want to get better at.

And today I want to talk to you about something I've never heard talked about before in the church.

I'm sure people have, but uh, and not to be novel, but to be necessary.

Uh today I want to talk to you about getting better at being tired.

You're like, amen, I got that down, Pastor.

Uh I hear I hear sermons about rest and about restoring your margin, this, that, and the other.

But let me say like this: there's a way to be tired that is that is that is punitive and that that that's not good, that's negative, it's not helpful.

And then there's a way of being tired that's formative, that really forms you and changes your character, informs your character and enhances who you are.

There's a way of being tired that when you're driving home, your thought is, we got any beer in the garage fridge.

Some of y'all are like, You've been to my house.

Uh uh, or it's hey, some of you at 10:30 at night, you're so tired it comes out like this.

Is there any pie left?

Yes.

Some of you it comes out like this.

Can my parents take the kids this weekend?

They're like, this weekend, you mean every weekend?

Yeah.

So that's why I want to talk to you about getting better at being tired.

Uh, someone said to me after the last service, I am at my wit's end.

And I said, we're going to talk about a guy in the Bible today who's the same way.

First Kings chapter 19.

1 Kings 19 · chapter mention

This is what the Bible says.

As we think together this morning about getting better at being tired.

1 Kings 19, verse 1.

1 Kings 19:1

It says, Ahab told Jezebel all that Elijah had done, and now he had killed all the prophets with a sword.

And then Jezebel sent a messenger to Elijah saying, So may the gods do to me, and more also, if I do not make your life as the life of one of them by this time tomorrow.

Then he was afraid.

And he arose and he ran for his life, and he came to Beersheba to uh Beersheba, which belonged to Judah, and he left his servant there.

But he himself went a day's journey into the wilderness, and came and sat down under a broom tree, and he asked that he might die, saying, It is enough now, O Lord, take away my life, for I am no better than my father's.

And he lay down and he slept under a broom tree.

And behold, an angel touched him and said to him, Arise and eat.

And he looked, and behold, there was at his head a cake baked on hot coals, on hot stones, and a jar of water.

And he ate, and he drank, and he lay down again, and the angel of the Lord came again a second time and touched him and said, Arise and eat, for the journey is too great for you.

And he arose and ate and drank, and he went in the strength of that food forty days and forty nights to Orab, the mount of God.

And there he came to a cave, and he lodged in it.

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

And he said, I've been very jealous for the Lord, the God of hosts, for the people of Israel have forsaken your covenant, thrown down your altars, and killed your prophets with the sword, and I, even I only am left, and they seek my life to take it away.

And he said, Go, and go out and stand in the mount, on the mount before the Lord.

And behold, the Lord passed by, and a great and strong wind tore the mountain and broke it in pieces, and the rocks before the Lord, but the Lord was not in the wind.

And after the wind an earthquake, but the Lord was not in the earthquake, and after the earthquake a fire, but the Lord was not in the fire.

And after the fire the sound of a low whisper.

And when Elijah heard it, he wrapped his face in his cloak, and he went out and stood at the entrance of the cave.

And behold, there came a voice to him and said, What are you doing here, Elijah?

And he said, I've been very jealous for the Lord, the God of hosts, for the people of Israel have forsaken your covenant, thrown down your altars, and killed your prophets with a sword.

And I, even I only, I'm the only one, God.

Look at me, beloved.

Do not try to convince God that everything he wants to do in this world depends on you.

It's not a good place to be.

And I, even I, am the only one left, and they seek my life to take it away.

And the Lord said to him, Go, return on your way to the wilderness of Damascus, and when you arrive, you shall anoint Haziel to be king of Syria.

And Jehu, the son of Nimshe, you shall anoint to be king over Israel, and Elisha, the son of Shaphat of Abel Mahola, you shall anoint to be prophet in your place.

And the one who escapes the sword of Haziel shall Jehu put to death.

And the one who escapes the sword of Jehu shall Elisha put to death.

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

Now, when I talk about getting better at being tired, because there's a there's a way that we're tired that it's not good.

It's it's it's it's it's punitive.

Uh, and it has four characteristics, okay?

Here's how you know you're kind of you're not being tired in the right way.

The first one is this is when you're scared.

It's when you're scared.

Now, you you you would think if you understand the story of Elijah, you would wonder what is the guy have to be scared of, okay?

Because uh it in verse one starts off with these six or eight words.

Ahab told Jezebel all that Elijah had done.

Now hear that again.

Ahab told Jezebel all that Elijah had done.

Now, who's Ahab?

Who's Jezebel?

That's husband and wife.

Jezebel was a dominating, overcontrolling uh woman who kind of ruled the roost.

