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  AVOIDING BURNOUT
  by Vlad Savchuk
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Summary: This sermon emphasizes the importance of serving God in our
generation, drawing lessons from the story of David. It highlights the
need to pursue God passionately, receive His anointing for service,
develop character through slow success, and avoid distractions that lead
to sin. The message encourages active service, humility, and dedication
to God's purpose, warning against complacency and the consequences of
not serving God wholeheartedly.

Topics: "Serving God in Our Generation", "Pursuing God Passionately"
Scripture References: 1 Samuel 16:13, Acts 13:36, Deuteronomy 28:47, Hebrews 6:10, Colossians 3:23

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DESCRIPTION
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This sermon emphasizes the importance of serving God in our generation,
drawing lessons from the story of David. It highlights the need to
pursue God passionately, receive His anointing for service, develop
character through slow success, and avoid distractions that lead to sin.
The message encourages active service, humility, and dedication to God's
purpose, warning against complacency and the consequences of not serving
God wholeheartedly.

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CONTENT
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We're going to look at the story of David, and I'm going to highlight to
you four simple thoughts. The first thing that I want to mention, and if
you're taking notes, write this down. The pursuit of God prepares you
for what God is planning for your life.

The Bible says that Saul was rejected by God, and God chose David as the
king, but God didn't play lottery in choosing David. God didn't just
simply say, mini, mini, money. Oh, David, yeah, right there, David.

The Bible makes it clear there was a prerequisite. There was something
that qualified David to be God's chosen servant. Now, today God is not
choosing kings over Israel.

Most of us, when I'm talking about our calling, God wants you not to be
the one who is only called. God wants you to be the one that is also
chosen. Somebody say chosen.

Not chosen frozen, but chosen and on fire. Chosen and called by God.
Many people are called.

Many of us don't get chosen. There is a prerequisite that distinguishes
us from the mass, from the herd, from the crowd, and God makes a
testimony about David. You heard testimonies today during the baptism.

When people gave testimonies of God, God saved me, God healed me, God
delivered me. There is a time when God gives testimony of you. The Bible
says the Lord testified of David.

What kind of testimony do you think God will give about you? Well, I
know the testimony he gave about David. He said this about David, this
man David is a man after my heart. Our testimonies go like this.

I was in darkness, now I'm in the light. I was addicted to drugs, now
I'm set free. I was sick and now I'm healed.

I was blind, now I see. God's testimony goes slightly different. This
person is different than others.

Why? Because their generation seeks after things he seeks after me. As
David was seeking after God, something as a teenager distinguished him
from the rest of the people. God took notice of that and his pursuit of
God started to prepare him for what God was planning for him.

Ministry is an overflow of our pursuit of God. Ministry is not an
overflow of our gifts, skills, and talents. Ministry is not an overflow
of our abilities, education, connections, or well, I'm connected to
pastor.

Well, I'm connected to one of the main families in the church, therefore
I am in ministry. You can be in ministry position like that, but God's
calling on your life is never connected to your family connections or
even other things. It's connected to your pursuit of him.

Can somebody say amen? God seeks those that go after him. The scripture
clearly states in Hebrews chapter 11 verse 6 that God rewards those that
diligently pursue him. What made that David different is that David was
after God.

When I find people who are discouraged, disappointed, I'm tired from
serving, I don't want to serve ministry anymore, I'm burned out, church
hurt, I'll never do it again. Why? I've tried it, underappreciated, over
criticized, too much demand, too much pressure. You look at those
people's personal life and you will find something very common
denominator between all of them.

It's not that the church hurt them, the ministry burned them out, it's
the root system was too shallow and the weight of their responsibilities
overwhelmed them, not because responsibilities were heavy, because roots
were short. We live in tri-cities and we are cursed with wind. We get a
lot of it and dust that the wind creates.

Winds get so strong in tri-cities, they topple trees. And one of the
things that wind exposes is how shallow the root system of the trees in
tri-cities. When the wind comes through and the trees topple, the trees
turn over and you see this beautiful big tree you drive by every single
day and you find out that the root system was mile wide and just few
feet deep.

And that's why they stood well when everything was well. But when things
didn't go well and as things always don't go well, the trees toppled.
They were turned over and they fell.

What kept David grounded in serving God all his life and the Bible says
he served God in his generation, through drama, trauma, abuse,
criticism, attacks, misunderstood, falsely accused. Somebody tried to
kill him with a spear, his own father-in-law, all of that stuff. You
don't see David becoming bitter, angry, mad, suing and all of this
stuff.

