Beyond Burnout: When Self-Help Replaces the Gospel

[00:00:00] [SPEAKER SPEAKER_01]:
Hey, good morning.
[00:00:01] My name is Andrea Smith.
[00:00:02] I have the privilege of being the pastor here, and Happy New Year.
[00:00:06] It is our first time gathering in this space, and we are so grateful that whether you are here in this room or you're worshiping with us online, that you've taken time out of the busyness and craziness of life to be here.
[00:00:17] That's what we're actually launching into this morning, our new message series for the new year.
[00:00:22] Our meditations or devotions start tomorrow.
[00:00:25] So if you don't get those, I promise they're not going to be as wordy as they have been in the past.
[00:00:30] But if you don't get those, stop by our VIP tent out front and let us know.
[00:00:36] We can make sure that you get those.
[00:00:37] They're hopefully to help you just refocus and reground on the things
[00:00:42] That we talk about on Sundays and sort of feed you throughout the week.
[00:00:46] And so we invite you to follow along with those.
[00:00:48] Our series right now is about unsubscribing to all the things that are just chaotic and overwhelming.
[00:00:56] We live in a sense in a time of culture overload.
[00:01:00] You can't get away from information because of those handy-dandy things we carry.
[00:01:04] And our hands are little cell phones that we are always connected.
[00:01:08] And so we're going to talk for the next six weeks about how to unsubscribe and then build resilience.
[00:01:14] So the first couple of weeks are going to be about unsubscribing.
[00:01:17] And the second half is going to be about how to build resilience as human beings in a culture that seems to have gone a little crazy.
[00:01:24] So we're so glad that you are here today.
[00:01:26] If you're worshiping with us and you're newer to West, we extend a very special and warm welcome to you.
[00:01:32] We'd love to know that you are a part of our community, especially to those of you online.
[00:01:38] So you can scan the QR code that you see on the screens.
[00:01:41] Let us know that you're here and stay in touch with the things that we have coming up.
[00:01:45] we're really glad that you're here wanting to let you know one little thing and it's not it isn't little actually we have launched a new website huge shout out to Becca Carroll who is in our nursery right now but Becca has been working hard on launching our new website and she has asked and and we do that as you go on and if you see any little like links that don't work or any little glitches let us know it is a work in progress but we are grateful for
[00:02:13] We're really glad that you're here.
[00:02:31] I'm excited to share the message with you today, and I hope you find worship today to be meaningful, relevant, and transformational.

[00:02:39] [SPEAKER SPEAKER_00]:
The world that we live in these days has gone absolutely off the rails.
[00:02:44] The pace of life, the amount of information coming at us, the tragedy and the trauma of the world, the constant demands that we're trying to keep up with, it's hard on the soul.
[00:02:56] Here's the thing, to thrive in a world like this, you need a life that is saturated with the presence of God.
[00:03:04] But the double bind is the world we live in so assaults the soul that it prevents us from receiving the grace and the help that God is giving.
[00:03:15] Push back the madness and receive more of God into our lives.
[00:03:20] Heal our union with Him, our joy and our happiness coming back to us.
[00:03:26] I think you're going to find this immensely helpful and very refreshing.
[00:03:30] Honestly, it's kind of a lifeline thrown to you from Jesus.

[00:03:37] [SPEAKER SPEAKER_01]:
So first of all, if you're newer to West, we have a rubber chicken on our stage.
[00:03:41] There's a reason that we have that.
[00:03:42] One of our core values is that we follow the Jesus model.
[00:03:46] Another one is we like to have fun.
[00:03:48] And another one is that all are welcome and we mean it.
[00:03:51] So we have a mascot that is not Jesus.
[00:03:53] We have a rubber chicken.
[00:03:54] His name is Westy and he is a visual reminder to all that you are welcome to come as you are.
[00:04:00] We really mean it.
[00:04:01] There are no pretenses.
[00:04:03] We hope that anyone
[00:04:04] that stumbles into west or comes here intentionally finds a safe space and so that's why we have a rubber chicken on the stage i wanted to share with you one of my favorite christmas gifts and tell you a little bit about an experience i recognize that sometimes my stories can go a little long so bear with me today this one has actually really an important
[00:04:26] tagline at the end so this was one gift that I requested I asked for it intentionally and I was so excited about it I even got some of my friends one and realized that was a mistake you have to make it and I realized that they don't make things so I'm just gonna have a lot of these this is actually a Turkish lamp we clap if you've ever seen a Turkish lamp and
[00:04:53] Okay, not many, and that's good because you too can make one.
