Redeeming the Time – Part 1

This newest series of messages on Internet Pastor is called “Redeeming the Time”. If it seems like life keeps speeding up and getting busier and you don’t know where the time is going, you will find this series helpful.

2009 Wow! – Where is the time going? If it seems to you that life is going faster than ever, this will be a good series for you. A lot of people come to the Keys because they visited at some point and it seemed like a laid back place with a laid back life style. Ocean breezes and palm trees and hammocks. Fishing and diving and sunsets. Then you moved here and you realized that none of hose things seem to exist for locals. (Of course, some of you moved to the Keys because you wanted to be a pirate or you were swept up in some bizarre Jimmy Buffet fantasy, both of which are for a different series)

Some of you just come for the winter and you may get a little more of the laid back style, but even some of you are spending your time here filling every minute, it is like a competition to see how much vacation you can squeeze in to your vacation.

There are some consequences to being busy all the time:

1. I don’t enjoy the day.

We just spent an entire series talking about enjoying life. When we are too busy we can’t enjoy the day.

Job 9:25 (NIV)
25 “My days are swifter than a runner; they fly away without a glimpse of joy.

2. I feel stressed out.

When I am too busy I get consumed by my circumstances. I don’t stop to breathe and look around at the wonder of God.

Matthew 6:31-34 (MSG)
31 What I’m trying to do here is to get you to relax, to not be so preoccupied with getting, so you can respond to God’s giving. 32 People who don’t know God and the way he works fuss over these things, but you know both God and how he works. 33 Steep your life in God-reality, God-initiative, God-provisions. Don’t worry about missing out. You’ll find all your everyday human concerns will be met. 34 “Give your entire attention to what God is doing right now, and don’t get worked up about what may or may not happen tomorrow. God will help you deal with whatever hard things come up when the time comes.

3. I accomplish less not more.

Sometimes we think that in all the busyness we are making headway. The reality is, when I am pushing too hard, I am way less productive.

Proverbs 21:5 (MSG)
5 Careful planning puts you ahead in the long run; hurry and scurry puts you further behind.

I like that translation, hurry and scurry puts you further behind.

4. I feel disconnected from God.

Psalms 46:10 (NIV)
10 “Be still, and know that I am God; I will be exalted among the nations, I will be exalted in the earth.”

When I am too busy I can go through an entire day and never connect with the one who created everything. It is a statement that somehow I am either more important than God or that I really can’t trust God.

How do we start Redeeming the Time?

T – Teach yourself to say NO

Sometimes the busier we are the more important we feel. We have to learn in our lives to just say no. It’s difficult for many of us to say no when people ask us to do something. When I am asking someone to consider something, I will almost always preface the question with “No” is an OK answer. It is so easy to add things to our lives. I have tried for years not to add something without subtracting something but I still sometimes do it any way. And I almost always end up saying “Why did I do that?” We end up feeling like this verse in Proverbs:

Proverbs 20:25 (MSG)
25 An impulsive vow is a trap; later you’ll wish you could get out of it.

Do you ever walk in to the grocery store and walk by the carts because you think a basket will be enough. And then you always wish you had a cart because the basket is now heavy and over flowing and you are dropping things. It is like that with our lives sometimes, we don’t like to admit we have limits so we try and pack a cart’s worth full of stuff into a basket. Always get a cart!

Speaking of the grocery store, here is a one way to learn to slow down. When you are done shopping, look for the longest line to stand in. Then, once you are at the end of the longest line just look around and watch all the people scurrying from line to line and getting all frustrated. Then you can just smile and laugh at their folly while you thumb through the National Enquirer. Yeah that’s right, life is good!

I – Identify your values

One of the reasons we let ourselves get so busy is we don’t think about what is really important in life. What do we really value? Until we can settle this issue, we will always be inclined to be too busy and constantly push for more. The problem is, more won’t make life work. What motivates you? What are you trying to accomplish?

We will never settle down until we have figured out what is really important and become content with where we are and what we have.

Ecclesiastes 4:6 (NIV)
6 Better one handful with tranquility than two handfuls with toil and chasing after the wind.

Here is the big question you have to ask yourself. Will having more make me happier?

And the answer is no. It will not. Because if you can’t learn to be content where you are, you will not be content with more either.

M – Make time for rest

When we don’t rest we are demonstrating that we really don’t take God at His word. He has actually commanded a rest for us. It is so important, that the only One who needs no rest, took a day to model rest for us. And yet, we know better than God. I am guessing that the fourth commandment is the most offhandedly violated commandment of them all because it is now done without even a little bit of a conviction check. You do remember the fourth commandment, don’t you?

Exodus 20:9-10 (NIV)
9 Six days you shall labor and do all your work, 10 but the seventh day is a Sabbath to the LORD your God. On it you shall not do any work, neither you, nor your son or daughter, nor your manservant or maidservant, nor your animals, nor the alien within your gates.

Sabbath simply means a day of rest. When should you take your Sabbath? Jesus said it didn’t matter. The Sabbath was made for man not man for the Sabbath. What matters is you take one every week.

What are you supposed to do on your Sabbath? What should you do on your weekly day off?

Rest – Take a nap. Sit down for a while with no agenda.

Recreate – Do something you really enjoy. Have fun!

Refocus – Get your focus back on God. That is what worship is all about. Love on Him. Sing to Him. Talk to Him. Listen for Him.

E – Embrace God’s timing

We want things in our time and we get frustrated when they don’t happen. We have to learn to wait on God’s timing. When we are impatient it is another demonstration of our lack of trust in God. We think we know better than God does about what is best for our lives. God’s timing is perfect. Faster is not always better. I am happy for the microwave, but I don’t want my pot roast cooked in one. In the case of a pot roast, slower is better. In our lives, slower is often better. So we have to learn to wait on God’s perfect timing. There was a movie with Adam Sandler who had a remote that allowed him to fast forward through life. Sometimes we live like we wish that could happen. The result was that he missed out on life.

Ecclesiastes 3:11 (NIV)
11 He has made everything beautiful in its time. He has also set eternity in the hearts of men; yet they cannot fathom what God has done from beginning to end.

Ecclesiastes 3:11 (NCV)
11 God has given them a desire to know the future. He does everything just right and on time, but people can never completely understand what he is doing.

The end of that verse is interesting. People can never completely understand what He is doing. Why? If you knew everything that was going to happen, you would never really learn to trust God. It is only as we grow in trust of the Lord that we can quit trying to make everything work in our own strength and our own TIME.

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