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SOUND MIND - Hope for Burnout · REZ CHURCH Podcast

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For peace I search, for hope I search for love, and one day for
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release. God give me strength to accept
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the things that I just cannot know.
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Even when I lose control, I will not let you go.
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Oh, good morning, Rest Church. If you're new here, welcome.
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This is where all the weirdos of Rez Church and you can you too,
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could be one one of us. My name is Nate.
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I serve as one of the teaching pastors here, and I'm also the
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creative director. And today is week three of our
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Sound mind series. And today I'm going to be
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talking about burnout. Yeah, Now I was going to kind of
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try to come up with a snappy creative name for this, but I
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was really burning myself out trying to come up with
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something. So we're just going to call it
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burnout. OK, call it a day.
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So this message is called burnout and if you have your
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Bibles or you have your phone, however you do that, we're going
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to be in Matthew 1128 through 30.
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Matthew 1128 through 30. I'm going to go ahead and read
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it right now and get started. Come to me, all who labour and
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are heavy laden, and I will give you rest.
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Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and
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lowly and heart, and you will find rest for your souls.
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For my yoke is easy and my burden is light.
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Now when we were talking about doing this Series A few months
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ago, we get around and we have a planning meeting.
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We talked about the messages that are coming up for like the
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next six months to a year. And we're going to talk about
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mental health. So we're divvying up all the
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topics, right? And Pastor Daniels, when we get
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to burnout, Pastor Daniel's like, oh, Nate, you'll do
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burnout. You're super good at that.
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OK, I will, I will cover burnout.
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I'm like, what? What do you mean?
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What do you mean? I, I know about burnout like
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everyone has, you know, times where they burnout, right?
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You feel like you've burned out before you're maybe you're
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headed towards burnout right now.
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We've all kind of had those seasons of burnout.
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You know, I, I did have my short season of burnout.
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My my season of burnout just happened to last from the years
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of 2018 to 2021. But you know, it's not like I'm
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an expert on knowing how to burn yourself out.
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You know, it's just a it's just a season.
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The interesting thing about this series on mental health is it
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happened to coincide with Mental Health Awareness Month.
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That actually was not planned. That was not planned, but it
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does seem providential. As shepherds, we're called to
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care for people, and we would be remiss if we ignored the real
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struggles that everyone is facing.
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And let's face it, mental health challenges touch all of us in
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this. Room in some way.
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The Bible has much wisdom to offer about mental health, and
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today we're going to specifically focus on burnout,
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something that affects so many of us in our fast-paced world.
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So let me share some practical wisdom that I believe can help
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us all recognize and prevent burnout in our lives.
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And ultimately, it's going to lead us to Christ, where we can
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find true rest. But before we dive into
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solutions, we need to recognize first the warning signs of
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burnout. Just like the dashboard lights
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in your car signal that something needs attention, our
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bodies and minds have warning lights as well.
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So let me share 3 critical warning signs or warning lights
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that you should look out for. I'll write these down and then
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we'll jump into them in more depth.
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Three of them. OK, here's the warning lights #1
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fatigue. Fatigue #2 feeling cynical or
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irritable. That's my speciality when I'm
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burned out. Number three, loss of passion.
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You have a loss of passion. A 2020 report found 45% of
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employees are reporting burnout, and it actually is a higher
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percentage in Gen. Z and millennials.
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So burnout is a real thing. So why has burnout become so
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prevalent in our society today? Why are we burning out?
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Well, too much work is is part of it.
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But I actually don't think that's the main problem.
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I don't think it's that we're working too much.
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I believe it's because we are not resting enough because our
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brains will not shut off. We can't shut them off.
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We don't let our brains shut off.
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You know that the average person will feel the need to pick up
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their phone 144 times a day. That's insane.
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And you will spend an average of 4 hours a day on screen time.
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That's like almost all the day. How are we doing this?
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We can't get away from it. The thing we invented, the
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technology we invented to help us manage our lives is actually
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burning us out even quicker. I'm so happy, I'm so thankful.
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That I grew. Up in the the 80s and 90s, any
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80s, nineties babies? Yeah.
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OK, so we had these things. You guys are going to love this.
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This is history. We had, we had these things
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called landlines and corded phones.
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Yes, it was a box that lived on the wall somewhere in your house
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and it, and when you wanted to call someone, you would pick it
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up. And that's where this came from.
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OK, this is a phone and we pushed the buttons or whatever.
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And then there's this long twisty cord, right?
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And then if you're really cool, you had a super extra long
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twisty cord. So when you wanted to talk to
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your girlfriend, ha ha kissy kissy, you could go around the
5:57
corner and and talk to them. But.
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It was cool because if you didn't want, if you wanted to
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disappear, if you wanted to decompress, if you wanted to be
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alone and you don't want anyone bothering you, all you had to do
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was go outside. The cord's not long enough.
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You're free. We don't have that anymore.
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Our phones. How many of you have your phone
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in your pocket right now? Don't touch it, OK?
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It's there. Even if it doesn't ring, you're
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going to feel it vibrate. It's there.
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We are burning ourselves out. Our jobs are burning us out, our
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relationships are burning us out, our technology is burning
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us out. So what are the warning lights
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for us that we are approaching burnout?
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I want to illustrate this with a really fun story.