[00:04:57] And this is not an infomercial, but it is, you'll see behind me a picture of these on the screen.
[00:05:03] They're beautiful, and they're made out of cut pieces of glass.
[00:05:07] So I want you to focus on this picture right now as I tell you this story.
[00:05:13] And the really funny thing was I got Dawn Lynch one of these for Christmas.
[00:05:19] She is one of our staff people.
[00:05:21] and does an amazing job so I thought it'd be really cool if I gave her one for Christmas and then she gave me my Christmas present which shows you that we are in sync she gave me an experience which those are important to me one of the greatest gifts you can give other people is the gift of your time and attention because you can't buy those things nor can you take them back and so giving someone your time and your attention
[00:05:45] is truly a gift so Dawn gave me hers and took me to an experience yesterday in Charlotte to make a Turkish lamp now that was crazy I had bought her a Turkish lamp and she had purchased for me long before I even bought her one a gift to go make Turkish lamps so I'm like okay cool we'll have two like we'll make one and then
[00:06:09] I'll have another one for the office so I was really excited because I knew it was going to teach me I want to be crafty aka soul creations and thank goodness I finally learned how to make some candles and that actually has turned into some profit but um I think I'm way craftier than I am and I also there is not a part of my brain
[00:06:33] That is logical.
[00:06:34] Like I've got some major ADD and I self-medicate with caffeine and yesterday we went to South Charlotte to an experience to make a Turkish lamb.
[00:06:47] Now I did not think, I was so excited that I didn't do any prep work and
[00:06:52] They let you into this room and then I want to show you now a picture of the table that would be in front of you.
[00:06:59] So you're at this table with eight other people.
[00:07:01] Notice these people on the phones in the back of the picture like they've done their homework.
[00:07:07] which I never thought oh I should do homework to build a Turkish lamp I mean it's a class you assume wrongly and you know what assuming does that when you go in they're gonna have everything that you need and so if you'll see all those little bowls on the table they are tiny tiny tiny pieces of glass and what you do is you glue the glass on the glass and you use this pattern and then it's beautiful when the light shines through
[00:07:34] So you can focus now on this picture as I continue the story.
[00:07:39] We sit down and on your tray in front of you is like this placemat kind of thing that has designs that you can follow for your Turkish lamp.
[00:07:50] Now if you can see this online, sorry if it's not too close, and for those of you in person, all you need to know is that there's a bunch of stuff online.
[00:07:59] Let's take a look at some of the things that are on this card and it's in shapes.
[00:08:03] Now ours was not on individual cards.
[00:08:05] It was on this giant placemat thing and it had all these different designs that you could choose from which were really cool.
[00:08:14] I'm like oh how awesome like it's all right there in front of me.
[00:08:18] and then the class started and the gentleman got up and said you know welcome now you have 15 minutes to pick your design and to get your tiles notice the little bowls like there's a lot of them
[00:08:35] Get your tiles and put them on your paper like take the tiles actually and put them on the paper so you can build your design and then in step two we're going to teach you how to take your design and put it from the paper to the lamp sounds easy except the part when he said you have 15 minutes
[00:08:57] Now, the person across the table, the couple across the table, they started talking about all their TikTok research that they had done on building a Turkish lamp.
[00:09:07] And that's when my stomach started to hurt.
[00:09:09] Now, Dawn is hearing all this for the very first time.
[00:09:12] I did not lament this yesterday.
[00:09:14] And Dawn, heads up, I loved it and would do it again, but I would do the prep work.
[00:09:18] and so I'm sitting there they're talking about all the work and research and they'd already picked their designs and I'm like all right you don't have a lot of time pick one and go get your tiles and there was this really really cool pattern that was made it look 3d and they were these little squares and they were on top of one another I was going to bring you the design and show you but I messed up so bad I actually glued the tiles onto my paper
[00:09:46] and like it just I left it at home I was too embarrassed to bring it here and so I went over and and you're really crowded in this day this was such a moneymaker uh they were we were pretty tight in this room and I went over there in between two folks and I could tell that I was giving the lady beside me anxiety uh because her husband started rubbing her back and asking her if she was okay
[00:10:12] and I'm like I realize I'm in your personal space and I'm really sorry but I just need my little tiles and then I'll go back and sit down and so because we were all using the same colors I get I'd already counted the tiles as well I was impressed with myself that I thought through let's count so you're not just standing there randomly over these people and so I counted out my little 36 squares and I brought them back to my little paper and I start putting them down and
[00:10:41] They weren't squares.
