Trending - Week 6 - The CORE - Pastor Mike Novotny
Trending
Week 6 - The CORE
Pastor Mike Novotny
Happy Sunday, everyone. Welcome to week number six of six, as we wrap up this sermon series called “Trending”. Did any of you know, that four out of the five pastors of our church almost didn't make it?
I recently asked some pretty personal questions to our pastoral team and got their permission to share with you and they confessed to me that four out of five of us, 80% of us, almost burned out before making it to today.
Actually wrote down some of the things that the guys sent me. They said things like this quote: “I was working at least 70 plus hours per week. Sometimes a lot more, my wife would drive when we were on “vacation”, so I could work in the passenger seat. Actually became less productive because I was tired, stressed and constantly distracted.”
Another confesses this: “I've come close to burn out several times. I was overly committed. I had unrealistic expectations of church. I was putting in 60 to 70 plus hours a week. My body was getting anxious fatigued. I had high blood pressure. I turned to alcohol to relax. I was apathetic about Sundays and church and God's people. I was not optimistic.”
A third said, my wife and a group of close friends had an intervention. That's actually the reason by God's grace that I'm probably still in the Ministry today.
These pastors were giving and giving and giving, and they were serving and serving and serving, they were loving, and loving and loving, they were working and sweating and working and sweating to care for you. And they weren't taking care of themselves and almost fell apart. Are they’re doing all these things for Jesus, and His name and His people. But if you would have asked them behind the scenes, if you'd have talked to their children or their spouses, they would have admitted, they weren't so much, like Jesus at home. When the tank was empty and they were exhausted and stressed and tired, drinking too much, always distracted. I was thinking of something else to do. How about you? You don't have to be a pastor working here on a Sunday, to know what it's like to push and push, and push, and work and work and work, and never have a second for yourself. Have you been there before? I think the college kid, who's taken like crazy credits and doesn't want to graduate with crazy debt.
So he gets up and he studies, and he studies, and he takes notes, and he studies and he takes a break. So he can go to work and work and work and work. And after work, he's at his homework until he finally crashes and his eyes fall asleep, over his biology textbook. I think some of you who are new at your jobs and you want to make a great first impression. Maybe some of you who just got promoted to that position of leadership and you want to prove that you deserve it. And so, you're the first to the office and you're the last to leave, you're the first person on that thread of copied emails to respond because you don't want to make anyone wait for your response and you work and you work. And in fact, when you finally sit down on the sofa, what happens?
Gone, if you've drooled on the open pages of a book or fallen asleep before that episode of The Office is over there, not that long. You know what, it's like to push. Or maybe you just had a baby and maybe just had a baby, period and you're up early and your late and the sleep schedules upside down and you never have a second for yourself. I do know what its like to push the point of exhaustion. The cheat the hours of sleep and I don’t have much left in the tank.
Or do you know someone who's done that? Maybe someone who's amazing at their job, but you're dating them or you're married to them, or it's your mom or your dad, and you kind of see the dark side of they’re amazing this at work. Where their co-workers love them and their boss loves them, and the clients love them because they're always available and they'll do anything but you see the other side of it, right? And Dad's always on his phone and he never gives you his full attention.
And your wife. Just constantly catching up on old emails, always always busy mind and another spots like a plus over. They may be a D+ when it comes to here being home. Work is a good thing and work as a God thing, but if you're not careful, work can become a really bad thing, destructive thing. And you can serve people and you can love people, you actually do it for the right reasons in Jesus name, but if at the end of the day, you don't have this, right? You end up not being much like Jesus at all. And that's why I think there's this trending phrase in culture today that you've probably heard before the phrase self care.
Quick show of hands. Some of you have heard of that before. Yeah, when I was growing up, I would not have known what self-care was but I definitely do now because every time you open your email or scroll through people are practicing self-care and talking about self-care. In fact, I learned that self-care activities as a Google search increased by 250 percent in recent years. And self-care, if you don't know, is just essentially caring for self. It's a, no, it's all of that and to all of them so that you can say yes to you. It's not working to make them happy. It's resting so that you can be happy. There's thousands of ways to do it, right? I mean, there's the classic at-home spa day that self-care. So scented candles, bath bombs essential oils. Guys, you know, I'm talking about right there for some people. It's like the quietness of a morning meditation.