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So I have in the parking lot a beautiful 2010 Toyota Corolla,
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told your applause. You don't have to call.
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You may have seen it, you know, you may have seen me driving
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around town just crushing it in my Corolla.
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And if you want, after service, you can come up and you know, I
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can show you the car. If you want to take pictures
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with it, whatever, that's cool. Just don't touch it.
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You know, don't go falling in love with her.
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But in this car specifically, I have developed a really bad
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habit. For me.
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I will wait until the absolute last minute to get gas.
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You know, the gas light comes on, you're like, OK, I got
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another, you know, couple days, the little thingy, you know, the
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pointer thingy. And then there's the line.
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I like to make sure they're just really lined up, sometimes even
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below the line. And then I think we should
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probably get gas. When the gas light comes on, it
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should signal that it's time to refuel, but for me it signals
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the beginning of a fun game. I like to call how far can I
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push it? And this one time few years ago,
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I was playing the fun game of how long can I push it?
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And I did in fact push it too far.
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Guess where I was when I finally ran out of gas?
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Who has a really good guess? The freeway.
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No, that would be ridiculous. I was in the middle of a
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Starbucks drive through. So I remember just, I've never
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sweated so much in my life. I, I got in the drive through
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and I was like, well, I'm fine, You know, I'll get my drink and
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then I'll go immediately to the gas station.
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But they were taking forever. OK.
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So really it's Starbucks's fault.
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It's not my fault. But yeah, sure enough, I ran out
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of gas right in the middle of a Starbucks drive through.
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Broad daylight, not ideal. It was death by dashboard.
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The warning signs were all there.
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The light was on, but I just ignored it and kept pushing.
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And this is exactly how burnout happens in our lives.
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There will be warning signs. The lights on our personal
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dashboard will light up, but we ignore them till they're
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completely depleted. And by the time we acknowledge
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those warning signs, we may be already too close to burnout.
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So. Let me explain what these
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warning signs actually look like in our lives.
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Now, you might think, well, burnout, that's just a feeling,
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right? That's just a a modern buzzword
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that we use. But science actually tells us
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it's much more serious than that.
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According to research published by the Journal of Applied
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Psychology, burnout isn't just a feeling, it actually changes our
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brain chemistry. Researchers at the Karolinska
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Institute found burnout syndrome is associated with changes in
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brain structure, particularly in the amygdala, which regulates
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our stress response. I'm pretty sure I said that
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wrong. Whatever stress science
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confirms, what Scripture has long taught, our minds and
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bodies are intimately connected. So let's look at these warning
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signs more closely, and let's see what they look like in our
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lives #1 fatigue. Fatigue.
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Now, this isn't just, you know, feeling sleepy.
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This is chronic tiredness that doesn't go away with a good
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night's sleep. How many parents are here?
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And you're like. Yeah, dude.
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Duh. Fatigue is sort of my base level
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of existence. You know, I just kind of, I just
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like to keep it right there at fatigue.
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No, this is, this is much more than that.
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This doesn't go away with a good night's sleep.
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You're always exhausted no matter how much rest you get.
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That's hell. That's a special kind of hell,
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isn't it? Being so tired that you can't
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sleep. Oh, so tired.
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Why don't you take a nap, Nate? Can't.
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Can't sleep, too tired. What do you do?
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It's actually. Hell no.
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No, it is. It's actually hell.
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This is an actual description of hell in the Bible.
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Revelation 1411 says the smoke of their torment goes up forever
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and ever, and they have no rest. Day or night.
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It's hell now. We have our youth in in junior
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high. What's up, guys?
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This is, we have, you know, Richard's dressed up like, what
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are you there a wizard or a Jedi?
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Oh, a Jedi. Cool, cool, cool, cool.
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So the youth, they do these things.
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Have you guys done one of these yet?
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It's called an all nighter. So you notice that when.
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I ask him. It's not like, yeah, it's like,
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Oh yeah, we did that. So if you haven't heard of what
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of an all nighter or some people call them lockins, that sounds
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more aggressive. But basically you get all the
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kids and you say we're going to just, you know, what we're going
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to do is going to be so fun. We're going to just stay up all
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night, bro, No. Sleep.
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Let's go. What?
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No. And you drink Mountain Dew, you
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eat pizza, you play weird games, and you just, you just stay up
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all night. And I didn't grow up going to
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youth group, but I did start making some friends from church
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my senior year of high school. And they said.
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Nate, you should come to our churches all nighter and I said
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no, that sounds like hell and but I did go because there was a
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cute girl there. So I said, well, you know
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they'll. Check it out or whatever.
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And I like sleeping. I think sleeping is cool.
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I've only stayed up all night twice in my entire life.
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One when I was at junior high and it was the worst decision I
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ever made and the second is when me and my friend got locked out
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of his parents house and we couldn't wake them up so we
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wandered around the streets of Stockton until 6:00 AM.
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Both of those times really sucked.
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OK, so don't like to stay up all night.
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So. But I go to the all nighters, I
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could do this, you know, and you have to send a waiver that says
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you, you can't leave. You know, you can't leave.
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And so lucky for me, I had turned 18 prior to this, even
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though I was a senior in high school.
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And so it got to be about 12:30 AM, And I was like, I'm, I'm
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good, yeah, I'm going to leave. And I go to leave.
