Speaker 1: I want to begin today with two questions. The two
Speaker 1: questions survey okay, and the first question is this, be honest,
Speaker 1: don't lie. How many of you have ever run out
Speaker 1: of gas? Can I see your hands? Great? All right?
Speaker 1: The rest of you I hate? Okay, all right, you
Speaker 1: are my kind of people. Those you raise your hand.
Speaker 1: The rest of you you didn't raise your You can
Speaker 1: go home right now. You don't need this message. You
Speaker 1: are too perfect, and I envy you. You're honestly in
Speaker 1: my hall of fame. Now here's the second survey question.
Speaker 1: Everybody can raise their hands on this one. How low
Speaker 1: do you let your gas tank get before you refill? Okay,
Speaker 1: so when you refill after a quarter of a tank low?
Speaker 1: How many of you do that? You can go home
Speaker 1: right now. You don't need this message. All right. When
Speaker 1: your tank is half empty, how many of a refill?
Speaker 1: All right? When your tank is three quarters of an
Speaker 1: tank empty? Raise your hand? All right? All right? Uh,
Speaker 1: when you are five miles past empty, raise your hand.
Speaker 1: You need to stay. Okay, those of you raise your
Speaker 1: hand that you need to stay for this message. Now,
Speaker 1: what I want us to do today as we start
Speaker 1: in this next message of the series, strategies for stressful
Speaker 1: time is I want us to look at how do
Speaker 1: you keep your tank filled instead of running on empty?
Speaker 1: And before we do the antidote the solutions to staying
Speaker 1: spiritually and emotionally and relationally filled so that your tank
Speaker 1: is full, I first need to identify the ten reasons
Speaker 1: that you run out of gas. Okay, I want get
Speaker 1: out your pencil and write this down, the ten reasons
Speaker 1: you run out of gas. Because each of these reasons
Speaker 1: why we run out of gas in our car actually
Speaker 1: parallels the reasons the ten reasons why you feel spiritually
Speaker 1: empty or emotionally empty too, so as I give them
Speaker 1: to you. As we go through this list of ten things,
Speaker 1: I want you to circle the number of reasons that
Speaker 1: actually apply to your spiritual or emotional condition if you're
Speaker 1: feeling a little low, a little running on empty right now? Okay,
Speaker 1: here they are. Number one. First reason we run out
Speaker 1: of gas is not starting out with a full tank.
Speaker 1: Not starting out with a full tank. Now, we're gonna
Speaker 1: look at some of the antidotes to these later on,
Speaker 1: but how you start your day sets your day. Not
Speaker 1: starting out every day with a full tank means you're
Speaker 1: going to be on empty much of the day. Number two,
Speaker 1: being too busy to stop and refuel. That's the second
Speaker 1: reason we run out of gas when you're too busy
Speaker 1: to stop up and refuel. And some of you can
Speaker 1: relate to that in your emotional life and your relational life,
Speaker 1: in your spiritual life. Number three, ignoring the owner's manual
Speaker 1: and pushing my car farther than it was created to go.
Speaker 1: You got a ten gallon tank or fifteen gallon tank
Speaker 1: or twenty gallon tank or whatever it is, you need
Speaker 1: to know what the owner's manual says. When you push
Speaker 1: it passed further than the owner's manuel tells you, you're
Speaker 1: gonna run out of gas. Now, I hate tell you this,
Speaker 1: but you're not superman. You're not superwoman. You have limits.
Speaker 1: And one of the limits that God puts in your
Speaker 1: life is actually in the Ten Commandments, and it says this,
Speaker 1: Every seventh day is for worship, rest, and relaxation. It's
Speaker 1: called the Sabbath. And if you ignore the Sabbath, you
Speaker 1: don't take a day for worship, rest and relaxation, then
Speaker 1: you're gonna pay for it, and you're gonna be running
Speaker 1: on empty most of your life. Here's the fourth cause
Speaker 1: that we run out of gas emotionally and spiritually, not
Speaker 1: just in our cars. Number four being unaware of hidden
Speaker 1: links leaks. Being unaware of hidden leaks that are draining me. Now,
Speaker 1: most common causes of leaks in your life, because you
Speaker 1: are draining energy all the time, are your relationships. They
Speaker 1: drain you, and your responsibilities they drain you. I don't
Speaker 1: know if you realize this, but conflict drains you of energy.
Speaker 1: Criticism drains you of energy. Disappointment drains you of energy.
Speaker 1: Frustration drains you of energy. You've experienced all of these
Speaker 1: during the pandemic. Grief when you have a loss, drains
Speaker 1: you of energy. These are common leaks that empty your soul. Right,
Speaker 1: and when you're not unaware of the hidden leaks in
Speaker 1: your life, you're gonna run out of gas pretty quickly,
Speaker 1: emotionally and spiritually. Okay. Number five being in a hurry.
Speaker 1: Being in a hurry drains your tank. Now you already know,
Speaker 1: you already know that going fast waste more gas. I
Speaker 1: mean you know that when you're driving really fast, rapid acceleration,
Speaker 1: speeding up. You know when the light turns green, that
Speaker 1: burns a lot of gas. Faster and the faster I drive,
Speaker 1: the faster, I'm gonna run out of of gas and
Speaker 1: my tank is gonna go low. Now the same is
Speaker 1: true with your soul. That when you're in a hurry
Speaker 1: and you don't pause enough to refill, then you're gonna
Speaker 1: your your tank is gonna go empty. Quicker and the
Speaker 1: faster you go in life, the faster the pace of
Speaker 1: your life. Are you hearing me, The faster the pace
Speaker 1: of your life, the quicker you are gonna get too
Speaker 1: empty on the e of your of your gauge. So
Speaker 1: y'at ask yourself, what is the speed of my life today?
Speaker 1: If I'm running on empty, if I'm running on fumes,
Speaker 1: if I feel a little low, I feel down, I
Speaker 1: feel a little discouraged, then maybe you're maybe you're still
Speaker 1: going too fast in this pandemic? What is the speed
Speaker 1: of my life? Number six six common cause of running
Speaker 1: on empty and having an empty tank is not paying
Speaker 1: attention to my gauges. Not paying attention to my gauges. Now,
Speaker 1: those of us like me who have a d D,
Speaker 1: we don't pay attention to the gauges. I rarely see
Speaker 1: that gauge. I've got to have a big light come
Speaker 1: on gone. You are stupid and you're on empty, and
Speaker 1: you need to stop and get some gas right now.
Speaker 1: I don't pay attention to my gauges, but the same
Speaker 1: is true in life. Did you know that you have
Speaker 1: gauges in your life that can tell you if you're
Speaker 1: getting you're empty? You can What are the spiritual and
Speaker 1: emotional gauges in your life? Let me just give you
Speaker 1: a few of them. Your sleep, your sleep pattern. When
Speaker 1: you're not getting enough sleep, guess what you're heading toward empty?
