Steven Furtick - I Know You're Tired
This is an excerpt from: Tired On The Inside
The direct route is sometimes the divine route. Instead of hiding the fact that you're tired, you just say, "God, I'm tired". Somebody was yawning during my sermon one time, and I just got mad about it. I said, "How are you tired? You're not doing anything"! But I found out later they worked a night shift and came straight to church. It's kind of hard to understand someone if you only see them at one part of their journey. Some people who we think are weak maybe are weary. Have you thought about that? Just because you're weary, it doesn't make you weak. "How do you know that"? Jesus. "I am the Light of the World. I am the Bread of Life. I am the Resurrection. I am the Door. I am the Shepherd. I am the true Vine. I am the Way".
At some point, six hours after they left that morning, at noon, he said something we wouldn't expect to hear the Savior say: "I am tired". This is the incarnation. I worship a God who is powerful enough to give me strength and who is human enough to get tired. For some reason, this week, I felt that some of us needed to meet tired Jesus. I thought maybe you could relate to him, because his journey didn't start with just leaving that morning. I mean, that's enough. Six hours that day. Six hours in one day. I mean, I have a six-hour drive coming up with my kids, and I'm downloading every episode of The Office on all of their phones, just hoping we can make it six hours, still be saved, still be married, still be healed, delivered, blessed, and one happy family.
And that's a drive. Six hours. Because you leave at 6:00… It's noon. It's hot. It's the heat of the day. Of course he's tired. Yet I wonder: Was it only physical or did he go through Samaria because he was tired of the way they were treating each other? Why was he tired? Why did he come? To abolish the barriers. Full of grace and truth, and we beheld his glory. His journey didn't start in Bethlehem. "In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God and the Word was God. And the Word became flesh". That's a long trip. From the sapphire seal of heaven to the dusty streets of Samaria. Of course he was tired. "Even youth will grow weary and stumble, but those who wait on the Lord…"
I'm waiting on God right now. I'm waiting, and I'm weary. I'm not going to lie to you. I'm weary. This is getting old. Some of y'all want to cuss right now. Don't do it in the chat. They'll block you. But even in your mind you're like, "I'm sick of this. I am sick of this". That's not an "I am" statement we read in the Bible, but that's what you're saying right now in your heart. "I am sick of this. I am sick and tired. I am tired of fighting battles". The thing about me…
Some people say when they get tired they start laughing. Not me. When I get tired, I get mean. How many of you when you get tired…? That's why when you had to pull me out of the elevator in Australia and I was about to fight that guy after I preached… I had just finished giving the invitation too. "If you're here today, the Lord says, 'Come.'" That dude said something sideways to me. My uncle taught me to hit them with your elbow if you can get close enough. I was cocking the elbow, and Chunks pulled me back. I was jetlagged. I had preached 23 times in four days. They were preaching me to death at Hillsong Church. I'm preaching, preaching, preaching.
Chunks pulled me out. He said, "Come on. You're too tired now". Because when you get too tired, you start fighting battles that don't matter to distract you from the ones that do. That's just me. I start fighting everybody. I start fighting people who are trying to help me when I'm tired. So Jesus said, "Y'all go get lunch. I'm sitting here for a minute, because the ones y'all have been fighting against are the ones I came to save". He had to go through Samaria. He had to sit down. There was a woman coming who needed him. She didn't even know it. She had no idea who he was. He sat down because he was tired. You don't have to do anything right now. Just sit down and receive this word that the Son of God got tired. I know you're superman and you're mad at yourself because you can't always get it perfect. Perfection got tired.
Faith doesn't prevent fatigue; it just gives me a place to sit. He sat by a well. Here's the important thing: What well do you sit by when you're tired? He said it was Jacob's well. Joseph was given that well by Jacob. A lot of what our kids learn comes from us. It's generational. Jesus sat down by that well. I think that's so appropriate to say at this moment in our nation. What wells are you digging for your kids to sit next to? A lot of what we're going through today is because of wells that were dug before we got here. Jesus sat by Jacob's well. Wait on the Lord. Now we see the Lord waiting on a woman.
So, I pictured this moment. I pictured you and me. You have your coffee. You're like, "I'm drinking all the caffeine I can. I'm still tired". I know you can watch a TED Talk about when to go to bed and when to wake up and all that. I'm not talking about that. I'm talking about tired inside. I'm a soul doctor. I don't know anything about REM. I don't know anything about ergonomic pillows. I don't know anything about your mattress number. That is not my specialty. But I know that sometimes you have to sit down by a real well. Listen to me. A lot of the places that we're sitting while we're tired are only making us more dehydrated. A lot of the places that we're drinking from are making us dumber, more fragmented, less whole, less informed.
This woman comes up. Picture it. She comes up at noon because she's sneaking away from all of the people who talked about her. She is a woman with a past, and the last thing she wants to see is a man, specifically a Jewish man, specifically a rabbi. Jesus says, "Hey, can I get a drink"? This is not a pickup line. This is not a surface-level question. This is Jesus asking this woman, "Do you even know what's in you"? I hear God saying to someone today, "You don't even know what I put inside of you. What I have put inside of you is so great".
If you only see things on the surface, if you judge how people judge, you will never see what's inside. This was Jacob's well, but it was really just something for Jesus to sit on. When he sat on the well and asked the woman, "Can I get a drink"? he was not talking about H2O. Don't you get it? It's never about what we think it's about. It's always something deeper. Jesus has showed up in this woman's situation, and I can't help but think it's for somebody today. You have been at your wit's end. You thought I was going to give you a little pep talk, and you thought I was going to tell you, "Get on with it, and trust God, and move forward," and all of these little clichés of faith, but I came to tell you, "Sit with him a little while".
Sit with him and see who you really are. Sit with him a little while. I'm just going to confess to you. I've been sitting by the wrong wells a lot of the time. I've been depending on people to inform me about who I am. I've been depending on what I see with my eyes to tell me how it is. But there is a well that does not come from an external source, and you can't see the pipes. There is within you a spirit that is greater than whatever is going on around you. Greater is he that is in me! He sat on the well so she could see what was within her.
I believe God is revealing some things to us in this season. I believe God is revealing to his church in this season that he has made us for a time when the world is so divided; he has made us for a time that the world is so apathetic. He sat by the well to talk to a woman who had had five husbands and was living with number six so she could know he was number seven. On the first day God worked. On the second day God worked. On the third day God worked. On the fourth day God worked. On the fifth day God worked. On the sixth day God worked. What did he do on the seventh? He sat down, not because he needed rest but because she did.
That's what I love about a God who will not only fight for me and walk with me and talk with me, but God said to tell you this week: he is the God who will come through 41 generations and go through Samaria just to sit with you. Sit with him for a minute. He might show you something that is within you that nobody else noticed. This woman had been passed around like the jar she carried to the well that day. She knew what it was to feel used.
Did he sit down at the well that day because he was tired or because she was? "Are you tired of being used by people? Are you tired of being manipulated by people? Sit with me. I'm not seated where you're seated". When I sit with him, he has seated me with him in heavenly places, far above every ruler and principality. You sound tired. God said, "Me too. I'm tired of seeing how people treat one another too. I'm tired of the injustice too. That's why I came in the form of a man: so I could be what man could never be. I came to hang on a cross and say, 'It is finished' so that you can rest".