Finding Strength In Challenges

Welcome to the Illuminate Church podcast.

We hope today's message is encouraging to you.

We are on this series called Weeds in My Garden.

Hasn't this been an awesome series?

It's it's been amazing walking through certain mental health

issues and challenges. And what does scripture teach

about these things? There's something that I love.

It's, it's this idea of describing something poorly.

OK, so I don't know if you've seen this before, people do

online, but pretty much they'll take like a certain topic or an

idea and they'll explain it, but just like, really badly.

OK, let me give you an example. Let me see if we can guess.

Orphan man who never went to therapy that dresses as a bat at

night, has to protect the city from another man that also needs

therapy. What movie is that?

That's Batman. OK, Yeah.

You they both need therapy. I'm just saying y'all need some

help. All right, here's another one.

One of my favorite movies. Paleontologist visits a new

theme park and leaves a bad review and the owner of the park

agrees. Jurassic Park.

Give it up. That's amazing.

Any Jurassic Park fans? Man, I love everybody.

Get copyright strike. I'm just playing.

I love that movie. Such a good movie.

If you remember, there's this one scene when you really get a

glimpse of the Tyrannosaurus Rex for the very first time.

They're in the car, they're driving to the park, and the

power pretty much shuts down. They're sitting in the park and

they're supposed to be waiting for this this T Rex.

And so the movie goes, they're sitting in the car, it's

raining, it's down pouring. This goat comes up from the

ground, and pretty much they're waiting for the T Rex to get a

snack. Well, power goes out.

They're sitting there and like, well, hold up, we'll try and get

power back up. And all of a sudden the camera

pans over and the goat's gone, which, you know, something bad

about to happen. All right.

And so they're sitting in the car and they're like, what is

that? And all of a sudden they hear

this roar. I mean, the most incredible

roar. And everyone is in the car just

completely stressed out. There's one guy specifically,

he's the attorney and he is just, he is so stressed out that

he decides to go running. Now, if you've seen Jurassic

Park and you've listened to Doctor Alan Grant, OK, the T

rex's vision is based on what movement?

My boy starts running. OK, Like, what are you doing?

So he runs out of the steel cage car and goes to this wooden

building building. He goes to sit on the toilet

because it's a little poopy kind of day, you know what I mean?

He's a little bit stressed out and he's sitting on the toilet.

And as the scene goes AT Rex comes up, knocks down this

wooden, wooden building and the T Rex stares at him like, man, I

got a midnight snack. Ain't daggering.

Some of y'all look the same way. Going to that closet at 12 O

clock in the morning. You shouldn't be doing that.

You shouldn't do that. And the T Rex like this is

amazing. The attorney gets eaten.

Why? Because he did not know how to

manage his stress, he was so stressed out and so fearful as

what was going to happen that he ran out of the safest place he

actually was. And although that's a movie and

it's kind of funny and it's a crazy scene, I imagine if you're

like me, every one of us is dealing with some form of stress

right now and it comes from literally every area of our

lives. You might be under pressure.

You might be facing big changes, feeling a lack of control,

shouldering heavy responsibility, staring into an

uncertain future. It might because you're dealing

with multiple issues at once, feeling the lingering effect of

our past struggles, or lacking resources and support you need.

It might be illness, injury, parenting, infertility,

bereavement, abuse, marriage, divorce, relationships, or

caregiving. You might have lost a job and

unemployed long term retiring, facing deadlines, the exams

work, strive for a new position. You might be moving, dealing

with difficult neighbors, worrying about money or drowning

in debt. Are you stressed?

Some of you are like, you know, I want to get more stress when I

came into church. You're so welcome.

I'm so glad I could answer that prayer.

So. But here's the reality is that

stress is not just emotional, it's physical.

So scientists say that stress changes your body.

So when you're under pressure, your heart races, your breathing

quickens, and your muscles tighten.

Adrenaline and cortisol flood your bloodstream.

And that's useful if you're running from danger.

That's useful if you're running from AT Rex.

But if the danger never goes away, what happens then?

And the numbers are alarming. The American Psychological

Association, Stress in American survey, 75%.

I want you to think about this 75%.

That's three out of four Americans report physical or

emotional symptoms caused by stress.

That's headaches, that's exhaustion, that's anxiety,

that's insomnia, that's depression.