Speaker 1: Another gauge. Your irritability when everybody around you notices you're
Speaker 1: more irritable than normal. Guess what. That's a gauge. It's
Speaker 1: a gauge that says you're running on fumes. You're running
Speaker 1: on empty. You're a lot less irritable when your tank's full.
Speaker 1: Emotionally and spiritually, your relationships are a gauge. How are
Speaker 1: you getting along in your relationships? That's a gauge in
Speaker 1: your life to tell me tell you whether you're on
Speaker 1: empty or whether you've got a full tank. I hate
Speaker 1: say this, but your weight. Your weight is a gauge
Speaker 1: of how you're handling life. How about your attitudes? Okay,
Speaker 1: your attitudes. How about your generosity? Generosity, you're much more
Speaker 1: generous when you've got a full tank. When you don't
Speaker 1: have a full take, you're not very degenerous in life
Speaker 1: with your time, your money, or what anything. Worship attendance
Speaker 1: is a gauge. When people start falling off and stop
Speaker 1: going up going to church services, going to worship, that's
Speaker 1: a gauge. They're all kinds of patients. How patient are
Speaker 1: you that that's a good indicator of whether you've got
Speaker 1: a full tanker or you're heading toward empty. Each of
Speaker 1: these are gauges of how empty or full your soul is. Now.
Speaker 1: The seventh common cost of being over being empty gas
Speaker 1: wise out of gas is this being overloaded. Being overloaded
Speaker 1: when your car is carrying too much weight, it uses
Speaker 1: more gas than when there isn't as much weight in
Speaker 1: the car. The heavier the load you carry in a vehicle,
Speaker 1: the sooner you're going to run out of gas. I
Speaker 1: can tell you from personal experience. Years ago, I borrowed
Speaker 1: a vacation trailer to take my young family on a vacation.
Speaker 1: So I attached the trailer to my car. I'd never
Speaker 1: pulled a trailer before, and I headed north for a
Speaker 1: family vacation, and I did not consider that carrying more
Speaker 1: weight behind my car meant that I was going to
Speaker 1: get fewer miles per gallon. I thought, well, I just
Speaker 1: get the normal miles per gallon. I can go this far.
Speaker 1: But I didn't realize that. And climbing climbing up the Grapevine,
Speaker 1: you know the mountains north of LA, and you're going
Speaker 1: up the mountains out of l with very strong winds
Speaker 1: coming against you. I helplessly watched my gas gauge goo.
Speaker 1: There's no place to turn around. Okay, there's no place
Speaker 1: to turn around. There are no gas stations. And when
Speaker 1: we did run out of gas inevitably on the Grapevine,
Speaker 1: I had to leave can the kids in the car
Speaker 1: and hike up the mountain to the nearest town, which
Speaker 1: was Gorman. You all know where that is, and Gorman
Speaker 1: and get a thing of gas and then hike back down.
Speaker 1: And some of you are making that mistake right now,
Speaker 1: when you're carrying a heavier load than you normally carry,
Speaker 1: you're running out of gas sooner. Reminds me of a
Speaker 1: story I heard the other day about a pet delivery
Speaker 1: truck and there was guys going down El Toro Road
Speaker 1: in his car behind him watching this happen, and this
Speaker 1: pet delivery truck. At every stoplight, the driver of the
Speaker 1: truck gets out with a big tube before and starts
Speaker 1: beating on the side of the truck. And when it
Speaker 1: turns green, he would get back in the truck and
Speaker 1: he would go. But he gets to the next light,
Speaker 1: red light, he gets out, he beats the truck with
Speaker 1: a tube before gets back in the truck. He does
Speaker 1: this three or four times, and finally the guy falling
Speaker 1: behind him gets too curious and at the next light
Speaker 1: he stops and says, what are you doing? And the
Speaker 1: driver explained, well, this is a two ton truck and
Speaker 1: I'm transporting four tons of canaries, so I have to
Speaker 1: keep half of him in the air all the time.
Speaker 1: Some of you feel like that you got so many
Speaker 1: things in the frying pan, you got so many things
Speaker 1: on your agenda, you gotta keep half of them in
Speaker 1: the air all the time because you're overloaded. And if
Speaker 1: you're trying to say to yourself, I can't handle this,
Speaker 1: it's too much, you may need to load. Okay, that's
Speaker 1: a typical cause of running on empty. Okay, too big
Speaker 1: of a load. Number eight. The eighth common cause of
Speaker 1: running out of gas emotionally, spiritually in your life is this,
Speaker 1: assuming the limits of my tank don't apply to me. Now,
Speaker 1: I happen to have a big SUV, a big Ford suv.
Speaker 1: You know, I've driven one all my life, and it
Speaker 1: holds like twenty six gallons. Some of you your car
Speaker 1: doesn't hold half that amount. But when you think that
Speaker 1: your tank is bigger than it really is, and you
Speaker 1: assume that it doesn't apply to you, there's a word
Speaker 1: for that. When I take on more than I could
Speaker 1: really handle, it's called pride. Pride, And honestly, you, guys,
Speaker 1: I meet a lot of people who are proud of
Speaker 1: being workaholics. They all live in Orange County, California. They
Speaker 1: are proud of how hard they work, and they think
Speaker 1: they're invincible. But the truth is they're running on empty.
Speaker 1: Pride drains your tank. Humility refills your tank, all right.
Speaker 1: A ninth cause of why you run out of gas
Speaker 1: emotionally and spiritually and even relationally. Ninth cost is not
Speaker 1: knowing where to find a filling station. Now, this isn't
Speaker 1: such a big problem anymore because we all have smartphones
Speaker 1: and you've got Google Maps and Apple Maps and all
Speaker 1: these other things. But before that happened, you remember, you go,
Speaker 1: where in the world's a gas station? And you had
Speaker 1: no idea where what, Especially if you're out on a
Speaker 1: long trip, you go, I have no idea, is their
Speaker 1: gas station in the next town? And you know, when
Speaker 1: you don't know where you could get refilled, that's problem.
