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Living a Pressure Filled Life October 20 th , 2013 I’d like to begin by reading Jesus’ words from his Sermon on the Mount recorded in Matthew 6 starting in verse 1. -Jesus said: Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or drink; or about your body, what you wear... Is not your life more important than food, and the body more important than clothes? Look at the birds of the

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Living a Pressure Filled LifeOctober 20th, 2013

I’d like to begin by reading Jesus’ words from his Sermon on the Mount recorded in Matthew 6 starting in verse 1. - Jesus said: Therefore I tell you, do

not worry about your life, what you will eat or drink; or about your body, what you wear...

Is not your life more important than food, and the body more important than clothes? Look at the birds of the air. They do not sow or reap or store away in barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not much more valuable than they? Who of you by worrying can add a single hour to his life? So do not worry, saying, “What

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shall we eat?” or “What shall we drink?” or “What shall we wear?” For the pagans run after all these things, and your heavenly Father knows that you need them. But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well. Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own. (Matthew 6:25-27; 31-34)

We’re going to talk about the way that life works and about each day of life. I have brought some props along to help illustrate this a bit. - This jar represents a day in your

life, and these balls of Kix represent the activities that we have to do.

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- For those of you with little kids, you know that these activities fill up your day. - But, of course, it’s not just

moms… it’s all of us.

All of us have stuff that we’ve got to do. We have work. You may do it at a school or in an office… as a volunteer or for pay.- Either way, each of us has about

48 hours of work to manage. You have to manage your boss. You have to go to meetings. - You have to handle chaos! In fact,

the average worker has 36 hours of work sitting at his or her desk…- and spends 3 hours a week just

digging around piles looking for

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the work that they are supposed to be doing! - You also have to handle your

emotions around work.

John Maxwell wrote: Outside of your genetic predisposition, the number one determinant of your longevity is how well you like your work. - Now that you know that, how

many of you think you might die any minute? - We also have personal tasks.

These are the things that you’ve just got to do. You’ve got to sleep. That’s 6 to 8 hours a day right there. - You’ve got to take a shower;

you’ve got to brush your teeth… and maybe even floss your teeth.

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You’ve got to get some exercise. In fact, the American Heart Associates recommends 30 minutes of moderate-intensity cardiovascular exercise most days of the week…- And 60-90 minutes of exercise for

those trying to loose or maintain weight! - Winston Churchill, who was

famous for his extremely sedentary life, once said he got most of his exercise serving as pallbearer for his friends who died while they were getting exercise.

You’ve got to take care of household stuff; you’ve got to buy food for meals, fix meals, eat meals, clean up after meals.

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- Somebody’s got to make sure that the grass is mowed and clothes and dishes are washed. - You’ve got to pay the bills,

balance your checkbook. - You’ve got to clean the

bathroom.

When Joyce and I first got married, I asked her: What chore do you most hate? Her response was: Cleaning the bathroom. - I said, “All right. I’m going to take

that one off your plate. You don’t have to clean another bathroom.” And she hasn’t for 20 years. - Now, I haven’t cleaned a bathroom

either! They’re a mess, but you know… it saves us some time. (kidding, of course!)

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We think that we have laborsaving devices so we’ll have to spend less time cleaning our houses… - but before 1850, when there was

no electricity, people couldn’t see how dirty things were in their houses, so they actually spent less time cleaning than we do in our day. - That’s why I think we should just

live with candles. It’s more romantic and the dirt doesn’t bother you. It saves time.

Then there are social obligations. You have to maintain those. You will spend about two years of your life on the phone. - If you’re single, you may go on

dates. You have to get ready for dates. Sometimes it takes more

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time to get ready for the date than it does to actually go on the date. - Sometimes it’s more fun getting

ready for the date than it is actually going on the date! - If you have children, there’s

school, music lessons, sports…

Then there’s time spent in and on the car. You will spend, if you are an average person, six months of your life at stoplights. - Then there’s car maintenance.

There are hobbies and vacations.- Then there’s recreation. Maybe

you like watching a bit of TV, or going to a movie from time to time, or sitting down each day reading a book.

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Then you add to that life already packed full of activities all the unexpected things that inevitably happen: - Somebody gets sick. • Aunt Edna

comes to visit. • The car breaks down… a crisis at work. - I mean… the jar starts to fill up

pretty fast, doesn’t it?!

There was an article in USA Today some time ago where they interviewed experts from all different fields and asked them: - How much time does the average

person need to devote to your particular field just to get by … not to excel, just to get by? - They asked experts in the areas of

Sleep, Physical Fitness,

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Vocational Coaching, Family Life. - When they added up the minimal

time we’re all supposed to spend, according to the experts in their particular area of interest, it totaled out to 36 hours a day. - That’s what we’re supposed to do

just to get by.

