SPEAKER_00: The term you're about to listen to is part of a series called Live App.
SPEAKER_00: In this series, we are looking for Christ-centered solutions to everyday problems.
SPEAKER_00: I hope the messages in this series are encouragement to you.
SPEAKER_00: Try to follow Christ every day.
SPEAKER_00: 755.
SPEAKER_00: At 755 tomorrow morning, it all changes.
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, Will's excited in the back.
SPEAKER_00: I know.
SPEAKER_00: Will Colvin is more excited about the beginning of the school year than anyone I've ever met in my entire life.
SPEAKER_00: But I know that's not everyone's sentiment in the room.
SPEAKER_00: Uh because at 7.55 tomorrow morning, when that bell rings, uh, parents and students, you're gonna be exchanging um really that more relaxed, leisurely pace of a summer morning uh for something that is uh much quicker and more frenetic.
SPEAKER_00: And pretty quickly what happens in a person's life is that the frenzy of the morning, the frenzy of the school year, it begins to wear people down.
SPEAKER_00: That's why, even during the very first week of school, some of you in this room will discover this fact.
SPEAKER_00: You're always running late.
SPEAKER_00: You're never on time.
SPEAKER_00: And you've seen it before and you've done it before.
SPEAKER_00: It started in your home on a school morning when everyone in your house decided just to sleep five minutes late.
SPEAKER_00: And you think to yourself, it's only five minutes.
SPEAKER_00: What's five minutes?
SPEAKER_00: I can catch up, I'll make up that time somewhere else, I'll do something quicker, I'll be right back on time, no problem.
SPEAKER_00: But inevitably, here's what happens: that five minutes becomes six minutes because your child goes and they're gonna go brush their teeth, but they can't find their toothbrush, which sets everybody else back in your home a minute, and somehow they're looking for their toothbrush, they're pulling everything out, and then they remember, oh, I left my toothbrush in my closet, right?
SPEAKER_00: You've had that moment before.
SPEAKER_00: And inevitably, those six minutes become seven minutes because you're standing in your kitchen, you're watching your kids go to their room to get dressed, and you're drinking your coffee, you're already uh dressed for work, you're drinking your coffee and you just spill it down the front of your shirt, and you're like, I've got to go change.
SPEAKER_00: And so that adds another minute, and then the seven minutes become eight minutes when you're ready to get out the door, and you're like, oh, I forgot to fill up all the water bottles for everyone to take, for me to take one to work and the kids to take one to school, and I need water bottles, and then you look at the sink and you realize, well, the water bottles are dirty water bottles at this moment, and so you have to wash three or four or five water bottles all by hand, and then those eight minutes become nine minutes because your kids are already dressed, and then one of them wanders up to you and says, Mom, did you forget there's a wildcat game tonight, and I have to wear my jersey?
SPEAKER_00: I have to wear wildcat gear today.
SPEAKER_00: And you're like, Well, all the wildcat gear's dirty, so what do you do?
SPEAKER_00: Well, you go to the dirty clothes.
SPEAKER_00: Come on, admit it, you do it.
SPEAKER_00: And you just rifle through all the dirty clothes and you find the least dirty uh t-shirt that has an El Dorado Wildcat on it.
SPEAKER_00: And you say, Here, put this on.
SPEAKER_00: And you just assume no one's gonna see like the fingerprints of Cheetos down the front.
SPEAKER_00: And then those nine minutes that you're behind become ten minutes because everyone gets in the car and everybody's buckled up, but then you realize, oh, I forgot my laptop and you have to run inside, or your child's like, oh, I forgot my lunch and I have to go inside.
SPEAKER_00: Finally, everyone gets in the car and you drive to the school and you screech through the drop-off line, you're ten minutes late, and your child hops out, their shoes are untied, they didn't have time to tie them.
SPEAKER_00: They're like jamming a pop-tart down their gullet because they didn't have time to eat breakfast.
