We are overloaded!!! Americans are living their lives at a break-neck pace, pushing the limits to live up to the expectations put on them by society. When compared to lives fifty years ago we see that there is something conspicuously missing. Our lives have very little time and space; if any. Americans once lingered and talked after dinner, visited neighbors, sat on the porch swing, went for long walks, helped kids with their home work and got a full night of sleep. Now our lives our perpetually busy with no time to even catch our breaths. What happened? Our culture has grown to measure people by their productivity and applauds those who push the limits. One lady put it this way, “I am so tired, my idea of a vacation is a trip to the dentist. I just can’t wait to sit in that chair and relax.” We are so busy that we have begun to squeeze God out of our lives and have no time to truly commit to ministry. In fact, we justify this pace by believing the lie that God understands what I have to do to be able to live. However in reality, we are exceeding the boundaries and limits that God has built into life. God designed us to have more space, more time and more reserves. In short God wants our lives to have a buffer zone. This buffer zone is known as margin. Over the next few weeks we are going to look at how we can begin to live within the boundaries that God has set for our lives. Today, we are going to identify the problem and begin to examine the boundaries that God has built into our lives.
I. With every step of progress our margins slowly shrink.
A. Technology was once viewed as being labor saving which would result in man having more leisure time.
1. James Berry wrote an article in the November 1968 issue of “Mechanix Illustrated” describing what he felt life would be like in the year 2008.
a. Flying cars traveling at 250 mph.
b. Domed cities.
c. The average work day will be approximately four hours.
2. Many believed in the 1960’s that because of computers and other technological advances the way man worked would change:
a. Wages and productivity would increase reducing the average work week to 20 hours by the year 1990.
b. Each family would only need one wage earner working five four hour days per week.
3. Progress and development has always been billed as the cure for the problems that plague mankind.
4. Progress and Technology is such a part of the fabric of society that we cannot imagine life without it.
B. Instead of relieving our burdens and problems, progress has developed a whole new set of problems.
1. Progress is defined as something that leads us to a higher stage of development.
2. The prediction of more leisure never materialized. What actually materialized was the reality of more work.
3. As technology increased our productivity, the expectations and demands on us increased.
4. A recent study published this past October found that Americans are the most overworked people in the world working an average of 46 hours per week.
5. Instead of leading us to a mountain top progress has overloaded us and plunged us into a valley of despair.
6. The words of Job describe the lives that the vast majority of us live.
7. The churning inside me never stops; days of suffering confront me. (Job 30:27—NIV)
II. We are so overloaded that our lives are lived a step away from shattering into pieces.
A. Being overloaded has resulted in an increase of emotional and physical ailments.
1. 45 million Americans suffer from some form of mental illness.
2. Ten percent of all Americans are taking an antidepressant.
3. Fifty percent of all Americans are taking at least one prescription drug.
4. Studies have shown that stress plays a role in the development of seventy-five percent of all illnesses.
5. Twenty-one percent of all emergency room visits are a result of stress and anxiety.
B. Being overloaded has resulted in the decreased health of or the brokenness seen in many relationships.
1. Progress does not have the means to build and nurture the relationships that are vital to our well being.
a. Social: my relationship to others.
b. Emotional: my relationship to self.
c. Spiritual: me relationship to God.
2. Progress focuses on economics, education and technology none of which have the ability to nurture these deep relationships that we desperately need.
3. We have overloaded ourselves and exceeded our limits personally, emotionally, physically and financially to the point that the margin necessary to truly develop relationships is non-existent.
4. Studies have linked the rising rates of divorce, drug abuse, alcoholism, suicide and childhood delinquency to our society being literally overworked and overloaded.
5. As a whole society is stressed, depressed and exhausted. They are desperate as their jobs are insecure, their debt levels are high, their marriages are in trouble and their children are running wild.
C. Being overloaded keeps us from truly committing to God and discovering His real purpose for our lives.
1. We have the tendency to run from one activity to another striving to fill ourselves with purpose, peace and happiness.