Just keep breathing time with Jesus prayer. Scripture. For some people. It's escaping the devices, and the deadlines getting out to the woods sitting in a tree stand, sitting in a boat fishing. Nothing to do. For the people, it's time at the gym, time with good friends. Cup of coffee. No schedule, no check in the watch. There's a million different ways to do it. But the essence is the same that just like, if there's problems on the plane, you got to put your oxygen mask on first to love other people. You gotta do that, too.
It's a practice self-care don't, don't think life is a 5K when it's actually a marathon. You got to be smart about this, so you don't burn out and hurt people in the process. And so we preach again, and again, and again. And again, think about you think about you take time for yourself, mental health days, me time. This is a good thing for you, right?
Right. Well, this series, you know, we've been talking about these trending phrases and we've tried to just not give one of these or one of these. We tried to slow down enough to really think deeply about it. What? What are the dangers? What's the nuance? What's the asterisk? What are the terms and conditions to things like science is real or Love Is Love or who am I to judge? And today I want to do the same thing with you and this phrase self-care.
Because if you know anything about the Bible, you know that it's very dangerous to think too much of self.
In fact, an early theologian said that the essence of sin is a person who is turned in on themselves instead of being turned out towards God, honoring Him and people to love them selflessly. They turn in and think about my thoughts, my feelings. How am I doing? What do I want? So isn't it pretty dangerous for us to think about self cared, don't by Nature. We all care about ourselves a little bit too much. And if you're a follower of Jesus, isn't he? The same savior who did not come into this world? To be served, but to serve and to give his life as a ransom for many. You think Jesus ever Googled self-care?
And are any of you seen what I'm seeing these days? I have a bunch of friends who are in like management and leadership positions, small business owners, and they would tell you that they are burning out. Because people don't know how to work.
Right, when it gets stressful, they quit when it's hard. They bail. When you tell them what to do. They bolt that they don't like the law of the farm or you were up before the sun to milk a cow and you came home after school, like that kind of work. Ethic is out the window. And now we're also worried about how we're feeling that. People just don't know how to sweat, how to work. What work looks like in the real world, and businesses are struggling, and the people who do work hard have to work even harder to fill the gap. So, what is the real problem today? Is it that people work too much or they don't work enough?
Well, that's the question I want to answer with you today. I'm gonna grab the Bible. I want to open it. I want to see what does Jesus, and the scriptures have anything to say about this balance between us and them? Does God have any guidance for His children, as we talked about work, and rest, and how to do that in a way. That is holy and good and sustainable. So let's talk about self-care. As we open the Scriptures and listen to the voice of our Heavenly Father.
Let me give you the outline. I'm going to talk about two big things. If you just listen to one and you missed the other, you're going to get this wrong. But if you can hold both of these things, in a Biblical tension, you're gonna be right in that middle spot. Where your Heavenly Father wants you to be. So here's the first thing, grab a pen, write this down. If you have a program, the first thing that God wants you to do is Sweat. Your Father in Heaven wants you to work to the point that it hurts.
Let me prove it to you. What? Back in the beginning of the Bible, you can see how thin the pages are. I'm on the second page of my Bible. Genesis 2, verse 15 for sin comes into the world. This is what the scripture says.
“The Lord God took the man whose name was Adam. If you know the story. And he put Adam in the Garden of Eden to do two things. To work it. And to take care of it.
Not even a paradise. God did not create Adam and Eve the first human beings to just rest and chill, sleep in a hammock between two perfect trees as they have children. You know what Jesus didn't say. Oh, no, the gardens just going to produce fruit and, you know, an angel is going to bring a little thing of grapes to care for you. No, even in Paradise, it says, I'm making you human beings do work and to take care of. And unfortunately, if you know the story. I'll page later, the work then change. But in a way that work really changed. Adam and Eve took the forbidden fruit, sin came into the world and everything got messed up. Their bodies, their schedules, and the difficulty of work is what it says in Genesis 3, verse 19. “God promised Adam by the sweat of your brow, you will eat your food until you return to the ground. Since from it, you were taken for dust you are and to dust you will return.”