SPEAKER_00: And you pull out of the parking lot and you're gonna head off to work, but then out of the corner of your eye, what do you see in the floorboard of your car?
SPEAKER_00: You see the homework that they left, you see the lunchbox they forgot, and so you whip back around through the same drop-off line and you're like, here it is, and you rush inside and you drop it off at the office, and they're late for school, and now you're late for work.
SPEAKER_00: You should have never scheduled that meeting first thing in the morning.
SPEAKER_00: It just feels like you're always running late.
SPEAKER_00: And on mornings like those, uh, mom and dad, it just feels like you've already had a 12-hour shift before the day's even begun, doesn't it?
SPEAKER_00: And your child, when they're late for school, like they're they're sweaty and their face is flushed right when they arrive in that classroom.
SPEAKER_00: Now, that morning I just described may hit a little too close to home for some of you.
SPEAKER_00: Um you're like, I live that.
SPEAKER_00: I know what it's like.
SPEAKER_00: Or some of you, you just want your weekday to run a little smoother, less shouting, less arguing.
SPEAKER_00: Um, so maybe you should consider some of these time-saving uh life hacks so that you're not running late in the morning.
SPEAKER_00: Here's one.
SPEAKER_00: Um, have you ever noticed that in the morning your kiddos or you, uh, as you're getting dressed in the morning, you lose track of time.
SPEAKER_00: You you forget how long it takes you to do certain things or should take you.
SPEAKER_00: And so instead of spending just a couple minutes brushing your teeth, you spend five minutes or uh five minutes too long preparing your eating breakfast.
SPEAKER_00: So here's an idea: create a playlist.
SPEAKER_00: Create a playlist and let a song on the playlist be for each of the activities that you have to complete in order to get out the door.
SPEAKER_00: So you know when that song's over, what you advance to the next step in getting ready that morning.
SPEAKER_00: Or another idea.
SPEAKER_00: Uh, one of the things that takes a lot of time in the morning is arguing over what we're gonna wear, thinking about it.
SPEAKER_00: So maybe just take a time uh on the weekend before to set out and to plan out all the outfits and all the wildcat gear that you're gonna need for Friday night.
SPEAKER_00: And then hang it up in their closet.
SPEAKER_00: Maybe use a like a sweater organizer or something like that.
SPEAKER_00: One final idea.
SPEAKER_00: Maybe your family runs late uh because your kiddos, they can't keep track of their brush, their toothbrush, their deodorant, their face wash, like they never know where anything is.
SPEAKER_00: It's it had to have been a troll that like went through their bathroom every day.
SPEAKER_00: Well, maybe you just get a basket and you put it on uh their vanity top on the top of their bathroom counter and you just say, hey, this is where you put every single thing.
SPEAKER_00: And it doesn't necessarily look pretty, but it's at least in their eyesight and in their vision, so they're reminded that this visual cue of where to put things and where to pull from on a morning uh routine.
SPEAKER_00: So those life hacks, they have the potential actually to make your life a little easier by helping you what?
SPEAKER_00: Be on time.
SPEAKER_00: But that may not be your problem when it comes to time.
SPEAKER_00: You may be the person who is always five minutes or ten minutes early.
SPEAKER_00: But you've still got a problem with time.
SPEAKER_00: Maybe your problem with time is that it just feels like you never have enough of it.
SPEAKER_00: You always wish there was more.
SPEAKER_00: Don't worry, I bet if you scour the internet long enough this afternoon, you'll find an article, you'll find a video on YouTube that's gonna show you how you can have more time, you can make more of your time, you can be more efficient and more productive.
SPEAKER_00: But here's the thing: when it comes to these life hacks, do they actually solve our real problem when it comes to time?
SPEAKER_00: Do they solve our real problem when it comes to time?
SPEAKER_00: Is our real an actual problem that we aren't on time?
SPEAKER_00: Is our real an actual problem that we don't have enough time?
SPEAKER_00: Or are we actually only scratching the surface?
