12-13-09 Fundamentals – Priorities

Does anybody here ever struggle with having enough time? I find that time and money are very similar. You can spend time and you and spend money and you can only spend each of them once. However, you can earn more money, but you can never earn more time. We must be very wise about how we spend our time, because it won’t have another opportunity to spend the time we’ve been given. During Christmas, everything concerning time gets amplified and we become doubly busy, and when that happens, we can miss the true reason for Christmas.

 

So this morning, I want to start with a story that can help us in this area. It’s recorded in the Book of Daniel. There was a king of Babylon named King Nebuchadnezzar, who was a conqueror, and he enslaved much of the ancient world. Among those that he captured, he brought the “best and brightest” to serve him, and because these men and women were foreigners, He wanted to be sure that everybody in his kingdom would be loyal to him, so had made a 90 feet high and 9 feet wide gold statue of himself, then he sent a herald to give this message:

 

This is what you are commanded to do, O peoples and nations of every language. As soon as you hear the sound of the horn, flute, zither, lyre, harp, pipes and all kinds of music, you must fall down and worship the image of gold. Whoever does not fall down and worship immediately will be thrown into a blazing furnace. (Daniel 3:4-6)

 

This sets up a crisis for three men: Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego. They are Israelites who worship God. They know whom they’re supposed to worship. The crisis is that they are going to have to decide where their ultimate loyalty should go. They’re going to have to cheat someone. Either they will have to cheat the king out of what he wants, or they’re going to have to cheat God out of what He asks for. But one way or the other, someone is going to feel cheated by what they do.

 

In our day, God’s rival for our lives is not Nebuchadnezzar; it is a culture of busyness and hurrying and “stuff” gets in the way of God. Our tension point is not bowing down to an image. It is far more subtle than that. For most of us, the issue is: How do we spend our time?

 

That’s how we proclaim our ultimate allegiance—how we spend our time.

That’s why Paul writes,

Be very careful how you live, not as unwise but as wise, redeeming the time, for the days are evil.

Now God created the day, and days are a good thing, but our days have a way of sucking us into doing things with our time that do not honor God.

 

Therefore, do not be senseless, but learn to comprehend what is the will of the Lord. (Ephesians 5:15-17)

 

So the question is will I use my time in a way that honors God, or will I just go through life kind of busy and frenzied and hurried like most people in our culture do?

 

Here’s the problem: If you said, I’m going to get everything done that my work demands. I’m going to meet with every person who could use my time, attend every meeting, complete every project, take advantage of every opportunity, when would you leave your job? Never.

It will always ask for more. There’s just not enough time.

 

Shannon, on her first career job, worked like crazy, never took any lunches or breaks and then when she quit, they hired two people to replace her. Your employer will always give you more than you can possible do – there’s never enough time to get it all done.

 

Then you go to drive home, and that takes time, so we multi-task. Do you know what the three most dangerous things that people do while they’re driving 3. Talking on a Cell Phone 2. Putting on Makeup (you know who you are!) 1 Reading while they drive. That explains some things, doesn’t it?

 

I go home. There’s not enough time. I love going home, but there’s more to do there than we could ever get done. When our kids were small, never once did I go home and have my kids say to me, OK Dad. We’ve played enough. Why don’t you go back to work now and see if you can get some more work done? I’ve never had Shannon say to me, “Adam, you’re coming home too early. You’re getting too many things done around the house. Why don’t you go get some work done?”

 

I read an article where the writer interviewed experts in different fields of life, like sleep, physical fitness, spiritual and vocational life, and in the article all of the experts listed how much time a person needs to devote to their particular area just to get by…not to be a master of it, but minimally… The writer totaled all of those amounts, and they came to about 40 hours a day. Experts tell us that this is the minimal amount of time that we need to spend on things just to get by. So, what are you going to do?

 

You have to cheat someone or something. You have to give up certain opportunities in order to take advantage of certain other ones. You can’t answer every demand. You can’t satisfy every voice. You have limits. You are finite. You are not God. Somebody in your life is going to feel cheated, because the reality is that you don’t have enough time. That’s your problem. In this sense, everyone cheats.

 

About A Boy DVD Chapter: 17     Start Time: 1:19:35     End Time: 1:20:39

 

Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego had to decide who to cheat: King Nebuchadnezzar or God? It had to be someone.