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And the youth pastor runs. Over here.
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Hey buddy, you got to stay. Here, we're going to play Chubby
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Bunny. I was like, oh, that sounds
13:32
terrible, bud. I'll see you later.
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And he's like, hey, you know, seriously, you can't leave.
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Your parents are going to kill me.
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I'm like, here's the thing, I'm an adult, I'll see you later and
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I left the all nighter because not being able to rest
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chronically. Is just the.
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Worst. If you've ever been there, you
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know it is the absolute worst. And I'm not into it.
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But that's one of the symptoms of burnout #2 cynicism and
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irritability. Cynicism and irritability.
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Now during my short season of burnout that lasted for years
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and years and years, I was walking one day with a Co worker
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here at the church. We had gone through the merger
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and all that, this crazy stuff. And he he does the whole Nate.
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Hey, you doing OK man? And what's really that means,
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Nate, you're not doing OK, man. And I was like, yeah, I'm doing
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good. Why do you even ask me that
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question? That's sort of annoying that you
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didn't even ask me a question like that.
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What do you mean? And he's like, well, just notice
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that you, it feels like you're being really, really short with
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people. And, and before he could finish,
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I'm not being short. I'm not, I'm not being short
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with people. You're short.
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You're the short one. I'm tall and you're short.
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You've been short. And at that moment, as this was
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coming out of my mouth, I thought I might be burning out a
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little bit. I might be burnout.
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When you are burning out, your everything is a hassle.
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Everything, every text, every meeting, every question, it all
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comes across as another thing because you're done.
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You don't have the capacity to deal with it.
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I would actually get anxiety from my phone because every time
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it buzzed, I thought it was someone asking me to do
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something else and it was just the worst.
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Cynicism and irritability. Now let's look at #3 #3 symptom
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is loss of passion. Loss of passion.
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This warning sign is basically you're losing passion for the
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things that you once loved. During my season of burnout.
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I've always loved. Music, love, worship music, all
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those things. But during that time I was just
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not into it. I was just going through the
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motions and it was hard, especially when we had, I don't
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know if you remember this, but we had like these lockdown
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things, you know, and so during that time.
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I had to we. The worship team had to record
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all the worship, film it. I had to edit it.
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Edit. The service put it all together,
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stream it. I had to do that every single
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week and, and I was a part of the worship team because I felt
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like if I'm not part of it, it's not going to happen.
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You know, like I, I have to actually do this and do all
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these other things and I just started to just kind of hate
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worship. I lost my passion for it.
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I. Would still do it.
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But I was just going through the motions.
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It's, it's just, it's sad. It's something I once loved to
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have a passion for was gone. Another fun symptom from that is
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I got sick a lot, which is great, but there's a
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correlation. The Mayo Clinic has documented
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that these exact warning signs in their research show that
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burnout actually effects our immune system.
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So people experiencing burnout have significantly higher
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inflammation markers in their bloodstream.
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This creates a dangerous cycle. Stress leads to burnout, which
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weakens the immune system, which makes us physically I'll, which
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creates more stress and around we go.
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The scientific reality actually parallels scripture.
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Check this out. Proverbs 1722 says a joyful
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heart is good medicine, but a crushed spirit dries up the
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bones. This ancient wisdom perfectly
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captures what modern science is now confirming.
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Our mental state directly effects our physical well-being.
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So. If burnout is the problem, well,
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what's the solution? At its core, we need rest.
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We need true rest. Not just any rest, but the kind
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that restores our souls. So where do we find our source
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of true rest? Well, according to our text
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today, Matthew 1128 through 30, our rest is not found in
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institutions and programs. It's found in a person.
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And that person is Jesus. It says, come to me, all who
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labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest.
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Take my yoke upon you and learn from me.
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For I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest
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for your souls. For my yoke is easy and my
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burden is light. I have a picture here of a yoke.
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I'm saying this word yoke. And you're like, what the heck
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is yoke? The wooden thing?
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That's a yoke. Jesus uses the image of a yoke.
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That wooden contraption placed between placed on oxen to help
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them pull a load together. And typically a stronger, more
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mature ox would be paired with a younger one.
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The older ox would take most of the load and guide the younger
19:05
one until it learned the routine.
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We are all yoked to something, whether you realize it or not.
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Even if you're not a religious person, you're not a spiritual
19:18
person. You are yoked to something.
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So we need to ask ourselves. You need to ask yourself, what
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am I actually yoked to? If your season of burnout is
19:29
lasting years, maybe you're not yoked to Jesus.
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When you're yoked to Jesus, He does the heavy lifting.
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When we're yoked to anything else, we do the heavy lifting
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and it is exhausting. Now, I'm not saying we don't
19:50
need to, you know, like do stuff.
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Obviously we need work and all those kind of things.
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We're designed to work. But yes, we are also designed to
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rest. Got himself rested on the 7th
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day after creating everything. OK?
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It's built into us. I like the way Alan Cohen puts
20:07
it. He says there's virtue and work,
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and there's virtue and rest. Use both.
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And overlook neither. Think about burnout.
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It's sneaky. Because once that warning light
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comes on, you really, really don't have much time until you
20:28
run out of fuel. So let's talk about the three
20:30
safeguards against burnout. Because the best burnout
20:34
treatment is actually prevention.