And it's not just an isolated issue.

It's literally an epidemic. And here's what's even more

dangerous. Stress spreads.

So I don't know if you've ever, you know, if you grow up in the

90s or only 2000s, but you'd walk in the grocery store and

you see someone smoking a cigarette, and you didn't want

to get what second hand? Yeah, you don't want to get

second hand smoke. So what do you do?

You walk up. Like, actually, I'm going to go

through the other door. I'm not going to go this way.

I'm going to let you do your thing.

I'm going to head to the other side.

Or if you go to Vegas, they're still doing that now.

OK, I don't know. They're not in 2025, but they're

still doing that over there. But there's this actual thing

scientists call secondhand stress that literally just being

around other people that are stressed makes you even more

stressed. Like I'm imagining someone

walking into the office and you're just like, they having a

bad day. I'm a go, I'm a go around.

I don't even want to have that conversation because we don't

want to feel it. We don't want to experience the

same thing. And here's the hard truth is

that all those stress is normal. We all experience it.

Living a life of stress isn't, and the question is not whether

we will face it, but how we will respond.

And if we don't manage stress in healthy ways, it doesn't just

stay stressed, it develops into something far more dangerous,

something called burnout. Burnout isn't just tiredness.

It's literally emotional collapse.

It's numbness. It's cynicism.

It's a loss of energy, motivation, and hope.

It's literally a creeping erosion of your ability to live

and work well. And burnout, this is what's

crazy. It wasn't even a recognized term

until the 1970s when scientists began studying this silent

crisis. And now we know it's everywhere.

2/3 of Americans say they've experienced burnout.

And if you're in some professions like healthcare,

like teaching, like leadership, it's over 80%.

And so burnout develops in stages.

Stage 1 is emotional exhaustion. You're going through trauma,

you're going through stress, and you're just emotionally

incapacitated. Stage 2 is increased negativity

in doubt. So this is where the stress is

hitting you, and now you're starting to lose hope, You're

starting to get more cynical. Stage 3 is loss of emotional

stability, discipline, and resiliency.

And so the things that you practice may be working out,

maybe going for a walk, maybe praying, Bible study or

whatever. Do you begin to lose those

disciplines? Stage 4 is isolation.

This is when you shut off the world and attempt to try and

save yourself. Essentially, Stage 5 is

diminished work effectiveness in every area of life.

And stage 6 is identity impairment and confusion.

And some of you listening right now, if you were to be honest,

you, you might be relating more than you want to admit.

You're burned out. You're running on empty.

You're pushing past your limits for far too long because stress

doesn't politely knock before it enters your life.

It quietly invades. And burnout doesn't send a

warning. It comes without notice.

Until one day you realized you're running on nothing.

And the question is, what now? What do we do if we find

ourselves in that exact place? And as I was seeking the Lord

what He would want to speak to you this morning, he brought to

me this one passage. And so I believe with the bottom

of my soul that the Lord Jesus Christ wants to give you a

solution today. How do you overcome the stress

of life? How do you keep going even if

you want to give up? We're going to be in Second

2 Corinthians 4 · chapter mention

Corinthians chapter 4. If you have your Bibles, you can

turn there now. If you need a Bible, you can go

and pop your hand up. We have ushers that have Bibles

provided for you. We can turn to 2nd Corinthians

chapter 4. If you need a Bible, you can

raise those hands. They'll have that provided for

you. Thank you, ushers.

And so Second Corinthians is an important book, one of the

largest letters in the New Testament in the Apostle Paul.

This is one of most likely 3 letters that he's writing to the

Church of Corinth about the reality of his suffering and

trials and promoting the gospel message.

And so if you survey the life of the Apostle Paul, I guarantee

you at some point in life he was stressed.

He wanted to give up, like he wanted to quit.

He didn't want to do this anymore.

And we know this because if we actually go later in the book,

in 2nd Corinthians 11, verse 24, the apostle Paul describes some

of some of his experiences. In verse 24 he says five times I

received 40 lashes -1 from the Jews stress.

Three times I was beaten with rods, stress.

Once I received a stoning stress.

Three times I was shipwrecked, stress.

I have spent a night and day in the open sea.