You see David has a testimony from God, a man after my heart. Being on
fire for Jesus is the only protection guarantee we have to not let
anything we go through in ministry completely consume us. When you've
done ministry for a long time, you know how things are ran, especially
if you've done things on the stage, up close with leaders and pastors.

It's kind of like this, if you know how the sausage is made, you don't
eat sausage. I meet people sometimes who've been in the ministry for a
long time and they tell me they're like, I know how this stuff works and
that's why I'm no longer in ministry. I said, I understand you but I
also know one thing about you, you don't know God.

I count everything as rubbish to know him. What separated David from
every other man is that David wasn't a professional, he was passionate
pursuer of God. Being professional is not what God is looking, God is
looking for lovers, pursuers and those who are after him.

He will give them whatever is necessary to accomplish their purpose. It
was amateurs that build the ark and professionals build Titanic. God is
looking for people in the pursuit after him.

If all you have is just bad experience with serving church, burned out,
I don't want to condemn, guilt trip or discredit the validity of your
painful experience. What I want to tell you, there is a furnace hotter
than any breakup or hurt and that furnace is the liquid love of God.
When it burns you on the inside, you become unstoppable and God wants
people who are in ministry, not just to be good in ministry but to be
good in prayer, good in pursuit after him, good in fasting, good in
seeking after him.

Why? Because that qualifies them for growing in ministry. Can someone
say amen? The second thing that I would like to highlight and that is
this, God gives power to meet the demands of service. I want you to
notice this in 1st Samuel chapter 16 and the Bible says in verse 13 and
verse 14.

Then Samuel took the horn of oil and anointed him in the midst of his
brothers and the spirit of the Lord came upon David from that day
forward. So Samuel arose and went to Rama verse 14. But the spirit of
the Lord departed from Saul and a distressing spirit from the Lord
troubled him.

I find it interesting that in every time God calls a man or a woman in
the Bible, he doesn't send them to a college. He sends them anointing.
College is important.

University is important. Skills are important. Being able to
communicate, play instruments is important.

Organize, structure and manage things is very important. God used many
times very smart people like Moses and like Apostle Paul. They helped to
write things.

Moses helped to structure a bunch of slaves into a nation. But one
common thread that runs from the beginning to the end is every person
God calls, he gives them power. Why does he give them power? Because the
task God calls us to do without power is not going to be accomplished.

Think of this, you have a way of cutting a tree with scissors or power
tools. If you take your scissors and you come to a tree and you say,
well it cuts paper. Trees are kind of paper.

I'm gonna cut the tree with scissors. You take these scissors, you will
be there till the coming of Antichrist and the second coming of Christ.
The tree will fall.

You need power tools to accomplish a task. Now for a paper, scissors are
enough. To cut the tree, scissors are insufficient.

The kind of calling God has for us. Now some of you may say, well I'm
just greeting. I'm leading a small group.

I don't need a lot of power. Everything that has to do with assaulting
the gates of hell, rescuing people from the kingdom of darkness to
kingdom of light, discipling your children in a woke brainwashed culture
that does not know what men is and what a woman is and is trying to put
men in women's bathrooms. In a culture that calls abortion a choice.

In a culture that is completely messed up in their foolishness when it
comes to morality and all this relativism. In this culture you need not
scissors to disciple your children, you need power tools. And God
promises power.

Teenager, I think someone said about 15 years of age, God calls a
teenager at the age of about 15, 15-16 and he gives him power. What we
call anointing to accomplish a task. Stress in life comes from three
main sources.

It comes from the demands of service. It comes from the deception of sin
and the demise of satan. When we serve, the bible says, Jesus says power
left him.

We can experience depletion. We can experience emptiness because we feel
empty because we lose that fuel when we serve. When we commit sin, we
lose power.

The bible says that Samson felt power leave him, not because he was
serving, it's because he was sinning. We can also lose power when
demonic attacks happen to us. The bible says the distressing spirit came
upon Saul and he was weak after that.

When it comes to ministry or serving in God's house, serving God's
purposes in your life, there are four problems that come with it. The
first one is the pressure from the position. The second one is the pain
from people.

The third one is the pushback from the devil. And the fourth one is the
problems from within. Let me just quickly go through this.

Pressure from our position. You don't have to be a pastor, but just
being in the position of being a parent, there is a pressure that's
involved with that. You have to provide.

You have to think about everything your kids are not even thinking
about. For those of you who have a business, you have employees under
your care. Your employees go to sleep, you're thinking about when the
next contract will come.