2. We work hard and long to succeed and fulfill our desire to have a good life.
3. All man’s efforts are for his mouth, yet his appetite is never satisfied. (Ecclesiastes 6:7—NIV)
4. Things haven't changed much since the days of Solomon. We overwork ourselves for the things we desire, only to crave more.
5. As a result we grow more dependent upon ourselves rather than God.
6. Instead of being a priority God has become an afterthought. We will get to Him after we fulfill our other obligations.
III. Are limits the result of man’s sin or designed by God for man’s well being?
A. When God created us He designed us to live within certain boundaries.
1. This almost sounds like an oxymoron, a limitless God creating limits.
2. Limits clears up any misconception about who is God and who is not.
3. God created limits so we would not get our priorities out of whack and get our lives out of balance.
4. God is the creator, the one without limits. We are the created, the ones with limits.
5. We are not infinite. We only have twenty-four hours in the day. We get tired; we cannot continually run on empty. Contrary to popular belief, limits are not the enemy. Our greatest enemy is overload.
B. The Sabbath serves as a reminder that God created limits.
1. God created the Sabbath as a time of renewal and worship. For us to remember who the Creator is.
2. This shows that God’s people are not exempt from stress and overload. People of great faith too can reach the point of burnout and hit the wall.
3. God created these limits for our protection. In His infinite wisdom He realized that we cannot be constantly moving twenty four seven
4. God by setting the Sabbath regulations showed that constant running with no time for renewal would lead to a depletion of resources.
5. The Sabbath regulations also remind us that God has given us life to enjoy, not for causing us pain and suffering.
6. To ignore the existence of limits not only dishonors God it insults His creative wisdom.
C. When we violate the limits God has set we do so at our own risk.
1. We are encouraged to push the limits. Society applauds those that do. By doing this we deny the fact that limits do exist.
2. There are no exceptions to the rule, if we keep violating the limits it will eventually catch up with us.
3. God is under no obligation to bail us out of our pain if we attempt to violate His limits.
4. Without limits we would overreach, become more and more prideful and ultimately believe that we can do it on our own.
5. To acknowledge the existence of limits is to acknowledge the fact that God knew exactly what He was doing when He created the universe and everything in it. And yes, that does include us.
In his 1886 short story “How Much Land Does a Man Need?” Leo Tolstoy shows how a continual desire for more can ultimately cause us to lose everything. The main character of the story is a peasant named Pahóm, who at the beginning can be heard complaining that he does not own enough land to satisfy him. He states that "if I had plenty of land, I shouldn't fear the Devil himself!". But unbeknownst to him is that the devil is present sitting behind the stove and listening. A short amount of time later, a landlady in the village decides to sell her estate, and the peasants of the village buy as much of that land as they can. Pahóm himself purchases some land, and by working off the extra land is able to repay his debts and live a more comfortable life.
However, Pahóm then becomes very possessive of his land, and this causes arguments with his neighbours. "Threats to burn his building began to be uttered.". This is the first sign that greed is disrupting his moral values. Later, he moves to a larger area of land at another Commune. Here, he can grow even more crops and amass a small fortune, but he has to grow the crops on rented land, which irritates him.
Finally, he is introduced to the Bashkirs, and is told that they are simple-minded people who own a huge amount of land. Pahóm goes to them to take as much of their land for as low a price as he can negotiate. Their offer is very unusual: for a sum of one thousand rubles, Pahóm can walk around as large an area as he wants, starting at daybreak, marking his route with a spade along the way. If he reaches his starting point by sunset that day, the entire area of land his route encloses will be his. He is delighted as he believes that he can cover a great distance and has chanced upon the bargain of a lifetime. That night, Pahóm experiences a surreal dream in which he sees himself lying dead by the feet of the Devil, who is laughing.
His journey across the land illustrates his greed. He stays out as late as possible, marking out land until just before the sun sets. Toward the end, he realizes he is far from the starting point and runs back as fast as he can to the waiting Bashkirs. He finally arrives at the starting point just as the sun sets. The Bashkirs cheer his good fortune, but exhausted from the run, Pahóm drops dead. His servant buries him in an ordinary grave only six feet long, thus ironically answering the question posed in the title of the story.