[00:10:44] Now, if you look at a square and you look at a diamond, they're very similar.
[00:10:49] Like, if you turn a square, it's a diamond.
[00:10:55] Unless you're a Turkish lamp mosaic piece.
[00:10:59] And I could tell at this point Dawn felt so sorry for me because she looked at me and said, It's okay.
[00:11:07] Shapes are tricky.
[00:11:09] And I'm like...
[00:11:10] Yeah, when you're in kindergarten.
[00:11:14] I am 55 and should know my shapes.
[00:11:17] So I had collected 35 of these little squares from giving a lady social anxiety because I was all up in her business.
[00:11:25] And so I have to go back, take my tiles.
[00:11:29] Now keep in mind, this is the amazing race of Turkish lamp making.
[00:11:33] which I finally said out loud I said I feel like I'm in the amazing race of Turkish lamp making and Dawn is the only one that laughed and so because everybody else had had enough sense to do their homework or no spatial design like Dawn did and so long story short I finally get my tiles they were supposed to be diamonds they're not the same as squares in mosaic world and I start building my design
[00:12:00] Now, when I get anxious about something like every Sunday morning or Christmas Eve, my stomach, I can always tell when I'm in a space of anxiety or fear or anger or sadness because my stomach hurts.
[00:12:17] There's this really cool book out there that I would recommend for you if you deal with any of those things.
[00:12:23] It's called The Body Keeps the Score.
[00:12:26] and it teaches you how to recognize like when you're in an unsettling space, emotionally, physically, anything, your body will tell you.
[00:12:36] Your body keeps the score.
[00:12:37] So I noticed that my stomach hurt at the, you've got 15 minutes and then when I got all the little tiles wrong, stomach hurt a little more, I go back to get them and then I made the mistake of looking around the table at all other seven people's designs
[00:12:53] and they were laid out beautifully everything fit on their paper and they were quietly waiting on the instructions I looked at Dawn's it looked like an interior designer had designed the the Turkish lamp which is why our Soul Creations booths have done so well because she's really gifted at it and then honestly I had almost finished putting my tiles on the design and the guy goes time's up
[00:13:20] Now, I would have preferred five minutes notice, but that's not how it went and he did not ask my opinion of how I wanted to restructure the entire experience.
[00:13:29] And so, he's like, time's up, let me show you how to glue.
[00:13:34] Well, I was so stressed out by this point that I didn't even have a design yet.
[00:13:38] Only halfway paid attention to the glue, not a good idea, which is why my tiles ended up glued on my paper, because I used my fingers and then I had it all over my jeans and my shirt.
[00:13:48] And it was, I'm not going to keep going because there's some theological content I'd like to get to today, but my point is, yesterday was created to be this beautiful...
[00:14:04] Bonding, friendship, creation of something that I've really wanted to do, experience.
[00:14:14] And then I got there and all these other factors started weighing in and one after another it really began to take away the joy.
[00:14:31] Like how often is life like that?
[00:14:38] Like we have this intention, I'm gonna have a good day, this is gonna be the right job, this is gonna be a phenomenal relationship, this is the one, this is the right school choice.
[00:14:51] How many times do we get in those spaces and then thing after thing after thing happens and we start doubting
[00:15:01] And if we're not careful, like as these things keep piling up, we get into this space that it just clouds over everything.
[00:15:10] And if we're not careful, it ruins things.
[00:15:18] By the time we got to the glue stage I was still on finding my tiles and I looked up and everybody around the table like the whole point is to do designs on these and typically most people put one on the front one on the back or they do like this beautiful wave design all the way around and
[00:15:42] I was so far behind and so addled and I chose, you know, the little 3D dimensional thing and I put it on the glass and I was actually sort of okay with it.
[00:15:58] My perfectionism, which I am an extreme perfectionist, I was a little upset that they didn't all get together flush, you know, like is that the right word?
[00:16:08] Like where they all line up perfectly.
[00:16:10] but I'm like it's a mosaic it's glass it's cut glass they're not going to be perfect blah blah blah let it go and I look at my paper and I did it wrong I did it crooked like I made a star but in order to do the 3D dimension the star the point of the star was supposed to be sideways so now I'm going to show you my design now there it is you're looking at it
[00:16:38] You might think, well, I hope you think, well, it's not as bad as she's thinking.