But you're still going to work at them. Except this time that ground, which would have been good work to care for. It's going to be much harder. It's going to produce thorns, and there's going to be thistles and by the sweat of your brow, you will eat your daily bread. Essentially, since sin happened work has kind of felt like, work.
Do you believe that at this is quote? It kind of floats around on the internet that I hear every so often. It goes like this. “If you can find a job that you love, you'll never work a day in your life.
And to that, I say, No, no. No, I found a job that I love. I think I could pick another job. Sometimes am I excited about a day off? Yes. I love the church that we serve. I love you as people sometimes. Do I need a break from you? No, not you. But the last church, I was at. Yes. Absolutely. I mean you can find a job that you adore. But sometimes is it exhausting. Does it make you sweat? Does it wear you down. Does it feel like a grind? Is it tough like being in a business? Where there are other people who are different from you? Whose thoughts think differently from you at? There is no job out there, that gets you back to Genesis, where there's no sweat, no thorns, no thistles work.
It feels like work. That's true for Jesus, right? Jesus had the most important work in the world to live for us and died for us and save us. What was that? Work exhausting for him? You know, the story one time, Jesus was working so hard and so long that when he finally got away at the end of his day. He sits down in a boat with his friends. Jesus is out cold. Now, I can imagine just falling asleep in your bed, but in a boat?
And then the Bible says this wicked storm. I mean huge waves, professional fishermen think they're going to die. It's that bad. You know what Jesus is doing, and he wasn't faking it, He was so tired from good work that he slept through a storm. Same thing, happened to the Apostle Paul. Read 2 Corinthians chapter 11. Paul said that he served God with such a passion that sometimes he would go whole nights without even sleeping. His work was stressful and it was hard and I need you to know that too.
They're going to be days of your work and they're going to be seasons of your life. When it's just hard.
And that's not the reason to quit. They're going to be times when your mental health is not great. But if I can say this with compassion, if you quit a job, every time it's stressful or makes you anxious. You'll never be at a job for very long.
If your mindset is “God wants me to be happy” and “God wants me to live at peace.” And “God doesn't want this burden on my shoulders”. You will never be able to hold an actual job in a Genesis 3 world. Because work is work.
Other times when things are dysfunctional, when it's okay to leave, God doesn't come and say “just work one job until the day that you die.” But I need some of you, especially if you're younger to hear this clear word from God. “By the sweat of your brow you will earn your bread.” So, my charge to you today is, don't quit.
You got to learn how to work.
You got to learn how to put in 40 and then 50 and sometimes 60 to 70 hours a week. You need to learn how to get through a long shift without touching your phone because it's that busy. If you haven't experienced a week or maybe a month, where you haven't even seen Netflix, because life is crazy. That's life. There are times in life when God needs you to grind it. He needs you to work if it's not time to rest. It's time to reap the harvest to. So you can't get that season back. And so God says work.
Don't quit. No bail. Don't think about you. No spa days. Get back to work. Don't show up late. Don't bail on your company, be the kind of Christian who's faithful and persevering and hardworking enough, not to leave everyone else hanging. As you think about you.
The fact is if it hasn't come, a time is coming in your life where you will need to have that skill. If your pastor, if it's Christmas, or if it's Easter, we work. We can't get to Good Friday and say “It's been a long week. See you guys on Monday.” You gotta grind it. If you're in accounting and it's like tax season and end of the year, you're going to have to grind it. If you just had a new baby, you're going to have to learn how to work hard. If you're starting a new business, if it's final exams in grad school, like there will be seasons of life where there is no way to do something well unless you know how to work. Here's my challenge for some of you. If you think you're so busy and so stressed, I need you to see if you can pass the eyebrow test.
So your job this week is to find someone who is 50 years old or older. And I want you to explain your schedule to them. Like, how much time are you doing with work or taking care of kids? Or, you know, something that's for other people. And I want you to put in a number of hours on what you're doing and then you're going to watch their eyebrows.
