40 DAYS IN THE WORD WEEK 5

  

                                                   TIME OUT   PART 2

                                                    By the Rev. John Donnelly

 Welcome to week 5 of 40 Days in the Word. Where we are growing to become learners of the Word, lovers of the Word, and Doers of the Word.  This week it has been my joy to hear some praise reports from some of our small groups who are already becoming doers of the Word through Micah Outreach Projects:

·       The Wed. young men’s group is wrapping up its clothing drive.  They are now considering the possibility of coordinating a movie night for all men, and  a living nativity in December.

·       The Friday night group reports, “Last week our small group was touched by the Holy Spirit, as something amazing happened.  Previously we seemed to be having a hard time coming together with an inspired idea for the Micah Outreach  Project. A suggestion was made to reach out to a particular family in Oxford outside of our parish.  Turns out someone else in our group has a direct connection to the mother of the family! So, the whole idea started to roll with lots of heartfelt suggestions and enthusiasm. We are becoming doers of the Word! “

·       As previously reported, the women & men’s Wednesday night group beginning to raise some seed money to provide Thanksgiving dinner at a school in an impoverished community in Waterbury.  They report,” We all feel a very deep commitment to its success. The excitement in our small group  was amazing…. We were not burdened with this project, we were blessed. We will all be doers of the word! 

Meanwhile. We continue today looking at our real need for God’s Word on a personal basis.  Today we are going to build on last Sunday’s discussion on our need for spiritual rest in God’s Word as we navigate the waters of our overly frenetic ,  fast changing, fast paced, fast tracked life in the 21^st century.  Those of you present will recall that we need God’s word to teach us to find spiritual rest in the midst of the chaos of our times.

Looking at our daily routines, we are such a busy people.   Demands on our time come from families, work, community, church, and our own children.  In our relationships with w/ all these groups, we have: errands to run   meetings to attend…problems to be solved…and work to be completed. 

Of course, we all have good motivations for doing all the things we do, but the sheer volume of activity is so tiring ands frustrating.  

·       So many necessary and urgent things to be done.  And after they are done, there are more demanding our immediate attention.

·       Our Calendars are filled with appointments & dates;  our weeks are filled with engagement & tasks; our years are filled with projects and plans.

Too people are addicted to frantic activity, which can lead to neurotic excess and/or burn out.  And, such crazy lives hurt us and others:

Thomas Merton, great spiritual writers of themed 20^th century writes, “To allow oneself to be carried away by a multitude of conflicting concerns, to surrender to too many demands and to commit oneself to too many projects, to want to help everyone in everything, is to SUCCOMB TO VIOLENCE—TO COOPERATE WITHJ VIOLENCE.”

·       The violence that emerges from our extending ourselves is self-inflicted violence—damaging our own mental health, wounding our relationships, draining our enthusiasm, and alienation us from God.

Today’s psalm speaks of this: IT IS IN VAIN THAT YOU RISE UP EARLY AND GO TO BED LATE, AS YOU EAT THE BREAD OF ANXIOUS TOIL. “How many of us not only eat the bread of anxious toil, but we choke loaf after loaf every day?”

Now last Sunday we spoke about our need for quiet time to rest in God’s Word, that we might become spiritually refreshed.  Today I would like to look at this concern from the perspective of our priorities.      God has given each person 168 hours per week. In this regard, all people are equally blessed by God, who shows no partiality.  However, here is the big question. Please repeat after me: How will I choose to spend my time.   Now, some people reply that they do not choose how they spend their time.  Rather, the circumstances of life dictate their schedules. That is certainly what most unbelievers think.  But the Bible gives us a different perspective.  God’s Word says that our own PRIOROTIES GUIDE US IN DECIDING HOW WE WILL SPEND OUR TIME.

