Exodus: How to Avoid Burnout

This sermon explores Exodus 18, an ancient yet highly relevant text addressing leadership, delegation, and burnout. Overwhelmed by judging disputes from morning to night, Moses receives life-saving advice from his father-in-law, Jethro: share the burden. This story provides timeless principles for anyone feeling crushed under the weight of responsibilities at work, home, or ministry.

Scripture References
Exodus 18:1-27: Jethro observes Moses' exhausting routine and advises him to appoint capable men to share the load.

Numbers 11:14-15: Moses expresses his overwhelming burden to God, stating it is too heavy to carry alone.

1 Kings 19:9-18: Elijah learns he is not the only faithful prophet left, dismantling his savior complex.

Matthew 11:28-30: Jesus invites the weary to find true rest by taking His yoke.

Key Points
Great Leaders Are Learners
Jethro had only worshiped Yahweh for one day when he corrected Moses—the man who parted the Red Sea. Secure leaders possess the humility to listen to feedback, even from unlikely sources or subordinates. Insecure leaders reject correction.

Great Leaders Lead Through Others
Moses was doing the work of 100 men. Jethro challenged him to raise up 100 men instead. Delegating tasks makes followers; delegating authority makes leaders. We must prioritize developing others over just doing the work.

Great Leaders Prioritize Home
Moses was away from his family for a year and did not send for them; Jethro had to bring them to him. A common trap is sacrificing family on the altar of public success. Leaders must save their best energy for their homes.

Great Leaders Are Not Indispensable
Moses acted as if the people could only hear from God through him. Like Elijah, we can easily develop a "savior complex." Realizing God can use others frees us from the heavy tyranny of indispensability.

The Cure for Burnout Isn't Just a Break
Jethro didn't prescribe a vacation; he prescribed a completely new system. A break will not fix burnout if you return to the exact same unsustainable habits. You must empower others to share the load.

Great Leaders Prioritize Character Over Gifting
Jethro advised Moses to select men who "fear God and hate dishonest gain"—not just eloquent speakers. Character must always trump gifting.

Conclusion
We do not just need leadership tips; we need to recognize our profound limitations. When crushed by responsibility, we must come to Jesus, lay down our burdens, and remember our primary calling is not to be a great leader, but a faithful follower of Him.

Calls to Action
Examine Your Listening: Ask God for a teachable spirit to accept feedback from unlikely sources.

Shift from Doing to Developing: Delegate authority, not just chores, to someone else this week.

Check Your Priorities: Make a deliberate choice to prioritize your home and family above your work or ministry output.

Transcript

Now, Jethro, the priest of Midian and the father in law of Moses, heard of everything God had done for Moses and for his people Israel. And how the Lord had brought Israel out of Egypt after Moses had sent away his wife Separa. His father in law Jethro received her and her two sons.

One son was named Gershom, for Moses said, I have become a foreigner in a foreign land, and the other was named Eleazar. For he said, my father's God was my helper. He saved me from the sword of Pharaoh. Jethro. Moses father in law, together with Moses sons and wife, came to him in the wilderness, where he was camped near the mountain of God.

Jethro had sent word to him, I, your father in law, Jethro, and coming to you with your wife and her two sons. So Moses went out to meet his father in law and bowed down and kissed him. They greeted each other and then went into the tent. Moses told his father in law about everything the Lord had done to Pharaoh and the Egyptians for the for Israel's sake, and about all the hardships they had met along the way, and how the Lord had saved them.

Jethro was delighted to hear about all the good things the Lord had done for Israel, in rescuing them from the hand of the Egyptians. He said, praise be to the Lord, who rescued you from the hands of the Egyptians, and of Pharaoh, who rescued the people from the hand of the Egyptians.

Oh, yeah, now I know that the Lord is greater than all other gods, for he did this to those who is who had treated Israel arrogantly. Then Jethro, Moses father in law, brought a burnt offering and other sacrifices to God. And Aaron came with all the elders of Israel to eat a meal with Moses father in law in the presence of God.

The next day, Moses took his seat to serve as judge for the people, and they stood around him from morning till evening, when his father in law saw all that Moses was doing for the people. He said, what is this you're doing for the people? Why do you alone sit as judge while all these people stand around you from morning till evening?

