Living a Pressure Filled Life, Part 6Priorities, August 1st, 2010

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 will wear…”

- Jesus’ invitation today is to a worry-free life based on the love of the Father.

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 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 deft in your life, and these grains of rice represent the activities that we have to do.

- I will try to do this as well as I can, but I’m not all that good at doing this kind of thing, so don’t get your hopes up!

- 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.

- Richard Swenson writes in his book that 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 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.

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.

- 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 17 years.

Now, I haven’t cleaned a bathroom either! They’re a mess, but you know… it saves us some time.

- 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, there were very few windows and no electric lights.

- 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.

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- If you’re single, you may go on dates. You have to get ready for dates. Sometimes it takes more 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 leagues, sleepovers …

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.

- You will spend seventy-five minutes a day commuting. 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.

Then you add to that schedule that is already packed the unexpected things that happen:

- Somebody gets sick. • Aunt Edna comes to visit. • The car breaks down.

- There’s a crisis at work, and you have to devote long hours to that. - 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, Vocational Coaching, Family Life.

- When they added up the minimal time we’re all supposed to spend, according to the experts in their particular field, 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 grains of rice 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 objects to represent the things that matter most in life. I’m going to put them on a few balls.

- This is the letter “T.” It stands for transformation. I’d like to experience some transformation. I’d like to grow some.

- I’ve got some junk and some habits and patterns in my life that I’d like to make some headway on before I come to my last jar.

- 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.

I know that a big part of what that means is 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.

- We’re going to see this about Him over the next few weeks as we study His life together.

- In Mark 1:12-13, before his ministry started, it says that He goes off to the desert and spends 40 days alone with God in order to pray.

Then his ministry launches. In verse 35 it says: “Very early in the morning, while it was still dark, Jesus withdrew to a solitary place to be alone with God and pray.”

- 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.”

- 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. - It’s true throughout His life 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 631, they’ve been in the middle of a really busy

season, and Jesus pulls His followers aside, and He says to them: - “Come with Me by yourselves to a quiet place and get some rest.”

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

- I need to spend some time alone with Him to get my mind in focused on Him above all the distractions.

- I know how purposeful I need to be in my every day life… surrendered 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…

- “The next time I have a free day, I’ll spend it alone with God.” - Well… do you know how long I waited for that day to come? - I heard that by the time you reach seventy 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 and pressures of everyday life… I don’t want to get to the other side of next week without experiencing some level of personal transformation…

- Let alone making a difference to the world around me. Bottom-line… I want to experience real Transformation in my life.

The second tennis ball has the letter “L” on it. It stands for the word “Love.” That’s just about people, because I have people in my life.

- 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. [Erma Bombeck Letter]

- 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.

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. He just loves them.

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- They can be religious leaders or government officials, or they can be lepers or tax collectors. He’s a people magnet.

- I’d like for my life to be about more than a briefcase and a closed door and a list of stuff to do.

And yet, I know that without being more purposeful in all of this, that my default mode in life will always be “Me.”

- I have a 13 year old and an 11 year old at home now. It wont be long before they’re looking at colleges.

- I don’t want to miss an unspoken invitation to talk… because I was too busy with things that aren’t nearly that important.

I also want to notice people who are far from God not because I’m supposed to or because it’s my job…

- but just because I’ve become the kind of person who loves God and genuinely loves people, cares about them and thinks about their eternity.

- I want to have space in my heart and life for people who are poor, peoples from different cultures and faiths.

- I want some 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.

A friend of mine named Vitali, leads a partnership of Vineyard churches here in the US focused on planting a church planting movement in the Ukraine.

- I flew down to Raleigh, NC four years ago for their first two partnership meetings… just to help get things focused and moving.

- Well… four years later, there are five Vineyard churches in the Ukraine… and earlier this year, they had their first National Leader’s Meeting… with 200 people attending.

In the middle of the conference, they decided to take things to the streets… where half of them did “healing in the streets” while the other half did “treasure hunts”

- It was a huge step of faith for Vitali… for all of them. But that night when they regathered… they had three hours of testimonies.

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- Forty-five people experienced God’s love through salvation or through healing or both.

Believe me… no one that evening spoke about how exhausted they were. No one complained about the weather or the risk it was talking to people on the streets that way.

- No one talked about how they would have preferred to have just sat in the bleachers and watched others doing.

- Instead… they were so grateful for how God showed up… and how they got to be a part of what God was doing there in Kiev that day.

- You see, if you’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 and 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 some wounds....

- If you’re a follower of Jesus, the Holy Spirit is in your life and He’s given you spiritual gifts.

- One day, the Bible says, we’re going to stand before God and have the 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. But, guys… It’s worth spending some time thinking about that moment.

