Restoring Balance to our Hurried Lives.
WHAT IS THE MOST IMPORTANT THING IN LIFE. # 3
1 Corinthians 13: 1-13.
Ps. 39:4. Lord, remind me how brief my time on earth will be.
Ps. 90:12. Teach us to make the most of our time.
1. THE FIRST GOAL OF LIFE IS LOVE FOR GOD.
1 Cor. 14:1a. Let love be your highest goal.
2. God says love is what life is all about.
1 Corinthians 13:3. No matter what I say, what I believe, and what I do, I'm bankrupt without love.
3. We need to focus on what lasts.
1 Corinthians 13:13. There are three things that will endure: faith, hope and love. And the greatest of these is love.
PRAYER: God, if it means that I get nothing else done today help me to achieve this one thing. Lord please allow me to accomplish this today that I spend some time with You and with my love one to build a loving relationship that will last.
4. THE BEST WAY TO EXPRESS OUR LOVE IS BY SPENDING TIME WITH THOSE WE SAY WE LOVE.
I John 3:18. We must show love through actions that are sincere, not through empty words. If you say you love but you’re not showing any time, you’re just kidding yourself.
Ephesians 5:2. Live a life filled with love following the example of Christ who loved you and gave Himself as a sacrifice to take away your sins.
5. WHEN IS THE BEST TIME TO START TO SHOW LOVE? Well the answer is NOW.
Galatians 6:10. Whenever we have the opportunity we should do good to everyone.
Ephesians 5:16. Use every chance you have for doing good.
Proverbs 3:27. Whenever you possibly can do good to those who need it. Never tell your neighbor to wait until tomorrow if you can help them now.
Restoring Balance to our Hurried Lives.
Part 3 of 7
The natural question is why does every part of our lives get overloaded? The answer is always the same. We try to do too much. Then the question becomes why are we always trying to do so much? The answer is because the non-important stuff has the power to cause us to forget what matters most. The problem starts when we assign importance to the non-important stuff which causes us to change our focus from the few things of life that really count. When this happens we get overloaded. Have you noticed that we remember every single little hurt we ever had in life but for some reason we struggle to remember at time what is most important. This isn’t something new. David prayed did in; Psalm 39:4 God remind me what’s important in life. Help me remember what matters most.
David was simply asking the Lord to help him to focus on what really count. When we focus on what really counts we don’t worry about trying to get it all done, and the overload drops.
Psalm 90:12. Teach us to make the most of our time.
Ridgecrest is a large Christian run camp ground, nestled in the mountains of western North Carolina. All summer long, every year, thousands of Christians come to Ridgecrest for training, inspiration, Bible study, and challenge. A few years ago, during a conference, people began to notice a man hanging around the grounds. He didn’t look like he had just stepped out of your typical Sunday school class. His clothes were tattered and torn; they looked like something even the Salvation Army would throw away. His face had not seen a razor for a long time. His shoes could best be described by the Hymn Holy, Holy, Holy! And the worst of all was the BO. When you got close, you didn’t get a whiff of Chanel No. 5. This young man was clearly not one of us not the kind of person you normally see at Christian campgrounds. Did he create a problem? No, not really. He did not approach anyone. He didn’t harass anybody. He didn’t ask for money. He kind of just hung around and when chapel services were held, he would walk across the front and sit down. When classes were under way, he would lie down on the grassy slopes nearby. And when meals were being served he would stand on the dining hall porch, not far from the long lines of people clutching their meal tickets. He never begged or asked for money. He was just standing around the campground.
At the end of the week there was an announced that there would be a special speaker for the closing service, and that he would speak on the theme, Inasmuch as you have not done it unto one of the least of these, you have not done it unto me. They promised that the audience would truly remember this message. The closing service began with prayer, they sang some hymns and the choir sang a special. The audience kept looking to see who this special speaker was because there was no one on the platform but the worship leader. He went to the mic and said that they would have a special prayer for the guest speaker who was going to speak. After the prayer the worship leader looked to his right and said brothers and sister I see that our special speaker is here. The audience could see who it was until he walked on the platform. Everyone was excited and then they saw who the special speaker was as he approached the podium.