SPEAKER_00: Listen to this quote by a guy named Charles Hummel.
SPEAKER_00: He wrote it 40, 50 years ago, and he said this.
SPEAKER_00: He said, Have you ever wished for a 30-hour day?
SPEAKER_00: Has anyone ever made that wish before?
SPEAKER_00: You wish you just had like six more hours on the average day?
SPEAKER_00: Anybody?
SPEAKER_00: A couple of the kids are willing to admit that, and the adults are like, I've never wanted more hours in the day.
SPEAKER_00: I have plenty.
SPEAKER_00: It's like, no, I've heard many of you say that before.
SPEAKER_00: And then he goes on, he said, but would that longer day really solve our problem?
SPEAKER_00: Would we soon be just as frustrated as we are now with our 24-hour allotment?
SPEAKER_00: We could hardly escape Parkinson's principle.
SPEAKER_00: Work expands to fill all the available time.
SPEAKER_00: Hear that principle again.
SPEAKER_00: Work expands to fill all the available time.
SPEAKER_00: And then he goes on to say, when we stop long enough to think about it, we realize that our dilemma goes deeper than shortage of time.
SPEAKER_00: It is basically, and hang on to this, it is basically a problem of priorities.
SPEAKER_00: Our dilemma goes deeper than shortage of time, it is basically a problem of priorities.
SPEAKER_00: So when you get beneath the surface and get to the actual problem, your problem and my problem is not being on time or having enough time.
SPEAKER_00: Our problem is a prioritization of time.
SPEAKER_00: How do we decide to use it on the front end?
SPEAKER_00: Maybe that's why Moses in Psalm 90, verse 12, said this.
SPEAKER_00: Psalm 9012, just listen to these words.
SPEAKER_00: It says, Teach us to use wisely all the time we have.
SPEAKER_00: Teach us to use wisely all the time we have.
SPEAKER_00: With those words, here's what Moses reminds us of.
SPEAKER_00: That's why you have to prioritize how you use it.
SPEAKER_00: You can't buy more time on Amazon, you can't borrow more time from a friend, you can't trade time, you can't transfer it from today to tomorrow or transfer it from this year to next year.
SPEAKER_00: So you must prioritize how you use it.
SPEAKER_00: Now notice this Moses in Psalm 90, verse 12, what does he do?
SPEAKER_00: He cries out to God.
SPEAKER_00: He asks God for guidance on how to prioritize, how to use his time wisely on this earth.
SPEAKER_00: Moses asks God, because Moses knows that God is the giver of hours, the giver of days and of weeks and of years.
SPEAKER_00: Moses understands that if God is the one who creates time, then God is the one who can show us how to rightly prioritize our time.
SPEAKER_00: That means our core problem when it comes to time cannot be addressed with a creative solution we find on the internet.
SPEAKER_00: So in week two of this series, we're calling life hacks, we're gonna find a Christ-centered solution to this core problem with regard to time, the prioritization of time.
SPEAKER_00: Because only God, listen, only God, only Jesus, can rightly order our priorities.
SPEAKER_00: As we seek to really understand this Christ-centered solution, here's what we're first gonna do.
SPEAKER_00: I want us to have an even better grasp on what our core problem is.
SPEAKER_00: And one of the stories in Scripture that I think puts flesh and blood on the problem that you and I face, on this everyday problem, uh, is recorded in Luke chapter 10.
SPEAKER_00: In Luke chapter 10, we're gonna read a story about Jesus who one day is on a travel, he's on his way to Jerusalem, and he visits the home of two sisters.
SPEAKER_00: A sister named Martha and her sister named Mary.
SPEAKER_00: And in Luke chapter 10, the story begins this way.
SPEAKER_00: Luke chapter 10, verse 38 says this as Jesus and the disciples continued on their way to Jerusalem, they came to a certain village where a woman named Martha welcomed him into her home.
SPEAKER_00: Her sister Mary sat at the Lord's feet listening to what he taught.
