Making Time | Trinity Sermons

Hello and welcome to this week's episode of Trinity

Sermons. This week we are continuing our sermon

series called A Matter of Time, where we're talking

about what time is, why it matters, and how we

can make use of it. We all have the same 24 hours

in the day, but it never really feels like enough.

We always feel rushed. Things are out of balance.

We don't know how to best spend our time. So

in today's sermon, Rob is going to unpack for

us what it means to make the most of our time.

How do we make more time? How do we set our priorities

so that we have enough time for everything? Today's

readings from the Gospel of Matthew, chapter

Matthew 6:25–34

6, verses 25 to 34. Therefore I tell you, do

not worry about your life, what you will eat

or drink. or about your body, what you will wear.

It's not life more than food, and the body more

than clothes. Look at the birds of the air. They

do not sow or reap or store away in barns, and

yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you

not much more valuable than they are? Can any

one of you, by wandering, add a single hour to

your life? And why do you worry about clothes?

See how the flowers of the field grow. They do

not labor or spin. Yet I tell you that not even

Solomon in all his splendor was dressed like

one of these. If that is how God clothes the

grass of the field, why is here today and tomorrow

is thrown into the fire? Will he not much more

clothe you, you with little faith? So do not

worry, saying, what shall we eat? O what we shall

drink, O what shall we wear? For the pagans run

after these things, and your heavenly Father

knows that you need them. But seek first his

kingdom and his righteousness, and all these

things will be given to you as well. Therefore,

do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will

worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble

of its own. The word of the Lord. If you were

here last week, you know that we kicked off a

brand new teaching series, which we're calling

A Matter of Time. And if you missed last week,

then hey, you know, don't worry, you dodged a

bullet, because what we basically talked about

last week is that, hey, you're going to die.

And your time is running out, and it's running

out faster than you think. And yet, rather than

deny that fact, rather than avoid it, the Bible

tells us that wisdom is found, and wisdom begins

when people realize that their days are numbered,

and they make the most of the time that they

have. So that's what we learned last week. Now,

this week, we're moving on to something a little

different. We're going to talk about making time.

And you might say, Rob, I don't think you can

make time. In fact, didn't last week, we learned

that nobody can make time. You've only got a

certain amount of time and that's it. And that

is absolutely true. But we use this phrase, making

time, in a different way, don't we? We say, I

want to make time for things that are important.

Or I want to make time for, you know, the things

that are like valuable in our lives. And so,

yeah, making time is just another way of saying,

you know, prioritizing certain things in our

lives. Now, I want to begin by showing you a

little demonstration up here. And some of you

will have seen this demonstration before. In

fact, there was a leadership guru by the name

of Stephen Covey who wrote this book called The

Seven Habits of Highly Effective People. And

he died in 2012. But back in the day, he used

to make the rounds and do conferences and workshops

all the time. Some of you maybe even were at

a conference with Stephen Covey when he came.

through. And anyway, Stephen Covey, he had like

this little illustration that he did to talk

about, you know, the importance of prioritizing

and making the most of our time. And it went

a little something like this. He said, you know,

imagine that this jar is your life. This is the

time that you have in your life. It might be,

you know, the time you have this week, might

be the time you have today, might be the time

you have this year, might be the time you have

for your whole lifetime. I don't know. But you

can imagine that the jar is your time, the time

available to you. And then he had a bunch of

small rocks and he would, you know, dramatically

pour the rocks. in and and he would say like

these small rocks they represent all the the

kind of things that you do with your time and

some of those things might be total time wasters

you know you waste your time others of these

things might be good or fun or there's nothing

really wrong with them but all of these little

rocks even though they take up your time the

truth is none of them are, you know, ultimate

things. So these rocks, you know, I would say

for most of us, you know, half of these rocks

are just social media. right it's just all the

time we spend you know scrolling through instagram

or scrolling through uh tick tocks or whatever

the case may be or maybe it's netflix you know

with the amount of television and the streaming

media that we watch you know that's it's you

know again it's not like it's horrible but just

it's not an ultimately you know important thing

in our lives you know maybe it's surfing the

internet maybe it's online shopping maybe it's

gaming i know you know a lot of people spend

hours and hours and hours gaming and gaming.