Speaker 1: But spiritually and emotionally, a lot of people don't know
Speaker 1: where to get refilled to. And now, of course filling station,
Speaker 1: Saddleback Church and all the other good churches that preach
Speaker 1: the Bible teach the Bible, they are emotional and spiritual
Speaker 1: filling stations. But you know, during COVID, a lot of
Speaker 1: people are running on empty emotionally because they've gotten out
Speaker 1: of the habit of going to their filling station, and
Speaker 1: so they're not getting refilled at least on a weekly
Speaker 1: basis through the church service. Sometimes I look like you
Speaker 1: coming in here, and I see you, you know, on
Speaker 1: a Saturday or Sunday, and I feel like you come
Speaker 1: walking in just really drained, and I feel like I've
Speaker 1: got jumper cables and it's my job to attach them
Speaker 1: to you and go and get all right, get out there,
Speaker 1: go for another week. Hang on. You know, I'm like
Speaker 1: a spiritual coach. I'm like the guy slapping Rocky in
Speaker 1: the corner going pouring water on. Go go, go guy, man,
Speaker 1: you can do it. I know you get out there
Speaker 1: and do another round. And I know you're getting beat
Speaker 1: up on a weekly basis, and you know I love
Speaker 1: you as your pastor, and I feel like my job
Speaker 1: is to to be a spiritual filling station, is to
Speaker 1: help you get recharged and refilled emotionally and spiritually for
Speaker 1: the weekend. But if the people who've gotten out of
Speaker 1: the habit of coming don't do that, they're just getting
Speaker 1: more and more drained. Finally, the tenth reason, and this
Speaker 1: really has to do more with if you've never driven
Speaker 1: a car, and that is not knowing how to refill
Speaker 1: my tank. I have to admit that when I got
Speaker 1: my newer car, I didn't know how to open the
Speaker 1: gas tank. I kept looking for the thing to pop
Speaker 1: for it to open, and I couldn't figure it out,
Speaker 1: and then finally figured out, oh, you just press on
Speaker 1: it and it opens up on its own. But I
Speaker 1: didn't know how to refill my tank for several days. Now,
Speaker 1: the feeling of emptiness during COVID pandemic is at an
Speaker 1: all time high. A lot of people are feeling empty
Speaker 1: right now, They're feeling drained. But I want to tell
Speaker 1: you this, everybody, listen, what we're going through is not new.
Speaker 1: People have gone through periods of draining and feeling empty
Speaker 1: for centuries and actually millennia. Let me just show you
Speaker 1: a couple of things on the in scripture from the Bible,
Speaker 1: look up here on screen. In Lamentations, chapter two, verse eleven,
Speaker 1: Jeremiah says this, my eyes have no more tears, and
Speaker 1: I'm sick to my stomach, and I feel empty inside.
Speaker 1: That's thousands of years ago. Guys, you may be feeling
Speaker 1: that today. Well. Jeremiah, who wrote that book, Jeremiah Lamentation,
Speaker 1: felt that. He said, I feel empty inside. How about
Speaker 1: this one? Look on the screen, Job chapter seven, verse three.
Speaker 1: Job says, I am given months that are empty. Sounds
Speaker 1: like a pandemic. I'm given months that are empty and
Speaker 1: nights of misery. So Job understands if you're feeling that way.
Speaker 1: How about this one In Isaiah, This is out of
Speaker 1: the amplified translation. Isaiah says this, I have labored, I
Speaker 1: have labored in vain, and I've spent my strength for
Speaker 1: nothing and in empty futility. He said, I'm feeling empty.
Speaker 1: Or how about this one one more second Samuel three
Speaker 1: thirty nine. David says this, even though I am the
Speaker 1: appointed King, I feel empty. So you may be on
Speaker 1: top of your game, you may be at the pinnacle
Speaker 1: of your career. You may get your cut name on
Speaker 1: the cover of some magazine. David says, even though I'm
Speaker 1: the King, I feel empty inside. Now, before we look
Speaker 1: at the solutions, I'm gonna pause right here, and I
Speaker 1: want you to look at that list of ten things
Speaker 1: on your outline, and I want you to go back
Speaker 1: and circle the numbers that apply to your life. All right,
Speaker 1: circle that. Look at that list and go through it again.
Speaker 1: All right, let's look at it again. If you'd say,
Speaker 1: not starting out with a full tank every day, that's me.
Speaker 1: Check that one. Circle it being too busy to stop
Speaker 1: and refuel. Circle that one ignoring the owners of Anuel,
Speaker 1: pushing my car or my life further than it was
Speaker 1: created to go. Being on number four, being unaware of
Speaker 1: hidden leaks, leaks, maybe you got conflict in your life.
Speaker 1: Number five being in a hurry uh. Number six, not
Speaker 1: paying attention to my gauges. Maybe you need to check
Speaker 1: that one. Number seven being overloaded. I got too much
Speaker 1: to do right now. Number eight, assuming that the limits
Speaker 1: of my tank don't apply to me. Number nine not
Speaker 1: knowing where to find a filling station. Obviously you know
Speaker 1: that one. You don't have to circle. Circle that. Number ten,
Speaker 1: not knowing how to refill my tank. If you circle
Speaker 1: the last one, you came to the right weekend, because
Speaker 1: that's what we're going to look at. How do you
Speaker 1: refill your tank? Now? What does Jesus have to say
Speaker 1: about all this? What does Jesus have to say when
Speaker 1: we come to him with an emptiness in our lives,
Speaker 1: an empty soul, an empty heart, empty of character. How
Speaker 1: does Jesus respond when you say, I got nothing to give,
Speaker 1: I'm all out of gas, I'm living on fumes. What
Speaker 1: does Jesus do when you come to him in your emptiness?
Speaker 1: Does he scold you no? Does he judge you no?
Speaker 1: Does he reprimand you say, oh, you should be full? No?
Speaker 1: In fact, he does the exact opposite. Jesus says this
Speaker 1: in Matthew chapter eleven. Look at this Matthew chapter eleven,
Speaker 1: Verses twenty eight to thirty. He says this, if you're tired,
Speaker 1: I would assume that includes a lot of people sitting
Speaker 1: here right now and those who are listening in Daily Hope.
Speaker 1: If you're tired, most people are tired today because of
Speaker 1: what we've been through the last eighteen months. If you're
Speaker 1: tired from carrying heavy burdens, come to me, Come to me,
Speaker 1: and I will give you a whole lot more to do.
Speaker 1: Oh no, that's not what he says. He doesn't say,
Speaker 1: come to me and I'll give you a whole bunch
Speaker 1: of new things to do. No, he says, I will
Speaker 1: give you what rest. Anybody like that. That's what Jesus says.
Speaker 1: When you come to in with your emptiness, come to
Speaker 1: me and I will give you r e st. Now
Speaker 1: he's not talking about physical rest. You can get that.
Speaker 1: He's talking about emotional and spiritual rest. You can be
Speaker 1: physically rested and still feel empty inside. We're not talking
Speaker 1: about physical emptiness today. You know the last two days.
Speaker 1: You know what I did each of our grandkids when
Speaker 1: they turn kay and I take them on a ten
Speaker 1: on a two day trip to wherever they want to go.
Speaker 1: In California, and it's on your tenth birthday. The last
Speaker 1: of our grandkids turned ten. Claire turned ten this week,
Speaker 1: and so we said, wherever you want to go in California.
Speaker 1: Some have gone to San Francisco, some have gone to Tahoe.