Stress. On frequent journeys on, I face

dangers from rivers, dangers from robbers, dangers from my

own people, dangers from Gentiles, dangers in the city,

dangers in the wilderness, dangers at sea, dangers among

false brothers. Stress, Toil and hardship.

Many sleepless nights, Hunger and thirst, often without food,

cold and without clothing, not to mention other things.

There was a daily pressure on me, my concern for all the

churches. If I had to summarize the life

of the apostle Paul, it was stressful, it was challenging,

it was difficult. And so when he's writing this

letter, he's not writing it from a place of obscurity, hiding in

the desert, living his life. He's writing it from a place of

experience. He's writing it from a place of

lived trauma, of lived challenges, and inspired by the

Holy Spirit, He gives us this message.

And so I want to start here in Second Corinthians chapter 4,

2 Corinthians 4:7

verse 7, this is what he says. Now we have this treasure in

plague jars so that this extraordinary, extraordinary

power may be from God and not from us.

So here is my first point here is that we find power in our

treasure. So we have to start asking is

what is this treasure? He mentions just that we have

this treasure. Well, this is where literary

context in the Bible is so important.

If you go back to chapter 3, verse 17, it says now the Lord

is spirit and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is

freedom. Can I get an Amen where the

Spirit of the Lord is? And by the way, the Spirit of

the Lord is in this church. The Spirit of the Lord is alive

and active. Verse 18, We all with unveiled

faces are looking in a mirror at the glory of the Lord and are

being transformed into the same image from glory to glory.

This is from the Lord who is the Spirit.

Isn't that incredible that because of Jesus, because of the

power of the Holy Spirit, we as believers can experience true

freedom. We can know God personally.

We are being transformed into Jesus people.

But what's an interesting point that he brings out is he uses

this phrase, clay jars. Why does the Apostle Paul use

this? Because clay jars in the 1st

century were very common. They weren't like the nicer

bronze jars which you'd put your valuables.

Clay jars were made cheap and broke easily.

So almost like our modern day plastic bottle, something that

would use for a little bit, it would break and then you kind of

throw it away. I remember years ago there's

this basketball, basketball player named Kyrie Irving has

incredible handles. And they had this show called

Uncle Drew. And pretty much he would dress

up as like this 80 year old grandpa and he would just show

up to the basketball court and just start dunking on people.

Like it was just amazing. You'd have all these young bugs

shooting hoops, slamming dunks and you'd see grandpa show up

and he'd be like, oh, let's see what you got.

And he would just cross everyone up.

It was so crazy. They ended up making a movie

about it. It was, it was awesome.

But like, why was that so crazy? Because no one was expecting

this ability to come from this old uncle.

The weakness of the vessel exemplified the power, The

weakness of what they viewed this uncle, this old uncle,

because of his skill set, and exemplified how glorious His

power is. Let me put it this way.

God is most glorified when He does the extraordinary to the

ordinary. God is most glorified when He

does the extraordinary through the ordinary.

We are made powerful when we recognize it was never dependent

on us to begin with, but dependent on Him and we were

never meant to be God. I want you to understand that is

there is burden and trying to be God for yourself, the stress of

trying to carry everything on your own.

No wonder we get burned out and our greatest treasure isn't what

we possess on our own, but what God has given us by His Spirit.

It's not your skill set, it's not your talents, it's not your

abilities, it's not your background.

It's the Spirit of God dwelling in each and every believer.

And because of that spirit, we can experience freedom,

relationship, and the transforming power of the Holy

Spirit. Through that dependence, we can

find power in our treasure. Verse 8, Let's continue.

We are afflicted in every way, but not crushed.

We are perplexed, but not in despair.

We are persecuted, but not abandoned.

We are struck down, but not destroyed.

So the apostle Paul, now the Scripture gives us a view of the

Apostolic ministry that Paul is walking in.

And those that are willing to follow Jesus, he's like saying

if you follow him, if you live there, your life, this life,

this is what your life is going to be like.

And it doesn't seem very encouraging.

So what? Let's break it down a little

bit. Afflicted.

In the 1st century, this term was used of people pressing into

battle and experiencing eternal stress.

This word crushed means that you are almost confined to a space.

You're pressured, you're crushed, you're being closed in.

Perplexed is this idea of being doubtful, of being confused or

being without resources and despair is a complete loss.

