At the End of Your Rope

Sounds like to me that woman is under a lot of stress. It also sounds like she's on the verge of one of the most serious consequences of stress, long term stress that is not dealt with and that's burnout. Burnout can be defined quite simply as being at the end of your rope and feeling like you can't hang on any longer. It happens to lots of people, happens to housewives, it happens to those who are in the workplace, it happens to housewives, who also are in the workplace. It happens to all kinds of folks in all kinds of vocations. Burnout happens to executives, to nurses, to doctors, to farmers, to housewives, happens to pastors, it happens to counselors who tell other people how to get over their burnout, it happens to lots of people. Burnout has been technically defined in the books this way. A cluster of symptoms including emotional and physical exhaustion, depersonalization or tendency to withdraw from people, and decreased personal and professional performance. In other words, at the end of your rope, and you can't feel like, or you don't feel like you can hang on any longer. Doctors Frank Menerth and Paul Meyer, and they're actually book before burnout, which I've quoted before in this series, they give a number of symptoms of burnout. I want to list some of them so that you can see whether or not you're in burnout or on the verge of burnout because we're going to talk about someone in the Bible who was there and for you to be able to identify with them, I think it's important for you to see what burnout is like, what you're experiencing when you're experiencing burnout. Burnout is approaching if you find yourself gripping more and more and enjoying it less than less. If you can't stand people, if you want to withdraw, if you feel like the school bus driver who said, I love my bus, I love my route, but I hate every single student who rides my bus. If you've had a major blow up, yelling at people or collapsing in tears, if you have felt paralyzed when you need to take action, you may be on the verge of burnout or already in it if you are experiencing an emotional breakdown or suicidal feelings, or if you are completely overcome by exhaustion or uncontrollable anger, or if you continually find yourself withdrawing physically from your job, if you have trouble maintaining contact with people, even eye contact or verbal communication, or if you quit your job without good cause, or if you lack the emotional energy to handle the daily hassles of family life, or if you refuse to discuss your problems or acknowledge a need for help, those are just some of the symptoms of burnout and they can happen to anybody, regardless of your phase of life, stage of life, age, vocation, whatever it may be, life circumstances, burnout can happen to anybody. There's a vivid example of burnout in the Bible. His name is Elijah and his story is in 1 Kings chapter 19. I hope you have your Bibles open there because we're going to see what this story of Elijah in 1 Kings 19 teaches us about the symptoms of burnout and how to deal with it, how God dealt with burnout. Now remember that burnout is the end result of stress. Stress that just keeps on and keeps on and keeps on and you don't deal with it biblically, you can end up burnout is expression today. But stress unresolved leading to burnout does not have to destroy your life. We're going to see an example of Elijah in 1 Kings 19. Elijah as you probably know, many of you know, at least was a mighty prophet of God. When we are first introduced to him in 1 Kings chapter 17, he is a fearless announcer of God's truth before a wicked king A-Hab. And he announces that God will bring judgment on the land of Israel because they've turned away from the Lord and gone into idolatry. He's fearless before the most powerful man in the land. And then God shuttles him away to a hiding place so that the king can't find him while three and a half years of famine, lack of rain comes upon the land. But he trusts God for provision and God provides for his needs through the sparrows that bring him food at Brook Charrath and then he is shuttled off up north to another place to a widow's home. And he inhabits the first prophets chamber and lives in that home even being used of God to raise that widow's son back from the dead. And this is a mighty prophet of God greatly used of God. Chapter 18 of 1 Kings, we find him challenging the whole religious institution in Israel, all the prophets of Bale to a contest. Let's go up to your home turf, one of your worship centers on the top of Mount Carmel. And let's test and find out who the real God is, who the true God is. So that a contest and each of them built an altar and put animals of sacrifice on it and the prophets of Bale were to cry out to their God to see if he would answer by fire from heaven. And that was the test, whichever God answers by fire from heaven is the true God. And the prophets of Bale cried and cried and did all kinds of things and incantations and cutting themselves and mixing their blood with the blood of their sacrifice and all of the things they thought would bring an answer from their God and nothing happened. Elijah lets this go on through a good part of the day. And then finally he says that's enough and he prays a simple twenty second prayer. And the fire of God falls from heaven and consumes his sacrifice and the emotional energy is high on that day when God displays for all the nation to see who he really is. And then Elijah goes