Speaker 1: Claire decided two days of Disneyland. I walk my tushy
Speaker 1: off for the last two days. First day, we walked
Speaker 1: nine point two miles. I measured it over thirty thousand
Speaker 1: steps in Disneyland. We've been on every ride you can
Speaker 1: possibly imagine, and we were there for two days. I'll
Speaker 1: be honest with you, guys, I'm tired today. But that
Speaker 1: didn't have to do with my emotional state. It doesn't
Speaker 1: have to do with my mental or physical or spiritual state.
Speaker 1: I'm just tired. So thank you guys, figuring it all
Speaker 1: out on your own. Goodbye. No. No, you know, you
Speaker 1: can be physically tired but not spiritually empty and not
Speaker 1: emotionally empty. Or you could be physically fit. Some of
Speaker 1: you are physically fit, you look like it, but you're
Speaker 1: emotionally empty or you're spiritually empty. So Jesus when he says,
Speaker 1: come to me and I'll give you rest, he's talking
Speaker 1: about rest for your soul. In fact, he says that
Speaker 1: later in the passage, if you're tired of carrying heavy burdens,
Speaker 1: come to me and I will give you rest. Take
Speaker 1: my yoke upon you. Then learn from me, for I'm
Speaker 1: gentle and humble in spirit, and you will find rest
Speaker 1: for your soul. That's the refilling your tank. For the
Speaker 1: yoke I share with you is easy to wear, and
Speaker 1: it makes the load light. The load is light. Now.
Speaker 1: I want you to circle. If you're taking notes, circle
Speaker 1: the word come, circle the word take, and circle the
Speaker 1: word learn. These are the first steps. Ready, Step number one,
Speaker 1: get fed up with how I've been feeling. Get fed
Speaker 1: up with how I've been feeling. Nothing is gonna change
Speaker 1: in your life until you get this satisfied with it,
Speaker 1: dissatisfied with the way that you feel. Right now, you
Speaker 1: have to come to the point in your life, my friends,
Speaker 1: where you say, I'm not gonna live this way anymore.
Speaker 1: I've had enough. I'm not gonna stay this way anymore.
Speaker 1: I'm going to change. I'm gonna do something about the
Speaker 1: way that I feel. Nothing happens until you get desperate.
Speaker 1: You see, it's just too easy to put up with
Speaker 1: everything you're going through even when you don't like it,
Speaker 1: simply because it's familiar. It's uncomfortable, it may be even painful,
Speaker 1: it may be even empty, but is familiar. So what
Speaker 1: is it that's gonna cause you to finally get fed
Speaker 1: up with your current situation, your current circumstance, and the
Speaker 1: way that you've been feeling about it. I've talked to
Speaker 1: thousands and thousands and thousands of people about this issue
Speaker 1: over the last forty two years a saddleback pastor, and
Speaker 1: I've discovered that there are only three times when people
Speaker 1: really really change. Three things change people pain perspective and
Speaker 1: no other choice. Pain perspective and no other choice. You're
Speaker 1: not gonna change the situation you're in. You're not gonna
Speaker 1: change the way you feel until you either have enough
Speaker 1: pain or you change your perspective or there's no other choice. Now,
Speaker 1: let me show you just three Bible examples of what
Speaker 1: I just said. First, Solomon. Solomon says this about pain
Speaker 1: in Proverbs chapter twenty, verse twenty seven to thirty. He
Speaker 1: says this, the Lord gave us a conscience and a mind,
Speaker 1: so we cannot hide from ourselves. I know when I'm
Speaker 1: in pain, I know when I'm empty. But he says,
Speaker 1: sometimes it takes a painful situation to make us change
Speaker 1: our ways. Everybody agree with that. Sometimes it takes a
Speaker 1: painful situation to make us change our ways. You see,
Speaker 1: we don't change when we see the light. We change
Speaker 1: when we feel the heat, and when the heat's on.
Speaker 1: We never change until the fear of change is exceeded
Speaker 1: by the pain. And that's why you stay with situations
Speaker 1: and circumstances, and stay even with the feelings of emptiness
Speaker 1: and dissatisfaction in your own life, because you're not enough
Speaker 1: pain yet. You haven't hit the bottom. It hadn't gotten
Speaker 1: that bad yet for you. And until you get so discomfortable,
Speaker 1: so dissatisfied, we only change when our pain is greater
Speaker 1: than the problem or the fear of change. So pain
Speaker 1: will cause you to change. Number two, we get this
Speaker 1: from the story of the Parable of the Jesus, Parable
Speaker 1: of the Prodigal Son, the story of the Lost Son.
Speaker 1: You remember that guy, he's a young kid, and he says, Dad,
Speaker 1: I want my inheritance. Now I'm leaving, And he leaves,
Speaker 1: takes all of his inheritance and goes to Las Vegas
Speaker 1: Downtown Strip and spends all his money on wine. Women's
Speaker 1: song and he says this. It says there about about
Speaker 1: the situation. He wasted everything he'd been given on foolish
Speaker 1: living till he was broke, miserable, and starving. He had
Speaker 1: to get a job feeding pigs. Now you remember, pork
Speaker 1: is anathema for Jews. This guy's Jewish and what's he doing.
Speaker 1: He's feeding pigs. So he's got it not only a
Speaker 1: dirty job, he's got a job he's not supposed to
Speaker 1: even be doing. He had to get a job feeding pigs,
Speaker 1: and he became so hungry he is willing to eat
Speaker 1: the pigs food. You got to be pretty hungry to
Speaker 1: eat pig slop. But finally he came to his census.
Speaker 1: That's perspective. I've been teaching you on perspective every week
Speaker 1: in this series on strategies for stressful Times. We talked
Speaker 1: about it last week. How you got to have God's perspective.
Speaker 1: He came to his senses, and that's when we change.
Speaker 1: He came to his census, and he said to himself,
Speaker 1: what's saying to himself? Self? Talk? You talk to yourself
Speaker 1: all the time. He said to himself self, this is
Speaker 1: not right. I don't out to stay this way if
Speaker 1: I don't want to. Finally, he came to his census,
Speaker 1: They said himself, why am I living like this at
Speaker 1: my father's home? Even the higher servants eat better than
Speaker 1: I do. So he decided to get up and go
Speaker 1: home to his father. Solomon says, pain will motivate me,
Speaker 1: and the prodigal son says a perspective. Hey, I don't
Speaker 1: have to live this way. The people who work for
Speaker 1: my dad eat better than I do. I go home,
Speaker 1: just be a servant, and that would be better than
Speaker 1: what I'm living right now. So pain and perspective. But job,
Speaker 1: I mean. Jonah, the third guy, gives us an example
Speaker 1: of how we change when we finally have no other choice.
Speaker 1: And when Jonah hits bottom, and I mean literally bottom,
Speaker 1: he's thrown over board on a ship he sinks to
Speaker 1: the bottom of the ocean. And in Jonah chapter two
Speaker 1: we have Jonah's prayer at the bottom of the ocean,
Speaker 1: and one of the things he says in Jonah two
Speaker 1: seven one of my favorite verses in the Bible. When
Speaker 1: I had lost all hope, I turned my thoughts one
Speaker 1: again to the Lord. When you don't have any other choice.
