S2E7: Work/Life Balance

Well, if I haven't met you before, my name is Daniel Williams. I serve in Southeast Florida at a Calvary Chapel, Calvary Chapel of the Palm Beaches, about an hour north of Miami. ⁓ I also am the founder of EE Leaders. It's a ministry to encourage and equip church leaders. And it is such a joy to be with other church leaders today, to learn, to grow, to connect, even if it's over online and Zoom. Man, here at CGN, these connect online gatherings ⁓ are gonna be a blessing for us, not just today, but for The entire fall as we sort of kick off today with a theme of sustaining a healthy rhythm in ministry. I say kick off because this isn't the only meeting that we're going to have over the fall, the next few months, every second Wednesday, we're going to take 75 minutes to spur one another on in biblical teaching, in encouragement, and praying for one another and getting wisdom and input from one another because we believe that we are better together and our spiritual health. matters. And so we want to be able to point one another to Jesus and be able to support one another in this way. It's often said that the best thing that you can give your family and your church is a healthy you. It's a healthy you. And I know ⁓ if you're like me, man, you're you're busy. There's a lot of stuff going on. So I know even taking this time right now to listen to a video, to participate and give your input and ⁓ have a meeting with other pastors could be very hard for you. Because you're busy, I'm busy, but just scheduling and prioritizing this ⁓ time to gather online together and connect, man, we just pray it's valuable for you and it's helpful because I know as I've ministered to church leaders and been one myself ⁓ and still am in the thick of it, nothing has brought me more encouragement and support than other like-minded men and women, ⁓ other lead pastors and church planners to be able to get together and And to grow with one another, ⁓ man, it has been such a blessing. And that's what I hope these CGN online gatherings ⁓ are to you. That's what they're designed for you to help you in your calling to serve Jesus for the long haul. And so we want to make sure in this ⁓ fall season that we're talking about serving Jesus for the long haul in a healthy way. ⁓ just as we've heard from Pastor Chuck Smith, healthy sheep produce healthy sheep. ⁓ we want to be healthy pastors that produce healthy pastors because we could teach what we know, but we impart who we are. And we want to impart these lessons as other fellow pastors come and share these videos to you to be able to grow together because we're we want to lead God's people well. So that's our focus this fall to talk about ⁓ healthy rhythms and sustainability. And some of the other videos that are going to be are talking about spiritual practices for our own personal spiritual health, but even as a leader in sustaining ministry effectiveness. ⁓ the videos we're gonna have are gonna be physical and emotional health. How does that play out? The importance of both of those and how they impact us personally and our ministry. ⁓ and then even building community and accountability. How have ⁓ how is having a supportive system or community like this actually affect and encourage us to spur us on into doing the things God's called us to do? And so I'm really looking forward to it. And today I get the privilege to talk about talk about. ⁓ the subject of a work-life balance, a work-life balance because balancing ministry responsibilities that we have in our personal life is essential to avoid burnout. We need to be able to manage that, handle that, talk about what does that look like? ⁓ getting rest, retreat, but also working hard and doing the things God's called us to do. How do we how do we balance those things? And I think a passage that will help us today. Is found in Mark chapter 1, verses 35 through 39. So if you have a Bible, go ahead and turn there. We're going to look at this short passage and just give a couple of key points on some practicality of how do we have a work-life balance in ministry as a lead pastor, as a church planner. ⁓ Mark chapter 1, verses 35 through 39, it says, And rising very early in the morning, while it was dark, he, speaking of Jesus, he departed and went out to a desolate place. And there he prayed, and Simon and those who were with him searched for him, and they found him and said to him, Everyone is looking for you. Have you ever had that pressure before? Everyone's looking for you. You're the man, there's responsibility. And they said to them ⁓ and he said to them, Let us go on to the next towns, that I may preach there also, for that is why I came out. And he went throughout all the Galilee. Preaching in their synagogues and casting out demons. Okay, it's a short story, but this is what I love about the Gospel of Mark. It is punchy, it is powerful, it's intense and full of action. Although ⁓ this is just the beginning of the Gospels, ⁓ there's a lot of stuff going on leading up to this context. You know, the Gospel of Mark is the shortest gospel, but it doesn't play, man. It has the most stories concise in this, ⁓ in this gospel, a thematic word or a a very ⁓ Theme word that's over and over and over again is this this word, this transitional word, immediately. Immediately it took place. Immediately it took place. It's full of action