Telling the Truth

Stuart Briscoe: And then you see him in the future with Jesus Christ being sufficient in his future. Jesus Christ was talking about his cross and his resurrection.

And you and I could say, well, that's true of me too. Christ is sufficient for my past, he's forgiven my sin, I have come to know him as my own savior. Christ will be sufficient in my future when I stand before God.

He will say, well, what about my cross? What about my resurrection? I died for them. And he will be my advocate. Christ will be sufficient.

Announcer: Today on Telling the Truth, Jill Briscoe opens up the story of Elijah, who even though he saw God do amazing things, was ready to throw in the towel. It was a bad case of burnout. Can you relate? Where is God when you have nothing left to give? That's where Jill Briscoe takes you in just a moment.

God wants to use every season in your life to strengthen your faith. Discover how to make the most of the life lessons God is teaching you with Stuart and Jill's three-message series, A Lifetime of Wisdom. It's our thanks for your financial support to keep this broadcast going strong.

As an additional token of appreciation, we'll send you a beautiful framable art piece featuring Hebrews 10:23 that will help you remember God's faithfulness. So call today to request yours: 1-800-889-5388. That's 1-800-889-5388, or you can give online at tellingthetruth.org. Now here's Jill to begin Elijah's story of burnout.

Jill Briscoe: We've been taking different characters in the Bible and talking about all the reasons they're running on empty, right? And we're going to look at another character, this time Elijah.

Each time we've looked at one of these people, there's been different reasons for the fact that they're having a hard time of it. And we've thought about rejection, we've thought about busyness, and we're just going to look at straight burnout, just straight burnout.

There's one character that really depicts this more than any other character, and that's Elijah. And we see him here in 1 Kings 19. I'm just going to read a few verses to remind you of this familiar story.

Now Ahab told Jezebel—Ahab was the king of Israel, Jezebel was his wife. Ahab told Jezebel everything Elijah had done, how he had killed all the prophets with the sword. 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 don't make your life like one of them."

And Elijah was afraid. And he ran for his life. When he came to Beersheba in Judah, he left his servant there, while he himself went a day's journey into the desert. He came to a broom tree, he sat down under it, and he prayed that he might die.

"I've had enough, Lord." Isn't that great? There it is right in our Bible. "I've had enough, Lord," he said. "Take my life. I'm no better than my ancestors." Then he lay down under the tree and he fell asleep.

All at once an angel touched him and said, "Get up and eat." He looked around and there by his head was a cake of bread baked over hot coals and a jar of water. He ate and he drank and then he lay down again.

The angel of the Lord came back a second time, and he touched him and he said, "Get up and eat, for the journey is too much for you." So he got up and he ate and he drank. And strengthened by that food, he traveled forty days and forty nights until he reached Horeb, the mountain of God. Then he went into a cave and spent the night.

Now we might read a little later on a little more of the story when he arrives in the cave, but let's just look at this case of burnout first of all.

I want to talk about how we keep fresh, because to keep fresh is very, very important. In fact, the staff were talking about this and saying, is there a difference between young Christians and older Christians? Well, yes, there is. We know there is.

We see somebody come to Christ and they're all bright-eyed and bushy-tailed and they think it's all wonderful, and we get sort of little stabs of guilt because we used to feel like that when we first found Christ and now it's sort of middle-aged and or even worse, perhaps.

Or it's like getting married at first and you're in love and it's first love and all of that, and then you get married and you stay married for 10 years, 15 years, and it's different. It feels different. You wear it differently. It doesn't mean you don't love each other, it just is different.

How do we keep this first love? How do we keep this freshness in our hearts, in our touch with God? Well, I've got a lot of ideas about this and I've been trying to really try and get down on paper practical things to help people keep fresh and avoid burning out.

And yet, there are some times when God seems to be in the center of our life and we don't know that there's anything wrong and we still burn out. And such was the reason that Elijah burned out.

There was nothing wrong with his walk with God. He had not pushed Jesus off to the back of his life. The Lord was in the center of the bush. And that little burning bush was burning and yet it was consumed.