up to the top of the mountain and prays an extended time of prayer. This is a mighty man of God and God answers his prayer and rain comes to break the three and a half year drought. I mean this is a great man of God and after all of this greatly being used of God, we come to chapter 19. Look at what happens. Chapter 19 verse 1. Now, Ahab told Jezebel everything Elijah had done and how he had killed all the prophets with the sword. It's the prophets of Bale. They were all slaughtered. Verse 2. So, Jezebel sent a messenger to Elijah to say, May the gods deal with me, be it ever so severely, if by this time tomorrow, I do not make your life like one of them. Elijah was afraid and ran for his life when he came to Bersheba in Judah. He left his servant there while he himself went a day's journey into the desert. He came to a broom tree, sat down under it and prayed that he might die. I have had enough Lord, he said, Take my life. I am no better than my ancestors. What happened to this mighty prophet? What happened to this man who would stand fearless before Ahab challenged 450 prophets of Bale, slaughtered them all after God shows himself to be God? What happened to this guy? This is a classic case of burnout. It is the most classic case in all the viable, I believe, of what it means when stress piles on and it's not dealt with and you simply come to the end of your rope and you feel like I cannot hold on any longer. I can't take this anymore. That's exactly where Elijah was. Now let's see how he got there and how he came out of it. Let's look first of all in this story at the characteristics of burnout. There are several that I read earlier, four of which we find in Elijah's story here in this text. The first characteristic of burnout, at least in Elijah's experience, is physical exhaustion. Now think about it for a moment. Think about all that's happened to him back to chapter 18 with that emotional energy of the day where the prophets of Bale are challenged to that contest. There's high energy on that mountain that day and God does answer with fire from heaven and then he goes into this prayer time and I don't think it was a five minute prayer time. I think it was an extended time of prayer because seven different occasions he sends his servant to see if God is answering the prayer and that is look out over Mount Carmel faces out over the Mediterranean coast looking to see if any clouds are coming. So I think this was probably an extended time of prayer indicating more emotional and physical energy being poured into this time of prayer. If we had read the very last part of chapter 18 we would find that after that time of prayer, yes there are storm clouds coming. And Elijah warns Ahab to get in his chariot and go back to Jezreel from Mount Carmel and the Bible says that God supernatural gave Elijah the power to run that distance and run fast enough to beat Ahab's chariot back to Jezreel. You know how far that is? 17 miles. Now I know God gave him the strength to run that but you know you get done with a 17 mile run you are worn out. But when he gets the word in chapter 19 from Jezebel that she's going to kill him. She is out after his head. He runs again, runs for his life this time. This time he goes to Bercheba which if you're not looking at a map you might think well maybe next door. No, no. 90 miles south probably on foot. And then after that as we read he went another days journey out into the wilderness at the desert in a hot barren harsh climate. This man is physically spent. After all that he's been through emotionally, spiritually, mentally and physically he is exhausted. I think a big reason for his response. The reason why on this occasion he ran was because he was physically exhausted, spiritually, mentally, emotionally, just wiped out. You know exhaustion affects us in a lot of ways. It affects us mentally. It affects us emotionally. It affects us spiritually. You know what it's like don't you when you're exhausted some of you have been exhausted in your lifetime before haven't you? Of course you have. You know that you become gloomy. You come irritable. You see everything kind of in a dark light. It's like who was it in the cartoon character peanuts? Was it Charlie Brown had a little cloud over his head all the time? It was raining on him and nobody else or some one of those kids. You feel that way. You feel like life is raining on you all the time and you become depressed and nothing looks good. Physical exhaustion will do that to you and if you just keep pushing your way through that if you just keep pushing and pushing and pushing if you keep like driving a car if you keep that needle over in the red zone all the time you've got the pedal all the way to the metal and you've just got that thing running wide open all the time you're going to tear your engine up and you'll tear your insides out too if you keep your life pegged in the red zone all the time. If you keep going through that time of physical exhaustion just keep pushing keep pushing keep pushing I can make it another day oh I can do it some more and you just keep pushing you're going to get to the point of burnout. You are going to get to the point just like Elijah where you say I have had enough I can't do this anymore I can't take this anymore I've had enough you'll get there. Physical exhaustion will do that to you and I know in all likelihood some of you here this morning are right at that point where you are ready to cash it in and say I quit I cannot take