Maybe it's watching sports, watching hockey,

watching baseball, watching FIFA World Cup is

coming up, watching the NBA playoffs that are

on right now. Others, you know, again, and I

don't want you to get the wrong idea. These things

might, they're not bad things. They just take

up time and they're not ultimate things. So maybe

it's like you're one of those guys who just likes

to tinker in the garage for hours and hours and

hours. Takes a lot of time, right? That goes

in this jar. Or maybe you like to like play rounds

and rounds of golf all the time. Beautiful, wonderful,

but you know, takes up a lot of time. Maybe you

like to keep your lawn like really, really manicured

and perfectly cut. And hey, that's not bad. None

of these things are necessarily bad, but they

just aren't that important. Those are the little

rocks, okay? Then there are the big rocks, right?

The big rocks, these are the things that actually

matter to you and matter to you a lot. If I was

to ask you, you know, what matters most to you,

you would say things like, well, if you're a

parent, for example, you would say. my kids.

So if I have only so much time in my jar... I

want to make sure I put time in there for my

kids. Or if you're married, you would say, well,

yeah, I have to spend some time with my spouse.

And so you put that in there. Or you would say

something, oh, maybe you're not married, but

you have other important relationships in your

life, you know, friendships. Yeah, those have

to go in the jar because those are really important

to you. Maybe you've got a job that is really

important and life -giving to you and you want

to prioritize that. So yeah, the job's got to

go in there. Or you're a student, you're at school

and you're... Studies are important and getting

good grades is like essential. So you gotta fit

that in there. You gotta make that fit in there

somewhere. And then, of course, a lot of people

would say, well, their spiritual life is important

to them. So that needs to go in the jar. Or other

things like your mental health or your physical

health or eating well or exercising and all that

stuff. So these are the big rocks. These are

the things that actually do matter and the things

that matter most to you. And the thing is, here

is the problem. And this is kind of... Again,

Stephen Covey was the one that did this. When

it's all said and done, you look at it, and a

lot of people say, you know, I can't fit all

that into my week. I can't fit all that into

my year. I can't fit all that into my life. There's

just not enough time, we say, in my day, my week,

my month, my year, my life. And so we actually

end up not spending. enough time with our kids

and we end up not spending enough time with our

spouse and we end up neglecting our health and

we end up neglecting our our spiritual life and

all these other things that are important and

here's you know at the end we we look back on

our life and we we say oh shoot you know there

just wasn't enough time And one of the reasons

that happens is, well, there's a couple reasons,

but one is that the urgent will always crowd

out what is important, right? There is no shortage

of things that urgently come at you every day.

Every time your phone dings, notification, notification,

notification, it's in your face, it's coming

at you over and over again. The phone rings,

someone's knocking at the door, right? urgent

things. If you're not disciplined in choosing

what's actually important, then yeah, all those

urgent things are just going to overwhelm you.

Whatever grabs your attention is going to fill

your day. Another way to kind of put this is

if you don't choose your priorities, somebody

else will choose them for you. Your phone will

choose for you. Your boss will choose for you.

You know, advertisers will choose for you. Your

friends, you know, that seem to have way too

much time on their hands doing all sorts of crazy

things. They will keep inviting you and they

will ultimately choose how you spend your time.

So the whole point of Stephen Covey's demonstration

is basically to say this. Stop and ask yourself,

what are your big rocks? Right? In other words,

what are the things in your life that are really...

and truly important. Because if your priorities

are not clear, then something's going to suffer.

And what usually suffers? Your relationships

suffer. Your health suffers. Your spiritual life

suffers. And the sad thing is then you can come

to the end of your life or end of some season

of your life, and you can look back and realize,

wow, man, you know, I wish I could go back. I

wish I could go back and do that again differently

because, you know, I put the wrong things. in

first and i didn't make room and i didn't make

time for what really were the important things

to me now no shame here right because we've all

been there we have all done this but here's the

thing that that stephen covey does in his demonstration

he says Think, what if you did it a different

way? What if instead you put the things that

are most important to you into your time first?