Moses answered him, because the people come to me to seek God's will. Whenever they have a dispute, it is brought to me, and I decide between the parties and inform them of God's decrees and instructions. Moses father in law replied, what you're doing is not good. You and these people who come to you will only wear yourselves out.

The work is too heavy for you. You cannot handle it alone. Listen now to me, and I will give you some advice. And may God be with you. You must be the people's representative before God and bring their disputes to him. Teach them his decrees and instructions, and show them the way they are to live and how they are to behave.

But select capable men from all the people. Men who fear God, trustworthy men who hate dishonest gain and appoint them as officials over thousands, hundreds, 50s and tens. Have them serve as judges for the people at all times, but have them bring every difficult case to you. The simple cases they can decide themselves that will make your load lighter because they will share it with you.

If you do this and God so commands, you will be able to stand the strain and all this. All these people will go home satisfied. Moses listened to his father in law and did everything he said. He chose capable men from all Israel and made them leaders of the people. Officials over thousands, hundreds, 50s and tens. They served as judges for the people at all times.

The difficult cases they brought to Moses. But the simple ones, they decided themselves. Then Moses sent his father in law on his way, and Jethro returned to his own country. This is the word of the Lord. Thrice.

Excuse my voice this morning. I've been, sick this week, and, like, about 75%. I walked up here today and realized that I've got one pant leg cuffed and one not cuffed.

Which is a sign of my 75% ness. I think I was trying to decide what looked better. So I'll let you decide. Cuffed or not cuffed? Not. It doesn't matter what you think. I've got to turn to this side. Here, Custer. Not cuffed. Cuffed. Okay, well, I'll just keep that cuffed one at you. Okay. You get my good side.

I'm. When I get sick, I usually watch some sort of dark historical period piece. I don't know why I do this. I think part of me, part of me loves the perspective when you see what others have gone through and you start to feel better about your own situation, like, I'm going to make it when you see, you know, loads of people dying from the smallpox, you're like, I'm going to pull through this cold.

That's makes me feel better about my own suffering when I when I see that people came through tough stuff. So this this week, while I was sick, I started a series, that HBO did on the life of John Adams. The series, if you've not seen it, has Paul Giamatti playing John Adams. You're like, no, no.

How many people have seen this? Okay. All right. It's more than I thought. You know, Tom Hanks produced this series, so it's incredible. Paul Giamatti does an incredible job. And John Adams, he's one of the architects of the United States of America and instrumental in the Declaration of Independence. He was our first vice president and then after George Washington served as president.

Anyway, this isn't about John John Adams, but he was a sharp dude. And sometimes I was watching the series, and John Adams is going back and forth with Thomas Jefferson and Benjamin Franklin's in the mix. And and honestly, because of their vocabulary and the way they structure their sentences, I'm having a hard time understanding what these chaps are talking about.

I'm leaning in, leaning forward, going. I don't I'm not exactly clear what he's trying to say, because this is the longest run on sentence I've ever heard in my life. That was in our country, in our language, 250 years ago. And I'm struggling to pick up what they're putting down. The text I just read you today is somewhere between 3000 and 3500 years old and comes from the ancient Near East, which has more in common with the East than it does with the West.

And what shocks me is how relevant that is. That could have been your journal entry yesterday. None of us are going. I'm struggling to understand what Moses is. It's weird. As a leader. He's overwhelmed. And then he's got all these things to do, but he stops delegating and he just keeps doing the task. But he's not raising up leaders.

Weird. The Bible so strange. None of us are sitting back going, I don't get what's happening here. We all get what's happening here. We understand this. I just feel, I think often I read the Bible and I'm like, what is this? I don't understand why this is in here. This is not one of those days. And praise God for his living word.

This isn't 250 years old. This is 3000 years old. This is not John Adams old. This is Egypt old. And this is not a text about how to mummify your cat. So this is a this is a passage about how to lead. And it pertains to us today. In fact, John Maxwell's taken this and made a lot of money off this, these principles found in this text.

So this is incredible, right? If you've got a job to do and you forgot to develop the people around you, right. Every teacher feels that way. Like, I've got to do these things and I've got to get these things done. And getting these things done is in the way of developing these students. I don't have the time. I wish I had to develop them because I've got to report on them, and every parent has felt that way.

