Pastor Wayne Cordeiro - Dead Leader Running

from its humble beginnings in 1995 New Hope Christian Fellowship is now one of the world's fastest growing churches with over 10,000 people attending over a weekend there's a joy there's a blessing there's a richness in the word there's fellowship there's friendship my first impression was like I like this church you know this is lunch a church that I can call home new hope puts a special emphasis on community outreach and enrichment in an effort to make a difference we want to help transform but more than anything with everything that we do whether it's cleaning or painting we want to be sure that we touch on in life New Hope is also known for its award-winning multimedia and arts presentations and cutting edge technology you have to talk to the people that are that are coming you have to talk to the people that are out there in the community how do you talk to them how do you communicate with them you have to speak their language new hope is made a made a real effort to try to speak the language of the community that's multi my heart is always touched by the people as I look out over the church I don't see big building or I don't see lots of activities I see individuals people's hearts Oh change the people's hearts that have been touched big people that are growing in Christ has God never ever told me to build a big church he said build big people as I look around I say that God is doing exactly you well it's a joy to be with you because I think what we're going to talk about was is going to affect every single one of us because every single one of you I see as black belts in the kingdom of God that's why you're here you're here because you hold the DNA of tomorrow's church you're here because you're the shapers of tomorrow's church because you see if you think about it you as leaders tomorrow's church will become what you are today you know why because you will teach what you know but ultimately we're going to reproduce what we are isn't that right you will reproduce what you are so if I want tomorrow's church to be filled with men and women who are leaders and devoted to Christ then what must I be if I want tomorrow's church leaders to have good marriages and healthy balanced lives what must mine be because we can teach all kinds of nice theories and concepts and we can add all kinds of great ideas to the fire but I tell you in the end we're going to reproduce what we are so the greatest thing you can do and one of the reasons this session is here is because we've got to make sure that our inside guts all the way to the core there's a genuine integrity because you're going to reproduce you that's what tomorrow's church is going to be and today we want to take a look at that how're we going to do that we've got to make sure that what we've got is into the fabric of our life and it's genuine that's the legacy that you're going to leave not from here it's going to be from here who you are it's what bleeds out of your toes not come what comes out of your mouth you know I was thinking about this event that took place in my life about two years ago and how it changed my life and I thought we've got to get we've got to gather some principles out of that and I want to I want you to catch these principles that because it's going to happen to every single one of us and I just wish in this session I can just give each of you a pill in some way that'll take all the storms away so that you'll avoid all the pitfalls of leadership but I can't and I won't do that every single one of us will go through these walls it with different measure of an density on each but every single one of us are going to go through those walls and there's going to be great lessons that'll be learned out of it so I can't take that away but I can encourage you to look for God's presence because he's going to be there to walk you through and you'll come through better and not bitter some time ago you know we're homeless Church so we rent all kinds of places and and some time ago that the school that we're in gave us about a two months notice that we could meet there one weekend so we're scrambling so we have to rent tents and we go out to a park and we set up these huge tents and we have three service about four thousand each and and and we have to set up sound system and trusses and so it's very spending just for the trusses and lights twenty three thousand dollars for the lights 22 for the trusses so just that so it's a huge expense now we're risking the weather even though Hawaii is always beautiful there is some rain and so I'm saying Lord we're going to have to have this service out in the park god you if you do anything for me just don't let it rain because if it rains it ruins our speakers we got to tarp everything and and half of the people are out in the open god please so we're praying all week long that weekend service comes we have a one Saturday night service to Sunday because that's at the park we haven't changed a service schedule and Saturday night I'm praying oh god don't let it rain and the clouds are forming and it starts to drizzle some of the dances have to be canceled because it's too slippery on the platform it's in the open air Oh God I said you got that night I went home to the Lord tomorrow is to services Lord man if you've done anything for me just to this one just don't let it rain you know how much I've done for you and the kingdom so God come on you've got meet me halfway just meet me halfway just don't let it rain well the next morning I get up and it's pouring and I'm thinking oh no and so I get in my car and just I'm gonna try this confession thing you know I believe it's not raining I just believe I glory to God and I'm dry and I don't even turn my windshield wipers on for faith it's not raining Aiko's there and as foreign people are huddled under umbrellas half of the amount of people are there and that the band starts up you know and I'm afraid because they're in the rain playing and you can just see what a gentle smoke coming and I'm so God so I'm out there in the rain I'm praying I'm lifting my hands and I'm complaining oh come on you told me you'd be true and then I and I'm crying and people are looking at me thinking look at our pastor he's just worshiping God and I was just steaming mad and I was walking around saying God good night I spent so many years just one morning one morning you could have done this just one keep the rain away God and I was just upset and just I don't know if you've ever had God just parked the clouds and speak to you but the Lord spoke to me right there and I've never forgotten he said Wayne you're more concerned about the absence of rain then you are the presence of God you've never asked me once for my presence to be in attendance today you just want there to be no rain and what if I took away the rain but you never had my presence in your ministry would that make you happy it exploded in my life the shrapnel of that is still with me today I I would never want to take away the storms out of your life but I do pray that