You're making sure the LNI is not on your case. You're making sure
everybody wears all that they need to wear. You're literally, there is
pressure no one understands until somebody had employees to manage.

You live with this. It never turns off. There is a pressure that comes
with it and it stresses you out.

People say, well don't worry about it. That is the dumbest thing you can
tell somebody who has a position that carries pressure. After the
pressure from the position comes pain from people.

The position itself has pressure, but then if you have anything to do
with people, people don't add pressure, they add pain. Now they're also
the source of greatest pleasure in this world and they're the source of
the deepest pains you'll ever experience in your life. There are people
you work with, there are people who work for you, there are people you
work for, and the people that are around you.

I'll testify concerning church. Being in the church, you know, when I
was younger I wished one day to be the lead pastor of Hungry Gen so I
can make all the decisions. And one day our pastor was gone to Ukraine
for about one month and I was just a youth pastor.

I was so excited. Finally I can be the boy, the man. No, not the boy.

I didn't want to be the boy. I wanted to be the man. And we had a
situation where in one week we had two or three deacons decided to
attack me about what we need to change in the church.

And I didn't know what to do. I didn't know who to say yes to. And I was
like, just wait for the pastor.

They're like, well you're the guy now. You make the decision. In those
three days I was praying to God that God sends the pastor back that
week.

And I was convinced I will never be a pastor again. I was like, why do I
want this pressure? Now they're all criticizing me. They're all
expecting me to make those decisions.

That Sunday a girl that comes to our church for prayer line decides to
manifest during the prayer. We bring her here and the demon doesn't even
speak. And for 15 minutes I'm commanding the demon to go in the back of
my head.

I was like, where is the pastor? Where is, where's the real pastor? I'm
not supposed to be doing this. I felt like Sons of Sceva for a moment.
Thankfully we delivered her.

And after that week, I was like, I'm tired. And we still have three more
weeks to go. When the pastor came back, I was grateful.

I said, God, the dream I had, scratch it. I have no idea what I was
thinking about. I want to stay under somebody else's covering.

I don't want to take the hits. I don't want to be criticized. I don't
want to be responsible.

I don't want the spotlight because the spotlight carries heat. I only
thought about the spotlight. I didn't know you had to also endure the
pressure from the heat that comes with it.

And when I tasted that as a teenager, I learned something. With great
position comes even greater responsibility. Nobody knows until it lands
on your shoulders.

The pressure that comes with it. The peoples hurt that one comment. It
could be 20 compliments and that one comment gets under your skin and
you're thinking about it in the shower for three days.

You're, you're preparing a sermon. How next Sunday this person is gone
from the church, but it's still inside of you. Matthew Barnett said, you
want to be a bridge to a dying world.

You have to be ready to be walked upon. We all pray, Lord, make me a
servant. And then people treat us like service is a God.

This church just doesn't love people. Well, we asked God to make us like
servants. What do you think? Servants get treated like royalties? No.

And that hurts because that's rejection. That, that is hurt. That is
somebody leaving.

That is somebody saying this, that is somebody not understanding. That
is somebody expecting you to be their Jesus Messiah 24 seven available.
And that carries hurt.

The third thing, if you think you're done with people, then if people
are okay, position seems to be okay, then the devil comes out of
nowhere, starts attacking you. You're like, come on, leave me alone. I'm
already serving.

I already have a lot of pressure. I'm already hurting from some of the
people that are attacking me. And now the devil comes like, well, I
have, I'm not done with you and throws few punches.

And if you think that's not enough, you also are flawed human being who
have desires, cravings, passions. They need to be crucified. And those
things begin to surface.

All these four come at once. And it's a recipe for disaster. Now what
God does is this.

God doesn't come and say, Oh, it's so bad. People are hurting you. Let
me go change the people.

God doesn't come and say, Oh, it's so hard to be a pastor. Well, let me
just pull you away. We'll just not make anybody a pastor.

Oh, it's so hard to be a father. Well, you know what? Go and not be a
father. Oh, it's so hard to be in this position.

Let me just relieve the stress from this position. God doesn't reduce
the pressure, the pain, the pushback, and even the problems. What he
comes is he says, let me give you power to meet the demands of pressure.

Let me give you power to meet the pushback against the devil. Let me
give you power to deal with the hurt that can come from people. Let me
give you power to deal with your personal demons and your personal
problems because God doesn't make us pitiful.

He makes us powerful. God isn't building wimps. He's building warriors.

