July 7, 2026 • 32 mins
Free Resource: Craft a Rule of Life for Emotionally Healthy Leaders → emotionallyhealthy.org/rule
In 2004, I stood in front of a building we couldn't afford to renovate, a staff team with the wrong people in the wrong seats, and a list of problems that all traced back to my own failures as a leader. I thought about resigning. I thought I'd taken the church as far as I could.
Most of us know that feeling. Not enough hours. Not enough margin. Not enough emotional or spiritual energy for one more thing. And under that kind of pressure, we get reactive, anxious, driven.
This week, I go back to 701 BC and a king named Hezekiah, surrounded by the most powerful army in the world, with no way out. What he does under that siege is still exactly what we need today. Four practices, not theory, that show you how to find rest when the pressure won't let up.
This isn't about managing your calendar better. It's about what you do the moment the walls close in.
Listen now, and grab the Rule of Life resource above to start building this into your own life.
Reserve your spot at our upcoming Global Leaders Conference.
September 30 – October 1, 2026
14th St. Salvation Army, NYC
(Live Spanish Translation available)
Register Now: https://ehd.churchcenter.com/registrations/events/3421612
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Episode Transcript
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SPEAKER_00 (01:13):
Hi, my name is Pete Scazaro.
I want to welcome you today tothe Emotionally Healthy Leader
Podcast.
Great to be with you.
Our topic, our theme today isstillness under siege, finding
rest under impossible pressure.
It comes with all leadership,actually, all of life, and
actually is possible to findrest when you feel like you're
(01:38):
just completely under siege.
Now, I've had many moments in mylife with God that I have felt
like, oh Lord, everything isclosing in upon me.
It's just too much, Lord, you'veoverdone it.
You know, 1 Corinthians 10, 13uh says you will never allow any
temptation to overcome us, uh,but you'll always give us grace
to make it through it.
(01:58):
But I say, Lord, you overdid itthis time.
And uh I can think of manysituations.
I remember one in particular uhin 2004-2005.
Uh we had bought a largebuilding.
We were now in it, uh, it neededa lot of renovations, and I was
tired from the whole process ofactually buying it.
But I remember we wereunderstaffed, underfinance,
(02:19):
didn't have enough money.
But more significantly, a numberof areas were out of order uh in
our church leadership uh in ourstaff team, wrong people in
wrong positions.
Uh, we just weren't staffedwell.
Uh, there were some challengeswithin our team, and uh I wasn't
having difficult conversationsthat I needed to be having.
Uh I brought in a consultantactually, talked to everyone,
(02:42):
laid out all the problems to meprivately, and basically it was
a very long list.
And almost all of them went backto me and my leadership or lack
of executive leadership with ourteam.
And a number of difficultdecisions needed to be made and
conversations needed to be had,but I didn't feel like I was up
to it.
Didn't have a skill set, didn'thave the gift mix, uh, and I
(03:03):
really thought about resigning.
I thought, you know what?
Maybe I brought this church asfar as I can.
I just need to step aside.
Um, you know, I I can't take thechurch any further.
Um, and I was really at uhreally overwhelmed uh by what
was in front of me and thechallenges.
I I felt under siege.
Uh and uh it was impossiblepressure uh that I felt was upon
(03:26):
me.
And so you all know the feelingof being squeezed, of being
overloaded, having not enoughhours in the day, uh, not enough
margin, uh emotionally depleted,spiritually depleted, under,
again, relentless pressure.
And the temptation uh for all ofus is we get anxious, we get
reactive, uh, we we get driven.
Uh and uh so here's the questionI want you to sit with today.
(03:50):
How do you find rest when thepressure is relentless and
actually the pressure feelsincredibly high?
That's the question.
And a short answer comes, I'mgonna give you today, comes from
Isaiah 36 and 37, a tremendousstory.
Uh that rest is not actually theabsence of pressure, it's
actually a practice, uh,specific practices that one
(04:14):
engages when under pressure sothat we can actually enter rest.
And we find this in thecharacter of King Hezekiah in
this passage of Isaiah 36, 37.
He models for us, he's the kingof Judah, uh the southern
kingdom of Israel, and he modelsfor us a really a moment where
he's under siege, literallyunder siege.
And what he does is soextraordinarily practical for
(04:36):
you and for me today, thousandsof years later.
So let me just tell you a bit ofthe story and then look at the
four things, practices he does.
And I pray and trust they'regonna encourage you as it's
encouraged me uh over the yearsin my own walk with God.
So the year is 703 BC, and theAssyrian Empire is the
superpower of the day.
(04:57):
They have conquered the knownworld at that time.
Uh, they are brutal, they aremethodical, uh, they are
unstoppable.
Nobody's been able to stop them.
And they have actually uhcrushed the southern kingdom of
Israel, and now they have uhconquered 46 cities of the I'm
sorry, they've conquered thenorthern kingdom of Israel
already.
They've wiped them out, and nowthey're in the southern kingdom,
(05:18):
they've surrounded the kingdomof Judah, they've conquered 46
cities uh of Hezekiah's kingdom,and they've actually just
finished conquering the majorcity, uh military city of his uh
of his empire, Lakish, it'scalled.
And uh and so their strongestmilitary installation.
So right now, Hezekiah the kingis surrounded in Jerusalem by
(05:40):
the Assyrian troops, and thepressure is enormous.
Now, Sennacherib is the king ofAssyria, uh, and so he's not a
nice man.
He's known for his brutality.
And so he sends his senior staffto the walls of Jerusalem to
begin to call them to surrender.
He doesn't even want to have abattle, doesn't want to waste
(06:02):
his energy.
He just wants Hezekiah andIsrael to surrender.
And uh so uh his staff begin touh speak in Hebrew so everyone
can hear it over the walls.
And uh it's actually from my,you could read about in uh
Isaiah chapter 36.
I just want to read you a coupleof verses of what they say to
(06:23):
Hezekiah and all of his troops.
This is what the is what theysay.
This is the kind of pressurehe's under.
This is what the great king,they say, the great king of
Assyria says.
On what are you basing thisconfidence of yours?
You say you have counsel andmight for war, but you speak
only empty words.
On whom are you depending thatyou would rebel against me?
(06:45):
Have I come, have I not come toattack and destroy this land
without the Lord?
The Lord himself told me tomarch against you, your country,
and destroy it.
Do not let Hezekiah persuade youto trust in the Lord uh against
uh against me, because uh hasany gods of any nations
delivered their lands from theking of Assyria?
(07:08):
And so again, uh Sennacherib andthe king of Assyria, although
they worship all kinds of pagangods, they actually say, you
know what, your God sent me todestroy you.
And uh, six times he says in thefull passage, on what are you
basing your confidence, on whatare you pacing your trust?
And he challenged them, you'retrusting in the wrong thing,
your God.
And actually they were lookingto Egypt for help as well.
(07:30):
And uh and and this word faith,on what are you trusting, or
what are you putting your faithin?
It's it's it's that greatbiblical word of faith.
And I love the Gospel of John'sdefinition of faith or trust or
believing in God.
It's and and as one scholarcalls it, it's it's we trust or
believing in the Lord Jesus,we're trusting in the Lord
(07:52):
Jesus, we're putting our faithin the Lord Jesus.
And one great scholar said thebest translation is we are
relaxing in Jesus.
We're allowing ourselves to beheld by him.
And I like that transl, youknow, that kind of way
translation for the 21stcentury.