And if I go, “You're working a lot.” And if they go, “That's life”, and maybe you don't know it yet. But if you're going to quit at the end of a hard week. You're always going to be weak.
If you want to run a marathon, you have to learn how to take another step when you're sweating and exhausted at the end of your first run.
If you’re going to be good and strong, like Jesus wants you to, you need to work. You need to sweat and you need to learn that there are busy seasons where God wants you not to think about you. But to think about them.
If any of you noticed the word I used about eight times in the last two minutes.
I essentially use the word. “Seasons”.
If you're watching at home on TV, I live in Wisconsin. Most of us in this church do and in Wisconsin, we have technically four seasons. Winter always feels like the long season and spring is like two days in March, sometimes, but we have these four seasons and we know that seasons don't last forever. Seasons last a couple of months when the next season comes and that's what I'm saying about your business, too. Kinda reminds me of this. Pick up a package of tomato seeds. And if you ever had a garden before you might know in the back, they give directions on how to grow the best produce, how to grow the best tomatoes. It's pretty fascinating, is on the back of this passage. The number one theme the Growers talk about the most, is not how many days it takes to grow a tomato? But instead how much space it takes to grow a tomato. You know on the back here, it said seed spacing so you can't just like, you gotta put one here and then one there and if you want to time it tomatoes, you put the next row, an inch away from it. You actually put it, it says 3 feet away from it, you have space. And then, once they start to grow, it says, when they're just three inches high, you thin them out. So, there's even more space. And you know why that works with tomatoes, right? It's like put a billion seeds in a little patch of soil. There's not going to be enough dirt, moisture, nutrients, sun, water, if you want to grow actual one of these.
You need space. And guess who is a lot, like a tomato? You.
If you think serving, serving, serving, serving, giving, say yes, say yes, say yes,is going to make you a very fruitful Christian, God says no, no, no. I didn't design tomatoes like that, and I did design you like that either. So write this down, the second, big thing that you need to know today is not just to sweat. The answer is to rest.
To clear a space in your schedule. Have timeha tt's not about the company, not about the business, not about the kids, not about the family. The Bible says, there is good Biblical precedent for you, taking care of you. In fact, that's actually on page one of the Bible. Remember what God did in the beginning. He worked, he worked. He worked, he worked, he works. He worked for six days. And on the seventh day, he rested.
And then he did not turn to Adam and Eve and say, but you can't.
No, in his list of top 10 commandments. He said, don't worship false gods, and don't murder, and don't lie to your neighbor and don't steal, but right in the top two or three, he says, oh, and remember the Sabbath. And Sabbath is a Hebrew word that means, Rest. Remember to rest. God commanded.
Pharaoh cracked the whip and told you there was no time for rest are just slaves to him, but not to me. You're my kids and I created you to need space in your hearts and your lives, God commanded every single day. It's not about them. Now. It's time to think about you to recharge your batteries every single week. God did that first people? In fact, if I had more time, I would tell you about the incredible. I'm on a vacation that God gave his people in the Old Testament. Back before there were cell phones and work emails in your pocket, Zoom calls to stay connected. God says, oh and I want all of you to travel down to Jerusalem. Take days, if not a week off, to celebrate the Passover and Festival of Pentecost and the Feast of Tabernacles multiple weeks, God, literally built into their schedule, not to go to work and not to care for their homes, but simply too rest. It can't be wrong if Jesus did it like this quote from Mark chapter 6.
It says then because so many people were coming and going that, the disciples did not even have a chance to rest. Jesus said to them. Come with me by yourselves to a quiet place. And get some rest.
But Jesus, Peter could have rejected. This guy needs our help.
Time to get some rest. But Jesus, is this guy demon possessed and this woman, can't walk. Should we stay and serve? I know about that, too. Let's come to a quiet place. Jesus, there's so much work to do. So many people haven't heard the Gospel. So many people need to be loved, shouldn't we stay and serve them? Yeah, we stayed long enough. The sinless, selfless Savior said, to his friends. Now. It's time to go to a quiet place and get some rest.