[00:16:42] It is.
[00:16:43] And it's not anything that it was created to be.
[00:16:46] But you see the top of the star, it's not supposed to be at the top.
[00:16:50] It was supposed to be a space there.
[00:16:52] And the two points going off to the side.
[00:16:54] And you build off of that.
[00:16:56] In the height of the moment, I couldn't figure out how to shift it to the side and build from that.
[00:17:01] So I just threw the whole paper away, that idea.
[00:17:04] I'm like, I'm just going to go rogue and build my own.
[00:17:08] and it was time consuming so by the time the guy gets to now let's glue all the tiny seed beads on your lamp I was still on trying to finish the center design I said forget it I'm only doing one design
[00:17:29] I feel confident I was the only person in the room that didn't finish and I just figured I would cheat and so I covered the whole back with the filler like it'll just be unique it's a lamp you can only look at one side at a time no one will ever know and that was my philosophy on the Turkish lamp
[00:17:50] Don was so gracious.
[00:17:52] She's like, it's pretty.
[00:17:53] And then, you know, everybody else would look at the table at your design.
[00:17:57] And I noticed they were really complimenting Don's.
[00:17:59] And then they'd look at mine and they just wouldn't say anything.
[00:18:03] And it was okay.
[00:18:05] Because the whole time I sat there, I mean, I knew what I was going to talk about today.
[00:18:08] And I'm like, God, if you could not give me real-life circumstances to be sermon illustrations or message illustrations, I'd be really grateful.
[00:18:15] But the whole time I was like, this is fun.
[00:18:17] This is fun.
[00:18:19] This is fun.
[00:18:20] This is joy-filled.
[00:18:22] You're here with a friend, a colleague.
[00:18:25] You're grateful for this time.
[00:18:26] This is an experience.
[00:18:28] Like, I had this mantra going as my lamp didn't look like anyone else's.
[00:18:34] Old me would have been like just devastated and and probably truthfully would have quit but
[00:18:45] Working on New Me was like, it's all right.
[00:18:49] It's all right if your lamp is very different.
[00:18:54] When have you ever done anything in life normal?
[00:18:56] I mean, come on, get a grip.
[00:18:57] Like, it's not how we lead church.
[00:19:00] It's not how we have a building.
[00:19:01] It's not the way West rolls.
[00:19:04] And I get to be the pastor, the founding pastor of West.
[00:19:07] That's so cool.
[00:19:09] And so get over it if your lamp's not good.
[00:19:13] Because what are you comparing it to?
[00:19:16] Everybody else's?
[00:19:19] Because when I walked in that room, all I had was this.
[00:19:23] And when I finish with the image you see on the screen, you have to put this putty stuff around it, I don't know the fancy word, and then you wash it off and you buff it.
[00:19:34] And you know, once I fill in all that blank space with the right stuff, it's going to be an alright lamp.
[00:19:43] And only I will know what it could have been.
[00:19:46] Again, an analogy or a metaphor for life.
[00:19:53] We live, like I said before, in this time of culture where every time you turn around, there's another news story.
[00:20:00] We get news on our social media feeds.
[00:20:02] We get news on YouTube.
[00:20:04] We get news on TV if you bother to watch live TV anymore.
[00:20:09] Like anytime you need information, you have it instantaneously.
[00:20:16] and not just information about world events like do you ever doom scroll on social media or you're just curious about so-and-so's life so you click on their profile and then you start digging in and then you find yourself comparing yourself to them or your business or your organization or wherever you are in life career-wise, your home, your car.
[00:20:40] We live in this thing called a comparison trap.
[00:20:43] And Comparison Trap combined with Information Overload creates this space of chaos, lack of fulfillment, and exhaustion.
[00:20:58] And so for the next few weeks I want us to talk about like that that's a real thing, that so many times we do find ourselves just overwhelmed, underwhelmed with who we are and what we've turned into,
[00:21:15] Dissatisfied and afraid of what's yet to come.
[00:21:20] That's not what life is created to be.
[00:21:24] One of the things that Jesus said,
[00:21:30] When he was teaching and preaching to those who were following him was, you know, I am the way, I am truth, I am life, and religious fundamentals use that to keep everybody else in, which is not what he meant at all, but that's another sermon for another day.
[00:21:50] When he said, I am the way,
[00:21:52] what he meant was I am the way to the Father like if you will follow me if you will mirror your life like mine I will show you to this space of absolute beauty and peace and guess what all your tiles don't have to line up perfectly for you to be in that space of beauty and peace
[00:22:17] I am the way.