Uh, how can you relax in theLord Jesus when you're under
siege, when you're surrounded byimpossible pressure?
(08:13):
And that's what that's what theAssyrian king Sennacherib
challenges uh the Jewishbelievers with.
And uh, what happens so many ofus when we're under this kind of
pressure is we start making baddecisions.
Uh, we we do dumb things, we saythings we don't mean, we do
things we don't want to.
But Hezekiah is extraordinarybecause he actually uh he
(08:35):
engages in a response that issuch a model once we break it
down for us.
And I want to invite you to dothe same.
Now you may not be underenormous pressure today, but you
were, you may be, or you and youwill be.
It's like we're you may not bein a storm now, but Jesus sends
all of us into storms becausethere's revelation in the
storms.
It's part of walking with him,it's part of leadership for
(08:56):
sure.
Uh, but as you think aboutwhat's before you today, let's
go through the four practices ofHezekiah, which are so amazing
for us today.
3,000 years ago he does them.
They still apply as if he'sspeaking to us today.
First thing he does, Hezekiah,when he's when these horrific
words about you know quittingGod and don't trust in your God
come forth.
(09:17):
The first thing Hezekiah does uhwhen he hears this is he takes
the, they put it in a letter, Igive it to Hezekiah.
He takes it and he goes to thetemple of God and he spreads it
out before the Lord.
So the first thing Hezekiah doesis he remains in God.
He he stays connected to theLord.
(09:37):
We, you know, in in NewTestament terms, it's Jesus
says, you know, if you remain inme and I remain in you, you will
bear much fruit.
Apart from me, you can donothing.
And so he he makes the choice toabide, to stay connected, to
remain in God.
Now, he doesn't go into adefault mode, which it's so easy
to do when those moments comeinto our lives.
He he doesn't freeze.
(09:59):
You know, we freeze like a deerin headlights, uh, kind of shut
down, get immobilized.
You know, I used thatexpression, I used to joke
around with Jerry, I I get I geton my bed.
Jerry, I'll be under the I'll beunder the pillow with the pillow
over my head because I don'twant to think about it, I want
to freeze.
Uh, or we fight.
You know, we just start, we juststart getting angry, we get
busier, we start hustling, westart blaming people.
Or in some cases, we just flee.
(10:20):
We start looking for ways tomedicate our pain, to not feel
it.
Um, again, sometimes some peopledistract ourselves with all
kinds of things from TV to uhyou know, pornography to
shopping to anything to numb thepain and medicate it because it
hurts so much to be underpressure.
And uh so I know for myself,what I often do is I the way I
(10:42):
flee is I go into strategy mode.
I go into planning mode, I gointo let me make 12 phone calls
to the sharpest people I knowwho can help me fix this
situation and get out of it.
I had, you know, one mentor toldme years ago, I never forgot, he
goes, Pete, Pete, you are astreet fighter leader.
And I said, Man, that's kind oftrue.
I'm just the street fighter.
(11:03):
And he goes, That's gotta comeout of you.
And uh I we often underestimate,I know I have over the years,
the reality of Ephesians 6, 12,and following, that we wrestle
not against flesh and blood, butagainst powers and
principalities of darkness.
And that there are powers andprincipalities that aim to cut
(11:24):
you off from God and cut me offfrom communion and my
relationship with God and yourrelationship with God.
It's just so interesting howPaul finishes the book of
Ephesians with this backdrop ofpowers and principalities.
He doesn't dominate the wholebook, but it's there in the
background, and he finishes bytelling the Ephesian Christians
uh yes, God has called you asthe church to an incredible uh
(11:44):
destiny uh and callingprophetically into the world to
be a sign and wonder that pointsand tastes of Jesus himself as
the new temple of God.
But he goes, but remember thisyou know, we we wrestle not
against flesh and blood.
And the same way, when we talkabout when we're under pressure,
the the temptations to cut offfrom God or find a way to, in a
(12:06):
sense, minimize our relationshipwith God are tremendous.
They're actually supernatural.
Uh the Bible describes Satan asa deceiver and as an accuser.
Uh and, you know, you we thethis deceptions come to us.
These voices come to us in ourheads, things like, you know,
God's not for you.
You know, look at you, look atall the problems you've got and
(12:26):
the mistakes you've made.
Of course you're paying forthose mistakes.
Or, you know, God's not good orall-powerful.
If he was so good, he wouldn'tbe letting you go through all
this kinds of pain.
And he would stop all thissuffering.
Because not just you suffering,everybody around you suffering.
Or, you know, you're bankingyour life on God as trustworthy,
forget it.
And we hear those kinds ofvoices, or we get those
accusations.
You know what?
Uh, you've made a lot, you, you,your sins, you're paying for
(12:48):
your sins finally.
Uh, or you're a bum, you'reworthless, you're a loser.
You're the last person thatshould be leading right now,
whatever area you're leading,whether it's your family or a
ministry or a church or aparachurch, or you you don't
deserve to lead.
You don't have the gifts or thepower to lead.
Just sit down, back off.
And but yet Hezekiah somehowbreaks through all this and he
(13:08):
goes to God.
He just goes to the templebecause it's in him.
He's got a, he has a practice.
He has uh, it's not just comingout of nowhere.
He has a practice and a life.
Again, read the whole story ofHezekiah in scripture, of being
with God, of seeking God'sfaith.
So when he's under pressure, hejust keeps it up.
He remains in God.
(13:29):
He goes to the temples, lays theletter before the Lord.
That's why we talk so much aboutin this podcast and an
emotionally healthydiscipleship, trying to move you
to a strong, substantial rule oflife to enable to support uh
your calling, your destiny inGod, doing some practice,
getting key practices into yourlife now when things are okay,
(13:53):
of silence and solitude,learning to be with God and
yourself, and meditating onscripture, leccio divino,
spending half days or days alonewith God, and um engaging in
emotionally healthy practicesand rhythms of Sabbath and uh
you know, the examine.
And again, we've done somepodcasts on it in the previous
months.
(14:14):
But ordering your life in such away so that there's rhythms of
prayer and rest andrelationships, and then of
course work.
But with Jesus in the center,where you've crafted a life
that's not chaotic, but thatyou're abiding in the love of
God on a regular basis.
So you've got the offices,morning, maybe midday or an
evening, and you've got aSabbath rhythm, and you just
(14:36):
keep those rhythms regardless ofwhat's happening.
Jerry and I just came back fromuh a trip.
We were in uh Bulgaria andGreece, and we went and visited
a monastery, actually uh uh manymonasteries in an area of
northern Greece called Meteora.
And this was in the um uh earlycenturies, where monks built
(15:01):
monasteries.
Uh, first they were hermits,then they built communities way
up high on cliffs.
And they did it not because toget to get closer to God, uh,
they did it because they wantedsolitude and they wanted a life
without distractions, uh, andaway from the temptations of the
world so that they could bring aword to the world, world from
(15:21):
God.
And it even though it was a itwas a massive climb of so many
steps, exhausting, but going upthere and imagining again, they
would they would come up from apulley, they would, they would
be able to get up to the top,and uh they made it so difficult
for people to get there.
But they they built their uhhomes, their community, their
monasteries way up on thesecliffs because they wanted a
(15:45):
life with God withoutdistractions.
And I thought it's a great,great image for us.
Yes, you uh and me, we're livingin the midst of a world where
we're surrounded bydistractions.
