Leftovers For God: Time, Talent and Money
Scripture: Matthew 6:19-21; 22:37-40; Exodus 20:1-17
Introduction
When I was a child, there were times when my mother would cook a meal and we would have food left after everyone finished eating. This food, called leftovers, would be package up and place in the refrigerator to be eaten the next day. To this day I love eating leftovers. I will eat leftovers with the same enthusiasm as if it was the original meal. If it is something that I really enjoy, like my chili or Nikki’s chicken stew, I can eat it three or four days in a row. Leftovers for me are not a bad thing. Although I enjoy leftovers, I know some people who will not eat them. These people would rather throw the food out than eat the same thing two days in a row. Even if they put it in the refrigerator, they forget about it until it goes bad. Some of you may be that way or you may have children who do not like to eat leftovers. But just what are leftovers? Leftovers as pertaining to food, is food that is left after everyone has eaten and are full. Sometimes there is enough food for another meal and sometimes only parts of the meal is left and will need additional food to make a full meal. The term "leftovers" signifies that it is something that was not needed and therefore could be used at a later time. Leftover is actually defined as "a remnant or left over portion." So in other words, a leftover is what you have left after you have eaten all that you wanted. You can also have some "leftovers" that does not pertain to food and this is what I want to focus on for the next couple of weeks.
The title of my message for the next couple of weeks is "Leftovers for God." I will focus on three areas, leftover time, leftover talents and leftover money. My goal with this series is to awaken your spirits to the possibility of what you are giving God may not be your best, but in actuality your leftovers. Through these messages, I want us to really examine how we utilize our time, talents and finances on a daily basis and in reference to our service to God. This morning’s message will focus on our leftover time that we give to God.
Before I get into the heart of the message, I want to take you through a short exercise. This exercise (even for those who will receive this message via email) is private, so I do not want you looking at no one else’s answers. The ushers are going to hand out a calendar for the month of March. We will look at this past week, Sunday March 12th through yesterday, March 18th. In one week’s time, you have seven days; one hundred and sixty eight (168) hours; ten thousand and eighty (10,080) minutes; six hundred and four thousand, eight hundred (604,800) seconds. On the calendar for each day, I have placed the number of minutes you have for that day. All I want you to do is subtract how minutes you spent with God versus the number of minutes that were available to you. So follow along with me as I give you an example of Joe Somebody and you can fill yours in now or privately when you get home. Again, this is an individual acknowledgement between you and God. God already knows how much time you are giving him, but sometimes we do not know. So, back to Joe Somebody. For the purpose of this exercise, the day starts at 12:00 a.m. (actually that really is when the day starts.)
• On last Sunday, March 12th Joe woke up at 6:00 a.m. to get ready for Church. He had gotten six good hours of restful sleep. Joe came to Church and arrived at 8:15 a.m. so that he could set up equipment for Church service and be ready for intercessory prayer that started at 8:45. Church service was over at 10:50 a.m. so Joe gave God Sunday morning 155 minutes. Not bad. After Church was over, Joe went home and relaxed with his family. After Sunday dinner, he took a nap, and then spent the remainder of the day watching two movies (4.5 hours) and a couple of TV shows (2 hours). Sunday night, before going to bed, Joe read his bible for 15 minutes and prayed for another 15 minutes before falling asleep at 10:30 p.m. So on last Sunday, Joe had 1,440 minutes available to him that he could spend with God. If you subtract out the time that he slept (7.5 hours or 450 minutes), he had 990 actual minutes that He could have given to God. Out of his 990 minutes, Joe gave God 185 minutes or 19% of his time on last Sunday. That is not bad; he gave God almost 20% of his time when he was awake. But before we get too happy, let’s see how much time he gave to the TV. Joe spent 6.5 hours watching TV for a total of 390 minutes or 39% of his time when he was awake. Let skip over to Wednesday, March 15th.
• On Wednesday, Joe woke up at 5:30 and worked out for one hour. He spent 2 minutes praying asking God’s blessing for the day. He ate breakfast and left for work at 7:30. During his one hour lunch, Joe prayed for one minute as he blessed his food. He got off work at 5:00 p.m. Since we did not have bible study since the school was closed, Joe spent the evening (2.5 hours) watching his favorite T.V. shows that he normally does not get to see because he is at Church. He was tired and went to bed at 9:30 and fell straight to sleep while praying (5 minutes). So for Wednesday, out of his time when he was awake and not at work, Joe had 240 minutes that he could give to God subtracting out time for travel to work and eating. Of his 240 available minutes, he gave God 8 minutes. He gave the TV 150 minutes.