through this morning this the session today that you will catch some of the principles of God and put it into your life I've been going for 22 years as a senior pastor I was flying at Mach 4 and one of the things about being an entrepreneurial kind of person is that by default everything you start you're now the leader of it you start a church you're the pastor he started a Bible College you're the president you start a church planning organization you're the director you start whatever you are the you're the cheese and so by default I'm running all of these different departments and and I was just frying I didn't know what was happening this load was coming upon me more and more and more but you know in those days you think you're invincible you know in those days I could break both legs in the morning and I keel by noon I'd be playing basketball yeah when you think you're invincible like before I could eat anything and not gain any weight now I just chew on an idea and I gain five pounds so that right so when everything is going full blast all of a sudden things in me start to slow down and I don't catch this dichotomy until it's too late there were some symptoms there was some joy that was leaking I mean ministry wasn't fun anymore it was a task and people were not the reason for my ministry people became a problem to be avoided and I would start just kind of shying away from phone calls and decisions that used to be easy now came hard I used to be able to make them so quickly but now I deliberated until I was polarized and then paralyzed my creativity started to flag and I would rather duplicate rather than incarnate I find out what you're doing just duplicated but I wasn't hearing God anymore for fresh manna for fresh stuff and the fear started to come in and when people would bring a problem into my office Wayne we've got parking problems Wayne we got this in my mind they were saying you're doing enough work harder and I began to avoid problems and what I didn't know was that there was a meltdown that was starting on the inside I started thinking about retiring at that time I was 52 and I was thinking do I have enough money to retire can I just retire can I do something different and it became to became something that almost overwhelmed my thinking what I didn't know was on the inside a meltdown had started another problem the problem is you you're all high capacity leaders here and and you know you catch a vision but after a while you can't get out of the vision it's almost like the vision imprisons you and I can't stop I got all of these things all of these things going and I can't stop and I was frying on the inside and I didn't know it then the physical symptom started the physical symptoms began where I had a hard time breathing I thought it was asthma I went to the doctor and got these inhalers and then my heart began to get a little erratic and my eyes started twitching like you know clouseau and a Pink Panther and I I couldn't stop it I thought what is going on but it all came to a head when I was speaking in a conference in California I didn't know what was going on but there was there was a meltdown on the inside but you know you just keep going because you can't stop everyone's expecting you to continue to you're strong invincible and I was out for a run and I don't know where along the run I can't even recall this in my memory but I found myself sitting on the curb and I just found myself crying I was crying and I couldn't stop my crying and I was sobbing and I looked at myself like this I thought what in the world is going on it was like I was looking at myself and what is happening to me this can't be happening and I began to weep and weep and weep you see what I was empty on the inside I was I was a dead leader running when I got back home I sat with a doctor a psychiatrist and I said what in the world is happening to me and as I parlayed the scenario out to him he said you know Wayne your serotonin levels are completely depleted and I said Sara who can you get her back on the job he said no not-not-not serotonin it's like an endorphin and if you continue to go and you don't replenish your system you what happen as you deplete it and then you substitute it with adrenaline when that happens that which began your ministry the fuel is not going to destroy it unless you switch it back and you've been going on adrenaline as a substitute for your serotonin for far too long and you've got to recharge that serotonin level you see one of the problems we have people is that we don't forget that we're pastors we forget that we're human and he said you've got it you've got to charge that back up and I said well how do I get that that charge back up I said can you just hook me up give me a pill he said no it doesn't it you don't charge this overnight it's sort of like a trickle charges it takes a while you're gonna need six months or more to just lay still and get some rest I said six months no way I'd go stir-crazy he said no you got a take I said I can maybe take six to eight weeks but that's it he said you've got to do something because you're frying your circuits right now and if you don't handle this season right he said you will never return to the original capacity or productivity that you had before you see suffering will change you but not always for the better you have to choose that see first Peter 4:19 says this it says let also those who suffer according to the will of God and trust their souls to a faithful creator in doing what is right do you hear that let those who suffer according to the will of God did you know that there's a way to suffer that's according to the will of God and there's a way that we can suffer that's not according to the will of God one will destroy you the other one will reform you and refashion you and he was saying if you don't handle this correctly you will lose much of that capacity and then he said something that was that just got me thinking said Wayne often the road to what you perceive as success the road to success in the road to a nervous breakdown are sometimes the very same Road and I got to thinking about that and so I said well what do I do because I want to I want to make sure that that I'm doing this right I'm going through this time but it's going to refashion me and so over the next season I would spend some time switching price tags around in my life because what I measured as valuable wasn't as valuable as this and this needs to go here and that needs to go there it will be a time where I need to change all of the set points of my life that which I thought was right I have to reevaluate and the very core of my being would have to be changed and sometimes God does that you see he has he has to do this sometimes the only way radical change happens is through radical pain you say well why does God do that you know because we're too hardheaded we don't listen he sits like an airplane say you're flying at 32,000 feet you're just cruising along everything is fine but all of a sudden there's engine failure and something sputters and you