Yet crafting a life where weremain with Jesus throughout the
day, uh, throughout our weeks,throughout our quarters, our
months and quarters and years,so that when those moments come
(16:07):
when it seems like all heavenand hell is broken out against
us, as it did to Job, we've gota practice that we can go to to
remain in God, even thoughthings around us begin to fall
apart.
That's the first thing he does.
He goes quickly to the, he goesimmediately to the Lord as he
regularly does.
But the second thing he does ishe acknowledges what's reality.
(16:28):
He faces reality withoutillusions or denial.
He just faces reality.
It's very important he doesthis.
He says he goes up to the templeand he lays out the letter from
the enemy, Sennacherib, the kingof Assyria.
He lays it out before the Lord.
Uh, it's it's a nasty letter.
It's a nasty letter.
He doesn't pretend it's notthere, and the consequences of
(16:50):
his letter are far reaching.
And uh again, he lays it out.
The Assyrians have destroyed,Lord, all the nations, like they
said.
They destroyed most of mykingdom.
We're the only ones left here.
Uh and yes, Lord, our situationis dire.
And he doesn't make the problemsmaller than it is.
He lays it.
He acknowledges no denial.
(17:13):
He lives, he faces realitywithout illusion.
I say this because mytemptation, I and I find with
many folks like myself, uh,especially pre-emotionally
healthy discipleship, before Idid lament and grief and
feelings, uh, I just would spinproblems.
I was a great spinner.
I didn't want to face the truthof the problems in front of me.
(17:34):
Uh so I lied a lot.
I spinned the truth a lot.
Uh I'd say, oh, I'm a bigpicture guy.
I don't get into the details.
And and uh my Myers, Brig is,you know, uh EFN's, you know,
whatever NJ, you know, and I uhI'm I'm just I I I'm just
naturally an optimist.
I just believe God.
Well, I had these kind ofattitudes, you know.
With his help, I can storm a,you know, storm a wall.
(17:56):
And I or I'd say things like,I'm just, I'm not, it's really
not so bad.
Uh God's good.
It's gonna work out in the end.
But I didn't face uh realities.
I I lived in a lot of illusionsas a follower of Jesus because
it was too painful to face.
Uh Hezekiah does not do that.
He head-on faces reality andwithout any denial.
(18:19):
Now, it's been said rightly so,that true spirituality uh is
living in reality.
In other words, uh pretendingspirituality is about
penetrating reality and uhdestroying illusions.
That's actually what truespirituality is.
Uh, that's why the uh acontemplative life is so
(18:40):
necessary in our world of agazillion distractions, because
we want to live in reality, notasleep and in illusions.
Parker Palmer, uh, in his memoirat the age of 79, writes about
uh he wasn't very good atcontemplative by intention.
(19:01):
That is the spiritual practicesof silence and stillness, like
uh many monastics will do, andmany folks who are
contemplatives will do, havingrhythms in your days and weeks
and years.
He goes, I wasn't very good atthat.
Because, but I ended up becominga contemplative by catastrophe.
And I was like, oh Lord.
What he meant by that wasgenerally he became a
contemplative through crises,through, through catastrophes,
(19:24):
knocking him off his feet andfinally getting him to be
reflective about himself, aboutGod, and about life.
And I was like, oh Lord, that'snot how I want to be a
contemplative.
And in fact, he has this veryinteresting story here.
He goes, when someone comes uhto you, he says, you know, when
someone comes to usdisillusioned, instead of saying
(19:45):
to them, Oh, I'm so sorry aboutthat, let me comfort you.
He goes, We really should say,congratulations that you're
disillusioned, because you'reyou've lost another illusion and
you're one step closer toreality, to life, to God.
Uh so let me disillusion youeven further.
Uh I thought that wasfascinating, actually.
The more I thought about it, themore I see that the I see the
(20:05):
truth of it.
It's can it there is a level ofcontemplativeness out of
catastrophe as well, as we seethings as they are.
Howard Thurman, uh, the greatAfrican-American author, wrote
about, he called it the sound ofthe genuine within us and around
us.
He goes, He goes, help us stay.
They they when we hit we get intouch with the sound of the
genuine inside of us, we see thedeceptions of ourselves and the
(20:29):
world around us.
Very, very true.
So real faith makes steps, spacefor slowing down, a
contemplative life.
Because, and it says veryhonestly, wow, this is hard.
This is what's happening.
I'm not afraid.
Lord, I bring it before you.
And like Hezekiah, we kind oflay our letter, our letter out
(20:51):
before the Lord.
We lay out what is before theLord.
That's why I love journaling.
Uh, we live in reality, notillusions.
And Hezekiah does that.
Great practice.
Uh, all right.
But number three, he does this.
Hezekiah seeks wise counsel.
Uh, he seeks wise counsel.
He goes, uh in again, it's inchapter 36 and 37 of the book of
(21:13):
Isaiah, he seeks out Isaiah theprophet, and he goes to him.
He doesn't try to navigate italone.
Fascinating, right?
Now, Solomon, the wisest personwho ever lived, uh, talks about
the need for us to invite othersinto our process.
Uh, you know, the way of the,for example, uh, he says in
Proverbs 12, 15, the way of afool seems right to him, but a
(21:35):
wise person listens to advice.
Uh, Proverbs 15, 22, plans failfor a lack of counsel.
And Proverbs 20, 18, make plansby seeking advice.
If you wage war, obtainguidance.
So he trusts himself as a fool,it says in Proverbs.
Now, it's probably been rightlysaid, I 75% of people who get in
messes uh often have not invitedanother person into their
(21:59):
process.
So, because we don't see the bigpicture, we may we're not the
whole body of Christ, we're surenot God.
And we make often makeassumptions about things in our
situations that just aren'ttrue.
Now, some of us have gone togotten counsel and advice from
people, but the wrong people.
And they've taken us in a in abad way.
And I I've done it.
I've done it.
We see we see examples of thatin scripture.
(22:19):
Uh, happened with Solomon andRehoboam.
This uh happened with me.
I mean, I can think of some keymoments in my life where I got
bad counsel, and I took it, andit really took me on a detour.
Um uh, but I I didn't go tosomeone who was further down the
road than I was, and hadactually had nothing to lose by
telling me what I didn't want tohear.
Uh, but by choosing the rightpeople, my goodness.
(22:41):
So let me tell you whathappened.
That situation I was in in 2004,2005, and I was really stuck
that I described the beginningof our podcast.
Um, I went to a couple of peoplethat I should first two counsels
I got were were were not helpfulum to me at all.
And basically said, you don't,you know, it was just bad
counsel.
Either, you know, leave, Pete.
(23:02):
Uh, you can't do this.
Uh someone else better step in.
You've taken it as far as youcan go.
Um or you just one guy just youjust can't do this.
And And didn't look no sense ofhope, or you know, just kind of
like you just can't.
And uh it was actually a awoman, uh, her name was Karen,
and and and she basically was sofascinating, she said to me, and
(23:24):
she was actually a therapist, acounselor, she says, Pete, I'm
really puzzled.
She was not even a believer inJesus.
But she said to me, she goes,What's interesting to me is
you've been in leadership fordecades.
You've accomplished so manythings in your life, and yet for
some reason you think you can'tlearn these executive issues in
leadership.
And she goes, but you shouldprobably make a list of
(23:46):
everything you've accomplishedand learned over all these
years, because it may give youactually realize you could learn
this.
You're smart enough to learn itand get through this.
And God just like slammed me.
And he brought me to the passageof 1 Samuel 17, where David is
confronting, if you remember,David's confronting Goliath, but
first he's confronting his olderbrothers who say he can't go up
(24:09):
against Goliath.
