From Busyness To The Business That Matters

January 4, 2026

Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:00

Our meditation text comes from Psalm 103, verses 13 through 14. If we can read it together when it's on the screen, I'd appreciate it. Here we go. As a father has compassion on his children, so the Lord has compassion on those who fear him. Amen. What a wonderful word. And then our main text comes from Luke chapter 2, verse 49. I'm gonna read the King James Version for Jada Jackson. Amen. Bless you, Jay. For some of y'all King James lovers, because it really brings out the flavor that needs to be brought out. I want to encourage you to read all of Luke chapter 2, forms the context for which we will preach. But for time's sake, I want to focus on verse 49, and obviously we'll refer to the narrative in which we find this text. Luke chapter 2. Verse 49. And here's what it says. And he said to them, Why did you seek me? Did you know that I must be about my father's business? Did you know I must be about my father's business? If you have a different translation from the King James Version, the others are gonna say, in my father's house. But what the King James says, it just brings out the idiom. To say you're in my father's house is to be about your father's business. That's the whole point. King James just went a step further. We praise God. And so I want to talk about from busyness to the business that matters. From busyness to the business that matters. It is an understatement to say that we are a culture of busyness. Over half Americans surveyed today say that there's not enough time in a day to complete all the tasks they must do. We are a culture of business. Some of you, even here today, made your way to the house of the Lord, but you feel the weight of dizziness that 2026 invites. It was Meyer Freeman who originally coined the phrase hurry sickness. After examining several of his patients, he noticed that his most at-risk patients live with a sense of hurry. Thus the phrase hurry sickness. In a word, the busier we are, the more susceptible we are to chronic physical and mental health issues. Before the invention of the light bulb, the average American slept 11 hours per night. Now we average six or seven hours per night, and we wonder why we're so exhausted. Tell your neighbor you're too busy. Tell her my age right now, but I remember a time when just about nothing was open on Sunday. Only thing that was open on Sunday was church. And if you forgot to purchase something for the Sunday dinner, you just was up a creek without a paddle. And I surely don't want to go back to the old days, amen. But it seems to me that the slower pace of life was a better place of life for all, a better pace of life for all of us. It just seems back then, when somebody called you and they got a busy signal, they just called you back. And you know what? They were okay. Slower pace of life was a better place of life for everybody. Even back then, on TV, you only had about eight channels. Well, really there were 12, but your TV could only pick up about eight. Any Magnavox TV? Alright. And the other four wasn't worth watching, anyhow. But anyway, we live in a day where you can get a thousand channels on your TV. And we may still only watch two or three channels. Slower pace of life was a better pace of life for all of us. Corey Tin Boone, a Christian whose family helped many Jews during the Nazi occupation of a country during World War II, said this. If the devil can't make you sin, he'll make you busy. And though you won't find any scriptures condemning busyness as sin, it does have the same effect. It will cut your connection with God, it will cut your connection from the people that you love the most, and it can do irreparable harm to your soul. Tell your neighbor, we're too busy. How do we move from busyness to the business that matters? John Mark Comer defines busyness like this. He said it's a malaise in which a person feels chronically short of time and so tends to perform every task faster. And this person easily gets frustrated when encountering any kind of delay. How many of y'all hate waiting? Tell your neighbor, we're too busy. And if we're not careful, we're gonna miss what God is doing. When I think of busyness, I think of Mary and Martha and Bethany when Jesus came to see them on that final week before he was crucified. Mary did the right thing. She understands it's about getting in God's presence. The Bible says she was at the feet of Jesus, listening to his word. Posture of discipleship. Martha was busy making all kinds of preparations. Jesus, observing her behavior, said, Sweetheart, you worried and stressed out and anxious about so many things. Don't miss what Jesus is saying. In all your preparations for the coming of Jesus, you're gonna miss the coming of Jesus. And if we're not careful, y'all, we we can say we're seeking and need God, but never put ourselves in a place where we can actually experience the coming of God in our lives because we're too busy. And that's kind of what we see a little bit in our text this morning here when it talks about Jesus. Early in his life, he he understands what is important. It's not about being busy, it's about be focusing on the things that really matter in life. With all that Jesus accomplished in three years of ministry, he never seemed too busy. Wasn't too busy to talk to Nicodemus, wasn't too busy to talk to the Samaritan woman at the well, wasn't too busy to stop and heal that woman that had an issue of blood for 12 years. And somebody can testify in here. He's never too busy to hear your prayer and answer what you need. Out of all that Jesus did in three years, and most believe he accomplished in three years what many of us couldn't even accomplish in a century. He never seemed too busy because he was focused on the things that really matter. Every time I read this text, I think every parent ought to breathe a sigh of relief when they hear this story from Jesus' childhood. I believe, in one sense, Mary