Too Tired

The end of June. How many of you feel like this year has been

like the fastest year in the history of years. I mean, it was

like we were just celebrating the first Sunday of the year last week. It's

crazy how fast this year is gone. I told my dad this week I

went over and bought groceries for my dad and I told I said, Dad,

it feels like this year is going by so fast. He said,

the older you get, the faster they go. So I guess I'm officially

old now because it feels like it's flying. Amen. Amen, I want

to share a message with you. I hope it's a timely message. That

message is called too Tired, Too Tired. So if you got a Bible,

go to Galatians chapter six. Galatians chapter six, starting in verse seven,

it says, do not be deceived. God is not mocked, for

whatever a man sows that he will also read. For he who sows to

his flesh, will of the flesh reap corruption. But he who sows to

the spirit will of the spirit, reap everlasting life. And let us not

grow weary while doing good, for in due season we shall reap if we

do not lose heart. Therefore, as we have opportunity, let us do

good to all, especially to those who are of the household of faith.

Father, we thank you for your word. It's the only change agent that

we have on this planet. And I pray that today takes residents deep,

deep at the fear fabric of our being and brings a harvest of life.

Lord, we love you, and we thank you in Jesus' name. Amen,

Amen, and amen. You know a lot of times we interpret this

scripture in the Church of you know, hey, hey, don't grow weary

in doing good, but just keep on doing good. Just keep on doing,

keep on doing, keep on doing, keep on doing. Just don't

grow weary, right, I mean, that's how we that's especially pastors,

that's how we want you to interpret this scripture. It's like Dory, just

keep swimming. Just keep swimming, Just keep swimming. You may not know

where you're going, just keep swimming. Just keep going. But don't you

just if you grow weary, it's a sin, the Bible says. But

I think that's maybe a little bit misappropriated. When we read this passage of

scripture. I think what it's saying is that, hey, our purpose is

to do good our purpose is to make an impact in the lives around us.

Make sure you don't grow weary, because when you grow weary, that's

when the wheels fall off. Make sure you build some things into your life

so that you can always be positioned to do good. You know, I

just got back from vacation, and thank y'all for that, by the way,

for allowing me to be away for two weeks. I wasn't actually going

for two was. I was gone for one week two Sundays. But I

didn't realize how tired I was until I got on vacation. And the reason

I know I was tired, and the reason I know it was a good

vacation because you know, most of the time I come back up here and

I tell y'all, Oh, I missed y'all so much. It's so good

to be back. I didn't miss y'all. I was. I was vacationing.

I was. I was, you know, resting my body and my

mind, and it just felt good just to kind of just sit and relax.

And I know y'all are thinking, how in the world could you go

to the Caribbean and come back the same color as you left? Because listen,

I love the Caribbean. But I still don't like the sun. Come

on, somebody, so long sleeves and big Hatir is the tickets. That's

what I do. But you know, I think that that all of us

need to probably do a better. Do you realize that that Americans are the

most worked culture in the world. Let me say that again. Americans are

the most worked culture in the world. We don't think that, right,

We think the American dream. We think all of the luxury and all the

things we have, but we are We are the least rested people in the

world because there is a culture that's always about getting ahead. It's always about

what's next. It's always about what we're going to do and what we're going

to have. I had this experience, this moment where we were getting off

of that cruise ship and we were walking down the dock, and I was,

you know, in fact, whatever's out there, let's go experience it

and maybe don't take what I'm about to say. There is a sermon illustration.

Okay, thank you for commemorating our vacation in photo. But we're going

down there and and she was like, no, no, no, we

gotta get our picture. Mad. We gotta get a picture. Everybody,

come in here, get a picture. Mare. So you know we you

know, smiling this one, smiling, this one, turned your head this

way, you know this one. I'll put this y. Yeah. And

the thought occurred to me, is we're so busy commemorating the memory that we're

not making memories. I want to be out there. I want to be

doing whatever. I don't know what's at the end of the dock, but

whatever it is. Do you realize that we spend so much effort trying to

do things that really don't add up to a whole whole lot, Because you

know, we bought those pictures, didn't we Do you know where they are?