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So I'm going to give you 3 safeguards to help you prevent
20:41
from burning out. You write these down #1 renew
20:45
your mind with the truth #2 hang up your Cape and #3 refuel.
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Don't escape. All right, number one, renew
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your mind with the truth. Well, what is truth?
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The truth is the word of God. Renew your mind with the word of
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God Romans 12/2 says do not be conformed to this world, but be
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transformed by the renewal of your mind that by testing you
21:21
may discern what is the will of. God, what is good and.
21:24
Acceptable and perfect. I read a 2021 study from
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Frontiers in Psychology and it showed that mindfulness
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practices focused on gratitude and positive thought patterns
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literally rewire neural pathways.
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Participants who spent just 15 minutes daily focusing on
21:47
positive thoughts showed measurable changes in brain
21:50
activity after only four weeks. So when Paul is writing here in
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Romans and he's saying be transformed by the renewing of
21:58
your mind, he's actually describing what neuroscientists
22:02
now call neuroplasticity. That's our brains ability to
22:07
reorganize itself by forming new neural connections.
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Focusing on what is good and true has not only spiritual
22:18
benefits, but physical benefits. You guys ever get into an
22:25
argument with someone that's not there?
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They're in your mind, you know, you tell yourself a narrative
22:32
like, well, they gave me a dirty look the other day, so they must
22:35
be thinking this or whatever. And then now you're having a
22:37
conversation with that person in your mind, like, oh, then they
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come this step to me. I'm going to say this to them.
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Whatever you guys do that just me.
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I'm the only one that's crazy. OK, cool.
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So for me, it's these these debates take place in the
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shower. OK, in the shower and I maybe
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there's someone I'm mad at or there's some issue.
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I just disagree with them and I'm like in the shower, like,
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and then I would say like, da da, da, da, da to them.
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And then they would say like, oh, Nate, you're destroying me
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with your intellect. I'm like, yeah, yeah, I get the
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shampoo bottle. I listen to this dude, you're
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dumb or whatever. And having this full on
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conversation with a person that's not there.
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They're not there. They probably don't even know
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that we have a problem. But I am just.
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Destroying them with my mind, yes, we do that because the mind
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is a battlefield and one of the greatest battles we will have to
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fight. Is with the.
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Lies that we tell ourselves. You ever believe something for
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years and years and years, I thought it was the truth, only
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to talk to someone about it, like, out loud and realize it
23:55
actually wasn't true this whole time.
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You know that person that you're intellectually destroying in the
24:00
shower and they're like, what's your name?
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Do we have a problem? Yeah.
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You've told yourself a lie. A fun story that I have about
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this is growing up, my mom's sort of a clean freak.
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Love you, Mom. I respect it.
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But it did get out of hand at times.
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So growing up, we had chores every day after school.
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We had chores even during summer vacation.
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I had chores every single day. I actually had like, a list of
24:27
chores to do. And I remember it was time for
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me to become the dishwasher. We didn't have a dishwasher.
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I'll be the dishwasher. So she's teaching me how to
24:35
clean, you know, what sponge to use, you know, the Dawn soap and
24:39
how much to put and then how to dry the dishes.
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OK, So drying the dishes, like, OK.
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And then you just circles. OK, Good, good.
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And she's like, now, little Nathan, she didn't call me that,
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but little Nathan, just so you know, if you don't dry the
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dishes completely, we could all get cancer.
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I don't want my family to die. It's going to be my fault.
25:14
Someone coughs at the dinner table like, Oh no, was your dish
25:16
dry? Was it dry?
25:17
You know, now years later, I, you know, somehow found out.
25:26
I found out it wasn't true. I Googled it last week and it
25:30
turns out it it's not true. So you can scratch that off your
25:35
list. It's just something that I
25:38
believe for a while that's just like, what the heck is that?
25:39
It's not even true. But in my mind, that's what she
25:41
told me. So that's true.
25:42
You have to renew your mind with the truth, the word of God, and
25:47
this is a daily thing, this is a process.
25:50
So it's a choice. You don't become an optimist
25:55
overnight. You know what I'm not saying is
25:59
OK, I have all these problems and Nate says if I read a Bible
26:01
verse. I'll be good.
26:03
That's no, I'm not saying that. I'm saying it's, it's a daily
26:07
thing. It's a process, it's a choice.
26:11
When you become a Christian, you're saved and all those
26:13
things. It's not like your problems go
26:14
away. Anyone you know can can relate
26:17
to that. Become a Christian.
26:18
You're like, oh this is actually harder now, but you know how to
26:22
navigate it. So.
26:27
If you don't have a regular practice of reading the Bible,
26:32
like where the heck do I even start Lamentations?
26:35
Maybe not there. We're going through the Bible in
26:38
a year app like you've seen the QR codes.
26:41
Before. Boom.
26:42
And I should just check it out and you could scan that code.
26:47
You could it's on your phone. You know, you, you have your
26:49
phone, you pick it up 144 times a day.
26:51
So one of those times could be reading this Bible app.
26:55
And that's a great place to start.
26:57
They tell you what to do. You don't think about it, You
26:59
just jump right in. So that would be my homework for
27:02
you. Some of us, the, the God thing
27:06
is sort of new to us. Maybe the church thing is new to
27:09
you and you have lived for years believing a lie about God
27:15
because someone told you, well, God is this way or someone who
27:20
claimed to be a Christian live their life a certain way.