She called the place in that huddle.

Ahab was a beat-down man that's kind of like, okay, honey, yeah, whatever, you just tell me.

And so when the Bible says, Are you okay?

Would you like to testify about your marriage?

I just want to make, because sometimes we read about people in the Bible and we're just kind of like, they're not real people.

No, she was a dominant woman who just ruled over, and Ahab was just kind of like, okay, uh-uh, all right.

And so what happened?

King Ahab was married to Jezebel, and and he comes back and he tells on Elijah, when he says, and and when and when uh Ahab told Jezebel all that Elijah had done, he the fact that he's scared, see, we don't have a good way of being tired when we're scared.

The fact that he's scared, you got to know what happened, all that he'd done, what is he talking about?

In the previous chapter, chapter 18, here's what they're talking about.

There's a big contest.

They couldn't decide who was really God.

There was a cult called the Baal, the cult of Baal.

Baal was a fertility God.

And it was just kind of like, hey, this is kind of like our God, you got your God.

And Elijah said, No, there's only one God.

He was radically monotheistic.

There's one God, and he's the one true God.

Don't waste your life worshiping the false things.

Don't waste your life just trying to make enough money to feel comfortable, to not have to think about God.

Worship God.

This is what you're created for him.

So they said, Hey, we're tired of this.

Let's have a contest.

We'll do this.

You get an altar and you get an animal, we'll get an altar, we'll get an animal, and we'll stack up the wood, we'll sacrifice the animal, and then we're gonna pray to our God.

And whoever's God answers with fire.

That person's God is really real.

Elijah said, awesome.

And he was telling you, you guys go first.

And then when I say you guys, there were 450 false prophets of Baal against one guy, Elisha, who stood for the things of God.

And Elijah let them go first, and they stacked it up, they slaughtered the animal, they cut themselves with spears and lances, and they danced around.

And Elisha was so spiritually confident, he began to mock them.

In bottom day vernacular, he began to talk smack.

He said things like, Hey, shout louder, maybe your God's asleep, or maybe he's on vacation.

He even said this maybe your God is relieving himself.

That's in the Bible.

He what he's saying is, hey, maybe your God's going to the bathroom.

Y'all should he can't hear you from where he is.

And they're like, You shut up.

And more of that, nothing happens.

And finally he's like, You done?

They're like, Okay, we we we've lost our voice.

You're your turn.

Elisha comes out and he says to the people, fill these buckets with water and pour on the wood.

And they're like, hey man, we're trying to get a fire going here.

And he's like, I got it.

And they fill the buckets that pour on the wood on the wood, fill them again, and they're just walking back like, I don't think you know how this works.

And he's thinking, I don't think you know my God.

They fill the buckets again, they pour the bucket of water on the wood.

He goes, do it a third time.

And they're like, Okay, this is gonna ensure your humiliation.

And so they poured a third time.

They had, because they were Boy Scouts, they dug a trench around the fire, around the altar, so they keep the fire contained.

It wouldn't go great.

And so, so much water, the ditch around the altar fills up with water.

Elisha prays and says, God, I don't need you to do this for me because I believe in you, so that all these people will know that you are God and you alone are God.

Would you answer with fire?

A fire came down from heaven that was so fierce it burned up the wood and evaporated the water in a nanosecond.

The other guy, the 450 tired guys who lost their voices are like, Row.

Because all of a sudden God says to Elijah, hey, now I want you to go kill those people.

Matter of fact, the Bible says, slaughter them.

They chased him down, they pursued them, and they killed every one of them.

So, when the Bible says so antiseptically in verse 1 of chapter 19, Ahab told Jezebel all that Elijah had done, how he'd killed all the prophets of the sword.

And Jezebel sent a messenger to Elijah saying, So may the gods do to me, and more also if I do not make your life as the life of one of them by this time tomorrow.

Then he was afraid.

What?

You would think he would be like Aaron Rodgers, El Champion del mundo.

He ain't gonna be doing that today about five o'clock, and them cowboys get on him, amen.

But I'm just saying, come and get a witness, Frank.

Hey, we'll go right now.

It doesn't kick off to four.

Anyway, uh, you would think, man, coming on the heels of this great victory, he would be pumped up, he'd be amped up.

What's next?

Instead of what's next, he said, I'm done.

Remember this, beloved, on the heels of some of your greatest victories will come some of your greatest defeats.

When you're sky high, and don't get fatalistic, you got, but you got to guard yourself because the enemy wants to come in and pull you down the first chance he gets, so you don't have so much confidence in God.

Now I say when I say we lean towards this punitive way of being tired.

