DO YOU HAVE TIME FOR JESUS?
Galatians 1:11-24
June 10, 2007, 2nd Sunday After Pentecost
Stephen H. Becker, M.Div.
St. Peter’s Lutheran Church—Elk Grove
So do you have a busy life? A chaotic life? Does it seem like you are running around every day between jobs and kids and activities? I know for the Becker Family, we split our time between school, soccer, art classes, karate, friends, work, study, and more. In all this busyness, do you sometimes find yourself wishing you had some quiet time with the Lord, and then wonder why you never seem to get it or where you might even find it? Well, consider this: No matter how busy you seem to be, no matter how tired you may be, your exhaustion is justified, as can be proven by simple arithmetic which I am glad to say is not my own, but rather a sermon illustration. Now friends. math was not my strong suit, but I think this equation is right on the money. So see if you can follow along: The U.S has a population of 200 million. Of these people, 72 million are over seventy years old, leaving 128 million to do the work as they hopefully are able to retire. Now when you subtract the 75 million people under the age of twenty-one, you get 53 million. There are also 24 million employed by the Federal Government, which leaves 29 million to do the local work. The 12 million in the Armed Forces leaves only 17 million to do the local work. When you subtract from this the 15,765,000 who are in state and city offices and 520,000 in hospitals, mental institutions and similar places, the work force is reduced to 715,000. Fine, but 462,000 are on the streets leaving only 253,000 to do the work. There are 252,998 people in jail, leaving (pause) you guessed it—just two people, you and me. And I’m getting tired.
In our reading today we read of the Apostle Paul’s testimony about how he changed from being the early Christian Church’s worst persecutor to being the Church’s most dynamic and prolific apostle. Now before Paul’s fateful day when he met the resurrected Lord Jesus Christ on that Damascus road, when Paul was persecuting the early Church, he thought he was doing the Lord’s will. He was busy doing something.. but I’m sure it was not the Lord’s Will. I am sure he prayed to God when he went to Synagogue. I am sure he worked overtime, because he thought he was doing some good and important for God. But then this something happened to him…God turned Saul, the early Church’s worst enemy and persecutor, into Paul, a speaker of the Gospel of Jesus Christ, and the early Church’s most effective and dynamic apostle. Something happened to this man that caused him to have an entirely new perspective on what being busy for the Lord is all about.
Paul’s life was going to be as chaotic as chaotic could get. He literally would become a non-stop machine promoting the Gospel of Jesus Christ. He walked all over the known world preaching and teaching about Jesus. His life was busy, and it got busier day by day. And even when he was put in jail for preaching the Gospel, Paul never stopped working for the Lord; even in jail, Paul was happily busy for Jesus. In his chains, Paul kept on praying and teaching the Good News of Jesus Christ…talk about someone obsessed with their work! Talk about someone who probably never got a day off in his career and you will be talking about Paul.
Friends, we each have our own role in the Church, and God has called each one of us to our own unique ministry. Most of you here tonight have not been called to serve full time in the ministry. And yet, look where you are right now: you are in God’s house, worshipping Him. You are busy right now…for Jesus. For some of us, being busy for Jesus means traveling to Russia like Jamie and Donny. For others it means teaching His Gospel right here in our backyard…in Elk Grove. Like Saint Paul, you are also very busy, doing what is important to you… And that’s great. You are doing the Lord’s Work. You are busy for the Lord. But the question then is, where and when do YOU get the time to rest in the Lord? Well your answer might be, “on Sunday,” but that isn’t exactly the answer I’m looking for.
You see friends, the “rest” that I am talking about is a time with the Lord that will restore your spirit and your strength. What I am talking about is ALONE TIME with Jesus. And friends, it is the kind of rest that we are called to have in Christ. It is the type of rest that moves you to dive into the Bible or prayer even on days when you don’t feel like doing anything but sleeping. It’s the kind of rest that keeps us fresh and active in our faith. It’s the kind of rest that allows us to have time for Jesus, to stay busy for Christ when we aren’t resting in Him.
