Time, Tennis, And A New Year
                             Matthew 6:25-27; 31-34

In his significant book, “Under the Influence: How Christianity Transformed Civilization,” historian Alvin J. Schmidt, writes:

      “Of all the days that are the product of Christianity’s presence, New
      Year’s Day has become the most secularized.  During the Christmas
      season one still hears some carols that proclaim the birth of Jesus.
      On Easter Day, camouflaged as it is with colored eggs and bunnies,
      one can still hear about the resurrection of Jesus Christ, even though
      the message is very much couched in what Christians believe, rather
      than what happened historically.
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      However, New Year’s Day is totally devoid of any reference to
      Christianity. Gone is the awareness that New Year’s Day (eight days
      after Jesus’ birth), commemorates the circumcision of Jesus…a day
      that  the church since the middle of the sixth century liturgically called
      ‘the Feast of Circumcision.’  And gone also is any awareness that it was
      the eighth day after Jesus’ birth that he publicly received his name.

      For centuries Christians saw New Year’s Eve as a symbol of what
      awaits all human beings at the end of their life cycle and therefore a
      reminder that Christians should always be prepared to meet their Lord.
      It was a time for Christians to attend church services to pause and
      reflect, asking God to guide and protect them from all harm and danger
      in the new year…”

It is in the spirit of that paragraph that we are turning together to Matthew chapter 6.

Read verses 25-34

Verse 31—Dallas Willard’s paraphrase of this verse is: My advice to you would be, Just don’t worry about anything.)

Sometime between Christmas and New Years, I take a bit of time to think about ‘the big three’—three questions that are like lights in the middle of a run way, that help the planes stay on course.  Let me share them with you:1. What three things do I want to accomplish during my lifetime?
2. If my life turns out well, what will it look like?
3. For what do I want to be remembered?

My aim in this message is to bring those three questions into our lives…out of the realm of thinking into the stuff of life.

I have brought some props along to help us in this process. A jar filled with grains of rice, and a few other things I will show you in a moment.

*The Jar—represents a day in your life,

*The grains of rice—represent the activities that we have to do.  All of us
  have stuff that we’ve got to do.

What are some of those things?  (Shout it out.)

Someone says, “Take out the Christmas tree.”   One mother said this:
 
          “The nicest things in the world are a Christmas tree when it’s first put
          up—and the living room when you finally take the tree down.”

Let’s begin with work.  Most everyone has to work.

You may do it at a school or in an office . . . you may do it voluntarily . . . and whether or not you are paid for it, each of us has about 48 hours of work to manage.

Richard Swenson writes in his great book “The Overload Syndrome,” that the average office worker has…

…36 hours of work sitting at his or her desk
…and spends three hours a week just digging around piles looking for the
      work that they are supposed to be doing!

John Maxwell wrote:

Outside of your genetic predisposition, the number one determinant of your longevity (how long you will live) is how well you like your work. Now that you know that, how many of you think you might die any minute?
Many of you have to go to school.We also have personal tasks. These are the things that you’ve just got to do.

These are the things that you’ve just got to do.…You’ve got to sleep. That’s six to eight hours a day right there.  This
        recently caught my eye in the AARP magazine:

        “Sleeping in to stay slim, get lots of shuteye. People who sleep only
         six hours a night are 23 percent more likely to be obese that those
         who sleep seven to nine hours, a Columbia University study shows. 
         Lack of sleep disrupts the balance of appetite-regulating hormones.”

Teens, now you can say, “Mom, pastor says if I don’t sleep in until at least 10:00, I’ll get fat.”

…You’ve got to take a shower—The rest of us want you to know, we
         appreciate it!

…You’ve got to brush your teeth; you’ve got to floss your teeth— for
       at least a week or two after you go to the dentist and see the
       hygienist who gags at how your teeth look.

…You’ve got to go to the doctor…you’ve got to get some exercise.   This would be a good time to
    make a covenant together before God that we are going to exercise,
    starting Tuesday morning.

   This would be a good time to    make a covenant together before God that we are going to exercise,    starting Tuesday morning.Winston Churchill said he got most of his exercise serving as a pallbearer for his friends who died while they were getting exercise.  (Mr. Churchill, who lived to age 90, had an extraordinary constitution.)

You’ve got to take care of household stuff;

     *You’ve got to buy food for meals,

            That’s an ever increasing challenge…There were 30,000 different
            products in the average grocery store (this was before Wal-mart)
            including …

            …249 kinds of soap
            …184 kinds of breakfast cereal
           …177 kinds of salad dressing

Most of these are found in the store where you shop!