Speaker 1: That's when you turn to the Lord. Now, nothing is
Speaker 1: going to change in your life. That emptiness, that despondency,
Speaker 1: that depression, that feeling of unfulfilled nothing's going to change too.
Speaker 1: You get dissatisfied with the way you are, and it
Speaker 1: will either be pain, or it'll be perspective from what
Speaker 1: we talk about here, or it'll be you have no
Speaker 1: other choice. But sometimes it requires all three. Now, that's
Speaker 1: why Jesus starts his solution to your emptiness by saying
Speaker 1: this look on the screen. If you're tired, in other words,
Speaker 1: if you're not tired of the way you're living, Jesus
Speaker 1: doesn't have anything to offer you. Let me just be
Speaker 1: honest with you. If you're satisfied with the way you're
Speaker 1: living right now, Jesus has nothing to offer you. If
Speaker 1: you're self satisfied, even smug about what happens happening in
Speaker 1: your life, I don't need anything, nothing needs to improve
Speaker 1: in my life. Jesus has nothing to offer you. On
Speaker 1: the other hand, if you are tired, that means I
Speaker 1: get fed up. I am tired of living the way.
Speaker 1: If you're tired from carrying heavy loads, if you're not
Speaker 1: tired of trying to solve all the problems by yourself.
Speaker 1: Jesus can't help you. So let me ask you. Are
Speaker 1: you tired? Are you tired of running on empty? Are
Speaker 1: you fed up with the emptiness that you've been feeling
Speaker 1: in your life? And are you willing to do something
Speaker 1: about it? As I said, we don't change until we
Speaker 1: feel the heat. You have to come to some point
Speaker 1: in your life where you go, I have had enough.
Speaker 1: I refuse to live this way any longer. It is
Speaker 1: a point of dissatisfaction. Now let me ask you in
Speaker 1: personal question, friend a friend, do any of you You
Speaker 1: don't have to raise your hand on this, but do
Speaker 1: you feel you're at a breaking point right now? If
Speaker 1: you do, I want you to write this down. I'm
Speaker 1: gonna put it on a screen. Write this down. A
Speaker 1: breakdown is the door to a breakthrough. Just write that down.
Speaker 1: A breakdown is always the door to a breakthrough. There
Speaker 1: is no breakthrough until you have the breakdown, the breakdown
Speaker 1: of my pride, my arrogance, my self sufficiency, a breakdown
Speaker 1: when I realize I can't do this on my own.
Speaker 1: A breakdown is always the door to a breakthrough. And
Speaker 1: I want you as your friend to have a breakthrough. Now, now,
Speaker 1: let me give you another thing to write down. Write
Speaker 1: this down underneath it. I can't make a comeback until
Speaker 1: I admit my set back. I can't make a comeback
Speaker 1: until I admit my setback. If you're unwilling to admit
Speaker 1: that you have a setback and that you're empty, that
Speaker 1: you need God's help in your life, nobody can help
Speaker 1: you right now, I can't have a comeback. Every comeback
Speaker 1: requires a setback first. But you got to admit it now.
Speaker 1: Once you've done this first step, which is get fed up.
Speaker 1: I'm fed up with a way I've been feeling. Now
Speaker 1: you're ready for step two. It's real simple. Three words.
Speaker 1: Come to Jesus. Write that down. Come to Jesus. That
Speaker 1: means you bring the good and the bad in your life.
Speaker 1: You bring the frustrating and the painful, You bring the
Speaker 1: shameful things in your life, you bring the exhausting things
Speaker 1: in your life. You bring everything to Jesus, and you
Speaker 1: come to Jesus. Jesus says this. If you're tired, Okay,
Speaker 1: I'm fed up. If you're tired from carrying heavy loads,
Speaker 1: heavy burden, come to me and I'll give you rest. Now,
Speaker 1: notice who you're to come to and what and what
Speaker 1: you're to come to. He says, come to me, and
Speaker 1: what he gives you back? Who do you come to Jesus?
Speaker 1: What does he give you back? Rest? And Notice, friends,
Speaker 1: It doesn't say come to religion. Religion can't help you.
Speaker 1: He doesn't say come to rules. Rules can't help you
Speaker 1: when you're empty. He doesn't say come to rituals. Rituals
Speaker 1: can't help you when you're empty. He doesn't say come
Speaker 1: to regulations. Regulations won't help you when you're empty. He says,
Speaker 1: come to me. Come to me, the antidote to your emptiness,
Speaker 1: the antidote to your own load, the antidote to all
Speaker 1: the ucky things that you're feeling right now, that overloaded soul,
Speaker 1: that empty soul. It's not a plan for time management, okay.
Speaker 1: It's not a program for stress relief. It's not a philosophy.
Speaker 1: It's not a program, it's not a pill. It's a person.
Speaker 1: Come to me. You come to Jesus, not to religion
Speaker 1: or that you come to Jesus. Now, I've studied scripture
Speaker 1: all my life, and you know I've discovered that in
Speaker 1: the Bible People came to Jesus for a lot of
Speaker 1: different reasons, some of them good, some of them bad.
Speaker 1: Some came for forgiveness, some came for healing, some came
Speaker 1: to Jesus for advice. Some came for eternal life because
Speaker 1: they had a question. You know what, Jesus didn't care
Speaker 1: why people came to him, as long as they came
Speaker 1: to him. Jesus doesn't care why you come to him,
Speaker 1: just that you come to him. Look at this verse
Speaker 1: on the screen John six thirty seven. Who Jesus says,
Speaker 1: whoever comes to me, I will never reject, And notice
Speaker 1: what Jesus promises. Look and the next thing he says,
Speaker 1: he says, come to me, and I will give you rest.
Speaker 1: What kind of rest? Rest for your soul? That's much
Speaker 1: deeper than physical rest. Your problem right now is probably
Speaker 1: not overloaded muscles. Some of you probably need your muscles
Speaker 1: a little You need to use them a little bit more.
Speaker 1: What you have is not overloaded muscles. What you have
Speaker 1: right now is an overloaded mind. You have an overloaded spirit.
Speaker 1: You have an overloaded soul. And we need rest, not
Speaker 1: from physical work, probably, but from tension. We need rest
Speaker 1: from anxiety. You know what, I'm talking about. We need
Speaker 1: rest from hurry, we need rest from worry. Now that's
Speaker 1: a different kind of rest. As I said, I just sleep.
Speaker 1: You know, how you unwind when your physical tired is
Speaker 1: one way. How you unwind when you're exhausted and overloaded emotionally,
Speaker 1: I don't know. What do you do? What do you
Speaker 1: do when you're physically, I mean spiritually and emotionally mentally exhausted?