And we see him lying flat on his face under a broom tree saying, "I've had enough, Lord." Have you ever found yourself there? And you say, "That's me, that's me, I'm Elijah, I'm running on empty, flat on my face under a broom tree, and I've had enough, Lord."

In other words, he was a pooped prophet. I think you always get into trouble when you get tired of the Lord's work, not just tired in it. You just get tired of life, not just tired in life. You get tired of the work you're doing, not just tired at the work you're doing.

Then you've got a problem. Then you're going to burn out because there is a freshness of spirit that can be maintained even when there is a tiredness of body, when your body is really in bad shape even, there can be a freshness of spirit and you can avoid burnout.

Because burnout might have a little bit to do with physical problems or physical exhaustion, but only a very little bit. And there is a spiritual freshness that you know as well as I do, people can maintain to the day they die, literally to the day they die.

Elijah got tired of the work. He'd had it being, as he thought and as he put it, the only prophet of the Lord. It's hard when you're the only one, isn't it? That wears you out unless you keep fresh and you keep in touch with God.

If you're really not maintaining your spiritual life and you're the only one at work that really believes in Christian principles—and I don't mean in Christian principles in the loose sense, but you really do know the Lord—and it seems to be you're really on your own.

Things that go on and things that people say, and the conversation, and the gossip and all the rest of it, and you say, is there anyone else around here that believes like I do? And sometimes you can get worn down with that.

And Elijah had felt he was the only prophet of the Lord for a very long time. He wasn't, as God reminds him later in the passage, but it just seemed like that. The prophets, the other prophets were in hiding. He was the only one sticking his neck out with old King Compromise, King Ahab himself.

Announcer: Jill Briscoe today talks about where God is when you experience burnout. Through Elijah's story, are you learning that God is sufficient for your past? What about your future? Jill Briscoe is coming right back to talk about that as she continues with Elijah's story.

Life is full of ups and downs, trials and successes. And in all these seasons, it's important to slow down and consider how each of them strengthens your faith. We want to help you make the most of your experiences by sending you Stuart and Jill's three-message series, A Lifetime of Wisdom.

Filled with colorful stories and personal insight from Stuart and Jill, this series will help you learn through your circumstances. A Lifetime of Wisdom is our thanks for your gift today to help more people experience life in Christ through Telling the Truth.

And as an additional token of our appreciation, we'll also send you a beautiful 8x10 framable art piece featuring Hebrews 10:23 to help you continually remember God's faithfulness in every season of life. So call today to request your copy of the series and the framable artwork when you give to help more people experience life.

1-800-889-5388. That's 1-800-889-5388, or you can give online at tellingthetruth.org. For many, our smartphones have become our social connection. But we want to help you make a spiritual connection with the Telling the Truth mobile app.

You can listen to daily programs, engage in Bible reading plans, journal, and share your thoughts and prayers on the community wall. Get the Telling the Truth app through your App Store or log on to tellingthetruth.org/mobile-app. Here's Jill Briscoe once again.

Jill Briscoe: Now, the problem with Elijah was God had been sufficient in his past, in his yesterdays. If you know the story of Elijah, it's a very, very exciting story. It starts off with him bursting on the scene of history. We don't know where he came from, and he departed in the same dramatic way—or even more dramatic way than he arrived.

God sent a chariot from heaven made of fire. You say, well, that's a bit far-fetched. Take it or leave it, that's what the Bible says. That's how he went to heaven, with people literally watching him.

So he was a pretty dramatic character. I mean, you can't get more dramatic than that, going to heaven in a fiery chariot. And that's how he lived. He was always something to do with fire. If Elijah was around, look out. Fire was going to fall from heaven somehow and you were in trouble if you happened to be around.

He was a tremendously dramatic character. And he bursts on the scene and faces Ahab, who should have known better, but he was busy trying to keep Israel safe from Israel's enemies, and so he'd got married to a heathen woman of a very influential king.

Her name was Jezebel. Jeza-Baal. Taking her name from the god that she served. "I serve Baal." Baal was reputed to be the son of El. Elijah, or Eliyah. Elijah's name said it all. "I belong to El. El is my God." Eliyah, for Jehovah. Jehovah is my God, is my El. El is the name for God, okay?