SPEAKER_00: But Martha was distracted by the big dinner she was preparing.
SPEAKER_00: She came to Jesus and said, Lord, doesn't it seem unfair to you that my sister just sits here while I do all the work?
SPEAKER_00: Tell her to come and to help me.
SPEAKER_00: Has anybody ever been in Martha's shoes before?
SPEAKER_00: Anyone ever hosted a big dinner at your home?
SPEAKER_00: It was a big dinner for a family birthday?
SPEAKER_00: Or you're gonna have over your whole family for a holiday meal, your cousins and your kissing cousins, you're gonna have them all together under one roof.
SPEAKER_00: And whenever you're preparing a meal uh for more than just your immediate family, you've got everybody coming together for a big dinner.
SPEAKER_00: There's a lot that you have to think about, right?
SPEAKER_00: You have to, you kind of have to order how you prepare the menu.
SPEAKER_00: You have to think about uh what you need to buy at the grocery store, and you have to check it against what you already have in your cabinet.
SPEAKER_00: And then as the day arrives, not only you're preparing a meal in the kitchen, you're preparing uh place settings for people to sit, you're making sure you have enough chairs available, you're making sure that the table is clean, and then actually you prepare the meal, and there's you have to think about like what should I cook first and what can be heated last and what's gonna take the longest time to cook.
SPEAKER_00: There's all of these things that you have to think about when you prepare a big dinner.
SPEAKER_00: And all of us know, like, what's going through our mind the entire time we're preparing a big dinner for our family is is it gonna be ready on time?
SPEAKER_00: Right?
SPEAKER_00: And maybe you have someone in your family who always has you over, or maybe you're this person, sorry, who always has people over and people are like, she says it'll be 11.
SPEAKER_00: We know it's 1145, right?
SPEAKER_00: You know that person in your family?
SPEAKER_00: Or you think to yourself, um, you don't have enough time to prepare the food.
SPEAKER_00: How am I gonna make it all in the midst of everything that's going on in life?
SPEAKER_00: Like these big family dinners, they're they're a fun experience, but there's also a little bit of anxiety and worry, and you feel a little overwhelmed.
SPEAKER_00: I always remember when my great-grandmother, I just thought of this, my great-grandmother always made our our family meals at the holidays.
SPEAKER_00: So she would spend like half a week, right, for Thanksgiving and Christmas.
SPEAKER_00: And do you know what happened when we all sat down to eat?
SPEAKER_00: She never ate.
SPEAKER_00: She's like, I don't really want to eat right now.
SPEAKER_00: I'm just tired.
SPEAKER_00: I've spent all week doing this, I'm done, I'm good.
SPEAKER_00: Right?
SPEAKER_00: Like we do all these things.
SPEAKER_00: We've been in Martha's shoes where we feel this anxiety growing, and it just so happens that on this day she's preparing this big dinner, and then something else gets added into the mix.
SPEAKER_00: There's like this unexpected, someone's at the door.
SPEAKER_00: And she welcomes Jesus into her home.
SPEAKER_00: She gets Jesus squared away.
SPEAKER_00: Hey, here's a place to sit.
SPEAKER_00: Can I get you something to drink?
SPEAKER_00: Anything else I can get for you?
SPEAKER_00: She gets Jesus squared away, Martha does, and then what does she do?
SPEAKER_00: She goes about her day.
SPEAKER_00: She gets him squared away and she goes about her day.
SPEAKER_00: That big dinner's not going to prepare itself, is it?
SPEAKER_00: So she's chopping and she's cooking and she's cleaning, all the while her sister Mary sits at the feet of Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: Mary stops what she's doing so that she can listen to everything that Jesus is gonna say.
SPEAKER_00: Now eventually uh Martha gets really peeved at her sister.
SPEAKER_00: She's like, I mean, she's got two feet, she's got two hands, she can read a recipe, right?
