Sermon Tone Analysis

Burned Up or Burned Out

 

I.

Text: Psalms 55:4-8

II.

Major Objective: Prepare my fellow seminary students for what lays ahead..

III.

Central Idea of the Text: Burn out is not God’s plan for the life of the Pastor.

IV.              Subject: Burn Out Protection

V.                 Thesis and Goal

a.       Proposition: God has called us to endure.

b.      Specific Objective: The conviction of the Holy Spirit to guide the pastors in avoiding Burn out.

VI.              Introduction

As I pondered what to speak on today Lance’s comment kept coming back to me.

Earlier in the semester Lance commented it will be harder to preach in the class room because preaching needs the movement of the Holy Spirit.

The first question I asked myself was, “Why can’t the Holy Spirit move right here?”

At first I thought this is nothing more than giving a speech, an introduction, three points, and a conclusion.

I’ve given a lot of speeches and received an “A” in my undergrad speech class.

Yet, some one posed to me the question, “If I am the last one to preach then what is it that God wants me to share with my colleagues?”

To begin I want half of you to sit on the right side of the room and half of you to sit on the left side of the room.

(*People move to sit as requested)*  I want you to look at each other.

If this room holds to current statistics half of us will not be in the ministry 5 years from now.

Statistics further state that of the pastors here that are married half of you will end up divorced.

These are shocking to say the least.

Here are some other statistics that come from Fuller Seminary, Focus on the Family, and George Barna, Inc.

 

a.

Statistics (Barna and Fuller Seminary Survey)

·         Fifteen hundred pastors leave the ministry each month due to moral failure, spiritual burnout, or contention in their churches.

·         Fifty percent of pastors' marriages will end in divorce.

·         Eighty percent of pastors feel unqualified and discouraged in their role as pastor.

·         Fifty percent of pastors are so discouraged that they would leave the ministry if they could, but have no other way of making a living.

·         Eighty percent of seminary and Bible school graduates who enter the ministry will leave the ministry within the first five years.

·         Seventy percent of pastors constantly fight depression.

·         Almost forty percent polled said they have had an extra-marital affair since beginning their ministry.

·         Seventy percent said the only time they spend studying the Word is when they are preparing their sermons (*This is Key*).

Today I want to talk to you about burnout.

My sermon title is “Burn up or Burned out.”

There is an epidemic in our country and in our churches.

Ministers or leaving in droves and even though 7,000 new churches are planted every year 4,000 close their doors or merge with other churches.

Turn to Psalms 109.

As the psalms states, we are all in need of a new prospective, a new outlook.

/b.

/Psalms 109:22, 30, 31 /For I am poor and needy; //my heart is wounded within me./

Here we can see the psalmist has a wounded heart, he is poor, and he is needy, sounds a lot like our churches of today.

Probably every one of us knows a pastor that is calling out with just such a prayer.

But if you jump down to verses 30 and 31 the psalmist changes his viewpoint.

/I will fervently thank the Lord with my mouth; I will praise Him in the presence of many.

//For He stands at the right hand of the needy, to save him from those who would condemn him./

We are wounded and yet we are called to give praises to the Lord.

Our churches are wounded, our pastors are wounded, and our very members, and you know the ones I’m talking about, are wounded.

So much of your time is taken up dealing with these wounded members.

Western Seminary is now graduating more counselors than they are preachers.

We live in a wounded world.

Yet, this next passage, which is my key passage, truly speaks out almost to the point of a cry illustrating the wounds of our ministers.

At one time or another maybe you have breathed this prayer.

c.

Psalms 55:4-8 /My heart shudders within me; //terrors of death sweep over me.

//Fear and trembling grip me; horror has overwhelmed me.

//I said, “If only I had wings like a dove!

I would fly away and find rest.

//How far away I would flee; I would stay in the wilderness.

Selah //I would hurry to my shelter from the raging wind and the storm.”

/Over 50% of the pastors surveyed said they would leave the ministry if they could find some other way to earn a living.

If God has truly called us to this endeavor then he has provided us the means to endure the process and take the gospel to a lost and dying world.

Today I will share three of those ways.

VII.

You are not yet mature in your faith.

/a.      /Philippians 3:10-12 /⌊//My goal//⌋// is to know Him and the power of His resurrection and the fellowship of His sufferings, being conformed to His death, //assuming that I will somehow reach the resurrection from among the dead.

//Not that I have// already reached //⌊//the goal//⌋// or am already fully mature, but I make every effort to take hold of it because I also have been taken hold of by Christ Jesus./

b.

You are going to make mistakes.

As we prepare to begin, some of us anyway, our final semester of seminary we may be feeling good about our performance in the many classes we have taken here.

Some of you here can remember some of the classes we took together.

Some of those experiences cause laughter, some cause tears, and some cause a sense of relief.

With a few exceptions none of us received perfect grades on semester research paper or on tests.

In fact some of our papers, oh the pain, looked like they were bleeding from all the red ink.

We have made mistakes along the way.

Life is about trying, making mistakes, growing from our mistakes, and moving forward.

That process will not stop after we leave here.

We will continue to make mistakes.

Paul stated in Phil.

3:12…/Not that I am…already fully mature/.

Paul is telling us he is not mature and neither are we.

Accept the fact we are going to make mistakes.

Yet, God urges us to endure.

c.

Many a ministry worker has sentenced themselves to a life long term in the Prison of Perfectionism.

Turn to the book of Genesis and let’s look in on an episode that many of us are familiar with.

Genesis 3:4-6 /“No!

You will not die,” the serpent said to the woman.//

//“In fact, God knows that when you eat it your eyes will be opened and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.”/

I once had a colleague state, “There has been only one perfect man and they crucified him.”

In this episode we see the serpent convincing Eve if she ate of the forbidden fruit she would be like God.

If you are obsessed with everything being perfect you are a resident member of Eve’s Club.

For us to believe, and work, as if every thing must be perfect we are committing idolatry.

Only God is perfect.

Yet, God does want us to do our best, understanding there will always be room for improvement.

Don’t allow your desire for perfectionism to ruin your ministry.

VIII.

A private time with God is a necessity.

/a.      /Mark 1:35 /Very early in the morning, while it was still dark, He got up, went out, and made His way to a deserted place.