It’s challenging enough just to juggle all the little balls of KIX in your jar—all the “stuff” that you’ve got to do. - And yet, beyond all those things

we’ve already filled our jars with, there are those certain things that we’d really like for our lives to be about.- There are some things that I’d

like for my life to be about.

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- Jesus put it like this in Matthew 6:33: Seek first the Kingdom of God and His righteousness and all these other things will be added.

I have a few larger balls to represent the things that matter most in life.- This is the letter “T.” It stands

for transformation. I’d like to experience some personal transformation. I’d like to grow as a person! - I don’t always want to be praying

on the run. I don’t want to skimp on God or what’s most important to God. - I’d like to become the kind of

person that can live a kingdom kind of life. I’d like transformation.

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I know that a big part of what that means is a that I have to get deliberate about time. - In particular, it means being

deliberate about spending some time alone with God. It was true of Jesus. - In Mark 1:35, we’re told that

“Very early in the morning, while it was still dark, Jesus withdrew to a solitary place to be alone with God and pray.”- And after that, He continued going

from town to town proclaiming and demonstrating the Kingdom of God.

Before He chose the twelve disciples, we’re told in Luke 6:12 that Jesus “went to a mountain and spent the night in prayer.”

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- After He fed the 5000, He withdraws to be alone with God. - When He hears the bad news

about His friend, John the Baptist, He goes away to be alone with God. - This pattern of stepping out of a

crazy-busy, crazy-intense life continues right up to the time He’s about to face the Cross.

In fact, He goes to the Garden of Gethsemane and brings some friends with Him, but He withdraws from them to be alone with the Father. - All the time, He’s teaching His

followers to do the same also. - One time in Mark 6:31, they’ve

been in the middle of a really busy season, and Jesus pulls His

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followers aside, and He says to them: - “Come with Me by yourselves to

a quiet place and get some rest.”

Have you ever heard Him say that to you? I know I have… a whole lot of times. - I need to spend purposeful time

alone with Him to get my mind in focused on Him above all the distractions.- I know how intentional I need to

be in my every day life… surrendering my will and my agenda and my schedule… to Him.

Perhaps you haven’t been all that purposeful at this. Maybe you’ve said to yourself, as I have…

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- “The next time I have a free day, I’ll spend it alone with God.” - Well… do you know how long I’ve

waited for that day to come? - You know, by the time you reach

70 years of age, you will have lived just over twenty-five thousand days. 25,000 jars!- It would be ironic to get to the

end of them and say: “God, I was never able to devote just a day to being with You, because there was always something else to do.”

Truth is, guys… I don’t want to get to get to the other side of 25,000 days and be the same guy I am today.- In spite of the distractions &

pressures of everyday life… I don’t want to get to the other side of next week without experiencing

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some level of personal transformation.- Bottom-line… I want to experience

real Transformation in my life.

The second ball has the letter “L” on it. It stands for the word “Love.” That’s just about people.- I’ll tell you something, when you

get to the end of your life, mostly what matters is people… the people that you love and the people who loved you. - I have a wife, I have children and

I have friends. I have an amazing church community… And, I want to go really deep with them. - I want to have memories and

moments with them that really are the “stuff” of eternity.

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One of the things that is so clear about Jesus is just how much He loves people. - There’s never a situation where

He seems preoccupied or distracted when He’s with them… - Whether they’re religious

leaders, government officials, lepers or tax collectors.

And yet, I know that without being more purposeful in all of this, that my default mode in life will always be “Me.” - I’d like for my life to be about

more than a briefcase and a closed office door and a list of stuff to do. - I don’t want to miss an

unspoken invitation to talk with my daughters because I was too

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busy with things that aren’t nearly that important.

I don’t want to miss an opportunity to show love to those who are far from God… who need a tangible expression of His love.- I want to have space in my heart

and life for people who are poor, peoples from different cultures and faiths. - I want my love to be a courageous

love that reaches out and cares for those around me in tangible ways.

Then, there’s something else that seeking the Kingdom is about for me, and it has the letter “C” on it. - “C” stands for Calling. I have a

Calling, and you’ve got a Calling.

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- But the busyness of life can cause us to step away from the stirrings God has put on our hearts…- Where we step out of the game

and into the bleachers.

You see, if we’ve got the choice between sitting in the bleachers and getting in the game, the right choice is to always get in the game.- Like it or not, this is our one &

only chance at life. - God has given to all of us who

know Him and love Him and follow Him… a life and resources and education and experiences and gifts & talents and some wounds...