this anymore and you know how I know that because whenever you sit down your body is crying out for rest I see some of you in church your body is crying out for a good night's sleep no seriously I know some of you are on medication and sometimes it's a preacher's fault I understand all that but some some of you some of you anytime you get still and you sit down your body is saying relief give me some rest and you're exhausted so physical exhaustion will bring you to the edge of burnout and will lead you to burnout if it's not addressed we'll see how it's addressed a little bit later let's go on to the second characteristic of burnout and that is feelings of failure feelings of failure notice what he said in verse four what he said to the Lord he said I have had enough Lord take my life I am no better than my ancestors you say what was he talking about there I'm no better than my ancestor who told him he was better than his ancestors what's he thinking there well let's let's go on just a little bit look down at verse nine in the intervening verses we'll get them in a few moments but in the intervening verses he does go 40 more days and nights traveling down to Harab which is Mount Sinai that's very interesting that's where God first made the covenant with Israel and I think that's where Elijah wants to die I think he wants to end it all right there I think he wants God to take his life right where God first started the covenant with Israel and he's saying I'm getting out of here I'm going to mount Horab mount Sinai and that's where I want it to end but when he gets there look at verse nine there he went into a cave and spent the night and the word of the Lord came to him what are you doing here Elijah he replied I have been very zealous for the Lord God Almighty the Israelites have rejected your covenant broken down your altars and put your prophets to death with the sword I am the only one left and now they are trying to kill me too now tell me this man doesn't feel like a failure after what we've read here I've had enough I can't take this anymore I am no better than my ancestors the children of Israel have violated your covenant they've gone to idolatry they've killed all the prophets I just want I just want out I'm a failure now I think what he meant by the fact I'm no better than my ancestors I think what he meant by that was this I believe that Elijah really expected that after what happened on Mount Carmel with God displaying tremendous power to demonstrate who he was and all the prophets of Bale are slaughtered they're killed I think Elijah believed that would be the beginning of a great revival in Israel I really believe he felt that he that AHAB would see that and would fall on his face before God would be so convinced I mean who wouldn't when God himself sends fire from heaven I think he believed that AHAB would be convinced that this was truly the God of heaven I've got to turn my back on this idolatry he goes home and convinces Jezebel and together they lead a national revival back to the Lord I think Elijah expected that and when he says I'm no better than my ancestors because Israel's forsaken your covenant they've pulled down your altars and built altars to idols and all that I think what he's saying is my ancestors the prophets who came before me they they were not successful in ridding the land of idolatry and I've failed to I think he felt like everything that had happened the three and a half year drought the tremendous display of God's power on Mount Carmel it was all for not it didn't accomplish anything here Jezebel is going to kill me and she'll resurrect idol worship she'll have more prophets of Bale to take the place of the ones who are gone you know when you really put yourself into something and it doesn't turn out as you had hoped it's awful easy to get disillusioned and here's kind of the way it happens you start out real idealistic you know you've got all these ideas that will work you know they will work God will bless them or some ideas about what that new job is going to be like or what marriage is going to be like you're very idealistic about all this and then shortly into it you hit reality and you find out that reality is not quite as idealistic is what you thought life was going to be and you start hitting difficulties and problems and sometimes your idealism gets shattered and when that happens you're at a very critical point in your Christian life because you can easily become angry and you start lashing out of other people you start blaming other people you become very critical you become disillusioned and you can be right into burnout because of feelings of failure let me give you a true story an illustration of this that happened to a young man by the name of William he graduated from a Bible college in the southeast he was put on staff hired on staff of a large growing church in a southeastern city and for the first few weeks of his job he just loved it you know he just loved what he was doing he was getting into his practice all this stuff he had learned in Bible college man this stuff that has been taught to me it's going to work it's going to be and he was really into it and then he began to hit reality kids in his youth group were in different to spiritual things the parents didn't seem to support anything he wanted to do he saw marriages breaking up in the church he saw all kinds of problems and people squabbling in the church and fighting over this and that and the other and he began