Day By Day - Time Management Series

Theme: Day by Day - Time Management

Opening Video: Sermoncentral.com “We need to run again!”

Introduction to Theme:

“Desire that your life count for something great! Long for your life to have eternal significance. Want this! Don’t coast through life without a passion.”

? John Piper, Don't Waste Your Life

The world we live in knows the importance of Time Management but where they miss the mark is on what they prioritize - which usually is some of following: personal gain, financial success, fame and power. The Bible also speaks about Time Management but God through His Word prioritizes things differently than our world. His big four in regards to Time Management are faith in Him, fellowship with Him, relationship with others and sharing your story with others.

God want us to use our precious time wisely and not foolishly. You may be thinking how do we do this? We do this by using our time wisely by investing it in eternal things rather than temporal things. The goal of time management according to Jesus and His parables is to use your time wisely and not waste it on the wrong thing. We need to be focused on the Kingdom of Heaven/The Kingdom of God. We need to build on its foundation the rock which is Jesus.

So what is effective time management according to Jesus? Paul answers that question for us in Colossians 3: 23-24: “Whatever you do, work at it with all your heart, as working for the Lord, not for men, since you know that you will receive an inheritance from the Lord as a reward. It is the Lord Christ you are serving.”

Our current series is based on Jesus Parables and learning how to effectively use our time for the Kingdom of Heaven.

Series: Short Stories – Giant Ideas – Jesus Parables!

Introduction to series:

A Bible Parable is, "a short, simple story designed to communicate a spiritual truth or a religious principle, or it could communicate a moral lesson; it’s also a figure of speech in which truth is illustrated by a comparison or example drawn from everyday experiences" (Nelson's New Illustrated Bible Dictionary, Nelson Pub., 1995, p.943).

Jesus’ Parables illustrate spiritual truths and teach principles of eternal life in the here and now. His spiritual truths and life principles are for the most part invisible and abstract, so He used parables to give them a graphic presence to the ones listening to them, but the key to a parable is applying it to the hearer's life (Adapted from Nelson's, p.943).

Jesus' Parables also intentionally hide truth from the Hypocrites - the religious teachers of the day. He used the teaching method of parables to hide certain teachings from the hypocrites so as to keep them in check and from them going completely off on Him before His time (see Luke 8:9-10 NIV).

The Hebrew and Aramaic word for parable also means "a riddle." I don’t know about you but when I decide to figure something’s meaning out I have a tendency to remember it more - how about you? Jesus spoke like this to see who really was hungry for the truth because if they did not understand it and went to Jesus He would explain the meaning of the Parable. Jesus desires for you to ask him to clarify spiritual truth.

Sermon: Day by Day

Thesis: Everyday (Day by Day) spiritual seeds are being planted in us by the Holy Spirit but the key to spiritual growth is found in discerning what type of heart or soil those seeds are falling on to? Our hearts are either: hard, shallow, entangled or fertile for spiritual growth. We need to be honest with ourselves to discover which type of heart soil we have?

Scripture Texts: Mark 4:1-20; 30-34

The Parable of the Sower

1Again Jesus began to teach by the lake. The crowd that gathered around him was so large that he got into a boat and sat in it out on the lake, while all the people were along the shore at the water’s edge. 2He taught them many things by parables, and in his teaching said: 3“Listen! A farmer went out to sow his seed. 4As he was scattering the seed, some fell along the path, and the birds came and ate it up. 5Some fell on rocky places, where it did not have much soil. It sprang up quickly, because the soil was shallow. 6But when the sun came up, the plants were scorched, and they withered because they had no root. 7Other seed fell among thorns, which grew up and choked the plants, so that they did not bear grain. 8Still other seed fell on good soil. It came up, grew and produced a crop, some multiplying thirty, some sixty, some a hundred times.” 9Then Jesus said, “Whoever has ears to hear, let them hear.” 10When he was alone, the Twelve and the others around him asked him about the parables. 11He told them, “The secret of the kingdom of God has been given to you. But to those on the outside everything is said in parables 12so that,“ ‘they may be ever seeing but never perceiving, and ever hearing but never understanding; otherwise they might turn and be forgiven!’ ” 13Then Jesus said to them, “Don’t you understand this parable? How then will you understand any parable? 14The farmer sows the word. 15Some people are like seed along the path, where the word is sown. As soon as they hear it, Satan comes and takes away the word that was sown in them. 16Others, like seed sown on rocky places, hear the word and at once receive it with joy. 17But since they have no root, they last only a short time. When trouble or persecution comes because of the word, they quickly fall away. 18Still others, like seed sown among thorns, hear the word; 19but the worries of this life, the deceitfulness of wealth and the desires for other things come in and choke the word, making it unfruitful. 20Others, like seed sown on good soil, hear the word, accept it, and produce a crop—some thirty, some sixty, some a hundred times what was sown.”