of what Jesus did. So by the time we get to verse 35, we're only in chapter one, but we've already seen seven key passages or text describing different stories leading up to this text. Let me break it down for you. We see in verses one through eight, John the Baptist, he's preparing the way for Jesus. The next big story is John the Baptist interacts with Jesus and baptized him in verses 9 through 11. The next thing is from his baptism we see that ⁓ Jesus gets tempted. Mark only gives two verses for this key passage, ⁓ 12 through 13. Then Jesus begins his ministry, verses 14 through 15. He starts calling ⁓ his first disciples, verses 16 through 20. Then he heals a man with ⁓ unclean spirit, verses 21 through 28, and then he starts healing. the multitude of people, verses 29 through 34. And so by the time we get to verse 345 through 39, what we just read, the context is Jesus, he is busy. He started his ministry. And there is a already a high demand for him to minister, to heal, to preach, to do the things that people are impressed by. He's having an effective, fruitful ministry. Simon comes to him and says, hey, everyone's looking for you. And and this was for a good reason. Jesus by chapter one was having effective, fruitful ministry of preaching and healing. Now, I don't know about you, but I love hearing about other people's schedules. And this is sort of an insight from Mark giving the schedule of Jesus from this story of what he did. For me, my schedule, my weekly schedule, I love blocking time and calendaring and planning and staying focused, working efficiently, and I love hearing other pastors' schedules. I don't know what your schedule was last week or last month, even your ideal schedule, but this I know, and I could probably guess. If you're like me, you're just busy. You're busy. It's a part of fruitful, effective ministry. And things on top of our busyness come up and make us more busy. We have to adjust, we have to deal with life, and we see even Jesus do this. ⁓ we see him dealing with life, things coming up. We tend to see ⁓ high capacity leaders ⁓ Do this. They're in high demand, and there's a lot of pressure on them. And there was a lot of pressure on Jesus in this moment. And the question that I want to answer with this video is how do we balance it all? How did Jesus balance it all? How do we balance our work life, the stuff we're responsible for, and even on top of that, with our family? ⁓ these big boulders and responsibilities in our lives that are very important, that are not ⁓ little things. But we have to have discernment and understand how do we walk in wisdom. And in this passage, I think Jesus is showing us how he was able to manage and how he was able to have a work-life balance. ⁓ the big overall answer, I'm just gonna give this up to you front. We need to be focusing on being spirit-led when it comes to our schedules. We need to be spirit-led. As you look at this passage and you look and study at Jesus' life, continuing through the gospel of Mark, of all the stuff he does. We know that he was perfectly in tune with the spirit, sinless and following God's word to the T, and it tells us that he was led by the Spirit. And the Word of God tells us as leaders and as Christians to be led by the Spirit. Galatians 5 25, if we live by the Spirit, let us also keep in step with the Spirit. We are to walk in the Spirit to have the perfect balance. Because you know what? What is that balance? It could be different for you than it is for me. And sometimes when we compare each other's schedules, we compare and and get discouraged or or our our our comparison to what this minister's doing and that minister's doing, but God says to look to him to find that perfect balance. I think there could be a great temptation, especially I guess for me as a planner, ⁓ to just depend on my plans or my calendar to have a sense of control, of stability rather than being flexible and sensitive to the spirit. continually checking in with God Himself because life demands this necessity that we continually check in with God and not check in just with our calendar. I have to continually remind myself of that Proverbs 169 that man, I could plan my way, but God, He's the one that establishes or directs my step. And in this text from Mark, I see Jesus giving us some practical steps that we can implement today, even this month, on how to walk in the Spirit being so busy. And being ministers of the gospel that are doing amazing, effective, fruitful ministry for the kingdom of God. You see, the first thing that we see, if we're going to be led by the Spirit, and we see Jesus doing this text is in verse 35. He did this through prayer, through prayer. And rising very early in the morning while it was still dark, he departed and went out to a desolate place, and there he prayed. Luke 5:16 says that Jesus prayed awfully. Often. He did this thing often. He would take time to pray, to talk, and to listen to God. Asking, What what is that balance? What do you want me to do? What is the Father's will for my life? listen, if Jesus needed to pray, how much more do you and I need to pray? In this text, it implies, and this text it implies that prayer was not an easy thing for a leader, even like Jesus. I mean, think about it. The text says it was very early and it was still dark. You know what happens when it's very early and still dark? We