Have you ever heard of the "Coronary and Ulcer Club"? The "Coronary and Ulcer Club" has the following rules for members… 1. Your job comes first. Forget everything else. 2. Saturdays, Sundays, and holidays are fine times to be working at the office. There will be nobody else there to bother you. 3. Always have your briefcase with you when not at your desk. This provides an opportunity to review completely all the troubles and worries of the day. 4. Never say "no" to a request. Always say "yes." 5. Accept all invitations to meetings, banquets, committees, etc. 6. All forms of recreation are a waste of time. 7. Never delegate responsibility to others; carry the entire workload yourself to make sure it gets done right. 8. If your work calls for traveling, work all day and travel at night to keep that appointment you made at 8:00 the next morning. 9. No matter how many jobs you are doing, remember you can always take on more.

Do you ever feel like you are being overworked? Like everyone is looking for you? Imagine what it was like to be Jesus! Jesus was mobbed by the crowds! Because He taught with authority and healed those possessed by evil spirits, the crowds sought Him out. Everyone with an ailment joined the demanding mob of people! The text tells us that the whole town was gathered at the door! The crowds came with their brokenness and said, "Fix me!" People who were sick, hopeless, and desperate came to Jesus because He offered a glimmer of hope in a hopeless world.

The demanding crowds came because they wanted something. They did not come to capture a new vision for life. They did not come to seek the kingdom of God. They came for one reason, the reason that most crowds come: to get something. They came because Jesus had what they wanted most - He had what they couldn't find anywhere else - health of mind and body. Wholeness. Most who seek God do so during crisis. For every prayer of thanksgiving and praise offered to God, there must be ten offered as demands and requests. God often hears the words, "Lord, get me out of this mess and I'll serve You the rest of my life!" Hey - does that sound familiar to you? Those who never pray to God when the sun is shining begin to pray when the clouds come and the cold winds of hardship blow. For most people, religion is a crisis affair, isn't it? We need to be reminded that God is not one to be remembered only in misfortune, but every day of our lives! And the remarkable thing about Him is that regardless of how or when we come - God is there!

The demand of the crowd on Jesus' life was so great , that "Very early in the morning, while it was still dark, Jesus got up, left the house and went off to a solitary place, where He prayed." Jesus realized He could not give out to others anymore. And He didn't try to pretend that He could. He went someplace where He could be alone, away from the cries of the needy, the demands of the people, the insistence that He do something. Jesus was not trying to dodge his responsibilities. It wasn't that He was uncaring about the needs of others or those that surrounded Him. Rather it was a matter of staying connected with the Father through prayer so that He could maintain a clear sense of purpose and the strength to carry it out.

How easy it is for our lives to be cluttered with the needs and demands of others! We find ourselves going in several different directions at one time. We end up doing a lot of things, but there is no sense of fulfillment or accomplishment. We find ourselves on the edge of burnout. Someone once said that burnout is not the result of too much activity. It is the result of the wrong kind of activity. Instead of energizing us and building us up, it wears us down and saps our energy. Jesus needed time to get away and put things in perspective and gain a clear understanding of the mission his Heavenly Father had sent Him on. If Jesus needed to do this, how much more do we need to do it? There is always that possibility that we are busy doing the wrong thing. We need to do what Jesus did - get away and spend time in prayer with God, seeking his will, and listening to his answers in the Word, instead of always responding to the demands and needs of others.

There are several important points here. First, Jesus was not going to allow the demands of the crowd to determine the nature or purpose of his ministry. When the crowds were beginning to gather and Jesus was nowhere to be found, his disciples came looking for Him. They found his bed empty. Then we are told they went "hunting" for Him. Finally, they tracked Him down and they gave Him what they considered a favorable report: "Everyone is looking for you!" They felt that Jesus' responsibility was to comply with the wishes of the crowd. This is the same mistake that the church sometimes makes. We feel we must comply with the demands of the crowd, but sometime the demands of the crowd and the demands of God's Word are not the same. Sometimes we want to treat God like a commodity to be marketed, and we allow the crowd to determine the way that we market Him. So He becomes "attractive." But God is so much more than that, and the Gospel is not always what the crowd wants to hear!

Second, Jesus knew if He was going to meet the demands of the crowd, He needed reinforcement. Here Jesus shows us the power of prayer. If He was going to meet the demands of others successfully, He first had to meet with his Father. If He was going to speak meaningfully with the masses, He had to first allow the Father to speak with Him. Prayer will never do the task for us. It will, however, strengthen us for the task to be done.