SPEAKER_00: Like she's like rushing around the kitchen, rushing around the home, and her sister's just sitting there.
SPEAKER_00: And what does she do?
SPEAKER_00: She goes to Jesus, hey Jesus, I know you're talking, but I have something I can ask you.
SPEAKER_00: Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
SPEAKER_00: Could you like tell her to help me?
SPEAKER_00: Tell her, like, I'm really stressed out.
SPEAKER_00: Tell her the food's not gonna be ready on time, Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: Please, just Jesus.
unknown: Help me.
SPEAKER_00: I feel I feel like she's taking advantage of me, Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: And Jesus looked at Martha and said this.
SPEAKER_00: My dear Martha.
SPEAKER_00: I like that.
SPEAKER_00: My dear Martha.
SPEAKER_00: I love you, Martha.
SPEAKER_00: I care about you, Martha.
SPEAKER_00: I value you, Martha.
SPEAKER_00: You are worried and upset over all these details.
SPEAKER_00: There is only one thing worth being concerned about.
SPEAKER_00: Mary has discovered it.
SPEAKER_00: And it will not be taken away from her.
SPEAKER_00: You cannot overstate the importance of Jesus' assessment at that moment.
SPEAKER_00: Because in that moment, Jesus' reply summarizes us how this problem with the prioritization of time manifests itself on a daily basis.
SPEAKER_00: Because you and I, I think here's our problem.
SPEAKER_00: You and I, we are like Martha, right?
SPEAKER_00: We choose all the details.
SPEAKER_00: We choose what is urgent over what is important.
SPEAKER_00: All the details are urgent.
SPEAKER_00: The meal needs to be cooked, the meal needs to be prepared.
SPEAKER_00: We choose that urgency of that moment over the one thing that is important.
SPEAKER_00: Or you could say it this way.
SPEAKER_00: Often in life, I choose the immediate over the ultimate.
SPEAKER_00: I choose the optional over the essential.
SPEAKER_00: Or I choose what's a waste over what is wise.
SPEAKER_00: I'm a guy, like on my phone, I'm I'm sort of driven by my to-do list and my reminder list.
SPEAKER_00: And in my reminder list, like that's how I kind of organize my day.
SPEAKER_00: And I don't know about you, but there's this temptation because my reminder list, I am so like accomplishment.
SPEAKER_00: I want to accomplish a task, whether it's great or small.
SPEAKER_00: I hate having loose ends in life.
SPEAKER_00: I hate leaving things undone.
SPEAKER_00: And I just love it if I can like click the little uh the button beside it where it then disappears off the list, like, I did it, give me a gold star to get that urgent task out of the way.
SPEAKER_00: It's easy for me to choose what's urgent.
SPEAKER_00: But I can't confuse what is urgent in my life for what is important in my life.
SPEAKER_00: To not start the day with the urgency of.
SPEAKER_00: The reminder and instead start it with what's important time with Jesus, like that Sister Mary experienced in that moment.
SPEAKER_00: Or maybe for the high school students and junior high students, you begin your morning.
SPEAKER_00: Listen, you begin your morning, and the first thing you do is you wake up, your alarm goes off, and the first thing you do is you just grab your phone and you look at it, and then you click the Instagram and then you scroll it, and then you clap the TikTok and you scroll it.
SPEAKER_00: Who's liked something?
SPEAKER_00: Who's posted something?
SPEAKER_00: Who's shown me something that I haven't seen before?
SPEAKER_00: Well, listen, we cannot confuse the immediate kind of gratification that we get when we watch a new video or we share an experience on social media with a friend so I can talk about it with them when we get to school.
SPEAKER_00: We can't confuse that immediate gratification for the one thing, Jesus Christ, who gives us ultimate satisfaction.
SPEAKER_00: You see, you're you don't maybe don't work in the kitchen very often, teenagers, junior high kiddos, but listen, you've got all the details in life too.
SPEAKER_00: They just look a lot different.
SPEAKER_00: Think about all the details.
