The Burned Out Christian Series

The Burned-Out Christian

If you have your Bible, please open it to 2 Timothy 1. Three boys at school were bragging about their fathers. The first boy says, “My Dad scribbles a few words on a piece of paper, he then calls it a poem, they give him $50.00.” The second boy says, “That’s nothing, My Dad scribbles a few words on a piece of paper, he calls it a song, they give him $100.00.” The third boy says, “I got you both beat. My Dad scribbles a few words on a piece of paper, he calls it a sermon, and it takes eight people to collect all the money!”

Today marks the end of the 4-part series of The State of Many Christians Today. We have had The Unsaved Christian, The Dead Christian, The Lazy Christian and today, we have The Burned Out Christian. I believe that many Christians today are either burned out or, have been burned out before. A man by the name of Bill Gaultiere said this about Spiritual Burnout:

“The real culprit to burnout is when working for God crowds out personal intimacy with God.”

Burnout comes when you become more focused on working for God than your relationship with God. It is something that most of us make the mistake of doing at some point in our lifetime. Working for God is important. We all need to be working for God, but working for God should never take the place of our relationship with God. Let us look at 2 Timothy Chapter 1 starting in verse 1.

READ 2 TIMOTHY 1:1-8

Here, Paul starts off lifting up the young Pastor Timothy. Paul says that he longs to see Timothy and that Paul prays for him daily. He even acknowledges Timothy for how great his faith is. Paul then encourages Timothy. Look back at verse 6.

“For this reason, I remind you to fan into the flame the gift of God...”

Paul encourages Timothy to fan his flame for God. I am here today to encourage you to fan your flame for God. A spiritual burnout happens when that flame has gone out. When you are no longer on fire for God. I believe a lot of times that a spiritual burnout is unintentional. If often comes when we unintentionally neglect our relationship with God. Here, Paul encourages Timothy to fan his flame and to endure. He encourages him to not let that flame go out. So, the question is, how can I tell if I am spiritually burned out or not? Here are 3 signs that you are spiritually burned out:

1. Your Passion Fades

One of the biggest signs that you are burned out is that you no longer have that passion you once had. No longer do you enjoy or look forward to doing the work for the Lord, but rather you now dread it and maybe even despise the thing you are doing. No longer do you look forward to gathering with the Body of Christ, but now you are dreading going because you know that you will have to do something. Listen folks, most Christians face that at some point in their life especially here in America. A lot of times we tend to focus more on doing our jobs and fulfilling our roles within the church than we focus on worship and connecting with God. We tend to get caught up in doing church that we forget to be the church. Folks, do not get me wrong, doing things within the church is important. Serving within the church is important and I believe we are called and told to do it, but serving should never come before your relationship with God. That leads to burn out. This is the biggest sign of a spiritual burn out. Your passion fades away and you no longer love or look forward to doing what you once did.

2. Sleep and Time Off No Longer Refuel You

No longer are you refreshed or refueled from a good night's sleep or some time off from work or your everyday work activities. Instead, now you are always tired despite getting sleep and despite having time off. A spiritual burn out drains you. It drains your energy, and it drains your desire to do something even if you once loved to do it. This is another big sign of burn out. This often leads to you just going through the motions. Just trying to survive the day. This also leads many Christians to either stop serving or stop serving with their whole heart and often leads to them leaving the church. You have that feeling like you could sleep for a month straight and be just fine with it. You feel like you are running on empty. That is what a spiritual burnout can do to you. Instead of running off of God`s will and power, you unintentionally run off of your own power and it leads to you being exhausted. It will have you longing for a break from everything until you just want to quit and give in. A spiritual burnout leads you to be exhausted and on the verge of quitting.