Bishop TD Jakes - How to Cope with Tiredness - Potter's Touch

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
It is utterly amazing when you read the previous chapter,
how dynamic Elijah was, how he faced Ahab, and how
he faced the profits of bail, and how he destroyed

(00:21):
the four hundred and fifty prophets of Beil with great courage,
great tenacity. How he went back and threw himself back
on Mount Carmel and prayed again, and put his head
between his knees and blocked out everything, and then prayed
till he produced the rain that broke the drought, that

(00:43):
broke the famine, that changed things for everybody. He'd done
everything for everybody. He'd set everybody free. And then King
Ahab goes back and tells Jezebel, a woman that I
talked about extensively on Sunday, a woman who was a
foreigner to them, was not really one of them, had
been brought into their camp from Phoenicia and had married

(01:08):
this Hebrew boy though they were both Semitic, actually and
married him, and the king and the queen come together.
Came together because the two countries are coming together. It
was a political deal. She didn't choose him, she didn't
want him. It was an arranged marriage, not just by
the parents, but by the countries because they thought it
would be good politically. And here she is in this

(01:31):
country and I talked about it quite a bit Sunday,
And here she is in this country, in this atmosphere,
away from her people, away from Phoenicia, away from their
customs and rituals, away from their liberal attitude. She's now
thrust into this extremely conservative environment. And not only are
they conservative, they are contentious. Yeah, they're conservative, but they

(01:56):
don't get along with each other. And she hated it.
She sent for the prophets in the first place, so
she'd have something from home, something that was true to
her faith, in her background and her religion, and she's
trying to convert them by killing the prophets. And now
Elijah has killed the prophets of Beil in a dynamic

(02:21):
display of God's glory, calling fire down on Mount Carmel,
licking up the water, licking up the wood, licking up
the stones, and burning up the sacrifice. God it showed
himself to be strong in the life of Elijah. Elijah
praised down the rain and it begins to rain, and
again God has shown himself to be strong. Elijah kills

(02:43):
four hundred and fifty prophets. God has showed himself to
be strong in Elijah's life. Elijah then tells King Ahab
to get on his cheeriod and slack not by rioting
unless the rain stopped thee And then he girded up
his loyings about his girdle and his belt and started
running and out ran the chariot. Mighty man, superman, amazing man,

(03:07):
incredible man, accomplished man, admirable man in that chapter of
his life. But when he heard the Jezebel had said,
made the gauds do that and more to me if
I don't kill you in the next twenty four hours,
he got a Fred. Now, I would like to say

(03:29):
that the pressure started with Jezebel's threat. And sometimes we
have something that happens in our life that is a
tipping point that takes us over the edge, that drives
us to a place where we just can't take it anymore,
and all of a sudden, we react to it. Jezebel's

(03:51):
threat on his life, she never touched him, she never
got him. She didn't get him within twenty four hours.
She really spoke a curse over herself. But he's running
a Fred, and he's not a fearful person, but now
he's a fread And I'm wondering if there's anybody watching
me tonight that you're not normally a fearful person, but

(04:13):
now you're afred, that your emotions are out quack in
such a way that you are responding this way and
that way that something that you normally would be confident about,
and now you're a fred or tired or frustrated or weary.
And he comes to the juniper tree. I'm going to

(04:33):
use King James English language. He comes to the juniper
tree and he said is enough? It is enough, which
really means it is too much, but he's saying it
is enough. Let me die. The man who just killed
four hundred and fifty profits now saying let me die.

(04:55):
I am no better than my ancestors. I want out
of my own life. I'm wondering if there's anybody out
there listening at me tonight who has ever gotten to
the point of exasperation where you want it out of
your own life. Maybe not suicidal, We won't use that

(05:16):
big of a word because a lot of people can't
own that word. Maybe not suicidal, but just depressed enough
and discouraged enough and frustrated enough that you just want
out of your own life, out of your own skin,
out of your own world. You can get in the
car and just drive until you ran out of gas,
and then get on a bus and go till you

(05:37):
ran out of money, and wherever you were, change your
name and turn into somebody else, because it's enough. You've
had it. And you know you're a believer and you
know what we've got, but you've had it, and you
know the scriptures, but you've had it. And you've seen
the miracles work in your life before. But you've had it,

(05:58):
and you've seen God use you no matter way. But now,
for some reason, in this season, with all of this
stuff going on, on top of everything else you had
going on, you've been sheltered in place. Some of you
have lost your jobs, you've lost loved ones. We've seen
a quarter million people die. We're now seeing an upsurge

(06:20):
in the virus. And if that were not enough, every
day we're faced with political chaos like we have never
seen before. No matter what your politics are, this has
been stressful. Four years of all kinds of health breaking loose.
It's always bad, but this has been exceptionally contentious, everybody