So you, yeah, you put in your relationships first.

You put in your faith, you know, your relationship

to church and your spiritual life. You put in,

you know, your school and your studies and your

marriage and all those things. What if you put

all those things in first? What would happen

then? And then in very dramatic fashion, he takes

these other things. Let's see. Come on, baby.

There you go. Room to spare. Room to spare in

there, right? And so the point that he's, yeah,

there is room to spare. Look at that. And someone

even told me after the service that sometimes

what Stephen Covey would do next is he would

take like a pitcher of water and he would dump

that in there. And that would, you know, fill

up all the other gaps too. Whereas if you did

it the other way, it just didn't fit. The point

he is trying to make is this. Put... the big

rocks in first put the the things that are really

important make time for them right because the

secret the secret to getting more done in your

life is not just to keep adding more i gotta

get more done but actually it's about prioritizing

correctly and and when we change our priorities

and we decide ahead of time what is actually

most important then we actually find there's

more room in our life than we thought for some

of those other things. Or another way to put

it is, we actually don't have a time problem,

he says. The problem we have is around prioritizing.

We have a prioritizing problem. You don't just

naturally drift toward the things that are most

important. You have to schedule it. You have

to prioritize it. It makes me think of that great

line from the book of Ecclesiastes. Yes, yes,

there is a time. For everything, everything important.

But it comes down to prioritizing, not just adding

more, but prioritizing more in our life. Now,

I could end the sermon there and go home and,

you know, you know. That wouldn't be a complete

loss because there's something important for

us. And we could all benefit from going home

and writing down on a piece of paper, you know,

what are the most important things in our lives

and how can we make sure that we put them first

and prioritize them. But we are not here today

at Trinity Streetsville to hear about the gospel

according to Stephen Covey. We are here to hear

about the gospel according to Jesus Christ. And

Jesus actually has something really important.

important to add to this and to say about this

and we cannot miss it and that is this you know

throughout the whole Bible we are told something

very important about this process. And that is,

we are supposed to, as followers of Jesus, we

are supposed to put God in the jar first. God

needs to be both the first rock and the biggest

rock in our lives. In other words, God is meant

to be the number one. priority in your life and

it's interesting because there's a few places

in the bible where god is even referred to as

a rock like in psalm 18 for who is god beside

the lord and who is the rock except our god now

the thing is if you put god first the same kind

of thing happens here everything else finds its

place around him that God rock, when it goes

in first, it takes priority over everything else.

And it becomes like the center around which everything

else in our lives ultimately fits. Now, the Bible

never uses the word prioritize. And in fact,

I don't even think the word priority or prioritize

is maybe even in the Bible. But it uses another

word to talk about, I think, the very same thing.

And that word is the word to seek. To seek. And

when you hear the word seek, you might think

of, oh, you know, that's what you do when you

lose something and you have to go find it. Like,

I lost my keys. I'm trying to seek them. Or you

play hide and seek. But the Bible actually has

a much deeper way of understanding that word

seek. In fact, the Greek word for seek is zetao.

And it means not just to, like, find something

that's lost. It means to pursue something. It

means to aim your life at something. It means

to orient your decisions around something. So

when Jesus says, seek first, zeteo first, the

kingdom of God, he is saying, he is saying, orient

your life, prioritize your life, pursue God.

But Jesus actually goes even a little further.

He says, seek first. So he like emphasized seek

first. And that's another Greek word, proton.

So if you put those two words together, zetao

and proton, seek first, seek first. And if you

were to kind of translate that, I think into

like just plain old English with something like

this, make the kingdom of God your primary pursuit.

Make God. And God's way, the kingdom, and God's

plans, the kingdom, God's commandments, the kingdom,

God's vision for the world and for you, make

that the big rock in your life, the thing around

which you organize and arrange everything else.

