It is said that a picture is worth a thousand words and so I begin this morning with this picture. (Slide 1)
Can you read it? Why not? (Allow feedback.) The print is too small and it is crammed on the slide. Can anyone tell me what any of it says?
How about this?
(Slide 2)The next day, Moses sat as usual to hear the people’s complaints against each other. They were lined up in front of him from morning till evening.
(Slide 3) When Moses’ father-in-law saw all that Moses was doing for the people, he said, “Why are you trying to do all this alone? The people have been standing here all day to get your help.”
(Slide 4) Moses replied, “Well, the people come to me to seek God’s guidance. When an argument arises, I am the one who settles the case. I inform the people of God’s decisions and teach them his laws and instructions.”
(Slide 5) “This is not good!” his father-in-law exclaimed. “You’re going to wear yourself out—and the people, too. This job is too heavy a burden for you to handle all by yourself.
(Slide 6) Now let me give you a word of advice, and may God be with you. You should continue to be the people’s representative before God, bringing him their questions to be decided. You should tell them God’s decisions, teach them God’s laws and instructions, and show them how to conduct their lives.
(Slide 7) But find some capable, honest men who fear God and hate bribes. Appoint them as judges over groups of one thousand, one hundred, fifty, and ten.
(Slide 8) These men can serve the people, resolving all the ordinary cases. Anything that is too important or too complicated can be brought to you. But they can take care of the smaller matters themselves. They will help you carry the load, making the task easier for you.
(Slide 9) If you follow this advice, and if God directs you to do so, then you will be able to endure the pressures, and all these people will go home in peace.”
(Slide 10) Moses listened to his father-in-law’s advice and followed his suggestions. He chose capable men from all over Israel and made them judges over the people. They were put in charge of groups of one thousand, one hundred, fifty, and ten.
(Slide 11) These men were constantly available to administer justice. They brought the hard cases to Moses, but they judged the smaller matters themselves. Soon after this, Moses said good-bye to his father-in-law, who returned to his own land.
Now, how was that? Much better? Why? There was room, there was margin in the slides that could help us read our main text for this morning, Exodus 18:13-27.
There was a professor of sociology (the study of societies and groups) at the college I attended who used to use a ruler to measure the margin of his students’ papers when they wrote a paper. He was a great man and I wish looking back, that I would have taken a class from him but I did not. However, I have always failed to see what measuring the margin had to do with learning sociology!
Just as we need margins in anything we read so that it makes sense to us, we need margins in our lives so that life makes sense to us. We need spaces so that we can live and grow and follow the Lord (as well as maintain our sanity.)
(Slide 12) Our series for the 5 or 6 weeks is title ‘Overload: Saying ’No’ So We Can Say ’Yes.’’
This is a series that I believe we need to experience given our current personal and cultural history and journey. As a nation, we are experiencing a great deal of overload and the results of overload. We need something more than another program to help us cope. We need the help and grace of God!
Some of us are on overload – work, school, family, finances, church, we are spinning many plates these days… and are desperate for margin; for space to feel human again. How does that happen?
Let me suggest the following things, which will serve as our focus over the next several weeks.
(Slide 13)
We can deal with overload when we admit to its existence. The first step in solving a problem is to admit that we have a problem that needs solved.
Being busy is one thing, being overbusy is another. Life, reality has limits. Right now our nation, I believe is having to learn (I truly hope) that there are limits. We have to come to grips with the truth that we can only do so much in a day and in a month and in a year and in a lifetime. We are told and taught that ‘you can do anything you want to’ and to a certain degree that is true, but it is not possible. We have to make choices, we have to say ‘no’ so that we can ‘yes’ to the right things.
We are going to study 1 Peter 5:7 which says, ‘Give all your worries and cares to God, for he cares about what happens to you,’ and then we will address how to put that verse into practice as it relates to dealing with overload in our lives.
(Slide 14)
Another aspect of learning to stop overloading ourselves and even our families is that we deal with overload when deal with the fear of being left behind/out.