I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me, gives me power.
And it's come hell, high water. When the devil comes like a flood, the
spirit of God doesn't run.

He comes against him with power. That's why ministry without power will
destroy you. Doing serving without relationship with God and to receive
that fresh deposit of power regularly, you will get overwhelmed.

The problem is not the ministry is hard. You're weak. You are not strong
enough for the ministry unless God supplies power.

That's why God gave David not a university course on how to kill giants.
The Bible says he poured his spirit on a teenager and said, now you're
powerful. Go to the lions, go to the bears.

No teenager can kill a lion unless God adds super to your natural. No
young man, 17 years of age can kill a Goliath unless God adds super to
your natural. If you feel overwhelmed, if you feel burned out, if you
feel tired from the responsibilities of life, from the pressure of your
position, from the pushback you experienced from the enemy, I want to
tell you something.

You are not weird. It's normal. That's why God's remedy is power.

Those who wait upon the Lord shall. I can't hear you. Interesting.

The Bible doesn't say those who wait upon the Lord, he removes their
pressure. What most of us think is if I wait on God, he'll get rid of my
husband. If I wait on God, he will cause the people that cause me
suffering to just disappear.

Sometimes, sometimes God doesn't remove the things that stress you out.
He simply renews the strength that you walk on those things others drown
in. Peter was drowning in the sea Jesus was walking upon.

That whatever is over your head is under his feet. And when you get into
his presence, when God releases power, it's not that those things don't
hurt anymore. It's that they can't touch you and destroy you anymore
because you're walking with power.

You know, in our ministry, we value the relationship with the Holy
Spirit because what the kind of ministry we do guys, this is not a
social club. We're not here to sing kumbaya two songs and say a happy
pat message and just just go live better. A kid that's slicing their
wrists, they don't need just a positive affirming message.

They need power. A person that is seeing nightmares, they don't need
just a song. They need a spirit.

People need something that can take them from darkness to light.
Something that can give them purpose. When mama maybe wasn't there,
daddy wasn't there, take all those demons out of that person and put a
purpose inside of that person.

My friend, that is not done through our human efforts. It requires
power. That's why God told his disciples, Jesus said to them, don't
leave Jerusalem until you receive power.

We need that in the ministry. Under no circumstances should you
discredit yourself. Even if you're doing sound, you're doing video,
you're helping with counseling for the prayer line, you're helping with
the administrational work and maybe you get overwhelmed and you get
depleted.

Please understand the ministry you're involved in is unlike
construction. It's unlike the other work that you do outside. You're
dealing with the gates of hell.

There is going to be pushback and God is not going to reduce that
pushback. He's just going to simply elevate you so much that you punch,
punch, punch, punch and the devil would wish he never started the fight
because of the power the Holy Spirit gives to us. Can somebody say amen?
God's appointing requires God's anointing.

God is interested in renewing our strength, not just removing the stress
that comes from the demands of service. There is an anointing that's
inside of us that every Christian has and there's an anointing that's on
us that every Christian has access to. We call it the inner anointing
and the outer anointing.

The inner anointing is for you in you. The outer anointing is upon you
for others. Inner anointing affects your walk.

The outer anointing affects our work. Inner anointing steals you. You
get into his presence and there is a stillness that happens.

Outer anointing stirs you. You go, you want to go, let's go. You know
it's like Jehu.

He just wants to go wow you know and it's not hype. It's that holy
fervency that hits you. Inner anointing teaches you.

Outer anointing actually you teach others. Inner anointing cannot be
transferred but the outer anointing can be transferred. Inner anointing
produces spiritual fruit.

Outer anointing activates spiritual power. When we don't grieve the Holy
Spirit, we cultivate that inner anointing. But when we don't quench the
spirit, we release that outer anointing.

All of us have access to God's power. This anointing that comes upon us
but it's accessed or it's released through two simple means. A
visitation that you have from God or an impartation that you receive
from a person that God uses.

Let me give you an example. In the Bible we see Moses has a visitation
from God and he receives power. Joshua receives impartation from Moses
and he walks in power.

We see Elijah most likely received a visitation from God. We don't know
where he came from. We don't know how he got the power but we see that
Elisha receives impartation from Elisha and he operates in power.

We see the same thing with disciples of Jesus. They receive that
impartation on the day of Pentecost. Fire, tongues, everything comes
out.

But in Samaria, city of Samaria, they come, they lay hands on the other
people and other people receive that power. Apostle Paul has a
visitation from God on the road to Damascus. But he lays hands on
Timothy and Timothy receives impartation from Paul.