First of all, when we're scared, let me give you a question to think about.

What is your most consistent fear you deal with right now?

What is the one thing that kind of rolls through your head and through your heart and through your mind?

What's the thing?

And by the way, if it has to do with your kids, let me remind you of this, mom and dad.

Fearful parents raise fearful children.

You can't be ruled by that.

See, we we we we have a not great response to being tired, number one, when we're scared.

When we're scared.

Secondly, and by the way, this just write this down if you're taking notes.

Next time you realize you're scared, read the 27th Psalm.

It's a good, I read it.

Anytime I start losing perspective, I read the 27th Psalm because it begins with this the Lord is my light and my salvation.

Whom shall I fear?

Of whom shall I be afraid?

And it just gets better from there.

It just kind of reorients my head and my heart around the truth of God and the gospel.

So, secondly, when we choose aloneness, we have a bad response to being tired when we choose aloneness.

Look at verse 3.

He was afraid.

He arose and he ran for his life, and he came to Beersheba, which belongs to Judah, and he left his servant there.

Bad idea.

Bad idea.

But he himself went a day's journey into the wilderness and came and sat under a broom tree.

Now, when we when when we choose aloneness, uh, it's it's bad enough that he's scared.

But let me tell you this: it it if you're always, when you get scared, we have one or two tendencies.

We move towards people or we move away from people.

Matter of fact, let's ask ourselves that question this week.

Hey, when I get scared, do I move towards people?

I mean, men, when's the last time things were not going well?

You picked up the phone and called one of your friends and said, Hey, I'm not in a good place.

Can you meet me for coffee?

We don't do that.

We go in the garage and tinker around.

We occupy our hands so our mind can be free to obsess on what's eating our lunch.

No, we just don't do that.

And that's much to our shame.

Because the Bible says this in Galatians chapter 6.

Galatians 6 · chapter mention

It says, hey, bear one another's burdens, and in so doing, you fulfill the law of Christ.

In other words, you do the kind of things you were created to do.

The kind of things that God says, hey, this is what Christian guys ought to do.

Christian men ought to do with other Christian men, and women ought to do, and Christians ought to do with other beliefs uh other Christians.

We ought to bear each other's burdens.

Ask yourself this question today: who knows me well enough and what's going on in my life right now to help me bear what feels heavy to me right now?

Because if you're not careful, you'll just keep it all to yourself and just try to figure it out.

You'll just kind of like, I got it.

Don't worry about me.

See, we have a bad response to being tired with number one when we're scared.

Number two, when we choose aloneness.

He goes, he's trying to get out of the jurisdiction uh uh of Ahab and Jezebel.

So he's headed south, and he leaves this servant in a town called Beersheba, and then he goes another day's journey.

Best we can tell, it's about 15 miles into the wilderness, and he sits down on a tree by himself.

Here's the third uh bad response we have when we lose perspective.

Look at verse 4.

He says, But he himself went a day's journey into the wilderness, and he came and sat under a broom tree, and he asked that he might die, saying, It is enough.

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

Now, mark this in your head and in your heart, beloved.

When we lose perspective, he does three really unhealthy things.

Number one, he evaluates.

Number two, he decides, and number three, he compares.

He evaluates, he decides, and he compares.

What do you mean?

He's lost perspective.

He has this great victory, he's being used by God, he's a part of what God's doing.

The next day, he's like, oh my gosh, I just want to be done.

I just want to die.

He evaluates, he says, it is enough.

And here's the question that stirs up in me how do you know and who told you that you get to decide?

Because every one of us in this room, if you're not careful, you have a sense of how much you can take.

And I want to say to you, God has more confidence in you than you have in you.

And God believes in you have more bandwidth to take on more.

You have the capacity that you don't give yourself credit for.

But he kind of evaluates, he says, Hey, it's enough.

Okay, I did, I did the best I could.

I I I'm done.

Thank you, I'm tapping out.

Second thing, he decides.

And what I mean when I say he decides, listen very carefully.

He says, basically, I've run the numbers, and the thing to do is for me just to take myself out of the equation.

Look at me if you're not looking at me already.

Some of you in this room have had that thought cross your mind before.

Because basically, what Elijah is saying is, God, I just want to die.

I want you to kill me, make it more noble because I can't kill myself.

But just God, just kill me.

I've checked the insurance and it'll it'll pay, even if it is a suicide.

My wife and kids will be better without me.

That is not the voice of God in your life.

And some of you in this room, just by the sheer number of people in this room, you've had that thought go through your mind.

I mean, it didn't like it wasn't a bird that built a nest in your hair, it just, but it kind of flew over your head.

But the Bible tells us, hey, that's not that's not God.