Jezebel comes along and says, El's got old, Baal's his son. He took over, he's the god of fire, he's the god of rain. Elijah said, "I'll show you who's the god of rain." And he said, "Oh Jehovah, shut up heaven for three years and show this woman and all her prophets and all of Israel who's the god of rain."

And so Jehovah, who is the god of rain—we know that, the one true God—shut up heaven. We're told about this in the New Testament in James, the book of James. Said Elijah was a man just like us. Well, I don't know about that, but Elijah was a man of like passions like you and like me. He was just a man.

The book of James, chapter 5, tells us. And he prayed and God shut up heaven for three years. And then he prayed again and God opened heaven and the rain fell. "And the effective fervent prayer of a righteous man avails much," said James, using Elijah and this incident as an example.

So he had this powerful prayer life and he could pray and God would just say, "I'll do it," and he did it for him. Well, of course, Israel was very impressed, and I'm sure the prophets of Baal were impressed too. And they tried their little bit and they had methods of prayer. They used to cut themselves with knives when their gods didn't answer and all of that.

And there was a lot of the occult in their praying and so weird things did happen and people were hoodwinked into thinking that indeed Baal was the god. But there was one thing Baal couldn't do. He couldn't send down fire from heaven.

And Elijah, knowing this, after he had showed Israel that indeed God was the god of rain, decided to show Israel God was the god of fire. So he called the whole of the country to Mount Carmel and they gathered on the slow slopes of Mount Carmel and they built two altars.

The prophets built theirs, 800 of them, and Elijah all on his own built his. Now there were many people believing in Jehovah, but they didn't come onto his side. They stood there silently, afraid.

And then Elijah got his sacrifice and they got theirs, and they cut it all up and they set it in place. And then Elijah, just to really make an impact because that's what he was like, decided to soak it with water. So they hauled the water all the way up from the bottom of the mountain and soaked Elijah's and put all the water around.

And of course Elijah prayed and the fire fell. Well, I don't know about him being like you and me. Oh, to be able to pray and see such a dramatic intervention of God in people's lives. You know, have you ever seen a marriage breaking up and you've prayed and prayed and prayed about it, oh to see the fire fall in the sense of God putting that marriage back together again?

Have you ever seen a kid going wrong and you've prayed and prayed and prayed, oh to see the fire fall and to see your prayers so effective and so fresh, and to know yourself so much in touch with God that your prayers can make a difference? That was Elijah.

And God had been absolutely sufficient in his past. But he'd also been sufficient in his future. You say, that's a funny thing to say. We know that because we have the whole Bible.

And in Matthew 17, you read about Elijah's future. Jesus took Peter, James, and John up a mountain. And suddenly he was transfigured. His glory that had been cloaked in his humanity shone through.

And the men were amazed. And they realized that this was more than man. They had become so familiar with Jesus of Nazareth, but this was the Christ. This was God in human flesh. And the glory of God shone through just for a moment.

And they saw his glory, as John tells us in his first epistle. We beheld his glory, the glory of the only begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth. Well, it was wonderful. And there were two people with him, Elijah and Moses, remember?

That was Elijah's future. What were they doing? Talking about the cross and the death that Jesus would accomplish very soon.

So here you've got Jesus Christ, if you like, being sufficient in Elijah's past. Bringing down the fire, shutting up heaven, answering his prayers, keeping him safe when Ahab was looking for him to torture him, to reverse the curse and make sure that the rain fell and the crops grew and the cattle could feed.

And then you see him in the future with Jesus Christ being sufficient in his future. Jesus Christ was talking about his cross and his resurrection.

And you and I could say, well, that's true of me too. Christ is sufficient for my past, he's forgiven my sin, I have come to know him as my own savior. Christ will be sufficient in my future when I stand before God. He will say, well, what about my cross? What about my resurrection? I died for them. And he will be my advocate.

Christ will be sufficient. But what about today? Am I lying, are you lying flat on our face under the broom tree? Are we saying, "I've had it, Lord. I am tired of the whole bit. Get me out of here. I'd rather be dead."