 

You and I have to decide: The danger is that we cheat those we care about most of all. I’m going to give you a picture:

 

Imagine someone you love—your best friend—asks you to do him or her a favor. They take you out to the trunk of their car and pick up a big rock that weighs about twenty pounds. It’s a precious rock your friend! Your friend says, “I need you to hold this for me for a while. I have some really important things to do, and I’ll be back in about thirty minutes or so. Will you hold the rock for me?”

 

It’s kind of a strange request, but he’s your friend, and you want to help. So you say, “Yes.” He climbs into the car and drives away. Thirty minutes go by, and he’s not back yet. Forty-five minutes. An hour. Two hours! The rock is starting to get very heavy, and you’re pretty

annoyed. At last, the car pulls into the driveway, and he hops out. He’s pretty chipper.

 

I’ve got a lot of things to do. This is so helpful! It’s going to take me a little longer than I expected. Hold the rock for me a little while longer, would you? You’re not too sure, because you’re feeling a little tired. But it would sound selfish to say “No.” He says it’s just a little while longer, so you say, “OK.”

 

He leaves and again he’s gone for a couple of hours. This time, the situation is getting serious. your back is sore, your arms are tired and, worse yet, your trust in him is starting to erode. You start to resent having to hold the rock, and then you feel guilty that you resent it.

 

Your hands now are cramping; your shoulders are in agony; your body has reached the breaking point. You can’t hold the rock any more. It slips from your grasp and shatters into a thousand pieces. Just at that moment, the car pulls up. Your friend gets out and shouts, “What happened? Why did you let it fall? Why did you let it go? Why the sudden collapse?

 

You want to explain that there is nothing “sudden” about it. You were just ground down, minute-by-minute, hour-by-hour, and there was not enough strength left in you to hold the rock. Then came the collapse. Then something really bad happened. I don’t think I need to say too much to explain that one, except to ask the question: Who’s holding the rock in your life?

 

v     When I miss key moments in the lives of my children because I’m too busy, then I leave my kids  holding the rock.

v     When we ask spouses to be constantly present in the family so that we can be chronically absent, then they’re holding the rock.

v     When I cannot really engage with the people I say I love because I have given my best energy someplace else, then they’re holding the rock.

v     And it may be that today you need to have a conversation with someone you love about who is holding the rock. I know that’s a scary thing.

 

Maybe you’re thinking, I’ve been holding the rock for a long time, and I like to be able to do that. I don’t want to change. Maybe you’ve been holding a rock for a long time, and there’s a part of you that says, “I don’t want to talk about it, because I don’t think the other person’s ever going to change and it would be scary to talk about it.

 

I want to be quite frank for a moment. I think that most of us tend to cheat at home. We say that’s the place that matters to us the most and to most, it might be. But in our culture, most people tend to cheat at home. Our careers promise us wealth and significance and ego enhancement, and so we tend to give an inordinate amount of time and energy to our jobs. We end up cheating God and cheating the people God has called us to love.

 

Let’s go back to the story for a moment, because there are some striking things about the response of these three men. They don’t bend down to the idol of gold. Nebuchadnezzar hears about it and is furious. He calls them before him, and he says, Shadrach, Meschach and Abednego!

 

Is it true you don’t serve my god? You don’t worship the golden statue that I’ve set up? Now, if you’re ready, when you hear the music and you fall down and you worship the statue I have made, well and good. But if you do not worship, you shall immediately be thrown into a furnace of blazing fire, and who will deliver you out of my hands? (Daniel 3:14-15)

 

Who will deliver you out of my hands? Now, that falls into the category of rhetorical questions. There are times when you ask a question, but it’s a set up. Parents do this, sometimes stupidly. I’ve actually done this many times. We’ll say to our kids, “Do you want a spanking?” (I don’t really expect an answer)

 

Well, I was going to play with my Gameboy, but, yeah, OK, a spanking sounds better.”

 

This is the kind of a “set up question” that Nebuchadnezzar is posing:

Who is going to deliver you out of my hands? (He’s not really expecting an answer)

But they have an answer:

 

O Nebuchadnezzar. We do not need to defend ourselves before you in this matter. If we are

thrown into the blazing furnace, the God we serve is able to save us from it, and he will rescue

us from your hand. (Daniel 3:16-17)

 

Notice this: Shadrach, Meschach and Abednego have made up their minds what they would do before they knew what the outcome was going to be. They don’t have it all planned out. They don’t know how the details are going to be arranged. But the first thing they did was to make a firm decision:

 

I will not bend my knee to a golden statue because my God is able.

