This one’s for anyone who’s been tired lately. Not physically tired, but exhausted on the inside. Maybe it’s because you’ve been through a lot this year or your routine has you drained. Maybe you’ve been fighting against something or have spent all your energy in the wrong places. No matter what the “why” is, it’s time to find rest. In this message, Pastor Steven Furtick teaches how rest can be powerful, but only if we’re looking for it in the right places.
What do I tell the person who is too tired
to go on?
What do I tell the one who says, ‘I’m too
tired’?”
God said, “Tell them I got tired too.”
Jesus sat down in Samaria (that’s where) to
talk to a woman (that’s who), asking for water
(that’s what).
But why?
Because he was tired.
Because he was fully God, fully man.
As much as we love to shout about his divinity…
You know, how we were a minute ago when I
was setting you up about the Great I Am, just
to bring you back down so you could know that
the same God who created you, who was strong
enough, who was powerful enough…
Everybody who thinks Jesus was weak, raise
your hand.
Maybe being weary doesn’t mean you’re weak.
Jesus tired.
Why was he tired?
I didn’t say, “Who was he tired of?”
We already know it was Peter.
Come on.
Peter is fighting you at every turn, cussing
and stuff in front of the press.
You’re having to bleep Peter out.
I know he was tired of the Pharisees.
He couldn’t wash his hands or not wash his
hands.
They followed him to every bathroom, every
dinner.
I know he was tired of them, but it says he
was tired from the journey.
Thinking about Jesus’ journey, you know.
They walked everywhere.
No Uber.
No Uber Jesus, Uber Christ, Uber Savior.
Three-day walk from where they were baptizing
through Samaria.
Straight through was the shortcut, by the
way.
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.”
I know we have work to do, but can we sit
for a minute?
Can we just sit with him for a minute by the
well that will never run dry?
Some of us passed E a long time ago.
The tank has been empty a long time.
God says, “I want you to sit with me.
When you sit with me, you will see with me.”
I want to sit with him.
I want to sit by the well that has living
water.
I want to sit away from the streams that are
poisoned by the prejudice of men.
I want to sit with him for a minute.
And Jesus, tired as he was, said to his disciples,
“Y’all go get some food.
I’ve got to get a harvest.”
I believe God sent me to preach this message
to somebody today who is tired on the inside,
and no amount of sleep, no amount of Netflix
and numbing it, and no amount of pacing the
floors is going to solve it.
I believe God brought you into his presence
today for a reason, and I think he woke me
up at 3:00 in the morning this night, the
night before, the night before, so I could
feel a little bit physically while I preached
this how you’ve been feeling before we got
here.
How Jesus felt was how the woman felt.
“Even youth will grow tired and weary, and
young men will stumble and fall, but they
that wait on the Lord will renew their strength.”
God said, “Even if you don’t have the patience
to wait for me, I’m waiting for you.”
When you are tired, you must be very careful
that you do not become dehydrated.
You have to drink this water.
You have to drink this Word.
You have to drink this worship.
You have to move away from wells that will
never quench your thirst, and you have to
receive the water that flows from within.
“In the beginning was the Word, and the Word
was with God.”
The reason you came to church today is God
wanted to give you water.
He knows you’re tired.
He knows you’re thirsty.
He hung on a cross and said, “I thirst too.”
He stretched his arms this wide because he
was tired of it too.
The man who was God became man, and he who
knew no sin became sin that we might become
the righteousness of God.
He said to the woman, and he said to me, and
he said to you, “Come unto me, all you who
are weary and heavy laden, and I will give
you rest.
I am the Bread of Life.
I am the Resurrection.
I am the Light.
I am the Shepherd.
I am the Gate.
I am the Way.
I am the Vine.
I am the seventh man.