begin to take a nosedive towards terra firma and you're pulling back on that wheel and you're praying oh god help me now and this plane is going towards the earth and just as you start to come towards the trees and it's just scraping the belly of your plane you're just pulling back as hard as you can and the g-forces are pulling on you and you're holding back god you're yelling you know right then you become really open to God isn't that right now the reason God pulls you down so close sometimes to death is because at that moment when you're on the gurney going in or you're at some physical breakdown or marital struggle or something as frying your heart is really open to God you know what God does he takes that opportune moment and he begins to deposit in you lifelong lessons that you are receptive to and you wouldn't have been before that but you're in this state of being where he can now put into you deposit into you lifelong lessons that'll stay with you the rest of your life and you're open to and you're willing to make whatever change is necessary and then God begins to to charge your engines again you start to pull back up and when you do this is what God's gonna say to you now Wayne I'm gonna bring you back up to 32,000 feet you'll be all right but listen when I get you up there don't forget the lessons you learned when your belly was screened that's why God has to do this I can't take that away from you and you don't want to take be taken away from you I was going through a time where I thought I was having a heart attack I went through every test there can be for my heart and went through cardio cardiac specialists and we did all these different tests and the fact I was driving down the road my left arm started going numb I couldn't breathe I couldn't clear my lungs I called the doctor so I think I'm having a heart attack and he said well does this happen you're short of breath when you're sleeping I said no just times like this they said Wayne you're having an anxiety attack I said for what he said I don't know he said but but you're having an anxiety attack and I knew I had to do something so with this doctor he said you know I can put you on medication to let you down because you got to get your serotonin level up and your adrenalin down and sometimes if you just take that adrenaline away and you don't do anything it's like coming off of heroin you're going to go through some withdrawals I said I just I got to do it I don't have I'm a year to do it so he said then you better get some rest so here's my story so you know what I did I actually checked myself into a monastery it's one of those no talking monasteries honest and I said I'm just going to go for a week and I need to just I need to get my life together so I went and even these things it's like no talking no internet no cell phone coverage because it's way up in the boonies and there's no coffee it was like hell you think about that it's like I go in to look for my cabin you know it's up in the woods and they don't even talk to you they have a little thing here your cabin is me after okay he's just had the cool thing as though these monks they have hoods and everything the only time they use their voice which is beautiful is in the morning they sing the Psalms at 5:00 a.m. then at Vespers at 6:30 in the evening that's it so that's the only time they use their voices the first day was novel I could handle it but the second day my whole system began to shut down and I tell you I was I couldn't sleep I couldn't breathe my neck started to go out because my muscles began to tense up I was in a fetal position it was the worst day of my life I remember writing in my journey I had in my journal rather I've never had this amount of pain and I struggled the next day I would fill three yellow pads of paper of the things that I needed to change in my life the pain was so great I said God whatever you need me to change I needed to change the parameters the set points I need to have new navigational beacons in my life new principles new new price tags I'm gonna switch them all and I knew God was reforming me I felt so I was like Isaiah in Isaiah six Lord woe is me for I am undone it was like God had dismantled me and took me apart but I knew he was doing something I knew he was up to something it's sort of like you know I took my motorcycle in because I wanted a little bit more juice in my engine and so the first thing the mechanic did great mechanic was he dismantled my engine just completely undid it and it looked so pitiful there on his his workbench I looked at my beautiful motorcycle but then you know what he did he bored out the cylinders and he put in bigger higher compression Pistons in it and when he put it back together it looked basically the same but the insides were completely different and there was much more horsepower and sometimes God's gonna do that to you you're gonna feel undone you're gonna feel dismantled and it can come at any state in your ministry I was just with 22 of the top young leaders in Dallas Texas all guys under 40 years old now and they were all they all had churches over 3,000 we brought them together and and I was one of like the veteran grandpas there to kind of give them some some help and advice and you know what the same symptoms I went through I was I was seeing and observing in these guys under 40 one guy was crying and he said this I don't want my kids growing up hating God because of me and I thought man it's it's starting quicker and quicker because you know as wonderful as these conferences are you're going to learn great ideas you're going to get great principles but it's like adding nitric oxide to your fuel and I'm seeing these symptoms earlier and earlier will you avoid them you're gonna go through them God's gonna dismantle you but you know I think God said Wayne I see what's coming up ahead and I need you to have a little bit more horsepower so he dismantled me during that time and I just wrote that stuff out on the this these yellow pads of paper all the things that I needed to change and then I began to take a look at my own pride and how I had violated the Sabbath again and again and again because I thought I was invincible and I made a covenant with God saying Lord as soon as I get out of here I'm gonna put these into practice I'm gonna put him into practice well about the fifth day I was starting to go stir-crazy I mean no coffee and no internet no cell phone you know and I was like god I got it I got it I got it I got these pads I'm gonna go and take care of it and but I still had a couple more days in this program you know the monks are walking around with their hoods and you know you can't leave but I can't outta there had to get some coffee so true story so about the fourth day fifth day I couldn't handle it so right after the morning prayers five five o'clock in the morning was still dark so I took my car and I drove out of there with my lights off and I put my cell phone on my dash to see when it get reception because there's no cell coverage so I'm driving looking at that thing