FOCUSING YOUR LIFE
From Burnout to Balance
Restoring Margin to Overloaded Lives
Part 6 of 7 02-13-11 Sermon
The past five weeks we’ve been in a series on “Restoring Margin to Overloaded Lives”. We defined margin as the space between your load and your limit. If you have more to do than you have time and energy you get overloaded, so you have to have margin – margin in your time, margin in your checkbook and every other area. And in this series we’ve looked at the effects of this hectic hurried lifestyle and the value of slowing down and some ways to do that. We’ve looked at the benefits of living with margin and some of the ways to build some space into your life. We’ve looked at the antidotes to workaholism and how that can make a difference. And last week we looked at Jesus’ strategy for lowering the stress level in your life and having more rest in your life.
Today I want us to look at the purpose for margin. Why have margin in your life? The purpose of margin is not to live a life of selfishness but to live a life of significance. Margin is not just about cutting things out of your life and schedule. If that’s all you got, you missed the point. Margin is about making time for what matters most.
There’s a natural reaction that when we talk about slowing down and adding space to your schedule that you’ve overloaded you tend to swing the pendulum to the other end and go, “I ain’t doing nothing! I'm going to sit at home all summer and pop bon-bons in my mouth, watch soap operas, take it easy.”
You were made for more than rest. God did not just put you on this earth to retire. You were put here for a purpose. God has a plan and He has a purpose for your life. You need rest in your life. Many of you need far more than you’re getting. That’s why we’re doing this series. But life is more than just rest. And margin is about cutting out the superfluous things, the trivial things that don’t really matter so I have more time, more energy, more money for the things that really do matter most in life.
The key to an effective life is focus – like a laser, the stronger the focus, the more concentrated the focus, the more power the laser has. And when you focus your life on one or two or three things that really matter most, your life will be effective. The problem is most of us have very unfocused lives. So we’re trying to do a hundred things at the same time and think they’re all of equal value when they’re not, not at all. So an unfocused life causes you to get overloaded.
My prayer for you is this verse. Ephesians 1:18 “I ask God to make your eyes focused and clear so you can see exactly what God is calling you to do.” Today we’re going to look at how to focus your life. Ephesians 5 says, “Don’t be foolish with your lives.” Don’t waste your life. Don’t use it up on things that really don’t matter. Make your life count.
How do you do that? How do you live life wisely? The answer is by asking the right questions. So today I want us to review life’s four most important questions. If you can get these clear in your mind, your stress level will go down and your satisfaction will go up. You will live a life of significance and meaning and purpose.
1. WHAT WILL BE THE CENTER OF MY LIFE?
In other words, who or what am I going to live for? That's the starting point. Obviously there are a lot of options. You can center your life around a career. You can center your life around a sport. You can center your life around a hobby. You can center your life around making money. You can center your life around who’s my next date. You can center your life around having fun. You can center your life around collecting collectibles.
There’s nothing wrong with any of these things. They’re all fine and good but they all make a lousy center for your life. They’re not strong enough, they’re not solid enough, they’re not secure enough to be the center of your life. You need something at the center of your life that is absolutely unchanging, that can never be taken away from you. If it can be taken away you will lose your security. You will always be under stress. You need something that is unchanging and secure.
The Bible tells us in Psalm 62:10 “If your wealth increases don’t make it the center of your life.” Why? Why should I not make wealth or the acquisition of wealth the center of my life?
Because you can lose it all. There are hundreds of ways you could lose it all, instantly, overnight. If you build your life around money then you’ll constantly be tense because you’ve got to keep it, hold on to it and what if you lose it? It’s not a good enough reason to be the center of your life. On top of that, it’s not what life’s all about anyway. Jesus once said, “A man’s life does not consist in the abundance of things he possesses.” Your net-worth and your self-worth are not the same thing. Besides, you’re not going to keep it anyway. You’re not taking any of it with you. Why would you spend all of your life trying to acquire stuff that you’re not going to take with you into the next life anyway? That is not the purpose of life. And contrary to the popular bumper sticker, he who dies with the most toys just dies! In fact, he loses because he’s invested in the wrong thing. He thought that the goal was to get more. It’s not. So the Bible says don’t make that the center of your life.