That's us sometime thinking this thing.

He so lost perspective that he was kind of like, you know what?

Uh I just don't think this is gonna happen, God.

I think it better if I was out of the picture.

And let me say this if that's you, if you've had that thought before, look at me.

God didn't hold that against you, He's not looking down at you today, kind of going, Yeah, remember last three years ago when you hit that low spot and you were kind of like, God, just just you know, take me out of the picture.

Some of you have been driving down the road, and this thought that just jumped through your head said, What would it be like if I just drove off the bridge right there?

Yeah.

Because that's how hard you, that's how low you can get sometime.

You need to know when that thought goes through your head, you need to shake yourself and go, you know what?

I need to get around some people that know me and love me and can speak truth into my life because I'm beginning to listen to the voice of untruth way too much in my life.

He decides.

Third thing he does is he compares.

What do you mean?

He says, Hey God, it's enough.

I don't want to do this anymore.

He says, Uh, oh Lord, uh, it is enough.

Take away my life, for I'm no better than my father's.

He compares, for I'm no better than my father's.

Let me ask you a question.

Who do you compare yourself to?

When you compare yourself, who do you compare yourself to?

Because for Elijah, it kind of seems out of the blue.

He says, I'm no better than my father's.

What he is saying is this, not like, hey, my mom, you know, she got married six times.

I got a dad and five stepdads.

He's talking about all the other prophets.

He was the prophet for the nation of Israel.

He was kind of like, hey, the president said, I want you to be my.

He was the Billy Graham of his day and age.

And basically what he's saying is, you know what, God, when I first got into this, I thought I was gonna like change the world and I was gonna say stuff, and the whole country was gonna repent and come to faith in Christ.

And now I just want to pay my mortgage and stay married to the same woman until I die.

Uh I mean, I I I I made as about much difference as these other people back here.

And let me let me just caution us to be careful when we get to this point, because when you need to ask the question, what motivates me?

Because when you're up, when you're just killing it and you're doing good, you look to things that motivate you, and it that that does, it motivates you.

But look at me, when you're down, the things you compare yourself to, that imprisons you.

It'll wear you out.

Like when you're up and your boss says, Hey, you're number three in sales in the company, and you're like, Oh, that's awesome.

Your first thought is, who's number two?

How far ahead is me?

And that number one guy, how far do I got to go to get that?

When you had a bad sales quarter, you're like, oh man, I'm never gonna, I'm not I'm not even gonna fall out of the top ten.

We're gonna have to sell the house.

My wife's not gonna respect me anymore.

I'm gonna have to take back that SUV I bought her last year.

And all it's just like this crescendo.

It's just a downward spiral.

Why?

Because when you're up and you're feeling good, comparison motivates you.

But when you're down, comparison imprisons you.

Now you get to the part you say, well, what do you mean?

We have this negative response when all these other things.

Here's the last area we have a negative response when to being tired is when we're actually tired.

Look at verse 5.

I'm gonna tell you something right here.

You're gonna be glad this is in the Bible.

Who wants to hear something?

You're glad it's in the Bible.

Can I see your hand?

Look, I'm not kidding.

Look at this, verse five.

Talking about being tired.

And he lay down and he slept under a broom tree, and behold, an angel touched him and said to him, Arise and eat.

And he looked, and behold, there was at his head a cake baked on hot stones and a jar of water.

And he ate and he drank and he lay down again.

And the angel of the Lord came again a second time and touched him and said, Arise and eat, for the journey is too great for you.

And he arose and ate and drank, and he went in the strength of that food forty days and forty nights to Oreb the mount of God.

You ever wonder if God looks at you and says, You know what your problem is?

Fill in the blank.

You ever have that thought?

I wonder what God's looking down, kind of looking at me, kind of going, You know what your problem is?

Blah, blah, blah.

You know what God says to Elijah?

You know what your problem is, Elijah?

You don't sleep enough and you don't eat enough.

How hard would you find it to believe in a God that said stuff like that?

You're like, I think that's my God right there.

Yes, Lord.

Yes, yes.

I have talking to a friend of mine in the lobby, her son's in Paris right now.

He texted her and said, Hey, I arrived okay.

I'm eating foie gui and mussels right now.

I said, You text him back and tell him we hate him.

No.

God says to Elijah, Elijah's like, you know what, God, I'm just tired.

I don't want to do this anymore, okay?

Just let me die.

I'm no better than my father's.

I mean, come on.

I thought I was gonna be a change agent for good in the country, and I'm just like everybody else.

I mean, come on, just let me die.

I don't want to do this anymore.

And God says, you know the problem is, son, you don't sleep enough and you don't eat enough.