to really have a lot of questions and problems with what ministry was all about he went and talked to his senior pastor about it and didn't seem to get too much help there so within the first year he was given an invitation to come pastor to be a senior pastor of a small church out in the suburbs so he took it thinking you know I think the real problem was our senior pastor he just wasn't leading the church right now I have a chance to do it my way to really put into practice what I know from the Bible is right and so he went into that church with just so much enthusiasm and he thought I'm gonna I'm gonna really see God work one of the first things he noticed was the building was in a state of terrible disrepair and so in one of his first deacon's meetings he brought it up in a very tactful way brought it up and he immediately got shot down comments were made like this we've been comfortable with this building long before you got here or who do you think you are to tell us what to do you young whipper snapper I mean those kind of comments were being made and all of a sudden he hit reality again that people are not always you know halos around her heads and that kind of thing and so he found himself pretty soon very angry and bitter and it wasn't long before he was preaching the scathing messages about how God would judge carnal Christians and he was just lambasting his people from the pulpit about all these issues he was angry he was becoming bitter within one year he resigned that church this is two years out of Bible college where he had been recognized as one of the people most likely to succeed in ministry two years out of Bible college he quit the ministry took his family to the Midwest and promised he would never never set foot in a church again it's a true story that's sad what happened a case of feelings of failure leading to the kind of burnout that he came to the point where he was like Elijah and he said I've had enough take by a life I can't do this anymore you can get there folks you can get there some of you have been there some of you are there right now feelings of failure the third characteristic is withdrawal from responsibility again in verses three and four he's running for his life and he tells the Lord I've had enough take my life obviously this is not Lord I just need a couple days off I'll be okay in a couple days this need to get away from this a little while get my senses back to get no no he's saying I'm done I'm out of here I'm this is the end I cannot do this anymore I've had enough he is running away from his job he's running away from his ministry as a prophet he is resigning a little later the Lord is going to ask him twice what are you doing here Elijah what are you doing here we're going to see you know why God asked him that question but then he gave him more work to do you see Elijah Elijah quit he quit he said I will not do this anymore this is desertion from duty remember remember the symptoms we talked about in the introduction one of the symptoms of burnout is that you find excuses to get away from responsibilities you quit jobs with no good reason you get away from what you're supposed to be doing you got to you got to get out you're going to quit you're going to resign whatever you're just going to get away that's one of the classic symptoms of burnout and that's exactly where Elijah was listen to him as he says Lord I can't take it anymore had enough and he's running away from his ministry as a prophet and we're going to see that he's no more successful in that than Jonah was at another time another place fourth characteristic of burnout is an overwhelming sense of loneliness an overwhelming sense of loneliness I discovered something very interesting this week about loneliness as I was doing a little bit of study on this and looking at this passage and some other material you know what I read just kind of came across this didn't really have a lot to do with the message but I found out that even dogs get lonely do you know that it was interesting for me to to realize we had a dog when we were in the percentage we had a dog a little miniature snowsher we had for several years called scooter and whenever we would all leave the house scooter went crazy and I never understood well I thought he was demon possessed I thought you know when when we left the house a demon came in and we would come home he was a great dog I mean some of you new scooter some of you're hurting barking at you through the windows at times but scooter was a great dog great house dog but when we would come home we would find like the trash can from the bathroom spread all over the living room floor and contents you know dug up and stuff and and I wonder what's going on with that he never does that when we're home we would we would find other evidence of him kind of going wild and other other very obvious evidence he was unable to control himself in certain ways and and he was house broken he was a good dog and I was thinking what is wrong with this dog and I I thought I had it figured out because whenever like I would be the last one out of the house and I would close the door I would hear him start this very eerie howling it wasn't a bark it was almost like a cry he would he would he would start like that and I thought well there there comes the demon that's when the demon comes in and and that's why he does all that stuff I didn't know what it was all about you know what I found out this week I found out that in 1999 the food