Dharius Daniels - You Doing Too Much

Matthew chapter 11, beginning at verse 28. This is what it says: «Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy and my burden is light.» Y’all, we have a word today! It’s going to be tight, but I hope it’s right. I want to talk from this subject: Family, you’re doing too much. Somebody clap your hands if you’re ready for God’s word. You’re doing too much!

I like to ease into this introduction, family, by offering an axiom for your consideration. This is for my note-takers, for my teaching assistants in the chat—prepare to type this so your brothers and sisters can see it and comprehend it properly. Here it is: When the enemy cannot take you out, his next step is to wear you down. I’m going to say it one more time for my note-takers: When the enemy cannot take you out, his next step is to wear you down. When he cannot make you bad, he tries to make you busy.

All throughout Scripture, we see examples of the enemy inciting in people a desire to operate in this way. He attempts to accomplish this agenda by influencing us to occupy a headspace and to live at a pace of life that’s over-committed, over-engaged, unhealthy, and unsustainable. It is a subtle, strategic, and secret way to orchestrate self-sabotage in the lives of God’s people, by infecting us with a sickness that John Mark Comer calls «hurry sickness.»

Hurry sickness is not a sickness of the schedule; hurry sickness is a sickness of the soul. It is when the soul is so infected with fear or discontentment to the degree that there is a pathological preoccupation with busyness, causing us to pursue success in unsuccessful ways. What do I mean?

I mean we get out of divine rhythm. The hustle and grind mentality dominates culture, while the divine rhythm is ebb and flow. In culture, there is a regimen; in the kingdom, there is a rhythm. They strive in culture; we strive in the kingdom. Talk to me now; the church should talk back! In culture, they spend their whole life chasing it, while in the kingdom we chase Him.

Listen to this: When we chase Him, Jesus said in Matthew 6:33 that He will make it chase us. Did you hear what I just said? When you get out of divine rhythm, it doesn’t mean you’re chasing the wrong thing; it just means you’re chasing it the wrong way. Am I making sense?

I want you to wrap your head around this. It’s when we get out of divine rhythm that we’re either doing too much of the wrong thing or too much of nothing to allow time for the right thing. I want you to catch what I’m saying, family. It’s when we want to grow spiritually, but we’re too busy to pray and study. Why is it so quiet?

It’s when we want to make more resources, yet we’re too busy to get better at something, so we keep doing more of the mediocre. You hear what I’m saying? We think we’re stuck because we’re not doing enough, when we’re actually stuck because we’re doing too much of the mediocre.

Come on, family! If it’s right—even if it’s tight—we ought to say amen! Here it is: It’s when we want better health, but are too busy to take care of ourselves. It’s when we want a better relationship, but we are too busy to sit down, talk, have tough conversations, or get some help if we need it. We are doing too much!

It’s a way of living that is softly killing us—killing our joy, killing our peace, killing our relational fulfillment, killing our financial stability, and killing our professional advancement. It is a life that reflects more of the life of Adam and not of the life of Jesus.

If you will listen to me, I believe this could be one of the most transformative messages this year. When we live this way, it resembles more the life of Adam, the first human created, than it does of Jesus. Dr. Darris, what do you mean by that? In Genesis 3, Adam makes a decision—not because he was deceived—that he is going to ignore God’s priorities and prohibitions and pursue his own.

He makes a choice to break with divine rhythm and do things his way. He says, «In this area, my life is going to be my way, not your way, God. I want from that tree, so I will get it.» And God said, «Okay, but this is what happens when you do it your way.» He says, «By the sweat of your brow,» which sounds like grind to me.

See, when he said, «By the sweat of your brow, you will eat your food until you return to the ground,» it indicates that it’s going to take sweat now for you to satisfy your appetites. We all have appetites—spiritual appetites, emotional appetites, relational appetites, financial appetites, professional appetites. We all have appetites. And God tells Adam, «For you now to get your appetite satisfied, you have to sweat for it.»

Now, if you do it my way, I’ll satisfy you without sweat. Did you hear what I just said?