Well, if we are, we have a lesson to learn. Just look how the Lord dealt with Elijah. His loving touch. He touched him and he said, "The journey's too great for thee." He was waiting around the corner of the desert. He'd made breakfast for him. Oh, the wonderful breakfasts of God. I wonder what it tasted like? Have you ever wondered that?

Always wonder when you're reading the Bible, ask yourself all these questions. What did it taste like? If God had made me a breakfast, what would it taste like? Well, this one was very special.

And he said, "The journey's too great for thee. Why don't you have a good sleep and we'll talk in the morning," basically, something like that. And you know, that's the first thing God does when we're really at that point of burnout. He assures us that he loves us and he says, "The journey's too great for thee."

Sometimes you lose perspective of God. I know I do when I get this burned out. And I do get this burned out. I lose my perspective of God and I think he's standing over me with a great big stick with "ministry" on it saying, "Get up, minister, minister, minister."

And God isn't like that. He says, "The journey's too great for thee. Why don't you have a good sleep? Put your Bible away." Because what I tend to do is I am totally burned out and so I hit the Bible and I read more and I pray more and I get more and more tired and exhausted.

And what I need is a good sleep. And I need to unwind and I need to stop being so spiritually intense. I just need to go to sleep. I just need to take a walk. I just need to get my head cleared. I just need to take a run or a swim or smell the flowers, ring a friend, have a good laugh, watch a baseball game, whatever.

The journey is too great for thee. God's loving touch comes in all sorts of ways. And maybe it's just a simple meal. We just need to sit down and have breakfast, maybe with a friend. He'll provide the practical means of beginning to renew us if we tell him we've had it, Lord, and admit where we are.

His loving touch in the desert. What he'd done, of course, was isolate. He left his servant. Did you see that? And when you get burned out, you leave people behind you all over the place. And it was probably his servant that could have helped him. His servant had stuck with him all the way.

And Elijah, I think, was an A-type, spiritual A-type personality. I mean, he ran in front of the chariot all the way to Jezreel, and that's an awful long distance. Like a marathon run on top of everything else he did. Why didn't he accept a lift? I'm sure Ahab offered him one. Because he was Elijah, he'd rather run than ride.

Now maybe that's what you're like. You'd rather run than ride. And you grumble about it maybe, but there you are running in front of the chariot, not even behind the chariot, in front of the horses. That's an A-type if anything is. And I think Elijah was an A-type, certainly a spiritual A-type.

And he'd isolated. He'd left his servant behind. He wanted to be alone. It's a very bad thing to do. Don't leave your servant behind. Don't leave your friends behind when you get into a depressed situation like that. You need them. They can help you. They can reach out.

Sometimes it's just guilt that makes us do that. We don't want anyone to know that we're not doing very well, especially if you're a mature Christian and oh, you should be a mature Christian and you don't want anybody to know that you're not a mature Christian because if you're a mature Christian then you wouldn't be in this state.

Announcer: Jill Briscoe on today's Telling the Truth. She's coming right back to answer a couple of questions, including how to avoid burnout. In moments of both trial and success, it's important to slow down long enough to consider how life's experiences add to your faith.

And the truth is, it takes a lifetime to become steeped in wisdom and to live daily in the promises of Christ. Drawing on biblical wisdom and their own experience, Stuart and Jill have created a three-message series called A Lifetime of Wisdom, which we want to send you as thanks for your gift of support today.

Generous friends like you help keep the teaching and resources of Telling the Truth going. So if you've never given before, now is a great time to jump in to help keep God's Word going out around the world through this ministry. And remember to request your copy of A Lifetime of Wisdom when you call and give.

As an additional token of our appreciation, we'll send you a beautiful framable art piece featuring Hebrews 10:23 that will help you remember God's faithfulness. Just call 1-800-889-5388. 1-800-889-5388, or you can give online at tellingthetruth.org. When you visit our website, you can also listen to any broadcast you may have missed or request other resources by Stuart and Jill. That's tellingthetruth.org. Thanks for listening and for your support.