And y'all are like, that really is in the Bible?

Yeah.

Yeah.

That's what God says.

He said, after he says, Take away my life, he lay down and went to sleep.

And by the way, don't miss this, write this down.

Sometimes the most spiritual thing you can do is take a nap.

I'm serious.

Especially if you got little kids, you better learn to take a nap.

Strategically.

Like the minute your husband walks in the house.

Here you go.

Hold that.

Where are you going?

I'm going to find my sleep mask.

Now, why do I say that?

Let me give you some things to remember.

And by the way, when we're tired, let me just say this.

Two things.

What you really feel, and what you really fear comes out.

When you're tired, what you really feel, because you don't have the filter on.

And what you really fear, that begins to come out of your mouth when you're really tired.

That's why he says, you know, I'm no better than my father's.

You're like, well, that's not my issue.

Well, some of your issue is this.

Uh, they always love my sister more than me.

Or, I never was as good as my dad.

Or, I should have stayed single.

Or, how about this?

I knew I should have stayed in my old job.

Or, it all depends on me.

We don't say that, we just sense that.

I see a lot of people for counseling.

Part of what I do, I love.

That.

I see a lot of people don't go to my church.

I've been seeing these people off and on for a couple of years now.

I love them.

And sometimes you may find this hard to believe.

I say things that anger these people.

And when I probably the fourth time I met with this couple, the woman is very controlling, very controlling.

And the man's just kind of passive.

And she kind of, you know, her husband's had two or three different jobs.

He works a job for five years.

He changes jobs.

And she is so angry.

She's just like, you know what?

Things could have been better.

We shouldn't be living in a bigger house and have a pool and take vacations and blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah.

And my kids are off the reservation.

The kids, I mean, the kids don't even go to church.

They're off at college.

One of them's married and they don't even believe in God and blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah.

And so she's just burning hot one day.

And I looked at it and I said, Hey, can I ask you a question?

Well, sure.

And I said, Do you think if you ever stop being God, that God would remember how to be God?

For the record, wow was not her response.

Her response was, Oh, I've never, I tell you what, I've never had a psychiatrist or psychologist or a counselor say anything like that to me.

Well, that's because you pay them.

Yeah, they they love your insurance money.

Uh you don't pay me, so you can't fire me.

I'm free, but I'm also free.

Like you can't pin me down.

I love you.

You know I love you?

Well, that doesn't feel like love.

I said, look at your husband.

Her husband's sobbing uncontrollably.

And I said, by the way, it's not that your kids aren't spiritual.

Your kids don't want to worship the God you worship.

There's no joy in you.

You've managed every relationship they've been in.

You broke your son up.

Your daughter married somebody that she knew you didn't like just despite you, and you can't even see that.

Well, this is not trending in a good direction.

And her husband says, with his head between his knees, yes, it is.

Keep talking, Neil.

Yes, I need more people to say to me, keep talking, Neil.

And I said to her, I said, I love you.

This doesn't feel like love.

Yeah.

See, here's the thing: that's all your behaviors.

All the stuff I'm describing, that's your behavior.

The motivation, the core issue for you is you have taken responsibility for your family because you think it all depends on you because you don't trust your husband.

And because you don't trust your husband, you don't honor your husband, you don't respect your husband.

I refuse to believe that you've been refusing for a long time.

And what I and by the way, I'm not making fun of my friend.

They said, hey, you can share about us.

We think we're a case study in dysfunction.

All of us are.

You just admit it.

Why do I tell you that?

Because some of you in this room feel like it all depends on you.

It all depends on you.

It's just this sense of man, ah, ooh.

That's what happens when you get tired.

Let me give you some things to remember when you're tired.

Number one, God always has provision to get you where he wants you to be.

He always has provision to get you where he wants you to be.

That's why he says, I I love this, verse five.

He lay down and slept under a broom tree, and behold, an angel touched him and said to him, Arise and eat.

And he looked, and behold, there was his head a cake baked on hot stones and a jar of water.

And he ate and drank, he lay down again.

And the angel of the Lord came again a second time and touched him and said, Arise and eat, for the journey is too great for you.

Now, why is he mad when he says, Arise and eat, for the journey is too great for you?

Because God told him, Hey, your problem is, number one, you don't sleep enough, you don't eat enough.

So lay down and take a nap.

Spiritual thing to do is just to sleep, okay?

I heard some men get into a disagreement about how much money they should spend on a mattress.

One of the guys got a sleep number bed that's adjustable, and that thing's like almost six grand.

I can't justify spending that.

And I was like, hey man, what do you think, preacher?

I think it's none of my business.