Persecuted is this idea of being chased into fear or experiencing

oppression and being forsaken is left behind or deserted, Struck

down, This is what's so cool. Struck down is to castaway, lay

a foundation or sowing a seed, and destroyed is to die or be

ruined. So what is the scripture

teaching? Although this trial and stress

might have backed you in the corner, in Christ you can't keep

me there. Although in this season I am

confused and it seems like I don't have enough, in Christ I

will never lose. Although I might be stressed,

oppressed, and chastened to fear, in Christ I will never be

deserted. And although I am struck down

and it seems like my life is over in Christ, my affliction is

sowing seeds of a greater purpose.

That in the pain that God is sowing seeds, He's building a

new foundation that are going to bear much fruit in your future.

That's the promise of following Jesus.

And so when we follow him, God can use your suffering as a

foundation for something far greater in your life.

Isn't that a beautiful promise? That's a beautiful promise.

And how do we know that? Let's continue on in verse 10.

We always carry the death of Jesus in our body so that the

life of Jesus may also be displayed in our body.

For we who live are always being given over to death for Jesus

sake, so that Jesus life may also be displayed in our mortal

flesh. So then death is at work in us,

but life in you. When we follow Jesus, we carry

his pain. And you might be asking is why

would I do that? Because here's the reality,

Christian or not Christian, you will experience stress.

Believer or not believer, you will experience trials.

And God promises the life of Jesus himself to come to life

through you. In this church we say we exist

to help people find abundant life in Jesus.

And in John 10/10 he says the thief comes to steal, kill and

destroy. But I have come to give you life

and have it in abundance. And here's the problem.

We have been deceived to believe that the key to abundance is an

easy life when Jesus lived in perfect abundance but suffered

greatly. I remember when I was a kid, I

got saved at 10 years old and I did not grow up in a Christian

household. It was very challenging for me.

I got radically saved and I went back home and my situation

didn't really change. And I didn't know it at the

time, but when I was 10, all the way up to a young teenager, I

would have these crazy demonic nightmares.

I mean, like, we're not talking like, hey, it was a bad dream.

You woke up kind of crazy. I mean, I would wake up at

10:00, 11-12 years old and run through the house like a crazy

person because I literally thought this, this demonic

oppression was attacking me. I didn't know what it was.

This was my experience. And so after years of doing

this, I was so stressed and so fearful.

There was only one thing I could do when I was a kid.

I didn't have a Bible for myself, but I had this

children's Bible. And I remember I would open up,

it would be like one O clock in the morning and I would be so

scared. I would run into my room.

I would grab that that children's Bible and I would

start reading. And all of a sudden the comfort

of Christ, the presence of God would just fill me and calm me

and provide relief for my stress.

And what I learned at a young age is that abundance isn't the

absence of suffering, it's the presence of Christ in the middle

of it. Abundant life doesn't mean an

easy life, it means that Christ is in it with you till the end.

And we see this in second Corinthians chapter one, verse

5, just a couple chapters earlier.

It says for just as the sufferings of Christ overflow to

us, so also through Christ our comfort overflows.

That comfort. When we experience stress, when

we're burned out, when we have these trials, we can find life.

It doesn't matter on circumstances, it matters on

God's presence. Let's continue in verse 13.

And since we have the same spirit of faith in keeping with

what is written, I believed, therefore I spoke.

We also believe and therefore we speak for we know not that the

one who raised Lord Jesus will also raise with Jesus and

present us with you. So here's my point here is that

we find faith in our triumph. It's really interesting that the

Scripture quotes in Old Testament passage.

This is from Psalm chapter 1, chapter 116, verses 8 to 10.

Psalms 1 · chapter mention

This is the Psalm of David, and here's what it says for you,

Lord rescued me from death. My eyes from tears, my feet from

stumbling. I will walk before the Lord in

the land of the living. I believed.

I love this. I believed even when I said I am

severely oppressed. I believed even when I said I am

severely oppressed. And Paul is saying that we can

have that same exact faith. Isn't that a beautiful thing?

That in the midst of suffering, the midst of oppression, the

midst of stress, we can have that same overcoming faith?

And the completed act of the resurrection of Jesus Christ

will bring to fruition this future moment, this moment when

we triumph over death and enjoy God's presence.