[00:22:18] I am truth.
[00:22:20] So what I say is what you need to hear.
[00:22:22] This is the secret.
[00:22:26] And I am life.
[00:22:28] we don't focus on that like last part because we want to make it about doomsday salvation to be honest and if you don't follow Jesus and you don't do this then you won't be saved and all this kind of stuff and salvation doesn't even mean that salvation means transformation and hopefully we are experiencing an ongoing salvation and transformation in our lives Methodists call it grace sanctifying grace
[00:22:55] But I am life.
[00:22:56] What does it mean to have life?
[00:22:58] It means you don't go to a beautiful gift that someone has given you and let yourself get bent out of shape because you ran out of time.
[00:23:08] I mean, what was the guy going to do?
[00:23:10] Kick me out because I didn't have my beads on?
[00:23:12] No.
[00:23:12] I mean, if I was still there at four, maybe, but I was totally overreacting.
[00:23:21] Life is looking at that which is around us and seeing beauty instead of pain.
[00:23:32] Life is finding ourselves immersed in moments where they can either feel overwhelming and like we've got one or two more things we need to do so we can't be present in that moment.
[00:23:45] Life is being present.
[00:23:48] Has anyone ever said to you, you're here but you're not here?
[00:23:52] Or your kids say to you, I can tell you're not listening.
[00:23:56] Like you're listening, but you're really not listening.
[00:24:00] Life is being present in the moment.
[00:24:05] Life is knowing that when things fall apart, there's a peace and a presence that holds all things together.
[00:24:15] that when our body keeps the score and notifies us that we're triggered in some way and there's something out of our control that's causing us some anxiety or fear or anger or sadness to pay attention over the next several weeks especially in the meditations we're going to talk about hints like what can you do
[00:24:41] To reclaim that space of life.
[00:24:45] And the first thing that we're going to look at is to make a conscious decision.
[00:24:50] So I want to read to you what Jesus did.
[00:24:55] If you were at our Christmas Eve service I shared with you that the Walmart greeter as we were finishing buying up some of our gifts for our volunteers commented on my cart because I had like 20 boxes of cereal that we were making this like candy mix for volunteers and it was odd that I had
[00:25:16] I'm a pastor.
[00:25:18] I just love Jesus.
[00:25:46] I said don't you like if we could just peel away all the religious stuff that have gotten dumped onto Jesus and just look at Jesus like how could you not love Jesus and this story is just so cool it opens up the Gospel of Mark
[00:26:04] And Mark just jumps right in.
[00:26:07] He's not like Matthew and Luke and telling the birth narrative.
[00:26:10] He just is so excited about this person that he has known about and followed and loved and watched die and watch live again that he dives right into it.
[00:26:26] So it's about halfway through the first book of Mark and I'm going to read more than I normally do and I'm going to read quickly because this is just like background information I want you to have until I get to the main point for today.
[00:26:40] They're all main points but the main point for today.
[00:26:42] So just hang on and listen.
[00:26:46] So he had just finished calling the disciples.
[00:26:51] They went to Capernaum, and when the Sabbath came, Jesus went into the synagogue and began to teach.
[00:26:57] So if you want to keep like a little tally of what all Jesus is doing in this, I would invite you to do so as I rethink.
[00:27:03] Okay, that's number one.
[00:27:05] He went into the synagogue to teach.
[00:27:07] The people were amazed at his teaching because he taught them as one who had authority, not as teachers of the law.
[00:27:14] He taught them as one who had authority, not teachers.
[00:27:17] Not somebody that's going to like, you know, go back to old school teachers where, you know, discipline was the primary thing.
[00:27:24] Not teachers of the law.
[00:27:25] One who has authority and we know where that authority came from.
[00:27:29] Just then a man in their synagogue who was possessed by an impure spirit cried out, What do you want with us, Jesus of Nazareth?
[00:27:36] Have you come to destroy us?
[00:27:38] I know who you are, the Holy One of God.
[00:27:41] Be quiet, Jesus said sternly, come out of him.
[00:27:44] The impure spirit shook the man violently and came out of him with a streak.
[00:27:48] So he's teaching, now he has done a healing?
[00:27:53] The people were so amazed that they asked each other, what is this?
[00:27:56] A new teaching and with authority?
[00:27:58] He even gives orders to impure spirits and they obey him.
[00:28:04] News about him spread quickly over the whole region of Galilee.