Seek first the kingdom of God. Now, it isn't

just Jesus who says this. You look through the

Bible again, Psalm 63. You, God, are my God.

Earnestly, I seek you. Earnestly, I prioritize

you. Earnestly, I pursue you. I'm not, you know,

just going to find some place in my life to tuck

you, God. No, I'm going to put you at the center

of my life. Earnestly, I am pursuing you. Or

how about Proverbs 28? Those who seek. The Lord

understand what is right. That's a beautiful

thing to say because what it basically means

is when you seek God, when you put him first

in your life, then he begins to shape your understanding.

He begins to shape your thoughts. He begins to

shape your decisions. He begins to shape your

priorities and your thinking and your whole life.

Seek him first. Put him first into the jar. Or

how about this one? Psalm 119. I seek you with

all my heart. Question, how many things can you

seek with all your heart? One. If it's all your

heart, you can only seek one thing that way.

And the psalmist says, make sure it is God who's

got that priority and that place in your life.

Just Him. Just God. Now, you might say, well...

But what about all the other important things

in my life? And of course, there are other important

things in your life. And even Jesus acknowledged

that. Jesus says there's things like, what are

we going to eat? That's kind of important. that's

a rock. It needs to go in your jar somewhere.

You got to eat, right? Or what are we going to

drink? That's important. It's got to go in there.

What about what we're going to wear? Of course,

that's important too. It also has to go in there.

And we spend a lot of time and a lot of energy

worrying about those things. What Jesus is saying,

he is not saying that those things are bad. He's

not saying, don't put those rocks in. You don't

need those. He is just saying, don't put those

rocks in first. Don't make them the priority.

He even says that's what Gentiles do. That's

what pagans do. And a Gentile or a pagan, just

so you know, they kind of sound like really scary

words, but basically it's just a person who lives

as if God doesn't exist. Meaning there are some

people out there. Maybe there's even some people

here today. Maybe it's even us from time to time

who put food and clothing and security and material

things ahead of God. fill our time jar with material

stuff first we said let me get these things look

after first let me get these all in there and

then maybe at the end i can fit god in there

somewhere right but these are all important things

and jesus knows these are important things all

he's saying is zetao proton seek first the kingdom

of god well when you do that that's when All

these other little pebbles, they somehow seem

to find a place, right? All these things will

be given to you. All what you need, your food,

your shelter, your drink, your clothes, your

security, your material needs, they get looked

after. When you seek God first, everything else...

finds its place. But if you don't seek God first

thing, even God gets bumped out of your time

jar. So like last week, we talked about, man,

time is short. You don't know how many days,

how many years you've got. What Jesus is saying,

no matter how many days or weeks or years you

have, put God first in your day. Put God first

in your week. Put God first in your year and

in your whole life. Let him become the center

around which everything else orbits and is organized.

Now, the question is, yes, but how? I hope you're

nodding your head. Yes, Rob, I agree. This is

absolutely true. I have to do this. How do I

actually put God first? How do I make sure he

is a priority in my life? The answer is there's

a hundred ways. There's a thousand ways you can

do that. I thought, though, today I can give

you three ideas, three places to get started.

And maybe all three apply to you. Maybe two do.

Maybe one do. Whatever. You can decide. But here

is one way to make sure that God is the first

and biggest rock in your jar, and that is to

give God the first part of your day. When you

get up in the morning, somehow find a way to

say to God, God, the priority of this day. This

day I'm about to enter into is you. And so I'm

putting you first. I'm going to give you the

first few minutes, the first 15 minutes, the

first half hour of my day. And that might look

like, you know, saying prayers at the beginning

of your day, the first part of your day, reading

your Bible at the beginning of the day, the first

part of your day. sitting in silence, doing some

journaling, or doing all those things, you know,

prayer, Bible reading, silence, journaling, whatever

it is, it's a way to say yes to God at the beginning

of your day. And I will say, and many of you

know this, I'm just telling you stuff you already

know, that if you do that, if you say yes to

God at the beginning of the day, it is so much

easier to say no to other things That come at

you throughout the day. Things that are far less

important. I will be honest with you. When I

have done a good job of this. And I haven't always

done a good job of this. And I still don't always

do a good job at this. But when I do. Put God

first in my day. Before the work starts. Before

the phone calls start. Before the meetings start.