here shares this story with Luke to encourage every parent with children. In a word, she's saying to every parent, you think your child is something. Let me tell you what Jesus did to us. Joseph and Mary were so busy with Passover celebrations, so busy with travel to and from Jerusalem that they lost track of Jesus at the age of 12. Imagine that going a whole day and you don't even know where your child is because you're too busy. And then beyond that, it takes three days just to find out where they are. That's what happened to Mary and Joseph here. And I need to tell some parents, you a better parent than you think you really are. They went three days and lost their child. At least you can keep up with yours. Amen. And so after Joseph and Mary returned to Jerusalem, where do they find Jesus? They find him in the temple. And Mary says, Boy, you have worried us. And and why have you done this to us? And Jesus said, Didn't you know I was in my father's house? Didn't you know I was about my father's business? And here's what Jesus is saying, and and why the temple became more important, even more important than family, because I know we struggle with that. This is what he understands, and here's my thesis statement. Nobody cares for us like our father. Jesus said, out of all the things I'm gonna be involved in, the Passover is important, Sabbath is important, mom and dad is important. Yeah, I have a responsibility to honor their authority, but at the end of the day, the most important thing that I have in my life is that nobody is gonna care for me like my father. Now, there are two things I need to say here at the forefront about Father because I already know that's an issue. Number one, I don't have the time to chase down all the Trinitarian implications of Father in this text. Because this is really the first time that we get a glimpse of God as the Father of Jesus or as our Father. I don't have time to chase all that. I don't have time to deal with all the criticisms and some of the alleged issues of patriarchy. Don't have time to chase all that. You want to talk to me after service? We'll talk about it then. Secondly, I already know that a lot of us struggle with the image of Father for many reasons. To you, I said, God never promised that we would have perfect parents. And if you're mad because you didn't have a perfect parent, it tells me you ain't never fathered or mothered a child. God never promised us with perfect parents. I'm surely not dismissing what a parent ought to do. But secondly, you don't think that they didn't have imperfect fathers in that day, even though Jesus emphasized this image? You don't think that when Jesus gave the Lord's setup prayer where we're told to pray our Father, that there were imperfect there weren't any imperfect fathers in that day? Matter of fact, we can go so far to say that when we look at the earthly ministry of Jesus, when he began to minister as an adult male, there's very little to no mention of his stepfather Joseph in his life. And many scholars have concluded that by the time Jesus became a grown man, his father Joseph had died. If anything, Jesus is sensitive to the absence of a father or a father figure in his life. And yet, he wants us to know that one of the most important images that we ought to cherish in our life is this image of God as a father. It's one of the most significant things he does. He shows us that the supreme quintessential nature of God in all creation is that of a father. It's the one image he chooses out of all the images he could have chosen. He didn't choose the glory cloud in the Old Testament and all the judgment and wrath that came with that glory cloud. He didn't choose a consuming fire that would put fear in the lives of the people of God. He didn't choose a throne that God would sit on in judgment of those who are not. No, he gives us the image of the Father. Why? Because he wanted us to know for all time, whenever you think about God, God cares for you. Cares for you. And in a word, he's saying, This father cares. This father forgives. This father restores. This father is present. This father blesses. And yes, this father is compassionate. Meditation text says, as a father has compassion on his children, so the Lord has compassion on us. This father cares. And Jesus hides out in the temple because he knows his father cares for him. And in that relationship with him, that's how we grow and become the fullness that God wants us to become. When we know our father cares, our heavenly father. That he's always there for us. He's working in our lives. He has a purpose for our lives. We may not always agree with what he allows and doesn't allow, but we have a God who is like a father who actually cares for us. That's what he does. And in this, we learn what it means to move from busyness to the business that really matters. Let me run through this very quickly. Number one, how do we do that? First of all, we learn early on in Jesus' life that to move from busyness to the business that matters, we've got to engage some essential tasks. We've got to engage some essential tasks. In verse 42, it talks about how Jesus at the age of 12 practiced the custom of the feast. This was something that was a regular routine, the Passover and many other feast days. These were customs, these were routines that God had implemented in the Torah, in the law, in which Israel were to engage God. And it's a word about that every day should be an encounter with God with us. We don't wait till Sunday morning to reach God. No, Sunday morning ought to be the fruition, ought to be the culmination of our time with Him every single day of our lives. It speaks of this routine we need with God. Our faith is a relationship faith, but with a real God, we have to have some routines that cause us to regularly engage Him. That's what we hope to complete in this fast this year. And anytime we do the fast, that's why when you do the fast, yeah, you're gonna get hungry about every three or four hours. Some of us every three