On the following Sunday we will walk over to Matthew 13 and examine the parable of the sower because the conditions of our souls (represented in the story by the soil) is a key part of how overload develops. Overload is not a calendar issue, it is a spiritual issue because what we believe about ourselves, how we define success, what we think makes us happy and fulfilled – all of these are spiritual issues that are decided in our minds, hearts, and souls.
And to me one of the biggest, if not the biggest trigger to overload, is the fear of being left behind or left out. Such a fear will drive us to over schedule, over commit, and overload not just ourselves but our families as well. Why? Where and how do we draw the line and say ‘enough is enough!’
Then we will move back to the Old Testament and examine a well-known passage that became, at least in the 1960’s, the lyrics to a popular rock song – Ecclesiastes 3:1-12, ‘There is a time for everything, a season for every activity under heaven.’ This points us to our next point we need to consider as we reduce our overload. (Slide 15) We deal with overload when we determine what season of life we are in.
And by season, I mean not just the season we call ‘age,’ but our season of life. We have seasons of planting and seasons of harvesting around here and if farmers are not careful, the constant use of land can wear it out, right?
Therefore, land will lie fallow or uncultivated for a season to allow it to regain the essentials minerals to help crops grow, right?
The same holds true for us. There are moments when we need to be active and then there are moments when we need to rest. That is why Sunday is so important. We need a day each week to rest, recharge, and worship God. There is a rhythm to life, work, and rest that the writer of Ecclesiastes is saying exists and we need to accept as part of life.
Finally, we will return to the New Testament and examine Matthew 6:25-34 as we learn that (Slide 16) we deal with overload when we examine our commitments and choose to simplify our lives. (Easier said than done, right!)
For each of us the result of this effort will look different but will also look the same. It will be different because we are at different seasons in life. (This also holds true for us who maybe in a same season, due to whom we are and what our primary commitments currently are.)
But it is also the same because if we are to honor God with our lives as we serve and trust Him, then there are common commitments that we must keep and follow through on. This will require us to simplify our lives by saying ‘no so that we can say ‘yes’ to God and the people and things we need to say ‘yes’ to.
Jesus’ words in Matthew 6: 25-34 are words and actions of simplification because Jesus calls us to seek after one primary thing, ‘The Kingdom of God and the key character quality of righteousness’ and let God provide for our needs. How do we do that? We’ll find out!
So this is where we are head over the next several weeks (and communion, that will still be the first Sunday of the month, will include thoughts on how Christ’s death and Resurrection addresses our penchant for overload.)
Now, let’s spend a few moments visiting with Moses before we conclude. If Moses had lived today and did what he did, I think that the conversation at home would have been something like this:
(Breakfast time):
Zipporah: ‘Moses, what time will you be home for dinner?
Moses: Oh, I don’t know, maybe 6 or 7 PM. There is a large caseload again today.
Zipporah: Please don’t be late, the lamb chops got cold last night because you were two hours late!
(Dinner time):
Moses: ‘Uh, I’ve got to back to the office for a couple of more hours.
Zipporah: WHAT! But the boys’ Camel Polo game is tonight and you were going to sheer more sheep so that I can make more wool diapers for the babies! HOW COULD YOU DO THIS? WHY DID’NT YOU TELL ME?
I also think that it would be safe to say that conversations at work would go something like this:
Aaron: Where have you been? I sent three men to find you… look at the caseload that has come since lunch!
Moses: I know, I know, but there was a mess over at the worship center. Somebody stepped on a hot coal and kicked over one of the bronze bowls that fell on one of the sheep and… well it was a disaster. Nobody knew what to do and they all looked at me for help…
Aaron: WELL, now it is time to go to work… okay? Ready? (Get your robe on, brother!)… All rise, the court of the honorable Moses is now in session!”
Now, the culture and customs of that day are far, far different from ours. But from our text there is no doubt that Moses was on overload as his father-in-law notes.