      *You’ve got to fix meals, eat meals, clean up after meals.

     *Somebody’s got to make sure that the grass is mowed and clothes and
      dishes are washed.

     *You’ve got to pay the bills, balance your checkbook.

    *You’ve got to clean the bathroom.

Don’t you appreciate being reminded of all you have to look forward to in 2007?

We think we have laborsaving devices so we’ll have to spend less time cleaning our houses, but before 1850, when there was no electricity, there were very few windows and no electric lights. People couldn’t see how dirty things were in their houses, so they actually spent less time cleaning than we do in our day.

That’s why I think we should just live with candles. It’s more romantic and the dirt doesn’t bother you. It saves time.

Then there are social obligations. You have to maintain those.

     You will spend about two years of your life on the phone with people
     who are either busy or away.

If you’re single, you may go on dates. You have to get ready for dates. Sometimes it takes more time to get ready for the date than it does to actually go on the date. Sometimes it’s more fun getting ready for the date than it is actually going on the date!

If you have children, there’s school, music lessons, sports leagues, sleepovers …

Then there’s time spent in and on the car. You will spend, if you are an average person, six months of your life at stoplights. You will spend seventy-five minutes a day commuting. Then there’s car maintenance.
There is time spent in spiritual activities and ministry.   This is a weekly expenditure of time and energy.

Then there’s recreation. Most people watch TV sometimes, I hope you are far below the national average…  Listen to Richard A. Swenson:

This is a weekly expenditure of time and energy. Most people watch TV sometimes, I hope you are far below the national average…  Listen to Richard A. Swenson:       “In the average home, the television is turned on seven hours a day.
       The average viewer will watches between 20 and 36 hours per week,
       depending on age and gender…It’s hard to overcome something so
       temporally dominant.”

I have learned that, particularly in the winter months, if my TV consumption goes up, my depression goes and discouragement goes up.”

You may rent a video, go to a movie, or read a book. There are hobbies and vacations.

Then you add to that schedule that is already packed the unexpected things that happen:

Somebody gets sick.
Aunt Edna comes to visit.
The car breaks down.
There’s a crisis at work, and you have to devote some time to that.

There was an article in USA Today some time ago where they interviewed experts from all different fields and asked them:

         “How much time does the average person need to devote to your
          particular field just to get by … not to excel, just to get by?”

They asked experts in the areas of…

…Sleep,
…Physical Fitness,
…Vocational Coaching,
…Family Life.

When they added up the minimal time we’re all supposed to spend, according to the experts in their particular field, it totaled out to 36 hours a day. That’s what we’re supposed to do just to get by.
All of that would be bad enough. It’s challenging enough just to juggle all the little grains of rice in your jar—all the “stuff” that you’ve got to do.

In addition, there are some things that matter most.  There are some things that I’d like for my life to be about.   They are the answers to the big three.

Jesus put it like this in this formative statement: (In verse 33)

Seek first the Kingdom of God and His righteousness and all these other things will be added.

I have a few objects to represent the things that matter most in life. I’ve going to put them on tennis balls. I didn’t use golf balls, because golf balls are too small, and golf brings no joy to God. Tennis, God loves, but golf … not so much.

This is the letter “T.” It stands for transformation. This year, I’d like to experience some transformation. I’d like to grow some.

I’ve got some sins and some junk and some habits and patterns in my life that I’d like to make some headway on before I come to my last jar.

I don’t always want to be praying on the run.
I don’t want to skim God.
I’d like to become the kind of person that can live a kingdom kind of life. I’d
              like transformation.

One thing I know about growth is, if you and I plan to grow spiritually and have a growing kingdom influence, we have to do it on purpose.

In his chapter on media overload, Richard Swenson has wise counsel on advertising (among many areas):

     “Ads are omnipresent in our ‘engineered-message’ lives. If we try to completely avoid them, we will not succeed. The next best thing is to discipline ourselves and train our children to be wary. Point out the falsehood and manipulation in each ad.  Teach discernment. Distinguish between advertising ‘information’ and ‘manipulation’ and ‘propaganda.’ Talk about the enormous cost of ads, thus their power. If ads don’t influence, why are companies willing to pay millions of dollars for a few seconds of exposure? Discuss contentment verses discontentment. Talk about ‘need-creation.’”

Another thing I know: If I am to experience spiritual transformation this year, I have to be careful to maintain margin.  If you notice, the jar isn’t completely full.