Speaker 1: What's your first choice? Watch a movie, do your hobby,
Speaker 1: do an exercise, Go do a sport. You know what.
Speaker 1: Those are all good things. Those are all good things,
Speaker 1: but none of them can restore your soul. Only God
Speaker 1: can restore your soul. That's why Jesus said, if you've
Speaker 1: got soul emptiness, you've got soul depression, you've got soul overload.
Speaker 1: Come to me, Isaiah forty. Look at this verse on
Speaker 1: the screen. He gives power to those who are tired
Speaker 1: and worn out, and he offers strength to the week.
Speaker 1: So when you're inside, when you're empty inside, let me
Speaker 1: just point out the differences. When you're empty inside, you
Speaker 1: know what culture says, the world says, when you're empty inside,
Speaker 1: you need to do more. You need to have more.
Speaker 1: You need more things. You need to make more money.
Speaker 1: That's why you're empty. Make more money, get more things,
Speaker 1: do more things, travel the more places. Culture says, the
Speaker 1: antidote to your emptiness is go go, go, go, go,
Speaker 1: go go more. Jesus said, no, don't go. Come come
Speaker 1: to me and come just as you are. He's not
Speaker 1: gonna nag, You're not gonna judge you. He's gonna says,
Speaker 1: I'll give you rest. Now we come now to the
Speaker 1: third steps. First, get fed up with how I've been feeling.
Speaker 1: And then second, come to Jesus because he's gonna give
Speaker 1: me rest for my soul. Now here's the third step,
Speaker 1: big one. Three words. Give up control. Give up control.
Speaker 1: You see the real reason for overload in your life
Speaker 1: is because we try to control things too much. We
Speaker 1: try to control things too much. We don't even realize
Speaker 1: how much we try to control things too much, but
Speaker 1: we act subconsciously as if it all depends on me.
Speaker 1: I have to hold everything together. I gotta make it
Speaker 1: all happen. Now listen, I love you, guys. I just
Speaker 1: want to tell you that the greater you need to
Speaker 1: control things, the more overloaded and stress you're going to
Speaker 1: be in life. You got to learn to give up control.
Speaker 1: The greater your need for control, the more overloaded, the
Speaker 1: more empty, the more stressed, the more depressed you're going
Speaker 1: to be in life. Jesus's third solution to running on empty?
Speaker 1: Is this the next part of that verse. Take my
Speaker 1: yoke up on you. That's the third step. Get fed up,
Speaker 1: come to Jesus, give up control. Now, obviously this needs
Speaker 1: to be explained. What's he talking about here? Take my yoke? Well,
Speaker 1: he's not talking about an egg yolk, Okay, not that
Speaker 1: kind of yellow egg yolk. He's talking about the wooden
Speaker 1: frame that you put over two animals farm animals so
Speaker 1: that they work together. And when you take two cattle
Speaker 1: and they're pulling, they're gonna pull a wagon together. You
Speaker 1: put a yoke over both of them and then they
Speaker 1: pull the together. He said, wait a minute, Wait a minute,
Speaker 1: that doesn't sound very relaxing. Take my yok. That sounds
Speaker 1: like more like a burden. I'm already carrying too much
Speaker 1: of a burden. Why in the world would I want
Speaker 1: to take jesus joke on me? Because you don't understand
Speaker 1: the purpose of a yok. The purpose of a yoke
Speaker 1: is to lighten the load, not to make a heavier load.
Speaker 1: The purpose of a yok is so that you share
Speaker 1: the load you're carrying. You're already carrying the load, Jesus says,
Speaker 1: yoke up with me and I'll help you carry it.
Speaker 1: See when two animals team up together, it makes the
Speaker 1: load lighter, not harder. Now Jesus is God, he's not
Speaker 1: carrying any load. He has no load because he's God.
Speaker 1: He's not carrying anything. And he goes on to explain
Speaker 1: that in the next verse, verse thirty. Look at that verse.
Speaker 1: He says, for my yoke is easy and my burden
Speaker 1: is light. I'm not gonna dump more on you when
Speaker 1: you're tired, when you're worried, when you're empty, when you're frustrated.
Speaker 1: He says, I'm going to take it off you by
Speaker 1: helping you carry your load. He says, my yoke is
Speaker 1: easy and light. I love the new Living translation says,
Speaker 1: my yoke fits perfectly. In other words, it's not uncomfortable,
Speaker 1: it's not rough, it's not tight, it's not painful. Now, friends,
Speaker 1: a yoke is a symbol of partnership. It means you're
Speaker 1: no longer going through life by yourself. You're teamed up
Speaker 1: with God, and he's going to help you carry the load.
Speaker 1: You weren't meant to go through life carrying your load
Speaker 1: all by yourself. Hear and me. You weren't meant to
Speaker 1: go through life carrying the load that you're carrying all
Speaker 1: by yourself. So he said, I'll take part of it. Now,
Speaker 1: I'll carry it with you. He doesn't have any load.
Speaker 1: He's God. He doesn't add to your load. He takes
Speaker 1: it from you and says, I'll share it. Now, you're
Speaker 1: not carrying the load by yourself. Now, this principle of
Speaker 1: giving up trip control to God, it's all through the scriptures,
Speaker 1: and it's really the antidote to peace. Let me show
Speaker 1: you some verses Psalm fifty five, verse twenty two. Pile
Speaker 1: all your troubles on God's shoulders. He'll carry your load
Speaker 1: and help you out. I love that in the message.
Speaker 1: He'll carry your load and help you. You pile it
Speaker 1: on his shoulders. You've yoke up with him. Let me
Speaker 1: ask you who's got a wronger back. You are God,
Speaker 1: Jesus says, join up with me, Come to me, give
Speaker 1: up control, join with me, and all put the load
Speaker 1: on me and we'll carry it together. Now what does
Speaker 1: that mean, Well, let me just be real honest with you.
Speaker 1: If you're feeling overloaded right now, it means that at
Speaker 1: this point, right now, you are not yoked to Jesus Christ.
Speaker 1: When I feel overloaded, when I feel stressed out, when
Speaker 1: i feel I'm going under, every time I feel that way,
Speaker 1: it means that somehow I've gotten detached or disconnected from Jesus.
Speaker 1: I've gotten detached or disconnected. So this yoke is a
Speaker 1: symbol of partnership, but it's also a symbol of control
Speaker 1: because it's used to guide animals. You see, when when
Speaker 1: I'm yoked with Jesus, we move together in the same direction,
Speaker 1: at the same pace. When I'm not yoked to Jesus,
Speaker 1: I can move at a pace that's too fast, and
Speaker 1: I can go off in a ditch very easily. But
Speaker 1: if you're yoked to Jesus, there's no way he's going
Speaker 1: to let you outpace yourself. And there's no way he's
Speaker 1: going to let you go off in a ditch. There's
Speaker 1: no way you can go on a ditch. If you're paced,
Speaker 1: you're partnered, you're yoked with Jesus. A yoke keeps us
Speaker 1: from going off on our own. He keeps us from
Speaker 1: getting in trouble. Galatians chapter five. Look at that verse
Speaker 1: on your outline. Since we live by the spirit, let
Speaker 1: us keep in step with the spirit. How by being
Speaker 1: yoked to Jesus, partnering with Jesus, how do I keep
Speaker 1: in step with the spirit? Next verse Romans three twenty eight.