• Joe’s gave God out of his 1230 available minutes (990 on Sunday and 240 on Wednesday) for Sunday and Wednesday, 193 minutes or 16% of his time. He gave the TV 44% of his time. On Wednesday, when he was not at Church, he gave God 3% of his time. Keep this in mind as we turn to Matthew 6:19-21.
When you compare how much time Joe spent with God, how does it compare with his watching TV? I did not include his time playing sports, going out and other forms of entertainment. Consider Joe’s time spent with God in reference to what Jesus said in Matthew 6:19-21. "Do not lay up for yourselves treasures upon earth, where moth and rust destroy, and where thieves break in and steal. But lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust destroys and where thieves do not break in or steal, for where your treasure is, there will your heart be also." I want to focus on the last sentence where Jesus said "where your treasure is, there your heart be also." Have you ever seriously thought about what He said in this sentence? When we give our hearts to something or someone, we freely give them our time and energy. For example, I know people who heart is sports. They just love sports. If they are not playing sports, they are watching sports. If they are not watching sports, they are reading about sports. When they are not working, sleeping or having family time (sometimes which include sports) they are doing something pertaining to sports. Based on their actions, clearly sports are what they treasure and therefore they give it a majority of their conscious time. I know others who heart is their computer. They love their computer. They are constantly on it doing something or searching the internet. When they are not at or Church, they are on their computer. When they sleep, they dream about their computer. Some people have become extremely rich financially because of their love affair with computers. Truly being around and using computers is their treasure and where their heart is. In our society it is perfectly normal to treasure sports, work and other forms of entertainment and enjoyment. Some people do not go to these extremes in just one area, but tend to balance several things that pull at their hearts. My question to you this morning is the same question that I have asked myself, where are my treasures. If I evaluate my treasures based on how much time I dedicate to them, would God be at the top of my list? What are we treasuring? When it comes to our time, are we giving God of our best time or our leftover time? For the remainder of this message, I want to use my example of Joe and the time he gave God on Wednesday (3%). You see, most people spend very little time with God outside of Church. Your time with God at Church is fractured time; it is the time you spend alone with Him where your relationship with Him truly begins to develop. When we come to Church we come for joint fellowship based on the relationship we already have and to help others establish that type of relationship with God. So keep in mind the 3% of Joe’s time that he gave God on this past Wednesday.
Jesus said where our treasures are, that is where our hearts will be also. Turn now to Matthew 22:33-40. Jesus was asked a question and His response sets the stage for where we are headed. Matthew 22:37-40 says "Teacher, which is the great commandment in the Law? And He said to him, ’You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul and with all your mind. This is the great and foremost commandment. The second is like it, You shall love your neighbor as yourself. On these two commandments depend the whole Law and the Prophets." (NASB) First Jesus said that where our hearts are there will our treasures be also. Then He tells us to love God with all of our heart, soul and mind. He said that all of the Law and the teachings of the Prophets were centered on Love. If you read the Laws of the Old Testament, all of them were based in some form or another on love. When you read the Ten Commandments in Exodus 20, they are based on our love for God and for one another. We are supposed to be in a serious love relationship with God and this relationship cannot develop without us spending time, individualized quality time with Him. For a point of reference, think about the times when you were in love with someone. Remember what it took to develop the relationship? Remember the first step was when you realized the person existed? You looked up and saw the person and said "wow!" Maybe yours was gradual and you fell in love over time. But in the initial stage, after you realized the person existed, you had to initiate some form of communication.
Many of our relationships with God are like those we had in school in elementary school we wrote love letters that said something like: "I love you, do you love me, yes or no"? Maybe you received more replies with the answer being "no" versus "yes", but remember when the answer was yes? What a wonderful feeling, you now were entering into a relationship. But, in Elementary School sometimes those relationships existed only in our minds. You know how young children sometimes claim a boy or girl to be their special one without the boy or girl knowing anything about it. Sometimes we claim relationships with God and He may not know anything about it. Or better yet, God is sending us the "I love you, do you love Me" notes and we keep telling Him "no" while we are doing other things. Then we move on to Junior High and High School where we begin to learn how to actually talk to the love interest of our lives. In Junior High we are limited mostly to talking on the phone, but in High school we get to spend to individualized time with the person. In our relationship with God, sometimes all we strive for is the time "on the phone" with Him and no face to face personal time. Finally we get to College where we understand the necessities of developing a relationship and what is required. As with College, when we begin to grow older, we understand the need to have a personal relationship with someone based on knowing them and the same applies to our relationship with God.