as humans, we need sleep. We usually are sleeping, doing something that our body needs, but it seems like Jesus was pushing himself to the limit because that's how important prayer was. It cost him something to pray. Don't be surprised if it cost you something to pray. Other passages say that he stayed up all night praying. That he there was a lack of sleep and it cost him something. Now why do I say this? Because we shouldn't be surprised if it's hard for us to pray as well or to make space or time to pray. But it is one of the ways that we are to walk in the spirit. You know, Rick Warren, he says, little prayer, little power. Much prayer, much power. And this is why we are to be men not only of the word, but also of prayer. But there's a great temptation as Bible teachers because we're in the word so much. The word of God doesn't return void, and if we're not in the word, our messages aren't as good. So it sort of helps us to stay in the word. But what happens when we aren't in prayer? Who's keeping us accountable for that? Who's reminding us of that? We need to be reminded today that this is where the power comes from: of being led by the Spirit of listening and talking to God, taking real time. out of your real schedule, your busy schedule, to be with God and in this way to get direction and strength. Another way was not just through prayer, but taking time to evaluate. The text says that he ⁓ went out to desolate, he departed and went out to a desolate place. If if we want to know how we're doing, we need to make space to take time to evaluate with God. And I know that this seems hard because ⁓ we're all so busy, right? ⁓ so busy changing and and visionary and leading and moving forward that it's so hard to look back, to stop and reflect. But this is what Jesus did. He he had to reflect. He had to stop and not continue in ministry. He could have used his time. If he was up early, why didn't he just make the line a little bit longer and heal more people? No, he had to take a step back and depart and went out to a desolate place to pray. You know, what this tells me is Jesus took time to discern things, to reflect, and to evaluate. To discern things, to reflect, to evaluate with God. I think that if we're going to be led by the Spirit, we need to allow time and space to be with the Spirit of God, to interact with God. ⁓ in our own personal, private, daily life, making sure that we have a personal, private daily life to interact with God, to cast our cares upon him because he cares about us. But also we need to take time as leaders, part of our work, not to feel guilty, to pray, to take time for conferences, for retreats, for getting fed and filled and evaluating and and and asking God, where are we at in this season? What do you want me to do? Asking him questions like, how you want me to spend my time is so vital as a leader, because we all have a limited amount of time, and he can give us that type of wisdom. ⁓ what was last year ⁓ like? Was it effective? Lord, do you want me to change in anything? Right now, ⁓ you guys could be praying for me. I have a personal prayer retreat scheduled on September 20th through the 21st. I'm saying it out loud, so I have loving accountability. but it feels like there are way too many things for me to get away. You ever feel that way? But I've just learned in ministry and especially as a lead pastor, I have way too many things not to get away. Because I don't want to go in the wrong direction. Imagine putting forth all this energy, all this effort, and going in the wrong direction. You see, when I evaluate things, especially with God and inviting him to to evaluate my calendar and my scheduling and w asking what to do, I know that I'm going in the right direction. I'm going in the right direction. Because I could have a lot of energy going in the wrong direction. But I don't know if the Lord tells me to go left, I want to go left. Right? Right. Stop, stop. I want his direction and his leadership in my life. I'm an under-shepherd. He's Head of the church. And so, as leaders, under shepherds, ⁓ man, you need to make time and space to be with God, to have him evaluate our calendars, ⁓ to have evaluate effective ministry, to ask him, are we doing what he wants us to do? Because I've learned that we can do a lot. ⁓ we can say yes to a lot of good and even great things, but it's our job to follow Jesus and to say yes to God things. That's gonna require us to say no. What does God want us to do now in this season? That's what wisdom is. You know, when we ask for wisdom, Bible says James 1 5, we'll get it liberally, but that's knowledge rightly applied. In this season, Lord, what do you want me to do? I know last season it was effective, it was fruitful, but what about now? You know, asking God what season you're in is a super helpful question. Recognizing, hey, I have little kids, it's a different season. ⁓ my kids are getting older. I have more time. God, how would you want me to spend that? Take time to get away. Evaluate with God your life. Ask Him for direction. Don't just pray daily, but take time and space once every quarter, ⁓ once every other month, once a month. What does that look like for you? Asking God will be a great benefit. Daily getting away. But the third thing we see of how we're to walk in the Spirit is this. Not just through prayer, not just through taking time