Before you could Google it, the Son of God taught it. Self care. It's not selfish. It's not self-centered. It's not egotistical. It comes from the heart of Emanuel himself. Now, I need to say this to some of you. Some of you are actually so caring and you are so selfless that you will say. Yes to a million things, when you shut it. There's this little Pharaoh that lives in some of your hearts. It just says, “You're sitting down! You're lazy like you should get back to work, some of you are sitting next to a person like that. It's like, oh you're already so busy. Why are you saying yes to another thing because you love people and you care about people, I need to say this to you really, really directly. You are not a bad person, if you sit down.
The sofa was not invented by Satan.
God's. Okay, with naps.
In fact, in the beginning, when everything was perfect 1/7 of his people's schedules was just that rest. And it's okay for you to rest, too.
A bunch is good for you for the long term. It's good to make you a lot more like Jesus. You weren't made to be a slave. You weren't made to work forever. So, rest.
Are you curious? How are pastors? Do it?
Four out of the 5 I said almost burnt out until these life-changing moments. While I ask them some really specific questions. Like how much do you work? How much do you sleep? How often do you work out? Do you take a day off? Here's what they said. How much do you work 40 to 50 hours? 50 hours? A week 52 and a half a week. 50, a week and fifty a week. How much do you sleep? Seven and a half a night, six to eight a night, six and a half to seven and a half, a night, seven, a night, eight hours a night.
How much do you work out? 4 to 5 times a week, four to six times a week, five times a week. Five to six times a week and I try to get to the gym once a week around a little bit to do have an intentional day off. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes, and yes. Are you close to burning out right now? No. No. No. No. No.
See, if I don't know how we, as followers of Jesus are trying to Shepherd you. If you want to know the example that we're trying to set, its this.
Work.
Rest.
Serve.
Stop.
You.
Us.
And we believe there's no sin in that, because The Bible offers it commands it and blesses us with it.
But a few of your thinking, but Pastor if I do that, people won't like it.
I mean if I see to my boss, hey, I gotta cut back a little bit if I don't return the email and like, why didn't you respond to that? They're not gonna like me. And if I'm volunteering at church in the neighborhood and I'm the team and so on the candy bars, and being the coach, and I say sorry, this is my last year. They're not going to like that. And if I say to my family, hey, I can't make it to the birthday party. And I know it's the graduation, but that we've just been busy. They're not gonna like me. What am I supposed to do? That's a fair objection.
I don't think the people in our lives want to be like Pharaoh. They just end up like him.
Everyone wants just one thing, just one thing, just one thing, just one thing, and you put it all together and it's slavery by 1001 things. It's very true. That if you say to someone's one thing, sorry, I can't, they might not like it.
Which is why I want to leave you today, with something that Jesus went said.
Jesus said in Matthew chapter 11 is epic words. So come to me. All of you who are weary and burdened and I will give you rest. Rest for your souls.
Jesus. I know it's it is so much work to get everyone to like you. We got to take the picture and filter the picture and post the picture and respond to the nice comments. You look so beautiful and you gotta go to work and serve and serve and serve and serve to make everyone that just burden to after a while. And Jesus says, alright come to me. It's an invitation for all of you all who are weary and burdened and I will give you rest. Do you know what Jesus meant by that? He meant that he would give you the one relationship in the world. That won't be based on a work.
He said I can't make your friends like you. I can't make your family adore you. Here's what I can do. I can do the work. So that you never have to work to get God to like you.
Some of you don't know this, that the really unique gift of the Christian faith is not a command to pray, or to work hard, or to be a decent person. Any religion can offer you that. What Christianity offers is this, that Jesus Christ did all of the work so that God likes us all of the time.
He didn't come down to earth. 2,000 years ago, set up a ladder and said “good luck”. That's a world religion does, not Jesus. Instead, he came down the ladder and he worked so hard that he finished the work for us.
Do you know the story of the night before Jesus dies? It's a Thursday night, and I don't think he sleeps at all. While his friends are crashing in the Garden of Gethsemane. Well, they're dozing off. Jesus is sweating. And it's so intense that His sweat, the Bible says, is like drops of blood. He's working and working and not for a second ihe thinking of himself. Because He was thinking of us. And He worked, and He pushed, and He loved and He forgave, and He did all the work that His Father wanted him to do. He lived this perfect, flawless life. So that in one of His last breath on the cross. Jesus says, “It's finished.”