waiting for it to go peepee you know it's waiting an hour and a half driving and then it finally booboo who's like I I came alive again yes and so I pulled into the next time there was an internet cafe do you know how happy that made me I drank five six cups of coffee I did all email I could even the people I don't know I email I just starving I went out like I called my assistant and in Hawaii I said Ellen this is Wayne he said why you're whispering I escaped he said you what yeah I had to get out of there I couldn't stand it anymore he said was it hard I said no but getting back in will I wish I went back into that cafe I talked at hello hi my name is Wayne hi how are you hello hi how are you yeah I was just I was starving but by about 5 o'clock I had to go back into this place man I was just so afraid I could just see him with their hoods on and just eyes glowing and all you say were they mad you know I don't know they never they never said anything I don't care who you are that's funny but you know after that my life has changed I have really made some set points and I want to give you some principles that I hope you'll catch and and please write these down one of the things the doctor said Wayne when you go on this little break you got to do everything that just fills your tank would you write this down the first is you got to know what fills and what drains your tank you've got to know that it's sort of like this and I'll draw some stuff on this board but it's sort of like you have an emotional tank here and you've got a drain and you've also got an input and if you're your level sort of serotonin or your emotions are at a high level here and it's full because you've got some good input coming in wonderful you can do all kinds of stuff but if this drain becomes greater than your input you begin to decrease in this sort of level on the inside and when it gets to this first mark here it needs to be almost like alarms going off because what will happen is you'll have an anxiety attack and you'll feel it alarm should go off if you don't start the fill it'll drain down to the second where you'll have an emotional breakdown and if you ignore it and like me just as a continued just a dead leader running if you're not careful and gets down to here this is where they say you have a nervous breakdown but alarm should be going off at each level and you need to know what fills your tank and what drains it and you need to write that down for me sports I ride a motorcycle I in the ocean I love to read do devotions travel with my wife those are some of the things you need to know what fills your tank and and during this time I had to do only the things that filled my tank there's some things that drain too much counseling for me drains me when I've got unresolved problems at home when I have staff that have unresolved problems and they just continue to go on like it's they live on a level of mediocrity it just bothers me there are certain things that really fry me these are over tax schedule over booking myself inability to say no these things drain me now what happens is when you get too busy now watch this when you get too busy and the drain gets too in be increased what happens is when you say oh I'm just too busy I can't play basketball anymore something that filled your tank I'm so busy in the ministry I really can't take time to ride a motorcycle or I can't do paddling or I can't take the time to read or do this or that why because I'm too busy then when that happens that's called suicide because if if you've got an increased drain and you shut off your input guess what's going to happen do you know when my schedule gets busier you know what I do now I increase my play in fact right now I'm on a five-day motorcycle trip I parked my bike in Billings and flew here to be with you when I get back I'm getting back on going through Yellowstone you the busier your schedule the more taxing the more you increase your feel but what's our our proclivity we usually cut off the fill because we got too much drain do you understand how nuts that is we do that all the time you write down what fills and what drain and here's what I'd like to give you as an assignment you then have your spouse do the same thing have her or him you you have them fill out what fills their tank just things ask yourself these three questions when you say what fills my tank ask yourself these three questions first is this what am i doing and with whom am i doing these things and where am i doing it where when I do these things I feel most alive and I feel the fullest can you remember those three questions what am I doing with whom am i doing these things and where am i doing these things that when I do this I feel most alive and I feel the fullest it'll help you to think through what fills your tank and you got to know yourself in that way because when the times get tough you're going to have to make sure because you can handle all kinds of drain if you've got a lot of fill coming in but if you don't you're in trouble and as ministry gets more complicated the drain increases and that which used to fill your tank is not going to keep up with the drain and so you've got to measure that then have your spouse to it and you've got to know what fills her tank and then this is what I'd suggest that you do when you're done you switch papers you give your wife or your spouse yours she your spouse gives you hers and then you use that as a prayer list over the next month and you pray I pray for my wife at lord help me to be someone that helps her fill her tank in these ways and how to alleviate some of these drains do you know what kind of friendship you'll start to develop if you'll do those two things I'll help you immensely sometime ago when we first moved to Hawaii we brought our kids or grandkids left mom or grandmother in Oregon and and we moved to Hawaii and what I didn't know was one of the things that really filled my wife Ana's tank was talking with her mom about the grandkids and all of these things so she would call her about every two days and she'd spent an hour on the phone now I'm just brand-new in ministry and and when the phone bill is a hundred and some dollars a month from her calling her mom I just flew off the handle I said you can't do this anymore you're gonna take me to the poorhouse I can't handle this if you're you want to talk to your mother from now on you have her call you or you call her collect I was a compassionate man and yes and you can do that once a week you know my wife is so sweet she said okay and she complied but you know what after about two months I noticed my wife was changing she was becoming the Wicked Witch of the North and I thought what is happening to her and what I didn't realize was her sharing her life with her mom her best friend was something that really filled her tank and me not knowing what fills her tank actually I was cutting off stuff that she looked forward to you think we'd become good friends then and the things that drained her tank I was demanding she'd do more of our marriage was