When you become a Christian, a believer, a follower of Jesus Christ, the center of your life changes. Being a Christian means Jesus Christ is at the center of your life. The Bible says “Christ’s love has the first and last word in everything we do. Our firm decision is to work from this focus center.” A lot of people imagine their life as a pie with different pieces representing different segments of their life. So you’ve got a work segment of your life, you’ve got a retirement segment and you’ve got a financial segment, you’ve got a sexuality segment and you’ve got other relationships, a social life, and then, over here we’ve got Jesus as a piece of the pie.
No. Jesus is not a piece of the pie. Jesus is the filling. He is the whole pie. And He wants to influence every segment – the financial segment, the sexual segment, the relational segment, the goals and ambitions and dreams segment, your career. He is the glue that holds it all together. He is the pie if you’re a believer. He’s not just a segment. He’s at the core.
You remember years ago they used to have these things called superballs. You hit it on the ground and it’d go thirty, forty feet high. Why? Because the center of a superball was so tightly compacted it was a solid core not some mushy center like a tennis ball, which is very mushy. But a superball had a very solid core and that gave it its bounceability.
When your core is solid in God you have bounceability. You bounce back from stress faster. You bounce back from problems faster. You bounce back from grief faster. You bounce back from crisis faster. You have something solid in your life that doesn’t change. When you have that you don’t worry.
The bible says“Instead of worrying, pray. It’s wonderful what happens when Christ displaces worry at the center of your life.” That means that the most basic fundamental decision of life is this: Am I going to live a life that is self-centered or God-centered? Make a decision this morning.
The apostle Paul in the Bible says it like this, “I want God at the center. I want to know Christ. I want to really know Him. I want to know the power in my life of having God at the center.” I hope you’ll settle that one right now. Make this your prayer: I want to really, really know Christ.
After you have settled that question – Who is going to be at the center of my life? – the second of life’s most important questions is this…
2. WHAT WILL BE THE CHARACTER OF MY LIFE?
What kind of person am I going to be in this life? What is on your business card doesn’t really matter in the end! It’s not really what you do, it’s who you are. God is far more interested in who you are than what you do. Why? Because you’re not going to carry your career into eternity, but you will carry your character into eternity. This life, the life we’re living right now, is preparation. All of this life is just preparation for eternity. God is developing our character now so we can carry it with us into that eternity He’s prepared for us.
The Bible is very clear about His plans for our lives after we have make Him the center of our lives. Romans 8:29 “From the very beginning God decided that those who came to Him should become like His Son.” God wants us to be like Jesus Christ. To have the values that Jesus Christ has. To have the character that Jesus Christ has. To have the kind of interests at heart that He has.
Philippians 2:5 ”In your lives you must think and act like Jesus Christ.” God wants to help me become more like Christ. It’s a lifetime project. We’ll never totally reach it. But He wants me to grow in that direction. Doesn’t it make sense that He’s going to put you and I in the exact same circumstances that Jesus was in while He was on this earth? Jesus faced loneliness and we’ll face loneliness. Jesus faced heartache, we’ll face heartache. Jesus Christ faced temptation. He never said, “yes” to the temptation but He faced it and so will you and I. If Jesus Christ had to face times of disappointment who am I to think I'm not going to face that as God grows us to be like Him. He wants to grow in us the character of His Son so we can carry it into eternity.
Every situation that comes into your life, good and bad, He wants to use for the purpose of developing character in you, whatever the circumstance. The kind of character that it talks about in 2 Peter 1:5 “Don’t lose a minute in building on what you’ve been given, complementing your basic faith with good character, spiritual understanding, alert discipline, passionate patience, reverent wonder, warm friendliness, and generous love.” God is working to do that in us to make us like His Son. I don’t know any better description of what Jesus was like in character than in Galatians 5 where it talks about the fruit of what God’s power does in us as He grows us. As it describes that it’s a description of what Jesus is like. The fruit of God’s Spirit is love, joy and peace and patience, kindness, goodness. That’s what Jesus was like and what God wants to do in us.