I have five girls and they're like, we'll bake with you. And I'm like, no, don't I need to get this done. And you're slowing me down. And so there's this tension between what I need to get done as a parent and then developing the kids that God's given me. Everybody who runs a business or is in a trade understands this tension.

And then if you don't understand this, everybody knows what it's like to get coached up by your father in law. That's awesome. When he shows up and he's like, this yard's not good, you should fertilize it like this. You know, it. Listen, this is beautiful. This is incredible.

So it's been one year. One year since Moses encountered the burning bush. And Yahweh revealed himself to Moses and then revealed that he wanted to set his people free. And so he sent Moses on a mission to rescue Hebrew people who were enslaved in Egypt. Ten Incredible plagues transpire. The people are set free, but they don't walk right into the Promised Land.

They walk right into the wilderness where they'll be for a long time, because there's a number of lessons that they need to learn in the wilderness. So there are 2 million slaves wandering the wilderness. And right now, at this point in the story, they're camped at the base of the mountain of God, Mount Sinai, where Moses will receive the Ten Commandments.

And just to let you know, there's more than ten. So if you're like, wow, I'm three chapters into the Ten Commandments, I wonder when we'll get to number ten. There's quite a few more than ten. But this is where Moses receives the famous Ten Commandments. And as you read the story of what happened to the people of God in the wilderness, you need to run every story through this filter.

Why was this one included? Because not every story in the story is included in the scriptures. Not everything that happened is included. So you have to ask yourself the question, why did God decide to print this one? What was God wanting to communicate when he said print that one? What was he wanting to say? And certainly, certainly this passage teaches us about leadership principles that we should continue.

And we see these principles that Jethro lays out for Moses. We see these in Jesus's life. And then as a result, we see the apostles walking in these same principles. So there's something for us today in this text, and there's a reason this was recorded. So I want to talk about this from a couple different angles. The first is I want to talk about six traits of good leadership.

And then the other angle is like how to avoid burnout. Because I know many of us are here where we're overwhelmed with what's in front of us. We don't necessarily identify with Moses's position as a leader over a nation, but we can identify with this sense of being completely overwhelmed with the work in front of us. We do it from morning to night, and we wake up to a line the next day.

We're not making a dent in what God's called us to do, and we're feeling overwhelmed. We're feeling burnt out. Are we? I'm like, we're feeling overwhelmed. Feeling overwhelmed. No. Okay. So the first great trait of leadership and this would be leadership in ministry could be in the marketplace, could be at home, could be at school. The first thing we see from this text is that great leaders are learners, and they'll learn from the least likely sources.

Great leaders possess a humility and a curiosity that insecure leaders don't have. And I want to suggest to you that I think Moses is incredibly secure, and I think that's seen by his ability to learn from just about anyone. So in this text, let me read part of it to you again. Now, Jethro, this is his father in law, the priest of Midian.

Heard of everything God had done for Moses and for his people, Israel, and how the Lord had brought Israel out of Egypt. Jethro. Moses, his father in law, together with Moses, his sons and wife, came to him in the wilderness, where he was kept near the mountain of God. Jethro was delighted to hear about the good things that the Lord had done for Israel, and rescuing them from the hand of the Egyptians, he said, praise be to the Lord, who rescued you from the hand of the Egyptians, and of Pharaoh, and who rescued the people from the hand of the Egyptians.

Now I know that the Lord is greater than all other gods, for he did this to those who had treated Israel arrogantly. Then Jethro Moses, his father in law, brought a burnt offering and other sacrifices to God. And Aaron came with all the elders of Israel to eat a meal with Moses, his father in law, in the presence of God.

What's happening here? Jethro gets saved. He's a priest of false gods. He's a priest in Midian. He comes. Here's the report of all God did for the Israelites. And he says, now I know. Now I know that Yahweh is the one true God, and he's going to be my God. And he brings an offering. And then they eat in the presence of God.

So here's the deal. Jethro's been at the camp one day. Jethro has been saved for one day.