getting really thin really fast and then I understood this and we made some changes and I said honey I'm so sorry you you and your mom are best friends and I have been so blind you call your mom as often as you want to and she didn't abuse it but I tell you hundred bucks a month 150 a month is a small price tag to pay for a happy wife now let me tell you the kicker she started calling her mom again and she just turned back into the beautiful lady that I married and here's the kicker about a year and a half her mother died and you think about it what would my marriage be today if I had stuck to my stupid guns and her mom passed away you understand what would be going on in our life this is incredibly important if you'll learn what filled and what drains your tank we'll save you years might save your ministry in your marriage as well the second thing that I want you to catch as a principle is number two would you write down understand balance in life understand balance in life now you know it's not so many people come to me and they say Wayne how do you where does ministry end and family begin I mean because is this ministry in this family or is this family in this ministry where how do you balance all of this and so we think well we it's like sort of like this balance beam we just got to have ministry here staff you stay on this side and family you're on this side and son and daughter okay I got it right here it's right about here all right my life is balance now nobody move isn't that right but we all know that life isn't static ministry isn't static it's moving all the time because you're dealing with something that's organic and it's growing and light and ministry eventuates it's not organized it grows it's protracted and the Holy Spirit will see something moving this way and you've got to be able to see the leading of the Spirit and move staff this way and cut staff over here and then ministry is going to eventuate this way as he's growing your ministry and you as a leader have to be able to be in advance of what's going on to see close enough to the Spirit of God to see what's what's happening what's emerging so that you can move staff this way and cut over here otherwise you'll just keep right on going someone said you can take the Holy Spirit out of half of the u.s. churches and they'll keep right on going like nothing took place but you see leaders need to be led by the Spirit and so watch this you'll have a fulcrum we call it the center balance piece here and let's just say that the fulcrum is your heart your attention and and your life is here you got a fulcrum here balancing it now you've got family here in ministry there's one end and one begin now watch this if you say this is family and this is ministry you got it wrong in the beginning watch this this is not family and this is not ministry watch this this is all ministry my family is my ministry can I encourage you if your pastor when you travel take your son with you take your daughter with you at first my board would say well you taking your son with you it's kind of nepotism is it you're taking him and take some member of the church I said my son is a member of the church yeah yeah but but like you should take an elder no this time my wife is going yeah but it should be an elder like this is ministry I have ministry with my wife well yeah you see cuz if an elder kind of goes bad and South you know I feel horrible but we keep going keep on going but if my wife and my kids go south we don't keep going we're done we're done so my family is my ministry it's not family in ministry its ministry I'm dedicated to what God is saying to me so watch this so there's going to be times remember this is the fulcrum it's your heart now there's going to be times where the Holy Spirit is going to see some storm clouds rising and your wife or your family or whatever and he's going to put his finger on a part of your life like this and you're going to sense an out of balance feeling because there's something wrong in your marriage now you can either ignore it or run from it and if you run from it you move that attention somewhere else you're in big trouble but watch this if the Holy Spirit how many of you know that the Holy Spirit knows what's going on next year in your life yeah so so he will say there's something happening here Wayne and you know what you do to keep a balanced life watch this if he puts weight on this side of my family you know what I do I just move my heart that way and I move it closer to my family for a season and you know what this is still called balanced and then he'll lift it up you'll say okay your son is doing fine now I want you to work on your finances a little bit and you'll feel that pressure there here's what you do to keep a balanced life just move your fulcrum that way move your heart you know what that's called following the leading of the Holy Spirit and then when everything calms down you'll move it back over here and the Lord might say you need to concentrate on some staff issues you move just move your fulcrum that way you see that's a principle of the fulcrum you need to understand that there's sometimes now I was raised in a family where my dad was a First Sergeant and and whenever I rested it meant that I was lazy and so I felt guilty whenever I took a break and even now when I take a break in ministry I think I'm lazy but I have to realize and in the monastery that was one of the things I wrote down why do I feel this way and I had to go back to the very core of how I was raised and the Holy Spirit began to show me these things so I said well I still feel guilty then the Lord's had asked for permission than to take a break so you know what I do now I actually go to my secretary Mary and I say he married I just feel the Lord saying spend some time with Anna today and so can I can I come in like at 2:00 o'clock this afternoon I'm just gonna have luncheon or a late breakfast with Anna and we're just gonna take a walk she said oh yeah yeah I got everything taken care of oh thank you and you know what I can go home guilt-free because I got permission I actually called my executive pastor once I said Elwin can I take the day off cuz I said hey Wayne you don't have to ask me for anything like that you can do whatever you want to and I said Ellen don't say that to me now you can't say that is it okay for me to take the day off do you have everything covered absolutely good so I can have permission to take the day off yep good thank you so much and then there's a guilt-free kind of break I don't know if you were raised like me but you almost got a trick your mind but that's what you have to do you move your fulcrum that way you know what this called balance life and then the Lord may say you've got to work on this and you move it this way and as you move your heart closer to the Holy Spirit is doing you have a life that's always moving always in the ebb and flow of things and you stay balanced there's once the Holy Spirit spoke to me and said you need to spend time with your son he was sixth grade I went to his