That surprised me when she said yeah, because you know, I know

I won't look at those pictures again. Maybe when I die they'll be the

snapshot you know that you know that goes through. But Lexi has all the

bad pictures she's taken of me, plaanning for my funeral, you know,

montage. So but we spend so much effort, in so much time on

things that really don't advance us closer to what God has for us. Because

we're so caught up in the ideology that what the world has for us,

and the things we position ourselves for here are just as are more important than

those invisible things that God has for us. And Hebrews twelve, starting in

verse one, it says, therefore we also, since we're surrounded by such

a great cloud of witnesses, let us lay aside every weight and the sin

which so easily ensnares us, and let us run with endurance the race that

is set before us, looking unto Jesus, the author and the finisher of

our faith, who for the joy that was set before him, endured the

cross, despising the shame, and has sat down at the right hand of

the throne of God. For consider him who endured such hostility from sinners against

himselves. Lets you become weary and discouraged in your soul, he says,

Listen, we're surrounded by this great cloud of witnesses, and a life as

a believer is about living a life that points to Jesus in front of people.

There are no secret servants, secret service agents in the Kingdom of God.

Where we don't live publicly. We're supposed to live publicly. And he

says, listen, we're surrounded by this, so lay aside every weight and

the sin which so easily besets us. We focus a whole lot on the

sin in the church, right, make sure you and you should steer away

from sin. But that's not the only thing you protect yourself from. It

also says, and the weight. Do you realize there are things that weighed

us down, that pull us across our energy line that exhaust us that are

not sin. There's good things that weighed us down that keep us from achieving,

that cause us to be positioned poorly for everything that God has for us.

You know some of my responsibilities. One thing that I've been banned from

doing is that on Sunday mornings before church, I cannot look at any of

the financials. So if there's a financial report any of those things, I

cannot. I'm not supposed to discuss it. I'm not supposed to look at

it. They keep those things and I can't do it on Sundays because it

doesn't matter if everything is great. It puts me in a bad mood.

It's just one of those things that pulls me so far across that energy line

where I stay in a healthy place that we just don't do it because the

other things are so important. Now does that stuff have to be done?

Yes, it does. And when we do things, and when we deal

with the things that are hard, those things that feel heavy to us are

just as important as doing them. And we have to live our lives in

such a way that we understand there is a purpose and a destiny, and

that we keep ourselves restored, we keep ourselves refreshed, we keep ourselves energized

so that we can achieve the most important things, because fatigue, specially of

the soul, it's what will bring you to your knees and cause you to

fall and disappoint that great cloud of witnesses that are always watching your life.

You know. I had a conversation with somebody this week, and they do

a lot around the church, and they called and they were talking to me

about about a different ministry position and that they wanted to be involved in it.

And I had the confidence I said, listen, actually, I'm just

gonna be transparent. They said, listen, it hurts my feelings that you're

not considering me. And I said, who said I didn't consider you?

And they said, oh, well nobody. I said, oh so you

think I Now I might have considered you. But there's a reason why I

didn't ask you, well, is there? I said yes, and I

explained that their giftings are so much better and so much stronger. In another

eric, come on somebody that to do something in that area would cause fatigue

and burn out to the point where that area would slip. And when that

purpose filled the area begins to slip, that's when our righteousness, our holiness,

begins to slip, because then the things that are most valuable to us

that we don't even recognize, when the enemy begins to dismantle those things,

he brings us into the place and he tries to bring peace from areas that

are outside of where that should come from. And that's in the presence and

purpose of Jesus. So when we talk about those things, we want God's

very best for you. There's this ideology in the church and I should be

able to do whatever I want to do, but I think you should be

able to do everything. It's God's purpose for you to do amen, and

that brings help that makes you healthy and fortified. I want to look at

a passage of scripture, how we see one of the heroes of faith mentioned

over in Hebrews eleven, one of those heroes of faith. I want to

look at it, and I want to show you what caused his downfall.