One day, the Bible says, we’re going to stand before God and have the

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opportunity to hear the God of the universe say to us: Well done.- Maybe you’ve heard that preached

so much that it’s lost its meaning. - Think about the God who made

you, the God of the universe, looking you in the eye and saying: Well done. Well done. Well done. You want to live for that?- I don’t want to go through life in

the bleachers. I want to be faithful to God’s calling on my life.

I want to develop the gifts that He’s given to me to the fullest extent that I can. I want to serve. I want to give with the stuff that He’s given to me. - I want to encourage other people

and cheer them on. - I want to take risks of faith and

courageously extend His love to

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the world around me. - You’re being here says something

about the calling God has placed on you to be part of this community.

We’ve all been given gifts by God… and we’ve all been called by God to get in the game… - to be part of His work to

transform the world around us through His love and power.- That’s TLC: Transformation, Love

and Calling.

But then I’ve got a fourth ball here, and it’s got the letter “J” on it. “J” stands for Joy. - Toward the end of His ministry,

we read in John 15:11 about how Jesus was teaching His disciples.

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- He said: “These things I have taught you so that My joy may be in you and that your joy may be complete.” - I wonder… what would it look

like if Jesus’ joy truly flowing in me?

What would it look like if, in spite of the challenges of life, we could really experience His joy? - Paul says: Rejoice in the Lord

always. Again I say to you: Rejoice! (Philippians 4:4) I don’t want to miss this. - David writes in Psalm 118:24,

“This is the day the Lord has made. Let us rejoice and be glad in this day.”- “This is the day!” He’s not talking

about the special, fun days… but

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the everyday-type of day… with all of its pressures and all of its troubles.

I don’t want to miss out on joy in my life… but it’s easy to. It’s easy to allow the worries & busyness of life to drown out joy. - That word, “worry,” comes from

the German word wuergen, which means to strangle, or constrict, or choke. That's worry. - Suddenly, we stop celebrating

the simple reality of God’s love & presence. We stop celebrating all the little things.- We stop celebrating answered

prayers… our friendships… the fact that we get to be part of a loving church community.

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So, how do we walk in joy? In John 15, Jesus said, “These things I have taught you so that My joy may be in you and that your joy may be complete.”- What was He teaching them that

was meant to fill our lives with joy? - Well, throughout John 15, He was

talking about abiding in the Father’s presence.- In Psalm 16:11, David says that

it’s in His presence that we can have fullness of joy.

These are the things that really matter: to be a person and a community of Transformation… Love… Calling… and Joy. - If we: Seek first the Kingdom of

God, these four things would characterize so much more of our

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lives. But here’s the problem:- If I try to squeeze these four

things into a life that is already full, I can get one… maybe two balls… into my jar; - You just can’t squeeze these four

large balls into a life that’s already filled with hundreds of little, far less meaningful balls.

I’d say that maybe my primary concern for myself, for us as a congregation, for a lot of Christians in our day and in our part of the world is the pace of life.- For most of us, what gets in the

way of getting these four things settled into our lives isn’t any kind of deliberate defiance against God.- Instead, the culprit is simple

busyness… where go on, from day to day, living respectable, non-

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scandalous, busy, tired, human-powered lives.

The old saying is: If the Devil can’t make you bad, he’ll make you busy. Either way you’ll miss out on God’s best for your life.- People respond to this in a few

different ways. A lot of people say to themselves: “I’ll get around to this stuff when I have more time. My problem is that I just need a bigger jar. Right now, there’s too much crazy stuff going on. One day, when it’s not such a busy season, then I’ll align my life with my priorities. I need more hours in a day.”

The problem is that God has already decreed how many hours there will be

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in a day, and it’s not likely to change. The jars come in 24-hour sizes. - For those of you waiting for a

less complicated day with fewer demands, Jesus says this in Matthew 6:27: - “Who of you by worrying—by

trying to do life on your own apart from God—can add a single hour to your life?”- And if I wait for a less demanding

day, chances are that I’ll wait for a long, long time.

Truth is, Jesus gives a little forecast at the very end of this chapter in Matthew 6 that speaks to what the days ahead will have for us.- Now, you know that the weather

can sometimes be unpredictable. - One weather forecaster in grad

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school Chicago explained how she had forecasted the high for the next day at 50 degrees. - Then an unexpected cold front

came in, and the next day the wind chill factor sent the thermometer well below zero!