[00:28:08] As soon as they left the synagogue, they went with James and John to the home of Simon and Andrew.
[00:28:14] Simon's mother-in-law was in bed with fever and they immediately told Jesus about her.
[00:28:19] So he went to her, took her hand, helped her up.
[00:28:22] The fever left her and she began to wait on them.
[00:28:26] That evening after sunset, so that's number three.
[00:28:29] That evening after sunset, the people brought to Jesus all the sick and demon-possessed.
[00:28:34] So at this point, we can't even keep count anymore.
[00:28:37] They have found out about him.
[00:28:39] They love him.
[00:28:41] He's gone viral, which is what influencers in our culture just love to do.
[00:28:49] And there's this thing called rage baiting.
[00:28:51] If you don't know about that term, I invite you to look it up later.
[00:28:55] We're going to do a message series on it later this year.
[00:28:58] But rage baiting is a real thing.
[00:29:00] Totally not a healthy thing.
[00:29:02] Jesus didn't go viral by rage baiting.
[00:29:05] He went viral by loving and healing.
[00:29:13] They all came and they brought the masses.
[00:29:19] All the sick and all the demon-possessed, the whole town gathered at the door.
[00:29:29] Now they lived in villages back then and I mean it's not like if all of Mooresville went downtown or all of Troutman but it would have been a substantially large amount of people they wanted to see.
[00:29:45] Jesus healed many who had various diseases he also drove out many demons but he would not let the demons speak because they too knew who he was and his day ends very early in the morning and here's the part that is for us today very early in the morning while it was still dark
[00:30:15] Jesus got up, left the house, and went off to a solitary place where he prayed.
[00:30:24] So if you ever watch The Chosen, it depicts this in such a beautiful way, like they've had this amazing night, it's like a great party, and then, you know, they wake up, and they go looking for the star, and he's not there.
[00:30:42] Like, we've lost Jesus.
[00:30:45] How do you lose Jesus?
[00:30:49] Where did he go?
[00:30:50] Simon and his companions went to look for him.
[00:30:57] And when they found him, they exclaimed, which probably means scolded just a little bit, like, dude, you're our ticket here?
[00:31:05] Where have you been?
[00:31:06] Everyone is looking for you.
[00:31:11] And Jesus replied, let's go somewhere else.
[00:31:18] Let's go to nearby villages.
[00:31:19] I can preach there also.
[00:31:21] That's why I have come.
[00:31:23] And so we traveled throughout Galilee preaching in their synagogues and driving out demons.
[00:31:31] Everyone is looking for you, Jesus.
[00:31:34] Hey, they want to know where you've gone.
[00:31:39] He doesn't give an explanation.
[00:31:40] He doesn't make excuses.
[00:31:45] He says, let's go somewhere else.
[00:31:49] So I want you to take a look at the Greek word for departed.
[00:31:55] This is what it looks like in Greek.
[00:31:59] And what departed means in this sense is not, and let's go to the next screen, it is not these four things.
[00:32:10] Accidental wandering, passive withdrawal, escapism, or burnout collapse.
[00:32:18] And let's just stop here for a second and think about those things.
[00:32:22] Departed means he intentionally left.
[00:32:29] It was a sound decision.
[00:32:31] If you flesh out the Greek of this translation and this word, it was a solid decision.
[00:32:37] It was not accidental.
[00:32:41] It was not passive-aggressive.
[00:32:45] He just made the decision and he left.
[00:32:50] He's not trying to escape anything.
[00:32:51] He wasn't burnout and experiencing burnout collapse.
[00:32:58] ask yourself for just a second have you ever done any of these things that you see on the screen accidental wandering off like maybe not physically but mentally do you ever pick up your phone and open up instagram or facebook or tick tock or x and scroll through those things just to get your mind off of whatever it was on that's called accidental wandering
[00:33:28] or where you just passively withdraw or you try to escape or you're burnout.
[00:33:39] So this next screen is what these things look like in our everyday life.
[00:33:43] Doom scrolling or you get a text that you don't like and so you just forget to respond.
[00:33:55] You numb out with Netflix or Hulu or Paramount or whatever the many streaming platforms are.
[00:34:03] You numb out with Netflix.
[00:34:06] You binge watch a whole show in a day or two because you don't want to think about the things that need your attention.
[00:34:15] Or you cancel plans.
[00:34:17] Over and over again with no good reason.
[00:34:21] You just don't have the mental space to do those anymore.
[00:34:25] You retreat into isolation and you call it self-care.