A few months ago, one of my favorite pastors, his name was

Vodi Bacam, and he was a bold preacher of the faith.

He passed away, I want to say weeks ago, maybe a month ago,

and I love it. There was one of his sermons.

This is what he says, and it's so telling concerning he, I

mean, he passed away in his mid 50s.

This is what he says quote for quote.

You're going to hear a rumor one day that Vodi Bacam is no more.

Don't believe it, don't believe it, don't believe it, because

though I die, I will rise with Christ.

There is no Christian that loses in the end.

I don't care how hopeless your story is.

I don't care how hopeless your situation is.

If you are a follower of Jesus, a believer in Jesus, there is no

bad ending for you. That's the promise we have.

And because of that promise, we can find faith in our triumph.

Verse 15. Indeed, everything is for your

benefit, so that as grace extends through more and more

people, it may cause Thanksgiving to increase to the

glory of God. So we find strength in our

Thanksgiving. This is the summation of the

entire section. When you live like this, when

you live with this boldness of faith, people will be saved

because of your faithfulness to God, and God will be glorified

because of what is being built, because of a people of

Thanksgiving. Listen, if we call ourselves

followers of Jesus, if we call ourselves Jesus people, the

people of God or a people of gratitude, what would happen to

your stress if you dwelt on your problems as much as you dwelt on

your blessings? What would happen to your pain

if in the moment of that you're going to, I'm going to go to God

in prayer, What would happen to your burnout?

If your attitude to your family to your job or this alarming

begrudging pain that you're experiencing and you substituted

that with gratitude. They can't exist at the same

time. James chapter one verse 2

through 4. That's why he says this.

Count it all as joy, my brothers and sisters, because you know

that the testing of your faith produces endurance and let

endurance have its full effect that you can be mature and

complete lacking in in nothing in a review of workers multiple

studies. This is crazy that people who

practice gratitude at least once a week showed showed significant

improvements in stress and depression, and those that did

not practice gratitude at least once a week did not experience

any benefit at all. Gratitude practice regularly

lifts the pressure to get a little physiological gratitude

activates. Pastor Tim has talked about

this. The parasympathetic nervous

system. This is our rest and digest

system. It lowers heart rate and reduces

stress hormones like cortisol. I, I want you to think about

this like we just found this out, like in the last few

decades that God and his ultimate Providence, hard wired

mental and emotional solutions and spiritual actions isn't that

crazy? It's like the science is just

now catching up. And so through gratitude, we can

find strength in our Thanksgiving.

And what's the result? What's the result of finding

power in our treasure, of finding life in our trials, of

finding faith in our triumph, or finding strength in our

Thanksgiving? The first part of verse 16.

Therefore, we do not give up. When we walk in the truth of

God's Word, we do not give up. When we face financial

pressures, we do not give up. When parenting is difficult, we

do not give up. When marriages feel strained, we

do not give up. When the world seems to be in

chaos, and my God, it does, we do not give up.

When the health challenges are overwhelming, we do not give up.

When relationships break, we do not give up.

When disappointment weighs heavy, we do not give up.

Help me out here. When faith feels weak, we do not

give up. When stress is overwhelming and

the burnout seems close, we do not give up.

That is a child of God rooted in the Word of God.

And why is that the case? The promise is real.

Amen. The promise is real.

The second part of verse 16, it says even though our outer

person is being destroyed, our inner person, your inner person,

is being renewed day by day for our momentary light affliction.

It's producing for us an absolutely incomparable eternal

weight of glory. So we do not focus on what is

seen, but on what is unseen. For what is seen is temporary,

but what is unseen is eternal. And what is tomorrow?

What is tomorrow for you? What is tomorrow for your

family? What is tomorrow for the life

that you're living? God promises renewal each and

every day. Every single day.

You know we're in October. Why wait for a New Year's

resolution? Why not a new day resolution?

Why not a new day? Why not wake up tomorrow?

Don't wait till Monday to start praying.

Don't wait till next year in January.

Why not a new day? Because God promises each and

every day. And here's what's so cool.

That renewal happens when even if your pain doesn't go away,

that God promises the renewal even if your situation doesn't

change. And here's the promise is that

our afflictions, our trials, our stress is temporary.