Before people are knocking at my door. Then I

always feel like. Today was way. More productive.

I don't know if that's your experience, but I

just feel like throughout that day, I moved a

different way. Like if distractions came at me,

I was able to quickly figure out, is this an

important distraction? Something I need to deal

with? Or is this unimportant? Something I don't

need to deal with? You know, and at the end of

the day, if you didn't get everything else, if

you didn't get everything on your to -do list

done, there's something about since you started

your day with God at the center, that at the

end of the day, if you didn't get everything

done, you can say, I'm okay with that. I'm okay

with that. Obviously, I wasn't supposed to get

that done. But what I did do is I put God first

and all that other stuff. Well, as Jesus said,

tomorrow, let tomorrow worry about itself. Okay,

so that's the first thing. If you want to prioritize

God in your life, put God at the start of your

day. Give him the first part of your day. Now,

here's the second one. You can also give God

the first day of your week. You know, what's

the first day of the week? Sunday. It's the first

day of the week. I always felt as a kid, Monday

was the first day. We always said it was the

weekend, right? So Saturday and Sunday were the

end of the week. Monday was the beginning of

the week. But no, no, look at any calendar. Sunday

is the first day of the week. And in fact, it's

the day of resurrection, right? Acts 20 says

that the early church met. On the first day of

the week on Sunday. So just like giving God the

first part of your day helps you prioritize all

that's coming at you that day. Giving God, making

time for God on the first day of your week is

a way of prioritizing God as you head off into

a brand new, what is sure to be busy, busy week.

What I'm getting at here is prioritizing. Sunday

worship is prioritizing what we're doing right

here and right now. And so, yeah, I'm kind of

preaching to the choir. Yeah, you're all here.

Yeah, you've done it. Hooray. But I want to say

that actually something I've noticed at Trinity

and even something that we track here at Trinity

with our software, our fancy software, is that

even though on any given Sunday there might be

three or four hundred people that come to Trinity,

You know, the Sunday before, there would have

also been 300 or 400 people, but they weren't

all the same people. It was like a different

group of 300 or 400 people. Yeah, there were

some people that were there. And then the week

after, again, it's like a different group, a

different mix of 300 or 400 people. So it's like,

yeah, we always seem to have 300 or 400 people,

but it's not the same 300 or 400 people. And

it actually makes you think, my goodness. My

goodness, if everybody who called Trinity their

spiritual home, their home church, if we all

said every week, every week, I'm going to put

God first in my week and I'm going to, you know,

prioritize going to church, we would probably

have to add like a... a third service or something

like that to get everybody in. It's just a funny

thing to think about. I don't want you to like

get the wrong ideas. This isn't like the pastor

getting mad because there aren't enough people

in church, right? But yeah, the author of Hebrews

says, hey, don't give up meeting together. You

know, don't get out of that rhythm. It's about

putting God first in your life. First in your

jar and starting the week orienting your heart

and your mind and your time with God first. So,

you know, worship isn't a leftover time, right?

It's seek God first time. Because whatever happens

in the rest of this week, whatever is going to

happen the rest of your week, you cannot control.

But you can control this prioritizing of putting

God first and worshiping. At the beginning of

the week. Okay? So, give God the first part of

your day. Give God the first day of your week.

And then the third thing you can do to prioritize

God and say, I want you to go in my time jar

first, is, and this one you might be like, what

is that? That seems different. But it's give

God the first portion of your resources. Give

God, you know, the first part of your income.

Now you might say, Rob, that doesn't even have

to do with time. Uh -uh. I beg to differ. Because

what? is your income. Your income is essentially

your time that has been converted into dollars

and cents, right? You gave your time to your

employer, they gave you dollars and cents in

exchange for your time. So to give God the first

part of your income is just another way of giving

away your time, or it's actually giving prioritizing

your time for God. So it's a way that even while

you're at work, you can be putting God first.