The people sat in silence as the young bum came to the podium. He open with this campground is a place where young and old come to receive training so they can go out and reach the lost for Jesus Christ. He said to the crowd I was on this campground all week as you held you training sessions and no one tried to include me in anything. No one asked me if I needed help. No one invited me to the dining hall. No one sat down to listen to my story. Oh a few put religious tracts into my hand and one or two pulled out a dollar bill and gave it to me. But most of you especially you who were doing the training turned your eyes and pretended not to see me. My appearance offended you, and you left me out. You figured I wasn’t worthy of receiving the gospel.
That scruffy young man! That bum with the worn-out clothing, the messy beard, and the offensive BO was a young pastor who had been asked to play a part by the organizers of the conference because they wanted to see if these people they were training knew what the most important thing was.
1. THE FIRST GOAL OF LIFE IS LOVE FOR GOD.
1 Corinthians 14:1. Let love be your highest goal.
Beloved I believe that if we can learn to love the Lord our God with all our Heart, mind, strength and soul that we will be able to love our husband/wives, family and the Lord church with a new kind of love that will transform us completely. I typed into Google the words Love for God and it said there were about 612,000,000 results. I believe that I can say that love is something that is very important to every one of us.
As a Christian the Bible teaches our number one priority to love the Lord our God with all our heart, mind, soul and strength? I know that you have heard me say that a number of times. On one of those sites I found a survey and when the service is over you will be give a copy that you can take home a prayerfully fill it out. I only ask that this be a very personal and private thing between you and the Lord. When you have filled it out I would encourage that you put it in your Bible for a couple of week and then take it out and look at you answers to see it you might want to change any. I don’t know of any Christians who would say that they didn’t love the Lord but do we actually love the Lord with every fiber of our being or do we only love the Lord when it is convient. I believe that the Bible teaches that we are to love the Lord FIRST, that we are to love our family SECOND, and we are to love the church THIRD. In order to find out how much you love the Lord all you have to do is look at your lifestyle. Is the desire of our heart to always please the Lord?
I read a story of a pastor in Vietnam who village was always being raided by the North Vietnamese. On one of raids the pastor son was taken out and the pastor was given the opportunity to choose between his son and the Lord Jesus Christ. The Son encouraged his father to remain true to what he had taught. The pastor/father chooses the Lord Jesus and when he told then of his choice the North Vietnamese office shot the son in front of his family. About five years later the father learned that the North Vietnamese office that shot his son had been captured. When the pastor went to visit this officer every one figured that the pastor would be right there trying to get this North Vietnamese shot for what he did to his family. At the trial they asked the pastor if he wanted to say anything and he said yes. He told the young officer that he forgave him and that he loved him with the love of Jesus Christ. He said that he would visit him in prison. When the pastor finished talking you could hear a pin drop in that court room because what the pastor said and did was something that they did expect. I need you to know that the pastor fought for the life of that young officer, he saw the young man become a child of the King and this young North Vietnamese office who shot and killed the pastor son actually became a member of the pastor family. Today he is a pastor in Vietnam because of the Love of the living God.
2. God says love is what life is all about.
1 Corinthians 13:3. No matter what I say, what I believe, and what I do, I'm bankrupt without love.
I find it amazing that too often we act like loving relationships are something we have to squeeze into our schedule. I remember reading the story about a young man who was asked how he could tell that his father loves him. The son said he knew that his father loved him because the father gave his son a special place in the father schedule every day and the father refused to allow anything to take that time away. We shouldn’t have to find time or to make time for the people in our lives who are the most important. If we are trying to just fit them into our lives then we are saying those loving relationships are not as important as they should be. The whole Bible is about our Gods attempt to have a loving relationship with his creation. Relationships are important to the Lord because that’s what life is all about. It’s all about love. Jesus taught that the whole point of life is about relationships. It’s not about our achievement nor is it about the acquisition of things. It’s about relationships. If we miss that we miss the whole point of life because that’s the bottom line.