27:24
And so you think God is like that.
27:29
Maybe growing up you didn't have the best father, so when you
27:32
hear, well, he's your heavenly Father, you think, well, I don't
27:35
like that because my father wasn't so awesome.
27:42
These are lies that we've been told and we believe.
27:46
So I want to take just a second and tell you something.
27:51
Some of you probably need to hear this.
27:53
God loves you, full stop. There's nothing you can do to
28:05
earn His love. There's nothing you can do that
28:07
will make Him love you more or less.
28:10
You can rest knowing that He loves you as you are.
28:13
You can come to God as you are. You don't have to clean up.
28:16
You don't have to put on a buttoned up shirt.
28:18
You don't even have to give up your addictions.
28:20
You come to Him with all those things.
28:24
He'll meet you where you're at and you don't have to save the
28:28
day. Some of us really want to be the
28:31
superhero. You want to save the day.
28:33
I'm a guy who likes comic books and superheroes.
28:35
I literally have a Cape in my closet.
28:37
OK, it's not weird. And sometimes you just, you got
28:42
to hang up your Cape and realise you don't have to save the day.
28:45
The day has already been saved #2 hang up your Cape.
28:51
Something I've been working on specifically this year, I'm, I'm
28:55
working on incorporating a new word into my vocabulary.
29:00
It's a 2 letter word. You guys are like, uh oh, what's
29:03
he going to say? You got the sensor button ready?
29:07
The word is no, it's no. For me.
29:14
I like to put on the Cape, like to be the guy.
29:16
I like to save the day. But if I keep saying yes to
29:20
everything because I feel like maybe I'm the only one who can
29:24
do this, or I, I have to, or God, you know, is going to be
29:29
disappointed in me or something like that, maybe I want the
29:32
credit of being the guy who does the thing so I don't ever say
29:37
no. That's such a great way to burn
29:41
yourself out. Some of us need to learn how to
29:45
say no. Now listen carefully.
29:49
I am not trying to put pressure on you.
29:52
Yes, we do want you to serve. All the Wrest Mania leaders like
29:56
Nate, what have you done? Everyone's deleting their sign
29:59
up forms. No, we we do want you to serve.
30:04
Serving is good. Serving is healthy.
30:06
Serving is biblical. Going and doing something for
30:09
someone else, You'd be surprised what wonders that does for your
30:12
mental state. It really, really does.
30:14
You are concerned about yourself and you're so in your own head.
30:16
Go do something for someone else.
30:18
Guarantee you you'll forget. Serving is great, but if if you
30:24
come home at night to your family and they call the police
30:29
because they don't recognize you, you might want to start
30:34
saying no to some things. All right, I'm going to get I'm
30:39
going to get cash short for casual.
30:42
You guys want to get cash. Let's just wrap, let's wrap it
30:46
out. Hear my knees popping?
30:51
So. For me, my formative Christian
30:54
years when I got saved and got really involved in church, they
30:58
were all in a high control, spiritually abusive environment
31:06
and my mindset was can't miss anything.
31:13
Got to be at every event, got to serve at everything, got to be
31:16
in the front row a Manning, got to do all the things.
31:21
Whatever the leader told me to do, we had to do it because they
31:26
were the voice of God. That's spiritual abuse.
31:32
I lived in that for years and it pretty much killed me
31:36
spiritually. I had in my mind that I have to
31:45
do something huge and big and great for God.
31:48
You know, like all these things were for God and the whole time
31:51
God's like, you're just my son. You just want to hang out.
31:57
Like how many of your parents are like when your kid comes to
32:01
you and wants to hug, you're like, well, what did you do
32:02
today? Did you?
32:05
What did you build? How have you contributed to the
32:08
Kingdom today? Son, when I get to heaven, I
32:12
don't think that God's going to be like, well, Nate, you did a
32:15
good job, raised your kid. You loved your wife, but you did
32:20
run out of gas on the freeway. That's why you're here.
32:25
But I'm looking at the books. Here and I notice you did miss 4
32:29
Sundays. So I hope you like warm weather.
32:34
You know there's no rest down. There, by the way, but that's
32:40
not going to happen. Yes, we should serve at the
32:44
church. We should serve.
32:49
Serving the church is not the same as serving God.
32:53
I think you should hear that Jesus did not die for programs.
33:02
He died for people. He died for people.
33:09
The church is not these walls. The church is the people.
33:14
That's who we're serving. OK, so I'm actually talking to
33:18
myself right now because this is something I still, I'm still
33:21
working through all these years later, kind of wading through
33:28
all that and detangling all those feelings of guilt and
33:31
religious oppression and all those things.
33:33
They still kind of are there. And so I have to daily renew my
33:36
mind with the truth, with the word of God.
33:39
And the truth is Jesus did not die for our programs.
33:42
He died for you. And if unchecked, your hero
33:48
complex will make you the villain.
33:55
Here's something beautiful about me personally saying no is my no
34:02
actually gives someone else their yes.
34:06
So Michael here, this is where you know I would normally stand,
34:11
right? Every Sunday, don't miss a
34:13
Sunday. Years, years, years, years,
34:14
years. And standing in this spot,
34:18
Pastor Daniel comes to me and says, hey, you need to take a
34:22
Sunday off a month. And I was like, no, you're
34:24
short. You've been short.