So let me say to all you I don't care if you spend$10,000 on a mattress.

You're going to sleep for 20 years of your life.

Get a good one, okay?

But here's what I do believe.

I believe that when God says, hey, eat, now he says, sleep, and he gets up and he says, now eat.

Now he says, lay back down again.

Why does God say lay back down again?

Because the journey's too great for you.

Don't miss this.

God says, what I have in store for you is beyond your capacity to imagine.

So you're going to need to get rested up because I'm not done with you.

Okay?

You can't kill you.

You can't ask me to kill you because I'm not done with you.

How would you live if you walked out of here today and you embraced the simple truth that God's not done with you?

If you just said to yourself, you know what?

God knows all my flaws, all my fears, all my failures, all my insecurities, and he is not done with me.

What difference would that make in your life?

See, you have to remember when you're tired, number one, that God has provision to get you where he wants you to be.

He doesn't want just a rested you, he wants a different you.

Secondly, you need to remember where you can experience God.

Because verse 8 says, and he rose and he ate and he drank and he went in the strength of that food 40 days and 40 nights.

To Orib, to Mount Orab.

The mount of God.

And by the way, in the Old Testament, it's referred to as Mount Perrin, Mount Sinai, Mount Orib, it's all the same mountain.

Everybody in God's people, they knew, hey, that's where that's where Moses got the Ten Commandments on Mount Sinai.

That's the mountain he's making a beeline too.

So when you're just thinned out, prayed out, tried out, exhausted, where do you go?

And you say, you know what, this if I go here, I'm gonna be able to meet with God.

Maybe that's a great question to think about.

Where's your Mount Orab?

Where's the place that you meet God?

Where's the yes?

When I go here, this is where I go to get connected with God.

Third thing I want to remind you of when you're tired, that God still wants to speak to you.

God still wants to speak to you.

And this is important because we project onto God how we talk to ourselves.

Let me say that again.

It's important that we embrace the simple truth.

Hey, God still wants to talk to me.

That's what, starting verse 9, down about verse 14, he goes to the mountain, and all of a sudden there's this earthquake, and I mean there's this wind, and then there's this earthquake, and then there's this fire, and God wasn't in any of that.

And then there's this still small voice, and Elijah wraps his coat around his face and he comes out, he says, That's God.

And I think God's coming to say something to me.

Can you be open to the possibility that God still has something to say to you?

Not just that he has something to say to you, look at me, that he wants to say something to you.

He doesn't talk to you because he has to.

He talks to you because he wants to.

Remember back in the garden?

Adam and Eve, God comes in the cool of the day.

He wants to just walk with him, and Adam doesn't show up one day, and God says, Where are you?

Why?

Because God wants to fellowship with you.

He wants to spend time with you, he wants you to be in his presence, not to punish you, but just to remind you, hey, hey, by the way, I got more in store for you than you can get your head around.

That's why the Bible says that no eye has seen or mind has conceived or ear has heard what God has in store for those who love him.

Why do I make a big deal out of God still wanting to speak to you?

I say it's important because if we if we don't embrace that, what we do is we kind of project upon God the things that we say to ourselves.

Now, does that make sense to anybody?

Perhaps I should demonstrate.

How about a little audience participation this morning?

You up for that?

Some of y'all like No.

Not everybody has to do this.

Some of you will be okay doing this.

Think of some of the things that you you you you accuse yourself of.

That you know, hey, that ain't true, but man, it feels true.

Sometimes I just beat myself up and I call myself this.

Now, once you've thought about that, could some of you, if you'd be willing just to say that out loud, hey, here's here's some of the things that I say to myself.

What does it sound like?

It sounds like crickets, Pastor Neil.

You'll never be good enough.

What else?

Pathetic.

Unworthy, what?

Never get to do it.

You're not strong enough.

Not worthy, what?

Bad parent.

You're a disappointment.

Now, why do I why do I ask you to do that?

Here's why.

If you're visiting today, we don't do this every Sunday.

You're kind of like, let's scratch this off.

These people talk back to the preacher.

This is kind of kooky.

Thought this was a Baptist church.

It feels very Pentecostal all of a sudden.

Next thing you know, they're gonna get out snakes.

Let's go, honey.

No.

Look at me.

You have to embrace that God still wants to speak to you because if not, you'll baptize the things you you say to yourself and you'll call it God.

It's not God.

He still wants to speak to you.

Let me give you a fourth thing you need to remember when you're tired.

God still has use for you in his plans.

He still has plans for you.

He wants to use and involve you.

Ask yourself this question: How do you see God using you these days?

When you look around, do you have a sense that you're being used by God or are you just paying the mortgage and paying for your kids' college?