SPEAKER_00: All the details.
SPEAKER_00: And we're going into this new school year, and you're just making a choice, and you're gonna fill your family's calendar with every after-school activity that you can, Monday through Friday, Saturday, and Sunday.
SPEAKER_00: And the reason we do it is for there are so many reasons.
SPEAKER_00: There are so many reasons we do that.
SPEAKER_00: We do it because I enjoyed that activity and I want my child to enjoy that activity.
SPEAKER_00: Uh we do it because our child expresses interest in that activity, and that's not bad.
SPEAKER_00: That is not bad at all, right?
SPEAKER_00: It's not bad.
SPEAKER_00: Or sometimes we um sign our kids up because we see like that's what other parents do with their kids, right?
SPEAKER_00: And I don't want my child to feel left out or get left behind if they're not doing X, Y, and Z.
SPEAKER_00: And we're so aware of that because our friends post pictures on Instagram and Facebook, and we're like, I know what every one of my friend's kids do every single day of the week.
SPEAKER_00: And I guess my kid, they're not having a great life if they're not doing all of those things every single day of the week.
SPEAKER_00: But I want you to hear this.
SPEAKER_00: As we kind of, we're gonna drill down some real practical ways, but hear this first.
SPEAKER_00: Every after-school activity is an optional activity.
SPEAKER_00: After school activities are optional activities.
SPEAKER_00: And we have to be people, moms and dads with kids in our home.
SPEAKER_00: Listen, we have to be people who don't confuse what is optional for what is essential.
SPEAKER_00: We cannot confuse the optional after school activity that happens Monday through Friday, Saturday, and Sunday for the essential relationship with Jesus Christ.
SPEAKER_00: And then, you know, um many of us, if we're being honest, we uh organize our day around things that are a total waste of time.
SPEAKER_00: Right?
SPEAKER_00: We waste our time watching mind-numbing amounts of television, binging on Netflix, hanging out on YouTube.
SPEAKER_00: We waste our time gossiping about other people.
SPEAKER_00: Not only is it a sin to gossip, it's a waste of time to gossip.
SPEAKER_00: We waste our time trying to solve problems that aren't ours.
SPEAKER_00: We try, we waste time trying to diagnose the motivations of people who do certain things.
SPEAKER_00: We just talk about and talk about and talk about things.
SPEAKER_00: We waste time in so many ways.
SPEAKER_00: And we confuse those wastes of time for the one thing that is truly a wise use of our time.
SPEAKER_00: You see, you and I to varying degrees, we face the same problem as Martha.
SPEAKER_00: We prioritize our time around the urgent, the immediate, the optional, and even things that are a waste.
SPEAKER_00: So thankfully, Martha, she's got a sister named Mary.
SPEAKER_00: And Mary knows the Christ-centered solution.
SPEAKER_00: I love this phrase, I love the translation, the New Living Translation, when Jesus says, Mary knows, Mary knows there is only one thing worth being concerned about.
SPEAKER_00: Some of y'all need to hear that this morning, don't we?
SPEAKER_00: Mary knows what there's only one thing worth being concerned about, and it's not all the details, all the options, all the things that are a waste.
SPEAKER_00: That's why in the midst of her day, Mary has one priority.
SPEAKER_00: Jesus comes and she stops what she's doing.
SPEAKER_00: She listens to what he says, she sits at his feet.
SPEAKER_00: Because she in that moment, what is what does Mary choose in that moment?
SPEAKER_00: Mary chooses in that moment what is important, what is ultimate, what is essential, and what is wise.
SPEAKER_00: So to follow the example of Mary means that you and I have to prioritize Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: Prioritize hearing his words, listening to his voice.
SPEAKER_00: Because Jesus, hear it again, Jesus is the one thing worth being concerned about.
SPEAKER_00: Not all of the details that we often react to.
SPEAKER_00: And really, here's the thing, to truly apply, right?