34:27
I'm tall and you're short. No, I got to be up there because
34:31
what happens if I'm not? Everything will fall apart and
34:33
it will catch on fire. No, you need a break.
34:36
OK. So reluctantly start saying no.
34:40
And because of that, no. Michael is a great example of
34:44
someone who gets to say yes because I'm not freaking
34:46
standing there every Sunday hogging up all the space, right?
34:51
Your know may make room for someone else's.
34:53
Yes. That's actually a beautiful
34:55
thing. I love coming to church with
34:56
Bishop and checking them in and just watching our worship team.
35:00
And it's just awesome to see all these new people get an
35:03
opportunity to say yes. Wouldn't happen if I didn't hang
35:08
up my Cape every now and then. So.
35:13
Also, I'm not saying that you should just, you know, say no to
35:17
all your responsibilities, OK? Do you know kids, you know,
35:21
don't go home, kids, young people don't go home.
35:24
And your mom's like, hey, I need you to take out the trash.
35:26
You're like, no, I need to sort of take time for me.
35:37
I need to take care of my mental health.
35:41
Mom and I hang up my Cape. I'm just going to have to say
35:44
no. You know, why don't you do it?
35:49
Remember what we talked about? We talked about going to heaven
35:54
and stuff. You'll go straight to heaven.
35:56
After all. I'm not telling you to go say no
36:00
to everything. If you're go home and your
36:02
wife's like, hey honey, can you take out the trash and you go?
36:05
Here's the thing. Pastor Nate said I could say no.
36:08
So I just sort of. Well.
36:13
Why don't you take out the trash?
36:15
You won't have to take out the trash anymore because you won't
36:17
be living there. So that's not what I'm saying at
36:20
all. What I'm saying is I'm giving
36:24
you permission as if I have the authority to do that, to just
36:27
consider the possibility that you can say no.
36:31
Because I know in church sometimes it gets hard, right?
36:34
You're like, I don't want to. They need me or what?
36:36
It's like dude. If your family is is falling
36:39
apart, your marriage sucks. All these things just say no
36:41
dude. And go do something with your
36:44
family. It's OK, Resume is like.
36:48
Typing Oh, we got. To he's, he's ruining it #3.
36:58
Refuel, don't escape, refuel, don't escape.
37:03
When my car is running low on gas, if I just pull over and
37:08
stop, it doesn't actually do anything.
37:11
So you know the lights on because you know it's always on.
37:13
I say, well, she's tired, she need a rest.
37:18
So I pulled over to the side of the road and she's like, you
37:21
just take your time, sweetie. You take a rest and when you
37:25
when you're ready, we'll fire it up again and we'll be good.
37:29
No, that doesn't do anything. It just delays the inevitable
37:34
that I will run out of gas. I have to do something.
37:38
I have to go to the gas station and get gas.
37:42
I have to refuel. Don't just escape.
37:47
So let me ask you a question. What refuels you?
37:50
You don't have to answer like out loud, but.
37:52
What? Refuels you?
37:54
Do you even know what refuels you?
37:57
Have you ever actually thought about that?
38:01
What do I like to do just to have fun, relax, get filled up?
38:07
What? What awakens your affection for
38:10
Jesus? What refuels me may not be what
38:14
refuels you. It's not what refuels my wife.
38:16
And that's OK. We all have different ways.
38:18
For me, I really like writing music and making art and all the
38:23
artsy farty stuff. I like doing all that stuff.
38:25
And my wife will tell you I would be content just not even
38:29
leaving my room and just writing music all day and I'll go to
38:33
home. I'll go go to bed and and just
38:35
sleep happy as a clam, whatever that means.
38:38
Why are clams happy? Don't know, but that's that's
38:43
what I will be like a clam. I also love working out.
38:47
We have any gym Bros, gym gym girls.
38:52
Yeah. I love working out because it
38:55
gives me a chance to listen to music to decompress.
38:58
No one's going to bother me. It's just there.
39:00
You just sort of stare into the, you know, the the gym stare when
39:02
you're like in between sets and you just stare and someone
39:06
thinks you're staring at them. They're like, you're not, you're
39:10
just, you're just into the void, just decompressing.
39:13
I love it. And the thing about working out
39:17
is you might think that, well, the lifting of the weights is
39:19
what makes you stronger. It's not, it's it just gives you
39:23
microscopic tears in your muscle fibers.
39:26
You actually gain muscle from sleep.
39:30
That's when you gain muscle from rest.
39:32
So whatever your way to refuel is, some some people like golf.
39:37
Good, no one wooed you're going outside.
39:42
I like to go outside and be a smell the fresh cut grass and
39:46
and and hit this little ball around and it's like no thanks.
39:51
But if that's you, do it. Golf it up because we need to
39:59
refuel because life just keeps going.
40:02
Life goes on. And so in our verse, when Jesus
40:07
says take my yoke upon you and learn from me, notice what he
40:11
doesn't say. He doesn't say take off your
40:14
yoke. He says take my yoke.
40:19
There's still a yoke saying yoke a lot.
40:21
There's still a yoke. There's still stuff we're going
40:25
to have to do. The difference is he's the one
40:29
pulling the weight. So what can we learn?