and drug administration approved the first antidepressant for dogs the drug is called clomicom and it's designed specifically for dogs and helping them deal with separation anxiety we got problems in our country folks when it gets to this point we really do of the 55 million dogs in our country it's estimated that 10% of them suffer from separation anxiety and the symptoms are excessive barking destructive chewing clawing and uncontrollable body functions is how I'll say it that's not how they say it but uncontrollable body functions and specialists in these areas say that dogs have a real sense of being alone and being afraid and scared when they're alone at least some of them do I have some of you in tears don't I just noticed that some of you have dogs and you've experienced this but this medication is for dogs to be able to handle this now what I thought when I read that is if dogs can suffer from an acute sense of loneliness you better believe you can and I can and I believe that's a lot of what was happening with Elijah did you see it when we read that earlier Elijah says I've had enough take my life let's go on and read down to verse 10 oh verse 9 when he gets to horror I've been went into a cave and spent the night the word of the Lord came to him what are you doing here Elijah now look at his answer in verse 10 he replied I have been very zealous for the Lord God Almighty the Israelites have rejected your covenant broken down your alters and put your prophets to death with the sword I am the only one left and now they're trying to kill me too so God gives him some object lessons that we're going to look at in a moment then he comes back in verse the end of verse 13 and asks Elijah again see the very end of verse 13 what are you doing here Elijah and notice Elijah's answer again verse 14 is almost the same thing he replied I have been very zealous for the Lord God Almighty the Israelites have rejected your covenant broken down your alters put your prophets to death with the sword I am the only one left and now they are trying to kill me too tell me this man wasn't lonely tell me he didn't have overwhelming sense of being all alone he felt like nobody else was left to stand for truth in Israel he was the only one left and there's no one he can even bear his soul to there's no one he can talk to about how he's feeling because he doesn't know of another soul that feels the same way he does that is real loneliness and he has done the very best he can he has poured himself into this work that God gave him to do and what does he get for it he's being attacked he's being misunderstood misinterpreted and he feels all alone there is no loneliness like pouring your life into something and then having thrown back in your face and people not understand and ridicule or attack you because of it you may feel like that here this morning you may feel like nobody knows what I'm going through nobody understands nobody even cares I'm all alone in this and yes it can even get to the point where you feel like God doesn't even care not sure God is even aware of what I'm going through there's a fascinating verse in Isaiah chapter 40 in verse 27 look at it on the screen Isaiah 40 verse 27 says why do you say oh Jacob and complain oh Israel my way is hidden from the Lord my cause is disregarded by my God now that verse comes right before the passage that we know very well at the end of Isaiah 40 where he talks about our God is so strong powerful and those who wait on the Lord shall renew their strength they shall mount up with wings as eagles and run and not be weary and walk and not faint we know that passage but what comes before that is the complaint of the soul the bitterness of soul that cries out and says oh God oh God why don't you see why don't you do something I don't think you even care a sense of loneliness can get to that point a woman by the name of Mary Ann walked the streets of Atlanta because of alcoholism she had lost everything she had a little kind of lean to homemade shelter that she had out in the back alley somewhere that she would get out of the elements in and a store owner that kind of connected to that alley ran her out of there so she tried a homeless shelter and was told the door they were full so she began just wondering the streets had nowhere to to lay down at night or to seek shelter from the storms one morning the police found her body in a parking lot she had died from the elements and as they searched for clues as to what had happened they found a note in her pocket the note said I have nowhere to go no one to understand God is not dead he is only sleeping but sleeping very soundly you ever felt that way you ever felt so alone that you felt not only there's nobody understand what I'm going through or what I'm experiencing or what I've tried to do in the response I've gotten nobody understood I wonder if God even knows wonder God even cares my friend when you feel that other sense of loneliness you are on the verge of burnout you are right where he lied you was when he said Lord I've had enough I can't do this anymore I'm getting out I'm quitting getting out you may be right there now if you are what do you do you recognize some of those characteristics if you're there what do you do how do you how do you get cured of this can you get over burnout yes you can and the passage demonstrates the way how the way back the cure for burnout what God does with Elijah is so instructive I mean this is the best kind of counseling