When I sat down in my office on Wednesday to write this message I found it very ironic that I was planning to preach on how to battle exhaustion in our lives while at the same time I was going through a very exhausting week. So, basically this message has come at just the right time. This week has been tiring and rewarding at the same time. As most of you know we took on our own Extreme Home Makeover WWC style for the Brandwein family. I am excited that we will be revealing the home to the family this afternoon. It has been a crazy, stress filled and exhausting week. Not just for me but for all our volunteers who put in a lot of hours helping on this project in addition to working their full time jobs and taking care of their families.
A project like this always starts out with a lot of energy but by the middle and definitely towards the end you really have to lift each other up and push each other to reach the end. It’s not because people lose desire, they are just tired. I have to say that I have never been more proud of this church. I have never been more proud of a group of people who were so willing to step up and help a family in need. You showed grace and mercy to a family that many of you don’t know. You worked together as brothers and sisters in Christ. You encouraged each other, built new friendships and grew in faith. It was really powerful to watch.
I think though the person I am most proud of is my wife. Taylor took on the role of project manager and I was just thoroughly impressed with her organization, determination, leadership, humility and sense of humor. I greatly appreciate all the men and women who were willing to take direction from her. Especially our men who know way more than she does. You do this stuff for a living and could have come across as arrogant and proud, but you were humble and took direction from my wife and for that I thank you and I have the utmost respect for you guys. I’ve been taking direction from her for years so I was happy to see I’m not the only one who cowers under her iron fist. For those of you who were unable to be a part of this project my plan is to prepare a video to be shown in church next week. We’ll also post it on the website and on my blog. We want everyone to see just how awesome the people of WWC are.
Now I don’t say all of that without a purpose. What was accomplished last week was really amazing, but it was also exhausting. It was rewarding and at times discouraging, fun and frustrating. People filled with hope and a happiness and eagerness to help and also at times a spirit of doubt, “Will this family really appreciate this? Will they keep it clean?” “Is it really worth putting money into this home?” To which I would say are not wrong questions if they aren’t asked with the wrong attitude. If that makes sense. And of course those questions are often asked when we are exhausted not because we don’t love and trust someone but because we want to know that our work is not in vain.
Those questions of doubt and wonder often come up when we are exhausted. “Does my husband appreciate all I do?” Do my kids appreciate all I do for them?” “Does my boss appreciate all I do?” “Is this work worth it?” “Is being tired, worn out, frustrated, discouraged worth it?” To which I would say yes, if you were doing it for the right reasons. If you’re doing it for you and your own glory, pat on the back or a nice plaque on the wall then no it’s not worth it, it’s fleeting, temporal. If you’re doing it to love God, love people and serve the world then yes, it is worth it.
The fact of the matter is we live in a world where exhaustion is unavoidable. We are trapped in physical, limited bodies that get tired and in order for us to keep pushing forward, battle through our exhaustion we need a purpose to it all. We need to know that there is something out there that we will ultimately reach or there is some meaning behind what we are doing. We need to know that our faith and works will not be in vain but that it has purpose and meaning. I would submit to you this morning that for the Christian in here Jesus is our purpose and Heaven is our ultimate reward. We battle through exhaustion in this life for this reason: to please Jesus, live for Jesus, suffer for Jesus, serve for Jesus, to love others for Jesus. We give countless hours to a project for another family because we love Jesus and even though we are tired, worn out, exhausted and can barely stand we swing the hammer one more time, and we paint one last brush stroke, we serve that last person even though we just served 100, we share Christ with this person even though we just shared with that person, or we continue to love and respect our spouse even though they don’t reciprocate or we continue to work hard at our jobs and give 100% everyday even though our boss doesn’t seem notice because we love Jesus and want all people to know His love as well.