SPEAKER_00: To truly apply kind of what we see occurring in Luke 10 to our lives so that we can address this prioritization of time.
SPEAKER_00: Because it's not enough to say Jesus is my priority, right?
SPEAKER_00: It's really easy for those words to be empty.
SPEAKER_00: Or for us to even use kind of church words and say, Jesus is my Lord.
SPEAKER_00: It's really easy for words to be empty.
SPEAKER_00: So we're gonna have to really be intentional.
SPEAKER_00: By that I mean to solve this problem, you and I, we have to be proactive and not reactive.
SPEAKER_00: We have to be proactive and not reactive.
SPEAKER_00: Because Satan is gonna do everything in his power to keep you from actually making Jesus the priority of your life and the priority of your family's life and the priority of our church.
SPEAKER_00: He's gonna get us caught up in all the details.
SPEAKER_00: Here's a couple of ways you can be proactive.
SPEAKER_00: Here's a couple ways you can be proactive.
SPEAKER_00: Two, I think, easy practical steps that you can do.
SPEAKER_00: You can do them this afternoon.
SPEAKER_00: I would encourage you, do them this afternoon, especially if your family is about to enter into the school year.
SPEAKER_00: This afternoon, if you don't already have one, establish a daily and weekly rhythm for your family where Jesus is the priority.
SPEAKER_00: Start with a blank calendar, Monday through Friday, and put on that calendar, on the daily, where and when you will meet with Jesus, just like Sister Mary did.
SPEAKER_00: And then on the weekly, where and when will my family meet and listen to Jesus?
SPEAKER_00: Where and when will my family meet and listen to Jesus?
SPEAKER_00: Start with the blank count, like take all the other options out, right?
SPEAKER_00: Let them truly be options.
SPEAKER_00: Put those things on your calendar.
SPEAKER_00: And then imagine a world, okay, and this is revolutionary.
SPEAKER_00: Imagine a world and imagine a way of life where you put the on the daily, where and when I'm gonna meet with Jesus, and on the weekly, where and when my family's gonna meet and listen to Jesus, like when we're going to church, like really church or family worship time in our home, when that's gonna occur.
SPEAKER_00: And what if, what if you put those things on the calendar and you let everything in your life be a slave to those two things?
SPEAKER_00: What if you did that?
SPEAKER_00: What if we tr that that's what it means to truly see every those other things as non-essentials?
SPEAKER_00: I'm gonna do this, I'm gonna do this, and I've got other time.
SPEAKER_00: We'll do other things.
SPEAKER_00: So establish a daily and weekly rhythm for you and your family.
SPEAKER_00: And then the second thing I would encourage you to do is this: evaluate your calendar and your commitments.
SPEAKER_00: Evaluate your calendar and your commitments.
SPEAKER_00: Um, so what is on your calendar and what is a commitment that may prevent Jesus from being the priority when it comes to your time?
SPEAKER_00: That's what you're trying to ask as you look over that calendar in the commitments.
SPEAKER_00: Look at it on a month or two months or three months out, right?
SPEAKER_00: Because we schedule things way out.
SPEAKER_00: And here's the thing: here's, let's be real honest.
SPEAKER_00: Like we, if we want to make Jesus the priority, right?
SPEAKER_00: Well, we're putting him in these places where I meet with him like Mary does individually on the daily, personal devotional time, and on the daily and on the weekly, my family.
SPEAKER_00: We have a time when we come to church and we gather with God's people to hear and to listen to the voice of Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: That means if that's the priority, there may be things that you've said yes to that you have to back out of and cancel.
SPEAKER_00: It may mean, it may mean, not it definitely means, it may mean your child stops an activity.
SPEAKER_00: Doesn't participate on a team, quits a team.
SPEAKER_00: We get 24 hours in a day, and your kids are gonna sleep eight to ten of them.
SPEAKER_00: Okay, some don't sleep eight to ten.
SPEAKER_00: Um you want them to sleep eight to ten.