- 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 the world around me.

- You’re being here says something about the calling God has placed on you to be part of this community.

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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.

- And yet, we could never fill up this jar that God has given to us as a church…

- unless everybody who knows Jesus and loves Jesus and follows Jesus gets into the game.

- 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. If you’re real deep, you’ll love this.

- I’ve thought about this one a lot this week. I don’t want to miss this. Life is too short and too precious.

- Toward the end of His ministry, we read in John 15:11 about how Jesus was teaching His disciples.

- He said: “These things I have taught you. I have told you this so that My joy may be in you and that your joy may be complete.”

Now, what would it look like if Jesus’ joy were to be in you and if you were to live a day with complete 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 (this crazy day with all the stuff that I feel like I’ve got to do, with all of its pressures and all of its troubles)…

- “This is the day the Lord has made. Let us rejoice and be glad in this day.”

I don’t want to miss Joy. I want to come here on the weekends, and when we worship, I want to celebrate with Joy! I want this to be a place of deep Joy.

- Then, in our personal lives, I want us to celebrate everything with Joy: meals and friendships, answered prayers, spiritual gifts…

- the first day of summer vacation and banana cream pie. In every stage of life, I want to experience Joy.

A short time ago, I heard a talk by a guy who does mostly Leadership seminars, but who also is involved in putting on tennis tournaments for people in all different ages of life.

- He was doing one for senior, senior tennis players.

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- The finals involved one man who was ninety-one years old, and his opponent was ninety-five.

At one point the ninety-one year old hit a crosscourt forehand, and the ninety-five year old couldn’t run it down.

- He stopped, put his hands out and said: Oh to be ninety-one again! I want to have that Joy. I don’t want to miss Joy. I really don’t!

- 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, that’s what life looks like.

But here’s the problem: If I try to squeeze these things into a life that is already full, I can get one… maybe two balls… into my jar;

- there’s no way that I can get into my day, or into my life, what is needed to live this kind of life. This is not a small problem.

- 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, it’s not that we get deliberately defiant and shake our fists in God’s face.

Paul says that our danger is that the world will squeeze us into its mold. Guys, the mold of this world is to get real busy.

- The danger is that we will lead respectable, decent, non-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 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 in a day, and it’s not likely to change. The jars come in 24-hour sizes.

- If you wait for a day that has fewer demands, less trouble, Jesus says here 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?

- You see, we are not “hour manufacturers.” Someone else has done that.

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- And if I wait for a less demanding day, chances are that I’ll wait for a long, long time.

Jesus gives a little forecast at the very end of His teaching that we just read … what each day is going to contain. It’s quite predictable.

- The weather can sometimes be unpredictable. One weather forecaster in grad school in Champagne, Illinois 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 thermometer well below zero!

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

But have you ever been out to San Diego? It runs pretty much between 65 and 80 degrees through most of the year.

- 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? Turn to the person next to you and say: Pressure today, pressure tomorrow.

The reality is that Jesus was quite 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.

- But 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 in this way: they try to microwave their priorities into marble-sized commitments.

- I’ll just pray on the run. I’ll just skim 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 or at a party. I’ll medicate myself to feel better

- I don’t want to shrink down what matters most. I don’t want to make my life be about guilt management.

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I was thinking that we sometimes live as if Jesus had said: Seek first all these other things that everybody else seeks, and then the Kingdom will be added to you.

- He didn’t say that. He said: Seek first the Kingdom. Everything else comes second.

- So, based on Jesus’ statement in Matthew 6:33, what if, as we come closer to the end of the summer and to the beginning of a whole new school year… what if you were to do a really radical thing?

What if you were to say: I’m going to start 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.

- I don’t know exactly what that would look like for you. I have some idea, and I have some sense of what it would look like for me.

- But what if we all were to say: I’m going to see if what Jesus said in Matthew 6:33 is true.

I’m going to start my day by devoting myself to what matters most and then see if what Jesus said is true, that “all these other things will be added to me.”

- One of the questions I have to challenge myself with is this: Do I trust God with my time?

- It’s the same question I need to ask with regard to tithing… can I trust God with my money?

- Do I really believe that what Jesus said is true—that if I seek first the Kingdom of God that other things, that do not matter as much, will be added to me.

Do I seek first the Kingdom of God, or will I seek first other things? It comes down to a trust issue.

- I’m going to trust God that the lawn is going to get mowed, that the house is not going to fall down…

- that the job will be done, and that He will help. And maybe some things will not get done.

- The theologian Roseanne Barr said sometime ago: “I feel that if the kids are still alive when my husband gets home then, hey, I’ve done my job. When Sears comes out with a riding vacuum cleaner, then I’ll clean the house.”

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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 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 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, 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.

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.

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."

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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