Ego : Edging God Out Through Busyness Series

EGO: Edging God Out through Busyness

How many of us woke up to an “alarm” this morning? Most of us; isn’t it? Have you really thought about why is it called the “alarm”? Come to think about it, what is alarm most commonly associated with? It is associated with a disaster to come, a danger ahead, isn’t it? Have you ever thought about why would we want to wake up to an “alarm”? Why not an “opportunity chime”? Why not “It is going to be great day noise”? Ken Blanchard, in his book Lead Like Jesus says the “alarm” clock syndrome is the best testimony to our task oriented life. Come to think about it, you look at what we did this morning, we woke up to an alarm, we rushed through the day, we hurried to get ourselves ready, we hurriedly finished our breakfast, we jumped into the car, sometimes yelling at the children for making us late, we drove the cars as fast as we could, we got annoyed that when someone else slowed us down, we did not curse them only because it is a Sunday and we were headed to church. And yet we reached here late.. If this is a Sunday situation, think about a workday. It gets even worse isn’t it? We start taking calls while we are driving, we are thinking constantly about work. We start thinking about the pending tasks and projects, and reports and deadlines. We start solving problems as we get up from our bed. We are constantly at it through the day. We reach home tired whatever time it is, and we have not time for anyone else who is waiting for us at home. It is truly an alarm that goes off in the morning, because what follows in most cases is firefighting, and problem solving and disaster management and crisis averting and meeting deadlines and resolving conflicts and among all this we have to take care of our social media life, we have to find time to look at the WhatsApp messages that we get, we have to answer and forward some of them atleast, we have to post something in our Facebook page and we have to look back to see if someone has liked it. the list can go on. We wake up to an alarm that declares that there are zillion tasks that we have to complete today.

Sounds familiar? It certainly sounds very familiar to me. If you wondered how I knew all this stuff, it is simple. I am only talking about myself and not any of you. I am a busy man. Mr Busybody. Holding two jobs, being invited to speak at different places, traveling very often. You bet I am a busy man. If you don’t believe me, ask Leslie.

That brings me to the topic of today’s message. Since the beginning of this year, I have been speaking here on the topic of EGO. Not the Freudian ego, but the EGO that is Edging God Out. Today the Lord has put it in my heart to examine yet another way we Edge God Out of our lives, through our busyness. And as is the case with most of my sermons, and more than any other sermon, this one is more for me than for yourselves. So please join me as we examine this topic together.

Judges 13:2-23 (NKJV) 2 Now there was a certain man from Zorah, of the family of the Danites, whose name was Manoah; and his wife was barren and had no children. 3 And the Angel of the LORD appeared to the woman and said to her, "Indeed now, you are barren and have borne no children, but you shall conceive and bear a son. 4 Now therefore, please be careful not to drink wine or similar drink, and not to eat anything unclean. 5 For behold, you shall conceive and bear a son. And no razor shall come upon his head, for the child shall be a Nazirite to God from the womb; and he shall begin to deliver Israel out of the hand of the Philistines." 6 So the woman came and told her husband, saying, "A Man of God came to me, and His countenance was like the countenance of the Angel of God, very awesome; but I did not ask Him where He was from, and He did not tell me His name. 7 And He said to me, 'Behold, you shall conceive and bear a son. Now drink no wine or similar drink, nor eat anything unclean, for the child shall be a Nazirite to God from the womb to the day of his death.' " 8 Then Manoah prayed to the LORD, and said, "O my Lord, please let the Man of God whom You sent come to us again and teach us what we shall do for the child who will be born." 9 And God listened to the voice of Manoah, and the Angel of God came to the woman again as she was sitting in the field; but Manoah her husband was not with her. 10 Then the woman ran in haste and told her husband, and said to him, "Look, the Man who came to me the other day has just now appeared to me!" 11 So Manoah arose and followed his wife. When he came to the Man, he said to Him, "Are You the Man who spoke to this woman?" And He said, "I am." 12 Manoah said, "Now let Your words come to pass! What will be the boy's rule of life, and his work?" 13 So the Angel of the LORD said to Manoah, "Of all that I said to the woman let her be careful. 14 She may not eat anything that comes from the vine, nor may she drink wine or similar drink, nor eat anything unclean. All that I commanded her let her observe." 15 Then Manoah said to the Angel of the LORD, "Please let us detain You, and we will prepare a young goat for You." 16 And the Angel of the LORD said to Manoah, "Though you detain Me, I will not eat your food. But if you offer a burnt offering, you must offer it to the LORD." (For Manoah did not know He was the Angel of the LORD.) 17 Then Manoah said to the Angel of the LORD, "What is Your name, that when Your words come to pass we may honor You?" 18 And the Angel of the LORD said to him, "Why do you ask My name, seeing it is wonderful?" 19 So Manoah took the young goat with the grain offering, and offered it upon the rock to the LORD. And He did a wondrous thing while Manoah and his wife looked on-- 20 it happened as the flame went up toward heaven from the altar--the Angel of the LORD ascended in the flame of the altar! When Manoah and his wife saw this, they fell on their faces to the ground. 21 When the Angel of the LORD appeared no more to Manoah and his wife, then Manoah knew that He was the Angel of the LORD. 22 And Manoah said to his wife, "We shall surely die, because we have seen God!" 23 But his wife said to him, "If the LORD had desired to kill us, He would not have accepted a burnt offering and a grain offering from our hands, nor would He have shown us all these things, nor would He have told us such things as these at this time."