SPEAKER_00: So, but for others, maybe empty nesters and retirees, when you look at your uh calendar and commitments, it it may it may cause you and require you to put a cap on the number of days that you're going to hunt and fish and vacation and golf or travel to Fayetteville to go see the Razorbacks.
SPEAKER_00: It just may.
SPEAKER_00: Because what what we're trying to do is we're trying to build if Jesus is a priority, a Jesus-centric kind of schedule for our lives and for our family, and so we're gonna put Jesus on the daily and Jesus on the weekly, and then I've but I've got a lot of time, right?
SPEAKER_00: Like we're not here for 12 hours on Sunday.
SPEAKER_00: Okay?
SPEAKER_00: You're not meeting with Jesus for 12 hours on the daily either.
SPEAKER_00: So there's still time in your day to have optional activities.
SPEAKER_00: There's plenty of time, you just can't do it all.
SPEAKER_00: And there are certain times when you can't have an optional activity, when you can't meet an urgent demand.
SPEAKER_00: So, how do you know if your calendar and commitments are getting in that way, getting in the way of that priority?
SPEAKER_00: I'm not gonna give you a number, but I would say this.
SPEAKER_00: It's getting in the way, if it's a significant barrier to your family gathering with God's people.
SPEAKER_00: If it's a significant barrier to your family gathering with God's people, you may need to back out.
SPEAKER_00: And you may just need to learn to say no.
SPEAKER_00: And I'll be honest, I think some of us, listen, we are far too optimistic about how much time we have.
SPEAKER_00: And we just need some margin in our lives.
SPEAKER_00: We just can't do it all.
SPEAKER_00: For the sake of your health as a person, for the sake of the health of your family and health of our church, I hope we'll all apply this Christ-centered solution to our lives.
SPEAKER_00: Because Jesus and Jesus alone is worthy to be the priority.
SPEAKER_00: Worthy and worthy alone to be the priority of our life.
SPEAKER_00: And you make Jesus that priority, you take the first step in learning what that means on a practical daily basis when you put your faith in him, when you trust in him, when you confess your sins and ask him to save you, to be forgiven by his blood shed on the cross, and to be raised in a new way of life through the power of his resurrection.
SPEAKER_00: You see, it's only by the power of the cross and the power of the resurrection that we can live this new way of life where Jesus is the top priority and the lone sole priority of our lives.
SPEAKER_00: And maybe among every kind of biblical life hack we're gonna talk about throughout this series, for our young families, for families who have children in your home, this is the most counter-cultural life hack we're gonna talk about.
SPEAKER_00: It just is.
SPEAKER_00: And it's gonna take some intentionality on your part to be proactive and not reactive.
SPEAKER_00: To say, Jesus here and Jesus here, and then we can work in some optional things with our time.
SPEAKER_00: But we're not just gonna crowd our week with everything that's optional and crowd, because inevitably here's what we do: we crowd Jesus out.
SPEAKER_00: We crowd him out of our lives.
SPEAKER_00: Let's stand together and pray.
SPEAKER_00: Almighty God.
SPEAKER_00: As I was preparing for this sermon, God, you were just really speaking to me about the priorities of my own life, my own family.
SPEAKER_00: Lord, thank you for helping me reevaluate and see some things differently.
SPEAKER_00: That new vision of life was life-giving, was convicting.
SPEAKER_00: Thank you.
SPEAKER_00: And Lord, I pray um that the message that was shared this morning, God, I just pray that there's not a spirit of shame or guilt in this place, but just a spirit of um conviction, of repentance, even freedom and hope that there's a better way to live our life and to use our time.
SPEAKER_00: Because as Moses prayed, God, you will teach us to use our time wisely.
SPEAKER_00: Thank you, Jesus, for coming.
SPEAKER_00: That you can be the top priority in our life, and we don't have to live for anything else that will disappoint us and even take life from us.
SPEAKER_00: In your name we pray.
SPEAKER_00: Amen.