 WHAT DO YOU REALLY VALUE?    SEE HOW YOU INVEST YOUR TIME

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TYPICAL AMERICAN PRORITIES

		3.  Optional Activities
	2.                   MY PASSIONS
1.       WORK    (HOMEMAKING)

                                                                      god

 

MY PASSIONS-Internet, TV, movies, reading, creative cooking, hygiene, bodybuilding/exercise, ‘couch potato’ing, sports-football, kid activities, house hold chores, investments, gambling, hiking, dining out, etc. Your “passion” is what you think about the most and always spend time doing.

Optional Activities— EVERYTHING ELSE.       Activities &/or quiet time alone with spouse, and/or children; worship & prayer; church activities; volunteering; self-reflection; personal improvement, etc.

You do these things if you have the time and desire.  If WORK & PASSIONS require more time, these activities frequently get dropped.

THE PROBLEM IS MOST PEOPLE THINK THAT THEIR WORK AND HOMES ARE THEIR CHIEF PRIORITES AND THE FOUNDATIONS OF THEIR LIVES.  PEOPLE DO NOT COMPREHEND THAT GOD IS THE TRUE FOUNDATION OF THE PEOPLE’S LIVES, WHETER THEY RECOGNIZE IT OR NOT.  GOD HAS MADE PEOPLE TO BE RELATED TO HIM.  WE ARE NOT WHOLE IF WE ARE NOT RELATED TO GOD, LEARTNING HIS WORD, AND LIVING OUT HIS PRIOROTIES. This is what Jesus is speaking about in our memory verse about building our lives on the solid foundation of His Word.    So, looking above, that life is unstable because THERE IS LITTLE OR NOT RELATIONSHIP WITH God to hold it up.  Worship is optional.  Nurturing love within your family is optional.   If I can fit it in, great.  If not, well, there is always next week.  (PAUSE)   This life is designed to fail.  This is not the design created by the architect & creator do the universe, who is the author of all life.  Like so many human constructions, this one will eventually fail.

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                                                BIBLICAL PRIORITIES

Now, looking below—we see God’s design for human life,

Here we build our lives upon God’s priorities, AS WE HEAR THEM IN God’s Word.

You SEE, THERE AE SPIRITUAL LAWS IN THE UNIVERSE, just as there are physical laws, too.  Let us pretend that you do not know about the law of gravity.  Is gravity still going to impact your life?  Of course. 

Well, unknown spiritual laws likewise impact our lives.   God calls us to allocate our time according to his priorities.  If we do, then we will have stable lives.   J

So, in the Bible, the most important time in your week is your time with God in worship and prayer.  Now that may only require an hour and a half & 45 minutes out of the 168 hours that He has given you.  But that time is the foundation of your week and life.  The 2^nd biblical priority is loving and caring for your family.  What we are speaking of here does not involve earning income or doing chores.  This sacred time is where you spend some quality time for conversation and fun, where you can create and recreate relationships.  This is the time required where you focus your attention and energies not upon yourself, but upon the needs, happiness, and wellbeing of others as you spend some quality time with them.  This may only take a minimum of two to three hours, but this is sacred time.  Without such family time, the rest of your life will cave in.

3.    Everything else

2. Family—not chores
	1. GOD

                                                  Rock Solid foundation 

                              

GOD—Worship & prayer only.   Not church activities

So, what happens when we learn God’s priorities and live them out in our lives?

1.    RESTORATIVE RELAXATION.As I said last week, God’s Word & Worship stimulate the “Peace of the Prince of Peace, the Peace of God, which surpasses all logic and understanding.  Jesus said, “Peace I give to you, my own peace I leave with you….not as the world gives to you.”

2.    RENEWED RELATIONSHIPS—as we devote time just to be with our spouses and families.  The family is meant to be a class for learning how to love, and as we learn to love within our families, we can forth to do a better job loving our neighbors as ourselves.

So, this week, I invite you to reflect on God’s priorities and yours. 

[Preacher gives encouragement for people to do the Bible Study—

“PICTURE IT” BIBLE STUDY METHOD on Luke 10:38-32]