What does that mean? God has supernatural visitation with some people
and they immediately receive power. Their life changes afterwards. Now
for the rest of us we're like man, well that sucks because God missed
me.

No, no, no. God allows that on purpose so that the rest of the people
can receive the access. We already have that in our spirit, in the Holy
Spirit but it gets activated when we allow other people to pray for us
through the laying on of the hands, through prophetic words and then
that visitation that they experienced activates something in our own
life that we now begin to walk in the same dimension of power that those
people walked in.

Why? Because these special encounters with God are meant to be shared
with the rest of the body so that we live in dependence on each other.
We live interdependent on every one of us. In our church we believe in
the doctrine of laying on of the hands.

The Bible says to lay hands on the sick and they will recover. The Bible
says that Jacob laid hands on his sons and imported a blessing. The
Bible says priests would lay hands on an animal and transfer sin upon
that animal.

The Bible says Jesus laid hands on his disciples and he blessed them and
released them. The Bible says they laid hands on apostle Paul and upon
other disciples and released them into their missionary work. When we
lay hands on the people if you're walking in the power of God you can
impart God's gifts through laying on of hands.

The Bible teaches that. That's how Timothy received the gift. So those
of you who are like man I don't feel like I had those special encounters
I want to receive that power.

Please understand that's why we are in this church so that we all when
the wave rises or when the tide rises all ships rise. God's power on our
life on the life of our pastors is so that every person walks healing
the sick, casting out demons, prophesying, preaching the gospel. Why?
Because that anointing that some receive from visitation is meant to be
shared with the rest of us.

When we had men and women of God come to our church many times we had
them pray for us. I would go to Ukraine, to Africa, to different parts
and one of the things that we would ask is that anointing that they
carry that they impart on our life because we believe in not only
visitation but impartation. Can somebody say amen? Now I do want to
mention something about impartation because you can receive a lot of
impartation and do nothing with it.

Impartation does not work if you don't. Let me say that again. People
come up and this happens all the time.

Pastor pray for me. Give me your give me your anointing. Okay.

Then this happens all the time. Let me go to Ilya. Ilya give me also the
anointing.

Very good. So by the time they're done they collected seven mentals.
This one particular person I went to a different conference next week
and I had them I saw them doing exactly the same thing to every pastor
and all they've been doing is collecting mentals.

Imagine getting 27 coats but you don't wear one. You have to then when
you receive the impartation you gotta work it. That's why God spoke to
Saul when he received impartation.

Samuel said this when these signs come to pass he says do what the
occasion demands. Meaning you gotta do something. You gotta give it an
outlet.

It's kind of like this if you got power connected to your house plug
something in because you can have so much power if you don't plug
anything in it won't work. So you gotta plug something in that means
find a bear, find a lion, find a goliath, find somebody to pray for,
find somebody to minister to. Begin to flow by faith and exercise your
faith because anointing won't work if you don't work.

Many people receive more mentals than they have time to exercise them
and then they keep looking for this glorious ministry opportunity. God's
anointing on your life is not only so you can just simply collect more
anointing and collect more anointing. Paul tells Timothy do not quench
the gift of God inside of you.

Fan the flame. Meaning work it what you received. Work what you got
because then it will increase.

It's like a muscle. Everybody has it but some of us have it covered with
layers of fat and if you exercise it it will grow. If you exercise it it
will increase.

So is with the anointing of God. It will increase as you exercise it.
You don't need a stage to exercise that anointing.

All you need is some human being. It could be a child in the nursery, in
the kids zone that you minister to them, you love on them, you pray for
them. It could be your co-worker, it could be somebody online, it could
be your children.

You lay hands on them when they are sick and the anointing starts to
flow. Can somebody say amen? Anointing will not flow if we simply
receive the mentos, receive the anointing and never do anything with it.
Number three, David receives anointing and the Bible says that David
after that starts to move in this anointing slowly.

He was about 15 years of age when Samuel anointed him but David became a
king over one tribe at the age of 30. Then at the age of 37 he became
the king of all Israel. Write this down, slow success builds your
character, quick success grows your ego.

God after 15 when he anointed him did not put him on the throne. When
God gives you his promise of what he's going to do through you,
typically God promises fast and trusts slow. God promises a lot, trusts
a little.

It's the way the Lord operates. At 15 he says you're going to be the
king and then only at 37 he becomes a king of the all 12 tribes. Why
does God do that? Why does God almost like tease you? At 14 you go to a
conference, the prophet says you're going to touch the world and then
you still have to go back to middle school.