people can get is just to see what the Bible says about situations like this how did God respond to Elijah when he was burnt out what did God do well God addressed all four of the physical or all four of the characteristics that we've seen he addressed every one of them one by one he took them on and addressed them remember first of all Elijah was physically exhausted the very first thing God deals with is renewed strength if you look at verse five look at how God does this this is after Elijah's run away from the ministry and his told God take my life I'm no better than my ancestor look at verse five then he lay down under the tree and fell asleep there's a little pause there actually if you have a Bible that breaks the Bible up into paragraphs of thought a new paragraph starts right in the middle of that verse because I think what is indicated there is probably God just let him sleep for a while he's let him sleep just left him alone and then middle of verse five all at once an angel touched him and said get up and eat he looked around and thereby his head was a cake of bread baked over hot coals and a jar of water he ate and drank and then lay down again the angel of the Lord came back a second time and touched him and said get up and eat for the journey is too much for you so he got up and ate and drank strengthened by that food he traveled 40 days and 40 nights until he reached the heart of the Mount of God now in God's wisdom the very first thing he addressed with his broken down prophet was you need some rest and you need some food and drink you need to be refreshed renewed physically that was the very first thing he did he let him rest and then he woke him up to give him something to eat I mean an angel comes and cooks dinner for him that's pretty special God sends an angel to cook for him and the angel cooks for him Elijah eats and then Elijah goes back to sleep this man is exhausted and God doesn't say no no no more sleep you had enough read no let's him sleep and then he wakes him up again and feeds him again and tells him the rest of this journey you're anticipating too much for you I got to get you back in shape physically to do this you know sometimes the best thing you can do when you're feeling burnt out and stressed to the point that you're not sure you can take it anymore maybe the place to start is with physical refreshment take care of yourself a little better maybe you need more rest maybe you're not getting this enough sleep at night maybe you're not eating right or well maybe you need a better diet maybe you need more regular exercise maybe maybe you need a day off maybe you need a few days away a getaway maybe you just need to get away from some of the physical demands and rigors that are causing stress you see there are some of you here today who are burning the candle at both ends and you're frantically trying to figure out how to light the thing in the middle too no wonder you're stressed out no wonder you're burning out you know a couple of weeks ago we saw we saw Jesus at one time in his ministry when the Bible says that the crowds were pressing them so much that they didn't even have time to eat that Jesus said to his disciples come on let's get out here let's get away for a while come apart the King James says and I love what the old preacher southern preacher North Carolina Hills preacher advanced Habner used to say about that passage he would say if you don't come apart for a while you will come apart that's so true you know sometimes you may just need a little time away from it a little bit of a rest a little bit of care for yourself physically there was another time Jesus did this so wonderfully with the disciples you remember after the resurrection when Peter decided he was going to quit being in a apostle and go back to fishing the stories in John 21 and the Bible says Peter said to his comrades let's go fishing and it wasn't like you know it's a nice Saturday morning I think there's a few blue girl out there let's go after him it was no let's go back to our fishing profession this thing hadn't worked out with the apostle type thing let's go back to fishing and they're out there fishing they're not catching anything and they see a stranger on the shore you remember the story and they look at the shore and wonder who this guy is and all of a sudden he calls out drop your nets on the other side and they catch all these fish and Peter recognizes that's happened before this is the Lord so he takes off his outer garments jumps in the water and swims to shore one of the few appearances of Jesus to them after the resurrection now what was Jesus doing was Jesus setting up the podium to preach to them you rotten sinners don't you dare leave the ministry you know it was he no he wasn't what was he doing he was cooking breakfast you remember that he was cooking breakfast and and I think what he must have said to the apostles was come on let's gather around the fire we need to talk a little bit let's enjoy some breakfast you see the Lord knows when sometimes the burnout the quitting all of that is simply because of unrelenting stress that you have not dealt with and the Lord says okay time out time out first of all you need to deal with things physically you you need renewed strength and that's what he does for Elijah first second cure that he gives Elijah is a re-evaluation of success this is really amazing what God does to him you see in verse nine when he went into the cave and verse and and God asked him