And he confronts Saul, who says,You're only a boy, you can't do
it.
And then he confronts Goliath.
But David says this he goes,I've killed both the lion and
the bear.
Your servant has killed both alion and the bear.
And this uncircumcisedPhilistine will be like one of
them because he has defied thearmies of the living God.
And what David basically saysis, you know, God has delivered
(24:30):
me in the past from a lion and abear.
Those were smaller victories Godgave me of challenges I had in
my life.
And I have no doubt that God isgoing to bring, enable me to get
through the challenge of Goliathand bring him down.
And so what I did was I tookthat counsel and I went home and
I began to make a list of allthe things God had done for me
(24:52):
and things I had learned in hisname to get me where I was that
day.
Everything from learningSpanish, we moved, moved to
Costa Rica, you know, graduatingseminary.
I mean, I had a very long list,uh, you know, starting our
church, starting a secondchurch, starting a third church,
you know, building a team, etcetera, et cetera.
And it was I did it over a fewdays.
I had a very long list, um,getting married, learning to
(25:13):
grow, and having a wonderfulmarriage and having four
children.
It just, it was a very long listof what God enabled, my lions
and bears that God had enabledme to conquer.
And I just, you know, I don'tknow what I'm doing.
This is a Goliath before me.
How do I take our church to thenext phase?
Because I don't know how.
And so I began to, I, when Isaid, Lord, I know you can teach
(25:35):
me to do this.
It may never be my strongestgifts, but I can learn the
executive skills to leading alarge staff, a large ministry,
uh, and job descriptions andhiring and firing and budgeting
and long-range planning and allof that.
I am not helpless.
And I went on a journey uh as anexecutive pastor and grew
(25:55):
enormously.
I was still the lead pastor, andI began to learn from different
people.
And it was a turning point in myentire life.
That good counsel, that wisecounsel, uh, I meant the whole
emotionally healthy leader, manyof you are familiar with that
book came out of what I learnedin 2004 to 2005, 2006.
And 10 years later, I put itinto a book called The
Emotionally Healthy Leader.
(26:16):
Uh, and I would not be heretoday.
Emotionally healthy discipleshipas a global ministry wouldn't
exist today.
But it came out of wise counsel,and it was so amazing.
It came from, in a sense, anindirect source to me.
Um, and there it was, changed mylife.
So be curious.
Take initiative, seek out wisecounsel.
(26:36):
It's out there.
That's again why we're socommitted at this phase of uh
emotionally at the discipleshipas a ministry to build community
through, again, globalconferences, through gatherings,
et cetera.
You'll be seeing more and moreinvitations to connect with
others uh around a biblicaltheology that you actually can
fulfill the destiny God hascalled you to do and to become.
(27:00):
All right.
There's a fourth thing though,Hezekiah does.
So he he remains in the law withthe Lord.
You know, he he confrontsreality.
He doesn't live in illusions.
Uh he lays that before the Lord.
Uh, then he seeks wise counsel.
But a fourth thing he does,which is again finally, and just
so brilliant, he waits on theLord.
He he waits.
Um, he lets God be God.
(27:21):
It's amazing.
It climaxes the story in Isaiah36 and 37.
He just says, Lord, deliver us.
Lord, deliver us.
And he waits.
He doesn't tell God how to doit, when to do it, how to do
nothing.
He just says, when to do it,just through whom to do it.
He just waits on the Lord.
Uh and scholars note that theAssyrian army numbered 500,000,
(27:42):
maybe a million troops.
Uh and here he was completelyoutnumbered.
And he's just, he's waiting onthe Lord.
And then it says, one night theLord slew 185,000 Assyrian
troops in the night.
And no one could explain how.
And some something supernaturaltook place, and Sennacherib, the
Assyrian king, withdrew.
(28:02):
Uh, but it happened in thenight.
It's like so much of scripture,right?
Miracles happen like in theseplaces.
We can't quite see it, whetherit's the deliverance that
happened in the dark night ofthe Exodus and the Passover, or
it's the Easter resurrection.
You really can't see it, but Goddid it, or I think the
multiplying of the loaves andfishes.
I mean, how that invisiblemiracle happened, it just did,
(28:22):
or even that the crossing of theRed Sea, the mystery of how God
separated the waters.
I mean, he just did it.
And there's no explanation forso many miracles of what God
does.
Uh, we just are left with simplylike awe of worship and wonder.
Uh the most deliverances, I inmy experience of where God shows
up, it's not uh like a lottery,we want a million dollars.
(28:45):
It's like boom, it's it's like ajigsaw puzzle.
Pieces come together and somehowit's like done.
And we're not even quite surehow it works.
It's like this this the spacebetween the words and the verses
of scripture is where so muchtakes place.
That uh, you know, how Godmoves.
And that's one of the keymessages of the whole book of
Isaiah.
Definitely this passage, the keyto life is letting God be God
(29:07):
and training ourselves tocompletely be dependent on him
until we really kind of rest inthe fact that he can supply, he
can get it done, way better thanour feverish activity ever
could.
Sue Monk Kid in her book, Whenthe Heart Waits, she writes
about her time that she was in amonastery, and she says to the
monk, I can't seem to get usedto the idea of doing nothing.
(29:32):
And the monk breaks into awonderful grin and he says,
Well, that's the problem rightthere, young lady.
You've brought in, you've boughtinto the cultural myth that when
you're waiting, you're doingnothing.
Then he took his hands, heplaced them on my shoulders, she
writes.
He looked straight into my eyesand he said, I hope you'll hear
what I'm about to tell you.
I hope you hear it all the waydown to your toes.
(29:53):
And he says, When you'rewaiting, you are not doing
nothing.
You're doing the most importantthing there is.
You're allowing your soul togrow up.
If you can't wait, it can't, ifyou can't wait uh and be still,
you can't become what Godcreated you to be.
I like what Simone Vey, thegreat French uh writer, wrote.
(30:16):
Waiting patiently in expectationis the foundation of the
spiritual life.
I'll say it again.
Uh waiting patiently inexpectation is the foundation of
the spiritual life.
Wow.
Sometimes what appears to be acatastrophe is actually the
(30:37):
strong foundation to build agood life, a great life.
Abraham had to wait, Moses hadto wait, Israel had to wait in
the wilderness.
Jesus waited, you know,thousands and millions and
billions of years to come toearth.
Uh, and he didn't strive andrush even when he came.
Because to the Lord, a thousandyears is like a day.
In other words, what's a longtime to us is a nanosecond to
(31:01):
God.
And so listen, I'm a New Yorker.
I finish people's sentences.
I mean, I'm I'm terriblyimpatient.
It's it's it's in my bones.
The grandpa's in my bones.
But God has taught me, and he'steaching me even more.
And I'll tell you, gettingolder, I can I can testify,
getting older, one of the greatgifts is you do get more
patient.
You'll learn, and I'll learn.
(31:21):
Like Jacob never quite learnedit well.
He was a striver in it inGenesis.
He was a fighter.
He didn't want to wait and rest.
Um, so four things stillnessunder siege, okay, finding rest
under impossible pressure.
Let's learn from Hezekiah.
Let me invite you today, youknow, as you think about what's
(31:43):
one area of pressure that you'reunder today, uh, find a quiet
place, spread it out before God,and do what Hezekiah did.
Remain in the Lord, uh, facereality without illusions.
Bring it before Him.