Go to Judges chapter sixteen, Judges, Chapter sixteen, reverse fifteen. This

is the story of Samson, Samson and Delilah Judges, chapter sixteen, verse

fifteen. That says, then she said to him, how can you say

I love you when your heart is not with me. You've mocked me these

three times, and if not, told me where your great strength lies.

And it came to pass. Listen when she pestered him daily with her words

and pressed him so that his soul was vexed to death. She wore him

out. Samson was exhausted, she continued to pull on him. Now,

first of all, you need to understand that Samson wasn't actually doing what God

wanted him to do anyway. Samson was seeking personal vengeance. He wasn't doing

what he was doing for God. He was upset about something, and he

was killing all the Philistines, which God ordered him to do sometimes, but

he took it upon himself. And then he meets this girl, Delilah,

and she was a woman of the night, not a wholesome relationship right,

and he's having this conversation with her. But he's strong, he's still strong,

He's still he's still able under his strength to do what he was doing.

And she vegs him and she presses him and she pesters him. How

many of you you have people now listen, it can't be your husband or

wife. How many of you have people in your life that man, They

just aggravate you all the time. The phone rings, and this is your

response. This is how it works for me. Hello. The worst thing

is when you don't realize it's a FaceTime and you do that, right,

let's say what's wrong? Oh? Nothing, just but back, No,

I'm just kidding. Or how about those things that drive you crazy, those

things that just they're the things that pull you across your energy and they just

exhaust you every time you have to do it. Not talking about just going

to work, but maybe if that is what happens at your work, maybe

you should look for a different occupation. I'm just saying that the only reward

you get from work can't be a check. Let me say that again.

If the only reward you get at work is a check and everything else is

pain, everything else exhausts you. Everything else just feels like the worst thing

that could possibly happen. That's probably not a job that fits in your giftings.

Your giftedness exists outside of serving on a team at Cornerstone Tabernacle. Your

giftedness extent extends beyond that, and your purpose nine times out of ten is

going to be out there somewhere, not in here somewhere, Amen, So

start looking for something that fits you. I took great Do you realize that

when I was a kid, the average person growing up only had four different

jobs. I just saw a thing at the college when we went to the

college with LEXI. Now, the average person that enters the workforce by the

time they retire will have thirteen point seven different jobs in four different career paths.

And it's not instability. It's people seeking purpose and satisfaction beyond a paycheck.

Join that crowd and find the thing you love to do and call it

work because you're too valuable to the kingdom to be exhausted all the time.

Amen. Well, I can't find anything that pays me as much. Drive

an older car and get a smaller house and find peace and happiness extended beyond

the joy of the Lord, that helps you just survive nine to five.

Oh, I didn't know y'all was gonna clap. That surprised me. Let's

jump down to verse nineteen, and let's let's continue to look at Samson.

Here. I'm about to reveal something to you that that is a misnomer that

every single one of us has heard Judges, Chapter sixteen, Verse nineteen.

That says, then she lulled him, this is Delilah. Then she lulled

him to sleep on her knees and called for a man and had him shave

off the seven locks of his head. So she cut his hair. That's

what caused Samson to lose his strength, right, she cut his hair.

Then she began to torment him, and his strength left him. His strength

didn't leave him when he got his hair cut, because his purpose wasn't in

his hair. His purpose identified him as a Nazarite. His purpose identified him

as the obligation he had, but it wasn't his purpose. His strength didn't

leave him until she continued to vex him, until she continued to pester him,

until she continued to exhaust him, until she brought him to the place

where he just couldn't make it. Anymore till he was absolutely exhausted, and

then he was able to be overtaken. When you were exhausted physically or emotionally,

that is when you're most vulnerable to an attack of the enemy, and

we see it throughout scripture. The devil waited until Jesus was hungry, and

then he said, hey, turn that rock into bread. He didn't do

it right after he ate a meal. It was after he forced he fasted

forty days and forty nights that he came to him and said, hey,

listen what you're doing. I can solve all that. I'm going to take

you up here at listen. Everything you see, I'll give it to you

and you don't even have to work for it. It's when we are depleted

that the enemy takes advantage of our situation, in our circumstance, and how

do we know? How do you know you're exhausted when the little things that

don't normally aggravate you start to aggravate. You should think about that for a

minute. I want you to put it in the context of your life.