We battle through exhaustion to keep being the best spouse we can be and the best parent we can be and the best employee we can be for Jesus. We work hard for him. He is our purpose. Christ Jesus saved us. He justified us by his death on the cross. Justification is a theological term, which means we are declared righteous by God, granted full pardon of all sin, delivered from guilt, completely released from the penalty of sins committed. We can be justified because of Christ by faith alone, not by works. Christ then becomes our purpose. His death declares us righteous and living for Jesus, becoming more like Jesus, serving for Jesus is now our passion and desire it is our hearts cry. And in the end we reach the ultimate reward, which is heaven or in other words our glorification. The middle part between justification and glorification is our sanctification. Sanctification is exhausting. It’s exhausting because as you walk with Christ you will realize something. The closer you get to Jesus the more messed up you realize you are. When one sin is conquered in your life another sin takes its place. When one attitude is overcome another takes its place. When one challenge is overcome another takes its place. Sanctification is exhausting. Learning to be like Jesus and love like Jesus and serve like Jesus can be very tiring.
I don’t make it sound like it’s much fun but really I just want us to have an honest conversation with you this morning. It’s not always easy. But there is no other life I would want than the one God has given me. Although this life, the pursuit of holiness and being like Jesus can at times be exhausting and definitely discouraging not because of God but because I can’t get out of my own way I would want nothing else. I am saved. We are saved from sin, saved from hell. Jesus gives us the strength we need to keep pushing forward in a world full of sin and hate, evil, anger, greed, jealousy. He gives me other Christians to help push me forward. He gives me the church to help push me forward, he gives me his Word to push me forward, He listens as I cry out to him to help push me forward, he convicts me of my sin to help push me forward, he puts people in my path to love as Jesus would love to push me forward. To be more like Christ and to reach heaven. It is a rewarding life. Not a perfect life, but definitely rewarding. To know that the work I do here brings glory to God and will change someone for eternity is rewarding. It makes all the exhaustion worth it.
Now I have given you a lot without opening the bible. I want to transition once again into Paul and his time in prison. Paul addresses all that I have brought up to you already this morning. Pushing forward, working together, loving others, doing it all for Jesus. Paul gives us some keys to battling spiritual exhaustion in our own lives. 3:12-13- Paul admits something that is very encouraging to me. He is not perfect. He says, “I have not achieved perfection.” Here is a guy that by looking at his resume you would say would be the closest example outside of Christ of a perfect human. Remember last week we listed his resume. Circumcised on the 8th day, pure blooded citizen of Israel, tribe of Benjamin, Hebrew of Hebrews, member of the Pharisees, zealous for God to the point of murder and obeyed the law without fault. Before he was a Christian he was seen as blameless based on his works then after he became a Christian we could be tempted to almost declare him blameless by his faith. The man wrote most of the New Testament; he was beaten, shipwrecked, stoned, cursed, whipped, all for his faith. He planted churches, raised up leaders, led thousands to faith in Christ and dealt with tremendous exhaustion. But he says after being a Christian for 30 years, “I have not reached perfection but I press on to attain it.”
That is very encouraging to me because we could look at a man like Paul and feel very discouraged because we can’t measure up. Here is what Paul is saying by his words and by his life: Christianity is an ongoing life long learning process. Perfection is not something anyone will ever reach but it is something we should strive to attain. We can never be perfect in practice but we can be perfect in intention. People get Wesleyan views of perfection skewed a lot because they think John Wesley preached that a Christian could be perfect while on this earth. John Wesley never said such a thing nor do we believe such a thing. Jesus was the only perfect person. What we believe is that in the process of our sanctification God is doing a work in us where we now, by the power of the Holy Spirit in us, have the ability to not sin. It now becomes a conscious choice to sin or not sin. If it were not possible to never sin then how much power could the Holy Spirit really have? We will sin because we are human, we will never reach perfection on earth because we are human and we will always need repentance because we are human but that should not stop us from trying to attain perfection on earth. The work of God sanctifying us does just that. It moves us further from sin and closer to Jesus.
Even though Paul has been a Christian for 30 years there is still more for him to learn. We will never stop growing and learning in this life. God is always working in us to mold us into what he wants us to be. “I have not achieved perfection.” I’m still growing, still learning, still repenting, still changing, still becoming more like Jesus. Verse 13-17. Paul says, “Here is what I’ve learned, forget the past, look forward to what lies ahead.” I am always blown away by people’s past. I love listening to testimonies of where people came from and how God brought them to this point. For some their past is now just part of an exciting testimony of redemption. For others their past continues to cripple them and keep them from looking forward to what lies ahead. People struggle with their past. Even after a person becomes a Christian there is a great internal struggle in them about whether or not God could really forgive them for what they did in their past. You can never forget your past but if you have not forgiven yourself or choose to avoid it and not talk about it then you also never look to what lies ahead as Paul says. The difference between a person who has truly repented of their past sins and a person who hasn’t is the person that has truly repented can talk about it. If you go to someone who claims Christ but refuses to discuss who they were or what Christ did for them and how he saved them then chances are they haven’t truly repented of their past.