Now let’s take it to the next level where you actually married the person. What would happen to the marriage if you only spent 3% of your quality time with your spouse? If you want to know how to stop the divorce rate, communicate. Spend quality time with one another. You cannot develop a strong relationship with a person if you only give them 3% of your quality time, it just will not work. This is true in our relationships with each other and it is especially true with our relationship with God. Let me share with you what God wants in a relationship with you. Turn to Exodus chapter 20; we are going to read a few verses from the Ten Commandments.
In the verses that we will read, I want you to imagine that God is speaking directly to you about your relationship with Him when He says:
• "You shall have no other gods before Me." Vs. 3 In other words, He wants to be first. He wants to be number one. This is the same as if we are in a relationship with someone and every time we are in that person’s presence we are thinking about or even talking about someone else. When we are spending time with God and we are thinking about someone else, God is not pleased. He wants our undivided attention and devotion. Let me read a little further.
• "You shall not make yourself an idol….you shall not worship them or serve them; for I, the Lord your God, am a jealous God…" Vs. 4a & 5a Think of this in this way; think of an actor, actress, singer or someone else you idolize. You just love this person. You think about this person more that you think about God, whom you are in a relationship with. This is not good for God says He is a jealous God.
This is the relationship that God wants with us. Now back to my original question, if this is the relationship that God wants with us and it take time and energy to develop this relationship, what kind of time are we giving God? Are we giving Him of our best time or of our left over time? When we wake up in the morning, often running late, we rush to get dressed, eat and get to work or school. While we are at work, we are very focused on meeting the requirements of the day, whether that is our jobs or our school work. After school or work, we rush home, relax for a few minutes and start the evening routine which may consist of doing homework, housework, yard work, cooking, bathing the kids, etc. Finally when we are dead tired, we may try to give God a few minutes at night by reading our bibles or praying. However because we are so tired, our prayers are quick and the bible study consists of us reading a few verses and calling it a day. If this scenario is familiar to you, then you are giving God your leftover time. If we are giving Him, like Joe, only 3% of our time then we are not spending any time with Him at all. If we do not spend time with God, how can we have a relationship with Him? If the only time we have with God is when we are at Church, then we really do not have a very strong relationship.
Let me use my dating example again. If you were dating someone and the only time you got to see that person was on Sunday and Wednesday at church (this excludes our teenagers where this is perfectly fine for their relationships), and you never had any personal time to really get to know the person because you were always with a lot of other people, then your relationship would not be very strong. It would take a lot of years to develop a deep relationship with someone when you do not get to spend quality time with them consistently. None of you would be in a lasting relationship with anyone who only gave you 3% of their time. There are 24 hours in a day. If you sleep for 7 hours and work for 9 hours, that leaves 8 other hours for doing other things. If you gave your spouse 10% of your remaining time, that would be 48 minutes (10% of 8 hours). Think about it, if we gave our spouses 10% of quality time a day out of our awake time, our relationships would be a lot stronger – just 48 minutes. Think about what our relationships could be if we gave them 20%. Now apply this to God. What would your relationship be like if you gave God 10% of your awake time – roughly 48 minutes a day? What would your relationship be like if you gave God 20%, one hour and 36 minutes of quality time a day? We can give the TV 4 hours of uninterrupted, quality, focused time a day and we cannot give God 48 minutes.
If you were in a relationship with someone who did not desire to spend time with you other than when there were a lot of people around, would you be happy in the relationship? The person you want to be with has time for everything and everyone else in their life but you, but calls on you every time they are in need of something. The person you love and cherish only has 10 minutes of time for you per day, if they give you any time at all. The person you love and adore, whom you crave to spend time with, who you have protected and provided for every day, chooses to come into your presence with their mind focused on someone or something else. Can you see how much this would hurt? Yet this is what we do to God.
When you choose to give God time, do you give him your best time when you are awake and fresh, or your leftover time once you have done everything else for everybody else. On Sundays, do you go to Church because you have nothing else to do, or you do nothing else because you are going to Church. On Wednesday night, do you miss bible study because you have other things to do or do you miss the other things because you have bible study to do? These are the questions that we must ask ourselves so that we can begin to understand what kind of time we are giving God. Remember, what you treasure is where your heart will be. Do you treasure your relationship with God? Next week we will look at our talents and money.