 

I say this because I’ve been having this conversation long enough in my life and with other folks. A lot of you will be thinking, “You don’t know my situation. I work in the real world, and if I were really to spend the time that God wants me to spend with Him and with my family, I would not have enough time to carry out all of the work responsibilities that I have. You don’t know the details of my life.” You’re right. I don’t know the details of your life. But I do know that this is the question:

 

Do you believe that if you honor God with your time…if you spend time with Him and those you love…Do you believe that our God is able to make up whatever gap that creates for you vocationally or financially?

 

That’s the question, because the time issue is a trust issue. We’ll never get the time thing right unless we start with this: Our God is able.

 

God, I don’t know how the details are going to work out, but I’m going to dare to trust you with my time. I am not going to cheat you and I am not going to cheat at home any more. I’m going to trust you. I believe that you are able.

 

There is something else about this decision. It needs to be concrete. Just a vague, “Well, I’m going to spend more time at home and less time at work is not going to work. You have to put a stake in the ground. I want you to think about what your stake will be. Maybe it means that everyday I will walk out of work to go home at 5:00 p.m., whether I feel finished or not. Maybe it means I will schedule a day this month to go and be alone with God, even if I think that I can’t afford to.

 

I heard about a dad who said, I’m going to be home every morning to fix my kids’ breakfasts, even though that takes time that I feel I ought to be giving at work. I know that this is the value that God wants me to honor, and that’s a priority. So I’m going to be home with them in the mornings when they get up.

 

I heard of a mom who said, “I’m going to rearrange my schedule so that I can be home every afternoon with my kids. When my kids get home, I will be there with them.”

 

It’s kind of funny that whenever someone challenges us about “cheating” our family, we are all quick to say, “I love my family!” And we really do. But here’s the problem. I judge my love for my family by my feelings. The people in my family judge my love for them by the time that I spend with them. I look at my feelings and say, “I really love them.” They look at what I do. That’s the way it works. Do you know how you spell Love? T I M E.

 

Can I spell it M O N E Y ? No! Can I spell it G O O D I N T E N T I O N S ? No! T I M E.

 

There is another dimension to their decision. Shadrach, Meschach and Abednego are under a lot of pressure to bow down to an idol, just like you and I are. They say to Nebuchadnezzar,

 

Our God is able to save us, and He will rescue us from your hand, O King. (and this is one

of the great sentences in the whole Bible) But even if He does not, we want you to

know, O King, we will not serve your gods. (Daniel 3:17)

 

We will not bend a knee to your idol. Our God is able and He will deliver us, but we want you to know that even if He does not…WOW! That is Even If He Does Not faith.

 

If you trust God with your time, our God is able.

 

Will you honor Him with your time even if He does not?

That’s the question. That’s faith.

 

If you trust God with your time, it will probably mean dying to something. Jesus talked about this sometimes. It leads to life, but it means dying to something initially, and that’s always kind of scary. Maybe money. Maybe a promotion. Maybe a resume. Maybe status. Then die to it! Our God is able. If I honor Him with my time, my God is able to make up the gaps—to fill in. I don’t understand all the details, but I know that my God is able.

 

Another part of this fabulous story: Shadrach, Meschach and Abednego will not bow, so Nebuchadnezzar orders that the furnace be heated seven times hotter and has them thrown in. When he looks in, they are still alive. Looking at them, Nebuchadnezzar says to the people standing with him,

…didn’t we throw three guys in there? Now they’re still alive, and there is a fourth guy

walking around in the furnace! (Daniel 3:25)

 

Who do you think the fourth guy was? Do you think maybe it was Jesus?

 

They come out of the furnace alive. Our God is able. Who are you cheating? You have to cheat somewhere, but make sure you don’t cheat at home. Christmas and the reason that Jesus came was to redeem relationships. To take that which is broken, messed up, dirty and to restore it’s goodness. The reason why Jesus came is all about restoring right relationships with God and each other, because sin love to distort what’s right and what’s good.

 

Where are you cheating in your relationship with God?

 

Where are you cheating in your relationship with those in your family?

 

You have to cheat somewhere, but just make sure you cheat in the right places. Right relationships is what Christmas is all about.