They haven’t let go of their past. They haven’t experienced the grace of God and freedom he provides us when we are saved from our past sins. You might be embarrassed about who you were or what you did but a truly repentant person who has let go of their past is one who will talk about it and in the same breath talk about how Christ saved them. I have taken some heat at times both here and in other places where I have spoken about how open I have been about my 10-year pornography addiction. I have not been ashamed or embarrassed to discuss it. I have used it as an example of how Christ saves even the greatest of sinners. That testimony has been used to help teenagers and adults alike be more open about their struggle with pornography and begin to get help with their addiction. I don’t apologize for being open about it. I am willing to talk about it not because I want to brag but because I want people to relate. I want them to see firsthand how God saves people. I want them to know there is hope. And I talk about it because it reminds me of what Christ saved me from. I have forgotten the past in the sense that I no longer struggle with that sin anymore. Temptation is always there. If I wasn’t tempted then I wouldn’t be human or a man but I no longer act on that temptation. I now look forward to what lies ahead and what God has in store for me. I have moved on and am ready to take on the next challenge in my sanctification process so I can continue to be more like Jesus. (Men’s bfast) If you are someone who, when your past comes up is like, “Nope, don’t want to talk about it!” Then you probably haven’t repented of it, or you haven’t forgiven yourself or your spouse or someone you are close to that hurt you. I would say to you get some help. Go to a biblical counselor or an impact group or a spiritually mature Christian who can pull out the bible and help you overcome what was so you can finally start looking forward to what lies ahead.
Forgetting the past and looking forward to what lies ahead is the 2nd point in overcoming spiritual exhaustion. The first was for us to realize we aren’t perfect and we will never be perfect. We aren’t Jesus and can never be Jesus. Paul is the example of someone who was a great spiritual man yet still sinned, still had a lot to learn still had much to overcome. That should be a relief to us who feel like we are failures when we sin. Forgetting the past and looking forward to the future is the second way to overcome spiritual exhaustion because when we repent of our past and know God has forgiven us then we will not be gripped with guilt, or a continual doubt of our salvation but instead we can look forward to what lies ahead with great joy knowing our past is redeemed and our future is secure in Jesus Christ. That, my friends, is incredibly freeing. To know I am forgiven, God is doing a continual sanctifying work in me to make me more like him in order to survive the evil of this world, resist the temptation of sin in my life and be used to build His Kingdom. Paul says in verse 15 it is the spiritually mature who are able to do this. Let me define spiritual maturity for you: “Maturity is humility that wants to be like Jesus.” It is the spiritually mature who humble themselves and recognize their sin and need for a savior. It is the spiritually mature who openly admit they are not perfect and need to seek forgiveness as well as forgive others.
I have a gut feeling that no one in this room would say they are perfect. But there are people here who try to act like they are. Even the spiritually immature will admit they aren’t perfect but they act like they are. What do I mean by this? People who act like they are perfect are the ones who get defensive when someone holds them accountable. They deny their struggle with a sin, they get angry with the person and say, “You can’t judge me.” Or, probably the most famous and widely used tactic is they blame someone else for their sins. Their dad beat them so now they are justified in being a jerk to everyone. Their parents didn’t love them so it justifies their sex addiction or drug addiction. They try to cast blame on someone else and they get angry when someone tries to hold them accountable. They are like a person who says, “I got angry and cussed because you made me get angry and cuss; its your fault.” “Oh, really I grabbed your cheeks and moved your lips to form those words and have those feelings?”