If that’s true, why do we always allow our relationships to get the short end of the stick? Well here is what happens. We are traveling through life and I believe that Satan begin to give us the idea that some of those non-important thing that we are dealing with are an important part of our life. Now I am not saying that they are not; it is just that they are not as important as Satan wants us to think they are. His plan is to get us to focus on the stuff that will take our eyes, our commitment and our obedience from serving the Lord Jesus. This will cause us to get over loaded and when we get overloaded the first place that we start to skim is in our relationship with the Lord Jesus Christ and then with our love ones and then the church. Now the reason why we feel that we can do this is because we think the Lord know how busy I am and our wives/husband and families will understand that we are doing this for them. Do you know what is interesting? We fulfill all kinds of other commitments but we cut back on in the area that are critical for our well being spiritually, mentally, physical and emotionally. When don’t give our relationships the time the energy and the attention they deserve because we’re too busy with what we think are more important pressing matters it doesn’t just affect me. It affects every aspect of my relationship with the Lord Jesus and with everyone else.
We become so preoccupied with less important things that they have distracted us to the point where we focus on the urgent rather than on the important. Not everything that’s urgent in our lives is the most important part of our lives. The result is we spend all of our time focusing on making a living, getting the job done, finishing the work, paying the bills, making progress, accomplishing the goal as if that’s the point of life. It is not. The point of life God says is love. The point of life, God says, is relationship.
3. We need to focus on what lasts.
I was watching the highlights of a Canadian football game that was played last Sunday and they asked the Calvary Quarterback how important this event, winning the semifinals was in his life. His words were this is the most important event in my life. God wants us to focus on relationship with the Lord Jesus and with our family simply because relationship will last throughout eternity. The only thing that’s going to last in your life is the loving relationship we build. Everything else is eventually going to burn up.
1 Corinthians 13:13. There are three things that will endure: faith, hope and love. And the greatest of these is love.
If you wanted to leave a legacy after you die what would that legacy be? Many people would like to leave a legacy where their life had a positive influence on this world that outlasts you? Just recently a man left $1,000,000 with the idea that the money would help people to achieve their goals. I have never heard anyone say when they were asked what kind of legacy they would like to leave; that they want to legacy of loving relationship. Now I know of lots of people who have done that. God has shown us how to leave a lasting legacy. God has shown us how to make an enduring impression. Fill your life with love. He says “Faith, hope and love. These are the things that will endure and the greatest of these is love. God is saying love, not work, not wealth, is the key to a lasting legacy.
I don’t know why we think it’s our achievements people are going to remember. I hate to tell you this but nobody’s going to remember your achievements. Five years from today nobody’s going to care what you’ve achieved. Every trophy you’ve ever earned is eventually going to be trashed. We kept all the trophies that Shawn got in sports. Well the only people those trophies have any meaning to are Barb and me as they bring back memories of special events. Now the thing is those trophies do have memories but the most important memories in our lives are the relationship that we have made. Beloved if you want to know whether you are building relationship of love all you have to do is listen to your family when they get together. Are they talking about those special time like when we as a family spent most of one summer living in a camper. Do you hear you children talking about this trip or that time you did whatever with so and so? As Church do we talk about the great services we had or do we just complain. Jesus taught that life is not about achievement and it’s not about accomplishment. It’s about relationships. When we get to heaven God is not going to say what was your career or what did you accomplish in it? God is not going to say can I see your bank balance and how much have you got in your stocks and bonds portfolio. God is not going to say I hope that you enjoyed your hobbies while I you were on earth? The Lord is going to want to know how we did in building relationship on earth. I have a small prayer for you to memorize. It is in your notes.
God, if it means that I get nothing else done today help me to achieve this one thing. Lord please allow me to accomplish this today that I spend some time with You and with my love one to build a loving relationship that will last.
That’s what life is all about. If we miss building loving relationship; then even though we may think that we have accomplished a lot; we have actually missed the point of life. Please think about this for a moment if all we accomplish during that day is stuff that has nothing to do with building a relationship with our love ones then whether we accept it or not that day is a failure. Here is an interesting question if we are just going to waste our days why should God give you another day just to waste?
4. THE BEST WAY TO EXPRESS OUR LOVE IS BY SPENDING TIME WITH THOSE WE SAY WE LOVE.
I John 3:18. We must show love through actions that are sincere, not through empty words. If you say you love but you’re not showing any time, you’re just kidding yourself.”
Someone has asked how do you spell love? Well the answer is we show our love by giving our time. When we do this we don’t spend our time with someone by always looking at our watch.