Speaker 1: Our lives get in step with God by read it
Speaker 1: in aloud with me together, letting him set the pace.
Speaker 1: Circle that letting him set the pace. If you're setting
Speaker 1: the pace, it's probably the wrong pace. You know. It's
Speaker 1: interesting to me that we have no record in scripture
Speaker 1: of Jesus running anywhere. Jesus was never in a hurry.
Speaker 1: You won't be either, if you're connected to Christ. Many
Speaker 1: years ago, I found this poem and it's been a
Speaker 1: lot to me during tough times. It's called the Lord
Speaker 1: is my pacesetter. The Lord is my pace center. I
Speaker 1: shall not rush. He makes me stop and rest for
Speaker 1: quiet intervals. He provides me with images of stillness which
Speaker 1: restore my serenity. He leaves me in the ways of
Speaker 1: efficiency through calmness of mind, and his guidance is peace.
Speaker 1: And even though I have a great many things to
Speaker 1: accomplish each day. I will not fret, for His presence
Speaker 1: is here. His timeliness is all importance, will keep me
Speaker 1: in balance. He prepares refreshment and renewal in the midst
Speaker 1: of my activity. By anointing my mind with his oils
Speaker 1: of peace, my cup of joyous energy overflows. Surely, harmony
Speaker 1: and effectiveness shall be the fruit of my hours. For
Speaker 1: I shall walk in the peace of my Lord and
Speaker 1: dwell in his house forever. Truth is, friends, You're gonna
Speaker 1: be yoked to something in your life. There is some
Speaker 1: kind of controlling entity in your life. It may be
Speaker 1: your own expectations, the expectations of your parents, the expectations
Speaker 1: of your boss, expectations of society. You're going to be
Speaker 1: yoked to something. Why not choose the easiest yoke, Jesus,
Speaker 1: the easiest yoke. If God likes you, and you like you,
Speaker 1: and somebody else don'tlike you, that's their problem. God says,
Speaker 1: my yoke, it's perfect. It's based on your shape. Well,
Speaker 1: of course, it's based on your shape He made you. Now,
Speaker 1: notice he says, take my yoke. That's an exchange. What
Speaker 1: that means I take off the one I've been carrying,
Speaker 1: that yoke where I've been yoked to the world's expectations,
Speaker 1: what everybody expects me to do, and I put on
Speaker 1: the yoke of God. What Jesus says? You know what,
Speaker 1: the truth is, most of you don't have one yoke
Speaker 1: on you. You got a dozen. You have more than
Speaker 1: one yoke around your neck. Right now. You're trying to
Speaker 1: please everybody, and those yokes are piled on top of
Speaker 1: each other. And no wonder you're tired because so many
Speaker 1: people have so many expectations in your life. Take them
Speaker 1: all off, Jesus, Let's do an exchange. I'll take all yours,
Speaker 1: you take my one, which is easy in light, and
Speaker 1: I'll pull the load with you. You see, when we think
Speaker 1: that the answer to our emptiness is escape, I gotta
Speaker 1: get to Tahiti, God says, the answer is not escape.
Speaker 1: The answer is give up control. Give up control. Every
Speaker 1: time I give up control, my load gets lighter, and
Speaker 1: God gives me peace quickly. The last couple number four,
Speaker 1: he says, come, then he says take, and then he
Speaker 1: says learn. And here's the thing. One third, fourth thing.
Speaker 1: Learn to trust. Learn to trust. This is the antidote anxiety,
Speaker 1: worry lessen, and trust more. And this is the fourth
Speaker 1: thing Jesus says to do. The rest of that verse,
Speaker 1: he says, and learn from me. Learn from me, for
Speaker 1: I'm gentle and I'm meek, I'm humble in heart, and
Speaker 1: you will find rest for your souls. You know, Jesus
Speaker 1: modeled how to live with peace and purpose, and the
Speaker 1: fourth step to refilling your spiritual and emotional tank is
Speaker 1: to follow Jesus' model. He says, learn from me, watch
Speaker 1: how he lived, and do it the way he did.
Speaker 1: Learn from Jesus. Now, if you circle the word learn,
Speaker 1: learning is a process. You don't learn it overnight. You
Speaker 1: didn't develop your overloaded lifestyle overnight. You're probably not gonna
Speaker 1: get out of it overnight, but you're gonna learn to trust.
Speaker 1: What can I learn from Jesus? Learning is a process.
Speaker 1: Learning takes time. What can I learn from Jesus? Well,
Speaker 1: he says, you'll learn how to be gentle and humble.
Speaker 1: What How's that gonna help me? Learning to be gentle?
Speaker 1: That doesn't seem like it's gonna help me, because I'm
Speaker 1: stressed out and tired. Why is gentle and humble so important?
Speaker 1: I mean, Jesus didn't say, learn from me and I'll
Speaker 1: teach you how to have endurance and stamina. That's what
Speaker 1: I would expect him to say, learn from me and
Speaker 1: I'll give you endurance and stamina. No, he says, learn
Speaker 1: from me and I'll teach you how to be gentlemen
Speaker 1: and humble. Why because listen very closely. The two biggest
Speaker 1: causes of overload and stress and emptiness in your life
Speaker 1: are aggression and arrogance. What let me explain aggression is
Speaker 1: we don't want to wait for anything. We're aggressive. We
Speaker 1: don't want to pause for anything. We don't want to
Speaker 1: consider anything. We don't want to be patient for anything.
Speaker 1: We want to just jump right in. And we get
Speaker 1: over committed because of our aggressive behavior. See the opposite
Speaker 1: of gentleness, being aggressive rather than being gentle, and that
Speaker 1: puts stress on you. And the other is arrogance. What's
Speaker 1: the sign of arrogance when we try to control everything.