[00:34:34] Like you just, I call it jokingly, you go to an island where you're all by yourself.
[00:34:41] And you don't let anybody else come to your island.
[00:34:43] You're just there.
[00:34:45] But you say it's self-care.
[00:34:48] Or maybe you've been so immersed in the chaos and you've run yourself ragged that you're emotionally or physically sick.
[00:35:00] Or maybe your life has been such and taken so much from you that spiritually you're empty
[00:35:12] And you're like, God?
[00:35:13] What God?
[00:35:15] My life has sucked this past year and God has not been here for me at all.
[00:35:22] There is no God.
[00:35:22] Have you ever been in that space?
[00:35:27] I have.
[00:35:28] I know lots of people that have.
[00:35:31] Or complete burnout like you just fantasized about quitting.
[00:35:37] Maybe some element of life or just in general.
[00:35:44] We all get to those spaces like I imagine Jesus was at that night.
[00:35:51] I mean he'd done all those things.
[00:35:53] He starts out by teaching and preaching and it goes well and then there's somebody in there and they're possessed by an unclean spirit and then they call out who Jesus is and he clearly was not ready to release that information in that way at that time and then he goes to his new disciples house.
[00:36:11] Their mom is sick.
[00:36:12] He heals her and then more people come and more people come.
[00:36:14] The whole town comes, he heals, and then he's tired like he has gone viral.
[00:36:22] And you know the temptation when all that success comes is to just keep riding the success.
[00:36:31] But he chooses not to.
[00:36:35] If you've been around West for a while you have heard this story but it's so true and an example of how I missed the mark so I'm not ever going to tell you you need to keep a mark when I know that we all wrestle with it and hopefully you can learn from my story but when West started we like Jesus had a tremendous amount of success we grew far faster than we had ever planned
[00:37:02] and then because of transitions at the mama church and all these other things like we couldn't help but grow there for a while our kids ministry was going well things were just we were hitting it out of the park now at the same time I needed to finish being ordained as an elder I was ordained a deacon and deacons now they're different things but back then like deacons were not
[00:37:26] I had two children.
[00:37:32] I had a family.
[00:37:45] and I tried to have friends and I'm in school and we have missions and I'm still the missions pastor at Williamson's Chapel and still on staff there it was not the prettiest season of my life and in the meantime I had to go to this thing called the Board of Ordain Ministry
[00:38:00] and they have these things called district boards of ordained ministry and so you go you dress up you look professional you show up and they ask you questions and then you have to talk about your theology and stuff and then they vote on whether or not you can continue in candidacy for ministry or not it is a rigorous process but one that is so important and one I will stand behind always because it it helps people discern their calling
[00:38:30] but I was like in that throw of man ministry is knocking it out of the park right now and and I like the success I've got ego
[00:38:40] and so we just kept riding the success and growing and growing and then it came time for this board of ordained ministry interview and I got there and I walked in and I recognized somebody in the in the lobby and they're like what are you doing here I'm like what do you mean what am I doing here it's my interview and they're like they're not on the schedule now keep in mind it was in Davidson I lived in Denver it was not a quick drive and I'm like what do you mean I'm not on the schedule
[00:39:11] and they're like you're not on the schedule today like I don't know what you looked at but you're not supposed to be here now by the time this conversation had happened we had worked our way down the hall and the meeting room the conference room where all the pastors were that vote yes or no is on my right the exit was in front of me I couldn't go back and I'm standing there and I'm not supposed to be there
[00:39:40] And in classic, I don't follow logic in my life.
[00:39:43] I dropped to the floor on all fours and crawled my way underneath both of those doors so that my people would not know that I was so scattered that I couldn't even get the wrong day.
[00:39:56] So if I ever miss a meeting with you, just know it's not intentional.
[00:39:59] It is just the way my brain works.
[00:40:01] I stink at calendaring.
[00:40:04] but the next day was when my meeting was supposed to be and I went back and they broke us into small groups and a guy who had planted a church was on my panel and so they asked me all the questions and then he looked at me at the end he said you do realize this is a marathon not a sprint right and I you know when I'm wrong I get defensive
[00:40:29] What do you mean?
[00:40:29] And he's like, do you know it's a marathon, not a sprint?
[00:40:33] Because you can't keep this pace up.
[00:40:36] And I thought, you watch me, I'll show you.
[00:40:38] We get so wrapped up in our egos being fed by other things.
[00:40:44] But look, Jesus didn't.