Margin is the distance between what I have do and the point of overload.
Overload people are…

…chronically exhausted people,
…who have little real time for
         …the maintenance of the heart;
         …time to listen to God.  (perhaps to journal)
         …To regularly step back from the notice of the culture.
         …to pray, to meditate.
         …the spiritual disciplines—

Writer Henri Nouwen observed:

       “In the spiritual life, the word discipline means ‘the effort to create
        some space in which God can act.’”

Discipline means…

   …Preventing everything in your life from being filled up.
   …Somewhere in your life that’s not maxed up…
   …Creating space in which something can happen that you hadn’t
           planned or counted on…

Let me ask you who personal questions as you are heading headlong into
2007?

       *How’s your margin?
       *How’s your devotional life?

You and I can’t grow at will, (although “grow” is a command in Peter’s writings) but gardeners and parents know that when you purposely create the right atmosphere, (the right conditions) living things grow automatically.

I was reading this week that if you live to be seventy years old or so, you will get twenty-five thousand days. You will have twenty-five thousand of these jars. It would be ironic to get to the end of them and say: God, I was never able to devote just a day to being with You, because there was always something else to do.

Twenty-five thousand … That’s one of the things that really matters. I want to experience some Transformation in my life.

The second tennis ball has the letter “L” on it.

It stands for the word “Love.” That’s about people, because I have people in my life. I’ll tell you something, when you get to the end of your life, mostly what matters is people … the people that you love and the people who loved you.

I have a wife, and a child, (and a grandchild, can’t leave that out). And I have friends. I want to go really deep with them. I want to have memories and moments with them that really are the “stuff” of eternity.

One of the things that draws me to Jesus is that he’s with people, and he’s never preoccupied or distracted when he’s with them. They can be religious leaders or government officials, or they can be lepers or tax collectors. He’s a people magnet. He just loves them.

I’d like for my life to be about more than a briefcase and a closed door and a list of stuff to do. A lot of that simply comes down to time. What keeps me from doing this is my own agenda.

Then, there’s something else that seeking the Kingdom is about for me, and it has the letter “C” on it.

“C” stands for Calling. I have a calling, and you’ve got a Calling. God has something specific he want you in every important area of your life this year.

Let’s review

There are some things I’d like to do this year…There are some things I must do, or it is a wasted year!  

Mary is a committed tredmillist.  She walks on the treadmill four or five days a week…rain, shine, tiredness…whatever.  On way she stays motivated is, she gives herself a star on the calendar for that day.  She often says to me, “I got a star today.” (The only thing that motives me is a gift certificate for a DQ blizzard!)

When 2007 fades into eternity, I want a star on God’s calendar, because I have fulfilled God’s purpose, His calling in every situation and relationship.

That’s TLC: Transformation, Love and Calling.

There is one more ball.   It has a “J” on it;  “J” stands for JOY.

I don’t want to miss this. Life is too short and too precious. Toward the end of His ministry, Jesus was teaching His  disciples. He said:

These things I have taught you. I have told you this so that My joy may be in you and that your joy may be complete. (John 15:11)

Now, what would it look like if Jesus’ joy were to be in you and if you were to live a day with complete joy? Paul says:

Rejoice in the Lord always. Again I say to you: Rejoice! (Philippians 4:4)

I don’t want to miss this. The Psalmist says: This is the day (this crazy day with all the stuff that I feel like I’ve got to do, with all of  its pressures and all of its troubles) . . . this is the day the Lord has made. Let us rejoice and be glad in this day. (Psalm 118:24)

I don’t want to miss Joy…joy in little things.  As you know, I didn’t get a single deer this year.  I spend $75.00 on tags, and not a brown hair to show for it. It doesn’t seem like good stewardship doesn’t it?  (You mind your own jar and I’ll mind mine!)

But I’ve sat in the mountains and watched sunrises and sunsets that blew your mind! I’ve watched hawks and squirrels, and even a cat slipping through the woods! (You know God is doing a deep in my heart if I find joy in that!)

I want to laugh more. Listen…Physician, Richard A. Swenson:

  “The peak age of laughter is age four…four year olds laugh once every
  four minutes, or four hundred times a day. Adults on the other hand, laugh
  fifteen times a day. If we follow four-year-olds around and laugh
  every time they do, positive things would happen to both our bodies and
  spirits.  Laugher lowers the pulse and blood pressure and seems to
  improve immune functioning. One psychiatrist recommends thirty
  minutes of therapeutic laughter every day.  Some people call this ‘inner
  jogging.’  Another laughter consultant calls it a cerebral enema.”

Let’s apply this principle:  As you know, we aren’t far from a presidential race.  If rural mountaineers ruled, this would be your next president.  (Picture of Willy Nelson with suit on sitting in the Oval Office.)