to evaluate, but we have to have a a fear of God over man. ⁓ if you're gonna walk in the spirit and go and be in tune and step with the spirit and walk with him and follow him, you gotta follow him and not man. God the Father, not the crowd. We know that the fear of man is a real thing, and there is a lot of pressure, especially as leaders, to please people. But Proverbs says it is a snare. It can lead to a lot of harm, a lot of death, a lot of Pain if you're just doing everything to please the crowd and not the person of Jesus, the one that we give a report to and have to be accountable to. You see, Jesus, he had this pressure as people were looking for him. Simon says, Where are you? Everyone's looking for you. This is what you should do, man. You healed many people yesterday. Now are you gonna do that again today? And Jesus, he's like, Nope, deuces. I am learning to disappoint people in ministry. Are you? You have to learn to say no. ⁓ listen, Jesus is gonna be leaving, disappointing people to go to other cities in Galilee or other towns, ⁓ healing more people, different people, preaching the gospel. When you take time to pray and you're seeking God in his presence, it actually helps you obey. Because when you do those first two things, you actually have a natural fear of God because you get to know his character, his goodness. See, men are fickle, but God is not like man that he should lie. His word is faithful. And when he gives you direction and you follow through, the Bible says you're actually blessed. And when we spend time with God in prayer, going away in isolation, it helps us trust God to obey him over man because we start learning his character when we're spending time with him. And so are you able to follow your father rather than the crowd? ⁓ or culture? You see, we need to spend our time doing the hard things of saying no so we can say yes to a God thing, not just good or great things. If you prioritize God first in your life, as Matthew 633 says, seek all first the kingdom of God, and guess what? All these things will be added unto you. You will also see blessings as it helps you to prioritize other things like family, ⁓ priorities. You see, when I fear God over man, that's a priority issue. When I take things to God in prayer, it's a priority issue. And so because you've learned now to prioritize God in your work life. And in prayer and taking away asking God about your ministry life, talk to God about your family and prioritize your family. What does that look like for you? How do you say no to even work or the demands of people disappointing people? You know, I've had to tell people, no, I can't meet with you on a Thursday night for counseling. I have dinner plans with my family. I've had to say no to speaking opportunities because I don't want to be away with my family, or even saying No, I'm not going to preach in my own church because I have a family vacation planned, even though the demands are, no, we want our pastor to be here and to do this and to do that. Hey, I know that I'm your pastor, but I can't go to all events or I have other things going on. You see, when I'm used to saying no to people because I'm worshiping God through worship and obeying him, it's able to filter all of my life to be able to say yes and to no and to help prioritize and to walk in God's ways with my family, with my friends, with my community, with my church. And it just trickles down. You see, as Jesus prayed and took time away to evaluate, to get wisdom from his father, it set his whole agenda and guarded him to just walk in the spirit, not be led by the flesh. And so I believe this will help us do the same. We need, we need to be setting our agenda ⁓ by what God says, not what man says. And so we all need to have this healthy work-life balance. But what does that look like for you? Honestly, I don't know. Because I'm not the spirit. You shouldn't compare your schedule to my schedule or even my season to your season. But here's what I do know: that you can be led by the spirit. And what does that practically look like? Well, take time to pray. Pray every day. Prioritize your time with the Word and with God and spending it in His presence. Take time to listen and talk to God. ⁓ number two, take time to get away, to evaluate not just what's happening in the future, but take time. in the past, like Jesus did, you g silence and solitude and learn what God wants you to do for him setting your agenda and then just obey whatever he says. It's about worship. Fear God, not man. Fear God over man. See when we do this, ⁓ it will actually help us to be led by the Spirit and be in tune to the Spirit day by day, moment by moment, season by season, because whatever the work balance looks like, God can give us the wisdom on that. And so I hope this helped and I look forward to Getting your perspective as well, your input as we continue this conversation. I'd love to have our direction, our conversation, talk about ⁓ man, what does a healthy work life balance look like in your lives and how can we support one another to cultivate ⁓ being men ⁓ that are praying, that are setting time aside to evaluate things, and that are helping one another say you fear God, you obey God, you keep going and worshiping him, and don't be fearful over man. Just do what God's called you to do. And so God bless you guys, and I hope this video helped.