Speaker 1: I don't know if you he realizes or not, but
Speaker 1: your ego, my ego is responsibility for more stress and
Speaker 1: overload in my life than I realize. Your ego is
Speaker 1: responsibility for more stress and arrogance in your life than
Speaker 1: you realize. You try to do it all. That's ego,
Speaker 1: that's pride, that's arrogance. You try to have it all,
Speaker 1: you try to please everyone. You try to act like
Speaker 1: superwoman or Superman. That's arrogance. The more arrogant you are,
Speaker 1: the more egotistically driven you are, the more stressed you're
Speaker 1: going to be. The most stressful people I know are
Speaker 1: no are the most arrogant people I know. The antidote
Speaker 1: to the two biggest causes of stress in your life
Speaker 1: are generalist and humility. What does that mean? It means
Speaker 1: I need to remind myself every day. I'm not God,
Speaker 1: and I'm not everybody's savior, and neither are you. What
Speaker 1: was Jesus' secret of peace? He only did what the
Speaker 1: Father told him to do, and he didn't worry about
Speaker 1: the rest. If you go read the Book of John
Speaker 1: twelve times. In the Book of John, he says, I
Speaker 1: only do what the Father tells me, and he says,
Speaker 1: follow my model. Why don't you start trusting God? Try
Speaker 1: trusting God. Let me give you a couple verses. Look
Speaker 1: at this layer on the screen Proverbs twenty, verse twenty four.
Speaker 1: Since the Lord is directing our steps why try to
Speaker 1: understand everything that's happening along the way. Hmm, we keep
Speaker 1: trying to figure it all out, He says, why don't
Speaker 1: you just trust God? Learn to trust? So I'm one
Speaker 1: forty two. Verse three says this, when I'm ready to
Speaker 1: give up. Maybe you're feeling that way when I'm ready
Speaker 1: to give up on my marriage, or my job or
Speaker 1: anything else. When I'm ready to give up, he knows
Speaker 1: what I should do, learn to trust. How do I
Speaker 1: trust more? Look at this verse on the screen Romans
Speaker 1: ten seventeen. Faith comes by hearing the word of God
Speaker 1: that leads us to the last two steps Number five.
Speaker 1: Start every day by refilling my tank. Start every day
Speaker 1: by filling my tank. Now we've talked about this so
Speaker 1: many times. I don't feel like I have to go
Speaker 1: into it in any detail. But I'm talking about a
Speaker 1: daily quiet time. I'm never gonna stop talking about this
Speaker 1: because it is the key to stability and the stee
Speaker 1: key to energy in your life. Matthew six' Six jesus
Speaker 1: says this in the message find a, quiet secluded place
Speaker 1: so you won't be tempted to role play Before, god
Speaker 1: and just be there as simply as honestly as you,
Speaker 1: can and the focus will shift from you To god
Speaker 1: and you will begin to Sense his. Grace start every
Speaker 1: day by filling my. Tank REMEMBER i tried to teach
Speaker 1: you over a year. Ago HW fw AND hwlw his,
Speaker 1: word first, word his, word last. Word start the day
Speaker 1: With god's. Word in the day With god's. Word, finally
Speaker 1: one more, step number, six stake annected to my spiritual.
Speaker 1: Family that's going to keep you refueled and refilled and
Speaker 1: keep it from going. Empty you're, Here you're connected to
Speaker 1: your spiritual. Family your family is sattle back Church hebrews
Speaker 1: eleven twenty. Five let us not give up the habit
Speaker 1: circle the word. Habit let us not give up the
Speaker 1: habit of meeting together as some are. Doing, instead let
Speaker 1: us encourage one another all the. More why DO i
Speaker 1: need to be? Connected stay connected to my spiritual, Family
Speaker 1: because when you're empty and when you need to be.
Speaker 1: Filled here's What, God god says about the church last
Speaker 1: verse on your. Screen it's on the, Screen phesians, one twenty.
Speaker 1: Three the church Is christ's, body and it is. Filled
Speaker 1: that's the opposite of. Empty it is filled With christ
Speaker 1: who completely, fills which is the opposite of. Empty everything else.
Speaker 1: Empty you need to be at. Church you need to
Speaker 1: be with your brothers and sisters In. Christ they will
Speaker 1: help refill your. Emptiness, okay let's wrap it. Up what's
Speaker 1: weighing you down right? Now problem with your, children problem
Speaker 1: with your, finances problem with aging, parents problem with your,
Speaker 1: health problem WITH, covid problem WITH i don't, know BUT
Speaker 1: i will tell you. This god brought you here today
Speaker 1: so he could say this to. You let's look at
Speaker 1: the verse one more time on the. SCREEN i love.
Speaker 1: This in the amplified, Translation jesus says this to, you
Speaker 1: if you're, empty come to. Me come to, me all
Speaker 1: you who labor and are heavy laden and, overburdened AND
Speaker 1: i will cause you to rest that. Soul. REST i
Speaker 1: will ease and relieve and refresh your. Souls take my
Speaker 1: yoke on. You partner with me and learn from, me
Speaker 1: For i'm gentle And i'm humble in, heart and you
Speaker 1: will find, rest relief and, ease and refreshment and recreation
Speaker 1: and blessed quiet for your. Souls and that beautiful the amplified. Translation,
Speaker 1: friends it's, hot but that doesn't make this any less.
Speaker 1: Important this is the most important invitation you will ever
Speaker 1: receive in your, life and you took enough time to
Speaker 1: show up to Let god give it to. You here's the.
Speaker 1: Invitation get dissatisfied the way you've been. Feeling come To,
Speaker 1: jesus not to anything. Else come To, jesus give up,
Speaker 1: control learn to, trust and stay. Connected that's bower. Heads
Speaker 1: have you ever come To? Jesus the starting point in
Speaker 1: unloading is to talk To jesus about what you feel empty.
Speaker 1: About tell him exactly how you, Feel tell him what's frustrating.
Speaker 1: You you, know sometimes even your best friends don't want
Speaker 1: to listen to your. Burdens But jesus will never ignore.
Speaker 1: You he wants to be your. Partner he wants to
Speaker 1: be your, friend he wants to be your. Pacesetter and
Speaker 1: he is making you the most amazing offer in the
Speaker 1: universe and no one else can offer. It come to
Speaker 1: me AND i will give you deep soul. Rest pray this,
Speaker 1: Prayer Dear. God just say in your, Heart Dear, God
Speaker 1: i'm tired of being tired all the. Time i'm tired
Speaker 1: of trying to control. Everything i'm tired of a life
Speaker 1: without rest and. Peace forgive me for all the Times
Speaker 1: i've turned to other things for relief instead of. You,
Speaker 1: Today i'm coming back to. YOU i want you to
Speaker 1: be the pacesetter of my. LIFE i want to stop
Speaker 1: trying to control everything in the first. Place forgive me
Speaker 1: for my arrogance and my. Aggressiveness forgive me for not being.
Speaker 1: Patient forgive me for allowing my insecurities and my ego
Speaker 1: from taking on more activities THAN i could possibly. Manage
Speaker 1: forgive me for pridefully overlooking my schedule and overloading, it
Speaker 1: fulfilling my life with less important things SO i have
Speaker 1: no time for what matters most time with. YOU i
Speaker 1: want to learn from, You. JESUS i want to learn
Speaker 1: from your. MODEL i want to learn to be gentle
Speaker 1: and humble like you SO i can have the peace
Speaker 1: that you. Modeled help me to take these steps this.
Speaker 1: Week in your, NAME i Pray amen