what are you doing here in verse 10 he replies I've been very zealous for the Lord God Almighty the Israelites have rejected your covenant broken down your alters put your prophets to death with the sword I'm the only one left and now they're trying to kill me too now look at verse 11 the Lord said go out and stand on the mountain in the presence of the Lord for the Lord is about to pass by then a great and powerful win tore the mountains apart and shattered the rocks before the Lord but the Lord was not in the wind huh after the wind there was an earthquake but the Lord was not in the earthquake after the earthquake came a fire but the Lord was not in the fire and after the fire came a gentle whisper when Elijah heard it he pulled his cloak over his face and went out and stood at the mouth of the cave then a voice said to him what are you doing here Elijah now if for a moment you skip down to verse 18 because it ties into what I'm going to say verse 18 the Lord says to him yet I reserve 7,000 in Israel all whose knees have not bowed down to bail and all whose mouths have not kissed him remember Elijah said I'm the only one left no he wasn't now here's what I think God was doing with Elijah I think he was redefining success Elijah I believe really felt that Mount Carmel would start a revival and boy it was it was impressive up on a mountain top all these people are there all these prophets are there and God sends fire from heaven man that is really fantastic now God's going to teach Elijah something that was a fantastic display of God's glory and working but Elijah felt success was measured by things you could see by things you could feel and so God sends this wind that shatters the rocks man that's impressive God was not in the wind God sends an earthquake wow we can really feel that God was not in the earthquake God sends a fire whoa boy that's impressive God was not in the fire God sends a gentle voice and that is how he called out to Elijah what are you doing here Elijah and then he reminds him with that gentle voice I've still got 7,000 people that have not bowed down the knee to bail now when Elijah thought that what really measures success and the reason I'm a failure is because the great display of God's power did not lead to national revival you know what God was telling him I've been working in ways you have no clue there are 7,000 people in Israel that have not bowed the knee to bail and you know what I wonder how many of them were encouraged to stay faithful to Christ by the public strong bold witness in preaching of Elijah maybe Elijah's greatest day and greatest moment in ministry was not on Mount Carmel maybe it was just the simple fact of his ministering and encouraging 7,000 people who looked to him as an example of what it meant to walk with God and he didn't even know the existed you see what I'm saying we think success is in the big things the wow the visible things the powerful explosive loud things that's not always where God has it work sometimes God is working when we don't even know it when we can't see it when we don't see any response and I'm here to tell you that everyone in ministry feels this at times you feel a failure when there's no response and you wonder is God working and then all of a sudden God reminds you at some point God is working in ways that you cannot see through still small voices and people's hearts somebody asked Thomas Edison one time about all of his failures in his experiments to find the right filament to conduct electricity and invent the electric light bulb and he looked back at him and said I never failed one time I invented the light bulb it was just a 2,000 step process now that's the way to look at success and failure it's awful easy for us to misunderstand success and not understand what it is I mean after all Peter preaches on the day of Pentecost and 3,000 people get saved and we think wow that was a successful sermon man what a church service Stephen preaches in Acts chapter 7 what's the response he gets stunned I mean they kill him and we might tend to think Peter is success Stephen's a failure but wait a second let's let the story play out a little bit remember the Bible tells us one of the people that listened to that sermon by Stephen he was standing there holding the coats of the people that stoned him his name was Saul and it's no accident that in chapter 9 when Saul sees the road on the or the light from heaven on the road to Damascus and he gets saved God tells him you've been kicking against the pricks in other words you've been feeling me prick your heart and conscience you've been under conviction and you've been fighting that where did he get under conviction I guarantee it's when he heard Stephen preach I mean right there in the context he's heard Stephen preach and just shortly thereafter God is working on his heart and Saul gets saved becomes the Apostle Paul goes all over the world planting churches writes 13 books of the Bible 14 if you believe he wrote Hebrews and affects generations of people even today now tell me Stephen was a failure now Stephen's Stephen's message was every bit the success if not more so than Peter's you see sometimes we need to reevaluate what we think success is and that will help us deal with these things called burnout quickly number three recommitment to responsibility in verses nine and 10 and verses 13 to 17 we've read them but what God does is he questions Elijah twice what are you doing here God never asks a question for