You still have to finish your high school. You still have to go through
all of that stuff. Why does God allow that? Well a few things I want to
highlight.

One, when God anoints us men do not appoint us right away. Men don't
respond the same way God does. Your parents won't respond the same way
God does.

God can come to you in a dream and says you're the great apostle to the
nation. Mom will wake up and says go clean your room and you're like mom
you just disrespected the great apostle. And she will say you say that
one more time.

Not only you'll be stripped of your apostleship, you'll be stripped of
your, you'll be in a timeout. How can you put a great apostle in a
timeout? Mom is like well you'll see how it will be very simple. David
gets anointed.

You know what his father does to him? Sends him back to the sheep. It's
almost like his dad said well that was great. Awesome David back to the
sheep.

Did you just hear? I'm a king. Uh yeah. Anyway back to the sheep.

David kills Goliath. You would think this would be a good moment. Change
the status on Facebook.

Lose the sheep and simply say I'm available. Where is the university
where they train kings? I'm ready. The bible says David occasionally
would go back to the sheep again and again.

Why? Because just because God anointed you, men will not appoint you for
a long time. Oh because those men they're not sensitive to God. No it's
because you're not mature.

It's nothing to do with men being bad. It's that God allows the process
where he wants to develop you. Why? Because character grows when you
have too much anointing and very little opportunity.

Too much potential but nobody's trusting you with the position that
matches your potential in the church. Ah they're disrespecting. They
don't know why I have PhD.

But do you have PhD in patience? But do you have PhD in serving and
being small in your own eyes? Oh that's just not fair. They're not
letting me have the position that I have anointing for. They don't
understand.

I can heal the sick. I can prophesy. But can you also mature and
disciple children? No I don't like children.

That's that's not my calling. Well great. David went back to the sheep.

Back to the sheep. And he didn't walk with his sheep on his shoulder.
They don't know how much I pray.

They don't know how much I fast. They don't know Samuel poured anointing
on me. Not on anybody else.

That's just not fair. The church is not sensitive. No discernment
whatsoever in this church.

No discernment whatsoever by the pastor. David didn't have that sheep on
his shoulder. If you're too big for the sheep, you're too small for the
throne.

If you're too big to serve on the parking lot, you're too small to be
used by God in the supernatural. God tests us and God molds our
character that it's not about us. That we don't become celebrities but
we are servants in God's kingdom.

Then we become big in our own head. We become humble and we don't use
our serving as a stepping stone. If you don't serve another man's
vision, nobody will give you yours.

David gets this anointing. He ends up serving a king that really sat on
his chair. It was David's position and David is serving that man.

David is guarding that man. You don't see David stabbing that man. You
don't see David prayerfully considering and say Lord give him a heart
attack.

Lord kill that sucker. Lord kill that man. Lord take him to heaven
faster.

Lord he really wants to be in over there with you because he's sitting
on my place. Saul do you know that this is my place? No. David is
guarding and when Saul died, David cried not giggled.

He didn't have a glee on his face. He had tears on his face. Why?
Because he genuinely believed in serving another man's vision for a long
time and not constantly reminding him, hey so when is my transition?
When you honor the anointing in others, God will increase it in you and
David had to do that for a long time, for years upon years walking in
that humility.

Some of you come to Hungry Gen and you have a great anointing upon your
life. In fact, you were pastors in your previous season or previous
place that you came in. Some of you come to Hungry Gen and you're
educated, you're skilled and you can serve in so many capacities.

But today what you are doing, and I'm just going to speak boldly, is you
you think of yourself too high. So what you're doing is you're sitting
and you're not participating in anything. There's somebody comes to you,
the pastor of the lot comes to you and recognizes how great of a man or
woman of God you are and asks you to do something.

I want to ask you that in our house, every hand is on the deck. We all
serve God's purpose and I want to ask you to please get out from the
bleachers and jump in the game. I want to ask you, if you came and you
sat already for four months, three months, I want to invite you to serve
God's purpose in this church.

If God planted you here, I want you to flourish here for the glory of
God. God isn't looking for spectators, he is looking for sons that
serve. Stop having this thing like the prodigal son, give me what is
mine.

Do what prodigal son did when he came back and he says here I am, make
me one of your servants. Lord I'm here to serve. Lord where can I find a
place to serve? Not where can I find something that matches my
anointing, but where can I find something where there is a need and let
me serve.