Then, in true father in law fashion, he rocks up and goes, oh, this isn't good. And if I was Moses, I would be so tempted. So tempted to be like, hey, maybe you heard about the fireworks show back in Egypt. How many miracles have you done, Jethro? Oh, that's right, none. How many times have you heard from God, Jethro?

Oh, that's right. None. You just got saved today. And I am the one who brought you to Yahweh. How many seas have you parted? Oh, that's right, none. But how many days have you been with my kids? Oh, that's right, a year because I've been working on something here. Okay, we've seen some things. I mean, how many of you are completely annoyed when one of your coworkers rocks up, knows nothing about the job, knows nothing about it?

Or when your husband comes home and knows nothing about what happened that day, and all of a sudden has a ton of ideas about what you should be doing with your life. Oh, this is frustrating. Oh, how long have you been saved, Jethro? That's right. One day. How long have you been in our camp? Oh, yeah, that's right.

One day. And then I love this. This is crazy.

Jethro goes. Okay, so listen now to me and I'm going to give you some advice and may God be with you.

Moses has got to be like, no, I'm. Listen, Imma give you some advice and may God be with you. I pray for you. You're not. You've been saved a day. You're not praying for me. You're not God blessing me. I'm God blessing you.

Moses listened to his father in law and did everything he said. Well, this is a humility. This is a teachable spirit. Someone who listens is a great leader.

God advice can come from some really unlikely sources.

Can you listen to those who are under you? Can you listen to those who are critical of you? Can you listen to those who are opposed to you? God's advice can come from some really unlikely sources. Parents, have you ever gotten feedback from your kids and been like, dang, that's good. I think you might be right. Bosses listen to your employees.

Pastors listen to your congregations. Coaches, you should listen to your players. Upperclassmen, you should listen to those little freshmen. Republicans. You ever learned anything from a Democrat? Yeah. How to be a Republican.

Democrats. You ever learned anything from Republicans? Yeah. How to not be old and white.

It's so easy to dismiss them. What do I mean? Honestly, Jethro, what do you know about anything?

Insecurity keeps us from learning and listening. I heard this story from, Larry Osborne, and I thought it was fascinating. So, General Mills, if you don't know, they make your Cheerios huge food manufacturer. They started as a flour mill. Now General Mills owns 100 brands, and their factories would be making one product, and then they would have to start making another.

That transition in the factory took about 4.5 hours. And when your factory is not producing for 4.5 hours, you're losing quite a bit of money. So these engineers sought to figure out how to more quickly make their factory make something else. They couldn't lose this time. They couldn't lose this money. And all of these engineers were stumped. No matter what they did, they couldn't reduce it down from 4.5 hours of turnover time.

At the same time, the company was sponsoring a NASCAR. And every cars got a crew. And that pit crew does in seconds what should take 15 or 20 minutes. So General Mills, these engineers decide that they're going to go down and they're going to spend a week with a pit crew to try to figure out if they can learn something about speeding up their process.

And you could probably just hear some of the engineers, right, going, what did these grease monkey, what do they know about food safety? What do they know about a factory? What is the guy with a dip in his lip going to teach me about running General Mills?

They came back and they were able to reduce the time it took to turn over their factories. From 4.5 hours to 12 minutes.

Got advice? Come some some pretty unlikely places. If you're humble enough to learn and if you're humble enough to listen. And I want to say something here because I know some of you are readers, leaders of readers, and I know some of you are readers. But that's different than listening, because when you're reading, you can just shut a book.

You stand over it in authority, and you can shut it whenever you want. Listening is a whole different thing and requires quite a bit of humility, because you can't just close their mouth when you're done with what they're saying to you. Listening is difficult and requires humility. Can you learn from those under you? Can you learn from those critical of you?

Can you learn from a pit crew? That's the question number two. These will speed up. Number two, great leaders are not just doers. They lead through others. They equip and they empower. And they give authority. So the next day, Moses took his seat to serve as judge for the people. He's like, Jethro, you want to come to work with me and they stood around him from morning till evening, when his father in law saw all that Moses was doing for the people.

He said, what is this you're doing for the people? And why do you sit alone as judge? Who all these people stand around you from morning until evening? Moses answered him, because the people come to me to seek God's will whenever they have a dispute, it's brought to me, and I decide between the parties, and I inform them of God's decrees and instructions.