Can you picture this? We say that we love the Lord but when we are going to spend some time with Jesus we are always looking at our watch. I don’t know of anyone who doesn’t like to get a gift but I also know that just about everyone would sooner have the person sitting across from then; then having to open a card that may have some nice words. The greatest gift you can give anybody is your time. It’s the most precious and the most desired gift, because your time is your life. Time is your most precious commodity. The Bible say that we have 70 years and anything beyond that is a blessing from the Lord. Let me paint a picture for you. I was called to the hospital because the husband of a woman from the church had an accident. When I got there I asked the man what happened and his answer to me was that the Lord has given him a second chance. Here is the story.
He was our on the Saint John River in the spring flood season looking for fiddleheads. There were two of them in the boat when he fell overboard. He said his clothes and his footwear took on so much water that he began to sink like a piece of lead. He told me that he called out to the Lord and he felt a hand grab his coat and pull him up to the top of the water. I asked him if his friend in the boat did this and he said no his friend in the boat was so worked up that he couldn’t do a thing. I began to sink again and again I felt the hand pulling me to the top of the water again. When I got to the top of the water I yelled at the person in the boat to get it over near me so I could grab a hold of it. I went down for the third time and I figured I wasn’t coming up because everytime I got hauled up I wasn’t able to take advantage of it. He told me that he kept going down and then he felt the hand pulling him up again. When he was above the water he saw that he was close enough to the boat to grab it and hang on until help came. Now I knew this man and I knew that I along with other pastor had been trying to get him to accept the Lord Jesus so I said it looks like the Lord had gotten your attention and he agree with me. We talked about that for about ten minutes and then I asked him two questions. The first was what this incident taught him? His answer was that he knew that there was a God and that the Lord was interested in him. My second question was what are you going to do with second chance? Before he could answer one of his friends came in and began to talk about how lucky he was and how they should celebrate. The man looked at me and told me he would give me his answer later in the week. As I left the hospital I thought about this man life and I realized that if he had not survived that he didn’t have any real close relationship with anyone especially his family. His life was all about making money
So he could do whatever he wanted. He didn’t show any love towards any of his family. Later that week I went to the hospital to see him and to get his answer. He told me that he had though it over and since the Lord had given him a second chance that when he go out that he was going to do everything that he wanted to do but hadn’t. I asked him if he had talked this over with his family and he reply was why he would do that with his life; his words were it is my life and I am going to live it my way. This man lives with his family today but he isn’t really there as a part of a loving relationship. This may sound rude but all he is doing is taking up space because the Lord gave him some precious time to spend with the Lord and with his love one and all he can think about is partying. Here is the thing we can always get more work, positions, jobs, and more money to name a few things but we can’t always get relationships. Every time you give someone your time, you are giving them a portion of your life that you will never get back. That’s why the greatest gift you can give someone is your time. Jesus taught that the essence of relationship is not what we do for each other, and the essence of relationship is not what we give each other in that we buy presents. The essence of a relationship is how much we give of ourselves to each other. That’s what a relationship is all about. The greatest gift you can give someone is the gift of yourself because the greatest, the best use of life is love. And the greatest, the best expression of love is time. Nothing can compensate for it.
This poem was written by a workaholic dad:
I have a son, who’s five years old, a boy so very fine.
When I look at him it seems to me that the entire world is mine.
But seldom do I ever see my son awake and bright.
I only see him when he sleeps. I'm only home at night.
When I come home so weary in the darkness after day
My wife says to me, “You should have seen him play.”
So I stand beside his bed and I look and ponder there
And I wonder if he’s dreaming, “Why isn’t Daddy here?”
This last year, 40% of children of divorced parents went an entire year without seeing their dads. Nothing can take the place of time. All the money in the world can’t replace your time with your wife, your husband, your children or those you love. Whenever you give your time you’re making a sacrifice. You’re making a sacrifice of your life because your time is your life. But that’s what love is all about, it’s about sacrifice. Sacrifice is the essence of love.
Ephesians 5:2. Live a life filled with love following the example of Christ who loved you and gave Himself as a sacrifice to take away your sins.