or four minutes. Amen. Because in that, it ought to remind me how I need to engage God that often. God wants to be everything. He doesn't just want to be God on Sunday morning, he wants to be God in every area of my life. And what we're learning from Jesus is that he wants to encounter us in every moment as much as we can. Luke 4 and 16 says he used to go to the synagogue as a custom. We would say Jesus went to church. And I know we live in a day where folks say, Well, I don't need to go to church. Jesus went to church. And if Jesus went to church, guess what I'm gonna do? I'm going to church. But the truth is, whatever happens in church, it ought to spill over on Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday. That what I experience on Sunday ought to be able to carry with me on Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday. Church ought to be the culmination of that. Yeah, ah. It's a routine that we need on a regular basis. We need to meet God on a regular basis. And we see these essential tasks as well in the life of Jesus. I'm 64 years old, and every Friday, for me and my wife, that is our date night. That's the time we spend together with each other. Don't call me, don't text me, don't come looking for me, don't email me, don't knock on my door. Not gonna answer, because that's our time. And really, when it comes to having time with God, and we'll talk about this in future sermons, because I'm gonna lay this out. We're gonna talk about that quiet time. You gotta guard your time with God. You have to set aside a specific time every single day in which you can engage God, two or three times a day. And if you don't guard that, how many of y'all know the devil will come in and hijack it? Dallas Willis said something that was so profound. I'm still I'm still just mesmerized by what he said. He said, the problem with the church today is that we're so caught up with faith in Christ, we forget about the faith of Christ. Faith in Christ, that speaks of the price he paid on the cross. We surely need the faith in Christ. That if it had not been for what he did on the cross, we wouldn't even be here today. Because he paid an incredible high price to give us salvation. Anyone know he paid a price for us? That's faith in Christ. But now there's another element of the gospel that is the faith of Christ. In other words, he paid the price, but he also gave us a pattern to follow. So on the one hand, he died on the cross for my sins. But on the other hand, he says to me, Let a man deny himself, take up his cross and follow me. There's a price he paid, but there's also a pattern in which we gotta follow. And those are the essential tasks that God is looking for in our lives for 2026. We've got to be willing to embrace the full gospel of Jesus Christ. That's number one. Number two, we've got to have some essential training. And what I love about this text when Jesus says, Didn't you know I was about my father's business, or I was in my father's house, he's putting himself in a position where he can be trained by his father. In a word, Jesus had to learn what was near and dear to the heart of God. Hebrews says he learned obedience. The Son of the living God had to learn to obey the Father. And if Jesus had to learn to obey the, I know we don't like that word obey, but if Jesus had to learn to obey the Father, what does that say about you and me? He learned what was near and dear to the heart of God. And in this text, we see that even Jesus had to be disciple. Discipleship is what really matters to God the most. What is discipleship? It's God's way of making us more like Him. God wants us not just to be saved in name, He wants us to be saved through and through in our hearts and everything we do. It's in my head, it's in my heart, it's in my hands, it's in my feet, it's in my talk, it's in my ears, it's everything about He wants everything to reflect Him. Matter of fact, if you want to know what discipleship is, here it is. It's kind of like what we used to sell years ago in churches. We used to sell those CDs, preach a sermon, slap it on a CD. Some of y'all still got CD players in your car. You need a new car, right? Slap it in a CD player. Young folks say, What is a CD player? Google it, you'll find out. Go Google it. Well, whenever we would do the CDs, they take and make a master CD. And then with the master CD, they put it in what's called a replicator or a duplicator. And the duplicator would make copies of the master. So even though you didn't have the master CD, you knew what was on the master by the copy. Y'all don't hear me. Y'all don't hear me. God wants us to be copies of the master so that they may not ever see the master, but they can look at the copy and discover exactly. Y'all don't remember. Discipleship. It's in the passage. It's in the passage. Didn't you know I was about my father's business? Now, when we read this passage, we can see and feel Mary's emotion and stress. Why would you worry us like this? Some of you mothers can really connect to this. What is wrong with you, child? That's what she wanted to say. Have you lost your mind? You act like you don't belong to me? That's what she wanted to say. Come on, y'all, you know. So we feel her emotion. But based on the grammar of the Greek, Jesus has emotion. He's like, what are you talking about? Didn't you know? You had to know. Matter of fact, it's like this. Of all people that ought to know, you should know more that Joseph is just my stepdaddy. Didn't you know I was about my father's business? Don't miss what's going on. On one hand, Mary is a little upset because Jesus lost. That's the obvious point. The other hand, the other point is, at the age of 12, every Jewish boy spent time with their earthly father. He trained them in Torah, he trained them in the stories of scripture, trained them in the feast days, and even trained him to have a skill or trade. At year 12, the child was supposed to spend time with his dad. Why? Because at 13 he became an adult. So Mary's upset. This is the