Teach Us to Number Our Days (2)

Psalm 24:1, 2

Video presentation. “How much?”

This fellow completely missed the point. He kept asking his pastor, “How much?” Stewardship Sundays are not designed to tell you how much you should give. Remember I said last Sunday, “God does not need your money or time.” I am talking about giving your heart to God. That is the bottom line. Time and money, both are very important in our lives. Both are valuable, however they can be dangerous; they can control your life, your plans, your dreams, your family, your life. Watch out. Get out of it. How?

2. Everyone has that same amount of time.

Some one said, “You can make more money, but you can’t make more time.”

You sure have heard the expression, “Time is money.” I don’t understand this. You can make more money, but can you make more time? Everyone has 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, 365 days a year.

A. W. Tozer wrote, “Time is a resource that is nontransferable. You cannot store it, slow it up, hold it up, divide it up or give it up. You cannot hoard it up or save it for rainy day- when it’s lost it’s unrecoverable. When you kill time, remember that it has no resurrection.”

So, invest your time wisely. The days of your life are precious and limited.

But Badveli, “This is America, there is no time.”

By the way, in Beirut I heard the same expression, “But Badveli, life is tough and we do not have time.” So this epidemic about not having enough time is true all over the world, maybe more in our world in the US, specially in Bay Area.

Let us examine our week. We have 168 hours each week. Let us agree that an average person spends 56 hours sleeping, 24 hours eating and personal hygiene, and 50 hours working or traveling to work. This means 35 hours are left, 5 hours a day. If you keep track and observe what are you doing those 5 hours, you could tell what is most important in you life or what is really happening in your life.

How much time do we have? I cannot answer this question.

A pastor wanted to demonstrate this concept. He brought a jar and filled it with big stones. Then he asked, “Can we fill it more?” He then added small stones, crushed ones. The jar was full. He asked, “Can we add more?” He added sand and the jar was full. “Can we add more?” he asked. Yes, he did add water and the jar was finally full.

Now what is the lesson? You would think the illustration means that there is always time for more. No, No, that is exactly the problem. The point of the illustration is the first big stones are our priorities. If we don’t set our priorities first, everything else will fill their place.

I hear the word, “Badveli, we are OVERLOADED, too many things to do.” My wife is teaching piano to kids who cannot practice. Why? They are in sports, in drama, ballet, and they take lessons of trumpet, flute… if there is time left they can practice the piano.

Do you feel you are overscheduled?

The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People by Stephen Covey is a bestseller. Companies, families, bought this book to help them to manage their time wisely. In the book, the author says, “Time management is misleading concept. You can’t really manage time. You can’t delay it, speed it up, save it or lose it. No matter what you do, time keeps moving forward at the same rate. The challenge is not to manage time, but to manage ourselves.”

Do you remember the word Oikonomia, which means household management? Another word is Stewardship of the house, in this case, our lives. You see, to manage your time wisely is a spiritual challenge, starts from your Spiritual life. In last Sunday’s parable, the man found the real treasure and sold everything to get that. In other words, he dedicated his life, his time to Christ. When God is your first priority, you start seeing things in life differently. You spend your money differently. Your time is managed differently.

I know that this topic is very personal. I know that there are things in the US that make us to rush and do things different way. I cannot decide for you if you should take an expensive vacation. I don’t want to tell you if you should sell your house and buy a bigger one. I don’t want to say it is OK not to drive a brand new car. I don’t want to tell you how much money you should spend on your daughter’s/son’s wedding. But all these add up. I know it from my life. If my family and I do not talk about priorities, the important things we need to invest in, at the end of the month thing add up and eventually we lose control. Money and time will manage us, and not vise versa.

3. What is God’s Priority?

In Mark 12:28-31 the teacher of religion asked Jesus what the most important thing is. "The most important one," answered Jesus, "is this: 'Hear, O Israel, the Lord our God, the Lord is one ³⁰Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength.'³¹The second is this: 'Love your neighbor as yourself. There is no commandment greater than these."

Vertical and horizontal dimensions are the most important priorities. When we love God, that means God is first. This is number one. IN second place we have a tie” self and neighbor including family.

Please notice one more time that God is first, then the neighbor, family and the self. Have you realized that God’s priority is based on relationships, vertical and horizontal? God is a God of relationships. The triune God, God the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit are always in relationships. God does not place priority on things, God places HIGH priority on people and relationships. Remember the man who sold everything to buy the land with the treasure? The treasure is the Kingdom of God. The Kingdom of God is the people who are in the presence of our Lord Jesus Christ worshiping and serving Him. The Kingdom of God is everlasting. It is not a thing; it is everlasting life, which starts from here.

Postmodern lifestyle in the 21^st Century offers us technology to facilitate our daily life. Yet we still have no time for each other. God wants us to make time for each other, to build relationships.

I think there are two issues that hinder us from building relationships.

-We live far from each other, we as church members are not neighbors to each other anymore. We need to make an extra effort to visit each other and take care each other’s need. Neighborhood Bible studies are helpful in this regard.

-We work more hours, intense and hard. We are tired of driving and rushing. This makes us come home and be isolated from each other. We need to work hard to find our neighbor. How can we love our neighbor?

Let me quote again our main verse, “Teach us to number our days aright, that we may gain a heart of wisdom.” (Psalm 90:12)

Our days are numbered, 86,000 seconds a day. Next Sunday we are going to pledge to CACC. Give your time and money to the Lord. Give it with Love and not as a duty; give because it is His and not yours. Most important give it from your heart that belongs to God.

Amen.