classroom took him out of school he's a dad what are you doing so we're playing hooky he said no way what's teacher gonna say Shh we went fishing till this day he's 26 years old you ask him what's one of the most meaningful days you'll say with my dad and I played hooky learn to live a balanced life understand balance and then would you write number three then learn to lead out of rest lead out of rest here's something that I really had to change you know what I used to do is I would fill my calendar with appointments and all the things that I had to do and then I'd look and say now where can I take a break oh oh oh I don't know if that got time I'll do it right here so I would rush into this break and while I'm in the break I'm saying oh man I got a stuff to do when I get back oh and I could never take a break I violated the Sabbath rest for years and I fried my circuits why cuz I was sinning no you know what I find people listen you don't mess up because you're evil we mess up a lot of times because we're frail it's not cuz we're evil just because if someone said Wayne why did you have that why'd you fry your engines cuz you were evil No do you love the ministry guilty do you love to see lost people get saved guilty you want things done well guilty you see it's not because we're evil but we've got to have some parameters and new set points and navigational beacons otherwise you'll go amiss and that's why I want to have you catch these principals lead out of rest you know what I do now I don't wait for my calendar fill up and then look for breaks here's what I do this will help you immensely I schedule in my rest points first before the calendar fills it I say I'm gonna need a break around here oh I'm gonna see my daughter here I'm gonna visit so-and-so around here and I'm going to do this and do a little writing over here okay is nice alright now go ahead and then they fill in the rest but they don't take these things so once in a while I might move it a little bit but I got to keep them in that's a whole new set of parameters that I've never done before and I cannot tell you how happy my wife is now because she knows that we're going to visit our daughter and this week and we're going to go here and that's where to take a break over there she looks forward to she is so happy my wife is great and then I can say call up a friend hey could you cover for me here in January and cuz I'm going to take a break and I scheduled in different teachers and speakers and I lead out of rest did you know that by the way God created activity to be birth out of rest think about it when does your day begin when you get up Regenesis again twas morning and evening the first day know was what was evening and morning the first day you know how God creates he starts with evening your day begins when not when you get up it begins when you go to sleep think about that your day begins when you sleep so if you go to sleep too late you get up tired and smashed you've really violated the way God created us to live was evening and morning so you want to make sure that you're getting rest why because activities birth out of rest here's by the way if you need to sleep in some time because rest is real important to keeping your balance correct I tell people if you need to sleep in learn to sleep in on the front side of the clock not on the back side hey this will this would be worth your whole summit fee listen to this your deepest REM sleep is between 11 o'clock and about 3:00 in the morning that's when you go and you get your deepest amount of rest so if you don't get to bed till 1:00 you've already missed your deepest amount of sleep and you sleep until nine o'clock you get eight hours of sleeping you think I slept in no you actually had a very shallow sleep that's why when you get up at nine o'clock or 10 o'clock you're lethargic you're listless you're still tired you can sleep in on the back side bad or sleep in on the front side smart see what you do is you go to bed at eight o'clock and you can still get up at five and you've had nine hours of sleep I get up at five o'clock and people say who you're up early on I slept in what I slept in and I feel so much better and I'm ready for the day and I'm healthier because you're beginning to learn to cooperate with the design of God to us evening and morning the first day learn to sleep in on the right side of the clock it will help you immensely and then you can sleep in otherwise your soul is gone you'll be a dead leader running story is told of a guy that was late on a safari so he hires some people to carry his things and he's three days late so he jumps in and these guys are running to catch up with the the safari that he's late for and the first day they just fall exhausted at the campfire the next morning blows his whistle come on let's go we can catch up with the safari so they put their bags on their backs and start running second day they fall in exhaustion next day if we hurry we might catch him in two days so they run the whole third day and they fall exhausted fourth day he gets up come on we can catch them today and they just sit around the fire tossing embers come on let's go and the leader says we're not moving he said well I paid you to help me catch up with the safari I said sir we're not gonna move all day why said because you've been pushing us so hard the first three days that we have to wait one whole day to let our souls catch up with us you'll eat out a rest because then and only then can you put your heart into everything God's asked you to do and you won't be a dead leader running and then would you write down number four then find a lightning rod what yeah find a lightning rod you know what that is here you know in the Midwest and parts of the US because they have lightning strikes they put up this long rod that's actually grounded so in a lecture the electricity of a lightning strike hits it it takes the hit and it grounds it if not it hits the building and Fries all the wires and computers so they have a lightning rod that grounds electrical charge in your life you're going to be filled with electrical charge sometimes from board meetings from problems unresolved from budget that's in the red family situations you're going to have this charge on the inside and you're a walking strike and sometimes you just need to talk to somebody and if you haven't determined a lightning rod or someone that you can talk to and vomit on and they just ground it you're gonna talk to anybody that's close you'll bump into somebody hey you know some people down the stairs the staff I hired I hate him I hate him and this guy over here just an innocent staff person gee whoa pastor is man hey Billy pastor's thinking mad today don't go near and Billy whoa yeah oh man and pretty soon they just talk to each other in the lunchroom and now you've got all these fried static there hairs sticking there crispy critters and you walk by a whoa what is going on you guys are burnt you walk by you see what happens is you don't realize that if you don't find a lightning rod you're gonna fry