most important year of your life. Why would you not spend time with your stepdaddy? Jesus said, What What are you talking about? I am spending time with my father. So, what is Jesus saying in this passage? I need discipleship. How can you be a Christian and not be disciple? Can I really say it like I want to? Are y'all ready for this? I love, and I'm not criticizing, but that's how it's gonna be received. But I gotta say it. I love our full year in review. We did a lot of wonderful things. A lot of good things. But we need way more discipleship. We we watch this. We know how to have a lot of fun. But fun is not discipleship. If I can have fun and still cuss you out of the end of the event. Discipleship takes on the character of God where I act more like him. So after the event, we need more discipleship. Matter of fact, here's discipleship. Here's discipleship. We need more service. Jesus said, I came not to be served, but to serve and to give my life as a ransom for many. So the life of a believer, listen, and this is not just a call for us to work in church and all that kind of stuff. No. As a follower of Christ, your life should be dedicated to blessing and serving and benefiting somebody else. If the essence of your life is about what is being poured in you, you've missed the message. So, kind of like in this building, it's kind of like in this building, or any other building you may go to, if you go to your corporate office, or I know some of y'all like Starbucks. Any Starbucks lovers in here? You need to fast from that. Okay. Go to the doctor's office. The wonderful thing when you go into just about any building in the city or in this country, you can get Wi-Fi access. Get Wi-Fi in here. Get Wi-Fi in Starbucks. Get Wi-Fi if you go to McDonald's. Even though I don't plan to stay there that long. Just about any building. But the only reason why the Wi-Fi works is because there are servers that work together in such a way that one signal can be accessed by all people. And if the people of God would recognize that if we would just be servers that work together, they'll get the one signal of the gospel. Let me wrap this up. We must embrace some essential transitions. And here we see in verse 51, Jesus goes back home. He subjected himself to his parents until he was 13. And from the age of 13 to 30, we hear nothing about him. That was a significant transition in his life. And we've got to embrace transitions in our life. Here's my point. You have to choose. When you know God cares for you, you have to transition and be intentional and choose discipleship as a priority in your life. You have to choose it. You have to make that a priority. The fast is a time of transition to learning what matters to God most. It's a choice. It's not gonna happen by osmosis, it's not gonna fall out of the sky, you're not gonna pick it up in a book. You have to choose and be intentional that this is the priority for 2026 for my life. Don't do like most people who make a New Year's resolution about exercise. They pack out, like today, I guarantee, today, yesterday, and tomorrow. They'll pack out the exercise places and outlets, LA fitness and all that. Give it about a week and a half, it'll go right back to normal. And I say, just don't pay, just don't do it. You can save yourself some money. You have to decide to be committed to it. That's the only way it happens. And because Jesus knew his father cared, that's why he submitted himself to it. He knew his father cared for him. And he submitted to this process of discipleship. My point is, God cares for us. That's why we do it. Not doing it trying to impress anybody, not doing it because we want attention, not doing it because we need grinding points or we need to be on the stage and receive a trophy. We do it because we know God cares for us. We do it because we believe this is what's best for our lives. So it's kind of like that little girl told her teacher when they were in a brutal blizzard somewhere up in North Dakota. And when school, the blizzard hit much harder than they thought. It was brutal, it was blinding. She told her her teacher something that stayed with the teacher. It was a bad blizzard. Very low temperatures, negative temperatures. One by one, parents began to pick up their children. Teacher turns to the little girl and says, Look, all the parents are coming to pick up their children. I don't know if your parents are coming to get you. Look like we're gonna have to hunker down and try to ride this storm out. I got a bucket of coal that we can use for fire. And I got a sandwich, maybe we can make it to the day. Little girl sternly snapped back and said, No, my daddy coming to get me. Because my I know he's coming to get me. Don't even tell me. Well, how can you be so sure? It's a blinding blizzard. Everybody else has come to pick up their kids. No one has come for you. It's getting dark outside. She said, My mother taught me that my heavenly father cares for me. And I just believe my heavenly father will tell my earthly father to come and pick me up. He is not gonna leave me in this blizzard all night. Time elapsed. Finally, late in the evening, there was a man tracking through the blizzard, came into that little schoolhouse, began to wrap them up, both of them up, the teacher and the little girl. And he tied a rope around himself and around them and and and walked them out, and they tracked all the way back home and made it safely. And so the little girl turned to the teacher when they made it home. I told you that my father was coming. Watch this, because my father cares about me. You figure out which father she's talking about on the way home. All I'm simply trying to say, when you know God cares for you that much, is it asking too much for him for us to do what is clear, clearly near and dear to his heart. That discipleship and being what God calls us to be, that's what is on his heart. If Jesus did it, we ought to do the same thing too. That's my word for us today. Let me say a few things and wrap this thing up.