But here’s the secret: The way that God does that is very different than we might expect. God does that in us, works a new character into us – like love or patience or peace – by putting us in the exact opposite circumstance. If you say to God, “I want to become a more loving person,” do you think He’s going to put you around a lot of lovable people? It doesn’t happen that way. I hate that but it doesn’t happen that way. When you say, “I want to be a person of love,” God puts you around a lot of unlovely people because that develops the character of love.
He puts us in the exact opposite situation. He wants to develop new habits in our lives. Character is really the accumulation of good habits. If you have a habit of being kind to people, people will look at you and say you are a kind person. And God is developing those good habits in us to develop good character.
We all know it is tough to develop good habits. It’s not easy. It’s easier to develop bad habits than good habits. Because of that, the second question we have to face in these important questions of life, the choice we have to make is, is it really going to be all about my comfort or am I going to allow God to develop a new character? What do I care more about? Am I going to choose what’s easy or am I going to choose what’s right?
The third question that will focus your life is this…
3. WHAT WILL BE THE CONTRIBUTION OF MY LIFE?
In other words, how am I going to use my God-given talents, my abilities? Am I going to use them just to benefit myself or am I going to use them to help other people?
The scripture says “God has given each of you some special abilities. Be sure to use them to help each other, passing on to others God’s many kinds of blessings.” The Bible says in Ephesians, “It is God Himself who has made us what we are and given us new lives from Christ Jesus. And long ago He planned that we should spend these lives…” in living for ourselves? No. “… spend these lives in helping others.” We’re meant to help each other.
There’s one thing we all have in common. Everybody here wants to make a difference with our lives. You may have given up and thought I'm never going to do it. But down deep you’d like to. You’d like to leave an impact. You’d like to leave your mark. You’d like to influence others. You’d like to make a difference in this world. Where do you think you got that desire? You got it from God. God wired you to make a difference. God wired you up to make a contribution in this world. You were not put on this earth just to take up space, to breathe, to use resources, to retire and die. No, God put you here for a very unique reason. And God has uniquely shaped you so you can make a unique contribution.
There are five ways God has shaped you. SHAPE—Spiritual gifts, Heart, Ability, Personality, Experiences. And God has uniquely given you certain experiences – painful and pleasant – some of them good, some of them bad to make you, you. God uniquely gave you your personality. Some of it you like, some of it you probably don't like. He did it specifically to make you you! And He gave you a heart. Some things turn you on and some things you couldn’t care less about. Some things you’re passionate about and some things you’re totally bored with. God gives us all a different passion, different hearts so that everything in the world gets done. If we all like to do the same thing then we’d all compete for that and a lot would be left undone. So God makes us all different so that everything that needs to get done in the world gets done. God uniquely shaped you for a reason, to make a contribution.
What you need to ask yourself is, “Based on my S.H.A.P.E, based on what God has made me to be, how He wired me up, what is the greatest contribution I can make? How can I make a difference?
You say, “My contribution would be so small.” You never know what your contribution is going to be. Great huge doors hang on very small hinges. Sometimes, if you know anything about history, history has been changed by seemingly insignificant events. Who would have guessed that a baby born in a stable in Bethlehem would change the world? Nobody. And often you never know how one little thing that you say to somebody or one little thing that you do may not only change their life but change all of history. You just don’t know. You can’t evaluate it until you get to heaven.