And as you begin to serve, you'll begin to notice you meet other people
and God starts promoting you and you start giving be given more
opportunities. The grace of God starts flowing in your life. I want to
invite you, add your gifts, your talents to what God is doing at Hungry
Gen.

Give your resources, give your finances, give your skills so that the
kingdom of God is built. Through that God is developing your character,
through that God is developing the anointing in your life and he will
use you for his glory. In the process I knew that I was anointed by God
to be a pastor, but I had to learn Photoshop.

I had to learn Dreamweaver. I had to learn Final Cut Pro. I had to learn
YouTube and how to cut videos and upload them to YouTube.

Until this day learning ProPresenter a little bit today. Why? Because at
the end of the day I'm not walking around with just a big head. I want
to have a big heart that believes in serving God's house and we are here
servants not celebrities.

Church doesn't exist for me. I exist to serve its cause and its purpose
for the glory of God. Can somebody say amen? And then in God's time God
promotes when he chooses to promote and if tomorrow he chooses not to
and we need to step back into the background it is what it is.

We will serve in the background. Why? Because ultimately is we serve the
key not the spotlight. Can somebody say amen? That's why you see at our
church you see the team is constantly being elevated.

You see the team constantly being preferred. You see the team be giving
opportunities. Why? Because our church is not about a belly button where
everything is about one man.

Everything is through him, by him, for him and that. No our church is
about the mission of Jesus Christ. We all have our hand in the deck and
we're growing together so we have a skin in that game.

Can somebody say amen? And lastly what I want to highlight. Yeah let's
give the golf club. So come on somebody.

The last thing that I want to highlight is those who lack purpose will
distract themselves with pleasure. David finally succeeded. David
finally became the king.

He was amazing as a king until one day David in his success lost sight
of what it means to be significant in God's eyes. And the Bible makes it
clear when it was a time for kings to go to battle. David decided to you
know I fought a lot already.

I deserve a break. Let the young bloods go and slay giants. I'm gonna
stay home and I'm gonna Netflix and chill.

I mean I'm just gonna chill. I'm just gonna hang out. I'm just gonna you
know.

I think my time is over to fight. But I find it interesting the Bible
says when it was time for kings to go to battle. David was a king.

He wasn't anointed to sleep day and night. He was anointed to slay. And
the scripture says David finds himself in the battle with his eyes.

He fought Goliath's giants and won. Now he's facing a battle and he
can't win. He sees a woman and I was in Jerusalem in the city of David.

So they gave us the place where David's palace was at. And you can
pretty much see down the mountain. You could see the houses and and uh
Bathsheba didn't have shower curtains.

And um one thing led to another. David finds himself committing sin.
David isn't the only one.

This temptation exists within every person who has this feeling I
arrived. And you stop doing God's purpose. And you get distracted with
pleasure, popularity, or some other p word that just distracts you.

And takes you down the drain. And we see this happening with pastors. We
see this happening with leaders.

With businessmen. Drugs come in. Drinking comes in.

Immorality comes in. And you see success and slipping, sipping,
tripping. And then that success was harder to manage than heavy stress
in their life.

A few weeks ago when I was I went to the mountain for a few days before
the conference to pray. And this verse hit me like ton ton of bricks.
David after he served his own generation by the will of God.

You know after David repented of his sin. He made it his goal not to
serve success. He was already successful.

But to use his success to serve God in his generation. And this is my
vow. And I pray that you will make that as well.

Lord I don't want to serve my agenda. I want to serve you in my
generation. When I arrive in people's minds.

When I arrive in my own mind and get blown away. God you're so good.
You're so faithful.

You blessed me with so much to understand that in that stage of my life
this is where I have to serve God in my generation. Be passionate for
God in my generation. Be passionate for my purpose in my generation.

More people saved for Jesus. More people healed by Jesus. More people
delivered by Jesus.

More churches planted by Jesus. Why? Because it's no longer about
reaching my goal. It's about reaching God's goal for my generation.

Serving God in my generation. May this be our motto. Serving God in our
generation.

We're not trying to serve our generation. Because that is a fallacy. If
we say well I'm just trying to serve my generation.

Then you will run over your family. Symbolically speaking. Because you
will do whatever it takes to reach as many people for Jesus as possible.

That's not what the Bible says in here. The original translation says
this. God served.

David served God in his generation. That means sometimes you're in the
spotlight serving God in your generation. Sometimes you're in the
wilderness serving God in your generation.

Sometimes you are behind the scenes serving God in your generation. And
sometimes you're like my great-grandfather. You were in jail for five
years serving God in your generation.