When you’re a weather person and you’re off by 50+ degrees, that’s a bad miss! Truth is, it’s hard to get the weather right in Chicago.- Jesus says: Here’s the forecast:

“Don’t worry about tomorrow for tomorrow will have trouble enough of its own.” - Every day has its own trouble. The

forecast is: Trouble today, trouble tomorrow. Isn’t that good news?

The reality is that Jesus was quite

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frank about this, and He experienced it deeply in His own life. - Jesus was not someone who

floated through life with no demands and no challenges and no troubles. - He knew all about that … much

more deeply than the vast majority of human beings that you and I know. - Still He said: Seek first the

Kingdom. - Don’t wait for a trouble-free day;

don’t wait until you get more hours; don’t wait for a bigger jar.

Some people handle the problem by trying to squeeze more and more into their jars.

I’ll just pray on the run. I’ll just skim

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over relationships. I’ll just serve when I have a minute to squeeze into my schedule. - I’ll look for an occasional laugh

at a movie. - But guys, let’s not microwave

what matters what should be marinated and slow-cooked.

So, based on Jesus’ statement in Matthew 6:33, what if we were to do a really radical thing?

- What if we were to say: I’m going to start each day as if each day is an empty jar and a blank slate? - I’m going to begin by devoting

my time to honoring my deepest commitments & longings.

One of the questions I have to

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challenge myself with is this: Do I trust God with my time? - It’s the same question I need to

ask with regard to generosity & giving… can I trust God with my money?- Do I seek first the Kingdom of God,

or will I seek first other things? It comes down to a trust issue.

So the question is: Will I really trust that God really is Lord over time? And that I don’t need to worry about time if I trust Him? - There’s an unusual little story in

the Old Testament in the Book of Joshua.- Joshua and the Israelites are

fighting against the Amorites at a place called Gibeon. - The battle is going quite well, but

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they have a problem. They’re running out of time.

So Joshua prays, and the text says: Then the sun stopped in the middle of the day and delayed going down about a full day. There has never been a day like it before or since. (Joshua 10: 13b-14a)- That is the Prayer of Gibeon: God,

I need help with my time. - And the good news is that the

same God who could multiply five loaves and a few fish—because He’s the Lord of Stuff—is also the Lord of Time. - He can multiply minutes and

hours, and He can make sure in your life and mine that what has to get done will get done. My part in it is to trust Him and to seek

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first.

Maybe you feel like you’ve fouled up a lot of jars, a lot of days and maybe a lot of years. - Part of the good news is what the

Scripture says about God: His mercies are new every morning. (Lamentations 3:23)- You can still finish well. The thief

on the cross messed up an awful lot of jars. The last one he got right. He finished well.

It doesn’t matter what happened yesterday, last year, last decade, last sixty years. It doesn’t matter. It’s this day. - Nobody knows how many days

they will get. But, when you’re coming to the end of your jars,

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that’s what you want them to be filled with. - I don’t know how you’re doing at

filling up your jars. - I hope that we fill them up well

and wisely, but it’s not just up to us. He’ll help us. - He’ll help you. It really matters.

There’s a lot at stake.

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IF I HAD MY LIFE TO LIVE OVER by Erma Bombeck

(written after she found out she was dying from cancer).

I would have gone to bed when I was sick instead of pretending the earth would go into a holding pattern if I weren't there for the day.

I would have burned the pink candle sculpted like a rose before it melted in storage.

I would have talked less and listened more.

I would have invited friends over to dinner even if the carpet was stained, or the sofa faded.

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I would have eaten the popcorn in the 'good' living room and worried much less about the dirt when someone wanted to light a fire in the fireplace.

I would have taken the time to listen to my grandfather ramble about his youth.

I would have shared more of the responsibility carried by my husband.

I would never have insisted the car windows be rolled up on a summer day because my hair had just been teased and sprayed.

I would have sat on the lawn with my grass stains.

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I would have cried and laughed less while watching television and more while watching life.

I would never have bought anything just because it was practical, wouldn't show soil, or was guaranteed to last a lifetime.

Instead of wishing away nine months of pregnancy, I'd have cherished every moment and realized that the wonderment growing inside me was the only chance in life to assist God in a miracle.

When my kids kissed me impetuously, I would never have said, "Later. Now go get washed up for dinner." There would have been more "I love you's." More "I'm sorry's."

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But mostly, given another shot at life, I would seize every minute...look at it and really see it . live it and never give it back. Stop sweating the small stuff.

Don't worry about who doesn't like you, who has more, or who's doing what.

Instead, let's cherish the relationships we have with those who do love us.

Let's think about what God HAS blessed us with, and what we are doing each day to promote ourselves mentally, physically, emotionally.

I hope you all have a blessed day.

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