A good example of somebody in the Bible who had margin in his life in order to make a contribution is the Good Samaritan. Remember the story? Jesus told it. He said there was a guy walking from Jerusalem to Jericho and he gets mugged. They beat him up, rob him of all his stuff and leave him for dead at the side of the road. The first guy comes walking by. He’s a religious leader and he has no margin in his life. He’s in a hurry and says “I don't have time to help this guy,” and he walks on past him. “I’ve got a meeting to make, a deadline to meet. I can’t help a hurting person beside the road. I’ve got to keep going.” How many times have you driven past somebody with a flat tire on the highway and thought, (a) “I don't have time,” and (b) “I might get hurt I f I help a stranger.” That’s what this guy is thinking so he goes past him.
The second guy walks by. He’s another religious leader. He says, “I'm not going to have anything to do with that. I’ve got my own agenda. I’ve got my own goals and ambitions. I'm too busy. I don’t want to be associated with that guy anyway.” And he actually switches over to the other side of the road. He changes lanes and drives on past. He totally ignores the guy in his pain.
The third guy comes along and he’s a Samaritan. You need to understand that the Jews and Samaritans hated each other. They are two different ethnic groups and did not like each other at all. This guy had every reason to pass. He was a stranger and there was racial conflict between these two people. But what did he do? He stops. He helps the guy. He gives him something to drink. He bandages up his wounds. He puts this total stranger on his donkey, takes him to the nearest “Holiday Inn”, leaves his “American Express” card and says “I’ll be back later. I’ll cover all his bills. You feed him, you clothe him, you restore him to health and I’ll pay for it.”
This guy had margin in his life. First he had time margin. He had time to stop. Evidently he planned to get to wherever he was going early enough that he could stop along the way to help somebody in desperate need. Second, he had financial margin. He actually had some money to give to help this guy. He had energy margin. He wasn’t so stressed out – “I can’t deal with this guy! I’ve got my own problems!” And as a result he was able to help.
Every day of your life you walk by people who need you, people who you could help. But if you’re so focused on your life, your thing and you’re overloaded, you can’t stop to help anybody, you can’t make a contribution. When you boil it all down in life, there are only two kinds of people – givers and takers. What are you going to be? A giver? Where your whole life is “I want to make a contribution today, God, to somebody in the world.” Or are you going to be a taker? No one is ever recognized for what they take out of life. We’re only recognized for what we give. You make a living by getting. You make a life by giving.
One day you’re going to stand before God and God’s going to say, “What did you do with what I gave you? What did you do with your life, your talents, your abilities? Did you make any contribution? Or did you just live for yourself? What did you do that was totally unselfish, that was just a contribution to other people?” This is the third important decision in life you have to make. Am I going to focus my life on getting or on giving? Is the rest of my life going to be, “Get all you can, get as much as you can, get it as fast as you can and hold on to it for as long as you can.” Is that going to be your life? Or is going to be “How, Lord, can You use me to give? Use me, I want to be a vessel. I want to make the world a better place because I was here because of the time that You granted me.”
Here’s the final question that will focus your life:
4. WHAT WILL BE THE COMMUNICATION OF MY LIFE?
What does God want to say to the world through me? Did you know God wants to do that? Did you know that God put you on earth for a special reason because He wants to say something to the rest of the world through you? It’s called your life message.
The Bible talks about it. 1 Thessalonians 1:8 “Your lives are echoing the Master’s Word. The news of your faith in God is out. We don’t even have to say anything anymore. You’re the message.” Anytime you say, “This is what God’s doing in my life,” you’re giving your life message. Anytime you say, “I was praying about this and here’s what’s happened,” you’ve given a life message. Anytime you say, “I’ve got this problem and I'm struggling with it but God is helping me,” you are sharing your life message. Only you can share your unique life message. Nobody else can do it for you. If you don't share your life message that God put you on earth to share, the world gets cheated. God wants to use you. Why?
Because the best messages are personal messages. The most powerful message comes through a person. I'm so glad that when God wanted to share His message of love He didn’t e-mail it. He came in person. The Word became flesh. Jesus Christ came to earth so we could see what God’s like. Now I know what He’s like. I can mentally and physically figure this thing out of what God is like. He came in person. God has a message He wants to share with the world, and instead of writing it in the sky, He wants to put it through your personality. He wants to put it through you.