And here's the thing, the stress we experience, it's because of

real struggle. Struggles that's real, but not

forever. Struggles, Yes, they're real,

but they're not forever. And I feel like the Lord wants

to speak to someone today that some of you are angry at God

because you've been dealing with an affliction for a long time.

And I understand and the Lord understands.

But here's the truth. Whether you believe in God or

not, you're still living in pain.

And why not walk with the God who doesn't look down on your

suffering, but suffers with you? That's the God that we serve.

Don't allow your pain to prevent you from drawing close to God.

Because here's what I know. If you could see tomorrow, if

you could get a glimpse, if you could get a picture of what God

has promised you, your problems today would lose its power.

If we could see that beautiful image when we see the King of

Kings seated in glory, enthroned in power beyond all of the

problems, all of a sudden what we are experiencing today would

fade away, just like this video. Let's play that video.

We press your name to protect us to.

Guide us, Lord, to see. Us through to give us all in the

name of. Jesus, the video.

Why did I just play that video? This is a video of Nigerian

Christians worshipping after five people were killed when

their church was burned by terrorists.

I don't think that stress in burnout adequately expresses

their pain. Whether you realize or not, over

the past decade over 52,000 Christians have been killed in

Nigeria, 18,500 have been abducted and unlikely to have

survived. More than 20,000 churches and

Christian schools have been attacked.

There's this website calledgenocidewatch.com and they

give 10 stages of genocide and Nigeria is in the last two for

Christians. Extermination in denial, the

extermination of believers systematically and the denial

that it's even happening by the government.

And I didn't play this to minimize what you're stressed

about. I don't want you to see it that

way. I played this to show that

although you can't always choose what happens in your life, you

have a God-given ability to choose how you respond.

What can the enemy do to you if you respond to worry with

worship? If you're in the car, stressed

by life, going into work, and you break out in worship?

What can the enemy do to you if you respond to your pain with

prayer? That although I'm suffering,

although this is what I'm experiencing, God, I'm coming to

you in prayer. What can the enemy do to you if

you respond to your stress with surrender?

That God, although I don't understand how this is going to

pan out. God, I surrender this to you.

What can the enemy do to you if you respond to the teachings of

this world, which is to get more stress and to pick yourself up

by your bootstraps and and make it happen and instead respond to

the truth of his word and through the spirits renewing

power, we can find hope and our tomorrow.

Do you believe that today that you can find hope in your

tomorrow by the Holy Spirit And as I begin to closeout the Lord

wanted me to read this passage. It's the story of Elijah and

Elijah in first Kings 18 has this miraculous encounter with

God where he's before the prophets of Baal and he calls

fire down from heaven to prove that that Yahweh is the one true

God and not this false God. And and what I love about this

context is because the next chapter is in light of that, the

next chapter filled with depression and agony is in light

of his biggest achievement, which I think is so interesting

because if you look, they've done numerous interviews of

people that have won the Super Bowl and won championships.

And they said the most depressing time was after they

won. They spent their whole years

trying to achieve something. And as soon as it happened, they

had a big dip. And here's what happened is, is

in First Kings 19, Elijah has run away because Jezebel, the

wife of King Ahab has promised to kill him.

And so he's been in the mountains for 40 days and 40

nights. He's in this cave.

And God spoke in First Kings 19 verse 9, it says suddenly the

1 Kings 19:9

word of the Lord came to him and he said to him, what are you

doing here, Elijah? What are you doing here, Elijah?

He replied, I have been very, very zealous for the Lord God of

armies, but the Israelites have abandoned your covenant, tore

down your altars, and killed your prophets with the sword.

I alone am left, and they are looking for me to take my life.

Then he said, Go out and stand on the mountain in the Lord's

presence. And at that moment the Lord

passed by, and a great and mighty wind was tearing at the

mountains, as was shattering the cliffs before the Lord.

But the Lord was not in the wind.

And after the wind there was an earthquake.

But the Lord was not in the earthquake.

And after the earthquake there was a fire, but the Lord was not

in the fire. And after the fire there was a

voice, a soft whisper. And when Elijah heard it, he

wrapped his face in his mantle and went out and stood at the

entrance of The Cave. And suddenly a voice came to him

and said, What are you doing here, Elijah?

And I feel like the Lord is asking us in this space, asking

you, what are you doing here? I didn't ask you to go here.