A guy who is involved in putting on tennis tournaments for people in all different ages, tells about doing one for a group of senior tennis players.

It came down to the finals:  One man who was ninety-one years old, went up against an opponent who was ninety-five. At one point the ninety-one year old hit a crosscourt forehand, and the ninety-five year old couldn’t run it down. He stopped, put his hands out and said: Oh to be ninety-one again!

I want us to celebrate everything with Joy:

…foible and flaws
…meals and friendships,
…answered prayers,
…spiritual gifts,
….the first day of summer vacation
…and banana cream pie.

I want to have that Joy. I don’t want to miss Joy. I really don’t!

These are the things that really matter: to be a person and a community of Transformation, Love, Calling and Joy.

If we: Seek first the Kingdom of God,That’s what life looks like. But here’s the problem:

That’s what life looks like. But here’s the problem:If I try to squeeze these things into a life that is already full, I can get one … maybe two … into my jar; there’s no way that I can get into my day, or into my life, what is needed to live this kind of life. T

his is not a small problem. For most of us, it’s not that we get deliberately defiant and shake our fists in God’s face. Paul says that our danger is that the world will squeeze us into its mold.

Friends, the mold of this world is to get real busy. The danger is that we will lead respectable, decent, non-scandalous, busy, tired, human-powered lives. The old saying is:

     “If the Devil can’t make you bad, he’ll make you busy. Either way you’ll
      miss out on God’s life.”

People respond to this in a few different ways. A lot of people say to themselves:
  
     “I’ll get around to this stuff some day when I have more time. My
      problem is that I just need a bigger jar. Right now, there’s too much
      crazy stuff going on. One day, when it’s not such a busy season, then
      I’ll align my life with my priorities. I need more hours in a day.”
The problem is that God has already decreed how many hours there will be in a day, and it’s not likely to change. The jars come in twenty-four hour sizes. If you wait for a day that has fewer demands, less trouble, Jesus says in the text that we read:

Who of you by worrying—by trying to do life on your own apart from God—can add a single hour? (Matthew 6:27)

You see, we are not “hour manufacturers.”
Seek first the Kingdom.But don’t wait for a trouble-free day; don’t wait until you get more hours; don’t wait for a bigger jar.

But don’t wait for a trouble-free day; don’t wait until you get more hours; don’t wait for a bigger jar.Some people handle the problem in this way: they try to microwave their priorities into marble sized commitments.

“I’ll just pray on the run.”
”I’ll just skim over relationships.”
”I’ll just serve when I have a minute to squeeze into my schedule.”
”I’ll look for an occasional laugh at a movie or at a party. I’ll medicate   
    myself to feel better.”

    “I don’t want to shrink down what matters most. I don’t want to make my
     life be about guilt management.”

 I was thinking that we sometimes live as if Jesus had said:

Seek first all these other things that everybody else seeks, and then the Kingdom will be added to you.
He didn’t say that. He said: Seek first the Kingdom.Everything else comes second. So, based on Jesus’ statement in Matthew 6:33, what if in 2007 you were to do a really radical thing?

Everything else comes second. So, based on Jesus’ statement in Matthew 6:33, what if in 2007 you were to do a really radical thing?What if you were to say:

      “I’m going to start as if each day is an empty jar and a blank slate. I’m
      going to begin by devoting my time to honoring my deepest
      commitments. I don’t know exactly what that would look like for you. I
      have some idea, and I have some sense of what it would look like for
      me.”

But what if we all were to say:

     “I’m going to see if what Jesus said in Matthew 6:33 is true. I’m going to
      start my day . . .begin it … by devoting myself to what matters most and
      then see if what Jesus said is true … that “all these other things will be
      added to me.”

Do I trust God with my time? Do I really believe that what Jesus said is true—that if I seek first the Kingdom of God that other things that do not matter as much will be added to me.

Do I seek first the Kingdom of God, or will I seek first other things?

It comes down to a trust issue. I’m going to trust God that the lawn is going to get mowed, that the house is not going to fall down, that the job will be done, and that He will help. And maybe some things will not get
done.

The theologian Roseanne Barr said something interesting:

      “I feel that if the kids are still alive when my husband gets home then,
       hey, I’ve done my job. When Sears comes out with a riding vacuum
      cleaner, then I’ll clean the house.”

You know, that’s very close to a principle Jesus lived by:  Planned Neglect.  The purposeful neglect of grains of sands, to have room for tennis balls!

So the question is: Will I really trust that God really is Lord over time? And that I don’t need to worry about time if I trust Him?