Five young college students were spending a Sunday in London, so they went to hear the famed Charles Spurgeon preach. While waiting for the doors to open, the students were greeted by a man who asked, "Gentlemen, let me show you around. Would you like to see the heating plant of this church?" They were not particularly interested, because it was a hot day in July. But they didn't want to offend the stranger, so they consented. The young men were taken down a stairway, a door was quietly opened, and their guide whispered, "This is our heating plant." Surprised, the students saw 700 people bowed in prayer, seeking a blessing on the service that was soon to begin in the auditorium above. Softly closing the door, the gentleman then introduced himself. It was none other than Charles Spurgeon.

Jesus discovered that only by turning to God when the crowds were pressing around Him could He ever hope to maintain a sharp focus on his mission. We also need to know when to walk away, when to shut the door, and when to be alone to regroup our thoughts and to rethink God's purpose for our lives. If we do not take this time, we could possibly crack under the load, go off in the wrong direction, say the wrong words, or do the wrong things. It is possible that the stress and strain could cause us to go in an opposite direction of our purpose. Suddenly we discover that life is counter-productive from our intentions. In the movie, Bridge Over the River Kwai, the British officer is so busy and so consumed by the bridge he builds that he forgets his responsibilities as an officer: the battle he is fighting, and the human lives for which he is responsible. The purpose of his life at that moment is to lead his men, not to defend his bridge! How easily we can develop a fortress mentality regarding our church and forget the human needs that exist on our doorsteps!

In all of our busyness, are we being the children God intends for us to be? Are we busy doing the right things? What is the right thing? Our task is to hear, proclaim, teach, and spread the good news of God's love for all people in Jesus Christ. That is our task as individuals and as a Christian congregation. Every program or activity we take part in should be related to the gospel in some way or other. If it's not, let's rethink it! We must not forget that all of our activities and words are to proclaim the good news of God's Word and share his grace with others. We need to start by listening to that message ourselves. And going to God in prayer. Then, we can go about our business of glorifying God's name in this world, and spend less time spinning our wheels with busyness that is only wearing us out!

Christians are responsible to declare the Word. Like many of you, it was painful to watch the movie "Schindler's List." Krakow, Poland, had a history for centuries as a stronghold of the Christian faith. One has to ask, "Where was the church?" when all of this was taking place. For fifty years, historians have been asking the same question. It has yet to be answered. The church was present, but silent. For over 150 years there was slavery in our land. Where was the church? For the most part, it was silent. Prominent church members were slave owners. The church was so embroiled in the practice of slavery that it became divided. What about the Word today? Where is the Word being proclaimed in regard to violence, war, and those deep social issues such as abortion, human sexuality, and race? Where have all the prophets gone?

Every morning when the sun comes up, a gazelle wakes. He knows that he must outrun the fastest lion or he will be eaten. When the sun comes up, the lion wakes. He knows that he must outrun the slowest gazelle, or he will starve. In the end it doesn't matter whether you are a lion or gazelle; but that when the sun comes up, you better be running!

How true! We run from sunup to sundown. Chasing and being chased by responsibilities and expectations. Little is left after we deal with all of the demands of the workplace. The little that is left is gobbled up by community and family activities. But, often, even when the sun goes down, the race still goes on. This morning, we have an opportunity to get away from it all for a while and come to the Lord to pray to Him and listen to Him speak. The pace is slowed. You can get away from it all. Catch your breath! This gives you a moment to reflect on Jesus and what He did for you! It gives you an opportunity to be reassured once again that all of your sins and failures are forgiven! God sees you as his own dear child because of Jesus! Jesus willingly gave his life on the cross for your sins, and took his life back up three days later to convince you that the ultimate victory of peace, joy, comfort, and life eternal is yours! Reflect on this wonderful truth this morning! Go to the Lord in prayer and thank Him for it and ask for strength. Then you will be ready, like Jesus was, to go out and face the demanding crowd and carry out the work that God gave you to do!

There are two ways of handling pressure. One is illustrated by a bathysphere, a miniature submarine used to explore the ocean in places so deep that water pressure would crush a conventional submarine like an aluminum can. Bathyspheres handle that pressure by compensating with a hard shell built of plate steel several inches thick. It also makes it hard for them to maneuver! But as they are down at the bottom of the ocean, they explorers look out of those thick windows and see fish that deal with pressure in an entirely different way. They don't build thick skins at all! And they have no problem maneuvering! They compensate for the outside pressure through equal and opposite pressure inside themselves! You and I, likewise, don't have to be hard and thick-skinned - as long as we appropriate God's power within to equal the pressure without! Amen.

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