You want God to like, you? Come to me. It's finished. You want to know that there's a place for you at God's table of a place for you in heaven. The world will say you got to work for that. Fix your karma, be a good person, balance on the scales used to know. Never going to work, but I'll do the work, come to me and I will give you rest. I will give rest for your soul. So even if the people are disappointed that you don't say yes to their one thing at the end of the day, you can go home and say but God's face shining upon me and it's gracious to me. And in Jesus, I have rest.
So, for those of you who work too much, here is my homework for you. You get to do the eyebrow test and you are going to share your schedule. How many hours you're working with a close friend? And then if they go that's like God speaking to you. Time to slow down. Time to rest in Jesus.
Your body needs that. Your blood pressure needs it. Your loved ones are needed. You need it, and Jesus offers it.
So, put all of it together, what he got. You have this. Sweat for Jesus. Rest in Jesus. Repeat. Sweat, rest, repeat. If you can sweat and then rest and then repeat. You'll be living out what the Bible says about self-care.
Before I say, amen, I should tell you four out of our five pastors, almost burnt out, you know, the one who didn't.
Me. And it's not because I'm any wiser, any stronger or any smarter. It's because the wisdom that our other four pastors got later in life, I got early.
I told you some of you this story, but it's the best advice I've ever received. Let me share it again. I was in my last year of seminary. I'm about to graduate, about to start my career wanting people to like me, to be a good pastor and my pastor said to me, “Mike when you get to your very first church, you need to ask the people there. How many hours you should work?” And I said, no. I guess what are they gonna think if I show up with the first day? Hey, what's the minimum amount of time I got to work around here?” Oh, yeah, they're gonna love that guy. This pressure is just like Jesus. He said, no, you have to. And so, he explained his reasons. I went to my very first church leadership meeting and I asked, I said this, like, “I don't want to burn out. I don't want you all to love me and my wife then to be frustrated with me because I'm never there. I don't want the church members to adore me and my girls to hate the church because it's taking their father from them. Don't be really great at this for three to five years and then have some moral catastrophic failure, because I'm coping with my stress and my business. I want to love God. I want to love my family. I want to love this church. I'm going to do it for a long time. So what do you guys think how much could you work? And on that life-changing evening in some little classroom of some Lutheran Church we went out on the table. They all named a number. We took the average. And the number changed my life. I've been at Church conferences at mega churches where guilty men who are burning out bow down on their faces, and I've looked around and said, “Thank you, God.”
Because someone taught me to work. And then to rest. The sweat. And then to wear sweatpants. Someone told me to push and then to pull back. And I can tell you today, with an honest heart. I feel so good about my connection to God, but my connection to my wife, about being a father to my kids and a pastor to you.
Let me pass on the best advice I've ever received. Sweat. Rest. Repeat.
Let's pray.
God, so easy for us to pick one or the other. To work so hard that we become workaholics and idolize the approval of people. So easy to think about ourselves and our own mental state and how we feel that we leave people disappointed and hanging.
So we need you, God, to help us not to be too selfish and not to be too selfless. But to be honest that we are not the Creator, we are created beings who have limits and limitations. So God, give us the wisdom that we need today. Help us to be humble enough to reach out to others, to get their reaction, and not to dismiss it. But instead to hear you speaking through the experiences and lives of your people, one of the things Jesus. We thank you for the gift of rest that we have spiritually and eternally because of your work.
Chart the path and make us follow you and said you did everything. So that salvation would be our gift. A seat at the table would just be a free gift from you. We're so grateful for grace. It takes the burden and the pressure off, and let us know. At the end of every day, whether we did it right or we fell in our face that there is God smiling upon us and he was so gracious to us. So please help us as we move forward. God, we want to love you, not just today, but in all the days to come until we see you face to face. So bless us with sweats and rest. As we repeat, repeat the song Jesus name and all of His people said, Amen.