Sometimes we're reaching millions of people on YouTube. And sometimes
like my friend from Vietnam who's arrested right now. And 10 people from
his church in Vietnam for preaching the gospel.

And he's serving God in his generation. So when we stand before God. God
is not going to ask how many people you reached.

He will say how passionately did you serve me in your generation.
Because to the previous generation I gave them Smith Wiggisworth. I gave
them Bunyan.

I gave them these pastors like Martin Luther. I gave them John Calvin. I
gave them all these pastors.

Catherine Kuhlman. But to your generation I gave them you. The Bible
says here to them to Israel he gave David.

Nation of Israel didn't belong to David. David belonged to the nation of
Israel. Our generation doesn't belong to us.

We belong to our generation. And that in our generation we serve God's
purpose. In our schools.

In our universities. And in our colleges. That every moment of your life
is dedicated to this.

Whether you are a young person right now. And you have more passion than
you have more outlet. Or you're an older person.

Passion is a little bit lower. But you got a lot of money. You got a lot
of wisdom.

And you have more time. I'm going to ask that each and every one of us.
We evaluate our life.

Whether you're a businessman. Stay home mom. A busy father.

College student. That we serve God in our generation. For the glory of
God.

Race to deliver is our way of serving God in our generation. Last verse
I'm going to read. And that is Deuteronomy chapter 28.

And I don't think I gave this verse to the team in the back. So if they
can find it will be good. If not I'm going to read it.

Because now this is more negative. Because you did not serve God. The
Lord your God with joy and gladness of heart.

For the abundance of everything. Therefore you will serve your enemies.
Whom the Lord will send against you.

In hunger. In thirst. In nakedness.

And in need of everything. Now this is not to scare anybody into serving
God. But if that is the method that works for some of us.

Let me use that. I regularly go to this verse when things are good. When
there's blessing everywhere.

When this year has been one of the craziest best years of my life.
Seeing the blessing of God in a way that has just never happened before.
It's easy to get complacent.

It's easy to develop entitlement. It's easy to say well I arrived. I
don't need to burn.

I don't need to fast as much. I don't need to press it. I don't need to
give.

I don't need to stretch myself as much. You know we don't even have room
at the church. Let's just plateau until we get into a new building.

Let's just relax. I'm all for rest. But the chillaxing part where you
withdraw from your purpose is a dangerous place.

Because God says when you don't serve me in abundance of everything.
There is someone who's waiting for you in the place of chillaxing to rob
your prosperity. Rob your gifts.

David experienced that. When he didn't serve God and his purpose in his
generation and found himself in a chillaxing complacent. Ah I've done a
lot already.

You know it's just I'm retired. I'm done. I just know just I'm good.

Just living my life like that. He found himself in a battle. God never
meant him to fight and he lost that battle.

I'm not against retirement. I'm not against rest. But I do believe God
gave you breath and you owe your life and my life every day to serve
him.

We have to remove this idea. I believe in God. I just don't serve him.

You can't believe in God and not serve him. Demons believe like that and
they're demons and they're still going to hell. This idea that I just
believe in God and that's it.

Leave me alone. Come to church for a check mark. The casual Christianity
is over.

Sitting on a fence halfway in the world and halfway in God is over. And
like our teenagers like to say the devil owns the fence. We got to jump
off the fence and either we serve the devil fully or we serve God fully.

But this whole thing in between casual mediocre complacent. I'm just
tired. Just don't have time.

Just too busy. That doesn't exist for us anymore. We are a church that
loves passionately to pursue God and radically serve his cause in our
generation.

Amen. God wants to use us. I want to say thank you from the bottom of my
heart to every person that's been serving.

I want to ask every person that is serving at Hungry Gen. Life will only
get harder. That's why you got to spend your time on your knees.

I want to invite you to prayer every Wednesday. In fact every day but
specifically every Wednesday. I want to invite you to take time to spend
time with Jesus every day.

Don't use your gift as your crutch. Get on your knees before Jesus and
receive the power that you need to burn on fire for Jesus while you are
in ministry. delivered to you on your YouTube app.

If you go to hungrygen.com forward slash sermons you'll actually be able
to download the transcript, the notes and the quotes of this sermon and
the rest of all of our sermons free of charge. Until next time.

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Video: https://sermonindex2.b-cdn.net/FGgIxHsjBZs.mp4
Source: https://sermonindex.net/speakers/vlad-savchuk/avoiding-burnout/
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