There are two important parts. There’s the audio part and the visual part – a walkie and a talkie. He wants you to show the message with your life and He wants you to share the message with your mouth.
First you’ve got to live your life message. Philippians 1:27 “Live in such a way that you are a credit to the message of Christ.” God wants people to watch your life and see His love. You say, “Wait a minute! I'm no preacher!” Good! You’ll be more effective not as a preacher. The words “preach” and “preaching” are always used as negative terms in today’s society. “Don't preach at me!… Don’t give me a sermon! … “ Really, God doesn’t want you to be a preacher. He wants you to be a satisfied customer. “This is what God did in my life. This is what God’s doing in my life right now. This is a problem I'm facing right now and this is how God’s helping me with this one.” You tell me--To a skeptic who has more credibility - the salesman or the satisfied customer? No doubt! You actually have more credibility with many, many people than I will ever have. I'm the hired holy man. I'm paid to be good. You’re good for nothing! When I talk about God they say, “Of course Frank’s going to talk about that. He’s the pastor.”
What about you? When you say, “This is what God’s doing in my life,” you’re sharing your life message and that is more powerful, far more powerful.
You’ve got to live the life. “Live in a way that you give credit to the message of Christ.”
Second, you’ve got to tell your life story. You’ve got to tell people why you’re different. “Life is worth nothing unless I use it for doing the work assigned me by the Lord Jesus – the work of telling others the good news about God’s mighty kindness and love.” You have to tell people why you’re different. But first, do people notice any difference in your life, or do they just think you’ve got a couple extra meetings each week to go to? God wants them to see the love of Christ in you. But then you’ve got to tell them why you’re different. They may just think you’re a vegetarian or something! A nice person!
You say, “I don’t ever tell anybody about my faith. I just kind of try to live it in front of them.” That’s saying, “I'm such a godly person people look at my life and automatically fall down and worship God.” I don’t think so!
You don’t have to be perfect to have a life message. You just have to be honest. You’ve got to be real. You’ve got to be authentic. You say, “I don't have it all together but here’s what God’s doing in my life. Here’s the difference Jesus Christ has made.” God wants you to share it. And there are people God has put in your life that if you don’t share it they’re not going to hear it. What will be the communication of my life?
We’re often more concerned with what people think about us than we are concerned about getting them into heaven. So here’s the fourth question: will I use my life to promote myself or share Christ? What’s it going to be? Call the shots. Make the decision. Am I going to promote myself or am I going to share Christ? It’s kind of hard to do both at the same time.
These are life’s four most important questions. What’s going to be the center of my life? The character of my life? The contribution of my life? And the communication (the life message) of my life? God is watching you to see how you’re going to answer.
Prayer:
The purpose of margin is not so you can live a life of selfishness but so you can live a life of significance. It’s about making time for what matters most. There are probably some things you need to add into your life. Do you have any ministry? Do you have any time with the Lord? What is at the center of your life right now? Why not Jesus Christ?
Father, we spend so much of our lives living without focus. We bounce around from one activity and job to another. We waste time and energy on things that really don’t matter. And because we lack focus we get overloaded with less important issues. We need Your help today.
Why don’t you pray? Say, “Father, I don’t want to foolishly waste my life. I don’t want to get to the end and look back with regrets. And I don’t want to overload my life with things just because other people are doing them. From this day forward, I want to center my life around You, Jesus. I want to be God-centered not self-centered. I want You to guide me in setting priorities. I want to get serious about growing spiritually. I want to choose character over comfort because I know that’s what’s going to last for eternity. Help me to do the right things not the easy things. And Father, I want my life to make a difference. Please show me how You have uniquely shaped me to make a contribution. And help me not to compare myself. I want to be a giver not a taker. Help me to have margin for ministry. Please use my life to communicate Your love to those around me. Show me some ways that I can share the love of Jesus instead of just promoting myself. In Your name, I pray. Amen.”
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