What you'll see in this text is two things. What's happening is not good for Moses, and it's also not good for the people. He says to him, essentially, you're going to burn out. You can't sustain what you're doing here. And Moses agrees. This account is recorded in numbers and in Deuteronomy. Listen to what Moses says in numbers about his situation.

I cannot carry all these people by myself. The burden is too heavy for me. I got too many director reports. Then he says to God, I love this line. If this is how you're going to treat me, please go ahead and kill me. If I've found favor in your eyes and do not let me face my own ruin.

I'm going down. Kill me now. God is in the Bible and it comes from a leader.

So it's no good for Moses. He knows it. That's probably why he was responsive to Jethro. His feedback. But it's also not good for the people. What I picture when I picture this scene is the DMV with like one window, but no one waits inside. Everybody is waiting outside, right? Be 13 and Jethro comes along. He's like, hey, I'd open up some other windows if I were you.

Because Moses made the mistake. He thought he should be judge for everyone instead of raise up judges for everyone. And leaders often make this mistake. Dr. Moody has this incredible quote that I think really gets at us. He said, I would rather raise up a hundred men than do the work of 100 men. Let me read it again, because it's very convicting.

I would rather raise up a hundred men than do the work of 100 men.

Now, I think often we'd rather be seen as exceptional. We'd rather people come and say, my goodness, you were doing the work of 100 men, and you're like.

As moms, it feels great when someone comes and says, I don't know how you do it. Would you rather do the work of 100 men and be seen as exceptional, or would you rather raise up 100 men to do the work of 100 men?

Craig Rochelle says that if you delegate tasks, you're going to make followers. But if you delegate authority, you're going to make leaders. And Moses is charged by Jethro to not just delegate the tasks, but to actually delegate authority, let them decide on the matter. When they get stuck, they'll come your way. I know that every one of us is facing this tension of, you've got a job to do, you've got a task in front of you, and then you've got to train the guy next to you.

Every one of us is struggling to pull both of these things off. My question for you today is which one do you prioritize? Which one gets punted? I know for me, when I've got a lot of things to do, I stop developing others. And I know for Jesus he would stop dealing with his clients or the crowd, and he would develop his guys.

So when crunched and you can't do it all, will you choose the doing over the developing, or will you choose the developing over the doing that to me is a really convicting question. Number three, great leaders lead their homes and have energy for their families. This is a principle that's echoed throughout Scripture. What's really fascinating about this story and I'm reading between the lines here.

But Moses says to his father in law, his wife and his kids, hey, I'm going to go to Egypt and see if my people are still alive. Now, that's not the total truth that he tells them, because he's heard from the burning bush that he's supposed to go lead an exodus. He's going to make a way out of slavery.

So he goes, he succeeds. They leave Egypt. It's been one year since he's seen his wife or his kids. And Moses does not send for Jethro. Jethro comes to Moses.

Some of you grandparents know this all too well. He doesn't call for his kids. Grandpa calls and says, when are you going to pick up your kids?

It's been a year. You haven't seen your wife and kids, and we all know before we throw throw stones like we all know what it's like to be so overwhelmed with what's happening in our lives. Or maybe at work, or maybe in our extended families that we neglect our families at home. Throughout the New Testament, we're told that when you're looking to appoint leaders, you're looking to select them.

You should make sure they're able to manage their households. Are they leading their their home? We all know what it is to prioritize work at the cost of family and friends, or to prioritize school or sport at the cost of family and friends. Great leaders still have energy for their families and their friends. Number four great leaders. They know how to say no and they know how to set boundaries.

I don't know if you picked this up as we read the text, but the vibe that's growing here is I speak for God.

The people come to me because I can help them sort out their issues. They need me. And in Moses's defense, he did speak for God. But I think what this points out, something that leaders struggle with and that is that if you think that you're indispensable, you're bordering on delusional. This whole thing goes on without you. And I think as leaders and in our homes, we start to think like, man, I like can't be replaced.

And this is up to me and this is on me. And if I don't answer, they won't get an answer and we can start to think that we're more important than we are.