40:34
He says, take my yoke upon you and learn from me.
40:37
What can we learn from Jesus about refueling?
40:40
Like how did Jesus refuel? Well, there's a few instances of
40:44
this, but a particular one I want to read is Luke 515 through
40:48
16. It says.
40:50
But even now more the report about him went abroad and great
40:54
crowds gathered to hear him and to be healed of their
40:56
infirmities. But he would withdraw to
40:59
desolate places and pray. Sometimes even Jesus needed to
41:05
get away from the crowd and pray.
41:10
And yes, that meant he would actually leave people unhealed.
41:16
Because Jesus understood that to complete his mission, which was
41:18
a difficult mission, he needed to take time to refuel.
41:24
And he did this with prayer. A University of Pennsylvania
41:29
study tracked brain activity during prayer and meditation
41:32
using MRI, and researchers discovered that regular
41:36
contemplative prayer strengthens the prefrontal cortex.
41:42
This is the part of the brain responsible for emotion
41:44
regulation and decision making. So when Jesus would withdraw,
41:49
draw to pray, he was engaging in what science now confirms is one
41:53
of the most effective ways to restore cognitive function and
41:57
emotional balance. Prayer has spiritual and
42:03
physical benefits. If you are here and you're
42:08
running on empty, don't. Just push through it.
42:13
Press into him. We do this with prayer.
42:20
OK? So we have our three safeguards
42:23
#1 renew your mind with the truth.
42:25
That's the word of God #2 hang up your Cape.
42:29
Sometimes it's OK to say no. And #3 refuel.
42:34
Don't escape. And you may be thinking, wow,
42:38
Nate Bravo, you did it. You saved us, saved us all from
42:44
burnout. You're never you're not even
42:47
dealing with this anymore. You've done it.
42:49
Well, let me show you a picture from this morning.
42:51
This is literally this morning. Check it out.
43:02
Got in the car and I was. Like, Oh yeah, I need gas, so I
43:09
had to go. Get gas this morning because I'm
43:12
still learning, still dealing with that stuff, still
43:15
procrastinating simple tasks like putting gas in your car.
43:20
What the heck man? Still dealing with it.
43:23
So you might be hearing your and you're saying to yourself, well
43:26
cool story bro. What happens if I'm already
43:30
burnt out? Like what happens if I'm?
43:33
Done. Well, if you remember early I I
43:37
told this really cool story about me running out of gas in
43:40
the Starbucks parking lot. And the thing that was fun about
43:43
it was I had to push my car and steer because, you know, the Dr.
43:49
Thrus are like curvy and it's just, you know, I looked
43:53
awesome, I'm sure. But broad daylight trying to
43:56
push and steer my car through a drive through and people are
43:58
like, well, don't you know that you can drive it or whatever.
44:03
The only way I got out of that situation from that burnout, if
44:07
you will, was someone had to come rescue me.
44:12
So thank God I'm doing that. And my friend Chris drives by
44:17
and he sees me and he's. Like, oh, that's odd.
44:19
And pulls into the parking lot, comes up and say, hey, Nate,
44:25
what's up? Are you good?
44:28
Oh, no, actually, I am out of gas.
44:31
Can you help me And so I believe he pushed while I.
44:35
Steered I did get my drink, though.
44:37
People were asking me after first service like, well, did
44:39
you get your drink? I'm like yeah, come on of course
44:42
I of course I, you know, pushed it and stuck it in there keep
44:45
pushing me. I'm not going to forget my drink
44:50
come on. The only.
44:53
Way I got out of that was. Someone had to come rescue me.
44:57
It. If you're already burnt out,
44:59
like if your soul, your mind, your body are depleted, the only
45:03
way out is rescue. You need help.
45:06
So I ask you, do you do you have?
45:08
Anyone in your life really think about this?
45:09
Do you have anyone in your life that's allowed to call you out
45:13
on stuff? You got to have at least one.
45:18
If you don't, do you have anyone that's actually close enough to
45:22
you that can notice when you're burning out?
45:27
You know, at Rez, we focus on groups a lot.
45:28
We're always talking about groups.
45:29
We have a giant wall dedicated to groups.
45:31
It's not because we think, oh, groups.
45:32
It'd be really fun to have a. A.
45:34
Wall for groups or in a ton of groups.
45:37
That's not the point. The point is because we, we know
45:41
that you, you have to do life with other people like someone
45:44
has to know you. We've seen too many people
45:49
disappear because they've burned out and they did not have a
45:52
support system. Now, as I shared earlier, I, I
45:57
suffered A brief season of burnout for a few years.
46:01
And, you know, I would love to say that I took these three
46:06
warning lights, then I took these three, you know,
46:10
preventative practices and I got myself out of burnout.
46:15
It's not actually what happened. I had to be rescued from my
46:21
burnout. And God in all his wisdom sent
46:26
me this little guy first service.
46:33
I cried a lot so I'm doing better now.
46:35
But I'm like, why don't I keep showing pictures of my son?
46:38
Look at that face, dude. So sweet.
46:43
This little guy saved me from my burnout.
46:47
God saved me by sending me a son.
46:55
There it is having this little person to care for.
46:59
It got the focus off of myself and it, it actually helped me
47:02
see things the way God saw them. So the way I saw this little
47:08
guy, you know, he was born, he was super red.