Now some of us have maybe convinced ourselves that because we have come to Church today, we have rested in God. Or maybe because we cracked our Bibles open for our once-a-week, five-minute read of a Bible verse. Others don’t even come to Church and convince themselves that because they spent a few minutes this Sunday thinking about God…well, that’s good enough. But friends, no…it’s not. That’s not what God has in mind for us. God wants a real, personal relationship with each one of us believers.
But in all of our busyness, between soccer and school and art and karate and this and that, where do we find that time that God wants…and we need…to spend with our Lord? How do we do it, when there are only two of us working in the entire United States? Seriously, how do we find the quality time with God and His people when we are also trying to balance work, family and other responsibilities?
Well, I remember as a kid, I would often complain to my dad that I didn’t have time for this or that. Dad’s reply was always the same: if I really wanted to do it, I would “make” the time. No, that doesn’t mean that I have the power that God has to create time, but it does mean that I have the ability to make a choice…a choice to put God first in what I am doing. See friends, like Paul shows us, the answer is not to find the time, because if you try that, you’ll be looking for time to do this or that for the rest of your life. It’s just like tithing. If you think about giving the Lord the first 10% of what He has given to you, you’ll probably never do it. But if you—in faith—just give the Lord the first 10%, trusting Him to provide, then you have the power to make it happen. Time is the same way. If you trust that if you give your time to God, He will make time available for your other responsibilities, He will make it so. We simply have to make the time and to trust God that he will take care of the rest.
After Paul’s dramatic conversion to Christ, in the lesson from Galatians we just read, Paul writes in verse 17 that he went, immediately into Arabia and later returned to Damascus. Then after three years, he went up to Jerusalem to get acquainted with Peter and stayed with him fifteen days. If you remember, after Paul’s encounter with Jesus on that Damascus Road, Paul had every reason to jump right in and get busy for the Lord. I mean, he had just met Jesus! In fact he had a work schedule before him that would rival any one of ours. And yet Paul knew that before he got to that work, he needed to get (pause) to God. You see friends, Paul made the time in his busy schedule because he knew that what mattered most to his life and his ministry was to first build an intimate relationship with Jesus Christ. Remember Paul and Jesus had just met. Paul knew that it was more important to get close and personal with God than it was to get aimlessly BUSY. Notice how long Paul took in his preparation for his ministry…three years. Three years after meeting Jesus, Paul went on to Jerusalem to begin his ministry. Although he did go to Damascus to preach, he did not do any active missionary work for three years.
Now I know that most of us here tonight aren’t new to the faith. Many of us have been raised as Christians. Most of us have been had a personal relationship with Jesus for a long time. But let me ask you, does a long-time relationship with Jesus make it any less important for us to have some quiet, “alone” time with God? Friends, looking again at Paul as an example, he dedicated quiet time…prayer time…to God throughout his ministry, daily time with God, because he knew that he could do nothing good without Christ. So do you have time for Jesus?
And there’s even more for us here in these 13 verses of Galatians. Friends, if you have ever wondered what God has for you in for your life, you can find that answer when you understand His nature and purpose. And the only way you will get to that point is through the time you spend intimately with God. You see, when you spend ALONE time with God, you are allowing Him to mold you and guide you into what He wants for you.
Paul knew this. Since he had been a terrible persecutor at one point, he now wanted to follow the Will of God. So he put “spending time with Jesus” first on his list of things to do. Paul needed to get to know this Savior that made himself known to him on that Damascus Road so that Paul’s life and ministry would be guided by Jesus…and Jesus alone.
Paul also knew that quiet time with God is more than just a daily appointment. You see, personal, quiet, ALONE time with Jesus is more like a visit with your closest friend. Good relationships need time; they can’t live as just another item on our agenda because eventually that agenda is going to get reshuffled. So what the Lord asks of us today is to make the time for him, and that means way more than an appointment every Sunday night with God at 6p.m., although worship is definitely part of time with Jesus. God wants us to make time with him a real, daily priority. Jesus’ first priority was giving His life for us on Calvary’s painful cross; our first priority is getting to know the One who gave Himself for us, so that we might live. And in living through Christ, like Paul, God will call us to do amazing things. Do you have time for Jesus? Amen. Let’s pray…
Now may the true faith…