(And by the way, it is very interesting to note in verse 2 of Exodus 18 that ‘some time before this, Moses had sent his wife, Zipporah, and his two sons to live with Jethro, his father-in-law.’ Why this happened we don’t know. Maybe it was due to all the demands on Moses or maybe it was custom of that day or maybe it was for the care and protection of his wife and two sons.)
Now not only does Moses’ current situation evidence overload, we can also see that the Lord provides an opportunity for that overload to be drastically reduced as follows:
(Slide 17) God brought in a key person in Moses’ life to help him deal with his overload. In Moses’ situation, that was his father-in-law Jethro and Moses listened to his father-in-law’s very insightful and wise advice. I think that some of the best objective people God puts in our path to help us deal with overload live under the same roof with us or has the same last name was we do! The choices we have to make are whether we, like Moses, will listen to them and consider what they have to say.
Many times, in our prayers we ask God for help and guidance and He gives us guidance through the Bible, through prayer, through the work of His Holy Spirit, and through key people in our lives. And I would remind us that just as we have key people in our life to help us effectively deal with overload, we are also persons who the Lord uses to help others effectively deal with overload.
(Slide 18) Moses’ story illustrates that changes in the season of life brings both overload and the potential for successfully resolving overload.
The season of life that Moses was now finding himself in is the result in a change in the nature and relationship with the Israelites. This story takes place in the desert after they have miraculously escaped from the Egyptians.
No longer is Moses merely a newcomer to the Israelites. He is now their leader and they rely heavily on him to give them direction.
Transitions come with the potential for overload. To navigate successfully such times we have to decide what goes and what stays in one’s life. Birth and death holds the potential overload as we seek to compensate for the changes that come with such events.
Finally, and this is most important, (Slide 19) God was with Moses and helped him to make the right choices to create margin in his life.
I want to go back to beginning of Exodus and again note that Zipporah had not been with Moses for a while. Perhaps, her wise father saw that she and the boys and Moses needed to together again.
And maybe he also saw that his son-in-law, whose God he also worshipped and followed, needed his wife and kids but also needed the have margin in this life so that the family would be able to be together and stay together.
If all of this is true, would it not be safe to say that God was in all of this and worked through a very wise and obedient family member to accomplish the task of helping Moses find margin in his life and thus say ‘no’ to what he needed to say no to so that he could say ‘yes?’
As we move through this series, I will be giving you the opportunity to reflect on the overload you face in your life. This morning I close with a couple of things.
First is an important list of types of overload that I encourage you to think about and pray about over the course of this series:
(Slide 20)
Accessibility Overload
Media Overload
Activity Overload
Analysis (Choice) Overload
Financial Overload
Expectation Overload
Emotional Overload
Education/Information Overload
Possession Overload
We will address (and I will do my best to do so directly) these various kinds of overload so that we can make good decisions, with the Lord’s help, to create margin in our lives and so honor God.
Finally, I want to break down this issue into a very easy to consider and apply measure. This topic is a big topic and as I began this week to prepare this sermon and this sermon series, I felt information overload. Where to begin and what to change myself are two big questions that we will be asking ourselves.
I have learned that some of the best change is to start small. Again, the adage, ‘a picture is worth a thousand words’ is helpful here as I located a short video clip entitled, ‘The Value of an Hour.’ As you watch, ask the Lord to help you understand what it means for you and your family.
(Slide 21) ‘The Value of An Hour’ from sermonspice.com
I conclude with this thought from Dr Richard Swenson:
(Slide 22) God does not give out monthly productivity sheets. All He asks is “Do you love Me?”
(Slide 23) Such love is not measured by units per hour (productivity), but rather by consistently loving the person standing in front of you at the moment (process).
(Slide 24)It does not have to do with the past nor the future, but the present. Right now. Are you bringing the Kingdom of God to bear on whatever you are doing – right now?
Let us listen to and for the Lord for the next few moments in silence. Amen.