I didn't ask you to live here. I didn't ask you to run away

here. What are you doing here?

And here's what's interesting is God knew why Elijah was there,

but he wanted Elijah to know. He knew the reason, but he

wanted Elijah to face it. Why are you here in the season

of stress, burnout, or discouragement?

Why are you running from what God has called you to face?

Why are you hiding in The Cave when God has called more of you

on the outside? And here's the God that we

serve. He didn't rebuke Elijah.

He revealed himself, not in the earthquake, not in the fire, not

in the wind, but in a gentle whisper.

And some of you, you keep waiting for God to shout from

the sky when he's been whispering in your spirit the

whole time. The problem is not that God's

not speaking. It's the noise of stress, fear,

and burnout that has been louder.

Think about that. It's not that God hasn't been

talking. It's not that God hasn't been

speaking. Is that the stress, the burnout,

the fear is a louder than his voice.

And what did God tell Elijah to do?

Verse 15 Then the Lord said to him, go.

God's response to Elijah's pain was a call to action, not a call

to quit. And so here's the question, what

is God asking you to do? What is God asking you to give

up? Jesus promises in Matthew

Matthew 11:20

Chapter 11, verse 20. Come to me, all who are weary

and burdened, and I will give you rest.

That's the promise of Jesus. It's not a suggestion, it's not

an idea, it's not just a saying. It's Jesus's promise.

But here's the reality is that turning to Jesus requires us to

turn away from other things. Our rest comes through

repentance. Repentance is turning our old

way of thinking, our old habits, our old burdens, our old sins,

and facing the King of glory filled with grace and mercy.

And that my prayer for this church is that we would be a

people that don't give up. That when stress presses in, we

would press deeper into the presence of God.

That when burnout whispers, you're done.

We would hear this, the Spirit whisper back, you're not

finished, you're not finished, you're not finished.

That's what God is saying to you.

That we would be a church that finds power in our treasure

through the Holy Spirit. That we would be a church that

finds life in our trials through Christ's comfort.

That we would be a church that finds faith in our triumph

because we believe God's promises.

That we would be a church that finds strength in our

Thanksgiving through gratitude. That we would be a church that

finds hope in our tomorrow because of that future glory.

And when the world, when families, when Co workers look

at you, they don't see a people that's surviving stress.

They see a people living in a peace that makes no sense.

And when people ask the question, how do you get

through? There's one answer, there's one

Savior, there's one name, and that's Jesus.

Let's pray. Heavenly Father, we welcome your

presence in this moment. God, I first want to pray for

our release. You told us to come to you all

who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest.

So God with open hearts and open minds, I pray God for us to let

go, to turn back, to repent, to turn to you the author and

finisher of our faith. And God, with that turning comes

restoration. So that I pray, Lord, a spirit

of restoration over this body in Jesus name, that there is a

people that will be freed from the burdens of life.

They don't have to walk in fear and stress and worry because the

God of all creation is near. And Lord, I pray God for those

that are in this room right now that have not made you Lord and

Savior, that Jesus you lived 2000 years ago.

God in the flesh lived a perfect life, was persecuted, was

crucified on the cross, living a perfect life that you died and

rose again, paying the penalty of sin and death.

And because we have faith in you, we can have life.

And so in this holy moment, with every eye close, every head

bowed, if if that is you in this room and the Holy Spirit is

drawing you to a relationship with the Father, when I count to

three, I want you to pop your hand up so I can pray with you

and for you. God is calling you home today.

123 That is you and keep your hand up.

We have are going to give you something I want to pray with

you and for you keep your hand up.

Thank you thank you Jesus anyone else.

The Lord is calling you home today.

Thank you Lord. Once you have that you can put

your hand down. Thank you Jesus, and as a

church, if we can pray this together, say, Heavenly Father,

I recognize my sin. And that Jesus lived, was

crucified, died, and was buried and rose again the third day.

And I have faith in that sacrifice.

And because of Jesus I can be forgiven.

Because of Jesus I can have new life.

And I commit to following you for the rest of my life in Jesus

name, Amen. Can we get it?

For those who just made the best decision of their life, God is

good. Thanks for joining us today.

We hope God is speaking to your heart through this message.

If you'd like to connect with us, you can text connect to

407-588-0115 or visit Illuminate dot church.

Have a great week.