They won’t say they are perfect but they act like they are. It’s always someone else’s fault. (Youth Ministry- parents blame me for their kids choices) The spiritually mature person will recognize their own sin, take responsibility for it and repent of it. Then they look to God for help in overcoming that sin and moving past it so they no longer fall prey to it. That is sanctification in the spiritually mature. The mature believer is the humble person who wants to be like Jesus. They don’t get defensive, don’t argue, don’t throw out the don’t judge me line. When someone confronts them they take time to pray and check their spirit. When they realize they are wrong they apologize. When they hurt someone they ask for forgiveness. They not only are willing to take accountability that may be hard to hear, they purposefully seek it out. Because they want to change, they want to love, they want to serve and imitate Jesus. That is a person being sanctified. Never perfect in practice but perfect in intention. Verse 17- Paul gives us some great advice in helping us overcome exhaustion. First, realize you aren’t perfect. 2nd forget what is behind and look to what lies ahead and 3rd, get some help. To read this verse and not understand the context of it would do a great disservice to Paul’s character. It seems at first glance that Paul is coming across as an arrogant person claiming that he is the example we should follow. Paul is not saying we should be like him because he has the whole being a Christian down perfectly. Paul is saying that we should follow his example in that he is a Christian who recognizes he is not perfect and is always learning, still repenting, still growing, still seeking Christ, still being sanctified. Follow his example of humility. A man who wrote most of the New Testament yet after 30 years of being a Christian still felt he had much to learn and overcome in his life.
He also says we are to learn from others who follow the apostles example of spiritual maturity. Remember maturity is humility that wants to be like Jesus. When there is gossip to share we run to our closest friends or we send out an email or we blog about it. In the same way when you or I are going through spiritual exhaustion we must run to those who are spiritually mature for prayer, guidance, energy, renewal. We must run to those who can give us that red bull shot of energy either by a word of encouragement, prayer, kick in the pants whatever it takes. The body of Christ comes together to help others fight through exhaustion. When one part of the body suffers we all suffer. If we’re not in this together then we aren’t in this at all. That is the beauty of the church. Many people, one vision. Love God, love people, serve the world. We need to push each other. We need to use each other for encouragement and strength to keep moving forward. Forget what is behind and look to what lies ahead. You have to be able to admit you aren’t perfect and let the church help you overcome, repent and move forward.
Unfortunately not everyone in the church is of this same mindset. Verse 18-19. The enemy of the cross is those who are spiritual and religious yet do not truly know Christ. Where the spiritually mature’s life is all about Jesus. The enemy of the cross is the one who says, “Why do you have to talk about Jesus all the time? Loosen up.” They are enticed by sin, pleasure, power, and position. Their appetites are their bellies. The things of the world, money, food, jobs, vacations. They don’t repent of their sin. They won’t admit they are perfect but they don’t see their sin either. They are the ones who get defensive, angry, cry out to quit judging. They give the least to the church in time or finances yet want the most say. They look to functional saviors in drugs and alcohol. These enemies of the cross bring Paul to tears because they won’t change, they won’t repent, they won’t look to Christ for salvation. They are just religious, spiritual or like attending church because it makes them feel like they did their duty. The real Christian changes, repents, looks to the cross and is headed to heaven. The non Christian rebels, won’t recognize their sin and is headed to damnation and separation from Christ forever in hell. Some of you live this lifestyle. You don’t recognize it because you are blinded by your own sin and arrogance. I have cried in prayer for some of you who I know right now live this lifestyle. I would ask you to examine your life and repent seek forgiveness from God and believe in Jesus. Let him control your life.
Paul closes this passage by speaking again to the Christian believer. Verse 20-4:1. The Christian doesn’t look to earthly things as their gods, they look to heaven. They always look to what lies ahead because they know there is something with eternal value waiting for them. The Christian puts Jesus first in everything. This world is not our home. We eagerly await the return of our savior and while we wait we spend every waking moment fighting against the sin and evil of this world, the exhaustion and stress and we keep moving forward. Not alone but side by side with other believers who are continually holding each other up and encouraging one another. One day God will take these weak, mortal bodies which are susceptible to fatigue and exhaustion and he will transform them into a new glorified body. But until then God continues to do a sanctifying work in you. Continues to mold you to be like him, to overcome the temptations of the world and to build up the Kingdom of God for His glory. The question is are you letting God do that work in you or are you living in fear of the change he wants to make?
Do you know your exhausted but just won’t tell anyone? Are you wanting to reach out for help but are afraid of what others think. Jesus says in Matthew 11:28, “Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest.”
Communion