Seek wise counsel, ask God forwisdom.
Who can you speak to?
Who might have that?
And then finally, wait, wait,wait, wait on him this week.
(32:09):
Take it before the Lord.
Um, wow.
It's an ancient practice, but itsure works.
So let me close with a prayerthat I've prayed for many, many
years.
It's from Psalm 135 and 6.
In fact, for years I prayed itevery day.
And it says this I wait for theLord, my soul waits.
And in his word I put my hope.
(32:31):
My soul waits for the Lord morethan watchmen for the morning,
more than watchmen for themorning.
God bless everybody.
Have a wonderful, wonderful day.
Hi, my name is Pete Scazaro.
I want to welcome you today tothe Emotionally Healthy Leader
Podcast.
Great to be with you.
Our topic, our theme today isstillness under siege, finding
rest under impossible pressure.
It comes with all leadership,actually, all of life, and
actually is possible to findrest when you feel like you're
(01:38):
just completely under siege.
Now, I've had many moments in mylife with God that I have felt
like, oh Lord, everything isclosing in upon me.
It's just too much, Lord, you'veoverdone it.
You know, 1 Corinthians 10, 13uh says you will never allow any
temptation to overcome us, uh,but you'll always give us grace
to make it through it.
(01:58):
But I say, Lord, you overdid itthis time.
And uh I can think of manysituations.
I remember one in particular uhin 2004-2005.
Uh we had bought a largebuilding.
We were now in it, uh, it neededa lot of renovations, and I was
tired from the whole process ofactually buying it.
But I remember we wereunderstaffed, underfinance,
(02:19):
didn't have enough money.
But more significantly, a numberof areas were out of order uh in
our church leadership uh in ourstaff team, wrong people in
wrong positions.
Uh, we just weren't staffedwell.
Uh, there were some challengeswithin our team, and uh I wasn't
having difficult conversationsthat I needed to be having.
Uh I brought in a consultantactually, talked to everyone,
(02:42):
laid out all the problems to meprivately, and basically it was
a very long list.
And almost all of them went backto me and my leadership or lack
of executive leadership with ourteam.
And a number of difficultdecisions needed to be made and
conversations needed to be had,but I didn't feel like I was up
to it.
Didn't have a skill set, didn'thave the gift mix, uh, and I
(03:03):
really thought about resigning.
I thought, you know what?
Maybe I brought this church asfar as I can.
I just need to step aside.
Um, you know, I I can't take thechurch any further.
Um, and I was really at uhreally overwhelmed uh by what
was in front of me and thechallenges.
I I felt under siege.
Uh and uh it was impossiblepressure uh that I felt was upon
(03:26):
me.
And so you all know the feelingof being squeezed, of being
overloaded, having not enoughhours in the day, uh, not enough
margin, uh emotionally depleted,spiritually depleted, under,
again, relentless pressure.
And the temptation uh for all ofus is we get anxious, we get
reactive, uh, we we get driven.
Uh and uh so here's the questionI want you to sit with today.
(03:50):
How do you find rest when thepressure is relentless and
actually the pressure feelsincredibly high?
That's the question.
And a short answer comes, I'mgonna give you today, comes from
Isaiah 36 and 37, a tremendousstory.
Uh that rest is not actually theabsence of pressure, it's
actually a practice, uh,specific practices that one
(04:14):
engages when under pressure sothat we can actually enter rest.
And we find this in thecharacter of King Hezekiah in
this passage of Isaiah 36, 37.
He models for us, he's the kingof Judah, uh the southern
kingdom of Israel, and he modelsfor us a really a moment where
he's under siege, literallyunder siege.
And what he does is soextraordinarily practical for
(04:36):
you and for me today, thousandsof years later.
So let me just tell you a bit ofthe story and then look at the
four things, practices he does.
And I pray and trust they'regonna encourage you as it's
encouraged me uh over the yearsin my own walk with God.
So the year is 703 BC, and theAssyrian Empire is the
superpower of the day.
(04:57):
They have conquered the knownworld at that time.
Uh, they are brutal, they aremethodical, uh, they are
unstoppable.
Nobody's been able to stop them.
And they have actually uhcrushed the southern kingdom of
Israel, and now they have uhconquered 46 cities of the I'm
sorry, they've conquered thenorthern kingdom of Israel
already.
They've wiped them out, and nowthey're in the southern kingdom,
(05:18):
they've surrounded the kingdomof Judah, they've conquered 46
cities uh of Hezekiah's kingdom,and they've actually just
finished conquering the majorcity, uh military city of his uh
of his empire, Lakish, it'scalled.
And uh and so their strongestmilitary installation.
So right now, Hezekiah the kingis surrounded in Jerusalem by
(05:40):
the Assyrian troops, and thepressure is enormous.
Now, Sennacherib is the king ofAssyria, uh, and so he's not a
nice man.
He's known for his brutality.
And so he sends his senior staffto the walls of Jerusalem to
begin to call them to surrender.
He doesn't even want to have abattle, doesn't want to waste
(06:02):
his energy.
He just wants Hezekiah andIsrael to surrender.
And uh so uh his staff begin touh speak in Hebrew so everyone
can hear it over the walls.
And uh it's actually from my,you could read about in uh
Isaiah chapter 36.
I just want to read you a coupleof verses of what they say to
(06:23):
Hezekiah and all of his troops.
This is what the is what theysay.
This is the kind of pressurehe's under.
This is what the great king,they say, the great king of
Assyria says.
On what are you basing thisconfidence of yours?
You say you have counsel andmight for war, but you speak
only empty words.
On whom are you depending thatyou would rebel against me?
(06:45):
Have I come, have I not come toattack and destroy this land
without the Lord?
The Lord himself told me tomarch against you, your country,
and destroy it.
Do not let Hezekiah persuade youto trust in the Lord uh against
uh against me, because uh hasany gods of any nations
delivered their lands from theking of Assyria?
(07:08):
And so again, uh Sennacherib andthe king of Assyria, although
they worship all kinds of pagangods, they actually say, you
know what, your God sent me todestroy you.
And uh, six times he says in thefull passage, on what are you
basing your confidence, on whatare you pacing your trust?
And he challenged them, you'retrusting in the wrong thing,
your God.
And actually they were lookingto Egypt for help as well.
(07:30):
And uh and and this word faith,on what are you trusting, or
what are you putting your faithin?
It's it's it's that greatbiblical word of faith.
And I love the Gospel of John'sdefinition of faith or trust or
believing in God.
It's and and as one scholarcalls it, it's it's we trust or
believing in the Lord Jesus,we're trusting in the Lord
(07:52):
Jesus, we're putting our faithin the Lord Jesus.
And one great scholar said thebest translation is we are
relaxing in Jesus.
We're allowing ourselves to beheld by him.
And I like that transl, youknow, that kind of way
translation for the 21stcentury.
Uh, how can you relax in theLord Jesus when you're under
siege, when you're surrounded byimpossible pressure?
(08:13):
And that's what that's what theAssyrian king Sennacherib
challenges uh the Jewishbelievers with.
And uh, what happens so many ofus when we're under this kind of
pressure is we start making baddecisions.
Uh, we we do dumb things, we saythings we don't mean, we do
things we don't want to.
But Hezekiah is extraordinarybecause he actually uh he
(08:35):
engages in a response that issuch a model once we break it
down for us.
And I want to invite you to dothe same.
Now you may not be underenormous pressure today, but you
were, you may be, or you and youwill be.