information God knows all things he asks questions to probe our conscience about the answer he's wanting us to answer the question and what was Elijah doing there well if he's honest he's running away from his duties he's running away from his responsibility he's quitting the ministry and so what God does in verses 13 through 17 is he gives him more responsibility and asks him to recommit himself to it but the interesting thing about it is he asks him to delegate some of that responsibility he says I've got three more things for you to do in other words Elijah you are not done yet with the ministry I've got more work for you to do but three of the things I want you to do is I want you to anoint Haseo king of Aram I want you to anoint J. Hugh king of his strong I want you to anoint Elijah should it be a prophet and you're going to delegate some of your work to them by the way Elijah did you complain about Israel for saking the covenant with God okay I'll let Haseo king of Aram take care of that he'll invade Israel that was one of the promised judgments when God made the covenant with them in Deuteronomy if you don't fulfill my covenant I'll send other nations to invade you well I'll take care of that Elijah oh Elijah did you complain about the alters being broken down and alters to bail being set up I'll take care of that J. Hugh will wipe out the house of J. Hab a. Hab in Jezebel the people who brought this idolatry into Israel oh and are you concerned about them killing all the prophets that was the third complaint that Elijah had made I'm gonna have you get Elisha started and Elisha if you follow story on into second kings Elisha starts the school of the prophets and trains up a whole new generation of prophets for Israel so God's saying do Elijah Elijah you're not done yet you got more ministry you're gonna have some people help you do it you're gonna delegate some of it to other people but I am going to accomplish great things in Israel and you're gonna be a part of it I'm not done with you yet so he is recommissioned into service recommitment to responsibility and then fourthly cure for burnout is replenishing relationships in verses 19 to 21 he actually goes and calls Elisha to be his helper and I love what it says there at the end of verse 21 when it says then he Elisha set out to follow Elijah and became his attendant an interesting word attendant means like an assistant one to share ministry with him to talk with him it's the same word that's used for Joshua in his relationship to Moses there are lots of these kinds of kind of mentoring relationships in the in the Bible where an older man takes a younger man and says come on you go with me we're gonna learn ministry together and then they could talk they could share their hearts Elijah remember felt like he was all alone he needed someone and that's how God addressed that overwhelming sense of loneliness he needed a replenishing relationship where he could pour out his heart he could minister with someone he could share the burdens of ministry with them this was not a draining relationship this was not someone who was always wanting something from Elijah Elijah didn't have to do ministry for Elisha they did ministry together and they shared their lives together their hearts together all the value of friends like that friends who are not always pulling from you but friends who are there to replenish you to help you to share with you to encourage your heart we need friends like that well I'm here to tell you that Elijah went on to serve a number of more years after this point in his life when he was ready to quit because of what God did for him because of the way God built back into his life showed him the cure for this time of unrelenting stress in his life Elijah went on to serve God effectively and you can do that too you can come back from burnout you may feel like you're at the end of your rope and there's one strand between you and a collapse you may feel like you cannot do it anymore just like Elijah did I've had enough I can't take anymore you may feel that way my friend I'm here to encourage you today first of all would you seek renewed physical strength you may even need to go to a doctor find out if you thyroid's out of whack or something like that but seek renewed physical strength would you please allow God to teach you his definition of success would you please recommit yourself to whatever responsibility God gives you once once you've dealt with the physical stuff and the re-evaluation of success got your mind back together and your head on straight once you've done those things then maybe it's time to get back to the responsibility and then please find a replenishing friend find someone you can go through life with share your heart your burdens with help with that loneliness and you too can come back from burnout let's join our hearts together in prayer Father I know there are some folks here this morning who are right on the edge who are just consumed with life's demands and are not sure if they can make it another day would you please Father take your word the experience of Elijah that we've seen and just apply it so specifically to their hearts that they would leave this place encouraged with renewed strength or maybe the commitment to seek that strength do whatever it takes to get back together physically emotionally mentally spiritually I pray Father that they would go on with hope for another day for whatever time you have for them Jesus name I ask this amen