My Schedule is Overwhelming!
Introduction
In the series that we began last week, we discussed the idea that parts of our life are out of control. They are chaotic. Last week we tackled the family. Our families are near and dear to us. We love them bunches, but they can bring chaos into our lives. And we examined some of the reasons for the chaos and what can be done about it.
Today, we want to look at our schedule, the things that we have plans for ourselves to get done, and we might discover that we have scheduled too many things in too short a time, and it has overwhelmed us and brought chaos into our lives.
If you hear yourself in your own self-talk or when you are talking to others and you use phrases like: “I will never get done everything I got to get done today;” or “I don’t have time for one more thing today;” or “I cannot squeeze one more thing into my schedule; “ than your schedule is probably is too overwhelming and it in causing chaos in your life.
There was a man in the Old Testament by the name of Moses whose schedule was overwhelming, and it was bringing chaos into his life and to those who had to deal with him. And it took his father-in-law, Jethro, to point it out to him. And let’s see what we can learn when Jethro basically tells Moses- your schedule is going to kill you.
Turn with me in your Bibles to Exodus 18 and we are going to read two passages of Scripture. First, we will read verses 2-6 and then then we will read verses 13-18. Please stand for the reading of God’s Word.
Scripture
Exodus 18:2–6 (NKJV)
2 Then Jethro, Moses’ father-in-law, took Zipporah, Moses’ wife, after he had sent her back, 3 with her two sons, of whom the name of one was Gershom (for he said, “I have been a stranger in a foreign land”) 4 and the name of the other was Eliezer (for he said, “The God of my father was my help, and delivered me from the sword of Pharaoh”); 5 and Jethro, Moses’ father-in-law, came with his sons and his wife to Moses in the wilderness, where he was encamped at the mountain of God. 6 Now he had said to Moses, “I, your father-in-law Jethro, am coming to you with your wife and her two sons with her.”
Exodus 18:13–18 (NKJV)
13 And so it was, on the next day, that Moses sat to judge the people; and the people stood before Moses from morning until evening. 14 So when Moses’ father-in-law saw all that he did for the people, he said, “What is this thing that you are doing for the people? Why do you alone sit, and all the people stand before you from morning until evening?”
15 And Moses said to his father-in-law, “Because the people come to me to inquire of God. 16 When they have a difficulty, they come to me, and I judge between one and another; and I make known the statutes of God and His laws.”
17 So Moses’ father-in-law said to him, “The thing that you do is not good. 18 Both you and these people who are with you will surely wear yourselves out. For this thing is too much for you; you are not able to perform it by yourself.
Point
You know that your schedule is overwhelming if you have no time available for your family.
Look at what is happening in verses 2 and 3. Then Jethro, Moses’ father-in-law, took Zipporah, Moses’ wife, after he had sent her back, 3 with her two sons...
As we come to Chapter 18, Moses is a man working from early morning to late evening day in and day out. When you put in those kinds of hours in - something is going to suffer. Something got to get left out.
Moses decides to send his wife and his two sons back home to her mom and dad. Moses is thinking to himself, I don’t have time to deal with a wife and two boys. They will be cared for better than what I can care for them at her mom and dad’s house.
When you overload your schedule, you tend to forget what is most important. Moses is certainly doing God’s work ministering to the people of God, but he is neglecting a more important responsibility - taking care of his own family.
In 2022, there are husband’s whose work is their life and as a result their relationship with God and their wives and their children suffers. In fact, I know ministers whose lives are all about the church work, that their relationship time with Jesus suffers and the relationship time with the family suffers.
Thank the Lord, in the case of Moses, he had a father-in-law that was willing to confront him. If you don’t see that your scheduling is overwhelming, you better be thanking the Lord when he sends someone to confront you about your schedule. Moses’ wife and two sons have been staying at her parents’ home, Jethro says to himself, “This is not going to stay like this, I am taking them back to Moses.” “I cannot continue to let him get away with neglecting his family.”
And what makes this story so incredible for me is here is a great man of God, one that is listed in the heroes of faith in Hebrews 11, and he could not get his priories straight. It shows me just how easy to get your priorities out of line.
Point #2
My schedule is overwhelming when I think that I am the only solution to everybody’s problem.
Jethro ask the question in verse 14 “What is this thing that you are doing for the people?”
And listen carefully to Moses’ reply in verse 15, “Because the people come to me to seek God.”
What is Moses’ thinking? I am the only one who can solve their problems.
Let me remind you of at least two other people that are in the camp that I would call very Godly men: Joshua and Caleb. Did not both men go into the Promise Land and came back with a positive report to go get our land despite the fact that the majority of spies said that there are giants in the land that will devour us?
And not only that- but you also cannot tell me in all those men that left Egypt there are not some more people like Joshua and Caleb in the bunch.
The point is that there were other people in the camp who were men of God who the people could have gone to seek God. Moses was not the only solution for the people to seek God. He made himself the only solution.
We love to make ourselves the only solution.
If you think that your work cannot survive if you are out a day, a few days or even a week, you got the same thought process as Moses- I am the only solution to everybody’s problem.
I am realistic in my ministry. I know if I one day step down as pastor this church is going to go on without me. Pepper, when you were out all those months because of the surgery, did your work still go on. Jerry, when you retired as a mechanic, did the car dealership close down?
That mindset- I am the only solution to everybody’s problem can only result in you neglecting something or somethings that are important in your life.
Point #3
My schedule is overwhelming when I am not the only one being hurt my schedule, but others are also being you hurt by my schedule.
Exodus 18:17–18 (NKJV)
17 So Moses’ father-in-law said to him, “The thing that you do is not good. 18 Both you and these people who are with you will surely wear yourselves out...
Listen to what Jethro says: Moses you are hurting yourself but your overwhelmed scheduled is also hurting everyone else.
Imagine you are living at the time of Moses and the Israelites in the desert. You and your neighbor get into a dispute, and you cannot solve it yourself so you both know that you need to go to Moses to get it resolved. You get there very early in the morning, but the line is already very long. It is now about noon, and you have been standing in the hot desert sun about 6 hours. You finally get to be in front of Moses. Moses is tired and you and your neighbor are short fused having been in the heat all day. I can see where it could not go well for Moses and those two neighbors.
I remember during the Covid crisis the Mississippi Department of Driver’s License schedule of Operations was very chaotic. They had a lot of angry people standing in line for hours to get a new license or a driver’s test. Their schedule created chaos in other people’s lives.
Listen, if you have a chaotic schedule, it is not only going to hurt you, but it is going to hurt others.
Point #4
Jethro offered to Moses the same thing that God offers to each one of His children: rest for the weary with one big difference.
Exodus 18:21–22 (NKJV)
21 Moreover you shall select from all the people able men, such as fear God, men of truth, hating covetousness; and place such over them to be rulers of thousands, rulers of hundreds, rulers of fifties, and rulers of tens. 22 And let them judge the people at all times. Then it will be that every great matter they shall bring to you, but every small matter they themselves shall judge. So, it will be easier for you, for they will bear the burden with you.
But there is a big difference. What Jethro offers to Moses was rest because he can share the burden with others.
What Jesus offers us is something completely better. He says, “I won’t share your burden with you, I will take it from you.”
Matthew 11:28 (NKJV)
28 Come to Me, all you who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest.
Today, if you don’t know that rest God makes available to you, there are people here that would love to share with you how to enter God’s rest. Let’s pray as we enter into our invitation time.