I'm putting you first in my life. You know, the

way we spend our money is one of the clearest

indicators of what is really important to us.

I mean, let's be honest. If you're not sure today,

you know, what do I prioritize in my life? you

probably just got to go home and look at your,

like, MasterCard bill, and you can figure out,

yeah, well, that's what's most important. That's

where I'm putting all my energy and my time and

my money. The Bible says, hey, here's an idea.

Give God the first part of that. Give God, in

those days, the first fruits that come off your

field. But for us, give God the first portion

of your resource, the first portion of your income,

because that is just another way to say, God,

your kingdom comes first. God, your mission comes

first. God, your priorities have first place

in my life. It's like I said before, don't choose

your priorities. Someone else is going to choose

them for you. And if you don't choose to like

decide what you're going to do with your... income

or your resources, believe me, there's always

something that'll come along and it'll be gone

before you know it, right? So we need to put

God first, not because you feel pressurized by

the minister, not because we're at the mercy

of the moment, but we have decided ahead of time

to put that rock in first. And I would say, there

are people here at Trinity who do this all the

time. And if you were to ask them, oh, but what

is that like? What is it like to give God the

first part of your income? You know what they

would probably say? You know what? They would

probably say this. You know, my Heavenly Father

seems to know all the other things that I need,

and He provides them for us. You know, we're

not in want, we're not in lack. We're seeking

God's kingdom with our resources, and God is

making sure we've got enough to eat, enough to

drink, enough to wear, and all that stuff. So,

I don't want anyone to hear me wrong today. There

are a lot of good things in life. A lot of good

things, right? Careers, experiences. Your security,

right? Your family, your friendships, your hobbies,

all your dreams. We're not trying to say that

any of those things are bad. In fact, many of

those things are really good gifts from God.

The point is simply this. Don't seek them first.

Don't make them the big rock in your time jar.

Don't make them the first rock in your time jar.

Because when you do, you're going to crowd out.

what matters most, and you will even crowd out

God. And remember this, Jesus didn't just teach

this, he lived it. Jesus put his heavenly father

first in everything he did. God was Jesus's big

rock. I mean, Jesus was the rock, but God was

his big rock, right? He wasn't distracted by

other things. He didn't let other people determine

what his agenda was for the day. He put God first

in everything he did. And because of that, even

though he only had like a few years, three short

years of ministry, he changed the world in that

time. Why? Because he sought first. God's kingdom.

But, and here's the part that kind of is mind

-blowing. It wasn't just that Jesus put God first.

Jesus also put me first. He also put you first.

He put others first. His life, did you notice

how Jesus was always putting others first? You

know, people in the world who the world had no

time for. It seemed like Jesus had time for them.

He put them first. In his death, he put you first,

right? Jesus did not choose his own survival

over your forgiveness. He chose forgiveness over

his own life. He put us first. And in his resurrection,

he put you first. He rose, why? To give you new

life. God was his biggest rock, absolutely, but

you were also his priority. And so here's the

question. If you were his priority, why wouldn't

he be your priority? Right? God is not going

to force his way into your time jar. That's not

how God works. He's not going to break down the

wall. Revelation 3 .20 says, Behold, I stand

at the door and knock. Not I'm going to kick

down the door and force my way into your life.

No, he's knocking. And he's saying simply this

at the door. He's saying, I would like to be

in your life. More than that, I would like to

be the first thing in your life. More than that,

I would like to be the center of your life around

which everything else is arranged. So that's

the question. The question is quite simple. What's

going in first? It's going to be the big rock.

And what would it look like for you to put God

first? First in your day? First in your week?

First in your resources? Because what you seek

shapes everything else. And when God is first,

everything else finds its place. Thanks be to

God. Amen. Thanks for tuning in to this week's

episode of Trinity Sermons. This sermon was recorded

at Trinity Church Streetsville in Mississauga,

Ontario on May 10th, 2026.