It's like we're you may not bein a storm now, but Jesus sends
all of us into storms becausethere's revelation in the
storms.
It's part of walking with him,it's part of leadership for
(08:56):
sure.
Uh, but as you think aboutwhat's before you today, let's
go through the four practices ofHezekiah, which are so amazing
for us today.
3,000 years ago he does them.
They still apply as if he'sspeaking to us today.
First thing he does, Hezekiah,when he's when these horrific
words about you know quittingGod and don't trust in your God
come forth.
(09:17):
The first thing Hezekiah does uhwhen he hears this is he takes
the, they put it in a letter, Igive it to Hezekiah.
He takes it and he goes to thetemple of God and he spreads it
out before the Lord.
So the first thing Hezekiah doesis he remains in God.
He he stays connected to theLord.
(09:37):
We, you know, in in NewTestament terms, it's Jesus
says, you know, if you remain inme and I remain in you, you will
bear much fruit.
Apart from me, you can donothing.
And so he he makes the choice toabide, to stay connected, to
remain in God.
Now, he doesn't go into adefault mode, which it's so easy
to do when those moments comeinto our lives.
He he doesn't freeze.
(09:59):
You know, we freeze like a deerin headlights, uh, kind of shut
down, get immobilized.
You know, I used thatexpression, I used to joke
around with Jerry, I I get I geton my bed.
Jerry, I'll be under the I'll beunder the pillow with the pillow
over my head because I don'twant to think about it, I want
to freeze.
Uh, or we fight.
You know, we just start, we juststart getting angry, we get
busier, we start hustling, westart blaming people.
Or in some cases, we just flee.
(10:20):
We start looking for ways tomedicate our pain, to not feel
it.
Um, again, sometimes some peopledistract ourselves with all
kinds of things from TV to uhyou know, pornography to
shopping to anything to numb thepain and medicate it because it
hurts so much to be underpressure.
And uh so I know for myself,what I often do is I the way I
(10:42):
flee is I go into strategy mode.
I go into planning mode, I gointo let me make 12 phone calls
to the sharpest people I knowwho can help me fix this
situation and get out of it.
I had, you know, one mentor toldme years ago, I never forgot, he
goes, Pete, Pete, you are astreet fighter leader.
And I said, Man, that's kind oftrue.
I'm just the street fighter.
(11:03):
And he goes, That's gotta comeout of you.
And uh I we often underestimate,I know I have over the years,
the reality of Ephesians 6, 12,and following, that we wrestle
not against flesh and blood, butagainst powers and
principalities of darkness.
And that there are powers andprincipalities that aim to cut
(11:24):
you off from God and cut me offfrom communion and my
relationship with God and yourrelationship with God.
It's just so interesting howPaul finishes the book of
Ephesians with this backdrop ofpowers and principalities.
He doesn't dominate the wholebook, but it's there in the
background, and he finishes bytelling the Ephesian Christians
uh yes, God has called you asthe church to an incredible uh
(11:44):
destiny uh and callingprophetically into the world to
be a sign and wonder that pointsand tastes of Jesus himself as
the new temple of God.
But he goes, but remember thisyou know, we we wrestle not
against flesh and blood.
And the same way, when we talkabout when we're under pressure,
the the temptations to cut offfrom God or find a way to, in a
(12:06):
sense, minimize our relationshipwith God are tremendous.
They're actually supernatural.
Uh the Bible describes Satan asa deceiver and as an accuser.
Uh and, you know, you we thethis deceptions come to us.
These voices come to us in ourheads, things like, you know,
God's not for you.
You know, look at you, look atall the problems you've got and
(12:26):
the mistakes you've made.
Of course you're paying forthose mistakes.
Or, you know, God's not good orall-powerful.
If he was so good, he wouldn'tbe letting you go through all
this kinds of pain.
And he would stop all thissuffering.
Because not just you suffering,everybody around you suffering.
Or, you know, you're bankingyour life on God as trustworthy,
forget it.
And we hear those kinds ofvoices, or we get those
accusations.
You know what?
Uh, you've made a lot, you, you,your sins, you're paying for
(12:48):
your sins finally.
Uh, or you're a bum, you'reworthless, you're a loser.
You're the last person thatshould be leading right now,
whatever area you're leading,whether it's your family or a
ministry or a church or aparachurch, or you you don't
deserve to lead.
You don't have the gifts or thepower to lead.
Just sit down, back off.
And but yet Hezekiah somehowbreaks through all this and he
(13:08):
goes to God.
He just goes to the templebecause it's in him.
He's got a, he has a practice.
He has uh, it's not just comingout of nowhere.
He has a practice and a life.
Again, read the whole story ofHezekiah in scripture, of being
with God, of seeking God'sfaith.
So when he's under pressure, hejust keeps it up.
He remains in God.
(13:29):
He goes to the temples, lays theletter before the Lord.
That's why we talk so much aboutin this podcast and an
emotionally healthydiscipleship, trying to move you
to a strong, substantial rule oflife to enable to support uh
your calling, your destiny inGod, doing some practice,
getting key practices into yourlife now when things are okay,
(13:53):
of silence and solitude,learning to be with God and
yourself, and meditating onscripture, leccio divino,
spending half days or days alonewith God, and um engaging in
emotionally healthy practicesand rhythms of Sabbath and uh
you know, the examine.
And again, we've done somepodcasts on it in the previous
months.
(14:14):
But ordering your life in such away so that there's rhythms of
prayer and rest andrelationships, and then of
course work.
But with Jesus in the center,where you've crafted a life
that's not chaotic, but thatyou're abiding in the love of
God on a regular basis.
So you've got the offices,morning, maybe midday or an
evening, and you've got aSabbath rhythm, and you just
(14:36):
keep those rhythms regardless ofwhat's happening.
Jerry and I just came back fromuh a trip.
We were in uh Bulgaria andGreece, and we went and visited
a monastery, actually uh uh manymonasteries in an area of
northern Greece called Meteora.
And this was in the um uh earlycenturies, where monks built
(15:01):
monasteries.
Uh, first they were hermits,then they built communities way
up high on cliffs.
And they did it not because toget to get closer to God, uh,
they did it because they wantedsolitude and they wanted a life
without distractions, uh, andaway from the temptations of the
world so that they could bring aword to the world, world from
(15:21):
God.
And it even though it was a itwas a massive climb of so many
steps, exhausting, but going upthere and imagining again, they
would they would come up from apulley, they would, they would
be able to get up to the top,and uh they made it so difficult
for people to get there.
But they they built their uhhomes, their community, their
monasteries way up on thesecliffs because they wanted a
(15:45):
life with God withoutdistractions.
And I thought it's a great,great image for us.
Yes, you uh and me, we're livingin the midst of a world where
we're surrounded bydistractions.
Yet crafting a life where weremain with Jesus throughout the
day, uh, throughout our weeks,throughout our quarters, our
months and quarters and years,so that when those moments come
(16:07):
when it seems like all heavenand hell is broken out against
us, as it did to Job, we've gota practice that we can go to to
remain in God, even thoughthings around us begin to fall
apart.
That's the first thing he does.
He goes quickly to the, he goesimmediately to the Lord as he
regularly does.
But the second thing he does ishe acknowledges what's reality.
(16:28):
He faces reality withoutillusions or denial.
He just faces reality.
It's very important he doesthis.
He says he goes up to the templeand he lays out the letter from
the enemy, Sennacherib, the kingof Assyria.
He lays it out before the Lord.