all kinds of people your family included cuz you're gonna be dealing with problems that you can't resolve right away so I have couple of people that I make appointments with and I say I just got to let loose some stuff and they'll close the door and they'll say fire away and these are older guys that help me process these things and if stuff come out of my mouth that shouldn't be mentioned anywhere else so they don't mention it they just ground it and sometimes I'll let a word fly and they'll go they'll say you feel strongly about this don't you no they don't go that will help you so much you need that you need that you need to be able to let that charge go otherwise you'll start frying people inadvertently now by the way someone say well what about your wife you know my wife is not one of my lightning rods my wife loves me so much she's a smart woman she she just thinks I'm amazing wonderful lady and but but because she loves me so much if I share something she just fries and you know it's like you're at a board meeting and you have a struggle with a board member and the board member is coming back and you're coming back in and you go home and you say to your wife man Vern just just fried me yet last night I can't stand him what in the world is he doing on the board think he's demon-possessed and your whites is what happened you share with her and now she's holding this in well let's say the next day Vern called you a Wayne I'm so sorry last night I was so out of place out of place over an ain't no problem I forgive you okay yeah let's have lunch great now the only problem is you're fine with Bern but you forget to tell your wife so the next Sunday she's by the door and Bern walks by not right you say honey what's going on I hate him I hate and you say Oh hon I forgot to tell you we worked it all out you what yeah we work it all out he's fine you did hunt you didn't tell me huh so you say when do you share with your wife I share with her from the victory side when it's done I say honey Verna and I had this knock-down drag-out the other day what no no no keep your closet because he called and and it's worked out and I tell you God taught me some great lessons really yeah oh thanks that's me thanks for sharing that you understand share with your spouse but I do it from the victory side find a lightning rod that will help you immensely and then lastly discipline your daily devotions folks listen if you miss everything else please catch this this is the most important thing we've ever done for our church to teach them how to feed have a self feeding program if you go to our website we have on design just for the summit called life journal dot CC we design it for everybody else too but as for the summit as well so go to life journal dot CC and I have a journal starter kit that will the best thing we've done for our church we have literally thousands of people doing daily devotions that we have a reading program that takes them through the Bible in a year and and they do a very simple journaling exercise you see in Deuteronomy 17 it says that God required of the Kings that they write and read the law daily some people say well oh well I uh I read the Bible but I don't journal no no journal journal in a very simple way here's an acrostic say the word soak with me so ya SOA P you you just read the portion of scripture that you need to read that it tells you and then you you start with the soap acrostic S stands for scripture you just write the scripture out of the three chapters that you will have read the Holy Spirit's going to highlight one for you and he'll say this is a promise for you this is a promise that you can hold on to it was during that monastery experience as I was continuing to read my devotions I was ready to bail out I wanted to bail out of the ministry and the Lord spoke to my heart and out of Jeremiah and it says this Jeremiah 17 it says as for me I will not hurry away from being a shepherd after you and it was like God spoke to me as a prophetic word Lord thank you if you're not doing doing a systematic kind of study through the word you will miss the prophetic voice of God and you'll make decisions and you'll make permanent decisions based on temporary setbacks God's Word will hold you up s scripture you write the scripture Oh sounds for observation then you write an observation about a is an application then you write an application how does apply to me and then P is prayer you write out of prayer and we have these journals just called a life journal looks like this and in it is a place where after you do your your daily entry there's a place on the front it's all set up for you that you can actually write the title of what God just spoke to you about the page in the scripture and I have a running catalog or table of contents that goes along with it so that after three months or so if I want to know what God has been speaking to me about I look at this first page the table of Contin contents and in three minutes or three seconds rather I can find exactly what God spoke to me about and the page I find it and everything comes back to me because I write in manuscript form be the best thing you can do when you do a daily devotional discipline yourself now it will help you and you write it out because there's only one book that God has promised to inspire it's right here listen carefully you won't have what it takes far as wisdom when you started this race you won't have the wisdom necessary to finish it when you begin you don't have the wisdom necessary to be the wife you want to be when you began as a wife you won't have the wisdom necessary to be a pastor that you want to be when you began you might have had the zeal you might have at the call but you won't have the wisdom you've got to garner that along the way and God will give you wisdom it'll save you a lifetime his promises and his instruction on a daily basis and if you're not putting it in here and if you're just giving it out there this is called the art of preaching I had a friend in California that he was preaching for the last year and a half that he was preaching he was carrying on an affair with his secretary and when it came to the surface of course he was summarily dismissed and disciplined but I having a relationship with him called him and I said what are you doing how could you do that he said I'll don't condemn me I said no no how can you live with that inconsistency where you're preaching the Word of God but living so incongruent ly how can you handle that he said you know Wayne what I was doing was I wasn't doing devotions I was studying the Bible for sermons so this is what I was doing getting a sermon and giving it to the people said what I should have been doing was this you see the difference huge and when you're people of daily devotions we'll begin to heal you from the inside and it will fill your tank so that you can carry out the assignment of God there's many of you here that may be on the edge you may be like me just entering into that season a dead leader running I want to pray for you in closing