(06:40):
fighting with everybody, and you try to avoid it, and
you try to turn and it's almost on every station. Now.
It's one thing to have hell on the outside and
pressure on the outside and chaos on the outside. But
it's not like your own personal problems went to bed
while the world was going crazy. It's not like your

(07:00):
bills stopped coming because of COVID. No, no, no. It's
not like all of your children lined up, and all
of your siblings lined up, and all your parents lined
up because of COVID. No no, no, no no. You
still got all the drama you always had on top
of this new drama. And you're saying, look, I'm a

(07:21):
strong person, but this is enough. What do you do
when you feel like giving up and you feel like
walking away. First of all, there is the shame of
feeling that way, the guilt that comes from saying, I
should be a type a person, I should be an

(07:43):
alpha male, I should be this, I should be that.
I'm a super woman, I'm the woman for the job.
You've always thought that about yourself.

Speaker 2 (07:51):
But now you don't want to tell anybody, but you
want out of your own life. Getting me out of
my own skin, Oh, if I could just be somebody
else for a little while. And pressure of anxiety has
bought the Great Man of God down to land up

(08:14):
under a bush, and he is despaired of life itself,
and he says, it is enough. I want to talk
about breaking points because all of us have it. Not
all of us know how to deal with it, but
all of us have them.

Speaker 1 (08:34):
It is especially difficult for those of us who have
been mighty at other chapters in our lives to come
to a point of exasperation that the feeling is not
only frustrating, it's foreign. And you would dare say it
in front of anybody. Elijah didn't say it in front
of anybody. That's why I wanted you to notice that

(08:55):
he left his servant in Bearsheba Judah left them back there.
Did you stay here and went on a little further
where the servant couldn't hear, and said, God, I'm sick
of everything and everybody. This is not the kind of
prayer that you pray on Sunday morning in front of
the church. This is the kind of prayer you pray
when nobody's listening, where you can really keep it real

(09:16):
and you give a God and saying sick of my husband.
I'm sick of my wife. I'm sick of my kids.
I know, like my goldfish, my dog is stupid. I'm
gonna kill that cat. You just just just maybe you
haven't been there. I understand that feeling. I understand that
feeling where you are overwhelmed and you need to just

(09:41):
be honest with God for a minute, not religious, not spiritual,
not perfect, not anything, and tell God, am sick of this.
I've had it. I'm tired.

Speaker 3 (09:55):
It's enough.

Speaker 2 (09:58):
Now.

Speaker 1 (09:58):
When people who are normally fighters come to this point,
the shame also comes with being there because they're not
used to being there. I feel like I'm talking to
somebody tonight. I don't know. I feel like I'm sitting
down talking directly to somebody I don't know who. You're
not even used to feeling the way you're feeling. It's
a strange feeling. It's a foreign feeling. Not only Elijah

(10:20):
in a strange place. He's having a strange feeling at
a strange time in his life. Laying up under a tree,
a bush, as it were. He can't go any further.
It's not like he checked in to the bush hotel.
This is not the juniper resort. No, this is just
as far as he can go. And he just collapses

(10:43):
and everything smells up. I have been faithful for you.
I have worked for you. I've done this and that
for you. I did that. He went through the whole list,
and then he goes down to another thing. He says,
there's nobody left but me. They've killed all the prophets.
I alone am left. Now. I want to stop right

(11:04):
there because I want you to see something. What he
just said isn't true. And he knows it's not true
because in the previous chapter, Obadiah has reserved at least
some profits in a cave, and he is aware that
those profits exist. What do you do when what you

(11:33):
know doesn't line up with how you feel. Intellectually, he
knows that they are there, but emotional, emotionally, and experientially,
he feels all alone. He's left, deserving just a lower waist.
But he knows where he is. There are other prophets

(11:55):
that are yet alive. He knows that. He knows that,
but he doesn't feel that. And sometimes how you feel
about something becomes your reality. And the Bible says that

(12:16):
he fell asleep under the juniper tree. How do you
get your fix? Fight back?

Speaker 3 (12:26):
That's what I'm talking about today. Can I tell you something?
You're tired. He has been doing everything for everybody. He
has fought against all odds. He has confronted his biggest enemies.

(12:46):
He has stood up against four hundred and fifty prophets
of Bill. He has looked a Haab squared down in
the face and talked smack to him. He's been ferocious,
but he's dying. He has climbed all the way back
up on Mount Carmel again and prayed and prayed and

(13:07):
prayed and prayed and prayed and prayed and prayed and
prayed for rain. His literally birthed rain, and God has answered.
And if that were not enough.

Speaker 1 (13:28):
He has outrun King Ahab was in a chariot, Elijah
was on foot, and he's outrunning. He's tired. And God,
who called fired down from heaven, and God who sent
a del use of rain that rebut the drought and

(13:50):
stopped the famine, does no miracles under the juniper tree
other than letting him get some rest. You can't get
around it when you're burned out, when you're at the
end of eu rope. There is nothing wrong with rest