Uh, it's it's a nasty letter.
It's a nasty letter.
He doesn't pretend it's notthere, and the consequences of
(16:50):
his letter are far reaching.
And uh again, he lays it out.
The Assyrians have destroyed,Lord, all the nations, like they
said.
They destroyed most of mykingdom.
We're the only ones left here.
Uh and yes, Lord, our situationis dire.
And he doesn't make the problemsmaller than it is.
He lays it.
He acknowledges no denial.
(17:13):
He lives, he faces realitywithout illusion.
I say this because mytemptation, I and I find with
many folks like myself, uh,especially pre-emotionally
healthy discipleship, before Idid lament and grief and
feelings, uh, I just would spinproblems.
I was a great spinner.
I didn't want to face the truthof the problems in front of me.
(17:34):
Uh so I lied a lot.
I spinned the truth a lot.
Uh I'd say, oh, I'm a bigpicture guy.
I don't get into the details.
And and uh my Myers, Brig is,you know, uh EFN's, you know,
whatever NJ, you know, and I uhI'm I'm just I I I'm just
naturally an optimist.
I just believe God.
Well, I had these kind ofattitudes, you know.
With his help, I can storm a,you know, storm a wall.
(17:56):
And I or I'd say things like,I'm just, I'm not, it's really
not so bad.
Uh God's good.
It's gonna work out in the end.
But I didn't face uh realities.
I I lived in a lot of illusionsas a follower of Jesus because
it was too painful to face.
Uh Hezekiah does not do that.
He head-on faces reality andwithout any denial.
(18:19):
Now, it's been said rightly so,that true spirituality uh is
living in reality.
In other words, uh pretendingspirituality is about
penetrating reality and uhdestroying illusions.
That's actually what truespirituality is.
Uh, that's why the uh acontemplative life is so
(18:40):
necessary in our world of agazillion distractions, because
we want to live in reality, notasleep and in illusions.
Parker Palmer, uh, in his memoirat the age of 79, writes about
uh he wasn't very good atcontemplative by intention.
(19:01):
That is the spiritual practicesof silence and stillness, like
uh many monastics will do, andmany folks who are
contemplatives will do, havingrhythms in your days and weeks
and years.
He goes, I wasn't very good atthat.
Because, but I ended up becominga contemplative by catastrophe.
And I was like, oh Lord.
What he meant by that wasgenerally he became a
contemplative through crises,through, through catastrophes,
(19:24):
knocking him off his feet andfinally getting him to be
reflective about himself, aboutGod, and about life.
And I was like, oh Lord, that'snot how I want to be a
contemplative.
And in fact, he has this veryinteresting story here.
He goes, when someone comes uhto you, he says, you know, when
someone comes to usdisillusioned, instead of saying
(19:45):
to them, Oh, I'm so sorry aboutthat, let me comfort you.
He goes, We really should say,congratulations that you're
disillusioned, because you'reyou've lost another illusion and
you're one step closer toreality, to life, to God.
Uh so let me disillusion youeven further.
Uh I thought that wasfascinating, actually.
The more I thought about it, themore I see that the I see the
(20:05):
truth of it.
It's can it there is a level ofcontemplativeness out of
catastrophe as well, as we seethings as they are.
Howard Thurman, uh, the greatAfrican-American author, wrote
about, he called it the sound ofthe genuine within us and around
us.
He goes, He goes, help us stay.
They they when we hit we get intouch with the sound of the
genuine inside of us, we see thedeceptions of ourselves and the
(20:29):
world around us.
Very, very true.
So real faith makes steps, spacefor slowing down, a
contemplative life.
Because, and it says veryhonestly, wow, this is hard.
This is what's happening.
I'm not afraid.
Lord, I bring it before you.
And like Hezekiah, we kind oflay our letter, our letter out
(20:51):
before the Lord.
We lay out what is before theLord.
That's why I love journaling.
Uh, we live in reality, notillusions.
And Hezekiah does that.
Great practice.
Uh, all right.
But number three, he does this.
Hezekiah seeks wise counsel.
Uh, he seeks wise counsel.
He goes, uh in again, it's inchapter 36 and 37 of the book of
(21:13):
Isaiah, he seeks out Isaiah theprophet, and he goes to him.
He doesn't try to navigate italone.
Fascinating, right?
Now, Solomon, the wisest personwho ever lived, uh, talks about
the need for us to invite othersinto our process.
Uh, you know, the way of the,for example, uh, he says in
Proverbs 12, 15, the way of afool seems right to him, but a
(21:35):
wise person listens to advice.
Uh, Proverbs 15, 22, plans failfor a lack of counsel.
And Proverbs 20, 18, make plansby seeking advice.
If you wage war, obtainguidance.
So he trusts himself as a fool,it says in Proverbs.
Now, it's probably been rightlysaid, I 75% of people who get in
messes uh often have not invitedanother person into their
(21:59):
process.
So, because we don't see the bigpicture, we may we're not the
whole body of Christ, we're surenot God.
And we make often makeassumptions about things in our
situations that just aren'ttrue.
Now, some of us have gone togotten counsel and advice from
people, but the wrong people.
And they've taken us in a in abad way.
And I I've done it.
I've done it.
We see we see examples of thatin scripture.
(22:19):
Uh, happened with Solomon andRehoboam.
This uh happened with me.
I mean, I can think of some keymoments in my life where I got
bad counsel, and I took it, andit really took me on a detour.
Um uh, but I I didn't go tosomeone who was further down the
road than I was, and hadactually had nothing to lose by
telling me what I didn't want tohear.
Uh, but by choosing the rightpeople, my goodness.
(22:41):
So let me tell you whathappened.
That situation I was in in 2004,2005, and I was really stuck
that I described the beginningof our podcast.
Um, I went to a couple of peoplethat I should first two counsels
I got were were were not helpfulum to me at all.
And basically said, you don't,you know, it was just bad
counsel.
Either, you know, leave, Pete.
(23:02):
Uh, you can't do this.
Uh someone else better step in.
You've taken it as far as youcan go.
Um or you just one guy just youjust can't do this.
And And didn't look no sense ofhope, or you know, just kind of
like you just can't.
And uh it was actually a awoman, uh, her name was Karen,
and and and she basically was sofascinating, she said to me, and
(23:24):
she was actually a therapist, acounselor, she says, Pete, I'm
really puzzled.
She was not even a believer inJesus.
But she said to me, she goes,What's interesting to me is
you've been in leadership fordecades.
You've accomplished so manythings in your life, and yet for
some reason you think you can'tlearn these executive issues in
leadership.
And she goes, but you shouldprobably make a list of
(23:46):
everything you've accomplishedand learned over all these
years, because it may give youactually realize you could learn
this.
You're smart enough to learn itand get through this.
And God just like slammed me.
And he brought me to the passageof 1 Samuel 17, where David is
confronting, if you remember,David's confronting Goliath, but
first he's confronting his olderbrothers who say he can't go up
(24:09):
against Goliath.
And he confronts Saul, who says,You're only a boy, you can't do
it.
And then he confronts Goliath.
But David says this he goes,I've killed both the lion and
the bear.
Your servant has killed both alion and the bear.
And this uncircumcisedPhilistine will be like one of
them because he has defied thearmies of the living God.
And what David basically saysis, you know, God has delivered
(24:30):
me in the past from a lion and abear.
Those were smaller victories Godgave me of challenges I had in
my life.
And I have no doubt that God isgoing to bring, enable me to get
through the challenge of Goliathand bring him down.