because you are some of the most important people in the world you are the ones that God has chosen to use to dispense his glorious gospel and you are more important than you'll ever know now the devil can tear you down then he stops the proclamation of the gospel we can't let that happen you're too critical you're too important to the kingdom of God when the Olympics was being held in Atlanta Georgia they did 119 day run with a torch from Los Angeles and they would carry that torch all the way to light the games and started in Atlanta Georgia that was reminiscent of the Athenian games long ago when a game would start in Athens and someone would run over to Corinth and start that with the same flame now they would run to Olympus or run to Philip I or whatever and then the Olympic Games plural would begin with the same flame now just think about it this way what if the guy gets the flame from Athens and he has to run let's say to Corinth and and that was the beginning of the marathon kind of runs and races cuz that's how they would do it and and let's say he's getting the the torch lit and he's thinking you know last year I did this in four hours this serum I'm doing three and a half hundred three nine okay it's lit go he's running and then halfway a gust of wind comes whoa where'd it go dude I'm making good time now I'm making good time ah and so he gets all the way have three and a half I'm here and the people are all waiting around for games to start you know they're all in their mid vivid E's or whatever I don't know how they doing they're all waiting there and he comes in with this extinguished wick and the elders are saying where's the flame I don't know but man I made good time good time no no you see the goal is not to get your here get you here and breakneck speed-- its is for you to protect the flame you know what he's gonna have to do he's got to run all the way back and light that torch cuz the goal isn't to get there before anybody else faster and brighter it's to make sure that he runs in such a way that he what protects the flame some of you are running you're running with an extinguished wick but you're running fast but it's not gonna help you so how do we reignite that torch cuz that soul that was once me is not there I'm still running my heart's not there what do I do you got to reignite that flame where do you do that that's why God says come to me all ye who are weary and heavy-laden how often he says for we have not a high priest who cannot sympathize with our weaknesses but in all cases been tempted just as we knit without sin therefore we can draw near with confidence to the throne of grace some of you today at the end of this session you just need to draw near to the throne of grace it's a really sense God wanting to reignite your flame has you been running with an extinguished extinguished wick for too long and God is here in just a moment I'm going to have Bill come up and and I'm going to ask you to stand because I want to pray for you that this will become as it were a location where the throne of God is that his presence would flood you afresh and reignite your hearts gain good let's stand together put your books aside and just put your hand over your heart would you put your hand over your heart this is a holy moment I want you to let the Lord just enter this place right now I want you to let him begin to reignite your heart he's here you've been running you've been running hard you've been running with zeal you've been doing well but I have this against you says the Lord you've left that love that first love I want to reignite use as a lure and he's going to do that right now put your hand over your heart Lord Jesus we gather here before you and we stand in your presence we ask that you would reignite our hearts reignite the flame of our heart oh god I pray that you will reach your ministry in us give us new set points and parameters so that we might be men and women with a greater sense of God power within us a greater capacity not to violate but to be wiser so that our latter years will even be greater than the former reignite the torch reignite your flame in our hearts while you're still standing a couple months ago Greg wrote a song that was very liberating to me and I want him to sing it to you as our closing prayer of this session many of us are just ashamed to admit that we've run too fast you know it's a lot about shame we just feel I always screwed up I wasn't in balance I didn't keep this straight I didn't keep that you know so we beat ourselves up as opposed to open ourselves up to the work of God so just listen to this while you're standing and it'll be our prayer Greg knows nose nose it's what I wanna say he knows he knows he knows what I wanna say he knows I know no you maybe no no Japan - what I want no just smile alone he knows your joy knows you fear no it's what I won't say it knows your secret thoughts you worries in your dance dreams that keep you up at night toss and turn you in those things you worry about in those things you wish stop you know the ugly words you don't understand in those the things you wonder aloud he knows the milk Western the hunger and the burning curiosity No victory he knows all your love lost and what it that rips you up inside things make you cry he knows we should but he goes the rooms you wish you'd never seen a lot about you know no secrets you can't hide it knows any note as you're moving closer to him sometimes just on a run he knows you wanna tell him they did never told anyone he doesn't you wanna fall down on these gotta beg him please he knows me just one more chance you know anymore he knows Oh No oh noes ever walks away all I wanna say Father in heaven there are no secrets and we are grateful for your knowledge of us and even more grateful for your unconditional acceptance and love toward us not only do you know but you understand and you still love and I pray for pastors and leaders in business directors volunteers staff all over the world right now so much hangs in the balance in moments like these I pray that we would do what your spirit is prompting us to do to stop the insanity that your spirit has been whispering for us to stop for a long long time I pray that we would obey the whispers of the Spirit who has been telling us to sit down and to form a new plan and to do life differently to do our days differently to do it our weeks differently so we can protect the flame of the Spirit of God at work in our lives so that we can work from rest and not from exhaustion so we can bring the best to the party and the best to our families and not the remnants so god I pray that people would have the inner courage and the sense of freedom in your acceptance and with your power to do what needs to be done so we can run with Life run with sustenance run with vitality all the way to the finish line and everyone agreed with this prayer and said amen

Channel: Samuel Yi

Views: 75,487

Rating: 4.9054241 out of 5

Keywords: DVD, Willow, Creek

Id: ScxvBqdNnf4

Length: 68min 56sec (4136 seconds)

Published: Thu Jan 31 2013