Boy, grandkids, I just love the grandkids. They come to the house,

we have such a good time, and then all of a sudden,

Oh my gosh, those kids are driving me nuts. Now they're the same

kids that you enjoyed six months ago. But now now listen some of y'all

telling on y'all selves. But now it's like when they hit the driveway,

it's like it's like that commercial, you know, where the grandparents come over

and they hand them the baby and they jump in the car and leave it.

They're leaving us with the babies. They're leaving us with the babies.

Or how about this. You know, those little those little things that make

your wife unique and special, those things that cause you to fall in love

with her. Suddenly those little things feel like sandpaper on your brain. It's

those things that don't you know you are exhausted. You know you're being pulled

into a place where you're vulnerable to an attack when the things that don't normally

bother you start bothering you. And the enemy doesn't even have to create a

new situation, He doesn't have to create a new circumstance to get you to

make a mistake. He just has to contend to He just has to continue

to allow you to live in the same rut that you're already in. Some

of you were thinking, Wow, I didn't realize I was tired, but

now I feel tired. Maybe pastors, maybe pastors onto something here. You

know, I work the way that none of you should ever work the way

that I know normally do it as I just go and go and go and

go and go and go and go until I just can't go anymore and then

I go rest. That's not the healthy way to be, and I'm trying

to change that. And I'm trying to be different in that because I lead

from a much better place when I'm healthy on the inside, not depleted on

the inside. So I'm trying to do that better. But when you do

that and you get close to the edge, there's a whole lot of danger

close to the edge, and if you don't have guardrails and systems in place

to keep you from falling over the edge, it becomes really, really difficult.

The reason that I have been able to get away with that is because

we have a lot of systems and guardrails in place that keep me from falling

over the edge. But that's not the healthiest way to do it. And

the way that I know that I'm close to the edge is that you everybody

look at me, Hey, look at me. You start to aggravate me.

And when and when the people that I love the most begin to aggravate

me, I know that it's time for me to take that self inventory and

see if I've extended myself too far. What are those things in my life

that are causing me to be exhausted and causing me to be tired? Because

you never aggravate me unless I'm in that place. And when I'm in that

place, I can't effectively lead and I can't effectively God. So I'm building

those things that I catch those things early, and you need to do the

same thing. But what if you're at the place today? The reality is

most of us are I just want to don't, don't, don't. Don't

raise your hands. Don't raise your hands. How many of you just returned

from vacation and you're still as tired or more tired than you were before you

went. It's because you waited too long. And what happened is the aggravations

of isolation with the people that used to give you energy that now suck the

life out of you. I'm talking about people you love. You just got

shut in a hotel room with them come on somebody, and it's like,

oh my gosh, they're on my nerves so bad. Because you may not

be physically tired. And that's the hard thing for us to know. Am

I physically tired? Or am I soulishly tired? Is my soul tired?

Or is my flesh tired? Not your spirit? Something about your spirit.

Your spirit is empowered by Jesus. Your spirit will not get fatigued. Your

spirit is always going to want to do the right thing. But your soul

and your flesh may not be able to live up to what the spirit is

asking of you, and then that causes you to feel even more exhausted.

But if you're tired in your soul, which that's where most of us get

tired. It's where most of us live, in the exhaustion portal, there's

hope. The Bible talks a lot about it. In Isaiah chapter forty,

verse thirty, it says, even the youths shall faint and be weary,

Even the youths shall faint and be weary, and the young men shall utterly

fall. But those who wait on the Lord Lord, what does that mean?