And so what I did was I tookthat counsel and I went home and
I began to make a list of allthe things God had done for me
(24:52):
and things I had learned in hisname to get me where I was that
day.
Everything from learningSpanish, we moved, moved to
Costa Rica, you know, graduatingseminary.
I mean, I had a very long list,uh, you know, starting our
church, starting a secondchurch, starting a third church,
you know, building a team, etcetera, et cetera.
And it was I did it over a fewdays.
I had a very long list, um,getting married, learning to
(25:13):
grow, and having a wonderfulmarriage and having four
children.
It just, it was a very long listof what God enabled, my lions
and bears that God had enabledme to conquer.
And I just, you know, I don'tknow what I'm doing.
This is a Goliath before me.
How do I take our church to thenext phase?
Because I don't know how.
And so I began to, I, when Isaid, Lord, I know you can teach
(25:35):
me to do this.
It may never be my strongestgifts, but I can learn the
executive skills to leading alarge staff, a large ministry,
uh, and job descriptions andhiring and firing and budgeting
and long-range planning and allof that.
I am not helpless.
And I went on a journey uh as anexecutive pastor and grew
(25:55):
enormously.
I was still the lead pastor, andI began to learn from different
people.
And it was a turning point in myentire life.
That good counsel, that wisecounsel, uh, I meant the whole
emotionally healthy leader, manyof you are familiar with that
book came out of what I learnedin 2004 to 2005, 2006.
And 10 years later, I put itinto a book called The
Emotionally Healthy Leader.
(26:16):
Uh, and I would not be heretoday.
Emotionally healthy discipleshipas a global ministry wouldn't
exist today.
But it came out of wise counsel,and it was so amazing.
It came from, in a sense, anindirect source to me.
Um, and there it was, changed mylife.
So be curious.
Take initiative, seek out wisecounsel.
(26:36):
It's out there.
That's again why we're socommitted at this phase of uh
emotionally at the discipleshipas a ministry to build community
through, again, globalconferences, through gatherings,
et cetera.
You'll be seeing more and moreinvitations to connect with
others uh around a biblicaltheology that you actually can
fulfill the destiny God hascalled you to do and to become.
(27:00):
All right.
There's a fourth thing though,Hezekiah does.
So he he remains in the law withthe Lord.
You know, he he confrontsreality.
He doesn't live in illusions.
Uh he lays that before the Lord.
Uh, then he seeks wise counsel.
But a fourth thing he does,which is again finally, and just
so brilliant, he waits on theLord.
He he waits.
Um, he lets God be God.
(27:21):
It's amazing.
It climaxes the story in Isaiah36 and 37.
He just says, Lord, deliver us.
Lord, deliver us.
And he waits.
He doesn't tell God how to doit, when to do it, how to do
nothing.
He just says, when to do it,just through whom to do it.
He just waits on the Lord.
Uh and scholars note that theAssyrian army numbered 500,000,
(27:42):
maybe a million troops.
Uh and here he was completelyoutnumbered.
And he's just, he's waiting onthe Lord.
And then it says, one night theLord slew 185,000 Assyrian
troops in the night.
And no one could explain how.
And some something supernaturaltook place, and Sennacherib, the
Assyrian king, withdrew.
(28:02):
Uh, but it happened in thenight.
It's like so much of scripture,right?
Miracles happen like in theseplaces.
We can't quite see it, whetherit's the deliverance that
happened in the dark night ofthe Exodus and the Passover, or
it's the Easter resurrection.
You really can't see it, but Goddid it, or I think the
multiplying of the loaves andfishes.
I mean, how that invisiblemiracle happened, it just did,
(28:22):
or even that the crossing of theRed Sea, the mystery of how God
separated the waters.
I mean, he just did it.
And there's no explanation forso many miracles of what God
does.
Uh, we just are left with simplylike awe of worship and wonder.
Uh the most deliverances, I inmy experience of where God shows
up, it's not uh like a lottery,we want a million dollars.
(28:45):
It's like boom, it's it's like ajigsaw puzzle.
Pieces come together and somehowit's like done.
And we're not even quite surehow it works.
It's like this this the spacebetween the words and the verses
of scripture is where so muchtakes place.
That uh, you know, how Godmoves.
And that's one of the keymessages of the whole book of
Isaiah.
Definitely this passage, the keyto life is letting God be God
(29:07):
and training ourselves tocompletely be dependent on him
until we really kind of rest inthe fact that he can supply, he
can get it done, way better thanour feverish activity ever
could.
Sue Monk Kid in her book, Whenthe Heart Waits, she writes
about her time that she was in amonastery, and she says to the
monk, I can't seem to get usedto the idea of doing nothing.
(29:32):
And the monk breaks into awonderful grin and he says,
Well, that's the problem rightthere, young lady.
You've brought in, you've boughtinto the cultural myth that when
you're waiting, you're doingnothing.
Then he took his hands, heplaced them on my shoulders, she
writes.
He looked straight into my eyesand he said, I hope you'll hear
what I'm about to tell you.
I hope you hear it all the waydown to your toes.
(29:53):
And he says, When you'rewaiting, you are not doing
nothing.
You're doing the most importantthing there is.
You're allowing your soul togrow up.
If you can't wait, it can't, ifyou can't wait uh and be still,
you can't become what Godcreated you to be.
I like what Simone Vey, thegreat French uh writer, wrote.
(30:16):
Waiting patiently in expectationis the foundation of the
spiritual life.
I'll say it again.
Uh waiting patiently inexpectation is the foundation of
the spiritual life.
Wow.
Sometimes what appears to be acatastrophe is actually the
(30:37):
strong foundation to build agood life, a great life.
Abraham had to wait, Moses hadto wait, Israel had to wait in
the wilderness.
Jesus waited, you know,thousands and millions and
billions of years to come toearth.
Uh, and he didn't strive andrush even when he came.
Because to the Lord, a thousandyears is like a day.
In other words, what's a longtime to us is a nanosecond to
(31:01):
God.
And so listen, I'm a New Yorker.
I finish people's sentences.
I mean, I'm I'm terriblyimpatient.
It's it's it's in my bones.
The grandpa's in my bones.
But God has taught me, and he'steaching me even more.
And I'll tell you, gettingolder, I can I can testify,
getting older, one of the greatgifts is you do get more
patient.
You'll learn, and I'll learn.
(31:21):
Like Jacob never quite learnedit well.
He was a striver in it inGenesis.
He was a fighter.
He didn't want to wait and rest.
Um, so four things stillnessunder siege, okay, finding rest
under impossible pressure.
Let's learn from Hezekiah.
Let me invite you today, youknow, as you think about what's
(31:43):
one area of pressure that you'reunder today, uh, find a quiet
place, spread it out before God,and do what Hezekiah did.
Remain in the Lord, uh, facereality without illusions.
Bring it before Him.
Seek wise counsel, ask God forwisdom.
Who can you speak to?
Who might have that?
And then finally, wait, wait,wait, wait on him this week.
(32:09):
Take it before the Lord.
Um, wow.
It's an ancient practice, but itsure works.
So let me close with a prayerthat I've prayed for many, many
years.
It's from Psalm 135 and 6.
In fact, for years I prayed itevery day.
And it says this I wait for theLord, my soul waits.
And in his word I put my hope.
(32:31):
My soul waits for the Lord morethan watchmen for the morning,
more than watchmen for themorning.
God bless everybody.
Have a wonderful, wonderful day.
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