47:11
He was covered in unknown foreign substances and screaming
47:17
and just just, you know, just like a alien.
47:22
But but I've I've never been more proud of anything that I've
47:25
been a part of ever. I was like, this is it.
47:28
I did it. You know, my wife did it.
47:34
I'm sorry. I would though.
47:37
The jokes are going. I'm cycling through all the
47:38
jokes to like cut them out. No, don't say that.
47:40
Don't say that. OK, But this little guy, I saw
47:45
him and was so proud and loved him.
47:47
Would do anything for this kid. I'm like, I wonder if that's how
47:52
God sees me. He's I'm his son.
48:02
So Bishop, when he was born, he didn't do anything to earn my
48:07
love. He just had it because he was
48:10
mine. And with God, you don't have to
48:15
climb this ladder of religion. It's too high.
48:18
You can't even get to the top. That's religion.
48:22
Gospel is Jesus comes down the ladder to us.
48:28
That's the gospel. This week, Bishop, take that
48:32
picture down, dude. Thank you.
48:36
Thank you, media team. You can take that down, please.
48:40
This week, Bishop graduated preschool and.
48:44
Yeah, Yeah, he can like count and and go to the bathroom and
48:52
the toilet and do all kinds of cool stuff.
48:54
And during this ceremony, they interviewed all the kids and
48:57
they asked them, what do you want to be when you grow up?
49:00
And so we're sitting there and all the kids and there's.
49:02
When I grew up, I want to be a firefighter.
49:04
It was like, yeah, dude, and that's noble.
49:07
I want to be a police officer, yeah.
49:09
I want to. Be a ballerina.
49:10
That's cool. One kid was like.
49:13
I want to play for the Raiders. And everyone's like, you want to
49:22
pick something else or and when it got to Bishop, we go, and I'm
49:28
I'm not even exaggerating this. So the kid is supposed to
49:31
repeat, when I grow up, I want to be whatever.
49:33
He doesn't do that. He stands there like this.
49:36
And the teacher goes, what do you want to be when you grow up?
49:38
And with straight face, he goes Boba Fett.
49:48
You know what? I've never been more proud in my
49:50
entire life. My son wants to.
49:54
Be a mercenary, a bounty hunter for hire.
50:01
It pays well. I.
50:05
Freaking love that moment. It was so great.
50:09
So proud. He doesn't have to do anything.
50:12
He's not going to have to, you know, obviously I want him to
50:15
grow and thrive and, and all these things, but he doesn't
50:17
have to do that for me to love him.
50:19
And I feel like for us, religion actually is the biggest source
50:24
of our burnout. Even for people who say they're
50:26
not religious, You're religious. There's things you do, there's
50:32
gods that you create, there's things that you bow to.
50:36
That. Don't create anything for you
50:39
but a heavy yoke. The ladder's too high to climb.
50:46
We can't earn His love. And the reason I know this?
50:48
It's because the simple fact that while we were yet sinners
50:51
and while we were enemies of God, He sent his Son to die for
50:57
us. That's salvation.
51:05
That's the gospel. It's a simple yoke exchange.
51:08
We give God our extremely heavy yoke, burden of sin, of
51:14
religiosity, of work, all these things.
51:18
We give it to Jesus, and in exchange we get his light yoke
51:21
of salvation, and all we have to do is trust Him.
51:26
That's the gospel. He does all the work and He
51:33
gives us all the rest. So if you're here today, this is
51:37
new to you, you maybe you haven't heard this before or, or
51:41
something you've been pondering. If you haven't put your trust in
51:44
Christ and you want to do that today, I want to give you an
51:47
opportunity right now. I want to lead you in a prayer.
51:51
All you have to do is repeat after me.
51:53
You can say it out loud, you can say it in your head, but I want
51:56
to lead you through this prayer of salvation.
51:58
So would everyone just do me a favour?
51:59
Would you close your eyes and bow your heads just for a
52:01
minute? I want to give you an
52:06
opportunity to make that yoke exchange.
52:10
Give him your yoke of religious effort and let him take the
52:12
lead. Take his forgiveness and make
52:15
him the Lord of your life. If that's you, repeat this after
52:19
me. Jesus, I know I am a Sinner who
52:23
can't save myself. I want you to save me and adopt
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me into your family. Forgive me of my sins.
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I surrender everything to you. I receive your promise of
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forgiveness, adoption and eternal life.
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Jesus, will you be my Lord now while your eyes are still
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closed? If you said that prayer right
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now for the first time, would you just do me a favour?
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Would you raise your hand with no one looking around?
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I just want to actually see that.
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Thank you. OK.
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Amen. You guys can look up here if you
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just committed your life to Jesus for the first time.
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Welcome to the family of God in just a moment.
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We're going to take communion and and we're going to sing, but
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we're going to have people up here that want to pray with you.
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If you if you want prayer for anything, if you're feeling
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burnt out and you're just done and you want to talk to someone,
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please come up here. If you raise your hand or you
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said that prayer or both, go to those tables in the back that I
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raise my hand tables is going to be someone back there going to
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give you a Bible and some stuff and just kind of help you
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connect you on your next steps. But yeah, so we're going to
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respond with singing and if you need prayer.
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Please please please. Come up front.
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Love you guys. Amen.