Because if that's the case, and by the way, there's some days all of our jobs are going to feel that way.

But but it it get it gets pretty uh pretty dry, pretty routine when it's kind of separated from the sense of, you know what, God is using me.

And you say, What do you mean?

Probably the most pedestrian wooden part of the whole text is in verse 15.

Look at it.

He says, And the Lord said to him, Go, return on your way to the wilderness of Damascus, and when you arrive, you shall anoint Haziel to be king over Syria.

And Jehu, the son of Nimshe, you shall anoint to be king over Israel.

Those two people, Haziel and Jehu, look at me.

What's the big deal?

Here's the big deal: God saying to Elijah, hey, I am not done with you.

I still got plans to use you.

These two people, Haziel and Jehu, they were political outsiders.

They were the Donald Trump of their day and age.

They did not live inside the beltway, they were not connected.

And God tells Elijah, you're gonna go back and publicly anoint them.

You're gonna put your hands on them and say to everybody, this is the man God's gonna use to lead our nation, and they're gonna be like, What?

No, we do not.

We're gonna try to take back the Electoral College and get them to cast their votes for somebody else.

Not that anybody would do that.

Ask, and how would you like to be Elijah?

Because everyone's like, no way.

No, that guy doesn't know what he's doing.

God knows what he's doing.

It's not a you think God all depends on that guy.

So when you're tired, you've got to remind yourself, hey, God still has use for me in what he's doing.

Fifthly and finally, God will always have a remnant.

God will always have a remnant.

That's that last part in verse 18 where he says to Elijah, it's like Elijah's got it all just it, the the camera's zoomed in so tight, all he can see is himself.

It's like, Lord, you know, it's enough.

Thank you.

This is fun while it lasted.

Now I just want you to kill me.

I just want to die because I have not outpaced the people that came before me.

One of the things we got to acknowledge is that most of us have a driving need to be distinguished, to differentiate ourselves from everybody else that came before us.

And you got to be careful of that because that will cause you to make bad business decisions.

That will cause you to engage in risk in areas you don't need to engage in risk.

When I say God will always have a rim, that's what he says at the he pans the camera back, and Elijah's twice God asking the question, Elijah, what are you doing here?

Oh Lord, I've been faithful.

Everybody else has given up on you.

It's just me now.

I mean, they've killed the prophets, they've killed, they've they've they they've torn down the altars.

These people, they burned their churches, they don't even care about you.

It's just me and you, God.

And God says, Hey, I got 7,000 people who haven't bowed down to this false God Baal.

And Elijah's like, uh oh.

Oh, so what makes me special?

What makes you special?

Hey, ask yourself today, does everything have to depend on me for me to feel special?

I have a pastor friend in another state who today stood up and read a letter to his church and basically said, I need this week off and I need a sabbatical.

Because he emailed me a couple days ago and he said, I got shingles and high blood pressure.

You got, can you relate to that?

No.

I cannot.

I love my people, I love my church, but I'm not gonna make myself sick over them.

Well, can you give me some tips?

Number one, leave it at the office.

And he's he's worn out.

He is worn out.

He said, I don't sleep at night.

I get about three hours of sleep.

I sleep like a baby.

I get in bed and the clock is counting.

I got about two minutes and I'm out like a light.

And here's why.

This doesn't depend on me.

He said, Well, don't you don't you think your church would miss you?

About a day.

Then they call the seminary.

Send us another one.

I do not have an over over uh over-exalted view of my importance.

I love my church, I love my people.

I'm like, hey man, your body, he said, my doctor told me this is all about stress.

He said, What's your blood pressure?

I have the blood pressure of a three-toed sloth.

That's about 120 over 70.

And not because I'm some, you know, here's what it is: God is sovereign, so I don't have to be.

Or as I said to my to my friend in counseling, hey, you think if you stop being God, God would remember how to be God?

And what's worse is I said to her, hey, your kids don't believe in God, i.e., they don't believe in you.

Because you've parented your kids in such a way that all they need is you.

Just do what mom says, and you're gonna be okay.

And now they're not doing what mom says and you don't think they're gonna be okay.

What if they are okay by doing things you don't disagree with?

She even wanted to pick out the house for her 26-year-old daughter.

Yes.

Mm-hmm.

Oh, I think you should get the split level ranch because you can remodel it and it's close and blah, blah, blah.

And she's like, Mom, can you not just agree with me?

Hey, and unless I sound like I'm picking on her.

My 19-year-old was home over the Christmas break, and we're talking, and I'm trying to coach her up, and she's like, Well, men, some friends think about going to New Orleans for spring break.

No.