You don't get ahead of him, You wait on his progression for your

life. You just wait until he moves, and then you move, and

you keep him in sight. Those who wait on the Lord shall renew their

strength. They shall mount up with the wings like eagles. They shall run

and not be weary. They shall walk and not faint. If we are

constantly waiting on the Lord to lead the way, if we're constantly sitting back

and leaning in, saying, Jesus, listen, I just don't feel right.

I'm just I'm a little bit off today. I live my life constantly

saying I'm just a little off today. I don't feel right. If I

ever forget a name, I'm playing puzzles, I'm doing everything to try to

make sure my mind is strong. And she's like, are you playing a

phone game? But this is what I say. No, I'm doing leadership

training, sharpening my mind, and I'm leaning into Jesus and I'm saying,

Lord, why, why, why why does Windy aggravate me so bad?

And then Lord whisperback says, you're just tired, man. But it's okay.

It's okay because I'm still standing right here. You know, the journey

to Jesus is never far, and it's never difficult. So no matter how

exhausted you feel today, band come and get ready. Here is a word

of encouragement from Matthew chapter eleven. Come to me, all you who labor

and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. You know,

if you're tired today, Jesus was with in a whisper. You don't have

to chase him down, you don't have to look for him. He is

where he can be found. If you're on your last nerve, he's here

this morning. If you think it's over, he's here today. If you

think that dream, that purpose is dead, he brings resurrection life. Come

to me, all you who labor and are heavy laden, and I will

give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for

I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your

souls. For my yoke is easy and my burden is light. Your purpose

maybe the hardest work you ever do, but it'll feel so easy, it'll

feel so light. Do I get tired, Yeah? Man, What I

do? What I do is it's so easy. It feels ninety five percent

of the time, so invigorating, so fulfilling. That energizes me. It's

what purpose does when we find our purpose, that's what it does for us.

And in those times where I feel tired, learn to just start leaning

into Jesus. And you can do the same thing. Listen, Mom,

Maybe it's your kids, maybe they just you know, you know what I'm

talking about. Maybe it is your job. Maybe you've gotten so fatigued that

maybe it is your spouse. Maybe that friction is not about the way she

cooks pot roast. Maybe it's that you're exhausted and you haven't sought restoration for

your tired soul. Maybe it's maybe it's not about how much money you have

in the bank. Maybe it's that that fatigue that you find trying to live

up to someone else's expectation for your life when God didn't even create you to

have the things you're trying to have anyway, because you find fulfillment in other

things. All I know is that Jesus says, if you come to him,

you'll give you rest. I can't afford to go on vacation like you

pastor short trip to restoration right here, short trip to rest right here,

A few steps. If you can't make it, raise your hands someway.

I'll come to help you. Everybody stand to your feet all over the building

today. I believe that some of you are being are being attacked by the

enemy because you're tired. You have fought fill in the blank. I have

fought cars tearing up, I have fought medical I have fought irs, I

have fought whatever. Whatever it is that's brought you to this place. Come

to him and he'll give you rest. If you're here today, you need

healing in your body, you need rest for your soul. Maybe you're here

today and you've never asked Jesus to forgive you of your sins, but today

you want to trust him with your life. On the count of three,

I'm going to ask you to step out and move to the front. Listen.

Maybe you're just looking just for a breath. He can provide that for

you today. He's everything you need. Our alter team. If you're not

planning on responding to the altar call, if you want to come and get

ready this morning, we've been praying for you. Life happens that the speed

life happens. So if you're here today, you say, Pastor, I'm

tired, Pastor, I'm sick, Pastor, I'm broke, Pastor, I'm

whatever, this is your moment to come meet Jesus and this altar. Let

him restore you, revitalize. If that's you, I'm gonna ask you on

the counter of three to step out and come one, two three, step

out, move right now, come on, come on, come on,