[00:40:45] He had his most successful day of ministry as of yet.
[00:40:52] And he intentionally chose to depart.
[00:40:58] What do you need to depart from in your life right now to bring you that life that we talked about a few minutes ago?
[00:41:05] What is it that you need to intentionally depart from?
[00:41:11] Because those first things I showed you, there's an opposite of that and I want you to take a look at those things.
[00:41:21] Intentional departure, you make an active choice.
[00:41:25] You strategically reposition yourself and you have a prophetic disruption of expectation and what that looks like in real life words are.
[00:41:37] Go ahead.
[00:41:40] You calendar your time.
[00:41:43] If there's a prayer walk on your calendar, you take it.
[00:41:48] And you're like, that sounds so hokey.
[00:41:49] I'm not going to go on a prayer walk.
[00:41:52] Put time for reflection and peace.
[00:41:56] I call that prayer because the divine abides within us and knows everything that we think and feel and experience.
[00:42:05] Put it on there.
[00:42:06] That's called self-care.
[00:42:12] And we call it God self-care because it's intentional time away and time within with God
[00:42:23] When other people need you, if you're a parent, and kids are like, I need this, I need this, or if you're in a relationship with someone, friends, partners, even bosses with an element of respect, of course, say, I need 30 minutes.
[00:42:41] Can I just have 30 minutes?
[00:42:43] I just need some time to process.
[00:42:46] I need some space.
[00:42:47] I just need 30 minutes.
[00:42:48] You also can practice the word no.
[00:42:55] And you can also impose a 24-hour rule.
[00:43:00] Instead of rage baiting or responding out of anger or hurt to something that comes across your inbox or your phone,
[00:43:11] Or you hear something about you that you don't like and you don't know what to do and you're tempted to respond, a 24-hour rule, it makes all the difference in the world.
[00:43:20] You will feel differently about the situation if you just wait 24 hours.
[00:43:26] It doesn't mean it will go away, but you'll be, we will be, less emotionally charged.
[00:43:35] The whole point of this series and today's message is to stop before you're empty.
[00:43:44] Jesus in his wisdom had the biggest day of his career and he stops before he's empty and he intentionally departs.
[00:44:00] Remember who you are before the voices tell you who to be.
[00:44:09] We have this amazing example of one who shows us how to have life.
[00:44:18] That's who we follow.
[00:44:19] Will you pray with me?
[00:44:23] Gracious God, we are grateful that you give us the example of how to follow and how to love.
[00:44:30] We offer ourselves to you as a new person in a new year.
[00:44:37] Show us the things that we need to say no to.
[00:44:41] Show us the situations that we miss out on because we aren't open-minded enough to let all the other voices and demands go.
[00:44:48] And let us make beautiful Turkish lamps of our lives.
[00:44:58] Recognizing that all the pieces, they don't have to fit together perfectly for beauty to be there in the end.
[00:45:06] God, we're so grateful for the way that you love us, the way that you forgive us, the way that you shape us.
[00:45:11] We offer ourselves to you and invite you to work in us.
[00:45:17] In Christ's name we pray.
[00:45:20] So I invite you to stand for our departure.
[00:45:23] Years ago I preached a similar message to this and leaving a lady goes, or the next week she goes, oh I quit my job after hearing the message last Sunday.
[00:45:34] That is not the departure that I am encouraging you to take unless you have a backup plan or two.
[00:45:40] But there are things we all need to like walk away from, comparison trap, doom scrolling, a desire to be viral.
[00:45:50] And let's claim that power that lives in us.
[00:45:54] Yesterday after the class, I was talking with Lane and she's like, how was it?
[00:46:00] I said, it was great.
[00:46:01] I said, but they gave us a paper and it had squares on it and she just busted out laughing.
[00:46:07] Like I didn't even have to say anything else because she knew that I struggled with elementary shapes.
[00:46:13] And she just laughed the whole time that I told her what happened.
[00:46:18] And then I found myself laughing.
[00:46:20] I'm like, you know what?
[00:46:22] Even though it did not turn out anything like I wanted it to originally, it was a beautiful day and my lamp will be almost beautiful.
[00:46:33] It'll be very pretty.
[00:46:34] Life will be like that.
[00:46:37] It might not be exactly what you've wanted it to be, but if we will let it be through the power that abides in each of us, it will be more than just very pretty.
[00:46:46] It'll be beautiful.
[00:46:47] Go claim that beautiful life.
[00:46:49] Amen.