No.

No.

Well, Dad, I said, hey, you go to spring break for three things to drink, which you don't do, to eat, which costs a lot of the money that you don't have, and to collect Mardi Gras beads, which we ain't talking about.

She's like, uh, uh.

So we have, okay.

She goes on to other things.

And and she's disagreeing with me.

And I'm trying to coach her up, and this is free.

If you parent your kids the same way when they're 19 that you did when they were nine, that doesn't work well.

And I'm realizing I gotta parent her a little bit differently.

And so we're talking, and here's we're talking and blah, blah, blah, back and forth.

And we raised her, both of our kids.

We still tell them to do something, they kind of look at your cock eye like, Do you trust me?

Like, ugh, okay, then do what I say.

So we're in the conversation, back and forth, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah.

And she looked at me and she goes, Hey Dad.

And I said, Yeah, do you trust me?

No.

You can't do that to me.

No.

And she just looked at me like, I'm, I know the right thing to do.

I'm not gonna go off and be goofy.

I ran out of words.

I was like, let me go get your mother.

Why do I tell you that?

Hey, you gotta always remember, God's doing something bigger and better and beyond just what you can see.

When we limit God to only what we can see and what we can do, we miss out.

We miss out what he's doing in our kids.

We miss out what he's doing in the world.

We start feeling inordinately sorry for ourselves.

And hey, if I'm the only one left, then what's the use?

Why does it matter how I live?

It's a dangerous place to be in, beloved.

That's why one of the things I want us to get better at in the new year is get better at being tired.

Let's pray together.

If you're our guest, what we like to do is just teach the Bible and then give ourselves some soul space to think about what it said.

And so right now, we'll like to take just a few minutes.

Cliz is just gonna play.

And just ask yourself, hey, what stood out to me?

What jumped off the page to me?

Maybe for some of you it's the fact that God is so all-knowing, so aware of what we really need that every once in a while he says to us, you know what your problem is?

You don't sleep enough, you don't eat enough, you work too much.

You can't even enjoy the money you make.

Lighten up, Francis.

And maybe for some of you today, it's the fact that you need to change who or what you compare yourself to.

Stop looking at what the stock price was under the last boss.

Whatever it was that he said, everything God says, he says in love.

And he invites us into that which is better.

So let's think about what would be better for us in terms of the way in which we're tired.

Maybe for you today, the big takeaway is I gotta stop going to the wilderness all by myself.

Some of you have not developed meaningful friendships such that you have somebody you can call when you want to run and hide because you're scared.

And so you live at the mercy and you try to manage.

You you expend a lot of life energy trying to manage the fear in you.

Instead of calling a buddy and saying, hey man, can I meet you somewhere?

Can we go go to lunch?

Can we get coffee?

Can we whatever?

We'll go play golf and just spend some time together.

Maybe your big takeaway is I I just need to establish some relationships that I can be me in.

That'd be enough.

Father, thanks for the Bible that it's authoritative and it's thought-provoking and it's consequential.

It's all those things.

When you come, you would lead us into the truth.

And so you're here now, and we ask you to lead us into the truth and continue to lead us into the truth as we depart.

We want to get better at being tired.

We don't want to be punitive to ourselves.

We want our tired, our exhaustion to be formative.

As crazy as that sounds.

Because you stepped into Elijah's life and he was being punitive, and you said, Hey, let me kind of turn this around and and make this formative for you.

Let us see how you're using us in the world.

So we don't lose sight of why our lives matter and that they do.

And so, Lord, it's with gratitude that we say thank you in Jesus' name.

Amen.

If you're our guest today, let me say thanks for being part of our service.

In just a minute, uh, when we're dismissed, myself and some of our pastors and elders will be available down front.

If you have any questions about anything you heard, uh, or if you'd like someone just to pray with you, uh, we'd be glad to do that.

If this is your second first, second, or third time to visit, uh, all we'd ask is you come up just to introduce yourself.

We want to put a name on the face, and then you can get out of here.

Go home, put on your sweatpants, and get ready to watch football.

Amen?

That's in the Bible somewhere.

All you guys are like, yeah, and you women are going.

I'm going to the mall.

Anyway, stand to your feet, let me speak a blessing over you.

My thoughts exactly, sister.

Because you're not God, you can sleep.

Because he never does.

Your refusal to sleep is your insistence on being God.

And that ain't good.

So because you're not God, you can sleep and you can eat, and you can rest, and you can be tired because he never is.

So depart now and rest in the fact and live in the shade of the fact that he is God, and he's gonna care for you.

In the name of the Father and the Son, the Holy Spirit.

Amen.

Bless you, dismiss.