If it isn’t a sacrifice, it’s not real love. You may call it that but it’s not. You can give without loving but you cannot love legitimately love without giving. Love is the essence of sacrifice. Love means giving up my ambitions, giving up my preferences, giving up my likes, giving up my particular thing that I think is fun, giving up my energy, giving up my time for the benefit of somebody else. That's what love is. Giving up my time and my preferences for the benefit of someone else. It’s a sacrifice. Many people are in a time-starved relationships. Couples live in the same home but they’re passing each other by day and by night like ships with a goodbye kiss here and there and their relationship is drying up for lack of attention. A lot of things can rob a relationship. Like work, activity and hobbies just to name a few.
The average North American now watches TV and/or works or plays on the computer an average of five to six hours a day. That’s over 30 hours a week. That’s 1,560 hours a year. Let me put that in perspective. That is like spending 97 days straight at 16 hours a day watching TV or playing or working on the computer. That’s bound to hurt a relationship. It’s ironic to me in this culture that people sit and watch a program on TV called “Friends” instead of making friends. They will watch “Party of Five” instead of having a party for five. They will watch a show called “Talk to Me” instead of talking to those that they love the most. They will watch night after night, “Who Wants to be a Millionaire” when the Bible says no matter what I say or believe or do I'm bankrupt without love.
If you want to revitalize a dying relationship it’s going to start with you investing some more time.
5. WHEN IS THE BEST TIME TO START TO SHOW LOVE? Well the answer is NOW.
Now, not next week, not later, not when things settle down, not when we reach a certain standard of living.
Over the years I have gone to many seminars and when I would come home people would ask me what I learned. I would always share a bit. Then they would ask when I was going to put what I had learned into practice. I would give the standard answered that I had to look at how this was going to affect everything.
Well if we apply the standard answer to the truth of this message I am sure that the Holy Spirit will convict us that we need to smarten up. Listen to what the Bible says.
Galatians 6:10. Whenever we have the opportunity we should do good to everyone.
Ephesians 5:16. Use every chance you have for doing good.
Proverbs 3:27. Whenever you possibly can do good to those who need it. Never tell your neighbor to wait until tomorrow if you can help them now.
If it’s good for neighbors it certainly applies to families too. There are some activities in our lives in which procrastination are a legitimate response because some things just aren’t that important and you ought to put them off. But since love is the most important thing in life and anytime we choose something else over a loving relationship we’ve just made a wrong decision. We’ve missed the point of life. Any time we choose anything over a loving relationship we have made the wrong choice. Why is now the best time to express love? Because we don’t know what life has in store for us? Circumstances change things happen and our love ones die. Children grow up and leave home. We are to live in the present simply because we can’t live in the tomorrows. So if we are going to express love we’d better do it now.
Charles Colson and George McGovern are at the extremes opposite in the political spectrum.
Chuck Colson wrote as I think back on my life, my biggest regret is not spending more time with the kids. Making family your top priority means going against the culture where materialism and workaholism are rampant. It means realizing you may not advance as fast in your career as some do. It means being willing to accept a lower standard of living knowing that you’re doing the right thing for your children, giving them the emotional security that they will draw on for the rest of their lives.” Are you willing to make that financial sacrifice? Or are things more important than people?
George McGovern, one time presidential candidate, wrote a book about his daughter Terry who died of alcoholism. In 1994 she was found frozen to death in a snow bank where she’d fallen in a drunken stupor. After his daughter died McGovern went through Terry’s diaries and talked to all her friends trying to figure out what she was thinking and he discovered that he wasn’t as good as father as he thought he’d been. While he was spending eighteen-hour days fighting for political causes his daughter Terry was at home writing in her diary that she missed her father but he probably didn’t miss her because he probably didn’t care about her. McGovern wrote in his book ; Parents need to show more love to your kids by spending more time with them especially during the adolescent years even if it cost you your career, that way neither you or your child will have regrets. He writes I’d give everything I have and I mean everything including my life for one more afternoon with Terry, just to tell her how much I love her and have one more of those happy times that we used to have all too infrequently.
A few years ago Cherry Boone, one of Pat Boone’s daughters wrote a book about her struggle with anorexia called Starving for Attention. Who do you know that is starving for attention?
The answer is everybody. Everybody is starving for attention. So the question is what are we going to do when we have to stand before God one day and explain why things were more important than people? We start today by getting our ducks all lined up by putting and taking seriously our relationship with the Lord and then our family and church. By family we mean our immediate family, the people we have living in our home. That’s where we start. I guess the question is what do we need to cut out of our schedule to achieve this?