There's this really cool story in the Old Testament where Elijah, he's this incredible prophet. I mean, he's the guy. And the guy invites 800 prophets of Baal to Mount Carmel. And there's the showdown. 800 prophets are consumed by fire. Elijah comes out victorious. After the victory, Elijah finds himself once again running for his life. And he just is so discouraged.

There's nothing quite like thinking you took a huge step forward and then taking two steps back. It's a special kind of despair that sets in when you think this is going to do it. And it doesn't. And so he's super discouraged and he goes and, basically. He just lays down in a cave. He's genuinely tired, weary, depressed.

And the voice of God comes to him and says, what are you doing here? Elijah? And Elijah says this I've been very zealous for the Lord God Almighty. The Israelites have rejected your covenant. They've torn down your altars. They've put your prophets to death with the sword. And I'm the only one left. And now. Now they're trying to kill me to.

And the Lord has a number of things to say to him. But the first thing he says is you need a nap.

You need to eat something and you need to take a nap. And then the second thing God says to Elijah is, okay, then go anoint Elisha and the night and anoint Jehu as king. And then he says to him, remember, Elijah says, I'm the only God. I'm the only one left. You don't understand. He says, it's okay. I'll just probably choose one of the 7000 others who have not been there.

Need to bail. I'm the only one.

I'm indispensable. You have to have me. If you don't want to do the job anymore, that's fine. I'll go pick from one of the 7000 others that you've lost sight of. This happens for all of us.

Just because something needs to be done doesn't necessarily mean that you're the one to to do it. And this is a hard lesson for us to learn.

Number five great leaders don't wear burnout as a badge of honor.

Boomers. Gen Xers, you need to remember that Jesus said, come to me and I'll give you a real work ethic. No, Jesus said, come to me and I'll give you rest. Come to me. If you're over it, I will give you something to cry about. That's not the Jesus we serve. Millennials, Gen Z. You need to remember that Jesus said, take my yoke upon you.

You're going to work. You're going to labor. He doesn't just say, take that yoke off. He says, take this yoke upon you. You're going to be overwhelmed at times, but he's going to be beside you in the work.

Moses still worked. The answer to burnout is not a break. How many of you have been burned out taking a break and it didn't work? Again, it's discouraging. The answer is not a break. The answer is not doing nothing but doing what you can do to lead others to do the rest. That is the answer that Jethro suggests.

He doesn't just say to him, Moses, man, you need to go lay by those palm trees for a week, and then when you come back, you'll be able to go. Morning till night again. You just need a week off, man. No, that's not the answer. Lastly, great leaders prioritize character over giftedness. Jethro doesn't come to Moses and say, hey, I want you to look for lawyers.

I want you to look for orators. I want to look for John Adams. I want you to look for a lawyer who's an orator. Delegate it to them. No. He says get capable men for sure. Men who fear God. Trustworthy men who hate dishonest gain and appoint them as officials over thousands, hundreds, 50s and tens. This is true in the New Testament as well, that when we're to look for leaders and look to select leaders, we should look for character and not gifting.

Because character trumps gifting. But gifting is so attractive, is it not? It's so difficult. We this I can put this on the screen and we can all be like, yeah, that's true, that's true. And in our companies, this is a really difficult. And I know that in the church I get to choose my leaders. And so we get to say, you know, we choose character over gifting.

And I know at your workplace you get to choose who works for you. So you can choose character over gifting. But what about your kids? You don't get to choose those. You don't get to be like, hey, you got bad character. I fire you from being my kid. But I want to ask you as parents, what are you praising and pouring your efforts into with your kids, their gifting or their character?

It's really fun to see your kids be gifted and succeed and be the best. And so often we can pursue sport or scholarships or other things because it feels so good to see our kids be gifted. But how are you investing in their character?

How are you teaching them? How are you teaching your kids? That character trumps gifting? Worship team would you come? Hey, I don't I don't want to leave today. Thinking that you got six tips and tricks to be a better leader. I don't really think that that's what church is about. Primarily. What I would hope is that you would recognize the areas where you feel like I'm falling short of that, and rather than just try harder and beat yourself up, that you would come to the table, that you would receive mercy.

And you would say, I don't just want to be a better leader, Jesus. I want to be led by you, and I want my shortcomings to be covered by you. And ultimately, I want to be a follower of you, not a leader of others.